SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Hello folks, welcome to another edition of Social Media News Live. This is going to be exciting, exciting show. I’ve wanted to have Mr. Hicks on here for a while. We have, uh, crossed paths quite a bit, uh, through conferences and stuff, and I am so excited. To have him on the show today. And we want to make this show all about you.

[00:00:20] So if you know somebody who struggles with tech or maybe you’re yourself, you struggle with tech and you just kind of like, okay, where do I start? How do I kind of get over this mental block? Well, this show is going to be for you. Make sure you call in those people down below. Who you know may have an interest because we want to make this show, uh, you know, available to everybody and the best way to do that is by word of mouth for you, from you guys, so if you would do that, I would love for you guys to, uh, you know, just at mention them down below and ask your questions today, like this is for you, I always tell you, it’s free consulting.

[00:00:52] We’ve got James Dixon here. He’s expensive, folks. And so you want to use, uh, this time to ask him your questions. This is going to be amazing. And we have my friend, Mr. Paul Gowder. Mr. Paul Gowder, how are you doing today?

[00:01:05] Paul Gowder: Yeah, I’m great, man. It’s a good, been a good week and looking forward to the weekend.

[00:01:08] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, we’ve already got some folks popping. We’ve got my friend, Ask Ralph, saying hello everyone. Hello, Ralph. He is, uh, he’s got an amazing podcast, everybody. He’s got, he’s does, like, a daily podcast about financial tips. Really, really good. So make sure to check out Mr. Ralph there. And then we got, uh, our friend Jim Fuse saying, look at the heavyweights on this screen.

[00:01:28] In more ways than one there, uh, Mr. Fuse. Uh, yes, so this is gonna be, uh, Grace and Jeff. Yeah, thank you. I’m just heavy. Um, and then we got Chris Stone saying, Good Friday, folks. And he didn’t make any sarcastic comments. He must be, uh, really busy today because usually he makes some sort of, you know, hello from planet Earth or something.

[00:01:47] So, we’re going to have a great show with Mr. Hicks today. How are you doing? And, uh, I guess it’s early for you. I’m, I’m really excited that you woke up,

[00:01:54] James Hicks: Listen, man, it’s, it is. I will just, yes, it’s, it’s . It is definitely am around here and you know, you see the five o’clock shadow’s been going since, uh, okay. Yeah, I’m, I’m, I’m well, I’m, I’m well. Thank you, sir.

[00:02:08] Jeff Sieh: great. We got Mr. Rich in the house too. He says, Good morning, gentlemen. Jeff, I thought I thoroughly enjoyed the email about this week’s show, Atomic Wedgie, always. So, once again, folks, if you don’t subscribe to my newsletter, you really need to. You can go to jeffsieh. com forward slash news. I guarantee you.

[00:02:25] It’s not made with AI. It’s weird. We did talk about atomic wedgies, uh, today, and if you can go and subscribe and you can actually, uh, read that past article if you want, but jeffsieh. com forward slash news. But without further ado, we’re gonna go talk about breaking text barriers. I’m gonna go ahead and hit go on the podcast machine and we’ll get started.

[00:02:43] You ready, Paul? Hello folks, welcome to Social Media News Live, I’m Jeff Sieh, and you’re not.

[00:02:50] Paul Gowder: And I’m Paul Gatter and this is the show that keeps you up to date with what’s happening in the world of social media and so much more.

[00:02:56] Jeff Sieh: Have you ever found yourself holding back from diving into new technology, wondering if it’s worth the effort? Or maybe, you’ve questioned how some people seem to adopt new tools with ease, while others struggle to keep up. If those thoughts sound familiar, let me know. Well, you’re not alone. Today, we’re excited to welcome a guest who has spent over 30 years helping businesses and individuals fully embrace technology to elevate their presence.

[00:03:21] James Hicks has turned his passion for tech into a career of empowering others. He’s going to be sharing his experiences, his best advice, and how you too can leverage technology to unlock new growth for your business. So sit back, clear schedule, clear mind, and get ready for this week’s episode of Social Media News Live.

[00:03:39] James Hicks. How are you doing today, my friend?

[00:03:41] James Hicks: Yeah. Hold on. Where, where’s that bio from? That, that’s, I need to talk to that guy. My.

[00:03:46] Jeff Sieh: Hopefully, he’ll show up today. We’re hoping

[00:03:48] James Hicks: I need to find that. Listen, all is well, man. I’m sitting here focused with you guys. So, uh, hopefully my mama’s made it cause mama made it. Hopefully mom’s watching cause you know, this, this is, I’ve been wanting to get on this show and just to heckle from the back of the room for a long time.

[00:04:03] Jeff Sieh: That’s right. Well, you’re not alone. There’s a lot of great people who are doing that in the comments. In fact, we’ve got Chris Stone saying we got that low, low AM voice from Dr. Hicks. So,

[00:04:13] James Hicks: Yes. Yes. Listen, listen,

[00:04:17] Jeff Sieh: All right, Paul, you want to introduce our friend Mr. Hicks to the show today? All right.

[00:04:22] Paul Gowder: Yeah, I can’t wait to hear what he’s going to say today. But James Hicks is an engineering technologist and founder of Hicks News Media, driven by discovery and focused on the purpose of assisting businesses and individuals to fully leverage technology to grow their digital presence. With 30 plus years And Enterprise Technology, helping businesses to address specific needs to better serve their customers.

[00:04:44] Excited to have you here, James.

[00:04:46] James Hicks: appreciate you guys as well. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

[00:04:48] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, you know what else I found out was like, Mr. Hicks is gonna be at Creator Camp. And I know some of you are like, Oh my gosh, Creator Camp, I wanna go. Well, it’s sold out. I’m sorry to say, but there’s still a chance. There is still a chance, everybody. If you go to jeffsieh. com forward slash win, we’re giving away a free ticket and actually.

[00:05:05] We are going to be, uh, drawing that ticket next week. So you’re going to have a chance to get some extra codes at the end of this show. So make sure you stick around, but if you want to go right now and, and register, don’t leave this show, but go to jeffsieh. com forward slash win. Cause tomorrow, I mean, next week is the big drawing.

[00:05:22] So, uh, hang, make sure you show up next week for that. All right. So what we’re going to talk about today is this whole, um, overcoming barriers to success. And a lot of people. I know that I’ve talked to, and you know, Paul and I are getting ready to go to Momentum, and there’s a lot of entrepreneurs there, and they struggle with tech.

[00:05:41] So, you often, James, talk about getting out of your own way. So, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve seen people face in this technology adoption, and how can they overcome those?

[00:05:54] James Hicks: Definitely, FOMO, fear of missing out. Definitely a lot of, and I make the analogy of the CIO at the, at the barbershop sitting there with their peers and they’re reading magazines and talking back and forth. And XYZ company is doing this. So ABC company needs to be doing this as well to be competitive and to be on the same page.

[00:06:15] So trying to be something maybe that you’re not. Trying to follow trend, trying to follow, um, the hot thing, the hot item at the particular moment, as, as opposed to looking inwards to what’s important for you and your business and your clientele and things of that. So that, that’s what I, what I’m seeing a lot with individuals themselves.

