Episode 369: 05-19-16
On this week’s show, Bruce Turkel gives tips on how to manage your personal brand during a career transition. We discuss the Miami technology ecosystem with Adam Yorkmack, Michael Cooper shares how you can take your game to the next level with positive energy, and Jim gives an update on Vivian Fried’s kidney transplant.
Managing Your Personal Brand During a Career Transition
Bruce Turkel, CEO and ECD at Turkel Brands, uses a unique combination of creativity and business acumen to help companies build their businesses by making their brands more valuable. Turkel is a serial entrepreneur who has created a number of successful companies.
Currently, Turkel is focused on his brand management agency (www.turkel.info) headquartered in Miami, Florida, and his Hispanic market advertising agency (www.OrigenGlobal.com) with 19 offices throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Turkel is also an accomplished speaker, author, musician and artist.
Jim is going through a career transition. Turkel will give Jim tips on how to manage his personal brand during the transitional period.
Miami Technology Ecosystem
Adam Yormack is founder of Yormack & Associates, a boutique technology law firm. He focuses on corporate, M&A, securities law and real estate. Through his consulting firm, coVenturr, he consults, launches and grows young ventures from concept, business planning, and execution through capital funding, and exit.
We discuss the Miami technology ecosystem.
Life with Positive Energy
Michael Cooper is founder of Human Performance Mentors and The Missing Playbook. His mental strength training strategies, methodologies and philosophies are drawn directly from his own life experiences. He has dedicated his life to training and preparing the world’s most elite athletes, top athletic organizations, leaders and influencers. His passion: Breeding champions. Through the Mind.
We discuss how you can take your game to the next level through positive energy – TODAY!
Vivian Fried Kidney Transplant Update
Jim gives an update on Vivian Fried. You can donate to her kidney transplant fund by clicking here: http://bit.ly/Donate2Vivian.
To become a member of the Vivian Fried Fundraising Team click here: http://bit.ly/BeAVIVIANFundraiser.
THANK YOU!
Episode 369: 05-19-16
Transcription:
Jim Fried: All right, South Florida, we’re coming in summer this week, you can tell it all the weather. We got a great show today. We’ve got Bruce Turkel, I’m in a life transition and Bruce is fired up. We’re going to talk about how to manage your brand during a life transition and we’ve got Adam Yormack on. We’re going to talk about the technology ecosystem and its growth here. And then we’re going to finish up with Michael Cooper, our positive energy guru and performance expert. We’re back after this. Wanda, take it away.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: We are here. We’re here with Bruce Turkel. Bruce is the creative director, the chief operating officer of Turkel Brands. He’s been involved with some of the most iconic brands in South Florida including the Fried on Business brand. Bruce, welcome back.
Bruce Turkel: The Fried on Business brand is the most iconic brand I’ve worked on.
Jim Fried: Thank you. It makes me feel terrific and I’m sure it makes the city of Miami know where they stand. Now Bruce is on because I’m in a transition, I’m moving from one work environment and one sort of career path to another and we’re going to talk about managing your brand. I guess it’s okay that I say what I just said, isn’t it?
Bruce Turkel: It’s too late to ask me now. It was okay. It was good. It’s to appear vulnerable, it makes people connect with you more.
Jim Fried: Thank you. I’m certainly vulnerable, there’s no doubt about that. I still will work in the large scale commercial real estate capitalization market and investment sales market but I really want to make some money over the summer. It’s short and I wanted to close some deals quickly so I’m entering the commercial and residential, the commercial hard money lending market and the residential jumbo and super jumbo mortgages. I think they’re great place to make a living in today’s world and we’ll be teaming up with my friend Bob Gutlohn. You’ve heard us for the last few months advertising Spectrum Mortgage. Now I’ll be working with Bob directly and Milvia. But Bruce, you and I have been tracking what’s been going on – I’ll just have to say it this way – emotionally and business-wise as I evolve through my brand. How am I doing so far?
Bruce Turkel: I think you’re doing terrific. First of all, you’re talking about it on the air which means every single person listening is now an opportunity for you to find opportunities and opportunity for you to help them and you’ve also aimed all of this, not at who you are and what you’re doing but how you can help others. We’ve talked about all about them every single time we’ve been on the air and you’ve done a great job until you just explained what you were going to do. It was so complicated you couldn’t even say it. So we’re going to try it again and what you’re going to say is ”I’m going to help people get the money they need to live in the homes they want to live in, to buy the properties they want to buy”. That’s how you’re going to change it. And then everybody driving around on 995 or anywhere else is going to go ”I got to call this guy”.
Jim Fried: Yes. They should. They should call me at 305 773 6300.
Bruce Turkel: I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. What was that number again?
Jim Fried: 305 773 6300.
Bruce Turkel: And they’re going to call you why? Because you’re going to help them. Exactly.
