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May 22, 2024

850: PRIVACY and taking control of what people can find about YOU w/ Bart Kaspero

Embark on a transformative journey with Bart Kaspero, a trailblazing tech innovator and former trial attorney, as he unveils the power of Record Fixer—his revolutionary automation platform. Intertwining legal prowess with tech savvy, Bart tackles the pressing concerns of privacy in the digital age, offering a beacon of hope for individuals with criminal records seeking to reclaim their online presence. His compelling narrative bridges the gap between two distinct worlds, shedding light on the intricate dance between upholding privacy rights and leveraging cutting-edge technology.

Navigating the shift from the courtroom to the realm of data warehouses, Bart's story is a testament to the resilience and curiosity inherent in the entrepreneurial spirit. Our discussion delves into the technical and legal intricacies of Record Fixer, a tool that doesn't merely suppress information but seeks to erase digital footprints from background check databases, enabling a fresh start for many. The conversation extends beyond the technicalities, touching on the profound social impact of providing individuals the chance to progress without the shadow of a past mistake looming over their opportunities.

Closing on a note of inspiration, we raise a toast to the entrepreneurial spirit, celebrating the partnership between economics, finance acumen, and technology. Bart exemplifies the boundless potential that arises from a marriage of expertise and curiosity. Join us as we explore how Record Fixer came to be and discover the platform's role in championing a more private future, one cleared record at a time. This episode offers a glimpse into the heart of innovation, where asking the right questions can lead to solutions with the power to transform lives.

ABOUT BART
Bart Kaspero is the Founder and CEO of RecordFixer.com – the first and only App that helps people remove their criminal records from background check databases.

Bart is a self-described trial lawyer turned data nerd. In 2016, he became incredibly frustrated with winning in the courtroom only to see his clients' cases appearing over and over again online and during job screenings (through background checks). He went back to school to learn the architecture and language of database programs and went down the data rabbit hole. While earning his certification in data warehouse technology, he created an experimental app to automate the removal of arrests, charges, and convictions from the secretive and highly complex world of criminal data ecosystems. Once he saw his program working, he expanded its use beyond his own clients and began licensing it to other attorneys and consumer rights organizations.

LINKS & RESOURCES

Chapters

00:00 - Navigating Privacy in the Digital Age

10:14 - Record Fixer

21:19 - Navigating the Transition Into Technology

30:03 - Entrepreneurial Journey and Wisdom

37:09 - Entrepreneur Podcast With Brian

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.221 --> 00:00:01.163
Hey, what is up?

00:00:01.163 --> 00:00:04.671
Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:00:04.671 --> 00:00:29.925
As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and this is an episode that I'm so excited for because I've had the chance to connect with today's entrepreneur even before we hit record for a while, which was so much fun for me, because this is someone who not only has an interesting entrepreneurial backstory himself, but he's someone who is making something super accessible to people in the world of privacy, something that is delivering value to people all over the world at a really scalable way.

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But he's doing that from a place where he had to learn new things and expand new horizons and enter the tech world, whereas his background is as a lawyer.

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So let me tell you about today's guest.

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His name is Bart Casparo.

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Bart is the founder of Record Fixer, which is an automation platform built to help people with criminal records remove their information from background check databases.

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Before jumping into the tech world, bart grew up in Southern California.

00:00:57.209 --> 00:01:06.701
Down in Orange County, out of law school, he started his career as a court-appointed trial attorney and quickly cranked out over 20 jury trials within his first year.

00:01:06.701 --> 00:01:13.222
He eventually left to start his own firm and still practices regularly to keep his court skills intact.

00:01:13.222 --> 00:01:29.209
Now, what I love is that in 2016, bart's higher calling came to him and, after getting a certification in data warehouse technology maybe not the twist and turn that you expected from a trial lawyer, but after doing that he began experimenting with database systems.

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This eventually led to him building Record Fixer, which you're going to hear about all today, as an experiment for his own clients.

00:01:35.221 --> 00:01:42.623
Realizing how well it worked, he opened access to the public so more consumers could benefit from putting their privacy on steroids.

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There's a lot of stuff Bart's going to share with us today.

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I'm excited about this one.

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So let's dive in straight to my interview with Bart Casparo.

00:01:50.003 --> 00:01:56.194
All right, bart, I'm so excited that you're here with us today.

00:01:56.194 --> 00:01:57.343
Welcome to the show.

00:01:57.343 --> 00:01:58.986
Thank you, I'm excited.

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I'm really honored to be here, so thanks for having me.

00:02:01.121 --> 00:02:05.352
Heck yeah, I appreciate you being here, especially because you bring such awesome energy.

00:02:05.352 --> 00:02:09.725
If people tuned in today saying, brian, you're having a lawyer on, what's this episode gonna be like?

00:02:09.725 --> 00:02:12.269
You're gonna over-deliver Bart and I'm excited for it.

00:02:12.269 --> 00:02:14.527
But first things first, take us beyond the bio.

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Convince us.

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You're not just a lawyer.

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Who the heck is, bart?

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How'd you start doing all these cool things?

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I jumped down the rabbit hole, brian, I want to say.

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For 10 years I was practicing what most people would traditionally call criminal defense.

