An interview with Jerry Vass

“An interview with Florida neighbor and author Jerry Vass, marketing/sales guru, and future blogger and podcaster.” Jerry discusses his experience with writing and publishing. The traditional publishing process is slow and inefficient. He considers himself more of a short story writer than a book writer, and is thinking about starting a blog instead of finishing his current book project. He believes the publishing industry is outdated and that blogging could be a better way to share his ideas and connect with readers. Jerry also talks about his background in sales training and how he focuses on effective communication rather than just sales tactics.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So he started to tell a story

(00:02):
in the kitchen and then he
started to tell a second story.
I said, "Hold on a minute, let
me just get this to you."
And so I did and at first he
was kind of self-conscious and
he talked in third person about
me to the people listening to

(00:23):
the thing.
And then he got the drift of it
and he did one and it was a big
hit. They loved him.
My listeners or readers or
whatever.
So anyway, so you're sharing V
AS, V-A-S-S. Do you have a web
log yet?
No, I don't. I have a website,

(00:44):
VAS.com. But it's strictly
commercial.
So what do you think about the
idea of having a weblog?
Well, I'm just coming to it
this morning. The reason I
drove down here to talk to you
is because I had converted a
book that I had on CD to MP3

(01:06):
files with the idea that of
having people who were
interested in the book
downloaded into their iTunes.
I'm a Mac Queen. So into their
iTunes and they had downloaded
onto their iPod and actually
turned the iPod into an
educational device, not just
rock and roll.

(01:27):
So that was the whole point of
it.
And I'm now beginning to, well,
I've had this book in the works
for at least seven years. And
somehow this book, I have the
parts and pieces of it, but it
never wanted to come together.
And the fact of the matter is I

(01:47):
am not a book writer, even
though I have a book on the
market and have had for 10
years. Soft selling in a hard
world.
What I really am is a short
story writer. I write short
pieces. And to me that is, my
view is anybody can write about
anything in 30,000 words, but

(02:08):
it's hard to compress.
And I use the word "compress"
in software, in software sense,
where you actually squeeze the
dead space out of the thought
or the concept or the story or
the idea.
And I'm pretty good at that. It
's squeezing that stuff out. So
I'm really a short piece writer

(02:28):
.
And so I'm seriously
considering, rather than
finishing this book and sending
it off to the publisher, which
quite frankly is more and more
in my mind, an antiquated way
of thinking.
And you can trust me on this.
The publishing business is the
most backward business in the

(02:49):
world today.
There's nothing more backward.
I mean, the publishing business
is comparable to streetcars.
And they have built in some
really interesting traps in the
publishing business.
For instance, if I submitted a
manuscript today, and let's say

(03:13):
that the manuscript was ready
to go to press, but this book,
Soft Selling in a Hard World,
actually my daughter and we
wrote it. We edited, I mean, I
hired a copy editor to edit it.
Then we made it out on PageM
aker. We sent it to them on a
PageMaker file.

(03:34):
They put it on and they ran the
book without change. So they
didn't do any of the mechanical
except for the covers.
That was pretty forward looking
for its time. I mean, it really
was. Nowadays.
And what way was it? Well,
because it wasn't being done.
The author doing all the
production on it. Yeah, the

(03:54):
author doing all the production
on it.
How long did it take them to go
from what you gave them to
actual...
To actually go to the street
with it? Yeah. It took about 18
months. See, that's ridiculous.
Well, of course it's ridiculous
. Well, it's sitting on the
shelf there. It's going out of
date. But it's even worse than
that.
This little book, and it sounds

(04:14):
a bit braggadocio, but it isn't
. It's just a fact.
This little book would sell out
instantly. I mean, they would
buy a bookstore, buy six copies
of the meeting to go away.
Then it would go to a computer
someplace and then it would be
ordered by a computer.
It would take three weeks for
that book to come back in. So
the book would be on the shelf

(04:35):
for three days, and it would
take three weeks to replace it.
But that's the publishing
business. So when you're
thinking about writing another
book, basically we go through
exactly that system all over
again.
If I had it done today, it
would not be on the market. It
wouldn't be in the bookstores
for a year.
But it's still kind of nice to
go over to Barnes & Noble and
just pick up a book. Absolutely

(04:56):
. I like that.
I'd crawl around over there all
the time. I'm going to Elmore
Leonard books now.
They've got 30 of them over
there at Barnes & Noble. So hey
, John, how long have you been
there?
I can just go over there and
one up. It's kind of trashy,
but it's fun.
The distribution system still
is kind of relevant, but why
does it take 18 months?

