Episode 438 – Michael Angelo Caruso
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody is Tom here with episode 438. Screw the Commute podcast. I'm here with Michael Angelo Caruso. I just love that guy's name every time I say it or think about this guy, I think like pirates and stuff, it just seems like a swashbuckling kind guy I've known for a long time. So we'll bring him on in a minute and hope he didn't miss Episode 437. That was Dom Brightmon. I normally have people that are in their own business exclusively, but I just love his profession. I love librarians. They just have mines like steel traps and they're so wonderful. So he's a librarian, but he's a leadership speaker as a side hustle. And he also has the Great North podcast, which I'll be on here shortly, and then we'll throw one more in that just a must listen for you. It's Episode 436. It's on bad reviews. And this is not a reputation management episode. This is bad reviews are good for you. And it it shows all the studies showing that perfect reviews make you seem noncredible. The actual sweet spot is four point two to four point five as reviews, because people then believe that the reviews are credible. So it goes into all the details of that and the percentages of people that it look for bad reviews and what they do about it and whether they care about it, all these things. So it's a must listen episode. So to find back episodes, you go to screwthecommute.com and then the episode number slash 436 would be that one.

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[00:03:20] Now I've been teaching this stuff. I've been selling on the commercial internet for twenty seven years since it started in 1994. I formalized my training about twenty three years ago in a form of a mentor program, which I'll tell you about later. But about thirteen years ago I formalized it again in the form of a school. It's the only licensed, dedicated Internet marketing school in the country, probably the world. It's IMTCVA.org and I got to tell you, I'm a proponent of education. But what's going on with four year colleges now? You know, with my consumer advocate work, if they weren't colleges, some of these people would be in jail for the way they're ripping off families. So so this school teaches hard core skills that are in high demand. And you can we have people making money before, you know, a few months into the school because every business on Earth needs these skills. And a little bit later, I'll tell you how you can get a full scholarship to the school if you're in my higher end mentor program.

[00:04:22] All right. Let's get to the main event. Michael Angelo Caruso teaches presentation skills on five continents. He's worked with Hallmark, Bank of America, Verizon, Rayovac, Citco, Nissan, many others. He's the author of Work Hacks and Dear Michelangelo, A Father's Life Letters to His Son. What a beautiful book there. He also has a highly rated speaker coaching class titled Present Like a Pro, and he loves exercise, movies and travel. Michael, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:05:00] Screw it, baby.

[00:05:02] How are you doing, man?

[00:05:04] Good. It's good to talk to you again.

[00:05:06] Yeah. Been a long time.

[00:05:08] I have a confession to make, man, you are an early hero for me. I love your style and I especially love something about you that very few people in the business can brag about. You have so little pretense compared to other speakers, people that do what we do. What you see is what you get with Tom, Antion.

[00:05:28] Well, that's the thing. I mean, I, I, you know, I regularly spoke at these big multi speaker events for over 20 years and I've never been beaten in the back of the room sales and never done less than one hundred thousand. And what most people say is like everybody else blew in in like they're big divas and with their entourage and then, oh, I got to get on a plane and leave. I just sat there from I was the first one there and the first one, the last one to leave and talk to people. I didn't have a name tag, so they didn't even know who I was. And then when I got up on stage, it's kind of blew me away. So yeah. Yeah. If people would just be themselves, they'd probably do a lot better, that's for sure. But thanks. Thanks for saying that.

[00:06:13] My pleasure.

[00:06:15] So tell everybody what you're doing now, then we'll take you back, see how you came up through the ranks.

[00:06:20] Sure. Well, if you're listening to this post covid everybody, there was a thing called a worldwide pandemic that shut everything down, especially US event based speakers. And so everybody went online. I'm doing a two courses online, a present like a pro course, and also a course called Zoom Your Sales, which is a sales training course, and starting to get some calls about doing some live gigs, which I'm really excited about.

[00:06:47] Yeah, because you've done I mean, your history is forty nine out of 50 states and 2000 presentations in how many continents.

[00:06:57] Five continents.

[00:06:58] How many are there, four

[00:07:01] Seven

[00:07:02] Seven oh oh, wow, you're a slacker, you're a slacker. You better get those other two. Yeah. So so it was a big smack in the face for most of the people in our profession. Not really me, because I've been preaching this for 100 years, that you should have a lot more going for you than just speaking. But how was the transition for you?

