Entrepreneurs: How Profit Driven Innovators Are Cleaning Up the Planet with Jim Beach + Others (Full Episode)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You tell me an environmental problem and I can introduce you to the entrepreneur that is currently solving that problem. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Always wanted to come back to media and at this time, podcasting was the great escape. [00:00:12] Speaker C: I took on this label as a widow, which is a club that nobody wants to join and one with the highest admission price. [00:00:19] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhardt. [00:00:20] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. You just heard some snippets from our show. It was a great one. Stay tuned to hear tips about how you can start your business. [00:00:30] Speaker F: Ramping up your business. [00:00:31] Speaker D: The time is near. You've given it hard. Now get it in Gear. [00:00:36] Speaker F: It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. [00:00:41] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights. [00:00:48] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, founder of Gear Media Studios, podcast and content coach, Passage to Profit, co host and CMO at Gearhart Locke. [00:00:56] Speaker D: That's a big list. Today's guest is someone who's about to challenge how you think about entrepreneurship. Today on the show, we're joined by five time bestselling author, award winning speaker and founder of the School for Startups, Jim beach, whose groundbreaking work is helping entrepreneurs and even capitalists solve some of the world's biggest challenges. [00:01:20] Speaker E: And then we have two amazing presenters. Joe Masa is a podcasting veteran. So nice to have you on the show. And media strategist and host of the Measuring Post, owner of Podtopia Network. And the list goes on. And I want to hear all about this network because if you're even thinking of starting a podcast, you want to know how these work. And then we have Nikki Wake, the inspiring founder of Chapter 2 Dating. So she lost her husband, which really stunk and she decided instead of just wallowing in self pity to do something about it. So she started a community. Really cool. [00:01:54] Speaker D: That's great. Well, welcome to Passage to Profit the Road to Entrepreneurship where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities about their business journeys. And speaking of business journeys, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans are business owners or thinking about starting a business. And we're going to ask our panel today, what's the one mind shift or habit that separates people who actually start a business from the people who who only talk about starting one? Jim, welcome to the show. Great to see you. What's the one mind shift that separates the actual business starters from those who are just talking about it? [00:02:34] Speaker A: It's a great question and one of the fundamental questions of entrepreneurship. I do Believe that it's a decision you have to make. And my wife started a business and was going to teach her 10 friends how to do it at a seminar and no one came because they just didn't take the initiative. And you need to give up something. I believe and I think TV is a good place to start. The sports all weekend, the Real Housewives, the cooking shows. I think you usually just need to, it's up to you to decide. You know, no one else can decide for you and you are the only one that can make the decision. You have to say, I'm going to be the one that's going to raise my hand and be different from the way everyone expected me to be. I think my high school class would have guaranteed that I would be the least entrepreneurial or outgoing person on earth, but I chose to be different. This is a personal choice you have to make. I rose my hand. [00:03:24] Speaker D: Absolutely true. So Joe Massa, welcome to the program. What separates the thinkers from the doers? [00:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree definitely with what Jim said, but I think a bigger part to consider is that people really get stuck in this planning phase where they're going down analysis paralysis road and they can't start because they need the most high end microphone and camera or the most expensive software. And really the most important mindset shift that you can create is just to start with where you're at and not feel like you have to have the whole plan mapped out because you'll never have a perfect plan. And you know they always say that a good plan today is better than a perfect plan, you know, tomorrow or never. So just start with what you have. Really dial in and learn as you go and don't feel like you have to have all the answers up front because if you do it that way you'll never get started. [00:04:12] Speaker D: Oh, that's a great comment, really appreciated. Nikki Wake, what are your thoughts? [00:04:16] Speaker C: So mine kind of echo my previous speaker. I'm not sure if this phrase translates to the US but J, F, D I, which basically means just effing do it. And it's about, it's about, you know, not thinking about it. I mean it sort of translates back to Mel Robbins. Five second rule of just do it, right? Don't question it, don't deliberate it, don't procrastinate, just do it. And the minute you have an idea, action it. And that's been the one thing that's got me, well, I'm serial entrepreneur, run a couple of businesses is not stopping and thinking about it. [00:04:52] Speaker D: That's Great decisiveness is important. Elizabeth? [00:04:55] Speaker E: Yes. Well, I think we're kind of on a theme today because mine thought about before the show is recognize that you are procrastinating and quit procrastinating. And especially for those parts of it that you don't want to do, just, you know, recognize that that's what it is. [00:05:12] Speaker D: Speaking as a fellow procrastinator, you must be speaking from personal experience. I couldn't agree more. When I think about what got me from thinking about starting a law practice to actually starting one, for me it was kind of my personal circumstances. So I think that people who start businesses are either really passionate about the subject or they have their back against the wall. And in my case, I had my back against the wall. Right. I had been in corporate America for a long time and just felt ground down by the whole environment, all of the politics and everything else. And I was looking for new options and Elizabeth said, why don't you start your own practice? And I thought she was nuts. But I did it and it turned out to be a great decision. So for me, the motivator was I didn't want to go back into the corporate environment and subject myself to all of the suffering that I experienced there. And that for me was the motivator. And that moved me from thinking about it to actually doing it. [00:06:19] Speaker E: As Chief Marketing officer, may I interject something here? [00:06:22] Speaker D: Oh, absolutely. [00:06:23] Speaker E: And this June, in six months, it will have been 20 years since he made that decision and got incorporated Gearhart Law. [00:06:31] Speaker D: Yeah. So we're very excited about that and it's a milestone for sure. And we're going to have a big celebration at the law firm. We're going to bring in a lot of clients, we're going to bring in the team, and we're really looking forward to it. So today's guest, Jim beach, is an entrepreneur and author who argues that the real heroes of climate change aren't celebrities or politicians. They're risk taking capitalists working 80 hour weeks to actually fix the world. He's the author of a new book, Real Environmentalist, and we're really anxious to hear about his thoughts on how capitalists and entrepreneurs are fixing the environmental issues. And he's also an amazing entrepreneur in many other ways. He is the founder of the School for Startups, which is. Which teaches entrepreneurs more about business than they could get anywhere else. So welcome to the show, Jim. It's a pleasure to have you. Your new book argues that capitalists and not climate celebrities are the ones saving the planet. Why do you believe Entrepreneurs are the true environmentalists today. [00:07:39] Speaker A: Well, thank you for having me. It is an honor. And I'm going to have some fun. I don't think that they are the ones solving it. I know it because I have met the people. So I was doing my radio show and one of my radio guests was a man named Wayne Elliott. And I consider him an environmental hero. Twice. He has, for the last 65 years, recycled ships. He buys aircraft carriers and submarines and oil tankers and drives them into his yard and under the highest ISO certifications and the highest environmental standards, dismantles the ship and recycles them down to their fundamental parts. And 97% of the ship can be recycled. One of the hardest parts is the batteries. And so he spent $20 million of his own money in 20 years researching how to recycle alkaline batteries. He finally figured it out and got a patent and got Canada up to 97% in recycling and had an amazing accomplishment. Eventually that business was sold to BlackRock. So you really don't get any more prestigious or more corporate blessing than that. But, but here he is changing two environmental problems and solving them. Ships that sink are much worse than the island. You know, the sea level rising. Sea level rising is going to take centuries to happen. But that ship that sank off of your port could leak asbestos, oil, fuel, paint, and thousands of other chemicals that would ruin your ship or your port or your fisheries for four centuries. And I think that's much more likely when we consider that there's hundreds of thousands of ships that are at the end of their life cycle right now and there's no international law about what happens to them. They get sunk in the middle of the night, in the middle of the ocean. I think it's a much bigger problem. But here's Wayne solving two of those problems. And I asked Wayne, can I write a book about you because you deserve to be more famous. And he's like, sure. And then I started studying the problem and I realized, discovered 216American companies that are for profit, 100% operating in our normal capitalist rules. Go find a customer, have the customer pay you and deliver a good or service. They're not out there getting grants. They're not, you know, appealing to Congress for congressional money and for, you know, government loans. They're out there selling product and services and they are slowly cleaning the earth and solving the problems. You, you tell me an environmental problem and I can introduce you to the entrepreneur that is currently solving that problem. So in the book, we have five Heroes Wayne is, of course, one. Another one is named Gator Halpern. In one of his college classes, he figured out that the chemistry that they were teaching could have other uses. And now he is growing ocean coral, like, you know, sea coral 50 times faster than God can grow it. And he can come into your resort overnight and replant a coral reef that was damaged or give you a whole new coral reef. Another incredible scientist that I met is figuring out how to suck all of the microplastics out of the ocean and out of our water and turning those into sneakers and croc shoes and things like that. [00:11:03] Speaker D: That's really amazing. And getting back to the ships, we live in New Jersey, and if you go down to the shore, you look out across the water. A lot of places, there's these old sunken ships that are sticking out of the water. They're ugly, and they're, you know, hazards for other boats. I guess the scuba divers like, you know, swimming around in them. But that's about the only. About the only use. [00:11:27] Speaker E: Well, we were at the patent awards for New Jersey for the Research and Development Council, and there was an entrepreneur there who was doing the same thing with the microplastics. I don't know if it's the same person, but those are a huge problem. And in making plastic. Plastic is made from oil. I don't know if everybody knows that. And so, I mean, I worked at Dow Chemical, and when the price of oil went up, Dow Chemicals profits went way down because they were making all the plastic. So if the more that you can recover, the less oil you're going to need for those types of consumer products. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Right. One of the entrepreneurs in the book is actually addressing that and figuring out how to build plastics without oil as the backbone chemical that holds all of them together. So instead of having oil as the basis of your paint or your cosmetics or anything like that, a natural element can be used. But he's replacing the bad part out of our plastics, which is an amazing thing. Now, here's the kicker of the story that's going to make you really upset. He is a professor at UC San Diego, and the dean of his program came up to him and said, you need to stop studying all of this commercial stuff. You're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Go write papers for us to read. Quit doing this commercial application stuff. [00:12:42] Speaker D: Wow. [00:12:43] Speaker A: He got in trouble for saving the world is the way I think of it. [00:12:47] Speaker D: It's really true. There's a mindset out there, and I'm glad You're challenging it. We're with Jim beach, who's the author of the Real Environment. Jim, doesn't some of this activity need to be coordinated by the government? [00:13:00] Speaker A: I'm sorry, I don't think so. No. They're the people who are slowing down my entrepreneurs and are making it more difficult and coming in and saying, oh, wow, now that we've discovered you here solving things, we need to regulate you. No, I think the last thing that we need is more government involvement in this. The government, the academics, they are the problem. The non government organizations, the NGOs, they're slowing down and preventing good solutions and they're spending money in the wrong places. They just had the big Copa Brazil event where they all flew down to Brazil and talked about all the important things that need to be done, the new regulations they want and how they were going to decrease the usage of air conditioning and all of this stuff. Well, not a single one of my entrepreneurs was invited. Not a single business person was down there representing common sense in saying, I've already solved this problem. We can do this. You know, we're already doing it, and we don't need you to provide money or more regulation. [00:13:58] Speaker D: But one of the things that I think you point out is that there are a lot of celebrities who are pretty hypocritical on these topics, right? [00:14:04] Speaker A: Well, it goes beyond that. The level hypocrisy is absolutely disgusting. And so one of the things that we did do in the book is we compiled a list of the 10 biggest celebrity hypocrites. And one of the features we're going to talk about later on in the show is how to use ChatGPT. And I'll talk about this then. But we use ChatGPT to prove who the biggest hypocrites are. It's not our suggestion or our bias or any influence. This one's prettier than that one. No. We set it upon ChatGPT to figure out and tell us who the biggest hypocrites are. [00:14:36] Speaker C: Wait a minute. [00:14:37] Speaker E: We're not gonna say who they are on this show. You have to buy the book. [00:14:41] Speaker D: What's the name of the book? [00:14:42] Speaker A: Yes. Well, you can give us one. Some of them are obvious, you know, some of them are quite disgusting. I'll tell you some of the people who didn't make the list and I can tell you why. The Kardashians, for example, all of their houses get fined every month, about $100,000 each, because they use more water than they are allotted. They want green grass in Calabasas. And that's not going to happen without daily watering. And they use so much more than their allotment that they're fined $100,000 a month. And the list of celebrities who was endless. I have an entire. It's a footnote. And it goes on for a page and a half of other celebrities that are getting fined for their excessive water use. And that didn't even make the list. The Kardashians didn't make the list because they're not stupid enough to go out there and say, look how great I am. I'm saving the world. I'm saving the world. Some of our celebrities are famous for going to the UN and giving speeches and saying I'm saving the world. And then saying, you're not doing enough. Then getting on their private jet and flying off to their private yacht with some 24 year old. [00:15:51] Speaker E: Well, I mean, wait, what's the name of your book? You didn't say? [00:15:54] Speaker A: It's the Real Environmentalist. It's also Real Environmentalist dot com. And you can go there and see the methodology that I'll talk about in a minute OR 2 with ChatGPT, see who's on the list, have us defend it. And then there's also bios on all of our heroes there as well. So let's not forget the hero part too. [00:16:13] Speaker D: Is there a real concern about climate change and the environment? I mean, I've heard so many contradictory opinions on this. What's your opinion? [00:16:24] Speaker A: Well, I got a degree in oceanography and undergraduate. I have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. I have been on the tallest, some of the tallest mountains in the world and I've explored the world and I want my kids to do the same thing. I love beautiful, clean environment and I'm a conservative in the, you know, 1902 Teddy Roosevelt type conservative. Let's just not change stuff. Let's not introduce wolves unless there's a reason to, you know, let's not mess around with things that are working in that sense of conservation. I used to worry about climate change all the time because of all of the media stories that we hear, the UN report that we get every four years. Of course I was worried, but the more that I study it, the less I'm worried. And I'm sleeping really well at night right now, guys. [00:17:14] Speaker D: Got it. [00:17:15] Speaker A: My story is an incredibly good news story. The problems are being solved. [00:17:20] Speaker E: I just want to get your take on this so you know that when you burn a fossil fuel like gasoline, when you combust it, everything in it, it's made of carbons and hydrogens, and you combust it, you add oxygen to that, and you make CO2, which is the bad greenhouse gas, but you also make a molecule of water, right? So I feel like we're taking water that's been buried with the dinosaurs for however long and throwing it into our atmosphere and really saturating our atmosphere with more water than it expects. And maybe it's adapted to that. But when you think about these storms and tsunamis and all this stuff and rising sea levels and everything, people are like, it's from the icebergs melting maybe, but maybe it's all this extra water we're throwing into the atmosphere. [00:18:04] Speaker A: That's not the main thing that I'm worried about with water, and I'm also not worried about the atmosphere right now. There's been a lot of studies on that, and I'm I'm going to come down on the not worried side. As a matter of fact, there is an European company that I did not cover in the book because they would not let me interview them, that is primarily owned by Bill Gates, interestingly enough, and they are the major carbon offset company in the world, and they will take your all of your private airplane use and plant trees and all that stuff. They're not planting trees, they're cleaning the air. They have built skyscrapers that suck air in one side and pump air out the other side that is clean and better. And I I don't know anything about it because they really won't talk to me about it. I can, you know, give you the name of the company offline and stuff, but Bill Gates has sworn, and he just made his big announcement about a month ago that he's not worried about the climate anymore, that these companies are doing what they call claim in cleaning the air and the environment. So water is a huge issue. I think my biggest concern is the lack of water right now in certain areas that we're building data mines and all of these new data centers that are going to need nuclear power to operate and a whole new source of water to keep cool. So I'm not worried about the atmosphere. [00:19:22] Speaker D: ELIZABETH well, we're with Jim beach, who's the author of the Real Environmentalist, and and I'm kind of glad to see the direction things are going now with climate change, because it seemed for so many years the issue was highly politicized, and the politics of it really interfered with thoughtful, deliberate solutions that both could be arrived at through commercial capitalist means and also through perhaps some regulation, some moderate regulation, and policy. And it just became such an intense issue that we couldn't make any progress on it. And regardless of whether you think there's global warming, cleaning up rusty ships out of the ocean is something that everybody can agree on. Right? Nobody wants to be a no brainer. So I think that the direction you're taking us with these concepts is great. What do you see as the future of capitalism and environmentalism? [00:20:23] Speaker A: Well, you know, I am concerned about the future of capitalism itself. I think that, you know, with the mayoral elections in both Seattle and in New York, and you know, the way politics are now, there is a huge majority of youngsters that are loving socialism and they haven't seen it collapse five times during their lifetime like some of us older people have. And so they still think it's sexy. I think capitalism needs to be defended. And one of the coolest ways that we could defend capitalism is show that it saved the environment. So I think that the two maybe shouldn't be as connected as much as they are, but they are 100% connected. And that's what's so cool about the entrepreneurs. Instead of asking for money from the government, from people who don't want to give it because they want to buy more military or more guns, you know, the perpetual fight of guns versus butter, what are we going to buy? We take that problem away and have the entrepreneur go to people who are throwing money at them and saying, solve my problem. [00:21:22] Speaker G: Problem. [00:21:22] Speaker A: You solve my problem, I will gladly give you my money. The way the capitalist system works. [00:21:28] Speaker D: I would say that my early corporate experiences were in the chemical industry. And when the environmentalists came out with their program in the 80s and the 90s, the chemical industry just had this knee jerk reaction that, you know, defended all costs and just ignore, you know, and you know, they knew that they were polluting, they knew that they were polluters. And that was a business that runs on very small margins. They didn't want any extra cost and so they worked hard to discourage the environmental agenda. So it does require incentives for some of these companies to put profits aside and work on things that are going to fix the environment. Right. And to me it seems that part of that has to be through some level of government policy. [00:22:13] Speaker A: I don't know, I lost you somewhere in there. I don't necessarily agree with that. And I'm not going to compare a new entrepreneurial startup with a 50 year old company that makes military weapons and chemical weapons and breast implants and the incredible Teflon that keeps my eggs off of my Plate in the morning. You know, I'm a believer that they do good and bad. You know, I'm a realist here. They've made some great things and they've made some bad things, but that's a situation where a 50 year old company or maybe even older, I don't know how old Dow is, but we know they're around for World War II. They were certainly going to have that, you know, defensive posture versus the people who are always coming in and trying to catch them on something. Whereas the new entrepreneurs are just going out there and within the existing legal structure, solving problems. You know, my San Diego professor, his business makes amino acids and that's what they're turning into the new backbone of plastics. Amino acids instead of oil. I don't know that that needs to be regulated. There are already regulations that he's not allowed to emit toxins, he's not allowed to pollute. And so I think those regulations are what we need. And we don't need a new regulation that says if you're going to build an amino acid company, you need to go talk to Frank first, you know, and make sure you make Frank happy. [00:23:33] Speaker D: And there's a lot of government waste in a lot of the programs that were started. And so it is a thorny problem. I'm with you though. I think entrepreneurs can help. And I think the awareness, if the politics can kind of dissipate a little bit, I think that's probably the best hope for us in the future. We have to take a commercial break. We're with Jim Beach. Amazing discussion. He's the author of Real Environmentalist and I suggest you pick up a copy and support the entrepreneurs who are supporting us. We'll be back right after this. [00:24:05] Speaker G: Do you hear that? That's the sound of uncertainty lurking under your hood. You know the feeling? I know I do. That sudden sinking sensation when you see a check engine light or your car unexpectedly breaks down and you're faced with sky high repair bills. It's time to shield against unexpected repairs with Carshield. Carshield is America's most trusted auto protection company and has an A rating with the Better Business Bureau. Don't let the fear of a breakdown keep you up at night. Trust the shield, Car Shield. And say goodbye to terrifying repair bills and hello to peace of mind. 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So regardless of your age or medical condition, take a few minutes right now and find out if you can save money or even qualify for zero cost health insurance in your state. Call now. [00:25:51] Speaker G: Paid for by cheaper health insurance. 8006-521468-00652-1470806, 52-1470. That's 800-652-1470. [00:26:05] Speaker F: Now back to passage to profit once. [00:26:07] Speaker D: Again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our. [00:26:10] Speaker E: Special guest, Jim beach, the real environmentalist. [00:26:14] Speaker D: Yeah, there's a lot of people out there working on this stuff. [00:26:18] Speaker E: Yes. He's also very much into entrepreneurship and he has a school for that and we're going to ask him some questions about his entrepreneurship school. I did go on your website and looked at it it and wow, you've done a lot and you have a lot of credibility. [00:26:31] Speaker D: He's a five time bestselling author and he's been on like all the major networks. [00:26:37] Speaker E: So what does somebody need to do to get into your school of entrepreneurship? Can anybody join or do you have a criteria that you follow? [00:26:44] Speaker A: We want everyone to join. I believe that everyone has the ability to be a successful entrepreneur and to change their life and to change the generations of their family. So we'll help anyone do it. [00:26:55] Speaker D: Where did you come up with the idea? [00:26:56] Speaker A: I was running a business in my 20s. I started a business when I was 23 and ran it until I was 31. We grew the largest summer camp company in the world. I started with one camp at Stanford and another one at MIT and within seven years we were at 89 locations with 600 employees and taking care of some 20,000 kids a day. And when I got out of that business, sold that business to the cheerleading camp by the way the cheerleaders bought out the summer, my summer camp business. They're the only ones bigger than us. I started reflecting on the things that we had done and the way we had done it. I started writing a book about that time. And also I was asked by Georgia State University to come and teach an international entrepreneurship class. And I went to that class and I was a little arrogant. A little cocky. 31 years old, just sold a big business, 600 employees. I was, oh, this entrepreneurship stuff is so easy. Anyone can do it. It's so easy. And so my class made a bet. We bet that I could start a business that semester, make it cash flow positive that semester. They got to choose the country and the industry that I would start the business in. They chose Pakistan and furniture. So I had three months to build a profitable Pakistani furniture company. If you go on my LinkedIn profile and go to the experiences and scroll all the way to the bottom, you will see the chairs that we built, the product that we built, they are absolutely gorgeous. Three $4,000 chairs. Well, I won the bet and made the bet many semesters in a row. And a reporter from the Atlanta Journal Constitution heard about that and said, what, what's the consistency? What are your, you know, the thing that makes this work? And I, by that point, I had developed my methodology. And the reporter said, well, you should write a book about this. And I said, well, I'll write a book if you find a publisher. I made him a bet. Well, a week later he came back and said, mcgraw Hill has said yes. So you hear these stories about, I wrote a book and sent out 100 letters and got 99 re and finally someone took it. No. And this really proves the. When, you know, when we talk about entrepreneurs, you need to have your story really good. You need to know what your value statement is. Your elevator pitch. Our elevator pitch was so good that McGraw Hill said yes in one week to our book. We only pitched one person, McGraw Hill, one page proposal. We got a yes. And so we sat down to write School for Startups. I ended up writing it all, and it includes my three prong philosophy. Number one, creativity is worthless for an entrepreneur. You should just go, copy, borrow, or steal someone's idea. 93% of businesses are copies of other existing businesses. So there's no reason to be in that 7% and try to come up with something new, copy someone else's idea blatantly and just make it better. Of course, Richard, not going to steal any copyrights, trademarks, or copies. [00:29:45] Speaker D: No, you're Talking to an intellectual property lawyer. [00:29:47] Speaker A: I know, I know. My first business was American Computer Experience. It was a copy of National Computer Camp. National became American Computer stayed the same. Camp became Experience. They started at Sunday at 3. Can you guess what time? I started Sunday at 3, but I didn't have their curriculum. I had to write my own curriculum. You know, all that, we just did it better. I was at Stanford. I don't know where they were, but I was at Stanford. Where do you want to send your kid for the summer? And so that was philosophy number one. Copy someone else's idea and just make it better. Number two, risk. I don't believe in risk. I think you should start a business for under $5,000. If you can't prove the model for under five, probably shouldn't do it. On my radio show, I have interviewed thousands of entrepreneurs who have bootstrapped every business model. And Richard Branson proved that you can bootstrap an airline with zero money. You know, one of his favorite best stories. And so $5,000 is my limit to start a business. The same amount you would spend on your weekly vacation to, you know, San Diego for the week or, you know, go to Vail something for the week. So that's the amount of risk I'm comfortable with. And number three, passion. Passion is awesome for the church, the synagogue, the mosque, and the bedroom, but nowhere else do you need to have passion. I sold a lot of stuff that I don't like, a lot of passion for items or sold a lot of products that I just don't care for because I'm more passionate about the money, the lifestyle, the freedom, the opportunity. I'm not obsessed with the thing. I will sell anything if it allows me to go on another week of vacation doing what I want to do. So when you take those three rules, it changes the entire game. And so now I don't have to sit around waiting to discover what my passion is. I don't need to have a lightning bolt from God. I just need to read Entrepreneur magazine, see what someone's doing in Denver, and do it better in Tacoma. [00:31:45] Speaker E: Right? Well, and I think that's the true definition of an entrepreneur. They don't have to invent it. They have to take a business from ground zero, build it, and then sell it. So I know some of them are lifestyle businesses, but a true entrepreneur just wants to develop a business and then sell and get an exit. And at Gearhart Law, we have entrepreneurs we've seen be successful time and time again, and they do protect their intellectual property. And then we have inventors who are people who really do want a lifestyle business. So they invented this and they want to build a business with it and keep it until they retire and both ways work. [00:32:19] Speaker D: Yeah, I think what you say has a lot of truth in it. One of the things that we're working on right now are some of the software systems. And just by the nature of the way it came about, we have a. A few systems now that are patched together and they're not necessarily legal systems or systems meant for attorneys or law firms. We're now looking at getting systems that are made especially for attorneys and law firms because they've been through all the issues that we're trying to solve. So why buy something different and then try to make it work for you when somebody's already done that? And so your approach is really, you know, very, very pragmatic. I think the creativity comes in from the decision making that you make and the directions that you take the company once it's started, your attention to trends, your sensitivity to customers, all of that is you. And that's, I think, something that would be very difficult for somebody to duplicate. [00:33:22] Speaker E: We're talking with Jim beach on Passage to Profit. Jim, I had a question for you. Do you have a success story of somebody who's been through your entrepreneurial program and had a great exit? [00:33:33] Speaker A: Yes, we do. You know, we're not really about the exit as much as just getting a business up and running. And most people end up loving doing that and keeping the business up and running. So yeah, we do. We've had a lot of web designers who have come through. We have. One of my favorite success stories is Randy Brown and he provides services for legal firms that have nothing to do with legal. So, you know, stenographers and all of that kind of stuff in the record keeping, in the online things that, you know. He has a law firm supply company, I would say. So, yeah, we've had thousands and thousands of people come through. We've been doing this since 2001. [00:34:15] Speaker D: That's great, Jim. It's been amazing interview. We've learned so much and really appreciate your time. Can you tell our audience where they can find you? [00:34:25] Speaker A: Of course they can go to Jim Beach.com or School4Startups, Radio.com or Real Environmentalist.com, all of those. But Jim Beach.com is the easiest and it launches off to everything perfect. [00:34:38] Speaker D: Well, thank you very much for joining us. Now it's time for AI in Business. So Elizabeth, take it away. [00:34:45] Speaker E: This is AI in Business. Where I will ask each of our guests for one way that they're using AI in their business. We'll start with Jim beach with Jim beach.com Jim, what is one way that AI is helping you in your business? [00:34:58] Speaker A: I alluded to this earlier when I was making my list of villains for the Real environmentalist. We asked ChatGPT to rank the celebrities of the world. And we defined celebrities as, you know, people who might appear in People magazine and sports stars and stuff like that and asked them to say who are the people out there talking the most about their environmental effort? Who's out there claiming to be the. And it made a list for us and you can see that list on real environmentalist.com then I said now take a list of people who are actually getting their hands dirty the most. Who are the entrepreneurs that there's pictures of out there cleaning birds and planting trees. And it made a list. And then I said ChatGPT, flip those two lists. And so the people at the top here should be at the bottom here, meaning that they're honest people doing a lot of work that they're talking about. And the worst is when you're talking about a lot and doing nothing. And so that created a number scaling system and by flipping our two Chat GPT lists we were able to determine who's the biggest liar and biggest hypocrite amongst all of the celebrities on earth. And so it's not my opinion, it's. [00:36:09] Speaker D: Not my bias verified by chatGPT. [00:36:13] Speaker A: If you don't like it, you have to argue with chat GPT, not me. [00:36:19] Speaker E: Everybody's uses. So Joe Masa with podtopianetwork.com what's one way that you're using AI? [00:36:27] Speaker B: So obviously using large language models is great for market research. It's great for asking questions and learning different procedures and how to sort of build something out. But what a lot of people are not using is frequently is AI is meant for automations. So we build a lot of different systems that eliminate a lot of busy work. I'm a smaller company, I've got an employee, I've got some interns, some people that help us out. But essentially a lot of the day to day work I have to wear a lot of hats, I'm the admin, I'm the payroll, I'm the marketer, I'm the face on the camera, I have to respond to emails and do a lot of the clerical work. So a lot of that is very time consuming. And then I find myself in this sort of hamster Wheel where I'm doing work that doesn't move the needle instead of doing the work that will move it. So we implement systems in place that automate responses and firing off emails and form submissions that upload into our CRMs and build out systems built on different AIs that a lot of people aren't quite as familiar with that really help streamline and make my, my day to day work a lot more efficient. [00:37:30] Speaker E: Do you have a company helping you do that, that is an AI implementation company or do you have your own developers figuring it out or what? [00:37:36] Speaker B: So I do 99% of that myself. Podtopia originated the name. I'll give you a quick high level. I started an AI company called Flowtopia AI and it was meant to be a system of automations for any industry. But the Flowtopia and the Pod Topia, we wanted to keep the nomenclature similar so we could brand it. But I've been just focusing more on the podcast side and really just doing a lot of the flowtopia automations myself underneath sort of in the background. It's, it's sort of the glue that keeps the business running. And we're, we're really testing out these frameworks and I'm sort of my own case study where I'm proving that it works because it's really helping my business grow and thrive. And if it works for me, we can make it work for you as well. [00:38:19] Speaker E: That's awesome. Okay. Nikki Wake with chapter two Dating app Are you using AI? [00:38:27] Speaker C: We're not actually using AI. I mean, you have to think about. There's a lot of talk in the dating industry about AI. I mean, you can even have an AI boyfriend or girlfriend as an example. But my audience is predominantly over 50s, slightly technically challenged, shall we say. In many cases, some of my audience struggle to upload a photo. So the idea of unleashing AI boyfriends or girlfriends on that particular audience fills me with dread and fear. I'm a real believer that actually our site is all about human to human connection and that's at the very core of what we do. So we're not using AI per se. I'm seeing personally a rise in people using AI to generate their dating profiles. And quite frankly, you can spot some of them a million miles clearly. You know, Bob in Texas is 75. You didn't write this, you know, blindingly obvious, but you know, we gently put out quite a lot of communication about how to write an authentic profile personally and, and guide people where we can. But yeah, AI and dating I've. The jury's out for me, I'm afraid. [00:39:37] Speaker D: That's hilarious. But would you, like, ever use it for administrative purposes? [00:39:44] Speaker C: We kind of could. I mean, for instance, I have to screen profiles every single day. I personally vet every person who joins because we have lots of potential scammers who think that widows and widowers can be exploited. I could do that to AI, but nobody can spot a scammer like I can. And, you know, that is all about human nature. [00:40:04] Speaker E: You're right. There are things AI can't do that it wants to pretend it can, but it can't. [00:40:09] Speaker C: So. [00:40:09] Speaker E: Richard Gearhart with Gearhart Law, Patents, trademarks, copyrights. What is just one. I know he's been in an AI craze lately, but what's one way you're using it? [00:40:18] Speaker D: I was initially going to say that we want to create our own LLM for the law firm, which we do, but we haven't started on it, so I'm not technically using that. One way I used it last week was to create a script for cleaning up file names. So when we tape passage to profit, we tape it on multiple cameras, and the hardware that we use creates a lot of junk files that make it hard to find the real files. And so what I did was I asked ChatGPT, is there a way to clean up these files so I don't have to go through it manually? And it said, sure, you could use a program called powershell. And what it does is it goes on the operating system, and you take a piece of code that ChatGPT writes and you paste it into a file, and then you click on that file and it automatically goes through and gets rid of all the garbage files and changes file names to something that is more useful for me. [00:41:24] Speaker E: I am totally impressed. [00:41:26] Speaker D: Yeah, it's great. And it probably saves me 30 minutes per show when I'm just trying to clean up the footage so that we can get it to our editor. It just amazed me. And the feeling of satisfaction that I got from actually fixing this problem and saving that time was amazing. So it's just like another dopamine hit, you know? Okay, now I'm. I'm back into CHAP GPT even more now. So I don't know what's going to happen to me. [00:41:54] Speaker E: So for me, Elizabeth Gearhart, founder of Gear Media Studios, etc. I'm giving a presentation at PodFest Expo, which is a big podcasting conference in Orlando in January. Really fun. And my presentation is 5 tips to influence what ChatGPT says about you and your podcast. And I've been using different LLMs. I've been using ChatGPT and Google, Gemini and Perplexity and then the various ones within Perplexity to help me come up with the content for this. I've learned a lot and a lot of it's backend stuff, but I'm comparing from different sources. And then there's also stuff I know that I've learned like at different conferences and presentations and stuff that it didn't put in there that I've had to add myself. But then what's really interesting is the people that are running podfest said, well, if you're giving a presentation, take your presentation and put that through ChatGPT and tell it to tell you what questions people will be asking you from your presentation. [00:42:50] Speaker D: Oh, that's so clever. Yeah. So you can kind of anticipate what you're going to get. [00:42:55] Speaker E: Yeah, that was the podfest people. That wasn't me that came up with that, but I thought that was really smart for anybody that gives presentations, you know, how could this be better? Although, I don't know, I think you have to keep it pretty real. I don't think I would ask it to write it for me or make it better, but I would ask it to certainly find questions. [00:43:12] Speaker D: Well, where I find it's been helpful. So I'm, I'm working on a series for the law firm of YouTube videos and I'll ask ChatGPT to write a script for a YouTube video and then I'll look at it and I'll rewrite it myself. Just borrowing a few ideas here and there from ChatGPT. So it's, it's good at, at that kind of thing. But again, I want it to be natural and coming from me and not from ChatGPT and just using it as a way to sort of add or verify ideas I think is great. [00:43:43] Speaker E: So Joe and Jim, what, what are some other ways you're using it? We don't have to just keep it to one way. Any comments about it, like does it lie to you? Does it tell you the wrong thing? [00:43:53] Speaker B: It definitely can. They call it hallucinating. [00:43:55] Speaker E: Right. [00:43:55] Speaker B: And certain LLMs are better for certain tasks. For example, one that's more of a human sounding writer and a little more creative in writing is going to be Claude by Anthropic and that's just another LLM. It's a French one, but it's very similar to Chat GPT. Chat GPT is going to be more of your Jack of all Trades. Gemini is sort of in that field. Gemini has gotten really good with their AI studio. They've got their image generator. The newest one is called Nano Banana. Really powerful. Their video one is called Veo V E O and I think they're on the third iteration of that. Very good for those AI generated videos that you see. But it really depends on how you use it. And LLMs have a lot deeper functionality than people give them credit for. Most people use them like a Google search bar and they just go, hey, what's the best way to bake salmon? And it'll spit out some recipes and that's great. Or you go, hey, I need to write an email to my mother in law who I haven't talked to in years and tell me what to say and it spits out this great information. But in the settings and in the back end of those LLMs, there's a lot of ways that you can fine tune it to have your brand voice. There's ways that you can have it give you answers more like a consultant would instead of just saying, hey, Richard and Elizabeth, what a great idea. You're the best and most amazing and this is great. [00:45:13] Speaker D: There's nothing wrong with that by the way. [00:45:15] Speaker B: Those are great. [00:45:16] Speaker E: Sign me up about chat doing that before the show. It's like you're the best thing since sliced bread. [00:45:21] Speaker D: I know, it's a very. [00:45:24] Speaker B: Instead you can go into the settings and say, hey chat, GPT or cloud or Gemini. Don't just agree with me on everything. Instead treat me like a consultant would treat a client who's looking for real information and you can sort of guide the way that it treats you and acts for you. So if you're using just the LLMs, those are great. But again, a lot of the automation tools like you know, for the no code or low code ones like make.com, there's Zapier, there's N8N. These are things that connect the tools you already use. For example, if you're using the Microsoft Suite or the Google Suite and you connect to Airtable and then you connect to Slack for internal communications, you can have an event trigger off a series of other events that follow behind it. So it's an automation flow that really takes away a lot of the busy work that you do in the work that's not something that only you can do. For example, Richard, you are the main person who does the trade copyright laws, you're the lawyer, your expertise is really hard to come by. Anyone could be a data entry person, anyone could reply to an email. So use AI or a virtual assistant to do the work that anyone could do so you can focus on the work that only you can do well. [00:46:33] Speaker E: And you brought up a good point. So a lot of software systems that we're using now have their own AI. So we're using Zoho for our CRM for the law firm and it has its own AI. Now Zoho has always done automations the whole time we've been using it and we've used that piece of it and it's really cool. It's pretty effective. But we're trying to decide whether to keep using Zoho. I think we are, at least for a while. So we're going to dig into Zia and see how much ZIA can do for us without even having to bring in a chat or another LLM. So Jim, did you have any more AI comments? [00:47:04] Speaker A: I do have one more thought. We haven't mentioned using AI to remember what you have forgotten. So one thing that I'm using it for is to put an entire book in and say what characters are not developed as well as the other characters. Or you could put in a legal document and say, are there any things that I'm forgetting about? So my friend and I make a one page legal document on the back of a napkin. Basically we could put that in and say, is there anything that I'm forgetting? What else is there to consider? And even with a marketing plan, if you input your marketing plan and say, what else do I need to think of for this? I love it for that. Helping me consider my bald blind spots. [00:47:46] Speaker D: For our audience, Jim is showing us his bald spot. [00:47:49] Speaker A: Some of us just don't care. Less work to do, less product to buy. [00:47:55] Speaker E: Yeah. So I think a lot of people are using it in very interesting ways and it'll, it'll be interesting to see how it progresses as time goes on. I only know one person, I think maybe two that have not used ChatGPT at this point. [00:48:09] Speaker H: Right. [00:48:09] Speaker E: So we're in December 2025. So it's catching on. Much as the personal computer did. Like, I think people were pretty floored by that when it came out. Now everybody has it on their phone. So thank you very much. This has been AI in business use cases from the real world. And now it is time for a break. We'll be right back. [00:48:30] Speaker I: Here's a real life story that affects 50% of all of us out there. It's called Divorce. If you've gotten divorced and now you're struggling to pay your bills and your credit card debts are completely out of control. You need to call this special debt relief hotline right now. We help people with all kinds of money problems caused by different life challenges. A divorce, a job loss, even heavy medical bills. All these life events can sometimes financially stress you out and cause you to get out of control. We help people get their lives back by showing them ways to consolidate and reduce their debt, in some cases for a fraction of what they owe. 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Call the Solar Exit Hotline now for immediate options to help you exit your solar contract. This call is 100% free. [00:50:16] Speaker G: 8009-4140-8580-0941-4085 800, 9 41-4085. That's 800-941-4085. [00:50:31] Speaker D: To Profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show heard on 40 stations across the U.S. we'd like to do a shout out to our affiliate WPSE 1450am and 1O 7.1 FM in Erie, Pennsylvania. Also, our podcast is ranked in the global top 3% of podcasts and we've been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters database as a Top 10 Entrepreneur Interview Podcast. So subscribe to the Passage Profit show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and on the iHeart app. And now it is time for Intellectual Property News. Today's Intellectual Property News takes us to Capitol Hill, where Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss walked into a Senate hearing and without a single drop of face paint, managed to Rock the entire room. Anyway, so the issue is the American Music Fairness act, and we've got a couple of radio folks here on the show today, so this may be of interest. And the question is, should the people whose voices we hear on the radio be paid when their songs are played? So you kind of think, well, aren't they paid? Well, it turns out that they're not. Right now, they're making $0. And the American Music Fairness act seeks to change that. [00:51:54] Speaker E: And the hearing also revealed something very wild when it comes to paying the people that are actually singing the songs on the radio for the radio play. The US Is in the same category as Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. [00:52:11] Speaker C: Strange there. [00:52:12] Speaker D: So when your IP strategy aligns with North Korea, you're in pretty bad shape. So, anyway, Gene Simmons pointed out that everybody gets paid when there's a hit song. The radio station, the advertisers, the dj, and even, according to him, the plumber fixing the stationed bathroom. But Bing Crosby singing White Christmas and Elvis and Whitney Houston, none of them. [00:52:37] Speaker E: Get paid because they're all dead. [00:52:39] Speaker D: Well, these were the names he brought up, and there's more to it than that. [00:52:43] Speaker E: But there was a radio broadcaster there, Henry Hinton, and he said local stations are struggling, and even a small royalty could hurt their ability to broadcast local football games. [00:52:54] Speaker D: Small radio stations are always struggling, though. [00:52:57] Speaker E: Struggling. But really, if you sing a song that they're playing over and over again, Jim's shaking his head no, he doesn't think they're struggling. [00:53:04] Speaker A: I know a lot of individual radio station owners that are making a million dollars a year. [00:53:09] Speaker D: Well, that's struggling, I think. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Well, for me, it is. You know, I spend just that on caviar. But of course, yeah, a lot of my station owners are doing very, very, very well. I think the station you are, like, if you're in Topeka or places like that, that local advertising market has not died. Those local pizzerias still need new customers. [00:53:35] Speaker E: And really, if you're singing a song, shouldn't you get paid for it? Yes. Okay, Jim, the thing the problem is. [00:53:40] Speaker A: Now is that content is free. That's changed everything. You used to have to pay. The radio station had to pay. They still do. But now I'm giving them content for free, and Joe will give them content for free, and Nicola will give them content for free, because there's thousands of us podcasters that will want any distribution if you called me up and said, you know, we'll do it for free. And so content. Now, the cost of their product has gone to zero. [00:54:06] Speaker D: Well, and the other part of it too was that the radio station bargain was that you got exposure, right? So you got your song played and then people would go buy records and they'd go to your concerts. But that's not so big a deal anymore because people are getting their music from all sorts of different sources besides the radio. Right. So that argument doesn't hold up. [00:54:27] Speaker E: This is an issue, I think, not just for radio stations, but for AI in general, taking content that is going to be in the courts for a while now. So we'll see how it all plays out. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:54:38] Speaker D: Well, we'll keep you updated. We'll let you know if Gene Simmons has any more wise remarks. And this subject and this act will go to Congress and could fall into the congressional black hole or it could get passed. So we'll keep you informed. [00:54:54] Speaker E: Let's keep going with content creation and talk to our next guest. Joe Masa is a podcasting veteran, media strategist and host of the Measuring Post, and owner of Podtopia Network, a full service podcast network that helps creators launch, grow and monetize their shows while connecting them with top tier guests and sponsors. I don't really know a lot about podcasting networks, but I am so eager to learn after reading this. So welcome, Joe, tell us all about it. [00:55:23] Speaker B: Yeah, so it really I didn't start with the intention of running an entire network of shows. It really was I've spent about 20 plus years in the radio industry and I was on Air on AM, FM, online, syndicated via satellite nationwide and 170 cities nationwide on Westwood One and these different platforms. And as I got a little older, started a family, I realized that radio, while like, you know, Jim said, the stations themselves aren't necessarily hurting a lot of these stations because of the technology advancements. They're syndicating a lot of their formats. So it used to be everyone was live and local and it was, you know, your butt had to be in the chair in the city that you were living in and that's where you got your local news from. But now a lot of it's syndicated. So a lot of the shows you might be listening to, they might be being broadcasted from LA or Chicago or Dallas. So it's, it's different for the internal employees of radio stations. They're certainly not making millions of dollars a year. So what we were forced to do is always have two or three streams of income. So it got to the point where I couldn't comfortably take care of my family. So I started Looking for other means of making, you know, income. And eventually I got out of media altogether for a while, did some finance, did some. I t always wanted to come back to media. And at this time, podcasting was the great escape. So I started launching my own show and, you know, just working through the process and having 20 years of radio experience, I would get other podcasters that I would network with, and they would need help or they would want tips on how to produce things or how to market their show. So eventually I just started taking on more and more of these people who are looking for expertise and said, why? Why don't we just build a whole network out of it? Let's put all of our shows together. Essentially, I. I market a lot of them. I help them grow. We created an online course where we teach people how to start a podcast. Then we have a lot of educational pieces where we continue to teach you how to find new tactics, new techniques, new platforms, new tools to try new ways to monetize. And so we just started growing sort of organically. And eventually, you know, now we've got like 60 shows that we work with. We've got about two or 300 that we work with on a smaller scale, and we've even opened up a new community, and we invite media businesses to come in. So maybe you are a video graphic editor or a graphic designer, website designer, an SEO company. Well, we want to work with you, too, because those are the people behind the scenes that make shows monetize and get traction and are seen by the algorithms on YouTube or Instagram or your platform of choice. So we decided to kind of put it all together and be a full ecosystem for podcasters built by podcasters. [00:58:08] Speaker E: Well, it's interesting that you say that, because I was looking for a podcast marketing agency a couple years or so ago, and I couldn't find one. And I realized that with Gear Media Studios, I was going to have to be an agency. So I do help people with the marketing, but I feel like podcasting now. I used to say it was 70% marketing. Now I feel like it's 80% marketing. I think having a network like yours to help is really valuable. [00:58:32] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I'd like to ask the question, Jim, maybe you can chime in here too, Joe. And of course, Nikki. What does somebody need to do to get their voice heard among all of the media that's out there today? So you have a lot of entrepreneurs who are using media tools like YouTube, podcasting, blog posts, because they want people to. To hear about their business. But it's so competitive. There's so much content out there. [00:58:59] Speaker C: So what do you do from a personal perspective? I've had huge amounts of media coverage. I've been in every single women's magazine in the uk, in every broadsheet newspaper, in every tabloid newspaper. I'm on the TV twice next week. But for me, it's all about sharing my personal story. So I think having a very personal and compelling story certainly helps you cut through the kind of promotion and marketing noise. I think, you know, I. Well, though, obviously my personal story is very tragic. It has enabled me to get my voice heard quite clearly. So. And that. And a very strong PR person who can get very creative with angles and stories. [00:59:39] Speaker D: Joe. [00:59:39] Speaker B: So I think, Elizabeth, you. You said something that's very true, too. A lot of it is, you know, a smaller section is the content. Obviously, you need quality content, but it doesn't matter how good your content is if nobody sees you or knows where to find you, you. So your visibility and discoverability, which is where your marketing comes in, your SEO game, your keywords, if you're not familiar, SEO is search engine optimization. And I'll get into more of that in just a moment because there's an old way of thinking about SEO in a new way that should be adopted as well, but a really big piece of it is leading with value. Like Nikki said, you have to lead with a story, lead with something. If I just get on every podcast and go check out my website and buy my program, people get tired of that really quick. Like, I'm going to give you something. You're going to learn from me. You're going to learn why I'm an expert in this field and why I've been doing this so long. And that there's a good reason that if you do have a real question, you can reach out to me because I've built and gained your trust. Right? And a way to do that, a simple, free way to do that without reinventing the wheel, is find your target audience. Maybe if you're. If you're a health and wellness person, maybe they're mainly on Instagram. If you're an entrepreneur, show maybe a bigger chunk of your audience is on LinkedIn. So identify where the people that you want to talk to are living and then engage with them. Go into the communities that already exist. Comment on people's posts, lead with value, drop in some templates, say, hey, thanks for adding me to the group. Here's who I am. I would love to share this new thing I found out xyz, put it in there. If you do that consistently, all of a sudden people are going to start saying, man, I see this Joe Massa guy in every thread. Who is he? They click on me, then they see what I do, then they can watch some of my content. But you have to create a funnel, a funnel of engagement. And a lot of people think of this as the old school just sales funnel. You know, they got your flyer in the mail, then they checked out your website or called your phone number, you sold them the pitch, then they're in the bottom and they buy your product. It's a lot different now. The marketplace is overrun and consumed with new media. You're absolutely right, Richard. There's so much media out there, it's really easy to lost in the shuffle. So you have to find a good niche, you have to be consistent, and then you have to have a lot of touch points. A lot of people think, okay, I'm on a podcast, I'll take one reel from that, I'll post it today, and then I'll never talk about it again. Well, the algorithm on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn, a lot of the people that are your followers or, you know, people that like your page, they don't see every one of your posts because the algorithm washes that out and they fill it with ads that are from paying advertisers. So consistency, always repurpose your content, get lots of touch points. And then also something not to sleep on is your email marketing strategy. You absolutely want to be in people's inboxes because that is like the most intimate form in modern day advertising that I can think of. Because if I let you stay in my inbox, that's like your DMS but for professionals. Right? So most people just unsubscribe. But if I let you stay in my inbox long enough, there's a reason I either like you, your content, or I want to buy something that you're selling. So touch points, consistency and engagement is where you're going to be seen and picked up by other algorithms. [01:02:54] Speaker E: Right? And I think what I've been finding in my research too is you really need to have brand authority. And that's one thing that being on podcasts like this, and that's going to be my secret at the end of the show. But being on podcasts like this, somebody else has invited you onto their media property, thought you were good enough to talk on their media property, and that gives you more authority, both with Google and the LLMs and the whole Ecosphere. And, and that's really important for authority building, especially for your website. [01:03:23] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. [01:03:25] Speaker B: And you said something I really want to highlight real quick before we move on, because on Google search engines and LLMs, they have different search engines. So what I wanted to say earlier is people are really. The old school thinking of SEO is, was how can I get Google or Yahoo or Bing to find me? But now a lot of people are using Chat, GPT or Gemini to search. They have a different set of criteria for how they find and scrape information. So you want to make sure you're playing the game to be seen by them as well as the major search engines. Because in a couple years from now, even Google search, which is the king of kings when it comes to modern day search engines, they're dwindling, they're hurting right now because of the LLMs. So make sure either you or your team understands SEO on LLM fronts because that's a game changer for modern businesses. [01:04:16] Speaker E: And that's a big part of the presentation that I'm giving at podfest. So I've really dug into kind of the back end of the marketing stuff and it is different. And I've asked it, what's the difference between Google and LLMs? And there's a few key differences that I'll be getting into as well. But whatever marketing agency you use or for your business, like not even just podcasting but for your business, really needs to be on top of this stuff, right? [01:04:40] Speaker B: Yeah, majorly. And again, brand authority is the best thing that you mentioned. I even created a program called the Brand Authority Launchpad that's just specifically for that. But you absolutely need to have a team behind you or even if you're doing it yourself. The other piece of advice, don't stretch too thin. A lot of times people start businesses and go, I need to be on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn. And now you're on five platforms, six platforms. You're not giving any one of them enough attention. So instead of having one or two really powerful platforms, you've got five mediocre or just not flat out good. And it's, it's more of a bad look. If I got nine different platforms, they each have five followers and three of them are my family members. A lot of people are not going to want to take advice from me. They're like, this guy can't even build up his own brand, why should I listen to him? So focus on a few platforms specifically and then have good keyword game and learn LLMs, you're going to. You're going to get more bang for your buck. [01:05:37] Speaker D: We're with Joe Massa, who is the founder and owner of Podtopia Network. Joe, can you tell us any stories about people who have successfully sort of risen above the din and, you know, kind of broken through? [01:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you can look at a guy like Joe Rogan if you want to see the tippy top of podcast echelon. Right. He started doing a monthly podcast on UFC fights because you might not know. I mean, a lot of people know he was a commentator for the UFC for a long time. He was actually a professional kickboxer himself. So he always had this background in fighting. He decided to do a monthly show about what's happening in the ufc. It was not doing well at all. The early shows were terrible, very low quality, and even though he had enough money could produce, it, had the team behind him, it just wasn't done well. And he started getting to a rhythm and found out that he really liked it. So instead of a monthly show on one specific topic, he said, I got enough money. Let's do this every single day. Bring on people that want to be, you know, our audience wants to hear whether it's Elon Musk or. Or some famous celebrity or some famous athlete or other, you know, social influencer and his consistency. I mean, at this point, he's got three or four thousand episodes out, and now he's got a hundred million dollar contract from Spotify. So the power of podcasting is really there. And the reason why and what separates podcasting from radio, in my opinion, is the engagement factor. When you turn on the radio, whatever's on is on. You don't choose that. [01:07:09] Speaker C: That. [01:07:09] Speaker B: But if I go out of my way to find your podcast and I engage with it, I subscribe to it, I download your show, I listen to it, I'm hyper engaged with whatever you're talking about. I'm a very warm lead. It's much easier to sell to someone like that than it is to someone on the radio that just flips on the car and they're talking about a restaurant. That's great. It might be like a discoverability factor, but the ability to break through to your target audience is significantly higher in podcasting, at least from my experience. So there's a lot of brands that don't even want to interview people. They just want to, like, film myself talking for 10 minutes about a topic, because that will build that brand authority that we're talking about. This is a new way that you see me, you get to hear my voice, you get to see how I interact with people or thoughts or procedures, and then you can say, this guy really knows this stuff. So next time you have a question in the podcasting space, there's a good chance you'll reach out to me. [01:08:04] Speaker D: So we're with Joe Massa. Jim Beach. Do you have any questions for Joe? [01:08:09] Speaker A: Joe, have you had any outsourcing success? I have almost everything that my show does, except for me talking, is outsourced to the Philippines for, I'll tell you exactly, $1,000 a month. And I have a college graduate who, you know, I send him classes to take, and, you know, he's. He's awesome. Are you having any experience like that, or have you thought about doing that? Because I think it's a lot easier. A lot of people would step into it easier if they had someone in the Philippines that three or four hundred dollars a month to do so much logistic work for them. Yeah, you're 100. [01:08:45] Speaker B: Right. And we definitely have outsourced a lot of work. And again, that's why we built a lot of these AI systems we talked about earlier, because it eliminates the need for some of that. But I think part of what we built into Podtopia Network is the business database. I get people all the time that say, hey, Joe, I'd love to start a podcast, but I also need a graphic designer. I need somebody to run my pr. I need someone to get me bookings. And while I can do most of those things, a, I don't want to do it consistently. That's just not what I'm passionate about. I know passion's not always something that's necessary, but for me, that's something I'm really anti passionate about. [01:09:19] Speaker D: But also, I think passion are, I guess, you know, they're related, the same coin. Right. [01:09:26] Speaker B: Very powerful emotions. But, you know, I would rather give somebody the tools and the tactics and the blueprints to do this on their own, because that's scalable. There's only so many clients I can take on. There's only so many hours in the day. I can only produce so many episodes a day, whether I'm recording, editing. But if I can teach you how to build a profitable podcasting business and how it will escalate your brand into the right audiences, that is, you know, the old adage, give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime. So I'm going to teach you how to build your own podcasting ecosystem that thrives. And then some of that might require some outsourcing depending on your skill set. But to answer your question, a very long winded way, outsourcing overseas is fantastic for certain things, especially busy work booking agencies absolutely use tools at your disposal and if you can get them at a lower rate, you know, I don't see the problem there. But knowing how to do this on your own is always going to be more beneficial because then you're not at the mercy of somebody else. [01:10:28] Speaker E: I agree. Well, unfortunately we've come to the end of this discussion, but you and I are going to talk offline for a long time, I think. [01:10:35] Speaker B: Looking forward to it. [01:10:36] Speaker E: Joe, how do people find you? [01:10:38] Speaker B: So again you can reach out to podtopianetwork.com we have a newsletter called Podtopia Insider. But much like Jim, just go to the main site podtopiainsider.com you can find my personal information. Find me on LinkedIn. Joe Massa would love to be a resource and connect with you any way I can. [01:10:55] Speaker E: Great, thank you. [01:10:56] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt. [01:10:58] Speaker E: And now it is time for Nikki Wake, the inspiring founder of Chapter 2 Dating. She transformed her own heartbreaking loss into a powerful compassionate community, helping widows and widowers find connection, hope and their next chapter. So welcome Nikki. Pretty amazing what you were able to do. So tell us your story. [01:11:20] Speaker C: Thank you. Thanks for having me. So I was living my perfect life, deliriously happy, married to my soulmate in 2017 and I returned I, I was running an event management business, a business I also still run to this day. And I returned home from a business trip it and my husband was complaining of chest pains and it transpired he was actually having a heart attack. That heart attack, long story short, but that heart attack resulted in a catastrophic brain injury. So he suffered severe brain damage and was left in a critical condition in one to one nursing home care for three years until we lost him sadly to Covid in 2020. So a really, really awful period and phase in my life. In 2020 I took on this, this new label as, as a widow which is a club that nobody wants to join and one with the highest admission price. And through that I actually met this incredible bunch of other widows, my kind of widow warriors. This network through a charity that I was involved with called Widowed and Young and, and the widow community is a truly wondrous thing and, and through the widow community I started to heal and, and find a new way to move forward and to live with, with grief and Accept what had happened. In part, you never fully accept and you never, ever move on, you move forward. And I decided, I was chatting to one of my widow friends and she was talking about the idea of a chapter two. So a chapter two in widow circles means your next significant relationship. So it's about when you think about moving forward. And, and I thought, you know, actually maybe it is time. And, and so I'd actually met my husband online in 2002. We were early adopters of the tech. And this was back when you didn't tell people you were dating online, you lied. And so I knew it worked. So I thought, you know what, I'll, I'll get myself back online, it'll be fine. Obviously, dating as a 40 something year old woman is very different to dating as a 20 something year old woman. Didn't get quite the same response. And then the other problem that I had is I downloaded this, this, this thing called Tinder. And, and for those of you who are fortunate enough not to know, Tinder is like the wild west, right? It's full of questionable photographs of, of appendages and married men. Try not to say anything I shouldn't on a, you know. And so as a kind of raw, vulnerable widow, I was utterly horrified at this wild west environment I found myself in. And I was thinking, there's got to be a better way than this, surely what I need is, I need a widower, ideally one who looks like George Clooney, who understands what I'm going through. Because it's very complex dating as a widow, because you've got all this, this guilt, like, you know, he's, he's dead, he's not coming back. But there's all that guilt associated with the idea that you could love again and, or even just, you know, have sex again. And so I thought, well, there must be a website for widows and widowers. And I went online and I went in the App Store and there wasn't. And I went to the Google Play store and there wasn't. And I'm an entrepreneur. I already run a very successful multi million pound business delivery events all over the world and I could smell a business opportunity and I was like, and then I'm quite well connected. So I, I know quite a few high net worth individuals and in the UK we have this amazing scheme called seis, which is if you're a higher rate taxpayer, if you invest in a startup company, a startup tech company, then you get 50% of your investment back in tax relief and then if that tech startup goes bust, you get another 25%. So all I was asking my potential investors to Invest risk was 25% of their investment. [01:15:15] Speaker D: Why can't we do that in the us? I mean, exactly. [01:15:17] Speaker C: If you did, you know what, if you did it in the us, it would, I mean, the US is really entrepreneurial. Much more entrepreneurial than the uk. I would argue if you did it in the uk, it would put rocket fuel on the fire of your economy. I can't, I can't tell you how big a tax break it is and how easy it is to go out and raise money as a result of it. This is a terrible fact, by the way. Only 2% of all funding raised worldwide goes to women. I know as a female founder, I've raised 300 grand really, really easily. [01:15:49] Speaker E: Congratulations. [01:15:51] Speaker C: Through SEIS. And SEIS is in place for up to the first £250,000 that you raise. After that, it drops to EIS, which is the, the investors get 30 tax relief. So it's still brilliant, right? [01:16:04] Speaker E: That is. [01:16:05] Speaker C: And, and so I went out and raised cash and I, I, I built Chapter two Dating Dot app. [01:16:10] Speaker E: So I want to ask you, is it worldwide, then your app? [01:16:13] Speaker C: So we're, we're live in the uk, the us, Canada and Australia. So, yeah, we have thousands of widows and widowers in the US who have joined us. I've created four marriages, 22 engagements, I think, at the last count, and we even even had a Chapter two baby. Now, I thought we were all. [01:16:34] Speaker D: Are you checking the ages of the people joining the baby? [01:16:38] Speaker A: That shocking. [01:16:40] Speaker C: Sadly, there are some very young widows out there. So These, these were two of our younger widows who were in their mid-30s and they have gone on to marry and have a baby. And sadly, they didn't call it Nikki. I thought they should have, actually. [01:16:52] Speaker D: But what is the proportion of men to women on the dating. [01:16:56] Speaker E: That. [01:16:56] Speaker C: That's really interesting because most dating sites, if you go On Tinder, it's 80 men and 20 women. They just, but they just don't show you, you know, the inequality. On chapter two, we are 65 women and 35 men. And the sad reality of this gentleman is that's because you die earlier than we do. [01:17:15] Speaker D: We know. Yeah. I mean, we're not happy about that. [01:17:21] Speaker C: That's because you don't go to the doctors or the emergency. [01:17:24] Speaker E: Would somebody move, like, across the country. Did you have people that relocate? [01:17:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I've had people had, I've had people move coast to coast. I've had people move to Canada, which may have Been political, but also may have been. We've got some beautiful love stories to share. I met my current. Well, my partner, who I. So I met my partner. [01:17:44] Speaker E: I have. I have another. [01:17:45] Speaker C: So I have two dating apps for widows and widowers. So Chapter two is for people looking for serious relationships. And then I realized that some of our widows and widowers were perhaps, like myself at that point, not quite ready for a serious relationship. But we're looking to scratch an itch, shall we say? So I started something called Widow's Fire because there's a recognized phenomenon when you're grieving that you. You ache physical comfort. And I met my boyfriend, who is actually now become my Chapter two on Widow's Fire. So, yeah, I always said I would never use my own site, but then I thought, it's Widow's Fire, it doesn't matter. It's just a one night. One night turned into five months. [01:18:22] Speaker D: So which website is more popular, Widow's Fire or Chapter two? [01:18:25] Speaker C: Well, Chapter two because. Only because Chapter two is more popular because I can advertise it on Meta. So we do all of our advertising on Meta. Mark Zuckerberg won't allow Widow's Fire on Meta. So I'm not. So I'm limited. [01:18:40] Speaker D: He seems more open minded than that. I'm just a little surprised. [01:18:44] Speaker C: So, yeah, because it's classed as an adult site. So we acquire traffic through Chapter two and then we cross sell Widow's Fire product to them. [01:18:52] Speaker D: Got it. So what was the entrepreneurial piece of this like? I mean, was it overnight success? What did you have to do to kind of build it up to the point it's at now? [01:19:02] Speaker C: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, as I said earlier in the early section of the interview, I've been blessed with an amazing amount of pr. You know, I've been on tv, radio, women's magazines, newspapers, almost every week. I have some piece of PR live. I've been on hundreds of podcasts from business through to lifestyle through to, you know, women's issues, relationships, sex, dating, all of those kind of topics. You know, I'm a complete media tart and that's helped enormously in terms of growing the brand. I'm loving being back in tech startup world. My events company is 20 years old, I employ 22 people. I don't even know how to log into the back end of our website there. Do you know, that's how far removed I am from the coal face of the events. You know, I turned up a big award show that we were running last week at like 25 past 6 in the evening in my frock, ready to hand out an award. That's the only piece of that award boards I touched. So it's lovely to be back in the weeds. And I think as entrepreneurs we thrive on the wind, don't we? We thrive the dopamine hit of new exciting, shiny things. [01:20:03] Speaker E: And. [01:20:04] Speaker C: And I'm loving being back in startup world and traveling the country meeting widows and widowers because we do a combination of online and also in real life events. So whenever I'm in the States, which I'm there regularly for business, I'll run events in New York or in Florida or Seattle was the last time I run an event there. So. So yeah, I like to get out and meet my community. [01:20:23] Speaker D: So Elizabeth confessed before the show that she went to your website, which I found a little alarming. You know, I'm wondering what kind of plans she has for me. [01:20:33] Speaker E: Watch your back. [01:20:37] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:20:39] Speaker C: If she just changed her will, you might want to be a bit suspicious. [01:20:42] Speaker D: Well, you were doing show research, right? Honestly. [01:20:46] Speaker E: Look, okay, personal story. We lost one of our cats and we were gonna go get one cat and we went just to look and this little kitten reached out and grabbed Richard by the arm through the bars of his cage and we ended up coming home with two kittens. And now we have a lot of cats. I think we have four cats. But they cannot live without Richard, so. [01:21:09] Speaker D: So I get to live is what you're saying. But Nikki, that could be. Your next project is a dating site for cats, right? [01:21:18] Speaker E: Lots cat people maybe. [01:21:20] Speaker D: I'm sure somebody's done that. I think there is like a. [01:21:23] Speaker C: There probably. Is there probably dating sites for most niches, but we've actually, I've just recently bought the platform. We were existing on a white level platform. I've now bought the tech. So we will be incubating other dating apps. So anyone who's got a dating app idea and has a community, if they come to me, we'll create them a dating app and, and host it on our platform on a revenue share basis. So that's a new development for us, which is, which is really quite exciting for both me and my investors. [01:21:50] Speaker E: So what do you do with the events that you hold? [01:21:53] Speaker C: So we do speed dating. So. So people register and what always happens is we end up with say 30 women and 10 men and the men all go home very happy. So. Yeah, but the women, actually, the women love the community aspect. You know, I always say to them, I might not find you the money you dreams tonight, but I'LL find you some very good new friends who understand you, your situation. And widows bond very, very quickly through the one terrible, tragic thing that binds us, which is shared loss. I always say that the one silver lining to the dark cloud of widowhood is the friendships and the community that you make along the way. [01:22:26] Speaker E: Well, I was gonna say because like, Richard and I travel together, I don't. Wouldn't necessarily want to travel alone. So do you have people that become good enough friends that maybe they'll go on trips together and things? [01:22:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I went on a widow cruise. Cruise. That's why I was in Seattle, actually, up to Alaska in the summer. So, yeah, a bunch of. I think 50 of us went, went on the cruise and, and had a whale of a time, quite literally with whales in Alaska. But yeah, it was great. Yeah. No, and people do. So I also, I set up. So much so that I set up a not for profit company called the widowcollective.com so that we could give something back to the widow community. Obviously, Chapter two is a commercial dating app, but in an ideal world, people come to chapter two, find their Chapter two and I never see them again. It's a really rubbish business model because the more successful you are, the less money you make, so you're always trying to fill the top of that funnel. And so we, we launched the Widowed Collective so that we can talk to the entire of the widow community. So we're there to support the widow community in a wider sense. And as. And when they're ready to start dating, then they will find out about Chapter two. [01:23:27] Speaker E: Yeah. So, Jim, do you have any comments or questions? [01:23:31] Speaker A: I love it. I'm impressed. She's done everything right. You know, it's going to be an entrepreneurial success and I love that. It solves a huge problem for people who are in a bad situation and bad things happen. So to me, it's an A plus grand slam. [01:23:46] Speaker C: Oh, thank you. [01:23:47] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:23:47] Speaker C: No, I really have tried to take my pain and turn it into purpose and I think if I can help other people find some joy, then that really helps me make sense of my loss. It's given me that reason for being and a newfound passion in life and. And I genuinely think that my husband would be incredibly proud. He'd be absolutely horrified that I'm discussing our sex life in the Daily Mail on a week. I'm sincerely hoping that he's right about atheism, because if he isn't, I'm in such trouble, I cannot tell you. Yeah, I'll be in for a right spanking. So I hope that I would have made him proud and, and it's certainly given me meaning and purpose in life and hopefully, you know, a nice business I can exit from. When match.com buy me will soon be nice. [01:24:34] Speaker E: So how can people find you? What's the best way. [01:24:36] Speaker C: So the best way to find me, I'm on LinkedIn. Nikki Wake. You'll find me there. You can also find me. Oh, this is, this sounds terribly egotistical, but nikkiwake.com is my personal website. I do quite a lot of conference speaking. I've done TEDx talks and things like that chat. So you can find my show reels and things on there and all my press NPR or you can email me Nikki N I C K Y Chapter 2 dating app. And I answer all those personally. And I love to chat. So yeah, please do get in touch. [01:25:06] Speaker E: Okay, thank you very much. You are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest today, Jim Beach. And we will be right back. [01:25:14] Speaker F: It's more than a rebellion when your teen is slipping into drugs or alcohol. When social media and pornography consume their time and their mind. When depression and even suicidal thoughts cast a shadow over your home. As a parent, you feel powerless. There is hope. At Turnabout Ranch, troubled teens step away from the chaos and into a clarity of nature. On a working cattle ranch, care for horses, learn responsibility, build trust and rediscover purpose. It isn't theory theory. It's real work, real therapy, real healing. Families from across the country have found transformation right here. Just when they thought hope was gone. If your teen is struggling with addiction, harmful online behaviors, even weight management, call right now and get the help you all need. [01:26:01] Speaker G: 8002-7714-3280-0277-1432. 800-27714. That's 800-277-1432. [01:26:13] Speaker B: It's passage to Profit. [01:26:15] Speaker D: Now it's time for Noah's retrospective. [01:26:19] Speaker E: Noah Fleishman is our producer here at Passage to Profit, and he just has a way of putting his best memories in perspective. [01:26:27] Speaker H: Got the keys? I've always kept them in my left pocket ever since I was a kid. That's the one thing that hasn't changed since then. We still use our keys to lock up and get into our homes. At least most of us in the cities do. Oh, I know all about those computerized home systems where it's all face and voice recognition. But if something in that computer goes the wrong way, heaven forbid you could be sleeping in the car for a couple of nights. That's if the car will let you back in. Keys are probably just as old as doors and you don't have to reboot them. And with more traditional structures controlled on the Internet nowadays, we'd better cherish it. I visited one of those modernized offices recently and I stepped out to use the restroom. When I was just about done, I leaned over and looked around and realized there was no handle or button to, you know, finish the job. So I quietly stepped out and asked the concierge, and she said, oh, no, there's no handle or button or anything. I'll just log in and flush it later. That was some restroom. Good thing I remembered to return the key. [01:27:25] Speaker F: Now more with Richard and Elizabeth, Passage. [01:27:28] Speaker E: To profit and our special guest, Jim Beach. And now it is time for Secrets of the entrepreneurial mind. We're going to start with Joe Masa with Pod Topic Insider. Joe, what is a secret you can share? [01:27:41] Speaker B: I'm going to relate back to something Jim said earlier about the best way to start a business is to steal an idea that exists. And I would just spin it slightly and say there are no real original ideas left almost anywhere in the world right now. So you don't have to have this magnificent, brilliant new platform that you're building or something over the top. Start really small with something that you're either passionate about or you can be consistent with. Whether you like it is sort of irrelevant at some point. But what's really important is to understand that that's like saying, why did Pepsi get created Because Coke already existed. Why do it? Well, they're both doing quite well. You don't have to be original to be successful. What you have to do is innovate, and you have to be dead committed to it. You have to just be really consistent, not throw yourself over the ledge every time you run into a hiccup. And with that, I would just finalize this by saying, you are going to fail along the way. So learn to embrace the downs because they are as temporary as the ups. So peaks and valleys will come and go, but your resolve is what's going to keep you in the game. [01:28:47] Speaker E: Oh, I love that. Yes, us. Okay, Nikki, wake with nikkiwake.com. what's a secret you can share with our audience? [01:28:55] Speaker C: I think my secret is not to be afraid to ask the one thing that I've been very good at. And I think mainly because of my personal situation and the problems that I faced was actually not being afraid to ask for help. Because actually 99.9% of the people in your contact list want to help you. It's about being, being brave and being bold and asking for help. And people will invariably help. So if you're looking for funding, if you're looking for marketing support, if you're looking for advice, if you're looking for someone to intro you to a potential contact, whatever it is, ask the question. The very worst thing that somebody can say is no. And, and for so many years, I was a too afraid to go for the ask. And I think as a widow, you know, you live for the moment. So I, I sort of inherited this kind of, what the hell, just do it attitude. And by stepping up and asking for help, my second business has excelled in ways that I never believed possible at a speed I never believed possible because I didn't pussyfoot around a situation and I just asked the question. [01:30:02] Speaker E: Oh, I like that too. So, Jim beach with Jim Beach Dot com. What's the secret? [01:30:07] Speaker A: You can share the corridor principle. So when you start becoming an entrepreneur, you're starting this pathway. Imagine you're standing at the entrance of a corridor and you can see all the way down the hall, and you can see that there are rooms off to the right and the left, but you can't see into the rooms until you start walking down that path. And you'll never discover what's in room one or room nine where your passion may live if you didn't, didn't start down the path. And so we talk about starting businesses maybe that you're not passionate about. Maybe the passion comes in year three in that business and you don't know that yet. Or maybe the passion is in the other thing that the first thing leads to. You've got to get started down the corridor. Take your remote control. This is kind of technical. You might want to take notes. Take your remote control and put it underneath a rock and then pound the hell out of it like 15 times. Step number one, corridor principle. You might find passion later in life than you think. [01:31:07] Speaker E: Okay, thank you. Richard Gearhart with gearhartlaw.com what's your secret? [01:31:12] Speaker D: My secret is sort of related to Jim's. Mine is entrepreneurs bet on their future selves. What happens in entrepreneurism is that as your business grows, you grow as an entrepreneur and you get better at things. So when you're starting out now, I think it's important to appreciate that you don't need to know it all and that as you go down that pathway, down that corridor, as Jim said, you'll learn more and you're developing more. And I think that's part of the satisfaction of an entrepreneurial career is what you learn and how you develop as a professional as you go through all of those different growth stages. [01:31:55] Speaker H: And. [01:31:56] Speaker C: Excellent. [01:31:56] Speaker E: Thank you. Well, and me, Elizabeth Gearhart with Gear Media Studios, usually I throw out something about AI or digital marketing, but this time I'm going to go into appearances and speaking and being on podcasts and all the places where you can go and show everybody how smart you are. And not only how smart you are, but how smart the hosts think you are because they invited you onto their podcast, which doesn't always happen. Right. And the reason that you should be doing that is because it builds brand authority, which is, which sends more people to your content and to your website, especially to fill out those contact forms and ask for a consultation with you. So there are places that can help you get presentations like the National Speakers association and others. But really, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, you do have to put yourself out there. And you heard what Nikki said. I mean, she grew her whole business, she feels, by putting herself out there into all this media. And it really helped a lot. So that's my secret. [01:32:54] Speaker D: Awesome. And that's a great one. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing on 40 stations across the U.S. 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, our studio assistant, Rishiket Bussari, and, and our social media powerhouse, Carolina Tabares. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. 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 [email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.