S02E05 – Painkillers vs. Vitamines with Mauricio Berber

[00:00:06] Hello Dreamers, thinkers and doers, welcome to Ideate with Florian.

[00:00:10] In this season we discover where good ideas come from, whether it's for a new feature,

[00:00:14] product or company.

[00:00:16] I'm your host Florian Hoornaar.

[00:00:18] For over 25 years I work with small and medium sized companies in engineering, sales and

[00:00:23] management.

[00:00:24] During that time I connected with many professionals to grow together.

[00:00:28] That makes me excited to explore the journeys of our guests with you, so let's dive

[00:00:32] in.

[00:00:33] Episode 5.

[00:00:35] Pain killers vs vitamins with Mauricio Berber

[00:00:38] In this episode of the Ideate with Florian podcast we welcome Mauricio Berber, a passionate entrepreneur

[00:00:44] focused on leaving a legacy and making a positive change.

[00:00:48] As the founder of Predictive Coats Mauricio develops lifesaving software that accesses

[00:00:53] an accountability partner to drivers, monitoring and reducing risky driving behavior by

[00:00:59] 73%.

[00:01:01] Mauricio emphasizes the importance of recognizing problems and gaining control to navigate challenges.

[00:01:07] With the market now ready his company tackles issues like nuclear verdicts and envisions

[00:01:13] integrating AI into training programs.

[00:01:16] Mauricio talks about the value of good work-life balance, family and the joy of

[00:01:20] sacrifices.

[00:01:22] His company prioritizes relationships over profit, viewing partnerships as marriages

[00:01:27] built on trust and shared goals.

[00:01:29] Overall, the episode explores Mauricio's entrepreneurial journey, the impact of technology

[00:01:35] on safety and the essence of balancing work and life for sustained creativity and joy.

[00:01:44] First is a very brief like a snapshot that I can take away and revert as an intro

[00:01:50] for you.

[00:01:51] Who is Mauricio Berber?

[00:01:53] So Mauricio Berber, diehard entrepreneur loves life, very optimistic, got the entrepreneur

[00:02:00] bug unofficially at the age of seven, officially at the age of 21.

[00:02:05] And so you know, it's just something that I am very passionate about, especially when

[00:02:10] you can create products that can help others and truly make a difference.

[00:02:15] After my first definition of success when I was younger was getting in a lot of financial

[00:02:20] gain, today my definition of success is pursuing a legacy, something that I can

[00:02:25] leave behind and have our kids really live by and say, my dad did this and he changed this.

[00:02:32] And so I'm very excited about pursuing this predictive coach, disruptor and pioneering

[00:02:39] this software that's eventually and already is saving lives.

[00:02:44] So hopefully we get to the point of saving millions of lives and me having a big part

[00:02:48] of that.

[00:02:49] And predictive codes.

[00:02:51] When I heard your company name, I thought about like coaching, like I coach you, you

[00:02:56] coach me.

[00:02:57] That's not it.

[00:02:58] So what's predictive codes that your company, what's your company name doing?

[00:03:01] So when we're launching this right, pioneering this whole thing, we were like a coach is

[00:03:06] somebody who's in a come and help you and be better and just grow.

[00:03:09] And the main concept behind this is eradicating our drastically reducing bad driving behavior.

[00:03:15] And so for us, it was like, we're all around this, I still remember vividly

[00:03:19] where all, all these heads are around the table trying to figure out what do we name this?

[00:03:23] And we came up with predictive coach was, you know, five years, seven years later now

[00:03:26] we're finding ourselves.

[00:03:28] There's so many different definitions of coach, but to your point, we're not so much

[00:03:32] a coach as much as we are an accountability partner of our clients holding the accountability

[00:03:37] to the drivers to make sure that they follow safe driving behaviors because at

[00:03:42] the end of the day it's going to help them become better drivers, but also make

[00:03:46] it home at the end of the day, which a lot of people are not making that anymore.

[00:03:50] Right.

[00:03:50] So the scenario is that I've got some drivers, I've got some trucks, some cars,

[00:03:55] drivers go in trucks and the car, they drive on the road and your software then monitors

[00:04:01] their driving behavior.

[00:04:02] And there's a lot of software out there that does that nowadays.

[00:04:06] Where does the coaching and accountability come in?

[00:04:08] We actually started with GPS tracking and GPS tracking has become basically adopted

[00:04:15] worldwide.

[00:04:15] Right. Back in 2006, 2007 when the satellites barely became available to the

[00:04:19] consumers, it was just making its way into the market.

[00:04:22] But as more people adopted GPS tracking, they uncovered something, which was I now

[00:04:27] can see everything my drivers are doing and I can see that they're speeding

[00:04:31] and they're heartbreaking and they're accelerating.

[00:04:33] Now when we look at the overall concept that data is beautiful, but at

[00:04:36] the end of the day, it's also a very, very eye opening.

[00:04:40] And one of the things we found why we created predictive coaches, we

[00:04:44] interviewed our clients that were large fleet managers saying the data is amazing.

[00:04:48] But at the end of the day, I have no more bandwidth.

[00:04:51] I have all these things on my desk.

[00:04:53] I have to do all of these things.

[00:04:54] And the last thing I need to do in my day is bring a driver in for 15

[00:04:58] minutes, which by the way, I have hundreds if not thousands of drivers.

[00:05:02] It's not scalable.

[00:05:03] So I need to be able to act on the data to make them better because

[00:05:07] if I don't two things happen.

[00:05:08] One, they will end up killing somebody or two, I will be in serious

[00:05:13] trouble when we get to court because now the courts can subpoena my records.

[00:05:16] And now they can see that my drivers were driving really badly prior to this

[00:05:20] collision and the attorneys are going to eat that up, serve it on a platter

[00:05:23] to the jury.

[00:05:24] And instead of being a $500,000 settlement, it's going to be a $50

[00:05:27] million settlement.

[00:05:28] So they were recognizing there's a problem and we need to address it,

[00:05:32] but I don't have the bandwidth to do so.

[00:05:34] In a nutshell, what you've mentioned is we basically knowing the industry

[00:05:38] and knowing that there's these triggers in the technology called accelerometers,

[00:05:42] which will tell us when there's a speeding, hard brake and acceleration,

[00:05:44] you'll see all of those different things.

[00:05:46] We're able to then tie our training specific to that behavior because in

[00:05:51] today's space, the only thing that exists is manual assignment face to face

[00:05:55] coaching or write ups, right?

[00:05:58] Or a generic 30 minute course, which is not sustainable either because if it's

[00:06:02] a driver's having to be pulled every day for 30 minutes, they lose

[00:06:06] productivity, they lose revenue, all that stuff.

[00:06:08] So our course is tied directly to the behavior based on the threshold

[00:06:12] set by the manager and it's only a three to five minute course.

[00:06:15] It's just a small little sting of accountability that Virginia Tech showed

[00:06:21] helped reduce risky driver behavior by up to 73%.

[00:06:25] What I find so amazing about your story is how super specific you are

[00:06:29] because we hear we talk about entrepreneurship, we talk about startups,

[00:06:31] we talk about IDs and like this is not like a generic ID.

