Latest / The Scene Projects / Todd Katcher on Digital Signage, AI Innovation, and Purpose-Driven Tech

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Todd Katcher on Digital Signage, AI Innovation, and Purpose-Driven Tech · The Scene Projects

• 0:24
  Welcome in to Real Biz.
• 0:26
  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today, the chief product officer from Digital
• 0:31
  Dealership System and Zony Digital Signets, Todd Catcher.
• 0:35
  Todd, welcome to the show.
• 0:36
  Hey.
• 0:36
  Thanks for having me, Bubba.
• 0:37
  It's good to see you.
• 0:39
  That's...
• 0:39
  It's absolutely my pleasure, and and we're gonna have a great conversation today.
• 0:44
  You know, digital marketing being something that I obviously spend a lot of time in, and
• 0:49
  it's something that you've spent a tremendous amount of time doing, I think, really from its
• 0:53
  inception in that.
• 0:54
  Before we get into all of that, though, wanna get a little bit of your backstory, and then
• 0:58
  we'll jump right in.
• 1:00
  Yeah.
• 1:00
  So I guess the story that's really relevant to this time is when when, back in two thousand
• 1:06
  six ish, I was...
• 1:08
  I had a friend who, was visiting from Nashville and, visiting someone who was playing a bar
• 1:15
  down here in West Palm Beach, Florida.
• 1:17
  And they said they had, experience in running bars, and so I wound up investing in a bar in
• 1:23
  Nashville.
• 1:23
  And then shortly after, getting rid of that business partner, which is another story as
• 1:28
  well, and then moving up there and changing my life completely.
• 1:32
  After about a year or two, I started getting into other ventures, and one of those was a
• 1:36
  digital sign company where I had over a 100 installations across bars and and restaurants
• 1:42
  throughout Nashville.
• 1:43
  And this is Nashville 2006, so much different than Nashville today that your listeners may be
• 1:47
  familiar with.
• 1:48
  And, one of the guys came up to me and said, hey.
• 1:51
  Would you like to put in something like this, meaning the digital sign platform, in my auto
• 1:56
  dealership?
• 1:57
  Fast forward, about twenty years later, approximately, and here we are.
• 2:02
  We...
• 2:03
  We've been...
• 2:03
  We've had over 2,500 installations across car dealerships, and then we've also developed our
• 2:09
  own digital sign software called Zony that we opened up to the public just this past couple
• 2:14
  months.
• 2:15
  So there's been a, there's a quick little recap of a journey that was a twenty year journey to
• 2:20
  hit where we are today.
• 2:23
  Yeah.
• 2:23
  And you were just right on the forefront of that.
• 2:26
  I...
• 2:26
  In 2006, you didn't see any of it.
• 2:30
  Right?
• 2:30
  Now you can't go anywhere without seeing digital signage and everywhere.
• 2:33
  It's in the bathroom.
• 2:34
  It's in the...
• 2:35
  It's everywhere you look inside of a a lot of places, you know, not just major, you know,
• 2:41
  tourist locations like in Nashville or Las Vegas, but really, it...
• 2:45
  It's becoming ubiquitous across the, across all markets, really, not just dealerships and bars
• 2:51
  and restaurants, but really anywhere.
• 2:53
  And I know several people that are working in the space of, you know, your digital signage
• 2:57
  inside of, waiting rooms, whether a doctor's office or things like that.
• 3:01
  So Mhmm.
• 3:02
  It it was really cool, when we got to know each other on our discovery call to to meet someone
• 3:06
  who was there at almost the inception, I would say, of that.
• 3:11
  You weren't using the screens that they're using now.
• 3:13
  You were repurposing TVs and, you know, not the four k or eight k or 16 k TVs that we have now.
• 3:22
  You know, some cases, probably seven twenty pixel, you know, displays that you're putting
• 3:28
  together to create these and ordering parts, and I know from China.
• 3:32
  So there was a lot of problem solving early on with that, and I think that's what really
• 3:37
  intrigued me about having the conversation today.
• 3:40
  Yeah.
• 3:41
  At the beginning, when we first made the digital sign network, I ordered components.
• 3:45
  Now remember, just timeline.
• 3:47
  You know?
• 3:47
  2006, we ordered parts from China and built our own PCs.
• 3:53
  I designed the frame for the PCs and TVs to sit into that needed to be maintained, and then we
• 3:59
  had to get connected to the Internet.
• 4:01
  And a lot of these places didn't have Wi Fi, so we use Sprint cards, the cellular company's
• 4:08
  cards, to connect to their network to be able to service ours...
• 4:12
  Our customers and the content at each of these locations.
• 4:16
  And then after we went into automotive and pivoted, we were buying screens.
• 4:20
  I believe there are NEC screens at that time, and they were commercial grade screens.
• 4:24
  And they weren't even...
• 4:25
  They were thirteen sixty eight by seven sixty six, something like that as far as the numbers
• 4:30
  go.
• 4:30
  And that's what seven twenty p is today.
• 4:33
  Of course, four k is...
