From Passion Project to Profit: Unleash Your Inner Entrepreneur

0:00It's like Microsoft missing the internet, Google missing social. it's classic innovators dilemma, but the challenge, what Apple had going for it is there was another killer product on the horizon that they could launch. And if it's not the Vision Pro goggle things, it's obviously not the car because they've said they're killing it. Like what else is there? At some point you can only affix so many other devices to your body.

0:32hey everybody roland fraser and ryan dice here with another episode of business lunch ryan how you doing today i'm doing amazing although i did not just get back from uh a norwegian adventure seeing uh french kissing wolves and uh watching the northern lights uh you did however so uh number one happy birthday um that was that was your birthday That was your big boy birthday trip. But how was Norway? Norway was amazing. I would definitely go back. Love the country. Love the people. Easy to be there. Pretty much everybody spoke English, which, you know, is good and bad. But the people were really friendly.

1:11The food was great. Everything was really high quality. I was really like the quality of, you know, the food and the buildings and everything. It was just it was really well done, well organized place. And the scenery there, you know, being on the coast and having all of the coolness of that, plus the Viking culture, plus the mountains and snow. It was it was awesome. I would highly recommend it. my wife had wanted to go through the fjords forever and we didn't want to do it on a big commercial boat but we did want to be on a boat because i think it's much better to be down in there than it is on the sides and uh so we we rented a boat and uh we were there for you make it sound like you like got a rowboat with like a trolling motor like you had like a freaking yacht with like a private chef and a masseuse and all this stuff on it so okay yes we had a ship not a boat.

2:06Okay. Yes. But anyway, it was really cool because we were able to go down all the little fingers and see lots of cool things, but only a fraction of it. And then this year, the Northern Lights were apparently some of the best in generations and the best that is going to be for a while. So we were smack dab in the middle of that. And while we really only had about three nights that we got to see it when we were up north enough, uh, when we went up over the Arctic circle. And, um, but my goodness, it's, it's something to see. And it's, it's, it's, you just kind of stand there like, you know, wow, that that's, and, and take it in and you can't possibly, even though you get great pictures of it and everything, you just can't possibly convey how cool and the magnitude of it, which is fun.

2:59But then you sent me the pictures in the video and I knew I was like, this is amazing. And I know that it's maybe a 10th of what it is. Like anybody who's traveled, like if you go to the, like the Grand Canyon, you know what I mean? It's a generic example where you take a picture and you go and you look at it and you're like, it's definitely a picture, but that's not what I saw. Yeah. I remember in it, like for any outdoor thing, like Africa, Grand Canyon, wherever you are. And I remember even I was in Brazil by myself on that Cristo, is it Sugarloaf or something like that, where the big Christ statue is.

3:31And I was standing there taking a picture of it. And I looked at my picture on my camera and I looked back up at it and I was just like, it's like that probably more than any other time hit me. I was like, how can you just, why can't the camera get this? You know, but it doesn't. So yeah, it was, something. And not to be too old man yelling at the clouds, because that's true. And yet, when you think about the way that most people are experiencing life, they're experiencing life with their phone up in front of their face, trying to get the picture. And it's really kind of sad. They're out there experiencing, and it's one thing to lift up and say, I'm going to take a picture of this, but there are people who will basically experience an entire concert with their phone in front of their face.

4:14And so they're basically looking at what somebody else is looking at. Like their kids events. That one, when I, uh, I had nieces and nephews that were like really young and they were on the hockey travel team and stuff like that. And all the parents are there capturing every moment, which I don't think they're ever going to watch. Um, but they weren't like, you know, in the reality of the thing. So, so yeah, I agree with you. Yeah. So sit back, go, go someplace cool. And just maybe, maybe watch that quick pic so you can remember the place. So it shows up as a memory on your phone or, you know, you post it to Facebook or the or something like that, but try to just bask in it.

4:46It'll be interesting to me to see. I got the, is it Vision Quest? Whatever the Apple thing is. Yeah, Apple Vision. I don't think it's Quest. I think it's Apple Vision. I got it and I tried it and it's really cool. And I like the mixed reality component of it, but it didn't really have anything yet. But my hope is, because I found it to be very comfortable compared to the Quest or whatever the other ones that I've got are. And it was definitely more cool, of course, because it's Apple, but also just like it was comfortable. The head thing and everything, I didn't know. It messes up your hair, but I don't really care.

