Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Sri Mahabir

Curt Anderson  00:01

Hey, good morning. Good afternoon. Hello Damon. How are you? Dude? What’s happening, man?

Damon Pistulka  00:06

I’m doing great, Curt. How are things today?

Curt Anderson  00:09

My goodness gracious. I couldn’t. If it was any better, you might have to call 911 right now like it’s just really,

Damon Pistulka  00:15

really don’t want to go there.

Curt Anderson  00:17

Man I’m telling I just I don’t know if my heart is going to take this episode today it’s it’s, we’ve let’s just you know what we’re going to dive right in and jump right into that man we Damon, we have a repeat offender today. So we have one of our favorite guests of all time we have street makeover. Sri Happy Monday. How are you today?

Sri Mahabir  00:36

I am doing amazing and I feel so honored to be a somebody that’s one of your favorite guests. You know?

Curt Anderson  00:48

They’re How could How could it not? You know? How could that not be? So? Hey, happy Monday to everybody giacosa. No, this is gonna be a really lively discussion. If you are interested in your livestream questions. You have video of video visibility. We have the video visibility expert here. We’re gonna be diving in covering a bunch of different topics. Shree, you were on before man did we have a good time we really we dug in and we we got vulnerable. We talked about your background, and we’re gonna we’re gonna hit some of these things again. Now, last time I hit you with a question if you happen to recall. And I asked you who your hero was growing up. Do you remember that? And you gave like one of the all time best answers Damon. She said mom and dad. Dad is a mom to help me with mom’s name. What’s mom’s first

Sri Mahabir  01:36

name is Padma Dad. Dad’s name is Ray. That’s right.

Curt Anderson  01:41

And so you mentioned those you mentioned Martin Luther King. You mentioned Gandhi you and then you had if I have this right, Mrs. Pritchett. Do I have that right? Yes, I

Sri Mahabir  01:50

fourth grade teacher. Wow.

Curt Anderson  01:53

So you’ve met it was like this huge like, Oh, sir Hall of Fame lineup of folks that you rattled off that were your heroes growing up? So I have a little spin on the question today. I’ve little spin on the question. So we asked you who were your heroes? Who was your hero? And you gave us a whole lineup? Right? The question today is Sri, are you ready? I said if who on this planet with Damon and I be speaking to and we ask the question, Who is your hero? And the answer would be you. Who are you the hero to?

Sri Mahabir  02:29

I am the hero to my daughter. So although she will sit there and be like, No, you’re not Mommy, what is we as parents who have daughters or a son? We understand how you know in behind closed doors, we are their superheroes. But in public, it’s a different story.

Curt Anderson  02:51

That’s right. They won’t admit it. But Sra What’s your daughter?

Sri Mahabir  02:55

My daughter’s name is Sabina

Curt Anderson  02:58

Sophia. Okay, excellent. Hi. So Safina is so you are the hero to Sabina. So that is a great answer. And Sabina and school Wow, what’s What’s her deal what she was when I was Avena?

Sri Mahabir  03:10

I hope she’s in school. She’s in Lubbock at Texas Tech. She, I hope she’s there. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  03:20

She that’s very hope is all you can have

Sri Mahabir  03:24

at Texas Tech. She is a third year. And she is studying management with a concentration in HR. And one of the things that she found very difficult was finding a job. And I kept telling her like, Hey, you have a really good that weren’t called LinkedIn. And there’s this thing called posting. And there’s this thing like your mom will if you don’t want to talk to have your mom help you. I can introduce you do a few people who can help you understand how to navigate talk to people, especially I remember when I was working a nine to five, I had a few college students reach out to me and I actually talked to them, you know, I got to know them. And anytime there was an opening, I would reach out to them. Even though like we have one coffee chat, I still remember it. I was like, hey, you know, Hey, check this out. You know, let me know if you need any help. And I told I always think put this in the forefront of my mom. I mean, my mind is like if I do this for somebody, it will come back and it might come back to me it might come back to my daughter. And so she was little not listening. And so I ended up reaching out to my network and ended up hiring somebody to help me with her resume. They gave me really good tips to help her she ended up it took her a while but she found a job on campus. Well not on campus but in the dorms on campus. But I will say if anybody is you know the story or the lessons from this story is LinkedIn is a A great tool. And if you don’t know how to create a post or you don’t know where to start it, just just get in the messages like, just be a normal person. Don’t be like, Hey, I saw you and I want to be your friend and I know that you can help me and I need a job or I can help you get to 100,000 followers in six weeks. Yeah. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  05:26

We got a comment here. I just have to bring up from Dan. He’s five minutes late today. Oh, Dan. Gee,

Curt Anderson  05:34

we’d like we were panting you know what, speaking a 911 I almost call nine one I was gonna call Julie nuclear. Dan. Dan, happy Monday. Thank you for joining us here today. And guys, we’re here with Shree and so hey, let’s pull up. A Boo is here today a booth. Happy Monday.

Damon Pistulka  05:50

We’ve got Gavin here.

