The Filler Episode That Accidentally Becomes A Masterclass

A confession with teeth. We missed a week, and instead of glossing over it, we break down why new projects fall through the cracks—and how to build systems that keep your work on track when life gets loud. I walk through my path from Farmington kid to Air Force process junkie, from executive support at Langley to the IT bust that knocked me flat, and the hard climb back through city marketing, a messy agency breakup, and the rebuild that became Ken Collins Marketing and Strategic Horizons Consulting.

Across the story, I share the frameworks that actually help small business owners in the Four Corners and beyond: why automation is a lifeline for teams wearing too many hats, how to schedule content without sounding robotic, and where AI fits—useful, but never on autopilot. We get honest about sales being my weakest muscle and how I’ve learned to keep explanations simple, stack detail only as needed, and earn trust by telling the truth, even when it stings. If you’ve ever been overwhelmed by process, partnerships, or priorities, you’ll hear exactly how I structure onboarding, audits, and playbooks so they scale with a tiny team.

What makes this conversation different is the mix of local roots and global context. I’ve worked with mom‑and‑pop shops scraping for a hundred-dollar bill and with international organizations navigating heavy bureaucracy, and that range shapes how I solve problems here at home. I also share a dream I can’t shake: building a real pipeline for youth entrepreneurship so students with hustle get coaching, sprints, and launch support, not just a pat on the back. Until then, the plan is simple—keep serving owners, tighten the systems, and make this podcast a reliable window into how leaders in our community build, stumble, and get back up.

If this resonates, share it with a business owner who needs the lift, hit follow so you never miss the next story, and leave a quick review with your biggest takeaway—what will you automate first?

Be sure to follow or subscribe!  And, if you're a local business owner who'd like to be featured - or know someone whose story should be told - get in touch at Ken@StrategicHorizonsConsulting.com

This show is brought to you by Strategic Horizons Consulting (a division of Ken Collins Marketing).

Transcript

Why I’m Interviewing Myself

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I'm here with Ken Collins, the owner of Ken Collins Marketing and Strategic Horizons Consulting. Yes, that's right. I am technically interviewing myself for this episode, so it's going to be a little bit different. The reason I'm doing this is because one, I want to come clean. And in coming clean, there's a there's a lesson in there. So um yeah, I own Ken Collins Marketing. I also own uh Strategic Horizons Consulting. I help business owners in all kinds of ways. Um and and that's part of the reason why I started this podcast. I wanted to provide something for four corners business owners and residents to let them know what other business owners are doing uh within the four corners, what they're um what they're up to, what they're struggling with, what they're getting right, um, all that kind of good stuff. So that um one, people could appreciate them as customers a little more, hopefully, and um other business owners could take stock of either, okay, I'm not the only person struggling with this or or used to struggle with this, or um, hey, that's a really good idea. I think I might try to implement that into my business. So uh the reason I'm interviewing myself on this is because one, this is a let's call it uh so that you can relate. Um this this is a new product. This podcast is a product of mine, and it is a new product that I am implementing into my process. Because it's a new product, it's not fully implemented into my process. So um whenever you have something new like that and you're you're under pressure, um, you tend to, as a business owner, um pull back into your comfort areas. And so that's what's happened to me. I'm I'm just a little bit busy and and I've pulled back into my comfort areas and thus missed an entire week. Uh this episode, which shouldn't have been with me, should have been posted about a week ago. Um so I'm coming clean there and and letting you know that that that's exactly what happens. And I've seen it happen with other people, and I'm not immune to that, and that's what's going on. So um this is let's call it me coming clean, but um, but let's be honest, it's a filler episode. I need an episode, and uh I already have my next one lined up and and and recorded and ready to go, but I want to fill this one in there um and have the next one post properly on schedule. So here we go. This is me coming clean and providing you with a filler episode. Maybe you'll learn a little bit more about me in in the meantime. So I'll just walk through this thing like I would any of my other guests. Um and by the way, my guests are never fill episodes. They're never filler, they're highly important, they're great people, they're just doing amazing things, and and I love having these conversations with them. So uh let's do that. But by the way, we've already put out um one with uh Ren and David from um Interwest Concepts. We put out an episode with um with Cody from Desert River Guides. Our next episode after this one will be with Ramon Valdez from Ramon Valdez Fried and Furniture. And we've got