[00:06:35] It's like a super specific.

[00:06:37] We do this and then within that niche, we do that specifically and

[00:06:41] we apply this paper specifically.

[00:06:44] So how and during this episode, I want to uncover with you how you got

[00:06:48] from A to like specific, like better says from generic to specific.

[00:06:53] How did you get into fleet management?

[00:06:55] Oh my gosh.

[00:06:56] So formerly a banker, my business partner and I were former bankers.

[00:07:01] And we were actually in a situation where we started to notice

[00:07:04] watching the news, right?

[00:07:06] When there is a problem, there's an opportunity and we were watching

[00:07:08] the news and we noticed that there were large trash trucks

[00:07:12] killing people because they had blind spots.

[00:07:14] And our first dip into technology, which was totally far removed from banking

[00:07:18] was we're like there's an opportunity to provide backup

[00:07:22] cameras to these trash trucks.

[00:07:23] And as we started providing and gaining customers for these trash

[00:07:27] companies to provide this view, we started an uncovering GPS tracking,

[00:07:32] which in 2006 to 2007 was just kind of making its way at the time.

[00:07:37] Florian, a single piece of technology like telematics today was $1,000.

[00:07:42] It consisted of two pieces, a piece in the cab and a telematics box.

[00:07:47] Right?

[00:07:48] And installation took forever today.

[00:07:50] That's pretty much given away for free and it's super affordable.

[00:07:53] And right.

[00:07:54] But at the time when we started this process, we then began to make a name

[00:08:00] for ourselves and we've quickly understood this is more of a positive tool.

[00:08:05] Because at the very beginning, everybody saw it as big brother.

[00:08:08] Oh, no, you're going to put big brother.

[00:08:10] I mean, now you're going to know everything I'm doing and what I'm

[00:08:12] and slap on the wrist.

[00:08:13] And we had to change that mindset completely and say, no,

[00:08:17] there's far more benefits than there are cons.

[00:08:21] So we need to make sure that we use this technology.

[00:08:24] And then at time when the economy tanked, selling a thousand dollar

[00:08:28] piece of equipment with the dream of this is going to save you more than

[00:08:31] you're going to spend was a very tough, tough conversation.

[00:08:34] 2007 2007.

[00:08:36] That was the international housing banking crisis.

[00:08:39] Yes. Not the best climate to sell a thousand dollar piece of equipment.

[00:08:44] No, you did it anyway.

[00:08:45] Right? Yeah.

[00:08:46] We were kicked out of offices many times.

[00:08:48] Just get the heck out of here.

[00:08:49] You're trying to sell me hot soup on a hot day.

[00:08:51] I don't want it.

[00:08:53] That's a good comparison.

[00:08:55] Yeah, something different than selling fridges to Eskimos.

[00:08:59] But yes.

[00:09:02] Yes. So you got this initial product, which is a backup camera for

[00:09:06] trash trucks, right?

[00:09:08] Garbage trucks running around the city, being able to now see the blind spots.

[00:09:12] How does your product evolve?

[00:09:13] How does your vision evolve?

[00:09:15] Well, one thing we took from banking was customer service.

[00:09:19] In order to be good, what we noticed, we had a client following at the bank.

[00:09:25] And it was due to our attention and detail.

[00:09:27] My business partner and I both are very much focused on customer service.

[00:09:30] Bank of America really instilled that in us.

[00:09:32] When you carry that over to the business aspect, then you actually are out

[00:09:36] there with the intention to serve.

[00:09:37] It changes your mindset.

[00:09:39] Right? And that's when you start gaining the honest, sincere relationships

[00:09:43] that you'll have for a very long time.

[00:09:45] So for us, as we began to learn about these problems,

[00:09:48] we often interviewed our customers.

[00:09:50] Look, I provided you with this.

[00:09:51] I'm your profan, right?

[00:09:52] To get rid of this problem in this heading.

[00:09:54] What can we do better?

[00:09:56] What other problems that you're facing?

[00:09:57] And that's when we would uncover more.

[00:09:59] If you could help me with this, if you could help me with that.

[00:10:01] There were many times when we're like, sorry, we can't.

[00:10:03] That's just too far removed from what we're doing.

[00:10:05] But then there were other times where like, let me look into that and

[00:10:08] let me go get a vet the field because there's a lot of providers out there.

[00:10:12] Let me go vet the field and see who the best one is out there.

[00:10:14] And I'll bring them to you after I've tested them.

[00:10:17] And so partners really appreciated that.

[00:10:19] And that's really where we started to gather information of these are my pain points.

[00:10:23] Go out and grab me something that works.

[00:10:25] I'm the case of predictive coach.

[00:10:27] There was nothing out there.

[00:10:28] So what do you do?

[00:10:29] You build it.

[00:10:30] Right, right.

[00:10:31] So they can do like consulting assignments for clients.

[00:10:34] Is that that's what you did?

[00:10:35] Yes, so we became the technology consultant partner.

[00:10:37] So the way that we came in, we were actually a reseller

[00:10:41] for different technologies.

[00:10:43] And then that product suite evolved over time.

[00:10:46] We've been with some partners and that our relationship, we started with others.

[00:10:50] And so that aspect of our business was mostly just representing a product

[00:10:54] that was out in the market.

[00:10:55] We've never had our own from ground up.

[00:10:58] So when we started to build, we did not know what we were getting ourselves into.

[00:11:04] But it's been a journey that we've learned a lot from.

[00:11:06] And there's no looking back.

[00:11:08] Very grateful that we do.

[00:11:10] So this is a story of evolution there in the 16 years.

[00:11:13] What I've always seen with startups is that it's never gradual.

[00:11:17] It's always a stepwise growth, like you bump up, you bump up.

[00:11:21] And were there some pivotal moments in your journey?

[00:11:25] I remember specifically we had a partnership with this company

[00:11:29] that was one of our main providers for GPS systems.

[00:11:32] They have this thing called a reseller channel.

[00:11:34] So they have a channel specific to a

[00:11:36] two partners who resale to the direct customer.

[00:11:39] Right. We got comfortable.

[00:11:40] And for us, we amassed this very large

[00:11:45] residual income that was coming in as a result of our subscribers.

[00:11:48] Well, all of a sudden, as we're being told by our partner account managers,

[00:11:52] everything's fine, everything's fine.

[00:11:53] They were acquired by another company and we still we were kind of like, OK,

[00:11:57] we trust you, everything's and then all of a sudden we get a letter

[00:11:59] that says sell or die basically.

[00:12:02] Right.

[00:12:02] Sell us your client base or we're going to just shut you down.

[00:12:05] You have two options.

[00:12:06] And that really hit home and we're like, whoa, this is not good.

[00:12:10] This is actually really scary because we're finding ourselves in a situation

[00:12:14] where we don't want to be in.

[00:12:15] And so we started paying attention.

[00:12:17] Do we always want to represent products which margins are shrinking over time

[00:12:21] and they're eventually going to go away?

[00:12:23] That's today. Or do we want to create our own and have control of that?

[00:12:28] And that's when we really started looking at, OK, there's a problem here

[00:12:31] and there's a solution that we can we can come up with.

[00:12:35] And we will have full control.

