Name Your Price Marketplace and Inner Peace Under Pressure, with Boris Zhukov

What separates leaders who build extraordinary companies from those who never move beyond a great idea?

In this thought-provoking episode of Unapologetic Leadership, Cory Dunham sits down with Boris A. Zhukov, applied economist, TEDx speaker, CEO of LetYouKnow, inventor, and former Assistant Professor at Ball State University, to explore the mindset required to innovate, lead through uncertainty, and stay grounded under pressure.

Boris shares the story behind building LetYouKnow, a revolutionary "name your own price" marketplace, while revealing the leadership principles that fueled its creation. Together, Cory and Boris discuss why rejection is rarely personal, how resilience is built through consistent action, why failure is simply valuable data, and how maintaining inner peace allows leaders to make better decisions in high-pressure situations.

Drawing from his expertise in economics, mathematics, and artificial intelligence, Boris explains why great leaders focus on increasing the probability of success instead of fearing failure. As one of the inventors behind the patented buyer-to-seller matching technology powering LetYouKnow, he shares practical insights on innovation, calculated risk-taking, entrepreneurship, networking, perseverance, and why the courage to keep showing up often becomes your greatest competitive advantage.

Whether you're launching a startup, leading a team, or pursuing a bold vision, this episode will inspire you to embrace uncertainty, think differently, and keep building even when success isn't guaranteed.

Because extraordinary leadership isn't about avoiding failure.

It's about having the courage to keep moving forward until success becomes inevitable.

About Boris Zhukov

Boris earned both his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in Economics from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Goucher College. His research in regression modeling, price estimation, and marketplace design continues to shape next-generation technologies that help businesses and consumers make smarter decisions.

Connect with Boris

Website: https://letyouknow.com
Email: boris@letyouknow.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/letyouknowinc/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC374ON7XJSlx7bF4CNstf6w
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@letyouknowinc
X: https://x.com/Letyouknowinc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LetYouKnowInc
Instagram: https://instagram.com/letyouknowinc

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. If you felt stressed, overwhelmed, wrestling with the imposter syndrome, wondering if you're just not good enough, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Corey Dunham.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership. I have Boris Zukov, who's the CEO of Let You Know Incorporated. He's a TEDx speaker, inventor, and entrepreneur. Welcome, Boris.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Thank you so much. It's great to be here. I guess everybody says that, but I'm not that original. I want to say something original, but my mind is blinking, you know. So that's all right. Well, I hope it is still great to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

I hope it's still great to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

No, absolutely. I didn't mean to actually diminish, okay, the meaning behind uh what I said. That's still true.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Awesome. No, I hear what you're saying, but no, that's totally fine. And I appreciate you being here. We had a great conversation before we set up this podcast recording, but uh you were doing a lot of cool things in the world. So tell us what do you do with a company that's called Let You Know Incorporated? What do you do and how do you impact the world?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah, so our team created a marketplace that empowers consumers to research deals and then transact on their own, okay? And what does that mean? Transact on their own terms. Well, let me kind of elaborate a little bit. So we started with new cars, okay, and we'll soon expand across multiple verticals or industries. Okay, I call it verticals just because that's the lingo that I'm used to. Okay. But you know, industries are just fine. So, but for now, to make it clear, let's focus on brand new cars, okay? So, how does it work? Well, today you research prices online, negotiate with dealers, and before letyknow.com, the bug stopped right there. That's it. I mean, you came to the end of your journey, there is nothing else you can do. Well, now you have lety know.com on your site, so you still do whatever you want to do. That's absolutely fine and dandy, and then you get to name your own lower price. You bid with an instant result on that same brand new car. And if you got it, well, that means that obviously you save the difference, and you have that power tool at your disposal. Instant results, there is no back and forth, no negotiation. And think about this: our algo instantly sweeps the bid, okay, across all matching dealers. So you're effectively, if you think about this, you're effectively negotiating with all of them, okay, at the same time in one moment. As if it's actually feasible. Is that exactly right? So if the bid is accepted, our customers obviously save time and money, even relative to the best offer, right? Yeah. As if they negotiated hard for weeks, except they didn't. And like I said, the new cars, this is just uh the starting point. Customers will soon, yeah, customers will soon be able to bid on restaurant gift cards, oil changes, alignment, brake pads, hairstyles, I mean paintball soft, airsoft sessions, I mean dental cleaning exams, grocery gift cards, much more. That's exactly the same principle, okay? That applies over here. You get to name your own price, instant result. And if you got it, obviously you save money, right? So don't go on your own terms, right? And that's actually really powerful because if you're passionate about deals, let you know.com becomes your super savory tool that reaps the benefits of negotiations, right? Without you actually negotiating. So if you think about it, right? Now, let me turn to the supply side, because it's actually equally like when I talk about the supply side, I'm talking about obviously the benefits that accrue to the supply side itself. It's equally unreal.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

