[00:00:00] Speaker A: I'm one of six kids, so I had to entertain just to be seen.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: How about I help you? I started to play that role.
[00:00:05] Speaker C: People are just struggling with basic access to. How do you fix that?
[00:00:09] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhardt.
[00:00:11] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. You just heard some snippets from our show. It was a great one. Stay tuned, especially if you want to start a new business.
[00:00:20] Speaker F: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: The time is near.
[00:00:23] Speaker F: You've given it hard. Now get it in Gear.
It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:31] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhart, 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 am the founder of Gear Media Studios, a content creation studio with the focus on podcasting.
[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. How can humor help your business? Well, today's guest, Tommy Hilkin, has spent three decades proving that laughter is the best business strategy. He's a speaker, trainer, entertainer, and comedian. So if your presentation is boring, it's not his fault.
[00:01:17] Speaker E: And then we have Bobby Macia. So I just have a question for our listeners. Do you want to turn your business success into lasting freedom and wealth? I hope so.
[00:01:27] Speaker D: No, that's way off. That's off my radar screen for sure.
[00:01:30] Speaker E: If so, Bobby has the answer for you. And then we have Josh Kahn. He is giving you personalized health care to help you meet your wellness goals in a very different way. So it'd be really interesting to hear what he's doing.
[00:01:44] Speaker D: I feel better already. But before we get to our our distinguished guest, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans are business owners or thinking about starting a business. So we want to ask our panel a killer question. And the question is, what's the one bold move you made that felt risky at the time but turned out to be the turning point for your business? Tommy, welcome to the show.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Well, thanks for having me.
[00:02:10] Speaker D: And so tell us about the one bold move that you made that felt risky at the time.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Well, it actually has to do with right where we are right now, New York City. I grew up right across the river in Guttenberg, New Jersey, and everything over there was in the embroidery business. So when I had my children, I went and got into the embroidery business. And I was actually driving a truck over here in the garment center in New York City. And I created my entertainment business in between.
And it got to the point where I had to make a decision and I made the decision to go out and do my own business. And that was one of the biggest things I ever did.
[00:02:43] Speaker D: Traffic worse today than it was when you were driving that truck.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Seems a little tight. I always say you don't drive in New York City. You just move along whenever you can.
[00:02:53] Speaker D: Bobby Amashi, welcome to the show. Tell us about the risk that you took, the bold move that felt risky at the time.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: So I'd actually go to two, which fall on the same story because I think that they're both really relevant for most business owners and how they're looking at the world before they get into the business.
So after I left Wall street to get involved in my family business, I spent about nine years with my dad and aunts and uncles and we grew the business from 20 locations to 40 locations. It was Dunkin Donuts. We were franchising, we had sonic drive ins, we had redes ices.
And I got to the point where I had my second child and I realized, you know, this is always gonna be dad's business.
I came in, it was the one thing that I promised myself I would never do. The circumstances in which I came in under was both of my parents had open heart surgery within 18 months of one another.
So being a big family guy, I'd say almost part obligation.
And it was a really good run. But toward the end, I had a long conversation with my wife and the big bold move was leaving the family business to go back into finance and follow my passion.
And then when I got back into finance, I got on in finance on the advisory side. I started to get my designations and my licenses, cutting my teeth. And I got to the point where I didn't like the traditional big bank model, where it was all about the volume, it was all about the numbers. So I said, I'm going to go and I'm going to open up my own shop and we are going to be fee only. We going to give really good advice. There will be no conflict of interest.
So I left and again started from zero and had to, you know, obviously, two bold moves. Two bold moves in the same story.
[00:04:29] Speaker D: I mean, that's great though. I mean, leaving the predictability and stability of a family business and going out on your own takes a lot of courage. Josh, welcome to the show. Tell us about your bold, risky move.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: Yeah, great, great, great. To be here, first of all. But, yeah, the biggest bold move I'd say I had to take was it was like right around the time I had my third child, I looked at my wife and I said, look, we have a very comfortable life. I have a great job. I want something more than this. I'm going to open my own business. And what ended up happening is I ended up leaving my previous employer. I had three months of savings with three kids, which some people might say is insane. But we, we decided to do it and then have since, you know, really scaled this company into probably one of the most helpful and incredible places that people can access healthcare in the United States today. So I would say that, like, a bold move is just, you know, you can't be afraid to take that first giant leap into entrepreneurship because without that first step, you're never going to go anywhere.
[00:05:25] Speaker D: That's great. Yeah. Well, and congratulations for taking that move. It's obviously paid off. Elizabeth.
[00:05:31] Speaker E: Well, I do have to say these guys. Well, first, one thing I like is I said they had their kids. So it's not like my wife had our kids. No, they're like 50% partners. I love that about these guys.
But it's hard to do when you have kids to do a bold move like that. But it's also something you have to do because you're never safe in corporate.
You want to control your own destiny. But for me, I think our bold move was remodeling the podcast studio and spending a lot of blood, sweat, and tears and money trying to make it into a really nice high end space with good tech equipment and then hope, like, build it and they will come. We hoped.
So that was the move. But it is paying off. I am, I mean, Tommy's recorded in the studio and I am, I do have other clients recording.
[00:06:17] Speaker D: So, yeah, I mean, the common theme in all of these is that somebody's leaving a safe spot and venturing out into someplace that's more risky, more difficult. And it seems like starting the business is the.
I mean, that was certainly the case for me. I worked as a corporate intellectual property lawyer for years, and I could have found another job with another corporation, but I was very unhappy with that life. And Elizabeth was like, oh, you should start your own practice. And I thought she was nuts. But in the end it really turned out. It's been 20 years. Right. And I look back at it and I say, God, did we really do that?
[00:06:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:56] Speaker E: 2026 is the 20 year anniversary of Gearhart Law.
[00:06:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: So 2026 is our 10 year anniversary.
[00:07:02] Speaker D: Oh, yay.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: We should have a big party together.
[00:07:03] Speaker D: We should all have a party.
[00:07:06] Speaker E: That's always my answer to anything like that. Let's party.
[00:07:10] Speaker D: I'm totally on board.
So now get ready for Tommy Hilkin. He's the man who's proven you can mix magic, comedy, and motivation without blowing something up. With over 7000 shows under his belt, Tommy has made students laugh, professionals loosen up, and even corporate teams believe PowerPoint isn't the only way to present. With whether he's pulling off a trick, cracking a joke, or coaching public speaking, Tommy's specialty is turning. Oh, no moments into standing ovations. So welcome to the show, Tommy, my first question is, did you get paid for all 700 shows?
[00:07:44] Speaker E: 7,000 shows.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: 7,000.
[00:07:49] Speaker D: So, Tommy, my first question is, did you get paid for all 7,000 shows?
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah, as they always say, I got paid weekly.
You know what? Yeah, I have. It's well above 7,000 now. I think you took that off by a bio that I never change until I go back into AI and change it. But, yeah, so it's. Yeah, I've been doing this since 1989, and it's been fantastic. It's been my life. I've been on stage my whole life. I tell everybody if there's a microphone in the room, I want to be holding it, and that's my life.
[00:08:21] Speaker D: Did you always want to be an entertainer?
[00:08:24] Speaker A: I don't know if I think it was in my genes. My mother would always say, and talking with my father, my father would always say, does this kid ever shut up? And my mother would always say, no, this is who he is. And once I discovered who I was and I got comfortable with it, you know, in school, you know, I was always distracted, and I was always the kid making the other kids laugh and getting the other kids in trouble and sitting there like, I didn't do anything. Still one of my favorite things in the world, you know what I'm talking about? That kid who got everybody else in trouble.
So I realized I had it in me. And then I realized when I went out that I could make a living doing it and make a good living.
[00:08:55] Speaker E: So this is Tommy Hilkin with Tommy Hilkin Productions.
Tommy, can you tell us a story of the very first one that you did? Very first presentation.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Very first presentation. I know exactly where it was. I certainly can. And it was interesting. I went. I was in Union City, New Jersey, which is right here in Hudson County. I was on the second floor, Burger King. I was six Months into doing magic and my friend Mondo opened up a magic shop and he taught me a magic trick. It cost me four bucks to get this magic trick from Mondo's magic shop. He taught me how to do it. And I just started doing it and doing it and doing it and everybody got sick of me doing it and doing it and doing it. But I only had one trick. But I did it everywhere I went.
[00:09:37] Speaker D: And you did it really well.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: I would stop. Everybody say, watch this. You know, like if you meet a magician today, you know what they're gonna say. You want to see a trick? That wasn't me, but I ever showed everybody and, and what I did was he said to me, after six months of doing that and building and some stuff, he said, you want to go do a show? Now I remember paid me $95 to do a 45 minute show. And that was in 1990, somewhere around there. So, yeah, I remember it and I loved everything about it. I was thinking about it driving here. I'll be real quick. I wasn't nervous. I think I was actually ready to do this and I went in it. I'm a people person. I'm one of six kids. So I had to entertain just to be seen. And that's how it went. So it was 1989, somewhere around in 1990.
[00:10:20] Speaker E: And then you just went from there and kept giving shows.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Well, the good thing about what I was doing was it was Saturdays and Sundays is the bulk of business people doing parties. That's when they do it on the weekends and things. So I kept my job.
I worked seven days a week for six years. Six years. I had the kids, had the wife, and what are we going to do? I. I love doing the weekend things. I love that. I enjoyed it. But, you know, a lot of fear, doubt and uncertainty. So I stuck with doing all. And then that day came when I said, all right, you know, six years is a long time. What are we going to do? We made the decision, we moved into the entertainment and it was best thing we ever did.
[00:10:55] Speaker D: That's great. Talk about humor and business. What can business people learn about humor that will help them?
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Well, it's communication, right? What's the best way through it? Someone is to make them laugh, make them smile, right? We always think about it. We're human beings, we're not human doings.
