The Benefits of Being AI-Curious

Jason · 00:00Welcome to episode 213 of The Numbers Game. I'm Jace, I'm here with Marty, and Tommy's back again. How are we guys?

Marty · 00:08Going well, thanks, Jase. Great to have Tommy back, our producer that we much love, makes us look good, makes us sound good. We're pretty much a mess if it's not for Tommy, so good to have you back, Tommy.

Marty · 00:20Good to have you back.

Tommy · 00:21Thanks, mate. I know what it's like to have to take the paternity leave like Niko, so I hope he's enjoying it. We'll, um, we'll see him soon, but thanks for having me, boys.

Marty · 00:30Jase, how are you going? I thought I'd ask this episode, I usually, uh, Just get straight to the point. How are you, my friend?

Jason · 00:37I was waiting for it this time. I was like, geez, am I going to, I just don't want to be skipped over again. I feel, yeah, you know, Tommy's on the, he takes a lot of attention. He's the most popular. We still get messages from the last step that came out saying, thank God, Tommy's back. This is brilliant. Uh, but mate, I'm good.

Jason · 00:51It's been a couple of weeks since, um, got back from Chicago, Mexico, New York trip. Did the marathon as people know, I talk about it all the time. It's like anyone who does a

Jason · 01:00marathon. Continues to talk about how they do marathons. So, um, but yeah, a couple of weeks back, back in action, getting things, you know, the business all back on track.

Jason · 01:08Um, sometimes, you know, things can go a little bit, you know, everyone knows what it's like to run a business. Things can go, uh, off the rails a little bit, but you know, in the lead up, Between now and, and year end or Christmas, um, it's all hands on deck. Uh, so it's pumping, looking forward to getting through to the year end celebrations.

Jason · 01:24It's been, you know, another big year, 2024 and another bajillion numbers game episodes under the belt, which is exciting, but now it's been good. It's been really good.

Marty · 01:32Jase, have you been following our, our friend, Adrian Portelli from LMCT plus? Yeah, I was watching the block back a couple of weeks ago. He's just come out like big play, bought all five houses.

Marty · 01:48Unbelievable. And he's going to, I think he's going to. He's going to, yeah, it's prize is going to be all five houses to one, one winner, which is incredible coverage he got

Marty · 02:00through that. And, uh, and it's a boxing day present for someone.

Jason · 02:03How insane is that though? Right. Yeah. I'm glad you, I'm glad you brought it up.

Jason · 02:07We'll, we'll spend a minute or two here before we dive into a different topic, but you know, Listen, watching that unfold gets all, all of the house. I think he spent about 15 million, um, which is just, just incredible, you know, to be able to do that. But again, the publicity, cause people like, Oh, you know, what's the point in doing it?

Jason · 02:24What's he getting out of it? But the publicity on this alone, um, is huge. And for anyone who doesn't remember, um, Adrian Portelli, he's dubbed the Lambo guy. Um, he has LMCT plus, which is a membership based rewards and giveaway platform. We've done an episode on it. Way back in the catalog, but if you Google the numbers game, Adrian Portelli, you'll find that pop up somewhere.

Jason · 02:44We might be able to put it in the show notes here if you're new to the show and haven't listened to that one, but effectively he sells a membership and rewards subscription, but it puts you into the draw to win giveaways and prizes. So, you know, obviously the more subscribers he gets to his rewards

Jason · 03:00program.

Jason · 03:00Um, the better for his business. And I was running some rough numbers on, you know, when I first heard it, you know, he shot 15 million on the houses. And then if you choose not to take the whole block resort, if you, if you are the lucky winner on December 26th, you can opt for 8 million cold, hard cash tax free, um, not too shabby at all.

Jason · 03:20I thought, well, geez, I wonder how many subscriptions or tickets he's got to sell to, uh, make this a reality. And just, I mean, if, if you're going to go into it, the maximum ticket you can get, um, is the 500 platinum ticket, which gives you, I think it's like a thousand entries into the draw. Now he's only got to sell 30, 000 tickets, I say only, but he's got a huge following.

Jason · 03:42And there's millions of people that, that are probably hearing about this right now. And the media has blown it up over the last couple of weeks. 30, 000 tickets doesn't seem like a big stretch to be able to cover your 15 million that you dropped buying five houses. Um, obviously then the ticket prices go down from 500

Jason · 04:00bucks for the entries, but you can imagine that the peak volume, people are going to drop 50 to a hundred bucks to be in the draw to win.

Jason · 04:07Um, Tommy, Marty, will you guys at least get a couple of tickets and maybe we, maybe we all get a ticket and, and we can, uh, get a house each. That's, we have a numbers game ticket. Tommy gets one, Nick gets one, Jace, Marty, and maybe Greg, if he's like, Greg, if you're listening, we might give you, give you a house, maybe.