some others that I'm still contacting and still tracking down, and uh some really cool, really, really cool people. I put a thing out on Facebook asking for suggestions at who I should talk to. I got some really great suggestions back. And um some of these people I have never heard of, and they're actually doing really cool things. So I'm kind of excited to meet them for the first time and uh discuss with them what they're up to. So I'll just kind of walk this through in the same uh interview format that I send my guests through, and uh and maybe you'll learn a little more about me, although I've got a lot of content out there, so you might already know a lot of this stuff. Or maybe you're new and you just never heard any of it before. So uh first up, a little about myself. Again, I'm the owner of Ken Collins Marketing and Strategic Horizons Consulting. I used to run another show called Kin's Think Tank, where I put people in the truck and filmed it. Three cameras, um, however many microphones I needed for how many people I could load into the truck. And that show was uh a huge hit. Um ran for seven years, and um it just got to be really time consuming and had a ton of fun with that show. I'm still getting questions about it if I'm still doing it or if it's gone and and everything. It is gone, um, but it is still it's no longer running um actively, but all the episodes from all seven seasons are still out there. They're on YouTube, they're on Facebook. Um hit me up on this podcast if you're looking for that and can't find it. Um but yeah, uh, those are still out there. So anyway, I have a crazy background um that kind of led me to these two things. So uh I I worked a few jobs, you know, like a high school kid would do growing up here, actually in Farmington, New Mexico. I graduated high school here at Farmton High. Um, worked at places like uh Exxon that used to be right below, it's now a subway, used to be right below the Farmton High School. Um Frank Stimek ran that. Um coincidentally, he ended up in the school system. Someone I'd come back to visit. Uh one time he was the vice principal at Farnton High. Uh anyway, he just kept moving himself up in the in the school system. But that was my very first job job ever, um, besides babysitting and mowing lawns and painting house numbers and things like that when I was a little kid. Um, but yeah, I worked at Exxon and then and then um ended up moving to Wendy's, uh worked there for a little while, um, left Wendy's and went over to FERS Supermarket, who was Big Lots um most recently until I closed. There's another business in them now, I can't recall what it is, but they've just opened since Big Lots has closed. So anyway, worked at Furs Supermarket, um, didn't like that, and left and went back to Wendy's. They were more than happy to take me back. And that all happened until graduation. And as soon as I graduated, I left and joined the Air Force. I was in the Air Force for 10 years, started as an administrator, so I uh was just absolutely killing it as an um information manager, is what the Air Force called it. So basically I was I was uh let's call it an office manager. So I was handling all the aspects of the office and and ensuring that it ran properly and supporting the people that worked in my office. And and I happened to be at a wing level, and so all of my office mates were always officers. So I tell people I grew up with officers, and these were actually flight crew officers. So they weren't um sorry, any of you that were administrative officers in the military, but flight crew are a different kind of breed. They were the rule breakers, they they uh they taught me that, yeah, don't worry about the regulations. Let me show you how to get around that. And that was actually really useful for me because um anybody that's done business with government in general, especially DoD and military, there's just red tape upon red tape. And uh these guys taught me how to get the job done and to do things right, not necessarily follow the regulations to the letter. So that was a brilliant um upbringing for me and brought me much, much success. I just shined like a bright star in uh in those roles and just kept moving up to more influential um offices and people, um wing commander's office. They insisted that I had to work there because of the results I was doing. I was a baby airman getting assigned people who were uh much older and much much higher rank than myself, um, getting assigned teams of those people to drag them around to officers' offices and show them how to do things the way I did them because the way I did them was amazing. And so um that was when I was 18, 19, 20 years old, ended up going to Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and um made a lot of contacts over there. Uh picked up some PTSD, so that was great, and ended up at Langley um um after that bit. And uh that was highly political, highly influential. Um, we're talking international reach there at Langley. And um, so I developed an ex an extremely high-level view of how things work and how things are interconnected, and um while taking care of the details. So, not an not a common thing to have a detail-oriented person fully capable of swimming around in the mission and vision of an organization and why that matters. So um learned all that, then got out of the Air Force after 10 years, and um uh before I left, I I had transferred over, moved over into computer technology