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For those of you who don't know, a court appointed attorney is the one that gets assigned to you if your family or you yourself can't hire a lawyer.

00:02:44.431 --> 00:02:45.474
So you pretty much touch every case under the sun.

00:02:45.474 --> 00:02:46.618
And I did that for a while, just like you said in the bio.

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I cranked out a bunch of jury trials, I went on my own, but there was an itch in the back of my head constantly and it was the same question asked of me all the time will this be on my record?

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Will this be on my record, and forever?

00:03:00.205 --> 00:03:09.141
Even up until now, this is a very misunderstood area of general knowledge, let alone the law.

00:03:09.141 --> 00:03:23.563
So I went looking through education and I know a lot of your listeners who are entrepreneurs take coaching classes, they take coding classes, some of them For me.

00:03:23.563 --> 00:03:39.002
I realized how geeky it sounded when you said it out loud data warehouse technology is pretty geeky, but it is the language of databases, it's the architecture of databases, and when people say, where is my criminal record, that's pretty much the platform that's being used.

00:03:40.502 --> 00:03:59.638
Right around that time, I actually started conducting my own research and was compelled to publish in 2016, early 2017, with a co-author, essentially calling out the database management systems as being inadequate to protect people's privacy.

00:03:59.638 --> 00:04:12.620
It's super geeky just like your intro about my degree but it actually validated my idea and I went down the rabbit hole.

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I started looking to see what can be built, what can be automated for people.

00:04:16.591 --> 00:04:27.543
I was very blessed to come across a full stack developer that eventually became my co-founder, my technical co-founder, and now I'm swimming in the world of privacy.

00:04:27.543 --> 00:04:38.442
I'm swimming in the world of public records and trying to essentially educate the public and anybody I can about how broad of this subject of privacy actually is.

00:04:38.442 --> 00:04:45.326
Because it's one thing to say is my phone listening to me or, you know, are there satellites, you know, staring at me, or something like that.

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It's another thing to find someone's personal information floating around on the internet.

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A lot of people don't know what to do about it.

00:04:51.593 --> 00:05:09.815
Yeah, bart, there's so many topics that we could dive into today, and for sure we're going to, but I think that obviously, at the highest level of looking in on this is really privacy, and you brought it to the forefront there at the end is that most people probably have no idea how much privacy is alluding them when it comes to the internet, for example.

00:05:09.815 --> 00:05:14.620
So I grew up in Massachusetts, lived in California for a while, and I've lived here in Florida for a few years now.

00:05:14.620 --> 00:05:19.432
I didn't realize that in a state like Florida, our addresses are public.

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In a lot of cases, our email, personal email addresses, our phone numbers are public as part of our voter registrations, and so that was eye-opening to me.

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I've since had it removed from a lot of places.

00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:39.682
But, bart, when it comes to privacy, you're someone who actually works in it at both the legal level and the technology level, with a solution that you bring to the market With that in mind.

00:05:39.682 --> 00:05:48.175
A lot of people are probably going to have that, and I'm sure you get this as a lawyer, where people are like wait, so you defend criminals or you're wiping the records clean online for criminals.

00:05:48.175 --> 00:05:51.949
Let's talk about privacy, because it's not a criminal element.

00:05:51.949 --> 00:05:52.610
A lot of people.

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I saw it on your website when it comes to record fixers, that a lot of people go to court that will show up on their records whether they're protected or not, even if they were never actually judged to have committed a crime, and so there's a lot that goes into it.

00:06:04.050 --> 00:06:11.346
Why do we care about privacy, especially for those people like maybe 20-year-old me was like I've never done anything wrong, I have nothing to hide.

00:06:11.346 --> 00:06:12.490
Why should we care about this?

00:06:14.221 --> 00:06:16.406
We should care about it, and it's a fantastic question.

00:06:16.406 --> 00:06:26.093
A lot of your listeners, I understand, are entrepreneurs, and if they've never been in trouble with the law, they'd probably be thinking to themselves why should I care as well?

00:06:26.093 --> 00:06:40.872
But for those who are listening, the topic is relevant to any business owner, any entrepreneur, for anything that you hold close to your heart and pray is not going to be exploited against you.

00:06:40.872 --> 00:06:44.146
Let me walk everybody down this.

00:06:44.146 --> 00:06:47.093
So any SME, small, medium enterprise right.

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For them to exist, they essentially have to have a business license, a legal entity like an LLC or a corporation, a website, email.

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Keep going down, keep going down and you're going to see all of these endpoints as at one point floating around in a database, some of them private, some of them not so private From an adverse competitor's perspective, or a future plaintiff who's going to bring you to court, or even a disgruntled client or consumer who's about to leave that famous one-star review against you.

00:07:18.987 --> 00:07:24.887
This is all what's sometimes referred to in the cybersecurity world as your attack surface exposure.

00:07:24.887 --> 00:07:34.391
Some of you heard of doxing right, you say the wrong thing at a school board that somebody else really disagrees with.

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They'll go down their own rabbit hole and find out everything about you.

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Negative reviews, whether your emails wound up on the dark web, lawsuits that you were a part of that have nothing to do with your business or your consulting practice.

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Divorce records, restraining orders, prior custody battles all of this personal stuff that we don't want our professional or our personal lives to be affected by, and the reason for this should be obvious.