[00:12:36] So that's kind of how it all evolved from representing products to just pioneer

[00:12:40] in our own and launching our own software.

[00:12:42] That is so interesting that you

[00:12:45] you could have instigated that that pivot by yourself one day.

[00:12:49] Come in the morning, come in the office.

[00:12:51] Let's let's call it Thursday afternoon after lunch.

[00:12:53] Look at each other say, hey, let's start our own business and our own

[00:12:56] product, but somehow an external driver like forces you into a different

[00:13:03] direction with the first force of a garbage truck, almost like that.

[00:13:08] That's how your story reads.

[00:13:10] Yeah, exactly.

[00:13:11] So in the introduction, it shows clearly that you were an entrepreneur,

[00:13:16] not your first rodeo to make a pivot.

[00:13:19] What was your first business just now that we know each other a little bit

[00:13:22] unofficially or officially?

[00:13:24] Ah, the unofficial story is always the best, right?

[00:13:29] Yeah.

[00:13:30] So I imagine the seven year old kid and the streets of Mexico at this tiny village

[00:13:34] selling food on the street.

[00:13:36] That was like my first taste of we can control if we market and if we sell.

[00:13:42] And then, of course, at the time, I didn't know the concepts of marketing all

[00:13:44] that it was just get people to my grandma stand, find people that are hungry

[00:13:49] and will sell more.

[00:13:50] I was like the first taste of it.

[00:13:52] And then it evolved when I moved to the States in 93.

[00:13:56] It evolved to me actually starting a little

[00:13:59] when I call it comic book business.

[00:14:01] What I did was I realized that we would only get five dollars because we're only

[00:14:05] allowed to go out once a week Sunday, because we were kind of in hiding, right?

[00:14:08] Because we didn't have our green card yet.

[00:14:10] So we were in hiding for a long time, just went to school and home.

[00:14:13] And that's it.

[00:14:14] But on Sundays, we were allowed to go to the swap and I would get a five

[00:14:17] dollar allowance while I found this stand had all these boxes of comic

[00:14:21] books, old comic books.

[00:14:23] But what I noticed when I went to school was and this is me barely

[00:14:26] learning English, by the way, I didn't really know English much.

[00:14:28] But I'm watching these kids go crazy over these comic books and specifically

[00:14:32] the ones that had the lower number like the one, the two, right?

[00:14:35] Those initial ones.

[00:14:36] And in my head, I'm like, huh, so I go and I buy, I'll try to find all these,

[00:14:41] you know, the closest to the ones as I could.

[00:14:43] And they're like 10 cents a comic book.

[00:14:45] I'd go to school, hype them up, trade them for like really shiny X-Men

[00:14:50] comic books that were worth way more, take them back the next week, sell them

[00:14:54] to that same guy for a profit and then do it all over again.

[00:14:57] So I ended up having enough cash to save for a calculator, which I needed.

[00:15:01] And so it was just like my little business is like I buy, I sell, I trade

[00:15:06] and I profit.

[00:15:07] Yes, the hassle, the hassle, the hassle.

[00:15:09] So this is where I want to tie the story back together.

[00:15:13] Because this is what I always try to do in the interviews, like going

[00:15:16] from future to to pass them back and then tie things together.

[00:15:20] You are pivoting into a software product.

[00:15:23] Here's my question to you.

[00:15:24] How many lines of code have you written by that point?

[00:15:27] Zero.

[00:15:28] Yeah, here we go.

[00:15:29] You're a hassle.

[00:15:31] You get stuff done, I guess.

[00:15:33] You know, that was one of our bigger concerns at the time was

[00:15:38] we don't know code.

[00:15:39] We don't know how to do that.

[00:15:40] And actually in the questions you had sent, one of the bigger challenges

[00:15:44] we experienced in pioneering this is like, we have the vision.

[00:15:46] We know what we needed to do.

[00:15:48] So let's go find the folks that can help us.

[00:15:50] And we learned a very hard way, very expensive way of outsourcing our

[00:15:55] development overseas to the first one was Pakistan.

[00:15:58] Sure, they said, we'll build whatever you say, but they build it exactly

[00:16:02] without seeing our vision and that was going nowhere.

[00:16:05] Time difference, they weren't really getting our vision.

[00:16:07] So then like, let's bring them near shore.

[00:16:09] And now we were in Mexico and we're very close to the border.

[00:16:13] We can go there and visit them and talk about what we really want.

[00:16:16] And at first we thought, oh, they really like the vision.

[00:16:19] They understand.

[00:16:20] But there's nobody like you who sees it drives it every day.

[00:16:23] And when COVID hit, we kind of started

[00:16:25] distancing ourselves, which brought the product quality down.

[00:16:27] And then finally, we found a developer domestically because our mind was

[00:16:34] coders are going to be very expensive domestically.

[00:16:36] That was a big myth.

[00:16:37] We should have done our homework better on that.

[00:16:39] So the assumption that it was going to be cheaper out, it was actually

[00:16:41] more expensive over when you talk about time and all these other things wasted.

[00:16:45] Right? Domestically, this guy, this team takes our product and just explodes it.

[00:16:51] But to your point, zero knowledge of code.

[00:16:54] It was mostly so this is what we needed to do.

[00:16:57] And here's where we need this to go in the next few years.

[00:16:59] And then you got the product.

[00:17:02] You got the vision.

[00:17:03] You've been doing this for a long time.

[00:17:05] You know exactly where the market is going.

[00:17:07] And here I want to emphasize the going.

[00:17:09] So you build a project that is going to be successful for where the market is going.

[00:17:15] But is the market already there?

[00:17:17] Thank goodness.

[00:17:18] Yes, so five years ago and you asked the question, how do we pivot to before?

[00:17:23] In your list, we had talked about how do you know when you're not too early?

[00:17:27] And unfortunately, we learned the hard way we were way too early.

[00:17:29] We were five years too early.

[00:17:31] And it's OK because thankfully for us, we experienced what that's like

[00:17:34] with the GPS selling.

[00:17:36] We knew that it weren't too early, but it doesn't matter.

[00:17:38] Let's just keep knocking on doors because we know this is for the greater good.

[00:17:42] And obviously, we know what happened with telematics.

[00:17:44] So in the same mindset where we're going way too early, we are knocking on doors,

[00:17:49] talking to our blue in the face and people are just like, nah,

[00:17:52] I don't want to spend that money.

[00:17:53] But because nuclear verdicts are so present now and they're spiking up

[00:17:58] and they're going to get worse, they're going to get way worse.

[00:18:01] And I'll tell you why later.

[00:18:02] But because they're doing this, it's forcing the insurance companies to put

[00:18:05] pressure on companies to say either you bring down your liability or we're not

[00:18:09] going to cover you anymore.

[00:18:10] What happens when you don't get covered by insurance?

[00:18:12] You can't be in business anymore.

[00:18:13] So now the pressures are being applied by insurance, by nuclear verdicts.

[00:18:17] And so right now, the exciting thing for our business is we're in a very

[00:18:21] optimal space and solving the problem that no one else can really do.

[00:18:26] So it's just very exciting times for us right now.

