Episode 031 – Naresh Vissa

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Richard Matthews
Hello and welcome back to the HERO Show. My name is Richard Matthews.

I am on the line with the Naresh Vissa. Are you there?

Naresh Vissa
I’m here pleasure to be on.

Richard Matthews
Awesome glad to have you here. I just want to introduce you for the folks

Who’ve never heard of you before. So Naresh is the founder and CEO

Of Krish Media and Marketing, which is a full service online digital media marketing

Consultancy and agency. You’ve worked with some really big names

CNN Radio, JP Morgan Chase, EverBank, The Institute for Energy Research,

The Houston Rockets, The Houston Astros, The American Junior Golf Association,

Agora Financial, Agora Publishing, Stansbury research and TradeStops.

I’ve literally heard of everyone on that list. So that is awesome.

Naresh Vissa
You’re probably one of the few people I know who’s heard of every single one of those.

Richard Matthews
I actually subscribed to the Stansberry Research and TradeStops stuff.

Naresh Vissa
Oh, wow

Richard Matthews
And The Agora Publishing stuff, which I know those are sort of,

Off the beaten path for some people.

Naresh Vissa
Well, that’s how I started my career.

I started my career my at least my online and digital career at Stansbury.

It was my first full time when I graduate school. And really, I have that industry.

And those folks to thank for everything else that’s happened in my career after that.

Richard Matthews
That’s awesome. And you got a couple of books too.

So the Fifty Shades of Marketing: Whip Your Business Into Shape

And Dominate Your Competition, Podcastnomics: The Book of Podcasting

To Making You Millions, The New PR: 21st Century Public Relations and Strategies,

The Trumpbook: How Digital Liberal Silenced a Nation into Making America Hate Again,

And a new book, From Nobody to Best Selling Author: How to Write, Publish,

And Market Your Book, which is pretty awesome. And you’ve been featured

All over the place, USA Today, Yahoo, Bloomberg, MSNBC whole bunch of stuff.

So anyways, sounds like you have quite an impressive track record for an entrepreneur.

So to start off the show, tell me a little bit about what you’re known for now.

What is it that people come to you for?

I think the general M.O. is Naresha’s the guy who is on his computer at home,

Naresh Vissa
Just making stuff happen. So everything that you brought up, like all the books,

The businesses, the companies that I either worked for full time, or worked with,

After I started my first business, it’s really been heavy technology-oriented

And the ability to create value, just by sitting in front of the computer

And making things happen. We live in a really, really incredible time.

An incredible world, this was not the case, when I was a kid in the 90s.

So much has happened, and so much is going to happen moving forward.

So that’s kind of to sum up who I am. And just a very quick kind of snippet.

Richard Matthews
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s crazy, because like, the stuff that’s happened

In the last 10 years, I do the same kind of stuff. We work on work online.

And because of that, I travel full time, like I was telling you before we got on the show,

I’m here in a friend’s vineyard. And that’s where we’re staying for the week.

And so we travel full time, I travel full time for a couple of years now.

And it’s all over the world. And you can make it happen with an internet connection

And a laptop. And I’ve been experimenting a little bit with making it happen

With just an internet connection and a tablet, which is not quite there yet. But –

Well, this is something that I started doing, actually about 11 years ago.

Naresh Vissa
2008 is when I first got started, I was still in school. But I first got started

With working in front of a computer from wherever I wanted to. And it’s actually

Taken back like 2005 that’s when that seed was planted because I was interning

At a marketing company. My first internship was at a marketing company

And now I own a marketing company. But my first internship was at this marketing company,

And I remember screwing up something and I had to basically work from home

And that was my first time realizing like, “Oh, this is what all those people

Who my friends knows probably what they’re doing. And then in 2008 I actually

Got a job working for- not work from home but work from my dorm work from dorm.

So I was working from my dorm room in college. And then now you fast forward to 2019

And like you said you have tablets, You have Alexa there to help us. You have iPads.

To hire more than more than most other things, hiring and getting paid

You have just so much more technology, it’s really improved my ability

Which are two incredibly hard parts of business, of doing this business,

And of conducting business. Now those are incredibly easy. I mean immediate,

You get a PayPal payment or you get a verification or an authorization for an

ACH payment it’s done. Or if you take Crypto you can get immediate funds.

And then in the case of hiring, now you have really the online universe that expands

Globally – the entire world to where you can hire people to do all sorts of hiring.

Richard Matthews
I just started hiring earlier this year for like full time positions. It was not something

I had been doing before and it’s amazing but like just the technology allows us to-

Things like Slack lets us have an online water cooler sort of place where

Everyone who works for me or with me in various capacities can all get on

On a video conference call. And I don’t even know where you’re at.

And be part of a company culture. And it’s insane and things like this sitting here

Where are you actually.

I’m in Tampa, Florida. I moved down here from Baltimore, Maryland,

Naresh Vissa
Which is where I got started. My career like you said earlier, started at

Agora Publishing, Stansbury Research, which are companies

That are based in Baltimore. And then, once I kind of became location independent,

And I felt comfortable with where I was at pursuing my ventures,

I moved down to Tampa Bay lived right on a beach where there was Wi Fi,

And kind of lived a very retired lifestyle while working. And it’s funny because

Some of my classmates from college say that I basically graduated from school,

Ended up going to graduate school, but graduate school also, but basically

Graduated and then retired and I’ve stayed retired ever since because of this life.

And I don’t live on the beach anymore, about I live about a quarter of a mile away

I have moved on to other parts of life. But that’s why I moved down to Tampa.

From from Tampa Bay from the actual bay itself. But I don’t live on the beach anymore.

It was because I was so location independent and just wanted to live that beach life,

Which I did, and which I still do once in a while. And really it’s the modern day technology,

The modern day economy that we live in, that allowed me to do such things.

Richard Matthews
I do the same thing. I remember I was – It was 2009 for me, and I took my first like,

Gig or job or something like that. That was not a regular job job.

Naresh Vissa
Yep.

Richard Matthews
It was my first freelance gig so to speak, and I could do the work from anywhere.

And you’ll probably laugh at. It was like a logo design.

I helped somebody redesign his logo.