[00:07:27] I got two online courses pre covid. So again, not as bad for me as it was for some other people, but I think a lot of people had to deal with the keynote fee and stuff like that because, you know, the early logic on it was when you're not having to leave your house, so we shouldn't have to pay you. Right. And that and then they said, well, you're not leaving your house. We shouldn't have to pay you full fee. And then I think a few of us in the industry decided we were going to try to hold the standard and we did. And it wasn't long before people started to figure out that there if you were delivering the same great content, the same unique personality and delivery style, you were worth a full Keano fee. But I think some people still struggle with that, you know?

[00:08:13] Yeah, I know, I agree. I mean, fortunately, I wasn't affected that much by it because I've been, you know, selling online mostly. But I do remember back in 9/11, you know, a lot of really big name speakers went bankrupt because there was no no things and there was no zoom in those days, an easy way to to do stuff remotely. And they had no products, nothing else, except that being on stage, running their mouth and boom

[00:08:43] Out of you know, I like I like your point about differentiation and, you know, figuring out different ways to help people. It is stunning to me how few speakers know how to write.

[00:08:55] I agree. I have a transcript of a seminar I did called Repurposing How to Sell Your Knowledge in 19 Different Ways. And Speaking is only one of them. There's just so many ways to help people. And that's what we do basically is help people motivate him or inspire them. And there's just so many ways to do it other than just speaking.

[00:09:17] Yeah, I think that comes out to in a lot of the way people speak. There's this big trend now toward extemporaneous speaking, which is, you know, just talking off the top of your head. Everybody sees Ted and Ted talks and they think, well, this is easy, but the TED talks are very well rehearsed. They're rehearsed even with cameras so that people know exactly what to do. But a lot of speakers, especially the ones just getting into the business, they get on stage, they think they're going to wing it and it doesn't come off as good as they think it does. And then they have trouble getting bookings and that's why they're not as good as they think they are.

[00:09:57] Exactly. And, you know, I think people like both of us, you know, that help speakers. You know, somebody says, well, yeah, yeah, they really love me at church, you know, like they don't eat their young. OK, well, at least they don't do it in church. I to get out of the theater. Right. And then they show me a demo tape and they say, yeah, yeah, I'm really good. I just want the business part, you know. And I said you're really good I think compared to what you know. So I'll bet,

[00:10:32] I'll bet you see this two Tom about two out of ten people that try to on board into my online present like a pro course, about two out of ten. When I'm talking to them, I'm like, what can I help you with? What's the problem? You know, these to me seem like the kinds of questions a good coach, a conscientious coach would ask where, you know, the doctor frame, where does it hurt? And two out of ten people tell me they don't have any problems, two out of ten speakers. And I say to them, well, I guess I can't help you then. And they stop talking like, what do you mean you can't help me? I said, Well, you just told me you don't have any problems. And here's the point. They do have serious problems, but they don't know it. Right. We can all be better. I always say everybody thinks they're a pretty good speaker, just like everybody thinks they're a pretty good driver. But there are a lot of dented cars on the freeway.

[00:11:26] Yeah, first of all, it's hard, harder to evaluate yourself and then the people around you pat on the back. I don't want to hurt your feelings. And it's right. Yeah, it's like an old coal miner told me one time, the schoolhouse door is always open, you know. That's right. How big shot you think you are. You get you know, you've got to keep keep learning and improving. And whether you improved, I mean, yeah, it's probably the law of diminishing returns, but it's that attitude of always getting better that keeps you sharp and keeps you at the top of your game.

[00:12:00] Yeah. And it's not just our industry. I heard Seinfeld talk one time about young comedians, and the question that was posed to him was something like, what advice do you have for young comedians? Something like that. And his answer was very thoughtful. He said, well, a lot of young comedians never finish. I don't know if you use the word curating is my word today. They never finish curating their material, their content. You know, you got to really kick it up and look underneath it, look at it from behind and look at it from the left in the right, you got to really know your shit to be good at something. And a lot of people are in a hurry to get to market. So like I said earlier, it's kind of like bowling. You know, if I can get the ball down the alley, it's good enough. Nobody ever tries to get good at bowling. But amazing things happen when you do take the time to really study, get a good coach like you, for example, and you just amaze yourself with the progress you can make in a very short period of time.

[00:12:57] Yeah, and when I get a lot, as everybody says, well, yeah, I'm good, I'm good on stage. I just need the business. I need to get there. I'm thinking you were really great on stage. Business would come to you.

