SPEAKER_00 0:06

What's going on, brother? How you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Oh, jinx, bro.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Yo. Let me turn this off. What's up?

SPEAKER_02 0:15

What are you watching uh replays of March Madness?

SPEAKER_00 0:19

No man, just some Brady Bunch. I've been getting some memories coming going back to the old days.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Oh, so you get invited on 20 year timeout podcast and you're like gonna go watch the Brady Bunch.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Yeah, dude. Yeah, you know, I'm trying to vibe. Proper. I mean, you know, tell me more.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Like clockwork, dude. You said, Oh, I hope that your daughter goes down. And you know what? She's like clockwork. I put her down, she was quiet, didn't make a peep, and at 737, every night she just wants it's like she wants uh her us to know that she's in bed, but she wants us to come give her her binky or give her her little back rub before she goes into her deep sleep.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Every time.

unknown 1:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

And she's spoiled, dude. She's the third one. She like gets the the cuddles and like, oh, she she wants this. Just give it to her. Like the other kids were like, we were tougher. We were like, no, let her cry it, let them cry it out for a little. This baby, oh, you want to come into bed with us? Just come into bed with us. Slack.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

How many you got three, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

That's awesome. I got two.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Two uh boys or girls?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah, little boy and a little girl. Perfect. Six six-year-old little boy and eleven-year-old little girl.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

It's wild run, man. Wild run.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Mine are five, three, and eight months. I think. Ooh!

SPEAKER_00 1:49

You are in it with the eight month. Okay. I didn't know that you were that young. Yeah. Okay. How old are you? 40. Okay. Boom. That's a grand slam, brother. That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Yeah, get it. Get it done. We were firing off on all cylinders for a while.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yeah, you were. So you so you so you ripped off, you've been in digital media for most of your career, and now you're like, you're reaching back 20 years and you're going, golly, I I need some Mormon fuzzies right now. I'm kind of like midlife in it.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Yeah, it's like a midlife crisis nostalgia. It started with uh refurbishing my classic Nintendo.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

That thing was sitting in my basement for twent twenty thirty years, and I was like, I want to play that thing. Uh the games were like, I had to blow in them a bunch of times. So I ordered a new 88-pin connector from eBay and took it apart, threw that in there, cleaned all the games, and then started playing the games. Yeah, I'm like a fiend for nostalgia.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Oh man, I mean, I'm sitting over here with one, two, three, four, five mini arcade games for my son. I think I probably mess around with them more than he does because it reminds me of being, you know, just Street Fighter, Motal Combat, Turtles and Tower. Like Pac, like I got like Pac-Man, Tetris, boring shit, but boring stuff, you know, like Pac-Man Tetris, Pac-Man, Tetris Fiend dude.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

I still got the Game Boy with just Tetris loaded up in a man.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

It's like when you see those pixels, it's like hearing the Sports Center song, and it just brings you back to that time. Like boom, you're in it.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Have you seen these new Tetris players who hold the controller sideways and like tap it?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

No, but I'm I mean, it's I'm not I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised they're not hanging from the chandelier yet.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

These are young kids crushing Tetris till the uh break screen, like breaking the game because they can play that intensely till the end. Where our generation couldn't figure that out. They tilt the controller on its side and they do this for tapping method where they can tap like right four times in a row. So if you get a a piece dropping, you can go right to the side, right to the side, and they're fast.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

I remember bragging about how I had, I don't remember what it was, but you know, when you were playing Mario Brothers, if you could jump up the steps real fast or you could get the Beatle to hit a hundred times, you could get infinite life. Used to be real proud of those, you know, being able to go through those games real fast. But you're talking about people holding the controller sideways now and hanging up.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

My brother claims he could do that 100 uh free life trick. I could never figure it out, dude. Still, I see the reels.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah, that's funny. And contrary to mess with me on that. Yeah. That's so funny, man.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Uh what uh what other so Pac-Man Tetris? Um is it like an all-in-one console?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

No, it's those little mini arcades.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

You know, the little Oh, a mini one. Got you.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

It's just the little small ones. I just littered the room with them so that we could walk in and be like, hey, Benny, check it out, man. You got a whole arcade right there in the corner. You got seven, five, six, seven games you can go play. He's like, Dad, I like Roblox.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

He just wants to jump on the computer, you know. Makes me feel good about myself, though. So, you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

I've noticed if I let my son play, he's only five, but he can get to the third, he can get to the castle in Mario from level one. So he can beat four, three levels. He can't beat the castle yet.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Oh, yeah, there's no doubt. They're far more advanced than we would ever dream of being. There's there's just no doubt about it in all regards, not just the video games.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

I feel like he's calmer in that struggle than if I throw it.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Situational awareness.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, like if I put Xbox on and he's like walking around, probably shouldn't let him play Red Dead Redemption, but he likes to ride the horse. Yeah. He's like, he already he like figured out how to shoot the gun. I was like, all right, I need to shut the game off. I can't let him play anymore because he's over here trying to find stuff to shoot, and then you know, he runs in the townspeople and they're like swearing at him, and he's like, Oh, bad words. I was like, all right, we need to stick to Mario. That's dad, daddy's bad.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, I stick to those games too, man. If it's got, if it's basic, if it's got a basic concept or I can remember it from back in the day, I'll jump on and play the new version of it. I'm cool with that. But I never really did get into the RPGs and stuff. Past Tomb Raider, you know, does kind of get like right around that era.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

I mean, these old the old games are hard too. I can't, you know, like Contra, super Contra. These are like super hard games where you get hit three times, you're done, game over, start over.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and now I've I think I kind of got to the point where my daughter, she's into the video games. She likes all the uh the new stuff. The kids like the 11-year-olds, all the little fashion games and little niche games that get them all interested, super, super deep and interested in the storyline. They love it. Um, but I just can't keep up with all of the thought that has to you have to put into being proficient at one of these things now. It's almost like uh I think we should start making a decision. Should we just start administering school and education to children completely online like this and just adopt it? Because they really do learn a lot on these things, to be honest with you. Yeah, and you hear most people say the opposite, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah, they wanna they wanna go the opposite and then, you know, you can't really change turn back time. You're not gonna go back to VHS's and write in curses.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

It's never gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Never gonna happen. I know that no, nobody wants to hear that, but you know, there's gotta be a way to embrace what's going on with like technology and uh we hear all these buzzwords now, but we're really having to lean into it. Uh AI and all this stuff, even in business, uh, from video games to business, but it's gotta be embraced. So I yeah, I didn't mean to get us off track there, but uh No, I talk about it all the time. We don't go backwards. There's no going back. We're just not a society that goes backwards.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

I think about it all the time. I like want to get create a guide for my kids to use social media for good, you know. And I think it happens with a hot like what is your hobby? What is your passion? What are you gonna create and put out in the world and then talk to people about what you're doing versus doom scrolling or not having a purpose? Like, yeah, you want Facebook? Awesome. What's your purpose for this platform? Because it's gotta relate to your life and it has to have a positive impact in your life. Uh if it's having a negative impact, man, we're not we're gonna move away from it. We'll get rid of the internet because positive we want positive actions and like instill confidence.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

I think have you ever heard of uh I'm sure the answer is yes. I'm not asking what your opinion is. I'm just curious if you've heard of him, but Dave Ramsey.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Never read uh one of his books or listened to a podcast. I really don't know much about him.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

All right. Um, you know, there's there's there's financial uh people there's financial uh analysts out there, advisors and talk show hosts that are syndicated, uh, they get their message out to the masses about how to save your money, how not to spend your money frivolously, how to be frugal, and how to survive in tough economic times, how to build wealth. All those professionals out there. Well, I think that professionals like that who have a system for finance and a system for organization, financial organization, should uh I think that we should adopt that in digital media, social media, and and learn, just like what you said, teach our children to almost budget themselves like they budget their finances when they get older. So that there's uh a use and a purpose for every minute spent. Now, I know that that might seem a little extreme uh to s to say it that way. You know, make sure there's a purpose for every minute you spend on social media or the internet, but that's kind of a that's kind of a really great concept and baseline for financial management when you're when you're figuring it out, when you're young and you know, throughout your entire life. So maybe those principles can help us square away on some of that, some of that fat, trim some of that fat.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

