Why Some People Thrive in Business… and Others Stay Invisible

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The power of live communications and how actually, how to actually manage them. You know, we as human beings, we've evolved over 300,000 years talking to each other face to face around fires. Then in the last 20 years, we decided to Oh, something's happening. That was weird.

Yeah, I said you muted my mic.

That was weird. So, you know, here's the thing. No, I'm just getting a— I'm just getting a reverb here. Hold on, let me just— let me just fix this real quick.

The power of live.

Are you getting— are you getting a reverb in, in No. Okay. All right. So here's the thing. Then in the last 20 years, we decided email and social media would replace all that. Here's a spoiler alert. It didn't. You know, the neuro behind face-to-face in-person communications is pretty fascinating. When two people meet live, something called neurosynchrony happens. That's where your brains literally start aligning patterns. And Leslie and I have this situation far too often. It's kind of freaky. They're called mirror neurons. They start to fire and trust rises faster. This is why a 5-minute conversation, gang, in person can accomplish what 20 emails cannot. This is why I, I really love organization like BNI and why it works so well. Not because of referrals alone, but because of repeated proximity Builds Trust Velocity. So today we want to talk about 3 specific areas that you as a business owner can really benefit from when it comes to, hey, taking your business live. Now it's going to sound kind of odd because I'm a digital person and Leslie is an in-person person, and we're going to meld that together. We're going to talk about this so that you as a business owner or someone who is thinking about going into business, you're an entrepreneur possibly, Hey, how do we attack this future? Because it is very, very different. I think we've all struggled with that, Leslie, where, you know, we, we default back and say, well, I'll just email them, and they don't get back to us, and it goes into the hole. And, you know, we're all kind of the same. We're getting 200 emails a day, and if we left for a couple of hours, you're so far on page 2 or 3 that I'd probably miss it. So I want to welcome everybody to the show.

My name is Jeff Harrison, along with Leslie Spore, you— are you like missing my emails or are you filtering my email?

We're doing something kind of different. We're doing this live, and the reason for it is— your reason for it is because things are moving so quickly and we tend to, um, record these in advance, and we both decided, hey, you know what, as fast as things are moving, next episode would be out in April. We need to talk about March 11th. So I want to welcome you and please do us a favor. This is a live show. Please put your comments. And if you have questions, we'd love to attack those going forward. So you've got something, you have something in your ear. You got some earwax up there.

No, you just are cutting in and out. That's all. You're, you're, you sometimes—

Do me a favor. Keep, keep doing your thing. I'm just going to, I'm going to temporarily log out and log back in.

Okay. So, Jeff has left me on my own, which is a really dangerous position to be in because no telling what I'm gonna talk about. He's right though, in-person networking is critical this day and age. We all wanna rely on email and newsletters and some kind of absent or technology formats when in fact being in person is a big deal. And I had this conversation yesterday with a colleague of mine. We're partnering up to do work together. And she was saying that she hasn't been to any networking events in quite a long time 'cause she's decided she just doesn't like people anymore, which I can relate to because as you know, if you've listened to us for very long, I have, I stopped networking outside person to person after COVID. And now I'm back doing it in mass, massive amounts of in-person networking since joining BNI, and BNI then renewed my enthusiasm for it. So she and I were talking yesterday. I was telling them, Jeff, that I had this conversation yesterday with a colleague who was telling me that she has just given up in-person networking because she doesn't like people anymore, right? And I said, well, you know, I understand because I stopped also. I became a hermit in my office, and then I joined BNI and I realized how much I missed talking to people in person. And then I started networking like a maniac. In fact, I did an expo yesterday at one of the casinos where I talked to, I don't know, something like 150 people. So we can fall back into digital formats of communication, newsletters, emails, other forms of social media, talking and video, when in fact, we should be doing a significant amount of work in person. And that's kind of as far as I got while you were gone. Try talking to me. Let me see how you sound now.

Yeah, I figured out what the problem was. So, I got it dialed in. What I was hearing everybody is I was hearing a delayed voice from myself. And because I'm kind of the producer, I had several different, because we're doing this on 5 different platforms, I had all those platform sounds coming into my headset. And I'm like, I can't, I can't talk. It's almost like trying to hear an echo, only there was 5 of them. So I apologize.

You know, I was going to say, we talk about, uh, conversation and talking to people, and I was going to tell everybody— this is what I was going to tell before you left— is that my husband, who talks to me quite frequently, unfortunately, um, he made me put a sweater on this morning before the podcast because apparently my arms are getting way more wrinkly than they used to be. But I've decided I don't want to have conversations with him anymore.

This has absolutely nothing to do with today's conversation.

No, I know, but it was a conversation. It was a networking person.

Geez, geez. Well, you know what? I want to, before we get off track here, I want to stay on top of something because it's perfect about you going to an event. And here's kind of what we've kind of fallen into. We go in and let's say we just go to an open house or a ribbon cutting for the local chamber and we meet like 20 people. We come home, we have 20 cards in our hands and we never follow up with them.

I do.

You're a rare bird. You're an albatross. You're kind of on your own. And you know what? Here's the proof in that. I remember going into a couple of businesses. This was years ago when we first started our digital marketing agency. And you'd see those fishbowls in there and you'd put the, you know, the card in there and then somebody lucky drawing. Well, what I found out is most of the time that job is left to the highest paid employee, which is usually the owner or the manager, to try to input those. And guess what? All they do is get stored in a bag in the storeroom and nothing ever happens to it. So my point is, is volume is not the answer. Quality is. And we have a little, we have a little process here today that, that I think is really kind of cool. It's called the 3-3-3. 3 live connection method. And it kind of goes like this, Leslie. After networking event, let's say you have people that you've met and you say, within 24 hours, send 3 follow-up messages. Within 7 days, make 3 introductions between the people you met. So, now, you're a connector and you're good at that. But within 30 days, invite 3 people to coffee or a call. Do a one-on-one with them. Now, here's the cool thing. This changes the way networking happens because no one else does this. So guess what? You're a standout. You're a good freak of nature that you're doing this with.

Or an albatross.

Yeah, I like freak of nature. So, you know, this is— and so if you do this, I guess, as you become the most memorable person they met almost immediately. And there's a strange little paradox of business in a digital world. The most powerful advantage is still being human.

It is.

And this is an opportunity to do that. Yep. Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, I, I, you know, as you know from, from being around me all the time, um, is that—

yes, now that she has wrinkly arms, I'm gonna—

I'm going to revisit, reevaluate that. Yeah, I know, it's very sad. Gravity, gravity catches up with you. Oh, after 60 everything falls apart. So anyway, um, what I learned in, uh, well, first of all, I always do that, okay? I know I'm unique and weird and all that stuff, but I always follow up during the event itself. I keep a notepad next to me and make notes of which people are the highest probability of, uh, opportunity for either, uh, either, uh, collaborating or for new business opportunities. And so like touch out for those people first, but everybody gets touched— uh, not touched, but everybody gets contacted right away within the first couple of days after an event. Like I did that yesterday with about 150 cards I picked up. So I will reach out and say how nice it was to meet all of those people one at a time, not in mass. And then, um, and then we add them all to our newsletter. So then they will hear constantly from me at least twice a month. In fact, somebody came up to me yesterday and said, hey, I'm already on your newsletter, so I'm just going to give you my phone number. You can text me if I win the door prize, the raffle prize. Um, but she says, I get it and I read it every single time. So I know that there is value in that constant, uh, connection with people. And I always ask questions about them. How long have you been in business? What area do you service? What kind of things make you unique? I was doing a realtor event yesterday. So what makes you unique from all the other realtors who are here? You know, just a variety of questions, because when you allow other people to talk, it creates a relationship with them. Whether or not it's a deep relationship is Debatable, but at least it establishes some sort of rapport and they might remember you. I mean, when you're one of 20 or 30 or 50 other vendors at an event, you want to stand out. Now, luckily for me, my business is the only business of its kind at these events. So usually you have mortgage companies, home warranty companies, communities, different things like that will be there. But for me, I was the only lifestyle manager there. So it was, easy to be remembered anyway, but I still like to follow up.

