Gene Marks, President, The Marks Group

Gene Marks didn't set out to be an influencer. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and be a CPA. And he has been for more than 30 years, first at KPMG and now as President of his own business, The Marks Group. 

But some years ago, he offered to write a regular business column for The Philadelphia Inquirer and thus began a whole new aspect of Gene's career. Now, in addition to the Inquirer, Gene writes for Forbes, Inc. and Entrepreneur, to name a few, appears regularly on TV, speaks upwards of 60 times a year, and boasts more than 130,000 online followers as one of the top B2B tech influencers in America. And yes, he's still a practicing CPA.

Gene joined us to discuss his evolution as an influencer, what he tells his clients about AI replacing workers, or not, as it were, and his days writing for the school paper at the oldest public high school in America, for this episode of Pressing Matters from Big Valley Marketing, the podcast that brings you conversations with top media and influencers in B2B tech.

I'm Dave Reddy, head of Big Valley Marketing's Media & Influencers practice, and I'm your host. Through research and good old-fashioned relationship building, we've identified B2B tech's top 200 media and influencers, including Gene.

Here's our chat. Enjoy.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Gene Marks didn't set out to be an influencer. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and be a CPA. And he has been for more than 30 years, first at KPMG and now as president of his own business, the Marks Group. But some years ago, he offered to write a regular business column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and thus began a whole new aspect of Gene's career. Now, in addition to the inquiry, Gene writes for Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur, to name a few, appears regularly on TV, speaks upwards of 60 times a year, and boasts more than 130,000 online followers, as one of the top B2B tech influencers in America. And yes, he's still a practicing CPA. Gene joined us to discuss his evolution as an influencer, what he tells his clients about AI replacing workers, or not, as it were, and his days writing for the school paper at the oldest public high school in America for this episode of Pressing Matters from Big Valley Marketing, the podcast that brings you conversations with top media and influencers in B2B Tech. I'm Dave Reddy, head of Big Valley Marketing's Media and Influencers Practice, and I'm your host. Through research and good old-fashioned relationship building, we've identified B2B Tech's top 200 media and influencers, including Gene. Here's our chat with Gene. Enjoy.

Speaker 1:39

Dave, anytime you and I have conversations, they're always great.

Speaker 1 1:42

That's mainly because of being my puzzle. So let's jump right in. So you grew up in Philadelphia proper. You went to Central High School, which I'm guessing by the name is smack dab in the middle of the city. What was Philly like? I'm a Boston boy, and you know, you know, there's there's there's no love lost between the two cities. But I I'm just curious, what was what's life like what was life like growing up in uh the City of Brotherly Love?

Speaker 2:07

Oh, the oldest public high school in the country. I'm when they were alumni associated. I'm the treasurer of their alumni association, and it's a magnet school. So, like in a in a dark schools, school, you know, like depressing school district in Philadelphia, it's a bright light. Because to get in there, you have to pass tests. And uh so it's students that really want to be there. And it's public high school. So, but no, I grew up in uh Germantown, which is a section in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, and I've been lifelong Philadelphia. And growing up was, you know, when you're young, you're just in your bubble, so you really don't know what's going on. I can tell you this much, Dave. I was very close with my grandfather, who by the way was in the uh Jewish mafia and reported to Myra Lansky, and that's a whole other podcast episode we could. But anyway, him and I were very close, and he lived in town as well. And uh he died in 1982. And I always think to myself, man, if that guy could come back to life for like a day and see Philadelphia today, he wouldn't even recognize it. I mean, it was, you know, I don't know if I'm allowed to curse on this.

Speaker 1 3:01

Uh curse on you want my family.

Speaker 3:03

It was a shithole back in the 70s, like so many urban areas were, and and today all those areas that were like back then are like super nice, you know what I mean? So um it's changed a lot.

Speaker 1 3:16

So I gotta ask, Central High School, you said it's the oldest public high school. No, yeah, does it predate the revolution? Like I'm when you say oldest public high school, was it open in the 18 1836? 1836. Okay. Yeah. So obviously, none of the fun none of the founding fathers went there, but I'm presuming some of their grandchildren might have.

Speaker 3:34

Yeah, I don't know about that, but uh, we've had a lot of really famous graduates. And just on the side, I'm the treasurer. We manage like we have about $15 million in endowments and funds for a Philly public high school. Public high school? Yeah, we give the school like over a half a million dollars a year to help with students, trips, robotics, you know, substitute teachers, things like that, like unheard of in a public school system. So pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 4:01

Stop there for just a second and and ask you, again, not necessarily a thing on this podcast, but education is important to me. Is there a way to make that happen across the country, or is it simply because you you have a wealthy, uh, a wealthy crew?

Speaker 4:16

No, it's you mean is a way to make what happened to like have schools that are like magnets.