[00:13:09] It's 100

[00:13:11] Percent. So now you have a background in entertainment and technology that doesn't really kind of that's not a normal combo there. What's that?

[00:13:20] All I know well, my brothers and I all played musical instruments in the public school system. And at some point when we were growing up in our crowded household, I have three brothers and my dad played trumpet. It was easier to combine our practice times rather than try to find an open slot in the basement schedule. So we'd end up playing duos, duets and trios. And then we formed the little band. Right. And we started getting invited to play these free events like Girl Scout cleanup days and stuff. And that's how the entertainment thing took off. It wasn't long before people were offering us money. Same thing we all went through in the in the speaking business. The first time somebody offered you money to speak, you're like, well, I don't charge

[00:14:02] A Girl Scout cleanup day. What is that?

[00:14:06] Well, like, any group would get together maybe and clean up a park.

[00:14:09] Oh, I'm thinking that's whenever I walk by them selling cookies and I'm just stuffing them in my mouth and the crumbs are falling on the ground.

[00:14:17] That's a different kind of clean. So so we do these three gigs and we figured out how to get paid. I mean, when I started playing the clubs circuit, we did a lot of weddings, played a lot of cover tunes. Then we started writing songs and I didn't know it at the time. But this was a proving ground for being a professional speaker because we were learning how to go on the road, get paid, get rebooked, raise our rates, make people happy. Right. And I always tell people now in the speaking business is it's just like the music business, except they don't have to come into the kitchen. And I don't and I don't want to vote, you know, because in the band we voted all the time on what to do. I don't know if the vote when I run my own show.

[00:15:00] So you had you played trumpet at weddings. You see that very often. Yeah.

[00:15:06] Yeah. What was it back in the day? You know, and our first instruments were all acoustic instruments, not rock and roll instruments. So I started on trumpet and then I picked up the bass guitar amp and everybody that started on clarinet but try to make money playing clarinet. Yeah. So I learned how to play guitar. And that's how it happened, and then the music business, you know, like with most people, it's really hard to climb to the top of the mountain. And eventually I had to get a real job and I ended up in the telecommunications industry. And this is interesting. I love people. I love being in front of people, clearly. And this telecommunications job I was making 50 Tom five zero outbound calls a day to people I would never meet to try to get them to cut a purchase order for telephone equipment. Yikes. And I learned the sales trade in that industry because I learned how to process signals without seeing the people I was talking to. It was all Audible's. Uh huh, yeah. You know, when you're in front of a room, you know that when you're talking to the audience, there's actually two presentations going on, your presentation to them and their presentation to you. They're rolling their eyes or jingling their keys or taking notes or texting, especially if you're not a good speaker

[00:16:28] Nodding their head in agreement. That's right. Yeah.

[00:16:32] And participating and sitting in the front row and not going to the bathroom every 30 minutes. So a good speaker, I think, is monitoring both of those presentations simultaneously because you can make course corrections in real time to improve your presentation. And I learned how to do that on the telephone. Why didn't he answer me right away? Is he is he answering his email? Is did he did he Dreft did he not like the price that I just mentioned? And again, back to the Seinfeld thing. When you dig deep into that, sometimes I would even ask him. You hesitated just now. May I ask why? And he would tell me sometimes they wouldn't tell me, but sometimes they would. And I was just learning more and more and more, not only about myself, but about the communication process.

[00:17:19] I hope none of them said they pulled a Jeffrey Toobin on you. I don't know if, you know,

[00:17:26] Some of you will have to. Some of you have to Google.

[00:17:29] Jeff, appreciate that. So you're being forced. It's almost it kind of reminds me of a sight impaired person, how there are other there are other skills, you know, get sharper. So it seems kind of like that was happening with you because you were on there and all you had was the verbal cues instead of the visual.

[00:17:50] One hundred percent. And I got that from the music business. You know, when you're supposed to be playing a B natural that you played a B flat, all the guys in the band look at you. That's a pretty fast feedback loop. And when you're working alone like a speaker or a writer and author, unless you're working with an editor or some sort of continuity person, you have to be your own fast feedback loop. You have to understand really quickly what just happened. And it's not easy to get to the bottom of it when you're on a time schedule, say, in the middle of a slide deck or you're trying to close within 30 minutes. This is like juggling, ladies and gentlemen, there's a lot of balls in the air.

