[00:00:00] Speaker A: What separates entrepreneurs who succeed from those who stall? Is it persistence, performance, or the ability to connect?
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Ramping up your business?
[00:00:12] Speaker C: The time is near.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: You've given it heart, now get it in gear.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: I'm Richard Gearhart.
[00:00:23] Speaker D: I'm Elizabeth Gearhart and we're your host.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Welcome to the Passage to Profit show, the Road to Entrepreneurship podcast.
[00:00:30] Speaker D: Okay, I just have this to say.
Not a foul. Come on. We're recording this on June 10, 2026, in New York City. The Knicks and the spurs played last night. And you could have heard the howls from New York all the way across the country to the coast when the big guy, giant guy took a little less giant guy. So this was the spurs giant guy took a little less giant guy on the Knicks by the head and neck and threw him to the ground on the basketball court in the middle of the game. And it was not a foul.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Well, it was not like the biggest flagrant foul. It was. I think they still ruled it was a technical foul. But, I mean, you couldn't even get away with that on a playground, right?
[00:01:16] Speaker D: Well, the New York Post had a big page on it, so that is, like, the biggest news in New York.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: I know the New York stations are just having a field day with this. They're whooping up the adrenaline and the excitement for the fans, and I think we want our revenge. So look out, San Antonio Spurs.
[00:01:35] Speaker D: Yeah, but please don't take the revenge out on their fans.
Okay, what's yours?
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Well, today we're going to talk a little bit about commencement speakers today. You know, it's graduation season, and commencements are supposed to be happy, celebratory times. But everybody's been talking about AI and all the commencement speakers are getting booed because the kids are worried about their jobs. There's a lot of AI anxiety out there right now. And the commencement speakers are basically telling them that, you know, this is a different world and it's going to be tough and you have to adapt. And they're getting booed for it. And like, one commencement speaker even said after getting booed, well, you have to deal with it, you know, which is not like the uplifting message that you expect from commencement speaking. And I don't actually honestly remember any of the commencement speeches I've heard. I mean, you kind of remember the tone and the feel of it. But I don't, like, follow my high school commencement speaker's advice in my daily life. Right. So why not just make it a positive Experience for kids.
[00:02:43] Speaker D: Well, moving on.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Well, that was a little bit of a rant, I guess, but I will say there was a comedian out there who said, okay, your generation is responsible for killing AI. And he got cheers for that.
[00:02:55] Speaker D: Yeah, well, the robots are coming after him.
But honestly, moving on, I saw something today on our excruciatingly long car ride from the train station to Midtown. I saw Dunkin Donuts, but it wasn't a normal one. It was a Barbie Dunkin Dream house.
I know, right? Wow, that's brand new.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: How did they ever get together on that? I just want to know who called who. But what about, did Dunkin Donuts call Barbie or did Barbie call Dunkin Donuts?
[00:03:24] Speaker D: But what about great brand collaboration, right? Yeah, it's right in the middle of mid. Well on the way to Midtown and I could, you know, kind of close to the train station so I could see people coming with their daughters and going, oh, let's go there. So I thought that was pretty cool. I hadn't seen that brand collaboration before.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll have to go in there. And I guess is Barbie serving the donuts or do you get a Barbie donut or kind of.
[00:03:47] Speaker D: What's the. I think it's probably pink inside.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Probably.
Well, speaking of bizarre food trends, we're going to be talking about some bizarre food Trends now for 2026. Has anybody here heard of the two ingredient Japanese cheesecake?
So this is a biscuit that's ground up and mixed with Greek yogurt and put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
And this theoretically tastes like cheesecake. I haven't tried it yet, but I promise by the next show I will. I'm just not confident that this tastes like cheesecake at all.
[00:04:25] Speaker D: How can you call it cheesecake if there's no cheese and there's no cake
[00:04:28] Speaker E: and then there's no chocolate, like meatless meatballs or something.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: So that's weird food number one. The next one is caviar on everything.
I don't know if you've been seeing that in social media, but apparently McDonald's in February gave out packets of caviar to be used with their Chicken McNuggets.
[00:04:53] Speaker D: Like a two year old loves caviar.
[00:04:55] Speaker F: Right?
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Goes well with the mustard sauce, I'm sure.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: So, I mean, I'm just like, I'm kind of flabbergasted. But you have people now putting caviar on everything, like putting caviar on hot dogs, like Wagyu hot dogs and charging like $100 a hot dog for it. So this is. And you know, caviar is expensive. Why waste it on other crummy junk food? You know, it's like caviar and potato chips or maybe caviar and Barbie donuts. Who knows?
[00:05:26] Speaker D: You know, it's replaced truffle as the latest trend, I guess.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: I guess so. And the last one is, you've all heard of sushi pops, right?
No, no. Sushi pops. So there's a very creative sushi restaurant in New York City called Suka Sushi. And you know, when you get sushi, you go to a regular restaurant, you order it, they put it on a plate, and they slice it up for you. Well, these guys have turned it into a sushi pop. So they put the sushi in a tube, right? And then you push on the bottom of the tube and the sushi comes out the top and you eat it like an ice cream cone, right? So you can walk down the streets of New York and eat your sushi while you're walking.
You don't have to sit. So anyway, I thought I was trying.
[00:06:10] Speaker D: I might try that one.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: You know, I just wonder how you do the soy sauce and push at the same time.
[00:06:15] Speaker E: You get wasabi on there.
That's the good part.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Well, today we have an amazing show, a great guest, Craig Smith, who's been on over 4,500 TV appearances. And that's going to be very exciting. We look forward to hearing from him.
[00:06:30] Speaker D: And then we have two amazing entrepreneurs. We have Mr. Fit. No, that's not his name. We have Chris Ryan, who's one of America's top 10 trainers. And I think his angle on this is pretty cool. It's like entrepreneurs. You have to have your body strong to have your mind strong and succeed. And I think that's true. So we're going to hear everything he has to say. And then we have Jeff Seibel, who's a financial planner and real estate veteran, but he's got a new twist on real estate, and he's got some new products for real estate agents, too. Really creative mind there. So I can hardly wait to hear what he has to say, too.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: But before we get to our distinguished guests, coming up soon, we'll have the very interesting sporting event that brings big crowds and big business and some very interesting intellectual property issues. But first, it's time for your new business journey. And the question is, 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? So Craig Smith.
[00:07:33] Speaker C: Oh, great question. I love the way you started off with this.
Me in my space of live broadcast selling.
And what I learned, the lesson I learned was it doesn't matter what I feel about a product, it's about them. And that lesson was so valuable for me. I get questions all the time. People say I see some of the strangest things on qvc.
Do you believe in all those products? And my honest answer is, no, I don't. But it's not about me. It's about serving my customer, serving the audience. And once I made that switch, that was transformative for my career.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: It's really interesting that you would bring that up because as an IP attorney, people will ask me, well, what do you think of my product?
And I'll say, well, you know, what's more important is what do you think about the product? I'll go into a Target, and there's a lot of stuff there that's cool, but I wouldn't buy it. Yes, but obviously somebody is right. And so you shouldn't put too much into my opinion.
[00:08:28] Speaker C: There's a lid for every pot.
That's really what it's all about. A product is out there for somebody. It just might not be you.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, Chris Ryan, welcome to the show.
[00:08:38] Speaker E: Thank you for having me.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: What decision did you make that changed the trajectory of your business?
[00:08:43] Speaker E: It wasn't really something that I made. Covid happened, and I think that training people in person that I was always geared in, and most trainers, 99% of the trainers, thought that's the only way to train somebody effectively. And Covid happened. World shut down. You had to figure out ways around that. And so the ability to use multimedia services to train people all over the world and all over, you know, to be their best selves, I think that that was absolutely astounding. So some positives came out of, you know, the new world, the post Covid world, especially in the fitness world, where people realized they didn't necessarily have to go to a gym and drive a half hour and, you know, shower at the gym and all that and really think about trying to stay as consistent as possible and be as efficient as possible in that consistent pattern for their health and longevity.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. You know, for all of the challenges and the difficulties that we faced during the COVID crisis, probably a few good things came out of it. One of them is this ability to work virtually now, which I don't think we fully experienced in the past. So thank you very much for sharing, Jeff.
[00:09:50] Speaker G: Yeah, it's funny because what recently what changed the trajectory of my practice was a woman 40 years ago, coming into my office as a young financial planner that thought she had enough money to live. And I had explained to her that she only had two years of savings and it would only last two years. So now, 40 years later, I'm looking at this and I'm talking to clients, and most clients don't even know their situation. And it's a heartbreak. It's really a heartbreak. So what changed this? And I spoke to my wife, and she says, yeah, go ahead. Let's change your practice. Let's create the Wealth Agent Institute and help people be able to retire, not outlive their money in retirement. Explain to them basic financial planning.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: I love that. Because trying to figure out how much money you have and how much money you'll need.
