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Introduction 0:02
Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns 0:16
It's a great day for the #piratebroadcast™ with another #interestingperson doing something interesting. Like, can you believe it? It's just amazing. Marisa, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you being part of the pirate community now.

Marisa Cali 0:37
Yeah, thank you. I've been watching your show for a while and we connected some months ago. And, you know, I'm busy behind the scenes. Plus thetime thing is kind of like, oh, man, six o'clock, five o'clock, got to get up. But it's okay. Yeah, thank you for having me.

Russ Johns 1:00
Well, we were talking before the show, and we've had these conversations before. One of the things that we all understand as entrepreneurs and business owners is the idea that there are challenging times and these moments where you have to kind of double down and say, okay, I just need to get this done. It's not an overnight success. It's not, all of a sudden, you're famous. It's a marathon, so you kind of have to have the right mindset. How do you kind of evolve into the mindset that you had?

Marisa Cali 1:40
So thank you, again, for asking. I started kind of doing all the things. I was let go from my corporate job about five or six years ago and I was kind of like, a scarcity mindset, like, I just need to make some logos here, maybe I'll do a website, set up the Facebook page, and it was early Facebook, you know, when people were barely, what, I don't need a Facebook page, you know, setting those things up and there was no business mindset behind it. It was like, oh, I'm gonna be this freelancer, this is cool. I'm like, okay, now I'm looking back. I'm like, wow, I totally could have set it up, because I had some excess, like unemployment, to kind of keep me steady until I built my business. But anyways, I was doing tons of things and I was like, okay, I'm gonna invest my time into social media marketing. And, you know, clients I got were smaller, bigger, couldn't invest. Then, my friend was telling me that I needed to start showing my face, because I was basically hiding behind a logo. I think that goes along with what we were talking about, the self limiting beliefs, like, no one wants to see, I'm in social media, no one wants to see me out in the open. But every time I had good connections, like in person, and I was always doing sales in person, like at networking meetings. And so I just started doing videos, like live videos. Terrifying, like, super terrifying. I look back at some of those, I'm like, what was I doing? But I did it, right? So I just kept getting more comfortable. Just being myself, you know, and one of my tricks is like, not to look at the videos, like after I post, because you'll just critique it, like, oh, I could have done this, I could have said certain things and you can't go back and change that, it's out on the internet forever, pretty much, you know, so, focusing on working on my mindset was really one of the ways that changed my business. I'm a business owner, I am doing what I can to build value and build community, bring people in, and that's what I needed to focus on.

Russ Johns 4:19
It seems like what you add value whenever you possibly can add value, that's when it really starts to take off.

Marisa Cali 4:28
Yeah.

Russ Johns 4:32
You always have to add value into the equation.

Marisa Cali 4:35
Well, thank you. I think it does come back to like your core values, like what...my core values to give back like I always do, like, I was just thinking this morning about Thanksgiving. You know, we usually do it with my friends. We do like the Thanksgiving adoptive family type thing. And I'm like, how is that gonna happen this year? Like can it happen with COVID restrictions and strangers. Are we going to be safe enough? You know, if we were putting gloves on, there's all these like things coming into my head, but I always went with that mindset. Like, if I give back where I can, it'll come back to me eventually. And it has, thankfully. So you know, there's a lot of mix in there, I skipped a lot of things, but it's really just kind of focusing on who you are as a person, and really just trying to stay the course. As hard as it can be, because you will have I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I've stayed up till 2am before and then I wake up at five, and I'm like, Oh, my God, three hours of sleep. I'm such a great entrepreneur who's like, no, like, this is like, I need my sleep. Now. It's like, okay, I was in bed by eight last night. And I'm not going to like wear as a badge of honor. Yeah, I'd had such a long day. And like, I went to sleep at eight, but it's like, I know that now I'm here fully present, to be here with you. And then also for the rest of my day, and not just go back to sleep or, you know,

Russ Johns 6:16
The other thing that I noticed on my entrepreneurial journey, and I've been in and out, and I've always had a side hustle and a business and everything else. Even when I was in corporate, I always had something going on. It's almost as if it's a it's a path that isn't well defined for most individuals. Sometimes you get off on the path, and you have to correct yourself and say, okay, well, that isn't exactly what's working out. So I have to make adjustments and corrections. And, you know, after you left corporate america and started your journey, I know, there's probably a lot of false starts and things you're going, it's really not what I thought it was and I'm not really into doing that, and adding value in that area, because it doesn't bring me joy. It has to be a balance of like, okay, what value can I bring? What brings me joy and alignment in what I'm doing and what I believe in. I think video triggered a couple of other events in your life where you're now working for stream yard and doing some really cool projects. So talk about that process in the journey that ended up getting into video even more.