and and was an IT pro in there. So it was networking and and all this. And this was in the 90s, in the in the mid to late 90s. So um at the forefront of of doing all that, by the way, when I got to uh Langley in in I think it was '93, somewhere in there, um, everything was electronic. Everything. You could not type forms on on uh on a computer or a typewriter and print them out or whatever. Um everything had to be electronic. All the forms were electronic. We had email addresses, everybody, everything had to be done electronic. It was non-negotiable. So I got a really quick, um, really quick view of just exactly how that worked. I had been doing some of that on a limited basis um at my first duty station, and and that just got a massive jump start at Langley. So I I picked up even more of that and went into executive support and and things like that. So um basically with executive support, we were handling all the details of visits of high-profile people. So if you were a colonel um in rank uh in any branch of the military and below, you were too too low-ranking for us to bother with at our level. So you had to be at least a general uh or above. And so at one time I knew every single general officer in the Air Force, several from the Army, um, a few admirals from the Navy, and uh one or two from the Marines, not much exposure there, but but as well as military leaders from uh across the globe from other countries, uh Turkish, Mexican, you know, you you name it. I was I was meeting these people. Um also with uh uh our own DC politicians. So uh president, vice president, senators, congressmen, all kinds of elected officials flowing through there. Langley's just a really important base. And um and so anyway, got a lot of exposure to a lot of things and made a lot of context and learned a lot of things, and decided it's time to get out. I was still an airman and I was extremely versed in the IT world at this point and decided I'm tired of being poor. Enlisted people don't make a lot of money in the Air Force. So I got out of the Air Force and uh ended up at an international staffing company. So one, I learned a staffing game, but I was working in their IT bit. So while providing IT services for them, I uh learned how um outsourced staffing works. And um that was great. Uh much success there, kept getting promotions and raises and that sort of thing. Um I was making uh considerably more than my peers there, and that was actually my downfall. So after the dot-com bubble busts and um and the 9-11 attacks happened, the economy was just crumbling, especially as it revolved around IT. And we were laying off, we were a staffing agency. So I was actually involved in the laying off of tens of thousands of outsourced staff, uh IT people across the country. Yeah, I say international staffing company. We had we had uh offices in every state, every major city in the US, um, Australia, the UK, all that kind of thing. So um big, big influence there and and a lot of exposure to a lot of things as well. And um finally came my turn. I was just making way too much money, and they had already cut training and travel and everything else, and and it was my turn. So I got laid off. Um I thought, no big deal. I'm highly qualified, highly intelligent, um, have a ton of experience, and I'll I'll get another another job. Couldn't do it, couldn't find it. Um, I learned from the staffing agencies that uh uh my particular situation was not helpful at all. So my um my uh capacity for learning, my my um uh uh aptitude uh for for the IT world, all that kind of thing, and and the business world were not enough. I needed degrees and certifications. And how many degrees and certifications did I have at that point? Zero. That's right, none. So I could not get an interview with anybody, uh so much less get the job. So I just wasn't in in and I know why the staffing uh people were plugging in the qualifications into their computer and uh spitting out results. And I would never pull up in the results because I didn't have the required degree and the required certifications, even though I was the guy training our um newly graduated and certified um employees at uh the company I was working for when we when we'd hire these young people, I was training them and they were just blown away with what we were doing there. It wasn't just me, it wasn't my my deal, but but I was fully incorporated into what we were doing, and what we were doing um was completely outside of the realm of what uh these newly graduated and certified people could even fathom um could be done. So so I I had uh I was more qualified for the jobs, but couldn't get an interview because I didn't have the required degrees and certifications. And that was that's stuck in my craw. And uh so I've since developed systems of of hiring and and things like that that um cut out that degree requirement. Um better thing to do is attitude and aptitude, and uh basically let anybody who wants to apply for that job apply, and then promptly give them an online aptitude test. And then you take your top scores from your aptitude test and you bring them in and you uh interview them, and basically your interview is an attitude test. You want to see if they're gonna fit in your culture. So that cuts out the dilemma that I found myself in, having a ton of experience and a ton of knowledge and not being able to be employed because I didn't have the completely unnecessary degree and certification. So