And it was how it started. It was 10 years ago. And fast forward and

I lived the whole retired lifestyle too. It’s kind of crazy. You get to do-

I think a lot of people, they strive for the financial freedom and miss the time

And location freedom as how important those can be to having that,

Like the lifestyle that you really want. Like the lifestyle … that so to speak.

Naresh Vissa
Well, what’s the point in it? Why do people want financial freedom?

They want the financial freedom so that they can have that lifestyle,

Freedom and that location freedom. And I think people lose sight of that.

Especially a lot of my friends who I went to school with. My friends who still work

In corporate, they’re on Wall Street, they’re in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is not

What the media makes it out to be or what it was 20 years ago.

It’s becoming incredibly corporate ties and very cutthroat. So people think,

“Oh, Silicon Valley’s is the ideal hub, I want to live that type of lifestyle.”

But it’s really not a free lifestyle by any means. And, so going back to

What financial freedom does, it allows you to be free in most facets of life.

And in my case, I love what I do, I love my work, I’m probably never going to give it up.

I can’t ever see myself retiring, because I just whatever I do in my life, I like doing.

But with that being said, the reason why I do what I do, is because of the lifestyle.

It’s because of, like you said, the location. The ability to just pack up all my stuff

And move down to Tampa Bay and live on a beach for four and a half year

Or four years. That’s the type of lifestyle that I wanted to have.

It was incredibly important to me, the idea of having freedom and control.

It’s just so important. And I think people who are trying to gain financial independence,

They completely lose sight and lose track of that. And when they lose sight of that,

You know, they have all these 10 year plans, 20 year plans. And in reality, I mean,

You said, 10 years ago, that’s when you you started with this lifestyle,

A lot happens in 10 years, a lot happens in five years, a lot happens in even two years.

Richard Matthews
So I have four children I didn’t have 10 years ago.

That’s what I mean. So I mean, now I have a wife who I did not even need

Naresh Vissa
Three years ago. So a lot happens. And so you can’t do it. It’s almost like an excuse

What the corporate say, “You, know, I have this financial plan where

I’m going to become financially free by the time I’m in my mid 40s,

After putting in 20 plus years of service for this company.

And then my 401k is going to look like this. And my retirement is going to look like that.

And the stock market’s going to be here and this and that. And I’m just saying,

“Why on earth would you want to wait?”

“Why would you want to do that for 20 years? 20-25 years when you could start today?”

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. So brings me to the thing I want. What I want to talk about next

Is your origin story. Right? I think every hero has one. It’s where you sort of

Started to realize that you were different that maybe you had superpowers,

And maybe you could use them to help other people. Take us back.

How did this story start for you? How did you get on this entrepreneurial journey

That people miss?

Well, becoming an entrepreneur is not something that happens overnight.

Naresh Vissa
It’s not something that happens in a short period of time, it was a long process.

And my original reason why I wanted to become an entrepreneur.

It had nothing to do with freedom, or with location. And it had more to do with –

When I was a kid. And I would go to my friends houses, the ones who had

Really big houses. They told me their parents owned their own company or

Their father own their own company. Or they told me that their parents

Had some job where they had to travel a lot. And so the company

Paid for most of their stuff. So I always thought, you know, “Okay, what is this,

I guess owning a company is the way to go. And I remember even with my father,

When he kind of went out on his own and started his company,

I remember good things happen to him financially, like there was,

I could see a very clear difference in his lifestyle and our lifestyle.

Before when he was an employee and at a large engineering company.

And after, when he started his own company. And so I always had this idea,

“Okay, well, I guess if you really want to make it, you need to start your own company.”

But I didn’t really know what that meant. I didn’t know what it entailed.

And so I took a – actually in high school, there was a course,

It was the only business course that was given that year.

And it was based on Donald Trump’s Apprentice TV show. So it was about 15,

More than 15 years ago. And, the course was again, modeled after his

Apprentice TV show. And that was my first introduction into business

And entrepreneurship, the tasks for anyone who’s seen the Apprentice,

How it works. It’s a group of people, you’re given certain tasks,

And you have to follow through on their business tasks.

And you have to follow through on those tasks. And so I kind of went through

The course, I learned a lot about business, about leadership, about finance

And financial management, managing people, vision. I mean,

That was my first intro into entrepreneurship. And I actually, I was like,

The first person in that class to get fired, per se, Apprentice style,

Because I was just really bad. And that’s when I realized, like,

“Man, it’s actually where you have to really plan out a lot of stuff and prepare,

And you have to manage money, and it’s pretty hard. And so anyway,

That was my first introduction. And that got me very interested

In reading more about business and then finance. So I read Trump’s

Art of the Deal book, which at the time, didn’t really understand

The applications of it, because I was only probably 15 or 16 years old.

And then, I was also introduced to the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki,

Which also at the time – it’s weird, because when I was reading it,

I tried reading it, rereading it, trying to understand stuff, because I just,

I was never exposed to such terms like anything about taxes, cash flow.

I didn’t know what any of that even revenue I was, I had a general idea

Of what revenue was, but I didn’t fully understand what it was, and so on.

And so after I went to undergrad, got some great hands on experience

On the technical side with technology and other hard skills. And then,

On the business side as well, went to graduate school, worked on Wall Street,

And worked in Baltimore, like I said earlier for a company. Saw how that –

How Stansberry operated. How Agora Publishing operated, as a whole.

And then, went out on my own, started my own business, then reading

Art of the Deal, rereading, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, then it started to –

I started understanding, “Oh, that’s what Kiyosaki meant by those quadrants.

That’s what he meant by passive income and cash flow and all this stuff.”

And then it started coming back to me. Even though, I didn’t reread the books,

I was like, “Wow, those are some pretty revolutionary books.”

And so that’s kind of how I got started. It was really back in high school,

Where I just had the interest, and I tried to learn more. And then,

Once I got to school, and read more about it, learn more about it,

And then actually went out on my own. And also about the experience

On the employment side. That’s when I essentially, it’s like a light bulb went off.

Like a switch went off, and I just ran with it. And six and a half years later,

Khrish Media Marketing is still in business. And it’s helped me fund

The other businesses as well.

Richard Matthews
That’s awesome. And I got a similar story. I was in high school, I was nine.

And my dad put Rich Dad, Poor Dad and my hands. And so, it was one

Of the first business books and it’s funny my son just turned nine.

