Reza Vee | How To Market A Startup

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And now your host, Joel Mark Harris.

Joel: Hello, and welcome to the publishing for profit podcast. This is your host, Joel, Mark Harris, and we are on episode number 29. Today we interview reservoir who is the founder and creator of obey, which is a smart business card. And he did something very interesting and unique to help promote his startup.

And that was, he did a hundred networking events in a hundred days. We talk about the Genesis of obey what he learned from doing a hundred events in a hundred days and what he’s up to today. So hopefully you enjoyed this episode. Hi, Reza, and welcome to the show. How are you today?

Reza: Great. Thanks for having me.

Joel: Welcome. So in Vancouver, you’re primarily known for your card reader, but also, I want to talk about you did a hundred events in hundred days. and so obviously you’ve talked a lot about that, too many different outlets, but I want to know what. Came out of that, that surprised you the most.

Reza: So, it was a great experience doing a hundred events on the days.

I don’t know if anybody has done it like that and going into it. I didn’t have a lot of expectation. I was just signing up myself for this journey of learning and, you know, meeting the community. And I was like, if I want to do business here, I better put myself out there. But I was blown away by the response.

God, I don’t know if you were at the last event, but that hundreds event, 250 people showed up. They paid to be part of this product launch and it meant a lot to me. And then I saw, I saw the power and the momentum, the compounding momentum of. Doing one thing consistently and keeping at it and putting yourself out there.

That was, that was the biggest lesson I’ve learned.

Joel: Awesome. So can you tell us a little bit about OBU and what it is I guess, to start off with and where did that idea come from and why did you just decide to pursue it?

Reza: So oboe is a smart business card. we pride ourselves to be the world’s smartest business card, because even within this new category, if you look at it, there are, there are a number of features that, that make us, make us stand out.

And the idea is you meet someone out in networking, or you meet someone out there and you want your contact information to directly into their phone. But there is no, no way to do that. Either. You have to give them a piece of paper and hope that they will do it and they will enter your contact information or you manually tell them my number is XYZ but, there wasn’t real. Solution out there. And the thing with these new categories is that usually people don’t even think of these alums as a problem because we’ve accepted. This is the way we do things. think about 15 years ago or 20 years ago, me telling you if we want to go to Italy, we have to call somebody local and go to their house.

And you’re like, no, you get a hotel like that, that the idea of going through some of these houses, it’s just so foreign. and it is what it is. We have to go get a hotel. So same, same way with business cards. Every business is like, well, I’m supposed to have a business card and nobody really took a step back to see, is this even working?

Why are we doing this? Yes, for 300 years. And I was blown away. When I read the history of business cards for 300 years, we’ve been using these pieces of papers. Is it the right tool today? Nobody asked us question. They just automatically start using it. And I was the type of person that I question everything I do.

So when I started my, a small freelancing marketing business, I wasn’t convinced to go print. Business cards. And everybody were telling me that you don’t have a business unless you have business cards to give people. And then I started challenging it. I was like, I don’t think this is the right tool. then I took a step back and.

I was like philosophically. I was trying to think what else as a business car, what is the objective? And I thought the underlying objective has flaws. That business card is not doing what it’s supposed to do. Do the basic one is my contact information being saved somewhere safe with you. So when the time comes, you have a way to reach out to me and the business cards fail on that. Nine out of 10 are thrown away. And the other one ends up in business card graveyard. I call it it’s the drawer they collect dust. Right. so when the time comes, it’s easier for you to Google than to reach out to the person that you met, a while ago. So all of a sudden these inefficient interactions that we go out there in the world that we do becomes not fruitful, right?

They, they, they become a waste. and I’m a firm believer that the power of in person. Combined with the online it’s, it’s the powerhouse. So if, if you have one person reaching out on LinkedIn and trying to connect with a bunch of people and the other person going networking, and just doing the offline and giving traditional business cards, usually the online one is at scale.

I think the power is when the person does both at scale and over realize in that gap of offline and online world.