So the business owners, the business owners of what you're saying. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

And what I'm saying is anybody can become a business owner with let you know on their side. That's a really interesting ramification of us being successful in scaling the company. So what does that mean? Okay, like uh yeah, see, that that's why I said it's unreal. So think about this. When you start any business, right? Investors, because you will need the funding, right? And no matter what, even if you have billions of dollars, somebody can say, well, Elon Musk doesn't need any money. Well, that's not true. Because if you want to expand, and let's say you want to build a company that's gonna be, let's say, trillion dollars, well, the investment requirements is gonna be even pretty steep for him, right? So there is absolutely no limit. Like the point I'm trying to say, you always face financial constraints no matter what you do. And if you think you don't, well, try to open 100 companies then. I mean, Ilamas cannot open 100 companies that require, like, let's say, 400 uh billion dollar investment each, that's it. He barely can cover one, and that's only if he sells all the stock. And if he does, the stock will tank, right? The price will tank, and he won't be able to get 400 billion dollars from Tesla or X company stock at all. So everybody faces constraints. So whenever you open a new business, okay, what does it mean? Well, that means that you innovated, you developed a product or a service, right? And that's the key, and that's what we want you to focus on. And so then the investor is gonna ask you two fundamental questions, right? Two fundamental questions. So one of them will be what price will you actually charge for that service or product, right? I mean, you may say, well, I'm gonna look at the landscape, the competitive landscape, I'm gonna see what my competitors are doing. Well, that let me tell you, is not a really good proxy because none of them are actually buying your goods. So you're not facing the real demand, you're just facing what competition is doing, and that's not exactly the same as the actual demand, right? I mean we just use it because there is no nothing else that we can do better than that. You see what I mean? So we resort to the well, let's call it the next best alternative. Okay, it doesn't mean the best alternative is the next best alternative, right? And the second and the second question they're gonna ask you is well, how will you generate customers in revenue? And what I'm saying is let you know directly addresses both of those questions, okay? And let let's let that information sink in. So, what does it mean? Well, uh any business, any business can join our marketplace, set hidden prices, okay, or price thresholds in minutes on autopilot and be done for life. That's it. From that point on, let you know works on the background for you, okay? So you get real-time misbid data plus incremental customers all by doing absolutely nothing and paying nothing. So not only you pay nothing, you actually do nothing as well. And you are getting customers, not leads you for free by doing nothing, you get misbid data, which is real demand. Because if I'm bidding, that means that I put a credit card, if it goes through, that's it. I actually bought a product, you know, at my price as a customer, but I'm 100% committed. Okay, so that means that even if it's a misbid, somebody, whenever you bid, you don't know. It's a yes or no. And if it's a yes, it's a done deal transaction. And so that's a real demand. That's not like some kind of survey, maybe yes, maybe no. Who knows what's gonna happen. You see, that doesn't work like that. So that means that over here you're actually getting real demand. And so now you can literally, as a business owner, you can literally like look at it and see the shape of the entire demand curve without any guesswork. No guesswork no more, right? And you can download that data by just clicking download, boom, and then you can use whatever Open AI, Gemini, Clot, whatever AI you'd like to use, just put that file over there, it will tell you in milliseconds, okay, which prices you should actually charge publicly on your website, right? For your service or good, whatever you just invented. So now there is no actually even analysis of the competitive landscape. Now you're looking directly at your demand, and it will tell you charge that price publicly and set these hidden thresholds on let you know and continue getting those customers effortlessly, okay, on both trucks, right? It's really innovative, right? I mean, if you think about it, the platform handles all of the targeting, all the matching automatically. You don't do anything, okay? And uh those businesses they only transact whenever their hidden thresholds are met. That's what that means that they are getting customers that clear those hidden thresholds. Yeah, okay. So you're getting incremental business that's already good for you based on many different conditions that are incorporated into our how you set those hidden prices, but we made that available to you so it will work perpetually correctly in tomorrow, in five years, hundred years, five million years. Doesn't really matter, it will still work as is you like continuously keep updating your pricing thresholds like correctly. You say it all.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

