[00:00:00] Speaker A: Most angel groups around the country share their toys in a sandbox.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: You can just harvest energy from your computer.
[00:00:07] Speaker C: How can I recreate this level of fun?
[00:00:12] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhardt.
[00:00:13] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. You've just heard some snippets from our show. Do you want to know more about starting your business? Stay tuned.
[00:00:21] Speaker F: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:23] Speaker D: The time is near.
[00:00:24] Speaker F: You've given it heart, now get it in gear.
It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:32] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:39] 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.
[00:00:48] 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, Sandy Wolman. I've known him for a long time time and he is an investor extraordinaire. He's the co founder of the Westchester Angels and he's also a board member at the Angel Capital association and leader of their national syndication task force. So looking forward to talking with him about investment.
[00:01:21] Speaker E: And then we have two amazing presenters. Smau Nu is an assistant professor at the department of biomedical engineering at Rutgers. Oh my gosh. The stuff he is working on will blow you away. It's so cutting edge and I'm gonna let him explain it, but it's really cool. And then we have Stephanie Collar and she's the founder of Jerseys and Dresses. She's so much fun. It's a charitable fund whose mission is to empower and uplift diverse communities by fostering inclusion and unity through literacy and education, youth, sports and small business initiatives. And that's a lot. Go to her website. It's really cool.
[00:01:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I can't wait.
[00:01:58] Speaker E: And later on, we'll hear from our friend Alicia Morriss, great jazz singer. And we've got secrets of the entrepreneurial mind.
[00:02:06] Speaker D: But before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans have started a business or are thinking about starting a business. And so we'd like to ask our panel a question that would be relevant to them. So this week's question is how do you craft a career for ultimate freedom? So we're going to start with our guest, Sandy. Welcome to the show.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Thank you, Richard. It's A pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.
It's not an easy question to answer. I guess my gut answer would be to find something you're passionate about. Because when you find something you're passionate about, it's not work. You look forward to going to work every day.
Not easy to do to make a career out of a passion, but if you're lucky enough to do that, you're well on your way.
[00:02:51] Speaker D: So now you what is your career for ultimate freedom going to look like?
[00:02:55] Speaker B: I totally agree with Sandy. And my ultimate freedom, I think, is what I'm doing every day aligns with my interest.
It's also not an easy way to just realize that kind of the ultimate freedom. I also try a lot of different career paths, including, you know, that working a company now I'm a professor and I'm enjoying my academic freedom.
[00:03:18] Speaker D: That's great. Steph, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. And tell us, what is your path to ultimate freedom?
[00:03:25] Speaker C: I say, along with what Sandy said, doing things that fit your passion. But one of the things that enabled me to have more freedom in my entrepreneurial journey was to move where it's warm, where we can play outside all year, have the freedom to do those things that aren't based on seasonal. So we live where it's warm. We get to do all of our passion projects, but also get to have the freedom to do things year round that we couldn't do when we lived in the Northeast.
[00:03:59] Speaker E: Elizabeth, I don't know that you can ever get ultimate freedom because I'm thinking that right now because it's the end of the month that I have to pay all the bills.
It's like you always have to worry about something. You always have to worry about your money. Is the stock market crashing? You always have to worry about something. So I'm not sure you can get ultimate freedom.
[00:04:18] Speaker D: I guess the takeaway is maybe ultimate freedom is elusive, but if we follow the advice of our guests here, we'll definitely be able to find some sense of personal freedom. Thank you very much. And now it is time for our very distinguished guest, Sandy Woolman. He is the co founder of the Westchester Angels. I've known these guys and girls for a long time and he's also on the board of the Angel Capital association, which I don't even know what that is, but it sounds pretty important.
He's the driving force behind angel syndications.
So welcome again. I guess when we talk about angel investing, maybe you could talk a little bit about what that is for Our audience who's not familiar with it.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: So angel investors, if there's a startup that is looking to scale, to exit, that's suitable ground for an angel investment. Angels are typically the first group of investors that a startup will contact. After friends and family, we take the most risk, we have the most fun help building these startups. Most angel groups around the country share their toys in a sandbox and that's what makes it so much fun. In my role at the Angel Capital association, which is the umbrella organization over the entire angel space, syndication works for angel groups because we all share our toys willingly. We share deal flow, we share due diligence efforts.
Not necessarily the same for our cousins upstairs, the VCs and the PEs. It's a fascinating space. We keep learning. I'm hitting almost 67 years old and I still keep learning about business.
And that's what makes it so much fun.
[00:05:59] Speaker E: You talked about vulture, venture capitalists, the.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Vcr, well, sometimes it's a fine line.
[00:06:07] Speaker E: And also private equity.
What makes angels different? Do you take a piece of somebody's company or do you just want a return on the investment?
[00:06:14] Speaker A: No, and that's a good question. Thank you, Elizabeth. Angels prefer to invest.
There's three different methods, three different methods that are used for angel investing. The most preferred is, is an equity investment where we would invest X amount of dollars at a valuation of whatever that happens to be. There's convertible notes with a little more variables and that really pushes the valuation down the road. And then there's a new document that is flooding the entire angel space called the safe Document. It was created by our friends the Y Combinator in California. It's a less expensive way for startups to get funding from angel groups. Highly controversial. Not a lot of rights sometimes for angels, but that's all part of the fun.
[00:07:02] Speaker D: Angel investments are pretty tricky and I recently saw a statistic that said 90% of angel backed startups fail.
So why do people keep doing this? I mean, what is, I mean you're kind of like betting, right? You're putting money into startup companies and you don't know what's going to happen.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: That's 100% right? On average, across the country, two out of every three angels investments are going to fail. Some fail sooner, some fail later, but two out of every three are going to fail. There's two different angles on angel investing. The first one is angel investors should create a well diversified portfolio of investments where two thirds are going to fail. A handful are going to give you a small return. Either 1, 2, 3, 4, X.
We're all looking for that 50 to 100 banger. And that's true for our friends upstairs in the VC world. You know, the lines between VCs and PEs and angels, that's getting blurred. We see VCs down in our space, in the angel space. We also see angels participating in later rounds of investment.
[00:08:09] Speaker D: So what experience did you have in your business career that made you want to be an angel investor?
