Growing a Growth Marketing Firm with AI/Rajiv Parikh - Conversions, Great Souls, Belichick ~ Spark of Ages Ep 22 - Spark of Ages

Episode Transcript
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Sandeep Parikh (00:07):
Hello and welcome to a very
special episode of theSpark of Ages podcast.
It's our mid yearreview, you guys.
This is where I take over forour host Rajiv and I ask him
the hard hitting questions.
Okay.
Yeah.
You're the, the, theshoes on the other foot.
All right.
So since he's this big timeCEO of an AI driven growth
marketing company, and frankly,one of the smartest people I've

(00:29):
known for my whole life and amentor to me and all the ways
that you could possibly imaginethat if there's one thing you
taught me, it's accountability.
And so that's what we'refocusing on for our mid review.
Okay.
This is gonna be aboutchecking in on the state of
growth marketing industry,uh, of P2 and everything
you guys got going on.
The goals that youlaid out in January.

(00:50):
That's right.
Okay.
And our last check in.
That's

Rajiv Parikh (00:53):
right.

Recall.
How are we doing against those?
Yeah, we're going tocheck against those.
We're going to hold ourselvesaccountable and then we're
going to see where ourmemory, I don't recall.
We made a bunch ofbig predictions.
So let's see howthose are shaping up.
Did we make predictions?
We made bold calls.
About the election, aboutBill Belichick, about the

(01:13):
economy, all sorts of stuff.
And so we will check in on, onwhere those are actually at.
We just can't be like

today's presidential candidates
and literally justmake up stuff as we go.
There's

some cool stuff.
There's I listen, because wedidn't let you look at anything,
but I'm just, I'm just sayingthere's some stuff we hit on.
That's kind of surprisingand stuff that we.
Did not hit on at all.
All right.
First though, what I wantto kind of chat about is
just the last time that wegot to hang out in person,
which was this past weekendat our cousin's wedding,

amazing wedding to which you were the MC,
which was just incredible.
Uh, I love how you, you,uh, you were able to take
a controversial subject,make it lighthearted.
Yet hard hitting.

Yeah.
So this was our, I mean,this is my first Indian
gay wedding that I'd everattended, much less MC'd.

Much less.
How about Hin, Hinduceremony wedding?
It wasn't, I'm talkingabout, this was wild.
Yeah.
And a priest, she's anLGBTQ person as well.
And she did it with Sanskrit.
She did Sanskrit andtranslated for us and did
just a beautiful ceremony.

(02:30):
So unbelievable.
Yes, that's right.

Up on the, the, I was, she was so incredible.
She's, you know, yeah,she's, she's lesbian herself.
And then she did such anamazing job of translating,
you know, the scripture and theceremony and like removing the
gender from it and making it.
What I thought was so cool aboutit, and I want to kind of get
your take on it, was like, itmade it about, like, the roots
of what these rites and ritualsare really about, about the love

(02:55):
and the bonding and the, like,commitment, and it took away all
the, like, kind of patriarchal,like, all the stuff that's,
like, about, you know, like,okay, now, You know, property
and all this other stuff.
It kind of made itabout the essential.
This thing, you're

supposed to give gold to this and
you're supposed to do this.
Did the dowry obey?
And it was reallystructured beautifully.
And she poked somefun at the whole.
Notion of, well, if someone,if someone's in their
cycle, they can't do thisor that, and they have to

(03:30):
time everything perfectly.
She's like, I don't care whocomes up and blesses them.
Right.
You can be in anystage that you want.
We still love you.

I love that moment.
That's so funny.
And she was like, so nomatter where you are in your
cycle, please feel free tocome up and bless these guys.
All right.
Well, let's jump into.
I guess your, your othermarriage, which is your
marriage to position squared,the leading growth marketing
company in the world.
I don't know if that's true,but I'm just going to say it is.

(03:58):
I'm just going to say it likeyou go ahead and fact check me.
I dare you.
In fact, fact check me and thenwrite it in the comments because
that'll help the podcast.
Um, so let's just start herethough, for those who are
unfamiliar with Uh, you know,what, what it's like to be CEO
of a growth marketing company.
What is, what isa day in the life?
Let's just take, what's a dayin the life of Rajiv Parikh.
What do you, what are youdoing on a day to day basis?

I look at my job as, uh, I'm the,
I'm the chief ambassadorspokesperson for the company.
So you know, situationsvary highly, but there's
some combination of talkingto people internally, uh,
to top leaders internally,some client connection,
some, uh, some new prospect.
Situation, some partnersituation, because I think

(04:41):
that's where there's tremendousleverage that we, we need
to need to scale and grow.
And in today's case, it isfundraising for the company.
So there's a lot of workwith regard to that.
And I'm leaning on my staffto take on more of the, the,
the client and the, and the.

(05:01):
New prospect acquisitionactivity so that I can
spend more time on thefundraising activity, which
is something that we haven't.
I have done in the past.
I've raised about 80 millionin different companies that
I've started are part of.
But now I'm going on afundraising path here
because I really believethat the time is ripe.

(05:24):
To, to leverage all that's goingon with AI and really, truly
be disruptive in the market.
I believe like we talk,we've had so many Great, yes.
Talk about ai and I believethat, uh, the marketing firm,
agencies, service provider, themarketing side of companies are
being fundamentally disruptedby what's going on with AI

(05:45):
at every level of the job.
And I, I think this is.
A particularly strongtime to strike.
So one thing I did do is bringin a really strong AI team,
a product development team inNovember of last year as part
of driving ourselves forward.
And they've justbeen rocking it.

(06:05):
Um, working closely with theoperational teams to take
all the different workflowsand processes that we've
already automated to acertain extent, but take it
to another level with AI.
So

yeah, spinning all the plates.
So you're really likelooking at AI as a way of
like, how do I sort of.
Elevate, you know, ourexisting infrastructure
and processes, right?
Like, how do we imbue this intoeverything that we're doing so
that we can take advantage ofthis new technology essentially,
is that like, and then likecrafting that narrative and
then selling that to investors.

Yeah, like, um, one of our guests,
uh, Ajay talked aboutthe notion of an ICP.

Ajay Gandhi.
Yes.

Ideal customer profile.
And one of the folks thatcame to our event, uh,
Jonathan Spear, his, hiswhole company is about that.
Helping companies betterunderstand who they're, you
Ideal customer profile is.
And so when we work withfolks, we as a services
firm are inherently limitedbecause we have only so
many people that do the job.
So a lot of my time whenI'm talking to folks is

(07:02):
spent qualifying themon whether they're a
good fit for my company.

Yeah,

because if I get the wrong client, they'll
suck up our client, ourresources, and we won't make
the client happy on their side.
And they'll say negativethings about us.
And sometimes it's just a fit.
Two people can beperfectly good, but just
not be a fit together.
Right now with AI, uh, I, wehave the ability with technology
to still have a servicepresence, but with so much more

(07:30):
technology, we can broaden.
Who we talk to andhow we help them.
So we're not at, we're notbandwidth limited in the,
like we were previously.
We have much more scalabilityin our ability to run with
that, run with customers.
So that changes our notionof what is the ICP, the
ideal customer profile.
So is it

broadening that?
And so it broadens thatdefinition for you,
essentially, like you're ableto bring on more or sort of
more people fit the bill.

More people fit the bill and I don't have
to do as precise of a job.
My team doesn't have to do asprice of a precise of a job.
Nailing the perfect fit andspending so much time on that.

