0424 | Ron Bauer

Hi, this is Ron Bauer. I'm the managing partner of Theseus Capital. My website is www.d h e s c-a p I t a l.com so thescapital.com and you're listening to EA interviews.

EA interviews, episode 424, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficini for today's Expert Authority effect interview. All right, Expert Authority World, I am super excited to introd you to Ron Bauer. I've had a lot of great people on the show and we've all heard of businesses and investors and entrepreneurs and all this. And there's so many people that are entrepreneurs or they do things and it's like, okay, cool. And sincerely, I'm excited for them to start their business. We all start somewhere, but the people who have gone somewhere are far and few between. And I'm looking at Ron's bio here and I want to introduce him as a venture capitalist and he's done these great things. He's working in biotech now, but I would, I don't know the actual percentages, but for people who have done venture capital and then done it successfully, and then at not only a 6 and 7 figure level, but at an 8 and 9 figure level, that's not even right. It would be 10, 3 billion capital market value for one of the companies he was working with. So I think he knows what he's talking about. So if you have any questions about venture capital, we're gonna get them answered as I bring up Ron Bauer right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you, regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Ron Bauer. Ron, how are you feeling today?

I'm feeling good, thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Oh, I'm excited to introduce you to Expert Authority World because like I was saying, I mean, you have so many impressive things on your bio here. I know you worked in oil, not just like at a gas station or somewhere, but like running a company for billions of dollars. And then you transitioned into.

Biotech and different things. How the heck did you get started and how do you play at that level?

I think you know my greatest skill has Been that I've been adaptable. I've been able to adapt myself to changing market conditions. So everything I do is exactly the same. So, you know, when you think about it, I raise money for companies, I help start up early stage companies, raise money, scale them up, bring in management teams. But the sectors are all different. You know, I started in tech and then I moved into oil and gas and mining, and then I moved into biotech. So, you know, it's really just being able to adapt to changing market conditions.

Okay, well, now we have the secret of success. Thank you for that. Everyone can do it, right?

I don't know about that. I don't know if it's that, if it's, if it's that easy. There's a lot more to it, definitely. But I think, you know, there's, there's so many, you know, moving parts. I think the first thing is really is being able to not only adapt and change the market conditions, but not being afraid of failure. You know, being, you know, make those calls, knock down door, knock on doors, make a meetings, go and see people, you know, take your time, invest in yourself.

What if you don't want to? And let me flip this on its head. What if the problem isn't the fear of failure, but fear of success?

Fear of success? I mean, I don't know. You know, I've never had the fear of success. I've always had the fear of failure and rejection. And you know, that's Most of the CEOs and the founders that I have mentored or that I meet, they're always afraid of rejection or they're afraid of being turned down, or they're scared to make the phone call or they don't want to take the meeting because what if they don't want to invest in my company? Or what if people don't buy into my story or believe the story? I think success, you know, being afraid of success has never been a problem for me or for the founders that I'm dealing with. It's always been really about, you know, the rejection or the failure. And you know, I've never been afraid of rejection or failure. You know, if I get knocked down, I get back up and you know, you try, you know, you, you know, throw me out the door, I'll come in the window, you throw me out, come in the chimney. So I've always been, you know, I've had that ability to, to not to get, pull myself up and keep trying until I succeed.

I can relate that to that too. The whole feed Me to the wolves. I'll come back leading the pack.

No, exactly. Yeah, exactly.

It's interesting you say that though, like you're, you're just like, I've never had a problem with success or failure and I just do it. I'm like, wow, that's awesome. Sincerely and have to agree, most people do have a fear of failure, that rejection and everything. I think you can build a tolerance for it though. I think I used to be a lot more afraid of it and I'm much, much less now.

But I don't know. That's interesting. You're saying you've never had an issue with it. So let me ask you this then. For all the people you mentor and coach and help, I know they're not beginners or entry level. Even if it's a startup company, they're not generally startup people. Like it's their first six months in business, they've never done it. Is it fair to say they usually had a successful background and they're transitioning into something else?

Not really. Not always. You know, sometimes I'm dealing with people, they're first time entrepreneurs. I actually prefer first time entrepreneurs and they fall in a few categories. You know, I do a lot of university spin out deals and I work with a lot of academics. You know, that's sort of been a bit, A big part of my Success has been PhD students, graduate students, they have great ideas, they've been in an academic role, they've been in a, in a lab doing research and they are experts at one specific thing and they're very focused at that. And you know, it's easy to mold those people and to teach them because they're experts and focused on one area, but they're willing to learn on areas they don't have experience. Whereas I find that entrepreneurs that have had some success, you know, they, they have their own there, they become opinionated or entrepreneurs that have created a company and failed, they're jaded, you know, in their ways. They're, they're, you know, if they're not pointing the finger at someone else or market conditions, then they're sort of jaded in their ways. So I find that sometimes a blank canvas, you know, when you're an artist, I'm almost like a financial artist. So, you know, having a blank canvas and someone who is a first time entrepreneur or first time founder is for me easier than dealing with, you know, a seasoned veteran or an entrepreneur. Now to answer, you know, the flip side of your question is it's great if you have you know, a C suite level executive, someone that spent 20 years, 25 years like, you know, I've created a number of oil and gas and mining companies with executives that have come out of, you know, 20, 25 year careers. They've never been in the CEO position, they've never been in the driver's seat. They've always been a backseat position or you know, sitting at the, at the main table but not driving the ship and driving the car. And so those people, they come with a great perspective, they have experience, they know how to weather the storm as well. And usually they've been through some, you know, good and bad cycles. They understand what's coming the way. So that can also work out quite well.

Yeah, that's an interesting point because I would think the more experience you have, the better. But at the flip side, if they're always in position B, it's a different personality to be in the driver's seat personality A, and that you're not going to learn in six months. But I'd be hard pressed to believe there isn't a person on the planet that you could say I've never done oil and gas or ceramics or steel. Here's all the specifics, here's all the nitty gritty about it. You can, I think you can learn anything, but you would take a long time to change a personality, habit and behavior if ever.

