Crazy Ideas vs. Managing Your Time and Naysayers – SBS 64

The Small Business show, episode number 64 for Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Small Business show at businessshow Co. The show by about and for small business owners, the folks that do what we do here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in Concord, California, I'm Shannon Jean. How are you, sir?

I'm doing well. Yeah. Yeah, it's. Yeah. You know, it's been. Actually been a good week. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. All kinds of crazy stuff going on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we're busy out here recording from my office because I couldn't head out to my studio at home. So we're keeping busy as well. So. Yeah, it's. It's cool. And we haven't had an episode without a guest for a while, so we get to chat and we do go over a few things and some. Some topics that we've been throwing back and forth. So that's good. I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, me too. And in fact, let's. This. One of the topics that I wanted to talk about is to time management and. And the. Especially in the absence of structure. Right. As a. You said. As we were. In fact, just as we were getting ready for the show, you said, oh, I love it when. My day. When I don't have anything, you know, anything scheduled on my day. And I think, at least. I think that's what you said. At least you said you didn't have anything like that. Yeah. And I don't mean to put words into your mouth, but it doesn't.

It's not.

Right. Yeah. Right.

I'll just mute the mic.

There you go. No, it's, it's. But it's interesting. I like that too. When I start my day. But if I look back on my day at the end of the day, how productive was I? I find that on the days when I have like absolutely no structure. Kind of like this episode, right. We don't have an interviewee, so we're just here kind of, you know, freewheeling it. But we aren't freewheeling it. Right. We've built an agenda. And I find on days where I have no. What I call anchors, right. You know, like this podcast. We had to do this at a certain time. Cause we have to meet to do it. We can't just do it whenever the mood strikes, you know, that kind of thing. Certain things that are anchored in the day for me actually help me be more productive. In fact, you know, anytime I've started a business I've always had something else going on. And in retrospect, looking back, I found like, I look and I said, man, when we started Backbeat Media, you know, three days a week, I was out in the field doing my, you know, Dave the Nerd kind of stuff, where I was, you know, helping people with their computers.

Tech stuff, right?

Tech stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think back, and, like, I got so much done for Backbeat, and it wasn't just in the two days. It was, you know, I could get up early and get a bunch of stuff done. But having deadlines of time. Deadlines are excellent motivators, not only in terms of the speed at which I work, but also the speed at which I decide what not to work on. Right. I'm a lot more efficient when my time doesn't feel unlimited. I know my time is not unlimited intellectually. Right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think for me, I guess it depends on how you use your calendar as well, because what you said earlier here regarding an agenda, my calendar typically has kind of the can't miss events on it. Okay, this has to get done. We're meeting with this person, we're going here, that kind of thing. But I would say, you know, I'm a pretty fluid, you know, for better or worse, and sometimes it works great and you can really react quickly and get stuff done. Other times it doesn't. But in the, you know, early in the day before I leave my house, I typically spend about 20 minutes building my agenda. Like you said, we sat here for a few minutes and, you know, built the agenda for the show.

Right.

And so, uh, I think that, you know, I don't keep. I. I use the. The Reminders app all the time on my Mac, you know, my phone. I mean, that. It. It's. I'm, you know, as soon as often, as soon as I think of stuff, it goes right out the, you know, the door. But I can set reminders throughout the day to prompt me that, okay, don't forget, you have to get this done. You got to make this call. And so I agree with you that having the day full is. Also leads to a lot better productivity on my part as well. But I guess it just depends how you. Because I often look at my calendar and there may not be anything on it. But then I guess I could say looking at my to do list and there's a ton of stuff on there.

