#194 - Logistics Is NOT a Cost Center | Randy Vlasic Explains Why Most Businesses Get This Wrong

0:00 When I have somebody that comes in that just has grit, that has tried different things, they failed, they've fallen on their face, they've learned how to overcome challenges. I'm a hundred percent taking that person. All Hey you all welcome back. I'm pumped for the conversation today in the studio um on this nice rainy Thursday in Cincinnati. It's crazy what technology allows us to do.

0:41 I love being in person, but we're getting better at the ones that are from afar. So today's guest is Randy Vlasic. Cool last name. He's founder and CEO of LIWMI Logistics. It's a company operating in one of the most demanding and what I'm saying misunderstood industries in business. Logistics isn't glamorous. I know of many guys who operate companies. It's precise. It's time sensitive, it's margin sensitive, and when it fails, everything fails. Randy's built his company in a space where execution matters more than noise, where readership shows up in systems, not slogans. So today we're talking about operational discipline leading under pressure and what founders can learn from logistics world about scaling the right way.

1:24 Randy, welcome to this here at EntrepreneurMan. Mark, thanks for having me on the show, man. I'm super excited to be here. So what about that intro? Hey, we're going to make this a non interview conversation. was a great five, 10 minutes. talked beforehand. So what about that intro? Like is your industry, is it highly misunderstood? um Yeah, I think so. You know, it depends on who you're really talking to. You know, some folks are looking at it as just an operating expense on the P &L. know, transportation just something that needs to get done. It's not strategic. But really it is. You know, at the end of the day, logistics is everything to the customer. You know, when we buy something on Amazon, it's here tomorrow. If it's here two days later or it's one day late, it is horrible.

2:07 It's a horrible experience. And when we think about that, you know, as a client, um purchasing something, we want it. And so there are some companies that look at it very strategically and those are the companies that we'd like to work with the most. They see it as an opportunity to really deliver exceptional value to the clients. And we like to roll out the red carpet for them. They do look at cost as an operating expense. They look at opportunities to improve it. um But ultimately it's the experience, right? and managing a lot of the expectations that go along with it to make not just the client's experience exceptional, but also the company that's delivering that product. you put yourself in, because I want to hear the story like, man, why'd you get into logistics?

2:51 What drove this? But as you think about it, how do you, I want to hear that, but how do you keep from becoming a commodity that's engaged with and have a relationship based just on price? Since we look at it as an expense, how do you keep that from happening with all your clients? it's simple. We just don't work with clients that look at it that way. You know, we work with clients that look at it strategically, you know, um, when you have multiple locations and you have multiple modes of transportation, you know, it can get complex and we simplify that, you know, there are a lot of companies that just look at costs and we're just not frankly designed for that model. We're not going to be the cheapest. can't compete with the billion dollar companies out there when it comes to capacity and price.

3:32 What our value proposition is, is the service. understanding the complex solutions and using our technology that we have and customizing that to meet the needs of the client and then delivering exceptional value. Where those large companies just aren't agile in that way. And they're not doing those same things for the clients, at least in, you know, unless you're Walmart, right? And, you know, in the middle market though, that's where we, that's where we, that's our value proposition. The does it, when you think about your business, because again, you can take this question and drive into why you, why you entered into logistics and you know, why it's your passion now in business. And, um, does it ever baffle you that within the same industry, there's a segment that you brought it up like serving a huge conglomerate, like Walmart.

4:17 And the funny thing is I'm assuming internally, I bet they want to talk about the same things you're talking about. About the expectations they have on the logistic providers to them, but At the end of day, if it's just margin, it's tough to conceive how it's still possible for a huge enterprise to deliver what you're talking about for them. But I bet the big conglomerate like Walmart, I bet they wouldn't say they settle for less. Absolutely not. Walmart has some of the strictest requirements when it comes to transportation. know, a lot of companies it's on time, but on time performance is did we meet the appointment time? Walmart is, you have to meet a window. You can't be early or late or you're penalized for that.

4:59 So if you're working with Walmart, you're getting penalized for being there an hour early because it messes up the entire system that Walmart is built. know, you have to meet a specific window. And if you don't meet that window, there's chargebacks on that. which is your profits, the profits going out the window and you'll be out of business quick. Yeah. They'll get right into the profits. It's percentage of revenue, something like that. What, so why logistics? I don't know, Mark. never, I never ever dreamed of being in logistics or owning a logistics company. You know, when I, when I was, um, when I was a kid, I was probably the one kid you didn't ever think to build a company in the first place.

5:42 You know, I, I got expelled from high school two times, graduated in summer school and I was just making poor decisions. And I think some of that led me to entrepreneurship because couldn't really afford to go to college. was always looking for ways to do it. I started in retail and I was working at Circuit City. I was a sales manager for Circuit City at the beginning. And I remember these people coming in to buy a $30,000 $40,000 home theater systems. And I remember, I think to myself, know, what do these people do that they can afford to do this? There has to be an easier way to do it. And so I just became obsessed with trying to find a way to make money. And that's what drove me. was money. And I had first kid at 24 years old, I had to make some things happen. I ended up working for a multi-level marketing company and insurance, mortgages and investments.

