Meta Ray-Ban AI Gen 2 and the Future of Everyday Video for Entrepreneurs on Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook

Guest Jason Falcone joins host Kevin Shook for a grounded conversation on technology, business, marketing, and real estate. Both are entrepreneurs in the marketing world. Jason handles real estate marketing for his own brand and listings, while Kevin provides marketing services across many industries. Because of that, both genuinely love making videos and thinking about better ways to tell stories.

The episode opens with smart glasses and how Ray-Ban Meta AI Gen 2 can become a real workflow when set up correctly. They break down the small adjustments that matter, shooting in 3K at 30 fps, keeping clips to one minute, and using simple voice prompts to capture moments without breaking eye contact. What starts as a novelty quickly becomes a practical tool for better storytelling, faster edits, and more authentic reactions.

From there, the conversation zooms out to the infrastructure behind AI. Power, water, cooling, and land all determine where data centers are built and why parts of the Midwest are heating up. Kevin and Jason talk about investing in the picks and shovels of AI, the jobs that follow, and why the smartest opportunities are often behind the scenes instead of tied to flashy brand names. They also cut through the noise by comparing major AI models and explaining why strong prompts, clear processes, and human judgment matter more than hype.

Real estate threads through the discussion with practical, local clarity. Mortgage rates tend to follow the ten year treasury, inventory still drives pricing, and the right loan depends on time horizon and monthly comfort. Jason breaks down credit ranges lenders consider, first time buyer programs, and why rising taxes and insurance continue to pressure rents.

The episode closes with a reminder that brand is behavior. As more content begins to sound automated and generic, energy, consistency, and service are what set people apart. A simple story about a small Ohio garage that answered the phone on a Saturday, fixed the issue, and followed up afterward becomes a clear example of what good business still looks like.

If you care about doing business the right way, adapting as technology reshapes workflows, and creating content that actually connects, this conversation will resonate. Be sure to check out the episode titles below for key themes and moments pulled directly from the discussion. Subscribe, share, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Setting Up Ray-Ban Meta Glasses

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Life inscripted with Kevin Shep.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Ray Ban meta AI J2.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

They're pretty cool. I'm still getting used to it and everything, but like I dig it. I'm trying to do a Facebook story where I can actually put your name on there. I like it though.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Like I'm I'm getting with it, so have you gone in yet and did uh switch it over to beta so it's like in 3K for a minute?

SPEAKER_03 0:28

No. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

In the app.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Where do I do that at?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

In the meta app.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

In the app?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Alright, let's see. Um, so meta app. I gotta get a new iPhone. I've got an iPhone 13. Are we recording? We are. Okay, so I have an iPhone 13. Um let's see, this is hand-me-down number two, and I am in the process of maybe getting a new one, but I don't know. I don't um it'll be a hand-me-down again because I just not get another one.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Video settings, I can see it's in full HD 1080.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Five minutes. So it like it would record like you without stopping, it can go for five minutes, or you can stop it, but if we go to one minute, how long are you doing yours? 3k at 30 frames per second.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

I mean, I'm only gonna probably do a minute recording anyway at a time.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

So I l this is exactly 3k, 30 frames per second. Uh one minute video length. So now if you tell it to start recording, it'll be 3k, 30 frames for one minute. Or unless you stop it before then. But you're right, because what's gonna happen if you left it like in three minutes and five minutes, you're going to bog down your story.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

So where it's at now is doing one minute.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Three K for one minute.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

That's what I need. Okay. So now I could go and hit it.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Just do it, hit it now, hold it.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Okay, so now I'm recording. And then the lights on.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

What time is it? There's a light. Hey Meta start recording. Hey Meta, start recording.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

I see your light. So we could we could live we could walk down the street in the dark and light up like uh Christmas lights and just be like, look at these two goopers with this uh cop cars down there.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

I don't know. So we'll see, make it we'll see if it's a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

You can add and then just cut the different clips up and then put it into video segments and say, hey, this is what I did. Check this out, look at this, and then

Wearables, Beta Modes, And Hands-Free Capture

SPEAKER_03 2:30

that stops it.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

So but if it only does it, or you can tell it to stop it, or you can just let it go for the minute. That's what I was wanting to do, to see it and make sure it's on the menu.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Okay, well, we'll do it again. I heard a little noise.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Now you've got so you don't wear scripts, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:45

You don't know these are just regular, I'm just normal.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Do they feel awkward or anything?

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Uh I don't wear glasses a lot. Sunglasses are kind of a weird thing for me too, but like I'm just been getting used to it. So um I thought about getting the sunglass ones, but then there was ones that were that had a green tint to them, but I don't know. And then I'm looking at um, you know, if Chandra gets some, maybe we'll just like sit in different rooms and send videos of like, hey, what are you doing? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Well, it's just fun because the whole I feel like the whole point in getting into the all the wearable tech is to get away from having to have this out all the time. Yeah. And then pretty soon it'll be like we won't even need this.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

You know, it's wild. So um obviously I worked in the cell phone industry for years. I've talked about that a lot. And um, in probably 2010, um, they really started to talk about wearables, specifically a ring that would go on your thumb and your finger. Oh, yeah. And there's a website in Japan, it was called like Dokomo, and they would have us go, it stopped. So anyway, um, you would go on there and they would it it was in you know Japanese writing on the actual website, so you couldn't decipher it back then, but unless you knew how to read Japanese writing, but um, it would have uh all these different things that they were studying testing with wearables. One of them was glasses, they had watches, but they had the biggest thing was you had the ring and you could just pinch it together, and that's how you would make calls, you would communicate with it, and then they even had stuff that was like the beginnings of hologram stuff. Oh, really? But it was very like cartoon, you know. It wasn't so just yeah, it's really interesting to see where all this is going with beyond just the phone.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Oh, yeah, to have just the normal we're not gonna need by literally if these had 4G, would be I mean there were smart shirts and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

They were selling it, um, I think Dick Sporting Goods a few years ago. Oh, really? And there was something that because it had something that would measure your um your heartbeat. Oh, basic stuff like that. But yeah, as you get more and more, it'll be um smart clothing, all that'll be connected, which is weird because you've got to use different things to be able to power that, right? So you've got to be able to have electricity and water and you know how those resources work. It's like people are thinking about, well, where do I invest? Do I get into you know investing in in AI and tech companies? And I'm not here to tell you how to invest one way or another, but like if you think about it from a big picture perspective, you've got to have something to be able to fuel and funnel all of these uh testing centers, all of these processing centers for the data, you know. So you've got to have electricity. So how are you gonna get that? You've got to cool those um all the computers and everything goes in. So um there's a lot of opportunity there for people who are looking if you're trying to get bored and want to research. Hey man, what do I what am I gonna do this Christmas? I'm gonna look and see about electric companies and water companies on how they uh will grow with AI.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Well, that that's interesting. You're yeah, because so the other day I was up in Huntington, Indiana. Yeah, um, and filming, photographing, and making tours of uh apartment building. And it's the same company that's doing all like this is going to be an apartment probably the end of next year, where we're sitting right here. Really? I should rent it and make it my own personal, like it might be a bedroom, but I could still make it a podcast studio. But uh anyway, so I'm up there and um I go back to put all my equipment back in one of these one apartments. I staged everything, uh, all of my equipment. So I'm done for the day. So I go back in there, and there was a lady in there, and um, she turned turned around and I knew she didn't work there, and I'm like, uh, are you renting this one? Yeah, you know, me, I'll just kind of randomly say stuff. And uh she said, I already did. I'm like, so I'm trespassing. Welcome home. And we get to talking because she tells me she's just randomly moving to this new town. She wants a new town. And uh that's fascinating. Well, she's a steel worker for the carpentry union in the state. Okay, and right now they're building that new hospital, the IU, up on 69.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

So they're working on that project, but then um they might become more involved with the data centers. Oh, yeah. So we were talking data centers, and she told me that Indiana is one of the hot spots because we have the most

The Rise Of Wearable Tech And Haptics

SPEAKER_01 7:00

lithium. Huh. So I didn't I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't look all of that.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Well, I so one of the many things you know, you'll scroll through um St. Joseph County, where um South Bend, Ishawaka, you know, that what they call it, Michiana, that area up there. Um, there's either they're either going through the voting process or talking about putting an Amazon um data center up there, not an Amazon processing center, but an actual, I got a message that just came through. Somebody's talking about the Steeler game right now. It's funny. What if how are how are they doing?

