EP.06 - Coaching Entrepreneurs to Think Outside the Box

The Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast presents Michael Weiss as this week’s guest. 

For well over a decade Michael has served in public relations, marketing, and business development roles. Michael began his career in the professional sports industry, working for the Florida Panthers (NHL), Miami Dolphins (NFL), and the Pro Wakeboard Tour. Looking to grow within a different industry, Michael joined UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management as the assistant director of public relations, where he was responsible for publicizing faculty research, grants and awards, as well as academic programs, student success stories, and community partnerships. Currently, he provides business development and operational support services to help local startup companies develop into high-growth businesses, as a business incubator manager at the University of Central Florida. 

Michael completed his undergraduate degree at Florida Atlantic University and earned his master’s degree at UCF. He is a Certified Business Incubator Manager and an active member of the International Business Innovation Association. He also sits on a number of boards, including the UCF Nicholson School of Communication and Media Alumni Chapter, the Florida Business Incubation Association, and the Rybolt’s Reserve Homeowner’s Association. Michael was born and raised in Coral Springs, FL, and has lived in Orlando since 2007.

 Do you know?

• Micheal was once tackled by Miami Dolphins Hall of Famer Jason Taylor.

Join Roy and Micheal on an intriguing journey starting from Miami Dolphins to the basic principles of the "UCF Business Incubator". 

Tune in Now and make sure to take away the notes!

Special Reminder:

Get your copy of the books Michael mentioned:

• Eric Ries' - The Lean Startup
• Chris Voss' - Never Split the Difference

 About the UCF Business Incubation Program

The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training, and infrastructure to become financially stable, high-growth/impact enterprises. Since 1999, this award-winning program has provided vital business development resources resulting in over 300 local startup companies reaching their potential faster and graduating into the community where they continue to grow and positively impact the local economy.

 
Get in touch with Michael:

• The UCF Business Incubation Program
• Ring him up at 321-281-8383
• Or email him at michael.weiss@ucf.edu 

If you enjoyed this episode the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast, then be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform.

Check out our website here and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel.

Transcript

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:04):

Roy Richardson. And this is the dynamic business leaders podcast.

Roy Richardson (Host) (00:18):

What's in this week's edition of the dynamic business leaders podcast. I'm your host, Roy Richardson, the dynamic business leaders podcast is brought to you by Aurora Infotech, a Cybersecurity firm, providing information security needs to small to medium-sized businesses. Folks, this week, I'm excited to have someone with you who has served in public relations, marketing, and business development roles for over 10 years. But the truth is he actually began his career in the professional sports industry. You see working for four outfits, like the Florida Panthers for teams like the Miami dolphins and even the pro wakeboard tour. At a certain point in his career, he decided he wanted to pivot and do something a little different. So he actually joined the UCF Rosen's School of College of Hospitality Management, where he served as the director of public relations before ultimately taking on his current role as the manager of the University of Central Florida's Business Incubator Program. Particularly the one that's stationed near downtown. He is, you know, passionate about providing, you know, business development and operational support services to help local startup companies develop into high-growth businesses. He's a certified business incubator manager, an active member of the International Business Innovation Association. He also sits on a number of boards, including the UCF Nixon's Nicholson School of Communications and Media Alumni Chapter, and many, many others too numerous to mention. So folks, please put your hands together. Help me welcome Michael Weiss, Michael. Great to have you here.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (01:53):

Thank you. And I appreciate the intro.

Roy Richardson (Host) (01:56):

You got it, man. You got it. I'm actually excited to get your journey told and get your story shared with our audience. But before we start there, Mike, I, you know, I, I like to, I wanted the things that I ask often is about fun facts and, and, you know, I asked my guests to provide me with some fun facts and, and your kind of stuck out at me, number one. And we're going to go back to your days with Miami dolphins there. And your fun fact is that you are once tackled by, you know, Miami dolphins hall of Famer, Jason Taylor. So take us down that trip and, and tell us about it.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (02:31):

Yes, I was tackled and I survived. It was kind of interesting when I was working for the Miami Dolphins during warmups, right before a game I was on the field kind of in this box, like just, just off-field where all the photographers are stationed. And there's a big gap of space between where they're stationed and where the player's benches. And I was standing on the edge of the box where all the photographers sit and Jason Taylor comes running off the field. And I am assuming that he just wasn't paying attention and ran straight into me and knocked me over. So I can say I've been tackled by Jason Taylor on the football field

Roy Richardson (Host) (03:20):

And you survived and you were, and you were without pads

Michael Weiss (Guest) (03:25):

And without pads. Yeah. And it got right back up just, you know, dust myself off, and I was good to go.

