Latest / Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing / Stop Chasing Viral: 7-Exit Entrepreneur Dominick Miserandino on Storytelling, AI & Scaling Your Brand

Transcript

Stop Chasing Viral: 7-Exit Entrepreneur Dominick Miserandino on Storytelling, AI & Scaling Your Brand · Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I find people forget that the goal is the transaction.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Are you selling more biscuits?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes or no?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is Dominic Mizerandino, a serial entrepreneur with seven exits, who has advised over 200 companies from NASA to the Wall Street Journal.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I do think the rules don't change, it's how we implement them.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_04: Since the dawn of man, we've been storytellers.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_04: We sit around the fireplace, we tell each other stories.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_04: We all want to feel a connection via story.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_04: It's just the methods of which we implement the storytelling rules, which is now social media.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is it being on every single platform or just hyper focusing on a single platform?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_04: If you're trying 10 different platforms and you don't know how any of them work, take it down a notch and relax.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_04: I was talking to one client and he was doing amazing on Pinterest.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone's be on every damn platform at any given moment at any given time.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: I could post something about Elon Musk and it goes viral, but that's not on Green.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Carson Jones is a business broker and a real estate broker.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: It went viral, but it doesn't sell my green.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: What makes something viral does not always make it good.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_04: Viral is just the nature of the algorithm hitting.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_04: The goal is ultimately the transaction.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_04: I know one gentleman, he's selling half a million dollars worth of political products every month.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Do you believe in this politician?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, Not at all.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Why are you doing that?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's the only one that went viral for me.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: You're rewarded.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_04: You're getting the internet points, the bubbles, the whistles, the response.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: Social media rewards you for bad behavior.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_04: The mechanism is we will reward stupidity.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_04: I know a guy, he automated everything on AI, laid off two of his employees, etc.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_04: He was in real estate actually, and he found the sales went down because you've had seven exits in business.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about those, what those are like, because most businesses never exit.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of an interesting question.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: It almost reminds me of.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Carson's Quarter.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Alrighty, I'm sitting here with Dominique Mizerandino.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: You got it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: I nailed his last name.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: There we go.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: He is a serial entrepreneur and media advisor with about seven exits, both partial and full.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: So uh just want to introduce you.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Love it, man.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Doing good.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's an honor to be here.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's an honor to be here.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm honored to have you.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Part of the purpose of the show is just to have entrepreneurs on here to kind of share their journey, you know, what they've seen, tricks.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: How do we scale?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: How do you get your business out there and be successful?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: No, and I love that.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm honored that not only have I had my exits, I've coached and advised 200 plus.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_04: I was my last count, and I stopped counting and helped a lot of other businesses scale to the next level.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_04: So you've advised about 200 businesses roughly?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Roughly.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Mostly e-commerce and media, but yes.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And they've been pretty big companies.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh are we allowed to say them on the show?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_04: Well, they could look at my LinkedIn.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: You'll see I've advised everyone from NASA to um Hearst Magazines, Wall Street Journal, um uh Dell Computers.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: So I've advised a few guys out there.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So big companies, what about small companies?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I've helped people super small because I think to me it's always just fun solving the puzzle.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um in fact, one of my favorite ones during COVID, I got bored and um as we all did.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_04: So I advised uh international companies.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_04: I speak Spanish and Italian, uh, and I advised and French and I advised them in their language, and it showed you how we're all the same, but also a little different in a way, too.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's awesome.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: So uh what's your res what's what's the craziest business you've ever advised?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just start off with the crazy quest.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: The crazy has been honestly the overseas ones.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um there was one company, it was an eyeglass company from Latin America, and they called me for a rebrand.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: And what was just crazy about it was like during the call, I said, Do you know that I'm an American?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like I was advising them, and I knew it, which thank God I helped them.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: But it was kind of crazy to think here I am, an American helping these guys brand to the Latin American market.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: And but it was just following those same basic rules of what resonates with people.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_04: And I would kind of talk to them on the team saying, I don't know your market as well as I.