92. How do you niche your brand? (f. Konrad Waliszewski)
Ever wonder how to create a community about a specific topic? 🤝 Our Brand Therapy guest knows the answer. As the founder of TripScout, Konrad Waliszewski has built a passionate user base of travelers. Hosts Phil and Lauren grill Konrad about his community’s trajectory—from initial fans to a group of thousands—to figure out the formula for uniting over a niche. If you’ve got visions of a devoted group around a common cause, this episode is for you!
Episode transcription
PHIL
Before we dive right into this episode, I wanted to let you know about an awesome freebie we just created, a shot list template. I am a big fan of good photography for any brand and shot lists are basically the critical planning steps for any photography process. I like to think of a shot list as a way to capture your essence for the photographer. The photographer's job is to make sure you look like you and your job is to give them the stage so that you can shine. You're probably investing good money into your photos, so you want to make sure that you're capturing every element of your brand while you've got the time with them. Unless you have a history with your photographer, they likely don't know much about you so a shortlist is a great way to get them up to speed. This template will help you lay it all out location actions, props and so much more. Check it out for free at http://philp.al/shotlist and take all the guesswork away for planning that photoshoot. Now onto the show.
Phil
Well, hello, welcome to Brand Therapy. I'm Phil.
Lauren:
And I'm Lauren.
Phil:
And this is the podcast where we help you position, build and promote your brand. We are happy you’re here. We have lots of fun on this little podcast of ours. And we talk with all different kinds of people. Today is a new conversation with a friend of ours. Oh my gosh, when I think about how many years I've known dear Konrad, it's wild. I remember once we met up in Stockholm, Sweden, and had like this epic dinner and I remember that he ate reindeer. Why do I remember that?
Lauren:
Do you remember that? I was actually in Stockholm, Sweden with you that trip?
Phil:
No, I did. I did. Were you really?
Lauren:
I was there. When I went to meet Konrad. Didn't you? record for the old podcast?
Phil:
Probably. Yeah, I think Yeah, did.
Lauren
Wow. And I remember you came back to Östermalm. No, no, it wasn't Östermalm. What's the name? Jada?
Phil
Yes. Very good Swedish accent.
Lauren
Thank you. You came back to Airbnb and you said, I just had the most epic meeting with the nicest guy that I remember.
Phil
It's true clear as true clear as day. He's nice. He's smart. I've got to tell you even recently, I mean, think about when, when all the odds are against you, right? literally a brand. His app is so awesome TripScout. It's like the odds are against you. We physically cannot travel right now. But he has had the most amazing, positive, fresh outlook on this concept that he created within his facebook group and beyond. Travel from home and totally united like travelers right now starting all kinds of conversations and creating amazing content. That is so super cool. He's had a few videos into the millions of views in the last few weeks. And I think he's just a really interesting person for us to chat with.
Lauren
For sure. It's such a great episode talking about community building and really listening to your audience and adapting to your audience. I think people will really, really love it. Let's get to it.
Phil:
Let's get to it. Here's our conversation with Konrad.
So here we are. This is a conversation I've been looking forward to, you know how you have those people in your life, like, sure, maybe you've met them in real life once or twice, but they show up all the time online and it feels like you're together with them a lot. And Konrad is one of those people and I just love this. So if you think I travel a lot, well wait until you meet my friend Konrad.
Lauren
So Konrad do actually travel more than Phil?
Konrad
I probably have traveled more than Phil, you know, a hundred countries or so.
Phil:
Okay. Did you just witness that he just skipped over casually 100 countries or so hello? Or so, that's so many.
Konrad:
But lately just looking at Phil on Instagram, I feel like he's, he's living a better quarantine life than most of us.
Lauren:
So yeah, then all of us I think we can conclusively say.
Konrad
I think one of my favorite dm conversations recently was, Phil had sent me a picture of him having a cocktail, poolside. And then I sent him back a picture of me holding a beer with a one year old baby crawling over my head trying to get his hand into the beer. So, that's a little bit more of my life. But yes, before COVID travel was something I did as much as possible. A big part of my life.
