From Sci-Fi to ROI: Taming the AI Revolution

Since you used the word scary, I want to say it this way, change is scary. There are those people that it’s like, you could be in the worst mood. This guy gets in there with that crazy energy and you’re just like, you suck me right into where you’re at and I’m out of this bad now. I’m in with you. Yeah, let’s do that.

If you’re afraid of AI because you think it’s gonna take your job, do a better job. Dad was a great role model, loved him dearly. And then my mom was also on the education side. She was a librarian. And in fact, it’s interesting because she was a, uh, former Chicago police officer, which I didn’t know. So you’re an AI right now.

No one even knew what that was 30 years ago. That wasn’t a thing. Yeah, it was a sci-fi. Everything. Good’s on the other side of fear. Doing what’s right is never easy, but it’s rewarding value that, oh my god, that’s amazing. I can’t believe what I just saw. Seeing is believing, right? Seeing is believ. Seeing is believing.

Believing. Don’t let the fear of the unknown stifle you get stuff done. There’s one thing that all champions have in common. They get shit done. So welcome to the Get Shit Done Experience. Well, well, well, we are back at it again. Yes, this is the Get Shit Done Experience, also known as www.gsdxpodcast.com.

You can find us on YouTube, apple, Spotify, or anywhere that you love to absorb podcasts. You’re probably listening to us right now on one of those platforms, so thank you so much for doing so. Once again, I want to thank the team at T-T-S-G-G-S-D Technologies in 2020 designed for sponsoring, empowering this podcast.

We can’t do it without them, and we are just thrilled to be partnered up and creating great content to support brands and to promote amazing people. And speaking of amazing people, we have amazing people on the podcast today. In fact, I have a representative of. The GSD technologies brand, and that would be the one and only Jason Hoffman, who is the director of it.

Welcome to the show, my friend. Good to see you, Jason. Thank you, sir. I’m well, I I’m happy to be back, especially with this man over here. Oh my gosh. And speaking to that man, we’ve got the one and only Darrell Jenkins. He is an executive vice president and founder and partner of Spectrum Robotics out in Elk Grove Village.

Welcome to the show. Well, thanks so much, John. Jason, good to see you. That’s also where we would have a good round of applause again. Right. Jason gets, we gotta make sure, well, we, we insert the round of applause for you. It’s gonna sound like a stadium. It’s gonna sound like a stadium. Phil, we’re gonna put you up on a big billboard.

Yeah, it’s gonna be amazing. I love the energy in the room. E uh, editing by the way, is a beautiful thing, so, uh, we should, we’ll throw you out. You’re gonna be on a jumbotron. It’s gonna be awesome. I love it. Alright, so, uh, spectrum Robotics is, um. You know, an amazing brand that is extremely relevant. But before we get into that, and by the way, people, let’s play along here.

If you would go to the Google machine and look up Spectrum Robotics while we’re, uh, having this podcast and take a look, I think you’re gonna be blown away by some of the technology and advancement and everything that you’re seeing there. Before we do that, let’s meet the man though. Yeah. Okay. So I always like to, uh, to understand like how people get their start, but let’s go back even further.

Um, tell us a little bit about your upbringing. Yeah, so excited, uh, first of all, thanks for the invitation. Of course. Um, my background on the south side of Chicago, original 6 0 6 2 8, uh, south side. So those of that that are listening right now, forgive me. Uh, we, I think they made a show about that. Was that they did?

No, that was Beverly Hills 9 0 2 1. Oh, okay. But go ahead. Well, original 6 0 6 2 8, not everyone can say that. And I grew up in a very warm, loving, uh, household. Mom and dad, uh, were, um, workers, uh, father was with a Edison, Commonwealth Edison at the time, uh, doing some great things there. One of the few African Americans that was within, uh, Edison.

During those days, I learned quite a bit in terms of the challenges and the demands, the opportunities that we as blacks and Africans in the diaspora would endure and encounter. So dad was a great role model, uh, loved him dearly. And then my mom was also on the education side. She was a librarian. And in fact, it’s interesting because she often shared with my brother and I that she was a, um, a.

Former Chicago police officer, which I didn’t know. So that was, you didn’t know that discipline there. Okay. So was she a Chicago police officer for real? Or just to you and your brother? Yeah. Combination of the two. Combination of the two. Yeah. Combination of the two. But, uh, definitely a loving family, uh, in that space of progression, uh, growth, um, trying to make a transformative difference in the lives of people where we live.

Yeah. Uh, the other beautiful thing about mom and dad or the upbringing that we had, they always wanted to make sure that we were exposed, uh, to not only great people, uh, but also new technology, new developments, and, and just trying to give us the best that they could give us on the south side of Chicago.

I grew up near the Pullman area. Okay. Again, about a hundred, 1100, six. And great deal of affinity for that area. Uh, learned how to play some ball over that area. Yeah. Build some strong relationships. But then I also had an opportunity to meet my first electrician who happened to be one of our neighbors.

And oftentimes when guys would just hang out on Saturday and Sunday just doing what guys do, uh, he would often grab my mom and dad and say, listen, why don’t you have the sons come out with me to learn how to run some lines? Oh gosh. Some more, more of that needs to happen in the world right now. Yeah, definitely.

And in, in fact, I’m glad that you said that because it was not only, uh, that individual who was a neighbor, but another that was with IBM. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And he said, listen, come downtown. So now I’m. Blessed to be able to see the, uh, forest of concrete buildings. Yeah. And then be able to go into one of the, uh, big firms at that time and, uh, be introduced to technology.

So technology is part of something that I was always introduced to. As a young child and it kind of organically evolved. It’s pretty awesome because, um, your father being with Commonwealth Edison, right? Yeah. He had the technology part. Yeah. Right. He was, he was in that And then your mom being a librarian.

Yeah. You kind of were being, uh, raised with some of the key principles that are required in order to be effective in business. Yeah. Which is to understand technology and to be a great reader. I would imagine that your mom was probably saying, Hey, look, we’re gonna read. She’s a librarian. We’re gonna read.

Yeah. Right. So what was that like? It was a great joy. I had an opportunity to experience different, uh, aspects of reading and literary arts. Um, I enjoy culture. I, I also enjoy performing arts as well. Uh, but definitely being in the library is nothing like, and. I to some degree guys, I, I miss that environment.

It’s changing because you can do everything by way of Google or you can search. Uh, I still appreciate and welcome hearing Paige’s turn. Yeah. Oh, it’s great. And the feel of the book in your hand, the feel of the book in your hand. And I think that seems something that’s understated here kind of goes into like, uh, you know, the library things going away or people having the, the, all the technology at the fingertips and they never have to leave their house.

But something you mentioned earlier, which was very cool, is the benefit of, uh, community, right? Because it sounds like you got all these great in these great, uh, introductions into things that might be possible through the people that you lived with and trying to just make other people’s lives better.

And they did that for you as well. Yeah. And gave you those opportunity and that just came from local in the community. Yeah. It’s fantastic. And I feel like that’s kind of going away a little bit too. Well, how did that impact your life? I mean, I’m assuming that you had that same type of community around you.

Yep. Uh, so my dad was an electrician. Okay. So I got to learn a lot about that from there, like soldering on different, like boards and things like that, which turned into computers, which turned into me as being curious and interested. Mm-hmm. And, you know, uh, there was always the value of it doesn’t hurt to try.

Sure. I feel like people can get so far in life if they just can try something. Yeah. It doesn’t matter if you’re gonna be bad, just give it a try. Just give it a try. Yeah. You can do a lot more than you think you can. Everything, everything. Good’s on the other side of fear. Yeah. Always. Right. You gotta be introduced to it and then you gotta kind of overcome the fear and just go after it.

And that’s all just in your head anyway, you know? Well, you know, I, I think that’s is part and partial to the whole GSD type of movement. Yeah. Right. That spirit of fear or the attitude of it. Um, because the natural human condition is we fear the unknown, right? Mm-hmm. And until we step out and, uh, as a person of faith, uh, until we step out in faith, then, and only then do we overcome those obstacles or those milestones, or if I can be biblical here a moment, those Goliaths that we all see.

You see it on a golf course, right? Uh, how do you overcome that? Right. And, uh, and so how do you play the ball, uh, when you’re faced with some challenges? It’s all, it’s, it’s all mental, but there is a, to your point, there’s a, there’s a faith and a belief. Like if you wanna talk golf, you know, you look at all the obstacles first.

That’s right. Where do I not want to hit it? Mm-hmm. Once you’ve got the obstacles kind of identified, you have to eliminate them out of your mind. And then you hone in, like a fighter pilot would hone in on their target. Yeah. You hone in on that spot. I love it. I love it. That spot in the fairway, that’s that tree out in the distance that you wanna start the ball at.

Yeah. And you don’t take your eyes off of that spot, uh, until you set and you’re ready to hit. And, and the thing, the battle though, is the, the mental part. Mm. Of. You know, some sort of a trigger thought, like trust it, you know, stick it, hit it to that spot, and then to have faith that you’ve done it enough times, you’ve had enough repetition that your body is going to do what your brain tells it to do.

That’s right. And so I think there’s a lot to kind of combining the, the repetition, the belief, the faith. The muscle memory. Absolutely. Um, in business as well. Absolutely. There’s something else too that, that I love with this analogy is, you know, um, you know, you look at your obstacles, right? But the other thing you’re doing is you’re finding a path.

Mm-hmm. Because the goal’s right there and the path might not be easy. Yeah. And you might have shanked it over here and now the path’s real hard, but you gotta try to find your way through there. You know, maybe that straight path isn’t direct there because the tree or the bunker, we know whatever it is.

So you gotta kind of make your way around and find your way there, just like you gotta do in business. Right. The path isn’t always clear. You’re an AI right now. No one even knew what that was 30 years ago. That wasn’t a thing. It was a sci-fi, you know, idea. Absolutely was. Uh, certainly I’m of the age where I can speak about the Jetson era and, and all of us, uh, possibly may recall even, um, um.

Well, not just the Jetsons, but there was another one that came out. I can’t trying to remember. Flash Gordon. Oh yeah. Remember Flash Gordon? Sure do. Right. Flash Gordon. Now, that one certainly dates me. What was the one with Will Rogers too? It was like the little, the guy had like the robot with the big arms.