When I realized, oh, I need to have financial literacy, I was like, why couldn't I have learned this in third grade? You know, I was like mad at the world. Like, what was I doing? What were they teaching me?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

But then you know, uh, well, you find out when you get older, I think you don't figure it out. But I think I think we're influenced in school by you know, really whatever messaging is out there that comes from from a lot really from a lot of other places, you know, especially the public school system.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

But yeah, and who knows if it truly was made to teach us the way or to control us so that we could make the big Rockefellers of the world money and control us.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah. I'm getting off on a tangent, dude. Well, I mean, there there's conspiracy theory in it, and I didn't just I didn't mean to say it as if that's what you were saying, but I meant and there's good people out there, great teachers and educators and people that care about what they're doing that are that see all that stuff. But the truth of the matter is, is that, you know, we we still were exposed to all the messages and all of the cultural sort of norms that were and the legislation that was infused into the curriculum that we were administered to, that was administered to us and we're a product of that in some way, shape, or form. At least I don't know if you feel this. To a certain extent, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

But I feel blessed to have had the teachers I had growing up, whether they were stern and always on my case or whether they were influencing and having me like really embrace my creativity, dude. It it was just I'm so blessed to have all the teachers I had. I hope that teachers, you know, hang in there and try to get back to that way. I know it's tough for them.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

I do too. I feel for teachers, I feel, you know, for even for kids coming up right now, I say that only because I only have myself and my experiences to to base my uh opinion on and how I feel about it. But I think there's a there's a there's a hill to climb with uh, you know, the trans transitioning into sort of just a new way of doing things and re-establishing the the morals and the ethics and the values that got us where we are um at the same time. Woo! Big mission, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

I I forget, are you a religious person?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

I'm a Christian. I I wouldn't say I'm over-religious. Um, I do my mom is um a religious person. My I would say my brother is too, and we talk uh together pretty regularly about spiritual things and um in our faith. Yeah. But I'm not in church every Sunday, like uh I probably could be, I guess, if I were Me too.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

My wife has started going and taking the kids, and I've only gone twice since she started. She loves it, and the kids love going to their group and the friends they have. But Yeah. I don't enjoy it as much. I I when I'm there, I like it, but it's I'm just driven in my busy week that that morning is like my time to gather my thoughts and either have a workout or clean up something in the house I haven't gotten to all week, or even do a bit of sidework, you know. And that maybe that's selfish, but that's just honest honestly how I feel about it.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

I think as men, that's the choice we have to make as we get older and ultimately come to that final time, you know, and women and people. Um, I feel the same way though. It's it's hard for me to uh to get away from that. Because if you can't find if if you find me on a Sunday morning, I I'm I'm usually I'm not I'm not in church on a Sunday morning. I'm doing something. I'm building something, I'm you know, planning something, um working on something, breaking something on accident. That happens every now and then.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Oh, I can fix that. I'll be it'll be done in an hour, three hours later on YouTube. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Absolutely, a hundred percent, man. Yeah, damn YouTube. It's it's a blessing and a curse to have. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

I started doing my own oil changes. You know, the first couple times was a was cluster and like I was getting oil everywhere, but now that I have it down pat, it's literally like a 10-minute process and I enjoy it. But yeah, I tried to do my mom's oil and she had a different type of like thing because she had a Toyota. I ended up cracking her plastic um oil filter pan. I had to go buy a new one. Yep. One hour job, you know, half hour, 20-minute job turned into like four hours. I was like, all right, I need to stop trying to be Mr. Handy.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yeah, my story, I guess, if if we were gonna go comparison is about a month and a half, two months ago, right before I traded my truck in. Old Ford F-150, it was like a 20 2013 Ford F-150, door handle stopped working. So I go, Oh, yeah, you know, it seems complicated, but I'm sure I can figure out the fix on YouTube. So I go look it up, check it out. Oh man, that guy just popped that rod right off there with that little hook, right? I'll just go buy that from Lowe's, that little tool. And I watched the video, it really looks simple, but sure enough, you know, you gotta apply the right pressure to that rod in a certain kind of a way in order to not snap it. And so I broke it and um the door ended up working after I was done, but just didn't lock because I broke that mechanism. So damn you, YouTube, for making me think that I can do something I'm not qualified to do.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

I took my BMW door off because the windows weren't rolling down.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

I couldn't even get the door back on, dude. That thing was just hanging on like for the rest of the time I had the car. I was like, oh man, whatever. I just like duct taped it up. I was like, all right, let's keep moving here. You can't add drive-throughs. I used to have to open the door and grab the coffee like this.

unknown 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Because the window didn't roll down.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

I only had the car for six more years after that.

unknown 16:16

It was fine.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

So you driving it. You're driving a sweet whip now? You're driving like a brand new Escalade or what, Bogatti? No, well, let me let me step it up for you.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

No, my wife gets the new car. Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Oh, truth. Um You can't have shit.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

I I guess I'm a frugal person too. Like the idea of having two car payments infuriates me. So yeah, I've just kind of drove cheap used, like, four thousand dollar cars. I did have a a 2000 through 2007 Odie, uh, but I bought it for 4K cash and I had it for like eight years. I just got rid of it recently, and now we got the Toyota Highlander because of the three rows. Yeah, and I have our old Nissan Rogue, which was a cheap vehicle, and we're pushing 180k on that thing. Let's keep it, let's keep it rolling.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

I don't 180,000 miles on the on the rogue.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

I mean, those transmissions aren't great. Dude, my BMW had two 240.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Yeah, my Ford had 228. Um, but your BMW, when you traded in, was still going, you said?

SPEAKER_02 17:27

No, uh, my mom locked the keys in it, and when we finally, and it had an electronic key, when we finally got the door open, the whole electronics were fried. They couldn't figure it out at BMW. So they're like, dude, we can keep digging into this, but your car's worth like two grand. I was like, yeah, all right. So I I brought it to the scrapyard, and that's when I got the OD.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah, I'd say a car is probably what the worst investment we'll ever make in our lifetimes. Didn't take me 20 years to figure that one out, but um I think I traded my truck in for 900 bucks.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yeah.

unknown 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Bought it for 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

I couldn't when I looked at new prices, I was like, let's just buy used Oh man, I think buying a brand new car I've never I don't I've never bought a brand, brand new car.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Um maybe one one time. I think I bought a brand new truck about fifteen, sixteen years ago that got traded in quick. But that's probably the worst possible decision I'd say to make from an investment money.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Don't tell that to a 20-year-old in a brand new$120,000 uh truck.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah. Especially one that just got off out of boot camp in the military. Locked up.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Oh, you have to have the fully loaded RAM.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Yeah, you better, and yeah. Better be decked out with tweets and a subwoofer and have even today, they still roll around with it. Remember the old bump? Did you all did you guys ever do the old bump and have it have your cars all tricked out with just with audio, with bass and just the audio, dude.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

I had two cars that I had and I installed the stereos. I had a 1986 Volvo 740 intercool with a crank sunroof.

unknown 19:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

I had two subs in that, I had two six by nines, and then I had um like seven-inch speakers in each door and just Alpine deck thing, just sounded mint. And then when that car broke, I took all that gear and put it into my 93 Ford Escort GT five speed manual teal. That thing was cool.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

So you are a big time car guy. You probably have like you talk about you talk about how you don't want to dump into hoopties, you say hoopties with with what with uh with a whole bunch in them. Yeah. To me, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