SPEAKER_01 7:31

So you didn't have to look at your phone. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

That's what three to three. That's pretty cool. Three to three. Three to three, hey.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

And then how would you how would you well, so replying back to text messages with these right now are kind of a little weird because she wants to send them. And I say she because mine's a female voice. I leave it on female voice. Mine's John Cena.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

So I actually because it asked me, it said, What do you want to do? And I'm like, Well, I mean, I'd be John Cena.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

You can't see me. You're gonna wake up tomorrow with Down syndrome, but um so anyway, um, so but she's really good sending it back through Messenger, and then one time Oh, or what's happening? Yeah. Uh so the workaround is just say just say, Hey, Siri. As soon as you trigger your phone, she talks to there, and then Siri's a lot better with the recognition of sending a text because you'll see you'll she'll ask you the the meta AI, which is the Llama model, the large language model. Um, it'll it'll keep asking you to confirm is this on your phone or through Messenger or in all this stuff.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

It's uh maybe as they update software and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

When I got a text the other day, I I just said reply to that person. And then I think she did.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Well, it's well now I'll look and see. It's actually somebody else. It's another Steeler fan that was um So Steelers your team? Yeah, they've been my entire life. I I became a Steeler fan um once I learned football from my dad, so that's all I knew. And then they were terrible when I first became a fan, then we're good, then we're terrible, and then been pretty good and going through a rut now. But anyway, um, no, in the South Bend area, they're talking about like a um uh it was AWS, I think is what it is. But um so building this gigantic um data center for AI and the amount of land they're going to have, how big it's going to be, the amount of water, I guess, that they have to be able to get from somewhere. Um, and then of course it's an open flat area with a lot of wind. So I'm I'm presuming they're going to probably get wind power to be able to power some of that that goes through. But um this area, you know, in particular, I'd say northern Indiana or even through here is um it could be with all the open space, you know, it could be a hot spot for the future of that for be able to put those data centers if people are open to doing it.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yeah, well, and that's the thing too, is there's so many misconceptions on both sides. And yeah, it's a tough one. Um they argue it and they're they're mad that it's taking jobs, and that's not necessarily always going to be the case. Um, you will see a shift in jobs, but I think because now you're able to take AI technology and infuse it in every process that you may do as an industry, you're now going to see that a lot of things are being done a whole lot quicker, a whole lot cheaper. Uh education will go the the cost of education will go down now because uh all of this material can be delivered like that. Um, so I think you'll see people skilling up, getting different jobs. I think there'll be a lot of positions created. So, like the data centers, there'll be position, there'll be people in there. I think so too.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

I mean, I you know, I look at it optimistically and and I'm just a dude. So I'm not, you know, I'm not I'm not an engineer. I don't have uh I don't have a college degree, I don't have any of these things that would be like you're an expert or whatever. I just I find it interesting. I worked in technology um pretty much, you know, once from the time I was a young adult up and you know, I still do now, obviously, with things that I do for my profession, but it's um there's so many different things that are that are happening, and at the pace it's happening, you've got to keep up with some of it. Um and and try to block out a lot of the noise. I think we're you know, is there scary stuff? Yeah. I mean, you know, you see stories about a lady over in Japan or whatever that she married an AI. Like she literally, like, you know, it's like, come on, man. I mean, where do we tie in mental health with some of that or whatever? Again, not Mike.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

I've seen uh stories about people marrying inanimate

Data Centers, Power, And Midwest Opportunity

SPEAKER_01 11:30

objects. Yeah. What was that? A carnival ride, a broken down carnival rod. Some guy married it's wild. I'm like, what? But anything you can do to get clicks, likes, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

I mean, so there's people out there that'll do those things and the social media companies will monetize it. So um kudos to them, I guess, for taking advantage of it. But they're also there's people that'll be like, oh my gosh, this is you know, whatever. I mean, I'm not sitting here embedding a chip inside of me or something like that, which some people sit back and you know, like, nah, it's not but I get this because there's like, you know, what Neuralink. Yeah, you know, and so there's things that are happening now that are helping people that are paralyzed. I just got another text message.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

What'd that one say?

SPEAKER_03 12:10

So my friend who's a Cleveland Browns fancy.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Reading them, yeah, it's reading them to me. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

He went to the Cleveland Browns Buffalo Bills game. It was um, he went with his dad and his son, and he sent me a picture of it there. So anyway, but yeah, it's like you know, you've got all these different things with you know the wearable technology. What are you using? It's a tool. Right. Can I take this thing off all day and have a conversation with you and nothing has changed? I can't, but I'm not gonna see a whole lot. But well, you but you're using it for dual purpose. I know it's not, you know, the difference that some people, and maybe not everybody can take the the grasp the idea of, hey man, you know, separate the technology from your personal life, have a conversation, and maybe that's a generational thing. Maybe that's just someone who grew up in, I would say, more of an analog childhood and then grew into adulthood and more of a digital adulthood. Um, but these are the things that people are gonna have to understand that this stuff's not going away, right? It's going to continue, so you have to embrace it so that you can go and you know live life, make it better, use it as a tool.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

That's what it is. And use it at your own pace, too. Yeah, I'm don't let it overwhelm you. And that and that's what you know, I see so much being, you know, the marketing is my job. Like I have to, that's my thing, right? Um, so I have to get ahead of all of these trends and see what trends are bullshit and what what hype people are trying to sell. Yeah, and and you know, it's like some of these companies claiming to be AI companies are worse than the pyramid schemes. You know what I mean? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

So before you start on that, like like I mean, I have these because you did a great job. So Ray Ban and Meta should literally send you royalties because like you did your videos. Like, oh, that's kind of cool. And then I saw you at a couple different events and you had that on, and I was like, oh, you know, I've always heard about it and thought about them, but I never thought. And then like we started talking. I'm like, man, I could use this for my my day-to-day. But yeah, um the AI companies and the advertising that can be out there is you know, things you have to look at too.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Well, it's wild because uh in every in every industry, you know, you can't claim to be an AI company, right? Because I guarantee you about 95% of companies that exist in every single industry have AI in some form and fashion doing something for their whether it's a software program that they use for documentation. Well, that company probably is using AI somehow to do market research, to do documentation. Like, so it's just fun. It's funny watching it, uh, watching it unfold because suddenly everyone's an expert. Um and you know how I am when it comes to that kind of stuff. Um, because you have to literally there, you still have to have that human driving it, yeah, prompting it, driving it. You still like everything I do now in marketing, uh, AI touches for sure. You know, a lot of the copy, a lot of everything. But you you go in and you get your foundation, and basically now you're in this world of if I can think about an image, yeah, it can be created. If I can think about so you still have to be creative.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Well, even if you don't want to use it or you're like, I'm not going to, you are every day, and everything you use. Some some somehow. And I guess there's some people that and you know, it's okay for them if they don't want to use it and they want to hire an an AI company or whatever to do it. So there's a new market, there's an opportunity, right? And some people can capitalize on that and say, hey, here's this. Uh it's just like anything.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Well, where I just where I get where I get bad taste is at when uh these AI companies come out and they want to sell you a demo for a quarter million dollars. It's like, well, what I don't have a quarter million dollars. Seriously you just built the the whole back into this in Chat GBT.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Yeah. In an hour. Well, and and and a lot of it too is like I think people are are talking to any of these different AI models that are out there like it's Google and you can't. Right. You've got to be able to have you you've got to give it the instructions, you've got to tell it, you know, they call it prompt engineering, right? So, and you know this a lot more than I do, but like I and my kids will be like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I'm telling them what I'm like you're acting as this, this is what I'm looking for, and then you're layering piece by piece like what you're trying to do to actually get it to give you that end result because you're refining it over

Messaging Quirks And Multi‑Model AI Use

SPEAKER_03 16:45

and over. And and um there's just different levels of of learning how these things go and and using it and um using it for good, using it for to help and to be able to be more efficient and more effective in your day to day.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

I I love watching the different you got Chad GBT, you got Gemini, Claude, Perplexity.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Start messing with Claude.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Um how do you like it?