[00:06:35] So solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and then small, medium sized businesses, trying to throw some spaghetti on a wall, hoping that something sticks as opposed to stopping, pausing, and really, Consciously trying to understand and consciously finding out what matters and what resonates with their niche, their business, their customer base, their fans, whatever, whatever you want to call it, whatever adjective you want to use today.

[00:06:58] Right. So that that’s been a challenge that I’ve seen folks trying to grasp, actually writing down. What it is that you do and why you do what it is that you do.

[00:07:09] Jeff Sieh: hmm, mm hmm. Yeah, and, and focusing on that, I think. And, and the other thing is, and we’ll talk about this later, I’m sure, but, um, It seems now, and maybe we’re just more aware of it because of the technology, but it can get really overwhelming really quickly for businesses, especially with this AI stuff.

[00:07:26] Everybody’s talking about AI, you know, you have to do this, this and this. Um, so I know we’ll dive into that later, but I just think that one of the things is, is what you just mentioned is taking the time and focusing and then finding out what you really need. Otherwise, you’re, you are just throwing like that spaghetti at the wall.

[00:07:43] Really,

[00:07:43] James Hicks: Yeah. I mean, when you, I I’ve coined that, that actual statement a couple of years ago, focus, stay focused on you. You’ll see some, some, some merch and things like that as well that I’ve done, because I really hold true to that statement. Stay focused on you, personal, professional, whatever the case may be.

[00:07:58] But if you don’t really understand, and a lot of folks within our community have talked about, if you don’t understand your own why, if you don’t understand your purpose, if you don’t understand what your intent is, When it comes to reaching your community, your audience, your customers, your prospects and things of that, you’re just expending time, you’re expending resource, you’re expending financial means as well, instead of being locked in, concentrated on the end goal. You can’t, you can’t be in all the oceans at the same time. Don’t try to boil the ocean, right? So it’s almost like creators trying to be on every single social platform at the exact same time. You can’t do it. You can, but you’re going to blow, you’re going to have all this gray hair in your face, like, like I do, and it’s not going to work, right?

[00:08:44] Because you’re going to have segmentation. You’re going to have a different messaging. You’re not going to be really focused and locked in and concrete about your, your, your mission. And your goal, so niching down, staying locked in, understanding what it is that you want to do and why it is that you want to do that.

[00:09:02] That really, that’s a hard question. It’s an easy question to ask, but it’s a hard question to answer for, for a lot of folks.

[00:09:10] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:09:12] James Hicks: getting, you’re getting this heat. Listen, you’re getting this heat earlier this morning, brother. I told you, Jeff, listen,

[00:09:16] you,

[00:09:17] Jeff Sieh: I know. We’re getting into it already. Yeah, this is great.

[00:09:21] Paul Gowder: 30 years in technology. I mean, you’ve seen all kinds of changes. For you, what do you think has been the most significant barrier that really helped you break through it? And how have you been, you know, helping your clients do the same?

[00:09:34] James Hicks: I recognize that I’m not the smartest guy in the room, right? And if I am, I’m leaving that room. I recognize consciously that I’m there with a pen and paper still in my hand, wanting to learn, wanting to know something, wanting to pick up some bit of information, wanting to get 1 percent better each time I go out and do it.

[00:09:55] So that has really helped me to stay somewhat organized. At the top of the curve. I’m not in front of the curve, but I’m at the top of the curve. I know just enough to be dangerous for a lot of things, but realizing that I still have a lot to stay abreast of, stay aware of, stay informed about, and continually looking for that.

[00:10:15] By not getting complacent and saying, James has all these plaques over here on this wall. Who cares? They’ve got dates on them. They’re, you know, 2012, they get their old dates on these plaques, right? So staying current, staying informed, talking to community, talking to peers, having coaches, having mentors, having folks that are within the circle, I call it an inner circle as well, that I can bounce ideas off of.

[00:10:41] So, so staying active and learning has been really key to me.

[00:10:46] Jeff Sieh: One of, and it’s funny that you mentioned that circle, like you’ve already got people over on LinkedIn showing up going, Hey, what’s up fellows here for the gold from James Hicks. So you like bring your, yeah. So you bring your own, your own group. But I want to kind of circle back on that a little bit, because I think, You know, we, Paul and I run a mastermind, which is great.

[00:11:04] It’s, we, we can really pour into those guys. We get to know each other. We help each other out. But also, um, one of the, the kind of exercises we did, and you kind of mentioned it a little bit, I want to kind of dig a little bit deeper into this, is that bouncing off these ideas for people and like, when, when you went, when we were talking earlier about finding your niche, find out what you’re really good at and what you need to, area you need to pour into that.

[00:11:26] A lot of times we have blinders on, right? We can’t. And one of the things that I found really helpful is after people, I know people have relationships with them for a while and they see me and we interact is asking, okay, look, what’s my superpower? Like, what do you think I do good? Or, and what, what is my biggest weakness?

[00:11:40] Cause you can’t have one without the other. You need to really have that to, to find that out. And I got some really interesting supplies and it helped me focus into the direction that I needed to go. So talk about that a little bit, uh, James, because I know you pour into different people and you help other people and you do consulting and all that kind of stuff.

[00:11:58] What have you found for people who really do that, who do really focus in on learning, not just what they think is good, but what other people actually perceive that they’re really good at? Because it was really eyeopening to, for me.

[00:12:12] James Hicks: the folks that are willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to hear, willing, willing to have constructive debate

[00:12:20] Jeff Sieh: Hmm.

[00:12:20] James Hicks: the ones that are winning, right? If I was to come on here and say that I knew everything, I’m the end all to be all, what I say goes, those kinds of things, and not be open to critique, feedback, and just a back and forth conversation, that respectful conversation, right?

[00:12:39] Again, as well, those are the folks, again, that I say are winning. And those are the ones who are continuing to advance professionally and personally. That, that, that can be taught. There are some things within this realm of business, within this realm of entrepreneurship that probably can’t be taught.

[00:12:55] There’s some things that are innate to folks, but being able to understand that don’t know it all. I need help. I’m willing to. Reach out for some assistance. You may not know all the answers. You may not have all the, the big LinkedIn Rolodex. I just dated myself when I said the word Rolodex. When it, when it came out of my mouth, I knew, I knew I just dated myself,

[00:13:16] Jeff Sieh: That’s right.

[00:13:17] James Hicks: but you may not have all the resources, but you know how to reach out to a Jeff Sieh.

[00:13:23] And Jeff may know someone within his circle that he can put you in contact with. That that’s really where I have found my superpower, my, my value, right? Being able to be that advocate and folks in the, in the, uh, comments, like, uh, Chris Stone and like, uh, uh, Jim Fuse understand, know that I use that word a lot.

[00:13:43] I advocate as opposed to influence. I, I, I hate the word influence. I’m not an influencer, I’m an advocate. But again, being, being open to those types of conversations, being open to someone calling you up in the middle of the night and, and, and going over your, your work with that red teacher pencil. I’ve actually had that experience happen within the Ecamm community very early on, and I am forever grateful for that.

[00:14:07] I tell that story a lot. Uh, so shout out to JP Hightech for helping me fix my overlays in my scenes. But, but again, being, being open to that type of a dialogue really helps them grow because they, one, they feel comfortable of having that conversation with you. But then if you receive that, if you openly receive that, that, that information, that helps you grow as well.

[00:14:28] And then you can pass that down to your constituents and your peers and your friends, followers, things of that nature. Long winded. I know long

[00:14:37] winded, but I got good, I got good coffee today.

[00:14:40] Jeff Sieh: we talked about repurposing before the show. That’ll be, that’ll be a great one. Uh, so, uh, Chris says, um, yes, James is very active in building community, honestly, vulnerable and iron sharpening iron, which is what you want. I mean, that’s, I, if you look back even at my business and I know Paul’s the same way, it’s the relationships I’ve built that have led to business and even greater business and connections and all that stuff.

[00:15:02] It’s from doing what, uh, Chris said about honesty, vulnerability, and iron sharpening iron, so, uh, and then Jim says, Can you show a Rolodex for the young ones watching in the audience? See, Connor’s not, Connor’s not here. He’d be like, What’s a Rolodex? No, but anyway, um, uh, so one of the things that, um, I want to talk about is for those feeling who are overwhelmed, like there’s so many people giving advice, there’s so many gurus out there, there’s so many people telling you what you need.

[00:15:36] For those feeling overwhelmed by the rapid pace of this tech You know, you know, everybody says you gotta have this camera, you gotta have this soundboard, you gotta have this mic. What’s the first mind shift mindset shift they need to have?

[00:15:51] James Hicks: One, don’t listen to the gurus because no one’s a guru. Everyone has their own opinion. Yeah. You know, you don’t need this FX3 camera that I’m, that I’m rocking here. It’s dope. I will tell you that it’s dope, but you don’t need that. You got a thousand dollar camera in your pocket that shoots 4k 60 right, right up from the jump.

[00:16:10] Right. So, so all of the infrastructure pieces, that’s not what’s important. That’s not what’s important. However, to, to the core of your question, though, with this, this advent of technology and understanding, you, it’s no longer a want, it’s now a need. If you don’t embrace it, you will get left behind. It’s beyond that point now, right?

[00:16:29] Because so AI and this, this conversation around generative technologies and large language models and things of that nature, it’s nothing new. Those of us that have been in technology for a while, those, those of us that have been close to the military and around for a minute, know that these are not new conversations.

[00:16:47] The only reason that it’s now very popular is because it’s on these TV screens behind like this. CNBC, CNN, things of that nature are talking about using these algorithms to help with data mining and information finding and things of that nature. If you don’t stay aware of what’s going on, embrace technology.

[00:17:05] Don’t be afraid of it. Because again, it’s no longer a, It’s now a need to be aware of that, regardless of the industry, industry that you’re in. You could be a craftsman, you could be a technologist, you could be a legal, finance, you could be in whatever industry that you reside in. Understanding the technology that helps, helps solve problems and come up with solutions within your particular industry is critical now.

[00:17:36] Again, no longer, uh, uh, just a want. You have to be aware of it.

[00:17:41] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:17:41] James Hicks: But I mean, I mean, it’s a, it’s a hard statement to say, right? It probably wanted me to come up with a cool answer, but listen, if you don’t, if you don’t figure it out, if you don’t take the time to understand and leverage technology at where it is today and where it may be going, you will be left behind.

[00:17:59] Paul Gowder: Yeah. I mean, you know, it is, it is so important to embrace the newest technologies, but a lot of us feel a little overwhelmed. So, I mean, have there been times where you’ve been reluctant to embrace a new technology? You know, have you held back and kind of waited on that? You know, and what do you tell people?

[00:18:18] Like, do we jump on every new trend or when do we jump on it?

[00:18:21] Jeff Sieh: that’s a great

[00:18:22] James Hicks: I mean, that’s, that’s funny because I, I laughed behind the scenes about technology and I was slow to jump on it. So I worked for Apple for, for 10 years. I actually had one of those infamous one on ones with Mr. Jobs in and of himself. piece of technology that I was slow to adopt was when Apple took the headphone jack out of our iPhones.

[00:18:43] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:18:44] James Hicks: Again, I just dated myself again. Kids probably don’t understand or remember that. But when Steve Jobs took the headphone jack out of the iPhones before we thought we wanted and were going to use all these wireless headphones. We were all up in arms. So did I didn’t completely embrace it. Okay, there’s a squirrel moment But you can’t use all the tools that are out there because everything’s flashy Everything’s, everything’s faster, everything’s better, everything’s quicker, everything’s more efficient and effective, things of that.

[00:19:14] But again, stepping back and understanding what your goal, back to your first question that you asked me, Jeff, right? What it is that you do, why it is that you do what you do. Then you can start compartmentalizing and seeing this tool, this infrastructure, this platform, this, this particular thing, there’s another one that looks very similar, but what really resonates with my business today and in the short term?

[00:19:39] First, look at today in the short term. You can’t always look out long term because for every business, every industry, every professional, long term could be three months, It could be three years, could be 10 years. So kind of really, again, understand, write this, write this down, what, what matters and what resonates with you personally, as opposed to always just looking at what your competitors are doing. looking at what the person next to you is doing. You really have to lock in and be in tune with what it is that you’re doing to your business, your community, your audience, and then look at the tools and, and be content and be comfortable. With the decision that you made, if you choose to use Zoom, use Zoom.

[00:20:24] If you see that another platform is using or doing the same type of thing for functionality, like multi person conferencing, webinars and all that, don’t jump on the newest thing just because it’s the newest thing. Because, you’ll never catch up. You’ll, you’ll never do better than the, than the software developers that are out there designing tools every single week. However, here’s the catch. Know when it’s time to pivot though, right? Don’t, don’t just be locked in on something just because you’re stubborn and just because you think this is the best thing and I’ve already, I’m an investor in the company or I know the CEO or I know the C suite, things of that nature.

[00:21:06] Know when it’s time to pivot and, and have that flexibility within your, within your mindset and your business and your organization so that you can stay competitive. Lock in, be focused, understand what it is that you use and what you’re going to do, because that resonates with your business. Have someone within your organization, if it’s you or you’ve delegated that to someone else, looking at those trends.

[00:21:30] So, you know, maybe when it is time to move to a different tool resource platform, whatever the case may be,

[00:21:38] Jeff Sieh: Hmm. That’s great. Another mic drop, drop moment from, uh, Dr. Hicks. Um, so I wanna circle back really

[00:21:44] James Hicks: let me turn my sound effects on. Hold on. Again, mic drops, let

[00:21:47] Jeff Sieh: donk.

[00:21:48] James Hicks: let me fire up the roll caster.

[00:21:49] Jeff Sieh: I know. Yeah. Maybe you can have that Rolodex sound effect too, because the kids

[00:21:53] James Hicks: see. There you

[00:21:53] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Um, so I want to, I want to circle back to your Steve Jobs, uh, encounter because I, I, so I do, uh, I run Guy Kawasaki’s podcast.

[00:22:03] He was like, I can’t remember what number of employee he was on that thing.

[00:22:07] James Hicks: evangelist

[00:22:08] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, Canva right now. Um, and something else. Anyway, um, what was your conversation like with Jobs? How, I want to know a little inside baseball on that, because it’s, I, I hear, because I, the half the fun stuff that Guy says, it, it never makes the podcast.

