[00:00:00] Speaker A: What does my brand want to be when it grows up?
[00:00:03] Speaker B: We're gonna dig into five buckets of business.
[00:00:05] Speaker C: It was really serendipitous.
[00:00:07] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhardt.
[00:00:09] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. Are you thinking of starting a business or have one you're trying to grow? Stay tuned.
[00:00:16] Speaker F: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:17] Speaker D: The time is near.
[00:00:19] Speaker F: You've given it hard. Now get it in gear. It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:26] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhardt, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm special, specializing in patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
[00:00:34] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law, and I just opened my podcast studio.
[00:00:41] Speaker D: Welcome to Passage to Profit the road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with business owners and celebrities about their business stories. We have on our program Jed Morley. He is a branding expert and founder of Backstory, and he also recently released a book, Building a Brand that Scales, which has lots of practical strategies for branding.
[00:01:02] Speaker E: Oh, that's so important. I mean, I just love the show today because we have two more great presenters. We have Rick English, founder of UpAdvisors Business Consulting. So, like, is there something that's preventing your company from working at high speed, from just something that's not working quite right? He's your guy.
[00:01:19] Speaker D: Yelling at the mirror doesn't help.
[00:01:22] Speaker E: And then. Okay, so we have the fun people here. David and Monica Kowalski, Lebowski's Kulua. Oh, he has a bottle of it he's showing us. So it's coffee and liqueur, and they have recipes on their website. They combine it with chocolate a lot, which is yum, yum. So we really want to hear the story about that and how people can buy it no matter where they are.
[00:01:43] Speaker D: Yes. But before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans are thinking about starting a business or are already business owners. And we like to ask our panel questions that might be of interest to our audience. So how do you overcome self doubt as an entrepreneur? So let's start with Jed. What do you think about overcoming self doubt as an entrepreneur?
[00:02:07] Speaker A: The biggest advice I ever got is to take action. To move from idea to action gives you confidence because you start to see what works and what doesn't work, and you gain confidence from having small successes. Those successes aren't going to come until and unless you take action. So move from idea mode into action mode as soon as you can and iterate and refine from There.
[00:02:30] Speaker D: I love that. Rick, what are your thoughts?
[00:02:32] Speaker B: My thing would be do your research. What I find is I have one client who spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars investing in something that is never going to really be successful in the marketplace. And I've got other clients who've generated millions of dollars because they did the homework upfront and really, really did the research to understand that. So I think you can eliminate a lot of the self doubt if you've done the homework and done the research to make sure your product or your service is viable.
[00:02:57] Speaker D: That's for sure. David and Monica, how do you eliminate self doubt or manage it?
[00:03:01] Speaker C: If you're an entrepreneur, it is really that ab testing. Right. Try something and go from there and then you really celebrate those little successes.
[00:03:10] Speaker G: And never be afraid to try.
[00:03:12] Speaker D: There you go.
[00:03:13] Speaker E: Elizabeth, I'm not sure you can entirely overcome self doubt, but I always think of that old adage, be like a duck. So you're calmly floating on the water, but you're paddling furiously underneath. And I think the thing is all of us are doing that. So I think you can look like, oh my gosh, these guys have it totally together. They never doubt themselves. We all do. You know what? So no, it's just a natural part of life and you have to just keep working at it every day to overcome it.
[00:03:39] Speaker D: Yeah, that's really well said. Thank you everybody for your comments. And now it's time to get to our featured guest, Jed Morley, and he's going to answer the question for us. If your brand were a person, would it get invited to the barbecue or, or report it to hr?
So he is a branding expert and he's going to tell us all about branding. Welcome to the show. Judd, tell us about branding for entrepreneurs. What is your advice there?
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Most important question you can ask yourself when you're starting out is what does my brand want to be when it grows up? If you can anticipate how big your brand will be when it's mature, how broad the portfolio of offerings will be that comprise your offerings, your opportunity, your business, it can save you a lot of time, energy and investment because you won't have to make adjustments to your brand long term. So asking that question, what does my brand want to be when it grows up? Can help to make the most of your investment all along the way.
[00:04:37] Speaker D: Can I just agree with that for a second? Because I remember when we were starting Gearhart Law, I hired a branding guy, he said that your logo should just be Gearhart Law.
And I wanted to put in patents, trademarks and copyrights in there, because that's our specialty. Well, as the firm has grown over the years, we do other types of legal work and if we had pigeonholed ourselves, it really wouldn't have worked from a branding standpoint. So he had the foresight to help me think long term. I agreed with him, even though at the time I wasn't really sure. I thought maybe more specific brand would help with marketing. But he turned out to be right in the long term.
[00:05:15] Speaker E: Yeah, well, and I think that kind of your business becomes your self, like your whole life if you're an entrepreneur. So your brand has to be something that you're proud of. That's yourself. And it was funny because I went to a personal stylist to figure out what I should wear as a podcast owner and it turned out I'm wearing the same stuff I always wore because that's.
[00:05:34] Speaker D: Which is a big relief for me because we didn't need to get a lot of new clothes.
[00:05:38] Speaker E: But it's just my personal brand is what I am and that's what I carry over into my business.
[00:05:43] Speaker D: Let me ask you though, how do you build trust in a brand?
[00:05:47] Speaker A: I love what Stephen Mr. Covey says about speed to trust. He says it comes down to two contributing factors. One is competence. You've gotta be good at what you do. And the other is character. You've gotta be dependable and reliable to do it as promised. And the essence of branding is making a meaningful promise and keeping it and enrolling and aligning everyone on your team to partner with you to build a brand that scales by keeping that promise consistently across customer relationships over time.
[00:06:17] Speaker D: So the trust comes more from reliability in keeping the brand promise, maybe more than some sort of sentiment or emotion. So trust is just that, reliability. You could position a company to be, have, you know, service companies say, be very aggressive. Right. And as long as they keep being aggressive, that's the kind of trust that, that somebody would want that, that would be keeping their brand promise. Right?
