Welcome. Good news York. That's us. We're here.
We're rolling. We got some brand new equipment,
which I know you can't see. Yeah. I guess you
can see the results of it, right? The, the video
should be a little clearer, a little more, uh,
the lighting a little less modern. Yeah. We upgraded
to some serious studio equipment, and I spent
the better part of my weekend rewiring the studio
and hooking up all this fun stuff. When it sucks,
you can properly troll me on YouTube. Yeah. Everything,
from your point of view, probably looks the same.
Maybe you notice the quality looks better, but
if you could see the behind, like the just...
Yeah, the other... It's clean, buddy. On top
of adding new equipment. I went ham and rewired
the whole damn studio. You really did. And it's
gorgeous. And it was overdue. And here's what
happens is this is a new thing for us. And as
we've been building it out, we've been adding
pieces, changing pieces, moving things around.
And in many cases, like on the fly. So when we
pull a new mic cable or we do something like
that, like we need to do it because we're recording
in three minutes. And that turned into just a
giant ball of wires everywhere and more tripods
than. any human should have. It really was insane.
So we bounded up, we removed. The amount of cables
that I removed, it was one of those things where
like you take something apart and you put it
back together and you're like, why do I have
extra parts? But the amount of, and I knew there
was some extra pieces that we would remove, but
the amount that I ended up with that we don't
need really cleaned up the place. What was the
percentage of cords that were unused that you
ripped out? See, most of them were in use, that
was the wild part, but I rearranged everything.
And maybe we'll show a photo afterwards of the
new console, we'll call it. But rearranged it,
went from two computers to one. So there was
a little bit of reduction in some things. Yeah,
for you tech dorks, maybe we'll post some pictures,
because it is clean. Our mission control looks
great. Makes you want to shoot more. Like now,
let's go. And we opened it up more so the room
actually looks bigger. It's a little roomier.
I don't know. I'm just really happy with it and
spent a lot of time on that over the weekend.
What'd you do this weekend? Dude, my weekend
was fantastic. It was a lot of great bonding
with my son and my daughter. My daughter had
a dance competition right here in Syracuse. And
we stayed at a hotel right off of Carrier Circle,
which is very close to us. And my son wanted
to come see the studio, so my daughter was absolutely
amazing. Of course, I think she's the best. But
that was long. It was at the Krause -Heinz Theater,
which by the way, have you been, I'm assuming
you've been to the Krause -Heinz. That's a gorgeous
theater. Oh yeah. Absolutely gorgeous. What was
it, dance? Yeah, it was like a dance competition.
Dancers from all over the place. I can't tell
you how excited I was when my two younger daughters
got done with dance and moved on to gymnastics.
Dude. I don't know what's worse a dance like
an all -day dance competition or an all -day
Volleyball tournament because she's in volleyball.
I don't know. So my older daughter played volleyball
in high school and I take that over. I'll take
anything over dance. Here's the thing. If you
haven't, if you haven't been to one of these
things and I remind my dog, if you ever question
my love for you, sure. Remember these dancers.
Cause so you're at a competition. My, my kids
were never competitive, but we just had the regular
recitals. You know what I mean? And you go to
these recitals. There's 500 people because it's
not just your kids group. It's this whole dance
school that's got hundreds of kids. Yeah. And
you have to sit there through all that. Yeah.
And so your kid comes up and performs sometimes
twice, sometimes just once. Either way, it's
for three minutes and you have to spend the other
two hours watching other people's children. Yes.
It's painful. It really is because let's and
it's not mean because all the kids that I'm saying
I don't care about all their parents are saying
they don't care about my kids and that they shouldn't.
And you're exactly right. You're there, you're
watching them for however many minutes they're
on stage, and the rest of the time you're just
sitting there watching other people. I love my
kids, and it's awesome. Love mine, too. But especially
at that age, too, it's not like a dance competition
on television. No. They're super cute, but that's
the extent of the... But then there's that age
group where it's not cute, and you're just watching
really boring dancers. Yeah. I hate to say it.
So gymnastics, so now my kids, my girls move
to gymnastics. This is a whole new world. This
is why it's so cool. They have these gymnastics.
It's not a recital, but the same. The couple
of times a year, the big thing where the families
come in and watch. And the gymnastics area is
set up where there's four or five different stations
and it all happened simultaneously. And you have
a different group at every station. They're all
just doing their thing and then they go through
it and they rotate. So it's like a sporting event.
There's always something to watch. Your kid is
always doing something. Yeah. And you don't have
to wait. You get comfortable. You don't sit in
this packed theater. You don't have to wait through
other things to get to... Oh. Yeah. No, I agree.
But see, the bonus of the volleyball, and I only
have volleyball to go on because that's the other
thing. We've done lacrosse as well. Even then,
the games themselves are entertaining. And when
they're not playing, There's other games, so
that's entertaining. But it's an all -day thing,
and it's not as organized. At least with the
dance competitions, you have a program, they
move through. So everything's got it, but it
was a lot. But anyway, we did that, and since
we were so close, my kids wanted to come see
the studio. And we timed that perfect, because
you wanted to surprise me with this whole new
setup. And I hadn't seen it. I just noticed some
things were pulled apart, which is... Normal
for you. That's as far as I got. Yeah. And my
son, which maybe will show the footage, I started
recording on my phone because we didn't have
this hooked up because you were doing stuff.
