Alicia Mckenzie (00:00.126)

make sure that the person you want to be intro'd to would actually want to meet you. Asking for like Peter Thiel or Sam Altman without bringing anything to the table is like asking somebody to drive their Ferrari just because you feel like it. Welcome to Married to the Startup. I'm Alicia McKenzie, a wellness entrepreneur and digital creator. Alongside me is my amazing husband, George, the CEO who's always ready for a new challenge.

you bring into the table.

Alicia Mckenzie (00:28.088)

We've been navigating marriage and running startups for over a decade, and we're here to share the real, unfiltered journey with you. Join us for insights and candid conversations about integrating love, family, and entrepreneurship. This is Married to the Startup, where every day is a new adventure.

Alicia Mckenzie (00:48.472)

Welcome to episode 48 of Married to the Startup. 48. It is as old as you are.

48. That's almost as old as I am. is. I had one episode for every year. I've been alive.

I don't even know where to start. We have so much goodness to talk about today. Do we? We do. Okay. Let's start with I was approached by a reality TV show. I'm not going to say which one. This was at the beginning of the year in the local DC area. Ultimately, it was decided that I was not the right fit because they were fearful that I would not give.

drum

No, they didn't say that per se. We don't know. I'm not reading between the lines. All I'm saying is that when I went into the process, it was multiple levels of interviews and ultimately we did not go forward, which I was on the fence on whether or not I was going to go forward with this anyways, because it just did not feel like it was in alignment with anything that I wanted to do. But

George Mckenzie (01:35.16)

That's what they meant.

George Mckenzie (01:40.322)

You are not choo-

Alicia Mckenzie (02:02.422)

Somebody always told me, take the meeting. So no matter what you do, you always take the meeting. But needless to say, some headline came, a few headlines dropped this week that one of the stars was being indicted for, not indicted, she was charged. Is that the same thing? She was arrested. Was she indicted? What's the difference? Is it the same thing? I've never gone through either, so I don't know the differences. I don't know the nuances of going through the law enforcement.

Yeah, no, I think it's the same thing.

George Mckenzie (02:31.01)

kept to be indicted and then arrested.

Okay. She was arrested for, I think it was 14 counts of fraud and financial fraud, insurance fraud, but she staged her and her husband were both arrested. Allegedly. Allegedly. staged some burglaries.

fraudulent

It's quite an interesting read.

George Mckenzie (02:48.802)

budgetly.

George Mckenzie (02:54.818)

Well, allegedly, yeah, they had insurance fraud. They claimed burglaries on items of

tuned to almost half a million dollars. So I think it was like $450,000 is what they're saying. Yes.

what they're being accused of. It's a lot of luxury items.

a lot of luxury items. So that just leads me to believe that they were portraying a lifestyle that they weren't necessarily living.

Well, that was, yeah, and that's in the police report that, you know, they had uncovered as they found holes in the story and they did more digging. They found evidence via social media posts that she was wearing jewelry that she had reported stolen during the time that it was supposed to be at home and was stolen. She was wearing it on her vacation. And then as they dug in, they found that the couple was

George Mckenzie (03:48.674)

They said, I think the regular report said, had a large amount of personal debt. I don't know what that means.

Yes. And the only reason I'm even aware of this is because when it happened, several people screenshot the story and sent it to me. And one of them was like, there is no way you could have kept up with this. Yes. And I mean, no, there is no way I could match with the drama that came with this show. But it also leads me to believe that if you are living your life one way,

to be seen, to be acknowledged, to be validated externally, there might be some inner work that needs to be done. And we were just joking around upstairs and I was like, nobody could pick our friends out from a lineup that if you were to guess their net worth and like put it over their heads.

Yeah, that you would guess correctly.

They would never match up. They would never match up. I'm like, you walk around like a bum. Our friends are... You can't get dress shoes on one of our friends. Like, he wears nothing but sneakers everywhere. They're all really nice sneakers. But sneakers nonetheless. And I feel like our core group of friends are genuinely really down to earth.

George Mckenzie (04:54.232)

really nice sneakers.