So for me, you know, I have to always be careful. You know, you learn in sales to, you know, what is it? Mimic someone across from you. I have to be careful. Like if someone's like a D. And they're an authoritative spot. I'm the kind of guy that would drive you crazy, you know, so I have to be careful. But humor breaks the ice everywhere you go. What do they say the first thing you can do is when you meet somebody, break the ice. You're at a networking event, right? You want people to like you, trust you, all that good stuff that goes on. So being kind and gentle and having fun with people is all I want to do. I talk to everyone, you know, I really do. The hot dog guy. We had a few laughs when I was down there. It's just. It's what I do. Why not brighten someone's day a little bit? But in business, everybody's. There's no reason to be uptight. Like I said, this is what we do. It's not who we are. You know, some people. I'll tell the story real quick. Both my brothers are cops. My dad always said, here's my boys, two cops and a clown. That's how he.
That's how he introduced us, right? But, you know, I always used to think about my brothers. The difference between my brothers and I was great guys. They're the best guys in the world. But, you know, once you become a cop, you think you are a cop. And I used to say, no, you're my brother, Keith. What you do is you're a cop for a living, you know, and that kind of a thing. So that's why I think you could always use humor. Break the ice, even a police officer, right? Smile on your face. Instead of making somebody feel uptight and tense, crack a joke. Say, what's going on? You know, why I pulled you over? Maybe write some jokes. But you know why I pulled you over? Only kidding. That's not right.
I think, more importantly, you know, treat people like you want to be treated. I want to have a good time. If I walk into a room and it's not a party, I'm going to bring one, you know, That's. That's what I do.
[00:12:51] Speaker D: So maybe you can give our audience some tips about how to kind of break the ice at a networking event, right? Because they're not professionals like that.
[00:13:00] Speaker E: Not everybody's funny. Like, do these just flow out of you, or do you actually write some down? Do you ever have to write down a joke to present, or does it just come natural?
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Now, I'm very creative in what's going on around me. Like, if I'm doing a gig and somebody's moving, that's where I Find my humor. Say to somebody, they walk in front of me, what's this a stage you're going through?
[00:13:18] Speaker E: So how does the person.
How does another person do that? Like, can you teach that? Like, Richard's saying, if you're at a networking event and somebody. If somebody walked in front of me, I probably wouldn't know what to say.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Best phrase ever heard to explain that. Somebody said to me, if nobody's ever told you you're funny, chances are you're not.
So can you learn funny? You know what? Best thing you can do is be you. Just be you. If it's not in your blood to actually go out and be funny. But if you're going to write a presentation, you're going to do a speech, you can put humor in it. I always have a tip that when you're writing your speech out, you can look down every four or five lines. You could put some little quip. There's something funny in there. See, I find humor in everything, no matter what's going on. I grew up in that generation where no matter what. So your best friend fell. What was the best thing you could do?
Laugh at him. First you check to see if he's okay. Then you laugh the rest of the time, and you tell the story about how he fell in the schoolyard, and you just kept going on and on, and you loved everything about it. You fall down the stairs, it's funny as long as you're okay, right? It's funny. So I. I grew up in that type of thing where I find humor in almost everything, you know, and a little shaky in today's world. I gotta be a little careful more now than I ever was. You know, it's always funny. I find people that come to a comedy show and then you look and they don't wanna laugh. I'm like, what are you doing here? Get your money back.
[00:14:34] Speaker D: Go get out of here.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: You know. You know, you want the people surrounding you are going to. You came to have a good time. And I learned from the best in the business, you know, like Rodney and guys like that and, you know, Sam Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay, all the people that were irreverent. And I. I loved everything about it. So in today's thing, people doing business, telling comedy. I don't think you want to be a comedian. You want to be you. Maybe unbutton a shirt, loosen up a little bit, and just be you. I think the biggest challenge everybody has is trying to be somebody else. But if it's not in you, it's okay.
[00:15:04] Speaker E: So this is Tommy Hilkin with Tommy Hilkin Productions. You give presentations, you do comedy shows, you do game shows, which you and I were going to do a game show together, right?
[00:15:13] Speaker A: I hope so, yes.
[00:15:14] Speaker E: With Marcela.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Let's do it.
[00:15:16] Speaker E: Let's do it. I want it. That sounds like so much fun. But you also teach people how to present, right?
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:21] Speaker E: So what is one of the things you tell people if they're going to have to get on a stage, especially if they've never done it before?
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So. So I learned from the best. Zig Ziglar was my. My idol, and I met him in 1996. I was doing the comedy, and then I went to a thing called Success 96. It was in the Meadowlands arena, back when it was the Meadowlands Arena. And I heard him speak and I said, wow, this is amazing. I'm already speaking. I know how to hold a microphone, so how do I put this into a living? So I learned from Zig, and then I just pretty much teach everything Zig taught me. So when it comes down to presenting, people always say, what's the number one fear in the world? Public speaking. Right? They always say, you'd rather be in. You'd rather be in the coffin than given the eulogy, is the old adage.
It's so. It's so true, they say.
But one thing I discovered is that there really is no fear of public speaking. And this is what I want to get across today. It's a fear of being judged. Because right now, we're all doing public speaking, right? We're thinking about it. We're talking to each other. Right now you're sitting at a networking event, you're talking across the table, you're doing public speaking. But everybody thinks once you get up in front of the room, everything locks up because you're afraid of what people are going to think about you. Oh, my, how am I doing? Right. You stinking. Thinking creeps into your head. And that all goes away when you recognize there's nothing to be afraid of. And you prepare and you practice, Prepare and practice. And that's. That's all public speaking is. We do it every day, you know? I know. Maybe you were that kid who didn't raise your hand, you know, when a teacher asked you for a question or it locked you up. That's your personality. You have to break through that and go out and do you. Because presentations we all know, it's a big part of our lives, no matter who you are.
[00:16:53] Speaker E: So what do you think to yourself, when you're standing on that stage with the mic in your hand and there's like maybe 100 people out there all looking at you, what do you tell yourself if you're scared?
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Well, it's a great question. They've all been great questions up to that point. Not that this one's any better. I'm just throwing it.
I always remind people when I'm doing public speaking training, don't respond by saying, great question, because there'll be that one guy who asked the question. You forget to say, great question.
What happened to money ruined?
[00:17:18] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: So what do I think? Here's what happens to me. The transformation. The guy in my car going to the gig. The day sitting in my house, all this is going on fire. What's going on? I'm. I'm feeling it all out, right? Bum, bum, bum. And the blessing is, once I get to the event, once I step on the stage, I become this other guy. Not really, but yes. You know, I step up and I own it.
This is what I do. I better be good, you know, I don't want to just show up and not be good. So I leave the child in the car, is what they say. The child wants me to be afraid and scared. So I remind myself, no, no, no. I leave the child in the car and I go into the event.
And what I have to do is. One of the best things I do is you have to open up strong and get everybody on your side. That's the most important thing you can do, is open up strong, talk to people. Everybody thinks they have to go out and do a presentation. You see somebody with a nice jacket on or something, or a woman is. It's great outfit. Thanks for wearing in the front row. It brightens up my day. You have to get people on your side when you're doing public speaking. And the best way to do it is, remember, it's me, a human being, talking to fellow human beings. Nothing more, nothing less. Nobody's better at anything. I might have become better at public speaking. That. That doesn't mean you can't.
[00:18:34] Speaker D: Is it always been easy, or has it gotten easier? Easier with more experience?
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Well, the phrase I use is, I still get butterflies. I just learned how to make them fly in formation, so.
[00:18:46] Speaker E: So, Tommy, I did want to ask you this. You give presentations and they get rave reviews. They're great. Do you just do Jersey, New York? Do you. How far do you go?
[00:18:55] Speaker A: I try to stay local now. When I was younger, I would travel, you know, I used to perform in Japan. They'd send me to Japan for three weeks. And then one time I'm away from my wife and kids for three weeks and I'm halfway through and I'm like, I'm halfway around the world. I can't get home if I have to. And it started to bug me. So I, I do, I want to do everything right. There's a ton of business in New York and New Jersey for speakers and entertainers. You don't have to leave, especially right where we are, Morris County. I mean, it's every corporation there you can think of every business. So I network right locally and meet the people who give me the business here. Yeah, not really give me the business like you.
[00:19:32] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm going to give you the business.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Come on. Mr.
[00:19:35] Speaker D: So what event do you remember the most? What was the impactful event? I guess the one that stands out, all 7,000.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Well, usually the ones that click the head are negative. So I'll give you one that was a very there's two that were very impactful. Early in my career, I was brought in to do a comedy roast, and the only information they gave me was that the man was a professor and he liked to read. So I'm like, that's a lot to go on.
So I go in, I'm going to do this guy says, you can do a roast. Come on, you're funny. So I take the gig and I go, and the first thing I look in is a woman sitting there with a bouffant, you know, with big hair, if anybody remembers what a bouffant was. And I look at it, I go, wow, that's some great hair. You ever find any spiders in there?
No. True story because. And I got there from the Longest Shot, that was Burt Reynolds talking to Bernadette Peters in the Longest Yard. And the woman waited 45 minutes till I was done and met me at the elevator. She didn't come back in. She stayed out there and literally attack me about her hair, how long it takes her to get ready. So that sticks out. You know, again, learning one of the things that I used to do when I was early on in my career, if I got a little nervous and I felt like it wasn't going well, I would start throwing jabs out, you know, because that's a way to find humor and whatever it was. So she taught me a valuable lesson. And when I was doing this earlier on, I met another woman, and I was 10 minutes into my show and she said she comes up to me during the thing, she whispers to me, can you do anything else?
No.
And I literally said, it's all I know. And what it did was, instead of having that woman be the woman who ruined my career, she actually turned everything around.
Because the answer was, no, I couldn't do anything else. This is all I knew. This is all I learned. And then I realized, if I want to do this, the next person asked me that I could always say yes.
So I learned juggling and things. I started putting new things into my act that I could do whatever I needed to do. So those two things were the negatives that stuck out. And as far as doing, you know, going to Japan was great. I'm a big baseball fan. They hired me to perform in Japan, and in my contract, they took me to a baseball game. I made sure if I'm coming to Japan. So I went to a baseball game in Japan. But. So those are great memories of what I do.