I say yes, yes, it just automatically.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Nobody can do that. I mean, in group one, you have to keep updating, etc. eBay, you have to like here is your one good. First of all, everybody can see that. So that means that you cannot actually transact in a profit-maximizing way, which is price discrimination. What it means is any business will price discriminate if they can. There is a single price in economics. There is a single price, and there is a price discrimination, which means that you charge different prices for different consumers. Like you go to the movie theater, uh, people, adults pay one price, students pay another price, right? For the same movie, right? Then senior citizens, military, they all pay different prices for the same good, right? Colleges do it perfectly because nobody pretty much pays the same price. Everybody, some people get actually get paid to go to school, right? Some people are not paying anything, some people pay in the world, but because you have a lot of the different financial aid, merit-based scholarships, right? A lot of things that they actually find into that price. You see what I mean? So they can do it nearly perfectly, okay? So we are saying, hey, we actually now you can do the same thing on eBay. I mean, if you're right here and I know that I can bid on, because I can see you and I can bid on your product. Well, guess what? I will always, no matter what your public price is, because I know that's you, no, no uncertainty, right? I'm just gonna bid less no matter what to see whether it's gonna work or not, right? Not to mention that it's no instant, nobody's committed. I just try and then see what happens. Not how it works and let you know. No, I cannot see the sellers, I sweep across all of them, which means that I have the ultimate power, and the sellers have ultimate power. And if you think about this, a lot of people think like, well, you gotta take side, okay, because it's either a seller side or a buyer side. I disagree. I'm actually taking a side of the equilibrium points, right? What is equilibrium? That's where supply and demand demand meets, right? And if I can create a multi-price marketplace, which means that there are lots and lots of equilibrium points at different prices, everybody individually, separately are actually happy with the with their own transactions. You see, you get this price, you're happy. I get this price, I'm happy. If you get lower than me, I don't even know. I'm still happy and you're still happy. You see what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

And so both sides have control and it feels like they have the power. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Yes, yes, precisely, and by doing so, businesses can do more, consumers can do more because now their buck stretches a little bit more, right? So they can actually consume even more products, which which is really beneficial to uh all kinds of other businesses, right? And and this game continues, right? And so what brings me, I guess, you're talking about contribution. So what brings me uh the most satisfaction is that you see, we're not replicating, okay, existing models, we're not tweaking or polishing a niche. What we are building and scaling over here is a fundamentally different type of a marketplace that doesn't exist. I mean, single price has been invented thousand, ten thousand years ago, you know. We've innovated something where a whole vector of these different prices can coexist at the same time, maximizing the return for each site. That's the that's the key. You see? Yeah, if you think about this, like let's say, to give you an example, like let's say Uber, okay, which is highly innovative, a ride-sharing company, right? Uber. So what they've done, they used advanced mathematical tools, okay, to effectively increase the supply side on the driver's side, right? I mean, which is great. And what they've done is they've built these matching models within one niche, it's still within the same single price marketplace. You see, they did not innovate the marketplace, they just like did a little bit inside the niche. And what I'm saying is we actually invented the whole thing, so now we can fill in every single niche. You see what I mean? So we're not working, we're not operating within a certain niche and are not constrained by it. We can open an Uber-like company for people to name their own prices. We can do a we can fill in every single vertical, and that's exactly where things are heading with us, you see. And when I think about this, oh my god, I empowered both sides. I mean, when I say I, I'm talking about, of course, the whole company, you know, let you know. So I'm not trying to be pompous over here. So, really, a lot of people have done it. It's not just me. I think in today's world, it's impossible to have one person who's gonna be somehow driving the show. You see, you gotta have a lot of brilliant people, a lot of brilliant input that gotta come to the team to make things happen. You see? So, and uh, when I think about this, one side is getting deals, they are passionate about deals. Well, here's the tool to do that instantly, okay? Not like let's say, because a lot of people misunderstand, they think like they beat, and then somebody gotta accept. No, the algo does all the ranking, boom, and you got the result. And if it's a yes, here it goes you already that it's already done deal.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

