Code, Connect, Conquer: One Immigrant's Entrepreneurial Journey

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tonya J. Long (00:07):
Welcome home, friends.
I'm Tonya Long, and this isRESET where purpose meets
possibility.
Each week, we shareconversations with thought
leaders, innovators and thedreamers and doers who are
reshaping the future of work,technology, longevity and
purpose.
Whether you're navigating AI'simpact, reimagining your career

(00:32):
or searching for deeper meaning,you're in the right place.
So settle in, open your mindand let's explore what happens
when purpose meets possibility.
Welcome to RESET with Tonya, andI welcome Igor Krasnykh.

(00:54):
Thank you, thank you.
So you're going to learn injust a moment.
Krasnykh is Igor's family name.
He's the founder and CEO ofTechNW eb and IdealD ata.
IO, so that should tell you.
This man has tons of history inthe tech environment and he
helps b2b manufacturers,wholesalers and distributors

(01:14):
simplify complexity and scalefaster.
Now, that just means he makeseverything better than he
touches, and we will learn whatthat looks like in a few minutes
.
He brings some fascinatingperspectives.
We are all about RESET on thisshow pivots, transitions and
RESET, and Igor has had several.
You're going to learn that hemoved to the States when he was
17,.

(01:34):
Finished his last year of highschool here, has been here then
for 20-ish years.
We won't say how long, but he'sbeen here for 20-ish years had
a family here and then relocated.
He boomeranged because he wentfrom the Bay Area to Austin,
Texas.
Was there 15, 16 years, 17.
17 years You're aging yourself.

Igor Krasnykh (01:54):
I know it's okay and then moved.
I think at one point you kindof give up on aging yourself and
just say, look, this is what itis, you know you've got to own
it.
Just say, look, you know yougotta own it, you gotta own it.

But I met you guys when I met.
Actually, I met your wife firstat a networking event and then
we became friends and then youand she started showing up in
all the watering holes that Ihaunt and it's been wonderful to
watch you, in just a few shortmonths, work toward finding your
way in your community here.

(02:23):
So we are thrilled to have youand I'm excited to have you on
the show.

Thank you, Tonya, thank you for having me here
and thank you for sharing youraudience with me, excited about
this conversation.

It's all wonderful, so we've got 55 more
minutes to unpack the beginningof Igor Krasneff.
I put an F on it instead of anH.
But, tell us a little bit abouthow you arrived and what your
priorities are.

Okay.
So, born and raised in Russiain a small city called Dubna,
and when we departed I thinkthat city was about 60,000
people, so very small town Spentmy youth there.
My dad is the nuclear scientist.

(03:10):
He worked at the Nuclear Juniorwhat was it?
Junior Institute of NuclearResearch.
Oh, thank you, and he was.
I kind of want to say this.
I mean this in the nicest waypossible.
He's a workaholic.
He loves doing what he does andI think I inherited that gene
from him because I see that inmyself and my wife Anna tells me

(03:33):
about it quite often that Itend to spend a lot of time at
work or working on the new ideasand working on the business,
helping people etc.
The new ideas and working onthe business, helping people,
etc.
But going back to Russia, sowent to high school there and we
decided well, my dad got a joboffer to come work for Slack,

(03:55):
stanford Linear Accelerator.

Collider.
I think that stands for Not themessenger application, not the
messenger application.

So he got a contractor gig to come work here
in California and he decided totake all of us with him because
the contract was for threeyears.
Wow, and I'm going to agemyself with this one.
So in 1997, in April, that'swhen we packed everything, sold
whatever we didn't need to bringwith us, hopped on a plane and

(04:33):
it was four of us it was my mom,my dad, my younger sister and
me and we made a trip over toCalifornia, with the stop in New
York or overlay in New York.
And when we got to California,man, I feel like I can talk
about this for a very long time,having lived in Russia I
experienced two interesting kindof financial times, so to speak

(04:53):
, where the first time, whenpeople had a lot of money but
they didn't have, there was noproducts on shelves, and there
was a flip of that where peopledidn't have money but there was
abundance of products on shelves, and so it was kind of like
experiencing both of thosespectrums.
And then, when we came to theUnited States, I think it was

(05:15):
like within the first or secondday, my dad asked us to go to
the store and get some orangejuice and some vegetables or
fruits and stuff like that.
And we came I don't know if itwas Safeway or something similar
and there was just such a.
There were so many differentitems on shelves, gazillion of
different milk types, gonna havedifferent, like orange juices,
like we were.

(05:35):
You had a choice.
Too much choice, yeah, too muchchoice.
That kind of engraved into mymemory when we came to the
United States.
There was just too much choiceand I was like what do?
we buy, but anyways, so we madethat trip over to United States,
and that's where my journey inthe United States has begun.

I love it.
So I think about you.
Have two children, not quiteteenagers.
Six and ten, and I think aboutyou moving them from Austin and
I then I think about your momand dad making a huge choice to
move you when you were a littleolder, but still definitely
their child, and at home and inschool, with a network in a

(06:13):
community.
Did that have any bearing onhow you moved?
Your children were born inAustin.
With the age that they are, yeahdid you think back to how it
felt for you when you wereuprooted right from your friends
and your routines?
I think kids are a lot moreresilient than sometimes we give
them credit for, but did youreflect on that when you made
the choice to come back to theBay Area?