Curt Anderson  05:51

It’s gonna be a fun to chat because it’s super powerful. It’s gotten all my clients over 80 million views. My goodness gracious, dyad buyer and my sending you lots of love my friend. We love it. We got a friend here. MD from Bangladesh. We got severe here. Exactly. I reached out to most of my clients through LinkedIn. You know, and what was great, Damon, we had a guest on Friday. And so we’re gonna dig into this a little bit. She shared a very vulnerable, she was just laid off from her job three weeks ago. She’s in Houston, right with rate you got his perfect you guys should connect. And how, while she was in college, she went all in on LinkedIn. 2122 years old. She’s now 25. And how she’s built up this wonderful business, this amazing network on LinkedIn, and how that by her losing her job, she created a side hustle. And so now it’s really helped her transition. Cherie. So let’s talk a little bit about, you know, I want to go back here guys, you know, connect with Shree on LinkedIn. She’s, oh, my God, all sorts of great content. She’s doing lives, all sorts of wonderful things. She let somebody run a show I just for folks, for folks that are new to you. You had something happened a few days before Christmas, a few years back, you want to just kind of share like your entrepreneurial journey. And then we’re going to dive into like video expertise here. Absolutely.

Sri Mahabir  07:09

So I actually started going live on Instagram. And that’s when I was interviewing entrepreneurs, I had started my first business, which is virtual assistant. And then in 2020, you know, this is 2019, I started the business in 2020. When the pandemic happened, I was like, how do I build visibility? How do I get in front of others? And how do I give a spotlight to entrepreneurs. That’s why I started going live on Instagram. Fast forward to 2021. I was, you know, hit my 100th live on Instagram. And then I realized, you know what, there’s more to this. And I want to, I don’t like this first business, I’m not sure what to do. I hired a coach who helped me figure out you know, get into video and helping people get on camera, because we already got 40 people out of the 100 to go live with you and they never did video or live streaming, then let’s go ahead and this is the business. So I started posting on LinkedIn starting in June. And then six months later, nine days before Christmas, I got laid off. And just like your for your previous guests, I built this audience and network that it was easy for me to fall into this business. And that’s what I did just have been doing for the last two years. But happened pivots. There have been some moments of this is not what I want. I haven’t I realized your first year of being an entrepreneur, it’s all about mindset. And then the second year is those limiting beliefs. So like, Yeah, you get through the mindset, but then it’s like, what do you need to let go of what are things that you’re holding on to I should let go of a show that I had with a wonderful co host, but just wasn’t for us. And that was very difficult. But you know, going back into what I do is I have worked now I realized last year who I want to focus on working with and that is dental, medical, and law practices, helping them get leads so that they can hire the talent so that they can have more time to work in their business, maybe even start a business and help them build that visibility, which can lead to you know, being able to get awards, get in publications, speeches, and we do this using social media, we manage their social media, creating video content going live podcast, and sometimes we don’t think that all of this is important. But as I keep reading, and I keep seeing all of the reports, we’re seeing how important social media is it does play a role people do want to know what is it that you do like whether you’re in manufacturing, whether you’re a mechanic whether you are a restaurant, we want to see what do you Have what do you have to offer? But at the same time, we want to also hear from you. What is your story? What is your experience? How can I connect with you? Yeah,

Curt Anderson  10:10

no, I absolutely love that. And, you know, in demo, we’re just saying this on Friday, like, you know, I think you and I say it frequently, what are we selling? Alright, so, um, one thing, trust, right? It doesn’t it doesn’t matter if you’re in a service, business product business, what you might be in, hey, we got some friends here that I want to pull up here. So we’ve got haisa gear says, Hey, can I ask them questions? Absolutely. We welcome your questions here. I have eight mic friends for a minute. This is in the house. Mike. Happy Monday night you. And we’ve got Alan from Indianapolis. Alan, happy Monday, my friend. And you know what, and you know, we’ve got several entrepreneurs here in the crowd and you just dropped a note, you know, Shree, you were talking about like, hey, that first year mindset. I don’t know, like Dan, Mike and him. You guys want to chime in the chat bots, you know, talk, you know, let’s get the conversation going. But how important is that mindset? Transitioning into entrepreneurship? Dan bigger ask a question. What about manufacturing people in the glass industry? So any time

Sri Mahabir  11:11

they have to bring me lunch I now?

Curt Anderson  11:16

Yeah, absolutely love it. So I’m so sorry. Let’s let’s start here. So you know, laid off Christmas time, you’re already starting to build your brand. So let’s start here. I’m your LinkedIn profile. Again, guys connect with me on LinkedIn. She’s just an it just what a blessing. She’s just a breath of fresh air video expert, you have a tagline? Are you afraid to get on? If I’m so don’t quote me? Are you afraid to get in front of a camera? 589 billion hours of video were watched last year 509 billion. So for folks, clients that you’re working with that are maybe a little bit camera shy? Or maybe a little bit resistant? What are how are you helping these folks free?

Sri Mahabir  11:53

So the first thing, I’m like, I have a comment to hear from my friend. Her name is Janie, she’s there in the yellow with the top and say hello to her. So one of the things that I always ask is, what is it that you what are your goals for your business? When you think about using social media, because really, at the end of the day, social media is an avenue to get to your goals. It’s not the end all be all like, why are we here? What are we doing? And then once we understand that, then it’s okay. What are common questions that people ask when they come into the office? Or what are the things in it could be as simple as do you take my insurance? Or could it be that? Would you take my case? Or would it be that? You know, what are the days that are open? Like I found that some some dental practices are not open on Fridays? I didn’t know that, like in one, one city in one state. And it’s in Idaho, if I’m not mistaken. Like they are closed on Friday, everybody’s closed on Friday. And it’s if you call then you find out that one is, you know, they do appointments. But nobody knows that based on the content that’s being posted. Yeah. And then we dive deeper into and I love this. I love this. When people say, Well, we were posting for a year and it didn’t work. Yeah. I wanted to know, I want to know who has, you know, was able to get $100,000 in six weeks, please drop a heart in the comments, because I would love to meet you and make friends with you.