The reason I bought the Odie was it had a mint stereo. Like it was so enjoyable to just put a CD in or connect like a podcast. Just the audio clarity was beautiful in that uh vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the best times to listen to music is just cruising down the road anyway.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

For sure. And like if you can have a nice if you love like sound, having a nice stereo in there just makes the ride better.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

No better place to get those acoustics, I agree. So what are you doing now, man? You're living where where'd you say you're living up in Western Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Uh yeah, a place called Warren Mass outside of Worcester, an hour, a half hour, an hour and a half outside of Boston.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah. So I remember when you were down this way, um, down my way, that was a short period of time, right? Just what, a couple of years or something? What just one year, dude? One year of your life. Wow. So you just crank came and ran the uh Savannah Fiber, you know, the the Southeast 500 and said, All right, I'm out. I'm getting back to the getting back to the crib, to the homestead.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yeah, I mean, I really didn't know what to do with my life, so I was like, all right, if I'm not gonna go to school, the point was to go to school down there, and that never happened.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Okay. I was okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

So you were thinking And then I was like, uh I had like a little dough in my pocket, so I was like, maybe I should just move home and try to figure it out. Although you folks were real fun and real nice to me, so it was kind of hard to leave, but yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

You were you were awesome. I remember enjoying I enjoyed working with you. Enjoyed the hell out of it. Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, man.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Yeah, I just we me and Jason Restivo did this two weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Really? Jason's hey, he's crushing it. His new restaurant's doing really, really well.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Um he was gonna be successful in restaurants, there was no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah, I mean, working with him and and learning from him about wine was was a great experience. I think it was probably once in a lifetime opportunity. Yeah, even it was like college for everyone. Yeah, it was really was like college, wasn't it? Yep. I mean I

SPEAKER_02 22:01

It's funny. I mean, I kept notebooks of all the shit we were doing and learning and like I would go home and think about it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Absolutely. So you got your experience in the food industry and you went up back up to math and you so you always been a dig is it am I right about that? You've always sort of been a digital media guy. I helped companies grow and brand themselves and um Yeah. Well, when I came back up, create good messaging.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Started going to school.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Uh because I knew I needed to get a college degree, and I went and got my master's degree, but I was still waiting tables. When I got my master's degree, I was so depressed. I was like, what the hell was all this for? It's like I thought I thought I would get a nice job and like I would just be set up after that. But the reality is no. So I was waiting tables and I met uh owner of a digital agency, and we just kind of linked up and started doing freelance work and kind of just learning from him. Oh, this is what customers buy. This is and man, I was not that good at some of the stuff he was asking me to do. It was like learning too, like opportunity, right? Yeah, and how to like do graphic design and how to learn how to do websites and what is marketing and how to do sales and learn video, email, you know, how do you get leads, how do you build a lead gen system? It was just problem solving after problem solving. Yeah. So now I work in manufacturing and yeah, still doing marketing and just love solving that problem for people.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Cool. And so you're in you said you're in manufacturing now. Yeah. You can kind of float two industries, can't you? I guess once you get to know one industry, the core messaging in one industry, you could you float to another, you capture that, and then you put your spin on it, right? For that company. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

And manufacturing, there was just such a need for marketing. You know, a lot of engineers and everything's so digital now. There's a lot of problems to solve in that space. And companies are really starting to invest in AI systems and marketing and lead gen and just like how do we okay, we've been referral-based for thir forty, fifty years. How do we branch out and start to do cold outreach and find people or have people find us?

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah. I think that that uh industry in particular has been notoriously bad at um the whole marketing advertising piece of the business puzzle. Would you agree with that? Those uh the engineers, the engineers Oh the manufacturing side. The manufacturing side, maybe those type of Yeah, because they don't need it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Well Well, the I think they want it now. They want it You know, I haven't been in I've only been in the industry oh in manufacturing for four years or five years, so Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

I'm really interested. Yeah, just coming from a place of curiosity more than anything else. That's what I was saying.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yeah, it's a great conversation to have, you know. Especially, yeah, there's a l the old timers who a lot of them are multi-generational companies too. Their dad started it or their dad purchased it and ran it for 30 years, 40 years, and now their sons or daughters are coming to take over, and there's uh an issue with culture, and there's transition on how work is done even with remote and you know, using Teams or Slack.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

So you'll CMMC, there's security things, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

So if you were uh, you know, if the company were an engine and uh that engine were being put for the first time and run in a brand new car, you're like coming in with all the oil and grease and and serum that lets all the gears kind of move and run in this new business environment. This AI sort of digital leaning-centric business environment that we're I always have a funny metaphor. I always describe it like I'm working on it, man.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

I always describe it as like I'm the I'm the Broadway choreographer here. You know, we need to put on a performance and we're not just performing for the people in the front row. We need to reach the people in the back row, and we can't be boring, and we can't we have to stand out and we have to um you know, we can't be afraid to go out and perform to everybody. You can't have you can't be sh stage shy or uh yeah, stage fright. You can't have stage fright.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Stage fright, stage shy, shy shy. Yeah. I mean you can't. Even though I do, but I mean it's true though. You can't you can't have stage fright. And and I think even even further is it's like if you don't have if you're if you have stage fright, and let's say, I mean, if you're an entrepreneur and you have stage fright, I feel like there's so much encouragement to get involved and and try to get yourself seen and known that you miss, and I'll make my point here, but I think a lot of uh a lot of young business owners and entrepreneurs miss the point that what of what you just said, and that's that people buy an experience. They don't just buy a product or even a person. But if you can, if you can get be noticeable and let somebody have an experience when they engage with you and your product and your company and your service and your process, then they'll then they'll move into a buying decision more often than not. But I think that gets lost when you when when people are first getting into um marketing, branding, advertising, figuring out the difference between all three of those and where maybe the overlaps are and how to get their message out about what it is that they're doing to help other people get their message out about their company and what it does. I think that that gets missed just because you they're trying to market, they're trying to put out volume and trying to put out information and but forget about that point you just made, which is the experience. It's got you're putting on a show. Putting on a show. Yeah, I didn't mean to ramble, man. I you know, I just kind of was.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

No, you could literally we could talk here for five hours. This is like Joe Rogan and you could crack a six-pack. I'm well, I shouldn't say that. I got a 10 o'clock bedtime, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, yeah, you gotta get your Z's. Yeah. Gotta get your Z's. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

At least 11 o'clock. Like I'll be good if I'm in bed by 11.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Well, I mean, like, I'm a bachelor, so yeah, I was married for 15 years, and now I'm all of a sudden, you know, 50-50 custody, love my kids, but I have this time. So staying on that routine like I was on before, getting to the gym, working out, doing stuff like that. A lot of people think that that would be an easy thing. But, you know, staying focused when you have, you know, that much stuff going on, um, and getting to bed and getting your sleep so you can feel good for the next day. Heck, man, that that can be tough sometimes. So, you know, having that discipline too, that that's been something uh trying to tie it back to 20 years, you know. Getting back into that routine that that 20 years had me in for a while. It's been fun.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

So take me through uh you're still living in Savannah or R Rhine, Rhingold? What's it called?

