Sustainable Growth Through Hybrid Customer Journeys

Mark Vanderwarf  00:00

Music.

Damon Pistulka  00:09

Alright, everyone, it is Friday, and you know what that means. It is time for Manufacturing, eCommerce Success. And I am Damon Pistulka, one of the co host of this humble show today, and I’m going to turn it over to my friend co host Curt Anderson, brother from another mother. Take it away. Curt,

Curt Anderson  00:33

dude. Happy Friday. Damon, man. Are you? Are you sitting down for this one? I am sitting down today like, man, is this this? Oh, my God. Can you just feel, yeah, right again. Just feel. Mark Vanderwarf, dude, how are you, man,

Mark Vanderwarf  00:47

I’m good. I’m good. Thank you so much for having me here today. Curt, wow.

Curt Anderson  00:52

My goodness gracious. What an honor. What a privilege, way overdue. And so you know what? Damon, sit back and get comfortable. Everybody just sit back and get comfortable because Mark, dude, first question pop quiz. How many businesses I want? I want you to list every business that you own, right? I want to hear I’m just kidding. What you got a lot going on. We’re going to dive in. Yeah, yeah. Listen. We’ll dive into your list in one minute. But before we go there, I do have another question. So we got Mark Vanderwart and just dude, fierce advocate for manufacturers, just an amazing human being. We’ve got so much covered today, but before we go there, I sent you a bunch of questions. I’m not asking any of them. I got a different one for you, right? I love it. Not asking a single one. I’m just kidding. So Hey, Mark, when you’re a little guy growing up, yeah, when you’re a little guy growing up, who was your hero? Who did you look up to who was just like that person, to just worship the ground you walked up, walked on, who was your hero’s little guy growing up, absolutely

Mark Vanderwarf  01:47

my father, my my dad was my hero. I mean, absolute 100% I was, besides that, I was raised by a wolves in Northeast Wisconsin, and him and my mom were pioneer, frontier spirit all the way, I mean, from making candles from scratch to, I mean, you know it, and my mom was just that, an absolute integrator, and my dad was a complete visionary. And they, they just tackled everything. It was amazing. Like, I had the best, I still have the best parents ever. Like, it’s, of course, you don’t get to change parents. But you know, yeah, I wouldn’t if I could.

Curt Anderson  02:26

Well, great answer. I love it, pioneering. And so what? What’s dad’s name? Please.

Speaker 1  02:31

Gary. Gary Vanderwarf, alright, so you check my feed out, and you go back to Father’s Day, you’ll see a poem that I wrote about him being a mill, right? Oh, is that right? And I’m a third generation mill, right. So my grandfather was a mill, right? My mother’s dad was millwright, right? She married a mill, right, and then she gave birth to a male, right? So just, I mean, God bless that woman.

Curt Anderson  02:53

God bless that woman. So just, it’s in your blood, in your DNA. Just can’t help it. So alright, big shout out to Gary. So when Gary catches this on a replay. Damon, what

Damon Pistulka  03:02

do you got? Well, we need mom’s name too. Deborah. Deborah, you’re in Deborah, so that’s cool as heck. How you grew up in in Northeast Wisconsin, right? Yep. What was one thing? Because I gotta just understand growing up pioneer lifestyle, yeah, what was one thing that you grew up with that was common, that other people would go, wow, that’s, that’s not the way that we grew up.

Mark Vanderwarf  03:32

Yeah, that’s pretty easy. Things, things, several things that were common. But, I mean, I would just say, like, the the access or the immediacy of survival, like generally, but like that meant, like, hunt, catch, kill, eat, sleep, groom, like yourself, right? Yeah, and that. So that meant, you know, not just not, I mean, just any First Amendment, you know, weapons, Second Amendment stuff. Like, I mean, like, it was, like, you know, the Constitution was a big deal, like, to pioneers, it still is, like, you know, you’ll see it like on the wall at the dining room table, right next to the, you know, the guy with praying hands and the lady with the praying hands. You know, it gets, yeah, I mean, it’s everywhere. Actually. Just sent a bunch of those coffee mugs with those pictures on them out for Christmas to people.

Curt Anderson  04:28

Well, absolutely love it. Okay, so hey, and speaking of Northeast Wisconsin, Damon, how about this handsome guy here? So Greg gives you in the house. Can’t wait. You know, Greg, less than a month, what? Four weeks from today, you’re going to be stuck with we’re all going to be in person here, Mark Right, hanging out in Austin, Texas.

Mark Vanderwarf  04:43

That is the idea industrial marketing summit in Austin, Texas. We’re SHA-BAM! is a proud sponsor, and I’m been asked to help to facilitate the marketing automation round table. Business automation round table. So. The CRM stuff and all that so awesome. Yeah, you know. Anyways, I you guys. I’ll let you guys drive the bus. I can well,

Curt Anderson  05:08

let’s just keep well, let’s go here for a second. Okay, first off, I had the honor and privilege, you know, you and I have been on LinkedIn for a long time, had the privilege of meeting you in person, and dude, I tell you, made such a lasting impression on me. It was just an and what a difference. Let’s go here for a second mark, because I want to dive into you your background, please. You unleashed, unraveled, dropped the Curt on SHA-BAM!  last year at the Industrial Marketing Summit. But before we dive into that, just let’s talk about manufacturing first. You talked about grandpa being a mill, right? Your dad, you know, like, was there any point in time you’re like, you know what I’m going to kind of break? Like, I don’t know about this manufacturing thing. Or is it just like you just had no choice, like you were all in on manufacturing?