Curt Anderson  13:36

Right? Right. It takes time and having it, it takes it. It takes time. And Dan bigger says hey, you know, the goal is to meet people and drive traffic. And that’s the thing I think that you know, the big thing is, it’s like, you know, there’s gonna be a silver bullet or like a magic potion that we’re gonna get business right away, as opposed to like just really nurturing and building those relationships. Tree. I feel like you’ve done such an incredible job of nurturing and building those relationships. And you’ve really done it with your live stream. Talk a little bit. I want to dive into live streaming first. Okay, talk a little bit about what has live streaming done for you personally, what’s it done for your business, your brand relationships that you’ve built? Let’s go there. First, what does live streaming done for you as personally and professionally?

Sri Mahabir  14:20

When I think of live streaming, I think of live streaming as it changed my life. I really wasn’t the type of person if you met me four years ago, you would not have imagined that I would do something like this. I didn’t even know what I was doing. Guys. I used a hair tie and a snowglobe and a jewelry box for my stand for my phone to go live because I didn’t have anything so many times you get the question? Well, I don’t have this and I don’t have that. Yeah, I mean whatever I had work I was in my in my room and it’s actually green. Like it was really an interesting experience. But this whole time because I also have a background in sales and coaching sales teams that I use a lot of that. So it had to, you have to build relationships. And yeah, they have to like they can like you, but they don’t trust you, and they’re not going to give you pay with their time. That was like the first lesson I learned. Because you’re not, you’re not getting paid for this, why should this guest come onto your show and give their time, then the next thing that I learned was I really had to build processes, because I didn’t really have process. And I realized later how much a process is so important from just like, the moment that somebody gets into the whole booking to be on your show? In you asking simple questions. What should you know, what are you going to be promoting? Sometimes if you’re like me, I’m, I’m actually booking out until August. Sometimes people don’t know what they have. But it’s always like, okay, you know, this is an opportunity for me to be on this show. And this is what we’re going to talk about. But also you can set up those reminder emails that go out, because once it’s set up, that’s doing it for you. And then the third thing that really helped me is, because I was always afraid to be on camera, I stubborn I, I do miss up on my words like I am right now I get nervous. I don’t like the way I look, I don’t like you know, the Grays come out to play. I have cried OnLive I’m worried that people are going to look at the live and be like, Oh my gosh, I don’t know if this is I used to always be afraid. Like if I shared my where I’m struggling, nobody wants to work with me. But I’ve also learned that those people are not my people, like the ones who really want to work with me will stick around. And so that has helped too, because I have shared about when my daughter went off to college, that first month in August 2021. I was crying all the time. And then as my father got ill in September of last year, because of COVID. I gave it to him, it helped me see things differently. I had a community. I mean, let’s even rewind back, I lost my job. And I had a community of support. And even now, like I post a post recently, because I was talking about my dad who has dementia, I have people reaching out and saying I know how you’re what you’re going through. I mean, it’s just our parents, we love them. They’re our superheroes like the question that you asked earlier. But at the same time, we don’t want to see them like that we’ve been seeing them be the strong, amazing person. And now we’re the ones having to clean them up having to do everything for them and then making a hard decision, we got to do what best for them. And sometimes it’s hard to talk about, but I find that even though I help medical, dental law practices, and then if you want to work with me with the free lunch and some other things, we I actually don’t mind like one of my current clients right now she does. She talks about psychological safety and in the workplace and bringing that up. And so I learned from everybody else, but I also learned from my own experiences and the more that I’m able to share about who I am, how I got through a problem, the more we’ll want to see, we’ll see like, Hey, this is a possibility. Although sometimes it’s very difficult to say that it’s very worth it.

Curt Anderson  18:47

Well, I love that. Hey, how about Sri we’ll grab a couple of comments. So your friend Jeanine here says yes, it’s definitely life changing. More business owners must go live and 2024 man Janine, we need to have you on the show. Go Yes.

Sri Mahabir  19:01

You really do she know let me tell you when I say she’s an OG she’s an OG she started going live in 2018 If I’m not mistaken with an older software so she knows about live streaming a lot longer than me. She’s a pioneer.

Curt Anderson  19:15

And so what else we have here? Hey, Dan says this The beauty within you is simply stunning. Man Diane, we couldn’t agree more Dan says he’s counting the days until his daughter’s leave for college Dan i Dude, you’re gonna be a mess up daughters and dads with dementia. So hey, Diane, you guys should connect in you guys could have a little chat and I want to grab a comment back here from severe I know like a tree has been covered up but other than LinkedIn where should I deploy my sales team to get more clients I’m currently working with 26 different clients in generating qualified leads I want to expand my horizons and scale up my business and add more value Sri any thoughts expertise for are French severe on that.

Sri Mahabir  20:01

Sincere I would love to ask when you think of your clients, how old are they? Like, where are they? Because you know, it’s really funny because they might be here on LinkedIn, they might be on Facebook, they might be on Instagram, they may be hanging out on tick tock, you really don’t have to be everywhere like, we Oh see Geneva 2015 That she’s been Oh, and he’s been there since a long time. We are just, you know, she’s Oh,

Curt Anderson  20:32

man. How about 2015? My goodness gracious. Yeah, you are a pioneer. Really?

