Tom Fox on AI-Powered Compliance: Building a Lasting Legacy Through Mentorship

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Well, as you know, I'm very passionate Yes. But I have two metrics and two metrics only for a successful podcast, and I've had these two forever, and they will be my only metrics. Number one, how much did I learn? Number two, how much fun did I have?

Nice.

That's it. Yeah. And number one, I'm literally at the very top of my profession. I write the definitive compliance handbook. And so, if I learn something, my audience learns something. But guess what? I learn something every podcast. Yeah. And it's as simple as the difference in you and me. I know a little bit about your story and we're obviously different and I've learned from you because your experiences have been different. So if I've learned something, my audience is gonna learn something. That's the learning part.

Step into the world of success with Your Brand Amplified, the ultimate podcast designed to unravel the intricacies of thriving businesses. I'm your host, Anika Jackson, and I'm on a mission to uncover the stories, strategies, and secrets that have propelled entrepreneurs and business leaders to success. I am absolutely thrilled to have Tom Fox on the show. Tom, I've had the pleasure and privilege of being on your show, and you've done so much. But this conversation is really about building a media empire and becoming the number one voice in your industry. You know, you're the voice of compliance. You've been called the compliance evangelist. You have the Compliance Network. So I'd love for you to talk about these, but before we get into all of that and all the awards you've won, being a practicing attorney and then general counsel, what was the moment that you decided that that wasn't all that there was for you?

So I was a general counsel. My company got sold and my job went away. I got a very nice package. And so I just, I was 50 and I decided what I really wanted to do with my life was race bicycles. And so I went off on this great adventure of cycling 20 and 40Ks, got into great shape, had more fun until one day I got taken out by a Hummer on a training ride. And that ended my cycling career. And so I convalesced, I was in the hospital, convalesced at home for a few months. And when I finally got enough energy to get on my walker and toddle into my office at home, I realized I was gonna have to figure out what I was gonna do, cuz I'd planned on racing and let my wife work. And so the only thing I had in my hands was time. I had no money, I had no clients, I had no income. At that point in my life, I knew nothing about social media, and I decided to start exploring social media. So Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. And I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do professionally, and I realized I had enjoyed A part of my job as a general counsel was to create a nuts-and-bolts compliance program inside of a corporation. So, policies, procedures, internal controls, and I had really enjoyed that work. And so, in 2010, there were very few lawyers who did that in private practice. So, I decided to do that. Now, I couldn't leave the house except to go to physical therapy. And I had always written a lot of articles as a lawyer, so blogging was a natural thing for me to do. So I started blogging, but I tell people, they don't realize it's possible now to even consider this, but it was actually Twitter put me on the map.

Really?

And in 2010, Twitter was a very useful business platform. You could do research, you could meet clients. Can't really do that now, but back then it was a very different platform. At any rate, within 6 months, I built a worldwide consulting practice out of my home, never leaving the house. I remember somebody called me at one point from England and said, tell us about all your clients in Houston. And I thought about it. I lived in Houston then. I thought about it. I said, I don't have any clients in Houston. They're all across the world. I remember somebody got arrested in Saudi Arabia and they literally called me from the jail in Saudi Arabia. The only mistake I made in retrospect was I did not trademark the phrase "working from home." If I had done that in 2010, you know, I would be long retired by now. But that's what it was. And what I realized, Anika, was I'd always known that when the universe closes one door, it opens another one. What I hadn't realized or I had never put together was you have to have the courage to walk through that door. And many people don't. And they, you know, whether you call it a higher power, whether you call it God, whether you call it the universe, doesn't matter to me. The door's open, but you have to have the courage to walk through it. And because I was at that point in my life, I had the courage to walk through it. So I did. And here we are today.

Amazing. I love that story. And I've known pieces of your story, but hearing it put together like this gives us all the full picture. Or at least as full a picture as we can know without having lived it. So going from Twitter and working with people all over the world and blogging to then deciding to podcast, what was that pivot?