[00:08:16] Speaker A: I've had a lot of business experience. I've experienced the good, the bad and the very, very ugly in a very notorious industry, the Garment center in the 70s, 80s and 90s. I learned a lot of things about running a business through failure. You know, we did our business really, really well. Our business suffered from poor legal and accounting advice. So from there I started a nonprofit years after that experience to help small business owners not make some of the same mistakes I made in business.
And that led, we actually started to find startups, businesses that were suitable for angel investing. And that's how the Westchester Angels was started.
[00:08:55] Speaker D: Great.
[00:08:56] Speaker E: It looked like one of your websites. You're teaching other people how to be angel investors, is that right?
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Yeah. A lot of angel groups, we provide education. The Angel Capital association provides really fantastic education for angel investors. Some angel groups provide their own education where we're tiptoeing into that by providing a lot of education and. And when we onboard a new member going back to the risk, we have three requirements. It's a small fee, our management is not compensated. We spend our time to help startups succeed. You have to fill out our three page document. And then we have what's called the PLT test, which is a very sophisticated test based on AI. No, it's called the pizza lunch test. We take you out for lunch. And we do that for a couple of reasons. Number one, we want to make sure our new members understand the riskiness of these investments. In order to become a member of any angel group, you have to be an accredited investor. You have to meet some financial requirements as an SEC rule, not our rule. And we also want to find out about the background of our members so we could tap them on the shoulder when we're in due diligence with a startup that is in their area of expertise.
[00:10:08] Speaker D: That's really great. Do you remember your first angel investment?
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Oh, God, do I.
[00:10:15] Speaker D: So how did you feel though, when you made that investment?
You must have been. Were you optimistic? Were you oblivious? What?
[00:10:22] Speaker A: You know, we were pretty terrible when we started, my partner and I, Jeff Lehrer, Started the Westchester Angels not knowing anything and we treated ourselves like a startup. We were in a tremendous learning mode.
And I started to invite myself to angel group meetings in New York City. A robust space of 100 accelerators, incubators here on the island of Manhattan alone. A lot of really terrific angel groups.
[00:10:49] Speaker D: So accelerators are what? They're companies that kind of house or support startups. Right.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: So the lines between what an accelerator and an incubator are getting blurred. But basically these are organizations that, that help startups, that educate startups so they can go. Some make investments as well. But they're educational groups that are organized either with mentorship based or education based education for startups so they can learn, so they can navigate growing a company and dealing with funding professionally.
[00:11:28] Speaker E: Is it hard to get into an incubator or an accelerator?
[00:11:31] Speaker A: It depends. Some of the, some of the incubators, they have a 10% acceptance rate. We support element 46 in Westchester. We give back to our community.
Element 46 has tremendously grown in the past couple years and the startups are getting better and better because they're learning.
[00:11:49] Speaker E: Is there one really important factor that you look for if you're going to approve somebody to come into your incubator or accelerator?
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Well, for incubators and accelerators, they have their own requirements for startups. Some are based strictly in certain industries. And that's what makes New York such a mecca for startups is there's colleges, you know, nyu, you know, City College, they all have incubators. They're all helping startups become educated so they can navigate the difficult road that they're going to have ahead.
[00:12:23] Speaker E: So would you suggest if somebody has a startup to go through the list of incubators and find the best match and approach them first?
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Especially if you're a young startup, a young founder out of college, maybe without a lot of business experience, you need to get educated.
[00:12:37] Speaker D: I couldn't agree more. I mean, I think it's very important.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: To get mentor and founders that are successful usually know what they're good at and they know what they're not good at and they surround themselves with professionals in the areas that they're not good at. Especially if you're coming maybe from the medical community or the scientific community, you may have a great idea, it may solve a lot of problems out there, which is typically what angels invest in, but it doesn't mean you're going to get funded. You have to surround yourself with people in the areas that you're weak in.
[00:13:10] Speaker D: I think that's Great advice. And having that self awareness is really, really important.
Let me ask you about your first exit. Now, by exit means that you invested in a company, they were successful, somebody bought them. Tell me about that.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Well, our first exit opportunity was in a company called Oculus. And what do they do? They scan documents.
How boring can you get?
[00:13:34] Speaker D: Not did they use AI?
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Well, they were pioneers in AI years back.
They started in the Medicaid space, and during our due diligence, they pivoted to the small business lending space. So if you're a small business lender and you want a loan or a line of credit, you have to upload your Chase bank account, your tax returns. These are all standardized documents. It goes to their back office outside of New Delhi, which we actually did due diligence on their back office in New Delhi. I did a lot of business in India. I had my friends check them out, and they use a combination of AI and manual elbow grease to return all the financials to the small business lender. And. And it saves them 45 minutes to an hour for each application. That's a lot of money for small business lenders and especially if you're considering five or ten thousand applications a month. And now they've pivoted into the massive mortgage industry. It's the same documents. So a couple years back, a PE firm invested a ton of money in them. A PE firm being a private equity firm at a really high valuation, and they wanted to clean up the cap table or the investors that have invested previously. So they gave our investors an opportunity to exit at an 18 and a half banger in two or three years. Two and a half years.
[00:14:56] Speaker D: So that's 18, multiple of 18 times their investment.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Right. So if you invested 10 grand, you get 185 back. Not a bad day at the office.
[00:15:06] Speaker D: So if you want ultimate freedom in your career, that's how you get in.
[00:15:09] Speaker E: So I just want to point one thing out.
Every single show now that Richard and I do, we talk about artificial intelligence or AI. And what we're finding and what you just really elegantly pointed out is it doesn't replace you. It just makes you so much more productive. It puts you miles ahead of the next guy doing the same thing you're doing. Because you're using AI to get you 3/4 of the way to the finish line.
Right?
[00:15:39] Speaker A: AI is infiltrating the angel investment space from the inside out and from the outside in. Every other startup that angels are looking at now has an AI platform to solve some sort of problem. And in addition, angel groups are tiptoeing into using AI for due diligence efforts. The concern is, if you engage an AI platform, is this information confidential and secure? Because we're dealing with confidential information in startups and we want to, we want to maintain that.
[00:16:12] Speaker D: You put it out into the training rules of ChatGPT and everybody can see it. I always worry about that. Of course, for intellectual property, I mean, we don't put any of that stuff. Our clients molecules, if they have a new molecule that they're trying to protect and you put it into ChatGPT, somebody else is looking for something similar, it's going to pop right up. Right, so exactly. You have to be very, very careful with that stuff.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: AI is the next big thing.