Well, you know, one of the things that I hear, and I just want to kind of pull the rug out from underneath this excuse, is, you know, I'm too busy to do the follow-up.

Oh, no.

And, but here's what we fall back on is we say, well, we're just going to do the emails. And as I said before, if you can spend 5 minutes in person with somebody, it accomplishes what 20 emails cannot.

That is true.

And so if you don't have time to spend 5 minutes with somebody to build a relationship, and I have this on here, it says, you know, in a digital world, the most powerful advantage is being human. And it kind of changes that switch, Leslie, from I'm going to go to this event, see how many contacts I can get so I can follow up with them, instead of saying, wait a minute, I want to go and see how many relationships I can build.

Right, right.

And that is because that's what happens. It still hasn't changed that we want to do business with people we know, like, and trust. Right, right. And by spending that 5 minutes with them and think, hey, I want to be with you as a person, not as a transaction, that all of a sudden it becomes a relationship and we remember you because you followed up with us. Now, I'm not saying you don't have an automated system behind the scenes. I mean, I was just doing this for a client out of Chicago this morning. They do, they do events. They do 90-minute presentations all over the country, actually all over the world. And so I set it up for them so that them as a speaker, when they're done, everybody who signed up, they have an automated system to communicate with everybody was there. That's a different situation because their job is they're the talent. They're on stage. When you do this, it's one of those things. It's like, I don't want to meet more people because it means I got to follow up with more people. No, no, you can set that up automated in the backend. Like with Leslie, she, you know, she may have a QR code they scan. Well, that should go right into an automated system that maybe an hour from there or 2 hours from then, there's a follow-up. And then there's, you know, the next day or whatever, there's a series of emails that go out. And then she gets on the, what I call long-term nurturing, which is her newsletter that goes out every other week. So those are the kind of things you can do. So when— so I bring this up, Leslie, from the standpoint, and then I'll turn back over to you because I know you're chomping at the bit to take over here. Yeah, always. Is those people said, I don't have time to follow up, so I'm just going to send emails. 5 minutes. That's what I'm talking about. If you don't have 5 minutes to do it, then maybe you should not even consider going, or maybe you should consider not going to that event. Because you're not going to do a good job.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I should have put a caveat in there. Yeah, I got 150 new contacts yesterday, but my goal is always at these networking events to get 3 to 5 actual relationships out of it. And those people I do call, those people I do try to follow up with a one-on-one in person. Coffee or something because I want to know more about them, or I want them to know more about me, or I want— or I just like them. You know, some of the relationships I've built in the last 3 or 4 months have included people that I now call my friends and people I want to be around more than just for work, you know. But even from a marketing perspective, it's amazing to me, and I don't know why, because I teach this to people all over the country, so I don't know why it's amazing, but how many— well, here in the desert, how many people know how many other people? You know, I've got a company I've been referring to for years. They do a service for elderly people that we don't do. Okay. And I have sent clients to her many times because, um, they're asking for things or they need daily help. That's not something that we specialize in. And so recently we reconnected. I hadn't talked to her in quite a number of years. I remember when she started her company 14 years ago though, and have watched her rise. It's a great company. And, um, got to talking on the phone the other day and she was like, well, you know what, I have these, I think we should partner up. I want to put you on my website. I'm going to start because her clients who are not specifically my clients, right? Her clients. Um, have request things that are outside her scope that we can do. So she wants to be able to provide a broader service. So she's going to partner with us. Well, the cool thing about that is that didn't occur to me. I just assumed that when she was taking care of these elderly people, that she handled all the stuff for them, but there are requests that are beyond her scope. So it works good from a relationship standpoint. And ultimately the point is that we had a conversation about it. She's seen my emails for years. She knows who I am. She used to network. She's the one who said she hated people these days. She didn't want to network. That's why I haven't mentioned her company. And so, um, she understands, uh, the value though of talking to somebody in person, and it's the only real way to create a relationship that is deep.

Yep.

You know, you know, I have people who have been reading my newsletters for 20 years and they tell me they do, but do I talk to them on a regular basis?

No.

Have I done work with a lot of them? No. Right. They just like my newsletter, so they keep getting it and they know who I am. And if they come across somebody who could use our services, they may refer them, but it isn't a, what I would call a deep, meaningful relationship because I don't interact with them consistently. And so I really agree with you that the relationships where you do interact and talk and meet are the better ones as far as networking and marketing is concerned.

Well, you know, one of the, I think, the most confusing parts for most local business owners or entrepreneurs is this. They think they need a massive list to be successful. And I'll use— he may be on this call, but he owns a company here in the Coachella Valley and he always wanted to make a bigger list. And I asked him early on, well, I said, how many, how many times a month do you want to actually perform your work? And his number was 100. And I said, okay, so 100. So that's 1,200 times a year on average, high and low season, whatnot. But an average of 100, that's 1,200 transactions, if you will, a year. And I asked him, I said, well, how often do your clients use your service? He said once or twice a year. And at that point, I looked at his database and I said, you don't need more people on your data in your database. You need to take care of your database better. Now, this was several years ago. And now what's happened is this without any additional effort. His business continues to grow and his network or his email list continues to grow, not because we focused on growing his email list, but we focused on taking care of his, his current customers and building a better relationship. And so the number shows up to be, if you just had 1,000 names in your database, if you're a local business, not global or regional, but local, that, that is enough to have a very going business, doing really well. Because many of these people, like, just like this example is, they may only do business with you once or twice a year, but because you're taking care of them outside the transactional part of the relationship, they think of you. Just like this gal you, you described, as you build that relationship, she's in a conversation, all of a sudden it's like her little antennas are up and And she says, oh, wait a minute, I have somebody who can do that and I can refer them or I can connect it. And I think that's the, that's the one on the side standing. Now, before I turn this back over to you, on the flip side of that, I had another client. They had a list of over 25,000 names in their database that they only emailed when they had an offer. And they complained because their response rate was so poor. Yeah, I'm like, excuse my expression, no shit. Oh, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I saw that there was our, our live viewers had gone down, but I apologize. It's, it's like, no kidding, it's almost like if every time you heard from Uncle Harry, it was because he wanted to borrow money. And when Uncle Harry's name showed up on the phone, what did you do? I'll send that to voicemail.

I just won't answer it.

Well, we're gonna treat you the same thing because we are now seen as a transaction, not a relationship. So, it's not about how many names you have on there, 25,000 versus 1,000. You can be just as successful with 1,000 if you focus on building relationship. And that's really what we're talking about today is relationship building and really thriving with that.

Right. Yeah. It's an interesting dynamic because we have fallen into, I think, misconception or perception, misperception that everything needs to be digital and electronic. And I mean, you are a digital marketing guy, so that's right up your alley. But there is value still in the human connection. And I think more so than ever because we have been lulled into this sense of complacency where digital and AI is concerned. Concerned because it'll handle it for us, right? And for the most part, that's great. I think it should handle it for us. It's a routine, mundane, difficult thing to do content all the time and post it all consistently and all that stuff. So using a digital tool is great, but there's so much value, especially when you're a small business in a local captured environment. You know, the desert here where we operate is approximately 8 cities across, uh, what is it, 10 miles give or take. And then we're surrounded by— yeah, and we're surrounded by sand. So, you know, we're like an island in the middle of the desert.

Sounds like Dubai, kind of.

Yeah, I know we don't have water like Dubai, but yeah, it's kind of like— what do you mean?

We got the Salton Sea.

Oh yeah, okay. For those of you who don't know, the Salton Sea has no fresh water in it, and so it gets kind of icky. But someday they'll clean it up and it'll be good. But right now, I know you know me, I digress all the time. But for now, what I'm saying is that when you're in a— when you have a geographic area that you operate in, implementing more human interface really brings huge results. Um, going to a chamber mixer, I'm always surprised at how many new people I meet at chamber mixers because, you know, I was out of the loop for so long. For a while there, it was all the same people you saw all the time. And like anything, people age out, their life changes, they move on, they don't belong to the chamber anymore, they've moved away. And so when you go, there's a lot of new fresh faces, there's a lot of new businesses out there, uh, as the times have changed, there's new kinds of services. And so until you get out and talk to people, you don't really know that much about them. They may put out— I get newsletters from people I have not met, which is great because it tells me about their business, but I don't know who they are as a business owner. And that's important to me because everybody I interface with puts a face on my business. So if I hire a vendor to do something, they're representing me, and I need to know what kind of leader they are. Are they ethical? Do they provide good customer service? Is their pricing commensurate with what I expect from my clients? Are they clean? Do they smoke on properties, which hardly anybody does anymore, but there were, there was a time when that was a real issue. You know, do they leave trash behind? People that go and have lunch and then leave trash, that's just unforgivable. And so you— that without that human connection, those are all characteristics you can't necessarily discern from a newsletter, right, or from an email. You can't tell that. We all read that stuff. There's no voice inflection, although with the clones these days you do get some voice inflection, but as a rule there's not voice inflection. So we read everything with our own emotions. And that may not necessarily be accurate.

Well, you know, we— how many times have we, all of us, including those of you watching, you've received an email and you put your own tonality spin on it? And, and so that can fire you up one way or the other emotionally when it's like, wait a second, if we were just face to face, that would have never happened because I would have as the deliverer of the, of the message, I would have put my proper emotional spin on it. And if there was a misunderstanding, it would have been handled right then. It wouldn't have spun out of control. And so, you know, what we're talking about today, first of all, thanks for joining us. And we were here live. So if you have questions or comments about this, we're talking about really having a presence in your local market and really where is business going in the future? Because a lot of things changing. Is it all digital? Is it in person? What's going on? So we've been talking about Hey, if you're going to events, have yourself a system and think about building relationships, not building your database just for names that you've never— you're never going to probably get them in your database, and B, you probably won't follow up versus saying, wait a second, like Leslie always told me, and I admired this. She says, I go and I get 3 to 5 names and that's my goal. And then I don't get any more cards because you can't follow up with more of that. That's what she was doing. And she's built a very loyal following. As she just said, somebody's been reading her email for 20 years. That just doesn't happen by accident. So, keep that in mind. The one thing I want to talk about now, Leslie, just shift gears a little bit. I get this, maybe not the exact words, but this is what they're saying. They're saying, hey, my business, I may be the best plumber, the best carpenter, the best electrician, But nobody knows that. They're invisible. And this just this morning, that's kind of the first part of the month. So I'm looking at reports for clients and I'm really proud to say a lot of our clients are bubbling right to the top. But what I did notice is one client that's fairly new who came aboard and really didn't have a lot of, I'm going to say, online presence. They were, you know, if you think about, about and it's not quite this way anymore, but like 10, 10 business names per Google search. They were 17, so they were on the bottom of the second page, meaning no one would see them.

Right.

And, and so even though this person is getting loads of reviews and they are busy, no one really knows them. Well, that's why they hire us, to get you digitally known. And so let's talk about what we call An authority formula. How do you stand out in your local market, whether you own a business, you're an entrepreneur, whatever it is, so that you know what you are not? Well, yesterday I had a— on another podcast I do called The Desert Professionals Playbook. I had a company on. They've been in business for 18 years, Leslie.

They have.

Yeah.

See, I know who they are and I'm surprised I did not know that.

Yeah. And if you mention their name in a group, they've never heard of it. And their slogan is, we're the largest company— I won't mention the name— they're the largest company in that particular industry in our valley that no one's ever heard of.

Yeah, exactly. I had not— I had no clue.

And I'm like, that's criminal because they've relied on one thing. Referrals. That's it. And you know that— I'm sorry, referrals is really not a game plan. That's a hope. I hope I get referrals and I hope it's going to be a good month.

I don't think that— it's not going to be too long before referrals don't matter anymore. Or at least, excuse me, not referrals, testimonials, because everything online can be manipulated.

I get them every day, somebody trying to sell me reviews. I'm like, Really?

It's like they're not, they're not real. And, um, the ones that we do for BNI Group is, are real because we actually go in and do them. But it's going to be pretty soon where you can't trust that stuff. You know how all of us go online when we're going to buy something on Amazon and we look at the reviews for the product? I can already tell some of them are auto-generated. And so, but I'm more savvy on the AI stuff than a lot of consumers are yet. So I don't know that they can tell, or TV commercials or whatever. I can kind of pick out the ones that are AI created. And so, um, but pretty soon we're not going to be able to tell. And so you really need to establish yourself as an authority. And I did that in the beginning by writing articles for like the chambers and for the local paper and for, uh, various little papers in the individual cities. Because to— and it didn't necessarily— the articles didn't necessarily weren't about my business. Per se. I wanted the byline and the description of my business that went with the article because I thought it was more important to write about something that people would gravitate to and engage with, you know, rather than doing a sales piece. I did an— like, I wrote about, um, Valentine's— the, the origin of Valentine's Day and the evolution of Valentine's Day over time. That came out obviously in February sometime, and That got a lot of engagement because it's interesting, you know, and then they, then they would see my byline and a description of the company I worked for. But I would, I've also done, um, and that's more, that's not even remotely related to my lifestyle management company, but I've written stuff about plumbing or HVAC or the most common leaks in a home or what to worry about when your home is empty for the summer. That kind of stuff establishes you as an expert in your field. You know, I can talk all about pools and why, you know, how the equipment works and what happens with the heater when you don't do any service on it. You know, carbon monoxide is a real thing. And when the burners burn inefficiently, it puts off carbon monoxide. And so you can talk about things that other people either don't know or haven't thought about. And then that will establish you as an authority in your industry. Now, are you— when that's how I look at authority is that to become credible. Are you? But you're talking about it from a different perspective, are you not?

No, not really, Leslie. I think this is where most people get hung up, and I've been guilty of this, is we have what's called an imposter syndrome. Like, am I really good enough to share this with the world? Like, who am I? You know, Tony Robbins is doing that, and I'm kind of saying with Tony, but Tony's the best, right? Or whatever. So we don't, we kind of keep our cards in our pocket. Well, here it is. Authority isn't about being the smartest person. It's about being the most helpful teacher in public. And this is— go ahead. No, that's all right. You've already cut me off now. Go ahead. I lost my train of thought.

Finish your thought.

I have no idea what I was going to say.

Oh, you're so full of crap. Okay, so what I was going to say is I had an example of that. I know, I adore Jeff. So Don't pay attention because I had no example of that.

I had no direction I'm going, so go ahead and take it.

Oh my God, we do this all the time. So if you haven't watched our podcast, you'll enjoy this. Watch some podcasts.

So I had happy hour starting at 11.

I have a friend who is a graphic designer, and she also worked in the hair industry like your wife. For many, many years. And so she went to all this trouble to create a beautiful catalog, a start of startup products for newly graduated hairdressers, like business cards, gift punch cards, brochures, you know, marketing pieces, this whole little package that family could buy as a graduation gift for their newly minted hairdresser, esthetician, right? It was gorgeous and it was perfect. And I'm like, you know, you should go speak with the local beauty schools and talk to them about this and explain the need for it because you're the expert in this. The minute I said the word expert, she lost it and freaked out because of that imposter syndrome. She goes like, well, why would they listen to me? And I said, because you just, You lived this, you worked this, you had shears in your hand. You know what these kids face when they're just newly graduated. She goes, oh, I can't, I can't talk to them because it would be like, why would they listen to me? And I'm like, oh my God. So you're right. The imposter syndrome is a real thing where people, and I guess it's the word expert that scares people, but when you get up to speak to a group, They don't— they're looking at you for information, so they don't know if you're faking it or you're not, right? Most of the time you're not, but occasionally you might have to, you know, um, what is the word I'm looking for?

I think, I think borrow someone else's authority to get the point across.

Yeah, something like that. That's a good way to put it. I was thinking more of a tap dance, but okay, that's fine.

So I took those tabs off my shoes.

But what I'm saying is that don't let the word authority or expert or any other synonym for expert throw you off your game. People don't know, so they're happy to listen to you. They love to listen to somebody teach them something or educate them about something or share valuable information, even if you don't think it is. Right? How many times have I told you that I think some, some of the stuff I write is too simple? Because to me, the concepts are very simple, but just for somebody who doesn't know what I'm talking, you know, their, this, their first exposure to learning about this, whatever the topic is, to them, it's not rudimentary. To them, it's helpful. It's educational. It's something they can learn from, and everybody has to start somewhere. So yeah, establishing yourself as an authority on any topic is a great place to start.

I want to give you a real-life example of, of how the people just below you— and I don't mean like negatively, but like they're learning— how valuable it is. And for about 5 years, I did work with a local— if you haven't heard of, it's called— it's, it's an international organization called the First Tee. And it works with young kids, teaching them core values through the game of golf. Our best mentors, if you will, were kids that were just a little older than them. And the reason they worked so well is because they didn't see them as an authority. They saw them as just barely one, and I call it one rung higher on the ladder. And so, the relatability was very, very high. And so that established trust right away. And I think that's where we get hung up is we think, well, I have to be at the top of the mountain before I can teach anybody behind me. And that is so not true. One of the biggest things, Leslie, is, as I say, teach in public. Like, I love— like, I'm teaching AI to a group of real estate agents in April, and I'm looking forward to that. But there was a point where I spoke about 250 times a year doing just that. And so, yeah, I like it.

Yeah.

And so I want to, I want to encourage those people online to just put in the chat what's something that you think is just, as Leslie says, rudimentary, is too simple, that someone who either wants to buy your product or service or hire you for your expertise, what is something that you think of like too simple but would make a big difference to them? I'm just curious. Please do us a favor, put that in there. And as we're doing this, I also want to talk about Go back and say it's about being the most helpful teacher in public. And here's something to think about that. Every customer has questions before they buy. One is, how much does it cost? Is your product or service safe? What mistakes should I avoid? Who can I trust? And whoever answers these questions first becomes the authority.

Right.

And now I'm gonna ask you again, online here. Do you know how much your product or service costs? Then you're an authority. Is your product or service safe? Then you're an authority. My point is, see how simple that is? You could just be talking about cost and the investment somebody has to make, whether you're selling solar or you're selling content marketing, whatever it is, and you become an authority. Because think about how it's uncomfortable for you The same is happening with your competitors, your colleagues, and you can stand out.

You know, one of the simplest marketing or networking tools that you have, and a lot of people don't give any thought to this, is enthusiasm. You know, if you talk enthusiastically about your business, like you like it and you want to be a part of it and you want— you like it so much you want to share it with other people, that goes so far. In creating interest from the other person because people seem to— human beings being what they are, they want positive in their lives, right? And if you present something with enthusiasm and a smile and excitement, they will feel that and they will mirror it back to you. And so I think that's an overlooked— I used to have a sign in my office even at work when I worked in private industry that said enthusiasm is contagious. And it is, you know, and it's something I teach other business owners also to utilize because they get— you can't— you have to show no fear when you go out and you network or you're talking to a new business opportunity or a prospective client. You cannot show fear or hesitation or doubt. If somebody asks you how much something costs, you need to tell them with confidence. And so that means you have to price your stuff so that whether it's a widget or it's a service, you have to price it so that you can speak to it without being nervous about it. You can't worry about whether somebody's going to buy from you or not. If they can afford it and if they can see that, more importantly, if they can see value in the product or service, they're gonna buy it, right? So being able to speak confidently about the answers to those questions is key. And you need to make sure that you are comfortable and excited about what you offer. And you'll be able to close a lot more deals. I'm not, you know, I'm an operations person. I'm not necessarily, I've learned to become a marketing person over the years and I can definitely do it. But I know that this is one of the keys to doing it successfully and showing that you are an authority in what you're talking about.

Yeah, let's see. I want to go through this. You know, I talk about the— or we talk about the authority formula. I just want to give you a simple 3 steps. 3 steps. That's all it takes to start to become an authority in your marketplace. And we call it the authority ladder. And here's what it is. 3 steps. So write this down. The first step is simply just answer questions. Well, we talked about the wrong— you're one higher, one, one higher up. And so the first one is to answer questions publicly. And now what does this mean? Leslie mentioned it. I do this all the time. Write posts, record videos. Hello, this is what we're doing right now. Host workshops, show up like Leslie was at a big event yesterday. And so that's the first step is show— or excuse me, answer questions publicly. The next one is simply teach consistently. You know, it's one of those things that in my world, as quickly as things are happening— oh, I've lost Leslie, but that's okay— as quickly as things are happening, what happens is I could be teaching something every day. You know, I learned about, you know, a particular program yesterday, and today I could play with it and then teach about it. Because people who have never heard of it, or maybe they had heard of it, but they hadn't used it yet, that's an opportunity to help that. So think about what you do. Leslie talked about that before, about, you know, the pool and the heater and all this kind of stuff. Depends on what your business is. It's like, you know, if you're a handyman or you put in windows and doors, you could talk about the seals and why they, you know, how the, the tracks get dirty and how this wears out the seal and how this leaks. Valuable air out of your home and it drives up your electricity bill. Wow, and this is how you replace it. You could do something like that. The third one is basically, is people become, you become a reference point. And what I mean by that is, now when you're out and about and say, for instance, Oh, Leslie's back. Something happened with her. She's not quite there yet. But the point is, when you're out and about or when somebody's out and about and says, hey, do you know somebody who takes care of absentee homes? Oh my gosh, I do. I know this gal named Leslie Spoor. She owns a company called Executive Errands. They've been doing this for over 20 years and they have a phenomenal record. And here's the thing I love. And all of a sudden they have a story to tell about you. Why? Because you did the first 2 steps. You answer questions publicly, you teach consistently, you show up, you follow up, and you're always there helping. When you don't do this, and then you wonder, how come they didn't call me? 'Cause here's the tragic thing. I'll be the first to raise my hand. I go to a meeting or something, or I go to an event, and all of a sudden, I see one of my competitors taking care of a friend in their business. And I'll go to them and I'll say, John or Mary, you know, that's what I do. Why didn't you get ahold of me? Oh, you know, I didn't think of you. I forgot that's what you do. And I'm like, it's not their fault, it's mine. It's my responsibility. But if I'm constantly doing that, so like, as an example, before today, before shows today, I put out all these— I put out an email to remind people to come to this. And the more I'm in their inbox where it's teaching, not selling— didn't ask anybody to buy anything. And if you, if you're on our show, if you come to our show now and then, you'll see where it's not about selling. It's about being here present with you every week. We put out a podcast. I think we're in season 2. Like, this is episode, I don't know, 13 or 14 in season 2. So the cool thing about this is when someone says, who knows about this, your name comes up. This is all it requires. And it doesn't require millions of followers. Like I said, you only need 1,000 people to know who you are because what happens is those people are out in the marketplace and they're just intuitively listening for opportunities to talk about you. 'Cause here's the thing, oh, Leslie's back. Darn, darn, I thought for sure she was going to leave it. I could just finish up the show without any— oh, here she is. Hey, what happened? You have to get a different sweater for those, uh, those saggy arms or what?

No, I don't know what happened. All of a sudden I couldn't hear you and then it crashed, and then I think my browser crashed.

I tried to make it look like an accident, but that's okay. Uh, let me just finish this thought. Let me just finish this thought here.

Go ahead, whatever.

The point is you don't need to be crazy about this. You don't need to be the ShamWow guy. And if you don't know who that is, go look it up because you don't have to be that guy or that gal, but you can be enthusiastic about things you already know about. And again, teach one thing. And here's, here's the formula. It's a simple weekly visibility rhythm because, and I'm going to share this at a very low level that will be effective for you. That no matter how busy you are in business, you can do this. One helpful post a week. So if like LinkedIn is your, is your jam, that's where your people at, put in one helpful post a week, video a week. And it could be about that same helpful post, right? One. And you don't have to get a lot of crazy equipment. You can do it on your phone. And if you're close enough, the audio from that is going to be fine. And then do one live conversation or event. Like in our BNI group, Leslie and I, we do one-to-ones. We'll call other members of our group, say, do one-to-ones. That is that live conversation, and that's an hour. But remember, a 5-minute conversation was more beneficial than 20 emails. So do that every week for a year, and you become, in your environment, the most recognizable voice in your niche. I I guarantee you. And this recognition turns into trust. The trust turns into referrals, and referrals turn into revenue. But here's the difference, Leslie, before I turn this over, is you're not building referrals on a hope. You now have a formula. You have a system. Visibility is a service at scale. Okay, now go ahead.

Yeah. Well, you have to design how you want your business to be. First of all, and you have to design what your networking and marketing approach is going to be. You know, anything that you design creates clarity, and anything that's clarity helps you to understand and remember how to do things. And I want to stress, one of the fears that most people have is the fear of rejection. And there is no— the bit you should welcome rejection. And I know that that sounds counterintuitive, but if you think about it, when you go out and you do a networking event or you talk to somebody and they either ignore you or they tell you they don't have any use for what you do, it's very difficult not to take that personally. And so, um, eventually what will happen is you'll drive away from that event and you'll think, oh, you'll replay that conversation. I should have said this. I should have said that. And what that is, is what your brain is helping you with is how to answer the objection because you're gonna face the same objections over and over again as you build your business. And once you have the answers for those objections, they become much easier to overcome. And in fact, you'll eventually structure your presentation or your conversation to answer those objections before they're given to you. And when you do that, you should not only show that you understand the other person's perspective and you understand why they might say no to you, it takes that away and it makes them feel more comfortable right away. It makes them go, oh, she understands, or he understands what I'm talking about or how I feel. You know, how I feel is something that AI can't even replicate yet. It doesn't feel, it's mechanical. It does things by data. It does not do things with emotion. It may sound like it does things with emotion. It talks to you like it has emotion, but it does not. And so getting that rejection is a healthy, creative way to get better at your presentation. So you shouldn't shy away from it. Same with public speaking. Jeff is one of the best public speakers I have ever met. He is so glib and easygoing in front of a crowd, but if you put him one-to-one, except for me, he's not as comfortable as he could be, as you would think he would be given how great he is at presentations. I love to speak to groups or individuals, but I also get nervous. Even at BNI, I'm speaking next week. And I will be nervous until I start talking. And so I'll heckle her. I'm sure you will, because I would not expect anything less from you, Jeffrey. But, um, you know, the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and you shouldn't be intimidated by it because as a business owner, you, you are the face of your company and you are the cheerleader for your company. And so You want to be able to express what makes a good lead for you, what is a good opportunity for you, what is a good partnership for your company, so that you can build those relationships and create those opportunities for yourself. Luck doesn't happen by accident. We all create our own luck, and you do that through hard work. It's the same as manifestation. I'm a big believer in the power of positive thought and manifestation, and I talk about it all the time. Whether you think it's woo-woo or not, it works. But you have to do the work to make the manifestation work. It isn't just like you say, I want this to happen, and it magically happens. What you say is, I want this to happen. What do I need to do to make this happen? And as you do that, as your intent becomes more clear about how you want your business to grow and how you've designed it and how you've aligned your business, then those opportunities start coming to you in abundance because you laid the foundation for it, you know. And so, um, being able to— and then when you do that, then other people remember you, right? So you, you, you have to get out and talk to people, I guess, is the bottom line. What we're trying to say is you have to get out and talk to people so they will know who you are, what your brand is about, what services or products you offer, how they can use you, how they can partner with you. That's exactly what I told the guy who I invited to BNI this week when I emailed him this morning. Again, I don't want to say any company names, but I said to him, can you come next week because I'm presenting and I think it'll make it easier for us to figure out how we can— our two companies can work together, right? So, you know, you always have to be thinking about how you couch what you say, how you present what you say. That's more saying that I want to see how our companies can work together, and if you see my presentation, that will help us decide that is better than saying, I just want you to come, I just want you to join. You know, I just want to get another breathing body in our group. Right? There's two completely different approaches. And you have to be thinking like that. And it comes naturally after a while. After you do it for a while, it'll get more natural. But in the beginning, it does feel a little bit awkward. You have to put some effort into it in the beginning.

Yeah, we see that we sat with everybody coming in there. And even when he stood up yesterday, because I used to to do some marketing for their company. He said, well, I should just have Jeff tell the story about my company. He said he knows it better than I do. And that was a little awkward. But anyway, you know, okay, okay. So, I think we've kind of laid the foundation for this last piece, Leslie. And I think this last piece hopefully will bring it together because you can't turn on the TV, you can't pick up a newspaper without hearing this whole thing about the world of work is changing, that jobs will be replaced. This is going on. And so, we want to talk about is the future workforce ready? And I think we talked about entrepreneurship is the road that we need to consider. And, you know, it's one of those things, Leslie, that it's a different mindset. I mean, I hear this all the time. I listen to a podcast. It's called Moonshots with Peter Diamandis and his group of, of mates, uh, and they're just geniuses. They're actually doing a live show in San Francisco right now today, which I hate missing it because they're broadcasting live and it's like $20 grand to show up live. Um, but anyway, they talk about how our education system is broken because it's really, it's really our system. If you think about our education system designed to do what? For us to learn, get a job, go to work for 40 years and retire. And that system hasn't really been around now for probably— what do you say, Leslie? Maybe 2 decades. It really hasn't been that— like, we don't work for companies for 40 years. You may own your own business like yourself. You've owned your business for 20 years. I've been 16 years. But we didn't work that long for one employer. We just don't do that. Our parents, yeah, they might have worked for the same people for 40 years, got a nice retirement, and then the old gold watch. It's just not there anymore. And so I think the mindset has to change to say, hey, learn, build, adapt, create, and repeat. Because, you know, oh, we've lost her again. Entrepreneurship is really so much different. It's not about asking, hey, what job can I get when I get out of college? Or what job can I get if I leave this job? It's really more about what problem can I solve? What problem can I solve? And 2 days ago, I had an interview on another podcast that I do, and I was interviewing this guy and he has a home repair business. And so the cool thing about him is he is a jack of all trades, right? He can fix anything. And, you know, we joke and say he's the guy you want to call when your spouse can't fix the problem.. And so, my point is, is like we have a mindset, Leslie, as an entrepreneur instead of a worker. We're saying, hey, what job can I get at when I get out of college? Instead of saying, what problem can I solve? That's the thought that goes through the mind of an entrepreneur. I mean, you're, you're serial about that. It's like every time I turn around, you're almost like wearing me out. And it's hard to imagine that every time I talk to you, you've got this new problem-solving idea that you could launch to the world. And that's the mind of an entrepreneur. That's, I think, where the shift is. And I think that's why so many people, not just Peter Diamandis, but Tony Robbins, and, you know, a ton of others say the same thing, say the same thing. Our educational system is not designed for the future, which is happening today, not 10 years from now, today.

Yeah, I think that I was going to try to look up, but my browser is not cooperating. Um, I forget how many millions of small business owners there are, and it's about 50/50 women and men, uh, believe it or not. Surprisingly, um, a lot of, a lot of people are— I think that this country is built on the backbone of entrepreneurs and their ability to be innovative and to think about things that other people don't think about. Finding a problem and fixing it is actually the most fun. And I was thinking about this this morning, that I am— I, because I see so many opportunities, I want to do everything, and I don't know how to stop that. Because— so I'm thinking maybe I should do— here's another one— I should start a business that helps people identify opportunities for themselves to create their own thing. You know what I mean? That's how my mind works. I'm constantly reinventing things. And I love this learn, build, adapt, create, repeat thing because it's very much like my root cause and corrective action philosophy about plan, do, check, act. So you, you want to learn what you need to do. You need to build what works for that, whether that's a business or an application or a special tool or a widget. Um, I can give you an example of that. I saw this thing the other day that is a— it's a plastic, it's a piece of plastic with some lines cut in it, and it fits over the, uh, the blender, um, the whisk app for your KitchenAid mixer. You know, it goes over it and they call it a splash guard, but what it really does, which is better, is that when you pull it off, it scrapes off all the frosting or whatever That's on that whisk, because that's a really hard thing to get everything off of. You know, we're always beating it on the side of the mixer trying to get it off. Something as simple as that is a problem that, I mean, is a solution to a problem. It was designed as a splash guard to keep this stuff from flying up at you, but it works equally as well as a scraper. To get all of the, uh, food off that whisk. And so little, even little things like that are really, really helpful, and they don't cost a lot. But if you sell 10 billion of them, what difference does it make how much it costs? You're going to make money either way, which is one of the reasons I think you see things cheaper and cheaper and cheaper on the— when it comes to, um, innovative ideas, the— those little tiny things are not super expensive. Five— I mean You can buy them expensive, but there's, there's places to go where you can get the same thing for much less. And so it's just really a fun thing. I think kids coming out of school today need to look around and find out what's a problem they can solve. And you know, a lot of these kids are really, really innovative because there's more and more millionaires coming out of pre-20-year-olds. I mean, there's 15, 16, 17-year-olds that are into AI that are making zillions of dollars on some kind of product or tech that no, we didn't think of because we're too old. You know, it's like shocking the stuff that they can do today. I really— it's exciting.

Well, I want to plug a, uh, an education system that pretty much, uh, but I want to play— I want to plug it. That's okay. I want to plug a— I'm the only one that has the notes, or I should say I'm the only one that reads our notes for the show.

So that's not true.

So, I want to plug a changing education system. It's called Alpha. And they have smaller classrooms, you know, 20 to 24 people are in the classroom. But here's the cool thing about this, Leslie, is the kids that go to these schools learn 10 times faster and they only spend about 2 hours a day on the specific learning. And then the rest of them, the rest of the time, they go into innovative workshops that drive these kind of things we're talking about to think about what problem can I solve? Can I build it? Because here's the thing, it's funny that you had this feeling yesterday about where you should go because it's easy to do that. And she used to scold me. Her favorite line with me is, Jeff, stay in your lane. But I've been on learn, build, adapt, create, repeat thing for quite some time. And it's really not getting out of my lane. It's just the fact that I'm constantly innovating what I'm using. But I sent this message to a friend yesterday. And I said, because I work in AI and AI has changed everything, it literally is creating an opportunity. It's not saying how, it's what I can build. There's nothing that is outside our realm. If you do a little research, you'll see people that had no understanding of a particular discipline, and all of a sudden, they've cured this particular ailment or they've come up with this gene folding idea. You should look it up. But I said, I'm waking up and realizing everything is possible makes it a bit overwhelming. Meaning, where do we start? Where do I start? Should I— and we play pickleball together. He said, should I create a pickleball app or do I research proteins to cure a disease? And that's one of those things. And I had another, another very long conversation in my mastermind group this morning on that very topic because my question was, am I thinking too small? And after the end of this, I realized, no, what I'm doing, I'm doing my own little world. But what I do is, let's hypothetically say a business. Well, if that business grows by 3 or 4 times because of what I can help them with, That means there's 3 or 4 more times the workforce, which affects the family, which helps the economy. And all of a sudden, it made me think differently. It's like, hey, I'm not an Elon Musk. I'm not taking this thing to Mars or the moon, but I'm making a difference in my own world. Leslie, I hope that helps you a little bit of thinking, yes, I know I can do those things, but can I do these other things that have an impact and I really know exactly what I'm doing?

It's just a thought. Well, yeah, everything that I— all of the ideas that I have are concierge service industry related, uh, in one way or the other. Um, the one thing that we talked about, and I don't want to say what it is because I don't want to share, but the one thing we talked about earlier this week that I was excited about that you got you— like, I sent you the emails and you were like, ah, my brain is fried. Is ultimately a concierge tool, right? And so is all kinds of other, you know, the software I created and the network and the affiliate program. All those things are to make the industry better and stronger for the lifestyle management concierge industry. The hardest part is getting the word out because even though When I started my company, the industry didn't exist at all. I mean, it was just barely even a glimmer of somebody's idea. Um, that was 20 years ago. About 10 years ago, the industry really exploded and there's a lot of companies in the market. There's probably, you know, I don't know how I can't even guess 4 or 5,000 that I could easily put my fingers on. Just in the United States. So it's just a real common industry now and growing by leaps and bounds. I always joke it's growing. The only thing growing faster is pickleball. I mean, the concierge lifestyle management industry is growing really, really fast and the projections are phenomenal. So I want tools out there to help the industry grow. And that's the thing I've been working on. So everything that I come up with is in that vein. It's just there's so many despair and so many, not despair, so many opportunities because nothing exists yet for this industry or very minimal, or they're kludged together, you know, they're kind of jerry-rigged together.

You know, something, something I want you to, to consider. Okay. You know, okay. And I'm not saying it won't be done. But I'm saying you've been doing this for 20 years. There's only 4,000 or 5,000. And I say only 4,000 or 5,000 people in your— let's say there's, let's say there's 10,000. When you spread that across the globe, that's really not many as far as penetration into, you know, 300 million or 360 million people living in the US. And granted, not all of them are your ideal customers. No, but the idea is, is this is if you, if you said, okay, like you just rolled out a new application, a trust, a trust factor, a referral program, and that's like version 1. Let's get that sucker churning. Let's get those, let's get those 10,000 knowing about it and sign them up. And then the next iteration, which will be the next app that you have, the next app, that's just automatic. Like the trust is already so high between you and your your known marketplace that is just whatever Leslie's coming out with, I want it versus I have now 10 or 15 different items out there and I haven't sold anything to anyone because I haven't marketed that. I'd love to see you pump the brakes just a little bit and say, hey, this is in the works. Let's, let's, let's dump it. Let's do a brain dump and let's put it on the, on the, that's a version, version 2, or that's version 3 and have a, and have a plan of saying, Okay, this is quarter 2, this is quarter 4, and, and then say, but in quarter 1 right now is to sell that new platform that you built, which is phenomenal.

Right. Yeah. And that's what I'm working on. And that is my plan for this year is to do more of the marketing and sales, which is what I'm doing. It's a little harder for, uh, that, uh, suite of products because it's harder to do. I can't do one-on-one with that as easily as I can do, except for the 5-Day Freedom Challenge. That I could do one-on-one. But where I can go out to events all week long here and support and promote Executive Errands, it's harder to do that for Concierge Business Solutions because, you know, those of you listening, I have two companies, so one supports the other one. And, uh, I, I hear what you're saying and I agree with you. Um, I don't know how to shut my brain down, but I agree with you. And so, uh, we'll just have to figure that out along the way. It doesn't—

it doesn't require you to shut your brain down. It just requires you to document it and realize where does this fall on a schedule. Because here's the thing, Leslie, imagine every one of these ideas that came in your head were people who wanted to get an appointment on your schedule. You cannot see all of them at once. You would what? You would schedule them out. Yeah, right.

