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Hey, what is up?
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Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.
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As always, I'm your host, brian Lofermento.
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I'll tell you what I know.
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I'm excited for every single episode, but I've already been geeking out before we even hit record here today alongside today's guest, because this is someone who brings such a cool solution to the marketplace, and he does it by leveraging all of his years of experience in his professional career career in his sales journey and now, of course, as part of his own entrepreneurial journey.
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This is someone who is here, local to me, in the tampa bay area, and I'm excited to see all the work that he does there, but it's someone who brings new tech and new solutions to the marketplace in so many different ways.
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So let me tell you all about today's guest.
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His name is jason Roberts.
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Jason is the founder and CEO of Secure Connect Solutions, which is a company that empowers businesses with personalized, hands-on digital signage.
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We're going to talk about digital signage here today, as well as IT consulting and cybersecurity solutions.
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With over 20 years of experience in sales across various industries, including his role as manager of global sales, distribution and dealer development, jason understands the importance of building strong, lasting relationships and providing tailored solutions to meet unique business needs.
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And, just like everybody else who comes here on the show, he's one of us.
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He's a fellow entrepreneur, and not only do I love his business and what he does, but I love his entrepreneurial spirit.
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He's driven by his passion for elevating others, whether it's brands, businesses or individuals.
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Jason believes in the power of technology to solve problems and make life easier.
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So if the reverse is true for you, wait till you hear Jason's approach with technology.
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He's a father of two.
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He's proud to balance his career with his commitment to family.
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Starting his own business would not have been possible without the unconditional support of his amazing wife, who fuels his entrepreneurial journey every day.
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And I think that all of that is just to say that all of our journeys are difficult in their own ways, and it's so important that we have the support, the encouragement, the uplifting of everyone around us.
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And that's why we're all lucky today, because Jason's going to impart so much wisdom and brilliance on us here today.
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So I'm not going to say anything else, let's dive straight into my interview with Jason Roberts.
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All right, jason, I am so very excited that you're here with us today.
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First things first.
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Welcome to the show.
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Hi, brian, thanks for having me.
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Heck, yes, obviously you and I were geeking out off the air.
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I tease listeners a little bit about that, but you've got to kick the party off by first taking us beyond the bio.
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Who's Jason?
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How did you start doing all these cool things?
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Yeah well, that's a great question and I'm not going to go all the way back to April 10th 1983.
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That's a little bit too far.
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But, as you said, I've been in sales for over 20 years in multiple industries, including the technology field, and I've always been one to tinker with technology, been into computers, networking and in my past, two roles as an employee.
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I was a regional sales manager for companies that source technology and I started seeing my gaps in my knowledge in cybersecurity and anytime you're selling any kind of technology you need to be secure.
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So I went ahead and completed my CompTIA Security Plus certification back in March of last year and when I completed the certification I think that gave me the confidence to finally start the journey of something I wanted to do my whole life and own my own business.
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As you mentioned, I wouldn't be possible without my wife.
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She helped me kind of take a deep dive into who I am, which is something that I never really did, and I'm assuming a lot of people are like me and don't always do that.
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But I encourage you to, and in doing so I found my unique ability is really connecting with others and connecting others to others, and to take that a step further.
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My why was really uplifting people, as you mentioned, whether it's uplifting people, uplifting brands.
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And that brings me to Secure Connect Solutions.
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I started a company in April of 2024, initially with just the goal of providing IT and cybersecurity support to local businesses in the Tampa area, and it quickly evolved.
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And, as other entrepreneurs will know, your business journey can take you down paths you didn't expect.
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And that brings me to the digital signage world.
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I was in a mall trying to prospect for some small businesses, for some IT customers, and I just was taking a seat looking at some people, people watching, and I noticed there were two stores next to each other, one of which had some digital signage in the front and the other one that just had print ads.
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And as people walked by, they walked right by the print ads but stopped and looked at the digital signage and that kind of turned a light bulb on.
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So I partnered with Videri and the screens you see behind me are what I offer.