6:27 And then I had a friend that was in logistics. um He was doing really good and they were like, Hey man, you should come get into this. And so I started in sales and the rest is history. You know, I my first company after a couple of years and off the rig. And here you are now. What caused that kid, not the thing that you did, but what caused the behavior of that kid to get kicked out of high school twice? Man, you know, what caused me to get kicked out of high school twice? What caused that behavior? think, I don't know. It was. It was just about having fun. I wasn't really living intentionally in high school.

7:12 I wasn't focused on my grades and what that really meant in my life. I was just living in the moment. And I was just trying to have a good time. And I was making some decisions that at the time I thought were fun and exciting and naive and stupid at the same time. I wonder, um, you know, sometimes people go deep and sometimes they don't, but, I say that to say that there's this idea that we're a product of our environments and there's good conversation about it, about, you know, poor kids and, um, you know, underperforming schools and this whole thing. But, but then you're, but you're sitting here today, not that same person.

7:52 whatever environment created that. It could have been the influence of parents. could have been the wrong fringe that you were hanging out, right? It could have been the wrong thing. Whatever that was, you aren't that anymore. So if we're saying that adults in societies, the, what you're born into is pretty much what you're stuck with. Well, that's not what we're looking at here today. No, absolutely not. You know, we all have the ability to make life, know, the way we want it, right? Life is what we make it at the end of the day. You know, for me, at a young age, you know, I had, I had a kid that when I was 20, 22, um, you know, that was a wake up call for me.

8:33 I couldn't screw around anymore. Like I had a life that was relying on me and I had to make something happen. And so. I just had to figure out new ways to do it and I had to grow as an individual. know, I think entrepreneurship in itself is, you think you're building this organization, company, you're not, you're building you, you know? You're building you as a person and you have to grow and learn new things and just engulf yourself in opportunities to learn and do things that you've never even thought possible sometimes. Did you have a, that, did that kid before you had a kid, um, and maybe we'll go back then. Did that 16 year old kid or 17 year old kid or 18 year old kid that got kicked out of high school, did he have dreams?

9:19 Yeah, man. But all my dreams at that time were, were based around money. That was my, you know, I had some family members that were super successful and I had some friends that are, you know, friends that were super successful. And I always, I remember one day I was sitting at a buddy's house and he just built a brand new house and it was beautiful. you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars in today's day is probably 700,000. But I remember looking at his house and going, man, this is awesome. How my, how, could I ever accomplish this thing? I can't even afford this stupid pillar he has in his living room. You know, how could I ever do this? so money is what drove me at that time.

10:00 And so that was my dream was how can I make enough money? And it was cars and houses and yachts and things like that. And that's, that was my identity for a long time. You know, I ended up selling my company when I was 29 years old for multiple seven figures, my first company. And, uh, and I realized that That wasn't it. It wasn't, wasn't about just money, you know, and today life is what we make it. That's a movement for me. That's, that's in my heart. That's people coming together to achieve a common goal. Whether that's colleagues, customers, employees, it's us building each other up and going out the world and sharing that because at the end of the day, like nothing is self-made, right?

10:44 You hear self-made all the time. I'm not self-made. Nobody's self-made. can't. do anything without the help of somebody else. can't build a business without somebody else. can't make a life without somebody else. You can't have a marriage without somebody else or be a husband or a father. It always takes more than one person. So that's the movement for me today is life is what we make it. And it's about helping each other grow and become better. And whatever stage that is, personal business, you name it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, to accomplish these big things in life that we're talking about, it's so funny that the reason why I like to go deep on this a little bit and we'll get into your business, but so important is it shouldn't be about money. But the reality is we still need this money to build the things we're building, right?

11:26 Because, know, me coming from a place of, know, we can say poor, but the family just have a lot of money. Right. And so coming from that place, I know what that life is and it's a struggle. Life is filled with all sorts of struggles, but if you also stack financial problems on top of it, well, you wake up to them, you live with them, you go to bed with them, and it's tough to be able to focus on. If you can't pay your bills, it's tough to focus on the other things in life that do matter because every day you wake up, no matter how positive you are about life, it's tough. And then also you can't live up to the responsibilities of the people you made commitments to as well. Right. You know, money at the end of the day is a tool, right?

12:07 I mean, so we build our organizations. That's vehicle for me to create financial income and to create financial income for the rest of the employees that work here and use that money as a tool to do the things that I really want to do and the things that I really want to accomplish at the end of the day. Yeah. Yeah. It's the resource. mean, maybe they used to call it something else, right? But you have the resource of exchange to go out here and provide the things you need to provide for you and the people around you again, because without it, it's just the system that we have without it. You're not going to have the company to build because I bet we can go into the depth of the biggest struggles you've had. Go through moments where cashflow is strapped and you're trying to grow and you want to add another employee, but you're worried about the revenue to not be able to pay the others.

