[00:00:00] Speaker A: Usually entrepreneurs don't integrate with each other.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Very, very exciting time for us to have an alternative.
[00:00:06] Speaker C: When we move, a lot of things happen.
[00:00:09] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhardt.
[00:00:10] 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.
[00:00:20] Speaker F: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:22] Speaker D: The time is near.
[00:00:23] Speaker F: You've given it heart, now get it in gear. Its Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:31] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:38] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law and I have my own startups and podcasts.
[00:00:45] Speaker D: Welcome to Passage to Profit the road to entrepreneurship, where we talk with celebrities and entrepreneurs about their stories and their business ventures. We have a very special guest, Naga Nandigam, an expert in digital transformation, specializing in erp, cloud engineering, software engineering and AI. With a passion for technology and emerging trends, Naga is here to share insights on innovation and driving success in the digital age.
[00:01:13] Speaker E: And then we have two amazing guests. This is very cool. Today we have Pete Ferrari. Ferrari, yes, that's his real name. And he has Jaka Sugar. So this is a sugar substitute that is naturally derived. That's just amazing. So if you like your sweets, but you don't like having all that sugar in your body, you really want to hear about this. And then we have Sonia Sartra. Full disclosure, she's been on the show before and I hired her as a coach as a result because she's so good and she's a mindset and fitness thought leader, founder of Mota Size, and the author of what if it were Easy.
[00:01:48] Speaker D: That's great. But before we get to our very fun and distinguished guests, it's time for your new business journey. So two in five Americans are business owners or at least thinking about becoming business owners. And we like to ask a question that will benefit them. So today we're gonna be talking about trust and the importance of building trust among your team and your customers. So, Naga, welcome to the show. What are your thoughts about trust in the world of business?
[00:02:17] Speaker A: I would say like trust is one of the most important part because you need to create trust in two avenues. One thing is to your customers and also to your employees. Employees have to believe in you while you're doing the service industry to journey and then accept. Whereas customers are getting all the full service that they needed. When they trust, they wait for us to get delivered. So. So I definitely think that is important.
[00:02:40] Speaker D: That's great. That's great advice, Peter.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: I feel largely the same. I think trust is the most critical component, especially nowadays, of scaling any enterprise. Deloitte actually did a study. They studied a trillion dollars of buying power in this country, and they found that for 75% of the decision to buy a product, it actually has nothing to do with the product itself. It's all about trusting the founders of the company, trusting the company, charitable outreach, charitable donations. So you've got a very, very savvy and educated customer nowadays who's looking and researching before they're purchasing. So there's got to be a sincere connection in order to bond with these customers, in order to be successful nowadays.
[00:03:21] Speaker D: Very good, Sonia.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Trust is so key and certainly for what I do with coaching. You know, Pete and I were talking earlier. It's almost. It's everything, because if you aren't trusted by your client, they're not going to reveal their truths. You're not going to really get to the heart and the core of whatever it is that you're trying to figure out. So, number one is trust, and then is everything else.
[00:03:42] Speaker D: You said that so well, Elizabeth.
[00:03:44] Speaker E: I agree with everything. I also feel like, though, to build trust, you need to do what you say you're going to do.
[00:03:50] Speaker D: I couldn't agree more. I think it's really important because trust has a very practical value. I mean, it makes us feel good, but it also means that we can rely on the people that we're working with. Right. So if you trust somebody and you can rely on them, then that's the basis. That's the lubricant for business. Right. Because you can't write a contract for everything and you can't put everything in an email. But if you trust the person, if there's an issue, you can work it out.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: I think listening is such a key. Listening like real listening and reflecting back so people feel heard.
[00:04:23] Speaker D: I hear you.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: And that there isn't the lack of communication. I think that's another important component, component to building that trust so that everybody is on the same page. They don't have to write a contract for everything.
[00:04:36] Speaker D: So how do you become a good listener?
[00:04:37] Speaker C: Getting curious. I think curiosity is the number one thing to it's not about you, it's about them. And that's probably right, 101 client sales and whatnot, but it really is true. So it's about the other person. It's about getting curious. It's about trying to Hear what's underneath the words. So it's not just about what they're saying, but it's feeling the energy of what's coming from them and then reflecting it back to make sure that what you're getting is accurate.
[00:05:09] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: You should have worked with my ex wife.
I did the best I could.
[00:05:14] Speaker D: Well, that's great. So I think the bottom line is trust is really important and we all appreciate that. Getting there and maintaining it is is also really important because it really does help propel a business and any kind of relationship forward. So now it's time for our very distinguished guest, Naga Nadigam, who is the CEO of dymcom and she's also a Gearhart Law client. DYMCOM is an ERP consulting company and she's a thought leader in her industry. I've gotten a chance to know her over time and dimcom really does have a lot of very innovative solutions. They're relying on AI to really propel the business forward and they're using it in unique ways. So welcome to the show. Naga, can you tell us about your entrepreneurial journey?
[00:06:02] Speaker A: I would say like right now I'm working with Dimension Consulting, also named as Dimcon. Dimcon is mainly focused on ERP. When I say ERP, there are different ERPs that are available in the small scale industries, enterprises, mid scale industries and everything. ERP is nothing but a technology solution that is provided in a holistic view. So what does that mean? Is it has everything from reports, dashboards, users, processes and everything. Layman terms if I have to say. It's something like a simple application that you can use on your phone or else on a web to make the business happen really fast. But we focus on business360. What does that mean? Is giving business everything that is required, whether it is going to be sales, people, journey, workforce management solution or it can be a product management and financials. So how do we do? We are like we don't own our ERP system, but we partner with major leaders like Oracle, Workday, Salesforce and few of them. And we are like Cloud excellence implementers or ERP Excellence implementers. Our journey is very different. We actually work with the clients directly to understand their pain points. The pain points can be as if they cannot even just write a check. I mean they can write checks every day, right? They need thousand checks to be written. If it is a small department, sure they might be doing hundred, but if you're talking of Walmart, they might be doing millions of checks and using a right ERP solution. Might help that automate. And that's what we listen to, the pain points and we use erp.
[00:07:41] Speaker D: That's perfect. So how did you though get involved in the business world? What is your story?
[00:07:46] Speaker A: My story, it's interesting. I started myself as a technology person. I have done development, I can use a Coke and write code stunts of it. And later when I started working as a functional consultant, I got chance to work with lot of C level executives where I'm hearing about their pain points. They're working with Deloitte or Infosys or TCS and everyone. But still they have some part that is not heard. So listening to their problems and getting solutions is what I have been doing. Then slowly my parent company said like, hey, you have been doing amazing and they wanted you to everyone to hide me. But I said like it's not the part. If I can do, why can't I build a team to do it? So that's where the journey of services started and deamcon started. And we do have a couple of other companies too. But mainly myself, I'm focused on delivering to the services. We started in 2019 on Deemcon, but 2006 I started other companies.
[00:08:51] Speaker E: I think you hit on a really important point there. You looked for pain points. That is so important because anybody can start a business.
[00:08:59] Speaker D: What's a pain point?
[00:09:00] Speaker E: Something that drives you crazy, that makes it hard to get your work done, that makes it hard to get your invoices out.
[00:09:06] Speaker D: It causes pain.
[00:09:10] Speaker E: But I mean you can start a company about anything. But if you don't really have a directed purpose like you did, like what are the pain points in using these ERP systems? I'm not sure you're going to be as successful as you'd like to be. I think that's super important. And listening, listening to people. So did you go talk to people that were ERP users and just say what's happening? That's driving you crazy?
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Yeah, we do have discovery conversations that we schedule with the clients to understand their pain points. Right. I mean we just will not even talk about pain points. We say like, hey, this is introduction, we do erp. And when they see that branch like Oracle, hey, what do you do? Are you Oracle? So no, we are not Oracle, but we do Oracle implementation. You can buy a Salesforce, Netsuite or any of those ERPs and start utilizing it. If you don't know how to use it, that's when the pain points comes in. So we are here to help to situate that ERP provides 80% of commonality where the product is already built, you just use it, right? So it is not like you develop or you wanted to have an expert do it. It's already there. It's as if an application on your phone. The beauty of it is nowadays it's SaaS. That means like you don't have to have computers on your system. Someone come and technically implement it, right? You just using the application, anyone can use it.
[00:10:29] Speaker D: It used to be that a company had to build their own software systems if they wanted to use computers to organize their information or their production or their sales. And then SAP came along, right? That was the first one, I remember that. And that was a pre built system and you had to conform your business practices to what SAP was doing. And people who were actually on the ground doing the work absolutely hated that. Right, because they had to change the way that they were doing things. But ultimately it made things more efficient. And over time, now there's different ERP systems. If you're a small business, there's ERP systems for you, right? And if you're a big business, then you go see Naga and she can help you implement one of these big expensive computer systems for your company. But it really has changed the way business is done and it's improved efficiency a lot.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Actually ERPs are nowadays being used by startups because the CEOs or anyone, they have to know what is happening in the system.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Peter, I think a mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make is they think that Google Docs is a platform because everybody can be on a Google Doc and share it from different parts of the organization. That's our platform. And because they can do a comma delimited import that's a platform or they're using Tableau, or they're using QuickBooks and QuickBooks is speaking to Google Docs. That's not a platform. Yeah, netsuite is a platform, SAP is a platform. And if the data is really going to be housed with integrity and it's going to structurally be sound, which will eventually make you attractive at acquisition or help you with liquidity event, it's these types of systems. Dimcom is central to implementing these types of systems properly.
[00:12:14] Speaker D: Thank you Peter. Naga, let me ask you, can you talk a little bit about ERP systems for entrepreneurs?
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Entrepreneurs. So let us say like if you're talking about different, right, you are starting up new company or else you are there for already 30 years. So based on where you are, you have to choose the right erp. And after that there is second part The C level suite, they have to see how the system is operating, the financial, profit and loss statements, income statements and everything. And you don't want your accountants to do that day to day job saying that entering an invoice like in QuickBooks. Right. So what you can do is you try doing your stuff, the end users day to day stuff, and the reports are instantaneous. The CEO or CFO can say, hey, the financials, this is my P and L and everything. So that is instantaneous. That's a good thing about erp.
[00:13:05] Speaker E: It is, yeah. It ties all your systems together so you can get the big picture. Right. The question I have to ask you is how much is AI affecting this now?
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Each and every Oracle, I mean I can talk hours together on the AI part. This is, I think in 2016 when I was in a cloud world. That's when Larry from the CEO at that time, CEO of Oracle, has been talking about machine learning and how they bought in vertical cloud, vertical erp. And it was interesting. And everyone since then have been putting one piece or the other. 2019, they said, like how an email can be generated using AI, how machine learning is critical. But when we talk about erp, there are three pieces to it. One thing is how the user is benefited while composing an email, sending in or hiring an employee, or even services that they're providing. Because AI can actually consolidate and give the machine learning the real analytics to you. So when I talk about AI, there are again predictive interactive and I mean interactive is too far away, but there is generative. So I would say Nowadays all these AIs, ERPs are integrating with predictive analytics as well as generative. As a product owner, each and every company are integrating AI into it.
[00:14:23] Speaker E: We talked about that last night at this meetup I had for podcasting. AI is in everything and if you're not using it, then you're kind of getting left behind. Right. So it is interesting that it's coming into the whole ERP systems.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: I would say like ERP and AI, there are two different verticals. You have to use AI inside ERP to make life better. But it is not the end. The workers and everything, the business use cases are entirely different for AI versus erp. But ERP product owners, they're coming with strategies to bring that up. So I would definitely think so.
[00:14:59] Speaker E: Watch out.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: You'Re not left out. Like saying that if you're using erp, you are already using AI.
[00:15:06] Speaker E: So what, what were you finding was the biggest pain point when you talked to entrepreneurs using this or businesses using this.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Usually entrepreneurs, they have multiple ERPs and they work on silos they don't like integrate with each other. So for example for a CRM solution they go with Salesforce or they go with HCM Workday and they don't talk with each other. So that is one of the pain points we hear a lot. And the other thing is not proper implementation. So they know how to use the ERP system as an end user but it not configured properly. That's where dimension consulting can help, where they can actually help and solve that to utilize the application. Right. ERPs are supposed to reduce the pain, not increase the pain. Right. The thriving businesses I have seen tons of it my entrepreneurial journey. I think I served more than 40 plus companies including hers or TJX and there are multiple I can talk about. Each one of them has good references where they talk about hey Nagas understands the story well because we can come up with a story and then they build it. So I am a product architect actually. Initial days now driving the business. But it's interesting we have to go there and to your point we have to listen. We can't just do something without listening what the client is saying.
[00:16:23] Speaker E: I think the frustrating part for us was the person we had somebody that we had hired, he supposedly learned the business and it drives me crazy when people say oh a law firm is just like any other business. It's like no it's not. But he didn't understand the business when it came time to do the implementation. He left out a lot of custom programming he threw out from the last one that we actually needed because it was a law firm. So I think if we had someone like you who actually knows how to listen to people and would learn the business, it would have gotten a lot better.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: That is good point. And one more thing is there are industry vertical specific ERPs, right? Something like sales, there are HubSpot, there are Salesforce. Everyone wants a solution. We don't give a rocket ship for every solution. Right. So. So we have to give what is right fit so that's more important. And by industry, by vertical, by territory, you have to analyze and give the solution even though it is pre built.
[00:17:14] Speaker D: That's great. You know we have to end the segment right now but it's a fascinating discussion. We'll be back with more from Naga Nadigam and you're listening to Passage to Profit. We'll be back right after this commercial break.
[00:17:27] 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 helpline right now to get away and get treatment. 8009-8017-6180-0980-1761, 900-1761, 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. 802491, 2088-024912-08480-249-12084 that's 802-491-2084.
[00:19:27] Speaker F: Now back to passage to profit once again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our.
[00:19:32] Speaker E: Special guest, Naganandaga, talking about ERP systems and how they can make your business run so much better than it did without them. So Naga is an expert at implementing these and she's implemented across many different kinds. So she's going to tell us now, like when do you need one? When do you know that you need one? How big do you have to get and what considerations do you need when choosing one?
[00:19:55] Speaker A: When we start thinking about erp, it is like there are three reasons why when we go to a client, ask do you need an erp? The first time that we'll be asking is, hey, how many softwares that you're doing, you're using? And then are they working properly? Are there too much coordination? Lot of manual work that you're doing? So how many employees do you have just maintaining the existing software?
[00:20:21] Speaker D: Naga Nandigam, an expert in digital transformation, specializing in erp, cloud engineering, software engineering, and AI. How do people find you?
[00:20:31] Speaker A: We do have our website. They can definitely reach out in www.dimcon.com, but however, so we are on LinkedIn and Instagram and my post I can publish my email to and my teams.
[00:20:46] Speaker E: So that'll be great, really, if you are thinking of organizing your business. I think that somebody like Naga is the first stop.
[00:20:53] Speaker D: Really? Yeah, absolutely.
[00:20:54] Speaker E: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:20:57] Speaker D: So now it is time for Intellectual Property News, where we're gonna be talking about deepfakes. And this time in Intellectual Property News. We were reviewing, Elizabeth and I, a study by the Library of Congress. They run the Copyright Office, and they were analyzing the impact of deep fakes and the legality of managing those. You know what a deepfake is, right?
[00:21:25] Speaker E: I know what a deepfake is. It's when somebody takes you, for instance, your likeness and makes you say something really stupid and it sounds just like you, and people think it's you, but it's not you.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: It's a deep fake.
[00:21:36] Speaker D: Well, how do we. How do we distinguish between the people who are really are saying stupid things and the deepfakes? I don't know. I don't know if they have a law for that yet or not. But anyway, the Library of Congress came back and submitted a report to Congress saying that the current copyright laws are completely and totally inadequate to deal with this situation. So what else is new in the legal world? Things happen slowly and certainly not as quickly as the technology. I really hope that Congress does something to address this because there's a lot of mischief that we could get into with deepfakes. But I'd really like to hear from our panel today. Have you had any experience with deepfakes? Any thoughts about what we should do with them? So, Sonia, do you have any opinions on these deepfakes?
[00:22:25] Speaker C: I have had anybody actually take my likeness, but I have been hacked a number of times, which, you know, is equally as frustrating and annoying. And I do have some celebrity friend who did have a deep fake of her. And it was tough. First she didn't even know it, and then it was. People were starting to say, hey, I don't. This doesn't quite seem like you. It was just off enough and then it was, what do you do with it? Where did it come from and how do you control it? Because once it happens once, then you, you know, it's tough. So it became a bit of a legal battle for her. So I do think it's a serious, serious problem.
[00:23:04] Speaker E: Sonya could be a target because she was a soap opera star on Guiding Light and One Life to Live and has recently been in a Netflix show. Is that still on Netflix?
[00:23:13] Speaker C: Yeah, it is still on, yes.
[00:23:15] Speaker E: What was the name of that again?
[00:23:16] Speaker C: Cowboy Wars. Yeah, yeah.
[00:23:18] Speaker E: So she's out there with her image and her audio from a long time ago. Even so people could see steal yours.
[00:23:24] Speaker C: They absolutely can.
[00:23:26] Speaker D: And trying to get justice is really hard. Peter, what are your thoughts?
[00:23:30] Speaker B: I think it's going to be a problem that becomes far more pervasive. In fact, I'm actually working with a content generator right now and I only have to send him a picture of me not even smiling. And he's able to generate with AI, a fully interactive video with me smiling, showing other facial gestures. He can show me speaking in my voice in Japanese, Spanish, English. It's actually scary, incredibly disconcerting. Now it's a way for me to generate content at a very, very low cost and it's authentic. However, the converse when somebody's doing it for illegal means and ill gotten gains, this is scary because it's only going to get easier.
[00:24:11] Speaker D: I guess the moral of the story is keep your eyes open and lobby your congress people for strong laws against deep fakes.
[00:24:19] Speaker E: And if somebody you think, you know, says something really inappropriate that's unlike them, it could be a deep fake or.
[00:24:24] Speaker D: It could just, they could have indigestion, you know.
[00:24:27] Speaker C: So yeah, definitely keep an eye out for people on your list.
[00:24:30] Speaker D: As a second special treat for the intellectual property news, we have a very interesting story from Naga. Her parent company owned a trademark that could have been very valuable. Naga, why don't you tell us a little bit more about that?
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Yeah, so when I traveled here in 2006, that's when I started. So the company name that was formulated is Siri Info. And I am part of a company called Siri. How many of you know what Siri is?
[00:24:57] Speaker D: You mean like the voice activated Siri?
[00:25:00] Speaker A: Yes, but I'm not part of that group because we did not trademark. So my parent company is Siri Info. So Siri, we call that Siri all the time. All the legal documentation is all Siri. But we did not do trademarking, and now we do have an apple right now I call, hey, Siri. Call me so and so person. And we always discuss on the boardroom saying that, hey, why didn't we do it?
[00:25:29] Speaker D: Well, I have to follow up with that. A very personal story. My dad, who is no longer with us, used to work with Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's, and he asked my dad to go into business with him, and my dad said no. And so every time he saw a McDonald's commercial on television, he would just sort of wince a little bit, thinking about what could have been. But at the time, it seemed like a risky thing. And so he just decided to keep his job and didn't take that risk.
[00:25:59] Speaker E: Well, I want to go back to the trademark, if we can. If you had trademarked Siri, would you have done it worldwide or would you have just done it in a few countries?
[00:26:08] Speaker A: We would have done definitely in the places that we are operating. So there are like eight countries that we are operational, so in Canada, US and few others. So. But worldwide would be best. But we'll start off with the places that we are operational.
[00:26:23] Speaker E: Right, Right. So have you trademarked the name of your company now?
[00:26:26] Speaker A: No. That is something that I have to figure out, actually.
[00:26:31] Speaker D: You might want to have a discussion about that because it seems like you. You wouldn't want that to happen a second time, Right? So that's too bad. We were kind of talking about that before the program. Elizabeth and I were wondering, well, if it's Apple, they have a lot of clout anyway. But you probably would have received a nice compensation for that, right. If you decided to sell, that is compensation.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: But at the same time, we do not want our name to be used by something else. And then people will think like, hey, oh, yeah, do I have to type Siri? So they will look for different options. They'll ask us a question saying that, hey, how do we reach you? But if it is already trademarked, they know where to reach and how to do and everything. So it's a funny story, but at the same time, for any entrepreneur who is starting with right now, AI, everyone is. And you said like two in every five Americans. But I would say, like, everyone is thinking and waiting for an opportunity to start their journey. And if you are starting a journey, just think about how to do that, like protect your intellectual property. And if you are bringing up a product, how do you trademark it?
[00:27:38] Speaker E: If you're an entrepreneur and you think you want to name something this, and then you don't ever do anything with it, you don't sell anything or you don't use it anywhere, then you can lose it.
[00:27:46] Speaker D: You have to use it or lose it in the trademark world.
[00:27:49] Speaker E: And how many countries would you tell people to get a trademark in?
[00:27:53] Speaker D: It's a strategic decision. It depends on where you're doing business. So I don't believe in trademarking in places where you're never really going to need the trademark, but where you have active business activities. If you want to protect company headquarters area, if maybe your headquarters are in the UK but you're also doing business in Germany, would you want a competitor to use your name in Germany? That's a question that you have to answer and then based on that, you can decide.
[00:28:19] Speaker E: So would you trademark the name and.
[00:28:21] Speaker D: A logo or it depends on your budget. I would say if you can afford, I mean, trademarks are relatively inexpensive intellectual property. You're looking at probably maybe $2,500, $2,700 per country. So if that's not an issue, if you're a larger company, then protect everything. If you're an entrepreneur just starting out, you just really want to focus on the name and then you can file more trademarks later.
[00:28:45] Speaker E: Is there a place where people can go to find out more about trademarks?
[00:28:48] Speaker D: Which is funny you should ask. You can go to learnmoreaboutrademarks.com and you can download a free trademark booklet that will tell you a lot about trademarks. Or you can book a consultation with me or one of the attorneys at Gerhart Law and we can help you with your trademarks or your patents or your copyrights. So it's an excellent educational resource and it's important for your business that you protect your name because if you don't protect it, somebody else could start using it and create a lot of confusion.
[00:29:23] Speaker E: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest, naganandagam.
[00:29:28] Speaker D: Back right after this, learn how thousands.
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[00:31:13] Speaker G: 8004-3067-2280-0430-6722, 8430, 6722. That's 800-430-6722.
[00:31:27] Speaker F: Passage to profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:31:32] Speaker D: Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show heard across the country on the Radio America Network and on iHeartradio. Passage to Profit is also a popular podcast. We are ranked in the top 3% of podcasts globally and have been named as a top 10 interview podcast by Feedspot Database. So we're very proud of those things and we're very happy to bring all of this wonderful information to our audience. It's now time for Elizabeth's segment. So take it away, Elizabeth.
[00:32:07] Speaker E: So last night we had our meetup. It was podcast and YouTube creators community meetup called Pod Experience.
And we had a couple guests who talked about Pod Fest, which is the big podcasting conference every year in Florida in January. And I thought we got a lot of really good information. We had around 70 plus people. You know, people come and go through the night. So that was pretty good. That is going strong. We're going to do another one next month. We do it every month with Stacy Sherman. She's the co host. And I also have my Jersey podcast podcast about cats and their illnesses with Danielle Woolley who is amazing as a co host. And the podcast studio in Summit, New Jersey is almost done. We're pretty excited. We just have a Few little things we've got to get to, but we've been so busy. We just have to get over that last hump. Richard.
[00:32:54] Speaker D: Just that last hump. We're almost there.
[00:32:56] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:32:57] Speaker D: Well, you know what was really interesting about the meetup there was one of the presenters said that at some point there's going to be a billion dollar company run by a single person because it's all going to be done by AI. And that just made me pause for a minute.
[00:33:12] Speaker E: Right. The two speakers last night were about using AI in your businesses and your podcast. They're actually going to be on the show, so we'll dig deep into that. Now it's time for the medical minute. The medical minute is about the weight loss drugs, GLP1 drugs. They're linked to lower dementia, which is great, but they also give you a higher risk of kidney and stomach issues and pancreatitis. So for every action, there's an opposite reaction. So there's always good and bad with these drugs.
[00:33:41] Speaker D: It's really a yin and a yang situation. I keep hoping I'm going to be able to lose weight, you know, without these drugs, but I don't know. I may give in pretty soon and give it a whirl.
[00:33:50] Speaker E: I tried them and they really did not, were not a good fit for me. But I have said always that I think struggles with weight for most people are all mental. I know they are for me because I have lost weight and gained it back. So we recently went to a wellness clinic and just relaxation and addressing different issues. And I think that that's gonna set me on the road to achieving my goals. Physical goals.
[00:34:17] Speaker D: Yeah. And the food was horrible. I mean, they had no chocolate, no beer, no wine, very few carbs.
[00:34:24] Speaker E: But the watermelon was really good. No, they had a lot of carbs, actually. I was surprised. They had white rice and potatoes.
[00:34:30] Speaker D: Yeah. But they didn't have chips.
But I did lose weight, so I guess it is possible.
[00:34:37] Speaker E: I am so excited to get to our next two guests. We're going to do Pete Ferrari first, talking about weight loss and drugs and different things you can change. You have an amazing sugar substance.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Interestingly enough, part of the merits of this rare sugar, which we have named Jaka, includes controlling appetite through activating the GLP1 enzyme upon ingestion. So it's one of the many health benefits that are afforded by this rare sugar that we're going to be bringing to America. Once again, we've named it Jaka. It's got all the formulaic badges you Would want vegan friendly, Halal certified, non gmo, diabetic friendly, FDA grass status. But it's also been proven to control appetite, inhibit the body's ability to assimilate new fat and burn existing body fat through the enzymes and proteins that it activates in the large intestine upon ingestion. So it's a very, very dynamic and exciting time for us to have an alternative that actually is a sugar. So it tastes, cooks and bakes like the sugar we grew up with, but it doesn't have any of the hazards that are associated.
[00:35:45] Speaker E: Does it have any negative side effects?
[00:35:47] Speaker B: There have been no negative side effects. This super sugar is fodmap friendly, meaning it's been proven not to cause gastric distress. Right. Bloating, nausea. It is Proposition 65 compliant in California, militant state when it comes to adhering to protocols for foods. It has got National Sanitation foundation certification. Again, NSF very difficult to obtain FDA grass status, their stamp of approval. It's a magical ingredient from our standpoint. And why have we never heard about it? This sugar was first identified in kiwi, jackfruit and figs in the 70s. But it's such a delicate and rare sugar that it couldn't be extracted without destroying it. So enter enzymes. Now. We can extract it and monetize it, but while the International Food Information Council found that less than 15% of Americans have ever heard of this sugar, I actually think that number's less than 5% two years later. By contrast, Japan, probably the healthiest culture in the world, they use this sugar in north of 5,000 products. They use it to the extent that we use stevia here. So it's vetted, it's tried and true. It's really going to change the game in this country as it relates to sweeteners.
[00:36:53] Speaker D: What does it taste like?
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Tastes like sugar, my friend. It's actually a sugar.
[00:36:57] Speaker D: So it tastes the same as regular table sugar.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Tastes like table sugar.
[00:37:01] Speaker D: I put it in my tea or my coffee, I wouldn't know the difference.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: You can eat a spoonful of it and it's not gonna taste like you're chewing on a wad of tinfoil like all these other sweeteners out there, or chewing on a bag of nickels. It's actually a sugar. So it cooks, tastes and bakes like sugar. It's a monosaccharide. The sugar we grew up with is a disaccharide. So it's got the same molecular composition, but the molecules group themselves together differently and that's what changes it Dynamically.
[00:37:25] Speaker E: I can hardly wait. You said you're gonna give me some, right?
[00:37:27] Speaker B: I'm gonna send you a tub of it. Yay.
[00:37:30] Speaker E: I wish I would have had this before Christmas.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: You know, the interesting thing is you talk about trying to lose weight. We believe that this can be the catalyst to find that trajectory of good health and well being. Because of the physiological benefits of this. Sugar controls appetite, literally sends signals to the brain, the hypothalamus, the brain stem and the parietal cortex, and says, you're full, stop eating. So literally, you can use this sugar as an instrument to find better health. And that's why we're building this company as a health and well being company equal to that of a sugar company.
[00:38:03] Speaker D: I'm wondering, how did we miss this though? I mean, if the Japanese have been doing it and it has all these government approvals, there's a pretty easy explanation.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: And I'll try to be delicate, but if you've seen RFK in the news lately and a lot of the philosophies that he's espousing, he is spot on. And so if we were having this conversation pre Covid folks, I'd still be a real estate developer in Nashville. I was in my middle 50s. Life was great, huge quality of life. And I stumbled onto this sugar after I was asked to be on the board of directors of another health food company. But pre Covid, the big food and beverage company still controlled the narrative. Television commercials, print ads, super bowl ads. Enter Covid. Now 80% of Americans are buying groceries online. Post Covid. Now people are looking for groceries online. They're researching online. Now I can talk to people one on one. They can hear me when I start to talk about this alternative, and I can capture that audience. So it's one of these things where now the narrative can be in control of the few like me. I can go head to head with Coca Cola for a fraction of the price. And so that's why we find ourselves here because of the advent of the Internet, the power.
[00:39:14] Speaker D: Cost wise, how does your sugar jacka compare to ordinary sugar?
[00:39:19] Speaker B: It's going to be more expensive. Our pricing is on the sweetener end of the spectrum. So you look at Stevia's plus or minus 86 cents an ounce. Monk Fruit's the most expensive alternative. It's generally about a dollar and a quarter an ounce. We thread the needle right in the middle at a dollar an ounce. That's going to be more expensive than table sugar. Table sugar is subsidized by the government. It is very difficult to combat with that pricing. But a lot of statistics and studies are showing now that consumers are paying more for healthier products, really understanding more and more how valuable and how important biofuel is. And so they're paying more for products and they're happy that they're doing it.
[00:39:56] Speaker E: So what is your market? Are you going to supermarkets? Are you going straight to consumer?
[00:40:00] Speaker B: We are actually going to be providing Jaka powered products, the Jaka pouches of sugar and the products that we'll be developing in a direct to consumer model over the Internet. So we're basically going the way of Gymshark and Fastenova and Kylie Jenner and Lip Kit. I've got the ability to provide this product with great economy and scale very, very quickly and efficiently versus the shelf space play where I've got to sit on a shelf. People may or may not know what I am. Most likely they're going to walk by from my standpoint because this is really an early adopter type of purchase. It's an archaic way to go in the shelf space play. Initially, that wouldn't have worked. I've got to teach people what this is before we can ask them to purchase it. And that wouldn't happen if I was sitting on a shelf in the 7 11. So that is to come. It's just not day one.
[00:40:49] Speaker D: The way I see it though is that we don't necessarily use a lot of sugar in the food in terms of volume and sugar is sold by weight. So even if it is more expensive, you're only putting a small portion into whatever it is you're eating. And so the cost difference probably is not a big deal. And then if you compare it to the health benefits, then it's a win.
[00:41:12] Speaker E: If it kills your appetite, it doesn't matter what it costs.
[00:41:19] Speaker B: It's a fantastic point. And the other thing, it took me a minute to do this. Obviously, Jaka is a huge part of our lives at home. I bribed my daughter with it. She hates fruit. So I'd put together a big bowl of fruit and I'd cover it with a mountaintop of Jack of sugar and she'd wolf down the whole bowl. But you know, one of the things that you've got to understand, and it took me a minute to get used to it, is you can eat as much as you want. People typically trying to regulate the amount of sweeteners or sugar that they're consuming. You can eat as much of this as you want to. No sugar crash, no sugar high, no weight Gain no lethargy. So it's really just a function of how much you like sweets. My daughter comes home from school for break, I hand her three pounds of jaka and she makes the best sugar cookies with it. Make me three dozen and I'll sit on the couch to eat three dozen sugar cookies and nothing happens to me.
[00:42:09] Speaker D: Except you're happy, right? Except I'm happy.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: Except I don't get into bed. I don't mind I put all the.
[00:42:13] Speaker D: Butter in those things.
[00:42:14] Speaker B: Well, we do offset, you know, instead of oil, you'll use fat free yogurt. Okay. So there are other substitutes that make it healthy versus what you would put in a standard sugar cookie otherwise. So we're able to get around that. And there will be recipes on our website, www.chocosugar.com. oh yeah. So you'll be able to go out there and create anything you want to with jock of sugar.
[00:42:35] Speaker E: Where are you making this?
[00:42:37] Speaker B: Well, it's interesting because we did all of our marketing asset work, logo, theming, iconography, packaging with VaynerMedia. We also did our market segmentation work with them too. Gary Vaynerchuk. And one of the things that we surmised early on was that we didn't want to wait to build a manufacturing plant to then enter the market because that's a two year play. And I was a real estate developer before. I did this for 15 years. Takes every bit of two years to build a plant and get it approved. So we're starting out importing it from where? Southeast Asia. So we evaluated 30 plus suppliers in Southeast Asia. Heavy QA. Heavy QA. It's interesting because all this is technically called psychos or allulose. All alluloses are not the same. So some of them have a very waxy feel to them. It tastes like you're chewing on chapstick. Some of them actually will sting your tongue. So heavy qa. We landed on a number of suppliers that we trust that also operate in ethical standards. We're a pending B corp benefit corporation, so we take social conscience and environmental sustainability very seriously. So starting out as importers while we're bringing the plant up.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: So how safe is it? You said like it is safe. Your daughter scoops it.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: Completely safe. There's 30 years of clinical trial behind this sugar. So you've got reputable universities internationally that have done best of their kind, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled human trials, not rats and mice that are saying this sugar upon ingestion decreases bmi. This sugar upon ingestion Controls appetite. So it's an incredibly unique opportunity in this country to help people find better health. And we just. I couldn't be more excited. This is the fifth company I've built in 30 years. This is the one where I can't sleep.
[00:44:15] Speaker E: When will it be commercially available?
[00:44:17] Speaker B: We're launching two one February 1st. So perhaps by the time this airs, you'll be able to go to Jaka Sugar and purchase.
[00:44:22] Speaker E: You're gonna give me some?
[00:44:25] Speaker D: We're gonna get Jack done. Jacka, right?
[00:44:29] Speaker E: What's your favorite chocca recipe?
[00:44:32] Speaker B: I am a huge sugar cookie freak. I love sugar cookies. Now my daughter can make anything with it. She'll make cakes with it, she'll make pies with it. I can't cook, obviously, so God bless her, she comes home and takes care of daddy. And so when she makes those sugar cookies, I just love them. But interestingly enough, you know, sugar is present in 80% of foods and beverages. It's in pasta sauce, it's in barbecue sauce, it's in bread, it's in waffle mixes. So we put it in everything. We put it in our pancake mixes, we put it in our waffle mixes. It sweetens everything up, makes everything taste beautiful and nothing happens to you. Metabolically dissipates in the large intestine. What isn't used is excreted.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: So the Jaga sugar that you're talking about, is it promoted in. Elsewhere it is all us and here.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: It'S very little known throughout the world except for Japan. So Japan's using it, as I said, in north of 4 or 5,000 products. It's used to some extent in Southeast Asia. It's starting to gain some speed here in America. We think that it's not enough just to offer this sugar as an alternative. Hey, here's another also ran. And this industry cries wolf with every sweetener that says we taste just like sugar and you can cook with it and we're good for you. Wrong, wrong, wrong. So we're out here telling the truth now, but it's kind of a crying wolf situation. So our goal is to build a health and well being company where we're espousing the benefits of leveraging the sugar to find better health. And then through that, hopefully you'll purchase Jaka Sugar and you'll become, you know, a customer of ours.
[00:45:58] Speaker C: Are you using some of the products that they sell in Japan?
[00:46:01] Speaker B: We are importing it from over there. Japan is an interesting country as it relates. So Japan is currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars on Infrastructure to build plants to produce this sugar. Not for export, only for use inside the country. That's how much they believe in the sugar. And as we all know, I mean, clearly Japan is the healthiest culture in the world. So we've got friends of theirs where we're able to procure it and we're excited about that and the quality of the product super, super high. And then naturally, soon enough we'll have a plant of our own with our own manufacturing ip, which is where attorney Gearhart comes in and his family. So it's going to be fun to watch.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: Let us switch gears. And I wanted to ask you, how are you starting up the business, but how much are you involved in the technology and what is it?
[00:46:44] Speaker B: Well, it's funny, Nago, because I was holding so much when you were speaking, because I have a tech background. So I built three tech companies in Atlanta and San Francisco in the 90s. And everything that you were saying was so poignant and so spot on. The importance of your company, the importance of getting consulting services that are appropriate based upon the business. So I was fighting, I wanted to jump in because everything you were saying is so true. And because I have a tech background, we decided early on that we were going to embrace ERP at an enterprise level. Because what I don't want to do, I don't want to do a stutter step. We're expecting explosive growth because it's a direct to consumer model. If I get something that goes viral, I could get a million orders in two days. Right. I can't capture that data in even SQL Server. I need to have something super, super powerful on the back end. So Shopify is feeding Oracle netsuite really the best there is. Right. So from day one, the structural integrity of that data in the back offices. Back office will be healthy. It will be scalable. I won't have to go to SQL Server now and then Oracle NetSuite in two years. And as Richard said, the pain of implementing ERP, especially when you have a culture that's accustomed to potentially previous versions or types of software that could be insurmountable. I mean, that could be a culture killer. So we jump right to NetSuite and thankfully we're one of 50 companies selected to participate in their accelerator program. So we got netsuite basically for free.
[00:48:13] Speaker E: So where is your new plant going to be?
[00:48:15] Speaker B: It's all about the raw materials and the proximity to raw materials when you're putting up a plant. Because if you have to haul that material across the country, you'll blow your cost model out. You can't, you can't monetize it. So we're looking in Iowa right now, we're looking in South Carolina right now. And it's really just a function of access to the raw material and then access to 3PL, the warehousing infrastructure, fulfillment centers from there so that we can distribute this economically and keep our costs down. Because one thing we don't want to do is be raising prices. I would actually like to lower the prices as we get scale. I'm not greedy. We're a pending B corp. We balance purpose with profit. We're not about bottom line dollars. So if I can be scaling and I can be having a situation where my cost of goods sold goes through the floor, I'm going to pass some of that on to the good people that are loyal to us.
[00:49:02] Speaker D: Considering the size of the sugar market, if you capture a half a percent, you're. You're going to be in like flint.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: You nailed it, Richard. $140 billion global industry, pretty big.
[00:49:13] Speaker E: The sugar market, the diet market.
[00:49:15] Speaker D: And I'm reading here in the show notes that JOCA does not promote tooth decay.
[00:49:19] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:49:20] Speaker E: How do people find you? How do they get this amazing product?
[00:49:23] Speaker B: Jockashugar.com please come and visit us. I'm on LinkedIn as well. Pete Ferrari. I'm happy to provide my email. Email me anytime. Even, even entrepreneurs out there. This is the fifth company I've built in 30 years. So if anybody's got any questions about what to do, how to do it, how do you stay alive? Hit me up and I'm happy to respond directly.
[00:49:42] Speaker E: And Jacqueca sugar is spelled J a, C A sugar.
[00:49:46] Speaker B: Yes, ma'am. So J A C A. Www.jacashugar.com Passage.
[00:49:51] Speaker D: To Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt.
[00:49:54] Speaker E: Sonia Satcher came on the show. I met her on the show. She came through a publicist and she became my business coach. A little bit of life coaching too. She is amazing. And her claim to fame is she's a mindset and fitness thought leader and author. She's also a former actress. She has moticized. She has a book. What if It Were Easy? She was on Guiding Light and One Life to Live. She's still acting. She's on a Netflix. What do they call those?
[00:50:19] Speaker C: It's a docu series.
[00:50:20] Speaker E: Docuseries. Docuseries.
[00:50:21] Speaker C: Yeah. It's like a miniseries, but has a little documentary in it.
[00:50:25] Speaker E: Yeah, it's really cool. So tell us all about what you're.