Phil:
We actually met up in one of our favorite places, Lauren. I met up with Konrad in Stockholm.
Lauren
And yes, you remember hearing about this because I think didn't you say in that meeting how much you loved Turkey? Was I remembering this correctly? Was it Turkey? Egypt?
Konrad:
I spent actually about two years of my life. But Cairo Egypt is my home base. Yes. It is, I think, one of the most fascinating and interesting places in the world. And, you know, a lot of people go to Egypt because, you know, pyramids and Luxor and they grew up wanting to see that, but there's just so much more beneath the surface when you go to Egypt. And every time I felt like I knew the place there's a whole new layer revealed so I was traveling about half time going to two or three countries a month and Egypt was my home base. And so yeah, I absolutely love the country and miss it dearly, but also Istanbul is one of my favorite cities in the world. So I could have said Turkey or Egypt.
Phil:
There's so much to unpack here. I spoke in December at the Rise up conference in Cairo, and that was all thanks to Konrad. He made the introduction years ago, and I had a conflict. The first time they approached me, thanks to him, because I'm speaking in the UK at the same time, but it was so cool because they reached out to me within a month of me thinking about them, and going, I need to make contact with them again, it all happened. And I was so disappointed. I mean, I was thrilled to go to Cairo and had an amazing time. What an amazing place. But Konrad wasn't living there anymore. And I was kind of bummed because I was so excited to get over there and see you and experience it with you.
Konrad:
Yeah. And I, I spoke at that Rise Up Summit twice, two or three times, and I think is one of the best, one of the best run conferences in the world, not just the Middle East. And the thing, the thing that I think most people don't realize is so Egypt had a very inspiring revolution in 2011, that kind of didn't really go as anyone had hoped or planned, long term. And so after, you know, two attempts to try to reform the country, people just put down protest signs and their flags and they picked up laptops, cameras, pens, paint brushes, and they became artists and entrepreneurs and creatives. And it was. So you just see such an inspiring movement where people are trying to make their country, the country they want to live, but doing it through a different channel, which is a more creative and entrepreneurial channel.
And so, you know, there's just there's something, there's something we don't appreciate, you know, living in, you know, in Europe or the US that, I don't know, when they when they're starting a company or starting creative pursuit, it means a little bit more, and it's a little bit more fresh to the revolutionary spirit.
Lauren:
So when was the moment that you got into traveling, like, was there a particular trip that just set the course of your life?
Konrad
How far back can we go?
Lauren:
As far back as you like?
Konrad
Do you want to know that the moment that it all started for me, I was nine years old. Both my parents were political refugees for Poland they're a part of the revolution that came to the US. My dad ended up moving back and most of my family was in Poland. So I grew up splitting my time going back and forth.
When my dad moved back, you know, the first time I visited him, you know, my mom dropped me off at the airport. And there's some sort of escort service that picks kids up and makes sure they make their connection and get to their destination and my dad was there when I arrived. And the very first time I did that, I was connecting in Amsterdam or Frankfurt, and they put me in a little cubicle for my six hour layover with like four other kids. One kid was crying and one kid was sick as could be. And I just sat there for like, six hours and I said, that was horrible. I'm never doing that again.
So my next flight, when we landed in Amsterdam, on the connection, they said, okay, when we land like wait here, and escort is going to come and take you off the plane, and make sure you make your connection, and I was like, I'm not doing that again. So as soon as we landed, I found a couple that was walking off the plane and I just slipped right behind them. People just assumed oh, yeah, that kid must be with them. Yeah, you know, a young couple walking. And I was in the Amsterdam airport all by myself. And granted it's a very international airport. So now it doesn't seem that exotic for you now, but for a nine year old, that was true freedom.
You know, signs look different languages, were different, smells and sounds were a little bit different. And I just felt like, this is freedom. No one knows where I am. I'm in this foreign country. I was old enough to know that Amsterdam was kind of a crazy place. I didn't know why. But I just knew that. And so at that moment, I was like, that was cool. Like I'm, I'm kind of digging this travel thing and so I just had this unquenchable curiosity ever since. And in my adult life I have tried to travel as much as possible.
