The Billionaire Perspective

Business Brain, Episode 638 for Wednesday, April 9th International ASMR Day 2025 sorry if I blew your eardrums out there, folks.

Strange.

Welcome to Business Brain, a show where we take some ideas, we dissect them, we crunch them, we analyze them, we use them to tune all of our business brains collectively, each and every time we get together. Our sponsor for this episode is MacAudio.com brain, where you can use coupon code brain to save 20% on anything that rogue amoeba offers. Great apps for audio on your Mac. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. For now, back here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And still here out in Northern California, I'm Shannon Jean. What does ASMR stand for? I guess I could. I could chatgpt it.

Yeah, no, it's. Yeah, it. Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. And it is the. The. The thing that. That, like, causes. What's the right way to describe it? Oh, people sometimes describe it as like you feel tickles triggered by someone running their fingers through your hair. Right. Like those kinds of things. And sound is a. Is a big part of it, obviously. And so. But a lot of it is just like the noises of just like, you know, people rubbing their hands together or.

I went to it.

Nails on a chalkboard.

It's yes, yes.

You know, maybe not.

I went to an audio experience thing in San Francisco one time that had, like, I don't know, hundreds of speakers right over our heads as we sat and did this audio thing. It was. It was crazy. I mean, it would raise the hairs on your arm. Right? You hear certain things.

Yeah, people love this ASMR thing. But. Yeah, I'm back from. I'm back from podcast Movement Evolutions, which I was out in Chicago for. And I. I have lots of things, of course, that I'd learned in meetings and was great. One thing I did learn, though, is a piece of sort of generic advice. Find out which. Where your industry hangs out on social media.

Oh, okay.

Because I. And I've known for a long time that the podcast advertising industry tends to hang out on LinkedIn, and I thought, makes sense. Yeah, but, like, not every industry hangs out on LinkedIn.

No.

Right. No, but. But this one does. And I'm sure we could dissect why, but it doesn'.

Matter.

It does. And I have a presence on LinkedIn. I have tons of followers on LinkedIn, but I generally don't spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, or at least I didn't. But about a month ago, I thought, you know, like, this conference is coming up. I got a lot of good meetings happening. I want to make sure I stay in touch with these people. I think I'm going to. I'm going to experiment. And it paid off in droves because I just got involved in the conversations on LinkedIn, you know, commenting on people's posts, doing the things that you do. Not anything ham fisted. Hopefully not anything ham fisted. Just. Just joining conversations and being reply guy and then also doing my own posts here and there. And, and it was fantastic because the conversation was already happening when I met with these people. It wasn't like, hey, it's nice to see you. The last time we saw you was a year ago or six months ago. It was like, hey, that thing, Remember that funny thing we were talking about? Right? And it was just like, it was the. It was an extension of the conversation, not a rekindling of the conversation. And it made things so much more relaxed, so much easier to get into. And, you know, I always say that conferences, the best part about them, industry conferences, is it gives us the opportunity to remind each other that we're humans. And, you know, seeing each other, sharing space, having a drink together, whatever, just, Just hanging out. Even if it's the hallway track, where, yeah, there was one company, they had to cancel their meeting with me because they had a meeting with a. It was an ad agency that canceled their meeting with me because they had a meeting with a buyer, like, with a, you know, with like a company that might want to buy ads. And I was like, by all means, yeah, do that instead of meeting with me. Like, we all make money from that. But I ran into them in the hallway at one point and I was very. I knew their schedules were packed and I was very like, hey, just want to come up. There was one person I hadn't seen yet. We were all kind of running into each other. It was one person there, there was the whole group of them, but one person I hadn't seen yet. And I just wanted to give her a quick hug and say hello. And then I was like, all right, I'll leave you to it. Like, I know you're, you're packed. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no. We're just chit chatting, hanging out. Stay with us. And that turned into like 15 minutes, which is like the most I would have gotten out of them if we had a scheduled meeting. Right. So, yes, LinkedIn, powerful, yes for that business. But, yeah, find where your business is.

Yeah, any, any getting involved in that conversation. I give people the same, you know, instructions when they're like, I don't know how to get. Nobody talks to me. I sell on ebay. Nobody talks. I'm like, okay, well where are they at? Well, are you conn, category manager on LinkedIn? And they say, inevitably, no. Right, well, let's go find them. And then you get in and you know, don't even ask to connect. Just start talking in the their posts about what's going on ebay. Don't ask, don't ask for anything.

