One Question Leads to Another with Mark Stern

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, heart for county living presents. Conversations with Rich Bennett. And we're good to be here. 

You're not going to show up! 

I'm not going to let you go! I'm going to let you go! It's kind of a few seconds and I'm not going to let you go! It's kind of like "no, no, no, no, it's not going to be."

Rich Bennett 0:27
I have a returning guest again, Mark Stern, who custom boxing. Look at this, I'm already messing it up. Custom box agency. 

Mark Stern 0:37
You got it. 

Rich Bennett 0:38
Right? And host of dash talks live. And actually, Mark, before we get into this, Mark and I are going to do something a little bit different. As you all know, at the end of each episode I asked my guest a question that they pick. But we're going to focus on doing that for this episode, just picking different questions. But give people a reminder of custom box agency. And what you've been doing since the last time because now you've got the podcast. 

Mark Stern 1:06
Yeah. Yeah, I know. Well, Rich, it's always a good spending time with you. So it's always a nice catching up. Thanks for bringing me back. Custom box agency, we really are in the business of how you can use and optimize your customer journey. Like how you serve your customers as a tool for business growth. So how do you really think about this? How do we get results faster with people and what we're known for? Our vehicle of choice is physical products. This age of AI we live in, when you're seeing this sea of sameness, things are showing to look the same. Feel the same. You're looking at things online saying, is this even real? And you're seeing this big exit to some people stepping away from social media because the dehumanizing nature of everything kind of feeling the same. We love physical products. So how do I take your genius and extract your frameworks that I can build a physical product around you that you can scale the product, but buy back your time. And we're talking about physical products. We say that there's three goals. It's either acquisition. How can I leverage physical to acquire clients, customers, members, students? Or is it onboarding and delivery? You bought my product or service. This is part of that onboarding experience. It's set them up for success and get them that results as fast as possible. Or is it retention, which is all about extending customer lifetime value? So we'll use physical products as a means to facilitate that and we can build and create anything. And that's essentially what we do at Custom Box Agency is the strategy, the design, the production, and we have a warehouse here in Texas. So we can hold your inventory and ship it out globally. 

Rich Bennett 2:29
I love because when you were on before and you showed me everything, it just reminded me of the card games, like, uh, what's the big one everybody does? Cars against humanity or whatever. 

Mark Stern 2:39
Yeah, I mean, talk about a brilliant example of a card game that just took off and became a household name. 

Rich Bennett 2:45
Yeah, and these are awesome. Are you so dash talks live? Why do you decide to start that? 

Mark Stern 2:51
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 2:52
explain what that is, because that's pretty awesome, too. 

Mark Stern 2:54
Yeah, it all started because we have this product that we launched that sometimes with the experiences that we take it may take two to three months to build it out. Dash is a product we launched that plays off this idea that in this age of AI speed to market. Um, when's the game, you know, the faster that you're able to produce a quality product and get it out, um, and really just understanding. So a lot of what we're looking at dash is because this is all about how do we build a physical product in 30 days or less? That's where the heart of this podcast came from, but really what the podcast does is it's really meant to be less than 30 minutes in terms of the conversations and you've been on it yourself. But we just want to go deep into a lot of trends that are about how we think about this idea of speed to market and just have a really good conversation on it. And I love that you have this, uh, this question system one through 100, because it's a perfect example of something that you could turn into a product like that. 

Rich Bennett 3:50
Right. 

Mark Stern 3:50
Um, because it's such a great icebreaker product with all these different prompts that you have. So yeah, 

Rich Bennett 3:56
Well, 

Mark Stern 3:56
I love it. 

Rich Bennett 3:57
actually, how do we, how do we want to do this? Do we want to do it by category, or just one through 100? 

Mark Stern 4:03
So walk me through the five categories. What are the 

Rich Bennett 4:06
categories? 

Mark Stern 4:06
five 

Rich Bennett 4:06
All right. So the five categories, the first block is personal evolution and inner truths where the focus is growth identity and the internal journey. A block number two is lessons, failures and hard one wisdom where the focus is experience resilience and advice. Block number three, values, purpose, and definitions of life where it gets pretty deep. And the focus is philosophy, meaning, and how we view the world. And then block number four is fun. It's imagination, hypotheticals, and wonders where the focus is fun. What ifs? Time travel and curiosity. And the last block is legacy, connection, and the global perspective where the focus is humanity, 

Mark Stern 5:06
the 

Rich Bennett 5:07
future, and the impact we leave behind. 

Mark Stern 5:10
Okay, so good rich. I like, I kind of want to pick a block as opposed to. 

Rich Bennett 5:15
All right. 

Mark Stern 5:16
And then I don't know if you know what numbers fit in the block. Or are they scattered all randomly throughout the one through 100? 

Rich Bennett 5:21
No, the numbers are, so you have certain numbers per block. 

Mark Stern 5:24
Perfect. I mean, that block three, I'd love to pull a question. 

Rich Bennett 5:29
Block three. All right. So block three now pick a number between 41 and 60. 

Mark Stern 5:33
Block three, oh, so when we when we did our trial, it was in block three. 41. 

Rich Bennett 5:37
Right. Oh, yeah. 

Mark Stern 5:38
Let's do 45, 

Rich Bennett 5:42
45. 

You know what? It's funny because in a way before in the green room, what we were talking about, this question holds relevance for that. 

Mark Stern 5:53
Okay. Let's do it. 

Rich Bennett 5:55
What does it mean to live a good life? 

Mark Stern 5:58
Oh, my goodness. What a deep question. 

