Owwll Podcast

EP:28 - Entrepreneur Inspiration - Business Relationships with Michele Bellisari

September 25, 2023 Owwll App/Jason Hill Season 1 Episode 28
Owwll Podcast
EP:28 - Entrepreneur Inspiration - Business Relationships with Michele Bellisari
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Join us as we go behind the scenes with Michele Bellisari, a seasoned real estate agent, blogger, and public speaker in this high-energy episode. Michelle shares her secret sauce - leveraging her network to expand her real estate venture, develop her blog, and grow her public speaking engagements. She also offers valuable advice on making conversations meaningful and keeping your clients loyal. Come along as she takes us through her unique branding strategies that have attracted new clients and collaborations. And get the inside scoop on how her  "Sooo Boca" multi-media brand came to be!

In the second half of our chat, we shift gears to explore the power of one-on-one conversations with Chella, a maven in empowering women entrepreneurs. Learn how meaningful engagements can allow you to raise the bar and even demand higher pay for speaking gigs. We also emphasize the importance of keeping in touch with past clients, because who knows where a simple hello can lead? We wrap up the episode with Daniel Hall, sharing his experience with the Owwll podcast platform. Prepare to unlock the power of relationships for business growth and step up your networking game in this insightful episode!



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0:00:15 - Speaker 1
Right, so even staying in touch, I know there's like well, how is that going to put more money in my pocket? Will is going to keep more money in your pocket because if you're constantly on top of mine, they're going to send referrals your way. 

0:00:31 - Speaker 2
Welcome to another episode on the Owwll podcast. So every week we come to you with some of the best experts all across the United States sharing how they build relationships for their business and how important that is. Of course, I'm joined here with my cohost, Danielle Santilli. You know this is your first time tuning in. You catch it on all the podcast apps, of course, and we are booked out like two months right now. Danielle, it's crazy. You know things are heating up. 

Once we got to like 20 episodes, you know, people started to realize like how cool it is that we're running this podcast locally in a studio down here in Boca Raton, Florida. I'm excited about our guests because I'm not with her two years ago and we talked about podcasting for a while and we haven't reconnected since and she does so much down here in South Florida. She runs blogs, she runs podcasts, she, she does stuff in real estate. She's well known in the real estate industry. Alot of places bring her in as a public speaker. So, Michele, welcome to the Owwll podcast. It's nice, probably, being on the other side. Right, I know? 

0:01:27 - Speaker 4
or change your own doing the interviewing, so it's kind of scary and nice at the same time. 

0:01:33 - Speaker 2
Sure, so I guess you know. So I don't badger your last name. Can you tell everyone your full name? It's. 

0:01:39 - Speaker 4
Bellisari 

0:01:40 - Speaker 2
Cool. 

0:01:40 - Speaker 4
As my husband says. I wish it was Bellisario, we really rich. I'm like yeah, well, it's not a Magnum PI, all the good shows. 

0:01:50 - Speaker 2
Well, let's kick things off by telling everyone what, what do you do, what's your expertise? And then we're going to jump into how you monetize your expertise with your network. 

0:01:57 - Speaker 4
Okay, thank you so much for having me on. I'm very excited and I love seeing the growth that you've had with this, because I remember when you first started talking about it yeah, and we met on clubhouse, which is an audio app that kind of came to fruition like around COVID. I'm still on that app and I know I see you occasionally on there, but the network that many of us grew has been fantastic. First and foremost, I am a real estate agent here in beautiful Boca Raton and sunny South Florida with real broker LLC. I have been in real estate, as I say, for 20 years and you know the market's been high, low, interesting, and so we have a great market in South Florida, which is fantastic. I've been in Boca for over 45 years now. I came here from Canada and raised my family here in 2018. I started a blog called hashtag, so Boca lifestyle, and many of you follow me on the gram and picked an excellent one, of course. 

