Sales & Cigars | Colin Hirdman on Entrepreneurship, Authenticity, and the Power of Networking | Episode 187

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Hey everyone, Walter Crosby with Helix Sales Development, your host of Sales and Cigars.

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Today's episode was a lot of fun talking to a cigar guy.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm talking to a guy that's a true entrepreneur.

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_03]: He started his first business out of college like two weeks later.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_03]: He's been running a business since 2007 with his buddies.

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_03]: His name is Colin Hirdman and they've got three companies and we talk a little bit

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_03]: about his journey but we talk a little bit about cigars.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_03]: But he's got a company that if you have any interest at all around LinkedIn and ways to use it as a tool

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_03]: to help you generate a community, generate business, go grab a cigar, grab a cocktail, strap in for

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_03]: another impactful episode of Sales and Cigars. Thanks.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_03]: So Colin, appreciate you taking some time. Welcome to the program.

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_03]: We've been looking forward to this conversation.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, as have I, Walter. Thanks so much. Really appreciate you having me on.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_03]: So I like to open up with, you know, is there a book that you gift or you reread on a regular basis?

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the book that's really had a wonderful impact on me as an entrepreneur and also as

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: a salesperson is The Go Giver. And I have given that book out.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I have the hard copy, hard cover as well as the audio book. So it's something I like to

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: re-listen to as well and just be in that giver mindset. I think that's really important this

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: day and age as nobody really wants to be sold. They, and so if you go into that giver mindset

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_01]: it really makes sales and growing your business a lot easier.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, ultimately we're helping people if we're doing sales right and giving information

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_03]: and educating them. You know, we're not in the 1950s anymore. And I saw a post today on LinkedIn

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_03]: from Anthony that just was like, stop using 1950s techniques and today because, you know,

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_03]: like you said, people don't want to be sold. They want to make sure that they're making

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_03]: a good decision. And if we have the right product for them, we should be able to do that.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_03]: If we don't have a fit, we should be honest and say, it's not a fit and give them some

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_03]: guidance to go someplace else or be a resource. That's a new one. Nobody's

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_03]: offered up that book and been asking that question for about six months.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Sure. Yeah, that's cool. It's a great read. It's easy to understand and it's done in story format

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and really brings the points home on how you need to be as a salesperson and as a business

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_03]: owner. Awesome. So as a business owner, you've got an interesting story. Why don't you just

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_03]: take us on a little journey, help us understand how you got to where you are.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_03]: You've had some lots of businesses, exits, growths. You've been doing it for a while with

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_03]: some fun people. So share your story a little bit and then we'll get into some details.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, sounds great. So yeah, I fell into entrepreneurship really. I graduated college with

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_01]: criminal justice degree and I never used it. I never took a business class, accounting class,

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_01]: marketing class in college and a week after I graduated from college, I started my first

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_01]: company. So I have never made a resume and I've just been making it up ever since. And the

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: first business that I started, I had that for a little over a decade and ended up selling

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: that business. It was a marketing communications company. Started off as a direct mail business,

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_01]: morphed into doing email marketing and web design and customer development once

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_01]: the internet really started to take hold. And yeah, as I transitioned out of that business,

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_01]: it was just pretty much serendipity to buddies of mine that I grew up with. One was moving

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_01]: back to Minneapolis from Uruguay. He had been down there for a decade. And another one was

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_01]: helping transition a children's publishing company into a sale and kind of working himself

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_01]: out of a job. So the three of us got together, this was in 2007, and we're like,

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_01]: let's start something. And so we did. We created Monkey Island Ventures, which is our

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: holding company. And Monkey Island is the name of a park that the three of us used to play at

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_01]: when we were kids. So we've all known each other since we were about five years old.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's been really a wonderful thing to be in business with those guys. And we came up with

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_01]: some kind of the, we call them like the five Fs around friendship, finances, family,

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_01]: freedom and fun. So those are the five Fs that we live by. And I would say, you know,

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: being in business with each other has gone really, really well. We've always put our

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: personal relationships ahead of our businesses. We also know that the most business decisions you

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: make aren't going to make or break your business. So if one of us feels, you know, really strongly

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: about something and the other two are kind of more meh, then we'll try it. So we've failed

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_01]: more than we've succeeded. We've started a lot of software as a service companies. We

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_01]: did a Kickstarter and launched a smart water meter that we got funded through Kickstarter,

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_01]: built that. We have a digital marketing company. We have a software development company.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And we have a new service we can talk about called Rainmaker a little further on in the

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: discussion. But yeah, the three of us have been in business. We employ about 40 people.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, just really have loved kind of the entrepreneurial path and what it's been able to

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_03]: give to us as founders. Hey, everyone. Walter Crosby, your host of Sales and Cigars. I just

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_03]: want to give you a heads up that next month we're going to do a series of episodes on

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_03]: prospecting. We're going to cover all of the basics, all the fundamentals, the things that

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_03]: are going to help make your sales team be consistent hunters. What are the prospecting

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_03]: tactics? What are the things that we know that work, right? So how do we get prepared to do this?

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to go through all of this in four episodes. They're going to be just me. I'm

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_03]: going to be talking fast. I'm going to be talking about what we know works, what we

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_03]: know has worked for a long time and probably what your sales team isn't doing. So if you're

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_03]: a sales manager, if you're a sales person, if you're a sales leader or a business owner who

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_03]: wants to help your sales team, these episodes will be short and to the point and they will

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_03]: be helpful. Go grab a cocktail, grab a cigar and tune in for those upcoming episodes. Thank you.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_03]: What's funny is, I mean, you've started something right out of school. A lot of respect for that.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_03]: But at this point, you're pretty much unemployable by somebody, right? You've been

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_03]: doing this stuff on your own, working with your buddies and just following your path.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_03]: I love that. Run through the five F's again, because I think that will really...

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_03]: I have a lot of folks that are EO members and run EOS. When I ask them, what are you doing this

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_03]: for? What's the end game? What are you trying to accomplish? And I hear words similar to what

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_03]: you said. So can you run through those again one more time for the audience?

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. So it's family, it's finances, it's freedom, it's fun and...

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Put pressure on you.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you are. So...

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Family, finance, freedom, fun.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep. I'll pick the other one.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_03]: But that idea of freedom...

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, well, yeah. I guess the one that we missed is the most obvious one. Friendship.

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. And you put that first. But the idea of freedom to me, if you're running a business,

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_03]: you're entrepreneurial, you're a business owner, however you want to couch it.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_03]: The end game is to have some freedom to do all of the other F's.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Have the freedom to take a day to go do this, take a long weekend to go do that,

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_03]: have the resources to go do the thing that you've always wanted to do,

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_03]: and know that you can come back to your business and it's going to be there,

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_03]: it's going to be operational. To me, that's the definition of freedom.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_03]: So I mean, those are great. They're not really core values. They're just like guiding

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_03]: lights for you and your pals, right?

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And let's be honest, being an entrepreneur when you're kind of the only

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_01]: one that owns a company, owns a business, it can be really lonely at the top. And if

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_01]: you don't have someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to share the highs and lows of

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: going through growing a company, it's a tough spot to be in. Really tough. So having that

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: built into the business with people that I know I can trust down to their core has been

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_01]: instrumental in my success but also just in my enjoyment of life and in growing these

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_01]: businesses.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_03]: The, I have a couple of clients who they run their business with a friend, right? Some of them

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_03]: have been friends since they were kids. Some of them have been friends since college. But

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_03]: I've always thought of that as there's pluses and minuses to it. Everybody's got to be

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_03]: able to put the hat on that they need to put on and then be able to take it off and then go

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_03]: have a beer and deal with that. And I think that takes maturity. I think it takes clarity of

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_03]: roles and agreement, an operating agreement. It's like, how are we going to do this?

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Those five Fs give you some structure to work with, a framework. Is there anything that you

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_03]: see as a negative there? That being with three of your friends day in and day out?

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_01]: No. No, I've been in business with them, with the two of them since 2007. So I've had plenty

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_01]: of years. We've had plenty of struggles. We've closed down businesses. We've started

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: there for me to really have time to reflect. And no, with those two, nope, there's not a negative.

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_03]: It's going in with that solid relationship. The trust has to be there, the ability to

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_03]: communicate. I'll go back to what you said. Being a CEO is lonely because you can't always

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_03]: share what you're thinking with your team, even your lieutenants, right? The core leadership

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_03]: team. If you're doubting yourself, you don't necessarily want to share that. There's

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_03]: transparency, but there's still, and then bouncing ideas off of other people,

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_03]: having that core group, a mastermind is what Carnegie used to call it. But you have your

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_01]: own little mastermind within your companies. Yes. Yep. Yeah. No, it's great. It doesn't

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_01]: rely on outside mentors or that you don't heavily rely on employees to give input,

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_01]: this, that and the other. But at the end of the day, knowing you could talk literally about

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_01]: anything, family, talk about the businesses, we're very, very supportive of each other.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And I would imagine that especially with younger generations where being more empathetic

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and open and honest is our virtues that are, I think really appreciated more than they were

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_01]: even when I was young. That I would encourage more people to think about going into business

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_01]: with their friends. They just need to go into it eyes wide open, make sure that they know

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_01]: what the priorities are and understand what each other's roles are going to be. And that can

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_01]: shift in change over time too. So, you know, I used to be the president of a Guring,

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: our digital marketing company. And about two and a half years ago, I left that position

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and Josh took over. So there's, you know, it's, it's, you just have to be open to a lot

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_01]: of different scenarios and just have frank conversations and just know that you're there

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_03]: to support each other and to have everyone win. But I think that a lot of people talk

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_03]: about being open and honest and transparent and we're friends, but when push comes to shove,

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_03]: you know, you're in a moment, you do have to be able to take that step back. It's like,

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_03]: maybe he's right. You know, maybe that thing that he said is true and being able to work

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_03]: through that. I had a partner that we started a business together and we grew it pretty quickly

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_03]: and it was fun right up until it wasn't. And we sort of reached this impasse,

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_03]: empath. And I think a lot of it had to do with immaturity on both our parts.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_03]: We didn't want the same things out of the business. And I think we didn't do a good job

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_03]: of creating that agreement on the front end. And I'm not talking about putting it on paper,

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just like, what do you want out of this? And I wanted to grow

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_03]: fast and be growth oriented and turn it into something that was saleable or that we could

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_03]: manage and just not necessarily be in it every day. And we just said we had different

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_03]: objectives and mine wasn't right and his wasn't wrong. That's not how I'm looking at it.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_03]: It's just that we weren't aligned and we should have had that figured out in advance.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_03]: So I think if you're really going out and you're looking at doing a business with somebody,

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_03]: I think there's lots of advantages to it. Because it's lonely and you've got to be

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_03]: having an idea like, is this a dumb idea? And then you throw it on the table and then

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_03]: the guy or gal look at you like, yeah, that's really crazy. And here's why. Like okay,

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_03]: right? And you need to be able to hear that. But if you're not going at the same place

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_03]: you're not growing together, it's kind of like a marriage. Yeah, very much so.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Communication needs to be there. But you need to grow together and recognize that

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_03]: that's not something I want to do, but it's okay for somebody to go explore that sport or go

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_03]: explore that hobby without the other one. But I think it's really clarity on the front side

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_03]: of it is going to help. It sounds like you guys had that in spades.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, we did. And we kind of leaned into going into business together in ways that we started

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_01]: building stuff, getting traction and really went into it I think eyes wide open. And again,

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_01]: when we started the business we had already had decades of experience knowing each other.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and experience in business, which also helps. Knowing what you're getting into.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_03]: And having sales and operational experience, which is all important. So I think one of the

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_03]: businesses that you have that you've started, we can talk about that because I think there's

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_03]: some value in there for every time I get together with a group of people, they're always

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_03]: looking for ways to create a network, create opportunities, create leads. But they don't have

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_03]: a really good structure. The idea is there but they don't have the means. And I think you

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_03]: might have some ideas for folks to talk through and then we can talk about the business and how

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_03]: they might get ahold of you. So let's read me.

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so like I said we have our digital marketing company. So I've been doing digital

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_01]: marketing myself for probably close to 15 years now. And then we have Cloudburst,

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: which is our software development company where we're working with founders or entrepreneurs

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_01]: to build software. So when I left as president of Agurian, my focus was

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_01]: very much so on building a software product for half of my time and the other half of my time

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: was working with Cloudburst clients and helping them once their software is built, they need

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_01]: to market the software, they need to drive people to the landing pages or to the website

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and start generating revenue. So, you know, and we of course have built our own products,

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_01]: software products for ourselves. So the last five years I've spent a lot of time doing

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of growth hacking in email and on LinkedIn. Well, probably five months ago,

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I was just talking to my business partners, I'm like, this kind of

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_01]: LinkedIn is really doing well. And I said, I think a lot more founders,

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: salespeople, business coaches could utilize a service on LinkedIn because I was having

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_01]: really, really good success. So the last four or five months, I have started to stand up

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_01]: a service called Rainmaker. And what I'm doing essentially is I'm taking the manual tasks that

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_01]: you do on LinkedIn and I'm automating those. So I call it authentic automation. So the number one

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_01]: thing that everyone needs to remember when they're on LinkedIn is nobody wants to be sold.

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. The second thing people need to remember is being authentic. And you need to be authentic

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_01]: in two ways. Number one, you need to be authentic to who you are as a person, right?

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Which means you need to speak in, you know, the language in which you normally communicate.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. So you don't want to try and be someone that you're not on LinkedIn,

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_01]: you need to be who you are. The second thing is you also need to be authentic then to your brand.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Whatever brand you're representing, you need to also reflect that brand and be authentic

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_01]: to that brand's voice as well. So what I've essentially, you know, come up with is

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: looking at these manual actions that everybody wants to be taking and should be taking and

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_01]: automating those in ways that, you know, are literally happening on the LinkedIn account.

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing is happening outside of LinkedIn. And so some of the things that, you know,

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_01]: your audience could think about if they want to grow their network and grow leads and sales

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: on LinkedIn, is there some strategies that I've implemented that have worked out really,

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_01]: really well? And I can go over a few of those and your audience could literally begin

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_01]: implementing these as soon as they hear them. So Ryan, I appreciate you taking some time

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_03]: to jump on the program here. I wanted to kind of explain to people what they're probably

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_03]: seeing is a little, well, they're not probably, they're definitely seeing a new look and feel

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_03]: for sales and cigars. And I wanted to kind of do the Wizard of Oz thing, the guy behind the

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_00]: curtains. Well, I appreciate you having me and yours was one of the favorite ones that we've

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_00]: designed near and dear to my heart. So I mean, we have a crew that does it, but I personally did

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_03]: the stuff for your show. So thank you for having me on. The connection there is yours is

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_03]: you do like a group thing in person. Is it scotch and cigars or? Yes, it's cigars and

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_00]: scotch. It's a little bit opposite of yours. And it's a networking group for entrepreneurs.

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It's basically an excuse to drink at 3.30 on a Thursday every week. We get together, we share

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_00]: cigars. A lot of us travel. We bring stuff back. We do charity stuff that right there.

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_00]: We throw charity events every year to raise money for locally here. But we have that

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_00]: cigar type culture like you do. And so when you came on board, I'm like, I'm going to do

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_03]: personally. You kind of jumped on that real fast and made it, you know, like it was it felt like

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_03]: you were like you were into it. There was something driving it. And that all makes sense.

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_03]: In the cigar community, I don't all my guests, I always ask that question any relationship with

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_03]: cigars past or present. And, you know, I guess yesterday, Love him. He's been a mentor

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_03]: for 30 years. He's never had a cigar, never wants to have a cigar, doesn't like to be around

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_03]: cigars, which is cool. Right. But what I found is the community of people with cigars, I can go

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_03]: anywhere in this country and some other countries and feel welcome, feel some camaraderie

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_03]: with fellows that I have nothing in common with other than the stick. Oh, a thousand percent.

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't travel so much now, but years past most of my life, I've traveled. And anytime that you

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_00]: find that nice cigar bar or lounge or something like that, you immediately walk in, you grab a

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_00]: cigar and make 17 new friends. That's just the way that it is. Because even if you're

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_00]: from different aspects of life, different industries, different whatever, you'll always

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_00]: bond over the experience of setting down, setting in that lounge, smoking the cigar.

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's one of those things that in travel, I've always loved.

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't matter the demographic either, right? Because sometimes, especially in this country,

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_03]: right, there's people that are sort of align themselves against each other. I was in Miami

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_03]: for a couple of days and we went to two different cigar bars. And I was the minority

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_03]: in each one of them, but it was like I felt totally welcome. We had a good time with the

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_03]: tables before the end of night or talking shit back and forth to each other.

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it was. And the one was the guy was like, well, you're not really a member.

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_03]: I remember what he goes, Well, we have a VIP section back here and he kind of showed us

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_03]: and like, it's freaking empty, dude. We're going to take care of the waitress. We're

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_03]: going to float up on cocktails tonight. And he's like, all right, all right. So he set us up

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_03]: in the back. And the guys that were next to us realized that we weren't going to be

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_03]: in trouble. And he's like, you guys are members. How'd you get in here? Charming personality.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And they bought us a drink because of that cool guys.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the other shifts I'm seeing too, I was recently in Murfreesboro, Tennessee,

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00]: and they have a new cigar bar set up on a corner. And in my travels and not just always,

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_00]: it's more white collar people in the cigar area, stuff like that. The last couple,

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_00]: like you said, I've went to, there was more of a blue collar element, workers, gig workers,

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_00]: factory workers, stuff like that. And I liked that. I thought that was a good shift to that

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_00]: because when you like cigars, you enjoy cigars and you do that, it doesn't really matter what

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_00]: the income bracket or like you said, if they're like you or look like you,

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_03]: you just bond over that thing. Yeah, it's an equalizer. And I don't know, it's a vice,

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_03]: it's expensive hobby. But I don't know, I find it liberating to go anywhere even in Vegas.

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there's so many cigar shops in Vegas that you can hang out at, you can't spend enough

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_03]: time there. So all right, so let's talk a little bit about, I want to get to Titan and how you

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_03]: guys help people, but who, there's a lot of people that think they should have a podcast

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_03]: and God knows there's every asshole in the world has a podcast. And that's to me, the greatest

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_03]: title I have ever heard is a guy in Britain and the title of his podcast is Another Asshole

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_03]: with a Podcast. That's the title. That's a perfect title. Yeah, it is. And I wish

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_03]: I would have thought of it. But so who should be thinking about getting a podcast?

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Who can, how can it help them in business? How can it help them just get stuff off their chest?

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Who's that person? That's a very big question because I think podcasts are like a Swiss army

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_00]: knife. There's multiple, multiple uses for a podcast. So when you're like, who should have

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_00]: one? I'm currently in the middle of filming a new newsletter or series about podcasting.

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And in that we kind of go, I started podcasting in 2010. So kind of on the

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_00]: verge of just when this thing started, when it was like the little brother of audio or

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_00]: little brother of radio and the step cousin of audio books or whatever it was back in the day.

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. And you move on. So before it was people that wanted to be uncensored,

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_00]: unfiltered, or just didn't have the stroke to be on radio. As we move through that and as

[00:27:45] [SPEAKER_00]: it became video podcasting, I mean, we have all these derivatives, like the kids streamers

[00:27:50] [SPEAKER_00]: that live in their mom's basement and make $80 million a year like Mr. Beast is a version

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_00]: of podcasting because that's streaming. So I'm going to narrow and niche this down

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_00]: to business people and in business what you need to look for in podcasts,

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_00]: because it's such a broad topic. When you're in business, if you're a thought leader,

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_00]: an author, if you want to share your stories, if you feel like you have something to teach

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_00]: people, I think that's the number one person that should think about having a podcast because

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_00]: it gives you a long form serialized platform to be able to tell your story, your struggles,

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_00]: your successes while branding your business and who you are. We all know that in business,

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_00]: there's a lot of thought leaders, authors, speakers, speaking events become a thing,

[00:28:33] [SPEAKER_00]: all of those. TEDx, anybody interested in those needs a podcast. They need to do that because

[00:28:40] [SPEAKER_00]: whether like you said, it's getting stuff off your chest, building your brand, doing those

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_00]: things, it puts you face-to-face with your clientele. It puts you face-to-face with your

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_00]: potential customers. It puts you face-to-face with potential business partners. Networking is one of

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_00]: the biggest boons that I've seen in podcasting that just like me and you sitting here doing

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_00]: this, and then if I know a guy, I'll send them to you and back and forth and the networking.

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Any sort of business where you're a leader, thought leader, where you're wanting to project

[00:29:12] [SPEAKER_00]: who you are and what your business does, your podcast is going to be one of the number one

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_00]: that you should have on your repertoire. Now, it doesn't replace your other marketing. It

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_00]: doesn't take over your other marketing, but it's that personal face-to-face with that marketing

[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_00]: and with whoever you want to expand your business with. They really get time to set and know you

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and figure out if you are just another asshole with a podcast or if there's somebody that's

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_00]: worth setting down and taking the time for. Then the second group of people that needs a podcast

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_00]: is just people that want to help people in business. I think that's the biggest thing.

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be a CEO, a thought leader or want speaking events, but let's say that you're

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_00]: niched like I know a lady that has a all about taxes. When I first got into business,

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I screwed up a couple of times in taxes. Thanks IRS for letting me know about that

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and stuff like that. It also lets people understand and gives in a world society that

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_00]: from YouTube podcast stuff like that. If you're an educator in business and that's what your

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_00]: brand is, you should be the second person in line looking for those podcasts.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: We refer things all the time. I listen to podcasts, watch YouTube, look at industry

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_00]: experts, program experts, their podcasts, tech podcasts just to involve my business. That's

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_00]: podcasting because it's not one person doing it. You can always look into that realm and

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_00]: more education, more tips, more ways to grow your business in a lateral sense instead of

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_00]: just listening to a thought leader of people that are common with you and growing your business

[00:30:46] [SPEAKER_03]: that way too. Let me ask you a question. I love the idea of sharing one or two ideas

[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_03]: that somebody could implement. That's value and educating, but there's a ton of tools

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_03]: out there around LinkedIn. They come and go, but it sounds like you've created something that is

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_03]: what if we had the time and the discipline to go do these things, we're not going to upset

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_03]: LinkedIn because they kind of get their panties in a bunch every once in a while if you do

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_03]: that. I get tons of messages on LinkedIn or connection requests. I'll connect, but I know

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER_03]: it's going to be 24 hours or 36 hours before the pitch. I'll politely decline and then if

[00:32:06] [SPEAKER_03]: we're not talking about any of that, we're talking about being giving and being helpful.

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. That's the number one thing that you have to do. Like I said, nobody wants

[00:32:20] [SPEAKER_01]: to be sold on LinkedIn. What you want to do is think about who's the audience that you want

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_01]: to be in front of? Nobody's on LinkedIn just to make friends. People are on LinkedIn

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_01]: because they want to network and that they want to build up their network. Eventually,

[00:32:38] [SPEAKER_01]: they want that to contribute to their income or to revenue or to building some type of community.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_01]: LinkedIn is a business network. People are on there to further their business endeavors

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and whatever that might look like for them. What I talk about, at least with Rainmaker,

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a white glove service. My clients are coming to me because they also want to

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_01]: understand strategies and ensure that they're doing things the right way.

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_01]: The number one thing you want to do is think about your audience and who you want

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_01]: in front of. Who do you want to make connections to? You can use regular LinkedIn for that. You

[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_01]: can also use Sales Navigator for that to start building out these discrete audiences.

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_01]: The other thing that you want to think about then is what value can I bring to them?

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_01]: When I talk about the value, a lot of that falls into education. How can I educate

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_01]: the people that I'm trying to reach out to in ways that I'm bringing value to them?

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Kind of like that go-giver mindset of how can I help you? How can I help this person out?

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_01]: You have to be really open and honest around what does that look like.

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_01]: That's where effort needs to be put in. Have you written a book? Have you written articles?

[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Are there articles that you've seen that your audience would potentially want?

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Are you creating any live streams or webinars? What types of things are you doing

[00:34:23] [SPEAKER_01]: that your audience would want to learn from? That's really where you start to provide the value.

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_03]: If somebody wrote a book and the intent of the book was to help a particular group of

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_03]: owners understand that what they think is their problem really isn't the problem.

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Their problem's over here. It kind of cuts to the chase. That's their problem. You could use

[00:34:55] [SPEAKER_03]: that in this service because you give that book away and you're like, this might help you. Is

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_03]: that the kind of thing you're talking about or is it more complicated?

[00:35:04] [SPEAKER_01]: No, it could be that. Maybe what you're doing is slice and dicing up aspects of the book that

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_01]: you've written or maybe an article that you've written where you're reaching out to this

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_01]: audience to become a first connection. If they connect back with you then maybe you're sending

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_01]: your first message and say, thanks for connecting. Look forward to learning more

[00:35:28] [SPEAKER_01]: about you and you leave it at that. Maybe five or seven days later you do send another

[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_01]: message to that person but that message might be something the effect of I wrote this article

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_01]: on this subject and I thought you might be interested in this specific thing that was

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe a very valid salient point that you know a lot of business owners or your clients

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_01]: find really valuable that you're now sharing with that individual. Or maybe there's an event

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_01]: that maybe you're going to do a live stream to address that pain point where a lot of

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_01]: founders kind of lose their way and you're just letting them know that I have this

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_01]: event coming up next week and I just wanted to invite you to it where maybe you're putting in

[00:36:18] [SPEAKER_01]: the LinkedIn invite. But I think you'd be surprised, across all of my clients right now,

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_01]: we're getting a connection rate between 20 and 50 percent across the board and we're getting a

[00:36:33] [SPEAKER_01]: reply rate of between 10 and 30 percent. And we're reaching out to like 25 people a day,

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Monday through Friday during normal working hours. So again what you're wanting to do is

[00:36:48] [SPEAKER_01]: to leverage LinkedIn the way that you would if you're going to do this all manually but you're

[00:36:54] [SPEAKER_01]: bringing in an element of automation that is still using your authentic voice, you're still

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_01]: bringing value, you're still helping those that you would want to help and further that in a way

[00:37:05] [SPEAKER_01]: that hopefully generates relationships that potentially is going to generate revenue down

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_01]: line. But it is more of kind of the mid to long term game but I can say that

[00:37:18] [SPEAKER_01]: the instant you turn it on, you're going to start getting connections right away,

[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_01]: you're going to start getting replies and it's going to get your mind thinking about other

[00:37:27] [SPEAKER_01]: types of things that you can do on LinkedIn that are a little bit more advanced than what

[00:37:33] [SPEAKER_01]: we've talked about to this point. But LinkedIn is just a wonderful network,

[00:37:39] [SPEAKER_01]: a wonderful platform and more and more people are relying on it all the time.

[00:37:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And the last thing I'll say right here is 90 plus people that go on LinkedIn are lurkers,

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_01]: they're not posting content. So I think you'd be surprised how if you just are somewhat

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_01]: consistent in posting content and if your network is continuing to grow week in week out

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_01]: the impact that you can have. Just today I was in the office and I overheard a conversation with

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_01]: one of my business partners, he was talking to one of our employees and he got a lead from

[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_01]: someone that had seen some of the content that he was posting on LinkedIn and in this

[00:38:23] [SPEAKER_01]: conversation the woman told him that she's seen his content enough that she almost feels

[00:38:27] [SPEAKER_01]: she knows him. And so there is value in spending some time on creating content and getting your

[00:38:36] [SPEAKER_01]: authentic voice out there but if you're using something like Rainmaker or any other tool

[00:38:43] [SPEAKER_01]: to really kind of augment the speed and velocity in which you can create a larger

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_01]: network and then start implementing some of these strategies, I think you'd be surprised

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_03]: at the traction that you could get. I think it is a mid to longer term game

[00:39:01] [SPEAKER_03]: and I think you made some really solid points there, I'm going to try to summarize that

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_03]: it's being authentic in your voice and trying to cheat that with AI tools,

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_03]: right? To get them to just write something and copy and paste. I don't think that works,

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_03]: you really got to be putting your voice into it, your words, speaking the way you think

[00:39:28] [SPEAKER_03]: and being consistent about the topics that you're talking about and what it can't be 27

[00:39:34] [SPEAKER_03]: different things, right? You really need to focus on those few things where you can have

[00:39:40] [SPEAKER_03]: impact. But I think probably the most important thing I heard that I don't think people spend

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_03]: enough time on is creating that, I call it an ideal client profile.

[00:39:54] [SPEAKER_03]: ICP. And then niching that down to a really, really tight group that whenever you're

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_03]: posting something they're going to say yeah, I got that, I might have solved that

[00:40:10] [SPEAKER_03]: orbit, that's an interesting take on it, right? So that everything you do on the platforms

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_03]: speaks to those people and I think people are afraid that if they go too small

[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_03]: that then they're not speaking to enough people and I think it's just the opposite.

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_03]: We really niche it into that ideal persona, that ideal profile, that ICP

[00:40:39] [SPEAKER_03]: that we're really talking to another person and when we write we should be thinking of

[00:40:46] [SPEAKER_01]: that person. Exactly, right. Yes, no, you're exactly spot on and to take it to like almost

[00:40:51] [SPEAKER_01]: of a tactical level with some of the early stage success with Rainmaker is with

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_01]: founders, owners, with business coaches and with sales people. I have created a deck

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and I use this in a live stream that I do once a week on LinkedIn and what I'm doing is I'm

[00:41:11] [SPEAKER_01]: expanding my network out to those three groups but then I will also then tailor my deck and

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_01]: really like 95% of the deck stays the same, the other 5% is just a little bit of nuance

[00:41:25] [SPEAKER_01]: between business coaches, founders and sales people. So now that I have that deck made

[00:41:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I have no more prep so every week I get to do the live stream and I can tailor it to

[00:41:37] [SPEAKER_01]: whichever of those three groups that I wanted to go after that week and then I can use my

[00:41:43] [SPEAKER_01]: audience and I can send invites out to those specific audiences and say, hey I'm doing a

[00:41:49] [SPEAKER_01]: LinkedIn live stream on how to grow your LinkedIn network leads and sales for business coaches

[00:41:54] [SPEAKER_01]: or for founders and you're right when they see that message and they see oh

[00:41:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a founder like this is made for me or I'm a business coach, this is made for me,

[00:42:05] [SPEAKER_01]: you're going to get a lot higher acceptance rate and interest for people that you'll be

[00:42:11] [SPEAKER_01]: targeting. And so the other thing that I'll say and this is a strategy that I am telling

[00:42:16] [SPEAKER_01]: more of my clients to use which is spend some time create whatever that presentation is that

[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_01]: you do on the live stream knowing that you're going to do it for multiple weeks

[00:42:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and you're going to be able to use this one asset over and over again so you don't have to

[00:42:31] [SPEAKER_01]: constantly be creating new content all the time. But the beautiful thing about LinkedIn is it

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_01]: wants to help that content get surfaced and so when you go live on LinkedIn,

[00:42:42] [SPEAKER_01]: LinkedIn is notifying your network with an alert saying you know Colin Hurtman has gone

[00:42:47] [SPEAKER_01]: live and you're going to start attracting people into your live streams beyond the people

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_01]: you invite and you're going to start getting more impressions that way and the other thing

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_01]: that's really valuable is that when your live stream is done you should grab the analytics of

[00:43:03] [SPEAKER_01]: the page to see how many people attended, how many minutes were watched but then go back

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_01]: to that live stream post the recording like a week later on LinkedIn and see what your

[00:43:14] [SPEAKER_01]: analytics look like there. I have gone back the one that I did last week or sorry two weeks

[00:43:19] [SPEAKER_01]: ago when I went to it last week the original live stream I only had like maybe 20-25 minutes

[00:43:25] [SPEAKER_01]: of like a 25-minute live stream that was watched but when I went back I had over three hours of

[00:43:33] [SPEAKER_01]: watch time on the recording so there's a long tail effect that can happen with the content

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_01]: that you're building out if it's relevant into you know a specific group. You can get some

[00:43:46] [SPEAKER_01]: long tail effect with that and yeah I've literally closed clients for our software

[00:43:54] [SPEAKER_01]: company and for the Rainmaker LinkedIn service from doing these live streams.

[00:44:00] [SPEAKER_03]: So that's interesting some people will go back and pay attention. Is there when you're

[00:44:08] [SPEAKER_03]: doing a live stream I'm just curious your thought 15 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes I mean

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_01]: brevity or? Yes I would say this as a digital marketer for the last decade and a half

[00:44:21] [SPEAKER_01]: experiment. See what works what resonates you know try live streams you know try

[00:44:31] [SPEAKER_01]: you know recordings do it at different lengths and if you know you could even if like the

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_01]: presentation that I do is broken up into like three or four different sections you know I

[00:44:44] [SPEAKER_01]: could do a live stream on probably just one of those sections it would only be like you

[00:44:47] [SPEAKER_01]: long so that's the best advice I can give is just to experiment put stuff out there

[00:44:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and you know measure what's working and what isn't. It's like it's test see what's

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_03]: working and do more of what's working and do less of what's not working and keep adjusting

[00:45:07] [SPEAKER_03]: and the faster you do that the faster you dial it in being consistent so I mean I think

[00:45:14] [SPEAKER_03]: those are there's some really solid things that you know salespeople sales leaders CEOs

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_03]: business owners can think about and try to implement but I really love the being

[00:45:27] [SPEAKER_03]: authentic I really love really dialing in who you want to talk to because it if you

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER_03]: do that work to figure out who it is that you really help it's so much easier to do the rest

[00:45:39] [SPEAKER_03]: of it it's so much easier to create content because it's like talking to another person across

[00:45:45] [SPEAKER_03]: from a coffee at a little table so that's solid solid advice so last question Colin

[00:45:54] [SPEAKER_01]: past or present any relationship with cigars? Yeah quite a close relationship actually so

[00:46:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and probably some of my fondest memories even are attached to cigars so I still smoke cigars

[00:46:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll smoke probably one or two a week 95 percent of the time I'm doing that with with my dad

[00:46:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's just a time for us to sit there for an hour hour and a half and you know just

[00:46:22] [SPEAKER_01]: talk about life and yeah more more cigars are smoked in the summer than in the winter here

[00:46:29] [SPEAKER_01]: in Minnesota but yeah just I just find it to be a wonderful kind of escape from normal life

[00:46:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and it just slows you down you're just there you can't finish it any faster than that and

[00:46:46] [SPEAKER_01]: you're kind of just stuck there with that cigar and I just love yeah just the variety of

[00:46:53] [SPEAKER_01]: cigar types and flavors and uh yeah so that's something that I think is something I really

[00:46:58] [SPEAKER_03]: cherish in life. I don't hear enough of that of hanging out with your dad you know whether it's

[00:47:08] [SPEAKER_03]: on the deck or a cigar lounge or just whatever but just that like my dad doesn't smoke cigars

[00:47:17] [SPEAKER_03]: but you know I have a friend who like his his two sons they when they get together whether

[00:47:26] [SPEAKER_03]: it's for dinner or they just they just come over to see their dad it's inevitable that they end

[00:47:35] [SPEAKER_03]: up on the deck smoking a cigar usually some sort of cocktail in their hand and it's it's it's

[00:47:44] [SPEAKER_03]: their time to to reconnect they talk about stuff in the past they talk about the future they

[00:47:50] [SPEAKER_03]: somebody's got a problem it's all vetted in that in that in that moment um it's such a

[00:47:57] [SPEAKER_03]: it's it's it's time and you know and it's the thing that that can put us together so I love

[00:48:04] [SPEAKER_03]: the fact that you do that with your dad. Do you have a place you can hide out in the winter

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_03]: time that uh in a garage or a shed someplace that you can heat up to have one in the winter?

[00:48:13] [SPEAKER_01]: We pretty much just gotta go to a cigar shop yep yep yep don't don't don't have a an indoor

[00:48:18] [SPEAKER_03]: heated yeah private location so yeah. You guys do a lot of ice fishing in um Minnesota you may

[00:48:26] [SPEAKER_01]: not be a fisherman but I am not a fisherman but there is a lot of ice fishing and a lot of

[00:48:31] [SPEAKER_01]: fishing happening all year round here for sure yeah we got well we're the land of 10,000 lakes

[00:48:35] [SPEAKER_03]: right so yeah and ice fishing kind of boggles my mind a little bit um I've always thought of

[00:48:41] [SPEAKER_03]: it as an organized drinking activity blaming the fish but I was I was at a frenzy he

[00:48:49] [SPEAKER_03]: he just coerced me to go um you know there's two of us in this little shanty

[00:48:56] [SPEAKER_03]: and without a lot of ventilation right so that smoke that got filled into that space pretty

[00:49:04] [SPEAKER_03]: oh wow yeah two guys puffing away so we had to actually open the door

[00:49:09] [SPEAKER_01]: which doesn't help with the uh right yeah yeah you got to smoke the cigar faster build up more

[00:49:16] [SPEAKER_03]: heat yeah or just go someplace warm and not sit on ice anyway Colin a lot of great value there

[00:49:25] [SPEAKER_03]: um if somebody's interested in learning more about any one of your companies what's uh I

[00:49:33] [SPEAKER_03]: have your your um your website which one do you want to check on the the the monkey island or

[00:49:42] [SPEAKER_01]: the rainmakers where do you want to go yeah so if you go to monkey island ventures so not

[00:49:47] [SPEAKER_01]: ad ventures but ventures monkey island ventures.com you can see the different companies

[00:49:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and see some of our story and uh yeah if you're interested in rainmaker specifically

[00:49:58] [SPEAKER_03]: it's just rainmakergrows.com yeah but you can navigate from your main site to any of those

[00:50:03] [SPEAKER_03]: companies and learn a little bit more yeah I love it great I love the I love the five f's I love

[00:50:10] [SPEAKER_03]: the authentic language and the niche and down um I love that you're working with your friends

[00:50:15] [SPEAKER_03]: it's awesome so yeah congrats and thank you much