And I put the book in his hands. And he’s been reading it and reading it,

Like audio book styles, we’ve been listening to it and he listened to it

Like six or seven times now. And it’s funny, like listening to it again,

Coming back to it, you know, what is this? A long time. I want to admit,

Since I was nine, the coming back to these many years later, realizing that,

Like how much I didn’t understand of the book as a child,

But how much my thinking in business and stuff was defined by some of those

Early books I read in business, realized that like a lot of the things

That I hold dear and like the why I do things, the way I do in business

Go right back to some of the first books that I read.

From Rich Dad Poor Dad to like, How I Raised Myself from

Failure to Success in Selling, and a few others. And that’s, it’s a long journey,

But you don’t really fully appreciated when you first started.

Well, I’ll tell you, my business career, especially in my entrepreneurship,

Naresh Vissa
It really, really – Well I got jump started, thanks to some of the books that I read.

And it’s really been able to run and sustain itself, largely because

Of not just books, but we have like I brought up earlier,

We live them in an amazing time where we have podcasts like your show,

And my company helps manage and run 10s of podcasts around the world.

And so podcasts have helped me tremendously. Listening to the right people.

Learning from the right people, audio books, like you said,

I think your son’s listening on Audible, the Rich Dad Poor Dad.

That wasn’t available 30 years ago when the book came out.

But now you can, you know, Amazon Alexa, I can just say her name,

I don’t want to say it because she’s going to respond, but I can say her name

And tell her to play Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and boom! It’s it’s being played.

So we live in a very different time. And, and so the books have really,

Really helped me a lot, there have been, you know, I can name five to 10 of them,

Which affected my mindset. Affected the way I’ve done business,

Conducted business on the negotiating side. I already brought up two of them.

But there are other books on philosophy on like self-help.

Not just hard finance, or hard business or hard marketing, but other books

That have really helped shape, kind of my worldview.

Richard Matthews
And it’s amazing how much of an impact that worldview has on your business

In the long term. And how much, like even the stuff, that you don’t – like it –

When you read a book, a lot of times you like you pull up little nuggets.

And you’re like, I’m going to like apply this and you’re going to use it like right then

In the book is like feeding into your mind. And it like informs a lot of your decisions

And make some changes. Do you realize like that everything you’ve read

And informs your character and who you are and how you build business

And how you do those things. And, when you’re when you make it a habit from

Especially, like we did from an early age and reading those business books.

It like sets up who you are as a business person.

Naresh Vissa
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I’m really thankful. And and again,

I don’t want to confuse the listener and say, “Look, just go out and buy

A bunch of books that I tell you to buy”. And, you know, this is your secret to success.

It’s really, I brought up the idea of worldview. It’s a worldview. That’s just one.

That’s just one ingredient to the recipe. And so there’s books that I’ve helped me.

There are podcasts or audio books, their newsletters, free newsletters,

You said you subscribe to Stansberry stuff, which is paid newsletters.

Those have helped a lot, you know, e-letters, newsletters, you name it.

There’s some videos, YouTube videos, there online seminars, webinars, conferences,

Even physical conferences that I’ve attended that have really –

My book, Fifty Shades of Marketing. It was one of the major marketing conferences,

Ryan Deiss’ Traffic and Conversion Summit. That’s what kind of led me

To really get into marketing and was the inspiration

For my book Fifty Shades of Marketing.

So there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s available to people.

And so there’s no excuse when people are like,” Oh, I don’t know how to get started.”

And that can’t, “I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to do that.

“I don’t know how to -” It’s all available. It’s at your fingertips literally.

Richard Matthews
So, after all this time and being – You said 15 is about when you started

Getting into the entrepreneur mindset. What would you say

You have developed as a superpower, right? What is it that you do or build or offer

That really helped solve problems for people. The things that you use

To slay the world’s villains so to speak?

Well, I think the the biggest superpower, that my company and I have is,

Naresh Vissa
And it’s really not just my company, but me because it’s been applicable

To even, like the nonprofit world, I’m very involved in community.

In the community and getting involved. And so it’s not just for profit and business.

But I think it’s just the general idea of finding solutions online and digitally.

So there are a lot of companies, a lot of people who were scared of technology

Or scared of online and digital. They’re scared to make their website

Or to even have some kind of online presence. And so I think my superpower

Has been “Look, when you need help doing something online or digital,

I have, my company has solution for you” or “I have a solution for you.”

And it’s something as simple as getting a website up to more complex,

Complicated email service provider, laws on, you know, acquiring businesses

For their email names, or mobile app development, or search engine optimization

Or online reputation management to very bad links that someone might have about them.

That’s really my biggest superpower. And I realized that because

When I started my company, we only offered Well, first off, it was just me.

So I only offered probably three or four services. And then when it was my clients

Who encouraged me and said, “Look, I know you can do this X, Y & Z.

You think you can’t do it. But I know you’ll find a way to do it.”

And that’s when- That was kind of the the jolt that I needed. The spark that I needed

To grow my business and hire people. And like I said, to essentially build that

Superpower of finding solutions, at least online and digitally. And look online and digital.

It’s kind of this virtual world. But it’s real life, as well. I mean, I’m really behind

The computer, pushing keys and making things happen. And at the same time,

Not only am I doing that, but I brought up like the nonprofit world,

We’re able to take those principles and those ideas and apply it to the real world, as well.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. And it’s funny, you say, pushing keys and doing things.

I tell people all the time that – they asked me what I do, and I tell them

I push the keyboard and I talked on the phone, and that’s like the work that I do.

I mean, it’s more than that, obviously, but if you asked my kids what I do

They’ll tell you, you know, “What does daddy do?”

“Daddy plays with his computer.” But it’s –

Naresh Vissa
I mean, I know,

Richard Matthews
I know grown adults who say the same thing about me. (laughter)

But it’s real world stuff. I just had this experience, just recently, a few months ago,

One of my clients, we come together a big live event. We had, two or 300 people

In the room and I got to bring my son to the event. And, there’s all these speakers

And there’s, several hundred people in the room. I got to – brought my son to the event.

Sat in the back of the room. And I was like, “This is what daddy does, right?”