[00:10:38] Speaker G: Right.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: It's not necessarily easy.
[00:10:40] Speaker G: No, not at all.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: And it's great that you're out there to help, Elizabeth.
[00:10:44] Speaker D: I'm glad you're out there to help because Richard always, like, once a month is like, what are we going to do for retirement? I'm like, we have no idea.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Anyway, just keep working.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: That's not retirement plan.
[00:10:53] Speaker E: That's how it is, by the way.
[00:10:54] Speaker G: At least you have a plan.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: We got a guy in the room who can help you out, by the way.
[00:10:58] Speaker G: And I can.
[00:10:59] Speaker D: Yeah. So for me, I was talking about
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Chris, by the way, to work out.
[00:11:03] Speaker D: Well, I need his help, too. I need a lot of help.
[00:11:06] Speaker E: Let's just say you line up a great show today.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: We'll all be better for it, I think.
[00:11:12] Speaker D: For me, I wanted to say getting into AI, but it really started with the whole podcasting world. I mean, I was into AI before podcasting, but podcasters use AI like people. People eat bread and butter like that. It is part of podcasting. And so that got me deeper and deeper into AI. Now I've kind of pivoted from podcasting to AI consulting for marketing, like how to make your business more visible online to the AI answer engines, which I've been doing for Gearhart Law, like, Heavy Duty for the last two years.
And our formula has worked. Of course, this show helps a lot more than you would think, being on a radio show on a big name like iHeart, the answer engines. Love that, Richard.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: I know.
[00:11:53] Speaker D: Anyway, so I think that whole.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: You told me about that once a month, too.
[00:11:59] Speaker D: Well, we have a lot of people asking us why we're doing it, but we know why we're doing it. But I think that kind of mind shift to, yeah, let's go to the broader AI and help people with their marketing. With AI, let's take it outside of the Gearhart law boundaries and try to help other small businesses not at their law firms though, because that'd be a conflict interest. But other small businesses get to be the answer on ChatGPT and Claude and
[00:12:22] Speaker A: well, for my transformational I changed my personal schedule. So I used to get up at like 7 or 8. Now I get up at 5:30am I have uninterrupted time to concentrate on things that I need to concentrate on, get my workout in. It's made a huge difference in my, you know, productivity. And course also means I go to bed at 8:30 which means I miss all the fun. So I'm more productive but have less fun. So that's the trade.
Well, anyway, that was great. Thanks everyone. And now it is time for our guest interview. Craig Smith, what if everything you've been told about sales, marketing and algorithms is backwards? Well, today's guest, Craig Smith has helped sell over $1 billion worth of products during 4,500 live TV broadcasts. And he says that customers don't buy because of AI data or perfect pitches. They buy because of stories. And he's here to explain why human connection may be the ultimate competitive advantage of the artificial age. So thank you for joining us, Craig.
[00:13:35] Speaker C: Great to be here. I love that intro.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Well, I'm dying to know about how you take human connection and create that when you're on a TV screen miles away from the potential consumer. So talk about human connection and why that matters.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm a passionate believer of connection is so much more valuable than a sale. And the great thing about the partners that I work with, I work in live television selling. I'm a professional speaker. I train people to stand in front of the room so they can speak confidently. Is the world of live shopping has taught me so much. Because if you think about it, you're watching something, whether it's on a channel like QVC, which has been around for 40 years, or an app like TikTok, you are selling something and presenting something to someone that they cannot touch it, they cannot smell it, so they cannot taste it. If it's a food item, if it's an electronics, you probably don't want to taste it. But the fact that you have to connect with those people and that's what people are really looking for. Especially now coming out of the COVID pandemic with we think we're more connected than ever with our apps and our social media and all those things. But connection really comes down from one person to another person. And if you can build a connection, you can build a community. You build a community, people come back to you again and again and again. I always say anybody can sell one product to one person one time.
How do you get back to them again? How do you actually connect with them? So it's not a sales transactional relationship, it's something much more.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Do you feel different? People connect differently?
[00:15:08] Speaker C: I think we all do. And I think we have to search for where that connection actually takes place. I mean, when I work with brands, I always tell them we need to have three things that are non negotiables for me, our message, that needs to be clear, it needs to be real, and it needs to be repeatable. And by clear, I mean you understand what I'm talking about. And I've gone through this in my own career where I've had the unclear message. It doesn't matter how great the product is or the service that you're offering, if you can't be clear, your customer doesn't understand you. In the era of AI, which I absolutely love, we sense when it's not real and it bothers us. We feel like we're being cheated. So when you're real, you believe me. So I'm not just an AI bot that's fake generating something. And the repeatable means that you remember me. And that I think is equally. All three of those pillars are equally important.
[00:15:58] Speaker D: Yeah. I don't think AI jokes are very good.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Any jokes about AI or no jokes
[00:16:04] Speaker D: that AI makes up itself, I don't think they're very good.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: Well, I'm curious because I feel this and I use AI as a writing tool all the time. It helps me. I can't tell you how much time it saves because I would write something and just say, gosh, I know that's not right, but I don't know the words to fix it. So I use AI and it helps me tremendously. But when I see somebody that I know well and they post something on social media and I can just tell that they just threw three prompts into chat or Claude and this is what was spit out, I'm kind of like,
[00:16:36] Speaker A: eh, what do you think? Yeah, you know, it's like, we know what Claude thinks, but what do you think?
[00:16:41] Speaker D: But that's called AI Slop.
So I don't know how many people have heard the term AI Slop. Have you guys heard that?
[00:16:47] Speaker C: There's a lot of it out there.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:48] Speaker D: Yeah. And the Problem with. Well, we'll get into the AI segment later. But the problem is it uses way too many words and most of them are like word salad. They're garbage, right?
[00:16:58] Speaker A: Yes, it's really true. I was reading some articles in preparation for the show and I was like, AI could never write this.
[00:17:06] Speaker D: There definitely is a human element missing. Because remember, and I tell people this, I know this is hard to believe, but I have to keep thinking it. AI is still ones and zeros. It's binary code. It started with binary code back when, way back when. And now they've layered it and made neural networks. But it's still ones and zeros. It's still off and on.
It's amazing. It is. But I wanted to ask you about qvc.
[00:17:30] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:17:31] Speaker D: So I watched one of your QVC episodes. I think I might have watched your trailer. You are hilarious, by the way.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: I'm coming back next week for this podcast knocking me out of here.
[00:17:42] Speaker D: You're so quick witted and I think that some QVC people aren't.
And I think you keep people's attention by being that way. So if somebody had a product they want to sell, could they choose you as their QVC spokesperson?
[00:17:56] Speaker C: Yes, they could. And let me start off by saying thank you. I appreciate all the nice things you're saying. But yeah, so I work in consumer electronics, so we have different categories. So for multiple reasons, I would not be selling women's fashion or a beauty product or something like that. But I, I partner with a variety of consumer electronic brands. So many that, you know, like Samsung and Google, a lot of others you never heard of, but I'm one of several people that do what I do. And yes, we're all trying to get more and more work.
[00:18:24] Speaker D: So the people that you're training to speak. I don't know if you're training people to be on QVC as hosts, but are you training them to kind of have that quick wit or is that just so natural, like naturally, given that it's hard to train.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: Yeah. For something like that. I train people more to be themselves than to be real. I mean, there's a couple, I believe that facts when anybody stands in front of a camera, goes on television, and these are not my original ideas. I've learned from other people that work in the speaking business and the television business. But a couple of those facts are, first of all, the audience wants you to do well. They want to be entertained. So most people, if they're going to be on television, they're going to speak in Front of a room, there is a level of anxiety because they think, oh my gosh, I don't want to be look like a fool. I don't want to say something stupid. And I always tell the people I train that think in the back of the head, back of your head, that everyone is really rooting for you.
And that's the truth. None of us have ever turned on a television show or watched somebody speak in front of a room unless it was like a ex boyfriend or girlfriend or something and wanted them to fail. No, you want to be entertained. And the second thing I tell people is that you have to be the person that brings the energy. Nobody else is going to do that for you. And a lot of people, especially when they're anxious and they get up there or they stand in front of the camera and the red light goes on and there's, I'm going to start talking softly like, no, that doesn't cut it. If you want to be entertaining, you have to go big and you have to be confident to do it. And oftentimes we think we're going big, but then you watch and you're like, oh, that was just kind of normal.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: So if you're pitching a product that's not from a well known brand, it's, it's not a Samsung. And you're trying to get consumers to trust that this product is gonna fulfill their needs, it's gonna work, right? How do you do that?
