Summary:

In this episode of "In The Bunker," we're joined by Christopher Velona, CEO of CSG Consulting. Christopher discusses the unique challenges of being a single dad to a child with a rare disease while trying to grow his consulting business. He shares his journey of starting a business out of necessity, his continuous struggle with client acquisition, and the importance of family during these trying times.

Our episode highlights:

• Christopher's personal story of becoming a stay-at-home single father and starting his business.
• The ongoing challenge of attracting clients in a competitive digital marketing landscape.
• Insights into balancing family life, particularly with a child requiring special care, and professional responsibilities.
• Advice for entrepreneurs and business owners facing similar personal and professional challenges.

Bio:

Christopher Velona is an experienced professional in sales, marketing, branding, and consulting. His journey includes overcoming personal and professional adversities while supporting his family and managing his son's rare disease. Christopher's expertise extends to outside sales territory management and leadership, with a compassionate approach to helping others.

Links:

• Website (CSG Consulting): http://www.consultingwithcsg.com
• Instagram (CSG Consultants): https://www.instagram.com/csg_consultants/
• Facebook (Velona International): https://www.facebook.com/VelonaInt/
• LinkedIn Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/csginc/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophervelona/

Project Sebastian:

• Website: https://www.projectsebastian.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/projectsebastian1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectsebi

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Welcome back to in the bunker.

As every business owner faces challenges in their day-to-day life.

And we love to share those stories.

Today.

We have Christopher Valona in the bunker with us.

Christopher was faced with the challenge of being a stay at home single day.

Raising a kid with a rare disease.

We're going to unpack that story, how that's affected his life and

the business that he's created.

There's so much to discuss here.

Let's jump in.

Welcome to the show, Chris Christopher.

Ah, thank you so much for having me.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Awesome.

It's good to have you on well let's get to know you a little bit.

What is your background?

Who are you?

How'd you get here?

What does that look like?

Sure.

So a California based child grew up here in Los Angeles, California

made a stint around Arizona state university graduated December 93.

Went into the business television.

Basically got into trouble, drank that job up, drank other jobs up, went to jail,

got my stuff together, got sober at 26.

baSically married my friend at the time and had a couple of children and then boom

rare disease infested the entire family.

Subsequently got divorced and now I'm single day.

Trying to save one of my children's life suffering from Batten

disease who is 18 years young.

And then my second child is 16 years old is normal and healthy well, teenager,

awesome.

Yeah.

That appreciate that gets, gets us all in on your life where you've

been a little bit late into that.

leT's talk, I know before we hit record, we were talking a little

bit about, that aspect of starting the business out of necessity.

And let's talk through that challenge a little bit.

What is, what did that look like?

What was that challenge?

What did that look like to start the.

iT was absolute fear and just anger and

resentment and worrisome just stressing, the kind of stress that

puts you into a deep depression.

A lot of the reasons why I am here today to share my stories.

I think it's pretty cool story is that they couldn't really do the

normal nine to five with a dying child and even splitting custody.

It was just very challenging to, show up to work, two out of, five days and

the other three days that you have your children or six days that you

have your children or you're going to.

Constant neurology cause exams.

You're going to the doctor, you're going to the ER, you're dealing with epilepsy.

You're dealing with cuts, bruises all while taking care of

another baby at the same time.

Having a normal job just wasn't in the equation because employers don't

like it when you don't show up.

And so I had to figure out what I was going to do and.

Governor assistance was great, but it doesn't pay all the bills.

So basically as my child got on in years, he got worse and worse and

needed more and more attention.

And right now it's just one of those things where you you either make a few

bucks on the side or you start a business.

So I had to dig deep and Find how to do a home-based business.

So that's how CSG consulting was created right here in this beautiful home.

And in the middle of the pandemic, no less.

So

that's crazy.

So you started the business started during COVID.

Yes.

Yeah.

So not only did you start a business during a global pandemic.

You also started that during, just a crazy time in your

life during other limitations.

In addition to that, and that's where, it's always so interesting for me

with entrepreneurs, because it doesn't matter what gets thrown your way as an

entrepreneur, it's pushed through figure out a solution to survive and then thrive.

