January 23, 2024 • 25 mins
Join me on a thrilling journey as I attend the Internet Commerce Association meeting in vibrant Las Vegas, Nevada. In this video, I'll give you an insider's look at the event, including the incredible people I met, the engaging activities we participated in, and the valuable insights I gained. If you're interested in the domain industry, I'll also answer the burning question: Why should you join the Internet Commerce Association?
Get ready to immerse yourself in the exciting atmosphere of the conference, where anticipation, achievement, and admiration are in the air. Experience the unique camaraderie that flourishes at such gatherings, from the mesmerizing performances of magicians to enlightening conversations with industry experts. This event was truly unforgettable, filled with tales of triumph, words of wisdom, and heartfelt farewells.
Don't miss out on being part of this vibrant community! Join the Internet Commerce Association today:
http://internetcommerce.org/join
About Saw.com
We’re passionate about digital assets here at Saw.com. It’s our mission to create a transparent environment where you know what’s happening with every step of your domain sale or acquisition (and secure the best possible price!)
About Jeffrey:
Jeffrey M. Gabriel is the founder of Saw.com, a boutique brokerage that specializes in acquiring, selling, and appraising domains. With over 14 years of experience in the domain industry, Jeffrey has a proven track record of closing multimillion-dollar deals and delivering exceptional value to his clients.
Jeffrey's core competencies include remote team management, online marketing, and strategy. He is passionate about helping businesses and individuals achieve their online goals and dreams. He has been involved in some of the most notable domain sales in history, such as Ai.com, Sex.com, and Poker.org. He is also a Guinness World Record holder and a frequent speaker and writer on domain-related topics.
Follow us on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sawcom/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/saw-com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sawsells
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Jeffy Gabriel in the Uncomfortable podcast.
I flew to Fabulous Las Vegasfor the Internet Commerce
Association conference that washeld at the brand new casino
called Resorts World, and todayI'm going to tell you about it,
(00:24):
based on what I heard about theconference last year, because I
didn't go.
It was a small, tight-knitevent with people who are
serious about dominating in ourindustry.
I was told it was very good,and I decided to not schedule
any meetings and just let thewind take me wherever it decided
to blow me.
Other conferences I feel likethere are always people who are
(00:45):
just having meetings with you tohave meetings, like they need
to hit a number of meetings totell their boss, but this one
was different.
It was a special one and itreminded me of the good old days
.
I felt like going there andhaving quick conversation with
people, introducing myself toothers, was the way to go this
time, instead of creating like aregimented schedule and, yes,
approaching people I've neverseen or met before and saying
(01:08):
hello.
Well, this might sound cheesy,but it's leaving my comfort zone
and making myself uncomfortable, which was definitely the way
to go.
On the flight there, though, Ithought to myself maybe I made a
mistake and I should havescheduled a lot of different
meetings.
But I said, oh well, too lateand guess what, it was the right
decision.
Prior to leaving, I did a poston Facebook that I was going to
(01:31):
the show and an old friend fromcollege I haven't seen in 23
years sent me a message and saidI live in Vegas, let's meet up.
Guess what we did?
We had breakfast and caught up,which was really cool.
Anyways, back to business.
So my first day I landed prettyearly in the morning, vegas time
, checked into my hotel, wentdown to the casino to see if I
could find any people wanderingaround and I bumped into an old
(01:54):
friend named Lisa Box.
Lisa works for Identity Digital, which is also namecom and used
to be called Donuts.
If you're not familiar withthem, I love the Donuts brand.
I wish they didn't change it,but they manage domain
extensions like FYI, dot, bio,dot, live and dot IO, and we
(02:14):
discussed their premium domainportfolio.
We talked about other businessdevelopment opportunities and I
got to meet some of the otherfolks that work at her company.
After our meeting I walkedaround the casino floor, some
more met some more friends, gavesome hugs, had some handshakes,
had some good laughs andnetworked and met some new
people.
That evening we went to thesphere and if you haven't seen
(02:38):
what the sphere is, I highlysuggest you search it and see it
.
I would probably compare it toan Epcot center ball on steroids
.
It is humongous.
It's probably 10 or 20 timesthe size and just the colors on
it is unbelievable.
It was really cool.
After that ended, we headeddown to Old Vegas and on the
ride to Old Vegas, my friend,sam Dennis, who's been in the
(02:58):
domain industry for years, toldme him and his wife are
expecting, so congratulations tohis wife, remy.
Sam has been in the businessfor years and he's launching a
domain management platform verysoon called domainlink, and I
think it's going to be reallycool because it is built by a
domain investor and really anindustry pioneer, and I'm
excited to see what he does withit and also, being an investor
(03:21):
in the domain extensionlink, Ireally want to see what he can
do and for it to be successful.
Now we arrived at the venue thatall of us left.
All of us left the sphere to gosee and we left there to go
have some drinks in a cocktailhour and it was put on by Monty
con, who is from dot hip hop andright of the dot and an
(03:43):
investor in the new restaurantcalled crash and burn on the old
strip which hasn't opened yet,and he also did with Chad
Fokening, who's also a domaininvestor, and we had a cocktail
party and pizza and the bar hadduck pin bowling some day it'll
have indoor skydiving and andyou know, it was actually really
cool and it overlooks the oldVegas strip.
(04:05):
I had some great conversations,one with Domain Shane and I got
to say you know it was deliverypizza and some drinks, it was
nothing too fancy, it wasn'tover the top.
The restaurant isn't even overyet open yet and some of the
like booths weren't evenfinished being built.
But that is kind of like howthe ICA is, you know, nothing
(04:25):
perfect or over the top, but itcertainly did its job.
And again, a nice cocktail hourmeeting friends, colleagues and
meeting new people.
I Was in bed around 2 am, whichI think I was awake for about 24
hours at that point.