[00:18:28] So it's just a matter of being five years too early, then pressure here

[00:18:32] and then be right on time with a product that is actually mature.

[00:18:36] Right.

[00:18:37] Pencil.

[00:18:38] Yeah, I get that.

[00:18:39] And I find it very interesting because I see a lot of people starting

[00:18:43] companies with very generic ideas.

[00:18:45] And again, I'm making the distinction between generic ideas and super

[00:18:48] specific ideas like you're doing.

[00:18:50] But these generic ideas, they're typically also too late.

[00:18:53] It has already been done.

[00:18:55] The problem has been solved.

[00:18:57] But in your case, you pivoted to a product.

[00:18:59] Your customers didn't know that they have a problem yet.

[00:19:02] Actually, until the nuclear verdicts and I'm going to ask you to explain

[00:19:07] what the nuclear verdict is until that happens.

[00:19:10] I find it very interesting.

[00:19:11] Yeah.

[00:19:12] Anybody using telematics today is in huge trouble.

[00:19:15] There's about a 95 percent chance that when they pull data after a collision,

[00:19:21] the party who's at fault or the party involved in the collision will

[00:19:24] not have the ability to prove that they were proactive.

[00:19:26] And that's how they've been licensed.

[00:19:27] So we can talk about the nuclear verdict strategy that is highly

[00:19:31] efficient and is blowing up and why that's getting worse.

[00:19:33] Right. So nuclear verdict simple.

[00:19:36] Attorneys have figured out and this is insane.

[00:19:38] This is madness.

[00:19:39] This is why there's been a thousand percent increase in the last few years

[00:19:42] on the nuclear verdict phenomenon.

[00:19:44] The strategy is super simple.

[00:19:46] They realized that I can now subpoena GPS tracking records from the entity.

[00:19:51] So when I do that, I'm there's a very high probability like in the 90th

[00:19:55] percentile that you are not going to have any kind of evidence

[00:19:58] because of the problems I already know exists.

[00:20:00] You're overwhelmed.

[00:20:01] You don't have the time.

[00:20:02] There's a lot of different variables that exist in the fleet space,

[00:20:05] especially those where drivers or managers hesitate to coach drivers

[00:20:10] because drivers are very scarce and they're expensive to replace.

[00:20:14] So what do I do for you?

[00:20:15] If I have a problem with you, I'm probably not going to coach you right away

[00:20:18] because I don't want to upset you and have you go somewhere else.

[00:20:20] I also don't want you to use my words subjectively and say that I'm racist,

[00:20:24] sexist, biased, all that.

[00:20:25] Right.

[00:20:25] So there's a lot of components we've uncovered as a result of this,

[00:20:29] but the strategy is super simple.

[00:20:31] Now I pull the subpoena.

[00:20:32] Now I uncover the records.

[00:20:34] Oh, it looks like Florian was driving like a crazy madman.

[00:20:36] Thank you.

[00:20:37] Last 90 days.

[00:20:38] And what did you do about this, Mr.

[00:20:40] Marisi? Yeah.

[00:20:41] Well, I give him a generic training course once a year or once every three

[00:20:45] years, a big generic training course.

[00:20:47] Really?

[00:20:47] OK, so you're telling me that you put profits over people and that's

[00:20:51] when the jury goes, you get the big gas.

[00:20:54] You put them into an emotional state and then they go,

[00:20:56] I think we need to teach this evil corporation a lesson instead of asking

[00:21:00] for fifteen thousand dollars.

[00:21:01] Let's ask for five million, ten million, hundred million, a billion dollars.

[00:21:06] There's been a billion dollar settlement last year or twenty twenty one

[00:21:09] as a result of a nuclear verdict.

[00:21:11] Yeah, that's where the term nuclear comes in.

[00:21:13] Nuclear is anything ten million dollars are over.

[00:21:16] Right.

[00:21:16] So that's becoming a thing now that takes down the company basically.

[00:21:20] Well, in most cases, yes.

[00:21:21] And a lot of the times companies tend to have a self-insurance up to a certain

[00:21:25] point and they just keep taking hit after hit after hit after hit.

[00:21:29] So we know that's been super successful.

[00:21:32] They are doing it down to a T.

[00:21:34] Now, why I say it's going to get worse.

[00:21:36] Well, today they're pulling in data that's just data points on the report.

[00:21:41] Data points, data points, data points,

[00:21:42] heartbreaking, acceleration, all these different things.

[00:21:44] Right.

[00:21:44] They paint a picture, the attorney paints a picture.

[00:21:47] Now what's very, very, very popular.

[00:21:50] And what's the way that's coming is video adoption in-cap camera video,

[00:21:54] which sold with the idea that, yes, it's going to exonerate you in 30 seconds

[00:21:58] because you can pull a video and show that it wasn't your fault.

[00:22:01] You're clear to go. Right?

[00:22:03] Yeah, that is true.

[00:22:04] Yeah, 10 percent of the time.

[00:22:05] Right. 90 percent of the time when we subpoena those records,

[00:22:09] we can now pull emotional evidence clip after clip after clip.

[00:22:13] And I don't have to say where does the attorney.

[00:22:15] OK, guys, let's watch these ten clips where Florian nearly killed.

[00:22:19] Yeah. Well, until this collision happened.

[00:22:21] Now they don't have the same thing.

[00:22:22] They just go to the jury.

[00:22:23] I, you know, no more no more comments.

[00:22:26] I'm we're asking for 500 million and it's going to be a slam dunk.

[00:22:29] So it's very dangerous.

[00:22:31] This data that does not get addressed because they're not closing that loop.

[00:22:35] Every telematics company across I think the world has done a good job of saying,

[00:22:39] I can present to you a really beautiful scorecard to tell you how drivers are doing.

[00:22:43] That's cool.

[00:22:44] But what do we do after that?

[00:22:45] Yeah. And nobody is able to address that failure point.

[00:22:47] It's always comes full circle because first we had a problem that he had no video,

[00:22:52] right? Then we implemented video and now we've got a problem that we have too many

[00:22:56] so much video.

[00:22:57] The one solution creates his own problems because now you have video evidence

[00:23:03] of the driver driving badly and the employer, the company being able to know

[00:23:08] about that bad driving behavior.

[00:23:10] So it creates a new problem for him, which you're going to solve with the

[00:23:14] education part. Yeah.

[00:23:15] So what's the next cycle?

[00:23:17] So there is that big gap in the circle, right?

[00:23:19] It's just three quarters circle and then there's a big gap.

[00:23:22] OK. We have to address them now what?

[00:23:24] If we can't address them now what you set yourself up for some major liability,

[00:23:29] right? And as we uncovered in the last five years and as we're doing the

[00:23:33] research world, we were developing predictive coach.

[00:23:35] We realized it has to be a specific weight of training drivers.

[00:23:40] It has to be automated.

[00:23:41] It has to have knowledge checks to make sure that they retain the information

[00:23:45] and they were paying attention. You can't fast forward through our courses.

[00:23:48] You have to have a way to document it, right?

[00:23:53] Because if that now we have proof.

[00:23:55] So let's go back to that whole scenario of the court.

[00:23:58] They say, Florian, can I see Mauricio's GPS record?