You see, yes, I want to ask you a couple questions here along the way, but can you tell me a little bit of your background in business or how did you get to this point? Because I know you were doing some other things before this, but what was kind of your journey that has led to this point? If you could share that for a couple minutes.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah, so I came myself from the academic background. I was uh teaching before that, you know. But my background, I'm talking about academic background, is economics. Okay, and so I've done a lot of statistical estimation models. And whenever you deal with economics in general, I mean you are operating within the realm of mathematics. Okay, it's actually the same as physics. A lot of people think that, oh, economics is a like a totally separate discipline from other rigorous or technical fields. Well, really, all of them operate within mathematics, very high-level mathematics. But the application, the application of economics, and like physics. In physics, for instance, you look at variable stars, you look at gravity, you look at all these uh quantum physics, etc., you look at different concepts that are unrelated to possibly like when we operate in economics, we're looking at something totally different, and that's why people have perception that it's actually totally different than physics. Well, use the same tools, math, but yes, you apply to different things. So let's say I'm looking at unemployment, I'm looking at capital accumulation, I'm looking at what happens when, for instance, you have more capital investments, what happens to that unemployment, what happens to the price, what happens to the economic growth, GDP, you know, real GDP, et cetera. So that sorta, okay, exposed me to the business world, right? Because whenever you operate in economics, you're looking at profit maximizing functions. You also look at the consumer side, you look at the utility. When we say utility, think about this. Utility function in economics is like, let's say, a level of happiness that you derive by consuming products, okay? So you want to maximize your kind of like you want to maximize your utility, your level of happiness, right? I mean, that's the idea behind it. Of course, you are subject, yeah. So you're subject to your constraint, which is income, right? And of course time, etc. But the point is, okay, you have that consumer side and you have the business side. And as I was gaining knowledge and learning about different mathematical and statistical tools, it all of a sudden made me realize, and I along the line of learning those tools, I also acquired a lot of data on the automotive world. Oh, I guess in the automotive world, on the consumer side as well as the business side, in terms of how the transactions, okay, were happening, like prices and things like that. And so then I realized, well, we can actually mimic the whole world, okay, to unleash the power, remove the search costs, remove the transaction costs, remove the marketing, like customer acquisition costs, right, to businesses, which means that if you reduce their cost, more deals will be accessible to people, right? Which means that more consumers will be able to buy products or services at lower price. And by doing so, you are increasing because if you're removing the cost and you are helping businesses to acquire customers, which means that you just solved one of the fundamental problems of businesses, right? Because market share and uh and uh your ability to generate customers and revenue is one of the key things, right? That you you gotta be able to solve whenever you have a new business. And so by helping businesses to take care of that side, you effectively increase the competition because anybody can become a business owner, right? Right because all you have to do is just think about what you're good at, invent something, and say, hey, I have a service, I have a valuable product, and I'm gonna see how it works, and let you know will help me along the way without me actually paying anything and doing anything outside of a few minutes of you signing up and setting up your hidden thresholds, and you're done. It's that easy, you know. So that was kind of like a mixture of me getting exposed to science, math, stat, economics, and getting data. And it didn't happen like in a day, it was sort of like a continuum, you know, and that exposed me to new ideas where I realized we can then apply these matching models, not just to new cars, but a whole vector or a whole array of different goods and services, right? And so that I guess really I guess culminated with lety know.com.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yeah, I think that's awesome. And how did you get how did you stay aligned with your values when pursuing all of this? Because I'm assuming this is a startup, you had to learn new things or develop new community or relationships, collaborations, as you mentioned, teamwork earlier. How did you start that process? Was it you just knew people or you just seek them out, or what was the deal with that?

