SHOW TRANSCRIPT

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

[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Hello, folks. Welcome to Creator News Live. I’m Jeff C and you’re not.

[00:00:04] Conor Brown: And I’m Connor Brown, and this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the creator economy and so much more.

[00:00:10] Jeff Sieh: Have you ever wondered how to keep your business secure while growing your brand? Maybe you’re curious about the real risks behind AI threats and DeepFakes, or maybe you’re looking for practical ways to protect your content and say safe. While creating online. Well, if those questions sound familiar, today’s episode is for you.

[00:00:27] Jeff Sieh: We’re excited to welcome a guest who knows exactly what it takes to build a thriving business while staying protected. Ramon Ray has launched multiple companies, build strong personal brand, and helps entrepreneurs guard what matters most. He’s gonna share his story, his strategies, and his best advice.

[00:00:44] Jeff Sieh: For safeguarding your business in a world where AI is rewriting the rules. So sit back, clear your schedule, clear your mind, and get ready for this week’s episode of Creator News Live. Ramon, how are you doing today, my friend?

[00:00:56] Ramon Ray: You know Jeff, I am well, I am blessed. I have my second cup of [00:01:00] water of the day, which is always a good thing. Just had some pork chops that my wife weighed two days ago. I asked her to save it in the fridge ’cause I went away. That’s how tasty they were. So I’m well.

[00:01:08] Jeff Sieh: Pork chops for breakfast. That’s the way to go. It’s the Breakfast of Champions. So, uh, before we get started, you know, we’ve been doing a fun new thing for all our guests here on, creator News Live. We’ve got a theme song for Ramon, so I’m gonna play that and, uh, we will just keep going. [00:02:00] So.

[00:02:11] Ramon Ray: Jeff and Connor, I know this is your show, Jeff, but I’m gonna take the reins for a minute. Um, please. That was beautiful. That the time it takes to do that, the intentionality, just thank you. And that was such a delightful surprise,

[00:02:25] Jeff Sieh: Well, thank you. Good, good. That’s what we, that’s what we do here on Creator News Live. In fact, that one’s a little, we usually try to keep ’em a bit shorter, around 15 to 17 seconds. This one. Turned out so good. I’m like, I’m playing the whole thing. ’cause that is pretty awesome. So that was done, uh, with our friends over at Suno.

[00:02:41] Jeff Sieh: If you, uh, wanna make some AI music, that’s what you do. But it is getting better and better folks. That’s the worst it’s gonna get right there. So very, very cool. we’ve

[00:02:50] Conor Brown: the remarkable part though is that that was Jeff singing. That’s your voice.

[00:02:54] Conor Brown: it’s, so

[00:02:54] Jeff Sieh: I very, I have a really great false falsetto. Yeah. It’s really awesome. Yeah. So we got some of our [00:03:00] friends chiming into, we got Amy Keys saying hello

[00:03:02] Jeff Sieh: And we’ve got Rich Graham saying yo and waving high. happy Friday to you as well, Amy. And then Jim Fs from Fusion Marketing is saying, good morning everyone. So this, and Kenna says, outstanding, hearing the music, so very, very cool. but we’re just gonna jump into this, Ramon, because there’s a lot we need to talk about today, but.

[00:03:21] Jeff Sieh: Before we get started on the kind of this first section, I know Connor’s gonna kind of do a little bit more. The song was something, but we need to do a little

[00:03:27] Conor Brown: The song was great. The song set the tone, pun very much intended, but if you don’t know who Ramon is, you should, because Ramon Ray is Bit Defenders small business ambassador and a popular motivational keynote speaker, an event host at some of the best and most impactful events around the world, including the Aspire Tour Entrepreneurial level up South by Southwest, Gary Vaynerchuk’s, v Con, and so.

[00:03:53] Conor Brown: Many others. Ramon has produced and hosted over 200 episodes of the USA Today Network [00:04:00] Show, the Rundown with Ramon, and he’s interviewed all five Shark Tank original Sharks and President Obama. He’s also shared the stage with Deepak Chopra, Simon Sin, Seth, God, and Gary Vaynerchuk, and other notable business leaders like Jeff and myself.

[00:04:17] Conor Brown: Welcome back to the show as always, Ramon.

[00:04:21] Ramon Ray: should have started with that Connor, but yes, I have. But really you guys do so well, Jeff, and you guys have a machine like because of you. My Twitter, uh,following has increased. So Create News Live is where it’s at. Really. You all do a great job. So

[00:04:33] Jeff Sieh: It’s, it’s a lot of fun. And, and if you have, have a chance to hear, Ramon speak on stage. Oh my gosh, he’s amazing. He’s inspiring. Really, really great. So I, I’ve seen him multiple times at Social Media Marketing World, but he does so much more. So if you ever have a chance to see him, make sure you, follow him everywhere and also, see him on stage.

[00:04:50] Jeff Sieh: But let’s jump into our topic today because this is important. we’re gonna be talking about protecting your small business online, but first I want to ask people in the audience like. Has your business [00:05:00] ever faced a cyber threat, like, you know, a phishing scheme, email kind of scheme or Have you ever got like hacked, like had like one of those things you downloaded and like, ooh, I shouldn’t have done that.

[00:05:09] Jeff Sieh: So what are you doing currently to like protect yourself? Myself, I have used, one password for years. I love it. They keep getting better. Two factor, uh, all that stuff that happens with it, so very, very cool. But what are you guys using? I wanna know in the comments wherever you’re watching, but Ramon let’s.

[00:05:25] Jeff Sieh: Talk about this importance of cybersecurity, which that’s a, that’s a huge term, like cybersecurity. You’re the bit defender, ambassador. that’s one one of the reasons we wanted to have you on today. But, like kind of talk with us about what are the threats that are happening right now?

[00:05:43] Jeff Sieh: Like, what is, what is the biggest thing that you are seeing in this space that businesses need to, to worry about right now? Because I think. A lot of times we just don’t talk about it or we try to sweep it under the rug,

[00:05:53] Ramon Ray: Yeah. No Jeff, and thank you for asking me. I think listen, from the beginning of time, there’s always been the criminal element taking what you have. [00:06:00] Jeff was with his family, sees his wife’s purse. We know there’s money in there and I, I’m nefarious, so I want to take that purse. Connor’s puts us money in a bank as all of us do.

[00:06:09] Ramon Ray: criminals want to go to the bank or rob the stage coach back in the day. We understand that Jiff and Connor and what we’re talking about today, digital. Cybersecurity. The theft of digital data is no different. We have passwords, we have date of birth, we have online accounts, banking information, cryptocurrency, all these things and more are online.

[00:06:29] Ramon Ray: You take the, the, the theft of, of target many years ago, right? Jeff and Connor that went through one of their vendors, I believe it was like the HVAC guy, his simple little van, dusty. Rusty, pulling up. The cyber colonel was like, great, let’s not go to Target. Let’s go to them, target him. ’cause he’s a small business, he doesn’t have the resources to protect himself.

[00:06:49] Ramon Ray: Let’s target him ’cause he’s connecting to their network and they got in. So the summary of it is what we’re bringing out today, Jeff and and Connor, is really the aspect of dear small business owner. Or let me say it [00:07:00] even better, Jeff. Dear creator, you’re on ai. You have the multiple screens, you have the keyboards, you’re plugging in your thumb drives, or we don’t even do thumb drives.

[00:07:07] Ramon Ray: Your USB drives and all those. Things are you secure, you backed up and as you said, multi-factor, two factor authentication and all the things. That’s why we wanna be secure

[00:07:17] Jeff Sieh: Mm.