That takes a lot of time.
It takes a lot of energy

going through people who you know in your,
in your relationship to, to.
To gauge that.
So it's a, and it'sa real problem.
It's a real, not a problem,but it's a real challenge for
services, businesses in general,just finding the right fit
between you and them, becausesometimes the squeaky wheel,
the one that complains themost, most of the time, they're
not the most profitable clientand they, because they're

(08:34):
so damn squeaky, they eatup all your resources at all
your senior management time.
So then you don't do as good ofa job with the clients who may
be extremely profitable for you.
And so in this.
You're in this situation,but you don't want
people to say negativethings about you either.
So it's tough.
It's not tough.
It's just the life ofrunning a services business.

Sure.
Sure.
I mean, it's kind of likeyou're dating multiple partners.
Essentially, you got tokeep everybody happy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We should give you a lotof attention in time too.
And you know, how doyou keep everyone happy?
And then even if you dobreak up, you still want
them out there beinglike, no, he's a good guy.
It just didn't work out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So

we want the technology so the technology
can broaden, expand us.
Yeah.
And then it can open up ourability to train people,
to work with our platform,to be those representatives
that work with clients.
So I see that I see the abilityto go, not just 10 X, a hundred
X, a thousand X with what we'rebuilding, because we're taking
all the things we've learned ofhow to run an ad campaign, how

(09:30):
to do what they call accountbased market marketing, all
your secrets, secrets, allthese secrets that we've put
into workflows and really, andput them into the AI platform,
have it like learn from it.
And then make our team be likethe best, like the best thinker,
the best marketer, the beststrategist, the best optimizer.

(09:51):
Wait, you're using humanintelligence with artificial
intelligence to then opt.
That's crazy.
There's actual,yeah, it's merging.
It's really merging.
It's like, it's, I, you know,some of us have, have been
in this business for 20 plusyears and we can't be on every
call, but we can now arm ourpeople to be They won't have our
personas, but they'll have a lotof our knowledge in those calls.

(10:15):
And they'll bethinking about it.
They can, they can then leveragethat for clients and then they
can bring their own specialskills that we don't have, or we
can bring that into our calls.
So it's really both.
So like when I show off areally Interesting keyword
tool that my team has builtthat used to take us, you know,
like it would take us about aweek to do the research that
now we can do in two hours.
Now I can show something thatmy team used to just do in

(10:37):
detail about a big process.
And I could say, rightnow I can dig into
something I didn't know.
Or the same thing with ourlanding page generator that
we've built, where it's likeAI, you know, like literally
it looks at your website, itlooks at your competitors.
It.
Builds a brief or what thecampaign brief for you and
with AI, you converse with it.
And then all of asudden it gives you a

(10:57):
prototype of your site.
Right.
That you can literally takethe code and drop it and go.
And it's like what normallywould take two weeks
can now turn into a day.
Yeah.
Right.
That's really incredible.
And so now you can reallyapply it much more.
You can be much more real time.
We can create content andcampaigns for so many other

(11:19):
levels because an experimentin a way that we couldn't do
before, that's like the teamalready has shown that compared
to typical statistics, typicalconversion rates, we get about.
Two to sometimes 20 times thetypical conversion rate, but
we do it with our team and withthe tools that we have imagined.

(11:39):
If we can bring, insteadof just doing that with 50
clients or a hundred clients,we can now go to thousands.

Pretty cool.
Why don't we justdo this like a.
So for the people in theaudience, you maybe don't
totally know what positionsquared is all about.
Can you give us like a briefdescription overview of

yeah, position squared.
I started it in 2005 becauseas a person with an engineering
background and a marketingbackground and a product
background, I got really excitedabout what you could do with
Google and how things that usedto take me weeks and months and
years to get answers for aboutwhat the messaging, the channels
that were, um, You know, whatproduct messages are resonating

(12:18):
with customers and millionsof dollars of investment I
could now get in weeks andmonths with Google search.
And so that spurredme to create this.
And we've of course,expanded beyond that to do.
Advertising across anydigital channel, any
programmatic channel.
We've now built content, whichis in the form of videos and

(12:40):
graphics and 3d and just allkinds of cool information,
content level offerings,social content, social posts.
We also got into infrastructurebecause we had to implement
those things faster.
Website app.
We started buildinganalytics tools.
We started integrating multipletools together because marketing
became so sophisticatedthat you had to work across.

(13:02):
Multiple platformsand technologies.
And then we built a whole systemaround it to take the things we
learn and put it into workflowsbecause people come and go and
best practices, you don't wantto forget your best practices.
So we built a system around it.
So that's position squared.
We're all about driving.
The buyer journey, we wantto help that great innovator

(13:24):
who's doing amazing things.
And for me, I want it to be soinvolved with new innovation
and this lets me get involvedwith lots of new innovation.
And so we can work with thoseinnovators, understand what,
where their buyers are today,potential buyers are today
and take them from a point of.
Um, of status quo to thinkingabout a change to their

(13:45):
benefit and then helpingthem go down that path to
eventually to buying and thenrenewing and then scaling.
And so, um, that's whatthe company is about.

Are there actually any recent like
business cases that you've,that you've done that are worth
sharing with the audience?
Do you think, I know youlet your, your, your MBA
guy, you love football.
We love doing thesebusiness cases.
Are there any that sortof stick out to you?

Yeah.
Uh, one, there's two reallyinteresting cases and I'll
talk about one is a securitycompany, it's a little geeky.
It's in the area of whatthey call deception security.
So the idea here is a lot oftimes some, a company you'll get
attacked by hackers or potentialhackers and they, they come

(14:29):
to you and you have defensesImagine if they're attacking.
And they think they're attackingyou, but it's really not you.
You know, it's like putting uplike images of yourself all over
the place or like in a war asif my tanks are everywhere and
my, my forts are everywhere,but it's not really me.
They're just, you'reattacking the wrong thing.

Yes.
Yes.
You're a sorcerer, a mage.
That's that's used thesespells to make yourselves.
I get, I listen, I do

D and D I get it.
So imagine this deceptionsecurity company and they
were in a spot where they hadraised money, where they're
seeing some growth and ittook them a while before the
market took hold for them.
And so they hired us as afirm that can help them with
marketing because now thepeople are showing interest.
And we pounded it out withthem for about a year.
Figuring out who their buyer is,what messaging they need, what,

(15:18):
uh, how do we express intentwith really limited budgets?
They didn't have the budget,like some of our fortune 500
client clients have rightnow, midsize clients have.
And so we were able toget, my team just told me.
The other day that we'reliterally for like tens of
thousands a month in marketingspend, and that's includes
my team, their team, theirmedia spend, their tool

(15:42):
spend, able to now get likefrom a lead to close 25
percent of those leads closecompared to most companies.
And this is what we callaccount based marketing, where
you're really targeting people.
Most companies are only 2%.
2%.
So we're doing 10 X.

Yeah.
Wow.

And so literally for those tens of thousands
a month, they're closingabout a, about a million
and a half dollars in ARR,annual recurring revenue.
Like that's anincredible return.
And so that's what they got.
You know, like that, I'm reallyexcited to see that, that
how we can deliver even forEarly to mid stage companies.

(16:25):
And then there's anotherclient that we took on that's
in the, in the moving space.
And I can't mention thename of the company.
We're sworn sworn to secrecyand, uh, uh, cause the,
and they'll let it, they'lllet us announce it, but we
took them on as a client.
And what's really cool aboutthem is they had another firm
that they were working withthat got them up to a decent
size, but they realized theyweren't proactive enough.

