Ramon Ray - The Celebrity CEO

Are you looking to create success in your small business, or maybe build out your personal brand? We'll get ready because on this episode of Dealcasters , we speak to the CEO of smart hustle. Ramon Ray, who is also the author of the celebrity CEO. Ramon is not only an author, but a keynote speaker writer and event producer who works with very large brands in the tech space to help them with their credibility and authenticity. Also, here's a little known fun fact... Ramon loves ‘burnt pancakes!’ So get ready to be energized. Here's your master of ceremonies, Ramon Ray.

Chris - thanks for having me. Jim - thanks for having me. It’s great to be here and have fun with you all and I'm happy to serve. I think as you know, you all want to do release, provide value to our listeners for the time I'm on, I'll call it an hour for now.

So thank you, but I'm excited to be here for sure. It's our honor. Absolutely. And this'll be a, like a really good energy injection. Now it's time for the Ramon Ray Show. They're going to get some energy and they're going to find out just what makes you tick and your story. I know you're an author, you're a motivational speaker, and there's a whole lot that's going on with you. So, if you're going to let everyone know what Ramon Ray is all about and why you're here let everybody know the Ramon Ray story, if you will.

Sure. Absolutely. Today I'm a writer and speaker and event producer, author, and I work with very large brands and help them get authenticity and credibility. For their business. Can you take a look at what we're doing on Amazon? Amazon has “ca-trillions” of dollars that they can spend on anything, but they see value in having Chris and Jim to be personalities, to be real people with skin and flesh to represent the awesome work that Amazon stands for.

So that's what I do for large brands. Mainly in the tech space. Indeed, I've written four books. The latest one is The Celebrity CEO – I’m a speaker around the world, and I love to have fun and eat burnt pancakes and bacon on the weekends. So that's a summary of me or what I do.

You can't just throw “burnt pancakes and bacon” out there! When I saw that, when I went to your site, I was like, I like to eat bird pancakes and bacon. I'm like really? Burnt pancakes.

Chris I’m telling you, man, (I guess I won't take more than a few hours on this) but here's the thing, Chris, let me educate you a bit here.

Please do.

There is nothing Chris having three pancakes, this big little burnt, and please this is, it's really, you guys can't do this, but I take the pancakes and if they're not darker than me, then they're not dark enough. Thank you for laughing, Jim. Some people get don't know, we live in a P.C. world here so darker than me. And then you put that syrup, Chris and Jim, you drink that high fructose corn syrup on that bad boy. And then when the knife cuts and you hear (cracking soud) that plus with the bacon and OOOOOh!. (I know this is not the pancake show, but I had the defense. You allowed me, Chris). That's what I enjoy.

Hey, that's what I wanted to hear. That's why I tuned in today. I have to hear the burnt pancake story. It had to be a darker, you got it. That's awesome.

I guess if the syrup kind of makes up for the, you don't taste the burn, is that how it works? I don't know. So now you get it into the subconscious, some scientific, mindset, “Simon Sinek” way of it. I can't go with you. It's just, I guess it's like the barbecue chicken that your mama or the friend burned fuel on. Hardly. Anybody wants it. But you want that piece of you just, it just has that, yeah.

I like the edge of a burnt pizza. Like when the cheese goes over the edge of the pizza crust and a burns a little bit on the crust, I like that taste.

Ramon, what got you into writing? You've got four books. I can't even get my first one done.

Yeah, it's interesting journey. I've been in business for a while. I'm almost 50. So, I've been in business for over 20 years, doing some sort of content.

And when I say that meeting, I'm not into leadership, I'm not Mr. Diversity. I'm not into mindset. My thing is content world of what you both probably know very well. And I recall, I guess when I learned about what the internet was all about back in the day of dial up modems, AOL prodigy, that period of time, years ago, For some reason, content grabbed me and started to make my own blog at the time didn't know Chris and Jim, it was called a blog.

This is back in the days. And anybody listening to us live, I'd be curious if you've ever heard of Microsoft front page, if you have, you're probably over the age of yeah. See Chrissy. Yeah. You're yeah. You're either very much a techie or over a certain age. So, point is I would save it. Save the, the website in a publish it like three times a day.

lar per word? Could you write: 2000

I'm like, Oh, so that was literally, but if you get the kind of metaphor I'm trying to bring out, that was my stepping into this world of content. Can I write 10,000 words? Is that okay? I'm like every day when you get to do what you love, right? Imagine what we're doing here. Being able to serve people on video and add some inspiration and fun.

Hopefully a little bit of knowledge to people's day, too. But this is, so this is my world. I, that started many years ago, ink magazine, black enterprise. Some magazines that are no longer around smart office, I think, or office computing, something back in the day. So that's how I started my first writing.

