The Gold Coast Podcast

Why Most Business Owners Are Losing Money | Ed Pain

• Eric Winegard • Season 3 • Episode 5

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YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION

What happens when a former runaway teen with a troubled past builds multiple successful businesses… and starts exposing the truths most entrepreneurs never talk about?

In this episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, Eric Winegard sits down with Ed Pain, Owner of Connecting the Dots, for one of the rawest business conversations we’ve had yet.

This isn’t the fake “Lamborghini entrepreneur” talk you see online.

This is a real conversation about:
• The dark side of entrepreneurship
• Why most businesses secretly fail because of bad systems
• The work ethic crisis destroying younger generations
• How trauma can either break you… or build you
• The future of AI, virtual staffing & automation
• Why most entrepreneurs are bleeding money without realizing it
• The hidden psychology behind successful people
• Why networking and proximity change your entire life
• The truth about college, success & modern business

Ed also shares:
• How he scaled companies across multiple industries
• Why business owners need systems, not chaos
• How overseas staffing is changing business forever
• The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make while scaling
• Why discipline and resilience matter more than motivation

This episode feels less like a podcast… and more like sitting at dinner listening to two entrepreneurs talk honestly about business, money, growth, relationships, trauma, and success.

If you’re a:
✔ Business owner
✔ Entrepreneur
✔ Sales professional
✔ Marketing agency owner
✔ Startup founder
✔ Ambitious young entrepreneur

…this conversation will hit differently.

Follow Ed Pain & Connecting the Dots:
Website: connectingdotsllc.com
Podcast:  ⁨@mypainpoints⁩  

Hosted by Eric Winegard
CEO of Rare Blue Moon Marketing & Host of the Gold Coast Podcast

LIKE • COMMENT • SUBSCRIBE for more real conversations with entrepreneurs, founders, business leaders & innovators.

Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

SPEAKER_01

Well, what I was thinking was, and this is where my marketing brain started going crazy. Okay. Is you know, they're looking for all these kind of affluent buyers down here in South Florida. Yeah. They're based in Utah and they have a heavy client base there. Yeah. But I'm sitting here thinking, the urban hip hop community? Oh yeah. They if they get their hands on this, it'll spread like wildfire.

SPEAKER_00

Well, not even just that. We they have like cards with urban hip-hop too. Like uh some of the underground stuff like Close Contra, whatever, they have their own little cards that they put in with their logos and their different things on it. So with that, you could do a lot of things from branding to I mean it's it's sky's the limit for it, right? For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So I was just envisioning because Floyd Mayweather, and I don't pay attention to a lot of this stuff, but I've seen it where like Floyd Mayweather will have a million dollars in an in in a bag or something. He's just doing it for social media, yeah. And to show off. But if he had if he saw this, he would prefer this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I would agree.

SPEAKER_01

Right? And like if it was like because the larger ones are the size of dollar bills. So if he could show off that he had a million dollars in gold that looks like dollar bills, yeah, and then could you imagine the urban community all across the country wanting to get their hands on it? I hate to say it. I'm not promoting.

SPEAKER_00

Your six inches looks different than my six inches. Um I was telling him my videographer always goes like this to me, like when he needs me to go closer, because he says six inches, but I'm not on top of it. I'm like usually like this. So that's fine. Right here?

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_00

I try not to do the to the side too, try to stay stationary. My ADHD sometimes takes over.

SPEAKER_01

But what's your uh what's your main like what's your main source of revenue today? Like what's the main focal point? I don't have a job right now, which is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00

Um I the my main pushing things is virtual staffing, AI technology. Okay, and um, and I have other ones that happen, but it's usually based on the virtual staffing and the AI.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Because that's my recurring revenue. So my whole thing now is I don't want to be as good as a last sale. I want to be as good as my book of business. Yeah. So the um so most of the stuff I'm an R and R right now. Yeah. So I have my CRM and construction, my my virtual staffing, and um the yeah, so those are my but what's your biggest?

SPEAKER_01

What what's what's you what are you pushing the most right now?

SPEAKER_00

That's what I'm pushing. Oh that's my focus. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, my biggest revenue stream is lead generation. Okay, uh, which I talked to Alex about a little bit. I said if you guys want to get into it, it's a little are you familiar with uh affiliate marketing or we don't do much of it, but yeah. Well we have some good partnerships like with Leaf Ruffine, for instance, Leaf and Erie. They're in 40,000 zips of the 45,000 zips.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And I was gonna say if you guys want to do some sort of partnerships in those things, those who I who I we deal with. And so since you guys are good at marketing, what's cool about them is that if they buy, if we do a web submission at 70 bucks and it cost us 50, they'll buy unlimited as long as the KPIs are in order, right? So what's cool about those guys is how much can you produce at that price versus um versus living and dying by every lead. And their ad ratios are stupid because for my roofing company, I'm not willing to do more than 10% ad ratio.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um but of the whole business you're saying? Well, for every hundred thousand dollars in revenue driven, yeah, I'm willing to spend ten thousand because of my that keeps me at about a fifteen percent EBITDA.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um for them, they're willing to go twenty-five percent. So it's uh it's a lot of wiggle room for mistakes than that.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, interesting. Yeah, okay. So I was willing to go 25 grand for the hundreds. 100%. Gotcha, interesting.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so we have we have a lot of direct buyers like that. Even like next door, like uh the uh I know those guys, they do uh U65 insurance. Um I I don't I'm not in that space, so it's a little harder, but they've kind of cornered that market. But it's all performance-driven because they're paying for every lead. So every lead you generate, you have a buyer.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

And so it's a little bit different than hey, here's a $5,000 SEM budget or $10,000 SEO budget. It's it's uncapped as long as the KPIs are in order.

SPEAKER_01

So are most of these leads coming from Google or Meta or we do we do both.

SPEAKER_00

We do Google and Meta. Um they unfortunately when you do that big, you is you're not doing like stuff like LSA or anything like that. Yeah, but it's uh but it's it's predominantly Google, meta, and TikTok. But it could also be form submission through email, through it could be direct mail, it could be it could be um historic like omni channel kind of it could be anything, it could be like TV radio, but it's a it's a pay per it's a pay per lead. Yeah. And it's uh so most people are doing it through meta and Google.

SPEAKER_01

So it's interesting. So I don't I don't obviously we do direct lead gen, but we do a retainer, yeah. Right, technically, right? It's it's lead gen, but not in the the format you're talking about. Listen, I I've I've talked about going down this road a little bit. Is is this basically the concept, and I'm just trying to put wrap my head around it. I'm trying to get good content for you.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Well, this is not what I'm promoting today. No, it's okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, but but if you say something wildly intelligent, okay, it'll attract attention to you. That's okay. Make sense? Yeah, yeah. Who's this guy? What's his deal, right? But if but a lead gen, if if is the way that this so I set up an account with a roofer, let's say a local roofer here in Boca.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I tell him it's uh, you know, we're we're paying $50 per lead. We have an agreement that it's $75 a lead. Yeah. So you make the agreement on the lead, and then obviously I want my lead cost to be as low as possible because I'm making more money.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

