Rick Jordan - ReachOut Technology

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They're not going to get this unless they're shoved into it.

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And that is the heart, that is the fucking heart of entrepreneurship being shoved into it.

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But there's that way where you can actually, as a consultative, passionate person about what it is that you do, you can find a way to sort of be that trusted advisor.

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It's the reps you know, and the more things you do, the more you'll be able to start to filter those out.

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What's worthwhile what's not.

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I have the thing that I built and I'm going to this like event with vcs, because you know speed beats perfect planning every time.

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Hello sir, what's shaking kyle?

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How you doing?

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How you doing good, good, good to see you I'm good.

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I'm good, amazing, same same.

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How's your friday?

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My friday is great, man.

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It's a.

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It's a badass day so far good, amazing.

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Well, I love just like, by the way, just jumping into stuff.

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I I don't know, I've always, I've always sort of not liked the um care, are you ready, are we ready?

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I'm gonna push it in just a minute and then we're going to, and then we're going to go.

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Hey, you know what I mean.

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So, like we're, we're in it.

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We're in it.

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Let's talk about that.

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I'll save a story for that.

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Oh, I thought we'd record it.

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It's great, it might be great content.

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That's awesome.

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No, I, I guessed it on a show, cause I mean, I I take a lot of guests on my show too, right, but then I guessed it on a show.

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And to your point about you know, like let's just go, I've been doing that a lot, you know rather than just being like hey, how's it going, or whatever, like us it's like we're just jumping right into it and that's where we start the conversations.

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It's awesome, it's so natural too.

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By the way, literally the first second for sure, brother, for sure.

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I don't remember the, the name.

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It was a very sweet woman, yeah, and I kept.

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She's like okay, well, let's, let's go through the questions.

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I'm like cool, so we're recording.

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She's like no, we're gonna do the, the pre-interview, and then we're gonna record the show, like what the fuck?

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that becomes a great show where you just put the pre-interview in and then you're like, all right, now let's try that again, put the pre-interview in, and then you're like, all right, now let's try that again.

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The pre-interview I probably said 87 times you know that's an exaggeration but no less than a dozen times, Realistically, it's like, yeah, I think we're ready, let's just go into it.

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See, this is great content.

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You know like, well, you might be able to do that, but I can't.

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I didn't know where this is gonna go and what, you know every step, and where it's gonna end.

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I'm like nope, okay, we're just having a conversation.

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I'm not exactly yep, everyone like are you ready, you ready, you ready.

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That was an hour and a half bro rick, you know what?

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let's go ahead.

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Are you ready for the?

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you're right, we'll do it, yeah, yeah, let's do it yeah okay, here we go.

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Three, two, one rick.

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So good to see you good to see you too.

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It's like we haven't been talking for five minutes exactly well, literally this is the first time we're getting to like see, see each other.

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So my nice to physically uh meet you, not just voice.

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So, yeah, right on, brother, I've been been looking forward to this.

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Um, hey, man, uh, you know, it's interesting when I go back and I look at what you've done, what you do, um, you're a, you're, I'm, I'm thinking I was gonna say enterprise, but I want to say ecosystem is like, yeah, I mean it could be that way, yeah you're an ecosystem, um, and so I'm super interested to hear, like you know you've got now, if you're all the way up, you know a little bit if you'd like, you know if you're, if you're good to share sort of.

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you know a little bit of sort of growing up and what got you to the place where you sort of, whether you came through traditional career job nine to five or not, and then when that sort of when that entrepreneurial sort of switch, flipped.

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Yeah, you got it, man.

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I was reading the other day I think it was in the Wall Street Journal, which, by the way, is still like my favorite publication ever.

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I felt super intelligent and intellectual when I would stay at places, you know, for conferences, and they were held with these five stars and they drop off the physical paper.

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You know I'm talking like 15, 20 years ago In the lobby or in a very sort of like visual place in a nice hotel with a fresh cup of coffee and a crisp Wall Street Journal.

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You got it, dude, and I will be half reading and also half looking around to see who's looking at me.

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That's awesome.

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Yes.

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I just felt so great I mean, I think it was a Waldorf, you know when I first got it delivered to my door, I was like oh, that's kind of nice.

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What do I need to do now and then?

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That was the same.

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I think I need to go to the lobby, put some slippers on and then go to the lobby.

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I was probably like 24, 25 years old, something like that.

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I'm like I'm going to be smart today.

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Let's go into the yeah, but the.

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The article I was reading because I have a subscription, now totally digital and the article I was reading was about degrees and this relates to your question about growing up and going into the entrepreneurial journey and the foundations beyond that and it was about college degrees this article on how things have totally shifted generation, as it's so-called, but you could go to school, you could get a degree, and this was so well laid out.

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That's why I liked the journal man, because it, for the most part, it's completely unbiased, absolutely no, no real political leaning whatsoever.

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It's just let's just take a real honest look at.

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It's some kind of topic and they were looking back and there were things that I didn't even know or grasp the concepts of and I gras things pretty quickly.

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It's like today there's degrees and there's a lot of vocations, like entrepreneurialism and all that, that don't require anything, and I still think that the only place really for degrees today is having to do with things that you would absolutely like.

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Surgeon, right, I had a major surgery nine years ago, saved my life, you know, gangrenous gallbladder, all that.

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I'm so grateful that my doctor my surgeon had an education, so there are places with such complexity and the density of by which you will learn the best is going to be in those places of higher education.

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I think what's interesting is that is things like business administration, you know, or marketing or advertising or the other things that have sort of disintermediated in lots of different ways, though it's different no doubt, especially tech, which is a feel I'm in, I mean even as you look.

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Bring it to today, to ai.

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It was about a decade ago.

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I was sitting on an advisory board or a vocational school around chicago that I don't think exists anymore.

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It was itt tech, you know, and I remember yeah totally yeah, I mean they were big, they were really really big and I was so flustered as they were talking about curriculum.

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You know, with me and the advisory board, like you guys are moving too slow.

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I'm like I'm in the field right now by the time anyone even completes the two year program.

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It's completely outdated, yeah, so, so it has to be In 2001,.

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Try and go to college and learn wireframing exactly yep right on.

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So, looking back and the perspective on this as it was explaining, the thing that kind of blew my mind was that back then, you know, 30, 40 years ago, the whole thing about going to college was so you could come out of it and make an income that was higher than the majority of people in america.

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Right, there was a big gap between income levels between those who had a college degree and those who did not, you know, and that was a big gap between income levels between those who had a college degree and those who did not, and that was a true distinction between what the old school white collar, blue collar was.

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And with that I pondered on that a bit.

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I'm like that makes more sense.

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Like, especially in my field, right, in cyber security and tech, if I see somebody with the degree and I see they have zero experience, you know, and they're expecting a 120 000 job, like it was 34 years ago it's like no, no the application you're coming in here with with totally green.

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You have some theory that's about it and, by the way, the theory that a lot of people teach that you started again two years ago if it's a vocational program, or four years ago in a in a normal university.

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That's outdated, man, you know, because you've had no way to apply it totally, and I, I had, I had someone, I one of my first, uh, let's say my second, job.

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I set up the um interactive division.

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I missed that word, interactive we don't use a great word.

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Yeah, I know I don't miss the word vision at like a uh, at a, at an, am at an agency and I was hiring one of my first pms and, um, they had come from a prestigious school and had two masters and was telling me all about the curriculum and the masters and all these sort of things and wanted you know and was was asking for a pretty decent salary and advertised in 2005 or six.

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But I just said, like what you, what you said, sounds great.

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I was like you have not.

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Have you met with kellogg's?

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Have you taken a project for sprint through to completion?

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Like yeah, have you dealt with how hard it is to deal with xyz type client like you know, and expectations and process it like you can take all those books and throw them out the window.

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Most all of this, especially from a project management perspective, is around experience and gut and and people.

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Um, you know it's the number of times that I've led projects for Google and Spotify and the number of times I've used Scrum like actually used Scrum almost zero.

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You get that Bingo.

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You know what I mean.

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And so I think it's one of those things that we have come away from the resume, you know, and while the resume has changed, right now it's like two years is fine, it used to be like two years, you're just a job hopper, and then now that's also.

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You know, just show me that you can do it, or show me who you have done XYZ for, and then let's go try it together.

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Just, I love how it's.

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Everything is sort of atomizing into and for sure it's all experiential.

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Now, right on my man, yeah, totally.

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This will lead me into directly answering your question.

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But my daughter, freaking brilliant, right, she's been on this trek to head to Broadway musical theater for five years.

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She's 17 now and my two other kids are also heavily involved in musical theater.

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You just auditioned for AMDA, one of the most prestigious musical theater colleges in New York, right, and I went into this a little skeptical, you know, cause.

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I'm like wait, you're going to, you're going to go to school for this, because she wants to.

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She, she was talking about NYU as well.

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You know, maybe Juilliard, you know some of the more prestigious places, just like AMDA out there.

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And I'm like but why can't we just like get you an agent?

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You know, that was my thought, you know, because I mean, you've got the talent, you've got the ability.

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You know there's no doubting that.

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You know you're getting leads all over the place in private companies, that's, private theater companies around Chicago, which is the second city.

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Right, you know, there's none other better for musical theater than New York or Chicago.

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And seeing her abilities and she's like no, I want to do this because I still want to learn some more, I'm like, well, that's great.

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So, okay, let's go audition.

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And then, as I'm sitting there, they're starting to talk about this.

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They're like well, here's our program, you know, it's two years long for musical theater in New York.

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Then you can go to LA if you want to, but that's more so for film, but for you, for musical theater, our first three semesters, you know.

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So we're only talking a year and a half, right?

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Our first three semesters are traditional.

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You're at school during the day, right, and then you've got your nights free, you know, to do homework, whatever work, all of that, they said.

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But the last semester, the last semester, that's reversed.

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So you are going on auditions during the day.

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Five to twenty auditions per week.

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Nice, and their entire faculty is a working faculty.

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So they're in the industry, working in new york in musical theater and broadway productions.

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They said, you go to auditions during the day, then you go to class at night and you talk about your auditions, like that's it, I'm sold, I'm totally sold.

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That's application.

