An Entrepreneur Who Turned a $5 Valentine's Card Into a Shark Tank Success with Wombi Rose + Others

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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):
Today, we're talking with a guy trained to design warships
who ended up designing vessels for love. What made him
change may sound personal, but it led to a billion
dollar business. I'm Richard Gearhart.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome the Passage to profit. And today on the show,
our future guest is Wombi Rose, the engineer turned entrepreneur
who turned intricate paper art into a billion dollar mission
to create magical moments with love Pop. Stay with us
to hear how a love pop helps people express big
feelings without the fear of saying the wrong thing, and

(00:43):
why that matters more than ever.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
And then I want to ask you, guys, what's it
like to give everything at work and feel unseen?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Not like I wouldn't know that.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Christina Muller LCSW she understands, and she works with leaders
to turn burnout, stress and disconnection into cultures where people
want to show up and thrive. And then some of
the most important days in our lives come with the
most pressure. That's so true, isn't it?

Speaker 5 (01:16):
So?

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Alisa Pettinado is the person people trust to step in
for their events when everything has to go right and make.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
It feel effortless.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
How she does what she does is what makes her
story so compelling.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
That's amazing. And on top of all this, our guests
will reveal the secrets that have helped them achieve success.
But first it's time for your new business journey. And
so we want to ask our panel when you look back,
what was the one decision or moment that most changed
the trajectory of your business and what did it cost
you to make that decision? Wanby, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (01:51):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, so let's talk about the one transformational moment and
one decision that you had to make that changed the
trajectory of your business.

Speaker 7 (01:59):
Really, the most transformative moment was when we committed full
time to the business. So my co founder John and
I both originally ship designers. We got back together at
Harvard Business School. Our goal was to start a business.
We started experimenting with love Pop, which was just super
fun making these three D unique works of art that

(02:22):
fit into a card. But it was a project and
we were learning and it came to six months from
graduation and we were deciding what should we do and
we had been working with contract manufacturers. We weren't getting
the quality that we wanted, and we made the commitment
to work with a really amazing individual and Vietnam named

(02:44):
Bao to start our own production facility. Now, Boo was
two months away from graduating from a five year architecture
program and he dropped out to start Love Pop with us,
And so that was when we said, no matter what happens,
we are going to make this business successful.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Did you feel like you were under a lot of
pressure when you made that decision?

Speaker 7 (03:03):
It felt like a lot actually, because we still had,
you know, different opportunities in front of us.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
We could go in different directions.

Speaker 7 (03:12):
So when we made that call, it wasn't so much
the risk of the money we were investing or or
anything other than this was now a long term commitment
because we knew that it was going to take a
long time for us to make the business work.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
And what advice would you give an entrepreneur who was
in a similar situation.

Speaker 7 (03:36):
I would say that everything takes longer, everything is going.

Speaker 6 (03:40):
To be harder, and that's great. That's part of life.

Speaker 7 (03:42):
That's like, you know, when you go all in on
a company, like you just have to be.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
Ready for that.

Speaker 7 (03:47):
And so the biggest thing for me is that you
have to love what you're doing, and if you really
love it, then you will make it through. I mean,
we've almost run out of money five times. We've had
to go through all kinds of different challenges, and every
single time when we're in the middle of one of those,
it's that love for the I mean, I absolutely love

(04:09):
this product.

Speaker 6 (04:10):
It's so fun.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
We can tell because we've been playing with these cards
and we're.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Oh, Christina, Christina Mueller, welcome to the program. So what
when you look back, what was the one decision or
moment that most changed the trajectory of your business?

Speaker 8 (04:29):
Absolutely well, thank you for having me first and foremost.
But when I look back, I actually can go back
a few years ago. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer
during my second pregnancy with my now three year old son,
and that was a moment for me when I really
was able to hone in on what's most important in

(04:50):
my life and also career rise, what I wanted my
future to look like. I think when you're facing an
illness that is potentially life threatening, and especially being in
a vulnerable position as I was being pregnant, your priorities
shift right, and I felt I want to have my
career be fulfilling but on my own terms, and entrepreneurship

(05:13):
really seemed like the best path forward for me to
do that. And what I decided to do is base
my business using my clinical expertise and also just what
I've learned along the way working with different people. Is
to create a workplace mental health firm that is focused
on connection in a high connectivity, low connection world that

(05:37):
we're currently living in.

Speaker 9 (05:38):
So that was pretty bold at the time.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Did you feel it was a risky decision?

Speaker 8 (05:42):
I felt it was a risky decision because a lot
of leaders would say to me, outright, it seems like
a nicety to have that in the workplace, like I
have to get things done, we have to hit our numbers.
Having connection be an imperative seemed more like just nice.

Speaker 9 (05:59):
But not really as important as it really is.

Speaker 8 (06:02):
So making that decision in spite of the climate and
the world we're living in was a risk, and it
also cost me my comfort zone. I had to really
push myself out of that and go into the unknown
after having just gotten into the unknown with my own
health journey.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's great, Thank you so much, Alyssa Patanado.

Speaker 10 (06:23):
So for me, I think it's twofold because I actually
started my company after I did one year in corporate
life and noped out of that pretty quick. That was
probably the first time I made that decision. And then
obviously because I had absolutely no experience, it was quite
the learning curve for me to start my company, Alenado Events.
So I started that fifteen years ago. It changed when

(06:47):
I made the decision. It actually in twenty twenty. It
was right before COVID. You know, I'd been doing events.
I'd been killing it for years, and only corporate. I
would never touch weddings with a ten foot poll because
I thought, oh god, who wanted to do that?

Speaker 9 (07:02):
Right still is?

Speaker 10 (07:03):
Yeah, I felt this pull back in the corporate world
where I was like, I don't know if we're about
to have a recession or something, but I think I
need to start offering weddings because my background was an
art you know, and I wasn't able to do these
really creative, over the top events which I really wanted
to do. I kind of just got sucked into this

(07:24):
like world where it was easy, started offering weddings. Then
the world shut down and weddings were the only event
that survived COVID for a very long time, and I
was able to be creative. People just started being like, well,
I don't know what to do for design.

Speaker 11 (07:40):
I'm like, here we go. I'm going to just give
you what I think.

Speaker 10 (07:44):
And my artistic background did not hurt the situation by
any means.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
What advice would you give to an entrepreneur who's in
a similar situation needs to make a decision maybe changing focus.

Speaker 10 (07:56):
I would tell them that it's like, actually the worst
most agonizing decision ever.

Speaker 11 (08:00):
There was lots of tears and like did I do
the right thing?

Speaker 10 (08:03):
And then I just started getting recognition for killing it
because I kind of leaned into what I actually at
my core, I'm just really good at well.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Thank you for sharing that story with us, Elizabeth. What
was the one decision or moment that most changed the
trajectory of your business?

Speaker 4 (08:18):
There was a huge moment that changed it. So I'd
been doing the marketing for your Heart law. I started
out as a patent agent, and well I started out
when Richard started the law firm I said, I'll do
anything you want me to.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Do to help you succeed. So I was doing.