But then there's the caveat KPI and quality. You want quality up there too, because to sustain the agreement, you obviously they want to be closing roofs, closing deals. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So what we do is a little different. So like let's say I let's say I sell to Erie. Um, I'm just bringing them up because they're or let's let's just use Wells Fargo, for instance. Because we're getting into mortgage right now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So m well Wells Fargo is a national company, right? So I have leads for Wells Fargo, but let's say they're willing to spend $75 per raw lead um for a re a cash out refi, right? Um, so what we do is we we can sell to them, but I may have a secondary buyer. Let's say Lone Depot is willing to pay $80, but they have a smaller scope. Let's say um a local broker wants is willing to pay $90, but they're just in Florida. So with our buyer network, we have the big buyers to take the bulk, but we also have floor buyers, so we actually give that to the highest bidder in a real-time bidding auction. Okay. So you use the big buyer. So in that case, if you have a roofer, you want the national roofer to take everything. But if you got Chuck in a truck up the road willing to spend $100, well crap, they win out the bid for that zip code. But but because they're zip-centric, so our software real-time bid auction based on budgets, day parsing, um, because Chuck in a truck may only want nine to five, or uh the national guy may say 24 hours because they have a 24-hour hotline, right? So it's these different nuances that we have the budget to accelerate or decelerate the the bidding, the bidding wars, or how much how much leads to put in. So that's what I play it. So that's why like when um I give you a lead, like uh JD, um, a lot of guys hit me up for marketing, but I'm like, dude, that's that's not my scope. Right. You need to be like even my roofing companies. Um I won't sell to a roofing company unless they're in 4,000 zips, right? Wow. So for me, I'm too small. If I didn't own the business, I would turn me away, right? Um, because even though I'm in 11 states, I'm too small for my own roofing company, for my lead gen company. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So 4,000 zip codes. How many uh zip codes are in the state of Florida? Not not that many, probably like a thousand, something like that. That's what I was thinking. Okay. So it's like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi.

SPEAKER_00

It's like unless well, Florida is a little different because it's it's an M the MSA is large. You have a lot of large MSAs in population. So you talk about 50% of new mover segment in population, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, there's 50% right there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So those are anomalies. New mover population. Well, because that's where buying patterns, expendable income, Sunbelt states. That's you're talking about like where not only the big influx of where people are moving, high concentration of population. It's a little bit different. Yeah. If someone did all of Florida, I would look at it. Someone did all of Arizona, I would look at it. All of Texas, I would look at it. California, definitely, right? It's uh because those are those are those are the the only four anomalies in the U.S.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. What about New York State?

SPEAKER_00

No, because it's not well, it depends. Not not for not for um not for construction. The White Plains, upstate, all that houses are too small. Syracuse, Jamestown, all those areas, it's most of the population are in the city and no one has houses. So so maybe a remodel company, but not for roofing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So it's it's it's gonna be based on middle America, because when you look, I call it prime and subprime markets. Yeah. Subprime is a what? Uh like ACA, Medicare, government stuff given away. Yeah, right, payday loan, that's subprime. Prime is expendable income, middle America, high propensity to spend, target audience. Yeah, right. So that's usually how I usually break out the two categories.

SPEAKER_01

Well, at least my company's playing in prime America down here.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, you know, definitely prime is they have the budget. For sure. But but but but but but the thing about performance driven though, like ACA, for instance, they pay out, they pay you for Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. Yeah, the government will pay you $700 to write the policy.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

So even though it's a subprime audience for zero income, the government's that when especially when Democrats are in office, they subsidize. They give away free phones, they give away free iPads, they give away free internet. So it's not like it's a great audience, but it's it's when the government's paying, you can start getting these government contracts for marketing, it's sexy because it's an open checkbook.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You're you're a very intelligent person. Where what what were you? I'm curious, what were you like when you were like who were you in high school?

SPEAKER_00

You don't want to know. Was it wasn't God fearing? Oh, you're a knucklehead? I'm a bad knucklehead.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you were a bad knucklehead. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I was on my own since I was 14.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, no.

SPEAKER_00

From a 14 or runaway, product of the streets. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Really? Yeah. See, I don't I not that I don't sense you're not tough, but I definitely don't see that in you today. Good. Yeah. You just totally Okay. Um, do you care if I unpack that a little bit? Um you can. Okay. Personally you're on the pod. No, I mean, no, I just mean like, do you think it do you think it do you think something about your upbringing groomed you into being such a sharp business person today?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Okay. I think there's two things. I think athletes have it, and I think people with my past have it. I think one is the ability to read the room and trust. Um, I'm forced to assess quickly and trust my intuition. Yeah. So that's um that's one A. One B, the sh the drive to succeed. I don't want um, even with my kids, I don't want them to experience anything I've ever experienced. And then um, but that's the that drive is there. But the um, but how it's channeled has definitely changed. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

No, no. Listen, you're you're preaching on the choir. I mean, I didn't, you know, I grew up with a single mom and we really struggled. We were on welfare. Yeah. Um, you know, I was in foster homes. Yes, you get it. 100%. And and and you know, I didn't have to run away, but but she was never home. I basically raised myself, you know. And my biggest, my biggest hurdle growing up, Ed, was was my temper. Yeah, same. Yeah, it was awful. And then I was and I'm and you know, you look like a capable dude. I was a big strong dude by the time I was 15. Right. You know, I was 200 pounds of muscle. And uh, you know, so I would it was it was scary. And even though I didn't mean to be scary, I was. And uh every t I will tell you this, every time I lost my call, I hated myself.

SPEAKER_00

Same. It's the worst. It's like a blackout almost. Yeah, yeah. And then the regret and the shame after. It's it's yeah. I used to brag about it because that's how I dealt with stuff like that. I would just brag and boast about those kind of episodes, but now, like obviously looking through the rearview mirror of experience is yeah, definitely not not my highlight.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, no, no, for sure. Um so I think I I'm fascinated how you because I always talk about athletes, right? And I guess I guess you're right. I go people that have had some trauma in a troubled past. Agreed. It's interesting how it can, it can you can end up in a basement somewhere or some crack house or something, right? Like for sure, and and you hear those stories, but God, it can make you it can turn uh coal into a diamond.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, resilience, man. It's the that hunger. You can't teach it, right? And I either and and I was talking to a few entrepreneurs recently, um, and we're talking about like that that what what molds you so athletes have it because I think from like that 14 to 18, those that muscle memory of like that kind of grind is like do you have it or do you not, especially for entrepreneurship. Yeah, yeah, right. You gotta have the stomach for it. Yeah, but it's repetition, it's muscle memory, it's it's hustle, it's day in, day out, it's the extra hours, it's getting up early, it's going to bed late. It's those two things only happen from three three three things. Parents were entrepreneurs where they get it, and they somehow are in the family business, small business, athletes, or trauma. Trauma.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Trauma. Well, for fortunately, we didn't end up being long-term knuckleheads.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Just short-term knuckleheads. We may be talking a little bit different.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, no doubt. Um, you know, I remember one of the biggest learning moments I ever had came from high school football. Yeah. I was I was the uh starting quarterback, right? And I returned punts and I returned kicks. And uh, but there was one day in double sessions, and I was a really good athlete. I was in shape, and we did our exercising in the morning, yeah, and then we did like our classroom film session for a couple of hours, like going over plays on a big screen. And then we had to get stand up to go to our second practice of two days. Two days, yeah. And my legs, I couldn't even, I couldn't even stand up. Right. It was that bad, right? But I remember I stood up and I remember walking down the stairs, it was a brutal pain. Brutal. No, no, physically galactic acid. Yeah, yeah, right. I was like, and I remember just thinking to myself, I'm like, does anybody else feel like this right now? I was like, what a little you know, bitch I am. And I remember I just toughed it out. I just I fucked, I just went and did it. I just figured out a way to run. I just figured out a way to throw a ball, but then the next day it was gone. It was gone, yeah. It was gone, right? So so you're so right. Athletes just they go through that to where, yeah, you're not gonna feel great every day, but you still gotta do it.

SPEAKER_00

Just get up and do it anyway. Put on your shoes. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01

That's entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, yep, 100%.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's entrepreneurship. So, so um uh I know what what is it you specifically want to promote today? I want to unpack that.