Roy Richardson (Host) (03:29):

So tell us about that again, share a little bit with us you know, that journey with the Miami dolphins. I mean, you know, look, I'm a, I'm a college sports buff. You know, I went to The U (University of Miami) I'm very proud of that, but growing up in Miami, of course, Miami dolphins is, is a, if there's a professional team, they would be, you know, my favorite. And I'm hoping that one day, you know, will one day, one day we'll bask in that glory again, of a, of a, of an undefeated season. But tell me what it was like working for the dolphins and, and, you know, what, what's, what you took away from that

Michael Weiss (Guest) (04:01):

And, and working for the dolphins, the Florida Panthers you know, it's, it's very fun long hours, especially during the season. It's interesting, you get to see kind of, you know, how the sausage is made. And it was a lot of fun to learn a lot and made some good connections. The Jason Taylor story is probably the most exciting thing. The only other one that kind of is on that level is I first got started in professional sports in, I think 2002, but that, and that was with the, the Florida Panthers. And my job then was right out of high school, or it was still when I was in high school in between the periods of play they'd have different on-ice games and activities. And I was responsible for doing that.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (05:00):

And it happened to be the NHL all-star game that season in 2003. And I was asked to help with some, some things and one of the players on the all-star team for the Western Conference, which is kind of the area where a lot of our equipment was stationed. For anyone who's an NHL fan, Sergei Federoff was on the all-star team that year, and some of the other players on the all-star team put dye and his shampoo. So it turned his hair blue, and he had to have blue hair for the all-star game. And I got to hear the other all-stars kind of joking around and giving him a hard time about it. So that was kind of a cool experience. It was an interesting industry and fun industry to be in.

Roy Richardson (Host) (05:54):

That's awesome. That's awesome. So what, what made you decide, you know, that, hey, you know what ,I want to pivot, I want to change my career? What brought that about?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (06:05):

At the time, at that time, I was working for the professional wakeboard toward just constantly traveling the country, and the travel kind of waned on me a little bit and not being home missing a lot of things here in Orlando due to the travel, and I saw an opportunity with the hospitality college here at the University of Central Florida (UCF). And I was very fortunate. It was really 2012 when I was hired. And I was excited that I was told that I think I beat out like 92 other applicants for the job. I got to learn about everything that goes on at a university that when you're a student, you don't really think too much about, but the research said that faculty work on grants being awarded community partnerships and success stories. And it's just a whole nother world and got involved in that. And about a year or two, after that found my way to the Incubator providing kind of marketing support to some of the companies and business development support, and then got to the incubator role that I'm in today, helping the startups that I work with.

Roy Richardson (Host) (07:26):

Let's talk about that. I mean, you know, tell us a little bit about you know, the Incubator, what is a business incubator for people who are out there who may not necessarily understand what it is, how it works, et cetera, give us the, give us the rundown on what it is and, and what you do?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (07:43):

Sure. So the idea behind the incubator kind of like with newborns or eggs is the idea is that businesses when they're first coming, you know, coming to be there, they're very fragile. They need an environment that's going to help support them. And so a business incubator does that. We work with brand new startup companies and other companies that are in their early stages of growth to provide different support services to make sure that they have what they need to hopefully be sustainable, but really thrive and, and grow and be kind of the future businesses of our community.

Roy Richardson (Host) (08:23):

And let me say that, you know, our company, Aurora InfoTech, is a very proud member of the UCF Business Incubator here in Orlando. And, and the services and support that we have gotten from the incubator, you know my wife and I are now our second business, we were very successful with our first one. We were able to sell that. And, but it was about being in the right place at the right time, et cetera. And there, you know, things change over time. So, you know, you guys help to really put the guard rails on and help guide us down a path to success. But, you know, tell us a little bit and share with us for some of our viewers or listeners out there, our audience, I should say, who may want to know more about incubator? You know, what are some of those services and guidance that are, you know, is available to businesses. And then later on we'll cover a little more in terms of how they go about, you know, getting into the incubator.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (09:20):

Sure. So it's going to be different for every company because they have different needs, different goals, different industries, different stages, relative kind of relatively different stages. But kind of general we provide is general business guidance, some countability access to different services and resources, you know, financial management support introductions to service providers and potential partners and referrals. You know, if there are companies looking to do this, the government providing some government contracting support but our, our goal is primarily business operations and business development. That's kind of where our focus is in terms of helping these companies to grow and become the future kind of employers of our community.