No, for sure. And you know, in my oil and gas ventures that I've started up, they've always been led by people that have been in key positions in mid sized to major producers. So these are people coming with 10 to 20 years plus experience in key positions. They've drilled wells, they know what to look for, they've worked in specific areas. They might not have been the CEO or you know, even the CEO or the number two or three person in the company. But you know, running a small energy startup after, you know, you were like a vice president of a 20 billion, 30 billion market cap company and you were, you were behind, you were in charge of, you know, budgets that were, you know, two $300 million drilling budgets a year and now you're in charge of, you know, $20 million budget. It's not really that difficult to be the, the CEO of a company with you know, five, six employees when you know you were employee number 10 out of, you know, 2,000. You know, it's, it's actually a, they actually prefer it because the responsibility, it's actually less responsibility, not more in some senses with a bigger payday at the End of the day.

Well, that's cool. Yeah. This is intriguing to me because you got me some of my own preconceived notions. You're kind of turning them on their head. I want to go back to that fear of failure. Okay, so you've never had a fear of success, and the people you've worked with, I don't either. So let's talk about the fear of failure, because I know that one's for sure in most people.

How do you help them overcome it?

You know, my biggest problem that I have with founders are that they invest in the company, they invest in the business, and they're not willing to invest in themselves.

Why do you think that is?

I just think people assume that they're good presenters and they present well and they're great public speakers. And nine out of ten of the founders that I work with, you know, I record them giving a presentation. And, you know, everyone's afraid of, of public speaking and standing up, whether in, you know, even if it's on Zoom or even if it's on a, you know, another virtual platform, or if it's standing up in front of an audience. Some people have a fear of public speaking. And so I'll record them and they'll, you know, most of the time, nine out of 10 of them, they look like they look terrible. They'll just, they'll be poor presenters, they sound terrible or they'll stutter or, or they have bad body language. And then they'll look at it and they'll say, oh, my God, I just look terrible. And I'll say, you've got this business that could be a billion dollar company. You've got a great background. You've got a PhD or a master's degree. You're an expert in your field. And a lot of them, some of them will get insulted with me, will say, I'm a lecturer at Cambridge or Oxford, and, you know, I present in front of hundreds of people every semester and no one's ever complained. And, you know, I'm very honest. And I'll say, those people have to attend your. Your class. They have. They don't have a choice. It's not like they're coming to a ted, a TED Talk, or they're coming to an event where they're paying for a ticket or they're going to a concert. They're there for an education. They have to attend your class to get their degree or they fail.

Literally.

Yeah, exactly. And I said, you're just a terrible presenter. And I said, what are we going to do to fix this? Because if I take you and put you in front of investors, they're going to turn you down. You know, a lot of them are going to say, this guy, you know, he looks great on paper and his idea is a great idea, but how's he going to raise money if he can't even present properly? So what I do is I go into the psychology and the science of it and I say, let's go and hire a speech therapist or public speaking coach, and let's work with you on, you know, five, six sessions so you improve your pitch. The pitch is key for me, and I want to turn them into, you know, the best, the best investor pitch that they can deliver because I will help them create amazing investor materials and I will help them tell their story better than they can tell it, because I'm used to hearing thousands of stories and telling thousands over the past 20 years. And so I will help them, but they need to work with me on that matter. And, you know, I have a perfect example. I have this PhD student who came to me to raise, you know, 150 grand. And, you know, and I said to them, look, you know, you're going to run out of money right away. Let me get you. We're going to raise you a million dollars, okay? So I organized a meeting with investors. We had a breakfast meeting in a fancy restaurant in London. And this PhD student came. First of all, he showed up and he was just disheveled a bit, have a backpack over him. He's a student. And I've got people there, hedge fund managers and wealthy investors that are looking to write 100, 200 grand checks. And he comes and he's like stuttering and sweaty palms. And he just gives like the worst presentation. He's all sweating on his forehead. And. And my investors are like, who is this clown? You know, where do you find this guy? And this guy's like, 28, has a PhD from Cambridge. Amazing. And so I pulled him aside and I said, you know, after the presentation, he's like, how did I do? And I said, I said, dude, you did terrible. That has to be one of the worst presentations. These guys are not going to invest. There's no chance. I said, we have to fix this. And I told him a story. I said, you know, I had to go, Mario. I was afraid of speaking. You know, I'm used to going in meetings and speaking to 5 or 10 or 15 people. I have no problem, you know, 5 to 25 to 10 people. That's my sweet spot. But I had to stand up. My brother got married and had a massive wedding. You know, 300 people, and I didn't know anyone. Our family was maybe 20, 30. I knew maybe 50, 60 best friends, but there are loads of people I didn't know. And I was his best man. And he's like, you know, you have to get up and give a speech. And I was. You know, all of a sudden, I was like, you know, I had anxiety. And so I hired this speech therapist, and they recorded me. They gave me tips. Eye contact helped me, and it transformed the way I, you know, deliver my speeches now and my pitches. And so I introduced this PhD student, CEO of this company to the same speech coach. And it transformed the guy. You know, he went out on the road, he raised $11 million for the company. Unbelievable. He's like, Tony Robbins fan.

That's cool.

He's like a mini Tony Robbins now. After stuttering, shaking, sweaty palms, sweating from his forehead, his just whole presentation has been transformed. And I probably changed this guy's life, you know, and when you think about it, that small, little. Little, you know, thing that working with, you know, on your pitch and helping them deliver their pitches could change your entire life on how you raise money and how you present to investors.

So I got some questions, but I gotta back up because I didn't know you were helping them with pitches. And so you're helping them with pitches, the speech and all this stuff.

I do everything. I'm like their best friend.

And you professionally grade people on how well they present. I was like, all excited going into this, and now I'm like, I'm glad I got my red tie on, because at least my face will match it. You got me a little freaked out. Like, if I'm doing a good job.

