Digital Social Hour - Importance of Networking and Running the Biggest Events in the World | Bill Walsh DSH #355

Episode Date: March 16, 2024

Bill Walsh comes on the show to discuss AI, running big conferences and the importance of family. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly Hubspot Podcast Network: https://link.chtbl.com/jcfShDpb LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What makes you want to help people? What made you get into the business of helping people? You know what? I started out and in 2000, I was burnt out. And I said, there has to be more than just make the money and go through the grind and do your thing. And you know, what are you really great at? What serves a lot of people? Is there money in the industry? And would you do it for free? If you can answer those four questions, you know, you're on the right path. Wherever you guys are watching this show, you know you're on the right path. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm.

It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. All right, guys, we are back. I'm with my co-host, Wayne Lewis. Yo, yo, yo. And the man, the myth, the legend, Bill Walsh. What up? How's it going, brother?

It's good to be with you guys. You guys are great. I feel good. Just got out of a 488 little Ferrari and running a little track. It was fun. It's a wake-up call quickly. Nice. You're still driving those at your age?

Every day. I mean, I have my own 360, but yeah, this was a test track fun. We took 60 people racing this morning. Nice. It was pretty intense. That's awesome. Just finished a big conference. It's called Speed Vegas.

Oh, Speed Vegas. Outside of Vegas, right? Yeah, right. Outside of Vegas. Not bad. That was one of the best conferences I've ever been to, by the way. Thank you. So congrats on that.

Yeah. And you're all about just having big events and conferences. We do. We run about 300 live events a year. That's insane. Seems like they never stop. That's more than Fleischman, man. Yeah.

So we have them this weekend. We have Dubai. We have Yerevan. We have London. That's almost one a day, right? Pretty much. Yeah, 365 days. You got all of them?

No, it can never be all. I speak about 200 times a year at all different events. That's insane, man. How did you scale to that point? You know, we started out, gosh, I started as a trader, and I did turnarounds for a decade. In 2002, I teamed up with GoDaddy and FranklinCovey. I was a marketing partner.

We launched a product called, it was crazy successful. It was a business in a box. And we didn't care what your business was. It helped you do it better. And we teamed up with Learning Addicts out of New York. And before you know it, we were in 20 countries. In 05, we launched an incubator course called Rainmaker. And we sell it all over the world.

You come four times a year, six days at a time. Bring your team of four people with you. It was an idea that Mohammed Yunus had. He won the Nobel Prize for team building to start companies and doing microloans. So our idea was to get your team together, come and work on your grants, your business plan, social media, sales funnels, loyalty programs, work on your public speaking, and really build a real business. No get rich quick. It'll take you maybe one to three years to build a real company, but you know what a difference it is. And so 18 years later, we've had customers in more than 30 countries. We run expos, masterminds, TV networks. I do a lot of large turnarounds. And so this was a conference we teamed up with a guy named Todd Ault here in Vegas and

runs eight public companies, eight private companies. And just three months ago, we had the idea that create a concept around ROI, which was the idea of risk on international. And really the concept was a movement to get people in different pillars to create success. And sure enough, within three months, we brought on Tucker Carlson. We brought on Robert Kennedy Jr. We had Charles Payne. We had Sean Kelly at the event. He was chatting it up.

And we did some interviews in the diamond, the chairman's room. And, uh, but no, you know, uh, between the stuff that we've done, I think we haven't even started yet. It was, I know it sounds crazy, but, but it was such a, it was, it was an event where everyone felt welcome and there was no, you didn't feel sticky, you know, when you left. I loved it. The networking and the open bars and the food here and the connections there. But then to bring in these level of speakers, you know, that really, I mean, I didn't really know much about RFK. But I'll tell you what, I learned a lot yesterday. Yeah.

That guy's a genius. Yeah, he is. He's flat out brilliant. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people said that about him. They were like, I'm not Democrat, but I would vote for him. I would vote for him. Yeah.

And we're going to get together next week and help with his campaign. Nice. He's got some cool ideas, and I think he's got a great message that people need to hear. Yeah. So in terms of having these events, I mean, why do you have so many of them? You know, we started out with, sounds crazy, but just doing a few events a year. And they just kept growing, and our teams kept growing. Right.