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah, so that's a great question. Yeah, I did not know anybody. In fact, in the automotive world, I knew zero okay, business owners. I didn't know a single person, okay. And uh what happened was I did again, like the way I approach anything, I do a lot of homework, and then our team did a lot of homework. We created all these different databases of different business owners, and then I started sometimes called calling, sometimes emailing, sometimes you know, approaching them and approaching other people that I know from those people, other people. Sometimes you are being like a bug, pretty much, you know, just trying to bombard people with the different messages and so on and so on, and trying to get them. Yeah, and of course, there are gonna be some people who are not gonna like it, and a lot of people who are gonna like it because there are people, like for instance, like me, who appreciate hard work, right? Because they're gonna realize you're actually doing a lot of hassle, and that's uh quite commendable.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah, and so yeah, no, I was gonna say, yeah, we talked about that previous to this offline, and how do you stay focused with that, with basically working hard? Because you mentioned to me, like Corey, you have to be focused on the goal that you want or the vision, but you have to then put in the work and remain focused and do diligent work. So, how did you stay aligned with what you were trying to achieve, not knowing where this is all gonna go? You know, or when you talk to people who got irritated, and there's many of us out there who don't want to do that. So, how do we stay clear and focused that either we're not bugging people or we're on a goal to reach the right people? So I'm not sure how you have looked at that as you've gone along.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah, so one way, okay, one way you need to make sure is that you don't take anything personally. And when I say you don't take anything personally, is that you don't get aggravated, you don't get affected by negativity or anything like this. If it's because if it's gonna rile you up, that's not gonna be a good sign, you're not gonna get anywhere because then you're gonna channel negativity, and whenever you see even productive people, whenever they see negativity, they're just gonna shut you down, okay? And you're gonna lose any chance of making meaningful connections, okay? So you definitely don't want to do that. And also let me tell you this whenever people tell you no, or like let's say they just want to shut you down, it doesn't actually mean that they are opposed to you. So what it means is that at that particular point they don't really trust you, and they don't really wanna hear as much as you think they want to hear from them, and so it's you see what I mean, and so it takes a little bit of more diligence on your part to keep making a compelling case, okay? That's what you have, and you gotta be, like I said, you gotta be diligent and you gotta persevere, and you just gotta continue that process, okay, over time. And you gotta be, like I said, very disciplined, okay? So you gotta keep doing what you are doing without any discouragement and keep positivity, because at some point the it something may catch their attention, and then they're gonna start being inquisitive about what you are doing. You see what I mean? So, so no matter what, you cannot give up and you cannot be negative. That's one of the key things that I want to highlight. Second, okay, because you said that you don't know what's gonna happen, right? Like you don't know the outcome. You see, in my mind, I don't operate like this. The way I operate, like a lot of people, like for instance, when they invest, they think about risk or whatever. I don't think about like that either, okay? So the way I think about this, it's more like any decision and any goal in life, probabilities to it. Okay, so so I'm uh whatever I'm doing, I'm just gonna maximize my chances of hitting my goal. So if I am in cre if I'm increasing my probability of achieving that goal to the max, then I feel satisfied, like personally, me, myself, because at the end of the day, you said that you gotta be aligned with the your values, with your convictions, and so on and so on. So let's say my values are gonna be rooted in something, my call it inner peace, okay? So if