Sri Mahabir  20:40

Going back to the question, it is about where are they you don’t have to be everywhere. You just need to be where they are. And understand that algorithm like when I say algorithm, just understand what type of content would do well, for example, on tick tock, we’re finding that longer videos over a minute are getting pushed more, and they are being watched. Yes, it feels like they’re getting dropped. But I will actually watch videos that are a lot longer, we are seeing the creative videos we are seeing. Also, when you think of tick tock you think it’s only like vertical, but they’re also doing the horizontal videos. So you can see where, how it does, it gets pushed, because whenever they have a new feature, but I do see that more and more people are somewhere, you just have to figure out where Facebook is growing and usership you’re seeing people jump on there many practices are on their law, medical, dental, they find that that’s where their clients are, but I’m seeing that clients are just kind of everywhere. But your particular client, the one that you’re targeting, could be on even Twitter or X. It could be on YouTube. No, you know, YouTube is a long play. Like all of this is long play. I would even the old boots on the ground going to in person networking events, what conferences, what workshops? Can you go out there? When it’s conferences? What conferences should you attend? And when it’s a workshop? What places can you go and host a free workshop? To get people to come in? What places can you partner with and say, Hey, we do this training here will allow your employees to come for free, but then you can have, you can promote and market that you have this event and draw people to your event. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  22:36

I absolutely love that. And at those events, Damon, what can you do at that event? You can live stream? The event, right? Yeah, so let’s go in and catch we get five. Let’s see how Lee says Happy Monday. Lee being comfortable with being uncomfortable is a key at LinkedIn and a lot of other things in life. And Dan bigger says short plays never work. Everything is a long play. Amen. Brother. Let’s go here treat and Damon. Please feel free to chime in. Let’s talk about the benefits of live streaming. Okay, like Damon we’ve come up with I have 39 and a half, right? We’re not sure. We’ve come up with this little guide 39 and a half benefits. Three, you said it’s changed your life. Janine said it changed her life. Let’s let’s go there. So if there’s a manufacturer out there, there’s an entrepreneur, there’s a business owner or marketer, they’re in like a severe he’s like, Man, I’m doing all the things, but I haven’t done this thing. Why should somebody like just go all in on live stream? what’s your what’s your take on that question?

Sri Mahabir  23:36

So my take on that is how can I build a connection with the community that I’m building? And then on top of that, let me share what is it that I have that might be of something that helps the market but you find out through the live streaming shows, I’ve seen companies do like they promote and say, Hey, we’re having this live stream. And it’s gonna be from this time to this time bring your questions and if you want we can take you offline and have a call right then and there. So they’re using live streaming shopping we’re seeing that on Amazon and other retailers that are doing that. But you want to think about this is why would you want to go live you know, what is it that you want to show your your potential client or your current clients? And you know, how could you use this content? Where is it going to be placed because you know, you could be like me who took almost three and a half years to create the podcast. Or you can say you know what, I’m going to take this turn it into post take this turn it into content that can be turned into a blog that can be turned into a website video because there’s so much that can go on are you going to bring on former clients or current clients are you going to bring on Like you have a guest, why would your community your ideal client want to tune in?

Curt Anderson  25:06

Yeah, I? Yeah. Multiple drop two mics right there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there’s so many. Let’s unpack a couple of those. I want to dive into repurposing. So number one, I personally think business development, live streaming is one of the most powerful, most efficient, most effective ways for business development. So for those of you in sales, marketing, you know, like, there’s a method behind like Sree. When you’re bringing full time, like you’re being strategic Daymond other live streamers that you know, you do your live streaming four days a week, dude, like, whatever. What are some of the benefit? How is live streaming changed your life? Let’s go here, David, how has it changed your life?

Damon Pistulka  25:45

Well, you talk about two things really. cross promotion, mean, we don’t think about cross promotion enough. But we’re all in communities, right? Either either in geographic sorry, my phone fell down. The we you know, either in geographic communities or industrial communities or whatever, you know, part of our industry part of our vertical part of the world, whatever it is, and these communities, they you can build them through that you can share things with them that they’re they’re interested in the questions, like you said, Sree, I think is is incredible. And you mentioned this earlier about answering your potential customers questions. And it is such a good reason to go live streaming with somebody, a past client or a client, current client that you talked about how the process that you went through, you can questions that you had about it, anything like that, but but then sharing knowledge that you don’t even know you’ve got. Because we, if you’re if you’re a business, you’re a manufacturer, like Dan or glass manufacturing, that people don’t know, half the stuff that Dan knows that he and his wife know about making those products, and they don’t understand the care, the thought the detail that goes into doing it. And people will appreciate things more if they really understand what goes into the products and services that come to them. Because they may be overlooking a very important value point to them. And it’s just, but then again, I come back to community though, because Curt think about us prior to live streaming, how many people that we know to call if somebody if we had a problem? I

Curt Anderson  27:33

knew three, my mom, my best friend shock and my best friend van and that was say, treat me like look at the like how has it expanded your network. So I want to cover two things. Let’s talk about community that it let’s let’s let’s carry that while Damon’s there, then I’m going to come back to you I felt dropped some golden nuggets there for the folks in the crowd on repurposing content. Let’s talk about community Janine, the friends like Charlene mutual friends that we have just talked about what it’s done in collaboration for you relationships, doors, that it’s open, let’s go there first.