Yeah, exactly. Right. And that's actually, I run my calendar very similar to that. Right. The calendar has appointments on it, and then my to do list has the stuff that I need to get done. But when I have appointments on my calendar, I find myself more productive with my to do list because I won't sit and say, well, you know, I've got this thing that's sort of distracting me and asking for my attention. But, you know, I've got these two other things on my to do list that I have to get done today. But you know, it's 11 in the morning and I have nothing for the rest of the day. So you know what, I can go down this rat hole on this other thing, right? Whereas other. Whereas if I had something at one, I might say, all right, fine, this rat hole, it's gonna be there and it's gonna be shining its light, flashing its light at me, you know, the whole time. But I'm gonna go and get these two things on my to do list done first, because I know they need to get done. And then if there's time left, I can go and explore this rat hole. And I find when I do that, I'm more productive. And I've even caught myself doing it on days when there isn't an unappointment. At one, it's like, oh, let me go down this. No, you know what? Because two things happen when I don't go down the rat hole immediately. Number one, I get the things on my to do list done that I was planning on doing before I was distracted. And number two, when I come back to that rat hole, it no longer feels urgent. And I've had some time, you know, maybe like, you know, back cycles, not front of brain cycles, but back of brain cycles, to just sort of let that thing swim and process a little bit. And when I come back, I find that I am less likely to kind of spin my wheels on whatever that thing was. And it's like, no, I'm in efficient mode now, so I'm just going to address this and get out. As opposed to whatever circuitous path I could take to do that. As fun as that circuitous path might be sometimes.

Well, that's right. And I think like when we had Kellen Raff from Grand Canal Systems on, he was talking about distractions and trying to keep distributed, not being logged into LinkedIn, not be up here, not be up there, you know, checking things. And I think that, you know, it's a double edged sword sometimes because I would imagine you're like me and like lots of business owners that, you know, the concept of, oh, I'm not working is kind of alien in the sense that because you really enjoy what you're doing, you could work. You know, you're working anytime in any place. I always say I'm working. I'm always working because I like it.

Of course.

So you're thinking of things. So sometimes those distractions can allow me to come at things, I guess, for lack of a better word, sideways, if you will.

Yes.

Yeah. So it's like a balance between, you know, that, that productivity. But, like, I'm definitely what doesn't. And I guess we're just all different. But for me, I need some of that wiggle room during the day to, number one, get out of my office and walk around and see what's going on.

Right, right.

Which is different to you than you because your folks are spread out, but you check in, you have your kind of virtual walk around.

We do, yep. And some of those are scheduled things and those. That's important. Right. That helps me. I have. Most days I have a 9:30am meeting with the Backbeat team. And we've actually been doing some interesting stuff with that. That's. We could talk about in terms of how we organize that meeting and then a noon meeting with the TMO team. That could go as long as an hour for me if I have to join the daily podcast. But it's nice because, yeah, it does give me that, like, well, at noon, man, it's an anchor. Yeah, it's an anchor.

Good term. I like that.

Yeah. If I'm in the middle of. If at 11:15, I start doing down a path of, you know, explorative, whatever, and at 11:55, it's like, no, you know what? I got like six balls in the air with this crazy path that I'm down. Guys, today, I'm not going to join the meeting. You know that they're, they understand. They're like, okay, cool. But most days I actually, I like to be there and it's. I think it's good for me to be there. The team might argue one way or another.

No, no, I get it.

You know, but. But yeah, but yeah, I mean, I, And I'm. I don't mean to dismiss that explorative time and that wiggle time, because I need that too. It. That the thing that feeds me. That's, you know, it's. It's fun to be able to just say, oh, yeah, let me. Let's see what goes on with this. Let me. I have this crazy idea. Because crazy ideas are the kinds of things that started us down.

For sure. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

And. And so it's a. I guess it's a balance. And as long as you. I think it's important to give yourself permission, because at least for me, like, you know, I've been doing this for, you know, 20 plus years, and I'm still stressed out. If I go to lunch and I'm gone for more than, like, 45 minutes, I'm like, I gotta get back. I only got an hour. Yeah, I often, you know, and I'm thinking. But I often think, wait a minute. You know, I don't really have to be back, but, you know, I'm still. So that. That drives you in a good way. But you do often have to. Have to give yourself permission to, you know, a certain percentage of your time to explore and go down those divergent paths because you just don't know where they could lead.