Tell you, you're fantastic. I've watched your videos. You've got it together.

You've got even other ones. Okay?

You present well, you look for the part, you speak well. You're doing a great job. So I'll give you like a 99 out of 100.

Okay?

You've got it going on.

I appreciate that. I'm like, oh, good. And this is live, too. No anxiety here. But joking aside, somewhat, that I was actually when you started saying that, you're like, yeah, we record them and do all this. I'm like, we're recording it right now. Okay, awesome.

How did you decide to put him in front of people first? Do you ever say, you know what? I don't want to put you in front of anyone before we work together, or is that what you always do so they get a feel for it?

That's a great question. And so that specific deal at that point, that was one of my first deals that I was doing over a period of like five or six years because I had a big exit in the oil space. And then I went back to school, did my master's degree and started a doctorate and I started doing then university spin out companies with Cambridge. And so that was my first deal that I was doing. After that I learned and I said, hold on now before I take these CEOs and founders out, because you're 100% right, you only have one first impression. And the last thing I want to do is burn a bunch of investors that could write big checks in the company. So after that embarrassment, and that's an embarrassment to myself as well, because I'm taking this guy out and people are taking the appointment because of my reputation and my experience and who I am. And so I've never made that mistake again, be rest assured.

So that was literally the very, very first one.

That was the first type of, you know, when I, when I transitioned into doing biotech, med tech, fintech, those sort of deals from the resource space. That was, that was my first deal that I did. Yeah.

Okay. I really wasn't sure. Like I didn't know if you just, you know that trial by fire thing, I was speaking in front of an audience in. Where Was this one? Tampa 6 8. Whenever it was years ago and.

I wanted people, I was talking about video marketing. It was what I published my first book on. And I was talking about video marketing and also publishing. What my core business is now business, book publishing. So I was asking, who's afraid of going on video? This probably similar, like, who's heard of video marketing? You know, everyone raises their hand. Who's afraid of doing it? Half the room constantly. I go, who thinks it's super difficult? The other half. So I go, all right, who's literally afraid of doing it? And like half the room raised their hand and I found someone in the front room, like, come up here, sir. I brought him on stage, knowing it was being recorded, but just having him walk up. And I was like, why do you think it's difficult? This and that. And then I pulled out my phone and record. Like I did it intentionally as like, let's go into it. But when you were saying he was that nervous, I'm like, I don't think he did that intentionally.

You know. And then the Whole sweating and everything. Is that just because your nerves get so worked up? Like, I mean you're not. I'm trying to figure it out from a physical standpoint because like when you're playing basketball or jogging, it's like you're exerting physical energy. But standing there like right now, if I just start getting all anxious and nervous, is it really just your nerves freaking out?

I think it's anxiety. I think people when they're anxious and they're afraid of the unknown. And that's why I think practice is important. That's why you see these, you know, professional athletes, you know, they, they've played in high school and junior leagues, they've played in college, they playing in the NBA. Of course if you're in like an NBA finals or you know, the super bowl or something, you're going to have some nerves. But you know, we're talking about people that perform at a different level. And I think the same thing is when you look at, you know, Fortune 500 CEOs, these are people that are constantly going through training. And you look at people, even now, social media people have coaches to train them on social media. Because a lot of these CEOs, they're, you know, social media is new to them as well. They've been, you know, these are guys that are in their like 50s, 60s now running massive companies. You know, they were in key positions before the Internet. Yeah. So it's a transition. People transitioned into the Internet. There was, you know, web 1.0, web 2.0, now 3.0. Now you've got social media, you've got Metaverse. I mean, it's just, I almost feel that the metaverse is actually, and virtual reality is taking people back rather than forward.

That's interesting. I have more questions, but let's go here real quick because I saw something even the other night, last night about things not going so well for certain companies. I'm not going to name how they're losing a hundred thousand customers a month since they started eight months ago because yada yada. But I was thinking, and then I found a quote. Have you ever seen the show the Office?

Yeah, of course.

There's this one, I pulled up a clip and Dwight's talking about Second Life. And he's like, it's a multi role player. There's no winners and losers. And Jim's just like, oh, there's losers in second life. And.

All the comments were like, this was metaverse 10 years ago. And I remember in the mid-90s when like virtual reality stuff was coming out and even the late 80s when stuff. And I was like, this really isn't that different than what everyone's been pitching for 30, 40 years. Just different.

Very different.

And you see, now I have one of these. I'm doing a Metaverse education deal and my kids are super excited about it. I have a 13 year old and 11 year old. They've been dying for a Meta Quest 2 and one of these VR things.

So safe to say they played Minecraft.

They play Minecraft, they play Roblox. My older one's Minecraft, the younger one's Roblox. Brawl Stars. Everything, all these games and you know, you put on these headsets today. It's, I mean, all of a sudden like two hours is gone and you're, you're on your own, you know. And I did a meeting in the Metaverse yesterday in Spatial. It was the craziest thing. All of a sudden, you know, you've got an avatar and you've got the goggle, you've got the headset on and you're speaking with someone and you're in the room with them walking around and it's, it's unbelievable, crazy. And my wife's tapping me on the shoulder after saying, why do you have this headset on? And I'm like, you know, I'm watching a movie on Netflix on a big screen. She's like, why, why don't you just come up to bed and watch it with me in bed? And so I think there's going to be this whole parallel world of people that are shy or that are, you know, extroverts and that want to be on their own and they're just going to be, you know, going to be like the pandemic all over.

Just.

There'll be no pandemic. People will be stuck at home with these headsets on. It's, you know, it's taking people back rather than forward in many senses.

So that's why you think it is. It's creating that you want to be isolated.