And we sat here and we did a little mini podcast
on Lunchables versus Lunchlies. And what the
fuck is a Lunchable? So it's like Logan Paul.
What? Yeah. So Logan Paul, is he the one? Logan
Paul makes a Lunchable? Oh, he makes Prime. Yeah,
I get that. Prime is his drink. Yep. Now he's
expanded into he's made his own version of Lunchables,
and the Prime is in it. These boxes are huge.
Oh, it's a lunch thing, and we feed the kid Prime,
too? But it's not even a mini Prime bottle. It's
the size of the Prime bottle. So you're talking
the box is... They didn't bother to make a smaller
can. No. It's the only way we can move it. And
the irony is it's called Lunch Lee, which L -Y,
correct me if I'm wrong, is usually a... Is it
suffix or what's the one at the end? That means
little or mini, something Lee. It's not, it's
bigger. So we had a little discussion on Lunch
Lee's first Lunchables. It was cute, but I wanted
to thank you because you gave me that memory
with my son. It made me look like I was awesome,
you know? You know, my little one has been dying
to make a podcast. We should just have the kids
come in and let them... Just let them rip? Just
turn it on and let them go? Be hilarious. It's
going to be depressing when it gets 10 ,000 views
in 30 seconds. It really is. One thing we could
do, and what I do love is, I love when you ask
kids hard, not like hard hitting to where it's
inappropriate, but like just questions about
real things that are going on in the world. And
I just love that their answer is nine times out
of 10. are better than the adults or politicians
or whoever are answering these questions because
they have the solution in a simpler form and
it's so wholesome. I'd love to do that. Maybe
we should replace us with children. I think ratings
would bump. For sure. But yeah, so thank you
for that. Imagine a five -year -old in a foam
hat interviewing Ryan McMahon. Basically that
happened. I have the personality of a five -year
-old. What's your advice for throwing out the
first pitch? What kind of budget cuts are you
going to make? We walked in your office first
and I popped the light on and my son... One of
the most beautiful characteristics about children
is that society has not taught them that you
have to lie, right? No filter. Right. So if you
have bad breath, they're going to go, oh, your
breath's bad. They don't know that, oh, you can't
say that. This was a real reaction. I popped
the light on in your office and he went... Dad,
this is amazing. So, I don't know if you needed
to hear that, but he thought your office was
amazing. Well, I appreciate that. That was pretty
cool. It was good. It was good stuff. So my weekend
was chewed up with good wholesome family time
and dance. That's great, man. That's great. Yep.
We're gonna go to a crumb, shout out to Crumble
Cookie. I guess that's a big deal around here.
It's a big deal everywhere. It's like a national
franchise. Yeah. We didn't have time to go, so
my orders today from the fam were... When you're
leaving work, I'm gonna put an order in. What
do you, oh, you're just gonna pick up? I'm just
gonna pick up. Go there and browse? No. I don't
know the menu yet, and I would... Assuming it's
cookie -based. Yeah, I think that's their whole
thing. What's your go -to cookie? You like a
chocolate chip guy? What do you like? Dude, you're
gonna get me going, man. Oreo is my, Oreo, every
day. Double stuff Oreo after dinner. I have two
to three. I'm not kidding. I don't know why that's
funny to me. I don't know why either, but that's
okay. You can laugh at me. I have to eat. I love
me some more. Don't take me wrong. I never expected
that to be your answer. You know what it is,
and I don't want to get serious, but after I
quit drinking, I realized I'm very addicted to
sugar. You don't realize how much sugar is in
alcohol, liquor. So I think that's part of it.
But I always had a sweet tooth, and every time
I eat, I always need something chocolatey after.
So, yeah, I would say Oreo Double Stuff is my
go -to, but if you were like, hey, you can have
any type of cookie, Jesus, cookie dough is always
great. I'm a big fan of white chocolate. I think
it's underrated. White chocolate is underrated.
It's very underrated. Very few people like it,
and it's awesome. It's awesome? Alone, on its
own? Okay, maybe it doesn't hold water to other
people. You throw white chocolate in with some
peanut butter, maybe some dark chocolate or whatever,
regular chocolate? I'm pretty much good with
anything that's gonna give me... I've been known
to throw out a few handfuls of white chocolate
chips by themselves. Same. Oh, I get... I go
farther. I'll put a little peanut butter on the
spoon and then sprinkle the chips on there. See,
now you're working too hard. Yeah. I'm just a
fat kid who grabs the first thing he can shove
in his gullet. Nutella. It's trying to get me
going on there. I'm still... What's interesting
to me, I guess, I don't know. Is that I'm 40
-something and I eat Oreos? Yeah, I know. No,
like I said... See, I eat Oreos. All right, all
right. Everybody loves Oreos, but when I say
your favorite cookie, I assumed you would say
some kind of, I don't know, homemade something
or other. Like I'm half moons are mine. Original
Hempstratz half moons. Wait, Utica, New York,
right? Is that where? 100%. Yeah. Back in the
day, you probably remember when we were little
kids. Hempstratz. It wasn't just the one they
had. The whole chain in every town had the little
local and alien they had. I'm pretty sure there
was one in Herkimer. There was one in Herkimer.
