 And how are you doing? Gordo the techs are here. And welcome to Hibachi Talk. Do you like my cool new shades? These are awesome, man. It's awesome. I can see you guys. Anyway, this is Hibachi Talk. Glad to have you here. I'm here with a good old buddy. And to the security guy. Hello, everybody. You're looking pretty good, bud. I don't have the shades like you. I'm not quite that cool. As sparkly as ever. Please grab yourself a live-ation, pull up a chair, sit down. We have a groupie in the house. Mr. Maurer, my son. Yeah, right. Anyway, we have a great guest. We have Vincent E. here today. And this guy has been selling since he was like two. He had to sell his way out of a womb. He's been selling forever. And what a great guest to have is someone who's been selling forever and has had more rejection notices than anyone else in your entire life. Right on. Here we go. Life and sales. I got some news for sale. And some bridges right after that. After that, yes. Anyway, so we're going to talk about your life and sales and about the stuff you're doing with your new necktie and all the kinds of things in there. So, we always like to get a little bit of background on our guests and so on. But before, I have to do a rant. I'm really ticked off right now. And now he's going, well, he's never done a rant before. I'm going to rant right now. What? I am. I'm done. I got to say it. Let's have it. I want to hear this rant. Here we go. Here we go. You know, the state of Hawaii decides to go after Donald Trump because of the ban, right? Yeah. Now, we weren't even on his list of getting money. How much money do you think we're going to get from the federal government now that we've put ourselves at the top of his list of his hate list? Yeah. Nothing. Yeah. We don't know how to play. I was wondering about the politics of that particular ploy. Was it just that our case got there first? No, no, no. We rushed. I think we rushed to get there. To make some headlines. Yeah. So make some headlines. Yeah. So the next headlines will be how broke we are without federal support. No, the next headline is we're going to be a sanctuary state. Now, we can't even take care of our own homeless, but now we're going to be a sanctuary state. Now, I don't care what side of the politics are on, but just be practical. Okay, enough. Sometimes I get what you asked for, right? This may be my last show. That was a gentle rant. Yeah, that's maybe my last show. Well, all right. So Vince, tell us where you're from, man. We need the whole thing since he's secured you up from two years of age. That's tough, but I'm a lifelong Hawaii resident. I was born in San Francisco because my parents are there. Three months later, I came to Honolulu, lived here all my life. I grew up in Palo Alto up until the age of 13, went to St. Patrick's School, St. Louis for the ninth grade. Then I went to Kaiser High School because we moved to Hawaii College at the time. So I'm the first graduating class there. I did go to Kupton Island Community College, but I did leave after about a year and a half because I decided I'm the kind of guy that I think be hands-on and get into that world and make a difference, make some money and help people out with sales. And I've been doing sales ever since I was, gosh, I think it was five years old. I entered in school and in St. Patrick's, they were selling carnival tickets, chocolate candies as fundraisers, holy, holy chicken tickets. So what years did you go St. Patrick's? The reason I'm asking is my daughter went St. Patrick's. Okay. Well, I was born in 1956, so probably six... Oh, she'll go for her. Yeah, yeah. She'll be happy to hear that. So what happened was what I used to do was I used to, after school, the teachers used to, they were nuns at the time, they said, go ahead and sell some carnival tickets and chocolate candy tickets. And so I used to go to door-to-door in Palo Alto. And no script or no training or no preparation. I just, he's knocked on doors and I started asking people, do you want to buy carnival scripts? We're having a carnival soon. So trying to strike up a conversation. And I guess you have to build a rapport. And so what I did was I did sell carnival tickets. I really loved it. I don't know what it is and I still love it to this day. The rejection doesn't bother me. But there was a time that it did. But you know, what I did was after school, after I sold the tickets, then I turned the money in. And I really didn't play with the other neighborhood kids. They used to play football. All the time we had a big yard. And I didn't play football because I was more interested in selling stuff. Wow. And then so what happened was when summertime rolled around, there's nothing to sell schools out. So then I started playing football, because I was the extra