There was like all, and they were like lost in space. Space. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. God, I love that show. Yeah. But listen, I don’t want to miss something giant. Yeah. Hit it. Jason has said, and in, in terms of, uh, how you mentioned about navigating the course, right? Mm-hmm. And, and builds on what John was just spoke, speaking about.

You have to know what tool to use in the bag. Yes. Right. All of their place in, in, in order to overcome that Goliath or those obstacles. Right. Because every club or every tool does not work for each situation. Amen. Right. Not putting with my driver. Exactly. And, and I did not want to leave that moment because I think as part of business acumen, you, you really need to understand what tool to use at what time.

Mm-hmm. Right? You have the tools in your bag, but then there you can’t use all tools because all twos may not be applicable or appropriate for that given situation. Whether it’s managing your team, whether it’s your clients, um, dealing with, um, uh, revenue shortfalls. Mm-hmm. Uh, as we were talking about, uh, exactly as we’re talking about.

Even when the, in the AI space, it’s a buzzword to everyone. But I remember when it was not just a buzzword, uh, we were looking at artificial intelligence network. So fast forward when I moved into corporate, I was with, uh, three, three companies that actually focused in the AI space, right? Advanced intelligent network.

And this was when we had, going back to the, the big box in the, the mainframes. We were moving from wire line to wireless. And Jason, you, you remember this language, right? Oh, yes. And so we were making this forklift, right? You have to make these transitions, but in order to make these forklift lift moves, you have to have the right people.

The right tools in order to meet the customer’s needs and demands. Definitely. Especially with something new. Right. Especially with something new. And I’m hoping that we’ll talk about that at some point today because this new idea is something that we need to really address from an AI, robotics and automation space.

’cause everyone’s not there. Mm-hmm. Or understand it or understand it. ’cause it can be used in so many places. But let me tell you something that’s applicable to you otherwise, that that general idea is just so over encompassing that it seems like nowhere someone doesn’t even have a place to start.

Correct? Oh yeah, AI sounds great, but yeah. What, what, what is it gonna help me do? Yeah. And then it just seems so big that they can’t answer it themselves and they just pass. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. And so fleshing out, uh, what I call the pain point Jason, uh, helps us to really zero in on how AI would be used as a tool.

In order to bring about the change that’s needed within the industry or the market that you’re trying to approach? Yeah. You gotta have a problem first when I go to my clients first. Right? ’cause they’ll bring it up. Uh, I would love to incorporate ai. How? Yeah. Right. Exactly. In what way? And it’s like, okay, well let’s identify things that are repeatable or something that we can actually integrate.

Let’s, let’s, let’s find the problem first because we can solutionize around the problem. Yeah. But if you don’t even know the problem, then you can say the buzzword all day long and I don’t know where to give it to you. Yeah. I think it’s important for us to always walk in, in order to be in this GSD space.

Mm-hmm. Helping people to understand, um, what the problem is and allowing them to articulate it and not feeling as though. You’re trying to thrust or force a solution on them. Mm-hmm. But to help them to understand the pain point. Uh, and if I can just build on that John, for a moment. ’cause I mean, this is your show.

It’s your show. We’re rolling now. No, it’s your show, baby. Let’s go. We’re rolling over here. You you roll. I’ll sit back and watch it. Camera ball roll. Put the, put the camera on Darl. Let’s go. Hold on. Let me turn your mic up. Something’s about to get fresh. Yeah. So, but no, I, I do think that, uh, when you think about pain points, there is a distinct difference between an ankle pain and a dental pain.

With a ankle pain, you will tolerate it, you’ll endure it for a longer period of time. Mm-hmm. With a dental pain, you want immediate resolution. Yeah. So it’s a question of how bad does it hurt? How bad does it hurt? So going back to what Jason is saying, John. How badly does it hurt your bottom line mm-hmm.

Within your corporation, right? Or your potential to scale or your, your potential to innovate to a level where you can compete. Mm-hmm. Uh, I think what I think what’s really important here is this is something we all know is coming, but it’s so scary to so many people because we’re not educated. Look, we’re all experts at the thing that we’re experts at.

So when new things come on the block that we know can take us to another level, we almost always have a fear of it until we understand it. Sure. And we see other people doing it and we’re like, well, how the heck did they do that? All they did was just overcome the fear of taking the time to learn about it.

Have somebody in like Darrell to be like, no, no, no, no. Calm down. You still get to be the manufacturer. You’re still the trucking company. You don’t need to worry. Yeah. Like, I’m going to take this thing that you’re trying to solve and I’m going to use my solutions and you are going to get the desired outcome, but you’re not having to do it.

I’m gonna take that ball from you and do it for you at a price. Right. Of course, we’re all, we’re all making money, but I think the, the hard part for a lot of people is just getting over the fear of, I don’t understand it, so I’m just gonna stiff arm it. Sure. And yeah. You guys use great analogies by the way, because I love the one you just used is, you know, if you have a pain in your mouth, that’s something that’s bugging you all day long, right?

Uh, you got a pain in your ankle. It only hurts when you’re step on it, you’re walking, something like that. You can have relief from that. Or maybe, and this is kind of, and I’m gonna equate this to kind of what I’ve seen in my, you know, with, with my clients or in industries and things like that, with people asking me questions, is, uh, one of the other benefits to having someone very knowledgeable like yourself and know people, asking questions and things like that, is that, you know, maybe you’ve had that ankle pain for so long, you don’t even recognize it anymore.

Yeah. So part of it is getting it to a place where, you know, someone can say the II word and maybe they don’t know where to apply it, but then you help them recognize the things they should be looking for you. Maybe something they’ve never looked at before. Before. Because there’s always something, we’ve always done it this way.

Sure, sure. So I didn’t know that could be a different way. That’s right. Right. I didn’t know. You know, and maybe especially we’re gonna get into this more, but like with some of these robots are making to do like, you know, simple tasks that are doing like maitre d things or, you know, bringing things to places and they’re like.

I thought that might have only been available to someone who’s got a billion dollars in the bank. But it’s like, this could be for an every man. This could be, this could help you and it’ll help your employees have a better life doing the things they wanna do. And so the things they have to do. Yeah. Uh, Jason, you make a very good point in a excellent segue, because many think that it is a bit cost prohibitive.

Mm-hmm. You think only like a McDonald’s can have it. It can. Or a Walmart. What’s beautiful about Spectrum Robotics though, is that we also have an internal, um, financing arm. So we have a team of individuals with 50 plus years of experience, and they’re able to actually bring together an opex or a CapEx type of solution.

Yeah. Make it palatable. Right. Make it palatable. Right. So some of course want to deal with a, a CapEx, they, they have the budget, they can cover that. But others may say, you know what, I like to benefit from a 60 48, 36 month lease option. Mm-hmm. And so we make it affordable. Uh, like the word that you use, palatable.

Such that they can have the type of solution within their environment in order to address the pain points. Yes. And not feel that they need to skirt around it or avoid it because it may be out of the budget, right? Mm-hmm. That’s the beautiful thing about working with Spectrum Robotics. We have the ability to, uh, again, I love what John said earlier.

You know, to come into the environment and not force, fit the circle into the square or vice versa. Let me say where I can fit. Exactly. Or, or if I fit. Or if I fit. Yeah. Maybe he doesn’t, and that’s a very good point to make. Yeah. If I fit, and by the way, you, you might turn somebody down if the fear is so high and like they’re just not gonna get it.

It might actually, like, you’d rather have somebody who’s gonna partner with you Absolutely. And is gonna fully get it and is not going to be like, questioning and challenging and concerned all the time. Um, so I would imagine there’s a lot of education that you have to go through. Indeed. And that may go back, that may go back to the librarian experience.

Yeah. No kidding. They might need a neighbor to invite ’em over. Right. But you know what, I, I think it’s very, very important what you said, uh, in terms of the education part, right. Walking people through that process where they become more informed. Yeah. So that they can make an informed decision about what will bring value to their operation.

So whether you’re looking at labor shortage or you’re looking at some operational inefficiencies and you want to be a bit more conscious of how to, uh, reach your ROI or your EBITDA goals, that’s where you want to be. Mm-hmm. And you want to have that type of conversation. Something else, John? Uh, briefly I want to, uh, point out, you mentioned about partner, it’s very important given the technology space that we’re in Partner, e.

E exactly. Mm-hmm. Because the technology is so fluid. Yeah. You can’t be transactional in this. Mm-hmm. It’s gotta be your relationship. You’re mar you’re married at at this point. Absolutely. Like if they’re putting your technology in, you are an extension of their brand immediately. And you look, you’re, you’re taking their brand, you’re taking their vision.

Yeah. Of what the operation should look like and how they wanna scale and you’re bringing it to life. Mm-hmm. Like you, you’re part of the family now. That’s right. And, and the whole business model, we have the same sort of business model, right. Is like, uh, we, we benefit for when people grow mm-hmm. Because we’re partnered with them.

Yeah. And we partner with people that we think have a good business model and that will grow so that when we help them not have to worry about these things, they can do better and we get to grow with them. Sure. Right. And it’s kinda the same thing there, right? Because if your solution is the thing that you say it’s gonna do, and you tell them their ROI, and then that actually makes the service and everything better, and then they can open up another location, well guess what?

I’m sure they’re gonna need another one. Absolutely. The positioning, the scalability is important and starting at a key point, right? Mm-hmm. Key learning and creating that as what we call a POC, a proof of concept environment so that we can flush out what’s working. Uh, I tend to describe it this way. What do we wanna continue to do?

What do we want to change? Mm-hmm. What do we want to stop doing? Start, stop, continue. Exactly. Love that. Right. That’s kind of the Rockefeller principles right there. Maybe in one of the books. Or read Mom, I’m reading. I’m reading. Yeah. And I bet you that education part is like a lot deeper than people are thinking because uh, you know, at a, at a glance you could say, well, can the robot do this simple thing?

Well that’s cool. And they maybe look at it as like, okay, well it’s cool to have and it sets us apart. But then like once you get into the books and if they’re keeping metrics and things like that, you can be like, maybe this is douches your turnover. Yeah. People don’t understand how expensive turnover is.

Yeah. So when you start to think about the T or the turnover, you have to look also at the PTE part-time employee and the FTE full-time employee. And one of the things about robotic solutions is that robots do not have PTO using acronyms. Right. They don’t get sick either. It’d be really weird to be on like a all-inclusive vacation mm-hmm.