Personally, it scares the heck out of me because I don't know if I'm talking to a human being or a bunch of software, you know, that's why we insist startups pitch to us in person, so we could shake your hand and look you in the eye and get a good vibe from you as compared to getting zoomed in. But we do keep an open mind.
[00:16:59] Speaker D: So what happens when the investor becomes a headache?
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Well, only my beautician knows about my gray hairs and she keeps that confidential. You know, it's interesting. We do a lot of due diligence to compensate for the risk that's involved should they make it through the process.
And every so often we invest in a stinker. We've had that experience and sometimes you could do all the due diligence in the world and still have challenges with the founders. Primarily angel groups will invest in strong teams that are solving a problem. We'd rather invest in a strong, an A plus team with a B plus or B product or platform as compared to a great platform with a not a good team. But yes, we've experienced the good, the bad and the ugly. We've had startups do some very bad things with the investment dollars.
[00:17:55] Speaker D: Well, give me an example.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Oh, well, we invested in a company and we do not mention names.
[00:18:01] Speaker D: No, we don't know.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: No. But they were solving a problem in the aerospace industry and we invested in one of our sister partner angel groups.
Six, nine months of due diligence on and they were really solving a problem.
Was a husband and wife team which, all due respect, here at Gearharts, I.
[00:18:23] Speaker D: Think I may have seen this deal, but go ahead.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: All due respect, you know, a married couple leading a startup adds more risk to an already risky investment.
If the marriage fails, what happens to the startup? You know, so that's always a lot of fun, but I don't know if.
[00:18:38] Speaker D: We ever thought of that, sweetie.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Well, the first thing I ask, a husband and wife team that's a startup, I ask them, have you lost your mind?
Yeah. It's hard enough staying married, going into business with them. Really. Come on. You know, I mean, yeah, I can imagine a conversation at the Christmas table. Anyway, but they turned out they went silent after we gave them money.
The round was a lot of money with different angel groups. They went silent. We found out they did some bad things with the money and we turned it over to our attorneys.
[00:19:10] Speaker E: Can you say anything they did with it, or is that confidential?
[00:19:13] Speaker A: They didn't do anything. They should have. They lied. I mean, when you talk about horrible lies about the wife being in a car accident, having cancer, that was untrue. They were just bad people. And out of 100 investments, you're going to run into one or two crooks. Even though if you do strong due diligence, that's part of the risk of the investment here, you know, but that's.
[00:19:37] Speaker D: I mean, that's a wonderful business lesson, though, is that there are some things that you just cannot foresee and all of the planning in the world doesn't shield you from these crazy results. Right. That's horrible.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, Richard, we've had this conversation before. I don't care if you're in a lifestyle business or a business that you're scaling to exit. It's about dealing with jerks. You know, you're going to hire somebody. One bad apple can stink up the whole company. You got to get rid of that person.
You want to scale your business to the point where you don't have to deal with customers that are jerks. And for the angel investment community, we have a no jerk rule. If you can't join our group because you won't pass the PLT test, and if my nose doesn't smell the stink, somebody else will. And that's really the unofficial rule of building a business is Jeff Bezos didn't scale Amazon by himself.
He surrounded himself with professionals that were good in areas that he was weak in, and he got rid of the jerks right away.
And, you know, all these really successful startups that are starting from, you know, the kitchen table. Sometimes the unofficial lesson in about business is dealing with jerks.
[00:20:53] Speaker D: Well, that's a good note to leave on. We have to take a commercial break, but we'll be right back. We're with Sandy Woolman on Passage to Profit this is Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt. Stay tuned. We have intellectual property news coming up. And then after that, the highly esteemed secrets of the entrepreneurial mind. You don't want to miss that. So we'll be back right after this.
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[00:23:14] Speaker F: Now back to passage to profit once.
[00:23:17] Speaker D: Again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart, our special.
[00:23:19] Speaker E: Guest today, Sandy Woolman, who has been talking about angel investing. And we're going to talk a little bit more with Sandy now before we get to intellectual property in the news. And I have a question For Sandy, I think it would be so cool to be an investor because you see all the new stuff coming, all these companies that are starting that are going to be products of the future.
Is there anything really impressive that is coming down the pike, coming through your organization?
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Well, you know, we primarily invest in startups that are solving problems. You know, we have a bunch of portfolio companies that are really doing really well that are solving problems. There's a really exciting company that we invested in last year. We've made several different investments as a group. It's a company called Lollieware and it really exemplifies the type of startups that angels look for. So what Lollywear does is they're trying to replace plastic with derivatives of seaweed plus their secret sauce.
But they're not selling just the straws or the knives, forks and spoons, they're selling pellets. And it goes into existing extrusion or machinery that produces the straws and the nice forks and spoons and it disappears.
It just, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful startup. A lot of history to the startup, but those are the types of problems that investors, angel investors want to encounter to due diligence solving real world problems.
[00:24:51] Speaker D: Sandy Woolman co founder of the Westchester Angels I've known these guys and girls for a long time and he's also on the board of the Angel Capital Association. Where can people find you?
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Usually I am not only the managing director but I'm the director of worrying for the Westchester Angels. I'm on the worrier. My partner is a director of positive thinking. We have one director who is the director of Startup Homeland Security. When there's a problem, we send him in to fix the problems. And we have two voices of reason. But if you need to contact me, it's really simple.
I try and respond to all emails.
Sandy S A N d
[email protected] if you're a listener to the Passage of Profit or any other organization that hears this, just say you listened on Passage to Profit and I'd be happy to try and answer every email that I get.
[00:25:43] Speaker D: Oh, that's great. So may you be inundated with new project proposals.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: I look forward to that problem.
[00:25:52] Speaker E: Passage to Profit Road to Entrepreneurship with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:25:56] Speaker D: So now it's time for my favorite segment of the show, Intellectual Property News. Of course, because I'm an intellectual property lawyer. Elizabeth.
[00:26:05] Speaker E: Well, should you get copyright if you use generative AI to make your content, should you get the copyright to that Content?
[00:26:15] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. Well, the copyright office said, look it, if there is not a human element to the content, then you don't get a copyright on it. This is great news. We really are, are very happy about this development.