Jim Fried: I can help them. And you know what I’ve seen is the this residential mortgage thing, it’s like a Rubik’s cube, everybody needs some help, they all can’t really understand it, and when you come to quote a loan, the bank sends you this thing, it looks like a 62 graphs that you need PhD to figure out. And that’s why I’m going to work with Spectrum because Bob has a PhD in this stuff. He knows that lenders that lend, where they’re going to lend and how they’re going to lend, he knows how to navigate that process and he’s going to teach me what I call the craft of helping people live in the homes they want to live in.
Bruce Turkel: That’s right.
Jim Fried: It’s really terrific. So we’re going to do that, we’re going to do some hard money lending too. I’ve already got some things in process, people are sending me town home deals that they want me to help finance, also to develop. But again, it’s really residential, we’re focusing on private lending, we’re focusing on things that are every day deals that can help people live a better life.
Bruce Turkel: And that’s the bottom line. I don’t know what hard lending is, all I know is getting a loan is hard but none of that matters when you’re selling the brand. What matters is what are you going to do for me because let’s face it, getting a mortgage is an awful experience. You got to get that shoe box off the top shelf where you kept all your pay stubs or you have to go find a file on your computer, you have to sit with someone you don’t know and show them stuff you don’t even tell your spouse, you have to explain why you had that bankruptcy or why you could make that credit card pay and you have to explain your divorce, you have to explain all those things and it’s an awful experience. But if they’re someone like you who says ”Look, I can help, I can show you what needs to be done, I can show you what the best deals are, I can walk you through the process” and yes, you’re going to have to drop your pants and show me stuff that you might not want to show people. But it’s going to be painless and when we’re done you’re not going to buy a house, you’re going to own a home. And what’s a home all about, where you’re going to raise your family, where you’re going to live your dreams, where you’re going to retire, where hopefully one day it’s going to appreciate and you’re going to sell it and use it to pay for your dotage or your third chapter. All of those things are what matters. The hard money, the amortization, the mezzanine, financing, all that, irrelevant. People don’t understand it, they don’t care and it’s not what they’re in the game for.
Jim Fried: Now you know why I have you on the show today.
Bruce Turkel: I’m so glad there’s a reason.
Jim Fried: The reason is not only because you’re one of my best friends, it’s because you’re helping me through this. We sit and talk, you help me manage how I present things because right now the main thing is it’s just putting one step, one foot in front of the other and just continuing to move forward, working hard to help people, finding people I can help, asking everybody I know is the way that I can help you with my new bag of ideas.
Bruce Turkel: They say it’s like when you want to adopt a child. If you’re looking to an adopted child, you tell every single person you come in the contact with because someone is going to say ”You know what? My mother’s, sister’s, boyfriend’s, milkman’s, mailman’s, uncle’s, cousin knows someone. You have to get the word out there. And in what you’re doing, you and I did it the other day. We were sitting together, you were talking about what you’re going to be doing and then I said to you ”Guess what? My wife and I just bought a new house. I need to figure out the way to get the mortgage”. Now, I never would’ve told you that if you hadn’t told me what you were doing, it wouldn’t have come up. We were talking about different things. So once you have your messaging strategy which is – this is you, not me – ”I help people get the home they want where they can live their dreams”. Then the next step is to make sure that you distribute that message everywhere you can. You know Point 7 – ”Repeat, repeat, repeat”. You say it over and over and over again until everybody hears it. My guess is when we’re done in this studio, one of the five people in here is going to say to you ”Jim, by the way, I didn’t know what you’re doing. Can you help me with this sort of program?”.
Jim Fried: It happens every single time whenever I meet somebody. I went to a big opening of the Akerman Center for the law firm downtown, they have their new office down in Brickell, it was beautiful, high five to all my friends over there. And I had something I could say to everybody, not just the real estate people but every single person in that room. And one of the people in that room was a woman that I was actually, my date-to-grad, that’s how long I’ve known her, since I was 17. She’s a very prominent Realtor at Aventura and she goes ”I guess we have to have another date so you can help me help people find their dream homes and afford them”, and I said ”I’m happy to do that, Lisa, no problem”. So it really worked out well. It gives me something to say to every single person. If somebody owns a home, maybe they’re thinking about buying a new one or refinancing their current home, maybe you know somebody who needs some help with that, you just give me a call at 305 773 6300 and I’ll say it a little slower if you need to get your pen. It’s really hard to remember. 305 773 6300. If you call that number, you’ll get the most experienced people that you could possibly work with in the residential mortgage field and we will help you achieve your dreams in your home. It’s something that I believe is one of the most important things out there today in America. It’s one of the most difficult things to do, the government made it difficult, all the people that were bad actors in the mortgage brokerage business before, most of them are gone. And what does that do? That leaves the fact that you really don’t have anybody that can be – I’ll say it this way – your counselors to walk you through to be the vault when you disclose your financial information and to help you achieve the right structure so you can own the home that you want in the format and way you want. And we can sit here and talk about adjustable rate mortgages, arms, HELOCS.. exactly. All the crazy terminology that somebody who needs to know needs to know. But to anybody who really needs to know that’s listening is if you call me, Jim Fried 305 773 6300, I’m going to help you. And one of the ways I’m going to repeat, repeat, repeat is now we’re going to put this on the top of the flyer and it’s going to have me ”This man wants to help you”.
