Game Changing Innovation at the Furthr Festival with Conor Carmody: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down the game-changing innovation at the Further Festival. And to drop these via bonsai, I brought to Conor Carmody and to EO Fire Studios. Conor is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience supporting hundreds of startups at Further and leading innovation, emerging tech, and scaling insights through the Further Festival. And today we talk about how balancing your life's yin and yang can lead to lasting success, how the world is always changing and entrepreneurs must keep adapting and staying up to date and oh so much more.

0:39John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Connor and our sponsors. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, if you have a high-ticket offer and need more quality leads, Nexus Install is designed for you. We'll book you 8 to 20 qualified calls each month, then train you to run the system yourself.

1:17John Lee Dumas:Email my team at john at eofire.com to learn more and see if Nexus is the right fit for you. connor say what's up to fire nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with as i think about that question john i think the question has to be defined as what does success mean and i think a lot of people get hung up on it means money or it means a car or it means uh you know status and i actually think we've won life. It's very short in the overall span of time. And I guess I would redefine success and not everyone agrees with that, but it's got to include family.

1:58It's got to include your partner, your kids, your parents, your dog, whatever it is that makes you happy. It's the wellness piece in your life. And I think if you can get the yin and the yang of your life, I think you'll find true success.

2:11John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, wise words from a wise man who's currently coming at me across the Atlantic in Ireland. So we have a little conversation going on across Atlantic as we talk about game-changing innovation at the Further Festival. So let's just start right there, Connor. What the heck is the Further Festival? So one of the things we're trying to do is push people to go further. The name says what it is. And I work for an organization in Dublin, Ireland called further, which supports entrepreneurs. And I know we'll talk about that and entrepreneurship and the journey of being an entrepreneur. And what we're trying to create, what we are creating in Dublin this October is an international conference with about 2000 attendees.

2:59And we're going to try to explore the opportunities, the issues, the big global challenges, and what will make entrepreneurs more successful and we bring together international speakers from from the us we bring them from europe we have across the spectrum we have successful entrepreneurs we have not for profits we have some political input and the point of the day and the purpose of the festival is to say to people if you're building an entrepreneurial organization and you're looking to scale and grow you've got to be at this organization you've got to be at this festival you've got to come along You've got to kind of understand that big global threats, challenges and opportunities.

3:41And let's not forget, John, that Ireland is a small village on the edge of Western Europe. But I will say this, most every one of the big US multinationals, the Googles, the sales forces, they're all work humans. They're all based here in Dublin. So we have a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. And also at Further Festival, we'll talk to some successful entrepreneurs who built businesses and taken them off this island and headed west to the US of A. And some of them will be coming back and sharing their stories with us, guys who built a business from a one man operation to exiting for many hundreds of millions within a 10 year period.

4:21And that's at the very upper echelons of the scale of what we do. And then we provide deep networking and connection opportunities. And as you and I talk about entrepreneurship, I think a lot of it has come down to the networking. It comes down to your ability to connect yourself to an ecosystem. And that's what we're trying to do.

4:39John Lee Dumas:Well, I love this. And we are going to start diving deeper into this content because, Conor, you put the spotlight on game-changing innovation with a focus on sustainability and digital transformation. Tell us more about this. So when we look at the world around us, and particularly in a broader European and US context, it seemed to us that there are two big pillars that are shaping the world around us. And one of them is sustainability and the other is transformation. One might argue there's a third pillar around health, and that's one of our sub kind of topics. But the big pillars that will change and shape our society over the next two years, 10 years, reside within digital transformation and within sustainability.

5:26And if you think or believe that over the next 10 years, we'll see probably more technological advancement than we've seen possibly in the last 20, 30, 50, that would lead you to believe that such things as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, IoT, some of these big technologies are coming to the fore now. Now, you might argue they aren't like in the instance of quantum computing, you might argue that's not commercially ready, nor will it be for 10 years. But it's a factor if you're thinking about the future and where you're going to go. So on the one hand, we have businesses that are shaping this enormous leap in the technologies and how they shape the future of businesses.

6:13And they need to be very cognizant of not just holding the status quo and thinking that that will serve them. What has served me in the past will not serve me in the future. And therefore, if you're running a business, standing still is not an option. And therefore, as you look out over the horizon, what are the big things that are coming down the track that are going to change your business? And that's kind of one of the big pillars. And the second we can't get away from the world is getting hotter. It is heating up. And most countries have within their policy, they have a drive to net zero. And that's going to be, you know, between 2030.