Lauren:
Was the escort service freaking out because they lost you?
Konrad
No idea. I mean, it was pretty. Like I felt it was pretty simple. I just needed to find the letter and number that was my gate. So I had no idea what happened. It was pre 911. So I don't think anyone really cared about that much going on. I doubt they even noticed. But yeah, ever since I started traveling a lot, and then, you know, I kind of got, I also work a ton so I got like, stuck in, kind of like working my ass off and hustling. And, you know, building a business and I kind of drifted away from it at one point. And then I had one project where I was living in Chicago, it was the worst blizzard in Chicago history. I finished a project up at like 11:30 at night. And I remember signing off and I just thought to myself like wow, I could have been anywhere like as long as I was responding to emails and answering my phone like I could have been anywhere in the world. So why am I stuck in Chicago in the worst blizzard in Chicago history and this was before digital nomad and remote year was really a thing.
So I just went on a little experiment. I was like, alright, I'm just going to go try to do my work from Europe. For a little while, that worked fine. I was like, okay, I'm gonna go to the Middle East, that worked fine. So then I was like, screw it. I flew to South Africa. And then I just started making my way up the eastern coast of Africa. And I think that's where phase two of my travel addiction happened. I realized like I could still work and be productive and have a really interesting life in the process.
Phil
You're a trendsetter. You made that a thing before it was a thing.
Konrad
Couldn't have made it, but I definitely benefited.
Phil:
Well, you contributed. Yes. It's so cool. And actually, so you came to mind when Lauren and I were thinking who could we talk to conversations that we haven't had yet stuff that's totally different. You and I have so much to talk to solely based on travel alone, because it's just a part of what we do. And actually, it's funny how we do it differently. I tend to go to places and stay there longer. And yeah, there's a pool and like a routine that I can try and get into. I mean, having been to over 100 countries it's very much about why new and different cultures and all of that it's part of it.
I want to talk to you about business for a second because you, you came up in conversation not about travel, you came up in conversation about someone who has very obviously built a niche, and kind of you found your niche around a passion, but also a need in business. Can you talk us through how that kind of came about when we first met by the way, Lauren, I don't know if you know this, but I believe Konrad, you were working for speak, the tele operating officers speak. That's how we met. I don't even know if you know that. But that's how you and I met because I used it. So funny. And so you've worked for companies and startups and all of this and you've got an app, you've got technology, like how did you find your niche and how did you kind of pair something you love to do with travel, and something people need? How did that come about?
Konrad:
You know, I had a lot of interest, but the two main things that were taking my time and attention and my passion was entrepreneurship, and building businesses and trying to create something, and then travel. And so I was traveling as much as I could, every time I had an opportunity to work remotely or time in between things, I would always travel as much as possible.
And after Speak, was acquired, I was sitting, I was thinking about and I realized that those two things were often in conflict with each other. Not totally like there was some you can have your life and your work and but and many times, like if I was talking, I was either talking to someone about business or travel, I was either reading about business or travel, I was either you know, in the shower, thinking about my next trip, or something about the world or I was thinking about, what we should do with strategy or, you know, with the business, and I realized I don't want any competing demands on my attention and my focus. I realize, if those are the two things I am passionate about, and I want to do, I want to find a way to make them one thing so that I can dedicate all of my energy, all of my passion towards it.
And then, you know, I also like sitting in both worlds. I feel I have insight into both worlds that maybe other people were missing, maybe people who are deep into travel missed from the technology side of the world and people that were deep in technology missed from the travel side of the world.
So, you know, it was a combination of it was being true to myself and what I really wanted to dedicate time towards and unique insights that I had just being who I was and caring about the things I care about. You know, I think most people when they say how do you find your focus or find your niche and I honestly think it's more important just how do you get out of your own way, you know what you niche is, you know what your focus is, you know what you care about.
I just think too often most people are trying to be something they're not. They try to do something that they saw someone else do, or something that they think is a smart idea rather than just go all in on what they're passionate about.