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Yeah, there's a there's a little little city outside of Savannah called Rincan. Uh. Yep. And uh it's probably like 15 minutes west of Savannah. I live out there. And uh right now I am doing two things, two primary things. I'm selling windows, doors, and sunrooms for uh a large home remodeling company. And I started a construction network where I help contractors find skilled workers and business professionals. So spending some time at job fairs, having fun doing something I actually enjoy. Um, I like working with young people, you know, back back back in the day, I did a lot of stuff at schools in martial arts. So I liked teaching. I like that whole environment of teaching and advising and helping. So um construction networks kind of helped breathe some life back into, you know, every day, having that great purpose. And uh, you know, being with that remodeling company kind of ties in really nicely too. So that's what I ended up moving into after my my 15 years in commercial insurance and marriage to kind of kind of bring that home.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Was there like you left insurance because you were more passionate about working with the contracting network and you know, I I I I left insurance man because, you know, the money, the money was good.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

I did, I did well with it for most of the time I was in it. This is just the truth. And then when I got really it was it, I I think if when I look back on it, I attested to, you know, probably some bad, um, probably not looking at my situation, personal problems, you know, marital stuff, along with just kind of going in and out of bad habits, um, you know, not working out, working out, having too many beers after work, not having too many beers after work, you know, getting into those habits that we all tend to get into. Um, when you get comfortable, get a little bit, maybe got a little bit lazy. Um so heck, I forgot the question you just asked me. It's a reasonable.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

These aren't easy questions, and I'm just throwing them out there. Yeah. But what I was curious about is like, how does insurance work? Like, obviously, people become a rep first, and then like can you franchise out and own your own insurance business? And is it, you know, how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Yeah, man. Um, insurance is multi-tiered comp uh business, like, in my opinion. I I remember you asked me why I got out of insurance, I think. Um but yeah. Which is a hard question.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

I mean it is a answer it if you don't want to, you know. I'm just curious about insurance.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

It's hard, it's hard to be passionate about it, man. It's hard to be passionate about insurance. I mean, um, for me it is. You know, some people, it's in them. Um it was in me the money when the money was good and uh and it felt like there was a fair trade-off for my time that I was spending on it. Um, I think there's also uh, you know, certain industries and and depending on where you come from in your life and and what you believe in within yourself, certain industries can be more challenging to some people than to others, you know, especially if you have um different things like uh that you deal with like limiting beliefs and that sort of thing. So, you know, as you grow through an industry, you you grow into really loving it, or sometimes you just grow into really not it not being your cup of tea. And I think that it was a combination of, when you asked me earlier why I got it, it was a combination of a little bit of both. The money was great, but it was just like kind of ended my uh my time just ended with the insurance. I was kind of over it by that time. The way that it works, the industry, you could be an agent for directly for an insurance company and work as a W-2 employee, which is what I did to start. That's a captive insurance agent. Or you could be an insurance agent and work for an insurance agency. Uh, sometimes that's confused for an insurance brokerage. That company is the one that has a license that has the agreements and the contracts with all the insurance companies. And that way you, as the agent, have access to all those products that that agency has access to through their agreements. Most of it's all based on volume and sales. So that's why it's so hard for one independent agent to go and get access to different insurance carriers because there are rules that they have uh in this industry for you to be able to take your license and sell the product that you're licensed to sell. So you can go work for directly for an insurance company as a W-2 employee and just sell their one insurance product. You could go work for an agency or a brokerage and sell multiple insurance products. Um, those are the two main ways to do it. Or you can be an independent agent and contract yourself with what's called an aggregator, which is an organization that contracts with other insurance agents and pools together all of their revenue so that they can qualify to have the contracts with the insurance carriers and provide the product to us, the consumer. So there's a couple of different ways you can be an insurance agent.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

What insurances do you think people should carry? Like what are a couple important ones? Life insurance, whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Important insurance. Yeah. I think that having some kind of life insurance in place is crucial. I don't think having cash value life insurance is the smartest move for uh young people. That's just my opinion. I think young people would do better taking their money and investing it uh in some kind of whether it's the stock market and if you don't believe in the stock market, invest it in some kind of a business concept that you have skin in the game on so that you have interest in what happens to your money, uh, or invested in, I think real estate is fantastic. It's the most favorable tax. Um, I would say it's probably got the most favorable taxed treatment um from an income tax standpoint of any type of investment.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

So like multifamilies or commercial or the same single family. I think that you're gonna generate revenue, right, from it.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

You got to generate revenue from it. Uh my rule of thumb was always I would always go into a project, and this was just me because I was kind of a smaller time re remodeling uh landlord type company business. I would buy um smaller properties, condos, townhomes. I was always looking for 2% a month. So if I was buying a house for$50,000, I wanted to know that I could get at least$1,000 a month in rent for it. And that was hard to do, especially um in the market that I was in. But I would usually land somewhere in the like 1.6 range, 1.75 range, um, because I'd have enough money down to put on the project and the and the the cash on cash return would look good enough for me to do, and I'd do it.

unknown 36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

My friends up here will agree with you. Like I have a similar philosophy about marketing. Like one day I'm all gung ho about it, and the next day I'm like confused about it because it's just so flooded with gurus and like snake oil salespeople about like what SEO is and what how to generate your client, you know, 10x. And some days I'm like, well, truly what it we're we're just trying to get authority for the brand, you know, with SEO. Really does have nothing to do with what people are saying about content writing and optimizing. Really, it comes down to like getting quality backlinks, you know, unless there's different approaches, like local versus national SEO. So I'm always like, customers ask me for this all the time, and I'm reluctant to get into it because there's so many gurus, and like you don't need to have a certification. You could literally go build out a website and you're an agency all of a sudden, you could offer all these products, yeah. And some of them could be just trash, unless low barrier entry. And I don't want people to look at me as someone who's doing that, and sometimes, you know, as a self-taught marketer, you do start you s do sometimes wonder like am I bringing you know, you know, are other people bringing way better returns for their customers for the same costs? And that's just my personal like education on like growth hacking, if you want to call it that. I'm always searching for and that's a new philosophy that I've kind of made myself do, is like trying to network. Part of this podcast is like getting better at networking, get getting out there. Absolutely. Talking with other people in marketing who do what I do, and you know, what are the results they are getting? Can they totally trash an opera uh process or system I have built out so that I can build it the right way? Um, so yeah, I'm always back and forth too. It's like, you know, I pursued video for a while, I pursued creative writing, I pursued some like one-on-one work, non-profits, you know. I'm still trying to search for, you know, how I would and that's part of the fun too, is like being an entrepreneur like yourself. Oh, what could I scale up tomorrow? Is there something better I could be working on? You know?

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Yeah. So your bread and butter you'd say is that SEO lane or that directional that that the yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

It's so scattered. I mean, I was doing a lot of dance recitals, doing videography for a while, and I was doing like corporate videos, and people were asking me for those, and then I'm looking at the timeline and I'm like, man, I need to be charging a whole lot more for the amount of time that goes into pre-production, production, cus uh edits back and forth. And then I was like, oh, maybe I should just do like quicker one-off projects, like a handyman versus like a full contractor. A handyman goes in and hangs three TVs and he's out and he gets paid. So I was starting to look at marketing like that. You know, what can I do in one day and be in and out and and keep doing that and bringing value? But marketing is long long term. Usually you go to a client who wants, let's say they just want a website refresh or just they don't have a website and they want one, you're gonna run into 20 different problems, like, oh, your Google My Business isn't optimized. Oh, you have no photos, um, you don't even have a brand guide. What's your mission for your company? Who is your target audience? Like you just not saying I have all the answers, but I, you know, you you start to see the gaps. And and you tr you want to fill them in as a mar someone in marketing because you want to bring the most value you can and you kind of need, you know, you need these 25 assets that work in tandem for a business to be successful. Because I think of it as, all right, if I'm gonna, if if we're gonna build something up, I want people to start like approaching to buy it. Like, oh, I want to buy it because one, you have this beautiful website, you have all these digital assets, you have a great social media um presence, your video is so on point, that's part of your, you know, and then oh, all your business side stuff is great, you know. You've got PL and all that other stuff, and you got a great customer base, you know, 10 years of growth.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

