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Episode Transcription

Meredith & Craig (00:00.0)

Welcome Daniela and Emilio Roman to the Road of Life podcast. we're so excited you're here!

Emilio Roman (00:09.195)

God, listen, big hugs to both of you. We saw you last in August. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Our Facebook friends are real.

Meredith & Craig (00:14.151)

Mm-hmm.

Meredith & Craig (00:17.841)

Yeah, that's right.

Meredith & Craig (00:21.005)

my gosh, we were just having so much fun before we hit record. I can't believe we could keep a straight face through that whole first part. So let's just start off, let everyone know what you're up to, how you got here. How did you guys end up in business together and what is it exactly that you're up to?

Emilio Roman (00:36.142)

All right, well, thank you. We, for those that don't know, Amelia and I had gone to high school together. So, yeah, so way back in the 80s. We're now, oh my goodness, in 2025. I feel like I'm ancient. So we went to high school together and never, you know, we had a class together, English class or something like that, but never hung out, never dated, nothing like that. I did have a crush on him all through high school though, but he didn't know it.

Emilio Roman (01:00.846)

So fast forward, we graduated high school, you know, he went his way, I went my way. And 28 years later, we connected how else on social media, we happened to see we had a friend in common that we went to high school with. And I saw his name like in a comment. And I'm like, my God, I'm like, seriously, like the Emilio Roma, I have not heard or seen that name in 28 years. And at that point, it wasn't like in my mind, like something.

Emilio Roman (01:29.452)

because I was actually going through a divorce separation and all at that time. And so I'm home one night and it was like one o'clock, one thirty in the morning. And I get a message, you know how you can see the green dot, you know, like, they're on Facebook. And it's like, why aren't you sleeping? And I'm like, why are you messaging me one thirty in the morning after 28 years? And then we literally texted from one thirty to like six thirty in the morning.

Emilio Roman (01:56.854)

just talk and then I actually admitted I'm like you know I had a crush on you all through high school and he's like why didn't you tell me we could have had five grand babies by now I'm like my god that was my opening one was his answer and I'm like wow and we met up two days later in person and as I say the rest is history and it's you know it was it was interesting because I that was the last thing I was looking for at that point in my life you know

Emilio Roman (02:21.229)

But as you know, and people that may be watching this and know him know his energy, right? So it's kind of infectious. when we met up in person and he's like, Dan, yo, and I'm like, Emilio, and he gave me a hug. And in my mind, I'm saying to myself, I'm like, oh my God, I'm in trouble. Because I just felt that connection like that quickly. And we got married the year to the date of reconnecting in Hawaii. I got married one year later in Hawaii.

Meredith & Craig (02:37.384)

Thank

Emilio Roman (02:49.655)

Well, Magic Island, no less.

Meredith & Craig (02:52.019)

Meredith & Craig (02:52.459)

How did I not know that story? That's

Emilio Roman (02:55.071)

Yeah.

Meredith & Craig (02:55.112)

amazing. I love that you guys met in high school and reconnected all those years later. And I totally get it because when I met him and we started texting, started the conversation, the conversation flowed for hours. was like, just happened? Usually it's like, what do I say next? And this is awkward. Did he text me first last time? It was none of that.

Emilio Roman (03:12.237)

Okay.

Meredith & Craig (03:18.899)

I totally understand your vibe that like we just started texting messaging back and forth and hours went by. What a good sign. Yeah, that's so cool. And go ahead.

Emilio Roman (03:26.825)

Yeah. So, go ahead.

Emilio Roman (03:33.025)

No, yeah, I'm excited. I mean, I love when she shares that story. So, yeah, and to get where we are now, I mean, we, you know, I had been working, you know, I worked for courts, the court system and stuff like that. He's, you know, a retired Marine and he was always like, you know, full of ideas. And he had a book, you know, that he had done with about veterans, 101 Ways to Thank a Veteran.

Emilio Roman (03:55.914)

So long story short, kind of like, shared something with him that I had not shared with anyone in like 30 years, because he opened up to me about his childhood traumas and things like that. And it just triggered me to be like, you know what? I feel comfortable. felt comfortable enough to share, you know, my domestic violence relationships from my past and a sexual assault that had happened to me in my sleep when I was 19. And he's like, you know, you need to share.

Emilio Roman (04:24.417)

your story to help others. And of course, quickly right away, I was like, no, I could never put that out there like that. I never thought of writing a book, sharing anything like that. So actually, after having conversations and he encouraged me, we connected with someone actually out of Canada and he redid his veteran book. And then I shared in an anthology for the first time my story of domestic violence and all that. And it just snowballed. And then

Emilio Roman (04:52.405)

Unfortunately, we didn't have like the best experience out of that. And we were both like, you know what, let's learn this business and do the like, do better, do the exact opposite. And we've been doing that ever since, sharing people's stories and honoring them. You were at our event, you see how we honor people, give awards. And that's kind of like how that happened.

Meredith & Craig (05:13.009)

That's so cool. And it just shows that because we talk about a lot, the power of vulnerability, like you guys got together and shared some Emilio led the way a little bit, shared some vulnerable stories and things about him. And that led you to be open. And then after having that vulnerability, the connection that you guys had, the bond that you deepened, it's. It's a superpower in your relationship.

Meredith & Craig (05:42.001)

and you were able to kind of like pull that out early. That's really cool.

Emilio Roman (05:42.284)

Amen.

Emilio Roman (05:45.752)

Thank you for sharing that because that's exactly what you articulated better than I express it to her. I had shared to her, said, listen, you can't heal in secret. And so that was like a light bulb moment for her. She was like, hmm. I was like, and I said, by the way, it's selfish of you if you don't share your story. And I continue that message today. When I meet men and women and we are sharing with them about the opportunities to come into an anthology and why you want to do it. Yes, it adds to credibility.