(16:48):
Then something was, the resultsseemed too good to be true.
In terms of their, theirmedia spend to, to sales.
And so they eventually hired us.
It took a few months toactually get this thing done.
And then once we took over,we realized how many things
were broken and the teamjust worked like every day.

(17:09):
There's about five to 10conversations with them about
how they're, how we're fixingtheir systems and within
a month, this usually takethree to six months, within a
month we've wired everything.
And we still got the results,but now we know the results
are real and it's awesome.
Interesting.
What was the too good tobe true part about it?
There were a lot of, um,duplicates that were coming in.

(17:32):
They were measuring every clickas what they call a conversion.

So they're mismeasuring
essentially their success.
And usually

that's a big problem that.
That happens whenwe take on clients.
It's hard to tell them toidentify that problem because
they can't open up theirsystem completely to us when
we're in that earlier phase.
But it's a problem that they, itcould be a 10 million company.
It could be a hundredmillion dollar company.
It can be a multibillion dollar company.
And we usually findthat there, I think it's

(18:03):
usually the same practicesnot being analyzed Yeah.
Or it's just pure laziness.
Right.
If the numbers lookgood, why mess with them?
Why why, don't check them.
If you check them, they mightbe, they might break them.
Yeah, totally.
We might find out

that we really

screwed up and we should

have been talking about a long time ago.
Yeah, you're like truth seeking.
Like, like, cause, cause,you know, you, if you don't.
Know exactly why it's workingor what, then how can you
replicate that success?
Or how can you learn from it?
How can you build off that?
That's the challenge.
If you're not really tellingyourself the truth about
what's under the hood, right?
So are these some ofthe common pain points?
Like what are the, whatare the common pain points
that you see in startups?

(18:40):
I think this would be goodfor anybody out there.
We got, we got listenersthat are like starting
their own companies.
Like what, what do you see fromthe, from the side, you know,
from this marketing agency side?

Most folks are trying to, at the earliest
stages and even later on, tryingto figure out if I invest in
this, in a certain channel anda certain level of messaging
or a certain level of buyer, Iget a repeatable result on the
other side that I know if I putmoney in, in one place, what
do I get out at the other end?
And do I get that?

(19:09):
a return on investmentthat makes sense.
Everyone has that problemto a certain extent.
Some people are way moreoptimized than the other.
No one I've ever seen iscompletely satisfied and nor
should they ever be becausethere's too much technology,
too much change, too manypreferences, too much
competition to ever change it.
So that's the everpresent problem.
Now, to the extent people,different levels have it,

(19:32):
that's what we end up Solvingfor, so they may not have
the right kind of content.
Like it may be an early, itmay be an, uh, an artificial
intelligence company thatto engineers sounds really
cool and geeky and all that.
But to a businessperson, they're like,
well, I don't know.
I got 20 other companies thatare selling me support software.
Why should I buy you?
What's so cool about whatyou're saying, don't give me

(19:53):
all this BS about, you know,uh, the, you know, about how
cool your little technology is.
And, um, you know, the, thespace and they'll go into all
these technical words and tothe buyer, they're like, yeah,
that seems cool, but doesn'treally solve my problem.
So we have to put.
The technology in a form thatallows them to understand,

(20:15):
Oh yeah, when I build this, Ican tile my knowledge systems
together and not do as muchprogramming to get answers.
I don't have to explicitlyname every little thing.
I can literally just pullinformation together and teach
the system to build itself.
And get smarter andthat's, that's the
fundamental difference.
And so then, then you goto the company and say, you
can get, you can take your30 percent employees and

(20:36):
turn them into 80 percentemployees on the support side.
And there's this cool technologythat does it quickly, right?
As opposed to getting intothe, getting to all the
technology details about this.
So is

it a storytelling issue?

Yeah.
It's a storytelling issue.
How do I tell the story for,there's the technology buyer
that eventually at some point isgoing to have to, it's going to
touch it either at the beginningor the end of the process or
the middle of the process.
There's the business leaderthat has to have it translated
into their language.
There's the personto its technology.
There's the it group.
How does it fit intomy infrastructure and
where I'm going next?
There's all these peoplethat need, and there's

(21:12):
the CFO is like, well, ifI spend this money here,
I spend this money there.
What the hell is my return?
Like.
I don't care about your, youknow, what amazing doodad it is.
I want to know whatkind of return I'm
going to get from this.
Why should I put money hereversus the other place?

Great.
Good tips for younger startupsas they examine, you know,
as they look under the hoodon how they can fix stuff.
I mean, the biggest tipof all, of course, is to
hire a position squared.
Well, I mean, a lot of times

you could solve for it by you call
for call firms like us.
We'll go in and we'llwalk you through what
a process looks like.
Most good firms will do somekind of analysis when they
walk into the meeting, um,for you, for the client.
And with these more automatedtools, we can do them faster and
more cost effectively, and thenhelp them understand where the,

(22:00):
where the, um, Uh, roadblocksare where the, where the areas
are greatest areas will helpthem prioritize it and then
they can figure out if theywant to invest, if this is the
right stage for them to invest.

Right.
Well, the other, another coolthing that position square does,
uh, is this growth marketingsummit that was so fun and cool.
So that was one thing thathappened between our last check
in and this, and this one,uh, we just had this growth
marketing summit in park city.
Um, it was such a great event.
Thanks Absolute blast, amazingchefs coming in, making all this

(22:33):
great food, but also maybe thecoup de gras of the whole thing,
right, is really just the peopleand the, by the end of it,
you're like, it's like summercamp, you know, it's like four
days and then you're like, orthree days or whatever it was.
And you're just like, Ijust made all these great
friends and they're all thesereally cool, smart people.
Um, you know, fromall over the industry,
obviously you're, you're.
You know, they're connectedthrough you, but it really felt

(22:56):
like a huge diverse group ofpeople, uh, brilliant people.
And by the end of it,you're like, I don't
want, I miss you guys.
And like everybody's still onthe WhatsApp, like chatting
with each other and makingconnections and hanging out.
It's really cool.
Um, so how, how the hell areyou going to top that in 2025?

I think we'll probably do it in the same place
because we really like thatspot and we've got that spot.
It's awesome.

You guys, there's like a giant basketball
court in indoor that wealso played pickleball.
I mean, the placewas like, it's like

Rajiv Pa (23:23):
basketball pickleball.
There's a full arcade arcade.
There's a bar area andit's removed from the
rest of the building.
So the folks who arestaying up at night aren't
bothering the ones who,you know, Want to sleep.
Um, and then we found adjoininghotels that we can shuttle
people back and forth.
But I think what's great iswhat's Sunday saying, uh, what

(23:44):
you're saying Sunday aboutthe connections afterwards.
Um, this one went so wellthat people are working
together, calling each other.
Um, when they fly into town,they're getting together,
they're putting peopleon each other's boards.
It's really freaking

cool.
It's like you issuedthe challenge.
You were like, Hey.
I remember that at the end, youknow, and you're just like, this
isn't, this doesn't stop here.
Like, I, I, I challengeeach of you to like, meet
one other person fromhere outside of this.
Right.
And you, and you justsee it happening.
And they, they, they checkin and be like, drop a selfie
into the WhatsApp chain.
It was really like, as a,I'm not a big network guy.