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Yeah, I love it.

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And you know, there's a woman that I saw recently who was starting a school that is using AI to teach the fundamentals and has had some amazing progress with the fact that basically, you've got the kids learning, uh, using ai coaches on ipads and and um, and it's two hours a day learning the fundamentals like reading and math and those sort of things, and the rest of the time is like doing projects and making stuff and like now I'm looking at and and the kids are scoring so much higher and they're doing really well because you're not wasting.

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But I feel like six hours a day just sort of slowly going through chapter by chapter and then saying stuff and repeating it back.

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Anyways, education, that's one that I can't wait until it sort of gets completely rewritten and I'm no joke, I'm with you, let's go through.

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Yeah, so what was your?

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So back to you, like what was your?

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What was your story?

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I'll circle this back to radio shack, when I was there and I you know, I just recognize this this year too, because it was uh dude, I know same.

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You know it was great.

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I love the there.

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I've always been into tech, but I always liked what tech could do rather than the tech itself, like the outcome that it would provide.

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And so when I was, I went from working at McDonald's to Radio Shack and I quickly moved to an assistant manager.

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And so, because I do M&A, I've got a public cybersecurity company.

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You know, I'm reading financial statements all day long, you know, with quarterly filings, annual filings, all that, and everyone's like how do you know all this stuff?

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Yeah, and I'm like, well, I've just been in a long time, but I traced it back to this just this year.

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I'm like, holy hell, that job really set me up, because their assistant manager program wasn't really just to give the manager a helping hand at the stores.

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Their assistant manager program the only reason it existed was to be able to groom you into being a manager, a store manager.

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So when I was an assistant, I was in managerial training classes where they taught me how to read P&Ls and balance sheets and work on profitability of the stores.

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Look at inventory levels, look at wage levels, labor dollars as a percentage of the total revenue of those stores, to keep things in line Because when you got promoted to a store manager're you had a base salary but then your only incentive, the only bonus, only commission that you got.

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Because as a salesperson you got a shit ton of commission.

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You know, I made 30 grand as a 17 year old during a december selling cell phones.

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I sold 300 cell phones and a 30 000 commission.

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Check a radio shack oh my gosh awesome.

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But as a manager you don't get that.

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As a manager, your only incentive slash, bonus and, if you want to call it a commission was based off of store profitability.

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That's it.

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That is it.

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You got a percentage of the store profitability.

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So of course, they invested in you and taught you how to read all these things and trained you on the job Literally things.

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And trained you on the job Literally.

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You would go and sit in class where they would walk through this stuff.

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They went through other things like different leadership tactics and all of that people, things but the financial side of it, the thing that actually made the company a success and you a success in managing that store, it was here you go as an assistant.

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We're training you Now go back to your store and work on this with the manager at that store.

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And it was just this back and forth, this ping pong of in a seat in front of a desk, then back to applying it literally the next day.

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Yeah, and that's how.

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Ever since then it's like that's been my life man.

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You know, even moving into a geek squad is the first geek squad agent in Chicago then writing the sales playbook for best buy for business, you know which then they eliminated that division.

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That's when I started, really kind of on my own, but I always had this thing.

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I was always trying to spin some stuff up.

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You know things that I always wanted recurring revenue, bro.

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Seriously, you know, even though I absolutely love and I still love it, you know we sign the big deals and we get funded up front for some things on this.

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It's like great, we just landed a million dollar deal, you know.

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Or like one of my sales people yesterday, you know, just closed a 250 000 deal, amazing, and it's like it's a it's it is amazing.

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You love those huge rushes.

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But then I take a look back at trying to manage and scale the business.

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I'm like I love recurring revenue because it's exactly what you can fall back to, even though growth, just like daily or weekly you go.

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Oh, that's all right, great, yeah, right on exactly, but now I'm trying to shift it a little bit too.

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It's like well, recurring revenue.

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What if we can make the big deals recurring you know to where, even though they might be one-time sales?

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But how do you fill the pipeline to that perspective, to where it's like clockwork every week, every two days, every day, to where this continues to come back, and I think I think some industries have very much figured that out, especially things like the gaming industry you know it's incredible because I mean they're buying tokens, whether it's on microsoft or you know, minecraft currency or whatever it is every single day to continue to advance the game.

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And that's not recurring revenue, dude.

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But you can still look at it as that because you can still forecast that depending on other metrics.

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But but Radio Shack, all the way, it taught me that stuff and sales, I always say, was taught at McDonald's and you want fries at that.

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The upsell.

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That's so funny when I have such similar.

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I started the day I turned 15.

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I started at Chick-fil-A.

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The owner lived down the street from me and I came in.

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I got my uniform.

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It was all crisp.

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It was kind of like it's got like all the seams on it.

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It's real stiff, but like I'm feeling pretty good.

00:16:51.871 --> 00:16:56.049
And they taught me the register and within about an hour I was like cool.

00:16:56.049 --> 00:16:57.639
I was like can I do drive through?

00:16:57.639 --> 00:17:07.005
And they were like well, I can you do some front, like some front count, like get, just do the front counter for a couple months and sort of get used to it.

00:17:07.025 --> 00:17:12.065
And I was like, yeah, I don't know, I got the, I got the, the register thing, but the headset, like that, looks cool.

00:17:12.065 --> 00:17:14.872
And they were like, just okay, okay, I want that look.

00:17:14.872 --> 00:17:20.623
And like later on, later on that day that the, the drive-thru person was like, oh my gosh, I just like I'm so done with this.

00:17:20.623 --> 00:17:21.443
I was like I'll take it.

00:17:21.443 --> 00:17:26.663
And so later that day, the, the manager, comes up and I'm like, yep, that sounds good.

00:17:26.663 --> 00:17:41.166
I was like I got the times down and I'm like I'm just like getting it and um, and I did that for a year and around late 16, early 17, um, the owner of the store quit and I was the only one that really knew how to do everything.

00:17:41.166 --> 00:17:44.729
And so I was like I don't know if it was legal, but like I was like hiring and I'm like, no, you go home, you get out.

00:17:44.729 --> 00:17:47.806
So I was like I don't know if it was legal, but like I was like hiring and I'm like, no, you go home, you get out.

00:17:47.846 --> 00:17:54.808
Here I was like while you were wearing the headset right like this is my source of power right here, yeah, but it was so different.

00:17:54.848 --> 00:18:00.952
I think I and that's the way I learned too is I couldn't, you couldn't have, you couldn't have done like pnl for me in a book.

00:18:00.952 --> 00:18:17.788
And I reply back, I do it back on a test the real life, gray, squishy, fungible, like you know, of a store, of a living breathing organism, of the employees that some are, some are not great and some one's a troublemaker, and I mean all those things.

00:18:17.788 --> 00:18:22.625
It's so different in the real world and that's what like for me.

00:18:22.625 --> 00:18:25.030
I really want to teach my boys is.

00:18:25.332 --> 00:18:26.441
I was talking to my son the other day.

00:18:26.441 --> 00:18:30.872
I was like, um, uh, he was asking me about money and jobs and those sort of things.

00:18:30.872 --> 00:18:35.580
I was like, oh no, you could, we can, we can get you a business and you can incorporate and you can have your business.

00:18:35.580 --> 00:18:38.128
What do you want to do and like?

00:18:38.128 --> 00:18:46.662
And the more we have this conversation and his mind expands, you do not need to wait until you're 18, until you're you got out of school and whatever.

00:18:46.662 --> 00:18:51.474
Like literally just go, let's go set up william llc right now.

00:18:51.474 --> 00:18:53.420
And he's, and he starts going.

00:18:53.740 --> 00:18:54.602
You know what I could do?

00:18:54.602 --> 00:18:59.512
I could like I could put the legos that I don't use anymore.

00:18:59.512 --> 00:19:00.013
What if I?

00:19:00.013 --> 00:19:03.905
What if I gave them to kids that don't have legos and maybe they want to buy them.

00:19:03.905 --> 00:19:07.550
Like, and you start seeing those wheels turning and you're like great buddy.

00:19:07.550 --> 00:19:18.371
I want you to have 20 of those that have either made it or have not made it by the time you get to 18, and then that is has been your education right on dude, I absolutely love that.

00:19:18.471 --> 00:19:20.941
It's the same reason I bring my kids around with what I'm doing every day.

00:19:20.941 --> 00:19:24.606
You know, like, like on my show, my son has been editing the podcast.

00:19:24.606 --> 00:19:29.214
You know, it's a top 2% global show, you know, and he's been editing it for three years in Adobe.

00:19:29.214 --> 00:19:39.661
You know, I started, of course, with a professional outside editors, branding agency and all that, but then it was like COVID hit and I was like, well, I'm not going to be traveling to Seattle anymore.

00:19:39.661 --> 00:19:42.930
I was literally there, like at the epicenter, when it all went down.

00:19:42.930 --> 00:19:44.251
You know, I there, like at the epicenter, when it all went down.

00:19:44.251 --> 00:19:45.652
You know, I was like, okay, we need to hurry up with our filming today.

00:19:45.652 --> 00:19:49.134
This was, you know, in 2020, because I don't know if I'm gonna get a flight out.

00:19:49.134 --> 00:19:57.067
Yeah, it was shutting down, you know it was so weird man, but but yeah, ever since then, I mean, he's been editing the show, learning how to do it, but it's throwing it.

00:19:57.067 --> 00:20:03.369
And so now he's thinking it's like, well, maybe I want to be a film producer and maybe I want to be a director, and and it's like, cool, how about I go make a movie?

00:20:03.369 --> 00:20:05.314
I'll go make a documentary about the lockdown.

00:20:05.314 --> 00:20:06.282
You know, and he came with.

00:20:06.282 --> 00:20:07.708
You know, that's amazing.

00:20:08.320 --> 00:20:12.372
You know, downtown San Francisco it's like zombie apocalypse no humans, no cars.

00:20:12.372 --> 00:20:15.604
And we're standing there in the middle of the city and then we go back up.

00:20:15.604 --> 00:20:17.730
It's like we're hungry, let's go get a burger.

00:20:17.730 --> 00:20:27.634
And it was like cur to pick it up was literally we walked up to the door to open the door to pick up our burger that we ordered over the phone like no, no, you have to go stand on the curb.