[00:18:29] Yeah. And, you know, I just can't imagine why a lot of speakers haven't taken me up on what you know, I have a method that's mostly offbeat in that I never use PowerPoint. I know. And I had to use it one time for a big spokesperson's job because they forced me into it. But but I don't. And so so I never get caught if the time gets cut. Well, you know, I have stuff on my desktop and I play videos and I show graphics and everything, but nobody knows if I'm missing anything because I don't have to like, oh, I'm going to fast forward through three slides because we're running out of time. It's always like, oh, you know, I just gave you one. I do. In the time allotted, a lot of people want to really depend on the PowerPoint for sure is

[00:19:20] That I'm with you. And here's the here's the problem with PowerPoint. It's sexy and it's easy. And yeah, you're talking points are all set up, but it's linear. And people don't like people. Real people don't like their speakers to be linear, like them to be real and conversational. And you can't be conversational if you're always on the way to the next slide. It's hard. And if somebody in the audience has a question, oh, no, I'm not taking questions. I've got to get through the slide deck. It just puts you in a place that is stiff and stilted and uncomfortable. And ultimately it's going to hurt your your customer SAT scores.

[00:19:58] Yeah, I mean, it's it's one of the reasons, like I said, I sold so much at the back of the room because if somebody would bring something up that was pertinent, I could just go on my desktop is. Oh, I got it. I got something I'll show you right now about that boom and then rather than. Well, maybe I'll get to that later. I'm going to get to that later. No, I could take care of it right now. It's right in the moment in the. And yeah, it's so so I don't know. Most people just say I need that crutch of a PowerPoint and I never, never fell into that trap.

[00:20:31] Yeah. Good for you. And I think I think it makes a difference. I attended one of your events, I don't know, ten or twelve years ago. And you were so I don't mean this in a bad way. You were anti flash.

[00:20:42] Exactly.

[00:20:43] Well, most speakers, you know, worried about what they're wearing. Does their hair look good? You know, moving around the old speaker trick doesn't work, of course, is that you would walk from stage. Left the stage right over and over and over again because you need to cover the room, right? And it starts to look like a tennis match after a while because it's keep going left. Right. And you sat in that chair. I'll never forget this for three days. You have some guest speakers and you regaled us with content and wisdom. And and it was all about the message, not about the messenger. And it was so powerful that I took a lot away from that program. I remember it to this day was.

[00:21:29] I appreciate that. Yeah. I did a podcast recently called Gentleman's Style and. Yeah, and but I got to think about, you know, because I book a lot of these things. I mean, am I supposed to be on that show me style. Are you kidding. Like I was like my size me and my house is like we redecorated with a hand grenade, you know. So. So anyway it was about marketing but I don't know why they called it style. I want to ask you something about the name of your you have a company called Edison House. Yes. How did you come by? Does that have to do with Thomas Edison or how did you come up with that name?

[00:22:12] Well, it's not a bad thing I read one time to be associated with a great adventure. I read one time that you should never name your company after yourself. You might want to sell it myself. There are different things. So I lived in a little two and a half bedroom bungalow on Edison Street when I first started the first time out my shingle and I lived in Edison House and on my way, Edison was a great inventor. Let's go with that for now. I had an epiphany about four or five years later because I kept this is when the Internet was just starting to keywords were starting to come into the lexicon. And I was in front of the room. And so I had this name, Michael Angelo Caruso, and I had a company named Edison House and I and it became too confusing for people. What do I remember? And I thought, well, if I want them to remember anything, I want them to remember, remember my name. So Edison House is kind of like the umbrella company under which I operate, but I don't ask anybody to remember that anymore. Just if you can remember my name, we're good.

[00:23:11] Yeah. That's the one that I like. Set that every time I see it, I say, well, that's that's a cool name and thank you. And I also know that you're heavily into Rotary. I was in Rotary a long time ago. I just couldn't keep up with the attendance requirements. But but it's a great organization. You're really in deep, right?

[00:23:31] Yeah. They break the attendance requirements now. You know, society's changed quite a bit. And of course, with covid everybody zooming, I just love to get back. I love a systemized way for doing it and also not for nothing. My business has grown quite a bit because of all those relationships and and all the talks that I've done for Rotary. So it's been a nice hand in glove relationship for me.

[00:23:57] Yeah. And the and the you have a podcast too. And I just heard this lady that you were interviewing that had climbed fifty eight mountains in seventy five days. Yeah. And I think I got enough trouble climbing out of bed the morning.