So why are you giving my words back to me? That's okay, because back to me, because this is what I do.

What problem can I solve? She's overwhelmed, she's— and she wants to do it all at once instead of what job can I get. So I look at this and say, hey, your problem that how do I get in front of these, let's call it 10,000 people, I already have developed a way for you to do that. Right. And so now you can go do your thing, right? And you can do the one-on-ones with the 5-day.

So we don't have to amp up our content accelerator.

Yeah. Anyway, we're talking about, we're talking about those shifts in, in the workforce from, can I get a job to what problems do I solve? That's the mindset shift. And then realizing that your suite of tools, which almost all of them have a free version, which can do some phenomenal things. Are at your fingertips. I mean, we have right now, we have the rise of the one-person powerhouse business owner. I mean, right now, I hear it twice a week on a couple of podcasts. I hear they say, how long? This is almost a question they ask for Eric Schmidt, you name it. They ask him, how long before one person has a $1 billion company? That they just run the business and it's— and they have AI agents or AI to run that. Oh yeah, I think it's going to be in 2026. One person—

you know, Jeff sends me, um, videos all the time about AI. I'm almost as well-versed as he is, although he can actually program and I cannot. But, um, I call them the shock and awe videos because this stuff, this capability is evolving so fast. Do you know the first time I really heard about this? I had a client, I'm going to say it was about 10 years ago now, who had, uh, he was only in his early 40s and he had sold some kind of a gaming app. And so he and his wife were pretty much retired in their early 40s and he was developing AI at that time that mimics brain function and the problems they were having at the time. Were how to account for synapses in your brain operate all— everybody has them, but they don't all operate the same. And somebody with cerebral palsy or somebody with autism, they operate even more differently than somebody that doesn't have any of those brain, you know, afflictions. So, um, he was working on the programming at that time, 10 years ago, and I've always been fascinated by that. And now I'm seeing what's happening in this market so fast. I often wanna, I wanna reach out to him and find out where he got with that product because it was really, really interesting. And so those of you who aren't familiar with AI or think it's gonna take your job over, remember that there will always be a need for human interaction or guidance because the, there are no emotions in AI, at least not yet. Now that's not to say next week there won't be. As fast as it's evolving. But they're, you know, so far they don't have those kind of emotions and reason— reasoning. It can only reason on data. Is that true, Jeff? It can only reason on data. So it can figure out what you want. You can train it who you are. You can train it how to talk like you, but it, it doesn't reason like you, even though it seems like it does. It does not. Is that true?

Yeah, it's all based on predictability and it's, it's called a predictability loop. And there are 4 quadrants. We won't go into all that because it's like, I don't need to teach you how to watch runs. It just does it. And it constantly goes through that process to come up with more with the ideal or the best answer for you. And the fact is, you know, they talk about training is the more bits of information a model is trained on, the better it is at predicting the outcome you're looking for. And it does feel like it's, you're having a conversation with it. I, I do it all the time, and that's the way it is. Even when I use the voice function of that and we have a conversation. I wanna, I wanna shift gears just a little bit, Leslie, in talking about, you know, skills that will matter most is not memorization. And, and again, we're talking about typically in school, we get good grades because we memorized it and then we spat it out. And it's not that way moving forward. Yeah, it's really going to be, it's, as we said, it's going to be, hey, what problem can I solve? But some of the, some of the, I guess, the keys that we need to have in the future are this: curiosity, communication, creativity, relationship building, and adaptability. And, you know, I think it's one of those things. I had a conversation with a gentleman this morning at pickleball. We're talking, and I said, you know, it'd be surprising. I said, I do a lot of one-to-ones. And I said, it's surprising how many times I'll have a one-to-one and the end of it, which is about an hour, the person I'm having the one-to-one with never asks me about my business.

Oh, I know that happens a lot.

Which means, which means they lack that curiosity. Me, I ask a lot of questions. You know that. I, I, I love asking, asking questions. That's how I learn. And so you have to have this curiosity of like, well, what makes that tick? And with as many AI tools that are out there, what makes that tick? There are so many levels, right? Like, I'm just now playing with Sora, and I took a long video script and I broke it down into 8 and 10-second segments. And I thought, what if I— again, this is curiosity— what if I took that prompt for those 8-second pieces and I put it in Sora and Sora made the pieces, then I took them out and I put it together as one long video? Could I do that? Well, the answer is yes. I did it yesterday just because of curiosity. So what does that mean? That means I can create really high-level videos at scale for pennies. And I can do it with using AI tools. I wouldn't have known that had I not been curious, right?

Yeah, but you know, to be fair, there are a lot of people that don't need to be, they don't need to create it themselves. They need to find people like yourself who can do this for them and do it at a reasonable cost so that they can take advantage of this without having to create themselves. Not everybody is an analytical thinker. Right. You and I both think in terms of columns and rows almost, you know, that's how we think, you know, that's how I think of software columns and rows. I know that it's kind of, but not really that way. But it's how my brain thinks. And so, and I know it's how your brain thinks, because we're so close on that. But there are a lot of people who are way more on the creative side instead of the analytical side, and they want to build something, but they want to build it from from the fun stuff. To them, digital marketing, digital voice agents and AI agents and deep research and all that stuff is something that they find tedious or intimidating. And so there will always be a need for somebody like us to help other people do the things that they don't want to do. So I don't want to leave the impression here that communication and curiosity and creativity needs to be funneled completely into technology. I want it to be also funneled into other aspects of business where people are strong and where that you can leverage their business acumen. Sorry, where you can— I'm using my hands too much and hitting them microphone, um, where you can, um, get results you want without— and, and get somebody else to do the technology. I mean, I understand it, but I want you to do it for me. I don't want to do it right. I would rather pay you to do it than that for me to do it myself because it's more professional, it's faster, you know what you're doing. I don't have to think through it, you know, I'm not wasting my brain power on that. I just want to come up with ideas and then send them over way and say, here, fix, do this. You know, I don't want to do it. So I don't want to leave people the impression that they have to do that. I mean, they, they should do it if they can, but if they're not interested in it, by all means find somebody to do it for you.

Well, I agree with that because I've written papers, I've made videos about it, I've done talks about it, is leveraging other people's assets. And that means their, their knowledge. And it's one of those things is instead of— and there's a book about this, uh, And it's, it's don't ask how, ask who. Right. And I use this about 3 years ago. I started implementing this, ask who, not how, because what I would do is I'd say, if I said, how do I do it? There's this time where I almost disappear because I'm learning how to do that. Like this last project I just did, I've said it probably between 100 and 150 hours it took of work to put that together. I didn't think it was going to be that long, but it was because it kept evolving and getting better and better as I did that. But I did that specifically for a different reason. But my point is, I agree with what you're saying is ask who, not how. Because as an example with you coming up, all these ideas, that's great. Here's where I think it's kind of taking you a little bit in minutia is you then jump on AI and you build all this stuff out, which is now the how, if you will.

Yeah.

And then you're looking for a who instead of saying, hey, I'm looking for, let's use me. You say, Jeff, I'm thinking about doing this. And I ask you the questions that maybe would've been asked by ChatGPT. And I take that in, I create the, the SDK and, and then I put it together. And now what that does, it frees up a tremendous amount of your time. And I think when we create all those pieces, the anxiousness of, well, let's get that thing out. I know I've already done all the hard work. Yeah, I know. So I agree with that.