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Yes, I love that overview, Jason, especially because so much of it comes back to the fact that you love being of service to others, and I would imagine that your sales background plays so much into that.
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It's obviously what fueled your success in sales and now as a business owner.
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It's something that is so deeply embedded in the way that you operate and the way that you think and the way that you see helping others that I'm sure that it's something that feels like it comes second nature to you at this point, and so I want to go deeper into your product line offerings, because you called it out so clearly.
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You know our audience very well, Jason.
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Is that all entrepreneurs, whatever we think we set out to do with our businesses, it's going to evolve once we're in the real life marketplace, Once we're gaining customer feedback, once we're hearing people's problems and thinking of the solutions that we can bring our service offerings evolve.
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Talk to us about your initial vision for what you thought you'd be doing and then take us through you gave us that example from the mall.
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Take us through what it actually looks like when you sit down with the businesses that you are really committed to helping.
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What do those conversations look like, and how did those solutions evolve along the way?
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Yeah, sure, great question, you know.
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So my initial thought with Secure Connect Solutions in my previous role, I noticed there was a gap, you know, with MSPs that really don't focus on small businesses, small entrepreneurial businesses.
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The money's just not there for these larger MSPs.
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So my initial goal was just to be that local IT and cybersecurity support person.
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Whether I was providing the cybersecurity platforms myself or recommending someone within my network that can provide a service as well, I could broker those relationships.
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That's where that all started.
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But, being in sales for a very long time, I've always been used to having a physical, tangible product to sell, and Videri is a company that I came across in my prior role and loved their platform, and their platform helps me accomplish what my why is is uplifting people, uplifting brands.
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So I quickly, like you said, I quickly pivoted and within about two months my business took a different direction and I'm really glad I was open-minded enough to allow that to happen organically, because I'm thrilled to be in this world of digital signage.
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I never thought I would be, and now, when I'm talking to customers, I have the ability to provide them with the IT and cybersecurity support, but along with a platform and a product that will help increase their customer engagement, and we know that's so important.
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In today's day and age, there's too many distractions whether it be cell phones, tvs, you name it, there's distractions everywhere, and if you're not capturing your customer's attention while they're in your store, you're losing because your competitors are.
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So the platform with Videri allows customers to do that, and it allows them to do it in a much simpler way than your standard traditional digital signage platforms.
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The Videri platform is purpose-built software and hardware together and basically a system on a chip setup where the media player, the cloud platform, everything's built into the canvases that you see behind me, the canvases that you can hang on walls from ceilings.
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So there's no complicated install.
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There's one power cord to hide in a wall and that's it.
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So not only does this allow customers to uplift their brand, elevate their brand, but it allows them to do it in almost a DIY style.
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Yeah, jason, I'll tell you what them to do it in almost a DIY style.
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Yeah, jason, I'll tell you what I think it's so cool.
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I can obviously see you right now and see the canvas behind you, but probably 95% of people who are tuning into this episode right now are listening via audio only, and so I'm going to put a lot of pressure on you right now, jason, in real time, because I want to stress the fact that it's not just digital signage, it is digital canvases.
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I wish that every single listener could see us right now, because I'm seeing it.
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I don't need you to explain it to me, it's so cool actually seeing it in action.
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But for all those audio only listeners, explain digital canvases to us.
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What is it?
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What the heck's the technology?
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I still actually I can't wrap my head around how there's only one wire.
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I don't know where the wire is behind you and it just seems like such a really cool display.
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So explain what these digital canvases are to our listeners.
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Sure sure.
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So these canvases they really look like a picture frame.
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They're about a half an inch thick, the bevels maybe about a half an inch as well, and they sit flush to the wall.
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As Brian just mentioned, there's only one cord.
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A traditional digital signage setup would have a TV or some type of screen which is going to have a power cord.
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Then you'll need the media player, which is a separate box which will need a power cord, and then an HDMI cable to go from the TV to the media player, and you may need some additional hardware and wires just for that one screen.
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With these canvases, each canvas has everything built into it.
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You have one power cord per canvas, um, so if you want it to look clean, you only have one wire to hide in a wall and that's where mine are, brian, so you can't see them.