With two robots. Yeah. Oh, what do you want me? They’re on vacation too. Yeah. What are you doing now? It’s like, I’m just sitting in the same one of them. Jet skiing. That’s right. That’s right. So you have no PTO no paid time off. Um, but when you start to look at the numbers from a cost benefit analysis standpoint, yeah.

You now are able to see what one robot can do, uh, when you start to compare it to maybe two or three for people. Mm-hmm. Right. Uh, and we have similar, uh, models that we have deployed to help individuals understand. And you mentioned specifically about the mare d We have a food, uh, as well as a delivery robot, food and beverage delivery robot that actually is the mare d.

And it makes, runs to booths. It makes, runs to tables. It makes runs, uh, in addition to the support of the wait staff. Yep. So it doesn’t replace the wait staff. But here’s what’s beautiful about the Mare D. The mare D also has advertisement on the technology, right? So now you could sell space. You could sell space.

Exactly. You not only show your menu, but you can sell space. You could have sponsors. You can have sponsors. Yeah. You know, I, I just want, I wanna get this point out real quick Please. ’cause I think it’s important if you’re afraid of AI because you think it’s gonna take your job, do a better job. Mm, do a better job.

The reality is that AI is not designed to take anyone’s job. It’s to free you up so that you can be more creative, do the things that are more humanized, to take more personal touch, to take more, um, effective transfer of energy that are more customer service centric, that are more brand centric, right? So maybe you need to focus a little bit more on how can you play a part in being a bigger brand champion for the organization that you represent.

But as a CEO, as an executive, somebody who’s a stakeholder or an organization who’s taking on all of the risk is looking to create the best value and benefit for the customers in an ultra competitive world. And by the way, it is a competitive world now. It is no longer a competitive county. You’re competing with the world.

No matter what business you’re in, you’re competing at this huge scale. Which means that you have to find a way to be ultra cost effective and create the highest rates of return. So if you are a CEO or executive, you’re certainly going to look into AI and robotics as a way, an avenue to create the best brand experience and to create at the most cost effective manner.

Now, there’s two ways to look at that. Number one, it means that you could scale faster, which means you’re probably gonna hire more employees. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. So you’re not eliminating employees, you’re creating more opportunity for employees to be employed. But if you are an employee and you’re thinking, oh, they’re gonna replace me, maybe you need to think differently of like, how can I add more value to the organization?

So I’m irreplaceable. I hate to say it, but that’s the world we’re in right now. Yeah. It’s the world that we’re in right now. And I think building the value proposition is key, right? So when you start to say that maybe you’re waiter, a waitress, but now you are a robot operator. Yeah. Right. Because we come in and we provide the training and support.

That can be added to the resume, that can be added to your cv. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. That now you have acquired some technical skills that are transferable. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting, interesting thought and technical skills in the, you know, something that I’ve found that I’ve always loved with tech, you know, the technical world is at it’s very, um, it, the thought process itself.

When you go into understanding something that can only do what you tell it to do, you get to get real granular on, like, that thing has to happen before this thing has to happen. Before this thing has to happened. You start breaking down other problems that way too. Well, why does that work that way? Well, this thing must have to happen first and then this thing.

Oh. But that thing’s not happening. I bet you there’s a problem over there. Yeah. It helps you just break down the world and understand things a lot more, you know, easily. I think. What is the old adage? Um, how do you eat an elephant? Hmm. One by the time That’s right. A time that’s right. So, compartmentalizing, uh, things into small pieces or chunks.

Helps to achieve the goal. Definitely. You know, I watched my, uh, going back to earlier comment that John asked about family. I’ve been watching and observing with great appreciation how my uncle likes jigsaw puzzles. Yeah. My grandparents did. Whether it’s 500 or a thousand plus. Right. My point is it’s one piece Yeah.

At a time. And by the way, it’s also, you know, it’s, it’s peace with A-P-E-A-C-E as well. Yeah. There’s a great piece. Yeah. To putting each piece mm-hmm. In its place. Kind of that, uh, just that calm of just, it’s similar to finding a really good book. It’s like a form of meditation, right? Yeah. It gives you a chance to sit.

It’s quiet. And when you’re not, I mean, you’re looking for the pieces, that’s fine. Your brain power’s not all go in there, right? Because then you just start getting into your own thoughts. I me start reflecting on something, but I think there’s a piece to a CEO o or an executive that would bring in AI or robotics.

Mm-hmm. And be totally afraid of it. Yeah. And then implement it after the training and everything. And then to kind of sit back and watch it work. There’s gotta be a great piece that your customers have. Like, yeah, I made a good decision. This is pretty cool. Mm-hmm. I’m watching my business get to the next level.

This is pretty awesome. Yes. I would imagine there’s some feelings and feedback you get like that. There are, and there are. I don’t wanna overly spiritualize this. It’s fine. Go for it. But, but as a person of faith, that is the piece that scripture says that surpasses all the understanding. To guard your heart and to guard your mind.

Hmm. Listen to that again. The peace that surpasses all understanding to guard your heart and to guard your mind. So when you look at, wait, hold on a second. What does that mean? Can you, what does that mean? Unpack it? Yeah, please, please unpack that because I’m excited. I think I got it, but I don’t think I got it.

So, so you, there’s a level of. Inner peace, which is your point. Yeah. That one would have, and we were j we used as a launching pad, the jigsaw puzzle. Mm-hmm. We used as a launching pad being in a work environment. Right. But to know that now the employees got it, they get it. Ah, to now understand that we operationally robotically, uh, autonomously, we have something that is working, that is giving us a level of peace, not only myself as president, CEO mm-hmm.

Owner operator of an entity, but also a level of peace that my line staff has. Uh, and that brings about a, an inner peace that I go home feeling better about the day. Yeah. No, well, there’s your, there’s your purpose there. There. That’s what it is. There’s your purpose. Mm-hmm. And so with ai, with robotics, with automation, I think it’s embracing the purpose.

Mm-hmm. Which is designed to help augment the brain. Thrust. Yeah. The pressure. I hope I answered your question. You did, but you know, you guys don’t follow any rules whatsoever. ’cause we, we, like, we start off with like, tell me about your, your background, your upbringing, and then we just went right into it, baby.

That’s true. Let’s go a little Just dropping it. Just dropping it. Wait a minute, wait a minute. You’ll agree with this And weigh in on this with me. Okay. I went with you. Our, our technology is to deconstruct, right? Yeah. What has been constructed. Mm-hmm. So maybe that’s part of Who we’re you guys? That’s true man.

I’m trying to like get the feel goods out or like what you were, then you guys are just like, no, we’re going right here. I love it. This is awesome. I’ll do as well. Great. Oh, this is so good. This is good stuff I’m learning and I, there’s just a good energy and a good vibe in here. So. So your, your, your parents give you a great start.

The neighbors, you’re in a great community. Um, you’re started now, like you’ve got this, this kind of technology kick. Where do we go to university and when is it really kick with you? Yeah. Where you’re like first career, um, after, after university. Like when is a kick for you that you’re, you’re like, you know what this is, I I love this.

This is my lane. This is where I’m going. Because it couldn’t have been an AI first, right? No, because it wasn’t around. It couldn’t have been. Not at all. No, that’s, that. Although he is only 25 years old. I mean, look, he, I was assuming, thank you so much. Yeah. I appreciate that. Uh, certainly AI wasn’t around, but um, thinking intellectually about how to use technology has always been there.

Right. Thinking outside of the box, attending University of Illinois. Mm-hmm. Uh, not at Champaign, uh, university of Illinois, Chicago. Uh, campus. I really, really had a wonderful experience there my freshman year. Interesting enough. Had nothing to do with technology, nothing. I came from a business Yeah. Um, introduction, and I wanted to major in, believe it or not, anatomical studies.

Okay. What is that, right? Yeah. A study of human anatomy. Because I, my background is in art and design. As a kid, I just like to draw. Right? Yeah. And so I was always fascinated by just drawing. And I would draw and go to museums and you see things like that, human anatomy. So I said maybe I should study and, and, and designing and doing the drawings and illustrations in medical books.

Oh. Oh, that’s an interesting thought. Until they said you have to go to the morgue. I’m studying business. No, thank you. Yes. True story. Yeah. That dissect labs are no fun. That’s right. So not for me. And, and so at that point, uh, university of Illinois, and then I spent some time, um, being introduced to the technology through family and friends.

Uh, and then I was offered, uh, uh, an opportunity with a Fortune 500 company. And in accepting that position opened up a combination of all of the things that help bring Daryl Jenkins to the room. Isn’t that great? It is. Was it like operational efficiencies is sort of this is the stuff I love Jason, right?

Yeah, because like, I think far too often, uh, we just jump right in. Mm-hmm. Hmm. But, but you know, there’s a reason why Darrell is who Darrell is at this present time, and I like to live in the present with an eye on the future, but. I also like to understand how did Darrel become Darrell that we’re in front of right now?

Mm-hmm. So like what formed you? What shaped you? Yeah. Some of the cool mentors that you had. So you go to this Fortune 500 company entry level position like anyone else, starting out, make your way up and you and Fortune 500 is not easy. It’s not like a small to mid-size company where maybe you gotta jump four levels mm-hmm.

To get to right underneath the ceo, EO. Sure. Fortune 500, there’s like 30,000 steps that you gotta Yeah. Division. And the bureaucracy. And the bureaucracy. You know, 1% raises, you know, if you hit budget and by the way, you didn’t hit your numbers. There’s three more waiting in line. See you Darryl. Yeah. You better outperform.

Like, so, like you gotta perform like Fortune 500 is cutthroat. So that environment you could say is terrible. It also prepares you for the rejection and the rewards that, that exist in, in, um, starting your own organization. So talk a little bit about that journey as a young executive in Fortune 500 trying to make your way.

So are you familiar with the vin I’m being presumptuous, right? There’s the Venn diagram. Mm-hmm. And you got two circles overlapping similarities, all like those Olympic rings almost. Yeah. Or three circles. Or three. And in the, in the gray area is where the, where everything converges. Got it. Yeah. Where everything converges.

Yeah. Yeah. And I’m responding to your question using the Venn diagram as an illustration. All right. We got a first on the get shit done experience onm the imagining right now all, hold on, let me get my pen. So, so into this, um. Is my faith. Mm-hmm. My business and my lived experience. Okay. They’re not circles in and of themselves, right?