Not good on my old witheredbody.
So the next day I woke up,shockingly, I felt great, went
(04:47):
to the ICA breakfast.
We also had a broker breakfastor broker meeting, so all the IC
members were there.
Then we had a where we had kindof networking and a little bit
of coffee and breakfast.
Then we had a broker meetingand a town hall meeting.
At the same time I networkedsome more, spoke to friends,
caught up and strangely enough,we had two reporters from
(05:10):
Thompson Reuters who wanted tolearn more about us as an
industry and they focus, focus.
These two Reporters focus onlegal matters and do kind of
like a legal circular as well aswriting articles.
We discussed at the brokerbroker breakfast the broker code
of conduct that we have allopted into being members of the
(05:31):
Internet Commerce Associationand their broker code of conduct
that we opt into as being partof the bro.
Being part of the InternetCommerce Association is that we
provide professional service, westay informed, we use written
agreements.
We work in the client's bestinterests.
We always work in providingprofessional conduct with each
(05:51):
other and with our clients.
We represent only names andopportunities were authorized to
do, to do we offer conflict ofinterest disclosures if there is
one.
Dual agency disclosures ifwe're representing both sides.
The disclosure of third-partycompensation if we are getting
compensated, we use Properescrow services or give them the
(06:13):
up, our buyers or sellers theopportunity to use them.
We seek professional advicewhen it's necessary or offer it
to our clients, stay within thecompliance of the law.
We have a public and easilysearched public profile With
respect for contracts and ourother fellow domain investors.
We're going to be adding abadge to the ICA as well to our
(06:37):
website.
We think that's very important.
From there, we actually had achoice of many different
activities to choose from, andthis conference was a little bit
unorthodox.
So our first real day of theconference, we were allowed to
choose between four or fivedifferent activities and it was
great for these unorthodoxNetworking versions.
(07:00):
And he offered us pickleballthe white lines exhibit I think
this is the one that Siegfriedand Roy had.
Top golf I love top golf, it'salways fun.
There was a museum option in ahike.
I chose pickleball.
Amar Kuban is wife Josephine,who you can listen to.
Amar story is one of ourepisodes.
Put it together.
We did a 32 person pickleballtournament for what we called
(07:20):
the Cuba Cup.
I think I came in 31st onlybecause someone left about
halfway through.
But I will have my revenge.
I'm just kidding.
I think I finished last.
The great thing about this wasis that there was only three
courts and so during that timewhen the 32 people were out
there, we all networked witheach other and the people that
did the other activities got tonetwork with each other as well.
(07:42):
And then when we came back tothe conference and did some
other activities where wemingled together, we got to talk
about the other activities thateach person does and we had
kind of like discussions andlaughs about those things.
In any event, I came back afterthat, did some work.
Then I headed down and caught upwith some of my previous
partners in the domain industrywho I started domain advisors in
(08:03):
Inglis with, and that was TessaHolcomb and Greg McNair.
Another person who was therewas my good friend Vern Jervik,
who was Frank Shilling's righthand man.
If you don't know the story,vern and Frank went to high
school together and Vern helpedFrank by a lot of his 365,000
domain names with some othercolleagues as well.
(08:23):
Vern and I met in Vancouvertraffic conference, which we hit
it off and started ourrelationship, and he introduced
me with Frank, which led me tothe opportunity to move to
Cayman and work at Domain NameSales slash Uniregistry for
seven years.
As an aside, maybe I'll askFrank to get on here someday,
but we shall see.
That's a discussion for anotherday.
(08:46):
Anyways, went into the cocktailhour slash reception where I got
to speak with a lot of thebiggest players in the domain
industry.
Catch up with friends, you know, it's not just domainers but
service providers as well, fromregistrars, brokers, parking
companies, gtld owners andinvestors, lawyers.
You know, let me say thateveryone is welcoming, everyone
(09:07):
is nice and, like the nightbefore, it wasn't too formal.
You know, one of the aside I'dlike to say is, after being in
the industry for so long, isthat you, you know, it's funny
that you assume a lot of peopleknow your story and what you've
been, you've done in theindustry, or even who you are,
but the reality is is they don't.
So Maybe in another episodeI'll start to talk more about
(09:30):
myself and what what sawcom isis trying to accomplish.
But I also have to say it wasextremely flattering and
motivating to have peopleapproach me and tell me that
they have listened to thepodcast, whether it's one
episode or all of them.
They told me that there'scertain things they liked about
it, and then some other folkshad some requests regarding some
(09:51):
different subjects and thingsthat we can cover, which was
great and it's extremelymotivating and exciting to hear
this.
Um, but you know, you mightthink that I am some amazing
networker who can work a room ornot get nervous doing it public
speaking.
But you know, from time to timeI do get nervous myself about
these things.
But, like I said, everyone isapproachable and you know, going
(10:14):
right up to people or joiningin conversations was quite easy
and I got to talk to a ton ofdifferent people that night.
You know, it's funny.
I was telling someone at theshow that when I do public
speaking or presentation, a halfhour Before I go up on stage or
my time to talk, my handsalways get like clammy, I get
(10:35):
nervous, I get anxiety, but thenthe moment I step on stage it
all goes away and I feel totallycomfortable.
It's, it's almost like a switch.
Anyways, after the cocktailparty I went and gambled with
mark daniel, a good friend ofmine and broker from a domain
holdings, joe Udemi, who's alsoa domain broker, my friend depak
, a domain investor, and anotherdepak and a person named vin
(10:57):
for a while.
Um, then I sat down with andrewmiller, who is with hill co,
stream bank and squad help, whois also a competitor and he
taught me how to play three cardpoker.
Probably played for two orthree hours and we had a great
time.
By the way, I ended up winning300 dollars playing three card
poker and nine hold dollarsplaying roulette.