12:48 We have these tough decisions to make when we don't have the money. Things get really bad with business too, right? You've been through those moments. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I go back to when I first started this company, I sold my company when I was 29. I had an earn out after that. It just so happened I was renegotiating my contract in 2019, 2020 when COVID happened. So in the frame market, we expected this huge downturn. We laid off 150 employees. I was one of the people that got laid off in that. You know, we closed up all our regional offices. I didn't really have much to do anymore. turned out to be something completely different. started Lumia logistics. There was this boom in COVID. I caught the tail end of that.

13:29 But in 2021, the market fell apart. So I just hired my first two employees. Business was great. I was making money. It was doing awesome. The market totally uh just fell apart. And I had to make a decision. It was like, I let these people go? I'm going back to being a self individual operator. Do I find another way to, to. pay these people and keep this thing going. And so at the time I was running some forums on Facebook with other logistics owners. And there was a forum where we'd help each other and share our experiences to help each other grow. one of the people that I was coaching at the time wanted to start a logistics business. I'm like, Hey, this is an opportunity.

14:10 Maybe I can do some consulting or contractual work with her. Start this company helps me pay the employees at the same time that I can come back when it makes sense. And so that's what I did. I sold her a six month contract. I went and I started her company at the same time I was building my company. was running the same meeting schedule, literally 30 minutes apart. I'd have my morning huddle with my team. I'd have a morning huddle with that, with that team. And I built both those companies at the same time. And then after six months, things started to stabilize. We got our business levels back up and then I was able to make that transition back, you know, What, talk about the last six years of the journey from that, um about being in an operational seat with the ups and downs of businesses, with the change of AI and what's happening, um with everybody that was going home to work and now back to the office.

15:02 It seems like, it feels like to me the past six years on the entrepreneurial side of my business, not just podcasting and marketing and branding and owning buildings. that it seems like I've lived an entire owner's life in six years. That's what it feels like to me. The world in the last six years to me has changed so much. know, going back to some of the things you were saying about COVID and working from home and all that stuff. You know, when I had this earn out with my first company, I was limited in capital to expense, but I have these huge targets that I had to hit and the higher the target, the more I got paid.

15:42 Um, but I was limited in the money that I can allocate and then I could use for the investment. So I got to a point where I was like, I need to hit this huge target, but I have any more money to go hire more people. So I came up with this idea to build a remote channel and I started it and it just took off. And I started to look for people all over the country that had books of business that I could just onboard. Cause I knew if I brought people that had books of business that could turn ROI instantly that the company would allow me to hire them. So I started finding all these people over the country and this thing took off. I think 12 or $15 million in the first year. And so I was actually built this remote company before COVID even happened. As things progressed, what we came through, I already had a whole operational team, a sales team, everything was remote before COVID even started.

16:26 So we were prepared for that. And we did a really good job at that. Now, LIWMI Logistics, when I started it, we're still work from home. So not, not any of us. We have an office in Chicago. They send the mail to. And we can meet our customers there if we need to, everybody for us works from home. man, starting it out as a, as an individual, you know, building this thing organically, I was sitting on some money for my, um, my acquisition and, uh, it's just what I knew, you know, so when I started and I built this TMS system and the website and all that kind of stuff, I hired all these contractors to help me out and, and 2021 I ended up as a sole Prior to I get hacked.

17:09 Um, so there's a security breach and, I think it was a ransomware attack. They got in everything and they were shutting me out. I'd wake up in the morning and I changed all my passwords or I changed all my passwords. Once I realized they were breached, I wake up the next morning and they were all changed again. And so it took me six months. I literally let go of every single person I was working with. The contractors that were building the website, the employees that I was working with or they weren't employees at the time they were 1099, but. I had to let everybody go because I didn't know where it came from. And then I had to start over again. And so once I finally got this thing launched in December, 2021, we moved our first shipment.

17:49 Um, 2022. Yeah. I can't remember how many shimits I was moving a month, but I was selling the freight. I was finding the trucks. I was booking the loads. I was billing all the shipments. I was chasing the money. mean, it was everything and it engulfed me and there were days where, you know, my poor wife, You know, it'd be Monday and I'm like, where's the freight? Like I need money. I need to get this thing going. And I'm bleeding cash the whole time I'm starting this thing up, you know? And, uh, you know, she was such a rock man. She was so supportive. I remember there were days where I was just sitting at my desk, bawling, like not knowing where the next customer was coming from or where the next shipment was coming from.

18:30 And, uh, it always worked out. And by Wednesday that week, you know, things started flowing and I was moving and grooving. I did that for about a year, all by myself until I hired my first two employees to come in and help me out. And then right after that, we saw the COVID uh crash. What in those deep dark moments? Um, I'm not going to say the darkest cause we've had successful people, not just in business, really successful employees inside companies, people that are leaders that are responsible for big things have dark moments. don't know anyone who hasn't had to conquer their demons and the tough things.