Rich Bennett 6:01
Uh-huh. 

Mark Stern 6:02
Oh, this is a heavy one. Um, yeah, I think about my own journey and like for those who are listening like back in 2023. I read an article that said the average human in the US lives to 78. And at the time, I was 39 years old. And so it was this moment in my life that I'm like 39 is literally the midpoint of 78, half a 78 is 39. And you have this moment of pausing and reflecting and I'm a believer that change needs to start with an event. And it's hard for us to just break our habits unless an event happens that triggers it. And what I mean by an event, um, a significant other in your family passes away. There's been a birth of a new child. You find out that you are prediabetic or have high cholesterol. Um, a wedding, a graduation. I mean, there's only so many of these milestone type of events, um, that happen in life. But when the event happens, it gets your attention in a way that makes you reevaluate. And that was an event for me was reading that article. And so, you know, leading a fulfilling life to me, it made me pause and reflect on the journey I'd been on. And, um, we go through life at times, even believing, so much of our beliefs are the stories that we believe in. And I had all these bad stories that I believed were true, that I couldn't see Pascha's, those who I was around had the same stories that I had in the same beliefs and they weren't healthy beliefs. And when I started my own healing journey at that time, at the time I was, I got up to 250 pounds during COVID. My business was doing great, but I was not taking care of my body. And, um, on top of that, um, you know, I think some of my personal relationships were, were suffering. Um, and this idea of, you know, we are made up of personal, which is your love and relationships, your family, your friends. And then the next category is professional. Your business or how you make money. Um, and then the third category is yourself, your body, sleep, fitness, nutrition, um, relaxation. Um, all the things that you do, um, to take care of you. This idea of personal, professional and self, these three categories. I you understand this concept of, you're only as good as your weakest link when I'm treating my business world class, but I'm not taking care of my body, can my business truly be world class or this interconnectedness of this because we, they're all connected, these three different categories. Um, you know, it was a big moment that I was like, okay, I'm in it, uh, I'm stuck in my business and I'm stuck on the ability to grow the business. Just switching and taking care of body, and optimizing and working on my health and stabilizing that. Directly impacted my relationships and directly impacted the business and I saw the business start to grow again 'cause all these pieces are interconnected, so when I think about it that good fulfilling life, I think it's about finding that good balance. And understanding these three different categories in the ways, because, you know, if you, if your relationships are struggling, like, spend more time and I've seen, I just watched a documentary by an influencer named Ben Greenfield. He's a big biohacker. And, you know, when he was talking about this documentary, his professional success and his personal life, and then how he takes care of body, a big theme that he anchored on, that he, at one point of his life, his family and his personal relationships were suffering while he was growing his movement and doing all these experiments on his body and the biohacking space. But then he realized family was the piece that, when he optimized that, he found so much more love and balance. And so this is kind of when I think about this concept of fulfilling life, you know, this is something I've been working really, really hard on 

Rich Bennett 9:45
yeah, 

Mark Stern 9:45
is the more that I embrace it and what's cool about these three categories is you don't realize that sometimes you shut one down because it could be uncomfortable or scary or you just don't want to face it. And, 

Rich Bennett 9:56
true. 

Mark Stern 9:56
to go deeper in it, like, I literally had to ask for help on the body front and it was, you know, to be a man in his 40's and say, like, I don't really know how to truly be. I thought I knew how to be healthy but I really don't. Just the vulnerability allowed me to heal some of these bad unhealthy stories and start to look at life in a different perspective. So, to this question, such a good question. You know, I do think that part of this is that equilibrium of just optimizing and understanding these three categories and understanding that if you're struggling in one area and know that so you can optimize it because it will impact everything else and I think that when people get stuck in their own ways and they can't face the reality of what they're going through, you really are holding yourself back. But yeah, that's where my head goes with that question. That's a great question. 

Rich Bennett 10:44
The thing is, and you're right because it's funny how when we hit that mid-life point, how we look at things differently. And when you mentioned, you, like, prediabetic and all that, when I was diagnosed as being prediabetic and diabetes runs in my family, 

Mark Stern 11:03
um, 

Rich Bennett 11:04
change my whole lifestyle and lost the weight, started feeling better. Now, granted, I was I started focusing more on positive things a long time ago. Got rid of the negativity. Start to watch and news and all that, which helped out a lot. But I was still putting on the weight. 

Mark Stern 11:23
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 11:24
You know, and then that prediabetic thing and I went to my doctor, just was it last month and he was like, you're good. Keep doing what you're doing. The blood pressure is excellent, heart rate's excellent. Weight is excellent. So it works for me. 

Mark Stern 11:43
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 11:44
And I feel so much better and I've also learned to appreciate the time more with my family and friends. And work. And that's the other thing. When I was, you know, I mean, there were jobs that I had before where, you know, you just and people do it today. You hate weight, wanting to wake up and go to that job. You hate it. 

Mark Stern 12:10
that feeling 

Rich Bennett 12:10
I love, I know or were to waking up every day to start working. 

Mark Stern 12:13
Hmm. 

Rich Bennett 12:14
I love it. I love it. I never loved that, loved it that much before. 

Mark Stern 12:19
It's, 

Rich Bennett 12:20
it's crazy. 

