Business Spotlight USA: Kenny Eliason of RECORD (Full Episode)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Business Spotlight. I'm here with Kenny Ellison. He is the founder of Record. Kenny, thank you for taking the time. We know your time is valuable. So number one, again, thank you for your time. Let me tell you a little bit about the Business Spotlight. It is great for many reasons. Number one, it's going to help you get introduced to people in my network and a lot of the clients that I have. And number two, for you, it also helps that exposure not only with my personal network or the people that we have here in our Las Vegas Valley, but also this will go out to the Action Coach Global Network. So that'll catch a lot more eyeballs around the world. I am very excited to run this with you and learn more about what makes you guys special here in our Las Vegas Valley. So I'm going to start asking Kenny, number one, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your business, and how long have you been doing it? So this current business record, we just started in, well, kind of started in January. We officially formed in August. So it's relatively new. My background in this type of business goes back about 20 years, though. So this is a new iteration on an idea we had. We went and did a bunch of product market hunting, problem hunting, and came up with a solution that we think we can offer to some clients. So it should be great. Yeah. So thank you for sharing that with us. In your industry with record, can you go a little bit more into detail about like the products and services that you guys offer? Yeah, let me tell you a story. So here's what started clear back 2004, 2005. I was hired to be a legal assistant for a personal injury law firm here in Las Vegas. The only reason I was hired was because I speak Spanish. So I'm actually a fluent Spanish speaker. They needed a Spanish interpreter. I got the job. I had zero experience in law. Turned out, I actually ended up really, really enjoying myself. Loved everything about the law firm, personal injury, helping especially the Latino clients. It was a lot of, it was a great time. Fast forward about seven years later, I'm learning how much money the attorneys are making. And I say, hey, you know what? I think I'll be an attorney. So I go to law school in San Diego. That came to an abrupt end after one year. So I never became an attorney. That's a whole nother story. It's on my blog and stuff. People can find it if they want. But I came back to Las Vegas after going to San Diego for law school. I wasn't going to be a legal assistant for the rest of my life. So I left the law and I'm an entrepreneur at heart. We can talk all about why I'm an entrepreneur. And I left and started my own agency. So for the last decade, I ran a dev and marketing agency here in Las Vegas called Neon Brand. It's still in existence. My partner who I was partners with at the time has full ownership of it. He's running it. He's a great guy. So back in 2021, I get a text from my old attorney boss that I used to work for, Dean Tingey. And he says, hey, we've actually been building some cool tech and we want you to come take it to market. I said, man, I got this agency thing going on. I don't think I'm ready for that kind of a jump. But we started talking. And after a few conversations, we realized there's a really good potential. All the knowledge I had from law firm days, combined with all the knowledge I had from tech dev marketing days, combined with what they had already started with technology in the law firm, it was kind of a perfect storm. So in January of this year, we formally, I left my great job, my great startup of Neon Brand, and we started Record. We didn't call it Record at that time. It was actually called MaxLaw. And how am I doing? Am I telling too much? That's good details? No, this is good. This is good. So what happens at that point is we had an idea. We went to a thing called Startup Ignition, the boot camp, three-day boot camp out of Utah. And we learned a bunch of great stuff. One of the things we learned was all about product validation. And so after that, I came home and we had our idea. And my goal was to get 20 interviews with personal injury attorneys and tell them about what we're doing and see if it's something they wanted. And I started doing the interviews. And guess what? Nobody wanted our idea. It was painful. So we went back to the drawing board. And we said, you know what, we still think we can do something in legal tech, like we still think we can do something for personal injury. So we had a couple other ideas. So every time, so we went through this process of pivoting, right? And this is a famous thing for a lot of startups is we had our first idea, didn't work, pivoted to a second idea. I went out and did more interviews. They didn't like it. I came up with another idea, pivoted, you know, another idea. We did it six times until finally, and it took about six months to go through that process. I ended up doing about 50 interviews with