anyway, I got on a on a long tangent there, but um basically I I ended up homeless. I I couldn't find a job. I I ended up working as a uh an overnight grocery stalker for Walmart and was doing some delivery jobs for things like Papa John's pizza and and things like that. So I was um w working almost around the clock. And I'm I'm not joking when I say that. It was an hour's commute for me to get to where the work was, where I was living. And um, so I would drive an hour to work, work one shift, and then I would have to wait an hour for my other shift and my other job to start, and then I would work that shift, and I would drive another hour back home. And I needed to be back to work within four hours after I got back home. So I had enough time to get home, kind of eat something, take basically a nap and a shower, and then go back to work and do it again. So um it also wasn't enough to pay the bills because I had developed a lifestyle and not just a lifestyle, but things like a new house build on family-owned property that was generational property. So I couldn't just sell the house and downscale. Um, so anyway, it was just a messy situation. I ended up, um, it led to a divorce. I ended up homeless in Georgia and had to come back to Farmington. So I transferred to Walmart here in Farmington and um eventually found myself uh an opening at the city working for parks and recreation. Went there, was there for nine years, um, started with administration again, and then moved over into marketing because during the Air Force and and um beyond, I had developed a lot of PR skills and um and several marketing skills. And so I was able to put those to use for parks and recreation and then expand on those and learn even more and get even better at it over the nine years I was there doing that. So um uh before I left, I started a marketing company with a couple of partners. We uh started uh uh I'll not give that name, but we started a different marketing company. There was me here in Farmington. We had a partner in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and we had one in Sonoma, California. So we had offices in three states, and then we started picking up employees in Washington State and Hawaii and um other other areas in California and Texas, and so it was growing to be a pretty large operation, and um um dealing with partners was not a great thing for me, and for them, let's let's be honest. So the partnership um began to whittle away. Uh we we we actually asked one partner to leave um because of a lot of crazy, and um we were just down to uh two of us, and that one um the other partner decided we were at a level of success that um uh they were going to spend uh almost half of the year in Hawaii because they just fell in love with it. And so they weren't working, they were just in Hawaii and left me to run the business. And I was doing that, and they didn't like the way I was doing that, and decided that uh they would take all of the clients, which they had pre uh pre-discussions with uh before bringing this news to me, and um wanted also half the cash. And I said, No, you're taking all the clients, I'm keeping all the cash. And so that led into arbitration and it lasted months and it was a nightmare, and I had to rebrand with no clients and start over. And during the arbitration, the deal was I had to stay out of then California market, the largest market in the United States, and in exchange, they would stay out of New Mexico, which let's be honest, there's no comparison there. But I did what I could and rebuilt. Um, that's when King Collins Marketing was born, and as a solar operation, and um ended up bringing on a lot of contract staff. So about 27 uh people helped me do what I was doing with Ken Collins Marketing and decided um, okay, I'm gonna maintain what I have with the marketing company and uh move over into uh business consulting because that's much more enjoyable to me. And what I was finding with my clients is that they had more questions about business than they did about marketing, more concerns, not necessarily questions, but more concerns. Um all the conversations I was having with them, it didn't really have to do with marketing, it had to do with other business aspects. So I thought, you know what, I I love helping these people, let me move over and do that. So uh I started my consulting business uh last year in 2024 and decided to slow walk it because it was a new venture for me and I needed to feel out how many clients I could support and what level of support and what people actually needed and and all that kind of thing. So yeah, brought on brought on some clients and was dealing with them um last year, still still dealing with some of them this year, and um actually still bringing on clients, and now I have a much better grasp on who and what I can and cannot support. So that is my entire journey, which is um much longer version of can you tell me the story of how this business got started? And um, but it also incorporated what made me choose this kind of work, what was it like in the early days, lesson surprises. Yeah, the early days was basically partners and learned that um for me, um, and I've seen it play out with other people, if you can make partnership work, then uh um better, you are better than I am. I could not uh I could not make it work with partners. Um there's just always differences of opinion, and with business owners, opinions are really strong. So