Well, it wasn't a pivot because podcasting, I started podcasting in 2012 and it literally was a natural extension of blogging because I did the blogging. For marketing and research and podcasting was the same. And back then, to me, podcasting was just the next thing. Nice. And so I started podcasting. I, I don't know how you feel about some of your early podcasts, but I can barely stand to look at them. They are so bad. And I was in the middle of several rounds of cranial surgery. So my head was shaved and it was a very different visual presentation. But, you know, I learned, and people say, tell us all of us the top mistakes you made in podcasting. I'm like, with the one exception, I've never made a mistake. And it's because they all have been learning experiences. So I don't know why I've had that attitude with podcasting where I didn't in most of my life, but literally everything I've done that could have been done better, I've learned from it. The podcast, I decided in 2017 to form a network. And I went around, and it was in legal and regulatory compliance. We had 3 big trade groups, 2 nonprofit, 1 profit, for-profit. And I went to all of them and said, look, let's found a joint venture, and we'll do a network, and we will provide all of the information for compliance in the podcast format, so the audio format. It will not take away from anything you're doing. It will not in any way negatively affect that. And not that I'd ever suggest anything anti-competitive, but we'll corner the market on all advertising. And the answers range from, what's a podcast? To not interested. So I just said, bleep it. I'll do it myself. And I did. And I putzed around for a couple of years. And in 2019, I decided I either had to fully commit to the network or move it to hobby status. And so I quit practicing law. Bought all the cool toys you see here, built this huge, and I mean huge network. And at the end of the year, I'd made about $10,000. And I thought, well, that was an interesting experiment. Guess I have to go back to practicing law. And so I did. And for the first quarter of 2020, till they shut the country down and no work was coming in and I was just hanging out at home. What happened was starting about May 15th, I literally got a call from every product provider in compliance because up until the pandemic, all marketing was in person. Trade shows, conferences, breakfast roundtables, lunches, dinners, you name it. And I was on the speaker circuit and I went around and gave talks for various product providers. So I was real, really tuned into that community. But by 2020, I had the biggest social media presence in compliance. I was an early adopter of social media. And they all had the same question, which was how long to get access to your network. Well, because of the work I'd done in 2019, the answer was 24 hours. It was just a plug and play or sometimes a drop and drag. And my numbers went from 115,000 downloads across the network in June of 2020 to 235,000 Downloads in August of 2020. It literally just blew up. I was in the situation of I had people with money to spend and nowhere to spend it. So, whether you call that luck, whatever you may call it, I'm a big believer that when preparation meets opportunity, luck occurs. Well, I was very lucky. And so, my network blew up and since that time, I've just tried to sustain and then build on the growth that happened literally in 3 months in 2020.

How fortuitous, honestly, that you'd already been an early adopter to all these technologies when people, as you said, you went to these trade associations, they said, what's a podcast? Right? And then you were the only game in town.

And I still am.

And yeah, that's so, so remarkable. So talk about the network. Right. How did you realize that was a model that you wanted to go after? You host and produce multiple shows under the network.

So in 2017, the magic number to get advertising dollars was 30,000 IB certified downloads per month. And I knew I was never going to get that number in compliance, but I thought, well, maybe I can— if I had 10 at 3,000, that would get me to 30 and then I could get it. Well, it turned out that That number was fiction, but that was what I based everything on. And so what I learned was, first of all, an IAB-certified download means a download of a podcast from an IAB-certified platform for, and they listened for 60 seconds. That is a completely meaningless statistic, as in zero meaning, because first, what's an IAB-certified platform? Well, that's somebody who's gone to the IAB and paid to get certified. So there are lots of non-IEB certified platforms. Two is everybody has a different measure. Some it's a download, some it's engagement, some it's a listen, some it's a hear. And so you can't— there's nothing consistent across our industry. And that's still one of the frustrations of both creators like myself and then on the business side, the advertisers, because they can't get a consistent measurement of what's going on. And it took me a long time to crack the code, but every platform has numbers. So if it's a non-IB certified platform, they have numbers. LinkedIn has numbers. Facebook has numbers. YouTube has numbers. Twitter has numbers. And it just took me forever to figure all that out. Well, I did. And here's what I found. In 2024, I had 440,000 downloads across the network. I had 7.2 million hits of engagement. And as you just reacted, everybody reacts to that and they say, well, how can this be so different? And then you go through and show them, well, here's LinkedIn, here's Facebook. Yeah, here's YouTube, which has yet a different measurement. And you have to kind of put them all together and then show people. But the beauty is they're all available. They're all transparent. They're all auditable. If I can use that word. And if you want to try to advertise or monetize with that, the numbers are there. They're not literally at your fingertips, but they're there. UnitedHealth Group is simplifying healthcare by investing in tools to help patients know more and pay less. These tools help patients find providers and compare costs and save hundreds of dollars annually. Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com/commitment.

