Affiliate Nerd Out Christmas Party 2023 with Christen Evans and the PMM Inner Circle

Speaker 1: 0:27

Welcome to Affiliate Nerd out Christmas party. I am your nerderator, dustin Howes. Spread that good word about affiliate marketing. You're gonna find me here every Tuesday and Thursday, starting in January, because this is the last one of the year. Two fifteen PST. Be there, smash that, subscribe and join us. Uh, I would love to thank you for joining us on this, a special edition of the Christmas party. Uh, I've got some special guests coming in. If you would like to be on, there is a link down below in the comment section where you can get on. I'm gonna put it in the chat now so that you can join us and come by. And we've got three questions for you today. Uh, one number one is what is your biggest takeaway of twenty twenty three? Number two is what does twenty twenty four hold for you? And number three, what are you thankful for? So with that, I'm gonna start bringing on guests when they keep stopping by, we're gonna have a couple of special things going on. Uh, kristen Evans is gonna join me for an extensive period of time. Nick Markizzi is gonna stop by and sing Silent Night. Can't wait to see you guys and talk about affiliate stuff going on.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Um, and before we get into that I want to quickly make an announcement, uh, before we get rolling here, and that is I have created a new offering on my course. I am separating the state, uh, for what I am calling the PMM Inner Circle. So this is my membership, for affiliate managers only. This is my community that I built over the last couple of years Course takers that have taken the performance marketing manager course and, uh, it was so powerful having this community of affiliate managers that we ended up separating it out, and so, once a month, we have industry experts come in and educate the crew on tactics that are working right now. Then, twice a month, we're gonna have networking events as group breakout sessions, hanging out with other affiliate managers. Everybody gets a chance at the hot seat taking, talking about their issues that they're facing right now with the rest of the group, and we're all gonna help fix each other's problems here and we pass around contact information.

Speaker 1: 2:45

It's uh, every Wednesday we're gonna have water cooler Wednesday where we just hang out in a group and breakout rooms and having ourselves a great time. So, and beyond that, my Inner Circle, I take care of my people. If, if you need a reference, I'm gonna be there. If, if you need a connection to somebody, I'm gonna be there for you. This is a membership kind of affiliate management level skill up. A membership's gonna be ninety seven dollars a month to be in the Inner Circle. Cancel anytime you want, and with that I bid you do, let's bring on my first guest here. Uh, it is the OG Kristen Evans. Welcome to the party, kristen.

Speaker 2: 3:29

Hey, happy to be here. Thank you, dustin. Happy holidays.

Speaker 1: 3:32

Happy holidays to you, and you've got your festive uh unicorn vomiting sweater. I love it so much.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Thank you very much for uh to Adam Rimmer for sending this to me many, many years ago. Um, it is still my favorite holiday Christmas sweater. I was gonna wear my Red Sox sweater today, but the unicorn just felt more vibey for this, so uh went with the unicorn.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Awesome. Well, it's uh, it's very appropriate and it is so you, and that's what I love about it oh, we've got a, uh, a comment here. Nice outfit, I thank you there. And uh, oh, nick Marquesi calling you big time. We're already getting into it, huh, right, nick, alright, kristen, fire us off, let's get started. What's your biggest takeaway of 2023?

Speaker 2: 4:20

Uh, that it is hard as hell starting your own business, but so completely worth it. Um, I think they. You know this was the first year that I launched Spark Partnerships. I did that in January of last year at Affiliate Summit. So we're coming up on our first year, um, and it has been a wild year of growth. But um brands are ready to be in the affiliate space, absolutely. They just need that education and empowerment that um Spark Spark Partnerships focuses on. So, um, it's, it's a really wild ride to build your own thing and, you know, see it kind of start to work. Um, and yeah, it just. It takes a lot of work but it's super fun and I'm so glad that I did it.