00:08:02.612 --> 00:08:13.555
It puts a reputational stamp on us before anyone can make up their minds about our character, before we even open up our mouth, before we even have our first consultation.

00:08:13.555 --> 00:08:31.603
I work with private investigators almost daily and I've been told that the only thing that somebody needs is your gender, your zip code and the year that you were born, and you could pretty much find out anything else about that person if you know where to get the data and how to extract it.

00:08:32.865 --> 00:08:48.004
So this is something we, as business owners, cannot afford to ignore, because your digital footprint from your business and your personal life leaves potential clues into the posture or status in the marketplace that you have.

00:08:48.004 --> 00:08:53.961
It leaves clues about your exposure or your likelihood of surviving a lawsuit.

00:08:53.961 --> 00:09:03.370
If somebody wanted to go into legal warfare with you, right, maybe an investigation by a government agency if you're not being compliant with something.

00:09:03.370 --> 00:09:04.982
That's the world of privacy.

00:09:04.982 --> 00:09:11.687
It's far deeper than criminal records, but I chose to work with criminal records because it was my own subject matter.

00:09:11.687 --> 00:09:20.432
I was obsessed with it and obviously there wasn't a solution prior to trying to find a technological, automated solution for it.

00:09:21.259 --> 00:09:23.866
Yeah, I love that overview, Bart, especially because one.

00:09:23.866 --> 00:09:33.692
I mean, if someone came here for the scare factor today, it does deliver, and the scare factor is valid here because it is something that touches literally every single one of us Like listeners.

00:09:33.692 --> 00:09:44.149
That's what we hope you take away from today's episode is that, these privacy components not even just specifically talking about record fixer and the work that Bart does but these are considerations that we all need to make.

00:09:44.149 --> 00:09:58.991
For example, I show up here on this podcast five days a week, 800 plus times, and I constantly think about the fact that there's a lot of personal details about my life that are exposed in so many different ways by the way I show up, so that's me being on air as much as I am.

00:09:58.991 --> 00:10:03.306
What can you find about me just on the internet of things that are out there?

00:10:03.306 --> 00:10:11.326
So I think it's really important for us, whether it's from a personal perspective or bar I know that you're also a business junkie even if it's just from a branding perspective.

00:10:11.687 --> 00:10:13.851
These are considerations that we have to make.

00:10:13.851 --> 00:10:30.375
So I want to go a bit deeper into the record fixer story, because I love the fact that not only did you do this, or and do you continue to do this as a practicing attorney, but you decided let me come up with a solution that not only works for me and my clients, but can really serve a broader audience.

00:10:30.375 --> 00:10:35.618
It almost seems some people from a business perspective would say well, bart, you are hurting your own business.

00:10:35.618 --> 00:10:40.511
You're making it more accessible to other people who may not need attorneys like you.

00:10:40.511 --> 00:10:45.601
Talk to us about the thought process behind that, when you realized you were onto something with Record Fixer.

00:10:47.426 --> 00:10:59.662
Yeah, it was really exciting actually to see something work Because, as you said in the introduction, this was an experiment and I just want to, if I don't say it in the future, ever, ever again.

00:10:59.662 --> 00:11:12.437
I want to say now that I want to personally thank my own clients for actually signing up and essentially being test cases so that this can actually be battle tested in the real field.

00:11:12.437 --> 00:11:22.037
The journey was a long and actually incredibly complicated one that if anybody told me what the landscape was going to look like, it probably would have talked.

00:11:22.037 --> 00:11:24.296
I would have talked myself out of doing it.

00:11:24.296 --> 00:11:27.446
Was going to look like, it probably would have talked, I would have talked myself out of doing it.

00:11:27.446 --> 00:11:30.812
And maybe that ignorance is bliss aspect was helpful to me.

00:11:30.812 --> 00:11:38.008
But so, out of all the 50 states I had to canvas and index what can actually be hidden or not.

00:11:38.067 --> 00:11:41.923
Florida is a famous one to this day, as you probably know.

00:11:41.923 --> 00:11:59.846
Go ahead and Google the word Florida man, and the reason why is because booking photos are very public in Florida and any kind of conviction up until only very recently has essentially been treated as permanent.

00:11:59.846 --> 00:12:13.835
So every state everybody has to understand that every state has their own concept of what can be disclosed, what can be disseminated, what can be suppressed, what can be hidden, destroyed all of that stuff.

00:12:13.835 --> 00:12:37.280
So that was a monumental task to begin with, and that was a legal research project involving four or five researchers including myself, or five researchers including myself, but it was satisfying because once you actually start seeing clues of, I guess you can call regulatory oversight, that could actually be turned into a service.

00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:46.809
It could be turned into a business, and I don't think it hurts me in terms of my competition with myself or even with other attorneys.

00:12:46.809 --> 00:12:57.172
There are clean slate laws that are being passed throughout the country and they are helpful to millions and millions of people, but it doesn't solve it.

00:12:57.172 --> 00:13:21.299
These databases that people's personal things are held in still float around and this information gets leaked and the data ends up in well, you know, in the hands of those who actually do pass judgment on us employers, landlords and what most people don't want to hear about is, you know, online dating prospects.

00:13:21.299 --> 00:13:26.130
They love Googling who's this guy or gal that I'm talking to?