(05:18):
Because they've got their own
weird customs and traditions.
Maybe unions are involved
somehow or something like that.
I think it is so hard to make
money in publishing. I think
they have to have a lot of
stuff going.
The author is simply part of
the assembly line. It's just an

(05:39):
assembly line.
Out of our discussions, I am
seriously considering scrapping
that whole idea.
I'm 70 years old. I'm 70 years
old.
I'm 70 years old.

(06:01):
That's a lie. I'm so old I can
't buy ripe bananas. Green
bananas.
You're not that old.
Anyway, what I wanted to do is
the ideas that I'm working on
and that I do work on because
of the nature of my business as
an executive level sales

(06:22):
trainer
is that there is a currency in
persuasion and the way persu
asion changes over time.
People think, "Well, it's all
about this one way." It isn't
because the market changes.
Everything has to change with
it.
We are in touch with those
changes just because this is

(06:44):
what we do for a living and we
're at the contact patch between
business and the street.
What's the contact?
We talk to the people who are
talking to the people on the
street. You're talking to the
clients all the time.
Who is? You are talking.
They are talking. Our students
are talking to those people. We
talk to our students and we

(07:04):
probe very carefully in the
course of our 3-day course.
We get information from them.
We take the information home
and we think about it and go, "
You know what? The market is
moving. The market is moving
here."
We try to move with that market
.
Over time, we've discovered a

(07:25):
whole bunch of stuff that is
totally counterintuitive and
very controversial.
It's going to be very
controversial because people,
businesses, and industries
really have gone against the

(07:46):
marketplace.
For instance, let's say you
have a firm out here, Acme Corp
.
Acme Corp builds whatever. Acme
Corp, say, is a consulting firm
.
They know everything about what
they do. They are very smart
and we are a culture of
extraordinarily smart and

(08:07):
bright people.
The way they have been encultur
ated by going to school and
becoming educated and by the
culture, by TV and all the
media that surrounds them,
when you ask them what they do
for a living as a potential
buyer, as a potential buyer of
their services,

(08:28):
they can go to great lengths to
tell you everything they know
and how smart they are in their
credentials.
But they cannot translate it
into the language for the buyer
.
They can't translate it into
their customers' language or to
a language that works in the
boardroom.
I mean, that's what we do is
help them translate all of this

(08:49):
education and all of this
experience and all this
marvelous talent
into a message over here that a
CEO will understand.
And you have to understand that
CEOs are extraordinarily smart,
but they don't have any time.
So you don't have time to
explain how wonderful you are.

(09:11):
And so that is one of the
things that we run into.
And it sounds like hyperbole,
but it is universal.
It is now a universal problem
in our culture that businesses
cannot explain what they do
from the buyer's point of view.
And so this book is about that.

(09:33):
It's about the new book.
The new book is about that
premise, about translating what
you do into the buyer's
language.
And tentatively titled, I don't
know what it's tentatively
titled, I have about 50 titles
and I haven't really said along
one,
but it is about decoding this
thing, about this communication

(09:55):
gap.
So anyway, I'm thinking about
it and with our discussion this
morning, I'm going to, well,
hell,
maybe I have been waiting for
this kind of a breakthrough in
thought and maybe blogging is
the way to do that.
Well, let me just add something

(10:15):
because I'm listening here.
You talked about the stuff that
there aren't any blogs that I'm
aware of that are in this area.
There are lots of technology
blogs.
There are lots of lawyer blogs,
lots of political blogs.
Businessweek just started one.
Okay.

(10:36):
Really?
Yeah.
But it's not like this.
It sort of like covers
everything that Businessweek
covers, which includes the kind
of stuff you're talking about,
but it's not this kind of focus
.
It's not how to market.
I think I knew Steve Rubel, who
is a PR guy who has a leading
edge for, you know, it's how to
do public relations in this

(10:56):
context.
And the things are, you know, I
just did a podcast with him in
New York a couple of days ago
and it was fascinating stuff.
I mean, it's funny because when
, you know, it's all of a sudden
public relations, you know,
which had drifted from being
public relations to being press
relations.
Right. Well, now it goes back

(11:18):
to being public relations
because you're, you know, that
big word just intermediates.
Yeah.
You know, right? It's
everywhere that you look here.
And, you know, I think that
where your stuff ends up is
that you're not just going to
be talking to people who sell
to buyers,
but you're going to be talking
to buyers on how to get what
they want out of the seller.