Speaker 1 4:20

Is there a way? I mean, is money the only answer to endowing a school like this? I'm curious how you guys have pulled this off.

Speaker 4:24

Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's family and money, is what it is. I mean, there are a lot of public schools in Philadelphia. My wife works, she's a nonprofit that that you know deals with with students, and it's the schools that have the most family support are the ones that are most successful, and it's not necessarily about money, it's also about time, you know what I mean? So we have some public high schools where we know parents are super involved, and kids do better at those schools, and teachers want to work there, you know what I mean? So, no, it's not just about money, but you can imagine when you walk around Central, it's so moving. I mean, there's kids of every every gender, every color, every culture, whatever. They they just have to academically be able to get in. So they really want to be there, and the teachers really want to be there. And uh, we meet there every month, you know, for the board, and it's just moving. It really is, you know. Speaking of families, what did your mom and dad do? My mom helped out in my dad's business. My dad was a certified public accountant like me. He uh developed the world's worst bookkeeping software, and then I made the decision to get involved with him, trying to sell the world's worst bookkeeping software ever invented. That go, Gene. Not well. And we it was when I left KPMG. I was at KPMG for nine years. Right. And and I left there. I I spent a couple of years as a controller somewhere, joined up with my dad, and his software was a DOS-based bookkeeping software that was introduced when QuickBooks was coming out. And so we got his lunch eaten there. And then of course it was it was missing so many features that he had to sell it along with me. So, like if you were a business owner buying the software, it was like, you know, yeah, I know it doesn't do a balance sheet or an income statement, but you've got Gene and he'll do that for you, that kind of thing. So, yeah, luckily the uh year 2000 came along, Dave. And um, you know, when planes were start to, they were supposed to fall out of the sky and the road was gonna shut down. Yep, none of that, none of that happened. And it was supposed to happen because software didn't use four digits for a year, you know, they didn't use two digits. Most softwares did use four digits, except of course for my dad's software. So it was rendered inoperable on January 1st, 2000. Because of that, we were able to pivot over to other software products, which he always resisted in CRM products at the time, like Goldmine and Act, they were like contact managers and other accounting products. And we started selling them. And my God, those products actually worked, and they actually did things and they could do income statements and financially. We could actually sell and make clients happy. And that was a huge turnaround in our business. And then my dad passed away in 2005, so I took over the company then. Back then it was just him and me, but now we've got 10 full-time employees, so it's grub.

Speaker 1 7:02

So I want to get to back to Mark's group and also KPMG, but but first, you stayed home, sort of. I mean, I presume you you lived at Lehigh, but you went to school, and I'm not, believe it or not, I haven't spent a lot of time in Philadelphia. I think that's about an hour or so away. Yeah, good job. Yeah, it is. So it was was the grand plan that you were gonna work with your dad? I guess not, because you did come out of school and got KPMG.

Speaker 7:27

Now, my my dad actually gave me, he was a terrible businessman. He should have been an academic, but he did, you know, he did have some some gems of wisdom. And uh one of them was about he thought it was very important to get licensed. Um, because you always as a professional, you can always put food on the table. And my kids, I have three kids. One is a uh also a CPA, one is a mechanical engineer, and one my daughter is a vet in Philly. So they all hold like state licenses, and I think that comes from my dad's influence on me because I pushed them to do the same thing, you know? So Lehigh, I took economics in the arts school because it was the easiest major to be accepted in, because the arts school was always looking for people. And then I minored in accounting and but not officially. I took enough accounting classes to sit for the CPA exam, which means Dave, and this is a trick for anybody, yeah, having your kids go to you know go to college. I could take all those accounting classes past fail. You only had to have the credits. So all the guys in my fraternity were killing themselves over these accounting classes. I just needed to get a D. And then I would get the credits. It showed up on my GPA as nothing because it was past fail. And then I could sit for the CPAs. So that was and then the other thing that it did, weirdly enough, is when I interviewed all the big eight at the time. It's all the big four, and I got interviews with everybody because they were all interested in my economics slash accounting thing, whereas everybody else was just an accounting major. I kind of stood out a little bit, you know what I mean? Not by design, it just happened that way. So that's how it happened, and that's how I started working at KPMG. And when I worked at KPMG, man, I didn't even know how to dress. I mean, I loved it. I was in nine years, I had a great time there. I I yeah, I would have stayed there, but for other reasons I left, you know, personally for my my marriage and all. But I, you know, you know, it was just uh I used to remember I used to arrive my first year and there was a manager there named Rich Altis Altis. And uh he would he would always summon me into his office to check out what I was wearing because some days I would wear different colored socks or I'd forget a tie or I wasn't wearing a belt. And he would always do a whole thing. Then he'd call other managers into the office to inspect me.

