Digital Breakthrough How Multi-Line Technology is Transforming Industries Episode 203

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Jeff Bullas 00:00:02 - 00:01:20 Hi everyone and welcome to The Jeff Bullas Show.  Today I have with me, John Rarrick. Now John is   the Head of Marketing at Movius who specialize  in digital marketing. That's sort of close to my   heart and the blog's core and the podcast. They  do mobile communications for compliance and for  

telecom. He's responsible for all brand,  customer acquisition and partner marketing   strategy. So he's got a lot to do between  Monday to Friday and John has held senior   marketing leadership roles at T-Mobile, Sprint  and Comcast. And if you notice a theme there,  

it's got something to do with mobile technologies  and companies, but he was the co-founder of a PR   company called BullsEye Public Relations. John's  area of expertise in the B2B technology space   includes brain development, communications  and crisis management. And if you're bored,   a good crisis will help you fix that. And  digital marketing and social media and digital   sustainability programs. And we'll talk a little  bit about the role of and the passion John has   on basically helping digital mobile devices be  more sustainable and that's not about being more   digitally sustainable. It's about more ecosystem  sustainable. He is passionate about leadership   development and building highly efficient  versatile teams. John, welcome to the show.

John Rarrick 00:01:20 - 00:01:22 Thanks so much, Jeff. Great to be here. Jeff Bullas 00:01:22 - 00:01:47 So, John, I don't know where to start.  Shall we talk about your secret and   your original first gig in life apart  from being born was that your love of   music. Let's just go there. So before we get  into stuff that really maybe doesn't matter,  

but let's talk about what really matters such as  music to you. So how did you get stuck into music? John Rarrick 00:01:48 - 00:02:49 Well, I was always passionate about music, you  know, going back even to my high school days,   I was in bands playing guitar and singing and  found myself in the theater as well. So I ended   up going to a pretty prestigious art school in New  York called Purchase College and I got a bachelor   of fine arts in acting and actually started my  performing arts, professional career as an actor,   commercials, soap operas, you know, and regional  theater mostly. But man, I loved singing still  

and I just gravitated back towards it and for a  solid six or eight years then that became my job.   I was a touring musician and like all touring  musicians. You come off tour pretty penniless   and what do actors and musicians do when they're  not acting and singing, they work in restaurants. Jeff Bullas 00:02:49 - 00:02:53 I was gonna say that. So, they said the term, the  starving artist is completely true. Is that right? John Rarrick 00:02:53 - 00:05:25 Yeah absolutely. And, you know, living  in New York City for most of my life,  

no shortage of restaurants to come home to work  in and I had friends in that business who decided,   you know, you're not going to be a waiter  anymore, you're going to become a manager   and we're going to show you the business. So  my first real foray into the business world   was in the food and beverage industry and I  guess I had a knack for it because I worked   for independent restaurants for a while.  And then I started to work for these big   restaurant corporations like the Walt Disney  Company and company here in the states called   Rainforest Cafe where it's sort of a restaurant,  but there's robotic monkeys and there's rainfall   actually happening in the restaurant. So it  became more of entertainment eatery retail,   but it was an enormous, just crash course in  how to run a business, you know, going from,   you know, singing to reading a PnL in the course  of just a couple of years for me was, and I,   but honestly, I loved it because I started to find  the creativity in business itself. And I continue  

to pursue that and it keeps leading to bigger and  better jobs. And I went from Disney to work at all   of the places for Vince McMahon at World Wrestling  Entertainment who was also looking to open a bunch   of large themed eateries. And I started to work  in that realm and it was there that I realized if   I stay in restaurant operations much longer, I'm  gonna not only lose my mind but probably my family   as well because restaurants and happy marriages do  not go hand-in-hand. So they gave me a chance to   start moving into more marketing, public relations  type activities and that's where I started to cut   my teeth because World Wrestling Entertainment  is mostly a marketing company. And there was   no shortage of educational opportunities there  for me. I learned live television production,  