I was walking on air, butaround two or two thirty it was
(11:19):
time for bed, which in realityit was 5 am For me.
I woke up, I had the old irishwhisper and for anyone listening
, it's when your voice getsreally raspy from talking too
much and we started our trulyfull day.
Camilla, who organized theentire event and did a great job
, gave her opening remarks,along with braiden paul, who's
(11:39):
adding some color, spoke a bit,and then our fearless leader,
zack muskovich, head of the ica,went on and went over what we
accomplished last year and whatthe plans are for the ica this
year, and I'm going to get moreinto that in a little bit as an
aside.
Zack is our fearless leader forthe ica, but he's an also an
absolute top-notch lawyer In thespace.
(12:01):
He's one of the best in thebusiness, without a doubt, and
he's a very nice, approachableman, but don't let it fool you,
because when you see him inaction, he certainly has a bite.
Um, he's also been a guest onour podcast, so please search
his name, zack muskovich, tolisten to him in his story.
Uh, we had a town hall where weas a group discussed how we can
continue to grow as anorganization and discuss when we
(12:24):
have the next conference, andwhere they also wanted our
feedback, which was great, whichwe all shared.
Then the ceo of squad helpedour pan mun jow I don't know if
I pronounced his last name Right, so please forgive me if I
didn't pronounce it right had ashort presentation along with an
ask me anything session at theend, without, which I thought
was quite good.
(12:44):
After that, we had more time tochat with each other, then broke
out into guru tables.
So what are guru tables?
Well, leaders in our industryhad their own tables and people
came to them to learn abouttheir specialties.
Forgive me, I don't rememberall of the guru tables, but, to
list a few, we had j ChapmanTalking about doing a deal and
he's a board member on the icaDoing a deal where you can
(13:06):
switch the dns of a name for acompany and get a rev share on
the domain.
It's not a lease, it's not apayment plan more like an
affiliate deal and how tostructure it.
I found it very interesting andcombined my sales table with
his, as I have never heard ofthis kind of deal before.
Andrew Miller was giving goingover negotiation tactics for
high value deals.
Karen Bernstein offered legaladvice about udrp.
(13:27):
Squad help had a table.
Cito had a table, go daddy hada table dine.
A dot had a table um.
John barry hill had a table aswell Um, and again, no one was
forced to participate.
You could go and listen, askquestions in a small group
setting and I thought it waswell put together.
Not sure where else you can getthis level of access to leaders
(13:48):
in our industry and in allfacets From there.
My friend, john barry hill, whoI believe is one of the best
lawyers in the domain industryfor the record, he's also an
engineer, patent lawyer,trademark lawyer who will
definitely be a guest on thisshow, whether he likes it or not
gave an entertaining but veryinteresting presentation on how
(14:10):
the creation date is perceivedin different legal jurisdictions
around the United States andhow it could affect you, the
domain registrant.
Believe me, if you are a domaininvestor, you should know, but
you'll need to join the ISA tolearn more about this one.
After that we took a break.
Paul Nix who I guess we couldcall him the hand of the king,
(14:33):
as in one, down from the CEO atGoDaddy who runs the entire
domain sales auctions, of visiondidn't ask me anything, where
customers, domainers, serviceproviders asked him questions
about the future and theirgrievances and provided feedback
.
I don't know about you, butwhen was the last time you could
hang out with or speak directlyto, or in this setting with,
(14:53):
someone that close to the top ata $16 billion dollar company?
I've known Paul for 14 yearsand GoDaddy is a very different
place 14 years ago than it istoday, but he continues to keep
coming to these conferences foryears.
But anyways, it was a greattalk.
When we finished the AMA, wegave out the Lonnie Bork
(15:15):
Memorial Award.
The Lonnie Bork Memorial Award,in my opinion, is the most
prestigious award in ourindustry.
Lonnie Bork Memorial Awardcelebrates individuals who made
outstanding contributions tofostering a sense of community
within the domain name industry.
This award was established inmemory of Lonnie Bork, a deeply
respected and cherished memberof our domain community.
(15:35):
The award winner this year wasJason Shepard and he
unexpectedly passed away.
You know I did not get to knowhim very well, but from the
stories people shared and thethings he did for others, there
wasn't a dry eye in the room atthe end of the speech and when
they gave him the award and hissister came to accept it which
(15:55):
was very nice I had the chanceto speak and meet with her and
they live streamed it to hismother as well, so I'm sure she
was very proud.
In ICA fashion.
We had another cocktail hoursponsored by GoDaddy, which
again it gave me the opportunityto network more, catch up with
friends.
We actually had have a buyerwho would like to purchase a
(16:16):
Greek or Roman god or goddessdomain name with a budget in the
hundreds of thousands, and Iwas asking around for that.
I found some.
Found a good Greek name, but itisn't a Greek god Zorbacom.
I remember the song Zorba theGreek, zorba the Greek, and I
know it isn't a Roman, greek orGod name, but also found
(16:37):
goddesscom, but still notexactly one.
Anyways, if you have a goodRoman, god or goddess domain
name for sale, please let meknow.
Has to be incom.
As an aside, a gentleman I metit was his first show ever said
he was surprised how well thebrokers get along in this
industry.
He said he comes from a realestate background and they
(16:59):
aren't all that nice all thetime to each other.
And I said well, we all getalong.
We treat each other with theprofessional each other deserves
and I respect each of them andthey're all great at different
things and there's plenty ofbusiness to go around as well.
From there.
We had a magician mind reader.
So when I was there watchingI'm going to give you the
abridge version the magicianmade eye contact with me.
(17:21):
He walked over and he said whydon't you think of somebody who
isn't at this conference?
He isn't directly related toyou and, you know, nobody knows
him here.
So I thought of a person's name, he said.
Then he gave me a business cardand he told me to write his
name on it.
But I had to walk over in thecorner and do it.