00:20:27.634 --> 00:20:29.395
This is in san francisco.

00:20:29.395 --> 00:20:37.183
But these experienced dude that you just just like your son, right with william llc, they're not going to get this unless they're shoved into it.

00:20:37.183 --> 00:20:43.814
And that is the heart, that is the fucking heart of entrepreneurship being shoved into it yeah, just just do.

00:20:43.854 --> 00:20:48.815
Just do it, and it doesn't matter, it's okay If it fails, if your first 10 businesses, if they don't make it, it's great.

00:20:48.815 --> 00:20:49.215
Guess what.

00:20:49.215 --> 00:20:53.990
You have come out of a fundamentally different person and you know what will work.

00:20:53.990 --> 00:21:00.112
And you also have the resiliency to always think, oh, I could, I could go do that, and I think you know.

00:21:00.112 --> 00:21:03.571
Anyways, I don't even really think about people always.

00:21:03.571 --> 00:21:04.536
You know, oh, where's.

00:21:04.536 --> 00:21:06.082
I thought of college and this.

00:21:06.082 --> 00:21:11.625
I have no idea and I'm not even really worried about it because I think one education is gonna be so different in 10 years.

00:21:12.226 --> 00:21:13.888
You know, um, for for him.

00:21:13.888 --> 00:21:16.902
But then also, I mean, take what we're doing now.

00:21:16.902 --> 00:21:35.307
Um, you know, I just interviewed, uh, ben huffins, uh, uh, who founded contra and contra's got 800 000 people on it now and and it's basically you can, you know, go sell out your services as a whatever and make up your own business, and you know, and so that's.

00:21:35.307 --> 00:21:37.748
I think I'm really excited about future work.

00:21:37.748 --> 00:21:43.645
But, like so, let you take your Radio Shack and Best Buy and Geek Squad, and then what was the like?

00:21:43.645 --> 00:21:50.963
When did that little earworm, that little idea, that little spark sort of set where you went?

00:21:50.963 --> 00:21:53.116
I think I'm going to set up my own thing.

00:21:53.638 --> 00:22:00.463
Yeah, man, I had done some web hosting stuff and I figured out that was fully saturated already back during the dot-com boom.

00:22:01.692 --> 00:22:03.137
I used to sell Cobalt Raxxers.

00:22:03.137 --> 00:22:07.596
I did and I made a healthy commission on Cobalt Raxxers.

00:22:07.615 --> 00:22:08.817
That's so cool.

00:22:08.817 --> 00:22:17.551
Yeah, I was in a state because my twins were born and this was right when Best Buy eliminated this division too.

00:22:17.551 --> 00:22:18.471
It's a story I tell over and over again.

00:22:18.471 --> 00:22:30.045
Where it's two weeks before my twins were born is when they started executing all these mass layoffs Best Buy for business and they'd offer me because I was at a regional level, they had offered me to be an assistant manager in one of the retail stores.

00:22:30.085 --> 00:22:31.465
I'm like that, that's not for me.

00:22:31.465 --> 00:22:36.994
I'm like look at everything I've been doing the past several years.

00:22:36.994 --> 00:22:40.910
But then, you know, at the time it was like just feeling confidence and like this is the time, like like there is nothing else.

00:22:40.910 --> 00:22:43.113
It's like everything else is changing right here, you know.

00:22:43.113 --> 00:22:46.498
And then at the time, talking with my wife, she's like, yeah, I think you should really do this.

00:22:46.498 --> 00:22:48.039
So she was a catalyst for that too.

00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:50.202
Yeah, and pushing me into that, you know.

00:22:50.202 --> 00:22:56.021
And then also, I had a great client, uh, who's still a client to this day and became a great friend and an investor in the company.

00:22:56.021 --> 00:22:59.157
Owns six Buffalo wild rings franchises around here.

00:22:59.157 --> 00:23:00.280
I serviced him with Geekspot.

00:23:00.300 --> 00:23:14.016
He's like you're just like my mechanic, my mechanic opened his own shop, you know, I remember, and said it's like you need to go out on your own and do this too, you know.

00:23:14.016 --> 00:23:16.948
So it was like the combination of uh, of the, just the environment around what was shaking down with my job, twins being born, the family shifting.

00:23:16.948 --> 00:23:22.855
You know, push from a spouse and also push from a customer that I'd worked with at the company before was just that was it.

00:23:22.855 --> 00:23:29.299
You know, and I've noticed too in my life, like there's things of threes, like when things happen in a period of threes, I pay attention.

00:23:29.299 --> 00:23:30.121
You know.

00:23:30.121 --> 00:23:33.473
So when that happened in just a couple of days and that I'm like, yep, this is it right here.

00:23:33.915 --> 00:23:37.470
And the first thing you did I'm a guess, yeah Is you bought a domain name.

00:23:38.652 --> 00:23:40.795
Absolutely I did, and this is a good point.

00:23:40.795 --> 00:23:47.442
Okay, this is a very good point, a good story here too, because you know speed beats perfect planning every time.

00:23:47.442 --> 00:23:50.271
You know so many get hung up on like the name or the.

00:23:50.271 --> 00:23:51.576
You know what the domain name should be.

00:23:51.576 --> 00:23:53.260
So I just started searching real quick.

00:23:53.260 --> 00:23:57.343
I'm like I need a domain name, you know, to have some kind of presence somewhere.

00:23:57.343 --> 00:23:59.270
And it's like, well, what am I going to name the company?

00:23:59.270 --> 00:24:00.593
I'm like, well, what am I going to do?

00:24:00.593 --> 00:24:03.016
I'm going to help businesses with their PCs.

00:24:03.016 --> 00:24:04.298
You know, that was what.

00:24:04.337 --> 00:24:07.862
What I was jumping into I'm like well, I need to start tomorrow because I need some income.

00:24:07.862 --> 00:24:08.423
So you know what it is.

00:24:08.423 --> 00:24:10.404
Businesspchelpcom.

00:24:10.885 --> 00:24:13.209
It's just like screw it.

00:24:13.209 --> 00:24:20.699
You know I'll, I'll, I'll rebrand at some point in time which, which I did you know about three years later, you know, when I actually founded reach out technology, you know which is.

00:24:20.699 --> 00:24:24.538
You know, for that there was a lot more thought and visionary stuff putting into it.

00:24:24.538 --> 00:24:25.700
Totally business.

00:24:25.700 --> 00:24:27.924
Pc helpcom was definitely.

00:24:27.924 --> 00:24:29.429
It's like I'm just getting started.

00:24:29.429 --> 00:24:30.592
I need to put food on my table.

00:24:30.592 --> 00:24:41.711
I got two new kids, family of two went to four overnights and I have no, no money in my bank account, you know, and foreclosure happening on the mortgage, all of that stuff.

00:24:41.711 --> 00:24:50.372
So it's like I just need some sort of identity that people can latch on to, and what's better than just saying this is what I do in your name?

00:24:50.392 --> 00:25:03.213
you know super straightforward uh and and and the people who probably wanted it, who weren't used to, some of those people who weren't used to sort of doing that, you know, or or as used to websites and and and that process.

00:25:03.213 --> 00:25:08.616
Something is super approachable and safe and straightforward is that is is perfect.

00:25:08.817 --> 00:25:10.227
I love that you got it, man.

00:25:10.227 --> 00:25:14.612
Another thing I learned during that time too I'm like I need people to be able to find me, so of course I'm going to starbucks.

00:25:14.612 --> 00:25:19.313
You know, that was my office for a while was just starbucks, back when totally I was thinking about this the other day.

00:25:19.313 --> 00:25:29.038
You know I chase squirrels too, but back then at starbucks I mean it used to be the case where you had, you know, porcelain mugs and you can go in there and just drink your drip coffee or your latte.

00:25:29.038 --> 00:25:31.262
They, they put the whipped cream on top for a mocha.

00:25:31.262 --> 00:25:32.644
You know, it was brilliant.

00:25:32.690 --> 00:25:34.074
That was my absolute first office.

00:25:34.074 --> 00:25:36.380
But then I'm like I need to be visual.

00:25:36.380 --> 00:25:37.371
People need to understand.

00:25:37.371 --> 00:25:42.550
Like when I'm pulling up, I'm pulling up to help them with their PCs at their business, you know.

00:25:42.550 --> 00:25:47.323
So I'm like, okay, I loved orange just because I came from Geek Squad, right, orange and black, you know.

00:25:47.323 --> 00:25:51.917
So I adopted that Again, not rocking science, it was just like I need something, you know.

00:25:51.917 --> 00:25:56.579
So we're just like this is how we're just going to go, because we've got to generate some revenue right now, got to generate some income.

00:25:57.411 --> 00:25:59.178
And I'm like, okay, I'm going to make sure I'm going to give.

00:25:59.178 --> 00:26:04.901
I want to double click on this, just so I know where you're gonna.

00:26:04.901 --> 00:26:08.222
You're gonna sort of have mobile visibility and cars and that sort of stuff.

00:26:08.222 --> 00:26:10.523
How like was it?

00:26:10.523 --> 00:26:18.607
You've got the domain, you started branding, you started helping people, you helped existing or past clients or family and friends and then sort of started to grow out.

00:26:18.607 --> 00:26:20.532
And that was it still just you.

00:26:20.532 --> 00:26:29.642
When we got to sort of the, the, the van or the car or the or the, the sort of marketing presence oh yeah still is still just primarily, you, still just me, literally just me.

00:26:29.990 --> 00:26:36.352
yeah, I might have used like some contractor field services things, you know, if I needed to have a big project or something.

00:26:36.352 --> 00:26:37.474
But still, just me.

00:26:37.474 --> 00:26:41.070
And with the car, you know, I'm like, okay, it's orange or everything.

00:26:41.070 --> 00:26:44.239
So I'm thinking it's like I had a saturn view, a 2004 saturn view.

00:26:44.239 --> 00:26:47.454
I was driving around, you know, it still looked great, it was only three years old.

00:26:47.454 --> 00:26:52.278
Yeah, I'm like, okay, I can wrap this thing, yeah, and then put a logo on the side.