[00:07:18] Conor Brown: It’s, it’s the main reason why I only operate in cash and I have it hidden throughout various parts of this country, and you can only access it via treasure map. That’s the safest way. Of course, that’s not the safest way, but

[00:07:30] Ramon Ray: of it behind the picture, like behind you. Connor, some of it, like if I move the picture where I

[00:07:33] Jeff Sieh: Oh yeah,

[00:07:34] Ramon Ray: hundred dollars bills in the picture behind. Okay, got

[00:07:36] Conor Brown: I’m, I don’t wanna self incriminate or I don’t want anyone to actually understand this, but,it’s very nearby. It’s very, very, very nearby. it’s actually funny because this brings up something that I know people in, in the chat are already mentioning, you know, experiences that they’ve gone through.

[00:07:51] Conor Brown: The latest one that I’ve seen is I’ve been getting just random. Google,meeting notifications. So it shows up on my calendar. It [00:08:00] doesn’t show up on my Gmail or anything, and it just says, it’s often backdated, but it says, Bitcoin transferred success, right? So they want you to click in it, but it’s very off putting.

[00:08:10] Conor Brown: ’cause all of a sudden you see something on your calendar like that, right? so treasure map go with the treasure map route. But Ramon, when we talk about these terms like phishing and malware and ransomware. A lot of the times these are just terms for people that, that know that they’re bad, but they don’t necessarily know why they’re bad or what they are or how to prevent them from occurring, or how to not fall into their pit trap.

[00:08:37] Conor Brown: So can you kind of share in just simple terms what are some of these simple threats that, you know, small business owners, creators, might run into, every day?

[00:08:46] Ramon Ray: Absolutely. Connor, I want to go back to what you said about, you know, getting the calendar invite. Just that thing right there that Connor said is a great example to start this conversation. Just be vigilant. You know, again, we, we wanna understand, we wanna live in a world, we want to work with people, [00:09:00] but Connor just pausing and saying, okay, did, was it Jeff Ramon?

[00:09:02] Ramon Ray: Did we have a conversation? Am I expecting this? No. you know, I don’t deal with this kind of crypto, whatever it is, I’m just gonna ignore it. I’m gonna delete it. That right there, ladies and gentlemen, is one way to be secure. Just be vigilant. But Connor, as you asked me, there’s a few common cybersecurity threats that all creators, that small business owners must be aware of.

[00:09:21] Ramon Ray: One is definitely malware back in the day, like Jeff and I, like 1920s, Connor, you were probably born yesterday, but like back in the day, Jeff, you’d have to watch out for, what we call today, malware, but viruses. So that’s one. Whether you’re clicking. On the website, whether it’s a digital file, whatever it may be, something that’s nefarious that often you click on or download it that goes to your computer, your phone, your tablet.

[00:09:43] Ramon Ray: So that’s good old fashioned malware, some malicious piece of code. Number two, you have ransomware, which has been an increase over the last several years, but ransomware, and that is where somebody locks up your data, locks up your computer in the greater sense of the word, and you [00:10:00] pay them money. And most of the good criminals. intended. How do I get around that? They’re like, great, you paid us the 50,000, the a hundred million, whatever the, the number is, your data’s unlocked because it is a business. So that’s number two. That’s the ransomware. You have these phishing attacks, which you alluded to Connor, and the phishing attack is really simply where somebody’s, like phishing.

[00:10:21] Ramon Ray: You are going to Phish where they’re saying, Hey, let’s just give all this, data that looks good. Your D Hhl package arrived. Your FedEx package arrived. Hey Jeff, your home loan in Tahiti is through. They send that out to gazillions of people. All they need is a small percentage of people to click that to win ’cause it’s easy to do the bad.

[00:10:41] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, that is so true. And it’s, it’s, it’s getting more and more sophisticated. Like, you know, there’s things now we can talk about a little bit later when we kind of talk about ai, but, there’s been like these, like elderly people who. People are cloning their grandson’s voice and saying, Hey, I’ve been arrested.

[00:10:58] Jeff Sieh: I need some money to get outta [00:11:00] jail, which is an old scam, but they’ve now taken it to the next level by using ai, voice cloning. And so that’s really scary. Like if your nana hears your voice on the phone saying, Hey, I’m in prison. Help me out, Nana. You know, of course Nana wants to help. So it’s

[00:11:13] Ramon Ray: Whoa. Whoa. Jeff, I’m sorry. Can you just confirm, would Connor, would your Nana rescue you? Would she send money to rescue you? Because I don’t know. We haven’t all

[00:11:19] Jeff Sieh: I, I, my nana would, but you know.

[00:11:21] Conor Brown: Would have to, we would’ve to contact both of mine from the beyond, but I’m sure they would both be willing to

[00:11:27] Jeff Sieh: They’d be able to throw some,

[00:11:28] Ramon Ray: Go ahead, Jeff. Sorry about

[00:11:29] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So, but, but I mean that’s, that’s one of those things that are, that is happening and like, I’m pretty savvy and I’m, I’m having to tell, my parents are always calling me like, Hey, should I click on this? I’m like, mom, it’s okay. You know, or don’t, that’s not, that’s not from the government, you know, kind of a thing.

[00:11:43] Jeff Sieh: So, and we’ve got people who have, like, this is really scary, Jim, who’s actually gonna be on the show in a little bit. says, my website has been hacked, but not my overall business, which always makes me nervous because I’ve been hacked before, kind of the same thing. It was a WordPress kind of password thing and I luckily I had a [00:12:00] backup and I was able to restore it.

[00:12:01] Jeff Sieh: But you always start thinking, okay, what else did they have access to? Did they get something else? So because you are this, the Small business ambassador, you obviously Ramon Kipa. Like a pulse on the security tools that are out there. So what should we look for in a solution for our business or even our personal devices, like in your opinion, because it used to be in the day you’d get like McAfee, like what is it?

[00:12:25] Jeff Sieh: Antivirus. And you would have, everybody would have that and that was just what you would put on there. But now it’s, there’s even more, it’s not kind of the standards it once was. So what, in your opinion, what is having antivirus software enough these days? Or do we need. A more comprehensive like cyber security approach that covers everything.

[00:12:43] Ramon Ray: Yeah, I think so. And I think it’s two parts. Jeff, and again, really honored to be part of BIT Defender’s, you know, small business ambassador team and help evangelize this. I think there’s two things. One, definitely Jeff, and I’ll hone on this over and over again, it’s simply. Being aware. So that’s number one.

[00:12:59] Ramon Ray: [00:13:00] Being aware I think is really numeral Uno. Number one, just being aware before we click, before we come somewhere. Was it pay Powell? Was it pay Pat? Those small things as again, Connor as you alluded to, right? Your first one. Hey, this doesn’t look right. Was it me? A friend of mine, Jeff and Connor, she said, Ramon, I got a question about A, she’s an accountant about a, a loan from the SBA.

[00:13:20] Ramon Ray: Did you refer them? I would said, good job. It’s a small annoyance, but you checked and verified that I sent this person to you. So one is awareness number two, then, Jeff, to recap that. Are the digital things that you can do on your own? Do you have two factor authentication where oftentimes your cell phone is text before you open it or biometrics some other?

[00:13:39] Ramon Ray: option to let you in. So two factor authentication, and then three, yes, I encourage people, download, install, security solutions to your computer, to your tablet, to your phone. That’s what we have at Bitdefender or wherever you’re comfortable getting it, but be secure. And so this third thing is important because as the hackers are easier, like you mentioned, the phone scams back in the day, Jeff wouldn’t me, you and [00:14:00] Connor have to do, we would never do it.