So now we have multiple teams in multiple cities that run events all under our umbrella. And at the end of the day, I started as a primarily VC turnaround person. And back in 07, I said, why not use our business course to find good partnerships? And it doesn't always have to be stock or own the company. It was more along the lines, if we grow your business, pay us. And if we don't grow your business, then don't pay us. But before we knew it, we were involved with 40-plus companies over the years. Some of the biggest ones do over $20 million a month now.

Damn. So it's really fun to know that you're a star part of something. And then I really do call it the ripple effect. Students, they only pay $5,000 a year for the whole program. Wow, that's it? They meet four times a year, six days at a time. Well, yeah, because it's really like – think of like a pay-to-play venture group. You're going to come spend six days with us, four times a year to work on your company.

We're going to figure out the ones we think we can make money with. Right. And we can make money whether it's a partnership or an ownership or you need cash. We have a new 25,000 square foot incubator right here in Vegas. Nice. Shout out to the Hustle Daily Show, guys. Part of the HubSpot Network, which is the audio destination for business builders. The Hustle Daily Show is your daily dose of business, tech, and news.

And they got original stories, which keeps you in the loop on what's trending in the business world. It's very important to stay up to date on what's trending, guys. Right now, obviously, crypto's hot. There's tons of opportunities there. They have over 3 million young readers on their daily email, and it keeps you in the loop on what's going on, like I said earlier. And they now have a daily podcast called The Hustle Daily Show, where their team of writers break down the biggest business headlines in 10 minutes or less.

In today's modern age of no one having an attention span, that makes it easy for everyone. They do deep dives on topics like how a man won the lottery 14 times and why it's nearly impossible to buy a modern day Bob Ross painting. I checked out a few episodes. They recently did one on 3D printing houses, which I thought was super interesting. Search for the Hustle Daily Show

in your favorite podcast app, guys, like the one you're using right now. Now here's the show. All right, so small business come in and we'll give them free rent. We'll team up with them on their business. We'll get them marketed. We'll get them legal.

Make sure they apply for their grants. Most businesses don't realize that there's $500 billion a year in grant money that never gets applied for. Wow. Just sitting there. The best part of our grant money

is free money. This studio has a grant. Yeah, perfect. This is a boss studio. Yeah. And you definitely got it going on. That's for sure. Plus, you guys like to hoop.

That's pretty sick. We do. So what makes you want to help people? What made you get into the business of helping people? You know what? I started out, and in 2000, I was burnt out. I was making a lot of money. But I just wrote this down.

My kids were seven, nine, and two and a half. And I said, there has to be more than just make the money and go through the grind and do your thing. And I took two weeks off. And the two weeks became almost two years. Whoa. I wasn't super wealthy, but I had enough money I never had to work again. Okay. And I just said, you know what?

And I tell everyone that if you're listening today, what are you great at? You know, what are you really great at? What serves a lot of people? Is there money in the industry? And would you do it for free? If you could answer those four questions, you know you're on the right path. So I was great at if you had an idea, Sean, I could get the money together, I could put the team together, I could drive the systems,

and we could go to market. You know, we have team shirts that say dream, plan, execute. And the problem is that most people forget the word execute. So they got the dreams, they got the plans, they forget to get off their and go to work. So for me, I was really good at putting those things together in a fast timeline. It didn't take three planning committees and sub-sessions and stuff. If you're great at something, then go write a book.

If you're great at something, then launch a podcast, not a soapbox. Probably the most podcasts, they those who talk about themselves. Oh, yeah. Bring on great speakers and let them share the stuff they're doing. And believe it or not, your brand elevates because then they're going to share your story. Exactly. And one of the things that we started is that when we launched Rainmaker is that I didn't have all the best connections, right? I didn't know all these people.