(11:39):
That's right.
Because there are a lot of
times when you know that you
need a product, I find, I had
this happen to me a lot where I
know I need a product.
And I strongly believe that a
lot of other people would like
to have that product.
Yeah, nobody's making it.
And then five, ten years from
now, that of course somebody is

(12:00):
making it.
And it's one of the biggest
hits you've ever seen.
And it's not that it was techn
ologically impossible to do this
, you know, five, ten years
before.
It's just that it hadn't, the
channel communication was a one
-way thing.
And the manufacturers and
product designers weren't
themselves users, so it never

(12:20):
got to them that there was a
way to, there was a product
that needed to be done.
You know, something like the iP
od, for example, you know, an
incredibly convenient form
factor, right?
I mean, but something in a
slightly less convenient form
factor would have been possible
ten years, five years ago, for
sure.
But somebody had to overcome
all of the inertia that comes

(12:41):
from thinking, well, things
have always been done this way,
and you know, you hit the eject
ions in the music industry.
And, you know, it took a very
creative approach to things to
say, well, we'll, you know, we
'll try to work something out
with the music industry at the
time when it becomes a problem.
And of course it worked out
real well in the music industry
.
I read a thing in The Times,
New York Times today, saying

(13:03):
that the new president of Sony
wants an iTunes for movies,
because it works so well.
I personally think that iTunes
could work even better if it
weren't for so much of the
power and the way on the part
of the music industry.
And, you know, it's unfortunate
that it takes time for that to
sort of work its way through
the system, but it will.

(13:25):
So, like, when you say that you
write in small sort of story-
sized chunks, me too.
And early on in my writing
career, I guess you could call
it, I got a book agent, a
couple of them actually, wanted
me to do a book.
You know, they said, well, we
can certainly sell a book to
you.
You know, and so I went and

(13:46):
looked, and I had already
written, like, three books were
material, basically.
And so I went back and printed
it all out.
And they were in essay form,
not block.
I mean, these were nine-chated.
And I printed it all out and
put it in a binder, and like, I
never got around to reading it.
Because why? Because I was

(14:06):
writing the stuff for today,
you know, and the stuff when I
finally did, we saw it.
I felt, you know, it was kind
of interesting in a sort of
time capsule way, but this
stuff's out of date, way out of
date.
The things that I was
predicting, you know, I'd have
to put asterisks everywhere to
say, well, this turned out to
be true, and this didn't turn
out to be true.
And so I said, forget it, I can
't do it.
So he said, but really, we
could sell a book.

(14:27):
And I said, well, yeah, you
could sell a book, but I don't
have it.
So we hired an editor to go and
try to do this.
And the editor, and we hired
another.
We hired another, and they all
struck out like, didn't do it.
You know, so there is writing
that absolutely doesn't fit the
ma'ai.
Who says that's what I do? That
you could not make a book out
of what I write.
And I couldn't, in Converse, I

(14:48):
couldn't change my writing
style to be a book writer.
Why? Because I would insist on
publishing what I write every
day.
And when I do that, I would, I
would, that, when you do that,
when you approach writing that
way, it changes the way you
write.
You tend to write in the
context of the moment.
And maybe somebody wouldn't
understand.
Like today I said, you know,

(15:08):
the coverage of the Pope, well
yesterday I said, the coverage
of the Pope's death is the same
.
The coverage of the Pope's
death is ridiculous.
We're getting an infomercial
for the Catholic Church.
You know, and why is, where's
the balance to this?
Why aren't they, you know,
providing, why, why don't we
get an education about the
Catholic Church right now,
instead of just this PR, huge
PR onslaught on the Catholic
Catholic Church?