Correct.

Just start telling this. Oh, great, congratulations. Yada, yada, yada, then connect. And then you've, you start working your way up the food chain. You're in this discussion stream of, you know, what's going on. And it's, it's so simple, but it's.

So powerful because of that. I have three conversations going directly with brands that buy podcast ads that I would not have going otherwise. That's one month's worth. Well, one month ago, I decided to prioritize this. I've been building my LinkedIn network for decades.

Of course. Of course. How much time per day do you have you spent up there to do this?

It's, I mean, it's probably 30 minutes a day.

Yeah, that's pretty good.

Yeah, I, I, I, I definitely am taking some time away. What's interesting. And I know I just, you know, I try to be self aware and what I noticed is I go to LinkedIn now before I go to it is the first place that I go, you go, yeah, that's which is interesting. And yeah, it's like, oh, okay.

And that's where the people hang out.

That you're doing way better than going to Facebook where I'm definitely not making money from anything on Facebook. Like, yeah, I mean, I am like, that's not, that's unfair to say.

Well, no, that's part of your, yes, it's, it's, it's part of the, where you're going to spend time at some point during the day doing certain things. Correct. But, but you identifying where the people are that you need to be talking to. That, that's just a great tip.

Um, I have, I have another tip though, related to that. If you're connected with somebody on LinkedIn and you've messaged them and they don't reply because most the messages on LinkedIn are a dumpster fire.

Yeah.

Because there's just so much spam. So I get it why people that might even want to talk with you wouldn't ever Just see your. Your direct message on LinkedIn, even if you're connected with them. So the trick is find their email address and send them an email. How do you find their email address? I am finding that Seamless AI S E A M. I'll put a link in the show notes at Businessbrain.

Job perfect.

Seamless AI is spectacular at finding email addresses. You get 50 lookups for free, and then they start to squeeze you, which is fine. Like, if you're using it correctly. By the time you've churned up your 50, you've made more than an. Make sure you make more than enough from those 50 to pay for a year's subscription to Seamless AI.

That's cool, man. Yeah, I love it.

Yeah. Which is. I mean, it's probably like a grand or something, but, like, if you're using it the right way, that's. It's totally worth it for a year.

Oh, yeah, yeah. It's. I always. There's no pricing on the website for that, but you're probably right. But that's smart. Free 50 credits. I think that's great.

And when you do your first lookup, you get five more credits free. Yeah, they know how to do it, which is great. I have one more tip for us in this intro section. Shannon. We did this again, starting about six weeks ago. Add 3% to all of your businesses credit card transactions and make the buyer pay the fee. And all you have to do is tell people we're adding 3% to cover credit card fees. We have had zero people even flinch at this. Now, it's been a practice for a little while. We held off on doing it for our B2B stuff at Backbeat, but we started, I think it was after I bought a car recently and I put down, I don't know, $15,000 as a down payment. They gave me an interest rate that was too good to. It was fascinating. They said, do you want to do this interest rate? It was like 2.9% or something, which is like, okay, great.

Yeah.

Right now they're like, do you want to do that for three years, four years, five years, or six years? And I'm like, well, does the interest rate change? No. Is there a prepayment penalty? No. Great. Six years.

Yes.

Yes. Obviously, I'll take the cheap money man. So. But I put down 15k and I was going to, you know, write him a check or do whatever you do. And then I was like, wait a minute, let me look up what I, you know, what do I earn for this with My, you know, Bonvoy card. Okay. So I get 45,000 points. Okay. What's the value of 45,000 points versus what's the cost? It was going to be what's 15,000 times three? It was going to be 450 bucks. Right. For their fee, I'm like, oh, well, 45,000 points. I know how to make 45,000 points at Bonvoy worth way more than four hundred and fifty bucks.

Yeah.

Because I, I save it. I save them for the rooms that are super expensive, but. But come down. And so I was like, oh, yeah, I want to pay for that. Like, I'll take those points. That's worth it to me. And I think everybody is looking at it the same way.

Yeah. So especially B2B. I think it's B2B in a lot of B2C. It's a little tougher. The car thing with the high dollar amount. I totally get it.