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Brand promises are words. And words are important. It's important to get the words right. Words that resonate. More important is making sure that you fulfill the promises that those words communicate. We worked with a company called Haven park, and Haven park owns and operates manufactured home communities. That's a nice way of saying mobile home parks or trailer parks. They were acquiring these properties from owners who were getting older and ready to retire. They didn't have anyone to gift the business to. Their kids weren't interested in picking up where they had left off. And these owners were concerned about selling to a partner that cared. So we had that idea in mind of differentiating Haven park as a partner that would care for the people who lived in these communities. But we didn't really know what would resonate with them in terms of making a meaningful brand promise. So we went out into the field and tested our assumptions. We took action and as Rick said, we got insights into what resonated with the community managers and residents of these properties across the country. In the course of doing that insight discovery work, we uncovered an opportunity to communicate a sense of respect. I remember I was talking to one resident and she was complaining about the fact that her neighbor would have friends over on the weekend and park in front of her driveway. When she complained about not being able to back her car out of the driveway to go to the grocery store to run errands, the community manager didn't do anything about it. Why? Because the community manager was good friends with her neighbor. So the community manager was playing favorites. When I probed further to ask what was the problem with this situation, the woman said, I just want people to treat me with respect. I asked a clarifying question. What does respect mean to you? She said, it means treating people the way you want to be treated. And because we had done a series of conversations, we'd heard the same sort of narrative. I was ready to recognize that she had illuminated a truth. And that is that everybody, especially people who live in mobile home parks, want to feel respected. And when I further clarified with her, she said, oh, it's like the golden rule. And that golden rule became the strategic insight that drove Haven park communities entire brand strategy. Their logo is gold and their purpose is to build caring communities across America. So that one conversation opened up an opportunity and an insight to communicate a compelling brand purpose and promise belong to a caring community. The only challenge is the company's operations initially weren't ready to live up to the promise. To their credit, the founders asked me, could we wait for a few months while we get some of these operational infrastructure systems in place to be able to live up to our promise? And I said, that's no problem. In fact, I really respect if you're taking the time to get your operations to where you can live up to what you're conveying in your value proposition. So they took six months to get their operational house in order. And when they did reveal and unveil belong to a caring community, they were able to live up to that promise. They attracted better talent from across the industry. They were able to attract better employees from nearby universities, and they were able to retain more of their community managers and residents than prior owners had been able to, because now there was a promise that resonated with their residents that they could actually live up to.
[00:09:57] Speaker E: Yeah, that's important. I remember this is a little off topic, but still kind of about brand. When we lived in Atlanta, we had this neighbor and they were so happy that we had bought this house and their old neighbors were moving out. Well, it turned out the old neighbor had gotten on the HOA board because this was an HOA and just ding them for every tiny little thing. Oh, your mailbox is half an inch too low. And just went after her and after her. And I'm telling you, that really hurt the HOA brand, because nobody wants to live there. Right.
[00:10:25] Speaker D: I really like what you're saying about waiting until you're ready to take the next steps. And so sometimes when you're in the entrepreneurial world, you have to kind of take a little bit of a risk in terms of moving your business forward, but also making sure that your business is ready to take on that risk is also extremely important.
[00:10:45] Speaker E: I have a question for you, Jed. You have here services that you give, which are really deep branding services. Like, people think of the visual brand. Like they think of what do you look like on Instagram. But you go way deeper than that. You do the whole thing. But here you have brand messaging. How do you get everybody on your team, if you're growing, to have the same brand message?
[00:11:05] Speaker A: To get everybody on your team to have the same brand message, you've got to have a compelling reason for them to buy in and believe that the messages are right. And to do that, you have to have something to back up your recommendations and the rationale to support a new story, a new narrative, new marketing messages. We found it really helpful to do in depth interviews like the one I referenced a moment ago for Haven Park Communities, because it not only adds insight to the brand strategy and messaging development process, it also gives confidence to teams that may have had differences in opinions as to what would resonate. Because you now have data to support the direction you're taking the company. We were just talking to the CEO and founder of a cybersecurity company called Security Metrics, Brad Caldwell. He mentioned that when we worked with them three years ago, they were growing at something like 6%. Today, three years later, they're growing at 22%. This is a 25 year old company. They're tens of millions of company revenue. Generator and they'd been flat for the previous five years before we started working with them. So what was the difference? He attributed it to the alignment that resulted from our work together. And he said it was because you had done the work. To dive deep, to understand the perspectives of different customer segments and partners and employees, to do a 360 degree review of how the brand is currently perceived. Let's call that P1 and how we wanted it to be perceived. P2. And when we developed the brand strategy and the messaging framework to close the gap between P1 and P2, the team was willing to adopt the new direction because they knew it was based and backed by data, and that resulted in alignment. And that alignment created momentum so that they could start growing again.
[00:12:42] Speaker E: Well, that's interesting. So we just finished this podcast studio and we designed it to be more upscale for businesses rather than diy. Although we welcomed diy and I'm kind of having a hard time communicating that brand vision to the general public. What kind of tools would you use to do that?
[00:12:58] Speaker A: To communicate the right image to your audiences, you need to first of all understand their mental map of how they see the market landscape. To do that, you've got to find out what their current perceptions are of your category. So it's important that they give feedback on your brand, but to do it in context of competitors and comparisons. And when you have that competitive context, you can see how your brand is perceived and make moves that are consistent with how you want it to relate to existing alternatives in the marketplace and position yourself to be perceived in a way that will reinforce the desired image and ultimately relationship that you want to cultivate with your customers. And I love what you were saying, Elizabeth, about it being more than just the way your brand looks. A lot of people say, I love your brand. And what they mean is, I like your logo.
[00:13:43] Speaker E: Right.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: And a brand's a lot more than just the visual identity or a corporate identity. It delves deeply into the words and even the culture of a company and its ability to fulfill on its promises across the team and across customer touch points.
[00:13:57] Speaker D: Jeb, what experience did you have as a young person, maybe even as a child, that pointed you in the direction of being a branding person?
[00:14:08] Speaker A: It's such a great question. The experiences that were formative for me and following the path I'm on now as a brand strategist and someone who helps companies build brands. That scale started when my parents would take us around the holidays. We would take Christmas gifts to people who were shut ins and who were Lonely. My father was a doctor. He was a podiatrist, and he had people from, no pun intended, all walks of life. He loved his patients, and they loved him. And he knew the people who were lonely around the holiday season. And so we would take time to take. My mom would make homemade bread and jam, and we would go with my parents to visit these people. And in the course of doing these visits, I realized that they had an interesting backstory, they had an interesting life, and they had insights and gifts to give and share. We once visited Jacob Boss. He was from Holland, and he was a symphony conductor. And he chose an instrument for each of us based on our personalities. And that was a fun, metaphorical way for us to learn something about music and to appreciate him as a person.
And that ability to get behind the superficial, the shallow, and really connect with people made a lasting impression on me.