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Um, and then there are five different size screens.
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So there's four rectangles, from 22 inches up to 50.
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There's a 33 inch and a 40 inch in between, and then there is a square unit, and one of the coolest features that this platform offers is called wireless video orchestration orchestration, so you can actually take any number of canvases and any number of different sizes and create any pattern you want on your wall, whether it's a lobby of a hotel, casino, a dentist office, you name it.
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Wherever you want digital signage, you can create a custom pattern and their software will automatically orchestrate the.
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Whether it's a photo, video, whatever content you're putting up on it, it will orchestrate it seamlessly across all of the canvases in your pattern and a typical, you know setup.
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You're going to need some heavy editing to accomplish that and this system allows you to do it basically DIY.
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Learn it on the go.
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Yeah, that's so cool.
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Listeners, if you've never taken the time to go to our show's website before all of these interview videos are embedded in our website, I want you to see Jason set up behind him, because you'll see these digital canvases in action right now.
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The Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur logo is up there as it's interfacing through and as it's scrolling through different very high quality videos that Jason has set up for us to see in action here today.
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So definitely check out the video, even if you're not accustomed to usually consuming these episodes in video format.
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But, jason, I've got to ask you about the who because I've obviously been on your website and I can see so many different real life applications for this.
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You obviously have a lot of experience inside of dealerships, so I can see it.
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Living inside of dealerships, trade shows, I would imagine.
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I've been on both sides of the trade shows table and I know how much the emphasis is on how the heck do we stand out?
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There's literally hundreds of booths.
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There's hundreds of things that people are going to be walking through.
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We need to stand out.
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This is a really clear way to stand out at trade shows, conferences, conventions.
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Talk to us about the different styles, because you and I off air.
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Before we hit record, we were talking about so many other use cases, just local to us here in the Tampa Bay area.
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So who the heck are these for?
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A lot of business owners tuning in that probably don't even see all the cool ways that they can implement this.
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Yeah, great question.
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And that's one, probably the, I'm going to say, coolest part about this platform probably 10, 10 more times, because it just you know I love it and there's so many different cool features about it.
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But, being the way that these are set up one cord, flush, mount to the wall they can really go anywhere, especially in places traditional signage can, traditional digital signage with TVs and bigger screens and mounts.
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You're limited in places that these can be installed but realistically these can go anywhere.
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They can be in retail stores, they can be in the lobby of dentist office or doctor's offices, they can be in dealerships for cars or boats.
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There are stands that are made specifically for the 33-inch model that you can have either a single-sided or a double-sided digital sign that sit in a purpose-built stand that can be right in the middle of your showroom floor.
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And if you think about a boat dealership because I do have a lot of experience in the boating world In fact Videri, the manufacturer, named my company their preferred partner in boating but if you go to a boat dealership, there's a ton of features on a boat that you cannot really pass the message along to a customer in a print ad.
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For example, let's say, a remote docking system where you can take a remote control, walk around your boat and steer it and dock it like you were at the helm.
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Well, a picture, a static picture on a sign of a guy standing on his boat at the front with something that looks like a cell phone in his hand does not do it justice.
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If you had one of these digital signs right next to that boat showing a video of that boat with a gentleman using that feature to dock his boat, you just sold a boat.
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So that, right, there is an example of how these can really affect your sales, can really capture the audience, and you'll see ROI in this platform in weeks instead of months or years, versus traditional digital signage city.
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I see these digital billboards all the time.
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There's a law office right around the corner from our recording studio that they have the most boring displays, jason.
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It's like that pixelated old school screen that just says need house cleaning, call, and then 813, whatever the phone number is, and so that's what I think of as the traditional one.
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This, I mean, I view it as something that I could bring with me when I host events.
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It could live there.
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Are these permanent installations temporary installations?
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How mobile are they?
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I'd love to hear the logistics of that Great question.
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They're very mobile and in fact there's only one small U bracket for each canvas, so you can easily remove that U bracket or buy a second if you needed to have a second one to install in like a booth.