Local bakery, you go and get those half moon
cookies. And they were fresh and soft. When I
was a little kid, my mom got me, you could get
a cake. And for my birthday, I had a half moon
cake. Like a half moon cake, yes. It's like the
size of a pizza. Yes. I never got one for my
birthday, but I've been to many birthday parties
in the Mohawk Valley or Utica where you would
get the half moon. The other thing. that people
may or may not know about Manny's Cheesecakes?
You remember Manny's Cheesecakes? Yeah. I believe,
and I could be mistaken, and this could be dated
information, I believe that business is still
in business, even though it's being run out of
the guy's house at this point. Oh, I did not
know. I thought they were done. It's my understanding,
and again, this could be dated information, but
it's my understanding that you can reach out
to the guy and he will make you a cake and ship
it. So great. That makes sense. What's the need
for brick and mortar at this point? Geez, that
would be something. I told you before, I didn't
realize - World class cheesecake. Until I moved
away from the Mohawk Valley and the Utica area
years ago, decades ago. I didn't realize how
many Utica things there were. I didn't know that
tomato pie - There are a few things that Utica
does well. Riggies. But eating. They make up
for all their faults with some of the best -
There's a reason that everyone in central New
York is drastically overweight. It's good food.
It's not just the weather. It's not just their
metabolism. We eat like kings. No, we do. And,
you know, I remember I was at a Bills game, and
we had season tickets for a long time. So we
would host these big tailgates, and every now
and then, we would have... I would have friends
from back home, before I moved away to the Ithaca
area, that would... So I would have my Utica
friends meeting up with my Ithaca friends and
they brought I'll never forget they brought one
time they brought chicken riggies another time
they brought tomato pie and a third time I think
they brought half moon cookies and Definitely
with the riggies and the tomato pie they were
eating it and they would look like they had never
Genuinely my Ithaca friends had never had tomato
pie before in their life or chicken They knew
about chicken riggies, but tomato pie is an unsung
They were like, this is the greatest thing ever.
I'm like, what do you mean? You never had this?
They're like, no, I didn't know it was a Utica
thing. And it is fantastic. It's where it's at,
man. And you just keep eating it throughout the
day. It's just there. Yeah. So it's always there.
So like, you're hungry, you eat it, you're full,
time goes by, you're re -hungry, you eat some
more. It's where it's at, man. And then you got
the Utica greens, which is a whole other story.
You got so many of these great dishes. What really
drives me crazy is when you go to these places
that have them and they don't do them justice.
I hate that. Like one time I ordered Riggies
from this place and I got a bowl of ziti with
tomato sauce on it and a chicken breast thrown
on the top. Yeah. Not even diced up. Just thrown
on the top. That gets the fart megaphone. You
know what? If you don't want to make the full
blown recipe, that's cool. Don't sell it. Don't
take a, don't, you know, you're onto something.
Call it a bowl of pasta with chicken. Yeah. Don't
take a local traditional dish and then just shit
on it. You know what I mean? Take that, leave
it off the menu or do it. Right. Because, and
for nothing else, you've got people like us that
are going to bring people who are not from there
and say, hey, you got to try riggy. So now they're
going to walk away going, dude, rig, chicken
riggy is terrible. It's awful. It happened to
my brother -in -law. He had Utica greens from
I don't remember if someone brought them to Ithaca
or where we were. He goes, greens are disgusting.
Extra challenge to find greens done. They are
not necessarily an easy recipe. I don't know
if you've even tried to make them at home or
not. My dad did. There's a lot to it. My dad
crushed it. He's from East Utica, as he grew
up in East Utica. It doesn't surprise me at all.
I have had a bad... Your dad looks like the guy
who could make greens perfectly. He looks like
East Utica. But yeah, he... Your dad looks like
a guy who, if his photo was on a pizza box, no
one would question it. No, like when you hear
Tony's pizza, like he looks, that's Tony's, he
is Tony, that's his name. No, you're right, but
he nails it. I've had ones where I was like,
this is, what are they doing? I'll tell you what,
my dad and my mom turned me on to a place in
Frankfurt, and forgive me, I'm blanking out.
That does, I mean. Probably not there anymore,
but. No, it's there. Oh. Because it was recent.
that they brought it to me and it was phenomenal.
Why am I blanking out? But anyway, Frankfurt
has some of the best Italian restaurants you'll
ever find. They never last long though. No, I
know. But it's okay because when one closes and
the other one opens, it's the same people. Yeah,
just different name, different location. But
it's not gonna be hard to look it up. Google
it. It's in the cousin's name. I'll think of
it, unless Danny, you can, Frankfurt, New York
restaurants. I don't know. Yeah, no. But I'm
sure you can find it. But it's an Italian place.