(24:23):
I mean, I guess I shouldbe, cause I'm in Hollywood,
but like, you know,this was really fun.
And I think you led withauthenticity and your
heart about wanting to bea connector of great souls.
And so that was thekind of the vibe of it.

I am dreaming up the next one.
And how do we tie the last one?
I thought by having yourteam there to record.
People's presentations,it really made a big
difference because thenthey brought their a game.
I mean, they were going tobring their a game anyways.
These are type a people, butnow they're really bringing
it because if we're recordingit, we're going to put it out.

(24:57):
And so then we createdthese one minute clips of
everyone's presentations, Ted

talks of theirs about like their
cool innovations, whether

it's platform and whether it's a Uh,
talking about how platformsand ecosystems work, how
AI works, um, building up acompany at different levels.
Um, the, the latest in goto market, the latest on the
economy, it was just, uh,or even personal branding,
how Kishka ended it, andyeah, that was awesome.
Uh, he, uh, I was hard.

(25:26):
Your personal brand.
I really heartened wherehe used me as the example.
And, but you know, becauseI, uh, one of my strengths
and maybe as, as my marketinglead tells me one of my
weaknesses is that I don't.
Self promote enough.
So, um, it was a littleweird to be at the center
of attention for that.
But, um, it, it, the way hedid it was really helpful.

(25:47):
It's something I thinkabout all the time.
It's like, what is, whatis your personal brand?
What are you trying tosay in the way you act?
What are the three or fourcharacteristics you want to
share about yourself or you wantpeople to know about yourself?
And then, you know,Live it, be it, act it.
Yeah, it was a great

Sandeep P (26:00):
little rubric for it.
But, and I think it ultimatelyall just boiled down to
like, well, what do youauthentically care about?
What is the change youwant to see in the world?
And if you care enoughauthentically about that, that's
what you, like, you should,shouldn't be afraid to shout
that from the rooftops andget out there and let people
know that this is important.
Um, Cause that, that'sultimately what they, what

(26:21):
they will connect with.
It's like, Oh yeah, I wantto see that change too.
And wow, you're a realmouthpiece for that.
Or you're a real thoughtleader about that.
So, um, yeah, Ithought that was cool.
And that wasn't the onlything, by the way, videotaping
wasn't the only thing webrought to your summit.
Do you remember what else?
What I'm about to say.
Do you mean, uh, theDungeons and Dragons?
Yes.

Yes.
You brought, you broughtyour Desi Quest experience
and got a whole bunchof people to experience.
I got

a bunch of Silicon Valley tech, you know,
bros and gals to, you know,drop the facade and play.
Elves, warriors, gnomes, anddwarves and get into character.
And not just me, but my,my, my, uh, cohort, Omar
Najam, and it was so fun.
And at the beginning I couldtell everybody was a little
bit skeptical, you know, andthey were like, kind of had

(27:09):
their, their guards up andthey're like, you know, a
little too cool for school, butthen dude, by the end of it.
Everyone was like, when dowe get to play this again?
Like this is, you know,they, they were so into it.
And it was, it was basicallylike a really cool form of
like a team building exercise.
Cause that's ultimately,you're telling a
collective story together.
And it was, it was just,was it such a treat for me.
I love seeing whenpeople get it.

(27:30):
The moment when they'relike, Oh, this is special.
This is fun.
And I love playingwith these people.
And so anyway, Ithought I feel like the

way you did it.
I think it's theultimate improv, right?
It is.
You're just there.
You have nothing to lose.
You're just sittingaround a bunch of friends.
And you're makingup stuff as you go.
And it's just, it's ina certain structure.
You were probablythe game master.
I think, um, no, Omarwas the game master.
He did an awesome job.
He's freaking awesome at it.

(28:00):
And so he creates thesescenarios and people play it
just like they do on your show.
So

that's the thing, that's the veil
that was lifted, right?
It's like, Hey, you actually arecapable of being an entertainer
yourself and being entertaining.
You tell stories.
Now, this is a group storythat we're telling together.
So let's all see the same thing.
Let's see the sameworld and drop in.
And, and it's,it's a cool thing.
So, uh, I'm excited tobring that back next year.
You got to bring that back.
I think.
Let's let's let's do the thingwe said we're going to do, which

(28:29):
is hold our feet to the fire.
Yeah.
Um, a little bit here.
So from January, you mentionedthat you track 15 things for
yourself over the year andusually you focus on four key
ones with your CEO group, right?
How are you doingwith those goals?

So for the three things, according
to my original goals, I amthree greens and one red

greens.
You mean you've met themor are they still on track?
I've

met them on track.
Uh, whether it's, youknow, a lot of times it's
a leadership goal, it's abig hairy audacious goal.
It's, it's like a, I put inlike a physical goal or I put
in a, in my case, I'm putting anoutreach goal of how many people
I reach out to because I believein connecting great souls.
That's my, one ofmy purposes in life.
It's my purpose in life.
Yep.

(29:12):
And so, uh, I have one that'sred and, uh, it's something
that one of the things you do.
Like anything, like, you know,when you go into battle, you
create a plan, you think you'vebuilt your plan for success
and stuff happens once you getinto battle and then it's not
about COVID or something likethe ground can shift on you.

(29:36):
People can, your clientscould consolidate a division.
They could, they could, uh,dramatically shift leadership.
I mean, you're based,your revenues are
based on those clients.
And the game in ourbusiness is to have enough
opportunities, enough clients,enough situations so that
it doesn't affect you, butsometimes things happen.
And so what I'd say to anyonewho go, anyone who's been in

(29:59):
business has dealt with this,I've dealt with this multiple
times and the best I could dois, you know, we're humans.
So I personally take everythingto heart in a way that, that
is probably could be healthier.
And um, and so I need to dobetter with when something

(30:19):
happens to not see it asmy personal Issue, but
it's something to solveand then we adjust from it.
And so after taking a punchand feeling it, I did talk
about this with my CEO group,they gave me a ton of help.
They formed a tiger team to,they got together with me and
they really, it's a tiger team.

(30:40):
They formed, they formeda team of five people that
outside of the normal, Groupmeetings would meet with me
and push with me on plans andgas, and they would bring me
suggestions and they connect meto people and they just sat in
with me and really worked it.
And they told me about theirsituations and how they felt.
Some of them was like, I feltshame when this happened.

(31:01):
And, and, uh, so.
They really helped me throughit and, and some of it's
my, just my own resilience.
I had to just dig within myselfand say, yeah, I can't let
any one situation affect me.
I got to make the rightchoices for the whole team
and for the whole company.
And so we did and we madesome pretty significant
changes and frankly, that'sgetting us to a better place.

Yeah, but it can be hard and it can be painful.
And then, but it's coolthat you have this group.
I mean, that's really thetakeaway is like, who, who
are the people that you cansurround yourself with that
you trust that are going to,that you can get into the
itty bitty gritty detailsand, and share your shame.
I mean, that'sreally challenging.
I think for, You know, I wasgoing to say for, for, uh,

(31:45):
CEOs in general, but likealso South Asians in general,
like it's kind of not, notsomething we always, we usually
connect with each other overour achievements and not, and
not over the things that we'regoing through hardship over.
Um, you know, so that's, thatcan be really challenging.
So that's, that's, you know,look, maybe that should
be the goal, you know,it's like, yeah, because

a minus is not square off.
And so the advice I'vegotten is, okay, the
goal is what it is.
Redo it.
I'm still, still, it's still,um, swing big, but redo
it and make adjustments toyour business strategy, make
adjustments to how you do it.
You can still catch up.
And frankly, I stillbelieve I can catch up.
I'll redo the goal.