Great question and, thinking back, that
transition from Russia to theUnited States was not a simple
transition for me, becauselanguage is different, schools
are different education systemis different.
We're leaving all our friendsand family in the other country

(06:58):
and you had five brands oforange juice to choose from.
Yes, that's true, the biggestthing that I remember and I'm
still fascinated by it.
Yes, that's true, the biggestthing that I remember and I'm
still fascinated by it.
But when we decided to comeback to the Bay Area, I didn't
think back to the time when Icame to Russia and how it was
for me.

(07:18):
However, my wife and I, we didtalk about when is the right
time to move, whether it's atthe end of the school year.
It might be more difficult foryour kids to adjust to the new

(07:52):
environment because everyonegoes away for summer.
And when they come back, theyall wanna see their old friends
that they haven't seen for liketwo, three months and they would
be spending time with theminstead of the new kid.
And the best time to move wasmiddle of the year, because when
you do move you're the only newkid in the class and you get

(08:13):
the most attention and thatresonated with us a lot and
that's so we made the decisionto move during the kind of mid
of the year to make sure weposition our kids kind of blend
into the environment and get upto speed very quickly and find
friends quickly.

I think that was really wise.
That would not have been myintuition, but now that you've
stated it it completely makessense and in my talks with Ana
she has reflected that she hasseen your kids grow so much just
in the short time the three orfour months that you guys have
been here and getting themactively involved.
We talked about soccer beforewe started this show.

So your strategy was successful.
Maybe a few weeks back I askedAnna a question how is she
feeling and how are our kidsfeeling from her perspective,
now that we've been here forseveral or a few months?

(09:15):
And she said that she isalready used to being in Bay
Area.
She loves being here, she lovesnature, she loves going outside
on nature walks and things likethat.
She settled in and the kidsseemed to be loving school.
And I also asked Misha if hemisses Texas or any of his
friends, and not as much.

(09:38):
He does miss two of his buddiesthat he developed a very close
relationship with last year.
He misses them, but outside ofthat he developed a very close
relationship with last year.
He misses them, but outside ofthat.
He found new friends here inCalifornia and he's spending a
lot of his time after school.
He's now starting to play withsome of the kids there.
Some of his friends in his classare going to the same soccer

(10:00):
program so he's loving it andour daughter is also loving
outside good good, so they'rethriving and I see.

Anna, thriving.
So back to you.
I think about that transitionfrom Russia to here and all that
you went through, and now youwill talk about some of your
pivots in business.
But how did that early lifeexperience of coming from Russia
to here shape how you look atbusiness and especially
technology?
Because you and I experiencedtechnology as a very global,

(10:32):
global conversation.
It's not limited to a specificgeography, because the people we
work with are everywhere on theplanet.
So how did moving from Russiaand then and recalibrating
yourself when you were 17, howdid that impact how you look at
the business world now?

I want to blend in two things.
So transitioning from anotherculture to the United States
culture and also something thatI started to do while I was
going to high school in Russia,I think, helped me create this
mindset that helped me on myentrepreneurial path.

(11:15):
So with which one do I startwith?
Maybe transition to a newculture?
So when you're transitioning toa new culture I've mentioned
that you know, language is verydifferent.
How people think are different,and many, many people who came
from a different country, whospeak a different language.
I think this will resonate withthem, because the way you learn

(11:35):
a language, you learn the words, you know what you want to say,
but you think about, you think.
I thought in Russian what Iwanted to say and translated it
in my head and said it, and whensomebody responded back, I had
to translate it back intoRussian, all of that.
So that transition was quiteinteresting and I've learned to
now I like even dream and thinkin English now, given so much

(11:59):
time has passed.
But being able to pay attentionand really listen to people
when they talk to you orcommunicate what they want to
say, I think that was a verygood skill that I've learned
early on.
Even I don't want to skipthrough the school and high
school ages.
Obviously you have to listen toyour teachers, but I think when

(12:19):
I came into the United States,I had to put much, much more
effort into listening,understanding and learning from
that perspective.

What a nice byproduct.
It is a more focused listenerto understand what content is
coming to you would haveimplications way beyond the
transition event.

Of course, and it also teaches you patience too.

Yes, I wasn't going to call you patient
Although I do think you presentas very patient but I wasn't
going to call you patient.
I wasn't going to give you thatrope for yourself.

Thank you.
And on the flip side, my kindof tech career started from.
I mentioned earlier that my dadwas spending a lot of his time
at work in Russia and he alwayswas looking for opportunities to
go to work.

And.

I remember my mom was telling him, like, you can
only go to work if you take kidswith you, and he used that as
an opportunity.
You went to work with your dad.
There's a caveat to that.
So, yes, I did, and Don't worry, Russia's not listening.
No, and when he took, so he tookme first, my sister I think was

(13:45):
too young at that stage, when Iwent to my dad's work first and
he had to do.
You know, I can't even describeor explain what he did, but it
was something with likeaccelerators and et cetera.
So he said look like, here's acomputer.
You play with this computerwhile I go do my stuff.

He gave you a toy , a toy right?

yes, and this is going to really age me too.
So back then, imagine, likethis huge box that sits on the
desk, and it had two, five and aquarter inch floppy disks.
Oh yes, one of them was theoperating system the other one
had like video game basic videogames and I, and I think back
then hopefully I'm not going tomake this up, but I feel like

(14:28):
the RAM for the computer waslike 8KB or 16KB, oh yeah.

My first computer was a VIC-20.
Do you know what a VIC-20?

is the Commodore, oh, commodore, I've heard of
them, commodore.

