YEAR VLOG CHALLENGE DAY 4 | Projections and prospects

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Yo, what's up? Another day, another vlog. On the way to the office right now. It's gonna be a great day. Feel totally just energized and stoked for the day, to be completely honest with you. Yesterday was a little rough, like I mentioned, but man, we got beautiful day ahead. Lots of incredible opportunities that await us that are ours for the taking. And you know, also look at this beautiful clouds today. I gotta think back to 4th grade. I don't remember exactly what those clouds would probably be called, but stratus? If I had to bet my bottom dollar, I'd guess that those clouds are probably stratus clouds, which I don't even know if that is a cloud. I don't even know if I've got the right word there. But yeah, so kind of go over today. We have a potential, potential, we got a sales call with a potential client this morning. I'll be recording that and uploading that so you guys can check that out. Also, we've got a meeting this afternoon with the campaign director for a guy that's running for Senate in the state of Utah. Hopefully that's an interesting and successful meeting. Could be very interesting. Talked about that last night, but it's a guy that wants to go spend and deploy a lot of, a lot of capital. And then I also have another thing to look forward to this afternoon is we've got a webinar with a referral partner of ours, very large tax planner. Planning, tax preparation, and bookkeeping company. Um, and they actually have, I think, 300 and so-odd people registered for a webinar that I'm gonna be, uh, doing. I'm gonna be doing a live training on artificial intelligence. We'll be talking about prompt engineering, uh, for content creation for marketing campaigns, as well as some of the recent updates and trends in AI over the last month. So I'm gonna be talking about OpenAI Sora with the, uh, animation creation with based on prompt engineering, which is really, really cool. I've, I've got some other cool AI tools I wanna walk them through. We'll go over some really cool prompts that we've kind of developed over the last month, and I will also be uploading that training as well. So check in for that. That could be valuable. It could be beneficial. So yeah, lots of really cool stuff on the docket today. Pretty stoked for what we got going on. Not nearly as busy of a day as, you know, Wednesday, Tuesday, or Monday of this last week. These, those days were freaking crazy and insane. So, I'm planning on getting a little bit more vlogging going here, a little bit more camera work, a little bit more storytelling throughout the day. And hopefully it's a little bit more entertaining. You can see a little bit more behind the scenes of what we're doing, what this looks like. And yeah, gonna be pretty sweet. While we're still on the morning commute, what are some thoughts? So, okay, couple things. There's a gentleman by the name of Devin Jetho that I've been following on Instagram for a little bit. He honestly has some freaking awesome content. About going viral, viral hooks. And last night he was talking about some of the viral hooks that he's used to go viral and get a lot of views, a lot of traction, a lot of momentum on his Instagram channel over the last 6 months to a year. And in one of his videos I was watching, he mentioned that he analyzed, you know, a bunch of different viral videos and kind of put together a framework that all of them had. And that framework was pretty interesting to me. But more so, what I was thinking is it'd be really cool if you could build some sort of a bot, some sort of an AI bot that could scrape and transcribe the videos on social media that are trending for specific business niches. Now, I know there's a lot of videos that trend that are just super random and hilarious and funny that really have nothing to do with, you know, a direct application to my brand, for example, or maybe your brand, to an agency or someone that's a professional service service provider or coach, consultant, etc. But if you could like niche down and narrow that focus to some, to like the, the type of business brand, that'd be really cool to have a bot analyze and scrape and transcribe, um, you know, what, what those videos are saying and what those people are doing to go viral. So that might be something that I'm going to be looking into here to create is a scraping bot. And if it's not a scraping bot, I mean, maybe we could just create some really cool prompts to have, you know, ChatGPT generate us really powerful scripts, uh, templates for viral hook headlines and also viral video templates themselves. So that might be something that, um, I'm working on today that I can start using, start making this content a lot better, start posting a lot more juicy and valuable content as well. Because that's a big push, that's a big part of what I'm trying to do here. I'm trying to level up, trying to get better, trying to learn, trying to make my content better as we go. So that's something that I think I'm gonna be looking into today. Does it ever occur to you— kind of a random thought as we're driving— but does it ever occur to you that cars kind of look like people? That they kind of have faces, you know, like the lights are the eyes and the grills kind of like a mustache or a mouth? I don't know why I just thought of that, but if that's the case, some cars are really, really, really ugly. Like this Prius right here that I'm passing, that is an ugly car. I definitely— below average, definitely below average. Um, also Teslas. Teslas are kind of just weird looking to me because I'm so used to having cars