(32:26):
Yeah, and make the back ofyour head, you're like, but I
think I can, I'm going to finda way and I'm not only going to
hit it, I'm going to smash it.
So, so it, but it tookme a while to get there.
And this is a person that'sbeen running companies
for 20 years now, so it's,it's, it happens to all

of us.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And that's the thing Ialways try to remember
whenever I'm feeling like.
Oh, man, I'm being passedover or, you know, this, like
whatever anxieties I'm feelingabout, you know, the business
that I'm in out here in LA is,is that like, you know, there
are a hundred other people thatare in my same boat feeling
the same exact thing feelingthis, you know, it's like,

(33:02):
it's, it's, it's a sharedshared experience and it's
gen, it's usually not personal.
It's usually notreally about you.
You know what?

You know what helped me?
One of the things thathelps me get through these.
Not only talking about this,socializing with friends,
but actually our own podcast.
Um, yeah.
So I, then I get to meetgood, amazing leaders who are
vulnerable about where theyare and what they're doing.
And we share things witheach other openly like
we do on this podcast.

(33:30):
And in this amazing mediumand then you're like, yeah, I,
it does, it does pump me up.
It does make it when I listensometimes when I listen, I
listen to our own podcast andI'm like, wow, that was amazing.
Look at that.
Yeah.
We pulled from this person.
Like, wow, aren'twe so fortunate?
So, um, that's why I ask all ofyou to like share and comment.

(33:53):
There you go.
Let us know becausewhen our, when I get
feedback, that was funny.
I was talking to this one.
Um, and she's like, wait,your voice sounds so familiar.
Oh

yeah.
She recognized your voice.
When my husband and I ride our

bikes, we listened to your podcast.

Sandeep Pari (34:10):
Hey, there you go.
Your first fans.
I love it.
Yeah.
They're sweet.
Well, that's great.
And so this actually leadsme to my next question about
your, you talked about alittle bit about your goal
of connecting great souls.
We talked about it in thegrowth marketing summit.
Is there any kind of nuggetor something you've learned
about, because I love that goal.
I think it's fantastic.

(34:31):
Is there a process behind that?
Yeah, I think it's first

acknowledging that that's a, that's my purpose.
And then not just writing itdown, but then saying, well,
okay, then what does that mean?
Like, yeah.
And do you really believe it?
What does it sound cool?
But then, yeah.

Is it in your, does it really, yeah,

so I like it, I like the feeling of it,
but what does that means.
Um, I'm going to reach outto a certain amount of people
every week that I normallywouldn't reach out to.
That means to that eventthat I wasn't going to
go to because I'm a tiredand I, something happened.
I want to go.
No, I'm going to go.
I'm going to go.
I'm going to get, I'm goingto throw myself out there,

(35:09):
uh, to that person that I maynot have, well, asked out for
dinner or come to this event.
I'm going to just take a shot.
Worst case, they'll say no.

But then, so that's like connecting
you to these great people.
But then do you think aboutlike going to those events?
Like I'm wondering, do yougo to those events and go
like, well, this is notabout me winning business.
This is actually meabout, about me hearing.
Meeting new people, hearingwhat they're interested
in, what their pain pointsare, whatever's going on
in their lives, makingan authentic connection.
And then whether it's me orwhether it's someone else that

(35:37):
I actually in is in my Rolodex.

And that's, and I think that's, that's the part
of the conversation I enjoythe most is when someone shares
about an issue or a problemor something they're trying to
solve and I can pull up a name,I can like hyperlink a name.
Oh, I know this guy,this guy can help you.
And so then I can learn more,and then I come back and I'm
like, okay, let me go connectthese two people together.

(36:00):
Or I'm at the actual eventand I see this person and the
other person that can help'em, and I can put 'em in the
same room together, introducethem and let them get started.
Or even facilitate a dinneror an event or something where
all these people come together.
So like, or the growthmarketing summit.
Yeah.
So like when we, yeah, sowhen we even throw events
through the year in theGrowth Marketing Summit, I'm

(36:20):
actively looking for how I can.
Take someone I care aboutor know and connect them to
someone else that can help eachand they can help each other.
And I feel, I feel fulfilledwhen I hear about people
who I've, who I've comethrough my network that
do business together.
So one of the guys, one of thepeople that are in our, went to

(36:42):
our growth marketing summit overthe last three years, uh, is now
just got funded by a, uh, a VCthat went to one of our events.
Two years ago and they metnow enough times through
this and the network thatwe've established that they,
they actually are workingtogether in a fundamental way.

(37:02):
Cause like, you know, as, asthe, he mentioned when you,
in one of our episodes, henow mentioned of a storm,
storm ventures, he mentionedlike, you know, when you're
investing in a company,you're looking at 10 years.
At a company.
So you are literally tiedtogether for a long time.

It's like, that's right.
It's like whenever he wastalking about Kamala picking
a vice president, uh, the,the thing that I kept hearing
was like, remember this islike, you don't just pick
someone because of the state,they can win you or whatever.
This is a person you'regonna be having lunch
with like once a week.
They're gonna be in all yourmeetings, . You gonna hang
out with this persons around,

they're in the, they're gonna be in
the situation room with you.
They may be making thelast comment, and you gotta
be comfortable with them.
Yeah, representing a diversepoint of view, but a point
of view where they'retruly trying to help you
and not just themselves.
Right.

A hundred percent.
I

think part of the connecting great souls
is that level of fulfillmentand measuring, measuring
it, not in a, like a, I mustconnect 10 people this week.
Uh, but it's more that I'm goingto, I look at it as I'm going
to reach out to this many peoplethat I don't normally reach out
to, to enable those connectionsbecause that's the first thing
I'm looking for less thanme doing business with them.

(38:16):
That I think comes out ofjust the general conversation.
Right.
If somebody really expressesa need, then they'll.
They'll literally,they'll bring it up.
And I think

it's when you can truly, because like
there's still a little pieceof you in your head always
where you're like, well, Ihope I do win business though.
And I think when you canquiet that voice enough where
it's, you really do find thejoy in people connecting.
No matter what, that the stuffstarts to come for you anyway,
like the, the opportunityto start to pop in any way
in surprising ways, ratherthan being like, Oh man, I

(38:46):
didn't really actually getit, you know, whatever it is.

Yeah.
And I think, I think that isa, that is something I've gone
through over time before itused to be just about, Hey,
how can I get more business?
And it is very freeingnow to let that go.
But at the same time, I amone of the reasons I'm so
excited about what you coulddo with AI is I could serve.
We could serve more peopleand get them more value
and get them more, get themto where they want to go.
And that's because I see us asan enabler for their success

(39:11):
through the creative innovation.
And while we have to innovate aswell as part of getting there.
And I also look at it as,well, I got to help my,
my team's got to succeed.
They got to get paid.
Well, they got to goback to their families.
There's a lot to do here.
Yep.
Uh, the, my investorshave to win.
Like.
I know I'm going to get myearliest investors at least a
50 X return on their investment.
So they've stuck withme forever, not forever

(39:34):
for quite some time.
And they're going toget a great return.
And even the more recent onesfrom, you know, just a few
years ago, they're going toget a spectacular return.
So that you got to deliver andthat's part of the connection.
I think that's a,that's the ultimate win
is when you get that.
And there's a lot ofinter, uh, overlapping
interrelated relationships.