Mark Stern 12:20
I wish everyone could experience that. And that was something that like young I learned and I don't even think I, I realized that I learned it. But when I left undergrad and started to go into the workforce at what 22. The first job I had, I had from undergrad to business school. I loved it. I was doing national marketing campaigns in the, the beverage space. So a company called PranoRecord, they own absolute vodka, Jamison Whiskey, Malibu Ram, Chivis Regal, Kaloa, BFeeder, Glenn Levitt, all these big name spirits. And we would literally create the own premise campaigns, so the in person interactions and bars or different settings. And then deploy these campaigns nationwide and at 22. They would be like, Hey, we need you to secret shop, our event that's going on in Miami. At 22 you're like, you want to send me to Miami to go to a bar? Like of course. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 13:13
Okay. 

Mark Stern 13:14
but like what it taught me was like people in that space are very social responsible because you don't want to mess around with things like alcohol. 

Rich Bennett 13:22
Yeah. 

Mark Stern 13:23
So just the responsibility that they ran with was really respectful. So this was not a job for this listening that it was like, "Oh, let's go out and drink every day." No, there was a responsibility in terms of if you're going to work in this space, you have to be able to demonstrate professional responsibility, maturity, 

Rich Bennett 13:38
Yes. 

Mark Stern 13:38
social responsibility. But it showed me what it meant to love, what you do. And every day, I woke up, loving, loving what I did. And then when I went and got my MBA, you do your summer internship. And I worked for a very well-known financial services company, I was in their New York office for that summer. And I hated it. Like, I woke up every day not wanting to get out of bed, and like really just miserable in the experience. I was bored. I was uninspired. It wasn't a good fit for me. But it wasn't until after that experience that I looked back and was like, "Wait, I know what it means to love what you do, and I know what it means to not love what you do and to feel the different degrees." It instantly, at a young age, was like, "Okay, I'm only going to do things that inspire me and make me love what I do." And I think about how many people go through life, you know, never experiencing that. And that would be my hope and wish for everyone just to be able to wake up every day and just love what you do with custom box agency. I love it. Like every day, it's a new challenge and it's just fun. 

Rich Bennett 14:47
Oh yeah, yeah. You want to stay in the same block where you want to pick a different block? 

Mark Stern 14:52
Let's pick a different block. 

Rich Bennett 14:53
All 

Mark Stern 14:55
right. Where do you want to go? I'll let you pick the block. 

Rich Bennett 14:57
Oh, oh, all right. Well, let's go with block number five. 

Mark Stern 15:00
Great. What is the category again? Which 

Rich Bennett 15:03
is a legacy connection and the global perspective. I, 

Mark Stern 15:07
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 15:08
oh, 81 through 100. So I'm going to sit for some reason. 93 is coming to my head. 

Mark Stern 15:14
Let's do it. 

Rich Bennett 15:14
I guess that, 

Mark Stern 15:15
that? 

Rich Bennett 15:15
what 

Mark Stern 15:15
It's 

Rich Bennett 15:15
was 

Mark Stern 15:15
coming to your head. Let's explore it. 

Rich Bennett 15:16
You're my son was born. Okay. Oh wow. Oh, yeah. Oh. Okay. And no. I did not look ahead. 

Mark Stern 15:25
That 

Rich Bennett 15:26
what is a misconception people often have about your specific industry? 

Mark Stern 15:31
Oh, for me. 

Rich Bennett 15:33
Yeah. 

Mark Stern 15:33
I think the biggest thing is, and this is something that we need to actively fix. So this is actually a challenge that we're facing right now and we're working through. I think when people hear custom box agency, they think that we only do packaging, meaning if you need packaging, then you go to custom box agency. And that's a gross misrepresentation of what we actually do. It doesn't speak to the strategy and the enablement. And how what we offer is truly like, I came from delayed consulting many years in Deloitte. There's just a rigor and an intentionality that we put in what we do. But these aren't swag boxes. We joke and say swag means stuff without a goal. This is truly taking your genius and building an original product around it. So think about like, how is a product created that's on the shelves of a Walmart or a target or any big box shop when you go out? Like the intricacies of that. How do we take your genius to your frameworks and productize you in a way that becomes this unique competitive edge for you? So that is an absolute misconception is that I've had people be like, Oh, we don't need packaging and I'm like, it's not packaging. It's so much more than this. The packaging is just the vehicle. It's the strategy in terms of what we do. So we truly are offering a new opportunity for a lot of people in the marketplace. And I think it's hyper relevant in this age of AI that we live in. But that's been the biggest misconception that we've had to need, that we need to break because if you just came to us wanting a box that has a hat, a t-shirt sunglasses, we can do it. But to me, you know, swag is stuff, and I want intentionality. I want the tools that provide the transformation. So a lot of our boxes have 30 to 70 pieces in it. And that's the story that I want people to really internalize when they think about, you know, our unique offering is literally, you know, how do I make your, what you do easier through just productizing you in a different way. 

Rich Bennett 17:17
And my industry's a little bit different because it's it's marketing, but it's more the media part and the podcasting. 

Mark Stern 17:25
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:25
And I think what the big, and you could probably fast for this, one of the biggest misconceptions that you hear is a lot of people think it's easy. And it is not easy. I mean, I've been doing it for almost 11 years and granted, I've got it down to a science now. But I do everything to editing the market and everything because I love it. 

Mark Stern 17:47
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:48
But I I think I looked at the numbers the other day that Alec you're Alex San Felipe puts out. I think it's less, I think it's still less than 6% of people that get into the podcasting are successful at it, which is they say it's easier to start your own business. But any of the good news website, the good news website, a lot of people think that that's, but just local here, they think it's tied to the government or a magazine, and it's not, it's definitely not. So, 

Mark Stern 18:19
Uhh, uh, 

Rich Bennett 18:21
I don't, I don't like picking the questions because, I feel like I'm cheating and people think I knew and I did not pick, I did not know with that number was I'm not lying. 