Speaker 4 (08:31):
I went from being a patent agent to the marketing
because marketing for an intellectual property law firm is very
intricate and it's difficult for people to understand if they're
not up to their eyeballs in the lingo and everything right.
So the pivotal moment came when Kenya Gibson, who'd we
met networking, called me and said, meet me in New
York for a glass of champagne. I've got an idea
for you and Richard, and I did, and she said,

(08:52):
how about a one hour radio show for you guys
on iHeart about Entrepreneurism and you and Richard are co hosts,
And she laid out the whole format and I thought
it looked interesting. Richard was out of his networking thing.
So the next morning I said, Hey, Richard, what about this?
And I think we can find the money because it
was paid advertising still is. He agreed to it, and
that changed the whole trajectory of my entire life after that.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
It really did.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
So now I have a podcast studio and I'm podcasting
and all this stuff, and I think that what I
would say is make a decision and don't look back,
just go for it.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Well, for me, there have been a lot of turning points,
but one that I hadn't really thought about until recently
was when I started gear Heart Law. I ran the
law firm out of the attic of my house, literally
bare floors, a single desk, a phone. I had just
left Novartis. I hadn't really built up any kind of
client tele literally a light bulb hanging from the ceiling,

(09:50):
and over time we ended up fixing up the space.
There was enough space there. We had a couple of employees,
but clients were coming into the house and they were
using our bathroom and they were stopping by the kitchen
smelling the spaghetti sauce. So this smells pretty good, and
obviously it couldn't go on forever. So we finally made
the decision to move out of the house and into

(10:12):
an office space, which is more conducive for a real
law firm, and it was nerve wracking. We had to
add extra expense. I liked being home, it was comfortable,
but we had to go back out into the world.
And I think it's kind of needed. At that time
it was needed to be more of a legitimate business.

(10:34):
Now you can work from home and it's not that
big a deal because everybody does it, But back then
it was a big move. So I would say that
that was a pivotal moment in my career and in
the growth of my business. What did it cost you, Well,
it costs extra money for the building, so we ended
up buying a commercial building, and that was also I

(10:55):
was nervous when we did it.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
You had to pull your suits back out of the clust.

Speaker 12 (11:02):
To be fully dressed when I took phone calls. Well,
in any case, it's now time for our main guest interview.
Most Harvard graduates chase tech or finance, but Wanby Rose
turned paper into a business worth millions. Trained as a
naval architect and a former McKenzie consultant, he discovered that

(11:25):
tiny pop up cards could change the way people connect
and even earned a Shark Tank investment along the way.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
So, Wanby, I want to ask, before love pop existed,
was there a moment in your own life where you
wanted to say something meaningful to someone but didn't quite
know how.

Speaker 7 (11:43):
You know, I think so many moments when it's really
hard to come up with the creative idea.

Speaker 6 (11:48):
And as a kid, we always had to come up
with our own Christmas presents and it was kind of tricky.
But I started just making art.

Speaker 7 (11:59):
And I'm not very good at going out and like
picking out all the perfect gifts, and you know, I
know people who are really amazing at that. I've never
been good at that, but putting something down on paper.
And then you know, the other great thing that happened
with it is, you know, I would give my grandmother
this drawing, which, granted right, not very good, but she
would put it on the wall and she would keep
it there, and then every time I would come to visit,

(12:20):
I would see it there. And then eventually, when she
passed away, I now have this piece of art that
I gave her, however, many years ago, and so you
look at it and it's nothing special, but given the
meaning of it, it kind of takes on another mention.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, As I was doing research for the show and
thinking about reading cards, one of the important pieces of
that is it allows people to express things to somebody
else without actually having to say it right, and you
get to put into words something that you're thinking or
you're feeling, which it may be awkward or difficult to

(12:55):
say right. And that's why I think when you go
to CVS and you look at people who are shopping
for cards, so people will spend a long time trying
to find just the right sentiment and just the right
message for the person that they're giving the card to. Right,
And so you've taken that one step further now, so
you've got the message. But also love pops are these

(13:18):
cards that open up and then there's this paper design
that pops up. They're all gorgeous. So where did you
come up with the idea of the inspiration for this?

Speaker 7 (13:27):
My co founder John and I are both originally ship designers,
naval architects, marine engineers, so we learned how to design
everything from a container ship to a sailboat. And when
you design a ship, it's a three D shape and
you kind of slice it into planes and then you
draw where kind of that complex shape intersects with the planes,

(13:48):
and it's called a lines plan. And so years later,
when John and I were in Vietnam, we came across
the style of slice warm kigami pop up art, and
immediately when we saw it, it's like, oh, it's the
exact same way as how you design a ship, and
so it was like our mind was blown, like, this
is amazing.

Speaker 6 (14:07):
We can make anything out of it.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
These are so cool.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
Who designed this? Did you design it?

Speaker 6 (14:12):
I wish?

Speaker 13 (14:13):
No.

Speaker 6 (14:13):
We have an amazing design team.

Speaker 9 (14:15):
You don't design all.

Speaker 7 (14:19):
We do almost one hundred cards a quarter, so we
have an incredible design team. We're split between the US
and Vietnam, and just so much creativity goes into it.
When we first saw it, it was just like, wow,
we can make anything. We could make anything out of this,
but we want to kind of use it as our
own personal stationary. And then we did the very kind

(14:41):
of entrepreneurial journey of all right, so we brought some
back home with us.

Speaker 6 (14:46):
We had them in our backpacks.

Speaker 7 (14:48):
I remember going to a study session with some of
our classmates and just showing them on and and my
friend David Calder, He's like, I need that.

Speaker 6 (14:56):
I'm going to give it to my wife. It's Valentine's DA.

Speaker 7 (14:58):
It was like Valentine's DA couple of weeks from then,
which right about this time, and.

Speaker 6 (15:03):
He gave me five dollars. He's just like, I have
to have that.

Speaker 7 (15:06):
And that was the first sale that we ever made,
and so we started just getting the customer reactions and
we thought it was because we love the engineering that
that's why we were so excited about it. We also
thought like, oh, you know, anyone can make this. And
what we learned was that there was such a reaction,
such a strong reaction. Everyone has someone special in their
life all the time, Everyone has more that they want

(15:29):
to say then they can get out. And when people
saw love Pop, like the light bulb goes off in
your head and you're like, oh, I could give this
to this person. We were just sitting here before the
show deciding who at the radio station.

Speaker 6 (15:41):
We're going to give each cartoon. It's like there's a
special card for everyone.

Speaker 14 (15:44):
Yea.

Speaker 7 (15:45):
And so that was kind of like, you know, we
weren't consumer products folks. We were literally seal toes and
hard hats, and we thought we would do something industrial.
But I also, you know, we knew we'd never been
in an apparel store and see people go like, oh
my god, look at this T shirt like and bring
their friends. And that's what was happening everywhere that we
went with a product, and really that's how we ended
up going from ship design and engineering to ready pop

(16:08):
up art and magical moments.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah, and what blew me away was I said to
Wombie when we met, do you know what all of
your designs are? Because I'm sure you have a huge
team because you've got so many of these is like,
I know eighty five percent? I said, Okay, do you
remember this one?

Speaker 6 (16:22):
It is what Christmas shark?

Speaker 4 (16:24):
Christmas Shark.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
We love that.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
When we came into our daughter because we used to
watch Shirk Nato right and we're like, I was like,
I can't believe somebody.

Speaker 11 (16:33):
Came up with.