Yeah, well, you know that they. Some of them lead to great places.

Some of them do. And great people. You get to meet, you know, people, and just like, you know, for the show here, you start looking around. Okay, what do we. What do we want to talk about? I came across this, I came across that, and, you know, that's how it all comes together. So I'm a big fan of it. But I also. I do really see that value in the anchor. I will tell you. I always ramp myself up when we, you know, that couple hours before I, oh, we're recording today. And especially if we don't have an interviewer on, I'm always like, oh, I gotta start thinking, what am I gonna talk about? Nobody wants to hear me talk. What am I gonna talk about? And it pushes you to get your kind of ducks in a row, your thoughts together.

Yeah, Right. It's a deadline. You know, deadlines are excellent motivators.

Yes, they are.

Yes, they are excellent for all of us because it's how it works.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. It makes you perform.

Yeah. You know, it's easy. I'm a perfectionist in many, many ways, probably in every way, and all of them bad for the most part. But being a perfectionist, it makes it very easy to procrastinate. Right?

Yeah.

Like, I don't. That's. And I am a procrastinator with a lot of things. And it's because I want it perfect. So I know, well, if I work on it now, I don't know if I'm gonna have enough time or enough focus or I'm not gonna be distracted. So it's probably better if I just start this later, you know, Whereas, I mean, I know that history has proven that later is never, you know, it's never gonna be the perfect time to do something. Right. You just get started, and then it's much easier once you've got the ball rolling, you know. But that's where that comes from for me, anyways. It's like, no, I want this to be perfect, so I better not start yet. Yeah, yeah, sure.

I hear you. And I often get kind of the zealot. Oh, this is it. This is a great idea. And then I'll drill down, drill down, drill down. And then I sometimes spend so much time in it quickly that it kind of, you know, I find myself burning myself out on Burn Out.

Yeah.

And you're thinking, okay, now I got this. And I get this. And it's often why, you know, I always. I guess this whole show is really a tangent, so it's okay if we go down this way. You know, I often don't talk about what I'm planning to do. I'm much more comfortable talking about what I've done. Huh. Because it's, you know, it can often seem kind of flaky when. Excuse me. When you're. You're talking to people like, oh, so what are you working on? And, you know, the traditional person is like, oh, I'm doing this as my job, and I've done it this long. And even most business people, oh, I do this. I sell product X and I do this. Well, you know, I bounce all over the place. And I mean, I have a couple of, you know, things I'm working on right now that I've just been really into. But I would not want to sit and chat about them as much because I'm not sure it's going to go anywhere.

Right.

I never want to be perceived as one of those, oh, this guy just tries different things. Different things. I mean, you know, we've got some success under our belt, so we have some. What is the word?

Credibility.

Credibility. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. So. So I can do it a little bit more, but.

Sure. But, you know, there is that. There is. I experienced that same thing. It's. It's that I don't want to tell you about this because I might fail. And.

Well, that's it. See, that's the. That's the. That's the flip side of the coin, right? Is I often question myself. Well, if. Do you not want to talk about it because you, You. You may fail at it or, you know, and sometimes talking about it Makes you do it.

Yeah. Or makes you realize, well, you know, it gets you. It does accelerate the process, whatever the process is. And you don't know it going in that. And that's. That's part of, I think becoming or being an entrepreneur is being willing to start something without the entire vision formed.

Yes.

Right. You know, I mean, you know, you just need to play with it like, oh, I see where this could go. But also, it might take a left turn, but that could be good.

And that's okay. Yes, yes. And give yourself permission to know, oh, you know what? I burned up the midnight oil on this project for, you know, two, three weeks, and at the end I realized, oh, you know what? This is not for me, or this is not what I thought.

And that's okay.

And that's okay.