But it's not like a place where you'd go You
would expect all they must have amazing great.
Yeah, it's so good. So good. Do you remember
see now? We're going way. Let's do it Do you
remember back in the day? Okay, the og? Mm -hmm
was McGill's. Oh, yes where Riggies Arguably
where Riggies came from? Okay, I didn't know
arguably When they were in Main Street in Herkimer
before it was McGill's when it was just Randy's
Yeah, they had that dish long before anybody
else but in the McGill's location that people
know. You're talking about McGill's that's like
between Utica and Herkimer on Old Five. Before
that, it was Randy's, and it was where Glory
Days was. Yes. That was way back. Yes. When I
was a little kid. Right. But they had been serving
that dish since then. So in the McGill's days,
what was incredible about it is you'd go there,
and if you remember, you get chicken riggies,
and it was so large that literally you could
feed the whole family. So you'd order one order.
It basically should be one person's dinner. And
they must've given you a pound and a half of
pasta. My dad used to go there cause he works
near there and he would get it to go and literally
bring home for the whole family. One order of
chicken riggy. After he'd already. Oh man. It
was the type where you like, you could get it
yourself. If you went to the restaurant, you
sit down, you eat a full dinner, you take home
leftovers and you have two more nights of leftovers.
That's it. It was one of those deals where in
a lot of places, probably for good reason, don't
do this anymore. The portions of everything was
just so insane. Too much. But, yeah. But, yeah.
You had meals for the next two or three days.
And you never questioned the value. Ever. And
everybody goes, did I get my $13 worth? Like,
yeah, I think so. I think you got it times three.
Right. Yeah. We're talking about the same...
Mr. McGill's was like on... Roof 5. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. That was... The place I had my first gig
ever, my first band ever, I was 15, we were called
Technical Willie. Yeah, that was our first gig
ever. That was the first bar they let me in as
a 15 -year -old. When I was 16 or 17, I went
to a bachelor party in the second half that was
separate, the restaurant half, the banquet room.
And my buddies paid for my first private dance.
But my girlfriend was waiting for me after the
party at McGill's. So I stunk like a dancer.
And so they dumped a half a bottle of Jack Daniels
all over me. And I went into Mr. McGill's and
literally everybody was just like, you reek like
JD. You smell like strippers and booze. Strippers
and booze, baby. That's the name of my first
record. No, it's not. But yeah, no. Chicken riggies,
man. If you haven't had it, proper. Some adventures
at that place, that's for sure. Yeah, a lot of
adventures. Because I think the owner of Rendy's
is the one that opened McGill's. Mark Rendy.
Mark Rendy, yeah. And by the way, fun fact, I
graduated with his son, Mark Rendy Jr. How about
that? Good guy, I don't know where he is now,
but. How about that? I think, so the restaurant
is long gone, I don't know why we're getting
into the history of McGill's, but the restaurant
is gone, but now I believe they still have the
food truck, so you can get them riggies from
a... at events and things. Isn't that funny how
everything's going inward? You were talking about
Manny's cheesecakes. Now he's working out of
his house. McGill's is a truck. Everything's
moving in. That's what happens with these long
time sort of sole proprietor businesses is, and
we talked about this with Christine and details
on the deal. Yes. There's these folks that have
basically built a job for themselves. They never
really even positioned it as a a company that
they would sell off or hand off or whatever.
So they're going to do it until they don't want
to work anymore. And then that'll probably be
the end of that business. Which is wild. It is,
but that's especially in the, in all honesty,
growing up in the Valley and doing business,
starting a career there, it was wild when you'd
leave there and see how things aren't like that
in the rest of the world. Exactly. These local
businesses, they change hands. People retire
and move. In the valley, it's literally work
till you die. Yes. And then, oh yeah, remember
this. You have to. So -and -so's bakery. What
happened to that? So -and -so passed away at
89 years old. Yeah. That happened with, in Herkimer,
the Empire Diner. Oh yeah. That switched hands
quite a bit. The old ed. You just think, I think,
I think this is humanity in general. I think
we always assume, like, it's always going to
be this way. People don't realize all good things
must come to an end. And you know, it's funny
though, by the same token, sometimes I've reached
the age where I'm blown away by some things that
still exist the way they always did. The other
way. Like you show up and you're like, how is
this not changing 35? How are you still the guy
that works the desk at this place? Why is that
the same sign behind the counter? Which is fine,
but same business model. It's interesting to
me. You know what I do love? There are a few
places on this planet that have kept the same
prices and I don't know how they're still in
business, but they just want to keep it affordable
and the way it always has been and That's sometimes
they're detriment. Yeah, right, right the I've
seen people in the computer business do that.
They're like listen our prices haven't changed
since 1998 that's cool, but But also like you
can't pay your bills. Yeah, you got it. So then
how are you gonna be there to support people?