Mark Stern 18:31
I like that question though. No, I think that, 

Rich Bennett 18:48
right 

Mark Stern 18:48
these are great. You should see this is a good example of like, turning this into a simple card deck product, you know, 

Rich Bennett 18:55
yeah, 

Mark Stern 18:55
a powerful icebreaker that this is and these questions like are really good. For example, how I'd productize this. 

Rich Bennett 19:02
I love this question too. What is a quality you possess now that you wished you had when you were younger? 

Mark Stern 19:12
Yeah, the word that keeps coming to mind lately is self-respect, like truly respecting me, truly respecting my perspective of the world and how I navigate it and, you know, I joke a lot lately that I'm very trusting of people and I'm very, um, uh, sometimes naive even because I'm so trusting of people and there's been times like that I've noticed that like, some of the challenges that I've faced as a business owner, I was trusting people who claim to be an expert of what they do and when things didn't make sense to me, you know, if I like called it out in a way and got shut down to be like, Oh, no, no, no, you may not understand this. And then when all cards got played, my perspective was right and it hurt me or my business in a way of not just trusting myself and trusting the journey and trusting the insights, you know, there's so much that we all know, but it's so, I think that we're all looking for someone to give us the validation or tell us what to do and the danger of that is someone could tell you like, there's so many people out there, there's so many entrepreneurs that will tell you what to do, does not mean their advice is good or right? 

Rich Bennett 20:23
Exactly. 

Mark Stern 20:23
And I fall into the trap of like, being like, oh, you know, this isn't my area, but I know a little bit about it, but you know, this seems like they seem to be the expert in this. So I'm going to trust this guidance, because I perceive them in one of the realizations I had, hopefully this makes sense. Is that if I say, okay, let's just evaluate, you know, things in a scale of one to five. One is, I don't have much exposure and five is I'm an expert in it when comes to these like physical product development or experience designer customer journey, I'd say we're four or five were exceptional at what we do. But if it sells and marketing, I may say, you know, sales and marketing is not our strongest suit and we're probably at two and sells and marketing is how I'd rate myself, we could be so much better. If I meet a sales and marketing expert who tells me that there are four or five in sales and marketing, I instantly assume, okay, they must be better than me. This is their jam. This is what they do. And then I find out, wa a second. The calibration of my one through five versus your one through five is not the same so their five on I'm excellent at sales and marketing, maybe my one. And I'm trusting them in terms of driving the sales and marketing piece, but I'm not respecting myself in a way of saying I actually have a lot more tools and resources than what they have. But I couldn't see that because I was weighing our expertise on the same scale. So I don't have that made sense. But like this is the part that when I say self respect, I've learned to be able to take a step back and if something doesn't make sense to push back and ask the right questions and be able to anchor on. Not you timing this is right, but me coming to the conclusion. And and part of this is this idea of extreme ownership as an entrepreneur. I want to be in a position that if I Decide to move forward with your recommendation, even if it's not the right one. At the end of the day, if it didn't work, I blame myself for it, but I've done the due diligence and can understand that like I evaluated based on an I respected myself and my experiences. And getting to this conclusion and that's OK very different than listening to someone others and doubting myself. So it's just wanting to take that extreme ownership or responsibility here. So that's that's kind of where my head goes when I go to that question. 

Rich Bennett 22:32
I like that answer and one of the things because we talk about respect a lot. And that's one of the things I love the Beth and Rink were they taught us respect. But the one thing I never do mention is the self respect. 

Mark Stern 22:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 22:46
That teaches us and or at least it taught me. Um, but yeah, that it's that is key. 

Mark Stern 22:53
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 22:54
That is key. That's very important. One of the things that I did not like to do when I was younger and actually for a long time was actually talking with other people, you know, when I was in radio, I was strictly a music DJ. I did not want to interview people. I was not comfortable doing that. I was very shy. And now it's like, Oh my God. Yeah, I'll talk to you for hours. 

Mark Stern 23:17
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 23:18
I want to learn. I want to soak in all that knowledge. Everybody else has knowledge to offer somebody different. And I think, maybe it's because I dropped in a high school that I wouldn't learn at all. I don't know. 

Mark Stern 23:30
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 23:30
But I, yeah, I just, I love that answer. That was good. 

Mark Stern 23:34
Yeah, it took me, so it took me till age 41 to figure that one out. And now I'm 42. So it, literally, it was one of those things that I'm like, you know, I think it was one of the words of the year that I set was self-respect. And just because so much of the pain that I went through the last two years was trusting of other people and not listening to myself. And that was where a lot of this was like, you got, like, and this is true for anyone listening. Like, 

Rich Bennett 24:01
it. you're listening to conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

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Mark Stern 25:37
You have the skills and you got to like trust your intuition of things feel right or wrong. And at the end of the day, you can't blame someone else. You got to own the responsibility even 

Rich Bennett 25:46
Yes. 

Mark Stern 25:46
if it burns, but look at it as a beauty and the lesson learned from it. And for me, I've learned lots of lessons that I look back and go I needed to learn this lesson at this chapter of my life to prepare me for the next phase so it doesn't repeat itself. So no regrets, but 

Rich Bennett 26:02
I like the fact that you also said blame yourself. You got to learn to blame yourself 

Mark Stern 26:08
as it 

Rich Bennett 26:09
you have for things. Too many people are just ready to blame everybody else and not look in the mirror and see where the real blame lies. 