[00:24:16] I had never heard of this thing. She said she's what's called a fourteeners. Yeah there are, there are a number of fourteen thousand foot peaks in Colorado and these crazy people during the summer because there's only a short window. You can do it if you're a reasonable person. And she had never climbed before and she got up one day and said, I'm going to do this. And I was just so taken by her story and she's so cute on the podcast.

[00:24:42] I know she was she was very demure and like, oh, yeah, the first time I tried these two mountain tops, I threw up when I was done.

[00:24:50] And I just love talking to inspirational people. And fortunately, I have a nice megaphone where I can help other people learn about these interesting people. I think you probably use your podcast for the same reason.

[00:25:06] Well, yeah. I mean, it's like so this is episode 438 here. So I like to introduce people to entrepreneurs. And, you know, on Mondays we do a training session and something that's really made me a lot of money or save me a lot of money. But on Wednesdays and Fridays, I really like to introduce people to kind of inspire them. Hey, people are doing all kinds of great stuff out there. Why don't you, you know, like, screw that commute. So what's the name of the podcast?

[00:25:34] You're of the. Yeah, the podcast. It's Talk to me. It's on iTunes being all the major platforms. I recorded two formats. So if you want to watch the video version, you can just go to the Michelangelo Caruso YouTube channel everybody and use the other keyword interview or podcast or talk to me and all of them will come up. And of course, you can also listen. I know what a lot of people doing now Tom is they're listening to YouTube videos, which is crazy, but I do it all the time myself. I'm in the car and I don't I can't watch the video, but I listen because it's the same audio track.

[00:26:11] Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's great. And that's why this other social media thing, clubhouses taken off like crazy because.

[00:26:18] Yeah. Are you part of that.

[00:26:20] Yeah, I'm, I'm there and normally I don't get too excited about this stuff, but I can have it play and while I'm working, you know, I can jump in and build a following and throw my two cents worth in. So I like the fact that it's just audio. I don't have to watch a webinar or, you know, you know, look at graphics or anything. It's just you can listen. So so we've got to take a brief sponsor break. When we come back, we'll ask Michael about what's his daily schedule look like, what's the day look like for him now and how he stays motivated. And also, he's got some things to give you. So he'll be back in a moment with that. So, folks, about twenty three years ago, I kind of turned to Internet marketing guru world on its head and that guys like me were charged in 50 or 100 grand up front. For small businesses that teach them what they knew and I knew a lot of these people, if you gave them 50 grand up front, you'd never see them again behind not Mexico. So I said, you know, that's too risky and it's not right. So I said, I'm going to fix this. So I just charge an entry fee that was like 10 times smaller. And then I took a percentage of their profits that's capped.

[00:27:34] So they're not stuck with me forever. So for me to get my fifty thousand, you have to net 200000. Well, people really love this. And 7500 students later and 23 years, it's still going strong. And it's the longest running, most unique and most successful Internet and digital marketing mentor program ever. And I have no trouble saying that because I triple dog dare people to put their program up against mine and nobody will do it because I'm such a crazy fanatic. So it's unique in the fact that part of it is you get a a Mercian weekend, of course, when all the pandemic stuff's gone and the great Internet marketing retreat center in Virginia Beach. We have a TV studio here. We shoot marketing videos for you. You actually live in the house with me during the immersion weekend. And then everything we do is one on one. So you're not stuck with people more advanced and then you're lost and you're not. If you're advanced, you're not stuck listening to beginner stuff. So that's just not efficient that way. And you have that one on one with myself and my entire staff and by appointment unlimited. So nobody would talk to you, let alone teach anything. So you also get a scholarship to my school that you can either use yourself or gift to somebody else.

[00:28:56] So we had one guy spend 80000 bucks on a crap education for his daughter and she's working a crappy job. And then he gifted he joined a mentor program, gifted the school to his daughter, and she's now making six thousand dollars a month as a side hustle before it has even graduated yet. So so this is very powerful stuff that's in high demand. I've been living this life for 27 years. The pandemic hasn't slowed me down or even noticed, and neither have it. Has it affected my students. So check it out. GreatInternetmarketingtraining.com, a very accessible would love to talk to you about your future and your, you know, loved ones future online. I mean, this is a great legacy gift also for a young person in your life with grandchildren, nephews, nieces or your own kids to really give them a great shot at having their own career without being stuck with massive student debt.

[00:29:55] All right. Let's get back to the main event, Michelangelo Caruso's here. He teaches presentation skills, is is spoken all over the world, helping people. And so, Michael, what's a typical day look like for you to have this morning routine a lot of people talk about?

