Hey everybody. Welcome to the Growth Mode Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Matt Masur, it's been a while. We've been busy.
Things have been growing. We're in a new place. Technically we're not even in our podcast studio today, but we are in our new office, which is on East Malloy Road in East Syracuse. We're returning to the podcast with one of guests, our man, Peter, if you've listened to this show or, or watched the videos in the past, uh, you've learned a lot about him and we're gonna dig in. Peter and are now working together, even more. And, that all spurred from inviting him, to be a guest on my podcast, maybe about a year ago now.
Right. It speaks to the power of podcasting and why it's valuable in business. It's not just about putting something out there and maybe like an advertisement picking up somebody, but the relationships that we're able to make, by connecting on this level have been really phenomenal.
So, it is our hope now that we are in the new facility. We've got some new staff, we've got some actual help. It's not just me trying to do this whole thing on my own anymore. we may be able to actually crank out a lot more of this type of content. Locally focused local business, of course, in the local business world.
This year we've got some epic announcements and we're gonna have a lot to talk about on that front. So I'm kind of excited about returning to the podcast, and I'm even more excited that the first gentleman we're able to bring on as a and go ahead and introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Peter B. Smith. I'm an entrepreneur and currently I'm in a luxury slum in the block off of.
Las Vegas Strip. I believe in technology being the best and at the same time putting people over technology and, uh, , it's great to be here with you, Matt. Well, thanks so much, Peter. Uh, It's exciting.
It's interesting how you described that. I came back from Las Vegas not long ago, and I know exactly what you're talking about. It's, it's wild neighborhoods there, especially if you take one block off the strip gets even more wild.
But, what, Peter, right off the bat, now you got me wondering, what are you doing in Las Vegas? Why are you out there, You gambling, or, or what's, what's. Oh, yep, yep, yep. Nope, nope, nope.
I don gamble. I don't drink. I don't use drugs.
I'm just here for the handstands, for the surge performances and the performers. My world outside of software is about challenging physical moves. A beautiful, easy examples, a handstand, and it's the city. Those performers live where that talent level is so high that the software that I build is most applicable to them. And, by being usable for them, it's usable for the world.
And at the same time, it's a lot of fun here. So, of course that software that you mentioned, if folks had seen you previously is something called Flexin. Am I right? Yeah, Flex.
And that is an app designed specifically for, uh, the handstands and, and things of that nature. So you were right in the heart of your target demographic is what you're telling us. That's right.
That's right. How is it being received? How are you making the relationships with these different folks? Are you uh, attending the shows and then, giving 'em a shout out? What, how does that work? beginning of this for me started by meeting one of the best in the world over the internet, and him being in Australia and me being in New York meant there was. Way of training him being the trainer and me being the athlete using YouTube. From that moment five years ago, I've been working with him to meet everybody that I've met in this uh, field.
It's a remarkable thing when you got a partner in your software that is, well known skilled. All of a sudden it's very straightforward to, to meet some people. So much different than going to a show and approaching somebody after. I tend to get a ticket on the comp from a friend. Get to see them and it's a nice thing then to follow up after.
It's, it's very, very, very, Now what, what is the feedback you're getting from these folks as you're showing ' you're not only your app, but just talking about what you're trying to do and why and things like that. So it's been a evolution. A year ago I was talking to you as my primary role in the world of the owner of software development agency. I was at that time very. Straightforward engineer and sales of software services.
Now I'm a engineer, Yes, doing sales of a software product. And when I first began, while the software is fundamentally at its core Staple, I was treating it like I was telling a story with, words. It's been when I moved away from that and gone towards showing the output of the software video of great reception, it's something that as soon as I show a video, all of a sudden the name of the brand flexion, if it's not mentioned, gets asked about where'd that come from? How'd you make that? What app is that? And every time I get that question, it just feels great.
It's a boring thing to sit at a computer all day and press buttons when a lot of what I like to do is go out to a desert and do handstands. So the reward for me in it is not as much that I get to have it as much as the audience's needs are being, And it just shows up when I do a post and I get those questions. It's been awesome as a reception. That's incredible, man. That's really incredible. let me ask you just, uh, one more question on Flexin.