Emilio Roman (06:15.575)

that you're published author. Yes, it has all the business benefits, but the biggest one is that you can help someone with your story. Your story has that impact, but only if you're not selfish and you have to let go of the outcome because there's gonna be people that are gonna judge you. Like, my God, I can't believe you shared that. I can't believe you shared Emilio that you were molested not once, but twice by family members. Like we would never say that. But because I had that courage,

Emilio Roman (06:44.949)

and that spiritual nudge, Daniela can tell you better than I, how many people have approached her? And I was like, if it's okay with you, there was one incident where she, multiple, but I know one incident where when she first shared her domestic violence, someone shared something with her and I knew that it didn't matter what I said at the time. That convinced her that her story was that powerful, remember? Yeah, right after I shared for the first time, a woman reached out to me.

Meredith & Craig (07:06.77)

Mm-hmm.

Emilio Roman (07:11.521)

And I didn't know her and she said, thank you for sharing your story. I read your story and I gave the book to my daughter and it encouraged her finally to leave her abusive husband. And I was like, wow, it doesn't get better than that. It doesn't get no better confirmation than that, that I did the right thing. So I think about that. like, and I will say to myself, because sometimes we beat ourselves up, right? I'm like, wow, had I not waited 30 years, imagine how many people I could have helped over those 30 years. But you know what? I'm here now, you know, and it was the right time.

Meredith & Craig (07:20.87)

shit.

Meredith & Craig (07:23.261)

Ready?

Meredith & Craig (07:37.831)

Yeah.

Meredith & Craig (07:39.702)

Yeah, exactly. We're all on our own journey and it all happens when it's supposed to happen and the people that you're meant to help, or you're going to help now going forward because you had the courage to share your story. And it's cool to get that response from the universe almost immediately around like, yeah, you're on the right path by them, the universe or God or whoever, you know, putting that person right in your path and saying, this is, this is the right path for you. You're doing

Meredith & Craig (08:05.746)

This is the work that you need to be doing. That's really how validating. Take so much courage, right? Like, Amelia, you just said it, having the courage to share your story and then encouraging Daniela that, hey, it's gonna take a lot of courage. People are gonna have their thoughts about it. But if you don't share, how many people are you not gonna get to help and how many people are gonna stick in a situation where you were that you could have helped pull out of? And so I love your...

Emilio Roman (08:08.79)

Exactly.

Meredith & Craig (08:34.792)

sort of provocative approach that like, hey, don't be selfish. Like you have the opportunity to help people just by sharing your story and side benefit. It's also really helpful to you because it pulls your story out into the light, shame and all that stuff that lives in the dark. And so how do you heal when you're in that? As I thank you both for your courage and vulnerability and your vulnerability. And Danielle, you just mentioned that Emilio is a veteran, a Marine. And so

Emilio Roman (08:39.254)

Uh-huh.

Meredith & Craig (09:03.816)

Thank you. It's Veterans Day in the U.S. It's Remembrance Day in Canada. And so we just want to say extra special thank you, Emilio, for your service. And yesterday was the 250th birthday of the Marines. So happy 250th birthday. Thank you for your service. You look great. Yeah. Right? You do. You do. You look fantastic.

Emilio Roman (09:17.053)

Big hugs to you. You look great for 250. I look great for 250 years old. Little bit of hair and a few missing

Emilio Roman (09:23.773)

or two. Thank you for acknowledging that. God bless you all. I love it. We're here in the US, New Jersey specifically, and you are in Canada. We had a great conversation before we got started. And Danielle and I absolutely love Canada. mean, we love Canada. We've been there a number of times. We have a lot of co-authors.

Meredith & Craig (09:33.811)

Yes.

Emilio Roman (09:45.413)

And I'm in Mississauga, Canada. Just a fact, a little side note. I'm in the Guinness World Record for, what was it, 2020 was it? Yeah, 2020. 2020, for being one of the most author signing a book. We did this, the Guinness World Record, we did it in Canada. So I'm not, I have great memories in Canada. Love it.

Meredith & Craig (10:00.166)

Nice. That's awesome. How many people? How many

Meredith & Craig (10:03.662)

people? How many, how many authors?

Emilio Roman (10:05.741)

Yeah, so it was over... 130 something? I think it was 126 and it was an existing record and then we broke it collectively. Yeah. Yeah, but You can actually Google it. You'll see.

Meredith & Craig (10:15.396)

Nice. Is that so? Yeah, we'll

Meredith & Craig (10:19.519)

do that. So Emilio, Marines, how do you go from Marines to helping people tell their stories? Yeah. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Emilio Roman (10:30.925)

Hey, know, I'll I'll give you and you guys know me already I'll give you what I call the Reader's Digest version, right? Which typically means it's gonna be short, but I ended up extending it So it makes me so what about I all right, but anyway Honestly a lot of us have our own Our own shortcomings right and so in our own inadequacies self-esteem issues, we all have them to some degree for me

Meredith & Craig (10:37.395)

Sure.

Emilio Roman (11:00.809)

It was communication. So how interesting today, this is one of my strongest. This is one of my strongest characters today. I help people with communication and writing and verbal. Think about this. And when I was younger, I had a speech impediment problem in Spanish. The word is gago. Gago was one who stutters. Okay. And I got left back in first grade because I didn't know how to read. So can you imagine like today when I share that story with folks, they're like,

Emilio Roman (11:29.517)

I can't even connect the dots because you're pretty forthcoming, you're articulate. It took a lot of work. And I mean a lot of personal inner work. And so when I got out of the Marine Corps, I wanted to share with people how, you know, I did certain things and I overcame certain things. And again, here's the Reader's Digest version, right? Which is a little bit long. I went ahead and I wrote a book called 101 Ways to Thank a Veteran.

Emilio Roman (11:58.552)

with a long subtitle. A how-to guide for honoring our country's most valuable resources, our veterans. The subtitle's longer than the title. So, but because of, I'm making a point here, because of the self-esteem issues, Mike, that little voice in the back kept saying, who are you to write a book? You got it back in first grade. You know, like, who do you think you are? We've all heard the imposter, right? Imposter syndrome.

Emilio Roman (12:26.669)

So that's a real thing for those of you who are out there watching this and you know that you want to do something and you're not doing it. Just understand you're not, you're not alone. There's people who've gone through it. You have to go through it. But once you get on the other side of this, once you connect with the right people, Meredith, Craig, the likes of Daniela, right? There's something in this story for someone. There's something here. Maybe not be something I said, maybe not be something that Daniela says, but Meredith.