[00:20:16] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a great question. Cause that's my reality. Most of the time I'm working with these brands. And we talked about a little bit earlier about the lesson I learned. It's not about me, it's about positioning it in their life. The great thing about the QVC model and we're seeing this explosion right now with TikTok shop and shopping on ebay live, people are looking for that connection. So you're coming up with stories on how this works for their life. And especially in consumer electronics. I could sit here and talk to you about a computer and tell you about the processor and the RAM and the hard drive and I could watch your eyes glaze over in sheer boredom. What it comes down to is what is this going to do for your life? How is it going to improve your life? How is this going to sink in with what your family is doing? So I think of one product in particular. I sell these portable power units from this brand called ecoflow that most people have never heard of, but I've personally used this product and taking it on camping trips and used it when there's a blackout in my house. And I tell those stories because that's how I connect with you. I think of scenarios where. Where do we have common ground?
And how can this product benefit you? Again, it's about you. It's not about me and my experience. And that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for those little hooks on how this can make somebody's life better.
[00:21:35] Speaker D: So what if somebody has a product that you represent on qvc, can they come on the show with you?
[00:21:41] Speaker C: Oftentimes they try to get the inventor to actually come on tv. The joke I make about qvc, and it's not original, I've heard it a thousand times, is it stands for quick volatile change. And what that means is when you go on television to present the product, it could be a Tuesday at 4 in the afternoon, it could be Saturday morning. Oftentimes, the inventor, if they live in Phoenix, Arizona, they can't drop everything and be at QVC in 48 hours in Westchester, Pennsylvania. That's where somebody like me comes in handy because it's, oh, you've got experience doing this. You live close by, you have connections with the audience and with the hosts. So sometimes they do come on. And that's always exciting, too. I love hearing the stories of those entrepreneurs, of somebody that created a product, they had an idea and they're like, man, this. This is going to make my life better. And hold on a second. What if I could create a thousand of these and sell these? I love to see those people, whether it's on a platform like TikTok or it's qvc sharing that story on how they came up with that great idea.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: That's perfect. Well, we're with Craig Smith right now. It's been a fantastic interview so far. We have to take a break, but we'll be back with more passage to profit right after this.
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[00:24:49] Speaker B: Now back to passage to profit. Once again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and
[00:24:54] Speaker D: our special guest, Craig Smith, who is now going to talk about your brand message.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:25:01] Speaker D: Ooh, that sounds a little scary.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: No, it's my passion project. It should be a passion project for everybody.
[00:25:06] Speaker D: Okay, let's hear it.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: Yeah. So I do a lot of training and I'm a professional speaker. I do keynotes, I do workshops. And to me, it all comes down to be able to create that message that's clear, real and repeatable. Because I mentioned a little bit earlier, I'm passionate about creating community, not creating sales. And what I notice is I go to networking events, I talk with people with these brands that are bringing them into the world of live shopping or other industries. And I always tell them, if you can't clearly tell me what you do so I can understand it. That's the problem I help you solve. And I'm fascinated by the number of networking events that I go to that people struggle with that. And I think, well, if you're struggling with it, the customer facing people of your company, what are they telling people?
And it's so many of us, we think we know what we do, but we have a tough time verbalizing it and sharing it. And I just hammer this home all the time.
Hit the three posts. Is your message clear? Is it real? So we believe you? Is it repeatable so people remember you? And that's what I love working with people. I love to see the eyes light up and then it's all of a sudden, oh, wow. Yes. I've been telling my customers that I do this and they're hearing something else, and that tells me there's a disconnect.
[00:26:20] Speaker D: It's funny, I know you're all about person to person, but you're talking to the answer engines, too. The AI engines.
[00:26:27] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:26:28] Speaker D: They want brand clarity. They want to know exactly what you do. And I'm going to brag a little bit, but. So Gearhart Law comes up as the answer on these answer engines.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: And I asked, we are the answer.
[00:26:38] Speaker D: We are the answer. And I asked why? Said, because your niche, you tell people exactly what you do. Like people have no doubt you do patents, trademarks, and copyrights. And that has really paid off a lot for us. And that is the brand story, right?
[00:26:55] Speaker C: Yes. And that's. And that's something that can connect with people, which I think is great. And much of what I pull from, again, much of my career has been in the live shopping space, primarily with qvc. And it has been. It's like post graduate education for me because I've seen so many brands come in there and they can't do it with clarity. And I think of things of brands that come in there and just crush it. And one great example. Do we remember the actor Ernest Borgnine from back in the day?
[00:27:22] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: All right. So his wife, Tova Borgnine, used to come into QVC all the time. She sold perfume. You can't smell your television set. And if you can, there's something wrong with your television set.
[00:27:34] Speaker H: Right.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: But she created a hundreds of millions of dollars worth of product that she sold with perfume. And I remember just watching her, and I learned so much from her. And I'm not selling perfume, obviously, but she had this old Hollywood style to her. You'd walk, hello, darling, how are you? She just reeked of this old classic style. And she would spin these stories about her and Ernie and Beverly Hills and the parties that she would go to, and people loved it. And that was like a light bulb moment for me of like, wow, this woman is. She's creating this aura. And people were connecting with her. And it had nothing to do with it smelling like lavender or smelling like whatever Rosewood or whatever it might be.
It had to do with that story that she was telling and connecting with people. And she could sell perfume on television and you couldn't smell it. I'm fascinated by people that can do something like that.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: Wow, that really is impressive. So can you give us some examples of brand messages that weren't so clear?
[00:28:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got a great crash and burn story where I won't tell you the brand name.
[00:28:43] Speaker D: Yeah, tell us the question.
[00:28:44] Speaker C: Save them. So early in my QVC career, I was selling a product that was a wireless charger for your phone. Now we're in 2026. You have these things in your car. Now you just place your phone down and it wirelessly connects. This was 2010, so this was like, you know, Jetsons type of imagination. How could this possibly work? And I work closely with that brand. I'm a consumer electronics guy. They're a tech brand. And when we presented this product on the air on qvc, it was what they call it today's special value. It's the featured product of the day. You kick off with midnight with an airing, and you do airings live throughout the course of 24 hours. You're in the building for 28 hours. Wildly exhausting, tons of pressure. We brought in 30,000 units of that product at midnight. The goal was to sell 10%.
We sold under 300, which is less than 1%.
And not knowing it at the time, we were so caught up in the technology, the wireless transfer of. We never crafted a message that actually spoke to the woman watching at home who just wants to charge her phone. We never told a story. We told tech specs and all of this gobbly gook that never connected. And for me, that was like a. I mean, I walked out, they threw me out of the building at 9:00am they're like, We're taking this thing off the air, Craig, take the rest of the day off. And it wasn't like, good for you, day off. It was like, get the heck out. But within a couple of weeks, I kind of had the autopsy look at that thing, and I was like, oh, yeah, now I know why this thing bombed.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: I guess the question is, why? Why do you need a wireless charger? Right. Why would somebody. They need a reason because you can plug it in and charge it. Why do you need one that you just put your phone on?
[00:30:32] Speaker D: What's plugged in, too?
[00:30:34] Speaker C: Well, but here's the fascinating thing. That technology is everywhere today.
It's built into many people's cars. Most people just. They don't even realize they just place their phone down on something and it wirelessly charges.
[00:30:46] Speaker D: Did you get a second crack at that product or was it done?
[00:30:50] Speaker C: Well, thankfully, there are brands that still trust me today, because that was 16 years ago. I learned from that mistake. And we all go through these moments of, oh, my gosh, am I ever gonna do this again after the disaster. But that product, no, that product was a one and done. But they still do exist today. And their technology was revolutionary. We just did a poor job of telling a story that actually we were trying to sell a product. We weren't trying to connect with a customer. And really the connection is what you need to build community around your brand.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. I mean, it's so important for anybody who's in business to be thinking about solving a problem as opposed to proposing a product and satisfying a customer need.
How can people who maybe don't have the benefit of working with you get the kind of feedback or get the kind of understanding that they can incorporate that concept in their marketing?
[00:31:48] Speaker C: Well, first of all, they can work with me.
[00:31:50] Speaker D: So how do they. How do they get ahold of you? How do they find you?