And I must say though, Jim, I don't consider myself a writer, meaning, I have writers, I hire but I think, I'd like to think I know content and I have it here so I can write. Okay. There's those who call themselves professional hosts. And in fact, maybe even some professional hosts we find boring.

So, I don't, if that makes sense what I'm trying to say. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So, who are the types of people that you would work with individually? Are they content creators? I know that year, the book is called the celebrity. CE, are you working with C level people for content, I guess who would your ideal customers clients?

Sure, absolutely. Yeah. And focusing on, just bring that out. Celebrity seals really for those small business owners and entrepreneurs. Should be their brand. If you're working for, I don't know, American express or you're working for, let's say Amazon, we know the founder of Amazon, but they're not relevant to the situation.

It's the brand Amazon, but for us smaller businesses, jenny creates this cup it's Jenny's cup. She took the time to make it, if you get what I'm saying. So that's really who's smart hustles, sorry, celebrity CEOs for that smaller company that freelancer that entrepreneur, who's you know what.

I know I need to build up more of my personal brand. So, then who I work for predominantly it's the larger companies, but who's in the community of smart hustle. Chris it's truly us. It's those who are oftentimes they're not venture backed billion-dollar brands. So that's, what's, it's not, if it's helpful, it's not necessarily that fast-track startup was like, we have the cure for whatever, and we want to be bought by Pfizer, a billion-dollar company.

It's for small people. It's for smart hustlers. It's for those, I'm earning a hundred thousand, a million maybe 2 million. Us peeps as it were. I don't know you. You guys are probably like 10 billion a year people. So, category clearly you don't know what my bank account looks now, but I appreciate it.

I forget 9 billion, whatever. It's a goal. It's a goal, right? A little less than that. So, before we dive into some of the tools and feel free to shout them out, gentlemen, I can talk about each one really quick. So, I'm all about, as I said, what I'm not, but I'm firmly about personal branding, marketing and the brand.

You. This is what I do. Like Chris and Jim, I live behind this video camera, especially post COVID, pre COVID, still a lot of video camera and stuff, but we were in person, but I'm a firm believer. It's about, I don't have the money or the brand, or I don't want to smart. Hustle's a brand and that's part of it, but I'm comfortable it's me.

So those listening today, or afterwards, if you're in the position, accountant, doctor, lawyer, dog-walker whatever you are. And you're like my smile, who I am, my handshake, my brand, how I am, it's me. This is what we're talking about today. So, flywheel Jim Collins is a book called flywheel and Chris and Jim it's really helped.

I would say transformer uplift my business. Many times, a small business owner. We're stuck in the weeds about our business, but I found the Jim Collins flywheel. It talks about the short of it is what's that thing you do. Over and over, let's take Nike as an example, we invest a ton of money in a good shoe.

We work on the influential LeBron or whoever one day they'll call me and Chris to wear that shoe. And then, millions of people buy the shoe, the price drops, and then we do it again as an example of what your flywheel. So, Jim Collins' flywheel. Really, and I think it's called a mimeograph or something.

He doesn't call it a book. I forgot the word he uses, but Oh monograph. It's a really good book. I switched everybody go out and buy that to really know what your flywheel and up-level your business companies. Good to. Great. Is that the other book, right? Yes. Correct. Exactly. And good to great.

It's a good read as well in millions of read it, but I find that flywheel, maybe that one, that people didn't grab so much, but I find it's a short read. I have it in my bookshelf back here. Really good book, just to get you thinking. And he has a little drawings in there too. And I found that it helped my business to, to simplify, I don't know about you Jim or Chris, but I can go all over the place.

But when I do that, I go back to my flywheel. Okay. I'm doing a thousand things but let me focus on what's that thing I need to keep repeating. So, the book has been great. Yeah. And that's a great point. Cause I think a lot of times we have to stay consistent and that's where having that map in a sense of okay, what am I doing?

And I'd actually like to go back and talk about your book specifically, the The celebrity CEO. So, tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to write this book and really what are some of the lessons we can learn? Because Chris and I would say, even though we have company names, we are our brand, and you're probably like, this is probably the book we need to be read.

Yeah, absolutely. So, here's the nutshell of it is you think of an average or typical celebrity, Beyonce who pick what you want, Prince dead or alive, whatever. They don't have to fight to get fans to them. They don't have to fight to make sales. Everybody comes to them and know them. My hypothesis, my message is that all small businesses, unless there's exceptions should aim to be the celebrity CEO of your business.

And that spans two things in your marketplace, Jim, Chris Wright, I'm assuming are well-known are getting well known in the e-commerce online, Amazon of market in this community. That's what your, one of your niches may be. So, in your marketplace, Or it could be geographically, maybe somebody listening today, they're known as the best podiatrist in a small town in Texas.

So, whether your geography or marketplace that's one being well-known in that. And then the second part of that is that the aspect of building a fan base community. Let's take a look at the show we're doing here, right with Jim and Chris. We're not trying to, we're here to serve. We want you to buy and all that in a good way if it's for you.

But the point is first we're building community. Everybody listening is not going to buy that's okay. Chris shouted out, right? He said, follow us like us. Just tell us about it. We're going to be here next week and next week. That's the celebrity CEO, before I get a sale, as I call it, I want to ask for a smile to build the fan base and build the community.

And I find Jim and Chris, that's what people sometimes miss I'm begging Jim too much first by the pen, please buy my pen or whatever the product may be, what it said. I should just say, Hey, here's some tips and writing, or if you get the silly example of trying to make, instead of me just.

Building a fan base. I love that. You're thinking first about giving. That's so much about what many people forget and, if you're trying to build your business and you're trying to do this, and you're trying to achieve whatever success, however you define your success in whatever business that you're always trying to be a little self-serving in that.

And I think if you flip it a little bit and you say, all right, let me give here, let me figure out a way to. Give something, and that will come back to you that's what you're saying. It's here's my pen, here's my pen. Here's my Panama first. Why don't you start giving away and tell people, this is what you'll get if you use this?

Yeah. And Krista ticket further, I guess also on that, let's take the pen example. I think some of the dumbest examples sometimes, but thanks for rolling with me, Chris. But for example, just sharing with people, here's how you can write better, Chris. I just want to help you. Here's how to write better or communicate, whatever it is.

There's that improve your currents of writing. Then now that I know cook with Chris is not a writer in this short example, no need for us to talk. But if he's yeah, I write 20 letters a day. Maybe I have a volunteer program. I help prisoners who are incarcerated, and I help them. I add life to their lives.

So, Chris writes handwritten notes or to the elderly in nursing homes. He has that ministry or mission, whatever he's working on. Now I can say by the way, So y'all know what I mean, but that's the expand on that match the service you could drive by on the road, you can drive by, and there's a billboard, that's advertising a submarine sandwich, but if you're not hungry, you're not going to pull over and buy a submarine sandwich.

You're going to drive right by it. And I think too, Chris we've talked about what we like to do with this Dealcasters show is we bring folks on, no, one's like Ramon, but we bring people on Ramon included because we want to hear. Their story so that they can share with people. And we like to use this as a way to teach people, right?

We're teaching people about personal branding today through the eyes of Ramon. We've had, Chris Kermit says, talking to people about how to start ugly, right? You don't have to be perfect. And Dave Jackson talking about how you can profit from your podcast. And then we will talk about live streaming and podcasting tips and.

You may not buy anything and we're okay with that. We just want you to come back. We want you to tell your friends and because you're right. It's all about adding value because yeah, we don't, it's funny. Sometimes people joke about Amazon live is like the home shopping network and it very well could be, but we don't want to be the home shopping network show on Amazon.

We want to be a show that people like, Hey, these guys have good content, and they happen to, If you want to buy something that's okay. And if you don't, we'll still be back here tomorrow and next week. Cause, because we liked just being out here and we love when people leave comments, engage with us, we really are enjoying the community building part of this, I think.

Would you agree? I just love that Ramon brought up Microsoft front page. I think at that point, like if I had a mic in front of me that wasn't hooked up, I would drop it. That was Microsoft front page was like, huh? It was awesome. What's an accident my back when they rolled the internet, right?

Yeah, no, it's awesome. So, for those of you who are tuning in, maybe for the first time, or maybe are already, already big fans of Ramon and are tuning in and are following him, Dealcasters live is about what Jim was talking about. We'll go live Often we'll talk to influencers like Ramon and great people like, like him and as well as podcasters content creators, and listen, not only listen to their journey so that you can learn some life lessons and some business lessons from them, but also like some techniques, some tips, some things that right now you may be going through and you may be struggling when you're creating your YouTube channel may be writing.

But thinking about writing a book thinking about going live streaming, think about doing a podcast, where do I start? What do I do? What are some of the things that I don't, I only have a budget? That's this big, I don't have a budget this big, everybody says, I need to buy this particular big, DSLR, high definition, whatever camera we're here to tell you, you don't need to do that.

And that's the kind of stuff that keeps you and prevents you from doing that stuff. So that's what we're all about. And We're stoked that Ramon is here. Ramon has got a really interesting camera that he likes to use. Oh, and that's the lodge Ditech Brio. I've heard a lot of good things about it.

What was it about the Brio that that caught your attention? The things about the Brio that I love, and you're talking to someone a, as Chris had mentioned, the DSLR is you can't beat that great camera. And I think if you're going for the best, excellent, you should consider getting it, but for most of us, I'd say the 80 20 rule, right?

Most of us. Your webcam will work. So, here's the thing in brief, Hey, the webcam that comes in your average built in desktop computer, it's garbage. As far as I know, all of them are garbage, a hundred percent agree too. If you go for the El cheapo ish webcam, those are okay. And I have a, like a box of them behind me.

But when I got a lot detect Brio, Oh man, it's a bit more expensive than those who are looking for Ramon. Ooh, it's not $49 at 109. Here's why the light is great. I don't know if Chris or Jim want to add color into this feel free, but the lighting audit is great. Not built in. We may touch on that if we have time on external lighting, but the point is it sucks in whatever light you have better.

So, you look good too. I think because it's HD true HD and they have high resolution and all the kinds of fancy things that other people could talk better than me. It just looks great. So those are the two things have been three, the larger tech software that comes with the camera is off the chain. So, here's the thing.

Remember I do things as simple as I can. I have other people who are on Chris and Jim show, right? Who are more ninjas on this, they may have other cool gadgets, which are great. But for me, I was looking for a simple way to just switch my image. I can't do it now, but the logic tech software has third-party software to go to the camera.

You can do all combination keys and switch different views. So, for me Jim and Chris, listen, I bought in fact, two larger tech Brielle's from Amazon. And I am so glad I did. I have one, I keep my bag one that I use for my main computer. So, Logitech, Brio, it's definitely the computer to the webcam as it were to consider.

I love it. Cool. So, you're doing that switcher with that third party, or you can do that switcher with a third-party software with just one camera, or you need to do two cameras. Thank you for the clarification. So, the one camera, let me, sorry. Let me clarify the switching. Going from another image on my screen.

So, like we're doing so it can be remote and a PowerPoint or PDF or screenshot. That's what I meant to say. I don't have to ask somebody. Can you let me share my screen? Modern tech is a, get a little tech. I know you both know this, but those listening all OBS or whatever, it's all a virtual camera.

So, the logic software becomes a virtual camera. Enabling now I can do what I'll call little mint, just stuff, not like the ATM and all that. But I can do what I need to do, like picture in picture and stuff like that through the larger tech built in software. That's great. That's a great hack, man. I didn't even, I didn't even realize that you can use that as a switcher.

Don't just. Glazed by that, the fact what Ramon spoke about. And I want to go back to there. So, a lot of people that we talk to are doing presentations and that you may not necessarily be like some C-level executive or whatever, doing a presentation virtually you may just be, working for a company or you may be asked.

To speak somewhere or do whatever. And when you get invited it's typically a zoom but there's other options, but it's usually a zoom. And when you do that, you're really, whoever's running that zoom, you really under their control and under their discretion as to how your camera is going to be viewed, but when you can take control of it and when you can say, all right, Now I'm going to have a presentation and I'm going to make it look like this because I want my brand, my personal brand or my business brand or whatever I'm doing.

I want to be in control of that. This is a great way to just, you don't have to spend, $600 for a switcher or whatever. You can get a camera like this, utilize the software on this, and then you're pumping in your power point. You're in control of that. And you have that's that man, I didn't even realize that the Brio.

Yeah. And to your point, Chris, you can add a second camera. You all know this, I'm not going to get into it now, but another USB, but no need for me to say what you said, but you said it so well, but I just want to even underline it again. That's the Ninja. And I think that aren't there. There's, I think there's two types of us influencers, whatever, there's those?

I mentioned a Brian Fanzo maybe, or you or whoever, who do some Ninja stuff and it could be both of you, who do some and that's good. Nothing bad about it. But I think there's the 80 20 rule. I'm guessing most of us, we just want to do a bit better than we were doing before. And for those of you who want to be little symbol, but one to like Chris already said to be able to say, here's my PowerPoint blocker take Brio.

Perfect. And I think that's, and I think a lot of it to your point. Ramon is the fact that people don't realize look for an and I, and it's don't look at this cost. Sometimes look at that. This is an investment. Yes. An investment that's going to make you look good, better. And if you take that time, this is like you said, because I have, I have the stream cam from Logitech.

That's what I'm using. And I'll actually let me do square video. I haven't really played with it as much as I. One to, because I guess I've I'm really not doing that many square videos, but to your point, you can put things, you could get your logo on, on your camera without having to go through all these, crazy processes and you'll look better than 90% of the people that you're around even like on a zoom call.

And or the fact that I think. You can, with this camera also even w kind of change, how far of a field of depth do you want to make, if you want it to be closer, further away where that desktop one that's built in is not going to do that. And yeah. So now this is a great. And it's, what's amazing is that it's actually in stock because logic techs have been out of stock for quite a while over the last few months because of the pandemic.