I learned public relations and after 9/11,  tourism dried up in New York for, boy,   almost a solid two years. And it was the right  timing for me to get out and do my own thing. And   that's when I launched BullsEye PR and that, so  that's my brief early business history going from,   you know, performing arts and into full on run,  you know, running multimillion dollar operations. Jeff Bullas 00:05:26 - 00:05:43 So tell us a bit about BullsEye  PR. So what was the inspiration   to start a PR firm? You saw that as I  suppose a collection of your expertise   and experience and something you enjoyed?  Was it that intersection of those three? John Rarrick 00:05:44 - 00:08:08 Jeff, you pretty much nailed it, you know, when I  was at WWE, I was managing our divisions, public   relations agency as far as I was working very  closely with them because we, as a new division,   the earned media opportunities we had, I knew  were gonna be really vital to our success and I   loved working with them. In the back of my mind, I  was like, wow, that this is something I'd like to   do more of and I picked it up pretty quickly.  So when I was done at WWE, a partner of mine,   a former business partner of mine, we said, hey,  wouldn't it be interesting if we launched a public   relations agency? But we only represented brands  that we love, trust and even use in some cases   and so we could wake up every day and only promote  things that we've really felt great about. And it  

was him. And he said, well, why don't we? Let's do  that because no one else does that. And he said,   listen, if, if we fail, we'll fail having done  something that at least the mission was great.   And we were on the right track. So we did it.  And for 10 of our 12 years, we followed exactly   that course. And every morning I would wake  up and just basically talk to the media about   things that I already loved. So the story came out  really easily. Like I didn't have to make anything  

up because if we didn't love you, we didn't  represent you. And it was a challenge. Listen,   it was challenging. I won't kid you. You know,  we started with a handful of clients and just   the two of us. But we built that company to a  multimillion dollar agency with 25 employees  

and a lot of sleepless nights. But like I said, we  would wake up every day and just have a blast. The   last couple of years and as we started to get  nibbles from companies looking to acquire us,   we deviated a little bit from the plan and  it did take a little bit of the fun out of   it. But ultimately, it also kind of led to  our exit, which was a successful exit. So   I can't say that I regret it completely, but  I'm mostly proud about those first 10 years. Jeff Bullas 00:08:08 - 00:08:14 Yeah. So what years were they?  And I said it's a good bit of  

that technology, I suppose, e-replacement. John Rarrick 00:08:15 - 00:09:23 Yeah. So we started in ‘01 and we got acquired  by a public, private equity firm in 2012. And   throughout that we represented a number of  software companies. Telco towards the end,   T-Mobile was one of them, which was almost a  seamless transition for me when we were done   to go work at T-Mobile and just sort of  continue on that path. But we also worked   for a lot of sustainable technology companies  as well. People, companies looking to develop,   you know, superior battery technology,  alternative fuels and that really,   that just really fired me up. So much to  the point where I got a little bit, I went  

a little overboard and I started driving an old  Mercedes diesel that ran on French fry oil and,   you know, solar panels in the back of the  office and anything we could do that could   follow that track. And still to this day, I'm  still fascinated with sustainable technology. Jeff Bullas 00:09:24 - 00:10:00 So let's jump on that bandwagon in terms of  what you're passionate about in terms of that   and mobile and digital sustainability. So  you mention some things about and we've   talked about things like, you know, we  buy a phone for two years and throw it   out and then it's full of rare earths.  So tell us a little bit about what you   see as what's important in the discussion  about digital sustainability. And I suppose  

you talk more about digital smartphone  sustainability a little bit more, isn't it? John Rarrick 00:10:00 - 00:13:47 Yeah, sure. So, you know, when we think of when  we, I'm gonna assume most of your listeners   believe that climate change is actually happening.  So we'll proceed with that in mind. But, you know,   when you think of climate change, though most  people think of the big ticket items like fossil   fuels and, you know, smog and all the things that  we perceive are really making a radical change.  

But most people don't think of the little everyday  commodity driven issues that are actually adding   to global warming and mobile technology is at the  forefront, who doesn't have a phone at this point?   If you're either, if you're between two years old  and 102 years old, it's likely you've got a phone,   right? And those phones turn over. I don't  know about your plan, but I get an email   every couple of years saying, hey, you're eligible  for an upgrade and now that the new iPhone 57 is   available. So, you know, you need it because it's  better than the 56. And that's the way the world   works now. I mean, we are just now conditioned  to look for the next technology. Whether there's  

one feature that's better or 15 features, that's  better. Everybody's queued up for the next one,   right? And we try to recycle them and I think  all the carriers do make an effort to do some   recycling. But at the end of the day, 25% of those  phones get recycled and 75% of them will end up in   a landfill. That is just the reality of it all.  And these devices, they create an enormous amount   of carbon equivalent. Every single cell phone, it  equals 80 kg of carbon equivalent a year, 80 kg.  