A little trip down the Memory lane. No, that's
that we go all day. We really could TP driver.
Anyway, there reminds me though as we're talking
about business We get a lot of people reaching
out to me at growth mode for our IT services
and more and more and what's interesting is We're
entering an interesting economic time here in
the country globally. Saving money, cutting costs,
things like that are becoming more and more of
a priority. And luckily, our business is in a
position to help folks with that. For years,
we've really led on the fact of the amount of
value and the different types of things we're
doing for you. We haven't even really bragged
about the fact that what we offer are some of
the most cost effective options for technology
services that you could get for your business.
100%. We save you money over internal staff.
We save you money over almost any other provider
in town. And quite frankly, we provide more value
than all of those things combined at any price
point. I'm very happy that we are in this position
to help so many companies, hopefully make it
through what will be hopefully a short economic
downturn here. And the reality is this is something
that we at least have a little bit of an idea
is happening. So I want to say it's happening
at this moment. You don't have so much room to
get ahead of it, but you got a little bit. If
you can plan, you can make smart moves. Good
smart businesses will have no trouble. That's
right. If you're selling a ridiculously priced
luxury product that nobody really needs, you
should probably work on your resume. The rest
of us, especially in service industries, in product
industries that make things that people really
need, if you offer a good product and you offer
a good value, I think you'll get through this
without an issue. And we're happy to help on
the technical side. I'm glad you said that. People
need to hear that right now. There's a lot of
uncertainty and especially for people that are
older and maybe retired or about to retire or
have a business and things are uncertain anyway.
So I think it's important that you say that and
it makes us... There's always a bounce back.
There's always a correction and I think... Something
that's exciting for us is I remember I was thinking
about this the other day with all the cutting
going on in the government and things like that.
And I start thinking, oh, what if I don't have
a job? Oh, wait a minute. I'm going to have a
job. We're not affiliated with the government.
And then I started thinking exactly what you
said, which is we're actually the opposite. We're
going to help people. What you do and what we
do at Growth Mode Content, what you do at Growth
Mode Tech, it's the opposite. Actually, this
is a time for us to To swoop in and help you
get your word out there for your product to your
service 100 % and that's the other great thing
about where we're positioned and I'm glad you
mentioned that with growth mode content is really
that same thing, right because We provide far
more value for the price Any other branding or
marketing effort out there in our channel unlike
almost anybody else's is Social media. Hmm. It's
the one that people will use the most It's not
a service that requires a subscription. It's
not a service that people have to go out of their
way to find or use. It's what they're already
on and will spend probably more time on if they've
got less disposable income to get out, unfortunately.
But that's where we are and that's where we're
positioning local businesses so they can grab
that. And we've already seen results, which I'm
going to pull the curtain back a little bit.
When we started and we're telling our clients
like hey look It could take weeks. It could take
months. It's legitimately a branding effort.
It's a branding after Fire sale people jump on
it as soon as so we're like when your podcast
comes out or when the social media clips come
out Could be a slow burn. We're gonna we're gonna
find out and I remember after two weeks. We got
our first Email from one of our clients who said
you're not gonna believe this after my first
episode a client that I I was trying to get emailed
me and said they saw it and now they want to
do business. And again, peeling the curtain back,
that was not guaranteed. And I was surprised.
I didn't think it would be, I didn't think we
would see that kind of result yet. So it gave
us more confidence. And then obviously it gave
us, it made us look really good with our clients
and they're happy. And that's all, that's what
we want. And that's the whole point. of growth
mode technologies in general, all the different
things we do, is to make businesses better. And
the only way you can do that is to offer a quality
service at a reasonable price. Because we're
not the biggest company in town, right? There's
a bunch of other guys that could, in theory,
come and they could do it cheaper because they
can afford to have lower margins. Right. Like
that. The problem is nobody does and nobody does
with more value and that's the part that I think
is most important at any price point if you were
to double our Fees for any of our services When
you see what you get for it would still be a
worthwhile hunter situation 100 % and that's
continuing to grow. Yeah one of my philosophies
in business in all of these is To continue to
increase value, right? And so there's so many
places where And maybe I should be charging more
for some of these things, but there's things
in both IT and now in the content business where
if I find an opportunity, I can make a small
investment. And that's something that all my
folks, all my clients can use. I'm going to do
that and probably not charge them extra for it.
And there's more and more things and I don't
want to get into too much detail of what's coming
before it's official, but on the content side,
we're in the process of making a deal that's
going to provide incredible additional value
for all our content clients. for zero additional
dollars. And these are the types of things that
this is my philosophy of just be so good that
nobody could ever consider something else. Yeah.