• 4:35
  People are familiar with today.
• 4:37
  So, like, it's it's many, many years ago, but not only that, the TVs weighed over a 100
• 4:41
  pounds each.
• 4:42
  So they were very thick, and they were all commercial grade.
• 4:45
  And you couldn't just go to a local Best Buy or go to Amazon and pick them up at that time.
• 4:49
  You had to get them delivered and ordered, by a truck, by freight because they were so heavy,
• 4:55
  and it would take weeks to go ahead and get them.
• 4:57
  So different world altogether.
• 5:00
  And then we had to...
• 5:01
  At some point, I was making computers for our systems and and customizing them on my floor in
• 5:06
  my condo and had 12 screens on a second bedroom wall in my condo.
• 5:13
  And so really is all about problem solving and just doing whatever needs to get done in order
• 5:17
  to deliver the results for our customers at the time.
• 5:21
  Yeah.
• 5:21
  And it's not just the kids who, don't know.
• 5:24
  I I think a lot of us have forgot where where he come from, you know, to to go back in time
• 5:30
  like that, and remember a time before a lot of these things.
• 5:34
  You know?
• 5:34
  For now, a good equivalent is kind of trying to remember a time before AI is going to be that
• 5:40
  we talk about, you know, five, ten years from now, be...
• 5:43
  Because it is becoming ubiquitous across the culture, completely, for better or worse, I
• 5:48
  guess.
• 5:49
  I'll kind of, preface that a little bit in case things go south.
• 5:52
  Sure.
• 5:53
  Yeah.
• 5:54
  So, I mean, if...
• 5:55
  Even I think you had those those times in history that really have been impactful.
• 6:00
  AI is definitely one.
• 6:02
  If you go ahead and think of, the calculator and what people thought when calculators first
• 6:05
  came out, they said, you know, how...
• 6:07
  Your...
• 6:07
  People aren't gonna be be doing math anymore.
• 6:09
  And before calculators came out, you had to do things by hand, and they taught that in school,
• 6:14
  right, how to do basic math.
• 6:15
  And so now, you know, when the Internet first came out, then you had, like, how how do we
• 6:19
  have it without, you know, email and how we communicate with that...
• 6:23
  With each other before email.
• 6:24
  And then when email first came out, we...
• 6:26
  Everybody's email addresses were very long.
• 6:28
  Right?
• 6:29
  And then...
• 6:29
  So it's like this this...
• 6:32
  We...
• 6:32
  We've continually evolved, but then there's always this doom and gloom that happens
• 6:37
  whenever that evolution comes in with something that is so revolutionary, that we go ahead and
• 6:42
  change the ways that we perform our day to day lives.
• 6:46
  Well...
• 6:47
  And and speaking of evolution, the digital signage space has obviously evolved, you know,
• 6:53
  not just on the technology side or on the, you know, the products that you're using side.
• 6:58
  Thank goodness they've become lighter.
• 7:00
  I'm sure, Todd, you appreciate that in in in many ways.
• 7:04
  But it's where they are placed, the the things that we can put on them, the messages that we
• 7:10
  can, you know, give out to the world.
• 7:13
  And and now with with, you know, QR code technology and everything, the the interaction
• 7:18
  that you can get from that digital signage as well has really changed the way that it goes.
• 7:22
  So, Todd, I'd love for you to kind of, maybe there's two key points in there that you can
• 7:28
  elaborate on that have been game changers, for you and and your companies.
• 7:33
  Well, I think one of the things to consider when you talk about digital signage is
• 7:36
  providing the right message to the right person at the right time.
• 7:40
  So digital dealership system, that's in a car dealership.
• 7:42
  So if you think about a car dealership, there's distinct areas in that car dealership.
• 7:46
  So for instance, the messaging that you have in the service drive where you drive in and where
• 7:51
  your adviser would meet you and you drop off your car, that messaging is gonna be different
• 7:55
  in the lounge.
• 7:55
  Your dwell time is also important.
• 7:57
  And so dwell time is how long you're in any particular area.
• 8:01
  So most of the time, you're gonna be in the service drive for under ten minutes you hope as
• 8:05
  you get checked in.
• 8:06
  And then you're in the lounge.
• 8:07
  If you're waiting in the lounge, the average wait time in a lounge is gonna be about sixty
• 8:10
  to seventy five minutes depending on what you're getting done.
• 8:13
  And then you think the other aspect is in the showroom.
• 8:16
  When you walk into the showroom, you see video walls and TV screens and and lots of
• 8:20
  information like that energy.
• 8:22
  And then you have the back end systems, which are motivator boards and connected with the
• 8:26
  dealership enterprise software that goes ahead and motivates them to sell more or to...
• 8:30
  On the adviser side, on the fixed side, or on the, the the sales side.
• 8:35
  And then outside the automotive industry, I always like comparing things to Vegas because
• 8:39
  whenever you go to Vegas, you can't help but see digital signs.
• 8:42
  So when you're outside, what messaging do you wanna see when you're outside?