Emilio Roman (12:56.235)

Craig will say something. Maybe it's a question. Maybe it's a question. For example, and I'm backtracking a little bit. There was one question. If you can live the second half of your life differently from the first, what would that be? Think about that question. Like if you could change the second half of your life, like, you know, what would be the one thing that you would do for me? When I heard that, it was like somebody hit me in the gut. I'm like to stop drinking and drugging.

Emilio Roman (13:24.237)

Because that was part of my story, my insecurities. I would have all this outside stuff going on, but I would find myself self-medicating with alcohol. Under the, I'm a big, bad Marine. This is what I do, it's my culture. And my wife, didn't buy that for a minute. When I would go out, she was like, what's going on? I said, that's what we do, I'm drinking, we're my Marines. I was self-medicating, it was really a cry for help. And...

Meredith & Craig (13:41.406)

Thank

Meredith & Craig (13:49.684)

Yeah.

Emilio Roman (13:52.236)

I think I'm going off on a tangent, but I just wanted to share that how we help people today is because I had to get real with myself, right? I had to get real, Craig, with myself. And once I was able to meet that Emilio, you know, and heal, begin the healing, because we can't, what, we can't heal in secret, I was able to write the story. And then like Daniela, people started to say, thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing.

Emilio Roman (14:21.343)

And so that's when I recognize, we really have something that we must continue on that is greater than me and Danielle.

Meredith & Craig (14:30.418)

Was there one thing, cause you talked about doing a lot of inner work before you could get to that place. Was there, was there one or two things that you did specifically that would help the audience like pull someone out? Like if they're in that place where they're struggling with their self-worth or self-confidence and they're not kind of where they want to be, what's one or two things that you did specifically to pull you out of that, to be the confident person who's able to speak and write and help people like.

Meredith & Craig (14:59.122)

be the best communicator they can be. Like, what did you do?

Emilio Roman (15:02.423)

Thank you, brother. And the thing that comes up is shared pain is less pain, right? Whatever you're going through, man, you've got to share with another human being. This is where you can't heal a secret, right? And you and I are as sick as our secrets. And that's, that's a fact that I've learned to come to it. And so I started to go ahead and just be more honest with people, right? Because it's easy for you and me to fool ourselves, right? I mean, we can fool ourselves and, but when you have somebody

Emilio Roman (15:31.66)

that you love and care and they're struggling and you know they're struggling because you're not being honest with yourself. So start there, start being honest with yourself. You know, again, and understand that it's selfish of you to keep your pain hidden, right? Because God created us, whatever you believe in God, the universe, right? Whatever that is for you, understand you and I are sentient beings. That means we feel each other's pain. We feel it. Animals feel it.

Emilio Roman (16:01.357)

Right, we're all connected. We're all made from the best stuff on earth, right? Remember Snap-Pult? You know, that was their brand. Right, we're all made from the best stuff on earth. And so once you can be honest with yourself and release it, it's game over. You start there.

Meredith & Craig (16:05.98)

Thank

Meredith & Craig (16:17.14)

And so you said, know, Daniela, we know she's an OBS kind of gal and she could see that you were not the best version of you. That couldn't have been an easy conversation, Daniela. At some point you had to say, dude, I see greatness in you and whatever terminology you used with them. maybe it was more colorful.

Emilio Roman (16:38.157)

I hope I can use that on here.

Meredith & Craig (16:43.23)

But that couldn't have been an easy conversation, but you loved him enough to step into that awkward space. Talk to us in as much or little specifics as you want to, but how that conversation, what was required of you to be brave enough to step into that and how he received it?

Emilio Roman (16:43.309)

just gonna keep it clean.

Emilio Roman (17:00.373)

Yeah, well, here's the thing. It wasn't one conversation. It was over. We've been together this may will be eight years, I believe. And you have to do the math. No, nine years. And from the beginning, you know, I saw the patterns of his behavior. And here's the thing. He wasn't there's different, you know, and he's admitted, you know, he was an alcoholic.

Emilio Roman (17:25.005)

So there's different levels of that, right? There's the everyday Karen DeBrown bag around with the bottle, you know, drinking. There's the functioning alcoholic that drinks every day, but still goes to work. He was, could not drink maybe weeks, but he was a type that boy, when he started, it was a three or four day binge. I was a binge drinker is what they call it. And boy, you know, that made up for if you drank every day. Let's just put it that way.

Emilio Roman (17:54.444)

So, you know, the issue with me, because I've dealt with this in other areas of my life with, you know, someone else that was close to me. So I kind of I knew how to deal with it, I thought, but he was a little extreme at times. So it was always, you know, after he would go in these vendors that I'm like, look, you know, sometimes it would be, you know, not so nice because, you know, you get to a point where it's like, wow, you know, it was just, you know, a lot. So but.

Emilio Roman (18:22.527)

Each time, though, when I knew the right time to speak to him, I'm like, what do you do? Number one, your health. know, number one, this is not good for your health, not good for what you're trying to do in your life success wise. Definitely not going to work here. You know, this can only go so long where I, you know, I have a lot of patients. mean, God must think I'm a superhero. Let me tell you, because I do. I have a lot of patients with people that I really, truly love and care about. And I say this all the time. When I knew him in high school,

Meredith & Craig (18:42.453)

Thank

Emilio Roman (18:51.649)

I didn't know him, know him like that. But I saw through that, like what you see now is what I saw in high school. He always smiling, always talking, come down the hall like, you know, Mr. Emilio, you know, and friendly and outgoing. But in my mind, like I'm very observant. I can meet you once and not even really meet you, just observe you. And I know like, yeah. And I'm like, he's overcompensating for something. Like nobody's that happy all the time. And you know, and like.

Emilio Roman (19:19.669)

always, you know, the way he was. So, and then fast forward when he shared with me, like it was not a happy home situation, you know, and obviously his childhood traumas and things like that. So when he was on the outside, boy, he was, you know, full of life, whatever, because there was a lot of pain on the inside, you know, and I saw that. So when he finally shared that with me, I wasn't surprised. I just knew it was something. So I had sympathy for that, right? So I didn't want to just give up on him because, you know, I knew.

