Idaho Entrepreneur Transforming Development - Matthew Byrd | Ever Onward - Ep. 91

Matthew Byrd never planned to become a tech entrepreneur. After a devastating car accident ended his football dreams at 16, he briefly toured with a rock band before reluctantly following his father's footsteps into land surveying. What could have been just another job transformed when Byrd discovered laser scanning technology – devices that create precise 3D digital replicas of physical spaces by capturing millions of measurements per second.

This technological awakening sparked a passion that propelled Byrd from a $13-per-hour technician to founding his own company, all without formal higher education. The journey wasn't without challenges – from learning business fundamentals on the fly to managing cash flow while clients took months to pay. Yet his persistence and vision led to building a successful service company that was eventually acquired, allowing him to focus on his true calling: connecting and educating others.

Today, as founder and CEO of Reality Capture Network, Byrd has built a global community advancing digital mapping technologies across industries. His annual conference in Boise now attracts attendees from 15 countries, while his podcast shares insights on everything from laser scanning to digital twins – comprehensive digital replicas linked to real-time data from physical assets. These technologies are revolutionizing how we design, build, and maintain our built environment, though adoption remains surprisingly limited due to awareness gaps that Byrd works tirelessly to address.

Beyond the technical innovations, Byrd's story illuminates timeless entrepreneurial wisdom: the importance of embracing risk despite fear, the reality that passion must sustain you through countless challenges, and how finding alignment between your skills and genuine interests creates the foundation for meaningful success. Discover how Reality Capture Network is building a community that shapes not just how technology develops, but how it serves humanity's best interests. Want to join this technological revolution? Visit realitycapturenetwork.com or attend the upcoming conference, September 30th - October 2nd.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the Ever Onward podcast we have Matthew
Bird Boise's own Matt BirdMatt's an incredible story.
He's the founder and CEO ofReality Capture Network In his
20s.
We'll go through his story.
He kind of accidentally becamean entrepreneur after being a
surveyor and then got into thetechnology 3D technology, laser

(00:20):
technology, sold a company andnow is the founder and CEO of
Reality Capture Network.
They do an annual conferenceright here in Boise, runs a
podcast, has so much going on.
It's going to be a really funconversation.
Matthew Bird Matt welcome man,it'll be great.

(00:46):
Thank you, great having you.
I mean it's always hard havingthese guys that are podcasters
on.
No, it is no it's easy, so it'sgoing to be fun.
I had the opportunity to meetyou the other day and spent some
time talking about you and yourevent and the story.
It's a crazy story.
Well, thank you so super funand look forward to having you

(01:07):
on.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I appreciate it.
I'm glad to be here and lovewhat you guys do.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, we've been doing it a while.
It was funny because I thoughtabout changing the format and
I'm like, no, I'm not doing that, I just want to talk to people.
I want to talk to Yep.
Yeah, it's fun.
So thank you for coming on.
So, matt Bird, you got yourt-shirt on Reality Capture
Network, yeah.
So I've already asked you thisrecently, but I'm going to make

(01:35):
you do it again because of ouraudience, to make sure they know
who you are and what you do andhow cool it is.
So, tell us a little bit aboutwhere it started for you.
Where'd you grow up?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
I grew up in Bakersfield, california, so one
of the not beautiful areas.
I would say I've been toBakersfield.
Well, that's usually the answerI've been through there, and
everyone that says I've beenthrough there I'm like, yes, and
you kept your AC on and yourwindows were up, because it is a
hot, oil and gas ag city.

(02:07):
That is the majority of what'sthere.
But I grew up there and my dadwas a land surveyor really his
whole career and short story forme, I didn't really have career
aspirations.
I was really into sportsgrowing up and so my whole life
was around football.
I thought I would just keepgoing.

(02:27):
I didn't even think about a joband I actually ended up in a
really bad head-on car accidentwhen I was 16.
It was a head-on car accident,ended up having jaws of life,
helicopter flight to hospital,13 surgeries.
That took away my footballdream.

(02:48):
What position did you play?
I rotated a lot.
I was a, I was quarterback, Iwas running back, I was a
receiver through a coupledifferent years and then on
defense, defensive end andsafety.
I was small I still am a littlebit but I was super fast, super
passionate, so I was neverafraid to hit, do you?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
still love sports and follow sports.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
I love it.
I don't follow it closely.
Part of my transition becameafter that car accident.
Losing the ability to do whatyou're super passionate about
and you love it kind of hit somedepression as a kid.
I was 16 years old when ithappened, so I didn't get to
college level and things likethat and I ended up

(03:28):
transitioning that passion intomusic for a short time and found
out like creating a career andthat is almost impossible.
But I got to go on a 25 statetour in a rock band when I was
18.
In that band I actually playedbass and some backup vocals 18.
In that band I actually playedbass and some backup vocals.

(03:48):
Mostly I play acoustic guitarand sing and I still love music
to this day, but I was 18.
And that was in 2008 that Iwent on that tour.
And then economy issues we getback from this tour.
I was 18.
But the other guys were intheir 30s and so we get like it
was wild.
It was a wild experience umplaying festivals, playing shows
.
Uh, you know we're I'm.

(04:09):
I know I'm going all over theplace here.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Last funny note that's what we do on this last.
Okay, good, you're probably waymore directed, I don't know I
love stories.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Um, one funny thing about that tour we had a tour
bus that ran off of vegetableoil, what they had, a bus that
they converted in Los Angeles to25 years ago.
It was a while ago, yeah.
Um.
So we were not a big, you know,band that was getting paid
millions.
Right, we were.
We were on a big tour playingbig festivals.

(04:37):
What was the name of the band?
It was called Procella Procella.
Yeah, you can't really findanything about it anymore.
And back then, you know, wedidn't have iPhones.
I don't have a bunch of contentfrom it.
I wish I did.
But, um, it was a lot of fun.
But we were, you know, we werea struggling band.
So this bus, because it ran offof vegetable oil, every night
after a show we would load upthe bus, load up the trailer and

(04:58):
we would go drive and find arestaurant at night.
And we had a process to go totheir gas, their, their, their
tank full of used vegetable oiland siphon the oil out and
filter it into the tank.
So we, we drove the wholecountry on one tank of diesel
and then when the engine heatsyou switch it to vegetable oil.
So I've had some funexperiences.