6:49Some it's 2040. Some it's 2050. but there is a big big push to make the world in which we live more sustainable and we're exploring that but we come at both of those pillars and indeed the health one that i mentioned we come at them very much from these are happening these are the societal shifts that are underpinning them these are the technologies that are going to deliver them but crucially where are the opportunities for entrepreneurs and how do you scan that horizon so that if you are thinking of scaling or growing or starting or expanding, these are the things you need to be considering on the day that you spend with us.

7:25John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, if you're not looking ahead, you're falling behind. I mean, I think this is a critical thing and that's why you need to continuously do things like you're doing right now. Listening to entrepreneurs on fire, hearing what Connor's saying, going to events, going to conferences like the further festival to continue to educate yourself. And this push to net zero, I mean, this is going to happen. The sustainability, this is happening. And by the way, not only do you want to be a part of it just because it's for the good of the earth, but also there's going to be opportunities for entrepreneurs within this.

7:57John Lee Dumas:And this can be a really exciting field to be a part of. And we're going to be talking about some really impressive things along this line when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer, but you are not getting enough quality sales calls on the calendar, Nexus Install is exactly what you need. This is a custom LinkedIn client acquisition system built to help you connect with the right prospects, start real conversations, and turn those conversations into booked calls, here is what makes it different. We do not just hand you a bunch of theory and tell you, good luck.

8:29John Lee Dumas:We build the system with you, dial in your audience, sharpen the messaging, run the outreach, and aim to book you eight to 20 qualified calls each month. Then once the system is proven and installed, we train you on how to run it yourself so you are not dependent on another agency forever. If you have a strong offer, a clear result, and are ready for more quality conversations with real prospects, email my team at john at eofire.com, and then we'll set up a call to see if Nexus Install is the right fit for you. Simple, focused, and built for predictable, long-term, quality lead flow. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure.

9:10John Lee Dumas:That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more.

9:53John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Connor, we're back and I want to talk about the future because again, And this is, to me, a big push about the Further Festival. I mean, you're looking further ahead. You're pushing people further. We're looking into the future. So what does the future of business and technology mean for our society? We are at a very interesting juncture as we move from a pandemic to an endemic world. And I believe that COVID stays with us and other viruses stay with us. and we adapt our society and we learn to kind of live with, they're not going to be eradicated.

10:36So society is evolving and the nature of society is evolving. And what's really interesting is that the things we thought we could never do, it turns out we can do them quite easily. So you and I are having a meeting or a conversation. We're on different sides of the globe and we're quite happily chatting away to ourself and it'll turn out just wonderfully. Likewise, for businesses, offices holding meetings you know the idea that you used to have to go to an office and sit down with somebody for an hour there was an hour commute time either side you can get that done in 15 minutes online and it took a pandemic to shift our baseline as to what we could do and what we couldn't do and then if you extend that out and you think about the nature of work it's dramatically changing and whether you believe in a kind of a hybrid or a remote and i know some employers want a combination and employees most definitely want a combination of hybrid and remote so the idea of a five-day in the office seems to me to be coming to an end and we're we're kind of thinking about the nature of our cities and that will be different so I look at retail and I look at downtown retail I see a shift away from people going into crowded city centers and I see them going out to suburban malls and shopping centers to do that and I see a difference in traffic patterns i see that the monday commute is busy but by the time you get to friday that friday commute is not as busy because people are now kind of reshaping their lives around and you know there's an opportunity potentially for us to live in a contact a contactless world whether that's we are moving towards that so we're we're spending less time together for good or for bad where our money is moved and we're becoming a cashless society so there's a lot of shift going on in the world and i guess we don't know where it's going to play out but i think there is most definitely opportunities arising from that there are new businesses being created as you and i are speaking here today john and they're being created from something that wasn't happening two three five years ago and if you think then about back to the technologies and the opportunities um you know you think about things like process automation underpinned by data or by ai and the nature of manual work and manual processing being replaced by process automation and that should free people up to do other things when you think about the home in which you're living in john and it's full of smart devices and they're connected and the amount of data that's been thrown off the control that you have over your home when you think about artificial intelligence when you think about you know extended reality a combination of maybe virtual reality augmented reality mixed reality the metaverse are we moving to a world in which when you and i meet we will present avatars to each other and we will talk like that and you know that has benefits uh for somebody who's not comfortable going in the screen maybe they present themselves as an avatar and that takes away some of that that awkwardness and the the new energy so solar renewables talk about hydrogen there's a whole heap of new energy sources and supplies that are coming through and then of course you always have blockchain um you know i guess somewhat somewhat tarnished by the bitcoin that sits on top but the underpinning technology and the underpinning ledger of blockchain is here to stay so i think what we've learned over the last particularly over the last two years and more of the pandemic is that the world can move and can change very very quickly there are a whole bunch of new technologies that are now coming to the commercial front and i guess from that says it's a really interesting time for us to live within.