[00:31:53] Speaker C: I'm easy enough to find it. Craig Smith speaks. Craig Smith on. You can Find me on LinkedIn and multiple social media platforms, but I want to make it. Get back to your point there, Richard. I was having a little bit of fun with you there, but I think one of the best thing to do is to go to people outside of your industry and try to tell them what you do and then ask them, do you understand what I do? Get their feedback. And the best way to do that is to go to networking events. And I'm always fat. I go to a ton of networking events in and around the Philadelphia area and anywhere else. And it's one of those, ask amongst your friends. Just say, hey, this is what I do. Can you explain it back to me? And oftentimes you'll get people going. Yeah, I really have no idea what you do. How many friends like that do you have that. Oh, yeah, you work for so and so. I have no idea what you do. But if you can't deliver that message and have them again, the last three of the clear realm, repeatable is repeatable. Can they repeat it back to you? And if they can't, you got to work on your message.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: That's great advice.
[00:32:51] Speaker D: Yeah, you really do. Because what I'm trying to do now for people AI visibility. Nobody knows what that means.
Well, I'd say 90% of the people don't even know what that means. So I have to rename that and make it very clear.
[00:33:02] Speaker C: Yeah, you just have to noodle it. And by the way, throw it into AI.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: See if you can get a visible answer.
[00:33:11] Speaker D: Well, no, I do ask people. Are you showing up on ChatGPT or is your competitor?
[00:33:15] Speaker A: Yeah, anyway, so this has been amazing, Craig. Thank you so much. I really appreciate everything that you've offered our audience today. It's great. How can people find you?
[00:33:26] Speaker C: Easy enough to find me. I'
[email protected] you can also find me, by the way, Craig Smith. I'm probably not the only Craig Smith you'll find on LinkedIn, but look around, you'll find me. Craig Smith speaks on instagram and on TikTok as well.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Great.
[00:33:39] Speaker D: Okay, now it is time for real AI Use cases. Business Owners Roundtable. This is where I get to ask each one of you for one way you're using AI, and then we do a discussion about it. So either your favorite way, the way you've used it most recently, because a year ago when we were asking these questions, some people had an answer, some didn't. Now everybody's using it all the time. Practically not everybody, but many people. Craig Smith at craigsmithspeaks. What is your favorite way or one way you're using AI right now?
[00:34:10] Speaker C: Two ways, really. And you'll ask for only one. But I'm taking over the mic and saying two anyway, whether you like it
[00:34:15] Speaker A: or not, they say, be the show.
[00:34:17] Speaker C: First of all, it's an amazing research tool. I use it all the time, and I use it for writing constantly. I read a great book recently, Stephen King on Writing. So it wasn't a horror book or anything like that, just him talking about how he writes. And he writes every day, which I think is great. But so often when I get stuck with something, I will not throw three prompts into chat or claude or anything like that and say, create this for me. But what I do, I write. And then I say, help me sizzle this a little bit. Help me trim this a little bit. And it has saved me years on my life.
I use it as an editor when I write, and that's my favorite thing to do with it. I know that's just the tip of the iceberg for AI, but for me, that's my everyday use.
[00:34:58] Speaker D: So now I want to ask Chris Ryan with ChrisRyan Fitness dot com, what is one way you're using AI right now?
[00:35:05] Speaker E: Well, just like Craig said to Piggyback on that. I think AI magnifies expertise. Think of an octopus with multiple tentacles out there, so you have multiple arms able to help you out to operate your business much more effectively. So everything from content ID generation to writing and using your outlines and putting it back in there and having it come back at you with a challenging, you know, challenge yourself back. Right? Like, ask it challenging questions. AI will challenge you back and go from it from that point because it'll really sharpen your tools overall.
[00:35:35] Speaker D: Yeah, that's a great way. And then Jeff Seibel with WealthAgent.com WealthAgent.com,
[00:35:41] Speaker G: real is the company that I work for, the real brokerage. And they just bought ReMax. So now, with what I'm talking about, each week I have to have content each week on a Wednesday to be able to talk to now a big group of people. So when. When I'm looking at that, I have to tie it into financial planning and to real estate. So I use Claude, I use ChatGPT, and I go back and forth. And then I have to make it engaging. Without AI, I wouldn't have the ideas as much to tie it into two things. So I love it.
[00:36:08] Speaker D: Yeah. Richard Gearhart with Gearhart Law.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Well, I'm using AI to figure out if people are using AI. So we've been hiring some people lately, and they're submitting work production, and it kind of looks like it could be AI work product. And we're trying to figure out, well, did you do this or did AI do this?
[00:36:26] Speaker G: Right.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: And so we run the work product through AI and we find out that, yeah, it looks like it's mostly AI, which is fine. But then we go back and we ask them, so did you use AI to do this, or is this something you did yourself? So we're using AI to find out if people are using AI.
[00:36:44] Speaker C: Do you get the look from them like the kid with his hand in the cookie jar?
No.
[00:36:51] Speaker G: And if they respond by, yeah, I kind of did that, what do you say?
[00:36:55] Speaker A: Well, I say, why don't you go back and give us something that you did? And then that way we can evaluate if you really have the understanding that we're hoping for. I mean, we do encourage people to use AI. I think it's a good idea every
[00:37:10] Speaker D: day, all the time.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: And there's nothing wrong with that, but you have to also understand the basics of what you're doing. And so that's what we're looking for.
[00:37:18] Speaker D: For. Yeah. So for me, Elizabeth Gearhart with Gear Media Studios, I'm using it a lot for presentations now, so I'm doing research with it and I'm giving presentations on AI visibility. How can your business show up as the answer to ChatGPT?
I constantly ask. Like once a month I ask and I get different answers. It changes. So I always have to change the presentations.
But what I found in the last, I don't know, month or two, ChatGPT's got really good at those kind of slide figures, like doing the slides and putting figures on them, like little embellishments. And so my stuff is marketing. So it's not like a scientific paper where people just want to see data. They want to. It's like real estate agents, they want to see something eye catching on. So ChatGPT does these amazing slides. The only thing I say that I have to criticize it for, and you probably all know this because you use it, it just does way too much. It'll have a slide with like 50 different things on it, right? And then I have to say, no, make this slide so somebody in the audience can actually read it. Like, take this off, take that off. A couple years ago, people weren't really talking about it. I think Kevin Sarrace was the first one we had on that was talking about AI and then gradually noticed everybody was talking about it. So we said, well, let's just put it in a segment. And then the segments were so good, we said, well, let's make another podcast out of it because these are all ways that different people are using it that other people may not know about. And we really want people to figure out how they can use it and succeed. Because honestly, I do think businesses that are using it are doing better than businesses that aren't.
[00:38:54] Speaker C: I couldn't agree more.
[00:38:56] Speaker D: Okay, well, thank you. That has been Real AI Use Cases Business Owners Roundtable. Thank you, everybody. This has been edited to fit our radio spot. To hear our full discussion, listen to our podcast, Real AI Use Business Owners Roundtable on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt.
[00:39:15] Speaker D: Coming up, we still have two more entrepreneurs. We have Chris Ryan and Jeff Seibel who are going to talk about their amazing businesses. And I can hardly wait to hear from them. So stay tuned, everybody.
[00:39:25] Speaker F: Here's a real life story that affects 50% of all of us out there. It's called divorce.
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[00:40:09] Speaker H: call now at 8008-1008-5780-0810-0857 800, 810, 0857. That's 800-810-0857.
[00:40:25] Speaker I: Learn how thousands of smart homeowners are investing about a dollar to avoid expensive home repair bills. John, a former non customer said, my air conditioner broke and I had to spend $1,900 to fix it. Jeff, A customer wrote, my air conditioner broke and I got a new one at no out of pocket cost. Mary, a former non customer, wrote, my heating system stuck running. I had to spend $3,000 to get a new one. Lisa a customer wrote, my heater stopped working. I got it fixed at no out of pocket cost. For about $1 a day, you can have all the major appliances and systems in your home guaranteed fixed or replaced. Call now. If the lines are busy, please call back.
[00:41:07] Speaker H: Call the home warranty Hotline now at 800-255-4940-880025-54940 800, 255-4940.
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[00:41:24] Speaker C: Passage to profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: Quick shout out to our friends at KGUMFM in Dadito, Guam. It makes us an international radio show. Thanks for listening. And if you're new here, Passage to Profit is a top ranked entrepreneurship podcast and radio show heard in 38 markets. It's a place where founders share what really works. And now, time for IP News. And today we're talking about something that is coming right into our backyard. The World Cup. Or should I say very carefully, the international soccer tournament happening this summer. Because once you start using the words World cup in business, you may have just stepped onto the intellectual Property Field. The 2026 FIFA World cup runs from June 11 through July 19 and the final is being played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. So for those of us here in the New York, New Jersey area, this is not Some distant sports story. This is local, this is economic. This is marketing. This is restaurants, bars, hotels, T shirts, watch parties, social media posts. And every business owner is thinking, how do I get a piece of this?