(05:20):
All of that, though, you know,from sports to music.
After finding out I couldn'tkeep doing music because
financially it just wasn'treally an option, I fell into
land surveying because that'swhat my dad did, and initially,
you know, as an 18 year old whohad, at the time, you know,
black and purple hair and was ina rock band and I was not your

(05:42):
surveyor it was like a cultureclash.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
It was.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
It was.
And you know I started out in arough job.
Right, You're out in the field,you're pounding nails in
Bakersfield in the heat, and soI did not love the idea of like,
this is my career.
But I fell into it because Ihad the opportunity and after a
couple years of just working andgrinding and being the young
employee who I didn't love thework, so I didn't want to show

(06:06):
up early, I didn't want to workextra, it was like do the
minimum.
But then a career change for mehappened when we got introduced
to these new technologies,which is what I focus on now.
We got introduced to a laserscanner.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's a super cool organic story, by the way, thank
you.
It was what you're going totell today super cool organic
story, by the way.
Thank you was what you're goingto tell today.
Like my man, I'm like this iscool because this is like
perfect like old old schoolscience, cool, math, geometry
stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Technology gets introduced and all of a sudden
spark happens yeah, and it'svery organic it's really cool
story, thank you, yeah, and andI love sharing it because I
think there's a lot of peopleout there that are stuck in jobs
they don't like or they don'tknow about the tech, or we have
companies that are kind ofoutdated, that aren't
integrating new tech and I thinkthe story that unfolded for me
organically as a young personwho didn't have a career

(06:56):
aspiration, that was in this oldtrade of surveying.
When technology got introduced,that lit the fire for me
because we got these laserscanners and it became a
gamification of surveying.
So what a laser scanner is?
It sits on a tripod, it hasthis laser, it has cameras in it
, it basically lets you take itto any environment and

(07:17):
completely digitize it and bringback a digital copy of whatever
you scan.
And back when I got started inthat 15 years ago, nobody was
doing it, it wasn't a thing,nobody knew you scan.
And back when I got started inthat 15 years ago, nobody was
doing it, it wasn't a thing,nobody knew about it.
So it was really difficult toget it going.
But we built a whole practicearound it in the survey team and
because I was this young techfocused person, they just said

(07:38):
we don't know anything aboutthis, you figure it out, and so
that became so exciting for me,like the freedom to trial things
, to learn, to fail with atechnology, to push it to its
limits, to figure out whysomething didn't work.
In a matter of a couple years,being passionate about that
technology took me from a $13 anhour survey technician to a six

(08:01):
figure salary job at acorporate company.
I had no college experience, Ihad no degree, I don't know
anything about business.
I just fell into it because Igot excited and started applying
myself to the tech and thattook me even further in that I
only stayed at that dream job Ilanded for 10 months and then I
quit and started my own businessbecause I got so passionate

(08:24):
about it.
I didn't even want to stay inthe limitations of what I was in
at that point.
I was like I want to try towork for anyone I want.
I want to make the decisions ofcan I go, try this or not?
And and a lot of corporateright there, there is red tape,
there's policy, there's things,were you always entrepreneurial.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Did you know you were ?

Speaker 2 (08:47):
No, I didn't know at all.
Um, again up to sports andmusic.
Apart from that, I had nocareer thought at all.
I, I didn't, I didn't have ajob planned.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It was you didn't have any little side business
when you were in high school.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
You weren't like uh um, okay, the only thing that I
had done apart from this, I diddo some like buying and
reselling stuff on Craigslistand things.
I would do a little bit of that, um, but I was.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
I think I'm mad at ray because he did a little bit
of that, yeah yeah, it's um.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
I just found out that I'm a passionate person.
What?
Whatever I did, I put 110effort into.
So when I played sports, Iworked really hard.
I was in not in a bragging way,but because I worked so hard I
was the team captain.
I was the fastest on the field.
I was.
And then when I got into music,like I studied really hard I
became.
When this band did auditions, Iwas some kid that never played

(09:36):
bass guitar.
They auditioned people fromaround the country and they
selected me.
Like whatever I worked at Iworked really hard at.
When I learned about thistechnology, it changed my
mindset as an employee in thiscompany from like show up, kind
of do the minimum of somethingI'm not interested in, versus
the technology driving thatinterest.
I'm at home researching it, I'mon forums, I'm watching videos,

(09:58):
I'm learning on my own, notworrying about am I getting paid
for this anymore.
It completely amplified thelearning, which then amplified
the work, which then amplifiedthe whole journey for me, and so
I started that company 10 yearsago and the last 10 years I
built a service business doingsurveying and mapping and 3D
modeling all around the countryand ended up going through an

(10:21):
acquisition and selling thatbusiness.
But even during the process ofbuilding this company, the
biggest challenge around thesetechnologies was the lack of
awareness of them.
I always say at our conferencesor on podcasts talking about
these technologies, I say if Icall an architect right now, or
an engineer or a surveyor or abuilder and I ask like do you

(10:43):
know what laser scanning is?
Surveyor or a builder, and I asklike, do you know what laser
scanning is?
Uh, half of them might saythey're familiar and maybe one
out of um, you know one out offive might use it or have used
it before it is not fullyadopted.
Most people don't know why theywould use it.
What's the value in using it?
What does it enhance?
What does it replace?

Speaker 1 (11:01):
we're gonna go all yeah, yeah, let's.
Let's talk about the technologya little bit, because I got to
admit we're talking.
I'm like I don't know, I don'thave any idea.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Sure, and I should.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, but talk about the technology.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
So there are a lot of technologies in this ecosystem
we touch on, from laser scannersto drones, to survey
instruments, to XR headsets.
But let's start.
The one that really was adefining change for me was the
introduction of the laserscanner.
So, again, this device that haslasers in it, it has a mirror
that rotates in it and it throwsthis mirror out at a million
measurements per second andcaptures a 3D environment of

(11:39):
everything that it can see.
So I always say, like, as anexample, if we're sitting in
this building here and we setthat right here and we run a
scan, it's going to map everyfeature in this room, all of the
steel, all of the placements ofthe lights, the tables, the
chairs, the walls, the windows.
So now, when you think aboutconstruction, renovations of

(11:59):
buildings, operating buildings,they need accurate information,
they need and they so does thatdata then go into?

Speaker 1 (12:06):
yes, I'm gonna butcher that what I'm gonna say
here, but it's going into likesome revit model.
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
so when you get done doing a 3d mapping project,
whether it's a building, afacility, a roadway, a bridge,
you bring this 3d data back intoyour software and it natively
drops into what designers,engineers, architects use.
You can put that why doesnobody use this?
That's the question, and thatis my whole goal is raising

(12:33):
awareness to these things andhelping people understand them,
because once people start usingit, they go.
Why aren't we using it?
Because it replaces going outwith tape measures, going out
and taking site photos, goingout back, you know, in surveying
.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
We're doing a ginormous project in downtown
right now we're taking the oldHarrah's two city blocks Yep,
it's, it's a crazy project andit's the largest kind of
readaptive use in the UnitedStates right now.
Wow, and we should be likewe're right in the middle of
like I like I'm just sittinghere listening to you going why

(13:05):
wouldn't we do that?