Later, I studied design, and I thought designing logos was going to be the way to build brands. But then as I learned more and had more experience, I realized that there was this idea of a consumer insight. Lisa Fortini Campbell was an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, where my master's degree in integrated marketing communications. And she was passionate about uncovering the why behind the buy. What are the underlying drivers and motives and psychology behind the products we purchase. She had built a successful insights consulting firm, and we were given the opportunity to do some actual research. We were given a bar to study in Chicago, and I was assigned to the Abbey Pub, which was an Irish pub with a team of four other people. For 10 weeks, we observed and interviewed people to understand the why behind what they buy as it relates to alcohol. The only challenge was, I don't drink. So the question was, how does a guy who's dry figure out what these people are drinking and why? And that's where I cut my teeth on this idea of being able to uncover insights into the psychology of the connections and associations people have with their brand perceptions and preferences. But it really grew out of this ability to appreciate people and to want to understand them and connect with them on a personal level. And I attribute that to my parents.
[00:16:37] Speaker D: Jed Morley. He is a branding expert and founder of Backstory. We'll be back with more passage to profit. Stay tuned for Intellectual Property news. And then a little bit later in the show, Secrets of the entrepreneurial Mind. Stay tuned.
[00:16:51] Speaker H: Let me tell you a story about Bill. Bill was a normal guy in his 50s. He had back surgery about two years ago. Bill was in a lot of pain. He dealt with his pain by taking the Percocets his doctor prescribed for him. Bill took more and more and more of them to help with the pain. Until one day the prescriptions weren't enough to get rid of Bill's pain. Then one day, Bill found someone to help him get rid of the pain with illegal drugs he didn't need a prescription for. Fast forward to today. Bill lost his job and his family.
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[00:18:51] Speaker F: Now back to passage to profit once.
[00:18:53] Speaker E: Again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest, Jed Morley, a branding expert. And if you think a brand is just your logo, hold on. There's way more to it and Jed's helping us through that. But I just opened our pod. Well, Richard and I just opened our podcast studio and since we have Jed here, I wanted to pick his brain a little. So I asked him for things he would do to start a brand strategy for a podcast studio that caters more to business. So you're on the spot, Jed.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Get crystal clear about who your most important audience is. Think about the words, images and the experiences that would reinforce the desired perception you want to impress upon them. And think first, from an empathetic point of view, what problems you can solve for them, make them the hero of your story. You're guiding them to overcome the challenges they face and deeply understand how you're in a position to be able to help them achieve their desired outcomes. And then build and design a world that is aligned with that desired perception. It has to be true to you. So there's always gotta be an underpinning grounding foundation that connects to what you value. And you can build on top of that an expression of your values and your brand that resonate with your desired audience.
[00:20:05] Speaker E: Great advice.
[00:20:06] Speaker D: Very strategic.
[00:20:07] Speaker E: I think, yeah, I'm doing some of that, but I think I need to hone what I'm doing a little bit better because it's a new business. I'm looking to see who shows up.
[00:20:14] Speaker D: Jed, what's your favorite brand besides your own?
[00:20:17] Speaker A: I really love Sonos. They do a nice job of packaging a product that's well designed and easy to use.
So between the time you open it and can use it, it takes about 15, 20 minutes to set up. And you have professional grade sound, whether it's your tv, sound system or music throughout your house. And you can tune it and selectively turn on and off speakers. So you equip your house with music and audio content in minutes. That's a professional grade experience. I think they do that better than anybody else. And I love music. So it's been a brand that I've.
[00:20:50] Speaker E: Really learned to love that goes back to customer experience.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Takes a lot of work to do it well.
[00:20:55] Speaker E: There's a lot of steps to doing it. Right.
[00:20:57] Speaker D: Yeah. Important stuff. Jed Morley. He is a branding expert and founder of Backstory. Jed, where do people find you?
[00:21:04] Speaker A: People can find us@backstory branding.com backstorybranding.com and on Amazon. After June 3rd, the book will be available. It's called Building a Brand that Scales. They can also find me on LinkedIn.
[00:21:16] Speaker D: Perfect. Now it is time to move to intellectual property News. My favorite segment for sure, we're going to be talking about trademarks. We never mix passage to profit and religion. But today is an exception. There's a new Pope. I'm not Catholic, but I am from Chicago, just like the new Pope is. So we're solid there. We have Pope Leo. And as soon as that happened, of course, the capitalists came out of the woodwork and decided to start filing trademark applications on the Pope. Right.
[00:21:47] Speaker E: So the bears. The Pope.
[00:21:50] Speaker D: Well, yeah, obviously. I mean, remember, Saturday Night Live was a big hit and they had A skit about the Bears and it sort of became the sound of Chicago. So any time anybody thinks of Chicago, they think of the Bears. Da Bears or Dub Pizza or whatever. So now it's the Pope. And so people have been filing trademark applications, mostly for apparel, to protect their interest in this. The funny thing is that I'm not really sure any of those applications will be granted because in order to trademark the name of somebody not yourself, you have to get written consent. I'm not seeing da Po. That's not giving written consent.
[00:22:32] Speaker E: That's not actually his name. His name is Pope Leo.
[00:22:35] Speaker D: Well, and see, therein lies the interesting twist in this, because if it can be directed to a person, even if it's not that person's name, it can be associated with them, then you still need to get that consent.
[00:22:50] Speaker E: You think he'll give us?
[00:22:51] Speaker D: That's a good argument. I mean, I think that if people are serious about this, they should make that because it's not a person's name, it's a title.
[00:22:57] Speaker E: But don't you think that he'd give us consent anyways because it's said with affection and it's good branding? Right, Right.
[00:23:04] Speaker D: I know the Pope's got nothing else to do than sign consent letters for people he doesn't know in the US to get trademark applications granted.
[00:23:14] Speaker E: He has an assistant to it, one of those altar boys.
[00:23:17] Speaker D: But you know, you could go to his brothers, one of his bro others, and maybe ask them, you know, I.
[00:23:21] Speaker E: Don'T know, they became famous too.
[00:23:23] Speaker D: Yeah. So that's the situation. I'm going to put this to the panel. Rick, what are your thoughts on this?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: I love the fact that people are being creative and it's really what our capitalist economy is built on.
[00:23:34] Speaker D: David and Monica, what are your thoughts going into this?
[00:23:37] Speaker C: I say I love it.
[00:23:38] Speaker G: It's the hustle utilizing his image in the, the logo or design. I mean, I think that takes it to the next level.
[00:23:44] Speaker C: You got to have that hustle. So why not? Why not Jedi?