SPEAKER_03 17:07

It's okay. Put a resume in there um for my daughter. She we were trying to work with different people. Pause for more whoa, but put the hey, word of advice, always have your resume updated and ready because you never know. And I actually I had a uh a general manager tell me I interview somewhere once a year just so I can sharpen my skills because that way you know what's going on in the workplace, what what our employers looking for, and maybe you can take that and use that towards what you're currently doing or anything like that. But that's that was advice that I did, and I did that, and I would interview places to be, you know, to go up, and I'm like, okay, this maybe makes sense, this doesn't, or whatever. And right um, but anyway, Claude was more I put a PDF in for a resume, started to work on that, which you can do that at others, but um I used it. Um Jim and I have been working a little bit with it, but you know, I think Chat GPT is the one that seems to be the that's still I think above what's out there for what you're doing generals for general things, and then obviously people are you know they'll upload their pictures into it.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

But did you did you s uh listen to the all-in-one where uh Sam Altman threw out the the red alarm?

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Oh well, and you don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Well, and and I think they just went cl like they're closed source now.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

Like I don't know, yeah, it just depends on um uh where I think funding comes in because they were they're just pushing and pushing to get all this funding to go, and then it stops, and you can almost see where um different tech stocks are following with crypto, and you can see the wave in which these things are operating, and and then it's like okay, well, this company's going this direction. And you just don't know because we'll go back to what the mid-90s, and you had like pets.com, right? You've had um trying to think of other ass jeeves. Right. Oh, I remember that. So different ones that are out there at the time, this company or this search engine was head and shoulders above all, and now you know Google took over to a certain point and went there. So it'll be interesting to see where um the most creative AI company that can you know be the most effective, be able to handle the financial component of it, um, scale to the size they need to be. So, you know, will it be uh chat GPT? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

I I almost eat my words from last year because um the way they've leapfrogged. I kept thinking Chat GPT would uh put Google out of business. And and then they finally got their Gemini and their VO3. They caught up quick. And they I they might have passed them a little bit too, which which is like so so I almost wonder if OpenAI got a little complacent because now all of a sudden it they're in emergency status saying your only focus is on this chat GPT.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Well, and then Grok. was taken off and that I've used I do use it a lot too. And there's some people I'll only stick with this one and I would diversify and try to use different ones to um get your skills sharpened with all those.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

But um I mean that's you can't you got to think that like if we just being normal guys that can go in and and do the things that we do with it, what are those that are super trained, super skilled that are within the government that are doing I mean even at the beginning of the year when they were doing stuff with uh the Doge and they were they were running AI programs to be they're working you know million times faster than normal person to go in and find things and it just makes you kind of oh it's crazy it it you your mind opens up to like wow like what what yeah if we can figure this out this like I can build a bat a chat bot it's simple I got a whole dashboard I've been I can build a chat bot take a bunch of PDFs throw a website in there there's a chat bot if I can do that without a decree without anything else it's crazy what these corporations these big tech companies have already done it's and that's that's why so I was in a zoom with with with a company three or four months ago and they were like plugging in little chat bots to help them record and I'm like guys you know Zoom already does this it's called the AI summary but somebody's buying it like it's all like Zoom already like they already do that.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

So it's like how are you you can't get ahead of a tech company I mean well and it's like we took so long to go from pagers to the Motorola razor.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

I'm still looking for my pager I got a pager somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

So that time frame pagers to Motorola razors that seemed like it took forever and then from the razor to an actual smartphone or or go to the iPhone yeah and then just boom it took off so now it's like okay where where are we at in in that comparison? Like are we in the Motorola razor part of the AI experience? Have we gotten to the smartphone part? I think we're in the smartphone part. I think because you're now able to do more with video right and you're able to get into like uh Sora and you're able to do more with um with that because where does that go in a couple years? You know are we are we making movies and the content that's going to be put out there is going to be so hard to be able to decide between what's out there we won't even try. This stuff that we're already seeing that came out Friday with uh Epstein stuff yeah like the but like you're putting like you're how do you feel about that dude man that's that's deep I

Hype vs Reality In AI Products

SPEAKER_03 22:30

don't first off it's disgusting but well I and I don't think I I think it's a distraction tool.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

I don't think if if shit happened it would have been released a long time ago. If there was stuff that was out on or it'd be completely you would never hear of it ever.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

I mean I I was talking the other day with somebody about this and and I was like you know I think that that he was involved in financial things for um you know at the beginning of his career and then whatever he was doing he got into rooms with certain people he was obviously a disgusting person um and the things that he did is is disgusting flat out um but the rooms he got in with people he was able to have them in positions and some of them were obviously going where they shouldn't have gone to and doing things that were they shouldn't have done um where he could blackmail them with pictures and use things like that. He his what he was doing from what you can see on some of these files like it's like that you can see on on just on Facebook or whatever comes up it's like what the heck man like it's like these young people is like disgusting man makes you think like what would drive a person to want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Well I don't how do I know it's true?

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Well I think because back then you had you didn't have the ability to doctor photos right and but if you look at this way you're telling me what we've had Clinton Bush um Obama Biden Trump Biden so that how was it 45 years whatever since since all well no it's what 35 years I think so anyway from since the 90s and no one brought this stuff out like they told you nothing existed it was never there and now all of a sudden it comes out and they've got pictures with a former president of the United States in a freaking hot tub dude how do you explain how do you explain as Clinton how do you explain that first off you're the freaking president of the United States what are you doing man?

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Gross anyway Do you do you get into Candace Owens stuff at all?

SPEAKER_03 24:39

No I I mean I've seen little things of it but I I I when I cancel cable I quit paying attention to both because I think both sides inadvertently work on the same team. Oh yeah and it's just controlled chaos and it's a peaceful thing to separate it. You know as I've made it very clear you know I've I've try to deepen my faith more and more and that's where I keep my focus and that's where my um my my attention tries to go to as much as it is and I am no perfect person by any stretch.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

So what shows up in your for you page like on TV all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

I mean right now it's um old Chevy trucks repair stuff. Like it's the so that's their uh fantasy football things um sometimes I'll get like uh a lot of those 80s montage videos where it's like they'll have like the um music playing from the 1980s like with a saxophone or whatever and then like somebody's just like walking down a street like an AI street or it'll get these kids that'll be like hey welcome to 1996 like there's no smartphones everybody talks to each other you know and it's just different stuff like that. So um it they've really targeted like what my age is and um really like my interests which basically are beat up trucks and sports and I guess 80s and 90s. I mean I get real estate stuff that comes through too and it's like you know you flip that but um financial stuff. Um that's what usually comes up through TikTok and then obviously I'll get stuff sent to me. Right Chandra will send me all kinds of stuff or the kids will send me something or a friend.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

But well I was reading you know that TikTok signed that deal with a group of uh investors Oracle and some other people so then they will have control of US TikTok and then I'd seen that the algorithm's going to be changed for the US TikTok and I'm like great all we're gonna see is vamp blood and fat people like here we go hey now's our time to shine right let's go donate our food our food yeah food videos are gonna thrive we need which that was um country of diabetes that was cool to go to um Fist Street oh yeah that um Joe Anne was a lot of work didn't they remodel all that they they painted inside there um and many other things but it just it was so nice to be because I used to go I first learned about that place from my dad and he learned about it from guys that used to work at GTE General Telephone and they're like man you got to go in to Joanne's cafe in Richmond Indiana and get a Fifth Street omelet.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Fifth Street Omelet's fire it's great and um I remember being you know a teenager and I go I went with my dad we go there in the morning on a Saturday morning we go there and get get breakfast and then I would take friends and eat there throughout time and um it's just one of those small businesses where it's always consistent. It's always good they're always friendly and um you know those are the ones that you want to really support. I wish we could have brought a marching band out in front of that place and a parade and uh that would have been cool but proclamation you know so those are the people we want to support because they live in the community right and they you know they work their tails off they all they offer great stuff and I think we need to do more of that maybe we can go in with our glasses and like go to other smaller places that are not just along this part of Main Street. Like really get out and see like because there are people that are still trying to do stuff or even if it's a a food truck or um a local business that's doing something I mean I would hope that they could find this and maybe reach out to you as like hey spotlight my business man.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Just give me well and it's all like this is all places I like you know because I don't like I don't like to market bad business. So these are all like little hole in the walls that I love.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Yeah people it's always they're always been kind and it's yeah you know it it's surprising though is like I've had people that um you know like man I didn't know about that place. Like they messaged me they saw you know you tagged me in your Facebook video and they said that and I'm like