SPEAKER_00

Um, you know what? I think there's two things. I have uh I have a new pod, and I'm I'm brand new to the club. So the I already have sponsors, it's already paying for itself. Um I'm like I said, I'm making profit. I'm about a thousand plus an episode just good for you from day one. So amen. Yeah, but it's mainly just because of relationships and we've already made money. Yeah. So it's kind of like uh it's a guy sponsoring my partner and blah, blah, blah. He actually lives here in Miami. But the um the but the idea is one to I I think the more I get on that from entrepreneurs, my services will naturally start selling themselves. Yeah. Um, but I think for me, it's really like my podcast is called Pain Points, because I'm talking about the pain points of growing and developing business and things that no one talks about. Yeah, right. Um, and then the second piece of it is um what I'm really promoting, like I said, is my virtual staffing, my AI, and my business solutions. But it's uh, and and that's kind of why I'm doing the podcast too, because I'm not a rah-rah guy. You and my partner are actually really similar. You got charisma for days, super connectors, um, great spirits. Uh I mean, love it. Thank you. And I'm kind of more behind the scenes, right? Because um, I'm not like um I don't I don't really talk about making millions. I don't really talk about that kind of stuff. I don't really, but it's I know it, but entrepreneurs tend to attract to that. So I'm trying to stay true to myself and attract that business, but do it in a way that's that's staying right size for me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, that's that's interesting. That that's something that I've always struggled with too. So this is my personal opinion, and I know I'm gonna annoy some people out here that say this, but I don't like it when the guy has his watch and he has his steering wheel and it says Lamborghini or whatever cool car he's driving, and he takes a photo of it and he says something on his Instagram about just whatever tackling the day. Yeah, I think that's so tacky. Same. I can't stand it. Same now. If somebody sees me in one of my nice cars and it's truly accidental, I'm recording content and maybe it's me getting up. If it's organic and it's authentic, I'm okay with it, but you will never see me intentionally show a Rolex where I live. I will show off my beautiful wife. Yeah, I will tell you that. But other than that, I don't show off anything.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Right? Same. Yeah. Yeah, even sometimes like the other day, like I did a staycation at the at the Ritz Fort uh for Lauderdale just with my wife just for a couple days because I've been gone for two weeks. And it was like I'm almost, do I even tag this? Like because I want to just record the memory and just say staycation with my wife. But if are people gonna take it as flexing, or are people gonna take it like I'm just enjoying my wife? So it's kind of weird, like even that mindset, but like you're saying, I'm not doing it for that motive. Yeah, I'm doing it just to record archive for history. I want to look back at this 10 years from now, say, oh yeah, we did that staycation that we connected, had this great moment, yeah, right? But it's not like I'm like up there with like a you know a hundred thousand dollar watch and you know, like lounging out over the like showing a caviar or something like that, too, right? I'm just kind of it's just the moment I'm trying to capture.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so it's interesting because there's a there's a dichotomy here of tackiness, but then also there is an element of status to it too. So so I was I was at this event, it was a uh you know who Patrick Brad David is? I'm bad with names, but he's just like uh well, I don't want to say just, I don't want to minimize him. Um he has one of the I think they've had six billion views on YouTube. Oh wow, okay. Huge, and he has a huge entrepreneurial following. Okay, talks business, politics, sold his insurance company for $250 million. Awesome guy. So I'm part of his community, and I'm in his network, and we went to this cool private dinner at Casa D'Angelo's in Fort Lauderdale. Okay. And, you know, every guy's kind of dressed up, got a jacket, everybody's got a Rolex, and if not, even higher grade watches.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And, you know, I drive up in my, you know, couple hundred thousand dollar vehicle, and every other vehicle there was I was on the lower level.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they're like Rolls-Royce. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, my buddy John rolls up in his $700,000 custom Rolls-Royce. So, yeah, so all of these cars are extremely, you know, high value. Yeah. And one of the things they did in this community is they were taking videos of all the cars, like, hey, check out this dinner tonight. Look at the vehicles here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't do it, but that was something they did. Yeah. I can't drive up in a Toyota Camry.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know what I'm saying? Like, so I don't care about my two vehicles that are a couple hundred thousand dollars that I have. I actually don't care about them like that. Yeah. But but I can't be seen growing up in a Honda 1992 Honda Civic.

SPEAKER_00

Well, a lot of it's proximity and it's also like you're you're who you're around, right? It's kind of like the social circles change a lot of things.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_00

When I'm talking, when I'm dumbing it down, like when even when roofing, like when I'm uh I've never been on a roof in my life, right? But I'm in 11 states in roofing. That's my focus this year, growing my roofing companies. Yep. But I don't show up in in like a I show up, I show up in a Dodge RAM because I I don't want to show up in like, you know, even like a TRX or something like that's way too high grade for homeowners and other roofers.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right? It's like you gotta almost meet people where they're at. So yeah, so you're absolutely correct. Proximity and that you have to. I mean, it's and it's also fun, right? It also lets you for me, and I I don't know if you ever got this, um, up until two Super Bowls ago, three Super Bowls ago, it was my first time I've I didn't feel like imposter syndrome, right? I was looking to the left, I saw like uh I saw uh the breaking bad crew, I saw some Olympians to the right, and I'm I'm at the 40-yard line, you know, and I'm just like I deserve to be here. But until then, it was kind of like I almost felt like when I was in these circles or these gatherings, and especially people that talk in B's, I still talk in M's. You know what I mean? It's like um it's I just almost I had this imposter syndrome growing up because of where I come from. It was the first time ever in my life that I felt okay, right? And to and to be in that in those circles and do whatever, I think there is a a certain joy, like like you know, an acceptance that's saying, hey, I'm I'm it's okay to to celebrate success.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think there's I don't think there's uh enjoying success and celebrating success is wonderful. Yeah. And I would encourage it, but I also think trying to like one up other people is uh is something I wouldn't encourage.

SPEAKER_00

That's the tacky part you're saying.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's the tacky part, right? Because what it's actually doing is it's the flip. It's actually showing insecurity. Yeah. Wouldn't you agree?

SPEAKER_00

I a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so if the guy's going like this. With his Rolls Royce or whatever in his Rolex. It's one thing if you're if you're the rock or whatever, go right ahead. You're pr I get it. You're promoting your movie or whatever the heck it is. Maybe you can get away with it. But just, you know, Joe, entrepreneur who's made a couple million bucks selling insurance every year, it's a little tacky. Like, like let your let your business do the talking. And sure, people are accidentally going to see you in this in that anyway. Yeah. That's security. The other stuff just reeks of insecurity. 100%.

SPEAKER_00

And I think like a lot of that bragging stuff, it's not even bragging. Like I was talking the other day, like I was, I had yesterday I was doing a pod um with this entrepreneur that does government contracts. And we were talking about like, you know, our first like million dollar profit month or something like that, right? We don't have to, or even day, right? We it's you say stuff like that in passing, like nonchalantly. It's not a flex, it's just, but that shows success. You don't have to say, look at all the money I made or exiting. Although people want to know that you've done it. Why are they gonna follow people that never done it? Iron sharpens iron, yeah, but sometimes you need iron next to you, right? And so there's that also, like it's uh you have to let people know where you come from, where you're at, because how else are they gonna know to follow? Yeah, right. So there's it's it's a weird balance, but I think it's uh yeah, it's always it's still a little awkward for me because I don't let people in on that level. Yeah, right. So the thing about the pod, like what you do, you you you're you're exposing yourself, you're opening yourself up to everybody. For sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Oh, lots of comments and yeah, negative, good and bad, right? Oh no, mostly negative. A lot of trolls, I'm sure. Oh my god. Well, I just always look at the like comment ratio, you know. It's like I already got 500 likes. Eight negatives are negative of that, you know. Negatives actually draw the conversation, at least. I no, no, exactly. I do try to draw them out a little bit. Like if somebody comments something crazy, I will say, Are you AI? Are you a bot? To try to encourage. You know what my move is? You know what my move is? I love this. Uh-huh. I shouldn't give out my secrets. Okay. But if somebody says, I don't know, like maybe I write something on the board and I talk about, you know, building this successful company, somebody might comment, oh, you're full of shit, you haven't done nothing, you're talking to an empty room, and there's fucking 30 people in here. Who cares? Yeah. But they say, Oh, you're not doing nothing, you're talking to an empty room, you've never done anything. Let's say that's the comment. Sometimes I'll respond, you know, uh, hey brother, I wish you nothing but the best. I just want to let you know, I hope things turn around for you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Right? Yeah, I do the same. And then they respond, what do you mean turn around for me? I'm like, I'm like, well, you're sitting at home commenting on another grown man's social media. I just want to let you know. I'm rooting for you. I hope things turn around for you. Anyone that's commenting is clearly not in a wonderful place. I highly doubt Tom Brady or Elon Musk or someone hyper successful are negatively commenting on some random dude's social media.