• 8:45
  That's digital signs too.
• 8:47
  You're...
• 8:48
  You have a message, but people will only see it for a limited amount of time.
• 8:51
  So what messaging do you have?
• 8:53
  How long is the frequency of each individual ad up on a screen?
• 8:57
  And then what are you actually marketing when you're at the win?
• 9:00
  They're not marketing for the MGM.
• 9:02
  That's a competitor.
• 9:02
  Right?
• 9:03
  So they wanna keep you on their premises by showing you all the things you can do there and
• 9:07
  then go to, a restaurant.
• 9:09
  And I always...
• 9:10
  I like the analogy of, like, when you go to a restaurant, they capture the email address of
• 9:14
  the person who pays if they pay electronically.
• 9:16
  Right?
• 9:16
  Like, where they swipe or they use Toast or something like that.
• 9:19
  Well, if you're with a party of four or five people, how do you capture those other people's
• 9:24
  email addresses or contact information or phone number?
• 9:27
  So if you put that up on a TV screen, a QR code to register or a text back phone number, and
• 9:33
  you make it interactive, you could increase your database as well and promote off days.
• 9:38
  So most bars and restaurants are very busy on Friday, Saturday, but how do you promote the
• 9:43
  other days that you're not so busy?
• 9:45
  And if you think about retail businesses, you know, how do you have that add on services?
• 9:49
  Maybe you do some concierge services or a premium service or if you buy this, you get
• 9:54
  this for free.
• 9:55
  Well, that's...
• 9:56
  The reason why you do that is to increase your overall sales.
• 9:59
  And if you're still using, like, an eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper on the wall or you're
• 10:03
  using a trifold folder, then...
• 10:05
  Or try...
• 10:06
  You know, like, a trifold piece of paper that you give out to everybody, you're you're stuck
• 10:09
  in the in the eighties when that first came out.
• 10:12
  And in 2026, people are more digitally enhanced.
• 10:15
  So you could go ahead and have a QR code to go ahead and subscribe, or you could go ahead and
• 10:20
  get more information about a particular fit in a retail store.
• 10:24
  So all these different applications providing the right content to...
• 10:27
  With the right messaging in front of somebody at the right time is really what digital signs
• 10:31
  are all about.
• 10:34
  I'm heavily involved in the world of XR, and I wanna kinda come back to that because I wanna
• 10:40
  make a
• 10:40
  few points about what you...
• 10:41
  You've done here.
• 10:43
  A lot of digital sign companies and places that you...
• 10:47
  With that, we've seen them, at least as consumers, if you haven't bought a car or
• 10:50
  something of that nature, they're advertising for other businesses inside of that.
• 10:54
  Maybe they're turning a buck on it or or providing that.
• 10:57
  But what they're not necessarily taking advantage of is the opportunity to upsell and
• 11:01
  promote the things that are happening inside of their own place as well.
• 11:05
  And I think that's something that you identified very early on in the automotive
• 11:09
  industry is that, look.
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  We we have this space.
• 11:12
  We could be upselling without having to upsell.
• 11:15
  We can be using this opportunity and without a salesperson or anyone inside of the building
• 11:22
  having to make a conscious effort to advance and to, you know, deepen that relationship with
• 11:28
  a customer, we could be using these screens around us.
• 11:31
  And I think to me, that's like the one thing, that I found super intriguing about the the
• 11:36
  initial, you know, advancements that you are making in that kind of sales and relationship
• 11:43
  building inside of the dealerships and now taking that with Zony kind of outside of the
• 11:47
  dealership and how can we do these same things and and apply these principles to every other
• 11:53
  business that's out there.
• 11:54
  Yeah.
• 11:55
  And so what you're referring to there is, the silent salesperson versus an ad network.
• 12:00
  So an ad network is kinda like they do a lot of swapping to drive traffic.
• 12:04
  And so if you allow me to put this TV screen in your store, I'll go ahead and put your ads in
• 12:10
  other places.
• 12:10
  So that's the offset for the cost.
• 12:13
  And then that provider is doing the same at other places, but then on top of that, that
• 12:18
  helps them build their network for free.
• 12:20
  And then they go ahead and sell ads on top of that to, hey.
• 12:25
  Buy an ad in my network for 50 or 100 or $200 or more a month, and then those are the ones
• 12:31
  that are offset in between the free ads.
• 12:33
  So that's kind of the concept of the two.
• 12:36
  When we started in the bars and restaurants, we...
• 12:39
  I didn't realize at that time we were doing an ad agency because we would have...
• 12:43
  It would be for promoting services to the bar patrons, but then also the events that the bar
• 12:49
  would have.
• 12:50
  So we we weren't familiar or I wasn't familiar at that time with the ad network and how that
• 12:56
  actually worked.
• 12:57
  They have to...
• 12:57
  They build the platform, but then you had to go build sales as well.
• 13:00
  And I wasn't adverse in that at all at the time.
• 13:03
  So different aspects.
• 13:04
  But if you...
• 13:05
  It's the same as as as building it internally.