Joel: Yeah, I definitely agree with you because I would always take a backpack. Yeah. They take my backpack everywhere I go. And what would end up happening is like, you know, I cleaned out my backpack probably once a month and, you know, dump it out.

And what would always come out would be like probably like 10 or 15 business cards. That would just, as you said, that, you know, it was the graveyard of business cards for share. So. what is, what is the meaning of over the name and why did you decide? Cause I don’t know what that means.

Reza: So I, I w I wish there was a, there was a very interesting story behind it, too, to go with it and, and I have to come up.

I have to see how I can spin it later, but for now, I’m transparent. I chose the name of why. Let go. I was looking at, names that were easy to remember, easy, short enough to remember and easy to say, URLs and, you know, the, all the hashtags, everything being available. So it’s really difficult and quickly I’ve learned that anything with a meaning is out the gate, either their hashtags are taken or, or you can come feed on SEO.

So I started looking at words that don’t have a meaning, but have a good sound to them. And they’re short and 10 days I was at it. This is two and a half years ago. I landed on this URL that was on in an auction for a few hundred bucks. And I stole it. I put it aside. I was like, this is a good name. Even if I do a marketing agency, if I do a start up, whatever, even if an application.

Whatever I do. I can attach this name. What I like about meaningless names is that you give it a meaning. So Google didn’t have the proper meaning until it became a verb. And it’s part of our language now. and my idea was like, instead of having the business card.com. Making it, do you have an overview?

I want to share my oval with you. I want it to go that direction.

Joel: Yeah, I think that’s, that’s great. another one that comes to mind is Lou 11. No one knows what that means. Right. And now it’s a brand that everybody knows. So,

Reza: and it has a meaning.

Joel: Yes. Yeah. so you, I grew up in an entrepreneur family. Can you describe what that was like? And was there pressure for you to, to do something entrepreneurial.

Reza: I grew up, a third-generation entrepreneur, because my grandfather, even though I never met him in person the same year I was born, he passed away. He started from absolutely nothing. He was in the Bazaar in Iran.

you know, starting as a help boy, he was 14 year old helping other stores open and then slowly he found, ways to make money and have a saving. And then he started his own business of selling machinery to other people to start a factory in plastic. And that was the rise of plastic during seventies.

And, he made a fortune in that and he was the pioneer of the plastic industry in Iran. at the time of his death, 27 years ago, he had multiple factories, multiple. Businesses. And that was passed on to my father and my uncles. growing up, me being, the youngest grandkids I grew up with, you know, discussions around cost.

Customer acquisition, efficiency, labour, economy, term economic terms, recessions, all these discussions were at the dinner table from, with my dad and uncles, my dad and my brother. They were all talking about business. so I, I, I naturally gravitated towards it. I remember I was seven years old.

I wanted to be like my dad, I drew my first business card. I give it to, people in the family and I started selling posters. I realized my friends in grade three or two they were had posters of cars in their homes and then I realized I could go down the street and get a print shop to blow up these magazine posts, magazine images, to poster size.

And I took it to school with a binder. Yeah. I clearly remember how. Delicate. I was touching these posters and I made it look, you know, SU super valuable and presenting it to my classmates at, yes, this is $3. This one is a $4 50 cents. This was the rare one. So I was selling posters at that age. And I remember vividly my mom was embarrassed in front of other moms, but my dad was encouraging was like, yeah, I keep it.

Keep at it and then I was selling other, I don’t know, back then. See, these were things in Iran. It’s not really licensed like here. And then I came to Canada and I remember the first dilemma I had was that these kids at school don’t want posters and they didn’t want CDs. What am I going to do? And then I found a hobby in photography, and I started doing photography for equestrians and competitions there, and I was selling videos and photos there.

So it was a thing, within me and I never, saw myself really, going the traditional route of getting a job. And that was. That never even came to my mind. I was like, as a seven-year-old, I could make money. I can figure it out as a 27-year-old. but the pressure was mainly with the family business.

That was, that’s a different dilemma that not that many people experience. And, I don’t know how many of your audience will relate, but when you have a family business, that’s done something, especially when it’s a third generation. my dad was the person that. Pursued the education went back, helped his dad and, and God in that, you know, down the route of just joining family business, no question asked and he was expecting the same for me.