Bruce Turkel: That’s right. And that’s what it’s all about.
Jim Fried: I’m writing that down. And that’s what happens when we get together. It’s just a bunch of brainstorming and the ideas just flow and you’re kind enough to maybe cluck a little bit if I have something that’s a little off base but it’s just really great to have somebody to go back and forth as you evolve through all of this and look for your new ways to do things. And I’m just going to write it down here. ”This person wants to help you”. Who doesn’t want to hear that?
Bruce Turkel: Everybody wants to hear that.
Jim Fried: Yes, they do. Wanda, how much time do we have in this segment? I want to make sure we stay on point. We’re broadcasting live from the new W – what do they call this place? ZAB, WZAB. For me it’s WFRIED. But WZAB has got new studio out here, we’re working hard to make it go and Bruce, you were telling me, is this just like when you’re switching careers? They have the same type of issues here where they don’t have their system down yet and if you don’t have your system down, something’s inevitably going to go wrong and you just got to roll with that.
Bruce Turkel: The best way to do it of course is to know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there, right? And then anything that happens that sets you off your pins, either message-wise, brand-wise or function-wise, it’s easy to fix it because you realize ”I need to get from point A to point B and just because this system is not working or that system is not working I still know where I’m going”. The problem is when you don’t know. The problem is when you haven’t sat and thought about it, you haven’t figured out your messaging, your positioning strategies, you haven’t figured out how you’re going to get from point A to point B, then every distraction gets on the way. Every distraction slows you down, disappoints you, frustrates you. But if you know what you need to get done, if you know what you need to do, if you know how you’re going to get there, then they just become little obstacles and you drive around them.
Jim Fried: We talked about this yesterday where it’s just keeping your eye on the horizon and keep on moving. I guess that’s a way you avoid sea sickness and also career sickness.
Bruce Turkel: They tell you that if you’re a dirt biker or you do off-road bicycle and whatever they tell you. If you see something in your way, you look at it and then look away. Because what you look at you hit. You aim for it and you hit it. Consciously, subconsciously, I don’t know. But you hit it. But if you look away, you look forward, you look to where you want to be, you right ride around it, that rock in the road, you ride up to it, you go around it but stare at the rock and I promise you you’ll hit it.
Jim Fried: The goal is to always vision the future –
Wanda: Just love that.
Jim Fried: I too, Wanda. Thank you for finally joining us. You are the third mic in the room.
Wanda: I’m working on other things-
Jim Fried: I know you are, I know you got to T-up our fancy fabulous music to keep our feet popping and our fans hopping in the whole time. Bruce, getting the message out, being clear, having a purpose. Having a purpose is the most important part of knowing what it is and think that it’s very important. I’m blessed. I have a person that I can be the protegee with in Bob, he’s going to help me with all of these great mortgage ideas, I’m going to be able to bring him to help people. We’re already meeting people and I’m also having, and now that I’ve switched my perspective on LinkedIn, I’m getting all kinds of positive energy. This morning I must have had a 150- 200 ”way-to-go’s”. It’s just the click that people do but I looked at every one and when it wasn’t the standard click, it was customized, I customized the response back.
Bruce Turkel: Beautiful.
Jim Fried: I love those people, the people that took the extra time to do something customize which by the way, if I respond to somebody that’s the way I do it, to give them a high five, I go high five instead of the customized thing or whatever, well done, I know that it makes them feel, that somebody took the extra effort. Because that’s the way I felt when they did it for me. I want to do it for them. Wanda, is it time to go? All right, we’ll be back, Bruce is going to be right back with us in a couple of seconds. We’re going to give you more information that you can put to use today to make your life better. So enjoy the music, stick with us, we’ll be right back with more great information you can use to make your life better today.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: We’re back and I just thought, I want to have you back in a couple of weeks because want to talk to you about the branding I’m doing with Vivian because we’re searching for Vivian’s kidney and I’ve used one picture to brand, as the brand and then I used some other pictures later. I want to talk to you about that later, I don’t want to confuse the subject today. Today we’re talking about managing your brand as you go through a career transition, I’m transitioning my career, I’m opening up a whole new vista of ability to help people, I’ve got a whole new as Dwayne Wayne would say bag of tricks and it’s residential mortgages. I’ve teamed up with Bob Gutlohn, you’ve heard me advertising Bob. Bob has been a sponsor for a long time on the show. Bob and Milvia have been in the business for 25 years. I’m going to introduce them to people I know that need help. I want to help those people achieve their dreams of owning their home without a lot of stress, God willing.