Yep.

But I think you just. Especially if you can just add a different payment method that doesn't cost anything. It's like, here, go right here and do an ach. Right. Just write to us. It costs nothing.

Costs nothing.

Write out of your account. You can still do it electronically or whatever. I agree. You should not be eating that if you don't have to.

No, it used to be against policies to charge more.

It was against credit card. Yeah, exactly.

And they did away with that. And, And I, I like, I, I think I've even seen it at restaurants. I've seen it like for B2C stuff.

Gas for sure. Gas in California. Absolutely.

Gas for a while.

10 cents a gallon more. And you know, the, the discounts that you can offer. I think we can have like the big box stores, Target, Walmart and somebody else to thank for getting rid of that law.

I agree. It wasn't. It wasn't the little guys, man.

No, no. Yeah, yeah. So. But yeah, I agree. If there. That you can do that with. It's not going to test it, add friction to your thing. It is definitely more acceptable now than it ever was.

Yeah, totally, totally. So test it in your business and let us know. Feedbackusbrain show. All right, so I want to take a minute and talk about our sponsor here because this show is powered by hustle ideas and no less than three apps from our sponsor, Rogue Amoeba. Really? Audio Hijack captures and processes our audio, records it for us. It is the thing that records the file that you're hearing. Loopback wires it all together behind the scenes. And Farrago brings in our music and any, you know, fun little sound effects that we might need in the show. Rogue Amoeba makes the best audio tools for the Mac, hands down. Their latest audio Hijack update includes the Whisper AI powered transcribe block, which creates fast forward efficient, locally processed transcripts. If you can hear it, Audio Hijack can record it. If Rokamoeba made a CRM, I'd trust it to manage my contacts and water my plants because that's something CRMs do, right? Grab free trials and save 20% through the end of May at MacAudio.com brain with Code Brain. That's MacAudio.com brain because great audio is part of living your charmed life. And our thanks to Rogue Amoeba for doing what they do and for sponsoring this episode. So before we get to our next pro tip, Shannon, because this seems to be an episode of Pro Tips. Yeah, I want to share a review that came in from KDU472. Five stars, on point all the time. Besides new ideas on how to use AI, Dave and Shannon often simply remind us of things we should be doing. It is great to have them there to nudge us and steer us when we are heads down in the weeds. I love it. Thank you. Katieu 472 from the United States. That's outstanding. And you can review Business Brain by going to BusinessBrain show review. And when you do that and when we read it on the show, KDU472 was just entered into our drawing for a MacBook this year and you can be too. So please.

That's awesome. We appreciate those reviews. 100% crucial for us. Definitely.

It's engaging. It shows the engagement.

Yeah, absolutely. Tell us all the podcast apps that you actually like listening to us.

It tells us that you like listening to us. It's really.

Yeah, that's important too. Yeah, we were just talking about that before we started recording today. Speaking of important things, you know, sometimes you get an opportunity to talk to people that maybe you otherwise wouldn't and get different perspectives on things. And I had a conversation a while back with someone and just a super great person. It turns out I was told before I met this person that they were a billionaire. Okay. Okay. Which is kind of cool. It's like, wow, that's awesome. Then I get to, you know, you.

Don'T run into too many of those. I know.

No, no. I was like, wow, this is really cool. Very great guy.

I like when I find out after the fact that someone's a billionaire that like, that's really fun. Wait, what?

This guy was super nice. And I found. I was at a event with him at a party, and it was late, and we had both been. Both had a few beers or glass of wine or whatever, and we're just chatting, and he was like. He was talking about his. His business because I'm full of questions, and it was very complex the way he made his money. And I was like, man, this guy obviously is just on another level and doing all these complex things. And, and so after I. You one big thing, I. I do notice about people because I love asking questions about what you do. Tell me your story. It's very noticeable when they don't ask you back, right. When they don't, it's like tennis. I serve. I would like to learn about you.

Yes.

Well, to keep the conversation going, typically you would ask about me.

Hey, I want to know about each other.

Yeah. And so in this case, it was awesome, because he's like, hey, what do you do, man? How do you know so and so. And what do you do? So I started talking about my life compared to his, which I. I felt was like, yeah, just talk about the.

Imposter syndrome creeping in. Right.