[00:14:01] Ramon Ray: But the evil people, what would they have to do? Hire 500 people, hire a hundred people in some boiler room, right? But now two guys with a latte and somewhere in the world hit a button, good voice scams, go out to Jeff’s grandmother and Conner’s grandmother and my grandmother, and see what happens. It’s easier and ever.

[00:14:18] Ramon Ray: So that’s where you want good security solutions that also evolve with the cybersecurity threats. ’cause every day they’re changing. Every day they’re changing.

[00:14:26] Jeff Sieh: So I was gonna follow up, I was gonna follow up real quick because

[00:14:29] Jeff Sieh: I, I have a, I have a question. How often should you have your whatever tool of choice, Bitdefender or whatever, like up, because I, they can go and I know to the, to the web and get like the new viruses and have the patches and all that stuff.

[00:14:43] Jeff Sieh: Does Bitdefender have that daily where it’ll like look for new things? How does that work for people who haven’t done it before?

[00:14:49] Ramon Ray: Any good, any good security solution will automatically behind the scenes. Seamlessly do that. And Bitdefender does that once you install it. I don’t like to use the word set it and forget it, ’cause [00:15:00] life should never be like that, but it should be seamless in the background so that I got a text on my phone just a few days ago and alert came up.

[00:15:06] Ramon Ray: This is malicious, we’ve blocked it. Giving me the option to see, oh, its from Connor. He offered me free cruises to today. To Orlando on Disney. Okay, I can unblock, but most of the time, you know, it could see through things like that and block it automatically. So yes, automatically updating it. Automatically evolving a, you know, and the, what do they call it?

[00:15:25] Ramon Ray: The, um, zero day threat. I think that’s word zero. Uh, yeah, zero day threats when those come out. There’s very little time. Nothing that you, we, you and I can do. Jeff and Con, right? We’re creators, but companies like Bitdefender and others who are working on these small business security solutions, they’re investing millions and millions of dollars to try to be toe to toe, or at best, a step ahead of the malicious hackers out there.

[00:15:47] Conor Brown: Just know if you ever get an email from me offering you a free cruise, either A, it is a total scam, or B, I’ve just won the Powerball or something. ’cause those are the only two ways you’re

[00:15:57] Jeff Sieh: Right. That’s right.

[00:15:57] Ramon Ray: I’m gonna hope that you’ve won the Powerball, [00:16:00] Connor. And I’m gonna be waiting for not just my crews, for me and my family, but Jeff’s as well, our cousins, our aunties, our uncles, the, the grandparents who we’re saying are not, are gonna pay our ransoms. All the people

[00:16:10] Jeff Sieh: We gotta reward them. Yeah.

[00:16:12] Conor Brown: Buy the ship out, we’ll buy the ship out. But you know, it’s one of these things, Ramon, where it’s like, security is so important, right? We don’t want these things to impede the progress that we’ve made in building our business in, in the grind that we do day in and day out. especially as creators, especially as entrepreneurs.

[00:16:29] Conor Brown: Every day we sit down, we say, what are we gonna create? What are we gonna put out there? How are we going to stay consistent? Right? with all of these things though, it’s important to protect it, but. How do small business owners, how do solopreneurs really set themselves up so that the defense is doing that?

[00:16:46] Conor Brown: It’s doing it in the background. Of course, we’re gonna stay diligent, but we don’t want it to be essentially intrusive to our progress of creating, of building a business. Do you have any tips around how marketers can really [00:17:00] ensure that they’re set up for security and success, but they can continue to hustle and, and, and grow without really having to worry about that?

[00:17:07] Ramon Ray: Yeah, and you’re right Connor, it’s like going to the supermarket and having something impeding you or anything you’re doing in life, right? You wanna have a as frictionless experience as you can. You don’t wanna be like you’re getting on an airline and having to be, you know, cavity checked going through TS, a good people doing good work, they have to do it that way, right?

[00:17:22] Ramon Ray: But Jeff doesn’t want to have his thousands of customers or followers do it. Neither do you con or myself. But a few things we can do. And I think, Connor, that’s a great question. What do we do? I think one is creators continue to build trust, that people get a sense, this is Connor’s voice, this is how we send things.

[00:17:39] Ramon Ray: His email newsletter comes in every Tuesday, comes in every Thursday. It’s creator news live, et cetera, et cetera, that we can train us in what we’re doing. That’s number one. Number two, train them the yes, when I ask you for money or when you’re buying from me, here’s the process. Here’s what it looks like.

[00:17:55] Ramon Ray: We only use this website link. So that’s number two, kind of training, kind of [00:18:00] education. Number three, listen Connor. If it’s something that you need to be secure, this goes back to the training Jeff and Connor of we use two facts or authentication. Jeff, I know it’s a little pain, but you’re gonna get a text every time we do this, that the other, please just send that out.

[00:18:14] Ramon Ray: So I think that mixture of things, knowing your brand. Knowing your brand. This is Jeff’s voice, this is branding. Two, a consistent, maybe domain, a consistent, here’s how the buy page looks. And then three, really training them. I know it’s a pain, but we’re gonna ask you for biometric. We don’t keep it, we don’t store it.

[00:18:30] Ramon Ray: It’s through a third party security solution. That kind of thing. Connor, I think, will help people feel comfortable and we can do our best every day to win every day and not have the hackers and others malicious people win.

[00:18:41] Conor Brown: You know, one thing, Jeff, on the travel agent side of things, my agency, we’ve just started to implement new systems that, people can sign off on their vacations and add their credit card so we can authorize those payments and stuff. But in order to do it, they have to set up an account, right?

[00:18:56] Conor Brown: The account is super simple. They put in their email that we already have associated with [00:19:00] them, and then they get a quick little code email to them, and that’s how they log in. But. It’s protecting everything, right? So what have we done? We’ve created simple templates, simple email templates that we send to people and say, here’s what to expect.

[00:19:12] Conor Brown: And no one, no one is, is ever worried about that. And they know it’s in their best interest too.

[00:19:19] Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

[00:19:19] Ramon Ray: Connor, can I add one thing to there, Jeff? I just wanted May, may I, Jeff.

[00:19:22] Jeff Sieh: Yeah,

[00:19:22] Ramon Ray: You always gotta ask Carter. I didn’t know whether he was gonna say, no, I can’t. And then he stopped the whole show and

[00:19:26] Jeff Sieh: that’s right. Boot

[00:19:27] Ramon Ray: terrible. But, uh, Connor, to your point, and there’s security on both sides, right?

[00:19:32] Ramon Ray: There’s a security of your consumers, those who wanna make sure they’re going to the right place, going to an authenticated source, and then Connor, like using your case as a small business owner. There’s the security of your business. So making sure that your small business, your team, your va, your consultant, you’ve hired that every touchpoint they have, their individual computer, your network, in your home office, or in your corporate office, that’s secure as well.

[00:19:54] Ramon Ray: So that’s the two sides of that, uh, security rubric.

[00:19:57] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, very, very cool. We’ve got, uh, my [00:20:00] friend, Ralph from GR and Growth Business saying late to the party, but what a great topic. So many businesses don’t understand these issues now. Ralph knows about it ’cause he is an accountant. If you’ve ever had to deal with that accountant stuff online, you have to do, they have usually have a secure kind of system that they use that you have to go in.

[00:20:15] Jeff Sieh: Upload those documents, download those documents. one of the things that, and I, I did not like it at the time when I used to do a lot of stuff about five years ago with Social Media Examiner, they would have a security audit every year, which means all the passwords would change and we’d have to do it.