(17:42):
So I went over there, wrote it,wrote the name on it, folded
the card up and then I handed itto him.
He proceeded to tear up the card.
He put the little piece ofpaper in my hand.
He said shake them.
I dumped them back in his hand.
He held it for a couple ofminutes.
Okay, oh no, couple minutes,couple seconds.
And then he handed me hiswallet and he told me to open
(18:06):
his wallet.
Well, let me back up.
Before he handed me his wallethe said I think your friend has
an issue going on with his hair.
And I was like holy shit.
And so then he handed me hiswallet.
I unzipped the wallet, pulledout a folded up piece of paper
and it had a little message onit and at the bottom of the
message it had my friend's nameand his name was Brent, and my
(18:29):
friend Brent is as bald as acucumber, so it was funny how he
hit those things.
He continued on to do multipleother really cool and exciting
tricks and we all kind ofwatched and were entertained,
which again was a greatexperience for everybody there
and for us to kind of gettogether more as a group, more
talking, more fun.
Again, this is kind of anunorthodox conference, but I
(18:53):
think a lot of people left there, even if they knew the people
before getting to know them alot better.
Then a large group of us wentto a place called Gatsby and got
a table where scantily cladwomen brought us bottles of
vodka with sparklers and wedanced, yelled, screamed,
laughed and when the clock hitabout one, it was time to hit
the hay.
You know, saturday had someadditional activities and things
(19:15):
planned, but I decided to headhome because I missed my bride
and my kitties not my kitties,as in cats, but my children.
Now it's time to sell you theLas Vegas timeshare.
But no, really, if you aren't amember of the ICA, you should
certainly consider it.
On top of the Great Show andthe long and the short of it is,
they're the only nonprofitgroup on the planet fighting and
(19:38):
defending the rights of domaininvestors and any person,
company, nonprofit that owns adomain.
You know, if you would, if youmake your livelihood from the
domain industry, you shouldconsider paying into this group
for them to protect it.
An individual membership costs$300 a year, $25 a month and, on
(19:59):
the corporate side of things,your entrance starts at about
$1,000.
And obviously, if you're alarge company and you wanted the
platinum membership, that goesup to $25,000 and above.
But if I remember correctly, Ipaid $500 my ticket to the show.
I paid $400 for my hotel room,which included tax.
I paid $350 for my flight,spent a couple hundred dollars
(20:21):
on food and booze, so let's say300.
And yes, food and booze is arip off in Vegas, but you know
someone's going to pay for thegiant casino and the giant
building and all theridiculousness that you see.
I won $300 playing three cardpoker with Andrew Miller and
roulette with my pack of D-Packs, mark, and then I made $9.
So I made a lot of new contacts, created multiple new possible
(20:44):
partnerships, businessdevelopment opportunities,
shared what my company, sawcom,is working on, and learned a few
things and guess what?
I had a great time doing it andI loved it.
I also have to say that going tothese shows as an aside and
talking our language isreinvigorating for me and when I
get back home and recover fromthe conference, I'll be more
(21:05):
motivated and into it than usual.
Let me say for the record Ilove what I do, I like my job
and I like all the people I getto work with.
But you can burn out a bit hereand there when you're just
sitting at home working in yourhome office, so this can bring
you back quickly.
It can re-inspire you, like Ialready said, reinvigorate you
(21:25):
and if you can learn a fewnuggets or you can hear a few
ideas that you can apply to yourdaily business and get value.
I mean it's totally worth itand I heard a bunch.
I'm a bronze member because ofpretty small company and I have
to say if I spent $1,500 on thistrip and paying for my yearly
membership if I'm into this forthree or four grand I definitely
(21:48):
think it was totally worth it.
And on top of this I have agroup of people very intelligent
people lobbying, debating,fighting for our livelihood and
I'm sure there are otherbenefits you get with a
membership, but I'm feeling I'mgetting a lot just from this
part.
So if you'd like to join theInternet Commerce Association, I
(22:10):
highly suggest you go tointernetcommerceorg slash join.
Here's what the ICA did lastyear.
They emailed out over 250 caseswith dozens of insightful
commentaries which isdistributed weekly, bringing the
ICA's message of fair decisionmaking to hundreds of UDRP
panelists and practitioners,along with hundreds of real time
tweets of new UDRP decisions.
(22:32):
They created 17 concreteproposals for UDRP reform,
developed in conjunction withtwo UDRP panelists over a course
of 150 hours of deliberations.
They had 48 weekly calls withGerald Levine UDRP panelists,
udrp complaint council and UDRPdefense council to discuss
developments in case law and tobuild bridges.
(22:53):
They had two workshops withUDRP panelists and training
workshops co-hosted by ICAgeneral council at the CIDRC.
The ICA contributed to internetgovernance through its
bi-weekly participation in theICAN business constituency.
The ICA's general council ischair of the BC credentials
(23:14):
committee.
They traveled over 30,000 milesfrom Las Vegas, washington DC,
austin, hamburg and Dubai.
Ica has assisted in theregistrant recovering the
valuable domain.
Three letter domain namedfoxorg and a letter to NIXI
advising on proposed changeswhich could destroy the
secondary market for 3 milliondot IN names.
(23:35):
We're getting ourselvesinvolved with that and,
following the ICA's extensivepublic comment on the dot net
registry agreement, a letter toICAN board decrying the policy
wash of the dot net registryagreement affecting over 3.4
million domains.
They've also spent 60 hours ofweekly meetings in the transfer
policy working group to protectregistrant transfer rights.
(23:56):
They've also appeared on twopodcasts, which one was for
domain name wire, catching upwith the ICA and with this one.
So again you can listen to Zachon our podcast under Zach
Muscovich.
We gave out one lifetimeachievement award and we got
(24:16):
picked up over 30 new membersand picked up an additional
staff member.
