Marius Dancea: IS3

Thank you for listening to the Business Blast podcast. So for all my listeners out there that have been wanting to do your own podcast, I'd like to introduce to you Anchor. Anchor is a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, distributing, and monetizing your podcast. So before I found Anchor, I had never actually done a podcast because all the research that I had gathered made it seem very complex. Then I found Anchor, and Anchor makes podcasting extremely simple. So if you want to do your own podcast, go to anchor.fm/start. I can't wait to hear your podcast. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Marius Dancia with us, and IS3 provides commercial and residential properties, businesses, and organizations development services including innovative visual and audio indoor marketing channels that reach local, national, and international markets. All of their host locations have indoor digital screens and IS3 radio that connects, informs, encourages, inspires, honors, and motivates individuals and businesses to succeed and grow together. So welcome to the show, man.

Thank you very much, Tyler Wagner, for having me. I really, really appreciate it.

Of course, man, we're grateful to have you on. So the first one we got for you today is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

That's a great question. One of the best stories, I believe, is when I was teaching at Northeastern Illinois University and we were in our— I was teaching seniors. We were in our last class before graduation, and a senior comes up to me and tells me, I can't graduate this semester. I ran out of all my loans, and I won't be able to to make it, and it was her last class before graduating. And I said, no way, Dad, that can't be done. We have to somehow pull together. And although I didn't have all the resources to give her the money for myself, we developed a GoFundMe page. And then I said, you know, guys, I'm going to be the first one to put the money in there. And I put an X amount of money in there. And as soon as I— Put in the money, half an hour later I get a phone call from our secretary saying, Dr. Dancia, that someone called from Chicago PD Show, which is the— that you have on 24th Place, a little village in Chicago. And I said, oh, that's great. Then I contacted Phil from the show, and he tells me, listen, we want to run a wire by your property in the back there. Said, you know, I'll give you $1,000 instead of $300. That money did go to the GoFundMe page. We, we were able to gather the rest of the money, and she did graduate that semester. And that's a story that I think is— to get it done, no matter if it doesn't seem like it's possible.

And then what is the—

Great question. What I'm finding is that there is a need to connect, to motivate, to inspire, and in a way touch the local market. And I mean, when the internet came, everything went up to the cloud, but we forgot about the ground in more ways than one. And what we're doing is we are— filling in that void. We found a, a, a niche or a need, um, in the local market, and that connects the properties, businesses, and organizations together.

And then what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?

I think the best piece of advice is always go the extra mile. Do more than expected for the customer or client or tenant. Also, try to, even if it's suggested by any stretch of means of imagination to be possible to do, have it done and go the extra mile. It does pay off.

And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Well, that's— there's so much to say there, but I would say do the most you can when you're young, do the most you can, do the most development you can, do just as much as you can while you have the youth, while you have energy, while you have the motivation. And that doesn't mean that as you go older you can't acquire all of those, but it's just better to do as much as you can while you can, while you're young.

And then kind of going down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Well, the key to happiness to me is helping others rise. And that is in any way possible. Money is not the key to happiness. It is a tool that we use to get things. But the key to happiness is doing even better by not thinking about it. So there's— the more you help others in one way or another, you are helping yourself.

Mm-hmm, I agree. Well, thank you for coming on, man. The last one I got for you is where can our audience best find you online?

Great, I believe the best to find me is is-3.org and also on LinkedIn as well. And those two places are the best. My email is mdancea@gmail.com.

And for coming on.

Thank you, Tyler. I really, really appreciate this.