Yeah, but you're right. Yeah. Telling the wrong people about that.

Well, most people are naysayers.

Right.

And most people are. And they're. I mean, they may be great people. Wonderful, successful, very people. You know, but it's just as we've talked about before, it's so much easier to say, well, that will never work, you know, or to say no. You know, in essence, you're saying no. And, you know, we always talk about being yes people.

Right.

Yes is what really. It sounds like a cliche, but it does bring abundance to your life. The people that you meet, the experiences you get to have, the business opportunities that you get to have, you know, that you wind up in. You're throwing that big net out all the time.

All the time.

And you're going to have a much. Not to get totally stuck on analogies, but your catch is going to be much better if you're the guy that says yes and says, okay, I'll try it, you know, I'll get it. But I'm always a little weary about talking about some of the early, I guess, early stages. Not only talk about it to you, but, you know, because you're a yes person as well. So it's, you know, it's kind of. It's an interesting dichotomy, you know, both sides of it.

All right, so I'm going to put. We're going to put our money where our mouth is here.

What a great segue.

At least I am. Yeah.

Yeah.

That's good. Yep. So I. I had this crazy idea, you know, not for the first time, but it's the first time I had this idea I'm gonna give you so that everyone knows you're all hearing about this at the same time. Okay, Shannon. Shannon. Everyone that's listening to the show is in the same boat as Shannon. You don't know where this is coming from. In fact, it's possible we have a couple of listeners to the show that know more about this than Shannon, because I've talked to some people about this.

Ah, nice.

Yeah. I have always been. I enjoy the law. I enjoy reading legal contracts. I enjoy writing them. I'm not a lawyer.

I play one on tv.

Yeah. I play one in my business. You know, that's what it is.

That's true.

Right. You know, but I really. I like it. And I've always had a head for it. And I've always said, look, if I could. If I had to rewind all the way back, you know, and I had to pick, like, a career that wasn't just doing my own thing, what would it be? It'd be an attorney now, I mean, my family. I don't. I don't think we could have afforded, you know, law school or anything like that at the time. It probably would all happen exactly the same way it did. And that's. It's great. But I've always enjoyed the law.

Okay.

So the other day, I'm driving home and for a long drive, I went down to Connecticut for a friend's birthday. So I had a long time in.

The car, thinking time.

It is good thinking.

We've talked about this before.

Yeah.

That's good stuff.

Yep. And it hit me. I thought, wait a minute, you know, what would it take to get into the business of being an expert witness? Because I could, you know, I have a lot of experience, especially in technology. I have the ability to see something even that's new to me, as long as it's, like, technology related and understand it very, very quickly and explain it in human terms to other people. Right. It's. It's the cornerstone of my career here. Right. I mean, it's what I do with macgeekab. It's what I've always done in one way or another. So I'm very good at that. And I don't say that egotistically. I think that there's some merit to that. So I can do that. I'm also very comfortable on stage. Right. You know, in pressure situations, they don't tend to bother me. In fact, I really like pressure situations like that, like what we're doing here. Right. Yes. We could edit this show, but in my head, that's off the table. I mean, if we really screw something up. Sure, we will. But, you know, the Goal is get it right as it comes out. And so I thought, you know, and I know I know enough about expert witnessing to know that, you know, the glamorous part, the part which some people might hate, but the part, to me that's glamorous, of being on the stand and, you know, delivering and informing a jury and all that, that's a very small part of it. Most of it is you're providing background information. Right. You're contracted by an attorney, us, sometimes by the court, directly by the judge. But typically it's one side or the other that needs some expert testimony. And. And so they. They send you a bunch of stuff. You, you know, you read it, and then you regurgitate it into a written report. Something I can also do. I'm a pretty good writer. I have a voice for explaining how to's, you know, and. And so I thought, man, this could be. And this could be, like, I would enjoy this. It's fun.

Sure.