• 13:08
  So as my example from before with the win versus, like, MGM, you know, the win is
• 13:14
  advertising their own stuff, but they're not paying themselves for it.
• 13:17
  But what they're doing is they're controlling the environment.
• 13:20
  Imagine, if they were advertising the MGM inside the Wynn or inside of Caesars, they were
• 13:26
  advertising, you know, the other casinos that are out there.
• 13:29
  It makes no sense.
• 13:30
  But what does make sense is trying to capture as much of that mind share as possible.
• 13:34
  Say, oh, they just opened up a new restaurant at the Wynn, or, there's this new show
• 13:38
  happening, or, oh, I don't have any plans for tonight.
• 13:40
  What's available?
• 13:41
  Or this this person is playing at the at at the, at the event center at the casino.
• 13:47
  So people relate to the casino analogy, but it works in lots of different places as well.
• 13:52
  Yeah.
• 13:52
  I think that's an easy an easy reference to make that most people are gonna be familiar
• 13:57
  with, especially when you talk a building that has a footprint of that size.
• 14:00
  They have a 100 things to promote within the one single building.
• 14:04
  But that's not to say that any business couldn't be using digital signage in in any
• 14:10
  number of ways to do this.
• 14:12
  And I think both facets are are, they pose a a lot of advantages for different companies.
• 14:18
  I I think one thing I find, really awesome about you, Todd, is that, one, you're you're
• 14:23
  unafraid to dive into things that you don't know everything about.
• 14:28
  And and I think the willingness to admit that, hey.
• 14:30
  I didn't know this at the time, but we dove in and we learned as we went.
• 14:35
  And I think it's just a general practice in any business that that mentality is something that,
• 14:42
  is going to champion you in the long term.
• 14:45
  Yeah.
• 14:45
  I appreciate that.
• 14:46
  I think the opportunity is funny, as I've I've chatted with some different people, and I tell
• 14:51
  the story about how a car dealership came up to me, I knew nothing about the car dealership.
• 14:54
  So my response was, what would it do?
• 14:57
  Right?
• 14:57
  And that's been formidable from that minute on, and I did it subconsciously at that time just
• 15:03
  as a mindset, maybe the way I was raised, instead of, like, go, no.
• 15:07
  I don't wanna do that because that's outside of my knowledge base.
• 15:09
  I I I wanted to learn.
• 15:11
  And even today, I had a conversation with one of my staff members about, hey.
• 15:15
  Ask questions before telling someone how to do something.
• 15:18
  Right?
• 15:18
  Because you wanna learn why they do what they currently do instead of telling them what they
• 15:23
  should be doing when you don't know enough information.
• 15:25
  So gathering that information was really important to the day that I'm having
• 15:29
  conversation with car dealers today, and they go...
• 15:32
  They wanna know, hey.
• 15:33
  How long you've been in the automotive business?
• 15:34
  Was your family in the automotive business?
• 15:36
  Were...
• 15:36
  Like, did you used to own dealerships, or were you a manager at some time?
• 15:39
  Like, no.
• 15:40
  I just learned by listening.
• 15:41
  And I think that's the best way to just be open to that.
• 15:44
  And that's, the other...
• 15:46
  Know, I say that in the other companies we have, they might have a little bit of a passion
• 15:50
  project or, like, a need based service.
• 15:52
  When it came to digital dealership system when we made it, we...
• 15:55
  I didn't know anything about it.
• 15:57
  So even to this day, like, I had a meeting earlier on today with a car dealer, and I said,
• 16:00
  well, what are you actually looking for?
• 16:02
  What are you looking for this product to do?
• 16:03
  We have this full suite of products, but what are you looking to get out of it?
• 16:07
  Because it may not be a fit, or we may learn something new about how people are looking to
• 16:11
  use our services, and that's helped us to expand to to twenty, twenty plus products that
• 16:18
  we offer car dealers around digital signs because they were asking for it.
• 16:22
  And, you know, it's like if you start off with a question and not be close minded to that,
• 16:27
  then I think that's a different perspective on living life as well, but also in business.
• 16:33
  You may only have 10 products if you're not asking questions and those service lines
• 16:37
  because our our own knowledge is very limited.
• 16:40
  It's very hard to see everything from all sides of it, And I can relate to that in in the
• 16:47
  podcasting world.
• 16:48
  When I started this, it was about interviews with independent musicians and that was it.
• 16:53
  Right.
• 16:53
  It was a a means of promotion.
• 16:55
  But as I've gotten, you know, further along the line, I've been doing this two and a half years
• 16:59
  now, that there are lots of different reasons.
• 17:02
  And in the business world, we talk a lot about brand authority and and those things and
• 17:08
  realizing what it is.
• 17:09
  And now just being digital presence is a big part of why someone would do it.
• 17:13
  So it's now become a question for me regularly in the discovery calls is, what do you want to
• 17:19
  get out of this?
• 17:19
  Right?
• 17:20
  If you're coming on my show and you're gonna give me some time to come on the platform and
• 17:24
  especially if you're a part of, you know, a paid content package, I want this to serve you.