Tommy · 04:24I think you're doing the best out of this cause it's a paid promotion for Adrian Portelli, which is a, I'm joking, I'm joking, but that is what people have said on, um, the last episode on YouTube. They said, Oh, this is definitely a paid promotion, but, um, it's just gambling. I've got no use. I've got, well, I won't say it is gambling cause you'll probably come out and sue me.

Tommy · 04:44It's. A raffle, but I have no interest in trying my luck at that. I'd rather put my energy into something else, but I guess you're going to be in it to win it. Or if you're in it and you're trying to win it, you'll probably lose based on the odds. Well, you

Jason · 04:58say that and randomly at

Jason · 05:00one of our clients won a boat.

Jason · 05:02He got the phone call. Yeah, yeah. So, so true story. One of our clients, uh, Tony didn't, and if you're listening, Tony, um, gonna share your story. He got a phone call. He was in Bali, like staying at a nice resort and he got the phone call and because people hear it live, you can listen to the, the calls live on the Facebook live when he does the calls for the, for the winner of the prizes.

Jason · 05:23And Tony got a call. He's sitting in a nice resort in Bali on leave. I think he was writing a book at the time and he got a phone call saying, you know, you've, you've won the boat. It's a hundred thousand dollars. Kind of fishing, fishing boat and branded LMCT on the side, and by the time he got back from Bali, it was delivered to his driveway.

Tommy · 05:39Oh my God. Jason, just quickly, if I win five houses. Do I have to, what kind of, do I have to pay some sort of tax or is it, what's the implication?

Marty · 05:49I think they, I think they transfer the stamp duty and they cover all that.

Tommy · 05:54Yep,

Marty · 05:54all covered. But I think if you're selling, obviously, that would be interesting.

Marty · 05:57What about capital gains on that, Jase?

Marty · 06:00If you win five, you know, Houses, and you don't rent them out and you want to sell them. Is there a capital gains issue or not? Because you want it in a raffle.

Jason · 06:08Oh, geez. Yeah. There's some big taps, tax implications there. I'd need to uncover, unpack that in a lot of detail, but yes, that you, you screwed from a tax sense, you know, when you go and selling properties, you get, we get one main residence, you can't move into the entire five house resort and call that your main residence and make it tax free.

Jason · 06:26Um, but there might be some strategies around moving into one of the properties to make that your main residence. You'd be able to. Kind of get that tax exempt. And then maybe the other four, you're, you're a little bit stuff, but yeah, the, the 8 million, that's where potentially then the people who, you know, think about this further go, Oh, maybe the 8 million tax free becomes a better option than owning five properties that I have to pay.

Jason · 06:48Stan, um, uh, land tax for starters, land tax would be quite a bill. Um, You know, and then going down that flight path. But yeah.

Marty · 06:56What would you do, Jase? Would you take the five or the eight mil?

Jason · 07:00I think

Marty · 07:00I'd

Jason · 07:00take

Marty · 07:00the five.

Jason · 07:01I think I'd take the five houses. And, uh, I don't know. Eight million cash is a lot of fun too.

Jason · 07:06You can do a lot with that.

Marty · 07:08I don't know.

Jason · 07:09I'd have to, what do you reckon buddy? What would you do?

Marty · 07:11I think I'd go the eight mil. Because I'd put it into stuff that I'd want to put it into. Um, yeah, I don't necessarily want to own half of Phillip Island. Yeah. Like it probably makes more sense to keep them in some way, shape or form.

Marty · 07:26But yeah, but, uh, it'd be a nice problem to

Tommy · 07:29have. You can't gift a property, can you, without having some implication for the person you're gifting it to?

Jason · 07:35Yeah, there's implications. Yeah. I mean, that's why I think, you know, with the, well, from the prize point of view, if you're winning a prize that, you know, winning, winning prizes in Australia doesn't have the tax implications that other places in the world do, but it's more after that, like the tax implications on any, any income you're earning from the properties got to pay tax on, um, yeah, as I said, land taxes and whatnot.

Jason · 07:55But again, likewise with the 8 million. Tax free cash. As soon as you then

Jason · 08:00start investing that you're paying tax on the earnings. But again, you've got 8 million tax free. It's not a bad, uh, starting

Marty · 08:05point. I'd love to know the odds, first of all, but I'd also know, I'd love to know the payout rate, like how, I think he pays out a fair bit on what he gets, um, just purely because he's just building such a pipeline of opportunity, but I'd love to know what those ratios are, like what he gets into, what he pays out because he's given away.

Marty · 08:25You know, a fair bit. Million bucks then two 50 and boats and it's crazy stuff.

Jason · 08:30Well, yeah, I mean, just, just from off, can we get him on ? Yeah. We just try off the top though. So the, the, this is the interesting thing as well. The, you, you gotta look at the market value of the, of the property, which I think is what's gonna cause some potential complexities.