But I knew if I added value for them. And everybody talks about this value. It's's a lot of a lot of people, all that value. Well, how do you add value? Yeah. I want to help you. Well, how are you going to help me? Right. You know, but I knew that people like Les Brown and Mark Victor Hanson and Sharon Lecter, I mean, this author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, you know, I started to realize if I could really bring them revenue, if I could bring them customers to their story, they'd pay attention. And before you know it, within one or two years, they were telling all their tribes about it. If you want a great business coach, this is your guy. And skip

away from the flash. I don't like the flash. I don't like to make all this money in one day. I don't believe in any get rich quick. Get rich quick usually means get broke faster. But how about take a little time and build a quick. Get broke faster. Yeah. Because, you know, you hear about these overnight success stories. Well, the real overnight success stories are about five to ten years in the making. For sure. You know, you didn't just wake up successful.

No. You worked your ass off to get here. And people need to hear the truth. And still working. Yeah, and still working. Still working. Going to networking events. Reading books.

Exactly. Talking to guys like you. Growing. But I do love the fact that if I can help someone with a plan and the systems and the teams, and they have a passion for it, and they solve a problem or they make something better, I watch them knock it out of the park. Because we've been able to put people on stages all over the world

that have a message and a story. Because they don't have the money to go rent the Javits Center. They don't have the money to go bring in RFK Jr. or Tucker Carlson. But if I can align them on the same stage with these rock stars, and we can share in some of the revenue long-term with them, it's just a little longer-term growth. It's a win-win. Yeah, it's a win-win-win. Customers win, our partners win, and we win. Everyone there was happy at the conference. Isn't that great to see that, though?

And that's the problem, I think, with certain conferences. A lot of people aren't happy, if we're being honest. For sure. Well, I mean, think about it, right? How many conferences have you been where, well, let's see, number one, they'll take you out to the NASCAR track, get to race in the Indy cars at 200 miles an hour? I've never seen that. How many events have you been to where all the meals are included? Oh, yeah.

And I'm not talking about here's your crap cheeseburger. I'm talking about steak and salmon and first-class, world-class food from world-class chefs. And when you walk into the place, they've got 30-foot LED screens. And not this big 5,000-person event where they pay $29 or $2 to get into, and then you got 50 guys selling something. We figured out that we had less booths, but we had great partners. And if somebody wants to buy something, they're going to buy it anyway. So it's a little different model, but we're going to run probably 10 of those types of conferences next year.

It's way more intimate. You can actually talk with people. Correct. Everyone's respectful. And we had lots of different activations inside. So we had a chairman's room. We had a diamond room. We had a diamond room. We had just race cars.

We could sit in the Formula One thing and race the car. Yeah, that was cool. And then if you wanted to go talk to someone, there was another restaurant there. And we had bar service all day. But we do a lot of events like this. So our next event is called UWC. It's an AI festival.

It'll be super cool. I'm not an expert in AI, but I can hire them. You can hire them. Does that make sense? People don't realize Henry Ford was tried by his own family for ignorance. Really? True story. They tried to kick him out of his own company. Wow. They just did that with Sam Altman. That's right. Well, then he just got hired, didn't he? Only two days later. At Microsoft. Didn't take very long. Yeah, strategic. Yeah, when smart people will find a way. But Henry Ford said, he said i'll tell you what why don't we move the trial to my office and they did he said i will answer your question within less than 60 seconds you'll realize that i'm certainly not

inept at running my company and within 60 seconds said to the jury said you guys can ask me any question you want i don't care what the question about the company i will push a button within one minute someone will be in here to answer your questions. And the judge said, case dismissed. Wow. So Steve Jobs got kicked out of his own company. It took him 10 years to come back. Yeah, and then when he came back, it blew up again.

Well, I mean, I feel sad because there was a shareholder that owned 10% of Apple stock. Talking about yourself? No, no, not me. If it was me, man, I would have at least kept two. But this guy sold his 10% for $6,000 about yourself? No, no, not me. If it was me, man, I would at least kept two. But this guy sold his 10% for six grand. What? Oh my goodness.

Wait, who? Can you imagine that? I never heard of that. It's a true story. That's crazy. Told Steve, I don't believe in your vision. I don't believe in your brand.

