Entrepreneurs: Making Money with AI in Media with Rob Greenlee + Others

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following is a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
How do we maximize our humanness in the content that
we create?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I teach stylists to generate multiple six figures behind a chair.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
This is about relationships. People aren't buying widgets.

Speaker 5 (00:20):
That buying you.

Speaker 6 (00:21):
I'm Richard Garhart.

Speaker 7 (00:22):
And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. You just heard some snippets from
our show. We had amazing people on listen for the
rest of it.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Ramping up your business.

Speaker 6 (00:32):
The time is near.

Speaker 8 (00:33):
You've given it hard.

Speaker 9 (00:35):
Now get it in Gear.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.

Speaker 6 (00:41):
I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service
intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks, and copyrights.

Speaker 7 (00:48):
And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do
marketing for Gearhart Law. And I am the founder of
Gear Media Studios, a full service podcast studio.

Speaker 6 (00:57):
Welcome to Passage to Profit, the Road time Entrepreneurship, where
we talk with celebrities and entrepreneurs about their stories and
their business ventures. We have a very special guest Rob Greenley,
an early inductee into the Podcaster Hall of Fame. He's
been podcasting since streaming only referred to rivers and Rob

(01:19):
is an expert in the realm of artificial intelligence and media,
and today he'll be talking about how AI will impact
you and the content you consume in the future.

Speaker 7 (01:30):
Don't go away after that, because we have the amazing
Tania Crawford who's a beauty specialist and she's teaching other
beauty specialists how to make a lot of money.

Speaker 6 (01:40):
Always a good time.

Speaker 7 (01:44):
That yeah, I wants to hear what she says to say.
And then Matt Tamail, this is an amazing story. He's
a software guy. He found a gap and really dove
into it and is just blowing it out of the water.

Speaker 6 (01:57):
So he's grinding it out. I can tell you that.

Speaker 7 (02:00):
You don't want to miss them. And coming up later
on it's Noah's Retrospective along with Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind.

Speaker 6 (02:08):
But before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time
for your new Business Journey. Two and five Americans are
thinking about starting a business or are already business owners,
and so we want to ask our panel what was
the biggest risk you took when starting your business and
how did it pay off or not? Rob, Welcome to
the show.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's great to be here, Richard.

Speaker 6 (02:28):
Thanks tell us. What was the biggest risk you took?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I would say back in nineteen ninety nine walking into
a radio station, which is kind of ironic here to
plunge forward and create a radio show about an emerging
technology called the Internet in the web, I just walked ahead,
no background and creating content or being on the radio,
and just took that risk and went in and surrounded

(02:52):
myself with a bunch of fun people. To create a
show that was entertaining plus informative about the growth and
development of the Internet was big risk and it changed
my life.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
How did it change your life?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, it got me into the media business. I was
a marketing executive prior to that and was putting media
out right, creating media that other people were creating. But
I got into it myself as a host and started
creating a nationally syndicated radio show and built it out
and it became a podcast about probably four or five
years into the process, and that sparked a whole new

(03:24):
career for me. And that's that was working and helping
other people start a podcast and create online media back
in two thousand and five, so that was about a
year after podcasting kicked off, and it was an up
and coming area that nobody really knew much about. So
it was one of those opportunities kind of like AI
is today.

Speaker 6 (03:41):
Congratulations on doing that to me. A. Crawford, what was
the biggest risk you tech?

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Well, where do I start? The first one definitely not
continue in college. I'm the first in my family that
does not have a college degree. I did not get one.
I decided that wasn't for me, took off to America.
So I'm a first generation of immigrant and decided I

(04:07):
wanted to be in the beauty industry. I knew I
didn't just want to be a stylist. I wanted to
be a lot more. And anyone that is kind of
in that mindset that you have to have a college
degree to become successful, Like, as long as you're good
and you keep reinventing your wheel and you're passionate about
what you do, when you give one hundred percent every

(04:27):
single day, you can be whatever you want. I'm so
glad I took a leap of faith honestly and just
worked harder just to probably prove to myself that I
can do that.

Speaker 6 (04:38):
Well, congratulations, great and inspiring Matt.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
I think as an entrepreneur you have to really become
resistant to failure because this isn't my first business, but
this is the first business that has actually made me money,
which I think everyone can relate to. So a lot
of the time it takes a long process, drawn out
to get things up and running, and we like to
get them running as fast as we can.

Speaker 6 (04:58):
So that's great. That's all about what is important in
business is taking those kinds of risks. So awesome. Well,
today's guest Rob Greenley. He's been podcasting since most of
us knew the internet talked back. Is a true podcast
pioneer and early inductee of the podcaster or Hall of Fame.
He's launched more shows than Netflix and if there were

(05:19):
a mount rushmore of legendary podcasters, Rob Greenley would be
right up there, probably with headphones on. And Rob, we
want to talk to you today about AI and the media.
So how is AI reshaping the future of media?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, I think it's taking it in a bunch of
different directions. It's making things more efficient. It's actually able
to create content in a way that is increasingly becoming
more and more professional on the video and audio side.
But I think the real revolution is on the video side.
I think the audio side is still going to be

(05:56):
an area that's going to be still strong with humans,
but I think it is going to be as good
as a human eventually. I think there's two different conversations.
It's AI created audio and then there's cloned AI supported audio,
cloned of humans. And its ability to replicate what an

(06:16):
actual human being would actually create is I think going
to be a challenge for AI to actually do that.
But that doesn't take away AI's ability to create audio
that sounds great. It's professional sounding, but it's probably going
to be lacking in flaws.

Speaker 6 (06:32):
Right.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Which is going to be its flaw is that humans
are going to be able to detect the lack of
flaws or a lack of errors, right, That will really
make it stand out.

Speaker 6 (06:44):
You've listened to AI voices and.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Had them on the co hosts of my shows.

Speaker 6 (06:49):
So yeah, we need to get to that. Yeah, right,
But you've had AI and interacted with it. How do
you feel knowing that it's not human.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
I'm not really that worried about it. I think at
the end of the day, it's the value that it
can bring in the information that it has access to,
and I think that is the key thing that we
all have to think about. Also with the video side,
I think it's going to create things that humans would
never create, right, So there's going to be fantasy, there's
going to be all sorts of representations that are created

(07:20):
in the AI generated video that will just be beyond
our scope of our imagination. And I think that's where
it's going to stand out. I think AI generated video
is going to be huge. I think humans are going
to consume it at scale. It's already starting to happen,
and I think it's going to change the landscape.

Speaker 10 (07:37):
Now.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Humans need to focus on the aspects that make them
human when they do video that can't be replicated by
the AI and I think, well, that's what we need
to start really honing in on, is how do we
maximize our humanness in the content that we create. As
a kind of a way to come back from the
increasing dominance of AI created content.

Speaker 6 (08:00):
If you're having an interview or discussion with somebody, if
it's not from a human being. How is there any
credibility there?

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, that's the hard part about it. It's it's really
keyed on trust. Are we going to trust the information
that AI is going to create for us? Does it
have bias in it? Is it truth? Is it honest?

Speaker 5 (08:18):
Can so?

Speaker 6 (08:20):
Can AI?

Speaker 5 (08:21):
Well? Yeah exactly?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
I mean AI was trained on humans, so of course
it's going to have that capability. And a lot of
people think that eventually AI is going to have emotions too,
and it could get offended. So there's aspects of this
that we just don't know yet because it actually hasn't
happened yet. But the impacts of this are going to
be pretty profound. I mean I saw this kind of

(08:43):
back when I was doing my nationally syndicated radio show
about the Internet in the early years of the Internet,
about its potential impact on the world, and we talked
about that on the show, and I think it's easy
to just kind of look at it and say it's
never going to be that significant or it's not going
to have that big of an impact. And I look
back on what I did with my radio show about
the Internet, and I think to myself, God, what kind

(09:04):
of monster did I create? I mean really, I mean
it's impacted all of our lives. But there's also a
downside to all these technologies that we all have to
be aware of. So it's not always a rosy picture,
but there's opportunity that comes from it too.