[00:21:48] Speaker D: What about your life now would surprise your younger self? I mean, when you were like, six years old or seven, did you ever expect that you were going to be a comedian and entertainer?
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Six years old? Well, I have a long story.
I have two lives. I'm actually 38 years sober. From 16 to 27, I was a walking, talking disaster, and I didn't find this. And I know everything I do today is God given because at 29, I was sober. At 27, two years later, this came into my world as a replacement for the bad behaviors and all the things I was doing. And all these good behaviors took up that void, you know, that I had of not going out and party and seeing my friends. And so really, what it was, it was just a blessing that came into my life that, you know, I could expand. And it's been with me ever since. 38 years sober in business. 36 years. So God had a plan for me, and I just went along with the plan.
[00:22:42] Speaker D: Yeah. Congratulations.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah.
[00:22:44] Speaker D: Well, we have to take a break right now, but stay tuned, everybody. You're listening to Tommy Hilkin on Passage, and we'll be back shortly. Stay tuned for Intellectual property news. And don't forget to experience more of Passage to Profit by subscribing to us on Facebook, Instagram X and YouTube or subscribing to our podcast anywhere you get your podcast. Just look for the Passage to Profit show on any of these platforms.
[00:23:08] Speaker E: And coming up later on, it's Noah's Retrospective along with Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind.
[00:23:14] Speaker D: We'll be back right after this.
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[00:25:16] Speaker F: Now back to passage to profit. Once again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and.
[00:25:21] Speaker E: Our special guest, Tommy Hilkin with Tommy Hilkin Productions. Tommy is a comedian, a speaker. He's amazing. He does game shows. He's promised we'll do a game show together. Cause I love. I was just saying before the show.
[00:25:34] Speaker D: He watches them all the time.
[00:25:35] Speaker E: I love watching stupid game shows. Anyway, let's get back into the discussion. So we've been picking Tommy's brain about how can you get up on a stage and present to a bunch of people. We've got some really good feedback.
[00:25:46] Speaker D: You've spoken at student assemblies, right?
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:25:49] Speaker D: What do you tell those kids?
[00:25:50] Speaker A: You know what it is with kids? You ask the teachers, you ask the PTA to pto what's going on in the school. So it's a great way of delivering a message that they don't know really where it's coming from. If they hear it from their parents, if they hear it from the school, the pto, right, they get defensive. But if you go in and you start doing it with humor and delivering it and the message is going out to them subliminally, right, you're planting seeds to the kids because they close up to their parents and things like that when they want to. So I take it all around, whatever the topic might be. So I asked the teachers, what do they need help with? And you mix the magic in, you mix the comedy, and you're going to learn, so you're going to have a good time, but you just, if you're not careful, you're going to learn something. And that's the way I look at it. We're going to have a good time, but if you're not careful, you just might learn something.
[00:26:32] Speaker D: So what are they asking you to talk about, though? I mean, what are the. What are the issues today?
[00:26:37] Speaker A: One of the keys that I always had an issue with, it's always been bullying.
And then it turned to cyberbullying, which, if you don't know about it, you know, bullying was easy enough. He's usually the one kid challenges to a fight. You're not a fighter. You get punched in the face. And, you know, it was done there at the school. You ought to done at the school. But this cyberbullying thing now is 24 7.
You could just open up your phone and somebody's saying something about you. And these kids are taking a beating with that. You know, I hate everything about it because as Mike Tyson would said, everybody has a plan right up until you get punched in the face, you know, and so everybody's fighting online but not really backing themselves up. That, yeah, it was me, I did this. So I like to go in and I don't like focusing on bullying. I think what you focus on, you get more of. So I go in and I talk about focusing on being a good person, surrounding yourself with good people. As my mentor used to say, OQP only quality people, right? The secret to life surround yourself with quality people. So instead of going in and focusing on the bully and making the bully get all the attention, I talk about how great it is to be a nice person, to help someone. I take that approach because I really believe what you focus on. So if you say the word bully, bully, bully, bully, everybody, all they're thinking of is bully, bully, bully, bully. So I think about being nice, being kind, being gentle, being respectful. All those things that really, really work. So that's the way I take the approach.
[00:27:56] Speaker E: I have been sitting here waiting to ask you this question since we started the show. And you've talked at the very beginning. What was the magic trick? Oh, the first thing you did, the one, first one you learned. What was it? What'd you do?
[00:28:11] Speaker A: I'm telling you, come on.
Six months from now, you'll be taking my business.
I make a little handkerchief disappear. That's all. That's all it was. Four bucks. If you want, I'll send you the link. You could all do it at home.
[00:28:25] Speaker E: And that led to this career. Making a handkerchief disappear.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: Some people call it a career. I don't know. That's one of my jokes I always use. I say, look at me, I'm working Montville. My career's booming. Right? You know, it's like. And then the people laugh and I go, no, it's a career. It's a career. It really is. You know, my parents are proud, you.
[00:28:43] Speaker E: Know, but people come from a ways away to come and see you, right?
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:48] Speaker E: You know what?
[00:28:48] Speaker A: I. I used to do clubs once, Once I had the family. I don't want to do clubs. It's not my lifestyle. I do a lot of private events, corporate events and communions, bar mitzvahs, all that kind of stuff where I'm so family oriented in my entertainment because I love family, you know, like I said, I'm one of six kids. I got all my nephews, my nieces, my kids. It's the best in the world to me. Yeah, I am crazy Uncle Tommy. I get it. You know what I mean? I'm the, I'm the guy that they're never going to forget. We have fun. I give them all the off color jokes that they could take home to their mothers. It's the best. I like family events. I like being with people. I like families being together, families laughing together. If we could strengthen the family, the world will come together. You know, I really believe that. You know, it all started with family. No matter what, we used to have to get through things as a family. And that's what I try to get back out there.
[00:29:38] Speaker D: Tommy Hilkin, Tommy Hilkin Productions. Tommy, it's been amazing. Where can people find you here if they want to contact you in the future?
How do they find you?
[00:29:51] Speaker A: Tommyhilkin.com. you'll find everything I do there. And like I said, speaker trainer, entertainer. If there's a microphone, I want to be holding it. And we just want to have some fun, maybe deliver a lesson or two. It's Tommy Hilkin dot com.
[00:30:03] Speaker D: It's been great. Thanks so much for joining, having me. So now it's time for AI AI in Business.
Yeah, we changed the name.
[00:30:11] Speaker E: It was changed the name.
[00:30:12] Speaker D: It was AI Roundtable before, but now.
[00:30:14] Speaker E: We'Re going to talk about AI in Business. We're going to ask each of our guests here just for one example, because I talked to them before the show. They're all just like going to town with AI because they're smart and they see the future. But for one way that you're using AI in your business, that's really helping you. So we'll start with you, Tommy Hilkin.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: I jokingly told you earlier, I'm a one man show. I've always been a one man show. I do everything in my company. It's the way I want it. I don't even think about it. It's exhausting. So I have a marketing company and it's called Artie Inga, which is AI I learned how to use AI for my marketing and I tell people I do have a marketing guy, Artie Inga. So his initials are AI Works perfect.
Makes me sound like a big shot. Hang on, let me check with Artie.
And so what I've been doing for me, you know, me writing, I wasn't much. I'm a talker. So when you asked, do I write things down? I'm a talker, really. So, yeah, but I. If someone sends me an email, they're looking for something specific, I cut it out and I put it into AI and asked him to respond to this email in a professional, humorous way.
Much better than I could ever write it. Even think about it. You could even put pricing in. And if I get enough information, I'll say, would you do me a favor, AI and please. I always say please because like we mentioned earlier, I got a feeling they'll be coming after me if I don't someday.
Please, Mr. AI, if you had a good side of me. Remember that time you forgot to say please?
[00:31:38] Speaker E: Tommy, I'm in trouble. I got in a fight with it.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Just don't make fun of the buffon.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: That's right.
So I, I take the email and. Or say, could you please write me a proposal? And it comes back better than I could ever write and not even close. I know nothing about that. You know, even if with most business decisions, if they Want something like a proposal. I'd rather talk to them than send a proposal, but some people are a stickler for it, so prints out everything, bullet points and everything on what I'm going to do. It's absolutely amazing. That's what I use it for, responding to clients.
[00:32:11] Speaker E: Excellent. Now we're going to give these other guys a chance to talk. Bobby Macia with Green Ridge Wealth Planning. Bobby, what is one way you're using AI?
[00:32:20] Speaker B: So what's interesting about AI and the conversations that we're having with clients today is that 2030 is really going to be an interesting point in time for our generation in the workplace. And it's when baby boomers turn 65 and older, they're all segmented for that retirement phase out age. And you also have AI set to reach singularity.
[00:32:42] Speaker E: What does that mean, reach singularity?
[00:32:43] Speaker B: It basically becomes self thinking to some degree. Right. So sentient.
I don't want to make it scarier than it really needs to be because we, you know, there's a lot behind the energy that it takes to get to that place and we don't even produce a fraction of that energy yet. But the reality of it is, if you're not embracing AI right now.
[00:33:02] Speaker E: Mm.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: Especially if you're older in business, your ability to transact later in the future and really retain value in your business is going to be dramatically decreased.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: So we have a lot of different things that we've been implementing into the firm. And I think the one singular thing, if you just kind of think of thematically, what are you doing that's maybe super complicated, but doesn't require anything more than your idea as opposed to your execution. So for, for example, we have to go through some data, some sophisticated ideas, when we're putting together summaries of meetings for clients and we're using AI to capture a lot of the conversation, obviously approved by clients, and we are using a private AI bot to then disseminate what's the important information, create actionable timelines. To your point before, Tommy, bulletproof bullet points. People really like to know what's going on from a succinct standpoint. They don't want to read a whole summary. And you know, a lot of times when you're dealing with complicated concepts and you're in the day to day life of speaking your own jargon, you don't want to pass that along to the clients because clients don't speak your jargon. So being able to kind of take those complex ideas and simplify them and really give it actionable timelines have been super helpful for us.