Yeah right, that's awesome, it's fantastic and I have a lot of fun with it. It started as a whim and now it's actually turned into a business that attracts clients to me on the real estate side, and then we monetize it and have a lot of fun with it. We have a podcast that rebranded recently called the sunshine state dish, powered by so Boca, and so that's going to be back in the forefront. And I do, as you said, public speaking. I'm a coach, so I teach and train real estate agents about real estate niches. Along with I have a podcast called the real estate reinvention podcast and that's specifically for real estate agents. 

0:03:33 - Speaker 2
And how many podcast episodes have you done? Have you been those? 

0:03:37 - Speaker 4
on real estate reinvention just dropped episode 104?. 

0:03:41 - Speaker 2
Congrats. 

0:03:41 - Speaker 4
Thank you. And it was very specific to 50 plus a woman in real estate, because I just had a big birthday and I am now 61. So in talking about the pros and cons of being a certain age in real estate and any business, and then on the Sunshine State dish podcast, I think I have like 63, but that's kind of been a little all over the place, whereas I'm reining that in now. 

0:04:06 - Speaker 2
Cool. Well, let's dive deeper into rich relationships. That's what the Owwll platform is all about. It wasn't all about that in the early days, right, it was all about getting advice, taking advice. And then we realized real quick it was like no, it was always designed for for, for building relationships. So we just shifted gears. You know, with with words, but the app hasn't changed, of course. But when we look at everything that you just mentioned, you wouldn't be here today. You know, at all these different levels almost 200 shows, podcasts and getting speaking agents If it wasn't for a showing up and also building awesome, awesome relationships. You know like we did. You know when we went to eat and you just text me hey, let's get together and let's get together. 

You know, we know we could do good things together Exactly, so explain the power of these relationships and how it's gotten you to where you are today. 

0:04:52 - Speaker 4
Quite frankly, business is about relationships. It's not about the transaction, it's not about the sale. It's about building rapport, building relationships with people that you meet. We had a great conversation, for example, this morning on clubhouse and my good friend, ginger Walker, was talking about being a target and just having a conversation with a lady in line. They both have the same dress. They swapped the dress because she wanted pink and the other lady wanted the black dress and it turns out the ladies got a listing and often running they go. 

It's as simple as that is building the rapport and not being salesy. So, as I like to say to real estate agents, I'm a marketer first and I happen to sell real estate, so I want to find out about you, I want to find out about the people that I'm in rooms with. I believe that networking is very underrated and all business owners can get better at it, whether it's in person or online. And I think we have found in particular like with the clubhouse app, which is strictly audio, came out like during the time of COVID that we have built great relationships from that, that we've taken from the online to the offline right, which is great. 

0:06:04 - Speaker 2
Well, they don't teach how to network in college and they don't. They don't teach it almost you know jobs. Unfortunately, they just say here's the sales manuals, closed, right. But when you look at the best sales representatives at most companies, it comes back to you know the networking aspect, how they do it and how they go to do an in-person scenario and then turn turn into one-on-one meeting and then turn into an opportunity. And that's no different than clubhouse, right, or? 

out at the end of the day, because everyone would go into clubhouse and then expect people to just knock on their door and things would flow to their core business. And I'm like no, I was like you have to message them, you have to get on a zoom meeting one-on-one, you have to make shit happen at the end of the day, like you and I did, like you message me, like let's get together in Boko. And then I'm like let's do it, yeah. 

0:06:48 - Speaker 4
And you just never know where it's going to lead. And that's why, like I, have kids who are millennials, young adults, and we talk about that, and they're both really good at networking. I like to think that I've had a little bit to do with that. I've made introductions for them, they've made introductions for me. As I said in my most recent podcast, I look at my millennial so I'm like who can I tap into in their network? Right For the businesses that they have, because that's all right. And vice versa, because at some point real estate is going to happen, whether you're a first time home buyer, whether you inherit property, whether you're an investor, and so it's the top of the conversation regardless. 