[00:50:28] Speaker C: Doing now, well, I'm still doing all of that. Still coaching, obviously. Love coaching you and watching you thrive and integrating some motorcycles, which is really something I should do with Jaka, because this is the idea of combining mindset with movement. And so it was really developed on the idea that when we move, a lot of things happen. Everybody always talks about the endorphins. And yes, that's true. But there's also a big shift in our brain and a protein's release that creates new brain cells. And when you combine it with emotions or emotional heightened frequencies, it also can start to pave the way for new neural pathways. And so it's really trying to use that to create new ideas to. It makes you more focused, it helps you learn better. But it, particularly with entrepreneurs, I use it a lot for just coming up with new ideas. It's pretty incredible. It's like anybody goes for a walk, right? And that's when you come up with an idea, right? You're sitting all day and you're like, I can't think of, I can't think of it. You get up, maybe it's even just to go to the refrigerator or something, you know, and all of a sudden you're like, I got it. It's not a mistake. There's actually a lot of chemical things that are happening in your body and your brain that create that. So we're trying to harness that and utilize it through a seven step process that I have while you move.
[00:51:50] Speaker E: That brings up something else that I'm doing.
[00:51:53] Speaker C: It's something called the Sphinx code. And it's really a very deep personal assessment, not like some of the typical business assessments that I think are also great. But this, this goes into. It's your essentially your soul's blueprint. And so it really talks about who you are and your, in your inner essence. It talks about some of the wounding areas that you might have that might impact your work life, also your relationships. And then it literally has your transcendental path landing on your soul's purpose. And it's pretty remarkable. It's really built on a variety of different systems. And you know, first I did with family and friends and they were like, oh, that's. I mean, they were all blown away. But I knew them. But when I started to do it for people I didn't know, and people were just like, holy mackerel, this is so accurate. That was when I really started to use it as a tool, right?
[00:52:49] Speaker E: And after I got into the podcasting, she did mine and she's like, oh, My God. It's just all podcasting. It really is.
[00:52:57] Speaker C: It's building a business for you. It's getting out there and speaking. Your soul's purpose is to speak.
[00:53:04] Speaker E: I've kind of always known that.
[00:53:08] Speaker D: Well, I went through the process with you, and after the first day, after I was done, I went down and I told Elizabeth what my sort of my core energies were, and she just started laughing because she was like, yeah, that's like. So you. You know, so you nailed it pretty well, but it was great. It was very insightful. People in the business world, sometimes I don't think we pay enough attention to our spiritual side. Right.
[00:53:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:33] Speaker D: And you can imagine the source, the energy source, God, however you want to do it. But I think that that's a good thing to develop in yourself. And for me personally, I've been working on that. So, I mean, this was one of the first things I did to kind of start down that path, and I thought it was just amazing.
[00:53:52] Speaker C: So, yeah, there are some really interesting things that come up, and I think that's what it's really there. It's designed for. It's to really find those things that are underneath the COVID that we don't always look at, and when you can utilize those sources and then put the strategy behind it, that's a win, win, win.
[00:54:12] Speaker B: I'm in.
[00:54:12] Speaker E: So, Sonia, how many people in the US do the Sphinx code work?
[00:54:17] Speaker C: So it's relatively new. I think we are going to be hearing about it a lot more because the person who created it, downloaded it, is starting to go out wide with it. But right now there are only 20 wisdom keepers in the world, of which I am one.
So.
[00:54:33] Speaker E: Yeah, but I'm glad it's coming to.
[00:54:35] Speaker D: The Earth, but it's not. It's something that you have to work on and train for. Right? I mean, you had to go through.
[00:54:41] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:54:41] Speaker D: No, a lot to actually learn to learn it.
[00:54:44] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm actually going back to sort of go deeper because it can also be used more specifically for business and for relationships. So.
[00:54:52] Speaker D: Perfect. What kinds of things do you do to learn the Sphinx Code?
[00:54:56] Speaker C: I have a book that's like this big manual, and so it's really deep diving into the little minutiae of what each of those foundational elements are in your soul blueprint.
[00:55:10] Speaker D: And do you feel like you connect with some sort of source when you're doing these readings?
[00:55:14] Speaker C: I started. I feel like I have. Yes, I really do. It's bizarre. I mean, it sort of sticks with me often, and I Also did it recently for a family which was so wild. And it was interesting to do couples too or even business partners. That's really interesting. But you do feel like you're connecting to all of these intensive energies and then it's a combination of what's there and sort of intuiting to how you might be able to guide it.
[00:55:40] Speaker A: I'm just listening to it. I'm amazed the way that we think day to day, right. Like yeah, move here and talk about it. But constant thinking. But we in the business world we don't have time to do that. How do you. Right. So we are juggling between day to day task and then meeting with the clients. But how can you help a person who is starting up a business or something like they're already existing. But how can this help?
[00:56:05] Speaker C: I actually think it could be. I have used it for that and I think it's really, really helpful. Because when people can really connect deeply and that's what it does, it goes very, very deep. When you could connect deeply to that soul's purpose or that higher vision, it really is becomes like an energetic through line in those day to day tasks. So it helps. It's like having your vision but it's also having that identified what is that? And then I've also seen where people. I actually just saw this with a friend of mine, she's got a natural skin care business and she's amazing and she's doing so well. But actually her purpose is really about talking about the skin care and why the natural piece of it is so important more than the products. So she's starting to shift, I really think and especially with the outlets that she has, she's with Deepak Chopra and whatnot. And so for her to start really focusing on the speaking end of things, I think that's going to sell the products itself as opposed to going for the products and then having the why sort of be an after effect.
[00:57:11] Speaker A: Actually in business world we generally think about like hirable skills and doing it yourself. Right. So if I'm an entrepreneur, so if I wanted to buy a product, I can build a product but I can't sell it. So I will request someone to sell it for me. So that's where the synergy is. And then I want someone like an influencer to talk about the product because that is the sole purpose.
[00:57:33] Speaker C: So sometimes although I just had somebody who actually had really a very, very high. She really is meant to be out in the public eye based on her sole blueprint and she avoids it. She Doesn't. She's pushing it off on other people. And I was like, it is all over your thing. And she's like, yeah, I've heard that so many times before. I'm like, really? I wonder because it's here and she's beautiful and for what she does, and she's so well spoken and she's intelligent. She would be the better influencer than probably the influencer she's trying to find.
[00:58:07] Speaker A: So you're saying that the profits are right there because you're influencing the people to do what they can do the best because they are identifying the soul, Right?
[00:58:14] Speaker C: Exactly, exactly. And sometimes it's a subtle shift, sometimes it's a bigger shift, but it's profound and makes a difference.
[00:58:22] Speaker D: That's amazing. So how do you go about letting people know about the Sphinx Code and how you work with them? Are you actively marketing it or are you just kind of letting people hear about it and come to you? Is that.
[00:58:36] Speaker C: Well, you know, it's funny because, you know, when I first heard about it and I was asked because the person who invented it was like, you'd actually be a really good Sphinx code person. And I get why, because my chart's unusual where I'm actually considered a catalyst. And one of the purposes of a catalyst is to help people find their purpose.
Right. So it's what I do as a coach, but it's also specific to the Sphinx code. But I too, was like, oh, what am I, a Sphinx code reader now? You know?
But the deeper I got, the more I did it and the more of the results I started to see. Now I'm really starting to go out and I am starting to market it more. So I'm. I'm going out online and I'm starting to promote it. I didn't even have it on my website. Now I.
[00:59:23] Speaker E: Do you give a lot of presentations, right?
[00:59:26] Speaker C: I do, I do.
[00:59:27] Speaker E: Are you promoting it there?
[00:59:29] Speaker C: I've started to. Yes. Yes. So it's. Now I'm including it in part of what I do, and it really meshes well because often I'll start there, and then the motor size and the coaching.
[00:59:41] Speaker A: Kind of dovetails off of it for your audience, actually. Really? So saying that you can do it for any person, like business owner, couples.
[00:59:50] Speaker C: I mean, my passion is entrepreneurs.
I think entrepreneurs are amazing. They're just. They are. And I think in many ways this works so well with that too, because it is life encompassing. Right. All of us are entrepreneurs. It's not like if you're. Something's off in this area of your life, it impacts everything.
And so it's so important to look at your whole self holistically as an entrepreneur. Obviously, you need to be strategic in the business end, but I think entrepreneurs are. Are kind of, like, right up my alley. I love them.
[01:00:22] Speaker E: I would highly recommend this. I mean, it's definitely worth the time and money for us. It's just a deeper understanding of yourself.
[01:00:29] Speaker C: Yeah, you could go to my website at Sonya Satra, S O N I A S A t r a.com and my email and a phone number is in there as well. So you can reach out to me and we can make that happen.
[01:00:42] Speaker E: Well, thank you, Sonia. Listeners, you are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest, Naga Nandigam. And we will be right back.
[01:00:54] Speaker F: Man, I had a rough night's sleep, boy. I got a letter from the IRS yesterday and I just couldn't sleep. Man, I'm dying here. Somebody help me. IRS problems affect more than just your finances. If you're ready to take back control of your life and you owe more than $10,000, you need to call the tax doctor. Their expert staff can immediately protect you from the IRS and state collectors and get you the best possible tax settlement guaranteed. The IRS has recently released new programs geared in helping struggling taxpayers, where you may qualify to settle your tax debt and wipe out up to 85% or more of what you currently owe. If you owe $10,000 or more in back taxes, call a tax doctor right now. See if you qualify to pay less.
[01:01:38] Speaker G: 8002-6219-2680-0262-1926.
800-262-1926. That's 800-262-1926.
[01:01:53] Speaker B: It's passage to profit.
[01:01:55] Speaker D: Now it's time for Noah's retrospective.
[01:01:58] 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.
[01:02:05] Speaker I: Nobody's diet is perfect, and neither is anyone's vocabulary. Even if you speak the most patrician English in our civilization, at some point you might utter a few expletives. It might not be your style by design, but when that fight or flight impulse arrives, those words are there on the bat shelf. That's how I learned those words as a child. Use only as directed. A good many of us aren't profane and certainly don't want to be. But there's no shame in expressing anger, sudden fright, frustration. It only proves us to be human. Doesn't mean we have to conduct ourselves like creatures in some Kevin Smith movie or a contemporary Broadway comedy. But it has been acknowledged by clinicians worldwide that a verbal exclamation of those ugly, forbidden words in such aggravated moments will in fact resist and alleviate our stress, maybe in the safest, healthiest way possible. That's why I keep those words out of my regular diet. When something unfavorable happens, I'm going to need to know what to say.
[01:03:00] Speaker F: Now more with Richard and Elizabeth. Passage to profit.
[01:03:04] Speaker E: Now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. We are going to ask each of our guests to tell us a secret to their success. We'll start with you aga.
[01:03:15] Speaker A: I would say certainly the people, because I'm in a service industry, the people who are serving. And then we have to, in a business world, we have to be serving them to give the right. And the second thing is the business, when we're talking about, there will be always ups and downs and, you know, market dynamics and things are changing. So you should be persistent, have a clear vision and break down into different missions to do it. I would say one of the formula that I would say is the tag line that I have put in front of my desk. It says, success is a journey. You just have to like there's a comma, but not a full stop. You just have to go through it. You just have to reach a goal and then be persistent and go better to engage. So that's what.
[01:04:02] Speaker E: That's great.
[01:04:03] Speaker D: As twisted as it sounds, a little bit, the ups and the downs are what make it fun and interesting. Right? So you don't like the downs. Elizabeth especially doesn't like when I'm down.
She gets it. But I mean, it does give you a reason to want to go up.
[01:04:17] Speaker E: So, Pete Ferrari, what's your secret?
[01:04:20] Speaker B: For me, it's pretty simple. Read, read and read. You know, all of the challenges that an entrepreneur is going to face, all of the hardship, somebody has already gone through that in this world. Lee Iacocca, Jack Welch. Read. Robert Greene, mastery, the 48 laws of power, the 50th law, Ryan Holiday, the Stoics, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, the answers are there. And so I think General Mattis said, if you're not reading every day, you're functionally illiterate. I actually love that quote because you can mitigate and obviate. You may not be able to eliminate your problems, but you can certainly obviate a lot of the problems that you'll face during the entrepreneurial journey. If you read what the best have done before you. And so big advocate of reading everything you could get your hands on from the great thinkers.
[01:05:07] Speaker E: That's great advice. Yes. Sonia Satra, what's your saying?
[01:05:11] Speaker C: I love both of those and that was a piece of what I had thought I would say. So now I'll have to change it.
So I will change it just to add another dimension. And that goes back to probably what I was talking about, but clarity of vision, because I think there's so many pathways to get to a certain place and a lot of times you have to pivot and you have to like solve the ups and the downs and the problems and whatnot. But if you kind of have a North Star, that will help you through it.
[01:05:37] Speaker D: Good. Richard Gearhart Mine is going to be never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Is that Ben Franklin or somebody? Yeah, I think so. But anyway, I think the places I've had the most challenges in my life have been when I procrastinated on things that I really knew needed to get done. Right. And so fortunately, as I've matured, I've gotten much better at just taking care of things when they need to be done. But it took me a long time to get to the point where I was really consistent on that. And I'm still not perfect. Right. But things go a lot better when you get stuff done on time.
[01:06:15] Speaker E: I think mine is sometimes people that you're working with or that you've partnered with done something could be very negative for not a really good reason even. You just can't take it personally. And you just kind of have to say, it's them, not me. Blow it off.
I think Sonia knows what I'm talking about.
[01:06:32] Speaker D: So do I.
Well, that's it for us. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer, Noah Fleishman and our program coordinator, Alicia Morrissey, and our studio assistant, Risi 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 with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs, 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.