Speaker 6 (09:16):
But can AI ever really compete with human storytelling?

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yes, but it'll be different. It's going to be a compilation,
not a unique story from a human perspective.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
So it kind of goes out there and it collects
data from a lot of stories related to the one
that you want to tell, and it mashes it all
together and it comes up with something. Yeah, you know,
is that even a real story.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Doesn't have to be I mean, I think AI has
had a reputation for hallucinations if you have heard that as.

Speaker 6 (09:48):
Well, where it's I have friends who have suffered.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
From humans have hallucinations when they eat mushrooms.

Speaker 6 (09:56):
So I mean.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
It's safe to say that AI is going to have
that kind of experience as well. At some point. It's
not like the AI is going to eat mushrooms, but
it's going to learn from human experiences.

Speaker 7 (10:08):
I do think it's going to get harder and harder
to tell between human generated content and AI generated content.
I don't know which people are going to prefer, to
be honest with you, and I do think it might
be important for people to have in person gatherings. We
were talking about this last night at the meetup, so
that you know that it's real.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Right well, live is like live streaming and things like
that is another kind of confirmation of life. I think
that's going to be a term that's increasingly used, is
that we're going to have technologies that will flyg things
is this is this is real, this is live, not

(10:48):
AI generated, And so we'll have to see how this
plays out.

Speaker 7 (10:51):
Rob we touched about this a little bit last night
during the meetup. So what is going to happen to media,
advertising and monetization as a result of AI? How will
AI change advertising and media?

Speaker 2 (11:03):
I think it's going to change it in a couple
different ways. It's going to make the ability to create
advertisements much more quickly and get them also created in
a way that maybe targets audience is better. And that's
going to be on the audio and video side, because currently,
right now, it's a pretty laboris process to create an
ad spot or something like that, where you have to
bring talent in the studio. They have to be scripted,

(11:25):
they have to have a performance element to them, where
that can all be done in AI and it can
be done on the fly. So I think around targeting,
the podcasting industry has been moving more and more towards
automatic advertising, which is called programmatic advertising, and so that's
where there's an insertion point in your content and the

(11:46):
computer and the servers input those ads. But those ads
have to be pre recorded by a studio, by talent,
all those things before they can be injected, or they
host reads that are pre recorded. So AI is going
to generate those as is the simplest explanation, and they're
going to be done professionally. They're going to be done
in the precise way that the brand wants them represented,

(12:08):
because there's lots of examples where talent will come in
and create a spot and it just won't be just
what the brand is really looking for right, and they'll
have to redo it over and over again to get
it right, and that slows down the process, adds a
lot of costs. And these platforms want to be dynamic, right.
They want to be able to create campaigns on the

(12:29):
fly precisely how they want to have it presented, and
this will be a way that it can do that.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
Rob Greenley, he's been podcasting since most of us knew
the internet. Talk back Passage to Profit with Richard An
Elizabeth Pierre Hart for our listeners. If you want to
get more Passage to Profit, you can listen to other
episodes or follow us on social media. You can catch
our past episodes anywhere you get your podcasts, or you
can go to YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or x I guess

(12:57):
as they call it now and tek us out there
so we'll be back right after this commercial break.

Speaker 8 (13:03):
At Tension Investors. This is a simple commercial on the
investment value of gold. Gold continues to make new highs
in good markets and in bad markets. You need to
have your portfolio balanced with gold. Learn about owning physical
gold or getting a gold backed IRA.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
Make this simple call right now.

Speaker 11 (13:20):
Eight hundred sixty five three two oh seven three eight
hundred six five three two o seven three. That's eight
hundred sixty five three twenty seventy three.

Speaker 8 (13:31):
Sponsored by Reagan Gold. We are offering a one hundred
percent risk free gold guide. Gold continues to make new highs,
and unlike stocks, gold has never been worth zero. You
owe it to your nest egg in future to own
some physical gold or set up a gold back IRA.
Call right now for your free report.

Speaker 11 (13:50):
Eight hundred sixty five three two oh seven three eight
hundred sixty five three two of seven three. That's eight
hundred sixty five three twenty.

Speaker 8 (14:00):
S three sponsored by Reagan Gold.

Speaker 11 (14:04):
Do you love going on a cruise or have you
always drapped on going on the cruise vacation of your life?
With dozens of cruise companies, who do you call to
find the right vacation and deal for you? Now you
can make one phone call and shop all the best
deals on every single cruise line in the world. You
can't get that by calling one cruise line. We have
them all with experts that know the ins and outs

(14:26):
of every cruise ship and can tell you the best
cruise for your vacation needs. Our cruise packages start at
one hundred and forty nine dollars plus. We offer free internet,
free guest packages and cash back deals. So now is
your chance to book the cruise of your lifetime. Call
the Cruise Hotline right now and shop every single cruise
line in the world. Here's the number. Eight hundred five

(14:50):
seven seven four seven four to two eight hundred five
seven seven four seven four to two eight hundred five
seven seven four seven four to two. That's eight hundred
five I have seven seven forty seven forty two.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Now back to Passage to Profit once again, Richard and Elizabeth.

Speaker 7 (15:06):
Gearhart and our special guest Rob Greenley, the grandfather of podcasting.

Speaker 6 (15:12):
A great grandfather, a great great grandfather of podcasting.

Speaker 7 (15:17):
So you did say something that really made us wonder
about something. You said that you have a co host
on one of your podcasts who is an AI generated
co host.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Well, I did an episode with chat GPT and I
asked him to play a role as my co host
on a show. Chat GPT knows my podcast tips live
show that I do, and so this was a live
streaming show, and so I prepped him. I plugged him

(15:49):
into my mixer through my phone and just brought him
into the conversation and introduced him, and he joined me
in my conversation. I asked him questions like a like
a host would ask the guests, and he answered the questions.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
What questions did you ask him?

Speaker 2 (16:06):
I'm curious, Well, the whole podcast is about podcasting, so
it was all about what he thought that the future
of podcasting was, and the direction it was go and
the impact that video was going to have, and what
he saw on the horizon for podcasting. And it gave
me very very succinct and very thoughtful answers.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
I thought.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
So it created an amazing dynamic in the conversation. He's
there's sometimes there can be a little bit of a
delay in his answer, but I called him a guy,
could have been a girl. I could have, you know,
and I'll probably do that. I'll probably have another conversation
in one of my other shows with a woman who's
from chat GPT, but he's probably going to give me

(16:51):
the same answers. It's just be in a different voice.

Speaker 7 (16:55):
Chat GPT suggested that we ask you this, Okay, the
rise of AI voice is that the end of the
human host.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
No, I don't think so. It's going to have an
increasing role. The AI voice is going to have just
like I've experienced, because it can create an interesting conversation.
And the Google platform, the Notebook ll M platform does
have the ability to have two AI co hosts do
a show together.

Speaker 7 (17:26):
I did that. I had it do a show about cats,
because I have a show about cats. I gave it
like three sentences. It did a ten minute podcast with
a man and a woman about cats, and brought in
stuff from all over the internet and stuff from my
query and it was good.

Speaker 6 (17:43):
And even introduced a few flaws just to make it. Yeah,
it sounds like.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
An extra little you have to do to the setup.
Please include some flaws, ms and ahs. Please.

Speaker 6 (17:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
I think that that's probably going to happen, though, I
think the thing is different with audio. I'm not sure
that the audio AI is going to have the same
impact as video AI. I think the video AI is
going to have a much bigger impact on society. The
audio AI is going to play a supportive role, or
maybe a co host role. Humans are going to, I think,

(18:21):
dominate on the audio side continue to dominate.

Speaker 6 (18:24):
Why do you think that is?