George Mckenzie (05:05.122)

Yeah, I think it's, took me a while to learn it. And I think it works with, it probably works with everything in life. works, I know it works in business and it works in family. It's just being authentic to who you are and being you all the time. Like don't pretend to be somebody or not. And that works in business too. know a lot of people that pretend to be passionate about it or want to portray themselves as something to either their colleagues or to their customers. And then.

In reality, that's not who you are. If you're authentic to who you are, comes across. It makes selling a lot easier and people trust you and they know what they're getting. It's the people that you don't know that are the worst. I've said that about, like, there's lots of people that I've done business with that the authentic ones, even if I don't like them, I understand who they are and what drives them and what their values are and I can deal with it. The people that I don't know, that they say one thing, they do another, they're pretending to be like, people who are always out for themselves.

you can tell pretty quickly and you always know, whatever decision they make, they'll make the one that's in align with their best interests. So it's easy to work with them and people that are fake. And then think a lot of people do that. Yeah. When you have either problems with who you are as your own authentic person, then you dress it up on the outside to be something else, to be what other people want you to be.

I think we've done a good job at what you see is what you get.

Yeah, it's interesting. And I feel like almost all of those reality TV shows are probably 100 % that. It's 100 % everybody pretending to be what they think the camera wants them to be, or their audience wants them to be, and what will get eyeballs. And it goes beyond that. It goes to social media. It goes to all of it. Like, people pretend to be something they're not.

Alicia Mckenzie (06:48.46)

The only franchise I wish I was a part of was the one in New York because they genuinely look like they have fun. There is one character in the New York franchise and I am absolutely obsessed with her and that's because I feel like she is very much like what you see is what you get. I mean, I don't know her personally, so probably not, but she comes off very authentic on screen, on social media. And it always makes me happy when people come up to me and they're like, you look exactly like you look on your social media. And I'm like, thank you. it's...

no filter, but also I don't do a lot. Like I don't do wear a ton of makeup, so on and so forth.

Yeah. And it's not like you wear staged clothing items for each post, right? Or like, oh, I'm going to go buy this really expensive outfit and ensemble, take some pictures and then stage those for a week's worth of posts and then take everything back. Returned. Common Instagram.

It blows my mind. Nordstrom has the most lenient return policy I have ever seen.

That's I'm sure people abuse it. Constant.

Alicia Mckenzie (07:48.34)

Abuse it constantly. The amount of content creators I've seen show up with stuff, they still have tags on it, or the pleat is still sewed together.

Same with guys, like suits, can tell when the pocket is still sewn together. As in when you haven't taken the thread out. darts out. Yeah, and the same with the back. Yeah. So know people that don't wear suits very often.

Of course. Well, don't wear suits very often, but also I'm a creature of like, let's invest in pieces that can be reworn for years to come. And I try to teach my kids that too. I'm like, I don't let them shop at garbage stores once they're done growing.

Yeah. When your, your item of clothing lasts less than a quarter, then yeah, you should probably not invest because it's not going to last very long. They grow too quickly and they destroy it.

No, no, I give up. give up. They destroy it. They destroy it. It's like my sweet little girls have the same pair of leggings all year and these little butt heads go through fricking pants in like three weeks. my gosh. Okay. Anyways.

George Mckenzie (08:43.178)

as a sliding console.

I think that was interesting what we talking about upstairs related to this article of how little you know about bonds.

Oh my gosh, yes. So apparently the bail was set to $50,000. But I guess, I don't know how this works. Okay, so let's say I get arrested for fraud and I go to jail, right? They arrest you and they take you to jail. Is that what happens? Yes. So you go to like a real county jailhouse. Correct. Okay. And then they're like, all right, your bail is set to $50,000. Yep. Then what?

Right, so if you have the $50,000, you can post your bail and then you go home.

So you give them all of the $50,000?

George Mckenzie (09:22.894)

Option A, sure. You give them $50,000 and then you go home. And then when you appear in court for your date of court, you'll get that $50,000 back minus any kind of court fees.

I had no clue that you got bailed out.

It's not a fine, it's just a financial incentive for you to actually appear in court. Didn't you basic civics? I don't know. Wasn't it like civics that they taught you this stuff?

How do you know this?

Alicia Mckenzie (09:48.367)

I don't ever recall being taught about bales

And cold pepper, teach you different stuff.