(39:54):
So I think we talked aboutthis in one of the episodes,
like the cool part aboutSilicon Valley is that, um,
The friends that you maywork with or help out can
also people that you hang outwith and you like to be with.
So the same person thatI'm playing pickleball,
racquetball, uh, skiing, hiking.

(40:14):
I can help them inthe workplace too.
And I can also help themin life or they can help

me

and so there's, there's these multiple, there's
these multiple factors or Ican help this person raise
more money for their fund.
Right.
Um, I could put thislike, Oh, we're trying to
evaluate biotech companies.
You know what?
I have this great biotechresource that can look at
biotech companies and help theirkid get like their first job.
Well, everybody wants, like,there's no better way to
someone's heart than to.

(40:42):
Helping their kid get thatinternship or their first job.
And it's really funto look out for that.
Like something reallysatisfying is this, this kid
who's a friend of my youngestson, amazing, brilliant guy.
And for whatever reason,hasn't found a job.
Like he's just so smart.
He graduated college a yearearlier, is doing neuroscience.

(41:02):
And I bumped into this and hewas sitting there in our house.
He takes care ofmy daughter's cat.
It's craziest thing.
A coolest thing, actually.
And, uh, And I was like, Ohyeah, he's talking about AR, VR.
Oh yeah, this guy I walkwith every Saturday.
He was mentioning how he's atop IP expert in this field.
Let me put those two together.
Yeah.
Right.

(41:23):
Great.
He can help them find that dohave that one leg up with this
big interview that he has,

you know, one thing that I employed, I don't
know if you do this, thiswould be my, uh, advice to
say young founders out there.
Um, and maybe you can giveyours real quick, which is,
uh, I started, Taking notes onmy, uh, after I have a great
interaction with somebody,I immediately just jump
onto my phone real quick.
I had a great conversationwith somebody to say at a

(41:48):
convention or whatever it is.
And, you know, we hada good, whatever we
talked about, it doesn'tmatter what, what it was.
And I just write realquick, you know, okay.
Jim Bloom, uh, had a reallyfunny story about his tattoo
on his arm, you know, uh,you know, related to his dad.
Did a, just like, real quickhighlights of that thing.

(42:10):
And then when Ido the follow up.
You know, with them, I, usuallyI'm thinking of something
that I'm noting the stuff thatI sincerely connected with.
Right.
So it's coming froma sincere place.
It's not just a gamification.
Uh, but then, you know, youcan reference that or call
that back in your followupconversations, right?
Like, um, it's, it's a way tosort of be like, yeah, listen,

(42:30):
I'm, I actually listenedto the things you said as
a human being, not just thethings that I think are going
to get me the, you know, thegig or the job or whatever,
um, you know, and that's.
Because that'sultimately what matters.
Like you talked about, these arepeople that you might be working
with for 10 years after this.
If I sell a show to themand they're at the WB or
whatever it is, like we'regoing to have a relationship

(42:51):
for many, many years.

I think that's a re, I think it's a really smart
idea to jot down in some place.

Yeah.

Couple things and your mind doesn't want, my
mind doesn't want to do that.
I want to go offto the next thing.
I want the new, new.
And I think one of the thingsI learned from our friend,
Sean Jacobson, who did anepisode, he's a mega connector.
Um, that's the first thinghe does after he meets, he
jumps onto their CRM systemand puts down a few notes.
Yeah.

(43:20):
And so that's what I doin our HubSpot system
or our CRM system.
Sometimes I'm like, Ican't connect to it.
So fricking I'll justput it in every nowhere.
I'll put it in some, on mycontact list, some note there.
I'll just jot it down on a,on my, I have the, I have
that, um, remarkable, uh,electric notebook system.
Just write something down.

Write something down because
even the act of it, yeah.
Even the act of writingit or doing that.
It reinforces it anyway.
You probably won't actuallyneed to reference it later.
Uh, it's there incase you need it.
And I just establish

a new neural connection.
Yeah,

that's right.
Yeah.
All right.
I think it's time.
I'm going to jump in.
This is our version ofspark tank for this episode.
Uh, and that's ourpredictions review.
Let's see how we did.
Let's grade ourselves.
First up, Bill Belichick isBill Belichick coming back.
Here's what Rajiv Parikh said.
I hope so, but it looks likeno, because craft is so good
at subtly putting out messages.
So.

(44:11):
Ding, ding, ding.
Nailed it.
That's correct.
So it turns out, turnsout Belichick, not
back to the future.
It's though he diddoing TV, doing TV.

He's on Peyton Manning's, uh, uh, broadcast

and he's really good.
Yeah.
He's great.
He's great.
He's funny,insightful, poignant.
I think he's like freed frombeing the curmudgeon now.
Like, you know, it's like, it'salmost like he doesn't have, you
know, It's like now I can justbe insightful and talk about the
things that actually tickle him.
It's like, Oh, he actually likethe whole Tom Brady roast thing
was like just watching him.
I couldn't believe he was there.

(44:45):
And then, you know, he waspretty damn funny at it.
It was kind of, itwas kind of good.
It's kind of amazing.
So ding, ding, ding.
One day, one win.
All right.
2024 election.

Oh, why this one?
Yeah,

we wanted to decide we were gonna say who's
it gonna be who versus who here?
Uh, and you said I hopeit's biden because I
actually like his policies.
I think he's more of a centristthan other candidates I believe
he's implemented policiesthat drive for a better union
Plus 40 years plus of hisexperience in his government.
He's able to move at arate that most people can't
because he's seen so much.

(45:19):
And I said, can he accessthat information quick
enough to get to his brain?
I guess that's the question.
So on the Biden front, uh,you know, you were hopeful
that it would be remain Biden.
Uh, it did not, it did not.
So

Rajiv Parik (45:37):
that's a yes or no.
And did not, but Idid not on the yes or
no, but you know what?
I mean, And I think a lot ofus, the minute we heard him in
that debate, we, we basicallycast all of our hopes aside and
said, Oh my God, this is notgoing to work because he's still

(45:58):
good in one on one interactions.
He's still good at runninggovernment and utilizing
that vast database of.
Connections and knowledge thathe's built over the years.
It's just, he just can't do itpublicly on the fly anymore.
He can't sell

the message, he can't sell the narrative,
he can't tell the storyto the public right now.
That's really whatit came down to.
And the thing, and it waslike the one thing he couldn't
do, right, was, was reallyshow his age at that debate.
Cause that's the one thingeverybody was worried about.
It's the one thinghe couldn't do and he

I'm glad his team put him up for it in June so
they could get answers early.
I wonder if thatwas the whole play.
Uh, I,

you know, not, I don't think, I don't think
that they're that organizednecessarily, but it does make
me wonder like, oh wow, arethey that insightful about it?
Like, well, if he fails,let him fail early and
then we can, we can pivot.
Yeah,

I, I think there was a, I mean, I think they
saw the decline in the polls.
I think they knew they hadto seize the initiative.
He had, he had done a couple,like the state of the union,
there were hope we were,we're all hoping that he
would give another state ofthe union like performance.
And when it, what, when itwas clear that it just wasn't
there, um, it just madesense to make the switch.

(47:13):
There's a lot of greatreporting on it now, a great
interview between Ezra Kleinand Nancy Pelosi about it.
I think it's really worthlistening to about it is.
I listened to it.
It's fantastic.
It was brilliant abouthow she changed the, the
change, the discussion,um, to help him really help
him and help the party.

