The Art of Travel: A Conversation with Paul Graham
/
RSS Feed
Join us in this enlightening episode as we delve into the world of travel advice with the seasoned expert, Paul Graham. As a renowned travel advisor, Paul has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience, making him the perfect guest to uncover the secrets of his journey and offer invaluable tips and tricks to help you save money on your next adventure.
In this captivating conversation, Paul takes us on a compelling narrative of his own transformation from an aspiring traveler to a respected travel advisor. We explore the pivotal moments, the challenges, and the lessons learned along the way, giving listeners a glimpse into the inner workings of the travel industry and the artistry behind planning unforgettable journeys.
With a passion for helping others maximize their travel experiences while minimizing expenses, Paul shares his expert insights, revealing insider strategies that can help even the most budget-conscious travelers save money. From uncovering hidden gems and local secrets to finding the best deals on flights, accommodations, and activities, Paul’s tips and tricks will empower you to create memorable travel experiences without breaking the bank.
Prepare to be inspired as we unravel the mysteries of the travel industry alongside Paul Graham, as he imparts his wisdom and illuminates the path to becoming a savvy traveler. Whether you’re a seasoned globetrotter or just embarking on your first adventure, this episode is a must-listen for anyone who dreams of exploring the world while saving money.
So grab your headphones, tune in, and embark on this exciting journey with us as we unravel “The Art of Travel” with our special guest, Paul Graham. Get ready to uncover the secrets and unlock the potential of your travel experiences like never before!
Creative Strategist and Marketing Conceptualist Keith Rhys
/
RSS Feed
In this episode of the “Digital Marketing Done Right”, hosts Lee Kantor and David Brandon interview Keith Rhys, a consultant who helps health practitioners and coaches create platforms, sell books, and create products. Reese shares his process for helping practitioners turn their ideas into finished products, emphasizing the importance of engagement and conversation with their audience.
He also discusses the effectiveness of niching down and focusing on specific problems for a narrow audience, as well as the importance of owning your platform and audience. Keith’s big secret for successful marketing is long-form content, specifically Instagram’s feature called carousels. He encourages businesses to keep it simple and own their platform by building an email list and engaging with their audience on social media.
For 40 years, Keith Rhys (Reese) has helped health practitioners and coaches build their practices and expand their reach beyond their practice by embracing online “author-preneurship.”
- Keith began his career out of college in the 80s as marketing VP for a string of nutrition start-ups.
- He positioned, branded, and marketed several global supplement brands you may know of today.
- After ten years, Keith became bored with selling potions and pills — and discovered that the doctors, researchers, and formulators behind these supplements were far more interesting and engaging to work with.
- So Keith began helping those doctors tell their stories, — and helps these practitioner clients launch best-selling books and create multi- million dollar digital courses while connecting with their ideal
- Six years ago, he created the most comprehensive practitioner marketing course available: Evergreen Authority – (built in )
- He parlayed that success into bundling a health-coach-focused version of the marketing program into health coach training programs.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Digital Marketing Done Right, a customer success spotlight from Rainmaker Digital Services and Business RadioX. We cover digital marketing success stories drawn from real Rainmaker platform clients and showcase how they use the Rainmaker platform to build their business. Now here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:35] Lee Kantor here with David Brandon, another episode of Digital Marketing Done Right and this is going to be a good one. David, who do we got this week?
David Brandon: [00:00:44] Hey, Lee, we’ve got Keith Rhys here. So how’s it going?
Keith Rhys: [00:00:49] Good. Great.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] Keith, before we get too far into things, tell us a little bit about your work today, how you serving folks.
Keith Rhys: [00:00:57] Okay. So today, for the last 30 years or so, I’ve been a consultant with health practitioners and health coaches, and I just help them create platforms, seller books, great products, etcetera.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:10] So how did you get into this line of work? Were you always involved in this type of content creation?
Keith Rhys: [00:01:15] Well, way back when, in the 80s, when I graduated college, my mom had been a what was called in the 70s, a hippie doctor. You know, she used herbs right under the counter. And so I was really interested in alternative medicine. And it just so happened that a lot of alternative medicine companies in the 80s needed marketing help. And so out of college I just went down that track. I helped supplement companies market their products, and so I did that for about ten years. I was fortunate to work with a lot of start ups that sold lots of supplements, and so that’s how I got started in the industry. What what really turned my career around was when I realized what I enjoyed doing was working with the doctors and the formulators and the researchers, the introverts behind the scenes and helping them tell their stories.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:08] So did those people have something in common other than being introverts? Were there kind of a common thread that you were like, okay, these folks I can relate to, I can really help them articulate their message and get the word out.
Keith Rhys: [00:02:20] Yeah, most of them, what they have in common is what I call the anti entrepreneur. You know, most entrepreneurs have been I think this is changing now, but they’ve been portrayed as hustlers and go getters and extroverts and all the above. And all of these people, they were intuitive and empathic and caring, service oriented people, and that was the polar opposite. But what was interesting about them is most of them had ideas that were so complex, it was really hard for them to break them down and convey them to an audience in a way that the audience could accept or understand. Even so, that became my skill set, helping these people translate their often really complex messages for a mass audience.
David Brandon: [00:03:09] Do you feel like in some ways that they had do they have an advantage in some areas over kind of the traditional entrepreneur type, do you think?
Keith Rhys: [00:03:17] Well, that is a good question because yes, I think they do. And it’s by their very nature of the fact that they deal with complex ideas. They’re thinkers, they’re researchers. Here’s people often ask, all right, why do you specialize in alternative practitioners or integrative practitioners or holistic, whatever we want to call them? These are typically medical practitioners who have embraced extracurricular methodologies for helping people, and some of them are not mainstream. We know about a lot of them today. And so what they have that has made content marketing, especially work for this group of people, is they have extra ways, additional ways of talking about mainstream medicine that creates topic clusters in the old SEO language that really helps us market and sell their ideas. And so that’s why I like working with them. We work with a lot of doctors to medical doctors as well, selling their books, but I enjoy people with that extra added topic knowledge Domain experience. That makes sense.
Lee Kantor: [00:04:32] So, so how do you go about kind of getting all that gold that’s within them out of their head and onto either a computer screen or a book like you mentioned?
Keith Rhys: [00:04:43] Right. Um, back in the old days when clients first started coming to me, every single one of them thought that the way to launch their careers, the way to launch, to become an authority, was the old 70s model, you know, where a doctor would appear on Johnny Carson. Then the book’s a big hit or here on Oprah, right. And so that’s why we started focusing on helping them, quote unquote, market, right? Market sell land and Agent Land, a publisher for books. But what the secret was and that’s why we call it entrepreneurship, which is the digital digital landscape that surrounds that book. So the way we help these doctors is they think they have to put everything they know into a magnum opus that’s 800 pages. And then. Release it to the world and their job is done. We help them do is write that book one social post at a time, one article at a time, and then that thread, those patterns converge into maybe an eBook, and then with response from the audience. It eventually becomes a book. So for us, the landscape. Is first. The platform. The content.
Lee Kantor: [00:06:03] Yeah. And then you you helped them kind of gather these nuggets out in social posts. And then over time, they kind of grouped together in little kind of mini chapters. And then you organize it into a finished product of a book at some point.
Keith Rhys: [00:06:19] Yeah, I’ll give you a couple of examples. Um, one of our biggest successes was a doctor who embraced back when SEO worked really, really well. Now it’s really difficult for a lot of people, but back in the old days in the Wild West, when SEO worked wonderfully easy for everyone, at least for us. That’s how we got most of our people, you know, launched SEO. And what we do is we write 3 or 4 articles, place them on the site. If we were using social media, we’d put those nuggets on social media and then we’d watch for a response. And so that the the ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. And every book is better and every product we’ve released is better because of that, because the response from an audience, we’d send emails out and the audience would respond and say, What I really want is this. So from that, we’d create the first digital product and try that out, see if it had legs, see if it sold, if the digital product sold, then we’d keep building the list and that’s what would attract publishers. Publishers just wanted the audience. And so the bigger we could make the audience, the more the advance was. That probably sounds cold and calculating, but let’s that’s the way it was kind of still is. So did I answer your question or did I ramble?
Lee Kantor: [00:07:41] Well, I’m just trying to get understanding, like you’re using terms and I want to make sure the listener understands. Like when you say they respond like, what does a response mean? Is that them just like thumbs upping a post? Does it mean that they’re engaging in a conversation? Like what is? I’m just trying to kind of get granular.
Keith Rhys: [00:08:02] We are. What we look for is conversation, not just thumbs up, not just we look for. Yeah, those metrics are great. The thumbs up, the follows, the shares, all that good stuff. What we look for, especially email. Email is our primary marketing engine. We look for someone who takes the time to write a response, ask questions, curious, engaged with the ideas. Those are the best. Those are gold. And we used to get them as comments on blog posts No more. We now we focus on email, sometimes social media depending on the doctor. So that’s the process. We’re looking for engagement.
Lee Kantor: [00:08:44] Now when they’re starting out and they don’t have that large of a list like do, sometimes they get nothing and sometimes they get one. Like, is it possible to kind of it doesn’t matter. Like if they get one response, like you got to really kind of emphasize that and build on that.
Keith Rhys: [00:09:00] Yes, exactly. And we also have now that I’ve been doing this for 30 years, we have a network of former clients who now have huge lists and we share happily share with new and upcoming doctors so they have instant access to an audience. So that really helps.
Lee Kantor: [00:09:21] So that way they’re always getting some response.
Keith Rhys: [00:09:24] Right? It’s always about the feedback. And, you know, my former clients are more than happy to help the up and coming doctors as long as the ideas are interesting and fascinating and new and different and they usually are.
Lee Kantor: [00:09:37] Now, is there a kind of milestone metrics that you use, like what’s a minimum audience and what’s a minimum kind of response that you think is okay? That’s worth noting. That’s worth kind of building on.
Keith Rhys: [00:09:50] Oh, boy. It really depends. I’ll be honest. It depends on the it depends on the practitioner. A lot of practitioners that come through my course, for example, just have a virtual online practice. They’re a health coach or they’re a, you know, a psychologist who became a coach and they have a very small audience, very small reach. And so they’re not going to have many metrics, to be honest at first. Even if we help them out, give them access to an email list with a digital product we created. So it really depends, I’ll be honest, and it also depends on what we’re how we’re building their stack or are they already on social media? Do we need to build that, etcetera?
Lee Kantor: [00:10:32] Now when you build up to this book, is the book then becomes their main revenue stream or rarely?
Keith Rhys: [00:10:40] Rarely, if ever.
Lee Kantor: [00:10:41] So so that’s kind of a that’s a misconception about authorship, isn’t it?
Keith Rhys: [00:10:46] It is. It really is. It is. It rarely, if ever. I mean, I can count on we’ve had seven number one bestsellers, right? That’s what everybody seeks. But rarely has that become the income stream. Instead, it’s the digital products and the speaking engagements and the opportunities for working with other email lists. The book brings those opportunities, but the book rarely. I’ve had one book now that’s been in hardcover for going on 20 years and never has gone to paperback back. It’s a perennial bestseller, but that’s one book in 30 years.
David Brandon: [00:11:28] Do you do you feel like the book is more important for building authority? Do you feel like do you feel like paper builds more authority than online or is it equal or what’s how does that.
Keith Rhys: [00:11:41] It’s actually it’s been in someone’s feed or email box consistently over time. That’s what builds authority and trust and expertise. The book really is almost it’s become an on ramp to that. It becomes let’s offer the book as a way to get them on the list. Let’s offer the book as a premium to get them to enjoy the course.
David Brandon: [00:12:07] So you’re you’re kind of flipping the the old marketing paradigm.
Keith Rhys: [00:12:13] That’s right. And every once in a while we have someone who has a big contract with a big New York publisher, and they want to market like the old days where we, you know, do all the games, play all the tricks, pull out all the stops, you know, all of those you’ve you’ve seen how those launches, quote unquote, work, even though The New York Times is kind of onto all of them. But they really want to go old school. They really want that number one spot. And so we’ll do that with them. But at the same time, we’re also building the landscape, the content landscape around that. What I’m interested in, what they really are too, when they admit it is not just a number one launch, they really want a book with legs, a book that has influence and sells multiple copies every month for years. That’s when we have influence from a book.
Lee Kantor: [00:13:00] But isn’t the book just another kind of tool in the tool belt because you’re ultimately trying to build a community and these are all kind of assets in and around that? That’s right.