They did sort of manipulate, kind of left themselves a little back door saying that if the instructions you put in are creative enough, then you might be able to get a copyright on that. I don't even know what that means. But anyway, people who are regular listeners of the show know how we feel. It's important to protect the creators and the innovators.
And while ChatGPT is a wonderful thing, people should not get excessive legal rights in it. That's how we feel.
[00:26:59] Speaker E: Well, I agree. I think you're not coming up with it all by yourself. You're coming up with it maybe by putting different pieces together that other people did, but it's not really an original work of yours.
[00:27:09] Speaker D: Well, they're relying on other people to other people's work to jump off.
[00:27:14] Speaker E: But people will argue that while scientific research does that. I mean, the next step in scientific research is based on all the previous research that went before. I mean, there's a lot of different arguments, but the problem is the creators are the ones who end up not getting paid for anything and a bunch of other people are making a lot of money off this. Right. So that's really where what it comes down to.
[00:27:32] Speaker D: Yeah. Well, I think we should ask our panel their opinion. Steph, we wanted to ask you, what do you think about this issue of copyright and AI and ownership and all of those things?
[00:27:44] Speaker C: I think it is a web. As we get deeper into it, more is going to evolve with the, the rights and the ownership of it.
[00:27:53] Speaker D: So now you.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: In my opinion, I think the major case is that if you didn't put your unique insight, your unique instructions to the AI like the ChatGPT and you shouldn't get the copyright.
[00:28:07] Speaker D: That's really good thinking, Sandy.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: The patents that are issued, utility patents, provisional patents, or, you know, holding your place in line. Okay, we get it may not help the startup because usually they don't have the financial arm and power to push back if somebody's encroaching upon their invention.
However, it's crucial for a takeover or a PE firm to buy them or an exit because the larger companies will have the arms and the legs to protect that space.
[00:28:35] Speaker D: I guess the takeaway is that getting copyright protection may be possible if you put in some thought into it. Personally, I'm a little bit skeptical. I'm not sure how this is actually going to end up being enforced, but you know, it is just part of the evolving debate. In any case, we need to take a break now. And so you're listening to Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt. We'll be back right after this. Stay tuned for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. Coming up very shortly, learn how thousands.
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[00:31:01] Speaker F: Passage to profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:31:06] Speaker D: Our special guest, Sandy Wolman, angel investor extraordinaire. And he really is an angel. I've known this guy for a while, so. But speaking of intellectual property, we just finished with our intellectual property segment. If you have an idea or invention that you want to protect, contact us at Gerhart Law. We work with entrepreneurs worldwide to help them through the entire process of obtaining patents, trademarks and copyrights, even whether they're AI generated or not. We'll do our best. You can learn more about patents by going to our website, learnmoreaboutpatents.com or you can also go to learn more about trademarks.com either place, you can download a paper or you can book a consultation with a Gerhart Law attorney. And Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show heard in 38 markets across the U.S. our podcast has ranked in the global top 3% of podcasts, and we've also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneurial interview podcasts. So how about that? So now it is time for Elizabeth Gerhardt to give us an update on her projects.
[00:32:16] Speaker E: Yes. So for the last year, Richard and I have been working on this podcast studio, getting it ready to run out. And we had our grand opening two nights ago and it was great. The mayor came, we had the ribbon cutting, we stuffed the place full of people. And there are a lot of people interested in a podcast studio. We have video and we have audio.
And now the real work begins because I have a list of people I need to call back. And we had Antonia Tameo, who's been on the show, taking people's names and numbers to get back to them about running the studio. And she said, elizabeth, you have to call these people tomorrow.
I'm getting there. I'm going to call them all. I've contacted a few, but it's pretty exciting and I'm pretty happy about it. And there is a lot. It's real hot property right now. And that has gone well. And now it is time for. I love this part, the Medical minute. I'm going to go into that now. So from Memorial Sloan Kettering on their website, mskcc.org this is so cool. Immunotherapy could replace surgery, enabling patients to retain their organs and enhance their quality of life. This is actually a drug they're giving them. They're calling it immunotherapy.
[00:33:24] Speaker D: Oh, okay.
[00:33:25] Speaker E: So it's a phase two trial and they're treating rectal cancer patients with the immunotherapy dostarlimab drug, D O S T A R L I M A B drug. What blows me away, they experienced a complete clinical response. Means their tumors disappeared just from taking a drug. And they're looking at it for other cancers. Now it goes by gemparently.
It's a PD1 inhibitor and it's just amazing. I mean if you could just take a drug and have your tumor go away, not have to have surgery and not have to have radiation, not have to have chemo. So exciting. So we'll see where this goes.
[00:34:02] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:34:02] Speaker E: But now I want to move on to our next presenter who is doing just Star Trek style stuff. I don't know what to say with medical smau nu. He is a professor at Rutgers and he is in the biomedical engineering university and he has his own little lab and his own assistants and his own people working for him there. Energy harvesting. I had not heard about that before I saw what you were doing. That is so cool. Can you please explain everything you're doing?
[00:34:33] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. I think my research majorly focusing on the two parts. The first part is on focusing on the wearable electronics and the second part is focusing on the energy harvesting. So what is variable electronics? You just give you an example. The Apple Watch, that is a product I previously worked on is just an example of variable electronics. I think now the variable electronics field is emerging because measure of the house, you know that I still remember that one logo for the Apple watch is the future of the house is on your wrist.
So that is something I rarely think about because the variable electronics that can continuously, you know, that monitor your physiological conditions, that can give you some insights about yourself, that's something that if you didn't do it continuously, you may not even know about it. So that's why wearables I think will be the future of the health.
[00:35:26] Speaker D: I mean just to expand on what you said a little bit there, I mean there's lots of different medical tests, but they're not necessarily continuous. Right. They only identify your health at a particular point in time. And really to understand your health completely, you need that continuous monitoring. Right. And that's where wearables really can come in and be very important.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: Yes, Just give an example like atrial fibrillation. Right? Your heart has atrial fibrillation, but not always. You know that if you don't measure it continuously, it's very easy for you to miss the signature of the atrial fibrillation. So that's a value that variables can add.
And the second part of my research is about energy hearting. Just also give you an example of the energy harvesting is a solar cell that you have every day. But here for the specifically I'm developing energy harvesting technologies for the wearables. So for example, like the biomechanical energy harvesting, like harvest energy from Your walking from your running to generate electricity to power those wearables.