Phil:
Kind of like, listen to yourself and actually remove distractions. Also, don't try and do it overnight. Start by giving yourself permission to spend time on you, instead of being so quick to give your attention to everything else that's demanding it. Sit with yourself, take inventory of yourself, think about what is it you like to do, and actually get out of your own way is your point.
Konrad:
Absolutely. And, and I think the word passion is often a misused word. Because if I was just passionate about travel, starting a business and travel would have been the worst thing to do. Because I wouldn't be passionate about the business side. I would just be passionate about traveling. If that was the case, and that was my only passion, I would say find a job that maximizes income and minimizes time. So you can just have the most flexible vacation so you can just travel. Right? It's it's, you know, when you talk about when, you know, there's the example of if someone loves surfing, they should not open up a surf shop because a surf shop is selling, marketing, managing, hiring all of those things that are not surfing, right. If you love surfing, you should just go find a way to surf more. But for me, I love the business side and I love the travel side. And so I wanted to go all in on both.
Lauren
It seems to me, you did a really good job of connecting the dots to I'm thinking of someone's, I don't know, let's say they work for a car dealership, but they're really passionate about drawing. Then it might make sense for them to like find a way to connect other artists with sellers or start a more of an affordable art gallery or something like that. It's so interesting how you were think a lot about business. I think a lot about travel. Now I'm going to connect the two but in a way that won't take away my joy of travel.
Konrad:
And, and honestly, a lot of it, you know, that was happening at the same time where it's like I also, I have this desire to just create things that I want to see in the world. And the thing that frustrated me the most was that if you, if you look at travel, like our relationship with travel has changed significantly over the last 10 to 20 years. Why we travel, how we travel, what we hope to do more there, what we hope to get out of the experience, how we share those experiences with our friends, like all of that looks radically different. And yet, every single product and service we use along the way is the exact same it's been for 20 years since it first came on to the internet.
Now with the exception of whether you might book an Airbnb, or you might take an Uber from the airport, nothing else has fundamentally changed. And so nothing was being built for our generation and I wanted to lead that, you know, lead that evolution.
Lauren
Well, I was just wondering, when you were coming up with the idea for a TripScout or the directions for TripScout, was it a single idea that you finessed? Or are you the type of person who has a running list of a bunch of ideas and observations, and then you decide what to go in on?
Konrad:
A good question. I think that most ideas in their original form are absolutely garbage and inaccurate. And so I'm a big believer that you sure you pick a thesis on where in the world or on your industry. And then the best and most important thing you can do is find the simplest way to get something live and in the hands of customers. It doesn't even have to be what your full idea is just like something, a minimum viable product that gets something out in front of people, and learn as much as you can. So for, you know, my thesis started with the whole, like, nothing was built for this generation of travelers, how we're actually traveling. And so, my co-founder and I will put together a very basic MVP that has just been self guided audio tours. And we just picked a couple cities and that weren't at all by any means, like a venture backed multi billion dollar idea. That was just something I got people. That's something in the hands of customers. And I think looking back, I would have gone even way simpler than that. But we did something pretty nuts. That turned out to be pivotal. We then gave our personal cell phone number to every single person who signed up.
And every single person who's downloaded our app and signed up, got a message that said, hey, I've traveled a bunch, I love to travel here. Here's who I am. If you're ever planning a trip, going on a trip, coming back from a trip, just text me, call me, email me anytime. We'd love to be here to help. And it wasn't a Google voice number. It was the actual cell phone number I still have today. And it made me super annoying to live with for my wife, but it gave us insight into the psychology and the behavior of the modern traveler more than anyone else.
I mean, 250,000 people had my personal cell phone number. And I guarantee you, none of our competitors were doing that. So yeah, I am, and that is shaped like and then we start building more things we start iterating. You know, yeah, we have a long list of ideas and we start finding ways to test it. So yes, I find the simplest way to get something in the hands of customers and just being deeply engaged with that purpose.
I think there are two reasons that people fail when they start a business as like one is there's all this productive procrastination. So in the beginning, they like to think about like, oh, well, should I trademark this? Should I do this, I get this. Like, they spent hours like, or days or weeks or months on their name and their logo and all these things, which those things are important and have a place but like you don't even know yet what you're building. So they spent all that time as opposed to just getting something out there because it's hard to put yourself out there, right? Especially when you know, it's not your best work. It's just like your MVP, you're saying so here's something and don't want to be judged for it. So that's hard. So people avoid it.