00:26:52.278 --> 00:26:58.627
But then I saw, I saw a 2008 Saturn view driving down the road and it was orange.

00:26:59.328 --> 00:27:04.122
Yeah, it was this time period where GM was making orange vehicles, that's it.

00:27:04.122 --> 00:27:06.182
Why would I spend like five grand?

00:27:06.182 --> 00:27:10.205
You know that I don't have when I I see the vehicle there.

00:27:10.205 --> 00:27:16.538
So I went to the wrap place and he's like, well, yeah, if you just put the logo on the side and vinyl, we could do some stuff for like 700 bucks, you know.

00:27:16.538 --> 00:27:56.275
So I went in, traded my 2004 Saturn view for the brand new 2008 Saturn view that was bright orange, and then a customer that I landed, no-transcript, the truck, as they called it.

00:27:56.336 --> 00:27:59.711
I never saw this interview as a truck, you know, but it's pulled up in that.

00:27:59.992 --> 00:28:03.566
He's like oh yeah, he's like I saw I saw the truck the other day too.

00:28:03.566 --> 00:28:05.412
He's like you're all over like.

00:28:05.412 --> 00:28:09.119
I'm seeing I'm seeing your trucks plural all over the Like.

00:28:09.119 --> 00:28:11.826
I'm seeing I'm seeing your trucks plural all over the place.

00:28:11.826 --> 00:28:17.771
You know, you just kind of like blew up and in the back of my mind I'm just like that's me, bro, it's just one car.

00:28:17.811 --> 00:28:19.712
You didn't see anything.

00:28:20.093 --> 00:28:49.885
Right on, yeah, but one of the first things I did too, you know, when I said like using contractors, is especially in a, in a technical services company, I outsourced the menial day-to-day stuff from day one, which means I outsourced my help desk with Business PC Help that way, no matter where it was, because I recognized right away and this is so important that so many entrepreneurs forget, I don't care what industry you're in is that it is impossible for you to be out selling, servicing your customers and administrating the business all at the same time.

00:28:49.885 --> 00:28:59.558
So you can divide your time and put in more hours, or you can figure out how to scale right from the beginning, and the only way to do that is to section some of those things off.

00:28:59.558 --> 00:29:09.262
Maybe not all of those portions, but if you lay out what you want your company to look like is, if you were 30 times your size, where would you start to fill those things in?

00:29:09.262 --> 00:29:14.128
And one of the biggest ones was the day-to-day stuff is, if I can outsource the help desk, sure, they're like.

00:29:14.128 --> 00:29:14.971
Well, are those your people?

00:29:14.971 --> 00:29:30.046
I'm like I have a partner because I and even when it was just me, you know, literally I called him a partner because I'm like I have a partner that will work on all the tier one and tier two stuff, because I know that you need a response right away when something happens, and transparently.

00:29:30.046 --> 00:29:36.213
It's like right now the company is just me, but you're investing in our relationship, and even confidently.

00:29:36.253 --> 00:29:37.458
Another customer said this the other day.

00:29:37.458 --> 00:29:40.936
He's like 10 years ago, rick, you came in here and you said I can fix all this instantly.

00:29:40.936 --> 00:30:05.180
That's what you said and he goes and you did like you literally did you know, and I'm like I know, but if I didn't have the backing of some of these structural and infrastructure things in place right away which is also why, to start out with, I charged more than most one-man band companies because I, going back to radio shack, if, like, if I need to know my cost of goods sold, how much is it going to cost me to deliver these services?

00:30:05.180 --> 00:30:14.357
If it's me, I'm counting that like I'm counting me as an expense if I need to service my customers, which most entrepreneurs don't look at.

00:30:14.357 --> 00:30:21.655
They don't look at themselves as an expense to the company, and that's the only way to get out of your head, I believe, as an entrepreneur and look past it.

00:30:21.655 --> 00:30:26.394
It's something bigger than you is if you start to look at yourself as an expense to your company.

00:30:27.136 --> 00:30:29.604
Right, no, I think it's.

00:30:29.604 --> 00:30:31.730
I think it's it's right.

00:30:31.730 --> 00:30:59.920
You know, one of the things that I love doing is I do love doing the, the, the menial stuff, and like I want to be on the chats and I want some of it's hard, I'm sure, yeah, but I wanted, I want to do it for a period where I've done it, I've been it, but then when I can dump my brain into a Notion document or a Google Doc or Word Doc or whatever it is, and then say here, and then I need to drop it and I need to sort of pivot to something else.

00:31:00.121 --> 00:31:03.900
Totally with you, but I love that, and what you were saying about partners and contractors, I also think it's.

00:31:03.900 --> 00:31:17.750
I think people get worried that they're going to start sort of having other people in in the mix and and I'm developing a late relationship with my client and they want to know are you a big team or whatever I love to be like, look you're, you're investing in.

00:31:17.750 --> 00:31:33.921
If you trust me and and and my expertise and my taste and my like you know, um, and my operational skills to be able to both pick and manage whoever behind the scenes, so yeah, like that's, that's what you're picking, so we're not going to get into.

00:31:33.921 --> 00:31:41.278
You know, I remember you know working at big consultancies it's always sort of, I want to see the resumes and we'll see how long they've been there and I want to.

00:31:41.278 --> 00:31:42.951
You know, let's do all the trust stuff.

00:31:42.951 --> 00:31:45.894
Nope, like that's not how I play the orchestra.

00:31:46.496 --> 00:31:46.875
Bingo.

00:31:46.875 --> 00:31:48.678
Someone just gave me that analogy the other day.

00:31:48.678 --> 00:31:51.080
That was Steve Jobs, right From one of the Jobs movies.

00:31:51.080 --> 00:31:53.824
Yeah, exactly, like you play the instrument, I play the orchestra.

00:31:53.824 --> 00:31:56.550
Yeah, exactly, I love it, man.

00:31:56.570 --> 00:31:57.473
So where did it like?

00:31:57.473 --> 00:31:59.618
When did it start to pivot though?

00:31:59.618 --> 00:32:09.039
When you were, when it was just you and you sort of had your contractor partner orchestra, when did it start to to sort of pivot into, into other things or or sort of growing?

00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:23.049
yeah, it shifted when I founded reach out and that was that was moving myself into a different phase of life too, because going from business pc help where it was literally just me founding reach out, and it was about six months into reach out where I hired my first employee, who actually was somebody.

00:32:23.049 --> 00:32:30.051
I worked with the geek squad of best buy and as I was promoted at best buy r Ryan is his name I would always recommend him as my replacement.

00:32:30.051 --> 00:32:35.496
You know, whenever I would, I would step up, I would bring him up with me, you know, and train him on what I was doing so already.

00:32:35.615 --> 00:32:36.679
A great working relationship.

00:32:36.679 --> 00:32:37.480
I know a lot of people.

00:32:37.480 --> 00:32:40.093
You know they hire their friends right when they start the business too.

00:32:40.093 --> 00:32:43.317
But from the from the get go, it was like like here's the vision.

00:32:43.317 --> 00:32:46.760
It's like we're buddies and we can both do this really, really well.

00:32:46.760 --> 00:32:59.498
But there's a set direction that we're going to go on this and it's to scale, it's to provide income for a lot of other people, because I'm not looking at just us, because even in that conversation it's like you're an expense, I'm an expense.

00:32:59.498 --> 00:33:07.156
So if we're going to grow this and make some money to where we both have a decent living wage, then we absolutely need to continue to look on this that way.

00:33:07.156 --> 00:33:10.826
But let's go after some customers that you worked with, customers that I worked with, you know.

00:33:10.826 --> 00:33:21.230
So it was a lot of sales focused and from the beginning, he always focused on the sales or the service aspect, and I would be on the sales aspect, even though I would still be, you know, crawling under desks, working on servers.

00:33:21.230 --> 00:33:23.173
You know all of that from from the beginning.

00:33:23.633 --> 00:33:26.596
It really took about three years or so to where it was 2013.

00:33:26.596 --> 00:33:30.080
I'm like you know what I'm going to let all my certifications expire.

00:33:30.080 --> 00:33:42.380
I'm just going to completely focus on growing and scaling now at this point, because I found out that still, I knew I was really good at it, you know, and going all the way back to Geek Squad, even all the way back to McDonald's and Geek Squad.

00:33:42.380 --> 00:33:48.441
They were like you're one of the seven testers, rick, why are your per ticket averages three times higher than the other six?

00:33:48.441 --> 00:33:51.275
And I would ask did you ever work at McDonald's?

00:33:51.275 --> 00:33:53.060
Well, no, have you ever been to McDonald's?

00:33:53.060 --> 00:33:54.854
Well, of course, I mean Best Buy Corp.

00:33:54.854 --> 00:34:00.196
Everybody's kind of large, so it's like you've had the quarter pounders right If you walk in there like can.

00:34:00.217 --> 00:34:13.913
I order a quarter pounder or Big Mac, even if it's a value meal, what do they ask you?

00:34:13.913 --> 00:34:15.759
Well, if you order the sandwich by itself, you want a coke with that, you want fries with that.

00:34:15.759 --> 00:34:16.440
If you order the meal, do you want?

00:34:16.440 --> 00:34:16.983
You want to supersize that?

00:34:16.983 --> 00:34:18.708
If you order a straight up supersized meal, I want a number two, supersized with a coke.

00:34:18.708 --> 00:34:20.432
They're still going to ask you do you want an apple pie?

00:34:21.153 --> 00:34:21.956
oh, the apple pie.

00:34:21.956 --> 00:34:27.773
That's it, that's right the apple pie, yeah, I can all literally know that's what their whole thing is.

00:34:27.773 --> 00:34:37.166
But but like I can, literally in my mind, I can both the crunch and the texture of that apple pie as a kid was just like.

00:34:37.409 --> 00:34:38.835
And the burning of your tongue too.

00:34:38.934 --> 00:34:47.338
Right, yeah, exactly yeah, because the outside is like is sort of normal room temperature and the inside is made of molten lava and so it's really hard to like.

00:34:47.338 --> 00:34:48.222
That's great.

00:34:48.222 --> 00:34:48.885
So even throughout the sales.