[00:34:18] Speaker E: Yeah, that's really great. I do want to just say one thing here. I find ChatGPT as much more chatty than perplexity. I prefer perplexity because it'll just give you a table for stuff like that. But yeah, that's so important.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: So one of the interesting things about AI is a lot of people, they go in and they just say, hey, AI, please can you do this for me? And they're not really setting up the prompts or setting up the AI to be thinking, I would say the down the same street that you are. They're using the entire map.
[00:34:45] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: So if you can start to actually engage it to maybe do some research, go to, you know, www.grwealthplan.com and become familiarized with this company. Great. Now, understanding the team structure, I want you to, you know, take on your next task and then take on your next task and then ask the question and then ask for the counter argument.
[00:35:10] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: And then go deeper into the question because it's not going to be a one prompt thing. Otherwise you're going to deal with a lot of that hallucination issues as well.
[00:35:18] Speaker E: Yeah, I know people sometimes ask. Well, one person I've talked to anyway, who's up in this stuff, says he asks what the prompt should be and goes through the iterations to finally get the prompt that he's actually going to use. So anyway, that was great.
Now let's go on. Let's go to Josh Kahn with Eden and his website is tryeden.com what is the way and what do you want to say about AI for my business?
[00:35:41] Speaker C: You know, we're well over 150 employees at this point, you know, scaled like crazy. And one of the reasons why we were able to get there is solely because we were such early adopters with AI. So a lot of the things that we've done to augment our workforce have just, you know, 10x every single element of, like our workforce we have today. So I'll give you like one fantastic use case that I might get in trouble for saying because it's been such a lucrative and incredible, like, game changer for us. But really it's. We came up with this idea where, hey, you know, I'm in an executive position. Everyone's coming to me 24 7. Hey, Josh. Hey, Josh. Hey, Josh. I need this, I need that, I need the other. I need this approval. I need that. And I'm looking at half of these things I'm like, this is, this is silly. Why am I having to respond? You know how I'm going to respond.
Instead, what we did is I took over 600 meetings that I had attended and took all the transcripts from our AI NoteTaker, uploaded that into a bottom that's essentially called Mockingjay. And essentially we've had every single one of our employees before they come to me, they actually run all the inquiries and things through Mockingjay and then they'll actually come to me with a plan pre vetted by me to be approved by me. This is one. And we use these things.
[00:36:54] Speaker D: That's great.
Very creative.
[00:36:56] Speaker E: Yeah, that is. Yeah. I'm hearing like people have their own chatgpt kind of thing just for their company and they put all their data in there and it's searchable, but you're like even one step further, further, you put yourself in there. Right, so exactly.
[00:37:08] Speaker D: I want to replicate, anticipate a lot of the decisions you would make.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:12] Speaker C: It knows me almost better than I know myself sometimes, which is a little scary.
But, you know, and then the other side is that, you know, as you, as you start seeing more and more of this piece evolve and as you said, as the energy standards kind of come up and we can use more and more and more of these pieces of AI, what we're seeing is all these like Sam Altman, you know, OpenAI features, all of the anthropic features, they can start working together, together. Like I coach my Chat GPT instance how to make my cloud code better and at the same time I also now I'm really using pulse from ChatGPT where it knows everything about my P and L and knows everything about the issues I have and has my people challenges and those org structure issues. And it's thinking about all the stuff while I sleep. So I wake up to a curated list of things I should be thinking about that day.
[00:37:56] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:37:56] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:37:57] Speaker D: That's amazing. Well, when your wife starts talking to your chatbot instead of you, then you know you're going to have an issue. Right?
[00:38:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. She's actually embraced it too. She was so anti AI at the beginning and she actually started using it just for simple things around the house. Like, hey, how am I going to schedule time for the kids? And this and the other. How do I get Josh to, you know, spend more time at home?
[00:38:19] Speaker E: I use it for everything. I haven't used it for the dinners for the week list yet, but I think that's the next step anyway.
[00:38:25] Speaker D: Good to me. Yeah, you know Everybody's like, AI food.
[00:38:30] Speaker E: So, Richard Gearhart with Gearhart Law. What are you doing with AI?
[00:38:33] Speaker D: So, kind of similar to what Bobby said, I think our plan is to have everybody in the firm take a class on drafting prompts so that they understand how to use AI and use it effectively. Because everybody says, oh, yeah, I use AI mostly for personal stuff. Or they'll use the AI from, you know, companies like Lexus that have AI research tools, but they're not actually using it to improve how they work on a daily basis. And so part of that is that they're just not familiar with it. So I'm planning to ask our team members to take at least an hour class, maybe like a YouTube video or something, so that they can understand how to draft prompts, and hopefully that will encourage them to use AI in different ways.
[00:39:19] Speaker E: That's excellent. So for me, you were talking about using Claude versus these. So I like to use a bunch of different ones. I like Claude. My son says that's the best one for programming. ChatGPT is okay. It's not my favorite, but it is good for emails. And I like Perplexity the best because it has a bunch of different ones and you can check which one you want to do. But I also use Google Gemini, and I'm not a huge fan of Google Gemini, but I use it because it's Google, right? So the last time I used it, I think I asked, well, not the last time, but one of the times I used it recently is I asked it to go through my website that I'm doing for the studio and ask how could I improve it. And I found there were some serious problems with the website that somebody had done for me. So I have to start over. But it'll go through and do all the background stuff. Like, I don't want to get too deep into how you do a website, but it really gave me a lot of useful information on what I needed to do to have a decent website that would work. So there are so many different use cases. And what I love about this show, we ask this every week, and every week we get a different answer from every person.
[00:40:14] Speaker C: I think you'll continue to get new and innovative answers all the time because this thing is just evolving at such an incredible rate. I mean, look at Moore's Law. It's just going to continue to double and double and double and double.
[00:40:24] Speaker E: It shows you too, that it's the human curiosity and the differences in all of us that make us think of different things to ask it to do.
[00:40:31] Speaker D: Until singularity.
[00:40:32] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: One of. One of the things even for the podcast, Right. You can upload your podcast and have it research your podcast and the types of conversations that you've had with other people. And then you could say, well, I've got these three guys coming on.
Research him, research him, research him.
Now, what are the best questions that you can come up with that would really engage the audience? Being the typical listener for Passage to Prophet Joe.
[00:40:56] Speaker E: Yeah, Richard actually did that.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: A lot of people don't even think about how it could be just for something really something as easy as, like, reducing your time for research.
[00:41:07] Speaker E: Okay, this is how I compare AI to normal life. AI is like driving a car instead of walking to get to where you want to go. Right. It cuts the time down 10 times, but it also comes up with ideas you might not think of too.
So, yeah, I think that I agree with whomever said. I think we're all agreed that you better learn it now, you better get on board now. You better learn how to do these queries now, because it's not going away and it's just going to get more complex as time goes on. Tommy Hilkin, I love the fact that.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: You'Re saying the better the query, like, really get into what you're asking. You'll get better answers just like a human being. Right. You want better answers, ask better questions. I love what you had to say, man. Amazing. I can't wait to say, you know, go through my website and tell me what's good, bad, and different about my website.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: So they've also done medical research just to study the effects of the. Of the brain on people who use ChatGPT versus people who are doing the research. Obviously, when you start to become more lethargic in how you're using it, tell me this answer, give me this result, and then you take it and you don't even process it yourself. Your ability to learn and retain that is going to be nothing.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: Right? So the more you can engage with it for the better answer. It's almost like having a conversation with the two of us.
[00:42:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: You're also. Your memory of. Of what the output's going to look like is going to be better because we're. We as humans like to engage. We like to work in teams. We like to work, you know, outside of, just with ourselves, with other people. And if we can look at that as a way to engage with something else instead of someone else, it also will enhance how we retain the knowledge.
[00:42:41] Speaker C: I couldn't agree more with you and like the, the people that are going to win are the people that embrace being a polymath, right? If you're able to just be able to learn really well over the future, guess what, you have an automation engine to do all the actual hard work for you. And so like when you're talking about prompt engineering, like, hey, don't go ask it about, hey, what can I do to improve my website? Tell it who it is. Say, hey, I want you to be thinking like the world's best developer with a marketing hat. And you're also a cmo. And as you're doing this, you're, you're starting to say, hey, I want you to look at ways to make this website convert better. I want you to make this website have a better click through rate to this specific outcome.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Here are my competitors. This is the competitor that I think leads the industry. How can I be ahead of them in my messaging versus their messaging to capture their audience?
[00:43:27] Speaker D: You have to put a certain level of thinking into it to get the quality output that you want. Because you have to think through that query like you just did, right? And that's super important to get the best answer.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: If you have a play devil's advocate and then ask it again, given the fact that you just play devil's advocate and you have identified some issues that maybe weren't something that you considered in your first answer, how would you then answer the question again, given this new information?
And they'll go, thanks for asking, that's a great response. And then they'll go into, you know, an even better response than the one prior.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: One of my favorite ones from that is actually, it's, it's been proven over time and time again.
Back in the day, the Roman armies would tell other generals, hey, before you give this advice, would you give this to your worst enemy? And then they provide back exactly what the flaws are. Because if you remove yourself, you even are doing that to the AI and it's actually seeing holes it didn't see before.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: I just love what you guys are doing because it's making me think. I always say, as people, you know, does anybody else besides me have a voice in their head? Right? And everybody's like, ah, they don't raise their hand, right? Come on. Everybody asked that voice. I said, I got so familiar with him, I named them Norm.
So when I communicate, I talk to Norm and tell Norm to settle down so Tommy could. So I'm thinking the same thing. You might be laughing that I called him Artie Inga. But in Fact, I could be having a conversation with Artie instead of just like you said, not retaining, not learning, just letting it do all the work. That's. That's brilliant, man. So Artie's gonna take over.