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: So you tell me if does this resonate more than that?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_04: Does this work better than that?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_04: But it was kind of surreal.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't crazy in the sense of uh, you know, flying pigs, but it was just such a unique experience that it really struck out to me, you know.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, why in the heck are you guys calling me?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm an American.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, I'm honored when those things happen and those kind of problems.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my God, I love those are my favorite problems.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: The wackier ones are better.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is is that one of the most common reasons people call you probably is for a rebrand?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're kind of hitting a struggle point where they're like, oh gosh, you know, what are we doing wrong?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, hey, let's let's call Dominic.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: He's a consultant, he's exited several businesses, he's seen enough in his day, and he's got enough experience to maybe help us out.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_04: So Yeah, I think rebrand, reaching out to the overall market, media in general, um, how do you make the noise, so to speak, are some of the most common.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_04: And then just how do you navigate online?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: Because I've been online uh for uh 30 years at this point, you know.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I think what you're touching on is a very important subject because you're seeing these very large companies like almost put their CEOs out there and uh try and make them an influencer, but sometimes it's really awkward, and then you're like, okay.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_04: I've had that conversation with both big and small because we're trying to do that influencer road.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but at times they get it, and at times it's kind of ridiculous, you know what I'm saying?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I do think the rules I say don't change.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's how we implement them.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_04: In that, you know, since the dawn of man, we've been storytellers.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: We sit around the fireplace, we tell each other's stories, and those stories that resonate are the ones that go through the dawn of man till now, and you have the odyssey is a 2,000, 5,000 year story.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_04: I think that rule remains.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_04: We all want to feel a connection via story, and we all want to um connect uh emotionally.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: And when you're saying about the fire pit, so to speak, that had its own set of rules.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_04: The story needed to be rhythmic, the story needed to be repeatable, the story needed to have major themes one wouldn't forget.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: Now the rules have that in a way, you do need it to be repeatable.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, did you see that cool video?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_04: Did you see that crazy thing?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_04: Those rules are embedded in human culture, human society forever.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: It's just the methods of which we implement the storytelling rules, which is now social media.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just it's kind of funny.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: You see like all these companies are wondering what to do.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's like things are changing so fast, and then they're wondering okay, how are customers finding us?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're kind of like going through this transition from Google to Chat GPT, and now there's like 30 AI platforms.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: It started with a chat GPT.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_04: Again, and I think it's learning the rules, is what I would say.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_04: The rules of how these things operate.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: Not dissimilar to when you go to a new city and can you make a write-on-red, you have to learn that rule.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, how do AIs operate?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_04: How do videos operate?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: What is that method?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes to me, the first step is just watching.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: Meaning, you know, TikTok is a very quick medium.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: You're not watching a two-hour TikTok video.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: YouTube has turned from YouTube to now it's basically a TV platform in a way.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: So it changed a little.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: And you have to always be aware, just what are those operating rules, and you keep storytelling throughout.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting because I I'll take a certain clip and it'll do it'll bust on one social media, and then on another, it'll do great.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like it's the wrong platform.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's the wrong platform or the wrong way.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_04: So I do spend a lot of time, more time than I should, analyzing.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, the method for Facebook is totally different than the method for LinkedIn, for example.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: LinkedIn, I'm doing a lot on it.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, frequency, where it is, the competition, all these things.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_04: And do you get it right?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: Not 100%, because and don't be hard on yourself, I'm saying, because you have so many lanes to keep track of, and these lanes are changing.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_04: The rules on ChatGPT alone had changed in the past week.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_04: A week ago, ChatGPT could not edit a live spreadsheet.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: Week later, it can edit a Google Drive spreadsheet.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: So, as one ex minor example, so you have to constantly read these rules and say, okay, what's happening now?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_04: Someone let me know.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: It it does happen so fast, you know, like, and then different websites will let like Claude as a browser extension, and then it'll block it for a month because it's scared like AI is going to steal all of its content, and then it'll let it back on, and it's just everything changes so fast.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: So first of all, 100%.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_04: Let's just get that out then.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_04: All the rules are changing, all the um methods are changing, and as long as you kind of know that you're in a better place.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you just have to know how these rules work, essentially.