attorneys. Finally, our last idea. And the idea came from doing the interviews. So like I'm reading my notes, like, man, you know, like my fifth idea or sixth idea is just like not working again. I'm like, freak, what am I going to do? Right. And I read my notes. And one of my interviews, the guy said, you know what, let me tell you about my favorite client. All right. So he tells me about his favorite client. I'm reading my notes about this. And as I'm reading, I'm thinking, man, I think I could use technology to make every client a great client. And so that kind of became our tagline. That kind of became our effort. So now that's what we're doing. We're building software to make every personal injury client a great client. But I wouldn't have gotten there had I not gone through that crazy process of pivoting and validation and problem hunting, all this stuff, which just was gold. I would have built something that nobody wanted if I hadn't done that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's very valuable information in our industry. We call that test and measure. You know, we have tests, we got to see what works and we got to measure it. Is this calling to attract the type of, you know, client that we're looking for? And with you pivoting, right, and trying to figure out, okay, let me go back to the drawing board. Let me present this. Let me go do a few more interviews and see if this works. And you finally figured it out. Like, hey, we're on to something. Yeah. Yeah. And there's like, there's a couple different angles that that comes together. One of our ideas, just to give more context to the pivoting process and why it was so important. One of our ideas was actually using big data. So like just tons and tons of case data to predict settlement values, which sounds crazy, but it's actually really doable. And I could, I mean, like to a lay person, that sounds really cool. Like, oh man, I could actually know with a little bit of data, I could know what a case is worth. Insurance companies have been doing that for decades, actually. So they're the bad guys on the personal injury side of things. They've been doing that for decades, predicting values of cases based on data. So I went out, I had this cool tool. I was going to show everybody how to do it. And it worked. It was, it worked and it would have only gotten better. So I could build the thing I knew I was selling, but I go and tell attorneys about this. And the response across the board was, yeah, I don't like it. Like what? You don't like it? Well, it turned out they were, like, that was what they were for. Like from a, from a sales perspective, it might have done the thing I was selling, you know, like it may have actually worked, but they were going to buy it because it was, it was their job. Like I was taking away their job, you know? So I had to pivot off that idea too. So there's a lot to that test and measure, you know, you have to test, not only does it work, how does it work? And then will people actually pay for it? That was where we were at. Yeah, that's good. So I appreciate all that insight. Cause I think that's going to give a lot of the viewers really, really good, valuable information. And, you know, on the business spotlight, we want to make this educational. We want it to inspire people who are thinking about entrepreneurship. So that being said, what's been one of the biggest learning curves, you know, since you started this business journey? Yeah, man, there's been so many, a lot of it has to do with the interviewing process. You know, when, when we think about entrepreneurship, lots of times we think ideas are, ideas are the most valuable thing, you know, as a non, as a non-experienced entrepreneur, I'm like, man, okay, I got this cool idea. I can make a bajillion dollars off of this. I'm going to go build it. And that process, that old archaic business model process doesn't work like it may have before, if it ever worked at all. Now we have to, so that model was have an idea, build a product, show it to customers. So we had this three steps. We have an idea, build a product, show it to customers. There's flaws with that system, right? Obviously I have an idea. I build and spend all my time and effort. I mean, people spend insane amount of money building on an idea only to later show it to their customer. And the customer say, nah, this isn't, I don't want to buy it, man. And then they're up a crit. So the better model is it's more like a lean startup model is kind of the words is to take that client part. You have an idea, don't put it at the end, put it here, you know, like on a napkin, draw it out and then show it to your clients, you know, on an Excel spreadsheet, do a quick demo of what it might work like, or, you know, figure out a way to build the super crappy prototype and just see if they want it. If they don't want it, then don't go on to the next step until you find that thing that they want. That process, that alone, man, saved me so much time and money, so much time and money. So that was, that was definitely the biggest learning curve for sure. I'll never do it differently. Now people come to me. It's like a curse because people come knowing that and having that framework in your mind is like a curse because people come and they're like, dude, I had this cool idea and I spent a ton, a ton of time on it. And I'm like, have you shown it to anybody? Like do your customers actually want that? They're like, oh no, I got to finish a few more things and then I'll sell it and then I'll show it to them. Like, ah, stop wasting money. Just like act like it works. Fake it, you know, use a prototyping tool, use Spigma or something, like come up with something to just see if they even want it before you can spend all that time and money. So that was, that was the biggest learning curve for sure. Yeah. And that, and that's a good lesson, right? Cause some people, when they come up with a really great idea, they spend a lot of resources trying to perfect it instead of just testing it and taking it to market and saying, is this what they want? Right. Is this what the consumer wants? Is this what they need? And for you to figure that out and say, Hey, let's, let's just go try and see what they say and run these interviews and we can adjust as time goes by. As I look back over my career, when I started Neon Brand, I wish I would have done that. I went in with a traditional model, right? Like there's lots of agencies out in the world and it's a cookie cutter type of system, you know, like offer services, people buy it, you know? But looking back, I wish I would have done more testing. I didn't test that model at all. I think there's probably better agency models that work over the standard model that should you go out and interview some business owners that have had experiences with agencies, which all of them have. Yeah. You could probably learn some really cool stuff and come up with a unique way to offer marketing and development services to businesses. I wish I would have done that. So yeah, it was, it's super valuable thing to learn. Yeah. So we appreciate that insight. Cause that's a lot of what we, um, not like preaching to the choir, but a lot of the coaching that we do with our clients is have you tested, have you measured, you know, what, what other things have you tried? Have you done market research to see what other successful people are doing and what, what, what are you doing? Do you even have it on paper? Right. Uh, and even if it is writing it on the back of a napkin, you just, sometimes you got to do that. Um, yep. That leads to my next question with who is the most influential person in your life and how have they impacted you? Well, there's a lot of people for sure. I've had a lot of cool acquaintances and, and, you know, mentors in my life, but you know, not to be cliche, but definitely my dad is at the top of that list. So I remember, so I'm a marketer business guy at heart. And when I was a little kid, I remember my dad, we would drive here in Vegas. I'm born and raised Vegas. My dad's actually born and raised Vegas too. So we're actually long time natives. And I remember driving off Eastern and flamingo and there was like a Kmart, an old Kmart that was empty. And it was, you know, this big, huge open commercial space. And as we drive by, I mean, I'm probably like three or four, you know, like as young as you can remember in my mind and, uh, having a conversation with my dad about how cool it would be to put some kind of family entertainment spot in there. Like how cool would that be? We could put go-karts in there or, you know, basketball courts, how fun, you know, a family place to go be. And never would have thought that 25 years later, he actually ended up being the, the, what turned out to be the second person to create trampoline, indoor trampoline parks. So the flipping out, flipping out fun center here in Las Vegas was, uh, created by my dad. So it was, uh, he's always been, even though he hasn't always been an entrepreneur, that was his first entrepreneurial. Well, no, that's not true. He had an estimation business back in the day too. He's kind of dabbled in and out over our lifetime, but, um, yeah, he's definitely, definitely my mentor. And another, another way he's mentored me is my dad is super personable. He loves people. And for me and all my experience in business, sometimes we forget that even if we're a B2B company, a business to business company, there's still a C at the end of that B, you know, there's still people at the end of that business. So it's, it's still, even if you're selling B2B and currently I'm a B2B because I sell the law firms or law, I will sell the law firms once we get, uh, once we're ready, we're still selling to people. So my dad was a great mentor and just saying, you know, love people, engage with people, offer them help, be involved with them and they'll return that to you. So my dad. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good, uh, I think we all have that mentor in our lives. Right. And most of us have more than just one. Um, and, and to echo what you said is we are in the people business, no matter what it is, it, there, there will always be a consumer at the end of that, even if it is B2B. Um, but it does break down to like, if you're personable and people like you, they trust you, that's when they do business with you. And, and that's what it is. 100%. So your network is your net worth, right? Like that's what we talk about, man. It's people all day. Yeah. 100%. Um, that leads to my next question, Kenny, what, what advice would you give 20 year old Kenny getting into business? What advice would I give Kenny? Have you ever read the book? Um, what I wish I knew when I was 20 it's by Tina Selig. I think it's actually a phenomenal book. If you're into business at all, that book has some really cool insights. What I wish I knew when I was 20 by Tina Selig, S-E-L-I-G, I think. Um, but if I were talking to young Kenny, 20 years old, what would I tell him? Um, it would probably be to, uh, start building that network as quick as possible because every one of my business ideas over the years, the ones that have done well have been because I've known people in the industry, or I've been able to connect with the right person that makes the right introduction to make it to where that business can succeed. I mean, really, it's so much about that network. Um, so young Kenny should definitely take that on. The other thing young Kenny should probably, uh, should probably do is, uh, focus more on learning about technology. I I'm a techie from heart, but like at a young age, I was pretty technologically involved. I wish I would have done my schooling in technology. I probably would have been way further ahead. I got my degree in Spanish. So like that just tells you that was not technology. Um, but you know, knowing that tech and being in business, it's sometimes hard for people, but, um, I had a, I have an example of why technology, so in my mind, technology could make you superhuman. Um, and so like things like calendars and reminders and those things that I fell at myself, technology offsets, it makes me superhuman, right? Better than I could be by myself. And so one of my old bosses actually at the law firm, a different boss at the law firm. One time he had me come in and he said, Hey Kenny, I need your help. Come change the setting on my computer. And I go in there. He's like, I need my mouse to go from a double click to a single click. Like, Oh man. Okay. So I figured out the setting. I changed the setting. And he jokingly, kind of jokingly says, Oh, thank you. You just shaved milliseconds off of my life. And like, I've never forgotten that, right? Like technology, like that's so silly, but technology used over time, it does start to add up. You know, I saved him half a second because he only had to click once instead of twice, but technology in general, all technology should make us better and faster and stronger. And so, um, I probably would tell young Kenny to embrace technology quicker and make it a bigger part of everything I was doing. So. Yeah, that's a, that's really good advice. Cause the way things are going now with tech and technology, it's, uh, it's definitely shaved off a lot of time and saving people time. And that's what most business owners want back, right? They want, they want their time back. That's why they got into business, but it's learning how to leverage those things to make us more efficient. Uh, now, you know, as, as, as we're getting out of COVID and for you personally, along this entrepreneurship journey, what have you personally learned about yourself, Kenny? Yeah. So the whole reason I started this business is because of COVID, um, our agency, you can imagine an agency going through COVID. It was actually this really weird rollercoaster because even though clients initially dropped off, they all came back pretty quick because of the government dumped all that money into businesses. And so now all of a sudden people have all this time on their hands with money, but no clients. So they all turned and went to marketing and went to building a new website and trying to attract customers. Um, but through that, um, at least for me, and this is maybe a little different for everybody, but for me, we, we like all of our employees, but then we brought back some and they were all remote. And so at, in the, in 2021, I find myself not being able to, um, interact with anybody. I'm by myself in an office. Right. And that kind of drove me to say, you know, do I want to do this forever? Do I want to sit alone in an office for the rest of my life? And it's like, eh, so that kind of pushed me to go and find a way to engage with humans again. Right. Like I wanted to be around people. And so for me in this world of remote everything, which is cool that we have the ability, like this phone call right now, right. Um, I still think there's a huge human component to, to, to doing work, to being an entrepreneur. Like you've got to look people in the face. You've got to be able to have that conversation face to face, especially as an entrepreneur, uh, that, that lets people connect and trust and do all those things. So I look for opportunities. I try to attend as many meetings that are reasonably possible, uh, where my potential customers and clients might be, you know, to network and be around them, not to ask for anything. I'm never a big pusher on asks. I'm more of a, I'm more of a karma guy where I get out what I put in. So I focus on putting in as much as I can up front. And then the ROI comes back tenfold in other ways that I would never imagine. So, you know, trying to be around people, that's been my big change probably. And trying to connect on a personal level with people. Yeah. That's, uh, the, the, the human aspect of connecting with people I think is, is massive, right. Is like with us, right. Me personally, when I'm, when I'm out in networking events and people know that I'm a business coach and I always tell them, look, I'm not looking to win your business, but you're going to run across somebody who wants to learn, grow, and is willing to do the work to take their business to the next level. And those are the people that we want to connect with, right. Not necessarily you. And you never know. Sometimes they, they might be needing it, but I'm not going to force my agenda on them. It's just to build that relationship, get to know them. Hey, how can I help you? What is it that you're looking for? A hundred percent. So when I was working at the agency and running that business, it was like my, my, especially if you're B2B, it's really hard to connect with businesses. Right. But my thought always was like, we would run marketing campaigns and they would just be to the general public, like not necessarily people that needed my services, but it was for that exact reason. It was, I want you, whoever you are at the end of this ad that sees my ad and says, Oh, Kenny, I know Kenny, Kenny does marketing. And then as long as it comes up in conversation, when they're with their buddy, who's a business owner, that says, man, I need to do a website. They go ding, ding, ding. I know Kenny, call him up. He's a website guy. That was my, and still that's the same thing I think of now. It's like, I don't want to be the, I don't want to be pushing my sales onto everybody all the time, but I do want to be the guy you think of when you need what would now be personal injury help. So. Correct. Yeah. So as we're wrapping up our business spotlight, you know, what are some exclusive offers that you're currently offering and what's the best way for people to connect with you? Yeah, for sure. So we're actually pre-product right now. So we are building our app. We should have it in the market soon. The things I'm looking for right now is just, I'm trying to just, again, network, but I just want to show people I'm not selling it. So I have a prototype and I'm doing demos. You can get on a calendar to see what the product is at getrecord.com. It's got my calendar on there. Anybody, I'm, I am a hundred percent open to show up to anybody who wants to. So that's what I'm doing right now. We'll begin sales later on. But yeah, that's where I'm at. Yeah. And what's best way for people to connect with you? Kenny at getrecord.com or through that website or on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, I'm trying to post and be as active as I can on LinkedIn. So Kenny Eliason, E-L-I-A-S-O-N on LinkedIn. Hook up and that'd be great. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm sure this content will definitely help people get in touch. And I recommend watching the demo and seeing what that can do for your business. Now, my final question is going to be an open-ended one with what's one question or something that you wanted to tell the viewers that we did not cover yet? Hmm. What did I want to tell the viewers? Man. So I've had coaches all throughout my life. This is not a pitch for Edgar and his services. We are not, there's no client relationship between Edgar and I right now. But I've had a number of coaches over my life and for all things, right? Like we have so many coaches. We want to be a better athlete. We get a coach. You know, we want to get better in our marriage. We get a marriage counselor, AKA a coach. We want to be better at all these things and how powerful my coaches. I actually have a coach right now that is doing great things for me. Helps me think of things that I hadn't thought of before. Coaches just bring a different perspective. So I guess personally speaking, not just pitching for Edgar, coaching has helped me. And I think that would be a great thing for people to just consider. There's lots of ways to get coaches. You know, you can do it as a service, like with Edgar. There's great coaches on YouTube. There's all kinds of different stuff. So I definitely, I love coaching. I think it's a great thing. I'm a coach myself to, you know, sports and other things. It's a great thing. Yeah. Well, we appreciate you taking the time today, Kenny, and I look forward to connecting with you out there in the networking world. And thank you for everyone for viewing and Kenny, we'll connect here shortly.