Emilio Roman (19:49.356)

this side of him was there. I knew that, you know, but here's the thing. We can tell someone over and over and over and over again until they're ready. It's not going to happen. So it took, you know, literally seven years of our relationship because he's now this month, 17 months sober, which is awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So after seven years, you know, I did. I have to be honest, you know, we're being honest. I was at my point. I'm like,

Emilio Roman (20:18.335)

Either something's got to change or this, you we just got to, you know, go our separate ways. And here's the thing again, he couldn't do it. wasn't saying do it for me because like, if you don't stop, I'm going to leave. No, that's not why you need to do this. You need to do this for you once and for all, because health was suffering again, relationships, business, everything. So he took a good look at himself. You know, finally, it's like, you know, they say, you know, you get sick, sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Emilio Roman (20:46.049)

You know, the same old say it's not working for you as successful as it looked on the outside. It wasn't, you know, like, yes, we were helping people share their stories. We had successful events or whatever. But on the other side of that, wasn't 100 % fulfillment with him because he still had this monkey on his back. We still had these issues. But I noticed in the last 17 months and he can, you know, it says, know, God's going to give you, you know, what you deserve when it's time.

Emilio Roman (21:14.677)

You know, and even though we had little successes here and there, it was not like we were killing it or doing because of the behavior, you so things were not the way it should be. But now, wow, like night and day, right? Because now God sees you can handle it. You couldn't handle success before. You weren't going to get it, you know, but now he can handle it. He deserves it. He knows he's worthy. He's confident. He has a self-esteem up because now he realizes that was just numbing.

Emilio Roman (21:42.9)

numbing everything that he didn't want to deal with. So, you know, I always say like you go from being hurt like hurting to healing to helping. You can't like I couldn't help somebody 30 years ago because I wasn't healed. Right. So like Craig said, it's all in the right timing. So it took me all those years of going through all kinds of things to finally be able to heal from sharing my story. And now, like both of us, like now we can help.

Meredith & Craig (21:50.421)

Yeah.

Meredith & Craig (22:07.933)

Yeah, so powerful. love the, it was almost an act, not almost, it was an act of service. You weren't doing it for you. You were doing it out of love for Emilio. And that's what, and I think Emilio, you, you correct me if I'm wrong, but you can, you can feel that you, can understand when someone is coming from a place of true love, like they just want your best interests. They just have that at heart. You can feel that love and why they're wanting you to change. It's not for them. It's for you.

Emilio Roman (22:38.197)

Man, no, no, thank you again. And she knows, I you know, I love her obviously, and she's tolerated more than she should have, right? Because I don't know if I would have been as patient if it was the way around. I'll be honest. You wouldn't. I could have already answered that. Like she really is a saint in my book, right? Because I don't have that kind of level of tolerance for certain behavior. Interesting, I'm just being honest, and we're being honest with each other. And so, yeah, she really has...

Emilio Roman (23:08.365)

a way of expressing how she feels and just saying, she gave me an ultimatum. But it wasn't like I hit rock bottom. It was because I've done this before, right? I've had a year of sobriety in the past. It was just something about this time that was different, right? It was just different. The family that we've built together because I have a son and a daughter that are older, that because of my lifestyle, my drinking lifestyle,

Meredith & Craig (23:26.165)

You're ready.

Emilio Roman (23:38.038)

I don't have a relationship with them today. I just don't, because I was an absentee father. So today, because we, you know, when we met, we have the grandbabies, right? We have the grandbabies. And I looked at this whole thing in totality. If you see us on with baby Tomas, baby Sebastian, all the pictures, I never had that, you know? And so it was really that that made me self reflect, you know, the little ones. And I remember one time,

Emilio Roman (24:05.879)

Again, we're being candid and open. We had the grandbaby over and I was drinking, somehow we ended up in an argument and her son, right? I had to call him. Had to call him. And then he's coming over because he got the grandbaby and while there was no problem, I recognized like, man, that kept haunting me like, wow, like I've been here before. This is not a good thing. Grandbaby's here. We don't want to put people in a situation. Why am I here?

Emilio Roman (24:36.415)

Interestingly enough, I was earning more money. So this is the cycle. I was earning more money when I was drinking because I was placing myself in these situations about making poor decisions. I don't know if that makes sense. would take, would talk about born to risk, you know, we're talking about born to risk. I was taking risks that were not necessarily the best. It was, they were more like, what is the word? Reckless risk. They were reckless. And so, but I ended up having more money.

Meredith & Craig (25:01.214)

Yes.

Emilio Roman (25:05.005)

But being irresponsible. But being irresponsible with it. Not a good steward of it. When I was doing that behavior, and again, as Daniela pointed out, it wasn't an everyday thing. But when I did go out bitch drinking, I was smoking cigars. I got no business smoking cigars. Mr. Asthma over Mr. Asthma, here I am. Here I am drinking. a great idea. I'm like, you know, I feel like a big shot. And then coughing up a lung all night that I'm listening to with no sympathy, because I'm like.

Meredith & Craig (25:09.876)

Mm-hmm.

Emilio Roman (25:34.102)

See, I'm that one. like, you know, I feel about help you, but I'm like, you know what you're doing? What are you smoking cigars for? Yeah. It's all with the lifestyle. You know, it's this delusional lifestyle. Right. And Danielle mentioned this, you know, success, you know, without fulfillment. Tony Robbins speaks this success without fulfillment is failure. Right. So I was having some successes here and there, but the fulfillment was really low. Really, really low.

Meredith & Craig (25:39.253)

You

Meredith & Craig (25:43.689)

Yeah.

Emilio Roman (26:02.955)

And so again, just self reflecting, being honest with myself, recognizing my God, know, all these years, you know, in and out of relationships. And here I meet a woman that I know I want to spend the rest of my life with. And I'm about to, I'm about to let that all go for a drink. And for me and my life, I know that one is too many and a thousand is never enough.

Meredith & Craig (26:29.609)

Right. Yeah. I love, I just love the responsibility that you both took for your relationship and this, in this moment that we're talking about, this situation and how you both look, I'm responsible for me. I can make my choices and here's, here's, here's my part in this and Amelia. So Daniela is speaking her truth and Amelia looking in the mirror and saying, you know what? Yeah. Like something's got to change. And then taking the responsibility of making that change so that you guys can go now and join forces and change many people's lives.

Meredith & Craig (26:58.303)

So let's talk about that a little bit. Yeah. I actually want to, you mentioned Born to Risk, which, you know, we got to be a part of Born to Risk volume dose. So tell us.

Emilio Roman (27:07.053)

Yes. Your story's here. Yeah. Chapter 24. Together, 24,

Emilio Roman (27:11.693)

chapter 24, both of you.

Meredith & Craig (27:13.449)

Tell us how born to risk was born.

Emilio Roman (27:18.317)

Emilio Roman (27:19.037)

You know, so prior to this, in fact, Daniela, didn't know she was grabbing these, but prior to this, we had did anthologies in Canada. And so one day I was in the shower, I wanted to do my own anthology. And this was the first one that was birthed, Spiritual Fitness Survivor. How to turn your struggles into strength. Same concept, right? People sharing their stories. And so we got to learn a lot about people's stories. And I talk about here,

Emilio Roman (27:47.8)

They say that books change people and people change the world, right? So think about that. And then it says you will never be the same after reading stories like this. I know I'm always changed when I hear somebody share a story and they're open and they're honest and they're raw. So here we cannot heal in secret. So that's really the spark. That's really the spark. So when we started to do this, I think we're on the fifth edition now? Fifth edition, people were...

Meredith & Craig (27:51.509)

Mm-hmm.

Emilio Roman (28:15.073)

like crying when they're sharing their story. Some people couldn't even get past their chapters. I was like, wow. So there's something cathartic about sharing your story, not only for you, but also for the person on the other end reading it. And we just kept experiencing that. So after the spiritual fitness edition, we did one, this was a really tough one. I'll let Danielle talk about this briefly. But this one, we thought that it would be pretty easy to feel.

Meredith & Craig (28:22.89)

Mm-hmm.

Emilio Roman (28:44.065)

because of the need, but I tell ya, how hard was it to get people into this chapter? Yeah, because like myself, right, where number one, I've dealt with all kinds of women that are in these, I had three additions, and some they were just shy about bringing it out, others they were still hiding from this person, so they didn't obviously wanna put it out like that.

Emilio Roman (29:09.165)

And then others like where my issue was like being judged, right? Like, what are people going to think when they hear this? And, you know, I had a response for all of that, right? I even got the woman that was still hiding. She has, I guess you could say an alias, a different name. You don't know, like, what state she moved to and she uses a different name. said, you don't have to use your real name in here. And here's the other thing. We don't think these chapters are not about bashing our exes and using names and no, it's about sharing what you went through.

Emilio Roman (29:37.438)

and sharing how you got out of that and where you are now. So you want to leave the end of the chapter on a high note, right? Not depressing, not sad, not angry, just like, hey, I can get through this and so can you. So, you know, I don't think there was anyone really that ended up at the end of like having several conversations that refused to do it. They got the courage and they were grateful. They were so happy that they did it and it gives them the confidence that they got through this and they can move on.

Emilio Roman (30:07.431)

So many women got, whether it was speaking engagements or just women reaching out and they could help them and give them resources and to let them know like, Hey, you're not alone. And let me tell you 30 plus years ago when I was in it, I didn't know these resources. You know, I just, I didn't go back to my parents. didn't let them know. was, you know, ashamed and embarrassed and just didn't want to bring that out. So I'm sure there were resources, but I didn't know about them, but you're talking 30 plus years later. There's so much out there now. And I'm sorry, just for the context, cause I know she went right into it.

Emilio Roman (30:37.357)

We're talking about behind closed doors, domestic violence and you can too. I can survive domestic violence. this we thought would be an easy book because of the need out there, how prevalent domestic violence is. But I tell you, we had people back out of the book and know, respectfully and understandingly so. So this book, we haven't published it in the last couple of years. Yeah, two years ago. So now we're bringing it back. But yeah, so just how was it birth, right? So you see,

Meredith & Craig (30:39.445)

Mm-hmm.

Meredith & Craig (30:54.804)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Emilio Roman (31:07.041)

the evolution of born to risk. So we went with more of a spiritual side, spiritual fitness, right? People sharing their story of healing to then bringing it today to entrepreneurs and veterans. And this is where you two come in, where you share your story, where we are like, what's the greatest risk? We ask everyone one question, what's the greatest risk that you've ever taken that has produced the biggest result? So that's how this evolved. And it's just been really...

Emilio Roman (31:35.917)

a blessing to be a part and witness people from all over Canada, from Japan. We someone from Malta. Malta, mean everyone. So thank you for asking the question and yeah, we love the fact that you two are a big part of this.

Meredith & Craig (31:50.923)

Yeah, we were honored to be a part of that. was a really cool experience. We got to write the chapter and then you guys host events. So talk to us a little bit about that because we were at one of your events in Philadelphia on the yacht. You create an experience when you, when you co-author a book with you guys, you get to kind of go on an experience. There's a mastermind and they're speaking and like talk to us a little bit about, you know, what you create for people after the fact. Cause it's not just a chapter. There's more to it than that.

Emilio Roman (32:15.821)

Yes. Yeah.

Emilio Roman (32:17.802)

Thank you. No, thank you for that. And again, Daniela's she does a lot of the behind without Daniela. None of this happens because I'm the front guy here where I connect with people. And I believe when when you and I met all of us, we are talking. Yeah, you met me. We talked about it and I shared with you how we do it. But then the other is on the background and she's the one taking care of handling proposals, venue issues. And so what we've learned

Emilio Roman (32:44.745)

And Daniela mentioned this earlier in the interview with you that we didn't like the way we were treated. Like someone is sharing something as strong as their story is powerful and it's their identity, right? Your identity. A lot of people don't share their stories today because they have this fear of being vulnerable. And you talked about this, Craig, right? There's power. There's a superpower and being vulnerable. think those are your words. And so how do you help people do that? Well,

Emilio Roman (33:13.803)

What we've learned is other people expose. really, what's the word I'm looking for? They play on you, on their, they're like predators and they know you want to share your story and they'll charge you as much money as they can. And then once you pay up, they leave you. And then now you feel almost guilty, shame and guilt. Like that happened to me. I paid thousands of dollars. Then when I went back to the publisher, I was like, Hey, so now that I got my published,

Emilio Roman (33:42.734)

Now got my chapter, can you help me? Oh yeah, we can certainly help you, Emilio. That'd be another 5,000, 10,000. I was like, but I just paid you five grand. And so that's when the birth of the co-author network. That's when we looked at ourselves, we're like, we're never gonna do that to anybody. We'll never go ahead, just go ahead and publish somebody's book. That's word I'm for. So that's why when you both came, not only did you share your beautiful story,

Emilio Roman (34:12.247)

about your risk that you both taken together as a couple, but you noticed we created a venue and we curated an environment where you got to meet other entrepreneurs. We did it in a bit of a lavish style with the Benjamin Franklin Yard. We created even the VIP night and we did all that because now after the fact, you both go, wow, that was a beautiful experience, right? Because we honored you. Do you agree?

Meredith & Craig (34:39.35)

100 % 100 % Talk to us about what you've got working on what you're working on now. Because this isn't this, this is just the start. This is just the beginning for you. For you to what are we working on now?

Emilio Roman (34:45.099)

Yeah.

Emilio Roman (34:54.081)

Yeah, so for as far as Born to Risk, we're on the third edition. And that's launching in August at the Ultimate Beach Mastermind in Virginia Beach. It's a three day event. It's going to be amazing. We're having a speaker competition. Like Meredith, you're one of our champions. And Craig, hey, he threw his hat in the ring too. You did great. You guys were double dipping, Yeah, you're like one of us is going to win. How am I going to take it? That's good. You guys bet the odds.

Meredith & Craig (35:15.574)

Hahaha

Emilio Roman (35:23.543)

So we're doing that. But now we added something, Emilio added something special, not just the signature Born to Risk edition, he has the inaugural Veterans edition. And wow, the response to that has been just overwhelming really. Just amazing. He can share with you about that. Thank you, love. Yeah, thank you for the question. Thank you for the opportunity to share with your viewers again, what we're doing and.

Emilio Roman (35:51.436)

and why we're doing it, right? Because at this point, it's really a mission. At this point, it really is in our lives, you we've retired, if you will. So this is about more like passion projects, right? Like, man, before the lights go out, we get called home. Like, how many people can we help? And we do it in such a fun way. It does take a lot of resources. It does take a lot of energy, a lot of bandwidth, but we feel good at the end of the day that we get

Emilio Roman (36:20.855)

to do this and I call it playing with energy now, right? So it's like I'm in the sandbox of my friends from Canada, Meredith and Craig, because of this chapter that we're tethered, guess what? Now we're on this podcast. Now other people get to hear about your story, get to hear how we love on others. And so telling your story truly is something that has changed my life. It's something that I believe will continue, that we'll continue to do. We absolutely love it.

Emilio Roman (36:51.241)

And anybody out there, listen, whether you tell your story with the Co-author Network, right? A veteran-owned and operated business out of New Jersey here in the US, or you tell it with Meredith and Craig. And I'm hoping that they're gonna announce an anthology of their own, because I've encouraged them to go ahead and start their own couples anthology. Remember we talked about that? So, yeah. So listen, when you share your story in a book, understand, understand it's your legacy in print.

Meredith & Craig (37:08.535)

We did talk about that.

Emilio Roman (37:19.575)

Think about it, it's your legacy in print. Once we pass away, know, guess what? Maybe people will talk about us. Maybe they'll have your picture, my picture on a wall. But when you have it in print, it'll live forever. It will live forever. And one last note on that. You set the record straight. Because people will talk about you, they'll talk about me, and they never get it right. They'll never get it right.

Emilio Roman (37:47.927)

But if Meredith's words, right? And Craig's words here, this will outlive us all my friends. And it's in your word.

Meredith & Craig (37:56.278)

Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, very cool. And you guys do so much work together. You have multiple businesses, you're entrepreneurs, and obviously we talk a lot about relationships. And so talk to us a little bit about how the intersection of marriage and entrepreneurship has impacted both your marriage, but also your businesses.

Emilio Roman (38:19.615)

Yeah, great question. It's so easy. It's so easy, by the way. It's a breeze. It's a breeze. I never want to hang them.

Meredith & Craig (38:21.206)

You

Meredith & Craig (38:25.638)

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Meredith & Craig (38:30.445)

Can you think of two easier things? Marriage and entrepreneurship? They're both easy. You combine them. Yeah.

Emilio Roman (38:34.561)

It's easy. Nothing. You got it in the bag. It's in the bag. Yeah, it's just like having kids. Easy. It's

Emilio Roman (38:42.517)

a breeze. Yeah. You know what? We have such opposite personalities, right? Like, he's very, as you know, high energy and enthusiastic and talkative. And I'm kind of on the other extreme, you know? I mean, I like to joke around a lot, right? But I'm more reserved. I'm more on

Emilio Roman (39:04.159)

laid back or you know don't get excited and you know about things that you don't really like I'm like just take it easy you know you're like you know more like it's okay you know so I keep it's kind of like we balance each other yeah I used to spazzo over here so you know we just kind of balance each other out right and I let him be him this is the thing I have to let him be him and it's kind of like I look at it with our grandson Tomas right he's very same thing high energy and

Emilio Roman (39:28.877)

you know, he's all over the place. And sometimes, you know, you want to be like, hey, stop, hey, stop. But you know what? You just got to let them, you know, just let them be and let them get their energy out. Let them say what they want to say. You know, as long as it's not harmful, you got to let people be. So I kind of it took me a while. really took me actually probably the first two years to really adjust to his personality because I'm used to the opposite. Right. I was married over 20 years prior. Total opposite.

Emilio Roman (39:58.476)

You know, so coming into this, I'm like, whoa. And at the beginning, it's a funny short story. We have a friend, Austin Haynes. He's one of our mentors, actually. Great guy. I don't know if you've seen him in the community in CLA, but he had known him, you know, prior to meeting me. And then I got to know him, going to his events and kind of became like a confidant. Like I could talk to him, right? So I'm like, hey, you know, I'm having an issue like Emilio, you know, as a woman, I'm not a jealous person. I'm just like, but.

Emilio Roman (40:26.217)

in the Puerto Rican culture and all like the way they are with, you know, when they see somebody like women or whatever, it's very affectionate, right? So I'm like, is he flirting? know what mean? So I'm like, I don't know. You know, so was getting a little bothered and I'm like, OK, how do I handle this? So I was talking to him one day, Austin, and I was explaining and he goes, he's like, Amelia flirts with men. He's with everybody. Like, it's just his personality. And like, just sometimes it takes somebody to just say something. And I swear, like, after he said that, I'm like,

Emilio Roman (40:54.477)

You know what? You're right. Like he's just, that's just his personality. It's not flirting. It's not anything. So I'm like, and then I let it go, you know? So like, you just have to kind of, so it took me a while to learn him. He had to learn me. I'm, you know, a different personality, I guess. The eye roll. Yeah. That drove me crazy. Italian like way is like, you know, yeah, do what you want, whatever. But then he's like, wait, does she really mean to what I watch? You have to like get to learn each other.

Emilio Roman (41:24.499)

It's not easy. Yeah, sometimes, you know, we get into it. To be honest, you know, we get into it and then but we've learned to like, OK, let's walk away, you know, and then come back together. So, you know, it's it's not for the week, you know, it's not. And look at Mernes like, yeah, by the way, I'm Puerto Rican. She's Italian and Ukraine and Ukraine. So what happens is the police come at least once a week.

Meredith & Craig (41:40.553)

Yeah

Meredith & Craig (41:43.358)

you

Meredith & Craig (41:49.836)

Yeah.

Emilio Roman (41:54.342)

Yeah, but it's a lot of fun, you know?

Meredith & Craig (41:56.82)

So I heard like,

Meredith & Craig (41:57.921)

let them be them and you basically had to get used to each other's styles and personalities and the way you do things. Is there any like nuggets or beyond let them be, but when you work so closely with each other, there's bound to be disagreement, friction, like I...

Emilio Roman (42:05.001)

Remember that.

Meredith & Craig (42:22.007)

Meredith & Craig (42:22.427)

I think that we need to go this way. We both agree on where we're going, but sometimes we disagree on the route to get there. So do you have any suggestions or tricks or tips to keep the route kind of keep it on the road, I guess, if you will, keep it out of the ditches.

Emilio Roman (42:31.371)

Thanks.

Emilio Roman (42:42.027)

Yeah.

Emilio Roman (42:44.339)

Amen. No, no, listen, great question. And again, I co-sign on everything she said because she, it's facts, right? What she talked about and you and I, of us here and those that are watching this on the replay, well, no, take work. They take effort, right? And so we, our brains, we all want the shortcut, right? We all want, you know, the easy fixes and that just doesn't exist. So luckily for us, the anchor is our faith.

Emilio Roman (43:11.009)

So that's been the one constant thing, right? Humor has also been the thing. Find ways and our mentor, when she would go reach out to somebody for like, what's going on with Amelia? How can I handle him? And then I would come back and I would ask the same thing. How can I, I'm stressed out. Outside of my serenity prayer, by the way, for those of you who don't know serenity prayer, man, that's kept me out of all kinds of stuff. God grant me, where will you believe your God is?

Emilio Roman (43:39.5)

Okay, I believe in Jesus Christ, but it could be different for someone watching it. My serenity prayer was God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. And I would say that in my breath when I was feeling something towards her or to anyone else, right? But at the end of the day, it really had nothing to do with her or anyone else. It was just an inner reflection. Cause a lot of times that you and I both know where we all of us, people are just a mere reflection of us.

Meredith & Craig (43:58.52)

Mm-hmm.

Emilio Roman (44:09.805)

Right? People are just reflecting on us. A lot of times we project. So if I'm jealous, I'm going to project that to her. And so the serenity prayer got me through a lot. And the other thing is find ways for humor. know, humor would be it. think you guys just change your state. Change your You would do that thing with your job. Yes. Like make me laugh. So I want to hear from you guys because I know we're closing this down, but I know my friend told me.

Meredith & Craig (44:14.188)

Yes.

Emilio Roman (44:38.637)

When I knew that I was wrong, I would come up in the morning and I knew that I was wrong and it was difficult to just say I'm sorry because there's ego, all kinds of crazy stuff involved. So I would go up, pull my pajamas up to my chest and I would go, hey, listen, about last night, I'm sorry. I'm laughing. Right? So I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said this. That was just stupid of me. Now, of course, it's humanly impossible to be upset.

Emilio Roman (45:08.235)

when you're smiling, you know, it's just, so, you know, we would laugh and then, you know, praise God we would get through it. I'd love to hear how you guys handle it.

Meredith & Craig (45:08.971)

Yeah.

Meredith & Craig (45:17.303)

Meredith & Craig (45:18.864)

I love it, because I think you're right. It's almost impossible to get mad at someone when you're staring at their nipples. Like when they just like... Almost impossible. We've got a friend who always apologizes to his wife by saying, I'm sorry I was a turd. And using the word like turd, she starts to... How do you stay... It changes your state. It changes your mindset. changes... Bringing in the laughter and the humor.

Emilio Roman (45:24.233)

Hahaha!

Emilio Roman (45:27.693)

That's right.

Emilio Roman (45:41.229)

Amen.

Meredith & Craig (45:47.721)

None of us have enough fun. Everything gets very serious very quickly, especially in business, right? Like business gets serious. Your marriage gets serious. The more you can laugh. it is game changer. We talk about there are no silver bullets. Entrepreneurship is hard. Marriage is hard. Like everything, everything worth having is hard. But the closest thing we've got to a magic pill or a silver bullet is laughing, having fun together. adventure. Like it's a core pillar for us. So I was, I was super.

Emilio Roman (45:52.599)

Yes.

Emilio Roman (46:11.904)

love it.