Keith Rhys: [00:13:12] Yes, that’s right. But in marketing, we need to work with what the prospect believes coming in. And still they believe when they come to see me that they have to start with a book. And so I had to write something that’s literally called Don’t Start with the Book.
Speaker5: [00:13:33] So you were.
Lee Kantor: [00:13:34] You were trying to manage their expectations from the beginning.
Speaker5: [00:13:36] Exactly. That’s right.
Keith Rhys: [00:13:38] But it’s the real hope. I mean, don’t we all? We want our authority to just be launched and then stay. We’re just an authority and an expert. Wow. Today, it doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to release that book in little increments over time, over and over and over again. And that’s why I like Instagram. Instagram is awesome right now for my audience. It’s where their people are. And the way we’re using it is is going gangbusters. As long as we also use it with email marketing and a platform where we can send people to buy stuff, clearly that’s what we’re doing.
David Brandon: [00:14:21] Do you do you tend to get much pushback on that sort of thinking? Because I know like you’re a consultant, you’re working with people who aren’t experts in marketing, but they have an idea of the way it’s supposed to work. Yeah. Do you get pushback? And if you do, how do you manage those expectations and help them to see the right way to go? Okay.
Keith Rhys: [00:14:40] Pushback against which part? I get pushback all the time. So which which pushback are we referring to, David?
David Brandon: [00:14:45] Specifically on like kind of old school versus new school way of doing things? The big book and the big like Flash as opposed to sort of that ongoing, consistent drip feed is more what I’m thinking.
Keith Rhys: [00:14:59] Well, since they’re the client, we will give them the launch they want as long as they also agree to play along with me and build the content around it. And if we can do that and agree, then old and new can get along. But there really is not. I’m it’s really amusing to me because I came up in the old days in the 80s pre-Internet and we’ve just replaced all the old tech with new tech, the glossy catalogs, you know, or just your shopping cart plug in. And all the mail we used to send out is just in your email box. And talk radio is the podcast. It’s the same conversation, it’s the same conversion, it’s the same, you know, relationship building, just a different medium.
David Brandon: [00:15:50] Ed and I were talking about that the other day. You know, the idea that like tactics and technology change, but people really don’t. They don’t, you know, stuff that was that worked 100 years ago. You know, you update the technology. It still works today.
Speaker5: [00:16:03] That’s right.
Keith Rhys: [00:16:04] Exactly.
Speaker5: [00:16:06] It does.
Lee Kantor: [00:16:06] But something that is different today is that there are a lot of this stuff is free and a lot of this stuff is there’s much more fragmentation in terms of attention. How do you kind of. Well, the while the principles might be the same, the the ability to get someone’s attention and keep it over time is a little more competitive nowadays, I think.
Keith Rhys: [00:16:30] Yeah, it is. And that’s why we niche so deeply in the beginning. Because every doctor I’ve worked with, we niche narrowly, narrowly and deeply in the beginning. We find something for them that they can own. And that’s how we first build their first platform and then they can branch out. But every doctor I can name that we’ve worked with started with a very, very narrow niche. And so you have to you must.
Speaker5: [00:16:59] Start with a niche.
Lee Kantor: [00:17:00] Talk about that exercise that you helped them get into a, you know, to own their kind of tiny slice of the universe. How do you help them identify what is that appropriate size niche and then is it big enough to at least get their focus for a period of time so they believe that it’s possible to build off of that?
Keith Rhys: [00:17:22] Okay. I’m trying to think of one of the one of the. Uh, techniques we use in the course. But what I like to have them focus on is every every expert wants to focus on how they do something. So like, for example, a famous example I always use is I had an acupuncturist from the UK who had this video on the front page of his site with him sticking needles in someone’s face, and that focused on how he achieved pain relief. But people were terrified of going to this guy. Right? And so what we do instead, of course, is we focus on why you’re doing what you’re doing, who it’s for and what the what problems you solve. And so all I ask people to do is just, okay, who are you serving? Name three related problems you solve that becomes the first niche. It’s just three problems and we build three pillars for those three problems. We test and see how they work. And then we rotate pillars. I use pillars because in the Rainmaker community anyway, it’s fairly common language, I think at least it used to be for categories along the top of the site, right?
Speaker5: [00:18:42] Yeah.
Keith Rhys: [00:18:43] And so their niche just becomes the problems they solve. It’s an easy way in because most people get so hung up on, Oh, I’ve got to have the right niche. The audience quickly tells us these two are boring. This one’s interesting. How can you reframe this one? And we just keep rotating. Eventually what we found was all five pillars or categories along the top of the site would be humming because we just watched with Heatmaps as people arrived to see which of those problems resonated with audiences. And we do the same thing on social media. So it’s a long way around of.
Lee Kantor: [00:19:25] Now you mentioned that Instagram is working well for your clients now. Can you talk about that a little bit? Like what makes that work well or what are you doing there that is so successful? Yeah, I’m ready.
Keith Rhys: [00:19:36] To give my big secret. So here we go. Because I guess not a lot of people know this, but long content, believe it or not, long form content is back and. It’s really quite amazing because Instagram wanted to be TikTok for a while, and so they thought they were going, maybe they still are and they were going to embrace the reels and the quick hits, the videos. But once my client started doing that, they just lost people lost all interest. And so what we found, Instagram has a feature called Carousels. Maybe you’re familiar with those. You know, they’re, you know, ten, ten screens of type of content. And we make the first two slides hooky and interesting and fascinating because that’s the way Instagram works. It’ll show the the the viewer of the slide, the first slide, the first time they see it and the second slide the next time they see that in their feed. And we have found that carousels are outperforming every other form we could possibly use, including video. Now, there’s a few people that are really great on video and that can add to it. But people, at least the people we attract, the people who are looking for health solutions, the people who are in pain, they’re looking for solutions. They want it to be able to remember it. They don’t want a video to just flash by. They want notes. They want to take screenshots of those carousels. And engagement has just gone through the roof once we started using carousels. So we use carousels to get people off of Instagram onto the email list and then we develop the relationship further with email. So that’s our strategy at the moment.
Lee Kantor: [00:21:20] So you use so you use Instagram not to sell them anything, but to get them on the list so that you can eventually sell them something.
Keith Rhys: [00:21:28] Yeah. And it’s been, it’s been really interesting. I don’t know how much you know about the health alternative health world and how controversial it can be. But there’s something called moderation online in social media where if you say something controversial, it doesn’t agree with the mainstream corporate. Stance on the issue, you’ll be moderated out of existence. And so I don’t want my people building a platform on Instagram. It’s not worth it. I had people during the big pandemic. Lose 300,000 followers overnight because they said something innocently they thought was just common sense. So moderation has been really interesting for us. And so what we prefer to do is every opportunity, get people off of social. Social is like, look at it like the Matrix, you know, the Matrix where, you know, the green figures are scrolling down the black screen endlessly, forever. That’s Instagram. And it’s not for selling. It’s for capturing interest. And we capture that with carousels and take them to the email.
Lee Kantor: [00:22:41] So what are some techniques you use to get them off of the platform onto your email?
Keith Rhys: [00:22:47] Well, if we’re being if we’ve been really smart, we’ve been paying attention to the topics that are resonating with people that people are, you know, engaging with. And comments are so amazing on Instagram. We love the comments. The comments tell us everything. They tell us why they like it, why they hate it, what they’re going to do with it. Are they understanding the concept? And the minute we get that data, then. We develop a free a free, a freebie like, you know, a a mini course or an eBook or something. The best premium we’ve had has been checklists. The shorter, the better. And so we offer those, you know, ten ways to know if X. Click. They go. They go to the site. The Rainmaker site and gather that e-book or checklist or mini course. And then they’re on the list.
Speaker5: [00:23:52] So. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah.
Keith Rhys: [00:23:55] Okay. No, go ahead, David.
David Brandon: [00:23:57] I was going to say, you mentioned just a minute ago something that I wanted to to kind of come back to moderation and that effect on the people that you work with. Yeah. Being that you have a very specific market. What are some of the challenges and opportunities and things in that? Because a lot of people, like you said, have not necessarily engaged with that space. What is it like being in that space as a marketer?
Keith Rhys: [00:24:23] It’s really challenging and it’s not it hasn’t really changed and this is one of the benefits I think, of coming up with supplements in the 1980s, supplements are regulated, the labels are regulated by the FDA for obvious reasons. And so we had label restrictions and they extend to the catalogs we print and the mail pieces we’d send out, obviously. Right? So we became very, very, very good at creating content that didn’t get us in trouble. And nowadays, oh, these poor, younger doctors will just wander on to social media and start spouting off every everything they believe as of last week and lose their audiences. And so we have a course where we walk people through what we say online and what we say behind a paywall and why why that’s so necessary because it has been. I don’t know. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s been. Really difficult for. We had one doctor who lost 600,000 people. And that is something that’s hard to recover from because he hadn’t built anything other than social media. He didn’t have an email list. That’s dangerous. So that’s why we do it the way we do it now.
Lee Kantor: [00:25:45] Because of your background, you probably at a glance can tell where the edges are, where somebody, somebody new is just they don’t understand what they don’t understand.
Keith Rhys: [00:25:56] That’s right. Yeah. I mean, let’s be honest. It’s always been about the advertisers. Let’s call it the advertisers, whether they’re advertising on social media or not. Right. They have the cash. And so the advertisers in our case are, well, you know, pharma and they’re touchy and they don’t like people saying bad things about their products. I don’t blame them. And we had the same problem in the 80s. We’d do radio, we’d do TV, and the advertiser would say, You can’t say that there are advertiser. And so I don’t see this as necessarily censorship or it’s, you know, the evil big foot of government or any of that stuff. I see it as the usual same old thing. It’s always been advertisers don’t like. People saying bad things about their product. So let’s just play that game. Let’s play along. And that’s what we do.
Lee Kantor: [00:26:48] Right. And there’s always parameters. I mean, this is just becomes another parameter.
Keith Rhys: [00:26:52] Oh yeah. There’s very clear parameters sometimes. Lately they’re constantly changing the restrictions and you don’t know why you get kicked off. So it is kind of a wild West out there right now. Um, as we found with Twitter. But. And the Twitter files, if you know about that.
Speaker5: [00:27:10] Sure.
Lee Kantor: [00:27:11] Now, are are the things that you’re sharing today for your clients, is that what you’re doing to get clients or are you at a stage right now that people know who you are and they’re going to you to solve their marketing problem?
Keith Rhys: [00:27:23] We’re fortunate. We you know, we’re primarily word of mouth from clients now and we stay pretty busy. My favorite form of marketing is email. It always has been. And, you know, we went through a period where people when Facebook first started up where everybody was claiming email was dead. You remember that. And email is still ten x for us. Anything we could do on Facebook or Instagram, it’s still ten x. We still sell most of our product through email. And my model is pretty simple. I build the email lists with my clients and then we teach their email list how to do the same thing. And so my clients will recommend me to their list and we sell the course to them. And it just is a virtuous cycle. And I’ve done that with all my clients.
Speaker5: [00:28:18] See. Yeah.
David Brandon: [00:28:20] You mentioned email as being something that’s been really, really effective for you. That’s obviously been around for a long, long time. As you said, what about moving forward? What are some of the stuff that you’re really excited about, you know, in the near term and the future for your particular market as far as tactics, techniques, platforms, media?
Keith Rhys: [00:28:42] Okay. Well, that’s a good question and I haven’t thought about that. I like focusing on what’s working now, but I can tell you what I am wary of. And can I mention product names on here? Is that okay or is that bad? You know, like Slack or or substack or. Or medium.
Speaker5: [00:29:02] Whatever should be fine. Yeah, you’re good. Okay, good.
Keith Rhys: [00:29:05] So I what really is kind of annoying me right now is let’s take Substack. It’s the big kid on the block at the moment. A lot of people think it’s going to be easier to attract an audience if they throw their content onto an email. You know, it’s just a typical blog platform that sends out an email, its PR blitz. It’s what Seth Godin has been doing for 40 years or whatever. Yeah, right. So they’re putting it on there thinking, believing that somehow that will make a difference and help them find their audience. And I can’t see any difference with these platforms than a typical WordPress stack that we use. So I think there’s going to be a lot more of that coming because every tech provider, not rainmaker, but most of them want to create a walled garden of exclusives that you can’t leave ever. So that is what I’m warning against as of the future for my clients is keep it simple, keep it clean, keep it flexible. WordPress stack.
David Brandon: [00:30:15] Well, I think that almost gets back to kind of the point you were making earlier about social media that rented versus owned space. Yes. You know where you’re at, you’re beholden to something that you don’t control.
Keith Rhys: [00:30:29] Exactly. Yeah. And you know, Brian Clark talked about that a lot way back in the day. And I agree with that 100%. And that’s what we found out during the pandemic. All those rented spaces where you did not own your audience suddenly disappeared out from under you. I mean, how scary is that? So that’s why I love the simple minimum viable website, if you can call it that. You only have to have six pages. And six pages and about page three articles a work with me, page a home page. Let’s get on social media. Let’s get you an audience, get you an email list, and then you own that platform for now anyway.
Lee Kantor: [00:31:13] And, you know, it’s what they say. If something’s free, then you’re the product. So, I mean.
Speaker5: [00:31:18] Exactly. That’s true. That’s really true.
Lee Kantor: [00:31:21] Those platforms are just taking advantage of that.
Speaker5: [00:31:24] Yeah.
Keith Rhys: [00:31:25] And who can blame them, really? I mean, it’s a great model for them.
Lee Kantor: [00:31:30] So now what could we be doing for you? How can we help you?
Speaker5: [00:31:34] What do you mean.
Lee Kantor: [00:31:35] How can we help you? What do you need more of?
Speaker5: [00:31:39] Um. Let’s see. That’s an.
Keith Rhys: [00:31:42] Unexpected question. You mean from Rainmaker?
Speaker6: [00:31:46] Yeah.
Lee Kantor: [00:31:46] I mean from your business. What can the audience do to help? Keith Reese. Have all of his dreams come true?
Keith Rhys: [00:31:57] Go to Keith Rescom and join my email list. How about that?
Lee Kantor: [00:32:01] And can you spell that? Because for folks.
Speaker5: [00:32:04] Yes, it.
Keith Rhys: [00:32:05] Is unusual. It’s k e r h y s.
Speaker5: [00:32:11] Heath Reese.
Lee Kantor: [00:32:13] If they go to Keith Rescom, they can get some information. They can learn more about your philosophy and your practice.
Speaker5: [00:32:20] Yeah, we have a.
Keith Rhys: [00:32:21] New a new freemium coming out called Parallel Practice. And it’s been so fun because what we do is all of our service providers are so busy providing services, they don’t have time to market the thing, right? So we built a simple model that’s four steps that they implement in parallel to their service practice. And we’ve been testing it and with 200 health coaches and it’s been spectacular. So that’s what they get when they go over to Keith Rescom.
Lee Kantor: [00:32:55] And then your ideal prospect is somebody that is a health practitioner that wants to expand their practice in into the area of content creation and then create additional revenue streams through content and a variety of ways.
Keith Rhys: [00:33:13] Yes, that’s typically my real dream. Clients are those who desperately want to get something out into the world that they care about deeply. And they want they’re not really interested in being seen as an expert or an authority necessarily, but they believe so passionately in something they’ve researched or found or discovered with patients that they have to get it out there. They’re my favorite clients, but we help anyone who is in the wellness space because they need our help getting being. I like to say we help them translate their big ideas into common language. So that’s what we help them do.
Lee Kantor: [00:33:54] And then are they are they typically are they coming to you first before they’ve tried? Or have they tried and become frustrated and are at their wits end and say, maybe I’ll hang out with Keith for a while?
Speaker5: [00:34:06] Is this.
Keith Rhys: [00:34:06] Just me? You guys tell me. But no. Almost every single one of my clients have tried every single tactic and, you know, platform and everything and failed miserably. And then after they spent all their money, they come to us. And so that’s typically the way it’s been for us. Now, the reason I launched the course six years ago, Evergreen Authority, was because I wanted to build more clients who came up the right way with the right foundation, the right marketing foundation. That’s a four month course, right? So that was the initial idea. We put 2000 people through there and they go through the whole course. And what’s been great about that is I create my own clients. They’re already ready to engage and just hit the ground running because they know the principles of content marketing. So that’s been our strategy.
Lee Kantor: [00:34:58] Well, Keith, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.
Speaker5: [00:35:03] Hey, thank you.
Keith Rhys: [00:35:04] We appreciate it. David.
Lee Kantor: [00:35:05] Yeah. All right. This Lee Kantor for David Brandon. We will see you all next time on digital marketing done right?
BRX Pro Tip: 2 Sales Tips for Introverts
/
RSS Feed
BRX Pro Tip: 2 Sales Tips for Introverts
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here. Lee, you have gone on record as being an introvert. Talk a little bit about being effective in a selling profession as an introvert.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Yeah, I classify myself as a super introvert. I’m beyond the average introvert. That’s just my personality. And because of that, I kind of, that was the impetus for me to create the Business RadioX model to help me sell more effectively by having my best prospects come to me rather than me going out to find them and try to interact with them. I was trying to leverage my introversion to best serve myself.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] So, things that I find that are effective when you’re an introvert and you also have sales responsibility is you have to leverage your ability to be a good listener. Sales is more about asking the right questions than it is on being super friendly and outgoing because ultimately your prospect wants to solve a problem. So, if you’re able to focus on using active listening and discovering what your prospect really, really wants and what they really, really need, then you can determine if you’re a good fit for them.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] So, using your active listening skills and your ability to be patient and really understand a person’s problems is super important when it comes to sales because remember, ultimately your prospect wants to solve a problem. They don’t want to make a friend. And a lot of extroverts believe that, that they have to be a friend first. And then, if they’re a friend, then they can sell them something. In my opinion, it’s better to be a problem solver rather than a friend when it comes to selling.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] And that leads me to number two, you have to use your problem-solving skills. If you can use your critical thinking skills to connect dots in the way that most other people can’t, that’s going to help you become more effective. And once you’ve determined that you can help someone, then be generous and share some innovative ways to solve their problem, be seen as a problem solver, and that makes you a valuable resource for your prospect, that makes them want to do business with you.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:19] And so, if you can lean on your listening and problem-solving superpowers to help more people get the outcome they desire, you will sell more and it’ll be done with less stress and it’ll keep you being more true to yourself and not kind of fighting this introversion, but kind of using it as a superpower.
Kathy Springer with Springer Senior Solutions, Writer and Director Ken Merritt and Gary Lamb with Revival Events Group
/
RSS Feed
Charitable Georgia features guests who are doing positive things in the community. In this episode, Brian Pruett interviews Kathy Springer, the owner of Springer Senior Solutions, a business that helps seniors navigate Medicare options.
They also talk to Ken Merritt, a Christian filmmaker and serial entrepreneur Gary Lamb. The guests share their personal stories, discuss the importance of community and networking, and offer advice for pursuing one’s passions.
Kathy Springer has dedicated her life to helping others. She began her career with medicare in 2014, working with United Insurance Group, before becoming an independent medicare specialist.
In July 2019 she became the founder and broker for Springer Senior Solutions, and continues working with seniors to ensure their healthcare needs are met to the fullest, and connects them with any available resources based on their needs.
Ms. Springer is a New York native who made her way down to Georgia in 2014, after being called by God to make big changes in her life. She has been working to establish herself within Paulding County, and has made it her mission to support the seniors within the community.
Along with Paulding County members, Kathy has worked tirelessly for friends, family, and others outside the community, getting them healthcare plans that suit their individual needs. She credits her hard work and dedication to God, who has guided her throughout this entire journey, and continues to inspire her.
Kathy has been a member of the Paulding County Chamber of Commerce since 2019, became an ambassador for them in 2022, and in her role, has stood alongside them for ribbon cutting ceremonies, and other community events.
In 2022, she began participating in networking events with North Paulding Networking and Acworth Connections, which has opened up herself, and her business to new clients and opportunities.
Her most recent endeavor has been getting back to her childhood roots, and joining a tap-dancing class.
Connect with Kathy on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Ken Merritt is currently working on what he’s always dreamed about, and that is writing and directing a feature-length film.
Upon receiving his B.A. degree in Broadcasting, Drama, and Journalism from Carson – Newman University, Ken got married and spent his life working various jobs outside of the film industry.
Three years ago, Ken made the move from Knoxville to the Atlanta area to work in film. Since then, he’s gotten his film production certification from GFA, and Scriptwriting certification from Clayton State University.
Gary Lamb is the founder of Revival Events Group and The Black Sheep Project. Gary is a public speak and promotes over 50 events a year throughout North Georgia including BBQ and Brews, Elev8 Fight League and Southern Honor Wrestling.
He has one Georgia Promoter of the year 3 of the last 4 years. Gary’s latest venture is the Black Sheep Project, a lifestyle brand focused on encouraging people to break the rules and leave the herd as they chase their dreams.
Connect with Gary on Facebook.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and Resources. We put the fun in fund raising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits. Dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruett.
Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good, fabulous Friday morning. It’s another fabulous Friday and we were off last week for the holiday weekend. I had to take my wife at a time because it was our wedding anniversary. So if I didn’t take her, I was in trouble. So. And I know, Stone, you had a wedding. Right?
Stone Payton: [00:00:57] I did. We got them married off. Now they’re down in Puerto Rico. It’s kind of one of those hippie dippy weddings that this one is my hippie dippy child. And they’re there at some place where they, you know, do the yoga and the whole bit. But she was happy. And that’s all that matters to me.
Brian Pruett: [00:01:11] So now both of them are married off, is that correct?
Stone Payton: [00:01:12] Oh, yeah. I got two of them off the payroll over the last six months. I got such a raise.
Brian Pruett: [00:01:16] There you go. And we also want to wish everybody a happy National Donuts Day. There’s some donuts out front, and I don’t know who brought those, but I’m trying to make my girlish figure a little better, so I didn’t take any. So, all right. Like I said, we’ve got three fabulous guests this morning. If you have not listened to Charitable Georgia before, this show is all about positivity and positive things happening in the community. And all three of my guests do something positive within the community. And so we’re going to start this morning with Ms. Kathy Springer from Springer Senior Solutions. Kathy, welcome.
Kathy Springer: [00:01:48] Thank you for having me. How are you?
Brian Pruett: [00:01:49] I’m great. So we’ll get into Springer Senior Solutions in just a minute. But you shared with me, I guess, a few weeks ago your story. And so if you don’t mind, just share your story, why you are passionate and what you’re doing, and then we’ll talk about your business.
Kathy Springer: [00:02:05] So since I was a little girl, I kind of knew I had a big thing that I was supposed to do in the world. I kept feeling like service was my passion because I always had jobs in the service industry and I just always loved making people laugh and making people happy. And I love to connect people. So in September of 2013, I’ve been in the insurance industry for 26 years this August, and I was sitting at my desk and I said, All right, God, I’m ready. Where do you want me? With my hands together? And it was from September of the beginning of September. By September 23rd, I walked away from my job and I was making very good money, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. And people were like, Well, who does that? I’m like a woman of faith. I mean, that was really my first time. I put my hands in the air and said, God guide me. And I listened. By February 14th, I ended up in Georgia knowing not one person he obviously knew. My name is Kathy, so I can talk to anybody basically. But you would never know. I was shy up until fourth grade.
Brian Pruett: [00:03:02] You’re the second Chatty Kathy that we’ve had on.
Kathy Springer: [00:03:04] But anyway, I ended up in Georgia. I got connected to do Medicare. I love helping people. I love helping seniors. There’s so much confusion and I clear that. And you have to have patience with them. And believe it or not, I am from New York, but I do have patience. And I think my patience was gained more here because you kind of have to be more patient in Georgia. Anybody that’s not from here knows what I’m talking about. We’re a little fast paced up in New York. But anyway, so I go to people’s houses. I help them with their options, and then I’m there person afterwards to guide them in what direction to go next or service them for any issues that come up, you know, in the future.
Brian Pruett: [00:03:45] I think it’s awesome, especially that you’re working with seniors because that is one, I guess, group that’s always seemed to forgotten about. Yeah. You know, these days. And it’s it’s good to know that there’s other folks out there who are continuing to look after for them. Can you share exactly what you’re doing with them with the Medicare and how that works?
Kathy Springer: [00:04:04] So yeah, Medicare Open enrollment starts October 15th through December 7th. So anybody that’s on Medicare is allowed to make a change if they’re into something that they’re not happy with or there’s changes coming up with their prescriptions, I sit with them, go over the changes, make sure that their prescriptions are covered properly at a lower cost if they’re entitled to certain things like Medicaid, extra help to help offset those costs. I get them connected to those resources if they need help in their homes, if they need food, if they need, you know, bug control or whatever. I mean, if I have to pay attention not just for the Medicare, I have to look at the big picture and see they need somebody like I’m dealing with a situation right now. One of the clients, I think she’s depressed and I know she needs resources. So I’m trying to gather my resources to connect her to the right people to get in there and help her out. So it’s beyond just Medicare. Medicare just gets me in the door.
Brian Pruett: [00:04:56] So other than your your passion for helping people that you talked about, why is it specifically seniors that you’re passionate about?
Kathy Springer: [00:05:03] Well, like you said, I mean, they’re they get left behind. You know what I mean? Like, people everybody gets older and they’re and their parents are older. And it’s not like to us, they’re a burden, but they’re just left by their selves. And there’s people that don’t have anybody. So I want to be that person for them to get them. Like I’ve been to people’s houses where they don’t have anybody, they don’t have family or nobody. And I’m like, Hey, you need to go to the senior center and meet some people and, you know, there’s somebody out there that needs to know you not because you don’t want to go and you’re afraid somebody needs to meet you. There’s a reason for that. So I just. I just. I don’t know. I just it’s in my heart.
Brian Pruett: [00:05:37] Are you able to work all over the state of Georgia or just Georgia? Or where are you licensed to work for?
Kathy Springer: [00:05:43] Well, I am. Yes, all of Georgia. But I’m New York. All the states surrounding Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon. I got like 12 states that I and that’s just because people connected me, like, hey, my mom lives in Oregon and and she needs your help. And the only way to help her, I can have a conversation. But if she wanted me to be her agent, I’d have to be licensed in that state. So then I would get the license and you just pay for the license. But wherever I’m needed, I can help anybody.
Brian Pruett: [00:06:12] So I’m curious. I’ve been told, though, all those commercials you see about Medicare, that those are actually not supposed to be running. Is that true?
Kathy Springer: [00:06:19] Well, they get around it. I’m sure they have curveballs that get them in there. But, I mean, I had a client yesterday call me. She said, oh, Humana, Somebody called me and I go, Oh, what’s the phone number? And I called the number and it was on Unlisted. And he’s representing himself as a Humana person, but he’s not. He was just trying to get her to change to him. And I’m like, They do that all the time. I don’t know how they get away with it. And I tell my clients all the time, I love what I do. I love helping you, but I’m not that powerful to stop those phone calls or those commercials. So just know that you’re always going to be in the best plan suited for you because you dealt with me. And I’ve always made sure my clients know I’m your person. If somebody calls and you don’t hear my name, don’t don’t talk to them and you can do the best you can with that. But it doesn’t always work. And then they’re calling me and I have to rechange them back to the plan they had because somebody moved them.
Brian Pruett: [00:07:08] And it’s sad that there’s people out there taking advantage of people. And it’s you know, it’s frustrating coming more and more every day of not just seniors, but a lot of people being taken advantage of different ways. So you and I met networking out in the Paulding County area. You know, you’re doing that way. You also do the Acworth connections. You’ve started coming a little bit to Cartersville. Um, other than your passion for seniors and helping others, why is it important for you to be part of the community?
Kathy Springer: [00:07:30] So we bought a home in Hyrum and I when I moved to Georgia. Initially I was in Smyrna, but I didn’t know anybody, as I mentioned. And honestly, it took me till just last March. I started networking and I should have been doing it all along because not only do you meet great people to connect with in business, I’ve met some great friends and friendship matters to me. And and I’m you know, I’m very passionate about friendships and connecting people like that. Just moved here. They don’t know anybody. Well, guess what? You need to go to this networking and meet these people. So now I’m like this advocate for networking. I think it’s the most amazing thing in the world that they ever came up with.
Brian Pruett: [00:08:05] I’ve mentioned before Stone several times, almost practically, everybody’s been on my show. I’ve met one way of networking or another and heard their story. So that’s that’s why I’m not having trouble filling content for this show. Um, but, um, you. Can you share maybe a testimonial? The positivity of networking, a story that’s benefited you, but also somebody how you’ve been, somebody else.
Kathy Springer: [00:08:33] That’s kind of on the spot, but I guess just becoming friends with people that I hadn’t I would not have met if I didn’t network and getting them connected to maybe somebody that they needed help with, like real estate or financial services. And it’s just benefits in all aspects. I really can’t pinpoint anything in particular, but meeting great friendships, I have got really great friendships from it and I’m so blessed for that that I give that to God for sure because he’s the reason I did it so Right.
Brian Pruett: [00:09:03] Well, I know you love giving back, too, because you’ve come out and supported the trivia nights that I’m doing monthly. And you like having fun, obviously. So, yes, if somebody is listening and wants to learn more about your services and or know somebody who needs your services, how can people get Ahold of you?
Kathy Springer: [00:09:19] Okay. My phone number is (770) 823-0125. And my email is Kathy at Springer Senior Solutions.com and you can go to my website at WWw Springer Senior solutions.com.
Brian Pruett: [00:09:32] You got to give your tagline.
Kathy Springer: [00:09:34] Oh don’t make an assumption when you need resolution. Call Kathy from Springer Senior Solutions.
Brian Pruett: [00:09:38] There you go. There you go. All right. Well, thanks for sharing a little bit of your story. Don’t go away. Because we’re not really done with it yet. But they’ve got two other guests that I’d like for you to listen to. And these guys have actually never met in person. We’ve talked a lot through Facebook. I’ve been introduced from different people. But my next guest, Ken Merritt, thanks for being here this morning, Ken.
Ken Merritt: [00:09:59] Thanks for having me.
Brian Pruett: [00:10:00] You are doing things. You are a Christian, but you want to do uplifting movies. And you’ve got one that’s about finished, right?
Ken Merritt: [00:10:11] It’s pretty much finished. And every time we think it’s finished, then something else happens. You know, they kind of say the rule is it’s you’re not finished writing until the editing is done. While I did write it with some help with from my son, we kind of co-wrote it together. It it’s evolving. You know, I think George Lucas said it best. He said that movies are never done. They’re just abandoned. And I can see that when you when you do this is my first full feature film. I came to the party late and moved here about five years ago and like Kathy just was making was making decent money as a business owner of a commercial cleaning business. But he I just kept thinking about film and story. I kind of majored in it back at Carson-newman College back in 91 was when I graduated, but I got married and and she she wasn’t willing to to go that starving artist route with me and move to that small market and work for nothing until you can finally make it. And and then the industry changed. It went from more of a analog to digital and you know, back then it’s not like today where you can film something on your camera or edit on your laptop. It was more involved in that. And I thought, well, you know, it’s, you know, beyond me now. I’ll just we had children, we got settled in life, we got bills.
Ken Merritt: [00:11:50] And then when I started to to finally get comfortable with material things and and grounded with the family, then there was a divorce. So that was very, very painful and unsettling, as you can imagine. And and that’s very expensive, too. So. So it’s like, you know, building and losing and then rebuilding again. And, you know, who’s got time to chase some crazy dream, right? I mean, I’m too busy trying to survive. And it was not it was not a divorce that was very amicable. You know, a lot of people that went through the process or whatever said, oh, it’ll get better, you know, you know, it it never did. And so between child support, alimony, child support interest, which I’m still paying now, even though the kids are grown and gone, it’s just, you know, just survival. But started the business. The business did well. I like to clean. I like just good, honest work. Even though I have a college degree, I ended up scrubbing toilets and emptying trash cans. And then but but I took a little bit of pride in the fact that I did own the business. But still, it’s, you know, it’s not, you know, a glamor occupation, but it is definitely a need. And the God bless me. I raised, I became from the smallest franchise owner in the in the market, the Knoxville market. It covered all the way to north Georgia, Chattanooga, up to the Tri-Cities and halfway out to to Nashville to become the largest franchise owner in the state.
Ken Merritt: [00:13:40] And it’s just. I’ve learned how to work and not say no. And every time they had a new account for me, they knew that, Hey, can will take it, You know, he’ll take anything. Yeah. It’s, you know, now we’re out of Knoxville. It’s an industrial, you know, three shifts, seven days a week. But yeah, give it to Ken. But I needed it. I mean, because of the because of the divorce and all the expenses and everything else. That was my only way out of the whole is just working, work my way out, you know, and just stay busy and, and keep from getting too depressed because there were a lot of problems with the divorce. And she she had put the children, you know, against me out of some power play and struggle. And they were my life during the marriage. And so after the marriage, you know, I couldn’t see them for a long time. And so I thought, I’m either going to lose myself in the bars or in my life or start a business where there’s always something to do. And I just sank myself in the business. And and and finally, you know, made it to where I could remarry again and and have a life and a family. But I was never able to have children again. And and I guess my call and I’m probably talking way too much.
Brian Pruett: [00:15:06] No, that’s good backstory. Go ahead.
Ken Merritt: [00:15:08] If you you know, I guess I’m an interview dream. But if you need to ask me a question, just throw something at me. But. Maya, my son. I was separated from my children. All three children for for about ten years. And because they lived with her, you know, she I didn’t even know if they could she would read they would read the letters or anything. I mean, it was that bad. And I just did some cyber sleuthing and tried to find out what social sites they were on. And I was already blocked on most of that. But I left a message on whatever I could see him on. One was on Instagram, one was on Twitter, one was on Facebook. And I just said, you know, I’m your dad. Here’s my number. I love you. I’ll always be your dad. And I’ll always I’m always thinking about you. And nothing happened. And then about two years after I left that message, my son finally got out of out of the house, out of school, high school. And he called me and he said, This is Gabe. And I’m thinking, as in my son Gabe, I know exactly where I was on the interstate, what time of the day it was, and I had to pull over just to breathe. I hadn’t talked to him in ten years.
Ken Merritt: [00:16:33] Wow. And I didn’t know where that conversation was going to go. It started off slow, awkward, but then eventually, I mean, we’re very close now. And he he no sooner than he came into my life, he was going to be leaving. He had a desire to go to LA, to be an actor, to work in film. So but during that six months before he left, we we made it. We made good time and made up for some lost time and and grew to have a bond there. And I asked him, I said, Son, can I take a road trip with you? Can I go out there with you? I’m happy for you. But I mean, and when we would talk, I said, Where are you going to work? Where are you going to live? Well, okay. What’s your plan? He and he was going to go to the Groundlings School of Improv there, and a lot of, you know, Saturday Night Live actors and whatnot got their start there. They have auditions there a lot. And he thought maybe the comedy would be a niche that he could start in and move out outside from there. And I said, okay, that sounds like a decent plan, but. Who am I to stop you from? From chasing your dream? And I’ll wish you the best. And. But if I could ride out there with you and have that that bond.
Ken Merritt: [00:18:04] He couldn’t tell his mom and that that I would ride out there with him. She would be very upset that, A, he was with me or B, she didn’t he didn’t ask her to go. So a lot of our dealings were still in secret, even long, long after the divorce. And his two siblings still really haven’t come around. And but I’m much healthier today because of him coming around and and it and it kind of lit a fuze in me because like I said I keep thinking about film and stories and I’d watch movies and I’d talk about them. But and I’ve been told that if you get something in your mind long enough, you need to do something about it. And and so, like Kathy said, if one thing that I could do, all things aside, not not worrying about logistics and what makes sense, just what would I love to do? And the answer was be a filmmaker. Now, I didn’t know how to get started in that at 50 years old, you know, and and it doesn’t doesn’t make sense. And I was living in Knoxville. I didn’t tell a lot of people about why I was moving to Georgia. Part of it was to be closer to family. I’m originally from Warner Robins, Georgia, and I’ve still got family there.
Ken Merritt: [00:19:30] They’re getting my mom’s getting older. Step dad has Type two diabetes and a lot of episodes, so it would be good to to get closer. But the reason that I knew that I didn’t really share with with everybody else is I knew there was a lot of filming going on in Atlanta area and I didn’t know exactly where to start. I didn’t really want a degree. I’ve already got a degree. I just wanted to learn how to make movies. And so when I moved down to Canton, I didn’t know how many more times I’d have to go back to Knoxville because I still had the business. I still have it now, and I hired a manager, some some guy that had been with me for years and since he was like 16 and he was like married and and graduated from college and, and he loved the cleaning business. And and I said, Brad, I’m going to try this absentee ownership. And I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I believe you’re up for the task. But it can kind of give me the capital, you know, as I as I chase this crazy dream. And so that was about five years ago. I started off going to Georgia Film Academy because it looked easy.
Ken Merritt: [00:20:45] I mean, it didn’t require any transcripts or, you know, applications, approvals, anything like that. And and then it just kind of gave you a just a shotgun approach to to to the world of film. And then I started figuring out that I’m attracted to the creative side of it writing, directing, producing, producing. You’re going to have to do just probably like Gary does. It’s you just put on that hat and, and, and, you know, nobody else is going to, you know, tell your story if they, if they don’t hear you or see you doing something and you know, nobody’s waiting around to hear your script and read it and offer you a blank check to to produce it, you know, I didn’t have any faith in that process. I mean, there’s there’s Oscar winning writers that are out of work. Okay. And you’re you’re trying to get into a party that you’re not invited to. And and basically so it’s but with the with the idea of now cameras and equipment are becoming a lot lot less expensive. You know you can you can do things and that may look comparable to what you see on Netflix for just a fraction of the budget. So I’ve probably taken up too much time. No, no, there’s more to say. I just have to shut up.
Brian Pruett: [00:22:18] Sure about the movie, if you don’t mind. Okay.
Ken Merritt: [00:22:20] Um. Jesse’s gift is. Is is the project we’re most proud of. I’ve done several shorts and it then. Then when this. This idea of the feature came about, I had written a short story called Jesse’s Gift. And it was while I was in screenwriting class and they said the, the we were going to get to pitch it before some professionals in a panel, which is a real Hollywood process. And then if if you’re if yours gets selected, then the production class. Across the hallway will make the film. So I thought, okay, so I’ve got free labor here a chance. And I thought, what am I going to do? So I laid it all out on the table. I have a brother that’s a musician. He writes his own stuff, and he’s he’s been frustrated with his career. He lived in Nashville for a while and tried to bang it out there and just couldn’t never could get his break. And he’s he’s even older than I am. And so I came up with the idea that the popular movies at that time were were music dramas like Star Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody. And so I felt like there was a market for that, you know. And so I came up with a short met a long story short, met a guy on a set I was doing boom operator for.
Ken Merritt: [00:23:46] And we got to talking and I said, You know, I’ve got some ideas if you want to ever hear about them. He said, Yeah, give me a call. He gave me his card. I called him after the shoot was over with, and he he answered the phone. And I mean, he actually seemed interested. It kind of blew me away. I was very nervous about making the call. I have reached out to producers or distributors before and never heard anything back. And I don’t know, I guess I was kind of expecting the same. But, you know, you just keep on trying and and out of all the things that I had shown him, he liked the idea of Jessie’s Girl because it involved a musician. He felt like he’s probably got somewhat of a following already in music and that might help generate, you know, attraction and buzz with the movie. So it got greenlit into a feature film from a 30 minute film. And he he had a grip truck. He has a company called Indie Gear Solutions. And, and and he said, I’ll tell you what I really want to. I’ve been wanting to make a movie that looks like it stands against all the others, but on a fraction of the budget, try out, you know, this package, this rental equipment and and.
Ken Merritt: [00:25:10] Now, you know, you don’t even have to pay me. It’ll just be off the back end of any profits if that happens. So, I mean, that was that was a deal. And and then I quickly found out that a feature length film. Is is a beast. It’s some people say, oh, you’ve done shorts. Just put some shorts together and it doesn’t really happen that way. And I got way over ambitious about the first type of a feature that I ever did because it was involved a lot of locations, a lot of characters, a lot of music, a lot of concerts. And I was doing this right, right in the tail end of Covid, trying to get a concert together, a group of gathering together during Covid. Right. And so now I’m after this, I’m on my way to Johnson City because that big crowd that we were looking for in in the movie that we never did get, he’s he’s gotten a gig at this Blue Plum festival in Johnson City, Tennessee, where there’s average about 10 to 13,000 people. And so we are done with the movie. But we’re not I mean, we’re going to go up there. We’re going to get some footage and do some inserts of some crowd shots and and hopefully that’ll be the last shoot we ever do.
Brian Pruett: [00:26:35] So that’s the majority of it was shot here in Georgia, correct?
Ken Merritt: [00:26:39] It’s yeah, just about all of it was shot in Canton, Woodstock area. It does involve Jesse fallen on hard times by his own doing, his own decisions, his addictions, his habits. And and when his daughter it shows the genealogy of the alcoholism from the grandfather to the to the granddaughter. And when when his daughter tries to commit suicide and goes into the hospital in a rehab, he leaves, he goes homeless, lives off the grid. His wife had already died some time before this, before the movie starts. We show that through flashback. And so he’s homeless in Atlanta. So we do we we are in some real homeless camps. Tent city in. Yeah. And we’ve even gotten accused of trying to exploit that and everything even though we go in with food and and we’d have some tracks there too on the table and and permission before we even run the camera. But it so it it those are those are in Atlanta. But then when kind of like the prodigal son and the father doesn’t really know if Jesse’s even alive or not. He’s been off the grid for for a few years and but he’s he’s dying. He gets stage four cancer and cirrhosis from drinking. And he sends his younger brother to try to see if he can find him.
Ken Merritt: [00:28:08] So he goes down to Atlanta and we show that at the beginning. And then he finds him, brings him back to Timber City, which is Canton. And and then that’s that’s where the fun and the challenge is, you know, take off and he resumes his mantle as a world class songwriter, singer, performer. So yeah, that’s that’s where it’s at. You’re going to see a lot of landmarks that that we all know from the gazebo in downtown Canton. The murals around to one of the concerts was inside of the church I attend, which is Woodstock City Church, which doesn’t look like a church when you’re on the inside. And so. So, yeah, it’s. We haven’t had the premiere yet. We haven’t scheduled any of that just yet. We’re proceeding with a little bit of caution. You know, you only get one chance to make a premiere, and we want to know exactly how we want to do it. But I definitely think we’ve talked about downtown Canton and the historic theater there or, you know, just go. And then after that, going into the markets and maybe maybe instead of first release theaters, maybe go into some of the the historical theaters of the markets like Marietta and Macon and Savannah, you know, that kind of thing.
Brian Pruett: [00:29:38] Awesome. So most of the people that have worked on your film, are they mostly local folks?
Ken Merritt: [00:29:42] They are. And they’re they’re non SAG, which SAG is a is is the union for actors in Georgia. And if you if you go with a if you go with an actor that’s part of the union, then your whole film becomes union. It’s it’s more of a logistical nightmare, you know, just the paperwork and all involved and then the cost. So we wanted to try to do this with, with, with actors that frankly don’t have as much experience. But when the producer saw the level of acting in the short, he he felt like they could they could pull it off in the feature as well. And so and then my brother, who plays Jesse, really hasn’t. He’s not an actor, he’s a musician, and he can perform on stage and you give him a guitar and a microphone. But my my screenwriting teacher said, she said, he might surprise you. You know, just give him a shot. Because what you do have is that realism of these songs are coming out of this person. And, you know, we signed him up for an online acting course because he does live in Knoxville. And while we were while we were writing the feature and everything and his acting just got better and better. And he he became Jesse. And I think I think even when the camera’s not rolling, his, you know, his wardrobe has changed. Now it’s he’s got some tattoos now. It’s really kind of and before that, he was total teetotaler. You know, I mean, here in the movie, he’s he’s either got a drink or a cigaret you know and you know trying to get that that hard voice of whiskey and pain, you know, the kind of thing and he he really just. Um, it’s. It’s taken over. So we don’t know where. Where the old Mickey is. We call him Mickey. His name’s Michael Merritt.
Brian Pruett: [00:31:50] So awesome. So we were talking before we got on air. You? We have a mutual friend, Allie Parker, who’s been doing your makeup for the film, and she’s been very vulnerable and sharing her story, very inspirational. I hope to have her on at some point. But, you know, met her dad. But he’s the photographer, the Cartersville Tribune paper, so. That’s right. Yeah. So. Wow. It’s pretty cool, you guys, the local feel and the local people working with you. If somebody’s listening to you and thinking about having the same passion and dream you have as far as trying to write a film or anything like that, what kind of advice can you give them?
Ken Merritt: [00:32:23] Well, you know, it’s just so cliche to say, just do it, do something and but get started. You know, that first step is the most scary. But sometimes, you know, it’s like that verse that says his word is a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet. If you’re in the dark and you’re shining a light before your path, you’ll see as far as that light will go, but never more until you take the next step and the light will go forward with you. So I kind of liken it when you even if you don’t know all the answers, take that step. If you feel if you really believe in it, it’s your passion because regret’s a very powerful negative force and nobody wants that at the end of their life. And I and I may not make it in film, you know, be the next whatever, but I we’ve got a movie and a movie forever, right? And we’re still talking about Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane. And, you know, Godfather, it’s because now we may not be talking about Jesse’s gift, but still, the point is it’s forever. And it’s a huge accomplishment. And I’m very excited about it.
Brian Pruett: [00:33:39] If people want to follow and be able to learn about when the premiere might be, how can people follow this and then learn and where to go see it.
Ken Merritt: [00:33:46] Right. We we’ve got a website off the Rails Productions, dot info, and then you get the pop up box for the newsletter that comes on there. There’s a Facebook page with Jesse’s gift. And we’ll be we’ll be spreading the word even more so once we get the premiere date established.
Brian Pruett: [00:34:10] Awesome. Well, I know you’ve been busy with this project, but why? I mean, you’re obviously very, very passionate about what you’re doing, but why is it important for you to be part of the community?
Ken Merritt: [00:34:17] Well, you know, we moved to to Canada. I didn’t know anything about Canton. And actually we actually wanted to be a little closer into Atlanta, still north north end, because I didn’t want to have to drive through Atlanta to get back to Knoxville and not knowing how many times I’d have to go back. But we initially wanted closer in and just the cost and the budget. So we kept moving further out. And now I think Camden’s about as far out as you can go north and still be in the metro, But it’s grown on me. It really has. I like I love the outdoors and I love that about Knoxville with the Smokies and the Big South Fork and all that nearby. Canton has a lot of that because 45 minutes you’re in the mountains and but I can be on a dirt path walking within 5 or 10 minutes from my house. So. So it’s beautiful. We got the got the water and the and the mountains and the foothills. But, but the people, you know, it just and I always love that about Georgia because I’m from from here. But then I left and went to Appalachian State on a wrestling scholarship with the the real wrestling, as Gary says, the ones that you got to you know, it doesn’t we didn’t have the big crowds at our matches. Right and then and then I it just I miss Georgia. It’s like Lewis Grizzard once said, if I ever get back to Georgia, I’m gonna nail my feet to the ground. I don’t see myself leaving now. Times I felt like I wanted to move closer into Atlanta because you’re closer to the film network stuff. And when you’re getting people on a low budget, it’s easier for them to come out and film with you than all the way out to Canton. But I’m going to have to think long and hard about it because I’ve really gotten attached to the community. And I think the longer I’m here, the the more it’s got a hold on me and I might not ever be able to leave. Right, Right.
Brian Pruett: [00:36:22] Oh, that’s awesome. So, Ken, thank you for sharing your story. And we’re going to now move over to a gentleman. I don’t know how this next guest sleeps, Stone because everything that I know about him, you’re up like 24 hours. I guess we actually met through actually email introduction for a mutual. A friend, Jacob Woodard, introduced us, but also have people who network with me. Joel Lapp. Everybody keeps saying, you need to meet Gary Lamb. So Gary, welcome to the show.
Gary Lamb: [00:36:47] Oh, I’m glad to be here. I’m pumped. So it took us about four times to make this work.
Brian Pruett: [00:36:51] Exactly. Exactly. So I’m glad we were able to do this. You I mean, I don’t know where to start. You’ve got Action Church. You’ve got a wrestling promotion, you’ve got an MMA league, you’ve got Black Sheep Project, your own podcast, your events business. So just share your story. How did you get involved in all this?
Gary Lamb: [00:37:07] Yeah, I mean, I guess I’m a serial entrepreneur and it’s easy from looking from the outside to think he’s got his hands in a bunch of stuff, but I really, really don’t. At the end of the day, I’m in the event business. Everything I do is centered around events. I’m all about creating community. And so that’s just kind of what happens. I got started in it because I moved here probably about 18 or 19 years ago, and I started a church and the church grew really quick and probably one of the largest churches in the county now. And I like to say about five years in that my talent far exceeded my character. And so as the church grew, my ego ego grew bigger. I lost everything. So I lost church, lost my family, lost my marriage, lost my name, ended up on the front page of the paper and and had to come to some conclusions in life. I had to decide was I going to move away, which is what a bunch of people kind of told me to do, move away and get a fresh start. But sounds weird. I’m a pastor, but I’m not the most spiritual person I really felt led to be in Canton. This is where I wanted to be My then, well, my wife, who is now my ex wife, stayed in the area and I wasn’t leaving my children. And so I just decided to pick myself up by the balls and stay in the area and rebuild my reputation. And so that was at 33. I’m 47 now. So that was 14, 15 years ago. And so I was done with ministry.
Gary Lamb: [00:38:26] I was never doing ministry again. And now because of what I’ve been through in life, I deal with a lot of pastors leaving ministry that have effed up their lives, screwed up their life, or just said f ministry altogether because ministry sucks. At the end of the day and we’re leaving it. And you kind of go into this abyss of not knowing what to do and you’ve built your life around pastoring and you don’t realize how that transitions into secular jobs and providing for your family, which is the way men are wired. We’re wired to protect and we’re wired to provide. So immediately you feel like you have to provide. And so I went through that that period. Lucky for me, I can sell ice to an Eskimo. So I went into sales and I did really, really well, but it was lacking to me. And so I had kind of built my previous church on big events. We ran about 12, 1500 people in a movie theater. So I was used to setting up and tearing down every Sunday, putting on a big event every Sunday. And so it was an event in itself every week. And so really what happened is my current wife and I went to Jeep Fest and we were walking around Jeep Fest and I was watching people, tens of thousands of people. Form community. And I saw community at a Jeep festival that I never saw in the church. And I saw people doing life together that I never saw in the church. And I saw people having a good time and rallying around a cause and enjoying life.
Gary Lamb: [00:39:46] And at that time, I was really into barbecue at the time, kind of when I lost everything about three houses down from the house that I was living in at the time. I was leaving one day to go and they had this old smoker sitting out at the end of the road for the trash company to pick up. I went and asked him if I could have it. As you can imagine, as he shared, I lost everything. I wasn’t sleeping. And so I started barbecuing on this smoker. And I would just stay up all hours of the night just tending to that fire. And it sounds really cheesy and really effing stupid, but it kind of saved my life just having something. And so as we were walking around this festival, my wife and I had been together about a year and a half at that time, and I said, I’m going to do this around barbecue. And she looked at me and said, What do you mean? I said, I’m going to put on a barbecue and craft beer festival and I’m going to do it in Canton. And we put on barbecue and brews about six months later and we shut downtown Canton down. I mean, probably 18,000 people showed up. It was insanity. It was we were not prepared and we didn’t know what we were doing. And it was way too many people. And food trucks ran out of food. And I remember we went through almost 150 kegs of beer in about 7.5 hours. We ran out of beer with 30 minutes to go. And it was just kind.
Ken Merritt: [00:40:56] Of your miracle.
Gary Lamb: [00:40:59] No, I didn’t. I don’t have those kind of skills. And so word spread because of that festival and other cities started asking us to bring barbecue and brews there. And so we brought it to LJ and we brought it to Cartersville. And then it kind of grew past that, where people were like, Well, can you do something besides barbecue? And so we started doing other festivals and then we started doing concerts and I just got in the promotion business. And then it’s what I do operate really good in chaos, he said. It sounds kind of basic, but you just got to do it. We just stepped out and we did it and it just evolved into other things. My son at the time was seven years old and he got really into wrestling and so I took him to this old high school gym and we watched wrestling. And it was the most. I. It was the most fucking horrible thing I’d ever seen. Excuse my language. I don’t know if a lot of cussing here or not, but.
Brian Pruett: [00:41:48] Fcc doesn’t.
Gary Lamb: [00:41:49] Listen. Well, that’s fine. Anybody that follows me in my network, all my Facebook knows it’s going to happen. It was horrible. It was the worst thing ever I’d ever seen in my life. And my son loved it. And I came home and told Christine, my wife, I said, I can’t take him to this wrestling thing. I will blow my brains out if I have to go to this every month. And she said, So what are you going to do? I said, Well, I’m going to start a wrestling promotion. It can’t be that hard. These idiots do it. And so we started a wrestling promotion and it just took off and it grew. And I didn’t even know there was awards for wrestling. And we won promotion of the year and promoter of the year. The first four years we broke the Georgia State record. We were the first independent show to have over a thousand people in attendance, and it just kind of took off. So we were in the event business and then Covid happened and that’s a shitty thing to be in, is the event business. And so Covid happened and no one wanted to do events and suddenly about 30 days later my mortgage was due. And so I just decided to give a middle finger to everything and said, We’re doing events and I don’t care if they take us to jail or not.
Gary Lamb: [00:42:46] And so I have a 30,000 square foot building. I have an old grocery store in Canton that the church I pastor meets in, and I’ll get to the church here in a minute. And so we just started running events out of there. We didn’t advertise them. We called it Black Sheep Underground. And you found out through word of mouth. And we did concerts and we ran dance nights and we drew thousands of people to those events. And we probably helped spread Covid all over Cherokee County, or that’s what we were accused of anyway. And but we didn’t care, man. We ran those events all the time and they grew and they grew and they grew. And the church I was pastoring at the time, we never shut down. We refused to shut down. And so we kept meeting. When the Georgia’s shut down, we kept meeting and people kept coming. And so it grew and the events grew. And I met the people at the middle. And Erdogan, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Mill and Etowah. The mill is a is a 600,000 square foot redevelopment of an old cotton mill. And right about the time that Governor Kemp opened up Georgia, they came to me and said, Hey, do you think you could put a concert on here? We’d like to draw about 500 people and just let people know, Let’s get back to living.
Gary Lamb: [00:43:53] We’ll keep them socially distanced, we’ll keep them separated. And I said, Oh yeah, we’ll run a show here. And so I put a band together during that time called The Guardians of the Jukebox, which is a big 80s tribute band. We had a connection with the rock band Fozzy, Chris Jericho’s the professional wrestler. He’s a singer of the band Fozzy. But when Jericho’s wrestling and he’s on TV, the rest of the band formed this 80s band. And so we put them at the mill and we didn’t draw 500 people. We drew about 5000 people that night and people lost their minds. City of Canton lost their mind. Sponsors of the mill lost their mind. They were not real happy and we had a blast. And we just kind of set the standard. And cities knew that if you wanted to put on events, a lot of event companies went out of business during that time and we didn’t. We thrived. We made more money during Covid than we made, not during Covid. So when everything opened back up, we were about your only option if you wanted to do events. And so we specialize in what we call vendor events, large scale festivals and like I said, barbecue and bruises, our bread and butter. But we do about four of those a year. But we also do downtown alive in downtown Canton.
Gary Lamb: [00:44:55] We do the Ball Ground Rocks Festival. We’re fixing to host one in Monroe, fixing to host one in Augusta, fixing to host one barbecue brews and bacon. We’re fixing to do in Macon with the Macon Bacon baseball team inside their baseball stadium. And so we do probably about 30, what we call large scale events a year. And so large scale means they draw thousands of people. Along with that, we run 12 wrestling shows every month or excuse me, a year, once a month. And then in January we started a fight league, a MMA, Muay Thai, just a fight league. It is what it is. It’s sanctioned through the athletic commission. Um, a lot of hoops you got to jump through in Georgia. Very strict. The commission is. And so you got to float a lot of money to do it up until the time. And so because of that, we’re compared to Tennessee where it’s a lot easier to do. There’s not a lot of promotions here in Georgia. There’s 1 or 2. And so we held our first fight January 14th, I believe, and had about 950 people there. We held our second show May 6th and we had to cap it at about 1300, considering our occupancy loads, about 850. So at about 1300 people, we cut it off and we’re gearing up for August 19th. We’re running four of those shows.
Gary Lamb: [00:46:10] We can’t run those monthly. They’re too much work. And so we’re running those. And a matter of fact, tickets went on sale for our August 19th show yesterday, and we sold out of front row most of our tables, half a second row in about two hours. And so we’ve hit a nerve. And but they’re more than events. We create community. And so that’s what we do. And we create things that allow people to escape the reality that most people think their life sucks. They go to a job to work for someone they don’t like to make money to spend on things. They don’t need to impress people they don’t like. And so most people. Are just in the most people don’t have the balls to step out and say, at 50 years old, I’m going to start making movies. Most people don’t say at 29 years old, I’m going to move from New York to Atlanta and start over. And so most people, they do, man, because society has told us, school has taught us, the world has taught us that you go to school, you get in debt, you go to a job, you retire from that job when you’re 70 and maybe for five years, the last five years of your life, you get to work. You get to live on Social Security and enjoy life and called the rat race.
Gary Lamb: [00:47:18] It’s called the rat race. Right. And so I take pride in the fact that we put on events that for a couple of hours, people get to escape reality and they don’t get to think about the fact that the car payments due or the house payments due or that their marriage is not good, or that their teenagers don’t respect them or that they don’t respect themselves. And so that’s what we do. We really stress community in all of our events. And so it’s not a wrestling show, it’s community. I mean, it sounds really stupid, but if you came a couple of months, you would see that month after month it’s people. It’s like a family reunion. People start waiting in line for wrestling tickets at noon. They start tailgating in our parking lot at 1:00, fight night. They get there and they arrive and it’s they’re seeing people they haven’t seen and they’re the riches are in the niches. And they’re there. They’re gathered around these small activities that maybe mainstream doesn’t like, but they’re getting to be around people that they like. Wrestling, to me, is one of the weirdest, stupidest, oddest things I’ve ever done in my life. But you know what? To those people that are into it, they feel the same way and they’ve been judged by everybody. So they come there and now they’re suddenly around 5 or 600 people that are into the same thing they’re in, and they get to be normal.
Gary Lamb: [00:48:22] And our festivals, they create community. Probably 90% of our festivals are held in downtown areas. So we go to areas, we bring community there, we bring thousands of people. Our Cartersville event that we just had had about 17,000 people throughout the day had about a month ago. So 17,000 people come to downtown Cartersville and they support the businesses and they support the restaurants and they support that economy and they support the hotels and community happens. And it’s interesting to show up and see people show up with a shirt from 2016 or 2015 and they come and they find you and they remember, man, they’ve come every year and it’s crazy. We’re spoiled and we’re lucky in my family. I tell my kids all the time, You take for granted that we’re going 4 or 5 vacations a year. You take for granted that you turn 16 and I was able to get you a car. For a lot of people, this is their vacation. They plan their vacation around being able to come out for a day or their hard earned money and a lot of disposable income is not out there. And so it’s not something we take lightly. So we try to create community. So so I do that. And on top of that, I do pastor a church called Action Church.
Brian Pruett: [00:49:25] And I love the name, by the way.
Gary Lamb: [00:49:27] Yeah. When I lost my other church, I was done and I said I was never doing ministry again. I deserved to lose it. I mean, I should have lost it. I was done with church. Never was done with God, never got bitter at God. It was my fault, you know, I was the one who couldn’t keep my pecker in my pants. So, you know, so it is what it is. And but I never went through that angry stage. I never went through that mad stage. But I did get turned off by the church. I got turned off by the business of the church. I got turned off by budgets and staffing and HR and elders telling you what you can and can’t do. And so I had a group of people asked me to start another church. That’s normal. When you leave a church that big, even if you leave on bad terms, there’s people that still thankfully, there’s still people that love you and believe in you. Not many, not many of the church. About 1500. I had 13 people approach me so asked me to start another church. And so I set some criteria for them. I said we would never start a church until the church I had lost found a new pastor. They took a long time to find a pastor. I like to think that I’m irreplaceable.
Gary Lamb: [00:50:26] That’s really not the truth. Because the next pastor is growing the church about five times bigger than it was when I was there. But they wanted to make sure they had the right guy. I said I wanted to have a job that was paying my bills. I was never going to take a salary from the church because I was never going to have anybody accused me of getting back in ministry for money. And so 11 years in, I don’t take a salary from that church at all. And I said to people, I have to ask me to do it. I’m not just going to say we’re starting a church. So I had this group of people come to me, 13 people, and I said, Yeah, here’s the deal. We’ll start a church. I said, I’m never taking a salary. We’re going to move to the poorest part of town. And so we did. So we moved to exit 16 off of in downtown Canton off 575, which is a very it’s the poorer part of our town. It’s the Spanish speaking part of our town. We leased about 5000ft² of the old IGA grocery store and we started the church. And I said, Here’s the deal. We’re not doing small groups, we’re not doing ministries, we’re not doing youth groups, we’re not doing any of this stuff.
Gary Lamb: [00:51:18] We’re going to gather together on Sundays and we’re going to celebrate, and then we’re going to serve our community. We’re going to live out our damn name, and we’re going to take action in the community. And that’s what we’re going to do. And so what we have done from day one is we run one of the largest food pantries in the county. We run the only the only emergency warming shelter in the county. And so when temperatures drop below 32 degrees, our building turns into the warming shelter for those that don’t have a place to go, that don’t have. Of a place to stay. Maybe they do have a home. But believe it or not, there’s people with homes in this community, especially the more northern you get that don’t have heat but don’t even have running water. And so they can come to the building and stay. So we’ve run the warming shelter now for that. Up until Covid, we ran a very large clothing closet, Salvation Army, right before Covid moved in right next door to us. They do that. So we allowed them to do that. We have addiction meetings. We don’t run any of them. They’re not church related because again, we do Sunday morning and that is it. Aa or Na meets in our building at least three nights a week.