Speaker 1: 5:00

I am so proud of you for the leap that you've taken this year and your success during this year has been incredible and has been an honor to you know, help you out in this journey in whatever ways I can, and you've been helping me along this way, and we're just doing that rising tides thing. We're just helping each other out and and you're such a great accountability buddy, um, so thank you for being there. Um, oh, looks like Sean Hall's uh, in the waiting room. We're gonna have him jump on next. Uh, well, we're gonna bring on Nick Marquesi. He's gonna be singing a little bit later, but I want to hear from him first. He's been standing by, sean, we'll be with you here shortly, but he's saying, uh, starting your own things very hard, but always worth it. All right, evans, what do you think? Uh 2024, what's it gonna hold for us?

Speaker 2: 5:49

Yeah, I think that we're gonna continue to see um more focus on kind of the blurring of influence or PR and affiliate. Um, I think that that is going to continue to really push forward. Um, you know, content is king and always has been king. I think that brands also really need to get accustomed to embrace themselves for the fact that um publishers want budget. You know they want to be paid upfront for the content that creating, because it takes time, it takes energy and it takes effort. So, um, having that buy-in with partners um is going to be really important in building and fostering those relationships. Um, and you know, really leaning toward those evergreen long-term opportunities.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Fantastic, well said. Hybrid budget is the future and setting aside some of that, whether it be a client or it be, um, you know, your in-house brand getting a budget approved is vital for this channel to work. Uh, full functionality, all right. Uh, how about you're thankful? What are you thankful for?

Speaker 2: 6:52

Uh, you and that Nick guy and everybody else who has um really stood by me and supported me um throughout this year. You know Karen and Joel Garcia for sure, um Stephanie Robbins, jen Ward, um Kellen Komet. You know Oji Homi Wade and Joe from Fnatic's Um. You know everybody who who looked at me and said do your own thing, it's about damn time. And um has been there and kind of in my corner and supporting me ever since. Um I I am so grateful for having people believe in me and encourage me um, because this go with imposter syndrome it's been really helpful and um, yeah, it's just, it's the best to have a community of people.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Outstanding Well said and we are all very thankful for you to be. I'm thankful for you in my life and uh cheers to you, buddy.

Speaker 2: 7:45

Cheers.

Speaker 1: 7:47

And I believe you said something about uh, nick Mark Daisy Go. Welcome to the crew.

Speaker 5: 7:56

Well, I mostly want to know, first off, why wasn't part of that cheers really quickly?

Speaker 1: 8:00

Cheers to you. Well, I wanted to do another one.

Speaker 5: 8:03

Well, my most festive thing out right here and I can come on.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Beautiful. All right, nick. Uh, what do you? What do you think before young man so this is tough coming coming off of.

Speaker 5: 8:16

What Kristen just said is really complicated because basically everything that she's going through I'm also kind of going through, so I'm not trying to uh, to steal your work from you, kristen, by any means. However, uh, I think the the thing I'm most grateful for the past year and kind of realized my big takeaway, if you will, is independence is key, having like the confidence to actually go out on your own like man. That was for me I got. I got really lucky, the, the timing worked out and just kind of all the. All the stars aligned even up until last week. They're still aligning with a new, a new client that I have, which we got in the base, I think, for them from the partnerships collective, my, my first fire is for One up to effectively help them get more experience dealing with these dangerous things.

Speaker 2: 9:06

Is really important.

Speaker 5: 9:07

Yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 9:09

My area is important.

Speaker 5: 9:10

Yeah, I'm glad you landed them.