[00:36:32] Speaker D: So wait a minute. So if I'm going to wear a wearable, I have to run?
[00:36:35] Speaker B: You don't need to run, but just during your walking. That's the batteries.
[00:36:39] Speaker D: Walking I can handle. What if you're sedentary though? I mean, do you have to take into account different lifestyles when you're working on these technologies?
[00:36:46] Speaker B: Yes, of course. So if you are just. You don't like to walk or run even you just sit at the table. We are also developing the energy housing technologies that is harvesting the power line grid noise. You know that.
[00:36:59] Speaker D: Oh yeah, you were telling me about that.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:01] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:37:01] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: So that when even you sit here, you can just harvest the energy from your computer that is able to generate electricity to power those virus.
[00:37:10] Speaker E: Sandy, you have to respond to this. Come on.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: You know, I just try and generate electricity with the wifey every couple, you.
[00:37:20] Speaker D: Know, But I want the lazy man's version.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Okay, but you know, Simeon has a really good idea. But have you done any patent research to see what's currently out there? Because you want to make sure you're working on something that's new and novel and, you know, question for Richard. If you're a young inventor, you could do a patent search, but it's not going to be nearly as thorough as hiring a firm like Gerhardt Law.
[00:37:46] Speaker D: Well, we always recommend that you at least look first. Yeah, I mean, I remember one time somebody came into my office and they had a consumer product. It was a particular kind of chair. And I was like, somebody's, you know, probably patented this before we went over to my computer, we did a search and there it was on Amazon. And you know, they were going to pay for a search, but it turned out that it was already on the market. Right. So do a little research first before you come see me. Unless, you know, you want to spend money on a patent search and you, you know, you don't want to take the time. But Sandy makes a great point that it's really important to look before you leap.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Exactly. You want to make sure you're spending time on something that somebody else hasn't already done.
[00:38:29] Speaker B: Yeah, of course, you know that when we choosing the research topics, we also want to always want to be innovative.
[00:38:36] Speaker E: Right. As a professor, you wouldn't publish a paper on technology that's already been published. So you are constantly looking at your industry and looking at your field and really trying to break through and find something new. I just find this fascinating.
How do you if you're sitting there, how does your device harvest the energy from the computer?
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Yes, because the computer is indeed also you have this power line grid. You know that it's a 60 Hz electromagnetic wave that is all over your whole house, you know, then you are able to develop some kind of smart closing that is able to couple those kind of 60 hertz, you know, that electron magnetic wave that by those kind of the clouds. Then you are able to generate electricity by doing this.
[00:39:24] Speaker D: Is that why I can't sleep at night because I'm covered by 60 hertz?
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Maybe.
[00:39:30] Speaker E: So what kind of applications do you have so far?
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Yes. So for the wearable technologies, related applications, you know that our team is currently developing some kinds of motions sensors to help to monitor the rehab status for the spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and also Parkinson's disease patients to monitor their rehab status because their rehab is linked to their, you know, that gait. And for some other application, we are also designing some electrocardiogram, you know, that continuous sensors to monitor the sleep apnea, specifically for the neonates. That is a premature neonates. That's the babies that are born early. Their lung hasn't been fully developed yet. So we are trying to develop some technologies to detect the apnea, which is very common in those kind of patients.
[00:40:21] Speaker D: So is your goal simply to create these technologies, but what about commercializing them because they seem like really amazing and socially useful? Do you have any plans for that?
[00:40:34] Speaker B: Of course, yeah. That's the reason why I'm also currently a co founder of a startup company.
This is also some technologies that we have developed for the robotic hand. But for the other, you know, that wearable technology and errant rehearsing technology we are really recently working on right now. And my plan is definitely that once we got the patent, got it published, I think we will work that with some kind of the investor like Sandy.
[00:41:01] Speaker D: The guy's right here and he's like nodding his head everything you say. So Sandy, pony up.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: All good. But you know, Sime, I was ahead of the curve because we spoke before when we first met. And you know, if you're a medical practice, if you're a doctor or you're an inventor or scientist, that's one skill set. Running a business is a very different skill set. And he understands the need to surround himself with business professionals that can help him scale his business. Once he gets to that point, he's way ahead of the curve.
[00:41:35] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:41:36] Speaker E: Sameel, what is your vision for this company, for these devices?
[00:41:40] Speaker B: I think for the vision of the company. The first thing is of course your device needs to be FDA approved. That is the first important that milestone for those kind of medical device company. Right. Once it's FDA approved, the second milestone for those kind of startup is to generate your first revenue.
This is also very, very important.
And then the next day is to scale it up.
So I do want to create technologies that can really work for a group of the patients that can rely on those kind of technology to significantly improve their lives.
[00:42:15] Speaker D: That's great. And then in terms of manufacturing is there. I mean it's one thing to create the technology, it's another thing to make it. And then it's another thing to make it at commercial scale. Right. What are some of the challenges that you faced for those things?
[00:42:28] Speaker B: Yes.
I previously worked for the Apple Watch team. So I have worked with manufacturing companies. You know that at China to manufacturing those kinds of Apple Watch and testing of those kind of the Apple Watch during the. You know that the pre built is not the real. You know that mass production. You know we do have a lot of the problems like the failure analysis that we need to go through. So you really need to do design very. You know that complicated test stations to test every aspect of your medical devices to make sure it can, you know that work as you expected.
And then you also need to deal with the failures that can maybe only happens maybe five devices during the 1,000 devices that you build that once with those kind of stuff that experience you do all of this failure analysis and finally you get a recipe that can finally make those messages production work.
[00:43:24] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean because you're. You're not just telling time. Right. You're measuring vital things and if it goes wrong then that could have serious consequences.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Yes, of course. So. So for the sort of. That's the reason that for the all the current wearable devices we are only giving you advice. Like for example the atrial fibrillation detection. You know that features in the Apple Watch. They if they detect something you know that that makes caught your attention. They will ask you to take a look at take with your doctor. You know that you really need some real medical devices to help you further diagnosis of your situation. But they can definitely not only rely on the wearable devices, but they can really catch some early signs for you for your further diagnosis.
[00:44:11] Speaker E: So Simeo, how does this fit in with Rutgers? Is your company completely separate from Rutgers? Do they expect a piece of it? I mean how does that all fit together?
[00:44:20] Speaker B: I think Rutgers have their. You know that their patent Office and they also have some their tech advance, you know that department to help the professors with their ideas to grow up with a startup companies. So Ruggers do have a very detailed policy on those kind of aspects. So because you know that the patents is of course holding by both Ruggers and myself. But then typically if you want to go for startup companies that Ruggers may just get some licensing fees from the patents that you developed once you are a professor at Rutgers.
[00:44:55] Speaker E: Oh, so that's a win win for Rutgers then. Of course.
That's pretty smart.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Yeah. And even Rutgers have some kind of seed fundings for letting the professors to develop their own startup.
[00:45:05] Speaker D: That's great.
So getting back to the Apple Watch, I know that they keep evolving. I don't know when the last model that you worked on, but how many different functions are actually packed into an Apple Watch. It seems like there's tons of technology and lots of different things that they can do.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Yes, of course you know that. Definitely you know that. That's why you know that they are currently major selling point for is for their health monitoring capability. I just want to you know that point out two killer applications that are still not in the Apple Watch. One is the continuous blood pressure monitoring and the second thing is the non invasive continuous blood glucose monitor. You know that there are two killer applications that most of the smartwatch companies, including Apple, Samsung, all of them, they are working, you know that towards. But currently no one still have commercial solutions.
[00:46:00] Speaker D: But it seems to me it's pretty amazing that just a watch sitting on your wrist can measure vital signs, check optics based on that physical characteristics of a person. Right. It's amazing how far the technology has come.
[00:46:14] Speaker E: One thing I love about what you're doing is so I have a watch that does all that, but I have to charge it all the time.
Right. So if you can have it charged while it's sitting there on your wrist, that's super powerful. Really? Because then you don't have to take it off and charge and lose a day charging it.
[00:46:31] Speaker B: Yes. That's also why you know that I'm also trying to working on those energy harvesting technologies is just because of my own problem to charge my Apple Watch.
[00:46:42] Speaker D: Necessity is the mother of invention.
[00:46:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
Currently I'm using my own watch to monitor my sleep, then I don't have time to charge it. So I'm just thinking about how about using some other energy source that could be abundant everywhere from the society, from your everyday living to charge that the energy is indeed there. Just you need ways to convert that and find ways to just charge your wearable device.
[00:47:09] Speaker E: Well, I think that's brilliant, smu. Thank you so much. This has been so enlightening. How do people find you?
[00:47:16] Speaker B: I think the people can find me through my email address. So my email address is S I M I A O niu my first name, last name at Rutgers Edu. So if you have any questions, feel free to send me an email and I will try my best to answer.
[00:47:33] Speaker E: And if you want to invest.
[00:47:36] Speaker D: He'S got a startup passage to profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt.
[00:47:42] Speaker E: Well, now we are on to Stephanie collar with jerseysanddresses.org what a fun website. And I watched a little bit of your podcast. You are so engaging. Please tell us everything you're doing.
[00:47:55] Speaker C: Thank you. Jerseys and Dresses is a charitable fund based out of Hilton Head island.
And it started and was inspired by my work with raising money for the Eagles Autism foundation up in Philadelphia. I was the Football Eagles. The Football Eagles, right.
[00:48:11] Speaker D: Not just the Eagles, but the Football Eagles.
[00:48:13] Speaker C: The football Philadelphia Eagles. Their big nonprofit is the Eagles Autism Foundation.
One of my dear friends who is also an entrepreneur, she has a cake pop company and she is a sponsor for the Eagles and the Eagles Autism Foundation. So I was up in Sea Isle City helping her hand out cake pops, and I got a call that said, you need to come. We were at the beer Olympics for the new heights podcast fun. And I get a call that said, drop the cake pops, come to the dock and chug a beer with Jason Kelce.
[00:48:49] Speaker D: Okay, who wouldn't do that?
[00:48:51] Speaker C: Let's go.
[00:48:52] Speaker D: Let's go.
[00:48:53] Speaker E: For all you non football people out there, who is Jason Kelce?
[00:48:56] Speaker C: Well, Jason Kelsey Kelsey is a retired center for the Eagles. The Philadelphia Eagles. He just retired last year. He has a hit podcast with his brother, Travis Kelsey, who y' all may know. Um, his wife is Kylie Kelsey.
And this was like, are you kidding me? Like, let's go. We had so much fun that day. It was about the fun. And I was like, how can I recreate this level of fun on Hilton Head? So I obviously, I can come to Philadelphia. I can do these things with Mary Ellen's cake pops and the Eagles Autism Foundation. But I needed more of this in my life on a regular basis. So I started jerseys and dresses. The whole thing started as an idea for a single event.
We were going to have a celebration of football on Hilton Head. Hilton Head is a melting pot. We've got Steelers fans, Dallas fans, Bills fans. So in my mind, I see this Jerseys and Dresses tailgate the guys wear jerseys, the girls wear dresses. And we had to class it up a little bit. So we had it at a private car museum on Hilton Head, and it was a tailgate party. And that was our first fundraiser.
[00:50:12] Speaker E: How did that go?
[00:50:13] Speaker C: It was a hit. We had so much fun. We had fun. You know, we did regional food stations for key NFL cities. We had cheesesteaks. We had wings for Buffalo. We had all these different food stations. We brought in musicians from Nashville to play for us. We had a beer pong tournament next to Maseratis and Ferraris. I mean, it was just a really fun night. And then that kind of grew, as many things do, from this one event to this charitable fund that we can now do events. You know, we can scale it. I have a team of interns that I hired this summer that are gonna work with me on scaling it to other cities, to bringing fundraisers to maybe minor league baseball stadiums at Jerseys and Dresses Night. The photo opportunities, when you got these guys in their jerseys and these women in their sparkly dresses, you know, it's very Instagramable.
[00:51:15] Speaker D: So how do you go about organizing one of these events? How do you get the word out? How do you put this out there so that people know about it and want to sign up?
[00:51:25] Speaker C: We did heavy social media for the jerseys and dresses tailgate.
[00:51:30] Speaker D: I went, so was that advertising or was that you just had a lot of people posting about it?