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: So what would your uh advice be to a company that was trying to scale and grow as far as their media and all that?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you're kind of like you're a media specialist, which is a huge part of growing a company.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you know it's is it being on every single platform or just focusing, hyper focusing on a single platform?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: I would say it's hyper focusing on what works.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: I know sounds cliche, but I'm meaning that if you're trying 10 different platforms and you don't know how any of it works, you don't know those rules.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_04: Take it down a notch and relax.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like you can so I I was talking to one client and she was doing amazing on uh Pinterest.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, I'm not upset by that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: Well, everyone says I should be doing this, I should be doing that.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Don't be so hot on yourself.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_04: You have this down path.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: The next step to me is what's next for you?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_04: I think we all want to do everything though, and that becomes a psychological problem.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone wants to be on every damn platform at any given moment, at any given time.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_04: I uh yeah, I guess you could spend eight hours doing that every day, but you're gonna kill yourself and trying to figure out, and it won't make anybody happy anytime soon.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: So I think the trick is start with what works.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you're not even touching email newsletter and this and this and this.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_04: But you have to start with what works and grow out.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_04: Where it doesn't work well is when you jump into that water, but you have no idea what's in the water.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: Then you're making a fool of yourself and uh you're embarrassing everyone.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: Now, normally for strategy, if I'm looking at a bigger company, they're doing all those.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_04: So then I'm jumping through all 50 strategies and yeah, it's getting a little killer at that point.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: But most businesses, it's probably better advice to focus on who you are and then projecting that, because that's the most important thing, because you could take a as long as the video or media content reflects well of you, if you take it on a site and it flops and it only gets two likes, at least it was your brand.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: You see what I'm saying?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because I had a talk with a I had a talk with a friend about LinkedIn content, and it's like I could post something about Elon Musk and it goes viral, but that's not on brand.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Carson Jones is a business broker and a real estate broker, and it's like, okay, it went viral, but it doesn't sell my brand.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_04: I would agree with that, and that also becomes a challenge to it.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, why if you have to roll out, first of all, going viral as an ISA like the Olympics when they remove the high and the low score, and then you figure out the score is.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: Going viral is like that.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_04: I've had many things go viral, and you can't jump over the edge on that.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: I've had things go viral on LinkedIn insane and not.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_04: And you have to look at the and that's kind of a challenge.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_04: You can't get too excited and go, okay, this just went viral, but does it serve the message?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_04: Can I tweak the message towards it?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_04: Does it make any sense?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_04: If you're talking to Elon Musk, how do you move that maybe towards entrepreneurship?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe you can, maybe you can't.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_04: So I think in the storytelling, and that's where I bring it back to is the storytelling.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_04: If you were sitting around that campfire, then you start saying, I have a story about a fox.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone's like, Why the hell are you talking about foxes right now, dude?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: I have no idea why.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think that is um but that stops the scroll, is what you're getting at.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, bingo.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_04: This is you know, it is funny though.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I love this because this concept because really it's okay.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like, yeah, it stops the scroll.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: What do you want to do?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_04: You want to get a story leading to another story.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: You know it's always fascinating to me if you look up um the basics of storytelling.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_04: We only tell uh someone wrote an article once, there was only seven stories we tell.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: Basically, seven basic stories, and the plot of the seven samurai is similar to the plot of Star Wars, which is similar to the plot of this.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: We the human experience is similar to that.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_04: The plot, the specifics are important, don't get me wrong.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_04: They're val beyond valuable.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: But what makes things go viral becomes that moment of people saying, um this is that authority, and we want to get us there.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_04: But that is a conversation.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm saying it is a you have to work towards that goal.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a difference between visibility that you want and virality.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I don't know how it's virality, yeah.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tough one.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: But it's a lot of political issues go viral, and it's like, do you need to be on LinkedIn or Facebook arguing with these people?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And how does that har help your brand?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like an argument that'll never end, so it stays relevant on these platforms.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I bought a lot of that out, and it's like refocus on who you are, you know.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's where it's keep in mind what makes something viral does not always make it good.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know, viral is just the nature of the algorithm hitting.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_04: You know, there are things that go viral, and what is the algorithm hitting?