Speaker 5: 9:12

Yeah, thank you. They also have some great stuff on the back to cigars and gasoline and stuff like that. So Really, no, I obviously all kidding aside, I think that one of the biggest takeaways ahead of the year was just realizing how huge a A strong network of friends, family and supporters are. That's. I chose the name, the partnerships collective, not because I think that collective is a cool word although it is but also because I wouldn't be where I am and I wouldn't be able to be as successful as I am If it wasn't for the collective of everyone that has helped me get to this point, and that has been my biggest takeaway is that everything works to get me to where I am right now.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Beautiful, well said, well cheers to you, buddy. We're thankful for you and having you in our life as well as per the quick, excellent and you're. You have a special rendition of Silent Night Forest. All right should I kill you? You know what actually we've got to go. I've got other guests. We'll bring you back in a little bit. Thanks, buddy. Um, all right, uh, let's bring on my next guest. She only has five minutes with us, but I'll really like her, and I haven't seen her in like three minutes. It is my wife.

Speaker 4: 10:34

How are you? Oh, I didn't get the fun sweater or bourbon memo.

Speaker 2: 10:41

Oh, oh hard.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Well, maybe, maybe, next time you'll be in the inner circle here. Yeah, yeah, you know it. Your your blocker right now. I'm gonna have to give you the boot for a minute, christian. We'll see on the other side here, all right? All right, sarah. Number one on the board, here we go. Sarah, what is your biggest takeaway of 2023?

Speaker 4: 11:20

Oof. My biggest takeaway of 2023? Um, I don't know. I think just perseverance. This year has been very challenging in many ways, um, with work and, just, you know, putting your head down, working hard, figuring it out. I mean keeping the faith. It's been, you know, one way to get through it.

Speaker 1: 11:41

So yeah, it must be very difficult having such a out-of-control husband that is Uh, entrepreneur in and out, and I want to say that I am extraordinarily thankful for you in my life and how much you mean to me and how you keep everything in this family together and I love you so much. So Thank you for that. Anything in 2024 that you think might happen that you're feeling.

Speaker 4: 12:14

Like like professional wise or or oh gosh, um, I don't know. Yeah, I think a lot of change. I'm working on a lot of cool things at impact right now and. Yeah, with growth in the customer success team and strategy and got a lot of Staff that we work on. So I feel like we're gonna have a really good year this year with Working closely with our clients, growing them and bring on more products and features. So I'm really excited. 2024 is gonna kick some butt.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Awesome, awesome. And what do you? What do you think before, when?

Speaker 4: 12:57

my thankful for? I'm thankful for my family, of course, but you, I've definitely always helping out. You are such a great contributor, but always keeping things fun and happy and Making me laugh when you know it's the fan. Are you definitely? Whoa?

Speaker 1: 13:18

this is a family show, All right. Well, I am thankful for you cheers. I know you don't have your bourbon because you didn't get the memo, but Love you, have fun.

Speaker 4: 13:36

Bye, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 13:39

Awesome, we'll see you later. All right, let's bring on our next guest. He's been waiting patiently and it is one of my favorite of the year shon Sean. All right, buddy.

Speaker 5: 13:49

It is fresh I.

Speaker 7: 13:51

Also didn't get the memo on the festive isness, but I don't even know what I have here in the house handy. That would rival dude.

Speaker 1: 13:59

I well, it's very Christmasy. I love it. Yeah, you know, with a touch of a button I can go to red. Whoa, that's high-tech stuff. Yeah, did you get targeted by native ads to buy that?

Speaker 7: 14:15

Actually, I was actually a tick tock ad. I wanted to be cool like all the kids. So here I am. Beer yeah, as we discussed, I shave it every year in December, so it is gone for the time being, but you know it's, it'll be back after the new year awesome, awesome, and I people aren't taking notice very quickly there, so Glad to see it.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Well, let's, let's get into the big questions of the day here. Which biggest takeaway of 2023 bud?

Speaker 7: 14:49

biggest takeaway of 2023 is just I. I'm blown away yet again by the, the awesomeness that is our industry. Right, the perseverance, as your wife had said, but just to see the growth, like you know, seeing the industry grow up like going to the Affi expo this year and being able to have an awards gala where I could put on a tuxedo like far of the days of Cargo pants and t-shirts at the chandelier bar.