Her name's Tiffany and she dida wonderful job organizing this
event this year as well.
We hosted three AMAs so you getto listen to private interviews
with Darpin, sten Lillstrom,john Berryhill and actually the
fourth recently was also PaulNIX.
(24:37):
We had over 140 guests attendour NamesCon ICA dinner in
Austin, texas, and we have over100 plus ICA members that
attended the conference in LasVegas.
I think it was closer to 150.
And yeah, so again, I thoughtit was a great show.
I really think you should joinyourselves or look into it or
(24:58):
talk about it.
At least look into it.
If you are a member, I'm goingto put the badge as being part
of the ICA on my website tocreate more awareness as to what
the ICA means and what myselfand our brokerage has signed up
to.
And thank you for listening tomy podcast.
I hope you have a great day anduntil next week.
Talk to you soon.
This is Jeffy Gabriel in the Uncomfortable podcast.
I flew to Fabulous Las Vegasfor the Internet Commerce
Association conference that washeld at the brand new casino
called Resorts World, and todayI'm going to tell you about it,
(00:24):
based on what I heard about theconference last year, because I
didn't go.
It was a small, tight-knitevent with people who are
serious about dominating in ourindustry.
I was told it was very good,and I decided to not schedule
any meetings and just let thewind take me wherever it decided
to blow me.
Other conferences I feel likethere are always people who are
(00:45):
just having meetings with you tohave meetings, like they need
to hit a number of meetings totell their boss, but this one
was different.
It was a special one and itreminded me of the good old days
.
I felt like going there andhaving quick conversation with
people, introducing myself toothers, was the way to go this
time, instead of creating like aregimented schedule and, yes,
approaching people I've neverseen or met before and saying
(01:08):
hello.
Well, this might sound cheesy,but it's leaving my comfort zone
and making myself uncomfortable, which was definitely the way
to go.
On the flight there, though, Ithought to myself maybe I made a
mistake and I should havescheduled a lot of different
meetings.
But I said, oh well, too lateand guess what, it was the right
decision.
Prior to leaving, I did a poston Facebook that I was going to
(01:31):
the show and an old friend fromcollege I haven't seen in 23
years sent me a message and saidI live in Vegas, let's meet up.
Guess what we did?
We had breakfast and caught up,which was really cool.
Anyways, back to business.
So my first day I landed prettyearly in the morning, vegas time
, checked into my hotel, wentdown to the casino to see if I
could find any people wanderingaround and I bumped into an old
(01:54):
friend named Lisa Box.
Lisa works for Identity Digital, which is also namecom and used
to be called Donuts.
If you're not familiar withthem, I love the Donuts brand.
I wish they didn't change it,but they manage domain
extensions like FYI, dot, bio,dot, live and dot IO, and we
(02:14):
discussed their premium domainportfolio.
We talked about other businessdevelopment opportunities and I
got to meet some of the otherfolks that work at her company.
After our meeting I walkedaround the casino floor, some
more met some more friends, gavesome hugs, had some handshakes,
had some good laughs andnetworked and met some new
people.
That evening we went to thesphere and if you haven't seen
(02:38):
what the sphere is, I highlysuggest you search it and see it
.
I would probably compare it toan Epcot center ball on steroids
.
It is humongous.
It's probably 10 or 20 timesthe size and just the colors on
it is unbelievable.
It was really cool.
After that ended, we headeddown to Old Vegas and on the
ride to Old Vegas, my friend,sam Dennis, who's been in the
(02:58):
domain industry for years, toldme him and his wife are
expecting, so congratulations tohis wife, remy.
Sam has been in the businessfor years and he's launching a
domain management platform verysoon called domainlink, and I
think it's going to be reallycool because it is built by a
domain investor and really anindustry pioneer, and I'm
excited to see what he does withit and also, being an investor
(03:21):
in the domain extensionlink, Ireally want to see what he can
do and for it to be successful.
Now we arrived at the venue thatall of us left.
All of us left the sphere to gosee and we left there to go
have some drinks in a cocktailhour and it was put on by Monty
con, who is from dot hip hop andright of the dot and an
(03:43):
investor in the new restaurantcalled crash and burn on the old
strip which hasn't opened yet,and he also did with Chad
Fokening, who's also a domaininvestor, and we had a cocktail
party and pizza and the bar hadduck pin bowling some day it'll
have indoor skydiving and andyou know, it was actually really
cool and it overlooks the oldVegas strip.
(04:05):
I had some great conversations,one with Domain Shane and I got
to say you know it was deliverypizza and some drinks, it was
nothing too fancy, it wasn'tover the top.
The restaurant isn't even overyet open yet and some of the
like booths weren't evenfinished being built.
But that is kind of like howthe ICA is, you know, nothing
(04:25):
perfect or over the top, but itcertainly did its job.
And again, a nice cocktail hourmeeting friends, colleagues and
meeting new people.
I Was in bed around 2 am, whichI think I was awake for about 24
hours at that point.
Not good on my old witheredbody.
So the next day I woke up,shockingly, I felt great, went
(04:47):
to the ICA breakfast.
We also had a broker breakfastor broker meeting, so all the IC
members were there.
Then we had a where we had kindof networking and a little bit
of coffee and breakfast.
Then we had a broker meetingand a town hall meeting.
At the same time I networkedsome more, spoke to friends,
caught up and strangely enough,we had two reporters from
(05:10):
Thompson Reuters who wanted tolearn more about us as an
industry and they focus, focus.
These two Reporters focus onlegal matters and do kind of
like a legal circular as well aswriting articles.
We discussed at the brokerbroker breakfast the broker code
of conduct that we have allopted into being members of the
(05:31):
Internet Commerce Associationand their broker code of conduct
that we opt into as being partof the bro.
Being part of the InternetCommerce Association is that we
provide professional service, westay informed, we use written
agreements.