I love talking about it, but let's face it, it's a snooze fest. You don't want to start the conversation with that and shove your card in someone's face. So, and there are ways to build those relationships, whether you have a client party or you do nice little gifting things or like. One of the things I love to do is, um, I have it in my phone and it's a digital Starbucks card that I created on Canva, which is a graphic app, and I send it out for different things, whether I've had a great conversation with somebody and I'm like hey, you know, thanks for talking to me today, or thanks for the referral, or whatever it is, because it's a nice way to end a conversation, but it's also a way to tee up the relationship. 

0:08:11 - Speaker 2
It's interesting you say that to so often. You know people have meetings and then they, everyone just goes their separate ways. But the simplest thing is, you know, an email, a text. But of course we're going to step further. A thank you card yes, right, and what you just mentioned $5 Starbucks card is a card. It means the world to them. You know, I, I see this over and over. You know, when we do this in my other business, financial services, we'll just like, hey, thanks for their referral, here's a cup of coffee on me, something simple, and they're like no one's ever done that to me and it means the world. And I got to get credit to my co-host over here. We were running the shrimp tank. I was like you got to meet this individual because he's got a big event coming up and a lot of people don't do anything when you say that, right, and y'all was like I'm going to be there. She came to the shrimp tank, but ready, but, but then a lot of people, it just ends there. 

Really like, oh well, he has an event. He didn't ask me, right. And I was like Danielle, he's going to be the future expert now. And then what was really cool is Danielle can tell the story better than me. But she just said a week later like, oh yeah, I'm singing on that event. I was like what happened? 

0:09:13 - Speaker 4
Like. 

0:09:13 - Speaker 2
I saw him on now. I caught him immediately. We chatted, you know, and, and you know and I have an opportunity, can you tell the story in more detail? 

0:09:20 - Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean, that was pretty much it. I I had emailed him right after the cause. I'm a songwriter, right, so I've already am like you have to sell yourself. You have to be your own business. I get all my own gigs, like I do. I'm used to this kind of thing, so I'm used to the nose as well. 

So, like you get a lot of nose and then sometimes you have to call, you know they say what is it like seven pieces of outreach or something, um, so I emailed him, didn't hear anything back, and then I saw, oh my gosh, she's live on Owwll, let me just like give him a call right now. And I was his first call on Owwll. And then he's like oh, I meant to email you back, like we have one spot left for the event, like we'd love to have you. So it just worked out. And he even gave us, gave me, some ideas for how to make the app better, which I let Jason know about. So it really is, yeah, just about making that little extra effort. Um, and I'm curious, just as you're talking as well, we're talking a lot about real estate, but your brand and your like Instagram page and the whole so Boca idea, um, where did that come from? 

0:10:29 - Speaker 4
And yeah, I'm just very curious Cause I want the professional version. 

0:10:33 - Speaker 2
No cause, I love like the tank and the brand. Owwll pockets, anything goes. 

0:10:37 - Speaker 4
Yeah. So 2017 is driving along and somebody cut me off Shocker in Boca driving, and I called Kylie, my oldest daughter, and I said, some asshole cut me off, that's so Boca. And she says, mom, that is awesome, you need to run with that. And so I looked around and I was like, well, let me add like, so, like Boca to it, and then I add the hashtag to it. I did get it trademarked. Yeah, so that's the the fun version Cause. Honestly, I think it's very relatable cause. It can be fun, it can be sarcastic, it can be like, just you know, so Boca, and um, I love where I live. 

0:11:18 - Speaker 2
Sounds like Jerry Seinfeld. 

0:11:21 - Speaker 4
But I love where I live and I love showcasing our city. It's really a fantastic city. South Florida is fantastic. And so as I grew, the brand and it morphed and I actually started taking it seriously, cause it was not intentional yeah, it was the most unintentional thing I think I've ever done. And yet I have a full blog now and I have the podcast and it has attracted business to me. When I'm in the clubhouse rooms have the people just call me so Boca. Then I'm calling me Michele. My friend, glenda Baker who is amazing, you know said somewhere recently at a Tom Perry bench, cause I don't even think I know Michele's last name, I just know her, so Boca. 