Originally when we talked last year, it was about specifically the handstands, but there was a lot of talk of potential, other places it could be used, other ways that things like AI might be incorporated. Where it was a year ago. Is there any, any movement on that or any news on those types of fronts in terms uh, what you might be doing now with your app versus a year ago? Yeah, in a world, first, I can announce that the groundwork of the handstand has led to the expansion towards a broad swath of.
body weight positions, body weight being those exercises that are powered by your own hands and feet and everything in between. Gotcha. You don't use a machine of any sort.
It's like that there are modifiers, like books on the floor to sit on in order to facilitate a deeper stretch gotcha. Or a pulled up bar to grab onto in order to facilitate some pulling strength at the core of it. These are all very much powered by the weight of the own body, and for that, a handstand was such a great. Beginning point because it has different aspects of it, like visual aesthetic, that we spent a grand effort getting that to be good. And now that we've gotten that to be good and it is the best in the world, we're able to add on some of these more let's call them stunning move. Okay.
In a straightforward way. So it's fun to say we've laid that groundwork in that as the year comes to a close, not one exercise, handstand, not 10 exercises, handstands and. Pushups and chin ups over, hundred different permutations of these physical bodies are slated for availability by Christmas. Wow. That's incredible. So now remind me, with all that original idea was to give you some feedback to connect you with a coach.
Do you have to partner with different coaches, different people for all those different moves? Or what happens? With the athlete that I am and the moves that I like, there's a category called calisthenics. These are strong moves. They're very oriented towards building muscle, and once that muscle is built, being static, being totally.
Still in a very challenging, gravity looking like it doesn't exist position fine. And that is where my heart is at. That's where my coach and friend and, partner and all of this is at. And that has been something of a question asked by many in particular people in the yoga world.
The yoga world is much bigger than the calisthenics world is much more accessible for many age ranges. Oh, sure. And with that said, the relationships that have been found by me and by others, Are very straightforward. There are creators, you see in the social media feeds who have astounding physique and astounding brains tends to be able to articulate what it takes to get there. And those people are very much.
Pieces of the flex and world. Those creators are those ones who have a move to demonstrate, and the only way for a person who's their audience member to show it back to them is by uploading it. With Flexin, they can go further than just the upload. They can be very precise in what they're attempting at.
With Flexin, they can be very precise in before the coach has seen it knowing is this something that a person needs to review or if the artificial intelligence algorithm has been able to show the. Can the coach and the athlete focus on something better? So creators, those are good relationships. There are challengers as well.
These are folks that are straightforward showing off. These are people that embody flexion. The whole reason, okay they're making that post is just to show the world that they can.
And I've met one person like that who is so good to mention. His name is the specimen. And boy is this guy exactly true his word. Not a ounce of body fat. But also you've gotta see under a microscope, how is he doing any of this? It's something that you might wanna analyze. The amount of progress he makes and the amount of ability he's achieved in the short amount of time he's been training.
It gets him interviewed, people who really want to know, and him as a. With Flex and is able to challenge the world and get the world to participate, if not exactly at the level and at the devotion as a man, like the specimen, at least to get you outta your comfort zone, trying something new that's pretty. There are manufacturers. This is the, let's call it, core of the world of not needing exercise equipment for the majority, for true development of skill and of strength, yet.
Still needing and wanting something purpose built. And those manufacturers provide a vital tool in the box of all of these athletes, whether yoga blocks in the yoga world, paras in the cals world, handstand bars in the circus and gymnastics world, these handstand canes that are made, they're so useful. And there are many manufacturers. We've been able to establish a relationship with as people post goals on flexin, and in working with manufacturers, we can provide some of these. Tools as prizes to people that win the challenges posted by challengers.
We can work with the creators who are also a part of the world of using some of these things in order to generate, trustable set of manufactured goods. Then you might find on basically the Amazon bottom shelves of the worst. Those are our people With the manufacturers.
That sounds interesting and it sounds like you might even be on this path, but is that a type of thing where. If I'm a manufacturer of this know, yoga block for example, I might wanna look to partner with you, make my own branded yoga block app powered by your technology. So that's something that they could offer with their product. Is that something, are you going down that type of road or is it more of a you send people to our dedicated app type of situ.
It's a good question for the business part of my brain consider and run in a matrix. And I'm not going to, to go far into that except to see, I can see the light bulbs. They're, they're appearing above his head right now.