VIC-20.
And that would have been about82 or 84.
When I got that, I wrote aboutthat in my book.
I've forgotten which year itwas, but the age I was it was
either 82 or 84.
Yeah, I don't know how we youcouldn't even open an email now
on those computers, right it?
Was just command prompt youtype stuff in there, right?

like start games and that's what I did I just.
My first introduction tocomputers was playing those like
kind of basic video games.
I started to like computersbecause they were fun and as I
grew, as I transitioned.
I remember a time when my dadcame to our house from work and

(15:19):
he said I have a friend who hasbuilt a webpage that anybody
with internet access.

Can see, I was like oh my.

God, what is that Show me?
And he opened up our browser,punched in the URL and this
website came up.
It was just super boring text,loud colors and things like that
.
So I was like, oh, that's cool.
And in my head to me, that wasthe trigger where I started
asking myself questions how canI do this?
How can I learn?

(15:48):
Back then, like again, I didn'thave access to any books, there
was no youtube videos on how todo this stuff.
So I just opened up the pageview source and the rudimentary
path and just, you were prettydeep.

You were deep into the structure for html.
Yeah back then it was probablynot yeah.

So I had to figure out like what does this
tag do?
Are there any other tags?
And just through trial andthat's what I want to highlight
here is through trial and errorI kind of reversed springboard
for me into my career, where Ianything that was fascinating to

(16:33):
me, exciting to me, I went indeep and I was trying to figure
it out again later on.
I was like watching videos,reading, reading books,
experimenting with things, notbeing able, not worried about
failing I'm going to take asidestep here.
So Thomas Edison, he had a nicequote.
Oh yeah, another one.
I have not failed.

(16:54):
I found 10,000 ways of thingsthat don't work.

That takes patience too.
You mentioned patience earlierit does.
I don't think people have thesame tolerance these days for
iterating.
People want instant success andresults.

Yes, and to now segue back into the
founder-entrepreneur world, Ithink that is what sets
successful entrepreneurs andfounders apart is the ability to
you stumble, you fall, you hurtyourself on this journey, being
able to quickly get up andcontinue to walk and even maybe

(17:31):
run, have patience, and whereother people give up, you don't
and you continue to push forward.
That's what my motto is andthat's what I live by.

I love it.
I love it.
I am going to grab a point thatyou've made and do a quick
public service announcement,because you learning what you
did when you were in your earlyteens by following your dad to
the office and him having tooccupy you Kids.
Today it's about to be summerbreak and I know all the parents
out there are looking for howam I going to schedule my kids

(18:04):
so they're learning during thesummer and they're having fun.
And we have an opportunity thissummer.
Here at the radio station weare doing radio camp starting in
June and kids age 13 to 17 canbe in camp and learn how to do
their own radio station, learnhow to do their own podcast.
So I think that is a very coolcamp.

(18:25):
I did not have those kinds ofcamps when I was growing up.
So, it starts in June.
Go to kpcrorg online on thatinternet that Igor was talking
about and get more details.
But I think that would be agreat camp to send a kid to to
learn the mechanical skills ofoperating this mixer board.
A lot of kids do want to buildtheir own podcast these days and

(18:47):
there's a lot of moving partsto that, so I think it's a great
camp for kids to sign up forthe summer.

Are there any age restrictions on that one?

13 to 17 is our target audience.
So, yeah, there's got to besome level of decision-making
skills and intellectualcapability.
I think with some of the toolsand applications we use,
thirteen is the youngest at thispoint.
Yeah.

Awesome.

Yeah, fun.
So that was a good segue for meto do a public service
announcement for the KPCR RadioCamp.
Let's bring you into adulthood.

Okay.

You've done really well hanging in there
with the impact of your teenyears.
But if we look at youradulthood, you did all the
normal transitioning things intoadulthood, but then you ran
fairly large digitaltransformations at companies
like Express Scripts, I think,general Motors.
So, for you, what prompted yourRESET?

(19:42):
Because you've talked a coupleof times already about
entrepreneurship you had somebig corporate experience and
then you RESET back toentrepreneurship.
What triggered that for you?
Great question, yes.

So as my career kind of started from high school
, I feel like when I firststarted to build websites.

Yeah, nothing wrong with that.

And I've always had that drive to go build
things and throughout my earlyjourney through end of high
school here I went to WoodsideHigh School.
Okay, shout out to WoodsideShout out to Woodside, then
spent some time in a FoothillCollege community college and

(20:29):
from there I feel like and maybethis is the wrong way to say it
, but I got sucked into thecorporate sorry, not corporate
world, but into the world ofentrepreneurship, because a
friend of mine and I, we decidedthat how about we?
And I think it was around thedot-com boom time frame.
We were like let's build our owndigital agency where we do

(20:50):
design and web development.
I was taking computer scienceor focusing on computer science
when I went to Foothill Collegeand a friend of mine also was
kind of expressing interest incomputer science and he was more
on kind of technical sales sideof things back then.
So we're like, let's do this,let's do this together, and that

(21:12):
was the first start of my trueentrepreneurial journey.
Long story short, there was atime when we couldn't really
crack the knot on sales andmarketing because we needed to
build our pipeline.
And then families started tooccur girlfriends and all of

(21:36):
that.
We basically said, look, maybethis is not the right time time.
And at that point I said let memaybe go get a part-time
corporate gig or something likethat just to make sure that
financially I'm able to grow andthings like that.
And that decision sucked meinto the corporate world.
So I put my kind of idea,entrepreneur idea on the side

(21:58):
for the digital agency.
I spent many years in thecorporate world but throughout
that corporate journey I'vealways I was always excited when
I thought of different ideas ondifferent products that I
wanted to create and bring tomarket and those typically came

(22:19):
from, like me, experiencing somegap which I couldn't figure out
how to do.
So a couple of kind of my earlyfailed startups are one was the
B-List, the business listing,which is now kind of like Yelp
equivalent.
So early in that I built thatplatform.
I was even advertising it onCraigslist and at one point got

(22:39):
an email from Craig atCraigslist saying, hey, you
shouldn't be advertising thisstuff on my platform.
I got in trouble.