one. And I was really bad at catching the ball. Practicing football every day, I caught the ball and said, hey, you can catch. So the other guys were saying, so I decided to go into sales. But if I had known pro football has more money, I might have gone to pro football. But I enjoy sales and I'm comfortable with that. You started door to door? I started door to door. Did you get to know your neighbors that way? Because I heard you say something I thought was key there, is he like striking up a conversation? Yeah, getting to know them. Right. Right. And that was that came easy to a lot of people are scared of death. You ever get those guys knock on your door and they're like, Yeah, you want some especially kids, right? Yeah. And so as the years went by, I kind of learned how to handle rejection. There was a time like after when I got out of college, I did work for some odd jobs to carry myself through. Did you sell vacuum cleaners? No, I did not. Okay, my daughter sold vacuum cleaners. Oh, really? It's a Kirby's. How did she like that? She had it down to a science man. Now you sold encyclopedias, right? I sold encyclopedias. How were you in? I was gosh in my late 20s at that time. But before that, I sold solar water heaters. That was my early 20s. Wow. And that rejection was so enormous. Because when I was selling solar water heaters, I never made one sale. And fortunately, the reason why I was fortunate was because that business when they went out of business, and they were crooks that I might have never got your convenience. Anyway, lucky thing I did not but not all solar water heater people are crooks. Yeah, they're just at that time at that time. Just the guys you were working for. Yeah, just the time that was amazing case of solar water heaters in Hawaii. Speaking of that, I have a photo that I guess Zuri bring up. This is someone that may have been selling the wrong product. So, you know, this got you know, we have the same we call you know got one tech job. So this guy got no one tech job, but he had a job in sales and look at look at the look at that photo. Chaden's account. There you go. You need a little bit of that in sales. This is your life in sales. I tell you that that solar water heaters were a tough sale. That was a tough way. That was the toughest. What year was that? That was when they first came out. I think it was maybe late 70s. Were there grants and stuff? Were you selling like as a finance deal? I don't think there was. Well, there must have been a state tax credit. They're paid for it. Oh, you had a model, right? But at that time, it was the first time solar water heaters came up came out. And it was not very popular at the time. And you know, so I went into other things. I went into real estate advertising, real estate sales and real estate sales is a tough one too. I mean, a few of them make it. But I kind of didn't really want to go into real estate because I didn't like the nature of the beast in the sense of if you have a real estate, sometimes you have to collect rent and do repairs that I didn't like. So I when I for my own personal investments, I go into the stock market rather than real estate investments. I also went into I finally went into Oh, I've sold yellow pages at one time too. Oh, remember that. But then I finally got what was the new book I the new guy. She was David. What's his name? David something he went to was he went to he wasn't yellow pages. Then he started Island Island Booker with different pages. And they put the other guys out of business. There's a Brian and a Tom they work for Hawaiian telecom yellow pages. And they asked me to go into sales. And I did go into Yeah, so you imagine what the industry how technology has changed the industry, right? I mean, we still get phone books dropped off at our properties. But I never pick one up. Oh, does anybody use it? I don't know. Does anyone use the phone book with the change you got out of that one time, brother. Yeah, that was the number one phone book salesman in the state of Hawaii. Yeah, so you were so what year was that? The yellow page is that was before the internet became really popular. Gosh, I can't even remember. But it was probably the 80s. I think it was I know the guys were Tom and Brian, you would sell the highlighted spot. And then we sold ads in the other pages. Yeah. So it was a by phone or did you go home? I went door to door at that time. I went door to door for a long time. Like that, huh? Yeah, well, actually, I was younger than and I could take the sun. Now I do a different approach in the sense that I do a lot of cold calling now. Okay. And when I do a cold calling, I'll say, Hi, Andrew, my name is Vincent, are you interested in and I'm with the security camera business XYZ. And have you thought of changing your security