Roy Richardson (Host) (10:10):

So you provide that support system. You, you, you bring that ecosystem together to help business owners focus on areas that in on, look, we've all been there at one point in time, you know, owning a business where we were a train we've left the station only to realize that we were on the wrong tracks, right. Or, or we, we didn't make a turn. We were supposed to make it at the time, you know, we were supposed to make it, but then, you know, of course, going down that track solo, you, we sometimes as business owners tend to compound the issue. But it's, it's always good. Of course, what you guys, what you do is you bring that ecosystem, that support system to help and be that, that I w if I may call it that almost a check and balance, or, or a, a challenge partner to, to get us to think outside of the box.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (10:58):

Yeah, exactly. I mean, you mentioned that you know, if you're, if you've started your business started several businesses and it's going to be different each time, and there are things that you're going to learn from your last experience, and then there are things that just have never, you know, hit you. And so our job is to kind of help guide you through processes you know, kind of act as a sounding board and help you think through the challenge that you're going through or, or the strategy that you're trying to accomplish and implement. So yeah, w w what we do is meet with the companies and figure out what their needs and goals are, and think through the strategies and resources and connections and everything that's required to get them on track to, to, to grow.

Roy Richardson (Host) (11:45):

Awesome. Awesome. And so, Michael, how many, you know and maybe there, you know, people may have heard of UCF business incubation program before they may not have, you know, how large has that program here. And, you know, what a lot of people may not know is that you actually operate from many different areas of Central Florida. So can you expand a little bit on that for us?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (12:08):

Yeah. So the program itself has been around since 1999, so it's, you know, over 20 years, 20 years old. And we do have multiple locations across four different counties. As far South as Kissimmee, we have an incubator in Lake Nona that focuses on life sciences and healthcare. And then downtown Orlando as well as on East Colonial, with downtown being focused a lot on different tech verticals, you know, smart city technologies, hospitality technologies, ed-tech, things like that. And then Research Park houses a lot of defense contractors, modeling, simulation technology companies, photonics, and laser companies. Another location up in Winter Springs is a little bit more general in terms of the industries that work with and then as far North is Daytona

Roy Richardson (Host) (13:11):

Wow, all the way in Daytona in Volusia County?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (13:13):

While we should County up. So about seven locations.

Roy Richardson (Host) (13:16):

That's a pretty interesting reach. So, what are some of the more well-known companies that have come out of the UCF incubation program?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (13:27):

Good question. So there's a lot of companies. We work with hundreds of companies in the, in that 20 year period that we've been around. A lot of companies, you know, people haven't heard of simply because they're business to business, and if they're not in that space, they're not going to know about it. But some of the more consumer-facing ones probably is you know, Orange Blossom Brewing. So if you've ever had an Orange Blossom Pills or anything like that, that came out of the UCF Incubator.  Another company is UniKey Technologies. They've developed a smart lock using Bluetooth technology and featured Shark Tank. I was just going to say that. Yeah. And then another company that people might be aware of is a Savage Race to obstacle racing series of travels around the country that gets over a hundred thousand participants every year. I think they traveled to 12 different locations throughout North America. So those are some of the, more of the consumer-facing ones, but there's other been very other successful companies that you may not have heard of just because you're not in their space. But now we've had a lot of great success stories with yours.

Roy Richardson (Host) (14:36):

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I know, I know that you know you, you have some success stories going on there right now with, with, with Pink Lotus and, and, and some of the others that are around and, and those are it's going to be interesting to see you know that, that whole thing unfold there for, you know,  I'm speaking to about one the clients there who is extremely passionate about child safety and particularly with all the deaths that we had because people forgetting kids in their cars, et cetera, that she actually developed a product that warns  when that situation happens,

Michael Weiss (Guest) (15:18):

Right? Yeah. the company, Pink Louts Technologies were founded by Maryann Kilgallon and, and as you said, it was, it was founded to help prevent childhood deaths, primarily through heatstroke, you know, children being left in vehicles unknowingly and dying, unfortunately. But there are also other applications, you know, there's, unfortunately, instances of, you know abuse from babysitters and caregivers, accidental drownings, things like that. So it's a wearable device that the child wears that allows biometric data to be fed to the parent or caregiver to know that their child is exhibiting normal vital signs. And if they're in distress, you know, that the app connects to their smartphone will let the parent know that the child's distressed. And there's also a two-way communicator sort of the parent can hear the surroundings of the child. And I think they'd secured a partnership with a company called Proper Rapid SOS, which allows you know, the parent or even the police to pinpoint the child's location within inches of where they are.