Oh, I think that's a great story.
So you got a message from theCraig.

Well, I don't know if it was him.
I'm assuming it was, yes.

They were a pretty rogue little group.

I think it probably was him, maybe, maybe,
so, anyways, it was that, andafter that, there was a platform
that I wanted to create, whichis find what to do.
It's basically like in theevenings, like where do you go
and hang?

out.

Like pre the, what is it?
The event websites and thingslike that.
And the last one was the AdroidNation, which was kind of
social tech, a whole network fortech community, because at that
point when you met with peopleyou didn't know what their
skills were.
So, my idea was okay, let'sbridge that gap.
But in all of those kind offailed startups, the big problem

(23:27):
that I came across with becauseI didn't possess any marketing
knowledge or experience I didn'thave anybody within my network
who could help me with thosethings, and even sales after the
platform is done.
I was like one of thoseentrepreneurs who are like let's
build it and then customerswill come.
Oh my God, that was a difficultrealization when, yeah, the

(23:48):
product is ready and then go tomarket is even more important.

Wouldn't you say that's still the biggest
challenge.

It is.

And the founders that we work with, the
entrepreneurs that we helpadvise.
Of course they want to build,and even for myself, when I've
done my own things, I want tobuild because it feels good.
You can get that done, whatyou're trying to create, and
it's so.
The unknown and the rejectionfactor is 20 times higher.

It is so those hard lessons and I know I'm
deviating off of the original-question.

It's fine.

What I've learned is and the way that I'm
starting to not starting is thewrong word to use here doing
things now is testing the marketfirst, doing pre-sales, making
sure there's demand, and you'vegot to create all of that even
before you start buildingprototypes.
Like a lot of the products nowcan be started with just a

(24:44):
conversation, saying, look, I'mbuilding this awesome fee, I
think it's awesome.
Would it be beneficial to you,Tonya?
And then you say, yeah, I couldcare less.
That could be one answer thatyou get.
Save me a lot of time, or itcould be.
Look, I love this idea.
Yes, I would totally use thisproduct when you build it.
And that to me, is step numberone of multiple steps on that

(25:05):
journey, because then youinterview your close friends,
see what's the demand, averageit out.
To jump a little bit ahead ofmyself here, you can, even these
days, do paid Facebookadvertising social media
advertisement to test the ideafurther how much demand there is
, media advertisement to testthe idea further, how much
demand there is.
And from there the next bigquestion, which even more

(25:27):
founders typically leave untilthe very end, is how do I make
money off of this?
Because I need to feed myfamily, I need to eat.
I need a roof above my head.
So the question of money, basedon what I've seen, comes
towards the tail end and itshould be one of the first
questions that you get.

How do we monetize this before you build
it?

And a good way to do this and I shared an article
on LinkedIn in my weeklynewsletter was how to do this
right.
So you first go to your 10close friends and say all right
people who said you love theidea would use it.
You say what's it worth to you,how much?
How much is this problem gonnasave you time and how much are

(26:11):
you willing to pay for?

it and.

I've done this several times with some of my
friends and you get a range ofnumbers right.
Some people say oh, I only useit if it's free or it's only
worth like two bucks for me, orfive bucks or $15.
So now that you're starting toaggregate those digits and
numbers, together and you figureout what should the price of

(26:34):
this product be right?

Based on the value that you're providing.
What's Edges?

And from there you ask the next question,
saying all right, so if youreally want this product, let's
say it's available tomorrow.
Can I get your credit card forthis?

Now you sound like a swindler.
I was going to reflect that.
For people who don't considerthemselves salespeople, what you
just described feels a lot morenatural and easy.
Hey, I'm building this, I'm inthe middle of doing this, what
would you think about this?
What would you pay for?
This Is to me, for whateverreason, just a lot simpler than

(27:13):
saying, hey, I've got the bestblue pen ever.
You want to buy it?

That's a horrible fact.
Well, I'm just doing it foreffect.

But still, even when you've softened your entry
into the conversation, you'reasking somebody to buy something
, and a lot of people are veryreluctant to do that.
And I think if you do it asyou're collecting feedback, then
you have, hopefully, a wholelist of people to go back to to
say, hey, that thing I wastalking about three months ago,
I've got that ready.

Do you want to try that?
I think this is something thatI want to unfold or peel the
onion on this one because I'vebeen in the situations where I
got positive response saying,yes, I would use this product so
much I'm going to pay you.
Whenever it's ready, just buildit.
I went and I built it and thenhalf of more than half of those
people say, ah, don't need itanymore.
And that's the ugly truth thatyou stumble upon very frequently

(28:07):
.
And to me how to do the pre-sale.
It's all about the how youphrase it, how do you position
it.
It doesn't have to be like buyit right now, but, look, I'm
looking to raise some of thesefunds to invest into this
platform, and any contributionright now, even like two dollars

(28:28):
investment right now, will helpme because it's money towards
that solution which you said youneed.
So, again, like this, what Ijust came up with.
It's may not be perfect, butthat's where I would try to
position it to and say who isearly enough can help you at
least generate some cash to helpyou continue to invest that
cash into finishing and buildingthat product.
Because if and the how muchmoney you collect from those

(28:51):
individuals that want thatsolution, it really doesn't
matter, because it takes a bigeffort, just like you said, for
somebody to take their creditcard or write a check small
check and that's where you getthe true qualification of your
service or a product.
If somebody is willing to dothat, then they will.
There's a much higherlikelihood for them to purchase

(29:13):
your product compared to yeah,I'll buy it when it's ready.