Mark Stern 26:18
And sometimes I feel like these I call them trials. When you have these times in life, you're like, why is this happening to me? Like what is going on? Why doesn't it keep happening to me? Like I feel like we get throughout life, you know, you know, I'm someone who I have a big vision and I want to achieve it, but I feel like the universe gives you these trials to say, are you worthy of this vision? Here's an obstacle I'm going to put in your way and you have two options. You can become a victim and give up and say, why is this happening to me? 

Rich Bennett 26:45
Yeah. 

Mark Stern 26:46
And then the reality is it's like the universe saying, then you're not worthy of this big vision, you're not worthy to achieve this big thing, or you can hold the belief to be like, this is a trial, there's something amazing on the other end. And I feel like I'll be rewarded when I'm able to get through it and continue on the path. It's just challenging me to say, you're worthy of this big vision. And so that's been one of those anchoring so that has been beautiful for me to be like, what can I learn from this? Because I don't want this to be the thing that defeats me. 

Rich Bennett 27:11
I learned 

Mark Stern 27:12
And 

Rich Bennett 27:12
to 

Mark Stern 27:12
then 

Rich Bennett 27:12
overcome it at that. 

Mark Stern 27:13
And I see all the time people who instantly live in this victim mindset of, oh, like they blame everyone else and whatnot, and they just spiral down. And you're like, 

Rich Bennett 27:23
yeah, 

Mark Stern 27:23
at the end of the day, cry me a river, but it's like what you do next that really matters. 

Rich Bennett 27:30
Exactly. Exactly. Man, this is fun. 

Mark Stern 27:33
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:33
All right. Is there a block we haven't done yet? 

Mark Stern 27:36
We've not done two and four. 

Rich Bennett 27:38
Two and four. All 

Mark Stern 27:40
right. And I'm happy with it. Let's do them all. You know, this is 

Rich Bennett 27:42
All 

Mark Stern 27:42
fun. 

Rich Bennett 27:42
right. So let's go block number two, which is Lesson's failures and hard one wins. I'm kind of goes with what we... 

Mark Stern 27:49
Yeah, I love this though. You pick the number. What's calling you? 

Rich Bennett 27:53
Let's see, 20 left through 40. I'm going to say my age 25. 

Mark Stern 27:58
Perfect. You look great. I need to do your secret. 

Rich Bennett 28:03
Oh, what is the most challenging idea you've ever had to grapple with? 

Mark Stern 28:11
Challenging idea that I ever had to grapple with. What a good question. These are great questions, Rich. 

Rich Bennett 28:19
Yeah, I know. It makes you really think. 

Mark Stern 28:22
A 

challenging idea that I had to grapple with. There's many that I can go. Here's the one that's surfacing. That was a big one from the leap of being in corporate and then becoming an entrepreneur. It's the idea in corporate America. 

You are hired into a bracket, meaning we have this role. It fits in a salary bracket that they have a low end in a high end and then they have defined the roles of it. For all of us who have jobs, you're hired into a bracket that has a low end in a high end and then there's the roles and responsibilities in it. If you're a high performer, you perform on the higher end of that bracket. If you're middle, you'll kind of coast in the middle. Low performers will perform on the bottom end. When you're hired into a bracket for whatever job you're working into, you're only as good as the bracket that you're hired into. If you over deliver, it's great for the business because you're over-delivering but you're still operating within the bracket. When I left him became an entrepreneur, there is no bracket. It was this idea of there's no upper and lower ceiling of the expectations for this role. As an entrepreneur, I was like in my mind, default thinking of my role in a bracket when I'm like, "Can I do that? Oh, no, I can't do that. That's not possible." I'm like, wait a second, I'm telling me no. No one else is telling me no. I'm telling me no. There's no bracket in the realm that I am. Then it was just this idea of Do I truly know how good I am at what I do when you're hired into a bracket? You're limited to the bracket. That is where your performance is evaluated. Then as an entrepreneur, for me, this concept that I'm not in a bracket and the only one telling me no is me. Therefore, I am limiting myself and my potential, but let's see what impact I can create 

Rich Bennett 30:17
it's 

Mark Stern 30:17
in this realm that there is no bracket or limitation. Hopefully that made sense, but that was a big ship for me of like, why do you keep telling yourself no mark? Of course you can do that if you wanted to. 

Rich Bennett 30:29
great. 

Mark Stern 30:29
It's scary, but more importantly, for anyone listening, "Do you truly know what you're capable of achieving?" And for a lot of especially corporate America, corporate America is great for security, structure, support, protection. There's a lot of beauty. I'm not saying you need to leave corporate, but at least process this idea that I love, which is, "Do I truly know how good I am at what I do, or am I truly in a position to see the ultimate impact I can have in the world?" 

Rich Bennett 30:53
There. 

Mark Stern 30:54
That's what's been fun about 

Rich Bennett 30:56
What 

Mark Stern 30:56
entrepreneurship is being able to say, wait a second, no. You can do that. No one's telling you no, and you're not in this bracket that you're limited in terms of the specific realm. For a lot of people in brackets, you applied for the job that was available, that you saw posting online. It may or may not be an alignment with the things that you want to do, but it provides a degree of security in the entrepreneur realm. It's a different game. So, grasping 

Rich Bennett 31:18
is? 

Mark Stern 31:18
how to think differently was definitely a challenge for me as an early entrepreneur back 2018-19 when I had made that shift. 