Exactly right. It's exactly right. I'm thinking, well, I know nothing, man. I'm just a guy that buys and sells things and runs these companies and builds these things and, you know, talking my podcast. But, you know, I. I talked about lifestyle. We talk about lifestyle businesses a lot and how, you know, they kind of have people like, you know, I don't know really lots of people, though. That's just a lifestyle business you're just buying.

Yeah. People dismiss them. And I love that because. Because there's a lot of smart people that could be competing with us.

Yes.

And they don't because of their emotions, and I love that.

Yeah. And. And we, you know, we've spent our life stacking up these lifestyle business to build wealth, and it's amazing. And I explained this to him and I was like, yeah.

You know, and I.

It's like, as I built these companies, I have a lot of freedom. I get to hunt all the time. I go fish, I take. I spend tons of time with my kids, all this kind of stuff. And he stopped me and he reached out and put on my arm, and he's like, shannon, you have an amazing life. And my first thought, instant thought in my head was like, dude, you're a billionaire.

Right.

And. And I realized it was. I was totally, you know, he. Yes. He had an amazing life too.

Right. Also, it's not, it's not a non zero sum game.

Correct, Right, correct. But it just really made me think about perspective. You know, you need to get some perspective on your life and not think always the grass is greener and that.

He was thinking, the grass is greener on my side. On your side. Correct.

When I told him, I'm like, oh, yeah, we take our dogs to work every day, we do this thing. He was like, what? Wait, what? You know, how do you do this and what's going on? And this guy, he was, you know, pretty traditional business.

He'd probably be willing to shave a couple of zeros now that he's there. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I don't, I can't speak for this guy, but I have, I've met a few billionaires that I've actually gotten to know. And you know, when I tell them, oh, yeah, you know, I do my podcasts, I play in bands, I like rock out or whatever, they're always like.

Wait, yeah, wait a minute. Huh?

You still get to do all. I traded that for zeros. Right. And it's like, okay. But I, like, I don't have as many zeros as you, but I have enough. Like, it's okay. Like, it's fine.

I think your point is it's very easy to get imposter syndrome when you meet somebody who is, quote, much more successful.

They definitely have a bigger cushion than we do.

Yes, yes, that's right. But when you, when you start to think about it and it was just a great experience because instead of, you know, him just kind of brushing it off and being self important or whatever, he was just totally cool and he was just like, man, that's so amazing. I wish I could do that. And this, this. And it was great. Yeah, you have to think about it and put, Give yourself, you know, that perspective that what you have in your life, many, many people do not. And the things that we take for granted every day, there's so many people striving to have it that it's just a reminder that, you know, you're, we're all fortunate. Hopefully you're fortunate at some level and we're all good at certain things. But I just, I thought it was definitely worth sharing on the show.

No, that's, that's a great. Thank you. Because that imposter syndrome, I think it creeps in for me, perhaps more than most, but I don't know that because I don't live in anyone else's head. Right. But when it does creep in, remembering stories like that. And. And simply remembering that the only person I'm competing with is me in. In this realm. Like the. I just need to level me up and I'm. And then that's it. Like, whatever. I can learn how that guy leveled himself up. That's valuable. But I don't need to obsess about replicating that.

No, I just need to take. Compare yourself to it.

No, I don't want to compare myself to it. I just want to take what I can learn. How can I apply that to where I am and what I'm doing, and then go, you know, and a lot of that, what I've learned, especially conversations with billionaires, is being as generous with what I do have. And I don't just mean money. I mean with, like, my time and what I've learned and all of those things, it's like, wait, I have value here. And I know that we've been doing this show for 10 years. Like, I get it. But still, even though we've been doing this show for 10 years, sometimes I have imposter syndrome, you know, like right now. Yeah.

Almost daily, you know, you run into it and start thinking of this or questioning yourself, and it's just a super common thing. You just constantly have to reframe how you present things to your brain. And because you're programming yourself. And one of the things we're going to talk about Friday, programming.

Yes.

Tremendously important framework about learning that Dave is going to discuss and break down for us. And I'm really looking forward to hearing it. It's going to be great.

Same tune in on Friday to the best way to do that. Subscribe to the show. Wherever you are, whatever app you're in, subscribe. We'll see you on Friday. Keep living that charmed life. And yeah, we'll see you Friday.