That's an enormous amount when you think of how  many phones are out there in the world and where   do those, what's causing that? It's the device  itself producing it. It's the precious metals we   have to yank out of the ground by, in many cases,  very unethical means. It's the power to charge   them day in and day out. But most importantly,  it's the power to put them up on the wireless   networks that creates that carbon footprint issue.  So what we've done and this was not a mission of  

ours and it would be incredibly disingenuous for  me to say this. But what we've done at Movius by,   with our multi line product, which allows  you to simply put two numbers on one device   solely through software instead of a SIM is we've  helped reduce the amount of phones that a company   might need. And when you talk about a company,  you're talking about say a global tier one bank   that might provide 100,000 devices for their  employees that might otherwise be carrying two   phones means we have just helped remove 100,000  devices from the world. And to me, you know,   we sort of realized that by accident, we were  like, hey, as we're looking at our own ESG rating,   why don't we look at what we can also do for our  customers and we can help our customers make a   big impact on the world. And to me, I'm very proud  of that and just that simple thing. And I think,   and you and I talked about it a little bit before  we started the show, I don't think it's about   these solely about reducing big companies and  reducing what they're doing. I think it's a lot   of smaller companies like what we do, if they all  just took a look at what they might be able to do   to participate in reducing their customers carbon  footprint. We'd be in a different place right now.

Jeff Bullas 00:13:48 - 00:14:39 So you obviously had an interest  in sustainability. And, you know,   for me to buy a phone, I generally do turn  them over every two years and it's only just   one feature I really want to, I'm really keen on  for the upgrade and that's the camera. Yeah. So,   because we now have essentially a high end,  you know, digital single lens reflex DSLR   in our hands now, it's just amazing. And I've,  you know, I used to drag around a big digital,   you know, lenses and everything with me when  I was traveling. I went, I don't need to. And,  

you know, there's the creativity part  of that as well and lenses and stuff   but yeah, the technology within our  smartphones today is just amazing. John Rarrick 00:14:40 - 00:15:04 It is amazing. And you talk  about the camera, I'm the same,   Jeff. I just shot a short film in 4K on  my iPhone. So the idea of being able to do   that even five years ago was like it, it  just was not reachable. And now, I mean,   between the audio and the video capabilities  of today's phones, you can almost do anything. Jeff Bullas 00:15:04 - 00:15:33 Yeah exactly. So let's move on so you're been  working in a lot of mobile tech companies. So  

the move to Movius, how did that happen?  And then we'll talk about things like,   okay, how do you go about acquiring  customers? What are some of the digital   marketing strategies you use for  content marketing, whatever paid,   let's talk about that next. But so you  moved to Movius. Why did that happen? John Rarrick 00:15:33 - 00:17:37 Yeah. So much like my move to T-Mobile after  BullsEye, my move to Movius was similar. I had   participated in another exit with another agency  and was literally packing my bags. So a bit of a   side story that'll help get us there. I'm also  the CEO of a vineyard and winery in Abruzzo,   Italy called Cantina Di Rosina, which is a story  unto itself. But the brief story is my family 100  

years ago were producers of wine in Italy and  due to the vineyards failing due to a disease   that affects grapes called Phylloxera. They all  emigrated to the States in the early 1920s. Well,   fast forward, 100 years later, I bought  back the vineyards and replanted them   all. So I was about to just do that full  time and I was packing my bags and I got   a call from a friend of mine who was another  former T-Mobile associate and he said, hey,   what are you doing? And I said, I'm packing  my bags. Really? What are you doing? He said,  

well, I'm at this place called Movius and I think  we're onto something and I think you might want   to listen to it. And he connected me with Anant  Sivar, the CEO who showed me the technology that   they were working on and what they had cooking.  And it took me all of 10 minutes to see the   value proposition of multi line by Movius. And he  said, I think this is something you're gonna want   to stick around for. And he was absolutely right.  And boy, the last two years have been a wild ride.   We have just been having a great time. And so the  vineyard is still going forward, I've got people,   I've got a team in place there that keeps  things going. But I'll tell you right now,  

I am wholly fixated on multi line by Mobius.  And getting that out there to the world. Jeff Bullas 00:17:37 - 00:17:46 So tell us a bit about what that  means because most people wouldn't   know what multi line mobile means  or multi line. Tell us about it. John Rarrick 00:17:46 - 00:18:31 Yeah, absolutely. So multi line is a digital  solution that allows users to put a second   dedicated business line on any smartphone. We do  it not from the traditional way with a SIM but   through software and it's actually what we call  phone 3.0. So what was phone 1.0 was, you know,  

the first rotary phone, the one on your grandma's  wall, the one that you had to dial. And then,   you know, as we moved on to phone 2.0, that was  the mobile technology that we know that relies on   a tower and a SIM card to connect to it. What  we've done is what we call phone 3.0 which is   being able to connect to that tower through  a wireless carrier, but not with a SIM card.