We work in the client's bestinterests.
We always work in providingprofessional conduct with each
(05:51):
other and with our clients.
We represent only names andopportunities were authorized to
do, to do we offer conflict ofinterest disclosures if there is
one.
Dual agency disclosures ifwe're representing both sides.
The disclosure of third-partycompensation if we are getting
compensated, we use Properescrow services or give them the
(06:13):
up, our buyers or sellers theopportunity to use them.
We seek professional advicewhen it's necessary or offer it
to our clients, stay within thecompliance of the law.
We have a public and easilysearched public profile With
respect for contracts and ourother fellow domain investors.
We're going to be adding abadge to the ICA as well to our
(06:37):
website.
We think that's very important.
From there, we actually had achoice of many different
activities to choose from, andthis conference was a little bit
unorthodox.
So our first real day of theconference, we were allowed to
choose between four or fivedifferent activities and it was
great for these unorthodoxNetworking versions.
(07:00):
And he offered us pickleballthe white lines exhibit I think
this is the one that Siegfriedand Roy had.
Top golf I love top golf, it'salways fun.
There was a museum option in ahike.
I chose pickleball.
Amar Kuban is wife Josephine,who you can listen to.
Amar story is one of ourepisodes.
Put it together.
We did a 32 person pickleballtournament for what we called
(07:20):
the Cuba Cup.
I think I came in 31st onlybecause someone left about
halfway through.
But I will have my revenge.
I'm just kidding.
I think I finished last.
The great thing about this wasis that there was only three
courts and so during that timewhen the 32 people were out
there, we all networked witheach other and the people that
did the other activities got tonetwork with each other as well.
(07:42):
And then when we came back tothe conference and did some
other activities where wemingled together, we got to talk
about the other activities thateach person does and we had
kind of like discussions andlaughs about those things.
In any event, I came back afterthat, did some work.
Then I headed down and caught upwith some of my previous
partners in the domain industrywho I started domain advisors in
(08:03):
Inglis with, and that was TessaHolcomb and Greg McNair.
Another person who was therewas my good friend Vern Jervik,
who was Frank Shilling's righthand man.
If you don't know the story,vern and Frank went to high
school together and Vern helpedFrank by a lot of his 365,000
domain names with some othercolleagues as well.
(08:23):
Vern and I met in Vancouvertraffic conference, which we hit
it off and started ourrelationship, and he introduced
me with Frank, which led me tothe opportunity to move to
Cayman and work at Domain NameSales slash Uniregistry for
seven years.
As an aside, maybe I'll askFrank to get on here someday,
but we shall see.
That's a discussion for anotherday.
(08:46):
Anyways, went into the cocktailhour slash reception where I got
to speak with a lot of thebiggest players in the domain
industry.
Catch up with friends, you know, it's not just domainers but
service providers as well, fromregistrars, brokers, parking
companies, gtld owners andinvestors, lawyers.
You know, let me say thateveryone is welcoming, everyone
(09:07):
is nice and, like the nightbefore, it wasn't too formal.
You know, one of the aside I'dlike to say is, after being in
the industry for so long, isthat you, you know, it's funny
that you assume a lot of peopleknow your story and what you've
been, you've done in theindustry, or even who you are,
but the reality is is they don't.
So Maybe in another episodeI'll start to talk more about
(09:30):
myself and what what sawcom isis trying to accomplish.
But I also have to say it wasextremely flattering and
motivating to have peopleapproach me and tell me that
they have listened to thepodcast, whether it's one
episode or all of them.
They told me that there'scertain things they liked about
it, and then some other folkshad some requests regarding some
(09:51):
different subjects and thingsthat we can cover, which was
great and it's extremelymotivating and exciting to hear
this.
Um, but you know, you mightthink that I am some amazing
networker who can work a room ornot get nervous doing it public
speaking.
But you know, from time to timeI do get nervous myself about
these things.
But, like I said, everyone isapproachable and you know, going
(10:14):
right up to people or joiningin conversations was quite easy
and I got to talk to a ton ofdifferent people that night.
You know, it's funny.
I was telling someone at theshow that when I do public
speaking or presentation, a halfhour Before I go up on stage or
my time to talk, my handsalways get like clammy, I get
(10:35):
nervous, I get anxiety, but thenthe moment I step on stage it
all goes away and I feel totallycomfortable.
It's, it's almost like a switch.
Anyways, after the cocktailparty I went and gambled with
mark daniel, a good friend ofmine and broker from a domain
holdings, joe Udemi, who's alsoa domain broker, my friend depak
, a domain investor, and anotherdepak and a person named vin
(10:57):
for a while.
Um, then I sat down with andrewmiller, who is with hill co,
stream bank and squad help, whois also a competitor and he
taught me how to play three cardpoker.
Probably played for two orthree hours and we had a great
time.
By the way, I ended up winning300 dollars playing three card
poker and nine hold dollarsplaying roulette.
I was walking on air, butaround two or two thirty it was
(11:19):
time for bed, which in realityit was 5 am For me.
I woke up, I had the old irishwhisper and for anyone listening
, it's when your voice getsreally raspy from talking too
much and we started our trulyfull day.
Camilla, who organized theentire event and did a great job
, gave her opening remarks,along with braiden paul, who's
(11:39):
adding some color, spoke a bit,and then our fearless leader,
zack muskovich, head of the ica,went on and went over what we
accomplished last year and whatthe plans are for the ica this
year, and I'm going to get moreinto that in a little bit as an
aside.
Zack is our fearless leader forthe ica, but he's an also an
absolute top-notch lawyer In thespace.
(12:01):
He's one of the best in thebusiness, without a doubt, and
he's a very nice, approachableman, but don't let it fool you,
because when you see him inaction, he certainly has a bite.
