I think the first milestone for most
people was $100,000 a yearable for me
and at that time I was making like $15
$20 an hour. It wasn't a lot of money.
Today I have some clients paying us over
six figures just by one client.
>> If you had to start over with no money,
>> but you had the knowledge that you have
now.
>> What would be your first move?
>> The first thing I would do Hey
everybody, got something a little bit
different for the channel today. So
today I have Tustin here with me who is
sort of an intern that I have been
working with for a little while and he
is also working on his senior project.
So um today I thought it would be cool
to record a conversation would be
helpful to him in pursuing his career
into possibly digital marketing
advertising working with AI getting
clients and things like that. How many
clients do you have now?
>> Two.
>> He's got two clients. So he has taken
some action which is great. Along the
way he has got some questions and uh
yeah hopefully I can give him some good
good intel. So let's start out by just
tell us you know who you are, how old
you are, what you are working on, what
what's your senior project about.
>> Okay so my name is Trustin Mattis. I am
a senior at King Khalik and I'm working
on a senior project about a website for
my business for my marketing agency. And
this website is going to be the one I
use to advertise myself. Right now, I'm
involved with acting and marketing. And
that's what I plan on doing is
continuing my marketing skills.
>> Nice. Cool. And I should say that this
is actually the high school that I went
to and graduated from, which is pretty
cool. You're interested in marketing.
What got you interested in in that?
>> I first didn't have any interest in it.
I didn't even like really think of it. I
got word of you from one of my relatives
and then I searched you up on YouTube
>> and then I was like, "Whoa, this guy's
this guy is legit. He's he's doing a
lot. He has this big business." And so I
was like, "Yeah, that's that's my way to
get into this world of entrepreneurship
cuz I always wanted to be a business
owner. I just didn't know where to get
started at all." Like I had no idea.
>> Okay, cool. Oh, I I didn't actually know
that. So that's pretty awesome.
>> Obviously, I'm biased. I really like
this business model and industry and all
that and I think it's a really exciting
time obviously with AI. So unlike you,
like right now, it's a really exciting
time to be learning these things.
>> For me, when I was getting started, you
know, Google was already a thing,
Facebook advertising was already a
thing. So, I was kind of late to the
game. You're in a really good spot cuz
you're like, you're early to AI. So, I
think that's um that's really cool. If
you do end up, you know, pursuing it and
the fact that I mean, you've watched a
few YouTube videos now, you've taken
some action, you've gone out and got got
some clients. I mean, that's a pretty
good sign, man.
>> Pretty good sign. So anyway, um you put
together like some questions that we can
use for our conversation at least for
some talking points.
>> Yeah.
>> Tell me a little bit about your senior
project real quick. Like why have we
been meeting and what is the goal for
that project?
>> So we've been meeting for the way the
senior project happens is we have this
website that shows what we did for our
senior project. And
>> you have to build the website.
>> Yeah, we have to build the website but
it's not such as like a professional
website with its own domain. It's just
like a a thing on Google websites.
>> Mhm.
>> So, we've been building our own in class
and we have to have a research paper and
then we also have to have a slideshow
and different things. And one of the
things that I had to do for mine was a
job shadow.
>> So, I had to have 15 hours of job
shadowing for with someone in the
industry. and my job title that I'm like
going towards cuz it's not like owning a
marketing agency isn't really its own
job title.
>> Mhm.
>> So, I couldn't put that as my senior
project. So, I put marketing manager and
building my own website is going to be
the final product that I display for all
like the kids to see cuz I'm going to
present it to other kids in the classes
and tell them how I got on this journey
and what I did.
>> Okay, cool. So, you're going to build a
website as kind of the final result
>> and uh that'll help you find your entry
point into
>> Yeah.
>> I don't know, possibly other things.
>> And so, yeah, you've put together some
questions that could help help with
that. So, let's jump into that.
>> So, earlier a couple days ago, you asked
me what was life-changing money for me
>> when you were a mechanic. What was
life-changing money for you? And what
would you do with it?
>> [gasps]
>> Um, you know, when I was a mechanic, I
was making like I started out actually
started out like as a as a lot boy, you
know, working at this car shop. I didn't
really have a lot of experience other
than just working on my own cars around
your age. And
the owner of the shop was a friend of
mine. I basically convinced him to give
me a job helping out. And he started out
by allowing me to like wash cars and
kind of shadow him, you know,
apprenticeship style. And I started
doing that and slowly worked my way up,
you know, from there. He encouraged me
to go to school and get some training in
automotive. So I did work on an
associates degree. Then he allowed me to
start, you know, doing brake jobs and
oil changes and head gaskets and things
like that.
>> And at that time, I was making like
$15$20 an hour. It wasn't a lot of
money.
>> And as my skills got better, as I needed
less involvement from him,
>> he increased my pay a little bit. But at
that time, you know, I wasn't making
that much money. I was making 20, $30 an
hour. This is probably 15 years ago at
this point.
>> Mhm.
>> So, you know, living paycheck to
paycheck, of course, and not a whole
bunch of disposable income. We live in
Hawaii. It's one of the most expensive
states in the entire United States if
not
>> you know either one or two next to New
York City in order to have I would say
some flexibility in your life in the
things that you do like you need to make
a decent amount of money.
>> Yeah.
>> At that time a lot of money to me was
probably I think the first milestone for
most people was 100,000 a year
>> but I was nowhere near that. You know
that was like unfathomable for me. Yeah.
So I mean I just knew that that was a
lot of money and I I probably would
never really get there. I thought the
furthest I could get is if I really
worked my butt off and became like the
best Porsche mechanic I could ever be, I
[snorts] would probably make somewhere
near six figures per year and that would
be like at the top of my profession. I
don't know if that's the actual price
point of like what they earn, but that
was a dream and I thought that that
would be insane. you know, today like I
have some clients paying us over six
figures just by one client
>> doing digital marketing and advertising
and you know, building AI solutions for
people. But, you know, the the ability
to earn as a mechanic, no, no disrespect
to mechanics or automotive people like I
love it. It's a great industry. I still
plan to do that as a hobby, especially
with my daughter, but you know, it's
it's difficult to earn a lot of money in
that profession and it's it's really
timeconuming, you know. So I would say a
lot of money at that time for me would
have been 100,000 but I was nowhere near
making it. [laughter]
>> So what made you like like why did you
start? What was a key point in starting
in marketing? Like did you just hear
about AI and then you got this idea?