(15:29):
You know, today that comment
resonates with some people, and
of course other people they
hate me for saying that.
That's fine. And I also said
today, you know, let's stop,
you know, talking about our
friend who would make some new
enemies.
You know, it's like no fun if
you're just talking to your
friend.
You know, it's better to
actually piss of deep love, and

(15:49):
then you kind of know what you
're actually accomplishing
something.
But, you know, if you looked at
that, if a random person looked
at that a year from that,
you know, what the fuck was he
talking about?
You know, I mean, they wouldn't
have, even if they were alive
and listening and aware of that
moment,
they would have forgotten it a
long time ago.
They'll be in new posts, people
will be different in some way,
and, you know, John Paul will

(16:10):
be dead, and it will still be
dead.
And, you know, and we will look
at him as gone.
So it's, you know, on the other
hand, you build these
relationships with people who
then become readers of your
blog,
and then something really
interesting happens, okay?
After a while of doing that,
what happens is they start
their own blogs, okay?
Because there's this thing that
I call the Piper Effect, is

(16:32):
that, inevitably, when you
stand up and do this blogging
thing,
you will, if you do it well and
you do it consistently, you
will attract people who then,
at first are like,
that comfortable with the idea
of doing it themselves, and
watching you do it, then one
day they get an idea,
and they say, "What do I want
to do with this idea?"
And say, "Ah, I'll put up a
blog."
And there, there they go. Now

(16:53):
they've got, now they're up and
running.
And so, you know, it's, and it
's, I think, a great place to be
, you know, when you realize
that there's something,
and we're just going to go
through this in all the
different sort of human
endeavors,
and each one of them is going
to have a fight type work.
I think it's a bootstrapper,
the person who sort of seeds

(17:15):
the idea out there,
and given what you do and how
you've done it, I think, you
know, you'd be a great guy.
I'm sure, Brick Blazer would
agree to, you'd be a great guy.
I just saw Brick, by the way.
Oh, did you?
Yeah, I had lunch with him,
like, three days ago, and it
was great.
You know, just brainstorming,
one idea after another, and

(17:36):
have some fun.
Yeah, I mean, I think you'd be
great at it. I think that
everything you're doing,
I mean, okay, you said before
that you get six dollars sales
for every book that you write,
every book that you sell, right
, there's six dollars or eight
dollars worth of following
business,
but you only need one dollar on
that book to begin with, so I
think that's a big clue right

(17:57):
there.
Yeah, it is. Let's see, I've
never figured out a way to,
well, I mean, we have obviously
capitalized on the additional
sale part of that.
How do you, what are the six-k
dollars? What are the sales?
Training consultant.
So you get some, you know, they
read the book and then they

(18:18):
come to take one of your
seminars?
Yes, and it continually, it
generates a little business
along.
We sell about, I mean, the book
business is really a strange
deal because if a book sells 25
,000, it's considered to be a
best sell.
I mean, far better than that.

(18:40):
Well, this book has sold 65,000
bucks in the way they've ever
heard it. I'm 65,000 copies in
the way they've ever heard of
the book, except for those 65,
000 people.
Why is that?
Well, because it's never been
promoted. It's not stocked in
the book stores much. You have
to kind of run the book down.
It's all written around.
Yeah. And still it produces and

(19:00):
still it does everything it's
supposed to do.
So what would you like? Would
you like it to be worldwide?
Would you like some more copies
?
For strange reasons, yeah. I
would, but for strange reasons
because this little book is a
selling manual for salespeople.
I mean, it's like a Boy Scout
manual. There isn't any

(19:20):
controversy in it. It's just
like, this is how you do it.
And it's laid out mechanically
because that's the way I think.
And it would help. It would
help a lot of people make
something of themselves.
Because most salespeople are

(19:41):
really bad. They're really bad
what they do.
They've read a bunch of crappy
books, which is teaching them
tricks and manipulation and all
that.
And people know they're being
tricked in this way.
Of course. And that's why
people are so certain.
It's like, watch my hands.

(20:03):
But would you actually be the
salesman, salesperson who
actually likes their product
and wants you to be happy with
it? You can tell.
See, that's the magic. It's fun
to work with those people.
It's one of you to be happy
with the deal. The salespeople
that I have done are really
good. They liked what they were

(20:23):
doing.
And B, they liked the long-term
relationships that they built
with their clients.
And it wasn't all about money.
It was about communicating and
being straight and helping
people do the rest of the stuff
.
Solving their problems.
This isn't about money.
No. It really isn't.