Maybe in Culver they teach you different stuff. Okay, so then what happens?

So then you go to court and you get your money back. So option B, let's say you don't have $50,000. So you go to a bail bondsman, which most of the time those are like right outside the courthouse or right outside the jail. There's a bunch of bail bondsmen. And then they will post the bond for you and you have to put up 10%. So in that case, if you had a $50,000 bond, you would have to pay the bail bondsman $5,000. They would post the $50,000 and then you get nothing back. So that's the fee.

Okay.

Alicia Mckenzie (10:29.294)

Do you pay interest?

No, it's $5,000, period. But you're done. You don't pay anymore. No, you're out five grand.

That seems like a better deal.

versus them giving you 50, but I minus any court fees.

get a 50 grand back if you post it yourself. Right. But the the court processing fees are nominal. Yeah. It's like $500 this fee or $250 that fee. It's like small stuff, not 10%. And that's why you don't remember that show, Dog the Bounty Hunter?

Alicia Mckenzie (10:47.127)

Are they?

Alicia Mckenzie (10:57.59)

No. remember, isn't that that guy with that blonde mole?

Yeah, exactly. So he was a bail bondsman. They would post bail for people. So then when you skipped your court appearance, now the bail bondsman, if you don't show up to court or they don't get you, they're out the 50 grand. So they go hunt your ass.

my gosh, is that what that show is about?

Yes, he's finding them and bringing them to justice. No way. Yeah, and they were all in like Hawaii, so it's a small island. Like where the fuck are gonna go?

Wow, I really never understood the

George Mckenzie (11:33.358)

Yeah, so that's how now you know now, you know

my gosh, it makes so much sense.

more you know, we should have one those manners to go across.

No, I thought they were hired by the court to go find people who didn't show up to jail. I didn't realize they loan them money. Wow. Yeah. I've learned so much today. Yeah. I don't know if any of our audience has, but.

They loaned the money.

George Mckenzie (11:55.822)

I'm sure our audience is familiar with Ponds and jail. We'll see. We'll see.

No. No, not at all. Okay, pretty interesting. So bottom line, stay off reality TV and don't commit insurance fraud. That too. All right, moving on. Can we talk about buying a company versus starting one from scratch? Because I know we've done both. You've done both. Right? You started one from scratch. Yes. And then

beyond it.

George Mckenzie (12:15.854)

Sure. What do you want to talk about?

George Mckenzie (12:23.648)

I've bought a new one.

Goodbye one.

Yeah, they're both, it was, both had their ups and downs. Yeah. The starting one, I think there's nothing better. No, because it's a different kind of stress, but then you're, you are involved from the creation and you're not having to, to change something. Like being able to, you know, start from nothing, make decisions, change decisions, continue to move, just keep swimming. Like in a startup, it's great.

No, he didn't consider it more stressful.

George Mckenzie (12:54.894)

The only problem with that is the one that I did, was bootstrapped. So in the beginning you have zero cash. We were very poor. That's very challenging. Yeah. And it presents its own set of challenges. Payroll, and you can only grow as fast as your payroll or cash flow will allow. Yeah. is a hindrance to growth. Secondarily, like acquiring a company, you acquire all of the problems that it had. Right? And the thing that I struggled with the most in the one company that I did buy is you have to

That was a unique case, though. Good luck.

It was very unique, but I'd say that when I did the P thing we did the roll up It was a very similar set of challenges. So when you you do any kind of big change like that There's I think the rule is I think it's 10 80 10, but think there's bigger percent So it's like 10 % of the people they're gonna be gung-ho. They're gonna be all about it. Like so excited I'm glad you you came in. I'm so I've been looking for new change yada yada yada Yeah, and then there's 50 to 60 to 80 percent that are like, okay

skeptical what's going on. Yeah. And then there's like 10 % that'll fight you. Yeah. And the hardest part is finding those 10 % and getting them out. Yeah. And I'll say that the company that I bought wholesale, we didn't have many of the bottom 10 % and they were easy to identify. The problem that came, it was kind of just breaking the crutch. In a small startup, everybody goes to the founder. Like the founder is the lead person. And when that founder is no longer in charge, it's hard to...

put processes in place and hold people accountable when they're used to doing it the other way. And they feel like, you may be the new owner, but I'm still talking to founder X. And this is the process we used to use. So I'm going to use that process because I know it works. Your process too cumbersome, it's too much bureaucracy. I'm not doing that shit. I'm going to do that. And breaking that, right? And then getting people to align to your core values that you're instituting and what you want.