14:13And these new technologies are shaping what we're going to look like over the next five to 10 years.

14:17John Lee Dumas:Now, what I love about this Fire Nation is that no one knows exactly what the future holds. But one thing is for sure, it holds opportunities for those who keep their finger on the pulse. And that's what we're talking about here today. So Fire Nation, Connor, is looking for opportunities. That's why they're listening to this podcast. They want to surround themselves with the right people. They want to hear the latest and greatest. How will Further Festival explore the opportunities for entrepreneurs? As we considered this festival over the last couple of years, we decided purposely not to hold an event until we could hold it in person.

14:53So we held off for two years. And the reason we do that is we believe that the in-person, the human connection is hugely important to the event that we build. And as I said, we'll have 2000 people there. It's a one-day event, and we drive it hard from early morning breakfast and networking. We go to a main stage where we talk about that big, big opportunity. We have some lovely speakers coming along. We have a unicorn or a decacorn out of Europe. We have a really interesting speaker from Wales within the UK, and it's a future generations commissioner, Sophie Howe. And her role is to ensure that any policy or legislation that comes through the Welsh government takes due account of the future generations.

15:40So it forces people to think not just in the short term, but in the long term and ensure that they're making the right decisions. So with speakers like that on our main stage, you get a sense of the big global issues and that kind of fires you up for the day. And then we run a number of stages around investment, transformation, innovation, sustainability, and we put people in rooms and we work them. They work, they hear speakers, they join panels, and there's loads of time for discussion, for networking, for coffee. and what we say about this event going to the event you will meet a unicorn if that's what you want you will meet policymakers if that's what you want you will meet investors and most importantly you will meet an ecosystem of like-minded folks who are there trying to make a difference who are trying to grow businesses who are trying to shape opportunities and actually just being there for the day and by osmosis picking up that energy picking up that sense that actually we can do a lot here uh you know people leave energized about the future so it's a it's a kind of a full-on day from kind of eight in the morning to five in the evening uh you get there's plenary there's offstage there's discussions it's still at that size and shape where it's intimate and you can kind of get to meet people but at the same time you get a sense of the big world and the big picture so you get big you get small and you get the chance to share your ideas with like-minded folks before

17:05John Lee Dumas:Before we get to the when and the where, we talked about a lot of awesome things today, Connor. What is the one key takeaway from this conversation thus far that you want to make sure Fire Nation gets? As an entrepreneur, whether in the US, whether in Europe, whether in Ireland, the world is changing. It's in a constant state of flux, but I think that change has been accelerated over the last couple of years. also underpinned by this technology shift and revolution that's well underway at the moment. And for anyone, entrepreneur, existing business, and I think you said it halfway through this, standing still is not an option.

17:44And we remember the big companies, if you look back at the Fortune 500 or you look back at the NASDAQ and you see the amount of companies who were rock stars and then they vanished. The reason they vanished was that they didn't take account of the changing world around them and that the status quo is not enough. And so the big takeout is if you're coming to an event like this, if you're an entrepreneur, no matter where you are, the world is rapidly shifting and you've got to stay abreast of those. However you do that through the reading, through the curiosity, through attending events, make sure that you're fully up to date with the big shifts that are coming and therein lies the opportunities for growth.

18:21John Lee Dumas:All right, Connor, take the microphone. tell us the last concept you want to share about further festival where fire nation can find out more and all the details that we need to know if you go to further.ie that's further.ie you will see full details of the event october 21st in dublin ireland in our national convention center and we would say to you that if you want to get a sense of the global opportunities that are coming your way and how best to maximize them. Come and join us. In Fire Nation, that's further F-U-R-T-H-R. So skip the E, F-U-R-T-H-R. Because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

19:07John Lee Dumas:You've been hanging out with CC and JLD today, so keep up the heat. Head over to eofire.com, type Connor, C-O-N-O-R, in the search bar, and the show notes page will pop up with everything we've been talking about today. And one more time, Connor, the URL and the dates. So the date is October 21, 21 October. And the URL is www.further.ie. Connor, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, John. It's been a pleasure. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Connor for sponsoring today's episode.

19:49John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation successful entrepreneurs are great at three things. Productivity, discipline, and focus. That's why I created the Mastery Journal so that you can master productivity, discipline, and focus in 100 days. And we're talking step-by-step. Visit themasteryjournal.com and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking payments and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com.

20:31John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, if you have a high-ticket offer and need more quality leads, Nexus Install is designed for you. We'll book you 8 to 20 qualified calls each month, then train you to run the system yourself. Email my team at john at eofire.com to learn more and see if Nexus is the right fit for you.