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: More people say like something uh crazy, for lack of a better word.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I think we've seen that uh without going into politics or anything like that, and you see the craziest stuff rises, and you keep on feeding the algo.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um we're not as on you know, we're not like the 50 years ago when you had the evening news and we all waited and relaxed.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: That's the new evolution we've been in.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_04: We don't wait, we just react.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I had a friend that did a post and he was like, golf is the dumbest game in the world.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then you clicked more, and then it said, I just wanted to see if Rage Bait worked.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he had all these comments, and I or he said his lines, but it worked.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, holy moly, like if it gets people like fired up, but how do you frame a story around like hey, I got screwed on this, and then lead into a story about your brand that kind of engages people is the leg strong hook.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: No, and it's not anyway.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's brilliant because going viral does not necessarily equal that brand or the business.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: I do know one company I had years ago, and I got such a kick out of it.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um they would they had a product where they would argue online with themselves.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: This product's stupid, and then they'd go out there and put out other posts that this product is genius.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_04: And they'd start fights.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: Away it worked, it created a little fight I thought was kind of funny in a way.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um does that help?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: Does that hurt?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: Interesting question.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but that was notorious.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, if you um I'm also thinking way back, I knew one of the people who were working on some major um up-and-coming rap artists at the time in the early 2000s, and they would invite the controversy.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_04: Like, great, people are arguing.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_04: I want them to argue about this.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: The more they argue, the better.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: Which, but that's the nature of the algorithm.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_04: The algorithms generally are that.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I do think as a consumer, we should be aware what feeds it.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_04: What feeds the algo is controversy and insanity.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_04: Does that help your business?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_04: You know, maybe not.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_04: I don't want to get in the middle of that one.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, that is definitely the mindset anyway.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you have to think what is going to feed it.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_04: For an average business, though, your goal is to get the customers in the door.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: Let's be real.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_04: That's the goal to get the product sold.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: These things going viral can help.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I think the goal is ultimately the transaction, and you don't want to lose sight of the transaction with the distraction of the viral.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think what you're getting at is a very good point because it's you're probably better off doing substitute stuff that people pay attention to that builds trust that'll lead to a transaction versus something that's just going to get your attention, but no transaction.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, that to me is the biggest mistake.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_04: I find people um forget that the goal is the transaction.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_04: Are you selling more biscuits?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yes or no?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: The other stuff becomes a distraction.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_04: You don't want a distraction from the transaction.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I've learned a little bit of that being online.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd try and do some rage bait posts and stuff like that to get people going.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: This is back several years ago, and I'm like, you know, I just want to see what happens.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because you're rewarded.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_04: See, you're rewarded because you're getting the internet points, you're getting the balls, you're getting the whistles, you're getting the response.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: So that is also the danger from the consumer side.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_04: Social media rewards you for bad behavior.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_04: You know, if you rage baited, if you posted crazy stuff, um, I know one gentleman, he's selling half a million dollars worth of political products every month.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, Do you believe in this politician?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, not at all.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Why are you doing it?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: It's the only one that went viral for me.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and it's kind of funny to have that mindset.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but that is the system rewards.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_04: You're not posting a photo online.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: So he's selling products for a politician that he doesn't even like.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hates him.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: He actually hates him.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty funny.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, he hates him completely.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_04: And he's one of the top sells of that politician.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um without you know, so but I think because we want to point out the nature of social media, is it rewards the click, it rewards the engagement, and that engagement does not necessarily have to be good, yeah, to be bad.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_04: But I also think that is a very big part of being uh an educated business person, educated consumer.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_04: You have to know how that mechanism works.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_04: The mechanism is we will reward stupidity.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_04: Is that helping your business?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: Now, at times it could, don't get me wrong.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: There's um oh god, scooter admin.