Jason · 08:43I mean, there's the price Asia Portelli pays at auction, but you could argue that that's really not market value. So when, if you chose to take the five properties. And let's say maybe that's why he's matched the 8 million tax free cash. It might be, let's say the market value might

Jason · 09:00be closer to 10 million on those properties.

Jason · 09:02So if you get five houses, call it 2 million real value each, that becomes the cost base of your home for all those properties. You get 2 million cost base each. So because the ACO doesn't require you to declare prizes, one end lotteries or raffles as income, that becomes the cost base of your property.

Jason · 09:20So if Marty decides to take the five houses, keeps them for five years, Rents them out and then decides to sell them at some point in time. Marty's only gonna pay tax on the profit he makes of the value of $2 million the day he got that, given the house. And then it, let's say he sold it for 2.2 million.

Jason · 09:36A few years later, Marty only pays tax on $2 million. Capital gain usually then discounted down to a hundred thousand. He gets the other 2 million tax free. The same way he would've if he, if he took the cash.

Tommy · 09:48So what does that make you think, Jase? What's a better option, taking the, uh, cash or the property?

Tommy · 09:53I'd

Jason · 09:54have to get a local Phillip Island real estate agent to go down there and whip a quick property valuation up for me and then I'd, uh,

Jason · 10:00make my call. But I don't know, the idea of owning an entire resort down in Phillip Island, you know, feels pretty cool too. I mean, you know, you can have a bit of fun with that.

Marty · 10:07Yeah. A good problem to have regardless. Whether you take the cash or the properties and, uh, it certainly, certainly changes your game.

Jason · 10:15listeners out there love to know what you think. No, we're not sponsored by Portelli. Uh, but, but if anyone knows Adrian and he would come on and have a chat with us, we'd love that.

Jason · 10:23So feel free to, uh, hit him up on our behalf and send him our way. Um, let us know also what you would take the cash or the house, but we are here to deliver other value more than talking about, uh, Adrian Portelli, which has been all over the news for weeks. Let's talk to Marty about your show today. What have you got for us, Marty?

Marty · 10:39Well, today I wanted to talk about business and I've been thinking about, uh, thinking about what you've been talking about over the last year and a half with AI, Jason. I just, from what I'm seeing time and time again, um, what we think is going to be rapid change with digital, uh, is going to be at a whole different level.

Marty · 10:58And you've said this,

Marty · 11:00um, in the past. So, for, so for me, I want to go through like a business premise of helping, uh, young entrepreneurs, you know, grow. and come up with ideas for a business and then execute on that. And also how to think forward at the end of the show about how this might apply in a new economy as well.

Marty · 11:20And the thing that's always frustrated, frustrated me over the journey is I see a lot of people have really great ideas. However, only a small minority actually ever implement. Um, simple plans and execute on those ideas. And I think as a business owner and look, yeah, I'm probably I'm a little bit biased cause I have been for a long time now, but I see a lot of courage, resilience, people skills that are required strategies and smarts as well.

Marty · 11:49And I think that, um, I'm just conscious of, and sorry to take you back to 2000, the year 2000. I'm just conscious of me having a

Marty · 12:00really good income at that time, being in the bank, lucky enough to be in a financial uh, job at the time. And I was, I remember earning 80 grand and I could buy a house in for 160, 000.

Marty · 12:11So two times my income. And then I go, when I look at it today with people getting into the market and they're having to spend like eight to 10 times, sometimes their income, which is to me, just crazy when I think about the cost of living going up, I mean, we could have a partner at home looking after the kids.

Marty · 12:31Um, you know, you could live a good life based on that income buying at that level. So for me, the concern is. How do people, you know, in a job actually achieve any form of, you know, wealth through property or, you know, they're trying to get into the market and then they have to struggle to hold and, and, you know, it's, it's, it's a lot of pressure then you, they want to have a family and you go, there's a lot of expenses having a family now as well.

Marty · 12:58So it just

Marty · 13:00seems to be that, um, I don't know, the trend doesn't feel like it's in your favor, and not to be a pessimist on it, but I'm trying to challenge our audience and friends of our audience to go, well, potentially taking your expertise into a business setting where you can make 10 times the amount of potential salary that you are making.

Marty · 13:22Um, there was a lot of hard work in that, but I go, how do you get the ratios back in your favor and what is the idea that can potentially get you there? So I just want to open that up, gents, into, you know, into exploring that a little bit with you. But first of all, I want to ask you both, what incentivize you to, to be a business owner, to And make that jump, Jase, we'll start with yourself because you're both business owners, but what was the incentive and the driver for you to do that?

Marty · 13:52Why?

Jason · 13:53Good question. Um, I don't necessarily think it was financially driven. No, I don't think it

Marty · 13:59was

Marty · 14:00either.

Jason · 14:00No. So, you know, I think for me, it became around problem solving or knowing I could help more people. Um, I think in the role that I was in at the time, You know, I had a pretty much a set role of what I had to do at a certain client base that I could look after.