[00:24:02] Sure. Boom.

[00:24:02] He's going to go straight for the juggler, right?

[00:24:04] He's going to go, it looks like they were doing this.

[00:24:06] And that's when you go, I actually have proved that I practically coached

[00:24:11] him on this behavior, this behavior, this behavior every single day.

[00:24:15] Oh, and by the way, since he joined our program,

[00:24:17] he's dropped significantly and is now a much safer driver.

[00:24:20] This just happened to be, you know, a collision that happened because it happens.

[00:24:24] So I was proactive.

[00:24:26] So we're flipping that on its head due to automation.

[00:24:28] And the automation is what's allowing

[00:24:31] our clients to be able to say, let's go ahead and let the system hold

[00:24:35] drivers accountable and we will still get the same not better results.

[00:24:39] And if we were to bring them in and not scale it, right?

[00:24:42] The concept of drivers talk to each other is very true.

[00:24:46] We are case, the case studies that have been released by Virginia Tech

[00:24:50] were very interesting in the sense that driver training wasn't assigned to everybody.

[00:24:53] It was just assigned to a few bad apples.

[00:24:55] Then they talked to each other.

[00:24:56] And when they all talked to each other, they started doing this.

[00:24:59] And I visually say the trend started to go down.

[00:25:02] They significantly reduced their risk because now they were talking to each other

[00:25:06] and they're saying, hey, guys, they're actually holding us accountable for this stuff.

[00:25:09] We need to get on our A game.

[00:25:11] And that's it behavior changed.

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[00:26:01] We'll see you online.

[00:26:05] Can you already predict what the next problem is that you're going to solve

[00:26:09] because every solution creates its own problems, as you see, you know, the the

[00:26:12] solution of bringing video into the car brings the problem that you can see

[00:26:16] that someone is bad driver being that for a long time.

[00:26:19] So now you're doing the training offering a solution for that.

[00:26:22] So what's the next?

[00:26:23] What's the problem that that generates?

[00:26:25] We need to think ahead as an inch as technology gets introduced today,

[00:26:29] we're monitoring the drastic behaviors on accelerometers and then comes in video

[00:26:34] being able to do face detection, being able to do drinking.

[00:26:37] Those things we hadn't even really thought about because the technology didn't exist.

[00:26:40] As technology evolves, we have to start tying our training to certain behaviors

[00:26:46] and specific culture.

[00:26:48] Right. So we have to start looking ahead.

[00:26:50] What are we going to do in the next version of predictive coach?

[00:26:55] It's it's now face recognition.

[00:26:56] It's now being able to see distracted driving through the eyeballs, not

[00:26:59] just hard braking, we're going to be able to see health.

[00:27:03] We want to tie this into the overall idea of driving overall safety of if Florian

[00:27:09] has high blood pressure and we know his route is going to be this,

[00:27:12] we need to reroute him to reduce his stress because that'll be less of a chance

[00:27:16] of an heart attack.

[00:27:17] We want to get that granular and want to be able to tie into any new feature

[00:27:22] that comes in so that we're not stale and then we don't work just

[00:27:25] specifically accelerometer.

[00:27:27] No, we're also able to tap into AI.

[00:27:30] We're able to predict based on weather patterns, based on traffic.

[00:27:33] So all of those things we have to really be conscious of so that we don't become

[00:27:37] stagnant and self driving cars, self driving cars.

[00:27:40] That's a great one.

[00:27:41] So we're very careful about looking at.

[00:27:44] OK, what does this look like for us in the future?

[00:27:46] Right. EVs, for example, everybody's jumping out of the wagon.

[00:27:48] Right. EVs, EVs.

[00:27:50] All right. So let's look at the overall EV concept that we have

[00:27:53] in the batteries does through the grid support this.

[00:27:55] You have all these different problems.

[00:27:56] Technology bringing more problems.

[00:27:57] So self driving cars.

[00:27:59] We are going into a space of a lot of artificial intelligence.

[00:28:03] AI is going to drive a lot of this self.

[00:28:07] This is going to sound funky, but there's going to be a point where our

[00:28:10] training is going to be geared towards the AI of the vehicle, right?

[00:28:15] Where we're having the idea of like this vehicle had this or this

[00:28:20] vehicle had this malfunction or whatever.

[00:28:22] And now we're having the AI kind of talk to the EV.

[00:28:26] That's frontier we haven't really crossed.

[00:28:28] And in most people's eyes, you'd be like, well, once a self driving car is

[00:28:31] going to introduce, you're pretty much done.

[00:28:33] No, because you know what else is out there besides vehicles?

[00:28:36] Work hazard.

[00:28:37] Talking about people at work where they have certain functions using different

[00:28:41] things and we can pivot from vehicles to actual managers and to forklift

[00:28:46] operators and the crane operator.

[00:28:48] So all of those things can still come into play because there's still going

[00:28:51] to be a human component.

[00:28:52] Self driving cars would be one thing, but there's still a human element

[00:28:56] of other functions of the job.

[00:28:58] Interesting. That's a typical bowling alley ever, you know,

[00:29:01] you're now targeting the first pin and then the question is what's the next

[00:29:04] pin? Are you taking a left or are you taking a right?

[00:29:07] So that's very fascinating.

[00:29:08] And also shows the visionary behind the product development.

[00:29:12] Yeah, you got a product now, but what's your product?

[00:29:15] I believe you mentioned the timeline of what's next five years.

[00:29:19] And at one point you as a product company and you got your story

[00:29:23] straight, you'll be educating the market.

[00:29:25] How do you balance like educating the market and capitalizing on the demand?

[00:29:30] Like just two different things.

[00:29:32] That's a great question.

[00:29:33] And it's been a very difficult balance.

[00:29:34] We learned from our first business reselling card wear always going with

[00:29:39] the intention to serve, always going with the intention to serve and do not

[00:29:43] make it about money, don't make it about I want to make the sale and I

[00:29:46] want to move on to the next one.

[00:29:47] Those relationships that we have today, we've been very fortunate to have

[00:29:50] for many years and they followed us.

[00:29:51] And it's really been a product of us being genuine.

[00:29:55] We're here to serve you.

[00:29:56] We're here to make your life easier and better.

[00:29:58] I'm not here to make a quick buck, right?

[00:30:00] If people get into the mindset and for all those that are out there trying

[00:30:04] to launch a business or really struggling, there is that itch or that pressure of

[00:30:09] I took the leap, I need to make money or else I'm going to die.

[00:30:13] Right.

[00:30:14] And so naturally you want to you get desperate and we've been there.

[00:30:17] You get desperate and you go, I just got to make a sale.

[00:30:19] And guess what?

[00:30:20] The customer will sense the desperation and it'll turn them off and they

[00:30:23] will close the door.

[00:30:24] So you have to be in the mindset of I'm here to serve.

[00:30:28] And again, even if you're not making a lot of revenue or a lot of money,

[00:30:31] if you switch your mindset to I'm just here to serve and touch as many people as

[00:30:34] possible and there's going to be somebody out there who needs you,

[00:30:37] who's been asking for you.

[00:30:38] And because they recognize and they sense that you want to serve them,

[00:30:42] the doors will open and you will close a deal.