Mark Vanderwarf  05:51

Oh, I don’t, I don’t think I had a choice. I think, I think, you know, God, just put it, put it in me right away, like he was, like, how things work, insatiable curiosity, you know, there’s, there’s no canter, won’t like, there’s just do like, I just as early as I could remember, remember it was, you know, construct connects And Legos and how things are made and, you know, but it was also bio and tech and everything, right? Because, like, microwaves came out, TVs, you know, flat screen TVs, video game systems. I mean, I was the true 80s child, you know, like, Don’t come home until the lights are on, you know, like the Tony Hawk’s first skateboard. I mean, yeah, I saw that shout out to Chris and the automation ladies and stuff. I mean, just stuff like that. I mean, and then moving to Southern California, and I get to meet and hang out with, you know, a lot of idols and things, and just find out, like, these are my friends now, and these people are just showing up and doing stuff, and they’re changing the world. You know, it’s, yeah, amazing. So, yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s in my blood.

Curt Anderson  07:11

All right, awesome. Damon, we got a couple of people Harry’s in the house. Yeah, we do.

Damon Pistulka  07:16

First of all, Greg’s giving a shout out to the Industrial Marketing Summit. He says it’s going to be great. And then Harry, thanks for stopping by today. Harry flares, happy Friday. Thanks again. We got someone that can’t see your name or watching from Pakistan. Thank you. Love it that you’re listening today. We got Andrew

07:33

Plimer,

Damon Pistulka  07:34

yeah. Andrew nice, almost known Mark for almost two decades, and he says, You’re a great guy. Well, we agree, Andrew, all you people there, thanks for dropping the comments. Keep em coming. That’s right.

Curt Anderson  07:49

Drop, drop a note in the chat box. Let Mark know that you’re here. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn. I tell you, he puts out amazing, incredible content, just guy of integrity, just passionate helping other folks, so mark, we’re going to dive into your just the serial entrepreneur on steroids that you are before we get there. Okay, in your DNA, manufacturing. It’s in your blood, pioneering family up in Northeast Wisconsin, think us through like, 20s, 30s, like, you know, what kind of led you, you know, on your entrepreneurial journey. How on earth does somebody own 27 DBAs, like, just walk us through a little bit of like, what really got the fire burning for your entrepreneurial journey?