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But these are also so thin and, I guess, shaped well that they can actually fit on easels, so you could have a tabletop easel for some of these smaller ones.
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But they are very, very flexible and, coming from the expo world myself, I've been to so many all over the world setting up booths, breaking them down.
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When you talk about traditional digital signage in that realm, you're talking about TVs.
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A TV is thicker, it's clunkier, it's heavier, it costs more to ship, there's more packaging to put on it.
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These are very easy to package, they're very easy to ship and they're very thin, so you can pretty much take them anywhere with you.
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Um, in fact, the ones on my wall behind me, I've taken them in person multiple times.
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I just take them off the wall, um, you know, pull the cord out of the wall and take it to wherever I need to go.
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Um, but yeah, they're definitely different than traditional digital signage.
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Uh, some that you might see inside of a store uh be TVs LG, samsung that could be placed next to each other to create a video wall.
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But those types of setups are much more expensive, much more install intense and then they take a lot of management on the back end.
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Yeah for sure Makes sense.
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It's something that we've all seen in action.
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Once you start talking about TVs yeah, clunky is a good word to describe that.
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They're also so heavy there's no convenient way to have that as a mobile setup.
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So I love those insights.
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Jason, I want to zoom way out with you because it just seems to me like the more we talk about whether it's digital signage or technology in general is that you have a firm belief that technology should enable businesses, whether it is getting that visual engagement, appealing to that sense of vision, saying, hey, hold on, what are these signs?
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What is this business that I'm seeing?
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Going all the way back to your example of going to the mall, whether it's that, or cybersecurity or just IT solutions in general.
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Talk to me about the types of conversations and the types of situations that you see, because, as someone who interacts with a lot of entrepreneurs every day, not everyone views technology as an enabler, jason.
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A lot of people.
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It frustrates them, it doesn't work.
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There's so many issues there.
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Talk to me about that love for tech as the root of your approach and helping others.
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Sure, that's a great question too, and really I think, like I said, I've always had a love for tech, but when COVID hit and we were forced to take a step back and work from home, technology is what enabled that to be the case, and during that time I spent more time with my wife and kids than probably ever before, because we were home and because technology enabled me to continue to work during a pandemic and continue to make money for my family.
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So that experience right there really fortified my love for technology, and I totally understand where people are coming from when they say technology can make things more complicated.
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That is the case sometimes, but that's only the case if you don't have the right support, and that's one of the things that I provide as a service to my customers, whether they're local or my customer up in Wisconsin as well.
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This platform allows me to remotely monitor and support the canvases, no matter where they're at in the world, and that's also a benefit to the customer, because everything is cloud-based, so they can see what's playing on a screen over in India real time, versus just seeing that the HDMI port is on.
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They can also deploy content, store content, schedule content prior, and it's all done through the cloud.
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So there's no need to roll trucks, there's no need to take a USB stick with your next deployment out to assign and plug it in to install it.
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It's all done wirelessly.
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So, with that said, that setup makes things a lot easier for the customer.
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It's not as scary.
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In addition, with the install, with these it's very, very simple, simple mount and that's something we can provide as well as installation services.
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But we try to take all of the quote unquote scariness away from technology, away from our customers, and show them that if it's used properly and you have the right support, it can really save you time.
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Save you time, save you time and that time you can use for family, you can use for reinvesting into your business, whatever you need to use that time for.
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But that's how I like to use technology for my customers, because that's what it did for me.
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Yeah, jason, you talk about taking all the scary aspects away from it.
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I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here, because I will out myself, as I think most of us business owners, when it comes to digital signage, we don't even view it as a possibility for a lot of the reasons that we've discussed today the logistics, the weight of it, the transportability of it, the use cases of it.
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But, of course, the scariest part for any of us when we invest in our businesses is, of course, money and pricing.
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And so, jason, I do not enjoy putting guests on the spot when it comes to pricing, because I know that there's not one size fits all solution here.
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It's hard for you to say, hey, this is how much money it costs to have digital signage for your business, but I would like to invite you to kind of quell those worries.