And then the second thing is picking up the phone and talking to customers is also uncomfortable. And so people avoid that. And they just rely on their own, like their own thoughts and their own ideas, but they're just, they're just one person. So yeah, those are, I think my two biggest things that you have to have to realize when you're when you're launching something.
Phil
Love it.
Hold up, hold up, hold up. Time for a little break in this amazing conversation with our friend Konrad.
Let's talk about a few things that we have in the works. This was a big summer for us launching three courses, Content Mastery, Email Mastery, Instagram Mastery.
And we have a good question, actually, from a podcast listener that came in on Instagram yesterday, and she said, “Phil, is your Instagram course still relevant with reels launching?” And I replied, yes, it's more relevant , now, more than ever. We're actually adding a module to Instagram mastery and updating the other courses. That's the joy of this, we keep them fresh, and they're new. And if you're hoping to up your game with email marketing, with Instagram, with your content strategy as a whole, then I recommend you check out our courses, Content Mastery, Email Mastery, and Instagram Mastery. As a dedicated, amazing, loyal podcast listener, you get a promo code, THERAPY50 will get you 50% off any of those courses. Should you choose to join them, normally they are $299 but you get it for less than $150. So THERAPY50 will get you a good little deal on the promos of the courses.
Lauren
And we love deals here at Brand Therapy.
Phil
We certainly do. We love a good deal, don't we? Oh, discount value baby.
Lauren
I never buy anything at full price.
Phil:
No, I don't either. No. Why would you? Well, that's us. I mean, do you have anything else to say?
Lauren:
That's it. That's all I'm contributing to this midroll. Let's get back to the episode.
Phil:
Let's get back to this great conversation. I love Konrad. Let's keep it going.
Lauren
Konrad, you gave your personal cell phone number to this community that you were building. So if you were to be giving advice to one of our listeners on how to build a community, would it be that like, personal accessibility?
Konrad:
Yeah, I think it's just you have to care very deeply about your customer, your user, whatever it is, and you have to have a giver mentality. You have to say, how can I solve problems for you, as opposed to thinking, how can I do something that benefits me? And it might sound simple, but when you really unpack a lot of people's ideas, a user like hey, I think I have something someone could pay me for, as opposed to saying I know this is something that someone else wants.
So yeah, I would absolutely Just think about it from the perspective of problems and make yourself really accessible and do all the hard stuff that you really want to avoid. Because that's the way you're going to really find out what the pain points and what the problems are. And because what people tell you to like, if you send out a survey, or you asked a few people, it's usually not the real answer. If you say, what do you want from a travel product? I'll tell you something. And then you'll have to say why. And then why that why again, and why again, and what if you didn't have that? Well, you have to really dig, to find to really get to the psychology because most people, you know, most people are very bad, a very bad Judge of what they actually want and what they'll actually do.
Lauren:
Mm hmm. And they're trying to answer that survey, almost like they're trying to do a test correctly. In a way it's like they're answering with the answers they think you want to hear.
Konrad
Oh, totally, especially if it's someone you care about, like sharing your idea with a friend or family member or person you meet at a party. They're all gonna say, wow, that's great. You know, I would love that. I would totally use that. And then you'd be, cool. Can you give me five bucks for it? And they'll say, Oh, well, I know, I don't know if I have the time, it's you have to just you have to get into the hands of real real customers.
Phil
I'm such a fan of the app. I think it's so cool because it's so personalized. Not that I like coming here to like, advertise for you. But I'm going to do it. The app is awesome because it's personalized. And I think so much of that is a result of you listening and being obsessed with listening and researching to get the answer of what people actually want. You said something a few minutes ago, you said travel has changed so dramatically in the last 10 to 20 years. Our relationship with travel? Well, our relationship with travel has changed in the last three months. Let's talk about that for a second. Because the second reason I wanted to talk today the first was talking about me sharing and kind of hearing your story. And also how rare is it to talk to someone who had an idea for an app and is now at the place that you are? I mean, I can't think of anyone else. Everyone has an idea for an app, oh my god, they are going to solve the world's problems with an app. And how many people actually go and do it, and years later iterations, etc. 250,000 people with your cell phone number later, you know, like, very few people do it. So I'm interested in how you've, I'm going to use the P word pivoted how you build community when no one is traveling.