[00:30:12] Yeah, I do. It's funny, I when I was in the music business, I was never a morning person. We used to joke we got up at the crack of crack noon. Yeah. Yeah. And now I love my mornings. I'm up early. I'm a big fan of the the old Stephen Covey book, Seven Habits. One of the chapters is titled First Things First. And so I do the most important thing in the morning first. So if I'm writing something, a book or I have some sort of an article deadline, that's the first thing I do. I find that's my focus time. I heard one time Tom that that there are two types of people in the world, either Owles or larks.

[00:30:52] Our lord, that

[00:30:54] I would be a night person in Iraq, would be a morning person. I'm a lark now, so that's that's my sweet spot. I can tell you that another habit that's really starting to pay off for me, actually, it has for a few months now. But takes a little while to get it going because of the way the Internet works. I've been adding one video a day to my YouTube channel, which takes a little bit of time. And you can guess if I'm doing it once a day, there must be a system to it or a schedule to it. So this part of the answer to your question, and when you get a certain amount of videos, everybody's different or a certain type of content collected in one place like that. And YouTube goes to work suggesting related videos. Right. So if you've got it tagged out properly and posted properly, you can really get some sway on this platform. And I've really been starting to get a dividend recently. So the YouTube channels really cooking. I'm proud of it. And another thing I do that I always tell my students is try to be an interesting person and interesting people don't work all the time.

[00:32:04] So there are lots of other things that make life experiences,

[00:32:08] Yeah, like cooking, so I've been cooking quite a bit lately. How about reading? Well, speakers are so enamored with themselves. Let me tell you what I know. Let me tell you my experience. I shut that engine down so that I can read. I'm reading right now. Douglas Murry's The Madness of Crowds, which is kind of like an updated version of some of these books that used to talk about cults and how group think and and and gaslighting works. Fascinating. Yeah. And then then I could of course, if I understand that content, I can I can deliver excerpts of it in my own programs, of course. Always providing attribution. Right. So it's all about becoming a better person and not working too hard and not not becoming a slave to the business. I think a lot of people what you were mentioning these different apps, a new app comes out. Everybody wants to be on it. And you can't do that. You got to got to stick with your game. Otherwise, you go crazy. You'll never finish anything.

[00:33:15] Yeah. Yeah. And then you'll dilute everything to the point where you know you nothing is worth.

[00:33:21] That's right. Yeah, that's right.

[00:33:24] So you got some something to give the folks, right.

[00:33:27] Yeah. These are just some places, early easy entry places for us to get to know each other if you care to. I run a Facebook group called Present Like a Pro that is specifically designed for people who want to improve their presentation. So if you join this group, you'll be with a lot of like minded people from all over the world. And I'm dropping content and ideas to it all the time. Inspiration, motivation. It's a great place to amp up your speaking skills and make something of yourself, if that's what your intentions are. If you're just speaking for work, you can get better that way, too. I also have a newsletter actually never refer to it as a newsletter, but I don't have another. Now, maybe you can help me with that, but it's called the Friday five. It comes out every Friday, of course, and they're just five little things that I'm doing that are interesting that I think you'll find interesting. It's the most fun little newsletter that you'll ever receive. And you can subscribe to that at MichaelangeloCaruso.com/friday-5.

[00:34:37] It's like Caruso five. All right. Beautiful. So a great way to to meet you. So thanks so much for coming on and telling your story, man. It's it's inspiring that you have done all this speaking around the world. But we're ready to pivot. And, you know, even before the pandemic hit, you were ready with these other things so that you weren't destitute like a lot of other speakers became when 9/11 hit.

[00:35:06] Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're all in this together. And of course, I borrowed a lot of ideas with from speaking buddies. And I never think that I'm competing with anybody. I always think we're on the same team. We're all trying to do the same thing and help people. And I so admire you for that, Tom. And it has been a pleasure to be with you today.

[00:35:24] Awesome, man. So everybody check out. We'll have all the links in the show notes for you so you can just click on them and go over and check him out. He's the real deal. Been around a long time. It's not like one of these presentation skills people that said, oh, yeah, I read a book on it. I know more than you know. And you've been 2000 presentations in five continents and. Well, like I said, he's a slacker and a little bit there with leaving those two continents, you know, but I'm sure he'll capture those. So thanks very well. We'll catch everybody on the next episode. See ya later.