Speaker 2 (18:25):
I just think that the inflection, the ability of humans
to share unique stories that are not maybe contrived. I
think AI can be a little bit too fluffy in
its commentary. I think it's been programmed to be positive
about everything and not come across as authentic and real

(18:49):
with human like emotions and the inflections and how the
audio is presented, where video can create almost like a
fantasy experience that's almost like eye candy, right, and that's
that's kind of a different experience. So yeah, I think
the future of audio with humans is strong.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
Still good. Well that's good, Yeah, good for us, I guess,
you know. When I think of it, sometimes part of
the service that communicators provide to an audience is showing
people different slices of life from different people, and that
creates some relatability. So this person had this happen to them,

(19:27):
and this is how they felt, and this is what
came out of it. Right, You're telling that story, and
if it's coming from a person, then it's relatable because
it's another person that experienced that. If it's coming from
a computer, it's just it lacks the credibility and the

(19:48):
authenticity I think. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
And I think AI also is very factual. I think
AI is good as like a color commentator on a
sports program, right where the host just like what we're
doing with this radio shows, I'm sharing stories. I'm sharing
kind of futuristic projections that are based on my own
human experience. And that's what's different than what AI will

(20:14):
present to you. So when I use AI, I usually
use it to just deliver the facts right, the research.
So I would ask it, you know, what research have
you seen and cite it in your comments that tells
this story. It's very good at looking up data. And
so if you use AI for what it's good for

(20:36):
and then play up the strengths of the human capabilities
in your content, and I think that's the good balance.

Speaker 7 (20:42):
I had one more point that I really wanted to
bring up with you today, and I think you explained
this beautifully last night. We're starting to hear the term
agentic AI and AI agents. Can you please explain what
those are for the normal person?

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Well, an agent in the AI realm is really if
you take this analogy of like a virtual assistant rights,
that's where AI is going to take us next, is
that they're going to string together functional processes that are
run by AI bots of sorts, right, that can do

(21:20):
like a like a workflow. It can actually accomplish something.
It'll actually take this input, or it will go out
and do research, pull that input in and generate a
report for you, or it will actually create a tangible
action in the real world. So that's the path of this,
is that the intelligence can gather all the information and

(21:40):
then funnel it into let's say booking a trip to Europe. Right,
you can tell the AI to find the best flight
at this price point and this date range, and go
ahead and book it, and here's my credit card number,
and it'll go out and actually find the best deal.
It'll find the best dates, it'll it'll configure it based

(22:01):
on your preferences and what you want to do, and
maybe even book hotel rooms for you too. So that's
kind of where this is going, is that it will
actually do things for you in the real world.

Speaker 7 (22:13):
I love that. I mean, we're going out to Portland
to visit our daughter and I was racking my brains
trying and using AI and everything trying to find a
really high quality hotel that didn't allow smoking anywhere on
the grounds. And you can't find that on trip Advisor.
It doesn't say whether hotels are non smoking or not
all the time, so I had to rely on AI

(22:34):
for that, and I think I found one. I hope.

Speaker 5 (22:36):
I want to say.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
The other use of the same technology is that kind
of is a replacement for a human right. So you're
you're probably with this technology going to put some people
out of work.

Speaker 6 (22:49):
Maybe, but I mean most of that is automated now anyway,
so they're just making it.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
That's true, and they're going to need to have people
to manage these agents too to some degree, So you know,
I don't know that we're going to be one hundred
percent trusting of them.

Speaker 6 (23:04):
Do you think creators should be obligated to acknowledge that
AI helped create part of their content?

Speaker 5 (23:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
I think that is a big question. I think each
creator needs to answer that for themselves to some degree,
and the audience has to step in and make a
choice about this too, and I think that's probably what's
going to happen. But you know, there's different levels of
adding AI to your content creation process, and I'm not
sure all those areas need to be disclosed. So, you know,

(23:34):
I think up to this point, it's it's really mostly
being used in pre production post production type of processes.
There's not a lot of it being used in the
actual production of content. So but that is going to change.
And when when that changes, I think the big debate
that needs to be had is is there going to

(23:54):
be labels that are going to be put on this
kind of content, kind of like you know, rating labels
have been around TV's, TV and film for many years.

Speaker 6 (24:04):
Well, when they first start marketing AI movies, they're going
to be proud to put it on there because everybody's
going to want to see the new AI movie.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Everybody's going to be able to make an AI movie
if they understand how to do it. It's not going
to be expensive. It's going to be like I think
the current quote right right now is to make a
movie like a Hollywood blockbuster will cost you seventeen dollars Richard, So,
is that an opportunity or is that disruption? And it's

(24:33):
probably both. It's an opportunity to create content that is compelling.

Speaker 6 (24:38):
We're already saturated with so much content. I don't know
if I can handle that.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Seriously, that's a different argument, right.

Speaker 6 (24:46):
You know, it's just so much. Anyway, we've got to
move on to another AI topic. So, Rob, where do
people find you if they want to learn more about you?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
I think the best way to find me is at
Rob Greenley dot com. And I'm also on YouTube. I
of a YouTube channel as well at Rob Greenley and
then I'm on all the social platforms. I'm easy to find,
and also have a podcast network called adore network dot com.
So there's a bunch of my podcasts are up there,
Audio and video podcasts.

Speaker 7 (25:16):
Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.

Speaker 6 (25:19):
It's time for intellectual property news and guess what we're
talking about AI? Complete as if we haven't talked a lot,
but this is an interesting case.

Speaker 7 (25:29):
Now.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
We've been talking about AI in the courts for a
long time and yesterday, just yesterday, a court in San Francisco,
Federal District Court in San Francisco, Judge William Alsop handed
down a major ruling that is going to have a
huge impact on the rights of creators. If you're an
intellectual property geek like me, this is important stuff. So

(25:53):
Anthropic is an AI platform. They make the AI Claude
and they were sued by a bunch of creators because
Claude was using their content and regurgitating it as AI
stuff right, And the court was asked to decide is
the use of this content considered fair use under the

(26:14):
copyright laws and so is it justified? And so this
was a big question out there is like could copyright holders, artists,
creators block the use of AI if it was using
their copyright and material and the court decided, no, this
is a big deal because it really kind of clears
the way for the AI platforms to use content from

(26:37):
people and transform it.

Speaker 12 (26:40):
Right.

Speaker 7 (26:40):
But then they said also kind of reverse themselves almost
that Anthropic did violate authors' rights by saving pirated copies
of their books as part of a central library of
all the books in the world that would not necessarily
be used for AI training. So I think that's a

(27:01):
little bit different. I think what this is saying is
it has to go through the courts, and if I
were the creators here, I would appeal this.

Speaker 6 (27:08):
It's inevitable. I think you'll have the Supreme Court making
a decision on this. But Anthropic took seven million books
that they pirated didn't pay for, and uploaded those books
and used that as the basis for their data set,
which is where all the AI stuff is generated. And

(27:28):
so the court said, well, you have to there's damages
that go to the creators for this, because you can't
just steal their books.

Speaker 7 (27:37):
How did they even do that because I pay for
all my books on Kindle.

Speaker 6 (27:39):
Well, they literally went to a pirate website and downloaded
all the books from that.

Speaker 7 (27:45):
Well that's terrible.

Speaker 6 (27:46):
I think it is too.

Speaker 7 (27:48):
I mean because if you know any authors.

Speaker 6 (27:50):
Take them to court.

Speaker 7 (27:51):
Yeah, I mean authors put a lot of their own
self and time and energy. I mean your your time
is your life right, and they put their life in
to these work, creative works, and somebody you shouldn't just
be able to take it.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
I don't think I agree. So let's let's ask our
panel here what your thoughts might be on this situation. Matt,
I'd be happy to so.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
I have an ip out there called Sabbath, and it
was a comic book that was made into a book,
and we also have a screenplay. So someone who invested
a lot of money in time in making something I
would have serious issues with that and never buy being fair,
it's stealing. So I'm against it. If you want to
use it, license it for me. Otherwise go create your

(28:35):
own content.

Speaker 6 (28:36):
I think ultimately they're going to kill the golden goose
because a lot of people who are professional creators wouldn't
create because they can't get paid for it. It was
the incentives, the incentive, the incentive, or you.