And that's where the trademark issue comes in. Most people hear the phrase World cup and think, well, that's just what the event is called. And in ordinary conversation, that's usually fine. If you say to your friend, are you watching the World Cup? Nobody from FIFA is likely to parachute into your living room with a cease and desist letter. But if you're a business, it gets more complicated. FIFA has a large portfolio of trademarks and brand assets around the event. FIFA World Cup, World Cup, World Cup 26 official logos, the trophy design, mascots, slogans, host city marks, etc. FIFA's position is that only authorized sponsors, licensees, media partners, and approved event operators get to use those marks commercially. So the problem is not talking about the event. The problem is using the event to sell your own products or services in a way that suggests official connection. For example, a bar advertising an official World cup party without permission is risky. A restaurant printing World Cup 2026 specials on menus without FIFA style graphics, well, that's risky too. A T shirt seller Putting World Cup, New York, New Jersey, 2026 on shirts, very risky. And a company running a Win World cup tickets promotion without authorization, well, that can get you into really serious trouble. And this is part of what lawyers call ambush marketing. That means a business tries to associate itself with with a major event without actually paying to be a sponsor. The official sponsors spend huge amounts of money for the right to use the brand, and organizations like FIFA are very aggressive about protecting that value. There have been controversies around this over the years. One interesting example involved Puma and the FIFA over World Cup 2022. There, the Swiss court found that FIFA's trademarks weren't always as enforceable as they would have liked, and FIFA did not win everything. The Swiss court reportedly found that some of those marks lacked sufficient distinctiveness. That is important because it shows the tension here. FIFA wants broad control over tournament language, but trademark law still asks whether a term is distinctive enough and whether the public sees it as a source identifier.
Another example is much closer to everyday business owners.
FIFA has opposed trademark applications that include the term World cup in different contexts, such as marks like World cup wives or the fashion World Cup. That doesn't always mean that FIFA automatically wins, but it shows how closely they watch the field. So what's the takeaway? If you are a regular fan. Enjoy the games.
If you are a business owner, be careful. You can usually say things like we're showing the soccer matches this summer or join us for international soccer watch parties. But the moment your marketing starts to look like official FIFA branding or suggests you are connected to the tournament, you may be inviting trouble. And here's the broader IP Big events are not just games, they are enormous intellectual property machines.
The stadium is one asset, the broadcast rights are another. The logos, names, slogans, merchandise and sponsorship categories are all part of the business model. So when the World cup comes to New Jersey this July, the action won't just be on the field. Some of it may be in the trademark office, the legal department, and the cease and desist letters flying around faster than a penalty kick. The bigger the event, the more valuable the name and the more careful entrepreneurs need to be before they put that name on a sign, shirt menu or social post. That's it for intellectual property news this week. And if you have an idea or invention you want to protect, the team at Gearhart Law helps entrepreneurs turn ideas into protected assets. You can visit learn more about Patents.com or learn more about Trademarks.com for a free consultation and practical guides to get you started later. Secrets of the entrepreneurial mind will be coming up. What successful founders think about that, most people never know.
[00:47:22] Speaker D: And now it is time for our next guest, Chris Ryan with ChrisRyanFitness.com, one of America's top 10 trainers. Hey Chris, you're looking good. Gotta say, you are too.
[00:47:33] Speaker E: Elizabeth. Thank you for having me.
[00:47:34] Speaker D: Thanks for coming. Tell us what you do that's different and how you got started. We want to know it all.
[00:47:39] Speaker E: Oh, sure thing. Well, I have an app called Chris Ryan Fitness. It's free a available in the App Store as well as in the Google Play store for Android devices. And I have live and on demand workouts. So think of this so you could work out live with me. You could stream the app right to any smart TV device. 46 years young over here myself. I lost my dad last year when he was 80. And so for me, you're at that point in your life where you can kind of see as a father of three, I want to be that strong grandfather one day to do pull ups and impress my grandchildren. And I want to have a great long life with my wife. And you know, I want to enjoy life itself. It's not just about living a long life, it's about living a great healthy life as long as you can too.
[00:48:23] Speaker A: So if you're not working out. Now how do you get started?
[00:48:27] Speaker E: Very simply, you just start. And that's why I try to make sure in my app that has it set up so it's beginner level workouts. Start out with body weight, try to work out for a few minutes each day. There's plans set up just straight through of a 25 day jumpstart plan that I'm very proud of that most people that have never worked out jump into that plan. And we also have a ton of advanced workouts too on the app for all sorts of different, well qualified exercises. I've been working out for decades. So it's a little bit of everything for everybody. But the main thing is what I do with the app differently is that I want people to understand they can work out from home, they don't necessarily need to go to the gym. And the best workout they do is the one that they actually do. It's not the one that you thought that I had to work out for an hour and I didn't do it. So now I'm just gonna meh, I'm gonna like, you know, not work out tomorrow. Cause I didn't work out today and my gains are going away and that sort of a thing. And then you, it's, you know, it's unfortunately the negative snowball effect when in fact you could have the positive snowball effect to where if you just do a little bit each day and you stay consistent and you don't have to really think about it. Cause everyone's thinking way too much in this day and age. AI still doesn't get in our heads yet and make us, you know, makes us still, we still have to think and the energy that it takes to think. When I can lead you through workouts and you don't have to think of anything, it's literally plug and play. Then it just takes away the thought process and you just do.
[00:49:44] Speaker D: Well, I did go online and I watched one of your videos, part of it and I think it was a beginner one. And I really love your style. It's very direct. It's not like, hey, let's bust some. You know what? Today it's very just, okay, this is how you do it. Let me instruct you, let me show you so you can understand.
Because I know I've been doing this forever and you're just starting out, but this is what you. And this is the position you have to. I found it a very attractive way to teach people fitness and I think it's, I would, I would Watch that video and work along with you. And it was one that you can do without a gym and all you needed was two dumbbells. Yeah, I thought it was really good. I used to do Jane Fonda videos and she had these actors in the background. I didn't realize at the time they were actors, but. Right. And I would wonder like, why does that guy look so miserable over there? And it's because they'd gone through it like 20 times already.
Exhaustion went down.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: But that is a good question. What do you tell people who hate working out? I mean, everybody knows that they should do something, but what do you tell people who say, I just hate working out?
[00:50:47] Speaker E: Yeah, you know, they have to.
Like Craig was talking about earlier in the segment, you have to really know your customer and put yourself into that. Customers or the members, the person that is in front of you that hates working out. And for me, what I've always found is that usually people like to live a good life. They like to live a fulfilled life, whatever that might be. If they're parents, they want to be around for their kids. If they're just a business person, they're going to have a bigger ROI and have more presence in the room. If they have better posture, maybe they're like sports. Maybe they're a weekend golfer and they've had a, you know, they want to impress their buddies and have a 30 yard increase in their drive and they're stuck at 270. Well, if they just got a little stronger then worked a little bit more mobility in their hips and their shoulders, then guess what, all of a sudden they're hitting that 300 yard drive to impress their buddies. So you got to figure out who are you talking to and then take it from there.
[00:51:40] Speaker D: So what do you tell people that say, oh, I did one and I'm so sore I can't move today?
[00:51:46] Speaker E: I would say you're sore but not sorry.
You know, the best thing that you can do is think about. Exercise is something that you don't necessarily want to be sore from.
You know, it's okay to be a little sore, but you shouldn't have. You know, doms every day, which is delayed onset muscle soreness is what we call it in our industry. It's more about, okay, I felt like I worked out. Like I was just talking to my wife, she worked out last night and she's been much more into the strength training phase over the last several years, but in a consistent pattern since we had our third child. And so he's three now. And so she's been, over the last couple years, she's been able to get much more consistent for herself.
And, you know, it's fun to see just at home the positive aspect that even that has on her life of just the feeling, oh, my back feels better, my hamstrings feel open, and, you know, that sort of a thing. And to see her smile, it just lights me up because I don't necessarily get that same interaction with all the other members that are on the app worldwide, where it's like, oh, they'll DM me sometimes they'll post a photo of their socials, which is always super fun, fun. And there's a quick story behind weight loss or, you know, whatever it might be, and they're flexing their muscles and just having fun with life and as they should. But it's. It's really cool to have it on the home front, too, just to see the impact that it has with your loved ones.
[00:53:01] Speaker D: So have you built up a community?
[00:53:03] Speaker E: Yes, a great, great community. I, you know, I started in the fitness industry about almost two decades ago, and I started doing work within different brands around the way I was with Wilhelmina, represented by them as far as for representation for fitness modeling, work that I parlayed into relationships with the magazine world here in New York City, from Men's Fitness, Men's Health, Women's Health, all the big magazines out there. And then I also appeared on NBC Strong as one of America's top 10 trainers. That was from the executive producers of American Ninja Warrior and the Biggest Loser and also Rocky himself, Sylvester Stallone. So I was very proud of that.