Speaker 6 (16:36):
And now we have a brand new shark.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
I accuse you. Passage to profit with Richard Analysabeth your heart.
We're going to take a quick break, but we'll talk
more with Wanbi and later you'll find out the surprising
news about which country files the most patents. We'll be
back right after this commercial break.

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Speaker 2 (18:55):
Now back to passage to profit once again.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Richard and Elizabeth Geerhardt.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Rose, the engineer turned entrepreneur who turned intricate paper art
into a billion dollar mission to create magical moments with
love Pop Wanby. I wanted to ask you a question, Wanmby.
Really is your real name?

Speaker 12 (19:15):
And I understand it as you understand.

Speaker 6 (19:20):
Okay, right, they were born.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
I think you were given a birth.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
So did growing up with such a distinctive name shape
how you think about identity and expression? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (19:31):
Well, first off, there's a secret here.

Speaker 6 (19:34):
It's it's not my given name.

Speaker 7 (19:36):
I was named Womby by both my aunt and my grandmother.

Speaker 6 (19:41):
They both claimed it.

Speaker 7 (19:42):
I believe my aunt, but I always pretended to believe
my grandmother because I looked like a wombat when I
was about two.

Speaker 9 (19:49):
Precious, have you seen a picture of yourself?

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Is that what you looked like?

Speaker 4 (19:59):
The I'm glad you could own that you've grown into
your looks.

Speaker 9 (20:06):
Yeah, you do not look like abat.

Speaker 6 (20:09):
So I love aspires.

Speaker 7 (20:12):
You that Australian marsupial that has a lot of unique features.

Speaker 6 (20:16):
Love the wombat.

Speaker 7 (20:18):
I think it's pretty nice because there's only I think
about four of us, and so when you meet people,
they remember your name because it's it's something that you
don't hear every day.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Wombie Rose. I mean, that's such a cool name.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
Inspired your creativity some to have a creative name like that.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
Well, my dad is was he just passed away.

Speaker 7 (20:39):
He was a crazy, crazy guy, like just really off
the wall kind of person who you know, would dance
in the supermarket and so forth, and so I think
maybe some of that was his insistence that you should
be as silly as you want to be, and there's
no shame in that.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Sounds like an awesome man.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
So it sounds like you were raised in a household
that encouraged creativity.

Speaker 7 (21:00):
Definitely, definitely, And I mean there were a lot of
little things, like you know, I mentioned making art for
Christmas gifts, There was making crazy play sets.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
There was writing a lot.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
So the thing I had to do to improve my
handwriting was write a letter to my grandparents every week
and so again I like accumulated into this binder that
they kept literally every letter that I wrote them.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
That's great. So how did being on Shark Tank affect
your business? And what happened there?

Speaker 7 (21:29):
Shark Tank was really critical for getting the word.

Speaker 6 (21:35):
About love pop out.

Speaker 7 (21:37):
You know, we were really really lucky that we got
the opportunity to be on the show, and then we
were really really lucky that Kevin O'Leary invested in the business.
And when we aired on Shark Tank, we had thirty
three thousand people on the website and we had talked
to some of the other.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
Companies and they helped us.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
Actually there was one in Boston wick a Good Cupcake
Set literally there co founder and CTO came and helped
us get our website ready. But that moment was where
we really got to see that what was working great
at a really small scale actually made sense across the
country and that was really cool.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
So what did you say you had thirty three thousand
before Shark Tank? What happened right after Shark Tank? Did
that go up a lot? Well, yeah, we actually have
it in one of the updates.

Speaker 7 (22:23):
But within the first month after Shark Tank, we did
about a million dollars of sales that were a lot
of that was coming from people finding out about us.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
How did you manage to get all your product done
and grow so fast? That's a tough one, right.

Speaker 7 (22:39):
That's where being you know, the engineering background really helps
we set up from the beginning.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
And this is super unique.

Speaker 7 (22:45):
Most businesses kind of in the consumer product space will
outsource their manufacturing. We've done all of our manufacturing from
that moment in twenty fifteen. I was talking about where
we decided to do it, and that means that we
ship product every day. We decide which skins were making
every day, and that allows us to replenish even in season,
and so we were able to ramp up our production
really quickly, and you know, occasionally you'll see some love

(23:08):
pop product out of stock. Towards the end of a
major season. But for the most part, we're able to
keep inventory lean. We're able to keep a very large
selection of products live because we've been focused on that
efficiency from day one.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Did you ever consider QVC?

Speaker 6 (23:23):
Yeah? I was on QVC eight or nine times last year,
super fun, justin it's a great.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Crew over there.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Has that helped you so a lot?

Speaker 6 (23:37):
Yeah? We do great.

Speaker 7 (23:38):
I mean on QVC we do mostly these twelve packs
of cards for birthday for Christmas.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
I love those. Nice.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
So what's next for Wombie Rose? Now you've you know,
you've got a successful company. You're all over the place.
You brought with you an album that's being considered for
a Grammy. Right, what's the name of the band again?

Speaker 6 (24:01):
Oh that's right? Okay, go, okay go.

Speaker 7 (24:03):
So you might know them from their Treadmill music video.
So they've done like they're amazing artists and if you've
watched some of their other music video, it just gets
crazier and crazier and crazier. And then they're actually nominated
for their music video for the single.

Speaker 6 (24:21):
Love as well.

Speaker 7 (24:22):
So we were really lucky to get connected to Damien,
who's the lead singer of Okay, go through an MIT
professor who does math and geometry and paper art, which
is wild. His name is Eric Domaine. He's super cool,
and we got connected. We started working on this. Took
us at least six months to come up with this design.
We were nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
It's really striking, Elegan.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
We'll put a photo on Instagram too, So we'll put.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
On Instagram photo there too. Yeah, So what's next for you?
I mean, after all of this, what do you see
in your future?

Speaker 7 (24:58):
I really love this intersection of art and engineering and
how we can kind of bring those two to life.
So honestly, when you asked that question, it was just
one billion magical moments. That's the mission of Love Pop.
Our whole goal is to create magical moments. We're at
sixty six million today, so we have quite a bit
of a way to go. And I couldn't even process

(25:21):
what's next after that because I'm so laser focused on
making that happen. But within that, it's really about the
most magic we can pack into a card. And so
you were opening the hogs and kisses and we just
keep amping it up.

Speaker 4 (25:36):
Music and lights, and I'm getting madic effect, getting after
my daughter per Valentine's Day, for sure.

Speaker 7 (25:46):
So we're gonna, like, we're gonna keep innovating, We're going
to keep putting more magic in the card. And then
the second piece is something that you mentioned, which is
it's hard to express what you feel and what you
want to share, and when we can make it easier,
then you can do it more. And like, I just
believe this, We all should send more cards because it

(26:06):
will make us happier and it will make the people
around us happier. And it's really fresh because my dad
just passed away. When I went into his house, there
were the love Hoop cards I've sent him over the
years that were all displayed in different places, and I
collected them and I just thought, you know, we've been
at this for twelve years, and there's at least three
occasions a year, you know, between his birthday, Father's Day,

(26:27):
and Christmas, where I could have sent him a card,
and there weren't thirty six cards. I mean, there was
a handful of them, but it wasn't thirty six. And
I was like, I missed that opportunity, and so how
can we help you make it so that when you
do have that thought you're like, oh, I should do something,
It's like, it's right here, we have that solution for you.
That's really what's what's next is making that real for

(26:50):
everyone all the time and really making it easy.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Wellanbia, this has been great having you on where can
people find you.