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, and that's why I shifted my focus from only
being this company that does theservice.
You know, and I really believein this idea of the rising tide
lifts all boats.
I took the initiative to sayyou know what?
I don't want to be a boatanymore, I want to figure out
how to just rise the tide.
But I don't want to be a boatanymore, I want to figure out
how to just rise the tide.
That is true, because I startededucating people on what I was

(13:29):
doing, how I was doing it, howit was working.
And all the competitors to meof doing scanning services are
like why are you sharing yoursecrets?
Why are you?
And I'm like, because I believethat by helping people do
better, it's going to help morepeople win the work, it's going
to help clients understand thevalue, it's going to increase
the whole industry.
And I took that all the way tothe point to say I don't even

(13:50):
want to do the service myselfanymore.
I just want to help businessesunderstand how to do it, train
them to do it, help end ownersand clients and everybody.
And over the last five years wehave launched our local
conference here in Boise.
Yeah, so we're going fast.
So over the last five years wehave launched our local
conference here in Boise.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
So we're going fast.
Yeah, sorry, I'll go back tothe technology.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
No, it's really, really cool because I think it's
going to be easy for peoplelistening to, kind of like.
First of all, you're superpassionate and like where you're
going, but now you go from hey,I'm not going to be the boat,
yeah, I'm going to be the tide,yes, so now you start
RealityCapture Network, you haveyour conference and now you've
become the leading authority onthis technology and how to use
it across all industries.

(14:30):
Yes, did I say that right?

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, that was pretty accurate and that organically
happened because it was a painpoint I identified as someone
using the technology was like Idon't have anywhere online that
I can go to learn about how tosolve these problems, or what
devices exist that I could buy,or how do I take the data from
the scanner into a model.
There's no education availableand even when I started, no

(14:54):
universities had it in theircurriculum at all.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
And most still don't.
And we're going to go fast herebut stop a little bit.
Why?
Because I think for old, youknow, I listen.
Lately, I don't know I've beendoing some deep dives on my own
life through medicine andunderstanding how we're educated
, who influences that education,why it is the way it is, and

(15:24):
leading-edge technology, whetherit be in medications or
technology, medical technology.
I've been exposed now to somestuff and I'm like why is
medical education the way it is?
And it's actually got me alittle freaked out, meaning how

(15:45):
much does the pharmaceuticalindustry control that?
Control that how much?
I mean because you think aboutthe way healthcare is today.
It's driven by forces that arenot always benevolent right.
Yeah, yeah, it's not.
And now, on the back end of it,as this guy almost 60, I'm
looking back going man, that'snot right.
And so I'm wondering becausethat's where my head's been in

(16:06):
the last couple of weeks for youwhy wouldn't the leading
universities and colleges andthe people that are out there
that are supposedly educating,why wouldn't they be the ones
doing this?
Why is it Matt Boise, idaho?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
It's cool that it happened, but I think there's a
few different reasons, I think,for the lack of adoption and
then even in the university.
So, and it comes to awarenessof one, how much of a need is
there really for this technologyand people understanding the
market size or the adoption, orfor them to then decide is it

(16:41):
something we should be teaching,for them to then decide?
Is it something we should beteaching?
And universities, as much asthey're ahead of the game on
trying to do research and stuff,I think they're also very slow
to realize what needs to betaught, figure out.
Then this is the otherchallenge with new technologies.
They are not the experts in thetechnology or the industry it
needs to apply in.

(17:01):
And it's probably hard to admitthat yes, and so I've had
conversations with professorsand stuff and they want to
integrate it.
But they need help fromindustry.
They need help from thetechnology creators.
They need to understand how dowe even develop curriculum
around this to train people sothat whoever we're training
comes out with the knowledgethey need.
It's complex to understand.

(17:23):
What can I?

Speaker 1 (17:23):
ask you one more question.
When it seems like to me thatthe technology is, um, it's
evolving quicker than ever.
I mean the cycles of the next,the next version, the next thing
, and you pick whatever.
It is like we're starting a newmedical business, and so I've
been spending a lot of time withreps on the latest laser
technology.
For a few things I'm like, ohmy gosh.

(17:45):
And they are telling me, oh myword, just in the last two or
three years, just oh yeah, someof that has to do with
processing, yep, but if youthink of everything, whether
it's processors or battery lifeor whatever, it's all just
evolving quickly.
Is that part of the reason forthe slow adoption?
Because it's got to be veryhard to just keep up with
everything going on?
I don't, I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
I don't think it's the reason to hold back on the
adoption, because most of thechanges or iteration we see in
the technology are certainchanges.
So I'll use an example.
Back to laser scanners.
Right, laser scanning is laserscanning, whether you're using
the newest device or the mediumdevice, or the old device or the
cheap device, it's all laserscanning.
So at this point, the educationaround laser scanning in whole

(18:29):
and the use of it and theapplication and the value should
be integrated.
Now, when you start decidingwhich device should I use,
that's where that challengecomes in and that's another
piece we're trying to educate on.
Because if a again, if anarchitect or a builder says I
believe in that, I want to adoptlaser scanning, where do I
start?
There's nobody to help you.
The only thing you can do isstart googling like laser

(18:52):
scanner, and you're going tofind all kinds of random stuff.
You're going to find a tenthousand dollar device.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
You're going to find a hundred thousand dollar device
so I can only imagine with yourbusiness model you've got the
manufacturers of all thesedevices coming to you and saying
pitching you, yes, right.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, so it's good for you.
So now, from this educationstandpoint, this is why we've
created the conference and thepodcast and having these
conversations.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
So talk about those.
Can you dig into those Cause?
It's really cool.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, when.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
I started, I mean I started digging into this and
I'm like this guy's office islike a nine iron away from here
in Boise and you're doing that,so it's really cool that it's
here, yeah, and I even asked youhow you got here.
But but talk about theconference and the podcast first
.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, and then I'm happy to reverse rewind.
Um, so I started the podcastbecause when I was doing the
service work, the only and asyou go through, let's pull it up
.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Matty, can you pull up the podcast?
So for people that want tofollow along here, it's
realitycapturenetworkcom is theURL.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
That's our main website, and I actually
rebranded my personal podcast tothe Matthew Bird podcast
because and the reason for thatis I wanted to be able to talk a
little bit broader than justtechnology.
I like talking about businessand entrepreneurship and
marketing and all kinds of stuff.
So the Matthew Bird podcast.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
It's on all.
It's on all the platforms.
I've listened to a few of them.
They're very, very good.
So the Matthew Bird podcastrecorded right here in Meridian
Idaho, yep.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, we have a studio just a block away.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's cool.
So the reason I started thepodcast originally while I had
the service company was I keptfinding myself having one-on-one
conversations with an architect, with a surveyor, like having
to re-explain what scanning isor wanting to talk to them about
like how do you get the value?
So the first idea for thepodcast was let's record this
conversation and share it with500 more architects so it

