Everybody it's Brandon Dawson. Welcome back to another episode of Building Billions. I have Dan here with me. This is going to be a great episode, a great podcast, a great YouTube video. However you're hearing it, however you're seeing it, it's going to be great. Nothing like getting entrepreneurs forward thinking. Experts in their space together to talk about how to create, how to build, and eventually how to exit. And I know that's a topic everybody's interested in. So I'm going to introduce my my companion here, my buddy Dan. He's going to tell you who he is, what he does and why we're chatting today. Dan yeah.

Everybody it's Brandon Dawson. Welcome back to another episode of Building Billions. I have Dan here with me. This is going to be a great episode, a great podcast, a great YouTube video. However you're hearing it, however you're seeing it, it's going to be great. Nothing like getting entrepreneurs forward thinking. Experts in their space together to talk about how to create, how to build, and eventually how to exit. And I know that's a topic everybody's interested in. So I'm going to introduce my my companion here, my buddy Dan. He's going to tell you who he is, what he does and why we're chatting today. Dan yeah.

Brandon. Dude, as I was saying before we get on like I am a huge admirer of the work, your pedigree, your history, the collaboration, Cardone ventures, what you've built. So I appreciate the time. Most people know me as a software guy. So I built one of the largest software coaching organization called SAS Academy. So we have over 1000 clients that we coach. I've built and exited three software companies started when I was 17. Fun story that literally software and learning to code saved my life. You know, I was an addict. Ended up in prison twice by Thomas 17 and then learning to write software became my new obsession. And then this year I wrote a book, Buy Back Your Time, that.

Brandon. Dude, as I was saying before we get on like I am a huge admirer of the work, your pedigree, your history, the collaboration, Cardone ventures, what you've built. So I appreciate the time. Most people know me as a software guy. So I built one of the largest software coaching organization called SAS Academy. So we have over 1000 clients that we coach. I've built and exited three software companies started when I was 17. Fun story that literally software and learning to code saved my life. You know, I was an addict. Ended up in prison twice by Thomas 17 and then learning to write software became my new obsession. And then this year I wrote a book, Buy Back Your Time, that.

Yeah. Congratulations. That's right here. It's sitting here. Everybody should check it out a copy.

Yeah. Congratulations. That's right here. It's sitting here. Everybody should check it out a copy.

It's literally selling more copies week over week. It's. And the reason why I think, Brandon, you'd appreciate this, because I see the team you invest in buying back your time. Like a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with this. And I know you help people with that. And it's just been such a critical part of my life to be able to do what I do. And then today I not only have SAS Academy, but I also run $100 million holding company where we buy software companies. So we bought three companies in the last four months. Wow. Yeah. So having a lot of fun. So we can talk about equity capital stacks, you name it. I can go there because that's kind of what I do all day. Yeah.

It's literally selling more copies week over week. It's. And the reason why I think, Brandon, you'd appreciate this, because I see the team you invest in buying back your time. Like a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with this. And I know you help people with that. And it's just been such a critical part of my life to be able to do what I do. And then today I not only have SAS Academy, but I also run $100 million holding company where we buy software companies. So we bought three companies in the last four months. Wow. Yeah. So having a lot of fun. So we can talk about equity capital stacks, you name it. I can go there because that's kind of what I do all day. Yeah.

Well you know we're very interested a little a little sidebar, we are launching Cartoon Equity Group, which is going to be the business acquisition side to complement Cartoon Capital. And and so part of it's going to be venture part of it. It's going to be basically equity. Yeah. Like a fund. Some will be debt. Yeah. But it'd be interesting to talk to you about some some JV stuff because we're I'm a huge tech fan because you can't scale a business without it. In fact, we'll just jump in and start talking about our different experiences. So so let's go to your first business. What kind of tech did you build there.

Well you know we're very interested a little a little sidebar, we are launching Cartoon Equity Group, which is going to be the business acquisition side to complement Cartoon Capital. And and so part of it's going to be venture part of it. It's going to be basically equity. Yeah. Like a fund. Some will be debt. Yeah. But it'd be interesting to talk to you about some some JV stuff because we're I'm a huge tech fan because you can't scale a business without it. In fact, we'll just jump in and start talking about our different experiences. So so let's go to your first business. What kind of tech did you build there.

The first company. So I always ask people like, you know, what was the first business, which would be the business that made it money? Versus how many domains have you bought for projects? Right. So like the first thing that ever made me money was a company called Maritime Vacations. So I grew up in Canada on the East Coast, even though I spent most of my time in the US. And essentially my dad had a cottage and this is 1998, and he wanted a web page because he was sick of answering the same 14 questions when they called, you know, do you accept pets? Is it available these dates? So I told him it cost 200 bucks to to code him a web page, which wasn't true. I mean, it didn't cost me anything. I could have hosted it for free, but I wanted to get a server. So like, I needed the money to pay for like a server that would run the code, this application server back in the day. And so I stayed up till two three in the morning for, I don't know, five, six weeks building this, this website, I built on this programming language. A lot of people wouldn't care. But cold fusion, nobody's heard of it today, but it was actually a pretty cool programming language. So I build this thing, launch it. I got my dad on there, I got no customers, and I'm like, you know, I'm an introverted tech nerd that love to code. And I was talking to my buddy Dave one day and I was like, you know, I built this thing, I need customers. And he was a burnout. And I remember he says to me, he goes, well, who are the customer? I said, anybody with a cottage or a bed and breakfast? And he goes, yo, dude, I think there's like a magazine for those kind of people. And I'm like, what are you talking about, Dave? He's like, there's literally a tourism magazine and they're all listed. And I was like, where? And I even finished talking to I like left to find the tourism office. And there's literally a magazine that they give to the people, you know, the info centers, when you come into a city, they back in the day 98, they had these things that you'd pick up. And if you wanted to go to a city and stay in there or a bed and breakfast. So I sat there and had my little brother Moe. He was about five years younger than me. I paid him like three bucks an hour to type in all the addresses in a Microsoft access database. And then I open up Microsoft word, and I did this thing called the Mail Merge. Essentially today, it'd be like a form letter. I didn't know. I'm not a copywriter. I'm a freaking tech nerd. And I just essentially the letter said, if you want a page for your bed and breakfast, then fill out this form and and for 30 bucks you'll get a page, I'll send you the link. And if you include photos, you know you want them back at an extra five bucks for like, shipping. So it's like literally this is before internet. You couldn't even upload it. And I send out, oh, probably 400. Of these letters in the mail. And I remember, you know, like a week later, we come back to our apartment with my dad, and he gets the mail out and there's like 17 envelopes with my name on it. And I grew up, you know, I had a little chaos growing up. Got in trouble with the law. And he. He just looks at me. He goes, what did you do? And we go into the kitchen and we start opening up these letters. And it's literally, you know, hundreds of dollars of people filling out this letter form and putting $30 in cash in the mail, like nobody would do that today. But this is so I always joke with people, if you've ever built something and put it on the internet and somebody buys from you that isn't your relative or your best friend, like that's the first day you get a dollar, you've gone pro because it is just it's kind of a cool experience. Like that was the moment for me as a, I think, 17 year old at the time, 18 year old where I was like, oh, this is this is something I can do, right? Like, this is, this is my future. This is a this is what I'm going to do. I mean, it had to.