Bruce Turkel: You see what’s happening, when we first started talking about this, you started explaining to me all the technical things you were doing which was about as interesting to me as watching grass grow. Other than I care about you, I didn’t understand or care. And we kept trying to craft what was your message, you kept explaining to me about our motivation schedules and tax implications schedules and all those things which was like watching a bumper rust. And then at some point we talked about the idea of why you were doing it and you explained you were doing it because you can help people, because you know how this industry works and other people don’t because you’re involved in the technical side of it and how you can take that knowledge and put it to others’ benefit which ultimately benefits you and how that works. And it took a while to make that transition for you from ”Look how much I know, I’m the smartest guy in the room and let me prove it to you” to ”Here is what matters to you”. But now that you’ve done that, you now communicate all these different things you’re doing under the umbrella, under the brand positioning of ”I’m helping other people achieve their dreams”. And as soon as you do that, people listening say ”I get that. That resonates with me, that makes sense to me. I’d like to know more about that”.
Jim Fried: A lot of the feedback I’ve got from the market about myself that’s been problematic is that I like sometimes hold myself out as the smartest person in the room and wouldn’t that stand anybody off?
Bruce Turkel: It’s just the matter of not necessary if I already know you like you trust, you wouldn’t believe you know what you’re talking about. I need to hear those reasons, I need to see your certifications, I need to know your experience but those are called RTBs, Reasons To Believe. And I only care about that after I’ve already determined that I’m interested in finding out what is that you can do for me. Now you need to prove it. But most companies don’t do that. They lead with their RTBs, they talk about how many locations we have, how many trucks we have, how many computers we have, how many years of experience, they habla español, whatever it is that becomes the RTBs. Here’s the ugly secret, I don’t care about your credentials and your RTBs until I care about using you to do something I want to accomplish.
Jim Fried: And somebody asked me this the other day. They go ”Jim, do people trust you?” I have to say yes, I believe they do. I really don’t have any kind of bad reputation, I haven’t done anything wrong to anybody. So if you’re competent, you hold yourself out, you have other people that trust you that the person knows, I think you’re going to get a chance to have an opportunity to help that person. And that’s really all I want to do. I really have worked in commercial, commercial is a very difficult thing, a tough part, there’s a big commission, so there’s a lot of people that go after you in commercial and not necessarily the positive way. Residential, I just want to do the deal and help the person have a home they can live in comfortably for as long as they want, have a place, a yard if they want, have no yard if they want. Is it different structure if you want a high leverage or low leverage, but none of that really matters. What matters is I want to help the person. And we talked about getting my message out clearly. We worked with Sandy Abbot here, Sandy Constant Contact on here, Xpresso Marketing and we had – I’ll say it – an email blast. I was under time pressure because the summer is coming in and I wanted to get it out before the the summer. Actually, I wanted to get it out before today’s show, so I didn’t want to confuse messages. Still haven’t sent it out because we needed to work together to make sure that it was clear that what I want to do is help other people.
Bruce Turkel: What I want to do is help you. You just wrote it right there. There’s something to be said for hidden in plain sight, the ideas are there. We just have to pay attention to them. You just said it. What I want to do is help you. Say it with me. What I want to do is help you. One more time. What I want to do is help you.
Jim Fried: Hallelujah man, hallelujah. 305 773 6300. Give me a call. If I can help you with your residential mortgage, commercial mortgage, if I can help you, just give me a call. I have, here’s a term we haven’t used, I want to apply the intellectual capital that I have for the benefit of other people.
Bruce Turkel: Beautiful. Can you come up with the way that you say it that doesn’t use words that I failed on my SAT?
Jim Fried: Yes, okay. I want to use the things that I know to help other people.
Bruce Turkel: I want to use what I know to help you do what you don’t know. All you want to do is help you. Don’t give up the rhyme, all I want to do is help you.
Jim Fried: Maybe that is my rhyme. All I want to do is help you. All I want to do is help you.
Bruce Turkel: Maybe we wouldn’t get the show, rights to the song All I Want To Do Is Have Some Fun, we can rewrite it. It can become your theme song.
Jim Fried: You know those people. How do we-
Bruce Turkel: We call them up. I know her bass player, I’ll call him-
Jim Fried: Please do that, maybe you and your band can do it as a cover.
Bruce Turkel: Speaking of the band, we’re playing Saturday night at Books&Books in Coral Gables, 8:00 PM, we’ll be outside in that courtyard, we’ll have the full horn section otherwise known as The Smoking Section.
Jim Fried: Where is this? This is going to be in Coral Gables?
Bruce Turkel: Coral Gables in Books & Books. Black Star is playing at 8:00 PM.
Jim Fried: 8:00 PM, Wanda is there. Wanda will do the intro for you.
Wanda: I’m on a birthday week.
Bruce Turkel: Your birthday?
Jim Fried: She’ll turn 16 this week. Actually in our house it’s a birthday month. Can I give you the okay to do a birthday month?
Bruce Turkel: Yes, that’s what we do. That’s a Polish tradition.
Jim Fried: Birthday month. You’re getting a birthday month, Wanda.
Wanda: All right.
Jim Fried: All right then. And first of all, you’re going to be on stage with the Harmonica himself over here.