Speaker 1 9:33

Well, of course, it's back in the day if you were an accountant in New York. In fact, this is probably still the case if you're an accountant in New York, or you were in where wherever you were filling in New York, you you had to show up, you know, dressed in mind, right?

Speaker 9:44

Yeah, look, in a suit, and and he was hilarious, and he was always like, all right, but see what jeans wear in today, you know, come on ingots. And he was he was wearing funny.

Speaker 1 9:52

That may answer part of my question. So, and maybe this is me because I am about as far removed from an accountant as one gets mentally. I'm good at math, but in terms of like keeping the plugs, forget it. Not my thing. My wife has done that my entire life. I somehow managed to not go broke during college. Well, mainly because I was dating her. It it it's it's always seemed kind of like a fuzzy thing to me. Like, what do they do and who are they and what are they? Almost like some sort of like a specialty of mine, some sort of secret society. So is it's just as simple as we do corporate taxes, or or is it more than that? It is more than that, isn't it?

Speaker 10:30

It is, and um and I have a lot of opinions about the profession. I think people have uh this uh they I don't think they understand certain things about what the big four actually does. The the the big four, they audit the largest companies in the world. My clients were Fortune, you know, 100, Fortune 500 companies. And uh when they audit the companies, they give an audit opinion because it's required by banks or publicly held companies by the SEC. And the opinion says nothing. It basically says, we looked at this information, we verified a very, very small amount of this information, we take absolutely no responsibility for these financial statements. This is all management's responsibility. We we think that they're materially correct, like they're in the ballpark. Yeah. I mean, it is when you read an auditor's opinion, it is like the biggest like, you know, washing of their hands of any responsibility that you have ever, you know, seen. So they do provide that kind of oversee. My story is I I hope we have time for this. Here's here's the here's what it is. You ready? You ready, Dave? All of the auditors go and they audit companies and then they leave and they work for the same companies. Well, never forget, one of my biggest clients was a company called Centocore. They were a well-known biotech company in the 80s, high flying, whatever. Their controller was a guy named Dominic, great guy. He used to work at KPMG, of course, was Pete Mark at the time. I go in to do a standard, what's called an analytical review. I sit with Dominic and I go through, I had listed out on a piece of on a worksheet all of these expenses from two from one year compared to the expenses from the last year. And he had to give me the explanations why they went up or down. And then I had to just document that and make sure they were reasonable, right? So I go through every single one with him. And he's like, oh, travel and travel expense went up this year because we had more travel to trade shows, and utilities expense went down this year because we had a real effort to cut back on our utility cost. All that. I'm scribbling away and I'm writing all the responses and all that stuff. Anyway, I go back to my work room and I start putting it all together and I realized, Dave, that I had the columns reversed. So, like instead of the amounts going up, they actually went down. And instead of them going down, they actually went up. So I go back, imagine me, I'm like a year out of college. I go back into Dominic, who's the seasoned, you know, pro. And I'm like, Dominic, I can't. I'm so sorry. I mean, I feel I'm sorry, I got the columns reversed, you know, whatever. Without batting an eye, he's like, Gene, that's no problem. These things happen. I know you know, you're just like, have a seat, let's do this again. He gave me the exact opposite answer to every question that I asked from before the sacked office. Travel expenses went down because we had a cutback program on travel expenses and utility expenses went up because there was an increase in gas price without no expression, no change, whatever. And I was like, that's auditing. That is what it that that pretty much sums up what you know the big four do. Not that they don't serve any purpose, but they do. But if you're an investor, man, you have to really just, you know, take that into consideration among a lot of other factors when evaluating it.

Speaker 1 13:43

I I think people scare of people have a scare of numbers in math. And and it's funny, like again, I I did pretty well in math in high school. And then I tested out a bit in college, and and I don't I don't want to get near math. And I, but you know, I'm not not a dope on it. I think we just it's like built into us, and then it's part of our society. It's weird.

Speaker 14:04

I I kind of is is your company is your company, correct? Like are you an owner?

Speaker 1 14:07

No, no, no. We are we are run by the fantastic and founded by the fantastic Tim Markline. I I was literally saying this to Tim this morning. I can run a team and I do. I run the I run the media and influencers to it. I could not run a company to save my life or anyone else's.

Speaker 14:21

So the smartest people I know recognize their limitations and their strengths and weaknesses. No, I'm serious. Like the smartest business guys I met, and I get when I say guys, I mean men and women, the smartest business people that I meet um over the years, they they they know math, man. They run they know how to buy something for a buck and for three. They know their costs. They they they know math. They have a brain for calculating things. And if that's not like I know you're good at it, but if that's not like not your thing, I'm glad to hear that you're doing what you're good at.

Speaker 1 14:51

I don't want to worry about it. But you do. Uh so so about after almost 10 years at KPMG, you went to the Marx group. Now, I had thought you had founded that, but that was actually your dad's company.