[00:44:55] Speaker E: I. Yeah, I mean, and honestly, I feel like you guys gave us some real meat today, like how to really use this thing right. And I heard like once. But I want to reiterate that it's really brilliant and it's really going down deep to say, okay, pretend like you're a developer. Pretend like you're Google Analytics or Google Spiders or whatever looking at the back end of my website and tell me what's wrong. Because it does put it into that mode. And then in the different AIs, there are different ones that you can use and you can do deep research or you can do this, that. So I use a lot of different ones and I use them for different things. So that's another thing that you can do to really. Why, if you're a geek.
[00:45:33] Speaker C: Okay, so if you're also berate it a little bit. You have to do better. You have to do.
[00:45:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:42] Speaker C: Absolutely do that.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: And it's actually, it's actually been proven that if you, if you put stakes into your query, like, my job depends on it, or, you know, this, this needs to be perfect or else we're not going to land the next client or be able to get this past our budget. Once you put like a stakes to it, AI will actually work harder.
[00:46:06] Speaker D: It's more human than I thought.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:46:08] Speaker D: You know, compassionate.
[00:46:09] Speaker E: So the. I think we're all agreed the upshot is master it, don't let it master you. So you have to master it right now, in 2025, because even three months from now, it's going to be more advanced and different. It changes every day.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: I would say not just start.
Well, yeah, just right, just start. Because once you get a taste for what it can do for you, then you're just naturally going to want to be inquisitive and grow more with it and use it. But the more fearful you are and the more time goes by, the mountain just seems a lot bigger and a lot bigger and a lot bigger. And you're less. Going to be. You're going to be more hesitant to take that first step. So just take that first step and start.
[00:46:48] Speaker E: Okay, well, thank you, everybody. That was amazing. You're listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Our special guest, Tommy Hilkin, and we will be right back.
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[00:48:56] Speaker F: Passage to profit continues with Richard and.
[00:48:59] Speaker D: Elizabeth Gearhart and we're a nationally syndicated radio show heard in 38 markets across the U.S. we'd like to do a shout out to our affiliate WGNC 1450am and 101.1 FM in Charlotte, NC. Thanks for listening and our podcast is ranked in the top global 3% of podcasts. We've also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters database as a Top 10 Entrepreneur Interview Podcast. So subscribe to the Passage to Profit show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and on the Iheart app. And now it is time for Intellectual Property News.
[00:49:38] Speaker E: Yes. So we're revisiting Something that we spoke about a couple of months ago or so, somebody pirated a whole bunch of books, didn't pay anything for them, and Anthropic went through and uploaded them all to its database and then used it to give answers to AI queries and got sued by the book authors. There was a class action lawsuit. So it said they took pirated copies of their works to train as Chatbot.
[00:50:01] Speaker D: Yeah, they took over 500,000 books and they just uploaded them to their database and they were all pirated books. And the company knew that they were pirated books. And the first part of the case was, well, is using this copyrighted content transformative in the sense that they've taken the material and turned it into something new when they use it to respond to queries? The court said, yes, that's allowed under copyright law. But the court came back and also said that using pirated, copyrighted material is a no, no. So they were going to have a hearing on this. It turns out that they've reached a settlement, which means that it's about $1.5 billion in settlement, which sounds like a lot, but it really means that each Author gets about $3,000, which is probably more than they would have gotten if they had actually sold the book.
But it still kind of seems a little bit on the light side considering all the money that Anthropic is going to be making using this content.
[00:51:05] Speaker E: Right. But if they had had to buy all those books, then people still would have gotten compensated somewhat.
So it feels like this is a little bit of a win because Anthropic did have to pay something. It couldn't just take people's information and use it. And that's the big fight right now.
[00:51:23] Speaker D: We were talking about this in the cab on the way over to the studio, and you were like, oh, this is a precedent, right? This is a precedent for future disputes. And it is. I mean, hopefully the AI companies will compensate authors and creators for their graphics and their written content and their movies and their films. But what about all the other stuff, like the blog posts and all the other content that's out there that is maybe not so quantifiable? I mean, you can look at a book and you can say, oh, okay, well, this is has an author. It's very easy to, you know, kind of connect the AI to the book. But what about all the other stuff, like all the Facebook data, for example, that they mine, and all the Instagram data? There's no compensation for that.
[00:52:05] Speaker E: I don't know. It's going to be a tough one.
[00:52:07] Speaker D: Yeah. Well, one of the anthropic executives said if the, if the court had awarded full damages for this, they'd be out of business.
[00:52:14] Speaker C: Business.
[00:52:14] Speaker D: So their business model is built on using stolen content and it's the only way that they can stay in business, at least at this point.
[00:52:21] Speaker A: I wonder, if you took a page from a book and you put it into AI and said, could you rearrange this to make it sound like mine, would it happen and could you use that?
[00:52:30] Speaker E: That's a good copyright question.
[00:52:32] Speaker D: Well, that's the question of is it transformed? So if it takes it and rewrites it and says it differently, that according to the court, is a legitimate transformation and it's okay. But if you use the underlying book or page and that's copyrighted, you have to first compensate the author for that.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: I think it's going to be easy enough to get it to similar and use it.
[00:52:56] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:52:57] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:52:58] Speaker C: That's part of the reason why they're all focused right now on using Reddit and Wikipedia and why Elon came out and said, we're going to make our own Grokipedia like last week. Right. Is because who owns Creative Commons? Like, that's what they're essentially looking for. Right?
[00:53:11] Speaker D: Right.
[00:53:11] Speaker C: How do you monetize that?
[00:53:13] Speaker D: Yeah, well, I'm not sure that adds a lot of credibility to the AI business, you relying on Reddit.
[00:53:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:19] Speaker E: I mean, it is creating jobs though, for the lawyers.
[00:53:22] Speaker D: Yeah. We're very happy that there's so much, so much disputed in all this.
[00:53:28] Speaker E: Anyway, it's time to move on. So just a little update on that. But I'm so excited because we have two, as you have heard from the previous conversations, two really intelligent, really successful, great guys here today to talk about their businesses. So we're going to start with Bobby Moshia and he has Green Ridge Wealth Planning. He's on a mission to help entrepreneurs turn business success into lasting freedom and wealth. Who doesn't want that?
[00:53:54] Speaker D: Sign me up.
[00:53:55] Speaker E: Okay, so, Bobby, welcome.
Tell us about what you're doing.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: I'm going to take a couple steps back. I told you a little bit about my story and in that story of being with the family business, having to get in when my father was and my mother both went in for open heart surgery and then leaving the business and my dad not talking to me for a year, after a while of building my new business, he started to see how successful I was.
And one of the things that he said to me was, hey, listen, I See, you're doing really well with this.
Do you want to help me with my stuff?
And I said, you know, Dad, I love you. We have the best relationship we've ever had, and I'm not working for you again. And he goes, no, no, no. I don't want you to come back and work for me. I want you to help me as an advisor. And I said, yeah, that's exactly what the dynamic of that relationship looks like. You're the client, I'm the advisor. I work for you. How about this? How about I help you? I'll sit on the sidelines. I don't want to get paid nothing. I'm just going to look over and help you with filling up some of your gaps that you might have or helping you just provide some value in different places. So what happened was I started to play that role, giving him the things that he needed to go back to his team on.
And there were amazing and substantial gaps, things that were done and then undone. It really didn't seem to jar him. It's one of those things, I think, you know, when you're making money, money can hide the mistakes and the errors. And if you're not thinking forward, you start to say, I'm okay now. I'll deal with it. When it. When it happens, when it becomes a problem, I'll deal with it.
[00:55:27] Speaker E: It.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: Well, he ended up getting cancer, and he ended up becoming terminal. And we had to jump in and make a substantial change to a lot of things that he had going on.
[00:55:37] Speaker D: What was his business again?
[00:55:39] Speaker B: He was franchising Dunkin Donuts.
[00:55:40] Speaker D: Those are money makers, aren't they?
[00:55:42] Speaker B: Yeah, well, like I said, you have when you're making money, and it's easy to hide problems, hide issues. When he passed and I had. Was the executor of the estate, I had taken over his business as well, which was another conversation. He says, how are you going to take over my business? I said, well, I created the business so that this way I can step away and 80% of my time can go toward this. We're set up. So let me help you over here. But with the understanding and the caveat that it becomes now my way. That was a softer conversation than that. But it was, you know, dad, I'm going to come. We're going to. I'll talk to you every day. I'll let you know what I'm doing. But if anybody says, did you know that this was happening? You have to say, yes, this is the way. This is the way I wanted this this is the way Robert's taken over. And there was a substantial amount of things that his advisors had told him to do. Accountants, attorneys, investment advisors, insurance advisors, that just did not get done correctly. And if I wasn't in the business that I'm in, and I was just a regular, you know, worked in corporate America, had a job, there would be no way that I could have taken this and made something of it.
[00:56:47] Speaker E: So your business now is Green Ridge Wealth Planning. How did that fit in? I mean, to me, that sounds like something where you would sit down with people and plan where to put their money so that they have enough for retirement, but it sounds like it's more than that.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: So we work with entrepreneurs, and our goal is by 2036, we want to have a thousand entrepreneurs exit ready because we believe that being exit ready is actually your best growth strategy. So whether or not that's exiting in the next three to five years or it's, I have no idea because I haven't even thought of it because I'm growing my business. Making sure that you're setting your business up correctly will give you the type of freedom that you want, that you wanted out of your business, the type of type of income that you want, and it also give you the valuation and the framework to work from that will be able to scale at ways that you would not have been able to do if you weren't set up correctly.
[00:57:37] Speaker D: So what are the elements of a business that is exit ready?
[00:57:41] Speaker B: I would say the elements of a business that is exit ready is they understand exactly how their business is being valued. They understand exactly what are the things that they need to do to get it to the value that they're going to require in the future to live the life that they've established themselves to have. So it's almost like when you're going to go into retirement. Well, how much do I have to save to be in retirement?