Jeff Bullas 00:18:31 - 00:18:37 So is this like a virtual SIM  which is basically in almost   every phone now that hardly anyone knows about? John Rarrick 00:18:37 - 00:20:12 Well, it's similar to that in technology, however,  it gives you a carrier grade call, but it allows   you to interface with all of the communications  platforms that you, the end user, typically   like to use from SMS to voice. So it integrates  seamlessly into Whatsapp, Microsoft teams, WeChat.   CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot and it does it  specifically to be able to archive and capture   that communication. So it's a perfect compliance  tool for highly regulated industries like banking,   healthcare, pharmaceuticals, education, first  responders, anything where you need to capture   those calls or texts and archive them. So we  archive those in on the cloud server of choice   by our clients in that way, if there's ever  any issue with a compliance subpoena or audit,   everything's in a nice tidy package for them to  get to. But most importantly, it allows them to   communicate the way they want to when they want  to. And there's no interaction between the SIM  

which is the personal and the multi line, which  is the software. So your data stays completely   separate from one another. We're not interested  at all in the conversation or text to your Aunt   Mary. We just wanna make sure that everything that  you do from a business standpoint can be captured. Jeff Bullas 00:20:13 - 00:20:19 So did the idea come out of trying to meet a  compliance challenge? Is that how it happened? John Rarrick 00:20:20 - 00:21:18 Well, it started as a simple, let's put another  number on a phone and it developed from there   and our first customers were large global  tier one banks. So we knew we were on to   something right away when we created that  conduit, the cloud storage and from there,   it just took off. And what's been great for our  customers is they, the number remains with them   and the data remains with the customer, not  the end user. So simply if you, Jeff, leave  

your company and you're replaced by Jim, well,  that number could easily just be transferred from   Jeff to Jim and it's a seamless transition. So if  you're a salesperson for a company, what normally   happens in the sales world is Jeff leaves the  company, he leaves with all of his contacts and   all of the data and then when he lands at the new  company, he just reaches out to the client. Well,   now all that data stays with the firm. So  we're really here to help protect the firm. Jeff Bullas 00:21:18 - 00:21:23 Okay. So there's multiple reasons to use Movius.

John Rarrick 00:21:24 - 00:22:02 That's correct. Yeah. And while we started  in the as a financial services tool,   it has really gone in a number of wonderful  different directions from large hospitality   companies with many seasonal employees so that  those numbers can simply be transferred when   the new seasonal employees come in to first  responders so that they've got a separate   number they can use to education so that  teachers and administrators can communicate   with parents and students in a much more  regulated and secure fashion. So we've   taken in a number of really interesting  directions in the last couple of years.

Jeff Bullas 00:22:03 - 00:22:31 So it sounds like it started off with  trying to solve one problem and ended   up being able to solve several problems,  which is always one of the biggest reasons   a lot of businesses start to succeed. So  how do you go about customer acquisition?   How do you do digital marketing? Which  is your role within the organization?   So what are some of your key ways for you  to grow your customer base because you're   talking at the big end of town, really more  enterprise than anything else, aren’t you? John Rarrick 00:22:32 - 00:24:25 Yeah, great question. So for the different  industry categories that we target,   it's a little bit different. Social media comes  into play but almost all of our customers live   on LinkedIn. It's not like I don't have customers  on TikTok. So my job becomes a little bit easier   when you think that I don't have to do a lot  of analysis to try to figure it out. Do we have   what percentage of my banking customers are on  LinkedIn or X or TikTok? They're not there at all,   they're all on LinkedIn and that's where  they live. So from a social standpoint,  

it's been quite easy from a digital advertising  standpoint. It's far more challenging because I've   got the same challenges that any B2B company would  be first identifying who exactly are the decision   makers and then where do they live? And how can I  target them from a digital advertising standpoint?   I would tell you though, our most effective means  of reaching our customers has been earned media   and it would be that way. Had I known about public  relations or not coming into this? Fortunately,   I was quickly able to discover though  that was going to be a vital tool. So  