And, you know, there's usually no shortage of cash flowing around when. Especially when somebody's litigating. And so there would be enough cash there to make it, like, actually, you know, worth my while in some. Some percentage way, you know, not insignificant portion of my income. I like to do things. I mean, you know, everything I do becomes a moneymaker for me. Right. I mean. Right. Like even playing the drums. And there's something to be said about not blurring your hobbies and your passions with your work, but I don't know. That's not me. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm not sure I agree with that. Changes. It can often change your hobbies and passions, but if you're careful, you can still reap the benefit of joy out of each side of it. Making a little bit of money. As long as I think if you're happy, you know, I don't care how wealthy you are, if. If you understand the value of making a couple hundred bucks. Yeah, that's pretty good. I always impressed by that because, like, hey, it's a couple hundred bucks, you know, or whatever. A thousand bucks, you know.

Yep. Good to go.

Yeah.

So. So this is what I've been. This is what I've been swimming around, and I've talked to a couple of attorneys just to make sure that, like, am I crazy about this or no? You know, and basically the, The. The answer that I've gotten back is no. This, you know, makes total sense. You're the perfect person to do it. Your only problem is marketing and whatever skeleton some opposing counsel might find in my closet you know, but, you know, to impeach me as a witness.

Sure.

Which is their job.

That would be a challenge. But you're, you know, I think your personality would lend itself to it pretty. Pretty well, you know, you're not afraid to kind of be contrary. Well, good to be contrarian and not. Not go with the, you know, the flow of things.

You're.

You're more than willing to say, no, no, that's not right.

Yep.

And I think that's a very important part of something like this is to be able to stand on your knowledge and be confident about it and to contradict someone to say, no, no, that is not correct. You know, or. Or don't make that assumption. And, and I agree. But there must be some companies out there that have consolidated expert witnesses that you can sign up with.

You are totally correct. Yep. So, yeah, there are expert witness agencies. And that's exactly. Yeah, and that's exactly it. So as soon as I found out about that, my thought was, okay, cool, I'll go and sign up with one of the date these agencies or several, depending on. I don't know how it works. You know, I don't if one's exclusive or who knows? Right. You know, but I'll. I'll go and walk that path because it's a really easy way to learn. You know, if somebody's got this existing infrastructure, great, I can, I can figure it out. But the whole time, you know, I know that I'm going to be collecting knowledge not just about how to be an expert witness, but how to be a solo expert witness. Yes. Right. And so that will happen eventually, you know, where I'll branch out on my own. And then anybody that knows my history will know the next part is I'll start my own expert witness agency because I'll find other expert witnesses in my course of travels, and they'll say, hey, you figured this out for yourself. Would you do for us what you did? For you, it's like, yeah, story of my life. Yep.

Yeah, that's right.

So. But I actually, you know, again, here it is. Right. So now we've got. I see this path, and there's a likely, you know, there's some degree of likelihood that that's how the path will work. But I also know, like we just said in the previous topic, that at any point there's a left turn here, and I'm open to that.

Yeah, I think that's important. And I think it's also important when you're looking at things that you're passionate about is to realize that that path you just subscribed, you know, starting out, okay, I'm going to work for an agency and get. Get my feet wet, and then eventually I'm, yeah, I'll go on my own. And then, hey, maybe I can have, you know, some of these other folks under my umbrella. You know, it's quickly a path to doing what you really enjoy, to becoming a manager.

Right.

And if you're okay with that, it's totally cool. But I often, when I talk to other small businesses or I, you know, amass to advise somebody or whatever on some topic, I often see the owner or, you know, the founder struggling with that transition of, oh, well, I started it because I wanted to do this and I'm the best at it, but I have a bunch of people working for me. You either have to put good managers in place that also can manage you.

Correct.

And that's fine, or you have to be willing to transition from the guy who's, you know, not doing as much of what you were originally passionate about and managing your team.

It's totally true. Yeah. And I think. I think I've figured out how to walk that path, and I failed at it several times.