And then I was also one of the founding trainers of Mirror. That was back in 2018. I teamed up with them as one of their founding trainers, and then we were bought out by Lululemon for half a billion dollars with a B.
So being a business show, that's always interesting in June of 2020.
And then I had my contract with Lululemon Studio that they converted it over to until January of 24. And then I decided to go out on my own and use all that experience that I've had for the better part of a decade and a half at that point and put it in my own brand.
[00:54:19] Speaker A: Wow, that's amazing.
[00:54:21] Speaker C: Chris, I had a quick question for you, because if I go on my social media feeds, I'm constantly getting bombarded with the guy who lights himself on fire.
These three exercises will have you shredded in six weeks. There's so much of that out there in your business.
How do you combat that? Cause I've seen some of your videos, too. You have a way of connecting with people, which I think is just very calm and very.
Yes, you can do this. How do you combat the messages that are out there that are really these BS stories that you're gonna be whipped into the best shape of your life if you do this one thing?
[00:54:57] Speaker E: Yeah, I try to think of it more instead of a trainer or fitness expert or fitness personality, almost more of a coach. And I take that because I've always loved sports. I love coaches in my life over the course of time and that I've been exposed to. And I feel like coach, for whatever reasons to me, just puts a signal in my head that lets me almost be more commanding, but also more loving to that person at the end of the day. And I think that comes across to understand that I have a goal for that person. Right. My goal is their goal. Like, whatever they want to do, I'll want it as much as they want it. But they still have to want that goal. And they still have to be the ones that show up to do the squats or the presses overhead, and they still have to learn, but I'm going to be there every single step of the way, every single rep along the way, doing all the exercises with them so they'll be able to see what, you know, proper form looks like. And then when they go put their rollerboard into the overhead compartment in their next airplane ride, all of a sudden they feel a little stronger. They know how to do it correctly. They know that they don't have to throw their back out. They don't need assistance, and hopefully they can do that at any age.
[00:56:00] Speaker D: Yeah. What I like about your videos, too. I kind of said this before. I feel like you're way more interested in teaching than in either being famous or in, like, using drill sergeant language to motivate or any of that stuff. You're just like, this is how you do it.
[00:56:15] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:56:16] Speaker D: And I love that.
[00:56:17] Speaker E: Yeah, I, you know, I think the insta famous world, if you will. I've been on magazine covers many times. I've been on a NBC top TV show. I don't really know what else I could do to be famous in this world. And it doesn't really. It doesn't really, like, get me up each day. You know what gets me up each day is to, like, see people actually be their best selves. And that's the honest God's truth. And I love to see people's success stories when they post on their social feeds of the workouts, of the programs that they've taken, their weight loss journeys that they've had and See Someone Post 100 pound weight loss and like, how much better their actual life is, that they're happy, that they have to spend a bunch of money to get a new wardrobe because they lost so much dang weight. You know, all that. It's just, it's fun to see people being able to celebrate their life and you celebrate that life with them.
[00:57:03] Speaker D: But do you feel like getting people to exercise just enough makes them want to eat more healthfully as well?
[00:57:10] Speaker E: Usually, but sometimes you. What I've seen, for instance, with runners is they think that they burn a lot of calories running. It does, right? Exercise does burn a lot of calories. Right? That's why we do it. Not just one reason, but it's a great reason why we exercise, because it actually does burn more calories and you actually should be more hungry. But you gotta make sure that you don't overeat because it's very easy, for instance, to grab. I always say the liquid diet is the perils of, like, you know, where success goes to die. Because it's so easy to consume a beverage that has a lot of calories, whether it's a margarita or a Frappuccino or Duncan Chino, whatever it might be, with the coffees with whipped cream on top and all that, they can easily pack a thousand calories in there. Even if you worked out really hard for a half hour to an hour, you might have burned 500 to 750 calories, right? So if you just had one drink in a matter of 10 minutes, guess what? You just replace that and then some. You know, there's about 3,500, 3,600 kilocalories in a pound of fat. So you got to think of that real quick. Like in three or four drinks, you could have enough fat content for one pound of fat. And it takes a while to burn that off, even for an elite marathoner.
So you gotta think about the macros of maybe having a little bit more protein rather than simple carbs. And so a lot of it comes back to the kitchen. And that's why I offer the nutrition on there as well for both meat and plant based diets on the Chris Ryan fitness app. Because I noticed when I first started out, I had so many nutrition questions, and all of a sudden when I started offering the nutrition plans that it was just like, well, that's there. And then all of a sudden people are like, Oh, I love this turkey chili. I had it when I was watching the game and I didn't have, you know, I had a non alcoholic beer and it was great. Like, it's still, like they're still feeling like they're able to partake in fun foods and maybe, you know, a drink, but. Or even a beer, but they didn't have four.
They didn't eat the loaded nachos. You know, they had something slightly more healthy. So I always like to offer ways of making the glass more half full for people rather than half empty.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: How do you coach people through the discomfort of working out? There's times when you like it, there's times when you don't, but sometimes it's uncomfortable.
[00:59:24] Speaker E: Richard, you love working out, don't you?
[00:59:26] Speaker A: There are times when I like it. I don't want to stop when I'm doing endurance stuff. But there's other times when it's miserable.
And so what do you tell your clients when they're in the miserable phase?
[00:59:38] Speaker E: The miserable phase? I think that you just have to understand why you want it. And also you should enjoy working out. What I actually love to do is talk to people about what they truly like. So you like more endurance work? Right? And a lot of people do like that as they get older. They don't want to feel that lactic acid burn as much that maybe, you know, I was an 800 meter runner in college, so for me, that's my. Like what I grew up with is just like a body that feels like, you know, quads are bricks. Your lungs want to jump out of your chest. Right, But I get that. But, but I also understand that most people aren't gonna be like that. So I always try to say, like, well, what do you like, Richard? You like endurance. So I could easily build a great program for you around endurance, for instance. And I find out, like, what do you like? Other people, I've had clients before say they don't like to sweat. They like to, like, lift heavy for a few reps, but they don't wanna sweat. And I'm like, okay, but that's always the challenge, right?
[01:00:25] Speaker C: That's a challenge right there.
[01:00:27] Speaker E: But, you know, but there's a way to like, you know, think, think about things from their goals of what they want to achieve more than just being like, okay, well, nope, this is the. I have horse blinders on and I'm a trainer and I can't think of anything else. And we're doing three sets of 10 of all these exercises. I'm like, no, you know, challenge me. What do you like to do? Because at the end of the day you're going to have much more adherence to your program that if you can show up and actually like it.
[01:00:50] Speaker D: So do you individually coach people?
[01:00:52] Speaker E: Yeah, I do. So I have an executive one to one coaching training program as well.
Beyond the app that's available on the website chrisryinfitness.com there's a little link there you can fill out and that's something I really love to do as well because you get to know the individual much more, you know, rather than just on the app. I offer the app as an all encompassing umbrella so that people have no excuses to work out. It's very, you know, it's, I think it's very economically priced. It's 29.99amonth or 269.99 for the year for the annual contract, which is $20 something dollars a month on average. So it's just like I want to make sure that people curb those excuses because so many times that if people can just make sure that they stay consistent in their daily habits, they're going to have so much success, like surprising success for themselves. And it's really about building up that discipline and those daily habits over the course of time. You do not necessarily need to be fit quickly, you need to be fit for the long term. And that's really what I want to preach.
[01:01:49] Speaker C: Could you list maybe two or three foods that many people think, oh, this is healthy, this is good for me to eat, but really is sabotaging people from reaching those health goals? I'd be curious to know what those are.
[01:02:00] Speaker E: Anything in a box. I think that anything that comes in a box, for instance. And there's also some healthy. The cool part is there's healthy versions of things that actually are, I would call them processed foods. For instance, the other day my wife just bought some.
They weren't pita chips, they were lentil chips from Trader Joe's. If you have that with hummus, that's a good healthy snack. But let's say you had Doritos instead. And you know, like that's a whole other world of, you know, just processed foods.
[01:02:29] Speaker C: You just lost the Doritos.
[01:02:32] Speaker E: I didn't think you were Trader Joe's. Hit me up, you know. But no, I think that there's, there's, there's different things that you want to have for convenience and usually if it's not in your house. So don't go grocery shopping hungry because you're going to Make a bunch of bad decisions.
[01:02:44] Speaker C: I've done that many times.