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna look it up now.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there's a woman who went viral.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'm trying to find it now.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um all it was is she went viral in Edmonton because Edmonton, Canada, because she would ride her scooter in fall.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_04: Uh in right, I'm sorry, Regina uh L's Cafe.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_04: A L L E's Cafe.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: And she would just ride the vial in fall, and she went viral from it.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: Now then I find that funny.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it helped.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_04: In her case, her falling on the scooter increased traffic to her page enough so that she increased ice cream sales.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: It is a delicate balance, but it's understanding the mechanisms just the same.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's hilarious.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you've you've had seven exits in business.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: You've had what?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Hundreds of media interviews from what uh Oh, yeah, hundreds, yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like major networks you've been on TV and all that.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_04: So CNNSMBC, all the all the fun guys.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_04: But of course, and Carson Jones.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: There we go.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: You got the most important one.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you've had seven exits as well.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about those, what those are like.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because most businesses never exit.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: They end up holding it forever or they fail.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, it's kind of an interesting question because every time I think of someone asks me the question, when do you exit?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: It almost reminds me of what the question in the entertainment world of when or sports when you retire.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_04: Do you keep on playing to the point you're walking out on the cane with a cane in your hand?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: Do you keep on acting?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: And then, like, people like, what's going on here?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: And you kind of have to feel when it's that point, when you're like, okay, it's better off.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_04: The business does better if I exit.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: Now, the challenge I've had, I've had phone calls.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_04: Should I sell this business?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, yeah, it's past that point.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: I can't help you anymore, my friend.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_04: Now it's over.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I'm saying?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's being conscious and aware of where that point is.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think it's a conversation of do you really want to let go?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: What are their pain points too?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes business gets to you and it gets old.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, after you've done something for five years, you're like, do I want to keep doing this?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: I would agree again.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: The second part is, are you really ready to let go?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes they're not.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because it comes down to like, you know, you're close on price, and they're like, it's gonna take the jaws of life to get this away from them, you know.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: What's that thing they used to pry vehicles open with in an accident?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, joys of life, joys of life, yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Get this thing away from them, you know, because they just won't let go.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_04: So I also though think I try to look at the business as its own entity.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, my own's joke went uh that line, uh, corporations of people when he said that line.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_04: What does this thing need?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: Are you serving the needs of that thing?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_04: When you're starting it up, yes.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_04: But there comes the point, an exit might make sense, even if you don't want to let it go, because you're not serving the need.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: At that point, you're hurting the need.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're preventing it from going to the next level, whether it's financial resources or manpower, whatever it is to kind of take it.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_04: And then what occurs at that point?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_04: Then you've killed the value more, and then people and they're looking at you like, dude, what happened here, if you will?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I do think that becomes um the challenge.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you don't want to kill the beast.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_04: You don't want to kill the beast.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I I've seen that probably most.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_04: They're asking for the help, whether an exit or they're asking for the help with uh turning the business around.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_04: Those are not in the 200.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: Those are five-minute phone calls when you're going, yeah, dude.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Life is good.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's a different story.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: So most of the companies that call you are kind of like in trouble or they're like mid-stride, like, hey, we need help, you know.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: I would say product, some decent leadership, enough leadership to say we need help in this area.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: We but it's funny as humans, we never ask for help until you know you're already getting the heart attack running down the block saying, Should I get my heart checked?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_04: No, you get the heart check before that happens, not after.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I don't get the phone call for um, does my Facebook look pretty?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm getting the phone call for oh my God, the world's ending.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because that's my job, my job is looking at the whole picture.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: But there is something to that's that's fun when you're getting the hey, no one else could solve this one.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_04: What do you think?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that's a fun one for me.