Jason · 14:14Um, but when I was, I was going out to the business blueprint with Dale Beaumont, sitting in a room surrounded by business owners who were talking about their problems. And as an employee, I sat there going, Oh, I could help that person. They should try this or, Oh, that, you know, actually that that's a way to solve that problem.

Jason · 14:31They need to look at this. But because I was an employee, younger working in a business, my opinion or my voice wasn't necessarily heard. So. That kind of fueled the fire that, okay, cool, I'm going to start a business, employ a great team of people who can, you know, with my help or with their help, I can then solve more problems for more people and help business owners get to where they want to be.

Jason · 14:52Um, you know, de complicating the tax system and, you know, creating answers for people. So I think that was the driver. Um, and obviously being

Jason · 15:00surrounded by good people. I mean, you know, going into business with Greg. Um, and doing what we do has, has been a great journey and getting to work with clients like Tommy.

Jason · 15:07I mean, that, those kinds of things that when the phone rings and somebody that, you know, you want to answer the phone and help somebody, um, and obviously then if you can, as you said, get the numbers, right, get the model, right. And there is a financial benefit to that, as opposed to, you know, playing a smaller game.

Jason · 15:22Um, obviously that's a win as well.

Marty · 15:24And, and yourself, Tommy, like you're, you have a certain specialization, which I, I love that creative side. And, uh, but, but what was the drivers for you to be in your own business instead of working a job out there?

Tommy · 15:38Strictly money, Marty. Um, no, no, I left school when I was 17.

Tommy · 15:44So I started my first business as a. Personal trainer just that year. And so I, um, always wanted to, I guess I saw my dad working for himself. He had a landscape architecture business and had a bunch of staff and

Tommy · 16:00worked with him for a bit. But I just always liked the energy of creating your, your future.

Tommy · 16:07So taking control and being able to build out, you know, the, the business, the relationships. And then along the way, I've always just sort of done the things that Really, um, energize me. And so it's always been sort of on finding out where that, that is. So it started in personal training, it then got into media, radio, hosted a radio show, then it sort of worked its way to creating video content and then podcasting became a big part of my life.

Tommy · 16:35So it's, you know, it's all sort of edged towards those things that I'm ultimately passionate about. And then the businesses have come from the other side. And so even going back to the personal training, I was training a lot myself doing a lot of kickboxing. And so it's always come from the passion of, you know, being into something that for myself that I've then been able to translate to a product or being out a service for

Tommy · 17:00somebody else.

Marty · 17:01I love that answer in regards to what energizes you. And a lot of times, uh, Yeah, a lot of times people do do it for the money, you know, and, and, and I, I like, I love that answer that you're actually creating that foundation of being energized and then it monetizes off the back of the specialization. Yeah, I couldn't,

Tommy · 17:18I couldn't actually do it for the money.

Tommy · 17:19I think I, like I took a job in a radio station, um, in 2016 or 2015, just before I started my video production business. Um, and. It was the best money I'd ever earned, but I was the least happy I'd ever been. And then just, you know, like the struggle that comes with running a business is not as painful as the struggle I find working in, you know, working for somebody.

Tommy · 17:47And, you know, you don't want someone like me working for you, if that's the case. You, um. Some people really enjoy that structure and, you know, being able to rock up and do what they need to do and all being clear for them.

Tommy · 18:00But I kind of thrived off that ambiguity and being able to generate business and just the, the, the energy that comes from, you know, winning new business, forming relationships.

Tommy · 18:10You know, Jace was my accountant when we, for one of my businesses. And, you know, you see, you see just like. The evolution of that relationship and what we have here. It's like, I just love being able to see those, that, that, that look back on that, that journey and, um, yeah, and just, yeah, I value that, you know, over money for sure.

Marty · 18:31Yeah, absolutely. And I think, uh, And one of the keys I wanted to, to just give the audience is like when they're starting a business, a few key indicators that are really, really important. And you've described a lot of those, Tommy, in your, your own journey. But one of the things you always have to ask yourself is, uh, You've got to understand your key strengths and capabilities.

Marty · 18:53Like, I think that's, that's really important. Like, um, and I'll give you some context. Like for me, it

Marty · 19:00was going into mortgages and finance was my strength is small business. Like I understand businesses under 10 million of, revenue turnover, uh, profit ratios, financial ratios, so I can have a big impact in regards to helping people through those types of business sectors, uh, as well, which I really enjoy.

Marty · 19:21Finance is a strength of mine, uh, home, investment, business lending, uh, Um, for some reason numbers just seem to work in my head and I really enjoy, uh, helping people when they're not so strong in those that I can make a difference and save them money and help them have a better life through, through that vehicle as well.

Marty · 19:41Then the other thing I would say to the audience, you know, thinking about those key indicators is, uh, you know, value drivers. You know, I love supporting people. I love supporting business owners. I love people being better for meeting me because of what I can do. You've got to have that

Marty · 20:00authentic driver.