And it got me in this dilemma of really tough position. Do I stay here? Do I do what I want to do? Do I go back? And, and it, it put me in this, in this situation, Four or five years that I wasn’t starting anything here because I was like, what’s the point if I’m going to leave behind. And I wasn’t really fully committing to me move over there because my life is here.

I was 14. When I came here all my life, all my friends, I find that, you know, Vancouver is home. When I go to Iran, it’s a little bit. foreign to me and I eventually took the, what do you call it? Buy it in the bullet. And I went there for, for three months and I went there a few occasions, but that three months was, was my final one.

Let’s make a decision. Don’t be indecisive towards the end, even though I made a new packaging for our production, we, we, we had, food manufacturing. I needed a new packaging. I was selling a lot over there, but towards the end, I was like, I’m going to regret this. I’m going to go back and do something on my own.

And now I’m here.

Joel: What did you learn from your entrepreneurial family that you can translate to OVOU? Because I mean obviously they’re quite different industries, but I’m sure that there is some learning that you, you had that you use today.

Reza: So, that’s a great question. And I’ve thought about it a lot. What I grew up with, which, you know, again, back to when I, when a child learns a language is different than when a 20-year-old tries to learn the language it’s. So, you know, it’s second nature to the person that as a, as a kid, they learn it and to me, business was like that. So I feel like people can learn, but learning from a young age, it’s, it’s just a different story.

I got the fundamentals, right? I think. from the family, from the get-go, because I see a lot of people in startup that they are so easily distracted by how much money on other startup is raising, getting headlines. And, you know, it’s OK to, to, waste a lot of money and have lots of losses. It’s okay.

We are trying to grow and become the next phase. this. Toxic mentality works one in a million, but I rather have that, you know, sturdy, fundamental, right. And when it comes to fundamentals of business, the main things. Haven’t changed for thousands of years, the main things that you are, you’re solving a problem.

You’re adding value. You’re not numbers need to make sense, your costs, your expenses, your revenue, your, your team need to be excited about it. You have to have a healthy culture and a healthy organization that never changes. The tech changes and the industry changes but that fundamental is interesting to me because I get into talking to a lot of people with startup and then I get pulled both sides.

I’m like, yes, the tech, I like that. but at the same time, I’m going to stick with my fundamentals. So that has helped. if I didn’t have that, I would have jumped in a freemium plan, raise money right off the bat, but try to go bigger, go home, you know, make it a huge. Business, and then it may collapse on its own.

I chose this more, steady route of let’s figure out the product let’s do trial and error. We’re not in a hurry. When the right marketing channel shows itself, then I’m happy to pour gasoline on it and get investors involved and, and grow it. But until then, I’m, I’m not really big fan of selling your company too short.

And that’s what I’ve seen in startups.

Joel: I think that’s good advice, especially even like for, or some big startups we’ll call it. who are well known. I think. That you know, that’s definitely good advice, for sure. I want to go back to your hundredth events, which was at Vancouver library where you talked a lot about no need for connection, and obviously like we could not like back then we could not predict it.

What would happen with COVID and I’m not, you know, basically going from a bunch of networking events to everything online. You know, and so how do people stay? They connected, through technology when they’re not able to meet in person.

Reza: Yeah. So it’s funny. I had this thought of doing hundred events, a hundred days and night I, towards the end, I was like, be cool to do it in different cities and continue doing it because when something works, you double down on it, you don’t, you don’t pull back.

And then everything with covert happens. And initially, I had the thought of how about doing a hundred virtual events and people were asking me like, what do we do now? I quickly disliked some of them, some of the ways people do online networking. I’m sure it’s got a lot better now, but at the base, getting your, just someone sitting in front of a computer for an hour and you weren’t engaged, you weren’t participating.

And I was like, this call could have been on a YouTube channel and I would have watch anytime I wanted. and I didn’t like how it was one way it’s, it’s a one way, Content coming, coming in so often and more of a one-on-one more of it. Smaller group of zoom calls. And I quickly resorted into the podcast and, and content, to, to kind of replace that connection component because when you put out content, or in my case, I, I started a podcast with my friend.