Michele, so Boca she did, but it was just it's. It's. It's very recognizable now and I've, you know, I've got swag and I've got hats and T-shirts and cups and stuff and we just rebranded and refreshed the website so it's easier to search and whatnot. But that's what I've done with it. It has a little bit of real estate on there, but that was never the intention and I literally launched it on Instagram. So I've done some brag collaborations and I work with some different PR companies and hopefully now with the refresh, we're going to move it forward with more. And I am and, uh, you know, at the age that I am there's certain products and brands that I think would work really well for what we've put out there. 

0:12:47 - Speaker 2
Of course, what's cool when it comes to, you know, professionals like yourself, where one relationship can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obviously that that's a very big mansion in Boga, but it happens all the time. Yeah, ten million dollar home, 3% commission, $100,000, right, and all it takes is like you happen to bump into them on our on a 10 minute call, and then also when you're meeting you know at a local restaurant, and then before you know it, they're like hey, actually after selling my property, yeah, right. 

0:13:17 - Speaker 4
Or relocate here because we are big relocation. Uh scenario with Brightline and our no-state income tax. Sure, very business friendly, weather friendly, so yeah, so we'll get the relocation people too, who are on Owwll, who are like I need a second home. 

0:13:35 - Speaker 2
Of course, yeah. So let's dive deeper into the typical real estate agent that comes over at a network event, says you know, here's my card, I'm in real estate. And we all kind of roll our eyes Like there's, you know, 30 people in the room and 20 of them and at least five to seven real estate agents at a lot of these networking events yeah, and you know, of course, then it's we, we. You know exactly where I'm going with this. Then if you do give them your car, then you get an email the next day or on their newsletter it has to be on it, but you're not like that, right? You? You realize like, no, like all these folks are doing it wrong, right, and you actually educate other real estate professionals on how to do it right. So can you break down that process a little deeper of how you brand yourself at a networking event, in person, let's say, and then how you then convert things over at some point to your occupation, right? 

0:14:25 - Speaker 4
And well, typically, I want to know about you. Sure I want to know about your business. What are, what are you doing here tonight? Tell me a little bit about what your business is Like. I'm not going to jump in and say, hey, Michele B, I'm with real broker and I'm hashtag soboka, because that's obnoxious. I really do want to hear about what your business is what you're doing? 

How? Why are you at this networking event? Who do you know here? Well, that's cool, like and start the conversation as you would with a friend right Versus coming at it as a business person. And the other thing is, you know, I have a digital business card now, which is kind of nice, so I have something called blink, which is great. So I don't even like carry a ton of cards with me anymore so that I can actually say, hey, may, may I send you my information? Plus, then, if you respond, you can send me your contact information. So it's a real win-win. But I think it's just old school at this point, and even at conferences, you just go here's my card and I'm like okay, like, what am I doing with this card? You know, like, talk to me, yeah. 

0:15:30 - Speaker 2
I hate business cards, so I'm all in the garbage. It's just like nothing happens. I do get someone a business card, you know if you, if you looked at a hundred cards you've given away, how many actually respond back to you, right? 

0:15:42 - Speaker 4
Oh yeah. 

0:15:42 - Speaker 2
No one to three, probably max. And when you look at it the other way, if you just said, hey, you know, let's, let's connect, I'm going to send you a message right now on LinkedIn or Instagram or just ask for their cell phone number. I'll see you, I'll just don't ask. 

0:15:52 - Speaker 4
That's why the digital card is so great because you can literally text them, they can respond and now you've got the exchange with all of your social media channels and, quite frankly, I think one of the best places to network is on Instagram through the DM. Like Gary Vee says, the gold is in the direct messages, and so don't spam people, but that's where you start the conversations and that's where people will reach out to you, and I think, not just agents, but also entrepreneurs and business owners. Don't always leverage that, of course, the way that they really could, Danielle does a neat trick to use the audio Right. 