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I think a lot of like what's going on too is things are changing so fast that the businesses need more help now than they ever have.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, because when you look around, the small guys are like little ants running around, and you have this business that's been around forever, and they're like, What is going on?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: I would concur a hundred percent.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: Social media, the AI, and all this stuff, and they're like, Whoa, what is the hell?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that becomes the challenge.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of businesses get distracted by the shiny object, and there are more shiny objects now than almost ever before.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it is the land.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I know a guy, uh, he automated everything on AI, like insanely, laid off two of his employees, etc.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: Which I could see the optimization.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, he was in real estate actually, and he found his sales went down because it was cheaper than paying for the AI.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_04: It was cheaper to have someone hitting the phones.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_04: Like all this automation did nothing at that point.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_04: And that's something a frequent uh issue I see.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: The over-automation, because it's like that human touch, where do you eliminate it and where do you not?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really critical problem.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: I actually had a networking event recently, and I stood up there and I said, I'm probably the first human you've talked to in three weeks.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: And how often um AI speaks to AI?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_04: How often are they arguing with each other?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_04: AIPA, you know, I've how many AI emails have we gotten just today?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_04: I can tell you every day, I do not go a day without an AI email at this point.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I almost think like the old school email campaigns aren't as effective as they used to be because the AI emails are coming through left and right.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: My like my inbox is just like flooded, and I'm like, where in the world are all these emails coming from?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just because it's so easy to automate.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: I agree a thousand percent.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: It is an interesting, but that's where I would say the you know, you use the example of chasing the um the small businesses chasing around.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_04: Those are the metrics that become a little bit of a challenge because we are constantly trying to figure it out.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_04: Constantly chasing these things and trying to make sense of these things.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not your fault.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_04: Like it changes.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I actually have an alert from the AI that tells me what changed in the AI world because I'll wake up in the morning and be like, oh, there's a new plugin for this.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, there's a new change on this.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_04: Claude does this, chat does this.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I'll try my best.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and it's normal.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_04: It is the new normal is the chasing, if you will, and it doesn't stop.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: I I like the alerts that you set up.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's really smart.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, well, I'm I'm doing data center sites for um real estate, and it's like you think you have a site and then the regulation changes, and it's like the next day, oh, those aren't allowed anymore.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Not in this county.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and that's also where I think um we did have that is the biggest societal change.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_04: 24-hour news network.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_04: So now we no longer wait for the five o'clock news, but now we have instant news.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_04: How many times have you gotten alerts and you think, wow, I mean, I know everyone's phone was ringing, Dolly Parton died.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: It was terrible.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_04: And you have this instant societal tragedies when in the past it would grow.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, our information definitely changes over time.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's kind of crazy because I heard about Dolly Parton on social media, you know.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean to hear from your neighbor, you know.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: How many pe yeah, how many people it used to be like the neighbor came over and just say, Did you hear this?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, whoa.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_04: So we're we and I don't believe we have completely readjusted to that societally.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_04: Our brains, I think, are great at 5 p.m.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: news, let's think about it.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: Not so good at oh my god, this, oh my god, that.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I think um that's where you're also getting that political exhaustion.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the political exhaustion is because we're all going, oh my god, now what?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the 24-hour news and the I I don't even watch politics stuff anymore.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's too much.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's also what happens.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: We get a societal exhaustion.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_04: But so for a purpose of this to bring it right back to the business side, you also have to think, what is the mantra?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_04: What is the end of the day?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_04: Your end of the day is you're selling more t-shirts.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: If these help that goal, great, keep on going.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_04: If on the other hand you find you're like, what did you do this weekend?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_04: I just programmed my uh ChatGBD, you sing me a song.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, is it helping your goals?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yes or no.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um now that doesn't mean not to.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: You should always.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_04: I will tell people, just like investing, uh, you know, you might put 10, 5% of your portfolio a little bit more risky, let's say.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: Same with business and all this new tech.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_04: You still need the baseline.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_04: Do not forget the baseline.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: And then you say, you know what, I'm gonna spend five an hour this weekend working on this, two hours this weekend looking into that.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_04: And but you have to bucket it.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I'm saying?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't bucket it, you got an issue, my opinion.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think you have a really good point there on the AI stuff.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: I had a guy ask me, because I redesigned my site, and I have it to where people are calling in, and he's like, How many sales have you gotten?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I've just gotten people calling in.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: And this is just over the last couple months, okay?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I said, I'm in commercial real estate.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Transactions don't happen like that.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a six-month, you know, time window.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Well, you know, I see a lot of people, you make a good point about people messing with the AI, and there's no result.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_04: But that's also been the nature of the beast.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_04: So um, I think you just have to be aware, and it's also something I've seen online in terms of it's always been there that we get distracted by shiny objects.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: And back to the beginning again.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I was reading an article comparing the similarity to the distraction.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_04: We had trolleys and trains, and they were extremely effective.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_04: We got distracted by individuality of cars.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_04: My argument would be did that actually improve us?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not saying not to kill cars, but to kill the trolleys and trains to the degree they did when every street had a nice trolley going down, you didn't necessarily need to drive your car to downtown.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes the shininess um will not serve us.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_04: And just feed just like a kitten following the laser pointer.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_04: It's the same thing.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes we follow shiny to the point, it doesn't necessarily help us.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, that like I said on the email automation on AI, it's like everybody's doing it and it doesn't work.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I haven't bought anything from all these emails flowing through my inbox, but everybody's doing it because they were told AI is going to make their life easier.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it works.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: We can pump out five million emails in 10 minutes.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes it works.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes it doesn't.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: And that is not to say it does, it doesn't, but we you you have to always say to yourself, is this helping at the end of the day?
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_04: Just let me know.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that's yeah.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_04: One of the biggest things, the biggest companies I've worked with and the smaller.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: You're going, dude, is this helping?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_04: Dude, is this helping?
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Just let me know.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: So when you walk in, you're like, hey man, how long have you been doing this?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: And how many people have you Okay, if you just started last week and you're getting a little traction, that's one thing.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: But if you've been doing it for six months to a year and nothing's happened, it's time to shut it down.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, you know what's funny?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: The first thing I do, I used to walk in and have my assumption.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_04: My assumptions were 90% of the time right.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: But now I go in and I just shut up as much as I can.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: I bite my own tongue and I'm like, oh, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it, don't say.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: And then you start getting the bigger picture.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: Because the other thing you don't want to do, especially when you're advising of the scale, you don't want to put a wrench into the gears and wonder if the machine cracks.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta really spend the five minutes looking.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Under understand the full picture before you start going in there and ripping things in and out and all that.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: So absolutely.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: What uh what other interesting stuff do you have, man?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_04: You I know you got a lot of stuff going on, so no, I think one of the best biggest joys I have is of course helping businesses get to that next place.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I do events all the time uh where we're introducing people to each other, we're bringing people together.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_04: If you go online, look at RTM Nexus, you'll see on LinkedIn, on Luma, on every platform RTM Nexus.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we have a lot of events in New York, but we all over.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you about the events.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: What do you what do you suggest for having events?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: What's your goal?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is it relationships and stuff like that?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's easy.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's relationships.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Just that simple.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Just get people together, get them talking.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: When you get people together, you don't know where it's going to go.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: And the goal is not to sell the person, not to put a gun to their head, but just to say, dude, what are you working on?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_04: What am I working on?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe it could help out, maybe you can't.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: Let's take one step at a time.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that to me has to be the goal.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like what you said about you're not trying to sell them necessarily.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: So at my events, they're small, and we say no hard pitches, and people don't understand that.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like the real estate brokers and stuff, and it's like, well, the property owners and business owners won't show up when some dude's jumping out of the back of a Lamborghini trying to run them down to selling something, you know?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that again, right to it.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_04: They don't, that's not what's going to do it.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_04: What's going to do it is going to be um, I don't know what you're doing, but you seem like a nice guy.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me more what you're doing.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that to me becomes the goalpost.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's like nobody makes a multi-million dollar decision like right then and there anyway.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like how what's the point of hard selling people?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: But people do it all the time.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: I've been to conferences where it's like, you know, they're trying to sell you an oil deal, and I'm like, no, I'm not interested.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they just keep going.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, dick.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_04: I agree a thousand percent.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_04: I agree a thousand percent.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_04: No means no.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's really one of the biggest things I tell people is just be human.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's it.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's my rap.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: You know, just be human and storytelling have to be human and just being human with people.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think part of it is is knowing what they need too.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're trying to hard sell them and you they don't even you don't even know what this person needs.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's also not being human if you're hard selling them.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody wants and nobody on the planet wants to be hard sold.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_04: Are you a robot?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, nobody wants that.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, I am we want real.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: That's what people actually want.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: Just I trust this guy, it's real.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: What do you do?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_04: And you'll find often I find people will connect with the person and then say, Carson, what do you do?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: You're so cool.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: We gotta work together, man.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I understand that.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: So what are your what are your events again?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: Are they mainly up there in New York or mainly, but I've had clients call us from all across the world.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_04: If you go to on Luma, it's a really good event platform.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_04: You go on Luma.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, I use that.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, subscribe on the calendar, RTM Nexus, you'll find us.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_04: And um yeah, that's um that's a big one.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: Plus, we have online, um, we have media, um podcasts, webinars, etc.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_04: too.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you this.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: Have your online ones gone down?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think just people are tired of Zoom calls after COVID and all that.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think the in-person ones will probably start growing more than they used to.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_04: I think each tool has its place.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_04: The online ones are great.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_04: If you're in the middle of Oklahoma and you need to be someone in New York, then they're fine.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like they do the job.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_04: But if you're in this everyone does prefer the human element of meeting the right people at the right time.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the human ones you get anxiety about.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, oh shoot, what should I wear?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and then too.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_04: And people have done that certainly, where you'll say, let's just do it online.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_04: You don't, that's not it's what works for you ultimately.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm not sure.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: Online works get anxious.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: My uh mine people were calling like, what should I wear?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: I said, just have fun.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can wear jeans, you can wear uh a suit.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'll probably have a coat on since I'm hosting it, but just have fun.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's the number one.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: I would agree a thousand percent.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's good advice.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: Don't weigh over drink and have fun.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: You don't you can have fun without drinking 30 beers, but anyway.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: I would agree a hundred percent.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I actually quit drinking, so I used to have a lot of fun doing it, but I didn't drink 30.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm exaggerating, but anyway.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: Only once.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: Only once.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: That is awesome.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I mean, so so we appreciate you reaching out, man.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: I do appreciate you reaching out for this.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, uh great, great subjects here.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: I love all the content, you know, as far as events, how people interact, and all that.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: So if a business was like, okay, we're lost right now, we got all this AI stuff on, we don't know what in the world we're doing on social media to go along with all the AI going on.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how could they get a hold of you, Dominique?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: LinkedIn.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: LinkedIn, search my name, Dominic Miserindino, RTM Nexus.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: RTM Nexus, Dominique Miserindino.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: I said it right.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: Look at me, man.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a pro, man.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: You're a pro.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, awesome, man.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you, sir.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Very good, sir.