It allows for us to invite guests and have a really cool conversation for 40 minutes, regardless of how many people are watching, because that conversation otherwise would have been over 10 minutes, coffee or something and replaced it with a much in enriched way of connecting so we leveraged the podcast format a lot.

And, and day one, we said, instead of focusing on thousands of millions of views that will come, but we really use it as a networking tool for us to have cool conversations around topics that we want to talk. And around the guests we want to have. So that’s been one way I’ve done it. The other way is when you put content out in the wild and then social media, it grabs some of this attention.

They DM you or they contact you. That’s another organic way of, of, other than that, I’m, I’m not a big fan of big zoom calls. Just the fact that, you know, it’s one way it’s not engaged, the breakout rooms, help. some people have mastered the way to keep the audience engaged, but otherwise, sometimes you’re like, well, I could have opted for YouTube or something like that.

Joel: you mentioned content, like to talk a little bit about how you view content, content marketing. Because I mean, from my perspective, you know, I didn’t know much about you and then you were everywhere. So he did something really amazing. You. I w I want to say you mastered, you know, the art of content marketing.

So can you think, can you tell us a little bit how you think about content marketing and how to leverage that?

Reza: So, of course there are a lot of, a lot of talks about, you know, the tricks and tips and do this. And then blow up your content. But before doing any of that, you take a step back. content is just a way to scale.

A lot of people don’t know what the heck are they scaling. What is that you want to get exposure on? And then the exposure we’ll we can talk about how to do that. For me, I wanted to create a story.  And I understood that I, the way media works and the way, the media outlets and blogs and all these, formats work, they’re not doing you a favour. Either you have to have a story for them that then they chase you after. Right? So from the get-go, I wanted to have a story. And the story of a guy who went a hundred events a hundred days, seemed for the product I have for the publicity I wanted.

it, it rightly aligned with my product. Somebody else might have a different story. Once you have a story to tell, then you have to actually deliver it. The story, I couldn’t have been at home saying I’m going to a hundred events, a hundred days and put videos. I had to actually go out there. I have to actually show up.

So the story was built. So a lot of foundation went into it before even putting a piece of content. You can think about it. I had a story. I thought about it. I had a plan to do it. I was actually doing it and executing on it only. Then I realized if I put content. Online, it will blow up a lot bigger than, than what could have been.

So if I did all of that without actually putting any pieces of content, it would, it would have been forgotten only the people at the event who would have known about it. but once I put it on LinkedIn con continuously, people got familiar, this is the guy, this is the story I’m following his journey.

And believe it or not, the first 60, I didn’t have a lot of people, you know, Skimming through it and passing by, but then after 60 times on your LinkedIn, you’re like regularly seeing this guy. You want to, you want to follow the journey? What happened next? I don’t want to miss out. So, that was the execution.

And then when it comes to other types of contents, what is the underlying story? What are you doing? Thinking about it, about a traveller that posts on Instagram and not travelling. They need to first travel, get to the place, then they can post on Instagram. So for the, let’s say a realtor in town or a mortgage broker, or a local business, you need to first have a story that, brings value to the audience before you put it, on the social media, you can just put nothing on social media.

Joel: You brand yourself as Reza Vee, which of course brings to mind. the famous Gary Vee. Is that more of a happy accident or do you think of a Gary Vee as a mentor of sorts?

Reza: I love Gary Vee. I love everything he says, and I followed him, on and off, honestly, because it’s funny you get into the rabbit hole of Gary Vee.

And then at some point, you’re like, okay, let me go execute. I don’t want to listen more because otherwise it’s not going to happen. And he says it too. He sometimes says, you know, stop watching my videos and go do something. So I’ve had that 300 or times that I go into one month of yabby or one week of Gavi.

And then all of a sudden, like enough, I’m going to watch something else, or, or go actually do some of these stuff. But, what I was saying. Yeah, the, the V part, I thought hard on finding something else because I was, I don’t want to, I don’t want to be mistake, not mistake am. I don’t want to be a look that somebody who’s following his footsteps.