Model Showdown: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok

SPEAKER_03 28:45

yeah dude this place is fire.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

It's great now we're gonna go and not be able to sit no I know it's gonna be full we'll sit outside I'll just get it to go we'll sit in the back of the truck the vans the van yeah we'll sit in the vans open the vans up yeah van's getting breaks right now that's awesome yep um yeah that's awesome no the glasses are fun I think we'll see because right now you know if I ask it what I'm looking at it'll it'll explain what I'm looking at through its camera yeah but it won't give you like brand recognition and stuff yeah but I see I'm not doing that I see this coming down the pipeline of where I'll be able to um ask it what uh I'll be able to say put this in my shopping cart and it's gonna put it in my shopping car just like Alexa would or something for sure um it'll recognize what it is you can like look at your I don't or I'll be like where did he buy that shirt and it would tell me where you where I can buy that shirt.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

I don't remember I don't know probably my one time a year where I buy a really nice shirt and wear it up here. I'm kidding. Obviously I need to do this more but um I found out you can just take a picture of like a plate and you can be like hey give me an idea of how many calories are based off of this like it'll it'll tell you glasses have no no I've done that with Chat GPT but like put your fist next to it and it'll compare it um as a way to try to measure you know hopefully maybe um that will help with weight loss and things like that in the future but um I think that's cool to be able to have that I think well I was looking at so I was just looking at a document online today and I was just like I told I said hey tell me what I'm looking at and it was like you're looking at um you know this was it was a purchase agreement it was like you know you're looking at a purchase agreement it's got this this this and this and I was like that's kind of cool your phone or your glasses no the glasses did it yeah so was it able to read it or it was tell it told me what address it was and it told me like you know this is what it is it didn't like give me a guidance advice or anything like that. It just was a general like if let's say I couldn't see very well that was what it was explaining. It was like you know what I was looking at. So that was kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

So it's kind of it I you can tell it's in a primitive state which it it said it has translation features so I don't know if it if it read you that address then maybe if that address was in Spanish it'd be able to translate it for you.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

We need to pull something up that like would have or just go like to somewhere that you can yeah that's a good idea. That's a real good idea. Yeah I'll be I'm gonna use them for um I'll use them at Christmas. Try to just get you know I mean I always try to bring some kind of goofy gadget around to be like I've been doing a lot of like people I know.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

But it makes good video especially if you can like go in and speed ramp and everything.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

Well I was like okay I was I was gonna wear them to Planet Fitness and I was like nah I'm not going to it just because there's just this like this thing about I don't want to come across like I've got these on. Yeah and I don't want to be that guy.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

I'm like I'm not so I I know there's some water ratings on it but I swear so I don't wear them to the gym.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Well and I was like what purpose would it be? Because there's not like and I was asking earlier like would something pop up on the actual lens that I could read um you know text or I could see like information that comes through there and it's not there yet the displays that model. But on this one not on these yeah these are so I was like well what purpose would it do me for that you know and I went to church this morning I was like you know do I wear them and I'm like no and it was just personal choice I'm like I I'm right now just using them for taking a picture mostly for doing social right social media content and then using it as an AI this kind of a guider. Now what I did think was cool is it does play music. So I was listening to music while I was just walking around the house so it's like you have AirPods um but you don't have to have them stuck in your ear which if you're like me right you know they don't fit all the time and then you also have the ability to take a quick picture. So that's cool. I do I am very curious to see where it goes with these because the just being able to see things and do it it's going to be really cool. We're um hopefully going to take another try to take another trip out west in the spring and that'll be cool to take it out and be like you know what am I looking at and you're like well you're looking at a rattlesnake run document your death yeah right I got a good video though um well one time someone asked me like what the best camera is that you can have and I'm like the one you always have with you.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

So I mean because a camera is no good if you don't have it with you. It's insanely convenient to be able to go versus like pull this up and go I know it I driving down here I was I was going um past the jail past the courthouse on Main Street and there was a guy in a t-shirt juggling and he was he was a really good juggler which I can juggle a little bit so I kind of like watching that. But I was able to just like and then play. It's just fascinating Philippines so um and you record it for a minute based off how you did the settings which most people's attention spans I let it record just long enough and then I stopped it because I didn't because I want to do the storage. I want to save storage but then uh um but yeah so it's it they've been awesome having them especially um people I know I'll have them I'll I'll record and then hey how are you doing and then so I get that natural reaction yeah and then I'll be like oh I was recording that can I use that you know you because you can get a really natural reaction.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

That well that's definitely I've noticed that because and I don't see the light right that's up there um unless you point it out to me. But it's like you know when you I'm just like I'm recording.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Yeah I don't know it it's just I'm looking at everybody different now when they have glasses and I you know well we're in that day and age where you should all anytime you're outside of your home you should always just presume you're being recorded. That's very good advice and I was just telling a police officer that's very good advice um I ran into one of my friends the other day that's on the police department here and um I was showing him how they work and we were talking about it and um because he was he, you know you know cops are always under scrutiny and and everyone has their phones out trying to record them and get them all fired up and get them to try to say something they shouldn't. Yeah with that gotcha moment yeah yeah yeah so so I was showing him the button and everything else or the light and um and then I wholeheartedly believe there's a way to hack them and turn the light off. I'm sure there is um so but I was like you know I think if you're outside of your house you should just presume

Deepfakes, Media Trust, And Online Sensationalism

SPEAKER_01 35:40

that you're being recorded at the all the time.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Yeah everywhere you're at well I mean we that's how we I mean we don't I don't have this mindset is like well I should I better be good because somebody could record me but I always have the mindset when I'm um if I'm showing a house I mean or I'm in the process I'm always being recorded whether it's they've got record on their phone or um you know showing and just and I think it's more than anything is like hey look I understand somebody wants to protect themselves and maybe they want to remember what was said or whatever. Right. We've got nothing to hide. Take notes. Yeah I mean you know it's like hey I actually I'll encourage people like hey if you want to record this so that way you know things we pointed out or talked about like this is stuff that you can go back as you're thinking through and uh milling through the decision of of maybe you want to make an offer on this house or not. I mean that's to me that's that's part of um that's part of why it's important to work with somebody who's gonna be able to look out for your best interest and and not have a um you know a filter of like well I'm just gonna put on this specific persona like this is what you get. And that you know admitting everybody may not like it and that's okay. Or no not everybody's gonna get along.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

But how is uh you say show in houses how is real estate right now?