I've heard that a dozen times.
Yeah, I love it.
I'm going to do a quick stationID at the bottom of the hour
place.
Yeah, I love it.
I'm going to do a quick stationID at the bottom of the hour.
So we are listening to and Iusually do a weather report, and
it is a gorgeous, bright, sunnyday with beautiful blue skies
here in Los Gatos, as webroadcast live from the studio
of KPCR LP, 92.9 FM, and we'realso going out over sister

(29:41):
station KMRT LP, and that's101.9 FM out of Santa Cruz.
So we appreciate all of ourlisteners being here for the
conversation of RESET with Tonya, here with Igor Krasna.
Did I get closer?
Yes, good, if I just do it ahundred more times, I should
have it Right.

(30:01):
Sounds good, awesome, awesome.
You were just giving very wiseadvice about qualifying interest
, even in the smallest $2.
And I know we're just giving anexample, but I do think you're
right to commit people, becausethere is a lot of people want to
support you.
People want to tell you youridea is good, their intentions

(30:23):
are good, but you don't needgood intentions when you're
about to spend a lot of timecreating and money building
something.
You want to know.
Can I monetize this?
So I think the solution youjust offered is very helpful.
Do you have any interestingstories from when you've done
that?
And it was a real game changerfor what you were developing.

It's a whole mind shift because I did not think
this way and I am still kind ofengraving that into my neurology
to make sure it's like naturaland consistent.
And it's tough neurology tomake sure it's like natural and
consistent it's in its stuff.
But at the end of the day itall starts with practice and as

(31:07):
long as you practice andpractice those ideas, I think
you will be far betterpositioned to grow your business
or grow your idea beyond justan idea and hype verbal hype, so
to speak even if you do aprototype.
But then it's like I'mreflecting back on my early days
of those find what to do andother things like okay, you

(31:29):
build a product, there is achance you could get lucky and
demand will be there.
People in your network couldhelp you grow it.
But you know it's a lot easierwhen you put the necessary kind
of fundamental pillars into playand build that foundation early
on.

You just mentioned network and I'm
wondering.
You've had these transitionsthat we've been talking about
more broadly, but how importantis your network when you are
starting a new journey or a newventure?
Not, just the move you've justmade.
But when you you're buildingsomething, when you're an
entrepreneur creating a company,what's your advice for tapping
into those networks and gettinguseful responses, not just

(32:09):
supportive ones?

oh man, there's a short answer and a long answer,
of course, but network.
Network is extremely important.
It's a short answer.
The long answer is havingwalked that entrepreneurial path
, there is time for everything.
There is time where all youneed is just laser focus and
building, experimenting withthings and just saying is this

(32:33):
possible, I'm thinking, and ifso, which tools do I need to use
to do this?
If you are able, if you'resuccessful on that path and
you're able to figure things outon your own, great, that's the
path.
You don't need to, in mypersonal opinion, if I know how
to I don't know peel a potato,I'm not going to go ask after

(32:53):
I've done it.
I don't know, I'm not going togo ask somebody else on how to
do it.
To me, that's inefficiency frommy perspective.
That's inefficiency from myperspective.
But when you are running into awall and you see yourself
spending a lot of time trying toget the answer to your question
, and given where all the socialmedia and YouTube's are,

(33:15):
there's a high chance that youcan probably find on how to do
something online through thosevideos, or at least get a
general idea and I'm gonna divesuper technical here and even
like complex integrations andcoding.
You can throw documentation intochat, gpt and ask a question
and see if it can help youaccelerate your journey from

(33:37):
start to finish.
But there are times where yournetwork comes into play and
helps you break down those wallsthat you're unable to break
down on your own usingtechnology or just based on your
knowledge.
And one of the bigmisconceptions that I see is

(34:01):
it's not just who you know andwhether or not that individual
if that individual can help yousolve the problem, but it's who
they know.
It's like multi-level, deepright and it's just being able
to.
Your network in ideal stagewould be a network where you are
able to connect through maybeone or multiple individuals to

(34:25):
the right person and help you onyour journey to take that one
inch forward step.

Let's have this conversation.
We are in an environment wherethere is a lot of connecting.

And I've noticed.

I've experienced a lot of people announcing to me
I'm a super connector, becauseit's a thing.
Here we do invest a lot of ourtime, but to the point that you
just made it is so important.
You can't just brand yourself asuper connector.
You and for you people who arelistening yeah, I'm talking to
you.
We're talking about one of myfavorite super connectors that

(35:04):
you met with earlier thismorning.
But I just really trying tohelp people understand.
It's the quality of theconnections that you make over
the quantity so many people arechasing a number they 20,000.
LinkedIn connections or they'rechasing the wrong things, and it
can be very expensive from atime perspective for them as

(35:26):
well as for the people that theyhook into conversations that
aren't relevant, conversationsthat don't appear to have a
strong purpose for theconnection.

And I want to kind of piggyback off of that
and echo saying that when you'rea super connector, it's not
just.
Look.
Here's the person in my Rolodex.
Here's an intro.