Marty · 20:01And you described that beautifully, Tommy, in regards to that. And the other strength I feel I have Is sales more from a market education, word of mouth and execution, um, in understanding the premise of how to help people. Some people think sales is a, is a terrible thing, but I think you're always selling a premise.

Marty · 20:21But as long as it's based on authenticity and it's based on the drivers of helping people get ahead, I think you are, you are doing it for people, not to people, and that's always been a big. A big factor for me, but that I think you've got to understand yourself. And if I was going to throw something else in, it would be creativity because I grew up doing stand up and I definitely had those creative elements and that helped me bring different concepts together, which helped me as a business owner that.

Marty · 20:51Someone literal in business might not have ever entertained. So I think it's really important to first sit down and understand your key

Marty · 21:00strengths. And I'm only saying mine to give context, but to sit down and write down four or five key areas, if you have a specialization in your job and you think you could turn that into a business to sit down and go, what are those core strengths?

Marty · 21:12Cause that'll be helpful. As the business grows too, to know where to delegate as well. When you have inevitable weaknesses as well. Does

Jason · 21:20that

Marty · 21:21resonate at all? Jace, as a first premise.

Jason · 21:23A hundred percent. Absolutely. Spot on. I mean, yeah, even like hearing Tommy describe, uh, you know, the journey that he took, there was another point that he said around, I think it was your dad.

Jason · 21:31He said, Tommy, you know, he had a business and I had that flashback that. My dad was running his own business before GST came in and I was a young, young kid watching dad, you know, come home and do the books and he was writing in debits and credits. But then when GST came in, in 2000, my dad ended up throwing in the towel.

Jason · 21:49He went, stuff it, you know, All the stuff I'm already doing and now I've got to add another tax in there. Like, it's just too hard. I'm going to go get a job. And he, and he shut down his business. He was doing lawn mowing and home maintenance, loved

Jason · 22:00being outdoors, loved getting onto people's properties and tidying them up and painting and decks and pergolas.

Jason · 22:05And all of a sudden the business was gone and he probably wasn't as happy when he was back working for the man, I guess he'd describe it as. Um, but that, that was something as Tommy spoke about, Oh, actually that was another thing that kind of was that passion or that fuel. To be able to help people. So yeah, so I think, yeah, that understanding your why, and then also understanding those strengths that you mentioned, Marty, those key things of what makes you able to do the business you get into super important.

Jason · 22:28I've

Marty · 22:28talked about in previous episodes, like we had a milk bar in the eighties. So, you know, it was a small business, but I always loved the value it brought to people in the community. And, you know, dad would let me run the breadstand. So it was like, uh, you know, I picked up stuff out of that, but I, and my primary driver was the fact that I knew that the banks weren't supporting dad as he was growing.

Marty · 22:50And I always felt, felt that he was, you know, I always felt bad for him. And I never wanted that to happen to anyone else. So it's a real authentic

Marty · 23:00driver to me. To help people get into a better position. So it's like, I think you've got to tap into something like that. Like you said, it might be your parents have done something or a friend of the family have done something that you resonate resonate with.

Marty · 23:12I think, um, yeah, it's, it's, you've got to draw on those strengths when you're thinking of ideas, because otherwise. In those tough times, if you haven't got those authentic drivers, you can fall away pretty quickly. So it's, uh, it's a handy thing to have. The next thing, once you've worked out what your key strengths and, you know, capabilities are, then the question to ask is what are the problems that need to be solved?

Marty · 23:36So what are the problems that need to be solved that you could solve? Again, in context for me. People are cashflow strapped. If I can put money in their pocket by giving them better interest rate, changing terms on a debt, helping them for the future. Um, it's, it's, yeah, that, that's huge for me. The other, um, areas I could help with,

Marty · 24:00um, future financial concerns.

Marty · 24:02People worry about. that, that future of theirs and their family's future. If you can create some, you know, some understanding and knowledge around that and give them a template forward, then that, you know, that helps, you know, it just helps. Um, people don't trust banks necessarily and rightly so, but they don't, they don't trust banks because banks are working in the best interest for the shareholders.

Marty · 24:25And I was, In the inner sanctum of the banks. So I know the return on each client is very, very, very valuable. And look, businesses need to know that, but I, all businesses, small businesses, big businesses, I get that. But I also think that you can put the person, the client in the best position. and help them, which just brings more business at the end of the day by doing the right thing.

Marty · 24:50Whereas I never felt like they had that intention and financial literacy is a problem that can be solved. It's not something, you know, business acumen is not taught so much at school.

Marty · 25:00It's starting to come in a lot more now, um, and needs to, but just financial literacy. Like I think if we can educate people to feel safe to make that next move or to buy that investment or to live a good life.