Sri Mahabir  28:08

So it has opened a lot of doors, I have a Rolodex of numbers of people in contact that I can communicate with at the same time. It’s one of those people want to connect with you because of who you know, they want to be in that inner circle. I learned that that lesson really hard last year, but I’m not upset. I think it’s it was a power to show. You know what this, building these relationships takes time. I have some people who have been watching me for the last four years. And when you think about community, and I think about even my agency, it’s filled with individuals who’ve known me for years who’ve watched my journey, especially my creative director, he is the CO partner and this and he we met in 2020 in a lot on a live show. I have seen business deals come just within community, people who knew me or maybe knew the guest, and then they’re collaborating in the de you know, they’re talking to each other in the comments. If you don’t know somebody in the comments, definitely make a friend Reach out. But next thing I know, I was looking at their Instagram stories or I’m looking at their LinkedIn posts and I’m like, Oh my gosh, these two people actually did business. I saw the comments. But I didn’t you know, I let things just go organically. And also for community sometimes you don’t realize for your guest. If you do it right, they get the recording, they can turn it into a podcast that actually happened. One of my guests earn the episode into a podcast episode. So when I think about a guest, it’s not about me, it’s really about them and leveraging them putting them out into the public because at the end of the day, Kurt you might see the guests and be like, You know what I want to bring them on. And I’m gonna say that I saw them on Sri show and I want them on our show. I will not know until I watch, you know, I just happen to come to the post, but it’s one of those things. When you think about community and building partnerships, it’s the long again, everything is long. It’s never going to be the shore. And many of the coaches that I’ve ever worked with, I interviewed them. I wanted to know who they are some of the referrals I’ve gotten are because they were on my show, and they just liked the way I did things. So that’s how I got business. Not always there were the guests. The client, it was always they referred and that’s fine with me too. Yeah. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  30:41

I love that. Hey, let’s grab a couple of comments. Yeah. Let’s see. Hey, Damon, I know you feel the exact same way. Right. Your ideal customer bald guys in New York. Don’t you feel that wearing Shree about you know,

Sri Mahabir  30:55

I agree I the ball guys in New York. Oh,

Curt Anderson  30:58

is it just my mom that feels away? So okay, Janine. It’s a short game. And Dan, I think you had another comment here. I wanted to grab. So David. Yeah. See, we need a podcast. Yes. I don’t know. We’re pretty. We’re pretty biased. But I it’s hard right now. You know, like, Damon, I’m feeling like I’m a solopreneur. Tree. You’re solopreneur. Right. I think this is one of the most powerful, most effective ways for business development, creating content, so on so forth. So it’s, you know, when I worked with companies or manufacturers that have a full team, it’s hard like, man, anybody could do it. If I could do this. I’m I’m 55 with no hair. I’m a bald guy, New York. Like if I’m doing it, man, you could definitely do it. Sri. Let’s dive into repurposing content. So hey, we’re over the top of the hour. If you’re just joining us, we’re here with our dear friend, Shri next level consulting, we encourage you, we invite you We implore you connect with Shree on LinkedIn for you’ll thank us later, she puts out just incredible, wonderful content, great, beautiful posts about your dad the other day. So as a father as a girl, Dad, that warms my heart and we send our love and our thoughts and prayers. Dad’s going through some health issues right now. So we love that you that you shared that. Talk about repurposing content. How, how effective is that on Livestream for repurposing content. But

Sri Mahabir  32:16

first I want to say hi, Ruben and then you didn’t miss anything. The action was where you are right now. Like, I’m not saying that comment. I’m just saying that if you are watching the replay, you definitely want to see dead figures comment? Yeah.

Curt Anderson  32:39

Dan, Julie’s gonna.

Sri Mahabir  32:44

So when it comes to repurposing content, that’s one question that I get a lot of is, I don’t have time, okay. You don’t have time, guess what my team and I we set it all up. We do. Find who guests if you need a guest, get your notes together, take care of take care of all the work come on. And then what you can do is just take the episode. And yes, you do have to do a little bit of editing. And you can make it into a podcast. And that’s exactly what I did. Now. I will tell you in the beginning, it was a little bit of time now it takes me nothing like literally in 25 minutes, I have it all done. And it’s because I learned a process. Same thing when it comes to creating those clips. There’s so many AI tools out there. But if you don’t want you’re like you know what? I just rather pay, put this off on somebody else. You have options. You have my team, you have other teams of people. It’s one of those things like you have all this content that you can start to put out there to draw people in. I actually use it in such a way that right now I’m testing a lot to see what happens. So in my email newsletter that goes out every week, the third week of the month, I actually have a spotlighted episode. And then that is generating more more people to listen to the podcasts. But guess what, just because I highlighted one doesn’t mean that they’re not going to go and check out the other episodes because there are now this week will drop the 23rd Even though I have over for a journey of an entrepreneur, there is 246 But there’s other episodes I didn’t count. So you could say 300 And then total live streaming over 500 episodes. Have you really 500 over 500 total, but for this show journey of an entrepreneur, you come on to the podcast, you’re like where are these episodes, they’re coming. But if I spot like one and you liked that one, guess what, you’re going to try to check out the other ones. And I started to see that grow. So you have to understand people don’t know you’re out there unless you promote it. You can promote it onto it. You can prove Aude it on Instagram, you can promote it on Facebook, you can promote it on your LinkedIn to draw people to your new episode and your, you know, the last episode you had like whatever you can think of to get people to draw and get to know you more. So if you have a guest it’s great because then they’re getting publicity. But again, they’re coming back to listen to you, because you brought on this guest, they trust you. So they trust you brought on somebody that’s going to teach them something. Now, if you bring on people that are iffy, which I’ve had that before I had in my DMs, they were like blowing up. Why did you bring this person on? I was like, you know, we all can learn, but this is the this is how you could tell red flag. I will just say that. People can’t you don’t think people are coming for you. They really are. They’re not coming just for your guests.