[01:02:47] Speaker E: But if you go to the grocery store generally satiated and you say to the outer aisles for, you know, for, for lack of a better term, and you kind of go more towards the fresh foods, the whole foods, you're going to have success. And I find this too from I'm in the fitness world. I feel like my wife bought cookies and they're at the house. I'll eat like a bunch of cookies, you know, but they're there. But I, you know, I don't eat those every day, you know, and my
[01:03:07] Speaker C: wife has to go to Dairy Queen every week. I don't know, actually more than once a week. And it's terrible. I don't know why she does it.
[01:03:13] Speaker E: But you know, a couple others is just, you know, the fast foods too for that matter is just there's also a way to eat some of the quick service fast foods like a Chipotle for instance. Maybe you could skip the rice if you're going on a little bit less of a carb. You know, if you're, you need something to convenience, you could go more on the protein side and double up the meat or the veggies versus having the extra carbs from the rice, for instance. There's ways to think about things a little bit more of like when in doubt, go protein. When in doubt, eat a colorful palette of foods on your plate as much as you can. And when in doubt, think about not having sugars and fats combined. So ice cream, probably one of the worst things you can eat with the combination of sugars and fats combined together versus like for instance an avocado. That's just a healthy fat, right? You know, it gives you energy because at the end of the day we do need fat, but we don't need sugar with fat.
[01:04:02] Speaker D: Chrisryanfitness.com and what is the app?
[01:04:05] Speaker E: ChrisRyan Fitness app. It's available on the Apple store for iOS devices as well as in the Google Play store for any Android devices. And it's got a free seven day trial for anyone out there. So you can have 100% all access to the app for free for seven days.
[01:04:20] Speaker D: Well, thank you.
[01:04:21] Speaker A: Passage to profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhart.
[01:04:24] Speaker D: So now we're going to move on to Jeff Seibel with WealthAgent.com so how do you retire comfortably? What's the best advice? And I can hardly wait to hear what, I've been waiting to hear what you have to say.
[01:04:34] Speaker G: You want to start Early. And you want to be consistent, kind of like exercise over here with Chris.
[01:04:39] Speaker H: 100%.
[01:04:39] Speaker E: 100%.
[01:04:39] Speaker G: You want to be consistent. You want to keep at it. See, you know the story I told before about the widow that came into my office when I was 25 years old or 26 years old, that did not know that she was going to go broke in two years. Now I'm 65 years old and I look at Chris, I hear about Chris's career. I look forward to my career because we're just starting this wealth agent program. And I'm thinking about the impact I can have with people like you have with people. So it's kind of a cool thing. So I'm trying to get Realtors with this course to understand basic finance. Okay? Because really with real estate, they run into the situation where they sell a house and that's it. They don't really cultivate the relationship afterwards. They'll send things out to the people. But if they actually knew a few things about basic real estate investing, they could help these people retire.
They could help these people retire with less money invested.
So my passion here is just to get this course up and running, have Realtors take this wealth agent course and become certified to be able to earn more, learn more, be more. And that's really the goal of what we're trying to do here. And it's kind of. It's exciting because I helped Deb. One of the first things when we first met, I helped Deb with her mom and she had been married. And it was kind of. It's a tough situation where the husband promised her with a trust that he would take care of everything, but the guy didn't fund the trust.
So when he passed, she had a wake up call of really what the situation was. And it wasn't a pretty picture. And I had to systematically talk to her about investing for income and not living on her savings. And it was a wake up call. And that was one of the reasons we created the Wealth Agent Institute and became Wealth Agents. And we're working on this to change the way people save and invest.
[01:06:24] Speaker D: So would you Advise someone at 65 years old to buy real estate?
[01:06:29] Speaker G: Absolutely. Absolutely. My dad's 95 years old, my mom's 90 years old. I mean, I'm 65.
So I figure I have at least 25 years of good fight in me and maybe 30. So when I'm looking at that, when somebody's trying to live off income, it's really different than living off a stock portfolio because it doesn't provide income for the most part. You know, it provides growth. And if you live on a stock portfolio in retirement, you, you're living on potential growth. And if the growth doesn't happen, you're living on your savings. And you could run out of money much faster than if you're living on rental income from, from a couple rentals.
[01:07:03] Speaker A: So how do you figure out how much money you need?
[01:07:06] Speaker G: Great question.
[01:07:08] Speaker A: Retire and what your longevity risk.
[01:07:10] Speaker G: Yeah, exactly. There's so many different things that come into play, and I don't expect the realtors to, to be true financial advisors. I want them sort of, sort of like a ship, have it change a few degrees and kind of think about a few different things. I have a handout in the course, and it's called, you know, about how long your savings will last in retirement. Now, this is a basic, basic handout. And it's just if somebody has a million dollars and they want to take out $100,000 a year, their money may only last 10 years in retirement. Or if you have 500,000, you're taking, you know, 100,000 out, that would be five years in retirement.
So when you talk to people about their strategy, their traditional strategy of save, save, save, and then try to live on your savings, it's deeply flawed because you don't know what that pool of money will be. But if you go into real estate, you buy a house, just say a single family house for 400,000, put $100,000 down that thing, you know, it's going to be appreciating in the long haul, 10, 15, 20 years down the road, what it'll be worth. It's highly predictable, both the return and the income when you're retired. So if somebody's 65 years old, I'm 65 years old, I'm buying real estate right now with both hands. I mean, it's the best thing to do because you want to focus on the long term and the income. And if you're somebody that's affluent, anybody out there listening? That's affluent. It's teaching your children and grandchildren, your family members and people you know, how to fish. Because essentially, when you know the fundamentals of real estate investing, it's not rocket science. You put a small amount of money down on a large amount of real estate, and the increase is on the amount of real estate owned, not the amount invested. Now think about that. The stock investors are down here, and they get a 5% return, and then it goes up 5%. You're up here buying a $400,000 house increasing by 5%. The differences are dramatic. So that's why I'm preaching, you know, 80 year olds should be buying real estate depending on their situation.
[01:09:05] Speaker A: So are you talking about real estate to live in or to rent or, or it's an investment?
[01:09:10] Speaker G: Yeah. When you're talking about retirement, it's really, there's, there's a lot of different things that come into play. Like I'm going to have, in addition with the wealth agent, I'm going to have a real estate based retirement program for people in the future. You know, something, you know, with apps and different things so that they can have really a certified financial planner and other people really create plans for them. But for the realtors with the wealth agent concept, right now I teach agents how to create basic retirement plans. Let's keep it simple. As an example, I call this peace of mind planning. So instead of the old traditional way where you put your money in the stock market or buy CDs or bonds or whatever and you don't really know what you're going to end up with, and then you figure out, okay, I need this much income and I have to liquidate this systematically and hope I don't outlive my money.
Whereas peace of mind planning is where you say to yourself, okay, I have Social Security income coming in, I have pension, I have this or I have that, depending on the situation. So we know how much income you're getting and then you buy the real estate to provide the difference. So give you an example, somebody needs $100,000 a year and they have Social Security income of 50. And all you have to do is buy enough real estate to provide $50,000 of retirement income from the real estate when it's paid off. You have a clearly defined dates by specific and highly achievable real estate retirement plan.
[01:10:32] Speaker H: Boom.
[01:10:33] Speaker G: And the fortunate part, with real estate, you can save and buy real estate over a period of 15, 20, 30 years or 5, 10, 15 years, depending on your situation.
[01:10:43] Speaker A: Well, we have friends who talk about real estate trusts where you can invest cash into a trust that buys and manages real estate and then you get a return on that.
[01:10:55] Speaker G: As a certified financial planner, when I was with Charles Schwab, we sold a lot of people traded a lot in the unit trust, like that, the REITs, but you don't have the tax advantage. You really don't have the tax advantage that you would have on the depreciation and you aren't able to trade one house that you did really well for another with a 1031 exchange. There's so many tax advantages when you own real estate and you know what you're doing and how to change it out. So really, for people that don't want any management, maybe, but I saw a lot of those unit trusts have real problems. When the investors bought the wrong Property back in 2006, 7 and 8, and they couldn't weather the storm, and those unit trusts went down in value. But if you had a rental, those people that bought a house in 2006, they weathered the storm. If they just kept it rented and paid off the mortgage, and here we are in 2026, boom. 20 years later, they did fine.
[01:11:49] Speaker A: So how much of your wealth or prospective wealth should be in real estate versus stocks and bonds and other saving vehicles?
[01:11:57] Speaker G: Great question. It really depends on each person's individual situation and what their goals are. I'm a believer investing for income. So when you retire, you want to maintain your income. If you focus on how much income you need, ultimately it's about income. When you retire, it's not about how much money you have or, you know, the different things. It's really about how much income those assets will provide.
So when we're looking at, you know, when we're looking at asset allocation and different things, it really depends on your situation, how much you can save, what your income needs are, and a million different factors.