So, it's good to see that. Yeah. I've always heard good things about the Brio. In fact, when I was considering the Brio, it was out of stock and I was able to actually grab the stream cam, but my other Logitech yes, these are. Great cameras. You can't go wrong. I don't think with a logic tech and you might have a second live.

The second Brio I'll sell you mine for four 99. Okay. 607 to seven 50. People will look at that price tag and go, ah, but I can get this brand for this price. And I think, in Ramon we talk about this on the show all the time. There's a reason why logic tech is known for what they're known for.

And a lot of people, do this and I've got to see nine 20 as well. And I know a number of people like yourself that ha that own a Brio. And they're like, yeah, they're throwing these other ones behind them in, in, in the back. Because, if you get a knockoff brand, I've seen a ton of them and they're called HD and they're, you're taking a risk and you could pave, what you think is, $80 less than this, that you're going to get exactly the same, but you're not getting this logic tech quality that, people like yourself have recommended for you.

That's true. This show, Jim and Chris. So fun. I could do this every day with you all. I just love it anyways. Let me move on before I get carried away here, but this is cool, and I love how you unpack Kristen and hope onto how underline you've got. You guys just work well together. I love this show, but so here's what it is.

I have a very small desk one and I'll give a little bit of background as briefly. I know time is short, but my point is we're all trying to up-level ourselves. There's been some of our brethren and sister who have all this equipment, they were doing studio work for years now. I've been doing online work of course, for years as well.

But as we're in this frame of reference we're all as hosts, we all need to level up. So that's, I think as I see it, we're talking about today. So, this little desk amount is that for those of you who have smaller desks, tight spaces, I do my space right here is really tight. This enables you basically to add a second screen to your computer.

I just plugged it in via. HTMI or whatever it was. I, my main computer and for the small desk, I have this right beside me here, the arm goes up and down. You can move it left and right.

So, I'll stop there and see what y'all have to say. But that's a simple, it's a simple tool. That just helps your day. And why do you want a second monitor? I should say that for those who are not into the second monitors, when you do things like this or anything else in the world, when you want to watch a presidential debate, we'll watch that, I guess in four years from now, but whatever you want to do it just makes things like that easier.

Yeah. I think a lot of, I think multiple monitors and. Yeah. They only have a camera right now that I can turn around and show what I've got in front of me. And I'm sure that Jim and Ramon have in front of them and why my wife continues to ask, why do you need another monitor? And it's Okay.

I'm going to try to explain this to her, but I'm just going to lose probably, but whatever is like to your point, Ramon, it's like when you get a second, just a second monitor. Okay. I have more than two, but when you get just a second monitor that just opens up your world in terms of what you can do, as opposed to having 48 tabs open and things, you've got to hide and, Double click your mouse in order to do, if you're pulling one screen over here, one screen over here, and you're pulling in different things from a content creation perspective, from a presentation perspective, it really opens things up and have the versatility that you're talking about here is killer.

Now I have you done that thing where you would turn it vertically. Where do you, when would you use something where you turn the monitor vertically? Yeah, for me, one main was I did it for space on occasion. I just turned it that way for space too. If I wanted the application or what I was using to just look different.

So, I just liked Chris, but I had the flexibility and the option, and I liked the images that Jim is scrolling up and down so you can see different uses. But yeah, I don't do it a lot like that, but to be able to have that some things, the website is made that way, or like when I'm on an interview with somebody, I can just see more of the screen.

So, it depends on that, but generally speaking, I keep it in horizontal view. Or landscape portrait where the portrait view, I think it is. I forgot what it's called, but yeah, but I like the flexibility. Yeah. And I think, this is so what's fascinating too, is like you said, so you can actually make it tilt.

And I've got this it's not really a desk. It used to be like a. A raised-up kitchen table. So, I'm actually able to stand at it, but yeah, it would be nice to have this arm that I can then adjust on one of the sides and put another monitor because you also, sometimes start to run a desk space.

If I can have that monitor, like even at an eye level, like maybe that becomes my could even become in theory, my Teleprompter. Cause I could get, put really big letters there. Cause then I wouldn't have to wear my glasses. So many of us are caught in these spaces. Like I, I have space, but I don't have like space.

Cause I start to, bleed over into other parts of the basement here where it's do I really want people to see the refrigerator or things like that? That's so I think this is a great idea to use for sure. And just like you said even being able to change the viewing angle can have a lot of things.

So, do you actually have two monitors and Ramon and your desk right now. And for me, I'll give the limited use again. We all, as creators, we're all using different things. Chris has what I think he said 47 monitors, whatever. That's just too many for me. But the reason, the main reason I got to was especially doing live video.