my if my inner peace is maintained, okay, that's to me is a big positive. And if I'm gonna feel like I did not do everything I could to achieve that goal, it's not that I did not fail, okay, at achieving the goal that was. Will really depress me. It will be that I did not do enough. You see what I mean? To make it happen. To me, that's the root cause. And I avoid that. And so I never get discouraged. You see, I always put, as far as I'm concerned, maximum effort to achieve the maximum probability. And then I know that results will just fall in line. And they always do. Well, let's put it this way: virtually always. Okay. Of course, there's gonna be some statistical probability that it's just not gonna happen no matter what, because that's the statistical probability. Even it's if it's 0.0001%, it will happen at some point, right? You know, it's kind of interesting going back to these probabilities, okay? Like in poker, okay. I used to play poker before that, you know, quite frequently because it's a highly mathematical and statistical game. I love it. There is game theory to it. You see what I mean? Levels, how you read people? How do you how because if I look at the opponent, I'm now trying to evaluate are they trying to read me or are they trying to understand that I'm reading them? That's a totally different question, right? Because if they are reading me, that's one level. If they are not only reading me, but know that I'm reading them, that's another level. But what if they know that I'm reading them and they know that I'm reading them? So what I mean, these levels, right? Right. So anyway, the point is sometimes you look at that poker hand and somebody, let's say, has a 95% probability of winning, right? And all of a sudden they lose and they're like, oh, this game is BS. I hate this. But what do you expect? If it's 95, it means that 95% of your time you're gonna win, not 100, okay? And 5%, something else will happen. You see, you so that means that like high probability doesn't mean this is it, this will happen 100%. You see, and that's what I think a lot of people misunderstand. It doesn't mean that, okay, 95% is a high probability. It will happen most of the time. But yeah, there are gonna be exceptions. That's why there is some 5%. But but no matter what, if I'm putting a maximum, all my I'm going all in with all my endeavors, okay, then I feel good because I've done my best, okay, and the rest is out of my hands. And if it doesn't happen, well, it doesn't happen, but I still did my best. Now, if I did not do my best, I'm gonna feel, well, a little bit discouraged because I know I could have done better, and that's on me. That's not like on some random chance or some universe or whatever. This is purely on me, you see, and I want to eliminate that, okay, from my even vocabulary in a way. I'm gonna go all in, I'm gonna do my best, and I'm gonna make it happen, you know. And I believe a lot of people who do a lot of things in life, builders, call them builders, right? Yeah, I believe that's the approach that they take, you know. It doesn't mean failure, a lot of people are afraid of failure, right? Because you said, like, okay, what you don't know what's gonna be the outcome. Look at Elon Musk when he threw that ball at the truck. I mean, he was saying like the glass is almost bulletproof, so he took the ball, boom, hit the glass, it shattered, okay? And people were like mocking him, right? But I actually saw something else. I say, you know what, the guy is pushing the frontier. He's actually gonna do his best to make it happen. And if it doesn't happen, he is not afraid of taking that chance. And as a result, by doing this repetitively, he will be far ahead than someone who is playing safe, not doing nothing extraordinary like this. And you're gonna look at the lifeline of one person doing all taking all these risks, making it happen, another person playing it safe, they're gonna be a disparity that is gonna be a wide as a Pacific Ocean between them. You see what I mean? So it's much better to just do it. You see what I mean? And uh failing is part of life, and you're gonna learn a lot more by failing too, because you're gonna know, hold on a second, what happened over here that caused you know this discrepancy in terms of what I expected and what happened, and then you can actually uh fix it at the very root, right, of the problem.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