Meredith & Craig (46:17.074)

stoked and excited to hear you say humor, laugh at each other, laugh with each other, laugh at yourself, laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Because really at the end of the day, it is all just ridiculousness. Like we're just going through this life and we're all trying to figure it out. just, it's, let's just- of us really actually know anything that we're, like none of us know what to do. Like we're all just figuring it out as we go. We all think we know what we're doing.

Emilio Roman (46:40.983)

Yeah.

Emilio Roman (46:42.914)

And I'm grateful for you guys, cause I love, I love, and I'm gonna encourage anybody watching this, they need to hire you too. Because I, when we met you guys, we saw the challenges that you guys put out. We were doing some of them and we're like, wow, we love that. So we actually had, also we had invested in coaches and they got us through relationship coaches. Like what you guys are doing in your own way, in your own way is so helpful. So anybody watching this, guys, we're not getting paid for this.

Emilio Roman (47:09.121)

but we truly believe it. If you've come this far and there's something here that we said and you're struggling in your marriage or relationship, listen, connect with Meredith and Craig because they've been through that road. They've interviewed, if not hundreds, thousands of people. They know something that you currently don't. So that's really a shameless plug for you guys because you guys are helping people. And I'm telling you, it takes a village. Yeah, no one could do it alone.

Meredith & Craig (47:09.432)

you

Meredith & Craig (47:38.07)

No, no, everything. Like I said, everything we're doing is hard. So there's people to help. Why not? Why not ask for help? It's hard. And I want go back to one thing you said, Amelia, before we wrap, talking about, you know, bringing humor in, the conflict, there's a conflict is inevitable in any relationship, especially in a marriage, especially when you're trying to build a business together. Like there are going to be conflicts. And if there aren't,

Emilio Roman (47:46.605)

Amen.

Emilio Roman (48:03.949)

Thank you.

Meredith & Craig (48:05.814)

Huge red flag, so there's gonna be conflicts. And I love that you guys will take a break when you need it and then come back together and repair and apologize. If that cycle continues, that's recipe for success. Conflict, take a break, repair it. Apologizing is not easy. We've all been taught that being wrong is bad, so none of us like to apologize and it hurts our ego and all those things. But it's a necessary part of the process so that you can repair and keep going. And so just...

Emilio Roman (48:23.831)

man.

Meredith & Craig (48:34.752)

really proud and really impressed with you guys of maintaining that cycle of success to keep your marriage and your business on the tracks because it is not freaking easy. Conflict is inevitable, but combat doesn't have to be. And you guys are a living, breathing example of that. So where can folks

Meredith & Craig (48:55.992)

connect with you. I love Emilio and Daniela's energy. I wanna be a part of their world. I've got I want some of Daniela's delicious delights. I've got a, got a, I want some energy bites, but I also have a story I wanna tell. how do they, how do they, how do they get it?

Emilio Roman (49:03.466)

Yeah.

Emilio Roman (49:07.636)

You

Emilio Roman (49:12.301)

So you know, there's a number of ways, danielasdeliciousdelights.com is her website and she's all over social media. mean, just prepare that if you're gonna watch any of her videos, you should have a napkin and maybe like a drool thing, you know, because I mean, we get a lot of that. She's like, oh my God. So Daniela, her food, I shouldn't say I'm a test dummy. I gladly go, can I try it? Can I try it?

Meredith & Craig (49:28.856)

Thank

Emilio Roman (49:40.908)

And so sometimes she's got stuff for clients and she goes, I can't find it. I'm like, that was for the client? I thought that was for me. So we ran into those conflicts. Where I've eaten up the profits. I've eaten up plenty of the profits. So that created its own storm. again, we just, we're part of what we're saying, but please reach out to social media. Wondrous.com is where one of the ways where if you want to share your story.

Meredith & Craig (49:50.712)

Literally.

Emilio Roman (50:10.081)

we would love to have a conversation and let people know, hey, I heard about you guys through Meredith and Craig and their podcast and their programs. And that helps us to really make a decision if we can work together, right? Because we don't share everybody's story. We refer a lot of people out because there has to be an alignment. And so if you're an entrepreneur, you know what I'm saying. So please reach out to us, social media, emilioroman.com is another way.

Meredith & Craig (50:30.903)

So.

Emilio Roman (50:39.437)

to reach out to me. And I would say the best way is reach out to Meredith and Craig and say, hey, can you make an introduction? That's the best way. So please connect with Meredith and Craig and they'll make an introduction and that'll give you more brownie points.

Meredith & Craig (50:57.303)

Meredith & Craig (50:59.504)

I also want to say Daniela's delicious delights. Like can confirm delicious. We've had the opportunity to work with the co-author network and work with you guys on a book and we've had the opportunity to eat Daniela's food and I will not pick a favorite, but I will say you need to do both. Highly recommend. Yes. And we'll have all your links, all the websites, all the social and also ours so you can get in touch with us so we can introduce you to Daniela.

Emilio Roman (51:11.134)

I'm going to go

Emilio Roman (51:16.321)

Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you.

Emilio Roman (51:26.767)

Yes.

Meredith & Craig (51:26.899)

and Emilio. Thank you for

Meredith & Craig (51:28.593)

being here. Thank you for being so honest and vulnerable and for sharing your wisdom. So we appreciate you so much.

Emilio Roman (51:35.883)

Guys, you know, we love you. We truly love you guys. And listen, life shrinks or expands according to one's courage. Guys, take the courage, go for it, right? Everything you and I want, you've heard this before, it's on the other side of fear. If you're struggling with a relationship, if you're about to get into a relationship, but you're not sure if you should, go ahead and connect with Meredith and Craig. Like they know what they're doing.

Meredith & Craig (52:00.449)

Thank you so much, guys.

Thanks, Margie. Thank you, Margie.

Meredith & Craig

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Road of Life podcast. Remember, your business will only grow as strong as your marriage does. So what's one action you're going to take this week? To put something you learned in this episode into practice. We love a good chit chat, as much as the next person, but without action, you stay where you are. If you want to turn your marriage into the engine that drives your business forward instead of the brakes keeping itself, book a free marriage and business strategy session with us at www.200percentmarriage.com/strategycall.

We'll see you next week.