00:34:48.905 --> 00:34:49.547
That's to like yeah, that's great.

00:34:49.547 --> 00:34:53.840
So I mean, even throughout the you know sales, that's it, and that's how I try to still teach and coach sales too.

00:34:53.840 --> 00:35:00.094
You know, and, and someone can I can't remember who it was I was coaching them, but they're like, I don't want to seem pushy on something like this.

00:35:00.094 --> 00:35:04.251
You know, if I call once a day, twice a day or it was, uh, oh, it's my barber, that's right.

00:35:04.251 --> 00:35:07.237
That was just this week with my haircut my, my barber, because I was talking to him.

00:35:07.237 --> 00:35:07.960
I'm like you know what?

00:35:07.960 --> 00:35:11.635
I've been coming to you for six years, bro, and we talk business all the time.

00:35:11.635 --> 00:35:13.315
You know I've been coming to you for six years.

00:35:13.315 --> 00:35:23.961
I'm like I sit over there in the seat waiting for your chair to become available for my appointments and not once have I ever seen you offer product that you have on that shelf behind you.

00:35:23.961 --> 00:35:25.204
Not a single time.

00:35:25.204 --> 00:35:28.184
And I know I haven't been asked about that either.

00:35:28.626 --> 00:35:30.527
He's like oh man, you know I came from a store.

00:35:30.527 --> 00:35:38.056
You know a shop in the city, cause we're outside the city of Chicago, in the suburbs, and that's why he's so good, cause he worked as a barber in the city for so long.

00:35:38.056 --> 00:35:49.429
Yeah, but he's like yeah, you know, every single time he's like you know what they would do, is it is?

00:35:49.429 --> 00:35:51.737
They would walk up, he's like, as soon as they would finish cutting your hair.

00:35:51.737 --> 00:35:56.657
They would go grab three things of product and say this is what I used on your hair today, and just ring them up and he's like, and just leave you to say no.

00:35:56.717 --> 00:35:58.427
I said, bro, you know what that's called, right?

00:35:58.427 --> 00:35:59.291
He's like what are you talking?

00:35:59.291 --> 00:36:00.293
He's like I thought that was put like.

00:36:00.293 --> 00:36:01.858
That's called the assumptive sale.

00:36:01.858 --> 00:36:09.880
Man, that's it, it's the assumptive sale, you know, right, you leave the opportunity for the person to say no, I'm like, is that a little over the top?

00:36:09.880 --> 00:36:12.403
You know, if they didn't say like, oh, do you want this?

00:36:12.403 --> 00:36:13.590
You know, after it's there, it's like.

00:36:13.590 --> 00:36:20.782
It's like, well, they would ring them up for the haircut and all of a sudden, it's like 78 dollars, you know, or whatever, and he's like I don't want to do that.

00:36:20.822 --> 00:36:26.297
20 of the people to be like, yeah, all right, exactly, that's exactly it, yeah, and I'm like.

00:36:26.398 --> 00:36:29.324
Okay, I'm like, but there's so many dollars to be made.

00:36:29.324 --> 00:36:30.695
Those are high margin products.

00:36:30.695 --> 00:36:33.579
I'm like, because you're talking about growing and adding on another person.

00:36:33.579 --> 00:36:41.202
You've got somebody who's there already and we're having the scaling conversation about a barbershop, you know, and how he does a rev share model with them.

00:36:41.202 --> 00:36:53.514
No-transcript, have so much.

00:36:53.514 --> 00:36:55.773
I'm like, dude, tell her to fucking sell product.

00:36:56.295 --> 00:36:59.695
I'm like that's like the low hanging fruit, like yeah, but we don't seem to push them.

00:36:59.695 --> 00:37:13.322
Like I think you're doing people a disservice if you're not telling them what you're using on their hair, because the way that you use that and the way that everyone's hair looks walking out of the shop is incredible and everyone's like how do I do that at home?

00:37:14.304 --> 00:37:15.757
there's a difference, though that I think.

00:37:15.757 --> 00:37:24.882
I think one of the things I learned when you know you know where I sold the cobalt rack servers was interland, oh um, and which turned into webcom.

00:37:24.882 --> 00:37:29.278
But I was at interland and I basically watched all of the.

00:37:29.278 --> 00:37:47.315
We had a football field sized sales force there, which, when the dot-com boom bust, there were about six of us after that, but there was like just this entire floor of people and it was very it felt like boiler room and everyone's watching numbers and all that sort of stuff.

00:37:47.315 --> 00:38:01.094
But I found my groove there and all I did was I just relaxed, though, and I would hear a dog in the background and I would be like is that a dog barking, and the vet would be like, yes, and I'm like, what kind of dog is it?

00:38:01.451 --> 00:38:04.480
And all of a sudden we're just talking about her dog.

00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:15.257
And then, when it comes back to the conversation about web hosting, it has flipped and now it's like so what kind do you think I should get?

00:38:15.659 --> 00:38:19.536
like right on dude you know what I mean and it's so, and so I think it's one of those.

00:38:19.536 --> 00:38:35.420
Also, that is not sort of feeling I shouldn't be pushing this, but it's finding your own groove to personally like, if this is what you're passionate about is, is your hair needs to look great, is like okay, I'm going to tell you this, use whatever you want to.

00:38:35.942 --> 00:38:54.942
But, what I used was and I'll tell you why like is find your own story, to sort of get in and be passionate about it, versus, if you're passionate about it and you're also doing a service that you're like, I want you to look great and I'm telling you I've looked at this many products.

00:38:54.942 --> 00:38:57.516
I'm telling you why this one's the best or whatever it is.

00:38:57.516 --> 00:38:58.599
It's not pushy.

00:38:58.599 --> 00:39:03.581
What's pushy is if I just cut your hair and say, well, I hope you have a great weekend, by the way, buy this.

00:39:03.581 --> 00:39:05.922
You know what I mean.

00:39:06.222 --> 00:39:28.746
It is pushy, but there's that way where you can actually, as a consultative, passionate person about what it is that you do, you can find a way to sort of, you know, be that trusted, uh, was, was.

00:39:28.746 --> 00:39:36.068
It wasn't about sort of doing the script and hitting all the bullet points and, like you know, I'm gonna shut down your you know whatever.

00:39:36.068 --> 00:39:45.701
What I found was that that sort of like, you know, friendly, trusted advisor, um, and it was stuff that I was because I was super excited about like totally websites and web hosting right on.

00:39:45.742 --> 00:39:50.119
Yeah, I got excited about cell phones and I told him that story too, like the thirty thousand dollar commission check.

00:39:50.119 --> 00:39:51.512
I'm like, dude, you know how I sold all that.

00:39:51.512 --> 00:39:53.460
He's like at 17, you got 30 grand.

00:39:53.460 --> 00:40:06.990
I'm like, yeah, everybody who walked up to the radio check counter because back then it was always like three-year contracts yeah, and you got, I remember, packages, you know, for like 50 bucks a month you got 30 daytime minutes and 300 night and weekend minutes.

00:40:07.010 --> 00:40:09.947
I remember counting those phones, and I mean those minutes, and by night and weekend minutes, oh my God, I remember counting those phones Totally.

00:40:09.947 --> 00:40:10.469
I mean those minutes.

00:40:10.469 --> 00:40:12.514
And, by the way, best phone?

00:40:12.514 --> 00:40:25.742
Well, okay, two best phones the Nokia that fit in your little change pocket in your jeans Yep, I had an orange one and that's the only thing I've ever used that pocket for is that little Nokia, and that was my favorite.

00:40:25.742 --> 00:40:30.914
And then the first Razr Flip oh, totally, it was like the metal one that was like.

00:40:30.914 --> 00:40:35.072
So, like, those are my two favorite cell phones ever, absolutely man with you.

00:40:35.494 --> 00:40:37.063
But we would sell cell phones for a penny.

00:40:37.063 --> 00:40:41.505
I'd be like if they were buying batteries, I'd be like you want a cell phone for a penny to go with that?

00:40:41.505 --> 00:40:43.451
You know if they're buying cell phone batteries.

00:40:43.451 --> 00:40:51.820
But it was like literally every single customer who walked up they could have been buying a TV, you know, or some of them buying a resistor, you know, a capacitor, radio.

00:40:51.820 --> 00:40:54.324
It's like, do you want a cell phone to go with that 79 cent capacitor?

00:40:54.324 --> 00:40:56.346
Yeah, they're like what I'm like.

00:40:56.365 --> 00:40:57.708
Well, let me tell you what's going on here.

00:40:57.708 --> 00:40:58.929
It's like do you have any needs for this?

00:40:58.929 --> 00:41:05.155
And then consultative, it's like I see you.

00:41:05.155 --> 00:41:08.480
It's like my dad died three years ago when I was talking about that.

00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:15.614
It's like my mom has a bag phone right and then went to a cell phone in her car at all times just for emergency purposes and you know what?

00:41:15.614 --> 00:41:17.197
Just had to use that once or twice.

00:41:17.197 --> 00:41:18.360
Yeah, it's a.

00:41:18.360 --> 00:41:26.556
It's like there's a real deal here, you know, or you can use it like I do, you know, because I use mine all the time, right, I'm a teenager, you know I'm blazing trails.

00:41:26.556 --> 00:41:28.601
You can use it all whatever you want, but whatever your needs are.

00:41:28.601 --> 00:41:29.603
Does that sound like it would fit?

00:41:29.603 --> 00:41:31.186
But they're like it's really only a penny.

00:41:31.186 --> 00:41:35.197
But to my barber, you know, I'm like maybe baby steps man.

00:41:35.197 --> 00:41:39.833
Yeah, it's like why don't you take three of your highest margin products?

00:41:39.853 --> 00:41:51.237
you know, just maybe some of the paste, maybe a hairspray, you know, maybe maybe something one other thing, set it on the counter totally and set it out, or I'll give you a deal on this one, like every, like three weeks.

00:41:51.237 --> 00:41:55.755
Do you know what the, the, the cd club?

00:41:56.335 --> 00:41:58.121
oh yeah, I remember that I did that.

00:41:58.161 --> 00:42:05.360
Yes, you got 10 cds for one free cd, like you get one free cd and you can get three more for a penny or for a dollar or whatever.