You might find something in comments.

It goes much deeper and you touched on that,
because as a connector you haveto understand how that
connection let's say person Aand you think person B might be
a good connection to each butknowing exactly how and asking
from their perspective, sayingfor person A what's there with

(36:12):
him, what's in it for me.
And for person A and B.
What's in it for me?

Is there mutual value.

And if there's mutual value, then connect them,
but in often it it happens morethan you probably think, or you
probably seen this.
But it's just look, I just metthis person here.
You, you guys talk, and it'slike what do I talk about?

I and I've started refusing those.
I have a little canned LinkedInthing that I send.
Now that seems very personal,but when I meet someone at an
event and two days later theyask me to introduce and I meet
them, I shake their hand, Iconnect on LinkedIn.
Two days later they want me tointroduce them to someone way
above their pay grade thathappens to be in my network and

(36:54):
I try to coach them through aLinkedIn message to say my
curated network came at a priceand I don't just introduce
anyone into those higher levelsunless they're ready to have
those conversations.
You get this a lot out of lessexperienced people who are just

(37:14):
going to the top of the stack tomeet a CEO of a company.
And it's no, you're in an earlystage in your career.
If you want to go to company X,let's figure out how to get you
introduced.
But I can't lead thatconnection point for you because
I really don't know anythingabout your work.

And maybe a different way to kind of look at
it too, is when you make anintroduction, your reputation is
on the line 100%, and if youmake a wrong introduction then
you're losing that person out ofyour network.
Every introduction that youmake, it's got to be genuine.

And the people I introduce to people take it
seriously, because I'm notconstantly overfeeding or
oversubscribing to thatrelationship with non-quality.
And it's not non-quality, it'sjust a mismatch of skills and
needs you were talking about.
Does person A need person B?
Does person B benefit?
Is there some mutual exchangeof value?

(38:11):
So it's up to us to help mentorpeople who are coming into
these environments and very much, are ambitious and want to do
big things, but you don't startat the top to do those things
typically.

Yes, and thinking back from my perspective, it's
all about I'm a giver, I'm not ataker.
I know a lot of takers,unfortunately, and even if I
want to meet somebody who isabove my pay grade, I am
instantly thinking like what isthe value that I provide to them
before who is above my paygrade, I am instantly thinking
like what is the value that Iprovide to them before I ask for

(38:48):
anything back.
And maybe that value is sosmall that I need to provide
multiple touch, multiple valuesto them before I can feel
comfortable asking for somethingin return.
So I believe that if you havethat mindset going into a
networking event or whatever thesituation, is just be aver, be
a giver.

I'm writing that one down that I think we could
write a book on be a giver.
What do you think you want toco-author it?

be a giver.
I'm a horrible author.
Maybe with help of Jeff Gpt,maybe a few ideas, but I think
you would do just fine.

So this topic there are other topics.
If people that are listening,if they knew you on LinkedIn,
they would know you, like I knowyou as someone who there's a
lot of meat on the bone.
You're not just lounging inyour backyard with the dog and
the soccer ball and saying, oh,it's a beautiful day in Los

(39:39):
Gatos.
You're not a social poster, youare.
Every post is like a micro MBAlesson.

And oh man, I want to touch on that too, and
this is something recent that Istarted to do because with the
fast moving pace of AI, andeverything like that need for a
brand, a personal brand, isbecoming more and more important
.
I want to call myself, like I am, an introvert by nature,

(40:11):
because in order for me torecharge, I want to be on my own
with my own thoughts and stufflike that.
And when I go to events, Ithink the other I'm a Gemini, so
the other twin kind of kicks inand saying all right, so your
birthday's coming up.
My birthday is coming upBecause I'm a.

Taurus, I'm right before you, all right.

Okay, lost my train of thought where I was
going with this.

I apologize.
I did that my fault.
We were talking about youevolving to this brand.
I want to say personality, butit's a brand, and on social
media you are.
I don't want to call it rigid,but you are.
You're declarative, you areguiding people on business
principles and practices.

It's a wealth of information you're sharing yes,
and I remember where I left off.
So we I'm an introvert, so mebeing spending time on social
media this is new to me.
I feel like it's a little bitscary to some degree, but I
believe that it needs to be doneand you just have to be

(41:11):
consistent.
There was a lot of lessonslearned and things like mental
mind block that I had toovercome to get to where I'm at
today, but I am happy that whatI do today on social media
starting to become a little bitmore natural and it just it's a
flow, it's becoming a flow.

(41:32):
I love it and where I was goingwith.
All of this is, at the end ofthe day, if I rewind back how
product knowledge or sales oreducation was done.
Like you know, thinking back,it was a lot of cold calling
going door to door, asking doyou need a new refrigerator or a
new roof or whatever?

(41:53):
It is so.
I feel like with the world ofAI, there's an abundance of
information available on socialmedia.
And cold calling for manyindustries no longer works as
well as it used to be.
Emails.
I have my one of my emails thatI never check because it's just
a spam box of trash that like.

(42:14):
I don't care about so it soundslike we all have one of those.
So to me it's how do you, howdo you stand out, how do you
generate that demand or how doyou continue to educate?
And to me, it's all aboutsharing what I've learned,
sharing the mistakes that I'vemade on my journey and sharing
how I solved those or overcamesome of those challenges with

(42:37):
the world.
And I'm not looking foranything bad, but what kind of
naturally starting to happen ispeople who follow and read that
content.

They do reach out when they're ready they engage
At least I see them engage incomments.
You probably see even more onprivate direct messages.
Yes, yeah, that's wonderful.

