why do you do what you do? And if you have some
of the stories that pertain to that, why? I think
the main reason I do what I do is because my
family likes food and a roof over their head.
Well said. Well said. That's probably the presumed,
right? Everyone starts off right away. I think
one of the bigger reasons why I... I do what
I do. I, you know, working as a fractional COO
is there's a lot of people with great ideas that
start their business and it gets complex and
they don't have somebody managing that complexity.
And so at some point their business is at risk
for failing because it's so complex and they,
they think they have everything, but it's starting
to come apart and they're getting stressed out
and overworked. And I really believe that these
businesses, they're part of it. part of a community
you know they're hiring people they're putting
out um expenses to hire staff and then those
people they live in the communities the business
owner you know their profits and earnings they're
spending it locally and so um i'm worried about
these smaller businesses that are part of these
small communities that if they fail then those
jobs go away those products go away those services
go away and um somebody's livelihood and the
families that they were supporting all go away.
So I can help business owners become more efficient
and run their businesses better, get them to
a place where they can actually pass it on to
somebody else. Then the community gets to benefit
by having a local business that's providing goods
and services, that's hiring local people, that's
spending the money locally and basically helping
that community survive. Yeah. Thank you for sharing
that. What do you get out of the whole process?
Well, I get to live in my purpose and vision,
which is helping other people realize their vision.
So, yeah, I don't like being CEO of my own business.
I wish I could be COO of my own business, but
I have to be CEO of my own business. But when
I work as a fractional COO, I get to be fractional
COO for other people. So I get to live in the
fullness of that. Yes, that's awesome. um how
what inspired you like what's the story behind
like you know what i kept this is something that
happened and this is why i went into this hero
world like fix and what impact did that have
on your life i think i would love to hear all
those yeah i uh i think i mentioned before that
you know my dad was a laborer growing up uh he
was a UPS driver. Great company. They took care
of him. But it was hard work. And so now he's
in retirement years and it took a toll on him.
It was a lot. But he was always worried about
being fired. When you work for somebody else,
you're always concerned about those kind of things.
So working for myself kind of frees me from that
worry or concern. What if the company goes under
tomorrow? Okay, well, I have six clients, so
one of them goes under. I still have five other
resources. So I think setting myself up as my
own business, as a consultant, gives me that
freedom that I don't have to be tied to one person
and one business success. Yeah, so that's big.
And I don't know, I managed to make it work.
And so that's great. And the best thing you can
ever do in... when you're talking to people about
challenges or problems is to be right. And so,
you know, having a livelihood that's based on
how I've decided to set things up, it's working
and I'm helping people and I'm able to take care
of my family. And I've just, I found a different
way to do it. I don't think what my dad did was
wrong. I think it worked for him. I think it
worked for the way our economy worked and the
way the systems were built, you know, many years
ago. But now as, you know. We're seeing massive
layoffs in government. We're seeing layoffs in
companies. It's not guaranteed that you're going
to be able to work for one company for 20 or
30 years. There's no guarantees anymore. Yeah,
and with the AI revolution, I think more than,
I don't know how many jobs will actually be under
scrutiny of getting fired or replaced or advanced
if you're not. upgrading yourself with it and
most people aren't they still aren't they're
using it to some extent to the basic extent like
probably high schooler can use i think but not
most people are not using it the way they should
to to save themselves time yeah we use we use
ai um and there's actually a couple processes
that it was taking me and uh two of my team members
about 10 to 15 hours a week to manage and once
we got ai and automation kind of take over that
process That was like all of a sudden now I'm
paying, you know, $10 a month to an AI service
that's now taking on this work that was taking,
you know, arguably a couple hundred dollars worth
of, you know, employee costs and time. Yeah.
And it didn't get rid of those employees. Those
employees are still doing work, but now they're
leveraging those tools. And so their productivity
is going through the roof. And I'm able to empower
them and enable them to do even more work by
giving them a tool and resource to help assist
with some of the day -to -day grindy stuff. Yeah,
and I want to add to that, though. So there's
two sides to the equation in this. And I think,
yes, AI replaces jobs, but like 50, 100 years
ago, people traveled through trains more than
they travel through planes now. So like all those
people who were getting a nice paycheck, By being
in that industry. Are not here anymore. Because
airplanes came through. Right. And what to say.