that have grilles, and Teslas have like that weird plastic like dip in the front of them. They're just kind of weird looking. I'm not a big Tesla guy. Maybe I'll eat my words, maybe I'll buy a Tesla one day, but I don't know, they just kind of look a little off to me. For the time being, I'm probably going to be an internal combustion engine guy, ICE guy, internal combustion engine, because they just, they're just more fun to drive, in my opinion. They're a lot more fun to drive. They're a lot more fun to tinker with, to kind of mod, to do different things too. So anyway, some, some random thoughts there, but here we are, we're pulling up to the office. I'm going to, uh, go over, plan my day, uh, we'll go over the action items, uh, we'll kick things off. And yeah, let's go freaking get it. Going through the day here, been pretty freaking awesome. Just closed a deal, new website, funnel development, funnel build for some clients, gonna be great. Got another call right here. Gonna be down on a piece of cheese. Looks like she's entering with her phone, so gonna be a Zoom call. Let's make it happen. Okay, so just had a sales call. I'll put some different pieces in, I'll chop up the sales call and kind of give you some bits and pieces into it, but there wasn't much there. Clearly not a good fit. They don't have the money, they don't have the time, they really don't have the business to kinda work with us. And that's totally fine. I mean, we're not a good fit, perfect fit for everybody. But it is good for me to evaluate and think about what are we doing on our end on the lead generation side? If I continue to see this type of pattern, which I have been seeing recently, we need to make some serious tweaks to our marketing. We need to make sure that the ad creative and the messaging and the way that we're maybe going through the application process on our call bookings to make sure that we're getting more qualified people through that. And if it means that we've gotta tighten up the restrictions to get a more expensive cost per lead, but they're more qualified, I'm actually happy to do that. Now, the reason why I have the application in our funnel maybe a little bit more open right now than I'm going to have in the future is because we're testing this new offer, we're testing this, you know, about kind of this new funnel and this new process. And so I just wanted to take as many calls as I possibly can. The key here, this is a big takeaway, if you're seeing this and you own a business and you're getting on lead calls and booking appointments, I mean, it's really important to qualify quickly. So if you set the pace early on in the conversation, clearly identify and delineate the ideal outcomes of the call, they know that it's a sales call, that there's going to be an investment required on their part, then it's just gonna make the qualification a lot easier and you can ask the money questions up front. Identify if they're a good fit for you or not. So that's kind of some information here, a good piece of advice I'd recommend you guys do. And of course, we're always trying to improve our processes as well. This is an ongoing thing. There's never, um, a point in time where I'm— I think I'm the greatest salesman ever. And, uh, you know, I have good days, I've got good— I've got bad days. But anyways, so we didn't land that deal. That's okay. We're gonna, you know, take some thoughts and some tweaks. I think I'm gonna go back and tighten up some things on our funnel, our landing page, to make it so that we're getting a little bit more friction, making it more tough to actually submit a call, get on a call with me, but we're getting more qualified people through there. All right, so checking in here for the day. Been going pretty well. I'm actually gonna hop on a sales call right now. I just wrapped up that meeting, that appointment that I had with the campaign director for the guy who's running for state senate here in Utah. Pretty excited about that. But this next sales call I think is gonna be a really good one. It's from a referral partner relationship that I've built over the last couple of years. Good friend of mine that lives in California, he actually has a business that they create high-end courses for course creators and for businesses that sell a product online. So really excited to talk to these guys because they are high-ticket buyers already coming from him. It's a word-of-mouth referral. There's a lot of content, a lot of relationship built in there. And a lot of times these business owners are just awesome people to work with. So I'm really stoked to chat about it. I'll upload the call recording and hopefully have some highlights and report back to you on how it goes. All right. So quick debrief on that call. Feel really good about it. Thought it went really well. Both really awesome people. They have a really interesting product. It's a nursing— it's a program that helps nurses that are RNs get into what's called legal Liz Nicole, Licensed Nurse Consulting, helps nurses participate in forensic criminal suits and in other criminal suits and things like that. And the unique selling proposition of this guy is you can make 3 to 4 times what you make as a nurse doing this. And all you have to be is know how to do it and you have to have, obviously, be an RN, have your nursing license. So it's really, really cool. Good things about the call. I feel like you got off to a little bit of a rocky start. If you notice, you watch the call back, there are some really awkward pauses, and I actually do that by design. I find that sometimes it's best just to shut up. Sometimes on a sales call, less is more. Who— he who speaks less wins. And I do that because I want them to feel uncomfortable, because in those moments of silence where it feels a little bit uncomfortable, that's when the true colors come out. That's where they'll really let you know their questions and where they're at. And I kind of pushed through those awkward silences, and at the end of the call, I felt like it was a really good call. And you also notice it's very kind of hands-off. These people oftentimes are dealing with different timelines and schedules, but I've closed enough of these deals to feel pretty good about that one. I think that they'll probably end up working with us. And you'll also know something about me. I'm not super high pressure. This isn't my— that's not my job. It's not to try to force people into something that's not a good fit. Because if they feel like it's not a good fit and I'm forcing the issue, oftentimes that becomes a tough relationship to fulfill on and we're teeing ourselves up for failure as an agency. And I don't want to do that. I want to create long-term partnerships and I want them to feel like it's a perfect fit. So I'll keep you posted on that deal. I think that they probably will end up working with us. It'll be probably a pretty good fit. And I'd love to market that deal. I think that we could do some really cool things from a marketing perspective. And you can notice my creativity was kind of flowing on that call. I feel like I really understood their offer pretty well and like we had a pretty good go-to-market strategy and I could kind of see the campaign in my mind's eye of how it would work out and how it would flow. So really excited about that one. So next we actually are, uh, I got a webinar I'm doing for the Tax Hive community and, uh, probably going to be a couple hundred people on this one. It's gonna be about AI. Um, pretty pumped. I like doing webinars. I like doing trainings. It keeps me sharp. It makes me prepare, makes me focused. And, uh, obviously we'll give you some of the highlights of that right here. We'll also upload the full training, um, which you guys can go and access and watch and see. It's gonna be a little bit of a repeat of some of the other AI trainings I've, I've done and maybe have uploaded on here. But hopefully there's comments and, and some thoughts there that might be helpful for you. So anyways, Uh, excited for the webinar. Let's get into it. All right, I want to shoot a quick reaction video of, um, the M3 today. So, so far my car has 1,100 miles on it. I've owned it for about— well, we'll get into the whole story, but actually driving it daily, it's been about a month, uh, 5 weeks or so, maybe, maybe 6 weeks, about a month and a half. Anyways, I've got 1,100 miles in the vehicle., and I just want to give an up-to-date kind of like where we're at, things I've noticed, things I like about the car, things I don't like about the car, um, as well as give it a reaction. Watch this pull, dude. This thing is fun to drive. That's the first reaction. But let you guys know that there is a significant difference from So the first thing that I'm going to tell you guys is that there's a break-in period. And, you know, now that I've put about 150 miles, 200 miles in the car post-break-in period, I can confidently say that there is a significant difference from the break-in versus, you know, pre-break-in. And I'd say that the biggest difference is that the car just feels more responsive. And also it feels a lot more quick in the higher end, higher range of the vehicle. You can see there on the dash, that there's a little yellow line at about 7,000 RPMs pre-braking period. Um, that line of yellow starts at about 6,000 RPMs, and I don't know if they're just like limiting the engine, if they're making sure you can't get as much power out of it, but I've noticed as I've pushed the car, like gone really fast, probably faster than I shouldn't in some certain situations, it feels a lot more responsive in the higher RPMs, and, uh, I think that's a result of the break-in. Uh, things I love about the car: I love the carbon fiber, especially the exposed carbon fiber here of the, the shift paddles. Um, I really love this screen. That infotainment is just awesome. And in other M3s I've been in that are pre-2023 that have kind of the outdated, um, infotainment section. I think that this is just a lot more slick. I know a lot of people didn't like it, um, I love it. The other thing I really love about the car is the orange interior. I personally love the bucket seats. The bucket seats to me are the whole reason why I wanted to get the car. If I couldn't get the bucket seats, I don't think I actually would have ended up going through with the car, and I'm so glad I did. Now I've heard people seen reviews, people like, no way, these bucket seats, they're way too, you know, way too tough, they hurt my back, they're way too stiff. Listen, I love them, but I'm also a skinny guy, so I recognize, understand, if you're probably a heavier set individual, the carbon fiber buckets might not be the way to go. I'm pretty skinny, I'm like 5'10", you know, a buck 60, and for my body they fit perfect and I feel perfectly comfortable comfortable in them. And honestly, they look incredible. They offer a lot more space in the back here. So, you know, the back seat, that carbon fiber, uh, provides a lot more legroom. They're a lot less bulky than the other seats, which is awesome. And another thing I want to bring up, that I put my kid, uh, oftentimes in this back seat right here in his car seat, and it's plenty of room going to the grocery store hauling the golf clubs around, um, anything that you need to do as a daily. This is like the ultimate, like, dad car in my opinion. So love it, love everything about it, um, in that regard. Some of the things I've noticed that I don't love— sometimes the infotainment, while I love the setup and the look, it's pretty laggy, and it's had some issues connecting to Apple CarPlay, um, Um, sometimes it won't connect over to Spotify even though it's all connected. And what I have to do is I have to literally reset it and then reconnect it again, and then forget and disconnect it on my phone and then reconnect it. It's a little annoying, and it's happened probably 3 or 4 times in like 1,200 miles. So kind of glitchy a little bit. Um, the other thing I've noticed about the car is that it sounds pretty underwhelming, especially from inside of the cabin. Now outside on a cold start, it sounds okay. But that's actually why I'm going to go with the Active Autoworks mid-pipe. It just— for the horsepower and for what you pay for and what you're expecting in a sporty vehicle like this, it just sounds underwhelming. It doesn't sound like anything special, and that's not really okay with me. I want it to sound incredible. Um, another thing that not a super big fan of is The fact that there's not a ton of storage space right here, um, it's a little bit— I feel like they could have done a little bit better job with the storage. Also, the wireless charging tray, it feels like it's really far back in there, and I've noticed that as I charge my phone, it gets really, really, really hot. Now, I don't know if that's a car thing or a device thing, a phone thing, but like when I say really hot, like like when my phone's in there for 30 to 45 minutes at a time, like I pick it up and it's hot to the touch. Like I'm like, whoa, my phone needs to cool down. Now there's never been like an alert on my phone. I have had moments where I leave my phone out in the hot sun on a summer day and it like, hey, overcooling alert or overheating alert, not overcooling, but I haven't seen anything like that. Other qualms, other qualms. Man, other than, other than that, I'm really happy with the car. I really love it. I think it's great. I'm really excited to do these mods to it and to continue to drive it. I've had no issues so far with the engine, with the performance. I think the S58 engine is incredible. It's pretty bulletproof at this point, so I don't anticipate any engine issues, especially with, you know, the '22, '23, and '21 M3 comps that have the same exact engine. There's really been very little problems. There haven't been a ton of high-mileage ones that I've seen come through, but even some of the higher-end ones, like, I'm not hearing through the grapevine any issues or any problems potentially with, like, uh, you know, uh, issues with the engine, um, you know, gaskets breaking or things like that, uh, going wrong. So I think the engine's gonna do great, and we'll see how it goes. I'll continue to provide updates. Um, oh, one thing I will tell you is there's no, uh, buttons for the, uh, climate control. So climatization, you hit this, is your climate control, right? Um, so you have to come here and you have to touch the screen, which for me can get a little annoying if your fingers are dirty and greasy because I don't really like to touch the screen a lot, but this car forces you to touch it. Now one thing I don't really love is I've noticed that this fan here, there's only 5 areas of the fan. And I feel like level 5 oftentimes is way overwhelming, way too much. But then I feel like 4 and 3, it's almost not enough. So I feel like they should have more fan speed, uh, like 7 or 8, and like not as big of jumps. Um, also this— the, the, the— now that we're talking, um, the, the, the, the hand warmer on the steering wheel is pretty underwhelming. And I say this because I come from, uh, Range Rover Sport is my other vehicle. That's what I used to drive, supercharged Range Rover Sport 2021. Love that car. And the heated steering wheel in that car was the best heated steering wheel I've ever seen in any other car I've ever driven. I loved it. So coming from that car to this car, it's like this barely gets warm at at all. Also, the, the seat warmers are a little bit underwhelming here, um, and it could just be a result of the carbon fiber bucket seats. I'm sure that if you go with the full normal seats that have the air ventilation, and you know, you probably have a lot better heated and cooling seats in there. But yeah, I get it. I mean, you're basically missing, you know, 15% of the, you the seat because of how open it is back here for your 5-point harness. So I get it that the seat warmers might not be that effective. But overall, first impressions, if I had to do it over again, I would buy the car. I would, I would still buy this car. I'm still convinced there's no other better car for the price point. I love everything about it. And, um, you know, obviously looks-wise, I'll probably put some sizzle reels, some sizzle footage on here, some B-roll of, of the exterior of the car. You can see kind of the wrap, how it looks. I love the wrap, how it's come together. And overall, absolutely am just thrilled with this car. So what would you guys do? Would you guys buy an M3? Uh, if, if not, what would you buy? What's your favorite part of the M3? Um, you know, the G80 platform in particular. And with that being said, I mean, look forward to more cool car content. I'm gonna be doing one of these, uh, days the mid-pipe addition as well as the cold air intake. We'll probably do some driving, uh, cold start stuff. You guys can hear the difference in the, in the sound of the engine as well as the intake and, uh, see how much better makes the car.