“I help people do this kind of stuff.” And and so it was cool to like be able to

Show him some like real world thing. That’s not all, like digital. But yeah, to that point.

It’s digital, the digital world part of the real world. And yeah, I think it’s just fascinating

How much a huge part it’s become for like, for businesses and for entrepreneurs.

Particularly, like, just understanding that digital is not some ethereal out there thing.

It’s like a real part of your business. You have to take a part of or you’re losing business.

And that was the Genesis or not the Genesis, but that was the thesis.

Naresh Vissa
So I said, the genesis of my book, Fifty Shades of Marketing was Ryan Deiss’

Traffic and Conversion Summit. But the thesis of Fifty Shades of Marketing.

My book is exactly what you said, it’s to essentially urge people and

Small businesses and companies in general, to get online and to adapt

To the online and digital marketplace. And so the book helps them to do that.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. So the other side of superpower is your fatal flaw. Right?

So Superman has kryptonite, Batman is not actually super. I, for the longest time

Sruggled with being a perfectionist in my in my business, I’m not getting anything

Accomplished because of it. What would you say has been one of your fatal flaws?

That’s held your business back? And how have you combat it to help overcome that,

For other people who might suffer from something similar?

Well, I think part of a few flaws that I had, which held my business back

Naresh Vissa
And held me back personally, several things. First one is is fear.

And you would sit, you would think, “Oh well, anybody who goes out

And starts their own business, they’re fearless.” Well, there are different degrees of fear.

So you know, it takes a certain degree of fear to just go out and start a business.

But then it takes another degree of fear, to want to go out

And promote the business and grow the business. And so I had

A pretty high degree of fear, when it came to expanding my business,

My business, largely, bigness. It’s not that I didn’t like money. It’s just I was afraid of failing,

I was afraid of what other people would think. I was afraid of just a lot of that.

I mean, we all go through some kind of stage, or we all have our fears.

And so something that I learned was, look you just, especially where I was in my life,

It’s like, “Look, the worst case scenario is you have to go back

and get a full time job, big deal.” If all goes wrong, then just go back,

Get a full time job and go back to the nine to five and steady paycheck.

And what’s so bad about that? People die for such a job like that.

So fear definitely is something that held my my business back. And –

But once I got the confidence to – Once I got the confidence and understood that really,

The growth of my business was somewhat limitless, then things really,

It was really a mindset change. And that changed kind of the trajectory of my business.

So, I would probably say fear was part of my kryptonite. But even now,

I brought up some of the personal stuff. Look, like when you’re a business owner,

You live in your own kind of business owner entrepreneurial world.

And so in my case, the companies that I’m dealing with the people who I’m dealing with,

These are very accomplished, individuals who are essentially like-minded.

They went through similar journeys that I went through. They have similar interests.

They read the same books, listen to the same podcast. And it’s easy to think

That the world is like that. But then you go out into the regular world and

You’re living everyday life and kind of feel like an oddball because the average person,

The average employee, that’s not the life that they’re living in. And like I said,

The people who I’m interacting with are not the middle managers,

The lower managers, these are the CEOs, COOs, directors, senior directors,

Who are doing the same things that I do. And to kind of understand, like,

“Whoa, come back to reality.” It’s, the rest of the world is not like this at all.

And so that’s actually been a kryptonite for me, because it’s affected

Some of the relationships I’ve had. It’s even affected on the business side.

Because look, we work with companies. And when we’re working on big projects,

The people we are talking to doing deals with and planning that’s with

Those people who I mentioned, were like-minded. But then once we get

A lower level coordinator, or I might be working with a lower level coordinator manager.

Into the nitty gritty, someone on my team might be working with

And it becomes very difficult sometimes to work with such people,

Simply because I’m so used to hiring and firing and doing things my way.

And now all of a sudden, I’ve got somebody else coming in who’s inexperienced.

Doesn’t know what they’re doing. And it’s ended up blowing.

I mean, we’ve had projects blow up in our faces, simply because I did not set

The proper expectations. And I did not have the expectations. And did not set

Or may have set unrealistic standards.

Richard Matthews
Because not everyone operates at the same level, I call high achievers.

And the high achiever mentality and those kind of people, they don’t operate

In the same like headspace as normal people. Right? So if you bring your same,

Expectations, and everything, and you run into problems. So you have to learn

How to communicate and other things, and in those spaces.

So yeah, I could definitely see that’d be a problem.

Yep, absolutely.

I’m curious. You said, fear was a big one. And so like, you mentioned, levels of fear,

Which I think is interesting, right? Because it’s a certain level of fear to start a business,

But then another level of fear to go out and actually like, you know,

So a client, which is a different level of like, a different level of thing.

And that’s where like fear of rejection, another thing comes in.

And, speaking to other people, and that kind of thing. How did you

S of overcome that? How did you change that outcome?

Naresh Vissa
Well, I think I don’t, to be honest, I didn’t do anything explicitly.

And I also didn’t, I think a lot have to do with just time and experience.

So just going through those stages of fear and dealing with it. I think that helped a lot.

But at the same time, and when I say explicitly, at the same time,

I did things without even knowing that I think helped me involuntarily.

So for example, just picking up everything and moving down to Florida

Without knowing anybody. And just saying, “Yeah, I want to live this beach lifestyle.”

I mean, your average person is afraid to do such a thing. Because it’s like,

Well, I’m going to be leaving a lot of my friends and family and colleagues.

And I’m not going to know anybody there. And what am I going to do there?

How am I going to build a life? It can be a very kind of scary, fearful thing.

And so doing things like that, which to me –

Richard Matthews
…risk tolerance.

Naresh Vissa
Yeah, doing things like that, which to me, became kind of a part of everyday life.

Doing things like that, I think helped me overcome some of these bigger fears that I have.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. And I know, I call that building the parachute on the way down,

It’s sort of what I figure is my mental picture for the kind of people who,

Like you or myself will make a big decision, and then go and do it.

And then figure out all the details afterwards. Right. And it makes it –

It helps build your risk tolerance for things. So then things like going into

A sales meeting or talking to us that you have a company like –

All the details on something like that in very small by comparison to like –

Naresh Vissa
I mean, they’re almost mundane. I know so many people who are spending days

And weeks preparing for interviews and for exams, and even like a podcast interview.