Marty · 25:11Whatever the case may be for them. And that's what you've got to ask yourself. What problems are you solving that are going to be valuable to the market to get feedback on, uh, in order to, you know, in order to might, you might just have a business, right? Uh, Tommy, what, what problem do you solve with what you do?

Marty · 25:29I don't, sorry to put you on the spot with it, but I go, but what's the sort of problem that you solve for people that people really find valuable given the feedback you hear back? Yeah.

Tommy · 25:38Yeah, I mean, it's interesting listening to you articulate it like you are because I've probably never thought like that.

Tommy · 25:45What I've said to myself is, God, I'm lucky that I'm in an industry that is on the rise. And so when I was interested in making videos with. You know, the accessible, uh, nature of cameras wasn't like it is now. It

Tommy · 26:00was, um, harder. The, the, um, you know, when I first started, my mate would edit stuff and he had to like take what we shot, um, and play it out in real time and feed it into the computer.

Tommy · 26:11So if you shot an hour's worth of footage, you would feed an hour through, you know, from the tape through into the editing software. And so there was, there's been a. Massive sort of, um, uh, bridge through this barrier that I was at the start of, and you know, it's not that I was, I just started liking it at the time and I was using little cameras.

Tommy · 26:32And so it really just was that passion to see that I started making video content for myself and then got into the media space. But yeah, I've really said to myself, I'm lucky that I'm in industry that is, um, popular at the moment. I can't. Yeah. Is it really like that's luck at that time. But now, as I've understa understood business more, I've understood the problem solving and I've understood my ability, my

Tommy · 27:00skillset, and I can help people communicate their messaging for their business or their story, um, through video and, you know, and I'm good at it.

Tommy · 27:11And so that, but that's taken years to understand that and to actually spend the time getting good at something. Now I know what that problem is that I can solve and it is, you know, being able to offer my skillset in a space that is, you know, um, I guess it's, um, it's hot. It's like, you know, if you know, if you, and so this is, it's bridging those two bits that was like something that was popular and then something that my skillset, you know, I had as a skillset.

Tommy · 27:41And then being able to offer that as a solution to people who couldn't or, you know, didn't understand how to do that.

Marty · 27:48That was the perfect storm for me and mortgage broking at the time people, you know, needed the advice. It wasn't available. You can help. And it was just, sometimes I think it's fortunate on timing, right?

Marty · 27:59But

Marty · 28:00I go, but I think about what you do, Tommy, it's like. You know, in, in the business world, it's so important to position yourself as an expert and to have quality audio content being put out there that, you know, a numbers brain just can't always work out. Right. And it's, um, and that's, you know, you, you put us in the best light.

Marty · 28:19So how I look at clients in putting them in their best future selves and helping them get ahead, you know, you using numbers. You do that in regards to your medium. And I think that's, you know, tremendous that, uh, you know, Jace, you would, you would no doubt have your thoughts on that as well with what Tommy does.

Marty · 28:39But yeah, I'm, I'm always amazed that the content he produces and I'm very thankful that he's good at what he does because I just wouldn't have a clue.

Jason · 28:47We're very, very lucky. We could always do a Tommy appreciation episode at any time because the previous 212 episodes don't get onto the internet, Spotify, Apple.

Jason · 28:58YouTube without Tommy's

Jason · 29:00magic. And obviously there's a whole bunch of other stuff. Yeah, Marty's mic definitely doesn't turn on without me being here. But that's another story, isn't it Marty? Oh, jeez. No, that's it. No, no, it's, it's very clear. Uh, you know, and look, I love the simplicity in a sense for us of, of how Tommy solved that problem of being able to put content out.

Jason · 29:17You know, the numbers game content that we do, um, that, that very much is a big problem that was solved for us. I mean, and that's only like a drop in the ocean of the things that Tommy can do. So he

Marty · 29:28simplifies not to love him too much here, but, but he simplifies complexities for us that we can't solve because he's very, very good at it.

Marty · 29:37So it's like, and I think in all businesses, usually you say. Businesses have, you know, there's one, one problem to solve, one solution, one positioning in the market and, you know, good execution on it. And a lot of the times people over complicate things, but if you have a passion for something and you're good at it, And, um, and you could see a direct

Marty · 30:00opportunity to help.

Marty · 30:01There might just be a business in it and it's, and it's, it's not to be discounted too quickly because it's amazing what you can bring to the table as an individual. And that's what I want to encourage people to think about. And, um, and the other thing I would say as a business, you do need to have some street smarts around your, your, your financials.

Marty · 30:20I think that's, I've seen a lot of businesses over time when I was doing some accountability mentoring. For business owners, um, great ideas, very good at what they did, but fell down on the financials. So that's just been, maybe it's because the role I was in at the time, but I saw that if you can pay the business first, make sure there's profitability there.