Konrad
So once the pandemic started, the first instinct is to know how to survive, right? So we made a whole bunch of decisions that were like, We have no idea how bad this is going to be, how long this is gonna last. But we know it's not good. Let's make sure we Outlast this pandemic. And I mean, we were nuts like, you know, we raised around a venture capital, and we were about to raise our second round. And like our numbers were just like going, you know, through the roof like engagement was great. We were the number one ranked debt trip planning and travel entertainment app. When it comes to content, we were actually ranking above Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, like USA Today, People Magazine, so it's going really well. And then all of a sudden, March 1 happened. And I think people weren't really taking it that seriously and they're seeing the flight deals. So ticked up even more, and then March 2, it was just a straight freefall. And so, you know, we quickly went into survival mode, and we said, okay, what do we have to do to make sure we outlast this however long that is. But once we did that, it was a couple days of quick decisions, and we're like, okay, forget survival, how do we thrive?
This is probably anytime there's a big disruption it creates opportunity. And if you know, there's this, you know, boring old business quote who said, like, you know, a crisis will kill a bad company, a good company will survive it, but great companies become defined by it. And so we really wanted to make sure that we were and I think this also goes personally like in a personal crisis like during COVID, you have more opportunity to love others to help others, to give to people, and you have ways to be proud of yourself as opposed to just hunkering down with your cans of beans and rice.
So we really took that perspective, of how do we thrive but then what we saw that was going on from a business perspective, but then from a community and just personal perspective. We just saw all those people who we were deeply engaged with as our users, you know, a lot of them who had my personal cell phone number. We just saw a lot of fear happening. And we saw a lot of restlessness like oh my gosh, am I stuck in my house for a long time. We saw a lot of loneliness where people are stuck in their house by themselves.
And we're like, look, we can't do anything about the physical crisis except encouraging people to stay home. And you know, we were, you know, very early for every travel company eventually did this but very early on, really guys stop traveling. It's just not the right thing for the world as travelers, we should be aware of other people and what they're going through around the world.
So even if you're young and healthy, stay at home. And then hindsight that seems very obvious. But at the time, you know, even a lot of our investors or partners, why would you? Why would you be encouraging that? So we did that. And then we realized we can't do anything for the physical crisis besides that, but the mental health crisis is coming from that restlessness and loneliness. That's something we could help with. And so it really started just from, a genuine desire to help some of our friends and also help ourselves.
And we said, okay, the reason we love traveling, connecting with other people, learning about different cultures, getting out of your comfort zone, trying new things, eating new things, like there's nothing that physical about it. You could do all of those things at home. So we started this travel from home movement and community and Facebook group.
Phil
Oh, I was in the video. I was in the video. I made a video all about it honey.
Konrad
Yeah. And we just tried to do that we said let's connect with people from all over the world. Let's come up with great things to also entertain ourselves to teach us about stuff and then we started doing a lot of virtual events and virtual happy hours. And then we started bringing in the kind of who's who of travel, like Andrew Zimmern.
Lauren
Be still my beating heart. I love Andrew.
Konrad
He's, he's amazing. And we had these events like these just basically, you know, these live virtual events. And we were doing, three a week for most weeks and having happy hours afterwards and just built a real sense of community.
I actually looked at the group and we had people from over 115 countries. And so and I started looking at that because, you know, as I was thinking about how we can make sure we have a diverse voice, you know, given how much great conversations going on, I was for true diversity, I want someone from everywhere in the world.
And so we started looking and we had, you know, we had over half the world represented, and we were like, let's try to get every country obviously, you know, North Korea and Vatican City might be a little hard to get someone but we it was really great.