[00:58:01] Speaker E: He asks that question every day.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:58:03] Speaker B: But instead it's how do I. How, how much does my business have to be worth in order for me to get there? Now, there are also different elements in there that help you to be. You know, obviously you have your, you have your other items within your business, like your, your tax, your legal, your hr, the organizational chart, how you have it set up, but it's also the excess capital that you are creating in that successful business, and how do you have it working for you.
And a lot of times when you start to think about business owners and they're, how do they leverage themselves, how do they create these coffers to pull from when they have these opportunities?
I mentioned before 2030 being a huge opportunity because that's when every baby boomer will be over the age of 65 and we will have officially launched to the heart of the largest wealth transfer in history. You're going to have businesses for sale. There are going to be winners and losers. We love to be in a win win situation. But the reality of it is, is most business owners that go to sale, 20% of them actually reach the closing table. And if I think about my dad and what I went through with my dad, and I think about the lifestyle that he gave up and created. Right. He gave up a lot to do what he did professionally. And you always hope like the American dream is there's a pot of gold at the other end of that rainbow. So helping older people who are running their own business really set themselves up so they can take advantage of that has become a huge passion of mine. And what's going to end up happening is if they're not setting it up correctly, the younger generation is going to have the opportunity to eat their lunch, take their clients, take their business at a fraction of what it should be worth. And I don't like that. That doesn't sit well with me, especially if you can do some pre planning.
[00:59:37] Speaker C: To get there, there.
[00:59:38] Speaker E: Oh, I agree, Tommy.
[00:59:40] Speaker A: I just like the way you just said that. The younger generation is going to come out and see this, take advantage of it and eat their lunch. Yeah, I get it. It makes sense. Really. What you're setting for these people is protection, which is, you know, and raising their awareness of what could possibly happen. And I like that you're passionate about it, helping people. That's what we're all here for.
[00:59:57] Speaker D: So are you still running the Dunkin Donut franchises?
[01:00:00] Speaker B: When I came in and basically reorganized and restructure it, I put a team in place.
So now it only maybe takes up about 5 to 10% of my time. And I've created a family office. So we have somebody, I have a team who's running the family office. They're the ones who are basically pushing the mandates that we have down for the manufacturing company that I have as well as the Dunkin franchises. I get all of the relevant information that I need to help with the big picture strategy, and they, for the most part, take all of the elements and just run with it. So the beauty of it is also that we have a franchise. So the franchisor does a lot of the heavier lifts for us. But now 90% of my time goes back into my wealth management firm and working with my clients and trying to create strategies for them to almost replicate some of the successes that I've created in my family business. I've created in my own business.
And I think I give an interesting dynamic being both a founder and starting something from scratch, going into a six figure debt, sleepless nights. But I also was on the other side of that as acquiring and working with a fit with a family business to reestablish the strength that it had in the market at one point to reinvigorate that was big for me.
[01:01:10] Speaker D: So what lessons can you share with our audience about working in a family business?
[01:01:16] Speaker B: Family business are they're, they're very powerful and they could be powerful in both the positive and powerful in the negative. One of the overarching conversations that we have with the matriarch and the patriarch is do you want your kids to come into the business because they want to come into the business or because they feel like they've been obligated to then take that next step to be in the business?
Because if it's not their passion and they're carrying the torch, well, from first generation to second generation, the success rate is about 33%.
From second generation to third generation, it goes to about 13%. Yeah. Why? Because probably some of work ethic, commitment, passion that tends to wean when it's not your own and you don't really have the drive to make it happen. So can the family business then go into the similar situation that I said be exit ready so that this way instead of passing it along to children who may not want it, but they want the lifestyle, they want the money, they see all that.
[01:02:16] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:02:17] Speaker B: How do you then say, hey, listen, I'm going to take this windfall and, and we're going to now translate that to your passion. I'm going to be the consultant to help you work and navigate through some of the harder things that I had to endure that you will now have a shortcut because I've done that. I've been there.
[01:02:34] Speaker E: That's great.
[01:02:35] Speaker D: So what are some of the things that you had to work out with your dad when you were working with him?
[01:02:41] Speaker B: And I would say that is the failed succession that we do a lot of our work off of the reality of the relationships of people in the family business. Right. So I always say that communication and transparency are like the two pillars of any successful relationship. We say it at Green Ridge to our clients, but that holds true to basically Any relationship that you want to have success in. And that goes true to the family business.
And for the matriarch and the patriarch, they may not want to be so transparent, but they've got to be communicative to give some sort of a guidelines on what is your job, career trajectory look like of you coming in here? Because it can't be. At some point, I have this carrot in the stick, and it's going to be yours. There should be some formal component around how do I get from where I am now to where I need to be for both myself and for the business?
[01:03:35] Speaker D: I would think part of it is that somebody, a family member coming into the business would want to do some things to make it their own. They would want to put their own stamp on the business, try some new products, or organize things a little bit differently. But I think in order to stay motivated, they're going to have to put something of their self in. Right.
[01:03:54] Speaker B: And I think that that becomes the creative relationship that matriarch and patriarch have to have with their children and how they design their career path and how they actually create that transition plan. Because a lot of times you go in and for myself, right, I'm the son, I'm the partner, I am the general manager. Right. So I've got my role in the business. I have my role as a partner with equity, and then I also have my role as where I sit in the family.
[01:04:24] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: And a lot of times those conversations, those kitchen table conversations or boardroom conversations, everyone has all those hats on, and they're not distinguishing what hat they have to be wearing. So if I'm coming to a boardroom table and dad is coming to the boardroom table with me, he's not wearing his father hat as a CEO. If he's coming to talk as the CEO, he's got to wear a CEO hat, and I have to wear my general manager hat.
[01:04:51] Speaker D: So is this part of the advice that you give entrepreneurs? Because I think that would be very difficult for somebody to separate their parental role from their professional one.
[01:05:00] Speaker B: And I think that determines whether or not and how successful you're going to be in your transition.
Because you're right, the kids are going to want to have to put something of their mark in it, especially if they've been in it for. For a significant period of time. And if they're constantly waiting for that baton to get passed without any sort of communication on how that baton gets passed, you're going to lose their passion, their interest, their drive. And that ultimately can blow up A business, it could blow up a succession plan, it could blow up a family. And I think out of all three of them, the most important. I'm going to go back to Tommy before you're going to ruin your family over bad business decisions.
[01:05:39] Speaker A: Tommy Hilkin, I watched this in my life. Now you got to remember, generations change, right? And kids change generation to generation. I had two friends. Their fathers owned bakeries in North Bergen.
I mean, killer bakeries, the best of the best. And as the fathers got old, they handed them off to the kids.
The only difference was dad was getting up at 2:30 in the morning and making sure that all everything was done and being served. And when the kids took it over, they're like, do I really want to be up at 3 o' clock in the morning every day of my life doing this? That big difference, you know, dad came over here, you know, like this the land of opportunity. I'm going to work my ass off. And then the next thing you know, the kids are like, I don't want to do this.
[01:06:18] Speaker B: So Tommy, I'm glad you brought that up because the other dynamic is which roles in the business do your kids actually have the superpowers to play?
Because when you're in a job, right, you everything everybody knows the most effective player is the one who's doing what the things that they're really good at and they're delegating off the things that maybe don't fall in their line of passion or maybe are lower level jobs. Well, if you're expecting your son or daughter to come in and take the CEO role, and they're more of a creative hat and they're thinking more from a marketing standpoint. Standpoint. Well, who's watching the numbers and who's making sure that all of the investment decisions that are happening within the business are being done correctly. So a lot of times we're talking about if that is the case, well, do those children actually have a role in the business or are they just an equity role? And if they're not, who's in the business running the show or helping to run the show because that person may be the next successor. The next person, and say, yeah, you know what, this is natural fit for them to be CEO, but they also need some sort of an advisory board to help them because they're just not at that level yet. And they still need the training and the guidance.
[01:07:31] Speaker E: Right? So this is why you need to set it up to be able to make an exit to sell it to anybody. You cannot. We found. You cannot depend on your kids to do it. But Bobby, how do people get ahold of you?
[01:07:42] Speaker B: You know, I'm all over the Internet. You just Google my name and you'll find it. But we have bobbymasha.com.
[01:07:47] Speaker E: Can you spell that?
[01:07:48] Speaker B: B, O, B, B, Y, M A, s, c, I a.com or g as in girl, r as in Ridge Wealth Plan dot com.
And you'll find lots of white papers, lots of videos. We're constantly up to date with things that are happening in the market because second to strategy is also strategy of your money and what it's doing for you and how it's working for you. So customized investment management is a huge part of the value add that we bring to our clients, as well as bringing the right advisory team or adding their advisors into the team to set new expectations on how we work collectively as a group to help business owners attain the goals that they're trying to attain.
[01:08:28] Speaker E: And finally, the name of your podcast business, Unchained.
[01:08:33] Speaker B: Okay, New episode every two weeks.
[01:08:35] Speaker E: Thank you.
[01:08:36] Speaker B: Chain yourself from your business.
[01:08:37] Speaker E: Yes.
[01:08:38] Speaker D: Passage to profit with Richard Analyst, the pure heart.
[01:08:40] Speaker E: And now we're all going to get healthy just like that overnight. So we're moving on to Josh Kahn with the company Eden, and his website is trieden.com and Josh, tell us what you're doing, why you're doing it, how you got here.
[01:08:57] Speaker C: You know, it feels like we're just living in a moment where healthcare just feels broken. Right. You know, you look around, it's expensive, it's fragmented, it's inaccessible. People have challenges just getting basic care across all facets of the healthcare system. And so what we're trying to do is we're actually not trying to fix healthcare. We're trying to basically remake it. We're trying to re envision what healthcare really means. And so what we're doing at Eden is really building out the infrastructure and the core concepts of what healthcare 3.0 looks like. It's a really big term. I'll get into it a little bit, but really what we've done is we've, we've identified a number of issues that impact the US And Americans today. Like just one, one big, big thing that we noticed when we first started the company. You know, 70% of the US is overweight, and I think 50% of the US is suffering from metabolic syndrome of some kind. And so what that meant is, hey, people are just struggling with basic access to, how do you fix that? And truthfully, for me, I was the guy, I was £300 myself. Like I was a big guy before, I might not look like it now, but you know, I've been up and down and you know, yo, yo, since.