[00:23:48] Speaker D: So you're the branding expert. Do you think this was like a well thought out branding strategy like you advocate?
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Probably not, but it's opportunistic and there's a first movers advantage. If the Pope wanted to lean into this, I think it would make him even more effective and beloved by more people.
[00:24:03] Speaker E: Let's see what happens. I guess it's pretty funny.
[00:24:07] Speaker D: And if you have a trademark that you want to protect, Gerhardt Law works with entrepreneurs worldwide to help them prepare, protect their brands and their technology. Through patents. You can go to our website, learn more about Patents.com or learn more about Trademarks.com and download a free white paper that explains the patent and trademark process. Or you can book a consultation with a Gearhart law attorney.
[00:24:34] Speaker E: Listeners, you're listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:24:38] Speaker D: And we'll be back right after this.
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[00:26:24] Speaker H: 8004-3067-2280-0430-6722,800, 430-6722. That's 800-430-6722.
[00:26:39] Speaker F: Passage to profit continues with Richard and.
[00:26:42] Speaker D: Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest, Jed Morley, who is a branding expert. He's delivered amazing insights into the branding process and we feel especially fortunate to have him with us. Just for your information, Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show heard in 38 markets across the United States.
Our podcast is ranked in the global top 3% of podcasts according to Listen Notes. And we have recently been selected by Feedspot Podcasters database as a top 10 entrepreneurial podcast.
[00:27:17] Speaker E: So how is that for two years in a row? This is the second year.
[00:27:20] Speaker D: Yeah. Good for us. And now it's time for Elizabeth's Spotlight. Tell us what you've been up to.
[00:27:27] Speaker E: Well, I have been sharing my journey as an entrepreneur in my different ventures. I was trying to make a video director of small business owners. People hate being on video. You know what? Anyway, I was maybe a little before my time, because now you have to be on video. And if you want to know more about that, just ask me later. But.
[00:27:47] Speaker D: But no, you. But your point is that if you're in business, having videos can be very advantageous.
[00:27:53] Speaker E: Well, you have to have them now because that's what if you're. If you want to get any online business, Google change their algorithms and they're favoring videos now. So if you don't have any videos, then they're going to just put your website at the bottom when people are searching. So anyway, that's why we shoot everything in a video studio and the podcast studio is a video studio. And anyway, I switched from that to really doing a deep dive into podcasting. And Richard and I spent the last year mostly Richard, I helped, but he really put it all together.
[00:28:21] Speaker D: He had all the furniture.
[00:28:22] Speaker E: We did it together. So we spent the last year working on this and we had our grand opening. A lot of people came. It was great. So networking is huge when you're trying to start a new business. Try to get as many people as you can to be aware of what you do.
[00:28:35] Speaker D: It was packed. It was just so full. I didn't. I couldn't believe how many people they fit in here.
[00:28:40] Speaker E: Part of it was because I have relationships that go back years with people who are connectors and very good networkers. And they helped me. And Marcella Giancarelli in particular was really key in helping me get people here. A lot of interest in the studio. I've had a lot of people coming by since the grand opening, talking about the projects they want to start. And so it's really, for me about this podcast studio and helping people start podcasts is. I love doing it. It's like what I'm made for, I guess. So, yeah, back to Jet's point of really, what's your why? And really, who are you? And is this a good fit for you as a Person. Yes, it is. So I am also still doing the Jersey Podcast podcast with Danielle Woolley, although we've taken a break because she's had some other stuff going on. And I still have the meetup group podcast and YouTube creators community. And we're going to be talking next time about using video editing tools. If you're a DIY type of person to edit your videos so that you don't have to spend a whole bunch of money to do it, you just have to spend the time. But the AI stuff is just making everything easier and easier and easier.
[00:29:43] Speaker D: Yeah, it's really changing the face of podcasting for sure. Do you want to talk about chicken now?
[00:29:48] Speaker E: I do want to talk about chicken now. I was just going to get into that.
[00:29:51] Speaker D: I'm hungry even thinking about it.
[00:29:53] Speaker E: Don't be, because this is the medical minute.
There was a study done.
[00:29:58] Speaker D: They're going after chicken.
[00:30:00] Speaker E: They're going after chicken. It was done in Italy, where people eat the Blue Zone diet, the Mediterranean diet. And they studied people for 19 years.
4,869 participants.
[00:30:12] Speaker D: Boy, that sounds like a great job.
[00:30:13] Speaker E: From two Italian cohort studies. They did interviews with them on their demographic backgrounds, general health, lifestyle habits, personal histories, weight, height, blood pressure, their food intake, everything. And the results of this study, what they found is if you eat more than 300 grams of chicken, which is.
[00:30:30] Speaker D: Not a lot of chicken, right?
[00:30:31] Speaker E: That is 10.6.
[00:30:32] Speaker D: That's like one trip to Colonel Sanders.
[00:30:34] Speaker E: Yeah, that's 10.6 ounces. So that's like maybe two and a half, three chicken breasts. Right. In a week. It was associated with an elevated risk for all cause mortality and more than double the risk for death from gastrointestinal cancers compared with eating less than 100 grams. So like 4 ounces.
[00:30:50] Speaker D: This cannot be true. I mean, where did you find this?
[00:30:53] Speaker E: I found it on two different sites on the Internet because the first one I read is the same study.
[00:30:58] Speaker D: Or it's two different studies.
[00:30:59] Speaker E: It's the same study on two different sites. Total of 1,028 participants out of the 4,869 died during the period.
[00:31:08] Speaker D: And it's because they ate chicken.
[00:31:10] Speaker E: 10% were due to gastrointestinal cancer. They ate too much chicken.
So I don't know. I mean, I don't know.
[00:31:17] Speaker D: I could see it if it's like, had all these hormones in it. But this is like Italian chicken, right? They don't. They. They have like clean birds there.
[00:31:24] Speaker E: I'm not sure that they were able to control all the variables or Account for all the variables because they were like maybe some of it was more processed and then like pancreatic cancer, I don't know. And liver cancer were a couple like did they really test how much these people were drinking? But basically, I guess just everything in moderation is better.
[00:31:44] Speaker D: But you can't eat beef. Fish is bad because it's got mercury, mercury in it. And now chicken.
[00:31:50] Speaker E: But there was one that I will believe, literally, and this is true. 100% of people who eat die.
[00:31:59] Speaker D: I knew that was coming.
I'm sure a regular listener. That is not the first time she's made that joke after one of these studies.