Roy Richardson (Host) (16:37):

Wow. I mean, I knew about the early stages of this, and I'll have to get Maryann on here to tell her story. So but you know, it's amazing to see how that whole thing just evolved into, you know, something from, you know, initial somebody being extremely passionate about something, but through your guidance and the guidance of the ecosystem provided by the Business Incubator has been able to grow that now to do something much larger. That's great to hear and we will definitely be reaching out to Maryann. So, let me ask you something here, Michael, I mean, in your capacity as a Business Incubator Manager, if I may use the analogy of sports, you're almost a head coach of all these, you know, businesses that are, you're a coach to the owners of businesses to help them, you know, make sure they're operating from the right playbook.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (17:30):

Oh, that's a good analogy. Yeah, that's what we do. We help coach entrepreneurs to help them figure out how to pivot, how to optimize operations, how to think through things. And, and yeah, we would be, I particularly, as opposed to my colleagues, you know, we, we being part of each entrepreneur's journey you know, there's highs and lows and every journey, and it's great to celebrate when there's something to celebrate when there's not just to be there to, not be a shoulder to cry on, but to help them realize, you know, you know, how do we get out of this? How do we overcome this? And that's, that's equally as rewarding as the successes is helping them overcome those challenges.

Roy Richardson (Host) (18:15):

So, so let me ask you in your, in your capacity of, of coaching and guiding and being that, that mentor to, to others, you know, what are some of the books that you read along the way that influence your journey? And, and, you know, if you can, you know, you know, two or three of you can you know, maybe a nugget from each that, you know, would, would you, you know, you would say, Hey, these are valuable nuggets that, that business owners today should have.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (18:41):

So I think you know, Eric, Reese's Lean Startup is a great book for anyone who's thinking about starting a business or has an idea for one to help figure out if you really have something before you spend too much time and money on something that just maybe designed to fail. So that's a great book. And I think, I think we've, we've discussed this before was Chris Vos' Never Split the Difference. Yeah, that's a good one.

Roy Richardson (Host) (19:10):

I actually saw him. My wife and I were, were at a conference and I believe we have signed copies of his book because he did a four or five-hour presentation. And, and we've, we followed up since then on several, but yeah, he's an amazing story hostage negotiator, right?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (19:29):

Yeah. Yeah. And it's, what's, what's interesting is you would think someone with that kind of background, you know, negotiating on saving people's lives from, you know, from terrorists and then all that, how, how some of those principles can be applied to things like parenting, you know, how did, how did we negotiations with your kids? And it also applies to business and other areas of life as well. But it's just strange that you know, hostage negotiation can be applied to so many other things too.

Roy Richardson (Host) (20:02):

Yeah, definitely. I, I definitely a highly recommended a must-read if a, if, if you if, if, if you're interested in and, you know pick it up is by Chris fossas never split. The difference is the title of the book. So, you know, if someone is interested out there and looking to explore further the incubator program, et cetera, you know, is there a cost to join the program? And, and, and, and how do, how do, how does the company go about getting involved with incubator?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (20:34):

Sure. So I would encourage anybody who's interested in learning more about incubators to visit our website, which is incubator.ucf.edu check it out. There's, there are several different programs depending on, you know, the industry and stage of the company and things like that. You could learn more information about that. And on the website, you can find my contact information, and feel free to reach out to me directly by phone or email. My information is all on there. In terms of joining the program, you would submit an application through our website, we'll review it and then have a follow-up conversation. And if it makes sense to go forward, then there's a presentation that companies will be required to give a panel of our staff and provide you with a template of the information we want. And then we'll hear your presentation when you're ready and have a chance to ask some follow-up questions and then make a decision off of that, whether or not, you know, we're a good fit for, for the company and the company is a good fit for the program.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (21:33):

In terms of costs there, yes, there is a cost for our program. We charge a service fee and it depends on if you're just starting out and don't yet have a customer base or if you already have a good customer base and then you're focused on growth. So the cost depends on which of those two programs. And then if you need office space, not everybody does, but if you need physical office space, we provide that as well. And then there's rent on top of that service fee. 

