From Dot-Com Crash to Mastermind Magic: The Speakeasy Journey

Welcome to the Speakeasy Mastermind Podcast, where the real conversations happen behind closed doors with the boldest entrepreneurs, creators, and growth minds in the game. No fluff, no filters, just the raw strategies, personal stories, and mental models that move the needle. I'm Eric Berman. Now let's get into it. Welcome to Inside the Speakeasy Mastermind Podcast. I am super duper duper excited today. Because we get to flip the script and I brought in a very special guest and I'm going to be sitting in the opposite chair as my buddy, friend of over 30 years and business partner now of over 20-some-odd years. Robert Polling is going to be interviewing me and we're going to talk a little bit about my backstory, how we got Speakeasy Mastermind started, all the stuff that Rob and I are doing, the, the crazy entrepreneurial journeys that both of us have been through over these years and what a ride it's been. And I know a few people said, Eric, we gotta put you on the hot seat and I want to hear more about the story of Speakeasy Mastermind and more. So here we are, we're gonna make it happen today. Welcome Robert, thanks for joining me.

Yeah, it's great. It's fun to be here. I finally get to be on the show. I've been hearing all kinds of really cool things about it and even more fun is I get to sit in your seat today and be the one interviewing, asking questions and kind of digging into What's going on here? You know, some of the behind the scenes at Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind. You know, what was your journey, the thoughts along the way? It's gonna be a bit of fun today. Let's jump in. Let's get started. You know, I love it.

This feels good. This is, I just, stressful sometimes doing the interview. You gotta prepare. You gotta get like, I gotta stay focused. I can't have my normal ADD mind, you know, multitasking. I gotta like, now it's just great. All right.

You know, I mean, I'll be honest with you. We're just gonna have a conversation. We're just going to go through it and we're going to make the best of it. I don't have a set of questions. I don't have a script that I'm going to read you. We're going to just, you know, go through it and hear the history of it. And let's start with, you know, the origin. How did this thing called Speakeasy Mastermind come about? Like, how did you originally get the idea for this? You know, what were you thinking about before it happened? Tell me about the before.

Should we go way back in the journey that you and I first met each other? Because really, there's a lot of that baked into that. I mean, really, we got here today. So for those of you, I guess probably a lot of people don't know the backstory of the career. And it's kind of fun story how you and I met after graduating at UCSD at a young right age of 21. Didn't jump into the initial, hey, go get a job out of this nice school and immediately jump into that $40,000. Back then it was $40,000. Can you imagine now people are getting a lot more job to start a biz. And I was just like, had an itch about me. First guys I met had this business idea. I'm like, That sounds cool. Where do I sit? So I just immediately like just jumped in the fire on some idea these guys were playing. There was a couple ideas and fast forward that it was 3 of us that turned into 400 employees and we raised over $100 million and I was essentially the COO of a company, which was the original first social media company before there was MySpace and Facebook and everything else. And here I am in my 20s going out there and discovering I love to build things and I'm an entrepreneur. And I didn't really realize that until like you look back on life. And along the way, of course, that's where you and I first met. You know, you came on as one of our senior stud developers building out some cool stuff and some cool tech. And we went on that ride there together. And unfortunately that didn't end well, that ride, because I thought I was going to be retired at 28 years old. We had filed to go public. Yeah, I know you were looking at your shares. I was looking at my shares and things were feeling pretty good at that point. That was the days of, God, I hate to date myself, Rob, but you know, those are the days of sleeping in mattresses and offices working. I mean, literally it was in a bubble 7 days a week. I didn't have a life. And this was when I was 28. The first market crash of the year 2000 hit and we were 2 months from going public. In fact, I remember we'd taken our first vacation in 5 years, me and a couple of the other executives. And we saw the market crash while we were in a very rainy day in Playa del Carmen. And the vacation got cut short. We had a $10 million bridge to take us to the IPO and that money dried up. And that was when I went from thinking all this hard work was going to pay off. And, you know, first lesson of, wow, you know, you can work your ass off and you always look for what could go wrong in business. None of us expected market conditions changing like that so fast. Where everything we had built up, we just pretty much lost. And that was a really tough time, you know, having gone through that.