[00:32:08] Speaker E: Anyway, enough about this. This is ridiculous.
[00:32:10] Speaker D: Let's get to yeah, I'm still going to eat more chicken.
[00:32:13] Speaker E: Let's get to some more interesting.
[00:32:14] Speaker D: Not giving up my Chick Fil A.
[00:32:16] Speaker E: I'm just going to eat a little bit of variety of foods and hope I don't die too soon.
[00:32:20] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:32:20] Speaker E: Anyway, next we're going to be talking to Rick English. He's the founder of UpAdvisors, a business consulting company. Go to his website, see what he does. I mean, he'll explain it here too. But I really feel like he can put the finger on what's, what's bothering you with your business and how to make your business run better. So welcome Rick and please tell us.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: What you do at Upadvisors. We, we consider ourselves to be business consultants and coaches. So we like to dig in, get to know a business. We like to start with a discovery call and then we'll, we'll go from there. If it makes sense for us to work together, we'll go to what we call a deep dive. So we're going to dig into five buckets of business people, process, product, profit and customer experience.
So we dig in, get to know where the issues are, get to know where the opportunities are, and then we prioritize action to address the issues and maximize the opportunities. And typically we do that in either a weekly or bi weekly coaching call and consulting call. But we'll also take on projects to really tackle those issues or to maximize the opportunities.
[00:33:20] Speaker D: So what are the most common issues you run across working with entrepreneurs and businesses?
[00:33:25] Speaker B: I would say there's three core number one is not knowing your numbers so not having your books up to date, not tracking those key numbers in your business. One of my very first clients I served, he was managing what I doing what I call manage my bank account. So he's paying $800 a month over here for a bookkeeper and Then he wasn't actually getting the financial reports and using it to make good decisions. He was just, oh, I got enough money, so I'm going to do this. He ultimately went bankrupt. And so I really encourage you to know your numbers. The number two challenge is hiring the right people so that you can maximize your time value.
[00:33:59] Speaker D: Can we go back to the numbers thing for a minute? Because I'm a big numbers person, and I think knowing your numbers is absolutely key because you need to know whether you're making a profit, right? So what do you tell people, though, who are just. They say, I'm not a numbers person. I don't understand this stuff. So how do you get them to understand the numbers of their business well enough that they can make the right decisions?
[00:34:22] Speaker B: I usually just let them know that it's really not an option either. You got to have somebody help you get those numbers. But generally speaking, you really need to just learn. If you want to be in business and you want to have success, you got to take a small amount of time to get those numbers right. Otherwise, it's just going to be a challenge. It's going to be a challenge to make good decisions. It's going to be a challenge to have good information. And so we're all about teaching. Some people are scared of QuickBooks. QuickBooks is the number one business bookkeeping software out there. People are scared of it, but once they get comfortable moving around and if they have a bookkeeper, we get the bookkeeper to partner with them and to also help educate. And over time, I found, you know, a lot of people that I work with don't know their numbers when we start, but they're generally very comfortable after a relatively short period of time because they've gotten comfortable with the software and they understand what they need to be looking for.
[00:35:11] Speaker D: What's wrong with managing through your bank account? Why can't you do that? You just look and see, oh, I've got $3,000 in there. This new piece of equipment costs 500. Why not just buy it?
[00:35:21] Speaker B: There are certain situations where you probably could get away with it, but generally speaking, if you don't know what your obligations are. So how much money is in your bank doesn't tell you how much you owe 20 vendors that you owe money to, and so. Or what other expenses are coming down the line. So if you don't have good visibility into that, you might spend the $500 and find that you, you owe $5,000 and now, now you're $2,500 in the hole.
[00:35:43] Speaker E: I used Quicken for our household expenses years ago and it used to frustrate the heck out of me because the way it was set up, I could not get the information I wanted in the form I needed it. And now, being much older and maybe wiser, I found that basically any software you use is going to have deficits. You're never going to get everything you want from a software. Right.
So do you really feel like QuickBooks is the best one? Is it the easiest one? I know there's other softwares for managing money, but really you said QuickBooks and I kind of agree because there's so many people that know how to use it that you can find a consultant easily. Or would you recommend something else?
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Yeah, QuickBooks does a really good job. It's not perfect and they're constantly improving it. I don't recommend the desktop version, it's kind of dying out. But I think the QuickBooks online version is pretty easy to use sometimes. And you're right, I mean, accessing help is super easy, whether it's from QuickBooks or from a consultant or from a bookkeeper. Yeah, I think it's the best. I guess it just depends too on size of business because there is a point at which QuickBooks becomes insufficient. But for most small business owners, small, even medium sized business owners, QuickBooks is probably the best option for business financials.
[00:36:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I think there's a lot of softwares out there in the accounting realm and other realms too. And there's kind of the more established brands, which tend to be a little bit more expensive. And then there's also new entries to the market. Sometimes the new entries, though, they're still kind of buggy, they don't really work that well. And if you go with the established brands, then you have the advantage of a large support network like Elizabeth mentioned. But also they're stable, so they're going to be there. We once hired an HR company that went out of business after two years. They were a startup and they were a company client of ours and so we wanted to support them. And they're like, okay, why don't you use our HR software? And we didn't have that many employees, but it turned out that when they went bankrupt, we had a hard time getting some of our payroll records out of that. And the software never quite worked right. Everybody got paid, but there were some glitches there. So I do think that staying with sort of the standard brands is not a bad idea.
Whenever you pick a software for a company, you have to do your research and understand what are the pluses and the minuses, right?
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing about QuickBooks at this point, because it's so widely used, all the integrations that you can. Everything that it integrates with is, you know, you'd be missing out quite a bit if you. I mean, Xero is out there. Xero is probably the next most common, but it's a distant second. And so you've got all these integrations. QuickBooks will integrate with so many different platforms that. Duh. And sometimes it does it well, sometimes not so well, but generally you have that ability to make it work pretty well. So everything kind of talks to each other and simplifies your technology overall.
[00:38:28] Speaker E: So there's a little bit of a learning curve, but it's a learning curve an entrepreneur has to climb, right?
[00:38:33] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:38:33] Speaker E: So number two was people.
[00:38:36] Speaker B: Number two is people. Yeah. So it's really hiring the right people. I was on a call with a client of mine out in Colorado this morning who owns a window film business. They apply window film mostly in the commercial, in commercial spaces. And he needs to hire an assistant. I mean, it's the first thing we. This was our third call today, and it's really clear he's spending all of his time on administrative stuff when he needs to be spending his time on sales, marketing. So that next step for him is to really hire an assistant who can move the needle and enable him to focus on what he does best and what's most needed in the business.
[00:39:08] Speaker D: So a question that a lot of business owners have, who are startups? When do you make that hire? Because on the one hand, you're trading time for money, right? And so you need more time, but it's going to cost money to pay this person and it's also going to take time to communicate with them. Right. So how do you make that decision?
[00:39:28] Speaker B: There's not a simple checklist necessarily, but I think there are a couple of things to really look at. One is you need to have sufficient working capital, that available money to spend the $500 that you talked about earlier to buy that item. But you need to have that working capital because you know you don't want to do is pull somebody away from another company into your company and then find out you only have three months of Runway and now you got to let them go. I always say you're not getting. You don't get married to your employees, but you do want to treat them fairly and you don't want to put people in a tough situation.
So you got to have that working capital and you got to have the right, the trajectory's got to be there in your business. So if you are going to trade your time for money in the form of an employee, you also got to have a real clear path. And we talked about that this morning. It's like, what are you going to do with that time? In his case, he said, I'm going to focus my time on sales, marketing and making sure I'm following up on emails. Because he gets behind on his emails all the time. So being able to have a clear plan and a clear path to utilize that time so that you can make more money to pay for your, your person is super important. So those would be the number one and number two things for me.
[00:40:32] Speaker E: I just want to throw something in here that I just recently experienced with the studio. I went to a seminar on grants and this is New Jersey. Other states probably has something similar. But I said, well, what if I want to hire somebody and I don't have the money to do it? Is there money available to help me hire someone? And they said, yes. The labor department go on their website, they do have grants.
So I know it's hard to think of parting with that hard earned cash to hire somebody. But there is government help in a lot of places.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: There are definitely in a different state to state. It's. It varies also depending upon the nature of your business. There are programs for people that are getting out of. I just know it sounds crazy getting out of prison. I mean, they may not have committed some crazy crime, but that transition process where you can literally get thousands and thousands of dollars over, over many months to fund a new employee may not be best for say an office person necessarily. But you know these people, they're going through training and while they're incarcerated and they get opportunities, there's also grants. There's. There's a lot of different opportunities that you can take advantage of. So yeah, highly recommend that.
[00:41:34] Speaker D: Excellent. Yeah, I love your point about having a clear direction for what you're going to do with your time. So if you hire somebody and you just spend your extra time watching YouTube videos, that probably is not going to move your business in the right direction unless you're watching a passage of profit YouTube video, in which case you're learning.
[00:41:52] Speaker E: Every second honing your skills. But I do think the sales and marketing is a good place. I feel like a business owner should be out there in the community getting to know people and talking to people about what they do, spreading their brand information right Speaking of which, Jedi, did you have a question or comment?
[00:42:07] Speaker A: I'd be interested to know, Rick, from your perspective and experience, what are the mindset shifts that entrepreneurs need to make to grow their businesses?
[00:42:15] Speaker B: One of the big things is you have to promote yourself. And you also, in promoting yourself, you have to understand the value of, of an hour of your time. So one of the very first things that I'll do with new clients is I'll ask them, what is an hour of your time worth? Not what do you pay yourself, but what is the value of an hour of your time worth?
So that impact, some people will say, you know, $50. I have one guy say 5,000. Well, he obviously has already figured out that he's already made the mindset shift. But so many are. They're stuck. Oh, I got, I gotta, I can't turn it over to somebody else because I don't trust them. Or, or I have, I'm the only one who can do it. Well, you're doing $20 an hour work and your time is worth minimum $150 an hour. I say everybody, every business owner's time is worth at least 150 an hour. So you have to change your mindset from I can only do it to I need to trade my work for value, my time for value. You got to switch from doing $20 an hour work to do $150 hour work as much as you possibly can. That's one of the biggest things that I see. You have to be in a place where you are maximizing the value of your time. And that can look different ways. Some people think, well, I got to go hire a full time employee. They got to be able to do all these different things. Well, you could hire a virtual assistant. I don't know how many people on this call are familiar with virtual assistants. They're a good resource. You can hire somebody part time, hire fractional people. We're talking about QuickBooks and bookkeeping. A bookkeeper can make a significant impact and you might pay somewhere between three and $500 a month. They take that burden off of you, but you're trading your time for real value. And so it's huge. That's why it's in the top three for me.
[00:43:51] Speaker E: We're out of time for this segment. I feel like we barely got started.
[00:43:55] Speaker D: Yeah, but lots of good information though.
[00:43:57] Speaker E: How do people find you if they want to pick your brain some more? Get your services?
[00:44:01] Speaker B: Yeah, they can reach
[email protected] they can find me on LinkedIn. They can email me renglishyupadvisors.com and I'm also pretty active on social media, so they can find me on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and all the others.
[00:44:16] Speaker E: Well, thank you, Rick. You know, you've really given me some food for thought because I was going to do some low level work, and I'm thinking I should push it off on the marketing assistant.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: Appreciate it.
[00:44:26] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt.
[00:44:28] Speaker E: So now we're on to David and Monica Kowalski. And this is really a cool product, Kulua. It's a nostalgic, award winning blend of coffee and liqueur born from a family recipe. Tell us all about this.
[00:44:43] Speaker C: Well, we have two businesses, so we're those entrepreneurs. And I. And I worked in corporate America for 28 years. Laid off position, moved to India, and then I, in 45 days, opened a tap room just because I didn't know that it was supposed to take longer than that. And, you know, we just were like, all right, let's jump in. But what happened is I was having difficulty finding a coffee liqueur, and with the Lebowski's tap room, you have to have a White Russian, right? And it was really serendipitous because I was looking my daughter. There's rites of passage in our house. And while I.
I like to think I'm a cool, hip mom, but I'm not. You know, you have to be 18 to do some things. You know, it's just you have to. And our youngest wanted a tattoo, and she wanted it of my mom's handwriting, which is very near and dear. My mom had passed away, and so she wanted her handwriting. And so we were looking in the Tupperware recipe book that everybody had in the 70s, and it was green. And then he opened it up and it had pictures on it, and it was like jello salad. And it had all these things that everybody's mom had.
Grandma or crazy aunt, right? And so I still have that because that was my mom's. And so we're looking for a Henriette. I found my dad's recipe for coffee liqueur that he used to make. And my dad passed away when I was 18, and so I hadn't even had a White Russian, hadn't thought about it. And I was like, oh, let's try this out. Let's see if it works. And of course, it was laid out very.