Mm-hmm. You bring them together to meet that, uh, point of convergence. Mm-hmm. Right. Um, synergy. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so bringing my full self, whether it was in corporate or community engagement, uh, family, uh, I want to always be in a position, guys, of being in the position to bring my full self to the room.

And I believe that is partly what’s happening today. Right. That was some degree of fear of trepidation in, in doing the, the, you know, and John is just a great guy. Mm-hmm. He, he’s wonderful at what he does. He, he makes you feel right at home, but to people that may not feel comfortable putting on a headphones, sitting in front of a mic.

You know, there’s something about creating a space that allows people to come to the room, come to the table full self, right? Yeah. Not being one dimensional. ’cause none of us are one dimensional. Mm-hmm. In retrospect, and if you were really to look at that Venn diagram, there are concentric circles of all of us and how do we function in each one of those circles and do it with a sense of ease or effort and tension.

Right is important. So, um, there’s something very important about what you just said. The convergence of these things, right. To get you to where you wanna be. Right. Because if you have your three circles of the things you believe are things you value, and they’re supposed to line up in the middle so that you’re getting fulfillment out of the things.

I can pull some from my life over here. That’s a part of me over here. There’s a part of me over here. That thing in the middle should be the thing that is, that’s, that has all parts of me. But when you push one of those circles out and you only have two that line up beautiful. This one over here starts getting forgotten about and it seeps in, right?

Because that’s where the burnout comes in. That’s where the resentment comes in. That’s where all these things come in. Well, so, and if you can’t have ’em converge at the same point, then you start getting these things with like, people are feeling fulfilled or having purpose or lacking authenticity. Very much so.

Very much so. And so here’s the thing that I personally love. Like you could be sitting in a room with two atheists. Mm-hmm. But you said, Hey, I’m a person of faith. Mm-hmm. And I think that’s brilliant. Mm-hmm. We’re, we’re not. I’m not. Mm-hmm. Right. But I’m just saying that could be the case. Mm-hmm. But, um, you’re not saying like, I don’t know these guys well enough to say if I’m a person of faith Sure.

You’re just showing up how you show up. Yeah. Right. Um, I think, I think, uh, there’s, there’s something I, I sit back and watch, right? My dad taught me to look for what you don’t see and listen for what you don’t hear. Mm-hmm. Right. And, um, and so sometimes I, I sit back when I’m in these podcasts and I’m listening to people talk, and I just kind of have these moments where I just kind of observe.

Sure. And, um, there is a level of poise and, um. Humble confidence. I think we talked about this, that, that you have, um, that is super smooth and purpose driven, but your style of articulating, um, is very engaging. I would imagine that that has been a huge asset for you in the boardroom. It has. Oh, and continues to be authenticity turns through, right?

Yeah. Tell me how, tell, tell us how like early on like that, did that come from the upbringing with your parents as like, obviously we all over our experiences become who we are and there’s a lot of polish that gets put on us as we have moments of adversity and we learn how to overcome it, but like when you feel like you found your voice, quite frankly, I think we’re often still in search of our voice.

I, I don’t think we arrive. Mm-hmm. I’m, I’m speaking for Darryl Jenkins. I don’t know about the two of you. That’s, well, that’s, I know for damn sure I haven’t arrived. I’m not so sure I’ve even gotten on the bus yet. Yeah. A lot of times you don’t even, you don’t even realize something that is value of value to you.

Sure. You know, in your early life, you get into a career and maybe, um, there’s an experience where you have your own personal values, but maybe someone’s asking you to do something and you’re like, yeah, sure, I’ll do it. And then you go do this thing and it makes you feel a way that’s like, I didn’t feel right.

Yeah. And then you kind of go, why didn’t it feel right? And then you can start, start identifying values or putting names to something that you hold true so that you can continue that through. But you obviously have to have that bad experience to be like, that is something I valued. I didn’t realize until I got that, you know, yucky, icky feeling if I’m doing something you didn’t want to.

So there’s a saying, um, do unto others as you have others do unto you. And again, this is not biblical. This is just a good business principles. Golden rule. Golden rule. Right. Uh, and so when you think about, everyone has a value proposition, right? And so John, I approach those relationships to include if I can use golf as a metaphor, right?

Everyone comes with their own giftedness, right? Their own ability, their own skill. You know, right? You might have an A player B, C, or D player, and they all bring value, especially when you’re playing in a tournament. Oh, four man, scramble four, man, scramble that D player man, making those six footers. So the A player or the B player don’t ever have to put That’s right.

Yeah. I mean that is, that takes so much pressure off. So the A and B player can just feel loose and feel free to play. But man, when you’re the B or a player and it’s like down to you to make that putt Yeah. For the team, uh, it gets a little trying after a while, so I completely agree. Now, you may never take a drive of the D player, but if he makes those six footers all day, that’s right.

Oh, that’s go baby. That’s, that’s right. And so understanding that is how you navigate, whether it’s a boardroom or discussions with, uh, within the workplace, individuals that may be disgruntled or individuals that are having a challenge. So having a understanding of the value proposition, who the individual is, what the organization, understanding the pain points helps individuals better navigate the terrain.

Mm-hmm. It’s always good, since we all love golfing. Mm-hmm. A good golfers benefits from a great caddy. You ain’t kidding. I need one. Love that info and caddy for me this weekend. If I could just hit it. You tell me everything. Oh man. I got so many times for, I just had, I just had it happen the other day. I had a five wood in my hand out of the rough.

There was no reason to go for the par five and two. And I said, heck with it, I’m gonna do it. Yeah. And I hit it and I hit it in the fescue, couldn’t find the ball, and the hole was a blow up pull. I could have just hit a seven iron out to the fairway and had a hundred yard, you know, 58 degree. Mm-hmm. Stuck it to four feet and made the pot instead.

You know, I needed a caddy at that moment to be like, just because your mind thinks it doesn’t mean you need to do it. That’s exactly right. And so when you, when you have that type of support system in place internally or surrounded, uh, by individuals that are like-minded, uh, you, you’re able to advance and scale and grow your business.

Yeah. And give better lives, I think, to your employees when you can recognize these things. Right? Like if I have one of my engineers, let’s say, you know, just any of my senior engineers and I’d go, okay, well you’re gonna be doing sales now. Yeah, I know that guy doesn’t like talking with people. He’s very good at the thing he likes.

Mm-hmm. And it makes him happy even if I don’t understand it, right. Because I do like talking to people. Um, so I wouldn’t do that to someone because as soon as I did that and forced them in there shortly after they’d be gone and they’d be unhappy. But I want people more over, more over your, your customers in the marketplace suffers.

’cause you’ve got somebody doing something they don’t like to do. Everybody suffers. Everyone suffers. It does. It doesn’t help anybody. Yeah. And you know, like I said, turnover’s, you know, expensive. And I do like to have my employees feel happy to come to work. Well, I’m not gonna do that by forcing them to do something in their lane focus nearly outside of things that they like to do.

I wanna build on that. There’s a certain ethics with ai, robotics and automation and. I do believe that while the technology is complimenting and bringing value to organizations operations mm-hmm. There’s nothing like being in community. Nothing. I, a culture, I don’t think I would enjoy being, having a humanoid engage us in this conversation right now.

No. There’s no transfer of energy. Yeah. So the, the, the beauty of a conversation like this is the soul that we put into it. Mm mm-hmm. Um, because this is, there’s a vibe, right? That vibe is short for vibration. That’s right. And everything works on a vibration. Yeah. So when the energy’s right, and you feel people are kind and genuine and authentic in their viewpoints, and they’re adding their wisdom to that, you feel that energy, you feel that vibe.

So you’re absolutely right. Like. Part of, part of, uh, you know, tuning into anything, whether it be content creation or, um, a proposal that you might be presenting in a boardroom to somebody is, uh, I don’t know about you, but for me, I’m, I’m not just listening to how smart they are. I’m determining how they make me feel.

Mm-hmm. Like, do I like them? Can I, can I, can I feel their energy? Are they someone I’d want to hang out with? Like, would I want to introduce them to my family? Mm-hmm. That’s when you know you really have a partner like you, you’d want to introduce them to your family. Yeah. And we’ve all been along around leaders or there’s certain types of people that can literally change the energy of the room by how they communicate or what they’re putting out because Right, they’re putting it out and you’re receiving it.

You can give it back or you can go shut off, but they’re giving you something. And there are those people that it’s like, you could be in the worst mood. This guy gets in there with that crazy energy and you’re just like, you suck me right into where you’re at and I’m out of this bad mood now. I’m in with you.

Let’s do that. How long did it take for you to tap into that? Because that is not an, um, an innate thing. It is for, I, I think it might be for some, but not in a corporate setting. I think in a, in a social setting, it’s a need for, some people just walk in a room and they just own the room and they, like, it’s literally a gift from God that it was just kind of granted to them.

And they have that. But I think that there are people who, it’s a hone skill that they develop through their time as it relates to in a business setting. Right? Because although we say, bring your authentic self, let’s just be completely authentic with a, about bring your authentic self. You can’t, there are versions of ourselves that we utilize in certain settings.

Absolutely. So in a business setting, like we still have to be poised and in control of our surroundings and use the attributes to make the most sense. Those tools that you were talking about. Right. So at what point in your career, um, maybe what role or at what, at what moment could you kind of take us back to where you went?

Okay. I, I’ve, I’ve found that skillset, I think that skillset was found, um, somewhat at an early age, maybe, uh, in my high school, really. Uh, and then it grew and developed over time. It’s still growing. It’s still developing over time because you often, uh, reach points of introspection. Yeah. You want to think about how you should be doing things, how do you engage with people?

But I think, uh, I love playing basketball back in high school. Uh, attended, uh, Corless High School on the south side of Chicago, and one of the things I really enjoyed was the synergy with the players. Uh, and also integrating the learnings from the coaching staff. Mm-hmm. Open team and just observing. And you mentioned that, by the way, the flow.

The flow. Right. Oh. And as a matter of fact, I just shared with one of our recent hires, uh, just yesterday, we were doing a deployment at a, a fairly large, uh, uh, customer. And I said, I want you to just go in today and, and do three things, OL, l. Right. Observe, listen, and learn. Mm-hmm. And so that mindset, I think started early observing, knowing when to just listen and keep quiet.

Maybe I should be doing more now. No, you’re on the podcast. You need to talk unless you know how to mime. And, and also you’ll learn far more, right? So, uh, that’s how it run. Respond to that question, John. So they talk about executives, um, being last to speak. Mm. Um. How long did it take for you to develop that?

Because I know for me as an up and comer, I’d be so excited about the fact that I learned something. Yeah. That I just want to like tell everyone what I learned. Mm-hmm. And almost can become off-putting. Uh, so it took a while to be confident enough to sit back and maybe not say a word and then be last to speak, which I’m still working on.

But I would imagine as a partner, uh, in an organization with several employees, you probably have company meetings, you have board meetings, probably have weekly check-ins and all those different things. Like how are you applying that? How does that work? Um, and you know, kind of being the last to speak and, and doing it in minimal words with huge impact, allowing people to shine.

That’s the simplest way of saying it. You do not have to always be the bulb in the room that brings light to the room. Uh, individuals have a giftedness and you use that word, so I grab hold to it. And you have to allow individuals and opportunity to bring their light to the room, uh, to rush in. And there’s a gradual illumination, light bulb, right?

Sometimes when you come into environments and you quickly turn on the light, it may very well cause people to recoil, blinding, blinding, understanding how to gradually illuminate the room. Yeah. Mm-hmm. The boardroom, the discussion, and not always seeking to be the first, but allowing other people as a basic business principle and practice allow people to shine.

That’s why you brought ’em on the team. Course. Right. You brought ’em on the team to shine, and what are you doing to help bring about that, that light, that illumination? Uh, so that’s what I do. I, I think at times it’s a growth, it’s a learning process. Um, you don’t, as much as I would like to say, everybody’s there, I can only speak for myself.

Um, that was a struggle early on because you feel as though you know things and you wanna, you gotta give, and you mark, you’re educated. Yeah. You, you, I worked hard to get this knowledge. I worked hard. Right. Uh, and humility, you said that earlier. Mm-hmm. And so I just had to do some introspection and you step back and say, going, going back to golf, I could have put it that differently.

Mm-hmm. Right? I, I could have played that whole differently instead of the wind was screwing me up today. Yeah. No, I could have done something. We could have done something. But some things are outta your control. Mm-hmm. But so how do you play with those elements? Or against those elements. You can control how you react, how you Exactly.

You control how you react to those elements because those elements are not going away. I can’t affect the wind, but I can’t affect how I do, I cannot not get to me that Right. And by the way, you can’t blame the wind either ’cause all the other players are playing in the same wind. Yep. So it’s Oh, so and somebody’s gotta win.

That’s gotta win. So the person who won, if the wind didn’t bother them that much, ’cause they won, so got no guss, they figured it out. I don’t know how in the world Scotty Scheffler paid in perfect conditions, but it rained for everyone else. No, he was in the rain too. Mm-hmm. I love it. So I, I hope I answered that question.

Yeah. And again, I think that it, it takes some time, uh, of growth. Um, and I have an acronym for that, but I’m not going to to use it. There better be for version 2.0 when you come back. Let’s make that happen. We’re gonna make that happen. And I hope that’s an invitation. Yeah, and it’s, of course, this is good stuff and I don’t know if we have enough time today.

Yeah, it’s, I mean, because there’s something to be said about the young male ego, especially coming up in business. Right. I had the same thing where it’s like me, like I’m doing it, I can do everything. I, it let me shine. I can be at the top. But that really hindered me giving out. The due diligence and the, you know, the flowers to everybody that was around me.

When you see yourself as that one shining spotlight, you forget that you have a whole team that’s there helping her. Right? That’s right. And you can rely on them and you can help. And you know what feels even better than taking the stuff for yourself? What’s that as passing those compliments and that, and that, uh, you know, everything that those other people did, I, I’m bad at taking compliments, so I usually pass off all the credit to everybody else anyway.

Mm-hmm. But it’s something that’s made me feel the best. And seeing a young person then light up when they get the credit in front of one of those rooms, isn’t that a great feeling? It’s insane. Yeah. It reminds me of a grid. A grid, right. Electrical grid. Each cell gradually illuminates, or the idea is to have one cell light the other.

Mm-hmm. Build it off of it. E exactly. That is, I think the mindset a leader has to have like a chain reaction. Like a chain reaction, right? Mm-hmm. You’re in the grid, you’re in the cell, but how do you make sure that your light like someone else? Yeah. And someone else. No different from, since we’re in the summer charcoal coming together.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It takes warm charcoal gets going, and then the next one to pick the next one and the next one and the next one. And businesses thrive with that type of mindset. You don’t wanna be the last is crawl, right? Oh, at least it’s, I didn’t even hear it. Like, it just, it just, it was like, it’s wants a burger right now after that.

I believe that. But uh, I mean, there’s something to be said about that. You know, like, you can look at it cyclical. You don’t want your light to be the last light. You should be passing that off to somewhere else. And that should start a whole nother chain of, maybe it’s an idea, maybe it’s a process. Maybe it’s just a whole brand new thing.

Right. It shouldn’t, you shouldn’t be the last one because that should be passed on to somewhere else. Yeah. Don’t see it with you. Right. Don’t keep it to yourself. And, and that’s where I love innovation in the space that Spectrum Robotics is in. Mm-hmm. Because we’re allowing individuals as, as a matter of fact, we’re hiring, uh, right now, uh, college students, uh, to come on, uh, as interns mm-hmm.

And bring that light right innovatively, uh, to help think outside of the box in some ways that we can bring new robotic and automation solutions to the marketplace. Earlier I just spoke about the, the food and beverage delivery robot technology, but we also have the floor cleaning robotic solution that does some of the basic things that everybody does.

But at the same time, you want to be able to reallocate those resources so that they can focus on bringing light to another area and letting the scrubbing, the mopping, the sweeping, the vacuuming, let that be done by a robot that we, it wouldn’t be nice if you had that janitor who didn’t really have, you know, maybe a career progression.

There wasn’t somewhere more to go, this is what they’re doing. Right. But by getting the robot that can do the thing, you can kind of put ’em more into a managerial spot where like, now you’re in control of what this thing is doing, so let’s make sure that everything’s squared away. And now you, you brought up, you know, you’re starting to learn more things.

You’re oversee, I would imagine too, for that analogy that, um, the personal pride goes up to another level, just for instance, so a janitor. Right. And thank you to all of them. Oh yeah, that’s right. Didn’t make the, that’s the hand that’s right there. And like, yes. Like, I mean, shame on us for, you know, we thank all kinds of people, but we, we take for granted the necessities and the things that happen.

You think those garbage cans just emptied themselves? Like you think the floors just were just were you could eat off of ’em on their own. No, those are hardworking people that are going in there. Um, in many cases, putting ego aside and going after it and taking on that job so that we have the niceties, um, of a corporate setting and so on.

It’s one of the building boxes. But I would imagine, I would imagine that if you said, Hey look, um, we’re gonna put a robot in this spot, and now you are in charge of. How that robot operates and functions, and, um, it’s gonna free you up to do this thing and then we’re gonna train you on this other element because you have more time.

I would imagine that the level of purpose, the pride, um, steps up because now they go home or they go to a family member and they go, you wouldn’t believe it. Mm-hmm. I’m now supervising this technology that is taking some of the busy work away from me, and they’re training me how to do this as well. It’s almost like they’ve gotta feel like, oh my gosh, I kind of, I’ve kind of made that next step, right?

Mm-hmm. And maybe there wouldn’t have been that next step without them, without that robot. I’m smiling because just two days ago, a 65-year-old individual shared that. I walked in a room and the natural, and you can read the room to some degree, right? Mm-hmm. And the natural reluctance or hesitance was, uh, this is re they’re replaced to me.

Yeah. Scary, right? But then having the conversation with the individual and getting to know the, the pain point, their story, the narrative, and then providing some sense of reassurance that this is how you’re going to be trained. Yeah. To be an operator. And had I not had that conversation, nor members of our team had that conversation, we would not have found out that that person was an auto mechanic.

So like there’s a whole nother layer to that person now that, right. Yeah. Right. So that’s, that fits. That’s his sweet spot. That fits. And by the way, had you not had that conversation, that would’ve been the undercurrent resistance. To partnering because after you left, they would’ve gone to management.

Like, Hey, look, how can you possibly do this? And then management might’ve been like, well, he’s been here for years. We feel bad. But the fact that you had that conversation illuminating the room again mm-hmm. Letting that person feel that energy. Like, oh man, 65 years old, and I’m now stepping up again. This is awesome.

Like, on my way out, this is my swan song. I get to do this. I love it. The cookouts a little bit different now. When you get to say, Hey look. Hey, what do you do for a living? Oh, you know, I do, uh, maintenance and janitorial support for a wonderful organization verse, um, a robotics operator in the maintenance and janitorial space.

Oh, that’s interesting. Tell me about that. Yeah. Well, you know, I, uh, that conversation changes as a sense of pride that comes into play. So pretty cool. That you’re taking this person at 65 years old up a level of pride of, of, uh, role. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Especially it’s that person, you know, if they’re auto mechanic, they probably saw a bunch of stuff around where they’re working that they wish they could have fixed.

Yeah. You know, in that maintenance kind of space. And it’s like, well, if I didn’t have to sweep all these fours, I didn’t have to. Yeah. Screwed ’em. Now I can go do that thing that I’ve been wanting to, I’ve seen that door hinge broken for, for months and I wish I could have got on there. I never could check it off my list and now I can.

And you feel like you’ve accomplished a lot, you know? That’s it. The ideal person that can be a technician installer or help with that diagnostic testing on our side. Yeah. Yeah. No kidding. Understand a little, huh. And maybe add some value with maybe a, maybe a comment about, I bet you if that if this little sorrow did this or this hinge worked a little bit different way, you might get a freed up here.

’cause this part’s hitting over here. Alright, so we’re talking about what Spectrum is doing and we’re, and we’re gonna get into more detail on that, but I want to talk on a grander scale. Like what direction is AI going, period. Like I, we see little bits and pieces and new things keep tripping out. It’s very difficult to keep up with ’cause it’s happening super fast.

Yes. And by the time you learn one thing, it’s like, oh my gosh, I don’t even know anything. Because six more things came out. But like, what direction is AI going in general? You wanna take a hit at this one? Well, I can tell you how I see it in where I am seeing it being used in businesses that I’m working with or people in that industry.

As I’m seeing AI being used right now more as a, um, data collection and analytics. Uh, so like, let’s say you have four different systems. They don’t talk with each other, but then you can get them integrated into Office 365 or Azure, and then you have a data collection and aggregation point and you put the AI on top of it so that you can start seeing trends of how things are going.

You can start seeing metrics, you can start seeing, you know, things that then can give you operational efficiency in your job. Yeah. And you know, they can analyze that huge data set and make sense of it before, you know, so you don’t have to have a person sitting there and doing it. And a very specialized person you might not even know how to hire for.

Yeah. Um, so big data and AI is the right space right now because much of that that’s being gathered, that we are producing, the energy that we’re producing is being gathered in a way that. It builds on the metrics, right? Mm-hmm. So data analytics, uh, uh, and then integrating that type of technology and an autonomous type of lawnmower, right?

So, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I’m thinking of actually investing in one. They’re pretty big. They’re pretty big. I get, I, I have a neighbor who has one. It’s pretty cool. I’m driving. I see this lawnmower just kind of like going up and down their lawn, just cutting the grass. Yeah. It’s like a Roomba for your lawn.

Yeah. And he’s probably sitting there with some Oh, no, he’s, he’s at the golf course. Exactly. Yeah. I’m sure he is. Yeah. He’s there. Freedom up an hour. Why now, by the way, golf courses. Absolutely. Or like, why would you not buy 18 of ’em? You see him? And so when I was on a course, get 18 of them, man, there’s, of course, I said there’s tremendous opportunity out here on the golf course, right?

To make sure that these manic, these the holes. The greens, the fairways are nicely manicured with robotic technology. Geomap it into a geo map into it. These are this length, this is at this length, this is the direct diameter just sits on the hole. It could just be like, Hey, it’s noon. It just comes out and starts cutting again.

So that it to be two holes. The stays of the fairway stays the same length. The green stays that pristine look that is needed at resorts and hotels. You know, when you start to think about where this is going, uh, I think it’s limited to our imagination. Yeah. Right. Uh, and again, I go back to Judsons. I certainly didn’t expect that as a toddler, as a kid looking at, uh, programs like that.

You know, not a toddler, but you understand what I mean? Yes. You gave me 25.

You could take it. I didn’t know. I didn’t know if he caught that or he catches everything. Oh, yeah. So, you know, observe, learn, and listen. Yep. The OLL, man. So, you know, I, I, I again think it’s very, very important to understand that the sky is the limit, as one would say. I mean, it’s not the only thing, right.

Think about farms. All of those things are being those, there’s a person in there not doing anything. Yeah. You know, they’re kind of just monitoring these huge combines that are doing the mapping of everything and doing it actually themselves. And studies are showing right now, Jason, that the farming industry is experiencing a shift with automation as well as agricultural robotics solutions because that has been in families for generations.

Fast forward. Some of the children or grandchildren are more, more acqui should say, or great grandchildren do not wanna necessarily do farming. Mm-hmm. The way their great grandparents have done it, or it’s no longer profitable the way they did, they lasted and they don’t know how to make this make sense anymore.

I grew up with so many farmers that they all lived on farms. Their main job wasn’t a farmer. They were out in construction or something because they couldn’t make the full-time farm thing work anymore. Yeah. Which is sad to see ’cause it’s the thing they actually loved. It’s in their family. It’s a tradition.

Yeah. And, uh, it would be great if, you know, efficiencies and things like that could make that a, a better thing. Yeah. So the technology where it’s going today, um, you have vertical farming, right? So that’s cool. It is cool, right? So vertical. It’s crazy. Vertical farming allows you to, uh, do your agriculture in, in a way that is more modernized and you can do an FTM, uh, from farm to market.

In a different way. Yep. Right. So less footprint and the water then can trickle down and evaporates back up. You’d be more efficient with how everything’s going. It’s great. Yeah. And, and so again, now you’re looking at some other ways of cost efficiencies, uh, labor shortages. The, the traditional farmers gotta be scared to death of, of that conversation.

I don’t know how many traditional farmers are back. I I think a lot of ’em, and I know those huge commercial farms, but the, that’s even the huge commercial farms are typically just essentially saying, Hey, we’re gonna buy you, you’re a subsidiary of us. You’re still having to deal with the, the everyday farmer that we would picture in our mind if we thought about a farmer.

Right? Yeah. And you know, if they’re three, four generations, they’re more sophisticated, they’re more educated that that all happens. Absolute. Um, but it’s still scary. Yeah. Because it’s just so. Different than the lifestyle that they’ve lived where, you know, you work with your hands and you work with big pieces of equipment.

You do, you do stuff, you feed America. You don’t sit back and wait for something else to do the stuff for you. I wonder if that’s kind of a scary thing for them, or if they’re em, are they embracing it at the level that is anticipated? I would say the answer to that is yes, but also there is, uh, some degree of fear.

And since you used the word scary, um, I, I want to say it this way. Change is scary. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right. Does that, does that work one? 100%. That’s all I deal with my clients is I’m changing stuff for them. It’s scary or fearful and I, I’m just grabbing onto the word you used that. That’s real. You chose to use.

Um, but I am of the opinion that if individuals are informed is no different from our Apple phone. And that wasn’t a blog, by the way, our iPhone or our Android. Okay. Again, no plug. But the point is people feared moving away from wireline. Going back to your earlier question, Hey, what’s your history? What your background wireline to now wireless?

Right? And so now people are using this type of technology to include, uh, cloud engagement, API. So people are interfacing differently today. Mm-hmm. No different from these laptops. No different from how we’re communicating by way of this wonderful podcast. Definitely that change for some is a bit intimidating.

It’s so interesting you said that because 25 years ago mm-hmm. If somebody tuned in and. Was watching this, they would think they were watching a TV show. Mm-hmm. Or a news broadcast. But this is the way the world has changed. Yeah. We’re in a, a small to mid-size business right now. There’s three organizations running out of this, this building.

You are an executive founder, owner of a small to mid-size business that’s scaling fast. You’re on as a guest and we’re creating our own darn media. Mm-hmm. We don’t need, we don’t need CBS or NBC, we’ll do it ourselves. You don’t wanna come talk to Spectrum Robotics? We’ll talk to ’em. Yeah. We’ll create our own show with ’em.

We think, and by the way, how, you don’t wanna put T-T-S-G-G-S-D in 2020 design on the news and do a cover story on them. We’ll create our own story. So there’s, there’s that, that’s kind of what’s happening. I feel like it’s the same thing as like, if you look back, you know, if somebody looked back 20 years ago and said, Hey, you’re gonna have.

Combines that are gonna go and you’re just gonna literally be in the field watching these huge combines go do this stuff for you. Mm-hmm. They’d be like, yeah, get off of my property. Yep. Use spaceman. Yeah. Get off of my property. But look, but look what’s happened. So to your point, you know, the sky’s the limit.

It really is, um, you know, how far our imagination can take us and how willing we are to. Not allow fear to creep in of progress. And I keep getting, go back to this golf analogy and it’s like kept sticking in my head. You guys are really flattering me because, you know, I love golf, so I can understand this language all day.

It kind works out you threesome right here. There you go. Let’s keep it up after this. So bring it in. So when I go back to it is like some, you know, one of the big fears in the, you know, the entire world is that the, when AI and automation comes around that they’re gonna be pushed out of a job and they’re not gonna have anything, blah, blah.

You know, that is a real fear for people that don’t understand it. Right? But when we go back to the gaff golf analogy, you know, say you have a whatever shot and you got, you got your five iron, you have a seven iron, you know, well, this would be hard with my five and this would be kind of hard with my seven.

I wish I had a six. Mm-hmm. Now here’s your six. Isn’t that a lot easier? You didn’t have to change. You just have to, you got another tool to help you. Why not do something that could help you do better? Sure. Make it easier. Make it easier. You know, uh, you had alluded to ethics, and I think this is another fear point for a lot of people that are not necessarily educated on it, but I also think it’s a fear from the standpoint of I don’t think that we, uh, let’s, from a faith perspective, I, I think we.

Uh, kind of understand who runs this dimension. Mm. We know where the actual, the actual kingdom’s in a different dimension. Now, you said earlier you, you’re not a person of faith. Oh, I am. Did I hear you say that? No, I, no, I said I am. I said you didn’t know Oh. What room you were in and you still proclaim the person.

I was about to say John, man, you are talking like a person of faith. No, I’m very much a person of faith, brother. We got, we got ’em right here on our, on our shoulder, so I love it. Alright, so my point is that, um, you know, this is a, uh, we’re not sure who’s in charge of this world, which is why it’s so important to, to have faith in, uh, a higher energy and spirit and so on.

And because of that, um, that makes it scary when you think about technology and who’s actually in charge Yeah. Of technology. Mm-hmm. You know, when you’re looking into conspiracy or you’re looking into any type of thing, they say, trace it back to the money. Right. And then you figure it out. Well. When you look into AI and you go into the depths of it where it’s originating, like what are the regulations on it?

Who’s in charge of it? Where’s that money going back to, like, what’s the main source of it? So, uh, the question being is like, how do we control this so that it remains ethical so that we don’t get out of control so that we are able to protect our information so that it doesn’t get so smart that it dominates us.

Like these are all things that I think do creep up into the minds of people, maybe in more of a social setting in their family room, but I’m willing to say it on a microphone and a podcast. I think that there is a little, little bit of, of a scare of like, not all people are good. Yeah. So, and there’s a lot of really smart people that aren’t very good that might be funding some of this stuff and might have some bad intentions.

So how do we guard against that? And I would like to piggyback off that for, you said like in your, your family room or something like that, where people might say, you’re saying out on microphone. Right? Well, I can tell you in the conversations I’ve had with clients that even some of them are very, is that coming up?

Oh, a hundred percent. Some of these owners would like to keep a server at their house instead of putting in the cloud, because I know where that, that my, my data’s in my basement. I mean, it’s not real. I, they, what they’re thinking isn’t the right path, right? Mm-hmm. Because they don’t know how data works, but they, they think if I have the physical thing at my house, I have all my data and nobody can get it.