Speaker 7 (28:47):
Keep it super private, don't put it on the internet.
So maybe it spawns a whole new industry.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
To me, I kind of agree with Matt. I feel
the same way, especially it takes a lot for content
creators to create that type of content and for them
not to be protected and they can just be replaced.
I mean, that's how they make their livelihood. And I
obviously deal a lot with content creators and my type

(29:13):
of industry. I mean, I'm a content creator too, So
it's very frustrating when you put all your hard work
into it and then it's not really protected and AI
can twist what you're saying and like that it can
be reused. There's a fine line, right, Yes.

Speaker 6 (29:29):
I agree. I mean the judge in the case said that,
you know, well, people have been kind of doing this
for years, and that they would read a book and
a couple of books and then they would write a
new book based on what they read. Right, So ais
kind of doing the same thing, but in this case
you had to buy the book, or somebody had to

(29:50):
buy the book first, right. And then if you're writing
something new and you copy a section of the previous
book and put it in yours and then you give
credit to the person, otherwise it's called plagiarism, right, So
I think there's some differences and I've seen AI content
that includes paragraph by paragraph lifting from an actual source.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
So Rod, yeah, I think there's some history around these
issues with the Internet, and one of them was very
early with Google and Amazon. They actually scanned printed books
back in the early years of the Internet and put
them online. So all those scans were made available online

(30:38):
and they were building this world library of sorts, is
what they were doing. They were digitizing all these books,
and in some ways that's kind of similar to what's
going on now, is that they're taking an existing piece
of content and converting into something new, and then creating
the opportunity to create derivative content from that same content.

(31:00):
And so this is just a new twist on an
old business strategy of taking content from others and creating
derivative content, making it available and putting under a subscription.
That's what Audible does, That's what Amazon has done for
a long time as well. I was fortunate about a
year and a half ago, I got paid by an
AI company to take all of the six hundred video

(31:23):
episodes audio and video episodes of the new media show
that I do, and they actually paid us to get
that content so they could scan it and use it
as training data to put into conversational AIS what they
called it. Right, This was a couple of years ago,
and so there has been a pass. And one of

(31:44):
the things that they pitched me at the time was
that we're an ethical AI company, Right, so we pay
for the content that we use to train our AI.
But I think over time that ethics has kind of
gone away.

Speaker 6 (31:57):
Because they don't want to spend the money to do it,
and then going around getting everybody's permission seems almost impossible.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah, I think they've just abandoned that now.

Speaker 6 (32:05):
Yeah, but at least you got paid for it though.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
At that time, Yeah, because it was still very early
in the process.

Speaker 6 (32:11):
I guess, you know, to Elizabeth's point, this is one court,
one decision. It adds some more information now to the
legal mix. It'll certainly be appealed and other courts may
have different views on it, but as it stands right now,
it seems like the general consensus is that the AI
platforms got a step ahead, and so we'll just have

(32:35):
to monitor.

Speaker 7 (32:36):
Well, if you let the tech guys run the world.

Speaker 6 (32:38):
Then what's going to happen. That's what's going to happen. So,
speaking of intellectual property, If you have an idea or
invention that you want to protect, contact us Secure Heart Law.
We work with entrepreneurs worldwide to help them through the
entire process of obtaining patents, trademarks, and copyrights too, and
you can visit learn more about patents dot com or

(32:59):
learn more about trade dot com for a free consultation,
or you can download your free Entrepreneur's Guide to patents
or trademarks. And we'd love to hear from you if
you have any questions about intellectual property. So we have
to take another commercial break, but stay tuned. We have
Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind with Elizabeth Gearhart coming up

(33:20):
very soon. We know you don't want to miss that.

Speaker 10 (33:22):
With Medguard Alert, you're never alone. You can connect with
medical professionals anywhere, anytime. And now Medguard is introducing our
exclusive new care Watch. If you need help, quickly use
it from anywhere to contact medical professionals, no cell phone required.
The care Watch is not only a life saving medical
alert device, it's a revolutionary health monitoring system that checks

(33:42):
your blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and much more.

Speaker 9 (33:46):
And here's the best part.

Speaker 10 (33:47):
If you have Medicaid, you may qualify to gets your
care watch for free. The care watch is only available
through medguard Alert. Call us right now. We have monitoring
programs starting as low as a dollar a day. The
call is free, activation free, shipping is free, and no
contract is required. Remember, with Medicaid, you may qualify to
gets your care watch for free. Call us to get

(34:07):
your care watch right now.

Speaker 11 (34:09):
Eight hundred seven oh five one one nine eight eight
hundred seven five one one ninety eight eight hundred seven
oh five one one nine eight. That's eight hundred seven
five eleven ninety eight.

Speaker 5 (34:22):
Hey, listen to me.

Speaker 9 (34:23):
I'm one of the credit cards in your wallet. I'm
about to explode in pop like a balloon.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
You're using me and my brother's.

Speaker 8 (34:32):
Way too much.

Speaker 9 (34:34):
Your credit cards aren't the only ones annoyed. It's your
paycheck that doesn't have enough to pay everything. Save your
credit cards, your paycheck and yourself a lot of pai
n pain. Call the Debt Helpline now, not tomorrow, Right now.
Our experts will show you how you can cut your
interest rates and your payments on your credit cards in half.

(34:56):
Credit card companies have special assistance programs designed to help
help you make this one hundred percent free call right
now and learn how you could get out of credit
card debt.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
Here's the number.

Speaker 11 (35:07):
Eight hundred seven three eight five three three two eight
hundred seven three eight five three three two. Eight hundred
seven three eight five three three two. That's eight hundred
seven three eight fifty three thirty two pay four by
zero debt.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Passage to Profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.

Speaker 6 (35:26):
Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show heard
on thirty eight markets across the US. We'd like to
do a shout out to our listeners in Erie, Pennsylvania
w ps E A M fourteen fifty and one oh
seven point one FM. Thanks for tuning in. And our
podcast is also ranked in the global top three percent

(35:48):
of podcasts. We've also been recently selected by feed Spot
Podcasters database as a top ten entrepreneurial interview podcast. So
subscribe to the Passage to Profit show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,
and on the iHeart app. And yes, you can get
back editions of Passage to Profit anytime if you just

(36:09):
go to any place where you get your podcasts. You
can also check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Not to mention the iHeart app. So now it's time
for Elizabeth Spotlight. So Elizabeth, fill us in on what
you've been up to.

Speaker 7 (36:25):
Well, I still have my meetup called Podcast YouTube Creators Community.
Sonya Sacho's helping me move with that, and we had
it last night and Rob was our featured guest. We
had quite a turnout. We had people in person at
the studio and we had people on Zoom and there
were a lot of questions that there's just a ton

(36:45):
of interest. It was about podcast marketing, but of course
it got kind of overrun with AI. There's no way
to separate.

Speaker 6 (36:54):
The two our AI obsession.

Speaker 7 (36:55):
I think marketing was one of the first industries to
really embrace AI and podcasting would not be where it
is today without AI, and so we did talk quite
a bit about that along with podcast marketing and the
studios up and running. After the meetup, Sonya Satra and
I did a podcast episode with Meldrine Maldrene interviewed Sonya
for her podcast, so that's her first episode. So now

(37:18):
we're going to take that and send it to the
editor and put music behind it. All the fun stuff
that you can do with all these software editing programs
for podcasting and get it ready for YouTube. I think
she's going to start with it on YouTube. So a
big part of what I'm doing with the studio is
consulting and as I said earlier, just getting people over
that hump, like how do I start? Because Maldrene has

(37:39):
a lot of really great stuff to share and a
lot of really interesting people to talk to. So that
was great, And the Jersey Podcast podcast is still going
a little bit. Danielle's kind of had to take a break,
but I really want to keep that going because we
just got the two kittens, and there's just so much
to say about it, and so.

Speaker 6 (37:57):
Many things kittens and podcasting and so.