Marisa Cali 7:36
Yeah, sure. Thank you. You're right, there's a balance, and there was many false starts. When tell people...before I get into the...oops, I didn't turn off my sound. sorry, you didn't hear that...the false starts were kind of a mix of I want to be an entrepreneur. And then also, you need to do all these things to be an entrepreneur and be out there on social media and it's imposter syndrome, right? Like, I need to be on all these platforms, I need to be posting every day, I need to have a course, I need to be speaking I need to do all these things. I need to go to networking events when networking events were things, right. Now I realize people are like, oh, you're an extrovert. I'm like, no, actually, I'm not, I'm an introvert. But I have to force myself out there. I'll sit in a networking event and be in the back or on the side, because I'm just like, can I bring someone value, one person? That's it for me. Then I realized I was just going to too many events just to go to events and be seen.

Russ Johns 8:56
It's a form of procrastination.

Marisa Cali 8:59
I mean, I could go to this networking event, or I can go home, get in my pajamas, and, and watch Netflix and relax today, so after a while, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do the relaxing part. And that better prepared me for the next day when I needed to do a proposal call or a sales live sales pitch or something like that. So anyways, it's experimenting with tools of going live. I had done an audio podcast, probably about two years ago, maybe three years ago, started it and I did everything. I'm recording, I'm getting guests and sending emails and cutting it up and putting it on social and I made it through 39 episodes. I was like, okay, I'm done. This is too much work. I enjoyed it. I really liked the core of it was the conversations, but I didn't like everything else around it. Then stream yard came about. And I was like, Hmm, I can use this to do a podcast, interview people, talk to people, which is what I like to do, and also bring value to the community, not just like, oh, me talking about people, but what we're doing here, like having a conversation, what are you about? Who are you? Why do you do what you do. And that spawned into more productions for different clients, from a speaking panel to podcast, a book conversation series, I was just reviewing all the things I've done this year, of all years, where everyone's at home. It's amazing the creativity you can do with live streaming. Also, I think it's important to remember that it's not about who's watching it right now. It's, how are you going to promote it later. Is your live stream and your brand, your core of your marketing strategy. So there's a lot of education around that, like, not necessarily thinking about it, like, oh, I don't want to be on camera, like a lot of my clients don't want to know, but if they think about it, in a different sense, but you have this video that you can then repurpose, you can post on your Instagram stories, you can have all these different avenues for this type of video, it's definitely feasible. In this day and age, when everyone's looking to connect, and see who you are behind the business and make it a little more fun, other than, like a boring zoom meeting,

Russ Johns 11:49
Make it approachable, have the opportunity to actually make connections and build relationships is what really, I think that's one of the most powerful things with video is you get to see the individual, you get to connect with them on a different level than if you made a phone call or send an email out. That gives the business a face, it gives the business kind of a life. The conversation could be much more in depth with video when you're doing it. I think, especially this year, it's been kind of a curse and a blessing at the same time. Because so many people have been forced to be remote workers. Then they realize that it's not so bad. Organizations are saying, hey, I've been able to survive and thrive in my business with remote workers and the ability and the opportunity to continue to grow, or at least sustain the business. The message in that much of what we're doing in the back office and helping people get to that point, producing shows, it creates an abundance of content that we historically would never have, right? With social media being so prevalent, all of a sudden, you take this body of work in this video and audio and images and you micro content, you slice it up, and then all of a sudden, a business owner has a lot of content that they can share out and then you're visible.

Marisa Cali 13:32
Yeah, you talk about the back office...oops, my light fell. See, this suction cup is not working, so you know, the joys of live streaming. I just got the suction cup yesterday.