um I prefer to go solo as far as ownership and decision making goes. Um now I truly enjoy all the help that I get from the people that do um provide me with support, contract support. Um they are invaluable to me, but I am the decision maker, and that's how I need to need to make things going. And I I assume that some of you business owners out there that may be um listening would fully agree with me that you prefer to keep the decision making uh fully in your court and not in someone else's. So um, and I've gone through how it kind of changed and evolved uh uh since I started. What makes my business special? Uh I don't know. I would say just a crazy amount of uh finding somebody that has the the diversity of experience, let's put it that way. The diversity of experience that I have is not an easy task. I'm not saying I'm uh I'm a unicorn out here, but um, but to find somebody that that has worked with you know uh mom-pop businesses that are scraping together, you know, uh uh trying to find a way to pay a hundred dollar bill um uh monthly, that's that's um and just some could not. Um all the way up to international um businesses. Um I've also worked in um uh here in the United States, every state except for Alaska and Hawaii, um been physically in and worked and and visited and and made contacts in and um have done business in at least. And um so all the states, um Germany, uh the UK, and of course Saudi Arabia. And um so it international experience, working for an international corporation and uh at the highest levels of that to understand how that works, highest levels of military to understand how that works. So all the DOD, Washington, DC, um local government. Uh uh yeah, thinking back on it, I've I've got 20 20 years in government, um half in DOD and half in uh municipality. So um, but then also through marketing and consulting and and that sort of thing, um experience with I think uh at least 40 different industries. So I never picked a niche, um, and that's the smart thing to do is to pick a neat a niche. I I never did that. I just figured I'll let it flush itself out, and it never did, and I really enjoyed um and still enjoy the challenge of going into, although that that funnel's getting smaller and smaller, um, an industry or a business that I I don't know. Um so if you're within one of the 40 industries that I have experience with, then we're good. If you're not, then uh we're probably still good. I'll I'll let you know, but we'll have to figure it out. So uh that's and what makes special, one, I grew up here and I've been back here since 2003. So I know this area. You know, this was this was my hometown, and I have seen changes um in this town since um I'm gonna age myself a little bit, um, but we moved back here when I was um I think one or somewhere. So basically, since 72, 72 to 89, I was here, and in 2003 to now I was here again, so um and still here. So this is my home. Um I know a lot about these places, uh this place. I know how different it is from everywhere else in the United States. I know the um the ins and outs of how things work here, and um, it is very different from anywhere else. And uh so that is a valuable thing to have when you truly understand from the root level um what your community is about and why it it's different um than everywhere else. Uh so I have that. Uh, what am I most proud of? Um I guess I'm most proud of my the relationship that I've built. One, part of the reason I started this podcast is I I love talking to business owners. I don't know why. I just really love it. I I you know, with with uh with with Ken's Think Tank, it wasn't all business owners, but um I love hearing people's stories. And so that's where I was I was getting my fix with Ken's Think Tank is is hearing people's stories. The idea behind that one was that we're walking around the streets with these people every day. We've probably talked to them, but we don't really know where they came from and the crazy things that they've gone through or experienced. Crazy it may be bad, crazy may be good. Um uh but anyway, we we don't really know everybody's backstory, and some of the some people's backstories are just breathtaking to listen to, and I love that. And um, but above all, uh business owners, because I I relate and um and my brain just kind of works that way. So so yeah, I I I'm most proud of the relationships that I've built in in this journey um working with local business owners. If someone's never been uh dealt with me before, what's what's one thing I'd want them to experience? Um comfort and trust. Um when you deal with with Ken Call as Marketing or Strategic Horizons consulting, you deal with me. Um that's not completely by choice because I have gone through, I think, seven different professional salespeople who were all a big flop. Nobody was able to bring me anything. So you're not gonna deal with a salesperson, you're gonna deal with me. And um, it doesn't mean that I'm going to do 100% of the work, although I do a lot of the work. Um with the consulting, I do 100% of the work. With the marketing, I have um, as I mentioned, about 27 people helping me support websites and do graphic design and and do things like that. So um So anyway, it yeah, if the one thing I'd want people to experience when dealing with me is is just comfort and trust. I'm real. I'm just a dude. I'm not polished up. I'm not a sales guy. I'm not gonna tell you things. I'm gonna be truthful with you. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna let we always had a not everybody likes this saying, but we always had a saying that I picked up in the Air Force, tell mama the baby's ugly. In other words, you know, so many people show you their baby pictures and you may they make you cringe, but you're not gonna say, Oh, what happened? Did you drop that child? Um So it's it's based on that analogy when somebody's bringing you a project or thing or something or or or or there uh an issue, a process or whatever it is, a business process is coming up in discussion and it's just not working. And it I'll tell you that is not working. That is just not working, and I'll explain to you why. So you're gonna get the real story from me, not a polished-up sales version of it. And that's I'm proud of that. That's what I want people to experience. Um what's crucial to keep my business running smoothly, who I'd say automation and technology. Um I know a bunch of you out there, uh, business owners-wise, are are wearing uh, you know, five, 10, 20 different hats. And and I understand that, and I understand why you're doing it. Um, but it's it's not really scalable, and it's not it's not really feasible in the long run. Um, you can scale up and have more free time um and not impact the bottom line of, in a negative way, the bottom line of your business if you use automation and technology to help you with that automation. Also, you know, just general processes, whether it's automated or using technology or not. Business processes, that's my strongest point, I would say. Um, picking apart how things work, how they should work, and how to get them to the way that they should work, to optimize everyone's time, effort, expense, um, and profit, basically. Um, so I do that for myself as well. Um, sometimes my stuff takes a back burner to my client's stuff, so I suffer a little bit for that, but I'm happy with that because I clients come first. So uh anyway, that's that's it. By the way, this is non-scripted, which is why I'm going off on all these tangents constantly, because I just wanted this episode to be real. Um so what's a small but mighty system or process process I put in place that that makes a big difference? Um man, there's a bunch. Uh I'm using AI in in various ways. I um am cautious with that because it is not perfect and I find mistakes in it constantly. Um I actually get into arguments with AI because it just is not understanding what I'm trying to try to get it to understand. And and uh, but it is a valuable tool and it is getting better, and so I'll continue to use it and test it out and play with it and vet it, basically. Um, a lot of things that these things I do in order to vet for clients. So I implement technologies and and and in and solutions into my own business um just to test their validity if I've not dealt with them before, um, before I ever recommend them to a client. So if I'm recommending something to you, it's because I know um I know how it works. And I've probably tested on my own business. So um a small but mighty system or process. Hmm. Again, uh automation in various forms. Um that could be as as simple as pre-scheduling your social media posts. Um you should have a social media calendar that should be planned out. What types of content should go out at what what times, but to post all of those live based on those calendars um can be a bit daunting. So once you have your calendar, develop all the content and get it scheduled. Just get it scheduled, and then it's posting for you. Of course, you'll need to monitor it, but um, but that way you never miss a post. Um now with these interviews, I can't fully automate it those. That's why I missed one, and that's why I'm doing this episode. Um has anything gotten easier or harder over time in my business? Um It's hard to say. Everything is everything depends on everything, right? Now I'm in the hot seat understanding what my guests on this show go through when I ask them these questions, because again, I did not script this out. So I just decided to just dive into it and put myself in the same seat as I put my my guests. Um, easier or harder? Um I'd say relating to clients has gotten easier. Uh I've had several people along my journey in this process explain to me um why what I was doing is probably not the way to go about things. I used to just roll in all excited about um the geek level knowledge that I had that was going to fix these people's problem. And I did not notice their eyes glazing over because they did not understand a single word that was coming out of my mouth. So again, I'm not a sales guy. I'm a strategy guy. I'm uh I'm uh you need me to run through a contract, I can do that. You need to create spreadsheets, I can do that. But but sales, man, that's just uh a thing that I am still trying to completely unlock. But I have gotten better at it because I don't roll in with that geek level knowledge anymore and just start hitting people with with things that sound like Klingon um to the person I'm trying to explain to. So now I keep things simple. And um basically it's upon reassuring. If I, and I'm gonna be honest, if I don't think that I can help you with that particular thing, I'm gonna say that. Um, but when I do think I can help you, I have had to reel myself back and not just go full on um uh geek level on Adderall um uh coming at you with a bunch of things that you don't understand. I'm gonna let you know the basic