Speaker 7 (38:01):
Much software to use that I could take little videos
of the kittens playing and put them over the top
of the podcast, and you know, just all sorts of
stuff like that. So if you like playing with AI
software with podcasting, you can have a lot of fun,
which I do. But enough about that. I'm going to
talk briefly about AI and medicine and then we're going
to go into interviewing to NIA. So I was at

(38:23):
a conference on Sunday at the Visual Arts Center in Summit,
New Jersey, where it's a place for photographers, but it
was all about AI, and they had people from different
industries talking about how AI was affecting their industries, and
one of the people was a radiologist from Overlook Hospital.
Doctor Patelli was very good and he said radiology was

(38:45):
the first part of medicine to adopt AI because they're
looking at all your scans, right, And it makes sense,
right because AI can look at things much more closely
than the human I can. And he said it's going
to go into other parts of medicine. But the ideologists
or the pioneers, the problem with using AI for interpreting
medical scans is that only does what you tell it

(39:07):
to do. So he said, there was a scan that
they had done of a certain part of the body,
and that's what AI was supposed to look at, but
when he looked at it, there was something almost off
the screen up in the corner that wasn't really related
to the problem, and it didn't look right to him,
and so they took a further look, and this person
did have something else wrong with their body. So could

(39:30):
the AI have caught that if they had said, yes,
look for any other anomalies or maybe look at this too,
or whatever. But it didn't because it was so focused
in so it's still only as good as what you
put in it.

Speaker 6 (39:41):
So did he think AI was a good.

Speaker 7 (39:43):
Thing, then, yes, he did think AI was a good thing.
Working in conjunction with the doctor, it'll catch what the
doctor can't catch. The doctor will catch what it can't.
And I do think though, the AI.

Speaker 12 (39:53):
Could come up with a lot of false positives, right
because it's going to see every little tiny spec like, oh,
you have one cell that looks bad, I mean, and
that's probably not going to kill you, So it has
to be carefully managed by the doctors.

Speaker 7 (40:07):
But he also showed he so they had AI make
the anatomy of like your torso, and in one part.

Speaker 12 (40:15):
That was just.

Speaker 7 (40:19):
For one part I think it was the esophagus. It
ended in a leaf. So he's like, yeah, we're not
quite there yet with this either. So what really came
out of this conference though on AI and not just
medicine but everything, is that AI does not have the

(40:40):
curiosity that humans have, and that's going to be the
big differentiator. And I think AI, of course loves to learn,
but humans love to learn too. But I think humans
are very curious. Okay, so enough about that, I really
want to hear from Tania. So, Tania Crawford, I mean,
I just think it's amazing what she's done. So she's

(41:01):
does hair extensions. She's a beautician, but she's training other
people how to make real money from it. So welcome
to Nia. Please tell us everything you're doing.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
You know, mautician is such an old school way of
describing my industry, and there's like so many more avenues
that you can take at this point. So I am
in the business of making money and teaching people how
to make money. So I developed a system that I
teach stylists to generate multiple six figures behind the chair

(41:30):
and generate monthly sales from twenty thirty, forty or fifty
K a month as a sole proprietor. I also have
a online platform that teaches people the tools to be
good at doing extensions and transforming people. And I do
personal business consulting and I created a beautiful brand online,

(41:51):
so I have a big brand recognition as well.

Speaker 6 (41:54):
Wow, what motivated you to get started?

Speaker 4 (41:57):
To say?

Speaker 7 (41:57):
How did you get started doing this?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Obviously, like I mentioned before, I kind of went against
everything that my family stands for, like get a college degree,
go and do something with your degree. I did not
do that path. I ran off to America. I had
to pretty much relearn everything and reinvent the wheel. I
am very proud of where I am today, but it

(42:20):
took a long time to really figure out the systems
how they are in place. But what I truly love
is that you can pretty much do whatever if you
put your mind to it. And so at a very
young portion of my career, I decided that I did
not want to work just behind the chair. I wanted
to be an entrepreneur. My dad as an entrepreneur, so

(42:43):
I kind of grew up with that mindset, and so
creating different streams of income within your industry is key
to get to that type of point and just reinventing
the wheel, always being ten steps ahead of your competition
and seeing a need in the end as I am
in an industry where people are driven by emotions not

(43:04):
so much by logic most of the time, so I
bring that portion of how to run a business, how
to do sales, how to really figure people out that
are sitting in your chair or that you're talking to,
how their purchase patterns are. I do use AI a lot, actually,
so love that, but Yeah, there's just so many avenues

(43:29):
of what other industry professionals haven't even tapped into in
my field, and so I like to open those doors
for them. And that's why I created retreats that are
limited to the top percent of my industry, and that
creates mastermind groups and that's something that wasn't really available

(43:51):
or accessible in my industry before. My industry doesn't talk
about making money. People have never really taken us seriously.
We're kind of like girls and guys that play in
hair and makeup for fun, and you know, we like
to party hard and then we show up kind of
hungover at work.

Speaker 7 (44:08):
And that's not how.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
It is anymore. It's about, you know, creating generational wealth,
having niches that give you money when you're not behind
the chair, that protect you when you can work because
we work with our hands, and so creating online avenues,
you know, to offset that.

Speaker 7 (44:28):
It sounds like embracing technology really helped you move this
company forward, But not everybody is good at technology. So
for the people that you're training and that you're helping,
what's their level and are you helping teach them technology
or just giving them the tools and telling them to
use them, how does that work?

Speaker 3 (44:46):
So the people that come to my retreats, they have
already tapped into the eight to ten thousand dollars revenue
a month. They just don't know how to manage their
overhead or what it takes to get to that next level.
There so many cookie cutter schemes out there that teach you, oh,
make a hundred k behind the chair. There you go,
you made it, but really you don't walk away with it.

Speaker 5 (45:08):
So it's like.

Speaker 6 (45:11):
It's what you keep, right.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
They're like flexing on Instagram, like I'm a baddie. I
make a hundred k behind the chair, but you know
what do you have to show at the end of
the day. So we simplify systems that help them, and
anyone can make a hundred k behind the chair, but
it takes a lot more to make more, and then
also to keep it and not fall into the purchase

(45:33):
patterns of spending at all. We teach how to really
make your money work for you and keep your overhead
so low that you walk away with ninety percent of
your profits.

Speaker 6 (45:43):
I was just going to say, really good, yeah, yeah,
I mean I never appreciated that you can make so
much money as like a stylist or a beautician or
one hundred thousand dollars a year. That's that's a pretty
good start.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
There is stylists that make seven figures, like there is
no limit an hour. End are if you're really good
and you know how to work the system.

Speaker 6 (46:03):
So what do you tell people to improve their efficiency?

Speaker 3 (46:06):
It's like the total package. It's not just like you
obviously have to be good at what you do, but
you also got to know how to sell and how
to appropriately price yourself with the value that you think
you have. So we teach systems how they can figure
out what they're on value as how to price their
services correctly without ripping a client off but still making

(46:29):
a profit, and time management and running your books and
then creating streams within your field.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
So a lot of business basics exactly, because I want
to know what my stylist is selling to me. How
do style is so how does a stylist like promote
products or something in salon or other services?

Speaker 3 (46:50):
So I think it goes back to the basics. First
of all, I would have to ask your stylists if
you're her or his ideal client, because a lot of
times when they have clients in the chair, they're actually
not their ideal a client with the purchase patterns that
they would like. So we teach to really attract those
type of clients and market to them. Because when you

(47:12):
have different types of people that come into your chair,
they all act differently obviously, and you have to know
how to manage them and what content will attract them. Hence,
while we go into content creation.

Speaker 6 (47:24):
Right, so some people are going to be much more
concerned about their appearance. They're going to be more open
to trying new things or you know, enhancing their appearance
and whatever way they can. And it's important as the
business owner that you focus your marketing on the people
that are going to respond to. I think the.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Biggest thing how you either keep or lose a client
is if they don't want to be bored with the BS,
and you bore them with the BS and you don't
give them the facts, they're going to be so annoyed
they're just going to leave.

Speaker 6 (47:57):
You mean, when it comes to products or just general
small talk, all of it.

Speaker 7 (48:00):
You had mentioned earlier that you were using AI to
kind of see what your clients want, and so it
was really interesting when I was at this conference. You
know about the ideal client and the client personas and
everything and marketing, they're actually creating an AI person exactly.
Is that what you're doing too, So we do that,

(48:21):
but we have.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Them figure it out so every time they are at
a standstill, they can put that into AI and they
can help them figure out their next moves. Like if
they feel like they're not getting their ideal client in
their chair, that is a missing link in their marketing funnel,
So they have to go in and really figure out, Okay,

(48:42):
where did I miss that train? And you have to
refigure it out and you really have to break it
down back to the basics.

Speaker 7 (48:50):
So how do they get clients? Is that word of mouth?
Is it internet advertising? Is it trade? Just what's the
best way for a stylist one of yours to get clients?

Speaker 3 (49:00):
So that again depends on their idea client. A lot
of times it takes three times for them to see
your content or have a form of recommendation from someone
to actually come to you. So your online presence has
to be really good. But a lot of times they
need reassurance before they're coming. And there's two different types
of purchase patterns, Like they either already made up their

(49:22):
mind coming to you before they started looking you up,
or they've heard about you and they're following you and
they're watching your moves. So your content has to be
able to transfer for them to make that final purchase
pattern in that marketing funnel. And if you're missing that,
then you're missing something in your marketing transfer.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Rob Greenley questioner comment, how are you using AI technology
to help advance the industry of what you're trying to do?

Speaker 6 (49:48):
I use it for everything everything, just everything.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
From client communication, from dealing with staff that you hire,
from marketing that you're going to do when your ideal
client typing it in, so I already know. So you're
trying to target create me some ads that I can
run or what type of posts should I be putting out?
What event should I be going to to meet my

(50:12):
ideal client? What kind of engagement schedule should I have?
What tiktoks are going to be attracting my right client?

Speaker 5 (50:20):
Tell?

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Or what reels are trending in that specific client marketing?

Speaker 7 (50:26):
Is that the main value that you give to your
clients that are learning from you is all the marketing
or do you tell them how to do the makeup
and hair as well, so they.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Learn technique too. But it's like a total package because
they run their business their sole proprietors, so they have
to do everything themselves. And then once they get bigger,
obviously they're going to highre out. I mean that's what
I do. I don't have the time to run five businesses,
like I need some help in the background, you know.

Speaker 6 (50:55):
To manage it.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Yeah, because otherwise I won't sleep. So and I have
a set so I got I manage my time efficiently.
But I think people often lack having knowledge in multiple areas.
And when you have a business, you got to know
everything that goes in and out. And in my business,
a lot of people don't even know that they overspend
or the way that their price their services. They're actually

(51:17):
losing money every single day, and so we help simplify
that and then we help them with all the tools
that they need to take it to the next level.
When you're taking our class like that and you're part
of a mastermind that you're getting support afterwards, it's really
on you to do the work at home and like
get to that next level with anything. You can put

(51:38):
pearls in front of a pig, but if they're gonna
do anything with it, you know, like it's the same
type of deal. It's your own initiative that brings you
to the top and makes you a one percent earner.

Speaker 6 (51:50):
What do you think is the biggest challenge that people
who are running their own beauty.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Parlor face overhead? Is the number one? What does it
take to keep your daily business running? They don't know,
Like you ask them and they think about, oh, I
used fifteen dollars of color worth on them. Well, how
much was your phone? How much was your daily chair rental?
What's your hourly valued at? Like, are you actually making
up your product that you're using? Are you paying an assistant?

(52:17):
Are you having a cleaning person that comes once a week?
What does it take you to get to the salon?
How much continuing education do you take? They don't think
about that, so it just opens like their mind of
thinking broader than what they were ever taught because we
don't get taught that in beauty school. That comes with
life skills and how you were brought up. Are you

(52:38):
investing in your future? Are you putting everything towards your kids?
You got to feed yourself first before you give to
your children. So you can take care of them, So
take care of your own retirement before you start putting
money to the site for your child. And then you know,
just nurturing your clients having a skill set knowing how
to market.

Speaker 7 (52:58):
Wow, that's interesting. Do you tell them to do video?
Is that what you would suggest?

Speaker 3 (53:02):
I think the market is very oversaturated with videos, so
I think there is a fine line picture. So are
making a huge comeback, But it's about viral maybe even
a little bit of polarizing content where people feel like
very black and white about and that's what's going to
push your content out.

Speaker 7 (53:19):
It sounds like you know way more about this industry
than anybody I've ever spoken to.

Speaker 5 (53:24):
Well, because I'm.

Speaker 6 (53:25):
Teaching, we don't want to be the leading the blind.

Speaker 7 (53:30):
How do people? How do people find you?

Speaker 3 (53:33):
So they find me on social media at Tanya Underscore
Crawford or through my education that I offer. We offer
shadowing on demand, which is a little bit more of
a lower price option for people to watch me work
behind the chair. We do in person shadowing, and then
we also have our one hundred k plus luxury retreats

(53:53):
that we host once a year. It's a four day
intensive bootcam to get all the basics so they can
find that at Tania Crawford eedu dot com.

Speaker 6 (54:02):
Great, thank you, Passage to Profit with Richard Analysbeth pure Heart.

Speaker 7 (54:06):
And now we're going to kind of switch gears. But
because I just feel like software software AI AI is
all we've talked about, So we're going to talk to.

Speaker 5 (54:16):
Person.

Speaker 7 (54:16):
So we're going to talk to Matt to MEO now
and he has sl advisors and it's sladvisors dot net
and he is going to tell us how he is
helping other business owners and it's really an interesting business
model that he has. As he said earlier, he's the
only one doing it. So Matt, welcome, tell us what
you're doing.

Speaker 5 (54:34):
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And
you did an excellent job, by.

Speaker 13 (54:37):
The way, thank you.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
You really hit the nail on the head. And you know,
I do something similar to her, but in a different space.
I work with electricians, plumbing, HVAC contractors, security integrators, and
I have clients in one of two buckets, either five
years or less where they understand that reoccurring revenue is
really the holy grow of their business. Or I have
a client now that is hire me. He's been in
business for fifty years and still hasn't figured out how

(54:59):
to really implement a service agreement program properly.

Speaker 5 (55:01):
Now what is a service agreement? Right?

Speaker 4 (55:04):
So a lot of people want to be in the
installation business. You want to be in the reoccurring revenue
business for a couple of reasons. One is money, right,
So a lot of people don't understand, like you said earlier,
about how much money you.

Speaker 5 (55:15):
Get to keep.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
So say I install an HVAC system for three hundred grand,
which sounds like a lot of money, but it's not.
You know, imagine when it costs this building, and say,
my margin's usually around forty percent, Well after it's installed,
with margin erosions probably closer to twenty and that's without
any discounts. A reoccurring revenue, on the other hand, margins
are much higher, and you're also getting paid for services
yet to be rendered. So I have a lot of

(55:36):
clients that get paid a year at a time, five
years at a time, because we always start with multi
year agreements.

Speaker 5 (55:42):
And it's not just about the money.

Speaker 4 (55:43):
It's about increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, which a lot
of businesses don't understand.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
Right.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
So business is about relationships. You know, people aren't buying widgets,
there buying you. And if you only want a transactional
relationship with your customer where you're install it, you know,
talk to them again.

Speaker 5 (55:57):
Util it's a critical service issue.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
You have an uhappy customer, a sour stout technician that
was on his way to Applebe's that have riblets with
his girlfriend. Now at five o'clock on a Friday, he's
got to drive out to a customer site. And the
worst part is he's not gonna be able to resolve
that issue. And the reason is they haven't been doing
any preventative maintenance, which is a big.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
Part of service agreement programs.

Speaker 4 (56:16):
So I really love helping my customers build these programs
because it really changes how they do business. And I
only deal with ownership because if you can't implement this
because it's a program, but the program is in stress
sattle a long period of time. I would say to
my customers, you know a lot of consultants take off
your watch and tell you what time it is.

Speaker 5 (56:34):
So I'm a typical New Yorker.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
I have zero patients, so I only meet with my
customers a total of four times. It's eight hours, and
then I give him a reference guide and then I
coach them. And I'm very happy to say that all
of my clients have sold service agreements during or shortly
after training. And now my average client's ten xing my
fee usually within three months. Great, and once the program
is in place, that keeps building up. And to be frank,
I was surprised. I'm like, I did this. Entrepreneurs, I

(56:58):
think deal with a lot of self doubt. Right, You're like,
is this going to work? Did I pick the right thing?
And that's why I said earlier. Now I fallen on
my face a couple of times, and I thought I
was going to be a security consultant because I came
from the electronic security and EVY industry. And then I
have friends of mine in the industry like Matt, You're like,
you know all about this reoccurring revenue?

Speaker 6 (57:15):
Can you help us?

Speaker 4 (57:15):
So I said sure, And that's how Service Level Advisors
were born, and now I applient its all over the country.
I'm a guest speaker, keynote speaker. I'm like, what, like,
how did this even happen? But a big challenge for
me is that the industry I work in is very
old school. And what I mean by that is most
of the owners are getting ready to retire and either
they're going to sell the business or their son or

(57:36):
daughter's going to take it over. And the sons and
daughters are the ones who literally we have a conversation
and I'm usually hired on the spot and listen, I'm
not saying I'm the best closer, by any means is
that they see the value of it. And then I'm like,
if you don't believe you, goes speak to my customers.
You can how much money they're making. That's really the
best thing.

Speaker 6 (57:50):
When we were talking before the show, you were telling
us that you have really only been at this for
a few years now two years.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
It's really the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
I work seven days a week, but I love it,
and I love it because it's mine and the harder
I work, the faster the business grows. But I will
tell you, if you're not willing to do things that
a lot of people would be scared to do, it
might not be.

Speaker 6 (58:11):
Fue Give me an example.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
Let me give you a great example. I was in
Atlanta last week.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
I was supposed to leave on a Tuesday, and I
ate something and I got very ill, so I had
to reschedule meetings. But because of that, I got an
email that day while I was recovering where someone I've
been looking to meet now for a long period of
time said Hey, Matt, let's get together. And this guy
is a sales trainer for the industry, a very successful guy,
and I'm like, you know, we can help one or another.
They're out through synergies here, right. So they ended up

(58:35):
going the next day and I was literally there to
convince a central station company to introduce me to their
customer base. I met with the owner and one of
the things you really have to do is you have
to leverage relationships with other companies and kind of hit
your your caboost to them, because if you try to
do everything on your own without I call it force multiplication,
like partnering with other companies where their customers are going

(58:57):
to be your customers the amount of time it's going
to take you to build your BIS. So it was
a day trip and I literally when I got out
of the airport, the plane was late.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
When it landed, we were on the tarmac.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
I had to run to my meeting and the cab
driver was like doing one hundred miles an hour on
the highway to get there, because imagine, I'm meeting this
business owner who's setting aside time for me for the
first time, and I'm late. That's a big no no.
So I was texting the guy who set it up.
And then on the way back, the plane was delayed
like three times, so I didn't get home till like
four in the morning, and I had to get up
and train a client the next day remotely. And it

(59:26):
doesn't matter how you feel if you haven't appointment with
that client. You have to whatever has to be done.
And a lot of people aren't just willing to do that.

Speaker 7 (59:32):
That is so true. The reliability and consistency in building
a business is so important, and customers always do have
to come first. I mean they're not always right, but
they have to come first, right.

Speaker 5 (59:43):
You know.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
It's funny you say that my customers aren't right, and
I always say to them, if you could do this,
you're already be doing it. And my biggest challenge is
it's like, oh, so and so is already doing this.

Speaker 5 (59:51):
I'm like, they're not. So.

Speaker 4 (59:53):
As I said earlier, relationships are ongoing So a service
agreement creates a set of standards, right, So without standard
how can you meet or exceed expectations? And that's why
Fortune five hundred companies and Fortune one thousand companies have
customer experience managers chief customer officers because if everyone's selling
the same widget, what differentiates you. What differentiates you is
your customer experience, right and customer touch points. But that's

(01:00:16):
one of the things I do. I'm a fractional chief
experience officer for my customers because I'm like, how are
your technicians interacting with people? Are you doing customer surveys?

Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
How do you know?

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
How do you know this is the right technician for
that customer? Say there's this abrasion going on, this friction
in the service relationship, you don't know it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
Just because you're running a business doesn't mean that you
can't improve upon it or do better.

Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
And one of the first things I ask my customers,
I'm like, how much are you charging per hour for
your technicians? One hundred and fifty an hour? I'm like, well,
what's your burden rate? They're like what does that mean?
I'm like, what does it cost you per hour plus
to roll your truck? To get that tiction, I shout
out the door, and like you said earlier, most of
them are losing money and they don't.

Speaker 5 (01:00:51):
Even know it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Right, So one of the first things I do is
that I have them raise their rates through the roof.
And then another thing it does is we'ds ou customers
that aren't profitable. And then it also forces people to
transition from time and materials, which is not profitable, to
service agreements.

Speaker 7 (01:01:05):
Right. I think Rob has a comment or.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Question, so please do Yeah, I was just curious in
your dealing with your clients, whether or not you ever
have on the back of your mind telling your clients
what they want to hear versus what they need to hear.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
Never, never in a million years, because I'm doing my
customer disservice, right. You know, I'm a trusted advisor. I'm
there to help them make money, like she said earlier,
and a lot of businesses owners understand, your job is
to make people with money more money. If you can
do that, next to the world's your oyster. And that's
what business is all about. And my customer paint is
they can't do this on their own, and it's not easy.
And you know that's where my writing Doctorn comm in.

(01:01:39):
So when I do my training, I have like a
sixty five point PowerPoint slide that I created from scratch
that I keep updating over and over and over. And
the hardest part is it's not that I run out
of information to put in it. I have something called
the rule of five. I don't have more than five
bullet points in each slide, Otherwise the customer it's too
much information to digest. And that's why I keep my
training usually to no more than two hours of UA,

(01:02:00):
unless I'm traveling, like to California, where I'll do like
two four hour sessions because I want the customer to
implement what we train them on the next day. And
then a lot of my customers now are ongoing me
for hiring for ongoing sales and operations support because their
employees are not sticking to the script. And then I'm like,
you're leaving money on the table, and it's a lot
of money. Like, for example, like a salesperson might be
afraid of losing a sale because the customer doesn't want

(01:02:22):
the service agreement because it's always at the time of sale,
and I'm like, just don't un check that box. I'm like,
the sale doesn't start till it's an objection. I gave
you the ability to answer every objection because I've heard
them all. Customer says this, you say this, and you
know it's funny marketing too. It's like to get the
customer to buy the way you want them to buy,
because when they might be buying from you now, it
might not be profitable, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Do you ever face pushback from your clients on your directions?

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
No, Actually, I've had them fire employees who didn't get
with the program. Yeah, so you know they're investing in me,
and they understand this is the future of their business
and why. I'm sure you guys know what EBIT is.
So investors don't buy stale customer lists. They buy stream
is a reoccurring revenue.

Speaker 7 (01:03:01):
Right wait can you not? Everybody listening will know EBITX.

Speaker 13 (01:03:04):
Say what that is?

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amateurization. I think I'm
pretty close to that, right.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03:11):
I did not go to business school. I could barely
use a calculator. I just use it as a talk
track because I tell them, hey, you know, say you're
doing ten million a year, what is your company?

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Really worth.

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
But if you're doing ten million a year in RMR
a reocurring monthly revenue, you get a twenty x a
twenty eight x multiplier. And that's what people buy. They
buy contracts, they don't buy still customer lists. They don't
care what you've installed. And as soon as you understand
that as a business owner, and that's why I said,
I have two buckets. Young customers and older customers eventually
want to retire and they know that if they have

(01:03:41):
that additional RMR coming and their business valuation goes through
the roof.