[01:10:06] Speaker D: This is a radio broadcast, Josh is svelte. So you don't have.
[01:10:11] Speaker E: Oh, I love that word, svelte.
[01:10:12] Speaker D: He's svelte. So you're not £300 now, so.
[01:10:16] Speaker C: Correct, correct. And so, so from there, we've actually been able to bring on well over, you know, 100,000 patients to the platform.
You know, we're nationwide.
We've also really begun to vertically integrate on the supply chain side. So really just helping people that are in remote areas as well as big, just access, you know, these life changing therapies that should be available and more readily available for people.
[01:10:38] Speaker D: Just to be clear, these are GLP1s, right?
[01:10:41] Speaker C: So we do offer access to GLP1s. The medical doctors do all those big pieces, but we also have a number of other programs just really focused on, you know, all sorts of other angles for your health and everything gets delivered to your door. Right. Like that's the other thing. Like you don't have to wait in a doctor's office. You don't have to, you know, call in and fax in a prescription somewhere. Like, you know, we're changing, like I said, the paradigm of what healthcare looks like in the United States.
[01:11:06] Speaker E: So do you get results from a blood test? Like, would I go to my doctor and get a blood test and then have the results sent to you and you analyze them?
[01:11:14] Speaker C: Yeah. So there's a lot of different, like, so, so since COVID actually, it's really interesting. So since, since COVID happened, there's a lot of opportunity with asynchronous and synchronous doctor visits. So essentially you can go and in some states allow you to fill out a form. And it's the same thing as you meeting with a doctor. The doctor reviews the form and reviews all the information that you, that you provide, which may have indicators like blood markers and those other pieces to make an informed medical decision on whether or not a treatment is right for you. And so what that does though, is it unlocks it. It unlocks you and it allows you to actually access these medications that are incredibly in vogue right now. You know, I mean, you look at everyone on the planet, you talked about Ozempic earlier. We've really identified that there's a number of people and we've. That's the thing I think I'm the most proud of is the how many people We've actually, actually helped.
[01:11:58] Speaker D: It's just 100,000. So that's a lot of people.
[01:12:01] Speaker C: We're, we're really up there and we're growing.
Every month is. Seems to be our best month ever, which is not a bad problem to have.
[01:12:08] Speaker E: So how did you get into this business? Because this is not your background, right?
[01:12:12] Speaker C: No, no, I'm. I'm the dumb business guy, right. But no, the, the background I have is I'm not a medical provider. I'm not a doctor. I'm just like, really interested in this stuff. Right. So. So it's actually really interesting. I came from manufacturing, believe it or not. I'm from the Detroit metro area. So, you know, we have like, automotive is like in our blood. Like we were saying, iron runs through our veins. It's not exactly blood all the time. And what I was working through there, I was actually going through Covid and Covid hits. And I'm looking around and I have kids and I'm like, oh my gosh. I don't want my kids to know that I was, you know, selling car parts. Nothing wrong with selling car parts, but I don't want them to think that, you know, dad just is worried about selling car parts when there's a global pandemic.
And so I said, hey, I'm gonna leave this job and I'm going to go join a startup. And the startup was the first of its kind. I don't really want to name drop too many names, but it's like probably the largest longevity telehealth company in the space and they needed someone to come in. I was like the first hire to come into the company. So I had to learn all of this stuff because the stuff we're doing has never really been done. Like, it's all brand new.
[01:13:21] Speaker D: So how do you create trust with somebody on a telehealth visit? It's different when you're in a doctor's office. At least it is for me. You see the person, the communication is different. If you're talking with a physician over zoom or something like that, it's a different experience. So how do you build trust with your patients?
[01:13:42] Speaker C: It's a really interesting phenomenon, right? There's a. Since we're in the 21st century today, there's a big thing called social proof. You know, people, once they understand other people have done it, they feel much more confident in your ability to do things. And so when you have the amount of patients that we've seen, you have the results that we're able to publish for people on our programs, it really moves the needle because you start to identify like, hey, you know, maybe I don't trust this thing yet. But then you start seeing commercials on the super bowl with very similar concepts. It starts to open people's eyes to, hey, maybe there's a different way to do things. Things. Maybe it's like our AI conversation earlier. Maybe I need to get on board with this earlier rather than later.
[01:14:19] Speaker E: Tommy, what do you think?
[01:14:20] Speaker A: Being Adam, a little seasoned, you know, I would have to. I'm a human to human kind of thing. So for me, it would be a challenge to not be in the same room as you were saying, with the doctor. Eye to eye, talking to. Building my confidence that I'm going to be okay. See that, that was what I needed. You know, I.
I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and my urologist was a lifesaver. You know, just the way he made me feel and my wife feeling calmed my wife down and calmed me down. So there's a lot that goes to it in my mind, I'm saying, how do you get that to the person where you make them feel comfortable that everything's going to be okay?
[01:14:56] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's not. It's. It's. It's a real thing. And what I can tell you is that one of the biggest things we've been able to do is since we do have such great Dr. Networks that we're a part of, people actually have 24. 7 access to the Dr. They can talk to a doctor at any time of day. And the doctors are responsive. You know, it's not like they're like, I'm off for this week. I'm going to Breckenridge. You know, they're not skipping town on you.
[01:15:17] Speaker A: He's Tommy.
[01:15:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
So they do build a rapport and they do have very personal conversations. And it is the very similar conversation that you would have in the doctor's office. I got you.
[01:15:28] Speaker A: That's great.
[01:15:29] Speaker D: I think there's a trade off between convenience and quality communication. So if I had something serious, I'm the type of person who would want to be in the office with the doctor. But if I'm just doing something that is like I have a cold, I'm happy to do a televisit with my doctor because then I don't have to schedule an appointment and drive there and park and do all of those. You know, it's a bigger hassle and so I can get my medication quicker if I just do a telehealth visit. Right. So depends on why I'm visiting.
[01:16:05] Speaker E: Yeah, but Josh, I had a question. So with these, I guess you would call them health enhancements. I'm not exactly sure how to classify everything you're doing. Like you said, it's new. So it's not just weight loss. You're doing a lot of other things with health too.
Do you have to take these shots or whatever you're doing that you're putting into your body for the rest of your life, like to keep your health up to the level you get it to after being on this for a while, like, are you still doing what you started out doing to lose it, the extra weight?
[01:16:34] Speaker C: Yes. So it's like anything, you know, you go through seasons in life and there's different things that are going to help you at different times in life. Right. And like a lot of folks specifically that we've seen on GOP's, it's really about helping someone on the lifestyle. Like there's other products and services that are also available to patients, like things like a car bus. Like we see a lot of diabetic medications that have been repurposed for weight loss. It's not just jlps today. Right. And, and what they're starting to identify is that a lot of this has to do with behavioral modification at the same time. Yeah, I mean there's. The GLPs are a life changing and revolutionary medicine in today's day and age. But there are times and places for the use case of them. A lot of times you tell someone not to take it. There's a lot of uses where someone should not be taking this. You know, if you have family history of certain types of, types of cancers, et cetera, et cetera, like there's a lot of things you shouldn't do. But for me personally, I've been, I'm more of like a tweaker on my own. Like I've been kind of, you know, taking a lot of these things and doing like the biohacking community on my own for so long that what I found is I actually really like doing, working with my doctor to give me a microdose. So like there's not even a dose profile that I can get from like a commercial medication that actually works for me because it's too much. And so what the doctors were able to do is say, hey, actually, you know, maybe you should be on wayfury units and you need to be thinking about what the personalization aspect looks like. So what you can do is you kind of start dialing these things in. And then over time, you start finding the right protocol for you. And that's really how you create personalized medicine.
[01:18:00] Speaker E: So you stay on a maintenance dose, maybe after. Oh, that's interesting.
[01:18:04] Speaker D: I mean, I've heard GLP1s, though, are not only great for managing blood sugar, diabetes, but also cancer, Alzheimer's.
They have. It's almost like a wonder drug. Right. And I saw an article not too long ago, shouldn't everyone be on GLP1s? Right. Because it has so many health benefits and so far nobody's been able to show any really negative health benefits. There's some discomfort sometimes, but overall they're supposed to be, you know, the new wonder drug.
[01:18:36] Speaker E: It had a really bad effect on me. The GLP one had a very bad effect.
[01:18:40] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:18:41] Speaker E: And so there are a few people that are with very sensitive systems that can't do it.
[01:18:45] Speaker D: Right. And we've heard of stories like that too.
[01:18:48] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And I mean, that's to be expected. I mean, these GLPs have been around for 20 plus years, have been studied and a lot of folks. And yeah, I mean, GI discomfort and those things. Again, I'm not the doctor, I'm the guy that kind of like, kind of understands how do I start putting a team around, helping people access this and how do.
[01:19:04] Speaker E: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. So the, what you really came here to talk about was not necessarily these specific drugs and specific compounds, but more your distribution system, Right?
[01:19:15] Speaker C: Yeah. And really what this vision behind, why is healthcare been so broken for so many people for so long? And then what does that future state look like? I mean, that's, that's what we're building. We're not really just building like a, hey, you want a drug, Come get a drug. I think first of all, that's immoral. And second of all, I don't think that that's probably legal. I think that the right thing to do is to establish these relationships for patients with doctors and be able to make things proactive and personalized. And ultimately, like, that's the problem we have today. Right. And if you look across everything in the United States, we talk about, even in family offices, right? Like, maybe the kids are a little lazy, maybe this, maybe that. Like, everyone has their own story is what I'm driving at. Everyone has their own unique way that they have to approach life.