19:11 But on those Mondays, when your wife's who's extremely supportive, when you had this big exit, and you're spending that money for this new hope and dream and you see money just flowing out of the bank account all the time. What kept you going? Um, man, there was two things. One is there's no plan B, you know, I made a commitment. had to make it work. I could have went and got a job, but I didn't want to. Like I love the challenge of building. Um, and I didn't have a plan B. My wife knew that too. She knew this was it. And I was going to adjust my lifestyle, however I needed to, make this thing work, no matter what it, what it took.

19:54 Um, but I think. You know, not to get too deep on it, but I'm definitely a believer in the big guy upstairs. And faith definitely helped me out. You know, I cannot tell you how many times I've had my back against the wall and I didn't know what was going to happen. And I've talked to the big man and it's all about just continuing to take that step forward. And next thing you know, something happens randomly and it just works. And I can say that there's probably more than 10 occasions that that's happened. And so I just have in the faith of. It's going to work as long as I stay consistent. It doesn't matter what the ups and downs on the roller coaster ride is, but if I just keep taking small steps forward every single day, those small steps compound over time.

20:41 And then I create momentum and that momentum drives it forward. And I just kept moving forward. That was it. So with Lumi, the logistics company that you started and you put your head down for that year and spending money, is it now fulfilling the idea of it that you had? Cause you were already in the business and what you see is second time entrepreneurs within a similar business or something that they're adjacent to, they found something that needs to be fixed or they find an opportunity that's been exposed that they say, me fix this thing. so is Lumi right now what you wanted to be, or is it in the midst of becoming? we're, I mean, we're always in the midst of becoming, there's no such thing as perfection.

21:21 Right. So, but I think what I found in the industry, small privately companies or large companies was that, systems was always a challenge. You know, there was always multiple systems in different places and data never matched. And that was always a project in itself, getting all of these systems to talk to each other and then creating a quality control and how we deliver this data to our customers or how we even look at it internally. So when I started Lumi, that was my number one thing is like, I'm going to solve this problem. I'm going to build everything in one platform. Right. So we use Salesforce, which is the largest CRM in the world. Obviously everyone knows that. Salesforce gives us the flexibility and the agility to do whatever you can possibly think of.

22:06 If there's any system that can do it, it'll do it. And so accounting, CRM, transportation management. All that stuff built is built into this one platform and it gives us that flexibility to control the data and also be very customizable. So that was ultimately the first problem that I wanted to solve for. The second part is I see these opportunities with these, with, with companies that, you know, as we've had Amazon come into the market, they've really created an impact in a lot of different industries, but definitely in transportation. And that's just the feeling of how our freight is delivered, our packages are delivered. We need those to be. fast as possible. That experience needs to be exceptional.

22:47 We expect it to be on time when it says it's going to be delivered on time. And so a lot of companies had to change their strategies to meet that market demand that we wanted as a society. And so um when I talked to clients that are maybe in this little bit older model, things were pretty flexible. We helped them create that structure and uh deliver those. um really critical moments to the customer, right? So we can really dig in and understand based on regions, clients, products, SKUs, um how are we performing on the transportation side and how are we delivering this to our clients?

23:28 And I saw these opportunities to really dig deep with customers and really help them understand it because it's not just an operating expense on the P &L, it really is the last experience that we're going to give to our client. um And I found a lot of people when they really understood that and what the capabilities were and looking at the analytics of transportation and how it impacts their business. I got excited about it. It wasn't just, you know, an expense down. That was something that they really, really cared for. And they, they wanted to take the initiative to do something. They wanted to invest into that department to make it more strategic. They wanted to invest in, into that experience to make that final customer get their product on time.

24:10 have a little bit of a follow-up to make them feel special. It was just a great way to deliver exceptional client customer experience on the backend. And then we'd go out and build it. And so I just, it's one of the most exciting things we do, you know, moving shift from point A to point B is, anybody can do that. There's tons of companies that do that. want to work with companies that care that want to do something really, really significant. What do you tell your employees? um What do you tell them day one? What do I tell them day one? you're drinking from the fire hose. You know, we're not a massive organization. don't have, uh, tons of training in, in, uh, an LMS system where you can go and learn everything.

24:55 When you come here, you can't expect to go through all the training and figure it all out. You know, I could train you on something today and you'll forget it tomorrow. And unless you're putting into action. And you're actually doing it on a regular basis. You're not going to retain the information. So let's break this down into small pieces. What tasks are we focusing on right now? Let's train on that. What tasks are, what are we developing? And what's the next task? Let's train on that. You know, so when you come here, expect to drink from the fire hose. Don't expect to know everything from the front and just be open and have an open mind to learning and growing. And, um, in our core values is, the, the most important thing to we make sure that.

25:37 those people align with and um at the end of the day, our core values are be human, be kind, dream it, do it, own your shit. um Fuck, now I can't even remember my own core values. You know what I think, you know, we get caught up in this. I do too at times. It's like, you know, what's our value proposition? What are our core values? What are the principles of the business? What's the mission statement? Right? It's like, you know what? If, if it's not, if in the world, words aren't supposed to hurt us, it's how we treat each other. And that's what matters too. It matters as businesses. How do we go out here in the world and engage with people that we serve, that we represent and that we're helping? Like, how do we do it?