I'm sure he had done many ab testing, right? It was. This is what you do. This is the next step, things were underlined a couple times. You know, like, very specific. Just very specific. Very specific region of coffee. All of it was, like, right there. Of course, I put everything together in a pot and didn't turn out right. Turned out like candy. So then I followed it exactly. And then. Then I had the perfect test kitchen because we had the tap room. And, you know, with our liquor license and everything, and most liquor licenses across the country, you can infuse things. So you'll go to, like, your favorite restaurant. They may infuse a vodka with Jolly Ranchers or with jalapenos, you know, tequila. You can do all of that. So it was basically a house made coffee liqueur. So for eight months, I made coffee liqueur at Lebowski.
[00:47:04] Speaker D: It was a very happy eight months, by the way.
[00:47:06] Speaker C: Happy eight months. And then I was getting this. Can we buy it? Can we buy it? Well, that's where the liquor license changes, right? Because then you become a bootlegger, so you can't do that unless you're into steel.
So.
[00:47:18] Speaker D: So then I'm sure you want to admit that publicly.
[00:47:20] Speaker C: I never sold it, other than we.
[00:47:22] Speaker D: Are attorneys here, by the way we talked about it.
[00:47:25] Speaker C: I was like, what's the worst case scenarios? We sell a pallet. We had to buy a pallet. So we found a Distiller Black hat distillery. We're really good friends with Joe, and we just kind of was like, what does this look like? What's the, you know, cost? Can we. How do we do this? And if you were my attorney, you'd be really happy because I was like, well, how are you doing this? And he's like, oh, it's just a fee for service. And I was like, okay, let's sign that.
So we. We did a fee for service, did our first palette, and we sold 1500.
[00:47:54] Speaker G: Bottles in the first 60 days.
[00:47:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:47:57] Speaker G: That we launched it.
[00:47:57] Speaker D: So what makes it so fantastic?
[00:47:59] Speaker C: There's a lot of things that make it really fantastic. It's gluten free.
It's 100% additive free. So if you look at other coffee liqueurs, a lot of them have caramel coloring and add additional things. There's really nothing in there other than all natural ingredients. That's it.
[00:48:18] Speaker G: Monica's dad chose to use vodka as the mace. And so that. That is really what works to our advantage. The vodka doesn't add an extra flavor to the product, so it lets the Colombian coffee that we use really shine through in the product.
It also doesn't add an extra Sugar component. So the TTB won't let us put this on the label. But ours, ours tends to be about a third less sugar than most coffee liqueurs on the market currently. And as Monica mentioned, it acts as a natural preservative. So we're one of the only major coffee liqueurs on the market that has no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, and.
[00:48:50] Speaker C: It'S a nostalgic flavor. And definitely when it's being made, it's. I mean, it just takes me back to. And somebody's like, oh, how old were you when you were making it? Of course seven. You know, I mean, I was. I'm an only child, so I was in the kitchen with my dad. But then it was something that brought me back to. To. We gave this out to the neighbors. Right? There was that trade. It was. I grew up in a very small town, Trinidad, Colorado, population, you know, 8,500 coal miners. And it was that nostalgia. And then somebody has a White Russian. They're like, oh, my gosh, I forgot. I love this drink. Or now it's the espresso martini. But you can mix because it is such a neutral spirit. We do a limoncello White Russian, which sounds like, oh, you're mixing lemon and coffee. And half and half. No, it tastes like German chocolate cake.
[00:49:39] Speaker E: And this has quite a kick. It's like 20% alcohol, right?
[00:49:42] Speaker C: Correct, correct.
[00:49:43] Speaker D: And that's another reason for its popularity.
[00:49:46] Speaker E: And like, if you go on their website, no kidding, they show it like with chocolate brownie, and you pour this over a chocolate, that's like heaven to me. I just want to say, that looks so good.
[00:49:57] Speaker C: Now everybody's palette is a little different. Right. You have Dutch brothers, you have Starbucks, you have whatever coffee. You know, like, people go out and have coffee. Let's go have coffee somewhere. Right. So our palates are a little different. And when I was young, we did it during Christmas because that was like cold weather. It was hunting season. There's a lot of things that were brought into that from a culture and family perspective. And now it's like, you know, I mean, that was when I think my dad probably would complain to somebody charged 50 cents for coffee with no refill. You know, like, what are you talking about?
Coffee?
[00:50:35] Speaker D: So can you describe the taste of this to our listeners? How would you describe it?
[00:50:40] Speaker G: So different people get different notes. The most common things, obviously, like a caramel or brown sugar type of within. Definitely that coffee flavor really shines through.
[00:50:51] Speaker C: And even non coffee drinkers will taste like chocolate notes.
[00:50:54] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:50:54] Speaker C: So when we've competed in different spirit festivals, that's a thing that comes through, is a, is a, is not only just the coffee, the maple vanilla, and then a chocolate.
[00:51:06] Speaker G: We have developed 55 different recipes for White Russians using every single alcohol you can imagine. Absinthe based, limoncello based, you name it, we've tried it. With our coffee liqueur, we have 10 different espresso martini recipes that we make. One of the crazier ones is a hot honey tequila espresso martini.
[00:51:23] Speaker D: That is just wow.
[00:51:25] Speaker C: These are all things that, you know, we share. This is part of our culture and our brand. Because at first, you know, colleagues would go, well, you're giving out recipes. Well, it's a consumable product. Of course I want them.
[00:51:35] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:51:37] Speaker C: I also own a Tap room where anybody can make a hamburger, but they come to eat a hamburger that I make because they didn't have to make it.
[00:51:45] Speaker E: Right.
[00:51:45] Speaker D: Or they like your hamburger.
[00:51:46] Speaker E: Or they like hamburgers.
[00:51:47] Speaker A: So, Jed, Monica, and David, how are you incorporating the origin story for how you found this recipe, rediscovered it, and developed it into your market facing?
[00:51:56] Speaker C: That is on all of our, like, shelf talkers. It is on everything that we, you know, like, even our team at the Tap room, because in Colorado, you can take bottles home with you. So anything that it's incorporated into our website. So it talks about how, you know, we're honoring my dad with a family recipe. Right. It's here. It's made right in the heart of colorad in the, in the middle of the United States versus nothing to be imported or anything like that. And you can buy it and request it online in the cities and states that allow that. That's something that we incorporate on our website. On any talking, any sales meeting that story is brought up. So that way they know and, you know, it's fun is because, you know, my dad's name was Donald, and so Donnie, it kind of incorporates into the movie. So we even have a little thing that says a tribute to Donnie.