cameras or doing any changes to it? And you might say something? Well, I don't have the money. I don't have the budget. My things are fine already. I have already have a vendor that does it. And then I would and I try to be kind of relaxed. And I then I mentioned something I've got to try and be polite as well. I also say, Well, Andrew, you know, if you ever need a second opinion, or would like to shop around and and compare prices with and products with different vendors, let us know. And is my phone number in your caller ID? Yeah, and if you're and here's my phone number is not on my caller ID. Guess what? I don't answer. So well, so here's the thing is, I got 4000 people in my caller ID. And I look at it and go like, I don't know this phone number. And I ain't going to answer. So that's something you specifically asked them. Could you ask to be on their caller ID? Yeah, I said, Well, if my number is on your caller ID, can you write it down? If not, I can give you the phone number. And if you can write my name down as well. So yeah, yeah, because I like it that way because if I give them the phone number, they might get it wrong. But if they see on the caller ID, it kind of confirms it reconfirms them that Oh, it's there, I can write it down if I lose it or get a wrong number. So anyway, I asked them if they would like the phone number, my name, my name's Vincent, my email's Vincent at new nectar.com. And so okay, that's fine. And they said, Oh, by the way, I try and cross sell at the same time. I also work with web designers, computer repair guys. And if you have any questions in that area, let me know. And my accountant is in coca, if you need any help with any taxes, her name is Wow, he's like a one stop shop man, when he knocks on your door, you're going to get all these guys. Vincent, Vincent, you're like the Costco. You're like Costco. Sometimes you can't get all of that in there. You're like the Excuse me. No offense taken, please. The Chinese Costco. Well, sometimes you can't get all that information. I'll cut you off short and says, Okay, okay, and they hang up. And then I call, you know, I also ask, if they do that, I said, Well, can I send you an email on our services? They say, Yeah, sure. Okay, then I send them an email. And then the next day I follow up, I said, Did you get the email? They say, Yes, I did. Okay, good. I said, If you have any questions, let me know. And by the way, and what I forgot to mention in my last conversation is my accountant is Felice Wallace, she lives in coca, she works in coca, and she does very good work. So if you ever have questions on any bookkeeping payroll taxes, let me know. And I'll put you in touch with her. So that's the area. That's what you do when they cut you short. Because you might say, Okay, that's it. I'm just taking your name and number. I can't. And I got to go. I got something to do. I mean, so I can I send you an email. So that sounds very sounds like me and things like this. So but so of all the things that you've been selling said you giving some good advice on how to spread and keep that keep the potential, the methods, the method to keep the client engaged. So what's the besides the water heaters? What's the toughest thing you've ever had to sell? accounting is very tough. Okay, people are comfortable with their you have to have extra rapport. The report you build with other areas like technology is okay. But with accounting, you have to have a very super good report. They have to trust you they're trusting you with numbers. They're tax trusting you with your tax situation. If you get if they run into any problems with the IRS, or state tax office, you're on the hook to and they're going to say, Why, why did I ever go up with this guy who refer me to this account? And then I'm stuck with all of these numbers. And not only that, you know, people don't always file their taxes on time, or not calculate and they don't file good not. Yeah. So when that happens, that doesn't happen. That does happen. So when that happens, you really need a buddy, someone super trustworthy in the accounting field. And accounting takes time to build a rapport. Speaking of accounting, should we pay some bills? Yeah, that's a good segue. This is a great segue. So we're going to go, we're going to go pay some bills and promote some of the great shows that are on any budget talk. Score to the tech czar and the security guy. Vincent E. He can sell snowballs to the Eskimos. Anyway, we'll be back in about a minute. Hi, I'm Cheryl Crozier Garcia. I'm the host of Working Together on Think Tech Hawaii. It's a program where we discuss the impact of change on workers, employers, and the economy. So join us every other Tuesday from four o'clock to 430. We're live in the studio on Working Together in Think Tech Hawaii. Take care. See you soon. Bye. Aloha. My name is Joe Kent. And I'm the vice president of research at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. The Grassroot Institute is a public policy think tank and we try to build a better economy in Hawaii. And you can see us on the TV show Ehana Kako on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcasting Network every Monday at two o'clock. We'll see you there. And let's build a better Hawaii together. Aloha. Hey, welcome back to Batchi Talk, everybody. Andrew, the security guy here. I wanted to give you a quick update on the Dehua hack. I know we talked a little bit about this massive DDoS problem that occurred recently on the internet. Dehua had about I think 60 or 80,000 of these devices that were hacked that were part of that DDoS attack. So they really took a beating. They have come out with a firmware update. So if you took those devices offline, there's a list available right now online where you can go and you can find it if your device was one of those types, you can go ahead and get new firmware and get that firmware update and get those devices back online. Presumably they're safe now you may just want to change those devices completely. That's up to you. I just thought it was important that you know that there's some fixes out there that are available. So go check those out. We picked Angus up off the beach, but he was wearing a hat and it didn't look like a beach hat. Angus, what's going on with that, buddy? How you doing, Andrew? Good to see you, man. Welcome back. Hey, McGee, how are you doing there, lad? It's a pleasure to meet you, young man. It's a famous day for you, you know, St. Patrick's Day. That's right. It's St. Patrick's School too. St. Patrick's Day, St. Patrick's School is awesome. It's the really, I got my St. Patrick's hat on because we used to fight the Scots. That matches your kill. It matches my kill. Every time someone sees it, I like the hat because it looks like you got a wee bit horny. So there goes the Oloho Show. Gone for that one. Anyway. Hey, thank you for my nice day. Welcome. Wow, it's like a whole new world. Terrific. So, you know, I got a wee bit of a, Gordon has tried to upstage me on the ranch, but I got a wee bit of a ranch. You got a ranch as well? Because I go to university and I play it all the time. So just the day that I was at the baseball game, and I took a wee bit of a few photos of what's going on over there. Come on, David Lassner, get your act together here, lad. Look at this. This is the man's room. Broken since when? There's a towel dispenser. Then broken since whenever. And oh, the fire system doesn't even make me feel very safe. Oh, that's at the baseball field. This is at the baseball field, the parking lot and the restrooms. Wow. Come on, guys. Where's all my tax better money going? We need that maintenance. Where's your tuition money going? Thank you, Mr. Maybe you're David to come on and talk about that. Maybe you should sell hats. Maybe hats. I had a jet. I had a gesture. Anyway, this is Angus McTank telling everybody, you know, Abbey St. Patrick's Day, be safe out there. And remember, let your wing game free wherever you be. Aloha. Aloha, Angus. Right on. So, hey, get on down and support UH Athletics. I know baseball team's doing pretty well. I think they got some hitters this year. I guess you don't want to use the facilities or maybe use them at your own risk, apparently. There's some maintenance issues down there. If Angus is bugged about, it's probably grim. And by the way, they are doing very well, except they lost the last two games. Yeah, that's all right. They got some hitters. So, we're back. We're talking about the life, life in sales, a life lived in sales. Yeah. So, so, so I'm just, I'm going to get back to this because you've got into this. You gave up KCC kind of rocked out of junior college. I want to go make some money. You already had been talking to people since your grade school years, basically going door-to-door. Then you took that into co-call sales. And what do you think was in that progression for you? I mean, what do you think was the driver? Was it was it meeting people? Was it your success? It was a satisfaction of people buying a product or service and they're happy with it. Sales has been in my family for a while because my grandfather was a door-to-door shoe salesman. He made a lot of money. Wow. Okay. And so, he had this big house in Palo Alto Avenue and I thought if my grandfather could sell a shoe to a door-to-door. What kind of shoe you would sell in Hawaii? Slippers. He's door-to-door slippers. But you know, he's awesome. Did he make them? No, he imported them. They were women's shoes. Oh, okay. And this was like, I think, in the 1940s. The 30s, 40s and 40s. Yeah. And a lot of people were going barefoot, but he managed to find people that could buy shoes. That's tough. And he sold it on credit, too. So, he trusted the people. You know, he had a person, eye-to-eye contact. He trusted them. The customers paid on credit. And he was, from what I heard from my dad and his siblings, he was very good at assessing people whether they're going to be paying home on credit or not. And they did pay on credit. He made a ton of, he made a lot of money, so my father grew up in a pretty much well-to-do neighborhood at that time. Palola Valley. But well, not Palola Avenue. Right behind McDonald's. So, at that time. Close to, not Hawley-Kai, which was on the other side. Was he built yet? No, it was on Waili and Palola, right behind McDonald's. Oh, wow. So, what happened was, he sold shoes and his four children helped them out, especially the two older ones. They kind of learned the business. My father was a third, so my dad didn't go to sales. So, my auntie, Lucy, sold real estate. She did very well. And her daughter, Kitty, had some retail store doing very well as well. And I thought, gosh, I think I could do sales too. It started with my grandfather. So, in the blood? That image got projected on me. I mean, I didn't actually see him sell the shoes, but I heard stories about it. And at a young age, he kind of made an imprint. So, I thought, if he can do sales, then I can do sales as well. Nice pun. Selling shoes didn't make an imprint. So, question for you. I so, what advice would you give to people? You've been in the business a long time. People that want to get into sales. What kind of guiding advice would you want to give them to, you know, be able to handle the rejection, but at the same time to be successful in sales? Okay. I think one of the most important part is listening to what the customer has to say. Even though you know your product's really good, listen to what they have to say. Strike up a conversation, build a rapport, have them get to trust you. And then, once you can do that, then you can ask them, tell me about your situation, and if there's a way I can help you with this or that. And they may not be ready at the time, but you keep in touch with them over the years. You can call them, email them, or text them. And then, you can also, you know, take them out to coffee. Like, I, like, there was one customer, he thought he was going to sell me his product. I thought I was going to sell him his product, you know. So, what happened was, I said, let's go to coffee. So, we went to coffee thinking he was going to help me sell his stuff to me. So, I said, okay. And I knew I wanted to sell something to him, but I just let the conversation flow. Let him say what he wanted to say. And he told me about his product of services. And I said, well, great. You know, I'm going to keep this in mind in case I find any prospective clients. I'd like to refer them over to you. And by the way, I'm in the areas of web design, computer repair, and accounting services. So, if you know of anyone else, let me know. And he said, fine. It was a pleasant conversation. We went on a merry way. I do keep in touch with him now and then. But no one bought anything? Nobody bought, but you never know. They may have someone later on down the line. Who goes around. They may have a friend or family that could use a service or product. And so, what happens now is when I cold call people, I do like to ask them for coffee because it's such a relaxing atmosphere. But if they don't want to do that, then I mean it's their office as well. And when I do talk to them now, I've learned a lesson that I ask them, you know, if we, if I could meet you in person, just so that in case we can offer and help you with your business. And if you're interested in our business in the future. And I mentioned first that your business first because they're important. So, I want them to know that I'm there to help them promote their business or service. So, your advice is like, build that relationship with the potential client. Expect that it won't happen immediately. That it will happen. Well, you only have been over time. Yeah. But in Hawaii though. I was going to say, I think, I think there's a little more. I'm starting to rip you off. No, you're not. Today we're, today, today we're, we're, when we focus on that, we really actually have to understand how our, what we're bringing to that business helps their, helps their business. From a, from a, the financial perspective, right. So, securities always had that problem. Securities, I say it was like by insurance, this extra cost. So, today we've been challenged to bring like analytic data that actually informs the business and makes the business smarter, makes the business money. If we can't make the business money with the solution we're bringing in the door, we might have a hard, hard time closing that sale, for sure. Yeah. And that's definitely the enterprise perspective. And it's trickling that's becoming more and more important to small and medium sized business as well. No, I totally agree with you. I mean, the challenge we have is, you know, when I, when I'm out there and you're always, you're always selling. But the thing is, what's the economic value to what I am purchasing or acquiring from you what is that economic value? And if they can't see an economic value, that kind of takes a chunk away. Then you've got the risk part that takes a piece away, but they're not going to buy it because it feels good. I don't see that happening that much anymore. Yeah, I don't, that discretionary, discretionary field and incomes not really available anymore. Yeah, you have to go, you have to go for all the benefits for them, save for accounting. You know, we want to save on your taxes, get you some tax shelters, tax credits and things like that. So, that's the benefit for you. Straighten out your books and, you know, you'll have more peace of mind, that kind of thing. That's the benefit you're selling. With technology, you want to make your life easier with computer programming and stuff like that. We want to have computer repair, we want to make sure you have a maintenance program so you get 24-hour service from us in case there's an emergency, things like that. And what I have found is with co-calling, I do a phone call because to me a phone call is more effective and impactful than an email. And an in-person contact is more important than a phone call. And I found that out through YouTube videos on sales. So, what I do is I like to ask people if I could give them my business card, say hello to the new person. In case you have any questions, you know who I am. They can size me up and I can size them up. So, are you using social media? Like, are you on LinkedIn? I'm on Facebook. Any of those things, right? I'll public check you out ahead of time. Yes, yes I am. I'm on LinkedIn. In fact, what I do is because I don't actually do the work of web design or computer repair or accounting, I forward an email of the people that do that work. I put in a LinkedIn profile and I strike the strike with a conversation. Say, for instance, a web designer, I mentioned that I represent a web designer who's in San Diego now and we'd like to offer you a free consultation. I said, well, I already have a vendor and very good. I said, well, if you ever need a second opinion, let us know. Can I send you an email? Just his LinkedIn profile. They say, okay, fine. I said, okay. And this person that I represent, he does so very well in his field. On the subject line, I am going to type La Creme de la Creme. My boss is named Philippe Tassin, Magnum Opus. And if you want to look at what Magnum Opus... Oh, Magnum Opus. It's Opus 1. It's a great wine you can make. It's about $208 a bottle. That's out of my league. So I said, and if you want to look at what Magnum Opus is on the internet, go ahead, because it accurately describes it. And I strike up this kind of conversation because sometimes it's something different, you know, that they don't hear of. Sure. So Vincent, you've got... We're running out of time. So, Vincent, to give us a little bit of your latest endeavor, what you're working on now, the Nectar. Okay. What's that? Nectar. It is web design, web applications, intranet, digital strategies, like if you need e-commerce, scheduling, pricing, and then email marketing as well, and online marketing, like pay-per-click. I also work with technicians from your tech connection, Kokoa PC, Aloha Computer Consulting, and we do computer repair, upgrading hardware, software, virus removal, internet connection, fast... So you're focusing on the local businesses. You're making it sure it stays here and things like that. Well, not necessarily I also work with main and clients in web design. Well, good you're working with main and clients, but if you can keep the work here, that's the key. Yeah, and check out Nectar. They got us all Kailinian there. Nice job on this site. Anyway, so believe it or not, we burn through it all. We quick announcement. Again, I want to remind everybody that the April Foolish Party is coming up on... Make a Wish. April the 7th. Make a Wish. We raise about $50,000 for Make a Wish. So please, if you go online to search it on Google with Bing or search it on Bing with Google, whatever, and then you'll be there. And it's not... I've got tickets. So anyway, no guest goes unrewarded. Here's your Autograph Solo Cup number 110 in the series. Don't sell it to anybody. I won't. It's not worth anything yet. And as we say at the end of every show, one, two, three, hey, how you doing?