I think of it, you know, my recollection of it is there was something that important happened at that time too, which is, you know, at one point it was just enough to have eyeballs, right? And we had lots of eyeballs at any moment in time. We had 50, 60, 75,000 people on the site at all time participating.

We were the number one site in the college demographic and we were the 40th site on the entire internet back in that day.

That was huge. And every, but people would say, yeah, don't even worry about making the money. You know, if you have the eyeballs, the money's gonna follow.

Yeah.

There is a little bit of truth to it, but I think that crash, that kind of dot-com bubble crash happened because, you know, the people that knew a little bit about business were saying, well, how are you guys actually gonna make money?

Yeah, that's right. That's right. The VCs are just spend market share, get eyeballs, and then all of a sudden market crashes. They were nowhere to be found when it came to, okay, Where's that money? You know, you want to bridge this too. So that was a very, very interesting time. And I always tell people, I mean, I think part of your, you know, your first question about Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind, you and I both have it. And I know you went on a little bit of an entrepreneurial journey after that. And then we came back together and, you know, there's a fire in our bellies, both of us that we've been so close to that hit. And I always say that as hard as that was, it's easier to lose money that you don't, that you actually have in the bank than money you don't have. You know, all the money was on paper. You know, I was living off of ramen for years and, you know, low rent and all that kind of stuff just to get to that point. So it wasn't like I had all this, you know, millions of dollars pulled out of my bank account and you can't take away the experience that you had. You're, you know, I'm still 28 and this is over and I'm like, okay, let's go pick yourself back up onto the next journey. Despite thinking that you were done, but the education and the confidence and the learning I got along the way was certainly powerful. And I think, you know, as we develop and where we're at now, it's like, yeah, we want to still build something huge that has impact. And that was one of the things I go back to. When we were on the name of the company College Club, when we were building that, it was all about making huge impact. And, you know, I love doing stuff like that. And I'll share a story later as we'll get into it. One of the biggest things I love to see in stuff we build, but after that, I kind of picked myself back up. You went on and built some really cool tech and projects out there. And I went out there and was doing some consulting and met a family, somebody who was a, uh, called me and said, hey, you know a lot about this internet thing. This is back in 2021. Do you know Brian Tracy? And I kind of laughed and I said, Brian Tracy, I'm a huge fan of his. Like we used to listen to Brian and Tony in the breakfast room every morning, 6 to 7 AM. And if you were late, you had to buy breakfast kind of thing. So yeah, I grew up listening to Brian and I loved him and he was in San Diego like myself and he needed help with the internet. So I walked in and said, Brian, I'd love to help you. I can help you, but I'm not an employee. So don't pay me a salary. I'll come and build you something. Don't pay me until I make you money. And he's like, Eric, you're my kind of guy. And so that was fun. And that really was the beginning of you and I getting back together again, because that led to me being business partners with Brian. And then I needed to bring somebody on tech side. And so I reached out to my old buddy, Rob Polling, and said, Rob, you want to help me do this kind of stuff? You were consulting. We went out there and started working on Brian.

I think we have that hardwired in our personality because you had been working with Brian for a couple of years. Before I got the phone call. I'd been doing some other things entrepreneurial-wise, but then when, you know, you kind of explained who he was, how much reach this guy has, how impactful he has, very important to you. I told you the same thing that you just said. It's like, hey, but I'm not an employee, buddy. I'm an entrepreneur and I'll partner with you on this thing. And it's almost like we have that same kind of reaction when we approach business all the time is like, you know, there's that common thread like, hey, I'm gonna do this with you and it's gonna be cool, but We're going to make something bigger than we can even imagine together.