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And they love paying those subscription fees to people, search engines and data broker sites.

00:13:33.460 --> 00:13:37.932
Bart, bringing us the real stuff that most people aren't willing to admit or talk about publicly.

00:13:37.932 --> 00:13:41.996
I love that because it's a real application, it's a real way that it's used.

00:13:41.996 --> 00:13:44.923
I can personally tell you anyone who I meet 100%.

00:13:44.923 --> 00:13:46.106
I'm a deep Googler.

00:13:46.106 --> 00:14:19.009
I can find a lot of stuff about a lot of people and, with that in mind, really my background with regards to privacy stuff is I come from the marketing world and in the marketing world, SEO is a big topic, and negative SEO negative search engine optimization is a field that has been growing over time, but it's a bit different from what you're talking about with that data warehouse technology certificate that you have is because, within the world of negative SEO, the question is how can we choose which things rank above those things that we don't want to be found, Whereas what you're talking about is a bit different.

00:14:19.049 --> 00:14:34.104
Talk to us about the difference of a record fixer, of I don't know if expungement I didn't go to law school so I don't even know how we're supposed to use the word expunge but talk to us about how your stuff is different from negative SEO when it comes to us actually having that clean slate.

00:14:35.205 --> 00:14:37.886
That is a very astute question, kudos.

00:14:37.886 --> 00:14:39.988
20 points on that.

00:14:39.988 --> 00:14:47.614
I can't tell you how many times I actually have to make that distinction to countless individuals.

00:14:47.614 --> 00:14:48.754
So bravo on that one.

00:14:48.754 --> 00:14:51.176
You are absolutely right, brian.

00:14:51.176 --> 00:14:51.755
Wish you never did.

00:14:51.755 --> 00:15:07.638
Or a selfie that wound up on some person's personal website, things like that, negative reviews, all that stuff that is a subset of the SEO industry.

00:15:07.677 --> 00:15:15.725
As you know, is sometimes called online reputation management, which is very different than what Record Fixer does.

00:15:15.725 --> 00:15:19.254
Let me get a little bit technical here.

00:15:19.254 --> 00:15:20.837
So you did say the word expungement.

00:15:20.837 --> 00:15:29.770
Expungement is also a creature of state statute, so depending on what state you are standing in, expungement is going to mean something different.

00:15:29.770 --> 00:15:37.230
So I will oversimplify this without boring everyone with the 50 different differences in state laws.

00:15:38.072 --> 00:15:46.975
A person who was arrested does not always get charged with a crime, and you can imagine your neighbors getting into a very loud argument.

00:15:46.975 --> 00:15:48.018
Somebody calls the police.

00:15:48.018 --> 00:15:48.847
They show up there.

00:15:48.847 --> 00:15:56.849
Somebody gets taken away, but after careful review by the prosecutor, they just choose not to charge that person with an actual public offense.

00:15:56.849 --> 00:15:59.991
In most states, that person with an actual public offense.

00:15:59.991 --> 00:16:03.456
In most states in fact, almost all of them that arrest can be suppressed.

00:16:03.456 --> 00:16:17.392
The way that you do so is dependent on the state, but an application like Record Fixer is what's going to clean that data off of the criminal record warehouse industry.

00:16:17.392 --> 00:16:23.833
It's a complicated supply chain that took basically five to six years for me to map out, along with my co-founder.

00:16:23.833 --> 00:16:31.275
So the next level above that is people get charged daily in the US and their cases get dismissed.

00:16:31.275 --> 00:16:39.167
They get programs, they get diversion programs where they jump through a couple of hoops community service, anger management and the case gets thrown out.

00:16:39.807 --> 00:16:43.053
Unfortunately, that data still winds up in a lot of data silos.

00:16:43.053 --> 00:16:47.649
They still wind up in what's called consumer reporting agencies.

00:16:47.649 --> 00:16:49.815
They wind up in data broker sites.

00:16:49.815 --> 00:16:52.287
That also has its next level of privacy.

00:16:52.287 --> 00:17:08.086
So, even though you're seeing this on the front end on, say, certain websites like booking, photo websites, things like that, a person's level of privacy can actually increase or decrease based on the status of their case.

00:17:08.125 --> 00:17:09.568
And finally, you said expungement.

00:17:09.568 --> 00:17:12.935
That's the final stage In most states.

00:17:12.935 --> 00:17:46.692
Pardon me for generalizing, but in most states expungement means that you have now taken away your guilty plea or, if you've been found guilty by a jury, you've one, two or maybe hundreds of broker sites that harvest that information and they sell it and they resell it.

00:17:46.692 --> 00:17:58.050
And what ultimately makes Record Fixer different than others is that we have constant monitoring of somewhere at some point between 50,000 to 80,000 different unique URLs.

00:17:58.050 --> 00:18:03.380
That essentially does change detection right.

00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:13.192
These are algorithms that are pretty fancy and sophisticated, but essentially it says you know what does the landscape look like out there and we keep a very close eye on it.

00:18:13.192 --> 00:18:22.886
We want to make sure we know all the players and all the up-and-comers and all the ones who merge or get taken out of business and change titles.

00:18:22.886 --> 00:18:28.515
It is opaque to a 10th degree.

