What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
AI At Work: From Hype To ROI
What if AI stopped being a headline and started working like a real employee? We sit down with CEO and AI integrator Ephraim Ebstein to map the straightest path from hype to results: smarter outreach, faster service, leaner teams, and tighter security. No sci‑fi, no gimmicks—just the playbook for turning today’s tools into tomorrow’s edge.
We zoom out to the bigger picture many avoid: the middle class is getting squeezed, and waiting your turn is not a plan. Ephraim shares how early adopters keep their jobs by redesigning them, why posting consistently beats “perfect” content, and how modeling proven operators compresses years of trial and error. From trade businesses to tech firms, the message is the same—sell something useful, systemize it, and let AI compound your time.
Then we flip to the risk side. Ransomware groups run like corporations, and social engineering can undo an entire brand with a single password reset. You’ll hear how a boutique hotel uses a text-based AI concierge that guests love—and how a recognizable apparel company lost weeks of revenue after a cloud breach. The lesson is blunt: security is a growth strategy. Use MFA, train your team, back up right, and test recovery before you need it.
If you want AI to pay for itself, deploy it where dollars move: SMS outreach, appointment setting, concierge flows, and workflow automation that actually replaces tasks. If you want to sleep at night, invest in cybersecurity with the same urgency you invest in marketing. Ready to adapt before you’re forced to? Subscribe, share this with a builder who needs the nudge, and leave a review telling us where you’ll put AI to work first.
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I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up, so I can do for the star voice.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, another day, another dollar, another one of my favorite episodes of my favorite podcast on bias. What if it did work? Got with me? Ephraim Epstein.
SPEAKER_01:That's it.
SPEAKER_02:Look at that.
SPEAKER_01:I got it. He got it.
SPEAKER_02:He's a CEO, IT strategist, AI integrator, which I can't wait to talk to you about. Most tax experts speak in jargon. But Ephraim Epstein speaks your language. He's not just a no cybersecurity guy. He's a$30 million entrepreneur who built two national companies from the ground up. Now helps business leaders turn tech headaches into growth of engines. Brings real-world stories, clear explanations, and tactical advice that's perfect for business-minded audiences. From stop stopping multi-million dollar data breaches to deploying AI employees that actually replace headcount and boost revenue. Can't beat those. I love the sound of that. Breaks down company systems and the way listeners can use today. Whether your audience wants to scale smart, understand, or whatever. The man, the myth, the legend. How's it going, man?
SPEAKER_01:Good man. Thank you so so much for having me on. I'm excited to get to chat with you, dude.
SPEAKER_02:I I'm looking at you for for being a tech guy and an IT guy. You get around, man. I was on your LinkedIn page. You you're on Instagram. You're just like uh a master of all trades, man. You just want to see people and their corporations succeed.
SPEAKER_01:I I appreciate that, man. I I I feel like I'm I'm not doing good. You know, you always kind of look at your profile and your presence. You're like, I should be doing more. So thank you. Thank you very much. That's kind of you.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that that's just our our ego, or sometimes our limiting belief that, oh my gosh, I'm not, you know, clearly neither one of us have the the you know the marketing or the the all all the cameras and everything that some of these gurus like Grant Cardone and Anthony Robbins, but you know, we need we need more of you, and you know, just be yourself is what I I I always preach. The best version of you, which you know, you're you're doing a great job, and you're on LinkedIn. You want to see you wanna see companies grow because especially now, especially with the influx of or or the horror, you're either terrified or you're ecstatic about AI. And you know, AI is more than just that what was it, like last month where everybody did their little action figure of themselves.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I know. That's that's exactly AI. It's it's it's it's funny. It's like everybody, it's it's the talk of the town, right? Everybody wants to talk about it. Obviously, you're on social media, you're seeing AI videos, AI pictures, and everything, but um, there's a lot of talks of it, you know, becoming sentient, taking over the world, whatever. But what when when we approached it, we've been you know doing IT integrations for 13 years, and AI is a technology, and it's obviously a very advanced technology, it's it's pivotal, it's kind of like maybe when the computer came out, maybe even bigger than that. Um, so it's it's it's moving quick, there's a lot going on. But when we approached it, a lot of companies were coming to us wanting AI integrated. And I kept hearing this is a year and a half ago, right? So at that time, AI hasn't really truly been around that that long where it's been actively in use. So at that time, I was like, okay, everyone's talking about it replacing jobs, but I want to see whose job actually got replaced. I gotta, I gotta know whose job got replaced. Um, now today it's a little more clear than it was back then. But I was like, okay, what jobs are getting replaced? What job can it do where it's actively replacing a human or maybe adding revenue or something like that? And so we kind of just found the technologies that were like truly use cases that could do that, and then that's kind of what we started implementing uh for companies, and then kind of ignored the rest of it because you know the AI can be used for a million different other things, but we wanted the ones that are like what's replacing human labor.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, everybody makes the there's always been not only technology, but there's always been advances. I mean, just the the care the guy in the horse drawn carriage, you know, his his job got replaced, but you know, he clearly found something better by by either being retrained or whatnot. We're always losing. Um I mean, I remember as a kid where they were like, oh my gosh, robots, robots are gonna, you know, everybody's gonna be unemployed. I I don't know whether people thought that these robots were gonna be like um the Jeff the Jetsons, the maid's name, or you know, and truth to the matter, yes, jobs will always be lost, but you know, with advancement of technology and just the way we're either growing or dying. And if you lose your job, to me, that's just the universe giving you an opportunity of saying, hey man, let's find something that you can master and something that you can make and you can monetize more than what you're stuck at. That I mean, if they can replace that that job, then it it truly means you know there's something better out there, it's not like you know, you're trying to cure cancer.