0:16:32 - Speaker 2
Yeah. 

0:16:33 - Speaker 3
So I'm just like hey, so the fish is more personal and they're not like is this a bot? Like, especially from our Owwll account. I want them to know that it's a real person behind the account. So yeah, and that really helps. 

0:16:45 - Speaker 4
Oh, big time, you know. One of the other things I was going to mention too is, if you're going to go to network and events, know why you're going and know who you want to talk to before you go. Usually you can kind of get a feel who's going. I go with the intention of oh, there's three people I really want to connect with. I don't care about the rest, I just. I go with purpose, I'm in, I'm out and I do a quick exit so I may stay an hour and then I'm gone. I don't stay for two or three hours, you know, because you burn out on that. 

0:17:11 - Speaker 2
You do you get a high when you're there and then a week goes by and you're like what was the point? 

0:17:17 - Speaker 3
Yeah, talk about. 

0:17:19 - Speaker 2
I think that conventions, right, you go to these conventions and and you walk away. You know so excited, they're all going to use Owwll, they're all going to do. And then and then, no, they didn't even get past the. The downloaded but they didn't sign up. That doesn't help much. 

0:17:32 - Speaker 4
Well, and and something else to think about, and I'm heard this up, can't take credit for it, but when you are at events, maybe you're not going to be buying or selling real estate. Now we've made a connection and now we may be in each other sphere. So when we're in each other sphere, I don't know who, you know who's going to want to buy or sell. So it makes sense to stay in the referral side. Stay in that circle, like build your circles out, yeah. 

0:18:03 - Speaker 2
Which is great about connecting on Instagram. Linkedin is cause, once you get them in the funnel at some point, something you put out, especially, you know, yourself or myself, when we're always posting a lot, eventually something's going to trigger them and and they're in that that roller dex, of course. And I will say, you know it's hard for folks like Danielle, who are musicians at events all the time, because they want her cell phone and they want her social media and sometimes it's not so comfortable. So can you share how Owwll actually plays an important role of you know, having boundaries so people don't have your cell phone number? 

0:18:37 - Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious. You just said you know, like I don't want to give out my personal number to everybody and have people calling me all the time, and with Owwll I can set when I'm online, right, so people aren't calling me all times of the day. If I'm in the mood to talk to fans or people, I can set that they won't get my personal information, um, but I can still have that interaction with them and you can. Even if someone is inappropriate, you can even report them. I was showing you this earlier. You can report them on the app, give them a rating when the phone call is over so that it's safe, and they're our high quality people always using the app. So that's awesome, yeah, yeah. 

0:19:19 - Speaker 2
We got to get you to close out your clubhouse rooms and leave 30 minutes at the end and say anyone who found value in the clubhouse room. You know, you could, you know pay for one-on-one advice right over on Owwll right I love it. We're speaking engagements, because so often it's like that's when they have their questions. 

0:19:36 - Speaker 4
Yes. 

0:19:36 - Speaker 2
And they are nervous in front of a big audience sometimes get up on stage to speak. But if it's one-on-one, not being recorded, too many things are recorded. Today, right, all the podcast, all these live events are live streamed. Clubhouse is recorded, especially personal issues. Right, if they're able to just get on a one-on-one call with you. Yeah, say, hey. I know that. You know I didn't want to ask in front of the group. 

Yeah, I didn't want to sound stupid, but I'm running a podcast. I know you know how to do this online. You know, do you stream yard? You'd use this software and then they just get to know you one-on-one. So I think there's a huge play there for you. 

0:20:06 - Speaker 4
I think so too yeah. 

0:20:07 - Speaker 2
Well, just, but doing it as a tool, if used wisely, right at the end of a room or speaking engagement and then final or zoom in. 