5:29And I've got to think that that is probably going to capture these big things like to allow you to experience and much, much more like they really are. So it'll be kind of fun to see what happens with it. I was kind of disappointed though, because I put it on and I played with the things that were in the app store and then it was like, okay, that's it. So I don't know. That was, well, you know what, a month ago when it came out, but it'll be interesting to see if they evolve that somewhat because it was really cool, but it was also not particularly useful. It's one of those things, everybody talked about it for the first like week or two and now nobody is.

6:07I'm hoping that it sticks around long enough for the technology to get good enough for the form factor to shrink down enough so that it becomes a thing. But my fear is that Apple is going to bail on it. And yeah, they're pretty in it. You think so? I don't know, man. They're, I mean, their, their growth is stalling out. I think people are getting a little bit, they, you know, they killed the car. Do you see Apple killed the Apple car? They finally officially announced what everybody knew to be true, which is we have a car. We've been working on it. It's like they announced officially that they had it only to then say, and we're killing the project.

6:46And sort of like they did that mirroring a little bit of what Zuckerberg did when Zuckerberg said, hey, we're going to start investing less in the whole metaverse concept and putting a lot more into AI. And they were rewarded with much higher stock valuations. And so there's some speculation that maybe that's what Apple was doing with the car. And it didn't really seem to do much. I think also Apple, like Google, got caught with their pants down a bit. They were far ahead of the curve with Siri back in the day and then just dropped the ball completely. And then it's like, oh, this AI thing. Huh, it's a thing.

7:19It's like Microsoft missing the internet, Google missing social. It's classic innovators dilemma. But the challenge, what Apple had going for it is there was another killer product on the horizon that they could launch. And if it's not the Vision Pro goggle things, it's obviously not the car because they've said they're killing it. Like, what else is there? At some point, you can only affix so many other devices to your body. I mean, it seems to me like it's a TV. Like, everybody has one. The Apple TV, I think it's number four now, is fantastic. but it's, God, they just destroyed the user interface recently.

7:59It was really great. Now it's like, you have to go to the store for this. And then you're like, why? And then you click the store and you're at the store. And who thought of that? Like who thought that was a good idea to change from what they had anyway? Um, the, uh, but, but everybody's, you know, everybody's got a TV or two or three. And, um, and so to me, why the hell don't you do with that? What you did with the iPhone because they're still terrible. And you're, you know, now you've got, you've got all these TVs that have all these apps on them, but they're not the right app store. You know, it's, it's, it should just, Apple should just do a TV and they would sell billions of them, you know?

8:36No, you're right. Everybody craps on the TV. They're like, Oh, it's all about, it's all about the, you know, the small, you know, it's all about the screen. Nobody's watching TV anymore, except yeah, they are. Everybody's got it. And we're all still watching them. So we've got both, I don't know that they know how, man. I don't know that they know how they know. Everybody has the big TV and everybody in the room has also got the small thing. You know? Yeah. I don't know. And this is a culture thing, right? I don't know that Apple has the same culture of innovation that they once had. You know, it's when you think about all businesses do three things.

9:07They make stuff, they sell the stuff they make, and they fulfill the stuff they sold. And any business is going to be defined. And their core value chain is going to be defined by one of those three things. Obviously, Amazon is primarily defined by their fulfillment abilities. The fact that you buy anything, we can get it to you. Certainly, I mean, there's companies that are very much defined by, for better or worse, their ability to sell stuff. That's the one that eventually isn't as long lasting. The, but the ability to innovate, the ability to come up with new product ideas, that was really what made Apple from day one.

9:48Like it was always about that. And yet you just, you haven't really seen it. And I, it's been run by obviously a very competent CEO and Tim Cook, but not, not a creative, not a bastion of innovation. um so we'll see i don't know i don't i'm not uh an apple shareholder because i don't hold a lot of public stocks but uh i don't know i'd be nervous i'd be nervous i see him killing the car it's like uh they've decided that that they're gonna back off of that innovation i think the only thing that keeps them in the in the vision for an extended period of time if it's not working in the short term is that they can point at that and say look renovating renovating but i think the car was actually a smart move though because i i don't i and maybe they did but like car play being the operating system for a car to me is a way better way to go than to have to have plants and you know you know if they're electric cars then you've got to have a battery plant and all this other stuff i think rather than getting into that tremendous hole of uh you know, a money hole that, that, or money pit, I guess it is.

10:57Um, I think that being the company that can sell and license the technology to everybody is smart and, and that they will, that like, if you think about the operating system to the manufacturers of computer hardware, I think if Apple can be that in the car space, that's a better place for them. Cause I like car play, but it could certainly be better. And it could certainly do a lot more systems wise to the rest of the car. And maybe that could empower a lot of people who aren't making cars now to know that that's all taken care of, license that. And now you've got car clones like you had PC clones back in the day.

11:32It'd be interesting to see. Yeah. I do think this wasn't what I was planning on talking about today, by the way. I think it's a good discussion though. And so if we're going to say like action itemy, I think it's important to ask yourself, what is the primary kind of value driver, where does the value in your business rest today? Does it rest on your ability to create and always have the newest, latest, greatest stuff? So are you more innovation-driven? Is your value driven primarily by your ability to market and sell better than everybody else in your category? I know we've owned companies where we had an advantage there.

12:07I do think that's the first one that goes away because it's public by nature, right? When you're doing your marketing advertising, you're doing it up for all to see. So it's easily, easily knocked off, but maybe it's that, or is it fulfillment? Is your customer experience perspective so amazingly great that that's where the value really, you know, rests in your business. I think asking yourself, where is it today? And where do we think it should be tomorrow? And making sure you're double, doubling down on that area is important. Cause if you find that like, oh, we're not particularly great at any one of these three areas, then boy, you're, you're going to get disrupted.

12:43Like it's just, it's going to happen. It may take a while if you're Apple, but it's going to happen. Anywho, I want to talk about something different. Well, actually let's follow up on that. Cause we're, I think 11 or 12 minutes in. So this, this, this I think can be its own episode. And then we'll talk about the other stuff, but kind of going back to what you were just saying, you and I were talking as we were catching up pre turning on the record button about that in our businesses as well. So we, we create and invent and hopefully innovate and, uh, put our stuff out there. And then lots of other people start doing those things too.

13:21And then everybody's doing and saying the same thing. Um, and I was talking with you about, like, I look, I got back from really not looking at work stuff for pretty much almost a month. And then looking at my emails and I'm like, you know, it's all very, very, very similar. Dare I read them live? Let's see. Like if I go to it, and maybe they'll be far more interesting now. But I've got, let's see.

14:00Get into the right account. Let's see. I've got money stuff. Silence is not security. And marketing brew. And final spots closing soon in Josh Marston's program. And Black Swan, how to talk to companies and read them for negotiations. and James Camp, win a profitable niche website and David's prompt master, follow this simple path to success and on and on and on. And sometimes it's really funny. Sometimes I read that stuff and I can't read everyone fast enough because I'm like voraciously trying to consume everything there is about something. And sometimes like right now, I look at that stuff and I'm like, yeah, that's all just so much the same stuff.

14:55There's nothing new. They're all saying the same thing. They're all selling the same thing. How do you get out of that to rise above the noise? Or is that just me coming back from vacation and being grumpy because I don't want to look at it right now? What do you think about that? I think the way that you're viewing it coming back from vacation is the way that we should assume all of our prospects and customers are viewing our stuff at all times, right? Because you have far more patience and tolerance for marketing and for sales messaging and for new ideas because we're in the business of figuring out what's working right now.

15:34So we can get a little meta with it. We can be like, oh, you know, I don't necessarily care about this, but I like the way they did it. That's not normal. But that's not normal. Like, you know, we're weird from that perspective. So no, I think what you're getting is a glimpse, a better picture of what everybody else is experiencing at all times. And that's why I don't believe that over time, the advantage is not on the sales and marketing piece. It is if you do one thing differently than what everybody else does, because what you're talking about there is emails. And look, we're guilty of this as well.

16:11Emails and messaging that are all about the ask. You know, look at this thing because I want you to click a link because I want you to go to the forum, give me money or fill out a form and talk to somebody who will then ask you to give me money. It's all heavily transactional. There are very few messages that brands are paying. And that's an important distinction, paying to put out into the ether that are truly designed to just give value. And value takes on a lot of things. It could be entertainment, it could be content, But most of the time, we're not making those investments. Some brands are.