26:17 And every day when we show up, we're telling people. if we even live up to these values, even if we live up to the principles. So I make an argument it's more about the human beings that are coming together that we call businesses. It necessarily doesn't matter the things that we say. 100%. Um, you know what, for, for people to follow us as leaders and we have to really care. mean, they don't follow. They don't care about our companies as much as we care about our companies. um That's the first part. But the second part is for us to be great leaders, we need to know what makes our people tick. What drives them? What are their interests? What are their dreams?

26:58 And how can we as leaders use our business and our money as a tool to really help them accomplish that? And when we do that, people will run through walls for you. Yeah, they'll, they'll fight for the thing. They will fight for it as much as you fight for it. Right. And over time, what I find is, I remember back in one of the Godfather movies, like Godfather two and Michael, um, his wife is leaving him, right. They're in New York city and she's like, I'm taking the kids. Cause I would never have another one of your kids. I wouldn't bring another son into this world. Right. And he's yelling and screaming. She leaves anyway. And he said, she's like, I feel no love for you. And he said, you can grow to love me again.

27:38 And the funny thing is, even though she leaves, that is the truth. That the things that we stay adjacent to and the things that we fight for, we grow to love and feel more passionate about that we believe in more, right? That's why they want the more time you spend with people. Friendships grow deeper over time. Relationships and companies compound. We prefer to have decade long relationships with customers because context isn't necessary anymore. It's about, it's right, about how you treat each other. If you weren't doing logistics, if the robots end up dominating your business and you aren't needed, what in the world would you still do because you still have working professional life left? What would you do? You know, at the end of the day, Mark, I'm a builder, man.

28:18 And that's what I love. So maybe not logistics, maybe something else. think, you know, for me, life is what we make it as a movement that I'm trying to start or people are helping each other out. And one of the things I love more, more than anything is, is new entrepreneurs getting into the market and helping them be successful. You know, I ran those forums and I did that because it's just a passion that I have. Logistics is gone. Everything's automated, man. I'm out there. building businesses with other entrepreneurs, helping new kids get started, coaching them along and helping them build companies, man. That's what I'm doing. You're not just going to go into the world of this idealistic place where we all have universal basic income and you just get to plant flat plant.

29:00 You get to paint flowers in the meadow all day long. Absolutely not, man. Absolutely not. don't think. You know, the, the, best part about life is a challenge that comes along with that, man. It's the, it's the struggles and the opportunities that we have to build something great together. I don't, in a world with universal income, man, I don't know what the hell I'd be doing. I definitely wouldn't be happy though. Yeah. Me. It's, it's funny. I got into a Waymo for the first time in Atlanta last week. And, um, after the first time I wrote it and I was like, man, I hope UR gives me a Waymo every time now. Yeah. It's weird because I'm the guy that says everything inside of me.

29:41 I don't think I want this automated world, even though it's really efficient. I don't think so because I don't think it's going to be good for us, but here's maybe it will be. Yeah. Maybe it will. think the important part is the technological times we're in is don't be scared of it. No, I love AI. Absolutely love it. I am so excited about, about, about it and what it's doing. It's evolved so fast since its first rollout. And honestly, for me, I think it's really unlocked almost like superhuman powers that I've never had before. You know, there's, there's things that I'm great at and there's things that I really suck at. And a lot of times AI can fill that gap for me.

30:22 You know, was thinking about, I'll give you good example. So I just launched life as what we make a podcast myself. I needed to build a personal branding site. I wanted to drive traffic to that. I go to my marketing. I'm like, Hey, I need to build this website. I need to like next week. Cause I got this first podcast and I want to drive the traffic through my personal branding site. He's like, man, we're backed up. We got a lot of stuff going on. I'm like, shit, I need to, I need to launch this website. He's like, but let me get you a quote anyways, right? Sounds to me a quote. It's four grand joy. love you. If you're listening to this. Um, but I had to build something quick. And so I started to look through it. I'm like, Hey, what can I do to build this website and get it going? Then I fell, came across Manus, which is metas version, right?

31:05 I go in it's like, Hey, this thing will build it for me. I go in and I'm like, Hey, I need a personal build. I need to build a personal branding site. It's like, okay, here you go. It goes through all my social profiles, grabs all my followers, grabs everything, grabs content, spits it out in like 30 minutes, the whole site. And then I just go and I start tweaking stuff. Hey, I don't like this. Let's change this color. Hey, I need to connect this to here. I want to connect my YouTube channel. I want to connect Spotify and it just does it for you. give me the link. Done. It cost me $80 to build that website with Manus 40 bucks to sign up $40 in additional tokens. I could never have done that. When I started this company, the first site I built for Lumi logistics was 10 grand.