0:20:15 - Speaker 4
Absolutely Like. The CTA called to action. Right, Because people are looking for that kind of connection. And you're right, Not everybody. People are shy by nature and not. There's no stupid question, but people do get worried about that and they don't want to sound stupid. And you don't, because we've all been there. We all ask questions, like I mean clubhouse, every day, and we all ask questions. 

0:20:45 - Speaker 2
Yeah. 

0:20:45 - Speaker 4
And you would think like oh yeah, we no, there's always a different not everybody is like you and me, so outgoing You're exactly, I was in the financial services business, my whole life. 

0:20:54 - Speaker 2
It was just like we got hundreds of knows to build up that confidence, where there's so many introverts that are sitting in the background on clubhouse just listening and listening and they feel way more comfortable one-on-one. And we're seeing such value on Owwll through those professionals that feel more comfortable. 

0:21:09 - Speaker 4
I love it. So what we're? 

0:21:09 - Speaker 2
going to do is have some fun right now. Cool, we're going to go onto the Owwll platform. 

0:21:14 - Speaker 4
Okay, and. 

0:21:14 - Speaker 2
Elle's going to search for some experts that are currently live. All right. She's going to give them a ring and they're going to be patched into the Owwll podcast. Coolio From the fewest you know podcast or platforms that has this type of technology, where we get crystal clear audio from these folks all across the United. 

0:21:28 - Speaker 3
States, call it right now. 

0:21:30 - Speaker 2
We're calling who we call it. Hey, Chela, you are on the Owwll podcast. How are you doing today? 

0:21:36 - Speaker 1
Marvelous. 

0:21:37 - Speaker 2
Marvelous, marvelous, marvelous. So Michele is to my left here. You spoke to us right before the podcast aired. But tell, can you tell everyone what is your expertise? And then Michele's going to ask you a question about it. 

0:21:50 - Speaker 1
Oh, my goodness, I would love to. My area of expertise is empowering women entrepreneurs to increase their feet. 

0:22:00 - Speaker 2
Oh, this is a perfect one. 

0:22:02 - Speaker 4
Oh, wow, that's really good. Okay so, chela, I love that name. I just want to say Chela. 

0:22:07 - Speaker 3
I know. 

0:22:08 - Speaker 4
I just did a podcast about 50 plus year old women in real estate. How can a seasoned agent, a seasoned entrepreneur like myself raise the bar and get paid more money for speaking gigs and things like that? 

0:22:28 - Speaker 1
Perfect. Oh my goodness, you know what it's going to seem like. We planned this and we didn't talk about this. But I was a real estate underwriter for 15 years, oh wow. And then I was an account executive for five. There you go. 

0:22:43 - Speaker 2
See the power of just calling someone on the blues. 

0:22:47 - Speaker 4
That's the power of Al I know I feel like I'm on the psychic network. 

0:22:52 - Speaker 1
I have a program out there that I did in conjunction with somebody else, oh cool. So what's one good takeaway? Well, one good takeaway is and I know this from personal experience is we have got to stay in touch with our prior clients. The first, because you never know who. They may know the needs a refi, the needs of purchase, they need something. And I can speak for the very first two homes that I purchased. I never heard back from my realtors. So when I went to go buy my third property, there were nowhere to be found, right? So even staying in touch, I know there's like well, how is that going to put more money in my pocket? Well, it's going to keep more money in your pocket because if you're constantly on top of mine, they're going to send referrals your way. 

0:23:41 - Speaker 3
Yeah, Love it. 

0:23:42 - Speaker 1
And that's the magic. 

0:23:43 - Speaker 3
Thank you so much Okay. 

0:23:45 - Speaker 4
And this is one thing that we've been talking about at Real Broker, which I made a move there in 2021. It's fantastic, cloud-based and just especially for agents that are like a midlife style agent, because that's who follows me. It's just been the most fantastic move I've made in my real estate career. That's great. 

But we're not calling them past clients anymore. So she hit the nail on the head like past is kind of like they're not dead. Right, Well, some might be, but most are not. So we want to like keep it positive, and so she nailed it with that. 