Speaker 7 (26:56):
Love pop dot com? So we ship nationwide from love
pop dot com. That's where where all the designs are.
We also have seven retail locations in Boston, New York,
Disney and Florida and California.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Great, well, thank you so much, and we're very excited
about your success. Congratulations so far, and we really appreciate
all of the thoughts and the sentiments and the art
that you're bringing to us. So thank you very much.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
So now it is time for live AI use cases,
business owners round tables. Everybody gets a chance to say
one way they're using AI and then we all get
to have a discussion about it because it's so important
in changing our society so much right now, So Wombi Rose,
what is just one or two ways right now?

Speaker 3 (27:39):
And then you can tell more after we get going.

Speaker 6 (27:41):
Yeah, we can stick with one.

Speaker 7 (27:43):
One of our amazing team members built this tool to
analyze all the demand for cards and then come up
with what we call line plan, So which occasions, which recipients,
which themes, which styles we should folk us on, and
generate every month a list of prioritized designs that we

(28:05):
should work on.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Wow, that is really amazing and really great. And I
use it for research a lot myself and some of
those like business plans and stuff. But that I think
that's just such a great use of it. So, but
we're not done yet, so let's keep going. So Christina Mueller,
what is one way you're using AI for your business?

Speaker 8 (28:23):
Yeah, So I like to use AI to actually help
me see my blind spots when I'm making a proposal
or putting together a strategy for an organization. I like
to have it kind of as a co pilot to
kind of put holes in my logic or help me
see things that maybe I'm not seeing.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Fully, that's really a smart one to I just presented
at podcasts and one of those recommendations was put your
slides through chat Gypt and ask it what questions people
are going to ask?

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Yes, And I got some doozies. I'll tell you.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
Alissa Peninado, what is one way you're using AI in
your business.

Speaker 10 (28:59):
So in my big business, I work with a lot
of people that you know, they're not in the creative space,
so sometimes they just can't conceptualize what's something that I
can see in my mind, Like I can see a
design kind of like that scene from a Beautiful Mind
where the numbers are like floating on the screen, but
other people like cannot do that. So it's been extremely
helpful with me to help people conceptualize, like, Okay, so

(29:22):
like we're going to do this napkin with this plate
and this, and they're like, we're doing all this stuff.
Maybe they live in a completely different country and I
can't physically bring them somewhere to show them, or honestly,
it's never been done because it's a unique design.

Speaker 11 (29:34):
So like I will use it to put together a slight.

Speaker 10 (29:38):
You know kind of image where it's never one hundred percent,
but it will give somebody the idea and they're like,
oh my god, I can conceptualize it now because they
need to physically see these things. Sometimes they can't really,
you know, it's hard to get someone to trust the
process blind, right, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (29:55):
We've done the exact same thing within just creating kind
of proposals for companies. Yeah, when they want to make
a custom card, it's like, Okay, we can really quickly
just show you something and then if you like it,
we can go back and actually design it for real.

Speaker 6 (30:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (30:08):
It needs a lot of handholding with the images for sure,
but it is very, very helpful.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
So, Richard Garhart, what is one way you're using AI
in your Heart law?

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Oh, there's so many ways. Lately, I've been using AI
to try to get a better understanding of their YouTube
channel performance for the law firm. So one of the
things if you're trying to get more views on your
YouTube channel is studying the retention curves. And so I'll
take a screenshot of the retention curve for a particular video,

(30:41):
and I'll have AI analyze it and give me information
about how the viewers are doing with it, and it'll
also give me suggestions about how to make it even better.
And that's something that has been a real help for us.
So yeah, that's how we're using it.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
One way I'm using it.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
I'm using it for this little podcast. Actually, So I'm
taking the transcript and I'm putting it through AI, and
I'm saying, Okay, give me the show notes optimized for
the large language models like chat, GPT, et cetera, so
that when people are looking, they'll see it in the
show notes, and then also give me the optimized content

(31:21):
for the website. So I'm using it as like a
back end tool to optimize for search, and it's telling
me exactly what it wants to find us. So I
think it's really powerful that way. So I know you
had like a million other ways you reach it.

Speaker 11 (31:34):
I think we all have it.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
We all do, so let's just talk about that.

Speaker 7 (31:38):
I think the key thing for us is we encourage
our team to use it everywhere that they possibly can,
but that it can't replace critical thinking. So everything from
a lot of the use cases just mentioned where it's
kind of a discrete task and we can it can
help us with a research or decision making or slides
or analysis.

Speaker 10 (31:57):
I would say a million different ways they tell my
employees the work smarter, not harder, but like exactly what
he said, it's not here to replace entire people and things.
And I started a podcast last year Misjudged and use
it for the same thing with like understanding social media
metrics as well, and maybe like cleaning up an email.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
That's a little tense. Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Try not to use it for eight emails because I'm
scared that I'm just going to get so into that
habit and I really want people to hear me. I mean,
there's other kinds of documents where it doesn't matter so much,
but when I'm I have my own style of writing emails,
and I want the team and my clients they know
that it's coming from me.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Coming up, we're going to figure out which country is
winning the patent race. It's not as easy a question
to answer as you might think. We also have secrets of.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
The entrepreneurial mind.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
So we're going to pick the brains of our guests
here today for what really worked for them. So, listeners,
you are listening to the Passage to Profit Show with
Returnal with your Heart. Our special guest today Wombi Rose,
and we will be right back.

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Speaker 1 (35:03):
Passage to Profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Book shout out to our friends at WMKT in Laurel Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Thanks for listening and if you're new here. Passage to
Profit is a top ranked entrepreneurial podcasts and radio show
heard in thirty eight markets across the country. It's a
place where founders share what really works. And now it's
time for IP news. We're going to be talking about

(35:30):
patent rankings and it's a little bit different than what
you might think China now files roughly one and a
half million patent applications per year. That's more than the
United States, Japan, and South Korea combined, and it's reshaped
how people think about global innovation.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
But as with.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
Most big numbers, the story gets a little more interesting
when you look at where and how those patents are
being filed.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
So it's a little misleading.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Right Well. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization or
wipe OUT, China ranks first globally and total patent filings
with about one point five to one point six million
applications annually. The US comes in second at roughly six
hundred thousand, followed by Japan, South Korea, and Germany.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
So it looks like China is completely dominating, But then
you have to look at their filing patterns. Are they
just doing it within their own country like is and
it's easy to get because they're their own patent so
there's like, yes, you can have it, or are they
trying to get it into the countries where it might
be a little.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Harder Exactly, The majority of Chinese patent applications are filed domestically,
that is, inside of China. By contrasts, the US Japanese
and European companies file a much higher percentage of their
patents internationally, where protection is broader and more expensive.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Right, And the other.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
Thing about the Chinese patents, So in the United States,
and we do a patent your Heart law, when you
do a patent, you try to get as much coverage
as possible, so you try to make the claims as
road as possible. And in China they're like really narrowing
those in so it's really easy to get a patent
if you're just like really claiming something super specific.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
So that's part of the makeup.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
And the other part of it too is that the
Chinese government actually pays for a lot of the patents,
so they have a program now where they are really
trying to incentivize businesses to file patents. They're out for
world domination.