And that's where we need to be. Right. Because
as you mentioned these different cuts and we
at growth mode, we don't have any government
clients, but we do have a lot of charities and
a lot of charities are funded by that. And a
lot of that is affected. So we have the potential
To have some downturn in our existing clients,
but that's the other reason that we Are working
hard. We're adding new folks every day and We
as a business are planning and will be in a good
shape to weather these things so I think that's
really just the key and that's always the key
right in business is to Do your best and there's
so many surprises, but do your best to have an
idea What could happen? Yep and prepare for it,
prepare for multiple contingencies. Yeah, and
I think another aspect of how you do business
that I think is important to highlight, and correct
me if I'm wrong, but I feel like you have always
been about the customer, and that gets thrown
around way too loosely. You really are. You're
the type of business owner that is gonna keep
the costs as low as he can for the customer without
putting yourself in the hole. But I think the
part that, you know, is important to highlight
is that you're always keeping it at the right
scale to where you can give everybody the maximum,
the maximum service. So you're not gonna sign
on a hundred clients and leave it just the handful
of us here. You know when to scale, but never
losing that one -on -one quality. Does that make
sense? It does. We're at a size right now where
we can give our dozen clients one -on -one Care
and meet all their needs and if and when we grow
we're still gonna give that level Yeah, we'll
just have to scale. That's more employees and
Danny. Yeah more Mike's and Danny's exactly.
Hopefully more Danny's I'll need a little more
me, but that's a different story but Fuck yeah,
no, it's and I think that's that that goes a
long way. No, you're absolutely correct in I'm
glad you mentioned that, because that is one
of our big selling points, especially on the
IT side, is that we have human service, right?
Hard to find. AIs are great, automation is great,
and we'll make use of that as much as possible,
but any time you call our phone number, a human
24 -7 will answer the phone. That's right. When
you need help, we dispatch people to your office.
And actually, not even when you need help. Our
IT folks make regularly stop in visits and check
on all of our clients on a very regular basis.
So you get that human level of service that most
folks in our industry now are trying to do as
little of as possible. They're either trying
to fully automate or they're trying to fully
remote. And there's time and place for that.
We got a great remote help desk team who never
has stepped foot in this office. A couple of
incredible ladies run that. They do an incredible
job for us. And that's great. There's also times
where we need to send somebody to go put their
hands on things. And that's the type of thing
that we do. The advantage though, is as you mentioned,
as we grow in scale and we add people, that helps
all of our clients because that's just more talent.
So everybody we bring in, even if they're, here's
the same position. You're a level two IT person.
Sure. Sure. There's the same level of basic skills
that every level two IT person could do, but
Each one of them comes with their own specific
experience and they've got a system they worked
with at a previous employer that they're an expert
on, that nobody else on our team is. And those
types of resources become available then to every
client for no extra money. We have all this talent
on hand that we can then extend to them. So the
more folks we bring on, the more we scale, the
better we get, which in many cases is the opposite.
Exactly. People try to squeeze and it's. Two
guys can handle a dozen clients. I think two
guys can handle 40 clients, you know, where you
just have to keep up with that. I agree. And
I think it's important to note, it's been a while,
so I think this is important. People see growth
mode content, growth mode tech. Maybe there's
some confusion. This place is incredible and
this is Matt's brainchild. Growth mode tech offers,
and you can talk about growth mode tech. Let
me talk about the growth. So the growth mode
content side of this business is it is a one
-stop shop, essentially a production company.
You come here, whether you're on your own or
if it's for your business, you create your own
monthly podcast. We chop that up into social
media clips, we schedule them, we put them out,
and it is advertising in the form of a podcast.
You have a full episode that everyone's going
to see once a month, but you also have throughout
the month, a ton of clips. On top of that, we
have obviously Good News York. We don't just
shoot these things and put them out. We're managing
your social media. A lot of times you'll find
there's a lot of people out there that hide behind
the, not hide, but they go behind this social
media manager or marketing company. And it's
not that. We are not only your, we're shooting
it and producing it. We're managing your social
media and it's a team effort. It's never like
we're going to take over. It is we work with
you. But what people are forgetting is There's
a whole other side. Our clients come here to
shoot the podcast and they go, I'm thinking about
getting some phone software. You guys do that.
Oh wait, you guys install this on top of the
content part of it. You've got growth mode tech.
If you want to talk about that side. So that's
growth mode technologies is the overarching company.
And there's lots of different ways to set things
up. I have been a fan of, and at some point the
structure might change, but I've been a fan of
kind of having one main company and having different
divisions. Yep. different products, if you so
to speak. And we've put everything under that
umbrella of growth mode. So we've got growth
mode content, growth mode only fans coming soon.
No growth mode phone, which there's going to
be a new site launch for that. That's our business
communication system that we're branding the
same way. That's something that's incredible.
We talk about cost savings. That's something
that beats the cost of every phone provider out
there. and has more features. And it's another
one of those things where I could just charge
more and be right in line with everybody else.
I'd rather give more people the value and offer
that. But all of these different divisions of
Growth Mode, and of course your local IT department
is the brand of specifically our IT services.
But all of these things are designed again to
build businesses and make people better. so that
means the community, that means employees at
various clients, that means the business owners
themselves, but everything we do is around growth.