sometimes gifts fall out of the sky from a  public relations standpoint and you may or   may not have read. But there's been an awful  lot of fines handed down to some large global   banks in the last couple of years for mobile  communications missteps. And when that happens,   we usually find ourselves in those articles. And  when we are, it certainly feeds an awful lot of  

new customer inquiries and we've been able to find  some customers, many customers do those articles. Jeff Bullas 00:24:26 - 00:24:47 So that would perfectly intersect with your  background in PR because PR is about essentially   the, you're seeing the opportunity in a crisis and  a problem within an organization and that you can   solve that PR crisis, not the current one they've  got, but the potential future one they may have. John Rarrick 00:24:48 - 00:25:07 That's right, Jeff. And how that crisis might  also translate across multiple industries,   which of course does regulated industries  have similar communications regulations.   So it then led me to start looking at  what those are like and researching   the earned media opportunities  we could find there as well.

Jeff Bullas 00:25:07 - 00:25:12 So if you see a crisis emerging, do you reach  out and go, we can help you in the future. John Rarrick 00:25:13 - 00:25:52 Absolutely, Jeff, of course. And any good PR  person would be preemptive. That's right. Now,   listen, you know what I'll do sometimes is I  will reach out if I see someone who's written   an article for the Wall Street Journal, I'll  just let that person know, hey, this looks like   something you're interested in writing about. If  you continue to, in the future, we'd love to be   a resource just for you to, you know, if you  want to pick my brain on how that's affecting   other industries. We're here at your disposal and  listen. Good PR people are a resource. They're not  

a nuisance. And so I've always preferred to just  be there as a resource and it's always paid on. Jeff Bullas 00:25:53 - 00:25:59 Right. Okay. Cool. So, content marketing  and media are very important to you then? John Rarrick 00:25:59 - 00:26:57 Yes, email marketing as well. The email marketing  has allowed us to be able to build relationships,  

but also do it in a multi touch faucet. And I'm  very sensitive when I use email marketing to how   many times we reach out and touch a prospect, but  also making sure that the frequency is predicated   on their level of interest and their intent to  potentially buy. So I know that I love email   marketing if it's something I'm interested in,  you know, and I'm a big motorcycle enthusiast. So,   and always have been, I restore old motorcycles.  So when a company that sells parts for an old  

triumph reaches out to me. Well, I'll take that  all week long. Give me two or three of those   a week but if I see something I don't want  hitting my inbox three or four times a week,   I will be unsubscribing and blocking immediately.  So I'm very sensitive to the intent to buy. Jeff Bullas 00:26:57 - 00:27:04 Okay, cool. So Movius, how's the  growth been, like, how many employees?

John Rarrick 00:27:05 - 00:27:34 Yeah, growth's been sensational in my two  years here. So we're up to 150 employees.   We've got offices, we're headquartered in  Atlanta, Georgia, Alpharetta to be specific,   we've got offices in Bangalore, India and  New York as well. SoI'm back and forth   between here in New York and Alpharetta,  Georgia. I'm in Philadelphia where I live,   but I spend most of my time in  New York City or Atlanta office. Jeff Bullas 00:27:34 - 00:27:53 So in terms of, when did Movius start?  And how did they get funding? Was it   done privately? Like was it the  founder started it on a what did   you bootstrap? How did you do that? So  when did Movius start? And number two,   how have you funded growth? Because growth  is a good thing as long as you can fund it. John Rarrick 00:27:54 - 00:28:20 Yes. So, Movius is not a startup although I  would tell you, we operate as a startup with  

that mentality and most people assume we're a  startup. But the company has been around for 25   years and has had many different lives. So  started building beeper infrastructure for   some of the larger beeper companies back  in the day. And I don't know about you,   but my beeper has not gone off in quite some time. Jeff Bullas 00:28:21 - 00:28:24 So you, so you're calling a beeper is a.