Speaker 4 (37:24):
I guess who isn't these days. But you know, in
the US, the patents are often higher values, so they're
designed more for enforcement or licensing, our global commercialization, so
they're a little.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Broader absolutely, and you know, the US patents are designed
for international and a global system. Patents are a form
of competitive intelligence, and they show where companies are investing
and where the industries are going and what the future
markets are likely to be like. Right.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
So, for instance, like we used to look at Apple
patents to say, okay, what is Apple going to invent next.
I remember years ago they had a patent for a
laptop with a glass cover, and you're thinking, so they
could charge it with solar energy, maybe in the desert
or something. Anyway, for people that are listening to entrepreneurs,
the takeaway is not that one country is winning or not,
but that you have to put things in context, right.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Absolutely, And that's it for Intellectual Property News, And now
it's onto our presenters.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
I am so excited to talk to these presenters. Christina
muller Is.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
She's an expert on burnout and I love the way
that she approaches us. So please, Christina, tell us all
about what you're doing.

Speaker 9 (38:34):
Yes, thank you so much.

Speaker 7 (38:35):
So.

Speaker 8 (38:35):
I am a clinician. My background is in mental health.
I'm a licensed clinical social worker and I've been in
the field for about fifteen years now, and through that
time I had worked with a lot of people individually
who have come to me burnt out, just really having
it with their job, feeling like they're not being seen
they're not being appreciated at their job. And I also

(38:59):
was serving as a consultant throughout much of my career
to organizations facing disruption, facing even traumatic events, and from
those situations, I saw that the missing piece there for
a lot of these folks was connection, feeling connected either
to their workplace, feeling that their leadership wasn't connected to
them to the day to day what they're doing. And

(39:21):
I really saw that there was an opportunity to help
from the top down and get to the point of
the issue, not just dealing with the individuals who are
coming to me. Once these issues have gone and blossomed.

Speaker 4 (39:35):
So what are you telling these workplace owners to do
to make their employees feel more seen? I think is what.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
You're doing right now.

Speaker 8 (39:43):
Yeah, and similarly to what WOMBE has been doing, I
think it's really important to acknowledge people to feel.

Speaker 9 (39:49):
That you see their effort, not just their output.

Speaker 8 (39:53):
And what I like to do is tell people that
there's time in the day to do this, even if
they feel like there isn't. And that's usually one of
the objections that leaders tell me is that this is
really nice, but we have a lot going on and
it's really hard to connect with people in the way
maybe i'd like to. So I actually trademarked a model
called the C model, which has been very helpful for

(40:15):
many leaders. They've told me to remember this process of
seeing people and engaging with them. So the first part
of it is to spot somebody's effort, spot if they
maybe even need a little bit more support in scaffolding
empathizing with the situation, whether it's right now this is
a tough time for all of us, or I see

(40:35):
that there's a lot on your plate, really helping to
increase what we call psychological safety, where people feel that
you're seeing them in that moment and then engaging in
an actionable and meaningful way.

Speaker 9 (40:49):
And that might look different for people.

Speaker 8 (40:50):
It doesn't always look like recognition, but it can look
like scaffolding extra clarity around a situation and really exploring
and being curious about you know, what's hard right now
for you in this and what can we do to
help you do your job best.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
So, if you're a leader, how important is the acknowledgment
and recognition piece compared to maybe some of the other
responsibilities that you have. So, yeah, you know, if I'm
spending a certain amount of time developing business versus time
that I'm spending with my team, which I do think
is really really important. Is there a formula or a

(41:28):
recommendation that you have about how you should be thinking
about these things?

Speaker 8 (41:33):
Well, I know, Gallup put out a survey that you're
three times more likely to be engaged at your workplace
if you feel that you're connected to your leadership and
the work that's being done. So it has effects on productivity,
it has effects on the bottom of line. And what
I tell leaders is that there's these micro moments of
connection and the C model is a vehicle for that essentially,

(41:57):
But there's no fixed number. If you could try to
do it as often as you can, Ideally it would
be daily as much as you can possibly. But if
even you're doing it weekly, I think it's better than
not doing it at all.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
It's hard when everybody's remote, right, So there are a
couple people in the office, but everybody else is remote,
So to connect you have to see them on zoom
or call them or something.

Speaker 13 (42:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, it's not like you can just bump into them
in the hall and say, oh, by the way, that
was an amazing report.

Speaker 9 (42:26):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 8 (42:26):
No, no, but you could send a message talking to
the effort that they've been putting out and noticing them
and seeing them in that way.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
So would an email work? I mean, do you think
that's effective enough?

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (42:36):
I mean I think it depends. I think an email
is better than not acknowledging. Ideally, if it is a
remote only environment, if you could do it over a
zoom where you could see the person and they could
receive that, I think that would be ideal. Even something
like Wombie has created with these beautiful cards, giving somebody
something like that where they could process it and enjoy

(42:59):
it and feel like, you know, they're seeing me.

Speaker 9 (43:02):
And I had.

Speaker 8 (43:03):
Evesdropped on Wandy's conversation earlier with one of his business partners,
and something that stuck out to me, and it's really
apropos to my work, is that his company acknowledges people
on their birthday, since some handwritten birthday cards also acknowledges
when there's a loss or some sort of disruption in
the person's life. And I think that's tremendous and I

(43:26):
wish more companies would do that. So it's really impressive
what you guys are doing.

Speaker 6 (43:31):
Yeah, And I think we have.

Speaker 7 (43:33):
You know, so many great ways to do that with
just kind of what we do as a business and
sending cards to people, but even smaller things that you
can do, we can do.

Speaker 6 (43:41):
We have a very distributed team.

Speaker 7 (43:43):
One of our slack channels internally is Retail Magic and Connection,
and it's for our team members to just shout out
different things that they're seeing, different stories. I also think
there's just like how do you give people a forum
for that to make it super easy?

Speaker 2 (43:57):
And you know, it's interesting that different team memers receive
acknowledgment different ways, and you have to give the acknowledgement
in a way that they can receive it. They can
receive it, and so that requires understanding who you're working
with and what's important, what's going to be meaningful to them.
One of my attorneys would rather have me sit in

(44:18):
his office and talk with him about a case that
he's working on. That kind of dialogue would be in
an acknowledgment from him. Doesn't need to hear me say
good job.

Speaker 8 (44:27):
Right exactly, And it looks different. And some people don't
actually want public recognition either, right, They wouldn't want it
publicly in a slack channel. So yeah, for some people,
Like I said, it's clarity or more support or more
scaffolding and understanding that most people want to do a
good job. So if there is something getting in the way,
not to get furious, but to get curious as to

(44:48):
what that stumbling bock may be.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Very interesting phrase, don't get furious, get curious. Don't get furious,
get curious.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
Yeah, you can use that one.

Speaker 8 (45:03):
Yes, applicable in many situations in and outside the workplace.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
So what is your number one? Like, say you're working
with a company. Do you work with small companies, big companies?

Speaker 16 (45:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (45:13):
I work with small companies, mid sized companies. Yeah, I
work with leaders who are going through transition. I work
around critical incident debriefing, even something as large as mass
shooting in the workplace, which I did this past summer.
So I mean those are very difficult situations for leaders
to lead through.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
So what was the first thing you did? Do You
interview the CEO.