Mark Vanderwarf  08:29

Oh, man, yeah. It just I was around entrepreneurs, my uncles, my aunts, my grandparents, everybody I knew, just actually grew up my pre teen years in this, the southern suburbs of Chicago, so and actually right near the Indiana border little town called Crete, and then Chicago Heights, sock trail, salmonock, Plano bologna sandwich, all that stuff, you know. And I threw a joke in there, and you know, you know, but yeah, and so, you know, I also part of my journey around the Great Lakes and everything is, I found out that there’s about probably 12 different ways to say. A, yeah, right. A, yeah. They sell them different and everything, right? Yeah, so different, yeah. I mean, so started. I mean, our neighbors, I was, like, six years old, and we had a elderly lady that was widowed, and she was our, my backyard neighbor, right? We lived on a corner, and our backyards, kind of were cornered up to each other, and she would pick weeds and garden and cut things, and she, all she did all day was tool around in the garden, sit out there and, you know, sip lemonade or whatever, you know. And she would, she would engage with me, because my my sandbox was one of those green turtle sandbox. Boxes with the lid, yeah? Like, I mean, I had, if you watch, what is that show, The Goldbergs, or gold gold Yeah, Goldbergs, The Goldbergs, yeah, yeah. Like, 1980 something, whatever, like that. Show that house, those people to come and go, like that. Show is my early 1012, years, like it like crazy. But that lady, you know, she took it on me, and, you know, she asked me to come help her with stuff. And then when she went on trips or to visit other ladies, she would ask me to weed the garden and do stuff. And she started, but with paying me. She started with paying me with snacks and stuff, and then paying me with, you know, money or helping, you know, she was just sweet to my parents and everything. And she had lived there because we lived in the same house that my grandparents lived in, and so we moved into their house. And so she had, you know, spent years and years and years with my grandfather and my grandmother, you know, Ed and Carol and the whole family, my aunt Barb and my Uncle Ed, and just like, all this stuff. And so then we moved there. She, anyways, that’s where it started. So then it started lawn care, picking weeds, doing, you know, manual labor type stuff, but also just organizing. And then occasionally, just to spend time with her and, like, chat, she would like compensate me for, like, being her friend. And I mean, like, here’s this, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know how old she was, but I mean, she had to be in her 70s or 80s or something, right? And here I am. I’m like, you know, seven, eight years old, whatever, right? Six years old, like, and, but we were friends, you know. So she was, like, one of my first early, like, friends, besides my parents and stuff that I remember. And then we had neighbors, neighbors across the street, you know, and the the cannons and the cap ladies and all these other people like, you know, it was just like, really tight neighborhood. We had the baseball diamond across the street, skateboard ramp parks and all the stuff. I mean, it’s crazy. I’ve lived the best Nine Lives anybody can live. Anyways, teen years. Move up to Northeast Wisconsin. My dad enrolled in a Bible college in order to become, to start a camp ministry and learn how to do that and figure that out. And in the process, you know, I was exposed to camp campers and camp ministry and people going in and out, and then, you know, going from the city life. I mean, when I was in kindergarten, was literally, you had to walk through a metal detector. And, you know, there was three classes each had 1000 so there’s like 3000 kids in my kindergarten, right? And then went to, like, very large private schools in the Chicago suburbs, and then move up to Northeast Wisconsin, to little bitty, bitty, bitty, tiny private school that had like 40 people in the whole school. Well, you know. So then I go to, like, Little House on the Prairie, like, school house style stuff, yeah. And I go from metal detectors and everything to show and tell with, like, knives and machete, yeah, and arrow and all this stuff, right? Dead animals, right, right, right. And got my hunting license when I was 12 years old, you know, but started way before that. I mean, I learned to drive when I was nine. Got my first motorcycle out of the classified ads in milk crates, you know. And helped, helped my dad, helped me put it together, but just by going and buying the manual from the dealership, you know, like, so, you know. So then I got into extreme sports and motocross and skateboarding and snowboarding and skiing and making up our own sports. I mean, we used to ice the deer trails on the hill and put on our hockey skates and race down the deer trails, right? And then we’re like, doing tricks like bouncing off of the trees. It was like parkour meets, like downhill mountain biking, on hike, on hockey skates, you know, yeah, and, and then we’re putting ski ropes behind snowmobiles. My dad’s got a front end loader, skid loader thing. And we’re building tracks with bumps and jumps and stuff. And we’re taking the snowmobiles on loops. And we’re making, like, you know, snowboard motocross hybrid sports, you know, like, we’re, I made my first, you know, I made, not my first, but I made one of my early bi directional skateboards, warped, warped the wood myself, and like machine trucks out of, you know, on a scene, or not a CNC, but on a drill lathe and all that stuff. You know, boat propeller shop, learned stick MIG TIG welding when I was like 13, and then my dad went to Germany to build a paper machine for a pretty good construction company, industrial construction called CR Meyer and Sons in Wisconsin, and he worked for them for a lot of years, a lot of. Years, and also bolt B, O, L, D, T, and anyways, so he went, he was gone for a whole entire summer, and he left me the keys to the truck and the and the keys of the business. And he’s like, he told my mom, take him wherever he needs to go, and just let him. Let him do his thing, and he’s going to keep the business alive. Well, not only did I keep it alive and weld all the parts and fix it, and so I was selling and doing at 15 years old, right? And so, so helping my dad’s, you know, inland propeller business, and then, and then through my 20s, you know. So I made it to like, number seven in the state of Wisconsin for race and motocross. And then, yeah, while I was on, like, chess club and in the music in band, I was playing marching band with an electric guitar, with battery with a battery speaker, marching band with an electric guitar. Yeah, one of the big songs was La Bamba, you know, it was like, we’re doing a football field. That is awesome. That is answer us, yeah. So it’s like, just went through all of that stuff and then, but so the motocross thing, like, so they introduced the triple jump when, like, Jeremy McGrath started doing cross ups and stuff, right? Yeah. And, you know, he had a honda cr at 125 and then a 250 and all this. And that was before four strokes, right? So this stuff’s just screaming. And it was just like, I we built a triple jump in our group called the dirt dancers, and they’re still alive and kicking, like dirt dancers. Like go dirt dancers. There’s still a team out there racing and stuff. Nice. Anyways, built a triple jump, and I ended up botching it coming, you know, practicing, and then messed up my shoulder, messed up my knee, while I’m recuperating from that, you know, neighbor, a neighborhood girlfriend of mine, Elizabeth, she came over and she was teaching me songs on acoustic guitar. Well, that never left. So I then I got into music while I was healing up, right? You know, rock climbing and all that other stuff cool. I was starting guard on the basketball team. I was just talking with my friend Mike Dunford. He’s serial entrepreneur and stuff as well in Michigan, and worship pastor at an awesome church down there too, with Daniel Patz and stuff. So, you know, I grew up, I had, like, the Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I had all the just exposed to everything. It was just I, I wouldn’t trade it for anything like the memories I have and all the people I’ve known and everything I’ve learned. It’s been amazing. So then in the 20s, you know, I was like, started doing recordings, public shows, live events. I learned, you know, outside of major cities, these little towns surrounding major cities just love to bring in people. They’re like, you know, come Come over here. We’ll do whatever you want. So we started doing, you know, going to, like, town halls and like community things and get involved in, like, you know, I didn’t realize it was politics at the time. I was just like, oh, I want to play. I want, I want my band to play, you know. So then started putting on these little festivals and things, and then,

Speaker 1  18:18

yeah, long story short, like started helping produce those later in life. And so I was kind of like a band manager, producer, artist and repertoire. Started writing and recording. When I was like 16, I started doing, you know, making DJ music under the name DJ tracer, and was releasing that stuff down in like the Chicago warehouse scene. So we were doing, like, Technos and raves and stuff. And then, oh, wow. So then went to Detroit a few times for some of those D town house parties and stuff. And then, I mean, it was just like, it just kept going and escalating and and meanwhile, I have this whole life in manufacturing. I got into the building trades, you know, as a mill, right? And I was in my early 20s, and surprised my dad just by showing up to one of his jobs one time and and, like, he’s reading the name roster, and he’s like, Mark Vanderwarf. And, I mean, I could just see this team coming out of his ears. You know? It was like, What are you doing here, son, you’re supposed to be in college. I was like, Aren’t you proud of me dad? And he’s like, I am not. I want better for you. And so

Curt Anderson  19:39

that’s that’s awesome. Let’s grab a couple comments. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  19:42

we got a couple of them so, so David says, David Turner says, glad your beard is growing back first.