SPEAKER_01:I love your mindset, and it's uh you know, it's an optimist mindset. You're looking, instead of looking at problems, you're seeing opportunities, and that's exactly it. Like if if if you're at risk of a job loss, it's time to level up your skills and look for opportunities because there's massive opportunities happening right now. And um, instead of worrying about it, there's people building businesses off of AI constantly. Um, you know, why can't you do that? Right? That's how I feel. I want to help people out because I, you know, I I wasn't poor, but I was very middle class. And I just, you know, took the risk. I I gained some skills, I honed my skills. Then at a certain point, I just had to take leave the safety of a of a could of a steady job and just take the risk. And if you take a risk, and it doesn't necessarily you don't have to be an entrepreneur, but sometimes you got to just level up your skills and take some risks, and and there's a lot of opportunity. People, it's a great time. And if you have the thirst and the willing to do the work, you can you can be successful.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's funny that when you say you grew up middle class, not poor, the the way I've been seeing it the past few years, it seems like the middle class keeps on getting squeezed.
SPEAKER_01:The middle class is is almost gone. There's still some, right? But I think that's going away. Like if you go, uh there I think it's really pronounced. Like when you go to some third world countries, like it's either poor or rich.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like in Europe or even in South America, there's no middle class.
SPEAKER_01:There's no middle class, you're either poor or you're rich, and that's what's happening here in the United States. You will either be poor or rich, and every year it's becoming more and more pronounced, like just kind of working like a steady job and um you know, buying a house, that's that's not even real really possible for most people. It's very, very rare now. And you, you know, you gotta it you this is a perfect time. If if you're not like looking how to how to really like get your skills up and kind of um what's the next thing happening, and you're you're just waiting for things to happen, you're gonna be squeezed down into the poverty line.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's like that old saying that there's people that are watching things happen, they're making things happen, or they're wondering. Now, why not just always be a step ahead? I I mean, even when I I tell people at least invest in it. You know, you you you hear about all these stocks going up, the Nvidia's and and the Palantir and anything to do with AI, Broadcom, and what what people usually do is they love to buy uh buy extremely high and then sell when there's any profit taking. But it's like at least get your get to know it because a lot of times, I mean you and I are are mature, but could you imagine if back then they said yeah, there would be you wouldn't need an encyclopedia, you wouldn't need to go to the library, you wouldn't need to have to order uh information uh to be delivered maybe a month or two months down the line, but you can have all this information, you can find out anything that you want, and you can you can literally grow as a person financially, spiritually, whatever you want in your pocket. I mean, if somebody told me that, I'd be like, oh my gosh, is is this like Buck Rogers or is this like you know, some Star Wars stuff? And you know, you're like, oh man, tech technology is gonna really move the needle, but usually it, you know, for for a tool, we don't use it as a tool. And that's why, you know, I gave you that example with AI, because you know, instead of like seeing all the capabilities that AI can do as a even if you don't own an entrepreneur, but maybe you're thinking of a side hustle or whatnot, you're you're you're doing an action figure. Congratulations, you followed uh a trend. And it's like the the phone, you know, when every oh I don't know. I don't know a thing about AI. I I don't know how to invest. I I I don't know how how to approach you. And it's like well, you have that phone that you could literally find any anything out. I mean, I I can literally, you know, someone can right now listen to the show and connect with you through LinkedIn or or you know, Instagram instead of just being like, Oh, I oh, this is crazy. This is the you know, what about Sarah Connors and John Connors and you know the the cy Cyberdyne, and you know, it it's it's either that or you know, people are dramatic for starters. That's a movie, or those were movies, or or you know, just wondering what's happening instead of being like, and and it wasn't like AI just came out of nowhere. I I mean it it's been around for like almost what two years now. You you could have started dabbling in all those uh and and to me, I I mean, I was an entrepreneur for 20 years, and oh my gosh, if I would have had that in my pocket to help me market.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, it would have been game changer, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Cause because I mean, and okay, I I social media helped towards the end, but before I I would have to do mailers like everybody else, yeah. And if I got a better than one percent return, I'd feel like I was you hefner at the Playboy Mansion, and you don't know what works, and you keep on throwing, but literally, because because I've seen you know, it for starters people, you can try the free and then pay for the upgrade.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, it's worth it. I pay for it.
SPEAKER_02:Cancel, cancel a subscription to Netflix to like Netflix or Disney. You know, everybody has the best part, is like when everybody's like announcing that they're they're doing away with their Comcast or their direct TV, they're like, Oh yeah, I'm no longer doing it. I'm like, oh, congratulations. And you find out they're paying more now because they've they've got like every streaming service under the I know, I know.
SPEAKER_01:That's just how it worked out. But I think about so so my dad was um he was born in 1948. Uh, he he joined the workforce. He's from Germany. So at that time, you kind of joined the workforce around 1415. And uh, you know, he he he got into like graphic design. Back then it was all you know, all those billboards, all that stuff, they were done on like on film, the big printing presses and by hand. Like there was no uh there was no Mac, no photo show.