[01:12:29] Speaker A: Is there a number that sticks in your mind about how lifestyles change from, you know, the working period of somebody's life to the retirement? Would most people pare their expenses by 50% or 25%?
[01:12:43] Speaker G: I've read a lot of the financial planning stuff, and I just don't believe any of it. Okay. You want to really maintain your lifestyle. You don't want to be in a situation where you cut it down 70% to retire, because with inflation, things go up. Okay. Things are always going up. So it's a situation where it's really figure out what you. How much income you need and try to stick with it. If you can accomplish that, what do you do?
[01:13:07] Speaker D: I guess you leave the properties to your kids when you pass on.
[01:13:10] Speaker G: Well, and that's the game plan. I have a son with special needs, so I want to make sure that he's taken care of his parent on schizophrenia. So that's a difficult thing.
[01:13:19] Speaker D: Yeah, that is. Well, so we have a building that the law firm is in, and after Covid, you know, people weren't coming around and we were going to try to sell it, but first of all, we couldn't get right after Covid what we wanted to get for it. But secondly, the tax hit was going to be incredible.
[01:13:36] Speaker G: Yeah, you don't want to take the tax hit. What you want to do is try to do a 1031 exchange and split that up. I can talk to you later on about that because I've done a number of them myself.
[01:13:46] Speaker D: I think we're going to keep it for now because we built the podcast studio on the second floor.
But I know Craig has a question.
[01:13:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I did.
This is the entrepreneurial, focused podcast that we have here. I know a lot of people, if they work for, you know, the big company or whatever, that they provide some type of retirement planning, 401k, something like that for entrepreneurs. You ride this wave of awesome year. Oh, my gosh, what did I do? Awesome year. Oh, it's all going to fall apart. What's the message to those people? To continue to invest. Because it's almost, as your business grows, you start to get comfortable with a better lifestyle.
How do you ride that wave? Especially with real estate agents, too. They can have amazing giant fluctuations in income. And how do you strategize as to, all right, I'm running my own show. What do I invest in? What can I enjoy?
[01:14:38] Speaker G: See, that's the tough part. I mean, we all want a high quality of life and to try to save. It's like exercise, okay? It's like exercising too much where you feel the pain because you want to have, you know, you want to have the lifestyle, but you don't save. And then you look at like I'm in situation where I have aging parents and, and, and needless to say, at 95 years old and 80 and 90, 90 years old. And then you're looking at kids in college and all these different things that you have to pay for. And you're mean. Once again, manage your lifestyle. It's, it's an impossible thing. It's really a difficult thing for most people. So you have to whittle at it. It's. It's something where you buy one house. Like giving example, somebody could just, if they could save up 100,000, buy one house and plan on selling that house sometime in retirement, possibly, and then just buy another one. And just over a period of 20, 30 years, hopefully you have a number of homes, but it's really, it's difficult. Now, I want to answer something. If you have a 401k and you basically want to invest in real estate, you're able. I did it for my wife here. We moved her 401k into a self directed IRA and we did a fix and flip on a property. So you can be buying real estate in a self directed IRA and nobody's doing it. That's what I want to teach. If I can teach these agents all these different things, I could literally revolutionize the real estate industry. And I don't need that many. Maybe you get 5% or 10%. That's a lot. But it could really change things for the whole country.
[01:16:01] Speaker C: So you talked about those 401ks. I think a lot of people that work for companies, they just, oh, that's going in there every week. I don't even think about it where they could come up with a better strategy than just sitting, having it sitting in that account.
[01:16:12] Speaker G: But it's almost dead money. Because you were talking about the taxes there, Elizabeth. With real estate, if you sell it, when people pull the money out or forced to pull the money out of their 401k, it's taxed differently than somebody that owns a rental property and has the capital gains and they had a depreciation on it and they can exchange it. It's a heartbreak for me to see people put their money in the 401k. Even real estate agents that are putting it into these deferred products, basically retirement plans, when they could be buying stuff outside the retirement account, leverage their money better, have a better result.
So to answer a number of your questions, when we're looking at things, it's hard when you're talking about lifestyle, trying to maintain your lifestyle, trying to save for people that are selling real estate or other people that have their income go up and down and up and down. It's discipline.
[01:17:00] Speaker D: How do you pick a good rental property?
[01:17:02] Speaker G: There's a ton of different inventories for rental properties. And when I say inventories, what kind of property do you want? You know, do you want a single family home that rent long term, short term? There's so many different options out there and so many different specialties. Go to wealthagent.com we're rolling this out now. This is the beginning. This is the genesis of our program.
[01:17:22] Speaker D: Okay, well, thank you, Jeff Seibel with WealthAgent.com listeners. You are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Did we have some great discussions? If you missed any of the show, our podcast comes out tomorrow. But don't go away because when we come back, it's Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. And we'll be right back.
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[01:18:39] Speaker C: It's passage to Profit.
[01:18:40] Speaker A: Alicia Morrissey is our programming director at Passage to Profit, and she's also a fantastic jazz vocalist. You can scroll to the bottom of the passage to profitshow.com website and check out her album.
[01:18:55] Speaker D: Now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. So Craig Smith with Craig Smith speaks. What is a secret you can share with our audience?
[01:19:04] Speaker C: My wild nugget of wisdom for you to wrap up our show here. Whatever your goal is with your business, put it out there into the world. And I think that's something I've struggled with of I really want to do this, but I'm not confident enough to say it. And once you start saying it and sharing it within your network, you're going to be surprised on how many people, oh, I know somebody who can help you with that. Because none of us as entrepreneurs makes it alone. We make it because there's people who are there to help us that we come across. And if you don't put your idea out there, you're not going to find that help.
[01:19:37] Speaker D: I love that. Okay, thank you. So, Chris Ryan with ChrisRyanFitness.com what's a secret you can share?
[01:19:44] Speaker E: I think being relentless, I think just putting yourself out there, like Craig said, in your goals, but also just being relentless and your enduring habits to make sure that you're going to stay the course. I think sometimes entrepreneurs fail because they think that they have to have success too quickly. I think there's a big effect of compounding over the course of time like Jeff is talking about earlier about making sure that, you know, you get those base hits as an entrepreneur, you don't necessarily need to hit a home run. I think home runs in this day and age of social media are very publicized. But at the end of the day, there's just a lot of people out there that are doing a bunch of consistent base hits that all of a sudden wake up and they have a lot going on in their, you know, their personal wealth format and their own longevity in their own. In their own health, their own wellness in their own portfolio, if you will, on the investment side in their own company.
[01:20:36] Speaker D: Excellent. Thank you. And Jeff Seibel with wealthagent.com what's a secret you can share?
[01:20:41] Speaker G: Well, the same thing. I mean, for people just to start early and be consistent and never give up and just be patient and stick with it. I mean, I know that this is a transition for us going from the real estate world to the education world, and we really had no clue of how to structure these things. But now all of a sudden, I'm on a show with a, you know, 30,000 agents. That's going to be almost 200,000 agents. So that's a great start. And I'm here, so life is good. And I had two guests that were very impressive in here. So just stick at it and just keep going for it. If you have a dream, make it happen.
[01:21:17] Speaker D: You're in the big leagues with these guys. Exactly.
So, Richard Gearhart with gearhartlaw.com what's a secret you can share?
[01:21:24] Speaker A: I'm going to say be prepared to change over time as your business evolves and as you evolve. So if you stay with your business over time, your job is going to change. If you hire people, if you have new clients, if you have different customers, and your responsibilities are going to change. And I think while that tends to happen naturally, I also think it helps if the entrepreneur is aware that this is going to happen and that the role you're playing now may not be the same role that you're playing in two or three or four years. And I have seen entrepreneurs sometimes try too hard to keep things the way they were at an earlier stage of the business and not be able to delegate and let go of certain things so that they could focus on other things so that change is going to happen. And as you get more successful and as your business grows, you're going to be changing more.
[01:22:25] Speaker D: Love that. Yes. And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart with Gere Media Studios, and I'm going to say something that's been said many times in many different ways. But I'm going to say it again because I really believe it.
Do what you love and love what you do. Right? And I think that's the joy of being an entrepreneur. I mean, you do have to do the stuff you don't really like to do, like billing. But you can hire people for that, to Richard's point.
But do the one thing you really love and, yeah, the little things around it and love what you're doing every day. Love your life, you know, get healthy, get rich, go on stage.
[01:23:00] Speaker E: There we go.
[01:23:01] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:23:02] Speaker A: That's it for today's Passage to Prophet show. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast and leave a quick review. Also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X and subscribe to our YouTube channel for bonus content. Tune in next week for another episode of Passage to Prophet.