(20:38):
amplifies the education, itspreads the awareness faster.
And that started working reallywell.
And once we started the podcast, I also was a pretty big
LinkedIn advocate for quite sometime and so I took the podcast
to LinkedIn, used it to build mycommunity, build awareness, and
then we had that idea of rightafter COVID, most events were

(21:01):
shut down and nobody was puttingon events yet.
And yet I heard from all of ourindustry like man, we want to
get back together, we're ready,it's time.
And so here locally, we're likewhy don't we just host our own
conference?
I don't know if it's going towork, I don't know who's going
to show up.
I've never hosted an event, butwe just took that.
And you know, this goes back tothe wild entrepreneur in me is

(21:22):
like let's just do it.
So we picked a date.
We went downtown and startedwalking buildings.
We're like where in the worldcould we do this?
We landed in the knittingfactory and so we rented it out.
We sold out our vendor tables,we had 120 people show up and we
had our stage there.
We had speakers and we werelike, wow, this went really cool
.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
When was the first year?

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Uh, 2021.
Wow, so it went really well.
We enjoyed it.
It was another way to not justeducate or talk on a podcast,
but actually help people, buildrelationships, build a community
right so very quickly throughthrough social media and through
you build a community, yep, andthat is, and that is what has
become the core focus now iseverything that we do.

(22:04):
We actually picked these threewords.
We said that everything we dofalls within inspire, inform or
empower.
We want to inspire people tothink outside the box, to take
risks, to try new technology, to, to trial new things, to
embrace failure that wholeinspiration piece.
And then two we want to informthem on what is out there.

(22:25):
How are people using these newtechnologies?
Why does a surveyor need adrone?
Why does a construction companyneed a digital twin?
What you know and then empoweris like actually help you build
relationships with the peoplethat can help you do it, or the
technology providers that youcan buy from and educate you
along that whole route.
And that is our whole communityfocus.
So this year is our fifth yearhosting the conference here,

(22:49):
locally in Boise.
It's at the Morrison Center atBoise State University and we
have, you know, five to 700people we expect for the
conference.
90% of those are flying fromaround the world.
That's incredible.
So last year's metrics we hadabout 500 people that flew from
15 countries and 40 states in DuBois for the event, but we only

(23:12):
had about 20 people from Idahoat the conference, because most
of our audience has been global,and so this year we said you
know, what Do you ever think?
how awesome that is it is I meanjust, it blows my mind.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Like you know, it's so fun to talk to people that
that are passionate, one which,clearly, Matt, you're got that,
got that going on Thank you,sorry.
And then the second thing isthat they see an opportunity
right.
Here's the pathway andopportunity.
It's based in genuine,authentic energy.
That's just good.
I want to do something good forpeople, I want to do something

(23:47):
good for an inner, and it's so,it's authentic.
And then boom, you develop acommunity pretty quickly and you
go from.
I mean that's incredible story.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Thank you, it's awesome, it's it's really fun
and it's um, it's an honor to bein the seat that I'm in, where
and I, you know, I post nonstopon LinkedIn, so I always tell
people I'm connected to.
Sorry that I am always in yourfeed, but half of what I talk
about is like the joy that I getin seeing people come to an
event and leave with value.

(24:16):
Right, they met a new client,they met a new relationship,
they found the answer to thetech they were trying to solve.
Like, building that communitythat truly creates value for
people is the most fulfillingthing I've done in work.
When's the event?
Uh, the end of this month thismonth, september 30th.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Is it too late for Idahoans that listen to be part
of this?
Not at all, I my we can.
Uh, we can, we can crank thisone out Monday.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
It is.
It is really my goal to getIdaho.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
We have our own event here coming up and, uh, poor
Maddie raves about sick of metoday.
You're good, you're good, yeah,we'll, we'll crank it out,
money.
So.
So if anyone wants to come, yes, um, that, that.
So talk about who, who, the,who, the people that should be
interested in this are.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
So I believe that anyone in we mostly say we focus
on the built environment, whichis anybody involved in building
, construction, engineering,architecture, surveying and then
even asset owners.
You know we have people comingto present on programs that
they're doing with thesetechnologies, from Dallas Fort

(25:23):
Worth airport, from generalmotors we have um, blue origin
we have.
We have so many big names thatare flying in for this event to
talk about the needs that theyhave.
How are they using XR or dronesor scanners?
What are the gaps in theindustry?
And so our whole focus withthis conference.
We tell everyone it's kind oflike a TEDx event.
It is not like a normalconvention center where

(25:45):
everyone's in different breakoutrooms and we make everyone sit
in that theater and we have avery diverse group of keynote
speakers and panels on stage inan effort to also cross over
industry knowledge.
So if aerospace can hear howmanufacturing Exxon Mobil is one
of our other big presenters ifthey can hear how each other is

(26:05):
using the technologies and thepain points, it may spark that
inspiration or that idea for howthey could innovate their
process.
So really, when I talk aboutaudience, for who in Idaho
should come one.
It's local.
You don't need to travel toVegas or some other state to go
to it.
It's at the university and weprovide a lot of networking

(26:26):
opportunities as well.
We do a lot of fun thingsactually.
We rent out the whole footballfield and do a happy hour down
on the field.
We do the skybox and put on abig casino night, and the reason
we purposefully design it thatway is a lot of conferences.
You're sitting in sessions allday and learning, and then
you're done and you leave.
Yeah, and so we?

(26:46):
We take this approach of likejam a bunch of information into
you from the stage, but then letyou go have fun together and
build relationships in thecommunity that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Um is the registration on your website.
I just want to make sure thatwe get this and capture it for
people out there yeah, yeah,yeah, you can go to the events
page.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Um, and the URL is pretty easy too.
It's our con Boisecom, okay,great.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Our con Boisecom Fantastic, and get in there
register.
Um, we're going to try to sendsome of our guys.
It's going to be great.
Yeah, I mean it's really fun.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
It is, and you know, even this year.
Another really cool developmentfor us is in this effort of
trying to build local and getpeople involved.
Last year we had a professorfrom Boise State University
attend.
He was one of the only onesFollowing up.
This year he came and said Icannot believe your conference.
It was amazing, the content,the people but the one thing I

(27:47):
couldn't believe is that no oneelse from Idaho was here, and so
he actually took the initiativeto start getting Boise State
involved.
We're going to have an entirepanel of professors from Boise
State University.
There will be six of themtalking about these technologies
across their departments andthe needs, and then we are
opening it up to students tocome in and sit in the sessions
and learn, because as we groweducation we see us as a path to
help the industry understand,but then also work with the

(28:10):
universities and end up beingthis merry maker right between
students, internships,understanding of industry needs
and where education can go.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Line of sight, baby.
Bring those together, yeah.
And if we can help Idaho alongthe way, that's that's where my
heart is, so that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
And I'm excited.
I'm excited for that aspect,that we're starting to see some
buy-in local, because it's sadto me to host it here and not
have people involved.
So I'm pretty excited aboutthat moving forward.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Oh, that's really, really cool.
Hey, um, I'm going to, I wantto.
There's some things Idefinitely want to ask you.
Yes, ai, ai, tell us how it'saffecting your specific world
and kind of industry.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah, it's a big one and I will never claim to be an
expert in AI, but I'll tell youat least what I think and what I
see.
There's a lot of opportunityfor it and there's so many
different things AI touches,right, the basics that most
people know is like chat, gptand language models.
Right, there are processespeople are taking even something

(29:07):
as simple as that to integratein, like proposal processes and
knowledge gathering anddeciphering information.
But the biggest one that I seeis taking AI into.
How do people use the data from?