00:18:28.515 --> 00:18:32.601
You have no idea how bizarre it could actually get.

00:18:33.605 --> 00:19:03.038
Yeah, I love that and I really enjoy hearing you talk about these things, because that last point you made, which is you're absolutely correct we don't realize this wild web, and that's why I love, colloquially and societally, how we use that term of the deep web Most people don't realize that the worldwide web, wwwsome, websitecom that is only a small percentage of all the stuff that's out there through browsers that I won't name, and obviously we are tech geeks at a really deep level and so we are at least aware of some of this stuff.

00:19:03.038 --> 00:19:06.472
But it's really the tip of the iceberg into all the risks that are out there.

00:19:06.472 --> 00:19:18.230
And when we tie it back to branding, when we tie it back to our personal privacy and all of those things, it's incredibly important topics for all of us to think about, not just life-wise, but I am crossing that bridge and applying it business wise.

00:19:18.230 --> 00:19:21.115
I think it's so important for all of us, and for me especially.

00:19:21.115 --> 00:19:23.740
I remember when I started my marketing agency in 2012,.

00:19:24.224 --> 00:19:27.334
I started that having a background of being a soccer blogger.

00:19:27.334 --> 00:19:29.607
That was the first business I started when I was 19.

00:19:29.607 --> 00:19:31.373
I struggled for a bit.

00:19:31.373 --> 00:19:38.496
Bart you and I didn't talk about this off air, but when people would Google me to see if I was a legitimate marketer and to see if my agency was good.

00:19:38.496 --> 00:19:45.156
All they found was all these soccer articles and I was like, well shoot, how do I establish my identity as a marketer?

00:19:45.156 --> 00:19:52.688
How do I move on from my past and have it in a way that enhances what it is that I want to do and not be judged in that way?

00:19:52.748 --> 00:20:01.313
So I think all of these things are incredibly relevant, which I guess also leads to your own entrepreneurial journey, because you are a lawyer turned tech CEO.

00:20:01.313 --> 00:20:10.476
That is such a cool transition and I think that behind it must have been a lot of one internal identity questions but to a lot of uncomfortable things.

00:20:10.476 --> 00:20:16.718
Like you're very comfortable here today talking about tech and legal aspects and business components as well.

00:20:16.718 --> 00:20:18.910
What was that transition like for you?

00:20:18.910 --> 00:20:25.006
What were some of those hard things that people probably won't appreciate by hearing you as assured as you are here today with us?

00:20:26.249 --> 00:20:43.215
Yeah, let me let my anxiety leave my body for just a second as I contemplate that question, because that is a deep, deep journey I decided to jump in with both feet and on this journey of data regulation you know everybody gets excited about that title, right?

00:20:43.215 --> 00:20:59.414
Wanting to understand these technical concepts was important for me Because you know people have all sorts of misconceptions about certain professions and when it comes to law, they think you know, because you have a license, you now know all things about law.

00:20:59.414 --> 00:21:02.237
They think you know, because you have a license, you now know all things about law.

00:21:02.237 --> 00:21:08.922
Well, if that identity as a practicing attorney can infuse itself into all things technology, that would be great.

00:21:08.922 --> 00:21:10.722
But nothing is further from the truth.

00:21:10.722 --> 00:21:15.037
It's a completely different universe.

00:21:15.037 --> 00:21:20.878
It was not a natural transition for me because it just wasn't for the reason I just said.

00:21:20.878 --> 00:21:56.424
Right, it was very difficult trying to get a certification while you're a full-time professional, but it probably would have been a lot more painful for me if I was going to try to solve this in the traditional attorney-client role, because once you get into the World Wide Web and the billions upon billions upon billions of websites and data points and all this world that the general public doesn't jump into law was not going to be the sword or the shield that was going to help people.

00:21:56.826 --> 00:21:59.548
It had to be with technology, so I was driven to figure this out.

00:21:59.548 --> 00:22:00.233
First and foremost, that was going to help people.

00:22:00.233 --> 00:22:00.913
It had to be with technology, so I was driven to figure this out.

00:22:00.913 --> 00:22:04.096
First and foremost, that was very important to me.

00:22:04.096 --> 00:22:12.073
And education I think for some people they can just do without learning something.

00:22:12.073 --> 00:22:17.949
For me, I did really have to get the high level view and that was very important to me.

00:22:17.949 --> 00:22:20.375
Um, that might've been a personality thing.

00:22:20.375 --> 00:22:30.066
Maybe other other entrepreneurs can relate to that, but for those who are going into something very different than what they're used to, I don't think there's an alternative to that.

00:22:30.066 --> 00:22:34.625
You need, you need to, you need to, you need to you know, say what you mean and mean what you say.

00:22:34.625 --> 00:22:36.808
And it would and it's better to be accurate if you do that.

00:22:36.808 --> 00:22:45.080
So it took a lot of getting over the fear of this concept of information technology, the complex world of personal records.

00:22:45.080 --> 00:22:51.535
I had to go through that journey and, because it was education, I wasn't going to look back.

00:22:51.535 --> 00:23:01.617
But that was not a step, it was a cliff and the learning curve was painful and unforgiving.

00:23:03.131 --> 00:23:15.315
Because when you come into the world of technology you are dealing with binary information either it is or it isn't, and that's literally what's running your Apple Watch, it's what's running this screen in front of us.

