[00:00:00] Speaker A: What is someone gonna say? Are they gonna tell you your baby is ugly?
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Hey, we don't even know when our music's being used.
[00:00:05] Speaker C: Where was there a need for young girls academically?
[00:00:09] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhart.
[00:00:10] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gerhart. You've just heard some snippets from our show. Do you want to know more about starting your business? Stay tuned.
[00:00:18] Speaker F: Ramping up your business. The time is near. You've given it hard. Now get it in gear. It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:29] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearh, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
[00:00:36] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law. And I am the founder of Gear Media Studios, a full service podcast studio.
[00:00:45] Speaker D: Welcome to Passage to Profit the Road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities who tell their stories about their business journey and also share helpful insights about the successes that they've had. We have a very special guest, the lady of entrepreneurship in New Jersey. Her name is Judith Scheff and she is the executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology, where she champions entrepreneurship and economic growth through innovation.
[00:01:15] Speaker E: Too many awards to mention. And then we have Gaurav Sharma with hookmusic.com this is super cool if you love music and you love playing with software and you're very creative. I'll let him explain it, but it's really an awesome app. And then we have Dr. Tameka Quick with LeadingYoungWomen.com. what she's doing is just amazing work, helping young women really rise to their potential. But we'll hear from her later. And coming up later on, it's Noah's retrospective along with Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind.
[00:01:48] Speaker D: But before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans are business owners or thinking about starting a business, and we like to ask our guests questions that might be of interest to our audience. So today's question is if you could go back to your first day, what advice would you give yourself about your career? Judith?
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Sure. Thanks for that question, Richard. I would say the advice I would give to myself is always say yes. Be open to new opportunities. Don't think you have to have everything figured out at the beginning because you are more than likely going to pivot, twist, turn as your journey moves forward.
[00:02:32] Speaker D: Perfect. Yeah. I mean, careers last a long time and they don't always go in one direction. Glora how would you answer this question?
[00:02:39] Speaker B: I think my advice to myself back then would be the future isn't found in footsteps. Get comfortable paving your own path. Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. That's how you're going to end up innovating at the end of the day and finding your perfect job.
[00:02:54] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Dr. Quick, I think I would have to say it's believing in your voice and the power of your voice, being confident in your ability and your mindset of what it is that you're striving to do. And keeping in mind that you having the courage to persevere and pushing forward can definitely have an influence on someone who is watching. And you don't even know that they're watching. People are always watching. And you never know how your steps that you are taking might actually inspire someone to believe in themselves and move steadfast into whatever it is that they're pursuing.
[00:03:32] Speaker D: Very inspiring, I think, Elizabeth?
[00:03:35] Speaker E: Well, looking back, I guess I would say figure out what you're really good at and find a way to use it and find a way to keep using it even as everything around you changes. Because if you are really good at something, there's always going to be a need for it. I love data analysis and I've always loved doing that. And there's always going to be a need for that. Even with AI, you're still going to have to interpret data.
[00:03:58] Speaker D: Yeah. And AI is not perfect, by the way. We all know that.
[00:04:02] Speaker E: It's about 70%.
[00:04:05] Speaker D: So you still have to think a little bit. For my answer, I guess I'll say that for me, it was, I would tell myself it's about the journey and not the destination. Right, right. It's about the experience that you have growing as an individual and hopefully expanding your capabilities and your skill set. And for me, that's really where all the satisfaction has come from.
It's nice to have a few good endpoints or exits. Those are helpful. But it's really about the experience of working in the world, seeing what you can accomplish and what comes of your efforts. And so I would say it's about the journey. I think that was very enlightening. And now it's time for our first guest, Judith Scheft, and she is the executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology. Welcome to the show, Judith, again.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:04:58] Speaker D: Science, Innovation and Technology, that covers a lot of ground. Right. So maybe you could tell us a little bit about what your role is.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: So the commission, which is sometimes known as CSIT or csit, depending on whether you try to say it as a word or you spell out all of the acronyms is really focused on early stage entrepreneurs who are developing something and trying to take that invention and get it out into the marketplace. Because that's what innovation is. As you know, as a patent attorney, Richard, you can have an idea, but if you can't get it out into the marketplace, it's nothing. So we provide grants or non dilutive funding to early stage companies who are working in life sciences, clean tech, advanced manufacturing, general technology to help them boost their developments forward.
We're also looking at the academic research at our New Jersey universities. And we've got a lot of academic research. We've got fabulous research universities, we've got equipment tied up in those labs and we've got students in those labs. And we're looking to promote collaboration between industry, both these startup companies that I've talked about and large companies with our academic institutions. And so we manage a website called Research with New Jersey that's a free online resource that lets companies find faculty members, equipment, patents, anything that can help them drive their businesses forward.
[00:06:26] Speaker D: That's really great. And so you take seed companies, which means people who are starting out and don't really have any money. Is there criteria if one of our listeners wanted to apply for money to get one of these grants?
[00:06:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So we have some standard criteria from the commission. You need to have at least one person working 35 hours a week in the business, either paid or unpaid. Because again, when you're getting started, and I'm sure we're going to hear from some of our unpaid, a lot unpaid.
Half of the employees in the business have to be working in New Jersey because we're giving out state funds. You have to have less than 5 million in prior year revenue. Less than 50 employees. Because again, if you got more than 50 employees, there's a bunch of other wonderful state programs and funding that you can get. And then you need to be in good standing to do business in New Jersey. We also try to link people up with federal grants. There's probably programs known as sbir, sttr, which is the federal grants for doing research and development. We also work with the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers to help companies get access to try to leverage and pull federal money.
[00:07:41] Speaker D: Judith, you get to see a lot of startups and young businesses from the outside perspective. What are your thoughts about what an entrepreneur should do to maximize their chances of success?
[00:07:53] Speaker A: You need to have a bit of a plan and you need to be sure that customers want what you are developing, you don't need a big 50 page, huge business plan, but you need to have done customer discovery to ensure that the product or service that you're working on is something that somebody really cares about.
And there's help in New Jersey to figure that out. The National Science foundation has a program called NSF National Science Foundation I Corps. And Princeton is the hub of a northeast region I Corps hub. And companies can go and work with the hub to do customer discovery work to figure out is the product or service that they're working on really addressing somebody's pain points.
[00:08:42] Speaker D: That's amazing. I mean, normally you just kind of ask your friends and they all say, yeah, that's a great idea.
But if you're going to be serious about it, you do probably want to get some outside input on the idea before you make a big personal investment in it. Right.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: And ideally, you don't want to show someone your product and say, what do you think about this? Isn't this beautiful? Because what is someone going to say? Are they going to tell you your baby is ugly?
No.
[00:09:08] Speaker D: Well, my friends maybe.
[00:09:10] Speaker E: But to your point, Judith. So I have a cold and she was a little rough on me at one point. She said, I hope you don't mind. I'm like, no, that's what I'm paying you for. I don't want somebody who's just going to say, oh, you're fabulous all the time. Right.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: So you want to find out what people's problems are and then figure out if what you've got addresses their needs. And if not, then how do you pivot it, move it, adjust it?
[00:09:31] Speaker D: So if you're really new to the entrepreneurial world, maybe you've got a regular job and you want to start a project. Could you go to this institute at Princeton and get the feedback? You don't really have to be experienced.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: They take community teams to participate. You would Google National Science Foundation, I Corps, Princeton, Northeast Regional Hub. They've got hubs all over the country. There's a couple in New York City. I believe CUNY manages one of the hubs in New York City.
[00:10:01] Speaker E: How do you spell icor?
[00:10:03] Speaker A: I, C, O, R, P, S.
That.
[00:10:06] Speaker D: Sounds like a great resource. I mean, we do work with a lot of inventors and entrepreneurs at the firm. And, and they're all passionate about their ideas, which really makes it fun to work with them. You like, it's not like doing wills and divorces where everybody's miserable, right? Well, we get to work with people who are really excited but you know, sometimes I'm kind of thinking, well, I'm here to support you, but it would be nice if you also got some input just to kind of see how realistic this project is going to be. And it's fine to not be realistic. Right. But it's also good to get some input and not just rely on your own.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: And you'd rather find that out sooner rather than later and figure out do you want need to modify what I'm working on to meet what the real needs are. And so it might be you're developing something to help patients who have a vision deficiency. You want to talk to patients, you want to talk to eye doctors, you want to understand what is the FDA approval process to figure out. Is my solution really going to be helpful for what they're working on? One of the companies that we worked with is a company which had developed technology to help children who were cross eyed. And this student team with their faculty member developed a game where you would put on an Oculus Rift headset and kids would move their eyes by moving their eyes, doing the eye exercises, would move characters through the game. Wow, that's so cool. Instead of typical pencil pushing exercises.
So imagine having your physician say to you, go home and play this video game 30 minutes.
[00:11:40] Speaker E: So have you had some great success stories?
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Yes, we have. I would say that company Ocular Motor, which came out of njit, is an excellent success story. There have been companies working in the clean tech space. Princeton New Energy, which is working on battery recycling technology, has gotten a lot of. They took little money from the commission. They were able to leverage that with federal funding. And they've set up not only research and development in New Jersey that they've expanded, but some recycling locations in Texas and North Carolina.
[00:12:16] Speaker D: So we've talked about getting feedback on your idea. What are some other angles to entrepreneurism that you can share with us?
[00:12:23] Speaker A: So some of the things, you know, companies always talk to us and they always say, I want money, money, money. But money isn't everything.
You also need talent in your businesses. So we're always trying to connect companies to programs that might be through the Department of Labor in New Jersey, the Office of Secretary of Higher Education, the career development centers at the universities, community colleges, and so forth to help them get the talent that they need to drive their businesses forward. And then lastly, there might be specialized equipment that someone needs to access to work on their development project. And a startup is not going to have the funds to buy a big microscope or set up a clean room or have animal testing facilities to do some of the early work. But we have a solution. We have what we call an R and D voucher program where companies can apply to us, and we try to match them up with a New Jersey university so they can get access to those sets of capabilities to get some of that early data to move their businesses forward, and then they're in a stronger position to get angel funding, venture funding, or government funding.
[00:13:37] Speaker E: That's really important. I know our son is a programmer and he works, but he has a few things he's looked at on the side. And to really get the computing strength that you need is like 20,000amonth or 50,000 or something.
So he would have to partner with something like that to get it right.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:13:56] Speaker D: It's really interesting. It's fascinating how the entrepreneurial landscape has evolved over the years, because 20 years ago, I never heard of some of.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: These things didn't exist 20 years ago.
[00:14:08] Speaker D: And now there's, like, a lot of support out there for people to take advantage of. And it's part of the reason for having you here so that you can get that message out.
And whether you're in New York or New Jersey, other states could have similar programs and similar support systems, but I think New Jersey does it, you know, extremely well.
[00:14:27] Speaker E: Are people moving here for this?
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Yes. We've had come. I was talking to one company that originally had been. The gentleman lived in New Jersey, but his offices were in Staten Island. And after talking to him, he goes, oh, maybe I ought to move to New Jersey, and then I can take advantage of your grants.
[00:14:44] Speaker D: It would be a step up from. No, never mind.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: I said, yes.
And certainly within New Jersey, there's an organization called Choose New Jersey, which is a public private partnership that works to do business attraction both from other states as well as from outside the U.S. and our governor, Governor Murphy, does a lot of international travel to help drive collaborations.
[00:15:11] Speaker D: That's great.
[00:15:12] Speaker E: I do think that's one advantage of being somewhere like New Jersey is if you have to ship your product or get product from overseas, you. You're on the east coast, which is a really great place to be.
[00:15:22] Speaker D: So would you say that the current level of attention toward entrepreneurship in New Jersey is stronger than it used to be?
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. If you go back and look at Governor Murphy's strategic plan for the state of New Jersey, it's becoming the state of innovation. The most inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem is one of the tenants of his plan. So. Absolutely.
[00:15:44] Speaker D: And it sounds like he put his money where his mouth is right so they're making these investments and they're supporting entrepreneurship. So I think New Jersey is a great place to start a business just because of the population density. If I had tried to start a law practice in another state where people are miles away from each other, it would have been a much different experience than starting it in a state that has a high concentration of people. Right. And so I think that New Jersey, and it's not often brought up, but I do think that that's an advantage. People who you can work with are close by and you can connect with more people more quickly compared to some other regions. So I think New Jersey has a lot to offer.
[00:16:26] Speaker E: Yeah. So Judith, where would you start? Let's say I have an idea. Well, for me, my coaching business and I know there are programs for women too, which are even better than just the general programs. Let's just talk generally. Let's say I'm a 20 year old young man who has an idea for a software app. Where would I start?
[00:16:45] Speaker A: So one of the things I'm always telling people is jump into the ecosystem. There are so many tech meetups around the area. You know, New York, New Jersey, they have them in Hoboken, Princeton, a lot of different areas. Find one that's got people who are coming together around the topic that you are interested in so you can start to meet people, talk to other people, find out who have they used, what attorneys have they used. Did they like Gerhardt Law as course?
[00:17:16] Speaker D: Check out our Google range.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: I will.
You know, did they get support from the small business development centers or other support organizations in the state to get their businesses started? Did they join a business incubator? Part of the reason companies go to business incubators or co working spaces is to be able to be around other people so you can bounce ideas off of someone else who might have had a similar kind of problem as opposed to just being at your kitchen table by yourself trying to solve it.
[00:17:48] Speaker D: That's great. So we have to take a commercial break. We're having an amazing discussion with the lady of innovation, Judith Scheff. And we'll be back right after this commercial break. Stay tuned. We have intellectual property news coming up as well as secrets of the entrepreneurial mind. So you don't want to miss that.
[00:18:06] Speaker G: Let me tell you a story about Bill. Bill was a normal guy in his 50s. He had back surgery about two years ago. Bill was in a lot of pain. He dealt with his pain by taking the Percocets his doctor prescribed for him. Bill took more and more and more of them to help with the pain. Until one day the prescriptions weren't enough to get rid of Bill's pain. Then one day Bill found someone to help him get rid of the pain with illegal drugs he didn't need a prescription for.
Fast forward to today. Bill lost his job and his family.
The only thing he does have is his drug dealer. If you know Bill's story and you don't want to end up like Bill, call the detox and treatment help line right now to get away and get treatment. 8009-8017-6180-0980-1761.
800-980-1761.
That's 800, 980-1761. Are you running a small business with two or more employees struggling to find affordable health insurance? Well, help is just a call away. Whether you're a restaurant owner, retail store manager or a gig worker with staff, we've got you covered. Get quality health insurance plans starting as low as $120 a month. Our custom comparison tool finds plans tailored specifically to your business. We know it can be tough to find the right coverage. That's why we're here, to make the process seamless and stress free. Our plans include health, vision and dental coverage, all at unbeatable rates. Call the Small Business Health Insurance Hotline now. We'll compare top providers to get you the best deal in one quick phone call. Don't wait. Secure the benefits you and your employees deserve today. Call now. Rates may vary based on location and coverage options. 8024-9128-4808-4802, 8024-9120-8480-2491, 2084. That's 802-491-2084. 84.
[00:20:05] Speaker F: Now back to passage to profit. Once again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and.
[00:20:10] Speaker E: Our special guest, Judith Scheft has been in the innovation space, I don't know, since she was born maybe.
And she really gives so much value to any entrepreneur who talks to her. And we're just so lucky to have her here today. Talking about funding, which is so important to a business and how to get started. So, Judith, we were talking about ways to get going with your business, things you do first. So you said the first thing was to network and go to events that are in your area. What's number two again?
[00:20:40] Speaker A: I would make sure that you're figuring out what is the product and service that you're going to bring forward and then develop that minimal viable product and test it.
[00:20:50] Speaker D: Yeah. And that's the lean startup model. Right. So we're modifying the product on the fly. That works really great with software and other technologies as well. So tell us a story about one of the startups that you've seen become successful. Maybe your favorite startup.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Oh, I don't have favorites. I love them all. So since your children, I was going to say so since the commission. I joined the commission in 2020 and from 2020 through the end of 2024 we've given out 445 awards, $27.7 million to 250 companies. So some companies have been able to get multiple, they participated in multiple programs that we have. Those companies have taken the little funding that they've gotten from the Commission and leveraged it 15x in terms of follow on funding that they've received from either federal grants, equity and a tiny little bit of loans. Most people don't go the loan route with what they're doing.
[00:21:54] Speaker D: Judith Scheff, the executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology where she champions entrepreneurship and economic growth through innovation. Judith, where can people find you?
[00:22:06] Speaker A: We have a website www.njcsit.gov. you can go onto the website. They've got contact information for the staff from the commission. We're happy to answer emails. You can call us.
I've had a few people even text us.
[00:22:27] Speaker D: Well, thank you very much for joining us on the program. You're a wealth of information and inspiration. So now it's time for intellectual property news. And speaking of patents, and we talked a little bit about AI.
Now it's time to talk about global AI. Elizabeth, tell us what is going on.
[00:22:47] Speaker E: Well, Richard found this article and there's some data here, but it's from 2021. But basically the gist of it is China is really taking patents seriously now and they're getting patents in the tech field and specifically in AI field. And the United States is behind them in the number of patent applications filed for AI. And I'm sure some people will say that's because our laws are too strict in letting AI just steal content from anybody who wants to.
But I don't know. Also I don't know what the quality of the Chinese patents have been filed. They haven't been allowed yet. A lot of them are inside China. So they're domestic, so they're not necessarily worldwide.
[00:23:26] Speaker D: The study quoted 300,000 Chinese patent applications in the field of AI compared to US about 67,000 patent applications in AI. And so it's a really interesting question, why there would be this disparity, Right.
And you know, you could look at, I mean, you can only really speculate it could be government funding of intellectual property. These could be defensive patents. They're just trying to prevent American companies from establishing a foothold in China, especially with their competing product. I guess it's called deep.
That's the Chinese or anywhere.
[00:24:04] Speaker E: Because if I remember correctly from my days as a patent agent, which haven't done those in a long time, if you are trying to file a patent application, if an application has been filed anywhere else in the world on the same thing, you can't get a patent anyway.
[00:24:19] Speaker D: Blocks it globally.
[00:24:20] Speaker E: Right. So they could be blocking 300,000 patents that maybe people would want to file in the next six months or so.
[00:24:27] Speaker D: But I do find it a little bit ironic. I mean, China really does not have a great reputation when it comes to intellectual property enforcement, yet here they have tons of patents around their AI portfolio. It seems a little ironic, but in any case, maybe we should go to our panel and get some opinions on this question.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: GAURAV I think that while you're right, a lot of these applications of AI patents have been filed in China. I think it's very different from the applications of AI that have become kind of in vogue specifically over the last year. And I'm pretty sure we're going to catch up.
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Dr. Quick, I come from the space of trying to gather people, gathering entrepreneurs who are new to this journey for them to be able to become familiar with it. And what does it mean? Because I don't think that there's enough knowledge or enough teaching that's being done about it, especially in the entrepreneurial space.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Judith yeah, so I want to mention, you know, the state of New Jersey has a big focus on AI in New Jersey. So kind of be on the lookout for how AI is going to be deployed really broadly.
[00:25:32] Speaker D: If you are interested in learning more about patents, you can go to our website, learn more about patents.com you can download a free white paper and you can also schedule a consultation with a Gerhardt law attorney. And we will be back with more passage to profit right after this. And remember, stay tuned. Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind will be coming up soon.
[00:25:55] Speaker F: Learn how thousands of smart homeowners are investing about a dollar to avoid expensive home repair bills. John A former non customer said my air conditioner broke and I had to spend nineteen hundred dollars to fix it. Jeff A customer wrote my air conditioner broke and I got a new one at no out of pocket cost. Mary, a former non customer wrote, my heating system stopped running. I had to spend $3,000 to get a new one. Lisa, a customer wrote, my heater stopped working. I got it fixed at no out of pocket cost. For about $1 a day, you can have all the major appliances and systems in your home guaranteed fixed or replaced. Call now. If the lines are busy, please call back.
[00:26:36] Speaker G: Call the home warranty Hotline now at 8002-5549-4080-4940.
800-255-4940.
That's 800-255-4940.
[00:26:53] Speaker F: Are you looking for the cheapest prices on car insurance? Then call the cheap car insurance hotline right now. You're guaranteed to save money on your car insurance. Most car insurances can be canceled at any time. That means if you find can switch right away. We're not just one company. We offer most of the major brands of car insurance. We're like a discount supermarket for car insurance. And it doesn't matter if you have a good record or a bad driving record. Our agents are experts at finding you the right car insurance for your needs. Our average customer saves hundreds of dollars a year when they call us to switch. So why don't you make this 100% free call right now and see how much you can save on your car insurance.
[00:27:39] Speaker G: 800-430-6722-803672-26722. That's 800-430-6722.
[00:27:53] Speaker F: Passage to Prophet continues with Richard and.
[00:27:56] Speaker D: Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest, Judith Scheff. Now it's time for Elizabeth's spotlight. So tell us what you've been up to.
[00:28:04] Speaker E: Well, we were just talking about AI and I have to say, so we've opened our podcast studio. I have a lot of people interested, but now it's a content creation studio because video is so important. We have three cameras and we can switch back and forth and we have different configurations so people can come in and do videos. They can do just audio. We have a big room that's empty. They can do anything they want. And what blew me away is like, I have five different people come in and each one of them wants to use a space differently so we can talk about AI all we want. How are you ever gonna kill creativity? Human creativity? I mean, that's what this space is all about, is human creativity. And I just. It blows my mind how smart people are in creative.
[00:28:48] Speaker D: You mentioned the content creation studio. Nomenclature as opposed to the podcast studio. I thought that was very creative. I thought that.
No. Oh, wait, no. But still.
[00:29:00] Speaker E: But we did it for podcasting initially, then. Well, it was actually Richard's idea to tell people, well, you might want to do social media clips up there. So. Yeah, so content creation is more. And that's where people are going. People are listening to podcasts on YouTube more than any other platform now. And I think I figured out why. Because you can skip the ads better on YouTube.
[00:29:23] Speaker D: But they're still there.
[00:29:24] Speaker E: But they're still there. But you can hit skip sooner than you can on a podcast. But people aren't calling it listening to podcasts anymore. They're calling it where you find your content now. Because YouTube is doing to Apple what Microsoft did to Apple. So Apple was the first one with podcasts. It was the first one with video podcasts. And now YouTube is just coming in and taking over. Of course, YouTube's owned by Google, so, you know, anyway, the studio is open. I do have a lot of people interested. I am really enjoying it. I do have somebody here, Angelica, who's going to be helping me in the studio.
She loves technology and she came up and saw it and she was like, wow, this would be a fun place to work. So we're gonna be working together a little bit this summer. But. Oh, I also have the Jersey podcast podcast, which we have not done lately because Danielle's been super busy. But I really want to do another episode because Richard and I accidentally brought home two little kittens on Sunday.
So I have a lot to talk about.
No, we went to the shelter just to look anyway.
And I'm still doing my meetup podcast and YouTube creators community. So a lot going on around that. That's enough about me. I wanted to do the medical AI minute quickly. During the break, we were talking about how some people are afraid of AI. I think a lot of people are worried about. They hear the horror stories of what it's going to do. It's going to take everybody's jobs. But from the World Economic Forum, AI can interpret brain scans. There's this article and what it does is if somebody has a stroke, depending on how long it's been since their stroke, like minutes, hours.
There are different cures or treatments that you would use, and the doctors have to kind of look at the scan and figure it out. But the results are impressive. The AI is way more accurate. The software was able to identify the times within which the stroke happened. Crucial information for professionals. So there's a crucial time if it's less than 4.5 hours, or if it's up to 6 hours, or if it's after that, it could estimate the biological age of the lesions, helping to determine whether the stroke may be reversible. That's really hard for.
[00:31:32] Speaker D: Doesn't AI have, like, hallucinations?
[00:31:35] Speaker E: Well, hallucinations are.
[00:31:36] Speaker D: So what if they're hallucinating these things in your brain? I mean, my brain has hallucinations. Maybe I need an AI.
[00:31:42] Speaker E: Are you trying to be funny right now? Is that what this is about?
[00:31:45] Speaker D: Maybe. I just.
[00:31:46] Speaker E: I just don't think so.
Yeah, so the AI. So let's talk about AI hallucinations for just a minute.
So AI tries to predict what the next word is going to be and what you're typing. And this is what my son, who's a programmer, says. And that's where these. And I see that you are nodding, or that's where these hallucinations come from. But we have a tech guy here, so we can talk to him about it.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Not that.
[00:32:09] Speaker D: All right, come on.
[00:32:10] Speaker E: Okay, let's.
Enough of this, please.
So I'm really excited to hear from Gaurav Sharma about Hook Music because I love playing with software, and I did want to say podcasts would not be where they are today without AI, but I'm assuming you're using AI in your software too, so please tell us all about it.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: So we're a mobile app. We're called Hook. We're using AI to make music expression really easy for anyone.
So in the same way Instagram made becoming a photographer something everyone could do, or TikTok for short form video, we're bringing that same thing for music. I think music is one of the mediums of expression that I think everybody understands and reacts to, but for some reason, we're not confident expressing ourselves with it. And then you go to Instagram and TikTok, and everyone's posts involve music. And I think I read a stat last year where half of the music on these social platforms were modified, and AI is driving that even more.
And so what Hook is. Is a platform that is for anyone that wants to express themselves on social media. And they can create music really easily. They can remix their favorite songs. They can, you know, make their favorite artist's expression part of their own as they post it to their TikTok and Instagram. And we work with all the artists, rights holders to make sure what their fans do is right by them. It's fully controlled. It's ethical. We have been vetted by, like, every Artist and rights holder that we've integrated with to make sure we're ethical usage of AI. And we help the artists then claim revenue on all of the derivative versions of their songs that their fans end up creating and sharing externally.
[00:34:02] Speaker E: That's amazing. Is your goal to sell this?
[00:34:04] Speaker B: No, I think I love music. My last company was also another music tech company.
And I just think our relationship with music as people is constantly evolving.
And unfortunately, whenever these evolutions happen, I feel like the artists and the rights holders end up getting the brunt of the stick. And for us, I'm just really fascinated by how do we move in the direction people want to engage with music in a way where artists can benefit. And AI, as you mentioned, is a tool. We have applications of AI to make music expression easier, but it's really about music expression.
[00:34:43] Speaker D: So, quick question. So if you play the wrong music on your YouTube video, they can mark you down. How does your licensing system get around that?
[00:34:53] Speaker B: We don't get around it, we lean into it. We basically built a platform that allows the artists to choose exactly how they want their fans to engage with their music. Everything is for social media. So it's all 30 second, 60 second clips. You can't change a whole song. And then if a user were to share that music onto a YouTube or anything, our license is such that it's our responsibility to make sure that everything made on Hook is legal.
It's what the artist wants.
[00:35:23] Speaker D: So is Hook a platform? A social media platform?
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Yes, a social media app.
[00:35:27] Speaker D: Okay. So it's not just taking music files, combining them and returning them to the user for them to use it in the way that they want to. They would display the music on the.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: Platform if Instagram was for music.
[00:35:39] Speaker D: Got it.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: And how do you make money similar.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: To an Instagram or a TikTok? As we grow, we have ads, subscriptions to get rid of ads, and we share more than half of our revenues to a pool for the rights holders. So artists, based on how much their fans are consuming or creating, get their share of that revenue.
[00:36:00] Speaker E: So I took a little bit of this person, I took a little bit of this person. I made my own mash. I wanted to use a video editing software like I use Capcut or Describe. And I wanted to put that mash on top of my video. Like, can I take it off your platform and do that with it?
[00:36:15] Speaker B: You can take the video into Hook, and then from Hook, you can share it into your TikTok, Instagram, all of that.
[00:36:20] Speaker E: Okay. So I would, instead of doing it In Capcut, I would do it in Hook.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: You could still do your video editing in Capcut, but you can ultimately bring that video into Hook and then share it to wherever you want.
[00:36:31] Speaker E: So you want to make Hook like another Instagram?
[00:36:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Today you could almost think of us as Capcut for music. And you're never going to get content taken down. And it's right by the artist. Like, we worked with this one artist named Blondish who, you know, was going on tour in Brazil, and before she got there, we tried to nudge fans into creating Latin American remixes of her new single, Self Love.
And the idea there was let's generate hype organically, where the fans can be like, I really love this mashup with a Latin American artist that maybe Blondish hadn't even known or heard of.
And it brings the fans closer. They get to feel like they're part of that creative expression. And her listenership grew, like, quite significantly in Latin America because of it. So it helps expand the fans into different genres, artists into different genres, and so forth.
[00:37:27] Speaker D: So how many artists are you currently working with then?
[00:37:29] Speaker B: We have licensing with virtually every label, but we're opt in. So it's up to the artist to be able to say, hey, I want to lean into this.
And I mean, we launched in January, so I'm not going to throw out any numbers yet. But I would say we have a very large library of artists, some of the biggest artists in the world.
[00:37:47] Speaker E: How are you getting to them? Because I would think they would want this, because as somebody who hears 15 seconds of a great song, they're going to want to go hear the rest of it.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I have been talking to friends that I've made over the years at record labels, at marketing teams, and understanding what their problems were, that, hey, we don't even know when our music's being used on these platforms. And even if we do, sometimes we can't approve that because the artist doesn't want that. Right. So it was really listening to what the needs of the artists were and the stakeholders were, and then building it and then going back to them and saying, hey, we built this solution for you. And it starts with just earning the love of the artists, and then from there, the fans and consumers will come. That's our thought.
[00:38:32] Speaker D: That's great. If I were to want to use Hook, how much would I pay for a mash that?
[00:38:38] Speaker B: It's free, it's free. But if you wanted to have more premium features, that could be paid. But right now we don't even charge for, like, it's completely free. You can go on it and be like, Teddy Swums. Really cool song. I want to make my creative version of it and mash it up with an Indian Bollywood singer and make a funny video.
[00:38:59] Speaker E: So I've got some great cat videos.
[00:39:03] Speaker C: You should do it.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: You should do it.
[00:39:05] Speaker E: Should do it.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: How many people are working on your team at the moment?
[00:39:09] Speaker B: We have 15 people now.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: I wish I knew about grants and everything you were talking about the whole time I was sitting here like, oh, my God, made my life so much easier. But, yeah, we bootstrapped for the first couple years, like the typical entrepreneur story. But we have raised close to $8 million now through Venture, and we've brought on some really great investors that touch music, that touch technology, and now we're kind of armed with a great team and great backers, and we're trying to.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Did you participate in any of, say, the New York City business accelerator programs at all?
[00:39:48] Speaker B: I seriously, I wish I did. And I wish that I'm going to tell people that I know that are starting to look into these. I did go to a lot of meetups. I did really focus on understanding the needs. But I remember that being a really scary moment where it was like, I'm going to quit my job, not necessarily going to have an income, and I can't really raise any capital right now. But I knew that there was product market fit.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:11] Speaker E: So how did you raise the capital?
[00:40:13] Speaker B: This was my second business. The first one was similarly, it was a shift in how people were listening to music, which was music streaming. So in 2009, I helped start a company that was just digitizing music for India. And then it ended up becoming the largest music streaming service for India.
Like 300 million users. And we figured out how to create licenses around the same time that Spotify was in Sweden.
And we. I mean, India's a really cool market for music because it was always Bollywood. But now there are artists, and we got to be there for that. And so I guess I built a lot of relationships and goodwill from people during that moment. And so I just wanted to try to found something on my own.
[00:40:58] Speaker E: So you had the relationships.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:00] Speaker E: And that's what's really important, right?
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. But even then, it's about having the relationships, but then really trying to understand their needs. And I really thank a lot of my friends that would go and get lunch with me and break down their actual problems that they were dealing with.
[00:41:16] Speaker D: So what have been some of the Challenges in getting hook launched and built and out there.
[00:41:22] Speaker B: Biggest challenge, getting app store search optimization. That's our biggest challenge. Because if you search for Hook, it's like all hookup apps and that is definitely the biggest challenge we've been having.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: You gotta put in Hook music.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: You gotta put in hook music.
Don't download the other apps.
[00:41:41] Speaker D: Find a very different app.
[00:41:43] Speaker E: You warned me.
I don't want to be getting these ads on my phone for put on something like that. Right?
Yeah. So what is your marketing plan for this?
[00:41:52] Speaker B: We're doing really cool activations with artists. Like I can't say any names, but some pretty a list artists. We're working with them to do marketing campaigns that maybe would expand them into fans that are of different genres, things like that. Being part of the rollout plans for album releases of some pretty big artists. We want to prove right now that we can help impact artists in in a unique way through our platform. And I think that that's going to organically market itself. I don't want to be like we're a tech company, use us. I'd rather the artists like naturally use us and then people find out. But if you go an Apple in the app store and just search for Hook music, you can find us.
[00:42:38] Speaker E: Okay, well, I think this would be so much fun to play with. Oh my God. I mean, I could get lost in it for hours.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: I'll let you know when we get it on Android.
[00:42:45] Speaker E: Okay, so it's hookmusic.com and it's on Apple phones, iPhones, but coming soon everywhere else. And how do people get a hold of you if they just want to talk to you?
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Gmusic.com you can just email me.
[00:43:00] Speaker E: Perfect, thank you.
[00:43:01] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt.
[00:43:04] Speaker E: And now we're moving on to our next guest, Dr. Tamika Quick. She has leading young women and she is just doing amazing work helping people step up to their potential. So please tell us all about what you're doing.
[00:43:18] Speaker C: Essentially Leading young women started out as a aspiration to start an all girls school. I have been in higher education for about 12, 20 years within the state of New Jersey. And during one of my trips in taking some students to Ghana, Africa for a service trip, I had the opportunity of watching a documentary on the plane ride and it was about an all girls school in Baltimore, Maryland. And the movie really spoke to me from two different perspectives. One, I was able to see myself and the young ladies that were in this movie, in this documentary. It really talked about young girls from the inner City, being raised by single mothers, being in high school, being involved, aspiring to go further with their education. And then the second space was an administrator in the school. And there was one young lady in the documentary who was struggling academically. And the administrator is talking to a junior college colleague and she starts crying and saying, this is probably not ethical of me or showing the most integrity, but if we don't help get this young lady into a school, school, we're gonna lose her.
And at that time, working in higher education and being a woman of color, there are just so many times that young ladies have come to me with their own stories, their own experiences, not knowing what it is that they wanted to do, what direction they were going in. And so I was able to see myself in that administrator as well. Covid came around and I did a little bit of research about the all girls school and learned that it actually was a part of an organization from out here in New York.
And I'm originally from New York and I saw that as another aha moment. So did my research, contacted them, was able to engage with them, and actually started my entrepreneur journey in 2020. So oddly enough, I actually started Leadership Academy for Young Women as an LLC first, because I knew that that was the name that I wanted for the actual school. We reconnected in 21, myself and the organization and started doing some digging in New Jersey to see where was there a need for young girls academically for us to explore the idea of starting an all girls school.
So we had identified Jersey City and we're working with Jersey City to start an all girls school. It had actually gotten approved and we were supposed to open it in the fall of 21.
Unfortunately, that did not happen. But because we had already started the process and it didn't happen. It wasn't happening that year, but we had postponed, postponed it by a year. We wanted to get more settled within the community, connect with the community, connect with other organizations. And that's how Leading Young Women evolved. I started the nonprofit because I started connecting with a bunch of organizations and churches in Jersey City, meeting the young ladies of Jersey City. And that's where the community engagement aspect of our organization evolved. So we started doing back to school drives. We started doing vision board parties as well as prom dress drive events. And that was the community engagement arm. The school was supposed to open again in September 2022. Unfortunately did not happen. But I was very committed to what I had started and the work and just supporting young ladies and whether it's in service, leadership, personal development, Especially in the middle school, high school age range, because that's when identity development is happening for young girls. That's when they're going through the mean girl experience in school and just trying to find themselves separate from their parents as well.
So because I am from Passaic, I circled back into my own town and actually had the opportunity of running a pilot enrichment program with Passaic High School last April. So they gave us the opportunity to run an enrichment program. We named it Diamonds and Gems where we did a pilot program with some young ladies from April to June, meeting with them twice a week, talking about issues that they were dealing with in school, school at home, but then also fostering female empowerment, introducing them to different aspects of what it means to be a young lady from there. We did a great job and we were invited this year. And so now we've been running our full enrichment program with the high school since November and it's been going really, really well. And oddly enough, a middle school recently reached out to us and now we have a pro, an enrichment program with a middle school as well.
Patterson the women that have been working with me on this movement since 2020 said to me, you know, the original goal was in fact to start an all girls school. So I'm pleased to say that we just submitted our charter school application to start an all girls school in New Jersey last month and we are currently at the phase of waiting to hear back about whether or not we've been approved or not. If we have been approved, we'll go on to phase two which will be need to be completed by mid June and then we will have interviewing in the month of August and then if all goes well, we'll open in September.
[00:48:19] Speaker E: Yay.
[00:48:20] Speaker C: So it's been great a journey, but it is doing phenomenal and I'm having a great experience with the young ladies.
[00:48:27] Speaker E: I can tell Judith is ready and.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: Posed for the questions.
[00:48:31] Speaker E: Judith, go.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: Well, we had talked a little bit actually on the tour about some of the other resources that, that you can leverage from the state. Whether it's from the Economic Development Authority grants, some of the support organizations such as the Women's center for Entrepreneurship Corporation.
GNEC makes micro loans to small businesses within, you know, within the state of New Jersey in the area that you're looking at small business development centers, you know, there's a whole group that supports non profits. I'm sure you're tapped into them to get some free advice and counseling.
[00:49:10] Speaker C: As I was mentioning to you before, that's the space that we are in. This is essentially year five, and we have been getting a lot of attention. A lot of people wanting to collaborate and partner, a lot more young ladies wanting to join the organization. So right last year or the. Over the year, it's been about the enrichment programs, but they've been tied to school schools, and a lot more parents and young ladies are saying, I want to get involved as well. So now this year, we are looking to see how we might just be able to run general programming as well as mentoring for girls who are not tied to a school, but fit within the age range so we can support them. And I just recently found me a grant writer. That's probably when you talk about challenges, that's been one of the challenges is being able to find someone who's committed to this work, who wants to look for grants and apply for them. It's time consuming. But a lot of this has been based off of donations.
Family, my own pockets. And so now the speed of the organization has outgrown those things. And now I'm learning about guidestar. I'm learning about Give Butter and how you collect the informations from people who have donated and how you continue to foster those relationships. So I think this is the year of us really taking it up a notch and trying to secure some additional funding so that way we can do a lot more. Because the young ladies are really excited.
[00:50:32] Speaker E: Yeah. And I just want to say I think that this is so important, and the reason it is so important is because these are people who don't realize their own potential and may never finish out school or really rise up to what they can do. And then if you can keep them there and they could find a cure for cancer in 10 years. Right. Like this is who you're bringing up and finding young people who are smart. Like a lot of these kids are really smart. They've just never had a chance to show it. Right.