SPEAKER_02:There's no mock-up that I can show you. Like they didn't do nothing, yeah. Give me a half hour or anything. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:So when when the um he was working here in San Diego, um when really like Macs started really kind of taking over the space of the graphic arts, and and it was early times, though, early, like Photoshop was just coming out, Illustrator, that kind of stuff. And he was working at a shop. There was probably like 200 people in there um doing all kinds of jobs. But he was one of the first guys that was like, hey, I want to learn. He didn't have no techie background, right? I want to learn how to use the Mac and I want to learn how to, you know, he he went to his boss. I want to be the guy that learns how to use that that um that uh you know the software to start this. And so they sent him to some classes, he started doing it. He was one of the first guys, and he progressively um got better and better. Well, you know, 10 years later, that shop there, you know, the 200, 150, 200 people that were working in there, now there's like 15 people working in there, right? But but he had adapted, he had adapted early and he got really good. And it's the same thing with the AI. Like, there's gonna always be people that bring that human touch, but also know the technology, know how to train it, now know how to implement it, really can um help leverage it the most. You should, you know, you should be that guy or that girl versus the one just like scared, waiting to be replaced by it.
SPEAKER_02:No, another thing that I've noticed is we always like that story, like I'm supposed to have the knee-jerk reaction. Oh my gosh, they uh instead of increasing jobs, this owner of this corporation or this company, he he went from like 150 to 200 employees, and he went down. You see, having that entrepreneurial mindset, I'm like, oh my gosh, man, talk about a major profit boost. So it instead of vilifying what I tell people, because you know, every oh, the one percenters or those entrepreneurs, why not be a part of it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, why not? It's it you can do it. There's the time do it. There's um there's no reason that someone shouldn't at least try, you know. Well, you know, I like the I like the the title of your your podcast, you know, or well, what if it what if it works out? Or you know, and what's the worst that can happen? You could always go back to the workforce.
SPEAKER_02:You're gonna laugh, but yeah, at my growing up, I grew up in South Florida and only child, but I I I always felt like the worst case scenarios on every uh I had like every fear, like, oh well, if I go to the beach, well, you know, what about there's I don't have Roy Schreider, you know, a big shark might come and and eat me. And it was all these fear of rejection, fear of this, fear of dying, fear, and it's like, but in general, people still operate that way. It's like it's like that person that always tells, Oh my god, uh, I I had to take a half a Xanax. Why? Oh, because I flew, and and it's like, so was there like did you guys have to do an emergency? Oh no, I get that way every time. I'm like, well, have you ever known anybody that was in a plane crash? Have you seen the statistics? Have you seen the odds? Oh, I I just well, that that that's like irrational. That that's like me panicking and telling Ephraim, how how how about if I win the the the mega lottery, that that powerball or whatever? What am I gonna do? How am I gonna pay my taxes? Yeah, how am I gonna take pay my taxes on a hundred million? Do I take the big lump sum or do no one? It's not gonna happen, so I don't really have to worry about it. And the odds are minuscule, but people always focus on well, if if I do this this AI and and it helps me become an owner, how about if how about it? I I think I'm doing well, but then I go bankrupt and I go to jail, and you know, the Wall Street Journal posts Joe Bob's hire company or whatever goes. I'm like, and it's always like, no, it it never happens that way. There's no debtor prison, there's no, you know, they're they're not gonna put, you know, but it it's just how the the human mind operates.
SPEAKER_01:It yeah, it is. And you know, I was so scared. I I I tell the story all the time. Me leaving my comfortable, well-paid job to start my own business. Um, because I I wasn't a lot of people, not not a lot, some people have started jobs because there was no other choice for them. Like that wasn't the situation for me. I actually had a really good job. I didn't have actually almost any savings at all. So I was like going cold turkey from Kush job to leaving that to start it, and it was terrifying. That was the most scary thing I did in my life. That was the hardest thing. But the thing that helped me get over it now is I I was thinking about this for a long time, and I'm like, what's the absolute worst that's gonna happen, right? No one would like I was married, but I didn't have kids. I didn't have kids that were gonna starve to death. I didn't have a house that I was gonna foreclose on. I really didn't have that much to lose. And the worst case scenario is I maybe have to like go beg for my job back or work at Starbucks or something. It was it's not that bad.