[00:22:22] It’s usually him talking to, like, uh, you know, Woz, and then I, like, I can’t use it, but it’s like, oh my gosh, that was a really good story. So what, what’s your story with Jobs? I want to hear that.

[00:22:31] James Hicks: story. So, There was internal folklore at Apple that if you ever got on an elevator with Steve, and if he didn’t like it, by the time you got to the bottom of the floor out of the elevator, you could be out of a job. There was that internal, ask that guy and he’ll say the exact same thing. So I used to manage and run the implementation teams for PowerSchool, which was a division of Apple back in the day that did student information systems. school folks think about the progress reports and report cards. I used to come home and we used to forge the grade. You’d get a, you’d get a C, you’d change it to a B or something. So your parents wouldn’t, but this was all digital. This was all electronic. So we couldn’t do that. So I ran the teams that deployed that based out of here in Northern California.

[00:23:22] I took them down to Infinite Loop for a day and we did the shopping thing at the Apple store. We did a whole tour of the behind the scenes. I gave them all the free food at the cafeteria as we were walking out the building. I’m not paying attention. I don’t know. I’m lollygagging. I’m meeting and greeting folks.

[00:23:44] Got my back turned. Steve walks in. I don’t see him. I damn near knocked the dude down. He did fall down. I was quick. I was quick on my feet. So I grabbed him as he was falling down. I’m sweating profusely. I’m like, I look at him dead in the eye, give him one of these. You all right? He looked at me and he laughed.

[00:24:06] Everyone around me was in gasp thinking, oh shoot, James is, James is gone. But we had that little bit of encounter. I damn near knocked a dude down, gave him a little eye to eye contact. We was cool. And that was my encounter with Steve. Dude.

[00:24:20] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, that’s great. I mean, those things are just cool. I just like hearing those stories. Like, like, you almost bulldozed Steve Jobs. So not many people have that,

[00:24:28] James Hicks: He’s much, he was much shorter than me. I didn’t see the guy. And, and again, I’m hosting all these people and, Hey, Oh, sorry. Here goes Steve Jobs. Almost knocked him down.

[00:24:37] Jeff Sieh: But you know what? Now I know somebody who almost, you know, took Steve out, like,

[00:24:43] James Hicks: That’s not a

[00:24:43] Jeff Sieh: in his little building.

[00:24:44] James Hicks: That’s not a good stat.

[00:24:46] Jeff Sieh: right. Anyway, thank you for that. That was good.

[00:24:47] James Hicks: that’s, that’s, that’s like my stat of being in Vegas every month this year so far. You know, that’s, that’s not something I’m necessarily proud of,

[00:24:53] Jeff Sieh: oh man, that’s a lot of, that’s a lot of stuff. All right. So back to their business thinking before we go on to the next section. So I know you coach businesses, you know, and I want to have you talk about a little bit about when their internal processes are stifling their digital growth, you know, like you, you can see it as a consultant that if they would just do this or incorporate this technology, you know, that they would grow.

[00:25:21] So what do you tell them and how do you like guide them through the steps that they can fix it? Because I know, I mean, I mean, I’m sure it depends on the size of the company, but a lot of it’s the internal stuff. Like it’s not really the people. It’s not really that. It’s like the mindset of the entire organization or the small business or whatever it is you’re coaching. Um, how do you guide them through what they need to do? Like the first couple of steps.

[00:25:47] James Hicks: It’s a, it’s a lot of what I’ve already kind of hinted to thus far. And it’s again, having that hard. Open hearted, open binder, whiteboard conversation of what’s important to the core of the business. Identifying that. So knowing what the mission, knowing what the purpose, knowing what the goal, having those things, they’re not just things that you post up on the wall.

[00:26:11] As, as as, uh, canvases, do they really mean something to you, to the business? And do they really resonate to how you’re com you’re, you’re running your day-to-day operation. What are those standard operating procedures and processes that you do that actually are revenue generating? And if you can’t answer those questions, then we need to pause and you need to go figure out what those answers are.

[00:26:34] That, that, that’s really a, a, a beginning. Sessions, plural, if someone isn’t really in tune with what it is. Now, a lot of folks just fire up and they just say, listen, I want to do something. They’ll sort of start a business. They started their LLC, they’ll start a consultancy. And they say, I want to go out and conquer the world.

[00:26:52] And I want to go again, using a Steve Jobsism, put a dent in the universe. No, nothing wrong with that, that that’s all good and, and dandy. But you know, again, when, when you start raising the conversation and you start talking about business as opposed to just side hustles or, or just hobbies and things of that nature, you, you’ve gotta have kind of an understanding of what’s core to the business.

[00:27:13] Embrace what that is. I’m Jeff Sieh, and how you plan to implement that. So I can’t answer that for you. I can come in there and again, be at the whiteboard and start writing things down if you haven’t already done that. But having that conversation is really critical and key to getting out of your, getting out of your own way.

[00:27:32] I tend to, I got a lot of the colloquial sayings, you know, get, get out of your own way. Shouts out to the merch. I’m gonna wear the merch. You know, getting out of your own way and really understanding what’s important to you in the business. As opposed to what’s important to the business as important instead of what’s important to you. I mean, that also resonates with, with folks in the that are here that are creators, right? We don’t do what it is that we do just to. Spend time on YouTube. We do this because we want to engage. We want to interact. We want to build. We want to have conversations. We want to solve problems. We want to have that dialogue and we want to do that for the community.

[00:28:16] It’s not vain. We’re not doing this for ourselves. Hopefully you’re not doing it for yourself. If you are, you’re doing it for the wrong reason, but I’m doing this to be on this type of show. To talk to folks, to have different types of communications, to have different types of engagement, to get different ideas.

[00:28:31] I’ve already seen some comments here. So I’m, I’m over here taking some mental notes for ideas for a show that I could have as well, because again, I’m seeing the community engage and interact. Those are the things that matter. And when you can take yourself out of it and listen, take yourself out of it and engage and react and be attentive, that’s how you can thrive.

[00:28:57] That’s how you succeed. So again, embracing the fact that if you don’t know what’s going on within your business, figure that out. If you do know what you’re doing for your business, then now let’s start putting a plan in place so we can start getting out of our own way, overcoming those personal barriers.

[00:29:13] Nice little lower third that you got right there. To get ahead of these things,

[00:29:18] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Very cool.

[00:29:21] Paul Gowder: On your YouTube channel, you, you focus a lot on, uh, on showing technology and helping businesses, you know, integrate that in and, and maximizing it to, to really help their business grow. As, as businesses have been implementing, you’ve been helping people. What do you see as like some common mistakes people make when embracing these technologies?

[00:29:42] James Hicks: trying to do too much, not reading the manual.

[00:29:47] Jeff Sieh: That’s very true.

[00:29:48] James Hicks: right.

[00:29:49] Jeff Sieh: So much of my business is that.

[00:29:53] James Hicks: right, right. Going out there and buying the good old AppSumo lifetime deal because it’s 249 a lifetime and it’s an early stage startup company. God bless them. Love them though. Right. Again, we want to support, but, but again, that’s why I used the classic example a few minutes ago about Zoom. Zoom won for a reason.