It's fascinating, because at that point you no
longer need to figure out whendo I need to send that marketing
or sales material to person A?
You know when they're ready,and they're reaching out to you
when they're ready, and to methat's a whole new concept.
I love it.

Yeah, yeah, and again you are doing well.
Let me do a quick stationidentifier for KPCRLP 92.9.
We are a community radiostation, so that means we are a
non-profit radio station.
We champion makers, creators,doers and dreamers.
Very artistic.
I don't consider myselfartistic.

(43:34):
We're all more creative thoughtoday, I think, than we were
five years ago.
But this station has alwaysbeen focused on enabling the
Sound.
Of Pirate Cat Radio is a veryeclectic mix of artists and
creators who share with thelocal community and of course,
you can also find us online fromanywhere at kpcrorg.

(43:56):
So it's a pleasure to be hereand be part of this radio family
.
It has been a fun part of myjourney.
Woot, woot.

Woot, woot, woot.
Thank you, Nice.
I'll bring an air horn nexttime.

We were talking about that before we started.

Yes, how we're doing on time.
Yeah, do we have a hard?

stop.
We do, okay, we do In about 10more minutes.
Narrow down, because we'vetalked about so many things with
your.
One thing I did want to ask,though what pivoted you toward
your social media presence?
What drove you?
What drove you to focus on suchspecific topics?

(44:32):
Where you are actually, you arecoaching the masses with every
email, and not every email,every post you put out.
What inspired you?
Put out what inspired you to dothat, or motivated you to do
that, so that other people canunderstand, because I think a
lot of people there's a lot oflurkers, a lot of people who
read our stuff who never wenever know they're out there
until we see them in an eventand they say I'm a huge fan and

(44:55):
it's who are you?

Because you know they're just not engaged.
I have some of those.
It's fascinating, it is, isn'tit?
In the last two weeks I had twopeople who mentioned to me
saying like I love your content,exactly, but they left zero
likes, zero comments.
I'm like okay.

But for me, that's just how our heart is
engaged with what we're doingtoo.
One of my best stories on thatfront is I had 1130 at night.
One night I got a message onLinkedIn from a young woman in
Africa.
She was in Nigeria or Ghana,I've forgotten, but she and all
her little friends, they workedat the equivalent of a Comcast

(45:33):
it was some kind of cablebroadcasting call center and
they all read my columns andthey read the comments in my
columns.
At the time I was a member ofCHIEF and we were really
supportive and I had this littlefamily, this sisterhood of we
would banter about everything,no matter what the post was
about, and these young womenwere reading our posts, as this

(45:56):
is how we are going to seekrelationships as we grow in our
careers, and we look to you,because we don't have female
mentorship here in Nigeria, andwe watch you and your friends
and how you interact.
It was a fascinating story.
Oh, I cried.
It was just.
I mean, it was written.

(46:16):
It was so sweet and the thing Ihelped her understand I said
because she she asked if shecould connect with me.
It was one of those where, andand the thing that I shared with
her is most of these women I'venever met in person.
They live across the country.
We're in COVID right now and Iknow them through our

(46:37):
interactions online, whichshould tell you you may be
sitting in Nigeria, but you canhave a community of support
around you from all over theworld.
Just start, and it was really.
It was such a beautiful momentand I realized, when I'm not
getting the engagement that Iwant off of a really meaningful
post, somebody out there seeingthat and benefiting from it.

That's fascinating because I tend to,
from time time to time, thinkthe same way.
I thought I just posted someamazing piece of content and
like very little, and I got 10likes.
But I keep reminding myself andthis is something I want to give
a shout out to a friend of minein Austin, Sean Dodd.
He's the CEO of a social mediamarketing agency.

(47:18):
He's the one who firstchallenged myself and a few
other business owners to do thesocial media marketing agency.
He's the one who firstchallenged myself and a few
other business owners to do thesocial media challenge.

That's where it all came from.

I love it, and he invested his time to educate us
every week about what works onevery platform, what you should
do what you should not do.
He basically said just beconsistent and you have to
publish every day and make surethat whatever you publish is
genuine and it's you.
You're not like fabricatingsomething.

(47:49):
And just stay consistent anddon't worry about the engagement
comments or your community forat least a year and I want to
say, with AI and oversaturationof content, it might be maybe a
couple of years or maybe itdepends right on what you're
publishing.
But just don't worry, becausewhen you're providing value to

(48:14):
your community, the communitywill find you.
And it takes time.

Wow, we are not patient enough for that.

We're not patient enough, we're Wow, we are not
patient enough for that?

We're not patient enough.
We're not, we are not.
No, because, gosh darn it, Iwant that dopamine hit of people
recognizing the value of mywork.
It will happen.