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How did you decide, because in a network you have shows that you produce, that you host, and then, I mean, I'm part of a network and I'm one of probably 600. It's a fairly large network. I'm a little pea in the pod, but, and I don't know quite how they choose which ones are going on the network or not, but how did you decide when to let other people come in if you have?

Well, the first couple of years it was not, will you come on my network? It was, how much are you going to pay me to come on your network? I mean, I literally had to get my daughter to do a podcast. I had to beg, borrow, pay people to come on my network and I just couldn't get anybody on it. So I figured, well, if I can't get anybody, maybe I can create the shows. Then that ties into my adult ADD, which is if I get an idea, I can't stop. And if I get a new idea, I start a new podcast. Like, I guess it's April. I started 3 new podcasts in March. I'll probably start 4 new podcasts in April. I just, before we started, I recorded my first 2 episodes of a new podcast on Yacht Rock and compliance. Probably never put those 2 together. No, no, but that's what I do. I think Star Wars, Star Trek. Sherlock Holmes, Winnie the Pooh, the Muppets, women in compliance, innovation and compliance, privacy and compliance, AI and compliance, daily compliance, weekly compliance, you name it. I just think of a new idea and start a podcast on it.

Nice.

Wow.

That is certainly one way to do it. And I commiserate with you because I have several podcast ideas that I'm wanting to launch this year beyond the three that I already have. So, so I'm in the same boat. I just haven't gotten them set up yet. Started yet. Uh, speaking of podcast hosting production, you've earned over 42 awards for these areas. Talk about that. How did you decide? Because I, I know some award programs you have to pay a fee. Some I'm sure are not just the typical podcast formats, but maybe some of your compliance trade groups are also acknowledging your excellence in getting the messages out.

So, the awards you see behind me are all except one are podcast awards. I did win Compliance Guy of the Year in 2016. So, that's my compliance award. But the rest are podcast awards. And how do you win an award? Well, you apply for them. And, you know, you have to submit. So, you have to say, well, nobody really wants to, I don't want to do it, or I'm too shy, or na na na na na. Stop it. Just go ahead and apply because the process makes you think about what am I most proud of? Am I proud of my host being a host? Am I proud of my guests? Am I proud of my production values? Am I proud of the podcast subject matter? And for me, it's usually the subject matter. But like I said, I've won awards for Star Trek in compliance, Star Wars in compliance, MCU in Compliance, Daily Compliance News, Saturday Wrap-Up of Compliance News, the Sunday Book Review of Compliance. All of these have won awards. And so, I tell people, or long ago in the corporate world, my father told me that once they put that award on your chest, they can never take it away. And once I get that trophy, it can never be taken away. And that's the way everyone should, should look at it. And the top award in podcasting is the Webby. And I've never won a Webby, but I've been a finalist.

Congratulations. I'm a Webby judge. So I'll look forward to seeing one of your podcasts perhaps come through one of these days when I'm judging.

Yeah, well, I think there are 30,000 annual entries now. I can't imagine I'm ever going to win one, but Yeah, we never know. I still apply.

Yeah.

You never know.

Nice. What does equal success to you? Because you've built up the network, you've been able to realize that the metrics that you are going off of to monetize this format were not the right metrics. You know, you've been able to do a number of different things that anybody on the outside would say, this looks like success. So do these things equal success to you? Is there something else that drives you?

Well, as you know, I'm very passionate. Yes. But I have two metrics and two metrics only for a successful podcast, and I've had these two forever, and they will be my only metrics. Number one, how much did I learn? Number two, how much fun did I have?

Nice.

That's it.

Yeah.

And number one, I'm literally at the very top of my profession. I write the definitive compliance handbook. And so if I learn something, my audience learns something. But guess what? I learn something every podcast. Yeah. And it's as simple as the difference in you and me. I know a little bit about your story and we're obviously different. And I've learned from you because your experiences have been different. So, if I've learned something, my audiences can learn something. That's the learning part. But the other part is fun. And the fun is not guffawing laughter. It's if I am enjoying myself in a podcast and I'm developing a rapport with the guest, that comes across in my voice and it comes across in my passion. And if I'm passionate about an episode, my audience is passionate about listening. And they say people come for the guest and they stay for the host. And I firmly believe that. And if I'm having a good time, I'm just having a good time. And I think people relate to that. So, I mean, I've had maybe a handful of podcasts where the guests literally read a 5-page script they'd written out.

Oh.

And, you know, that was terrible. And I'm like, I'm doing a crossword in the middle of the podcast. And so, I just think it's, if those are the metrics and that's what makes for me a successful podcast. But if I get, if I get to learn something and if I'm having fun, it's not work.

Well, you've been able to extend the idea of compliance to so many different categories and so many different products and projects through your various podcasts. How do you choose what guests come on? Because I mean, I've been on, I'm not a compliance person, I'm not a lawyer, you know, so what makes you decide, ooh, these are the right guests to bring on because my audience will learn something from them that's still important?

So two ways, one, I ask them, or two, they ask me. Okay. The responsibility for having a guest talk about something my audience is interested in is mine. And it doesn't matter what the subject matter is. It's to me to turn it into something that's going to be interesting for a compliance audience. And I have several podcasts that, like Innovation and Compliance is one of my most popular podcasts. And although the word compliance is in the title, it's really about innovation. And so, I try to bring innovative ideas, strategies, tools, and techniques to the compliance professional, but I also want them to hear how do other innovators think. And yesterday, I interviewed a neurosurgeon who's developed a new back surgery.

Oh, wow.

And I was interested in his process because he talked about the process of innovation in an industry that is as regulated as any other industry, healthcare, and overlaid with a group of doctors, big egos, a hospital system, and a university he was working with, and the steps, the process he went through of it to innovate this new technique that he's been able to, to patent. And so I always try to preach about process. So I really want the listeners to hear, hey, this guy's working at the very top level of medical science, and he's got a process he's following. Maybe that's something we can learn. And compliance.

Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about operationalizing things because you not only have multiple podcasts, podcast network, you've won awards, you also have authored 38 books while doing all of this and consulting. Most of us struggle to finish one. So what is your content creation system that keeps you from burning out and losing quality and being able to operate at that high level?

It's all about process. I love writing books. So that's a passion for me. And when I blogged, did it for a year. And I remember emailing the then godfather of blogging, appliance. I said, look, I did a year. Look at me. And he emails me back, says, great, Tom, when's your book coming out? I'm like, what book? He goes, the book based upon your one year of blogging. And that's when I realized I have daily created content. For a book. And so that's really when the light bulb went off that— so everything I do is geared towards a book. I still blog daily, and I've blogged daily since 2010, but every podcast is geared towards a book. So when we do a podcast, I get a transcript, and I can turn that transcript into a first draft of something. You put 5 podcasts together, well, you now you have a white paper. You put a couple of white papers together, you have a chapter. And so I'm able to literally write 4 to 6 books a year because everything I do is geared towards a book. So in 2026, I've published— I did a book, I did a podcast conference last November. I took everyone's presentation and made that into a book. Kidnapped the president of Venezuela. They opened up Venezuela for doing business. So, I wrote a book about how to go back into Venezuela, returning to Venezuela, because in the compliance world, it's very high risk to do that. This week, I released a book on Sherlock Holmes for the modern compliance professional entitled The Game's Afoot, and it's the novels, not the short stories. In January, I turned in the update to my handbook, and then The big book I finished, uh, which I delivered to my publisher first week of March, was about the flood. I live in the part of Texas where the flood from 2025 on July 4th occurred. So that's what I've done in Q1. UnitedHealth Group is bringing in-home treatment directly to patients, closing care gaps, identifying risks earlier, and improving patient outcomes. In 2025, patients received over 19 million home visits. Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com/commitment.

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I'm Livvy Dunn, all-American gymnast and Viori athlete. When you travel and train as much as I do, you find happiness where you are, on the mat or on the sand, Movement and comfort are essential. That's why I live in performance joggers by Vuori, made from Dreamnet fabric that's made of 89% recycled materials, effortlessly soft and made to move as much as I do. My happiness starts here in the softest joggers on the planet. Get 20% off your first purchase at vuori.com/libby. That's vuori.com/libby. Exclusions apply. Not only will you receive 20% off your first purchase, but enjoy free shipping on US orders over $75 and free returns. Go to biore.com/Livy and discover the full versatility of Biore clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.

Wow, that's truly amazing. And is this— do you have a team who's helping you with this?

Uh, no. I have one executive assistant in the Philippines, and she handles all of the logistics, scheduling, etc., and the social media. She does that, but I do all the interviews, prep, production, writing.

With the books, do you have specific goals for each one? Is it to continue showcasing your, your thought leadership? Do you want to get on bestseller lists? Do you want to make a ton of money or get more speaking engagements? What are some of the things that drive you?

The biggest driver is just I love being an author, and I would be an author for no money. But you're not going to make a lot of money from being an author, at least I'm not, because of the area I write in. Although my flood book may do well, I don't know. But I just like writing books. So, that's the biggest driver, but I like to put together packages of information in the book form. I, I still, my favorite way to consume information is the written word. So, I know there are others out there like that, and, and I want to put something in a book form for them. A book is the best business card you can possibly have. And I even have a children's book series, The Compliance Kids, as well. So, uh, yep. I just love writing books. Yeah.

Amazing. I feel like I should have your energy level. You're putting out so much, you put the rest of us to shame.

I think you're a pretty busy woman. Well, yourself.

Yeah, but I haven't even gotten the one book out yet. So, you know, we'll see if I can try to play catch up a little bit.

So here, when my daughter was 7, she wrote her first book and This was like, hmm, '05, '06. And I said, honey, how did you do that? She looked at me and said, Dad, if you want to write a book, it's easy. You just sit down and write it. Why didn't I think of that? Well, here's what it led to. I, um, in, I think it was 2016, before I founded the network, yeah, I decided now is the time to write the Definitive Compliance Handbook. And so, I did. And I sat down and I started writing. I'm a terrible editor. And I can't edit just reading, visually reading. I have to read it out loud and hear it. So, I rented studio time in Houston and I started reading the podcast, or excuse me, the text. And I had a red pen and I had the paper, reading the paper, circling, et cetera, et cetera. And I did that for a couple of months and the studio head, the head of the little studio there, he said, what, why are you doing this? And I told him and he goes, well, why don't you do a podcast? I'm like, what are you talking about? He goes, well, you just sat here and read 20 days of writing. Why don't you do a podcast? And I'm like, oh, duh. So, literally, I started doing a daily podcast. It was called the Compliance Tip of the Day. And it wasn't the full text. It was, you know, reduced because it was only 5 or 6 minutes. And that's when I realized if you write every day or if you podcast every day, you'll have text. And so, I was kind of plugging along and in one of those when preparation meets opportunity moments. In October of that year, the leading legal publisher in America called LexisNexis sent me an email and said, hey, we heard you do a lot of writing. We'd like to start a compliance section to this part of our library. We'd be interested in talking to you. And so we set up a call and they went through what they wanted. And I said, when do you want the book? And they said, do you have a manuscript ready? And I said, well, it'll be ready in 30 days. And they said, send it. So, you know, when you're ready, things happen.

Yeah. And you took advantage of every opportunity that presented itself and made, as well as making your own. It's really amazing. And speaking of making your own, you were also the executive leader at the C-Suite Network. So talk about the C-Suite Network. Where does that fit into?

Yeah, the C-Suite Network is just that. It's a group of C-suite executives, and it's been around, I think, since 2012 or 2013. I joined in 2018. It is largely around sales, marketing, and those types of topics, which are not my primary interest, but I am certainly adjacent to that, and where I use those skills, and I try to teach those skills to compliance professionals is communication, because sales is just communication. And who's your audience of a compliance professional? Who's your customer? Well, it's your in-house employees. Plus they're very smart people and I love being around smart people. And so I'm very involved. I'm sort of the, the podcast guy for them. The other reason I joined is they have the world's largest business podcast network. So I'm a part of the C-Suite Podcast Network. And that was important to me to be, uh, associated with a larger network. So my network is a part of their network, uh, as well. And I think they're up to about 1,200 podcasts in their network. Wow.

So this is probably a question I should have asked at the beginning, but I just saved it for now. We've been talking about compliance. We've been talking about the work you did in compliance as a lawyer, as general counsel. You have an entire network built on compliance, you have multiple books. Why should the small business owner, entrepreneur who's listening, why should they care? Like, what is it? What parts of compliance will affect them, you know, versus a big Fortune 500 company?

Sure. So compliance is following some legal or regulatory requirement. And so that means, of course, there's an enforcement angle. But after doing this for 20 years and having the evolution of compliance programs, the reasons for having a compliance program have changed. And they are now to protect your reputation. And in many industries, if you want to do business in pharma, tech, energy, software with a big player, a Fortune 500 company, you have to have a compliance program. And so you need a compliance program to protect your reputation and literally to do business with any of the big boys, if that's what your goal is. Or if you want to build something or create something and sell it, whether you sell it on the IPO or public market, if you sell on a public market via IPO, you have to have a compliance program by law. If you're going to sell to private equity, They're going to demand to see your compliance program. So if you want to unlock the value of your business, that's why you need a compliance program. Nice.

And how has AI changed the landscape?

AI has changed the landscape, I think, in a very powerful, positive way. And I'm a huge fan of AI. I've written a book on using AI and compliance. 60% of my daily blogs now are on AI and compliance. I have two 3 AI podcasts. So I'm heavily into AI. AI allows compliance professionals to run now at the speed of business. All of the administrative work that compliance used to do, we used to be Dr. No from the Land of No. You don't have to worry about that anymore. You can use AI to be quicker and more efficient and literally be there when business is ready to pivot. And the importance of that is certainly under the second Trump administration, but really back to the first one, the Biden administration and this administration, volatility, change, even chaos reigns in every area. And 4 weeks ago, if you had asked me, well, Tom, what are you going to do when the price of oil hits $450 because we've invaded Iran and they've shut down the Straits of Hormuz, I would have said, well, that's a fun dream, but that's not going to happen. Well, I don't even know where to say the next bomb is going to drop from, or the first next pivot will be, but there'll be one that we can't see or we're not ready for. But AI gives you the ability to manage your risk because you can either forecast your risk or you can assess your risk when it becomes a risk at a speed which you could not do so before.

Yeah, I just brought up the concepts of black swans and gray rhinos in my class and we were talking about broadband accessibility and all these things, but I love those concepts and I tied it into those topics of if you're not thinking through and you're just, oh, we don't need to take care of that right now, we can just wait, and then something comes up and you're like, oh, I have no idea how to manage this situation. So just that just came to mind as you were talking about this.