31:49 I just built this website for 80 bucks and now I'm looking at my logistics website going hey, what can we do to revamp this? I would have never been able to do that if I didn't have the money at the time to build that website. What would I have done? You know, I wouldn't have had it or maybe it would have been some janky thing I put together in a, you know, quick builder. But now with AI, if I want to go start a company, I could put it together and I'm watching this thing for $80. Now I look like a real company. I have a real brand. You're doing it the same day. instantly, you know, and that's what AI is doing for me is it's unlocking potential and opportunities in areas that I've never thought I had the capabilities for.

32:34 Yeah. It's not what I'm seeing is, you know, we all, I think if everyone's open minded about this, I'm not trying to affect anybody's belief if they like it or not, but it's here to be open minded about what it's going to be because here's what I tell people. Like it's not what I'm starting to see. I'm heading to Miami tonight. I have to fly down to Miami. I'm looking at this huge led screen that I'm going to buy for this new auditorium I'm building, but I'm waking up on Friday and I have a group of people meeting me in Miami. They're driving down from Palm beach, a guy who is a uh coder and program of AI. Now he's building the things he's, he's building the agents, building a company, building the agents, have a content person coming down.

33:16 We're having a big meeting around it. But what I'm seeing is it's not that companies are necessary. There's going to be layoffs, but there always were when efficiency show up. What's going to happen is there's going to be companies built without the amount of employees that previous were needed is what's gonna happen. That's what's gonna happen, right? I don't think companies are gonna be dismantled overnight where everybody's gonna lose a job. It's gonna allow a smaller group of people, like you said in your situation, to actually get into these businesses that previously didn't have the capital and the know-how to get into them. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. I think in this particular instance to the marketing side, you know, I launched his website for 80 bucks, but there's so much more that goes into marketing.

33:59 You still need a marketing person. We still have to drive the content calendar, the schedule, the copy, and we have to make all this stuff work together. I still need somebody to do the marketing, but the, to be able to build that website like that, that quick for that amount of money, it just makes us somewhat so much faster. and how we roll things out. And it just enables people to do their jobs more efficiently and more effectively. So here's what I have for everyone that's listening and we'll cut this up and it shows up on my pages and yours too. I don't give people warnings too much because I'm optimistic. I'm just like, everybody go out and crush, but here's the warning that I have for people. I'm not talking to employees in my organizations.

34:42 I'm not talking to the people that I'm talking to everyone. Here's the warning. You better become elite because here's what's going to happen when companies are going to need fewer employees. They're only gonna hire E-Wheat people. That's all that's going to happen because AI is going to do all the mediocre work. That's what's about to happen. What is about to happen right now, I don't care what your job is. If you're the best human, you're still gonna have massive value in a company. If you're the best at the segment of business that you're currently operating, you're gonna have a role, because you're gonna be the one running the AI in that category that you know.

35:23 You're gonna be so invested and so important to that company that you're gonna be actually brought into an inner circle that maybe you hadn't been exposed to before. But everyone that is operating at a mediocre level, This is, I was talking to a big marketing guy last night from Boston and we were on a call. I've been engaging with it for years in the real estate space. And when I told him, said, Hey man, what's your biggest struggle as an employer? And so I'd pose the same thing to you. What's your biggest struggle and what's your biggest struggle? I think for us right now, our biggest struggle is um getting everybody on board with AI in itself, right? um It's new for a lot of people.

36:05 It's still really new to the world. We like you were mentioning about elite people, like we have to become elite. So we have to engulf ourselves in learning AI and understanding AI and how that makes us more, um more efficient and effective in our roles. That's how we become elite today. So I think that's the biggest challenge for us is how do we get. Folks that have never used AI before to embrace that. It's the human element, the human element, right? That's what I'm talking about. So we all have this answer somewhere. It's around all of us humans getting together, operating together at an elite top level. So we're functioning to feed this beast that we're all, we want to build these great companies.

36:45 And so the issue is, that efficiency seems to be one of the issues in life. Because when I say an elite human, I'm not talking about some, we're not trying to value these human beings based on how they just perform at work. But who you are as a human is how you perform at work. don't, right? You don't normally see somebody that crushes at work and they also can't crush at life. We have these personal challenges, but usually the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. Right? And so what I'm, what we're starting to see now is the challenge for us is I told, this is what told Greg, the guy was on the, I said, man, right now I would find positions inside my company right now.

37:26 If I found people that were in Incredible. I'm looking for them if they're gonna help me move my companies forward I would overpay them and here's I know so would you So what we all would you know, here's the challenge now AI Isn't gonna be a bad employee AI is going to do the things running his agents in the background. It's gonna be doing the things that you ask it to do And it's going to be doing it. It's going to live up to the full potential. It's going to perform the roles. It's not going to show up for an eight hour day of work and only work for three. You're not going to have to have a bunch of middle tier managers keeping an eye on people to make sure they're doing their job.

38:10 That's what's about to happen. That's that. That's the warning that I have for everyone is you're in control of whether or not you're going to be valued in an organization by the way you show up and embrace and perform. So I don't know what your take on this, but that's the bot that's the beware. Beware of what's coming. Yeah, I, um, listen, as, as an employer, we're always looking for people that do exceptional things outside of business. Right? I mean, we look for people that were in the military and people that are athletes in school, people that are going out and doing crazy things or trying to figure something out that's unique or different. Those are the types of people that we're looking for.