John Rarrick 00:28:25 - 00:28:26 Paging. Jeff Bullas 00:28:26 - 00:28:28 A page, a paging device. John Rarrick 00:28:29 - 00:28:32 The old paging devices. Jeff Bullas 00:28:33 - 00:28:56 So, I used to own one of those actually, but yeah,   when you didn't have mobile phones  and then you had to get this call,   then you had to go and try and find, was it  a letter, a phone booth? I don't know. Look,  

I think mobile phones, I started using in the late  1800s. So it's not too much but the beeper was   where you had a crisis happening anyway. Sorry, I  interrupted the beeper versus pager conversation. John Rarrick 00:28:57 - 00:32:44 That's alright. So yeah, and then when the pager  started to go the way of the dodo, we pivoted to  

voicemail infrastructure for wireless carriers  and you know, I don't know about you, but again,   voicemail definitely not plays playing a big  role these days and hasn't for quite some time   and mostly I'm deleting voicemail at this point  in my life. So we pivoted again as needed and,   you know, I think good technology companies  continue to innovate and we certainly did   with the invention of multi line. And  to answer your question about funding,   always being privately funded and continuing to  be, the multi line product has made, you know,   has certainly sparked the interest of investors  because it's one of those products that certainly   has legs beyond what you see today like, we  also have a pretty robust AI division that we,   where we've been able to integrate some really  cool AI solutions with our multi line product.  

For instance, we have a product called CLARE. And  I want to just talk about how that came about,   the use of CLARE came about in a really  interesting way. We had assumed, Jeff, when we   started to have success in the financial services  industry, we said, hey, I bet the pharmaceutical   industry would love to use this multi line product  because they're also highly regulated and their   sales force can't just be rattling off claims  to doctors and, you know, calling doctors willy   nilly. So why don't we talk to them? Something  kind of kicked in the back of my head. I said,   let's not assume anything. Why don't we gather a  bunch of pharm executives together and have some   focus groups? And I'm glad we did because what we  realized was while that was certainly a use case   for multi line. They were much more interested  in potentially using multi line for clinical  

trials because coming out of COVID, no one had  really created a turnkey method of doing a remote   clinical trial and they were struggling to be  able to do them. We have an AI sentiment analyzer   called CLARE. Now we're not the only ones clearly  that have, you know, call sentiment analyzers.   But what CLARE does is it, it's a two way call  sentiment analyzer with an uncanny ability to   really be able to read emotion in the call and  to be able to claw through the data at a very,   very rapid clip at scale. So what we've done for  the pharm industry is create this really nice   tandem product of teaming up multi line with CLARE  so that you can now do a remote clinical trial   conversation, capture that discussion and from the  doctor or they call them the clinicians or trial   investigator with the patient. And to be able to  claw through things like my elbow itches at noon   when when I take the drug or, you know, you name  it, I'm in a lot of pain at 2PM, when you think   of thousands and thousands of calls having to go  through say Zoom conversation recordings and try   to collate that data manually. It's virtually  impossible. So we've been able to help pharma   companies now keep on track. Every day that they  go over schedule for clinical trials that can be  

as much as $100,000. So you just now think about  what that looks like when they go weeks and months   over schedule and we've been able to help keep  them on track. But also mostly important, we've   been able to keep the patients safe because the  data from those trials is all collated and loaned. Jeff Bullas 00:32:45 - 00:32:55 Cool, so essentially you're saving the time of the   pharmacy industry when they're  doing these, you know, tests. John Rarrick 00:32:56 - 00:33:10 That's right. But it's really about patient  welfare at the end of the day. I mean, I love   it. It's great that we've been able to save the  customers money, but their goal is mostly to get  

to market on time, but to make sure that they've  got the best product for their patients, right? Jeff Bullas 00:33:11 - 00:33:43 So what are the other roles of AI that you're  exploring at the moment without giving away   too much? Where do you see AI being used in  mobile communications? Where do you see that   unfolding in the next few years? Because a  lot of the creativity is gonna come out of   combining different or combining different  combinations and doing things in ways that   were never imagined because the technology  allows us to do that such as AI. So what   are some of the things that you see exciting  for the role of AI and mobile technologies? John Rarrick 00:33:44 - 00:34:23 Well, Jeff, I'm really excited about  the potentials for AI and public safety,   particularly when it comes to first responder,   public safety and how we can make some of  these large public places, for instance,   airports safer using AI being able to parse  out particular sounds and being able to parse   out particular visuals between what might and  what might not be dangerous and to be able to   notify first responders. I'm fascinated with being  able to apply the technology for things like that.   Anything that can help save lives and keep people  safer out there. To me, that's a great use of AI. Jeff Bullas 00:34:23 - 00:34:51 Yeah. And essentially because it can scale so  quickly because sometimes when a crisis happens,   like there was a PR exercise with a company in  Australia, a mobile company, telecommunications   company and its call centers couldn't handle the  inquiry. So AI helps scale crisis management. John Rarrick 00:34:52 - 00:35:20 Exactly. Help us get there quicker and  safer I think is the key and listen,  