Rich Bennett 31:27
It was for me, too, even though I've been in entrepreneur, it seems like forever, but I always had a job as well. So, like my first business was basically the DJ business, but that was after hours and a weekends. So, I still held down the regular job, and then when I started the Good News website in the podcast, that's when I decided to get out of radio and just go full force with it. Because I was also able to work on computers and design websites. Now, it's just the podcast and then the Good News website. And a lot of people told me I was crazy back then, but I had an idea and I wanted to add something to that. 

Mark Stern 32:16
Han 

Rich Bennett 32:17
boarded an idea. I had a vision and the vision was there's too much negative news out there. I went a website that promotes nothing but 

Mark Stern 32:28
positive. 

Rich Bennett 32:29
good, 

Mark Stern 32:29
Yeah, I love it. So neat. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:33
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, that was a fun artwork. It was a list of four. 

Mark Stern 32:38
Four, what are our numbers? 

Rich Bennett 32:41
Four is 61 through 80. Oh, I have a funny, you know what, we're gonna have to pick two out of this category. The only reason being is because I love the where it's at, imagination, hypotheticals and wonders. So you know, to fun, what ifs, time travel and curiosity. So I'll let you go ahead and pick the first number. I know what my number is already 

Mark Stern 33:06
68. 

Rich Bennett 33:08
Oh, I'm glad you didn't pick mine. 

This is interesting. If you could spend a day observing any living creature in a tabletat, what would it be and why? 

Mark Stern 33:28
Any living creature in it's habitat. Um, What an interesting question. 

Yeah. Um, 

trying to think of something different. Um... 

Rich Bennett 33:46
Something different! 

Mark Stern 33:48
I don't know. It's interesting because like there's so many different angles and things that I would 

Rich Bennett 33:51
Yeah, 

Mark Stern 33:52
want to to see. And then part of me is like, what I want to take something that is 

ridiculous and just assume a reality that is not a reality, which is, observe things at the bottom of the ocean floor that we just don't have access to and just see how life is lived over there and part of it would be just a curiosity of, you know, years ago I sat on a panel, I didn't sit on a panel. I attended a panel when I went to South by Southwest that was Ocean's versus Space. And which is like they did all these questions and they had a panel of ocean specialists and space specialists and they would play sounds and part of it was like saying, what do we know more about? Do we know more about the bottom of the ocean or do we know more about space? And the thing that came out of this is that we know more about space than we know about life at the bottom of the ocean and there's so much uncertainty because we just can't get down there and so there are life forms and so much that is just unknown and there could be things that, and this is funny because I was, I literally was researching this. I don't know why I was researching this but I was researching extinct animals and what animals have been extinct in recent years, like, because it's things you don't hear about, but you hear about the Doato bird and all these old school. And then I started researching this idea of animals that were thought to be extinct that decades later re-emerge in other environments and they realized these animals that we didn't realize were extinct actually still exist. We just didn't find them and it's this idea of how much life is walking on our earth that we just don't see and so that's kind of where I'm like, It's unrealistic to say I'm gonna hang out at the bottom of the ocean and watch life, but in that sense, if I, in a 

Rich Bennett 35:38
oh, I love this. 

Mark Stern 35:38
there is no restrictions, you know, there's so much beauty and bioeluminous and color and change and things that are for me ripe for inspiration that we just don't even have insight into and it could be creatures of crazy sizes that we would just never be able to access. I remember the whole hunt for the giant squid. If it even exists here, if this was a real thing and for them to validate that and just the mystere of that, like, that is exciting to me and it's curious to see something that a lot of humans don't get to get exposure to, you know. Like, that's kind of where my head goes. I would love to go to the Arctic Circle and see narwhals, like, in the wild. Like, that to me would be incredible to see, 

Rich Bennett 36:18
That'd be 

Mark Stern 36:18
but again, it's, again, animals that we just don't own a daily basis. See, you know, you know, I have a porcupine that lives in my property and I'm like, 

Rich Bennett 36:27
you're really? 

Mark Stern 36:28
Yeah, it's so weird seeing it because I've seen it maybe four or five times in the last month and I haven't seen it in years, but like, that's fascinating just to why, and I literally just go out and just watch it because it doesn't run it just kind of scurries, it doesn't scurry, it just kind of waddles. 

Rich Bennett 36:42
Yeah. 

Mark Stern 36:43
But it's still fascinating. But I'm like, that's accessible and it's exotic because it's not something you see every day. But like, that's kind of where my head goes would be, like, it'd be cool to explore, you know, things that not many people on Earth get to see. 

Rich Bennett 36:57
For me, and I love the bottom of the ocean thing. That's, yeah, that would be fun, but God, what would you be? I'd have to go for caterpillar that turns into a monarch butterfly. 

Mark Stern 37:07
Oh, it's just I think that'd be incredible too, which I think 

Rich Bennett 37:10
the flight, that's what gets me is the journey they make when they fly that was it to Mexico. And it's not, yeah. 

Mark Stern 37:20
That's it. And here's the thing. Talk about a creature that literally, like, the body breaks down to like a non-existent form to be rebirth in this completely different form because that whole process of going from a caterpillar to the cocoon to a butterfly, like, talk about a metamorphosis 

Rich Bennett 37:41
Yeah, yeah. 

Mark Stern 37:42
in a insane way. And then again, breaking that down and having a conversation with that represents can mean so much in life too. 

Rich Bennett 37:49
I just imagine if we actually sit down and talk with these animals. 

Mark Stern 37:54
I know, right? 