That's what I do quite a bit as a professional speaker. I do a lot of events working with you all on events and things like this. So that one thing combined, what we just spoke about, right? The Logitech feature Chris is that I can at least put the typical zoom team, whatever it is on one screen. And still see people glance over if I need to.

But again, as you, and I know I'm looking at the camera, that's just a tip for those, who are newer to this. Don't look at Jim or Chris. You can see, my eyes are diverted 80% of the time, look at the camera, but then I can still see the human face here. And then the. So, I can see the, my presentation, let's say on one screen, what I'm trying to say and the human face on the other screen.

And I don't have to switch back and forth. That's for me, the simplest reason. That's why got it. We got the headphones. So yeah, these are great. I was looking for headphones to get. It's amazing. You make one click and these companies don't have to track you down, but the bottom line, and this is something I can, I love them.

Java has software that you can like a little dongle. You can put in the computer too. If your computer doesn't have Bluetooth, like your desktop, many moderns when modern ones do other things. Feels great. So, I've had this ear for ages like ours can, and I wear glasses and you can't feel it. So, I think there's many benefits too, but I just it has a mic, some buttons here as well, busy, not busy mute, unmute, things like that.

So, for me, yeah, it's a bit pricey at what, two 49 today. But again, I think Jim, you said it, or Chris, it's an investment. And again, these are things part half of my day, either I'm doing calls like this particular call is coming through my speakers, but sometimes if my wife is in the room or I want to take a walk outside, so this job role evolved to is awesome.

I love it. I'm glad I got its good investment. Yeah. And I think you touched on it. I think. Comfort is an underrated component of what anal and listen. Jim calls me a sound snob, but and it's a big deal for me, but you can have the best, most amazing sounding headphones ever. But if you can't.

Get them off your ears. Quick enough. What's the point of having them on your ears? So, comfort is a huge thing. And we were talking to somebody last night and they were toying between a pair of Sony headphones in a, in another brand. And she ended up saying, I'm just going to get both of them.

And, whatever one I don't like I can return. And so, I think I don't think that's a bad idea at all. To be able to say it, should I get this job? Or I know it's two 49, or should I get this other one? Maybe this is more comfortable and to your point is a bigger investment, the battery life on this.

Thing was insane when I was, that is the big deal, man. Cause I use using the typical, right. We have the white or whatever color, Apple headphones as millions of us have. But I realized that was the main thing that, I have the older version. So, after a couple hours, it goes out two, three, four days.

And then the lady's voice will come in battery, low battery. Sometimes she's like my friend, if I'm alone, I just drain the battery for a few hours and then have her come home. She doesn't get to say my name, that I'm waiting for life for her to upgrade the AI. But yeah, that'll happen when it's just like she's tapping you on the shoulder gently.

Yeah, Ramon, you got to, yeah, you've been without battery for a while. It's time to tell him to get some battery life back out to you because you definitely are charging our batteries up today. So how do you feel, do you record, do you do live streams with this thing? Do you do podcasting with this thing?

How do you feel about the quality of the microphone? Maybe not for you, Chris, but for 99% of the other people of are its. No, I don't use it for that purpose because as you all know, you can see, I have here my podcast or Mike, whatever, or my big boy and big girl, Mike.

So, I have that mic, which I still hope sounds relatively decent, but you can, I, it does sound good. Good. I tested this mic with a friend, or I was just curious, you have the multiple mic settings point is I said, testing one, two, three, that I turned this off, put this one. They couldn't tell the difference.

So yeah. I don't use it for that, but, and I think part of it is, listen its job for Sony, whatever these big brands, they spend millions in this stuff. Hence to your point, Chris, I have no stake in this. No, no dog in this financially, but I'm telling you, you want to go for all? Let me spend the $29 headphones that look like this.

I promise you; it is not the same. So, it's to do you have to invest in yourself. If you want to get a return, other people to invest in you, you have to, Oh, I love that. I love that there's different versions too. There's USBC versions. There's the USBA, which is the normal version as well and mano and stereo.

If you're not using it, like if you're only using it for calls, if you're only using it for pure like spoken word and you don't really need stereo because you're never going to be using it for listening to music, maybe the mano version is something that that you you'd want to pick up.

It's a little bit less expensive. Chris, when you're finished doing your businessman, you've got nothing else to do. And you put on that Amazon, you put on that, that a prime movie. Come on now, you know it, that's true. That's true. When he, when you hear the water waving on the right side and the missile drop on the left ear, she tells you're low on battery.

You want to hear that in stereo? I don't want, you don't want that. You don't want her voice. Yeah. You alone? No, no one battery. The battery. Exactly. I think the other thing too is passive noise cancellation. So, it's going to cancel about half of the noise around you, but not.

Completely which I think that's key because in, we talk about when we talk about headphones often on this show, there's a lot of noise canceling headphones. And if you've ever used noise, canceling headphones, it's you're not going to hear anything else. You're only going to hear what's coming through and that's the technology.

And it's super awesome when you want to just completely check out. But if you're in a work situation or you're in a situation where you're in a home office and you need to, like if somebody's screaming, In the room next to you or something you have children, or you just want to have at least, a little noise peeking in.

I think this is a good idea to get, headphones like these that are multi-function and also allow a little bit of noise so that you just, don't completely not hear anything go, everything's burning around you and you won't even know. Yeah. You have most people in the movie crystal were like, there's a car coming stop.

And they're different. Jack Bauer type movie, but Jim, this is where the sound snob would you call an audio snob of Chris comes out. See, I didn't even, I didn't even realize that was a good Ninja tipsy, but now I understand why I don't hear some things. My wife goes, honey, did you pay that bill or whatever it is, I can hear that.

Cause she's in the office, good point. You also had another thing that I, Chris and I both could have used a few weeks back an honor, an interrupted power supply when the power went out. For me for 57 hours, but it would have been nice to shut things down, like without the power just going out because of a hurricane in Georgia, which who would've thought.

So, I have to, and if you want to just toggle back and forth between the two of them that I view, but one is the bigger version, which is for desktops, monitors, computers, and all this. And I'm not going to get into the signs of wattage. Not my skill set, but if Chris or Jim, no, but you can just Google it and figure it out.

But the point is that, or Amazon actually explains all of it very well. The point is I have the bigger version, which you sing. You know what? You can look on your own bigger and smaller version. The point is to be clear; these are not power supplies that were like for your power to go out for three days is not a generator.

That's what I mean to say a generator, but as Jim Hinton, what this is for and why bought it, Jim, my power fluctuates a few times a year. But for us a few times a year is going to happen each time our client we're on the phone with a client and that can't work. So, point is when the power fluctuates power shuts off.

These kick in my stuff keeps working. So, I got one for the router. Because that's the source of fail point, right? I got one for the router upstairs in my living room. And then one for down here where I am desktop monitor and a few other things. And that's what I use it for. So next time the power just goes off a real little bit.

I'm still online and it's happened before it's happened once or twice. It's worked other everybody else's Hey, who reset the clock? I'm like, I'm still alive wow. Yeah. I love how you've picked stuff. That is an investment, a lot of people, they don't think about this stuff until something bad happens.

And that's not the way to think. The way to think is to like listen to advice from influencers like Ramon Ray. How many times has this happened before you realized you had to get one of these and how many clients? Did you like, potentially lose or, it was a bad look or whatever, where, and you were like, I can't have this happen again.

I have to figure out what I need to do. This is the item to get. Yeah. And I had never thought of that of actually hooking it up to your router. Cause I guess yeah. Is if your router still has power, you can still get internet. Because a lot of times it's more than the fact that you have no power.

It's not that your internet is down. Correct. And again, you're right. If the whole community, whatever there's issues like that, but often in the, in getting way beyond, localize, it's just where the router reboots. That's what, one minute, two minutes, three minutes. You're off. So that's the purpose of this.

Once that fluctuation happens, router will still stay on and we're good. Cause even hubs, I find hubs go off and on real quick hub or router, meaning the telecom routers to be clear. Not the small like switch or whatever those in seconds they're back up. But the roller from your company, whatever, they got a blink, reset.

It takes two minutes, three minutes, whatever. So that's mainly what that, for the smaller one. And your other point too, about your power surging, this is the other way to protect your computer. Because this will keep things clean. We didn't talk about smart hustle. I know, like we talked about your books and everything.

Can you give us, let's talk about that for a minute. Yeah. Smart hustle and what, w what smart mussels. Yeah, so I've been, so my first company was small biz technology, net com, which I sold last year, 20 years to the date. So that to a federal blogger, you may know the person. Yeah. It's mobile technology.

That comment I wanted to get into more entrepreneurship. I am an entrepreneur started four companies sold two of them, et cetera, but I wanted to cover that more the journey. So, few years ago, I launched smart hustle.com, which is a media company. And again, going back to branding, right? There's Ramon Ray.

I'm always going to be who I am, but smart. Hustle's my vehicle. To which I can talk about entrepreneurship. So, on smartest.com, you'll find articles about entrepreneurship podcast, about entrepreneurship, thought leadership about entrepreneurship, really to help you start our grow your business. That's what we do all day long.

And it's listened. There's a lot of great content out there like that, but this is, if you like Ramon, this is my flavor of how I cover it. And thanks for asking that's smart hustle.com and Hey, the tools that we're talking about today, a lot of that, even though you won't see it per se, it's it powers a lot of what I do.

Yes. That makes sense. It's all about your system. And it just really helps you be consistent. Makes things easy. You don't have to think about it. Even just the little things like the power, right? You don't think about it. You think about it when it happens, but now that you've fixed it, it's like now it's not a problem.

So, what I find really fascinating with what you're doing is. Is how are you able to maintain this positivity and this energy that really, I think helps uplift others. What drives Ramon is it as Tim stone would say as a Dunkin donuts? Thanks for asking. It's hard, listen, we all have a gift.

That God's given us and those who don't believe, whatever you may believe in, but we all have a gift. We all have something about it. So, thank you for saying it. It's hard to know what that answer is to myself, but I like to think, I think this is just my specialty. And I say that because for example Jim is that I'm not good with spelling.

I act very impulsively. I'm very emotional. So, there's the things that I wish I had. Let's say maybe you or Chris had, right? Maybe you guys are good strategists. Good. In math. Chris has this gift for his ear and audio. He's a musician, I think, and things of this nature, right? I happen to play piano but it's not, I'm not a musician to that degree.

So, my point is those are not my gifts, but the gift that I have is I'd like to think. I see the glass always half full. Jimmy, do you punch me dead in the face? I would assume that you were saving me from something else. And that was to help me. That's just the kind of person, If you know the flapping game, if Chris would have come up to me and smack me upside the head, I probably like, Oh dude, thanks, man.

What happened? Did you,

yeah, it helps. So, thank you for saying that Jim, but really, I like to see the glass half full. I like to inspire people. There are many people hurting during this time. And I think if I can be with two other amazing gentlemen and help people, because you said, Selling and investing in this, these are tools you need to succeed.

So, my point is for me, I just like to inspire people. I have that spirit of can do that spirit of, okay, this went wrong. How do we do this? How can we make lemonade out of lemons? And that's yes, that is my DNA. That's how I roll. So, I'm just happy I can do that. And then I'm thankful for others, right?

As we get to know each other people have gifts. The I may need, Chris, maybe Chris, one day, Hey, listen, brother, you need to slow down, as it were, or Jim may say, Hey Ramon, you got too many titles in your blog. That's why it's not better. Whatever it may be. That's me. But yeah, I like to smile a lot.

I like to laugh a lot. I don't I'm serious. With my work, but I don't take myself too seriously. Life is too good. I love that. I think you touched on it. It's I always use that, that Proverbs, like iron sharpening iron, and when you surround yourself with positive people and people that maybe are not as.

Afraid to challenge you a little bit. And if you're open to that challenge, like you talked about, the spelling and your blog and whatnot and not take it personally, take it as like this. Person's wanting to help me this. Person's saying this because they want me to succeed. And so, they're telling me, Hey, if you do this a little bit differently, what if you do this?

And you can take someone as an opinion, and maybe you. I don't want to take their opinion. That's totally fine that, not everyone's voice is for everyone. And so, I love the fact that you think about first about giving to others and you think, and you don't let things get under your skin.

That a lot of people I think are too easy, too easily. They do that too easily where they take that as a negative thing on them. And they just don't want to take that as like a maybe I should work on that. Maybe it, maybe I can work on that to be better. And that's what that person intended to do to rise that ship.

Man, that's amazing. It's been amazing having you on the show, man, for sure pleasure to be here. You guys are both fun and I love what you all do and how you're serving your community. Are you serving the audience? And this is, as you said, this is the first for me, man. I love this aspect of sharing tools because it's.

Funny. I think I learned this when I worked for a CRM companies that, you know, and at first, I thought it sounded corny. If you don't let people buy your $10,000 program, how selfish are you? It's a bit of tongue in cheek in there, but the point being, if people are looking to just going back to what you are doing and thank you for shining the light on me, but I just want to say people looking to people need to buy these tools.

So, what I'm trying to say, these tools are needed. How much better to know two authentic guys who host a regular show, who are sharing with you? From authentic guests, what they're using, you're going to buy it. You can search all up and down. And Amazon has great stars and ratings, but this is the kind of show.

If you're going to do it, check out this show first and then buy it. For me, listen, we're all serving and serving our community. So, thank you Ramon. One of the best ways for people to connect with you other than watching this show, and then watching you speak at USA biz party. Where's the best way for people to connect with you.

Two things that appreciate and thank you for asking Ramon ray.com R a M O N R a y.com. Reach out to me, let me know how I can serve and help you just follow me all over the place. Or if you want content, we publish it all the time. Smart hustle.com. But thanks for asking Jim, and thank you, Chris, for allowing me to share this stage with you.

I've had a lot of fun really, and I think it's, I hope it's been inspiring and insightful for people for thank you, Ramon. This has been awesome. Thank you.

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