SPEAKER_00

They're just passing it on to the next, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Right? Yeah, you know? So yeah. Um that's funny. So how many podcasts have you done now?

SPEAKER_00

I've done ten. Wow. Yeah, I have all posted, all two posted, eight in eight in the hopper rating. Oh, cool. Probably about like 10 shorts. We do like six shorts a week. Cool. So yeah, so I'm just starting. Um, but uh the idea, like I said, is that um, because in the in the lead generation and marketing space, uh got a huge name, right? Um I have uh two of my companies in the Inc. 212, like top 200, like every year. Wow. And it's like and that's not and that's and that's cool.

SPEAKER_01

Which in the Inc. 500 or Inc.

SPEAKER_00

5000, but Inc. Inc. 200, if you want to, if you want to do that. So the um, but the point in that is is that like even my sponsorships and those kind of things, I can get through mass text, right? I can drum up business just through um, hey, let's do something. But in the roofing space, it's a good old boys club, and I'm not part of it.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And it's so it's kind of weird. Uh I've never re-invented myself twice in the same space. Everything I've ever done last uh like last year with all 18 companies, never did anything like I'd done before previously. I've never re-invented myself twice in the same category. But this one is actually weird for me because it's the first brick and mortar blue collar kind of business that I started.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And it's uh and and all these guys, like you just you just mentioned, like what I don't like to do, like uh I'll come in like when we first met, I'm I'm with shorts and a t-shirt and maybe a $20,000, $60,000, $100,000 watch. Who knows? Maybe my watch is definitely the most expensive thing on me 90% of the time. And it's uh, but that's normally how I dress. But that the the that that that industry, uh, those guys making quick money, never been there before, they follow that stuff, and that's not who I am. So how do I showcase that I know what I'm talking about? I understand scale, I understand exits, I understand um leveraging money, uh cash flow issues, yeah, um org flows, um, teaching systems, processes, without saying, hey, rah-rah. And so I figure this was the way for me to stay true to myself. I agree. And and make that impact.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, good for you for doing it. Yeah, so doing it, yeah. I don't think people realize I I don't think there's a business in the world that shouldn't do a podcast. Yeah. Everybody needs a platform, everybody needs a voice, um you know, and and it gives you an opportunity to meet people.

SPEAKER_00

And I think you learn stuff. Like I have a my guy yesterday, for instance, he's documented the the entire process. So he exited one company already for nice substantial return. And this time he's looking at a nine, ten figure exit. And so what he's doing is he's documenting the entire thing. And mainly so he can just give back to his like proteges or people he hadn't even met. So he wants to show the entire process to everyone who wants to replicate the process later. Wow. And it's so, and I thought that was kind of endearing, right? Because I like the um and you're in your same way, uh, like and that's what actually connected us, like, you know, initially was the the the God fearing kind of thing, yeah, but also the lack of scarcity mindset. I and I I I preach it all the time, but very few people live by it. Most business owners are like, what can I get from this? And what I love about your company and your culture is that it's not it, I I never felt that walking in. And I don't have that, but it's uh, but for that's really doing it, right? That's like saying, hey, I'm gonna take the time to show everybody the most intimate pieces, my failures, my successes. Yeah, and then so if anyone wants to replicate, here, here, here's the here's the roadmap and here's the blueprint, right? That never that changed my mindset because I I'm so that's I'm actually thinking about now doing tutorials on organizational flows, on what's CAC versus CPA, uh, what's gap accounting principles, what are things you need to know, how to leverage uh cash in business, how to um, you know, how to uh corporate structure, tax structure when you when you're starting companies, when to change, you know, because those things you don't it's no one teaches. Well, I think what happens in most business owners, at least in my case, is you kind of get to a certain level when you run out of peers. You you're blessed because you have a lot of them. Um I I I just remember as I was getting more successful, I looked to all my friends or people I did business with weren't in the same category. I'm like, what do I how how do I what what do I do for taxes? How do I, you know, yeah what I do with this extra money? I didn't have any of that like support.

SPEAKER_01

No, it's fashion so just just to clear the air on that, this new network that I have, it's it's two years old. Yeah. Two and a half years old. This is a new network. Yeah um and there's a lot of reasons for it. But yeah, no, I didn't have it. It is nice to have now. I I will say that. There, um, you know, I got a got a I have a guy for asset protection. You know, if I need to really button up the you know, pants there and you know, button up the jacket there when it comes to asset protection, I got a guy for that. So yeah, your your network is everything. It's it's not just the money you can receive from people by doing transactions and referring people, it's it's really the access to knowledge. Yeah. Because I don't know a whole lot about a lot. I I know about stuff in my lane, but I know I know a little about a little, right? I mean it. I love the humility, yeah. No, seriously, I I know a little about a little, but uh, but I it doesn't I'm not insecure about it. And I know if I gotta, you know, I'm just motivated and determined, and you know, but but I understand the access to knowledge is is just as valuable as the access to a transaction.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's all like uh Tony Robbins says this all the time, and like I say, it's uh he says, you know, Bill Gates is Bill Gates because his parents were on the board for IBM. Now, he probably would have been extremely successful, but proximity means everything, right? It doesn't mean that it doesn't mean you're worse than or less than, but you look look at your circles, that's where you're going. Right? If you're hanging around, um, you know, we're talking about some humble beginnings, if you're hanging around a bunch of knuckleheads, that's probably where you're ending up. If you're hanging around entrepreneurs, grinding, doing it, it's probably where you're ending up. Uh successful athletes, you're probably going to the gym doing two days, doing what you got to do, right? Proximity does everything. It exposes you to things, collapses time frames in ways that you never would have been exposed to otherwise.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, I was joking around with my wife yesterday, uh, because I like to have a good time. I I don't drink very often anymore, but uh, it's not like I'm anti.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I might here and there, and I'll have a few and I'm fine, you know, but I'm easily influenced by the right person. Yeah. Does that make sense? It does. I love that. You know, if somebody, you know, has a nice smile and they're fun. I'm like, eh, you see like a good time. You know, I'm very influenced by my circle. Right. You know, but if I'm around, you know, my other circles and you know, they don't drink, they don't do other things, crazy things. And uh and the other cool thing too is, you know, they're all they all treat their wives with respect. To me, I I I evaluate a man heavily on how he treats his significant other.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's what's weird about like where I just came from this weekend. Uh there's people that I met for the first time ever, within two minutes of meeting them, talking about cheating on their wives, and and and like, you know, and I know they're successful in their own right, but I have no desire to do business with stuff like that. I think that's the common denominator. I was talking to my wife about this the other day. That if any of my friends with if somebody said they cheated on their wife, I wouldn't believe them because their actions are like it has to be a rumor because none of their actions can they don't conduct themselves in a way that would make you even think that. But but these people actually led with the chin, almost like a bragging, look what I got away with, but right right out the gate. I mean, no trust, no nothing, just almost like a badge of honor.