[00:20:30] Jeff Sieh: And we were all on one password and it was a pain. But now that I have grown and I have more things out there in the ethernet, I need to make sure that I. I do that too. So we have that as well. We try to at least once a year, redo everything. It’s really easy with, the, these new tools you have, but, it’s very important that you don’t use like, Jeff, 1, 2, 3, 4.

[00:20:52] Jeff Sieh: Like, come on folks, like this is 2025. We need to, we need to think a little bit harder now, on those things. And I, and I like the ones that where [00:21:00] you memorize a really hard long one and then it. Unlocks a vault kind of a thing. And so, and also when you’re sharing stuff like, come on, like you gotta send those out in a protected way.

[00:21:10] Jeff Sieh: Don’t send ’em through text, don’t dump ’em in email. Those are just kind of things, I know we, this can be a little boring or like, oh, I know Jeff, we gotta do it. But so many people don’t until something bad happens. So it’s

[00:21:22] Ramon Ray: And even Jeff. Jeff, that discipline of resetting the passwords, you’re right, it’s a pain to do. But think about, you know, the employer you work for, companies we work for, all of us need to be secure, but companies like that, it’s a pain. But kudos to them saying once a year, all 50 of you, all 75 of you, right?

[00:21:39] Ramon Ray: That’s a small business. All 10 of you resetting everything. that, that little step right there, it’s a pain, but it helps reduce the threat of a cybersecurity, break in. So it’s good.

[00:21:49] Jeff Sieh: So set it on your calendar, folks. Say, Hey, this date we’re gonna change everything and just set it every year. Like get yourself a reminder. That’s probably the easiest way to do that kind of social, media password [00:22:00] audit. I guess. one of the things I wanna jump into AI right now and talk to folks about AI because that is kind of.

[00:22:06] Jeff Sieh: Raising the level of threat. so I want to ask the people in the audience, does the rise of AI excite. Or does it worry you when it comes to like your business? Like I’m not thi I’m not talking about like taking over my job or whatever, but like a deep fake or somebody using your voice. ’cause I can take Ramon from his podcast with five minutes.

[00:22:28] Jeff Sieh: I can clone his voice to have him say whatever it wants. So does, does that just wait? but does that concern you guys? Like, are you worried that. You know, we kind of talked about the, the calls from your grandma, but that can be like your wife. That could be all sorts of things. Now, if you’re out there in, in a public space, if you’re doing a show, a podcast, whatever, your voice, your likeness, all that stuff is out there for the ai.

[00:22:52] Jeff Sieh: So does that worrying you? I’d love to know what you guys think. In fact, ’cause Ralph is in the audience. one of the things that I heard somebody [00:23:00] was doing, they were uploading their tax forms. To ChatGPT, which sounds like a good idea ’cause you can ask it questions and you can see like, what am I gonna owe in taxes and stuff.

[00:23:09] Jeff Sieh: But you guys gotta remember that when you upload stuff to ChatGPT unless you toggle something to say, keep this private. And also how well are they doing that? it’s a little concerning. So personally I would not do that. But, I’d love to know your thoughts, Ramon, on this rise of AI when it comes to.

[00:23:28] Jeff Sieh: AI, deep fakes and how we can stay safe.

[00:23:31] Ramon Ray: No, Jeff. It is very, very scary. And shout out to the musical web ais here. Jeff and Connor, she has an amazing piano empire teaching people how to play piano and more. So thank you Anna, for being here, but it is very scary. I wish I could say it wasn’t. But AI is one of the most powerful forces, as you know, Jeff and Connor, that we have.

[00:23:49] Ramon Ray: And it’s a powerful force for good, but it’s also a powerful force for the hacker element, the, the, the cyber criminal element to use it. So here’s my thinking on this. A I. [00:24:00] As you train more and more your customers, this is the domain we use. This is the social profile we use. This is how you can make sure we’re sending you the authentic information.

[00:24:10] Ramon Ray: Only. Trust this. That’s one. Number two, this is where it goes further. Jeff, this is not even about security. Build a strong brand. The more and more Jeff is out there, the more and more we know this is him. Somebody. ELs doing something nefarious against him. We’re gonna give Jeff Grace because Jeff, that is going to happen.

[00:24:27] Ramon Ray: Doesn’t it happen on Instagram? There’s probably 50 fake Jeff sees out there. I know there’s at least two fake Ramon Rays out there. So I think that’s number two. number three. I do think that this is where though cybersecurity solutions do come in because on the, not just the deep fakes, but where it’s so easy to leverage AI for bad, you know, again, we’re using it, as you said, for all the productivity, but I can do a few.

[00:24:48] Ramon Ray: Type a few prompts. AI can help me do evil, so I think that’s where then you wanna make sure the solution you’re using also is up to speed on what is the latest AI threat that can attack your business.

[00:24:59] Conor Brown: And a lot of that [00:25:00] too has, has come from the deep fakes, right from the AI generated,components that hackers are using. It’s become a growing concern. We have some interesting stats around it. In the first quarter of 2025, there were 179 recorded deep fake incidences, which were more than all of 2024 combined.

[00:25:19] Conor Brown: There was even a case where criminals used a deep fake call of A CEO to trick an employee into wiring 25 million. I’ve seen that kind of come into place with phishing emails, but never to anything of that scale. So, Ramon, that of course is, is the craziest of it all, but they can

[00:25:41] Ramon Ray: What a reality.

[00:25:42] Conor Brown: that are much smaller and, and, and more researched and tactile for, for anyone.

[00:25:47] Conor Brown: So. How do businesses, how do solopreneurs go about just trying to verify if a video of voicemail or Quest is real, or AI faking it.

[00:25:58] Ramon Ray: Yeah. Here’s two things I would say, and Connor, on the [00:26:00] second point, if I remember it, I’m getting a little old. I would love to know what you think of this, you and Jeff, but for the first one, this is where pre-vetted, pre templated, pre protocoled communications come in. Connor’s, my boss, I get a voice message check from him saying, Ramon wire, Jeff, the $3,000 small amount, right?

[00:26:18] Ramon Ray: Something. Okay. Probably should do it. But this is where, let me authenticate this. Let me verify this via our previously ag agreed upon protocols. Don’t let me just reply. Don’t let me just click, let me go to what we’ve pre-agreed on. So that’s one. But a side note, Connor, and this is taken a little bit off the reservation.

[00:26:37] Ramon Ray: It is, let me know, but I think this is where the human connections come in. How many people, let’s say boss, that, let’s say Connor, that you are not a great boss and I’m a little afraid. To call you little afraid to verify. So it’s a separate issue. You know what I’m, you know where I’m going, Jeff. Right. But when you have a great culture as well, and the human to human connection, it helps with that because I’m just, Jeff’s like Ramon, thank you.

[00:26:56] Ramon Ray: Thank you. You did a good job. Thanks for calling me on the number you have and [00:27:00] verifying it where I’m not afraid to call you. I just, I just thought of that, you know, it wasn’t techie, but it goes back to being human.

[00:27:04] Jeff Sieh: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I, and I think, having a Zoom call, like if you’re wiring money, like, Hey, let’s just jump on and let’s talk this through, just to be sure before, I mean, I think it’s gonna become more and more with the, the rise of this AI and being able to spoof things really, really easily. this is a great point from, my friend Ralph, because I, I hadn’t thought about this.

[00:27:24] Jeff Sieh: But it makes sense. He says, may I add one more thing? Buy cyber insurance because it will save your butt if your client’s data gets taken. And to honestly, getting your own data taken is horrible enough, but having your clients like, Hey, Jeff, why didn’t you secure this? And now I, I got hacked for, you know, half a million dollars or a million.