I got to get the money back. Wow. Damn. And he gave him the money back. I don't think so. How sad for that guy. So let me ask you a question. What advice would you have for up-and-coming entrepreneurs He gave him the money back. How sad for that guy. So let me ask you a question.

What advice would you have for up-and-coming entrepreneurs that are looking to get a mentor but their approaches are wrong? What's the proper way to approach someone when it comes to – I think the big thing – let's say you have no money. Let's say you're a young entrepreneur. They don't have a lot of money. Well, they don't know. But, well, they can add value. That's the starting, right? So they can't add value. Well, they don't know, but well, they can add value. That's the difference, right? Is that what I've always found is that if I work with young entrepreneurs and say,

Bill, I'd love to go to your courses, can't afford it. I say, great, then you can volunteer. Oh, okay. We'll give you a volunteer slot. You can help work the events and you can earn the money to come to the events. It goes back to how hungry is that person? You know, they're willing to put the work into it. Just like you said, they're willing to do it for free. And the funny thing is that most of them won't show up. Wow. You'll give them an opportunity to say, listen, we're going to take the private jet. You can come with us. We're going to go do this event.

You've got to work for a couple of days there, check it all out, see if you fit in. I've always been a big believer. Even when I sell coaching, if it's the bigger brands, I'll listen. I'll work for free for a month. You don't like my work? Don't pay me. Even right now? Right now. Wow. Big brands, I'll come in and say, listen, I'll work with you for for free for a month. You don't like my work? Don't pay me. Even right now?

Right now. Wow. Big brands, I'll come in and say, listen, I'll work with you for no charge for a month. Here's my normal rates, right? Now, if you don't like it, then don't pay. But if you like it, then write a check. And I'll tell you what, when you give that proposition to people that play it, and I have people that run billion-dollar companies that I coach. Yeah.

Right? And they're glad to pay the fee. Wow. But the thing is, for the young entrepreneur, I think you're adding value as your time. When you really look at success, right, it comes back to time, wealth, and health. Right. And if you put that into three circles, right, the Venn diagram of time, health, and wealth is that many people that have the time have no money. And then some people that have the money have no what?

Time. Have no time. Yeah. But the thing that really integrates both of those is you've got to stay up with your health. Right. So I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I work my ass off.

I love my kids and my family. I travel extensively. But if you don't put stamps in your passport, you're missing what life's about. For sure. You know, go experience the world. You know, I tell people all the time, I rather have stamps in the passport than cars in the garage. Wow. And as you get older, you can have them all. You know, the funny is when you start making a lot of money, I mean, ridiculous money, you don't care about the cars. You don't care about all that stuff because it doesn't matter anymore. What really matters is quality time with quality people.

Wow. You know what I mean? And are you making a difference while you're here? Yeah. So we teach young entrepreneurs, build your legacy plan now. What are you going to leave behind? What's your vision for where you want to go? And if you're young, I say,

man, go travel the world. You know, go live with nothing in your pocket if that's what you got, and go experience a bit of the world. And you think, because you'll have your whole life to work. So, you know, don't get so caught up in trying to get ahead by how much cash you're making, this kind of stuff. And listen, I'm not saying the cash doesn't help. It does. Right. You know, but it's the same point is that if you don't have a lot of these things and you can really help other people, if you're young, you probably have time. And the neat part about it is if you're really appreciated, the money's going to come along with it. Absolutely. Did you experience success at a

young age? I did. I had my first paper route at nine. Wow. You said paper route? Paper route, nine years old. Yeah. and I literally had to get up every Sunday morning and deliver papers to my dad. And I'd have kids spend the night so they'd get to hang out at our house because my house

was always the best party house. I was, my two older brothers, one older sister, and we had a lot of parties so the kids wanted to hang out at our house for sure. So how did the paper route work?

So the paper route was that they would drop all the papers at my house, you know, five, like 300. Oh, 300. Yeah, and they were thick. I only delivered Sunday paper. So the paper route was that they would drop all the papers in my house, you know, five, like 300. Oh, 300. Yeah, and they were thick.

I only delivered Sunday paper. So the Chicago Tribune was a thick paper on Sundays. So was it like in the movies where you're just throwing them out? No, no, no. You had to bring it right to the door. You couldn't throw them out because they were pretty heavy. They were still wrapped up in rubber, man. But, you know, you're thinking about, I mean, the paper was this thick.

Yeah, yeah. You know, it wasn't like some little newspaper today. But it didn't matter. I learned that my dad said if you start something, you finish it. I tell young entrepreneurs today, if you start something, you finish it. Whether you like it or not, if you agree to something and you're supposed to do it, then follow through. At nine years old. At nine years old.

That's crazy. Then I raced BMX bikes as a kid. I got to race for Factory Schwinn. I don't even know how many races, but maybe 500 races over the six or seven years I did it. But I got to be around, and this was a lesson for everyone that's listening today, is that I got to be around entrepreneurs that played at a super high level. See, I never realized as a kid, I didn't realize that we were poor or we were low middle class. One summer we went away for a summer vacation, came back, and we had no house.

Wow. I didn't realize that we went on the summer vacation because we had no house. You know what I'm saying? So in the middle of that, my father found another place for us to live and they worked super hard. But I didn't realize that when I would go bike racing every weekend, a lot of these parents were entrepreneurs. They literally were, they had the weekends off. And my dad, if he took the day off on a Saturday or Sunday as an electrician, it cost him time and a half on Saturday, double time on Sunday. And so that was a wake-up call that how do I get around more entrepreneurship? And that was for me. I said I'd never seen myself as a W-2.

You know, I always figured I had to be an entrepreneur and get behind the register. And so when we raced these bikes, we'd go into these cities, and with Schwinn, our bikes had to be perfect. I don't care if there was a mark on the seat or your helmet. It had to be new. It had to be perfect. And because we were always winning, right? And I think winning is a way of life. You know, when you start to really think about it.

But people, they hear that phrase, it only means. Yeah, but how important is winning? Do you believe that you have to have a certain amount of losses to understand how important winning is? Listen, guys, I have failures every week. Right. I've been broke and I've been wealthy. I promise you this. So broke sucks.

Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below and here's the episode, guys. Yeah, for sure. But you'll find your real friends. Yeah, yeah. You know, I like what Drake said, you know, handshakes for the fakes, and he's true.

I say no cake for the fakes. You know, what does that mean? That means you want to come on the jets, you want to come on the yachts, do these parties, all these guys. But you don't want to put no work in. You don't want to put no work in. Where are you at when the work was going on? You were SOL, right? So it's the same thing here that all these MIA people in your life that are not there when times are tough and when times are good, just don't answer the phone.

I believe leaders should just move in silence. You don't got to talk about it. Your results will speak all the words, right? I mean, I see all these seminar people, and I know they watch our videos. Right. They see our Facebook posts, right? And we're with Tucker Carlson, or the president of this country, or the prime minister of here. And they're like, you know, they don't need to be jealous. You know what I mean?

It's just there's so much room for everyone to win. Yeah. That's the crazy part. But they won't even comment on it. You know what I'm saying? So I always tell entrepreneurs and business owners, pay attention to those that never celebrate your small victories. Wow.

I love that. And you start to think about it. It's like, well, if you're not there for the small victories, then why should you be there for the big ones? There's some haters. Oh, I think the haters are great. I mean, if you're not doing much, you won't have any haters. If you're doing a lot, I've got's some haters. Oh, you know, I think the haters are great. I mean, if you're not doing much, you don't have any haters. Yeah. You start doing a lot, I got plenty of haters. Yeah, yeah.

You know, let them hate. You know you're doing something right. Yeah, you know you're doing something right. And Oprah said it best, man. If you've got some darts in your back, man, you're not doing very much, you know, so. So back to when you were younger and you didn't want to work a job, what was that next step for you? Well, I went to college and I worked full time on the trading floor. So when I was 17, I took course at a place called University of Chicago. And I learned options trading. So I learned to be around people that were doing epic stuff. I mean, really big stuff.

And I moved to New York. When I was six months, I had nothing. The guy said, if you come here, I'll teach you trading. You teach me options. And I said, sounds like a deal. My parents thought I was nuts because I was still in school in Chicago. And I got there, and, you know, this guy is, like, super wealthy, big trader. He said, I'll pick you up.

It's like 11 o'clock at night. So I get there, and he picks me up in this old Dodge Dart. Piece of car. You were making Dodge Darts? I thought Dodge Darts. This old nose like 1973 dodge dart i thought that was new yeah no it wasn't very new and it was kind of beat up and so anyway i'm like oh i think i made the right and he said bring all your fancy clothes that

all fit in one duffel bag i mean today we can buy these really expensive jackets i don't care i still wear t-shirts and jordans but but i didn't have any fancy clothes, right? And so the next morning, we get to his place, and it was like 3,500 square feet on the Upper East Side, which is probably a lot of money, but it wasn't finished. The fish tank wasn't full. The furniture looked kind of like he just didn't care. So the first morning on the job, it was at the Two World Trade Center. I go up, and I was like, wow, I'll be up at 4 a.m., so I'm ready to go.

And by 11 o'clock that morning, he's down around $7 million. Holy. And I'm, like, hiding like it's me, right? Like, maybe I did something wrong. I was just there to observe, right? Wow. Well, anyway, it was such a great lesson because the guy next to him was going like this to him. So he was a Swiss trader.

The yen trader was right next to him. The yen trader was making money that morning. He was getting killed. He was losing. So he should give him the loser sign because he's losing. Right? Right, right, right. Damn, that's cold.

Yeah. You know, this is your – It's your boy. It's your boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, you just missed those three shots. There are no more shots for you. Yeah.

Within four hours, he turned a $5 million winner out of a $7 million loser. Wow. And I was like, damn. And he didn't say a word. This was a lesson. And a lesson for everyone listening today is that all he did was turn the screen towards the other guy. And he walked out.

Wow. I was like, damn. And what he said to me, and I've lived by this one, said he said here's your first lesson he said you never react with emotion you create it bar i was like man that was a that was a bar that was a boss drop right and then and then it's like four o'clock we're already home and he says do you want to go out i'm like what the hell do i'm sure i don't know where we're going but i'm in he said whatever the car will pick us up around 6 o'clock, right? So we walk downstairs.

This *** limo picks us up. No more *** down start, right? Yeah. And we go to the helicopter pad. And so the helicopter takes us down to Atlantic City. We land. We get out. We walk in.

There's like five of us, right? He opened up his jacket, and he must have had $600,000 in his jacket. Cash. Racks of $50,000 cash racks under his shirt. jacket and he must have had six hundred thousand dollars in his jacket racks of fifty thousand dollar cash racks in under his shirt they have a they call it a belt wrap right and each dock it would hold around twenty five to fifty thousand dollars wow and he started passing out to his buddies i'm like this is my first day there. My first day. But he wasn't a wolf. He was strictly a currency trader. He didn't trade any stocks.

He didn't invest. All he did was bet on countries all day long. Oh, okay. That still happens. Forex. And what a wake-up that was. And I thought to myself, man, if this guy can do this stuff, we can do it too, and I can learn.

And I learned a lot of life lessons. And this is a life lesson. If you're listening, you got to listen closely is that you've got to show up to win. Yeah, for sure. I can't tell you how many people I invited to come out and have dinner with Tucker Carlson, come and have dinner with RFK. And for the ones that came, greatest experience of their life. People come back and said that was the greatest conference I've ever been to because I just felt like I was in an atmosphere of some people doing some epic work. I feel like I missed it. Yeah of some people doing some epic work.

I feel like I missed it. Yeah, you missed a good one. That was a good one. But that was a thing. And then from there, I traded. And when I was 25, I got married. And I started having kids. And I said, yeah, well, but look at it today.

Today, my son's 32. We get to hang out. We're going to go to Tokyo on Friday for lunch. Wow. Why? Because we can. You know what to go to Tokyo on Friday for lunch. Wow. Why? Because we can. Do you know what I'm saying? It sounds like a fun weekend. Let's try it out.