That's right. And it's funny because you look back on life and say, well, what did I know I was good of an entrepreneur? Like, when do you have that? Like, you don't like come out and say, hey, I'm an entrepreneur. You sort of just do things. It's wired in you. You don't go through college. Everybody's sort of the same. You're like, well, this person went and got that job, but ultimately I guess I was an entrepreneur. And you look back and see all the signals and you had the same thing too. It's just, that's how we were wired. And you know, I mean, going back to that story, you and I remember we started getting approached by a lot of other thought leaders out there and said, hey, what you do for Brian, can you do for me? And that ultimately became the beginning of I remember what I called the 2-year conversation. Remember that? The 2-year conversation, how we were going to tell Brian that we no longer wanted to have a monogamous relationship with him anymore. And that we want, we still loved him and we'd always take care of him, but we wanted to start working with other clients too, to sort of have a much bigger pie. And, you know, fortunately that conversation went well and Brian is such an amazing guy and he basically understood and he said, Eric, you know, I get it. As long as you don't abandon me and take care of me and you'll always, And of course we've honored that ever since 20-some-odd years later. And so we went off and did Branditize. I mean, you and I been running this full-service marketing agency for experts and gurus for a while. And I would say, gosh, I mean, you and I started getting, I don't know if the exact dates, but I think you started more or less in 2000 with Brian, maybe 2001, February 2001. And then you and I incorporated in 2014, I believe, or 2015.

We got together on the Brian thing. I think it was about 2005. And then we were doing it for several years and then we started getting those calls. Hey, can you do this for me? You know, what you're doing for Brian is awesome. I'd love it. And it was the same kind of thing. We said, we don't want to do it for you. If we're going to do it, we'll do it with you because we're entrepreneurs again. It's that thing like, we'll do it with you. We're entrepreneurs. We'll do it together.

Yep.

How's that sound?

Yep.

Yeah. So I think that was what, 2008 when we started acting as an agency. We were an agency.

2008, and then we finally officially, we did, we dabbled, but I think we did went all in on the game mid-2014-ish, 2015-ish. And then, you know, fast forwarding there, I mean, you and I are running and we, geez, I mean, we could talk a whole episode on life as an agency owner, but I don't want to get into that too much today. Let's just sum it by saying it's been a freaking lot of ups and downs. I mean, you and I have had quite a battle shifting, changing directions. And then really, I think, you know, bridging this over to Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind, I mean, Really over the last few years, we're just like, what's our exit out of this? Like, I feel like when you run an agency, there's a couple of paths. You either just run this passive income business and go as long as you can until you burn out, or you have to get over, like, I think in our life, it's at least $10 million, $10 to $12 million. And then you could sell or roll up with others. And, you know, I think we peaked $6, $7 million and started losing the luster and getting too many gray hairs and saying, what's next? It's been a journey.

I think it's more like a calling or a feeling that you have is like, okay, this is fine. We started this business and it's, you know, very successful and, you know, we're growing and we're doing our thing, but deep down inside we're entrepreneurs and we're being called to something else. And I remember in the middle of us doing this thing, you were telling me, hey, I have this other idea for this thing. I feel like I need to, I feel like there's, you know, there's this entrepreneurial spirit. I want to connect with more of those people.

Yeah.

So can you tell me about like the very early days where you started to feel like, oh, you know, I want to have the— I want to connect to more entrepreneurs and, you know, yeah, see what they're doing. What are they talking about? What are they experiencing?

Well, I'll say a couple things to that. One is, and this is really the seeding of Speakeasy Mastermind in a second, but I think I feeling a little bit like running the agency I have almost a slight misalignment. And as you think through your gut and you think about the area of genius, I feel like I had confidence to run a business, any business. It just so happened we were running a marketing agency, but like my strength where I'm great at, yeah, I could get business development and meeting people and networking, connecting and bringing in clients, but doing the things and doing the roll up your sleeves marketing stuff. I was a good generalist, but I was never like amazing at it. What I was good at is like, you know, community building. Like in hindsight, like I was really good at finding the people and networking and bringing these people and connecting the dots and going all the way back to working with Brian. One of my closest friends, John Assaraf, who was another guru in the town of San Diego, said, hey Eric, I know you're Brian's partner. Why don't we get together and mastermind and share ideas and, you know, what's working and like come to the table and let's just not worry about like, You know, stealing ideas, you know, let's get that out of the way. And we're all here to sort of level each other up. And the answer to each other is always going to be yes. Like whatever you need. Yes. And let's go bring in Darren Hardy, who was running Success Magazine, and Mike Koenigs, another legend of marketing down in San Diego, and a couple other people. And let's get together. And I think secretly, John knew that I was more the organized entrepreneur and that like, he's like, Eric's really on top of stuff and he'll help kind of get these things going. John's always one step ahead there. I love John. So that became a dinner group where we started masterminding and we brought incredible people together to share what was working in business, what was working for Brian and what was working for other clients. And ultimately, Rob, that was the beginning. That was the seeding of what this dinner group was. It wasn't named yet. It was just, hey, we called it the San Diego Mastermind Group. And then we started bringing other people and other guests. And sure enough, when I say other people, these are big name people that are getting paid like $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 to be on stages and they're for time and, you know, people are, you know, for their consulting, yet they're all showing up to dinner. I had a little bit of an imposter syndrome fact for a while. I'm sitting there bringing all these gurus together. And to me, I'm like, I guess the value I'm playing here is I'm organizing them. Like, I'm not like the guy on stage. I'm not like the guy, like the Mike Koenigs marketing legend, you know, but they all sort of loved the role I was playing. And they're like, no, Eric, you're bringing great ideas too. And I think it built up my confidence even as I started building it. But I also learned for the first time. The power of just being able to assemble and organize and connect incredible people and building community, which is something I was so good at. And to others, I learned, I mean, I learned in hindsight, that's a skill that to me felt so easy, but for others it was difficult. And I never understood that until I matured a little bit, you know, years later, that truly organizing and connecting and building community is something that's magical for others. And that was the seeding of Speakeasy.

Yeah. Yeah. And thanks for going over that. So that was your secret sauce that you were bringing to it. I'm super curious, all these guys, big time guys, successful businesses, what were they getting out of that in the early days? Like what were they feeling when they came there?

Yeah, I think looking back, it was the feeling of just, there's a little bit of a, I mean, there's A, the loneliness, there's the, hey, we're all out there running around our businesses. And, you know, I don't, when I say lonely, it's not like they're lonely, don't have friends. It's what I call entrepreneurial loneliness, meaning when you're running their companies, it's not like your employees are going to tell you at a high level. Sometimes some good employees will, but sometimes it's like, I don't have enough people to tell me where I might be going wrong or somebody else who is very future focused. That's like, you know, can look in it, look ahead in the crystal ball to some degree and say, hey, You know, here's where the marketing trends are going. Here's where you need to be. Like other high-level thinkers, I think they really love the fact that they're surrounded by people to help them think, to push them as well, more than an employee would, to call out their bullshit if they had bullshit. You know, it's nice to have people that you trust that will call you out, that'll hold you accountable if you're going to say something. And it's, you know, think of it, it's almost like a secret, it became almost like a secret board of advisors to some degree too. Where you're getting a bunch of information and you're getting this close group that you can ask questions to. And there was something magical about that. There's a little bit of a FOMO, like, oh my God, if I didn't show up or what was I going to miss out on? So that really kept people to stick around. And I think there was something also about just getting out of your environment and having that commitment once a month just to get out of the office or house to say, hey, I'm going to get there and break bread with some people that are becoming friends. And have permission to talk business. I mean, you think how many times do we go out with our friends and for dinners and it's just like, oh, should we talk about business now? Or maybe like, I want a break from business. I feel awkward, you know, bringing it up because maybe they're tired or, and then I can't hear because the waiter's constantly interrupting us and the, and people are across the table and I'm talking to the people, two people, that's it. So there's a lot of these little things that started coming into play.

You know, it's funny when you talk about that permission to speak business, because I feel that too. Like, like you said, you're at a dinner party. I can't just start talking to people about what doing, oh, we're setting up this remote dermatology, teledermatology business, and we got these influencers and we're working with this guy. You almost sound like you're bragging or you sound like you're boasting and I'm just talking about business. And then, you know, if I want to go deep, I start to think like, hey, you know, what would you do in this? And then I realize as the words are coming out, well, you've never run a business before and you've never done this thing before. I don't really know that you can add to this. I don't know how good this information is that I'm going to get. So that whole, like, I know the idea of the thing that you just said is permission to speak business. Is that kind of really what you think is at its core? Is that important? What do you think about that?