I want to be myself and have my own identity. There was no other way to shorten my, my, last name. It’s really long and it’s hard to pronounce. and then he has a long, last name, Vaynerchuk. I think his is easier to pronounce, but his starts with ‘V’ mine starts with ‘V’ so I just adopted that.

Joel: So do you look to him as a mentor of sorts or like in terms of like, cause you know, you’re both into social media, you post a lot, or is that something that you try and steer away from?

Reza: You can’t have enough mentors? honestly, so, definitely, he’s a great guy to follow. I do get advice on his content and I hope one day I can, you know, our paths cross and, and I can meet him in person, but I don’t want to, I don’t like the idea of putting one, Particular person on a pedestal.

I think there’s a lot, you can learn from a lot of people, from him, his social media strength is, is uncanny and you can learn a lot from him, but there are so many people that you can combine stuff. And honestly, I think the best way to, get mentors and get advice is. He can choose what resonates and what works for you.

You don’t have to mold into becoming the other person. You can be 5% Gabby and 2% this and 20%, my family, and 10% my dad, and, you know, you, you pick and choose and then put it together. Then all of a sudden you are a whole new person with whole new perspective. yeah, definitely in the library of mentors, he’s definitely up there.

I really liked, what he’s doing.

Joel: What advice would you give to people who want to start their own startup?

Reza: it’s actually, it’s, it’s a very, challenging and, and, sailing experience. So if, if you are up for it, definitely jump in, few things. I want to make sure people, understand before doing something like that.

What a startup or your own business doesn’t matter. Is that understanding the being self aware enough, that understanding why you’re doing it, if it’s for the clam and for, you know, it’s cool right now, that’s not the reason to be in it. And COVID, I think is wiping out a lot of the fake entrepreneurs that wanted to be an entrepreneur, but they weren’t really there for it.

When I, when I hear it. A friend of mine saying, Oh, you’re working, you know, seven o’clock or over we can, and feeling sorry for me, that I’m working late hours. They, they just don’t get it because, it’s, it’s not that I can’t hang out with them. It’s I choose not to hang out with them shoes, you know, my, my baby, my business over, over something else.

So if you don’t have that, then I’m thinking about it 2014 and enjoying it. I truly enjoy doing, working on my business over something else to the fact, to the point that. My good friends are like resume. You’ve got to force yourself out of the house at least once a week. It’s not healthy. And I’m like, yeah, you’re right.

I mean, you knew once or twice a week, push back yourself out and do something. Otherwise, I’m enjoying it so much. I’m in it. And, and every challenge is exciting because you want to figure it out. And I don’t take no for an answer. And every time there’s a setback, I’m twice as much motivated to go forward.

So if you have those drives. All kudos to you and jump on it. But if you are here to have more time and freedom and go travelling, this is, this is not what the media shows it.

Joel: Yeah. I definitely think that is a false promise that yeah, you’re going to have all this time in the world and all this money and things are just going to fall in your lap.

Reza: To your point at what I learned from growing up in a family of entrepreneurs was exactly that because you get to see what the real. Deal is so the media doesn’t fool you because I saw my dad how he worked late nights. I saw my dad coming home late. I saw my dad talking about these things being stressed out.

and, and I was lucky being in it family that my mom was supporting the whole thing, telling me Reza, your dad is, you know, tired and let him rest first, before you jump on, ask questions or say something. So I totally understood the dynamic and I didn’t have a different picture going into it. And I had the idea of you’ve got to work hard long hours, you know, this is the reward.

And I was lucky I was in a family that really valued, creating, Not only economical value but having, their workers lights on, you know, my dad always stressed out about, there were times that my dad didn’t choose to do spend something, spend money on something. Or we even had times that we sold something of our own because my dad was like, Raza, you don’t understand workers.

They’re having tough times. I want to keep the lights on my, on my, it’s my responsibility. So I quickly understood that fundamental and, going into it. I didn’t have a different picture in my mind, but unfortunately, today, a lot of people they get fooled with the media and then they think, entrepreneurship it’s, it’s completely something else.

Joel: Yeah, I’m glad you brought that up because I think the responsibility of entrepreneurs to their workers is super important and it’s something you’re right. That no one really talks about, but it’s, you know, when you hire somebody you take on not just the person, but you take on their wellbeing, you take on their family’s wellbeing.

Yeah, you are like, I feel like you’re responsible for their welfare, right. So I don’t know if you want to comment more about that.

Reza: I personally haven’t had the experience of hiring anyone full time. but even the part time people I worked with, I wanted to make sure they love the idea that they’re excited about it.

and I wanted to give them it. You know, good. A promise that I could hold up to. and I, I PR I take it very seriously. whether it is somebody as advisor or, or mentor or investor or employee, whatever it is when they get involved in my business, all of a sudden it’s my responsibility. and, and neat.

Going, it just makes things, it’s. I compare it to driving by yourself in a highway, alone with no other cars. And if you go 200 kilometer, I hit the, hit the curb. You just kill yourself. When you have passengers and you have other road users also, you’re putting everybody in danger. So when I have a passenger, I’m that much more, you know, sensitive about what I do, because it directly affects.

Joel: I want to talk about marketing a little bit. So four companies that don’t have a big budget who, are looking at, you know, maybe the content marketing game, how should they market themselves? And maybe it goes back to what you’re telling about the story, about finding their story, but how do they, how do you look for that story within that company?

Reza: So, recently I, I talked to Alison from your BNI chapter and, she was on our podcast talking about how marketing is understanding and you know, it’s not about the advertising, not working. It’s about the underlying message, not being the right message. And I cannot agree more on that. Yeah, I think it’s super important to understand your audience and your target market.

Understand what they’re going through. A lot of small business owners, they’re copying other players in social media, and I think that’s the wrong approach. as soon as you say, why are you doing this on your social media? They point at another profile and they’re copying that. I don’t think that’s a smart move and it takes away from who you are and the authentic, Page or profile you could be.

And also you’re undermining, you know, your ability to, to communicate with your, audience when you understand what your audience is going through. You don’t have to wait for it. Another company to send an email that we are monitoring COVID and will inform you. For you to copy paste that sentence, you’ll be proud.

You’re not chasing other people’s strategy. And, Colvin was a great example because it was a up and down and lots of things happening and any moment, things are changing. So there is no. you know, benchmark to follow, there is nothing you can and go Google, how to pivot during COVID, there’s nothing, nothing you can copy-paste from a intranet that the thing is your instinct and your understanding of your customer.

If you understand what they’re going through, what it means for them to have you as a solution or service or product. Then you truly understand what to do as an example, I have a virtual background, not because, I don’t like to show my background, but I I’m using it because of always new feature and I’m promoting it quickly.

We realize people are on zoom. They’re not using physical business cards. but zoom has downsides of, you know, doing a sharing email in the chat box. It just gets lost. So we put a QR code in the background and people are scanning it. We didn’t wait for another person to do it. And then we’ve got followed.

We understood what our, what our audience are going through, and then we acted on it.

Joel: Awesome. So you pivoted not maybe pivot as well, the wrong word, but the transition from your a hundred events in a hundred days to a hundred podcasts in a hundred days. Can you tell us a little bit about that then?

Reza: In those events, I met so many wonderful people like yourself, and one of them was a Thai chef there and I believe 20th event in. I met this guy and I met him a few times and we go for coffee and he had the idea of, you know, let’s do a podcast together. his, startup is about connections and my company is about connection. So we thought about it. And then, after the hundredth event was done, we sat down and put together the show.

I, we couldn’t. Land on a name we liked. And then I said, I’m doing these hundreds. Siri is, let’s do more of it. I’m planning to do certainly more, more hundred series. And I liked the number a hundred. It puts a timeline and a journey to follow because you, your logic clear brain goes number wise. so we thought a hundred days of podcasts is a lot and we can commit to that.

So yeah, a hundred weeks. it’s all about the relationships and entrepreneur needs to cultivate. So from your father, son, relationship from your family, all the way through your business relation, it doesn’t matter wherever. There are two human beings and there is a bonding connection relationship happening, right.

When to dig deeper, how is it formed? How can you, how can you make it better? And we talked about different topics. We had the author of social media, social capital, 2.0, talking about the structure of social capital and how it’s formed all the way to, you know, marketing customer and whatnot.

Joel: And then, so have you thought about what’s next after the,

Reza: podcasts.

no, because I’ve got time to think about it, it’s been only six months. We’ve got on a weeks, turns to be close to two years. So we’ve got quite a bit of time there. I don’t know, but in the meantime, I want to do something thing myself and the Honda serious either. Logging or short episodes or minute clips, but something on LinkedIn again, because I feel like I left a lot on the table there.

I need to get back to the momentum I had. And as soon as COVID is gone and probably next summer, I want to do more events, indifferent, different cities. Awesome.

Joel: So this is a question I ask all my, my guests and it is what is your favorite book? And it could be maybe one that you, you enjoy reading. Maybe you want, you enjoy gifting, but what is maybe some, some book that has inspired you or changed your outlook in some way?

Reza: So, I’m personally not a huge book reader. The way I consume content is video. I love that format. and I, I, I think we, we put books on a pedestal, but, videos are equally as important. Yeah. and it just depends on what video you pursue, but on, on videos, I guess, into rabbit holes of a lot of different, different things on that nature.

Yeah. But on books. Good to great. Is one of my favourites, what’s the famous, Rich Dad Poor dad is, is another one. I’m bad with titles or authors.

Joel:  Is it Think and Grow Rich?

Reza: rich? Yes. those are easy reads and the it’s great for gifting, but right now I have a book here.

Right now, this is the topic I am fascinated with social capital. It’s a bit heavy. I don’t recommend it to just about anyone, but because it’s not really about, business is more about, you know, it talks about capita. it talks about social connections as a Capitol, similar to. You have money. That’s a form of asset.

You have land, you have cars or machinery. You have connections, those are equally valuable and you can put a dollar value to it. It comes down to who are in your network, how close are you to them? what resources they have and you can access to those resources. So if my let’s say, uncle has. Access to a fund and I call my uncle and I can ask for a favor or whatever, connect me to that fund.

so I can raise money or get some grants or whatever it is. You have social capital that gives you, Economical value. and it talks about how, immigrants or because of, long history of different race and whatnot, social capital, is, is not fairly distributed it’s because, you know, you were born, you went to this high school and then it turns out.

A friend, is a, you know, powerful person in business 20 years later. And you have connections like that. It didn’t happen by coincidence it’s because you were in the upper class, you went to that private school and you had that friend and you grew up with, connections of people who had access to those type of networks.

it talks about all of those, And I really liked that topic right now.

Joel: Yeah. I’m a big proponent of what is it? You’re, I’m trying to remember what your you’re like as rich or as successful as your five or six closest friends. What is, do you remember

Reza: that? I know that, I know there’s just so I don’t know the exact phrase, but a hundred percent.

Joel: Yeah. I, I definitely agree with that as well. So you talked about videos. What videos should we be watching them?

Reza: Gary Vee is definitely one of them. I, and it’s funny, you, you find your person on, on YouTube, that the person that clicks in your industry and is talking about the latest things and the moment they try to sell you.

It it, the value it’s the relationship you have? So I like Gary V because he’s not he’s are selling courses or anything like that. Alison J brand and other person for watch. she’s doing more videos nowadays. I enjoy her titbits on marketing. so it doesn’t have to be a, you know, a highly popular with millions of followers.

You just have to find who’s the person you want to watch.

Joel: yes. And she just won award for her rebranding video. Just to give her a bit of a plug there.

Reza: Amazing stuff.

Joel: Yeah. So Reza, thank you so much for spending the time with me, for people who want to reach out to you, where can they find you?

Reza: Thank you for having me best ways.

My digital business card over.me/raza. That’s my, all my information there.

Joel: Awesome. So yeah, just scan that and you get to go. Thank you so much, Rosa.

Reza: Thank you.