Rich Bennett 37:55
Doctor, do a little. 

Mark Stern 37:57
I know, but that's what I feel like with my dog is I feel like I have that relationship that I know what she's thinking, but she also knows what I'm thinking and steps in and is like there when I need when I need her. But how much I would love to just be able to talk to her, 

Rich Bennett 38:12
inside the, 

Mark Stern 38:12
see like, 

Rich Bennett 38:12
oh yeah. Oh my god. That would, that could be scary at times too. 

Mark Stern 38:18
oh 

Rich Bennett 38:19
All 

Mark Stern 38:19
she's 

Rich Bennett 38:19
right. You want to pick the last one or you want me 

Mark Stern 38:21
you 

Rich Bennett 38:21
to? 

Mark Stern 38:21
said you had one picking number. What's the 

Rich Bennett 38:23
Oh, 

Mark Stern 38:23
number? 

Rich Bennett 38:25
Well, 63 my age. 

Mark Stern 38:26
Oh, let's do it. 

Rich Bennett 38:28
If you could instantly acquire one new skill or talent, what would it be? 

Mark Stern 38:37
I can instantly acquire one-skiller talent, does this need to be real? Like an actual skill? 

Rich Bennett 38:42
Yeah, Skiller talent, what would 

Mark Stern 38:43
it be? Uhm, this is not a superpower, this is skill. Uhm... 

I had a really powerful, uhm, inspirational, uhm, singing voice, because sometimes, you know, how music and sound can change state. Uhm, you know, one of my clients right now, in her 40s, is now, like, embracing like wanting, she's literally, like, starting turning her genius into songs. And she never sang before, but was influencing, like, as a powerful modality to inspire people. I think that, you know, we experience life through the senses, and if you've ever heard a song that just moves you or moves you to tears or inspires you, it can awaken a different aspect of the brain in a really cool way. I'm, I, I, well, I don't say I can't sing because I really haven't tried. Uhm, and they would make me scared to death to do that, but I, there's an element of, you know, when you see these incredible singers, the confidence that they exude, the beauty of the sound and the messaging, the inspiration, how it can take you to a time and place. Uhm, that would be a skill that would be really cool to have, and it's, it's, uh, it's a powerful one. 

Rich Bennett 40:11
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I was going to say that, but I can't because you did. 

Mark Stern 40:15
You're going to say seeing? 

Rich Bennett 40:17
Yeah. 

Mark Stern 40:17
You'd say it. 

Rich Bennett 40:18
Even though I used to a long time ago, but I don't think I was that good. Uh, not because when you, when you, after you said that's like, I had to go over my second one, which makes more sense. And that would be to be, I don't know if there's actually a term for it, but to be a good handyman with tools and wood and metal, so I could just be able to build a lot of things. We've been, my wife and I've been watching the show lately. One of those home improvement shows, uh, fixer, the fabulous, 

Mark Stern 40:51
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 40:52
With Dave and Jenny Mars and Dave Mars, my God, that man can build anything. Whether it be wood, whether it be welding, it's a me, and I'm looking at this stuff. It's like, makes it look so easy. Then my studio, my podcast studio would be done. I could, I could do so much, but I think it's, 

Mark Stern 41:15
That's a 

Rich Bennett 41:15
it 

Mark Stern 41:15
great 

Rich Bennett 41:16
tastes. 

Mark Stern 41:16
skill though. 

Rich Bennett 41:17
It is. And the thing is my father taught my older brother and my younger brother how to do this stuff. He tried teaching me. And I think the only reason he stopped teaching me was because I hit his thumb with the hammer. And he said, yeah, so he said, no, you're not doing it. And I never learned. So you learn on your own. I have to go through YouTube University, I guess. 

Mark Stern 41:42
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:42
But so you mentioned it so we got to find out now, if you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? 

Mark Stern 41:51
I don't know why. This is the one I would choose, but I think about how much fun I would have with the ability to, um, who is it? Is it a mystique and X-Men that has the ability to metamorphosis to change into anything? 

Rich Bennett 42:10
yeah, 

Mark Stern 42:11
I just think that that would be, if done ethically and responsibly, the amount of fun that I would have to be able to change myself and parts of myself physically, or to be able to transition into anything like humans, animals to be able to like explore the world through different lenses. I think that just that ability to see the world through so many different lenses, and then just have the ability to manipulate that could be a really cool superpower. I don't know why that's where my head goes, but I think about and reality is like to go from, you know, 250 pounds down to 160, completely changed like the body makeup or decomposition, 

Rich Bennett 42:50
right 

Mark Stern 42:50
I feel like there's an element of that that I've experienced in just my own body. But in a more super hero lens, like I think that the learnings and modalities just from being able to see the world through different lenses could be incredibly powerful, if done ethically 

Rich Bennett 43:06
ethically. Yes, yeah, that could be fun. 

Mark Stern 43:08
Yeah, how about you? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 43:14
If I if 

Mark Stern 43:15
healing, 

Rich Bennett 43:17
yeah, if I had the power to just be able to touch somebody and heal them, take their pain away, whether it's emotional or physical, I would, I would have to say that but I think that would have to be mine. And of course, I'd be able to heal myself as well, yeah, because if somebody hits me, face me over the head people I'm fine. 

Mark Stern 43:44
Yeah, oh, my gosh, that reminds me of heroes, 

Rich Bennett 43:48
Uh 

Mark Stern 43:48
because. 

Rich Bennett 43:48
oh, the show. 

Mark Stern 43:49
The show here is 'cause the cheerleader who recently passed away, that was her super power, yeah, she was that, that she could fall from a rooftop and get in skates. 

Rich Bennett 43:59
I never watched that. I'm gonna have to watch a series. 

Yeah. 

And I love watching shows and movies like that. Like right now, I'm watching Lanterns. 

Mark Stern 44:21
Oh, good. 

Rich Bennett 44:23
It's not bad. Yeah, it's completely different. Not what I was expecting, but I like it because it's got some humor in it, too. So, yeah, and it's got, oh, I can never remember the guy's name. I think the show was Northern exposure. 

Mark Stern 44:38
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:39
I think he's 

Mark Stern 44:40
he's in 

Rich Bennett 44:41
it. Lantern now. Yeah. Um, but it's, I can't give it away. You have to watch 

Mark Stern 44:46
it. 

Rich Bennett 44:47
There's only three episodes out right now 

Mark Stern 44:49
Yeah. I 

Rich Bennett 44:49
and it 

Mark Stern 44:49
watch 

Rich Bennett 44:49
comes 

Mark Stern 44:49
it. 

Rich Bennett 44:49
out every Sunday. Yeah, what's it on 

Mark Stern 44:53
HBO 

Rich Bennett 44:53
Mac? 

Mark Stern 44:54
Yep. It's an HBO 

Rich Bennett 44:54
Yeah. 

Mark Stern 44:54
Macs. I see it, 'cause. 

Rich Bennett 44:55
Yeah, you would like it. 

Mark Stern 44:56
at this time 

Rich Bennett 44:56
Mark 

Mark Stern 44:57
of year, I start to get onto food shows. So I'm like, I see it every, 

Rich Bennett 45:00
oh. 

Mark Stern 45:00
All the food shows, especially Halloween, baking championship. I don't know how I, I don't even make, but I get sucked into all those shows. 

Rich Bennett 45:07
we, 

Mark Stern 45:07
So anyway, 

Rich Bennett 45:07
I'm trying to convince my wife to watch chopped because we, we like to do, um, grilling cook offs. 

Mark Stern 45:15
Oh, great.

Rich Bennett 45:17
Me and the guys, and usually it's my wife and a couple other people are to judges. So we came up with the idea of a grilling competition. It's sort of like chopped. Where we're given the stuff and we have to make something with it. And my wife still doesn't get the concept. So I'm trying to convince her to watch chop to see how it is. Which could be fun. 

Mark Stern 45:40
Yeah . 

Rich Bennett 45:41
last thing was a chili cookoff. So now we got to bring out the grills again and grill something. 

Mark Stern 45:46
I'm with the 

Rich Bennett 45:47
That's more fun. 

See, it's lunchtime. That's why. Mark, give everybody your website to how they can follow you. 

Mark Stern 45:55
Yeah. And thanks for asking. Just go to custom box agency.com. Feel free to set up some time with us. We love to learn what you're doing, and we'll always will, you know, guide you in the right direction, whether it's us or someone else, but, you know, for us, it's just fun to learn what you're up to. And see if this is a good fit for how to explore physical on your own. Um, you can also find me a link to Mark Arstern, just look for the Mark Arstern that is affiliated with custom box agency. 

Rich Bennett 46:19
And how can I catch your show dash talks 

Mark Stern 46:22
live. Yeah, dash talks live. It should be on all the platforms. Um, and I know we posted on my Instagram channel. So if you follow me on Instagram, you'll be able to see a lot of the episodes there to. And you can always go to dash talks live.com and there's a landing page for that as well. And you can apply to be a future guest. 

Rich Bennett 46:37
Yeah. There you 

Mark Stern 46:38
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 46:38
go. Mark, always great. See him. And we're gonna have to do this again. See, and this gave me the idea of some other guests that I've had on now that I got a contact to say, you got to come back. You got to come back also. We can. 

Mark Stern 46:49
Oh, it's brilliant. Like the conversation rich conversation as a result of it. So rich, I thought I think it's a brilliant, brilliant strategy. 

Rich Bennett 46:56
Thank you. I had a blast. 

Mark Stern 46:58
I did. 

Rich Bennett 46:58
Good. See you, Mark. Thanks a lot. 

Mark Stern 47:00
Thank you. Take care. 

Rich Bennett 47:01
You know, I usually ended an interview with a random question. This time, Mark Stern and I made a whole episode out of them and I had a blast. We went from figuring out what makes a good life to exploring the bottom of the ocean, wishing we could sing and choosing superpowers. You never know where a question is going to take you. But a few things from this conversation really stuck with me. Taking care of yourself affects your relationships and your work. Self-respect means giving your own experience and instincts a voice. And sometimes when we're wondering what we're capable of, we need to ask whether we've already told ourselves no before he even tried. A big thank you to Mark for coming back, be in open and having some fun with me. You can learn more about his at custom box agency and check out his podcast, "Dash Talks Live". And a huge thank you to Belair Wendell and Door for supporting this episode. Here's something to think about. How would you have answered these questions? What does living a good life mean to you? Or just for fun, what superpower would you choose? And if you would like to join me on the podcast for a round of random questions, reach out and let me know. You don't need to have something to promote. Bring your curiosity, your stories, and a willingness to see where the conversation goes. I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, I'm Rich Bennett. Thanks for listening and remember, every great conversation starts with someone willing to listen and someone willing to share. Now it's your turn. Join the conversation by sharing this episode. Leave in a comment or reach it out to me directly. Take care, be kind to one another, and I'll talk with you again soon.