Um, he's also been a guest onour podcast, so please search
his name, zack muskovich, tolisten to him in his story.
Uh, we had a town hall where weas a group discussed how we can
continue to grow as anorganization and discuss when we
(12:24):
have the next conference, andwhere they also wanted our
feedback, which was great, whichwe all shared.
Then the ceo of squad helpedour pan mun jow I don't know if
I pronounced his last name Right, so please forgive me if I
didn't pronounce it right had ashort presentation along with an
ask me anything session at theend, without, which I thought
was quite good.
(12:44):
After that, we had more time tochat with each other, then broke
out into guru tables.
So what are guru tables?
Well, leaders in our industryhad their own tables and people
came to them to learn abouttheir specialties.
Forgive me, I don't rememberall of the guru tables, but, to
list a few, we had j ChapmanTalking about doing a deal and
he's a board member on the icaDoing a deal where you can
(13:06):
switch the dns of a name for acompany and get a rev share on
the domain.
It's not a lease, it's not apayment plan more like an
affiliate deal and how tostructure it.
I found it very interesting andcombined my sales table with
his, as I have never heard ofthis kind of deal before.
Andrew Miller was giving goingover negotiation tactics for
high value deals.
Karen Bernstein offered legaladvice about udrp.
(13:27):
Squad help had a table.
Cito had a table, go daddy hada table dine.
A dot had a table um.
John barry hill had a table aswell Um, and again, no one was
forced to participate.
You could go and listen, askquestions in a small group
setting and I thought it waswell put together.
Not sure where else you can getthis level of access to leaders
(13:48):
in our industry and in allfacets From there.
My friend, john barry hill, whoI believe is one of the best
lawyers in the domain industryfor the record, he's also an
engineer, patent lawyer,trademark lawyer who will
definitely be a guest on thisshow, whether he likes it or not
gave an entertaining but veryinteresting presentation on how
(14:10):
the creation date is perceivedin different legal jurisdictions
around the United States andhow it could affect you, the
domain registrant.
Believe me, if you are a domaininvestor, you should know, but
you'll need to join the ISA tolearn more about this one.
After that we took a break.
Paul Nix who I guess we couldcall him the hand of the king,
(14:33):
as in one, down from the CEO atGoDaddy who runs the entire
domain sales auctions, of visiondidn't ask me anything, where
customers, domainers, serviceproviders asked him questions
about the future and theirgrievances and provided feedback
.
I don't know about you, butwhen was the last time you could
hang out with or speak directlyto, or in this setting with,
(14:53):
someone that close to the top ata $16 billion dollar company?
I've known Paul for 14 yearsand GoDaddy is a very different
place 14 years ago than it istoday, but he continues to keep
coming to these conferences foryears.
But anyways, it was a greattalk.
When we finished the AMA, wegave out the Lonnie Bork
(15:15):
Memorial Award.
The Lonnie Bork Memorial Award,in my opinion, is the most
prestigious award in ourindustry.
Lonnie Bork Memorial Awardcelebrates individuals who made
outstanding contributions tofostering a sense of community
within the domain name industry.
This award was established inmemory of Lonnie Bork, a deeply
respected and cherished memberof our domain community.
(15:35):
The award winner this year wasJason Shepard and he
unexpectedly passed away.
You know I did not get to knowhim very well, but from the
stories people shared and thethings he did for others, there
wasn't a dry eye in the room atthe end of the speech and when
they gave him the award and hissister came to accept it which
(15:55):
was very nice I had the chanceto speak and meet with her and
they live streamed it to hismother as well, so I'm sure she
was very proud.
In ICA fashion.
We had another cocktail hoursponsored by GoDaddy, which
again it gave me the opportunityto network more, catch up with
friends.
We actually had have a buyerwho would like to purchase a
(16:16):
Greek or Roman god or goddessdomain name with a budget in the
hundreds of thousands, and Iwas asking around for that.
I found some.
Found a good Greek name, but itisn't a Greek god Zorbacom.
I remember the song Zorba theGreek, zorba the Greek, and I
know it isn't a Roman, greek orGod name, but also found
(16:37):
goddesscom, but still notexactly one.
Anyways, if you have a goodRoman, god or goddess domain
name for sale, please let meknow.
Has to be incom.
As an aside, a gentleman I metit was his first show ever said
he was surprised how well thebrokers get along in this
industry.
He said he comes from a realestate background and they
(16:59):
aren't all that nice all thetime to each other.
And I said well, we all getalong.
We treat each other with theprofessional each other deserves
and I respect each of them andthey're all great at different
things and there's plenty ofbusiness to go around as well.
From there.
We had a magician mind reader.
So when I was there watchingI'm going to give you the
abridge version the magicianmade eye contact with me.
(17:21):
He walked over and he said whydon't you think of somebody who
isn't at this conference?
He isn't directly related toyou and, you know, nobody knows
him here.
So I thought of a person's name, he said.
Then he gave me a business cardand he told me to write his
name on it.
But I had to walk over in thecorner and do it.
(17:42):
So I went over there, wrote it,wrote the name on it, folded
the card up and then I handed itto him.
He proceeded to tear up the card.
He put the little piece ofpaper in my hand.
He said shake them.
I dumped them back in his hand.
He held it for a couple ofminutes.
Okay, oh no, couple minutes,couple seconds.
And then he handed me hiswallet and he told me to open
(18:06):
his wallet.
Well, let me back up.
Before he handed me his wallethe said I think your friend has
an issue going on with his hair.
And I was like holy shit.
And so then he handed me hiswallet.
I unzipped the wallet, pulledout a folded up piece of paper
and it had a little message onit and at the bottom of the
message it had my friend's nameand his name was Brent, and my
(18:29):
friend Brent is as bald as acucumber, so it was funny how he
hit those things.