• 17:29
  Right?
• 17:29
  It's not about me.
• 17:31
  It's not about our audience.
• 17:32
  Although we love all of our listeners, it's how does this become useful to everyone involved.
• 17:38
  And I think those are just great, you know, philosophies for any business owner out there
• 17:43
  regardless of the industry that you're in.
• 17:45
  Exactly.
• 17:46
  And and then you have two different use cases.
• 17:48
  So, some of the businesses were developed bay...
• 17:51
  Well, digital dealership system was was built based on that conversation that I had, and
• 17:55
  we're continually building.
• 17:57
  We have a team of six developers that are constantly adding more value to that service.
• 18:02
  And then we have maintenance problems because we have such big databases now.
• 18:05
  But then we created Zony, which is z o n e y.
• 18:08
  Interesting name.
• 18:09
  I've had it for twenty plus years.
• 18:11
  But Zony was was built out of a need where digital dealership systems requirements change.
• 18:18
  And when I started looking for other digital sign companies to build our platform on, we
• 18:23
  created Zony instead.
• 18:24
  And so now Zony is built for those people that wanna create that ad network or they have that
• 18:29
  business or that casino that they wanna build their platform on.
• 18:33
  Zony became agnostic, but because digital dealership system has the experience of
• 18:38
  thousands of screens, we wanted to make sure that we worked for enterprise level first, and
• 18:43
  then other companies can go ahead and build their platform on a secure network that has all
• 18:48
  the bells and whistles built in because we use, at digital dealership system, the same exact
• 18:52
  platform, but our customers would never know it.
• 18:54
  They never, experience a zoning name because we white label that as an enterprise.
• 18:59
  So we are looking for, people to build their digital sign business or their ad network or
• 19:05
  their...
• 19:05
  They have a casino or a restaurant or a group of restaurants.
• 19:08
  They wanna build their platform either for an ad based platform where they could actually
• 19:12
  sell services or within their companies on the Zony platform that can handle anything.
• 19:17
  So some of the things that we built over time, just a couple of other businesses that we have,
• 19:21
  were built from a need based, and then we also have our side passion projects as well.
• 19:27
  Todd, I I had mentioned my involvement in the world of XR, and, you know, that's kinda the
• 19:33
  conversion of virtual reality and augmented reality and where it comes together.
• 19:38
  Obviously, as the the cost of the metaglasses and the Ray Bans and all of these, you know,
• 19:45
  these the the opticals, right, become cheaper, it's going to become more widely accepted and
• 19:52
  used across the base.
• 19:53
  Is this something that's on your guys' radar about how you're going to incorporate that into
• 19:59
  your advertising as well?
• 20:00
  So one of the things to consider when looking at this is is the usability of the actual
• 20:05
  application.
• 20:06
  So I went to a local...
• 20:08
  A a conference.
• 20:08
  It's a national conference, not local, called Infocom.
• 20:11
  And there is this cool display where, you you scan a QR code and then you...
• 20:16
  It's a retail environment.
• 20:17
  You scan a QR code and then you manipulate the TV screen.
• 20:21
  So this big 75 inch screen, you manipulate the TV screen and build an outfit on the TV.
• 20:26
  Sounds great unless you have more than one user.
• 20:29
  And so that doesn't really work so well because while I'm using it, the next person is sitting
• 20:34
  there waiting and they're not having a good experience.
• 20:36
  Right?
• 20:36
  So I think the idea of virtual potentially could allow other people to interact with the
• 20:42
  same display at the same time in their headset theoretically.
• 20:45
  But one of the things about...
• 20:46
  That people get confused about digital signs is we're a display mechanism.
• 20:51
  So whether we're connected with a point of sale system at a at a retail store or we we have QR
• 20:57
  codes that become interactive in some way or we...
• 21:00
  You could go ahead and scan a QR code and, enter an experience like what you're referring
• 21:05
  to, you know, those types of things.
• 21:07
  Like, I I could see something like take a test drive of of a vehicle.
• 21:11
  Right?
• 21:11
  And you go ahead and scan a QR code with your glasses, then all of a sudden you're sitting in
• 21:15
  a vehicle.
• 21:16
  Right?
• 21:16
  So it kinda guides the experience or calls up that application into your in...
• 21:21
  Into your headset.
• 21:23
  I see that as a practical way of using it.
• 21:26
  So when someone says search my inventory, they could literally call up the inventory, but it
• 21:30
  starts with the presentation, which is a simple QR code.
• 21:33
  And instead of these interactive platforms, could only be used for one person and has this,
• 21:37
  like, wow factor, but yet it only works for one person at a time when you're dealing with
• 21:42
  digital signs in a busy situation, you wanna be able to appeal to a wide range.
• 21:46
  So I think when it comes down to digital signs, we're displaying content as a mechanism or a
• 21:51
  portal to a secondary way.
• 21:52
  And when you're talking about XR, that XR is just...