I’m sure you’ve had guests before, who asked you every question that

You’re going to ask and they rehearse and they prepare, and they do all this stuff.

And, to me, it’s just, Okay, I’ve got this is all my calendar.

So I guess this is something I have to do. But getting in front of people

And speaking and like you said, going and meeting with a CEO

And it just kind of like a part of daily life for us largely because we’ve gotten rid

Of those initial fears. And so I definitely recommend listeners to one very,

Very important part of just entrepreneurship and personal development in general,

Is you need to be put in situations, “A,” I brought up earlier, failure and failing,

But you need to go through failure, but “B” is you need to go through situations

That make you feel uncomfortable, and that force you to do things

That you wouldn’t regularly do in your comfort zone. Because I think –

Richard Matthews
It’s the paying the price, basically. You have to actually –

Some of the things like and I really love that you said, “I didn’t do something explicitly

To help with fear.” It was just, I had to, I just had to do it, right and deal with it

And learn from the process. And it’s a muscle that you built up. And I think all too often

We’re looking for the magic pill we’re going to swallow that’s going to make it –

The fear suddenly go away, or make whatever it is happen or work.

And sometimes you just have to – what my business partner calls,

You have to eat shit. You just have to go through the hard part.

And there’s a hard part of everything. And sometimes you just have to go through

The hard part, and it’ll make you better and stronger person on the other side.

Yes, absolutely. You said it, you said it very well.

So let me tell you a little bit about your common enemy. So common enemy is –

I think of it like this, if you could – Every time you bring in a client,

If you could just – Before they even got started with you just remove one thing

From their life or from their mindset that, you know, holds them back and

Holds you back from being able to provide the highest level of service to them.

What would that thing be that you could you just go in and take out?

Well, I’m probably going to mention two things. One thing is, I guess a fear

Naresh Vissa
Or something that I wanted taken out, up until relatively recently.

And that is when I got started with my company, I was in my mid 20s.

And I had this fear about my age, and that people wouldn’t take seriously

Because I was essentially a kid. And now I see 23 year olds, 24 year olds today,

And I see what they’re doing. And I look at them as kids as well.

And I used to be one of them. And so getting over that hurdle.

It was an insecurity that I had. And so the easy solution was,

“Oh, well just don’t talk about my age” or just lie about it, somebody brings it up.

So that was something where early on, I had to basically, I also I had a little bit of a beard.

I mean, I did all sorts of things I grew up my hair had his beard, I mean, you name it.

And and the point that I’m making here is it is a real issue. Because when

You’re working with other companies, and let’s say, like we have a client right now,

And they’re pretty, pretty big company, smart, pretty big, small business

With over 150 employees. And I would say at least 80% of of its workforce

Are older than even at my current age, which I’m in my early 30s.

But that at least 80% are older than me. And so when I used to go visit on site clients,

When I would visit on site, and I work with employees and

Other people who worked in-house, it doesn’t matter how old I say I am.

It’s just I looked pretty young. And it’s human nature. It’s probably

Going back to the whole kryptonite thing. One of my biggest issues was

Working with other people, surprisingly, I mean, I work with hundreds of people

We employ, at least, I think we’re up to 13, now, across my different businesses.

So I work with people, but working in a capacity to where my company

Has the power to essentially lay off a bunch of people or get rid of

Certain workforces within companies. It’s a pretty big power to have.

But it’s also a kryptonite because people didn’t like me. Because I was

That young guy who was essentially telling them what to do

When they had the 10, 15, 20 years of experience.

Richard Matthews
It’s kinda crazy like, I had an experience just the other day that

I think ties in really well. I was walking with my stepdad, and a young kid walked by,

He was maybe 13. But his dad, and he had on like really cool sunglasses.

Like, really nice sunglasses. And he walked by, and it was really odd to me.

And I pointed out I was like, it’s really weird seeing a kid with sunglasses like that,

Especially that nicest sunglasses. I was like, he hasn’t earned those sunglasses.

And it’s like, that mentality that that? You know, you haven’t you haven’t earned that.

Your ability to be here because you wrote, you know, in this case, he was a 13 year old kid.

There’s no way you could have earned any of it.

But I see that mentality in the way that other businesses treat young folks

Like people who are in their 20s or early 30s. And they’re like, you haven’t earned

Your position here. Regardless of what your background is,

And what kind of results you’ve gotten already. That knee jerk reaction to

“He’s 24. What the hell could you know?” Right?

And so that was a big problem when I was getting started.

Naresh Vissa
Because I felt disc – Eventhough I was not an in-house. Well, when I was

An employee I have felt this discrimination. And then when I went out on my own

Thinking, I get to be my own boss. And I don’t have to deal with this anymore.

And now that was not the case because when you’re dealing with the other people

On the other side of the negotiating table, they still see you as that kid,

Because that’s what they’re looking at. They’re looking at you, your face,

The way you talk your, and that’s it just human nature. No one’s being discriminatory,

Or prejudice or anything. It’s just human nature. I mean, I do it too.

And I’m sure as I continue to get older, I’m going to be the same way

With a lot of these kids. But but that’s one area that really – to answer your question

In the past, I wanted people to look through that. Now, surprisingly,

See the MO of my company, Krish Media and Marketing is –

I’ve changed my pricing strategy through experience. So that

We’re essentially low-cost providers. We were not Ogilvy, or any of these large

Branding agencies that charge huge retainers because they have that brand name.

And in fact, when I got started, that’s kind of the the tack that I was taking.

And it ended up kind of biting me, crushing me in the foot. And so I changed things.

And so now we’re a low cost provider. And my goal is to bring in

As much business as possible, as much clientele as possible. And the way

I’m going to do that is getting my foot through their door.

Getting their feet through my door. Getting them in at a low price

For some kind of low, costs service where my margin is thinner than

It would otherwise be. Because I want long term, long standing clients,

Like I said, over the long haul. And so surprisingly, some people because

I’m not that big agency that charges so much, was actually really surprising.

But charging lower, has been good for business. It’s helped those people

Get their, those companies get their feet through the door. But we got rejected

By a company probably two months ago, because they said,

“Why are you charging such low rates?” Like, I just feel I don’t feel comfortable

Paying so little money, because it’s just, it’s too low compared to all the other quotes

I’ve gotten for this service. And it’s rare that we get clients like that.