[00:30:14] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:30:15] James Hicks: Uh, but, but that, that’s, is, is a huge deterrent to, again, early stage organizations, early, early stage entrepreneurs and solopreneurs as well. Just trying to do too much, trying and trying to do it alone, trying, trying to do all the things, all the C level activities, CIO, CTO, EO, MO, we’re trying to be all the things in terms of coordinating and facilitating a business.

[00:30:43] Now, again, side hustle, different conversation, different, different things. You can be, you can work at your own task, uh, duration. You can stretch it out as long as you want to, but again, when you, when you’re responsive and responsible to employees, a community, customers, you got to have your, your, your, your T’s crossed, your I’s dotted kind of thing.

[00:31:05] So that, that’s been a huge deterrent. That I’ve seen, especially again, like I say, with early stage folks, trying to either find an easy way out or trying to chase that shiny new object, whatever it is, software, hardware, platform, service, things of that nature, as opposed to really doing the research and understanding matters and what resonates.

[00:31:30] I make the joke about AppSumo and the lifetime deals, but people pay attention to what they pay for. Damn, that’s a good one. I stole that one though. So I stole, I stole that one from the CEO of Mighty Networks. So, so shout out there. Uh, and, but I use it a lot, but people pay attention to what they pay for.

[00:31:47] I’m willing to pay for an Ecamm Pro subscription because I know, I see and understand the value that it provides and that it brings. I’m willing to pay for the script. And what is it? Creator Pro. What’s the, what’s the big one? The, the, the nice one that we got, right? I’m right. I’m willing to pay for that because I see the value that it brings and it provides. One of these two week old, and again, no, no shade and nothing of that nature, but these, these two week old SaaS startups that are out there yet trying to put that dent in the universe that are doing, doing good work. I can’t rely 100 percent on my business, on them. I can’t put all those eggs in that basket.

[00:32:36] Now, I can, I can test, I can evaluate, but when it comes to booking Jeff Sieh on the Digital Collective, I’m going to use tried and true tools to make sure that, that workflow happens, that I get all the information that I need. So again, long winded, but good coffee. So, so, so,

[00:32:59] Jeff Sieh: that’s, that’s, um, yeah. So, and I’ve, I’ve done the, I’ve fallen into that trap too. And this is a great point from ask Ralph. He goes, you know, because people are, are generally lazy. I think we, you know, we all want the shortcut. We all want the easy button. Um, But, uh, they’re look, they’re the quick way instead of looking for the right way, which I think is true.

[00:33:16] And, and, and Ralph understands it’s like, he’s doing a daily podcast. I don’t know if you’ve tried to do a daily podcast, try to do something daily. Every day. I mean, I mean, for anything it’s hard, but he is doing it and it’s a grind, but he is getting followers and content, but it’s, it’s not easy. He would never tell you it was easy.

[00:33:33] So, um, and Dustin goes, what about a 1. 5 year old startup? But Dustin. He, he, he’s the, he does Magi for those of you who don’t know, which is a great tool. I highly recommend it. Um, but he’s been in this space for, I’ve known Dustin, here we go, Chris Stone, since the Google Plus days. Uh,

[00:33:50] and he, he’s been in the business.

[00:33:53] I’ve seen him at conferences. He’s had multiple different companies. So he may have say, Magi may have been only around for 1. 5 years, but he’s knows what he’s been doing. He’s been developing for way longer than that. So, and Chris says people pay attention to what they pay for, but unfortunately. They’re not paying attention to the amount of time they’re wasting on free stuff.

[00:34:12] Uh, it costs money.

[00:34:13] Paul Gowder: That’s a

[00:34:14] James Hicks: say that again for the people in the back of the room, because that’s truth, right?

[00:34:18] And, and again, some, you said someone said something about, you know, people are inherently lazy. Um, I don’t know if lazy is the right word, but, but, but again, we do look for ways of reducing friction and reducing steps within our workflow.

[00:34:32] There’s nothing wrong with that. I mean, I was just on the phone yesterday with Adobe, they’ve got a clipping tool that everyone’s working on the clipping tool. So Adobe is working on one now, and I’m kind of consulting with Adobe on this. And I said, listen, as long as you can eliminate some steps within my workflow.

[00:34:49] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:34:51] James Hicks: That’s, that’s where you’re going to bring some value. Everyone has the captions. Everyone has the, uh, transitions. Everyone has all this other stuff. But man, if you can effectively either automate the, the, the reposting and republishing, if you can effectively help me. Do do my J cuts and do my intros, do my outros.

[00:35:11] If you can bring value by eliminating steps within my workflow, that’s, that’s not being lazy. I think that’s, that’s more being efficient,

[00:35:18] Jeff Sieh: Right. It’s just that it’s not clicking and buying every single one you think that’s

[00:35:23] You have to, you have to learn.

[00:35:25] James Hicks: my way, man. Send that. Listen, I got two kids in college. Send that money this

[00:35:30] Jeff Sieh: tell you what, like, uh, tools like Descript Change the way that I edit. Like, I’m old school. Like, I had Premiere 2. Like, you know, I’ve been doing it for a while.

[00:35:41] That’s how I got started. It has changed, like, totally. And, and, on that note, um, Dr. Hicks, is I want to talk about, like, some of these, you know, what are your top three technology, technologies businesses should invest in today to stay competitive in this digital age? We talked about this a little bit. Like, what do you think, what You know, I think, um, transcription based editing was a game changer for content creators.

[00:36:07] I just think it was. Uh, but what do you, what are some of the top three that you think that, you know, they shouldn’t sleep on?

[00:36:15] James Hicks: I’m going to raise the level of the conversation slightly and not, not go into the product

[00:36:21] Jeff Sieh: Sure.

[00:36:22] James Hicks: description piece. I’m going to say, I’m going to say prompt engineering. And I think. You know, most folks understand what I’m saying. So that’s kind of that whole AI conversation. So not just feeding something into an algorithm, not just feeding something into a large language model, but being able to engineer a prompt to be very specific.

[00:36:43] Telling a chat GPT or perplexity or voila, or uh Let’s stick to Google. I mean, all of the ones out there, you know, act as a social media marketer and provide me with XYZ outcome. So act like this, do this, pretend you’re this, generate this, right? Actually being very descriptive in terms of what the ask is.

[00:37:08] So prompt engineering is, is, is huge. And that, that’s a, that’s an umbrella type of a statement. So that, that’s the gen AI, that, that, that’s all, all of those pieces right there. Um, process management, As another one that I would say, as I’m thinking off the dome here, so, uh, SOP, standard operating procedures, KPIs, what the key performance, being able to understand what it is that runs your business from the back end.

[00:37:36] Jeff Sieh: Right,

[00:37:37] James Hicks: What are the tools? What are the resources? Who are the people that you need to actually manage your business from a process perspective and from an administrative perspective? Um, that’s looking at it today. Think about what’s happening. I already talked about short and midterm, longterm

[00:37:55] as well. So, forecasting. Looking at analytics, understanding what your business, what your niche is, and so being able to forecast as well where your industry, where your business, where your peers are going. Not trying to emulate, but again, utilizing technology to understand where business is today and how it’s going to evolve and change very quickly and how you can be on that trajectory as well.

[00:38:20] So. What did I say? Prompt engineering,

[00:38:23] Jeff Sieh: right,

[00:38:24] James Hicks: process management, and forecasting. Those are three critical things, and those can encompass a lot. So I specifically didn’t mention specific tools, but these kind of categories, because they’re different depending on the individual and the business.