The first company. So I always ask people like, you know, what was the first business, which would be the business that made it money? Versus how many domains have you bought for projects? Right. So like the first thing that ever made me money was a company called Maritime Vacations. So I grew up in Canada on the East Coast, even though I spent most of my time in the US. And essentially my dad had a cottage and this is 1998, and he wanted a web page because he was sick of answering the same 14 questions when they called, you know, do you accept pets? Is it available these dates? So I told him it cost 200 bucks to to code him a web page, which wasn't true. I mean, it didn't cost me anything. I could have hosted it for free, but I wanted to get a server. So like, I needed the money to pay for like a server that would run the code, this application server back in the day. And so I stayed up till two three in the morning for, I don't know, five, six weeks building this, this website, I built on this programming language. A lot of people wouldn't care. But cold fusion, nobody's heard of it today, but it was actually a pretty cool programming language. So I build this thing, launch it. I got my dad on there, I got no customers, and I'm like, you know, I'm an introverted tech nerd that love to code. And I was talking to my buddy Dave one day and I was like, you know, I built this thing, I need customers. And he was a burnout. And I remember he says to me, he goes, well, who are the customer? I said, anybody with a cottage or a bed and breakfast? And he goes, yo, dude, I think there's like a magazine for those kind of people. And I'm like, what are you talking about, Dave? He's like, there's literally a tourism magazine and they're all listed. And I was like, where? And I even finished talking to I like left to find the tourism office. And there's literally a magazine that they give to the people, you know, the info centers, when you come into a city, they back in the day 98, they had these things that you'd pick up. And if you wanted to go to a city and stay in there or a bed and breakfast. So I sat there and had my little brother Moe. He was about five years younger than me. I paid him like three bucks an hour to type in all the addresses in a Microsoft access database. And then I open up Microsoft word, and I did this thing called the Mail Merge. Essentially today, it'd be like a form letter. I didn't know. I'm not a copywriter. I'm a freaking tech nerd. And I just essentially the letter said, if you want a page for your bed and breakfast, then fill out this form and and for 30 bucks you'll get a page, I'll send you the link. And if you include photos, you know you want them back at an extra five bucks for like, shipping. So it's like literally this is before internet. You couldn't even upload it. And I send out, oh, probably 400. Of these letters in the mail. And I remember, you know, like a week later, we come back to our apartment with my dad, and he gets the mail out and there's like 17 envelopes with my name on it. And I grew up, you know, I had a little chaos growing up. Got in trouble with the law. And he. He just looks at me. He goes, what did you do? And we go into the kitchen and we start opening up these letters. And it's literally, you know, hundreds of dollars of people filling out this letter form and putting $30 in cash in the mail, like nobody would do that today. But this is so I always joke with people, if you've ever built something and put it on the internet and somebody buys from you that isn't your relative or your best friend, like that's the first day you get a dollar, you've gone pro because it is just it's kind of a cool experience. Like that was the moment for me as a, I think, 17 year old at the time, 18 year old where I was like, oh, this is this is something I can do, right? Like, this is, this is my future. This is a this is what I'm going to do. I mean, it had to.

Feel for for your dad and you to sit there and open those envelopes and see people putting money in it. It had to be like, what the heck's going on here? For me, I.

Feel for for your dad and you to sit there and open those envelopes and see people putting money in it. It had to be like, what the heck's going on here? For me, I.

Was like, what the heck is going on? My dad was like, what did you say to these people? He thought, I did something like that. Yeah, yeah. He was like 100% going, this is illegal. You got to send the money back. I'm like, no, dad, here's what I sent them. This is it. And he's like, all right. And he was a little pissed because he was like, why did you need that 200 bucks for the website? And I'm like, now you understand? But I mean, that's always been my my process for building companies since then. It's just like build solutions to problems that I know of or I've experienced, and it's what's made building companies a lot of fun.

Was like, what the heck is going on? My dad was like, what did you say to these people? He thought, I did something like that. Yeah, yeah. He was like 100% going, this is illegal. You got to send the money back. I'm like, no, dad, here's what I sent them. This is it. And he's like, all right. And he was a little pissed because he was like, why did you need that 200 bucks for the website? And I'm like, now you understand? But I mean, that's always been my my process for building companies since then. It's just like build solutions to problems that I know of or I've experienced, and it's what's made building companies a lot of fun.

That's awesome. So so you've you've built what you said three different.

That's awesome. So so you've you've built what you said three different.

I've had three exits. I've probably built five. The first two are failures. Maritime vacation failed the guy from at the cottage. Com executed better. I called it maritime vacation. Okay. He called the dock. You know what I mean? So, like, lesson learned there. Actually plan for success. I mean, Brian, I'm sure you've had to tell people this. It's like oftentimes like, we if they actually just thought when this is successful, you know, investing in a good domain, building the brand like these are all things I should do that if you don't do, somebody else could inadvertently take.

I've had three exits. I've probably built five. The first two are failures. Maritime vacation failed the guy from at the cottage. Com executed better. I called it maritime vacation. Okay. He called the dock. You know what I mean? So, like, lesson learned there. Actually plan for success. I mean, Brian, I'm sure you've had to tell people this. It's like oftentimes like, we if they actually just thought when this is successful, you know, investing in a good domain, building the brand like these are all things I should do that if you don't do, somebody else could inadvertently take.

Yeah, they'll end up doing it. Well 100%. But you know. Starting, building, scaling and even exiting is trial and error for most entrepreneurs. That's why once you've done it a few times, you get better at it. Yeah, and if you've only done it once in your life, or you're only doing it once in your life, you're going to make about every mistake you can make everyone. I started a business in 2010. I started another business and it was kind of a I was just testing some of my theories, but it started taking off so fast. I was like, oh my God, this is going to be $1 billion place. So I just started throwing money at it. And I built a team from nobody, from no one to an extra 60 people in like 18 months. It was starting Burton starting to burn a half a million a month. And I burnt $8 million chasing this thing, thinking, oh, I'm going to change this whole thing. And one day I'm like, it ain't changing. Nothing. Like I just shut it down. You literally wrote off 8 million bucks. Natalie actually did. I was in the middle of doing something, and she's like, you need to shut this thing down. And I'm like, I already put 8 million into it. Hardest thing to do as an entrepreneur is when you're when you're stuffing money into a black hole is to give up on it because you think you're so much closer, closer. But it was the best decision I ever made, because as soon as I freed myself up, I just I was able to put my attention on things that could create so much more value. But it was also, it's like the tale of two stories. It it like, this is everything, no matter how good you think you are. Humbled me because I was in the middle of all this other amazing stuff. But then I just couldn't get this other thing to work so I could look at what was causing the ones I was doing to work, what was causing this one to fail. And literally today, it was the genesis of my breakpoints because I went through myself and went, here's how I hired, here's how I onboarded, just how I trained. Here's the process I went through for the businesses that worked, and here's what I did. Shortcut all that or to change it. And the one that did it, and I was going through and just creating it. And then I was like, you know what? I should hire a research firm and find out what what causes businesses to work, what causes businesses to break and where and why and how. And today, that's that's all the the foundation for my break points.