He continued on to do multipleother really cool and exciting
tricks and we all kind ofwatched and were entertained,
which again was a greatexperience for everybody there
and for us to kind of gettogether more as a group, more
talking, more fun.
Again, this is kind of anunorthodox conference, but I
(18:53):
think a lot of people left there, even if they knew the people
before getting to know them alot better.
Then a large group of us wentto a place called Gatsby and got
a table where scantily cladwomen brought us bottles of
vodka with sparklers and wedanced, yelled, screamed,
laughed and when the clock hitabout one, it was time to hit
the hay.
You know, saturday had someadditional activities and things
(19:15):
planned, but I decided to headhome because I missed my bride
and my kitties not my kitties,as in cats, but my children.
Now it's time to sell you theLas Vegas timeshare.
But no, really, if you aren't amember of the ICA, you should
certainly consider it.
On top of the Great Show andthe long and the short of it is,
they're the only nonprofitgroup on the planet fighting and
(19:38):
defending the rights of domaininvestors and any person,
company, nonprofit that owns adomain.
You know, if you would, if youmake your livelihood from the
domain industry, you shouldconsider paying into this group
for them to protect it.
An individual membership costs$300 a year, $25 a month and, on
(19:59):
the corporate side of things,your entrance starts at about
$1,000.
And obviously, if you're alarge company and you wanted the
platinum membership, that goesup to $25,000 and above.
But if I remember correctly, Ipaid $500 my ticket to the show.
I paid $400 for my hotel room,which included tax.
I paid $350 for my flight,spent a couple hundred dollars
(20:21):
on food and booze, so let's say300.
And yes, food and booze is arip off in Vegas, but you know
someone's going to pay for thegiant casino and the giant
building and all theridiculousness that you see.
I won $300 playing three cardpoker with Andrew Miller and
roulette with my pack of D-Packs, mark, and then I made $9.
So I made a lot of new contacts, created multiple new possible
(20:44):
partnerships, businessdevelopment opportunities,
shared what my company, sawcom,is working on, and learned a few
things and guess what?
I had a great time doing it andI loved it.
I also have to say that going tothese shows as an aside and
talking our language isreinvigorating for me and when I
get back home and recover fromthe conference, I'll be more
(21:05):
motivated and into it than usual.
Let me say for the record Ilove what I do, I like my job
and I like all the people I getto work with.
But you can burn out a bit hereand there when you're just
sitting at home working in yourhome office, so this can bring
you back quickly.
It can re-inspire you, like Ialready said, reinvigorate you
(21:25):
and if you can learn a fewnuggets or you can hear a few
ideas that you can apply to yourdaily business and get value.
I mean it's totally worth itand I heard a bunch.
I'm a bronze member because ofpretty small company and I have
to say if I spent $1,500 on thistrip and paying for my yearly
membership if I'm into this forthree or four grand I definitely
(21:48):
think it was totally worth it.
And on top of this I have agroup of people very intelligent
people lobbying, debating,fighting for our livelihood and
I'm sure there are otherbenefits you get with a
membership, but I'm feeling I'mgetting a lot just from this
part.
So if you'd like to join theInternet Commerce Association, I
(22:10):
highly suggest you go tointernetcommerceorg slash join.
Here's what the ICA did lastyear.
They emailed out over 250 caseswith dozens of insightful
commentaries which isdistributed weekly, bringing the
ICA's message of fair decisionmaking to hundreds of UDRP
panelists and practitioners,along with hundreds of real time
tweets of new UDRP decisions.
(22:32):
They created 17 concreteproposals for UDRP reform,
developed in conjunction withtwo UDRP panelists over a course
of 150 hours of deliberations.
They had 48 weekly calls withGerald Levine UDRP panelists,
udrp complaint council and UDRPdefense council to discuss
developments in case law and tobuild bridges.
(22:53):
They had two workshops withUDRP panelists and training
workshops co-hosted by ICAgeneral council at the CIDRC.
The ICA contributed to internetgovernance through its
bi-weekly participation in theICAN business constituency.
The ICA's general council ischair of the BC credentials
(23:14):
committee.
They traveled over 30,000 milesfrom Las Vegas, washington DC,
austin, hamburg and Dubai.
Ica has assisted in theregistrant recovering the
valuable domain.
Three letter domain namedfoxorg and a letter to NIXI
advising on proposed changeswhich could destroy the
secondary market for 3 milliondot IN names.
(23:35):
We're getting ourselvesinvolved with that and,
following the ICA's extensivepublic comment on the dot net
registry agreement, a letter toICAN board decrying the policy
wash of the dot net registryagreement affecting over 3.4
million domains.
They've also spent 60 hours ofweekly meetings in the transfer
policy working group to protectregistrant transfer rights.
(23:56):
They've also appeared on twopodcasts, which one was for
domain name wire, catching upwith the ICA and with this one.
So again you can listen to Zachon our podcast under Zach
Muscovich.
We gave out one lifetimeachievement award and we got
(24:16):
picked up over 30 new membersand picked up an additional
staff member.
Her name's Tiffany and she dida wonderful job organizing this
event this year as well.
We hosted three AMAs so you getto listen to private interviews
with Darpin, sten Lillstrom,john Berryhill and actually the
fourth recently was also PaulNIX.
(24:37):
We had over 140 guests attendour NamesCon ICA dinner in
Austin, texas, and we have over100 plus ICA members that
attended the conference in LasVegas.
I think it was closer to 150.
And yeah, so again, I thoughtit was a great show.
I really think you should joinyourselves or look into it or
(24:58):
talk about it.
At least look into it.
If you are a member, I'm goingto put the badge as being part
of the ICA on my website tocreate more awareness as to what
the ICA means and what myselfand our brokerage has signed up
to.
And thank you for listening tomy podcast.
I hope you have a great day anduntil next week.
Talk to you soon.
Popular Podcasts
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com