00:23:15.315 --> 00:23:16.891
It's zeros and ones.

00:23:16.891 --> 00:23:23.648
So the world of lawyering is, when you get asked the question, you say, well, you know, it depends.

00:23:23.648 --> 00:23:25.816
That's kind of like the classic attorney answer.

00:23:25.816 --> 00:23:29.631
That's not going to cut it in the technology world.

00:23:30.894 --> 00:23:42.240
But once I learned more and more and thank goodness for my technical co-founder we found kind of our own I don't know what other way to say this our own lingua franca.

00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:48.067
Right, it's like this functioning language that trades people used to use in the 1700s or something like that.

00:23:48.067 --> 00:23:56.071
Right, where not everybody spoke Italian or French or anything like that, there was like a trade language and that was an important support system for me.

00:23:56.071 --> 00:24:14.506
Important support system for me because whatever concept I thought was going to work for me through a user interface perspective, through a, you know, a functional database perspective, I had somebody who was deep, deep in the trenches, who can still communicate with me and we have that middle ground.

00:24:15.487 --> 00:24:25.234
So anybody who wants to make that transition into building a platform technology, an automated application of some sorts, maybe even an internal tool.

00:24:25.234 --> 00:24:34.663
It is very important to not just take the first thing that you see in a search engine result and say, okay, I'll go with that dev shop.

00:24:34.663 --> 00:24:55.621
They may sign you up for a software or language that works great on a minimum viable product where you have 10 customers, but the moment you reach 100 or 1,000, to transition will cost five times as much and might actually even be fatal to your business.

00:24:55.621 --> 00:25:29.411
So, as a non-techie turned techie evangelists no, maybe a convert, techie, convert, which I love and have embraced since I say to all your listeners to be very careful with that first step and make sure that you know what you're getting into, because this is a world of dependencies that's a very specific word in this world Software platforms.

00:25:30.484 --> 00:25:38.433
You're going to start paying for this stuff and you're going to have to have professionals pick it up and build it into something and make sure that it's modular as well.

00:25:38.433 --> 00:25:48.171
Right, you want, you want to retrofit certain things, because maybe some aspects of, of the, of the tool that you are building is not going to be uh, is not going to be useful for you.

00:25:48.171 --> 00:25:52.171
In fact, it might even weigh you down, so you're going to have to have that kind of flexibility.

00:25:52.171 --> 00:26:07.869
Um, and and my heart goes out to anyone who goes down on that journey, because it's a lot of late nights of looking at a very bright laptop screen in your living room, but I love the journey- yeah, bart, I'll tell you what.

00:26:07.950 --> 00:26:12.126
I gave you a very loaded question and you absolutely nailed that answer.

00:26:12.126 --> 00:26:23.692
Because it is this real stuff and that's what our show is all about is these real, open, honest conversations that we're not just having between entrepreneurs but we're having them out in the public for wantrepreneurs and entrepreneurs all over the world to listen to.

00:26:23.692 --> 00:26:25.070
So I appreciate those insights.

00:26:25.070 --> 00:26:39.068
I also do know I mean you and I had a fun conversation even before we hit record here today, and part of that is I know that one element of your entrepreneurial DNA is that you are mentally resilient, you are growth minded.

00:26:39.068 --> 00:26:46.241
These are things that are evident to me in my interactions with you, even up to this point, and part of that, part of any entrepreneurial journey.

00:26:46.261 --> 00:26:54.460
I love talking at the end of these episodes, entrepreneur to entrepreneur, not just subject matter expert, but with those entrepreneurial hats on.

00:26:54.460 --> 00:27:02.945
I'd love to hear your mindset towards discomfort, towards these hard things that we all need to face, because it's a big topic.

00:27:02.945 --> 00:27:08.201
I talk about it a lot here on this show and I know that every single one of our guests has gone through it in their own ways.

00:27:08.201 --> 00:27:18.897
So talk to our listeners directly about that stuff, because discomfort, things that are hard, is an inevitable part of all of our not only life journeys, but business journeys, ain't?

00:27:18.917 --> 00:27:19.618
that the truth?

00:27:19.618 --> 00:27:20.761
Ain't that the truth?

00:27:20.761 --> 00:27:23.307
Um, I have a lot to say about this.

00:27:23.307 --> 00:27:27.423
I'm I'm even like searching in my mind where, where do we even start?

00:27:27.423 --> 00:27:40.038
But um, let's, let's answer that question in the concept of technology itself, because you know when we go through, you know dealing with our own discomforts.

00:27:41.923 --> 00:27:46.604
I don't want to sound like a doom and gloomer, but I think our future is fated for only that.

00:27:46.604 --> 00:27:48.460
That is the new normal.

00:27:48.460 --> 00:27:52.542
You know when you had to learn Zoom and figure out how to start the Zoom.

00:27:52.542 --> 00:27:54.847
Remember the Zoom during the COVID.

00:27:54.847 --> 00:28:00.878
We're all there now and it's probably only going to get even more demanding of us.

00:28:00.878 --> 00:28:21.240
No matter how many AI algorithms, ai tools get thrown to your face, you will have to have some kind of digital literacy ahead, and if my pain point and transition into tech is any benchmark is any benchmark, I think there's gonna be a lot of people feeling that same pain.