Speaker 15:03

No, I founded this. So uh it was a well, first of all, I worked as a controller for a couple of years that was mixed in there. I went to work for the former CFO of Senecore, by the way, but that's another story. And then um I um because it's all in Sash Just and then I uh started the Marx group and then brought in my dad's, you know, company's assets and stuff into my company. And it was him and me that were running it. It's a bit of a succession planning thing, although we had nothing to, you know, hand down because the company wasn't worth anything. So it was my company that I started, and then but we were partnered in it. I mean, we were officially, you know, you know, 50-50 in what was going on. And he did the sales and I did the service. So it was like a two-man operation, you know. And one of the lessons I learned is that when he passed away, I took over the company, started hiring people to do the service. And you learned that if you want to provide services, it's you can you can have a livelihood doing it. There's only so many hours in the week, but if you really want to make money, you hire other people. So, you know, we built up employees and contractors now, and then I could make money off of people's services, and so we grew the company that way.

Speaker 1 16:07

So I want to get into so you you have this fantastic foundation. KPMG, your own company, working with your dad, a couple of other gigs. And you know, one of the things that I I always enjoy about Eugene is you have an ability to talk about the hot topic, whether it's SMBs or ERP or CRM or AI or tariffs, which was when we when you spoke for us last year at a client's event. You you really have an ability to get it down to the brass tacks. At what point did you take that ability and start turning it into I'll be an influencer, or was that just an accident of being really good at that?

Speaker 16:50

It's like deals in life. I mean, it it kind of evolved. I liked there were two I was not a very good accountant, Dave. So you know to me, like if it was close enough, if it's close enough, it's good enough.

Speaker 1 17:00

That's not a guy you know when you're no, no, no. Math has to be one plus one and one are always one, right?

Speaker 17:05

So exactly right. And I and I recognize that I was good at KPMG because there was such a wide range of materiality. Like we could be a million dollars off and it was immaterial. And that was perfect for me because I'm to me, like, you know, I'm like not a good accountant, but I'm like, all right, we're in the ballpark, so that's okay. So that was fine. But I recognized I didn't want to be an accountant in my life. There were two things I really enjoyed doing, which is um I enjoyed speaking and I enjoyed writing. You know, I was editor of my school paper and high school at Central, and I worked on my paper in college. So I loved to write. And then I even at KPMG, I was part of a professional development team. So they used to send me around the country to do trainings for people, you know, on you know, on technical trainings, you know, I had course materials to follow, but I used to love it. You know, I like that was getting up in front of a group and speaking. So it was those two things that were really good. So as I was running my business, I was doing that, but we sold, you know, we sold technology, like, you know, CRM products and accounting products. And I needed an outlet to take out to vent because of all the shit that was, you know, on your head during the day. And so I I started writing and um I actually pitched an editor at the Philadelphia Business Journal and said, I'm a local business owner. I'd love to write a column for you every other week called The Penny Pincher's Almanac. And every week I'll share with your business readers ways to save money in their business, you know? And uh I pitched it at exactly the time where he was looking to make some changes at the paper because life is about timing, you know what I mean? And look, really is. And he gave me that opportunity, and because of that opportunity, I started writing for him every other week, and then it got noticed by an editor at the New York Times, and he asked if I would write for them. So I started writing for them every week, and then it got noticed, then that transitioned over to the Washington Post. So I was writing for them every week for about five years, and then it evolved into other areas like Forbes and The Guardian and the Hill and all that. And I loved it. I still do it. I I love writing and all that because of all the writing, then people started noticing that and I started stumbling on the speaking opportunities, saying, Hey, you know, you write about all this stuff for businesses. Would you be interested in on speaking to our association about, you know, about what you're writing about? And I started doing that and loved it because it got back to what I love doing, you know, in the first place. And it's all about diversification. You know, I just spoke, I just interviewed a guy for because I write every week for the Philly Inquirer. It's a place called Jim's Stakes in Philadelphia. It's a very it's not Pat Stakes, but it's almost as famous. And it's on South Street. And I hold on there.

Speaker 1 19:44

Is it Steakhouse or is this cheese steaks?