Russ Johns 13:48
Well, I noticed my mic wasn't in alignment. So it's like, ok.

Marisa Cali 13:52
Yeah, am I good?

Russ Johns 13:55
You're good.

Marisa Cali 13:56
Okay. I got off track a little bit. Yeah, the back office, it's like, this is a new thing that a lot of people are embracing, getting on video. I'm still seeing people get on Team calls without putting their video on. I get it. I understand it's not normal. This is a new normal world we're navigating, but it does beg the question, how can you still connect with people on video and give and deliver value and good content? I think, it's gonna catch on. Eventually. I think people are very weary of...I mean, I did a poll last week. I don't know if you saw it on LinkedIn. I asked people if they watched live shows, I didn't get tons of engagement because I'm too busy producing shows, but a lot of people answered they don't watch live shows, which I understand. But I think it's also like businesses need to start getting into the groove of doing something. So when people are like, I've looked for businesses to kind of just validate them, are they even present online? And can you reach the person, the book author, the business owner, whatever Where are they present online? And do they exist? If I find some live content or video, and I see them talking, I'm like, okay, they're there. They're legitimate, they're still, committed to the values that I represent, or that I want to align with. I'll go support their business.

Russ Johns 15:48
I find it really fascinating for business owners, the ones that say, my clients are not on social media are the same ones that said, why would I need a website? You know?

Marisa Cali 15:59
Right. Exactly.

Russ Johns 16:02
That may be true for some businesses, not all businesses. However, the secret sauce, and that is that everybody deals with somebody and that somebody typically, right now, in this day and age is online, in social, having conversations with either friends or other business owners. And if you're doing business with other owners, I mean, video has allowed me to have friends all over the world. All my business right now is based on relationships. It's not based on a sales funnel that's really magically working. It's not based on secret sauce, or ad spend, or anything like that. It's built on relationships. I think business owners have an opportunity right now to put some effort into video, and actually get a lot of return on their investment, even if people don't watch the initial piece of content. Right? There's still content available. So what are your thoughts about that?

Marisa Cali 17:12
Yeah, I think it's true. Like my business is based on relationships, like, who you know, who you've talked to, who you've connected with. I want a sales funnel sometimes, but then I'm also like, oh, I don't, I'd rather sleep. I'd rather not stay up till 2am. So I think if you're a business owner, or you're thinking about growing your business, like you have your skill, you have your values, and focus on the relationship part of it. Connect with people in all different time zones. I think we were on a call yesterday where I was like, just tell me, I don't need to know your name anymore. Just tell me your timezone. Right before this, I was on 20 minutes of a board meeting from the UK. It's like, four o'clock their time or something like that and I'm like, Oh, hi, I'll be back later. I'll see you later. It's just interesting how video has really, like expanded my business, not just the business side, but literally, like really good friendships and connections. I live in San Diego and I'm from San Diego, but I feel like I could live anywhere. Just because I feel like I might know someone or they'll know someone just to kind of keep me company. I don't know if that's for every business. I know some businesses that are very much like, they're too big in their ways that their processes already. But I think it's also a way to do something internally with your company, and really kind of like, build the rapport there because everyone is at home, like, doing a quarterly meeting, that it's a production. It's not, hey, we're just getting on zoom and we're gonna watch one little box talk for the whole time. No, it's like, ok, what's going on with our business? These are the stars of q3, you know, and kind of like highlight them or someone that doesn't know the HR manager from your office in the Midwest, you can then introduce them. They like rescue dogs like, oh, I rescue dogs too. And then you build that connection and make people feel like they matter in that business.

Russ Johns 19:49
Well, you're creating a culture.

Marisa Cali 19:51
Yeah, right. Exactly.

Russ Johns 19:53
You're creating a connection with individuals that you may never know in the larger organization. Somebody in the organization that has a little bit of ability to communicate and know a few other people, it would be really great. I keep promoting this idea. It's like, wouldn't it be cool if the organization could have a daily show or weekly show and say, hey, if you need help in this area, here's the person you need to contact, they live in so and so. This is what they're about, and this is who they are. I want to bring them on and say hi. So you can get to know people. And then just have a conversation, a quick conversation just like this. It doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be high production, it just has to be hones and available. Then you can share it out with the organization, even if you want to share it internally. Just a simple, process.