00:28:21.721 --> 00:28:30.464
So, having that said, I think every expert that ever lived was, at one point, a beginner.

00:28:30.464 --> 00:28:50.667
Right, and my journey is no different than anyone else's that decide to go into a venture deeper or something that's foreign or complex or not even well understood by yourself or even the general public, but the journey is an honorable one and something we should kind of hold sacred to our hearts.

00:28:50.667 --> 00:28:54.779
Not to sound too touchy-feely here, but but I really do.

00:28:54.779 --> 00:28:56.644
I really do mean what I say here.

00:28:56.644 --> 00:29:04.481
To be an entrepreneur literally is to seek adventure, because that's actually the origin of the word.

00:29:04.481 --> 00:29:08.836
I actually love the story of the origin of the of the word entrepreneur.

00:29:08.836 --> 00:29:31.406
It's actually two Latin words put together entree, meaning to swim out to, and pendres, which is to grab or to grasp, and it was coined by a French economist 1800 or something like that, because he was angry at Adam Smith in 1776.

00:29:31.406 --> 00:30:03.974
So you know, if you're an entrepreneur and you like that title for yourself, discomfort is where you are going to operate in, and more time than any it will be swimming in tools, most likely technology-based tools, right, right.

00:30:03.994 --> 00:30:07.025
And for someone who had no tech background, who actually went to go get educated in it, I still did not do all of the bells and whistles.

00:30:07.025 --> 00:30:11.777
I had to have a technical co-founder to do the real, real heavy lifting involved, and that's perfectly OK, I think.

00:30:11.777 --> 00:30:38.777
And every entrepreneur's story, you know the legends that we speak of to this day were learning on the fly, but their enthusiasm and their belief in themselves got them over that hump, but we're living in a very unprecedented time, in that you can harness technology without fully even understanding the foundations of how it works, and this is an incredible opportunity.

00:30:38.777 --> 00:31:18.959
There are people who are running e-commerce sites who have never had to learn a single word of code, but they still had to learn that platform, and so this is a journey that's very dear to my heart, and I sympathize with anyone who actually has to jump in with both feet or, you know, learn while they're, you know, on their hands and knees on the ground, but it's an honorable journey by this economics and finance geek.

00:31:18.979 --> 00:31:19.662
So, bart, I'm loving it, loving this.

00:31:19.662 --> 00:31:31.797
It is that real life, practical stuff, and it's something I say so frequently here on this show, but I think it's important for listeners everywhere to embrace this stuff, that these are things we talk about behind closed doors and the fact that we have such generous guests and entrepreneurs who come on and have these in public.

00:31:31.797 --> 00:31:39.730
Bart, this is the real stuff that I'm so grateful we get to share it with our listeners and that's why my last question of every episode it's always the same.

00:31:39.730 --> 00:31:43.726
It's the only question that I ask every single guest and I never know where they're going to take it.

00:31:43.726 --> 00:31:51.394
And, bart, for you, I genuinely have no idea which direction you'll take it, because you're a man of many interests and knowledge and passions and also insights.

00:31:51.875 --> 00:31:55.946
And that question is we talked about so much very important stuff here today.

00:31:55.946 --> 00:32:02.425
And that question is we talked about so much very important stuff here today Privacy, technology, the entrepreneurial mindset, resilience, being adaptable, learning so many of these important things.

00:32:02.425 --> 00:32:11.386
But with all of that in mind and knowing where our audience is entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs at all different levels of their own growth journeys what's that one takeaway?

00:32:11.386 --> 00:32:15.144
What's the one thing that you hope everyone walks away from today's session with.

00:32:15.144 --> 00:32:16.106
And they say you know what?

00:32:16.106 --> 00:32:17.820
Bart's the one who pushed me.

00:32:17.820 --> 00:32:21.616
I'm going to do this thing, or I'm going to consider this thing and turn it into action.

00:32:24.721 --> 00:32:28.987
Sure, curiosity is a magical thing.

00:32:28.987 --> 00:32:33.459
It reveals more about your personality and your identity than you think.

00:32:33.459 --> 00:32:46.046
Right, whatever you're Googling, whatever you're nerding out on, says a lot about your headspace, and that shouldn't be something that should be ignored.

00:32:46.046 --> 00:32:57.724
To be honest, I believe that for me and almost any other business owner out there, that the action almost came naturally when no contemplation was necessary.

00:32:57.724 --> 00:33:10.035
It's that first step right the buying the book, taking the class, sketching out that first diagram, imagining the possibilities.

00:33:10.955 --> 00:33:21.836
I think this is part of the adventure that you know, some of us actually make it sound too poetic, whereas others make it sound too dry.

00:33:21.836 --> 00:33:31.476
I like to go right there in the middle and, if I look back, what led me here was pure curiosity.

00:33:31.476 --> 00:33:33.997
How do I solve this?

00:33:33.997 --> 00:33:46.124
This is a question that somebody's been asking me in a thousand different ways over a thousand different times, and now that I sit here at this very moment, I don't think that number is actually exaggerated.

00:33:46.763 --> 00:33:59.171
I've handled well between somewhere between 1,500 to 1,700 cases in my career, and it's so popular that I could almost predict when someone's going to ask me will this be on my record?