[00:27:46] Jeff Sieh: That would scare me more than myself being hacked. ’cause I know how much money I have. But, it’s really, really interesting. And then, and he also says, when we were talking about uploading stuff to ai, he goes, great point Jeff. This is where some practitioners, will get into trouble with giving away client [00:28:00] data.

[00:28:00] Jeff Sieh: So, once again, everything, if you’re using ChatGPT to do an analysis for your clients. Be careful. There’s co, there are even some services now that are specifically locked down and I think it was either Google or Microsoft. It may have been Microsoft that came out with a, a playground that’s completely locked in for, for your clients that you can do.

[00:28:21] Jeff Sieh: So just be very, very careful on that note. So, the other thing, Ramon, I wanted to ask you, as content creators and entrepreneurs we share, we have to share stuff out on these platforms that we do not own. And, I’ve read that like modern AI can scan a target’s public social media footprint and craft these personalized scams.

[00:28:40] Jeff Sieh: Like they may know, oh, Jeff likes to carve and he goes to Disney a couple times a year. Like, do you think our online visibility is making us more vulnerable to things like phishing or impersonation? And what, what should we do as people who live our lives in public? I mean, you get up and tell us. Like what you had for breakfast, right?

[00:28:58] Jeff Sieh: So somebody could say, listen, [00:29:00] I’ve got a special deal on burnt toast and bacon. what, what can, what can we do? ’cause I know that’s what he eats almost every morning. So if somebody said, Hey, Ramon, we’re gonna give you a lifetime supply of Burnt Toast and Bacon. You’d be like, oh my gosh. And you could, you would click something.

[00:29:16] Jeff Sieh: You would click it. I know you my friend. So how do we protect ourselves? Without going into hiding, like online, like I’m done with Facebook, I’m done with Instagram. Instead of doing that, ’cause we still need to make money because that’s part of our job as being creators out in the public space. What do we do?

[00:29:32] Jeff Sieh: Like how can we be safe?

[00:29:34] Ramon Ray: Jeff, I think what you and I do and Connor does, is a calling and my only solution for that, I’ll try to give some tactical insight, but I think this is a choice that every day we wake up, we can be a hermit. We can hide, as most people will do living normal lives, but it’s Connor, Ramon and Jeff. We show up and do our shows, our podcast work with great brands like Ecamm.

[00:29:55] Ramon Ray: This is the choice we have. So in fairness, once you pick up the [00:30:00] mantle, whether it’s a mantle of faith, a mantle of politics, a mantle of being a creator of whatever lane you’re

[00:30:05] Jeff Sieh: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:06] Ramon Ray: this is what it is. So that’s one. My advice is that this is just the nature of the beast. Number two, I would say. Be careful.

[00:30:14] Ramon Ray: So I don’t walk around in, in paranoia, Jeff, but I try to be careful, okay, that my car’s license plate let me get closer to my face so people can’t see the exact address. Little things like that, why not make it a little harder for the nefarious person? That’s number two. And then number three, Jeff. I think we just have to be careful.

[00:30:30] Ramon Ray: We have to be careful. And I will give a shout out to the ladies, ladies, since I’ve been told this, I’m going to say it. This is not Jeff saying it. O’Connor saying it don’t. Cancel them. But to the ladies, I think they have a maybe more difficult, many ladies have said driving in Ubers, I’ve been accosted our hotels, you know, ’cause they’re women.

[00:30:47] Ramon Ray: It’s a little different. We, we men are the are aggressors. So I just wanted to shout out to them ladies, you may need to be even more careful. Maybe you say what hotel you were after you leave, maybe me and Jeff. We may do it on the day of, I don’t know. But to the [00:31:00] ladies, lady creators, I wanna give you a shout out.

[00:31:01] Ramon Ray: You may even have to be more careful. I say that with honor and respect.

[00:31:05] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I think that’s a good point. I used to, especially when my kids were at home, I would ne I would wait till after an event if I was going to an event just to do that so people would know that I was not away from the house. I just, that was just trying to be smart, I guess, about it. And, uh, don’t let your, I think this is what you’re saying is don’t let your desire for reach or exposure, overcome your thoughts on safety.

[00:31:28] Jeff Sieh: Right? Like, think it through, like, okay, if I post that, I’m gonna be in Cleveland. For a big conference for a week, is that gonna put my wife or my kids in danger or my house in danger or whatever. So, because, you know, I can Google where Ramon’s at and find out, oh, he’s, he’s on a show right now. Oh, I could just go and plunder his, or Connor, even like with all this stuff hidden around the country with a treasure map.

[00:31:52] Jeff Sieh: I just gotta find the treasure map

[00:31:53] Ramon Ray: You gotta find the map, Jeff. That’s the thing. Jeff. We gotta find the map,

[00:31:57] Jeff Sieh: I know we’re gonna get it. We’re gonna get it. So,it’s [00:32:00] really interesting with, with with Ralph and the, the stuff we’re doing with AI and putting stuff online, we just have to be careful as we grow. Like if the bigger you get, the more people will see you.

[00:32:11] Jeff Sieh: What is it whenever the higher you up get on the ladder, the more people can see your butt kind of a thing That’s kind of really happens when you’re a creator. So,

[00:32:17] Ramon Ray: Taller you are, the harder you fall. And Jeff, I’ll just say when I was listening to a, another podcast, I mean, yours is the best, but I was listening to another podcast, you know, like seventh level, 10th level, like a garbage podcast. Uh, one of these guys, he had a mansion. You know, somebody was like, who’s the boxer?

[00:32:29] Ramon Ray: Jake? Uh,

[00:32:30] Ramon Ray: Jake

[00:32:31] Jeff Sieh: yeah, Paul. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:32:32] Ramon Ray: Right, and it wasn’t him but one of his buddies. You know, my point is they’re saying they live in a mansion. They have security, they have protocols, they have lights, camera, action, because they are a creator. They’re fame, and I hope we both are. I hope all of us here on this show, as it grows, it’s a choice.

[00:32:45] Ramon Ray: He’s not gonna shut down his live Restream. Everybody knows where his podcast studio is. I mean, this is the world we pick. But with that, now, he’s had to slowly evolve and enhance his security. It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s the nature of the beast.

[00:32:58] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, totally get it.

[00:32:59] Conor Brown: [00:33:00] Looking ahead though. You know, I think there’s two sides to this too, right? there are things that we still need to be cautious of and vigilant of with AI and all this new technology, but I would have to assume that that’s also gonna help us in the long term, maybe protect us more or, or something like that if we use it properly.

[00:33:18] Conor Brown: So, Ramon, as we look ahead, twofold. What are you personally most concerned for? Small businesses when it comes to these hackers and things to be vigilant on. And on the flip side, what emerging tech, like AI and stuff are you most excited about that you think could help small business owners, solopreneurs, creators, succeed by staying safe?

[00:33:42] Ramon Ray: I’ll give one example of this, and Connor, you have full permission. Bring me back to the range if this examples go far off the way. Just bring me back Jeff and Connor. So here’s the how I would answer the question. I recently rode in the Waymo driverless vehicle. I think they’re in Arizona, they’re in California.

[00:33:58] Ramon Ray: There’s some other places. It was amazing. If you [00:34:00] haven’t written one by the way, cup, Jeff Connor. Have you ridden a Waymo yet? Waymo

[00:34:02] Ramon Ray: driverless car of

[00:34:03] Jeff Sieh: I have not, not yet.

[00:34:05] Ramon Ray: So I did it. It was amazing. So we’re going through, I’m about to say we’re going through this, what we’re going through with tech. What if it crashes?