I can I always just keep rambling on, dude.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Well, no, man, I'm listening to every word you're saying. I mean, because all of that's important, and I think you're just pointing out, it sounds to me like you're just pointing out something that is very common across the board with business owners that you can help. And that's sort of a recurring theme. Um, I wonder if there's a if there's that recurring thing, you have systems and you have processes, every situation is different, though, right? You know, every every case is different. I was just talking to a guy who I work closely with. His name is Mark Wynne. He's the owner of Alien Creative. He helps me out with a lot of the digital media um production and and the things that I'm doing with Contractor Guy Network uh to kind of stand out to the students and skilled workers and tax attorney, uh, tax professionals and attorneys that we're connecting with the construction companies on our network. And he is um Mark's an interesting guy. Uh he he does all the the digital media work and works with companies. Uh dang it, I was just trying to make another point. It's the second time I lost my chart. You better edit that out.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Um uh I don't got time for editing, bro.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

Cut that out. Cut that out. Where was I going with that? Don't tell anyone.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

He's in the digital space. He's helping with facilitate you helping people in that industry.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Yeah, he's he's doing a lot of that stuff. And you were just talking about digital media, and we were talking about uh goodness gracious. Why did I bring him up? Hmm. I'm sorry. Yeah, you'll have to come back to me, Richard. Yeah, it'll come back. I can't remember the point I was trying to make just then. Um It's too late. It's too late. We've got to do this in the morning. Dude, yeah, my caffeine's run through my whole body already. Um anyway, brilliant guy. Does uh does a ton of social media work, SEO uh does some SEO work. We were talking about SEO, right? And uh how you're able to help what you're doing to help your clients.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Um get maybe he's uh he's multifaceted, he can help where the problems are, or what's annoying to some people is pointing out the problems and and they don't want to hear it. You know, ego sometimes is in there. And I I like to try to always say, like, I have no ego in this. Please rip me down. I'm just gonna pick my beat ass up off the floor and try to get tougher and stronger and move forward from it.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

That's all you can do, man. That's all you can do. Um I don't think any one idea, especially in the creative world, is gonna fit uh any one company or business owner. It's Sometimes it's throw it up against the wall and see what sticks because it's not about what you want, even though you know what's best for them. Or you think you we think we do. Contractor network is like a staffing agency or well, it's I I'd say it's a new concept. It's contractor guy network. Um I appreciate you asking that. It's uh it's a net it's a construction network that I started to build when I was just ending my insurance career, and I was thinking, man, I really need to differentiate myself from the competition. So I'm gonna provide a resource to my clients um that gets them access to the information they need to stay compliant, um, follow regulation, make sure they're not getting fined. So I started building this network and connecting with schools, tech schools to supply or to get access to skilled workers. Seemed like skilled workers were such a big deal to all of the clients that I had as I was helping them with risk management and insurance. So over time, yeah, it grew into that. Um, sort of this skilled worker agency, recruiting agency, I guess, uh maybe uh on the front end, but also added a few things, added business services to it. So tax professionals and insurance agents and digital media specialists like you and like Mark and some of the stuff I'm dabbling in, SEO and websites. So it's become uh it's become a vehicle for not just people looking for work in skilled trades in construction, project managers and even machinists and engineers and welders and framers and electricians and plumbers, but it's become a place for business professionals to showcase their skills and help those construction professionals advise them around those employee and hiring issues that they face when they do their home masters mentoring. Yeah, yeah, I was, man.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Um it's not as like at a high level where you're at. We just saw a need in um like first-time business owners where there might just be one or two employees, you know, they're not scaled to a million dollars or even five hundred thousand, yeah, and they're thinking of taking on employees, or they're having a tough time managing their employees and they're used to being in the field and now they want to get in the office.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

So we started Home Masters Mentoring as just a business group where we met once a month. We had a Slack channel and we had some like every month we would put together, you know, oh, let's together as a group build a marketing plan, build a business plan. Maybe they had a maybe they didn't. Um, how can we automate some things? How do we do our book bookkeeping? Are we are we doing our own bookkeeping? Why aren't we outsourcing it? Just common problems that um and the guy I ran with ran it with best handing man Boston, Ryan Tuttle, he's like a a master of automation and running b you know, he had a tile and carpentry company um that he ran for 20 years, had his blood, sweat, and tears into it. One day he met with a leadership mentor, and the mentor looked at his books and said, Hey bud, you gotta close this company. And he was heartbroken because he's like, What do you mean? I've been building this company's worth millions of dollars. And he's like, This company isn't worth anything. I think you need to close it and start over. So he did. He put his ego to the side, and that's where he came up with best handyman Boston. He's like, All right, this model makes more sense for me. Um we're gonna, we're gonna be the best handyman service in Boston. We're gonna go do one, two-day jobs, we're still gonna do our kitchens, we're still gonna do our remodels, we're still gonna do tile, but we're gonna offer uh all these other services that all these homeowners are asking me all the time if we can do, you know, uh monthly maintenance plans, reoccurring revenue, you know. Um, and he's been super successful. And it's defunct now, but it was super fun doing that business group, and we learned a lot. And the guys and girls that were in the group were actually it was guys and girls, and then we switched it to guys only because we that was just the vibe.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, when you got your when you when you find that circle or that community that vibes like that, you gotta go with it, right? That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

Yeah, because these are tough, these are tough like guys in the industry. A lot of them were working for a company and were like so fed up with how it was run that they just started their own.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

That's what that's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

I was gonna ask you that, you know, who exactly or where where where the source of the the interest was coming from, and it sounds like it was mostly that, and there was also a couple multi-generational, like dad ran the company for 40 years, didn't have books, didn't use technology, smoked butts in the van, you know, white van with no lettering, would go in, just bang jobs out, uh didn't put tarps down, didn't have customer service.

unknown 49:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

You do the job and then you disappear. Well, and some of them were really nice. Some of them were really organized, but they just didn't have the digital. They were still using invoices from staples and a folder, you know?

SPEAKER_00 49:25

Yeah, and then but the difference was that they could actually go out and build that batch plant for those ready mixed trucks to drive under and go take their loads to the job sites. They knew how to put every bolt and every screw into that thing. And now they're uh their smoky white van retiring selves are letting their next generation kids take over, and they've been playing some video games for a while. So we're trick we gotta figure out how to bridge that gap for them.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

And also a lot of them thought they had a business they could sell, and that was gonna be their retirement. And when they put the business up for sale, it didn't sell.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Yeah. Nope. Yeah. And they found out that a business broker was gonna hit them at 20%, and they were they were thinking, oh, I didn't nobody told me about that. And what's a required minimum distribution? Oh. There's a lot of that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 50:16

Or that if they had built up a website for the last 20 years, they'll at least they could list that as an asset, and you know, people pay a premium for a domain that has authority if you don't have it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

I think that's the devastating part about contractors too, in particular. I don't know if you were talking about that industry, but they that that is almost textbook what you see in the construction industry is it's so hard to find loyal and trustworthy, hardworking, dedicated and committed, disciplined employees, team members, people that can buy into a culture. And it all starts with leadership, but um that company comes in, you know, contractors will come in and in five years they're shut down, they're closed out because there's no assets to sell. It's a cash machine. Um, the money comes in, the money goes out, there's nothing left over but some tools and a couple pieces of used equipment. But if there were some kind of a process in place, maybe to take advantage of the demand for whatever it is that company is doing while they were really striping it, then hell, they could be bringing in leads and figuring out another way to keep the revenue generated. Well, maybe it's, you know, working with other partners to do the jobs that are coming in the door, but not taking advantage of that inner the internet and and technology. I hate I hate those words now because they're so they're all they're cliche, I guess, right? At this point, um kind of beaten into the ground. But yeah, they just they die out completely.