Speaker 7: 15:16

You know we're growing up as an industry and I love to see that. I love to see all of the new people coming in and all of the talent that's available. So that's my biggest takeaway of 2023 is just being impressed with how much this industry has grown up.

Speaker 1: 15:31

Incredible it is. It just gets better every single year being in this industry. I'm proud that I've had so much experience in there and it's really paying off having all those those years of experience. And then every time I interview somebody and get new information, like you, it's just paying off even more. So Great insight. What about 2024? What's it gonna hold for you in the native space and the affiliate and in marketing in general here?

Speaker 7: 16:01

In 2024, obviously we're gonna continue our path forward on, you know, using the power of AI to make the lives of our advertisers better. We've got a lot of really good publishing partners that are coming on board and, you know, native is it's it's the most trendy popular traffic source up 2024. Just with the way of the changing in the consumer preferences and how they're, you know, ad-blind into a lot of the aggressive clickbait stuff and Just being able to seamlessly integrate with great, you know, trusted media out there is going to be even more prevalent in 2024 than it is today. So we're excited about the future.

Speaker 1: 16:42

Awesome, as you should be. And how about you're thankful? What do you think before here?

Speaker 7: 16:48

Man, there's so much to be thankful for this year. I mean thankful to you know work for a great company like Revcontent, which has amazing culture and a great product. Thankful for you know industry relationships, both old and new. Getting to be in the neurotorium checked off my bucket list and thankful for that. Thankful to have a loving, supportive wife who normally is sitting right behind me but she goes into the office a few days a week and watching her Really come into her own in this industry and be successful and kind of carving out a place for herself. Just like I said, a lot to be thankful for Awesome.

Speaker 1: 17:22

That is great to hear, sean. Thanks for so much for joining us today. Buddy, really appreciate you, a victor. I see you're dropping some comments. Get in here. Get in that queue. I want to talk to you today, sean, thanks so much for joining us and absolutely I'm thankful for having you as a two-time guest. I really appreciate you. Can't wait to work with you in 2024, buddy.

Speaker 7: 17:44

It's still working, so I'm just coke zeroing it, but I do have a impressive bourbon collection behind me. I'll dip into later, in your honor.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Awesome good for you. All right, take care Sean. Bye Good one. You All right next on board. Our first ever affiliate nerd out guest is Patty McGill. What's up, buddy?

Speaker 6: 18:06

How's it going? Oh, really good. It has been an amazing year so far. It's still a week or so left to go, so it's a final run to get some administration out of the way, but it's been great, man. What about you?

Speaker 1: 18:19

Awesome. Oh, I can't complain. I mean, it's been a whirlwind of putting together the right mix of handling clients and pounding out content on the regular. It has been really tough, really tough, but I am really excited about how much it's going to pay off in 2024. So what's been going on with you? What's the biggest takeaway for 2023 for you?

Speaker 6: 18:46

Well, I think the biggest takeaway for me is a real person it's good to see people back at events, but also more people like yourself dust in building social media presences and communities. Now around affiliate marketing, I think there's always been the traditional sites that people go to for news and commentary, but people like yourself now are building these social media profiles and brands where we can actually learn direct from people doing this stuff every single day. So very thankful for that and it's been a great and I think you've been doing amazing stuff, dude. So I can't just I would take my hat off now because Mike will fall off of my hats. Off to you, dude, for building a great community so far.

Speaker 1: 19:33

I thank you so much and this community, this PMN inner circle that I have. This community has been growing steadily and thankful because of this podcast and the exposure that it has created, and that was all thanks to you. You talked me into buying mainstream and jumping into this and then all of a sudden there wanted to be a whole lot of people that came on as guests and then I had to invite guests and get the people that I really wanted and it's been a great year making those connections. I want to thank you. I'm very thankful for you for motivating me to get in this. You're one of my accountability buddies. You're one of my folks in this inner circle that have been essential to the continuation of learning from the affiliate managers. Really appreciate you, buddy.

