Chicken in the Box: Why Your Business Model is Broken with James Hatfield

Speed decides who wins. That’s the hard truth we unpack with James Hatfield, the blue-collar builder turned Chief Revenue Officer at LiveSwitch, a video-first AI platform that helps small businesses bid faster, reduce truck rolls, and turn phones into closing tools. From reinventing the 911 call with instant live video to powering virtual estimates for movers, electricians, and window washers, James shows how a simple text link can unlock clarity for customers and leverage for crews.

We dig into what makes tools actually usable: no app downloads, plain language, and a setup any technician can run in minutes. James shares practical wins that feel like superpowers, diagnosing an HVAC clog from a short video, scoping storm erosion repairs with accurate materials and costs, and generating CRM notes, contracts, and shopping carts with a tap. He explains why prompt engineering is the new secret recipe and how LiveSwitch builds industry-grade prompts that transform a casual walkthrough into itemized inventories and ready-to-send quotes.

Underpinning it all is a shift from “AI hype” to building a real data moat. If it’s not recorded, it can’t be learned from. We talk sales culture, coaching 100-call days with AI feedback, and why responsiveness, the “race to the face," closes deals before competitors even reply. James also opens up about saying no to outside equity to keep freedom, sending developers to work alongside customers, and leading with service, not swagger. The lesson that ties it together is disarmingly simple: put the chicken in the box, ship real value, fast.

If you’re ready to cut the wait, win more high-margin work, and build a smarter, faster operation, this conversation will light a fire. Subscribe, share with a fellow builder, and leave a review to tell us the one bottleneck you’re fixing first.

Subscribe and tune in for new episodes of Big Talk About Small Business with Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Each week we focus on practical insights and real-world strategies to grow your business!

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_04 (00:00):
Amazon has killed us all.
Amazon has literally killed usall.
Like, I don't like waiting.
And I got money.
I don't want to wait.
And speed wins.
Speed wins in the NFL.
Speed wins in the Olympics.
Guess what?
Speed wins in business.
And I met a young guy yesterdayrunning a business.
He does all virtual estimatesfor$6,000 jobs and up.

(00:20):
And he's winning them left andright.

SPEAKER_02 (00:27):
All right.
We are back today with anotherepisode of Big Talk About Small
Business.
And I'm here in the studio withJim Hatfield.
I don't have my partner, myusual uh co-host here, Eric
Howerton today, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_04 (00:48):
Don't like half of them in today.

SPEAKER_02 (00:50):
I I don't know where he is, but he he had to bail out
at the last minute.
Something came up.
But um anyway, um, so I'm gonnamiss him because Eric knows a
lot more about technology than Ido, Jim.
I'm an old guy, and I I try tostay up with what's going on,
but I'm not, you know, I'm not aguy that has a software business

(01:11):
and an AI company and stuff likeEric.
So, but I I could be more like atypical customer for you,
though.
Okay, so you know, you're gonnahave to tell me more about um
what you all do in layman'sterms that I and the listeners
can understand.
But before we get too far intoit, um, you know, uh you share a

(01:37):
name with my late father-in-law,Jimmy Hatfield.
Oh, wow.
He was a figure here.
Um my wife's a Hatfield, and andthey know that they go back to
the Hatfield and McCoyHatfields.
Um, I guess they came fromTennessee originally, or I can't
remember where.

SPEAKER_04 (01:56):
Kentucky in West Virginia, and I'm definitely I'm
definitely related to yourfamily then.

SPEAKER_02 (02:00):
Oh, yeah, you are.
Wow, that's cool.
I have to look you up on are youon 23 and me?
We'll see if you're uh relatedto check it out.

SPEAKER_04 (02:09):
Yeah, I am my my father and brother went really
deep into that, and we aredirectly related to Devil Heads
Hatfield, just like agreat-great-great uncle.

SPEAKER_02 (02:18):
Wow, that's something.
Well, then you are related.
So um you Hatfields are wild.
My uh my uh father-in-law here,he was kind of the uh quite a
colorful figure.
He owned the Cadillac dealershipand the uh Pontiac dealerships
in uh he was kind of like theHugh Hefner of Fadville or

(02:39):
something.
I mean, the guy was so anyway,he was a character.
But so tell us more about whatyou do.
I know your title now is ChiefRevenue Officer at Live Switch.
Tell us about Live Switch firstand and what the company does.

(03:00):
I know you've been verysuccessful as a company.

SPEAKER_04 (03:03):
Yeah, I used to own and operate personally uh
painting power washing companiesfor commercial residential, have
multiple crews, and you know,I'm come from a blue-collar
family.
My father built the house I wasborn in, so uh I'm good with my
hands.
Uh, can fix an engine.
Now I can't because they're allcomputers on wheels, but
whatever.
Um, and somehow I got intotechnology.

(03:23):
That was never on my you knowlife plan.
My grandfather wanted to be apainter, so that's what I was,
you know.
Um, but I met my currentbusiness partner by by
happenstance.
We took a previous company fromnothing to Inc.
500 to a multi-billion dollarcompany that we sold to private
equity.
Then we got into doingnonprofits, and then we're like,
hey, let's get back intofor-profit business because

(03:46):
we're idiots and we want to doit again.
I don't know why.

SPEAKER_02 (03:49):
We could just be able to I mean we all go through
this, Jim.
I mean, everybody, we startthese businesses, we build them
up, we sell them, and we go, oh,what are we gonna do now?
And about two weeks later, weovercommit and get into other
things.

SPEAKER_04 (04:03):
Yep.
I'm I'm no different.
I'm like, I don't do retirement.
You know, like I don't I can'tdo it.
I gotta keep builders are gonnabuild.

SPEAKER_02 (04:12):
That's just what exactly.
It's just in your DNA, and youjust gotta do it.

SPEAKER_04 (04:17):
It's in the DNA.
So we purchased this companyfive years ago.
It's a 16-year-old company.
You've actually seen our stuffand you used it, you didn't know
it was us.
So uh like we just did the SuperBowl last week in the last four
years.
If you go to an MLB ballpark andscan a QR code and they put you
on the Joe Botron, that's ourstuff.
Like during COVID, we've poweredthe NBA bubble and a WWE
Wrestling.

(04:37):
Wow.

SPEAKER_02 (04:37):
And so big stuff, dude.

SPEAKER_04 (04:39):
That's some big stuff, man.
And so we and I worked with abunch of computer scientists,
and I just happen to be thepainter among all the nerds, and
I speak a different languagethan they do.
I don't, I still don'tunderstand half the stuff they
say.
But I like building things, andso we got a knock on the door
from the chief of police inWashington, D.C.

(04:59):
And I'm gonna eventually tellyou what we do, but I'm a
storyteller, so hopefully thisis more interesting.
And, you know, people keepeating their popcorn or you're
driving along or whatever you'redoing while you're listening to
the show.
But uh we are one of the fewcompanies that do live video,
and so the chief of police inWashington, D.C.
knocked on our door to reinventthe nation's 911 phone call.
So I had to come up with a waywith my computer scientist to

(05:22):
get into the cameras that youcarry around in your pocket.
You are and when you call 911and you're compromised, you have
no time to download an app, youhave no time to be trained, so
you gotta, it's gotta be idiotproof.
And so I woke up at four in themorning, uh, about three years,
three and a half years ago now,and I was like, I know how we're

(05:43):
doing this.
So while you're on a 911 phonecall, you're on this thing
called telephony.
They still got phone numbers.
I can't even remember mineanymore, but we still got those.
And we send now I can send youthrough a different channel.
There's a text channel, it'scalled SMS.
We send a text, you can tap alink, and we'll get into your
data channel on your phone.
And now I can stream your videoanywhere in the world.