SPEAKER_03 36:58

It's been really good for us. Um the whole year was it was an interesting year obviously because I was you know full time as an agent and full time into this title business which I'm no longer um working full time into the title business which was a great learning experience. So I'm um obviously working half of you know one full-time job now um but we are you know we've had a a really strong um last quarter of this year and um the business itself overall you know there are still buyers out there um that are wanting to buy and um it's seasonal of course because a lot of people especially this time of year are they maybe not getting out and looking or wanting to put their house on the market because we're running up against Christmas and you know new year this next week or two but um people are making plans and positioning they're refinancing homes um we refinanced a home recently and um you know interest rates are they're not going up which is good because they were going up for a while there didn't something happen recently with interest rate we the the Federal Reserve did um they did a quarter point interest rate cut um which was expected so um a lot of people there's a misconception is like okay the Federal Reserve when they do an interest rate cut that means mortgage rates will come down that's not necessarily true it typically follows the 10-year U.S. Treasury so if anybody's like you know hey our rate's coming down or whatever look at the 10 year and that'll give you a pretty good indicator as like where things are at and it's probably somewhere in the low fours or high threes I haven't looked at it and interest rates no that's where the um 10 year U.S. Treasury is interest rates are probably about two and two and a half percentage higher than the um 10 year treasury because you know that's where the banks have their their difference. But um no it the market has been steady um we are still working with a lot of buyers and sellers not just Chander and I but you know um all the brokers we just had a um uh Christmas function for the Richmond Association of Realtors talked to different real estate agents um at different brokerages and and they're all have positive mindsets about um how the year is finishing and what we're going into the new year and um you know we're always looking and trying to help get people um connect buyers and sellers it's just things are looking up I mean I think I think that we're into that phase of we're going into the second half of a decade now right you know so we're now going into that um you know 2006 or I'm sorry 2026 to 2030. I mean this next four year stretch is going to be fun it's gonna be um we've got a lot of things behind us that you know there was a lot of growth but there's also a lot of sorrow a lot of tragedy a lot of things that I think that everybody's ready to propel forward and move not just locally but you know nationally and in the world so um there's a lot of excitement and a lot of momentum I feel going into the new year and um the coming years as we as we close out this decade.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

So is there any like because from the outside looking in um I don't understand it but um any way to predict how the real estate market's going to go because I know like during COVID We all thought it was going to die. And that's it like trash, like ripped all of a sudden. It just launched.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

Well, rates fuel it big, but I mean, if you if you um the cost of borrowing goes down significantly, more people that couldn't buy a house now can, right? So that increases your amount of buyers. But real estate is a simple business of supply and demand. So if we have more homes and you are able to get um less buyers, then of course you're going to be able to you know have that product. And if you have um a lot more buyers and you have less homes, then the prices of homes are gonna go up. So the and this is just this is all over the country, but we need more inventory, right? But we need smart inventory, right? And I think that's the thing, is and that is real estate is hyper local. What happens here in Richmond is not the same as happens in Carmel or Westfield. I've had this conversation with you several times. You know, focusing local um is going to be a whole different ballgame than what happens in um Kalamazoo, Michigan, or Tallahassee, Florida, you know, or Austin, Texas or whatever. So um, yes, it's an inventory thing, but it's a smart inventory thing. And then it comes down to you know, what is the cost of being able to add that additional inventory? And when you have building costs are higher, insurances are higher, you know, that bottom line goes up. So um I think the fix or to pr the predictor is like when you start to see new inventory come up and it's not selling as fast, and it's sitting longer and longer, then that can kind of tell you something there.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

Gotcha.

Everyday Use Cases For Smart Glasses

SPEAKER_03 41:30

So and then if rates go down, more and more people are either going to start to move or maybe think about maybe I don't want to rent anymore and I want to buy.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

And then you've gotten off into investments a lot, haven't you?

SPEAKER_03 41:43

So um some with uh investment rental property, and then you know, obviously get into uh mutual funds and stocks and things like that. But um, you know, in the rental business itself is um you know, there's different dollar amounts that uh people can afford in the area. Richmond, it's no surprise, you know, we've got a lot of folks that that struggle financially, and it's hard for them to get into something, especially if it's just one person, you know, or one person with a couple of children that's wanting to get into a place. And it's like, you know, when you look on a national level and you have the news just pumping to you, uh three bedroom house is you know, twelve hundred dollars a month, that's very hard for one person in this area to be able to afford that and car and food and everything else, right? But the flip side of that is you've got somebody that owns a property and maybe their mortgage and their taxes have gone up so much that it makes it very difficult to stay in that business. Um the biggest hindrance I think that you're seeing with that is the cost of taxes, the cost of insurance. It makes it very difficult for a landlord to be able to keep rent at a stable price because they've got to be able to absorb that. Because why are you you're not gonna lose money renting a house out, right? You're in the business of owning it, you're taking the risk on, you're the one that's doing all that. So, and that's tough to understand. I didn't understand it when I was renting a place before I started to dissect how finance worked and just basic economics. I mean, I was just a young kid myself. So it it makes it easy to you know just snowball and jump on top of that, where it's like, well, this guy's making he on the surface, it looks like you're making a lot of money and doing this, but then when you actually peel back those layers, putting out a lot of money a lot, and then when the cost goes up substantially, and then you go and you say, Hey, why are my taxes going up? Well, the state says that because overall real estate values have risen, we're going to raise your tax values, even though you've done no improvement to the property.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Wow. I love the the whole tax, tax, tax. It's um they do the property tax.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

It's it's very tough because uh, you know, as a homeowner, they almost make it not worth it. It's it gets close sometimes. Yes. You have to look at the long the zoom out long-term deal. And that's when we sit down and have a consultation with buyers and we're like, look, you know, what's your plan? Is your plan a year? Is your plan to you know be in and out of Richmond in a couple of years? You know, this is the things you want to think about. And that's a crazy perspective because you're like, well, your job is to sell houses all day long. Yes, it is, but it's also to lay down very ethical and clear lines of like, hey, this is where things are going. This is where, you know, this is where you could be a year from now, and this is it. That that's just how we do business. We're gonna tell the truth, we're gonna do it right, and um next time I have some glasses on when I do it. Transparent up front.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Yeah. No, it's so if I was wanting to buy a house, um, what what should my credit score look like? What type of loan should I be looking at? Currently, because that changes.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

It does, it depends. I mean, um, there's lenders that will approve um in you know in the 580 range. I mean, you're gonna pay higher interest rate, you're gonna have you might have to put money down, you're gonna go through a lot of uh under the microscope. But I mean with that is they're gonna look at how long, you know, if you've been at your job, payment history, previous bankruptcies, all that. Um there, you know, so you'll see that you can get more favorable rates, the better your credit score is. Um, but there's different programs that are out there too. You can get in, you know, if you're going with a first-time home buyer program, there are lenders that offer um programs where they can help with down payment assistance. Um, it can help with um some closing costs. There's things that go in. I mean, there's all kinds of different ones. So I would say I guess my advice would be is first talk with your agent, you know, like build a plan and then work with your agent on a financial person, specifically a lender, um, whether it be local or one of our brokers that we have in the area, and they'll be able to give you an answer as to where you're at. Um, most people are payment driven. They don't, you know, you start getting things real muddy, and you're like, well, you're gonna be a 6.375 over 30 years, and you're gonna have how much it's gonna cost me every month. Right. That's what's important. Right, you know, so I can get it.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Because 90% of America we live month to month. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

I mean, and that's I I get it. And then you don't really understand it until you're like, oh wow, well, I thought a $170,000 house is only gonna cost me $900 a month. Well, it is if you put a certain amount of money down. So you pay for 70% of it up front. Yeah. So I but yeah, this, you know, and and talk to different people, talk to different agents, you know, talk to different lenders. You don't have to get stuck in the one. That's uh the number one thing is you have to be a good fit.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

And that's a good fit with the client and a good fit with the um, you know, with the agent. We can always see when I come down here, aren't we? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

More shenanigans. Go get 'em, brothers.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

I just took a picture. I'm gonna have to look and see now.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Go get 'em, brothers.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