[00:51:00] Speaker C: And I'm constantly telling young ladies, you do not have to be a product of where your life starts out. Right. As you mentioned, it's about the journey. There isn't an end pole. There isn't a goalie. It is about going your life distant and being able to embrace every part of that journey because that's going to make you who you essentially are. So I'm constantly telling the girls, we don't focus on where we are right now. We're focused on the step that's in front of us and where it is that we're striving to go. If you look at Statistics. I wasn't supposed to be here. Single mom, father who was an alcoholic and on drugs. Right. Didn't have the best relationship. But I got my degrees, I'm successful career wise. And now I believe that I'm in a place where I'm pursuing my passion and what my purpose is and why I was brought here. So I'm gonna continue doing the work and continue to try to support and advance young ladies.
[00:51:51] Speaker E: What are the typical stories that you hear from these young women?
[00:51:54] Speaker C: There is a mixture, to be quite honest. You have some who. I have one young lady who is on the principal honor roll, has been on the principal honor roll for quite some time here from Jamaica, oddly enough, has not seen her mom in seven years. Is here with her father.
Extremely smart and steadfast in her academics and being involved, but also just also craves that woman engagement because of not being able to see her mom. And is constantly coming to the programs, learning, talking about what does it look like to go to college in state or out of state, because she's extremely bright. And we talk about mental health. What does mental health look like? How do you do self care? We just had a session last week where I had a woman who is. Who's an esthetician. She came in and talked to them about what it means to be an esthetician. But then she also did a workshop with them on how they take care of their face, how they produce, you know, great quality with their skin care and things of that sort. I had someone come in and introduce them to what it means to become doula certified. So. Right. Not all students want to go to college. You do have some students who want to go into the field with training.
So we expose them to all of that. I have another young lady who actually wants to do hair and play softball. So it's a wide variety of young ladies. This is my first time working with middle school girls. And I will say I was nervous at first, but they are a joy. They. I've been able to notice the sponge that they are. And I think collectively I'm seeing that these young girls desire to have somebody regularly engaged. Right. And sometimes these young ladies who are coming from inner cities, whether it's single mom, single dad, their parents have to work. And they are not always given the amount of parenting and time that they might need that we as an organization are striving to do. And it's connecting them to all different types of women from different backgrounds and walks of life to show them success looks differently.
[00:53:56] Speaker D: How do you organize all the people involved and how do the girls get the information.
[00:54:03] Speaker C: So we definitely have a website, leadingyoungwomen.com we have social media, Facebook and Instagram. It's both leading young women haven't gotten to TikTok just yet. What we have done is we do have our board members. Then we have a leadership team who works with me on the regular planning. Right now everybody is volunteer. And then we also have created something called community advisory boards because we are looking to serve different communities. We've been able to find like minded women who interested in giving back to young girls. And what we'll do is sit down like right now we're getting ready to sit down for our strategic plan for this year and talk about what is this year going to look like. What events and programs are we going to actually offer and which ones will be within those communities happening simultaneously and which ones will just be one collectively the entire organization. And we bring the girls together. Right now we've. I just recently got a young woman who had her own women's nonprofit organization but kind of stopped the work. But she's still in the movement. She's now our enrichment coordinator. So she's working with me to try and acquire more opportunities with other middle schools and high schools. We've also been able to get some interns who are either in the social work field or teaching field who are going to assist us in facilitating some of these programs because they need the hours, they need the experience. Experience.
And then I also will have some interns over the summer who are going to help with like our social media and planning our events for the upcoming year.
[00:55:30] Speaker D: Can you share some stories from some of the girls that have been through your program and the progress that they've made?
[00:55:37] Speaker C: Sure. So I would say I'm having the most success right now with the girls that are participating in my Diamonds and GEMS program in Pasaic High School.
I would say three of them in particular. There have been colleagues from the high school who have come to me and shared with me that they've seen such a wide and huge difference from behavior to academics to level of engagement within the school. Addressing conflict head on. Right. One of the things that I'm constantly talking to them about is how they are able to manage their emotion and how do we utilize what we're thinking and feeling and actually vocalizing it. Our tagline for our organization is voices that matter. Constantly reassuring them and letting them know that their voice matters. One of the other things that I'm also always also teaching them is how to be silent. There's so much outside noise that we don't take enough time to be in tune with our own thoughts. Right. And we have a woman who's a great partner and colleague of mine who came in and did trauma and healing with them and talking about what is the difference between good thoughts and bad thoughts and how do we push against the bad thoughts that we might be having. How do we practice mindfulness and staying in that and. Right. Your mind is going to drift, but how do you bring yourself back? Um, so a lot of these young ladies, in starting to work with them, either the absences were really intense, they might have been getting in trouble with suspensions, or their grades weren't up to par. And now we're definitely seeing a different transition. I just recently got an award two weeks ago from the Partnership for Maternal and Infant Health of Northern New Jersey. They gave me an award and I asked them if I could have the opportunity of bringing four of the young ladies. It was a cocktail hour, business, semi formal I should say. There were going to be a lot of people professionally. I wanted them to have that experience.
So they did give me four complimentary. And they had the opportunity of seeing what it meant to network. So seeing what a silent auction was, what it means to have waiters coming around giving orders, what it meant to have a champagne glass or putting a napkin on their, on their lap, the valet opening the door. Little experiences like that, that at the end of the night they were just ecstatic because they had that opportunity. Um, that's what it's about. It's about introducing them to things and giving them access to things that they wouldn't normally have.
[00:58:03] Speaker D: That's, that's wonderful. Earlier you mentioned a sort of a strategic direction to pursue. Like a charter school.
[00:58:09] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:58:10] Speaker D: Why would you do that? As opposed to simply expanding the reach of your current organization? What benefits does that offer?
[00:58:17] Speaker C: So if you look at research, the school that we have applied for is called Girls Academy for Leadership and Excellence. We're calling it gale. Girls academically perform differently when they are in single gendered environments in comparison to to co ed spaces. Before, when I started, when we were trying in Jersey City, there's a national organizations that is for all girls schools and tons of research and data that shows the success rate, the way in which girls will show up and speak up for themselves. Not worrying about the peer pressure, seeing the level of engagement being very equal amongst each other as peers. And then the other thing too is very much accessible.
If we look at it There are tons of private schools for single gendered, but there are hardly no public schools in New Jersey, I should say, because there are a great deal here in New York, but in New Jersey there are only two public all boys schools and there are no public all girls schools. So I am always pushing against what people have a hard time in seeing where there's access and equity and, and I just want to be able to afford these young ladies the opportunity to be in an environment where they can be their authentic selves and not feel as though they have to put on any type of facade or be something different. They're all going through similar experiences with just different players and characters and wanting them to foster that sense of sisterhood at a younger age because we are seeing that women are running the world and we're doing a great job at it.
[00:59:55] Speaker E: I will say, though, it is hard for girls that, that age, especially because the boys don't want the girls to be smarter than them. And I think that's a real thing.
[01:00:04] Speaker C: And I think one of the things too, what we. And I was explaining this as well, STEM is a really big deal for young girls. Steam. And STEAM is a very big deal.
So that's one of the things that we've also been working on is how do we partner with organizations that already exist. So, for instance, I've been having some conversations with black girls who code and talking about if the school does get approved, how might I work with them to be able to foster some of the curriculum within the actual school.
So that way we are in fact being intentional with the work that we're doing with these girls. I want to look at the big landscape, right? And where are our girls underperforming or not doing the most? And those are the spaces that I want to bring them to.
[01:00:46] Speaker E: Well, that is awesome and I'm so happy you're doing this. Thank you. Unfortunately, we're out of time. But how do people find you?
[01:00:53] Speaker C: So my email is really easy. My email is aquickeadingyoungwomen.com our website again is leadingyoungwomen.com all social media handles. You can find us by leadingyoungwomen.com passage.
[01:01:05] Speaker E: To profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Our special guest, Judith Scheft. Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind is coming up when we come back. And I have a juicy secret.
[01:01:17] Speaker F: Man, I had a rough night's sleep.
[01:01:19] Speaker C: Boy.
[01:01:20] Speaker F: I got a letter from, from the IRS yesterday and I just couldn't sleep. Man, I'm dying here. Somebody help me. IRS problems affect more than just your finances. If you're ready to take back control of your life and you owe more than $10,000, you need to call the tax doctor. Their expert staff can immediately protect you from the IRS and state collectors and get you the best possible tax settlement guaranteed. The IRS has recently released new programs geared in helping struggling people, taxpayers, where you may qualify to settle your tax debt and wipe out up to 85% or more of what you currently owe. If you owe $10,000 or more in back taxes, call the tax doctor right now. See if you qualify to pay less.
[01:02:00] Speaker G: 8002-6219-2680-0262, 19 26. 800, 2, 6 two, 19, 26. That's 800.
[01:02:16] Speaker F: It's passage to Profit.
[01:02:18] Speaker D: Now it's time for Noah's retrospective.
[01:02:21] Speaker E: Noah Fleischman is our producer here at Passage to Profit, and he just has a way of putting his best memories in perspective.
[01:02:28] Speaker H: Whether it's business or social, communication is key, especially the verbal kind. With all the texting and emailing going on nowadays, it's become a very elite quality.
As a kid, my mother wouldn't let me out of the house if I didn't speak with absolute perfection.
I had some great times around the house. But the point is, your spoken words are your lasting image. My parents were like E.F. hutton. When they spoke, people listened. People had to. When they spoke, you couldn't hear anything else. It was like that day in the convenience store. I'm 15 years old and I'm with my mother. And these two girls from my English class come walking in. My mother calls out from two rows away, you want me to ask them if they have a bathroom or can you wait till we get home?
So distinctly spoken. No one missed a syllable. And she certainly put those two girls to shame. By the time she was done, they were so busy doubled over, laughing, they couldn't even get two words out of their mouths.
[01:03:20] Speaker F: Now more with Richard and Elizabeth, passage to profit.
[01:03:23] Speaker E: Our special guest, Judah Sheft. And now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind.
I'm going to ask Judith Scheft from the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Tech to tell us a secret.
[01:03:36] Speaker A: Well, one of the things that I think I do is I create a brand. Now, I didn't really wear it today, but I wear a hat a lot. And I'm sure you know that.
[01:03:46] Speaker E: You know that, but you are wearing a jeans jacket. So denim is another part of your brand.
[01:03:51] Speaker C: Right.
[01:03:52] Speaker A: So you have a. So that people know Dress for success. Yeah I read that older book, but you create a brand for yourself. And I see, like, pink is probably associated with your leading young women. You know, create a brand. Create an identity. Make sure you're not trying to hide under a bushel basket. Create a brand.
[01:04:13] Speaker D: I love that you're the first person who's ever said anything like that, so thank you.
[01:04:18] Speaker E: That is a very good secret. And you're always your brand, even if you're at the grocery store.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: Right?
[01:04:23] Speaker E: Okay. Gaurav Sharma. Hook Music app. And put in Hook Music. The whole thing.
[01:04:29] Speaker B: Put in Hook Music.
[01:04:30] Speaker E: Yeah. What is your secret?
[01:04:32] Speaker B: Love something a lot like more than anyone else in the world. Find something you really, really love and obsess over it and try to understand how it's evolving.
Try to understand where the gaps are. Try to understand where it needs you. And that's really the secret to innovating.
[01:04:47] Speaker E: That's a Good one. Okay, Dr. Tameka, quick, what is your secret?
[01:04:51] Speaker C: The secret that I would suggest is not to think of this journey of one that you have to do on your own. There are definitely people who are willing to go on this journey with you. There are people with resources and support that are willing to go on the journey with you. And outside of that. Right. There is enough room at the table for everyone to be able to be successful. I work with a lot of women who work with young ladies, and we get together on a monthly basis and saying, how can we support one another? How can we advance the work that we are each doing based off of the relationships and the people that we know? So never be afraid to collaborate with others or seek the support from people, because people will help you move forward.
[01:05:40] Speaker E: That's a great one. Yes. So, Richard Gearhart, Gearhart Law.
[01:05:44] Speaker D: I'm going to go with something less lofty, but I think just developing good habits will take you a long way.
Taking care of yourself, your mental and physical health is very important when you're an entrepreneur. Developing good routines, doing a fair amount of planning, all of those things that you do over and over and over again that move you toward your goals, I think are key to success.
[01:06:10] Speaker E: Yes, I am going to say adaptability.
So I have had to adapt throughout my entire career in life. I started out as a PhD chemist, and now I'm running a podcast studio. I've been a patent agent. I've done a lot of different things in my life, but what I've really had to adapt to is a changing technology. And luckily, I love playing with software, so that's been kind of fun. For me. But there's other ways for people to adapt to what's going on in the world. But the world's always changing. Things are always going to be different. We're never going to go back to using horse and carriages to drive through the streets. So adaptability.
[01:06:45] Speaker D: That sounds great. Well, that's it for us this week on Passage to Profit. And we'd like to welcome a new affiliate to the Passage to Profit family, K L I s a m St. Louis, Missouri. So shout out to all the listeners in Kansas City. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer, Noah Fleishman and our program coordinator, Alicia Morrissey, and our studio assistant, Rissi Kat Bussari. 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. 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.