>> No, it was kind of so at that time my
boss I knew my way around a computer a
little bit, right? Like I played some
video games as a kid growing up so like
I could type and that was about it. But
there was this job that my boss at that
time gave me, which was like he was
moving the entire inventory of the shop
onto an actual computer system. And
there were thousands of parts like on
the shelves. And each part number has
like 12 numbers in a part number or
maybe even more, sometimes like 20.
>> And they had to do a bunch of manual
entry to put all those parts into the
system. Somehow I, you know, let him
know that I could probably help with
that. And I began working at a desk next
to him for a little while, just punching
in part numbers for like [laughter]
hours and hours and hours.
>> And that was like the initial seed that
was planted for me to be like in an
office at a desk working at a computer
rather than being outside fixing cars,
working on cars, being in the hot sun. I
remember at that time being like, "Oh
man, if I can find a way to stay in here
in the AC, it would be nice."
>> And so I was doing that for a while. And
while being there kind of like shadowing
him at his desk, I noticed that one day
he was working on his possible website
that he was building, he wasn't really a
website yet, and he was frustrated. He
was talking about it amongst us at the
at the office.
>> And I don't know why I really said
anything, but probably because of that
that want to get out of the
>> outside and into the inside, I was like,
I could probably help you with that. And
I didn't really know what I was doing.
Didn't have any, you know, experience
other than gaming, I guess, at this
point. And that didn't like I didn't
like build a website and build this
marketing career out of that, but it
planted a seed. So he's like he he said
sure. And I started researching a little
bit of like what I could do and started
kind of gradually helping him with that.
And I didn't like quit my job at that
point and then you know do what I'm
doing now. But again it planted the
seed. So when it came time to leave that
job or get let go of that job which is
what really happened. I had this seed
that was planted of like this thing that
I might want to do, which is desk job,
office space, air conditioning.
>> Mhm.
>> And I might try to get more curious
about that. And that's kind of what I
did.
>> Mhm.
>> And so from there, I started getting
other website clients and things like
that.
>> Uh-huh. So from that seed that got
planted, what was the journey like from
that seed planted to hiring your first
employee?
>> Yeah. So that was kind of a ways away.
Um, and I didn't I didn't really hire
employees right out of the gate. Like I
used a lot of contractors to start
people overseas, people in the
Philippines, in India and things like
that just for like tasks, you know. I
started
>> I started having people help me with
different tasks like parts of building a
website or maybe graphic design. But
that seed that was planted was planted.
I ended up having to do something else,
right? like that job didn't work out and
I got curious about trying to pursue
that even more and I thought to myself
like okay well I've built this website
are there anybody else that I know that
I could potentially help with building a
website or any kind of like online thing
and so I kind of went to my phone and
started DMing people. I don't even think
I had an iPhone at that time. I think it
was like a I don't know like a trio or a
Blackberry or something which is
probably overkill for what I was doing.
And I found somebody who was a friend
who owned a business who was a physical
therapist who was like, "Yeah, I could I
could use help with my website." So that
was the next guy. And then from there,
I'm like, "Huh, that seed started to
grow a little bit." I'm like, "Is there
anybody else?" And turns out this other
guy that owns like a a ceramics art
company, he needed a website. And then
this girl I know that wanted to start a
makeup company needed a website. And all
the while, you know, I didn't really
know too much about what I was doing.
was just kind of flying by the seat of
my pants, like out there trying things.
When I couldn't figure something out, I
would just do like a Google search,
learn more, implement. At that time, it
was really kind of just working a lot in
my room at the time uh from a laptop
that one of those people borrowed me at
some point. Like I didn't even really
have my own computer. Uh one of those
early clients actually loaned me a
computer until I could buy it off from
them. And anyway, yeah, so I was just,
you know, I became kind of passionate
about that because I thought that it
would be my my way out
>> essentially.
>> Earlier you mentioned the six figure
clients.
>> What was your biggest client
transformation?
>> Transformation from like how did we help
them or how did they help me or how did
they
>> how you helped them? So how like what's
the biggest you've seen a business grow
since you were since you helped them?
Oh, it's that's actually that's a really
good question. I've seen I've seen a lot
and I've helped a lot, which is like one
of my most proudest things I would say
that I have accomplished. You know, it's
not not so much like the success that
I've had in my career, the things I've
learned, but when I'm driving around and
I see the AC trucks that, you know,
we've helped this company from when they
only had one truck and they didn't have
a logo and now I see now I know um they
have 30 trucks, vans, trucks, whatever.
And they're all blasted with this logo
that we helped them make. And I've seen
them go from just also being in like one
little tiny office to now getting a
building and then another a bigger
building and lots of employees. I have a
lot of examples of that from AC
companies to solar companies, lots of
activity companies and tourism which is
big here in Hawaii. I've seen and helped
people go from like tiny small solar
businesses like just like one man
>> installing Tesla batteries. I had one
guy that literally blew him up to
somewhere in like the5 to$10 million
range and he ended up exiting that
company and we were doing all of his SEO
advertising, you know, helping him with
like the backend stuff that was he was
doing to grow his business.
>> Wow. What are some problems that your
team usually runs into?
>> Problems. That's a pretty broad stroke.
I mean, there's problems in in lots of
things. Um, but you know, I'll give you
a couple areas that we have problems in.
And if there are any that like interest
you, we can kind of dabble into that.
But I mean, problems are obviously
client problems. You know, clients are
always they have something going on.
There's fires that need to be put out.
Maybe their campaigns aren't working
very good or they always want them to be
better or maybe there's some
communication issues. Those are some
things. Being a business owner, you have
lots of problems. whether it's trying to
figure out how to get new insurance or
better ways to pay your taxes, you know,
or find better strategies or things like
that, you know, then you also have
internal problems, maybe two teammates
are having a dispute or someone has to
leave and you have to find and hire
somebody else. So, it's like there's
always something going on, you know, as
as a business owner. But, yeah, or do
any of those topics.