Bruce Turkel: That’s right. You’re welcome to come, I don’t think we know ”Happy Birthday” but we’ll learn it for you.
Wanda: We can play it legally now, right?
Bruce Turkel: Yes, we can, without having to pay you royalties.
Jim Fried: That’s true. Bruce, I heard, we talked about The Harmonica, I heard from – I’ll tell you – from Bob Gutlohn that you blow a great show for two.
Bruce Turkel: Yes, I did that at Temple year after year. It was a lot of fun actually. Somebody asked me if I could.. I’m a trumpet player so for trumpet players it’s easy, for everybody else it’s really hard. That’s it.
Jim Fried: I hope it didn’t blow out anybody’s ears with that one. So Bruce, let’s get back to it though. The main thing is to just make sure that the message is consistent and it sounds to me like what the message really is it’s not about what you’re doing or anything else, it’s about your elemental, your basic thing that you want to get across the people, the basic thing that makes your brand and the reason that I’ve re-launched Sandstone, my personal company and teamed up with Bob Gutlohn and Spectrum Mortgage to bring additional heft to the team is because I wanted to help people.
Bruce Turkel: Because all I want to do is help you.
Jim Fried: I love this guy. So Wanda, you got.. we already said it, you’re going to get me the music ”All I want to do is help you”. This is amazing.
Bruce Turkel: We’re going to get you a singer also.
Jim Fried: It’s not me, that’s for sure. Bruce, we talked about.. we only got how much more time do we have in this segment, Wandita?
Wanda: Probably like, call it five minutes.
Jim Fried: That’s great. That means we can flip on over to the seven things. Can you please numerate the seven things please?
Bruce Turkel: Of course. These are the seven points to building brand value. If you’re going to build a brand, these are the things you need to know. By the way, they’re all only three words. So even if you’re driving, you can probably remember these. It’s on my business card, it’s on my website, it’s on the last book I wrote. You can find these all over, bruceturkel.com or turkelbrands.com. Either one. Number one is ”All about them”. That’s what we’ve been talking about all morning. Not talking about yourself, not talking about what you do, talking about how what you do impacts and resonates with others. Because all you want to do is help you. Exactly. Point one is ”All about them”. Point two is ”Hearts then minds”. You want to make an emotional connection before you make an intellectual connection. In your case, a house is intellectual. I’m going to buy a house. It’s 1800 square feet blah blah blah. But a home is emotional. A home is where I raise my family. A home is where I live my dreams. A home is where I invest in my family’s future. Heats then minds. Make an emotional connection before you make an intellectual connection. Most businesses make intellectual connections. They talk about numbers and percentages and all those sorts of things which are important, they’re RTBs. We talked about that already. Point two is ”Hearts then minds”. Point three – ”Make it simple”. All I want to do is help you. And then shut up because you have to let the line sink in. People have to understand what it’s all about. Most salespeople talk themselves out of business because they talk so much that the consumer never gets the chance to understand what’s in it for them. So point three is ”Make it simple”. Point four is ”Make it quick”. Point five is ”Make it yours”. What are you going to own. Lots of people offer mortgages, lots of people offer residential mortgages and commercial mortgages, lots of people offer the actual functional service that Jim Fried is going to offer through Sandstone. However, you are going to own being the caring, helpful firm because-
Jim Fried: All I want to do is help you.
Bruce Turkel: You got it. Point six is ”All five senses”. He wanted to try to catch me up but I’ve said this a few times. I got it down.
Jim Fried: We got the peanut gallery. We got all the guests in here, we’re all having a great time here. Maybe you should join us too at the studio someday.
Bruce Turkel: Point six is ”All five senses”. It’s not simply what you see in here, it’s what you feel, what you smell and what you taste. Now, you might ask ”How do you make mortgages taste good?” but that’s part of the challenge of figuring out how to do this. You need to look-
Jim Fried: I know how to do it. I’m sorry. I was going to say the idea. When you present the information, you can have perhaps a little flower that you have with or little perfume that’s your scent or something and then they’re activated that when they smell that they think of you.
Bruce Turkel: Beautiful. So there you go. You want to make sure that you engage people’s senses. And then point seven, we’ve said it earlier is ”Repeat, repeat, repeat”.
Jim Fried: Can you say that again please?
Bruce Turkel: Yes, repeat, repeat, repeat. And so I will. Point one is ”All about them”, point two is, no I’m not going to-
Jim Fried: No, make sure you go faster in number four.
Bruce Turkel: But the idea is once you figure it out you say it over and over and over again because nobody else is really focusing on your brand, only you are. And you think ”I’m tired of saying it, they’re tired of hearing it”. Not true. BMW has been the ultimate driving machine since 1972. The cars have changed, the company has changed, but they present themselves in a consistent and powerful uncompelling manner.
Jim Fried: And even though all I want to do is help you, the other thing to mention about your concept of repeating, repeating, repeating is I put your content all of our content out all the time. Probably tweet something 10 or 15 times a day and every single time I do I pick up a new follower, there’s more likes, there’s more clicks because there’s somebody new that hasn’t heard the content that they need to make their life better.