Speaker 6: 20:23

Thanks for being around Likewise. Thank you so much and that's actually what I would say. The thing I've enjoyed the most actually has been part of the inner circle. This isn't the shames to get people to sign up, although I do highly recommend it. Scanning QR code it's being able to connect, reconnect again with people in the industry has been yeah, it's been amazing, dude, and I think we can all get caught up in our work and we're all like that. We're on our own ship going forward and we're not usually like connecting with people. I certainly don't know. I've just been super heads down and busy with my own clients this year, but really grateful to be part of this community and being part of these lives again.

Speaker 1: 21:03

Awesome, kristin. Thank you for the comment. You'll be on back in shortly here. Thanks, patty, that is a great sentiment. How about you're thankful for? What do you got to be thankful for this year?

Speaker 6: 21:17

So, from a professional basis, I'm very thankful for the clients that I've been working with and the consultation calls that I've been doing. They've been going super, super well. So thank you for everyone that's worked with me and recommended me on my LinkedIn over the last couple of years, and also just professionally, thank you to my wife and my she's now having another baby.

Speaker 6: 21:40

So it's the second one coming now, so going to get no more sleep. Sleep is definitely done for the next 18 months or so, but very thankful for family and been able to achieve a lot this year. Yeah, man, it's been amazing. Can't be more grateful.

Speaker 1: 21:55

Fantastic. Congrats, patty. Everybody out there is saying it. I want to say I'm thankful for you again and appreciate your friendship and mentorship throughout this last year and looking forward to seeing you more in 2024, buddy.

Speaker 6: 22:11

Absolutely. Thanks everyone. Have a great afternoon.

Speaker 1: 22:15

I'll see you guys. All right, let's bring on Nick, and Nick's ready to sing that song. I think, whoa, hey, catch off guard there, huh buddy? Oh no, now you're on me, here we go.

Speaker 5: 22:29

Well, thank you for having me. My song that I want to sing today is Saturday Night.

Speaker 1: 22:34

Oh, did you? Did you say anything about what you think for 2024? I don't know that. I did.

Speaker 5: 22:42

Did you want to? Okay? Well, yeah, we'll get to the song later on.

Speaker 6: 22:45

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 22:46

I think for 2024,. One of the things I'm most excited for is seeing how partnerships evolve in relationships. I think that's obviously the core of everything you do. But more specifically, I think it's neat seeing how technology is starting to work with everything in the affiliate space. Every channel that I see that is performance-based at all is finding its way into the affiliate space or the partner space, or whatever we're calling it now, and I love seeing that happen. I think that's going to be a huge trend as we move forward. I think Victor called out the AI, asked what that was. I think that totally ties into all this technology, the growth, everything that we're going to see. Think, one of the things that I'm really most excited for this coming year is really fine tuning my, my singing skills. Uh-huh, if, if I could, I'd like to jump back into Hearing everyone hearing me sing.

Speaker 1: 23:39

Yeah, and I would love to get to that song, but Unfortunately I've got a jump to my next guest here and that is a Victor. Victor, welcome, uh.

Speaker 3: 23:51

What's up everyone?

Speaker 1: 23:53

what's going? On good to see you for the bad lighting.

Speaker 3: 23:57

It's it's about almost midnight here in Europe, so happy to catch up with everyone.

Speaker 1: 24:05

I know it's late for you. I'm thankful that you would stop by and and Christmas party. Thanks for thanks for coming by, buddy. Um, what so? What's been your biggest takeaway?

Speaker 3: 24:17

It's been a crazy year for you, oh totally, um, yeah, I mean just so for everyone Out there. This is my first year in this wonderful community and I got introduced in it through my sass venture with fs-dash. We're trying to take the industry by storm by automating, using AI, and I can't thank you guys enough for all of the support and all of the good words that you guys had about this and, yeah, it's been a great time and my biggest takeaway this year has definitely been See, like Even seeing how AI can change this industry in the near future. That's what I'm strictly focused on going into the next year.