00:42:05.360 --> 00:42:09.617
And you're like oh my gosh, now I'm hooked and like dude, I totally did that.

00:42:09.737 --> 00:42:17.869
I even I remember I was maybe 18, I think I got a collection notice for that cd club once oh yeah because it's kind of what we've done.

00:42:17.869 --> 00:42:19.318
How do I shut this off?

00:42:19.318 --> 00:42:22.134
How do I turn off the subscription totally?

00:42:23.036 --> 00:42:24.079
so what was like so?

00:42:24.079 --> 00:42:28.313
So then you started, you started sort of you hired your first employee and then what was?

00:42:28.313 --> 00:42:28.795
How did?

00:42:28.795 --> 00:42:29.780
How did the next like?

00:42:29.780 --> 00:42:30.905
What was that year like?

00:42:31.286 --> 00:42:41.106
yeah, it was a division of labor, but it was introducing him to all the customers, being like this is your point of contact, don't worry, I'm still around, of course, but we places, you know, it was totally unapologetic.

00:42:41.106 --> 00:42:46.880
It's like I still want to be able to provide better service for me today, today, than you know two years ago.

00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:50.403
Just like two years from now, I want to be able to provide better service than today.

00:42:50.403 --> 00:42:52.010
And they understood that.

00:42:52.010 --> 00:43:06.547
You know, because when it was just a simple message, dude, it's gotta be simple, just like business, pc help, right, you know, simplify the message and make sure that you're able to articulate the value in what you're talking about as well and what you're servicing, what you're providing your product.

00:43:06.568 --> 00:43:08.632
So anytime you scale, there is unrest.

00:43:08.632 --> 00:43:16.181
I mean, now that I acquire companies, it's like I'm still learning, uh, straight up, I am still learning on the right messaging when we take over a customer list.

00:43:16.181 --> 00:43:19.570
You know, because in this industry you know and like a lot.

00:43:19.570 --> 00:43:24.280
It's like, as you said it as well, there's a lot of tie to that original individual.00:43:24.280 --> 00:43:25.530


You know so.00:43:25.530 --> 00:43:28.737


But at the same time I see that we need to rip off the bandaid.00:43:28.737 --> 00:43:30.871


But in that ripping off the bandaid.00:43:30.871 --> 00:43:33.795


It's articulating the value and then people will come right along with you.00:43:33.795 --> 00:43:41.894


And it doesn't have to be complex, it's just we want to be able to provide more value to you three years from now than what we can currently provide today.00:43:41.894 --> 00:43:46.054


And everything's great today, but this is how we continue down that good, positive route.00:43:46.416 --> 00:43:52.277


Amazing, just kept selling, came up with better ways to package things, came up with other industry disrupting things.00:43:52.277 --> 00:43:55.753


You know, back then it was like again recurring revenue.00:43:55.753 --> 00:44:00.322


I loved hardware as a service because I hated having to resell things.00:44:00.322 --> 00:44:03.184


I mean, in this industry, like any industry, it's like we take these phones right.00:44:03.184 --> 00:44:04.931


This is an iphone 16 pro.00:44:04.931 --> 00:44:12.826


I get a new one every single year, you know, and it's just because it's sure I'm in tech, whatever, but most people get new phones every two or three years, you know.00:44:12.826 --> 00:44:14.231


And these phones aren't cheap, bro.00:44:14.271 --> 00:44:28.121


This thing's like 1600 bucks for this model you know, I still get one about every seven and a half months like I just can't not I just can't like not understand where we're going and where we're at and what's like oh yeah but even for businesses.00:44:28.181 --> 00:44:33.519


It's like businesses, they, they have their computers, but then they're like no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stretch this out seven, eight years.00:44:33.519 --> 00:44:34.291


I'm like are you kidding?00:44:34.291 --> 00:44:46.161


That thing in your pocket is the same price as that computer right there and you're replacing this every seven months, like you're saying, like these things have a shelf life for reliability and that's why we need to replace it.00:44:46.161 --> 00:44:51.721


So it's been three years and that conversation was just stupid to me, trying to resell this stuff every three years.00:44:51.721 --> 00:44:54.275


Like what if we put this on a subscription?00:44:54.275 --> 00:44:56.121


Yeah, yeah, and that's a.00:44:56.121 --> 00:45:00.452


So we came up with this concept.00:45:00.452 --> 00:45:08.414


You know, I shouldn't say we came up with it, but we adopted and hit it hardcore hardware as a service, like sure your computers, you know 59 a month, that's it right you know you're signing.00:45:08.434 --> 00:45:14.481


Just outsource that part of your brain when you have to think about purchasing and setting up and configuring and then one goes out.00:45:14.481 --> 00:45:18.016


One needs to be serviced once, it needs to be swapped out, like all of that.00:45:18.016 --> 00:45:22.023


You're basically saying like, let me just take that, that on bingo, that's exactly it.00:45:22.063 --> 00:45:23.751


They're like well, what if I want to own stuff?00:45:23.751 --> 00:45:29.911


You know, like, why would you want to own an asset that is worth nothing at the end of three years?00:45:29.911 --> 00:45:35.994


It's like because we bring those back and we donate them, like to salvation army, other non-profits.00:45:35.994 --> 00:45:37.717


You know, because it's our equipment that we're renting.00:45:37.717 --> 00:45:39.802


Because they would ask, like, what do you do with them?00:45:39.802 --> 00:45:43.853


Like we give them away because they're not worth any monetary value at the end of three years.00:45:43.853 --> 00:45:46.601


It's not even an asset you can carry on your balance sheet.00:45:46.601 --> 00:45:51.842


You know as something that that that will increase the value of your company if you're looking to sell it.00:45:51.842 --> 00:45:55.876


Like, right, you own your data, you don't need to own the computer.00:45:56.518 --> 00:46:00.911


Yep totally, and all the hours that I imagine that people go through.00:46:00.911 --> 00:46:01.472


You know what I mean.00:46:01.472 --> 00:46:12.860


Even even around that, uh, from from setup to configuration, to keeping it updated and safe and and and all those pieces when it's removing barriers man so this is your main core focus.00:46:12.900 --> 00:46:14.606


This is what you've grown over the years.00:46:14.606 --> 00:46:16.775


When did you also start to branch out?00:46:16.775 --> 00:46:27.047


When I look at between you know books and podcasts and like everything else, was this because of and for the central business or was it?00:46:27.047 --> 00:46:27.969


Was it more?00:46:27.969 --> 00:46:37.157


You know out to diversifying yourself, or you know what was the, what was the, the moment and also the reasoning behind sort of becoming the ecosystem that you have now.00:46:37.559 --> 00:46:43.855


Yeah, there was two big reasons and they happened really at the same time, within a span of a couple months, for each other, and that was 2015.00:46:43.855 --> 00:46:48.231


I, uh, I had, I was very, very comfortable with the income that I was bringing home.00:46:48.231 --> 00:46:54.615


You know it's called a lifestyle business, right, you're able to fund all of your personal expenses, you're able to invest a little bit.00:46:54.615 --> 00:46:57.561


You know you're able to make sure you're providing a good life for your family.00:46:57.561 --> 00:47:02.152


All of that is a lifestyle business, able to take some trips that you want to, but there's nothing over the top.00:47:02.152 --> 00:47:06.992


You know, it's like, cool, we're comfortable, and that was the toxic word was comfortability too.00:47:06.992 --> 00:47:10.159


But then I had, uh, two, two major things.00:47:10.719 --> 00:47:15.358


I'm also a creative, right, I've been a musician forever, helped plant three churches around chicago.00:47:15.458 --> 00:47:20.460


I was always managing part of the business of the church and then also the front man for the band.00:47:20.621 --> 00:47:40.465


Right, I've done shows, you know, with these super bands around Chicago, you know, in front of 5,000 people, and it's just, I could have been a musician if I wanted to, you know, but I chose to be semi-pro because I also wanted to help people and that's the whole reason I was ever involved in, like, the church scene and also when they wanted to bring me on staff like we're gonna pay you six figures, I'm like I don't want it.00:47:41.106 --> 00:47:55.695


You know, I want to still have my business over here and I want to be, quite honestly, a little bit of a rebel because I don't want to be encumbered by the financials of the people that are donating to pay my salary for me, to give them the best life advice you know to where that's in my.00:47:55.695 --> 00:47:56.797


I don't care what anybody tells you.00:47:56.797 --> 00:47:59.041


It's like a pastor will always have that in mind.00:47:59.041 --> 00:48:02.773


It's like what's the current donations to the church or a non-profit, an executive director?00:48:02.773 --> 00:48:15.617


It's like we don't want to ruffle too many feathers because it's a natural human thing, because this is supporting the livelihood of this organization, if it's a non-profit or a church or whatever you know so at least on smaller side churches, which is kind of where we started.00:48:15.637 --> 00:48:20.824


So I'm like I don't want to have that tie, you know, because I want to be able to be authentic and real with people.00:48:20.824 --> 00:48:24.155


So if they come to me and like, oh, you know what, you know, it was pastor rick.00:48:24.155 --> 00:48:32.811


Right, pastor rick, you know, I lost my job and I just can't seem to to find another job or whatever it is, and I'd be like dude taco bell's hiring down the street.00:48:32.811 --> 00:48:34.193


You got kids to feed.00:48:34.193 --> 00:48:36.717


You know, hurry up, or they're gonna go hire somebody else.00:48:36.717 --> 00:48:39.742


You know, right, maybe not that crass, but that's actually a bit I use.00:48:39.742 --> 00:48:45.378


When I did stand-up comedy on broadway too, I did, I did it's like you're you're gonna have that part.00:48:45.398 --> 00:48:48.271


So too, by the way, because I want to hear all the lives.00:48:48.271 --> 00:48:49.112


I want to hear.00:48:49.112 --> 00:48:53.382


You know, I love it, but it's 100 lives right on.00:48:53.543 --> 00:49:00.052


So the 2015, that's when I stepped out of ministry if you could call it that, you know, because I was bivocational.00:49:00.052 --> 00:49:05.934