Yeah, they'll end up doing it. Well 100%. But you know. Starting, building, scaling and even exiting is trial and error for most entrepreneurs. That's why once you've done it a few times, you get better at it. Yeah, and if you've only done it once in your life, or you're only doing it once in your life, you're going to make about every mistake you can make everyone. I started a business in 2010. I started another business and it was kind of a I was just testing some of my theories, but it started taking off so fast. I was like, oh my God, this is going to be $1 billion place. So I just started throwing money at it. And I built a team from nobody, from no one to an extra 60 people in like 18 months. It was starting Burton starting to burn a half a million a month. And I burnt $8 million chasing this thing, thinking, oh, I'm going to change this whole thing. And one day I'm like, it ain't changing. Nothing. Like I just shut it down. You literally wrote off 8 million bucks. Natalie actually did. I was in the middle of doing something, and she's like, you need to shut this thing down. And I'm like, I already put 8 million into it. Hardest thing to do as an entrepreneur is when you're when you're stuffing money into a black hole is to give up on it because you think you're so much closer, closer. But it was the best decision I ever made, because as soon as I freed myself up, I just I was able to put my attention on things that could create so much more value. But it was also, it's like the tale of two stories. It it like, this is everything, no matter how good you think you are. Humbled me because I was in the middle of all this other amazing stuff. But then I just couldn't get this other thing to work so I could look at what was causing the ones I was doing to work, what was causing this one to fail. And literally today, it was the genesis of my breakpoints because I went through myself and went, here's how I hired, here's how I onboarded, just how I trained. Here's the process I went through for the businesses that worked, and here's what I did. Shortcut all that or to change it. And the one that did it, and I was going through and just creating it. And then I was like, you know what? I should hire a research firm and find out what what causes businesses to work, what causes businesses to break and where and why and how. And today, that's that's all the the foundation for my break points.

Yeah, it's that feedback loop. I think that's you know, people say, you know, you don't hire the guy that's got 20 years experience, but it's the same experience repeated year over year, right. You want to learn. And I think entrepreneurs, if they're not honest with themselves. Right. Like it's one of my favorite thing to tell people is don't lie to yourself. Like look at where you fell short, challenges frustrations and give yourself permission to actually like double click and get honest.

Yeah, it's that feedback loop. I think that's you know, people say, you know, you don't hire the guy that's got 20 years experience, but it's the same experience repeated year over year, right. You want to learn. And I think entrepreneurs, if they're not honest with themselves. Right. Like it's one of my favorite thing to tell people is don't lie to yourself. Like look at where you fell short, challenges frustrations and give yourself permission to actually like double click and get honest.

I mean, it's the best. It's the best thing an entrepreneur can do is to say where when I when that went bad, what was I thinking about? How did I make the decision? Who was I listening to? Because that's another big thing. Huge. And you start learning. Wait a minute. The people I'm listening to, the wrong people. I'm asking questions of the wrong inputs I'm getting from other people. The reason or way I made the decision. I won't do any of that again. And until you can get there, because you just got to accept to your point, it's all trial and error. So what was your biggest SaaS based business you built?

I mean, it's the best. It's the best thing an entrepreneur can do is to say where when I when that went bad, what was I thinking about? How did I make the decision? Who was I listening to? Because that's another big thing. Huge. And you start learning. Wait a minute. The people I'm listening to, the wrong people. I'm asking questions of the wrong inputs I'm getting from other people. The reason or way I made the decision. I won't do any of that again. And until you can get there, because you just got to accept to your point, it's all trial and error. So what was your biggest SaaS based business you built?

The biggest one was a company called Flow Town. We built a social marketing platform in regards to like financial exit. Yeah. It was it was this company. So I ended up eventually moving to Silicon Valley, you know, grew up in the East Coast, small town, you know, became the big fish in a little pond, multimillionaire at 28 and eventually found myself in the heart of tech. I mean, it's literally San Francisco back, you know, today it doesn't show itself well. But back in the day, it was like, you know, this is 2008, 2009, right after the crash. You know, it was like Disneyland for software entrepreneurs. Yeah. It's like you go to coffee shops and they've got kids with they're either coding or working on their pitch deck. And I swear to God, it's all Macs and it's either a pitch deck or the writing software. And it was cool because it was the first time that I experience the feeling of finding my people. Like, I don't know if you remember, like when you were the odd duck amongst your peer group. I kind of grew up like that, and luckily I would travel a lot to hundred days a year doing my previous company. We're working with enterprise companies, so I was not in it. My environment didn't affect me as much as I think for some local entrepreneurs that their business is based in a city and they can't, they don't get out, they don't experience events or whatever. So when I moved there and I was like, oh, this is how this is a culture, right? And what I love about the Valley is the preciousness of an idea. Like, it's actually the coolest thing I've ever experienced, where you can literally have $1,000,000,000 trillion idea and people will look at you in the face and go, that's awesome! Not you're crazy, you know what I mean? Yeah. So I built this company called Flow Town in 2009 because my brother was a homebuilder. I really wanted him to understand how social marketing was going to change his business. He said none of his customers are on social media. And I was like, well, it's not true today. Yeah, so but I knew it wasn't a lot, but it was a growing segment. So the first the product was essentially a tool where you gave us email addresses and we would show you all the demographics, social, graphic and social networks that customer was on. Okay. This is, you know, today you couldn't do it because there's privacy issues around that. But back then, I mean, it.

The biggest one was a company called Flow Town. We built a social marketing platform in regards to like financial exit. Yeah. It was it was this company. So I ended up eventually moving to Silicon Valley, you know, grew up in the East Coast, small town, you know, became the big fish in a little pond, multimillionaire at 28 and eventually found myself in the heart of tech. I mean, it's literally San Francisco back, you know, today it doesn't show itself well. But back in the day, it was like, you know, this is 2008, 2009, right after the crash. You know, it was like Disneyland for software entrepreneurs. Yeah. It's like you go to coffee shops and they've got kids with they're either coding or working on their pitch deck. And I swear to God, it's all Macs and it's either a pitch deck or the writing software. And it was cool because it was the first time that I experience the feeling of finding my people. Like, I don't know if you remember, like when you were the odd duck amongst your peer group. I kind of grew up like that, and luckily I would travel a lot to hundred days a year doing my previous company. We're working with enterprise companies, so I was not in it. My environment didn't affect me as much as I think for some local entrepreneurs that their business is based in a city and they can't, they don't get out, they don't experience events or whatever. So when I moved there and I was like, oh, this is how this is a culture, right? And what I love about the Valley is the preciousness of an idea. Like, it's actually the coolest thing I've ever experienced, where you can literally have $1,000,000,000 trillion idea and people will look at you in the face and go, that's awesome! Not you're crazy, you know what I mean? Yeah. So I built this company called Flow Town in 2009 because my brother was a homebuilder. I really wanted him to understand how social marketing was going to change his business. He said none of his customers are on social media. And I was like, well, it's not true today. Yeah, so but I knew it wasn't a lot, but it was a growing segment. So the first the product was essentially a tool where you gave us email addresses and we would show you all the demographics, social, graphic and social networks that customer was on. Okay. This is, you know, today you couldn't do it because there's privacy issues around that. But back then, I mean, it.

Was wide open.

Was wide open.