(20:45):
So I've been doing it for 27
years and it's been very
satisfying because we put a lot
of people on the road and
people go, well, selling is the
sort of downer.
I mean, you can't do anything
else.
The fact of the matter is,
people who sell well, they don
't work as hard as everybody

(21:05):
else.
They make a lot more money.
They live in the big houses and
they drive the fast cars.
And they get the kids educated
and their kids teeth look good.
And as you say, everybody sells
. There's no such thing as a
profession that doesn't involve
a lot of selling.
Not in this country. This is

(21:25):
not a country where people come
and seek you out because you're
a really smart account.
That's right. It's not the poor
guy.
It's the poor guy.
There's a lot of myths around
that.
And of course it's not about
the sale. I'm not a bad sales
man.
I closed a multimillion dollar

(21:46):
deal selling a house and a
friend of mine who is a well, a
very accomplished salesperson.
He made lots and lots of money.
A friend of mine, who pointed
out at that point that I was a
multimillion dollar sales guy.
I said, wow, that's really
weird. How the hell did that
happen?
And I watched myself do it. And

(22:08):
I've learned how to sell things
.
I've established, establishing
a standard, for example, is
totally sales.
I mean, it's technology, sure.
Technology.
And to know what choices to
make, because there are a lot
of choices, is based on

(22:29):
experience.
But even so, even the most
powerful standard has mistakes
in it.
The things that you learn later
, it would have worked better if
you had done it another way.
But even so, there's no way to
change it.
You can use it and it's fine.
It works. So there is

(22:49):
technology to it, but it's 99.
99% apologists.
I mean, apologists of course is
salesmanship, right?
It's how to get the guy to do
what you want them to do at the
same time to feel that they're
doing what they want to do.
That there's a mutual, that it
's good for everybody.
And that's about even being

(23:11):
over social species and making
yourself feel good and making
other people feel good.
They're related somehow. They
're not kind of who we are.
It'd be great to have a blog. I
know a few people right off the
bat who was like,
the guy was the one who was at
Microsoft, he used to be,

(23:34):
before he got into technology,
he was a cameraster.
And he talks about it a lot. He
found it easy to compete with
the other guys because they
were sort of rushing the
customer through.
And he didn't look at it that
way. He loved cameras and he is
a naturally ultra-rigidious
person.
He just like, he loves, wait a

(23:54):
minute, he sounds corny, but he
loves people.
I mean, you can see that. He
doesn't have a whole lot of
tolerance for people who won't
put the time in.
Not every minute has to be
built. And he had very loyal
customers and they paid more to
get the cameras from him
because they enjoyed working

(24:14):
with the chair.
So I think having more
marketing and sales energy in
the biosphere would be a very
good thing.
And maybe we'll be better at
marketing and sales.
I look at what I do as teaching

(24:36):
communication, probably more
than sales.
Sales puts a kind of a stigma
on it because selling has a
rather poor, stinky kind of
reputation in our culture.
But actually selling well is
really nothing but
communicating well.

(24:58):
It's these communication skills
that are the nut of what we do.
We call it sales training
because nobody's going to pay
us to teach them how to hold a
conversation.
But that's what we're doing. I
tell people, it's what we teach
is to symbolize conversations.
Maybe we ought to turn the
recording device. It still

(25:19):
feels like we're doing a show
instead of just having a
conversation.
So let's wind this down and
continue the conversation.
Can you say what your email
address is?
[e-mail]
How do you spell that?
V-A-S-S
That's how people can get in
touch with you if they want to.
I don't doubt that there will

(25:40):
be people who will want to.
I'm going to help you to get
your blog up anyway.
This morning, the Sunday
morning out here on the beach,
I think that's the way I'm
going to go.
Jerry's Beach Blog for the
Sales Guy.
I used to write, I've been
writing for...
You want me to turn this off?

(26:01):
Okay, we'll do it on the phone.
Have a care.
You want some coffee?
Yes.
Okay, what are you taking?
I don't have sugar.
Okay, go milk.
I have half and half.
Is that right?
Oh yeah.
I've been working, I've been
writing for years and years and
I used to write short stories,

(26:25):
short pieces, all of that stuff
.
Years ago, I used to write on
the Starry Island Times, all of
that.
Yeah, that's true.
I never could figure out what
to do with that stuff.
I have seven or eight pieces
out of those days.
Yeah, I was probably writing in
the 70s.
And I think I was going to...