SPEAKER_02:It's not no, exactly. And that's why you know that I have a simple I have a similar story, yeah, degrees in journalism too. Like that really communications, like whoa, that's something huge. My mom was shocked when I told her I was gonna be an entrepreneur. Like, Omar, that's for uneducated people. And you're like, oh, my my mom must have been like killing it in corporate America, she must have loved it. And every day I would remember she worked for Ma Bell, ATT, pre-ATT, um, Bell South, and she would always complain to me every single day about work and for ATT and how it's horrible. And I don't know, better graduate college fast. I remember her always because I don't know how long I can, but then her frame of reference for success was and I'm sure to this day, get that corporate job, hate life, and complain to your kids for a good until you just drop dead uh about how much you hate corporate America. So yeah, yeah. Now my mom uh out of 20-something years, she was always like, Are you sure you don't want to go get a corporate job? And it's like, no, uh yeah, I'm I'm I'm pretty sure. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that's great. Breaking the mold, man, taking the risk, and then it's you know, you you you have really not much to lose. And and for and this is another thing. A lot of people, if you have nothing, if you have very little, you have very it's the best time because you have nothing to lose. It's way more risky for the guy that's like got a house and kids in private school and all of that.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Somebody that's that that's coming from like a he's making a lot of money, yeah, he's over leveraged because he has to look good, he he buys the house that he's house poor, and yeah, the kids are in private school. Yeah, that that's a lot of pressure. But if you start young and uh worst case, like what you said, you we we live in in a country where there's a million jobs in in every industry. It's it's not like somebody's gonna be like, Oh, I I see in your resume, it says you were an entrepreneur and you failed. We can't hire you. Sorry, no, it does, you know, it it's it it it's almost as funny as like all these kids that that hyperventilate because they they feel that they need to get to the right university and and pay like a million years, get into debt because most corporations are like, oh yes, I I see you went I I see you went to Emray University. And did you like that class, the biology 201? No, that's the biggest that that's that's them selling you anything. Do you have a degree? Yes, they nobody ever had anybody before you became an did anybody ever ask you for transcripts or you know, please explain your your math classes or your experience living on campus, or no, no, absolutely nothing, but you see people because people always we create a narrative. That's why, yeah, oh my gosh, AI, AI is coming for me, AI is coming for my job. It's like what is a young Arnold Schwarzenegger gonna start uh knocking on everybody's oar saying I'll be back. No, but it's it's also like what I said uh if you can dabble in it to make an action figure, you would think you'd be like, well, let me see what what what can I do? And it it has capabilities for everybody. You want to create a side hustle, it'll tell you. Do you want a marketing plan? Which, oh my gosh, every everybody would be up at for nights. And if well, I'm hoping a mom and pop would because I I know I was to create one, or even this is amazing, people. This is the number one thing entrepreneurs should always have an exit strategy. I I I actually I I don't need one now, but you you can actually you can even do it without if you're too cheap to pay for for the all the bells and whistles, it would still give you a good answer for it would, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's crazy. And and and you can even talk about different types of exit strategies, you know, get give you ideas and time. And it memorizes, yeah. There's so much. There's so much. So it's it's it's it's really remarkable. It's a great time uh to take a risk. It's a great time to to to you know learn the education's at your your fingertips. You know, you're talking about college, like that unless you're going to like be a doctor or like a very specific job where you absolutely need the degree, those degrees are pretty much worthless. You are gonna waste your time and you're gonna get in debt and you're gonna get out and you're gonna now be re behind someone else that went after it. You're gonna be behind trying to get it trying to get a job in your field. Chances are you're not going to and you're gonna be paid way, way less. The schools do not have to produce results, right? So I I you know, no one's you know there are people talking about this, but but sadly, people are you know, sometimes people will come come to me and say, Hey, should I should I go to college? I'm like, what what what degree? What do you why are you going to college? Like, what are you gonna get out of it? Is that job gonna is it a requirement to have the job you want? A lot of them don't know, so kind of like trying to figure it out of college. Well, forget that, just um just go shoot your shot at trying to be an entrepreneur or something. You're gonna learn way more. Um, in fact, I have a nephew, I don't have any kids, but I have a nephew. He's got the entrepreneur bug because me and my brother, entrepreneurs, he sees us and we encourage it, right? So every little side hustle he wants to try, we're behind it and we encourage it because he's learning, right? He's 14 right now. He's been probably playing around since he was like 12, you know, everything from selling drinks at school to like trying to do drop shipping. Now he's doing the car wash thing. We had him help us with some AI bot stuff. And uh, and I love it. And you know, he I don't want him to go to school to college. I would much rather give him like the set amount of money that he's allowed to use on business expenses to try and start a business. And even if he failed and was unsuccessful, he would have learned a hundred times more with that money that was spent in that effort than he ever would have going to college and spending that in a college degree, unless he's go wants to be a brain surgeon or something.
SPEAKER_02:Well, exactly, because you know, everybody always comes up with that. Well, what about you know, well, he wants what about an architect or what what about an attorney? And it's like, have you seen every university has like a hundred degrees, if not more? Yeah, like and like only 10 are essential, and yeah, everything else you could you could learn on Google, you can learn on YouTube, YouTube, all this stuff, and it's crazy. Yes, AI can help you learn learn these things. Instead of just being like, I mean, and people always cringe because they're like, oh, well, you you have a master's and you have a bachelor's, and it's like, well, yeah, because my you know, academia and my mom brainwashed me that you know to thinking that if I didn't have a degree, I'd I'd just be like either homeless or like digging ditches or doing something horrible. And and then, you know, my wake-up call was I I graduated, I didn't get my master's. My mom sold me into getting my master's, started working at a TV station, and the people with degrees, you know, we were shocked. There's people doing the same thing with no no no they didn't they didn't go to college and cheer for a football team. What what's this is crazy? And it was like I'm like, oh my gosh, and then you know, I uh you the older you get, you see, like there's all these shows, blue collar millionaire, or they're trade, you know, and and we we come academia or somebody fools us into believing that the AC repair guy and the plumber uh is just making like you know 20k a year, and it's like, yeah, well, why why don't you use AI? And you know, compared to that, you know, I I guess for like uh I've I've heard people I've oh I have a degree in Hispanic heritage studies or African American studies and basket weaving. What do you think I can do with that?
SPEAKER_01:Well yeah, that's that's a hobby, not a not a career. That's gonna you're gonna be in trouble.