Curt Anderson  19:49

I you know what? And for the record, I think you’re handsome either way, Mark, I think with or without, you’re just spot on, you know?

Speaker 1  19:55

I mean, I know you guys are messing with me, because it’s actually Jim Mayer that she. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s so funny. I’ve run it over the years. Jim and I, people have called me Jim so many times at shows, right? People have called him mark, and I finally met him in person for the first time, and it was actually Chris Luecke

Curt Anderson  20:15

that thought kind of put that together. Well,

Mark Vanderwarf  20:19

yeah. Well, no, he’s he’s went up to gym and he was telling him stuff, and then he was came up to me, and he was Dick, yeah, we just told you all. I’m like, oh, what? And then he’s like, Wait, you’re not Jim, you’re mark. And then he was like, you guys got to meet each other. And he like, grabs us. And we were at the same networking event, and then we met each other at MDM West,

Curt Anderson  20:44

and I saw, I saw the picture. I saw you. Posted the picture of the two of you next to each other. So I you know what? I think you guys both look super handsome, with or without. So, yeah,

Damon Pistulka  20:53

we got another one from Harry. He’s talking about I grew up mark on Hammond and hedge wish border, yeah, and John’s pizzeria, and Calumet City was our favorite place. Oh,

Mark Vanderwarf  21:08

yeah, awesome, Harry, thanks for sharing that. We our favorite place was not too far from that. But there’s a it’s now a chain, but it’s called Aurelio is pizza. And if you know, you know, and if you don’t, it’s just the best kept secret in Chicago. But Aurelio is pizza, the original location in Crete. Joe Aurelio is the founder. And my uncles grew up with his kids and met their like so, and then, yeah, anyways, I had a franchise opportunity with them and stuff. I wish I would have took it, but Right?

Damon Pistulka  21:44

Well, hey, we got one more from Andrew Mark Anderson. He said, Love you, Mark, you still have that White Album?

Mark Vanderwarf  21:53

Yes, the Beatles White Album in in the plastic like brand new.

Curt Anderson  21:57

Damon, I’m so old I had the White album on eight tracks. So how’s that one for you? Matt, so we’re going, we’re going. So alright, dude, man, like Time is flying, and we got a ton to cover today. So let’s slide. Let’s fast forward. So industrial marketing summit last year, you announced dropped the curtain on shabam, yes, let’s and you’ve got a couple other exciting things that we’re going to talk about. Let’s do a little reveal party. First off, first off, uh, let’s talk about shabam. Who and What is shabam? How are you making the world a better place here? Man,

Mark Vanderwarf  22:28

oh, thanks so much. Yeah. So the shabam is, you know, simplify and scale. That’s a way for businesses to tackle business and marketing automation, business development. So you know, products, services and solutions can all be done with shabam as your back end. And you know, audience, awareness, eyeballs, right? So the awareness piece that’s so all your all your top funnel marketing, all that communication piece can all be done in shabam as well. And then we help you close the gap between timing and price in order to make a sale. And so all of those, I believe, businesses run by communications, and those clear communications and those processes to help you close the gap, help you make sales right. And so those conversions, those sales that you make, are part of branding, educate, surprise, delight, know, like and trust all that, but I’ve distilled that all down to just warmth and confidence. So is there warmth? Is there human integrity? There? Is there I know you, I like you. All those things are rolled into that, but I think it’s just warmth, right? And then I think you can put no like and trust and all that stuff, you know, pain, budget, decision, fulfillment, post sell. I’m giving away all my Sandler secrets there, but again, if you know, you know, right? But there’s so many great sales trainings out there. But at what I’m saying is that can all be distilled into confidence, right? That integrity, that trust. Will I do what I say? I’m going to do? If you shake my hand, do we mean yes, you need to get it in ink. You absolutely have to. You gotta make contracts. So yeah, shabam is 30 plus tools built and supported on the high level platform, and we are a high level implementation and integrator. Okay, so at at the highest level of high level, you’ve got all that, right? That’s the bare bones the back end of shabam. We’ve also added in lots of other tools and tips and tricks, and we provide support automation, AI and AI agents and all those things, right? But we take it one step further with my coaching and consulting, and differentiator being industrial marketing, industrial, you know, critical industry sectors, right? So anybody. That was alive and kicking during the pandemic. They got a little note from their CEO that they could be on the freeway. Those are, those are our people, right?

Curt Anderson  25:07

Nice. Are those essential folks. And what I love is, so you’re flashing the colors of high level. We just had Sean Clark, the founder and CEO of high level. He was on the our show a month ago, and just what a dynamic solution. And so again, you’re doing great work, helping manufacturers and gaming. We’ve got Gail is in the house here. Oh, I know we got

Damon Pistulka  25:27

Gail. Robertson, Gail, we just have to stop for a moment, because Dale. Gail, stop. We gotta

Curt Anderson  25:34

just take up, take a moment and savor it. Gail, we’re saying love

Mark Vanderwarf  25:37

rolling out the carpet.