We were doing these travel roulettes where you just get randomly pinned with one other person and, you know, you just hop on a personal zoom with someone and it was really fun.
And I think through that, we're able to build a very meaningful community that frankly, I wish we would have done regardless of COVID. It is one of the coolest things for us personally, it's one of the coolest things for the business and probably never would have thought of it had everything been going you know, up into the right and all great it was a few months before.
Phil:
What's been the most important business lesson or let's just say lesson you've learned in the last five years is there one thing that comes to mind when you think about all of this, what you've built and what you continue to build, when the odds are against you? Could you kind of narrow that down to one thing for us?
Konrad
The thing that comes to mind and it's, it's, it's not really one thing, it's more of like a three part. But it's all uniform and we talked a little bit about earlier. One, find the quickest way to get started, just get something out there. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be your full vision, just get something in the hands of the people you're trying to help.
And two, become passionately obsessed with that person with the psychology, the behavior, the needs, desires, the fears, insecurities, the hopes of that person, you should be able to finish their sentences and know exactly what's going on in their head. And really just stay in those first two things and continue to iterate and as you say, start to tap into what is working and what is solving the problem.
The third step, which is also a big challenge is to, to get really bold with it and to think, Oh, I see where this is going. But what if it was 10 times better? What if it was 10 times bigger? What if I accomplish this 10 times faster? Like how would that look? And so you'll one of the things now I asked every single person on my team on a regular basis, is if I gave you 10 times the budget, so like, you know, let's say you're, you're an iOS developer, if I gave you $100,000, to go hire a team to go use any technology want to go build anything you want, how would you spend that? Like what would you possibly like? What are you? What are you not doing now that you'd love to be doing if just people time and money was not an issue? And you get some very fascinating answers, and sometimes that's a very hard question to ask. So then I usually ask if, if it's getting hard as well. What is $1,000 you can spend to make your life easier or better or more efficient at work. And then usually people end up having a few things that they would love to do that end up leading into what they then do with, you know, $100,000.
So, I really, you know, it just comes down to get something out there and obsess over your customer and talk to them and learn from them. And then once something starts working, get big and bold.
Phil
I love that advice. I don't even want to ask you any more questions, because that's the best advice I think it's inspiring for people to be able to go and do that to be able to take action on that. How can people connect with you? Well, I already know the answer. gokonrad is your handle on social media, TripScout is the app that people need to download, I freaking love this app. You know, if you're traveling to brand new places in the world, it will give you the best recommendations. It is so much better than TripAdvisor. I said it. There I said it.
Konrad
Thank you.
Phil
It is and people should connect with you. Let's continue the conversation #brandtherapy. I'm @philpallen.
Lauren
I'm @thelaurenmoore.
Phil:
Konrad is gokonrad.
Konrad
And that’s Konrad with a K. That's the one that everyone doesn’t get.
Phil:
You're right. I'm so used to writing it because you're I think the only Konrad I know. But that's true.
Konrad:
And one of the things I just started doing, which has been a really fun project also came out of COVID is my Facebook page gokonrad, I started realizing that I was having all these experiences traveling or I was talking to people like Andrew Zimmern, that were just like these fascinating conversations or fascinating experiences of learning so much. But I was quickly going from one to the next. And I realized, like, now's the time, where like, we just pause and reflect. And so instead of going to the next country, or have the next, you know, learning, like what did I really take from that one experience? And you know, it's better to read one book and learn everything from it, then read 100 books and forget what you read. And so I started using this time as quarantine to reflect on my travels. So on my Facebook page, I'm creating a video each day of just you know, three lessons from a different country or three lessons from an interesting conversation. So I would encourage people usually I just say you know where to find me but that's that's a project that's been really fun and really, I am getting a lot out of it so would love for people to check out.
Phil
One video a day, you're a maniac. Wow. I can barely do one video a week on YouTube. No, it's so great. There's so many great actionable takeaways from this conversation, Konrad with a K. We so appreciate it. And thank you for hanging out with us on Brand Therapy.
Konrad
Thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure to talk to you Phil and Lauren was so glad that I finally got to virtually meet you.