How important is having a wife? Do you feel like it's important to have a wife? I think having a partner is vital to win. Wow. And I was fortunate. We had three of the most amazing kids, Austin, Marissa, and Evan. And she was very good at raising the kids. I was very good at making money. Gotcha.

And we were married for 16 years. Gotcha. And we went through a divorce because we were just on different tracks, you know. Oh, okay. But she's a great person. Yeah, yeah. And we got to a point where we just weren't great together anymore. I was a workaholic.

Oh, okay. You know, but I love building things. Right. I love watching things grow. And I began when at that time was to invest in new startups and new companies. And I was really good at, you had an idea. Once again, I started to realize that early stage, I had a real gift to see in people things they couldn't see in themselves. And then I did nothing but M&A work.

So I would come in and fix companies. A lot of the clients I had ran big family offices. And they owned some big companies where they said, our brother-in-law is running the company. He's useless. We'll pay you a lot of money to get him out because they couldn't fire him. He was under a clause from the parents that left the business that he couldn't be fired by the board, but the board could bring in a third party to evaluate all everyone's work and then fire the ones that didn't fit. Wow. And so for 10 years, I did nothing but fix companies at a very, very high level.

And I learned that why people react, right, you've got to be creative. Reacting in business doesn't work. You've got to be creating in business. You've got to be innovating. I'm doing an article now with Forbes about innovate or die. Whether you like AI or not, it's here to stay. Whether you like social media or not, it's here to stay. Whether you like social media or not, it's here to stay. You can pick on all these channels or you can leverage them, but it's your choice. And that's why I think it's so important that we listen to

more young people. We get more young people on payrolls. We get more young people that have gifts and ideas because what they can do in their sleep would take someone else two years to catch up. Right. And that's a take older people don't generally have, to be honest. They don't. They don't want to shift. So instead of trying to shift, you hire into it.

Does that make sense? You find people who are so good at this. I mean, my son runs a massive Discord, huge, with a game called Fortnite. Yeah, I've heard of Fortnite. And they're like the number nine guild in the world in some of these games. But they have miners that mine the tools, and they sell the tools all over the world. I mean, how do you even think of that? You know what I'm saying? You wouldn't,

but once again, there's so much opportunity if you're simply open. So what I do is I never stop learning. You know, right now I'm going to take a course at MIT and AI. Wow. Because I think, once again, why not learn from some of the best in the world? Whether you like MIT or not doesn't really matter. Yeah. But they're around a lot of smart people. That's true. I think the previous guest did that course, right? Yeah, MIT too, yeah. It's a good course. Mindvalley has a good course. Vishen has some good course in this stuff. So find the innovators, right? And never, ever, ever stop learning. Stop learning, you're done.

Where do you see opportunity in AI? Because there's a lot of AI fluff, a lot of people trying to get into it. Well, it's either you adapt AI at some level or you're going to wish you did. Does that make sense? And so, I mean, you start going across the world. Where does AI fit in? Well, number one, it makes almost everything you do better. I mean, if you ask for an article, then you say make it perfect.

Right. And then you say, write the article as if it's coming from Quentin Tarantino. And it'll do it. It'll do it for you. It'll do it for you. You know what I mean? And so now you can say, what does it look like to create the headers that would be adaptive on a website to the 21 to 32-year-old? Wow.

And it can begin to write all the code for you within minutes. Crazy. So it's more than – so even though the microwave saved time, we just got busier. Yeah. I don't think we can move as fast as AI moves. It's too efficient. It's smarter. It's better.

They're making – It's never late to work. Whatever it is, I don't know. It's too efficient. It's smarter. It's better. They're making – It's never late to work. Whatever it is. I don't know. I mean there's new theories out there. There's one in Chicago right now they're building. They're building on a 500-acre parcel where this thing can do up to a trillion computations per second. Jeez.

Which is like, what does that even mean? You know what I'm saying? So where does that place people though and workers? Well, it's either workers adapt to it. Does that make sense? Or they're out. I mean, they're simply out. And you're seeing it happen right now.