00:33:59.171 --> 00:34:10.117
And follow your curiosity, follow that voice in your head, and then it only takes really just a small step.

00:34:10.117 --> 00:34:11.039
You don't have to sign up for a giant degree.

00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:31.844
You don't have to start learning search query language, like I find myself doing, you know, learning search query language, like I find myself doing, you know, seven months into it, follow, follow, follow that curiosity and I and I think that's all it really takes, because it's not going to feel like you're contemplating, it's not, you're not going to make T charts and, and I think that's that's probably what's going to help people out.

00:34:32.795 --> 00:34:34.097
Yeah, bart, I'll tell you what.

00:34:34.097 --> 00:34:39.048
I didn't tell you this before we hit record here today, but this is a milestone episode for us.

00:34:39.048 --> 00:34:45.163
This is episode 850 in this show's history and nobody has ever taken that question in that direction.

00:34:45.163 --> 00:34:54.641
The way you just articulated that, I think, whether people feel like they're on the right path and they're looking for that validation, or even for all those entrepreneurs out there saying gosh, what am I meant to do?

00:34:54.641 --> 00:34:55.722
What's my business idea?

00:34:55.802 --> 00:35:10.936
What's the population that I'm meant to serve that answer that you just shared with us, that's not knowledge, that's wisdom, and I think it's so profound and something that is something we can all take action on by being curious about ourselves and really letting our natural curiosities guide us.

00:35:10.936 --> 00:35:15.083
So, really well stated in all of that, you are a wealth of knowledge.

00:35:15.083 --> 00:35:16.284
I so appreciate that, bart.

00:35:16.284 --> 00:35:20.891
I know that we talked about Record Fixer a bit here today and I feel like it's an incredible product.

00:35:20.891 --> 00:35:22.139
It's an incredible solution.

00:35:22.139 --> 00:35:30.396
Listeners will be keen to go deeper down the Record Fixer journey if they want to see how the tech works and what it can do for them, but also your own entrepreneurial journey.

00:35:30.396 --> 00:35:31.798
Drop those links on us.

00:35:31.798 --> 00:35:35.505
Where should listeners go from here to find out all the great things that you're up to.

00:35:36.527 --> 00:35:37.208
Yeah, thank you for that.

00:35:37.208 --> 00:35:40.224
Honestly, everything is right there on recordfixercom.

00:35:40.224 --> 00:35:50.648
If you scroll to the bottom of the page, no matter where you are in the footer, you'll see links to the Twitter, the Instagram, the YouTube, the Facebook.

00:35:50.648 --> 00:35:56.889
If you want to look me up, I'm on LinkedIn Bart Caspero, k-a-s-s-p-e-r-o.

00:35:56.889 --> 00:36:02.762
Bart, like the cartoon, bart simpson, um, so yeah, it's, it's pretty easy to find.

00:36:02.762 --> 00:36:14.237
Even if you google my first name and my last name, um, easily, my, my, uh, my legal identity will pop up as well as, uh, references to record fixer and all that sort of thing.

00:36:14.237 --> 00:36:21.440
So, um, I welcome anybody to reach out if they have any more questions regarding this interview or even anything outside of it.

00:36:22.074 --> 00:36:24.242
Yes, listeners, you already know the drill.

00:36:24.242 --> 00:36:27.862
We are making it as easy as possible to find Bart's entire criminal history.

00:36:27.862 --> 00:36:29.005
No, I'm just kidding.

00:36:29.114 --> 00:36:32.324
All those links and so much more down in the show notes.

00:36:32.324 --> 00:36:33.166
Check those links.

00:36:33.166 --> 00:36:47.677
We're dropping a link directly to recordfixercom, as well as all the socials, as well as Bart's personal LinkedIn, if you want to reach out thank him for being so generous in today's episode or even just connect with an amazing entrepreneur, having had the chance to interact with Bart here today.

00:36:47.677 --> 00:36:49.744
This is someone who loves what he does.

00:36:49.744 --> 00:36:51.027
It puts a smile on his face.

00:36:51.027 --> 00:37:00.806
I joked with him before we hit record that he's not your typical lawyer and he totally sees that he is a special breed and that's why we've invited him here on the show.

00:37:00.806 --> 00:37:06.043
So, bart, on behalf of myself and all the listeners, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.

00:37:06.644 --> 00:37:07.936
Thanks for having me, brian, it was great.

00:37:09.099 --> 00:37:14.657
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:37:14.657 --> 00:37:18.644
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:37:18.644 --> 00:37:27.858
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at the wantrepreneurshowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:37:27.858 --> 00:37:36.641
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:37:36.702 --> 00:37:38.704
These are not sponsored episodes.

00:37:38.704 --> 00:37:40.288
These are not infomercials.

00:37:40.288 --> 00:37:43.780
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

00:37:43.780 --> 00:37:54.737
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

00:37:54.737 --> 00:38:03.222
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

00:38:03.222 --> 00:38:04.559
We also have live chat.

00:38:04.559 --> 00:38:08.400
If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewantrepreneurshowcom.

00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:10.579
Initiate a live chat.

00:38:10.579 --> 00:38:15.775
It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday.