480 Santiago Cueto

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] What happens when the son of Cuban immigrants grows up in Miami, becomes a trial lawyer, and then takes on the global stage advising billion dollar companies, navigating international lawsuits and defending founders when everything is on the line. Santiago Cueto isn't just any attorney. He's a legal strategist behind some of the most complex cross-border disputes in modern business.

A founding partner at Cueto Law Group, he's built a reputation for being where law meets entrepreneurship, helping a high growth companies navigate the legal chaos of international expansion, litigation, and high stakes negotiations. But beneath the Polish courtroom, victories and global accolades lies a deeper story of a man who grew up watching his family chase the American dream, who now defends that same dream for clients on a global scale.

Santiago's work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNN, and Forbes. But it's the principles [00:01:00] behind his success that matter most. He's a trusted Advisor to tech founders, foreign investors, and multinational companies. Yet his mission is deeply personal: to bring clarity to chaos, justice to complexity and to help entrepreneurs make bold decisions with the right legal backbone.

This is a conversation not just about law, but about what it means to lead, protect, and fight for what you believe in.

And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Sanjay, a graduate of Deep Wealth Mastery, and he says, the investment I made in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it's a rounding error compared to the value created today and the future value I'll receive.

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Deep Wealth Nation welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast, Deep Wealth Nation. Let me ask you this. When you're looking to expand, if you're looking to go into a different country or even here at home, you run into some challenges or you wanna prevent some legal challenges. What are you doing?

Do you even have a contract? Is it the right kind of contract? Are you protected? And I know for myself, looking back, a lot of the answers to those questions was no. And I [00:04:00] learned the hard way. We're gonna prevent that from happening to you today. We have a very special guest in the House of Deep Wealth.

Santiago, welcome to Deep Wealth Podcast, and absolute pleasure to have you with us. There is always a story behind the story. What's your story? Santiago, what got you from where you were to where you are today?

Santiago Cueto: I guess my interest in the international business a lot of people in the United States are, typically focused just on the US as, at least as a young, man. I was, uh. encountering a lot of people who weren't really interested in international business. It just so happens, I grew up in Washington DC in the, let's call it the intelligence community.

And I was exposed to the world of James Bond and oh oh seven through my father, and that was a great interest to me. However, I didn't wanna go into that kind of, service, I don't think it was for me. I wanted to, however, use those tools and everything that I learned from that background. To go I guess in the private sector as it's called and make my contributions [00:05:00] there.

And that's where I got onto this path to becoming an international law expert. Now, becoming an international expert, you don't just go to law school and you just call yourself one. There's an extra bar exam After you've, you've worked some number of years as an attorney, you gotta take another bar exam, focus on international law and international principles, litigation, transactions, and apparition.

Then you can call yourself an international law expert. So since that time, I've dealt with a variety of companies involved in everything from international litigation, international arbitration, where I've, filed arbitration against entire countries and then I've worked with the small investors looking to expand or businesses abroad who wanna expand to the United States.

So I've done it all at this point, about nearly 30 years of my career. And that's how I, that's how I got to where I am now.

Jeffrey Feldberg: My goodness, Santiago, so much there. I am very tempted to ask. So I am going to ask, we're gonna go a little bit off the beaten path here. So you're growing up [00:06:00] in the intelligence community, as you say. I am sure there are all kinds of stories, probably many of which you can't even begin to talk about or tell.

But as you look at that, growing up in that kind of environment, how did that shape your view of the world? As you look back now as a successful entrepreneur and doing some incredible things on the legal side, but growing up in that kind of environment, what would've made that different for you than the average person just growing up in a regular quote-unquote family?

Santiago Cueto: The number one thing I would say is being exposed to different cultures, different ways of doing business. Different ways. Even something as simple as the way you hand your business card means a great deal. And that's usually the first impression. For instance, the Japanese, it's varied their whole life.

They pay such great value on their business cards and they'll give it to you with both of their hands and you accept it with both of your hands if they see you fiddling with it and putting in your pocket and [00:07:00] wrinkling it. That's like wrinkling them like that. That's their persona and they'll take great insult if they see you doing that.

And I discovered that only by secondhand embarrassment. I saw a friend just take a business card and kind of crumple it up. And I only to see the business partner who we were dealing with become upset because something as simple as receiving a business card wasn't taken seriously. So we're not all about contracts and stuff.

it starts with the introduction, the cultural respect and experiences that you have with a, culture that you've never been exposed to. So it's very important to keep that in mind.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It is so interesting, particularly in business when we're looking to expand and go into new markets. Hey, when in Rome, as a saying goes, and so we really need to know what the customs are, what we should do, what we shouldn't do. What perhaps is considered a norm here perhaps is considered a taboo. Over there.

So interesting that at a very young age, you became sensitized to, okay, let me be observant. Let me see what's [00:08:00] going on with these things, and then applying that to your world. And I'm gonna ask to start things off a bit of an unfair question because every entrepreneur's journey is different, every country, every company, it's gonna be a different tale of what goes on there.

And you'd be perfectly right to say Jeffrey, it really depends, and what's going on here? What's going on there? But that said, generally speaking, when you zoom out. And you'll look at the kinds of cases that you've been involved in, and even there, it's right across the board with what you've been doing.

But is there a common, I don't know if mistake is the right word, but a common thing that we're not doing or things that we are doing that are getting us into some problems? Is it the good old 80 20 rule OL's law that, Hey, yeah, Jeffrey, 80% of the problems I deal with are coming from 20% of these root causes or issues, any patterns going on?

Santiago Cueto: I see a lot of it in terms of picking partners and partnering up with investors. It all sounds very due diligence. I think you would call it you know, a lot of people are so ramped up and [00:09:00] so high on, on the cent of the deal that they don't take a moment to step back and you know, really just even Googling a partner, I hope people do that as a matter of course these days, but you'd be surprised that people who do not do that check.

office address. Is it a, are they hiding behind a virtual office address, which I've seen happen. I've seen people defrauded, frankly because they just didn't scratch the surface of who they were dealing with. And it's very easy to do nowadays, thankfully, due to the internet and how advanced we've gotten.

It's picking the right partner and making sure that the person you're dealing opposite is who they say they are, and has the cred credentials that you think, and importantly, the financing. That underpins a lot of these deals.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And what we're talking about here, nation, when you look at our 90 day mastery programs, step forward to. Diligence. This is where we're very specifically going in. What are those skeletons in the closet? Forget about selling your company that if you don't find those skeletons, they can put you outta business.

They're probably [00:10:00] lowering your profits, lowering your growth that you wanna find out about them Now. And so with that in mind, Santiago, we're gonna talk about your method and what you do and how you're gonna protect us and make sure we're doing all the right things. I would imagine though, when we talk about the things not to do all the wrong things that today with ai, artificial intelligence, and all these deep fakes that are going on out there, that there is a lot of fraud that's going on and companies, and we're all too trusting as entrepreneurs are being taken advantage of, even to your point.

When you're looking to partner with someone, have you looked them up? Have you done a very basic search? Are there any reviews that are coming back? So what would be some telltale red flags of, Hey, don't pass. Go. Probably some problems here. Let me give San Diego a call just to check things out and make sure that things are good.

Or maybe I don't even wanna call 'em because this is just a no go, a no-fly zone. What would be some red flags? We should be really weary of?

Santiago Cueto: As mentioned earlier, something as simple as checking their office [00:11:00] address. Any legitimate business has a legitimate office address, usually not virtual. I know that virtual's more in play than it used to be. And there are, most businesses are legitimate, but that just something to look out for.

And I wanted to talk about a story. This is a real life story that we're just finishing up now resolving after five years of litigating this. were involved with the foreign government who was defrauded of a hundred million dollars. It was a pension fund of this foreign government, and they gave their money somehow, some way to this person who said, Hey, I can take care of your pension fund of a hundred million dollars.

Give it to me. That person absconded and fled the country. He's a fugitive from US Justice. the assets were frozen. Thankfully they made the mistake of transferring the funds to the US where we have very rigorous asset forfeiture laws. So we were able to get, resolve that case and it's still pending the final resolution.

But we were able to resolve that and get that money back [00:12:00] tentatively. It still has to be approved by the US government, the White House. However, when we looked at it, when we first got the case five years ago, I did a simple. Google search of that address and that address, the local business address was this hole in the wall travel agency here in Miami.

And that was supposed to be the front office of this major hedge fund manager who politically took the money. And I couldn't believe that this government didn't even do the slightest diligence to see that, Hey, wait a minute, this business is really this. This Miami storefront that has the travel agency on the front of it.

We were aghast and we discovered that when we first got the case. And then it was easy to put everything together like, oh, so that's how it happened. It's a lot easier than you think it is my point.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And sadly, I suspect it's getting even easier with all these bright people out there who are putting their intelligence. To the wrong kind of focus in terms of taking us for our money and going into fraudulent [00:13:00] kinds of things. But it does bring up a good point. Recently, the headlines for the past while actually the geopolitical climate, oh my goodness.

Trade wars and shifting alliances. It's been all over the place. So from your perspective, Santiago, because you are dealing with this all the time and you're really leading the charge out there, you are a worldwide thought leader that nations and countries and companies are turning to. What would be the single most.

Perhaps overlooked legal risk for companies operating across borders that they should be considering, but they simply are not.

Santiago Cueto: Well, cyber crimes that is so huge nowadays. Phishing attacks have become so widespread and so sophisticated that even you have to, it's important for a larger organization to instruct your employees. Not to open up, PDFs or fake invoices or closing statements. All the offer firm lately has been getting inundated with, oh, here's your closing statement from this transaction.

Now we're in a pretty tight ship and we know what [00:14:00] transactions we're involved with, so we know immediately, which is false and which aren't but they look so legitimate that I have to caution our employees remember to double check of the deal that we're transacting. Because some of these look so real that you have to be very careful not to reflexively, open it up.

'cause what happens when you don't open it up? It downloads malware and it infects your entire system. So training your employee staff, everybody who has access to your system worldwide needs to know this. Do not open up anything. Even it looks like a legitimate closing statement or whatever business you're in, they've begun to mimic your business.

Habits and what types of documents you regularly get.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Long gone are the days, and we can all relate. When we would get these emails, they'd have typos and we would read it and right away we would know, Hey, this isn't coming from a legitimate source. The English is off, the spelling is off. To your point today, now it looks so legitimate. In fact, [00:15:00] recently I was speaking with a friend and these hackers had somehow broken into the system.

They knew this company was going to do a wire. They intercepted the email to the bank, and then they wrote back to the client saying, okay, you know, we've got this, but there is a typo in where you're sending it to. Please send it here. And it all checked out. From the client side, everything looked good, and the names and the emails, everything else.

Money was sent. Only afterwards they find out they were scammed and wow, the sophistication is off the charts in terms of what's going on there. So it brings us up to a, a great question. Santiago, I'm bringing you on board now as a company and, okay. Santiago. Yeah. We've been fortunate up until now.

Nothing's really happened, but we wanna keep it that way. And perhaps even down the road we're looking at having some kind of liquidity event. Maybe we're gonna go public, maybe we're gonna sell one of our divisions, or maybe we're gonna sell the entire company. I don't want any skeletons in the closet that the prospective investor or buyer is gonna find.

I wanna come out spelling like a [00:16:00] rose. As the saying goes, what's the method to your madness? I go, what would you and the team be doing when you take me on as a client?

Santiago Cueto: We wanna look for potential liabilities. So for instance. If you're buying a company, you wanna be sure that company has no liabilities that are tagging along with it. a little bit more difficult to do depending on the jurisdiction. For instance, you want to search for lawsuits that they're engaged in or may be engaged in.

You would have to go jurisdiction by jurisdiction to make if, if they're not front with you. This is assuming that, hey, they didn't tell you the whole truth. They just want a quick deal, or they're giving you fake numbers. Famously, I think there's this, a startup in New York that hoodwinked JP Morgan Chase on acquiring this financial startup geared, I think, towards women that claimed to have, 400,000 users.

so JP Morgan Chase, this just happened, I think she was just convicted a few months ago. Forgot the name of the company. JP Morgan Chase acquired the company for $175 [00:17:00] million only to discover almost instantly once the sale closed, that the data that they were given was marked up by about 95%.

In other words, this person only had maybe 4,000 subscribers, not 400,000. And if JP Morgan Chase and multiple layers, when you're talking about the largest banks in the world. For this startup to get through so many layers, ultimate closing to defraud like that. They were very sophisticated and I think if they, in looking at, of course in hindsight, if JP Morgan Chase had looked and verified the subscriber number, that would've saved them a whole lot of trouble.

It seems obvious to us now. Well, Let's verify that there's actually 400,000 signups. They failed to do that at multiple levels. So my point is, No matter how big your organization, don't assume that somebody lower than you is gonna catch it before it gets to you. The ceo, e Jamie Diamond signing off on it.

I'm counting on you guys below me to have vetted all this information, [00:18:00] but they even got hoodwinked.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, it's good old Ronald Reagan, Hey, it's okay to trust, but always verify to make sure that what's going on is actually going on. And so Santiago, my next question, you'd be perfectly right, I said well, Jeffrey, it depends how big the company is and what we're gonna be looking at and what kinds of activities that they're involved in.

But generally speaking, for you, the team to now go through our contracts, take a look at what we're doing, where we've been, where we're going, and to find those, again, those skeletons, those weak links, perhaps we don't even have some contracts in some areas that we should, or contracts have expired, or our intellectual property isn't being protected or trademarks haven't been renewed, whatever the case is gonna be with that.

How long would it generally take for you to come back and say, okay, you know what, Jeffrey? We've gone through everything. Here's a list of where we're doing really well. Here's a list we need to start working on right away.

Santiago Cueto: Again, depending on the size of the company, usually let's say we have a medium sized company with 50 to a hundred employees. That probably [00:19:00] would take about 45 days to 60 days. Assuming we have all the right information and what we find sometimes it's okay with the parties involved stakeholders, but we immediately look for the dispute resolution clauses.

We like to see arbitration clauses. Why? Because it keeps everything private. When you have a private resolution mechanism built into your agreements that avoids court, and when you avoid court, you protect your reputation. The public has no idea what's going on. Of course, if you're not a public company, I'm assuming this is for non-public companies.

It's a lot more efficient to use an arbitration clause. You stay out of court, you protect your reputation, and it's a lot faster.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Lot faster and not necessarily the best thing for your business model, but for the entrepreneur it's also a lot less money when you're going through arbitration and not having to go through the courts. And so some terrific insights. That that are there. And so I'm curious now, so Santiago. From your very early days, you're on the litigation side, you're a trial lawyer, you're going through the system, you're seeing what's going on.

One of the things that we [00:20:00] share with Deep Health Nation, just because someone's a lawyer, a business lawyer, as an example, all lawyers are not the same, and there's a big difference between a business litigation lawyer. And a business lawyer that said, what would you want Deep Health Nation to know of why the world, from your perspective on the litigation side, trial lawyer, how you're seeing the world differently than a traditional business lawyer, and why that would be a good thing for myself, as an example, as your client.

Santiago Cueto: I'm on the consequences end of things when things go wrong. Lawsuits are usually last resort from either, either side. Either you have to protect your rights, like you said earlier, intellectual property, or you're being sued for a breach of contract, assuming you could have defenses or not having defenses.

But there, it's a last resort. So we see when things go wrong and how a contract could have better anticipated what happened. That's why we're also very good at drafting contracts. 'cause we see at the end, the result of things go [00:21:00] south. So we look for things like we definitely wanna stay in arbitration, but you also wanna stay in arbitration.

In your home turf, you can have an arbitration clause or jurisdictional clause that says well, if there's an arbitration, you have to go to Paris or you have to go to Switzerland, far away from your home turf here in the United States. You have to look at the jurisdiction clause. A lot of people are caught off guard.

What do you mean I have to travel to Hong Kong or Singapore to arbitrate this case? That was all built in the contract. Assuming you were there, you had the ability to instruct your lawyers, Hey, I see that in this arbitration clause or litigation, let's say the school litigation, that there's a clause that says any dispute that arises out of this is gonna be tried, in in Hong Kong.

I don't wanna be there. These are things that we see on the backend, of course, when they end up in someplace that a US litigant doesn't wanna end up in. So it's important to look at these things and anticipate where are you gonna be if a dispute does arise? You wanna [00:22:00] be in Toronto. If you're from Toronto.

If you're from Miami, you want Miami. You never wanna be in the opposing party's turf if you can help it. And oftentimes. If these jurisdictional clause buried in the last few pages of a contract, look in the arbitration of the litigation, you're gonna find it and you wanna make sure my client, I'm gonna make sure that they're going to stay in their territory where they're gonna have the upper hand on their home turf.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And default nation. I hope you're listening carefully because what Santiago was sharing, it's not gold, it's platinum. In San Diego, I have to share with you that for the default nation, and particularly those that are going through the default mastery program, as they're getting ready for the liquidity event, one of the things that we'll share with them, if you already have some contracts that are perhaps penned but they're not signed, or if you're gonna be creating one, please have a litigation lawyer.

Take a look at it. It's a business litigation lawyer. They're in the business world. Have 'em take a look at it because to your point. They come from a very different perspective than a regular business [00:23:00] lawyer, and nothing wrong with a regular business lawyer. This is no judgment against them. But you've seen when things don't work out, and while we hope for the best, we also have to assume the worst, and hopefully we never have to use the agreement or the contract.

But if we do, to your point, I don't wanna be flying to Hong Kong or Singapore or Paris when I could have very easily right up front, taken care of it. Or I don't wanna have to be going through a expensive two, three year. Lawsuit in the courts where it's public and it's slow and it's costly, where I could have done arbitration.

And there is a whole hit list of things, Santiago, that you haven't shared with us that you would put into the agreement or take outta the agreement to protect our interests. But it's those kinds of best practices that someone like yourself, you've been on both sides of it, that you're bringing that expertise to protect us today so we don't have to worry about it tomorrow.

Thoughts about that?

Santiago Cueto: The analogy I like to use, it's really a prenup if you think about it. You are only gonna look at the contract at the end of the day. If things go south, just like a [00:24:00] prenup, we're never gonna look at it again unless we get a divorce. Typically, you're not gonna look at that con business contract again unless things go wrong.

So it's almost like a disagreement, a. you will. Parties rarely refer back to it during the course of their relationship. It's only when things are unclear or go south that they go back and look at it. So think of it as a prenup for your business dealings. That's really the best way to look at it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And again, when it's done right, you put it away. You hope you never have to look at it, but if you do. It's peace of mind and it's clarity. Okay. Santiago and team, they took care of me. I'm not gonna have to worry about this if something has to happen. Yeah, it's in my backyard. Not a big a deal.

Look, I don't want it. I wouldn't have chosen this, but it's not gonna be as expensive or as time consuming as it could be. So from local, let's not go to international. Because what we've been seeing a lot here in the us, we have our US companies that are having now regular clashes. With foreign entities, particularly over in Europe, especially around data privacy, and we've seen the recent [00:25:00] administration talking about all kinds of tariffs they're gonna be putting on these countries because they're making it difficult for our US businesses to operate and to be in there.

So from our side of things, from your world, San Diego, what would you be doing for me? Okay. San Diego. We've been very successful here in the us. We now wanna expand to Europe and beyond, and perhaps it is around some kind of internet company or SaaS-based company. Online company, and there are data privacy and other kinds of things.

What would you be bringing to the table? That I as an entrepreneur would have a better sleep at night knowing. Okay, San Diego's on this. He's got the experience. What would you want me to know?

Santiago Cueto: When you brought up the eu, I think that's, one of the biggest markets for the US businesses. Technology companies really have a strong foothold in the eu. But the eu, they know they have the leverage to enact these data privacy laws. And that's what really ties the hands of a lot of US tech companies is that they're forced to either do business in the EU and comply with these data privacy laws or not.

The [00:26:00] choice is there is, they don't have to be there. But the market is so big and lucrative that most US companies have to bend the knee and accept these heavy handed privacy laws that are enacted in you, and they're only getting, tighter and tighter. That's why we have to this day, all these uh, you know, accept cookies or decline cookies, that all evolved outta the EU legal framework, and now it's a worldwide standard.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so what's interesting about this is, again, from your perspective, it's so easy to start things and just start doing these things, and now I have a footprint over there, and then bam, I get slapped with some kind of a fine or an injection. Whereas bringing you the team on board, I'm now having an insight, okay, Jeffrey, before you do it, have you thought about this?

How are you gonna protect yourself against that? And having that kind of a conversation. So from where we are today and what you've seen, particularly on the geopolitical side as of late, where are we heading in all of this? Any [00:27:00] predictions?

Santiago Cueto: It's challenging indeed with the tariffs and increasing, technology laws and data privacy laws. Even here in the US it's becoming very challenging. The regulatory framework, it's a legal minefield really. The business owners around the world, not just in the US have really a tough problem navigating this, especially with AI are being thrown in the mix with all these different regulations coming down with ai.

And one thing I think a big problem I see with technology. Trending is the hallucinating GPTs, coming back with fake results in the legal community. Believe it or not, it's an ongoing problem. It's a very, very public problem where US attorneys have been citing using checks, PT to make legal briefs and chait has has generated very convincing citations that the attorneys don't even think twice about whether they're real or not.

They're completely fake and a lot of attorneys around the country have been sanctioned for [00:28:00] not checking their briefs. And it's a very simple thing. So it's very alarming that this started happening about two years ago, but it's even, and these instances where attorneys have been publicly reprimanded have become, at least in the legal circles, very well known.

But despite that, it continues to happen. So. To Deep Wealth Nation, I would caution or, double check with your attorney. Don't assume, Hey, listen, please don't use chat ccp t to do anything. You can use it as a guide. It's a nice tool. Just like a word processor is a spreadsheet and a calculator.

But do not rely on it. Do not download a template for a contract from Chatt PT and think it's legitimate or some case law or some provision. You need to consult with a real life. Business attorney to make sure everything is legally tight and not hallucinated.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Santiago, to your point, people Nation, I'm gonna put myself under the microscope, not my best and brightest [00:29:00] moment. There was an agreement and I wanted to save a little bit of money. I didn't wanna have to call the lawyer. I changed one part of the agreement, which later backfired on me because I changed one word, Santiago, and that one word was the difference between having to go to court.

Defendant or not having to go to court and defend it. Then the lawyer obviously, Jeffrey, what were you thinking? Why'd you do this? You should have spoken to me. It would've been a 32nd thing for me to take a look at and change for you. Now. This is what's ahead for you. And it was a mess. This was well before the days of ai.

And so with ai, the hallucinations, and it just is taking from a general source of knowledge. Yeah, it's good for the most part, but good often isn't good enough when it comes to legal issues and contracts and my company's future is on the lined.

Santiago Cueto: To your point for. Instance, let's assume you used the word may instead of shall, right? Just one word changes the whole contract.

Jeffrey Feldberg: There you go. De both nation from the legal expert himself. One slight change of words makes [00:30:00] all the difference in that. And so what I'm hearing you say, and it's common sense, which isn't so common, AI is great. But when it comes to your legal agreements and contracts, have the lawyer do it. And not just have the lawyer do it, trust but verify, Hey, are you using AI for any of this?

And if you are, can you please just double check that? Factually, everything is gonna be correct on that and some terrific advice out there. And so we've talked about protecting my company here, particularly as I go abroad, but Santiago. Here on Deep Wealth Podcast and Deep Wealth Nation, it's also about one point we're gonna have some kind of liquidity event where part or all of the company is going to be purchased or invested in.

And increasingly, the investors aren't just from the us. We're seeing now international investors from around the world. And so given your global experience with different cultures and knowing what works and what doesn't work, what would be the kinds of things that we're probably not aware of as a US-based company who perhaps on the road it's gonna be an [00:31:00] international buyer or investor who's coming in?

What would I need to be doing for my company to make it more attractive to an international investor or buyer?

Santiago Cueto: Increasingly I've seen, for instance. Since Bitcoin being used as a part of a payment term, it comes with its risks, but that does, it's very attractive for a foreign investor, you like. Okay. All can entertain if partial payment or it's an all cash deal, is paid by Bitcoin. I've seen that in several transactions we've been dealing with, which is really new.

That wasn't an option before.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Bitcoin, my goodness. Talk about something that is very divisive out there. I know if we had Michael Saylor on this conversation right now from strategy, he'd say, Jeffrey. Take the Bitcoin payment all day long, never spent it, put it away because what you'll get today for it is gonna go up, but there's gonna be others who are saying, Jeffrey, are you crazy?

Just take us dollars. Don't be nuts, and just take all cash. So it's still early days with that for some and really not for others. So [00:32:00] what are you seeing on that side, San Diego? Where do you land on Bitcoin as part of the payment or not as part of the payment, particularly from the international side.

Santiago Cueto: I'm more of the conservative mindset, to the extent you're gonna use bitcoin. Maybe um, partial payment, 10%, something to make it fun. I don't know. I personally wouldn't do it, but I just see that as being an option with a lot of folks,

foreign investors.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely, and we're gonna see where this Bitcoin journey goes. There are some that are saying that Bitcoin, wherever it is now, it's going up to a million and then $10 million a coin. We will have to see, history will look back and we will say, Hey, you know what should have done it, or Glad I didn't do it.

History will always tell us one way or the other of where that goes. So Bitcoin as a payment is one thing, particularly with foreign buyers. What else are foreign investors or buyers perhaps looking for that as a US entity? I'm probably not even aware of, or I could be doing, again to make my company more attractive and have a higher enterprise value for a bigger transaction price.

When all is said and done.

Santiago Cueto: I guess leveraging [00:33:00] future opportunities. For instance, you have the right to, if it's a franchise, to have we, if we move forward with this transaction of US territory, we will also want the option to expand into other parts of the world as part of the package. 'cause they're not just looking at the US domestic market, they're looking at other parts of the world that they can leverage.

Now that they've got the US market, now they can go to the parts of the world saying, Hey, we've got the US market now. We're very attractive for you. Will you allow us to come into your country? It's gonna be to your benefit. Singapore, for instance, I just spent a month in Singapore and I was blown away with the opportunities in Singapore, a tiny nation.

But boy, it's got a giant of opportunities going on for.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's so different when, particularly when we leave the US and we see what's going on out there, as great as we are, it's amazing what is also going on out there. And sometimes in different areas or even ahead of where we are. It's always a learning lesson for me when I'm there and when I see that. So I'm wondering, because look, you've been in forums the Wall Street Journal, CNN, you name it, you've [00:34:00] been on there and we read the headlines about you.

It's very impressive, particularly as I was doing my research about you. But I always say that when I'm bringing on an Advisor, it's not the logo or the firm that they represent because that's just a logo. It's the name of a company. It's actually the people that I'm working with in that company. So when I get beyond the headlines, San Diego for yourself.

What are the headlines missing of what you're really all about? As a person, as an Advisor for me that I'm gonna be working with to help me with my financial future, my business future, to keep things really moving in the right direction. I.

Santiago Cueto: Lemme go back 40 years or so to kind of, where I developed my focus on really bringing value to the customer. My very first job was with Nordstrom. Nordstrom is a department store, very famous for, it's customer service experience. And famously, Jeff Bezos, that's where he got the idea to make amazon.com customer obsessed.

Because it was founded in Seattle, in the same place where Nordstrom's was [00:35:00] founded. And and I just happened to coincidentally work for Nordstroms is my first job. And, I was there for about five years and really grew to love, surprising the customer with, over the top experiences stuff that they wouldn't accept.

And so I bring that into the legal experience and the legal solutions. I bring my client with that Nordstrom mindset that I've had for 40 years now. Being so obsessed with the customer and trying to delight delightfully surprise them with something they didn't expect. For instance, customers get who visit us in the office, they get a, a bunch of, supplies and things. Laptop bags and cups and magazines and books and notebooks just on their first visit. And then we send them fruit baskets every quarter. We like to surprise them with different gifts every six months. When they sign up, they get a special gift, so it's constantly trying to surprise them and never sending them the exact same gift.

And when. It's more or less every quarter, but they don't know exactly when. So [00:36:00] I love the surprise and the emails that I get back, it's almost selfish because I love to experience the feedback and that I made them so happy just by something like that. in the legal field where that's kind of stuff is not expect.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely that it's very different. That's that personal human touch. Love what you're doing with that and how you're bringing that into play day in, day out with your different clients. And as you're talking about that, you know, I'm wondering because with your firm specifically, you're doing everything from contract disputes, you're doing international arbitration.

But all that said, when we rise above that now and we're talking about the human condition of just who we are, and I would imagine you've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, as the saying goes with the human condition, what would it be? Is there a principle or a best practice or a strategy that you would recommend for us of, Hey, if you can follow this strategy, things are just gonna be okay for you?

It'll work out one way or another.

Santiago Cueto: Be fully transparent. Again we have the attorney-client privilege [00:37:00] protecting all client communications and some clients feel that they shouldn't, or embarrassed I guess, to tell us that stuff that's not so. Good. But it's incredibly helpful for us to know that not so good stuff, that if it ever does come out in connection to whether we're doing a contract or litigation arbitration, we need to know ahead of time so that we can head it off if and when it does come up.

There's a few examples where a client hasn't been forthcoming and only for us to arrive at a deposition. They present us a document that the client says they never signed, and there it is a signed document. Two years later, there it is in fresh flesh and blood right in front of us where the client swore up and down they never signed.

And those are circumstances that one really can avoid fighting themselves into being upfront with their lawyers. She could have told me, Hey, I did sign the document, but I didn't know. I was like, okay, that's okay. We can work with that. Don't tell me you didn't sign something only to be presented with it at your deposition two years later [00:38:00] where you know it was hard to deny that you did it.

It was your signature and all that stuff. So just be transparent. There's nothing we haven't seen or heard. We're not gonna judge you. Just tell us so we can best maximize the chances that you can prevail, whatever dispute your end.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So really I'm hearing a couple things from that. One is, as entrepreneurs, we have to get out of our own way where we can at times make life more difficult for us. And then Santiago, as my legal representative, as my lawyer, unlike any other Advisor, whatever I tell you, that's confidential, that doesn't come out.

If I share, hey, my accountant, I, yeah, I signed this document. I probably shouldn't have, but I did it anyways. That's not necessarily protected, but with you it is.

Santiago Cueto: That's correct. Absolutely.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Deep Wealth Nation, are you being transparent with your advisors on the legal side with Santiago and team? And I'd even take that a step further of that transparency with the culture, with your leadership team, with your frontline team members of being transparent as a company with one another. I know that will [00:39:00] take you a very long way in the best of senses when you're transparent with everyone around you.

Santiago Cueto: Don't hide your mistakes. If you made a mistake and you hit send in an email you weren't supposed to send or, reveal the details of a deal that you weren't supposed to reveal. Until next week tell the leaders and the stakeholders so that they can head it off. Don't hide it. You must be, bring it to 'em.

Hey, I made a mistake. And you're gonna see that's gonna go a long way towards getting the problem ultimately resolved. What's not gonna work is you hiding behind it. And that issue popping up when your stakeholders least expect it. that's gonna hurt everybody so you're correct. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Santiago, let me ask you this, and it's partially to do with business, but also again the human condition. Like yourself. I come from an immigrant family and I know growing up, particularly as a child of immigrants is very different than if you're born here. And one of the things, no judgment here with my family.

Was Jeffrey, you've gotta be better than everyone else, which is terrific. But if you make a mistake, just fix it. Don't talk about it. It's as though it never happened, [00:40:00] and it is. Don't be vulnerable and don't share. Hey, you know what team, I really messed up. I screwed up on this. Here's what I did. And I don't know what I was thinking, but I did that.

What is it in the human condition when we're vulnerable, when we're coming in front of people, really potentially, it takes a strong person to come at it and say, Hey, I really screwed up. I don't know what I was thinking. What is it about vulnerability that actually makes us more relatable and people can understand us a little bit better than, yeah, I'm perfect.

It never happened. I would not have done that. What's going on there?

Santiago Cueto: It's because it's nice to see, oh, they're like me, right? Make mistakes. They're imperfect like me. And that's completely, absolutely universally relatable.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I.

Santiago Cueto: It happens every day. I make mistakes all the time. And so when you hear somebody else make a mistake, you're like, don't worry about it. I've made my share of mistake.

Let's get it fixed. And that vulnerability, really helps. I think really draw the defenses down of everybody in the organization. [00:41:00] Oh, okay. It's okay to be imperfect. We always wanna do our best, of course. We're human at the end of the day, Jeffrey, it's part of the human condition.

We can't change that. We're imperfect beings, but we can perfectly accept the situations that we find ourselves in.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, some terrific advice there, Santiago. And I'm wondering before we start going into wrap up mode on the personal side, or even on the professional side, was there a setback or what some people call even a failure? That it, looking back, it taught you something about yourself that you didn't know.

Anything that comes to mind.

Santiago Cueto: Let's see. But really, I wanna go back to that example where I was presented with a an argument that person never signed a document. Perhaps I should have asked let me see the original let me see the original unsigned document. But of course it was difficult in hindsight, right?

'cause if there's notes, you didn't sign a document, why would you ask for one? But just let me see. The one that you didn't sign, everybody has a, a copy unexecuted copy of a contract. And I think [00:42:00] that was something I learned from. So in the future, if somebody says it, it signs up, let me see that email that forwarded that document.

Let's make sure that we're talking about the right document. And maybe I'm thinking had I presented her that document or forced her to gimme a blank document, she would've gone, all right, fine, I signed it. But you know, I just, I assumed that she was being truthful. So, I've moved past it, but that's the one thing in my practice that that example, I'm like how could I have avoided that?

And I guess I could have just asked, or let me see the, Unexecuted document that well, you were supposed to sign but didn't, and I think that had she been confronted with it, maybe she would've said, okay, I didn't, I did sign it. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah.

it's that human condition. We dont. Wanna admit that we're wrong or if we feel shame or, yeah, I shouldn't have done it. I can't really tell anyone about that. And even if you fast forward to today with emails so prevalent with everything, and you cannot get the tone from an email, so I'm reading the same words that you're reading, but to me it means [00:43:00] something completely different than what it means to you.

And sharing that with you. Jeffrey, I don't know if you realize this is Intonating, that you actually agreed to do this. When you're telling me that you didn't, we may have a potential issue here. Let's talk about this. So just being back to your point, fully transparent with that and just sharing everything with a lawyer and doing so, I would imagine, Hey, Santiago, can I run something by you?

This just happened. I don't wanna have this two, three years from now, come back to bite us. Can you take a look at it? Just being that proactive and checking in with you from time to time as things come up.

Santiago Cueto: Yeah, absolutely. And on the plus side, people have told me stuff that's not so good and we walked around it. Embarrassing stuff, but we worked around it and 99 percent of the time it would never even come up. But I'm glad that they told me.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You know when you have that time and it's on your schedule, the client's schedule, you have that preparation. You don't have that pressure. You're likely gonna come to a better resolution. So if something should come up, not a problem. We've dealt with this, we have our contingencies, let's [00:44:00] just see where it goes.

As opposed to, oh my goodness, we just got slapped with this lawsuit. We've gotta respond now in 24 hours. And it's the, what hits the fan. And off we go with that. Santiago, all of that said, before we go into wrap up mode, I'm looking at my list of questions here. There's so many I did not have a chance to ask.

We're bumping up against some time. Is there a question that we haven't yet covered or even a message or a topic or theme? That we haven't touched upon that you'd like to get out there to Deep Wealth Nation.

Santiago Cueto: I guess it's just, don't skip over the easy part, like I mentioned, just read your contract. Don't just flip to the back and sign it. Rely on your attorney. Some attorneys are, like us, are very busy. Here's sign the contract. But, you know, there's some nuances in the contract even the attorney didn't know that the client would object to in the contract.

So, it's important for the business owners and the stakeholders to read the contracts, the attorneys present to them, and not just assume that the attorneys have covered everything.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I had some terrific advice, and I like what you're saying of, Hey, just because you get some [00:45:00] paperwork, don't sign it. And in my experience, Santiago, when a business sends to my business, their agreement. More times than not nine, nine times at a hundred, it's heavily favored to their favor. In other words, it's to my disadvantage and if I just sign it as is that whatever time and money I'm spending with you, as an example, as my lawyer, it's money and time well spent for down the road.

What can be some very painful lessons? Maybe I have to get out of it, or maybe there's something there that's not favorable to me that I could have. Headed off at the past because Jeffrey, no, we have gotta change this wording or we have to take this out to make it more, I'll use the F word more fair for everyone.

And so that said, Santiago, it is a tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast. It's really my privilege and honor where I ask every guest the same question, and it's a really fun question. Let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time.

So the fun part, Santiago, it's tomorrow morning. You look outside your window. Not only [00:46:00] is L Carr curbside the door's open, it's waiting for you to hop on in what you do, and you're now gonna go to any point in your life, Santiago, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be. What would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, why Santiago do this but don't do that?

What would it sound like?

Santiago Cueto: I guess, I'm an I have a traveler. I've become an avid traveler, and that didn't happen until my twenties. I probably would've started traveling earlier. Being exposed in real world, not just the multicultural environment. I grew up in Washington, DC but the real world cultural differences that I later experienced, I would've liked to have started a little bit early.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. What great advice, particularly with everything virtual today. Hey, go out to the real world, travel, see the world as early as you can, and to how we started the conversation. Different cultures, different etiquettes, just a different way of life that gives us a new perspective and likely a better perspective.

That's wonderful advice. And Santiago for Default Nation, they have a question for you. The team, they wanna start working with you [00:47:00] or they wanna run something by you. Where would be the best place online to reach you?

Santiago Cueto: I made it easy. I got this domain named a long time ago called Call santiago.com.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that

Santiago Cueto: It's very easy. I'm very reachable. I have a or 400. My YouTube, I have a book on Amazon. I'm very findable. Just Google Santiago cu and you'll find me. But the easiest way is call santiago.com.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation, it does not get any easier. This is all in the show notes. It's a point and click. Well, Santiago, it's official. Congratulations. This is a wrap, and as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you're in healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

Santiago Cueto: Thank you. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out [00:48:00] and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

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God bless.