In the next 10, 15, 20 or 100 years. Sorry. Say
that again. So what's to say in the next 10,
15, 20 or 100 years. Like airplanes would be
like obsolete. We were like hey. And they'll
talk about airplanes like. Oh I can't believe
people used to spend. Eight hours a day. To travel
from like New York. To. texas or or to go across
the country but now you can do it in 10 minutes
right like that will come a time and i think
ai is in a way same same same agent if you don't
use ai as a business owner and you're not using
it to the ability to be more efficient and and
save your own time um you'll put yourself in
a disadvantage where if everyone around you around
you is using it right every in your the people
you're competing with they're going to be far
ahead then you will be and i think that goes
with other other places where people if they
don't know how to implement yeah the right way
um you fall behind and then you get replaced
with someone who can't i mean it is it is new
technology and it's looks a little bit different
than other technology but you know look at when
the typewriter came out yeah you know all the
people used to handwrite stuff like all of a
sudden it's typing And then the computers came
out and then people were like, oh, no, what are
we going to do with all the people that can type?
And so technology is advancing. We need to learn
to incorporate technology. And I think I don't
remember the article I read, but basically now,
just like a lot of businesses need to have some
tech enablement, including like websites and
SEO and email and all this other stuff that you
didn't need 20 years ago or 40 years ago. You
need to have some tech enablement. The future
is having AI enablement as part of your core
business process. And what does that look like?
That's, I think that's going to become the standard
for a lot of businesses. And if you don't have
it, then you're going to be at a disadvantage.
Not that you can't win, but you're just, you're
going to be in a place where every, you know,
a good example of that is like websites when
they first came out, you know, not everyone that
had a website, you could still run a business
and do fine. Now you're at a place where you
kind of need a website, even if it's not doing
everything. At least when people go look you
up, they're like, oh, I see you have a website.
I can see who you are. So, yeah, I don't know.
I'm not an early adopter. I think AI, when it
was in formation in the last like 10 years, you
know, five, 10 years, I wasn't really super into
it. But in the last couple of years, it's gotten
better. And now because we have data integration
tools and everything else, I was like, you know
what? i'm not an early early adopter i'm kind
of that next phase on that bell curve i'm in
that and i'm and i'm figuring it out and yeah
it's it's exciting i think it's a great opportunity
and we've done some experimentation and we've
definitely gone down some rabbit holes too so
i'm going to tell you this is you need a little
r d budget to experiment with ai and how to implement
that but going back to your story stories of
like hey why are you doing what you do i think
um It also comes down with like, hey, if you
help people in your circle, the people that you're
serving win, right? You win with them, right?
Yeah. I mean, that's our, so the premise of how
we set things up is we want to always provide
more value than we capture. Correct. Because
then if I can help a business earn $100 ,000
and they've only given us $50 ,000, there's,
what are they going to, they can't be mad, right?
Yeah. But some people, it's like, hey, I gave
you $50 ,000 worth of service, and if it didn't
work, that's on you. Like, no, no, no. Don't
do that. Create value, you know? Yeah, exactly.
Obviously, you want people who are accountable
to the actions that you provide them. And if
a doctor tells me, like, hey, you need to do
these exercises, take this medicine, and I don't
do that, like, is it doctor's fault that I didn't?
I went to the doctor and paid the doctor for
his consultation, or is it my fault for not doing
it? Maybe I need to hire someone who will do
that for me with me. Maybe I need a nurse with
it. I need a nurse to make sure I do all these
things that will make me do it like a kid. But
it's the either -or scenario. Yeah, it's interesting.
So going back to kind of like why I do this,
people need help, and people need different types
of help. i can do operations it's i enjoy it
it's fun and um it is interesting when you sit
across the table from someone that is your ideal
client and they don't want to do operations they
know they need it and they want to pay somebody
to do it and then you're sitting across the table
saying this is what i do it's a win -win because
they're so excited because they're like here
you can take this and then i'm like yay i get
this to do this work It's fun. Thank you for
being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned
in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to
seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and
more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.