level of yes, that can be done. Yes, I can do that. Um, and if you need me to expand more than that, I can do it, but it's gonna be on a step. Um so I can um give a little more detail. And if you still want more detail, I can give a little more. And if you still want more, I can go as far as you want to go with that detail. Uh but what I found is most people don't don't, they just start glazing over when I when I go full on, full on geek mode and and start spewing all these things. So I I've learned not to do that, and that has made things easier. And and I have to pass on some thanks to to some names, some people that have helped me understand that as I've I've gone through this journey. So let's see, what's something I wish ran a little smoother behind the scenes? Um I would say I am still in the process of trying to automate my onboarding process. In other words, when I bring on a brand new client, there are certain things that just need to happen. Um and some of those I'm manually doing all of them. So all of it gets taken care of. But that is office work that I don't really have to do. I don't need to do. It needs to be done, but it doesn't necessarily need to be done by me. And if I can finally get around to automating that process, that would make it uh a lot better. And I think uh provide actually a better uh customer experience for my clients in that you know, as soon as they sign, then um then they're getting touch points uh for for a lot of things, depending on what it is that they've signed for. So um I would need to develop out several different onboarding processes depending on how uh what who I'm bringing in and and why. So that's probably why I haven't done that. But um, yeah, that the the onboarding process is something I do wish would would run a little smoother behind the scenes, but it gets done and it gets done by me. I just from client facing, um, it's it's fine. Um I just wish that I didn't have to spend all my time doing that whenever I bring a new client. It's very time intensive for me when I bring a new client on and making sure that all these check marks get checked. Um, what's one area of the business I'm still figuring out? Again, sales, sales, still trying to figure that out. I'm doing okay, but uh but I could do a whole lot better, and it's just because the the sales game is not it's not ever been my game, and I'm still unlocking areas of that. And so it's just gonna take time and experience, I guess, um, in order to rewire my brain so that I understand the sales game a little better. Um do I ever feel like I'm wearing too many hats or juggling too much? Yes, all the time. Um a lot of my clients are going through the same thing. So I relate, I I get it. Um and that's where I I lean into automation and and technology as much as I can, and as much as I have the time to put into place and implement. Weirdly enough, um, I help my clients implement things that I should have implemented a long time ago. It's just the clients come first, and that's how it's always gonna be. So uh what's my biggest headache right now? Um again, probably sales. It's just it's just super aggravating to me from my point of view, because I, you know, I have to go out and I have to find people and I have to um vet them and I have to talk to them and I have to, you know, go through that whole process. And it's just not my most fun thing to do. Chatting with people, sure. If I'm just rolling in chatting with a business owner, that's awesome. I'll do that all day long. But um but it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily lead to sales. I don't know how to cross that over all the time. I I do on certain circumstances, but don't necessarily know how to cross that over into a sale all the time. Um, so yeah, that's my biggest headache right now. Um what am I most excited about for the future? Um I have some processes. I'm not gonna reveal what those are, but I have some processes that I'm very close to implementing that would help me um help me close the gap a bit on that sales bit. Uh so I'm not gonna go into it, but but yeah, again, technology and automation, it's it's such a lifesaver uh when you are a small business. Um if time and money weren't an issue, what's something I knew I'd want to try? You know, actually, probably some kind of foundation or or nonprofit organization. Um, I wish that uh and I think that's beginning to change. I don't know how I don't have enough experience, hands-on experience within the K-12 school system right now, but I wish that kids who have the aptitude for entrepreneurship had a better avenue and received more support and guidance and encouragement to pursue that avenue than probably exists right now. Again, I could be wrong, that could be changing, but I know it was not there. Um, you know, I I grew up in the world where uh you go to you go to high school, you get your high school, you get you get a good GPA and you do really good in high school so that you can get into the right college. And then you go and get your college degree, and then you take that college degree, and you go out and you get yourself a good paying job. And that just um that just works, it works for some, it does not work for others. Um, I opted to not go into college because uh school was extremely boring to me. Uh I I would just ace all the tests and not do any homework or anything like that because it was boring. I didn't I didn't want to do it. So the the A's on my tests