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For a lot of business owners, what does it at least look like to start going down this path of making it a financial possibility for our businesses, because I know that I can view a million different use cases for this in all of my businesses.
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I'm sure a lot of listeners are saying, jason, it sounds really good, but it's not financially viable for me.
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What does that actually look like?
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How accessible is it for business owners of all sizes?
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That's a really good question because when I started looking at the digital signage world, I really didn't have the experience um behind me to know the answer to that Um.
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So I just dove in and um, you know, in looking at uh video, uh, digital signage platforms in, like LG, samsung with the TV systems, um, they get very expensive Um, not just the hardware but then the installation on the backend end because they're more installation intense.
00:21:43.260 --> 00:21:50.323
With Videri, with this platform, again, they set it up to be a DIY install.
00:21:50.323 --> 00:21:51.694
It's four screws.
00:21:51.694 --> 00:21:57.592
They come with templates that are cardboard templates the exact size of the canvas and the screws are.
00:21:57.592 --> 00:22:01.422
The screw holes are pre printed, whether you want to go landscape or portrait.
00:22:01.422 --> 00:22:02.892
So it's very, very simple.
00:22:02.892 --> 00:22:06.097
They really make it easy for you to do.
00:22:07.300 --> 00:22:18.351
But on the flip side of that, the initial cost is something that does scare business owners away from digital signage, and I understand that.
00:22:18.351 --> 00:22:37.921
However, if you take a step back and you look at all of the money you spend every year on print ads, all of the limitations that print ads provide, meaning if you have something that changes on the fly, you have to wait for that print to come in before you can change your signs, and that's also an additional expense.
00:22:37.921 --> 00:22:45.265
With a digital signage platform like this, once the initial investment is made, that's where the savings start.
00:22:45.265 --> 00:22:52.288
If you need another new sign, or if you're you have a promo pop up, you're not paying a printer to print it.
00:22:52.288 --> 00:23:05.353
You're either creating it on Canva, you might have it already digital file, whatever media platform you like to use to create that type of content, and you upload it to the cloud platform, schedule it and you're good done.
00:23:05.353 --> 00:23:20.882
So the cost savings start adding up immediately as soon as you implement a platform like this, and then, in addition to that, the increase in sales will make up for any additional costs that you haven't recovered yet.
00:23:20.882 --> 00:23:26.178
So studies have shown that traditional signage, traditional print ads, versus digital signage.
00:23:26.178 --> 00:23:32.012
Digital signage can increase sales by an average of over 30 percent, and that's instantaneously.
00:23:32.012 --> 00:23:36.211
That doesn't take time to happen, it's instant.
00:23:37.816 --> 00:23:39.821
There's other things that you can do with digital signage.
00:23:39.821 --> 00:23:44.321
A lot of companies will have, you know, like swag they like to sell or or gear.
00:23:44.321 --> 00:23:52.250
Um, and one of my customers up in Wisconsin, for example uh, they were building out a brand new late life experience store.
00:23:52.250 --> 00:23:54.377
They're in, they're on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.
00:23:54.377 --> 00:23:58.999
They have five different businesses underneath of them and they wanted a a store retail location where they could highlight all of those businesses in one place.
00:23:58.999 --> 00:24:01.931
Them and they wanted a store retail location where they could highlight all of those businesses in one place.
00:24:01.931 --> 00:24:13.786
And they strategically chose a location right across the street from the largest resort on Lake Geneva and their storefront can be seen from the resort, from the street.
00:24:14.367 --> 00:24:23.651
And they wanted a video wall platform that could really highlight all of their features of each business that could be seen from the street.
00:24:23.651 --> 00:24:25.996
So they contacted us.
00:24:25.996 --> 00:24:36.124
We ended up going up there and installing a six screen video wall with, I think it was four 50 inch screens and two of the square screens, so total of six.
00:24:36.124 --> 00:24:44.972
A traditional digital signage setup like that would like that would would have cost around 40 to $50,000 with install.
00:24:44.972 --> 00:24:47.877
Ours was less than 18,000.
00:24:47.877 --> 00:24:51.411
Um, and that just just to kind of give you a ballpark.