[00:38:40] Jeff Sieh: I really liked what you said about the SOPs because I’m kind of in scaling mode right now, I guess I would say, like getting more people so I can accomplish more kind of a thing and increase and having those and they don’t, you know, a lot of the gurus don’t talk about that because it’s not, it’s not sexy.

[00:38:56] It’s not like, hey, you can get all these followers. But if you’re trying to scale, you’ve got to understand having procedures and stuff that you can train to the next person. Or if that next per, or that person that you rely on leaves, you’re not sit there and going, Oh my gosh, how am I going to run my business?

[00:39:11] Cause they’re gone. You know, that you can pass this stuff on. It’s not sexy, but it’s something you have to

[00:39:17] James Hicks: Have to do it. Have to, have to do it. And, and don’t pretend that you know everything off the gate, but have something, again, I keep pointing to the vision board over here on the side of the wall. If you don’t have it written down, and again, don’t just have it in your head. And, and even, even me being someone who, an enterprise technologist who’s been in this business for a prolonged time, don’t just have it in your, in your Google docs, your Google notes or your Apple notes.

[00:39:41] Don’t just have it digitally. Have it physically written down where you have that mind, hand, mind, that. connection between physically writing something down, because that’s when you, you really can react and resonate with what it is that you’re one, trying to say to yourself to make sure that you’re going down the right path.

[00:40:01] So, so I, I like to do again, old school stuff and just actually write stuff down, but that that’s, that’s critical to know what those procedures are, to know what those plans are, To know how to look at your business, where it is today, and where you expect it to be in the short, mid, long term, and what it’s going to take to get you there, right?

[00:40:25] Jeff Sieh: We could, we could say that over and over and still people wouldn’t do it until

[00:40:29] James Hicks: That’s why we’re, that’s why all of us are still in business. That’s why we all still have clients, and it’s a good conversation to have, and it’s, you know, record on repeat, but again, we still have to have that conversation, and we, As coaches, consultants have to show the same energy every time we have the conversation with someone new.

[00:40:47] I can’t be like, oh man, you go ask someone else asking me the same question. No, I still got to show up and I still got to bring it. Every single time someone new asked me this, the exact same question, because it’s a different engagement, it’s a different interaction, and it’s a different opportunity. to help someone.

[00:41:05] Paul Gowder: Chris

[00:41:06] James Hicks: doors of the church are now open.

[00:41:08] Jeff Sieh: that’s right. We’ll pass the plate in a little

[00:41:10] Paul Gowder: yeah, yeah. Definitely does need to, yeah. Collect something. Chris Stone has a great question here. How can creators rise above the sameness out there, and how do they stand out?

[00:41:23] James Hicks: I have this conversation. So this may be a loaded question and coming from Chris, because me and Dr. Stone have this conversation a lot. I, I pixel peep every single thing that he does. With, with great intention, with great, listen, I’m, I’m looking at it and I’m saying, how did he do that? And I know he’s, you know, OG Sony man from, from that perspective, but I look and inspire, aspire to be.

[00:41:49] Just like Chris Stone when I grow up, right? Because the perceived ease of deployment, when he puts something out, he put out something yesterday about, sure, about these new microphones, things of that nature. So he was doing some marketing for them, but the collection of content, just the, the ability to, to, to bring in different effects and different visuals and things of that nature. I can look at a Chris Stone production and know that it’s a Chris Stone production.

[00:42:18] Jeff Sieh: Right. Exactly.

[00:42:20] James Hicks: I can know that it didn’t just come out of Final Cut. I can know that it didn’t just come out of Opus Clip. I can know that it didn’t just come out of whatever other product that’s out there. I know that there’s that little special sauce makes it uniquely him.

[00:42:37] And it’s not always the same thing. It’s not always the same lens flare. It’s not always the same glitch movement. It’s not always the same, whatever the case may be. But you can tell that This is somehow unique and it wasn’t just spit out of a tool. And someone actually put some thought, care, and feeding into it to make it original.

[00:42:57] And that’s critical. You have to do beyond the thing. You have to do beyond just feeding this, you know, YouTube URL into Opus, let it spit out 20 micro content pieces, throwing their caption on it, and then shooting it out. You can

[00:43:22] Jeff Sieh: So I heard

[00:43:23] James Hicks: read the eyes, right? Read the eye,

[00:43:26] but put a little

[00:43:27] Jeff Sieh: and we talk about Chris too much. He should actually pay us. We should have him sponsor the show.

[00:43:31] James Hicks: pretty much.

[00:43:33] Jeff Sieh: but one of the, I heard this, I read this concept the other day about, with all the AI stuff, with everybody coming out, and the ability to, you know, and I love repurposing, I talk about it a lot, but the ability now for everybody to do that pretty easily.

[00:43:45] He was talking, this, this author was talking about what he calls frontier content. And I really like that, because that’s what Chris is doing. Like, yes, he’s using and doing short form content, but he’s taking it a step further, so it stands out, like you just mentioned, out of the sea of sameness that is out there.

[00:44:03] And I really like to, like, what can we do as creators to create that frontier content? Can we combine two tools together to make something new? Can we take visuals from over here and do, you know, something with, you know, Another piece over there that something hasn’t been thought of. And it’s not because OpusClip is really pressing the easy button and I get it.

[00:44:21] Like if that’s all you can do, that is great. Like you’re getting your content out there, but Chris is taking that a step further. Um, another thing that he does, and I’m using this as an example in Momentum. So this is a sneak peek. Uh, but what he does whenever he goes is on a show, he asks for that content.

[00:44:39] And then he does his magic on that for that person. One, that gets him invited back to that show. Two, it gets him invited on new shows because other shows want that for their content. Like, I mean, see, he’s doing some genius things, which once, once again, it’s another step, it’s that frontier type of content where he’s doing something that other people aren’t going to do.

[00:45:03] And I think that’s what we need to think of as creators. So. Sorry, I got on my preaching mode there.

[00:45:08] James Hicks: no, listen, that’s good. And I will add it and interject that it doesn’t always have to be, what’s good, Lord, what’s the big, I can’t even think of big words here, uh, dramatic. It doesn’t have to be extensive. It can be very subtle as well. No, think, think of a DJ tag, right? Um, right. A lot, a lot of songs.

[00:45:29] Okay. I’m my old hip hop days, right? You think about it? I don’t want to say something because again, I want to make sure your show stays monetized, but having something very subtle, something very quick, having your own watermark, having your own, again, flare in terms of editing or whatever the case may be, but going outside of the box of just, again, let, let, let Opus give you 99%.

[00:45:52] Let, um, simplified or descrip or some of these other tools, who else am I using? You know, the, the cap cuts of the world. You know, let let them give you 90 some percent of it. But man, if, if you don’t take that time, energy, and effort to, to give that extra 10% to give that ad-lib, uh, put that little hicks sauce on it to put that stone sauce, that fuse sauce.

[00:46:14] Put that little thing on there that, that, that is you. Let’s see a sameness, and it’s not relatable. It’s, it’s not clickable. It’s not engageable. I, I would much more be willing to donate, give, sponsor, pay, advocate, and contribute to someone who actually puts effort into it. their work as opposed to someone who just is trying to be the same thing, just, just being, being the living, pressing the button and getting whatever is spit out and then shooting that out.