I think it's good. There's, there's a few things. There's good and bad things for it, but definitely good and bad things. But I mean, and you can see, you can see the change. You can see how people are communicating differently and the way everyone interacts is changing. And technology has been great in many ways, but you know, it's also now the younger generation, you know, they're, everything's so different today. You know, you speaking with, dating and speaking with girls. And, you know, socializing, let, you know, having a group chat on WhatsApp or on Snapchat or, or going on, you know, setting everything on apps. You know, before you used to go to a restaurant or a bar in New York to a movie, you know, life has changed dramatically. And, you know, I'm involved in a lot of these businesses that are utilizing, you know, fintech and edtech and, and these various SaaS softwares and, and things. And so I guess that's the future.

Yeah, that's interesting. I actually, you gave me an idea for like this movie. Like, you know, they're all going in through the computers and all this and it's like, how did they outsmart everyone? It's like they passed a note in class.

I don't even know when. When that, when that.

Hour and a half later, oh, they wrote on paper. Fancy that.

It is. It's crazy. And I mean, you know, my kids still read books. You know, I'm a big believer and I think people like you and I were, you know, we're dying breeds now. And, you know, I think there's. There's actually been in my. I think there's been a resurgence back to holding a book in your hand, you know, and for me, I just, I'm not really. I can't. I don't read ebooks or Kindle. I need to hold a physical hardcover or paperback in my hand and sit down and read it and not have my eyes glued to a screen. And my kids, you know, I really push it into my kids as well. They read. We're all avid readers in the family. And I think there's been a big resurgence. Authors that have, have become New York Times bestsellers have gone and bought. They're saving all these independent bookstores. There's a real big push here in London. I see people like Ryan Holiday, you know, in, in. In Texas as well. You know, he bought his local bookshop as well and his profiling up and coming authors. And I think it's becoming. There's a big push now for, you know, printing hardcover and paperbacks and actually saving these. These bookstores, not just buying on Amazon or Barnes and Nobles, etc.

Yeah, it's interesting. Something else I was reading just probably in the last few days, if not a week, but it was talking about how it was all brick and mortar and then it went online and now people still are so conditioned with the brick and mortar. They still want it and now you need a place to return places. So now it's like, oh, did you hear Amazon's opening a bookstore, like a physical thing, or this business is opening a physical location. I'm like, they've had physical locations for 35 years. Then they went bankrupt, someone else bought them, made them successful again online. And now they're like, what should we do for next quarter? Oh, let's bring the stores back. Why'd you shut them in the first place?

Exactly. It is. It's crazy. It is.

So you do a lot with the psychology, because even in that scenario, it's like, people. I don't feel enough. People understand you're dealing with people and their behaviors and habits.

Yeah.

So again, you get the bookstore, you get the whatever store, you close all the buildings, and then eight years later, people go, we want our buildings back. So what do you do? You bring the buildings back. You have to change people's habits. And that's far harder than going. I mean, shoot, YouTube, you can learn, go this weekend, watch 20 videos on whatever. You're going to know more about it. But to actually incorporate it is different. So why do you focus on the psychology so much?

I just think it's important for people to be really good at what they do and understand, you know, the dynamic of the investor journey, you know, who you're dealing with, what they want, what their needs are. And, you know, and I'm by no means an expert, you know, I'm. I'm fairly focused and good at what I do.

I. I think you have a higher level of understanding than most.

No, definitely. But I'm also, you know, my real skill has been my ability to adapt and to also educate myself and learn and understand the changes. And so I'm constantly working on, you know, I've created this roadmap that works for my portfolio companies and for the founders I work with. I'm constantly updating that roadmap, you know, with different stages. I have, you know, anywhere from nine to 17 stages, you know, depending on the stage of the business. And, you know, it includes everything from, you know, taking their back of the envelope idea and understanding, you know, how do we take that idea, how do we brand it, how do we go and get trademarks and patents, which lawyers you should use, the accountants, the auditors. I like to tell all my founders to use copywriters and graphic designers and, you know, hire photographers and videographers. I don't like stock imagery. It's. That's one thing that really bothers me. Really bother.

You and me both. Thank you for that.

You know, you're raising millions of Dollars in what you can't pay a professional photographer for. You know, one day, take four or five outfits, go to different places, take a bunch of nice photos with your staff. You can't hire a videographer to do great content, you know, professional filmed content in high resolution. You know, I don't mind if you have a little bit of stock footage and stock. Stock videos and stock photos in between, but have, you know.

Yeah, for B roll.

No, definitely. I just think it's really important. So I want to understand the whole journey. And then, you know, we want to understand every stage of investors. You know, the one like, for example, I'll give you one thing. I always make the people I work with, I always make them pitch their friends and family first. And they say to them, you don't need to raise 2, 3 million dollars from your friends and family. Raise 50 grand, 100 grand. And they all say to me, they all, they get embarrassed, they get anxious again and nervous. I can't pitch my friends. I can't. And the first and the question I, the, the sort of, the rebuttal I say to them is, if you can't raise 50 or 100 grand from your friends and family, how do you expect a stranger to give you money? I said, why should a stranger give you money? If your own friends and family, if your parents won't give you 25 grand, 50 grand, raise something. And it's really important for founders to have skin in the game. They need to have that sense of pressure where failure is now not an option, because you're going to be held accountable. Every time you go to dinner with, you know, that aunt or uncle or cousin, and they ask you how your business is going, you're going to have in the back of your mind, failure is not an option. I need to make this a success. And that's going to be, you know, an extra fire under your feet on your journey to success. And so I always. There's a few things I like to put in there. That's one of them as well.

That's a really, really good point. I got to ask, Tell me about your new books and is any of this in those?