Bruce Turkel: And you do that beautifully because I know when I open my Twitter account I see all your tweets. You put my logo in there, you mention something I say, you give them a link so people who want to be further involved, because it has to resonate with them, you give them that opportunity and if they do it and they learn something or they do business with you and they find the home that they want, then all of the sudden they feel better or they feel good about themselves. The key is that a good brand makes you feel good. But a great brand makes you feel good about yourself.
Jim Fried: We’re working on that. A lot of our content does that, a lot of our content, we’re going to have Michael Cooper here coming up in a few minutes and we’re going to talk about positive energy, positive perspective. Hopefully you’ll stick around and we can make it real bouncy final segment. We’re going to have Adam on in a couple of minutes. Adam is going to talk about the technology environment here. I had a great meeting this morning with some people that really want to rebrand the cultural elements and rebrand Miami. We’re going to have a meeting with them. Bruce I want you to help us rebrand the perspective in Miami to people like Adam’s folks in New York that he does business with. And that’s what we’re going to do. So while I’m changing my tagline that I do residential mortgages in addition to commercial now, it’s still all the same. It’s still all about you. In this case it’s all about my listeners and our community. I really want our community to be able to benefit from what I’m going to do in the future. Our community, the members, not me, I want to the tide to rise and to help them. My boat will lift.
Bruce Turkel: And why?
Jim Fried: Because it’s all about them.
Bruce Turkel: Because all you want to do-
Jim Fried: Is help you. That’s it. All I want to do is help you. And with that we’re going to wrap it up. We’re going to be right back with great information about our technology environment here. Adam Yormack is going to talk about raising money for your technology, how to get the right team together for your technology endeavor, raising money, venture capital, that’s what we’re talking about, next information you can use right away here today because all I want to do is help you. And that’s what we’re going to do around the corner. Wanda, it’s yours.
[commercial break]
Jim Fried: When he says ”I feel nice like sugar and spice” Wanda takes down the music and we go to our next segment. This is going to be an awesome segment. We’ve got Adam Yormack. He’s the founder of boutique technology law firm Yormack & Associates. He focuses on M&A, securities law and real estate. He lives here in Miami but he brings lots of money from New York Tel Aviv hometown in Denver. We’ll have you on some time when we talk about the business opportunities specific only to Denver and you know what I mean. Adam, welcome to the show.
Adam Yormack: Jim, thanks so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Jim Fried: I’m going to give Adam some technical advice. You’re going to talk like this, right into the, there you go. Now, Adam, tell me a little bit about what’s going on. We build this as an overview of the technology ecosystem. How is it here in South Florida for the raising of money and capitalizing technology?
Adam Yormack: We’ve got this incredible opportunity right now where Miami is turning into a hub for technology from all over the Latin America and a lot of the South. So as it’s expanding through all over the world and Tel Aviv specifically has gotten in with the idea center thanks to the Knight Foundation and so we just had start up nation which was on Monday and Tuesday of this week-
Jim Fried: Sure that was awesome, right?
Adam Yormack: It was awesome. 25 incredible entrepreneurs with technology ranging from everything from the software development to cancer fighting technologies so getting those kinds of people here in town has been incredible and it’s bringing money, attracting the type of capital that’s up in Boca that we have all through Palm Beach all the way down to Coconut Grove. And that’s what we need.
Jim Fried: I was talking to a gentleman down here that’s a part of cultural community, that’s right, I talk culture too, not just business. And we were talking about the impact the culture has on business, how we really need to do to continue to grow our economy is to somehow create a place where people come together with more collisions, more ideas and more cash. And it sounds to me like you’re working on that.
Adam Yormack: Yes, we’re working on that. There’s a great network of people down here trying to bring the technology down here, trying to create an ecosystem where people want to move to especially the technological savvy, the software builders and things like that, who want to be in Miami. This is a great place to live, it’s a beautiful place to be, wonderful opportunities but there needs to be more of a reason for them to move here and groups are putting that together all over the place, an ecosystem is coming together.
Jim Fried: So it sounds like when people who are in technology are working hard to make Miami all about them.
Adam Yormack: All about them. What it’s all about is the inventors, the people with the great ideas trying to figure out a way and Bruce really nailed it when he was talking about it’s all about them because at the end of the day we have great ideas here and we don’t want them to leave and go to New York, we don’t want them to go to Boston, we want them to stay here, we want them to find the talent that they need down here built from a legal perspective, a technical perspective and everything else. So we need to provide those pillars so people come down here and start building their companies here in South Florida.
Jim Fried: A lot of people have the misinformation that there’s no talent here, that there’s no staffing here, that they can’t fill the positions that they need here with quality individuals. How are you finding that particular objection?