• 21:55
  It it acts as a phone that allows someone to interact at a deeper level, but the digital
• 22:00
  signs provides that mechanism or that door to get to that portal more than necessarily the
• 22:06
  actual interactiveness of digital signs within that XR system.
• 22:11
  Yeah.
• 22:11
  The the digital signage is just a delivery mechanism for that.
• 22:16
  And I think in the example you gave, right experience, wrong delivery.
• 22:21
  Exactly.
• 22:21
  To be thinking it, how how do you, you know, make that the deliveries great if you can get
• 22:27
  people to that point.
• 22:28
  But, yeah, the the point is to have a 100 people all with their glasses on having unique
• 22:34
  experiences from one display.
• 22:36
  Right.
• 22:37
  Right.
• 22:37
  And I think that, like, a lot of the things that I've seen at the...
• 22:40
  At info comedies, other digital sign conferences, there's another example.
• 22:44
  Like, they had this thing where you where you have a display case.
• 22:48
  And if you lift something up on a display case, a video plays about that particular product.
• 22:54
  Sounds really cool.
• 22:55
  Right?
• 22:56
  Except for if you have more than one shopper at a time.
• 22:58
  So the problem with these things is the usability, not the technology, but is it really
• 23:03
  practical for a real world experience?
• 23:06
  You hope that as a retail place that has the money to spend in digital signs and that
• 23:10
  digital experience inside.
• 23:12
  Like, think about, like, a a Nike or an Onshoes or, you know, the...
• 23:17
  These these big brands.
• 23:18
  Right?
• 23:18
  Like Puma or Adidas opens up a huge store, three story store in in Vegas.
• 23:23
  Right?
• 23:24
  These these showcase locations.
• 23:26
  Right?
• 23:26
  And they bring in thousands of people on a daily basis.
• 23:30
  Just...
• 23:30
  I mean, they're they're mobbed.
• 23:31
  I was just in Vegas a couple weeks ago.
• 23:33
  And they're mobbed with people all day every day in three stores of these buildings.
• 23:36
  Right?
• 23:36
  They're showcases.
• 23:37
  The odds of them ever making a revenue on that to to cover the cost of the space is
• 23:41
  negligible.
• 23:42
  Right?
• 23:42
  They're probably not going to.
• 23:43
  So they wanna have interactive components of it.
• 23:46
  Well, how good is an interactive component if only one person can play at a time?
• 23:50
  It just doesn't make any sense on the grand scale things.
• 23:53
  Great concept, but what your com...
• 23:55
  Your situation and your recommendation does is like, okay.
• 23:58
  Well, what if you saw this and then you interacted it individually on a big screen but
• 24:03
  within your headset?
• 24:05
  You know, that that kind of provides the...
• 24:07
  So, again, that digital science provides a portal and to something that people can access
• 24:12
  and then have their own experience unique to them and then not distract others from having
• 24:19
  their own unique experience.
• 24:20
  So if you have a 100 people that are scanning at the same time, they all get that feedback
• 24:24
  and have a good experience versus another line to wait in in Vegas.
• 24:28
  Right?
• 24:28
  Like, they wait in the buffet line.
• 24:30
  They wait in the show line.
• 24:31
  They wait to go go places.
• 24:33
  Like, how do we go ahead and provide an experience to unlimited amounts of people at
• 24:37
  one time?
• 24:38
  And that...
• 24:38
  What you're referencing and what I'm referencing as far as providing that portal
• 24:42
  process, again, digital science provides the entryway, and displays the information, and
• 24:48
  then the individual has that experience.
• 24:51
  Yeah.
• 24:51
  And there's a a little bit of a limitation to that because it's never going to be able to
• 24:56
  deliver that that experience.
• 24:58
  Everyone's starting from the same start point, and and it's kind of the reference you made to
• 25:02
  the the the product and you open the case.
• 25:05
  But, yeah, the guy standing behind you who walked up thirty seconds after it started is
• 25:09
  now starting from the third step instead of step one.
• 25:12
  And and and probably, guys like us, we're we're very forward thinkers.
• 25:16
  So we're probably living somewhere twenty four to thirty six months in the future Yeah.
• 25:20
  With where we're at, but that's how big dreams and these things are accomplished is having
• 25:24
  that, and my eyes are being open to it all the time with just...
• 25:28
  And thank god for this podcast because I've been able to, you know, talk to people that
• 25:32
  otherwise I I never would have dreamed of, connecting with and woulda had no reason for
• 25:38
  them to wanna talk to me.
• 25:39
  But it's kept me like, oh, the world is changing quickly.
• 25:43
  And and these experiences that we're talking about are not as far off as they may have seen.
• 25:50
  And and, definitely, I don't think anyone would have been, you know, to think that we are where
• 25:55
  we're at right now on the cusp of something revolutionary ten years ago.
• 26:00
  And and, really, the the point that we're waiting for is the cost and the use of...
• 26:05
  The the cost of the materials needed, you know, mostly the opticals Right.
• 26:10
  To come down to a point where they can be universally accepted and adopted.
• 26:14
  It's no different than cell phones.