SPEAKER_02 51:50

And that, you know, I'm not in that industry. So in the comments, beat me down if you need to. If you I don't know what I'm talking about, please let us know if you're in that industry and tell us the things we got right and the things we got wrong.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Absolutely. Yeah, because that's what that's what at least I'm here to do. And I know Richard, you're here to do is to help. And um, and that's definitely something that that I've noticed a trend in, and I've heard stories about in a lot of association meetings is um trying to solve uh, you know, that epidemic and bring quality into that whole into the construction industry so that business owners can feel confident that they're coming in, starting off small and have access to the resources they need to grow, you know, at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

And these kids are crushing it, man. These trade school kids, I see some of them on they're driven, they're talented, they know how to talk to customers. You know, they might need a mentor. Uh, everyone needs a mentor. Everyone needs a mentor young.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

Everyone needs a mentor.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

These they can be true, they're gonna cr crush business if they keep on the path they're going.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

Yep. I don't know, Richard. What do you think? Like it's we've got the you know, this more capable group of young people. What generation is that? I'm so bad at that. Is it X, Y, Z, T? I don't know. It doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

But we got this maybe X?

SPEAKER_00 53:12

X, you know. Um Uber 6'7, bro. That was 2025. Can't do that, man.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

So old. I did a LinkedIn post today and I made that joke. And I even put a like a thing like, how old is this joke? Can I even say this? It's why I got no likes.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Well, that's what's most important, is that you get actually it is now. See, I don't don't want to be a hypocrite, right? You want to get as many likes as you can, get as much attention as you can. Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 53:42

Who who cares though? It's more about putting what you think out into the world and if it pays off in 20 years. Sometimes you gotta put out the stuff that no one likes so that in 10 or 20 years, it then it's like, oh, that guy was kind of ahead of the curve there.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

Man, as someone who uh understands the principles behind instant gratification, I begrudgingly have to agree with you on that.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

In some you can't fear the judgment. So an idea. You gotta do it. It's not gonna hit. You don't know. It could hit down the road, or it could be a part of your story.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

You gotta do it. Oh I was standing at I you know what? I wanted to bring home that point earlier that we were just talking about, and that was we got this group of kids before I go on to this next thing. We got this group of I say kids and get that out of here because it's not true. Younger people than my old ass that are way more capable and adept in all these different areas because they've been exposed and really been taught and brought up through the school system to have proficiency in these tech and tech with technology. And we've got this aging group over here that's aging out of the trades and construction and the industries that you serve, a lot of different industries. There's a language in between, though. Um have you ever heard the Jerry Seinfeld skit uh about the uh young the the person walking through the park through Central Park drinking, or not drinking, but licking an ice cream cone? And I love Seinfeld. I'm surprised they haven't. And uh so this, so so it's walking through Central Park, someone's walking through Central Park and they're just enjoying their wonderful ice cream cone. And they haven't had one in a long time, and it's a warm summer day, and they lick it and they lick it again, and they lick it one more time, and they're having the greatest, most amazing experience that they've had in months since last time they had an ice cream cone in Central Park. And they go to take the last lick and it goes right down on the ground. And they stop for a second, and they went from having such a fantastic experience and such a great moment with that ice cream cone to looking straight down on the ground and thinking to themselves, man, that really what sucks. There's a really fine line between great and sucks, is what I'm trying to say. And I think that there's something in between the generation that's old and aging out, and the generation that's younger and really proficient with a lot of these new systems that we have access to. And all we have to do is figure out the language in between, that gray area, that fine line. Because if they don't talk to each other and, you know, make that make that move forward together and and merge all this sooner than later, then you know things are gonna suck, you know, and we we wanna make sure that that the in-between, that that language, they can speak that language and communicate with each other so that the next generation can take on these businesses and operate them and grow them instead of letting them shut down and fall out. Yeah, you know, and dissolve.

SPEAKER_02 57:07

Because they're gonna need to call those 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 57:10

Gonna have to talk to them.

SPEAKER_02 57:11

They're gonna run it, they're gonna go into some building and be looking around and be like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah. They're gonna have to call OG and be like, oh, you're a you're a fucking idiot, bro.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

Yeah. This is what you gotta do. Find the find the circuit that's labeled, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 57:27

We gotta be in that fine line. I know I didn't bring that point home, but we gotta be that, you know, I do feel a tremendous responsibility now that I've sort of come to the I'm not at the end of my career or anything, but I definitely have had a career or two. You know what I'm saying? I've had a career or two in my time. And I feel like, yeah, like probably a lot like you, like, man, wow, now I'm kind of can see outside the bubble. I can see some things. You know, I I can see what's going on uh uh in front of me a little bit better. You know, I've been here for a few years. So I see that reminder.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Cat food and water, bird food and water.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

Alexa just reminded me to get some bird food and water. I don't even have a bird. Um cat food? Yeah, I got a cat food.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

You're feeding the cat bird food?

SPEAKER_00 58:13

No, I had a bird for a little while. It's a long story. They're really hard to keep up with. Seeds everywhere, even with the little thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

I grew up with parakeets, dude. We had one that just wouldn't die.

SPEAKER_00 58:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

It was like f 17 years old and it had no feathers. It was just like hopping around. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Poor buddy. What was his name?

SPEAKER_02 58:33

I mean, he outlived like three other we kept buying a new parakeet because he we thought he would be lonely.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

I have a parakeet, you know. Sorry. Seeds everywhere. I get you. I had I had to replace a parakeet so my daughter wouldn't find out about the first one. I felt bad. The old switcheroo. Had to do it. You know? Did she not? No. God, no. Now she does. Oh man. Throwing me under the bus. She'll probably see this one day. Yeah. She's gonna disown me. Now she'll be like, Dad, that was sweet. That was the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. Hopefully, she'll find out young enough to actually say something like that. Before she comes jaded to the world, you know?

SPEAKER_02 59:15

King of Queens reference. I don't know if you watch that show. Doug's dog was like was Doug Carrie's looking at the dog and he's hugging the dog at his parents' house down in Florida, and she's doing the math, and she's like, This dog is 36 years old. And they were like, No, we just keep getting a different dog and keep naming him the same thing. And he's like a grown man, and he he finally figured it out.

SPEAKER_00 59:37

Oh, I wish I was. Yeah. Ain't it funny how you get to a certain point, everything is a replay of what everything's a replay almost? I know.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

I know even when you that's not Jerry Seinfeld, that was Socrates that said that about the ice cream.

SPEAKER_00 59:55

Oh, it was Socrates? Well, Jerry Seinfeld stole it because I just saw it in his last episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

No, I'm I'm I'm I don't think he I just made that up.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

You asshole. I was believing every word of it. You didn't uh Oh, I was convincing? Yeah, you could have you could have said anything right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:12

I'd have been like, damn, I messed that one up.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:15

Yeah, it has been a minute. Uh maybe we'll do this more often and I'll catch back up to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

Yeah, that would be fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:23

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

Dude, I've been keeping in touch with everyone I do uh uh episode with. It's it's been crazy, actually. Yeah, man. It's been super cool. I went from having no friends to now I have like 10 friends.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

Well, dude, all right, so check this. So one of the things, and I I'm not trying to uh overplug or anything like that, but I feel like there's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

Plug away, bro. I don't I don't plug away, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

Hey man, I mean, I got jokes, but I'll leave that alone. Um the uh I think there's a lot of parallels between, you know, kind of what you're doing and um what I'm doing with uh contractor guy network as well. I mean, what our whole brand and what you're doing for companies and kind of what I'm looking to do and am doing for construction industry professionals, but in just just re just packaged in a different way with a different wrapper around it, I suppose. Um definitely digital media leaning forward in everything we do. Uh so uh oh I noticed so Riverside, I mean, even this platform that you're using to do these, to do this uh this podcast, man. Um super cool. Just be in uh, you know, you connecting with me on LinkedIn, and this goes for any anybody I think that is doing what you're doing right now, which is networking, reconnecting with people you've met in your time, um, not being afraid to put yourself out there. Those are all things that uh those are those are that's all important for anyone that's trying to get involved uh to do. And that's what we're doing uh with the network by doing these kind of interviews with the pro services that are in the network. So I'm learning a lot right now just by sitting here talking to you and rambling um about something we can add to our business model, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