16:47And this can be everything from the funny Super Bowl commercial that makes us laugh to paying to amplify really good, high-quality content that just makes people go, holy crap, that's awesome. But there's not much of that going on out there. And I think there's not much because it's not trackable from an ROI perspective. It's not immediately measurable. You don't see it coming in. I think everybody right now is scared because the government isn't giving away free money anymore. Interest rates are higher than they were. People aren't spending as much as they were. And so now we're getting more demanding that our sales and marketing produce the immediate results.

17:29So people aren't investing in relationships anymore. The way to look different is to do just that, but most people don't have the courage of the cash flow or the cash reserves to pull it off. I wonder how you do it in email because like you can definitely, I see on YouTube, it's, I pretty much spent most of my internet time while I was traveling on YouTube because it's much, much more value driven and more personalized. Even though it's mass communications, it's more like a sharing of things. And I think X or Twitter can be like that as well. even though I find it a little bit harder to find the value there.

18:16There's a ton of smart people there. It's just I haven't yet really got, how do I organize those tweet storms and things like that into usable things without it taking a lot of my time? But YouTube for sure, a 10, 20, 40 minute video where I'm learning, feel like the person's sharing some of their personality with me and I can relate to them and I'm getting some value from it. that's, that's pretty easy. And if I look at the titles of those videos, they're, you know, they're pretty good. Um, but then I go to the email and it's just, it, it doesn't, it doesn't hit me the same way. And I, I, can it, do you think?

18:57Yeah. We forget that email was the very first social media platform, you know, it became, what are we doing wrong? Or what do we do? Cause, cause I don't think we're, you know, horribly off from that or is, cause it can also just be right audience, right time, you know, as well. And I'm just not the right audience for myself right now, you know, or our stuff, you know, our world, because I've, you know, I've had so much of it. I feel like I'm pretty up to speed with all of it. So the value, maybe it's just that the marginal additional value isn't as great as I need it to be right now or something like that.

19:31I don't know. Yeah, I think it's going to, I think a lot of it depends on what you're asking from the person who's sending. So if take email newsletters, which have been all the rage for the past, you know, a couple of years, and, you know, arguably, when everybody's got them, and everybody's sending them, you know, they get devalued along with everything else. But an email newsletter that is actually really, really good that you genuinely want to read that feels like a packaging sort of like a YouTube video, that's just, ah, this is valuable, like, and it delivers value consistently. And it's sent to me, I didn't have to go and find it.

20:03And so I looked forward to this and I appreciate it. There are some people who, you know, if, if, if I see their, their newsletter in my inbox, I'm going to read it. Now, even then though, a lot of them, depending on the niche that they're in, if I'm not as interested in that at this moment, well then I'm not, but that's okay. Right. The same thing would happen with YouTube channels. There are other people who, you know, I know them and we have conversations via email. And so they send me an email and I open it because I know the person. I think the ultimate sign of an effective email strategy is that the subject line is fundamentally irrelevant to the open rate.

20:45You see the from field and you know that person consistent or that brand consistently delivers value. I like that. That's a good observation. Yeah. And so if you just go and look for you, like put yourself in the mind of your customer and say, all right, I'm my customer. And to the extent that you are, then cool, that works. But to say, look at your own inbox and say, what are the emails that I just opened because of who's in the front field and what are they doing? And if you ask that question, I think you're going to it'll inform a far better strategy than anything that you're going to read in any book.

21:20Yeah, I like it. I like it. Nice. Well, I feel like we had a kind of a good catch up podcast this time. Just talk about a lot of different stuff and, uh, and, uh, hope you guys enjoyed that and got some value. And if not, that's okay. Cause sometimes at lunch, you just talk about stuff. So that's what we did today. Um, but we hope that you enjoyed it. If you did like it, please share it with other people. If you didn't then listen to the next one, because it'll probably be even better. And, um, I think that's it for today, Ryan, anything else you want to share? Yeah. Sounds great. Welcome back.

21:51Glad you're here. And again, happy birthday. All right. We'll see you guys next time.

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