But when we do get such types of feedback, I actually kind of take it as a compliment.

But I want all people to just have the open mind and say,

“Look, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to get you through it,

We want you to see our quality and our service and the way that we operate

And the results that we produce, we want you to see all that.

And that’s why we’re charging a low rate up front.” And it’s kind of hard to win

These old school business people who have that corporate background.

It’s hard for them to see things that way because in Silicon Valley, and in Wallstreet,

You said you, you have to make a logo for somebody. Silicon Valley is used

To paying tens of thousands of dollars for somebody to remake a logo. …

I’m dead serious when I say that. They’re used to paying hundreds of thousands

Of dollars for a rebrand. It’s just insane. And here I am saying,

“Look, we’ll redo your logo for $99.” And they’re like, “I’d rather pay $25,000

for somebody to redo the logo.” And it’s like, “Look, you got nothing to lose by

Paying 90, you literally have $99 to lose, just give us a chance.”

And 95% of our business has worked out that way. Because they’re like,

“Okay, let’s give this guy and this company a chance.” But the people who

Write us off because they’re like, “Oh, $99 for a logo, forget about it.

I’m just going to go back to my $25,000 company that’s going to do it

And spend three to four months coming out with the logo.”

So, yeah, that’s been some of the kind of stereotypes and preconceived notions

That I have to deal with as an entrepreneur, but and really,

It’s gotten better over the past few years.

Richard Matthews
It’s not really going to change either. It’s just going to change as you grow.

As you grow, your business changes. And like the, you said, “It’s just human nature”

And it’s something that we have to deal with. And you just realize that it’s a part of it.

But yeah, if you can just make it not a thing. I will certainly, make everyone’s life better.

Naresh Vissa
Yep, absolutely.

Richard Matthews
So let’s talk about your driving force for a minute.

So, Spider Man fights to save New York. Batman fights to save Gotham.

Google fights to categorize all the world’s information.

What is it that you guys fight for? What’s your mission?

Well, our mission is to provide online and digital solutions for businesses.

Naresh Vissa
And so like I said earlier, this is a superpower. What we’re able to do,

Especially, I mean, I see it in my industry, but then like the nonprofit work that I do.

I mean, I get the feedback like “Wow, man, like you really have that superpower

to make this happen, make that happen, make this look nice.”

But as far as fighting goes, look, at the end of the day, I’m a business. I like what I do.

I’m for profit, I do this to make my living and to pay for my lifestyle

And my house and food and other things. So I wouldn’t say that

I’m really fighting per se, fighting for anything I’m very passionate about

Certain business topics. Like when it comes to like taxes, like general corporate taxes.

And I’m all I’ve always been pro business in general,

When it comes to the political side of things. But, business is business

And I always try to keep business separate from my personal from

Like I mentioned, community stuff. It’s just kind of something that I love doing

And I just happened to get paid for and at the same time.

Richard Matthews
Makes a lot of sense. Let’s, bring in some of that controversy a little bit

Just for shits and giggles, your TRUMPBOOK: How Digital Liberals

Silenced A Nation Into Making America Hate Again, what’s that book about?

Well, it’s really about two things. So the book, the premise of the book,

Naresh Vissa
Is essentially the role that the online and digital marketplace or an online

And digital platforms played in President Trump being elected in 2016.

And so the book is, see my background, one of my degrees was in journalism undergrad,

And I got great experience working at CNN Rradio, Clear Channel

And a few other kind of smaller radio stations and newspapers.

And so the book is very well researched, and kind of supporting the idea

that Trump got lucky he came out. He did come out of nowhere, but he got lucky

Or that the election was rigged or Russia did something, all this crazy stuff.

Well, if you just look at the online and digital data, Trump had this in the bag.

And so the book goes into, kind of, the idea of the mentions and the publicity

That Trump was getting online and digitally. And it’s been proven

That if you win online and digital, when it comes to federal election,

Or at least, the presidential election, then you will live you will win the overall election.

It had been in 2004. 2004 is the earliest election that we can look at because online

And digital before 2004 was still incredibly fledgling. But in ’04 for President Bush,

’08 Obama, 2012 Obama. All of them just crushed it online and digitally.

And they ended up winning. And so that’s one premise of the book.

It’s just the idea that Trump crushed it online and digitally, essentially for free.

He wasn’t even spending money to get himself out there. But then the second thing

Is that actually takes real online and digital posts on social media, Facebook,

Twitter, Reddit, etc. and paste these posts into the book.

These are like kind of outrageous, crazy posts that you see digital liberals posting,

And it place them into the book and in response to them, as well.

Because really, it was Trump’s greatest detractors on the online and digital side,

Which helped him get elected. There’s this, Newton’s third law, which is equal

But opposite reaction. That’s essentially what we see in politics, as well.

And so, the book kind of provides data and support on the 2016 election.

And how Trump got elected. And it makes a prediction that

He’s going to get reelected again in 2020. Unless the online

And digital landscape for his brand changes, which, as of right now,

I don’t see that it has changed.

Richard Matthews
Now, that’s really interesting. fascinating to see how this whole world

We’ve been talking about for business is affecting politics and affecting policy

And affecting, how we communicate. And I think one of the things

That’s really interesting is, Trump is one of the first presidents that has used

The online media as a direct connect to his, to the people. Where, for the longest time,

Our democracy was set up as a representative democracy,

Because communication was far and delayed. And nowadays, with the President

Of the United States can speak directly to the people in a blink of an eye.

Right, which, you know, whether or not that’s a good thing is up for debate.

And, there’s a lot of people that don’t like Trump’s thumb on the Twitter button

Or whatever but the reality is like that’s what’s happening, right?

We have a direct connection. And it’s not just Trump either. If you look at

The Congress elections that happened this last November, and the people

Who won and what was going on, and it’s how well people are able

To communicate directly with people who went, and went on and have been able

To participate in the conversation in a way that’s never really happened before.

So it’s definitely fascinating to be seeing.

Well, I’ll say this, Trump actually was not the first one to directly communicate

Naresh Vissa
Using online and digital, at least on the presidential side, in 2008. Obama was,

It was just kind of assumed, even in 2008, that Hillary Clinton was going to be

The nominee on the Democratic side, and that she was going to become the next president.