SPEAKER_01

So it is and I know that I've seen those circles, yeah, and I've been in them. And and uh and every time I was in those circles, I I never felt right. Yeah, you know, I never felt right. Now, now not that we're relationship experts here, yeah. Okay, but if if somebody came to me, if a man is cheating on his wife, the only time I would say it's okay is if the relationship is on the outs.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm not saying it's okay, but it's clear there's a divide, you're going towards divorce, the relationship's over. I kind of okay, I understand that. Vice versa, I understand the marriage has been dead for six years, you're looking for a reason to be divorced, you're sleeping with some other man at work, as a woman, obviously. I kind like, okay, but here's what I'm not cool with. You're tell your wife you love her, you tell your husband you love them, um, you're committed to them, you have a family. Um, and and that guy, if that guy is out and about as a badge of honor, I I think he's a low life scum. Yeah. Same. But I un but but you under kind of understands.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, when the horse when the horse is dead, when the horse is dead, dismount, right? They're dragging that horse, everyone knows the horse is dead. Yeah. They're just they're just dragging it across the finish line, which everyone knows is ending in separation. But I think that's different than two parties knowing we're done, yeah. And then going off and conducting your life in such a way versus you know, there's there's two values of it. There's a Christian value, but there's also just the real life, the realistic thing. But I think that's two adults knowing that they're moving on. Right. And everyone knows that you're moving on. It's not there's no there's no stage character. There's not this, there's not this uh dress rehearsal or this uh like like stage character of like the look who I pretend to be.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00

This double life. I'm proud to be faithful to my wife. Very proud.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm sprung. Me too. God bless, dude. I love it. Yeah, me too, dude. Are you kidding me? Do you think I could ever think I could ever find another Alexis? No way could I ever pull this off again.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know if anyone could put up with my crazy. I mean, it's just like you have to you especially for entrepreneurs, man. We need a special woman to kind of back up the the amount of dedication and time commitment that these things take.

SPEAKER_01

Do you do you not to get too personal with you, but do you is your uh how much do you attribute your wife's support to your success today?

SPEAKER_00

Exponential. It's uh but it's also like what what I love about my wife, and this is actually when I proposed. Um I think it's really easy to show up in Sunday's best when everything's going great. I think true character shows up in calamity, right? Do I have this set of principles? Do I act this way when times are hard? And what I was blessed that when we were early on, before I was an entrepreneur, that that she backed me when um when I had my first struggle, not knowing if I was gonna make rent that week, kind of thing. And um and she and she and she tightened the belt and did what she had to do. So for me, when I proposed, I knew that this was a lady I can get down with, like for better or for worse, is for real. Right. So now that there is success and she's watching my kids and I don't stress about the home life, and I can go out and leave country on a dine, knowing that she says, babe, go do what you gotta do. You know, I of course, I mean, I would never be able to do the things I'm doing with uh without her support. Same token. Um, I probably um I don't want to get in, I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but she didn't do it. Say it out loud. Well, I always said if we did, I always told her, babe, if we ever get divorced and you took half, I'd probably be better off. Because at the same time, like now that we have success, she has no problems spending, right? But but the point is she says she's baby, she goes, I'm just letting you live up to your potential. That's what she's telling me. Exactly. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, no, but it's but it's fun though. It's fun to share in the successes, and it's also um having somebody to be there when it's hard because our entrepreneur isn't always easy. Uh, last two years for me, I I keep joking, it's actually real. I say twice the work, half the pay. Now, good news for me, half the pay is still 99.9% of America would would take it. Yeah, you know, um, but it's hard, but it's it's a struggle for me, you know. I had a I had to shut down a few companies last year. Good news is I was able to save all but one employee through other companies, but let through legislation or things changing um just in general, not not to my not not from running a business bad, just because laws changing, it shut it crippled some of my biggest businesses.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And um, but once again, it's like my wife's there to support me as I re-invent myself.

SPEAKER_01

So talking about evolving businesses and how much business is changing, let's talk about one of your other businesses. Okay, virtual assistants, yeah, virtual staffing. Virtual staffing, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Well, one of the things that um I've noticed recently uh over the last two, three years is business gets harder, right? And um, and I needed to find solutions for myself besides AI, and it's kind of like how do I reduce cost in in the marketing space, for instance, because of AI and a lot of the market my margins went down, right? It's like uh the the good the ad space, Google Meta got highly saturated. Um the the the amount to produce quality leads went up, and the amount of yield, my my margins get smaller and smaller, especially with hiring staff, right? Um same in roofing, right? It's like when we when I don't have good months, when there's no storm and no rain and people don't think they have a leak, you know, I still have all my operational cost, right? I can't I can't fire people when times are down and then trying to rehire when when the first storm hits. And so what I had to figure out really quickly is how do I reduce operational cost with talent and when times are good, make my EBITDA and margin higher, but when times are down, not dig it in my piggy bank to keep the business afloat. And so what I started doing was doing it for my own companies. And I started it in marketing, affiliate marketing, bookkeeping, um, any of my operational besides CFO, I started taking overseas. And then I started as I started opening companies overseas, I'm like, well, crap, I can offer the same services to my competition. And so virtual staffing, I was the guinea pig for all of my companies first. And then what happened shortly after that is then I was like, okay, this is actually a business model. And um, so I do something a little different in virtual staffing. Yes, I can do call centers, yes, I can give you uh an assistant that answers the phone. But for me, small business isn't that small business, you need somebody that's nimble, right? Like if you if somebody's used to corporate structure and you say, hey, this is my role, and give them this box to fit in, if people come from corporate, that's what they need. But small business is like, I need you to do this, I need you to wear maybe two or three hats. Eventually you get big enough where you need a structured org chart. But small business is almost like a swivel, right? It's it's it has to be nimble, flexible, dynamic. Yeah, and so if I don't hire the right person, I I find I'm gonna put them in a position to fail because most people, especially international, want to be put in this box. So I had to figure out two things. One, how to find people that were Americanized, which is why I don't do Philippines. I have Philippine people, but it's mainly for the mundane tasks. Okay, but I need people that think like me or Americans that that are innovative, that can change, that understand our culture. And that's where I started going to Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil because near shore, same time zone, but also very the Spanish culture. People don't trip out on Spanish accents, they trip out on India, Pakistan.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, good yeah, you're so right. Yeah, I never thought about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you hear a Spanish accent in Miami, you're like you you figure it's gonna be Spanish.