We're growth -mode. So as you were saying that,
and this is more about me always being late to
the party than you, I just had, hit me right
between the eyes, when you first, you and I first
got into discussions about me being a part of
this, and thank God I am, I love it, but. I remember
you saying, we're going to call it growth mode
content. And at first I was just like, growth
mode, that's okay. That couldn't be a better
name because here's an example. I walked in this
morning after a weekend and every weekend you
either have a new light or a new camera or a
new setup or a new this new software. And at
first I thought it was just because you're like,
you're a gear nerd. You love that kind of stuff.
You're constantly growing the business. You're
always making things better. Now it's hitting
me like growth mode. You are always growing,
which is a key component to any entrepreneur
or any business. And I think that's the part
that the clients are going to benefit from the
most, other than what we do, is you're going
to be a part of a company who's run by somebody
who is always growing, which in turn the clients
grow with us. And that's so important. And whether
it's new software or whatever, but you're always
upping the game. Yeah. And this has been a continual
evolution. And part of the reason for that is
it's a completely bootstrapped business. So what
I mean by that is there's no investors, there's
no loans, there's no partners. It's literally
we have the money to pay you because we have
a client that signed up to pay us. That's right.
And that's the way every business I've ever built
has ever been. For really no reason other than
that's the only way I knew. If I was friends
with some guys that were venture capitalists,
then maybe I would have went the investor route
sooner. I'm not necessarily knocking these things,
but it's what I know and what I've known to do.
What goes along with that is that constant evolution.
We picked up a new client. We got a little bit
more new money. We can add some higher level
equipment and tweak and grow and reinvest out
with this video wall that I purchased before
this launched. Putting that together and just
adding all these different pieces Yeah to where
some of these you get a startup or you get a
couple of fellas with some money that they come
together They want to start a business they throw
this huge chunk of change in up front and they'll
have the most incredible thing on day one Yeah,
I'm never gonna have the most incredible thing
on day one. It's always gonna get better with
time, but at the same time I also don't waste
money that way. No, I can't tell you how many
startups are like drop half a million dollars
on the fanciest everything and fall apart because
their business model was good or something like
that. I think the other reason I'm so impressed
by it is because there's been so many employers
I've worked for over the years, where not only
were they not trying to adapt and grow, it was
almost the opposite. How long has this piece
of equipment been in this building that hasn't
been working and affecting the flow of our business?
There's the opposite, the neglect side of it.
You do it in every facet though. I don't even
just mean growth mode in that, yeah, you're buying
new cameras and new lights and we're tweaking.
Yeah, you get that, the growth mode mindset for
the actual productions themselves. But even adding
on, like you said, adding services that we can
add for each client, you're always growing. And
I think that should be and hopefully is a big
reason why we have the clients we do is they're
realizing like, wow, we're growing with them.
Yeah. No. That's a hundred percent correct. And
that's, that's always been my philosophy is that
we grow together. And that's literally true in
our IT world. Our pricing is based on the size
of your company. We base our price on what it
takes to maintain as you grow, it takes more.
So we grow and literally the only way we get
more money from you or generate more revenue
is if you do better and you grow as a company
yourself. But I think there's also, and again,
you're the entrepreneur, correct me if I'm wrong,
there's also something to be said about knowing
when to grow. I've seen people grow, businesses,
business owners that grew, tried to grow too
fast and now they can't afford it, or their overhead's
too much, or whatever it is. 100%. I've noticed
with you, and I don't want to jinx it, you've
always grown the right amount and at the right
time. I've tried. It's calculated. I've tried,
and that's a challenge because the reality is
at many points, even today, our team is the biggest
it's ever been. And quite frankly, we could get
by with a few more people helping us do a few
more things. We don't necessarily could afford
that just yet. And that's OK. So you're absolutely
right. But the other side that's nice about this
business is all of our services are on a recurring
monthly model. So when a new client signs up,
it's not just that They bought this one new thing
and I got this sale today. It's that I now have
an additional chunk of recurring revenue that
I can base positions on. And that's what allows
me to really scale in a better way than a lot
of businesses. If you're a retail store, you
got some days are better than others. You don't
necessarily know what your month to month is
going to, you average it out, right? You do your
best, but With our type of business, we're lucky
enough to where we know exactly when somebody
signs on, they're going to be with us for this
long and we're going to generate this much. That
means I can afford this, these things. Yeah.
And it's, I come from a performance background
of music and comedy and it's like the fans, right?
Or the clients, they're your boss. You see a
lot of business owners or people out there who
provide services or a business to where you rely
on the customer. that are cursing their customers
or clients out and it's, Hey, that's your boss.
Cause without their money, he ain't doing shit.
So we're running out of time here, but that leads
me to something that I want to talk about in
the future. That exact thing, which the Savannah
bananas. Oh my God. All right. And just to not
get into this too deep today, but if you are
even slightly familiar with this organization,
you might've heard of them. You might go, Oh,
they're sounded like the Harlem Globetrotters
of baseball. But better. Comedy, entertaining
baseball. Dig in deep. That's all I'm going to
say. And we'll talk about it more, but anybody
who's listening today and they want to dig in
deep, follow the gentleman. What is his? See,
I don't even remember his name. The guy in the
yellow tux. That might even be his name. He's
the guy. I don't remember his name. Tick tock.