Speaker 1: 25:03

Awesome, and you're doing it better than anybody I've. I've come across a lot of tools out there in this industry and I have been incredibly impressed, not only by your hard work and what you've done so far with that fee stash, but Every time I give you a suggestion, like you knock it out, like you are immediately implementing that suggestion and you're gonna make an incredible product for Affiliate managers here in 2024. I'm I'm excited to be a part of that. I'm gonna be coming on and and helping you out on the marketing side and really bringing it fruition so that we can go Smash this affiliate world together. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with you this year, man, totally, yeah, same here and it's only the beginning.

Speaker 3: 25:54

We're only getting getting started. I am actually I have my co-founder Open right now. I'm tweaking new features and so on. I'm always chatting with my dev team. So for anyone there that's wondering what the next big startup in in the affiliate space is, I hope that FS dash will be the one. Oh, awesome, sean.

Speaker 1: 26:16

Hall even says If I can help you out, please reach out, sean. You're a big part of this episode, outstanding. Thanks for the help, sean. Her Kristen Evans saying Sean Hall, I hear singing skills of Brian little tin in his piano skills. I don't know if Nick Scott that kind of what do you call it? Talent, but We'll, we'll see. I mean we'll see at the end of this episode if Nick Scott it or not. All right, what do you see in 2024? What do you see in this industry happening? Yeah, I think most obvious question especially coming from me is Definitely.

Speaker 3: 26:54

I see AI helping managers like Automate lots of tasks from, like, the discovery side, utilizing AI to match you with the right partners, with the right partner types, and so on. Even to, I was just thinking about having some type of AI helping affiliates with, like, promotional materials or answering questions about content, about features like. There's plenty of overworld opportunities where I can see this working. So that's my, my kind of vision for 2024 and that, other than that, I've been mostly involved in into the SAS industry. I see more and more affiliates, publishers, influencers, promoting, promoting AI SAS, so I think that's an interesting niche for for any affiliates out there looking for an on tap niche to Maybe, to maybe pick up on. And, yeah, other than that, I'll make sure to follow you, dustin, to see the latest trends in the industry. Awesome, and I'm gonna be there for you, nick.

Speaker 1: 28:02

And everybody out there. I'm very interested in and like what's going on in the trends coming out, always staying on top of it and and look at the trends, always staying on top of it and and looking forward to 24 and and and spread the good word same year.

Speaker 3: 28:19

For sure I have your glass of water, since I'm I'm still not allowed to drink, but I hope that doesn't.

Speaker 1: 28:27

That's what happens when you're 17. I love that sentiment and Good for you. I am thankful for you, I'm glad you came into my life and I'm thankful for you here and what you're doing for this industry. Let's keep it rolling in 2024.

Speaker 3: 28:43

All right, have a good one All right.

Speaker 1: 28:45

Thanks for joining us, bud. All right, that kid is amazing 17 years old, he just got it. He's in high school, stopping by, he's working at midnight Making an incredible product for this affiliate industry and it is absolutely going to blow up in 2024. Watch out for Avery stash, because here it comes and with shock on her face is Kristen Evans cuz 17 years old.

Speaker 2: 29:16

That's insane. That's literally insane. That kids. We have another special guest.

Speaker 1: 29:22

Oh yeah, who is it? Is it the Dexter? Yeah, what's up, buddy? No, I can't right now.

Speaker 2: 29:29

I'm not available right now.

Speaker 1: 29:31

You don't want to play. You don't want to play with the.

Speaker 2: 29:34

I mean he's gonna get some Nintendo switch time for me later, once I'm done with this, if he gives me time and space to finish it. Yeah, 17 years old, that is wild, like my brain literally just like Exploded. He has more ambition it probably in his pinky nail than the three of us combined did in our entire 20s.

Speaker 1: 29:59

It's out of control, and at least more talent than Nick.

Speaker 2: 30:03

I mean, are we are?