[00:51:37] Speaker C: We were advertising. You know, I created the event. I created the flyers, the posters. We hung them up all over Hilton Head, like old school grassroots marketing. I was invited to go up and go on a local morning talk show out of Charleston, South Carolina, and we talked about jerseys and dresses there.
So it was really. I called a couple, you know, Key island people where we are, and just flat out said, like, will you support me? Will you, you know, purchase a table for 10 and bring your friends to this inaugural event and see what we can do? And everybody I asked, from sponsors to attendees, to guests, to musicians, everybody said yes. You know, the first companies I reached out to on the island, as far as, will you be a sponsor, they all said yes. And I think that's because they know me and they know that for the past 16 years, I've been giving back to the island in lots of other ways. So never have I had an actual ask.
I was always the one giving, giving, giving. I've never asked.
And when I finally did ask, they all said yes. And we pulled off a phenomenal event that we supported three local organizations and the Eagles Autism Foundation.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: I'll wait in the car.
You know, just let me know when, when you're done. I'll.
[00:53:02] Speaker D: I'll be fine.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: I'll get something to drink. It'll be fin. But, you know, it's a really inspiring story of giving back and getting the kudos for giving back and that's what you described. What a great story. Thank you for sharing.
[00:53:15] Speaker E: It's all relationships. Are you a member of any chambers of commerce?
[00:53:19] Speaker C: I am. I'm a member of the Hilton Head and Bluffton Chamber of Commerce down in South Carolina. And they have, you know, they do a lot. I'm a new member. My organization, we just started in December of 2024.
So we are brand new.
We started. I'm actually organized underneath a community foundation. So the community foundation of the Low country is the 501C3 that manages my fund.
And they are experts at what they do and they take a lot of the pressure to know the law of nonprofits, the accounting of nonprofits. They really are dialed in on that stuff that I don't know that. So partnering with the community foundation has been invaluable to me.
[00:54:08] Speaker D: So what are your future plans?
[00:54:09] Speaker C: Oh, all kinds of plans.
[00:54:11] Speaker D: Sounds like it. So tell us more.
[00:54:13] Speaker C: We want to really start doing some jerseys and dresses fundraising anywhere that wants to do a unique fundraiser. People have been doing fundraisers forever and there's themes that people have, you know, there's casino nights or the twenties night and. And this jerseys and dresses theme is really unique and it's really fun because a lot of times the guys don't really like to get dressed up, but the girls do.
So now we got. That's crazy stereotypes. Guys in jeans and a jersey and they're wife or their significant other is in, you know, a sparkly gown. And it's, you know, the juxtaposition of that jerseys and dresses, you know, the beer pong and the Maseratis, it's. It all just kind of comes together to create a really, really unique event.
[00:55:06] Speaker E: Sounds like fun. Well, and you have started a podcast.
[00:55:09] Speaker C: I have started a podcast. We're new in that sector.
[00:55:13] Speaker E: I watch some of it. I think you're so engaging and I would strongly urge you to continue with that. And then of course, you know that that is your. A rich source for your social media, right?
[00:55:23] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:55:24] Speaker E: Yeah. So there are some programs, there's one called Taja AI I haven't tried yet that will pull 27 pieces of social content out of a long form video.
[00:55:33] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:55:34] Speaker E: Yeah. So you do it once into that. I know. So here again, sorry to say, the AI is making it so much easier to do the marketing. Right.
But yeah, you can really get the word out. And I love that you're doing video because video inspires trust and people see you and they trust you. But I think what you're doing is fabulous. What are your other marketing plans? Sounds like you've got it pretty well nailed down, but.
[00:55:58] Speaker C: Well, this team of interns that I have found and hired, we've got. They're all female sports management or sports marketing majors in colleges from Scranton down to University of South Carolina. They are going to be reaching out to grow and call on minor league baseball stadiums this summer, recreational organizations, sports bars, all kinds of places to introduce the concept of a Jerseys and Dresses fundraiser. We will, of course, you know, share the proceeds with the organization that's close to the venue's heart and then keep a little bit to keep our programming going. So we do a lot in our community with Sandalwood Food Pantry to feed those that can't necessarily, you know, come up with enough food in the pantry for their loved ones. And another organization called Visitation Home, which ties back to My Eagles autism work. And it is a structured day program for adults with disabilities.
So we do a lot of work trying to support our community.
I want to support all the communities. I don't want it to just be Hilton Head because there's so much that we can offer to other communities and help everybody.
[00:57:15] Speaker E: Have you trademarked your brand?
[00:57:17] Speaker C: I have two trademarks in the process right now. Jerseys and Dresses is one of them. And then as far as the event, you know, because this is essentially a big garage, we've trying to trademark the biggest garage party. So.
[00:57:32] Speaker E: But I can see how that kind of fundraiser could really help businesses that maybe wanna do something charitable to get some positive recognition in their community, but don't have any idea what to do or how to do it.
And you bring it to them?
[00:57:48] Speaker C: I bring it to them. And I also bring the opportunity for other small businesses to be involved in things they may not be able to be involved in. And I think about, you know, the small H Vac guy that might want to put his logo on the back of the soccer league shirts, but he might not have the $250 to do that. Well, they could come to Jerseys and Dresses and we could sponsor that as a grant and help the small businesses get out in different ways while they're still helping the community.
[00:58:24] Speaker D: Oh, that's great. That's really cool. Any support from the Eagles Autism Foundation.
[00:58:28] Speaker C: I've gotten a lot of support from the Eagles Autism Foundation. That team is amazing.
We planned a Super bowl victory float in our St. Patrick's Day parade, and they sent us all kinds of stuff to hand out to the people on the parade route. They have always been extremely helpful in helping us.
[00:58:52] Speaker D: So you're also an entrepreneur. So you're not a full time fundraiser person?
[00:58:56] Speaker C: No, this is my side passion.
[00:58:58] Speaker D: So how does working as an entrepreneur in a business differ from doing these kinds of events that you're describing?
[00:59:08] Speaker C: I don't think it's all that different. I mean, the. The list of, you know, tasks to be completed to do a project through working in real estate or my marketing company versus the tasks of lists to plan this event or these events that we've done all comes down to the same set of tasks. It's, you know, put your team in place, secure your venue. It doesn't matter if, if I'm talking about a real estate client or if I'm talking about a nonprofit event.
They're very similar.
[00:59:42] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I've. I've heard that lots of times running a nonprofit is not really that much different than running a business. Right.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: It's a business, you know, different accounting and, you know, but it's running a business, right? And you're always looking. You're only as good as the next raise that you have to support your foundation, especially if you have employees. It's a business.
[01:00:05] Speaker C: We are all volunteer based. And our next big event is gonna be our annual day of giving, which will be on the summer solstice. So it's the longest day of the year. We get the most money.
[01:00:19] Speaker E: And what date is that?
[01:00:20] Speaker C: Friday, June 20th.
[01:00:22] Speaker E: Okay, so are you doing an event for that? Is that completely online?
[01:00:26] Speaker C: That's all digital.
[01:00:27] Speaker E: Okay.
[01:00:28] Speaker C: That day of giving is digital. Okay, So y' all be getting an email from me.
[01:00:33] Speaker E: Okay. Hey, email marketing is one of the best. How do people find you and find your foundation?
[01:00:38] Speaker C: They can go to jerseysanddresses.org they could send me an email at Steph S T E P
[email protected] and we're on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn. We're everywhere.
[01:00:54] Speaker E: Great. Thank you, listeners. You are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Our special guest today has been Sandy Wolman, an angel investor who has just given us incredible information and two people with incredible companies and projects on here. It's just been a really fun show. But don't go away yet because we're going to be doing Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind when we come back.
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[01:01:57] Speaker G: 8002-6219-2680-0262-1926.
800-262-1926. That's 800-262-1926.
[01:02:13] Speaker A: It's passage to Profit.
[01:02:14] Speaker D: Alicia Morrissey is our programming director at Passage to Profit and she's also a fantastic jazz vocalist. You can scroll to the bottom of the passage to profitshow.com website and check out her album.
[01:02:29] Speaker E: And now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind.
Sandy, we are starting with you. What's your deep, dark entrepreneurial secret?
[01:02:40] Speaker A: You know, that's a tough question to broadcast. You know, I think the real key or the secret to being a successful entrepreneur is being honest with yourself. What are you really good at? What do you stink at? And really be honest about that and surround yourself with the people that have skills in areas that you're lacking. I think that's really the secret and the key to running a successful business. Whether it's a gas station, a Deli, a Fortune 500 company or a startup, it's all the same. The vibe always starts at the top of any organization.
And the really good leaders are honest about their abilities.
[01:03:15] Speaker E: Smell new.
[01:03:17] Speaker B: Based on my experience, I want to share a point is that innovation always comes from something that is unexpected, expected. This is something that I based on my own experience. I just want to share some of my personal story is one of the innovation I made during my postdoc, you know that I'm working, you know that very hard to just solving a technology bottleneck here. But I'm using, you know, everything I searched from the literature, you know that but it didn't work. But one day, you know that I fabricate Some samples, you know that. But based on the design from the literature, it didn't meet the specs. So it's indeed some kind of failed samples. But at that time I'm thinking about, okay, this sample is already there. Was already there. So how about we just test them?
So I didn't throw them away and I tested. It really solves my bottleneck. And I just dig a little bit into why those kind of unexpected results is solving the problem. And I discovered some new unit phenomena that really shined my postdoc work.
So you just try to be open minded and then you can really make some real innovations.
[01:04:28] Speaker E: Wow, that's a great story.
[01:04:29] Speaker D: Screwing up has its benefits.
[01:04:32] Speaker E: Stephanie, caller, what is your secret?
[01:04:35] Speaker C: My secret would be when opportunity presents itself to say, yes, you may not know what's going to happen. So my very first business that I started was selling wedding invitations. Like back when you had the big books, before digital anything, you'd take your big books in. And I went to sell one of my good friends her wedding invitations. She worked with her father. I said, is your dad here? She said, yeah. We went to see her dad. They were vendor reps to qvc. So I have this big book of paper in front of me and he says to me, we're getting ready to put a set of all occasion greeting cards on QVC and we need somebody with a background in paper. Do you want to go on qvc? Sure, let's do it. And that led to eight years of selling gifts and novelties on qvc and all because I started my wedding invitation company and when someone said, do you want to? I said, yes. So you cannot ignore opportunities that present themselves to you out of fear, out of hesitation. If there's an opportunity, you say yes and you figure it out afterwards.
[01:05:47] Speaker D: I'm going to go and say, just, you know, know your numbers. If you're in business, fight to make sure that you understand what's coming in, what's going out, where it's going in your business. I think too many entrepreneurs don't really understand the basics of what, you know, like a profit and loss statement. Pretty basic, a balance sheet and then even cash flow if you can get to it, but at least understanding, you know, what's coming in and going out. And it sounds pretty basic, but it is. And I would say a lot of online education courses for entrepreneurs are not so well attended when it comes to the finance part. Some people just really avoid it and you can't.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: I would say another piece of advice I would give to Startups in any business have really good accountants and attorneys to advise you. I can't tell you how. At the end of the day, you could have the greatest idea. It really is about the money. At the end of the day, we're in business to make money. Surround yourself with really professional accountants that can help you. Because if you're not in charge of your numbers, the business is running you. You're not running your business.
And last piece of advice, this is from our friend Confucius back in the day, your old friend. If you don't change your path, you might wind up where you're going. So pivots are good. If it doesn't work here, go to door number three.
[01:07:06] Speaker C: But open that door, open that door.
[01:07:09] Speaker A: Open every door. Because the gold is behind the 47th door.
[01:07:15] Speaker E: So I do this every week. I'm going to get down in the weeds a little bit this week.
First of all, to Sandy's point, you cannot do everything for your company yourself. So you do have to hire experts. So Gearhart Law has a marketing agency, and they're pretty good. And they sent us this article.
And this is kind of a secret because I don't know if everybody knows it yet. It blew me away.
Google has changed their algorithms again for when people are searching for your website. And most businesses have a website, right? Well, they're favoring video.
And what this article said is if you just have text on your website, like, even if you're putting a new blog on there every week, it is not going to rank your website higher. So you have to have rich media, which is video polls, and it doesn't have to be on your website.
So it's looking at YouTube, it's looking at Instagram. Different places you have to be on the Internet somewhere with video or quizzes or polls or picture carousels or something like that. So talk to your marketing company about it.
[01:08:19] Speaker D: Great. And so that's it for us this week. 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, Rishikeb 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. 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.