0:24:17 - Speaker 3
You guys will have to talk further on Owwll. 

0:24:20 - Speaker 2
And Michele leaves our studio. We are going to make sure she calls you on her drive home. 

0:24:25 - Speaker 4
There you go, Be live. 

0:24:27 - Speaker 2
Chella Next two hours. I would love that. I would absolutely love that. I appreciate the call so much, so much. 

0:24:33 - Speaker 1
I definitely look forward to speaking with you, Thank you. 

0:24:36 - Speaker 4
Chella. 

0:24:37 - Speaker 2
Chella, thanks for joining us on the Owwll podcast today my pleasure. We're going to call one more person. Go for Daniel Hall. Hey, Daniel Hall, how are you doing today? I'm doing remarkable. You, Daniel. You are live on the Owwll podcast. We are going to pick your. 

0:24:53 - Speaker 5
Now how cool is that it is so cool it is pretty cool. 

0:24:56 - Speaker 2
So to start things out, daniel, can you tell our audience what is your expertise? 

0:25:00 - Speaker 5
First, and foremost, I am a 45 year tech veteran. I'm also a award winning foster and adoptive parent remarkable children, all with various needs and I've trained over 400 inbound foster and adoptive families on the good, the bad and the ugly of not only growing up in foster care myself but, you know, being part of that foster and adoptive community. 

0:25:28 - Speaker 2
Okay. Well, Michele is going to ask you a question after hearing that. 

0:25:33 - Speaker 4
So my it's going to be a two point question, which is if someone was interested in becoming a foster parent I'm not sure what state you're in, but I'm sure there's different rules and regulations what would be something that would be the most valuable tip for that person in order to get the ball rolling? 

0:25:52 - Speaker 5
I'm in Maryland, and so the best thing to do is to reach out to your local county level, where you're at, and check with your local DSS or whatever if it's children's and families, whatever your local social services department is and see what the requirement is to becoming a foster and adoptive parent, because you're going to have to go through some kind of training. You have to have a certain number of hours under your belt before you can even begin to adopt. Even when you go to these websites like Adoptus Kids or anything like that, you still have to go through that training. So that's a great way to get started and you know, al is a great platform for it as well, because you can find other people that are working with kids with special needs on the platform, like autism. I know myself we work with autism and reactive attachment disorder, did, which is like multiple personalities. So Al is definitely a great place to start on that as well, but definitely your local social services to see what the requirements are. So you have a tech background. 

0:27:06 - Speaker 4
How does that fold into what you're doing on the foster side? I'm curious how you blend that together. 

0:27:15 - Speaker 2
Okay, that's a great question, that's a great question. 

0:27:18 - Speaker 5
Yeah, I put my podcast host hat on. 

Well, it's like this For me. I've been developing software for you know, like I said, for over 45 years. I started when I was eight years old and the hook here is my mom. I grew up in Vermont. My mom would drop me off at the local library in Castleton, Vermont, where I grew up, and she would go to her church function and we had friends at the library and I would go in there and use their computers and she would cheerlead me like I would come home with these great, big, huge rings of paper oh my God, Dan, these are so good, these are so good. She would be bored off her ass and just cheerlead me. So that puts such a positivity thing in for me. And I grew up in a very abusive home before that, before the halls saved me. So software development has become my balance. So I can have the crappiest day or the most outrageous day with the fam and I know the next day I'm going to be doing fine because I'm going to be doing something that I absolutely love to do. But the other hook here is my wife, and our kids are my biggest teachers. 

I had absolutely zero to talk about growing up as a techie If I was in a networking event. All I could do is talk about tech. I had no idea what else to talk about. Now it's oh my gosh, I got so much to talk about with you know, just the kids, and they become my biggest teachers. And my wife has this she's rewired my brain when we talk about tech. Well, she's rewired my brain to listen with more than just my ears to what their needs are, and that's kind of how the tie into tech is, and it's just such an amazing journey. It has been such an amazing journey. They've saved my life. 