Marty · 30:42Usually 25 percent is a very, very healthy number, changes from different, uh, industries. But again, you know, know your expense ratios. It might be 50 percent expenses, however you want to cut it, between wages and cost of goods, whatever the case may be, taxes, 25%, just

Marty · 31:00basic, basic, basic metrics when you're starting, but make sure you have enough money there.

Marty · 31:05In the bank to make sure that business can breathe and that you don't overspend in certain areas in order to get somewhere quicker than where you think you should be. But at the end of the day, you burn your cash flows. And I've seen that happen. We've all made that mistake at some, you know, some, some time, but yeah, again, and the market.

Marty · 31:24dictates the opportunity too. If you're doing something that is really valuable in the market, the market will give you direct feedback, you know, and that's why word of mouth is so powerful. Everyone's been paying for social media stuff to get more likes and to be perceived as having many more followers.

Marty · 31:43But the organic stuff is the real market, right? And I know people are experts in it and probably do it really well, and that's okay. But to me, the reality is You know, if you're putting out stuff out there and people are coming back to it and it's a value, then you've got direct market

Marty · 32:00feedback, which is, which is tremendous.

Marty · 32:02And you can test that on your socials, you know, do your content creation, get, get your message out there and see what the response is. You'll get a guide and just be consistent on it. But I think, um, What's really interesting, and we say it in the financial world, is, uh, past performance does not dictate future performance, and I think especially with AI.

Marty · 32:24So I could be talking about all these things from the past, uh, which, which are good and can get you a sweet spot of getting your business up and running. But I think like, Like Jason has informed me over time, you know, AI is changing everything at a rapid rate of knots. And I really do think the next two or three years, uh, is going to be a game changer.

Marty · 32:46And I think just how quickly you can get access to knowledge, you know, like I said, Go years to school to try and get this knowledge. And within three seconds, you're going to have it in the palm of your hands. And, uh, it's

Marty · 33:00going to be a brave new world. And it's not something to be panicked about. It's it's to ride with it and go, where is the opportunity in it, given your interests and your skill sets as well.

Marty · 33:12So make sure you're. you're asking that question, how will we utilize it to advance people, uh, will be, will be critical. And, you know, they say knowledge is power, but maybe not so much anymore, right? It's like, because you're going to have access to it. So it's how you can utilize that. You'll be able to get that more efficiently and how you can utilize it.

Marty · 33:34And I really feel like from what I'm seeing and it sort of excites me too, in a way, That experiences are going to be a big thing again, like people getting together and engaging and connecting again is going to be the new frontier. Um, I think sports, entertainment, travel, uh, are going to be all areas of opportunity.

Marty · 33:56Like I look at the marathons you run, Jase, and I go,

Marty · 34:00people are not only getting together for the running. They're getting together to be a part of something, to see the world, and to, you know, to go beyond, you know, go beyond just saying I ran a marathon. And that's what's interesting, and that's why I think there's a lot of investment in sports.

Marty · 34:17It, uh, you know. It entertainments, I think, going to be huge moving forward, but I don't know what it's going to look like, but I know that things are changing and we have to keep our ear to the ground to keep listening out for where we can have an impact with those changes. Jase.

Jason · 34:33Oh, mate, you laid out a

Marty · 34:35lot

Jason · 34:35to unpack there, but I couldn't, I couldn't agree more.

Jason · 34:39someone who's, you know, avidly watching and, and being part of the AI space. Um, especially, you know, I'm keeping an eye on it in my profession, in the accounting space, um, but even as a business advisor talking to my clients, I mean, AI is becoming. There's noise, the noise is building. I mean, I know we've been talking about AI for two years now.

Jason · 34:59I think

Jason · 35:00November, 2022 was when chatGPT first released V1 or maybe not even 23. No, it must be, must be two years now has to be. Um, but you know, all of a sudden. We're seeing it in action. We're seeing what it can do. Um, you know, there's more and more things popping up on Instagram and whatever, people promoting, you know, if you're not using AI, click this button and we'll get AI to do this for you.

Jason · 35:21And it's only going to get noisier and noisier and businesses will look different. I was talking to a careers advisor who was talking about how they're talking to primary school kids about the types of jobs that they'll be going for when they come out of high school or go to university. They don't even exist at the moment.

Jason · 35:37So when you start to think about, well, hang on a minute, what is this world we're getting into where there's jobs that don't even exist yet, that primary school kids are being spoken to about, um, you know, and even when you think about how your business runs today to how it will run in a couple of years, I mean, I know Marty, you talked about.

Jason · 35:53You know, what, what your businesses or what your industries look like and change over the time. But, you know, when I first started,

Jason · 36:00I had paper PDF bank statements. I had a ruler. I had a pencil and I ruled line by line on a bank statement as I manually typed it into cashflow manager on a computer. And at the end of that, if it didn't match the physical bank statement, I had to start again and figure out which line item I missed.