I'm just but you know, there's beyond just getting the house, there's a lot of

Recording Etiquette And Always‑On Culture

SPEAKER_03 47:00

people that are they're not seen either. And and it's homeless, people that are housing challenges, um, that are dealing with addiction right now. We have a lot of it in the area, and you know, we've had some opportunities where we've been able to help some of these people in in different um aspects, and it's opened my eyes to, you know, I'm trying to serve more, and um it's opened our eyes to where you know there are people that need a lot of help. So, you know, I I think just anywhere you can help somebody just with something. I mean, we we've got a client that she makes um knitted blankets, and we were telling her about something we were gonna do this past Friday where we were gonna um serve some food to some folks that need help, and and she's like, Well, I've got a I've got a um an Afghan that I want to be able to donate, you know. So she said, I've been waiting for the right opportunity. I'm like, Well, we'll take it, you know, we got it in the hands of somebody that could use it on these cold nights, and that's a good feeling to be able to do that. And you know, if not by the grace of God, I'd be in that spot. So I don't take that for granted one second. So um, you know, as as much as we really focus on let's grow, you know, and and add inventory and add these homes and add these things, you know, we still got to be able to help within. And it's something that we're never gonna stop is trying to help people that are within the city because we do love it here, and um, this is where we're this is home, and this is what we want to see grow, and we want to be able to attract um talent, we want to be able to attract people that are gonna be able to help others. And I've always been the proponent and will continue to be that Richmond is best if it's grown from within, because that will be the best advertiser of this entire area.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Is this where you announce your mayor? Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

That is a game that I do not want to play on the next episode. No, nope. I I am very happy um being just a humble servant and helping others as much as I can. No, no part of that. But we enjoy watching council meetings. It's interesting, you know. I've not really paid attention much, so you watch those, you watch uh what happens up there and and uh you do you learn, you understand how it's in everything.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

There's a circus in every city.

SPEAKER_03 49:08

It is, it's not look yeah. I think some people think it's just here, and it's not like it happens every single place you go.

SPEAKER_01 49:14

There's egos in every single city. Yeah. Every single that is a huge no thank you. Every single organization, and there's um yeah, but you only know yours because you live there, you know. Um Falcon 2028, I think, 2027.

SPEAKER_03 49:34

Um, just um wearing glasses and mowing grass mowing mowing grasses.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

Oh, so you went with the clean, you went with the clean rhyme there. Of course. It must be this uh liquid.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

Get in the van, man. We're gonna mow some grass. Yeah, geez. Yeah. Um anything big for Christmas with you, dude.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Dude, I avoid holidays like the play.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

Yeah, I get that.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

It's not my time to shine. I usually get caught up. I don't go to any events, I don't do any family stuff. I don't stay home, see what's on TV. I just although I just watched Land Man today. I should have saved it.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

Are you caught up on it?

SPEAKER_01 50:22

Yeah, that's a great series. Yeah, Land Man. And then I I I like watching Sheriff Country. Not watching. It's pretty good. It's on Paramount Plus. Um, those are the only two things like I watched. I I got really bad for in in the last couple uh few months of watching too much TV, I think. Yeah. But um I can't find anything. So I know. I think those two I got an email on from Hulu or from Paramount or something.

SPEAKER_03 50:50

They they've been pushing Landman a lot. It's cool. I mean, just it's just another one of those, you know, similar to the.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

I see it getting close. If they do a season three, that's probably where it's gonna fizzle out because uh every television series, I feel like they try to string them on too long.

SPEAKER_03 51:06

Yeah. I had a friend that was like, hey, I'm looking for something good to stream on Netflix. I haven't seen anything in a while. So when someone asks that, I figure, you know, they've already watched a lot of the usually, right? So I'm like, oh, I don't know. Uh how about like three body problem? Like that was one that I watched. I was like, I found that kind of interesting. And then somebody's like, Ozark, and they're like, What's that? And they had no idea. And I was like, Well, I mean, if we're

Real Estate Market Pulse And Rates

SPEAKER_03 51:30

going there, maybe we're looking at um we need to talk about like Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, some of the other classics. Sons of Anarchy was like, but everybody's got their different experiences and what they've um you know, what they've watched, and and I it just that gave me a perspective. I was like, well, you know what? Maybe I did watch a lot of Netflix and I need to because it would be so cool to be able to start watching Ozark right now for the first time and be like, oh yeah, that's cool. Sun's A Anarchy was really good. Great show. Yeah. I will we see um a six to seven, six, seven, six, seven. Six to seven. Gosh. Where did that come from? They'll celebrate touchdowns doing that now, and I'm like, I just don't know where it came from. Um but no, it I don't know if we'll see a a six or seven series or season series anymore that's in depth like that. I mean, when's the last one that we succession? Have you ever seen that? No, it's on HBO, that's good. No. So are you ready for Christmas and all that crap? You know, I yeah. I I um Chander does the shopping on most of it and the wrapping and the cooking. And you know, I I uh I have a trash bag and I pick up the wrapping paper and I'm there and and uh you try to make it try to make it. No, we we something we never really do. It's the beginning of our relationship, we did, but we just still get things throughout the year. You know, like the unique thing with us is that of course my birthday is um December 14th and hers is the day after Christmas. So she's always the one that either gets a present during my birthday or at Christmas everybody sees her and is like, you know, hey, here's your here's your gift. So I always try to make it um special for where like it'll be like July 14th, and I'll be hey, happy birthday. You know, something like that, just because having a birthday the day after Christmas. So um we'll just get things throughout the year if we want something. I mean, we've reached that point. Unconditional love. I guess so. I'm take we're gonna go out of town, I think, on the 26th, and I'll probably Cincinnati. We really like the Cincinnati area to go down and um do a little shopping down there. It's uh Cincinnati and the Dayton area, I maybe it's because living on the east side of town or just I feel like the influence and the focus that the Cincinnati and Dayton area has, more of their business comes up this way. Um more of you know, more of that traffic comes through here. And it just I feel like that's we get a lot more of that than we do from central Indiana. Indy. I understand obviously that's where you know the tax center is, you know, but it's like um focus Dayton, focus Cincinnati.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

It's a boring drive to Indy versus Cincinnati.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

Yeah, well, I just when you're down there, I just that that whole vibes just the rivers, I like it. I just like it differently, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

I went on a first date down there to Cincinnati, yeah. And last. I usually don't go after there's usually like I really don't like them or they really don't like me after that first date. But we went to Primo Vista. I've heard of that place, um which is just beautiful because it overlooks the high it's on Price Hill. And then so you're way up on the hill. It's that it's the hill on the uh west side of town. Jesse has like a ton of Airbnbs a block over and stuff, so it's all like it's a beautiful little place. So but you could sit right at the window and it just overlooks downtown and it overlooks the river, and it's just it's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

We went to a restaurant somewhere over there that overlooked it, but usually we just go to little chain ones. We went to a Ruby Tuesday real close to Dave and Buster's, and it's like one of the last Ruby Tuesdays left. Yeah, yeah. And they were like, they were the service there was great, and they're like, please fill out this Google review for us. We're one of the last Ruby Tuesdays left, and and I think there's only like 11 left. I mean, it's great, but um, that's that's like that's our quality dining, is where we get to.

SPEAKER_01 55:12

Do you ever go to a friend? I went to an Applebee's in Oh, where was I at? Does Greenfield have an Applebee's? Probably. I'm sure they do. I think it was a Greenfield, Indiana. I'm sure they do. Yeah, and it was amazing. The service was also everything out here. They're just like OD and in the kitchen, you know. Well, I might get something.

SPEAKER_03 55:35

You'll get different experiences in all kinds of different places. I mean, like you go like to that Hardy's out on 35 here where loves it, they're super nice in that drive-thru. But if you go to certain ones, I mean, I've been there a long time, so hopefully it's just this is where we bash franchises.

SPEAKER_01 55:49

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

It's just like, I mean, you base it off an experience. Oh, yeah. You know, I I mean I I went to an Applebee's when I so I had my old sales territory and I was up in the um northern Indiana, Chicago, Michigan area, and um those great Applebee's. And I don't ever think about going there, not because I've had any bad experiences, I just you just kind of get stuck in what you go, you go with.

SPEAKER_01 56:12

It was good. I mean, it was real good. Steak was great. How do you feel about this food and beverage tax? The 1%. Yeah, like is it There's been like three podcasts up here about it. Um I think I I I almost think it's a must, but I also don't think we need all of these parks.