(47:36):
Make a great change.
I'm,

I'm like relieved for him, in a way.
Like, I'm like, I hope thisman gets to like, cause I
think now, especially ifKamala does pull this off.
He will be celebrated for thisdecision instead of maligned.
Like, I think we will forgetthat it took this long and
that we were so frustratedthat it took this long in some
ways and that we will justremember the outcome and be
like, wow, that was reallybrave and really bold for,

(48:00):
for someone to give up power.
Like that is really thepower of someone believing
in democracy over themselvesand it's, it's, it's in stark
contrast to what's beingrepresented by the other side.
Um, a person who's sayinghe'd be a dictator on day one.
So I, I think that's,that is my hope for him.
And I'm like, wow, I hopehe gets just to kick, to
kick back a little bit, takea chill pill, like, like

hang

out with your son, you

know, and solve a bunch of problems.
He can now focus on solvinga bunch of problems.
He's got to take care ofthe Israel Gaza thing.
He's got to focus on Ukraine.
He's got,

he's got work to do until January for sure.
But I'm saying after that.
He gets to not be president.
That's

right.
He, well, yeah.
And then he could be asenior statesman advisor.
There's a lot of great things.
Or he's 81 years

old and he can just do yoga with our dad.
Like just hangout with our dude.
Just chill out.
It's okay to spend yourfinal years just hanging
out with your grandkids.
And doing some yoga.

Come, come to teachers training
in New Hampshire.
That's right.

Sandeep Parik (48:56):
And do some yoga.
That's what I,that's, that's okay.
So here's what I said.
This is my bold prediction.
Uh, and I think I, Ithink I get some points.
You got half right.
And then the other halfis not, it's not over.
It's mostly over,but it's not over.
I said, listen, I was sayingthat, listen, something
happens to Donald Trumpwith his convictions, he's

(49:18):
disqualified and we get.
Nick, Nick, Nicky Haley.
And then, uh, something happenswith Joe Biden where he has
to retire early or forcedretirement and it ends up being
Kamala and they're both Indian.
So they're both aunties andwe get auntie versus auntie.
And you guys have

a whole post on that.
You have a whole clip on it.

And my other, and my other podcast, the
ABCD podcast, if you're,if you're a South Asian and
you're interested in talkingabout South Asian American
stuff, that's, that's allwe gab about over there.
And so our whole thing was theauntie versus auntie watch 2024.
And, and we, it was a big momentbecause we called it months ago.
We called it months ago.
It started as a joke,kind of, but it was also

(49:56):
like, this could happen,two aunties head to head.
Come on, let's go.

Nailed it.
And, and I think, itis so much, uh, fun.
Kamala Harris has, uh,really energized Democrats

and

brought fresh energy, brought fresh life
and joy into the campaign andgiven Americans what they want.
Americans love newthings, new novel.
Yep.
You know, and she'sbringing that to them.
And I think that's, Reallygreat for all of us, regardless
of what the outcome is.
It's she's the bestchallenger for the moment.

(50:29):
And, and you got to say Bidenwas pretty clever at taking
the post GOP conventionbalance and just deflating it.
Defining that change.

Yes.
So ding, ding, ding.
We get the pointfor that as well.
Economy and markets.
Okay.
This is an area thatI'm not so great about.
So this was all you were talkingabout that the fed cutting
interest rates, I believe.
Yeah.
So I don't know if it was aclean and clear prediction
that you said, but I thinkyou were talking about if
the Fed cuts The rates,people will feel confident.

(50:59):
They'll start investing.
They'll startbuying homes again.
70 percent of theeconomy is the consumer.
And so businesses willfeel confident about
investing in this.

We're in the middle of a soft landing.
There were some concernsrecently about a hard landing.
Soft landing.
Soft landing.
And we're still inthe middle of that.
Stocks are doingincredibly well.
Um, the rate cut thatwas supposed to happen
earlier hasn't happenedbecause inflation has
persisted and the Fed isconcerned about inflation.
But then didn't we just havethat report that just came out
that said the inflation is 9percent or inflation is lower.

(51:30):
And a lot of it is backloadedbecause of rental rental prices.
So a lot of that is.
It's lagging.
And so, um, it's muchbetter than before and job
growth has, is startingto wobble a little bit.
And so now we have the basisfor what is likely to be a
September quarter point cut,which is the beginning of some

(51:51):
cut because right now you canget inflation, get inflation
down to two, two and a halfpercent, then interest rates,
fed interest, like the federalinterest rates should be like
three, 4%, not five, 6%, not 5%.
Should be three.
So that's a couple ofpoints and that to a lot of
Americans, that's a big number.

All right.
So we'll call this one TBDbecause we'll see if the, if
we'll, when we do our end atyear end review, we'll check
in on whether or not, but

like our friend Sumit said at our
growth marketing summit,the American economy is the
most, most dynamic, mostresilient economy in the world.
And it continues to be.
Right.
And it has the most growth.
I mean, China will, Chinaand India, of course,
is just going like mad.
China is, uh, they're growing,but slower than expected.

(52:39):
Big real estate overhang

and,

uh, the U S is just chugging along better
than all the other developedcountries in the world.
So

Sandeep Pa (52:47):
it's really amazing.
Speaking of China, we hada prediction about China
because we, we, we asked theIs there going to be conflict
between China and the U S andyou said that you believed
that the powers that be willwant to keep the world stable
and find a way to create anaccommodation to each other.
I think that's prettymuch what's played out.
So far,

that's, that's what we are.
And I think both sideshave figured that.
Both sides have figuredout they need to get there.
China still wants to take Taiwanand keeps acting like that.
But they, I think they realizeit's better to be integrated
with the world economy.
And maybe it's a gooddistraction for their people,
but I still am of the beliefthat the Chinese, Chinese folks

(53:29):
are good people who reallyjust want to do business.
That's what I believe, uh, thecut, the, the, these economies
are so intertwined that breakingthem apart would hurt everyone.

All right.
Well, I guess we might as wellend with the predictions that
we will check in on at the year.
Um, who's winning,Trump or Kamala?

I think Kamala's going to win.
I think she's going to winby more than just a hair.
I think she's going to winby quite a bit because the
momentum will continue.
I agree.
It'll continue.
It'll, it'll go up furtherpast the Democratic convention.
It'll tighten a bit, butI think in the end she's,
she's new and interestingand ease from the past.

(54:12):
And he, he hasn't reallychanged his message much.

He's the rerun

now.

He's the, he's the, yeah, he's the episode
we've seen over and over again.
It's old news.
Americans

get bored pretty quickly.
That, that's why it'sactually why having two
terms is more than enough.
And no

one really runs three times.
I almost like this idea oflike, oh, letting that first
president just finish thejob that they were doing and
letting someone else just like,Do all the running instead
of wasting all their timeand energy and effort and I'm
trying to sell themselves again.
Maybe be like

Mexico, have six year terms.

Yeah.

Oh, I do.
Do Democrats hold the Senate?

Right.
I haven't really been followingthis one that much, but don't
they say that was, this is goingto be a really rough year for
the Senate for, for Democrats.
It seems like there's moreseats at risk on the Democratic

side.

Yeah, but I don't know.
Maybe this newfound energy iswhat it affects down ballot.
And, uh, You know, I don'tthink Trump is gonna be good
for down ballot candidates.
So it's

Montana, West Virginia, Ohio.
Those are the ones at risk.
It's gonna be tough.

It's gonna be tough to win those.