[00:52:45] Speaker E: For those who don't know what was the movie that you're referencing?
[00:52:48] Speaker C: Big Lebowski.
[00:52:49] Speaker E: So you have Lebowski's Kulua, right? Yes. That's your website. Can you kind of spell out how people find you on your website?
[00:52:57] Speaker D: Absolutely. It's.
[00:52:58] Speaker G: It's lebowskiskoolua.com. it's L E B O W S K-I S K-O-O-L-L-U A H.com and they can go there, find out about more about our story, find recipes for both food and cocktail drinks, fun interactive things that take them back to our taproom website as well.
T shirts, merchandise, all that kind of thing. And more importantly, they can go and directly order the product in most states. We have online sales live now, and they can go on and check that out. You can also see the different awards that we've won for the product. We picked up our first gold medal for the product in San Diego at the San Diego International Spirits Festival in February. We just recently won three additional gold medals at the Los Angeles Invitational Spirit Challenge. And we're currently competing in the New York International Spirit.
[00:53:52] Speaker C: So it'll be in your neck of.
[00:53:53] Speaker D: The woods, knock on wood.
[00:53:53] Speaker G: We're hoping to do just as well on the East Coast.
[00:53:57] Speaker E: So it sounds like a really popular product. It sounds like it'd be a great gift for the person who has everything right. Absolutely. Yeah. Something they haven't tried before.
So thank you very much, listeners. You're listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest today, Jed Morley. And we have been talking about all sorts of different things, but it all comes back to promoting your business, getting your brand out there, and what you want to say about yourself. We'll be right back.
[00:54:23] Speaker F: Man, I had a rough night's sleep, boy. I got a letter from the IRS yesterday and I just couldn't sleep, man. I'm dying here. Somebody help me. IRS problems affect more than just your finances. If you're ready to take back control of your life and you owe more than $10,000, you need to call the tax doctor. Their expert staff can immediately protect you from the IRS and state collectors and get you the best possible tax settlement guaranteed. The IRS has recently released new programs geared in helping struggling taxpayers where you may qualify to settle your tax debt and wipe out up to 85% or more of what you currently owe. If you owe $10,000 or more in back taxes, call a tax doctor right now. See if you qualify to pay less.
[00:55:07] Speaker H: 8002-6219-2680-0262-1926.
800-262-1926. That's 800-262-1926 six. It's passage to profit.
[00:55:24] Speaker D: 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.
[00:55:38] Speaker E: We're almost to the end of the show. If you missed any of it, it'll be out tomorrow as a podcast. We just had these great discussions, great business help, great products. This, this coffee liqueur that sounds super duper good business help, marketing help, branding help. Now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial mind.
So, Jed, I'm going to start with you. What is a secret you can share with our listeners?
[00:56:03] Speaker A: Love the problem. If you love the problem, you will find a solution that will satisfy the needs of the people you want to serve. Sometimes we skip that step and go right to the solution.
And like Rick mentioned at the top of the show, you get a lot of assumptions mixed into your sunk cost and before you know it, you're in too deep to stop. But you haven't really solved for the problem because you fell in love with your solution instead of the problem. And if you love the problem, you'll serve the people and you'll be successful.
[00:56:32] Speaker E: Oh, I like that. Okay, Rick English, what is your secret?
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Mine would be never turn off your sales engine. So sometimes you're going to smash the gas. Sometimes you're going to let it just idle, but never turn it off. If you're good just stagnating or shrinking, then go ahead and turn it off. But if you want to scale your business, never turn it off. You got to constantly be doing your sales and marketing just at different speeds.
[00:56:55] Speaker E: Well, that's great. So, Monica Kowalski, what is your secret?
[00:56:59] Speaker C: I would say connections, like personal and genuine connection with your team and your clients.
[00:57:05] Speaker E: That's a good one, too, David.
[00:57:06] Speaker G: I would say the connections, but in a little different way. Going back to always telling the story and finding those connections with customer, whether it's the big Lebowski movie or at family gatherings. They would drink White Russians back in the day or that toastmartinis are the most popular drink in the country right now. Finding that connection and being able to solve that need for that customer with the product and showing them how our product can help enhance those experiences.
[00:57:33] Speaker E: Excellent.
[00:57:35] Speaker D: Very well said, Richard Gerhardt. My secret this week is going to be do something different.
So yesterday I went to the opening ceremonies for a hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was a new cancer center, the Jack and Cheryl Morris Cancer Center. They had just opened up and it was really an amazing place. The theory being that cancer treatments in cancer centers should be more customer focused and patients should feel more comfortable during their treatments and that the building shouldn't just look like an ordinary hospital. So they had created this institution that really looked like a luxury hotel. And the atmosphere was just amazing. And it was very, very customer centric. And I had never Been to a hospital opening before. I'm not sure how I got there, but it was different, and it provided me with a different perspective on something new, and it gave me new things to think about and kind of provided some fresh information for me that I hadn't had in the past. So do something different.
[00:58:42] Speaker E: Yes, it's a beautiful facility. It's a long story, but I got to see a little bit of it, too.
I guess my secret is don't let the naysayers get you down. So we were at an event last night, and a different event. A different event, but at the same sort of place. And we had to go through the facility to get the car from the valet parking. That's how I got to see it. Anyway. Too much information. Anyway, I was telling people, well, yeah, I just opened this podcast studio, and someone said to me, well, so. And so just opened one two weeks ago down here. So, like, you're out of luck. Like, you're too late.
[00:59:12] Speaker D: I was like, well, thanks for the support, number one.
And it was actually an award ceremony. Elizabeth won an award for being one of the top 100 innovators in New Jersey. And so, you know, you think people would be uplifting at an event like this.
[00:59:30] Speaker E: I don't even remember what the guy looked like or what his name was or anything. I just remember thinking to myself, well, this is like an hour away from where I live. And people using a brick and mortar don't typically want to drive that far if there's one closer that serves their needs. And also, you have no idea what the studio is all about. Like, just like. So I just chose to kind of ignore that comment and just. I just said, oh, yeah, I guess so.
I didn't try to argue with the guy. So don't let people like that get you down.
[01:00:02] Speaker D: Don't let them bring you down. That's for sure. Anyway, well, that's it for us. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer, Noah Fleishman, and our program coordinator, Alicia Morrissey, and our studio assistant, Risa Kat Bussari. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcast. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% 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. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
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