Speaker 1 (29:20):
the technology, it sounds like there would be that
perfect interface.
Yes, hey, we just gathered thismountain of data that you may
not know how to use.
Here's some options of how youmight use it.
And then you use the AI toproduce or crank yes, what
traditionally would have takenlots of people to do.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yeah, and it creates things that were not possible
for even people to do, becauseand this is where we start
getting into this verycontroversial topic of digital
twins and what that is and whatthey mean but it's this idea
that you know the program likean airport would do.
The reason airport would buildan entire digital twin of the

(29:58):
airport.
They actually map the wholeairport where physical assets
are, they create a 3D model ofit and then you bring that into
software to link back to realdata and sensors of your
security cameras or your airpressure or your temperature
gauges, and then you have thisdigital replica that is linked
to live information of what'sreally in the field.

(30:19):
So if a light bulb goes out,you get notified, you have
maintenance.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
So is that the digital?
Is that the definition of thedigital?

Speaker 2 (30:26):
twin.
It is close to that.
Yes, it is.
It is a physical, it is adigital replica of a physical
object or environment linkedwith real time information.
It's it's along those routes.
It's complicated, I'm not.
I can't completely define itmyself either, Because the thing
that's challenging about adefinition of digital twin is

(30:47):
it's different for an airportthan it is for a university or
than it is for an oil and gasfacility.
Different needs, differentpurposes.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
But the idea is the practical application of having
a digital twin that isintegrated into monitoring
systems.
I'm just thinking, I'm like,and this is way too simple, and
I'm not the right guy to betalking about, but I think of
all of our buildings and ourmaintenance guys.
That you know that's what theydo, Our engineering, building
engineers and we have a wholeteam of them here.
If they had a digital twin thatwas linked into the way that

(31:14):
they monitor a building.
It makes them more efficient,it makes it easier to respond it
.
Yes, so what?
If I can only imagine like theHVAC stuff and then rain and yes
, you imagine Temperature andall this stuff.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
You imagine them sitting in a room with screens
all around in a, you know, ironman type environment where the
system would tell them hey, forsome reason, the energy bill on
this building was more.
And then it highlights andyou're like why?
And now it shows you, like well, and that's probably where you
can plug in some ai.
Yes, so that is where I thinkai plays.
The biggest role in thisindustry is taking data and

(31:50):
different types of data togetherto bring about results that you
couldn't.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
It's almost like the, the dashboard, yeah, of the
future, with ai, with a digitaltwin of your assets.
Yep could be powerful.
Yes, it could also be powerful.
I'm just thinking like cambudgets and cam reconciliation
and looking for ways to refinethose.
And you think of the practicalapplication, of how that it
decreases costs for tenants?

Speaker 2 (32:14):
and energy efficiency .
I mean, I'm just like.
There's probably like, so thatis.
That is why we're starting tosee right now in the industry
there are initiatives for entirecities to want to go through
this digital twin program andsay, like, how do we apply this
idea to the whole city, everybuilding?

Speaker 1 (32:32):
You've got to get it.
Let's decide today that we'regoing to call it something
different, though Digital twinsounds like another.
I am freaked out about AI.
Did you hear Sam Altman onTucker Carlson this last week?
No, not yet.
Oh, is he good?
I wish I wouldn't have listened.
I really wish I wouldn't havelistened.

(32:52):
So digital twin just soundssuper threatening to me.
Yeah, like, somehow, like wecan make some new terms.
I don't know.
I think he asked some reallygood questions about, like just
the ethical questions, who'sbehind chat, gpt and he answers
the questions and where it'sgoing, and those are all great
questions systems and it wasinteresting yeah, it was very.

(33:16):
You gotta listen to it.
I bet I will.
It's not that long, but it wasuh.
It was one of those ones whereI'm like, oh man, what are we in
for?
What is this?
What does this world look likeseven to ten years from now?
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (33:26):
the world, or this industry, the world, oh, the
world smart guy?
Uh, well, I I do think thattechnology becomes such a bigger
part of it than it is today.
It's continuing to ramp thatway, right?
Um, I think that and and partof part of my vision of the
future is because of theindustry and the tech that I'm

(33:46):
in and around, where youenvision smart cities, right,
which is kind of a digital twinof the city, in a way that you
know, everyone has an iPhone now, right, and often you pull that
out and you're looking atinformation.
I think that augmented realitybecomes more integrated.
You see people working on theAR glasses.
I think that augmented realitybecomes more integrated.
You see people working on theAR glasses.
I think in the future I don'tthink seven years, but in the

(34:08):
future it will be that smartglasses are very accessible.
You could be walking down acity and ask your glasses to
show you where the nearestStarbucks is and it'll take you
to directions, or there will bedigital advertisement
opportunity like very digital,very much technology, and then
you even think about theautonomous driving, right.
I think a lot of of communityand society heads toward digital

(34:33):
and AI being a part of that andI do think it's some of it's
scary and I think that it's it's.
There's a lot that needs to bethought through and developed,
but what I what I always tellpeople that are scared about
technology is we can't stop thetechnology from developing or
the people developing thetechnology.
So I would rather be moreinvolved and help define how
it's going to happen and be inthe good of it.

(34:54):
So that's the approach I take.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
He actually made that point?
Um, because I think the fear isthat the, the, the, the, these,
the billionaires that controlthe technology, that are bigger
than governments and bigger thananything, very few people
control all of this data.
Yep, and then the world goesbased on the way those few
people want to twist and turn it.
And his point was he thinksthat it's going to be much more

(35:21):
democratic than that.
There's going to be lots ofdifferent people that are all
using, and so the more involvedsmaller companies or a variety
of people are.
That was his hope.
Yeah, and when you listen tothis, that was kind of what he
said.
Yeah, now, the hard part ofthat is just like, it's just so.
It is like someone writes thatcode.
Yeah, yeah, someone writes thatalgorithm.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Right Yep, Until it starts writing itself Right.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Right, and it's scary to know that who's.
Who's the one behind thealgorithm?
Yeah, and it's even scarier tothink until it starts writing.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a very interesting timewith tech.
What?