(26:47):
I like to have it run down a
lot.
I've already worked with more
...
Yeah, I mean content.
Okay, I guess I'm going to have
to go to the literature back to
...
Well, this is my idea.
You know, I've been seriously
considering putting this stuff
into audio for my kids,
actually.
You know, for my theory, for my
children.
That's good.

(27:08):
That's good.
Yeah, that's good.
Someone's using the phone when
I'm working.
I mean, it's a little longer
than what I'm writing.
Oh no.
It's like, it's reality.
You know, if your daddy is like
me, he knows he's going to die.
You go, "Okay, I want to die
one of these days."
Well, me too.
Yeah, but you know, it becomes
more real after a certain point
.
You go, "You know what?

(27:30):
This may be the last day for me
."
Yeah, well, the Pope just died
at 84.
And I'm going to turn 50.
What's today's date?
Third?
May 2nd.
So, yeah.
I'll tell you what.
You know what they say, the
longer you live, the longer you
're probably done with it.

(27:51):
Okay.
Well, that's true.
Come on, that's on it.
Well, it's statistically...
Well, if you make it through 50
, then you know that you've...
You have cheated death, but...
Well, if you make it to 50, you
know you made it through your
40.
One of my heroes, Douglas Adams
, died when he was 49.
He's a great science fiction

(28:11):
writer.
And at the time, I was 46, I
think, and that really spooked
me because, you know, here's a
guy who's contemporary.
And, you know, he looked good.
He didn't look like he was
about to die, you know, but
then there he goes.
You know, my buddies who died

(28:31):
are sick.
They got prostate cancer and...
Do you have any change or...
Yeah.
How are you?
I'm doing good.
Yeah, I'm doing good.
And I'm blessed, well, let me
tell you.
My good buddies, jeez, you know
, they got cancer, just getting
operated on.
It's just a horrible thing to

(28:52):
watch.
I mean, I love these people and
these people are all sick.
Yeah.
So it gets very real.
You read in the newspaper, "
What was this actor who just
died out of the New York actor,
the...
Oh, Ornabok, Jerry Ornabok."
Oh, right, prostate cancer,
yeah.
He's my age, 69 years old.

(29:13):
It gets real close.
People say, "Yeah, 19... he was
born in 1935."
He goes, "I was born in 1935."
Yeah.
It gets dicey when you get it
to say it.
But I'm fortunate.
I have great genes and all my
family has to get real old.
That's good.

(29:34):
Yeah.
Well, Clint Eastwood was at the
Academy Awards, it was pretty
interesting.
And he's getting on in yours.
He's 72 or something like that.
I think he's quite a bit old.
I think he's getting...
I think he's 76.
Oh, is he really?
Yeah, he's older than 72.
Yeah, he looks good though.
He does, but it's beginning to

(29:55):
sort of...
His age is showing and the
million dollar baby, he kind of
...
He doesn't try to look younger.
He just basically...
I think it's great.
And his mother was at the
Academy Awards, so...
94 years old and she looked
great.

(30:16):
She had this sort of bright
look to her face, like somebody
who was not...
If he was another one 10 years
from now, he's probably...
She'll probably be there too.
She looked very, very good.
And he made a joke about it.
He said, "My mom was...
It's the last time I got the
Best Director Award.
She was only 84 then."

(30:39):
And then the camera goes in on
her and she's just beaming.
It's a pretty nice story, of
course.
It's not that common though
that guys that make it into
their 70s
can have their mother be there
with them when they get there.
Let me ask you this.
On this podcasting thing, how
do you do distribution on that?
Well, if I had a net connection

(31:01):
here today, I could show you
the whole thing
because we're going to do one,
right?
What you do is you upload it to
your website, to your blog.
Oh, really?
Yeah, you just put it up there.
Oh, really?
Yeah, it goes up as an MP3 file
.
That's it. There's nothing more
to it.
Oh, we do.
That's basically what this idea
is.
I just had an extended it over
to them.
How big is this file? Is this

(31:23):
one file or more than one?
No, it's 307 megabytes.
Is it one file?
One file.
Whoa.
No, no, no, no.
No, it's one file but it is 23
tracks.
Still, how many files?
It's just one file.
One file.
So that's, okay, so since we're