All of it's in my book. So the first, the first book that I wrote during the pandemic, you know, I'd always wanted to write a book, and, you know, it's taken me. It took me years. You know, I had ideas and this and that. And finally I, I sat down, I completed the book. I finished about 80, 85% of it. I just Couldn't finish it. And I started with one ghostwriter and we just. We just had a personality clash. He couldn't get my voice right. And I tried and it wasn't working. So the publisher brought me an editor who's really good and they helped finish it with me. We completed it. I was ready to publish the book. That's the book capital, you know, raising money in a digital world. The first one you can see, it's online everywhere and it has a bunch of pre orders. And then my plan was to publish it during the pandemic. And I gave really distinct advice in there about starting up your business, what you need to do to package it, how to take your business from, let's say not A to Z, but like A to A to to H and raise money and stay private. And all my case studies in there had like five case studies area. I was super excited. Three of the companies ended up taking public right away. I didn't do anything. Any of the advice they gave in the book, I didn't follow myself. And then two of the companies went bust. They just blew up because, you know, different reasons. And so all of a sudden I'm there with like my hands on my head saying, what do I do here? You know, how can I go and publish this book? I've got pre orders. So I put it on hold and I changed it. And then I was ready to go out and have it published again. And there's this paper shortage, so. And my publisher is like, look, we can't go out with an E book because we have pre orders and we have bookstores ready to carry it in the meantime. I started because I've had such great success the past three years in taking companies public. I wrote a second book which is called Exit Plan Raise Money and go Public, which basically is everything I'm explaining today. But it jumps forward and skips a bunch of steps. And it's about, you know, starting your business up, doing a couple private rounds, and then doing a pre IPO and an IPO round because I realized that's really my sweet spot. And so that book is coming out as an ebook the week of December 18, and then it will come out as a hardcover special edition in a paper of that afterwards, you know, around after New Year's time. So I realized I did it that one different. So it's quite ironic that my second book will come out before my first book.

But you got them both done. Exactly. That's the thing I think trips most people up from all the audiences I speak to on publishing. It's just that getting started, I don't know if it's that fear of failure, fear of success, whatever it is, I'll look stupid. But you did the hard part. Are you doing audiobook by chance?

I will do an audiobook, yes. I plan on doing an audiobook as well. We're going to do the ebook, audiobook, everything. But you know, it's not easy. And I read and you know, non fiction business books I've read in the past two years. I'm not exaggerating, probably 50, 60 more even. I read like a book or two a week and I read quite a bit. And you know, there's a lot of great books out there and dynamics are changing and you know, and I've taken, you know, for me, when I was younger, people would hijack things off my website or my investor presentations. You know, I would get furious. You know, people are copying me, you know, you know, now I, now I'm flattered if people, you know, take ideas.

Here's the PDF download of exactly what you want.

No, exactly. I'm flattered because, you know, it's the best, it's, it's the greatest form of flattery if someone's, you know, take copying things that, that you've created. And so I'm not plagiarizing things, but I've seen some great ideas in books the way they're, you know, like for example, my, my second book, I've got sections after each chapter now where I'm asking people questions and they can answer those questions and make notes and, and then there's also a call to action and takeaway and things they can scan to get certain things. Whereas you know, I've seen, and that's become a hybrid of probably four or five books that I've, that I've read in the past year that I've said, wow, this is great. You know, there's an extra 30, 40, 50 pages in this book that there, that, you know, in the beginning I thought the first time I saw it I said, oh, these guys are just trying to fill pages because they have nothing else to talk about. And then after the second or third chapter I realized, wow, what a great idea. Because I'm the guy that was usually highlighting or making notes and then you never go back to those pages, you know what I mean? You highlight stuff in, rarely go back.

It had to be really, really good, like life changing. And then you had to find it, was it chapter two or three, then narrow it down from there. Oh, there's that line.

No. So these ideas have just been transformative for me and my second book. And I've gone back the first book again, to my publisher's dismay, and made further changes to add certain things because I've just read some amazing books in the past year. Really, really, really great book.

I'm glad you're adding that in there. My new one, the publishing method, also has the lines where I literally say two or three times, stop reading and do this, otherwise the next chapter is not going to make any sense. And I put lines in there to literally go over your title or subtitle. What does it matter how it's printed if you don't have a title or subtitle?

No, and that's the best idea. And I think that you know exactly what you're doing now. You know, I've seen the value of having a book, but my book hasn't even hit the bookstore yet. And I get contacted by Media Speak at events. I mean, having a book and publishing a book is one of the greatest things that I've done. If I would have known how much it was going to help me at this stage, you know, I'm like 47 now, almost 48. In a couple months, I would have gone back 10 years ago and published a book. I would have gone through the same process. It's, and it's so easy today too. People all say, oh, it's great for you. You know, you have a graduate degree, you can write, you read a lot. And I say to people, you could be illiterate and get a book published. I said, it's today you can get, you can have a ghostwriter write it for you. You can find a hybrid publisher or you can self publish it. There's so many publishers, it's so easy to publish a book today. It's easy to get your book on Amazon there. There are fantastic people, you know that are publishers and that can help you put a book together, like yourself. You know, I've seen some of the stuff that you're doing with, with your business and it's just people don't realize how easy it is today to get a book out there. And you know, if you're an expert at one area in your business, there's no reason why you can't have that book out there to teach people and use it as a hook and as a tool for, you know, lead generation for your business. And for me, it's been fantastic. You know, I've been invited to, to speak at colleges to speak at universities and give lectures and on zoom and on teams, give talks. And you know, I have pre orders on the book just because so many people have heard me talk about it.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And it's astonishing to me, everyone that puts all this money into social media, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, Post, blogs, whatever the case may be. And then it's like, oh, I'm not sure if I can do a full book. It's like, you have 461 videos on YouTube, you professionally shot. You don't think you could have anything to say, really?

Exactly. I agree. I agree 100 with you. And it's. And it's probably one of the best experiences that I've done. It's humbling. It's something that's always going to be there. My kids have read it. It's great, you know, and I really. And I wish I would have, you know, and my plan is now really to probably put out, you know, three or four books, have like a series of, you know, everything from private companies to go public to startups, you know, and have a sort of a series of three or four books that help people across the spectrum.