Because no one really knew who Obama was. He was young, he was a junior senator.

He didn’t have much of a brand name, but his use of little bit of social media,

Which was just coming up, so like Facebook, and then also have YouTube,

Mixed with email marketing, and the book goes into all this stuff. Like, email marketing,

That was a pretty kind of breakthrough revolutionary innovation that Hillary Clinton

Just didn’t do. And that’s how he connected you’ve been saying, he connected with

Not just his people, and his followers, but with the world as a whole.

Well, in 2016, Trump took it to the next level with Twitter and with the big data

And the people who he hired on as Big Data teams. And again, the book goes

Into all this pretty remarkable what he did to gain the competitive advantages

That he was able to gain, which again, same opponent, Hillary Clinton,

She didn’t do any of this stuff, none of it. And so politics is, most politicians

Will tell you, politics is a business in and of itself. And you need to hire

Those big data scientists and use every measure that you can to your advantage.

And that’s what he did, because he’s a businessman. And he’s not going to waste

His time, his billions of dollars getting into politics for no reason. He’s in it to win it.

And most people who are billionaires, if they do such a thing,

They’ve got a lot going on. So they’re in it to win it. So again, the book goes into

All those kind of details. And Obama, again, like I mentioned earlier, did a great job

Of utilizing email marketing. And in fact, reading some of the case studies on

What he did with email. Actually, I applied some of those to email marketing

With my own businesses and with clients’ businesses, and I saw just tremendous results.

So you can apply, like you said, so many principles in marketing, in public relations

To the nonprofit kind of public service side, which is politics

And still have very effective results.

Richard Matthews
Yeah, absolutely.

So we move on a little bit here from politics and about your personal heroes.

So, Frodo had Gandalf. Luke had Obi Wan, Robert Kiyosaki had his Rich Dad,

Who were some of your heroes? Were they real life mentors?

Were they speakers or authors? I mean, we talked a little bit about –

Were they peers who were just a few years ahead of you, and how important

Were they to what you’ve accomplished so far in your business?

Well, when it comes to business, I’ve had several kind of mentors.

Naresh Vissa
People who have helped me a lot personally. And also virtually, I brought up virtually

Because we live in a time to where you don’t have to call up someone

On the phone and get advice from them. You can just subscribe to their podcast

Or read their book or see them at a conference. And it’s almost like

You have that personal connection, that personal relationship to them.

I got my entrepreneurial career really started and large part thanks to

My experience at Stansberry Research, which we brought up earlier.

That is an extremely entrepreneurial company that gets kind of big data numbers,

Business marketing, they got it. And almost weekly, I had coaching sessions

With Porter Stansberry himself, who in my opinion, is kind of one of the most –

He’s like one of the most under the radar, brilliant business people in the world.

And to be able to have that one-on-one interaction with him

On a weekly basis, was invaluable. And on top of that, that was once a week.

And then once a week, the CEO Stansberry at the time his name was Matt,

Matthew Smith, I had weekly meetings with him as well. And he’s another

Just tremendously successful business person on the online digital side,

Technology side has done extremely well. And to at my young, you know,

Again mid-20s, really young. Fresh out of school, to be given that type of

Preferential treatment, that one-on-one treatment, it went a really, really long way.

And when I was ready to go out on my own, and I think both of them

Kind of knew, when I was working full time, that that’s a route

That I would eventually take. They just didn’t know when, and you know,

They were okay with it. But both of them have been just really,

Really influential in my business experience and kind of getting started.

But then there are other guys who I know personally like James Altucher.

I’m sure you’re familiar with him. But he’s somebody who I’ve known personally,

For the last, probably 12 years, just went back when he was with https://www.thestreet.com

And then when he kind of started sharing publicly, everything about his life

And business and all that I just learned a lot from his stories. From his books,

I think I’ve read most of his books. The book, Choose Yourself! is one of the most,

I think one of the most inspirational, uplifting books that you can read

When it comes to business. And then he came out with some other book

Like short ebooks as well, that helped me get started writing and other areas

Of what I do and what we do at Krish Media and mMarketing.

And then, look, there’s a laundry list of people, of books, of authors I could name of,

But these three are the folks who I know personally, and who had a lot to do with that.

But we’d have to have a separate show. I mean, we can talk about so many

More people who have gotten me involved in real estate,

Whole life insurance and investments. And then online marketing.

I mean, we could go on for hours about this.

Richard Matthews
We might have to at some point, I’m really, I’ve got some of the whole life stuff

Going in my life as well. And we work with a bunch of real estate investors.

All sorts of cool stuff we could talk about. But let’s bring it home for our listeners

On this show a little bit. Last question that we go over is your guiding principles, right.

So what are top one or two principles or actions that you use regularly today

That contribute to the success and influence that your business enjoys.

Ones that maybe you wish you’d known when you started your business?

Naresh Vissa
Well, a few things. First off, this idea that there is a difference between

Business and personal, is it’s just not true. That you have to separate

Your business from your personal or that you need to have this work life balance.

There’s really no such thing, especially if you’re an entrepreneur, or business owner,

You can be a nine to five employee and you know, go in work your shift come home,

Okay, you can have that separation. But when it comes to business,

Business is personal, personal is business. That’s just what it is,

I’m going to go play tennis in a few hours with a friend of mine. And to me,

That’s not a personal thing. It’s also a business thing. Because “A,” we talk business and

“B,” it helps me with my business, being physically fit, moving the body getting out,

Away from my computer, it absolutely helps me. And so I think that’s just

One principle that people need to understand is this concept of work-life balance,

There is, they are one and the same. And so you need to understand that.

And the second thing I would say is just be yourself. And this is a huge deal,

Both personally and professionally. Because there’s so many times I’m sure

Listeners listening, have gone through experiences where like they’re at a mall,

And some person at the mall comes up to them trying to get them to sign up for

A credit card or sign up for something. And a lot of these times you only feel like

The person coming up to you, they’re being too nice, too genuine.

It’s like too good to be true. And they’re essentially losing some credibility

Because of how they’re acting. And in business, it’s the same way where –

Richard Matthews
All the alarms go off.

Naresh Vissa
Yeah, And and there are many people who fall for these things. But just be yourself.

You know, be who you are, be yourself, whether it’s in business, or personally.

I know some people who act completely different in the office than they act

At the bar or at home. And that’s going to come through and essentially

You lose trust. It’s hard to build trust. I don’t want to say you lose trust,

But it’s harder to build trust, if you’re like that. So I think in my case,

I brought up earlier, like my age, when I got started. But if you just

Stay true to yourself and just be yourself. I mean it, you’ll be surprised

At how you’re able to build trust with, just be honest. If you’re not able

To deliver something, be honest about it. There’s no need for you to lie or

Say that you can do it. Just be really honest. And that’s how I’ve always been,

Since I can remember and it carried over into business, and just being honest,

And forthright and upfront with people goes way farther than over promising

And under delivering. And so, I like to give you an example, I remember

There was a project client, one of our biggest clients came to us and they’re like,

“We need you to do this project.” And I said, “We just don’t have the manpower

To take this on. But I can refer you to this company who we’ve worked with before,

I think they would be a better fit.” And the client was actually like, really,

That I got many brownie points just for that. Because they’re like, you know,

“You’re the first partner we’ve ever had” or “first vendor we’ve ever had

Who said something like that. Everyone’s always saying that they’ll do this.

They’ll do that, and we get bad customer service.” You know, it’s really honorable

Of you to say something like that. And look, just be honest. Because if you

Have it, it’s a philosophy at the end of the day. It’s going to come back.

Like it’s going to – This kind of this law of karma, which I believe in.

It’s going to come back and be to your benefit.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. And I just wanted to say one thing on the work-life balance thing, too,

Before we moved on to far from it. One of the things that – The metaphor

I use my own life, is that, like, people think that they’re trying that work-life balance

Is like a law scale, where they’re trying to get the two sides to equal out.

And, like you I don’t think that reality … what we’re trying to do.

And I sort of figure, your work-life balance is more like a rubber band,

And you are working- Your life is part of – Your work is part of your life, right?

So you’re just integrating it into the life. And sometimes you’re going to stretch

That rubber band really far, which is because you’re going to be working

Your ass off on something you’d be trying really trying to accomplish something

Or building a team or doing something like anything that’s worth doing

Requires a lot of effort. So you’re going to go through those times where

You’ve got the rubber band stretched really far. And then you have to release.

And when you release the rubber band, that’s when you have

A lot of forward momentum in your business. But it goes back to a resting state, right?

That’s when you have. So like, the real balance is the idea that

You’re going from times where you’re working really hard, to times when you’re not.

When you’re actually sitting on the beach and enjoying yourself or playing golf

With your friends, things like that. So like the real balance is knowing

How to work and how to stretch the rubberband and

How to let the rubberband relax. Right? And that’s really what –

That’s the metaphor, I use in my own head to think about work-life balance.

Naresh Vissa
Yes, I think that sounds really good.

Richard Matthews
So last thing we do on every show, it’s not really a question. It’s more,

It’s what I call the Hero Challenge. So the Hero Challenge is going to be

Interesting for you, because you have a lot of a lot of interesting people that

You’ve worked with, is do you have someone in your network that you could

Recommend to this show who has a really cool, specifically an entrepreneurial journey

That we could talk about on the show? Who are they? And why do you think

They should come on this show and share their story?

Naresh Vissa
Oh, well, there’s so many people I could recommend.

Also because one of the services we offer is podcast production.

And we have like a booking agency. And we book thousands of guests

For conferences, webinars, podcasts, you name it. We have an online PR division.

And so we have, I can try to plug my own clients who would be good.

But a lot of the people who I think would be good. They just don’t do

That many interviews, they just don’t talk to that many people.

So that would be a little harder.

Richard Matthews
But do you want like a big name? Or do you want –

I’m just looking for someone who you think has a cool story. Right?

That you think it’d be cool to come on and share their story?

Whether or not whether or not they even will say yes is irrelevant.

We’ll reach out to them and see if they want to come onto the show.

But who do you think has a cool story and you think they should come share it?

Naresh Vissa
Well, certainly the people who I name-dropped, they should all be invited.

I don’t know if they’ll necessarily do it. Porter Stansberry, Ryan Deiss, Matt Smith.

They should all certainly do it. But there are other people kind of smaller names,

Who you may not be familiar with or audience may not be familiar with,

People like Jason Hartman. And he’s helped me get involved with with real estate,

And kind of his story, how he got started in his teenage years, because of Zig Ziglar

And other kind of what we talked about, you know, people back in that generation,

They listen to their own self-help people. People like him, Jermaine Massey,

He’s another person who we work closely with. Who has just an incredible story

Of how he overcame his health problems, his wife’s health problems,

Financial problems, to essentially build an empire, using what limited resources

Were available to him. There are all sorts of people, I again,

I can keep name dropping. But

Richard Matthews
That’s perfectly good. Last thing, where can people find you? So, if they want

Or want to reach out to you for either for your podcast production,

Your digital marketing services, where can they find you? Reach out to your agency,

And more specifically, who would be a good fit to reach out?

Naresh Vissa
So visit http://nareshvissa.com/ That’s my first name and last name.

And I’ll even, if you get on my newsletter, I will send you a free copy of

Either of the two books that we talked about today, Fifty Shades of Marketing or

Trumpbook, or both of them if you want both. Get on my mailing list

Newsletter through there. Send me a note saying you heard me on the show,

And which book you want. I’d be glad to send free copies of both of them.

And all my books are available on Amazon. So just go to Amazon type in my name,

You can see everything there. And then my company Krish Media and Marketing

Its website is http://www.krishmediamarketing.com/

That’s K-R-I-S-H Media marketing.com. You can see everything we do over there.

Richard Matthews
Awesome. Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

It’s been a really pleasure speaking with you and just sort of getting to see some of –

Hear some of your story. So obviously, if you’re looking for help with your digital services,

Or you want to get into the podcast production game, and definitely take a chance

And reach out to Naresh. I’ll probably pick up your Trumpbook.

That seems like really interesting read. So I look forward to that.

And again, thanks for coming on the show today.

Naresh Vissa
All right, awesome. It was a pleasure to be on.

Richard Matthews
Have a good day.