• 26:15
  Right?
• 26:16
  You know, twenty five, thirty years ago, to to have a cell phone was a a bit of a privilege.
• 26:22
  Now anyone can get one, at least an entry level, and then, you know, levels up to that.
• 26:28
  And and it just continues to evolve so rapidly.
• 26:32
  It's it's sometimes hard to keep up.
• 26:34
  Todd, do you feel like you get a little bit of whiplash being someone who is constantly in
• 26:39
  the, in the system and in the industry?
• 26:42
  Well, it's it's...
• 26:43
  I'm...
• 26:44
  I watch so many videos on a daily basis.
• 26:47
  Like, some people scroll social media.
• 26:48
  I mean, my social media daily time is under an hour.
• 26:52
  And I know some people spend hours on, eight hours a day on social media, I think, a average
• 26:57
  stat, which I spend on...
• 26:59
  Like, when I'm driving, I'm listening to videos.
• 27:02
  I wouldn't...
• 27:03
  I'm a safe driver, I'm not watching the videos.
• 27:05
  But all throughout the day, any any break that I have, I'm reading, I'm learning, I'm growing.
• 27:11
  It's constant, but it is overwhelming where, you know, OpenAI just had their conference last
• 27:16
  week, and and Facebook had their conference this week.
• 27:19
  So it's like, can I sponge up everything in a fifteen, twenty minute video?
• 27:23
  And then if I'm interested, dig in a little bit deeper.
• 27:27
  And then what's actually relevant to me now because a lot of these guys have these tech
• 27:30
  conferences about stuff that's come...
• 27:32
  Not even out yet.
• 27:33
  So you're like, okay.
• 27:34
  What's relevant today?
• 27:36
  What can be done today?
• 27:37
  And then when it rolls out again and there's more tutorials or more videos about it, a
• 27:42
  lot...
• 27:42
  I do follow a lot of people through YouTube primarily as my source, and then I'll watch
• 27:48
  videos that they put out.
• 27:49
  So weekly roundup videos are really helpful to stay in touch, but then these deep dives into
• 27:54
  certain technologies is something that I do regularly.
• 27:57
  So I...
• 27:58
  Even though I'm in it several hours, I think my YouTube time is several hours a day on average,
• 28:05
  of watching real videos.
• 28:07
  I think, in general, I still feel like I'm behind.
• 28:11
  But when I start speaking to the the average person on the street, if you will, I know that
• 28:16
  I'm more advanced, but I I feel like I always have more to learn when it comes to this
• 28:21
  technology and more to share with others like yourself or colleagues.
• 28:24
  I wanna...
• 28:25
  We're doing a training on Monday with our team here at the office for how how to use AI
• 28:30
  efficiently because they don't know because I'm in it.
• 28:33
  I'm like, okay.
• 28:34
  Dial this in.
• 28:35
  And I go from from desk to desk and say, hey.
• 28:37
  How are you using AI today?
• 28:39
  And we need to create some parameters internally to go ahead and and adjust that as a
• 28:43
  company.
• 28:43
  And as an owner, we have 10 staff members here, and our bill can go exponential if they're
• 28:48
  using it wrong.
• 28:49
  So that's a conscious concept on my side to go ahead and make sure to keep their costs down,
• 28:55
  but also to go ahead and make sure they're using it correctly to get the best results out
• 28:58
  of it as well.
• 29:00
  Todd, you're someone who has constantly evolved with your industry and with the technology
• 29:06
  around you, but you've always been someone who's very focused on helping others.
• 29:10
  And and I really wanna get into what you've created.
• 29:14
  You're obviously a huge animal lover and now using the the technology and things that you've
• 29:20
  built to help animal shelters around the country.
• 29:22
  I'd love for you...
• 29:23
  To give you a little bit of time to talk about that.
• 29:25
  I appreciate that.
• 29:26
  So, one of my passion projects...
• 29:27
  So we have about 10 different companies under our umbrella now, and some of them are passion
• 29:32
  projects.
• 29:32
  Some of them are projects that actually go ahead and solve problems internally that then
• 29:36
  we pushed out to the market.
• 29:38
  And then we have our core business like we mentioned before.
• 29:41
  Matching paws, I started with animal rescues about twenty something years ago, and donating
• 29:47
  my time and, meeting the owners of one of the largest rescues in the country down here called
• 29:52
  Big Dog Ranch.
• 29:54
  And, what I did recently was creating a company called Matching Paws.
• 29:59
  When I learned more about the rescue or some...
• 30:02
  In some areas kinda like, shoes versus sneakers versus tennis, you know, Different people use
• 30:07
  different terms.
• 30:08
  So rescues or animal shelters, a very similar terminology.
• 30:13
  The idea is that they're trying to go ahead and save animals' lives.
• 30:17
  Most of them are no kill shelters.
• 30:20
  And, basically, they go ahead and take these animals, either through foster or through their
• 30:25
  facilities and then adopt them out, or have...
• 30:28
  Or they...
• 30:29
  They've used community organizations, and they usually raise money.