0:29:24 - Speaker 4
That's an amazing story. Thank you for sharing that. 

0:29:27 - Speaker 3
Yeah thank you. 

0:29:28 - Speaker 5
You're welcome. 

0:29:29 - Speaker 2
Daniel, thank you for joining us on the Owwll podcast and everyone listening. Daniel created some cool technology for Owwll itself, so if you wanna be able to download all your reviews from the Owwll platform in a Excel spreadsheet, reach out to Daniel. He's all over Owwll. Just call him. He's $1. And then he'll provide you his email and also he can provide you a template that he used on his LinkedIn and showcase the people who have left you positive reviews on the whole platform. That's something that clubhouse does not do. 

0:29:57 - Speaker 4
No. 

0:29:58 - Speaker 2
And people are just missing the boat. You have all these reviews on Owwll. It's like go take them and list the CEO that listed. You know what they wrote about you and then posted on socials and we're like, oh, that's what I know, that individual, and they said that about Michele. Right, so it's very powerful. So, daniel, thank you. We appreciate you for joining the Owwll podcast today. 

0:30:17 - Speaker 5
Thank you guys so much for taking time out of your life to spend it with me. That's priceless. 

0:30:21 - Speaker 2
Absolutely, absolutely. We'll make sure that you two connect. She'll is driving home later today and she's gonna give you a ring, of course. 

0:30:28 - Speaker 4
He's stacked with call. 

0:30:29 - Speaker 2
Just two, she'll have a ring. Awesome. Thank you so much. Take care, Daniel. Thanks, Okay. 

0:30:34 - Speaker 4
Take care. 

0:30:35 - Speaker 2
Well, this has been an awesome episode here on the Owwll podcast. I think you see the power. I know you're new to the platform, you know, and now you see like the power in it. Right, we call two people a random and we really didn't have to read their bios. We just said you know what do you do? And before you knew it, like you were resonated like oh, I gotta speak to them more. 

0:30:53 - Speaker 4
Oh yeah, this is awesome. No, I love this because, again, coming from a little bit of that audio clubhouse thing, this is like fantastic. 

0:31:01 - Speaker 2
Yes. 

0:31:03 - Speaker 4
And I love the fact that if I needed like a 10 minute coaching session or a few different coaching sessions, I can tap into this app which is. I mean, there's nothing like it. 

0:31:13 - Speaker 2
So For personal or for business, right yeah, we have like therapists on here. 

0:31:16 - Speaker 3
Sometimes we do a little like coaching Like everything, yeah Psychic thing is kind of interesting. 

0:31:21 - Speaker 4
I love, I'm a good psychic, but yeah, I love the fact that you can tap in, like I said, something for branding and a bunch of different. Yeah, as I peruse through, Cool. 

0:31:30 - Speaker 2
Well, thanks again for joining us on Owwll podcast For everyone listening. What are your tags on Instagram and? 

0:31:35 - Speaker 4
other socials, oh sure, and then of course they could find you on Owwll. You can find me on Owwll and at so Boca on Instagram On 3. 

0:31:44 - Speaker 3
3 O's, that's 3 O's Boca. 

0:31:46 - Speaker 4
You can find me on TikTok at the Michele B like bumblebee. So Boca, please subscribe to SoBocacom. Happy to like have subscriptions there. Every Thursday we drop the weekend dish and it's a list of events and things that are going on every weekend so you can get on that email list. And of course, I'm a real estate agent so I've got a referral, so think of me, Michele B baby. 

0:32:10 - Speaker 2
I like it. Great tagline. Well, thanks for joining us again, everyone In the audience. We'll be back next Wednesday around 4.30 PM. Live on Facebook, Take care. 

0:32:19 - Speaker 4
Bye. 

0:32:19 - Speaker 2
Peace. 

0:32:21 - Speaker 4
That was awesome, that was pretty cool, right. So much fun. 


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