Speaker 8 (45:37):
Not always the CEO, sometimes it's the HR manager, it depends,
but you kind of get a feel for where they
are culturally and what level of disruption they're at, and
then kind of catering the intervention to the leadership style,
right and helping to best support them, also using research
and helping them understand the neurological the neuroscience behind everything

(46:01):
that I'm presenting.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
Are you able to take CEO who's like real nasty
in a jerk and make them be nicer?

Speaker 8 (46:09):
I think it's challenging. You know, workplace mental health. The
workplace affects our mental health, but we also bring our
mental health to the workplace, right, So some people already
have a certain level of that. Yes, so some people
are not going to an intervention with me have a
global change in their personality or how they comport themselves

(46:30):
with others, right, But trying to give them some tools
and strategies to help support them in ways that they
would be able to meaningfully apply. And it's challenging, and
some of those people may need more consultation, more support,
right than others. So kind of assessing that and using
my clinical background which comes in handy, right, I'm not

(46:51):
just a leadership coach. I have clinical background that informs
this work, and I think that can be really helpful.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Are there ways to sort of measure from financial standpoint
the difference and impact that these programs have on companies?
Or is that not so much a focus of your work.

Speaker 9 (47:08):
Yeah, it's not as much a focus of it.

Speaker 8 (47:10):
I mean, it's more qualitative data that people come back
and tell me that it's been helpful in building morale
and helping them in their communications styles to better engage
with folks. But we know from the research that it
does have these impacts, but it is hard to measure
that that particular intervention was, you know, what drove sales
or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Yeah, you can't put Google tags on it.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 8 (47:33):
It's a little harder when it comes to mental health
and these more nebulous things.

Speaker 7 (47:37):
Right, Yeah, there's one thing I'm super curious about, just
like you get to see so much and talk to
so many people in lots of different situations here, and
you mentioned that burnout, which I think is real. It's
like high connectivity, the fact that you know, we have
all of these feeds that are you know, hijacking our
attention and really creating this different world. What about for

(48:01):
rather than kind of the leadership of the company. But
if you're listening to this and you're experiencing burnout at
your workplace, and maybe there's like a mixed level of
recognition that I'm getting What advice do you have for
me in that situation.

Speaker 8 (48:14):
Well, a lot of companies also have an employee assistance program,
which is a mental health service that is free for
employees to use and get support around these issues. And
I actually worked in that world for a number of
years and that was part of what inspired me to
go to the source, essentially because people were symptomatic based

(48:34):
on what I perceived as their environment many times and
what was happening at work.

Speaker 9 (48:39):
So you know, that's something.

Speaker 8 (48:41):
I would always suggest if you do have an EAP,
and most small, mid size, large organizations do, but it
is an underutilized benefit. Unfortunately, it's about twelve percent of
folks actually are utilizing it.

Speaker 9 (48:53):
We need to get the word out more about it.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
One hundred percent. Mey to utilize it.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
Yeah, yeah, everybody always has yes, even when.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
You own a business.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
It's hard because you feel like you're doing a lot
for your employees and they're just like I want.

Speaker 13 (49:09):
More sometimes Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
I think that's a legitimate question. Is like if there
needs to be a right balance, right, I mean showing appreciation.
I think that's just a good human behavior. I think
we should all do that. This is a matter of course. Yeah,
but there also has to be a balance between structure
and doing all the other things that are necessary to

(49:38):
get alignment so that the business succeeds and we can
all pay our bills. Right, So how do you talk
to that balance? How do you incorporate?

Speaker 8 (49:47):
And I think it is a challenging balance, and I
think that's part of the work, right is helping people
find the ways that they can do it that are feasible.
Right in some industries it's less so than others. So
not taking an all or nothing approach to it, but
trying to implement these things as best you.

Speaker 9 (50:05):
Can and getting your own support.

Speaker 8 (50:07):
I mean, I'm a big proponent if you know a
leader is feeling you know, stressed out, burnt out, disregulated.
You know, you can't give from an empty well too, right,
So noticing when you're experiencing that that might be assigned
to get more support.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
That's a great point. If a leader listening today wants
to make one meaningful shift that would improve trust and
while being in their workplace, what would that be.

Speaker 8 (50:33):
I would say to allow mistakes to happen and to
see them as learning opportunities. I think that's something that
I hear about from folks where they feel it's unsafe
sometimes to speak up or to make a mistake without
feeling like they're going to really be coming down on
So seeing it as a learning opportunity and again getting

(50:53):
curious if somebody is really struggling in their job, if
they were hired and they looked great, you know initially,
and now that they're not performing, to really try to
understand what could be getting in the way.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
That's really important. So how can people find you.

Speaker 8 (51:09):
At Christina Muller dot com and also mind your Workplace dot.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Co, Passage to Profit with Richard Analyst your Heart.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
So now we are onto our wedding planner and events too,
and events Alica Peinado really interested to hear what you
have to say. What makes your service a little bit different,
how you're thriving with your wedding planning business, what you've
done right.

Speaker 10 (51:32):
My business is probably very different from all of you guys,
is maybe a little bit maybe a little bit more
aligned because it's a service. But this is truly an
industry where it is personality driven and like well, obviously
people want to know you do beautiful, amazing stuff, but
they're giving you you know, in the tri State and beyond,
hundreds of thousands of dollars to play with. So, you know,

(51:53):
I always tell people when they reach out, I'm like,
you've got to like the person you work with, that's
the first thing. And I think that I am a
little bit of a feral creature. I know a lot
of other planners all over the world, and every time
they meet me, they're like, whoa, Like, where did you
come from? You're kind of weird and wild.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
Where do you live.

Speaker 11 (52:14):
I'm in New York City. Yeah, very New York City.

Speaker 10 (52:20):
I've been here for you know, fifteen years so or
actually sorry, sixteen years.

Speaker 11 (52:24):
I started my business fifteen years ago.

Speaker 10 (52:26):
But yeah, I mean I've just kind of like broken
into this industry that is a little bit more like
buttoned up, and it's you know, I kind of made
it a little bit more fun and creative. And I
do think that I also am like very honest. I'm
super super honest. So I have this like extremely kind
of informal way of making people feel comfortable, but also
like that's not a great look.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
That's what you want.

Speaker 11 (52:50):
But that's.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
So I have one girlfriend that i'd love to go
close shopping with yes. And the reason is because she
can say yeah, I don't think so, and I trust
her and she doesn't say it in a mean way.
But that's that's a real tight rope to watch.

Speaker 10 (53:07):
Oh it's hard, and you know, like even with my employees,
like I have to you know, I'm very aware of
who I am, which I think I came to that,
you know, understanding very young, because when you start a
business and you're like twenty two years old, you're just
like in this big league where you want people to
take you seriously, but you're barely formed as an adult.

(53:29):
My frontal lobe wasn't fully developed, so you have to
kind of just really lean into exactly who you are.
And just kind of what I've learned is I'm extremely
good at making people feel comfortable in very very emotional moments,
which is so funny because I can't talk to Amazon
customers ever as to save my life and be a calm,
collected person, but like I can.