Well, I'm glad you're doing it because I want to read them because obviously you're a wealth of knowledge, but the people you can help in the ripple effect of it, there's so many people, like, I wasn't completely joking. Like when you're saying about the presentation, I literally was like, I wonder how good I am, what can I do to improve? And you know, I have my software that I developed 10 years ago to build WordPress websites automatically. I'm not sure if you found that, but I've thought about, like, how could I acquire investors and make this. Like, there's a book called Built to Sell and I was kind of hesitant to read it years ago because it's like, I always want to have my business because I absolutely love what I do. But the point is, is your business set up in a way that if you were to exit, is it even in a fashion that it would be desirable? And I'm like, huh? And it got me thinking. I don't know if it was 4, 5, 6, 10, whatever it was a while ago, but it was just like, are you doing stuff now to make it to get to that point? And then I thought, whether I exit or anything, how much nicer will it be to like actually have it systematized and do these different things that it's easier for us or you could Pick it up and go. This is actually useful and it's an asset.

No, exactly. And it's a tough one because I deal with, and that's a constant issue because I'm dealing with very focused, targeted businesses where I'm dealing with founders that have either created intellectual property or a software or a fintech or they're working on a therapeutic, a cure for a disease. You know, and everybody has a replacement. I have a replacement. And you know, listen, you know, leaders of countries get assassinated or replaced and the country still exists. And you know, so a CEO, he could get fired or replaced or changed and it happens all day long. And I think that the true success, exactly as you're saying, the true success of a startup or of a business is if the business can succeed and thrive without you. Like look at Amazon. Amazon is a perfect example. He's gone and hired an entire management team. Same with Microsoft. Microsoft is another example. Oracle, these are companies that are well oiled machines. Apple for example too, is a perfect example. So I think the true. If you can create a product, if you can create a service, if you can create like Salesforce, if you ask 9 out of 10 people who's the founder and who created Salesforce, they wouldn't be able to tell you. The same with Netflix. And so it's, it's a difficult.

Netflix is Reed, isn't it? Or is that LinkedIn?

It is, but that's LinkedIn. But you know, if you think about it, there are so many, so many businesses today that the founders think it cannot succeed without me. And you actually want to be in that position where it succeeds without you. You don't want to be reliant, like you're saying, on a business. Like, my business is totally reliant on me. It's a, you know, I'm a services business. I can't automate what I do. I wish I could automate what I do. I might be able to in the metaverse, create a. Now you have, I don't know if you've seen this, but the latest thing is you have these, what they're called, they're called.

Human assistants. They have these companies that create artificial intelligence. They create an avatar. You can create your own avatar, your own voice, and then you can actually record presentations by text in like 50, 60 languages. And it's crazy. And it's almost like, like a black mirror or a, or a Twilight Zone type moment.

Wow.

You know, I created one of these videos to freak my kids out and it was like, you know, it was it was this robot saying, you know, listen to your parents and go to bed at time or there will be consequences. And I played it for my kids and they were like, they turned white and they're like, how do they know our name? How did they do that? I'm like, no, that's a robot. They're so good today, you can't even tell. It's just technology is advancing and it's going to get to a point, unfortunately, where you have people that have anxiety or who are scared that I'm trying to help become confident extroverts instead of introverts. And, and they're going to go and get one of these, you know, human avid, these, these artificial intelligence intelligence human robots to, to create presentations for them, you know, and, and they'll sit back in the background.

Yeah, you got me thinking about the deep fake videos too, where you need like machine learning and engineering and metadata just to decipher them.

It is, it is unbelievable.

There is a whole talk about that in the entertainment industry about like actors, like freezing them in time at their prime and then using their likeness in future movies. Because if they have like half of, you know, once they have the voice sample and then you can deep fake the, the body image, face and everything, it's like we can animate the rest.

Okay, well, you're no longer needed. You're, you know, how would you negotiate that deal? I've been in 58 movies this year. I have not left home. And I mean that. It's, it's just astonishing what you can do. And I just hope there's more good people like you out there that are doing good stuff with it. But yeah, it's crazy to think like, what's possible now?

Everything's possible. Technology. I mean, I'm seeing every day advancement in technology, things in, in the metaverse and these, you know, these virtual, virtual assistants that are, you know, like AI intelligence, you know, now, now, for example, you know, before I used to go on a live chat and you would, you would type in, there would be a chat bot and you would say, oh, I'm not even going to engage with it with a chat bot. So then they would have a live person, you'd see their photo and they're communicating with you. Now they have this virtual avatar that it looks like you're, you're, you're speaking to a real person and you answer a question. And they have, literally within a few seconds though, they have like a database of probably 50,000 answers. It has like a tree where if you say this, that's the answer. This, that's the answer. And some of the big companies in the UK are using it, Vodafone is using it. You know, one of the biggest cellular operators in the uk, they're using it, Virgin is using it. And the argument is it cost them like 150, 200 grand a year to run an employee that's going to get sick, they're going to complain, they're going to have problems, and, you know, it cost them 150 grand to get one of these customized, you know, human robots.

On their, on their platform that can work 24. Seven.

Exactly. And thousands of people interact with exactly, exactly what you're saying. And thousands of people, no downtime and, you know, just takes. They could have 20 of them in a room working and then have, you know, maybe one or two tech support people remotely managing it, making sure thing doesn't go on overload. And that's, I think that's the way there are going to be so many jobs are going to be automated. I think there are certain things, like, for example, what I do is very difficult to automate. What you do is very difficult to automate. You still need.

I'm trying. No, but it's honestly one reason I challenge myself to develop the software, because a lot of public speaking, even writing, it's like to write your own book, you need to write your own book to give a presentation, I don't know, five years from now, but to give that presentation, historically, in front of a room, you had to be up on stage in front of that room. And I was like, I started thinking a decade or more ago, again, what do I do if I'm not here? What can I do that I'm not being graded? Like, you know, people see. And I appreciate the compliment earlier, like, sincerely, but at the same time, if I'm not able to perform, what can I do that's not reliant on me? And I go, the software either works or it doesn't. You know, I wanted to challenge myself. That had nothing to do with my speaking ability, this, that necessarily. And I was like, let's go for it. I had an idea and, you know, same thing. So I think it's great to be at the top of your game and be the expert, but at the same time, yeah, you shouldn't rely on it because anything can happen and, you know, then what? You're toast.