Yeah, like a so a business owner who wants to work with you could be like, you know, we're really struggling with finding someone to do payroll. And you would go out and try to find someone who fits within that, you know, they probably need a specific person so you're gonna help facilitate that. They and they maybe they don't have the time they're in the field, or maybe they just are sick of hiring and firing all the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:41

Man, you're hitting the nail on the head. And I think that that's a massive pain for not just construction professionals, but everybody that is in the the that's in the business field or owns a company. Um contractors deal with it at a really high level because they're dealing with a lot of 1099 situations, and then they've usually got just a couple of W-2 employees that they have different set of rules for. So um, you know, I I think that having access to business services like um bookkeepers, which you were saying, and being able to reach out and get some answers on questions like monthly reporting or production per employee production before you hire your next employee, or figuring out what metric you're trying to um you're trying to analyze so that you can make good business decisions, getting access to the professionals like the bookkeepers, um, the tax professionals, the um there's a new thing, not new, but it's been around uh for probably about, I don't know, 15, 20 years. They're called fractional, they're calling them fractional CFOs. That's that's become a real big thing. Um, you know, a lot there's a lot of off-site financial management services available. So yeah, to to your to what you were saying, you it it should be nice. It'd be nice to be able to go to one place to access that kind of a resource or that kind of a professional, set an appointment and get what you need so you can move on and run your company.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

Um or even like to suggest something. Let's say uh they got a couple W-2 employees and they got a bunch of apprentices running around. Do those W-2 employees even know how to train those apprentices? You know, even just like a simple um what are they called? Workbook, not workbook set.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:32

Employee handbook. Employee handbook.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:33

Employee handbook, that's the word.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:35

Yeah. And that's different a lot. They don't know. It's different than a training manual. Right. Or do they know, or do your employees understand and know how to implement the, you know, light duty return to work program so that you're not paying, you know, workers' compensation premium on an employee that's sitting at the house eating Doritos on the couch? Or uh, you know, how can you mitigate that cost in your company? Well, there are professionals out there that can handle that and can take care of that for you. Or maybe you're a business owner and notorious for being really uh challenged, I would say, in the marketing and advertising department in general is the construction industry. Some of the big players are really good at it. They put out information about what projects they're doing, um, which gets some impressions. But there aren't a lot of construction firms that are really proficient with client acquisition, especially uh uh in the digital landscape.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

Yeah, they have like uh old school guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

And that's fine. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

That that that that's fine. And I just I just uh I think that I think I think we'd all be we'd all be missing the boat if we weren't, you know, on board with the Richards of the world um and the folks that are dedicated to to Helping other people um do business today, um, you know, like it's gonna be done tomorrow, uh, so that you're not left behind. I'm just stroking my ego.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:11

I want to be on TikTok, I want to be on YouTube. Um I'm trying to blow up and go viral, you know. I want to be on uh road uh the what's the new show that everyone likes? The Mormons in Utah, those girls drinking the drinking those stupid drinks, sodis, sodis with milk or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:33

Oh man, your wife would love that. Um Yeah, it'd be a lot of fun. She is. Um I think that I think that there's I think that there's opportunity to to do that kind of stuff, to, to get yourself uh to elevate yourself to that level. Uh it's just a it's just a matter of authenticity and getting the reps in. So let's just do a hundred more of these together. I'm the only guy you need, and we'll just blow up.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:58

This has been an I've loved talking to you, dude. This was wicked fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:02

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:02

Yeah, it's how come we didn't stutter or we didn't have any uh like lag time? We're just firing off the whole time from No, bro.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:10

It's cool. I mean, you know, it's it it's it's fun to be able to bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

I only reach out to the people who like I know I just wanna, I'm like actually curious about like cool individuals. Yeah. Who kind of like because I I'm I remember just looking at you going into like really the private functions and just like crushing it so hard that I'm like, damn. Like he just can talk to people and like uh charismatic to the room, respectful to the ladies, like respectful to the gentleman, and just like everyone loves you.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:49

Man, it was fun. I had a blast. I wish you could make, you know, enough money and be home with your family during holidays in the restaurant business, uh, to to not have to leave it. So I it's just fun. You you said early in this uh in this talk, you know, you'd mentioned something about putting on that show and that and that you help companies kind of help help them do that because that's what it is. It's really a big game uh that we all play here. It's who who plays it the best. But it but you get to do that in the restaurant business. If you don't hate your life and you're you know, you're you don't have a bunch of internal stuff preventing and blocking you from the street.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

I knew you had other stuff going on because I would see you come in at like five or five thirty, go in, make more money than everybody, and then I'd be like, Oh, where's Zach? And they're like, Oh, he left. I'm like that that mother, he he left. I'm looking at your sales and I'm like, holy crap.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:45

Yeah. We used to rake it up, man. We used to rake it up. I still talk to Frank. You ever talk you remember Frank? Chance. Yeah, big tall guy. Oh, yeah. I guess you can't be dropping all those last names, but yeah, tall guy. I still talk to him. Um I picture him having no social media. Dude, Frank is Frank's uh Frank's a cool cat, though. You know, he he doesn't get on and blow it up on social media or anything like that, but uh anyway, I still talk to him. He's just a super smart guy. I think he's got he's got some cool stuff going on. He got into industrial sales, equipment sales after the pink house.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:21

I could just do a whole podcast on pink house employees.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

You really could, man. You really could.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:27

So a lot of those great kitchen guys, there's a lot of people still there. I mean, yeah. They they moved, they work their way up. Now I see them bartending, managing, yeah, doing all all different kinds of stuff, prom all promoted from within. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:43

Yeah. Well, they treat them right, I think, when they get up there. I think uh yeah, autumn's still there, I believe. Um I think it's good. I still go back there. I still go back there and have sit at the bar probably once a month, or just sit at a table and have a little lunch, take people up there.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:59

That's that's awesome. Yeah. I got to swing through there when I was driving my sister to Tampa, and yeah, we stopped in and had a great time.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:08

Yeah, bro, hit me up next time you go to Tampa. I'll that's where I'm from originally. Oh, cool. I love it down there.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Yeah.

unknown 1:10:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:16

It's good to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:17

Yeah, we love Clearwater.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:18

That's it. I was born in born in Clearwater. I mean, Clearwater's where I grew up. That's cool. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:23

I mean, we've only been a couple times. We like stay up north a lot because the little kids, we go to Maine. We've got a camp right on the border of Canada. So East Grand Lake. And we love going to Connecticut to this uh San, why can't I think of it? Place in Connecticut, little town. Um, anyways, I just my last question was what do we got going on for hobbies nowadays? Are you doing some disc golf? Are you back at the gym? You know, obviously your hobby is entrepreneurship because you're just always building things and um anything interesting like painting, darts.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

Man, I gotta say, I don't know about you. I gotta say, I'd I'd stay as involved in that. What kind of sports are they? Okay. I love golf. I I started a little golf group, got about 12 guys in there, uh, did that a couple months ago, play a ton of golf. Um, love to throw darts, love to play pool, don't get to do those as much. Those are typically, you know, I try to stay out of bars a little bit more these days. So those are typically where you find those those fun games. Um man, I'll play any sport, you know. So I go to the gym probably three, four times a week. Um, try to stay as active as I can. Uh if it's outdoors, I'm down. Um, as far as anything interesting goes, what would be interesting? I think the only thing interesting to me in my life right now is uh this, unfortunately, I have to say, this network kind of caught me off guard with that one. Um I like to do competitive shooting too. Uh I go to Palm Coast, probably hasn't been as frequent lately, but uh usually about once a month as well. And I'll go down and shoot steel challenge um with uh their little 22 basically handguns that have are built out with a rifle stock, so there's no kick. And uh you just acquire the target as fast as you can. It's kind of like you know, playing a big darts game.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