So and the biggest thing on that too is you're getting data by failing more. Once again, you're not looking backwards to say, oh, this is what's been learned already, but you're moving forward to say, hey, I've got some new learning experiences and new data I can add to the database and now have more considerations for success.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Precisely, precisely. Yeah, and also let me tell you this because you asked for the networking, right? Like let's say networking device, etc. So think about this. So you failed, right? Everybody sees you failing, correct? But now everybody knows you, like they actually saw you. And when you're gonna fix the problem, they're gonna remember this guy failed. Now look at this. He actually built something that is way better than anything we have today, and he did it because he wasn't afraid of failing, and he actually did it. Yeah, so a lot more people are gonna be open talking to you. I can tell you that much because now they know, they see the difference. You see, so now you made it, you almost like demonstrate it, okay, in real life. Like here I was where I failed, and here I am today, later. I didn't give up, I did not say, Oh, well, you know, that's it. I mean, I'm just gonna cry in the corner, you know. You didn't do none of that, you just continue on and you made it happen. That's gonna earn you a lot more respect, and a lot more people are gonna start trusting you, right? Because they see this is not like some kind of fiction where you created artificially a safe environment for you to do the experiments. No, I mean, you went open, you went into the open, okay, taking chances, and that's real life, okay? No hiding around, no nothing. It's just you taking chances and making something work. Yes, it didn't work, but it didn't work out the way you want it. But look at this, you got it done, okay, with a little bit more hard work, analysis of what has happened, taking that analysis to another level and fixing the problem and creating something that hasn't been done before. That's gonna earn you a lot of points with people. And then you can strike more conversations. I can guarantee you that you will be able, yeah. I see it. So a lot more people are gonna start listening to you. You see what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Yeah, and one of the things I picked up, and pretty much you said the same thing, I'm just saying it a little bit differently. But people love to see the transformation and like you said, transformation and transparency, not just, oh, look at me over here. I'm successful, I'm successful. Nobody knows how I did that, but to see that wow, if I can truly get from this point of zero or one, the first step, to now, like you said, a hundred points down the road, that people say, Oh my gosh, I can see that this person was not polished, they made mistakes, but they are a successful leader who's not afraid to fail, as you said, or not afraid to learn. So I that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, and that's what it takes. It takes some cuts. But if you think about it, I mean, you you you have a finite life, so you use the time to your best advantage and make things happen. I be and inspire other people to do more. That's fine. I mean, you fail, but you're gonna do something, and they're gonna see that oh, this dude or this gal didn't give up, they continued, they put more work, and look what happened. So it's okay. They're gonna see that it's okay to fail. They they actually, and maybe that's a benefit, if you think about for the society as a whole, because then people are not afraid of uh let's say failing, right? I be in fact, if you and again, I'm not trying to bash other countries or anything like this, okay? So when I'm gonna say that, okay, because it will look like this, okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

But let me tell you this in we in the US we have a culture, okay, capitalistic culture, that it rewards risk taking, okay? And we don't even approach risk taking as taking risk, it's more like built in our DNA in a way, okay. In Europe, for instance, in the EU, okay, it's more like people want to play safe, okay? They don't want to, let's say, take a lot of risk. The same is true with Japan. And look what happened, let's say, in the past 20 years. EU and US were almost neck to neck in terms of real GDP. Now, I mean, uh, they're at like a 90 trillion, we are at about 30. So over the past 10, 15 years, we almost like grew by 50% more than they, right? Why? And look at all the innovation that came out you and us in the past 10-15 years, you're just gonna hear American companies left and right. Why is that? Well, because whenever you take all these risks and whenever you have this sort of like perspective that risk is just part of life, and what it means is building something, and then it changes the whole perspective, and then you create a lot more as a result when you play safe. You never create nothing. You see what I mean? The spirit kind of like you know, where people are embracing that, I think it's a good thing. And I'm again, I'm not trying to bash, let's say, how they do it in the EU or Japan or other countries, but I feel like they should be like taking notes because at the end of the day, if you want to be better, you want to see what what works, right? Just like let's say you said this guy or this gal did something, they failed, but then they did a lot of work and they succeeded. Okay, well, you want to take that playbook and enhance your own game to learn from that experience. Well, the same as here. Other countries should be looking, oh, so these guys in the US, they are doing so much. Well, why can't we do that? Of course, you can. You just you just need to replicate what we've done. You see what I mean? And here you go. You go, and as a result, all of us would be better because there will be more innovations, right? I mean, coming out left and right. It's just that's how it works, you know. And so risk taking in this kind of like culture of builders, I think is extremely important. And building is never guaranteed, it is never secure. You just have to do it, you have to embrace the risk, and that's to me, that's a perfectly natural world, you know. And so uh you either create things or you don't, and not creating it is always worse. Because if you just play safe, just like poker, you can play safe, wait for your pocket aces to go all in all day long. It's not gonna get you anywhere, you're just gonna bleed those chips, and eventually you're gonna be sitting at nothing. And when you do go all in, and then that suck out happens with that 80-20%, you know, against the opponent, you're gonna be like, Oh my god, what happened over here? You know, but what happened is maybe you should have changed that dynamic a little bit, you know. That's what happened.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Right, right. Yeah, well, I want to say thank you so much, Boris, for sharing all these different business concepts, mathematical and physics and everything else, how everything relates to it each other, basically. We're not just in the siloed concept, but but you brought up a lot of good points today. And uh let people know what's the best way to connect with you in terms of whether they want to invest with what you're doing or they want to learn how their own business could be a part of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Yeah, first of all, my email is Boris atletyuno.com. Very easy, Boris atlet you know.com. Always connect with me that way, but there's just a way, a method of getting in touch. There are lots of other really efficient methods. Get in touch on social media. So let's say LinkedIn, find me on LinkedIn, Boris Z-H-U-K-O-V, LinkedIn, or you can just google Boris, let you know. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna pop up, and then just go to LinkedIn and look for that, okay? Of course, any other social media, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, uh, I don't know, like X, whatever, all of them, okay. And follow our company as well. I mean, you get in touch with me and our team on LinkedIn, on uh Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, uh threads, or whatever, all of those uh social media. Okay, we are almost like omnipresent everywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Oh, and what what one last thing, okay? I wanna I want to mention because I want to build on something that you've said. Like some people have reservations, they are not like, let's say, they are not confident to take the step. Let me tell you this: I was actually in their shoes years ago, like maybe even more than a decade. Let's put it this way I used to be terrible at cold calling because nobody maybe is good at cold calling because it's intimidating. Some people always almost like they have this like stomach pain, just thinking about it, you know? Yeah because you have to bug somebody. But then I realized that it's just another person on the other line, right? I mean, uh on the other end, right? And it's just another human being, right? And most of human beings are pretty awesome, right? So that means that really there is nothing to be intimidated. It doesn't really matter whether another person is running a multi-billion dollar company or doesn't have any company at all. It's just another person, and most people are great. And in the worst case, you're just gonna learn something or you're gonna meet someone, and uh you never know where these discussions may take you. And if you open your mind in that angle, it may broaden your perspective and give you a lot more tools where you're not afraid to make those connections. And uh at the end of the day, I think capitalism is also flourishing. Why? Because, and especially this is true if you look at the over the past 500 years, what happened? We are exchanging information, and as we exchange information, we are building and building on top of each concept, right? Because we have access to more information and we do that constructively, and that's what it takes. And so at the end of the day, getting the information, getting the data, learning something, and then getting more information is definitely a positive thing, and people should embrace that. And you see, at least that's how I overcame that sort of like you mentioned, fear, right? Yes, or reservation within you, right, to make something happen, and the results will be drastically different than what you think they will be if you're gonna be fearful of taking those actions. Let me tell you that.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Right, yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. That's I mean, that's so important, and uh for people to take actions and so forth. So, yeah, thank you again, Boris. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Thank you so much. It was awesome. Fist bum to you, Corey, and your awesome audience. So I appreciate all of you guys. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Awesome, and I want to thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership with Boris, as you talked about so many different things, including everything you're gonna do that's gonna be on a big level takes teamwork. Make sure you're working hard and go all in. And when you get that no, realize that's not the end all be all. That just may mean you have to continue creating a compelling case for what you're doing and what you offer. Take care.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

So that's it for today's episode of Unapologetic Leadership. Head on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will enchant the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Corey Dunham himself. So head on over to Upologetic Leadership Podcast dot com and pick up a free copy of Corey's gift and join us on the next episode.