I mean, I think that's, I think that's one of many things. I mean, just knowing and feeling confident that you could really say anything and be vulnerable to, to this group. I mean, I've had times where I've had people go out there that are like, I'm going to ask for help and I've never asked for help. This is the only group I feel safe asking for help on. And because I couldn't ask my team for help here, but like, hey, we're really struggling. You know, money's been off. Anybody have any ideas of something that can really help us right now? Because, you know, I'm worried about, you know, maybe I'm worried about payroll or I'm worried about like, I may have to do some layoffs. Like, where can you have those conversations? And so I think getting in that, into that world and, you know, one thing else about Speakeasy is also the kind of people we are. It's not just an entrepreneur to entrepreneur. I think we were a lot more relatable. Which is the big, in hindsight, the big thing that I also think makes us different from other types of groups out there too, that makes it, we can relate more relatable to each other.

Yeah. I mean, I think about the very early days of us getting together with Asraf and Keenigs and Darren Hardy, like those people that you were talking about, you know, sometimes occasionally every once in a while we'd bring all our teams in. Right. And I would be a part of that because normally, you know, you were off doing the dinner things with these guys once a month and then every quarter or so we'd bring the whole team together. I'd be in the room and I couldn't believe these guys are just like, here you go. This is exactly what we're doing. Here's our game book for stuff, you know, and they're sharing, oh, don't do this, do this. Here's a tip. Here's a trick. Here's something cool. And I realized it was something bigger. And I think the word is, you know, abundance. These guys knew it didn't matter. I can give you so much because there's so much more. Here's a small piece that I can give you right now. And they brought this abundance. Is that something that you tried to foster or culture or how did that come about?

Yeah, I think I remember John always said, you know, the answer is always yes. And it goes back to finding, you know, in our community, it's leaving the ego aside. It's realizing that there is abundance. It's like, you know, there's so much out there that we could all lift each other together and we all win together type of thing. And let's not like, you know, kind of hold the big ideas back. You know, the reality is everybody still has to execute on these ideas. And if you're out there to share and you're giving away a big tip, it's wow, well, cool that I received. Now I can get, and it just gets this flow of constant giving and receiving and helping each other out. And it's important, you know, we're building a community where, you know, we also are trying to craft people that are all at a fairly decent high level, you know, a little bit more marketing-centric, marketing-driven entrepreneurs that are still in the weeds tactically building their companies and they could share what's working and what's not working. And. When you're in a room, we don't necessarily want people that are here, hey, I'm just here to learn the latest strategies and I'll pay, you know, all this money to be in this mastermind group and just be a fly on the wall. Like, no, we want people that are, that are to give and receive. And I think conversely, you know, there's been times where like, hey, let's bring this person. They built this, you know, bajillion dollar company. Let's bring them by. And I'm like, they're nice to tell a story of, you know, how they made it. And I'm not saying that wouldn't be a great story to hear. And that'd be awesome for a meeting, but are they really going to be able to contribute? When they're at such a high level out of the weeds of business now. We don't want those people either. Like, we want the people that are still grinding in business. And as you said, Rob, they're like, oh, the book's open. They're open-hearted, open, you know, sharing, and they have abundance. Let's all build together.

Yeah. You know, if you think about it, you know, you have these great people, you have the events, you have people working together, you strip it all away, right? What really is the essence? What's the soul of Speakeasy?

Gosh, the soul of Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind is, man, I just think it's people are there with a big heart, not the ego, and they really care. I mean, they really, it's like you're having an extra family and it's just access. You know, we're all gonna give access to each other. You know, we're gonna say, let me go outta my way to help you out. It's almost like a race to figuring out like, how can I support this person? And so when everybody's collectively there to say like, let's push each other forward. You know, I'm gonna give you open access to my Rolodex, to my ideas, and I'm gonna be there to share for you. And you know, if you need me, I'm here for you. It's a lot of that where it's magical to find that.

Yeah, that's definitely a feeling that I get when I'm in the room. It just feels like everyone will drop everything to help you succeed, right? To help you grow, to help you get past your problem, whatever, whatever it is, whatever you're working on.

Yep.

I like to do this with the clients a lot of times and I say, okay, that's the story, right? That's part of the origin story, although a brief one. That's part of the essence. It still has the word mastermind on it, right? Speakeasy Mastermind. So what's the misconception that the world has about masterminds that, you know, is there even one that the world has about masterminds that you'd want to change? What do you think is different about Speakeasy? How would you want to tell the story different about masterminds? People are walking around with the, I don't want to go there. It's just a bunch of people that, you know, they get up on stage and they speak. I don't want to speak to anybody. You know, what is this mastermind group? I'm afraid. Like, so what are the misconceptions people have about mastermind groups?

I think it just depends because people have different experiences with different masterminds. I think some people feel like, oh, I'm going to walk in and it's going to be an energy suck. Like, oh, they're just going to come in and ask me for all of my ideas and there's going to be nothing I get back in return. Or it's just going to feel like a little bit icky or weird, or I don't want to name groups, but there's, you know, groups out there that it's all based on, okay, very transactional as far as like, okay, you walk in the door and what do you have for me? Like, do you have a referral for me? And, you know, more of that. So I think, you know, there's stuff out there and I think there's also masterminds where you've been around groups and you're just like, okay, this is, I can't relate to what they're talking about. It's so out of the world and that I'm playing in. That these are cool ideas, but like, I'm going to yawn and go sit in the corner and start focusing on something else because they're talking about something that has nothing to do in the world I'm playing with. Or are there going to be some weird exercises that I got to sit around and do that are just like, you know, I don't know. I just want to like, I want to walk in. I just want to just fire hose me with like value, what's working, what's not working. You know, let's present, let's learn a new topic. Let's like support each other. Like let's just get in there and just grind quickly and just walk away saying, woo. I just got firehosed and like every time I walk in the door, I walk away with at least, you know, a minimum 3, 4 new things I want to go look up or follow up with. The problem I walked in with got solved like that day. Like that's a mastermind to me.

And that's definitely how I feel when I'm at any one of these events. It's just, you're just drinking from the firehose of abundance and problem solving and generosity and people lifting you up. So to what end, you know, if someone joins Speakeasy, And they're fully invested. They're showing up every month and they're participating. You know, what is their journey gonna look like? What is their transformation gonna look like 12 months from now? What's gonna happen to them?

Yeah. You know, if they come in, I think they're just gonna walk away feeling like I said earlier, like, wow, they actually have a family. They have somebody they could rely on. I was thinking about this the other day. I was thinking about some messaging and a lot of us at the stages, you know, at least the kind of entrepreneurs we're attracting. We're typically, I would say, you know, $1 million to $30 million plus, you know, revenue. We're not at the point where people are like, okay, we're $100 million companies with a full board of directors. We raised $100 million. You know, so ultimately my point is a lot of us don't have a true board of directors, board of advisors at the level where you can, and I say a friendly board of advisors, you know, you and I have dealt with companies where there's board of directors and damn, it's not like you want to go see the board of directors. That's like a negative experience. Oftentimes this is like your friendly group of board of advisors that you're getting. And if you never had one and ones that are on your side, it's really cool because they're there to say, hey, what about this? What about that? You know, let's advise you along the way. Let's be there to support you. So I think, you know, this feeling of, oh my, I have a family of people that actually genuinely care about me. They generally are concerned for my wealth, my health, my wellbeing, my company. and I know I could rely on them. That's special.

Wow. Wow. Is there any way that, you know, you personally measure the success of Speakeasy Mastermind? Is there like a scoreboard that really matters to you, Eric?

Well, I'm playing different hats. I would say, you know, me as, you know, slash hat owner of, let's say, the companies you and I run, you know, I do it when I say, when I walk away, it's just a simple ROI meter. Like I'm so busy doing stuff. And like, it's always like, okay, I got to get up. I got to go drive out there. And I come back, do I have more energy? Is my cup more full? Or do I feel drained? Do I feel like, wow, I'm so fired up. I can't wait to go to my notes and share like with you oftentimes, hey, I got this and this. Let's do like, you know, you're just feeling that, oh my God, I met this person and they helped me with this. It opened up doors. So like, that's a feeling of I got energy versus, you know, taken away. My bigger speakeasy from now running the whole Mastermind, and I brought this up earlier and I'm gonna close the loop on something I said earlier about impact. Is my biggest win is when I hear stories of two people that came together in the community that had an amazing connection and had a collision. They met and next thing you know, they're doing business together. They got a referral together. They both lifted up because of an experience they had in the community. And my favorite is I don't even, the less I even know them and I just hear about it, it's like, damn, these are two people because of what we built, entered in this community, had an amazing experience just like I have, and they're telling stories about it. And they're like, just out there doing things. That's when I know we're winning is when you hear more and more impactful stories of success that's happening. And I'm starting to get more and more of those. And that's like, that's what gets me fired up every day to hear, oh my God, somebody connected from Austin to Boca. They never would have met if it wasn't for Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind, and now they're doing business together. Cool.

So crazy. Those are the two things that I think about too. And I mean, it's like, Every time you come back from the monthly meeting, you are fired up, man. You have energy. You definitely got that. You're super excited about things and about things that you weren't necessarily thinking about when you walked in the room, but when you walked out, you were like, oh, I have 20 new ideas and there's like 5 new concepts. It's super cool. That's an awesome one. The other one is, I can't think of how I've lost count of how many, how many times that connection has happened. Yep. Right. Where somebody walks in the room, it's almost like the Reese's Pieces chocolate and peanut butter just get next to each other. And it's like something magical just happened.

I just interviewed Ryan Berman, no relation. And I love the word he uses. He says collisions. He's like, I think it was just a bunch of collisions are happening. And he's like, I just, I don't even know what to expect. I walk in like the, you know, chocolate and peanut butter, like you said, or just something happens. He's like, I don't necessarily walk in even with a need. And I walk out like, damn, something happened. And now, you know, it's exciting.

All right, so let's do another question that I love doing with our clients and say, you know, let's look into the future, right? Let's go 10 years from now and we're looking back at the impact that Speakeasy had on the business world and the impact that it had on all of our members personally, right? What is that impact that happened? What do you see, Eric?

So if I go into 10 years and you say, I mean, for me, I would see that, I mean, this is gonna continue to be a global organization, phenom, whatever you say. And I think the impact it's going to have is just the feeling that I have a true home of our avatar entrepreneur that we have where it's starting to happen now. But like anywhere I travel around the world, I have a family that I could go see. Like I'm going to want to reach out and say, hey, I'm going to be in Portugal for business. I'd love to grab coffee or a drink with somebody who's a Speakeasy Mastermind and catch up and see how we can connect. Or just anybody needs help with something, they know they have a place to go that people are excited to kind of to collaborate, to give feedback on. I mean, that's where this is going is a true home. The knowledge base, the information that's on there, it's just like, damn, everything I need is going to be in here. And you know, one thing I really try to hone in on is just listening, observing, and watching the entrepreneurs and hearing like what the needs are. And you know, my natural sort of visionary tendencies to say like, what's not efficient? Let's make more efficient. Let's provide tools to make everybody's jobs easier. Like that's the kind of stuff I see happening more and more so as we grow this out.

That's great. That's great. A true home for entrepreneurs all over the world. Speakeasy Mastermind.

Yep.

Awesome. Cool. All right. Well, I think that's great for today, right? You've been a great guest, Eric, to the show.

Oh, thank you. Thank you, Zach.

Really love hearing the stories about how it went and what you were thinking about at each step. Yeah. Hopefully I'll have you on the show again sometime soon.

Yeah, you're welcome back. We're going to flip the script next time. We'll get you on, I'll interview you and we can talk about some other crazy stories. But yeah, no, I appreciate the interview. And again, for those that are hearing about Speakeasy Mastermind Mastermind for the first time, love you to come check it out and, you know, join a city nearby or join our global community where we have our nomads hanging out and still connecting. And yeah, or one of our big annual events. And more importantly, just, I love to hear from everybody, like what are their ideas? I'm trying to meet as many people as possible to see how they can connect them and support them. And I think what we're building is magical and I'm excited for things to come. So thanks for listening today.

It's been fun, Eric. It's been fun.

And that's a wrap from the Speakeasy Podcast. If something sparked for you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, review it, and pass it to the one person who needs to hear this right now. Want in on the Real Mastermind? Tap the link in the show notes to apply. Until next time, keep scaling, stay sharp, And don't be the smartest one in the room.