[00:30:45] So for us, it's like let's we're a non pressure organization.

[00:30:50] We put a lot of iron in the fire.

[00:30:52] We talk to a lot of people.

[00:30:53] This may go somewhere today and may go somewhere in two years.

[00:30:56] They may go somewhere in 10 years.

[00:30:57] You never know.

[00:30:58] But we always talk about iron in the fire open as many doors as possible

[00:31:02] with the intention to serve and people will eventually come back and

[00:31:06] recognize for those that don't, it wasn't a fit and that's OK.

[00:31:09] We're not a fit for everybody.

[00:31:10] But having that mindset can truly help, you know, continue to move forward

[00:31:14] and get the best clients, not just any client because you got to be picking.

[00:31:18] So you're you're talking to a lot of people,

[00:31:21] educating between air quotes and one day they will come to you or not.

[00:31:27] And also your pointers, and that's what I find very paradoxical,

[00:31:30] is that you start making money that the moment you stop trying to sell.

[00:31:35] Yes, absolutely.

[00:31:36] So far, amazing.

[00:31:37] I think we covered a lot about your company.

[00:31:40] I want to switch the conversation a little bit around to some topics that are

[00:31:44] in the orbit of entrepreneurship.

[00:31:46] And that's also your private life.

[00:31:48] So for what I understood is that you started the family recently.

[00:31:52] I just I'm just dying to hear how that has affected your company,

[00:31:57] relationship with your company, relationship with your co-founder.

[00:32:00] What happened?

[00:32:01] Yes, started family, have two beautiful little girls, two or two.

[00:32:04] It's been I mean, the gray will show you that it's been quite an adventure.

[00:32:08] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:32:08] I saw a photo from last year.

[00:32:10] You're like like a full black beard and I was all gray.

[00:32:14] I have some grays in there.

[00:32:15] It's called, you know, just experience.

[00:32:17] But what's interesting is, you know, having a family even before having the girls,

[00:32:23] what I ended up there was a part of my life where I learned about.

[00:32:27] I saw this graphic where it showed like a graphic of a person,

[00:32:31] a young person chasing the money to get all this money, all this money.

[00:32:34] And then it showed a person of an old person spending all this money in

[00:32:37] hospitals, right? And I don't remember exactly how I went,

[00:32:40] but it was really around the concept of we are minds.

[00:32:43] We want to get all this money, all this money.

[00:32:45] And then eventually we get to the point where we either die or we don't get to

[00:32:47] enjoy it and that really stuck to me.

[00:32:49] And it was more so like, let's just have a life balance here.

[00:32:53] I haven't worked a weekend in 20 years, maybe like it's been a long time.

[00:32:59] And that's been by design.

[00:33:00] It's been more like I will work my butt off Monday through Friday.

[00:33:04] And then on Saturday and Sunday, I need to recharge because if I don't,

[00:33:08] I lose my creativity.

[00:33:09] And that's important.

[00:33:10] If you get to the point where you're just crying, crying, crying, crying,

[00:33:13] crying, crying and you don't let those creative juices flow,

[00:33:16] you're going to work harder instead of smarter and harder.

[00:33:19] So you got to really have that balance.

[00:33:22] The kids have really kind of helped me kind of validate that where it's

[00:33:27] okay to just close off on Fridays, shut down Fridays, back up on Mondays,

[00:33:33] because now it's family time.

[00:33:34] And I want them to see that the memories we create together are a

[00:33:39] product of the hard work over the last 20 years.

[00:33:42] So really understanding that the problems will be there on Monday.

[00:33:46] There's no such thing as a fire drill.

[00:33:48] Customers will understand if you do right by your customers,

[00:33:51] they will understand that you're human first family and no respect.

[00:33:56] I just like your respect.

[00:33:56] There's I don't call them clients on the weekend.

[00:33:59] I don't call any prospects on the weekend.

[00:34:01] Why? You need to enjoy your family time just like I do.

[00:34:03] And so for me, it's been really neat to be able to not only enjoy

[00:34:09] the fruits of all those sacrifices and risks and everything else,

[00:34:12] but it's just been really cool to just have a clear mind and to make this fun.

[00:34:18] If you're always about the grind, you lose that sense of passion.

[00:34:22] You lose that fun in it.

[00:34:23] Right. And when you have the family and the creativity,

[00:34:26] the ability to just disconnect, you come back recharged and then you have

[00:34:30] these crazy ideas which turn into good things.

[00:34:34] Right. So that's the grind versus giving space

[00:34:37] to creativity and being able to create a vision of where your product,

[00:34:42] where your company's going, where your life is going, where your self is going,

[00:34:45] where your family's going. Right.

[00:34:46] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:34:47] And if you work 24 seven, there's very little space for reflection, I guess.

[00:34:51] Yeah. You lose things you can never get back.

[00:34:53] You lose time with your kids when they before, you know, as they're growing

[00:34:57] and their more pivotal moments in their lives, you won't be there

[00:35:00] and you can't buy those with any amount of money.

[00:35:02] You know, how do you deal with that with your business partner?

[00:35:05] Has it ever been an issue or do they have the same philosophy?

[00:35:09] It was really cool because my business partner who took the role of my mentor

[00:35:13] early on, we've been working together for 20 years.

[00:35:16] Which 20 years, 20 years together. Right.

[00:35:19] Yes. Yes. And you know the stats on partnerships, right?

[00:35:22] I know. Yeah.

[00:35:23] I'm aware. So 20 years together, we we establish a mutual respect for each other.

[00:35:28] Although he mentored me, we always had that equal mindset.

[00:35:31] And at the time when we started the companies, the number of companies that we

[00:35:36] launched together, he was starting his family and he had babies.

[00:35:39] And so I always basically pushed him and he was good about, you know,

[00:35:43] I'm going to take this time for the family.

[00:35:44] Perfect. I'll go grind while I can because I don't have any kids.

[00:35:47] Go ahead. And then now it's kind of flipped where he's his kids are already

[00:35:52] gosh already going to college, one of us out of college.

[00:35:54] And so he's kind of more and he's understanding because he's been there.

[00:35:57] So it's it's very much understood

[00:36:00] of like, I get it and he's he's very encouraging.

[00:36:02] And our whole culture in our company with all of our team members is family

[00:36:06] comes first if something comes up, you don't need to call and try to get a hold

[00:36:09] of us to try to get the day off.

[00:36:10] No, go to go tend them and then tell us what happened.

[00:36:14] You know, just let some and that's created this amazing culture where

[00:36:18] we're all on the same page.

[00:36:19] It's family weekends.

[00:36:21] And we even encourage our team members do not answer the phone.

[00:36:25] I know it seems like you want to take care of the customer.

[00:36:27] Don't just do not.

[00:36:29] Right. So that's for me, that's very un-American.

[00:36:32] I would expect that from a Swedish company, right?

[00:36:37] Yes, it's very it's not the norm around here.

[00:36:41] Right. But again, we're not after the dollar or after their relationship

[00:36:44] and we're after that partnership.

[00:36:46] Is it also the secret behind your relationship with your business partner

[00:36:50] that you have the same attitude in life regarding family values?