You are. Yes, definitely. And, you know, technology's changing, you know, rapid pace and, and everything's changing and, you know, Whether it's good and bad, it's good in many ways. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great in many ways. But you know, there's going to be a whole layer of, of society left behind and it's going to be very, you know, to fill that workforce, to fill that gap is going to be extremely complicated, extremely difficult.

I think the upside to it would be how you said, it's hard to automate what I'm doing. That's awesome. Because there was something else. I saw where it was like so and so company wants to increase the minimum wage and there's this whole big to do. And then finally they gave in to the pressure. And then like not 45 days later, it's like such and such rolls out automated machines. And then there was a meme that was like employee of the month and it was the checkout register, you know, those like you scan type deals. And I think I realized in high school I just always loved people and helping people, whatever it was.

It's hard to replace people if you're doing a people activity. If you're helping someone overcome their shyness and speak, you go from not being able to speak to five or six people to raise a million, 11 million capital. That's phenomenal. Good for you and good for him. Yeah, you're not systematizing that necessarily. There's a whole lot of that psychology going into it. So I think for anyone worried about losing whatever they're doing, transition to something now that's a little bit more like, you always need the human element of it.

Of course, I tell people, just be good at one thing. You don't have to be, you know, a jack of all trades, be, you know, master of nothing. Be, be really good at one thing. You know, I'm really good at helping these founders, you know, and CEOs on their journey. And the journey involves, you know, like I said, everything from starting up to raising money to, you know, speaking to investors, preparing your material pre IPO. Gongpuff. There are maybe 17 steps, but it's the same journey and where you jump on that, you know, on which station the train stops for you. Whether it's, you know, you're getting off at the first stop or the eight stop or the 17th stop. I've worked with people from, you know, someone that has a back of the envelope idea to a, you know, one company took public last November. They were around for 28 years. It was a late stage business. They tried to go public three times. They failed because of various factors. You know, they met the wrong group, market conditions weren't right, the wrong consultants and they just, you know, they, they were at wits end, they were going to sell their business. And I came along and said, this is my roadmap and this is my system, this is how it works. And you know, I raised them, help them go public. Within seven months they followed my path and the CEO did not believe me. He said this will not work. The chairman was the main founder, it was named after him, the CEO was his partner. They were college roommates and set it up in their basement after college, 28 years together. And the CEO said this isn't going to work. You know, I don't think Ron knows what he's talking about. He's blown smoke up her ass. And you know, seven months later I helped them go public on NASDAQ. They raised 20.2 million in their IPO, way more than they expected to raise. And then the stock became, you know, like a meme stock, like you know, GameStop time. The stock went bananas, went up 90% traded crazy liquidity off the back of that they raised another 23 million. Three weeks after the IPO had another 4 million of warrant conversion. So now they had like 47, 48 million dollars raised in a period of, you know, eight months from start to finish. You know, and they have the chairman and CEO, they probably have my, my wedding photo, my personal photo next to their wedding photo. They probably have it. If they don't, they should have it. If they don't, they should have it because you know, I changed, I changed the company's life. I changed their employees lives, I changed their lives. The chairman came in to London, had lunch with me on the weekend and said to me, you know, everyone said, you know, you're full of shit. This will never work. You know, we tried so many times to do it and failed. And I told everyone, no, I believe in you, you know, and I pulled it off and I helped them, you know, and they followed my process, they listened to me even though they didn't agree at certain stages, but they knew that had their best interests at heart. I was not leading them down a path of failure or a wrong path. It was an unknown path to them. And sometimes the unknown is scary when you know, you're an expert and you think you know your business well and you know everything better. But sometimes it takes an outside force to look at your business and, and how you present it and, and on what path you're going to, you know, you need to hear outside advice. And, you know, and I'm the same way. I, you know, I'm at the stage now where, you know, if people have a better idea than me and it works, I'll try it. I'll throw money at anything. I'll give it a go. Sometimes it fails. You know, it fails. It's, you know, it's my. My mistake for trying, you know, but.

If it works, I wouldn't even say it's a mistake. You're at least going to learn.

No, of course. 100%. I learned from failure all day long. You know, some of my greatest successes have come out of failure.

Yeah, that's good. You're still open to it. Because you were saying earlier, people get jaded. And I've had moments like that where it's like, I got, you know, you want to do that next stage, but it's like the last three or four may have not went so well.

Now we got to, you know, ramp up, you know, prime the pump again. And it's like, how many times you got to do this?

No, I mean, I lose money all the time. You know, not every deal I do makes money. And people say to me, oh, you know, you've been doing it for so many years. And I'm like, well, I'm well ahead of the game. That's for sure. It's obvious that I'm ahead of the game. I also lose money. If I had a crystal ball, I say to people, if I had a crystal ball, we wouldn't be on this call right now. You know, I would. If I had the secret formula myself. I know I have a process and it works, and most of the time, it works. But sometimes, you know, those market conditions are against me, too. I mean, it's not. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see what's going on in the stock market right now. You know, it's. It's not the greatest market out there, and, you know, it's more difficult. But, you know, we're still raising money and we're still doing deals. Just, you know, valuations are different, and you have to, you know, you might have to make 20 calls to get that one investor instead of, you know, 10 calls. Yeah, but, you know, so there's greater. Greater chance of rejection. But, you know, you just have to work harder and, you know.

Yeah, if you're past that rejection, it doesn't matter. Who cares if you have to make 50 or 100 calls, it's still possible.

No, exactly.

I love everything you're sharing, I gotta ask, is there anything else, like one other tip about? Not like you haven't shared 78 already, but is there any other one big thing that everyone should consider if they're looking for venture capital?