Curt Anderson  35:55

Yeah, you know, Tree People say that about us all the time. So just getting that a we’ve got my dear buddy Alan’s in the house here today in Allen and this

Damon Pistulka  36:05

is a great question. Great question, Alan. Much on

Curt Anderson  36:09

the types of equipment you utilize for live streaming. And the costs involved. Sree curious minds would love to know. So

Sri Mahabir  36:16

I’m going to share the low budget. And I should do that post where I talk about my humble beginnings. I actually started with a cart in boxes. Yeah, I had been then we moved up and we went into that corner, and then the lights came. But um, if you’re thinking about you have at least a couple hundreds of dollars, you can get a Blue Yeti mic, which you can’t see right here. You can get a Samsung mic, which is on Amazon. They’re about like $70. There’s also you want light, I have a ring light right here. But in behind me is my original ring light after my first month of going live. Somebody gifted me that live that ring light because they were like, You need to stop using a globe in his a jewelry box

Curt Anderson  37:09

in a hair tie, and

Sri Mahabir  37:10

a hair tie. And so I also have this light, which is called newer, which I got on Amazon. Yeah, these are just a few things that I use. I don’t have a lot. I wish I had more. But you have to understand I had that ring light for a very long time. The Blue Yeti mic came because my creative director said I will not do your banner until you bought the Yeti mic. Yep, I had to buy the Yeti mic. Right. So here’s the here’s one tip if you find a mic, like this is Yeti Blue Yeti. What I did is I joined their mailing list and so when they had a sale I had the discount code plus the sale so I got this for a really good price.

Curt Anderson  37:53

Awesome. So bottom line tree we’re not talking 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of dollars like we’re barely talking hundreds right? And I know I’m I’m super I don’t think any cheaper than me Daymond so you know like I’ve gotten my little degree here right? Yeah, and yeah, a little camera up there and my laptop like if you guys saw my setup it’d be pretty Yeah, it’s not so Alan we could you know you can get in low cost right Damon? Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  38:23

it’s it’s literally I mean my first mic I still use it one when I’m on the road man. This thing was was literally like 20 bucks. Yeah, it’s a little USB mic it works this works just fine. Yes, not a Blue Yeti mic but it’s still it the you know you can get started and you get and you upgrade as you go like you said there’s there’s all kinds of running lights on Amazon my first lights on Amazon I think I spent $30 on two I still use them in the corners of the room. They’re mounted down and stuff but you know there’s so much that you can do for very little and that’s that’s part of the live streaming attraction really is because you don’t if you’re in a business like Dan or or, or Alan if you want to go out and share something it’s not expensive. It’s just a start. It’s

Curt Anderson  39:15

not just to get started so let’s go here our dear friend Diane says okay, so live stream edited the podcast content to newsletter and Kurt don’t you use otter for content for post? Absolutely. We use otter great little tool. And if you go to b2b retail and you look at all I have hundreds of our past episodes, you’ll see entries on there. She’s been she’s a repeat offender. And so you’ll see the video you’ll see the transcription treat you any other any comments you want to add on or piggyback with what Diane is describing there as far as using otter.

Sri Mahabir  39:51

I use what’s called Cass magic. And so what it does is you can put the link to let’s say pizza on YouTube or you just upload your file, and then it will do its magic. It actually creates titles for your podcast. It gives you the timestamps, it also does the YouTube piece like right to description that you could use. And it does a lot and it’s used a lot and you can also use it to help you write a blog. So that’s what I use. I use cast magic, I bought a lifetime deal on axioma I don’t know if it’s still there, but they are, they’re one of the ones that are up and coming of places that you can use a really good source to get, you know, how can I use this long form content and make something from it. Another tool I use is D script. I upload my live show in there and then I use something else called Audacity to add music but that’s just like two steps if you want keep it real simple. And you’re looking to it’s cast C A S T magic like the word ma T IC cast magic. And I definitely would I mean I highly recommend AI is a really good tool to help you cut time but it shouldn’t be what you use to write your posts or take over everything like do the research on the guests if you’re gonna bring a guest do the research you’re gonna do a live by yourself and it’s your first time consider hiring a an outsourcing in get a remote producer you’ve got like three options here. If you’re not if you don’t want to work with one of us we know people because at the end of the day I actually remote produced a sportin our live where the get where my client was reviewing LinkedIn profiles I know how to I now am an expert will not I’m almost an expert, but I understand what needs to go with a LinkedIn profile. But afterwards, he said oh my gosh, I never realized how many moving parts it was just the little breaks even you know because LinkedIn only allows you to stream for four hours just giving a break for like 10 minutes because I was leading it helped and so these small things do help but also be clear on what is your message that you want to deliver when you go live? Are you going to be you know, what is it you’re going to share? And all everybody asks what’s the most optimal time I’ve seen that in when I do like a 30 minute live or a 20 minute live people love it but that’s because I’ve been doing it long time for you if it’s just five minutes that you can do do five minutes until you can build up I know for YouTube they say about 30 minutes for tic toc if you are approved and you have 1000 followers 30 minutes so just just think about that and be consistent in the days if you decide you want to go live if you’re going to go live once a month, twice a month three times a month or four times a month be consistent on the days and times like you see here with Damon and Kurt you know even if you don’t see their flyer you just know they’re gonna have with yes, they’re gonna have a show and you’re gonna be there in the comments. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  43:16

I love that and tree I know a couple I want to add a couple of things here so I’m so guys connect with three on LinkedIn. When you connect with three on LinkedIn three, I just want to share a couple of things that people have written about you. I’m thrilled to write a captivating LinkedIn recommendation for Sri Sri has been exceptional and exceptional assets, my professional journey and check out the status statement over the course of the year mine. This was she was coaching on LinkedIn right? Under SRIs guidance. My LinkedIn posts have witnessed a remarkable transformation over the course of a year. My impressions have skyrocketed by 15 197% While engagements soar to an incredible 13,800% That is absolute. And there’s a bunch of Julie says I highly recommend you, Sri for her outstanding work as a video marketing producer. She goes on and I wholeheartedly recommend Shree another person here that I wanted to comment. Shree has a unique ability to help those who are hesitant to show up on video and do so with confidence. She’s helped hundreds of people go live. I’ve had the privilege and honor of working with her and people are just pushing on and on street. What is it take for, you know, again, like congratulations, we commend you on doing such great work. And guys connect with Shree and go down to her testimonials and you were talking earlier about that trust, social proof. What is it about you that just really resonates with your clients? What are you doing intentionally what like any advice that you can share with folks in the crew here?

Sri Mahabir  44:51

I’m just myself. So sometimes we’re trying to be something we’re not I try that before. And I just started to share that journey because This, you know, it comes in my posts, hey, I don’t like the way I looked when actually four years ago, I was a little bit skinnier. So I see myself and I know what you’re feeling. Or when it comes to clients, I just I know that I’m not for everybody. And I asked those questions, and I have no problem saying, You know what? I’m not for you. But I know somebody who is giving those options because at the end of the day, you know what, I can’t make myself be something I’m not. And in terms of like, we’re not you and you’re listening, you know, listening to the reviews, even I sometimes question too, I even don’t even make an impact. I even do it. It doesn’t really help. And when I read those reviews, or even just comments that people leave in the DMS or on my posts, it shows I am making an impact. And sometimes it doesn’t feel like that when you’re like getting a lot of noes and no new business. But it’s not about that. It’s about those small wins. If you can appreciate those small wins, you will appreciate the bigger wins.

Curt Anderson  46:10

I love and I saw you replied to her comment. Janine says great advice, Shree. And Damon says, are David, Dan bigger says, Hey, he’s going to start going on at 132. So hey, that would be a great segue. You know, we could just slide red tree. Let’s start taking it home. I know you’re super busy. And I don’t want to keep you all day, though. I know we can geek out all day. Okay, someone just starting out there any any words of advice of like, I know, you know, just get started. But weather video livestream? What advice do you have for manufacturer entrepreneur out there that just needs to tip their toe in the water? What would you share to just get the party started?

Sri Mahabir  46:48

I would say start with video and start with posting content. Because I know that many might say, Oh, just go live. But the hardest thing is coming up with content ideas, like what do I talk about. So first, start with putting out some content doing some videos. Because as you get comfortable being in front of the camera, you will be comfortable to be in front of the camera when you go live. Because let’s just be real things happen in technology land and Wi Fi dogs, you know, the lawn more person, your neighbor, somebody wants to knock on the door, things happen. And if you can learn how to cook, you know, just be like this is outside of me, there’s nothing I can do. The only thing I can control is myself and how I react to this, then you will be fine. Plus, by posting content, you can see what’s resonating with your community. And then that’s what they’re going to want you to dive deeper on. So if you’ve shared on a video, five tips to help you with manufacturing leadership, you could dive deeper in each one and do a series and people will show up. And in each way they can see how you work with people what it’s like or if it’s a product, the from, maybe you have something in mind, and you’re trying to say, hey, we’re coming out with this new product, but we want to hear from you. And for the next few series we’re going to be going through the process. There’s just so many things like I know there’s some parts that you’re like, well, we can’t share. But there are parts of it. Think of a course, I’m going to put it back to an entrepreneur who’s thinking about putting out a course, when you come up with the course you’re like yo I want to do this course on, you know how to apply for a job. And I’m going to do a B, C, D, and then you put it out but then nobody wants it. Because things have changed. So when by going live by putting out first by putting out content, and then going live, you get in the comments what people are looking for. Because as you start talking about those topics that would be in your course, then you start to realize this is not what it is. I’m starting to see a trend. More and more people are having to learn how to get on camera, they have to do video. They have to send in a video for their interview, like the first interview is a video. You’re not talking to somebody. They’re just asking you questions. You have so much time in between you have so much time to submit it. And so maybe your course needs to change a little bit and then you do that. So once it goes to market then you have something that people want to buy.

Curt Anderson  49:32

Absolutely love it man band. Yeah. Dr. Mike. It’s an it’s a great way just to get yourself out there. Dan says hey, everything is better when it is bigger. Diane says great advice. I couldn’t agree more. So Shree, let’s start let’s let’s wind down. So when folks that are just totally captivated with you your expertise, they can find you obviously here on LinkedIn. Where can where can folks work? Could they find you? They

Sri Mahabir  50:01

can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, even on x. I’ve also YouTube, but I make it easy. Find me here. Reach out to me. If you’re on Facebook, reach out to me on Facebook. But if you want to check me out, you want to see what I’m like, Just come to the live shows come to the post. Talk to my friends if you want to. You have to right here. Absolutely.

Curt Anderson  50:26

And so in next level consulting is her business. It’s an hour. I think it’s no consulting dotnet. Do I have that correctly? Is that your website?