Adam Yormack: It’s tough. It really is. It’s sort of the chicken before the egg scenario where you have, you really have great ideas but the software developers and really the schools that are building those great software folks are just down getting off the ground down here. So they’re starting to graduate them, they’re starting to get into market and they’re really becoming more sophisticated and experienced. But at this point, it’s tough to get them down here.
Jim Fried: It seems to me like a lot of it just concentrated in Wynwood, I know a lot of your investors have a lot of bets that they place in Wynwood that they really believe in Wynwood. Wynwood is now I think returning the investment to them I think in a quite positive way and people didn’t understand why. Well, the zoning is increasing but also it’s because it’s a concentration of a certain type of creative individual where sparks are beginning to occur and the industry is related around technology and entertainment.
Adam Yormack: Yes, and Wynwood is becoming a hub for creative people of all types. It started with the artist and the groups from New York started building out the potential for the hubs to be there and the incubators and accelerators and as attorneys move in and people start to come down and see it as a viable option that’s the anti-South Beach it really is an attractive place for people to come visit and be.
Jim Fried: What’s the most amazing thing about Wynwood so far is the line outside of Zak’s. It’s interesting because that’s a complete demographic that didn’t have any service in that neighborhood now and it’s one of the precursors to a vibrant technology in investing community. You’re finding that to be creative to what you’re doing?
Adam Yormack: It is in an odd way. Zak was one of the anchors that was brought down, I believe Zak was in France for a while and brought down kosher bakery. It’s fantastic, if anybody has not been in there. It’s so good.
Jim Fried: It’s bread, it’s food but when you see on TV you hear the people need bread to live and you go ”How the heck do people live on bread?”, you could live on Zak’s bread but that’s a story for another day.
Adam Yormack: You could. And those kinds of anchors in the neighborhood are not only what attracts people but attracts young people, Millennials, the ones who are really growing up on technology and can do everything from building out apps to what we’re seeing a lot of especially like on my trip next week to Tel Aviv which is cyber security. And that’s something that Miami is very vested in especially with the airport and other hubs as we open up the port as well.
Jim Fried: Do you know Jim Angleton?
Adam Yormack: I don’t.
Jim Fried: Okay, you’re getting together with Jim Angleton. He’s my cyber security guru and we put his content on, it gets repurposed all the time. He’s one of our highest repurposing people and that’s what we do here because Fried on Business is what?
Adam Yormack: All about you.
Jim Fried: All about you. I want to make it all about you on this case. So tell me a little bit more about what you’re doing and how you and I can work together to make it a better place for other people.
Adam Yormack: A lot of what I do is look for clients that need the corporate lawyer, or look for clients who are also looking for that corporate lawyer as connectivity in different cities outside of Miami. We want the groups here with the great ideas and beyond to come here and say ”We need someone who’s got the connectivity in Tel Aviv, New York, Denver” which is where I’m from and we can bring ideas, we can bring people here and it really makes in my opinion, that’s how you build a team. You need to build a team sometimes from outside of the city that you’re in and if you can do that on an international level, you’re able to find top talent worldwide.
Jim Fried: How do people get a hold of you if they want to be part of your team?
Adam Yormack: Sure. You can look me up online yormackpa.com or you can find me, just Google me, just Adam Yormack YORMACK.
Jim Fried: One of the things we didn’t talk about, we’ll have you back and talk about it again is your involvement in the community and charitable works. I want to thank you so much because you didn’t just come here to live here. You came here to build a life and when you do that, it’s about the other people in the community. And I want to thank you for that to have you as part of the team here on the show talking about technology and incubation and all this. So we’ll get you on with the Knight Foundation sometimes.
Adam Yormack: That’d be great. Matt Haggman’s a good friend so that’d be fantastic.
Jim Fried: We’ll get Matt on, we can’t wait to have you. I want to thank you so much for being on the show. Everybody should stick with us because again, the show is all about you, our listeners and we are going to have Michael Cooper on and I’m telling you this, when you’re done listening to Michael Cooper, you’re going to be ready to run out your car or wherever you’re at and go right to a brick wall because if there’s one thing Michael Cooper knows how to do, it’s fire up a room. We’ll be right back, we’ll get you fired up right back after this. Wanda is firing up the music. Wanda, it’s yours, girl.
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Jim Fried: We’ve got our bulldog, we got Michael Cooper. He’s going to talk to us real quick about what he does and how he can stay positive. Michael, welcome back to the show.
Michael Cooper: Thanks for having me.
Jim Fried: Tell us real quick, you got a core, tell us about your book and what the premise is.
Michael Cooper: The ”Missing Playbook”, it’s what’s missing in an individual’s life. So we have lots of information that people get out there. One of the things, I was actually just speaking to some leaders from some major brands this week. There’s a lot of information that we get but one of the prerequisites, one of the preconditions to understand all this information that comes to us is we need to understand the mind and how the mind works. And when I put the ”Missing Playbook” together, there’re modules that help you start to learn how to use your mind to think into results and ultimately can produce the remarkable results that you’re looking for in your life.