SPEAKER_01

I inter I interviewed uh uh the other day a brilliant woman, a Brazilian woman. Yeah, freaking worked at Microsoft, super high-level exec. She had a thick accent, but you're so right. Didn't even when I thought about her communicating with clients, I was like, Oh, she'd be fine. Yeah, she'd be fine. You're so right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And so even my COO for my roofing company for all 11 states, the the person who built out my last SaaS product is in Colombia. And so what we've started doing is not just hiring for these positions, but but finding out the exact skill set you're looking for, and then more importantly, giving them to the to our competition or to our clients, as well as month-to-month contracts. Because I mean as a business owner, I hate contracts. Because I'm like, if if your service is good, I'll never lose, you never lose me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So any of the products I sell is are all month to month because um I feel like if it's not working, I don't want to hold your feet to the fire, and I'm not desperate enough for the next sale. So that was that's what got me into using remote talent. But now the the thing about these, this, this culture, it makes me almost sometimes embarrassed to be American because they work hard, they're giving them a doctor's wage at 20% of what you'll pay someone here for. They're proud, that they they don't complain, you know, they show up every day, you know, and then they're like, What can I what else can I do? You know, versus like this uh American culture, especially with a lot of the new generation, the TikTok money is like you owe me, they're entitled, and um, and they feel like the right of pat just because they were born, they deserve this six-figure salary. And um, I give someone international a $50 spiff, you know, they're never leaving me. Yeah, you know. I give someone fifty dollars here, they're like, Oh, thanks for the lunch, you know, instead of the uh attitude of gratitude, they're just once again like, is that it? And so now when I open up a company, my operational back end is all remote. And the two things that it does, once again, like in roofing, for instance, um, when um this is a great example in seasonality of business. In in the Midwest states, I can't put on a roof when it's sub-40. And which means I can't fire my operations. But what's happening is before, if I was not using virtual staffing, I would I would literally either have to A shut down my business for six months, yeah, or B um re heavily reduce staff for those six months or have them um find another job for the six months. Now I lose nothing. When it's profitable, I'm making a hell of a lot more. Yep. And and during the slow season, I I'm at least breaking even.

SPEAKER_01

What's this is you you touched on something fascinating. Dave, what are you, Ecuadorian? Ecuadorian?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

This dude's work ethic and and commitment and um pride is just different.

SPEAKER_00

It is. He has a different swagger to him.

SPEAKER_01

Just different. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Even talking to him outside, it was a different swagger.

SPEAKER_01

He's so he's so proud. Yeah. And you know what? Like, uh sometimes he'll stay late with me and work with me, and I'm always I feel bad. Because technically he's nine to five, you know, and and I may Him stay to like seven or eight, or sometimes I'm like, Hey, I need some weekend work. But I always say to him, I go, dude, go buy yourself a steak.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I go, just send me the receipt, we'll pay you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And you know what? He always goes to like the outback steakhouse.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm like, Dave, when I say go buy a steak, yeah, I mean go to a nice restaurant.

SPEAKER_00

Eddie V's at least.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Finally, he sent me a receipt the other day. Finally, right? I was like, good for Dave. Where'd you go? Where was it? Yeah, it was like, I don't remember the rest, but it was like a few bucks down. It was a real steak, whatever it was, you know, and it was like, I can't remember what the appetizer was. It was like uh not calamari, but grilled octopus, steak, you know, whatever. It was a $150 bill versus like a $50 bill. Yeah. But but I know, but he appreciates it at a totally different level. Yeah. So what's this is what I want to ask you. Is the American worker psychologically destroyed?

SPEAKER_00

I think it depends on the things we were talking about earlier. I tend to look for athletes, um, troubled past because they're hungry, um, or uh people that worked parents who are entrepreneurs, small business because they understand the grind and the hustle. A lot of times small business owners, the kids will work there on the weekends, um, they they work in kiosk, they'll come help their parents. The I mean there it's a family dynamic for most small business, not small business the way we think of small business, but like for 99% of small business in America. So I think those people work ethic is a lot different. Now, the I think I think the thing that I'm more nervous for, especially for my children, I tell them go to trade schools because it's like um that's where this biggest shift of wealth is gonna happen. Electrician, plumber, HVAC, uh AI is never gonna take that over. But I think the it I think the issue with the younger generation is they see TikTok money, they see fast money, they see NIL and sports, they see, but that's that's a a percent of a percent, right? And they come in thinking that that because or or parents, we spoiled them now. My kids, I I always wonder, am I spoiling them too much? Because even for Christmas, they didn't have anything they wanted, right? And I'm like, wow, I remember for me for Christmas, it's like I had a my list was long because anything was nice, right? They're just like we don't need anything, right? Um, I think so. Yes, I do feel like this generation coming in, especially the 30 and under, kind of have this different like expectation, unrealistic expectation of the grind it takes to get there.

SPEAKER_01

I remember um at the former company I used to work with, and I had this girlfriend. And this is this was the first time I understood what you just said. Yeah. It's probably 2015, maybe and uh she was 22 years old, and I used to work for another marketing firm. And she goes, Oh, Eric, you know, I'd I'd love to be uh interviewed at your company. And I go, Oh, okay, well, I go, uh kind of what what's your degree and what's your background? Do you have any work experience? She goes, Oh, no, no, I I have a degree. And I go, Oh, okay, cool, cool. What's what what's your degree in? She said, Oh, marketing and communications. And I said, Okay, okay. I said, Well, here um at our at this company that I work with, uh, you'd be considered entry level. And uh, would you prefer to go into like customer service, marketing, sales? Like, what are you thinking? She's like, Oh, marketing. I go, okay, cool. I'm like, yeah, the entry level there, you're probably looking at, you know, $40,000 or so. It'd probably take you, you know, a year or so to maybe get up to $50,000. Maybe in six or seven years, you become a manager, maybe make $80,000 or so. And she was like, Oh, she's like, I don't think you heard me. I have a degree in marketing. Right. I was like, oh no, this is what's going on in these universities right now. And I don't, I don't mean to call a spade a spade, brother, but you got two options. You can either go into supporting sales, yeah, or you can go into sales. Yeah. Supporting sales, you're not gonna be as compensated as highly. And going into sales, it's gonna be high risk but high reward. Those are your two options in the marketplace. 100%. Do you agree?

SPEAKER_00

I agree. And the good thing about sales, which I love for my salespeople, I always say your raise is effective as soon as you are. But normally in sales, it's uncapped, right?

SPEAKER_01

Damn, I'm gonna steal that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna write that down.

SPEAKER_00

That was good. That was good. That was juicy. But the thing is that you're right. A marketer's support, right? And every company has three legs, right? It's it's ops, which is uh supply, finance, and then sales, which is demand. If if you're not in one of those top of those three-legged stool kind of thing, man, you can't demand what you what your worth isn't there, right? But supply is support is uh valid in a business, but not not that support, right? You're like you said, it's entry-level. And I think the expectation, but but the difference is if she would have gone to a trade school to do HVAC, she would make $200,000 first year. Should she would grind it out in the summer, she may work 60-hour days, but she come out of school with no debt and you know, well into the six-figure income. But that's but that's the difference. Um coming out with a degree nowadays means nothing. Everyone has a degree, you know, and then and then the evolution and the shift and the change. And that's kind of the thing about like the overseas things. Like Argentina, there's free education, you know, and people speak English better than we do, proper English, right? And it's like uh, and would I rather rather hire a marketer there and pay $2,000 a month for somebody that would be uh a VP level here, you know, or I'd rather somebody that's gonna balk at $40,000, $50,000 at an entry level with no experience, you know, and then you but pretty much got to train them to get to that $50, 60, 80k, right? You're molding them, you're giving them an education uh real time and they're complaining about it. They have no skill, you know, and it's uh theory in college is an application, right?

SPEAKER_01

I think so. Listen, college to me, sorry guys, but um here's my opinion on college. The biggest crocus shit I ever hear when people tell me they went to they they're choosing to go to college or they've graduated from college, is I say, Well, why why did you go to college? And we said, Well, I felt like I had to to get a degree to get a job. And I said, Well, I go, now you're $120,000 in debt. I go, you know what you could have done? You could have bartended and waited tables and maybe been um, you know, maybe shadowed a real estate person for a few years and saved up a bunch of money and maybe saved $60,000 and actually have some entrepreneurial experience versus being $120,000 in debt. Do you actually think you have an advantage today at 22 going to college? And the the one thing that people always say to me, well, it was also the experience. I go, okay. I go, so uh you could have just taken a job in Mexico or taken a bartending job uh in Italy somewhere and you know, backpacked across Italy if you want experience. Yeah, like you're taking out $120,000 to go party on college campus. Yeah, that's experience. Like, we are not preparing kids for the real world in, you know, when they step out of college at age 20, 22. They are so unequipped for for what's going on in this uh business landscape, it's it's alarming.