I

don't know.
What do you think?

I think it's, I think it's really hard.

So are you predicting?
What are you predicting?
Are you predicting they'regonna do it or not?

I think it's 50, 50 back to the days
when back, back to thefirst half of the term.
Well, you're

predicting it's going to be 50, 50
and the vice presidentgets the deciding vote.

Rajiv Parik (55:35):
Waltz gets the tie.
I think they hold on to, I'dsay they hold on to Montana
and West Virginia's lost.
They hold on to Montanaand they hold on to Ohio.

So next question, is the AI
bubble going to pop?
Is it, you know, is it, doesit turn out that this is going
to be like maybe crypto or theinternet bubbles or whatever?
Like.
Yeah.
Or do you think that theinvestment in AI is going
to continue to grow?

The investment there's massive AI investment.
It continues togo into companies.
Uh, there will be a lot ofcompanies that get wiped
out just like anything toomuch money's chasing this
environment, really highvaluations will cause a lot
of companies to readjust, but.
A lot of the problemsthat normally come with
disillusionment, whatthey call the trough of

(56:21):
disillusionment, where itlike, uh, it's not as accurate
as, as it says it will be.
It doesn't do, it doesn'tspeed up development like they
say it would, or it's not asreliable as we thought, or it
just eats up too much bandwidthand capacity and energy.
And all those parts, there'sso much money going into it,
like incredible money, like,Billions and billions, like tens

(56:42):
of hundreds of billions, almostthat it won't happen right now.
The big player is NVIDIA.
They're eating up most ofthe profit pool, just like,
um, Microsoft and Inteldid in the PC revolution.
And Apple has donein the mobile world.
Uh, NVIDIA is gettingthat, but there are.
A player's emerging,trying to get their piece
of it and it'll work.
It seems like it'sworking itself out faster.

(57:03):
So I don't, I think there'll besome minor trough that will not
like there'll be a wipe out ofa budget companies, but those
who invest in the applicationspace and the key infrastructure
bases, they'll do well.
So, so the answer is if there'sa, the trough of disillusionment
will be really minor.

Okay.
Okay.
I like it.
Um, then how about this?
What about these?
Okay.
Conflicts.
Can you, are we goingto see some deescalation
in Ukraine or Gaza

in the Middle East?
Let's start withthe Middle East.
They keep saying they'reclose to a ceasefire.
There has to be a ceasefire.
It just has to happen.
Otherwise there willbe a broader war.

Yeah.

So it, I think that's one of the things
Biden has to finish off.
Before the next administrationand if it doesn't this thing
will go on for a while andthere'll be a wider war
That's bad for all of usfor Russia and Ukraine.
It's tough tough to predictbut The way if you look at
Russian history Governmentshave fallen very suddenly

(58:04):
After a really disappointingevent, so whether it was the
czars in World War One or theoriginal Bolsheviks, you know,
there's, it's like, everythinglooks strong and then it just
breaks, but otherwise it'sjust going to continue there.
Just no one's goingto give up for years.
So what's your prediction then?

(58:24):
It's going to, my predictionis this thing keeps going
for another couple of years.
All

right.
Okay.
Uh, Nostradamus pun for you.
Nostradragus.
Um, only if I'm right, right?
Yeah.
All right.
Okay.
So then, okay.
I got a couple more, someinteresting Stats around
remote work, 20% of the USworkforce is working remotely.
98% of workers wannawork remotely at least

(58:53):
some of the time.
60% of companiesoperate fully remotely.
And that number is growing.
Uh, do you predict thatremote work is gonna
continue on its trajectory?
Um, or do you think thatit will take a significant
shift back to in-person work?

I think it's going to move more toward, I don't
think it's ever gonna go away.
And it's, you know, forsalespeople and a lot
of different roles, it'snever going to go away.
Technology enables remotework for many people, uh,
for many different roles.
But like you said,it's only 20%.
Most people work infactories and retail stores
and stuff, warehouses.
That's where most, youknow, construction sites.

(59:31):
That's where most people are.
We see it as remotebecause these are the
professional classes.
So, I think there'll bemore return to work because
from a building utilizationpoint, having a building
that's only used a coupleof days a week, it's just
a terrible waste of money.
There's so little benefit.

(59:52):
And I think a lot ofmanagers are, it is very
tough to discipline.
Have to have discipline whenpeople are just not showing up.
It's very tough to havecollaboration and yeah that

Sandeep Parikh (01:00:02):
like energy that ping pong that it you know I
will say we're like building aback office here at our place
so that and I'm turning itinto basically a podcast studio
because Part of my frustration.
I mean, I'm you know It'sgreat because this Riverside
and all this technology canbring us together even though
you're in the bay and I'mdown here in LA But I got,
I've got another podcast I'mdoing in LA and I'm like,

(01:00:24):
man, these are with comedians.
Like timing is everything.
Like getting us togetherin a room, like whenever
we get the opportunity,it's so much more fun.
It's so much funnier.
I think the product is better.
So

Rajiv Parikh (01:00:35):
when we did the podcast together in,
in Salt Lake City, that'snot something in Park City.
Park City

was great.
Awesome.
To be in the room together.
Yeah.
It makes a huge difference.
It makes a huge difference.
So, all right.
Well, yeah, we'll see.
We'll see how that plays out.
Alright, and then, I thinkmost people are saying that
Kendrick won in Drake vs.
Kendrick.
Do you, do you think thatrivalry will be renewed,
and do you think that, thatDrake will have a comeback?

(01:01:04):
I think.
Sure.

Listen, I'm wheelhouse here.
I'll say I enjoy whatevermusic my friends are playing.

Come on.
I thought you were so hip.
You're into Dua Lipa now.
You're like, it's not just rush.
And, uh, and Led Zeppelin andPink Floyd anymore, right?
You're expanding your horizon.
It's not just Peter Gabriel.
I like,

I do.
I do like how Ariana Grande canimitate just about any singer.
I think she'sfreaking brilliant.
Um, but I think that'sconsidered old news too.

I think so.
Yeah.
And plus you're just enjoyingthat she's imitating a singer
that you've actually heard.
All right.
With that, I think weconclude our check in.
All right, well, we'll checkback in at the end of the year.
And for all of youlistening, thank you so much.
We love having you.
Uh, remember, please hitthat comment button, hit
that like button, and maybemost importantly, share this

(01:02:11):
show with somebody you thinkthat that'll be helpful to.
If you know any founders outthere, folks that, you know,
could use this, uh, kind oflife advice and this life
experience, then I think it'sworth, uh, please, please,
Uh, share, share, share theshow that really helps us out.
The show is produced by myself,Sandeep Parikh and Anand
Shah, production assistanceby Taryn Talley and edited by
Sean Marr and Aiden McGarvey.
Uh, this time I'm yourhost, Sandeep Parikh, but on

(01:02:34):
behalf of our regular host,Rajiv Parikh from Precision
Squared, a leading AI drivengrowth marketing company
based in Silicon Valley.
Uh, you know, thank youso much for listening.
Come visit us at position2.
com and this has been aneffing funny production.
But I think you can doyour tagline, Rajiv.

Be

ever curious.

All right,

we'll catch you next time.

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Growing a Growth Marketing Firm with AI/Rajiv Parikh - Conversions, Great Souls, Belichick ~ Spark of Ages Ep 22

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Growing a Growth Marketing Firm with AI/Rajiv Parikh - Conversions, Great Souls, Belichick ~ Spark of Ages Ep 22