Marisa Cali 20:54
Yeah, I think I want to talk about that. Because I think, especially in this time of being all at home, and kind of like, you can either watch Netflix, you can watch the news, it's a time to have more conversations and really learn and especially this year, with so much systemic racism being pushed to the forefront and us forcing ourselves to have these really tough conversations or getting experienced to people that are living in different areas or look different than you. So there's ways for, and it's kind of like the core of what we're doing here is we're having conversations to learn about...okay, you're gonna talk about my business, but then what's that next conversation? The next conversation might be more deep, and you just do it more, and you learn more. I've learned so much during this time. And it's really kind of fascinating how the world has had to slow down, completely shut down a lot of things. I've grown personally and professionally so much this year. Thankfully, no one directly has been affected by COVID. But, I mean, there have been people that I know that have contracted it, but for me, I look at it completely different because of what we're forced to do now, which is talk and connect with others.

Russ Johns 22:24
It really forces you to let go of some things that you don't necessarily...some limiting beliefs, things that you don't necessarily need to hold on to, and really investigate what is it that you really need to do in your life now to bring value and meaning to your life, not only your life, but lives around you and I think it's absolutely critical to reflect on that a little bit more. Hey, Marisa I want to just give a shout out. We got Randal in the house. Randal's here.

Marisa Cali 23:05
From New Orleans.

Russ Johns 23:08
Sleep 7-8 hours is non negotiable. Health is our main wealth. Chris Stone. Thank you so much for being here. Great transparent conversation. Mike Baker is morning, Russ, pirates, Marissa. MD says, fiver looking for some work. Everybody's looking for some work. Kenyatta is here. Good morning, Russ. Marissa Cali on the #PirateBroadcast™ . Mike Baker. Thank you so much. Yes, it's about creating relatable content as attraction and building relationships is key. LT is in the house. LT, thanks for joining us, you pirate you. Marco, thank you so much for being here. And then Russ is here. Russ, thank you so much for being here. Lt said...what did LT say? Let's see what he says. Sad, but grateful of these times. Yeah. grateful. I just want to talk a little about the idea of what's the next step for us? What do you see in the future for live streaming and the industry as a whole? You've been doing this for a little while, and everybody has a thought and a process and do you see more people interested in live streaming? Or do you see people wondering if it's going to be, you know, something that's a fad, or what are your thoughts?

Marisa Cali 24:55
I am guilty of overconsumption, and I think there is a time and a place for consuming content. But what I was saying in the last part about slowing down to speed up, I feel like it's being deconstructed right now, the whole digital world, we're all kind of like figuring out where we need to go in our lane. So definitely don't think that live streaming is going to slow down. I think technologies are going to get better people are going to start...I'm a millennial right on the border, right? And so like people older than me, like my brother, doesn't do a lot of social. Think about the people that are just graduating college and they're maybe seeing certain entrepreneur paths for them. Tech is really huge. I'm in San Diego, so there's a big biotech and regular tech startups here. These people are very tech savvy. Like they're already posting videos on their social media, like Tik Tok is huge. I don't use Tik Tok because I just don't have enough time, I'd rather sleep. I just don't think that it's going to go away. We're still seeing a slow growth, because I think marketers have embraced it. People that are marketers at heart have embraced it, people that want to grow their brand, have embraced it. But you talk maybe three, four years down the line, I feel like everyone's gonna have a YouTube channel and businesses, and they're going to be focused on it. It's still a hard sell sometimes with some of the traditional business owners that have been very used to their ways. Right now, I have a client who was doing speaking gigs all over the country. Now he has a live show, and now he's doing virtual workshops. Luckily was able to help him transition to that. I'm very grateful for that. But it' trending that way. You have to be digital. So in some capacity, and if your core value is to build relationships, and keep those strong, and/or help, attract people to your business, like we were talking about the culture thing, do you want to work for a business that is stuck in the old times and doesn't really talk about how they could grow as a company? Or do they want to attract the top talent from the local engineering firm, like engineers, you can think of them doing live streams, but I know you and some people in our network have some really, really interesting live streams for different industries that are super old, traditional, like manufacturing oil and gas and stuff like that, but they are going to attract people that are connected already. Because otherwise they're going to be there in the dust, you're not going to get the people to want to work for you, if you can't evoke what you are as a business and show the culture that you have, that you're willing to adjust to tech.

Russ Johns 28:30
I think especially now there's a certain transparency that people are expecting. Because of the way video brings out the most in the quick turn in conversation. You can get a message out very quickly. You can show up and share something immediately. I think a lot of the younger graduates from college, they're, like you said, the engineers that are exiting, they were born with an iPad in their hand. It's like they've never been without technology. And we're older, much more traditional businesses still adopting those technologies. So it's going to take a little while, however, I think, the quickest path to get content out there and if you want to produce content for your business, and be seen, be heard and be talked about, as I say, it's really a video is one of the quickest ways to do that. So it's really an exciting time, and we're just on the tip of the iceberg as far as I'm concerned. It's going to continue to grow and expand.

Marisa Cali 29:42
Yeah, it's sometimes a struggle to tell people to get on video. Especially these traditional, no one wants to see me, but I'm like, they see you when you go to their office and visit them. So it's the same thing. You just have to think about it in that sense. You're not here to talk necessarily about your business, you're here to build a relationship.

Russ Johns 30:10
Yeah, I want to give a shout out before we leave. Brian, thank you both for sharing your knowledge and expertise/experience very much appreciated. Randal says, Calvin says hi, Calvin, if you know Randall and Calvin

Marisa Cali 30:23
Yeah I do.

Russ Johns 30:26
And then Gabriel's in the house learning the art of creating AI and using it as avatars in live streaming the movie Ready Player One is where we are headed.

Marisa Cali 30:37
We're living in the Matrix right now, by the way.

Russ Johns 30:39
Living in the Matrix, as incorporated VR in our everyday world, I believe video and live streaming will be the preferred method of communication. Totally agree. Angie is saying, good morning pirates.

Marisa Cali 30:56
Hi Angie.

Russ Johns 30:58
And then Gabriel says we are only scratching the surface of what streaming and integrating technology will help change the way society and business operates. You know, we've seen that change quickly in remote medicine, where it used to be, they push back in the industry and say we're not ready for that. And now in COVID, we're like, yes, we are ready for that.

Marisa Cali 31:20
You have to. I think pre-COVID, I did an eye exam via remote and I was like, whoa, this is so like the person there like just moved the the machine I was getting like contacts or something. Then the person on the screen was the doctor. It was really, really fascinating. Because I was like, is this just like random? Like you just call into a call center? It was just so weird. I think it was. Because we weren't in like COVID yet, this was I think last spring or something, but now it's like, oh, that's what you do. You get on...

Russ Johns 32:02
...so many different changes going on all at once.

Marisa Cali 32:06
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Russ Johns 32:08
Well, Marissa, I really appreciate you being here and sharing a little bit about your journey, your story. And hopefully, people connect with you. If you're not connected with Marissa, connect, where do you like to be found?

Marisa Cali 32:25
On LinkedIn, you can go to LinkedIn, all the social.com's, it'll go to my page. My name is pretty unique, so if you type it in, I probably should come up. I did find someone that had my same name and was in digital marketing, which is really fascinating. We are friends. We were like pen pals for a little bit on LinkedIn. But yeah, Marisa Cali, I'm on YouTube, too.

Russ Johns 32:56
YouTube. Fantastic. Well, everyone, if you're not doing a video, I suggest you get involved and engaged in it. If you need help, get a hold of Marissa, or you can get a hold of me. Just make sure that you take the step forward. Move towards being comfortable on camera. It's not that scary. It's like an instrument, just keep practicing it until you get better. Pretty soon, next thing you know, you'll be having a show.

Marisa Cali 33:30
Yeah. And we all get nervous. Like I get nervous every time right before so, I think that's natural.

Russ Johns 33:37
That is natural. Well, thank you so much and as always, #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and you #enjoytheday. Take care, everyone.

Exit 33:51
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