Mm-hmm. , uh, great example of a manufacturer. P 90 X Folks can think back about P 90 X being, infomercial with. Video that was purchased once somebody bought the workout program might have received supplements afterwards, might have gotten into the digital world of p90x, which has been a bigger piece nowadays. Now that DVDs aren't what they were. So, Gotcha.
So every manufacturer, they have their own, once they have a manufactured workout piece of equip. Digital presence today where they have athletes that are doing P 90 X style things. So there's not a one out there where Flex and if it's, part of their world is going to be treating it like a normal part of their business.
This is very much a world of organizations that have been one way communicating with the people that they serve. They've been putting out video that then a athlete might watch at home and it ends there. This gives a two way communication where the athlete can show the workout back and demonstrate back, and it becomes a world of creativity that's being explored now by us in order to work.
Is it through Reflection proper, or is it through the underlying power reflection going into the platform that they control? What do you think on that one? I don't know. You know what? As you're talking, as I'm thinking about your technology, I'm just thinking about and I'm not an expert on this, so forgive me if I sound dumb, but the little bit that I have read recently in the business world is that the company Peloton is potentially struggling a little bit. And they are somebody that's all about fitness, all about the subscription, all about the live experience. And I'm just thinking this app could provide an incredible AI component that might, Save 'em some revenue. I don't know.
I don't know exactly what their model and their expenses are, but to me, this technology, and I had never thought about that type of, partnership for your app until you started talking about manufacturers. But it seems like there is a lot of potential for what you got going on with these folks. I hope pellets the fails.
. Yeah. Fair enough. Are they the ones with the mirror, did they come out with that mirror thing as well or is that a different. Mirror was at the time it was started, an independent entity that grew to then get acquired by Lululemon. Oh, okay.
Also, Hope mirror fails. I wear Lululemon. It's just the category of pein and mirror fit into what sells well, but does not get you results like just some of the more basic, affordable methods out there. It's more of a marketing play than a genuine. Help you out.
Fitness situation. It might just be a matter of what is fitness about for anyone, for flexion and the people that it serves. It's about getting stronger and growing and skilled, and it's not about what Pein is about pein being an exercise bike, primarily cardio. It's not really the world of flexion. Me being a device that has to be fixed in place in order to work with does not fit some of the more real aspects of my life, or the people that I know, and the ones that are always moving it just doesn't work. Physical thing in the house just doesn't make.
So that soon as you've got your phone with you, you've got your exercise equipment, That's your tagline right there. Write that down, buddy. That's a good one.
Okay. . Right. Seriously, that's a good one. We've got a few more minutes here and if you don't mind, I wanna get into just a little bit about some of the stuff that you and I are working on together, these. What folks may not know and they may discover if they come to our open house next Thursday, and this episode might air afterwards, so I apologize.
But Peter now has a desk in some office space, right in our suite. And the reason for that is, is we are now partnering on some software development and some things of that nature. As we have more going on at growth mode with clients that are looking to automate things, are looking to get the most out of, their Microsoft Office subscription that they already have. We need some folks with some genuine software development background.
And that's where Peter has come in and uh, it's just begun. But I think we've put together a great partnership I'm pretty excited about that piece. I am too. I think it fits into the that are broadly true about Syracuse, which is we're not solution. We're not a place in the world where the entrepreneurs go on to become billionaire. Stories that spread from North America to Africa and everywhere else.
We are a world of people and entrepreneurs that put in a good day's work, get a fair pay for that work. And then we're about our families and our friends and what we might just call the fundamentals of. I believe in all of those things being very valuable and to put in high end software work for that purpose is where I'd like to think about our partnership on some of these more meaningful yet overlooked pieces of the world. Business software improvement. Just making something simpler, making something more affordable, not having the remarkable markup of the software agency with a big name and the hourly rate to end up with nothing at the end. I think some of these things and problems, it's hard.
Too often, it's just worth. Our combined effort to do anything that we can to make the software lives of local businesses as good as they are for us. . I love them. I really do appreciate that description because I sort of hit the nail on the head.