SPEAKER_02:Well, do you do you like coffee?
SPEAKER_01:You like uh the job as a barista?
SPEAKER_02:No, it's yeah, yes, you and they've got great benefits as a barista, but do you have good customer service skills? Do you like meeting people? Do you like saying fancy words like grande and tall and and reading back goofy orders that they want it too hot but not hot enough, and all you know, but yeah, no, yeah. I uh when I saw what you were about, because it's right, you can save money. Think about how many businesses were okay top and bottom, they needed a marketing guy, they needed this guy, they needed that guy. Yeah, you you can be a one-man, you don't need a million chiefs, you just need one chief, and oh my gosh, okay, I don't know how to do it. I I'll I'll be like most I just don't know, I'm overwhelmed. If you really need hand holding, you could pay a couple hundred bucks and or maybe even a thousand and take a course and get a certification.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a hundred percent man. Between YouTube and AI, you got more than a college education at your hands, you know. You you can do whatever you want. Um, we've been uh, and I like what you said about blue collar stuff. I'm obviously my job's not in the blue collar space, but it's a great business to start, you know, doing HVAC, uh, you know, plumbing, those are really, really good businesses. And if you get out quick, keep Get out quick. Yeah, you could learn that. You could go, you know, learn how to like uh you know fix HVAC systems, set your business up, start selling them too, then start hiring. You gotta learn, you know, sales skills, you gotta learn some leadership skills, some financial literacy. But you learn that you and you're willing, you got the drive. You can build a really successful business, and you're gonna make more money probably than a lot of top paid lawyers, like within a couple of years, if you're at it out of now now, you're you're you're you're you're gonna make someone's ears bleed that yeah, that's gonna hurt.
SPEAKER_02:That's because that's the sometimes the truth hurts, man. But but that that is like a wake-up call because and there's really never been a time where even back then that you're like, Well, I've I've got a degree in English literature. Well, why didn't you say so? We were looking for one of those back in 1980 something. Thank you for applying. But yeah, yeah, I I I mean and think about it. I do your comp most people, if you have a business or a side hustle, or you're in sales. Well, we're all in sales, in my opinion. Get a leg up on your competitor, let your competitor make the action figure. Make your competitor, let your competitor watch those new reels made by AI about um cleaning up barnacles off sharks and whales, and that they're very appreciative. Well, you use it as a tool to monetize and crush your competitor. I know that sounds that's sad. That's ooh, capitalism's a bad word for some.
SPEAKER_01:That's what you gotta do, though. You want to survive, like you know, everybody wants the good life, not everybody's willing to do the work to get it. So you you want it, you gotta do it.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, but we we live in shortcuts, man. We live in uh are you telling me I'm 50 pounds overweight and I I can't eat two large pizzas? Can I just do a shot of Ozempic and and just wake up with a six-pack like 20 days from now? Or or or the best is well, how long is this AI gonna take for me to monetize? Is it is it like overnight, like social media, like Instagram? Can I just be an influencer? And it's like sure, sure. You could you you can be an influencer. Everybody's just looking for the easy buck. I mean, it's the easiest of everything.
SPEAKER_01:I have a friend, I have a friend, recruiter for uh fire department, and I remember growing up a lot of kids when you were in elementary school, say, What do you want to be when you grow up? A lot of people would say, firemen, policemen, like at least the boys, right? Uh, you would have some other stuff, but those were very, very common. Uh, and he's a recruiter, so he's going to high school to try and recruit uh these high school people to be firemen. And before, like I think if you go back 10, 15 years, at least in San Diego, um, and some other uh cities where they were some cities are higher paid than others, but the high-paid ones, uh, those were like pretty coveted jobs and kind of hard to get. You had to go be an EMT and then be a paramedic, and it helped you get become a fireman. Now they're like scrounging for these guys to try and sign up and they ask them, but well, what do you want to do? And they're all like, I want to be an influencer, I want to be like uh you know, professional gamer, and like it's like, oh my gosh, that's not that you couldn't. There's some people, yes, you could do it, but that's also on par with saying I want to be a Hollywood star. Like the the the amount of work that goes into it and the probability of success is much lower. So um, you know, look at something you you can like is that where I want to really they they think it comes natural, it comes easy. Those influencers do a lot, a lot of work.
SPEAKER_02:And and how many are out there? You everybody only knows, like, you know, the top it's like, yeah, everybody that moves to LA, you know, that your server right there, he wants to be the next Brad Pitt, but you know, he's he's eating crap because he's hoping that you know he gets some minor part and it becomes something bigger. And it's the same thing with yeah, it's the number one thing that you you'll ask even elementary school kids what they want. It's not to be an entrepreneur, it's not to be a doctor, it's not to be an attorney, not even to be a baseball player, you know. As kids, everybody, you know, no the 99% of people are an athletic, but you know, oh, I want to play for the Yankees. I I remember uh you know as a little kid. And that that probably being someone in sports or whatever compared to like esports. I I I mean, yeah. I they're out there, and I've read stories you can make millions playing video games, but how many people out there are actually well off? I mean, I'm not talking about everybody that's that's listen that well, they wouldn't be listening to this period. They're they're not gonna be looking at you in LinkedIn or you know, they're they're in their parents' basement, they're like 30 something, they have their degree in basket weaving, they're in their underoos waiting for mom to make them hot pockets or whatever, and they're they're playing a video game, but what's even better is you can play with someone all over the world, you know, the hopes of one day. And it's like I'd I wouldn't even waste my time asking AI, so what are my odds of becoming an e-gamer? And and and what would you what would you recommend? What what's my first steps? They would I would hope it would tell me wake up and and quit quit wasting my time, quit, you know, uh yeah, I I agree.