[00:46:48] I, I cringe a lot of times when I, when I see some of these social clips, I’m not going to name platforms. I’m not going to name creators that one are either blurry, either aren’t, aren’t fully cohesive, uh, cut off the sentence, right? So if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing, why should I?

[00:47:07] Jeff Sieh: Ooh. Yeah.

[00:47:09] James Hicks: If you don’t have the pride, if you don’t sit up straight when you’re, before you hit export, if you don’t say, man, that’s pretty cool.

[00:47:16] If you don’t say that to yourself and, but you still send it out because you want to put out something because you just did a live show or you just did an interview and I got to put out a piece of macro content before it gets stale or gets old. If you don’t look at it, critique it yourself. And say, man, that’s, that’s pretty good. Why would I want to buy your merch, buy your consultancy hour, buy, buy you as the co or, or hire you to come in and talk to my employees for a, for a conference?

[00:47:46] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. and I and I know you’ve talked to Chris too. And the reason he does that because it gets him business. Like people want the Chris Stone effect, right? They want it. And so why not do the same thing for your business? Like that’s, that’s how I got, you know, whatever success I have now is from doing those extra things that other people weren’t wanting to do.

[00:48:07] So. Yeah, uh, and so, and Ralph says, now that’s biblical. Y’all do your best in it. Yeah, so, um, uh, and yeah, this is a great line. If you don’t pay attention to your content, why should I? That, see, you don’t have, do they have that shirt yet,

[00:48:23] Paul Gowder: That’s

[00:48:23] good

[00:48:23] stuff.

[00:48:25] Jeff Sieh: right,

[00:48:25] he’ll have it ready. He’ll have it ready. Um, so, I, we’re, we’re kind of running down, and we didn’t, I mean, we, Gosh, I got so many things.

[00:48:32] By the way, I wanted to tell you guys, if you didn’t know it already, but this, uh, this show, podcast, everything is sponsored by our friends at Ecamm. We mentioned Creator Camp before. If you’d like to find out more about them, they’ve got a great deal. If you go to ecamm. com forward slash Jeff, use code JEFF15, you will save 15 percent on your first purchase.

[00:48:48] Uh, James mentioned their Pro plan, which, if you’re going to use that code, use it on that, because it’s like a year. And with Pro, you get all sorts of stuff. You get integration with Zoom. Everything. So jeffsieh. com forward slash Jeff, thank you for Ecamm for sponsoring the show. This last question, I think it’s going to be interesting because I’ve got two great live streamers on here.

[00:49:07] And I want to talk about real quick, and I’m going to start with James and I want kind of Paul, you to follow up because you do so much live streaming too. Is like, how can biz, because I think live streaming is, with all the AI and the, you know, content vomit that’s coming out, we talked about all this stuff jumping out there.

[00:49:23] I think. Having live video and podcast is something intimate and it’s going to set you apart from the sea of sameness that we mentioned. So how can businesses effectively leverage live streaming and other digital tools to, to build that engaging online presence that they need? So James, I’d like to hear from you first.

[00:49:44] James Hicks: Be personable. There, there, there are certain things that literally that I’m doing right now in, in this particular stream that kind of represent that as well. I talk about my hands a lot, so I call them the jazz hands. So being that engaging piece, that right there, I’m consciously taking a drink of coffee.

[00:50:03] I’m consciously being personable, relatable, real, non robotic. Right. I’m consciously doing some of these things such that I’m looking to connect with the audience, looking to connect with folks and wanting to kind of open up the kimono a little bit and be inviting and be engaging and be responsive to folks that are, that are listening, listening when I’m wanting to have more of a conversation as opposed to just me.

[00:50:32] Vomiting out information to folks. So there are certain things that I’m doing, being really descriptive with the hands, with the movements, doing like we all do, taking a sip of coffee or something like that to, to, to show relatability, hopefully, I don’t know if it’s working or not, but that’s what, that’s what I’m doing.

[00:50:47] We’ll, we’ll, we’ll see, but those are the kinds of things. listening and understanding, again, I mentioned it earlier, that live streaming, we do live streaming, we do engagements from a podcast, audio or video, not for us. It is to have that conversation with your community. It is to have that, uh, in what was what was the word I’m looking for?

[00:51:14] Kind of that, that circle of influence that kind of conversation that, that, that, um, uh, what’s, what’s the word I’m looking for? Research group of, uh, Being able to leverage the folks that are listening, watching and engaging and commenting and saying, you know what, Paul asked a question. I can take that back later on and I can turn that into a piece of comment.

[00:51:35] I can reference Paul in the, in piece of content that was created. I can, I can acknowledge the comment that came in. So having that dialogue and being engaging and being personal, you can’t get that anywhere else. You can’t get that from the, you can’t even get that from the written word, right? Because I’ve been in blog, I’ve been blogging, I’ve been in part of the automatic part of WordPress for a long time.

[00:51:59] And you couldn’t really show that extra layer of emotion. You couldn’t really show that extra layer of an inviting kind of dialogue by just, Blogging and writing a, uh, a website. But when I turn these lights on, I press record and I hit this camera, you, you see how crazy I am. I, I, I can’t hide it. You, you, you see the engagement and you see I’m looking dead in your eyes and we’re having a conversation and, and we’re going through, we’re, we’re solving a problem where we’re talking about a use case.

[00:52:38] We’re diving through something. We’re doing an unboxing and we’re, we’re turning on, you know, preview mode and interview mode. And we’re going through how to, how to do the thing. And when you connect with folks, that’s when you kind of either have that aha moment. That’s when you actually build that trust.

[00:52:57] That’s when you build that relationship and that’s when you gauge. Living in the community, how to engage with customers, engage with some new prospects, be relatable, understand that you’re asking, asking questions as well. You’re not just again feeding information. You’re actually asking questions. You’re learning as well. So live streaming is critical. Live streaming is critical in terms of Having a presence that you can engage with your global community.

[00:53:37] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. I,

[00:53:39] James Hicks: Look at it. Got quiet there for a

[00:53:40] Jeff Sieh: well, it was because talking about, you know, live video, you know, you gotta

[00:53:45] James Hicks: pressing buttons.

[00:53:47] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I don’t know what’s happening. But, um, one of the things, like, I am in East Texas. Love it. I love where I live. But most people around here don’t know anything about live streaming and having that a global audience where I could go and sell my services to people in California, to London, wherever that opened the doors and having this connection, like you mentioned, like I would not be able to do this show without these great people, uh, who show up every week.

[00:54:13] And like, even Chris says that you all influenced me. Everything I do is stolen from you. I kind of figured he did, he did that, but, um, He was a, he, he stole things, but you know, having this community is what I love. Now, Paul, you do live video as well, and you do it on a scale that a lot of people will never do, like you do these events for, uh, Native American powwows all across the country.

[00:54:34] Uh, you just, you know, got another one that you were in, I think last week. So talk about from that perspective, like, um, you know, how it’s, how, how you see live streaming moving in kind of those arenas,

[00:54:46] James Hicks: of the

[00:54:47] Paul Gowder: It’s the same, same thing we were just talking about. It’s community, right? It, my, my Power Live Streaming is different where we’re not necessarily on the screen engaging with people, but we’re, I’m still focused on how we can use that video to build community, how we engage community. So we’re, you know, we’re in the chat, we’re talking with people.