[00:34:10] Ramon Ray: What if it’s not safe? What if something happens? Oh, that Connor and Jeff is going to happen, but it is what it is. This happened when the vehicle first came out. So what I’m trying to say is that we are always going to be in a place of bumbling along the hackers, the cyber criminals. They’re going to win once in a while.

[00:34:28] Ramon Ray: But the message of the day, for me, especially being bit defenders, small business and master, is how do we simply reduce the threat? So. I am a harder target, and I think that’s the message. How can I be as hard a target as I can be by being vigilant, by having software installed, by training my team, by me having simple protocols in place, two factor authentication, that’s a big, easy thing.

[00:34:49] Ramon Ray: We can do those things, Connor, because I think whether it’s 10 years from now, five years from now, next year, technology is gonna evolve. People are gonna hack Connor’s Keurig machine, but [00:35:00] hopefully. His fridge will have something on it that’s, that makes it a little harder. And they’ll go to Mayor Jeff instead and won’t steal Connor’s Dunking Donut creamer, something like that.

[00:35:09] Conor Brown: Thank God that one can only hope.

[00:35:11] Jeff Sieh: I don’t know. Are you old enough to drink coffee yet, Connor? I’m not sure. Um,

[00:35:14] Conor Brown: have to ask my mom

[00:35:15] Jeff Sieh: yeah, ask your Bobby to see if it’s okay. Um, it’s funny. So do you guys remember it? Remember when LifeLock came out? That was one of those, things and he, his whole thing was he would drive around on the billboards and he would have his, social security number.

[00:35:29] Jeff Sieh: And of course he got hacked. And I’m like, that was horrible for the branch. So you’ve gotta be smart. And then like, uh, Jim says, and I think it was my Kansas City Chiefs this happened to, was that they knew they were playing a game or they were traveling and for the NFL players and they were going to their house and, and breaking in and stealing stuff.

[00:35:46] Jeff Sieh: So

[00:35:47] Conor Brown: Burrows house got sold too.

[00:35:48] Conor Brown: Cincinnati Bengal, Joe

[00:35:50] Jeff Sieh: Oh yeah, yeah. So I mean. You’ve gotta be smart. Like I, I have my cameras running right now because I’m in my portable building, because if, and [00:36:00] this will probably never happen, but I’m here, I’m not in my house. Somebody could say, oh, Jeff’s on a show right now. Nobody’s there. So that’s why I have security and turn on everything when I leave.

[00:36:09] Jeff Sieh: So,

[00:36:10] Ramon Ray: And Jeff, can I, can I, sorry, I just wanna go back to that point, Jeff, going like you said the NFL players, or was it Anish NFL

[00:36:16] Jeff Sieh: yeah.

[00:36:16] Jeff Sieh: NFL, yeah.

[00:36:17] Ramon Ray: what, what to do, Jeff. These are public figures and at some point you get to some level, we know where p, you know, the president lives or Taylor Swift to be on, say they, they’re so big with a little reasonable search you can find there or you pay some money.

[00:36:32] Ramon Ray: So I just wanted to hone in that point, don’t live in fear. But live smart and live cautiously, especially to the level you are at. So I think, but you’re right, the N. The NFL players is a great example. They’re all out. We know their games. We know where Team X, YZ will be in 2026 or whatever, you know, or we know where they’ll be in two months.

[00:36:52] Ramon Ray: We know it. It’s all out there. But just live as smart as you can be and take due diligence.

[00:36:57] Jeff Sieh: So, this is a great tip [00:37:00] from Ralph. Uh, especially we were talking about, like if somebody clones your voice and you know, Nana’s trying to to talk to you, and you’re, she’s like, I’m not sure this is you. Ralph says, here’s a great tip. When I was in corporate security, have a secret phrase that you share with your loved ones.

[00:37:15] Jeff Sieh: That they can confirm that it’s you speaking to them and he’s, because I think that is so, so very, that’s a great idea, Ralph. we have one too. And so if you get

[00:37:23] Jeff Sieh: that call, I’m not gonna say it out loud. It’s like,

[00:37:26] Conor Brown: Is Jeff’s chocolate covered pork RINs. It’s his

[00:37:29] Jeff Sieh: that’s Connor. Geez. Now I gotta come up with a new, and I gotta call all my family now.

[00:37:35] Jeff Sieh: Geez, Connor.

[00:37:38] Ramon Ray: map. I think that’s his treasure map. That’s a

[00:37:40] Jeff Sieh: map. Yeah. It’s actually, oh. It’s, it’s right, it’s, it’s printed on his, he’s got a tattoo of it. Um, like, what was that? Uh, memento. Um, anyway, so, uh, we forgot to talk at the be beginning of the show because I was so excited about security. we wanna thank our sponsors here at Ecamm, for sponsoring the show.

[00:37:57] Jeff Sieh: If you find out more about them, we got [00:38:00] Ecamm dot com slash jeff. You can say 15% on your first purchase by using the code, Jeff. 15. They’re what makes the shows possible. if you’re going to camp in a couple weeks, I will be there beginning October, so it’s gonna be a blast. And now I’ve just announced it everyone where I’ll be, which we just told everybody not to do.

[00:38:15] Jeff Sieh: But anyway, I will be there. My house will be locked down. There’s nothing here of value anyway, so, uh, please just move on along. But yeah, I’ll be there. Ecamm dot com. Forward slash Jeff. I think they have a few tickets left for camp. but because Ramon’s on here and, you know, we’ve talked about security, all the cool stuff, you know, making sure that we protect ourselves using tools like Bitdefender.

[00:38:36] Jeff Sieh: but we’ve also kind of tilted a little bit into personal branding, and Ramon is a genius at this. it leads to speaking events for him. It leads to, partnerships like with Bitdefender. But I wanted to talk about a little bit about. Personal branding. And I wanna know from the audience, how do you balance your hustle with your personal life?

[00:38:57] Jeff Sieh: Like as we, as like [00:39:00] Ramona and I, and I have been doing this for a long time. Connor has like, he’s got multiple businesses that he’s doing. He’s got vacation kingdoms, he’s running, he’s doing all this cool stuff. But how do you balance that? And we hear the term work-life balance, which I have a little bit of problem with, but Ramon, how do you set those rules to make time for your family yourself?

[00:39:20] Jeff Sieh: Or finding that balance. I mean, you’re right now in California because you had a new grand baby. So talk about that a little bit.

[00:39:27] Ramon Ray: Yeah, I was trying to keep that private, Jeff, but I’ll talk about that for sure. No. How do you balance personal branding, the showmanship, the show, ladyship being out there in your personal life? Great question, Jeff, and I think a few things to do. One, educate your family and friends of what you do so they understand why you post video, why you go live, why you want to take pictures so they understand what your job is.

[00:39:51] Ramon Ray: I think that’s one. Number two, understand that you don’t have to be on all the time. You’re taking your wife out for her anniversary, for y’all’s [00:40:00] anniversary. You’re taking your child out, whatever it is. Maybe you take a picture, maybe you take a selfie, then you put your phone in your pocket, and you enjoy that time with them.

[00:40:06] Ramon Ray: So that means being appropriate. Prioritizing those moments. That’s number two. Number three, I believe, be careful what you share. Jeff and I and Connor probably share quite a bit, but there are limits. People may think I share everything. I don’t. So I think those three things are how I have a balance, a, the appropriate timing.

[00:40:24] Ramon Ray: Two, I don’t have to share everything. And number three, educating my family. This is what I do for a living. You’re, you have a quieter job being an accountant. For me, it’s, it’s the, it’s the showcasing of my world. It’s what I do, and my family understands that.

[00:40:39] Jeff Sieh: Hmm. That’s great.