Speaker 13 (53:50):
So you know what it feels, less of course, like
the furious, you know, like curious, like I need that
in my life, like this morning, get furious, yes exactly,
But you know, so I make people feel like comfortable
and happy in these very tense moments.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Well it's not only just that. Yeah, it's organizing everything
and pulling it together and coming you know, most of
us aren't experts at creating amazing events. It takes a
lot of time and experience to do that. And then
that takes the burden off the people who would have
had to plan it anyway, right, And that's like that's

(54:26):
half of it.

Speaker 10 (54:27):
Oh, I know people like, well, you know, I did
like this you know thing one hundred years ago at
Medicine Square Garden. It was a Biggie sponsorship con and
people are like, oh.

Speaker 11 (54:36):
Can you handle this.

Speaker 10 (54:36):
I'm like, I'm somebody who suffers with extreme OCD and ADHD,
and it's like kind of insane that I can work
in the details because it's not really where I'm meant
to be, But like I can do these things with
my eyes closed, which is a lot of just yeah,
you have to train yourself, Like that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
Yeah, you know, because some people do have talents for
these things, and it sounds like you have the talent
because like, yeah, we had somebody design our living room
years ago and it's like I never would have put
that with that but it looks really good, Like I
can never do that in a million years. That's not
well having keep designing the cards, that's not me.

Speaker 13 (55:13):
Well.

Speaker 10 (55:13):
So people walk in off the street and they hire
me to do some of the most intimate things in
their life so far, and it's like you have to
trust me, which you know, I hate to.

Speaker 11 (55:23):
Be like using the word manipulative, because they don't.

Speaker 10 (55:25):
I think it's more persuasive where it's like you have
to kind of curate this like trust and you know, like, oh,
just I can do this and it will look stunning,
but you kind of have to trust in the process,
which is why AI has been like a little transformative
for this, because it's like people don't know.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
I'll just state the obvious. I mean, a wedding is
the most significant event in a person's life, and there's
so much attention to the bride and groom and people.
If you go to a dinner party, people might say, oh,
I didn't like the r dervs, but yeah, if they'll
say did you see that dress? You know, and it's

(56:00):
there's a lot more emotion and attention.

Speaker 10 (56:03):
Around you're ripping everything apart. Okay, as somebody who attends weddings,
like you don't want to see me coming.

Speaker 11 (56:08):
They're ripping everything apart.

Speaker 10 (56:11):
But like, also you know it's the only time in
your life when every single person you love is in
the room.

Speaker 11 (56:18):
So you know there's a.

Speaker 10 (56:19):
Lot of people that can't handle that. So you have
to also know who your client is. Like a lot
of introverts don't actually do well on that day. So
I'm sitting there looking at them with my team, I'm like,
we need maybe you go hang in the bathroom and
just like take ten minutes, like go hang in the
bridal suite.

Speaker 11 (56:35):
Go here, I'll bring some more dirvs.

Speaker 10 (56:37):
Like you kind of have to make everybody feel comfortable,
but you have to notice the nuances of like every
single like person in a five hundred person room very intense.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
I have to ask, is what.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Are people spending on well, you're doing New York this
does it go like from one hundred thousand to a million,
or like what are they spending on days?

Speaker 10 (56:56):
It's really it's crazy to say this because people hear
this in other places, says like very rural areas, it
is low six figures to have like one hundred and
fifty person or one hundred person wedding in New York.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
What does it go up to.

Speaker 11 (57:10):
I've done like million dollar situations.

Speaker 4 (57:13):
You've done million dollar weddings in New York?

Speaker 3 (57:15):
Yeah, what does that look like?

Speaker 11 (57:17):
I'm just stunning.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
Are they on the rooftop of the barrio?

Speaker 10 (57:23):
I mean, honestly, don't get me started on that one.
I was looking at the carpet, like, who chose that
it was?

Speaker 4 (57:33):
That's what you can do on your pod start another
podcast critiquing I started the podcast actually, it's called Misjudge,
and I started it actually from this because, like I
one of my degrees was in psychology, and I feel
like I've utilized that so much in this job because I'm.

Speaker 10 (57:51):
Always have I've had to like truly talk some people
down the aisle or like not talk families out of
like you know, parents get involved there.

Speaker 11 (57:59):
Maybe with the I've had to talk people off.

Speaker 10 (58:01):
But yeah, like I've seen a lot of relationships and
all their dynamics, and.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
You know, weddings can be like so are They are
incredibly important. But I remember a young insurance salesman coming
into the office and he started talking about his wedding
and they were going to spend one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars on the wedding and it was going to end.
But he's like, I'm just starting out. We have no money.

(58:27):
We're going to have to borrow, you know, most of
the money. We're not going to be able to buy
a house. And I thought about that, and I'm like,
I understand it, but I'm also like, you know, yeah,
maybe a smaller wedding might be a better thing and
not go into debt and get a better financial start.

(58:47):
But I mean, it was so important to him that
that's what he wanted to do, and who am I
to say you shouldn't do that?

Speaker 10 (58:53):
No, I agree because what I always tell people Sometimes
people come to me and they're like, well, what should
our budget be? I'm like, you have to figure it out,
like what you would like to spend, because like, I'm
not in the business of telling people they need to
be bankrupt to get wedding to get married. You could
do it at city all.

Speaker 4 (59:10):
But I want to go back to one thing. What
is your podcast's name and what it's about.

Speaker 10 (59:15):
It's called Misjudged Podcast with two s's. It's about dating,
relationships and all of the things in your millennial age bracket.
Because I think millennials are really honestly going through it
and they're actually midlife. Dating has completely changed, and being
in successful relationships is kind of like nuanced, especially with technology,
just kind of taking the reins on that.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
So if somebody's planning a wedding or an event now,
and maybe they decide that they want to try to
do it themselves, what kind of advice would you give them?

Speaker 10 (59:46):
Okay, well, if you have the budget, my number one
would be higher a planner. But you know, if you don't,
my number two is don't trust chef GBT to plan
your wedding. I can't stress that one enough. It's a
great research fool and that's kind of where it ends.
But I would say, just really be honest with what
you can afford. Don't bankrupt yourself for to compete with

(01:00:07):
people on Instagram that you don't even know which people
are doing right now, unfortunately.

Speaker 7 (01:00:12):
I think that's like such an important message. You mentioned
a couple of times of like you're just you, be you, Yeah,
and I feel like that's been a theme today because
you know, it's so easy to see everything else that's
out there, but it's it might not be you, And
so that just sounds like such a great.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Oh good, and if it's on social it might be AI.

Speaker 8 (01:00:36):
I mean that is the next thing, right, AI influencers
were not even real settings that never even happened.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Well, so I did marry their AI, right I did.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
We're wondering about that.

Speaker 8 (01:00:47):
That's the rule I think I saw in Japan, right,
that story.

Speaker 9 (01:00:53):
I did see that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
So if somebody hires a planner, how do your fees work?
Do you like establish a budget and say, okay, my budget,
then I'm going to be ten or fifteen percent then
of what you're spending on the cake and all the stuff.
Is that how typically it works?

Speaker 11 (01:01:08):
Or you know it's so situation based.

Speaker 10 (01:01:11):
I started my business being like I'm going to do
fixed fee because everybody in it was percentage based. And
I learned extremely quickly why they're percentage based because you
can absolutely get abused very easily. So it really depends
on the scenario. You know, like a conference that's kind
of cut and dry is going to be extremely different
than a million dollar wedding, Like we're one hundred percent

(01:01:32):
having to do a fee because it's a full scale production.