Speaker 19:46

No, yeah, cheese stakes. Cheese cheese steaks, philly cheese steaks. And and and I've been going there. It was, it's, it's one block down from the place where the Rocky Horror picture show used to play at midnight when I was a kid. I used to go there and then drunkenly go to gym stakes at two in the morning when I was 15 years old, of course. And uh, so it's been an institution. Anyway, I spoke to the owner, I interviewed him for the Philly Inquire just last week about how he's dealing with rising costs and, you know, you know, you know, small business kind of stuff like that. And he said to me that he one of the things they've done is that they've just diversified into other revenue lines. Like they started selling chicken cheesesteaks, and that turned out to be profitable for them. And they started renting out their dining room for affairs, and they started doing catering as well, like other lines of revenue. And I learned that and I really stumbled into doing the same thing myself. Like I still run the Marx Group or technology company, and I love that. But I've got a really good director of projects, so he handles the day-to-day. And then like I I speak, so I make money from that. I do some corporate content work, like a you know, a podcast for paycheck. So I have like different streams of revenue coming in, you know what I mean, that has and it and I recommend that for everybody. I go, I do like uh a dozen or so consulting gigs a year. I'll go out to small companies and spend two or three days and then identify a bunch of places where they could save money and then you know, write it up and help them do it. And it's like, um, I don't know, man. It's just like it just like you've got your client base and that keeps you jumping because you've got different, you need to know different industries and different clients and whatever. For me, it's like different streams of revenue I've got coming in, like the guy from Jim Stakes. I'm finding more and more businesses, smart business owners that I meet over the time. They they all have that. They've all diversified that way. So long answer is a short question, but that's how all of that evolved.

Speaker 1 21:34

And how did you parlay that? You've got 115,000 followers, which in the B2B world is like, you know, Shakira level. I mean, it's it's fantastic. And that's on X alone. How how did you build that audience? Was it quick? Was it slowly over time? Is it still building?

Speaker 21:52

It's so it it goes back and forth. I to this because I I lose my gain and I lose my gain. So I one of them not paying as much attention to it. Honestly. I don't even know how many are bots, many are real people nowadays. Who can tell? Do you know what I mean? Yeah, especially on X. So I think X is great, by the way, but I just I don't know. I don't really trust it. LinkedIn is different. I mean, I've got 20,000 followers there, and that's I feel like that's very legit. Uh Facebook, I've got like almost half a million followers. I don't know if they're all bots. Yeah. And I don't know if they're all bots. So I just I post shit there, but I don't, I don't engage that much. Like my accounts are just like if you're a business owner and you want to be kept informed, follow me on X. And I'll, you know, all the stuff that I post there is what I'm writing. You know, I engage now and then. I don't get political. So it's just, it just evolved over time, but I don't think it's a what's the word for it? I mean, I don't want to be taken the right way, but like it's not a great community that I have. Like I it's not like we're we're some close. Some people have followings on Twitter or X, and you know, they get back and forth and they're engaged and they're, you know, a whole whatever. Me, it's just, I think I have a lot of business people that follow me just to stay up to date on, you know, energy. And I've tried it in the end. I I tried, you know, back in the day, I would post some controversial thing or something political. And then you can only you can only imagine uh the response you would get. And just like, you know what? I don't really want to get into fights with people. I'm just trying to help them with their taxes or their you know, cash flow or whatever technologies.

Speaker 1 23:18

It's gotten to the point where I I I read Facebook, but I almost never post on it. Just I yeah, I don't have the time to get upset.

Speaker 23:26

I have a personal account on Instagram. I follow a bunch of highly inappropriate accounts recommended by my sons, and I laugh my ass off. And uh, but I never post anything on Instagram, you know?

Speaker 1 23:37

And I never too old. Isn't there like a law that you have to be under 40?

unknown 23:41

Yeah.

Speaker 23:41

You would dang. It's I laugh. I love it. You know, I watch clips from shows and people doing stupid things, and like it's so fun. Sports things. And then you know what's so bad that when people ask to connect or follow me on Instagram, I never accept it because I'm like, I'm embarrassed for them to see who followed each other.

Speaker 1 23:58

Back to the many revenue streams. If let me see if I got this right. So you write for Forbes, you write for the Philly Inquirer, which was where it all started.

Speaker 24:07

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. I make no money from any of the places that I write for an unpaid contributor. Correct. So my model has always been rather than building up my own audience on you know, on Substack or YouTube or whatever, for the past 20 years, I just affiliated myself with brands and wrote for them. And you know, the pitch was you've got an experienced, good columnist, I'll write for you for nothing, but just leave me alone. You know, and my editors, I have editors at every one of those platforms, they're all great. And, you know, I submit and they pretty much just turn it around and publish it with, you know, I I get very few comments back. So it's it's been really, really good. And then those name recognitions get me speaking gigs. It was doing it. They pay. And then, oh, by the way, and then I, you know, they've also got me, I mean, about it's about once a month, maybe a little bit more. I go on TV. So you're like, I'm on Maria Border Room of a show this week, and I don't get paid for those appearances. I try to keep them non-political, you know, like even when it goes on Fox, there's an audience that likes Fox and that likes me or whatever. But I don't do the I don't just talk about business, you know what I mean? So but that that's unpaid as well. None of that's paid. It's just it gets me speaking gigs.

Speaker 1 25:21

That's and you're in Dallas right now, you're going to Atlanta later this week, and then you go home. But how many weeks a month, a year are you uh traveling?

Speaker 25:30

How many speeds I speak between 50 and 60 times a year? And but it's um some weeks I don't travel at all, and some weeks I'm away three, four nights. You know what I mean? My wife just retired so she can join me year and there. She's not with me in Dallas for understandable reasons. But last week I spoke at the um ready for this, the electric boat manufacturers association in Mystic, Connecticut. They are a division of general dynamics. I spoke to them about AI and they make the submarines. So I know you yeah. So you during the Iranian War, like for example, when the when when the submarine torpedoed the Iranian warship that was in the news, you know, at the time, they made that submarine. So they were like, you know, they loved it, you know, and and so it's a very fascinating audience to speak to. And yeah, and they're all like left and right and center, but they all are ex-military, they've all spent thousands of hours underseas, and uh, they all want to learn AI, you know what I mean? So that was my job. And we and we saw Mr. Connecticut, which was also a beautiful little town. So anyway, so let me answer a short question. About 50 to 60 times a year is how I travel, and it just kind of depends on where and what and I didn't do any of this until my kids were in high school. So I I started then, and then I could disappear for two nights, they didn't even know I was gone because they were in high school. You know what I mean? So it was easy to say.

Speaker 1 26:51

So you mentioned a couple of topics that I want to get into because I want your take on these, because again, you're you're really good at taking what's in the news, boiling it down. So, you know, when we met at at Epicor a year ago, talk was about tariffs. That's obviously still in the news today. And feel free to discuss it if you like. But there's two bigger topics. Uh the impact of AI, which we also were talking about last year, has has only gotten bigger and doesn't seem to be stopping. It's it's ruining software companies' uh market cap. And the impact on the workforce continues to be a is it good or is it bad, depending on what you do question. And then, of course, now there's the war in Iran, and I can tell you as a media relations person, and understandably so, since I think it's the biggest story since the pandemic. It is all anyone, including folks in tech, are writing about. So let's start with AI first. What's your current take on that? How's that affecting business? How's it affecting the economy? How's that affecting workers?

Speaker 27:49

So for years I've spoken about the economy, public policy, workplace, you know, all that kind of stuff. This all still remains important, but there will be no bigger impact on small and mid-sized businesses, which is my audience, than AI, you know, over the next five to seven years. So just short and quick about it. It's a pro it's it's productivity. I don't see it, I I don't know a single business owner, honestly, that is gonna replace employees with AI because we can't even find good people. You know, I mean, it is, you know, and that's only gonna get worse as the population ages, as immigration cuts down on available people, as businesses get more productive and expand. There's there's it's gonna get weird. The world and and by the way, the the the US population over the next hundred years is expected to decline as well. And yeah, decline. And and by the way, so is China and so is Europe. I mean, there's big population declines coming. AI could not have come at a better time. The Democrats are pointing to this. We need we're gonna have less people to do work and we're gonna need more automation, and that's exactly what AI does. Now I realize it could kill the planet, and I realize there's a Terminator story involved here that, you know, but everything in life is risks and rewards. And I think the risk of developing and expanding AI falls very short of what the rewards will be for using it. And I keep, you know, employees working at jobs, you got to learn this stuff. Because as an employer, people are like, well, what about the entry-level people, you know, and you're coming out of college? And I'm like, listen, I want to hire an entry-level person who understands whatever tools and technology using AI to do an entry-level job so I can bring them in as a manager. Do you know what I mean? Like, I, you know, I don't need you to be entry-level because entry level costs me money. I have to train you for three years, you know? So I need you to come in as if you're a three or four-year person and get to work. And the way that you can do that is by learning AI and making sure that you are you're that person who understands that technology. So I think some people will get that, some people won't. I mean, you know, there's just technology replaces people, but people will adapt, man. I'm telling you. I put when I did the CI presentation, I have this slide that shows at least 50 job titles that didn't even exist in 2006, you know, and then 20 years ago. DEI compliance manager and social media manager, you know, like all these different things are like if you said somebody in 2006, you showed me these job titles, you're like, what the hell is that? Meanwhile, there's tons of millions of people doing this stuff. So I'm I'm not as concerned about that. I think it's just a massive, massive opportunity and could not have come at a better time for businesses, but we have to learn it. And then my second point on AI, because businesses small and mid-sized say, I hear it, so that you know it's gonna change. I need to adopt it. What do I do? Where do I go? I'm like, just why don't you use what you already have? I mean, every business has Microsoft Office and every business has Google workspace. And yet, you know, admit it, Dave, even in your company, you guys are using 15% of what it does because everybody's running around. And like, you realize you own this stuff, you're paying for it. IOffice has co-pilot and Google is Gemini. And there's a ton of features. And I show this during my presentation. Let me show you this, let me show you this, let me show you this, let me show you this. You're not using this right now. Hire a Microsoft consultant for a couple grand, have them teach your team how to use this stuff. Not only will they be more productive and more profitable, but they'll be less terrified of AI. And they'll realize how valuable these things are to help them be a better person and a better employee. So I think that's what people need to be doing this year. I was just specifically to KPMG. KPMG is giving like cash rewards out now to their employees who learn AI. You know, other companies are investing heavily in training, big companies, you know? That's the key to it, is they need to learn how to use these tools. Don't run away from them. Anyway, that's a great speech.

Speaker 1 31:33

Do I just one quick check? Do I want to know why the theory is that the population is going to decline? Is it that people are going to move somewhere or there's going to be less humans?

Speaker 31:43

Less humans. I'll give you a uh there's a demographic decrease that is projected to happen right now. The birth rate in the US and Europe is declining substantially. And uh, there's a lot of demographic reasons why. I can send you a link to I just, you know, Elon Musk was just interviewed about that because he's been talking about this for years. And there will be, you know, less people to do more work over the So it's not like anyone's predicting a massive pandemic. Not that. Although those things could be literally birth-free selected. It could.

Speaker 1 32:13

Alien pandemic.

Speaker 32:14

It could. So AI could not have come to bad in time.

Speaker 1 32:16

Speaking of happy, uh, happy uh topics. The war with Iran, this seems to be a little bit different than some of the other wars we've had, even in the region. As with similarly, it's affecting the economy, it's affecting oil prices. Uh, gas out here is already six bucks a gallon. And granted, gas in California is already in the $5, but it's soaring. Markets are a mess. And there's this inescapable connection between AI and this war, the anthropic dod news, drones, which you know, use AI. How are you advising your clients just in general, either as from an AI perspective or just a just how do you get through this? I mean, you're at an energy conference right now, right? So how how do you how do you how are you how are you advising?

Speaker 33:00

Yeah, these guys are thrilled, by the way, because all they're they they do, you know, uh equipment for oil and gas. There's gonna be a lot of revival equipment. So yeah, they're loving it. I mean, the higher the energy prices go, the more you know, business is gonna be for them, and these guys can expand and all that. I gotta tell you, Dave, and this is just a personal personal thing. I I I can't really talk about the Iranian war because it's too personal for me. I am, you know, I'm Jewish, you know, and I have family that's in Israel. I said that when I spoke to the people, and by the way, for whatever your listeners, you can agree or disagree, and I understand that. But when I spoke to the people at the submarine group, you know, you know, I th I never do this, but I thanked them at the end of my presentation because I said because of you know the weapons that you provide, you are making the world safer for us as Jews, you know what I mean. So as a Jewish person, I look at the war and I'm like, I realize there's a price to pay. I I I get it. And I, besides, God forbid, you know, American lives, but also just the economic costs. But, you know, if I I feel that this is a regime that wants to kill me and my family, let alone do other horrible and obscene things to people like me. And how can I not support a war that is aiming to eliminate that regime? You know what I mean? And because of my personal feelings, it gets in the way of my business advice.

Speaker 1 34:19

No, you know what I mean. I think it's uh I lead away. Does that make sense? That's that's smart. I'm uh, as I think we've discussed, I raised Catholic, but I'm a converted Jew. My wife's Jewish, my children are Jewish, and uh what you just described is uh some of the things we've been talking about at the dinner table.

Speaker 34:35

It's tough. I mean, they uh, you know, that that regime wants to kill you and your children and your family. They they would like to see you dead. And they that and that that it goes beyond the unspeakable things that they have funded and support that happened, say on October 7th, that could happen to your children, you know. So I I just feel like if there's if if if there's some movement to remove that regime from the world, how can I not support that as a Jewish person? And that's where I sort of had that conversation.

Speaker 1 35:03

Talk to you about no good segue there, but let's just go back to AI. So the talking about AI in your business, how are you using it both at the Marx group and as an influencer?

Speaker 35:12

I'm gonna tell you right now, first of all, there's a little bit of practicality today, and way do you it is unbelievable the impact it's gonna have on my business the next couple of years, but and this is an epicorp conversation, but first of all, practicality today. I use it to do policies and I use it to you know help with you know create memos. I don't use lawyers as much. I have a draft up agreements for me, and then I have lawyers review it for me. All that is good in my personal life. I've used it to analyze my investments. Chat GPT helped me lose 20 pounds. I was getting a little bit putting a little weight on my wife was like, You're getting a little bit fat. I went to ChatGPT and said I want to lose 20 pounds, and then by the end of the year, this is in October, and it set the goals for me, coached me eight to ten times like a lunatic. I'm talking to ChatGPT every day. I want to eat this, I'm gonna exercise here, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna whatever. It's calculating it all for me. It's saying, do this, don't do that. If you keep doing this, you'll hit your target by this day. So from a personal level, I was 156 pounds in the middle of October, and I'm now 135 pounds, five five. So that's chat GPT. I mean, so all that, okay. So it from that personal level, it's good. When I write, it is unbelievable time savings. Like I'll interview four people for an for an for an article that I'm writing, and I upload it all to Chat GPT and say summarize it, give me the takeaways and the quotes for me that I can use, and then it does that. And then I can sit there and write my piece and refer to what Chat GPT gave me. It would just save me time. That would have taken me, you know, you know, an hour or two to do to read through all the transcripts, just does it for me in minutes. So that's practical uses today, but I gotta tell you, Dave, you mentioned earlier about the software companies taking a hit. So, you know, we sell Zoho and we sell Microsoft Dynamics and we sell Salesforce and we sell HubSpot, you know, in 2026. That's what we're doing. I don't know how much of that we're gonna be doing, man, in 2028 or 2029. I think we're gonna be going out to prospective clients, small and mid-sized businesses, and they're like, hey, we want a CRM system that also does order entry and manages our time in this way. And we'll be like, that's cool, we'll build it for you. We got Claude, we'll just tell it what we needed to do, and then we'll implement it and then we'll make changes. Could our clients do that themselves? Yeah, they really can. They won't because they're roofers and landscapers and business, they got their own thing to worry about. They'll hire us to do it. And I think my company is gonna be completely different in the next two to three years. I will no longer have to be a slave to the software companies, earning little tiny margins on the products that we sell and dealing with their, you know, you need to hit this quota, or you need to be doing this, or we're changing our partner program for the 800th time this year. I don't think I have to be dealing with that that much going forward. I think we're gonna be in the driver's seat. And on the downside, it's not downside, downside, but I think there'll be a lot of competition. I think there's gonna be a lot of developers out there doing the exact same thing because there's 30 million small businesses and they all want their own unique systems and they don't wanna they don't want to pay as much, you know, from the big you know software giants of the world. And I know I'm not alone because Wall Street recognized that. Yeah, they sure do. And that's why those companies took a hit. Yeah. So I am excited personally about the future using AI as something that's gonna completely change my life.

Speaker 1 38:30

That was fun. I always finish with a very similarly last question. Now, you I believe have lived, even though you've been all over the world, you have lived in or near Philadelphia your entire life. Am I right?

Speaker 38:41

True. My wife is from London, so we go there half a dozen times.

Speaker 1 38:44

So normally I say city X, City Y, or City Z. So if not Philadelphia, my well-traveled friend, where would you live?

Speaker 38:50

London. Yeah, we have this conversation all the time. And my wife would never, she is no religion living in England. Yeah. She has no, it's I think it's an English thing, but I've been to a lot of different cities. My third choice would be Stockholm, Sweden. We we spent a month there and loved it. But I think London is it's my favorite city in the world. It is manageable, it's relatively safe, it's the center of the universe, it's civilized and cultured and massive, beautiful. It's great. And that's another example of like a kind like I met her in 1984 when I studied. I was at the London School of Economics studying, and I met her there, but it's a different city than it was from 1984. I mean, it's for the better. It looks amazing.

Speaker 1 39:35

Oh my gosh, I can't say because this is the argument my wife and I have been having as we get closer to retirement. Like, where where where are we gonna retire? And let's just say we disagree. I I I like the water a lot, having grown up on Cape Cod and having living in the Bay Area. So it would be a coast. It would probably be a beach. I'll leave it at that because uh my wife does listen to this show. I think you do. Hi, honey. So I don't want to start another uh argument when this call.

Speaker 40:01

No, you're no one's wrong.

Speaker 1 40:02

Well, you know, I I disagree. But but um uh deserts in particular, I'm not a big fan of.

Speaker 40:07

But me neither. I'm not a desert guy either. I get it, people like to retire to Arizona or Sedona and you know, whatever, but it doesn't think it's a little to go outside without dying of a heart attack.

Speaker 1 40:17

Uh on that sunny note, Gene, thank you so much. It was exactly what I expected. It was a fun, brisk conversation. It's amazing that 45 minutes went by that fast. You are fantastic, my friend. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Speaker 40:29

Yep, have a great time.

Speaker 1 40:30

I'd like to thank you all for listening today, and once again, a big thank you to Gene Marks of the Marks Group. Don't forget to join us next month when we chat with yet another member of the B2B Tech Top 200. In the meantime, if you've got feedback on today's podcast, or if you'd like to learn more about Big Valley marketing and how we identified the B2B Tech Top 200, be sure to drop me an email at d ready at bigvalley.co. That's D-R-E-D-D-Y at Big Valley, all one word.co. No M. You can also email the whole team at pressingmatters at bigvalley.co. Once again, thanks for listening. And as always, think big.