38:51 more so than just a resume. Right? I mean, I get to have a kid that has a great college education and comes in for an interview, but he hasn't really done anything, tried to take on any initiatives or done anything special outside of just school and school itself is initiative. Don't get me wrong. God bless you for doing it. And I'm happy, you know, it's, it's for some of you. wasn't for me, but when I have somebody that comes in, that just has grit, that has tried different things, they failed, they've fallen on their face. They've learned how to overcome challenges. I'm a hundred percent taking that person. You know, and with AI now getting into the workplace, if we do this really well, I think companies need to do this today is if, if the companies that are embracing this and they're using it to, make their people more effective and efficient, they're focusing on helping those people grow.

39:44 Those are the ones that are going to take off and the ones that don't are going to be left, left behind. Right. And so when I can teach somebody how to be more effective and efficient using artificial intelligence and do their job. Better. typically find that it's something that's exciting for them and they love that and they lean into it. And so we're using it in that way. And I do think you're right. A lot of those tasks, those task works that you'd pay somebody just to do data entry, things like that, those things are gone. We have to grow as individuals and become leaders because you still need somebody to lead the AI, prompts, the content, the role, the responsibilities, the context that we're delivering to that agent to get it to do what we want to do.

40:30 Someone still needs to create that stuff. It's, um, the one thing that AI won't be able to replace is a really good human attitude that has a can do sense of that wants to be a part of something big and special and do things together. AI won't replace that. You come with a really good attitude. You already have a tremendous advantage over any other human and over these systems that are going to be built. That's the people with the good positive attitudes. that are when the things are really tough that are still there with you, they're fighting through, they're not throwing in the towel, they're not negative and blaming other people, they're not playing politics. That's what's going to become value. And the people that don't have that are going to find themselves not having good jobs in this new economy.

41:14 That's what I believe. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, poor people were designed to be together. We were designed to work together. And I think the people that, embrace those relationships and look for those relationships. mean, they're out there, you know, are we seeing in our customers all day? Nobody wants to work with, with, uh, artificial intelligence that does everything for them and not have somebody to talk to. Right. So we need to use AI to make ourselves more effective and efficient and enable. us to do our jobs better, but that human element of having that relationship and understanding what makes that person tick and how we can help drive value into their lives is what's going to move this thing forward.

41:57 So you mentioned that, you know, traditional education, um, wasn't the path for you. Yeah. So what worked for you in educating yourself? What works? Um. I um embraced education when I had a real need for it. So school for me, English, math, whatever that may be at the time, I didn't think it was important because I wasn't actually using it in my day-to-day life. But as an entrepreneur, as I grew, I started to find opportunities where I said, Hey, you know what? This is something I need to learn. How do I learn it? And how do I learn it quickly? I use Excel as an example, right? That's something they teach in college. And got a little bit I dropped out, but Um, you know, as I got into business, I needed to learn how to use Excel.

42:44 needed to run analytics. I needed to be able to look at data and analyze data. And I, was, it was clunky to begin it, you know? And so I would go into YouTube and I would watch hours and hours of YouTube videos and download these templates and play with it just to learn it. And so what worked for me was when I had something that I needed to figure out. The first thing is I would break that down into small elements, right? Because a lot of times those, uh opportunities to grow, they could be daunting. You know, I'm like, how do I figure out how to build a website by myself? How do I figure out how to use this technology by myself? And I've never done it before. Just break it down into one simple, simple step. 90 days, one activity.

43:24 I'm doing that. Um, and then I just embrace it and I engulf myself in it. I'll go onto YouTube. I'll watch people that have done it before. mean, there's endless amount of free knowledge out there for us to learn from. All we need to do is go tap into it and we can matrix that right into ourselves. What would, I could sit here and just hammer this out for an hour, man. We talk, we'll solve the world's problems and talk about your business. But, but give me this as we wrap up here and, um you know, we'll make sure we tag Lumi and all the things that you're building. And as we, as we do content, but if I was sitting, you work from home, you have a little office in Chicago, but if I was sitting wherever you're working on any random day, let's call it your office.

44:08 What would surprise me and us that are listening? if you're sitting in my seat right here in this office. I was sitting there with you. Man. would surprise us? It, you know, when most people think of a home office, you know, they think of, you know, something pretty simple, a desk and a, and a computer and a chair, you know, maybe a few nice things, but this is the place that I spend most of my time in. So if you walked in here, I have a production in a studio. All on a standup desk with a treadmill underneath it, lights everywhere. This is a legit production and I've invested so much money into this space right here because I spend. The majority of my time here, the most surprising thing that you'd probably see in here would be my pen collection.

