#33 Marketing Think Tank with Ryan Howard, Jod Booker, and Brayden Tomicic

Marketing Think Tank Mastermind: Paid Ads vs Organic, Networking, AI Automation & Public Speaking Anxiety

Four entrepreneurs form a marketing “think tank” to share complementary expertise—paid ads for e-commerce and coaching, organic content and brand storytelling, relationship-driven networking, and jack-of-all-trades marketing with AI and web/SEO—and then brainstorm current challenges. Ryan Howard, Jod Booker, Brayden Tomicic, and Parker McCumber each share their unique perspectives on marketing and business growth. They discuss overcoming public speaking anxiety for a UVU talk (with Fortune 500 executives present) by focusing on authenticity, admitting what you don’t know, and remembering you only need to be a few steps ahead to teach. They explore B2B growth without existing connections using repeated multi-channel outreach, personalization, leveraging networks, and thoughtful direct mail. The group addresses personal brand building pitfalls from meme-follower growth, the limits of paid ads for personal branding, and the value of community engagement and collaborations. They cover scaling constraints, delegation, and automating tedious work with AI, ending with brief promotions and advice emphasizing action and discomfort-driven growth.

00:00 Marketing Think Tank
01:12 Panel Backgrounds
06:29 Public Speaking Anxiety
07:36 Confidence and Authenticity
09:31 Speaking to Execs
22:53 Stage Selling ROI
27:09 AI Automation Story
31:37 B2B Outreach Challenge
37:41 LinkedIn Authentic Branding
40:38 AI for Prospecting
43:54 B2B Follow Up Numbers
45:35 Getting Attention Fast
46:03 Cookie Outreach Tactics
46:55 Personalized Direct Mail
48:33 Parker Brand Struggles
53:41 Content That Converts
56:07 Three Pillars Fix
01:05:10 Weaponize Your Network
01:09:16 Community Management Wins
01:15:15 AI Outreach Automation
01:26:05 Networking and Branding Talk
01:33:16 Braden Juggling Businesses
01:35:06 Outsource Sales First
01:36:07 10 100 1000 Tasks
01:37:59 Creative Control Bottleneck
01:43:23 Selling Through Relationships
01:44:58 Set Expectations With Training
01:47:44 Automate Admin Work
01:47:55 Leave Behind Sales Assets
01:52:26 Passion Versus Employees
01:57:20 Culture Fit Sales Hiring
01:59:43 Network Driven Referrals
02:05:17 Friendship And Selling
02:09:36 Networking That Feels Real
02:15:29 Rising Tide Philosophy
02:18:00 Plugs And Final Advice 

Transcript

0:00

Uh, my train of thought is all of us have different marketing expertise from like different parts of that. Like we all specialize in something different. So I was thinking all four of us in a room can probably help figure out a lot of stuff. Oh yeah, dog. Yeah. The quad factora. Yeah. Well it's like a think tank. Yeah. Bit. That's that's what I was looking for. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you're good with words, that's why you're here. Absolutely not. I know enough to woo enough people in my life to do. That was one woman. That's it. That's it. Can't I can't. You only got a woo one. It's true. Honestly, don't, you know, the Kona said guys by first name basis. That's, look, that's not the point there. That's, that's not the point. You know, Christian, I was just in the neighborhood, but I dropped by, you know, that's, I'll be honest, that is the bad part about my field is you meet so many of these people, you go have these conversations, you know, you buy the cars and then any sympathy you can get is out the door. Oh yeah. It's just out the door, which is fine. I'm just remember making a joke. But it's just fun. We, uh, it is actually a unique, unique panel right now. Uh, so maybe just as a thought, it's, I'll share our backgrounds a little bit on the marketing side then too.'cause I, I think you're right. You know, we each have. A very different background. Like mine was entirely paid ads, I mean, is where I, I built my bread and butter, so it was, uh, Facebook and Instagram and we used that to drive e-commerce sales and then coaching sales, and now getting into like course and info products as well. So we've done it in multiple niches. I mean, we do it for brick and mortar service industries. So you're up. Oh, oh dude, awesome. Volunt and told Volunt and told, here we go. Um, no, I, I genuinely think it's a really great panel here because we all have so many different backgrounds and involvement in business at just various levels, right. Um, obviously with mine, uh, you know, we started with photography, content creation, social media, just understanding the psychology of what people like, what they don't like, and then associating my experience in sales and brand building, which is what I did for years before I did this full-time as an agency. Um, and just kind of marrying those ideas together. So marrying what you and your business stand for, who you are, how you want to be heard, what you represent with the content and the story that you tell that people will perceive as they look you up. Online, organic. And you do most of that organic, right? Organic. All organic. Organic content. Organic, yep. Organic. So I rely on guys like you guys, organic, paid. John, you're up. Um, I pretty much do in person networking. So all the leads that I bring into my company are usually just word of mouth. And I have, I've built a big enough network by now that instead of going to all these meetings in person, I can come to podcasts like this and people will still call me. They're like, Hey, you're the, you're the guy, you're the garage door guy. So, so and so and so told me to talk to you for anything garage door related. So yeah, I kind of just leveraged, I make friends really well and I'm honestly excited about what my friends are doing. That's why I'm part of TTC and redline and everything else that's going on in the community.'cause I just wanna see everybody grow and with that it's almost like, oh, like I know someone who can help you with that. And just being the go-to guy for just knowing everybody has been amazing for my career. So, and that's all organic and like relationship driven. So mine is mainly focused on relationship driven networking and bringing in leads that way. So it's been pretty good. Which, not to go off on a tangent, like, 'cause obviously we got, we wanna introduce everybody here, but like, I feel like in nowadays. In today's market, that is one of the most underrated skills. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Like to be genuine, to be a friend, to be someone who you can meet with anybody. I mean, like our first couple interactions, I was like, the second time I met you, I was like, dude, this guy's legit. You know what I mean? Having that type of interaction is a highly underrated skill in today's market.'cause everyone's trying to sell or do X, Y, and z and the fact that you're so good at it is like just, oh, I appreciate that, man. Thank you. Yeah, definitely makes it stand out in a room. And he makes cool YouTube videos I make. Okay. YouTube videos, they're pretty cool. I mean, you're, you're a great actor. You're pretty good. Which is why you're in that scene. That's the thing. I don't have to act. It's like, Hey, do this thing. I'm like, no, I feel that way. Genuinely me. Uh, my background's more of a jack of all trades, so I've done kind of a little bit of everything in marketing. Um, and, you know, most marketing companies really niche into something. They're like, we're only gonna do dental offices or dealerships, or whatever they do. And I like refuse to do that for some reason.'cause I wanna make my life hard. Um, so I, I like being able to help any kind of business out there, but that means I'm constantly having to figure out new skills, new tools, new things, and learn and adapt very quickly, but not necessarily be a master at any one thing in particular. Mm-hmm. Um, so I've done, you know, a lot of PVC, I've done a lot of organic SEO website design's. Probably the thing I'm best at. And recently it's, it's really been a lot of the AI stuff, honestly, that's been blowing up like crazy. Um, that's what's been getting me invited a lot of places too. I've got that talk at UVU tomorrow, which obviously I haven't planned for it all 'cause I procrastinate everything and a robot couldn't do that for me. So yeah. Wing that one. Um, but that's been, uh, probably my, my strong suit there is figuring out how to build custom solutions for whatever the problem is. Well, and you're very quick at it too, which I think is massive.'cause most people, you know, and I, I would say myself included in some instances, you know, they go, okay, gimme like a day, or I need a few hours, or gimme like a week. In fact, most people kind of lean towards the weak side. Yeah. You know, but the, the thing that I think I admire is you literally go in and you're like, gimme two hours. And you come in back and you're like, okay, cool. Hey, I found this. Like you're able to adapt, overcome quickly, provide solutions. Very valuable. Appreciate that. Cool. Yeah. So where are we going now? That's a good question. I didn't really plan for this. Just like my speech tomorrow. This is gonna be great. I think we should go around the room and just be like, what is something that we're dealing with right now that has been a challenge and see if we can like, brainstorm an idea and just be like, Hey, like maybe try this or something. Oh yeah. We're getting that mini master mastermind going. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. Public speaking. Public speaking. What's the challenge with it? Uh, uh, just crippling anxiety. Mm. There's a reason I like robots and ai, but, but why? Let's get to the root. That's it. Oh, it's why crippling anxiety. Let's turn into a therapy session really quick. Yep. Kick back up on the desk, please. Uh, uh, I think there's a lot of pressure when you're speaking publicly and you're trying to give good information.'cause you don't wanna say something like factually incorrect. You don't wanna give bad advice. And then people point you and say, that's who I got the advice from. Right? You don't want that coming back to you. And the chance is never zero. No matter how much you think you have something figured out you could be wrong. Um, so being wrong publicly seems worse. Can I share a thing that makes me a total jerk, but is like a like legit mindset thing? Please do hack for me. Please do. Okay. So I was talking to Trinity uh, a couple days ago. She asked me, she's like going through some of my footage to clip up reels or whatever for me. And she's like, do you not get nervous when you're on stage talking in front of people? I said, no, doesn't, doesn't usually bother me. She's like, how do you overcome that fear of that anxiety? And I said, look, I, I don't wanna sound like a jerk, but the reality is I'm doing better than most people are doing. And I feel that, not like to say just financially, but my relationships are strong. I have good friends, people that I trust. So if they're going to judge me, whatever, I'm still gonna keep doing me. I'm not gonna let somebody else's perception of me limit my ability to go out and win. And if they say something that really hurts my feelings, I'll go cry in a Lambo. Yeah. Recognize, I think with like your, your presentation tomorrow, you're talking at Utah Valley University. You're speaking to a senior entrepreneurship class, right? Yep. These are people that are just getting started, right? You're not just one or two steps ahead of these people. You are leaps and bounds ahead of these people. You've built your business, you are getting clients, you're solving problems. This is conceptual for them still. So anything that you can provide them as far as first steps, taking action, overcoming and I, I think this is a big one, overcoming the fear of inaction. All of those things are insanely valuable to that group. And if they judge you for it or they don't agree with you, so what you're gonna go hop in your, uh, lotus and you're going drive away and go to the track and race it around, and like, that's where I'm going right after this. You're gonna live a dream, a dream life still. Yep. True. Uh, the, the only caveat is it's, uh, actually a handful of s uh, fortune 500 executives apparently attending the meeting. So there's that too. But that's fine. But you gotta even think then, like. With a lot of those individuals, and I've sat in a few of those rooms with people who are Fortune 500, fortune 100. Yeah. And I'm kind of on a fly on the wall, like I'm, you know, you guys know me. I'm not, no. Nowhere near that. The thing is, is a lot of these guys are really good at what they do, which is why they're in that position, but they're only good in that lane. Now they, they've got multiple other skills and they've got knowledge and other things. But typically, if they're going to come and sit down and learn from somebody who's doing this one concept or topic that somebody's speaking on, chances are that they have enough of a knowledge. You know, let's go back to marketing, right? Like, look at the marketing funnel. Where are they at in that they're past the awareness stage. They're now at the stage where they're curious, they're trying to learn more, and maybe they're gonna take action after this or try to continue to learn more and take action post this. Well, I think there's broadening and diversification in there too, right? Like, okay, if these are a bunch of Fortune 500 execs that want to come participate in this, first off, they're people too, but they're operating at a level where they probably have to be just very aware of a variety of fields, you know, marketing, the hr, you know, all these different aspects of running the business. So they're there to genuinely just learn, right? They're not there to pick you apart. They're not there to try and, uh, shoot holes in your presentation or anything like that. They're there because it's their job to have an awareness of where the field is going and how people are operating and what's solving problems today. And so they just are sponges and they wanna learn from everybody. It's like, um, the old saying, you know, a millionaire is really quick to talk. The billionaire is the first one to listen. People operating at a high level are there to listen. You learn from everybody. Yeah. And even if, like, I, I, I think you're very knowledgeable in this field, first off. So I think confidence is obviously a hard thing. And that comes even from myself, is I've done workshops before, you know, photography based, obviously helping creators grow, talked at a couple events. I think really at the end of the day, what really matters the most is you go in, you speak, you be authentic. Try not to be something you're not. And you just speak on what you know. And if you don't know something about that, you know, you just say, Hey, this is an ever evolving industry. I actually don't know about this, but we should chat after this. And like, let me, I wanna hear more about this question you have, and then let me research and let me try to get you some serious information.'cause that kind of interaction goes so much farther than trying to like, yeah, well I'm gonna tell you about this and then you're gonna hit me with a question. I'm gonna try to like answer it the best way I can. Sometimes, especially for these guys, they, I feel like, and people in general admire. Authenticity, especially if we don't know. Mm-hmm. Because then when you go back, especially if you can create that connection, post that talk and you're talking with them and you're like, Hey, so like where's your mind at,'cause this is really interesting. This piqued my interest'cause I didn't know about it. You might have a whole new connection just because you were authentic and said, Hey, I don't know. Versus if you try to give like a BS answer, they go look. And then it's like, oh well, found out he was wrong. And then now like, I don't trust this guy. I don't think you have to worry about that at all, as long as you're just being honest, which I think you're that guy, so I'm not worried about that for you. Yeah. I will attest to that. The more I've lived, um, to my own authentic self, like everything in life has just kind of gotten better progressively. Mm-hmm. Uh, that's a hard thing to do sometimes.'cause you're worried like, okay, what if people don't like the actual me? And then at a certain point I think you just kinda stop caring and that almost makes it better. Mm-hmm. That's when you go and sit in your Lambo and cry. Yeah, exactly. Like, oh man, oh, I'm such a loser. I'll go sit in my lotus and drive around a racetrack and live an awesome life. I think one of the hard things with entrepreneurship is, uh, it feels like you're living on the edge of imposter syndrome like all the time. And if you're not, then you're not pushing hard enough. That's the hard thing. You start getting these really cool opportunities, getting invited places and you're like, I don't feel worthy until you do it. Yeah. One of my favorite quotes not to interject this kind of thought. Yeah. Is if the path that you are on is clear, the path forward is clear, you're on someone else's path. And I think entrepreneurship is very much your own path. Meanwhile, yes, there are businesses, there are people who have done things that we're doing a lot of cases in ai. There's a lot of, that's a new forefront, right? But like what I do genuinely is it is a pretty common thing, right? There's a lot of agencies out there, there's a lot of people doing what we're doing, but the way we do it, our strategy, it is a new path. And if it, if that's I clear and you don't feel like, I feel like at the edge a little bit where you're going crap, I kind of questioning the things that I'm doing, then you're not doing the right thing in my opinion. You're just following someone else and you're only going to amount to the second best of whatever that person is. It's a whole think differently thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I just want to, I will interject here and just go off of what Braden was saying, like honestly, if, and this is coming from a purely psychological standpoint, I've been in masterminds where. I'm sure there are things that I just don't like believe that the speaker is saying, but I'll always pick something out that it's like, oh, that's genuinely good information. But if you come across something that you don't know the answer to, how awesome of an experience is it that that person gets to figure out that answer with the expert, right? Because you are brought on that panel or wherever to speak because you are the expert in that field. Like, how awesome is it to be part of that? Like, oh, the expert didn't even know the answer to this and we figured it out like in 20 minutes after. Like I think that's a really cool like path to think about.'cause like everybody goes there to learn and if you can go there and learn something that's just as valuable. So I like that. I mean, it's a university. Everyone is literally there to learn. That's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah. That gets my little, my little like, uh, brain tingle is when I have to figure out something new for the first time. That's why I refuse to niche in anything. I like figuring out problems that I haven't dealt with before. I hate tedious things that I have to do. Um, so that's why I try to do as much AI as I can if I have to go create 50 accounts, like, uh, this is horrible. It's gonna take two hours, I'm gonna pass out, but I'd rather spend 10 hours solving something I've never done before. Yeah. Mm-hmm. No, that's cool. That's way cool, man. You got it. Any follow up questions from that? No, I think that's, that's a good start. I think you're gonna crush it dude. Just crush it man. Yeah, you're gonna crush it. Yeah. You walk in there and hit it out of the park. Worst case that's recorded, I faint on stage. That'll be great. That's great content. Yeah, that was great. Bad hashtag Ryan Howard fail. Actually, actually here trending. This is what you do. You go, you faint on stage, then you have the AI take over the presentation. That was a thought. Yeah. Have Jarvis speak for me? Yeah, I'd be sick. No, I think that's a really, Cooper and then people relate to the human aspect. So I mean it's, it's totally fine for you to go on stage and be like, Hey guys, I'm super nervous right now talking to all of you, but I'm gonna teach you everything I can teach you in this, you know, however long you have, 45 minutes, hour, whatever it is. But you can own the nervousness. Yeah. Just take some of that wind right out of the, the sails. Just acknowledge it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There was a, there was one time I had to speak in front of a class and it was high school students and I'm like, why am I nervous to speak in front of high school students like these kids, they're mean, they're memes, they're gonna pick on me, they're mean. I'm gonna turn into some meme on the internet. It's gonna be this whole thing. So nerds. Yeah. But like when we, when we were talking about it, uh, you know, the marketing side and business side with them, it was really interesting 'cause I told 'em, I was like, look, I'm nervous because I'm a nerd and this is what I focus in on. So I'm just gonna rant. I'm gonna talk, we're gonna have some communication afterward, but like. Just know that like I'm coming in with this, like I, I said it much more eloquently than I'm saying it right now, but just at a high level I was just like, like exactly what you were saying of this is what I'm good at. I don't public speak, so just take what you can out of this. Right? Yeah. Like I'm not gonna be this eloquent, like here, the whole theatrics of it. Like that's just not who I am. So if you want to, if that makes me feel better. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Well, and I, you've, this is something I think a lot of people maybe sleep on when it comes to the public speaking aspect too, but just to build an immediate connection with people. Acknowledge where you come from, your background, right? Like people will often look at somebody on stage and they'll say, oh, this dude's so successful and he's got his business and he's doing all this stuff and he's got his nice watch, he drives his cool car and they don't recognize that there's an actual connection that they can make with you. When you say like, dude, I'm from a small town in Idaho. I grew up on a farm, like, I don't know, grew up on a farm, you know, doesn't everybody in Idaho? Yeah, pretty much. So I mean, you can, you can always start by sharing your story, who you are, where you come from, what you overcame to maybe get into your position, and that's relatable to them.'cause they can say, oh, I've got obstacles too. I'm, I'm overcoming these problems. But then it puts you on a connected level so that when you go to teach, everything just hits a little bit easier because now you're somebody they can relate to. And I, I will admit, I mean, running a business, if you don't have a mentor or you haven't, you know, been to to college a study business and had to do that, everything you're doing, you're doing for the first time and you don't have a guide for it. Um, so it feels like bashing your face into a wall, running a company and eventually get through the wall and you're like, oh, hey, great progress. And there's another wall behind it. You're like, okay. Yeah. And it just never really ends. But, uh, eventually you look back and you're like, I got through all of these walls with persistence. And that's, that's kind of the only other way to do it if you don't have coaches and mentors. Mm-hmm. That's your only option. What is that? Or don't do it. Agreed. That's not better. So I'm curious 'cause you are phenomenal at speaking. Thanks. You are very eloquent. The way you talk like vocabulary is on point. You, you're just, just a nerd. But like, is that something, I'm just curious because these are thoughts that I've had, 'cause obviously this is kind of coming up more and more, especially as I've, we've established our agency, get to know the right people. Have you taken classes on public speaking or have you researched into it? Or like how did you get to like the point where even you're at? Sure. Um, it's a combination of, of stuff here. I did as part of my, um, degree, I got a degree from UVU, uh, I was required to take a public presentations course. Hmm. So it's not really public speaking, but it's adjacent. Right. Public presentations, is that what it was called? Maybe it was just present professional presentations. That's what it was, professional presentations. Uh, and the class was really geared towards presenting to a boardroom, presenting to executives, getting your point across, right. How do you message in business? But it was a good foundational element for me to actually, you know, do public presentations or public speaking. Um, the other aspect of that was in the military, I was put into positions really quickly and as a young man where I was leading soldiers. So then I was always speaking from a position of authority to others, right? And, and I mean, at 20 years old, I got a team of like five dudes under me. So that kind of helped me start. And then, uh, as I've progressed in the military, you know, uh, commissioned as an officer, then I'm a platoon leader and I've got, you know, 50 people that I'm speaking to and addressing. So I got a little bit of practice in that. Then I, as I got into higher levels of business, um, I started joining bigger masterminds. Like I got into Russell Brunson's group, I'm going on stage, uh, there, and I was just surrounded by people who were really, really good at speaking and really good at getting the point across and selling from stage. And I quickly saw my inadequacies, but I also saw the pathway to solve, resolving those and learning from the people that I was watching on stage. So I'm like reverse engineering how they talk and how they present a little bit. And that was my own nerdiness, paired with my own kind of professional experience. And I just kind of put those together and, you know, I've been speaking on stage now, um, I don't wanna say pretty consistently, but you know, a few times a year at least for the last, you know, two and a half years now. So I'm trying to do it more. I think it's the most beneficial way for me to grow my business now. Yeah, that's cool. I agree. Thought like that's cool. So, uh, all of you actually, all of you, Hey, shout out. Whoa. Go team self-promotion. All of you guys were at my October Mastermind. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That was my first time selling on stage. Hmm. Hmm. The first time I ever did that would not have guessed. Yeah, no, for real. Um, I like, uh, Ryan maybe brought up earlier. It was a little bit of a procrastinator. I didn't finish my slides until like the night prior at 2:00 AM and even then there was mistakes all over that thing. You should have slides, just throw something together. You got ai. Yeah. Um, so I'm, I'm putting those things together. I, I'm finishing at like 2:00 AM the night prior. I got some anxiety around it because I know this is the first time I'm doing this type of presentation live. Didn't know if it was all structured the right way and any of that, that kind of stuff. But I'm able to bring a room of, you know, 35 people in there together at the time, uh, I get on stage. By the time I presented there was only maybe 25 people in the room. I make my pitch at the end of that presentation, we immediately close two sales. So I'm like, okay, each of those were at the time, a $20,000 offer and I probably spent $20,000 on the event, but I'm like, okay, there was $20,000 of profit on the backend of this. Now there was obviously work that went into planning the event, and then, um, the slide preparation and stuff like that. Like, I probably worked eight plus hours on getting the slides and the script and everything together, and then I presented for two hours. But I'm like, okay, maybe I had, you know, 10 ish hours of actual work on the presentation, but that netted me $20,000. So I'm like, that's a pretty good return on the time. Good to see the investments, right? And it directly put people into my coaching pipeline that then I have, you know, value ascension over time and retention models for that. And then afterwards we got seven or eight leads of people that all come up to me afterwards and like, Hey, I want to join your, your program. This was a really good presentation. I just am selling a business and I, I'll, you know, after it's done, I'm buying a business, I'll come to you after it's done. Uh, I need to, you know, get my, my finances in check first and, you know, whatever. But hey, reach out to me. We have a, a different partnership with a another, uh, social media management type company, but like, we're gonna cancel that. We'll go with you. So then business increases in the month following as well. So I'm like, okay, if I could just start speaking from stage more. Hosting more masterminds, now I can put myself in a position where I can actually grow my business and build my personal brand. And at the same time, you're developing a ton of content and then all of that also helps feed that machine. So big believer, big fan, getting out in public speaking where you can speak, taking the most of those opportunities and just capitalizing on them as, as best you can. Yeah, I noticed that in, uh, some b and I groups. I was in, um, I went to a few groups that had probably 60 people in 'em, which is pretty big for B and I chapter. And you have a presentation that you gave every, you know, few months or so. Mm-hmm. Um, and obviously I was nervous for those.'cause at that time that was the most people I'd spoken in front of. Um, and I actually thought I bombed it after it. I had 10 people come up and they're like, that was awesome. I wanna sit down and talk with you more on this. And I ended up getting a few clients outta that one meeting. Dude, that's social proof. Um, podcasts, same exact idea. Like I got three or four clients mm-hmm. From the podcast that we shot. Let's go. Like it works. I'm a believer, um, that's why I've been doing a Bart will sign you up on the way out later. Yes. Um, yeah, I think just putting yourself out there definitely helps, especially when you are the expert in, you know, something at least you know, the top 5% in that field. Mm-hmm. Which is really pretty easy to get to if you specialize. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Um, 'cause sometimes it's hard to find those people Well and recognize, right. When you're helping people like this. You only have to be a couple steps ahead. Yeah, right. It's not like you have to have 20 plus years of experience in that specific field to actually be able to help somebody with that. You need to just be the one step ahead in AI implementation to go back and show them how you did it. And the benefit of it is the longer you're involved in that field, the more steps ahead you get, the longer you can help people for. Yeah. It's been moving really fast recently. It's been pretty nuts. Actually built an autonomous, uh, AI on a home computer. I bought an iMac, set it up for that. So it runs all the time. It, it broke the computer admittedly, but, or it escaped and we don't know. Yeah, I I it could be true. Sorry. The clown, the chance is not zero. It's slowly working to take over the world. Um, but it had access to like 300 different AI models and it would pick the best one for whatever the task was and try to get more efficient with the cost over time. And eventually I, I gave it access to some of my tasks. So I went to sleep. I woke up and it's like, Hey, I saw these are on your task list. So I handled them for you. And it sent out emails for me. It scheduled meetings, it created an analytics report and sent it to a client. I'm like, oh, okay. That's nuts. Uh, then it broke the computer the next day. So, but it got like iteratively smarter on its own 'cause it was always on, always learning. That was a crazy experience. Uh, kept me up at night for a couple of days. Kind of crazy. That's crazy. Like it's moving fast. See, like that story is perfect. Like, can you tell that story? Like, that's huge. Like, that's like, to me, I'm like, all right, what kind of computer do I need to not like to see if we can break it. Yeah. Or like not break it and still do everything. That's crazy, man. It was, it's nuts. It, it prompted a lot of questions for security in that space too. Less than this was my first sip of, I was, I was curious. What are your thoughts? I like it. Um, it reminds me of like the childhood candy necklaces. Oh yeah. The spree necklaces. Yeah. Yeah. Like a spree necklace. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the, the, the citrus flavors, right. The orange and yellow type spree candy. But it's in liquid energy drink form. And it's not that sweet actually, but it's, that flavor is what comes to mind. Hmm. Nice. I can see that. I can see that. Well, John, if you, I mean, do we, we wanna continue on this or do you want kinda move down the line before we Before we do. I think it, it is another thing that's like really cool is like, yeah, these people that are going there, fortune five hundreds, they are probably in the C-suite at some point. It's just. Your knowledge of AI is so far ahead of, I mean, unless they are like us or you know, like really nerd, nerd out on ai. Yeah. Your level of knowledge is so much further ahead. Like, I thought I was doing good until I sat down in a meeting with you and you're like, watch this. And then built something in like three minutes and I'm like, wait, we can do this. Like what the heck? And I'm, I kind of nerd out on that. Like I have my, like my Claude and my chat GPT, like I have me essentially built into those models now and I was like, I'm doing good dude. I know. I know how to prompt. And I'm just like, wait, you built a robot that can just work for you. Like, and it took you a day. Like that's pretty cool. So there is something to be said about like, yeah, they do have these titles, but unless they're really like, that is their thing and that's what they like to learn about in their free time as well as running a business. Yeah, you are going to have like. Astronomically more knowledge in that field than a lot of people out there. So, and honestly I'd like to run into more of those people 'cause there's not a lot out there and there's so much capability. But now it's becoming a security concern. It's not a capability problem of can it do this? It can for sure. Uh, it's like, is it gonna do this without me asking it, steal my identity if I put it on my computer? Probably. So that's probably, my computer just became the most powerful man in Utah. Um, yeah, no, that's a, that's a fair point. I'd like to meet more of those people. I just don't know where to like find them. There's a couple of AI masterminds that are popping up and I'm, those are really starting to catch my attention. You are gonna speak in front of a bunch of people, so maybe there's some people in the crowd. I was gonna say the presentations that'll put you in front of those people. Yeah. Right? Mm-hmm. You're getting in front of 200 people. What's the chances? 2, 3, 4 of 'em are that person. Right. And, and even if you, like, it's a university presentation. You can't sell anything. Um, but you can have a little call to action at the end that says, Hey, if you're one of these people, let's connect. Like, I wanna help you. I wanna work with you. I wanna learn from you. Yeah. Just that information is more valuable than anything else. Yeah. Heck yeah. Alright. My problem. Let's see. Um, well it's come up more and more in both like working with redline and working for a plus, but just, I am so used to the in-person networking and just like having a connection to say like. Someone high up in the C-suite that most of the stuff like business to business for me is like, oh, I know you know the marketing director, or I know the CEO of this company. Like let, I'll put you in touch. Where if we're trying to market business to business, one business that I'm not in to another business that I'm not in or I don't have any connections to, I just don't know how to leverage like LinkedIn necessarily with blogs and stuff to target business, to business growth. So that's just one of the things that I'm coming up against. It's like if I don't know the CEO or someone in the company, how do I approach a company like that without like dropping by some donuts or something? If like they're not in the same area as me, I would argue you should drop by and get Well, I will. I will, I will. But if they're in like say Las Vegas and I'm here most of the time, or they're like somewhere back east, I just don't have that ability to go in person as much. Yeah. Like how do you market like business to business? I think a lot of this, you just do what you can, right? It's not wrong to pick up the phone and call. It's not wrong to leave a voicemail, send 'em messages on LinkedIn, blow 'em up on Instagram. I mean, like I am doing that right now in my business where I'm, um, I've talked a lot. I'm trying to follow the hor mozy rule of 100. So a hundred cold outreaches a day, every day for a hundred days. Some of that is to businesses, right? Like I'm trying to do consulting. Uh, leadership and strategy consulting for smaller corporations. But that's the kind of the target I'm trying to get in. I don't have any connection with those people, so I just find who owns them and I send 'em messages. Hmm. Yeah. And so that's actually kind of my background. Uh, most of the time or most of my career when I was working for somebody, it was in sales in the tech industry. And most of our customers, I'd actually argue all of our customers. Now I'm looking back out of it, we're B2B, and the hard part is, is if you don't have a way to have like a direct connection or somewhere where you can rub shoulders with them, shake hands, do that sort of thing, it is a numbers game. And like, which is why Hormoz does the hundred outreaches per day for a hundred days because truthfully, it is a numbers game. Right. Which is why like when we were building out teams for some of these businesses, you know, you'd have your SDR department and those people are the grunts who are just calling, calling, calling, emailing, emailing, emailing. And then once they've had one or two interactions, because that is such a vital part of the machine, they'd pass it off to the next person who could then have that conversation. Mm-hmm. So like in your instance, you know it, it's okay to call. You never know if you're gonna get ahold of 'em or not. Um, especially if there's value to be added there. If you know you're gonna go into town, maybe you can tee up something and just like, Hey, I'm gonna be in your neighborhood here.'cause I know you guys are in Vegas a lot. Mm-hmm. So it's like, Hey, I'm gonna be in Vegas in the next month. I saw that you do this. There might be some symbiotic opportunities. I'd love to take you golfing, especially if it's a client that's might be worth that, right? Mm-hmm. As an example. Yeah. But it truthfully, like, I think the only best answer here, and this is obviously where even Ryan and AI can help, is just sending out genuine messages, going and having some sort of outreach there and doing it with as many people as you can, because unfortunately, it's a grind, it's monotonous, it sucks. I, there's a reason why I'm not doing that today. Mm-hmm. Um, but it, it can yield results. The way I think you do it, it line with what Braden's saying is, is try to build the trust and the connection piece first. So when you initiate the conversation or you try to make the phone call, you send the message, whatever, is it actually tailored to what that business is? Mm-hmm. Is it tailored to something unique about the person that you're messaging in that business? Right? You go find the ceo, you look him up or whatever you get on his Instagram page, you see what he's into. Hey dude, I saw you are into exotic cars. I'm also into exotic cars, man, I'm in this club. Fast lane drive. Really awesome. Like, uh, how did you get into that? Is that, you know mm-hmm. Stemming from your CEO entrepreneurial experience, you know, just start the conversation, but ask a question that elicits a response and then just have the conversation for a minute. Be like, oh dude, you know, I'm also in this adjacent space that might be able to benefit you. Would you be interested in connecting about that? Hey, can you take a call? Some, I mean. If you start the conversation with something that's unique to them as opposed to just a purely cold, copied and pasted message, you're mm-hmm. You're way more likely to actually elicit the response. But it is a numbers game. You've gotta send, like, I mean, I get 15% on a good day responses to my outreaches, so that's pretty good. Yeah. But I, that, that's the ization. Right, right. Like, I see what their page is about. I comment on something that's a related interest, try to start the conversation that way. Yeah. I mean it's, it's kind of like you're saying that is like B2C as well. Like, I've gotten jobs where people, they just see my Facebook page and they're like, oh, you like Porsche's? Like you're the guy because they're just like a car person. Yeah. And they're just like, oh, I, there's immediately trust built there. So it's just, so probably what I'll start doing is just pull a list and then start deep diving into these companies and see like what I can do. But yeah, I was just one of those things I'm just like, man, I'm so used to knowing everybody that when I go into a market where I don't know anybody, I'm kind of like floundering almost. And leverage your connections. Right. You got the six degrees of separation. Mm-hmm. So ask people for the connection. Yeah. I mean, for example, you're getting into the Vegas market. There's the Vegas Fast Lane Drive chapter. I am going to that this Friday. But like, Hey guys, do you know anybody in that's in, in these businesses? Or like, Hey, I'm trying to connect with somebody there. Do you guys have any connections? Mm-hmm. Just see. Right. Leverage your network. Yeah, it's huge. And then I would say too, um, to go back on what you said earlier about u utilizing like LinkedIn and like Instagram and those types of things, the thing that I'll say you gotta be careful about is so many people will go two directions where they go one and they're spilling out their, you know, opinion on everything. They're going like way wild and they're posting some like absolutely crazy shit if you guys are okay with me swearing, but like just the craziest stuff, we'll edit it out and post. Yeah. But like they'll just go absolutely wild. Or they go super business and it's like, I'm here to sell you, this is, this is exactly from A to Z. When you hear the entire conversation, you see my entire page, you're getting sold, sold, sold. Mm-hmm. People don't care to be sold to what they want is they want to know that whoever they're gonna work with is a good person that's going to benefit what they are trying to do. Right. At some level. Mm-hmm. And that's again at a very high level. We can break that down. But what I'm trying to get to, and my point here is when you are building your LinkedIn profile, when you're doing any of this content, what people see on that page is how they will perceive you. Mm-hmm. Which some people will immediately go back and go, Ooh, okay, then I gotta be professional 'cause I wanna be perceived as professional because this person's professional. And it's like, slow down, this person is a person as well. They're not, they're not a logo, they're not some business name. They're not an entity. They're not an LLC on a paper. They're flesh and blood. So what can I do to help make connections with them? Best way of doing that is post content on there that's authentic. That's you and be you. Because when they meet you in person, if that doesn't match up, there's gonna be red flags. Right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. But B, if they, if you can post that, hey, this is what I do, this is how we benefit people. But then also just being you and like, dude, like I'm out here, you know, with my car and I actually pulled up to a client's house with my car 'cause they wanted to see it and we did this thing. Like, like, oh, okay, cool. He's not only genuine, he cares. You know, they're gonna start connecting the dots. Mm-hmm. And so like when you post online, like, don't feel like you need to do some blog post or do something crazy where it's like, and this is why you need to do X. Right? Like, everybody sees that constantly. We are getting force fed through a funnel of that information. So with that, I would say the way to stand out from that is be you showcase that online, showcase videos, you know, have your face on there, do pictures, write out a cool story if you really want to, like whatever that's going to be. And then when you start to try to connect those dots, you start to do the outreach. Mm-hmm. People are gonna look at 'em and be like, oh, okay cool. So when I go to his profile, 'cause they're most likely gonna go to your profile, especially if you've done some sort of outreach just to understand who you are, what you do. Mm-hmm. They're gonna see those first few posts and they're going to make some sort of perception or assumption about who you are and what you do. And that better be a damn good one and it better be you because that will help create that connection and build that relationship going forward. Yeah. So let me ask a follow on question. Ryan's over there being quiet. How do you use AI or how could AI be leveraged to help you break into these like markets and start these conversations? So I, I think Braden hit the head on the nail there. So your profile is what they're going to perceive when they click on it. Now the outreach doesn't need to be you necessarily. Um, I mean you can crawl and get data on people automatically and compile your own database and then have it reach out for you with a tailored message based on what it crawled, right? Like that. You can do that in a heartbeat. Um, what they click and what they see after that. You definitely don't want to be a sales pitch and it shouldn't be. Um, I prefer working with people I like working with long term. Yeah, those make the best clients. Uh, I enjoy the job a lot more, uh, if I actually care about them. And it's reciprocal, right? Like that's always the best client you could ever have. So I think having your profile set up in a way that makes you a person, but automating the parts you don't want to do. So, you know, we just hire that company to cold phone calls for us. I just paid somebody like 10 grand to set up a cold call department and they're reaching out, making, you know, a thousand phone calls a week. And that's been great. It's been setting a bunch of appointments. It's been awesome. They're cold still. Uh, there's nobody attached to it. So when they get, when time comes to get on the call, um, the show rate isn't as high as I'd like it to be because they don't have any connection to you, they don't know you. Um, so I think that would be a way to warm them up after the appointment's set. So, mm-hmm. That's my train of thought. Well, I think I, if you just build like your Claude or your chat GBT or whatever to be you, then you can leverage the AI and it will speak in a voice that is similar to yours without all the legwork of like having to come up with a thousand tailored messages every day, you know? So, no, that makes a lot of sense. And then from that point on, it's just like, it would just be like an in-person networking thing anyway, so. Mm-hmm. Yeah, just breaking that barrier has been challenging for me. And I, I don't use LinkedIn all that much. I have, in fact, I've, I've made, I have two. One was for when I was in college, 'cause we had to do it for a college class. And then one is now my professional life and they're always like. Oh, like why is there no information on your LinkedIn? I'm like, oh, you're on my college LinkedIn, which I should probably get rid of. Honestly. I delete that. Yeah. Anytime I see somebody, it's something bad. It's not me like just doing pillow shots, hitting a beer bong or anything. But like, no, it's just, you know, it's like one of those things like, oh, why do you have two? And it's, oh, I made, I made one for a college class and now I have another one. Oh, the memory is just flooding, flooding back about playing, you know, Edward 40 hands, we're doing keg stands, come on. And the crappy thing is probably like, there's probably like three posts on there, like, nothing like that. But like if they scroll back in the history, it's just like, yeah, something stupid. It's like, why did I do that? I thought it was funny in college. Like, oh, okay. Oh, it's like I'll get an A on this anyway. Like, yeah, well make sure like, yeah, delete that.'cause if you want that to be your first impression, that might not be, that might be not the greatest. Yeah. I'll, I'll say one thing, maybe to close this off, put a bow on it, but is just coming from the sales background, B2B, uh, the outreach side. This is kind of an interesting factoid and this is dated info, so like it's probably, I've done some research and it's much higher now, but I don't know the exact numbers, so we'll just take it for what it's worth. But it still gives you a good foundation of how this stuff works. Outreach when we had a warm lead come in to any of the businesses that we worked with on average. Okay, so on average, which means that there's a lot more than, there's a lot less to get any type of engagement. An engagement can be whatever, right? That could be phone call, that could be a zoom meeting for a demo. That could be, um, you know, a response to an email. Just any type of engagement with that person was about 12 on average. And this was six years ago. Now, mind you, this is a warm lead. These are people who've already outreached to us 'cause they're interested in our product or service or whatever we're providing. Mm-hmm. 12 on average. So if you ever get, you know, a little bit, 'cause I know I did, um, defeated, you feel defeated because you're like, man, I'm reaching out to this guy. He is not getting back to me. Like, I think we'd be a really good connection, X, Y, and Z. Just understand that sometimes they, I mean, their life, they're living their life, right? They're doing exactly what they're gonna do. They're not always gonna see that message. Or maybe it gets accidentally deleted when they select their 12 emails that they're like junk, right? Mm-hmm. So, just to know that at this point, it's gonna take multiple upon multiple touch points, but eventually you'll get a hold of 'em. So yeah, especially B2B, sometimes they're just busy. Yeah. Down to, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you look at all of us in this room, it's like, you know, we all know each other. And even then sometimes it's like, okay, crap, we'll text him and Well, how long did it take to get this together? Like, took us three weeks. Weeks. Yeah. Yeah. And these are like all people. We are good friends time and we're, we're all local, so it just takes time. But you got it, man. Like seriously, I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay to be repetitive. I mean, as in sending multiple outages, hit 'em up on every channel, mail 'em the cookies. All right. So actually that not to beat the dead horse, uh, I make it a point to like send, I'll go DoorDash, crumble cookies to people that do stuff for me. Mm-hmm. So, like I was on, um, the Two Comma Club X podcast a little while ago. I, I am like, immediately go send the host crumble cookies afterwards. Right. Are you saying that we should send you crumble cookies? No, I'm just saying we can, I mean, we can, you just start doing those things that gets attention. Mm-hmm. Right. And you can always send them with a card or something like that, that just says, Hey, thanks so much for talking to me. Or, Hey, I would love to talk to you about something. You know, so you can use things like that. But that's a, a way, a more likely way to get attention, right. Because it's something tangible that's right in front of them now mm-hmm. That they get to do something with and have an experience with. Like, uh, a couple years ago, a specialized, A specialized, specialized, uh. Direct mail company, uh, was sending me stuff. One of the things they sent to like try and get my attention was they went and found a, like Hot Wheels or a Matchbox car as a GT three RS and GT Silver, just like the one that I used to own. But they had found that on my Instagram page, found the card that matched it, and then mailed me that car with a personalized note that's like, Hey, this is how you get, you know, this is how you get, um, personalized outreach to actually click with people. We found something that's, you know, unique to you. Here it is. If you want to do stuff like this to get attention from your audience or the people that you wanna work with, send us a message. We'll work with you. But I'm like, why would I send you a message now? I know what to do, I'm just going to go do it. Mm-hmm. You know, but you can do things like that too. That would catch my attention for sure. And I mean, like, I get 50 of these a day too, 50 messages from people trying to sell me one thing or another. That would stand out in a heartbeat. Mm, it does. I mean, it definitely does. Yeah. Sweet. Hmm. I like it. Alt. Oh, we'll call it the uh, Michael Scott Fruit Bask Fruit Basket Method. Yeah. You guys ever seen that from the office? Yeah. It doesn't work in the office, but hey, it works in real life. Works in real life. Any other, uh, questions follow up? No, I think that's good. I got a lot of stuff to work with now. How about you, Parker? Gangster, you know, allow me to share all of my problems with you. Yes. Yeah. I actually, I feel almost, uh, guilty that maybe this goes back to the entrepreneur, um, imposter syndrome we talked about at the start of, I almost feel guilty asking for help sometimes, because I look at the success that I've had in business and, you know, in multiple areas, right? Like, we started with e-comm, we grew multiple e-comm business, we moved into coaching, we've grown the coaching business, we get into the podcasting, we grow in the podcast business. Like, it almost feels bad for me to say, guys, help help guys. But for the sake of this episode, allow me to be very vulnerable, please. My biggest obstacle now is growing my personal brand and awareness around me. To give you some of this backstory, I have done a disservice to myself, I think, in the past, and part of it was partnerships that I had, um, where people asked me to hide who I was because they viewed it as a threat to the company overall. That if I was on social media, if I was sharing success, if I was posting about, you know, the cars or the lifestyle or any of those kind of things, that it would just create. Contention with my employees, and it would put us in a position where people wanted to rip us off. They're like, oh, he's got success. Let's just go copy. Let's go rip off the product. Let's go rip off the service. Let's go. Right? So I didn't for a long time, but I still, I had the drive inside to grow on social media, to develop my brand and things like that. So I did the wrong things. I wasn't authentic for a long time. Uh, are you guys familiar with a guy named Brendan Kane? He wrote a book called The Million Follower Formula. No. So Brendan Kane writes this book, he gets famous for getting a million followers on Instagram in less than a month. I'm like, I'm gonna go do that now. The way he did that was partnering with meme pages and doing like promotions through meme pages. Um, so I did that, right? And I got, you know, 40,000 followers in a month or something doing this. The problem is then you've got 40,000 followers that aren't actually followers, that don't give a shit about your content, that don't resonate with it, that don't engage with it, and then you get throttled. So for the last two years, really, I wasn't always active in doing this. I'm going through and I'm removing followers on a daily basis now to try and get more narrowed back into the niche so that the algorithms can better understand who I am and who I serve, and how I help people. I think that that's aspect one of this problem aspect two, like we talked about earlier, if I can get people into the room, I can sell, if I can get them into my network, you know, I can give them a lot of value for free. I can get 'em into the Mastermind. I can genuinely help people. But when I try to do what I've done in the past, right, the paid ads, that does not go very well with personal brand building. No, no. Like that actually I think, um, created a lot of problems for me. I was trying to run paid ads to my mastermind. I'm trying to run paid ads to my, uh, coaching consulting like me offers. And that's interruption based marketing going to people who aren't looking for that, who aren't looking for me. And instead of actually doing something productive, I got a lot of hate. I would get angry messages. I get called names, I get attacked online and I'm just like, okay, whatever. You know, good old Facebook. But my problem now is I know I have to grow my personal brand and my awareness. I know I have access to these big networks of people that are really hyper successful. I don't know if they actually perceive me as somebody of value in those groups. And maybe that's a little bit of an imposter syndrome.'cause I'm sitting at this table with all dudes that I really admire, but I'm like, I don't have any success selling to the kind of people that I wanna sell to. Uh, I have a lot of success attracting people that are starting out in business, that are young entrepreneurs that are growing their businesses and brands, but that's not necessarily the people that I feel like I'm best suited to help and serve, or that I can get the best results for. So how do I build my brand and position myself in such a way that I can actually reach the people that I think need my help at a higher level that I could actually position myself as someone who's a legitimate leadership team development strategist that can, you know, help those companies at the bigger level. That's the problem. Let's go. Is we all start Braden? Yeah. I, dude, I have a million gears running through my head. Let me ask you this. Has there been one piece of content, and it doesn't even have to be one or one format of content that has actually yielded results, or are we still kind of at like a 0% success rate of that? Well, let's say 0% success rate. Okay. Um, to just go through some of my more recent stuff, I mean, I am, I'm currently working with a company called Viral Coach. Mm-hmm. Which is Daniel Isle's Company, which to try and make authority building positioning content right now. Okay. Rewind. I do a great job building authority with people who have eyeballs on me. Mm-hmm. So like I teach this authority engine, we use, you know, the long form content, podcasts, things like this to build trust. They see how we think, how we solve problems. We clip it up, we use shorts to drive eyeballs back to that. And when I can get someone into that, that works As far as like building the short form content, the reels, the likes. It is so minimal. I feel like when I make, for example, educational pieces, things that actually share value to somebody that, that tries to help get with that audience. I'm lucky if I get 400 views now outta those 400 views, I get a handful of likes and maybe I get someone to go gimme a long form view. And if that works, then great. But I mean, we're talking about a onesie twosie, maybe. Maybe then we look at, um, if I do some of the lifestyle content now, right? Like Bart and I have been going to Club Paddock, we're filming in front of the cars more. We're giving some, uh, a little bit more of that look into the lifestyle with still some valuable information, like a motivational thought on entrepreneurship, how you can overcome fear, what you need to do to take action, right? Something like that. Paired with the cars. Some of those get a few thousand views and some of those get a little bit more substantial engagement. Right. And I think that's largely because there's a flashiness to it. The cars. Mm-hmm. That's the real attention. Grab the aura bit. But those aren't actually translating into real followers or real conversations or real sales. Now, in my mind, views leads to followers. Followers, leads to conversations. Conversations lead to sales. But if the views aren't translating to followers, I've gotta change. Yeah. What I'm doing. Right. So again, I'm sorry to take the floor. No, go for it, dude. No, we're sorry at you. Okay. I'm gonna dive in on this one. So this is a multifaceted problem that a lot of people run into, and there's so many angles we could pull this apart from the most important part is, one, do you understand exactly who your audience is and is your content speaking to that audience? Or is your content speaking to someone else? Because based on what you're telling me, or at least what you're telling the group here is the content that you're outputting right now is attracting a certain type of business owner, beginner, nude entrepreneurs, people who are starting their businesses. Mm-hmm. Which tells me that the narrative and the stories that you're telling, the type of content, the visuals are not speaking to the right people. So starting there. So we want to figure out that first. Secondly, are the stories we're telling that are educational, the actual problems that those people are facing, they probably are, right? Which means we gotta solve this problem. But I actually think there's probably a disconnect there. Like if I'm, if I'm self-assessing, right, the stories that I'm telling, the educational piece that's tailored to the higher level people. And those higher level people aren't getting the content. Mm. Is how I see it. So I am attracting the, the entrepreneur, the startup. Right. They're really not qualified for the higher coaching offers yet. But I'm speaking, I'm trying to, anyways, and I, that's what I'm saying. I'm working with the coaching group to try and make sure the message is tailored and that we're adding things like qualifications in the messaging where I'm saying like, dude, you're gonna burn out at a million dollars a year as an e-comm founder unless you get your team in place. Right. So that shouldn't be talking to these people. Mm-hmm. I don't feel like, but I wonder and, and gimme your, your feedback on this. I, I suspect that that is a result of doing that Brendan Kane method and I've got, you know, these 25,000 followers that aren't actually followers. So when the algorithm goes to promote my content to, you know, the first groups of followers on my page and none of them interact with it, it gets throttled before it can actually find that segment. That's my suspicion. Yeah. And I, and that's where I would come back to the multifaceted situations. Mm-hmm. Yes. I think it does. Is it, is it the reason why the page isn't growing though solely? No, but I think it plays into the equation. Um, the third component here, and this is one I really want to hit home on, is as. Much as you do in the grand scheme of things and all the noise, even some of the big players. So this isn't just like at you, this is just general. If nobody doesn't know you, or sorry, if somebody comes across your content, they don't know you, they don't know your background, and they don't understand who you are and the success successes you've had, and the content doesn't maybe shed light on that or if they go to your page, it doesn't shed light on that. Mm-hmm. How do we trust you?'cause truthfully, especially in the coaching space. I see. And, and I've been approached and we've talked with a lot of people, I've had a lot of friends who've gone through coaching programs and while there's a lot of really great ones out there, I would say 90%, if not more, probably utter bullshit. Oh, sure. And garbage. Sure. Right. So with that, if the content doesn't speak to those people, if they don't understand who you are, what your successes have been, and you know, flashy cars, I don't think do it anymore. Uh, people don't care about that content anymore. Truthfully, there's a section of people that do, and that's the want. The want to want, what do we call 'em? Entrepreneurs, the people who are just conceptualizing their business right now because that's what they want, that's what they're envisioning. Are these people already at that level? If I'm doing a million dollars a month or a year in e-comm, I can afford that type of car. So I'm already there. So does that, do I care if that other person owns it or not? I don't know. Probably not. Yeah, this is a good point. So that actually probably is a limiting factor already right out the gate. So I think like, again, like social media, this is what I think it values at the end of the day. And this is an ever changing landscape, but more so than ever, especially with ai, and I think AI is gonna play an amazing role in social media, but there's two, always two sides of the coin here, right? And for people who are wanting to build a personal brand, right? We're talking about you as an individual and what you do and who you are and what you're going to offer to the world or your audience. Authenticity and being real and being trustworthy online as somebody who people can relate to or talk to is going to supersede anything that's flashy, it's going to supersede anything that, what worked five years ago, maybe even three years ago, people don't care about. In fact, I've noticed even in my own page, which I don't really put a ton of work into, 'cause we put it into everyone else's, but with my minimal effort, we've done, we've, you know, we built almost 22,000 followers. We were at 24,000, removed a ton of them.'cause it was just deleted in pot counts. I'm trying to do that right now, dude. It's so annoying. It is annoying. You just get thrown into these things. But like, you know, we're at 22,000 followers right now with minimal work and effort, but. What I've noticed is when I started posting more about my content with my Lamborghini, like I'm very proud of it. I love that car for that car, not because it has the badge on it and I'm gonna show off, and I think everyone understands that who's met me, but anyone who comes across that content online, it's not really a hype car. So they go, oh, this guy's just kind like po and they, they feel like they're too far removed from it. Mm-hmm. Or even if they can relate, they're kind of like, well, you know, I don't know. Right. So again, I think the three pillars I would approach this from, and again, I know I feel like I've been speaking the entire time. I, you go, dude, so I'm sorry. I think if I was to break down your personal brand and put it into three pillars of things I would work on, even just seeing your own content as well is one, change your messaging. Change who you're making the content for. Because if it's, again, if it's not attracting those types of people, then even if you change the verbiage, even if you change the story slightly, it's still relatable to those beginning entrepreneurs at some level. Or they're aspiring, like, you know, you're mentioning like, okay, you're at a million dollars as an e-com business. I might even see that and be like, that's a problem I'm gonna face because I want be a million dollar e-comm business. Yeah. So I'll still watch it versus change up the visual a little bit. Be you again, be authentic. Be exactly who you are, and I know cars is a big part of that, but get that messaging out at that top level so it speaks to the right audience. You'll see exactly every day those results of that. Because when you go to those people's pages, you'll know exactly who you're speaking to based on who's responding to it. Mm-hmm. Then focus on that second pillar that we talked about. But I think the most important one is people don't know who you are yet, which is okay. So you need to do the best you can to build trust, to showcase, hey, this is who I am, this is what I've built, and the long form content should speak to that. The short form content should speak to that. Not every single video has to be like, Hey, my name's Parker McCumber. I've done $10 million in X, Y, and Z business. Right? And I've a multi, you know, multi-year two comma club member done X, Y, Z. Like, you can say that in some content. Not every piece of content has to be that, but on the content that's very high level general awareness, right? Yeah. That we're looking for those views for, it should mention that at some level, or speak to that at some level. Like, look, I didn't wake up like, you know, it's all about how the story we tell, for example, and I'm gonna speak as your story for it, it's not the story. You could be like, I didn't wake up one day and you know, sell$10 million in my econ business. It actually took multiple years, but we got there. Just that couple quick sentence. Already built a ton of validity of like, I started from probably where you're at or you're somewhere along that journey. And I got to this point, but I got to this point and that automatically is going to click and resonate with him. They're like, okay, cool. He's at this point, so he's gonna potentially help speak to my problems.'cause we, especially if we're at the same level, we're probably running into very similar problems. Mm-hmm. Right. So anyway, that's my tangent. I think those three pillars would ultimately change the game on your content. It'll change the way that maybe you approach content. Because again, everyone mixes up. They go, Hey, well okay, this video didn't work, so maybe it's just what I said. Mm-hmm. And it's like, well, visuals play an effect everything. So pay attention to who's seeing it, who's responding. That's not it. Then you might need to just kind of recalculate everything and just figure out, okay, who, what are the people who I, I want to approach care about? What are they looking for? What do they see? What are they reacting with? That type of thing. I so, oh, I was gonna ask you, John. You know, this is in my mind an extension of in-person networking. Yeah. Right. It's that messaging just taken to social media. Yeah. My, you're the champ at that. Well, I was thinking the whole time, it's like, and I've been playing around with this idea of like. Almost weaponizing your network. Right. And you know, some really high level players as far as like in the coaching space Yeah. And things like that. People who are very successful Act bar, uh, Mandy Keen, like I would speak with them and at least look at who is following them and interacting with their content in the way that you want people to interact with your content and go after people like that with a message of, and like Braden was saying, there's a big difference between saying like, Parker McCumber look like, here's how Parker McCumber took me to my first a hundred thousand dollars to, this is how Parker McCumber helped me break through the glass ceiling and now I make 25 million a year. Yeah. You know, like the messaging is so different, but all like Mandy and Akbar and all those people, if they already have people interacting with their content in that level, why wouldn't you go to their page and be like, oh, like this guy's been commenting on the last four posts about this specific topic. I know that topic. Let's, let's dive in with that person. And like, it's a little bit more laser focused than just kind of like, 'cause I mean, yeah, it's great to have 44,000 followers. I have 25,000. I'm sure half of them I would be like honest or probably like ghost accounts or like don't interact with me at all anymore. And that was from like. When I was doing fitness and stuff, but now that I've transitioned over to something else, like I look for those pages that, yeah, like especially like, I mean you can get a follower that's like, they are a real person, but they don't interact with any of the content that they go like go and see. But if you're already in that space where you know all these high level people, and I'm sure you know like a bunch of coaches and things from like being like going and speaking with like Richard Bronson and all those people, like I would go to their pages and look and be like, what are they doing and who are they bringing in to their masterminds like. People like that are further on in their like, entrepreneurial journey than what you are coming across. Yeah. And be like, okay, let's tailor my content to attract this. And like even at that point, like if you're out here in the funnel and you get like more targeted, you're like, Hey, like I've noticed this guy's been on like Mandy's page act bar's, page, like all these different pages, and he is asking the same question. I know the answer to that question. I will reach out. And like that will be warmer than a cold lead. And at least, you know, he's in the space where he is like, this is the, this is not the kind of question that someone who's just starting their business is gonna ask. Like, how do you break through the glass ceiling when you're like, well I'm stuck at, you know, 10 million a year. Mm-hmm. Like in e-commerce, what do I need to do to double triple that? And you've been there, you've been in that spot where you're like, oh hey, this is what I did. These are the systems that I implemented with my team. And like, go back and find those success stories with other business owners that you've worked with and be like, Hey, I want you on the podcast. I'm gonna clip a bunch of stuff. And it's like, hey, this is how Parker McCumber helped me take my team from like performing at this level to performing at, you know, five x. Mm-hmm. And I think that would be, especially like, I'm not a business owner necessarily, but if the CEO were to look at that and be like, holy crap. Like he took a company that was making 20 million a year. Like implemented his system, changed the whole team, and now they're, you know, doubling what they're made in a year and a half's worth of time. Hell yeah, I'm gonna sign up for that course. Like, why wouldn't I? Yeah. You know, for that investment, it's like, and just to hear it from other business owners, like that's the biggest thing. It's like, well, I can see you like and I'll trust you, like with certain information, but if another business owner's like, no, like he showed me this and his system works like that means so much more to me than like a video sitting in front of a Lamborghini. For sure. I know you're successful. How can you help me be successful? And to take it one step further.'cause I think Jah, you really hit it on the head on a big part that I feel like most people neglect and that is community management. That's a huge pillar of what we do in our agency, is not just the content, not the strategy, just on that side, but it's the community side. Especially for up and coming brands or up and coming personal brands, people that are trying to get noticed online. One of the things that I see that most people mistake, or biggest mistakes they make is, I'm going to put out my product. I'm gonna talk about my story. And it's so good. We know it's good, but we almost kind of get blinded because of how good it is that when we put it out there, people will come. Mm-hmm. That is the biggest. And worst train of thought I think anyone can have when they're building their presence online. And it's a mistake that I made for years. I figured if I was the biggest photographer out there, if I was doing the best content and I was really honing on my craft, people would come to me and I would never have to sell myself. And that was so much farther from the truth. Um, and you know, one of the aspects that you can kind of break through that barrier, especially when we're talking about online interactions, is by going to those people who, you know, you interact with that are in your network or you look up to and going through the comment section. Because that will give you a clear presentation, like John said, of a who they're speaking to. And maybe it's a similar audience. So maybe you can kind of tailor your own personal message to be similar. But at the very least, they don't have time. And this is where the advantage is. They don't have enough time, or at least most people don't to go through every single comment to like it, to interact with it at whatever level they might do it on a few, they'll do it with their friends. But if you can be the guy that goes in there and be like, oh my gosh, I went through the same thing too. I actually figured out something about this. Right. Doesn't even have to be salesy. Just be like, Hey, I'm just interacting with you. We're having a conversation that will go so much farther because now it's personal. Mm-hmm. They didn't have to see your piece of content, but now they are. They're gonna click your name and be like, Ooh, this is this guy. Or Oh, this is cool. And they're gonna go to the page and then they're going to binge your content. At least you hope so. And hopefully your content speaks to that. Which, you know, going back to. You know, the LinkedIn, that's a big, big aspect of when you're structuring your page and how you're talking and what you're talking about. Like it needs to be tailored to that.'cause when you start doing that and people come to you, they need to feel comfortable and trust you to carry on that conversation to then potentially engage with you and do business. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I think that's very, very undervalued for this industry and for what people do. And not enough people do it. And there's not enough people talk about it.'cause I think the people that talk like know that don't wanna share it because it is, if everyone starts doing it's gonna become cloud. Well, it, it is another thing. It's like quality versus quantity. Right? Like, if you go on there and spend maybe an hour or whatever, pull in one quality client, that's better than shooting a video. Oh. Posting it and then getting, you know, like a thousand people that are like, that's cool. And can I, how many times have, like, you've been on Instagram and someone comments on like a post you made that you're like, oh my God, I haven't talked with this person in two years. Yeah. Right. Or like, oh yeah, this is like, they interact or say something and then like it leads to a message conversation and now you've rekindled a friendship or you're gonna get dinner with an old friend or whatever. Like it. Those types of things I think people pay attention to even more so, because people want to know that they feel seen, they feel heard and they feel special. Mm-hmm. And that is like, yeah, huge. I don't know, I get excited. I get excited anytime you guys call me. So how do you guys think about, um. For example, like getting out and doing collaborated content or like with other people. I've been trying to do a lot more of that. I think that's a great way to go. You're weaponizing the network. Mm-hmm. Which at good starting point, um, but you're also learning from each other. So like, I just learned a ton about brand management, which is not my strong suit in marketing at all. Oh, by the way, I gotta ask about the community management aspect. But that was a, that was a, that was a really stellar demonstration of how you think and what you're capable of and, and how do you, how you solve a problem that somebody else who's a marketing expert by all intents and purposes, is running into. Right. Like, and that's not my strong suit. Um, so that just answered like 80 things I've had in the back of my head at the same time. Um, so I think you get a weaponized than network work, but also you learn something from those people. And that was kind of the whole point of this mm-hmm. Is that we're all gonna learn something and that knowledge is way more powerful than anything else. God, I love knowledge. Yeah. I am one. I wanna ask about the community management piece. You kind of touched on it, but I'd like to just learn like, what does that actually look like? Mm-hmm. Uh, as far as you manage it. My thought too, to help myself is I've gotta just get out more. I know that's a little bit silly. Like it's what Jad does all the time. We're all in, you know, fast lane, but like. Uh, I've gotta get out more and I've gotta build relationships with more people that aren't in my community necessarily. Right. If I can just be more present, talk to more people, like that pays off well for me, and I'm, I'm not trying to sell everybody, but I'm trying to build relationships with people so that if there is somebody that has a need or there's a referral that could be made, like I'm in a position to actually benefit from that. And I know I, I mean, I'm guilty of sitting in the office, working, working, working, working, working. And I justify that as not going out and building relationships then. But that's a detriment to me, and I've gotta overcome that in my head. That's just a, well, how much of that can you automate so you free up time to go out and do those things? It's a great question. I don't know, uh, about AI so much. I mean, we try to automate a lot, but yeah, in hindsight, you know, as you're talking about building programs that are handling tasks for you, I'm like, God, I'm not doing that. I've got, uh, like right now I've got, um, for my business, I've got two virtual assistants. One of them just does outreach for me to get on podcasts or to bring people into my podcast. So she researches podcasts. She reaches out to all the top 100 business podcasts on like Apple, Spotify, things like that. Right. And, and just tries to get me booked. Um, the other one does some social media engagements and tries to drive, uh, social media conversations for sales. Um. I have my executive assistant, uh, she's handling all of my scheduling, my inbox and, uh, messaging like during the workday. So like, I'm in here building content with you guys, we're podcasting, uh, but she's gonna make sure those a hundred cold dms go out, right? So that's now as far as AI automations go, we have an AI that is scraping my follower list on Instagram and creating the customized, like, Hey, I saw you're working in this space, that's really cool. Like, are you interested in growing that business? You know, they're creating those customized messages for those to be used as the dms. So we've got that mostly automated. Good. We can't, um, at least not with our current infrastructure, send those messages automatically. They're their, the list is scraped, the messages are generated by the ai, and then, uh, like she's manually copying those messages and sending them from my Instagram account. So like that's a, an a point of manual labor. Um, we use AI for copywriting. Um, proofreading our stuff. Uh, I've got my AI trained to be me, which is probably a benefit and a curse because it's me then maybe doesn't, you know, work through my problems because it's thinking like me. Um, I. I use it for variations on advertising. For example, I, I, I should keep this closer, Bart's gonna yell at me later. Um, when you make an ad now for like meta mm-hmm. To be successful, you want to provide as much creative variation as possible. And that's not limited just to the images or the videos. That's also how you're messaging with the primary text in the headlines. So you can take a theory or an idea, you know, your initial script and have AI create a hundred variations, you know, of how do we message this pain point? How do we message this problem, how do we position this benefit? You know, all those different things. And then you can have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of ads to be split tested, essentially, to find the right messaging that's working, compile that data, and then I have AI analyze the data on what's working, what's not working, which pain points are being the most effective, the anxieties are being the most effective, the benefits are being the most effective, all those kind of things. So then we can draft the next variation of ads that are perhaps a little bit more effective. Right. So that's primarily how I use AI right now. That's great. Okay. That we're doing point, at least my, a great starting point. That rabbit hole does not end, man. Um, my, my question is, okay, so you're limited on time. This is kind of my curse 'cause I tend to bite off way more than I can chew and then figure out how to chew. Yeah, me too, man. Um, where is most of your time getting consumed? Yeah, um, interesting. So the areas that I, gosh, and, you know, one of 'em is like city council and that's not, I can't generate any revenue from me whatsoever. Like, uh, my city council salary is like less than what I would, you know, make in a single hour on my business. So I'm like, uh, so then that drain there. Um, as far as in the business goes, content creation is my primary. I am like in this studio for a few hours every day and I think that that's important. Like, that's my highest value thing right now, so I'm in the right spot there. The second aspect is the conversations. Like I handle the sales conversations still. Generally speaking, I can have an AI messaging bot, but we actually use that too. So after it's scraped those lists, after the manual first message has been sent, I'll put a lot of those people into an ai, essentially autopilot chat bot, um, to qualify them. And then I'll take over to try and like drive the. Get 'em booked on the sales call or sell'em through chat if the AI qualifies them. So then I do that for a substantial portion of the day too. Um, managing those, 'cause again, we're sending a hundred messages a day. We end up getting, you know, 15 replies a day, but those messages don't close in a day. So then we have ongoing messages for weeks. Like I've got 500 open dms and all in different stages in my Instagram right now. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I've got the AI to track where they're at in those stages. Right. So it's, it's like, are they qualified? Are they, uh, just a lead? Are they qualified? Are we presenting an offer yet? I've got AI tracking all that. Um, I'm the one doing those messages though. So that's my next biggest point is I'm having the sales conversations. And then after that, um, in the business, right, it's, I would say more of a supervisory function, if anything, because those eat up. Like I said, if I'm in the studio three hours a day, then I'm doing sales calls for three hours a day, or I'm doing the sales messaging for three hours a day, then it's maybe playing with ads and just making sure that one, the content is scheduled, that it's getting done in my voice and tone, that we're actually messaging in the way that I wanna message. And then it's providing, you know, a supervisory and a feedback function for like, uh, my team. Okay, that makes sense. So you mentioned a couple of hiccups there with it not automatically sending all the messages out. So it seems like one thing that could alleviate some, some work off the plate, right? Yeah. Just getting it to craft the messages and send them, and maybe, maybe the reason you're not doing that is 'cause the messages aren't what you want to be and you wanna review it before it goes out. It's because Instagram won't let 'em go out automated. Like we, we have Oh, it doesn't know. It's fine. There's a way around it. Okay. So we need to know the way around it. The, the where we're at right now can't stop us, is the way No, the, the AI that we're using, uh, is the REO platform and it, like, I can feed it my follower list. It can go and scrape those profiles, it can collect the information, it can generate the customized messages. And I've got it trained to do that all really well. Instagram blocks it from sending the first message. So, because it wants that to be authentic as you, so maybe I've gotta find a way to, you know, API tie it into my account, tie it into the, I don't know. Okay. Yeah. There's REO is unable to send it first. It doesn't mean you can't do it. Mm-hmm. Um, I've had a lot of, uh, security things pop up with AI where it knows it's a robot. How do you get around it? Right. There's always a workaround with it. So you could take that list and your, your buckets, e of preexisting create custom software just for the purpose of sending and receiving that message and getting through that Instagram barrier. Mm-hmm. Um, and that would take work off the plate and that's actually not that difficult. Yeah. Um. You know, you spend three hours, four hours doing that one time and then it frees up however much time and perpetuity after that. Um, can't you have like a chat agent do that in some way? You can. And I think, can it control your browser? It can actually, like if it can control the browser, then it can sit down with 10 minutes. It is, it'll change your whole, whole life. Okay. So I've got, I'm like, we're in the future now. I've got, uh, two, uh, 49 inch ultra wides and two 20 sevens above it. And I have a bunch of tabs open all the time. And I have, uh, comet is a browser because I can prompt it to do things in the browser and you can log in and control things that I give it access to. And that's where this becomes a security problem if you're not careful.'cause they can do a lot can access to your bank account and it's like, congratulations. Yeah. If you have your, it can for sure. Uh, uh, I've prompted it to do stuff and it's opened up a bunch of, I'm in danger in panic mode. Um, but you can, you can prompt it and it will go and do a lot of those tedious things for you. And then while it's doing that, I'm babysitting it and then I'm looking at something else I have to do and I'm gonna go prompt that appropriately and, and then I'm just babysitting everything and queuing prompts and instructions. And then eventually I'm like, okay, I have half an hour for a sandwich and I go and eat that and it's still working in the background. Um, so there, there are AI you can use to control your browser. How have you not taken over the world yet? Uh, I feel like I almost hit an accident. Oh, little old Jarvis. You don't know if he is or not. Yeah. Yeah. Are you real, Ryan? Are you, are you ai God, right now, I, I broke a computer with it, so however you wanna weigh that out. He's got a bunch of sleep agents on all of our phones and computers. Yeah. Waiting for the code. I don't have control of any of 'em, if that makes you feel any better. It doesn't. Um, but yeah, so you can create custom software with like Claw, it can walk you through how to do it, and then you have that connection there that frees up time for you after that and then you have more time to do this. I think your personality is actually one of your strong suits. Um, so the more you can do that and be in, in, you know, social network environments or be on podcasts. Yeah. Like that's what I'm trying to make more time to do. I'm in the exact same boat 'cause I spend eight hours in front of a computer and then I still have to go do stuff. But you can't grow if you're, you're capped on time. Correct. Um, and then as far as your sales funnel, I mean, do you, is there anybody else that sells for you? No, just me. Higher sales Wizard. Free of a lot of time. Yeah. And that gives me more time for content creation, but then it's what do I, and I, I recognize this is something, um, I'm in Dan Martel's coaching program and he says often, you know, 80% done by someone else is a hundred percent freaking awesome. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, that's true. I, I know, you know, the entrepreneur will always be the best salesman in that company because the entrepreneur's the one that's passionate about it and that's involved and invested in it. And so. That's hard to give up right now. Especially where that's not the bottleneck. But it is the bottleneck when it comes to time. Right? Like it's not a bottleneck in the operation. It's a bottleneck in my ability to do more content creation. And the content creation, I think for me is the thousand dollar an hour. Like that's where the money is.'cause that's what gets me the payoff. That's what builds the trust. That's what builds the eyeballs. That's what is doing everything. So more content creation inherently the brand builds over time. Right. And I just gotta get out, like I said, I gotta get into more social events. I gotta be more public. Go hang out with John when I, when I do that. Yeah. I may Or Sean just learned from John. Who? Sean. Sean. Sean Finnegan Is Sean Finn everywhere. Yeah. He probably knows more people than me And I, I would beg to say because he is been doing it for as long as he has more people know him than he knows them. Yep. Mm-hmm. Because of that reason.'cause they keep seeing his face like that is, and you know, you get tagged on the posts then, and people see that you're out with other people that they respect or look up to like mm-hmm. Uh, really cool one. There's a lot of people in that Fast Lane Drive group that I really look up to, that I admire, that I'm like such a good group. Mm-hmm. I, I wanna learn from them. I want to be like them. And that's maybe part of the reason why I don't, like you made a comment about weaponizing the community. I'm like, I, I, it's been an internal struggle for me because like, I don't wanna do something that would ruin any of these relationships. But I, anyways. Okay. It was really cool for me. We went to dinner, you know, uh, last month or this month. Yeah. Braden wasn't there up. Brad didn't show up, nerd. I didn't buy the tickets fast enough. They sold out. Um, knew I should have bought more, but we're all there. Right. Could have scalped them. And like Chris and Raul, they're like posting, you know, our cars all turning in and like tagging all of us in it, um, posting content with us in it. And I'm like, that's a great way for me to just expand my audience and connect with maybe people that are, 'cause like I look up to Raul. I'm like, that dude is awesome. Performing at such a high level. Yeah. And like, he gave me a shout out on social media. He's, the reason I'm speaking tomorrow, he couldn't, he had a conflict, so he called me and he said, do you wanna do this? I'm like, no, but I'm going to. It's a good thing for your personal growth. Yeah, exactly. That was the idea. Um, but it's only because I knew him that I have that connection at all. Correct. Right. So I need to, I need to really go in on building the connections with people. Well, after talking with Raul, he is in a position now where Fast Lane is doing well enough and there's enough business owners in there that he's, I had a conversation with him like maybe a couple weeks ago, but he is like. Hey man, like what can we do like with Ryan or Braden? Like, I want everybody to eat at this table. And he's so passionate about everybody being successful in the group that it's almost a detriment if you don't like reach out. Mm-hmm. Like he is such a cool and awesome guy and he is, like you said, he's performing at such a high level that it's like a mini mastermind at every fast lane event you go to. Yeah, it really is. Biggest thing for me is like, aside from quality of product, is I really care about branding, which is why like, I don't care. So like, I don't love, love designer stuff, but like Kit for example, the way they branded and like come up in the scene and done stuff like absolute, I don't even know what that is. Ki never heard of her. Just wait until you get down that rabbit hole, sir. Okay. It's, it's, I like their colabs too. Like honestly, ki does some crazy stuff that you're like. I would've never thought that a luxury brand would do a collab with like Astroboy. Oh yeah. Like they do. Cool. And Star Wars. Like, I brought my, I got my brother a kit hoodie. It's black and then it has, um, it must have been like bleached, but it's Spider-Man. Oh. So it's all bleached. So it's like very subtle, but it looks, uh, it looks so cool. I, I love what, what they do. Like, they, they collaborated with, uh, BMW and the M four. Oh yeah. I did see those, those jackets done, like golf carts. Like I, anyway, any brand that I can take away from like, some really cool things that they're doing, like Liquid Death is a good example. Um, yeah, I mean, honestly the most recent one that's new. I mean, these guys are doing a great job. That's, and they're new, but Cadillac is like textbook branding and they are crushing it for Formula One. Like Cadillac is just, their car does look really cool. And ultimately, if you were to ask me like Cadillac five, six years ago, I was like, they're a dying brand a hundred percent. They're a dying brand. And they're starting to just like hit that up trend again. And I'm like, okay. So I pay attention to that stuff. I don't know. I nerd out. They started making cool stuff again too. Yeah. Really cool stuff. Like Escalade V. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's insane. That's about the time they came out with the Black wing. Uh, v. Mm-hmm. Ah, yeah. With a manual. Bless God bless America. No replacement for displacement. There is no replacement for displacement. Uh, yeah, that's right. We're both on the same page there. Yeah. You do need to be on that other podcast. This is America Land of the v eights. I've, yeah. I've got a British car with a Japanese six cylinder. I gotta, Hey man, stay outta this conversation. It's okay. Well, I mean, coming from someone who had an R eight and then I put the exhaust on it, I'm like, oh, now this sounds like a real car. I completely agree that V eights sound amazing. V eights are the base, the best high up type. Yeah. It's such a good car. Underrated car. Yeah. Genuinely underrated car. But have you heard about our Lord and Savior, the Ford Mustang? God bless. Well, some of us don't have the dope Hennessy Venom Edition, but you could make one terrorizing car shows for 20 years. Dude, I, I drove through crowds everywhere. Um, I drove through, what was it? Cars and curry. Cars and curry the other night after, uh, Bart's birthday party. And I just pulled through to see if there's anybody that I saw when I get out, talk to something like that. And it was late and people were already leaving. But I pulled that, that Mustang through and I could just hear, you know, the panties dropping and the, the screams from unsuspecting bystanders. I did not. Oh, that's he Hennessy. Were people leaving because they felt unsafe? That they must Maybe, maybe I'll say this though, that thing's beautiful, though. The narrative is changing. It's BMWs. BMWs are menace. It's, it's, lately it's been BMWs Mees, the amount of F 82 M three videos I've seen of just wiping out at Carson Coffee. E 90 twos like dude. And quite frankly, especially with the up and coming G 80 M three, which is the white man's Hellcat, is probably the most terrifying white man. That just took a second to hit, man. I'm in the middle of a yard and I'm like a white man SoundCloud. I wish, I wish I came up with that one myself, but I heard it and I was like, that is like the most true thing I've ever. Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave. Okay. Okay. This is the wrong podcast for this. Yes. But you guys need to come to the other one. Be a good time deal, deal, deal. Okay. Braden, you're up, man. Oh man. Tell us all your problems. So where do we start? Um, anyway, so my wife, no, I'm just kidding. Uh, why are you gay? What, what? I love that clip. Meme culture will never fail. In fact, I hope they do not hide that in the history books in the future years as culture. I hope it's a whole study because it is fascinating. Um, no, quite frankly. Um, I think the biggest things that I struggle with right now is juggling. The businesses that I own. Right. Because right now I'm focused on two businesses. I, I've put pretty much everything aside. I've eliminated most of the noise. Right. I have b social, which we're kind of rebranding into something much larger that's gonna be crazy. We're on track to do or have our largest year yet, which is amazing. And then we have Throttle Therapy Club. And it's kind of interesting because it's like those two entities are the things I care about the most. One I'm passionate about, I love, I'm involved with every day. What I'm equally if not more passionate about, that I want to turn into a main thing. And the hard part is, is we were kind of at a balance last year where I could manage both because we were pretty steady here. We weren't really growing. And, and, but I was also working on this project. And I want both to grow, but this business is taking off and it's now taking up so much of my time where I'm like having to delegate. We hired another videographer. But again, like in this industry, you say this business is taking off. You talking about be social. Be social. Yeah. Yep. And then I have this, which I, I want to give so much time and attention to because we've got so much momentum. We have so many people that have given us amazing feedback that want to be involved, that want to contribute to it. Mm-hmm. And I feel like I'm leaving those guys behind while also trying to focus on this and do this. But it's like, at the end of the day, we all have to eat to try to push those businesses anyway. There's, ah, there's so much I can go into, but I think that's like the biggest problem is juggling the two and the time management side. And again, that's, I'm gonna ask the exact same question I asked Parker, what's eating most of your time on like a day to day? Because it's the same thing. Like if there ends up being a pattern where you're like, I spend two hours a day doing this, or whatever it is, right? Like, what, what does that look like for you? If I was to break it, tell about your day, if I was to break it down, one is sales. Okay. So being in person in conversation, which is like, I can eventually replace myself with hiring a right sales guy, but even then, like it'd be a huge, we'd have to change some of the structure of the company. 80% done by somebody else is a hundred percent freaking awesome. I need you to elaborate on that.'cause I, I think I, no, I know I understand it, but I don't know if I want to understand it. Does that make sense? Yep. Okay. So the conversation here is you do a hundred percent of the sales right now, correct? Mm-hmm. Okay. If you can get someone to do the sales at 80% of what you're doing and that frees you up to go do everything else to grow the business, is that worth it? Well, when you phrase it like that, yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's the conversation I would argue in line with, you know, as you break down your schedule here, what, what low value tasks are you doing that you can outsource or that you can hire for? Mm-hmm. Right. And I actually just filmed a, an episode the other day, um, for my school community on. There's $10 an hour tasks. Those are things that are, are low value, right? That's for me, like inbox management scheduling, right? Those are the, or the social media outreaches, dm, starting those conversations, I'm like, I can just hire somebody to do those, or I can automate those, or I can get a I AI in there. So $10 an hour tasks, then there's a hundred dollars an hour tasks, and those might be a little bit more specialized, but you can hire and train someone to do that, like a salesman. And then there's a thousand dollar an hour tasks, and those are the things that only you can do that generate real revenue and growth for the company. And how do you prioritize what you're doing right now into those three buckets and then know where you need to offload those tasks for you to focus on the thousand dollar an hour task. Damn. Okay. So keep going with your day. No, that's good. I'm sorry. I'm just like soaking that in. I mean, the only people I hire now are salespeople because that was eating up so much of my time. Um, and I've got a thousand other things going on, so bring salespeople in. It doesn't really cost me anything unless they're providing something in closing. Right. Um, and now I have time to go do the other things that bring in revenue on a bigger scale. Um, and all the backend stuff. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I keep working on all these weird, nerdy AI projects because of that. So that mean, that's how I got jod in. That was the idea. Well, you have three, and I do a split commission. I pay them 50% when they bring something in. Which is a lot. Mm-hmm. Um, and then I go and deal with all of it, but that has freed up so much of my time. Like, do what you do best and outsource the rest. Yeah. Do all of it. So like Brian is the best at the AI stuff. Outsourcing sales then was the, I mean, logical step for him to keep focusing on what he does best. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I feel like that's just the hard part, right?'cause you're so passionate about it and you're so excited about it. It's like, you, like when you were talking about like hiring, hiring somebody to help sell, like what, who you are. It's, it's difficult 'cause the creative agency's interesting. So like selling, 'cause I'm driving in between clients. So like, quite frankly, I've never considered a Tesla in my entire life. I've considered one now because with their fully drive automation, I spend about an hour and a half to two hours of the car every day driving between different clients. A hundred percent agree. That's an extra hour and a half, two hours I can get back responding, outreaching to people, touching base with my current clientele to make sure that they know that I, they're on top of my mind, right? Because I'm very proactive that way. I don't wanna be reactive into my business. Mm-hmm. So there's that. And then truthfully, like the rest of it is two, so twofold. I say it's 50% split by me doing the creative 'cause I hold that very close and tight. A lot of people have hired me for me and my style and finding, I've tried outsourcing to some creatives and maybe I just haven't found the right one. Um. But, you know, hiring a full-time videographer is expensive. They believe that they, you know, bring a ton of value to the table, and a lot of them do, but the business can't necessarily support that. Mm-hmm. And then some of the external guys, there's communication barriers and sometimes quality control is the hardest thing. Consistency and quality control. And there's some systems I've put in place to like, so we can make that easier. However, it's still not to always my liking and maybe that's just because I like it to a hundred percent. I'm very particular and perfectionist to my own detriment in that sense of I want it to be at this level and I expect that level. But to be truthful, most people, even if we did 70% of what we delivered, they've, they would still be ecstatic with it. Sure. What's the training look like when you hire somebody to do videography work? Are you training them to your level? To an extent? Um, you know, we'll, we'll go through certain methods, techniques, things we can do. I'll try to give them like LUT packages where it's like, look, you know, we want this kind of color style. We want it to be reminiscent of this brand. Um, but not really a lot past that.'cause I try to hire people that are pretty adept at what they do. Mm-hmm. If not better than me in a lot of situations. So that's what I try to do. But again, there's, if they're better than you, why are you worried about. Their quality of work. So they're better in certain areas, but in other areas that we like. And that's where maybe the training needs to come more into play. Which it's, yeah. Which comes back to time comes back to all, can I interject on that? I think it's, I mean, all videographers and photographers have a different style. No matter how much Yeah. You want them to emulate your style, it's going to be different because mm-hmm. They're not you. Right. So spending time training a videographer to emulate what you do is a waste of time, in my opinion. Like if that is your thing and you are the creative and people, you said it yourself, people go to you for you and your style, why wouldn't you have your style speak for itself and just have someone sell?'cause you don't have to, I mean, training to sell, like if you know a good salesman or a good sales woman, like the product sells itself and they just need to learn the script and pricing. Right? Like, and it's a lot easier. Like their style of selling might be different than yours, but it's not going to, it's, it's a lot what I'm trying to get to, like, the point is it's a lot easier to have a salesperson and train them to like build your brand that way. Mm-hmm. Than to train a whole videographer to shoot in a way that is never going to be your style. Mm-hmm. So I agree with this concept. Until you become the bottleneck for the company's growth. Because at some point you can't take on more clients just because your time is totally booked in the content creation space. So if you want to keep growing the business and actually have it be a business then, and not just a job, you have to have some point have somebody who can take some of that workload off your plate. But that means you have to train them in line with, now that's not immediate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not immediate. Right. You could outsource all of running the business operations and the sales and the messaging and any of those other things first, because what you do best is the content and the creative. You are a creative, but at some point, you being the creative alone becomes a bottleneck where you just can't grow past it. If you don't train somebody to take some of that workload, maybe it's you go and you do the shoots, but somebody else does the editing. I don't, I don't know what that looks like, but the roadmap forward is you will have to outsource some of that eventually to keep growing. Mm-hmm. And either way, like you, even if you hired a salesperson that does free up that you know 40% of your time, then you could train someone up to your standard. Yeah, yeah. It wouldn't be the same style, but it would be up to your standard. Yeah. And I think the standard is the key component there, because it doesn't have to be necessarily my style. Because what we try to do is tailor for every brand, like I don't want it to brand style, to look like the same for every each brand, right?'cause each brand is a different coloring. They want a different look and feel, right? So we try to tailor it to that brand. Um, but when people see it, I want them to be like, I know who did that. How do you sell right now? Truthfully, we are very lucky to the point where it's either I'm cold walking into a business, I'm shaking hands with the individuals, or I meet them somewhere. Um, I do a lot of networking events. That's why me and Jo see each other everywhere, like X Room, um, and just a bunch of those different things. Cars and coffee has been a huge networking opportunity for me. Um, just because, you know, warehouse, club, paddock, all these different places. Mm-hmm. So I, a lot of it is from building relationships, being present, having conversations, and then also just having the relationships where people can refer me out to an individuals. So I haven't had to do a lot of cold outreach. Do you do in-person sales or phone sales or how do you sell? I mean like mostly in person. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mainly because it helps get to the point. I can build that relationship and, and when we, in the space I work, at least what I've recognized is we can keep it pretty surface level and there's a lot of agencies that do that. But retention is the number one issue in my, my space. Sure. Because they expect results. They expect certain things and we can provide those results. But also most people don't understand that it's a time game, even if we've. Laid it out for them a hundred times through the sales process, they'll get a month or two in, they'll like, great, I'm like 3, 4, 5, 6 grand. Whatever package they did out. You know, and we're only getting to this point and it's like, we'll give us six months. Like, we'll, you know, in fact, most of our clients will see results in by month too. So it, it's kind of a relationship game as well as it is like a content game and everything else. Yeah. Big education piece. I had, um, in my January mastermind I flew out Adam Ivy, big YouTube guy. Um, and he showed us, you know, two different, essentially analytics growth charts for two of his YouTube channels that have like generated a million dollars in, uh, revenue. And on both of them, month zero through three, that is a flat line that is slow. Mm-hmm. Right. And I imagine it's the same thing for you. You go and you work with a company, you're refining the message, you're building the content that's gonna speak to their audience, and it takes time for an algorithm and consistency on your end to actually know where to push that and how to actually deliver that message to the audience. That's going to resonate with it. But then month three through six, you start to see maybe a linear uptick. And then it was after month six. That all of those channels had exponential growth. Hmm. But it was a consistent posting schedule with a consistent message with consistency when it comes to the graphics and the film style and all of those different things that built the relationship with the audience and allowed the algorithm to get to a position of knowledge and operational capability to scale those rapidly. I imagine it's the same thing with be social, but it's frustrating from a business owner's perspective when they're making investments for two, three months and they haven't seen the results that they wanna see. But I think that that's where this education piece comes in. But that's a big time drain, I would imagine on you. So that's actually an operational bottleneck is like you have to train these people. Do you do that all in person too? Half phone call, half in person? Just depends on the client. I would video, like you have the technology to do this, record a video training, what to Expect when you Work with B Social. This is what we typically see for our clients. Here's, you know, client A growth chart, client B growth chart. Hey, just so you know, it's gonna take three months to get you to a point where you're really getting a good return on investment. But by the time you hit month six, month nine, and month 12. These are the averages that we see for our customers. So you should know this is a long game. This isn't a short game solution. Mm-hmm. But I mean, you could put together like a, a quick video of, of something like that, and then anytime someone wants to sign on with you, or even if they're just curious, your sales guy, or you could just send them that Right. Send 'em an email. They know what they're getting into then. But that takes, I mean, it takes you a few hours to create that product. Saves you an hour of training every time you go to the next client. That was really good. No, I like that. I like that a lot. And then the rest is clerical work. Really? Yeah. I think you, clerical, that's easy to automate source immediately. Outsource that. Give it to ai, give it to a va, give it to an ea. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing too, there's like so many cool, like, I saw this, it was, it's a leaf behind, right? And I, it's been working really well for like, um, medical companies that do like medical grade, like X-ray machines and stuff. But it's pretty much an iPad. You shoot the video, you can change like the volume and whatever on it, but it's a great leave behind because it's, it's tangible and it's not something someone's gonna throw away. So even on those like warm leads that you're like, this could lead to something big, like create that and just be like, Hey, like even though I can't talk to the C right now, I'd love for you to get this in front of him. Like, I'll come back in a week to see if you have any questions, and then have that in the video. Like, have the video in there. And it's just like, oh. This is what I'm signing up for. Like at least like one, you're honest, like that's the big thing. It's like I would much rather have someone come to me and be like, Hey, this is gonna take six months, but after the six months, this is what these clients have seen. It's like, okay. Then there's the expectation that's set and understanding that when they contract with you, that was the expectation that they understood. So then like, you know, God forbid, I'm not saying this will happen, but like if you aren't, you don't produce in six months, then they're like, alright, this was the expectation. I now feel comfortable moving to the next company. Mm-hmm. Whereas like they'll be like, oh, like, and the CEO or whoever makes that decision, we will have the power to be like, no, like we looked at this, we decided as a group this is what we're gonna go with and we gotta give it six months. Just hang in there like we got we, mm-hmm. This is the expectation that was set in front of us. I really trust this guy. He's making great content. Let's just see. And like those leave behinds are so for something like a product like yours, it's so good to have something tangible.'cause then they can look at it and be like. This is actually a pretty good freaking idea. Like I'll go take that to this other person who is also a decision maker. Hey, what do you think about this? And then the more eyes you get on it and the more people are on board, then the less you have to explain later on down the road why they're not seeing any growth after a month of content. Yeah. Then they're like, well, the six people, like outta the seven people that made this decision, six of 'em have seen this video. So they're already on board. Yeah. And it's just like, just for your information, like it's one of those things that I'm like, this is actually really good. Like it wouldn't work for my industry just because the cost per unit wouldn't, wouldn't make sense for it to be a leave behind. But for something like that with big contracts, I think it would be really beneficial. It also becomes an advertisement. You create that product, you could just run, oh, okay, sorry, I go to paid ads. I know you, but like you online. And it's like, Hey look, this is what you can expect working with Be social. Anyone who's already interested in following you, they look at that and they're like, oh, this is really cool. Like I can see what growth would look like if I'm working with that company. And that's an incentive. Like they have social proof that's telling them that like, this guy actually is getting results in here. You can actually see the charts and the results. I'm thinking of it from an ad perspective in the sense that like if somebody's aware of you, maybe they're warm, they're on the fence. Oh dude, that works. I can jump in now. Maybe that's just what they needed to push 'em over the edge too. So plus you can use that video and be like, this instructional video of what to expect has, you know, 500,000 views. Like, just imagine what we can do like with your content. You know, like it's just one of those things that will grow over time and become more and more beneficial. Yeah, I appreciate that.'cause it's, I mean we, we bring a very unique aspect on the branding side for businesses with social media.'cause a lot of people are like, we'll guarantee a million views, or you don't pay us, or we'll do this.'cause everyone loves the vanity metrics. That's what Daniel Isles and Viral coach did. And the vanity metrics, not really, I like, I recognize it's worthless, but I'm like, okay, right now I get, you know, 30,000 views a month on my Instagram and like maybe, you know, a quarter million across all platforms mm-hmm. In a month. But I'm like, man, a thousand, a million views on Instagram in six months, that's, that would essentially tenfold my, you know, reach. So I'm like, I'll go with that. Sure. Yeah. No, it's, and, and honestly it is a good message, but we are, you know, we're so focused on, and, and this is honestly why I feel like it comes back to my roots of teaching a salesman and going out there and be like, look, and, and, well, let me dial this back. I think the hardest part is I'm so passionate about the business. Mm-hmm. I know what we can do. I know the value we can bring to the table and I feel like when I have conversations with people, they fill that as well.'cause it is authentic and it's real. And I'm, I show 'em the facts. Like, we'll pull up the metrics, we'll pull up the data. Like I'm not going to, you know, fluff up our numbers just to like, hopefully get a contract. I'm so emotional about the business. How do I find somebody who can relay that? You won't. Can I just be very blunt with that response? You're the owner, you're the entrepreneur. No one will ever be invested in that business like you are. And subsequently, no one will have the emotional connection that you have. That's just the reality situation. That's not to say that you can't find somebody who's gonna be passionate about the job or the career that they're building with you. Mm-hmm. That doesn't enjoy or value working with you and those clients. But you have to approach this with the very real understanding that this is a job for someone else. It's not their life. Yeah. It's not their life's work or their creation. Yeah. And I, and you know, I feel like that's kind of the catch 22 for me is 'cause I understand that from the workload side, right? Like I don't expect any of my employees or any of my people to go above whatever the hours and constraints of that, right? Sure. Like I don't expect them to invest extra time into the business or bring new ideas to the table unless they want to. And I try to inspire that and in incite them to be like, Hey, yeah, encourage it. Like yeah, here be a part of it. Like you are a part of this mix. So like take advantage of it. So they feel like they're contributing to something much larger than even themselves. But that's a, that's a very good point.'cause I mean I even look back at my own sales career and I'm like, man, yeah I was there and I was excited about the paycheck. But past that, the product was always like, man, well here's the thing, and I'll speak on this 'cause I work for my family's company as well. I work for Ryan and it's not, I do agree with Parker. I'm, I will never be as passionate about redline as he is.'cause that is his creation. However, I am honestly one of those people that just wants to see everybody succeed And like when something changes in the company that like, I don't like as far as like he talked about it earlier, we have people that do like cold outreach and we get like some no shows and is kind of, it was at the first point I was just like, man, we gotta like figure this out. And then I kind of sat down, I'm like, if I was cold calling, if I was good at cold calling people, that would be my job. I would be cold calling. Yeah. So I'll let these people do what they're best at and I listened to the calls and I'm like. Yeah. Okay. Like, yeah, this person seems excited, like it is a cold call, but they're, they're doing their job to the best of their ability. And I, I have to trust them with that. But I am passionate, I want Ryan to eat. And it's not that I'm only in it for myself. Like I get probably on average, I think out of the six calls that I've done with them, like four of 'em have been no shows. That doesn't mean that I'm not passionate about the company. Mm-hmm. And like, if I worked with you, Braden, I would be, I would do that. And that's just like the kind of person I am is 'cause, and you're, you're at a level where, and this is like a no dig, but it's, it's small enough to, if you find the right person and they grow with you, they can see their progression in the company with you and be passionate about that. Not necessarily like, yeah, oh, I want like be social to, you know, like this and that. But it's like, Hey, I love what you're doing and I am passionate enough about it that I will go above and beyond because your product is so good. And I wanna share that with other people. And that's, that might be the salesman in me, but like, honestly, why are you like, I would, I wanna be working with other companies that see that, the value in that. Mm-hmm. And then I'll get excited about their product. And I'm excited, I'm excited about everybody's product here. Like, fricking flagpoles. It's like, I don't, like, I have never in my life been like, oh yeah, like residential flagpoles, that's dope. But after you talked about it and I was like. What a crazy, like, amazing idea that like, it's just something you don't think about. You're like, yeah, people do need that. And like, I want your company to succeed. I don't even work for 'em. Like mm-hmm. But all, everybody at this table, I'm like, dude, I want your companies to like go crazy. And like, yeah. If they get in at that level, like, and I'm not saying like, if you grow and you're like a multimillion dollar company and you have like, you know, a hundred people on staff, then you bring someone on, they're, they're not gonna feel that. But like, at the level you're at right now, entry level, like if you can find someone who like has that drive and that passion, it would be very easy to get them on board and just like, be behind the message. And I, I hope that my initial thought there wasn't interpreted that, that can't be achieved. I think right now, like John's saying, the most important part in you building your team is the culture fit. Right? Find somebody who's growth minded, who wants to grow with you. Right. Give them the opportunity to come in, help build the company and know that they're going to progress in the career and the role as the company grows. Yeah. You might just be a sales guy now, but like, you know, 10 years down the line you might Managing, leading. Yeah. They're gonna have a team. Right. So you just need to find someone who like can see that vision and obviously like you're in the right rooms. Like there's people out there all the time like, hey, like I just, I wanna do something different. Like say car sales or whatever. They're like, I just wanna do something different. Like still, like maybe like revolves around cars, but like. And then they go to TTC or be social and they're like, holy crap. Like, I can, I can sell this product and still be around like all this amazing content, but I don't have to sit in an office and like talk about cars all day. Like, you know, rock and roll. So it is a culture fit. It's just one of those things, like it's not impossible to find someone at the level that you're at right now. I think the things you can control are creating a vision that people want to follow and wanna be a part of creating something that people would wanna reach out to you and say, Hey, I wanna come work for you. I want to learn. You know, um, those, those are things you can control on your end and that's how you're gonna find those people that actually care. Yeah. Um, I used to give basically anybody a sales job if they wanted it. And I'm like, this guy's not gonna ruin my company. We're good. Um, and I would, I would spend time, you know, training and coaching and getting off the ground and then after that it's like sink or swim man. Like, bring something in. Yeah. Like, show me you care enough to go fish or don't, and then I'm gonna reassess where I'm putting my time, right? Mm-hmm. So like, when I was talking to John, we had a meeting for three or four hours. I'm like, this is what we do. This is how we do it. And in like a week and a half, he's got five people, uh, like interested clients lined up already that were not in my network at all. Um, most guys I brought on would bring, you know, maybe one in a couple of months, maybe. Mm-hmm. So I'm like, okay, well where do I need to put my attention right now? The guy that sees the same vision I do. And then how can I paint that vision for everybody else to get them on that train? That's what you can control. That's how you build something that people really want to be in. Can I ask a question real quick?'cause I think actually we just uncovered something that is perhaps the most maximally beneficial thing to everybody that's ever gonna listen to the show. How did you bring those people in that were out of network? Well, they were at his network, not mine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is an offer you've got, right? For redline, correct? Mm-hmm. This is a relatively, how did I bring them to Ryan? A relatively quick turnaround from, uh, working with him to like, you just bringing in these people. It's something that none of your previous salespeople were doing that you just said. Right? So this is something that's immediately going to be directionally directive, directional, what the word am I saying? Mm-hmm. It's immediately directly affecting the growth of the business. And it's something that Jad was doing uniquely that none of the other salespeople were doing or were able to do. I honestly, I think it's just my network is so vast and I honestly, when I sit down with people, I listen to what they're dealing with. Like, and that's the thing, it's like if someone reaches out to me and they're like, Hey, I need a car for this, or I need like, whatever, like it's always in my brain like floating around and I. I am like, I might spread my myself too thin, but like, I sincerely want everybody that is my friend to succeed. And most of the people that are in my network, I consider my friends. And it's just like, just picking up on those things. It's, and it's almost like a creationist mindset, right? Like, I'll sit down with somebody and like I'll talk, I'll talk with Ryan and I'll be, he's like, oh, I'm, I'm thinking about this like, amazing idea. We're gonna use AI and we're gonna build websites and do SEO and all this stuff. And I'm like, oh, that's so cool. And I get like really passionate about it.'cause that's one of my interests. And then almost like, inevitably I'll sit down at the table with somebody else, it's like, man, I'm starting this new business. I just need a website. I'm like, dude, like, it's, it's almost incredible, like how often it happens to me. But, and those people, because I show up for them and I am passionate about what they're doing and it's genuine. Like, yeah, I genuinely want them to succeed. They trust me when I tell 'em like, Hey, we can do this. Like, I know my friend owns a company that can do this for you. And the pricing is pretty good right now. So like, those are the main two things. It's like, do you trust them? How much does it cost? Like you build the relationship, you leverage the trust. And it's help other people. And I didn't, you genuinely help other people. And, and it's not like, like you, you said you had that fear of like ruining the relationship with somebody. It's like, I trust Ryan enough after, like, interacting with him to know that if I hand something off to him and I'm like, Hey, this person needs a website for this. I know he can do it. Yeah. And it's just that trust. And then they have that trust in me because I'll, I'll go outta my way for like anybody in this room. And I just, like I said, I just want people to succeed and they know that I'm genuinely, like I wouldn't give them bad advice. Yeah. Like I wouldn't tell them to work with Ryan if I didn't think it was the best, like for the money. And there's like, there's stuff that comes up on Connect Utah that's like, oh, I'm looking for this. And it's not necessarily a niche that Ryan's company redline fits. So I don't even reach out to them because I don't want to give them improper information, even though it might make me some money. I, I really look into what their actual pain points and questions are and is, and pricing and I know where we're at so I don't bring people to the table that I think wouldn't work. And that's part of a culture thing or I don't know, like, necessarily why I do it that way, but it's been so successful to me that it, it's almost, I don't know, I'm kinda like geeking out 'cause it's kinda like a superpower. It's like I know people that need this product. All I have to do is put it in front of 'em and be like. Hey, like I know you're talking about this two weeks ago. How do you feel about sitting down with Ryan and me and going over some stuff as far as your website? And it's as easy as that. I'm not asking for anything from them except their time, which is valuable. But if they wanna make money or they are looking for that thing, at least a warm lead, it's very easy to bring'em on and then just show them. It's like, here's what we've done. I use your website all the time as a, as a like breaking point. And I've gotten clients to Ryan because they say, oh, you know, Braden and I, and then the conversation starts like, oh yeah, like I've been working with them with TTC and it's just, you know, one of those things that's just so cool to see like come to fruition.'cause it's like the car thing. Oh, we have something in common. Mm-hmm. We know someone in common and it's like your, I'm almost leveraging my relationship with you to bring someone to him while also having my relationship with that person. And it's so cool. Like the more you grow and the more like you can bring up somebody's name like Sean or like Braden, you come up a lot honestly in a lot of the conversations I have. And it's just a lot of people know you. Yeah. And, and a lot of people trust you or know of you rather. And they, and they trust you. And that's, it's such a cool thing to be able to like, have that relationship. Mm-hmm. And like I said, just weaponize it and it's not, I don't feel any guilt or like I'm asking them for any money because I wouldn't take a risk, I wouldn't tell somebody to take a risk that I didn't genuinely think would be the best option for me. You're very ethical about it. Yeah. I'm curious, um, 'cause you kind of touched on my, my comment earlier, it's, this is my own insecurity. I will just share it openly. I, I, I think you guys are all really cool guys, and I wanna be friends with you. I maybe haven't done a good job of building these friendships and I'll just be honest about that. But like, I want that and I'm afraid to where I may be at with the business and growth is like, I don't want to come in and make any of the relationships feel tainted by business. Mm-hmm. But I recognize it's an area that's immediately ripe for growth. Because if I can develop the relationships, maybe I can get some of those referrals. Maybe I can help other people that we can make connections with. But I always get nervous or scared that I will taint the relationship. And then there's an expectation of business connection. And I don't want there to be that like, man, I just, I wanna go to the racetrack with Ryan sometime. Hour and a half, I apologize, but I do have a sales call this afternoon. It's gonna be great. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna close a big client in post. I think. I, I never really go out with the intention of trying to sell somebody as my first goal. Yeah. Um, to be frank with you, I actually turned down a lot more clients than I take because I wanna make sure that it's a good fit. Both ways we're on the same page is so cool. I don't, I try, uh, I wish I could turn down. Clients don't wanna have, I don't wanna have the, the turnover problems in two or three months where Yeah. They decided they're not committed for whatever reason. And I explain like, Hey, with what we're doing here, it's gonna take this long. If that's not gonna work for you, let's, you know, find a different solution. But if you're on board for that, like, I don't want it to burn out in a few months. Yeah. So I wanna make sure that it's a good fit because most of my expense and effort really goes upfront in the first, you know, couple of months. Once it's dialed in and it's rolling, like I really just have to babysit it and adjust a little bit. Those first two months take most of my time. So if we're gonna make it to there and then not continue, it's not good for either of us. Right. Yeah. You feel like I've just lit a bunch of your money on fire and I feel like you were this close and didn't realize it. You gave up. Yeah. Um, so I, I really focus on the, the connection part, making sure it's a good fit. And then when I feel that it is, then I, I start talking through, you know, the business side of it. Okay. Um, that's, that's how I look at it. But when you get to that point. The worst they say is no. Yeah. It's like sales 1 0 1. Yeah. Or dating. Um, you know, it's so funny, actually, it was, we're having this conversation where I'm like, I am supremely confident to go stand in front of an audience and talk on stage. I'm way less confident to do that same kind of presentation in the one-on-one. And it's not that I'm like, I do great on sales calls, things like that. Right. I, um, so it's not that, it's when there's the friendship, the relationship aspect perhaps that I just, I don't know why I, I have this blurred line in my head where I'm like, I can't. But wouldn, you want your friends to succeed. Like, no. And I do. That's the thing. I want all of us to make $10 billion. If you believe that what you do has so much value, then it becomes mentally a disservice to not offer it to your friends if it could help them. Mm-hmm. If you genuinely believe that and it's not always a good fit for their industry or, you know, yeah. Whatever their temperament, whatever the case is. Um, but if you genuinely believe that, it's a disservice to not bring that up to them and have that conversation. Yeah. Maybe I have a packaging issue with that too, in my head. Like if I'm, if I'm just, I'm really self diagnosing now based on how the conversation has developed. I'm trying to be very introspective here where maybe I haven't been able to position this in such a way that I feel like it's right to, I don't know. Maybe again, this is self-doubt, perhaps a limiting belief. I should combat it. I mean, it always is to some point, right? Yeah, it is. I think because it's not the fear of rejection or anything like that. I like, I think that maybe it's the way it's being packaged, there's, there's two parts that I take away from it. And Jo, you can confirm these or not, right?'cause you're obviously really good at networking. But the thing that I feel like I've done really well over the years is one, be present. So every time there's a meet, every time there's somewhere I can be support, no matter how large, no matter how small. And that's become a lot harder in the last year I tried to be there, right? Like, I mean, you know, like ER did that, uh, F1 merch sales and like we showed up like it was a random Tuesday. I think there was like five people there, you know? Mm-hmm. I try to be present even though there are 10 other things I can do. My wife would love me to spend more time with her. Like she wants me to sit down and watch tv or favorite show or what. Like I could go play pickleball, I could be at the gym. Like there's a million things I could do, but I do prioritize my relationships. And I think one is being present because I've noticed, aside from how we package the conversations, aside from how we build relationships, the more people see our face and they associate it with a positive thing or a positive interaction mm-hmm. They're always gonna think about us positively. And that means we're not gonna be fake. Right? Like, don't try to be the be guy and like, oh, that guy's weird. Like he's always on the shirt or something. You know? Like if that's not you, if that's not your personality, don't be that guy. But I think that's one part. And then I think the second part here is I. Truthfully any interaction. And it sometimes frustrates me 'cause I'll walk away from a conversation and be like, I don't feel like they know enough about me, but I learned a textbook from them. And not that I need them to know enough about me, but I want them to remember me at some level. Yeah. But the thing that I love is I go in with every interaction with the intention to learn more about that individual. Because the things that I do is I love taking side notes, things about their passion, about maybe hot topics.'cause you can tell when you're having a conversation with somebody, like when they light up. Yeah. Or if they're like, yeah dude, I just like struggle with this. But dude, that life's great. And you're like, well what about that doesn't really go together? Yeah. You're like, wait, hold on. But like, what about, what about that thing? And you bring it up and then you, you know, like I feel like if you just care about, like networking is about caring about people. Mm-hmm. And you can't fake that. Like you really can't fake that. And so if you walk into the, any conversation and you go, Hey, lemme learn more about you. Yeah, that will tee up, especially if you can remember that information, that'll tee up any type of future conversation.'cause you can ask follow ups about, Hey, you talked about you're doing this, how's that going for you? You know, what's been exciting about that venture that's been happening recently? Like, things like that trigger. I think good conversations. And then, you know, I think a lot of people become self-conscious in that. At least I've noticed where they'll go, oh, like I haven't even asked enough about you. Yeah. And you talk about it and then like, oh, I see you in these cars, so what do you do? Like, those things will naturally come up. But if you lead in with it, especially I feel like here in Utah, and I know I'm going on a tangent here with all the networking events we do and all these entrepreneurs and conceptuals and people that go out here, there's so many people that talk about, well, I'm gonna do this and I'm this guy. Yeah, just do it. It's fake. Do it. Yeah. And that's exciting. I think those people's intentions are real. But where I think it gets really fake is when people just try to sit there and sell or feel like, Hey, I gotta push a product or I gotta push this, or Well, here's this and that's probably leave such, feel that right. Negative. That's the thing. You feel it and you're like, I don't wanna deal with this person. Every time I talk to 'em, they're gonna try and sell me something. I don't want that. That's why I hate half the networking, these conferences. It's not that they're by way. Right After this meeting, I'm gonna try to sell you guys all something. Okay. I'm excited. I totally unrelated to anything we've talked about, but you've earned the right, yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks Doug. So yeah, I, I appreciate you guys. Yeah. Appreciate it. It's, and I agree. It's, and I'll, well, we'll cut it after that. But like, honestly, I, I think it's more about caring than selling. Mm-hmm. Like, Hey, I have this thing that if you follow the program or if you purchase this thing, it will assist you. Like I, we were in the mastermind and Sean was in there and he was talking about plot, the note taker. I was like, I, I don't need that, whatever. And then he's like, he's like, no, honestly, like this is really good for these reasons. And he, he, he broke it down. He doesn't even work for Pude. And he just gave me the value. I'm like, sure, what works? Like, I was like, okay. And then later when I started working with you, I was like, I, I messaged him. I'm like, Hey, what was that like note taker thing you were talking about? Because you were so, like, you had all these like, positive things to say about it. And he is like, oh, it's applaud. And that was, and, and I went and bought it. I'm like, uh, I trust Sean. I trust what he told me. And I do need that now. And that's almost like everything we do in this room, it's like, Hey, when you need this, I have the thing for you. Yeah. Like when you need video work, I have that for you when you need coaching, I have that for you. I have a friend who does that and they're killer at it, you know, and it's just one of those things that's like, I'm not trying to sell you. Like, honestly, I could care less if you work with. Redline or not, for the most part, I want to help you. Right. It's like, don't say that on camera. That's I'm, but like, I wanna help them. Like, if you work with us Yeah. And you make a billion dollars, why wouldn't I want that for you? Because that's just Yeah. You know, raising everybody up. Yep. So, and it's one of those things that's like, yeah, like I have this product, I think it would be a great fit. Let me know what you think. And not go at it. A sales thing. It's like, yeah, again, they say no. And it's like, well you're probably not the right fit for that anyway. Like I say, no to applaud, at that point, I wasn't the right fit for it, but once it came around because someone introduced me to it that I trust. Mm-hmm. It's like I didn't even look at any other note taking apps. I was like, Nope. Sean said, this one's the one. So, and what's that metaphor? Is it, uh, the tide raises all boats. Something like that. Rising tide. Tide raises all ships. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like I think that's like the metaphor of that entire, like Yeah. Percent agree. That rant. I'm very transparent about this. When I, when I talk to people, especially new coaching clients, I'll tell 'em my evil plan, my grand evil scheme in all of this is to help you make so much money that it's a no-brainer for you to just stay on with me. That's my entire model. The advice is free as far as I'm concerned. Now hiring me to do consulting on like an ongoing basis, that's different. But I'll sit down with anybody and talk about their business and try to help them figure certain things out on the marketing side, because if they do well selfishly. Who are they gonna come back to when they now have this as a budget Exactly. And help scaling it more. Mm-hmm. Well, the guy that probably helped them for free or close to when they had this as a budget, um, that's the model. Yeah. That's where I'm at. Yeah. I will say, I will plug Red Line. Ryan sat down with one of my aunts and she has just a spaghetti bowl of like issues going on after her husband passed away. It was, you know, a lot of passwords were lost and things like that. Mm-hmm. And he sat with her and I thanked him multiple times. I'll thank him live, you know, right now on recording. But like, he's like, we're not gonna charge you for any of this. I want this to be as easy and seamless as possible. And then once we figure this out, then we'll talk about if it makes sense for you to work with Redline. And it's like, it's so awesome for me to have someone to go to like that, especially in the tech space. It's just not, I don't speak that language, but just to have him be there and like assist her with like, priceless for me. And I know when that business like starts rolling again, it, it's gonna be like, exactly like you said, as selfish as it sounds, she will come back to us because we are willing to help in any way we can if they don't. Have any money to pay us for. I mean, you know, within reason. Mm-hmm. But like that, that meant a lot to me. And like that's, that's my friend that I'm sending other people to. It's like, if he can do this for me, it's an awesome connection. Think about what he can do for your company. Bingo. Now let me ask this as a tangent. Ryan, are you using AI to brute force passwords? I, I'm just teasing. I could, you recovered all the passwords via AI hacking. I don't know any of that stuff. I'm worried it's doing that and I don't know about it. He's doing it right now. That's Brian's been this podcast for hours. He's not supervising the ai. It's gone wild. I turned it off for now. It's okay. Sleeping. You gotta unplug it and just make sure you know. Oh no, this was awesome. Seriously, thank you for putting this together. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys for being here. I think this is really valuable for me personally. Same here. Just plug our stuff. Other questions, comments, concerns? Yeah, we got the cameras rolling. We got five minutes before we get kicked out. Give 'em a hook. Um, well we've talked about it to death, but Ryan, with Redline Design, we do, uh, full stack digital marketing, everything, all the way down the funnel. Um, and if we don't specialize at something you're trying to do and we can't figure it out, then I know the person that does. Hell yeah. What? Gee, man, that was such a good one. Dude. Man. Now I feel bad. I, I also work, uh, with Redline Design. I work for a company called A Plus Garage Doors. We do commercial, residential garage doors. So if you're in that space and you're in Utah, or Las Vegas and Reno, we're coming to Reno soon. Um, gimme a shout. I also sit on the board for Throttle Therapy Club. So that's my pitch. Geez, man. Gangsters, geez. I'm Parker McCumber, the world's best leadership and team development coach and I help entrepreneurs and business owners implement military inspired systems to build their capacity, scale their revenue, and help them spend more time. Doing what they love with the people they love. And I'd love to help you too. Dude, I, I got chills. I have to follow that. Can we have in this position? Geez. Uh, my name is Braden. I run two companies. Be Social. We help make sure your brand and your story is online and receive by the people that matter the most to you and your business through content and a multitude of other resources. We also run Throttle Therapy Club, which is a mental health for men inspired, uh, car brand. We sell merchandise, but we also, and this is what's gonna be really exciting, have a few events coming up, all dedicated to just helping create an amazing community to help support other men who just love cars and other people too. We accept everybody, but yeah, we we're very focused, but mostly men. Men we're the undervalued, overlooked in this industry. So yeah. The downtrodden. Can we grab a quick clip for everybody? Mm-hmm. Another one. Just one piece of advice to somebody who's either trying to start a business, grow a business entrepreneur, Ooh. Like it someone who's trying to start a business. What's your one piece of advice, Ryan? Hmm. I think I'm gonna revert to what I said about earlier. If you don't have a little bit of imposter syndrome, you're not pushing hard enough. You should feel, you need to get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. Um, because growing a business is just a crucible of personal development. Um, it's gonna push you in every way you can think of, and it never stops. The, the business is limited by you at the end of the day. It always is. So get comfortable pushing yourself and the business growth happens naturally. Okay, Jod, one piece of advice, uh, my piece of advice is gonna be you can't be in the right place at the right time if you're not everywhere all the time. So, like Braden touched on earlier, you know, weaponize that network. Go out to the community and just share your message, whatever it is. Damn, if I could leave you with one piece of advice, it is this fear is preventing you from becoming the person that you were meant to be and achieving the success you were meant to achieve. You have to find a way to overcome the fear, to take those first steps to grow your business or whatever you're trying to actually build. Take action. Take action continuously. Keep learning how to do it better. That's how you win. To essentially echo all of that, I think one of the most important pieces of advice is execution is better than conceptualization. The path forward is clear and you understand it, and it's easy. You're on someone else's path, and you'll only become second best at whatever that person does. So it's better to execute it. It's gonna feel unnatural. You're bulldozing a path that you've never been on before, so just go out there and do it.