got me through a passing grade through high school, and that was good enough for me, and I decided that was enough, and that's why military, but that was uh moving into the military was a great choice instead of going into college. So I learned much more in the military than I ever would have in the college. And so um, so yeah, if if if I if money and time and money weren't an issue, that's that's something I'd want to try is setting up a foundation or or some kind of support structure, maybe nonprofit support structure to help young people become entrepreneurs. Maybe encouragement, support, training, guidance, um, all of that stuff, and fully flesh out an idea and then help them actually build and start that thing and get it going. I would love to do that. That would be amazing. Um, but that does take time and money. Um, and so that's that's a future project. It's always in the back of my mind. But but that's what I would do. Do I have any big goals or changes I'm working toward this year or next? Uh not really. Just kind of cleaning up my own house, you know. Um, and by house I mean business. So um cleaning up my systems, um thinking through all these things, my some of my processes on how I can automate them, how I can make things run smoother, run better, give myself more time, all that kind of thing. So nothing huge coming this year, maybe even next, um, other than just helping clients. That's where I spend all my time and effort uh is is helping clients, and that's that's where I get joy. So that's probably what I'll continue to do. Although this podcast is something brand new, so that will bring me joy as well. It already is, and I just need to get it fully implemented into my day-to-day. So uh let's see, what's a piece of advice I'd give someone just starting out in my industry? Um in marketing, uh, that's tough, man. That's a really competitive game. Um, so a piece of advice I'd give somebody entering the marketing game is find um, if you can, find uh the most underserved niche you you can find, and become the absolute expert in that. It might be an industry niche, it might be a um business size niche, it might be a a uh product niche, it might be a um solution niche, niche, in other words, uh a software solution or or something like that. But find that one one thing. Um don't follow my footsteps um in how I've gone about it, but find that one thing that that um has less people doing it than other things and become the absolute authority on that thing. And that will that will drag you through um everything. Probably the same thing with with uh consulting. Um I may have an a niche revealing itself in the consulting game, um, but I'm still I'm letting that flesh it out, flesh out by itself. And uh just because, man, there's so many different things I can do. Um, and I love doing a lot of different types of things. So I'll probably continue that for the foreseeable future. But um yeah, that would be my advice for for not just marketing or consulting, for a lot of different industries. Um find the one thing, the one thing, the one thing that you're good at, and that other people, the combination of you're good at it, and that other people, not a lot of other people do it. And then focus down as hard as you can on that thing so that you are the absolute authority in that, and that will take you far. That will most likely expand um once you've crossed a certain a certain uh uh goalpost. But but for the for the beginning, um starting out, do the one thing. One thing, man. Um what's something my customers might not know about me, but should? I don't know, that's tough. Again, I've got a lot of content out there. I've I've revealed a lot of things to a lot of people and a lot of audiences and different platforms. So um, but uh I I hope that people already know this. The the the one thing that they might not know but should is that I care. I mean, I honestly care. Every client that I've ever signed, I am personally um invested in their success. I mean personally, not as they pay me, so I need to keep them happy, but I am so invested in what they're doing and trying to accomplish that I get personally wrapped up in it. Um it it hits me personally, not in the bottom line of my company. That'll be fine, but um, but it really hits me personally. And and so I I take great care in what my customers and my clients are are going through. So that about wraps it up. Again, I apologize for missing an episode. This is your filler episode, and I have just come clean. And hopefully you've learned some lessons, maybe even learned some things about me and who I am as a person uh as I move forward in this podcast venture and talk to other business owners. Again, next episode up is Ramon Valdez from Ramon Valdez Find Furniture. If you don't know him, you should. He's he's uh quite a guy, man. And his journey, I've been there for much of it, um, has been really amazing. And man, I couldn't be prouder of him. Um, the weird thing is I've only helped him with a little bit of it. Most of it has been just advice. Um, but he is one of the few people that when I give advice to, he actually runs with it, man. He takes it and he runs with it. He does it himself. And uh his results have been amazing. So, anyway, that's gonna be a great episode. It's coming up next. And uh for now, I'm signing off, and you'll hear me on that next episode and many more future episodes with some really cool business owners. So stay tuned. Bye.