SPEAKER_03 56:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

I think I think there's like a lot of things that could be addressed. I think it's a must just because federal puts down on the state, states Robin Peter to pay Paul. Yeah. Well, Paul is not the local government. So the state's cutting all making all of these cuts um on the local level when they need to be cutting agents. There's state departments that need cut that don't need to exist. But then they're like, oh, we're cutting jobs. Well, that job don't need to exist. We don't need 92 counties. So there's there's just so much fat elsewhere that needs trimmed that it I don't I wouldn't say it necessarily had to come all the way down to that, but um it's the only thing that it can be used for is is the parks, and so it's very specific. And I don't think a lot of people understand that and they get really highly emotional about it. A lot of emotions involved. We should spend it on this, or we should well the city, the council, the no no one here on a local level is in charge of where it can go.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

I I I think it it's so easy for a person to grab one of these and put it on a tripod, or to grab one of these, right? And press record, or to to call you and come up here. Why can't there be a a monthly just check-in where it's like, hey, this is the amount that we received? Or oh, there will be. But I I guess my point is like making that where it's not hidden, where you have to go somewhere, like where it can be seen. And like the person that is younger that are you talking about, like once it's signed, then it's just I mean, more than anything, just like show me where the money goes, but don't don't like bore me with spreadsheets, like give explain it to a simple person, you know, of your citizens in the city that just are curious where it's at, because then they can go and pull a resource and someone say, Hey, go check out that podcast on Global Media Enterprise. They were talking about it on November 14th, 2026. This is this, this is this. Like

Renting Economics, Taxes, And Insurance Pressures

SPEAKER_03 58:31

shuts a lot of that um that emotion down where they're just like, Well, it's just going nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 58:35

Well, show us. Well, and most of those people with emotion, they choose to have emotion and they're going to be mad no matter what. That's true. So you're never gonna make anything happy. The transparency with communication. Um there you go. That's that's a big thing. And that's why they've been doing the podcast. So um hopefully that it goes into 26.

SPEAKER_03 58:53

Um Well, maybe more of an encouragement, like, hey, continue to share this so more people see it.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

Because you can only if if I follow you, right? Right. I see it. Well, and this is a city's podcast that I'm referring to. Um, but I don't think um I know for a fact that the council um they have to approve everything. Once that food and beverage tax is implemented, they have to be, they have to approve every everything, every penny that comes through it of where it goes at the parks department and every special project at the parks department, or if it's to maintain current projects. Um so I guarantee you in every single council meeting that's televised, um, that does make it to the stream, that does make it to YouTube, um, will cover that information.

SPEAKER_03 59:40

Just I think more in bite size.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

There'll be like a yeah, there'll be bikes for everything that comes through.

SPEAKER_03 59:45

Yeah, I need a I I mean again, this is just simple dude from Richmond. Like, let me get somewhere where I can pull it up very easy. That's within 30 seconds to like, hey, things are going good. Here's what's happening, here's this. It's not going to change my habit. I'm still gonna go eat where I'm gonna eat. I'm still gonna drink what I'm gonna drink.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:06

If I'm eating out at a restaurant, I'm not worried about my money. Because if if if I'm pinching pennies, I'm going to Dollar General's frozen section and grabbing some beef patties.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:19

It does come back to the principle of, and I understand this of you know, there's a tax. Right. It's just that word. And then when do they ever take it away, or does it ever decrease? And and do taxes ever decrease? Very rarely do taxes ever go away. Ever. Never, right? So it's like as soon as you add one, then it gives precedent for another. I understand that part, but then there also is, as you've got to understand, is like, hey, you have to deal with what you're dealing with right now, um, with the conditions in the city, and from somebody that you know I'm not ultra educated on, nor do I try to be, nor do I want to be, because I'm not running for any kind of city seats.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

Well, it's just I mean, if the state's cutting your funding, at the end of the day, you have to figure out how to make it up elsewhere on a local level. And they were open to all the suggestions. And some of those might still be implemented. Yeah. You know, we might ditch a park, we might ditch Springwood or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:15

You know, like like town halls with people, yeah. Not just during campaign season. I I know. That would be cool. That would be cool to be able to, and not like uh it has to be at a country club or it has to be at this special. Like, I know it's crazy, but like somebody would like to have it like the bowling alley. Right. Or like go to people and like you'll get them more active, engaged, and involved. Go or have them at the polls.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

I think and I think why that doesn't happen outside of campaign season is because once they're in them positions, they're attacked no matter what. It's true. And they're not compensate, it's not worth it. Those positions aren't worth it. No, I wouldn't want they don't the the the mayors, the council members, none of them positions are compensated like they should be. So it's very hard. Um, it's very limited to actually have the right people in the right positions for the right reasons.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:08

I guess when you're looking at it, optics are everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:12

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

And some of the optics aren't good.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:15

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:15

And and when you're trying to be like, hmm, you know, it gives me something to think about, you're not thinking about the actual subject. You're thinking about the optics of why you think about the narratives and perceptions, reality. So and that's and that's gross. And that's what turns you away, and that's what turns people away from being like, you know, maybe that's something you'd want to kind of look into a little bit deeper or something, but no, it's just it's gross. It's wild, man. And I it's easier to sit back here and just be like, Yeah, we're just hey man, what do you think about that or whatever? Yeah, that's I'm not so that's uh cool, man. Yeah, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

I I just I'm still gonna do what I'm gonna do. I don't know. So I've been in this phase for the last year basically where I'm I think about choices in life that we make. Um and I think about when when when I die, M, you know, if you don't die an instant death unexpectedly, you're you might be in a hospital bed for a week, a month, yeah, and not being able to do anything, but you're still alive. So in that time, you're going to reflect back on your whole entire life. Everything that you did, every decision you made, every board you served on, every job you had, every right turn when you should have gone left, every left turn when you should have gone right, and you're just going to beat yourself to death over things that you now you then now you regret. Now that you're stopped in this time right now, waiting on your death, because you're on your deathbed, you are going to regret having an ego, not listening to other people because of your ego. Yeah, there's just going to be so many. So then I'm like, what if we didn't have egos? And I've been guilty of having egos, hell yeah. Of course. But what do but what if no one had uh um that mentality um of having an ego and and knowing it all and everything else? You know how like much smarter all of us would be.

Buying Basics: Credit, Loans, And Fit

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

Yeah. We would focus on a lot more important things. Oh yeah, and there'd be a lot less drama. Oh yeah. Um the world would be a different place. The news would look different. I think we all though will look back, you know, whether it's in that snap of a finger and you're gone and you have that time, um, or you have a long time, you're gonna be like, What did what did I not do? What I what should I have done? I think that's just normal that you're gonna have as a human. All you can hope is that you can try to put yourself in the right direction. Um, that's for you. And try to focus not only on on being the best version of yourself you can be, but also trying to be the best version of yourself to help others and to be there. I think that's important because I was talking with somebody the other night and they were like, you know, I look back and I'm like, man, I got friends that are, you know, they're passing away. I'm getting to the point in my life where I'm like, well, where where are things going? Like, what's my legacy gonna be? You know, what am I, what are people gonna remember me for? And the truth is they won't remember you very long after you're gone. Yeah, it's just that's just that's life. That's the nature of, I mean, your family will, you know, and people that really can, you know, you'll be remembered at certain times, and we'll have more of this as your memory show up on your, you know, on your annual thing on your phone. But uh, you know, what's your impact that you're gonna leave for people and just not for yourself, but what are you how are you gonna make the world a better place? How are you gonna make Richmond a better place? How are you gonna make just your day to day, you know? And that can be as simple as a smile. It really is. And some people need to smile more.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:04

I mean, there's just it's but they may not have a reason to do it, so you gotta give them that reason, and in time maybe they'll come around. And if not, you're doing the best you can. I mean, that's that's a deep thing to kind of to go and think in that aspect of like what can I do to be um better uh a stronger leader, a and what I mean by leader is not necessarily like with people, maybe in your own life, and just lead by example. But no one's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:37

We're all just starting, it starts within your leadership starts in the very center of your chest.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:43

And your experiences are shaping that too. And we're all just trying to figure out what we're doing, and we're you know, some people look better on the surface and they're not really when you peel that back, and some are um very well grounded and figured things out.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:58