Speaker 5: 30:05

we ready.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Actually, I really wanted to talk about affiliate summit that's coming up. Yes, yes, we're all gonna be there. It's gonna be a really big event. So, yeah, what are you looking forward to at affiliate summit, dustin?

Speaker 1: 30:21

Oh, always, always, networking. So I am filling my calendar already. We've got we've got a couple of meetings scheduled and this is gonna be my favorite affiliate summit yet, I think, because I've had so many guests throughout this year. I think we're getting close to 60, 70 or something of guests that have been on this show and I'm gonna get to see them all at affiliate summit and and I've had that interaction with them on a intimate level it's gonna be a whole lot of fun. So I'm looking forward to that. Also, I get to mc on Tuesday On Tuesday, yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:59

Um, yeah, are you gonna be broadcasting from summit?

Speaker 1: 31:03

No chance. It's just too involved with like networking. I wouldn't do that. I'm not gonna bring all my gear and I'm not gonna it would be. Maybe I'll do a couple of live versions or something, but I don't think so.

Speaker 5: 31:18

I support it.

Speaker 2: 31:19

I mean, I like consider it because I think that that would be really cool in the future is like being able to do like a live affiliate nerd out from from summit, like that, like Understanding the gear is a pain in the ass, but like that could be a really cool episode. But yeah, we should also definitely do an unofficial affiliate nerd out happy hour. I believe that's just called drinking the bar.

Speaker 1: 31:44

Sean, I love. I love that you're giving me more work to do an organization.

Speaker 2: 31:53

Dustin, could you just get on that?

Speaker 1: 31:58

It'll be. It'll be Saturday morning. Okay, happy hour Saturday morning, before the event starts. Whoever can be there? I mean, I won't be in town yet.

Speaker 5: 32:10

It'll be live stream from there, you know.

Speaker 1: 32:12

I've live stream, yeah, from maybe my airplane. Hey, we're, we're taking the flight like Sunday afternoon, right?

Speaker 2: 32:19

Yeah, yeah, three o'clock, you me and the Garcia's awesome being played as, being a unofficial affiliate, nerd out happy hour. I think that's really good to be a.

Speaker 1: 32:32

Live you Dustin house. I don't know who that is. I'm not sure who it.

Speaker 2: 32:36

I Think they're saying you can use live you.

Speaker 1: 32:40

Oh live you. I've never used that before. Whoever, whoever's talking about that, this LinkedIn user, come on in, come say hi and tell us what you're thankful for. We need a couple of more guests before we wrap this thing up. We've got about ten more minutes here.

Speaker 5: 32:54

I can start to, I Can offer my, my song.

Speaker 1: 32:59

I no, no, we're we're gonna save it for the end here, nick, I.

Speaker 2: 33:06

Mean, we're all really eager for it, nick, but like not yet.

Speaker 1: 33:09

Yeah, yeah, comments rolling in.

Speaker 2: 33:15

Me. That's just beaker from sassi history. I was bigger.

Speaker 1: 33:26

What? What else is going on? So affiliate summits happening. Are you guys taking any time off during this break here?

Speaker 2: 33:35

I Am not Scheduling any meetings for the next week. I really like to use the week between Christmas and New Year's as An opportunity to kind of look at how the year's been. You know what the strategy is for the New Year. Take some time to like clean up my desktop that is currently full of like screen shots All of that and just get a little bit more reorganized and refreshed so that we can dive into the year smarter and more prepared.

Speaker 1: 34:02

Beautiful.

Speaker 5: 34:04

I'm not doing any work during the week except for like one hour of reporting, and that's gonna be. That's gonna be it, and I'm looking forward to it, because it's gonna be five solid work days of no work.

Speaker 1: 34:19

For you. It sounds like you're every week.

Speaker 2: 34:24

What about you, dustin? Are you taking some time?