Speaker 11 (01:01:35):
You're working with like forty vendors.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Sometimes well, the I mean, the bigger your budget, the
more things you're going to be doing right, and the
more time you're going to spend.

Speaker 10 (01:01:43):
And by the way, I don't like to like be
you know, you know, like I did this in the
beginning because I learned, you know, I walked so other
people could run. But like, if you undercut your fee,
you start to kind of feel resentful to that client,
and then you start drawing all this like red tape
when they start asking things that are like you're like
this out of the scope, you know, like and it's
not a good way to be. You know, I want

(01:02:05):
to always just be able to say yes. I at
my coreum of people pleaser.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
Well, I think that's a really good point.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
If you feel like somebody has like undercut you on
price or like try, then you just don't feel the
same loyalty to them as a client, right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
And you can it's not going to be as good
an experience for them. So why not pay an extra
five thousand dollars and get what you want and everybody's happy,
rather than you know, trying to save a percentage of it.
You know, if it's if it's one day or it's
a big event. I think that makes sense.

Speaker 10 (01:02:38):
Well, I learned extremely quickly that the smallest client sometimes
will take the most of your time. Yes, So like
I would, I had to learn really hard, like sometimes
it's better to have maybe less business, but better clients,
which took me a very long time.

Speaker 11 (01:02:57):
To do because I just always wanted to say yes
to everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Well, when you're in business for yourself, yeah, I mean
you never know when your next good client is going
to come along, and so yeah, you know, sometimes you
think something is better than nothing. But after you've been
at it for a while and you build a reputation,
then you can be a little more selective.

Speaker 11 (01:03:16):
Yeah, exactly your discernment.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
So how do people find you?

Speaker 10 (01:03:20):
Alanauto dot com, Ali Nato dot com or at the
Misjudged podcast, everywhere you find it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
Well, it is time for a break, so listeners who
are listening to the Passage to Profit Show with Richard,
Elizabeth Garhart and our special guest wanmbie Ros will be
right back.

Speaker 15 (01:03:37):
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Eight hundred two seven seven one four three two, eight
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Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
It's Passage to Profit. Now it's time for Noah's retrospective.

Speaker 4 (01:04:42):
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 16 (01:04:51):
I think I was about five years old when the
bank in our neighborhood suddenly sported this great new device
out front, an automatic teller machine. If you need a
care or transaction, you no longer needed.

Speaker 6 (01:05:02):
A person for it.

Speaker 16 (01:05:03):
Before long, we weren't picking up the phone and calling
people anymore. We were leaving recorded messages for people that
were themselves recorded. Nowadays, those messages we hear aren't necessarily
recorded by actual people anymore. Websites nowadays will actually ask
you to verify that you're human. Sometimes I wonder how

(01:05:24):
I'd properly respond if I warn't. I grew up in
a world that couldn't get immersed fast enough in computer technology.
Now that we've seen the promised land, we're kind of
looking for the exits. Maybe a little more human presence
and control might not be such a bad thing. What
do you say, one day we all put our smart
electronics in a room to deal with each other, and

(01:05:45):
then all of us humans can meet up outside and
do the same.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Now more with Richard and Elizabeth Passage to Profit and.

Speaker 4 (01:05:54):
Now it is time for Secrets of the entrepreneurial mind,
and we are going to start with WOMBI rose with
lovepop dot com. What is a secret you can share
with our audience?

Speaker 7 (01:06:06):
Well, one little, tiny, fun secret is that the first
card that I ever designed, we talked about ship design.
It's the Young America Clippership, which was designed by William Webb,
who founded the School of Naval Architecture Marine Engineering. My
co founder and I went to and I actually got
a lines plan from that ship and used it to

(01:06:27):
design the card.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
That is a very cool secret. I love that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
Christina Mueller with Christinamueller dot com. What is a secret
you can share?

Speaker 8 (01:06:37):
I think mindset is everything, and I think being an
entrepreneur you have to have thick skin. So I say,
get excited about the nose, be curious about how many
nos it will take till you get that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Yes.

Speaker 8 (01:06:48):
Before I started my business, I really focused on my
thought leadership and wanting to target companies organizations that would
be reading certain publications. So I didn't have PR. I
did it myself. I was pitching to Newsweek, to Forbes, Fortune,
and I didn't get my first interview till like fifteen
in and then Forbes and Fortune came like one hundred in.

(01:07:09):
You know, it was a long ways before I got
recognized and really was able to get the word out.
And what really motivated me was because I felt like
people needed to hear what I had to say about
workplace mental health. So get excited about the nose. If
I would have given up at like five or ten,
I wouldn't have had the platform that I was able

(01:07:29):
to amass, thankfully, and that also helped to drive demand
to my business once I did secure that and start building.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
That's a great secret.

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
Yeah, So alyssa Pitchinado with alenado dot Com, this one
took me a really long time, Like I said, to
lean into but I think just being authentically who you
are and stop trying to fit a mold, because like
I was really trying to kind of like especially when
I was in corporate, I was really trying to be

(01:07:58):
with the boys and like, you know, make myself look
a certain way, be a certain way to like kind
of have.

Speaker 11 (01:08:03):
People take me a certain way.

Speaker 10 (01:08:05):
But the second I stopped doing that, I was just like,
this is just who I am and just being authentically
like myself. I felt like my life kind of changed
and my business definitely changed for the better. So you're
not meant for everyone, and you have to have a
level of self awareness of who you are and that
will help.

Speaker 3 (01:08:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
So Richard Gearhart with your heart law, what is the
secret you can share?

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
Well, I'm going to go back to a technique that
was taught to me by Dan Sullivan who is a
business coach. He runs a program called Strategic Coach, and
it was really helpful for me. One of the things
he talks about is the gap and if something goes wrong,
if you miss an opportunity, then you fall into the gap, right,

(01:08:53):
which is kind of a low spot. And he always
says that you need to take a step backward and
reframe and go back to all of the things that
you have accomplished and all of the things that you've done,
and a lot of times that will get you out
of the gap and back into where you need to be.
And he says that you know, putting it into perspective.

(01:09:14):
Usually if you're in the gap and you compare it
to everything that you've accomplished so far, it's really a
very small, kind of insignificant thing. And so just having
that perspective, I think is important. And that's my secret
for this week.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
Yeah, and I'm Elizabeth gearheartt with Gear Media Studios and
I have been using the large language models Chat, GPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google,
Gemini a lot, doing a lot of research. So they're
top of mind for me. And my secret is, don't
just use one, use them all to tell you what's
right and what's wrong, and don't trust what they say

(01:09:49):
the first time. And one funny thing was I asked
each of them, I said, which one of these has
the highest accuracy? And they all gave me a different answer.
And what answer do.

Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
You think they gave?

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
They cited themselves first. Well, these are commercial products, don't
forget right. People are trying to make money off of
this stuff. Well that's it for us, Thanks for listening.
Passage to Profit is a Gear Media Studios production at
the nationally syndicated radio show appearing on forty stations across

(01:10:25):
the US. 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 two
P team, our producer Noah Fleischman and our program coordinator
Alisha Morrissey, and our social media powerhouse Carolina Tabares. Look

(01:10:46):
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 to be correct. Never take a legal
step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearheart Law

(01:11:06):
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 (01:11:17):
The proceeding was a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed.