[EO San Diego] The Power of Relationships and Masterminds in Business With Eric Berman

Rise25
65 min read

Eric BermanEric Berman is the Founder and Mastermind Leader of Speakeasy Mastermind, a private global community that brings experienced entrepreneurs together for collaboration, strategic problem-solving, and business growth. He is also the Founder and CEO of Brandetize and Celebritize, companies focused on digital marketing and brand visibility for thought leaders, consumer brands, and influencers. Prior to these ventures, Eric co-founded CollegeClub.com, an early large-scale online community, where he held executive roles during its rapid growth. Additionally, he consults for companies, works with venture capitalists, and hosts the Inside the Speakeasy podcast.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • [04:20] How offering free services jump-started Eric Berman’s agency  
  • [05:19] Four criteria Eric uses before entering revenue-share deals 
  • [13:10] Turning informal masterminds into a scalable business model 
  • [17:12] Why SOPs are crucial but hard for entrepreneurs to adopt  
  • [20:28] How early business lessons shaped Eric’s entrepreneurial mindset  
  • [33:46] Why building communities is Eric’s lifelong business passion  
  • [38:45] Partnering with influencers to build scalable, AI-resistant businesses
  • [43:28] Tips for structuring win-win partnerships with influencers

In this episode…

Strong businesses rarely win on tactics alone. What separates the companies that endure from those that stall is often something harder to quantify but easier to feel once it’s missing. So what really gives entrepreneurs a lasting edge when markets shift, tools change, and competition intensifies?

Drawing on decades of entrepreneurial experience, Eric Berman explains that meaningful relationships outperform tactics in the long run. He highlights how trust, openness, and long-term alignment turn connections into compounding assets rather than transactional exchanges. The result is better decisions, faster growth, and fewer blind spots over time. He also explains how performance-based partnerships and masterminds create accountability while unlocking opportunities that rarely emerge in isolation.

In this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Eric Berman, Founder and Mastermind Leader of Speakeasy Mastermind, to discuss the power of relationships and masterminds in business. They explore how trust-based partnerships drive growth, how masterminds evolve into scalable communities, and why long-term leverage matters more than short-term wins. Eric also shares hard-earned lessons about focus, niche selection, and building businesses through collaboration.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Special mentions:

Related episodes:

Quotable moments:

  • “Don’t pay me till I make you money, but I want a piece of the action.”
  • “Your network is your net worth. I gotta learn how to say it.”
  • “It’s lonely being an entrepreneur. Sometimes, making these decisions, if you don’t have a partner, these are tough decisions.”
  • “I always look back and say, you can’t take away my experience.”
  • “I get more jazz when I hear the story of two people that connected, and they are doing cool stuff together.”

Action steps:

  1. Invest in high-quality relationships intentionally: Building trust-based connections creates long-term leverage, opening doors to partnerships, insights, and opportunities that transactions alone cannot deliver.
  2. Join or form a mastermind with aligned peers: Surrounding yourself with experienced entrepreneurs provides accountability, diverse perspectives, and faster problem-solving than working in isolation.
  3. Evaluate partnerships before committing: Assessing alignment, trust, numbers, and scalability helps avoid costly mismatches and ensures relationships grow into mutually beneficial collaborations.
  4. Shift from short-term wins to long-term leverage: Prioritizing sustainable relationships and compounding opportunities leads to more resilient businesses and better decision-making over time.
  5. Create environments that encourage openness and trust: Fostering spaces where people can share honestly strengthens collaboration, surfaces better ideas, and accelerates personal and business growth.

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Episode Transcript:

Intro: 00:02

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:12

Dr. Jeremy Weisz, Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Eric Berman, Founder of Speakeasymastermind.com, and Brandetize.com, Celebritize.co. And Eric, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. This is kind of a combination of a top giver series like when I meet someone, Eric, I’m like, this person is just a true giver of a human being. And when we first talked, I’m like, I went back to a couple of people like, Eric is amazing and he reminds me a lot.

And which is not shocking of David Gonzales as part of the Top Giver series. And he’s messaged me about you, Aaron Walker, Dan Kuschell, Ian Garlic. I did an AI interview with Joe Polish. It was not Joe Polish, it was his AI clone, actually, but he’s part of the Giver series as well. And also this is part of the top agency series. 

I’ve had a lot of, you know, digital agencies on the podcast talking about their journey. You know, Kevin Hourigan comes to mind. He started an agency. And you know Kevin.

Eric Berman: 01:20

I know Kevin. Yeah. Cool.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:21

Good people know good people. Kevin’s amazing. He started his agency in 1995. And so he you probably knew each other back then because I know you had an early startup in, in The.com area, but, you know, just one of the nicest human beings. And he talks about the evolution of the agency world, the internet and business since 1995.

So how do you guys know each other?

Eric Berman: 01:46

Through a mastermind. Actually, an agency mastermind.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:48

There you go. Yeah, it’s.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:50

All about we’ll get into Speakeasy Mastermind as well, because I know y’all are all about community. So anyways, check out those episodes before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. It Rise25. We help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that by one or an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast.

We do the strategy, accountability and the full execution number two or an easy button for a company’s gifting. So we make gifting staying top of mind for clients, partners, prospects, even staff. From a culture perspective, simple, easy and affordable. Just give us a list of addresses. We do everything else, and it’s not like you’re like a one off gift. 

 We like to send a campaign of gifts. So think three gifts a year for five years type of thing. So for me and Eric is much the same. The number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways on how I can give to my best relationships, and I found no better way over the past over 15 years to profile the people I admire and share with the world. 

 We’re working on the podcast and send them sweet treats in the mail so you can go to rise25.com or email support@rise25.com. I am really excited to introduce Eric Berman, serial entrepreneur. As I was mentioning, he’s founder of Speakeasy Mastermind. Speakeasy mastermind is a global community of growth minded entrepreneurs. They’re focused on marketing, sales, and business development. 

 He also runs Celebritize. They partner with top influencers to build and scale businesses that monetize their audiences. Right. And he’s going to talk about some examples around even someone with 6 million followers. And what do you do with that? 

 And he’s also CEO of Brandetize, which is a digital marketing agency. They help experts grow their empires through performance based strategies. One of my favorite stories, which hopefully he’ll tell, is one of the ways he started in this, is he offered his services for free. Okay, I love that approach. We’ll talk about it. 

 Over the years they’ve consulted with you, name it, Clickfunnels, Club Med, Phoenix Space, Troy Capital Partners and many, many, many more. So Eric, thanks for joining me.

Eric Berman: 03:59

Wow, that’s an amazing introduction. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here today.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:03

It’s just the truth. So why don’t we start off with Speakeasy Mastermind? Because we’re going to kind of go in reverse, right? Yeah. But like it comes to speakeasy mastermind, what you do I’m going to pull up the site.

So if you’re watching the video, you’ll see us poking around there. But talk about Speakeasy Mastermind, what you do there.

Eric Berman: 04:20

Yeah. So I mean, really this actually the quick backstory of that is, is and I’m kind of weaving in all the different worlds I’m playing in, you know, having the agency branding ties. One of my first big clients that I got was Brian Tracy. By that, you sort of teased it by I was a big fan of Brian’s. He’s in the same city of mine in San Diego, and I got introduced to him and he said, I need help with this internet thing.

You know, we’re talking 2001, of course. And and I said, Brian, I can do this. But, you know, I’m not an employee type. I’ve been building companies my whole life. So I’ll do this and don’t pay me till I make you money, but I want a piece of the action. 

 He said, Eric, you’re my kind of guy. I love, I love that kind of personality. Let’s go. So that was a it’s.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:57

A no brainer offer and delivering value first.

Eric Berman: 05:00

Yeah. Like and I always even encourage people I’m like God it’s such so easy if you have if you have the cojones and the ability to do that like why not if you really know, you could do something pretty quickly. And that’s a whole other. I could spend 20 minutes talking about what to look for and not look for down that path, but we may not have time for that today. So now go.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:15

Ahead. What were you like? Give me an example of what you mean by that. What to look for now look for.

Eric Berman: 05:19

Because I mean, even in our agency now, we still will partner up in a way which we’re taking a piece of the back end. But the lessons were and we learned this early on when I started doing this and we went beyond Brian Tracy, we just thought, oh, this model worked for everybody. So we just started offering that to everybody and we’re like, oh, this isn’t going to work all the time. And so now we now we essentially say we have four steps before we get married. Brian got married right away, but that was because he had he had the things and I and I already, you know, without even knowing he already had the things and and the four things I look for, I say, you know, I say tell clients, hey, let’s date before we get married.

For things I’m gonna look for before we go all in and be. Performance number one is do we like each other? And that seems obvious, but, you know, I call it the quick cell phone test. When somebody calls your phone or text you, do you get energy or do you basically say, oh my God, I don’t want to talk to the person? So that’s number one. 

 Do you like the number two? Is do you like the product? Like, you know, are you selling stuff that you really get excited about? You know, is it just nonsense and BS, or is it really making an impact out there that you’re going to want to be, you know, really leaning into that matters? Number three. 

 And those are sort of like, sure, those are the obvious, but you really need to think about that. Number three I like to say is do we know the real numbers of the business. Oftentimes you’ll run into somebody like in almost every time they’re trying to sell you. Oh we’re amazing. And you know, we’re doing, you know, X thousand dollars, you know, in business and we’re on pace to do blah, blah, blah. 

 I’m okay. Well let’s see the numbers look like. And oh, you’re bragging about the one month you had that you’re and you’re multiplying by 12. And that’s not your business, which, you know, isn’t necessarily what.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:48

We’re on a run rate of x, y, z. In that run rate was based off.

Eric Berman: 06:51

What are we really at? Yeah. So so let’s understand you know, where the true numbers are. And then last but not least, can you actually scale it and can you make an impact. So yeah maybe the business is doing well, but do I have the skill set with me and my team to look at somebody and say, you know what, let’s say I have been working on a retainer or small basis.

You’ve been paying me five, ten grand a month. Can I really is it worth me doubling my labor and and and staff? Because I’m going to take we’re at now and really go above and beyond that. And the answer is yes and all those things. Then you can. 

 It’s a lot easier to make that offer and even making it more of a no brainer offer. Once you have that, say, all right, we’re here, we’re at this number, making this number, you know, over the last average of last six months. We’ll just take a piece of what we build. I mean, how does somebody say no to that when you’re like, okay, this is money you wouldn’t have had. So you in or out and don’t pay me until I get you there.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:37

Each one of those steps is you like I find in my life. Each step I have is because I made a mistake somewhere, and so that gets added in as like a step. So are there any good stories and okay, we have to like each other. We have the product we have. Do you know the numbers and scale it?

What would be a good story? And first of all, I don’t know. Do you have a book coming out on this or anything. Because there should be a book on how do you.

Eric Berman: 08:01

Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:02

Do performance marketing. And these are the four steps. You know.

Eric Berman: 08:05

Maybe maybe that’ll be book three. I got two other topics out of that. So I’m actually going to be off next month to work right on my first book through a workshop. And that’s going to be more on kind of the conversation of your net worth. Your net worth is net worth your net worth?

Net. Sorry.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:19

I always get this wrong.

Eric Berman: 08:21

Your network is your net worth. I gotta learn how to say it before I write a book around that. But yes, that would be sort of the you know, it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:25

Just won’t be the title. You’ll have a different.

Eric Berman: 08:27

Title, something around that. But yeah, we could get into that. Going back to your first question, when I’m going to try to slowly close the loop on that and get over there. But, you know, having started working with Brian, Brian Tracy quickly met other thought leaders. One in particular, his name is John Assaraf really well named guru out there as well, who’s also in San Diego.

And we were doing JVs together and he said, hey, Eric, you know, all this the stuff you’re doing with Brian. You know, I’d love to learn what you’re doing. And why don’t we share what we’re doing? Why don’t we get together and just mastermind and and and really just help lift each other up? And that was the first time that I kind of really got exposed to that deep level of, you know, you talk about it, but what does that really mean? 

 And so he said, well, let’s grab Mike Koenigs and Darren Hardy. And, you know, these are all Mike’s. It was a marketing legend. And Darren Hardy, who now he was running success magazine, is now a huge thought leader in his own right. He had written Compound Effect and a bunch of other books and a couple other guys in San Diego. 

 Let’s get to. So we got we had this dinner meeting and, you know, five guys, everybody was was, you know, considered sort of gurus or got paid a lot of money for their time on stages and all that. And we sat out a room, had some dinner and, and we were just opening up the playbook like what worked and what I found interesting in talking to other people since then is the industry we’re playing in. It’s like, wait, so you get people who you’re sort of competing with to get around and share secrets, like, what is that? That seems so weird and foreign. 

 And then you realize this, this, this, the world that, you know, you and I play plan and others. It’s like there’s also there’s a bit of an abundance mindset that, you know, we all have products that are about doing good for consumers, and we’re trying to make make an impact in the world. And if my consumer is going to buy from me, Brian Tracy, well, then why not offer somebody else? And at the end of the day, they just need help. And if my product doesn’t deliver on that, I got my own problems to deal with. 

 But at least let’s serve that client. And so there was never this, this concept of, of of hiding behind your secrets. It was always, let’s get out there and, and let’s be better together and, and and have those conversations. So I, you know, there was five of us that quickly turned to to 8 to 10 to to 15 to 20. And no longer could we have meetings in restaurants because we were getting interrupted about, can I pour you some more water and can I bring you something else? 

 And can I take your order? And we’re like, wait, we’re like in a really good flow state. Can you, like, go away for an hour? And that just felt awkward. So we went back into into houses and offices and, and, and then guests would show up from different cities and say, well, can you, can you do this? 

 You know, in my city over here, and I ignore that for a while. But but really, what the magic was, was the the way about we organize these, these dinners and the flow and the conversations and the meat of the content to really make it worth people’s time to show up month after month. And for me, looking back in hindsight, I realized sometimes we all have a natural skill set that we’re good at and you call it whether it’s the genius matrix and you say, what do you what do you love to do? And you’re good at? You know, sometimes we realize these are just natural to me, but others look at you and say, wow, this person’s a genius in hindsight. 

 And because I’ve been told this and I don’t like to sort of say like, talk about the things I’m great at, this is just what I learned through through conversations is I had a really natural knack for being able to wrangle entrepreneurs. I’m more I happen to be more of the organized entrepreneur, the high follow through entrepreneur. And I think John Assaraf kind of detected that early on and said, Eric, let’s get these. You know, almost like Eric, you organize like it’s almost like he just instinctively knew. And sure enough, I was the guy that always said, all right, let’s go. 

 Like everybody this time, this meeting, who’s in, who’s out. And just it just ended up being my mastermind group by by sort of default to keep it going, that those conversations were so impactful that how much we were learning and growing together about, like, what’s working in your business and can you make an introduction and just knowing this group is there for you. You hear the concept of sometimes you hear the concept. It’s lonely being an entrepreneur. And at first I heard that I’m like, I’m extroverted guy. 

 I’m not lonely. And then I realized what it really meant. Sometimes making these decisions. If you don’t have a partner, these are tough decisions. If you don’t have a certain partner to talk to, you can’t necessarily talk to your employees. 

 You often can’t talk to your significant other. And even when you go out with friends, do you really have permission to talk business with you, out with other friends? Sometimes it’s just like, let’s get together and I’m so exhausted. Let’s just grab a drink and I can’t hear. There’s noise and there’s the game on TV and you know. 

 ET cetera, et cetera. So just realizing that, wow, this it felt special. And I think and I’m sorry, I’m making a long answer to your question. So as I was in agency land and I’ve been in agency land for 20 plus years looking for my next pivot, I started asking myself, what’s next? And I’m like, well, wait a second. 

 Everybody keeps saying, you should do this mastermind in other cities. And I ran some numbers and I’m like, well, wait, okay, well, if I can repeat this formula, this is really interesting business model out there. Obviously there’s other groups out there in this world, and I have been a member of EO Entrepreneur Organization forever who has a successful model. Why couldn’t I take a play a page out of that playbook, keep what I love about EO, and then add all the elements I loved about this and build out something there. And there we have the Speakeasy mastermind was born.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:24

I do want to touch on a few of these points. And by the way, in the video here, we’re we’re looking at the speakeasy mastermind. I do you know, I was actually listening to you, you were talking to Matt Wolf and Jo Fear. This was several years ago. And they were saying I, you know, they were raving about your event and like it was the best event I’ve been to.

It was, you know, it was great. The people there were amazing. I’m curious how the format has evolved. You know, from that first meeting, you know, you rang, you know, John Assaraf was there and a bunch of other people. How have you refined the format over time?

Eric Berman: 14:00

That’s a great question. And and it was one of the struggles is figuring out really, really how to do a format because it became just sort of natural and organic. People would show up. But there was such familiarity with the people in San Diego that I realized as I expanded, I the first couple of years, it was just really interesting grind. I’m like, oh my God, my mind needs to go to massive SOP mode because it’s not like I can just people naturally understand what I’m talking about.

I have to really give them a playbook. And then what made matters worse is I’m bringing in entrepreneurs to run cities. And once again, I realized quickly that the entrepreneur high follow through skill is lacking in many entrepreneurs. The it goes back to the same point. A lot of entrepreneurs are very good visionary. 

 They’re kind of on the fly. Just throw me in a room and I’ll figure it out kind of thing. And I’m out over here trying to push SOPs and there’s a little bit of a conflict. And that sort of had me initially in the early on, why I even had some cities come and go is I had.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:55

You know, Mark winters on and then Gino Wickman on separately. And then if people know they wrote Rocket Fuel together and it’s the visionary integrator and maybe everyone needs to take an integrator score or whatever, I’m not sure. I think I think he sold rocket fuel at this point. But yeah, I totally hear what you’re saying. With that.

Eric Berman: 15:17

It was so just learning.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 15:19

What it takes.

Eric Berman: 15:20

A different skill set and saying, okay, well, if you are this person, you need to be paired with this other person. Like we can’t launch unless these things are there. So a lot of that stuff sort of happening. But to to your question, how it’s evolved, I think it was just a lot less, hey, I’m going to free flow content this month and we’re going to talk about these topics. And what we used to do is we’d go around the room and everybody sort of takes a turn.

They already knew what to say to, okay, I need to actually have real framework for how these meetings go. You know, first session we have dinner, you know, then we do introductions and then we have a presentation or a topic, and then we have some roundtables, and then we have a hot seat. And then we, you know, do housekeeping. And then it’s like there’s like literally like six sections of our meeting. And I have to rinse and repeat. 

 And as much as you put it out there, you know, sure enough, people still aren’t following the formula. So now I’m like, okay, now I gotta like, fly to San Diego and watch a meeting, or I gotta have somebody look in. It’s just it’s just insane how how it’s these are all obstacles. And when every time I get frustrated and then I immediately I turn around and say, okay, this is good. This is another mode in the business and making it more difficult for others to model what I’m doing because it’s not easy. 

 It’s freaking hard to take that model and just rinse and repeat.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:26

I’m curious, you mentioned, you know, SOPs, okay. And I feel like sometimes I’m the SOP police, which I, I don’t mind, actually. I’m curious what you use to format them house them? I mean, maybe it goes into kind of the tech stack, but I remember I had the founder of Sweet Process on and we use Sweet Process to just keep in one place. And I want him to come talk about it’s just so important.

I feel like the, you know, standard operating procedures in general. And then I had a client who talked about how do you, you know, put these on hyperdrive, because for me, it’s about productivity. Like if I can, you know, create a process, you know, that could be more productive. So I’m curious, how do you handle the the SOP world?

Eric Berman: 17:12

Yeah. Well, for this business with my city leaders, it’s it’s it’s it’s painful because it goes back to the same avatar like I’ll have I have like a playbook on a Google doc. Does everybody read it and study it. Probably not. They might have.

They might have. They might have glanced at it. It’s just the same routine. They’re going in there and just saying, I’ll figure it out as I go. And I try to show them the playbook. 

 So me Honestly, the playbook is unfortunately, it’s a lot more. I got to really just get on the phone with him and walk him through a few times until they get it. It’s just it’s it’s weird. So technically I do. I mean, to answer your question, it’s technical basis. 

 I have Google Docs, we all use circles, our platform and we refer to that. We have things pinned so they have reference guides. But with my avatar and the leaders I can have playbooks up up the but but you know it’s just it’s like anything else. Like how many entrepreneurs running companies, they all intuitively know they need to build SOPs, but how many of them actually never even go in their own SOPs?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:06

There’s an accountability for sure. I mean, like, I know how to work out, but I hire a personal trainer because they make sure I do it and I do it right, and I do it harder and more frequently. So I get it. What about from the agency side from brands? What is the tech stack look like there?

What kind of tools and software.

Eric Berman: 18:27

Teams using I believe I mean it’s it’s it’s changed over time obviously from Google Docs into then we went into a sauna for a little while, and now we’re out of that. And now, as far as a lot of SOPs, it’s there’s some on notion and Coda have been two different stacks we’ve used internally. You know, still some of the Google Docs back in various file folders and all that.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:46

What made you decide to expand? I mean, you have this amazing core group starting in San Diego. Where was the first expansion and why?

Eric Berman: 18:57

You mentioned his name, DG. David Gonzalez over in Austin. So was Alex Mendoza and and Scottsdale and David and Austin. And it really was because I wanted to test the model out. And I knew those guys well.

I knew they could bring us a group, group of founding members to help test out the model. The way I did test it out initially was San Diego was always a that was the biggest thing I had to test is would people pay for this thing? San Diego was never paid. It was like everybody throwing 500 bucks to cover your dinners for the year, so I didn’t have to go chase you down to get receipts to get reimbursed. So it was like, do that. 

 And when the money runs out, I’ll let you know. So so that was so I tried the same thing with with those two cities. Like first let’s not worry about paid. Could people actually go into a room, show up and still deliver and have a good experience of connecting? And then that was quickly proven. 

 And then when then I went out to other cities in Salt Lake, was my first sort of paid city mastermind, and then and then so so I think what your question, I think was what I think it was just finding two cities that I felt confident in, the relationships with the people running it, that I can fill up a great group of people to quickly vet it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 20:01

Yeah. You know, I’m curious going back to because it’s it’s your relationship. You know, the relationships are obviously, you know, super important to you. And I’m wondering early on you studied I mean, you worked with Brian Tracy and you were a fan of his work. I’m curious who other you know, works.

Are you a fan of back then and now?

Eric Berman: 20:26

Yeah.

[Continue to Page 2]

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 20:27

So resource perspective.

Eric Berman: 20:28

So so my if we want to we’re bumping and jumping around in the timeline. But my first my first company right after college, I went to UCSD in San Diego, and then immediately I didn’t do what most people did, which was to jump in the, you know, heavily recruited jump in that first company. I said, and this is also when I look back and said, I guess I was always meant to be an entrepreneur. When do you really know you’re that entrepreneur? I mean, I can go back and even, you know, go trace my, my roots behind that and say, oh, okay, I guess I did have some sort of things back there, but but first guy I ran into, a buddy of mine’s like, I’m like, what are you up to?

He’s like, oh, I’m doing this thing. I met this guy Michael. You should meet him. We’re doing this really cool idea where we’re going to do this. I’m like, that sounds cool. 

 I’ll come meet him. And he told me the vision. I’m like, it’s great. I’m not doing anything right now. Where do I sit? 

 He’s like, well, we can’t pay. I’m like, I don’t care. That’s that’s all right. Let’s like, let’s like, this sounds fun. Like he’s like, but we’re going to do this and we’re going to be able to change the world. 

 I’m like, cool, let’s go. Like, like. So it was one of those.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:19

Are you in college at the time or we’re.

Eric Berman: 21:21

Just I just graduated.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:22

You just graduated. Okay.

Eric Berman: 21:24

Like, you know, I did the Europe trip post-graduation, had like three jobs saved up. You know, that, plus my bar mitzvah money. You know, had I had a good, like, maybe 15, 20 K in the bank after, you know, after college, I’m like, all right, well, this could last me a while. You know, I’m living off $1,000 a month back then.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:38

Somehow hostels are cheap in Europe. I remember going, it was like $8 a day. I’m like, okay, yeah.

Eric Berman: 21:45

Yeah, it was fun. So, so I’m like, so, so the what was the question if I forgot the question?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:51

Oh, you were just saying right after college. And so.

Eric Berman: 21:54

Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:55

So you met this person and you just I’m like, okay, I’m going to do this.

Eric Berman: 22:00

Yeah. So I said, I’m going to do this. And then we started building this startup. Three, 4 or 5 of us turned into turned into 15, turned into 50, turned into 400, having raised $100 million. And and I thought I was going to be retired at 28 and and then then the first stock market crash.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 22:20

What was the vision that sold you, Eric.

Eric Berman: 22:22

Like because it was and I remember your question to get back to who else I listened to, and I’ll answer that and then I’ll answer your other question. So yeah, we used to lock ourselves in the room every morning at 6 a.m. and we’d listen to Brian Tracy or Tony Robbins. And then if, by the way, if you were late by a minute, you’d have to you’re on the breakfast board and you had to bring breakfast. So like, we were committed to like, like you talked about accountability for each other. So 6 to 7 was was was learning from Tony and Brian.

And that’s also where I got fascinated and said, one of my future givebacks I’d like to be able to give back to is the world of education. And seeing that, and I think it’s happening organically anyway, with this AI world and what’s the access to content and thought leaders, I think is just so, so out there. It’s awesome. But I think just all the things you never get taught in school, I was learning this way and I was like, wow, this is amazing and powerful. The vision to me was the initial play for this company was called College Club.com. 

 It was really the first Facebook before there was any social media out there was that if you could capture the college student using technology that was the most coveted demographic by advertisers, and he had this visionary, had this way of using tech.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:28

What was around at the time? Like what was the social media? So?

Eric Berman: 23:31

So I was not going to go down a rabbit hole, but to give you a little taste. So so imagine this is pre browser everybody. But imagine your telephone was the browser. And when you’re scrolling around the way it was is you’d get a you get a college voice box. So welcome to college club for one hit groups for two hit sports for three hit movies for four hit hit weather.

And so you were literally getting information by pushing buttons, you know, for one groups press, one sororities, two fraternities, three this group. And so what would happen is you would join groups and you get access to information, and then you would be on this group listserv. So if you’re in a fraternity, trust one for this fraternity. And the next thing you know, you can actually send messages out to your entire group of 50 people on by through the phone, through this voice box. Now this seems so crazy, but there was there’s there’s no tech. 

 Back then. It was like you had to call people.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:21

What year are we talking?

Eric Berman: 24:22

Myself, I am 50 for everybody.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:24

What year are we talking?

Eric Berman: 24:25

Well, I graduated college in 93, so this is 94, 95, 96. You know, we were walking around with pagers. You had your cell phones are just, you know, they were they were coming out, but it wasn’t like, you know, barely like I mean, I think I was the last sort of phase of I didn’t really have a computer through schools word processor. I was, I was finishing my, my classes up. So this.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:46

Was two. You were two ahead of your time too. You were.

Eric Berman: 24:51

So. Well, well, we did this. And all of a sudden when the internet hit and the browser, it was like, Holy shit moment, let’s move everything to the internet. So when Netscape happened and that whole thing went crazy, we’re like, oh my God, the vision is now going to be this computer. Let’s be the first.

And so we started doing all the stuff through the internet and saying, hey, if we could get the college eyeballs to the internet. So ultimately, fast forward, we were the number one website of the college demographic back in 2000. We were the 40th biggest internet site on the internet. So, I mean, that’s the kind of growth we had in that demographic, which is why we were set to go public, you know, two months away from going public and all of a sudden boom, you know, implosion happens. And I thought I was going to be ready to go and done. 

 And then you and then you lose everything. So so that was part one of my life.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 25:35

What was your role there?

Eric Berman: 25:38

I was essentially the CEO. I mean, the title, I was operating as the number two guy behind the visionary, the window dressing title, because you have to do window dressing. All these things you learn when you do a filing was I didn’t have the the experience. So we had a we had a president come in who we kind of like put off in the corner and did some things and, but I was sort of the number two guy. So my title ultimately was like general manager, just some kind of general title.

And it was just it was just weird because I remember like having to manage people that were like 15 years older than me, way more experienced. But it was just like I knew the inner workings of the company and the culture and all those things. And then, you know, when it all imploded and you lost, you know, essentially it could have been retired. I always look back and say, it’s a lot easier to lose money I never had. You know, having start for for nothing. 

 And it was all on paper. So it’s like. But what are you gonna do? You can’t take away my experience. Like. 

 Like you can’t this year. Seven years working seven days a week, sleeping in the office constantly and having no life from 21 to 28. You can’t get rid of that. And what was I going to do afterwards? You get back up. 

 I’m like, I sit around, it’s like, no, I learned quickly, you know, people, your close friends solve for you for a second and they empathize. But then. Then what? Everybody’s on doing their own thing, you know. And it also goes back to your question is a long answer to your question. 

 My favorite quote came comes from Brian Tracy and I live by this today is I am responsible. And so like I love that quote. And under everything I said, you know, I’m responsible. I could I could cry about this, I could go on. What could I, you know, I could go sulk, I could, you know, but ultimately I’m responsible for what I’m going to do next. 

 And so it’s only up to me. And so I was on to the next.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 27:11

So what happened to the so the internet bubble kind of exploded. What ended up happening to the company, did it just have to did it have to wind down or did it try to keep going or so.

Eric Berman: 27:23

So there was a we were supposed to get a $10 million bridge note to take us to the IPO, and the crash happened, let’s say, a Thursday of April. And funny enough, we were taking our first vacation in five years. Like the C-suite, we were in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on a rainy day. Vividly remember us saying, Holy shit! And our CFO almost having a heart attack on the spot and having to fly back because all this money was coming that Tuesday.

They shut the doors. We were burning $2 million a month. So again, let me take our listeners back to the little history lesson. Back in that day of internet heyday, when it was the first internet companies, all the VCs would come in and say, here’s a pile of money. Don’t care if you’re profitable, spend, spend, spend, market share. 

 Get as many eyeballs as you can. We’ll make the money later. That was the that was the playbook. That was all fine until that market crash happened. And everybody’s like, oh fuck, what are we going to do here? 

 So we were burning 2 million. So we went from the little darling in San Diego, this huge company. All of a sudden we had to do layoffs. We just acquired our fourth company, flew them all out, moved them all out from Michigan to San Diego. Felt so bad for these guys. 

 We’re like, thanks for being here for two months, but we have to lay you off and you know, etc., etc.. So essentially that company went through what was called, I learned the world of bankruptcies. So went through an asset sale, bankruptcy. We were trying to buy it out of bankruptcy. Because another quick lesson is, is I talk about board control along the way as you raise up to $100 million. 

 We finally lost board control with founders with three seats. Board was up for first move they make when this thing happened is they said, you know what, we want out. We’re just going to sell off whatever assets. We don’t care that you’ve worked your ass off for seven years. We don’t. 

 You know who you know. And so they just wanted to get rid of it and take it through a bankruptcy. So we’re like, all right, let’s see if we can buy it out of bankruptcy. Almost had it. Our big money founder, all of a sudden his wife had a stroke out of nowhere and he left. 

 And we’re like, okay, that’s a sign from the whatever spirit gods you believe in and all that, that it’s time to move on. And so that was that whole journey and crazy story. Crazy story. So we ended up being sold for peanuts by the company we were supposed to acquire. Like we were getting ready to acquire them for. 

 After we got public, they ended up taking us for peanuts. And and I don’t even know what happened since then.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:31

We got to reconnect with them, see what happened. Yeah, other.

Eric Berman: 29:34

Than the funny side story, I’ll give you this. My brother ends up being one of the four founders at Myspace.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:39

Really?

Eric Berman: 29:40

So we still had social media company in our brotherly veins and he ends up getting the the big one with Myspace. So yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:45

What did he do with that? Myspace?

Eric Berman: 29:47

He was one of the four guys. He was the CEO and he went off and you know, they went and sold to to News Corp and off off. He they ran with a nice little exit and, and they’re all doing big things.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:57

That’s amazing.

Eric Berman: 29:58

So it’s crazy. Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:00

So what was next for you I mean, this I didn’t realize that timeline. I remember you talking about this before and I’m picturing, oh, it’s like two years or something. And like seven years is a significant chunk of time. So I maybe sit in my bedroom for like a couple of years, just like in the corner in the dark. But what did you do next?

Eric Berman: 30:23

First cycle. And again, there’s some a lot of lessons in here. I was always brought into the visionary and I became the number two guy, but I was never like even close to compensation wise because it was his. And he puts in capital and I didn’t put in any money in and his vision. So it was like even though I would have a decent exit and own like, you know, a couple points of this company, at the end of the day, all the sweat that I put in this company, it was like, that’s it for all the time.

And so it was always. And so when we went to the next thing, it was like, okay, what are we doing next? And once again we were brainstorming ideas and next idea we had, let’s do this. And it was I think at that point it was always he saw me as this sort of like it was hard for me to come up to his 5050 ish, even though I was doing all this hard work. And so to me, I made this final decision and it was confidence enough in me because I never sort of did my own thing to say, you know what? 

 Let’s let’s depart. And I had these ideas, like, I, I constantly had these ideas on my own and I said, you know, let me explore this myself. I got the chops. It’s just building confidence to say, I don’t need to be number two, I can go. And so to me, the ideas always spurred from you hear this all the time is what’s a problem or a challenge you’re seeing in the marketplace that you’re frustrated by as a consumer. 

 Just go fix it. Like stop complaining about go fix it. And the funny story was, I was I was at Club Med and just going and visiting and I just happened to go a bunch of Club Med’s, you know, randomly because I used to. But somebody introduced me to that, and I realized there was a huge gap in what they were totally screwing up. And that if anybody’s a big part of what Club Med’s is, is they bring a lot of strangers together, they do a lot of activities to keep it social. 

 And the net net is after a week of being there, you walk away with like 15 new friends. Like, you know, they’re really good at making. And that’s part of the magic sauce they have, especially when you go to the adult clubs kind of thing. But when I was done, it was up to me to keep in touch with everybody. And I said, God, you guys are missing such an opportunity. 

 Why don’t you create this, this community where every week you have this ability to tidy and you, you’re taking all these pictures, why not have people go back to this platform? And so I just pitched this idea and they actually bought it and they’re like, so next thing you know I’m a consultant for Club Med. I’m traveling around and like building this thing for them. And then I just started doing that with a couple other projects. So I started just building these ideas and concepts. 

 And along the way as I’m bootstrapping that, this goes back full circle to the Brian Tracy story. I heard that he needed help with the internet thing. I went in there and that’s why I started making money there. So really it was consulting with Brian was a big part of what I started doing that was pre branded ties that ultimately ten years later became branded ties, or about 13 years later that became branded ties. And while I was doing that, I was doing some other consulting and then branded ties came because what I was doing for Brian, all of a sudden a lot of other thought leaders would say, hey, what you’re doing for Brian, can you do that for me? 

 And then thus that led to the long, sort of difficult conversation with, how do I tell Brian Tracy I no longer wanted to have him in a monogamous relationship with him, that I wanted to take the team and work with other people, and that was a fun conversation. But Brian’s always so amazing and supportive and he got it. And as long as I just would always take care of him, he was fine and fully supportive. So that was that.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 33:22

I feel like Eric really, even from the get go, it was all helping communities or helpful helping people help communities. It was all about communities. Even with the original college, even with the Club Med.

Eric Berman: 33:35

That’s right.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 33:36

It was really helping communities and helping people help their communities. What were you doing, Brian? Like, talk about some of the services and stuff you do at Brandeis.

Eric Berman: 33:46

So Brian was was but you’re right. And I think ultimately and it’s funny you said, I’ll tell you something else. That’s so Brian was always I was just the right arm, almost the CEO of that company. And it was like all things digital and some other projects ideas. So a lot of it was just being visionary.

What else can we build with Brian? What else can we do? And then building a team. And I knew how to build teams and build culture and and then build out, you know from Brian to other other people. What? 

 What? I was always frustrated in running the agency. And I talked to a lot of other agency owners. I was never the genius. Almost every marketing agency is led by somebody who’s great at that. 

 One thing in marketing, hey, we do a paid ads agency because I’m a paid ads guru or I’m a this guru.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 34:28

Started with like a skill, right? Like, I’m great at creating websites, right? We get a bunch of websites and start.

Eric Berman: 34:35

And you have a website and I’m an SEO agency. I was always feeling a little bit off because and I’ll tell you another very interesting life lesson. One of the biggest regrets I have, at the same time I like doing that was also one of my regrets. And I’ll tell you why. I was good at building a company and leading a team and taking an idea and having a vision and high follow through and executing on the plan.

So I was building Brian a nice business as well as other people being an agency. What I did was we just build them and then I hire people to do the the specific things that needed to get done, and I’d oversee that and just keep growing. But I was just the generalist. I wasn’t like, hey, put me on stage and I’m gonna teach something. So I think for me, I was and looking back, I was lacking that something was missing for me in my my life for a long time, a long period of time. 

 So the two things I think looking hindsight, what I wish I had done better was put myself in a position where find that thing that I’m really good at and find that that way to to to to play in that game. If you’re an entrepreneur, I’m finally now there in the world I’m playing with and stuff we’ll talk about or we talk about speakeasy. And the other thing is, I felt like I put myself in a position where I was kind of complacent, and I was doing making enough money to have a decent lifestyle, you know? But I feel like and everybody has their own definition of success. I get that a lot of people would say, gee, Eric, you know, you have a nice home. 

 You do this. You, you know, but like in me, I’m like, no, no, I need to be doing way more. And I feel like I was always playing in the wrong sandbox. And a mentor of mine, a good friend, Roland Frasier, everybody. A lot of people know him. 

 And he said.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 36:06

Check out the episode. I did one with Roland Frazier. It’s fantastic. Yeah.

Eric Berman: 36:09

He’s amazing. We were just texting the other day. He goes, Eric, you know, he goes, I get, I see what you’re doing. He’s like, dude, you’re climbing the wrong ladder. Like, it’s just all this work to go up like.

And playing in a world that was just. It was big in the thought leader space. But the thought leader space is minute compared to the rest of the world out there. And I watch other entrepreneurs and other people that are successful. And I’m saying and they meet with me, I’m like, I’m teaching them stuff and they’re like, damn, but I’m just doing this in a different, in a different world. 

 So. So that was kind of like looking back. And now that I’m excited back to like, why I’m pivoting, why I’m doing these different things is it’s like I’m capped over in that that world that I’ve been playing in, I needed to I need to start moving out. And so that’s what’s really been focused in the last two or the last couple of years is, is, you know, happy to still serve those clients. And I will be there to take care of them. 

 Me and or, you know, worst case, I’ll make sure somebody’s there to take care of them. But long term there’s a much bigger opportunity upside for me.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 37:05

What what was the big regret then? Not doing something sooner or.

Eric Berman: 37:09

Yeah, yeah, I think I think I mean, it’s hard to take myself too much. I think finding what I’m best at and playing a little bit more of that number one, and I think also playing in an industry that I think has has limited I think our egos get in the way because we’re just like, well, we can win. There’s other people that have sold out their agencies and they’re doing, you know, you know, why can’t we get there? And yes, there’s a path running agencies. You know, the magic, the mythical.

Hey, get to 10 million, get to 12 million. You’re now in the target of the piece and you can get rolled up. And next thing you know and you know. Yes, they’re out there. And I saw buddy start at the same time as me as doing that. 

 So that was kind of the carrot was dangled me, but I just couldn’t get there. And I, you know, and just again, I always looked back and said, could I have done something different?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 37:52

So part of it also is, you know, when he says you’re climbing the wrong ladder is part of that niche also?

Eric Berman: 38:02

Yes, I think a lot of it was was the niche and where I was putting efforts in.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 38:05

So maybe we talk about celebrities for a second because I know you serve different niches there. I don’t know, I know you have an interesting dermatology example. So like so if we if we compare branded times thought leaders, you know, there’s only a finite group of thought leaders like Brian Tracy or Tony Robbins or John Assaraf. Right. And so maybe talk about the dermatology example.

Eric Berman: 38:27

Yeah. I mean, I mean, this is this is what we’ll talk about this the same pivot. I mean, if I’m good at running companies and leading and all that, and that’s a skill set. And let’s just say community building is a skill set. I already know I’m I am at risk big time where I am today because of the focus word, you know, doing too many things.

And that’s a whole other conversation of why the hell am I doing all this at once? Just go on at one. And that’s, that’s a that’s a weakness I have of learning how to like, you know, afraid a little bit of FOMO. Which way do I go? But, you know, the community. 

 What I’m doing that was speakeasy and growing that out. And if I could build communities and continue to have success there and roll out to 100 cities and and know, it’s a nice, big, much bigger business with a bigger upside with passive revenue and ability to scale. So like that has all the elements to say it’s a lane I’m playing and I’m really good at it. I could scale, I could build a machine, there could be a huge passive revenue or it could be sold off at some point. Now the other side is, well, if what I was doing at Branded Ties, how do I make that same machine that I’ve built more upside for me? 

 And what I realized through a friend of mine who pointed out the world of celebrities and celebrities can be. Obviously there’s different flavors of celebrity. You have influencers at different levels. You have true celebrities in your movie stars. But if you blend the world of what I call experts in the world of brand helping experts build their empire, and then you look at the influencers who are, quote, experts. 

 This is where I’m focusing on. So it’s like the next sort of it’s it’s where Brian Tracy would have been before, you know, when we had influencers, they really were the original influencers. But but if you look at experts in other areas who’ve done the hard work and they have a mega following, and you look at their business model and they’re making money primarily. Either they’re doing well, but they’re sort of limited because they’re sort of running as a solopreneur or a couple people and they don’t know how to scale their business, but oh my God, they have this huge following and so much potential, or they’re making millions of dollars being brand ambassadors, which we all know at some point that that that song is going to end and what’s gonna happen when it ends, they’re going to be left with very little other than thinking that they were going to make money the rest of their lives, just being promoting stuff that may come and go. So what my model is, is to say, let me find celebrity slash influencer experts and come to them and build them a real business. 

 And now the offering is hey Mr. or Mrs. Celebrity Expert, you’ve already made it over here. You’re bringing a lot to the table. But look at all this huge gap of opportunity you have in front of you. What if I can come in and offer offer marketing operations vision run the company, let you stay in the lane, maybe bring in capital if you need to bring capital and let’s go build you a real asset and let’s do it together. It’s a completely different model than me being an agency and walking around and saying, bringing in clients. 

 And all of a sudden one day they have a friend’s brother’s mother’s uncle who says, hey, I looked at your website and I don’t think this, this, this doesn’t make sense. I found an error or, you know, I would do it this way. Why are they doing that? I have a I could I can do this better. And they all of a sudden you get noticed, you know, it’s like, you know, or just something happens in their lives, hey, I can’t pay you anymore. 

 Like, it’s just a different agency world to say I’m actually getting real corporations set up with people that are bringing a lot to the table, who value what we’re bringing, and it changes the dynamic of the conversation. I have partners on the call that I’m talking to. So the example you brought up, there’s really two I could point to because I’m too in and doing really well. What is in the golf world Erica Larkins called true swing, true swing. Com she was an expert in the golf space. 

 She was very captain, limited what she could do. She’s doing these high end golf workshops. Or those golfers out there pay 3500 bucks to get a three day golf experience. But she can only do so many of those on her own. There’s only there’s only so many experiences she can teach in a year. 

 What about all the other things? Certification, online course, train the trainer. Licensing, merch. Like there’s so many things we could build. But she was a solo person, so we came in, partnered up, and now we’re building up that brand and doing amazing work on that. 

 And that’s having a ton of success and treat it as a partner in building that business. It’s not like I’m going to get a call one day to say, hey, I’m letting you go for some crazy reason. You can’t just do that. The other one you mentioned is three dermatologists. Influencers have a combined following of about 6 million followers. 

 They’re all doing millions a year doing branding, but they don’t have a product. They all realize that. So we just launched Derm Click, which is a telederm company. And what I’m looking for is also these AI proof businesses to skin ain’t going to where telehealth is getting. I was on the rise. 

 Everybody wants to invest in their skin. You know influencers are out there. So whatever happens, the AI world, even though you may get AI to look at your skin, you know it’s going to be a long time until somebody like trusts that versus saying, I’m going to talk to the dermatologist who’s giving me the, you know, that kind of thing. I’m going to go online, click a button to get to get my prescription sent to me, versus have to wait for months and see a dermatologist. So like that’s that model golf workshops. 

 At the end of the day, AI, wherever it is, people are going to still want to get out of the house. God, God forbid, you know, God willing to go out and play golf and hang out with their friends. So like, you know, I’m putting time and energy into that kind of model.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:23

How do you think about structuring the partnership?

Eric Berman: 43:28

Great question. It’s it’s just unique because.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:32

I feel like in the beginning it’s probably no brainer. But once you build something with someone, I don’t know if what’s the word I’m looking for where it creeps in, like resentment creeps in, like.

Eric Berman: 43:46

Yep.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:47

So I’m curious how you structure it.

Eric Berman: 43:48

Yeah. Great question. And I think I think for those that haven’t done things like this, there’s a couple tips I’ve learned along the way. Do the have the hard conversations up front to go through all the scenarios? What happens if what happens if you get, you know, you get pulled in a different direction because you’re an influencer and all of a sudden the grass is greener?

What happens if I get pulled into a different project and I don’t have the time anymore because my other celebrity client has taken off? These are all scenarios that could happen. Obviously, let’s talk about those. What are you bringing to the table? What are we bringing to the table? 

 What’s the time? You know, and then the number one thing that I think in hindsight, that I am really pushing for right now is just vesting versus. And it’s really easy to say, hey, let’s just go into partnership, let’s do a 5050 or let’s do X or Y, or I’m bringing in capital, I bring and let’s just, you know, run it versus more of a vesting, which I’m trying to do a lot more of because I say, I don’t know of anybody who’s going to be doing, what, two years from now. So why don’t we invest including myself? And in order for us to earn that equity, we got to be doing the things.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 44:50

Love it. I want to I know we have a few more minutes. Eric and I just want to talk about one example from from speakeasy because like kind of the thread is really community and relationships through, through all of this stuff. So I want to just talk about maybe something cool that’s happened through Speakeasy Mastermind.

Eric Berman: 45:09

Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 45:10

What what sticks out to you?

Eric Berman: 45:12

So I’d just say as a general one, one of my buddies in San Diego’s, Eric, asked him. He goes, I go, what do you love about speakeasy or what? Give me some feedback. He goes, Eric, it’s all I come for the collisions. I go, what do you mean?

He goes, you just never know what’s going to happen. I walk in not even knowing or expecting. Next thing you know, I’m meeting this person or talking to this person. Next thing we’re doing cool stuff or a fun story that just, I mean, just I probably could think of ten as soon as we get off the off this, this call. But like, I’m just thinking recently because it’s just top of mind. 

 Brand new member out of Ottawa. I just did a kind of a presentation to Ottawa, Canada, and I was showing our member because our members can go visit any other city, and that’s a big part of what they get to do. Like, you go to a city, they’re going to walk you in with open arms. They all want to get to know you. And so this member out of Ottawa, which is like, oh, I’m actually going to be in LA next week in their meeting. 

 So I said, oh, let me connect you with our city leader. So I connected with the city leader and he goes, actually, oh, is I really love. He’s like, wow, it’s so great to meet you. He’s like, actually we’re looking for a last for my. My other presentation kind of fell apart. 

 We’re looking for somebody to present. Do you want to share what you do and present on your topic? And she had something to do with book publishing. And in that world she’s like, great, no problem. She’s out there presenting all of a sudden to a big group of people. 

 Next thing you know, she picked up, I think, 1 or 2 clients out of just that and she’s like, oh my God, I just joined. And literally this, the kind of thing happened. You know, another one of my members in San Diego was putting on these big mega events, and she was looking for others. And next thing you know, she connected with like tons of people right away. I just talked to I got Rhonda and she’s like, yeah, I did one post. 

 I was looking for some team to help me build out my app. She’s like, oh my God, I’m so excited. I gotta tell you, she’s like, I just talked to this guy over in Nashville and he saw my post. He didn’t even respond to it. He just called me directly on my cell phone. 

 He’s like, I can help you. And she’s like, this is amazing. So it’s just like those kind of things are happening now all the time. And that’s that’s, you know, to sum it up, that’s my that’s my win. It’s it’s yes, there’s money coming to me and all that. 

 But honestly, I get more jazz when I hear the story of two people that connected and they are like talking about how great they love this mastermind and they connected. And some of these people may not even know me that well. And they’re just like, it was this thing that got brought us together.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 47:10

Yeah. I mean, Eric, you said it. The magic happens when you bring like minded people together. And first of all, I want to thank you. I want to check, you know, tell people, encourage people to check out speakeasy mastermind.

Com you can check out com. You can check out celebrities.com to learn more. And Eric thanks so much.

Eric Berman: 47:31

Yeah thank you so much for having me. Sorry for rambling so much.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 47:33

Oh that was great. I can listen all day. Thank you.

Eric Berman: 47:35

Awesome. Thanks.

Outro: 47:36

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