And I think it was Gary Vaynerchuk who said
look.
So he said if you're notgetting engagement at all, then
you need to look.
Maybe your content sucks, butat the end of the day, I think
his statement about that waslike look, if you've already put

(48:55):
in a lot of time and you don'tsee any, the needle is just not
moving.
It's probably your content, buta lot of I should say a lot a
big chunk of content that I seeit's all like.
Here's what I do, here's whatit's all about me.
It's all about me.
It's not about the audience,it's not about the community,

(49:15):
and if you're publishing contentabout your community, about you
know and helping individuals,businesses et cetera, then that
community will find you becauseyou're a giver.
If you're a taker probably atleast I don't engage with
content and I yeah, that's liketaker content okay, gary Vee is
a different conversation for us,for another time.

he has just had a remarkable transformation, as
far as I'm concerned, with hisonline presence.
That's the seed for you for alater conversation.
He he has huge time.
He has just had a remarkabletransformation, as far as I'm
concerned with his onlinepresence.
That's the seed for you for alater conversation.
He has hugely pivoted, in myopinion, in the last four or
five years and he's for those ofyou who don't know Gary Vee and
he has had his hands ineverything Wine production,
definitely.
I put him on the stage as amotivational speaker, but I've

(50:00):
seen a real like heart shift inhim in the last, I would say,
three or four years and it'sbeen pretty remarkable.
Let's talk about it.
Yeah, I have to bring you backand we'll have a Gary Vee
support episode.
So, as we start to wind down ourtime, the final question I want
to ask for you, the finalformal question, is around what

(50:21):
for the future?
I think you have a prettyamazing crystal ball.
So because you're on thecutting edge of a lot of this
and you're doing things that areoutside your comfort zone, so
you see a lot.
So what do you think is thenext big RESET that you see
coming for businesses andentrepreneurs and in general.
How should people prepare sothey can optimize that?

Oh, such a loaded question.
We only have a few minutes left.
Here are my thoughts on thattopic.
I believe that, with the worldof AI, business owners or
founders are now able to do moreon their own before they need

(51:05):
to think about bringing insomebody else, like a business
partner or you know, making afirst hire etc.
And it's fascinating to watchthat tools these days, there's
tools that it's like stitch AItogether, and AI can now do a
lot more, not just a repetitivesingle task, but it's a sequence

(51:27):
of tasks.
I want to see how that evolvesand how that changes everything.
But tying it back to thebusiness ownerships and founders
, don't rush to hire somebody,and I first would look at
whatever you do, whatever youtry to offload off of your plate

(51:49):
, can AI do that job well, withquality, obviously important,
it's a given and if so, continueto build it.
I think before AI, manycompanies are able to grow from
zero to seven figures just byhaving a single employee at a
company.
From there, I think with the AI, that number will change.

(52:13):
It's probably going to go toeight and nine figures,
depending on what your businessis.
So don't be, don't look to growby adding more people, but look
at the opportunity to optimizeand streamline your businesses,
to build a very solid foundationfor you to be able to grow
further, more and further.

(52:34):
Right, because you will hit apoint that some you will hit a
point when you do need to bringa co-founder in, but that point
in the entrepreneur founderjourney has shifted quite a lot
to the future.
I don't know if that answersyour question.

It did it did.
I'm going to add something toit.
I am seeing more and moreplatforms being developed with
AI for the use of AI.
So don't be concerned or scaredif you are less technical,
because I think people arestarting to focus on the shifts
in the world of work and thefuture of work, and the super

(53:09):
technical people are buildingplatforms so that you can engage
with the benefits of AI.
Low code no code has been athing for a while now, but I
think it takes business acumenmore than technical acumen to
launch.
Whatever your product is,whether it's a hard product or a
service, I think that theportals and the tools are going

(53:29):
to be out there for you to plugin easily.
So I know there's a lot ofpeople who still feel like AI.
Is this really complex thing?
And I think more and more I'mseeing a lot of simplifications
being packaged and delivered topeople.
So I have a and more.
I'm seeing a lot ofsimplifications being packaged
and delivered to people.

So I have a question for you.
Do you think that thepopulation that is afraid of AI
or hesitant?

to use.

Maybe is a better way to put it are they hesitant
to use AI because they thinkthat their skills may no longer
be needed?
Or why do you think they arehesitant?
Is it security?

It's all the things, but I think the real
reason is just it's somethingthat they're.
Okay when we all got smartphones.
There are boundaries with whatyou can do with a smartphone and
, of course, it's growntremendously in the last 20
years, but you know what it doesfor you and AI is in my opinion

(54:29):
no, it's not my opinion, I'mright it's so broad.
I think that breadth of whatyou can do with AI overwhelms
people, because it's not justthat the iPhone, smartphones
were new technology and we alljumped on board and learned it,
because with AI, you've got todecide what you want to do, and
I think that's harder for peopleto narrow in on what they want

(54:52):
to do.
That is enabled by AI andthat's a little overwhelming and
it's changing so rapidly.
So so people who don't have apropensity for jumping in and
rolling up their sleeves withmore technical things, all they
see is the rapid shifts that areoccurring and that makes them
kind of stay away from itbecause they think they could

(55:14):
never keep up.
That's my opinion.
Interesting, yeah, okay, so wecan explore more of this later
or the next time I see you,which will be tomorrow at the AI
Infra Summit.
That's right, a big made-up way.
Top 750 registrations thismorning, so it's going to be a
wonderful event over at theMicrosoft campus.

I'm looking forward to that one for sure.
First time going to be here,I'm excited.

Ignite GTM does a remarkable job pulling together
communities much like this KPCRcommunity.
So, igor Krasnack, thank you.
I'm getting better and betterat that.
Thank you for being here today.
It has been wonderful to spendtime with you on RESET with
Tonya here on KPCR LP 92.9 FM,in sunny blue sky, los Gatos.

Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
It was a pleasure and love theconversation, looking forward to
the next one.

We can do it again.
All right, everyone, have awonderful day and we will see
you next Thursday at 11 am.
Take care everyone.
Thanks for joining us on RESET.
Remember transformation is ajourney, not a destination.
So until next time, keepexploring what's possible.

(56:29):
I'm Tonya Long and this is home.
This is RESET you.

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Tonya J. Long

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