A lot of what we're looking to do, I mentioned automation, but it's also about efficiency and it's also about coming together and looking at these companies that have potentially subscriptions or software products from five different vendors that they're paying every. When, the Microsoft Office platform and know, I keep going back to that because there is a huge amount of features and functions in the backend that a lot of folks don't know of. And quite frankly with a tiny bit of customization, sometimes more than a tiny bit. But with some customization, you can, in many cases replace a number of those other tools. And not only is that less subscriptions, less pieces to the puzzle, but then it makes things more. Because it's in places and tools that people are most familiar with, using like right outta outlook, you can manage so many of these things.
So when you look at that, I agree with you. I think that's all about helping not only the business, but the individual employee doing a task. I personally don't wanna do a job. You know, 90 minutes a day that a machine might be able to automate for me and make all that time available.
And know, as we have a crunch for real good talent in different places, let's get rid of these menial tasks and let's leave human beings to do the things that they are best at. Being creative and providing customer service and humanity in your business rather than shuffling paper. I don't think there's benefit ROI wise or otherwise to businesses today to do things that way. So, that's where we're coming at and where we're talking with clients about and all those things. And uh, Peter is the brain to make those things that I talk about happen. So that's, that is why I am very excited to be working.
I said it before, Syracuse is not Silicon Valley and I am not that Facebook fat cat. I find a lot of the new, You have more than one shirt. I've noticed , you are not him. More tools and more dollars have been spent on software in order to make.
The Facebook fat cat and his kind wealthy beyond any measure in the previous hundred years and the results of it for those people that have bought it. Have been sprawling suites of software. One tool for communication. Two for communication, three for communication four.
All of a sudden there are five communication tools at a company. You've got Slack, and you've got Zoom, and then you've got your email for your professional world that you deal with the internal audience and another email. The ones that are outside the organization, and once you've gotten into Slack, maybe you've gotten into Trello, and then once you've gotten into Trello, you've got somebody on the team wanting to do some automation, and you bring in Zapier. Look at this money that gets spent on those. You get into what sounded good at the beginning of $7 a month per user for Trello, for your team of five, you can afford the 35 bucks, but then you've got these whole suites of tools that from 35 up to 350 in a month, right? At the end of the day, I was miserable using all of those when I was. Now I use one tool, and for me and for you, I think it's a matter of the change in the time since the plague began and remote work and hybrid work became a part of the conversation.
It's a broad focus and good profits for companies that probably were doing well anyway to the software needs of businesses being very high. They're very high today. You need to be using software, or software is going to use you.
And if you are going to use software, he's full of great lines. This guy, he's, He's just the best. I'm sorry. Yeah. If you're gonna use it, basically just to make sure that you're using something that you feel happy with at the end of the day.
Something that doesn't get you angry, something that keeps you calm. And between notion as one tool that's fit the world of certain people in the. Up and coming newer, no tied down relationships to other software vendors.
There's a place in the world for that. In the Microsoft world, there's Loop that's coming out, and then there's all of the other things the team has under the surface that people don't know about, that they're already paying for, that's available to them for free. That if only they took on. They can go from pulling their hair out to Yeah.
Sitting back. Right. That's where we're putting it all together. So to, to tie it all together, I guess I would say.
That's what we have to offer here at Growth Mo Tech. And Peter, if you wanna give folks just the plugs of where to find ya, potentially, where to find Flex in anything that you would like folks to know about. Yeah, if you are watching this and you want to get more fit, check out playground.flexon.io to get a taste of what the software can do and
maybe discover for yourself something that you didn't know you could do. For what we are talking about with software, I think that Mount fuji.space is a place for anyone to go. Mount fuji.space gives all of the highest purpose to work that I have found a name and a voice and at the. Point where you get there and you're curious about more.
I think that it's a easy thing to say, Start a conversation. This is what we're here for. This is what growth mode, what myth software, and I'm using that now for the first time yet. I should just keep it as this is what Matt and I are.
, but it's just about being able to serve the world. We live better software. That's awesome Peter.
And on that note, we're gonna tap out, This has been the first episode, I guess I would say, of the new season of the Growth Mode Conversations podcast. I very, very much appreciate Peter Smith joining us. He will no doubt be back. He is our returning champion and this will definitely not be his last appearance. So thank you Peter, and thank you. No problem.
Everybody who, took the time to listen to us Yammer back and forth, we really appreci. Check out growth mode tech.com to learn more about what we do and to check out all the other episodes of this super thrilling podcast. Thanks. I'm honored to be on it. Thanks, Peter.
2022-11-30