Oh, yeah, me too.

Yeah. But, but you're, you're absolutely right to identify this. It's again, about. I would like to. It starts with, I think I would really like being an expert witness. Right. And then the question, the only reason for growth is it's like, well, wait a minute, there's a lot of money on the table here. Other people don't want to do some of the grunt work of this that I'm willing to do, so I can capitalize on my willingness to do that grunt work, I. E. The marketing and the finding business and all of that. Right. That's what we're calling grunt work here. And so why don't I find other great expert witnesses and, you know, make a little bit cut of the take? Right? That's where. That's where it always goes. And the podcast thing, and really, which started with the website publishing thing, went the same way. Right. We enjoy doing this. Let's sell the ads. Oh, now other people need ads sold. Okay. We can get a percentage of that. Great. And where I failed, so that part has succeeded, but I still get to do the podcasting thing that I enjoy. Right. Because I've got other people taking care of the quote unquote, grunt work. I mean, it's, you know, it's. It's a lump term. It's a. I. I do a lot of grunt work that.

It's not a derogatory term.

It's not derogatory.

It is a efficient, very respectful and honorable thing to do every single day.

Every day. It's great. Yeah.

And there's a part of my day that I do it and, you know, I have no problem doing it.

Right. Yeah. So it's just a term of efficiency. Yeah.

Correct.

There's a lot of grunt work I do. But. But where I failed at it was with the consulting thing, you know, and there's a. There's a risk of that here with. With this expert witness thing, because it's the same kind of. Well, with the consulting thing. My problem was I never hired anyone that my customers liked as much as me. I hired people who had their own. Who, you know, developed their own customers that liked them better than me. Right. But there was no way for me to say, hey, I've got, you know, this great business of X number of clients, and really, I need about three of me to properly service X number of clients. There was no way for me to go and get the business. Right. And then have other people service that business in a way that I just didn't figure it out. I know it's possible. I know other people.

It's a tough transition, too, for small business owners.

Yeah.

You know, you were the. Especially as you're growing and people. Part of your success is built around how you personally treat people.

Yes.

And those people that you treat very well early on in, you know, the establishment of your company, those people in particular are always going to want to talk with you.

Right.

And it is a tough transition. And, you know, I finally, you know, years and years ago, I just kind of like, oh, you know what? This guy is way better at this than I am. He's going to take much, much better care of you.

Right.

You. You want to talk, you want to come by and say you want a cup of coffee, I'll be glad to talk with you and hang out, I think, you know, whatever. Say hi. And that's kind of what I do, you know, here at stores. Often I'll walk up front, hey, how you doing? But quite honestly, I could no longer sit down and, you know, input, you know, on board. A customer walking in the door, I'm terrible at it. You know, I designed the software to do it, but sitting down to do it, I'm like, I don't even. A lot. What's my password?

Yeah, yeah, right.

You know, so. But then I go get a Customer service rep and say, hey, take care of John. He's a great guy. I've known, you know, he's been a customer for 10 years. And. Da, da. And I said, john, great to see you. How's your kids? Boom. And you kind of walk away and you're good.

Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The. The walk away is tough.

It is. Especially in that consulting.

Especially at consulting. Yeah. Yeah. And so there is that risk here with this. And I don't. I'm not starting this to turn it into the next. Of course, I've never started a business to turn it into the next thing that, you know, is the primary thing to put food on my table. Right. But, yeah, I mean, but one of those businesses is now, you know. Yeah. So that's. That's kind of how that works. And I realize this could. Anything could turn into that, or it could just be this little lark that doesn't go anywhere. And then in six months, you ask me, Dave, whatever happened with that thing? And I'm like, oh, yeah, it was a dude. Not good. You know.

Well, you know, and that's okay. And the only thing. And I think it's a great idea. It's a very interesting idea.

I think I'd love it, to be honest.

You would, too. I think it would be important, though, to, like, part of the success, I think, of, you know, your. Your media business and even the web business and the podcast are there in niches.

Oh, totally. Right.

And I think that's very important to, you know, either on your own, and I think you're very well positioned to do it because. And I would say this to people that are, you know, maybe a decade, you know, back, but I think for the last, you know, decade or probably more, you've been building your personal brand.

Yes.

And that is, I think, a very important part of shifting to some sort of thing like this.

Oh, yeah. You couldn't do this out of the gate. You have to come. Because the first thing, I mean, if you do make it to the big show. Right. Which is on the witness stand and there's the judge. That's right. Right. The first thing, you're not your attorney. The attorney that hired you is going to do is spend probably 30 minutes walking through explaining to the jury all your credentials and everything to show them why. To show them and opposing counsel why they have to accept you as an expert witness, because otherwise opposing counsel is going to be like, nope, he, you know, why does. He hasn't done this long enough. He's not an Expert. Right. You know, you need to be able to come in with something where there's just irrefutable proof, and it really needs to be proof that you're an expert before your expertise even matters. And I feel like I have that in a very small niche. But that's okay.

That's the opportunity.

That's the point.

Right, Exactly. That's the point. I think it's great. And I think if you can recognize those aspects of it, trying to keep the passion going for what you really love, especially when you're just getting started and you know how to do it without getting rung out, and especially going into with another organization that's going to market you, that'll be an interesting experience, and it always is.

And my guess is I'll learn a ton from this agency that markets me, not only about marketing there, but also. Whoa, wait a minute. You know, we kind of do something similar to this with Backbeat Media. Look how these people have organized their business. We can take this one element, apply it to ours, and now. Oh, okay. Now we're doing things even better, you know, that kind of thing.

Yep. I agree. I think that's. I think it's awesome. And, you know, we'll check in with you from time to time and see how things are going, the good and the bad, and that's great.

So within.

I'll.

I'll make the commitment here since it seems to be the thing that people, you know, do online, they. They stand up and they say, I'm going to lose weight. And I'm telling you all because now I'm accountable. So within the next month, I'll. I'll have reached out to a couple of agencies and I'll let you know.

That's cool.

Yeah, yeah, I love it.

I think it's great. That's very good. Well, we had a bunch of other stuff to talk about, but like we often do, we jumped into this, which is great. I think it flows much better, and it's very cool and gives us something to talk about next week as well. It does, but I think that's great. And I really, you know, I think the big takeaway from the concept of this expert witness thing and those opportunities, or even if you want to be a business consultant, you want to be a mentor, whatever it is, you. You need to be building your personal brand over time because it takes a long, long time, and hopefully you're doing it anyway as you're building your business career.

Right.

And, you know, people are asking you to come consult or asking you to come do this and maybe speak at a conference or those kinds of things. And those are great things to, I guess, you know, say, pad your resume, if you will, of. Oh, I've done this. I've done this. I helped these people do this. These are all my achievements, you know?

Yeah.

So.

Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah. You've got to. You should be doing that anyway for your business. But, yeah, that's.

That's good. And. Yeah, and we'll come back next week and we'll talk about a platform that will allow you to sell that expertise by the minute.

Well, that sounds interesting. Yeah. Now, I want to come back next week, man.

Yeah, that's the whole idea. Awesome.

Facebook.com BusinessShow Co is where one place you can find us. We'd love to see you there. BusinessShow Co on the web. Another place you can find us twitter.com businessshow co maybe without the dot. I don't know.

Yeah, Business Show Company.

It's Business Show Company. Yeah.

Yeah.

They got anything else for him, Shannon?

No, just find us. That's the most important.

Find us and say hi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let us know what you think about any of this stuff, including, you know, all of our crazy ideas that it's. It keeps it fun, you know?

Yep.

Fun one, Shannon. Yeah.

Good. Good chatting with you folks.

It was good chatting with you, too. It was good chatting for you folks. And we'll see you next week.

Take.