[00:40:40] Conor Brown: I love that. And so when we talk about building a personal brand and the importance behind it, we talked about it a little bit before. You know, the reason that people gravitate towards us is because we have a personality, because we show up, we put ourselves out there, right? It’s something that AI can’t do.

[00:40:56] Conor Brown: So Ramon, we know you’re a huge proponent of. [00:41:00] Building that personal brand so that people can connect with you and then do business once they believe that that connection makes sense. Your book is literally titled the Celebrity CEO, how Entrepreneurs Can Thrive by Building a strong Personal Brand. So why do you believe that building a personal brand is just.

[00:41:19] Conor Brown: Critical for small business owners, for solopreneurs, for creators. And what advantages have you seen that it’s been, that it has given entrepreneurs when it comes to building their personal brand?

[00:41:31] Ramon Ray: I love the question, Connor. Let’s take a look at Vacation Kingdoms. Vacation Kingdoms is a corporate brand, is a brand, you know, no, maybe nobody has to know who founded or who started whatever, and grow that. That’s an asset. Maybe you’ll sell it, have partners, et cetera. Got it. But then Connor, you are an asset to vacation kingdoms because you can be on this podcast, you can talk, you can show up, you can smile, you can shake hands.

[00:41:52] Ramon Ray: So if that little example helps, let’s take a look at my role with Bitdefender Connor, right? Bit defender’s a a huge global company. [00:42:00] Huge. But they still said we want some budget because we want humans. To still represent us. So that’s why I tell every business owner, build your corporate entity. Your corporate brand.

[00:42:11] Ramon Ray: That’s great. But also understand, especially for us smaller businesses, you are probably the biggest asset for your brand because business cards don’t, can’t do deals, only

[00:42:21] Ramon Ray: people can do deals. And of course, AI bots. So that’s what I say.

[00:42:25] Jeff Sieh: Awesome.

[00:42:26] Jeff Sieh: And, uh, Ralph once, once again, chimed in Uh, he says, for me, balance does not exist. I think it’s a complete false thing. I, uh, think intentionality and being present with intention for your loved ones, I think that’s great. I think for me it’s seasonal.

[00:42:41] Jeff Sieh: Like when I was, my kids were in the house, I did not take. As many speaking gigs as I do now, just because I wanted to be home. Like that was the thing that was just it. Now that they’re outta the house, I have more flexibility. I’m doing more things. Wife gets to travel with me sometimes, and so that’s, for me, it’s seasonal and like my parents are [00:43:00] going to need my help eventually.

[00:43:02] Jeff Sieh: That’s gonna change my life as well. That’s coming, that’s gonna be another season of my life. So I like to think of like not work-life balance. ’cause I don’t think it can ever be balanced, especially with creators. It’s so much a part of our life. And about and who we are, that I think it’s seasonal and it’s gonna change, and I’m ready and, know that’s gonna happen.

[00:43:20] Jeff Sieh: So, on this, on your book, the, you know, becoming a celebrity CEO, you mentioned it’s not about ego, it’s about building relationships, trust in a community of fans. So for people who haven’t started yet, or maybe just getting started in their journey, what are some of those practical steps? That you can do to build that loyal community around your brand?

[00:43:42] Jeff Sieh: Like what, what can a small business owner or creator, how can they start positioning themselves as a go-to person in their niche without being like a, having huge budget or like, you know, a huge company like Connor’s that, you know, we’re just getting started. What are your thoughts on that?

[00:43:57] Ramon Ray: Yeah, I love that question, Jeff. And here’s what I would say is that [00:44:00] one, one tip, and I can go on this. You tell me how many hours you want me to go on this, like at six hours, four hours, 10 hours. One thing I can say, Jeff, is that don’t be afraid or get comfortable, rather with the power of self. Promotion.

[00:44:11] Ramon Ray: That’s the one nugget I can give because I think that stops people. They’ve, oh, no, no, no. It’s all about my, my company. Oh, no, no. It’s all about we, it, no, don’t, I don’t wanna be on the show, Jeff, but a, you’re doing a disservice to your future customer if you provide water solutions, water cups, whatever.

[00:44:28] Ramon Ray: Silly examples. I hold up this cup here. Somebody needs this. Somebody needs it. And by you not being there to showcase it to them, that means they’re going to the competition or you are depriving them of working for you. So that’s probably the one thing I would do to reorient, reorient your mind that I think most people believe in sales, but part of the sales process is about building trust.

[00:44:49] Ramon Ray: Part of trust is about generating awareness and all that is about being the celebrity CEO of your industry, which is the power of personal branding.

[00:44:57] Jeff Sieh: Hmm.

[00:44:58] Conor Brown: We are gonna talk about balance [00:45:00] though still, right? Because we work hard to build our. Businesses and it’s late nights. It’s, you know, answering that email when a client thinks it’s an emergency, it’s not an emergency, but you still want to answer it just to let them, you know, be at ease and those sorts of things.

[00:45:16] Conor Brown: Constant networking, like these are the things we need to invest in that take a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of,Our daily lives in order to build the businesses we want. But Ramon, you’re so wisely, point out how we still have to remember to hug our kids and, and love our spouses too along the way.

[00:45:33] Conor Brown: So how do you personally manage that balance when it comes to grinding and, and showing up for your audience and for your business, but then also showing up for your family and your friends and, and those relationships? How do you go about finding that?

[00:45:49] Ramon Ray: A few ways. I’ve done this over the years Connor, and thanks for giving me the chance to share about this. I think one, starting in reverse order is what I’m doing right now as I’m in California. Been here for two months. I came here, yes, I’m very happy. [00:46:00] My daughter gave birth to her first child, my first grandson.

[00:46:03] Ramon Ray: I’m happy for them, but, but more importantly, equally, I was really here for my wife. My wife wanted to invest the time to mother, our daughter, and I said The best thing I can do, Connor. Is to be here to support her. So I took my screen packed in a luggage, my lights, my camera, my, my microphone, all the things that we do.

[00:46:21] Ramon Ray: ’cause we’re on creator show, right? That I had here and I packed that and I was able to be two months. That’s one what I did in reverse order just now in this season. Second thing, and Jeff has alluded to that he’s done, and I’m sure you’ve done things like this Connor as well. I brought my kids with me on the journey.

[00:46:34] Ramon Ray: I’ve been married 30 something years. I’m 52 years old. My kids have been in a plane since. They could travel, been able to travel with me, tell the client, Hey listen, I can come. Oh, you have no money to pay me. Great. Can you gimme a suite and fly my wife? You know, things like that, right? Jeff and I talk about this all the time.

[00:46:49] Ramon Ray: So that’s number two, integrating my family in it. Three goes back to the power of education. They know what dad, in the case of us, three men here, but dad does, and that helps a bit. So those [00:47:00] three things, I think are what I do to have that balance or have that harmony, have that calibration because we have to make a living.

[00:47:06] Ramon Ray: Guess what, gentlemen and ladies who are listening, it so happens. We love what we do and that’s a privilege. That is a privilege. Most of our peers, they may not, they’re working, they’re providing for the family, but they may not wake up excited every day to do what they do.

[00:47:20] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, a friend of mine from our Mastermind, he always says, I don’t know where he got it from, but I’m gonna give him credit. Rich Watts says, uh. Pressure is a privilege. And I’m like, Ooh, I like that. Because a lot of this stuff is self imposed pressure. And we are blessed to do, like, I can broadcast this through the world.

[00:47:38] Jeff Sieh: Like this was never, like when I was a kid, this wasn’t even possible. So, it’s just amazing what we’re able to do now and, uh, aim. Amy, a friend who’s also in our amazing mastermind says, uh, such a great question. We don’t talk about this enough. And the balance thing is something, something we really do.

[00:47:53] Jeff Sieh: And then Aza, I think, says, I wholeheartedly agree. Self-promotion is absolute in the development of personal branding. Here’s the thing, [00:48:00] you don’t need to promote as much as Ramon does. That’s how, that’s his personality. That’s what he does. I do self-promotion, but I do it in a different way.

[00:48:08] Jeff Sieh: Like, I make a lot of clips of this show spotlighting my guest. That trickles down to me. That’s what I’m comfortable with. I won’t do things like Ramon does. Ramon doesn’t do things like I do. Conor will do something completely different. He’ll go drink around Disney ’cause that’s his thing. So, that’s, uh, it’s a great channel, by the way.

[00:48:25] Jeff Sieh: but so you can do it your own flavor, your own way, so you don’t have to copy exactly what Gary v or Ramon Ray or somebody like that is doing. So I think that’s really important. Important. so one of the things, well, man, we got, I, I could talk to you all day, Ramon, but, I wanna talk about. You are known for being unapologetically positive and passionate.

[00:48:45] Jeff Sieh: I mean, that’s your whole social fe feat is this. So what drives that optimism and energy for you? Even when business gets tough, like I’m thinking back a couple years to COVID, that was rough for speakers. Like that was really rough for speakers. And how can other [00:49:00] entrepreneurs look at you as an example to cultivate a more positive, resilient mindset?

[00:49:05] Jeff Sieh: When they’re juggling the stress. I mean, it’s stressful, right? It’s running a business is hard. A creator business is hard. So how do you encourage people if they want to go down the same path Ramon has done?

[00:49:15] Ramon Ray: Well thank you Jeff. And I’ll just say I receive that. Thank you for those words. I’ll receive it and say thank you. a few things I would say creators understand business, understand business. That’s the number one thing Jeff and Connor that I see goes wrong. Creators. I’m a creator. Yeah, I’m glad the show’s called that, Jeff, ’cause that’s the English word we use and I get it.

[00:49:36] Ramon Ray: Keep the show name. But point is we are also in. Business, understand profit and loss in business and customers acquisition. Understand all those things. That’s number one. Number two, understand who are my customers? Who are the people who may pay me to do something? And then under three, number three, be very dialed in why you’re doing it and who you are serving.

[00:49:57] Ramon Ray: When I think about Jeff Conner, myself, I love the three of us Here. [00:50:00] We have three different slices of how we show up, what we do, who we serve, what we sell, how we make our money. But look at us all three here on this amazing show. So that’s what I would tell dear Creator, who’s starting out, understand the art of business, understand the path to money.

[00:50:15] Ramon Ray: And three, understand the aspect of who you’re talking to, who you’re serving, because those two things together is how you’ll make a living doing this. Just like Jeff, just like Connor, who both have so much way too much money in the bank account. That’s why I’m here to learn from

[00:50:28] Jeff Sieh: that’s right. That’s right.

[00:50:30] Conor Brown: We’re gonna get a little, a little meta to kind of end this, the, the show. ’cause Ramon, you’ve mentioned it a couple times, how you’re a new grandfather, which is awesome. Congratulations on that. you’re a very introspective person. So over these last few months that you’ve been able to spend with your, your new,grandchild, How has it changed you? How has it changed your view of, of work and life being balanced and more importantly, how has it changed your, your vision of what you think [00:51:00] success is with all of this stuff that we work so hard to achieve?

[00:51:04] Ramon Ray: Hmm. You always ask these questions, Connor. That makes me like answer in a roundabout way. I love it, man. So, here’s one thing I’ve been thinking of, and I’ve thought about this for a while, Connor, but one of the desires I have, not that I probably couldn’t do it right now with, you know. Some credit cards, whatever it is.

[00:51:18] Ramon Ray: But I’d love to like rent a big Airbnb, fly all my family in there, maybe Orlando and do some, you know, one of those bougie Disney type ticket things, things like that. And I’ll, and maybe I’ll do it through you, Connor. Right? So that’s one thing I’d love to do, and that’s a transactional thing, but where it’s leading, to answer your question, being a grandfather, it shows me that I’ve had a season of providing for my family, but at the age of 52.

[00:51:39] Ramon Ray: Now, how can I be in a season to safely scale a bit bigger and make sure I have something for legacy and generations possibly after me? That’s harder to do. We all can’t be Chick-fil-A Home Depot. Take your pick. But can Ramon maybe do that? So that’s kind of what’s going through my mind as I hold that little human.

[00:51:59] Ramon Ray: How can I do [00:52:00] something for his children?

[00:52:02] Jeff Sieh: Mm. That’s awesome. That’s a perfect way to end the show because, this is a, I wanna pull up this comment from my friend Amy Keys. She goes, I love all of the positive that the three of you bring. To the world. It is so encouraging being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur can be a lonely place, and your communities feel the support.

[00:52:21] Jeff Sieh: So thank you for that, Amy. Yeah, that’s what, we try to do. that’s what Ramon preaches all his, social media is that way. So, if you don’t follow Ramon and you wanna feel better, during your day, make sure you guys check out his Instagram, all his stuff that he puts out on socials, because he really is a really great positive voice.

[00:52:40] Jeff Sieh: for good in this world. But Ramon, before we end up, I wanna let you have a few minutes to talk about like what you’ve got going on, what you’re doing. The floor is now yours, my friend.

[00:52:50] Ramon Ray: Thank you, Jeff. I just wanna say one, it was great to be here today and thank you for having me, and I think I’ll end Jeff by just saying if you can wake up every morning and make an [00:53:00] impact in somebody’s life. There are so many people in life, Jeff and Connor, who are hurting,

[00:53:05] Ramon Ray: who are hurting, who just need to be told, I love you, or I care, or smile and say, Hey Connor, don’t know who you are.

[00:53:13] Ramon Ray: We’re in line at the bathroom, at the airport or something, and hey, have a great day. So I think I’ll end on that just to say, go make an impact in the world and let us, let us be the people who can add positivity. Us be the people who choose change because we know there’s people out there ready. They choose the negative, they choose horrific things.

[00:53:31] Ramon Ray: They choose to do the most terrible things. So we need more warriors of positivity who can make the world better. That’s what I wanna say, Jeff.

[00:53:38] Jeff Sieh: I love that. Warriors of positivity. That’s amazing. The unsinkable Connor Brown. Uh, what is going on with you? What do you got planned? What’s happening in the world of vacation? Travel plans?

[00:53:50] Conor Brown: So much is going on so many places to travel to follow along at vacation kingdoms. Dot com and follow. Follow me across the social medias at Vacation Kingdoms. I’ll be [00:54:00] having some Cruise recap videos coming up very soon, hopefully this weekend of the cruise I just took. and reach out to me. Let me know where you want to go and travel to next.

[00:54:11] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Yes, Connor is my go-to guy when it comes to travel. He’s actually helping me with a little trip coming up to Universal, so that’s gonna be fun. So, yeah. by the way, folks, thank you so much for being here. appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for our sponsors, Ecamm. You can find out more about them at Ecamm dot com slash jeff.

[00:54:28] Jeff Sieh: Save 15% by using code Jeff 15 at Your first purchase is really, really great. so Ecamm dot com slash Jeff. And with that, we’ll see you guys next time. Thank you, Amy. Thank you, Ralph. Thank you Asa all you who stopped in and watched the replay or left comments. We wouldn’t be able to do the show without you.

[00:54:44] Jeff Sieh: We appreciate you and with that, we’ll see you guys next time. Bye everybody.