Yeah, I mean, I would say don't create a business or set a business up with the thought of making money. The greatest success stories in business were people that found a problem and they created a solution for that problem. So everyone, all, all the, the most successful entrepreneurs like you look at, like Elon Musk, look at Bill Gates, look.

At, you know, Branson.

Sorry, Branson too, You know, Branson originally. A lot of people don't realize Branson started with, you know, a record store. Right. He. He didn't start, you know, he does tons of business. So I think the key is be passionate. Have charisma. Love what you do, Create. You know, my father said to me when I was in, you know, finishing, when I was in high school and I was about to go into university, my. I said, my father, I asked him, I said, what should I study? Should I be a lawyer? Should I be, you know, you're a good Jewish boy. You're either a lawyer or you're a dentist, doctor. And you know, you need a professional accountant. And my father said to me, you know, do what you love, it doesn't matter. You know, just be happy. Be good at what you do. Enjoy it. Wake up every morning going, doing something that you enjoy, the money will follow. If you're good at what you do and you enjoy what you do, the money will follow. And, you know, always have gone into business ventures. I've never thought, when I've helped co found or I've partnered with people, I never think, oh my God, I'm going to make a million dollars on this deal or $5 million. The deals that you think you're going to make money on are the ones you make no money or they, they go to shit and you lose money. And the ones that I've never gone into at all thinking about money, I've made the most money, you know, and I'm grateful for it. And I think that's the key is be grateful, have compassion, you know, be charismatic and, you know, do the things you love. When you create a business, don't think about making money. That's probably the biggest advice I can give to people is create a business without thinking about how much money you're going to make. That's when you'll make the most amount of money.

I love that. I appreciate you for sharing it. I'm smirking because venture capitalists best piece of advice is don't think about the money.

So.

The irony doesn't get past me there. But I think it's true too. I think there's points where it's like nothing makes sense. It might not be going well. And unless you have a deep passion for it, what's going to keep you going?

No. Exactly 100%. You hit it.

I have one question for you regarding the wheel of whatever.

Yellow or black?

Yellow.

Did I get it right?

There we go. Yellow. If you weren't doing this, what job would you choose.

Or profession?

Well, that's a tough question. Very tough question.

If I wasn't a venture capitalist and I wasn't working on the deals I would do, I don't know, I would probably be a teacher. I love teaching people and educating people. I consider that I'm like an educator and a teacher right now with CEOs, but I would probably be a teacher in school and, and help kids and help educate children. I just think it's. I feel like I would be good at giving back to people.

Good for you. Would it still be in finance?

I don't think it would be in finance. You know, it might be in, in history. I read a lot. It might be in various other things, but I don't think it would be in business or in finance.

No. Okay, that's fair. We are going to thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishingmethodbook.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book. Eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori. I went from having an idea and.

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To work with Mario Ficcini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario.

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I'm ready.

All right, got three questions for you. 60 second or less answers. The first one, what is the fastest path to the cash?

Fastest path to the cash is setting up your own business and being really good at one thing and figuring out what product you have or something like a direct to consumer something that you can sell.

Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

The biggest problem that I see the making is not being prepared for investor meetings, not being ready. And just practice, you know, record yourself, have your partner, your spouse, your parents, friends record you so you can see how you look and how you sound.

Excellent. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Wow. The best way to maximize customer lifetime value is ask the customers. You know, be open to hear your customers needs. What do they want? You know, what can you do to offer a better service or improve your product? How can you change it? Your best, you know, your best.

Your.

Your best opinion will come from your customers. Always.

Excellent. What books would you recommend to Expert Authority World?

What books would I recommend? Oh, you know, I, I would write, there's so many. I mean, I would say the breakthrough by Tom McCarthy. I just read that one. That's a fantastic book. I would say also perfect week formula. Great Valentine's. A great book.

I'm reading Ego is the enemy. Ryan Holiday is a fantastic one and I read this amazing book. It's called Unstoppable. Wes Watson. Have you heard of Wes Watson? This guy?

I have not.

On social media. Amazing. You know, he spent 10 years in prison, came out and transformed his whole life. And he's a massive, you know, fitness coach and personal motivational speaker as well. And his book is awesome. I love that. Another one is Dan Fleischman. It's about, you know, startups. He created this book about how anyone can Set up a start for under a thousand dollars. You can create a brand and set up a startup. So Dan Fleischman's book, he's a good friend of mine. His book is amazing.

Ed Milet's book also unbelievable. You know, I've just started reading that one, too. You know, there's so many, so many books out there. But those, I think those are good four or five books.

I was going to joke and say, let's just keep it the first dozen. But I do appreciate all the recommendations because.

There'S books that guests have recommended in the past that I read. Never heard of them. So thank you for those, for me and the audience, because as a publisher, I always loved learning more about books and great ones. And I found it interesting when you were saying, you know, I was reading this one and noticed this and I was reading this one and noticed this and it's like, again, it's not rocket science. It's like, if most people are doing it this way, maybe you should follow suit.

Yes.

Where would you like people to learn more?

You know, you can go to my website, which is www.testcapitalt dashes a P-I-A L.com and then, you know, my social media, my Instagram, which is, you know, Ronbower 888. And, you know, I can, I can send through all my details after, where people can just reach out to my team and, you know, we're open to. I'd love to hear great opportunities and, you know, if there's, if there's ideas that people have for a great business, I'm always open to hearing about them.

Excellent. Well, I can't wait to connect further. We'll make sure all that's on the show, notes on eainterviews.com the links and everything. Thank you so much for sharing what you have. I wish we had more time, but I've thoroughly enjoyed this. So thank you again.

No, thank you for having me. I also thoroughly. This has been a great interview and I really enjoyed meeting you and hearing about all the great things that you do.

Well, thank you so much. All right, Expert Authority World, we have another great episode today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day. God bless.

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