Really I was bivocational and there was reasoning behind that is because I kept seeing some similar patterns in church.00:49:05.934 --> 00:49:08.561


I'm like this isn't my form anymore, you know.00:49:08.561 --> 00:49:13.981


And so one, it was like the music was kind of cut off my creative, my creative side, you know.00:49:13.981 --> 00:49:18.277


So it was like, well, I also speak, you know, that's great because I would always fill in for pastors here and there.00:49:18.277 --> 00:49:22.523


People would always lean in, you know, get a lot out of whatever I was talking about.00:49:22.523 --> 00:49:27.862


And also, that same year is when I had my health issues with my gallbladder.00:49:29.271 --> 00:49:37.197


Coming out of that, it was two big shifts in my life in the very same year and out of that I'm like well, I don't want to go back to that, you know because?00:49:37.197 --> 00:49:45.980


Then I started reflecting, because I mean 45 minute robotic surgery turned into three and a half hours by hand, which with me almost not making it for a gangrenous gallbladder.00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:47.182


I'm like, well, that's it.00:49:47.182 --> 00:50:00.103


It's like, even though I had no idea what was going on during the surgery, right, the eight months prior was living hell because nobody could figure out what was wrong with me for eight months until I ended up emergency in the hospital and going through.00:50:00.103 --> 00:50:02.106


I'm like something can happen at any point.00:50:02.106 --> 00:50:08.882


It was very real to me and it's not focusing on it is totally not focusing on the possibility of death.00:50:08.882 --> 00:50:18.340


It is focusing on the abundant life that I still have ahead of me and how I'm going to utilize that and have a purpose to fulfill with that.00:50:18.340 --> 00:50:20.670


It's like then it's balls to the wall.00:50:20.670 --> 00:50:23.465


It's like I need to be creative, like I'm gonna get out there.00:50:23.465 --> 00:50:24.670


I'm gonna see what's available to me.00:50:24.670 --> 00:50:25.793


Sky's the limit.00:50:25.793 --> 00:50:27.817


I don't care how stupid it sounds.00:50:28.197 --> 00:50:29.440


Yeah take chances.00:50:29.440 --> 00:50:32.092


Exactly right speed and take chances bingo.00:50:32.172 --> 00:50:35.561


So I I joined a mastermind within my industry and I was there for a year.00:50:35.561 --> 00:50:41.231


But this I would always see this in any group is where they'd be like hey, rick, you know, I think you should be the leader of the small group in this thing.00:50:41.231 --> 00:50:47.699


I'm like I don't want it, but okay, and the reason it's just because I could put two words together, you know beyond anybody else like, like cool.00:50:47.699 --> 00:50:48.380


So I did that for a year.00:50:48.380 --> 00:50:49.521


I'm like this isn't serving me.00:50:49.521 --> 00:50:50.782


It's great that everybody grew.00:50:50.782 --> 00:50:52.802


You know what's my next?00:50:52.802 --> 00:50:55.704


This thing, because I'd already done.00:50:55.704 --> 00:50:59.244


I'd been on so many stages already, man playing in front of thousands of people.00:50:59.344 --> 00:51:20.572


I was used to being in the spotlight, so to speak, and I loved seeing the emotional change in people, even though it was within a church, setting to a point to where they felt better about themselves and in a, in a position to where, whether it was spiritual or not, more motivated to go and attack life and just change something meaningful and do something meaningful with their life.00:51:20.572 --> 00:51:22.456


And that's what I love seeing it's.00:51:22.456 --> 00:51:24.480


It's intoxicating for me, man.00:51:24.480 --> 00:51:27.034


And so I found this dude.00:51:27.034 --> 00:51:28.940


I was walking and I just saw these banners.00:51:29.302 --> 00:51:32.813


His name's Clint Arthur and he does media training right.00:51:32.813 --> 00:51:35.570


He still has this thing called guaranteed celebrity that he does to this day.00:51:35.570 --> 00:51:39.751


He's now a great friend of mine and you you pay to be a part of this thing.00:51:39.751 --> 00:51:44.280


He does media training for tv and then he puts you on tv.00:51:44.280 --> 00:51:46.072


He allows you to pitch producers.00:51:46.072 --> 00:51:53.739


It's like speed pitching for two days, two days of training, two days of speed pitching, you know, and I get on like six out of 12 shows in the first one.00:51:53.739 --> 00:51:55.181


The second one I do with him.00:51:55.181 --> 00:51:59.096


I get on all 12 out of 12 shows you, you know, invited to be on TV.00:51:59.516 --> 00:52:09.231


The first time I was pretty pissed at myself, but I'm like only six, you know, and he's like yeah, he's like that's, that's pretty good, that's 50%.00:52:09.251 --> 00:52:10.793


I'm like, yeah, but I'm noticing like this, like it was humbling too.00:52:10.793 --> 00:52:25.461


I'm like I've been speaking for so long but I saw, like on stage and and being a performer, I'm like this is a different skill set, translating this into this setting in front of a camera, and I had to bridge that in my mind, which I did over courses of time and experience.00:52:25.461 --> 00:52:37.085


Now I've done almost 300 TV appearances on my nationwide TV, but the very first speaking event I did also with this program, which I will say this to the day that I die I just talked at the Sport Philanthropy Conference on speaking for success.00:52:37.085 --> 00:52:37.666


I'm like where you start.00:52:37.666 --> 00:52:38.728


I'm speaking for success.00:52:38.728 --> 00:52:40.594


Right, I'm like where you start.00:52:40.594 --> 00:52:51.463


I am a full advocate of paying to speak because when you first thought you will not be thought out, you will not be offered $25,000 to come and do a keynotes.00:52:51.463 --> 00:52:59.302


What you need to do is you need to pay to be on that stage because there's an ROI involved in something like that and get your reps Bingo.00:52:59.302 --> 00:53:03.079


Exactly, the very first event I did was an entrepreneur event with him.00:53:03.079 --> 00:53:05.918


I paid like $2,500 to do it.00:53:05.918 --> 00:53:09.929


My face went on the Jumbotron in Times Square, the NASDAQ Jumbotron.00:53:09.929 --> 00:53:18.284


I spoke in the NASDAQ boardroom, which they gave a video of your talk and photos of you professional photos.00:53:18.284 --> 00:53:19.873


You're in front of the jumbotron.00:53:19.873 --> 00:53:22.661


I mean imagine like the branding and marketing with this right Totally.00:53:23.050 --> 00:53:36.277


But then three years later, dude cause that was 2018, three years later, somebody that I met at another group that I was a part of was interested in doing regulation, a public offerings, and getting into that a business funding specialist, you know and he started looking around.00:53:36.277 --> 00:53:37.358


So the phone call with me.00:53:37.358 --> 00:53:43.012


He called me and he's like I've been looking at three different people and I think that you're the one that I want to do this with.00:53:43.012 --> 00:53:44.697


Have you ever thought about going public?00:53:44.697 --> 00:53:45.880


And I'm like, nope, never have.00:53:45.880 --> 00:53:48.556


And he's like, well, what would you do with the money?00:53:48.556 --> 00:53:55.601


I said, well, that's easy, I'd use it to acquire other companies because I want to scale this and you know, I knew this was right.00:53:55.621 --> 00:54:07.661


But the thing that took me over the edge, dude, is, as I Googled you, because I had started my podcast two years earlier, in 2019, started getting a social presence out there he's like the first photo that came up was you talking in the NASDAQ boardroom.00:54:07.661 --> 00:54:12.514


And I'm like, well, yeah, he's like, what was that about?00:54:12.514 --> 00:54:15.318


I'm like, well, I told him it's like it was a pay to speak event.00:54:15.318 --> 00:54:16.360


It was in front of entrepreneurs.00:54:16.360 --> 00:54:17.621


I did get business out of it.00:54:17.621 --> 00:54:23.865


That was the ROI, the immediate ROI, you know where it is paying to be there on that stage in front of other entrepreneurs in so many industries.00:54:23.865 --> 00:54:28.920


But then that was like that was the moment where it was balls to the wall was in 2018.00:54:28.920 --> 00:54:38.179


After I gathered some information, like I'm just going to go out, and then I started saying, whatever comes my way, I'm just going to say yes to it, because if I've never experienced it before, I'm just going to do it.00:54:38.539 --> 00:54:41.324


You know if it sucks, it sucks and I'll never do it again.00:54:41.324 --> 00:54:48.018


If it's great, cool, Maybe three years later somebody will find a photo of me speaking in the NASDAQ boardroom and say, hey, you want to go public.00:54:49.300 --> 00:54:49.722


Totally.00:54:49.722 --> 00:54:50.603


I love those.00:54:50.603 --> 00:54:56.018


I mean, that's that's when I started building StackList.00:54:56.018 --> 00:55:27.635


I started in April and then we sort of turned it on in August and I went to New York and I was following Darren Marble, who is the host of Going Public, funny enough, and runs issuancecom, and I saw he was running an event and I have zero network at this point because I just hadn't focused on family and everything forever and I saw he was like I'm'm gonna run a vc event in new york and so I reached out.00:55:27.655 --> 00:55:32.072


I got on the list and all of a sudden I'm just I, I have a, I have this thing that I built and I'm going to this like event with vcs.00:55:32.072 --> 00:55:37.338


And I dm'd him on uh, on x, and was like hey, do you have a list of who's coming?00:55:37.338 --> 00:55:39.239


And he's like well, actually I'm looking for sponsors.00:55:39.239 --> 00:55:40.221


I was like I'll sponsor it.00:55:40.221 --> 00:55:52.353


And all of a sudden I find myself like a week later in new york and he's like everyone here, everyone, let's, let's, let's calm down, just say let's have our, our only sponsor for this event.00:55:52.574 --> 00:55:58.673


I love our only talk about his company for a bit and of course I my eyes are like saucers and I'm like yeah, rose a bit.00:55:58.673 --> 00:56:01.398


Uh well, yeah, I built a thing.00:56:01.778 --> 00:56:14.876


Let me just tell you the story really quick, like you know, and but from that has just been like you know the people I met and like and what it, and I think if you go back to that moment you could probably ask people should I do this?00:56:14.876 --> 00:56:22.456