Roy Richardson (Host) (22:07):

So, you said something interesting there that a lot of people may not really have understood before is because a lot of times when people hear about a business incubator, they tend to think of a newborn, right? They think of, of a concept, we have a project and we need to incubate this and get all the support, et cetera so that we can come out to market with it. But you also have programs geared cowards, well-established businesses that are looking to refine their processes and maybe they're, you know to optimize their business and, and, and, and, and refine their structure. Right,

Michael Weiss (Guest) (22:47):

Right. So we have, we, we do a program it's called the attraction program. It's designed for those who are, again, just starting out and don't yet have a customer base. I'm trying to figure a lot of things out to figure out if there is a market or not. And then there's those who come to our program who do have a customer base, and they're figuring out how they're going to scale their operations. And, you know, sometimes that requires a, you know, a cash infusion, whether that's equity or debt and, and kind of what's required to pursue those you know, how you're gonna scale your operations in terms of human capital and, and all the things that are associated with human resource management again, financial management to, how do you manage cash flow as you're, as you're growing, you don't want to grow too fast.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (23:30):

So there are different areas that could help whether you're just starting out, or you've been around a couple of years, and now you're kind of ready to focus on growth. And we do have one additional program, which is for those that are well-established companies but are headquartered else either in the country or the world who want to test out a new market. And we call that our soft landing program. So if a company from a, and we do have companies from you from Europe, from, from South America, from Canada who and other parts of the US as well, who again, want to set up a subsidiary or a satellite office here in central Florida, and to get, you know, acclimated to the, to the local business community, maybe some help with some, some press opportunities, some connections those are the kinds of things we help with those companies that already have all the fundamental stuff in place. Now they just need help primarily on business development here in either from the US from central

Roy Richardson (Host) (24:36):

Well, that's, that's, that's pretty interesting. So you can get the support needed, particularly, let's say if our company is based in Brazil and they're looking to enter the US market, they can, they can apply to the business incubator program for the soft landing program, and actually go through that to establish their footprint and get familiar with the market and get all the relevant guidance, et cetera. And I use Brazil as an example, but of course, you know, it could be any, any part of the world, or like you said, here in the US may be in a different state, et cetera. That's pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing. And so in, in terms of, you know, being involved in, in the incubator program, cause I'm sure one of the questions that, you know, may, maybe in the minds of the, of an audience, what does, what does such a program look like in terms of, you know, time period timeframe? What is, you know, is this a five-year program? Is it a one-year, how do you, how do you put that all together?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (25:35):

So the average time that a company spends in our program is about three years. Companies have graduated in a minute matter of months and some have taken, you know, five, six, six being the really the top to graduate and graduation essentially means your company is financially stable, you've you you've achieved revenue growth. You've brought on some employees and really don't need that kind of protective, nurturing environment, to, you know, prove that you're sustainable. You've done that now, and now it's time to kind of grow without us.

Roy Richardson (Host) (26:13):

So is there, is there you know, that's an interesting point. So, you know, let's assume that you have a customer or client within the incubator program who has achieved, you know, growth and they ever achieved the, you know, a financial success they've grown their company, et cetera. So they're graduating now, is there, are there other programs that UCF has that, those companies can graduate from the incubator program and move into?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (26:40):

So there are other programs here in central Florida that support those, the second stage companies. One is it an organization called GrowFL and they have a lot of events and, and services that, that helped us second-stage CEOs you know, focus on the problems, the challenges that they experienced at that level. Also, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has an advisory board program. So they'll help assemble a board of advisors for the second stage program. And they have a, you know, a great network of people that they can pull from to become those advisors. It's a pretty intensive program, both GrowFL and the SBDC have great programs. They augment a lot of, of what we do and, and, and for those companies that graduate. So absolutely check those out if you're at that stage. Yeah.

Roy Richardson (Host) (27:38):

So that, that, that's interesting. That's very, very good advice. And, you know, we've, we've used the small business development center for many different I shouldn't say used, but we've utilized their services for many different aspects with regards to market research and different things like that. And, you know, a great, great group of folks over, over, over there. And, and Michael you know, and, and, and in your capacity, of course, you've, you've, you know, in, in your time with the, with the business incubation program, you've seen all different types of companies come through the doors. You've been part of, of, of companies that have not done well. You've been part of those that have done well, you know, in, in terms of, of, of seen and overseeing that structure, right. What are the three most essential nuggets you can pass on to businesses today and particularly in these difficult times?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (28:33):

So one thing that, and I think this applies so a lot of different areas of life, not just business but I think more often than not, the business owner knows the answers to their questions. They just need a sounding board to talk it out, to get their main talking points of where they're going to realize what the answer is. So whether it's the incubator or a business partner, or a mentor or whatever it might be, have that sounding board to discuss the challenges, the problems, the opportunities, because as you're just kind of spewing out information, and the person is simply asking you know, you know, why, or how would you do that? The owners, you know, the owner of the company is telling me all the information that they had stuck up here but hasn't heard. So find a sounding board.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (29:35):

The second one, I think is you gotta be willing to either sell your services yourself or find someone to sell them for you. I won't mention the company's name, but I worked with one entrepreneur who was so focused on tweaking the littlest things about his product and would not get out of the office, the lab, whatever you want to call it, to see if anybody's going to buy it. And it was, you know, to his own detriment that, that he couldn't get out of, you know, his own head, his own space to see if anyone was willing to buy it. And it was a really good product to 'em and, you know, I wish I wish he, or, you know, someone he could have brought on to actually try to sell it but be willing to talk to your customers, potential customers leads, talk about your services, talk about the value that your product or service brings. And, and you gotta just be willing to kind of get out of the office and sell. 

Michael Weiss (Guest) (30:38):

The third thing is to be willing to adapt. I mean, a lot of people have, you know, a plan and you know, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. It's like Tyson says so you gotta be willing to adapt, roll with the punches and, and, you know, find your next move, find out how you're going to pivot, you know, find that that partner who can help get you to the next level. So just be willing to adapt. Don't say, this is my, my dream, and it's got to work this way, or it's not going to work. So just be willing to adapt.

Roy Richardson (Host) (31:20):

I like to use the analogy of America's Cup Racing, you know, the sailing event where they're tacking and pivoting and making slight adjustments to continuously ensure that, you know, they get the maximum sails in their wind, or, I mean the wind in their sails, the sails in the wind, now that's the backward way, but you know what I mean? And, and, and they get the maximum advantage on the aerodynamics of their hull and making sure they're not in the wake of the other boats and different things like that, businesses are somewhat the same, right? I mean, we all start off with a plan. And like you just said, you know, everybody, everybody goes into the stage, or I should say into the ring thinking, they're going to knock out Mike Tyson until they get hit across the mouth.

Roy Richardson (Host) (32:04):

And then of course that plan has to change, but you need to know how to get up on your feet and make adjustments. And unfortunately sometimes as business owners, we tend to get stuck on our path, I would say without, you know, the willingness to pivot and make changes or smarter adjustments that would benefit us. So having that sounding board, and I can tell you for us for, and you know, having you and Caroline and your entire group just being there to be a sounding board sometimes on our ideas helps. And, and I know I've probably walked into your office many a time with some ideas that you've probably said, well, which planet is he on today? But by the time I leave there, I'm back on earth.

Roy Richardson (Host) (32:54):

So, you know, that's really good. Thank you. So I got a few more questions here for you and with regards to, you know, businesses that are out there today that, you know and, and I want to, I want to delve a little bit into, cause I know one of the areas that you, you know, your expertise is a little bit on marketing. But did we see a lot of businesses today really spending up a lot of energy in terms of social media marketing and stuff like that, but it's very, one-sided meaning that it's a lot of push and, and you have a lot out there today that even businesses that, you know, they make you know, they, they, they ask you for a connection on LinkedIn and the next minute they're, they're already selling you their product? You know, what, what is your recommendation for, for that type of scenario?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (33:47):

The best thing I can think of is to put yourself in your customer's shoes, if, or, or even, even as yourself, if you're on LinkedIn, are you looking to be sold to know when, when you get those requests, you want to either deny the connection request or not reply, or if you're nice, just fine. Thank you, but not interested. But social media is very easy to ignore. So I would say put yourself in your customer's shoes and think about it. If that's the way they really want to be sold to. I think it's important to have the connection as part of your sales process. But don't make that your primary sales tactic you know, there's a lot of different ways to reach out to customers. You know, whether it's through cold calls, emails, direct mail pieces, trade shows, networking events. I mean, there's a lot of different ways to connect. And hopefully, you're, you know, you're incorporating whatever makes sense into your sales process and know that it takes more than one or two you know points of contact to move the needle. So I would say social media is, can be part of the process, but I wouldn't make it. I wouldn't put a whole lot of time and, and, and effort into it.