[00:36:54] And yeah, I think so.

[00:36:56] I think it very much speaks to where we stand.

[00:37:00] He is very religious.

[00:37:04] He's very into the church, right?

[00:37:06] So he brings these values.

[00:37:08] We balance each other well.

[00:37:09] I tell you something about this partnership is I bring the crazy optimistic

[00:37:13] persona. He brings a very realistic like no.

[00:37:17] So our meetings will be like, I have this great idea.

[00:37:21] And then just like that's we got to make keep it right.

[00:37:24] Right. Right. Right. It gives you in in balance, right?

[00:37:27] Yes. And so that balance is it's been a blessing because there's been times

[00:37:32] where he's been down and I've been able to look at the opportunity.

[00:37:36] Just recently we had this situation where a competitor is coming.

[00:37:40] They're going to release a product very similar to ours.

[00:37:43] And he's texted me from this conference and he's just like about to jump off

[00:37:46] a bridge. He's about to cry.

[00:37:48] Like they're saying everything we said down to the T and in my eyes.

[00:37:52] At first I was like, this is an opportunity.

[00:37:54] This is a great opportunity.

[00:37:55] Right. And I'm thinking of all these positives as he's think.

[00:37:58] And so I had to talk him off the legend just like, look, they're going to help us

[00:38:02] educate the market. They can only take this much of the market space.

[00:38:04] There still leaves us with this much.

[00:38:06] This is a great thing and it'll apply pressure to our to their main

[00:38:10] competitor, which is our biggest partner.

[00:38:12] And so I was just seeing all these positives.

[00:38:14] So when we had through our journey of 20 years, when we had issues or

[00:38:18] situations where he's kind of like, oh, this is I come in with the whole

[00:38:21] but have you looked at it this way?

[00:38:23] Right. Maybe it's because I take the weekends off and I'm like, he's

[00:38:27] actually sometimes cranking away at Sunday night on emails.

[00:38:30] He doesn't expect me to reply and I don't reply.

[00:38:32] But he likes to work like I don't.

[00:38:36] But yeah, it's one of those things is like I come

[00:38:38] refreshed and like, but did you look at it this way that cup is half full?

[00:38:42] Yeah, I find that that's also an interesting point to make in Marisa

[00:38:45] about the partnerships and that you can help each other.

[00:38:49] He can help you staying on vision, staying on track.

[00:38:53] And you can help him by going off vision a little bit.

[00:38:56] Right? Yeah.

[00:38:57] We're doing it to speak enough.

[00:38:59] And if I'm one other thing that's really important in surviving a partnership

[00:39:03] and I think this is very important for any of those out there considering

[00:39:06] a partnership is just like a marriage.

[00:39:09] You'd never make it about money as soon as greed kicks in, as soon as

[00:39:13] there's that financial like money, money, money, what's mine, what's yours.

[00:39:16] Then you start running into issues because then the greed kicks in and it's

[00:39:20] an ugly situation. We've been so transparent with each other.

[00:39:23] I trust you 1000 percent.

[00:39:25] He trusts me with 10 percent.

[00:39:26] It's not about like, well, what are you doing today and how much money have you

[00:39:30] brought in now? You take the 80 this time.

[00:39:32] I'll take the 20.

[00:39:33] I'll take the 80 next time you take that kind of mindset.

[00:39:37] It helps a lot.

[00:39:38] And speaking about marriage, I didn't marry my wife when we had our first date.

[00:39:43] You didn't marry each other when you first met each other because you

[00:39:46] worked together for a bit already.

[00:39:48] Yeah, it helped a lot.

[00:39:49] So we're going to watch the end of the episode.

[00:39:52] One thing that stood out when I was was looking at who's Maritje,

[00:39:57] what kind of smart questions can I ask him is the idea of a vision board.

[00:40:03] And I'm really curious,

[00:40:06] just what is a vision board and how do you use it?

[00:40:09] Oh, man, life changer.

[00:40:10] So you've got two minutes.

[00:40:12] I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

[00:40:16] It literally transformed my life.

[00:40:18] I watched the movie The Secret, OK?

[00:40:20] And that was when I was like 18, not knowing that I had been visualizing

[00:40:24] things since I was seven before I even came to this country.

[00:40:27] But that sounds very esoteric, like dreamy up in the sky.

[00:40:32] Right? Yeah.

[00:40:33] And that's the whole concept of Secret is visualizing it or materialize.

[00:40:37] Right? Vision.

[00:40:38] Vision yourself seeing and doing these things, even though they might be

[00:40:41] far-fetched, it might be crazy.

[00:40:43] And I started that very early on and then it just kind of took off.

[00:40:48] I think at 18, I made it a point to always revisit my vision board every December.

[00:40:53] Every year revision, revision,

[00:40:56] revisit it, restructure it, make a new one and keep going.

[00:40:59] And I tell you, Florian,

[00:41:01] I've had some crazy stories where I put it on there and like, I want to do this.

[00:41:06] I don't know how it's going to happen.

[00:41:07] But and then it happens.

[00:41:08] Right. Like my wife is every box I put on my vision board,

[00:41:12] like check to a tee so much that it kind of freaked this freak me and it freaked her

[00:41:17] out where it was like I realized what I had and who I was marrying.

[00:41:21] And then I was like, I can't tell you this because she's going to think that I

[00:41:24] like stalked her and followed her.

[00:41:27] I didn't want to say anything about that.

[00:41:29] But then it's like a year later when I when I got her into the constant

[00:41:32] division bars, I'm like, did you know that you were a product of my vision board?

[00:41:35] She's like, what?

[00:41:36] And I just showed her and she's just kind of like, whoa,

[00:41:38] this is like mind blowing a little scary, but mind blowing.

[00:41:41] Right. So yeah, vision boards have been just something that I live by.

[00:41:45] Every time I meant I've had the privilege and honor of mentoring a few individuals.

[00:41:50] And the first thing we do is I need you to watch Secret and I need you to create

[00:41:53] a vision board and that's that a step one.

[00:41:55] What does it look like a vision board?

[00:41:57] This is like a physical thing or do you have to make something a Photoshop?

[00:42:01] Or what does it look like?

[00:42:02] Well, we got my wife being in the year, got a little fancy with it.

[00:42:05] She created a template where you can just drop in your goals.

[00:42:08] Typically it consists of seven nine goals for ourselves.

[00:42:11] And what I do is on my phone, I will put out my notes and my little notepad

[00:42:15] vision board like something that comes to mind.

[00:42:17] That should be a good one for the vision board and I'll add it.

[00:42:19] And that way at the end of the year, I don't have to then go,

[00:42:21] what goals do I need this year?

[00:42:23] Right. You already have my seven.

[00:42:25] But then what it is is basically you're looking at short term attainable

[00:42:29] goals so you can feel good about checking some out and long term crazy

[00:42:32] goals that you're just kind of like, I don't know how, but I'll do it.

[00:42:35] And then that allows you to then frame it.

[00:42:38] We she has a printed, we send it to the printer.

[00:42:41] We put it in a frame.

[00:42:42] We put it right behind the desk and then now you're

[00:42:44] subconsciously looking at those things day in, day out, day in.