And I'd say there are no black swans because perhaps the most prescient comment I heard coming out of the pandemic was we've gone from business recovery to business resiliency to business as usual. And you had a full data breach on Friday. You've been shut down. I'm going to be calling Monday with my need. You better be there ready to do business and answer it. And that's what customers expect. Yeah. And everyone expects you to deal with the situation and move forward. Oh, you lost your full supply chain in Africa? Okay. When's my product going to be here? Sorry. So, yep.

Well, I, as I said, I was on your podcast. You were kind enough to invite other podcasters on to do little clips about what people could expect when we were going to Podfest in January. You also give back to the community in so many ways. You give back to students. To be able to attend podcast conferences. So you don't only have this legacy, you are the GOAT of compliance and, you know, compliance networks and podcasts, but you also are doing so much to give back to the future. Why is that something that you thought was important?

I didn't get here on my own. I stand on the shoulders of others, and there were people here when I got here, and I want someone to be here when the next generation gets here, number one. Number 2 is the first Podcast Expo conference I went to, the first session I went to, I sat down at a table of, I think I told you this, USC students, it turned out. And they were all there on scholarships for the conference. And they brought an energy and enthusiasm that only a 21-year-old male can bring. Very different than mine. And I thought, how cool is this to have these guys here? So, it's bringing that level of enthusiasm and passion in. And the other thing is, and I would put you in this category in terms of, I want to give the next generation all of the tools I have because who knows where they'll take it. I work with a local university here in Kerrville. In podcasting and trying to set up a podcast incubator there. And they've already come up with ideas that I hadn't thought of. This 21-year-old woman came up to me. I was at a class yesterday and she goes, me and my girlfriends get around and sit around and talk about playoff basketball. Could we do a podcast on that? I'm like, really? She goes, oh yeah, in Spanish. Oh, she's— yeah, yeah. And it's a a group of Hispanic female students who are passionate about NBA basketball. And they literally sit around at night, have a glass of wine, and they talk about the playoffs. I'm like, I would never have thought of that.

Yeah.

So, you know, they're going to take things in different directions that I've never thought of and you've never thought of. And who knows where it'll go. But I want to give them the tools that I had made available to me and see where they take all this.

This has been such a rich conversation, Tom. I always love when I get to speak to you. My big takeaways are, you know, you can build a brand that owns a category completely. You are the proof of that. And we need to think about the legacies of our brands, not just in terms of building and trying to become perhaps the GOAT or somebody high achieving in our industries, but how are we pulling people up with us? How are we sharing our content? How are we sharing for the next generation? You've done all of this so beautifully. So thank you for that. Do you have a favorite quote, mantra, verse, poem, family motto, or some words of wisdom that you want to make sure is imparted on the audience today?

I got interviewed yesterday about why businesses need a podcast. And the host asked me, he goes, okay, please tell the audience the most important thing to do to start a podcast. I said, I'm gonna say it very slowly. I'm gonna say it very clearly. It is the following: get off your duff and start a podcast. That's it. Just start. You don't have to have $400 microphones. You don't have to have $400 recording software. You have to have this and you can do a podcast. Just start. Just do it. Join the club.

Yeah, amazing. And what is the place that you would like people to go to find out more about how to get in touch with you and how to listen to all of your podcasts in the network?

So I have two networks, the Compliance Podcast Network, which you can find at www.compliancepodcastnetwork.net. I have the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network, which you can find at thetexashillcountrypodcastnetwork.com. You can email me at tfox@tfoxlaw.com, and I'm on LinkedIn as Thomas R. Fox.

Fantastic. Thank you so much. This has been so fun. I think that, you know, what, what I love about this is conversations where we're really telling your story, but there are still so many gems to pull out that any business owner, any business leader, or somebody who's thinking about going into business can use right now. So start a podcast. Just start. Just start. And also think about your legacy, your business, your brand building. And making podcasting one of those areas that you can excel in to create that. I'll be back again with another— yeah, amazing guest to share their story, their journey very soon. Thank you for joining us today. Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of Your Brand Amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out at yourbrandamplified.com. Yourbrandamplified.com.

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