Roy Richardson (Host) (35:14):

Awesome. Awesome. So tell us a little bit about your role with the international business innovation association. What, what, what is that all about and what, what do you, what do you,

Michael Weiss (Guest) (35:24):

So the international business innovation association as the name suggests is an international association of ma professionals in business, incubation, acceleration, coworking, and economic development, and it's for those to learn from one another. So there's a lot of conferences and training sessions and certifications that you can benefit from, from being a member of that organization. I've been a member since 2013. That's where I got my certification from. It's where I've met a lot of professional connections and learned a lot of, of, you know, processes and techniques to use. And you know, most people haven't heard of an, you know, an incubator, but they're everywhere.

Roy Richardson (Host) (36:16):

Yeah. I was just going to ask you, I was going to, I was going to say, you know, most, most schools, et cetera, have most universities have, have an incubation program, right.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (36:25):

A lot of them do. Yes. so they're usually affiliated with a university or with some sort of you know, government entity there are some for-profit ones. There's also as I mentioned previously, that there are also Accelerators, which are sometimes used interchange interchangeably with incubators, but there is a difference accelerators are usually kind of short term programs, usually three, maybe six months long. And then you're, you're done regardless of where the company is at. And, you know, when, when the programming ends, whereas an incubator is more long-term again, companies graduate three years with us on average and can stay up to five or six. So that's, that's kinda the main difference. But there's also some other sometimes accelerator programs, software, some, excuse me, some funding associated with it. They have a demo day when the cohort ends. So there are some differences between the two.

Roy Richardson (Host) (37:25):

Cool. So question for you here with regards to the, you, you mentioned co-working spaces and et cetera w w with the, with the situation that's going on with depend dynamic, where, where, you know, a lot of people have been working from home, a lot of businesses, and now we're realizing are actually coming back and taking a look and saying, Hey, you know, what do we commit to having these four walls? What we call a walled garden, or do we allow people to continue working from home? Because from an economic perspective, you know, the bottom line is looking a lot better if we're not covering that rent and overhead, et cetera, have you seen you know, is it, is it a trend that's happening now where, you know, the coworking space? I guess my question is, are you seeing a higher uptake for use of coworking space since the pandemic, or is it, you know in, in line with, with what was there before,

Michael Weiss (Guest) (38:19):

You know, I think it's going to be different geographically. You know, companies here at the incubator most are still working remotely. We probably have about three or four companies come in pretty regularly to use, to use their office space and the conference rooms and things like that. But, you know, as we come out of the pandemic, I think some companies are gonna realize that they can work just as efficiently and employees are, you know, morale might be improved by having them work from home. And like you said, it's kind of saves the bottom line. But, I think there's always going to be a need for commercial space for businesses to operate. I think that'll go away entirely. But we'll just have to kind of see, you know, to what extent. Right.

Roy Richardson (Host) (39:09):

Right. So, Michael, I got to ask you a personal question. So you've been on a journey where you started off and you started and, and, and, you know, professional sports, you work for three, you know, sports organizations, then you pivot it to hospitality management and the Rosen School of Hospitality Management and Training. And now you're with the Incubator program you know, different realms and, and, and, and an amazing journey. If you could change one thing on your journey what is it and why would you change it?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (39:48):

You know? Yeah. Hindsight is a very interesting perspective. And I don't know if it's just, you know, time or, you know, technology improvements or what but, you know, I kind of look back on my, my, my journey when I was with the well, I guess in all, all the professional or professional sports organizations and thinking about, you know, all the things that could have done, but maybe that's because I have the, you know, the knowledge of today's tech topics, today's technology and things like that. So I, you know, I always think I, maybe I could have done kind of done more in that space. And kind of the beauty of my, my current role is that work with a lot of different companies, again, with different needs and stages and goals. And so it's, every day is different.

Michael Weiss (Guest) (40:46):

It's not, you know, the same thing. So that's exciting to be a part of I don't know if this is changing it, but I think probably the smartest decision that I did in my career was, you know, leading professional sports and coming to work for the university of central Florida's hospitality college, because while I was working there kind of one of the benefits of working for the university is they allow employees to take a certain number of credits for free. So I was able to get my master's program that would get my master's degree while working. I don't think I would have had an opportunity to do that elsewhere. So I'm glad I, I made that decision to make that move.