Gary Lamb: [00:52:17] For years we ran the 24 hour room, meaning from Christmas morning to New Year’s morning we had an AA meeting every hour on the hour for seven straight days, and we just serve our community. Bethesda Community Clinic uses our parking lot every Monday morning to set up for their free clinic. We have 32,000ft² now. And so we have a building, we call it the Action Building. We don’t call it a church building. The church just meets in the action building on Sunday morning. And it’s just a hub for ministry that we don’t do. I mean, but we’ve got the building. If you’ve got the ministry, come operate out of there. My deal with the church now is I don’t take a salary, but I use the building for whatever I want to use it for. So it’s my I call it my 32,000 square foot playground. And it’s got hundreds of thousands of dollars in sound equipment and lighting equipment and video equipment. So we run wrestling out of there. We run our MMA show out of there, We run concerts there. We’ve had national touring bands. Fozzy Matter of fact, Fozzy funny. Fozzy was in at center stage in Atlanta last night, but their two previous Atlanta dates before that were in our building. They keep all of their stuff in our building.
Gary Lamb: [00:53:20] We’ve run country concerts out of there. Tomorrow night we have a dance night with a 90s DJ coming in for a fundraiser for one of the Cherokee Bruins that had a semi-pro football team that has wife has cancer. And so there’s always something going on there. There’s always something happening there. And then on Sunday morning, there’s a church service and the church is just a building, so we don’t really care where they meet. We’re in danger of losing that building. It’s been for sale now for years. We know and probably the next four years. What has saved us is we’re in a shopping center and Family Dollar 25 years ago had the greatest real estate lawyers in the world. And so they’ve got about four years left on their lease. And so no one’s buying the building for the rentals. They’re buying it to tear it down. But you cannot break the family dollar contract. So we got about four years. We’ll figure out what’s next after that. But but I do I just start things. I have a brand personal brand called the Black Sheep Project and find that on Facebook. It’s a clothing line. I have a podcast. A matter of fact, I’ve recorded about 8 or 9 episodes of the podcast and haven’t launched any of the podcasts. I’ve put soundbites up on Facebook and TikTok as we’ve been building up to it.
Gary Lamb: [00:54:25] And then I run Revival Events Group. Like I said, that we run probably 30 to 40 large events a year, and whenever I get a wild hair, my ass will start something else new because I get bored very easily. And so that’s just what I do. And man, I enjoy life. I live life by my own rules and don’t really care if anybody likes it or not. I don’t care if the church likes it or the unchurched likes it. I don’t really care. It’s the most freeing thing in the world to live life by your own rules and to know you’re responsible for your own income and you don’t have to follow what everyone else says. And so I stayed in this area and someone told me one time, I think it’s the most meaningful thing that I’ve ever been told me. They said they said I outlived my past and that was cool to me. And but I still run into people that want to bring that up and I don’t live there. It was 14 years ago. If you knew if you knew Gary 14 years ago, you don’t know Gary now. You think I’m arrogant, cocky now, you should have seen me 14 years ago. This is common, humble. Gary. So that’s my story in a nutshell.
Brian Pruett: [00:55:18] Well, difference between cocky and confidence. And I think you’re confident. Yeah, so.
Gary Lamb: [00:55:23] I’m cocky, too. Let’s not fool.
Brian Pruett: [00:55:24] Ourselves. Are you tired yet, Stone?
Stone Payton: [00:55:27] No, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all of these conversations.
Brian Pruett: [00:55:32] The the wrestling thing, I’m a huge wrestling fan, grew up not the not the current type of wrestling, you know, But, you know, you got one of my favorite guys in Jake the Snake Roberts has been coming around. Yeah, that’s just pretty cool. Yeah.
Gary Lamb: [00:55:44] So when I started this, I went to we have a guy that goes to our church named Rich Ward. Rich Ward is the guitar player for the band Fozzy. He’s also the founder of the Guardians of the Jukebox. And because he had grown up and been in the band with Chris Jericho for so long, I said, Man, I want to start this wrestling promotion. And he told me, he said, You need to meet this kid named Dylan. And Dylan was a video guy that does all the video editing for DDP Yoga, which is Diamond Dallas Page is yoga thing out in Smyrna. And he goes, Man, he wants to wrestle. He’s always wanted to put on a wrestling promotion. He’s the best production and video guy you’ve ever met. So I met Dylan, brought him on as a partner. I put up all the money. Dylan does all the work, and I’m through. Dylan, We’ve met Dallas. We’ve met Buff Bagwell. Buff Bagwell was at our show last night. We met Jake the Snake Roberts. We met Scott Hall. Um, Cody Rhodes last independent wrestling appearance ever was at Southern Honor, which is the promotion I own. Before AAUW started, they owned no footage. So Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega did a run in at one of our shows where they could get footage for the first pay per view for. Because they didn’t own any of the footage. New Japan owns it all. And so it’s just it goes back to community and it goes back to connection.
Gary Lamb: [00:56:49] You talked about connection earlier. Connection is probably the most valuable currency there is in the world. You talked about networking. And so just through knowing Rich, I got introduced to Dylan who got us introduced to some of the biggest names in wrestling, and the promotion is taken off. Your average independent wrestling promotion in Georgia runs about 70 to 80 people, and we probably averaged between 5 and 600 people a show. And but it’s great. Our building is just made for it. I mean, with the screens and the lights and the smoke and the parking. And I love when newcomers pull into our parking lot because it looks like a shithole. It’s an old crappy shopping center. But then you walk into our building and it is it truly is amazing. It’s truly amazing when the lights are out and we painted everything black. Black covers a multitude of sins is what I say. It covers all the nastiness in the building. And so the focal point is the stage with the haze and the lights and the moving lights and, you know, two and they’re probably 40 foot wide screens and the rampway coming down and it just has that old school WCW feel to it and it’s really resonating. I know more about wrestling now than I ever wanted to know in my life. And so it’s it’s interesting and it’s definitely a niche thing and it’s the only thing I’ve ever done where if you tell 100 people about it, only one person is into it, but that one person is into it and they know a hundred other people that are into it.
Gary Lamb: [00:58:10] We have people that drive down to our show every month from Missouri, drive down from Virginia. We have people flying from Canada because people that are into this independent wrestling thing are into this independent wrestling thing, and they’ve always been kind of the nerdy outcast thing. And then we created something that was kind of cool and they want to be part of it. And so I enjoy it and I don’t do much with it now. I promote it. I’m a promoter. My wife calls me the redneck P.T. Barnum. And so that’s what I do. I just promote I operate really good in chaos, and I know how to draw crowds and I’m not good at much of anything else. We had a couple of college interns that wanted to follow me around and learn from me, and I’m like, You can follow me around, but I don’t. Excuse me. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what I’m doing. I just do it. And, you know, I’m sure a systems person would tell you I have a system and they would figure it out. But in my mind, I just operate in chaos. I remember back when I was at my previous church, about two years in, I got this awesome idea.
Gary Lamb: [00:59:05] I said, You know, we’re going to do we’re going to drop 100,000 eggs from a helicopter for Easter Egg. And we did at Bowling Park and we shut down 575 about four miles in both directions. And riots broke out. And it was crazy. And it was the biggest cluster ever in the city of Cannon was going to arrest me for inciting a riot the night before Easter. And but we drew a lot of people and it was freaking fun. And I had a blast and dude had a heart attack and died in the middle of it. And man, it was crazy. I still see people wearing shirts as I survived the Easter Egg drop. They’ll find him at Goodwill and stuff, so it’s always my favorite thing. So I’ve just been in big events forever and I don’t know why. I have an amazing I call it my tribe and I have an amazing tribe of people who buy into my craziness. And do they buy into what I want to do? Because I’m convinced, again, people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. And I give them that opportunity to be something bigger because we’re not going to do anything small if doing something small. And so we’re going to launch it quick. We’re not going to stretch it out forever. And my tribe is amazing and they step up and there’s no idea that I could ever do that.
Gary Lamb: [01:00:00] They’re they’re not just on board because they know I’m going to make it happen. And it may elevate Fight league is the current thing. I mean we started that this year and man, we’re breaking records in Georgia and it’s been very profitable and it’s been a blast. And that’s a whole nother world that has opened up to me. But again, it looks like I do a lot of different things. I don’t. I just do events. And so the skeletons and the bones are all the same. The skin’s a little bit different on each and every one of them, and so it works out well. My wife owns a t shirt company. She started that t shirt company. She traveled about 32 weeks out of the year before Covid. We looked at our figures and we’re spending about six, six figures a year on t shirts for our events. So I just told her to start a t shirt company to to provide for us. Now, I can’t even get her to make t shirts for me. It’s grown so much. She’s so busy doing everybody else’s t shirts. So we’ve been blessed, but we’re just not afraid to do shit. We just step out and do it. And if it fails, it fails. And I’ve done plenty of that’s failed. So we just ignore that and don’t brag about that in the stories and keep on going. Right?
Brian Pruett: [01:00:53] So we’re similar in ways I’ve been told I can sell ice to Eskimos. So nice to hear somebody else can do that as well. We should maybe talk about how we can do that together. An ice business? Yes.
Ken Merritt: [01:01:02] I just need to find the Eskimos that need it.
Brian Pruett: [01:01:04] Right? Right. Alaska. That’s melting up there. But I also. I actually do the smaller events. I like doing the community stuff as well. Right now I specialize in doing community trivia events where I’m rotating charities in Bartow County. I do want to talk to you because I have an idea for I’d like to see about possibly doing something as a wrestling show for a certain non profit.
Gary Lamb: [01:01:24] So you live in Bartow, then?
Brian Pruett: [01:01:25] I live actually in the Kennesaw Acworth line, but I do most of my stuff in Bartow.
Gary Lamb: [01:01:28] How’d you end up in Woodstock? Doing a podcast?
Brian Pruett: [01:01:30] This man right here.
Gary Lamb: [01:01:31] Gotcha.
Brian Pruett: [01:01:32] We we have the same things, both nonprofits. And that’s the passion of helping people like everybody else. And it just came. One thing led to another, and here we are.
Gary Lamb: [01:01:39] Yeah. I love Cartersville, man. Cartersville Cars was our biggest festival. Yes. That’s awesome. Like Cartersville does it right. And Cartersville, a lot of cities do a lot of events and it minimizes them, Cartersville says. We do two events a year. I do both of them. We’ve been there seven years now. They don’t question anything we do. I get to do whatever how I want to do it. And man, they give us the keys to downtown and we blow the doors off that place every year. And there’s so much potential if they can ever figure out high density housing in downtown, they’ll rival Woodstock. Yeah, but the high density housing is not there to keep the town going right now.
Brian Pruett: [01:02:12] No, it’s it’s just amazing, though, that it is amazing with certain areas open up. I see this every month. So I’ve been averaging 60 to 70 people a month for the trivia, which is kind of cool that we meet at Saint Angelo’s there at Lake Point. I also do some business expos for charities. And my biggest event coming up, for those of you interested, is a locker room chat. I’ve got seven former NFL football players, a former Major League Baseball player, former professional soccer player and a rodeo guy coming. And we’re raising money for all in all ministries, who is a run by a gentleman who has an incredible story. He was on here a few weeks ago telling it named Kevin Harris. And anyway, he’s building and wants to build a rehab facility for men with addictions because of his experience. And so that’s my biggest event. But I look forward to maybe you and I talking and doing some other other. So other than why you shared that, just give me a why is important for you to be part of the community than providing for the community.
Gary Lamb: [01:03:12] Because we weren’t created to do life alone. And so. Not to get super biblical and get super spiritual, but God created everything. He created the heavens and the earth and he created the birds and the animals, and he created the days and the night. And then he created man. And he looked at man and man was alone. He said, It’s not good for man to be alone. And I get that. It’s easy to say he made a helpmate for him, but I also think he made community for him. Him. I joke that the Lone Ranger, his effing name is the Lone Ranger. If anybody was built to do Life alone, had Tonto. And so we’re not made to do life alone. And I think that these things right here, these phones have minimized and devalued what the word friend means, and they’ve devalued what connection means and they’ve devalued what community means. And so I get that we’re moving more and more and more virtual and we’re moving more and more away from face to face. But there’s just something powerful about face to face community and being active in the community. And I’m just not wired to live in a community that I’m not making an impact in. And I have went to war with my city. Me and Canton have went to war during Covid. We threw doubt. I gave them both it two middle fingers to both of them and did what I wanted to do. And I threw down with the council.
Gary Lamb: [01:04:20] I threw down with the police. I threw down with the mayor. But at the end of the day, they also knew when the shit hit the fan and they needed somebody, I would be there for them. And that’s important to me. You ain’t got to like me. I just want you to know I’m there for you. Even if I don’t like you, I’m going to be there for you. And we’ve mended fences since then a little bit. I’ve tried a little bit, but not too hard. But. But a community is just important to me. I can’t. I don’t know. I’m just not wired to live in an area or be part of an area where life is not happening and communities not happening. And I do think lack of connection is the number one thing that I don’t care if it’s suicide, depression, whatever it is. I think if you take it back to the root issue, it’s always going to go back to lack of connection. Now, obviously, I’m not a psychiatrist. I’m not trained in any of that, but I’ve been around long enough to know connection is just vital. I know when I lost everything and I was living in someone’s basement and hiding because, you know, for about I joke that I hid for 29 days. So because on day 30, Fedex came to the door of the place where I was staying and my ex wife had sent me a Fedex package with all the bills, and I realized that my mortgage didn’t give a shit, that I had had an affair and the power company didn’t give a shit that I had an affair and the car payment didn’t give a shit that I had an affair and the bills were still due.
Gary Lamb: [01:05:32] And so I realized I had to go in there and shave my face and go out and start something. And I went and started a business at that time too. And but when I got back around people, that’s when I began to, to feel alive again and feel connection again. And it’s funny because I’m an introvert. I know you probably find that very surprising. I am a huge introvert. You put me on the stage in front of 5000 people and I’m great. You put me in a room of five people and man, I’m quiet. I don’t I don’t like two way conversations. I want to I like one way conversations where I’m the one giving the conversation. And so I my wife jokes and says, I put on festivals That way I don’t have to be part of the festival. I don’t I don’t I don’t want to go hang out and chill and do that kind of stuff. But just being around people energized me again. And there’s just power in connection. I think we saw that during Covid. I God, I don’t want to be controversial here. People died of Covid. But I also think. So many of them died from isolation. And I know my wife’s grandmother died not of cancer, but once she had cancer, her grandfather had Covid and he was in the hospital.
Gary Lamb: [01:06:36] And three weeks later, I mean, of being isolated, I knew enough people at the hospital where I allowed them. They allowed me in. I mean, I remember like something out of it. I had to suit up and go in there and and he was done like just not being around people. And I again, I don’t want to minimize Covid. Please don’t misunderstand me, but I do. I think isolation was a huge factor in that during that time was, you know, people are sick and they’re sicker than they’ve ever been and now they can’t be around their family. And, I don’t know, man connections, just powerful. And I think we’re seeing it now. He talked about I can’t remember the name of the event he talked about he’s going to. But, you know, for about a year, events were dying and festivals were dying, and now they’re thriving again. And people want to be around people because there’s energy in people. There’s energy in this room today because there’s five of us sitting here that we would not get if we were all on our computers. We could have done this from our computers. Today, technology’s there and and the people listening would have known no difference. You know what I mean? But there’s energy and feeding off each other here. And so it’s important for me to create community and be part of the community that I’m in.
Brian Pruett: [01:07:36] You talk about festivals, so like I said, this past Monday was my anniversary, so I took my wife to Decatur, Alabama for the hot air balloon festival. And it was slammed, Right. You know, because you’re right. I mean, I still there’s there’s still people today who are still suffering from the lack of. Being able to meet with people from from Covid. So. All right. Before we wrap this up and again, I appreciate you all coming and sharing this. I got one more question I’m going to ask the three of you. I always like to end this show with you guys, sharing a quote, a word, a nugget, some positivity for people to listen and take today and the rest of 2023 and beyond with. So, Kathy, you start, please.
Kathy Springer: [01:08:12] One thing that I’ve always said to my son, I do have a child. He’s 34 years old. I said, you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. And I said it to him all the time, every day. And he strived by that. And I said it to everybody. Like, don’t ever say you can’t do something. That word can’t is not in my vocabulary. I just said it now, but I don’t use it in any way, shape or form, so. All right.
Gary Lamb: [01:08:35] She’s 29 with a 34 year old man.
Kathy Springer: [01:08:37] I say the same thing. I’m like, wait a minute. How did you turn 34? I’m 34.
Gary Lamb: [01:08:40] Exist where her math.
Brian Pruett: [01:08:41] Doesn’t add up there somehow I know that there’s things you.
Gary Lamb: [01:08:44] Can do. Anything.
Brian Pruett: [01:08:45] Exactly. Ken, what you got?
Ken Merritt: [01:08:47] Well, I’m going to give you two quotes, if you don’t mind. I think it must have been somebody like Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins. It said you get where you want in life by helping enough other people get what they want. Zig Ziglar So if you if you don’t know which way to go, go help somebody, go help somebody like Gary or Kathy or somebody like you that are doing something good for somebody that matters. And then another another thing that got me through a lot because I had a lot of fear working through divorce and then the accusations that that she put upon me and to the point where I was sitting in front of a 12 man jury and didn’t know whether my life was going to change drastically when they came back in and gave the. So it was. And you made.
Gary Lamb: [01:09:35] Her real mad.
Ken Merritt: [01:09:36] I yeah. And it’s like the the tear jerker of the week. It’s like my life has been a movie because this doesn’t happen to normal people. But it happened. I know a guy.
Gary Lamb: [01:09:45] That makes movies.
Speaker7: [01:09:48] Yeah, you should make a movie about it. Let’s do an email introduction.
Ken Merritt: [01:09:50] You know what? You know, some people say that I’ve got a lot to say in that regard, but you got to dig up some some harmful stuff. Maybe I need to get away from it a little bit longer before I start going back to it, if that makes sense. But but the other thing that I saw a quote in one of my motivational books or devotional books, it said, courage is not the absence of fear, but moving on through the face of it. And it it I was validated in being afraid, but not in in Paralyzation. Moving on. It’s okay to be afraid. But if. But don’t let it stop you. To keep moving. Keep, keep, keep moving through it. And that’s. That’s. I’ve used that verse so many or that quote so many times.
Brian Pruett: [01:10:39] Awesome. Gary.
Gary Lamb: [01:10:41] Uh, the one message I always tell everyone, because there’s not a day that goes by, I don’t have someone reaching out to me who wants to step out and follow their dreams. And I always I want them to understand this. You’re going to fail. But failure is not fatal and that’s huge to me. I think that was the biggest thing when I felt I don’t looking back now, I don’t even know that I failed. I mean, but by the world standards, when I failed. At first I thought it was fatal. And then this amazing thing happened. I went to bed and the sun came up the next morning. And like I told you, on day 30, the bills came and I was still alive. And I ventured back out from the basement and the sun was shining. And I drove across the street because it was on 20 where I was staying. Actually, I live in the neighborhood now. I was able to buy a home in the neighborhood now that I was living in someone’s basement, homeless, you know, 14 years ago. And I drove across the street and went to Chick fil A and Chick fil A tasted like Chick fil A, and life went on.
Gary Lamb: [01:11:36] And so failure sucks, but it’s not fatal. And I think too many people are afraid to step out. They live in fear again, not to be, you know, the Bible. There’s 365 times the Bible says, do not fear. I always say it’s one for every day of the year. And we failure. The fear of failure just keeps people from doing, You’re going to fail. I have done shit that did not work, but it’s not fatal. If you can screw it up. I’ve screwed it up, man. I mean, like. Bankruptcy. Marriage. Kids. My word. Everything. I keep screwing up all the time. So, I mean, like, you know, I just kind of wears a badge of honor now, and I just want people to go in with the expectations. I’m going I’m going to screw it up. And so but we’re going to pick our pieces up and move on. So that’s my big thing, is you’re going to fail and failure is not fatal. So don’t allow it to be fatal.
Brian Pruett: [01:12:29] It doesn’t define you. And as John Maxwell book talks about fail forward. Yeah, you know, it’s awesome. So the one thing I like to do too, I think that we’ve gotten away from and I’m sure this a few weeks ago is just the simple. Thank you. So, Kathy, thank you for what you do for the seniors. Ken, thank you for sharing and providing an example of following your passion and your dreams. And Gary, thank you for what you do for the community. Oh, thanks for having me.
Gary Lamb: [01:12:50] Thanks for.
Kathy Springer: [01:12:51] Having us.
Brian Pruett: [01:12:51] So everybody out there listening, let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.
BRX Pro Tip: 4 Tips to Leverage AI
/
RSS Feed
BRX Pro Tip: 4 Tips to Leverage AI
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, today’s topic, leveraging AI.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:09] Yeah. If you haven’t been playing around with the ChatGPT of the world, various AI kinds of platforms that are out there, you’re really missing out and I really highly recommend you go in there and see what they can do and how they can best serve your business.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] But a couple of easy ways to leverage AI right now at this early, early kind of iteration of this powerful tool is for first drafts, for content creation, it is just a super way to just kind of ask the AI for a draft of whatever you’re trying to write, and it will create a first draft for you that you can edit and build off of and you’ll see you’re going to get a lot more work, creative work done a lot faster by having them help you out with that first draft.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:55] A second way to leverage AI is research. You can do basic research on topics of interest just by asking for resources, articles, videos that are relevant to what you’re researching.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] A third way to leverage AI in your writing is headline options. Ask your Ask the AI engine for ten different headlines for a piece of content you created or titles for a video you made. It’ll spit out a bunch of different titles and you can use them or combine them or use it as a thought-starter for your own headline.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:31] And there are so many more AI tools out there that are using ChatGPT or are competing with ChatGPT. And right now that I know off the top of my head, you can look at different AI tools for specific tasks such as graphic design, proofreading, summarizing, music, sales, time management, transcription, video editing. It can even create a brand new video just by giving it a prompt and asking it to create a video that looks like a couple of different people that you like. It is crazy how powerful it is today and we are just scratching the surface of the beginning. We are at the beginning of the beginning and it’s only going to get that much more powerful. So, dive in, dip your toe, just check it out because it’s coming and there’s nothing that’s going to stop it.
The Rome Floyd Chamber Show – Lisa Smith, Executive Director of Georgia’s Rome Office of Tourism
/
RSS Feed
BRX Pro Tip: African Proverb for Entrepreneurs
/
RSS Feed
BRX Pro Tip: African Proverb for Entrepreneurs
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, you’ve come across some wisdom from the other side of the world lately, haven’t you?
Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] Yeah, this is something I’ve heard about. I never knew that this was an African proverb, but I think it pertains to entrepreneurs really well. The proverb is, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:26] I think that successful entrepreneurs that make the transition from doing everything themselves to delegating to others is kind of the way to go. And you have to understand if when you delegate, when you build a team, when you kind of have people around you that you’re not going to get the exact same work done in the way, exact way you would like it to be done, or if you would do it yourself and you think that, you know what, it’ll be better and faster if I just do it myself.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:56] But over the long haul, that’s just not true. Because you’re not investing your time in the work that really matters. As soon as you have tasks that you can delegate, you should be delegating it. That is the only way you can lead well. So take the leap. Involve others on your journey. Share your mission with others who think like you and believe what you believe. Then, see how far you all can go together. And that’s what we’re doing at Business RadioX. We’re looking for others so we can serve more people together.
BRX Pro Tip: No Such Thing as Multitasking
/
RSS Feed
BRX Pro Tip: No Such Thing as Multitasking
Stone Payton : [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, what strategies do you lean on to help you multitask?
Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] I don’t multitask. There has just been recent research from MIT that says that human brains are wired to just do one cognitively demanding thing at a time. And what’s happening when most people think they are multitasking is really called task switching. You’re just kind of toggling between a variety of tasks and you’re not really doing any one of them well as well as you could be if you were focusing in on them. You’re just kind of bouncing between them individually and thinking that you’re doing them all simultaneously. But sadly, when you’re bouncing between these tasks, that means you’re less creative and far more likely to make mistakes than if you were just locked in on one of those individual tasks and focusing solely on that.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] So next time, instead of multitasking, try removing all your distractions and just lock into one task at a time. Give it 100% of your effort rather than trying to get several things done at the same time. And then, when you completed that task, move on to the next one. You’ll see you’ll be more effective, you’ll get a better result, and it actually will take you less time.