Speaker 1 (35:56):
does it look like?

Speaker 2 (35:57):
20 years from now, then, oh, I think all of that
has happened.
I think that, um, you know, and,and then it starts getting into
the question mark of will youknow neural interfaces, and you
know chips and people, and noteven having to have computers.
I, I, I.
That is very scary and weird,but I do believe that there are

(36:20):
going to be things like thatthat start to happen, where
technology is actually gettingintegrated into people, and I'm
not a huge fan of that, but it.
But if you said 20 years fromnow, they've already been doing
it, right, they're doing testing, they're seeing results there,
and so when you think about thespeed at which technology is
changing and AI and XR, and didyou know all this data, it 20

(36:44):
years is hard to even imaginewhat it's going to look like.
I do think that we will alsoget to the point with
transportation that the majorityof vehicles on the road are
autonomous and you don't driveanymore, yeah, and that the cars
speak to each other, which alsoends up reducing accidents and
people falling asleep at wheel,but then it also brings back the
negative side of like, um,accidents and people falling
asleep at wheel, but then italso brings back the negative

(37:04):
side of like well, if you can'tcontrol it, can they control it?

Speaker 1 (37:09):
And the other thing I had.
I had I had someone I getexposed to some weird stuff.
I am not.
I am not like I'm not smartenough to even know what they're
talking about half the time.
But I had I had someone come inhere starting a new company and
they're raising money and theirex, their ex kind of scary
behind the scenes guys and somecool stuff.
But they showed just like whatdata is available on all of the

(37:33):
world now, because if anyone hasa phone and when you sign your,
you know you sign up for thething.
Yeah, I agree, nobody reads.
And and what they're trackingright now and the technology of
where it tracks and how ittracks, and it's insane.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, I bet, and most people, a lot of people know
that, but they just don't wantto think about it and they don't
read the terms.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
I don't want to think about it.
I walked out of that room and Ithought we're so, we're so far
gone.
Does it even matter becausethey know so much?
But that's now, yeah, yeah, Ican't even imagine, yeah, and
yet I just ordered my.
I just ordered my new iPhone atlike five o'clock this morning.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
I know, yeah, it doesn't stop you, it doesn't
stop me either and and I thinkyou know what I what I think is
a bigger concern about future inall these technologies is not
I'm not afraid of will societybecome so technical or will
autonomous driving happen?
I think some of those are goingto and there's no question
about it.
Oh, I'm not worried about that.
What I'm worried about is badpeople.

(38:33):
Yes, what about the bad sideusing the tech or hacking the
autonomous car, or you know Well?
And the other thing is it's notyou know, you think of.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
I mean, you go back in american history and think of
every major technologicalrevolution that happened
refrigeration, right, you know,think of, you pick, pick the
pick, the industry, um, whetherit's health care or
manufacturing or transportationor whatever.
Those adoption, adoptionperiods were relatively slow and

(39:03):
it was relatively containedinto the society or community
you're in.
We are now in an internationaldeal here where who knows where
they are, what they're doing,what warehouse they're in and
what country already yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, it's interesting.
You're supposed to comfort mehere, man.

(39:24):
I'm like you're the tech guy.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Tell me it's going to be all right.
Like I said, I think I take theapproach of like.
I believe that good people canhelp battle what bad could be,
and that is why I'm also excitedabout our community, Because we
literally are building a globalcommunity of technologists, of

(39:47):
builders of all these companies,all of the innovation leaders
within those companies, and Ilook at if I am getting the
honor of falling into the seatof the leader of that community
and I want to see good happen.
Can I influence and inspirepeople to get involved in a good
way?
And then can we grow somethingbig enough that it actually

(40:09):
impacts government and laws andangles and countries.
That's a beautiful thought.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah, right there, but that's really all you can do
at this point.
It is yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
If not, I could say I don't want to be around it, and
then I can step back and it'sgoing to still continue.
Do you worry that the shift?

Speaker 1 (40:25):
of dollars, because every time these disruptions
happen it is a tremendous like.
So think of the ones we justtalked about.
Steel, automobiles, yeah,industrial manufacturing,
industrial revolution when ithappens, the shift of dollars,
really well.
Computer, think of microsoftyeah, right, I mean nvidia's, I
mean NVIDIA's, right.

(40:46):
So do you worry that thedollars are so big that they
control so much that they squashthese good ideas, or people
that are trying to say, hey,have you thought about this, the
ethics and morals of what we'regoing into?
I guess who's going to controlthose?

(41:06):
My fundamental question is okay, as we go forward, who's making
those rules?

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Is it governments?
Is it tech lords?

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Is it international groups that I don't even know
who they are, what they do andwhose best interests are they
looking out for?
The perversion that happenswith money and power?
It's probably more important.
I think there's a point in lifefor a lot of this that it's not

(41:40):
even about money anymore.
It's about power and controland how dangerous that gets when
it's not.
I mean capitalism in my mind iswhat made this country great?
That's great.
You say, oh, it's not.
I mean capitalism in my mind iswhat made this country great?
That's great.
You say, oh, it's wonderful,it's wonderful.
Then that goes.
And then, when you've alreadygot so much money that you can
do whatever you want, that'spower, yes.
And then control.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Yeah, no, it's a good question and I think that it's
a big one around a lot of thebig tech and the and the ai and
the future and the.
It's not something that I'vesuper focused on right now, like
the, the.
The technologies and the impactwe initially focus on with our
community are really likeimproving construction and

(42:17):
management of buildings andthings like that.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Oh, we're still in the phase but we're still in the
phase where all these thingsare wonderful Cause they're
going to.
They're going to, they're like,just the things.
I don't even know, because I'mnot in the seat you're in, but
the things that you're talkingabout are ongoing.
It's going to be processimprovement, improving the
quality of people's life,including and let's go back now.
Think about, like the youth oftoday that are looking for

(42:43):
careers, the excitement.
I mean what happened to you inyour life.
You go from inspiring athleteto inspiring musician, to
surveyor, with with long hair,to where you are right now.
Right, think of all the youththat are in Idaho, that you're
going to have the opportunity tobe part of this revolution.
That's exciting, yes, so Idon't want to distract from the
really good thing that's comingout of it.
I just think that at some point, we all had to, like, sit back

(43:06):
and say, like, okay, yeah, wellwhat should we?
and I don't even know if itmatters.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
That's the thing I talked to my wife about it
sometimes she's like well, whyare you freaking me out?

Speaker 1 (43:14):
I'm like I don't know .
But yeah, yeah, maybe I worryabout it too much.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
You know, I my general take on things like this
is I try to keep an eye on it.
I like listening to otherleaders out there and what
they're doing.
I like listening to otherinterviews, right, but what I
put most of my attention to iswhat I can actually impact or
control, which is probably theway we all, and my hope,
honestly, though, is that can Igrow what I'm doing big enough

(43:39):
that now what I actually canimpact is one of those things.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
What's the goal?
I mean, you look at your firstone four years ago, yep.
What does the next five to 10years look like for RCN?

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Oh, um for Matt.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Well, I do dream big Um we'll listen to this in five
years and go man.
Yeah, That'd be fun.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Cause I haven't really, you know, gone deep with
people about all the plans orvision with it.
But, um, you know, what we'vedone the last five years is
really testing the idea of theneed for what we're building the
community, the education, theuniversities, the government
where are these technologiesimpacting?
And we're really there's nobodyelse doing what we're doing.

(44:23):
And so what?
Going back to, I'm surprisedpeople from 15 countries flew to
Boise, idaho, for our event.
That is more confirmation of,like, everybody everywhere needs
what we're doing.
No one else is fulfilling itfor them there, so they're
coming here.
So we have a plan to build outwhat we're doing now and
continue to build our team to beable to handle it and then

(44:46):
scale that to have a conference,have a podcast, have a
localized community in othercountries, and we already have
people asking us to do it.
We just don't have the manpower, the resources, the time to go
replicate ourselves everywhere.
So turning it into a processthat we create this community of
technology focus of educationaround the world is is really

(45:09):
the long-term and there's a lotof details within that.
But we want to just scale whatwe're doing because we see it
impacting people around theworld already and we actually
did a little test this year.
We did a conference in Prague inEurope, and we did one
conference in Orlando, florida,and that was a lot of work for
us to pull off, but they weren't.
They went really well in Europe.

(45:32):
All the attendees were fromEurope countries and so it's
like, okay, it it shows that ifwe launch an event somewhere,
it's going to draw more local,regionalized people.
But they're all interested andthey all are following us
globally.
So if we launch one anywhere,people will show up because they
need the same thing.
So that's some of our futurevision and again, there's a lot

(45:53):
with that.
We do plan to start workingwith government on legal like
what is required when you'redone building.
Do you submit old CAD drawingsanymore or is the technology
coming into play that you'redoing 3D models?
We also plan to work withuniversities to help build
curriculum and education and andtry to, you know, crossover
industry with education.

(46:13):
Um, so there's a lot of likeside initiatives within that.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
How big is your staff and team?

Speaker 2 (46:18):
10 people Wow.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
So and uh, I think, they're as passionate as you, or
are they like?
This is like the super teamhere.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
We're getting there.
Yeah, we really.
I really care about having theright people on the team.
I, you know, I've had a lot oflessons learned hiring and
firing over the last 10 years,but I've grown to the point.
You know, I used to hire basedon resume.
Now I hire based on the person.
Isn't that true?

Speaker 1 (46:43):
It is like one of the early lessons.
It is.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
It is, and it took me a while to really get there.
And it's hard because sometimesyou want the resume, you want
the right technical what's thefamous line with hiring?

Speaker 1 (46:54):
It's like you're going to be right 50% of the
time.
You just don't know which 50%yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
You just don't know.
No, and you also never knowuntil they actually work for you
for a while.
Yeah, because I've gone throughthe process even recently.
You know I'll never name names,but I hired somebody.
After three rounds ofinterviews, group interview,
resume, everything.
After a week they weren't withus anymore.
You can't see the motor.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Not until it's the motor is under the hood and,
unlike cars and people, you justhave to wait and see right, yep
.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
So you know I really care about having the right
people and having a good companyculture, um, and getting
everybody aligned with thevision and the passion.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Hey, your branding is like awesome and the name's
awesome.
How did the name's great?
I just can kind of see thisthing growing.
I'm like, hey, someone wasthinking, someone had some
vision here.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, you know, part of this was in the original
vision of like not just apodcast, but also this community
was in the original vision oflike.
Not just a podcast, but alsothis community, also this
network.
So the name kind of fits it all.
I actually, you know, I love it, but I also regret it a little
bit For one reason.
The term reality capture is theencompassing of the capture
technologies and I want to alsostart to incorporate other

(48:04):
emerging technologies, which wealready do.
It steps outside our name alittle.
So I'm kind of like I feel likeour name's a little too narrow
and, of course, our URL is waytoo long, so I need to find a
way to buy a shorter one, but Iwish it was a little broader
because I don't want to be stuckto one technology.

(48:25):
Right, Our goal as a communitywe want to stay up on what is
everything that's going on, whatis new?
How are robotics?
So we touch on robotics, XR, AI, how do all of those come into
play with the building, theoperation, the maintenance, the?
You know?

Speaker 1 (48:40):
all of those aspects, yeah, but pretty intriguing
words, because for someone who'sjust kind of familiarizing
myself with your entire world,that you're in your whole
universe, reality is intriguing.
It's futuristic capture is likeoh, that's cool.
I don't know what that meansyeah, cool and so I mean as an
outsider, if I was critiquingI'd say, man, that sounds.
It sounds like someone's reallyon.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
So well, I appreciate it.
Um, yeah, I, I do.
I found early on in buildingthe first company that, um, you
know, uh, branding, marketing,marketing, network building,
relationship building was myskill set, and the reason that
we do what we do now is thatwhole idea of like, how can I do
more with this skill set?

(49:19):
That I think is one of my best,apart from me just going out
and doing capture work, and soit's all kind of, you know, I
think that goes back to thisidea of for entrepreneurs, right
Is, if you can find somethingthat you love doing that aligns
with what you're good at, thatyou can be passionate about.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
I'm just going to say I mean, this is going by really
fast.
But if you, you know, this hasbeen incredible and every time
I'm with you I'm like man, thisis cool.
I you know, and I can't wait tohopefully attend the event and
be part of what you do herelocally.
But if you were to give adviceI mean you think of relatively
young guy what you'veaccomplished in a relatively
short period of time whereyou're headed, what are some of

(49:56):
the key elements of, of, of, ofwhat, what, what advice you
would give some young, young guyright here in front of you
today saying, hey, what does ittake to do what you've?

Speaker 2 (50:07):
done young guy right here in front of you today
saying, hey, what does it taketo do what you've done?
I appreciate the question and,uh, it is a it is a honor to be
in a seat that I can try to dothat and I I again, I don't look
at myself as an expert I fellinto what I'm doing.
So I always tell people like,hey, any advice you ever get
from anyone, take it with agrain of salt, right and see how
it applies to you.
But I love talking to youngpeople because I was in that

(50:29):
scenario that I had no plan oranything and I fell into this.
So now I go backwards and I go.
What were those steps thatactually let this happen?
And I think the very first onewas not being afraid of failure
and being willing to take risk,because so many people, I think,
could do something amazing orhave a great idea, but so many

(50:53):
people won't take the first stepbecause they're afraid that
it's not going to go right, andso they shelve it and they go
back to what they do on the, onthe normal basis.
So I think that that was stepone, because even when I look
back at how I started, I'd say Iwas stupid and I took a huge
risk.
I was working, you know, I wasworking paycheck to paycheck.
I had a third kid on the way, Ihad no big savings, I had no

(51:16):
investor and I, I was just waytoo driven and I was like I have
to quit my job.
Isn't that beautiful?
And you?

Speaker 1 (51:25):
know when you like take that step and you're like
here it goes, isn't thatbeautiful?

Speaker 2 (51:27):
And you know when you like take that step and you're
like here it goes.
Yeah, and and you know you heara lot of of business owners
later on reflect back and say,like that's what drove you to
succeed.
You there, you didn't have, youdidn't give yourself another
option.
When you step off and you stepinto this, you're so driven that
, like I have to make this work.
This is my thing.
Now the bridge is gone.
Now the one thing I would tellpeople is, when you don't know

(51:52):
anything about businessownership or entrepreneurship,
most people think right, you'regoing to work less, you're going
to make more, you're going tobe at the beach on the weekend.
That's not 99% of of startupsor entrepreneurship.
It is way more hours, way lesswork, but you're doing it for
yourself.
And that is why so many peoplesay do not start if you're not

(52:16):
passionate about what you'reabout to do, or you will give up
.
Yeah, you know you have to bedoing something that you truly
believe in and you're willing togo through those late nights,
those hard days.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
I think the other thing I would add to that is
you're not going to predict whatthe challenges are going to be.
No, it's good.
I mean, you lay in bed at nightand you say hey, here's the
next five challenges that I'mgoing to face, and then you kind
of sit okay, when that happens,this is what I'm going to do to
get around it.
And then you realize as you gothrough entrepreneurship that
well, it wasn't those fivethings at all.
Yeah, oh yeah, those thingswere actually the easy things.

(52:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
You know what I mean.
One of those I would throw outthat I experienced is um, a lot
of people I, I think they theystruggle with like how am I
going to get business?
How am I going to land clients?
That wasn't my problem, so Ithought we're golden.
But then I figured out thisthing called cashflow and it was
like we're landing so much workbut they don't pay us for three

(53:10):
, four or five months and I havemy first employee who wants a
paycheck every two weeks.
Like there's so many aspects ofbusiness that if you don't, if
you're not prepared for I againI didn't take a class, I didn't
go to school.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
To me it was it was failing something every day,
learning from it.
I got, I got super lucky.
Well, I, I always, I always.
When I was in high school, Ihad my own like lawn care
business.
I had my own commercialjanitorial business and I I had
a trophy business where I waslike, so I was always so, I kind
of, but those were alldependent on me, right, yeah, um

(53:43):
, and then when I and then Istarted a tech company in 2001
called StatPads, which was whenpublic access defibrillation
with AEDs became a thing and wecreated a company to help
facilitate that across thecountry, oh, wow, that was the

(54:04):
first time I had employees.
But luckily I had this sage guy.
He was one of my businesspartners.
I went to him because I knew Iwould learn a lot.
His name was Craig Rasmussen.
He had done it before.
He was, you know, 15 yearsolder than me and man, I think,
of my life and the education Igot from Craig Rasmussen on pro
formas and SWAT analysis and hewas he's.

(54:26):
He's exactly what I'm notmeasured, calculated you know,
so every time I was like, go, go, go, go, here's what we're
going to do, he was like, uh,that's not what you're going to
do.
I think of my life and howgrateful I am for him and kind
of haphazardly falling into himas my partner and building this
business together, and then whatthat taught me for other
businesses I've done.

(54:47):
You learn a lot.
I think wisdom comes from badexperiences.
Bad experiences come because oflack of wisdom.
I mean, those two things gotogether and you either learn it
through experience or you havea few mentors that go hey,
here's what I would probably doto get through cash flow, to get
through profitability, to getthrough investment.
How do you grow?
How do you scale?
The next thing you're going toface is it's what we all I'm

(55:11):
facing right now is okay, we'vegot all this stuff and now we've
got to scale, and that's noteasy, yes, and then you start
you know you talk aboutemployees and culture and trying
to maintain culture, and you gofrom five people that you trust
, that you're like a little team, and then you go to like and
you'll have locations around thecountry and it's like how do we
?
How do we do this?
It's so fun though.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
It is, isn't it just like Again, you?

Speaker 1 (55:32):
The fact that we live in a freaking country yes.
That you can grow up inBakersfield, yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Out of all places.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Getting a damn car accident.
And now you're not man.
I shouldn't use Johnny Manziel,I'm thinking of like some
quarterback that was likesmaller and could do it, but uh,
but, but you become.
You become what you are, Isn'tit amazing?

Speaker 2 (55:55):
It is, it is, and, um , america's great.
It really is, it really is, andI and I I attribute a lot of my
um business growth to, to justwhere we are in the digital age,
right, um, linkedin and usingsocial media was actually a huge
part of me being able to builda company, and maybe I could
have done it without.

(56:15):
But, um, anybody could startsomething today, you know, and
it could be something that is alocalized business that serves
people around you, or it couldbe online to people all over the
world.
There's so much opportunity,but it's passion, it does, it
needs to be.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
It's working a hundred times harder than you
think you're going to work.
It's late nights, sleeplessnights, it's more money than you
think it's going to take andit's a pain it is it is, but
when you love it and when youcare about it.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
no and and in.
For the last 10 years I'venever dreaded going to work.
Really I love that.
I wake up and I'm at my officeright here across the street at
4.30 am in the morning and Istay till 4 pm.
I go home.
That is my every day.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Hey, we got to wrap this up.
Let's go back to go throughyour socials, go through your
URL We've said a few times forpeople who want to follow you.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
What your URL?
We've said a few times forpeople who want to follow you.
What are your Appreciate it.
So you can just look me up,matthew Bird, on LinkedIn.
That's really where I liveB-Y-R-D, b-y-r-d.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Matthew Bird on LinkedIn.
That's where your thing is, Ilive there every day, all day.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Otherwise our website is realitycapturenetworkcom and
everything else spars out fromthere.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
The event um, the local event archonboisecom well,
most of our listeners are herein idaho.
Yeah, just so dang proud thatthis is another great thing
happening here.
Uh, matt, it's been greatgetting to know you.
I can't.
I hope this is a long-termrelationship same.
And uh, uh, thanks for whatyou're doing, man.
It's inspiring as heck thankyou.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Well, I appreciate you having me and I look forward
to uh continuing theconversation and relationship as
well.
That's great.
Thanks everybody, thank you.