In this concise "6 questions in 7 minutes" interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Brian Burke—known as the Mac Man—who runs a rapid, secure Apple product buy‑sell service called Cellular Mac. Burke shares what energizes him, highlighting the positivity of LinkedIn interactions and the joy of connecting with passionate people. He stresses that effective leadership hinges on empathy and listening, citing how fostering a family‑like culture at his company reduces turnover and empowers staff. Beyond generic advice, Burke emphasizes the importance of genuine passion, determination, and a lifelong learner mindset for navigating entrepreneurial ups and downs. He recounts his first paid job as a waiter at La Rosa’s pizzeria, noting how serving diverse customers honed his people skills and resilience. Burke also recommends fellow business leaders Ahmad Iman (LinkedIn Live TV host) and Joe Motes (Cincinnati ESOP founder) as potential podcast guests. The episode concludes with Burke’s contact details: LinkedIn (Brian the Mac Man) and Instagram under the same handle.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hey, Professor Pete, I am Brian Burke, also known as the Mac Man, and I buy and sell all all the Apple products, everything from Macs to iPads and iPhones, and we make it super fast, safe, and easy to trade in your Apple gear for cash.
Well, Brian, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Positive people. If people show their passion, that's really what brings me smiles. Just interacting with other humans. That's why I really love LinkedIn, even though it's a social network and I'm not meeting everyone face to face. The positivity and passion from everyone there is super engaging to me and brings me a lot of smiles.
I like that, and I can hear that passion in your voice. It's so great.
Someone like Michael Ray, that dude brings smiles every day.
I know, he sets the bar, doesn't he?
He does. Not as much smiles as him, but exactly.
Well, yeah, but he's, he's, he's, he's a great guy, which I had on the show, uh, Oh gosh, a couple months ago. So I love it.
Oh, amazing.
Question number 3. I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Whoa, that is a deep question. They should read about leadership. And within that chapter, I would say empathy and listening are two of the biggest things they need to take away.
Absolutely. Do you want to expand a little bit on that? What— why are those so important?
Sure. I mean, I think that, you know, leaders that aren't showing empathy aren't gonna, you know, truly keep their team together. And something that I've done a lot at Cellular Mac is, you know, making it more of a family feeling so that people, you know, can open up and also we can, you know, help one another. And that has led to very low turnover and, uh, people being very gratified at work. And then on the listening side, I've learned that over time, you know, not to be able to dictate what you need to happen, but listen to people and they actually know the answers. So take their word for it and just empower them to help them succeed.
I love it. Very, very powerful. Thank you. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I would say passion. If you don't have passion for what you're actually doing, your battery is going to run out so quickly. So by, by being so passionate about my work and interacting with other humans, I'm able to stay up late at night. My battery keeps on going. The other thing I would say is determination. If you give up too early, you will ultimately fail. And people that are able to go over these roller coaster moments and have the lows and still rise above That determination leads to success, and it's never a straight path. I've had really bad things happen in my career, but I'm able to overcome them through sheer determination.
And I bet that you were able to overcome some of those with that determination, but you also learned along the way. Am I right?
I did. I learned a lot, and hopefully those bad moments never happen again, but there's always something more to learn from as we go.
Absolutely.
Being a lifelong learner, let me add that in there.
There you go. I love it. Question number 5. What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
There's a lot of good business leaders that I know. I'm going to throw out 2 different names. Uh, one of them I really love on LinkedIn. His name's Ahmad Iman. He is doing a LinkedIn Live TV show called Level Up, and he brings on amazing people and lots of great ideas to help people level up their influence. Another one that I really respect, his name is Joe Motes, and he is a great business leader in Cincinnati. He's recently created his company into an ESOP, meaning that it's employee-owned. He's just such an impactful leader, and I love learning from him every day, and I think he'd be a great guest too.
Wow, thank you for both of those. I look forward to talking with them. Question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
I've had a lot of first jobs back in my day because I was selling stuff on the sidewalk when I was a little kid, but my first job that I was on a payroll besides, uh, helping my parents out was a pizzeria called La Rosa's, and I was a waiter there, and I was earning money over the summer. But the biggest takeaway was the skills of being a waiter, interacting with so many different types of people, and and having to try to meet their needs even when they're unreasonable. And I think that's helped build me up as a leader in life of overcoming some of these challenges and interacting with people that I don't know how to meet all their needs. You have to figure it out as you go and figure out how to make them a happy customer in the end and earn a tip at the pizza shop. It was a tough job being a waiter.
And, you know, I could totally appreciate it. I was a busboy back in the day. And yeah, those, you know, and to this day when I go to restaurants and stuff, a good tipper because I know of how hard the role is of restaurant workers. I, you know, I really respect that.
You're on your feet all day busting your butt.
You bet, you bet. So I'm sure a lot of our listeners are going to really relate to that.
You had to pick up after me because I was spilling drinks on people and all sorts of craziness.
Exactly, that's why. And, and how often did I not get, uh, the, uh, tips shared with me?
Oh man, cool. First job for you too.
Exactly. So Brian, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?
Uh, the best way to find me is LinkedIn. You know, my name on there is Brian Burke, and you know, once you're at LinkedIn, uh, you know, slash slash, it's Brian the Mac Man. I'm always in a blue bow tie, so easy to find me with that. And I'm on Brian the Mac Man on Instagram as well.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Get hundreds of amazing insights from previous guest episodes on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.