44:55 I love fountain pens. think pens is a great way for me to put my mind on a paper, especially with somebody that has ADD. It allows me to just brain dump. And so I love fountain pens. It gives me something really special to write with. The second thing is I sit on, I have a wooden stool. That's like a Walmart $10 stool that oh I sit on. Um, and I do that intentionally so that I can get up and walk because it's not comfortable. Um, so it gets me up and it gets me moving and it's literally just a $10 wooden stool. So that might surprise you. So that brings to the point as we wrap up here that obviously discipline must matter in your life. have to, mean, discipline is mastery of our daily activities is what builds momentum in our life.

45:39 Doesn't matter whether it's personal or whether it's business. And so it's daily actions over and over the repetition. the, that's what builds the momentum. And so, um, I have a very specific system that I use in the morning to get my day started and how I win the day and what I look at. And it's always, everything is a top three. I'm to do three things and that's it. If I can add more to the plate, that's it. But I start with just three and I have a system that I follow every single morning. How long do you give yourself the entire day to do those three things? the day it has to get done. So I have 24 hours in a day. Those three things that I write down are the three things that I'm going to get accomplished no matter what.

46:19 So if I have a, if I sit down and have lunch at noon and I go back and say, man, this morning really got away from me. didn't accomplish any of these or one of these that I'm going back in the afternoon to get it done, or I'm staying late to get it done. That's a non-negotiable for me. How's that benefited your wife? She don't allow any of them to carry over. No, I mean, unless there's something, you know, urgent, like I'm at the hospital and for whatever reason I have to get it done those days. Those are my top three. What does my wife think of it? My wife knows me. She, when we got together, um, I was with a multi-level marketing company, which is a lot of hoorah and, and, know, go chase the world, build this huge recruit, everybody and their mother.

47:06 That's where we started our relations back. So she knew me at the beginning and how I was wired. And there's times where I work really, really late and I have to be really intentional about the time with her. So there'll be a days that I'll work from seven 30 in the morning till one o'clock in the morning the next day. And I try not to do that often, but sometimes it just has to happen and that's okay. And she understands that. So I just have to make sure that I'm really intentional with my family when it comes to my kids and my wife to say, Hey, I'm going to pick, you know, for my week, there's going to be slots for all of them that we're going to fill. then I need to make sure that I hit those two. So I'm intentionally spending time with them as well.

47:46 All right. So you turned up one more rather than me put it on top, but what, since you were in multi-level marketing companies, was the honest truth from a guy who was inside within it. Are they all the same positive negative? Would you do it again? Do you advise people to do them? Give us the, give us the 62nd template. All right. In my experience, I believe in multi-level marketing companies. think there are some good opportunities out there and I think you can build something significant. I've seen people do it. I mean, I made $70,000 a year when I was a kid selling insurance mortgages and investments with a small team of 15 people and I had a great time.

48:30 And what I can tell you though is that my experience of multi-level marketing is it was probably one of the most significant growing points in my life because wrote my own check. My income was based on my effort. I had to go out and recruit people to come and join me and be a part of this crazy ass wacky thing and sell them this dream. So they would come be a part of my team. And then I had to go teach them how to be successful and do it themselves. So I think it was one of the most significant growing points in my life. And it taught me so much in business and leadership. Now, would I go back to doing that again versus what I'm doing now? I wouldn't. I like owning my own business and doing that, but I do think there are some opportunities, know, it's so a lot of business owners that would use it as a way to relieve them for more of a, uh, maybe taxes and things like that as an additional second income or a separate business.

49:24 So I think there's some benefits there too, but it was definitely a good significant time in my life as far as learning and growing as a, as a leader in a business owner. Awesome. Hey man, thanks for joining us. This 50 minutes was great. So what about, what about your podcast that, that you're, that you're leaning into and standing up? Yeah. Uh, so the podcast is life is what we make it. You can go to randyvlasik.com and take a look at everything there. If you're interested in logistics, it's all there too. Um, but life is what we make it as a movement that I'm creating and it's about people helping people. So it's, it's founders builders, parents, moms, dads, anybody who's trying to get started and it was building something significant. It's a place for people to go and get some of those real tactical ways of growing.

50:06 And so it's built around five pillars. Um, the five. Man, I'm really striking out today. He put me on the spot on the field. five pillars. Don't worry about just telling, just tell them to go to the website, go to Randy Vlasic.com, right? Just go there. Don't worry about it, If, listen, if, if on, if on the spot, um, somebody asked me at any random moment to tell me the important things that all of my businesses and, the ideas behind them and the profound, I'd be like, hold on, wait a minute. I, was on a mic the other day and I said something just from the crowd and the guys like, give me the mic. And I was like, oh shit, man. I don't know. I'm not, no, I don't want the mic in front of this room and stuff.

50:47 I'm not here for that. But then I, I took the mic and I said, what do want me to say? Right. So I just had to come to him like, I don't even know what I'm talking about, man. Like, what do want me to say? And he said this and I was like, okay, I can talk. So it's identity, vision, people, mastery and momentum are the five. And so all of those together is what we're using to build our businesses or build our personal lives. So that's the whole point. Awesome. Randy Vlasic, thank you for coming on, All right, appreciate it.