You're absolutely correct. I saw that this morning. I tried to create my own— what's the tool you called it yesterday? The research tool? Yeah. The one we were talking about yesterday. I tried to do that myself. And it came back with beautiful data and in a table that I could put right into Excel, and everything was great until I started verifying the data, and most of it didn't exist. It was a great deal of it was the names of websites, domains that people had bought trying to sell, and not actual companies. Interesting. Isn't that interesting? So Yeah, I 100% agree with you. You shouldn't tell somebody when you hire help, you shouldn't tell them how to accomplish it. You should tell them what you need, what is the result that you need, and let them figure out how to accomplish it. I learned that a long time ago, actually, when I was first building my Essential Elements software. If I tried to tell the programmer how I wanted him to do it, it just took longer and screwed him up. But if I said, this is the outcome I want to let him figure it out, it was much, much better. So why I've backslid these days trying to tell people how is not a good thing. So yeah, good, good point.

Well, I want to share something real quick. I want to share something real quick, and it's not a— it's not a long thing, but I just want to share this real briefly.

Is it more shock about that?

No, it's just— it's some guardrails. It— it— of what you're talking about, this is part of me building what's called a skill or AI agents, and So what you have to do is if you think about this, when you build an AI agent, you have to give it specifics about what you want it to do. You don't climb on the ladder, whatever. So basically, I would interview Leslie. I would then build this piece, and I'd say, this is what it's, what it's doing. These are the target markets. Here's the fit classifications. All the information is going to gather, and here's the rules, like quality rules, Be specific and evidence-based. Do not invent facts. If a field cannot be found, write not found so it won't make something up. Prefer quality over quantity. Return only, and in my case, agencies that have at least some reasonable potential as a partner. Keep explanation concise but useful. And then it has a scoring system on there. So this is what I built to build my thing. So Now, for me, what I can do is I can now replicate that to say, oh, you want to go find this in this business? I just changed some wordings in there. Put your, put your guardrails in there. And now it returns at a very high level. You're very—

that's right. Yeah. And the difference between what you are doing and what I am trying to do is that because of your familiarity with the tools—

now, wait a second. Wait a second. This was Sunday. This was me being curious. This is just a couple days ago. My point— no, no, my point is I just kept asking questions, right, to get the answer.

I understand. I'm trying to make a point. I'm trying to give you the—

you interrupt me all the time. Go ahead.

I know, that's what I do. That's my job. That's my job in the podcast, uh, is, um, because of your familiarity and the— you— new tools are built compounded on previous tools and technology, you build it because you learn. You know, like if you, if, if you write a prompt and then you find out you can write a better prompt, that's because you did the first one and then you'll do the second one and then you do a third one. You've already done a lot of this over time, so you know how to tell it to, to narrow the results, to narrow to a specific outcome. Most of us like me, and I'm good at it, but I'm not near what you are, don't know all that yet. So in fact, I have learned that sometimes you just have to ask the AI, how do I do this? And it will tell you. It will tell you the prompts to use. It will tell— because I got so frustrated one day over something I was trying to do. I just literally said, I can't— how come I can't do— why do you not give me what I want? And it said, well, ask me like this. And I said, okay. So I asked it like that. Boom. I had the information I wanted. You know, you do— you forget Yeah, you— we make it more complicated than it needs to be in some cases. But for what you're doing, for the agents that you're creating, you have to have that foundational knowledge to be able to, to get the correct data back. Because just like I said, the data I got back was legitimate, but it was actually just websites that people had, domains that people had bought trying to sell. It was not legitimate companies. And so, um, you would have never fallen into that trap. You would have known right away of some way to specify how the agent is to tell that it's a legitimate company. And I didn't think of that. Now I think of it. You know how I noticed it to begin with is that every contact started with info, everyone. And I know for a fact that most companies don't have info. As their contact. So it was pretty interesting, really. So, oh, good catch. I said, oh yeah, right, too late, you know. So, um, there's a lot to be learned, and that's why when we say better to find out who than to try to do it yourself for certain things— if you're a techie, you know, you're one of those techie nerds, I love techie nerds, that's a compliment in my— from my point of view. If you're one of those people and you want to go learn how to do— you know, my nephew did that. Sorry, I, I— my brain's bouncing around. But, uh, my nephew did that. He's a guitar player. He's a very good studio guitarist, and he's played backup for a lot of people. But there's no money in it, right, unless you become Santana or something. There's no money in guitar playing necessarily. So he went and taught himself to program, and he now builds sites and things like that, that— and applications, because he taught himself how to do it. But he's got a brain that is naturally analytical and thinks that way. You wouldn't think so as a guitar player, but his brain is very analytical. So, um, and now he makes ridiculous amounts of money and he's very successful and he has a good job and all that stuff. So if you're a techie nerd and you want to go learn how to do it, by all means do it. But if you're not, and I'm, you know, I'm just kind of halfway, um, by all means find the who and, and get what you need and you have that curiosity and have that communication, but let somebody else create it for you rather than you trying to do it all yourself. Because he's right, you only have so much hours in a day, so many, so much bandwidth, and if you burn it up, then you're out. So gotta do it.

Yeah. Well, Leslie, uh, this has been a lot of fun. We've been talking about 3 specific things, and I just want to kind of— my wrap-up here is the future may not belong to the one with the most credentials, but it's really for those people who are most comfortable building things. And it doesn't mean you're building tools. It could be building teams. Several people on my— in my company, they do things I can't do. Right. And there I built a team. Right. Entrepreneurship isn't just starting a business. It's learning how to create value in the world. It's not about saying, can I get a job? But again, like we talked about, what problem can I solve? And that's a skill every generation will need. I remember, and then I'll turn it over to you. As a kid growing up, I was asking people that were much older than I was at the time and much smarter. I said, what's the skill I should have? And they said, if you become a professional salesperson, you will never go a day without a job because if you can sell sell. It's just a different product, a different service. And so, I learned, I was fortunate enough, I was trained to be a professional salesperson. The next one was communication. So, I got trained how to be a professional speaker. So, those are two skills for me that I said back then I need it. I wish now, it's like, hey, better coding skills, things of that nature, but asking those questions. So, that's my TODU, that's a turnover.

Is that what that is? Yeah, I, I'm in the middle of final edits on a book that's, that I'm, that I've written about creating design and structure and architecture in a business so that you can be free. And so that, and when I say free, I mean you want to build a business that can run when you're not the, you need to not be the focus of the business, not the It's okay to be the cheerleader, but every decision cannot run through you because if it does, you will be highly limited by your own physical constraints. 24 hours in a day, the bandwidth your brain can process, how well you are at multitasking. You're limited by all those things. And so you want to be able to build a business that goes way beyond that if that's your goal. If your goal is to build a business, you want to create your own freedom. Within it so it can be successful because of you, not in spite of you. So I'm working on that right now, and I hope— I know that that's going to help a lot of people, just like this podcast does. And I, I, I don't know if we have anybody still with us at this because we've been an hour and a half, but I do hope that they sign up and, and listen to all our recorded podcasts on YouTube and Spotify because they're very, very good. Next week, I really want to talk about design, clarity, and structure for businesses. So that's something, a topic that'll come up next week if Jeff agrees to it. And no, he's gonna say no. He's always gonna— Where's the hook to get me off the stage? I don't know.

Well, I want to leave you with this, and really kind of, it kind of puts everything into a bundle for you. Live connections build trust. That's true. Visibility builds authority, and entrepreneurship builds opportunity. When you put those three together, someone stops being just another professional and they become a force inside the community. So I'm gonna say go out in your community and thrive when people step in that role. That could be you. Think about that. 100% agree. Leslie, thank you so much for a great podcast. Like I said, this is maybe the longest we've ever had, but it's been a live conversation about some topics that are really, really important to our audience, which is, you know, business owners and entrepreneurs. So thank you so much.

And with all our technical difficulties, you can tell it is live.

So that's it.

That's it. All right, you guys, we'll talk to you next week. How far are we out on our podcast?

Way out through the end of March.

Okay, cool. All right, you guys, thank you so much.

Bye-bye. Thanks for joining us.

Bye.