Are they like skeeting pucks? Oh, I lost you. Are you still there? But I wasn't. So I lost the full podcast. But it was my fault.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:39

I saw I saw I actually saw that on one of your um on one of your on one of your podcasts. You're like, we got most of it uh in the description. Is that the one you're talking about?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:50

Yeah, we got the last 16 minutes, but yeah, um, it's lost forever. They couldn't recover it. Whatever, I moved on.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:56

Lame.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:56

But the this is why I love it. At first I was trying to do in-person only, and there was a lot of setup involved. I would go meet someone, set up all the camera gear, all the lights, film, and then have to edit. With Riverside, we just remote in both members, and then at the end you leave your phone open for a little and it exports, it imports all the footage right into Riverside, and you can edit the whole podcast there. You can do AI to clean up the audio, you can do auto cutting from camera A to camera B when whoever's talking is full screen, who whoever's not, you know, and then um you can export out the audio and export out the video. Cool. Then I use Buzz, I use Buzz Sprout, which is just like a distribution platform that sends the podcast out to all the platforms, Spotify, Apple, etc. And to create all the reels, I use a software called Opus Clip. And it I just upload that full video and it cuts uh the footage into like 30 reels, and you can even auto-schedule them to all the platforms, YouTube, TikTok. So I'm really hands-off. Like what I do after a podcast, and I schedule one to go out every Monday, is I do those three things, and then I use a little bit of AI to create a description based off of the transcript, which Riverside gives you the transcript and the chapters. So I just copy and paste those right into Claude and it gives me, you know, some title ideas and then a nice description. And I just copy and paste or I create my own title and I put that into the buzz sprout, it sends it out, and then an opus clip, it kind of auto-generates. Sometimes it's not the best, but I I don't care. My goal is like if I keep doing this and I and I build up a following, uh I'll hire someone to go in and really optimize each individual post. But for me, it's fun. I just throw what's, you know, if it's goofy, I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just want to get it out, get the content out there and get it, get it going. Plus, I mean, if you really wanted to laser it in, you could just take whatever it spits out and spend a couple extra minutes, I guess. You know, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. Very cool. Um, is it a big is there a is it a pretty big lift as far as what it what the commitment is financially from a monthly or yearly standpoint to be part of the riverside? I think it's 30 a month. Oh, wow. I think it's under under$30 a month. Seems really reasonable for something so powerful. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:25

I'm sure Zoom is similar, but I know Zoom can get pretty pricey.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:29

Zoom can get pretty pricey, yeah. I mean, this is yeah, it seems like a seems like this comes with some um a couple extra bells and whistles too. Gives you a little more capability um on the editing side, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:41

Oh, dude, it's so sweet to click three buttons and then be done.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:44

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what triggered me earlier to start talking about Mark. You started talking about editing film um and all the work that goes into pre and post-production and and the setup. And that's that guy. Right. That's that's that's a lot of what what I what I get to experience when I'm working around, uh, working around him, like on this film project we're doing for the port. We're telling the port, the story of the port of Savannah for a client. And uh just listening to you talk about some of the headaches and some of the pains that you you know deal with on that side. Uh, I was bringing back some some conversations and memories from from uh talking to Mark. I mean, it's just a lot. You deal with a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:30

Yeah, it's a labor of love and a story like that is you have to go, you're gonna go 100% because that could live on for a long time. People, you know, I want to see that.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:40

Yeah.

unknown 1:16:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:42

That's like a big deal to do a project like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:45

Yeah. Well, I'm totally gonna, I appreciate this. I'm totally gonna take um uh look more into Riverside too. I know that wasn't your intent of us talking, man. We just it was a great conversation, but I'm gonna use, you know, and implement some of this stuff and and it's gonna help a lot with um some of the pro services. Help it's gonna help me showcase some of those business services um on our network uh so that so that the contractors and the members that are participating uh know exactly what they're gonna get from it. So that's awesome. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:23

Yeah, hit me up if you run into any snags. I've run into snags, but I'm working through them and I pretty much have the system down. Yeah. Pat, I actually want to do a full YouTube video of the whole process to show people.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:35

Yeah, bro. I mean, I'm getting I I'm doing you uh I think YouTube Shorts, what do you think? I know you're probably ready to kind of end this thing up, but uh YouTube Shorts is where it's at, is what I keep hearing. I mean, you hear Vanderchuk talk about it all the time and how that's what's gonna get uh how you're gonna index with AI and a lot of the the new platforms that are out there that are being used primarily, you know, by people who were using Google before or some searches.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:04

Young creators who are just crushing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:06

Yeah. Just put out a massive.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:07

They got it figured out. Um or just one video and it just goes crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:12

That too.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:13

Like like putting out one video and being monetized the next day, type of things where people like me and you have been trying, I'm not trying to get monetized, but like if I was, it'd be a struggle for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:25

Yeah. I mean, I think when you I guess if you start when you start doing this, if you you either have to have a massive budget so you can just like blast high quality content out all the time, or you have to do it for all the right reasons so that people don't see through your money grabbing ass when you're on trying to provide information, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:45

YouTube's good about sending a newsletter too. Like they always highlight trends. Like the new trend is like long format videos of people just like talking for an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:54

No fancy cameras, just on their cell phone, talking about something they love or something they're super knowledgeable about that people could just like sit on the couch and listen to.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:05

I got approached, uh, I got approached too, it was two days ago by a business owner who wants to wants me to help them set up a subscription channel and a looping video that just plays uh like like a buoy in Key West, you know, so people can just go stare at it. Um love that. Yeah, you know, there's just so many different things out there, ways out there to pipe into where the consumer wants to spend their time online.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:34

I did that for a vintage clothing company called Allergic to Cubicles. Okay. We made a 10-minute short film that just played on loop on uh VHS, like on an old TV. Yeah. With no sound. That's great. And the owner was the main character. That's great. And he was sick, he was allergic to cubicles. That's so funny. Oh cool, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:59

Uh super fun. Thank you, Zach. Oh, Richard, yeah, I appreciate you having me on. And anytime you want to uh catch up, do it again, um, just let me know. And uh same here. Hey, I'd love to have you on. Um, you know, when I get this patched in on my end, I'd love to have you on one for the network as well. Uh just to talk a little bit about what you can, you know, you do and what you see out there right now with a lot of you know your clients um and the people you're about to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:30

But it's an easy transition because of I do have some experience and and love the service industry. So yeah, perfect. That's an easy yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:40

Cool, man. Well, I guess what? You got your kids stayed asleep the whole time, huh? They're good they're great at sleeping. I don't think that every family has that same fortune. So you uh you better watch your tongue for it before your luck changes on that here in a couple minutes.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:01

I mean, it's not perfect all the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:03

It worked tonight though, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:06

I mean, what if they get up and go pee? They get up and say, Can I come in your bed? And I let them for like five minutes and then carry them into their bed, you know. But a lot of nights they're uh like uh the third baby got spoiled. That's why she wasn't good sleeping. She wanted us to like cuddle her and Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:23

Man, that's just the last one. You just get one of those doggy gates and you just let them sit there and cry at the doggy gate all night long until they Well, that's what some people say you're supposed to do, but I'd probably be crucified but if I was in the wrong group saying that.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:36

Oh, my wife smacked me the other night because she was, you know, we were letting her cry it out a little bit. She was just relentless at like three o'clock in the morning. So I'm I'm an experimenter. I said, May say, and she whacked me. She's like, Don't yell at the baby. And I said it was worth a try. Yeah, I gave it a shot. Come on. Yeah. I knew it would piss her off more than the baby.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:02

Well, it's been real. Let's keep in touch. 100%, Richard. Have a great night, man. Thank you for having me on. You too. Yep. Enjoyed it. Have a good rest of your week. You as well, brother. Yep. Say yeah.