It was so powerful. Yeah. This is like if you remember, there was a product called Klout on Twitter that would give you like a Klout score, like, which was essentially a reputation or an influence score. I mean, it was a wild West of social web 2.0, they called it. And our first integration was with MailChimp. So Ben Chesnut saw we launched on TechCrunch and reached out to us, and he's like, can you make this work in our product? And I'm like, yeah, like team stuff. Let's make it work for the MailChimp customer. And that allowed us to expand. We ended up doing like pretty much if you had a CRM, a form collecting software, you know, email marketing tool we integrated and and that constant contacts. I get to know a lot of these luminary CEOs of these software companies. And yeah, that company we exit two and a half years, made a lot of money for our investors. And, you know, just really set the foundation for me to think differently about building businesses, because that was the first time I had a partner. And I know you, you know, you guys partner with a lot of founders. And that was the beginning for me today. If you look at like kind of my empire I've built, it's it's people based. Right. We were just talking about that like when you can when you can recruit, let's call it Steve Jobs, call it the 50 people. Right. When he was at Apple, he would tap on the shoulder this person in marketing, that person engineering. And every quarter they would go to Half Moon Bay and they would do an offsite with Steve, like, and there was no rhyme or reason. It was literally like, Does Steve think you're smart? And he would spend a weekend with you? Because he said to himself and he shared about this later. He said, these are the 50 people that if I had to do it all over and start from zero again, this would be my crew. And it turned out he had to do that when he he got kicked out and stuff next. Yeah, but but that concept for a lot of people that are ambitious, that have a big vision, that want to do a lot, they literally get asked themselves like, am I building my 50? Like, do I have lieutenants? Do I have partners? Do I have leaders that can actually drive the business forward, or do I have just a bunch of, you know, essentially, are you the the, the genius with a thousand servants, which, as you know, small businesses, it's kind of how they build it. They hire a bunch of people that listen to them and do what they do. But you want to hire people that are actually going to drive the business forward and come with ideas and solutions.

It was so powerful. Yeah. This is like if you remember, there was a product called Klout on Twitter that would give you like a Klout score, like, which was essentially a reputation or an influence score. I mean, it was a wild West of social web 2.0, they called it. And our first integration was with MailChimp. So Ben Chesnut saw we launched on TechCrunch and reached out to us, and he's like, can you make this work in our product? And I'm like, yeah, like team stuff. Let's make it work for the MailChimp customer. And that allowed us to expand. We ended up doing like pretty much if you had a CRM, a form collecting software, you know, email marketing tool we integrated and and that constant contacts. I get to know a lot of these luminary CEOs of these software companies. And yeah, that company we exit two and a half years, made a lot of money for our investors. And, you know, just really set the foundation for me to think differently about building businesses, because that was the first time I had a partner. And I know you, you know, you guys partner with a lot of founders. And that was the beginning for me today. If you look at like kind of my empire I've built, it's it's people based. Right. We were just talking about that like when you can when you can recruit, let's call it Steve Jobs, call it the 50 people. Right. When he was at Apple, he would tap on the shoulder this person in marketing, that person engineering. And every quarter they would go to Half Moon Bay and they would do an offsite with Steve, like, and there was no rhyme or reason. It was literally like, Does Steve think you're smart? And he would spend a weekend with you? Because he said to himself and he shared about this later. He said, these are the 50 people that if I had to do it all over and start from zero again, this would be my crew. And it turned out he had to do that when he he got kicked out and stuff next. Yeah, but but that concept for a lot of people that are ambitious, that have a big vision, that want to do a lot, they literally get asked themselves like, am I building my 50? Like, do I have lieutenants? Do I have partners? Do I have leaders that can actually drive the business forward, or do I have just a bunch of, you know, essentially, are you the the, the genius with a thousand servants, which, as you know, small businesses, it's kind of how they build it. They hire a bunch of people that listen to them and do what they do. But you want to hire people that are actually going to drive the business forward and come with ideas and solutions.

And I think that's that's in our breakpoint studies and surveys, we 98% of all businesses under 100 million are stuck under three, and they have an average of 12 employees.

And I think that's that's in our breakpoint studies and surveys, we 98% of all businesses under 100 million are stuck under three, and they have an average of 12 employees.

So that is why I wrote this book that that that break point is one of I mean, you have the data. It's the hardest one. My experience is that at that level there's different and I'm sure you teach at all the different levels or different skills the CEO has to acquire to break through those different break points, zero to 300 or 500 plus or -20%. It's usually the the simple skill of delegating anything to anybody. That's right. If you don't figure that out at the lowest level, you're a highly paid specialist, you're a doctor or a lawyer or freelance or whatever you want to call it, right? And you can make a great living doing that. You just don't build. You don't. You're never an owner. You're just, you know, you're essentially a highly paid person with a job. The 2 to 3 million level that 12 employees literally I when I wrote the book, I call him Darcy. Okay. His name is not Darcy, but I used Darcy. I didn't want him to get pissed off at me, but like, it's it's it's this place where these entrepreneurs hit this, what I call the complexity ceiling. And the reason why is the skill is to learn to work through somebody. And that's a that's a scary proposition when all of a sudden somebody else is representing your brand in the market, that you've made promises to customers, and you're now working through a person that works with the team to deliver the value to the customer. For a lot of people, there's a lot of emotions there, right? There's feelings, there's anxiety, there's there's like, you know, concern. And people can't let go. They really have a hard time letting go. So that's why I wrote this book. It's not only a how to buy back your time, but actually a third of it is just leadership. Yep. How do you, as the crazy CEO, stop getting in your own way? How do you stop creating what I call emotional shrapnel amongst your team? And I think that's it's actually one of my favorite break points, you call it, to help entrepreneurs get through, because on the other side, then you have more resources. This is why most private equity firms, you know, it's like at least, you know, I mean, 750 million in EBITDA. Like they won't even talk to you. Even the micro, the PE guys, because there needs to be enough meat on the bones to do something with it.

So that is why I wrote this book that that that break point is one of I mean, you have the data. It's the hardest one. My experience is that at that level there's different and I'm sure you teach at all the different levels or different skills the CEO has to acquire to break through those different break points, zero to 300 or 500 plus or -20%. It's usually the the simple skill of delegating anything to anybody. That's right. If you don't figure that out at the lowest level, you're a highly paid specialist, you're a doctor or a lawyer or freelance or whatever you want to call it, right? And you can make a great living doing that. You just don't build. You don't. You're never an owner. You're just, you know, you're essentially a highly paid person with a job. The 2 to 3 million level that 12 employees literally I when I wrote the book, I call him Darcy. Okay. His name is not Darcy, but I used Darcy. I didn't want him to get pissed off at me, but like, it's it's it's this place where these entrepreneurs hit this, what I call the complexity ceiling. And the reason why is the skill is to learn to work through somebody. And that's a that's a scary proposition when all of a sudden somebody else is representing your brand in the market, that you've made promises to customers, and you're now working through a person that works with the team to deliver the value to the customer. For a lot of people, there's a lot of emotions there, right? There's feelings, there's anxiety, there's there's like, you know, concern. And people can't let go. They really have a hard time letting go. So that's why I wrote this book. It's not only a how to buy back your time, but actually a third of it is just leadership. Yep. How do you, as the crazy CEO, stop getting in your own way? How do you stop creating what I call emotional shrapnel amongst your team? And I think that's it's actually one of my favorite break points, you call it, to help entrepreneurs get through, because on the other side, then you have more resources. This is why most private equity firms, you know, it's like at least, you know, I mean, 750 million in EBITDA. Like they won't even talk to you. Even the micro, the PE guys, because there needs to be enough meat on the bones to do something with it.

Yeah. And they know that it's so key person to.

Yeah. And they know that it's so key person to.

Yeah. But once you get past that as an owner, I mean it's it's actually if people knew how much fun running an eight figure plus company was, they would race to it because it is it's it's not even the same as what it took to go from like zero to 3 or 5. It's just.

Yeah. But once you get past that as an owner, I mean it's it's actually if people knew how much fun running an eight figure plus company was, they would race to it because it is it's it's not even the same as what it took to go from like zero to 3 or 5. It's just.

Yeah. So so break point one's 0 to 3 million. Break point two is 3 to 8 and break point three is 8 to 15. And there's some interesting the 3 to 8 stuff because now you really got to you can't your buddy from college or your roommate from college or your sister or your the lady from church doing your books now you've got more moving parts, more people. People come in with an agenda. You start making enough money, you buy your first nice car, you maybe go buy a new house. People around you see that some divisions comes in. I've been here since the beginning and I'm still making the same money. Yeah, and and it's an.

Yeah. So so break point one's 0 to 3 million. Break point two is 3 to 8 and break point three is 8 to 15. And there's some interesting the 3 to 8 stuff because now you really got to you can't your buddy from college or your roommate from college or your sister or your the lady from church doing your books now you've got more moving parts, more people. People come in with an agenda. You start making enough money, you buy your first nice car, you maybe go buy a new house. People around you see that some divisions comes in. I've been here since the beginning and I'm still making the same money. Yeah, and and it's an.

Expensive trough to get through because you have to hire ahead. And when you start increasing your lifestyle and you're really, you.

Expensive trough to get through because you have to hire ahead. And when you start increasing your lifestyle and you're really, you.

Know, these guys are comparing. They're like, what do you mean? I got to pay 150 grand for that job. I'm paying my buddy that's been doing it only 75 grand. And and like, they're cheap and then and then they can't relate because they brought people up and now they're trying to hire people down. And it gets really sloppy in there. And they're some of the loyal people leave inherent you don't know how to hire. So you think you brought some great people in you. You abdicate to them. You're like, okay, you know, you know how to do it. So I'm going to trust you. And then they screw it up because they don't know what they're doing, and it's just a vicious thing. And then by the time you're at 15 million, if you don't have three very specific designated leaders that are working in unison, it's too much weight for a business owner to have. And that's right where private equity starts to like to play, because your EBITDA might be 2 or 3 million. The pain's high. It's real money now. And so all of a sudden you could put 10 million, 15 million in your pocket. And so that that inflection point and then and then 25 million, by the time there are 25 million, they're running on 17, 14 to 17 different systems, which is why your SaaS business is so important. And the sooner they do it, the better off they are. But they kicked the can and then they're running. And of the 17 systems, they don't know about half of them because it's the sales guys using their iPhones and their own CRM because they want to own the relationship with the client, and it's just so clunky and stuff. But it's like clockwork. What happens in the 0 to 3 million? The 3 to 8 million is certain as gravity and and it's like a structural building putting 4 or 5 storeys together. If you miss a step, your foundation is not strong and strong enough. So it collapses. And statistically, what we saw, 97% of all businesses go out of business in ten years. The bigger ones and then the the sloppy ones go out of business, two thirds of them in the first five. So so statistically. The bigger ones get bigger, bigger, bigger. But they're built on a faulty foundation and then they collapse. And what we saw statistically is if you slip back from one break point to another, you kind of catch yourself depending on how big of a slip back it was. But a snapback is where you go to break points back, and that's absolutely catastrophic. And so when you think about how hard it is, I mean, to, to to build a business to 100 million, you know, 3% of the businesses that break that, that are over 3 million, there's only 3% of the businesses that get there, but still 97% of those businesses still fail cyclically. And and so this is what I love about what you've been doing, because you were engineering what you were and what you are is you're the guy that's measuring the concrete and saying, hey, you need to you need to put another inch in there or another two inches because and you were doing it with technology. Well, I.

Know, these guys are comparing. They're like, what do you mean? I got to pay 150 grand for that job. I'm paying my buddy that's been doing it only 75 grand. And and like, they're cheap and then and then they can't relate because they brought people up and now they're trying to hire people down. And it gets really sloppy in there. And they're some of the loyal people leave inherent you don't know how to hire. So you think you brought some great people in you. You abdicate to them. You're like, okay, you know, you know how to do it. So I'm going to trust you. And then they screw it up because they don't know what they're doing, and it's just a vicious thing. And then by the time you're at 15 million, if you don't have three very specific designated leaders that are working in unison, it's too much weight for a business owner to have. And that's right where private equity starts to like to play, because your EBITDA might be 2 or 3 million. The pain's high. It's real money now. And so all of a sudden you could put 10 million, 15 million in your pocket. And so that that inflection point and then and then 25 million, by the time there are 25 million, they're running on 17, 14 to 17 different systems, which is why your SaaS business is so important. And the sooner they do it, the better off they are. But they kicked the can and then they're running. And of the 17 systems, they don't know about half of them because it's the sales guys using their iPhones and their own CRM because they want to own the relationship with the client, and it's just so clunky and stuff. But it's like clockwork. What happens in the 0 to 3 million? The 3 to 8 million is certain as gravity and and it's like a structural building putting 4 or 5 storeys together. If you miss a step, your foundation is not strong and strong enough. So it collapses. And statistically, what we saw, 97% of all businesses go out of business in ten years. The bigger ones and then the the sloppy ones go out of business, two thirds of them in the first five. So so statistically. The bigger ones get bigger, bigger, bigger. But they're built on a faulty foundation and then they collapse. And what we saw statistically is if you slip back from one break point to another, you kind of catch yourself depending on how big of a slip back it was. But a snapback is where you go to break points back, and that's absolutely catastrophic. And so when you think about how hard it is, I mean, to, to to build a business to 100 million, you know, 3% of the businesses that break that, that are over 3 million, there's only 3% of the businesses that get there, but still 97% of those businesses still fail cyclically. And and so this is what I love about what you've been doing, because you were engineering what you were and what you are is you're the guy that's measuring the concrete and saying, hey, you need to you need to put another inch in there or another two inches because and you were doing it with technology. Well, I.

Mean, the fun question for me to ask somebody that thinks they got their stuff together, especially if you have their executive team around the table, is I'll ask them how many customers they have. And you see it all the time. Yeah. There is like the marketing person like, well, I think we have this many. And then the sales guys like, no, we have this money. And then and I'm like, hey, let's get the finance guy on the call because I guarantee that guy has a different number than the CEOs think he's here. And I'm like, like, you guys don't get it. Like, like, and as you you've seen the information infrastructure, the data infrastructure, the buy the business intelligence, the reporting, these are things that there is zero chance that you're going to be able to scale without smashing into a wall, especially for your fast growth, because it requires a level of precision in decision making that most companies will never have the tooling in place to see. Get that right at the right stage, right at different levels. And it is magical, the ability to make higher quality decisions, because that's at the end of the day, you know, entrepreneurs need to understand this. Like you honestly only have to do 1 or 2 really good decisions a day, and a lot of the other stuff is just noise, right? So I'm a big fan of, you know, at minimum, let's let's talk about the CRM. Let's talk about your billing. Let's get your rev rec, like figure out all the like data side. What's the source of truth. You know, all these things that again people that are like what is he talking about. Get to scale. You'll you'll spend a lot of time arguing about it, but once you have it, it makes that journey just so much easier, doesn't doesn't guarantee it.

Mean, the fun question for me to ask somebody that thinks they got their stuff together, especially if you have their executive team around the table, is I'll ask them how many customers they have. And you see it all the time. Yeah. There is like the marketing person like, well, I think we have this many. And then the sales guys like, no, we have this money. And then and I'm like, hey, let's get the finance guy on the call because I guarantee that guy has a different number than the CEOs think he's here. And I'm like, like, you guys don't get it. Like, like, and as you you've seen the information infrastructure, the data infrastructure, the buy the business intelligence, the reporting, these are things that there is zero chance that you're going to be able to scale without smashing into a wall, especially for your fast growth, because it requires a level of precision in decision making that most companies will never have the tooling in place to see. Get that right at the right stage, right at different levels. And it is magical, the ability to make higher quality decisions, because that's at the end of the day, you know, entrepreneurs need to understand this. Like you honestly only have to do 1 or 2 really good decisions a day, and a lot of the other stuff is just noise, right? So I'm a big fan of, you know, at minimum, let's let's talk about the CRM. Let's talk about your billing. Let's get your rev rec, like figure out all the like data side. What's the source of truth. You know, all these things that again people that are like what is he talking about. Get to scale. You'll you'll spend a lot of time arguing about it, but once you have it, it makes that journey just so much easier, doesn't doesn't guarantee it.

What I love is I love I love when you're talking to the entrepreneur and they're like, no, I'm on my next system because the last one sucked. It didn't work. No. And I'm like, that's because no one on your team ever learned to use the technology. And so you move to another and another and another because you're getting sold by people on how much easier it is. But shitty in is shitty out totally and and and no discipline and accountability. No operating protocols, no process, no procedures, no systems. No, you know, like like no alignment with your team. I don't care how good your tech is, it ain't going to work because it's requiring people to actually do something different behaviorally. And business owners just don't understand that. They think, oh, I bought this software. It's going to fix the situation. It doesn't do anything because unless somebody's going to take action, that's going to be driven to an intent full result. That means if they're not that, if they don't have that mindset, they're not even putting the stuff in in order to get the outputs that will help them do that. Totally. And so I just this whole technology thing is, is always amazing to me. One of the things that we're doing, because we know statistically that from from 1 million to 25 million, you're on 14 to 17 different types of platforms. And so and most people kick the can until they're 8 or 10 million before they even think about putting a CRM in that that's actually being used. Yeah.

What I love is I love I love when you're talking to the entrepreneur and they're like, no, I'm on my next system because the last one sucked. It didn't work. No. And I'm like, that's because no one on your team ever learned to use the technology. And so you move to another and another and another because you're getting sold by people on how much easier it is. But shitty in is shitty out totally and and and no discipline and accountability. No operating protocols, no process, no procedures, no systems. No, you know, like like no alignment with your team. I don't care how good your tech is, it ain't going to work because it's requiring people to actually do something different behaviorally. And business owners just don't understand that. They think, oh, I bought this software. It's going to fix the situation. It doesn't do anything because unless somebody's going to take action, that's going to be driven to an intent full result. That means if they're not that, if they don't have that mindset, they're not even putting the stuff in in order to get the outputs that will help them do that. Totally. And so I just this whole technology thing is, is always amazing to me. One of the things that we're doing, because we know statistically that from from 1 million to 25 million, you're on 14 to 17 different types of platforms. And so and most people kick the can until they're 8 or 10 million before they even think about putting a CRM in that that's actually being used. Yeah.

Versus 360 view of a customer. It's like.

Versus 360 view of a customer. It's like.

Oh I have QuickBooks. Oh great. Go running in a ledger. Oh no. We just use it to pay bills. We don't put our expenses in there. It's like okay, so so you know technology is only good as to the extent you're going to use it. And and so one of the things we've been doing is innovating for the last basically ten years for small business automation, where and then and then we do the support for them. That's the magic behind our curtain is you can hire us, you you can hire us to engineer your business case. You can hire us to operate against your business case consultative or will partner with you or will downstream acquire some of you and then go buy your crappy competitors. And so that's that's kind of our funnel of how we work with people. And, and so we get exposure to a lot of entrepreneurs. I mean, I launch with Grant 52 months ago or whatever, and we've already run almost 3 billion of businesses through that cycle. And we actively manage almost a billion right now. And then there's another billion that's in our deal flow coming through. Do you guys.

Oh I have QuickBooks. Oh great. Go running in a ledger. Oh no. We just use it to pay bills. We don't put our expenses in there. It's like okay, so so you know technology is only good as to the extent you're going to use it. And and so one of the things we've been doing is innovating for the last basically ten years for small business automation, where and then and then we do the support for them. That's the magic behind our curtain is you can hire us, you you can hire us to engineer your business case. You can hire us to operate against your business case consultative or will partner with you or will downstream acquire some of you and then go buy your crappy competitors. And so that's that's kind of our funnel of how we work with people. And, and so we get exposure to a lot of entrepreneurs. I mean, I launch with Grant 52 months ago or whatever, and we've already run almost 3 billion of businesses through that cycle. And we actively manage almost a billion right now. And then there's another billion that's in our deal flow coming through. Do you guys.

Anticipate building and maybe you already have your own information system to manage that portfolio. Yeah.

Anticipate building and maybe you already have your own information system to manage that portfolio. Yeah.

So so I just made a new hire. There's a couple of things we've been investing in the technological side in a blockchain technology database technology that that is innovating up to managing what we're rolling out to the marketplace, things like managing the general ledgers and things like that. For all these different vertical roll up strategies. We have a digital marketplace now where entrepreneurs will take them to the market we'll access. This is all new stuff that nobody knows about, but we'll do their filings in order to raise capital, and then we'll put them on our, our marketplace in, in basically a private market in a private marketplace. So it's like a mini private stock exchange basically. So this is one of the things we're innovating and rolling out to the SME space. But more specifically to your question, we have been building our own data systems and processes and interfaces for, I don't know, ten years to run this kind of business, but I just hired I just made a new hire and I'll be announcing it by the time this podcast goes out. I probably will have announced it, but I just hired a head of global treasury from KKR, and before that he was head of Global Treasury for Service Partners. He's run a half, almost a half $1 trillion in the last ten years. And he's coming in as my CFO, COO with the big thing he did for both those firms is the data center izing the data and building the big data warehouses. And so we're ready to move. We have so much we have probably better content, better data on the SME space because we've engineered we've run 3500 businesses through ventures since launch. It forget about all the research I did up to then. And and because we're actively managing almost $1 billion of businesses daily, all those all that data from engineering their business to practical application and deployment in the field, aligning their teams, organizing them and watching the EBITDA, the revenue cycles, all that stuff. I'm so excited about what we're going to create from the data side, I think will be the only ones in the SME space that has it because because we're on the street and we're also looking at it from it's.

So so I just made a new hire. There's a couple of things we've been investing in the technological side in a blockchain technology database technology that that is innovating up to managing what we're rolling out to the marketplace, things like managing the general ledgers and things like that. For all these different vertical roll up strategies. We have a digital marketplace now where entrepreneurs will take them to the market we'll access. This is all new stuff that nobody knows about, but we'll do their filings in order to raise capital, and then we'll put them on our, our marketplace in, in basically a private market in a private marketplace. So it's like a mini private stock exchange basically. So this is one of the things we're innovating and rolling out to the SME space. But more specifically to your question, we have been building our own data systems and processes and interfaces for, I don't know, ten years to run this kind of business, but I just hired I just made a new hire and I'll be announcing it by the time this podcast goes out. I probably will have announced it, but I just hired a head of global treasury from KKR, and before that he was head of Global Treasury for Service Partners. He's run a half, almost a half $1 trillion in the last ten years. And he's coming in as my CFO, COO with the big thing he did for both those firms is the data center izing the data and building the big data warehouses. And so we're ready to move. We have so much we have probably better content, better data on the SME space because we've engineered we've run 3500 businesses through ventures since launch. It forget about all the research I did up to then. And and because we're actively managing almost $1 billion of businesses daily, all those all that data from engineering their business to practical application and deployment in the field, aligning their teams, organizing them and watching the EBITDA, the revenue cycles, all that stuff. I'm so excited about what we're going to create from the data side, I think will be the only ones in the SME space that has it because because we're on the street and we're also looking at it from it's.

The exact same kind of conclusion I came to. So when I started SAS Academy, which was like literally me coaching. Now we've got a team of coaches and stuff where we got to a place where like software is kind of very repeatable, like it's literally retention, customer lifetime value, acquisition costs, sales velocity. So it's like we and we're all software guys that run the company because that's our background. So we essentially built this internal system where customers connect their billing system, you know, stripe or whatever they're using, and then they connect their CRM. And then we do all the like because a lot of people, they just they don't even have the view. And because we have from their CRM, you know, lead acquisition like literally have all the data that we know. And then. We were using that to coach them. Right. So they like get their dashboard and it would literally sequence the strategies to improve the business. I'm sure this is exactly how you guys think about it. And then once we had all the playbooks figured out, we essentially proved with our clients that paid us because that's what they were doing the first 100 days. Like, we know exactly what to do is literally you don't know because you don't understand how to read the data or understand the strategies involved. And then that's why we we started, you know, $100 million Holdco to buy companies because it's like, oh, it's fun to like, support them, but like I want to own them. And it's like, yeah.

The exact same kind of conclusion I came to. So when I started SAS Academy, which was like literally me coaching. Now we've got a team of coaches and stuff where we got to a place where like software is kind of very repeatable, like it's literally retention, customer lifetime value, acquisition costs, sales velocity. So it's like we and we're all software guys that run the company because that's our background. So we essentially built this internal system where customers connect their billing system, you know, stripe or whatever they're using, and then they connect their CRM. And then we do all the like because a lot of people, they just they don't even have the view. And because we have from their CRM, you know, lead acquisition like literally have all the data that we know. And then. We were using that to coach them. Right. So they like get their dashboard and it would literally sequence the strategies to improve the business. I'm sure this is exactly how you guys think about it. And then once we had all the playbooks figured out, we essentially proved with our clients that paid us because that's what they were doing the first 100 days. Like, we know exactly what to do is literally you don't know because you don't understand how to read the data or understand the strategies involved. And then that's why we we started, you know, $100 million Holdco to buy companies because it's like, oh, it's fun to like, support them, but like I want to own them. And it's like, yeah.

Because if you're going to go, this is the thing that the small business owner doesn't understand. Like, like if someone's going to do everything for you, they might as well own you.

Because if you're going to go, this is the thing that the small business owner doesn't understand. Like, like if someone's going to do everything for you, they might as well own you.

Literally. After five years of doing this and having my clients exit, we had 27 exits in one year. Okay, like half of them nine figure exits because it's software, you know, big multiples on on top line revenue. Screw your EBITDA. They don't give a crap. And and it just occurred to me I've always been an angel investor. So I invested first money in innovation, done 100 deals. You know intercom, Hootsuite, unbalance, Udemy, all these big, you know, billion dollar companies. But I was like, no, I want to I want to figure out how to build. So I built a whole team with my partner Kevin to literally take the deal flow. And it's fun because when people come to in my world, they come for coaching. Well, if coaching is not a fit, they've essentially identified like the PE guys. There's a problem in their business they need solved. They either decide they want to invest in themselves to solve it, or they decide now's a great time to exit. Yeah. So literally the same pipeline that we were building here, we just handed it over to this other team. And literally they just go through the funnel and if it's a fit based on our thesis, we make an offer. And I know it's a lot of fun because what size.

Literally. After five years of doing this and having my clients exit, we had 27 exits in one year. Okay, like half of them nine figure exits because it's software, you know, big multiples on on top line revenue. Screw your EBITDA. They don't give a crap. And and it just occurred to me I've always been an angel investor. So I invested first money in innovation, done 100 deals. You know intercom, Hootsuite, unbalance, Udemy, all these big, you know, billion dollar companies. But I was like, no, I want to I want to figure out how to build. So I built a whole team with my partner Kevin to literally take the deal flow. And it's fun because when people come to in my world, they come for coaching. Well, if coaching is not a fit, they've essentially identified like the PE guys. There's a problem in their business they need solved. They either decide they want to invest in themselves to solve it, or they decide now's a great time to exit. Yeah. So literally the same pipeline that we were building here, we just handed it over to this other team. And literally they just go through the funnel and if it's a fit based on our thesis, we make an offer. And I know it's a lot of fun because what size.

Businesses right now are you trying.

Businesses right now are you trying.

Yeah, we're buying like between 3 and 5 million annual recurring revenue businesses. So we've got $100 million to deploy with some debt if we choose to do that.

Yeah, we're buying like between 3 and 5 million annual recurring revenue businesses. So we've got $100 million to deploy with some debt if we choose to do that.

And where'd you get that cash from?

And where'd you get that cash from?

Raised it. 70% is from. We have two LPs like major. Yeah. Private equity guys, Talisman Capital and and then the rest of it is my partner and I.

Raised it. 70% is from. We have two LPs like major. Yeah. Private equity guys, Talisman Capital and and then the rest of it is my partner and I.

So are you are you are you getting money out of Canada or the US?

So are you are you are you getting money out of Canada or the US?

These are in the US. US yeah. Most of my stuff I do is in the US. Yeah, yeah I bill in the US. I'm Canadian by citizenship.

These are in the US. US yeah. Most of my stuff I do is in the US. Yeah, yeah I bill in the US. I'm Canadian by citizenship.

You get 30% increase. Just do it bill.

You get 30% increase. Just do it bill.

Oh yeah yeah people that I'm a Canadian customers are like why is it in us? I go, I'll teach you the same thing as soon as you start, you know like it's. Yeah I'm a the.

Oh yeah yeah people that I'm a Canadian customers are like why is it in us? I go, I'll teach you the same thing as soon as you start, you know like it's. Yeah I'm a the.

Arbitrage from you buying the little Canadian. The technical companies are bringing them down to the first thing.

Arbitrage from you buying the little Canadian. The technical companies are bringing them down to the first thing.

We do is fix your.

We do is fix your.

Price. Yeah, exactly.

Price. Yeah, exactly.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that is awesome, dude. So what what are some of the really exciting things you're working on right now?

Yeah, that is awesome, dude. So what what are some of the really exciting things you're working on right now?

It's all I. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and you know this Brandon. So I asked about your information systems like we with the data and then the different large language models. So it's not just ChatGPT, there's Barding cloud and all these other ones and some new ones that nobody's ever heard of, like point specific solutions around the financial side. I just see a world where there's a lot of things that require people to analyze, to extract insights that will be real time. So it's like you get to ask yourself, when I think of and I teach this to my I have a lot of friends are in the coaching space, and I have this whole like, AI coaching model I share with them where there's like, these are the areas of today where you, you and your team should be using AI. Okay? It's around marketing and, you know, curriculum design and all these things that are very like not hard to put together. But in the future, there's a lot of other areas you're not even considering. So for example, you know, multilingual you know, generative video okay. So if you can generate videos. So all of a sudden now all the training that you create internally is not even you anymore. It's a generative. It's essentially a virtual version of you, but it looks pixel perfect. Then you got to ask yourself what happens with IP, right? Like what can I do with that? Can I license to somebody else that takes it, puts it through their model? Now they have all my best software stuff, my buddies best finance stuff, this other guy's best, you know, family stuff. And it's all packaged into one thing. So like there's all these areas of, of of stuff that will be absolutely done by AI in the next 18 to 24 months that just like so if you're about to reshoot your course, wait, like don't, don't do it. Like give me eight months and I'll show you the technology keeps getting better.