That's why. Why was this strike so long? Because they know that AI can, and I'm not saying in all situations, but it can make a lot of the writing better, believe it or not. For sure. You know, so because it can adapt so quickly, it's like if you play AI and you try to play chess against it, right? Lose every time. You lose every time. Even the greatest minds in the world lose every time. Even the supercomputers, I think they lost 91 times out of 100.

They had nine ties. Wow. You're talking about the sharpest minds in the world. So I do believe there has to be an AI council. I believe that everything that's put on social media has to have a – if AI is in there at all, people should know it. Because it's going to wind up – and people, they ask me questions about why do you think that they're moving away from men and women. You can't say men and women. You can't say this bathroom or that bathroom, right?

I believe that robots are right around the corner, fully functional robots. And what sex would they be? Them or they? They're not. Yeah, exactly. They're not a sex, right? So you've got to condition people before you beat them over the head with it. Yeah.

I'm hearing now Hollywood's looking at AI for acting. Or they wanted to. This is just, once again, thoughts that we all have nice phones. We all have these iPhones. I believe in the future you can set your phone down just like this and you can say, I would like to

I would like the New York Times you read to me this morning by Morgan Freeman. It'll read it. It'll read the whole thing. That's crazy. And Morgan Freeman will show up there. He's talking to you. Yeah, that's unbelievable. I mean, think about'll read it. It'll read the whole thing. That's crazy. And Morgan Freeman will show up there. He's talking to you. Yeah, that's unbelievable. I mean, think about that, though. You know, it'll bring newspapers back that if I could have, I want Claudia Schiffer to

do the breakfast call this morning. Right, right. And she'll do it. Right. And I'm telling you right now that we're looking to, because I have interest in some newspapers, which sounds crazy, but I really do believe that people would buy that for five or ten bucks a month. Pick whatever superstar you want to read you the news. Yeah. which sounds crazy, but I really do believe that people would buy that for $5 or $10 a month.

Pick whatever superstar you want to read you the news, and it'll just pop up as a 3D, and they start talking in the morning. Hey, wake up. Get your ass out of bed. This is Sylvester Stallone, and it's actually him right there talking to you. And these things are more real than they've ever been. That's awesome. So you like newspapers because that was your first job. It holds a place in your heart.

No, I just think that I still think that real news, there's a place for real news. I don't think there's a place for misguided news. So whether you're a Republican or Democrat or independent, at the end of the day, we're all Americans. And I believe all these things that are happening, if we fight with each other, we don't pay attention to the people in office

it's a distraction that keeps you away in rome they did the same thing right they'd have the people fighting out all the games going on because if they're hating on each other then they're not attacking the leaders wow think about how good that is for them yeah you know i mean and people whether whatever party's in, if you manage a trillion dollar checkbook and people start to come after you, how much would you spend to keep the power of the checkbook? A lot. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes, yeah. Whatever it takes.

So we live in very crazy times now because the numbers have become so inflated. Yeah. You know, and it was great that robert f kennedy talked about you know why is russian so pissed off why did putin attack well how many bases do they have outside of russia like one how many does the u.s have outside bases than america 800 wow and so now if you allow nato NATO to bring in Ukraine and you put missiles right at the front line, I mean real missiles, not the stuff they're working with, the little short-range stuff, but real missiles, then Russia feels what? Right. Threatened.

Yeah. And if you're Russian or you're American or you're English or you're from Mexico, when you feel threatened, you're going to react. For sure. And it was great that he put in a very clear perspective that they're simply reacting to the moves that are being played against them. Yeah. Bill, it's been awesome, man. Anything you want to close off with or promote? You know what?

Free book. If you guys want a copy of my book, I wrote a book called The Obvious. You see it in the movie The Secret. And any event that you're going to be at, I'll be glad to give out some free tickets for some of those events too. All they have to do is just text the word obvious. Awesome.

It's so cool. They text obvious at 26786. They get my book, newsletter, and some free tickets. Let's do it, man. How's that? Coming on. Appreciate you guys a lot, man. A lot of fun.

That was quick. Yeah, thanks for watching, guys, as always. See you tomorrow. Peace.