Yeah, survival's a great motivator.

It's a it was like I said, you go through these waves of doubt and

then depression and stuff like that.

And, and you're bouncing around from household to household,

with your children in tow.

And one of them has rare disease and You just have to, put the boots to the ground.

At a certain point, I think all of us who are entrepreneurs or even in the

workforce, or even just trying to be a good person to have, to actually start to

listen to, the truth, the writing on the wall, and actually just look at what's

in your wheelhouse and what is going to, not only generate your passion, but

also generate income with that passion.

Project Sebastian is the shirt I'm wearing.

It was the foundation for my son was born, out of fear, cause I wasn't

going to wait around for any of the doctors to tell me, what he was supposed

to do, how he's supposed to do it.

Is he going to live?

Is he going to die?

Most doctors, not all, but most doctors would say with this type

of diagnosis, there's no hope go home, live your best life.

He's going to die.

And there's not much time.

That's when we went home, And we were like, oh shit, how do you, what do you do?

So there is no entrepreneurial ship.

There is no I'm going to make a million dollars.

There's nothing like that.

It's I don't know what to do.

So you just, you stay with them in that bubble.

And.

My whole life.

It's just Ben, you gotta be better than the next guy yet.

I was the youngest of four on every one of my family has amazing titles except me.

My brother is a Sheriff's department veteran.

My other brother's a Marine Corps veteran.

My sister is a a school teacher in retirement.

Who has a beautiful family.

And then there's Chris, the drunk that went to school that just partied all

his life and then now had to grow up.

So I don't know what this is about.

I think someone was sending me a strong message.

Maybe it's time for you to grow up.

And by the way, we're going to give you a disease child.

I don't know, but I I had to do something and that's been the nature of what

I've been doing for the better part of.

Almost 20 years let's do something.

And but that doesn't always translate to action.

It's very challenging to put the boots to the ground because your

brain has all these great ideas.

And then it's you wake up the next day and you're sitting at

your desk and you're just frozen.

Like, how am I going to do that?

Who's going to help.

And I gotta tell ya, in, in this there's no help.

So you do what everybody else does.

You go on the internet, you do all these searches.

You start to become an internet doctor and you're going to cure your child.

So no matter what.

anD I was just like that, and I was challenging these doctors who

had, 20, 30 years of experience that said, you're wrong.

And if you know the story about project Sebastian and my son,

they're all wrong actually.

Cause I, it's not that I proved them wrong.

I just don't think that they understood that covering your ass.

Didn't really translate to somebody who was persevering and trying to

motivate his son to stay alive and doing everything it's could, physically

and healthy-wise and mentally.

And to keep the kid alive.

So the same thing happened with CSG.

I needed to make some changes about income.

And that guy that screwed up his post graduate life of drinking and

drugging in the movie business.

I'm now sober 26 years and that's my passion.

That's my wheelhouse.

So CSG consultants is a sober consultant outfit.

If you will.

Yeah,

got it.

I think there's a handful of nuggets there that I want to unpack.

And I think, one of the things that you brought up was passion.

So many business owners are passionate about one thing or another, where as an

entrepreneurial, you know, entrepreneur in that journey, there is the.

I don't want to say option, but there is that option to quote unquote, fail

where, when you are building a nonprofit, when you are trying to find a cure for

a disease, when you're venturing down that path, it's not something that you.

To, throw the towel in on it's something that is a bigger passion,

outside of just having a nonprofit.

And I think that, we were talking before we hit record a little

bit about just the aspect of.

Nonprofit sort of not being seen as an entrepreneurial journey.

And I think it's so much is because you are you're bootstrapping more than

any non or any for-profit business.

I feel does your funding so much of that out of your own pocket, you

are raising capital, just like it, a business does that goes to raise

capital, but it's from donations.

You're not providing a service in necessarily to the person

who is, raising, helping raise some of that money necessarily.

So there's a very different aspect with that.

From running a business perspective and, the end goal, obviously being.

frOm a financial perspective to raise money that would potentially

result in a cure better research.

I Always thought I could model my non-profit or any

non-profit after a business model, because after all sales are donations.

If you look at the similarities, but I'm horrible at nonprofit

making money, raising money and awareness is extremely challenging.

I enjoy selling like widgets and stuff like that, or a service, but man, it's

hard to sell hope to get people to donate.

It really is because it's a it's not your kid.

They don't really connect.

And if they really don't understand, they just kinda just simply

say, oh, that's, I'm sorry.

And they move on to the next thing.

Yeah.

Customer retention is not.

That great in for nonprofits, unless you are huge like a a

salvation army, if you will.

Everybody knows and everybody's, oh, they got many programs.

We'll just give them 10 bucks, so I'm tying to get there.

My man trying to get their awareness is key.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Want to get back a little bit to that core challenge, the aspect

of single.dad, staying at home, developing the, developing a business.

What is some of your advice to someone who maybe in the same

challenge right now, and maybe they don't have necessarily a kid who.

Is suffering from a disease.

Maybe it's someone who just has kids at home because of this whole pandemic mess.

And they're trying to figure out how to work the nine to five, not

being in an office, being remote, having, two kids run around the house.

What, what is some of your advice or some of those elements

that you have found help?

There's a myriad of topics you could discuss due to the

fact that everybody had to be shut in.

You really find out your level of a few things.

One is patients To as communication three is acceptance.

A lot of that plays into to the circle of just being effective.

If we have patients, we, if we have communication and we have

acceptance, I think we don't freak out as much, but, you're locked in.

You can't make any money.

You can't see your friends, your children are freaking out.

They're on their, online games, 24 7.

You don't want them to lose their brains.

And then you got mental health issues because of all this stuff.

And I would highly recommend checking in with everyone in the

house, as, as much as you can into, they may be irritated with you.

Cause my, I know my kids are.

buT I would just have to say just communication, patience and acceptance is

the answer for a lot of us, but we don't really look at that because we're just

waiting for that, that puppy in the window waiting for someone to take us home.

We're trying to get back out to the real world.

And all of a sudden you're allowed to go out to the real world and then

it's you can't do certain things and you're like, what's going on?

And that again, you have to ask yourself, What do I need to do?

A lot of people kind of project, I think in giving advice about what they

should be doing, if someone's asking me or like you're asking me, but a lot

of us don't even, heat our own advice.

So it really starts with the guy in the mirror.

I've learned many times that sometimes you just shut my mouth and just

watch and then help in the aftermath.

Those three things to me are key for anyone during any time, whether it's a

pandemic or in business, patients love tolerance, acceptance, that's a code for

a lot of us, more importantly, just having the ability to communicate with someone,

without asking for anything in return.

That's really good.

I think the patients communication and acceptance aspect, I think that

right there, honestly, if we all took a step back and really thought

through those three elements, we would solve so many problems.

I, Yeah.

How many times have you asked yourself?

What would I do if I was arguing with myself?

Yeah.

What would I say anything differently?

Would I do anything differently?

I got to be this big barking horse, but I inside we're just terrified

if you think about it, most of our actions are fear based in my opinion.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You also mentioned that sort of puppy dog effect, sitting there,

looking out the window and I think so much of us are doing.

Right now we're all staring out the window, waiting for things to get

back to normal or waiting to get back out side or waiting for whatever.

And I think personally, like so many people.

Are staring out the window, but missing everything else that's

passing by and going on inside.

And this is both, both physical and, metaphorical a little bit.

I know, at the beginning of COVID so many families just did a family board

game night or did, different stuff where it was like, Hey, normally.

Running at 200 miles an hour, but we can actually stop and sit

down and play cards or, do that.

And as you mentioned, being able to have time to check in with those who

are living in your house or your family,

I, we were doing those things before the pandemic though,

Josh, we were forced to stand due to Sebastian's condition and you're right.

wE are, every week we play monopoly.

It's insane.

It's just one of those things where it's like, Friday night, Saturday

night, Sunday night monopoly.

That's the deal.

If we're not going to services or going to the doctor, it's just, it's monopoly.

It's a there's a lot of other games we're doing, but that seems to be the one where

it keeps us all together and laughing.

Throughout the night.

So yeah, board games are a great way to get through.

Before that was like, what you pulled out when he got snowed in, you had board

games and now you got the COVID lockdown.

Same concept and I'll get back out there when it's time and when it's

safe for everybody in the meantime.

Sure.

I have another soda pop and, get some popcorn, watch a bad

movie or play some video games.

Maybe we play a board game instead.

The family aspect, I think is one thing that was really highlighted

in these last, 20 months about, what was really missing out.

Like you said, Josh, everybody's running around and no, one's got really any time

because everybody's not on their phones and they're doing their thing and they're

trying to become millionaires and trying to, everything's being just like, you're

missing out on right in front of you.

That's the one thing that I realized even more so wow.

Wow.

My other son, truly amazing child gage.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's so true with the past two years, ish.

Yeah people have learned to slow down a little bit.

I.

I think that's a good thing.

I think, not having so much craziness in your life, not having 14 different

activities, that you're a part of, being able to actually spend time and

this really circles back to towards the beginning of our conversation,

what your passion is in life.

For you, you built a business.

And around the fact of being able to spend time and have

time available for your family.

Sure.

And able to help others.

And exactly.

And so I think that's really where.

We're continuing.

I think to see people, look back at their passions and as more

entrepreneurs, start businesses, pivot their business and change business.

I think that's a big thing to keep in mind of.

What is your passion, as an entrepreneur and how does your journey.

Line up with that and it doesn't need to be your business passion.

It can be your personal and does your business align with that?

And that's super, super good.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Ben, super good chatting with you.

Appreciate the time.

I don't know if there's any other little elements or advice or sort

of nuggets that you would want to throw out there before we wrap.

If you wanted to as we approach the holidays, we'll tell you

this, as a sober consultant, there's a lot of people that are in need of help.

a Lot of people, may not want to be sober.

Some of them need to be sober.

It's going to be up to them.

That's why, we want to extend that hand that that virtual hand, obviously to

help people understand that they have someone to talk to, to talk with, w if

you go to consulting with csg.com and you book an appointment, You're going to

have a professional, like me help you, AI identify what's going on in your life.

And we have mental health providers and we also have, like I said, we have the

coaching, we have the basically any type of a package that you need whether you

want to do traditional 12 step work or do you need an inpatient bed, or if you

just need a therapist we pretty much.

And can walk you through it.

And we provided, to know not everything, we're not one of those people that,

gonna tell you that we're going to fix you because we can't we want you

to find a way for you to fix yourself and we're going to be here, there

whether you want to do it or not.

So if you're just looking to chat or do you need serious silver

companionship, where we come with you to work, or we go with you to the set.

If you're a high profile celebrity and you just have, you're always caught up

in the trappings of success, like I was you can count on me and my staff and our

team to keep you out of the, the trouble that you would probably wanting to be in.

So we'd like it to just, start making sober steps today and

just break that old behavior.

Awesome.

Yeah.

And the web, your website, Facebook, Instagram company, LinkedIn and

personal, we'll all be in the show notes along with, I'll make sure

that we have a link to project.

Sebastian is.

Oh, thank you.

So for anyone who wants to find out more about that, check that out.

You've got a few extra million dollars lying around, were donated.

Yes.

Thank you.

We'll take it.

We'll just tweet a deal on Musk and see if we can, apparently he sold some stock,

oh, yeah, he's flush.

Come on your lawn.

There you go.

Dip a little bit of the kids play

so awesome.

I really enjoy the time today.

I appreciate you coming on.

And yeah.

Good to have you as a guest.

I appreciate it.

Thank you for having me on it was my pleasure.

Thanks for listening to this episode of, in the bunker.

As always we can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

at, in the bunker podcast.

Be sure to share this episode and what you're going to apply from it.

And how that can affect your business, make sure to tag us in that post so

we can highlight your journey as well.

But before you go.

I have a quick personal ask.