It's all I. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and you know this Brandon. So I asked about your information systems like we with the data and then the different large language models. So it's not just ChatGPT, there's Barding cloud and all these other ones and some new ones that nobody's ever heard of, like point specific solutions around the financial side. I just see a world where there's a lot of things that require people to analyze, to extract insights that will be real time. So it's like you get to ask yourself, when I think of and I teach this to my I have a lot of friends are in the coaching space, and I have this whole like, AI coaching model I share with them where there's like, these are the areas of today where you, you and your team should be using AI. Okay? It's around marketing and, you know, curriculum design and all these things that are very like not hard to put together. But in the future, there's a lot of other areas you're not even considering. So for example, you know, multilingual you know, generative video okay. So if you can generate videos. So all of a sudden now all the training that you create internally is not even you anymore. It's a generative. It's essentially a virtual version of you, but it looks pixel perfect. Then you got to ask yourself what happens with IP, right? Like what can I do with that? Can I license to somebody else that takes it, puts it through their model? Now they have all my best software stuff, my buddies best finance stuff, this other guy's best, you know, family stuff. And it's all packaged into one thing. So like there's all these areas of, of of stuff that will be absolutely done by AI in the next 18 to 24 months that just like so if you're about to reshoot your course, wait, like don't, don't do it. Like give me eight months and I'll show you the technology keeps getting better.

Yeah. I mean, I did $1 million in revenue last month using branded and Fossen.

Yeah. I mean, I did $1 million in revenue last month using branded and Fossen.

Is that cool.

Is that cool.

And and so people are watching videos and they're watching me, but it's not me. It's my eye version. Yeah. They get phone calls from me. Yeah. It's my eye.

And and so people are watching videos and they're watching me, but it's not me. It's my eye version. Yeah. They get phone calls from me. Yeah. It's my eye.

Version, her voice, all that stuff.

Version, her voice, all that stuff.

So with the and if you saw the videos you would not know it's, it's you would not know. It's my eye version. You know, you can't go do a 20 minute eye video, but you can put a phenomenal video together with, with her little, little cuts in the middle of it explaining something. That's all I generated. And yet it looks 100% like it.

So with the and if you saw the videos you would not know it's, it's you would not know. It's my eye version. You know, you can't go do a 20 minute eye video, but you can put a phenomenal video together with, with her little, little cuts in the middle of it explaining something. That's all I generated. And yet it looks 100% like it.

That's it's all dynamic. I mean, even a lot of the sales development reps, there's some new tech that is like literally calling your prospects acting as a person. It's not a person. So you have a whole team of people. You might have hundreds of people that are outbound setters that essentially go away with one monthly payment. So it's like.

That's it's all dynamic. I mean, even a lot of the sales development reps, there's some new tech that is like literally calling your prospects acting as a person. It's not a person. So you have a whole team of people. You might have hundreds of people that are outbound setters that essentially go away with one monthly payment. So it's like.

100%. And it's a better it's a more sophisticated conversation because you've told it exactly what to say.

100%. And it's a better it's a more sophisticated conversation because you've told it exactly what to say.

Yeah. And it gets better based on the more learns from the customer base and the market changes. Oh yeah. The interest rates are up. So I can't say this anymore because it doesn't work. Like it'll be way better than your team could ever figure it out faster. Now, what's cool for me is then asking myself the question. This is why I teach my coaching friends is what will never change. You know, to Jeff Bezos comments around like, customers always want it cheaper, faster, you know, and, you know, higher selection. So it's like anything that allows us to do that, we'll invest in that. And I call that neural transformation. Right. Like there's as a coach or really a leader, there's certain things as long as we have our our wet operating system, our brains, you know, leading ourselves until Neuralink jumps in with a brain machine interface, etcetera, which could happen. Should happen maybe, I don't know.

Yeah. And it gets better based on the more learns from the customer base and the market changes. Oh yeah. The interest rates are up. So I can't say this anymore because it doesn't work. Like it'll be way better than your team could ever figure it out faster. Now, what's cool for me is then asking myself the question. This is why I teach my coaching friends is what will never change. You know, to Jeff Bezos comments around like, customers always want it cheaper, faster, you know, and, you know, higher selection. So it's like anything that allows us to do that, we'll invest in that. And I call that neural transformation. Right. Like there's as a coach or really a leader, there's certain things as long as we have our our wet operating system, our brains, you know, leading ourselves until Neuralink jumps in with a brain machine interface, etcetera, which could happen. Should happen maybe, I don't know.

Everyone wants to know how. Gary breakfast. But I had a Neuralink installed in Gary Breck.

Everyone wants to know how. Gary breakfast. But I had a Neuralink installed in Gary Breck.

That's the way to do it. Yeah, it's not really. Gary is a beta, is it?

That's the way to do it. Yeah, it's not really. Gary is a beta, is it?

And his genius isn't really him. It's all the smart people around the world.

And his genius isn't really him. It's all the smart people around the world.

Well, I just don't know how he remembers all the doctor terms. He does. He's an impressive.

Well, I just don't know how he remembers all the doctor terms. He does. He's an impressive.

He's a he's a photographic memory. He's brilliant.

He's a he's a photographic memory. He's brilliant.

Yeah. I think a lot of people, they don't realize some of these folks out there have that. Yeah, yeah. And I just. It's not me. Me neither. But the neural transformation is around the belief sets. It's all the it's all the mindset stuff, right. Like you work with so many entrepreneurs. Like I'm sure you're staring at people going like, do you realize that you are the thing stopping you?

Yeah. I think a lot of people, they don't realize some of these folks out there have that. Yeah, yeah. And I just. It's not me. Me neither. But the neural transformation is around the belief sets. It's all the it's all the mindset stuff, right. Like you work with so many entrepreneurs. Like I'm sure you're staring at people going like, do you realize that you are the thing stopping you?

I wrote a book called I wrote a book specifically, yeah, nine Figure mindset, because people are like, oh my God, how did you it's like, look to get to nine figure. It's really super simple to get to a nine figure mindset. Yeah. First got to get to a six figure mindset. To get from a six figure to a seven figure, you got to change what you're doing and how you're doing it. Now to go from 7 to 8. It gets more complicated, but it's the same theory. Switch what you're doing. Do it different. Up up up up. Level up. Level yourself. Yeah. And then when you can multiply through other people, teach them. Do what you did to get to six to 7 to 8. You're going to go to nine. And then if you get enough people that you can teach to do what you did to get to nine, you're going to go to ten. And, and and then when you do that you get an opportunity to go to 11, but you're not going to go from 6 to 9 and skip. Those are the break points. I mean, you got personal break points, professional break points and financial break points. And if you don't acknowledge and accept that, you have to literally be a different person to get to a seven, an eight and nine, a 10 or 11, then you were to get to a six. If you don't just acknowledge that and accept it right now, and then ask yourself this honest question, what am I doing every day to develop myself and be in the right circles and learn new things and get different results, so I can build my confidence in to moving technically to the next level. And and what I love when I'm talking to a technology person is you get that from a technological standpoint. If you're if your technology platform is exactly the same today that it was five years ago, you're probably out of business or you're going out of business. It has to evolve. It has to develop. It has to expand. Yeah, mine's exactly the same way. And so is your activities. Your actions.