1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,560 Tell me where your vision came from. 2 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:05,400 Where did your vision come from to come out of corporate 3 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:08,720 and to go into cyber hinge and then to move forward? 4 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:10,440 Well, that wasn't vision. 5 00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:13,120 That was happenstance. 6 00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:16,520 I was working for a defense contractor in the 90s. 7 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:19,040 We were working on the B-1 bomber. 8 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:22,360 The B-1 bomber had a couple crashes. 9 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:24,800 In the meantime, the Soviet Union had collapsed. 10 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,320 Congress decided we didn't need the B-1 bomber. 11 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:28,560 They canceled our contract. 12 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:30,600 A third of the company got laid off. 13 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:31,920 Oh, wow. Okay. 14 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:32,760 Including me. 15 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:37,760 And so I looked for work 16 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,000 and looked for consulting opportunities. 17 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,720 And a friend of mine who was a deep computer guy 18 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:48,480 was having an identity crisis 19 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:52,280 because the headhunters had stopped calling him as frequently 20 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,040 and he was trying to figure out what to do. 21 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:59,040 So we said, well, this internet thing is interesting. 22 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,520 Why don't we see if we can build a company 23 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,480 that will support the ad agencies and the PR firms 24 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:07,560 that now need to build websites for their clients 25 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:08,680 and have no clue? 26 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:09,520 Okay. 27 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,640 And we would be their support staff. 28 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:13,480 Okay. 29 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,520 And we would teach them and we would host their websites. 30 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:21,440 And we couldn't, that didn't work. 31 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:23,720 But I ended up becoming a website designer 32 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:24,760 in the process. 33 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:25,600 Wow. 34 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,640 And I liked the craft and I liked helping people 35 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:34,920 and I liked the interaction 36 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:37,880 that is involved in doing it well. 37 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:42,280 And I am in the greater New York metropolitan area 38 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,000 and I went to an art show. 39 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:45,840 Okay. 40 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:48,280 There were a hundred art dealers. 41 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:49,880 50 of them had websites. 42 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,240 Of the 50 websites, 25 were dreadful. 43 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,000 So there were 75 people who needed good websites 44 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,280 and they were selling things that were expensive. 45 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:01,720 And I said, this is a niche. 46 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,320 This is, you know, the Google is, 47 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:06,480 if you're an art dealer, Google is your friend. 48 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:07,320 Yes. 49 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,240 The art dealers weren't that sophisticated about it 50 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,360 and they weren't as interested as I expected them to be. 51 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:18,360 But as I was going to art fairs, dealer based shows 52 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:20,640 and then started going to antique shows 53 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:22,160 and then I started going to craft fairs 54 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:26,200 and I could go to five in a weekend if I was crazy 55 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:28,280 because there's some of them not in greater New York. 56 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:29,600 That's not true anymore. 57 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:31,800 An awful lot of shows have stopped. 58 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:36,800 But in 2003, I could go to a hundred art shows a year easy. 59 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,240 You know, one on Saturday and one on Sunday 60 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:46,520 and most people didn't have websites. 61 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:49,920 So you'd say, I build websites for artists. 62 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:51,320 I build websites for art dealers. 63 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,520 If you have any interest, let's make a phone call 64 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:55,400 and they'd say yes. 65 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:57,760 And so I built a business around that. 66 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:01,080 What would be your tips for an early entrepreneur 67 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,960 going into the business and starting a business? 68 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:06,360 Well, the first tip is don't even think about the website 69 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,840 till you've sold at least one customer. 70 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,160 It's a distraction and a waste. 71 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:15,200 And then make the smallest, cheapest website you can 72 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:19,640 until you have enough customers telling you 73 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:23,680 that they have needs that you can build the website 74 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:25,680 around what your customers are telling you. 75 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:30,080 The customer needs to know, I'm an accountant 76 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,280 and I specialize in this and here's my phone number. 77 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:34,200 Here's my email address. 78 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:36,080 Call me if you want a consultation. 79 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:38,080 That's a perfectly, you know, with a headshot, 80 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:40,600 that's a perfectly adequate website 81 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:42,360 for an entrepreneur. 82 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:45,360 Easy enough to build it in Wix or Squarespace. 83 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,000 You know, you don't need any help for that. 84 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:49,320 You get a little more complicated, 85 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:50,360 then you need some help. 86 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:52,640 Not because of the technical issues, 87 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:55,080 but again, because of the marketing issues. 88 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:57,560 How do you speak to the language of the customer? 89 00:03:57,560 --> 00:03:58,680 How are you sure you're speaking 90 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:00,360 to the language of the customer? 91 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,280 How do you get out of your own head? 92 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:04,320 Right. 93 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:07,520 Because you're trapped in the day to day 94 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,240 of finding customers and helping customers 95 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:14,240 and you need somebody who's objective, 96 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:18,880 who's not trapped in your world to bounce ideas off of 97 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,320 and say, well, I don't think that one is clear enough. 98 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:23,720 Yeah, yes. 99 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,360 And I don't think that one goes far enough. 100 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:28,080 So you need to write more about that. 101 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:29,440 Thank you for being here today. 102 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:31,920 I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 103 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:34,560 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 104 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:36,840 as these episodes continue to move forward. 105 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:38,560 This is gonna get more and more fun. 106 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:40,360 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 107 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:42,480 We'll invite people to participate in the show 108 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:44,840 and thank you for giving us your time and attention. 109 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:47,560 Have an excellent time building out your vision 110 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:49,320 and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.