we wake up every day and read about, about uses  for AI that to me seem frivolous and you know,   like we are, but maybe some of those frivolous  uses are going to help us refine them for real   reasons. So I'm okay with the direction  things are going as long as ultimately   we apply that technology to something that  can actually make the world a better place. Jeff Bullas 00:35:21 - 00:36:07 And I think the area you mentioned with the,  you know, in the pharma area and I’m not talking   about farmers on the farm. We're talking about  pharma companies, pharmaceutical companies. I   think the opportunities lie in medicine with  AI are just mind boggling. The challenge is   sometimes dragging an old industry into a  new world because even before COVID happened,   you had to send information via a fax to the  doctor or the doctor would never call you. It's   like what? Anyway, So I think medicine being  very traditional centuries old in terms of as an   industry is gonna be, is being dragged, kicking  and screaming into the future, which is great.

John Rarrick 00:36:08 - 00:37:04 That's right. And listen, ironically, you  mentioned pharmaceutical and not farm as in   farming. But another fascinating use that's  really exciting for me to watch happen is   the use of AI in agriculture. And that is  bringing a new technology to the oldest,  

the oldest industry out there possible. So with  it, you've got a lot of small and medium sized   farms that are so resistant to the technology  yet, if we can get it right, can have such   an impact on the world, being able to increase  yields and increasing safety on it and on farms   and large scale agricultural institutions.  So that to me is also incredibly exciting   and there's been some major advancements just in  the last couple of years on that front as well. Jeff Bullas 00:37:05 - 00:37:53 It's the challenge for us as humans quite often,  we're limited by our own frameworks and habits   and routines and templates that have been posted  since we were born. Whereas I think one of the   things that interests me is the intersection  of AI and creativity in that people say,   well AI is going to take away our creativity.  I think it's actually just going to amplify it.  

And especially if we use it as a tool, not as a  replacement, but as a tool and I think using AI to   come up with new combinations and intersections of  ideas in ways that we as humans look, we're not,   we're pretty good at pattern recognition.  But I tell you what big data is even better. John Rarrick 00:37:54 - 00:37:55 Absolutely. Jeff Bullas 00:37:56 - 00:38:18 Yeah. So just to wrap it up, there's a question  I always ask. So what brings John real deep joy?   And it might be several things. It might be a  happiness ecosystem. What brings John great joy? John Rarrick 00:38:19 - 00:40:05 You know, maybe one of, this could be seen as a  positive or a negative personality trait in mind.  

But I suppose at the end of the day, I'm a bit  of a people pleaser and I think everybody that   has ever been involved in PR probably is right.  We love to tell a good story. We like to see the   reaction of telling that story. I've always wanted  to make sure that whatever I was doing was gonna   bring some happiness or joy to the world. And  the only times I've ever left jobs was when I  

saw that that wasn't happening and I'd seek out  what was bringing joy. So I would tell you if   you're waking up any day at all and you're doing  something that doesn't make the world a better   place or bring some joy to some person, you might  be off track. And that's just me. Maybe that I   can't speak for everybody out there. I can only  speak for myself. But there's something about,  

even, you know, even my business making wine  when I, there's something about watching   someone's face when they take a sip and they  enjoy what they've had or they love it. That,   man, that just makes my day. And that's a,  I mean, that's a very small piece of the   puzzle we talked about, you know, potentially  having a small impact on global warming. Like   that's a much larger piece of the puzzle. But  I think if you embrace every day with, how can   I make the people around me a little better than  they were yesterday? What else can you ask for? Jeff Bullas 00:40:06 - 00:40:42 Okay. That's fantastic. And that, what I'm hearing  is that essentially it's making a difference,   whether it's something you create or something  you say for people and that gets you up in the   morning. Thanks John for sharing what brings  you deep happiness. I've discovered that  

happiness is complicated because it means  many things to many people. And you know,   we can break in two areas we can bring you, I  suppose, fleeting joy versus deep sustained joy.   And you've just talked about deep sustained  joy. And thank you very much for sharing. John Rarrick 00:40:43 - 00:40:44 Pleasure being here, Jeff.

2024-02-22

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