Damon Pistulka  25:38

Yeah. Hello, all run by communication so true and FYI Dave Chrysler, the Chrysler club. He understands that too. Talk a little bit with Dave about systems. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Andrew, again, he’s like, I’m using shabam for my gig and scheduling for students and invoicing had made my process super easy. Hey, yeah,

Curt Anderson  26:04

graduate. Well done. Mark, well done. And Job and, you know, making people’s life Look how he’s making people making the world a better place. Yeah, Mark, great job. Again. We’re coming, we’re we’re coming to the top of the hour, so as we are, if you’re jumping to a next call. So, you know, make sure you connect with Mark on LinkedIn. Go to his website, check it out. He’s doing all sorts of amazing things. Gail says, Love you guys. Grab that one. Damon,

Damon Pistulka  26:30

oh, it says, Love you guys. Thank you for the warm welcome. Thanks for being here. Gotta Connect.

Curt Anderson  26:35

We need, Gail, it’s been, it’s been way too long. We didn’t get Gail, you need we need to connect. You get back on the show here. Yeah, we miss you. So Mark, okay, so folks, industrial, anything else that you want to share, as far as, like ideal clients that should be connecting with you about shabam, because we’re going to slide in you’ve got another exciting announcement that we’re going to dive into. Anything else you want to share about shabam for folks that should be reaching out to you?

Mark Vanderwarf  26:57

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, any, anybody that has the flying solo or a small team like we definitely synergize well with folks that are, you know, anywhere from, you know, $50 that they’re earning to, you know, $50 million right? You know, and and worked with several Fortune 1000 companies integrated shabam alongside of of other systems. You know, I’ve worked with Salesforce and HubSpot and dynamics and Pipedrive and all CRMs and then, you know, Monday, right, Asana, click up all these other project management tools, you know, Microsoft Project and all that stuff, airtable, you know, building and synergizing all these things, integrating, connecting, zapping, APIs, all that. So if any of that stuff is confusing or you don’t, you know, you’re not comfortable with, like, oh two, open REST APIs, or web hooks, or, you know, what’s a UTM and all that stuff, right? Like, we can help with all those things. But basically, you know, if you want to connect your business plan to your customer’s customer all the way through that customer experience journey, and you want clarity of of mission and vision and story, right? And you want to connect that make sure that communicates entirely through your culture, in your company, your vendors, your prospects, your converts. Right? Like you don’t need you don’t need leads. You don’t need sales, you don’t need any you need you don’t even need 1000 raving fans. I’m going to disagree on all that you need converts. You want people that have a paradigm shift that align with your your you know faith, freedom and you know country and all that stuff, right? So I believe in investing in these critical industry business owners that are creating companies that build community and culture and do all these things that affect their communities, their cities, that affect their counties, their country, and ultimately, these continents, right? And so I believe in investing in a powerful small few amount of people that are believing in stewardship, sustainability, longevity, human centric, planet friendly people, processes and technology that are investing in others, that these people are the most servant style, leadership, unsung, thankless heroes that I’ve ever met in my entire life, and everybody has a distorted view of them. And what makes them so powerful is that they power through, yeah, and they they take it they take it on the chin. They let people talk bad about them. They let people think that it’s all about the money they people make up their own narrative. And these people power through anyways, and they are the SALT and LIGHT OF THE EARTH. These people are some of the best people I’ve ever met, the hardest workers. And I’m also met those same type of people on the front end, on the blue collar, that are, you know, the the crew leads, the the foremans, the the superintendents of, you know, the trades or the craft or the thing, right? And, you know, I’m I saw a disconnect because I came up on my tools all the way through, into the business side, all the way through Project Planning, estimating, all that stuff, business development. And then I went and marketing and sales. And then I went to work for a small, boutique acquisition and merger, A and M and help, you know, now I help scale and grow companies, right? And so shabam is the system that kind of gives me the 8020 that I put in there. And so that customer journey, we call it a CxM instead of a CRM, because it go way beyond the the sale. And it’s, it’s, it’s way more meta than that, right? So, if you guys want clarity on conception of connecting all these Tony Hawk skateboard tricks and just you want to hit 1000 3000 10,000 points like, and you want to do curve rails, and you want to slide through and hook it all together like, that’s, that’s what we do with shabam high level I got to meet all the founders at level Summit. Got to talk with everybody, have the support of their dev team. Got to meet the great people at HL Pro Tools and extendedly and a bunch of these other service solutions we can help you put all these things together. Big announcement came out custom objects, which means that you can now build just about anything you want in the platform. So custom opportunities, custom fields, custom everything. So we help you get up and running, get started, stay supported, do all that stuff with shabam. And that brings me into the segue of this inability. Piece, got

Curt Anderson  32:03

1. We got an exciting announcement. Damon, how about Harry’s comment here?

Damon Pistulka  32:07

Pam, great name. Mark, what kind of predictive analytics can your service? Author, Sha. Pam,