Jim Fried: So you have to project positive energy so that the people get it so that they feel comfortable with what you’re doing.
Michael Cooper: 100%. It’s a heartbeat, it’s a soul, it’s a culture so when you’re working within an organization, you have to have this alliance that’s called the mastermind alliance when you have two or more minds working in the spirit of harmony with one another. And to do that we need some qualifications. So there’s lots of people where you have groups and teams, people that are working with one another and when I’m talking with them I say ”There’s six qualifications that you’re looking for, 1- you need to be dependable, 2 – you need to be loyal”. So if they’re not dependable and loyal I don’t even need to look at the third thing which is to find out if they have the ability to do what we want them to do, what they’re capable of doing. But if they are dependable and loyal, they have the ability, now I’m looking for if they have a positive mental attitude, do they go the extra mile and if they’re operating on their applied faith.
Jim Fried: I got Bruce. Bruce has Mike fired up there. Bruce, he just described you.
Bruce Turkel: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Jim Fried: Now what’s next, Michael? Bruce and I have this great rapport, we got great energy together, how do we accomplish stuff?
Michael Cooper: One of the things that you guys were talking about earlier is definitely a matter of establishing what your purpose is which is, your purpose is your why. So when you were talking about it earlier, it’s not about the how or the what that people are interested in hearing about, it’s your why, why are you doing what you do.
Jim Fried: Because it’s all about you.
Michael Cooper: It’s all about you.
Jim Fried: There you go. Wanda got it in there. That’s right. It’s all about you. And if we’re here in Miami, it’s about the you too.
Wanda: It’s all about you’s.
Jim Fried: You’s guys. Now we’re talking the Jersey angle.
Bruce Turkel: How you’s doing?
Jim Fried: Exactly, right.
Bruce Turkel: That’s the only question you answer with a question. How you’s doing? How you’s doing?
Jim Fried: Exactly. Michael, what is something that somebody can use right today to get a better result than they might have gotten yesterday?
Michael Cooper: The biggest thing that I will talk about all the time is write down ”What do I want?” on a piece of paper or on a document and sit in a quite spot and just write. Just allow the intuition to pick up on these ideas that are within you. Everybody has an inner oogle. So like you have Google, you go out and start searching for information, you type in and all this stuff comes out. But inside you have your own oogle, so I’m Michael, so mine is Moogle, yours is Joogle. We have this inner oogle so all of the answers that you’re searching for to get the results that you want in your life is inside of you. But everybody is looking outside at outside circumstances.
Jim Fried: I totally agree with you. We have this great bath tub at our house. I just fill the hot tub, I close the door, I make it dark and I just try to relax and go whatever it was, altered states, I guess is what that movie was. Meditation land and do my thing. Exactly. Michael, where do people get your book? How do they find you?
Michael Cooper: Go to humanperformancementors.com. The website has lots of good information and they can find a lot of ways there too, there’s a resource center, you can get access to my recommended reading list, there’s lots of ways that, I love going out and sharing with people-
Bruce Turkel: Tell us again.
Michael Cooper: humanperformancementors.com.
Jim Fried: That’s awesome. Michael, we got to get you back again. You’re an awesome clean up here. You bring everything together every time we have you on the show. He’s very laid back and we’re sitting right here next to, what is it? The Palmetto. Whatever it is. It’s a crazy thing over there, that crazy Dolphin express way.
Wanda: The airport.
Michael Cooper: They are feeling the energy within here. So now as they’re driving by it’s nice and slow, they’re having peace of mind while they’re driving by-
Jim Fried: I love this guy. How do we bottle you? We want to make this all about you. How do we bottle you?
Michael Cooper: You need to get my app up and going so that way people can just listen-
Bruce Turkel: But in the meantime, what’s your website again?
Michael Cooper: humanperformancementors.com
Bruce Turkel: Mentors, plural. Repeat, repeat, repeat, my friend. It doesn’t help if people hear it but don’t remember it. I want to go to it, I’m doing this for myself.
Jim Fried: humanperformancementors.com. We had a great show. I got about a minute left, Wanda? That’s it? Listen, thanks to the Related Group, Spectrum Mortgage, UHealth, Warren Henry, Magnum Energy Solutions, my guests, Bruce, Michael and Adam, EarlyShares, the NFL Alumni, Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies, the Miami Marlins, the CCIMs, South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine-
Wanda: Breathe. And continue.
Jim Fried: Thank you. Xpresso Marketing, Social Media 305, and of course Lauren’s Kids, but of course this is all about you. Join our community, give us feedback and comments, tell us who you want to hear from. Without you my listeners I don’t have a show. Tweet me @JimFried, @FriedonBusiness, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube. The website keeps getting more hits to www.friedonbusiness.com. This is Jim Fried for Fried on Business of course 880 AM next Thursday at six. Why? Because I love doing it. And it’s all because of you. Remember, this is not a rehearsal, this is your life. The person that wants to do something finds a way, the other finds an excuse. Now go out there and make it happen. That’s me in my life transition.