00:24:51.411 --> 00:24:59.016
That was just uh, that was installed, that was out the door, um, so the savings are tremendous on the initial um investment as well.
00:24:59.616 --> 00:25:08.352
Yeah, I love how ROI focused you are and I just want to shout out the fact, jason, that I think that that comes from the fact that you are business first, technology and solution.
00:25:08.352 --> 00:25:13.351
Second is that you understand we're not just throwing tech at something to throw tech at something.
00:25:13.351 --> 00:25:17.342
You're doing it for a very real reason and having that real life case study.
00:25:17.342 --> 00:25:25.673
And just, I know how difficult it is to price projects out, especially here on a podcast being listened to by people all over the world and all different industries, all different use cases.
00:25:25.673 --> 00:25:30.836
I really appreciate that real life insight into the cost savings because, yeah, tvs are expensive.
00:25:30.876 --> 00:25:32.741
It doesn't surprise me Anytime I walk into Best Buy.
00:25:32.741 --> 00:25:36.615
Of course, it's expensive to make a video wall out of those solutions.
00:25:36.615 --> 00:25:46.950
So I think it's really cool what you're doing and I want to tack on to that, because you called out Canva as one example of a tool that we're all used to in our own businesses for our own digital design needs.
00:25:46.950 --> 00:25:56.525
But I'm sure a lot of people thinking about and really picturing the potential solutions when it comes to digital signage are wondering, jason, what would I display on there?
00:25:56.525 --> 00:26:09.284
You've got such a cool display running behind you during the duration of you and I talking here today, but for people thinking I don't even know what I would show, what I would display to catch the eye while also furthering my business goals.
00:26:09.284 --> 00:26:10.131
What's that?
00:26:10.131 --> 00:26:13.842
What successful examples of content that should go on these digital displays.
00:26:15.330 --> 00:26:22.064
Another great question, and that is something that I've actually talked to some customers that I've spoken to recently.
00:26:22.064 --> 00:26:27.040
You know, let's say you're a retail store that sells clothing.
00:26:27.040 --> 00:26:37.724
You could be running specials, sales on these screens, holiday specials, holiday pictures and things to make it feel more festive.
00:26:37.724 --> 00:26:46.172
Those are all things that, without traditional or without digital signage, you'd have to have printed, you'd have to have then hung and you're taking them down and where are they going to?
00:26:46.172 --> 00:26:47.155
Are you going to store them?
00:26:47.155 --> 00:26:48.199
Are you throwing them away?
00:26:48.199 --> 00:26:49.773
Are you saving them for next year?
00:26:50.875 --> 00:26:53.201
With digital signage, you don't have to worry about that.
00:26:53.201 --> 00:26:55.872
When you're done with the content, just don't display it.
00:26:55.872 --> 00:26:56.972
Display something else.
00:26:56.972 --> 00:27:00.375
You can have that done automatically by scheduling it as well.
00:27:00.375 --> 00:27:07.722
My customer, for example, up in Wisconsin, one of the businesses they have is a restaurant.
00:27:07.722 --> 00:27:20.777
So within the restaurant, they can actually have on one of their screens pop up with a QR code that takes their guests while they're waiting in the lobby to their retail store that sells their swag.
00:27:20.777 --> 00:27:27.740
Well, if they didn't have that digital sign with that QR code that popped up, they'd be missing out on sales for their hats and t-shirts.
00:27:29.069 --> 00:27:42.960
So there's I mean, it really is an endless number of things you could put on here, but anything that's dynamic and is engaging is going to capture your customer's interest and is engaging is going to capture your customer's interest.
00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:55.785
So you can even talk to some of the manufacturers out there that you work with that you sell products for A lot of them are willing to help their partners by providing digital content that could then be displayed on here.
00:27:55.785 --> 00:28:03.942
So it's not even something you'd have to create, and that, right there, opens up another avenue for you to strengthen your relationship with these partners you work with.
00:28:03.942 --> 00:28:13.703
And then to take it a step further if you don't have the ability or or the the want to create your own content, that is also a service we can provide as well.