(06:05):
In this case, a police car or afire truck, emergency medical,
so they can see what they'redriving into.
It's called situationalawareness.
All right.

SPEAKER_02 (06:12):
It sounds like a fantastic tool.
I'm sure you save lives withthis.

SPEAKER_04 (06:16):
We do.
Um, and so the the next questionwas like, well, who else can use
this?
Like, no, download, you see whatI see.
And so I meet this guy takingcare of the NFL team, the
Tennessee Titans out ofNashville.
And he's 20 years in the FBI.
He's looking at our emergencyresponse stuff, and he looks at
me and he goes, James, like,yes, sir.
He's like, I got the stupidestquestion for you.

(06:38):
Like, lay it on me.
He's like, This arena is huge.
Can I just text my guy acrossthe arena like when the trash
cans fall over so I don't haveto hop in my little golf cart?
Because that would help me alot.
I'm like, oh yeah, definitely.
And in fact, that kind ofreminds me of the Nextel
walkie-talkie.
I literally used to run myentire company off of Nextel.
I had the yellow pages, mycarbon copies, things, my

(07:00):
ledger, and my Nextels.
And I ran my painting for that.
And I was like, oh, it's justthis generations and we'll get
it.
So the next thing that happensis I meet this guy,
happenstance.
I mean, life sometimes throwsyou a bone.
Um, I meet this reallyinteresting guy in the moving
industry, like moving boxes.
He's got a moving company, andhe's a really smart guy, and

(07:23):
he's looking at my stuff, andhe's like, James, I know exactly
you're sitting on some liquidgold.
And it reminded me of like theold Beverly Hillbillies, um, you
know, they're going and clip.
Texas T.
Exactly.
I was like, oh my gosh, thisguy's like, you are sitting on
liquid gold.
I'm like, what do you tell me?
He's like, well, the mostexpensive thing I do as a moving

(07:45):
company is I put an hourly wageworker into one of my trucks,
driving all over town in thehopes of winning business.
Sometimes my guys bid to work,and that customer's like, oh
dang, it's that much.
I'm just gonna get a U-Haul withmy friends, take a hike.
He's like, and there's otherjobs that are so small where I'm
just moving like an apartment.
It's not even really worth thedrive.

(08:06):
I can I can bid that in mysleep.
And then the third one is thecustomer got a big old house,
lots of money, they're worth mytrip out.
And we'll get in, we're gonnause this for virtual estimates.
And I was like, Well, will youpay me American money for it?
Because I love selling usernamesand passwords.
And he's like, Absolutely.
And we have taken off like arocket ship ever since, and it's

(08:27):
been fantastic.
Um, and I'm back in with mypeople.
So, how do I explain live switchif it's long story long?
Imagine FaceTime and Chat GPTgot together and had a baby and
made it for the trades.
That's us.

SPEAKER_02 (08:42):
So I guess, yeah, that I mean that's the first
thought I hit us why not useFaceTime, but everybody doesn't
have an iPhone for one thing,right?
And we'll get into that thatrules that out.
That's right.

SPEAKER_04 (08:52):
And then it's not tuned up for remote assistance,
and we'll get into other things.

SPEAKER_02 (08:56):
What so get back to the what's the chat GPT element
of it?

SPEAKER_04 (09:02):
And we'll get into so we're recording everything.
So now I can run a video throughthe world's biggest AI, and you
can ask it to do anything.
This thing fixed my HVAC unitfrom a 17-second video the other
day.
My wife, who is not handy, wedon't just sell this to
consumers, but my wife hasaccess to it, obviously.
So she used it the other day andshe's not handy at all.

(09:24):
And the toilet wasn't working.
She took a 30-second video, thething came back with
step-by-step directions how tofix it.
She just followed it because itwas it writes it out like for
her, and she sends me a text.
She's like, I fixed the toilet.
She was so proud of herself.
And they can do anything.

SPEAKER_02 (09:40):
That is awesome.
So it takes, you can show thevideo that it takes, it uses
that to figure out what you needto do.

SPEAKER_04 (09:48):
Yeah, and you can ask it to analyze me as a
salesperson.
Translate this to any languageeither way.
Write my CRM entry for mebecause I can't, I haven't met
anyone who likes doing that.
Write my simple contract thatyou can sign.
Give me the materials.
Oh, by the way, I shop at thisHome Depot, this Lowe's, and
this first choice builders.
Give me, give me the materials Ineed and a link to drop it in

(10:09):
the car.
Whatever you want it to do.

SPEAKER_02 (10:12):
It sounds like mind-blowing.
It's amazing tool that, like, Imean, it's obviously useful for
business, but it's also usefulfor just individuals to have.

SPEAKER_04 (10:21):
Yeah, I've been using it on everything.
So I'm in Asheville, NorthCarolina.
We had this big hurricane Helenecome.
Oh my gosh.
I mean, we were doing riverrescues.
I couldn't even get out of myneighborhood.
It was crazy.
It was something out of somecrazy movie.
But we got some erosion at thehouse, but it wasn't to bad
enough where I'm like, hey, justput me last on the list.
Like, this is a simple job.
But when I went out there, I waslike, well, let me just try my

(10:42):
stuff.
So I just hit the record button,took a video, and said, Hey,
it's like looks like a you know,about 40 feet, but got a nice
steep incline here.
Here's a some erosion.
You can see my um out of thegutter, the pipes that go
through the ground, some guttersare uh the output is sticking
out.
And then I we wrote a promptthat said, Hey, tell me how to

(11:02):
fix this, tell me how much it'sgonna be, tell me how long it's
gonna take, tell me thematerials, go.
It produces this report for me,and it tells me the exact how to
do everything down to all thematerials, like the size of
riprap I need, the size of youknow the how much um of the
coverage, and I and how much isit gonna be?
About 2,500 bucks.
I have a guy come over who takescare of ground.

(11:23):
I'm like, here you go.
He's like, Where did you getthis?
I'm like, I kind of run a techcompany.
And he's like, This is exact.
I mean, he was blown away.
Jaw was on the floor.
Jaw was on the floor, and hefollowed it to a T.
I knew how much it was gonna bedone.
He did it exactly, follow itjust like it said, and that is
crazy.

SPEAKER_02 (11:41):
So what does it so like how hard is it to use this
tool if if I was a business andI wanted to implement this and
make it available to myemployees for any reason?

SPEAKER_04 (11:53):
What how hard is it to use?
Five minutes or less.
If you can send a text message,you can use my stuff.
I my main users are likeelectricians, move like home
service folks, man.
Like guys like me.
I like my Nextel with one click,I like start my truck with one
key turn, I like my powerwashers with one pull.
So here you just literally youcan send a text.

(12:13):
I got you.
I have a guy, uh a customer, hecalls me up, he's like, James, I
got a 90-year-old on this.
I'm like, Yeah, of course youdidn't.
It's it's like we had to makethis for the night for 911,
right?
And you're so you'recompromised, there's no app, you
know, like you're you can't.
Yeah, yeah.
So the like telephone is one ofthe best inventions.

(12:35):
The thing rings, and when youused to pick it up when it
wasn't in your pocket, it wouldit was annoying.
And and so you you just pick itup.
It's the most beautiful userinterface ever.
Just pick the phone up.
Now you just slide, slide to theright or hit the green button.
So all of our stuff is builtthat way.
I make all of my entire companyread this book by Alan Siegel

(12:57):
called Simple.
We don't allow you you in ourcompany, you're not allowed to
use acronyms, you're not allowedto use big words because it
slows you down.

SPEAKER_02 (13:06):
Amen, brother.
I mean, I I get so tired of thetechno speak it's and and the
presumption that everybodyunderstands the lingo.

SPEAKER_04 (13:14):
Well, here's the thing it makes that person sound
smart, but you know what it doesfor the other person?
News flash, it makes them feelstupid.

unknown (13:20):
Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 (13:21):
So it's like if you're talking to your customers
with big words, you might aswell just say, hey, you're
you're an idiot.
You know what we say in theSouth and North Carolina?
We say bless your heart.
And that really means you'resome kind of idiot.
If someone says bless yourheart, that they are saying,
telling you you're some kind ofidiot.
So if you use big speak andacquaintance, bless your heart.

SPEAKER_02 (13:38):
Yeah, we say that here in Arkansas too.
So wow, that's fascinating.
So what does it cost?
It's cheap.

SPEAKER_04 (13:45):
I think about me when you're filling up your
F-150 or your Chevy.
All right.
So my minimum in impact, I mean,it's$190 a month.
If you pay up front annual, it'slike$133 a month.

SPEAKER_02 (13:57):
Is that single user?

SPEAKER_04 (13:59):
Uh two users.
That's probably, I mean, youdon't need to buy this for
anyone in your company.
You won't, you don't need to.
It's already death bysubscription out there.
And I got millions of people Ican sell to, and I don't need to
squeeze everybody.
Oh, here's a company that's notcrazy talk, right?
We're not just trying to milkeverybody for everything they
got.
Like, I deal with my people.
Like, they're trying to put foodon the table, take care of their

(14:19):
staff.
Like, I gotta, I gotta paypeople, this ain't free, you
know.
But I don't need to come and,you know, I already know I'm I'm
a I'm an offender.
I'm asking for anothersubscription, but um no, it's
cheap.

SPEAKER_02 (14:30):
That is so like what if you implement, do you have
like a multi-user license?
I mean, what if I have myfriend's got a moving company?
Let's say he's got 30 guys outthere in six trucks or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 (14:43):
30% company, probably just gonna buy three
licenses.
I mean, it's gonna be about 175bucks a month.
That's all because anybody canwatch a video, anybody can we
have QR codes you can scan,links you can tap, all kinds of
stuff.
Um, I mean, we we just go nowthat you got five cameras in
your pocket, you it's the bestinvention that's not getting

(15:04):
used in your business.

SPEAKER_02 (15:05):
That is amazing.
So, I mean, it just seems to melike the potential is insane for
this.
Must have people trying to buythis business every day.

SPEAKER_04 (15:13):
Well, I sold our last company to private equity,
and we made a lot of money.
And I'm stupid enough to buildanother billion-dollar company.
Um, and we're not selling thisone.
We're not going to sell it.
I gotta I gotta do somethingevery morning.
I literally we want to sell itbecause we have my business
partner and I were just like,well, what would we do?

(15:35):
We'd make another company.
And we don't it is hard as snotto build any kind of company.
It is really hard.
I mean, everyone listening, I'msure, is like, yeah, tell us
something we don't know.

SPEAKER_02 (15:47):
Exactly.
I know.
I mean, I've my my first realbusiness, of course, I had many
others, but you know, I was onthe Inc.
500 twice, and we sold it to aprivate equity firm and they
destroyed it.

unknown (16:00):
Yep.

SPEAKER_02 (16:01):
And then we then we we ended up buying it back after
it was taken over by its lender,got back on the ink list again,
and uh and this time I I I wasbrought some other people in and
and sold it to my ownershipinternally on a 15-year deal.
Love that.
And they got they just got backon the ink list again last year.

(16:23):
It's a 30, 38-year-old companythis year.
Can you believe that?
Time flies.
It does indeed.
It's amazing.
But uh, but yeah, I mean,there's a lot of struggles.
As Eric says, if he was here,he'd say, business is nothing
but problems.
It's it's his favorite saying.
It's just every day you justcome in, you got problems to

(16:44):
solve.
I just got up today and had theaccountant in one of the
companies that I spend most ofmy time with.
He sends me a text that goes, Wejust got a$15,000 plus bill from
an attorney that I don't evenknow who they are.
Okay.
You know, it's like, where'dthis come from?
Out of the blue, you know?
It's always, it's every day islike that.

(17:06):
It's like, but the way I look atit is if I can have good things
that outweigh the bad, you know,it's like, well, we had three
bad things happen, but let'sthink about all the good things
that happened today.
We had five good things happen.
It's a win.
It's a win.
It's a win.
I agree.
Yeah.
So wow.
So this company, uh, this liveswitch is it's just fantastic.

(17:30):
What um so how many employees doyou all have?

SPEAKER_04 (17:34):
Well, being private a lot.
Let me put it this way.
Uh, we bought a brand newbuilding outside of Raleigh,
bought the whole building.
I got a building in India filledwith people, and I just signed
another lease in Salt Lake City,and I'm filling it up with
salespeople as fast as I can.
I can't hire fast enough rightnow.

SPEAKER_02 (17:50):
Why did you go to Salt Lake?
I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_04 (17:53):
Look.
I mean, now I I had adopted mychildren from that area, so it's
a beautiful area.
I love it.
But I was just hiringsalespeople across the country,
and sure enough, my guys out ofSalt Lake were kicking some
tail.
I was like, well, I want to fillup the, you know, let me met the
mayor at Salt Lake the otherother week, and I'm like, hey,
let's fill her up.
And um, so yeah, we just signeda lease for the building and

(18:15):
then got a bunch of guys movingin on Monday.
I'm flying out to Salt LakeSunday night.

SPEAKER_02 (18:20):
Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 (18:21):
We're growing up so fast, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 (18:24):
So, what do your salespeople do?
I mean, I'm just curious.
Do they just harvest leads thatcome in constantly and and close
those, or do they make outboundcalls, or what do they do?
I'm old school.

SPEAKER_04 (18:34):
I love hunters.
I love hunters, dude.
So I have a data guy who loadsup uh software that we use
called NUTS.
It's very expensive, but itworks great.
Uh, and then it helps them calland wraps AI around it.
And my guys make over a hundredcalls every single day.
We were old school.

(18:55):
And I mean, that's how I got thelast company.
So I mean, some I I think thephone is a great way to talk to
business owners.
Um, and we do.
We we we literally have atwo-minute conversation, tell
them what our value is.
Hey, we're trying to save youtruck rolls, you know, be the
first to bid it.
Let me show you what it is.
We get on, we do a demo 20minutes later, credit card gets

(19:17):
swiped, and they're off to theraces using it the same day.
U yesterday, and I still meetbusiness owners, met a guy on a
painting company, bought itright on the spot, used it that
afternoon, bought the and wonthe deal.

SPEAKER_02 (19:28):
That is amazing.
I love that.
It's been great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm amazing.
Like you, I'm a big believer inin you know, training
salespeople to make a lot ofcalls.
I mean, right out of gradschool, I worked for a business
that if we even set the phone inthe cradle, they would be like,

(19:48):
Well, what are you doing thatfor?
You just hit disconnect and dialagain.
To put it in the cradle and thenpick it up again, you just
wasted two seconds, you know?
And and the and the way we weremanaged, and and I've it's a
lesson that stuck with me myentire career.
Activity precedes results.
So if your people are doing whatthey need to do with the

(20:12):
outbound calls, getting throughto so many people, making so
many presentations, they'regoing to make so many sales and
will result in so many dollars.
If they're doing all that andthey're not making the sales,
then you work on theirtechnique.
But if they're not doing that,you forget the technique, go
back to the activity.
It's just classic salesmanagement.

SPEAKER_04 (20:34):
Hallelujah.
Nothing's changed for me for 20years.
It worked for the first billiondollar company, it's going to
work for the next one.
If they actually make the callsand do the work and you have a
good product and your heart istrue, and you tell people the
truth, crazy concept.
Do hard work and tell people thetruth and have a good product.
Wow.

SPEAKER_02 (20:52):
We all know I mean that applies to so many
businesses.
I mean, you are in the paintingbusiness, okay?
You know how bad the providersare.
I mean, I've been a developerand I had a design build
contracting firm, and you know,I've redone more houses in
Fayetteville than anybody else.
And, you know, it's just problemafter problem getting people to

(21:14):
serve you.
You know, when we find goodsubs, we work with them for a
long time.
I don't even make them bid.
I know the owner, they'reresponsive, but it's so unusual.

SPEAKER_04 (21:25):
It's crazy.
And that's really the answer tothings.
I mean, people can't evenbelieve like when I didn't have
enough jobs for my guys the nextweek in my painting company.
Guess what I did on the weekend?
I knocked on doors.
I went door to door, and youknow what?
It was the easiest clothing Iever got.
That's why I did all the rest.
Yeah, I had yellow pages andword of mouth, and I love those,

(21:45):
and we take them all day long.
But if I was a little short, Iknow exactly how to get the
money.
Just and I I knew what I wouldwear, I know how I'd stand on
the front steps, I know how Italk to the people, and people
actually need their housepainted inside or out.
They want to.
Guy who's reasonably priced,that it's not always about the
price, actually, believe it ornot.
It's like, will the guy do thewhat he says he's going to do

(22:06):
and do a good job and standbehind his work?
Like, as an example.
Back in the day, these uh paintsprayers started coming out, and
I knew like we were we were handrolling, we were hand rolling
homes, we were uh brushing them,you know, and these paint
sprayers were coming along, andI kind of knew, like, crap, I
gotta get a couple of these.
So we went and bought a couple.
And the same thing is withtechnology, everyone's like, oh,
AI.
I'm like, play with the dangthing.

(22:28):
We played with the paint gunsand we sucked at them.
The first five homes wasterrible.
We've sprayed the roof, or weforgot to unclog the thing, or
like we didn't move it the rightway.
But you know what happened?
By the sixth house, we couldhold the shield right, we could
spray it right, and we did it inless time, higher quality.

(22:49):
I made more money, the customersliked it, and my guys like
shooting the guns.
And right, so then from there,um, we got so dang good that and
so efficient.
I do the final walk around andthe money collection, just you
know, I drive out, make sureeverybody was happy.
Sure.
I was walking this one customeraround, and we're looking at
this house.
I'm like, golly, your house isshining like a diamond, my man.

(23:12):
Like it is, you see that?
He's like, Yeah, I waswondering.
I was like, I get up close, I'mlike, it was the paint company
we use accidentally shot glossin my flat.
So the house was just shiny, youknow, and so, but in a cloudy
day, when you could paint awhole exterior when she's
prepped in a day, my guys didn'teven notice because a cloudy
day, and I'd do the walk aroundon a sunny day.
And so then I was like, Well,we're gonna be a nonprofit

(23:34):
today, redo it, you know.
But I redid it.
I'm like, you won't have topaint this house for 15 years,
man.
You got more paint on here.
Uh the customer was happy.
I wasn't that happy, but thething is, I did what I said I
was gonna do.
Crazy costs.

SPEAKER_02 (23:47):
Crazy probably told 10 other people.
Crazy.
Yeah, it I teachentrepreneurship at the Walton
College, and I, you know, Ithink that entrepreneurship
education goes off course sooften because basically, you
know, it's all about coming upwith a new idea, validating the
market for it, and then raisingoutside equity.

(24:10):
And, you know, it basicallywe're setting up our students
for failure.
Uh, obviously, some people cando that.
I mean, you guys have done it.
Eric did it with his lastcompany.
So if you can, God bless you.
I, you know, I think it'sfantastic.
But most people would do so muchbetter if they just took a
mature market where you knowthat people need pizza, they

(24:34):
need their windows washed, theyneed their car clean, whatever,
and just do a better job withit.
And it sounds like that's whatyour tool allows them to do is
just be more responsive.
Half of the doing a better job,just being more responsive.

SPEAKER_04 (24:49):
Yeah, we have a nonprofit called Inmates to
Entrepreneurs.
We've had them for quite awhile.
We go into the jails and weteach men and women how to run
their business.
We love entrepreneurship.
Um, and a great organization.
Uh, we have people that havegraduated that work for us.
Uh, we believe in secondchances, and it even turned into
an ABC television show calledFree Enterprise.
My business partner is a star ofthat show, and we talk all about

(25:10):
what you're talking about rightnow.
And people that are receptive tolisten are people that need that
second chance and they'rewilling to beat the street and
they know where they came from.
And, you know, they had somejustice stuff in the past, and
we, you know, our younger selvessometimes make dumb choices.
I know I did.
And so um, yeah, we loveteaching entrepreneurship and
doing like what we're talkingabout right now.

SPEAKER_02 (25:30):
That's wonderful because you know, uh we've got a
situation right now in one of mybusinesses.
In fact, it was just came upthis week where we have somebody
uh we can hire as a welder whohas a felony conviction, okay?
And he just he served five yearsin prison.

(25:52):
And, you know, supposedly he'sextremely intelligent, he's a
great guy, but you know, as anemployer, it's it's a lot harder
to hire somebody like that.
But if this guy went out and didhis own thing, nobody even asked
the no.
You know what I mean?
No, that's not barrier.

SPEAKER_04 (26:10):
That's crazy.
So many success stories becauseof that, you know, and frankly,
it almost gives them anadvantage because you're like,
nope, you can't go get a job.

SPEAKER_02 (26:18):
Yeah, it's it it's it's it's a shame, but it's
true.
But starting your own business,no barrier to that.
I recently, you know, speakingof great service businesses like
this, um, I recently used acompany called Pink's Window
Washing.
I know they will.
Have you heard you've seen whatthey're doing?
Crazy company.
They're growing like crazy.

(26:39):
Okay.
I know the company.
And and I was so impressed.
I mean, look, the last windowwashers I had, they were like,
oh, those windows, we can't getthose.
We can do all of them, but that,you know, it didn't look that
good when they were done.
These guys were so responsive.
I filled out a form, I get atext from somebody, I set up a

(27:00):
meeting with them.
He comes out when he says, hesends me a quote on exactly what
we talked about.
And when they came out to do it,they've got branded vehicles,
the guys have their uniforms on,they've got unique technology,
like they take all the screensoff, they got a special screen
washing machine, they've gotthese this uh system that the

(27:23):
truck pumps this fluid into alittle squeegee-like thing,
brush thing.
Does a beautiful job.
I mean, unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 (27:34):
There's no problem in that whole process.
They drove out to give you anestimate.
Crazy should be using yourproduct.
Crazy.
I mean, really, right.
I have window washers that useour stuff all the time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As customers, we hate waitingfor people to come around the
house.
Crazy damage is gonna be when itwent and come do the work and do
a great job and show up and befast.

(27:55):
Amazon has killed us all.
Amazon has literally killed usall.
Like, I don't like waiting.
And I got money, I don't want towait.
And speed wins.
Speed wins in the NFL, speedwins in the Olympics.
Guess what?
Speed wins in business.
And I met a young guy yesterdayrunning a business.
He does all virtual estimatesfor six thousand dollar jobs and

(28:16):
up, and he's winning them leftand right because when you call
his business, he answers thephone, or he gets back to you in
five minutes or less, and he'son it.
The crazy heat of that alreadycommunicates to the customer
everything they need to know.

SPEAKER_02 (28:30):
We are so aligned on that.
I mean, I learned years andyears ago I got a RFP.
We had a consulting business.
That's the primary one I toldyou about.
But we get a get this RFP from aclient and get it at like 4:30
in the afternoon, and I say, youknow what, first thing Monday,
I'm getting back to this guy.
I get back to him, it's alreadygone.

(28:52):
The job's gone.
Somebody beat me to it.
I mean, it it I never made thatmistake ever again.
All right.
I was always going to be thefirst guy to respond.
And so this is so important.
And this tool, I love this.
What a great tool to have.
We're buying a new, a differenthouse here, and one of the

(29:12):
things we want to do is put aswimming pool in.
Swimming pool contractors, asyou know, are terrible.
I've had pools built most of thetime.
It's they drag their feet, thequality's bad, the, you know,
there's big lags in theconstruction process.
Anyway, I did some research.
I find this company, and they'reso different.

(29:34):
If you look at their reviews,they had like 4.8 to 5.0,
depending on the you know, theplatform, and just hundreds and
hundreds of reviews.
And what does that tell you?
It tells you they're doingsomething right.
So responsive, just like yousaid, did not come out and got a

(29:55):
detailed estimate because theygot into the aerial photos, they
researched where the septicsystem was, they got everything
they needed, and they had a guyon their staff, put it all in 3D
CAD, showing the house out ofthe detail of the freaking, you
know, the outdoor bar and allthe porches and everything and

(30:17):
how this integrates with it.
Absolutely blown away.

SPEAKER_04 (30:21):
Isn't that amazing?
That's the competitive advantageright there.
I mean, uh every bit of it.
And they're gonna feed theirtheir families and take care of
the community, guarantee.

SPEAKER_02 (30:30):
It just seems like the opportunities to use this
tool are basically unlimited.
Yeah, crazy confession.
You must just lay awake atnight, just like I'd have a hard
time sleeping if this was mybusiness, because I'd just be
thinking of all these things Icould do with it.
I don't sleep well.

SPEAKER_04 (30:50):
And I'm just getting I'm just getting warmed up.
I'm just getting warmed up.
Crazy people hadn't seen nothingyet.
So I guess moral story, don'tlet a guy on a ladder come off
the ladder and get into tech.
We might actually buildsomething that people love.
So yeah, it's been it's beengreat, man.
And putting a bunch of people towork right now is my favorite,

(31:11):
you know, hiring people with ahead on their shoulders, giving
them a job that they can beproud of what they sell, grow a
career out of it, and um takecare of their community and
family.
So um, I've been, you know,right now actually I spend a lot
of my time recruiting.
I haven't had to like recruitfor myself in a while.
Usually I'm the last in the inthe line of interviews, and you
know, I like to talk to everyonebefore they take a job.

(31:32):
I like to, you know, tell themwhat we're really doing here and
what we're about.
Uh, but we we've been growing sofast now.
I'm on the front line reachingout to people offering jobs.
So I noticed our uh unemploymentrate keeps ticking up.
I don't know where these comeon, guys.
I got jobs, you know, righthere.

SPEAKER_02 (31:48):
Well, I think a lot of people, again, who don't own
businesses, they think uh, youknow, the only reason we do this
stuff is for the money.
The money is like way down thelist, usually.
Creating good jobs for people isone of the most rewarding things
that you can do.
Crazy human.

SPEAKER_04 (32:06):
I think what happens is people who haven't I didn't
grow up with any money, I grewup from nothing.
And then you get you get moneyand you're like, oh well, all
right, don't really, whatever.
You know, like that what are yougonna do?
It's almost like have when yourate you if you're in a career,
like when you get up to thatcertain position, or you you get
that truck that you wanted, oryou like it's like a stomach
that just keeps wanting to befed, you know.

(32:27):
So then you're like, okay, well,I don't really need that.
What gets what really gets yougoing?
You know, and I think that'sexactly what you're saying.
Like watching other peoplesucceed, building something you
can be proud of.
I'm a very proud papa right now,you know, uh, of the product.
Yeah, my customers love mystuff.
I mean, that's I am a proudpapa.
And it was just, you know,following the dotted line,

(32:48):
connecting the dots, listening,and you know, talking to people,
just saying, like I rememberlike it was yesterday, you know,
four years ago, that guy in theFBI being like, I got the
stupidest question.
Can I just text my guy acrossthe arena so I don't have to hop
my little golf cart?
That's when I was like, I mean,I called my business partner
right after that.
I had two moments in the lastfour years where I've called my

(33:10):
business partner and he thinksI'm crazy and we're crazy
together.
So I call him up and I tell himthe Beverly Hillbillies thing.
I'm like, You ever watch BeverlyHillbillies where we're
clamping?
I'm like, that just happened.
This guy, and we didn't have wehad no product really at that
time, no customer on theplatform, none of it.
And then I'm just like, I cansee it, like I can I can just

(33:32):
see it.
And so then it started going.
The next time I was like, Oh, wegot a billion dollar company.
My wife as well going around thehouse, and the HVAC unit in our
downstairs area had wateroverflowing, so she just called
the tech and I'm down here forworking.
Check this out.

(33:53):
The tech comes down.
I'm like, hey, you don't knowthis.
I'm running a big tech company.
Let me text you and you go inthere, take a video and don't
diagnose it.
Act like a stupid customer, justignorant.
Just go in there.
He's got his mountain accentbecause I'm in the mountains of
North Carolina.
He's in my basement with hisphone, and he goes, Well, the
water pan's overflowing here,and it's dripping right here,

(34:13):
and there's no cap.
We then go and rewrite a prompt,diagnose the HVAC unit, tell me
how to fix it.
And of course, you nailed it.
The AI said, Hey, you've gotalgae or dust or in your drain
line.
You need to, and here's how todo it.
He walks over, he opens a drainline, algae's going everywhere.
He looks at me with his jaw onthe floor and he goes, Can I buy

(34:36):
stock in your company?
And I'm like, We're going to abillion dollars, just like that.

SPEAKER_02 (34:43):
I love it.
You guys have any outside equityin this?
I take nobody's money.
No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 (34:50):
No, I I don't get I don't want anyone telling me
what to do.

SPEAKER_02 (34:53):
I that's another thing.
I mean, I just said to mystudents this week, I'm trying
to teach them the difference indebt and equity.
You know, I the golden rule ishe or she's got the gold rules.
And so if you want toimmediately start a business and
then sell equity in it, well,it's like you you just lost it
before you're even out of thegate.

(35:14):
It's the worst.

SPEAKER_04 (35:15):
And people, when they say, Oh, I'm gonna go get a
funding round, I'm like, Well,kiss your business goodbye.
Or kiss your control goodbye,your freedom.
Put your hands up, wait aminute, put your hands out.
I'm gonna put some things aroundthem because now you are you are
not free anymore.
They're never good money.

SPEAKER_02 (35:34):
They're never gonna have the same idea about the
business that you have, and it'sjust inevitable.

SPEAKER_04 (35:39):
No, definitely not.
So we don't take any privateequity, no venture capital.
I don't like taking anybody'smoney.
I don't want your money.
Now, if you're a customer, I'lltake your money, but I'm gonna
make sure I serve you.
Because that when you decide totake a customer's money, you
have entered a c into a contractwhere you need to give them
something of value, you know.
Otherwise, you will not last.

(35:59):
Um, you're just pulling the woolover people's.
I mean, I you can sell miragesall day long, but you're not
gonna build a company off that,and you're certainly not gonna
compound.

SPEAKER_02 (36:07):
So um, yeah, I mean something people need or want.
I mean, and it's gotta be good.
You know, it's fascinates meyour background.
I have to keep coming back tothis because again, you know, I
think having the blue-collarbackground where you do things
and also learn how to deal withother people who may not have

(36:30):
the education you have or theexperience you have or whatever,
but not alienate them, not talkdown to them, not condescend to
them.
These skills are so valuable.
Doing things and knowing how todeal with people that you learn
by doing work.
That's right.

SPEAKER_04 (36:49):
We're here to serve and not be served.
You know, I'm raising fourkiddos, so I'm like, I'm not
raising a bunch of takers.
You're gonna get out there andgive.
Because last I checked, givingis better than receiving.
I didn't make that word up, youknow.
That's just old school knowledgeright there.
So, like, if I can just go andgive to my customers and try to
put myself in their shoes, butmaking people feel like idiots

(37:11):
and pulling wool over just soyou can get a buck is no way to
make a good living.
And I I like to I try I like tosleep.
I don't sleep because I thinktoo much, but at least I got a
clear conscience and that'sworth all the gold in the world.

SPEAKER_02 (37:23):
I get it.
And I'm with you a hundredpercent.
And not only, you know, is itgreat for the customers to have
that kind of a background, butit's great for you to be able to
hire people.
And you know, I think thetendency of somebody with your
background is to not separateyourself so much from the
workers that create that usversus them thing that so many

(37:46):
companies have, it, you know, itmakes it it, it's really
demotivational for the frontlineworkers when the the bosses
don't talk with them, only hangout with each other, have the
big offices and the reserveparking places and all that, you
know?

SPEAKER_04 (38:03):
Yeah, you're not gonna gain any respect from
that.
You might feel powerful orwhatever, but like I have no
title on my email.
You mentioned my title becauseit's on LinkedIn.
You have to have a title there.
But I I put no title on, but Idon't want it.
You know, I've been I race tothe top for so long.
You know, the bet easier way togo, race to the bottom.
No one's going that way.
So I just go to the bottom, Ican hand off all my roles to

(38:25):
other people.
I try to make myself redundantas fast as possible.
Um, and you know, I don't wantto corner any part of my
business.
I don't want to be like only Ican do this.
Well, that's a very proud thingto say, and that's a very slow
thing to say.
If you want to be fast, you wantto grow, you make yourself
redundant, you pass off thework, you put another individual

(38:45):
to work, and then you know whatI do with my developers, my
computer scientists who arecoding, who have soft hands, and
I make fun of them all the time,I make them go to our customers
and work there for a day.
So and then they have to showerafter work.
So you could go to my movingcompany customer and go move
boxes.
If you're gonna code for thesepeople and serve these people,

(39:06):
you better, yeah.
Every week we I bring differentcustomers and owners to my team
to listen to them, listen tothem.
You know, like if you're gonnaserve them and design for them,
you have to learn to be them.
You know, I'm not gonna ask mycustomer to learn how to speak
coding language.
Oh my goodness.
Um, but I am making my coderslearn the language of the

(39:27):
blue-collar team.
And they're they're fabulouspeople.
Assault to the earth, bestpeople, some of the best people
on the planet.

SPEAKER_02 (39:33):
That's a great way for them to be able to design
their product in such a way thatit actually makes sense for the
user.
So there's so much of adisconnect there, I think, in
businesses that, you know, it'slike one of the problems.
Uh I just use them as anexample.
Harley Davidson is not doingwell.
You know, I don't know if you'veread anything about it, but

(39:54):
they've got declining sales,they've got dealers going out of
business, they've got a badrelationship with their dealers,
they they their product mix isall wrong, it's all too
expensive and too big, you know,their their clients or audience
is dying off.
And, you know, one of theproblems one could say is they

(40:16):
have they they don't have peoplewho actually use their products
at the top of the company.
They're hiring brand managerswho have backgrounds in running
clothing stores or whatever.
It's not gonna work.
You've got to be out there, yougotta be a user of the product.
You've got to understand youraudience, I think.

SPEAKER_04 (40:39):
Um I I wear the same clothes as my customers.
I'm covered in car heart, youknow.
I've always worn, but like youknow, I'm covered in this stuff.
I eat at the same things.
I I do you've got to be thecustomer, you've got to go to
the customer.
The customers always have theanswer to the test.
If you're not winning, it'sprobably because you're not with
your customer.

(41:00):
And they don't give outparticipation awards, you know.
But if you're really listening,you try to be humble, you might
actually make something thatthey like.

SPEAKER_02 (41:09):
Yeah, I think I think it helps when you have
been in the business, youunderstand what the needs are on
a different level.
You know, years ago, I had someclients who I worked with
architects and engineers mywhole career.
And these guys were anarchitecture firm based in the
Boston area, let's say 35 plusyears ago, and they served mall

(41:32):
tenant clients.
So they did tenant build-outs inmalls, and they had a pretty
good business, maybe 110 people.
So it wasn't, you know, like alittle company for that narrow
of a focus.
They made all their employeeswork in a candy store that they
had in a mall that they owned.

(41:54):
They went through the process ofleasing the space, designing it,
building it out, and then theyhad their people go there and
work okay, so they could seewhat's it like.
Like materials come in.
How do we get this stuff intoplace?
And I just think that was such aprogressive thing to do.

SPEAKER_04 (42:15):
So smart.
So smart.
I walked around the farm with mybusiness partner the other week.
And I'm like, I think I'm gonnago start a pest control company
and I'm gonna make ourdevelopers work at it for a full
week or a month.
And I mean, I'll do crazy stufflike this.
Like that, that is brilliant.
Like actually having a candystore in your place, but I mean,

(42:36):
that's brilliant.
I love it.

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SPEAKER_02 (42:53):
Yeah, so many businesses go off course on
that.
And so I think your backgroundis really interesting.
Most people in your role in thekind of company you have have
not had that as theirexperience.

SPEAKER_04 (43:07):
Yeah.
Well, you know, I'm grateful.
I'm grateful from where I camefrom, grateful for who we get to
serve.
And um, yeah, I'm I'm very proudof you.

SPEAKER_02 (43:17):
Yeah.
So what comes next for you all?
Lots of cool stuff.

SPEAKER_04 (43:23):
I'm literally just getting warmed up.
Um can I I'm not supposed totell you any of this stuff, but
I'll at least give you a littlehint.
So within AI, one of the hardestthings, if if you and by the
way, if you guys are scared ofAI, I totally get it.

(43:43):
But I totally get it.
Like if you think it's gonnatake over the world and kill us
all, I totally get it.
Or you might be on the other endof the spectrum like me, I'm
like, I now that I've got it,I'm gonna use it ever I use it
every day for everything.
Everything.

SPEAKER_02 (43:54):
It's so lot of uses.
Uh undoubtedly.
The more you use it, the moreyou realize the value of it.
And now you don't really use it.

SPEAKER_04 (44:02):
Yeah.
And you don't trust everythingthe dang thing says.
It's really not like, don't dothat.
You know, you still I alwayscall it like the like the Iron
Man suit.
I still you still need TonyStark inside the thing, right?
And so like I I'm I'm Tony, youknow.
So use and play with AI.
All right.
Get if you haven't started,start today.
Go get your favorite flavor.

(44:23):
I tend to use Gemini all thetime, but take a pick one and
start using it.
Play with it.
Like I was playing with thepaint sprayers I was talking
about.
Just play with it.
So you'll find that when you askit to do something, prompt it is
what they call it.
That writing the prompt actuallybe the whole key.
So we are now spending lots oftime creating incredible prompts

(44:48):
for industries.
We made an 11-page prompt forthe moving industry.
Okay.
And here's what this thing cando: you can literally send a
text to your customer and go geta cup of coffee and tell them,
hey, just walk around and tellme what you want to move.
They can walk around, you get aping, you run this 11-page
prompt.
It's one button push, by theway.
And our little AI agent is alittle black lab.

(45:10):
My business partner's dog diedlast year, so we immortalized
it.
So it's a little black lab.
We call them Lucky.
You tap on Lucky, you tapanother button that says, give
me the moving inventory.
That's all you got to do.
Just tap tap.
That's it.
Done.
Lucky will go and review theentire video, give you itemized
everything with a picture ofeverything, the cubic weight of

(45:32):
it, all the packing materialsthat you need, the entire
inventory, even down to like, isthe person like that's not
going, this is going, that'sgoing, every little bit, and
writes it all out.
Something that used to take amover hours to do.
Lucky does it quickly and moreaccurately.
You still need to check it.
Don't trust all the AI.
But this prompt writing piece iswhat I'm obsessed over right

(45:55):
now.
And so what I'm gonna do, Ishouldn't tell you this.
What I'm gonna do is I'm goingto all of these business owners
that are that are on stages,that are a little more, but
don't have to be on stages.
They can just be business ownerswho are, they've they've they've
dialed their business in.
I'm going to business coaches,and they're going to be able to

(46:17):
write these prompts.
And people can just, hey, theseare you know the Mark and Eric
prompts for your industry.
It'll have your picture up thereand your name and it's your
thing, your Coca-Cola recipe.
It won't show the entire prompt.
And I may even allow you tomonetize that.
Like, hey, you know, tip mark aquarter, you know, a dollar for
that.
You just click the button.

(46:38):
Because that Coca-Cola recipe,that prompt is very difficult.
And if it's done right, it cando amazing things.
So prompting is like what I'mthinking a lot about recently.

SPEAKER_02 (46:51):
Well, you you need to talk with Eric.
It's a shame he's not herebecause he's into that with his
ad fury AI.
I know that's that's a big partof it.
But the um, yeah, I mean, I Iunderstand enough about AI to
realize how critical that is.
And you could just sit there andjust pick off vertical markets
all day long.

SPEAKER_04 (47:09):
That's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna make it one buttonpress.
Like you just say, hey, I'm anelectrician, here's all your
electrician prompts, or hey, I'man electrician in you know,
Arkansas.

SPEAKER_02 (47:19):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (47:21):
So that's next.
And then the even broader thing,I mean, I'm just getting warmed
up, is you're every day you'recollecting information, media.
It's every time someone makes aphone call in your business, if
it's recorded, if you send anemail, if you take a video, take
a photo, write out a contract,it's all data.

(47:45):
So I yep, so I'm gonna say thisin plain language.
I'm creating a vacuum cleaner tosuck all of that up.
All right, it's everything, suckit up.
Then in the middle, you tell itwhat you want it to do with it.
Like let's say you had a callcenter, and like just alert me
when my when the when someone'snot upselling like we've trained

(48:07):
them, and this is what we trainto upsell.
And then the third thing is youtell it how you want to be
communicated with.
Do you want to email?
Do you want to text?
Do you want a phone call?
And that way you can just wait,and this can this thing can
watch all of your data in yourcompany to help elevate it.
Like the program I was tellingabout how I make my team makes

(48:29):
cold calls 100 plus a day, I'vewrapped it all in AI.
And it coaches them.
It coach every call, it coachesthem, and it tells them where
they get hung up, what they needto say, they can listen to it,
trains them.

SPEAKER_02 (48:42):
And just the the benefit of being able to capture
all that data and put it in yourCRM.
You know, one of the probablythe biggest problem with CRMs is
that they're not populated,right?
It's like you go there and youdon't see that somebody's
already made a proposal to thisclient or talk with them six
months ago or whatever.
You miss all that because thepeople aren't keying it all in.

SPEAKER_04 (49:04):
They hate writing it.
News flash.
So here's what you do they holdup their phone.
Yeah, you record the wholething, it goes into the cloud.
Now you have a video, you'rebringing YouTube into your
business, then you hit a buttonthat says write my CRM entry for
me.
Boop, and writes the whole dangthing out, and they copy and
paste that in.

(49:25):
Having your team, you need theinformation, you need the data.
But how you get how you get thedata does you need to make that
so dang simple.
Asking your team to spend timekeying that whole thing in,
you're paying a lot of money forpeople to click on a keyboard to
get information from their headinto your system.
Now you have to do this stuffbecause if you ever want to

(49:46):
exit, they're gonna want, and ifyou want a better multiple than
nothing, they're gonna want tosee all of your business process
documented.
And now just whip the phone outand take a video of everything
you're doing.
It'll increase the value of yourbusiness.
So here's what's happening.
Once upon a time, electricitywas a competitive business

(50:07):
advantage.
Now you'd be laughed at if yousaid, Hey, you know the best
thing about business, we useelectricity.
You're an idiot.
Second, now we've all seen ithappen.
You say the word AI about it ayear ago, six months ago, your
multiple would jump up.
Well, now you're gonna soundlike an idiot saying, Oh, yeah,
we use AI in a business.

(50:28):
It's just like saying, Well, yougot electricity.
It's already in the rear view,ladies and gentlemen.
If you aren't using AI, you'renot using electricity yet.
Just it is what it is.
I'm just being honest with you.
The next moat, the next bigthing, and this is why there's
they want data centerseverywhere, is the data moat.
So every time you don't recordyour work, you're gonna wish you

(50:51):
had, if you're a five-year-oldbusiness, five years of data
recorded.
So there is a race to get databecause you can do so much with
this data in your entirecompany.
So there is a race for data, andyou're already behind.
You're already behind.
Like and it you're gonna you'recompeting against these people.
I bring these people up onstages to talk.

(51:13):
I'm leading a big virtualconference next week.
Got 400 business owners coming.
I love educating.
I'll get these business ownersup there, and people will look
at these guys like they got twoheads.
Like I got this one guy inSeattle running an eight-finger
business, moving company, and hehas his entire sales team in
South Africa and his businessmanager in Poland.

(51:33):
That'll get shit.

SPEAKER_02 (51:34):
Wild.

SPEAKER_04 (51:34):
He runs his moving company.

SPEAKER_02 (51:36):
Moving company.
Which you think of as a localbusiness, right?
I mean That's it.

SPEAKER_04 (51:41):
And why?
It's hard to find good people.
Sure.
Not because he doesn't want tokeep jobs in America.
Not at all.
In fact, he'd hire them all.

unknown (51:48):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (51:48):
So I get it.

SPEAKER_04 (51:49):
But he's got speed and the need for speed.
And when somebody calls yourcompany, they're not asking you
what you have for breakfast.
That's the hottest time to sellsomebody.
So the faster we call it race tothe face, have you ever lost a
job saying, Oh, yeah, let meschedule a time, I'll be out
there in a few days.
And then you call up a few dayslater, hey, I'm headed out.

(52:10):
And the person's like, Oh, don'tbother, I found somebody.

SPEAKER_02 (52:13):
You only lost because you were slow.
Oh, it's so true.
I mean, I might have said it onthis show recently.
I was not long ago, I waslooking for a trailer hitch for
my wife.
She had an Audi Q5 Sportback.
So I'm on, she needs a trailerhitch to put the bike rack on.

(52:33):
So, of course, you know, IGoogle it, I find all the
trailer hitches.
They all say Audi Q5, Q5, Q5.
None of them says fits the Q5Sportback.
So I send an email out to twodifferent companies.
Does your hitch fit a sportback?
One of them responds to mewithin about 10 minutes, and I
go, I'll buy it.

(52:54):
Boom, done.
The other guys got back to me inmaybe two to three hours, and I
said, too late.
It just it's exactly what you'resaying.

SPEAKER_04 (53:02):
It's no different than sports at speed.
And that's what is uh that iswhat's going on right now.
Is we have no patience.
I was talking to the executivesuh in Panera and Subway, because
uh they have these things calledlines, it's called fast casual.
Do you like waiting in line?
I hate waiting in line.
So for finding ways to get ridof the line, so now you can just

(53:24):
go to your table, scan a QRcode, uh, pops a person if you
need a person, or you put yourorder in, and they get the
money.
Because you know what happens ifyou stand in line and you you're
really hungry, and you're reallyhungry, you leave.
So they want throughput.
But if you go in and you pay foryour meal, uh when you pay for
it, you just leave.
And so you're they're thinkingabout all of these different

(53:47):
experiences that can be changedand brought forward all on the
back of that's just speed.
That's all that is.
Speed and convenience, speed andconvenience.
And the most convenient and thefastest companies that do good
work, have good product, don'tput out a terrible sandwich or
you know, terrible whatever youyou build, you know, you got to
make sure.
Um, and oh my goodness.

(54:09):
That that that's what it's allabout.
It's so funny.
I I'll tell you one other storyhere.
I know we've been going for awhile, but it's one other story.
So the last company we had, wewere flying.
I mean, we're ink 500 year afteryear after year, and I was
burning at both ends.
And I was, you know, I justneeded, I needed, I just needed
to clear my head.
So we we I picked a spotsomewhere up in the Cape Cod

(54:31):
area, Chatham, um, you know,just to go out during the
summer.
I took my family, I took acouple of coworkers, and we're
driving to go to this month-longhouse that we rented.
And in Jersey, they have thishuge rest stop.
I mean, it's a monster.
And so I've got my othercoworkers with me, and we're um
we're we're stopping at the reststop.
And everyone goes, gets theirfood, they sit down, and we're

(54:52):
like, where is Lindsay?
Like, where is Lindsay?
Like, we are done, we are readyto go.
And I see her.
She now she's walking towardsus, she's shaking her head.
You can tell, oh boy,something's not right.
She's a little cock-eyed.
Like, where have you been?
She's like, Oh, I was justtrying to get some fried chicken
in this line, and they weretaken forever.
But what happened?
I'm sitting, she's like, I'msitting there, and there's this

(55:13):
big dude in front of me, likebig old dude from Jersey.
You can only imagine.
Like, scary looking kind of guy,big boy.
And there's this little guybehind the um cash register, and
the guy had been waiting,they've been waiting forever.
And he gets up there, and thelittle guy guy behind the
register is like, hello, sir,welcome to whatever chicken
restaurant.
Can I help you?

(55:33):
He's like, I don't know if youcan help me.
I don't know.
He's like, You know what yougotta do, and maybe I need to
get back there.
You take the chicken, you put itin the box, and then you hand it
to me.
That is what you do.
You do this quickly.
What is wrong with you guys?
And he, the kid is like shaking.
Lindsay's laughing her head off.

(55:54):
You know, you can just see thispoor little kid, right?
But this guy is explainingbusiness in the best way I've
ever heard in my life.
I use this all the time in mybusiness, and it's crazy.
It's crazy how much it comes upbecause when you're coding
something or whatever you'redoing, like my engineers, we
squash bugs.
They call it squashing bugs.
So they'll fix the bug, right?
They'll say, Oh, it's fixed.

(56:15):
It's fixed, boss.
I'm like, is it in production?
Is it in the live product?
Is the customer benefiting fromyour bug squash?
Oh no, no, it's waiting in thequeue.
It's not fixed, brother.
You put the chicken in the box,you gotta hand it to them.
And it needs to be hot, juicy,and delicious.

(56:36):
But you can apply thiseverywhere in your business.
And now that you've heard this,you'll see it all over, and it
will drive you mad.
This is the thing that keeps meup, but uh and not a beautiful
business lesson.
I don't know, please help me.

SPEAKER_02 (56:49):
That is beautiful.
Well, unfortunately, we're outof time, and uh I know that uh
Eric's gonna be sad he he missedthis today, and and I gotta say,
I I this has been a really funconversation, and you've got my
head spinning, and I'm justthinking of a million things I
need to do.
And uh I appreciate uh yousharing your very, very valuable

(57:13):
time and insight with our ourlisteners today.
If anybody wants to learn moreabout you and your product and
all, what is your websiteaddress?

SPEAKER_04 (57:24):
Yep.
Website is live switch.com,L-I-V-E, S-W-I-T-C-H.com, live
switch.com.
You can get me directly onLinkedIn if you want to talk.
I love talking to businessowners or anyone listening.
Come to me, test me in this.
I will give you my time.
I've done it many times before,and I got great stories, which
we don't we don't have time.
Maybe for round two.
I told Eric, I'm sure we'll I'llbe back again with you guys.

(57:46):
So I got 10 stories, man.
Yeah.
Live switch numbers.

SPEAKER_02 (57:49):
You got you got so much to offer, and I really
appreciate your spending timewith us today.
And uh hopefully we'll get tosee you again.
But until then, this has beenanother episode of Big Talk
about small business.
Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 (58:14):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk
About Small Business.
If you have any questions orideas for upcoming shows, be
sure to head over to ourwebsite,
www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com,and click on the Ask the Host
button for the chance to haveyour questions answered on the
show.
Stay connected with us onLinkedIn at Big Talk About Small

(58:35):
Business.
And be sure to head over to ourwebsite to read articles, browse
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