Mm. And then, so it’s like anytime you had a conversation about the cloud, it’s like, well, I don’t know. What’s there, who has access or any of this stuff, but I know if it’s in my basement, I know where it’s at and I can see this the same thing, right? ’cause you gotta feed the robot the AI data so it knows what to do and all your metrics, blah, blah, blah.

You wanna make sure that you know where that’s gonna be and it’s not being used somewhere else. Or, you know, being manipulated with, or intellectual property theft or anything like that. Boy, we threw a lot at you. Well, I think they’re all in the same vein, right? Yeah. Ethics. How do you know where? How do you trust the person with what your data or where it’s being stored or who has access?

That’s an ongoing challenge. Always

identifying people that will be part of your team and sitting on boards that are also part of innovation creation, manufacturing, writing code. You have to make sure that you have someone that has a compass moral compass. For the common good of all people. I was actually prepared to maybe look at either my note, but if I can just speak very candidly, I think that’s where the challenge I think is, and that is what concerns me personally and also professionally.

The technology is not the problem. AI is not the enemy. Computers were not the problem. I remember when black and white TV first came out, at least some of the library books I read, that was viewed as the enemy coming into the home. Mm-hmm. Right. They probably weren’t wrong. And, but it, but monitor, because it was television programming.

We were programmed, we were being programmed, programed. Yeah. The TV didn’t have a motivation, but the people controlling the TV and the things coming through, it has motivation. That’s the point. It was what was on the tv. It was is the problem. Yeah. And so guarding that, that we watch, right. Because what comes into my home environment will, albeit programmed to the device or the TV that I have in my home, I still can sensor, I can still monitor, I can still control what I visually see and hear.

Yeah. Right. TV’s not the problem, but the TV is not the problem. It’s what’s on the tv. It’s what’s on the TV that can be the problem. Uh, and so. Again, I think that’s where a challenge is. And quite frankly, if I can say, I don’t know if we have an answer yet. I think it’s still evolving. We need to have forums such as maybe a podcast.

Mm-hmm. A spectrum AI type of, uh, a podcast where we talk about with your great work and your, your ability and your leadership to bring an understanding to, uh, how to navigate this terrain ethically. Mm-hmm. Morally consciously. Yes. Uh, in such a way that people will see and hear that I have been given a great tool to use and how do I use it for the betterment of all.

I can’t force a person to think that way. No. That’s the, that’s the DNA of mom and dad. Mm-hmm. That’s the DNA of household. That’s, that’s part of that. Cultural community that That community mm-hmm. That you’re part of. I think it’s also the reason why, you know, it’s really important that if you’re gonna hire somebody to handle as an organization, to handle your ai, you take a time.

You take time, yeah. To know who’s steering that ship. That’s right. Who are the owners? Yeah. What do they stand for? What’s their moral compass? What’s their brand purpose? What are their core values? What’s their culture like? ’cause you could just buy the product, but if you don’t know who actually is building the product, who’s managing the process, you don’t know what their actual intentions are.

So I think. To your point, it’s very important for an organization that is pushing out this type of product or solution, that the part of the buying decision isn’t just product or price. Hmm. It’s the total brand experience and who in the world built that brand and what did they stand for? Yeah. And, um, what’s their moral compass and greater purpose.

And then at that point, when you marry the two together and you go, okay, the technology is elite, it solves the problem, the pain point that we have. The pricing is competitive. Yes. Right. But the people are well intended. Yeah. Very intentional, very, very purpose driven. Mm-hmm. That’s when you make a decision.

I think the problem, um, that a lot of companies out there will have as it relates to fear, is because they’re looking simply at product or price. It might be transactional. They’re only looking at what the thing can do for them instead of who’s doing the thing to make the thing that can do the thing for them.

Mm-hmm. That’s where it gets a little sticky. So, um, buyer beware. It’s real easy. Just get, don’t, don’t just look at the product or price and don’t just talk to the sales representative. Actually get to know the brand and who’s behind the brand and what they actually stand for. And then buy from the total brand experience, not the product.

It’s relational, not transactional. Amen. Mm-hmm. That’s a partnership. That’s what it comes down to. That’s what it comes down to. And I like what you’re saying, like you need to have that kind of cap in of the ship, right. Because I’m sure you know, but if you have, you know, with my engineers or with any engineers, once engineers get into things that they can make.

They just wanna see if they can. Mm-hmm. Well, I think I could do that. And they will go, they will go, they’ll go, and I did it, I did it. I can do it. I can do it. They never ask if they should. Right. And that’s where that steering part is because you, you could make something that can do everything, but they didn’t, they, they just were more concerned with the technical, can it do it, not necessarily if it should be doing it or how it should be doing it, or like keeping those other things.

That’s where that leadership comes in and be like, well here it’s really great that you aggregated all this data and everyone can see everything and pull everything. But like, where are the negative consequences? How do we keep people safe from like, manipulating a system? All these other things. That’s where that leadership, are there monitoring bodies of ai?

Like, uh, is there They’re bubbling up. Okay. Uh, as a matter of fact, I’m very interested in offering my time to, uh, governance in, in this space to make sure that there’s some boundaries, some barriers there. Uh, you know, it’s something that I think is worded this way. Doing what’s right is never easy. Mm-hmm.

It’s rewarding, but it’s rewarding. Right. And so I think we had to always try to make sure that we’re doing what’s right. And now that can also be debated, you know? ’cause someone will say, well, how do you know what’s right? Mm-hmm. Do you see AI being something that, um, internationally there is, uh, treaties because let, let’s just face it, like look at Antarctica.

Mm-hmm. I think there’s a international treaty that is out there. Mm-hmm. That like nobody can go there and da da da da da. And that’s another podcast, uh, that we might be creating about conspiracy theories and General Bird and Admiral Bird and all that stuff. That’ll be super fun. It’s nice little, little aliens there, all that different stuff, but, yep.

But in all seriousness, there is a treaty about what people can do or who can travel there and so on and so forth, and how far they can go and airspace and so on. Do you see something like that happening internationally? Where there is a governance, perhaps a treaty that is signed, uh, from all the superpowers and all the countries involved, similar to a un type of a agreement that, um, we will share information, data and we will govern it in this way and we won’t cross this line.

And any country that doesn’t want to essentially sign in is locked out. Yeah. I do think that there’s a strong possibility mm-hmm. If it’s not already in place and, uh, functioning now. Yeah. Right. Uh, but I do think that again, you need to have some boundaries. You need to have some, uh, protocols, uh, that are in place to ensure that, uh, we do not cross the line.

Yeah. And I’m saying that in a layman’s voice. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, uh, I hope the powers that people will put something like that in place. Yeah. I hope they have the everyone’s best interests at mind. That’d be nice. I hope so. I don’t know who those powers would be, but if whoever those powers would be.

Um, perhaps you call Darryl and have him on that board. Yeah. ’cause we, we trust Darryl pull zero a little bit. Trust Darryl. Um, so I, I am curious if we were to walk into the facility. At Spectrum. Sure. What will we feel? Oh my gosh. What’s the culture like? Uh, well, first of all, we are located in Elk Grove Village, uh, about 10 minutes away from O’Hare.

A wonderful facility that has three PL logistics warehouse. We also have a product on display. Uh, there we do not treat it as a museum. So we use aji method just in time delivery. So we buy product and we move product, we sell product. Uh, so when you walk in, you are greeted by a, a warm smile and friendly personalities, uh, that are part of, uh, the environment.

Uh, and then as you, uh, come into that in environment, you’re greeted warmly and we sit down and talk to you. We, we want to sit down at the round table, get to know you relationally, uh, hear the story, hear the narrative, and better appreciate why you’re there or why you’re here, and if you will. Then we take some time to go through the product demonstration.

As a matter of fact, uh, we are hosting on a monthly basis, uh, what we’re calling and you’ll appreciate this, the two of you Robs. There you go. Webinars Robs, let’s see what you did there. And so I’m going to patent that. Oh, there you go. Tm. Trademark that baby trust stamp. That TM on there, baby, huh? No, Rob.

So the robbin idea is to make sure that we make available, uh, to persons who cannot attend in person. Yeah. Uh, the technology content’s king, content, content king. And, and at the same time, give a. Introduction invitation to come to the location, right? Mm-hmm. Home court advantage. Home court advantage. So, you know, what is really, uh, interesting is it should also, uh, act as a mechanism to break down fear.

Again, you’re educating people. So one of the best things that you could do with your content is entertain and educate. Yeah. Uh, and if you do that, you break down fear. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You break down the fear. Uh, and that’s one of the reasons why we wanna do this. And we also extend the invitation of people to come in.

It’s a costly endeavor, right? Yeah. When you start to talk about it’s marketing, putting that at your CapEx, you know? Yeah. Our robots can range from one number to another number. Mm-hmm. Right? And so when you start thinking about that, it fits in the budget, or sometimes it’s out of the budget. So people need to really, what I call, see more.

Mm-hmm. Uh, they want to see more. Yeah. See it, see it, touch it, feel it. And by the way, uh, the, the human brain has, uh, 6 million centuries mm-hmm. And 5 million of them are for vision. Mm-hmm. So we, we do need to see things. We need to see it. Mm-hmm. If we see it, it re, it registers, it resonates, it feels, and, um, that’s how our decision making process works.

That, ah, that shock value that, oh my God, that’s amazing. I can’t believe what I just saw. Seeing is believing. Right. Seeing, seeing is believing. And when you actually see a robot going down a corridor, uh, doing a floor cleaning, uh, maneuver, or, uh, mapping, scrubbing or sweeping the floor. It sells itself.

Right. A salesperson really doesn’t have to do it. You just have to be open to having the technology in your location and letting it work for you. Mm-hmm. What are your partners like? Our partners are strategic, uh, from the standpoint they’re looking to scale and we wanna scale with our partners. Uh, we also looking at adding more partners to our portfolio.

Uh, one of the other areas, uh, that we’re looking at right now is partners that are not just across the, the ocean or the pond. Uh, we’re trying to make sure that our partners are stateside mm-hmm. Or US based so that we can immediately meet the demand and not have to wait for, uh, turnaround of maybe six, eight weeks.

So we try to inventory as much as we can from a partnership standpoint, channels of distribution out of our location. So we have a central region, a hub there, and I like the hub and spoke model. Mm-hmm. Uh, so people come to our location and then we can, uh, deploy technology across, uh. Uh, regional or national scale.