Roy Richardson (Host) (41:29):

W I, I think, you know, there, there, there are many who, you know, get, get their undergraduate and then they, they, they want to go for the master's, but work in life one Oh one re or I should say life six Oh one begins to take over. Right. And yeah, that's amazing that you were able to do that. Congratulations. So we're running the top hair on our podcasts, and I'm going to ask you a question that I typically ask most of my guests here. I have, I have two other things, one right after this, but, you know, today, if you look at your journey and you just mentioned, you know, what you, what you probably could have done, but you, you look back on it now and you're able to reflect back because you have more knowledge than you certainly had back then. But if you could assemble a dream board of advisors to be, you know, Michael's board of persons, you know, whether they're they've passed on or whether, you know, they're still here today if you could pick three people to be, you know, key people, key advisors to you you know, who would they be? Why would you choose them and how would they help you influence your journey moving forward or even in your past?

Michael Weiss (Guest) (42:46):

So I got a question you know, I, I, I respect the people that I report to and not to suck up to the boss, but I, you know, I value their, their expertise, their wisdom the guidance and I, and I do look up to them. So certainly Carolyn likes Loge and Rob Pena, Pinto they've, they have, again, a ton of wisdom and insight to offer. There's, there's two other not to get into the politics, but just, I had ear that their own personal journeys and the things that they've accomplished, and it may sound silly, but you know Barack Obama and Pete who didn't change as well I have an opportunity to, to read both of their memoirs and to hear their, their stories and their journey and the things that they've accomplished. It's, you know, those are people that, that I look up to

Roy Richardson (Host) (43:52):

Amazing, amazing board. I mean, you know, they, they always say in life that smart people surround themselves with smarter people. So, you know, you'll put together an amazing board there that I may, I may have a very difficult time trying to compete with. So who's on your board? My wife, no, I don't know. I mean, you know, there are several people out there that I would say I would probably need a busload through to put together a board because, you know, I've, I've come across so many different people who I've looked at their stories and their journeys that I think would be a positive influence on me. Right. I would take a look at, for example you know, having Elon Musk, you know, on on the board, I really like what he is, what he does with green energy and, and, and everything else that he's doing with the electric industry, but this story in general, you know I appreciate that.

Roy Richardson (Host) (45:03):

I would say that you know, when I look at you know, Steve Jobs with Apple and how he pushed that envelope and although I support all operating systems and I have an affinity to windows, you know Apple makes things very simple for people and there's something to be said about that and all their product designs and everything else. So I would say those are two off the top right there. And of course, I got my third one there, which is my wife, to make sure I don't sleep in a dog house tonight. So no, she's my rock, so, well, this has been great, Michael, thank you very much for sharing you know, information about the Business Incubator program at UCF for sharing your journey and your fun facts with regards to you being tackled by Jason Taylor, and also the story while you were working with the Florida Panthers and appreciate all the knowledge that you have today.

Roy Richardson (Host) (46:07):

And I do hope that you know, some people in our audience out there who may want to explore further and get more information we'll you know, I hope that they do go to your website. We're going to make sure we put all your contact information below and the podcast so that they'll know which website to go to. We'll put your email address and the contact details from the website as well so that they can reach out to you. So thank you very, very much for your time. This has been great. And I look forward to having you back in the future to hear more and share more knowledge and, and provide more guidance to our

Michael Weiss (Guest) (46:47):

Yes. Thank you for having me. I had a lot of fun talking to you today, and I'm sure I'll see you again soon.

Roy Richardson (Host) (46:52):

Definitely. Definitely. You stay safe, Michael, and we will catch up soon. Thank you.

Roy Richardson (Host) (46:57):

Hi, I'm Roy Richardson, host of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Are you a business owner or a leader of a successful business? If yes, we'd love to have you as a guest on our podcast. Our goal is simple. We provide a platform for leaders to share their experiences, to benefit others. We want to hear your story, how you got started, the challenges you faced along the way, and your passion today. If this sounds like you, or if you know someone who fits the criteria, then be sure to visit our website@dynbizzpodcastdotaurora-andfulltech.com. That's D Y N B I Z, podcast dot Aurora, hyphen infotech.com. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notification bell to be notified when our next podcast video is live. Or if you rather listen to us during your car ride, you can also follow us on your favorite audio channel using the corresponding links below. Thanks. And once again, and keep crushing it!