Mark Vanderwarf  32:15

Oh, wow. Predictive analytics is, is is amazing, because it’s like preventative maintenance, right? So, because it’s an all in one system, and you can also feed in any other data that you want, or take any data out of it. So we don’t charge per seat, we don’t charge for data, we don’t charge like so it’s unlimited data, unlimited users, unlimited everything, right? We support your admins. We teach Amanda fish and then teach others, right? So for for predictive stuff, you can take all of that data and not and your back office data and all your stats, tie it all together with you know, your HR systems, your payment processing systems. We’re actually going to be offering our own payment processing. We’re going to be doing a private label of of a big, big venture that that’s coming up probably sometime early next year. I’m I’m advocating for the little guy, the guy on the front end, and I’m positioning the business systems to build a matrix, structured community in order to empower all the new generations coming up. You know, alpha Z’s wise, everything like and and I want to give them business tools and systems and and access. I’m even working with retired people to provide courses and training and stuff. We’re connecting the dots, and I’m I’m decentralizing and democratizing so much of this stuff. That’s

Damon Pistulka  33:50

awesome. That’s awesome. Well, we got none other than Dave Chrysler and

Curt Anderson  33:54

the one and only so talk about we. We need Dave back on the show, my mentor. God, I love that guy. So Dave, happy Hello friends

Damon Pistulka  34:02

and happy Friday. So we got Muhammad stopped by and said, Mark is expert. I agree. Definitely know what you’re talking about. Thank you, Mohammed,

Curt Anderson  34:12

absolutely alright. So let’s dive in. So alright, Damon, do you get that drum set yet? Remember we mentioned about getting that drum set? You got the drummer already? Yeah. Let’s like, alright, let’s, let’s, let’s do, everybody do your drum roll. Out There you guys are having lunch in the east, whatever time zone you’re in, if you ever want your little drum roll. So Mark vanderwerf, what is the big announcement today that you’d like to share with everybody? A

Mark Vanderwarf  34:35

big announcement today is that shabam and sponsor company smart logistics, LG, S T x, so smart L, G, S T x.com, and shabam, S, H, A, dash, b, a, m.com, are sponsoring this ecosystem of everything I was just explaining, called S M, F, G, X, sustainable manufacturing. Sharing, exchange, Expo experts experience like the X stands for the infinite power of the community. And so that’s it. Can also be, you know, strategic marketing for good and excellence. You know, you can they’re, they’re just letters. So we make them up, anything you want them to be, I want to hear what you guys come up with, but I want it to be, you know, the South by Southwest of of stuff. You know, it’s going to be online. It’s going to be hybrid. We shabam has a new product called gather port that’s going to be events. Dot shabam, we’re going to be doing virtual summits and conferences, just like a real world one. We can even do them hybrid, in tandem with a real world event. And so multiple floors, multiple stages, just like self directed, guided through your own your own event, right? And you can have sidebar conversations, great for speed networking, all kinds of stuff with that. So that’s coming out this year. SMF GX is going to be, is this community. And today, right now, you can go to smfgx.com and in the upper right hand corner you’re going to you’re going to see a little video, and then you’re going to see a little newsletter. Sign up, sign up for the newsletter to get alerted and things. And then in the upper right hand corner, you can click on it, and it’s going to go to hub, dot, SMF, GX. And so that is the community channels on everything. We’re going to be connecting all these experts. And it’s going to be a marketplace of ideas, a marketplace of to connect the digital thread. Nobody does it all Siemens, Ge vinova, Rockwell, automation, Deloitte, I mean, you name it from consultancy groups all the way through. Nobody does it all right? And so we need to connect this digital thread. We need to talk to these experts. And, you know, I worked with the team in Informa to help launch the Sustainable Manufacturing Expo that’s going to be next week in Anaheim at MDN co located with MD and M West, super pumped about that. And I want to keep that, that going. I want to keep the baton going and build a community around all of it for sustainable business models in manufacturing and beyond, right? And so, you know, ROI driven, scarcity, scarcity software, scarcity mentality. You know, King of the Hill, insulate, isolate, brace. I got mine for me, that whole thing that now it’s regulatory driven, now it’s consumer driven. And, you know, like, there’s all these pieces of why that’s it’s going to burn the bridge, right? So, investor driven, even so, we want to, you know, we want to embrace an abundance mentality, and we we want to model and train people and show people what that looks like, and how you can have longevity and stewardship and sustainability in an abundance mindset, right? So that’s a lot of what we’re doing. I’ll be there next week at the smart logistics booth, again, smart lgstx, and we’re going to be going around and preaching the gospel of abundance,

Curt Anderson  38:20

preaching the gospel of abundance. Drop the mic, Mr. Mark and so man, what and what a privilege that like you’re you’re dancing this on, on with us. Daniel, we got a few more comments. Guys.

Damon Pistulka  38:31

Andrew stops by and goes, Mark has already filled my life with joy. And then Greg Michio drops a comment. It’s not common knowledge, but Mark does not sleep. He has never actually slept the day in his life. It’s the only way he can possibly pull off all the things he has done. So we gotta remember that and figure out how not to sleep. I guess Gail stopped by. What a phenomenal, phenomenal show today, Mark Vanderwarf or explain things well. And love the name shabam. That’s the digital thread. Wow. Thanks Gail for the comments. Thanks. Everybody coming. Keep them coming. Let’s keep it rolling. Curt, yeah, let’s

Curt Anderson  39:08

keep it rolling. Mark, okay, so, Alright, give us that the domain again. We’d love for everybody’s matter of fact, go like, like, let’s crash the server right now. Mark, give the domain again, like, where should they go to check you out?

Mark Vanderwarf  39:24

And I dump it in the chat, even it’s S M F, U, G x.com, and then hub dot s m f, g x.com, and you can sign up. Hit the sign up underneath all the login stuff, it says, new user, you know, log sign up, and then you’ll have to wait for me to admit you. So you guys can’t go crashing the server on me, so I, I’ll admit you one at a time. Got it? Uh, that’s awesome, yeah. And the thing is, is, you know, all of these websites and you can go to. Mark vanderworff.com and see a bunch of you know, probably 10 or 12 of the things I’ve been working on and what I’m into, Mark vanderworff.com and all of this stuff is built on shabam. We’re eating our own dog food. It’s amazing technology of stand on the shoulders of giants. It took us three years to learn it. Me and my business partner shout out to Josh Northrop and just so many people we’ve now got. We just crossed the threshold of 26 companies, and we’re pushing almost 80 users now on shabam, and we’re just getting started like, literally,

Curt Anderson  40:42

alright, I’m putting, I’m putting MarkVanderwarf.com if you guys see that, and got it, got it? Yeah, in the chat there. And I don’t think it was a LinkedIn Dean. It looks like it’s going out to a few other socials. Yep. Again, check out Mark connected. Mark on LinkedIn. Go to his website, Mark vanderwerff.com, and again, the the acronym, if I’m looking at right now, S, M, F, G, x.com,

Mark Vanderwarf  41:06

that’s where you want. That’s correct. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  41:09

Excellent, excellent. Okay, I know, I know we’re coming into time Mark, let’s start winding down like dude like, you know what? He’s like,

Mark Vanderwarf  41:17

I got all day. You guys are my you guys are my aspirational identity. You guys are my heroes. I’m so privileged to be here. So excited. My hat. Spread it around. We’re

Curt Anderson  41:27

so humbled. Alright, let’s start. We’re going to start winding down here for a couple things. Alright? First off, okay, we want to catch mark at industrial marketing Summit. I’m going to be there as well, Mark. And so I can’t wait to catch your session. And so go to IMS, sign up for it, right just, just go, You know what? Just buy your plane ticket right now. Just go to your website. Sign up right now. And I’m telling you, if you talk to Mark, you think he’s fascinating online, you meet him and like Mark, I can tell you exactly where we were standing. Like you, like you have a you have a natural ability of just, of giving a lasting impression on people. And I, and I’m going to say it online, like, Dude, you inspire me to be a better husband. And I’m saying, and I put it on a public Mark, I tell you, are, you’re like a renaissance man. You know that you’re like the renaissance man. So alright,

Mark Vanderwarf  42:16

let’s go here. Yeah, I have a question. Could I just do a quick shout out if, if there’s anybody out there struggling or they they’re trying to figure things out and be there for their loved ones and their family. On a personal level, I invite you to check out my personal journey with my wife and I. On support friends, dot O R G, support friends, dot O R G, we invite people right into our lives right alongside of us, on support friends.org you can hear our journey of our marriage, and my wife’s battle with EDS Ayers Danlos Syndrome, and my, you know, helping as a caregiver and stuff, and it’s been a huge force, forcing function For us to just learn, learn how to communicate, learn how to care for each other, learn how to love on other people, and allow, through humility and stuff, to allow people to come in and and serve us and care for us, that that has been the biggest challenge for me as someone that’s I’m a self made man. I’m pulling myself up by my bootstraps. I’m going to go do stuff and to invite a stranger into your home to come in and and fold your laundry or clean your floor because you know you had shoulder surgery or a full replacement from 33 decades of pulling on wrenches and chain falls, but to allow someone to come in, you know, frail older people that are more able bodied than you. It’s It’s so humbling, but I can’t thank all of them enough, my business community, my friendship community, my family community and our church community, coming alongside of us with support, friends.org, I envision that becoming its own platform where businesses can actually give this away, like, as as a perk for companies, right? So they could have like, you know, B to B, tail, dot support, friends.org, right? And you could have your employees each have a page, because once you need help, it’s kind of too late, yeah. And that communication, and those systems, automations and everything, you know, we’re using shabam on the back end to to drive it. And so anyway, support friends.org, great thing. Learn so much through that. And thank you so much for your kind words. Curt, you are an absolute inspiration. And whenever I’m down and out, you’ve always had these encouraging words and Damon you as well, just, you’re you’re just raw power and talent and everything has just been encouraging and helped keep me going you guys. I mean, I owe a lot to you guys. You don’t even know,

Curt Anderson  44:56

man, what I dropped support friends.org, in the chat. Yeah, again. Like, alright, David, we usually say this at the very end. I’m gonna say it now. Like, you know you gotta go back. Like, hit the replay. Yeah, and you gotta catch all this, please. I encourage you, I invite you, I welcome you. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn. Just what a dynamic individual. Let’s grab Gail’s comment. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  45:19

Gail’s comment here. Thanks, Gail for dropping another comment. Humility, very powerful words and definitely needed. Thank you for sharing your personal story. Mark, friends, family, church, spiritual families are so important. Asking and getting help is vital, and that’s you know it is, as you said, growing up in in situations where that’s not the the common thing that that we’re taught to do it is very humbling and very helpful, because if you do it, it may encourage somebody else to do it. Absolutely, I don’t think there is not. I don’t think there is a person listening to the show today that hasn’t been affected by someone that has taken their life? Yes, you got hurt because of this stupid stuff, or done things with drugs, alcohol, whatever. Yeah, with because they didn’t ask and get the help. Yes,

Mark Vanderwarf  46:13

it, it’s vital. And here’s the thing is, we can, we can look out for others. There’s signs, there’s hotlines, there’s all that stuff. But we can. We need to look out and we need to be vigilant for those around us. I mean, my job is making friends, and when I’m doing that, I can, you know, first and foremost, I want to make sure that they’re okay on personal level. Yeah, nothing else matters. I mean, it doesn’t so, yeah, amazing stuff. I mean, yeah, you knew

Curt Anderson  46:39

we were going here today. So Damon, how about Harry? Harry’s got a comment here.

Damon Pistulka  46:44

Harry, Thanks for the comment. Great show. Great guy. Bravo. Thanks for dropping another comment. Harry,

Curt Anderson  46:50

okay, we’re going to, we’re going to close man, we’re going to close out tons of mic drop here. Yeah, Mark as we close out serial entrepreneur, whether you’re sharing with your younger self, or maybe somebody out there is just really aspiring to start their kick start their own entrepreneur journey, whether they’re in their 20s, maybe they’re 70, who knows somewhere in between, what’s the best business advice that you’ve ever received or that you would like to share? Best business advice that you’ve ever received or would like to share? Oh,

Mark Vanderwarf  47:20

man, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I don’t want to mess it up. I’m gonna read it right from, from my thing here. This is one of my inspirational things. It sits on my desktop, right? I combine two things, something my father told me growing up, and something my wife shared with me about a year ago, and I put it together and pick a path, pay attention, pray, move tenaciously. The message is more important than the messenger, so bring others with you. Pick a path, pay attention, pray and move tenaciously. The message is more important than the messenger, so bring others with you, and that has fueled a lot of my life, but especially this last year, with that new, refined clarity and I just I didn’t realize my ego and my pride and my arrogance was so so so big that I just need to simply get out of the way of self and just like when I’m in flow state playing music, it has to be so repetitive that you can’t get it wrong, right? And practice, practice, practice. When something is new, you feel like a fraud, and you you haven’t learned it yet, so you feel like you’re faking it, and in fact, you’re facing it. So face it till you make it, reframe that to face it till you make it. And you’re it’s it feels fraudulent, because you’re learning, and when you’re learning, you just need reps. And so you need to face it till you make it. You need to get those reps in. And what you’re doing, you’re either creating where you’re consuming, and if you’re consuming, you’re taking in something somebody else did, right? So if you’re creating, you have the authority, the power, the vigilance, and you can put those things into practice, right? So I encourage people to start creating in any gifting that they have. And what you’re making and doing is more important than anything else, because we, all the rest of us on planet Earth, we need you, and there’s only one of you, and we need your giftings, your talent, your skills, your abilities. I need you. Curt needs you. Damon needs you. We can’t do this alone. No backbone has, you know, there’s no, there’s no headless monster running out. There’s lots of headless monsters, but there’s no floating heads, right? Like so we need, we need everybody, right? And I just really believe in community and family and and building just these, these ecosystems of warmth and. Confidence,

Damon Pistulka  50:06

just letting it go. Mark, we’re

Curt Anderson  50:07

just, we’re just gonna, we’re just gonna. There’s nothing that can be said to follow that we’re just gonna favor. Hey, let’s see if it works. Damon, does it

Damon Pistulka  50:16

work? Does it work? There it is. Alright. See that guy?

Curt Anderson  50:20

See the hearts? Yep. Mark, thank you. I

Mark Vanderwarf  50:25

gotta get in on this game,

Curt Anderson  50:30

dude, try it out. Try to drop some hearts.

Damon Pistulka  50:32

Oh, I’m not using that kind of computer. I know it won’t do it. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  50:38

all right, I do. We do need to close out. So Mark, everybody out there, man, you’ve been hanging out with sort of past, however long it’s been. What? How about great opportunity? Could it stand up? Let’s give a huge stand innovation to mark vanderwerf For just, absolutely just destroying it today. Positive force, contagious enthusiasm. What like Damon I, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to go run through a wall right now. So there’s the balloons right there. So Mark, I want to thank you. I appreciate you. Applaud. You. Cannot wait to see you in person in four weeks from today. And again, I encourage invite everybody. Check out mark on LinkedIn. Check out his website, check out friends. Support.org What a great mission, great organization, and I’ll tell you as we close out today, man, just go out and be someone’s inspiration, just like Mark and like you’re going to make the world a better place. Damon, take it away. Man, I’m alongside.

Damon Pistulka  51:33

Alright. Well, thanks so much Mark for being here today. We appreciate you stopping by the show and sharing with us your journey, what’s going on and the great things that are happening. I want to talk to everyone that got into this late. You want to go back to the beginning. You do not want to miss what Mark had to say throughout, throughout the show about live marketing, industrial marketing, whatever you want to hear in this around this topic, you need to go back and listen to it from the beginning. And those of you that were listening but not commenting, I don’t want to forget you, because you’re out there doing that week in, week out. Listen to the show. We love that you’re there, and we appreciate you. Have a great weekend, everyone. We’ll be back again next week with another great guest. There you go,

Curt Anderson  52:21

shabam. Finish up all.