And medicine shouldn't be any different. Medicine should be the exact same approach. And until we start flipping the script and we start actually internalizing that and understanding that we're going to continue to get more and more of the same. We have a sick care system, we don't have a healthcare system. It's a huge difference. And once we start embodying those changes with the things like we're trying to do, which is, hey, the same place that you talk to the doctors, the same place you should be able to access the medicine, same time it should, should show up to your house, and then you should be able to monitor all that off of your phone, the better. And I'm writing about a lot of this in my book that's coming up all about Healthcare 3.0. But really, to me, that's what has to happen. You know, we really have to start embracing this because really, you start thinking about metabolic health, right? Think about metabolic health. If you just address that, I personally believe you address 80% of all the other underlying issues that people have. Like, you'll start reducing the number of cancers, they'll reduce the heart attack risk. You see, you know, here Diabetes three point or diabetes three, which is just, you know, dementia and Alzheimer's, all of these risks go down as long as you're having a better metabolic health.
[01:21:03] Speaker D: Tell us a little bit more about metabolic health. When you say that, is that, that has to do with your metabolism? So do GLPs impact that or is that also NADs? On your website I saw maybe talk a little bit about those and how they affect metabolism.
[01:21:18] Speaker C: People in the U.S. like I said, about 50%, 40 to 50% of people in the U.S. suffer from metabolic syndrome, which means that they struggle with three of these five things that happen. You either have high triglycerides, high ldl, low hdl. You have a truncal obesity. That means your stomach is big. And if you hit over three of those, you actually see an 80% rise in your heart attack rate. You see a 90% rise in stroke. Like, these are just data points that we have today. And so what we, what we've actually been able to do is help people understand this at like a real basic level, right? Like I'm talking to you guys about it. Like, you should be able to talk about this stuff like it's a dinner conversation. Like it shouldn't be a taboo subject to talk about. And so we've, we're really. And that's where this accessibility piece comes in. It's like, hey, you should hear about this stuff on a podcast. You should be interested enough to be like, wow, maybe I can look into this. Maybe I can actually take control of it myself. And then we start layering those types of things on, because we also see this in the data, that once someone loses weight, that's the first thing that they see, right? Like, you know, you're like, if you're big and, you know, like, you're large and like, you're maybe a little, like, not happy with, you know, the way you let a certain shirt fits, but then you see it, it fits better. Then you start thinking like, wow, I need to start doing more blood work. I need to start getting more energy. I want to have more time for the grandkids. I want to feel great when I wake up in the morning. And you start going down this rabbit hole of, wow, health is actually wealth.
Health is something that I should really deeply value because you'll be a better CEO, you'll be a better founder, you'll be a better leader, the better health that you have. And so what we see is, we see an incredible number of people actually starting to, like, gravitate towards these alternative therapies, like nad. Like you had mentioned nad. You know, NAD is like. You know, there's a really cool quote that I like from Dr. David Sinclair. He's like the longevity guy. He says, you know, without NAD, life itself would cease to exist in 30 seconds. Because you remember back in sixth grade science when they're talking to you and they're like, oh, you know, the mitochondria is the powerhouse.
[01:23:20] Speaker D: That's like the Krebs cycle or something. Yeah, I do remember that.
[01:23:24] Speaker C: Yeah, everyone has that. It's like, it's like a memory that's like. I don't know, everyone has it. It's really weird, but I don't remember much else about elementary school, but, yeah, and so, so, yeah, and so, but NAD is the thing that actually provides the energy for that. And so, like, as you actually age, those levels decrease. And so what we see is, like, by augmenting these things and by the doctors making the determination with a patient, you see energy levels go back and then you can actually go hang out with your kids and you can do the things that you want.
[01:23:53] Speaker E: I think you're convincing me.
So anyway, how do people find you?
[01:23:59] Speaker C: For me, I have a website like everyone else does, like, you know, joshcon.com, but I'm really more available on LinkedIn, you know, as Josh Kahn. And really, I tell people, just explore the website that we have. It's called tryeden.com and yeah, we're happy to help.
[01:24:16] Speaker E: Can you spell your last name?
[01:24:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I put the two tall Letters next to each other. It's K, H, A N. Okay. And that's. That's Josh Kahn.
[01:24:23] Speaker E: Okay. Excellent. Thank you, listeners. You are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Our special guest, Tommy Hilkin. And we have had the most amazing show today, but it's not over yet. We're gonna do Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind when we get back. We'll be right back.
[01:24:38] Speaker F: I am a non attorney spokesperson representing a team of lawyers who help people that have been injured or wronged. If you've been involved in a serious car, truck or mower, a motorcycle accident, or injured at work, you have rights and you may be entitled to money for your suffering. Don't accept an offer you get from an insurance company until you talk to a lawyer. And we represent some of the best personal injury lawyers you can find, Tough lawyers that will fight to win your case. And they're so good, they stake their reputation on it by only getting paid if you win. So if you've been in a serious cause, car, truck or motorcycle accident, or hurt on the job, find out today for free what kind of compensation you may be entitled to. Call the legal helpline right now.
[01:25:23] Speaker G: 8004-9270-1480-0492-7014.
800-492, 7014. That's 800-492-7014.
[01:25:38] Speaker B: It's passed passage to Profit.
[01:25:40] Speaker D: Now it's time for Noah's retrospective.
[01:25:43] Speaker E: Noah Fleishman is our producer here at Passage to Profit, and he just has a way of putting his best memories in perspective.
[01:25:50] Speaker H: I got so scared when I was watching this great movie on the Internet. Last night wasn't the movie that was scary. It was what happened during the movie. While I was watching it, my Internet started to act up. So the picture started buffering a little bit. The computer screen began to freeze up. I couldn't believe how scared I got. What if my computer dies? What if I never have Internet again? Turns out everything was fine, but it really bothered me how upset I suddenly got. You know, when I was a kid, the TV was pretty important in our home, too. But my folks knew how to take it in stride. I'll never forget the night I was four years old. We were seated around the television watching McLeod with Dennis Weaver one night, and suddenly the picture went completely black. Tube trouble. We had sound, but no picture. My aunt, my mother, my uncle. These were not quiet people by nature, but there they were, seated silently around this television with no picture. I was just Sitting there waiting for someone to say something. It was fascinating. Finally, my aunt reluctantly muttered, shouldn't there be a picture? Well, we got the TV fixed and the computer came back and everything was fine. As a friend of mine reminds me, worry never change the outcome. You just deal with it and you move on. Now I can get back to watching that great movie on the Internet about these people during the Depression whose radio broke. I'll never know how they survived.
[01:26:58] Speaker F: Now more with Richard and Elizabeth passage to profit.
[01:27:02] Speaker E: Now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. Tommy Hilkin with Tommy Hilkin Productions.
[01:27:10] Speaker A: There we go. That works.
[01:27:11] Speaker E: A secret you could share with our audience.
[01:27:13] Speaker A: Desire. I think, as Napoleon Hill would always say, everything starts with desire. If you desire it and it really becomes all encompassing, becomes every cell in your body, you will achieve it. But you have to have a strong desire to be self employed. I know everybody, I always joke that people say entrepreneur this, solopreneur, that when I did this, I made a decision to be self employed. But it's not for the faint of heart. You really have to be focused and you have to trap the tremendous desire to do it. So I would say without the desire, you'll go nowhere.
[01:27:46] Speaker E: Okay, Bobby Macia with Green Ridge Wealth Planning. What is a secret you can share with our audience?
[01:27:52] Speaker B: I would say most people understand that they're really good at something, right? They have this unique ability that if they multiplied it, their business will be that much more successful. And what they do is they then delegate everything else out. But I think one of the things that you also have to build your team with is understanding what their superpowers are and where their unique abilities lie. So this way you could fit them all together like a puzzle. Because once you've got people sitting in their most powerful seat all day long doing what they need to do that they love to do to move your business forward, you've got something that's scalable and almost indestructible. And a lot of people stop at, okay, I'm doing what I want to do. And now I got everybody else doing what they need to do. Taking that team and going through that same process is powerful.
[01:28:39] Speaker E: That's great. Okay, Josh Kahn with trieden.com what is a secret you can share with our audience?
[01:28:47] Speaker C: So a great one for me that's worked incredibly well is being principled. You know, if you establish a series of, in a set of principles that you live by day to day, you also incorporate into your corporation or company.
You have something to always fall back on when things aren't looking great and when things are looking good and you start to be able to identify those things. The best part about it to me is that that then actually trickles down into your staff. So, like, for us at Eden, we have a list of principals as part of the onboarding guide that we expect people to operate within. And so, like, number one is trustworthy, right? If you're not trustworthy, you're not going to work out here. And so, like, I would really suggest a secret is find the set of principles that works for you and that actually helps you be the best superpower, like superhuman that you can be. And then just use those every day relentlessly. Relentlessly.
[01:29:35] Speaker E: Like that sounds good. Richard Gearhart, Gearhart Law.
[01:29:39] Speaker D: Well, my secret is pretty simple. It's just sometimes good things happen when you least expect it.
Sometimes the crappy stuff happens too. But no, this month we had a lot of people out. Some people out on medical leave, people out on vacations.
And going into the last three days of the month, we were going to be lighter cash wise than we normally were. And then just out of nowhere, all of these clients came through and paid their bills and it turned out to be the best month we ever had. I have to admit, sometimes my ego rises and falls, you know, with the profit and loss statement. Right. So I was kind of feeling bad about it, but all of a sudden, just out of nowhere, you know, a lot of great things happen. So even when things are looking not so good, sometimes it turns around.
[01:30:28] Speaker E: Well, my secret is going to be, you know those people that just won't take no for an answer, make them.
This kind of goes with what Josh is saying. If it's like, no, this isn't right for me, and they just keep coming because I just recently had this happen with somebody. You just keep saying no and stick to your own guns and what you feel is right for you.
[01:30:50] Speaker D: 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 Feedback Spot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer, Noah Fleishman, and our program coordinator, Alicia Morrissey, our studio assistant, Risa Kat Bussari, and our social media powerhouse, Carolina Tabares. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct. Never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