(31:43):
doing a podcast right now,
we should explain that you took
your book, right?
Right.
We saw it, soft selling in a
hard world.
You recorded it onto CDs.
A couple years ago.
A couple years ago.
So it became an audio book.
And then you just ripped those
CDs to turn them into an MP3.
On iTunes.
You used iTunes.
I used iTunes to do that.
I didn't know iTunes to do that

(32:04):
.
Neither did I.
Okay, well that's good.
It took me about an hour to rip
it off.
Right.
Well, I do that all the time.
I buy books and, you know, then
rip them so that I can put them
on.
I mean, I get them, some of
them I get through Audible and
they have all this digital
rights
management crap on them.
It makes them really sort of
pain in the ass to use.
And sometimes I just buy them,
you know, in this form and then

(32:26):
rip them.
That's also a total pain in the
ass because it turns me into a
disc shuffle, which I hate.
But we may want to break this
up into more than, I mean, one
300, 300 megabyte thing.
It's like, it's hard to
download that.
How could somebody just try it

(32:46):
out?
To sort of like listen to a
couple of chapters and...
Well, actually, I just did this
ass backwards then because what
I did is I had this broken
into four files.
Right.
And you merge them together
because you have four files for
each of the CDs, right?
One file for each CD, right?
More or less, yes.

(33:07):
So take them apart again.
I did.
And we'll upload them.
Do you have an e-connection to
your house?
Oh, yeah.
Okay, sure.
Well, I'll have one here
tomorrow.
And I got, I mean, I got
airport.
I got Eastern.
I got...
I don't know any way you want.
Really?
Yeah.
I don't think your airport
reaches this house.
No.
Yeah, it would be kind of nice

(33:27):
if it did.
Maybe we could string a wire.
Yeah, string a wire and a
couple cans.
Yeah, whatever.
Yeah, that's tomorrow.
I'll have the cable company
spending tomorrow.
And I'll set you up for the
blog and I'll give you space to
put your amputees freeze up and
you know, I'm going to put this
up probably tonight, this
podcast that we do right now.
I'll upload it because, yeah, I

(33:47):
'm quite as well with people
here.
Sure.
This is going to make a really
interesting A/B because my
guess is you will be a blogger.
You will succeed at it and you
will become a by-tester and it
's going to be like a whole new
career for you.
And that this podcast that we
're doing today is going to
serve...
We'll look back on this one
having a blast.
Hell yeah.

(34:08):
Yeah, because we didn't know
anything.
Because the fact of the matter,
I am extraordinarily naive
about this stuff.
Me too.
I'm fascinated by the idea, I'm
fascinated by the idea of a
concept of it.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to try this.

(34:29):
And the reason I'm going to try
it is quite frankly, I have a
whole bunch of material.
Not all of it is good.
Some of it is very good.
A lot of it is kind of ordinary
but I have a lot of material
that I have been trying
to figure out a way to promul
gate it but I didn't want to
print with it.

(34:50):
I just don't have any desire to
go to the book.
Well why put up that turnaround
?
Yeah.
Well yeah, none of us is going
to be here forever.
Especially when you're not
going to be here forever.
Why would you not be here
forever?
18 months might be our life.
That's right.
Yeah, but remember I'll just
pencil this.
It's free-perks.
I never free that one but it

(35:11):
makes perfect sense to me.
The whole thing is a pencil.
Even when you're young it feels
like you're going to live
forever.
That's right.
Everything is all well.
We're doing pretty good.
I'm looking out the window
right here.
I'm looking at the blue sky and
the beach and whatever.

(35:32):
For this moment it's pretty
amazing life.
Pretty amazing life.
Okay, well I'm going to race
off.
Whatever you want to get.
Well is that fun over here?
Are you calling on to your main
number?
Yeah.

(35:53):
Okay, so I'll just put that
into my address book.
Should I set up a blog for you
then?
That'd be cool.
Do you already own a domain?
Jerry www.vast.com?
Yeah, Vast.com.
Wait, let me turn this off
because now we're going to talk
about stuff I don't want to
talk about.
Okay, so thanks everyone.
This morning Coffee Nuts Dave
Weiner, April 3rd, 2005 with

(36:15):
Jerry Vast.
Your email address again for
the folks at home?
It's [e-mail].
Cool, okay, so if you want to
tell Jerry what you think of
him, send him an email.
And it doesn't have to all be
good.
Don't worry, you don't need to
tell him that.
They already know that one.
Yeah, I think so.
Thanks everybody, see you soon.