Sri Mahabir  50:34

Yes. And oh, consulting dotnet. But I don’t send people there because I’m one of those people who built a website at a time not realizing it wasn’t the right time to build that website. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  50:44

Okay. So hey, check her out on social so Sreet last time you were on the show? I asked you. So we talked about your hero. We hit that earlier. Right. And last time I asked you who was your inspiration? Do you remember that by any chance? Do you remember what your answer was for that one?

Sri Mahabir  50:59

I don’t remember what my answer was.

Curt Anderson  51:01

I think you said faith I think you were like I think got yours. You’re like gods my inspiration does that Does that ring a bell? I didn’t go back and look but that was my recollection was I think I was like I was really touched that you’re like so here. I have a different question for you this time. Are you writing down? Are you okay? So alright, so given shout out to mom and dad is matter of fact, I think less than run the show we were talking about how your mom had just crashed one of your live shows like a week before?

Sri Mahabir  51:27

Oh, yeah.

Curt Anderson  51:31

Yeah, so not like you said like any like my dog is over here like snoring and rolling. Yeah, he’s totally like being disruptive right now. So like, you know, you never know what’s gonna go on and live show right Damon? So as we wind down tree, I have one last question for you today. Again, guys connect with Sheree on LinkedIn Instagram X Facebook, wherever she would be honored and just it’d be a privilege for her to help you on your video journey. Whatever it is, however you want to stop being the best kept secret tree Are you are you a baseball fan by any chance?

Sri Mahabir  52:00

I am. I do know a few teams like the Astros met the Sox. Nice.

Curt Anderson  52:07

Okay. Well, it is it is pre season. So spring training is in full bloom right now. Baseball is going to be starting here pretty soon. So though it’s not baseball season quite yet. It’s right around the corner stream. I have a question for you. So if you were let’s say the Astros were playing a game just just pure hypothetical. Okay. And I’m asking for a friend. And let’s say that there’s somebody on second base. There’s two outs, somebody on second base tie score in they need a they need the winning run like now. Okay. And so the manager looks down the bench and says, Hey, Shree, grab your helmet. Grab your bat, and get up to the plate. We need a we need we need the winning run. Okay, we need somebody to get a base hit hit the winning run. As you grab your helmet, grab your bat, you’re walking up to the plate. What is your walk up song?

Sri Mahabir  52:59

I want this. Actually, it’s really the song is I don’t even have a song that I don’t even know. But I would be like, okay, come on. God, we got this. We’ve been practicing for this moment, all year. All the time. We got this. Let’s go. You and I together.

Curt Anderson  53:17

You know what? You’d be making up a song on the way though? Right? How’s that Sri, so she’d be making up a song. It’s

Sri Mahabir  53:23

not even like any song. It would just be a whole conversation with God. And like, We have been preparing for this moment since day one. Like this is Oh, this is not happening today. My day one was my was the time that I was taught. That’s that’s the moment and that’s how I feel about live streaming. The moment I went live, it was like, I brought my public speaking and then my whole persona of who I am, how I am, came and so every time whether I am in person coaching a client or going live, I just bring the same person because sometimes even when I do public speaking, I get nervous. And then I remember Hey, you know, we go on, we have gone live with 250 people on the live show. We got this. This is only 10 people. You got this?

Curt Anderson  54:13

Yeah, I absolutely. Tree Great answer. Damon, you know, I was on a podcast recently. And I actually it was a guest of ours and they asked me the question, and you know what, my son was the Zoom if I ever told you what my mockup song is if I told you,

Sri Mahabir  54:29

let’s hear it. Rocky.

Curt Anderson  54:33

Baby shark.

Damon Pistulka  54:34

Yep. Baby shark. That’s a good. That’s a good one. Baby shark.

Curt Anderson  54:41

We might have to close out with that. So, Shree, let’s go here. We want to thank you. We appreciate you and guys, you’ve been hanging out with us for how long it’s been. Let’s give a big

Sri Mahabir  54:56

baby Did it mine would be like, okay, um, because there’s several songs, the one that comes up it’s it’s a gospel song in its, it says, you’ve already got, you know, I already have it by Dion Kipling, it starts off, you say I already have it. And then he said, and then he says, Say it again. I already have it. Alright,

Curt Anderson  55:28

we got to check that one out. So, St. So, let’s go here, guys. So hey, you’ve been hanging out with us for past 50 Some minutes, we invite you encourage you, let’s give a big round of applause for Shree, the video marketing expert here in the house. Tree. We thank you, we appreciate you. We applaud you. We send our thoughts to you and dad and your daughter in college. And we just we just wish you wonderful, incredible 2024 massive success. We just love having you your dear friend. We love having you on the show. And Damon thoughts, takeaways. What do you got for today?

Damon Pistulka  56:05

Well, I just think people need to rewind and listen to Sri on this because there’s some real real gold nuggets in here about going live that normal apprehension to go on live some of the things you want to do, maybe if you want to reach out, and and also I just think everyone in the comments today. Love, love, love the questions, love the interaction. Just keep it common. And those of you that didn’t make a comment today, you know, maybe next time your time because we’re gonna be back again on Friday. That’s

Curt Anderson  56:36

right, man. We got some really good guests on Friday. So I guys have an awesome week, Sri, hang out with us for one second. God bless everybody. We appreciate you. And hey, just like we always like to say, go out and be someone’s inspiration just like this lovely lady here was for all of us today. And hey, we’ve got this right here. Great session. Janine, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. We need to connect with Janine and so guys, have a great Monday. We’ll see you soon.