• 30:32
  Most of them are nonprofits.
• 30:34
  And then they... It
• 30:35
  It cost them a lot of money on the back end to run these services.
• 30:39
  So matching pause is us...
• 30:42
  Is a dual, focused program.
• 30:44
  One is the consumer side.
• 30:46
  So from the consumer like you or myself, we go ahead and and look for animals.
• 30:51
  There's there's donkeys on there.
• 30:52
  There's horses, but primarily dogs and cats are available on there from, rescues all over the
• 30:58
  country.
• 30:59
  And we also have links to places to shop, for, like, Chewy and places to get dog food and and
• 31:06
  supplies and things like that and also, insurance.
• 31:09
  So if you wanna get pet insurance and things like that.
• 31:11
  So we offer an ecosystem there.
• 31:14
  There's also training tools and videos and stuff like that to learn about how to take care
• 31:18
  of your animals and what's involved in raising an animal and all that type of stuff.
• 31:22
  And then the back end of the portal, we provide services or software to the rescues to actually
• 31:30
  allow them to run their businesses.
• 31:31
  So they could set up...
• 31:33
  If you ever go to our animal rescue website, they're normally not good, and they're normally
• 31:38
  very text based web one point o.
• 31:40
  And so we created about 20 templates in our system and allow them to have a custom domain
• 31:46
  to create their own websites and to manage their business at no cost to them.
• 31:51
  We go ahead and this...
• 31:53
  The...
• 31:53
  When they go ahead and get donations, we charge the person who's giving a donation a fee for
• 31:59
  that donation.
• 32:00
  And then if they go ahead and adopt an animal and use our platform, then they they go
• 32:06
  ahead...
• 32:06
  We we charge the person who's adopting a small fee.
• 32:09
  It's like a dollar or 2.
• 32:10
  So we're not...
• 32:11
  This isn't like we're overcharging outrageous amounts of money for that, but we're...
• 32:15
  It's a dollar or 2 per donation or a dollar or 2 per per per adoption, and it allows them to
• 32:22
  go ahead and get the maximum amount of money with...
• 32:24
  And have a portal that they could go ahead and run their business on.
• 32:28
  So we have a CRM in the back end of our system.
• 32:30
  We have a management tool that allows them to, send out applications and manage that
• 32:35
  application process for fostering or for adoption.
• 32:40
  And so we're...
• 32:40
  And allow them to really run their business and have a portal within our site that's branded
• 32:45
  specifically for their rescue at no cost at all.
• 32:48
  Because one of the things that we...
• 32:49
  Anytime that they have to spend any money on their own, that's money that's not going to the
• 32:54
  animals.
• 32:55
  And so as a passion project, didn't I wanna get into a situation where they had to spend more
• 33:00
  money to manage, their good cause.
• 33:03
  And so that's what Matching Paws is all about.
• 33:06
  Fantastic stuff.
• 33:08
  We are massive animal lovers here in our home and have some connection to some people who are
• 33:13
  doing some really incredible things.
• 33:14
  So I have some introductions to make, Todd, for you, and I'm really looking forward to seeing
• 33:20
  what you can
• 33:20
  do to help our friends that are in this, you know, rescue and and shelter, you know,
• 33:26
  industry is probably the wrong term, but in that space and operating.
• 33:30
  So I really appreciate what you're doing to to give back with all the things that you've
• 33:35
  learned and and what you've built.
• 33:37
  And I think that's so important in, you know, just in general.
• 33:42
  For me, I was very lucky, to find operation combating veteran suicide, to be welcomed into
• 33:48
  the foundation and to use my skills for a greater cause even though we weren't, you know,
• 33:54
  we really weren't anything at that point.
• 33:56
  This was over a year, year and a half ago, that we kinda found each other and I got a chance to
• 34:01
  meet the founders.
• 34:02
  But they identified something in me and I and them that this is what I want to do.
• 34:07
  And having that purpose now, allows me to wake up maybe on the days where I don't want to and
• 34:13
  understand that that my cause and my purpose are are greater than just for myself.
• 34:18
  So Yep.
• 34:19
  Really appreciate that, Todd.
• 34:20
  Appreciate your work in the space.
• 34:23
  Great conversation, Todd.
• 34:25
  Absolutely love any chance I I get to talk to someone who's been such a high achiever like
• 34:30
  you and such a hard worker.
• 34:31
  And I think that's probably something that a lot of people might overlook, when they see
• 34:35
  someone, like you in the world, but it it doesn't get there without being able to adapt
• 34:41
  and to overcome continually inside of this space.
• 34:45
  So really appreciate your time today.
• 34:46
  Highly recommend everyone find you at your website, toddkacher.
• 34:51
  It's katcher.com.
• 34:55
  Find him on LinkedIn.
• 34:56
  That's where I found him and his team as well.
• 34:59
  Really appreciate your time today, Todd, and appreciate you being a part of the scene.
• 35:03
  Thanks, Bob.
• 35:04
  I appreciate the conversation and the time that you shared with me today.