SPEAKER_00

I agree. And even like uh now now it's different if you're gonna be a doctor or an engineer or different things that a degree is required, and you know that, hey, I'm this is the lane. But um, but I also think it's um, you know, and I and I always wonder if we're giving our kids a disservice. My kid right now, I guess in Florida you can work at 14, and my 14-year-old wants to get a job. And then my wife's like, Well, no, I want you to go on vacations with us and I want you to do this. And I'm thinking, I wouldn't mind you getting some work ethic, or maybe pressure washing around the neighborhood. Do they have to know? But I like that kind of hustle, like we're saying, this is the pivotal, he's not in sports, so this is a pivotal time to learn those habits, right? And um, so are we preparing our kids? I mean, we already have uh our college funds and all that stuff set aside, but the reality is that what if they don't go to college? You know what I mean? And um, and but I I think it's good, yeah. I mean, but to your point, I agree. I think mostly college is what I just said earlier, it's the proximity. I think if it's for networking, I think it's um if you uh can afford to go or your parents can afford, and you kind of got that cush job waiting for you when you're out, which is a limited amount of America, once again through proximity, um, or you know what you want to do. But yeah, for the most part, uh like I said, I would I would go to if I was gonna start over, I would go to trade school and open up an HVAC company five years later.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like when my when my daughter uh goes to school eventually, you know, she's uh my wife is six months pregnant, right? Then my daughter eventually goes to college here.

SPEAKER_00

Have you already checked the boyfriend in your head?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yeah. Oh yeah. But if she goes to Yale, yeah, yeah, I'm also gonna tell her, I'm like, listen, Sophia, make sure you network with those kids over there because their parents are somebody I really want to meet, right? There there is an element to college itself being great networking. Yes, but I don't know if parents actually prepare children for that concept either. Yeah. Because it is amazing networking.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

But they don't think like that. No. You know?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

They don't think like that.

SPEAKER_00

Um and of course, my I'm fine with my kids going. Um, I'm fine with uh using that funds for the first house if they hit certain KPIs or milestones in their life or whatever instead of in lieu of. But the but yeah, but I think I think they're not prepared. I I I agree with you. I think the coming coming in blind and no expectation. It's like Socrates' thing, don't go into war not knowing what it means to win.

unknown

Right?

SPEAKER_00

Why are we if why are we in Afghanistan? Why are we in Iran? Why if you don't define it, you're never gonna win the war. I think college and life in general, define what it means to win. Why what's the motive for this? Yeah, and if you can't answer, then you're just blindly going in. Oh God, you just talked to war.

SPEAKER_01

Like I had to stop why I just had to stop watching the news. I don't even watch much of the news anymore, anyway. Same. But you're so right, definition of a war. It's it's uh yeah, you gotta define it. I like that. So who so who should hire you? Is it entrepreneurs, is it big businesses, SMBs? Like who who should hire uh your virtual staffing company?

SPEAKER_00

I think anyone looking to reduce cost. Um, I think the enterprise are fun because we can do AI. We have AI bots, AI answering services, um, we have uh C-level, entry level, uh big floors that can reduce, um, up to the small guy trying to grow. I mean, like uh, I know for me in roofing companies, I've been hiring lately one marketer because they can't afford a marketing budget quite yet, like for your type of services. But if they don't have operations, no matter what you send them, they they they they don't have the copy-paste repeat systems to follow up. So I can give them a COO for like $2,000, $3,000 a month.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And now they build out all the SOPs, the automation, the KPI reporting, and they train everyone back in from that point forward to allow the business owner to grow in scale. So the answer is both, but it's two for obviously very different questions. Uh, a corporate structure, they define the role, the functionality, and this is specifically what I need. Then we can we know to go out and hunt and fulfill that exact ask, right? If you need a call center with 500 seats and this and the other, and floor managers and training, we know exactly what that looks like. The problem with the small business, which is what we're also good at, is identifying and uncovering and discovering what it is you're really asking for and where your org flow needs to flow and where your next level of growth is coming from. I think being an entrepreneur that has scaled companies from uh 100,000 to a million to five to 20 to 50 to 100, it's done it multiple times, it's really easy for me to navigate that and my team can as well. So I think that's the uniqueness of it. It's almost uh hurt me in some ways because we are so boutique, but I think it's uh rewarding for me because uh it allows me to uh offer a service that's actually beneficial for my end buyer.

SPEAKER_01

Do you ever have um like an American business owner? Let's say he's got, I don't know, insurance agency, 100 employees, and he's trying to reduce cost. Do they ever fly down to Brazil or or wherever here in South America to they want to see the operation a little bit? Sometimes, yeah. And it's fun.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um sometimes I even uh I've had people that go down there to to explore, and I've also had people that um once they hire people, we invite them on our quarterlies or our yearlies where they can come out and do our events and meet their and meet their staff. Some of them have visas where they can actually come here. People fly them here for events or different functions. Most don't. It's hard to get a visa to the US when you see how privileged we are. We could travel anywhere pretty much.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so we create the opportunity that when we do when we throw these events abroad, they're more than welcome to attend and meet their staff.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So some people actually uh do that as well.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I'm I'm curious. So to anybody listen out there, when you say call center, is it customer service, account management? Is it also cold calling?

SPEAKER_00

It's all um. Yeah, so right now I have an AI tech that's actually a dialer, but it can also you can also put agents on and it blows everything out of the water, and it's uh exponentially less than what it will cost me telephony. Um like uh like for me, if I have like three agents on the phone, let's say internationally, my telephony cost is more than my hourly cost for my virtual staff. But now with AI, that's actually less, right? But the but the point is it's like we can do PCI, meaning taking payments over the phone, we can do cold calling, we can do uh speed to lead, we can do after hour services, we can do lead nurturing, um, or we can just do tech support and like um it's all different kinds of functionality for overseas. And that's what I mean. The usually bigger companies have have a script, a CRM, um, a specific function they're trying to do.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And we don't have to like grow the whole thing out. Even my AI, I I build out for free, right? I say just pay me um if you like it, right? If it's a big company, I'll just do it, I'll just absorb absorb the cost. Yeah, yeah. Um and then this way they're not fronting out like however much money that is. But the the point is is that the um it's really just a use case uh on uh the company.

SPEAKER_01

I might uh I appreciate the referral you gave gave us a couple months back. I might have some referrals for you too. Okay, yeah, no, definitely. And it's good for me to know this about you because I can tell my account managers that are dealing with people because what when you get into people's marketing and software development and CRMs as we do, these conversations all come up. Yeah, you know, and a lot of times, here's another interesting thing, maybe we could talk about one of the things I'd like to do is I had this one roofer, and we got him like I can't remember what it was, I don't remember the number, 80 leads in two months, whatever he was spending. Okay, and he was just bleeding the leads. Yeah, one thing I'd like to do is have a call center, yeah, qualify, you know, talk to them, qualify them. I'd be interested in that.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's not even just that, that's that's structure though.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So what do we do in something like that? When somebody says I wanted somebody to handle leads, I'm like, what's your process?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Sometimes they're like, What do you mean by process? Do you have SOPs? Uh people don't even know what an SOP is, right? So what we do a lot of times is we uh I have an AI that will answer the call, text SMS right away, book the appointment, and then but I try I do what's called uh uh like a bullpen almost. So the first thing they come to my international people first, but if he's on the phone or if he's busy, speed delete is everything. So the AI would be the overflow, or if it's after hour, the AI would at least respond and say someone well so we there's at least an interaction, or we're call route it's for subsequential call routing where go to the VP of sales next or something else to hopefully get someone on the phone before the AI picks up.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and but that's a process. So what you're saying, and this is this is the problem with small business. If I if you could do marketing right all day, right, all day, every day, right? It's not that the lead's bad, it's the process. Businesses fail for two reasons people and process, right? And if you don't have the right processes, it doesn't matter what you do in marketing, they're never gonna have the right solution. So this is this is a hard conversation when you were saying small business. That's that's small business. They don't know. They may be the best salesperson they have. Yeah, they understand the product, but they don't know marketing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there's uh I don't you follow Alex Remozzi at all?

SPEAKER_00

I I don't.

SPEAKER_01

No?

SPEAKER_00

I'll I'll bookmark that though.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, he's like the king of internet marketing. Okay, it's not even close. Okay, the king. Gotcha. Put it this way he did a book launch, hundred million dollars he sold in three days. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's absurd. Yeah. Now, don't get me wrong, I think you know, leading up to it, I think he spent 500 grand a day on ads for the last month. Yeah, you know, it cost him probably, I'm sure it cost him 35 million. Yeah, but still, it's obscene. It's a nice return. Oh, yeah, he crushed it. So he's um yeah, he he's the king of marketing right now. And like him and Gary V, I think are the two big notorious names. But anyway, kind of a little bit different niche in a way. I think I think Gary V, I think he talks to the small business, but I think most of his clients are mid-sized and above. Yeah, for sure. Whereas Alex Hermosy is everybody's person. Yeah, you know, um, but he but he's amazing. I would definitely uh dig into some of his content. But he talks about churn.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And and unfortunately, what I've had to realize the hard way is that churn is inevitable. Yes. It's because like I I had a really good client that was banking on there was a 99% chance that this law was gonna change in New York State, and he was there to pick up all the pieces. Yeah, and he was like, you know, getting ready, getting ready, and we're setting up all his marketing last minute, December 31st. The law doesn't pass, yeah. Right? So we helped him a little bit scramble for the next play, but we ended up losing him as a client. Yeah. And or or as a couple as a client, and that has nothing to do with us, yeah, right. So there's just this inevitable churn. How and I'm guess I'm looking for what type of churn, and and this is a vague question, what type of churn do you think is reasonable and what type of churn is unreasonable?

SPEAKER_00

I think I build this into my financial models, and unless you're good for with for more uh performers, I gotta know the numbers. And I always calculate even on something that has low churn, uh, I I just calculate 10% attrition um year over year. Okay, even even in the low risk industries or even month over month. Right? So if I sign 10 clients, I lose one, sign 10 more, lose nine, lose 1.9, right? Because I lost the the the point nine for the month before. So I calculated it into my format. So I calculate my growth and I calculate my loss, attrition. Basically it's saying the same thing as churn.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And um, but I think it it's it's dependent by industry. Like the problem with with with someone like uh like I would say marketing, for instance. Like marketing, when I'm in marketing, I have usually about three buyers that constitute, I hate to say this, but they're probably about 80% of my revenue a lot of the times. Yeah, and I got probably like 50, 60 people that maybe constitute 30, 40, maybe, right? At when I'm lucky, but probably more like 20, 30.

SPEAKER_01

It's a whole other problem to talk about.

SPEAKER_00

The whole other problem. Yeah, and and so the diversification's great, but when I lose one of the bigs, I feel it a lot more than when I lose a little. And um, and like you're saying, sometimes the big, whether it's taking it in-house, uh, attrition, uh, something messed up, uh, law, um consolidation, a divorce, merger. Yeah, you never know. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Divorce, yeah. Divorce is huge, right? Because then now they need the money versus uh using it as a personal ATM versus a business, right? Um, but the point though is that you just never know. I always say a good run with a with the marketing or any company. If I get a year and a half to two year run with any one company, that's for me, that's a good run.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's elite.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I would say that's elite. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think 18 months I consider elite. Same. But I think most of it for whatever reason, and even it can it may not even be like churn attrition, like you lost the client, it could just be reduction of cost. Or let's say, let's say, let's say you do three services and now they do two in-house. Yeah, exactly. You know, so it's it's not the the funds are still being allocated, but just not to you now, right? So for me, it's about diversification, it's about being nimble, it's about knowing the numbers, it's about supply and demand, right? You always got to have that supply chain. And for me, as a business owner, that's uh usually the business owner is the best salesperson.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, no.

SPEAKER_00

So so how do I replace myself? Um, or how do I replace? And that's the that's think that's every business, right? It doesn't matter who you are. Yeah. What I just really love, I I just love mentoring, I love teaching. And I think that's one of the things that we sell a lot of different products, but it's usually ancillary. Like uh, like the AI. Like if if you don't if you don't have the systems, what am I gonna teach AI, right? If you're gonna if you don't have a CRM, you know, why am I gonna um why am I gonna give you an assistant? You need you need an ops person. You know, and and so I what I like what I like about a lot of our products and our suite of products that we offer, uh at least through connecting the dots, is is services that meet your company where you're at. And it's not selling you what's necessarily best for my pocketbook, but selling solutions that that you need for business. And it's uh so we have other products that I don't necessarily push, like insurance and um you know uh general liability, those kind of things and um you know data, call center services, you know, fractional CFOs, fractional APAR for smaller businesses. If I pay someone full staff for a thousand bucks a month you get all three for you know for a thousand bucks a month you get a CFO, an AP, and AR person, right? Because your business is not large enough yet. So I I don't I I just like the fact we can meet companies where they're at regardless of the size.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And it's uh and that's the bad business model because you can't be all things to all people, but I do love the fact that it's solution based selling. Yeah. So that's kind of my target and and um and I love entrepreneurs. I end up mentoring a lot. We end up working together um and you know and you you you know me well enough now that for free and for fun I'll mentor and teach just because I love I love watching people win.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah I love it. And I can tell you got a big heart and uh obviously you have a brilliant mind. It sounds like once you get a client in you you really wrap your tentacles around them with a whole bunch of things. That's smart. The hardest thing to do is as you know is get a client. Yeah. If if you can cross sell them up sell them you know with the right product that makes sense for them got to try to uh monetize your existing client base for sure no doubt but that's the cool thing about like saving money like let's say somebody saves 40% or 80% on staffing right now all of a sudden they can reinvest back in marketing.

SPEAKER_00

Right they're not so cash poor right right they can reinvest in a s in a in a sales rep, the high performing sales rep. They can they can reinvest in the technology and the infrastructure right they're not so they're not they're not check to check trying to bondle and bail and wire a business together. So a lot of things that that's why I started with that is because I feel like that's we can help companies reduce cost. And then secondly how do you reinvest back into your company?

SPEAKER_01

I made decisions um past 35 days and probably restructured about I think it was like 42000 a month. Yeah that's so much money. Like you can do well once again I'm not spending that's not it's just going ooh where can I now reallocce it's more where can I reallocate it right to to make our company more profitable or more streamlined. But but this was fun man I really enjoyed it. Do me a favor Ed um take a look at that camera the handsome face piercing blue eyes and um if somebody wanted to reach out to you first of all who should consider reaching out to you and if they do reach out to you where should they look you up online?

SPEAKER_00

I think anyone over three million a year in top line revenue or more or approaching that is is usually an ideal client for me. You could reach me on connecting dotslc.com or my podcast it has all my social links which is my pain points um it's the same my pain points on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok but the uh but yeah either way I mean reach out and my team or myself um I'll probably be on the call to be honest if you guys have uh any kind of pain points for business growth uh I'll I love working uh belly to belly with uh entrepreneurs awesome guys thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast podcast I am your host Eric Weingard like and subscribe we'll see you again