It's your personal someone brought up personal brand with me the other day, and they're like, should we focus on personal brand? And I'm like, you should focus on personal brand because it's you. Your personal brand is don't go out and get drunk and get a DUI, don't do dumb stuff, don't do this, don't do that, and and take care of yourself and and do everything every day, make the right decisions for you and your family. And I mean, that's your personal brand, and that builds everything else. But then, you know, and I've been in this where my personal brand was shitty. You can't outwork a bad personal brand. I in and as soon as you straighten that up, then you can straighten up your business. You know, I'm watching someone right now basically wreck everything just because their personal brand sucks. Um, and they're making bad decisions and they're relying on others for their own emotions. So therefore, their business is extremely stagnant, and and they're very comfortable with that stagnation, not thinking that they'll ever have comp competition. So, so at the very core of that is your personal brand sucks, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:08

You gotta always, you know, be a series of adaptations and evolutions of things you've got to do. You have to evolve. It's um and you know, like we talked about earlier with these with the AI companies or people that are getting more and more comfortable using um an AI model for something, everything's going to sound the same. Oh, yeah. And you're and if you don't have an established personal brand that is beyond just your business or what you're doing, you're going to get very stale in terms of like what you're just another voice that's out there. When you're posting things on social media and it's just 37, you know, uh emojis and five M dashes and exciting news and things. You've got to be able to curtail that because people are seeing that this is copy paste. At a certain point, it's like you have to evolve. You have that's you have to get it's your brand, it's branding. It it's everything as we get into this the way the economy is shaping and the way that finance is shaping and the world is shaping. Your brand is so important. It is, it's not you're selling yourself because you're trying to monetize, it's just who is your brand? Right. Who are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:18

You know, your your your personal, yeah, and I've done this where when I'm thriving the most is when I'm eating healthy, I'm exercising, I'm making the right decisions,

Local Policy, Parks, And Tax Transparency

SPEAKER_01 1:09:30

I'm like telling myself, don't let my demons, my depression, all that, don't let all that like I'm that's when everything else is thriving. And all of a sudden, like you're getting a random contract, or you're getting and like you're like, holy cow, energy out there. You don't, yeah, it's your energy. It's like, it's like people will come to me because I'm Kevin Shook. People will also stay away from me because I'm Kevin Shook. And I love it because the right people come to me and the wrong people don't.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:56

And that's good because you've got it, you you've got a very good clear line. And it's your personal brand. Yeah. And that's and and you grow what is going to work best for you and you grow off of that. Right. Right. So it's like I'm I'm the same way. Like if I'm sitting around or if I'm lethargic or which I don't sit around very much, but it's like if I'm not, if there's not momentum going on in my life, I've got to do something to do it. And I always centered better in my life than I've ever been with my faith. And um, you know, I I try to put Christ at the center of it, and I also try to focus on how can I consistently stay busy with growth, whether it be, you know, to help my my kids who are basically well, they're gonna be a I'll have two adult children here in uh February. But then obviously with my marriage, and then just you know, where am I at my phase in life of how I'm trying to put momentum out there? And and it's not about myself. Sometimes it is your natural to be selfish about certain things. But I mean, I don't have something where I'm like, you know, gimme, gimme, gimme. That's mine. I I don't have I'm more than anything, it's like I want to be able to um I mean I'm in more of like the experience phase of my my mindset now. It's like you just see things, experience things, but then also I get a lot of gratitude out of helping. That really feels good to be able to to help.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

As soon as you let go, soon as you let go of the gimme, gimme, gimme and the greed. Because we all know greedy, we know a lot of mutual people are greedy. Yeah, as soon as you let go of that, you wreak rewards.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:27

Dude, I had this, so I don't know if I told you this experience about um so our our vehicle broke down when we were going um to go see uh my brother-in-law over Thanksgiving. I don't know if I told you this or not, but so um they were north of Pittsburgh. So we took off and drove over that way and uh got about an hour outside of um the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line and started to have um like a knocking noise that sounded like in our in our Tahoe. Oh and we're like on 70, and then some small little town, you know, pulled over the side of the road. I'm like, crap, what are we gonna do? And um we're looking on you know, Google Maps, okay. You call the the big Chevy dealers, you know, and they we don't have any techs in. It's Saturday, it's 11 o'clock in the morning. So like all we have is oil guys, and we don't think, oh gosh, what are we gonna do? Like, I'm like, we're am I gonna drive this thing back, you know, knocking all the way back to Richmond. Um, so we go and we look up and there's like this little break shop and make this a short story. Um, we call this guy, we end up driving through the middle of like hardly nowhere in Ohio. I have no idea where we're actually at because Google Maps stopped and he told us, he's like, it'll stop to a certain point and then just start following this. So I'm just like, oh God, please let me get to the right place. And I told Changer I was like, right before our service goes, text somebody and tell them where we're going to be at. So that way in case here's the appalax. Yeah, they'll know where the butt they'll know where the bodies are. So anyway, this guy gets out um where his shop is and it's a brake shop, and he, you know, he's spit and dip, and just the nicest guy. And ends up putting this in his um in his little shop, and he's like, he's got a diagnostic machine, finds out that it's a spark plug, and it just it was a spark plug and a coil, and he needs to uh get the part. He's like, I gotta get it from Amazon. It's like 35 or Amazon, um, AutoZone. It's like 35 miles away, is the closest auto zone because he's in the middle of nowhere. He's only got to answer his phone. Anyway, so we're there for like you know two or three hours because we're talking with him. He's working on other break jobs, he brings his dogs over for us to see him, offers us coffee, and doesn't know us from anybody. And, you know, he's a business owner. This is probably what two in the afternoon now on a Saturday, and just went out of his way to really help us and get us on the road, got the Tahoe working, and it was really good. So we go drive into uh Pittsburgh and I take Chandra to go up on um Mount Washington where you can see the whole entire overview. He calls me, checks on us, this is how things are going. And just his name was Dennis Daup. And um his business is called Doup's Garage. And um the guy was just amazing, and he changed my perspective on I always wanted to help people, but he gave me this mindset of like, you know, uh when people are in certain spots, you've got to be able to help them and go the extra mile. He didn't have to answer his phone, he didn't have to take us because he had work to do. And uh he went the extra mile and checked in with us, and um we're just we're so blessed that he was able to to help us in that spot. And you know, maybe somebody will hear this and hear that you know that guy's name and and uh bless his business. But like we've taken that approach and we've we've had that approach when it's come to helping our clients, but just almost like another level of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:32

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:32

It's just like how can we help people? Because man, that that feeling of being able to go that extra mile and help somebody, that's so important. Because you're you're making an impact and then hoping that that takes on to another to another level and to another person. So um you know, it's a longer story than I wanted to go with. No, but dude, that was just it was super solid. That was a Netflix series right there. Well, it wasn't Ozark, but um it was uh I can't remember that we're in Ohio. It was right off of 70. But um how far out? Uh about an hour from the Ohio, Pennsylvania um border. I can look him up real quick and see what his I just it was so cool that that um he just it just you didn't expect that just because in today's time you think you're just gonna get treated as a number and it's just gonna be I figured we were gonna sleep um in the Tahoe somewhere and then I was gonna have to have somebody come get us. It was in Lafferty, Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:28

Lafferty.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

Yeah, which was no no laugh. It was really good. I mean, we laughed. I mean it was a good time, I guess, but um just just a great experience. And I I'm a firm believer that certain things happen in your life for a reason, and that was one of those catalyst moments where it really made Changer and I go, you know, um we can do more. Um, you know, we don't maybe we're being lukewarm and um you know we need to do a little bit more. So um that's where we've we've kind of we've kind of put our focus in.

Ego, Legacy, And Personal Growth

SPEAKER_03 1:16:00

And we feel like that's gonna be a good thing going into the new year, too. And I encourage other people that if they you know, if they want to try to get a start and get momentum in their life, go help others. Go do something because i it's not only will you feel good, but you're putting in um putting in good vibes into the world and it's gonna come back to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:18

Life inscripted with Kevin Chef.