SPEAKER_01:Like, if you you know, I like paving a successful career out of yeah, I a lot of people, especially me, I'm speaking for myself at a certain point. Like, I wanted to do things differently than everybody else, and so a lot of the early years of my entrepreneurial journey were trying to figure out how to do it differently, and then at a certain point, I'm like, why am I doing this? Why am I not going to mentors that have already done it, learning from them and just duplicating success, right? Not to say that's easier, but it's way easier than trying to like do it the hard way. And I was able to like hyperaccelerate uh a lot of the successes in our business because of that. And it's like now I've gotten to the point is like, yes, I have to be innovative, yes, I have to do, you know, uh uh, you know, do some creative things, but if there's a way that I could mimic someone that's already way more successful and I can just make my success easy by mimicking that, why would I not do that? And because there's people that are 10x, 100x, 1000x more successful than me, and I can just learn from them and get better.
SPEAKER_02:So are you are you telling modeling successful people in in any industry? Like, if I wanted to be an investor, like look at what Warren Buffett. That's crazy, man. Like actually like compressing time and and and saving time by modeling. Yeah, it's so simple, but yeah, but I I could be like you, man. You know, there's people out there that when they go on your stuff, they'll think that you're trying to be an influencer. I know you're gonna laugh, but because you know, you post uh very informative stuff. So you you must be an influencer because I I remember, you know, this woman way went up to me at at the gym that I first joined, and I was like, Oh yeah, she's she's hitting on me. And she's like, you know, I know what you do. Um I'm thinking, oh man, she knows I what I was an entrepreneur, I was an owner, maybe she she thinks I'm the next Stephen King because I have a couple self-published books, and she's like, I know you're one of those YouTube influencers, and I was like, Oh, exit stage right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the the the posting, the posting, I try to make my posts is as much natural in me, but honestly, um I like posting like pictures of like personal stuff that's you know fun for me, my friends, but actually like doing all the influencer stuff is is not me. And I actually hate almost every single video in video clip that's posted of me. Um, most of them I I kind of try not to watch because if I if I watch them, I I don't like them and I won't want to post them. Um now I have a team that posts it for me. I don't even like make them you know go through an approval pro process that where I have to watch it. They just they just clip, they just post, and it's really volume. Um, not that you don't want quality, the more quantity you do, you will have more quant uh quality, but I feel quality comes after quantity, not the other way around. And and I just let them rip, you know, let those videos rip, post them as much as you can.
SPEAKER_02:But you've been doing it on a consistent basis, and that's yeah, to me, any tool you get stronger and stronger. It's like going to the gym. I mean, you you said it, yeah, at first. Who who doesn't look socially awkward? Who's like, you know, uh none of us are really narcissists where I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I look amazing. I can't wait to post this, I can't wait to have somebody take a shot at me or or or tell me I suck, or you know, screw you, and all that other stuff. Because everybody will, whenever a business owner, anybody you you post something, there's always a critic out there, there's always a hater. It and it's never somebody that's like you know, way ahead of you in the game. It it's not like you know, you when Charlie Munger was still alive, he was like, you know what? So he DMs you, he's like, Epsilon, that's horrible. You're horrible. Give it up. No, man, it's always like you know, the people that take shots are like the people that that that have like a hundred thousand dollars in debt for for it's true, it's true.
SPEAKER_01:And when I see someone else, you know, starting out and have some young buddies, and they you know, one one's got a landscaping business, and he's starting posting little videos and stuff, and I'm like, I'm not hating on him, I'm like, go man. I'm always like do it. Do it.
SPEAKER_02:I I I tell people, dude, post all the time, but but but how about if only five people watch? And then I have to tell them, do you know at one time when things were really bad and the economy was bad, and I was a lot younger, I'd go out there with a sign like an idiot, and you know, the ego, oh, I'm educated, I've got a master's degree. What am I doing doing this with a sign? And I would get a couple people to come in. I'd I'd be doing a victory, and it's like, so who cares? But you have to build somewhere. You know, you're you're you're you're not gonna be quote unquote milling the downloads after a couple of posts. Will you get there? Highly unlikely. Will you get more than two or three or four? Yeah, if you do it on a consistent basis, and if you people, AI um will help you. All you have to do is ask what topic can I post and you do a video on it, and you know, you be in entertaining. You you you have a good blend of everything. The the problem is is we we don't use AI to say, oh, can you if literally AI no I you know full disclosure, no, I didn't write uh either book, it was before AI was around, but I'd I would be like like hitting my head on the table, like doing show notes for this podcast, or like I I would do a video, freestyle it, but then I'd I'd be like, what can I write about it? And then now it's like why don't I save time? It's in my own voice. This friggin' AI literally knows how to sound like me, and voila, and that's why marketing 101. Oh, I don't know how to how to promote myself. Well, this machine, like what you said, pay the extra whatever it costs, none of them are that expensive, and just use it. And the the one thing uh it saves is time. Some time is a resource you and I, you know, we don't have a flux capacitor, we don't have we don't even have a DeLorean, we can't even go back and and save time, but you you can do that in instead of doing the old let me see what sticks, and that's what most entrepreneurs would do. And you know, you have a a tool right in front of you. That's try try the freebie if you're that cheap, and then you'll see you'll be wowed.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. That that's that's a great way to start. Um, we've you know, it's kind of it's kind of remarkable, you know, even as a business owner, you know, once you start what what it can do for like um outreach and stuff. So one of the big things we've been doing um for a lot of businesses is one of our specialties, when it really the one specialty we have with AI, like I was saying, we don't do everything, but the one specialty we really are good at is um integrating chatbot technology over text message and making it so it's not a chatbot, but it's actually like an employee, both conversationally, so that the person talking to it doesn't know they're talking, not talking to a human. And then also doing integration so that based off the conversation, now it can do activities that typically a human might have to do. Um, so we've been doing that from we but we basically kind of create two types of AI employees with different variations, but one that we're doing when we create an AI employ and integrate it and set it up is on the revenue generation side. Um, the nice thing about that is we kind of know the game, the how to play the game because uh the cell phone carriers are so strict on cold outreach and even warm outreach and things like that. So we know kind of how to how to set it up, how to play the game. But the nice thing about uh revenue generation is it pays for itself uh relatively quickly in the right use cases. So it doesn't work for every use case, but we we know what the metrics are. We can kind of see how many leads you have, what what the business use case is, if it's gonna pay for itself or not. And then the other one is the labor reduction piece. So I'll give you an example. We have uh one niche we've been getting into is the hotel concierge. Um, so a lot of these boutique hotels, they don't have that much staff. It's expensive to have front front desk staff around the clock. And people, um we can set it up that if they're they register for the hotel, they get a text message. Uh, we have, for example, um, we'll give them a name, the concierge name. So, one example of her name's Brooklyn. Brooklyn will text and be like, hey, Omar, you know, this is uh Brooklyn from Hotel Zindle. So excited that we're hosting you. Uh, if you you need anything, recommendations, reach out to me. I'm your concierge. And then a second later, she'll send another text. Also, if you're having any issues, you know, get in your room or cleanings or anything like that, let me know. So it starts this conversation, goes back and forth, and it can be very fluid. And we have literally tens of thousands of text messages going out every day, and people have no idea that they're they're talking to AI. So it's it's you know, it's pretty remarkable how much can be done. Um, and and you know, it's getting voice is not voice is getting better, but it's still a little bit laggy, and you people know that it's not a human, but when we're talking about a text message, we can make it undistinguishable from a human.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. Now, also cyber stalking you. Oh, yeah. Fit solutions, man. We have we haven't discussed. Uh, I mean, you you look rather great, you right, you look rather dapper there.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:And you know, it to me, I never thought a data breach was important until like going to like one of my franchise conventions and like how much it could literally cost.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. So we deal so so a little bit about how we started. We just started in in standard IT services in 2012. And 2015, data breach has started really, really being more and more of like a commonplace to the point like where we're at today, it's it's constantly every week we're dealing with a uh a customer or a new customer where we're either preventing data breach, or if it's a new customer, sometimes we're we're helping them out of a major data breach, um, like a recovery or something like that. Uh, what people for people that are not too techie, the but this is what I like. This is a good analogy. I kind of figured out. Um, if you think about when pirates were around, I know there's still pirates of Somalia, but like think about the pirates of the Caribbean type thing. Um, the English government would allow prior, they called them privateers. So they had a license, essentially, to murder, rob, and steal any other ship as long as it wasn't English. So they could go after the Spanish ships and have full immunity, um, and they they could do whatever they want. Well, that's literally what's happening in a lot of countries. And so there are a lot of these ransomware and hacking organizations, um, they're not just people in their basement, they are full function, fully functioning companies. Like people are coming in an office, they get a salary, they get bonuses based on performance, they have high-paid engineers, they have um even a lot of Americans working for them that are like don't have any kind of accents. It's crazy. And all they do is they use a lot of tools, but then they also use a lot of social media uh social um engineering to just breach companies. And people are now now, unless it's a major, major data breach, it barely even like cracks the news. Like if a regular, you know, what's regular, but you know, a smaller or medium-sized business has a major data breach and it's not high profile, it doesn't even make the news. But those are happening on such a constant basis that it's it's we're dealing it with it, and we we have barely a sliver of the market. And um, the way they operate, um, I'll give you an example, like the way the MGM operated, uh, the way that data breach happened. So they'll monitor uh both public-facing websites, but also LinkedIn is a big tool they use a lot because they can see who started new jobs. Because one of the first things a lot of employees do is they will post when they they got a new job. Congratulations, starting a new job, blah, blah, blah. So they saw that uh a gentleman started a new job at the NGM and he was on the technical team. Perfect opportunity. So they called in to the support line. Someone called, no accent, uh, just American accent, and said, Hey, you know, uh, this is uh from Epson. I just you know got started a couple days ago. I'm locked out, I'm I'm not able to get in. Can you help me? They reset his password. Boom, they were in. That was the first step. Now they were in the network with his password. Within minutes, they they they were moving around uh because they knew that that account might get reset again, got themselves in there, got some other footholds in the environment environment. And then from there, they were able to, you know, take over the whole casinos, the hotels, everything. So I'm just mentioning that because that's a high profile one. But they do that with very little company, small companies all the time uh that that uh that we deal with. And that's just one of the tools they use um to get in. But it's it's it's literally a business and there's literally no consequences for them. So people are like, why is it so rampant? It's because um there's very little consequences. There's so much cybercrime that if you call the FBI, uh, if it's less than a million dollars, they might have raised that now. I I could be wrong, but if it's less than a million dollars, they just say call your insurance, we can't help you. We won't even invest.
SPEAKER_02:It's not even worth their time. I and I remember it it was like 10, 12 years ago. This was huge. And now people like, oh yeah, I just got a text or I got an email, you know, it was from a major corporation. Oh, there was a data breach, you know. Uh my my account was one of them, but it and everybody's it's it's like a matter of fact, and I well, well, that's pretty huge. It's not like something, but we've come to the conclusion that oh hey, you know what? If somebody wants to steal my identity or you know, crack into pay off my debt or do whatever, go have at it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So, but it's devastating for a company. We uh we just worked, I'll give you an example. Um, just uh about two weeks ago. We got a new customer. Um, it's not the best, you know. I I hate getting customers in distress. Um, it's good for business, but you know, I'd rather get a customer that's not in distress, prevent data breach. But I I won't say their name, but if I said the name, you you might know them or you could easily Google them. They make Hawaiian, Hawaiian shirts. So they're they're in that space. Uh they their clothing company. And um, and there's a few of them. So in any case, they they had um a data breach, and it wasn't even them, it was their cloud provider that had the data breach. And then they got in, locked everything up, and they they now were at the mercy of these criminals. They couldn't afford to pay the ransom. Uh, the current cloud provider couldn't get them up, didn't have you know things up to best practice, and they were down by the time they came to us through a referral, they had already been down, hard down for two weeks. No employees could work, no shipments are happening, no orders are happening. That is devastating. That's devastating. It's not like these, you know, these companies are you know you really can sustain that kind of damages and losses, and uh it it was really, really bad for them. And it it might take them a very long time to recover from that. So even though we were able to get them up without uh the the having to pay the ransom, the fact that they couldn't run business for a few weeks, plus whatever long-term impacts come from that is in the millions of dollars. And and a lot of companies just can't survive it.
SPEAKER_02:No, not at all. That's that's why I it was something that kept me up at night, especially uh after seeing what it could possibly do to a small business company. Yeah. So it it to me that it it it's a natural, it's a huge threat, and it's something that you know. I I mean, I'm not an entrepreneur anymore, but if I did, that that's something you have to watch closely because you can go from the it's like in trading places. Yeah, you won't you'll you won't be like the Eddie Murphy, the rags to riches, you can go from the riches to rags and rather quick, right and something that that you have zero control because yeah, yeah, that that's that's called life. Life isn't fair. Well, I know how to find you, I know how to cyber stalk you. Uh there's no data breaching on my part. How do people find you? How do people hire you because you you are just that within itself? To me, it's a must. It's up there with having an exit strategy to me, being an entrepreneur. Everything else, you know, that's secondary and third and all the other numbers.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um, so so reach out to me on any I'm almost on all the platforms, but LinkedIn, Instagram, my handle is Kingspear on Instagram. Long story, but I haven't changed it. Uh, but on but if you Google me at from Epstein, you can find me, or if you Google my company Fit Solutions, um, you can find us as well. And I would love to, even if you know, the time is not right to do business together, answer questions. I always love, you know, making new friends. So uh, you know, reach out and uh, you know, Instagram, LinkedIn, email, Facebook, whatever is your preference. Um, I try to I try to be on all the platforms.
SPEAKER_02:And he is. Think about it. He just gave you a clue, model. And one of the things is he does give a lot of information. And this is coming from a guy that just mastered the word processor. So I it's very engaging. It a lot of a lot of a lot of things you can learn. You can model him. Think about it. You said it best right there, something that nobody picked up. You you weren't a trust fund baby, you weren't a Nepo baby, you know, you were an entrepreneur,$30 million entrepreneur, two companies from the ground up. I mean, yeah, can you follow an influencer? Can you follow Jake Paul? Can you follow whomever? I don't know any esports people. Yeah, follow whoever that that does great in video games, but he's not gonna get you anywhere. Follow him and think about it. Yeah, you can cyber stalk your ex later. Every little thing, knowledge, knowledge is powerful, knowledge is king. This is stuff that you don't have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to be in debt and go to college. Learn from the man. Uh, you you actually do provide value, man, everywhere. That's why. Thank you, man. I try, I try to make uh the videos worth watching because it is like I said, for a guy like me, who I mean, when it comes to somebody's like, oh, how good are are you with when it comes to tech? Well, yeah, I know how to operate the Commodore 64 and you know the the word processor that I graduated college with. But no, bro. Thank you for your time, man. Thank you for for the hour. And thank you for being in service, man. That that's the one thing that that people don't understand. You don't have to be here, you don't have to post anything. You've made it, but if you want to reach success, you have to be in service. You have you have to want to help others find success. Zig Ziglar said that I know we don't like to do it because we live in a me, me, me society, me first, but you're a true example of that. Thank you. And thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, well, thank you, Omar. You're doing the same, doing doing great work, and thank you for having me on on your podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Invoice no more. The hardest prison to escape is her own mind. I was trapped inside that prison door for a long time. To make it happen, you gotta take action. Just imagine what if it did work.