Speaker 6 (01:03:45):
Right, So what do you see for the future of
your company? How would you like to take it to
the next level.

Speaker 4 (01:03:51):
So the next level is, and I didn't mention this yet,
is I license my program to my customers. I own
it because it's proprietary, right, And they have to sign
two heft ironclad nine disclosure agreements. And I say, hey,
you know you're sharing everything with me but your books.
You wouldn't we be sharing your proprietary infro with your competitors, right,
I said, well, I don't want you doing the same
thing to me. I will not work with someone who
refuses to sign it. And no one's had a problem

(01:04:13):
with it yet because they understand it. But I'm going
to license this. This like EOS Entrepreneur's Optimization system, where
I want to be able to empower other entrepreneurs to
start a profitable business where they can help people make money.

Speaker 6 (01:04:24):
That sounds like a real plan.

Speaker 7 (01:04:25):
Matt to Mayo. How do people find you?

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
They can go on LinkedIn. I post there all the time.
This is Matthew Tomayo.

Speaker 7 (01:04:31):
Where you can spell your last name.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
It's like tomato without the other T t o m ao. Okay,
that helps the second T not the first. Yes, correct
or then go to my website sladvisors dot net. And
you know one thing this has taught me. I need
to use more social media.

Speaker 5 (01:04:45):
I do.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
And you know what, I realized it could be a
lot of fun and perceptions reality and if you think
it's fun, it's fun. And seeing how these people use
it and how excited they are, and having a social
media person here, you know, my wife's my social media person.
It enables you to tell stories and connect with people
on an emotional level because people buy emotionally and they
justify it logically.

Speaker 6 (01:05:03):
We'll be back with more passage to profit and particular
secrets of the entrepreneurial mind, So stay tuned.

Speaker 10 (01:05:09):
I am a non attorney spokesperson representing a team of
lawyers who help people that have been injured or wronged.
If you've been involved in a serious car, truck, or
motorcycle accident, or injured at work, you have rights and
you may be entitled to money for your suffering. Don't
accept an offer you get from an insurance company until
you talk to a lawyer. And we represent some of

(01:05:31):
the best personal injury lawyers. You can find tough lawyers
that will fight to win your case, and they're so
good they stake their reputation on it by only getting
paid if you win. So, if you've been in a
serious car, truck, or motorcycle accident, or hurt on the job,
find out today for free what kind of compensation you
may be entitled to. Call the legal helpline right now.

Speaker 11 (01:05:54):
Eight hundred four nine two seven h one four eight
hundred four nine two four eight hundred four nine two
seven oh one four. That's eight hundred four nine two
seventy fourteen.

Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
It's passage to profit.

Speaker 6 (01:06:10):
Now it's time for Noah's retrospective.

Speaker 7 (01:06:14):
Noah Fleischmann is our producer here at Passage to Profit,
and he never stops trying to make sense of the
future by looking at the past.

Speaker 13 (01:06:22):
My day is a kid always started with the TV on,
and every day there was this little feature from the
local church with the meaning of the daily word. Well recently,
the annual word, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary, was authentic.
It used to be little more than a term of embellishment.
Now it's fast becoming a classification. Technology is getting better
and better at synthetically reproducing what's real. Our landscapes are objects, voices.

(01:06:48):
It's opening up a lot of legal and sociological questions.
Definitely not our parents' world. The best thing we can
do in this cyber orbit we live in is to
keep our objects, our relationships and our value them, and
ourselves as real as we possibly can. We can all
be in a virtual room, but let's all be in
it together for real now more.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
With Richard and Elizabeth Passage to Profit.

Speaker 7 (01:07:13):
Our special guest today, Rob Greenley. We have had amazing
presenters today and certainly AI has reared its ugly head
or beautiful head, depending on how you look at it,
many times throughout. But we've had some real solid business
advice come through here too, So go to our podcast
and hear what you've missed. But now it is time

(01:07:33):
for one more segment called Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind
Rob Greenley. Rob, what is a secret you can share
with our listeners?

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
I think to really focus on putting out knowledge, putting
out what makes you unique in the world and what
value you can bring to other people's lives. Is the
secret that I try and focus in a lot.

Speaker 7 (01:07:56):
I agree that is a really good one. Tania Crawford,
your secret.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
I'll share two, one on a business standpoint and one
on a personal level. As a business standpoint, don't listen
to the noise of wuld people tell you as possible
or not. Just go for it and don't overshare. And
then on a personal level, when dating as a high
performer woman, it's extremely hard. Try not to think about

(01:08:22):
it in an emotional way in the beginning. Think of
it as a logical standpoint, and choose the people that
you go on a date with, almost like a business interview.

Speaker 7 (01:08:32):
Yeah that's good. So, Matt Tamayo, what's a secret you
can I'll do.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Two secrets to one personal one business. I wouldn't be
where I'm at today without my wife Antonia. I have
tunnel vision a lot. I'm that type a guy. I'm
focusing on the task at hand and sometimes I can't
see the forest of the tree. So she helps keep
me on track. So if you have a partner to
help you, you can go so much farther, so much faster.

Speaker 5 (01:08:54):
And it's tough.

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
You need someone there, you know, shoulder to cry, and
sometimes you want to give up and they're like, no,
you can't do that thing.

Speaker 5 (01:09:00):
With her.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
My wife has Antoni's promise, which is her business, which
is her Christian jewelry line in her podcast. And you know,
I said to myself, she supported me, why wouldn't I
support her? So I don't care what I have to do.
We're going to succeed together. Now, on the business side
of things, you have to figure out what your customer
type is right off the bat, and you have to
be able to come up with a bunch of qualifying

(01:09:20):
questions because people love to waste your time and not
everyone is for you, and they're called no questions. Would
you be against hiring me now or is now a
bad time to build your service agreement program? Those questions
have such power and get people to respond because people
are usually polite and sometimes you want to hear fro them.
So you want to get to the meat and the bones,
because if you're wasting your time here, you can miss
an opportunity here, and time is money.

Speaker 7 (01:09:42):
I agree, Richard, your heart your heart law.

Speaker 6 (01:09:45):
Expect to make mistakes. Got to factor that into the equation.
I've been running your Heart Law for almost twenty years now,
and last week I just realized I made a whole
boatload of mistakes that after twenty years, it's just shock
that had happened. But it happens. And you know, I
think as you go along, you get more experience, you

(01:10:06):
make fewer mistakes, and hopefully you don't make the same
mistakes over again, but you make new ones, and if
you had a part of the entrepreneurial journey is getting
yourself out of them.

Speaker 7 (01:10:16):
My secret today is born of what happened yesterday, which
I have alluded to. I used a new company, and
I'd forgotten that we had used another company who I
should have called in last week. I hired them to
fix the air conditioning, and they blew me off at
the last minute. So my learning from that is, if
you have something important coming up, use a trusted source.

(01:10:38):
Develop those trusted sources, right. So if I had been
using somebody that had a relationship with or had a
service agreement with, this probably would not have happened to me.
So if it's something really important, you can go to
that trusted person and they will help you.

Speaker 6 (01:10:52):
Usually that's great. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated
radio show appearing in thirty eight markets across the United States.
In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected
by feed Spot Podcasters database as a top ten entrepreneur
interview podcast. Thank you to the p too P team,

(01:11:13):
our producer Noah Fleischman and our program coordinator Alisha Morrissey,
and our social media Maven Carolina Tabarees. Look for our
podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. Our podcast is
ranked in the top three percent globally. You can also
find us on Facebook, Instagram, x and on our YouTube channel.
And remember, while the information on this program is believed

(01:11:35):
to be correct, never take a legal step without checking
with your legal professional first. Gearheart Law is here for
your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find us
at gearheartlaw dot com and contact us for free consultation.
Take care everybody, thanks for listening, and we'll be back
next week.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
The proceeding was a paid podcast, Iheartradios hosting of this podcast.
Constitute's neither an endorsement of the products offered. Are the
ideas expressed