Right. Uh, the other thing that I like about the partnership that we have a 24 7 support remote dial in. Mm-hmm. So we go to the cloud, we can troubleshoot just about that right away. Uh, you were about to ask that question. I was just about to ask how much, uh, services required, you know, per kind of robot or like, what’s that look like?

Yeah. So, uh, what that looks like, again, building on that 24 7 support remote dial. In the event we cannot troubleshoot, uh, online remotely, then we’ll dispatch a technician to go out and troubleshoot and, uh, take the naer steps at that point in time. How often are they kind of, uh, you know, needing to be serviced once a month?

Do you see it like maybe quarterly or, well you, do you see any correlations? You may be familiar with this RA acronym? Uh, SaaS and SaaS, uh, RAAs and SaaS model. So, uh, robot as a service model and software as a service model. So we do have a sub subscription based model, uh, and right now when product is being deployed.

We try to offer a white glove treatment. So after 45, 60 days, we still stay in touch with the, the customer. We make a drop in, we see how the technology is functioning. Uh, so it doesn’t require a lot of, uh, handholding. The technology is there. Once we put it in place mm-hmm. We train you, you should be able to operate it.

Now you talk about a subscription basis. You, somebody could buy to own lease. Yeah. You can lease with the option to buy. Yeah, lease with the option to buy one buy out on the back end. So you can do a BO on the back end and then the service is, uh, can be tied into that. Absolutely. You upgrade the service.

Absolutely. You can double down on service. You can, you know, how do you do that three year terms? Or five year term or one year term or, yeah, so we have very flexible financing in house. So you can do a three five or That’s awesome. Longer. Uh, so we do have, many customers are asking for an OPEX type of program.

So they want a 60 48, 36 month lease option. Uh, and again, we will build in the service component as well. Mm-hmm. So a RAs or SaaS model, uh, and then we, you have folks like. The guy you’re talking to that, uh, a part of the team. I think top down, bottom up, we try to model what we’re experiencing today. Good vibe, good experience, good relationship.

We want to make sure that people know that we are their partner. We’re not just there to transact. Now you have a robot sitting over there and it’s idle. That does not help you to achieve your ROI or your able to goal. I would imagine that doesn’t sit well with you either. It doesn’t sit well with me at all.

You wanna provide value, provide value. You the thing that’s gonna provide the value. If not, tell me so I can help you. Right. That’s partnering. Yes. Yeah. Right. And here’s why. That’s partnering because it, it’s important for people to understand that technology is constantly evolving. Always. Always.

Software updates. Think about the many software updates that unbeknownst to us we had late last night, all the time before you awakened. Mm-hmm. And truly started your day. That was a software, software update pushed to your device, everything. Everything’s fluid. Yeah. Everything’s working all the time.

Every single app on your phone, everything, how they communicate, how they get better, how they, you know, and those little getting better things can cause issues. But then you go in, you fix that and you just continually improving and why not? Yeah. So big vision. Right? How long’s the company been in business?

So, we’re a young company. Uh, we started in 23, so That’s awesome. Yeah. Congratulations. And you’re already, and thank you very much. Did you realize you were gonna scale this fast? Uh, we’re still scaling and we’re still, uh, looking for more room to grow. Yeah. And I’m hopeful that opportunities like this, relationships with you all.

The listening audience would allow us to do just that. We’re looking for strategic partnerships and looking to expand, looking to grow. Yeah. I, I think that’s something great is just, uh, you know, a lot like, like I was saying kind of in the beginning, a lot of people didn’t even know it was possible. Once you learn that something is possible and you know, something that isn’t just made for, you know, billionaires, you go, oh, well then I can kind of start seeing where this might be put in place to help.

Right. Because now it’s not something that’s unattainable. Yeah. Uh, so big vision as it relates to growing. Where, where do you see, what’s the BHAG? Yeah, well, we’re looking to make sure that we are in a position to build the, uh, the market valuation of the company and, and then, uh, maybe do, I’m socializing the idea with some colleagues of mine who are investors of an IPO, but I don’t think we’re ready for that just yet.

But when you say big vision, I would be remiss if I did not say that’s part of the. Horizon. I would like to be able to take the company to a point where we’re I just north of maybe a hundred mil And, uh, do an IPO with some solid contracts, employ a bunch of people Exactly. Change some lives. Really scaling.

I wanna change some lives. I want to change some lives. And we can do it through spectrum if you haven’t already. Uh, let’s remember it’s Spectrum Robotics and that’s www.spectrumrobotics.ai. I mean, that’s fitting, so that makes sense. And uh, I would imagine that, um, if you were to knock on their door at, uh, in Elk Grove Village and say, Hey, I wanna take a look, you would be greeted with open arms.

And a warm smile and probably a cup of coffee and a little bit of a tour. And um, or you could just reach out, you know, to Darrell on LinkedIn. Um, by the way, sent me a DM at 4:04 AM this morning. So this is clearly somebody who gets shit done. And that brings me to this point. The name of the PO podcast is the Get Shit Done Experience.

We like to talk about how thing people are doing those things and there is a very unique set of, uh, values and attributes that the top one to 5% have. We’d love to tap into that. So give us a little bit of your, your pillars of success, your kind of core values, your routine. Clearly you’re up early. I loved every second of that, although I didn’t respond until, until seven, but I was up at, I was up at six, so I’m not a 4:00 AM person yet because I’m, I’m up till 2:00 AM Yeah.

There you go. So I gotta sleep at some point. Um, but I am curious, like, what is your belief system and, and your, your strategy to get shit done? Yeah. So I think from a, uh, GSD standpoint, I have to ground myself in, and again, as a person of faith, I, I wanna ground myself in the word. I wanna spend some quality time, uh, in isolation, if you will, uh, before it gets too busy.

Mm-hmm. Uh, and we follow the agenda of the day. I try to start my day out just doing some introspection and just listening and just being still, and again, not trying to publicize this, but there’s a wonderful passage of scripture in Psalm 46 10 that says, be still. Know that I am God. Mm-hmm. And so I try to enter early morning into a space of just being.

And although as a business owner and operator, and many can attest to this, you awaken. Your mind is racing. You got the agenda, you got all of the things to do. Not to mention family do list, honey do list, but never. The reality is, I think for Darrell Jenkins, number one is what I just stated. Yeah. Number two.

Um, looking at that agenda from an impact, what type of impact do I wanna make today? Not just operationally, not as a business owner and operator, but who will I likely encounter today that I can bring about some meaningful impact that if I do not see them again. They walk away saying, that gentleman brought some impact to me in that short amount of time or in that 24 hours of the day.

Leave him better than you found him. Leave him better than you found them. So that’s number two. And then number three for me, uh, just having a spirit and personality of intentionality, right? Trying to be intentional about what I wanna do, what I’m setting out to do that aligns with the Venn diagram intentionality around each of those revolving areas of who Darrell Jenkins is right.

And when I come home at the end of the day, uh, it’s almost a replay of that, you know, just taking some time to be. ’cause we can hear all of the other ancillary stimuli that’s going on around us. Uh, but we really just need to sit down and, and prepare the mind, the spirit, the soul to rest well. To rest well, because that may be one of the reasons why I was up at four, because I allowed my, my inner person to get revived, to be recharged, to be refreshed, to be renewed, so that I can come to this day.

Hoping to have a wonderful conversation, which I believe we have. Thank you so very much. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you on, uh, once again, Darrell Jenkins, and if you, uh, are so inclined, please follow Darrell on LinkedIn. Check out what their organization is doing. By the way, if you pull up their website, it’s a beautiful website.

You’re gonna see a whole bunch of robots, um, that are in action and working. Um, there’s some dropdown boxes here where you can, uh, set up, you can see their media, you can see their blog, um, and you could also click, you know, a button for a demo and set up an appointment. Please do that. But I have a feeling that if you’re interested in something like this, just send Daryl a DM on LinkedIn and he will get back to you immediately.

Um, any final thoughts? Any final words, anything that you, you wanna leave with our listeners about? Um, you know, just a way of being, a way of thinking or, um. Why Spectrum Robotics could be such a great answer for them. Yeah. I think Spectrum Robotics can be a great answer because all, not only all of the things that we mentioned today, but we are a company that understands the value.

And I’ll use this choice work getting stuff done. Mm-hmm. Right. So we, we choose to do just that and we do not want to do it in isolation. So if you have some regret or fear or intimidation, uh, my closing and parting comments are don’t let the fear of the unknown stifle you get stuff done. Uh, and you can build on that how you choose to.

Yeah. But, uh, get it done. And when you get it done, in retrospect, you’ll look back and, and you’ll say, I’m glad that I’ve done this because I’m at peace, because I’m not, uh, looking at technology as a deterrent, but I’m looking at technology that will enhance. My operational efficiencies deal with labor shortage and also help upscale people for a brighter future.

Beautiful. And ladies and gentlemen, you don’t have to be a huge juggernaut organization to use something like this. There’s a solution that fits any demographic, small to mid-size company and uh, this is definitely one of those things. Yeah, where it would seem to me that you need to look less at costs and more on the potential return on investment.

Um, everything has a cost and I would imagine, you know, the cost of doing business for anything like this is always scary. But when you look at the potential efficiencies and the improvements, if you’re a scaling business. You’re gonna have to look more at what the potential return on investment is. How this frees you up, how it helps you to scale, how it helps your employees to be freed up, to be more creative and, uh, more innovative in different parts of the organization.

Um, how it takes away some of the busy work that might be holding back, um, the potential for growth, holding back people from actually being creative, getting into that creative space. So there’s a lot of different things. I think I’m speaking to the, to the choir here. I think you get it. Uh, but you know what?

I’m a podcast host, so of course I’m speaking to the choir. And guess what? Sing Better. And a great podcast host. So exceptional. Thank you so much for, for being on the show. Jason, always a pleasure to have you on. Once again, GS Technologies, pleasure director of it. And uh, thank you to Tim Ward for allowing me this opportunity to hop on the mic and represent his fantastic brands and Darryl Jenkins.

Sir, I wanna remind you. You got shit done. Thanks for being on. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Cheers. Love that. Another round of applause. Oh yeah. Put him on the billboard. Put him on the jumbo. Let’s go and we are out.

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