[00:42:48] Right. And so then before you know, you come to the end of the year and you go,

[00:42:52] oh my goodness, we have done this and we've done this.

[00:42:54] And then if you even more exciting is when you go historically back

[00:42:58] to the ones you built and you go, oh, whoa, I like five years ago,

[00:43:02] I put this down and I'm doing it or I did it.

[00:43:04] Right. So it's just a really great exercise.

[00:43:07] I recommend to all entrepreneurs or any person who's trying to grow.

[00:43:11] Just it's a silly exercise, but it works and it works so good.

[00:43:16] So what's the exact science?

[00:43:17] What's the scientific formula behind that if you don't want to go into the

[00:43:21] universe provides, it's about attention, right?

[00:43:24] Yes. So let's just say, for example,

[00:43:27] one of my goals, another crazy one, I want to go to the World Cup

[00:43:31] and I put a picture of the World Cup in Brazil literally just the pictures will

[00:43:35] match the goals so that you can see yourself in them.

[00:43:38] Right? So I put a picture up there.

[00:43:40] I put a picture of the Brazilian flag World Cup 2014 and I was like, I don't know.

[00:43:45] And then by February, I had been invited to go and all like with our team,

[00:43:49] those on the Colombian team took a month off.

[00:43:51] Right. And so I envisioned it.

[00:43:53] I saw myself in there.

[00:43:55] I saw it for like two months, just two months or so.

[00:43:58] And then it happened.

[00:43:59] So it's just a mindset of being able to look at the picture and say,

[00:44:02] that's that's going to be me.

[00:44:04] I'm going to do that.

[00:44:04] And every interaction you have with everyone and with anything will automatically

[00:44:10] remind you or trigger things in your mind about the goals that you're looking at

[00:44:15] every day, that's the idea. Right?

[00:44:17] Exactly.

[00:44:18] Goes back to the saying of if you fail the plan, you plan to fail.

[00:44:21] That's basically what it comes down to.

[00:44:23] Right. So if you have no plans of your own, then basically you'll get with

[00:44:27] you but you happen to get.

[00:44:29] But if you make a plan, then it's a bit of a reality.

[00:44:32] Distortion field, is that have something to do with it?

[00:44:35] I think so.

[00:44:35] OK.

[00:44:36] I have a question for you and forward if you're good open to a question.

[00:44:40] Sure. What drives what motivates you and drives you to to interview folks

[00:44:47] and to bring this because this is amazing stuff, by the way,

[00:44:50] anytime a professional takes time out of their day to interview people,

[00:44:54] to bring these knowledge bits to their audience.

[00:44:56] What drives you like every day?

[00:44:57] What says Florian?

[00:44:59] I'm Florian.

[00:44:59] I got to go interview these folks and bring this knowledge to my audience

[00:45:02] because they'll benefit from it.

[00:45:03] Because obviously you're doing this to serve, but I'm just wondering what drives you.

[00:45:06] Right. That's actually a very good question.

[00:45:09] I have to be honest.

[00:45:10] I'm making this podcast.

[00:45:12] It seems like it's easy.

[00:45:13] It's a lot of work and there's a lot of preparation going into that.

[00:45:17] I'm not complaining at all.

[00:45:19] But just to put things into perspective,

[00:45:22] you really have to want to do this to make a podcast series.

[00:45:26] It's probably taking me like two days a week to build this season for

[00:45:31] a number of weeks and it's not generating any revenue either.

[00:45:36] So it's a labor of love so far.

[00:45:39] The one thing that I've always loved ever since I was a small child is to meet

[00:45:43] other people, so this conversation absolutely it totally energizes me to hear your story.

[00:45:50] You know, we would have never met in any way.

[00:45:53] And just business wise, we'll never know what comes from this conversation.

[00:45:58] Maybe nothing comes from this.

[00:45:59] Maybe it's just a nice exchange between two individuals.

[00:46:02] Maybe a few years down the road, we'll have a company together.

[00:46:06] I mean, this can go from nothing to extremes.

[00:46:11] So that's what I love.

[00:46:14] My wife has a podcast.

[00:46:15] So for me, the idea of doing a podcast is not completely foreign.

[00:46:19] So she helps me with this so that really helped me going.

[00:46:23] I'm really interested in business.

[00:46:25] I'm an entrepreneur for I started an entrepreneurial journey at 2007.

[00:46:31] It's 2023 now, so also 16 years ago like you.

[00:46:36] I love twists and turns.

[00:46:37] I've always loved the idea of being your own boss,

[00:46:42] you know, creating your own vision and fulfilling that vision.

[00:46:46] So that's why the podcast was the topic of business.

[00:46:51] I love technology.

[00:46:52] Well, if you put software technology and business together,

[00:46:55] you immediately get into startups.

[00:46:57] But what's a startup without a good idea?

[00:46:59] And this is also the thing that I find the most interesting and also the most

[00:47:05] difficult part of creating anything.

[00:47:08] What are you going to do?

[00:47:09] Because there's so much, so many things you can do.

[00:47:12] You've been doing your fleet management for more than a decade.

[00:47:17] I've been my company also for more than a decade.

[00:47:19] But there's so many things that you can do and how do you make a choice?

[00:47:23] How do you not fall into the trap of analysis paralysis?

[00:47:27] How do you get yourself started?

[00:47:28] Where does the idea come from?

[00:47:30] So that's the explanation of this this season.

[00:47:33] That's awesome.

[00:47:34] Well, congratulations on awesome podcast.

[00:47:36] And I want to thank you from, you know, sincerely, thank you for having me

[00:47:40] on the show.

[00:47:41] Really appreciate the conversation.

[00:47:42] Like you said, if we ever collaborate, that would be amazing because I love

[00:47:45] meeting people and collaborating.

[00:47:46] If you ever in Houston, you have a house in Houston now.

[00:47:49] So please anytime you want to come to Texas, come out and visit.

[00:47:53] I would love to.

[00:47:54] I thank you for your interview.

[00:47:56] It was absolutely a blast to hear about your digital ibuprofen.

[00:47:59] It's so interesting to hear how you dug into the customers pain points.

[00:48:05] And not just went for it.

[00:48:06] Oh, they just need some cameras.

[00:48:08] No, but why do they need cameras?

[00:48:10] What's the problem that they ran into?

[00:48:11] What solution to that?

[00:48:13] What's the problem that that generates to really go like peel

[00:48:16] that onion until you get to the bare emotions of I'm going to lose my company.

[00:48:21] You know, and at that point, that's where you have a pain point and that's

[00:48:24] where you can provide a solution.

[00:48:26] Marisa, thank you very much for your time today.

[00:48:29] Thank you.

[00:48:29] Like what's Lauren have an amazing afternoon.

[00:48:31] Good evening.

[00:48:34] And there you have it.

[00:48:35] Another inspiring episode of the ideate with Florian podcast.

[00:48:39] As always, I encourage you to visit our website at ideate with Florian

[00:48:44] That is ideate with Florian.com.

[00:48:48] Here you will find links related to this episode as well as other episodes.

[00:48:53] My name is Florian Horna and I hope the story inspired you.

[00:48:56] Thank you for joining me and until next time.