Should I, should I spend x amount of money to sponsor an event in New York for a thing I launched on a domain, like last week?00:56:22.456 --> 00:56:23.820


People would probably, no, I don't.00:56:23.820 --> 00:56:36.019


You know what I mean, but I just love that, like yes, we're going to do it, we're going to see what comes from it and I'm okay, not knowing the outcome but like listening to your gut and just activating as many of those things as you can.00:56:36.119 --> 00:56:37.021


I love that approach.00:56:37.021 --> 00:56:42.554


It's the reps you know, and the more things you do, the more you'll be able to start to filter those out what's worthwhile, what's not.00:56:42.554 --> 00:56:44.199


But you just don't know when you start out.00:56:44.199 --> 00:56:59.181


It's impossible, no matter what anybody tells you, because different industries and even better yet and this also came from from Clint, same thing, because I was looking at something that was very similar to someone else, you know, in a different industry, starting and I'm like, but he's like, you need to do this and this and this.00:56:59.181 --> 00:57:00.764


I'm like, but that's just like them.00:57:00.764 --> 00:57:01.711


He's like you don't get it.00:57:01.711 --> 00:57:08.253


He's like the difference is you, you are a different person and it will be different just because of that.00:57:08.393 --> 00:57:11.460


That it's you totally and I like bucking the.00:57:11.460 --> 00:57:13.431


I'm going to us right now with our pitch deck.00:57:13.431 --> 00:57:40.257


It's the sort of thing that, like you, if you try and do it exactly like all of the ones that have come before or whatever, my whole thing is, yes, you might not hit the science of keeping the attention of someone who only likes to look at things for 26 seconds, but I guess I'm also not that interested in you coming on if I.00:57:40.257 --> 00:57:45.858


You know what I mean and I'm going to do it a little different and I think for me it's one of those that I'm not too worried about.00:57:45.858 --> 00:57:51.661


The investor who only will look at my deck for 26 seconds because I didn't do it like XYZ sort of format.00:57:52.090 --> 00:58:05.300


What I'm interested in is the person who's sort of a flip, a switch, flips and goes hmm, I see what it could be be, I see where it could go, and you've done this a bit different.00:58:05.300 --> 00:58:23.288


I want to know more, tell me the story, tell me what's behind this, and then, all of a sudden, you're just like, oh my gosh, like you know, um, but yeah, I love that, I love, I love your you know thinking different and doing doing the, the different approach um I also like being the first one to do things, which is another reason why I went public, just because it was that.00:58:23.429 --> 00:58:25.315


Nobody in my industry has ever done that.00:58:25.315 --> 00:58:30.652


You know, as an msp, a managed service provider, and uh, there's one that was acquired.00:58:30.652 --> 00:58:32.016


It was called all covered.00:58:32.016 --> 00:58:37.097


They were acquired by xerox, you know, or conica malolta, I can't remember the, you know, but like that's great.00:58:37.097 --> 00:58:42.476


You, those, those printer companies wanted to get into the services industry, so they just acquired an asset.00:58:42.476 --> 00:58:55.552


You know it was an exit event for the owner, but then it's like there there has not been one that has gone from inception to startup or inception and startup to going public, except us, except reach out, you know that's amazing.00:58:55.853 --> 00:59:06.063


And I couldn't understand why either, man, because I remember looking at, like when, when this took place, I'm I almost felt like I was in a line, like a hundred thousand people on both sides.00:59:06.063 --> 00:59:06.927


You know, all the owners of all these msps.00:59:06.927 --> 00:59:07.990


I'm like really nobody's going to do this.00:59:07.990 --> 00:59:30.914


You know, once I started discovering, like the, the, the availability of capital and the greater potential returns and the exponential scaling that's possible with the public markets, what I didn't realize is, like the bear that it can be compliance perspective and how long it takes, even after you reverse, merge, like we're just finishing that up now, over a year later, with all the filings, you know.00:59:30.914 --> 00:59:33.742


So it's like now we're going to hit full steam ahead next year.00:59:33.949 --> 00:59:47.425


You know, in the, in the middle of doing acquisition, it's like it has I mean 2024, it's like going into 2025, those first three days January 1st, 2nd and 3rd, or Wednesday, thursday, friday it's WTF, you know, and that's that's so.00:59:47.425 --> 01:00:01.865


It's like I'm going to use those three days to reflect on 2024 and then know that that's not going to be the way it is in the, because I've done the heavy lifting now, you know, know, but still it's like you know these eyes and I've been told that from billion dollar companies like a lot of people are watching you to see how this goes.01:00:01.865 --> 01:00:06.306


You know I'm like well, it goes like what I've told every company going public goes.01:00:06.306 --> 01:00:10.019


It's not a fairy tale you know, it's a lot of hard-ass work.01:00:10.079 --> 01:00:14.353


It's a lot of your face out there and you've got people who are long-term supporters.01:00:14.353 --> 01:00:15.414


You know that believe in things.01:00:15.414 --> 01:00:17.679


But then there's also people who will literally say fuck you on these forums.01:00:17.679 --> 01:00:19.923


You know that believe in things, but then there's also people who will literally say fuck you on these forums.01:00:19.923 --> 01:00:27.532


You know, just depending on the stock price and other things that are totally out of your control as a founder and it's uh, but you work with them and then that's the thing it's like.01:00:27.532 --> 01:00:28.976


There's also one thing I've learned.01:00:28.996 --> 01:00:45.610


It's like I know I've always noon, noon, noon, known, wow, yeah, you've known this, I've known this.01:00:45.610 --> 01:00:46.166


Yes, I said, said, I've said something the other day.01:00:46.166 --> 01:00:46.235


I'm like I woke up.01:00:46.235 --> 01:00:46.333


You know, I was like what the hell is that?01:00:46.333 --> 01:00:46.561


I know I woke up.01:00:46.561 --> 01:00:46.528


I woke up at noon.01:00:46.528 --> 01:00:47.648


Yeah, exactly, sometimes stuff comes out of your mouth.01:00:47.648 --> 01:00:48.679


You're like, wow, that's great.01:00:48.577 --> 01:00:52.539


It's like out of all these founders, out of all these owners, you know it's like the resilience is just not there.01:00:52.539 --> 01:01:04.673


With so many, you know, and I think the thing that can breed resilience because it's like I've heard this in in speaking events, when I've done like live coaching, I'm on stage, doing a keynote, and it's like, let's take some questions and it becomes live coaching.01:01:04.673 --> 01:01:12.322


In those, in those moments, which I love doing on the spot, you know, but without fail almost every event, it's always like, you know, it's just so hard.01:01:12.322 --> 01:01:13.311


You know, I get up in the morning.01:01:13.311 --> 01:01:19.864


I have difficulties trying to push through, you know, because of all the things that I'm facing, and like how do you get over that?01:01:19.864 --> 01:01:22.496


And I'm like, well, you behave in opposition to that.01:01:22.496 --> 01:01:23.199


That's the first thing.01:01:23.250 --> 01:01:24.132


But I said resilience.01:01:24.132 --> 01:01:26.661


The thing that breeds resilience is curiosity.01:01:26.661 --> 01:01:36.300


So if you can grow curiosity, it is difficult to farm resilience within yourself, I find, unless you're curious, you know.01:01:36.300 --> 01:01:42.840


So, even if it's bad things, it's like, well, if that really, really bad things happen thing happens, it's like how am I going to deal with that?01:01:42.840 --> 01:01:44.275


How am I going to solve that problem?01:01:44.275 --> 01:01:45.885


You know what does that mean for everything?01:01:45.885 --> 01:01:47.211


And it's a curiosity around it.01:01:47.211 --> 01:01:53.673


And then everything almost becomes a little bit gamified in those moments and then it's like which is good for me, because I like to win.01:01:54.175 --> 01:01:57.922


You know that's the the thing it's like cool that bad shit happened.01:01:58.322 --> 01:02:10.264


I'm gonna win that shit too you know totally and I think also not being so worried about, like, the outcomes, the curiosity as an insulator to to not being worried, I have, I have no idea, like where.01:02:10.264 --> 01:02:10.967


It's been.01:02:10.967 --> 01:02:17.570


An amazing ride so far, everything we've done, but but we're also early, but I have no idea where it's going and that's all.01:02:17.570 --> 01:02:18.092


I love it.01:02:18.092 --> 01:03:00.559


It, yeah, right on, and I know that even over the past eight months, I am a fundamentally different person, yeah, and what I've learned to do and what I've learned to sort of build and grow myself is which I love it, and so I do love the journey, uh, you know process of it, and I think it does help when you, when you come up against challenging times, um, but um, yeah, I, you're right that that curiosity and and being okay with you know, not stewing in something, but really but really wondering and being curious about what the next step and where it's going to take you is, you got it can really help I love it.01:03:00.840 --> 01:03:04.090


I love looking around the world man I, here's what I love.01:03:04.190 --> 01:03:09.320


I love, uh, radio shack to geek squad to best buy to public.01:03:09.320 --> 01:03:18.601


That is an amazing, that is an amazing journey and, um, I seriously want to do a follow-up of this at some point.01:03:18.601 --> 01:03:27.804


Where we do, I want to hear the other lives and hear music and stand-up and all the other pieces.01:03:27.804 --> 01:03:29.835


I feel like you and I have similar.01:03:29.835 --> 01:03:30.860


We'll swap tales.01:03:30.860 --> 01:03:48.693


I did improv and took classes at UCB and Groundlings and was a waiter as an extra in a Robert Redford movie where the camera was following me when he was dancing with Helen Mirren and you know.01:03:48.974 --> 01:03:50.418


I just I love all those.01:03:50.418 --> 01:03:53.155


We'll have to swap all the stories.01:03:53.237 --> 01:03:54.219


I love it man.01:03:54.920 --> 01:03:55.442


Amazing.01:03:55.442 --> 01:03:56.655


Well, thank you so much for coming on.01:03:56.655 --> 01:03:58.056


This is so great.01:03:58.056 --> 01:04:11.677


I love exploring all the your past and where you built everything and um, so I, I think, uh, yeah, once we get into the new year, I'd love to to circle back and we'll do a part to it.01:04:11.677 --> 01:04:12.239


I'm in.