Jason · 36:16It was manual. It was time consuming, but I was charging my hourly rate. To the person who, you know, the business I was working for, I was doing the best. It was inefficient. Now we've got zero and cloud technology and AI soon, soon you're going to be able to send a WhatsApp message to zero to tell it to raise an invoice on your behalf.

Jason · 36:34And, and AI will go in there and do it all for you and send it to the client and probably take the money. And that's only phase one of this, this future of what AI can do. And it's, it's, it's not even a drop in the ocean of what we're going to be up against, but. Yeah, we, we, you need to be thinking about it.

Jason · 36:50You need to be considering it. You need to be putting plans in place. Um, if you don't think that AI is going to be helpful in your business and you haven't even thought about it, now's probably the time to go, okay,

Jason · 37:00start to explore, start to be curious. Um, you know, I describe, you know, what I'm doing, AI talks in the accounting profession.

Jason · 37:06I don't say I'm an AI expert, I'm AI curious. I'm just AI curious. I just keep, you know, keep getting fed info and listening to things and having a read because I would rather be AI curious and know what's out there and not necessarily be the expert that's using all the tech and tools yet, but I want to know what's out there and I want to know what, what we're going to be up against.

Jason · 37:25Um, because if there is an accounting firm down the road that is fully invested in AI right now, and they're, they're deep into it. That that's a threat to my business one day, if I can't do what they can do and my clients go, well, hang on, I think I have to be down there with them instead. So, you know, think about your, your professional, your industry.

Jason · 37:43What does that, what are the potential risks or threats that looks like for you? If you're not getting your head space into that realm, tell me.

Tommy · 37:49I empathize with people that don't have that natural curiosity or interest in AI. Um, and I'm again, I was like, Oh, I

Tommy · 38:00feel lucky that I'm so interested in it. And I've managed to bridge so many skill gaps that I've had using AI, um, to run my own business.

Tommy · 38:08And it's like, I think I've, I definitely would have increased my revenue purely based on just being able to use a tool like. AI. And it's not even to sort of outsource my work to get done and then get it done for clients and charge them more money. It's actually just being able to bring efficiencies to my workflows.

Tommy · 38:28And I'm great at communicating with my words, but I, you know, sometimes struggle translating that through just written word. And so. If you can get, you know, I dictate into my phone nonstop, um, into these AI platforms. I record most conversations and just being able to reference back it, there is not a business that couldn't utilize this new technology and it's just getting over that.

Tommy · 38:54If you're not interested in it, somehow finding a link into that chain, because it,

Tommy · 39:00Is going to be that future for most businesses.

Marty · 39:04Yeah. Don't be fearful of it. You got, you got to go with it and ask yourself the question, where is the opportunity? I'm seeing a lot of, um, you know, younger and older, you know, sort of business owners, even in business acquisitions, going the efficiencies I can create in an older school business.

Marty · 39:21That's actually a really good business, but it's a little bit archaic in regards to processes. are huge. Absolutely huge. And they're creating, you know, huge, uh, not so much. So they don't even have to increase the revenues dramatically, but they can cut the expense, um, utilizing all this technology. And it's like, you're just seeing this, this changing.

Marty · 39:42Changing, uh, environment now in the business sector. So I would, I'd encourage people to ask themselves where is the opportunity? And if they're curious, just look at the skill sets you have. Where, where does those curiosities foster into practical

Marty · 40:00opportunities where you can really display, you know, a value out there in the market.

Marty · 40:04And there might be businesses coming up, like you said, the primary school kids, you know, preparing for jobs that aren't there yet. But there might be businesses coming up that you will see because of your curiosities that no one else can. So just, uh, keep an open mind and, um, and the cycle always turns into something new.

Marty · 40:23But the internet, when it first come out, we thought that would be a quicker, uh, premises to the impact it would have, but it was a slower burn. But I think AI is going to be what we thought it was in 2000. And I think that's, and that's exciting. And, um, also a little bit scary, but it's good to be scared sometimes.

Marty · 40:43No,

Jason · 40:43great, great discussion points, Marty. I always love what you bring to the table and in your open discussions. Um, if you've liked this episode, please, if you haven't given us a rating yet, go and give us a five star on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Uh, once again, Tommy's joined in, filled the gap for Nick.

Jason · 40:58So if you haven't checked out

Jason · 41:00Vidpod, check out vidpod. com. au or jump onto Instagram and give Vidpod a little follow too. Um, Tommy will love all that little extra support. But, um, mate, we've loved having you on. Thanks again, Tommy. It's been brilliant having you. And thank you, Marty, for everything you've covered today.

Jason · 41:13Until next time.

Marty · 41:14AI plus EQ equals opportunity. Game over.

Jason · 41:20This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The conversations are of a general nature and do not qualify as financial or tax advice. We recommend before you make any financial decisions, you consult a licensed professional.

Jason · 41:33Individuals on the podcast may hold positions in the companies discussed. ---