It might even be like yellow tux man or something
like that. Sure. He's a genius. Yeah. He created
this business and they talk about it being fan
first. And again, that's one of, like you said,
that's everybody. Oh yeah. We're for the cut.
Everybody says that, right? This dude embodies
it in a way that I have never seen anybody. And
I think this is a model that every business owner,
no matter what business you're in, you need to
be paying attention to this guy. It is so in
depth. And again, we're going to get into more
of it, but it is so in depth in terms of what
they have tried to do. to completely focus on
fan experience. Yeah. They, their number one
goal is that you come out to one of their events
and it is the best time you've ever had in your
whole life. And they're not, again, it's not
like a slogan, the things that they do, like
advertising. They took all the advertising out
of their ballpark. They said, they went to their
fans and they said, just seeing that ad on the
backboard there. Does that enhance your experience?
Does that make it a better day at the ballpark?
No. It's gone. Which is insane. Right. Because...
It's their number one source of revenue. That's
what I'm saying. Like, for you to make that kind
of decision, business decision, to cut a huge
source of revenue, especially in sports, if you
didn't believe he was all about the fans before,
you have to now. You know how much money he's
leaving off the table? It's awesome. They get
down to planning every minute of the game and
you know where most of it you go to a baseball
game like we did which Shout -out go watch that
video was one great circus mess. We've had in
a while last week But you go to the game you
get in you sit down they mosey around they do
some things Eventually the game starts they throw
up it whatever the savannah banana starts with
entertainment in the parking lot Oh, see, I didn't
know that outside the venue. And then they have
a small window where they want you to get in
and get in your seat and 90 % plus of the audience
is in the seat ready at first pitch. That's us.
They have so much. They don't want to miss it.
They don't want to miss it. And it's intentional.
It's so nonstop from the second you pull in,
you're having an experience. And this is the
type of thing that again, as we talk about. you
know, as things get a little tougher and people
start spending less and less money, they're gonna
look at these options and we can go to a regular
everyday baseball game or we can go to this thing
that's gonna blow my mind. And this is my, used
to be monthly budget, now it's my quarterly entertainment
budget. And I don't know which one's helping
the other or hurting the other, but this is also
coming at a time where Major League Baseball,
I know you don't follow sports, but Major League
Baseball is struggling. to keep people interested.
And it's for no other reason than we've just
evolved as a society. Back in the day when it
was America's pastime, and still some ways it
is, there was nothing else to watch. Or then
when TV came along... Why that game is so long.
It's why there's so many games a season. Right.
And they're trying to speed up the game by adding
the pitch clock. And they're doing things that,
and it is helping, but... They're at a point
where like how much more can we cut without compromising
the game itself? So now you got savannah bananas
and it's the opposite it is Clearly the major
league baseball can't do what savannah bananas
are doing, but it's just It makes it a wonder
and this is again a question for when we get
in I want Danny in on this when we talk about
I don't know I want his I love you do I want
his professional inside baseball inside sure
These guys are selling out football stadiums.
That's nuts football stadiums that they've put
a baseball diamond on for one game Because that's
how many people they're filling and so I say
that to say Are they gonna overshadow traditional
baseball? Are they gonna are they gonna drive
right past them dude at this point? No, it's
possible I don't know I could interesting thing
there's little tweaks that major league can make
and we won't get into it but starting with a
salary cap. So in all other sports, I think all
other major sports, definitely in football, there's
a salary cap. So there's a league -wide salary
cap. It's shared revenue, too, but that says
every team has X amount to spend each year. And
it goes up every year because it's shared revenue.
Baseball does not. So there is a huge lot. So
when there's teams like in the 90s with the Yankees
and still the Yankees now and Mets and Red Sox,
but the Dodgers just spent... spend so much more.
800, yeah. And so there's a huge, like teams
like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds
are struggling because of the market size. And
just that alone is let's get a salary cap and
let's make this a little more interesting. Let's
get some more competitive games. But yeah. But
you know what? Before we go, I do want to say.
Sure. We're talking about how you like to grow.
Yeah. Growth mode. Yeah. If you didn't believe
me that it was in every facet, I'm gonna prove
it to you. You son of a bitch. I walked in today,
and I see a Good News York gigantic, big Stanley
-type, big dumb cup. Now, I thanked him, and
I love you for this, and I am excited, but if
you've been watching the show, or if you've been
any of my stand -up... I did buy it to break
your chops. I have a whole stand -up bit. about
how my wife loves water bottles. And this is
the exact water bottle I was talking about when
I said, it's like they said, I want to make something
so clunky and annoying that can't fit in any
cup holder in America and makes loud noises when
it falls. That's what we're going to do. And
now I have one. So thank you. Just I saw it and
I had to. Who wants this much liquid going through
their body at one time anyway? It's so clunky
and. I just. But thanks, buddy. Anyway. Guys,
I'm Matt Major. I'm Mike Brindisi. This has been
Good News York. We'll see you tomorrow.