Speaker 1: 34:26

off. I will, yeah, I quit booking calls for the last two weeks and I'm focusing on content. I've got a ton of content waiting in the queue just waiting to get done and live, and I'll be. I'll be doing that over these next two weeks here. Shameless plug. I'll be speaking on Tuesday at lead generation world in a few weeks. Sean great drop. A link To that event is that a? Is that a live event? Is that on Worst lead generation world at?

Speaker 2: 35:07

So Nick and I were talking earlier about potentially like combining forces at affiliate summit and I think I just got a preview of yeah.

Speaker 5: 35:19

I think, seriously it's really hard.

Speaker 2: 35:22

It's so difficult.

Speaker 5: 35:24

I have a question for you. You haven't really answered the question that you've been asking us.

Speaker 4: 35:28

Uh-huh.

Speaker 5: 35:29

What was your big takeaway from 2024 2023?

Speaker 1: 35:32

Yeah, great one big takeaway of 2023. It's it's what Victor is bringing to the table and Victor really highlighted it for me is the usage of AI is incredible, and the people that are ahead of the game right now are the ones that are thriving right now. Victor has come up with this incredible tool utilizing every aspect of AI, and it's really impressive, and companies are going to catch on to this, and not only for Software generation, but especially with lead generation and content generation. 24, 2024, it's gonna absolutely blow up. So the more you know about it, the more you educate yourself, like if you're if I can suggest anything besides my inner circle community it would be going through a course About AI and learning as much as you possibly can and how you can utilize it in your business today. So that's, that's what's coming up, that's what's from the past, but, like, ai is just taking you know, I watched the Terminator the other day just to like go back and reference SkyNet and I we're there yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:53

Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good movie but like it's. It's worth a watch, but it deals nothing with what we're doing with. Like people keep talking about AI is gonna take over and it's gonna turn into Terminator. Like that's not what's gonna happen. People should not be in afraid of it, let's. Let's embrace it and accept it is part of our life.

Speaker 2: 37:18

Nick's been a huge AI proponent for years and I remember when I put an offer on a house that was a smart house when I was first house shopping up here, I told Nick that it was smart house. He's like got so excited, right. So naturally, when AI comes in the conversation, he was also like yes, admittedly I'm lazy on the AI front, so it's really fun to watch you to convince me to Lean into it.

Speaker 5: 37:43

Oh, yeah, or have you? Have you dabbled yet? I've doubled, I've doubled.

Speaker 2: 37:47

there's been some reports and some you know, like what is a murr for this? Do you guys know what murr is? No market exchange ratio yeah, that's something that one of my clients instead of you know going off revenue row as any of those other factors. They look at murr and it's wild. So I've had it like I used AI to like basically give me like a 101 on it. You know, like explain it to me like I'm five year old and that was really helpful to me. So, yeah, like basically explaining stuff to me or like helping me kind of figure out some of those additional like big math things that I'm not great at is definitely where I've been dabbling on it a little bit less on like the content creation Kind of part of it, because in my mind I'm a better content creator, or at least my words are prettier, um, so yeah, just using it to fill in the gaps of my weaknesses.

Speaker 1: 38:43

Excellent, murr, it's it's gonna be hot in 2024. That's what you're telling me. Sean says. I think it goes well with the Franken sense.

Speaker 2: 39:00

Nice, that's a good holiday joke for you.

Speaker 1: 39:05

Fantastic. All right, I've got this December Resolution to end episodes before the minute 39, so I want to. I want to thank you guys. Kristen, nick, oh, nick. Okay well, I'm so sorry, we don't have time for it.

Speaker 1: 39:25

I'm Nick. It was great seeing you, but thanks for being here, buddy. Um, uh, kristen, thank you so much for coming and celebrating on this holiday party, and we didn't have time for Nick's song, but, uh, let I'll play a. Play us out on Silent Night anyway. So, merry Christmas to you, happy holidays. I love you, love you in my life. For all those that showed up, thank you for being here and, uh, happy holidays. Take care folks.