>> What was like the hardest out of all
what was the biggest challenge at least
out of all your problems? What was the
biggest challenge or along your journey,
your own personal journey, what was the
biggest challenge you've had to face?
>> That could be a very deep question.
[laughter]
I think I think for myself, the biggest
challenge that I've had to face was
probably myself. I've had to do a lot of
work, develop the skills necessary to
run, own, grow, start a business. Before
I could do any of that stuff, like I was
a very unruly, undisiplined, wild kid
that was like hanging out at the beach
all day, surfing, causing trouble,
hanging out with the wrong crowd,
getting in a lot of trouble. The person
that I am today is very disciplined,
very like forward thinking. In order to
to do the things that I do now on a
day-to-day basis, like I had to really
get clear on like what I wanted for my
life. I had to fix a lot of my thinking
and behaviors and my peer groups and the
people that I was hanging out with in
order to set myself up for success. You
know, learn the skills necessary to
build the business and the lifestyle
that I wanted. But that I would say is
probably I've said a lot there.
Obviously, we go deep in a lot of those
things, but that was the biggest and and
still is. It's like I'm not perfect.
There's a lot like I do a lot of stuff
wrong still to this day. Obviously,
everyone does, but it still is like a
constant awareness. And that's pretty
much what it is. Having self-awareness
on whether you are doing something
wrong, right, where to go, how to
improve, how to learn, how to help. It
requires a level of self-awareness.
Seeking that ability to be more
self-aware was really like my secret
weapon in figuring out how to get and
improve and constantly work on that that
obstacle that is always there, which is
myself.
What are three mistakes you often see
small businesses who want to market
themselves online do?
>> So, none of these questions I knew
about, by the way. These are all like
totally off the cuff, which is which is
good because we're getting like, you
know, unscripted good good content that
comes from like my immediate reaction of
it. But one of the mistakes that I see
businesses make is they spend too much
time trying you said new businesses,
right?
>> Um, yes. Yeah. New/S small businesses.
So, a lot of people really try to get
things perfect before they actually
start doing things, you know, and I'll
give you an example. Like people have a
business idea, and I get this a lot.
People are like, "Oh, you help
businesses grow and stuff like that."
And they're like, "I have this idea. I
want to do this thing." They're working
on their logo for 6 months or a year or
3 years or 5 years or, you know, they're
coming up with the name or the domain or
they want to make a shirt and they fail
to launch because they're spending so
much time just trying to make it
perfect.
>> Yeah. My experience is like just get it
out the door. You know, do something,
take action so you can get to the next
step because that inability to take
action doesn't allow people to actually
launch and start and get through the
initial stuff.
>> So just like launch it and then edit it
and refine it after.
>> Yeah. I mean, I'm a big fan of that. I
mean, I actually like I have other
friends in, you know, entrepreneurial
space. Uh I even have a business partner
in another space. He's he's the type of
guy that doesn't think too far ahead. He
just takes massive action and he's
pretty damn successful cuz he's always
just like doing stuff and like dealing
with the fallout later. Sometimes it's
really good cuz he takes risks that
other people don't take cuz he's just
always taking those risks and and taking
action. Sometimes he has to deal with
the fallout and he's got to like put out
some massive fires cuz he didn't think
things through. I'm like kind of in the
middle. Like I really do like to think
about things a lot. I spend a lot of
time alone in deep thought strategizing.
At a certain point I'm like, "Okay, I
I've been thinking about this too much.
I need to just take action on it. Having
that decision-m ability and then
following it up with taking action on
something is key.
>> Mhm.
>> So, another issue that I see, what was
the original question? Three mistakes.
>> Uh, three mistakes. What is the most
common three mistakes that you will
typically see small businesses or new
businesses doing?
>> Yeah. So, failure to launch by not
having the ability to take action.
that's kind of or or make decisions or
move on. Uh the other thing is they're
unable to accept what it takes to get
traction in their business. And when I
say get traction, so like for us in mind
of marketing, our marketing agency, we
work with businesses that are
established, they have list of customers
already. They've been around for a
little while. And if they haven't been
around for a while, they at least have a
product that people are willing to buy.
So, they have what's called product
market fit. If you came to me an idea
and you're like, "Hey, I have the, you
know, I have this clothing brand or
whatever. I know you're interested in
clothing brands. I want to I want to do
some marketing." One of the first
questions I would ask you is like, "How
many people are buying it right now?"
Because if nobody's buying it, then you
haven't really found the people to buy
your product, which is a very difficult
thing to do.
>> And that's kind of called getting
traction
>> um in a lot of ways, which is if you
watch Shark Tank, have you ever watched
Shark Tank?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Yeah. One of I mean, they always ask
people like, "What are your numbers? How
many people how many people have bought
this? How many have you sold? What's
your net profit? What's your gross
profit? Blah blah blah blah blah.
They're asking all of those things
because if you don't have those things,
that's one of the most difficult parts
of starting and running a business is
finding that product market fit and
getting traction. People have lots of
great ideas. I have no shortage of good
ideas. I get I get ideas from people. I
hit up from people all the time like,
"Hey, I have this business idea. Want to
partner with me on this thing?" And like
the reality is like I got so many damn
good ideas. what I don't have time and
attention to take action on all of those
good ideas.
>> And people fail to recognize how
difficult it is to actually take action
and get traction.
>> And I didn't even mean for that rhyme to
happen, but it did happen right there.
[laughter]
Um, but people people are like they're
just unaware of how difficult that
actually is. You know, you got to like
think about it. If you have your
clothing line, like number one, you got
to figure out how to make sick clothes,
a good product, you know, stuff that
people like. And then you got to go out
there and you got to get your initial
customers. How do you do that? You know,
do you go join on to events and, you
know, somehow get the word out there in
the street or do you give it to some
very influential people or or what do
you do? But it takes a long time to do
that more often than not, especially
when you're when you're getting started.
not having that a bit that that traction
and that failure to recognize like hey
you got to do these things is is a big
issue for people
>> because again they're not aware of like
how to actually make it happen
>> and that really it really paralyzes
people from in the early days right in
the in the very beginning and a lot of
times people think like okay well I'll
hire Nick or his company or somebody
else and they'll come in and they'll fix
it like can't I just hire a marketing
company to to get me more people for my
clothing brand oh so you want me to find
out product market fit for you. You want
me to build your business, start it, and
build it? Ah, okay. And should how much
should I get for that? Should I get a
couple hundred bucks? Um, cuz I'm
assuming, you know, this new business
owner has this huge war chest of money
just laying around to invest in this,
right?
>> Again, a lot of it has to do with like
awareness, you know, and what's possible
and what's not possible.
>> So, that's two.
>> What do you think? How is AI going to
change the market over 5 years? How do
you see that happening?
>> Now, you're getting into the good
questions. This is stuff that I like to
talk about. So AI is going to change. It
already is changing in so many ways. Um
and it would be really hard and complex
for me to to try to explain everything
that I think it would do. It's very
massive at scale. You know the what it's
going to do.
>> Speaking for myself and the industry
that I'm in as as a marketing agency or
a content creator, it just allows us to
do so many things much faster. When I
was getting started, I'll give you some
examples. When I was getting started, I
went to King K
>> public Hawaii public school system. King
K, I've heard is actually becoming a
better school now. King Kik, for those
of you to make sure, not King
Kamehameha, it's two different two
different schools. I didn't pay very
much attention either. My ability to
write like content,
sales pages, social media posts, blog
posts, things like that was like
terrible. I was horrible at it. And so I
had to spend a lot of time practicing
how to write. My public speaking ability
was terrible. I had to practice all
those things. Writing now, you can you
don't really need to practice. I mean,
>> I think everybody should have a good
foundation of things. And you know, they
use AI to help create even more and make
things easier and better. If you lack
that initial foundation, you're not
really going to know what is good and
not so good. But if you have that
initial foundation, it's just going to
make everything that you do so much
easier, more optimize your ability to
scale and grow at like at light speed.
So, you know, because I have good
foundational principles, first
principles on on copywriting and and
sales and things like that, I can take
these AI tools and I can add them onto
that and it just allows me to unlock so
much more production creation and with
my ability to public speak or present
and all those things that I have
practiced on. I mean, AI allows me to
create videos now. Like, I have an AI
avatar that helps me to unpack, you
know, trending news topics, strategies.
I mean, AI is there's there's like a new
tool and a new strategy and a new API
key that's released every single day,
like 50 of them per day. It's hard to
keep track. And I want to create content
on all those things, but I can't even do
it myself. Yeah.
>> Well, how do I do that? I have trained
an AI avatar that looks like me. It
sounds like me. It's essentially a clone
of me to help me create content around
all that. And I don't I don't try to
like hide the fact that I have an AI
avatar. Like my belief is like if you've
watched any of these videos on my
YouTube channel, my belief is if the
avatar is sharing high value,
highquality information and content
that's well researched and valuable to
the viewer and it's entertaining. It has
to be entertaining [clears throat] too.
>> Does it matter if it's me or does it
matter if it's the avatar? You were
actually just before this we were
talking about that. Yeah, you were.
>> Yeah, I was.
>> Give some feedback.
>> It's weird because especially since I
knew you first and I have seen you in
person. When I saw the Avatar, I I
couldn't tell at first, honestly. And
then I started to kind of think this is
this seems a little lifeless. And
>> there's a little there's a little
difference there for sure. And then um
and then that's when I was like and then
and then as I was thinking that it said
while you're listening to this video
this is actually my AI avatar
>> and that's key. So a lot of people and
myself included when I first started to
see AI generated content. I thought like
man this is this is bull crap. This
isn't even this person. This is AI.
They're trying to trick me in thinking
that's AI. That's where people are doing
it wrong. If you try to convince people
that you have AI related content and
you're trying to pass it off as you,
they're not going to trust you and
they're going to click away. But if you
come out and you say like, "Hey, this is
my AI avatar. I'm going to I'm using
this to help get some breaking news
valuable information to you right away."
They're like, "Okay, what do you got for
me?" you know there's some trust that's
added into that equation where you know
I have seen in in doing that like my
avatar videos on really good information
that are again well researched
>> like they get better engagement than a
lot of my own videos like I had a video
3 days ago it's at like 20,000 views and
people are like they're baffled by how
good and valuable the content is and
then you get like a couple random people
that you know they're like this is an
avatar I I can't do this or I won't do
it because the machines are taking over
or whatever it is. But I never try to
hide it. I'm always forthcoming with it.
And I think that's really important
because right now there is sort of like
a trust recession online where people
don't trust a lot of the things that
people say. And for me, it's really
important to be like authentic and and
real with people and and just give as
much value as I can.
>> Mhm. What social platform do you think
will dominate in 2026?
>> YouTube. I'm biased, but YouTube. I
mean, who knows? There'll probably
probably be more and new social media
platforms, right? We have these AI
platforms like is chat GPT or is Gemini
or is Manis or are these platforms going
to create some sort of social element to
them? We don't really know. They totally
could, but I think YouTube is like one
of it's essentially a search engine. M
>> it's one of the most used search engines
out there and it's growing in its use
usage and it's just very informative and
um like you you actually asked and I
didn't even answer how do I stay
informed I watch a lot of YouTube you
know I read a lot of books I read almost
all day every day whether it's blog
posts emails courses training PDFs books
and I listen to podcasts like I said so
I'm always consuming information
>> and anytime you have like a new trending
topic, you have a new monumental shift
in a market or an economy, there's a lot
of demand for people who are wanting to
learn about those things that are
changing. And when you have something as
huge as AI, like an economic shift like
AI is, there's so many people out there
that want to learn about it. probably
one of the best mediums is like video
audio. And with YouTube, we can create
content that is it's visual, it's you
can hear it, you can see it, there's
whiteboards, there's, you know, just so
many ways to actually learn off of it,
and you can do it at your own pace in
your own time. And it's it's free. So, I
think YouTube will dominate. It's also
not the easiest to create. You know,
creation is really hard for most people.
So, I think it'll be around for a while
because, you know, it's hard to kind of
take advantage of it. Like, I feel like
Instagram has been taken advantage of.
You know, a lot of the content you see
there is just like
>> you've seen it all. You know, it's
pretty vanilla. I mean, it's been done
so many times. But with YouTube, it's
like I have something I want to learn
about, I can go straight to it. I can
learn. And there's a lot of just like
small creators that are very they're
giving as much value as they can.
>> Yeah. Um, I really started using YouTube
and liking YouTube a lot more when you
showed me. We were setting up the camera
stand when we were doing [snorts]
advertisements
>> and you just search up that quick
YouTube video on how to set the camera
up and I just from there realized how
useful YouTube is cuz I never really
used YouTube as a way to learn. I just
used Google search and
>> you're welcome.
>> Yeah, that helped a lot.
>> It's going to be like over the course of
your life if you learn or you get in the
habit of doing that. the amount of
information that you will take in.
Especially if you're a teachable person
that is you're you're at the bottom of
the chart of where you're going to grow
into
>> and you're very interested, you're
teachable, you're like a sponge, you're
soaking up information, you're going
down rabbit holes, you're investing your
time. If you get in that habit of like
seeking information and credible
information, credible sources, and you
get good at learning in that way, I
mean, the future's very bright. It's
your potential is basically unlimited.
If you think about like when I was in
high school, when I was in grade school,
like pre- internet, if you wanted to
learn something, you had to like find
the old Jedi Grandmaster in your
neighborhood to like teach you how to do
something, right? So you had like all
these old
>> old older, you know, people with wisdom
that would teach you, you know, or you
had to go to the library and you had to
go read a book in the library and like
learn or get a video or, you know, but
you had to go get it. You had to go to
the video, you don't know this, but you
had to go to the video store to go rent
or whatever, you know, you had to order
it on or not online, you had to order it
from a magazine. So the ability to get
and access information is just so easy
now compared to what it used to be. It's
unlimited. And And now you have AI. I
know you you had something that you were
going to say. I cut you off and you
probably forgot it.
>> Yeah. No, I definitely forgot it.
>> Okay. Okay. But I the reason I did is
cuz I wanted to get to this point which
is super important because you're
talking about you watched me run into an
obstacle and I went to YouTube about
>> hooking up some sort of audio video
thing and I learned it real quick and it
was there. Getting in the habit is
hugely important, but it is also just as
important right now to get in the habit
of using AI in the same exact way.
>> So, one of the tips that I give to
people is like make a shortcut. Make a
widget. It's called a widget on your
phone. I don't have my phone next to me.
Uh, but on the lock screen, this is your
phone. Y, you know, on the lock screen,
>> you put chat GPT right there. And as you
come up with obstacles, issues,
questions, or anything, you just hit it
and you start talking to it. M
>> you literally have your own Jedi,
wizard, person, whatever oracle right
there to help you learn and problem
solve. I'm not saying take everything
with, you know, as gospel like
everything is 100% accurate and correct.
Like you have to be able to discern what
is good information and not information
and things that you should ask. But if
you get in the habit of using AI like
that, the amount of information that
you're going to have discovered and
learned by the end of next week is going
to be
so far greater than, you know, before
and then a month and then 6 months and
then a year. I mean, who knows? Like,
>> we're just the beginning of this thing.
>> And the amount of that we know now
because of this and we can learn the
speed and the rate at which we do,
>> it's just like it's it's unbelievable.
>> And earlier you mentioned what's good is
having the ability to learn and be
teachable. Um, what are some traits you
look for in your team when you hire
someone or something like that?
>> That's another good question, man. You
got good questions. Did you use AI for
these questions? Be [laughter] honest.
>> Yes.
>> Good. I would I would I'm glad you did.
I would expect you to I would have done
the same and then I would have, you
know, made them my own. I would have
like looked at them. These are great
questions. Ah, that's a good idea. I
have to add this to it. Exactly. You
know, in my team, we have I'm very
fortunate to have invested the time to
learn what it takes to build a good
company culture. Like a good culture of
people. What happens in the company when
you're not there? Like that's that's the
culture, you know? So that culture is
really based off of the values that we
have in the company. The company values,
the mission, the vision, and then the
behavior of the people that run it. the
behavior of the people that run it, me
being one of them, is what other people
within the company model and like, you
know, live up to. You know, if somebody
is like always taking action, says what
they mean, they're honest, but they can
take good feedback, like other people
are going to start to do that, too. I
look for people that
>> live the values. I look for people that
are like one of them is that we win
together. Some people come into a
company and they just think or a job or
whatever and they just think about like
how can I figure out how to put myself
in the best possible position to advance
my career or make more money. In our
company, we recognize that it takes like
maybe an individual could possibly
impact a game, the winning of a game,
but it takes like an entire team to
really win a championship. And so we
know that if we all work really well
together and we win together, then that
means that we are all all going to
advance our promotions, our cash flow,
and the things like that. So the core
values, but that's a big piece of it.
People that are living the core values,
they're open to feedback because a lot
of people when they do something and
it's not the quality isn't there or
maybe they did something wrong and
you're like, hey, you know, that's
great. Next time we could do it this
way. Some people take that personally
and often times it could be the delivery
for sure,
>> but some people just can't take
feedback. So, you have to be able to
take feedback in order to grow. That's
also a really big one.
>> What's what's one leadership lesson that
you had to learn? And once you learned
it, like how much did it really help
you?
>> Well, leadership is an ongoing again,
it's like the pursuit of like personal
development, you know, it's never
ending.
>> Leadership is the same way. There are
different levels to being a good leader,
you know, just like anything else. You
could be a white belt for a leader or
you could be a black belt for a leader.
The reason we have black belts in
jiu-jitsu is because those guys have
been around for a long time. They've
been doing it for a long time. People
can't really beat them because they're
experienced.
>> So, there's there's just there's levels
to leadership, but for me, I think one
of the there's many valuable lessons
there, but a big one that I come back to
a lot is taking responsibility as a
leader. If I have an organization of
people that I work with or a team and
something goes wrong, basically my
fault,
>> I don't really blame anybody else on the
team because like let's say, you know,
one of our advertising specialists uses
the wrong credit card or or changes the
budget on an account and Google spends
$10,000 instead of 1,000. I've had this
happen before.
>> Mhm.
>> Yes. the advertising specialist is the
guy that was like pushing the buttons
and really messed that up. But I look at
that as more of like, well, what could I
have done to put better guard rails so
that didn't happen,
>> you know? So, is it really his or her
fault or what could I have done to
change that? And then having the
feedback situation come in with that
person and using that shitty situation
as a as a teachable moment so that it
never happens again. You know, a lot of
people will fire somebody because of
that. Mhm.
>> And you can do that. The other thing you
can do is you can use that as a $10,000
lesson so that it never happens again
>> and so it's never going to be a $20,000
lesson. You know, like what did we learn
from this? What can we do differently?
Now, how can we adjust our process
across the board for everybody so this
never happens again and learn from it is
in my opinion a better way of of
navigating through that than just like
punishing somebody or something like
that.
>> Yeah. I remember one time I was in Las
Vegas and I was at this hotel and I
jumped in the pool and I folded my
wallet up with a towel and I left it
there for maybe 20 seconds and I got out
of the pool and it was my little wallet
was there but it was empty and it had
$500 in it. I called my mom and I was
like, "Mom, I lost the money you gave me
for going to Las Vegas." and she was
like, [gasps]
"It's just a $500 lesson." And so, yeah,
that's
>> smart lady.
>> That's a really good mindset to have on
that. What is, you kind of answered this
earlier, not answered, but mentioned
something about it. What is something
you wish every business owner understood
before hiring a marketer?
>> What is something I wish every business
owner understood before hiring a
marketer?
>> Mhm. So, a marketing company, an
advertising company, it's never their
job to save your business. For
marketing, advertising to work well, you
have to have a healthy business. If I
send your business 10,000 leads, but
your sales team sucks and they can't
convert those leads into customers,
doesn't matter what I do, you know? So
advertising, marketing, AI, um
operations, now automations, things like
that. Like everybody has a lane and
there's a job and there's a role for
each. Oftentimes, business owners will
will think like, I'm paying you all this
money. Why am I not making more money? A
lot of times there's a break in the
chain somewhere else. And that's why
it's so important to track as an
advertising company everything that
you're doing. It's one of the first
things we do anytime we bring on a
client. We'll set up tracking like how
many people are clicking our ads. How
many people are actually calling this
phone number? Sometimes we do call
recording to help with quality
assurance. Like sometimes people will be
like, "Hey man, we haven't closed
anybody this month." And then we'll go
listen to the call recordings again.
This is more backup because you have
tracking. And you'll hear that like
their salesperson was like totally rude
or doesn't know their product or was
just terrible at selling at selling. A
lot of times people think that marketing
advertising is going to save their
business. It doesn't. and it requires
them to also have a healthy, welloiled
business to to really do well. Um, it
and don't get me wrong, you can
artificially prop a business up with
advertising, but like if their
leadership is bad, if they're, you know,
they're out there in the field and
they're being uh they're being bad to
their customers or their product sucks,
eventually it will not work.
>> Yeah.
>> No amount of marketing advertising is
going to save a horrible product, a
horrible team. It just it's like a race
to the bottom. Um, how do you say the
best way is for someone who is the owner
of a marketing agency or they are a
marketer? What is the best way to deal
with a customer who thinks like that?
>> Mm- I'm probably not the best person to
ask this question to because I'm very
transparent um known to be very direct.
You know, like if if I get any red flags
or warning signs of this type of stuff
happening, I'll just I'll just end the
relationship right there. Like, hey,
this isn't this isn't going to be a good
fit. It's just like a hiring, you know,
have you ever heard that saying where
you uh hire slow, fire fast? If you
haven't, the reason is because like if
you take more time in your process of
recruiting and hire somebody, it's just
like in a relationship, you know what I
mean? Where people are like, don't get
married on the first date. You know, you
want to take your time and really
understand somebody and go through hard
situations so you know how they act and
how they react. Just like with a new
customer, just like with a new employee.
But the second you see anything going
wrong, just terminate, fire, get, you
know, not work together because like how
long are you going to waste your time in
this like toxic, you know, terrible
situation
>> rather just moving on. Like there's so
many people and possible employees or
team members or partners or relationship
partners, whatever out there. I'm a big
believer in just like being straight up
and and forthcoming as quickly as
possible. Yeah. Does that answer the
question?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> How many more do you got?
>> I have a bit more if you want to keep
going. No, it's up to you.
>> Let's do about four more.
>> Okay.
>> Um, where do you see my marketing 5
years from now?
>> Our mission for the last couple years
has been to be the leading provider of
digital marketing services throughout
the state of Hawaii. Now, we have added
on to that to be the leading provider of
AI and digital marketing services
throughout the state of Hawaii. With the
road we are currently on, you know, we
were just recently recognized as the
second fastest growing company in
Hawaii. We have an awesome team in place
both like leadership and management and
then the product and service offering
that we have with the shift in the
landscape with like AI integrating with
a uh advertising services. I feel like
we're in a we're just poised to be in a
really good position to get to that
mission, you know, lead that mission,
lead that charge, be very close to it.
You know, I see us really really leading
that charge definitely in this state,
helping businesses here embrace and
adopt AI into their marketing
advertising because there's just there's
not a lot of people out there that are
here that are that are doing what we're
doing at the level that we're doing it
and with as many customers as we're
doing it with the resources we have with
the team that we have, the the culture
of the company that we have, the drive
that we all have. So, you know, we're
just in a really good position to lead
that charge for a lot of people here
>> with the businesses that you see because
you handle work with a lot of different
businesses, right?
>> Mhm.
>> So, which business types or models do
you think will dominate the market in
the next decade?
>> Um, I mean there's there's a lot to
that. I was listening to a podcast
recently with the the CEO of Nvidia, uh,
Jensen Huang, which is, you know, one of
the biggest companies in the world now
at this point,
>> and he was talking about how people are
so scared that AI is going to take
everybody's jobs. And he was explaining
how one of the first early use cases of
AI was for radiology screening to like
find cancer, to like find lumps and
things like that. Mhm.
>> They were using AI to detect early signs
of cancer in people and AI was helping
them do that. You know, everybody
thought that the once AI came along and
was able to detect the cancer that we
would no longer need radiologists. Mhm.
>> And what ended up actually happening,
which was great, you know, like it was
great that AI was able to help detect
cancer at, you know, um, at a far more
accurate and greater rate. And instead
of not needing radiologists, we actually
didn't have enough of them because the
ability to detect cancer and early signs
of cancer, it just blew up. You know,
there's all these people that didn't
know they they had it that we now know
have it, and we didn't have enough
radiologists to actually help help all
those people. Yeah.
>> And so what he was saying is that
whatever you do is is the business then
that's not a good situation to be in. If
the business can be replaced by AI then
and and that is the business then you're
you're not in a good position. But if
whatever you do is just a piece of the
business and AI can just help you like
scanning early signs of cancer. AI was
that was just a piece of it and AI was
doing that little piece you still needed
the radiologist to help everything else.
>> Mhm. If AI can do only just a piece of
the business, those people are really
going to grow. But if AI can do all of
the things that you do in your business,
you're kind of screwed.
>> So rather than just kind of pinpointing
like what are the what are the ones that
I think will do well, I look at it from
that context too. I think that's a good
frame. Making sure AI can't do your
entire business. Like a lot of people
say that CPAs and tax people are going
to be like completely done. I don't
know. Like is there a chance that your
CPA and your tax person like yes AI can
do bookkeeping and accounting and give
tax advice but is that everything? Is
there a piece of the business that
actually is valuable that the way this
person gives you the information or how
they present it or maybe do they file
with the IRS? Do they upload the
documents? Do they do these things?
Because if AI can only do a piece of the
business and they can enhance what they
are doing with AI even more then those
businesses are going to continue to do
well. I also think the things that AI
can't do like at all. Like Gary Vee
talks about like electricians. He's t
like right now he's going crazy talking
about how electricians are going to make
the most money in the world. I mean,
we're pretty far away of having AI go to
a home and install like an AC system.
You know, I'm not saying it's not going
to happen. It could happen or or wire in
an AC system or install an HVAC system,
but because it can't, people are still
going to have to learn how to do those
skills. And there's a premium on those
actual hard skills that people are going
to have to learn because people are
relying on AI to do everything else
>> and not they don't want to invest the
time in learning those those things,
right? You can you can learn other
things at a much faster rate.
>> Yeah. If you had to start all over
tomorrow with no money but the knowledge
you have now, what would you do first?
If I had to start all over tomorrow with
no money and the knowledge I have now is
a question I feel like a lot of people
get whenever they're doing this type of
podcast. [laughter]
Uh I believe that the fastest way to
reach success. Like it depends on what
your marker of success is. you know, if
it's if it's financial gain, like to me,
I've tried a lot of different ways to to
make money from, like I said, being a
mechanic to to selling art to getting
into the online world, doing affiliate
marketing, building websites, doing SEO,
running ads, building websites with lots
of traffic to get advertising. To me,
the fastest way to actually make a
decent amount of money is by getting a
client. That's like somebody who you can
help solve a problem for online and get
paid to do that. So, for me, it's always
like business owners, you know, a lot of
business owners, they're busy running
their business. The the HVAC company,
are they posting content on social
media? Probably not. That's a problem.
You know, you want to stay top of- mind
for your customers. You know, you can
solve that problem for these business
owners by creating content for them and
get paid in the process. And I think
that that's one of the best ways to
start actually reaching a decent amount
of income, getting a client, because,
you know, to build a YouTube following,
it does take some time. To build a drop
shipping store and make like a
percentage of a margin on a t-shirt that
you're selling, it takes a while to get
a significant amount of money.
>> And then again, like even with my own
story, you know, to get a client, I
didn't really have to have a lot of
experience. I could make the deal so
good for the business owner. Like I
could say, "Hey, I know I'm brand new,
but that's actually why I'm willing to
work 10 times harder for you and make
sure that I make this thing absolutely
how you want it. I'm willing to work for
free upfront to get started." You know,
there's lots of ways that you can make
that happen to get your first client if
you don't have like a portfolio or any
credibility, but you can convince people
to give you a decent amount of money
relatively quickly being pretty damn new
just watching YouTube videos. You know,
you can you can get to six figures
pretty quick if you just if you just
focused and you really every day were
disciplined and and used the right
client getting method. You just got out
there and you you kept doing it.
>> Mhm. Let's say you like you're flat
broke and you can't even afford domains.
Would your next move do you think it
would be to just get a job first and
then use the money from that job to be
able to afford those domains and start
making websites and doing SEO for other
businesses?
>> Yeah, that and that's a good question.
It it really tells me like how much
you're thinking about this. Like you
know these aren't very surface level
questions. These are like more tactical
questions and execution questions. So
I'm I'm stoked to hear them. There's
something to be said in the beginning
back to that that frame of like getting
traction of building active income. Like
what is active income? Like however much
money you're making each month. You know
people talk about like passive income.
>> I want to get 510,000 $50,000 a month of
passive income. You know how do I get to
that? What is passive income? I don't I
don't really know that there's very much
income that is passive other than
putting money in some sort of like ETF
and getting paid dividends.
>> I think when when people think of
passive income, they usually think of
like like me, I want to start an Amazon
store and sell art on that. And once I
start doing that, I really don't have to
check up on it that much. Maybe once
every every week.
>> How do you sell the art though? The art
would be being automatically so when a
customer orders the order gets sent to
Printify and then Printify ships it out
for me and does the printing and all
that,
>> right? But that's drop shipping
>> basically or FBA or whatever.
>> And so how do you how do you find the
products that are winners?
>> When people usually want passive income,
I think they like they want to invest a
lot into it at first
>> and so they'll put in a lot of time at
first, but then eventually they have the
idea that it wants to be automatic in
the future. And and there's something to
be said for that, right? Like you can
build things up. You can build up a
machine to at a certain point pay you
out with relatively low operation from
you. That would mean you're going to
have to like really invest hard in
getting this thing going. That's not how
people usually position the passive
income thing. People usually position
like the courses and stuff that you see
online are like here's how you get
$10,000 a month passive income, but you
got to work 5 years like every day 40
hours a week to get there or 80 hours a
week. That's the truth about it, right?
If you want to get to that much money,
okay, sure, you're gonna have to grind
in the beginning, but how long are you
have to grind? Does that really sound
like passive income?
>> I mean, there are lots of things that's
more of like to me that's more of like
an investment. You still got to There
are investments that can produce passive
income. Passive, relatively passive.
Like I said, going back to putting money
into like an ETF, like the spy, and you
can just kind of make money off the US
economy, right? That's probably one of
the like real ways in order to get that
money to go in there,
>> you had to first develop your ability to
generate active income. Your income that
you make based off of the actions that
you take, which requires you to learn,
skills that are valuable essentially. So
valuable skills, sales and marketing,
copywriting, web design, whatever,
graphic design, those are all valuable
skills, things that you can get paid to
do those things. So your ability to grow
your skill set and produce active income
is I think the first thing that is
important. If you had to start over or
or what was it what was this original
what was this original question?
>> Um if you had to start over with no
money
>> but you had the knowledge that you have
now
>> what would be your first move?
>> If I have the knowledge I have now then
that means I'm still able to produce
income like I can. I just got to go out
there and do it. You know I got to go
get customers. I would I would go do
that. I would go get customers. But the
next question it like if I zoomed out a
little bit more, it would be if I
reframed that question would be like if
you don't have the knowledge that you
have now, the first thing I would do is
figure out how to develop those valuable
skills to increase my active income.
>> Mhm. Okay. Or fun question. What's a
hobby or interest you have that people
would never expect from a CEO?
>> I mean, I have all like the normal ones,
you know, for people. I like to surf. I
like to do I live a pretty active life.
Um, growing up in Hawaii, we do a lot of
things, right? We go fishing. We were
talking about fishing and diving and
hunting and dirt biking and
>> and surfing and doing all those things.
I like all those things, but one thing,
and I think this is like what happens
when you start to get older, it's like
you start to uh or I have at least
started to get interest about interested
in gardening. [laughter]
something about just like growing your
own like vegetables and herbs and fruit
and stuff like that. I don't know. I
don't know. That's how you know you're
getting old. My wife and I, we we have a
daughter and we have another one on the
way. We like, well, she's really good at
cooking and I'm like, well, how can I
contribute to this? Like, what if I grow
the stuff that we we cook? And I don't
know, something about that is kind of
like rewarding. It's similar to hunting.
So, yeah. I've never [laughter]
never really told uh
>> It's pretty peaceful. It's pretty
peaceful.
>> Well, yeah. So, what do I like about it?
It's a there's a pursuit, you know, in
learning how to do it. Well, like it's
not easy. I have my garden. I don't
know. You've seen it, right? Yeah.
>> Yeah. It's horrible right now. Like,
it's not it's it's in shambles. It's I
left to go in October to an event in
Dallas, like an AI marketing event.
Shout out to High Level. And everything
died while I was gone because I had like
the water I overwatered it. like the the
timer was off and um and you know so
it's it's and before that like the soil
that I was using didn't have enough good
drainage. Um so the roots were rotting
and all the stuff and it was turning
yellow and then you know we have like in
Hawaii we have a lot of pests so you got
like you're just fighting caterpillars
and slugs and trying to come up with
creative ways to kick their butt. So,
it's I don't know. It's just like it's
interesting and and I look at my my
gardens, my plants, just like I look at
my daughter as like another startup, you
know? These are all my little startups.
There's like tomatoes over there. This
is a little startup. It might need a
little bit of a different
infrastructure. It might need a raised
garden bed. So, yeah, it's just fun.
>> Hopefully, I get better at it.
>> What do you What's your favorite thing
to grow? Do you think you'd say?
>> Favorite thing to grow? Um, I don't
know. I don't know if I really have one
yet. Like I have a lot of things that I
would like to grow, but I haven't
successfully pulled it off yet.
[laughter] Like a lot of stuff that I've
killed.
>> Um but so far some of the best stuff
that I've produced is like basil
[laughter]
like like herbs. [gasps] My rosemary
plant is pretty fire right now. Um I've
made some pretty good looking tomatoes.
Yeah, I'm I'm really hoping to like get
a pretty good [laughter]
like I really want some like good green
beans and what else do I have in there?
>> Chili peppers.
>> Huh? Chili peppers. Well, I have I have
some Hawaiian chili peppers are actually
doing pretty good. Yeah, actually have a
lot of those. Doing well with those. One
of my best actually. [laughter] Just
just had a nice harvest of Hawaiian
chili peppers.
[laughter]
>> Uh
h what [gasps] was it? What was my next
question? I think that's it.
>> Okay,
>> that's all I had.
>> Well, cool, man. Those are good
questions. Appreciate it. A lot of fun.
>> It was.
>> And uh we we'll have to we'll have to
look at your website when your senior
project is done.
>> Mhm. Mhm.
>> And we'll have to check back in and see,
you know, where you're where you're
going and where you're at. Like I said,
I like
>> checkpoint.
>> Yeah. I feel like by the the depth of
your questions, even though Chad GBT
helped you,
>> I could feel I could sense you added I
could sense that you added on to it. Um,
I feel like if you just stay curious
about all that stuff and you take time
and action to develop some of those
things, you know, you're going to make
some stuff happen and you're going to
have to sacrifice some time, hang out
with your buddies probably,
>> but uh, it'll be worth it.
>> Yeah.
>> Cool.
>> Thank you. Y