[00:55:07] Um, when I can, I’m putting up a graphic or something to encourage people to, you know, Uh, engage more in the video. It’s, it’s all about that community aspect of it. That’s, that’s the success of my live streams. It’s, it’s not that we’re, we’re streaming powwows necessarily. It’s that we have a community behind it that wants to be there together to wants to, wants this shared experience.

[00:55:27] Um, you know, a great example, you’re talking about using your hands and all that. Go watch a Lou Mangiello live stream. He is a master of engaging with people. Um, I, You know, you said it great. It’s all about making that engagement, that connection with people. Live streaming can be a super intimate thing if you can, if you focus on the community aspect of it first.

[00:55:49] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Totally true. And this is great to hear. Uh, Ask Ralph says, I’m actually starting a live show in the next 30 days. I want people to be able to ask their financial questions and I will answer them. So that’s awesome, Ralph. I think it’s going to be something that will be, it’s, it’s a need, I think. And it’ll be really interesting to see how that, how that goes for you.

[00:56:06] Uh, kind of the last question I wanted to ask, because. Mr. Hicks has been in this world for over 30 years, the tech world, and this is going to be hard,

[00:56:16] but I want you, I know, I just, we all are. So, um, what do you see as the big shift in the digital technology for businesses? Like, what do you see, um, try not to say IAI, but anything else around, I mean, um, the big shift that, for businesses, right?

[00:56:38] James Hicks: It’s okay. So I’ll raise it slightly above as well. So because, because AI is going to be all wildly encompassing. I’m going to call it data science. I’m going to say understanding, having, Insightful insights to your data. So data science is going to be critical to understand kind of, kind of getting back to where I was going with, with the reporting, with analytics, a business is going to need to know what their particular niche, their particular industry, what their particular focus is going to.

[00:57:17] Don’t get complacent in where you are today. Understand where you are again, short, mid and long term. So having some, some insights to your data. It’s going to be critical and knowing how to get that, knowing the tools, the resources, either technology wise, professional or personal wise, you know, coaches or consultants, things of that nature, whatever the case may be.

[00:57:39] But being able to sit and analyze Where industry is and where industry is going is going to be critical. And technology is going to help us with that because again, there’s, there’s going to be a lot of things, software platforms, hardware platforms, or whatever the case may be that they’re going to make that easier to get that more efficient to pull that information instead of.

[00:58:00] Having to use the old slide rule, do that in again, old, old, old reference. But again, we’re going to be more efficient in terms of being able to pull that information. So having insights, analytical insights to data. So understanding about data science is going to be critical and I can guarantee you more and more, not just large organizations, cause it’s already happening there, but more SMB organizations are going to be putting.

[00:58:25] Data scientist types of requirements and job descriptions. Someone who can, can look at the numbers, be very analytical, can, can, and then can break that down from those technical terms into more business conversations. So not, so not, not, not just give me hero numbers and not just give me a PowerPoint slide deck that has a whole bunch of graphs and charts, but how does this matter and how does this resonate with where we are today and where we want to go? That’s going to be critical.

[00:58:54] Jeff Sieh: And I think it’s, it’s, it’s also exciting because. I don’t think ever before have small businesses, not the huge corporations, but small businesses. have access to that data that they can make. And a lot of times you’re, you’re just kind of, you know, the brick and mortar is just kind of trying to figure out from their sales receipts and whatever.

[00:59:11] Now we have data we can, and the tools are, are cheaper and better than ever before. We just need to use them. And I think, uh, that’s a great point. Mr. Hicks, once again, this is too long in coming. We cannot wait this long to do this again. Uh, you have dropped so many great knowledge bombs, mic drop moments, um, tweetables or exables, I guess.

[00:59:33] That sounds like a sandwich, exable.

[00:59:35] Uh,

[00:59:36] James Hicks: to me.

[00:59:36] Jeff Sieh: it’s always Twitter.

[00:59:37] James Hicks: It’ll always be Twitter to me.

[00:59:39] Jeff Sieh: tell people where they could find out all about you, what you got going on, your shows, your podcast. Uh, the floor is yours.

[00:59:47] James Hicks: Listen, man, first and foremost, uh, thank you for this opportunity. Uh, this, this has been, this has been pretty cool. This, this, this is all right. You, you guys, your community, what, what I see you building as well is, is a testament to being consistent, being pervasive and actually going out there and doing the thing all the time.

[01:00:06] So shots, I don’t want to give those flowers to, to, to you Sieh. Listen, I’m, I’m Hicksnewmedia. com. I’m out there helping and trying to advocate for folks who are wanting to understand and leverage technology, either from a business perspective, from a personal perspective, or even just as a, as a DIY perspective, I’m willing to have that conversation with you to understand how to use technology.

[01:00:29] Hardware, software, services, tools, platforms, all the things. I don’t know everything, but I didn’t. I’ll go back to that Rolodex term. I can put you in contact with someone who may be looking for, uh, I can, I can put you in contact with folks that may have the information that you’re looking for.

[01:00:44] HicksonMedia. com is kind of the central hub that has everything for all of my shows, all of my contact information, my newsletter, all the things would be, uh, accessible there.

[01:00:55] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Mr. Paul Gowder, he may wear crazy shirts, folks, but he is super smart about email marketing, live video, all this stuff. Paul, where can people find out more about you and what you got going on?

[01:01:06] Paul Gowder: Yeah, I’d love to help you out with, if you’re looking to grow your business through email or building community, paulgouder. com. Come on over and let’s talk.

[01:01:14] Jeff Sieh: That’s right. And folks, thank you so much for being here today. Jim, Chris, Ralph, everybody who shows up every week. Dustin, of course, everybody that I’m missing. Thank you so much for this. I would not be able to do the show without you. I wouldn’t be able to do the show without our friends over at Ecamm.

[01:01:29] You can find out more about them at ecamm. com forward slash Jeff. Use code JEFF15 to save 15 percent on your next purchase. Um, here’s the thing, uh, I mentioned at the start of the show, we’ve got, uh, Creator Camp that’s coming up. It’s sold out, but we’re giving away a free ticket. And next week is the drawing.

[01:01:45] Um, you can actually go and enter right now at jeffsieh. com forward slash win. And here is the secret code that will give you more entries for this week. You could go and enter, uh, y o n H W E E. Yowie! That’s, that’s perfect for the last kind of drawing. So, I don’t know how that happened. But, uh, that is the one that’ll give you some code.

[01:02:06] So go over there to JeffSieh. com forward slash win, enter. And James and I and Paul. Paul, you’re coming to Creator Camp too, aren’t you?

[01:02:14] Paul Gowder: No, not

[01:02:15] Jeff Sieh: no, not this year. Well, James and I will be there. Connor will be there. Uh, a lot of people are going to be there. I think Jim Fuse is coming. It’s going to be amazing. So, uh, get, try to get a ticket if you can, if you haven’t got one yet.

[01:02:25] And I’d love to see you there. And with that, my friends, we’ll see you guys next time. Bye, everybody.