George Mckenzie (14:49.87)

and where you're trying to go. Because oftentimes founder led companies, they have a vision that the founder had. And that could be, I'm going to save the world or I'm going to do whatever. It could be the coolest place to work for people 18 to 24, whatever. And then if you come in with a different goal or core value or belief system, you have to kind of get everybody to value that and be a part of it. It takes time and you know.

There's a couple of approaches and one is like the doge approach, the approach that, know, Elon and all them use, you just cut hard and you go to the bone, right? Hire everybody, hire people back, you know, bulldoze it. Yeah. If lose customers, so be it, right? You just got to crush, go. And then there's a low and slow approach. And I think there's, you know, in my, I did the P thing that, you know, we did the low and slow approach and I wish I had bulldozed it, right? And it was more of, I identified the 10 % that were going to be trouble, but I was ineffective to...

get rid of them. And that's, you know, could be my fault some, it was mainly, was mainly the board and, you know, the private equity folks, Their risk tolerance was basically zero. So, oh, if you fire that person, then revenue could walk out. We can't do that. Which made it, you know, all the more challenging. So, I don't know. I like, they're both could be good approaches, like bootstrapping it. It just, the sense of accomplishment and being able to grow from zero just really, you know, is invaluable.

And when you do it, the excitement that the team can have, like every dollar, every new customer, every new contract, just as a huge win, right? Where you get to a certain size and the wins don't feel great anymore. And it's all about the losses. It's, hey, I'm supposed to grow 20%. If I lose a big customer, that's a 10 % holes and I got to grow 40 % or 30%. And then when I grow the 10 % that I was counting on, right, you don't celebrate it. Cause like, just fills the hole of the 10 % that I lost. Now I got to go get 20%.

So when you have a company like Carlyle that goes in and takes these failing companies and turns them around, how do they do it so effectively?

George Mckenzie (16:52.258)

I think it's different. I know people out there, and I've talked to several, they're like, there's a playbook. they have a playbook on it. They have this, they have that. If there was a playbook, my opinion, in my opinion only, if there was a playbook, I don't think the world is that we've created these new capitalist business operating processes that someone has a book that no one else knows or read. And when I talk to people that run some of these portfolios, I asked them point blank, how do you do it?

people, right? I find our hire, I'm good at hiring and attracting and finding the right people to put in charge. Yeah. And I give them, I give them the financing and the empowerment to go execute. And it works. And if you get a company that's bad, right? That, you know, if you screw it up, they're like, I was failing anyway. And if you turn it around anywhere, any kind of good, then you're like, wow, you're a miracle worker. Yeah. And, you know, I think there's

Fully.

Alicia Mckenzie (17:34.466)

interest.

George Mckenzie (17:48.75)

A lot of people that talk about private equity, whether back in the day it was, hey, we're going to take these gigantic public companies or these companies that are being run poorly and we'll buy them. And then we will institute our lean, mean operating machine model. All right. And we'll use all these process improvements and we'll do all these things and we'll turn it into this highly optimized, efficiently run organization. And then we sell it for a profit multiple. I think those days are gone. I don't think there's that many.

I'm sure they're all poorly run in some fashion, but it's not like, let's come in, put in a proven operator and 10x the profit. I think a lot of private equity companies, at least the ones that I've been associated with, or know the people that are in the room with them and know that they're some of the least efficiently run organizations because they got these board members that don't really do anything. They're ineffectual. They're just in there, you know, collecting equity or trying to, and they're just yes men. And in my view, a board should...

provide value and help drive the company with the CEO and be a sounding board and also hold them accountable to what they're trying to deliver and make sure that the vision that they have for the company are aligned with shareholder values. But a lot of them are just, hey, we just put people on the board and they're just supposed to give intros or they have a name that somehow makes my company look better because there's so and so's on my board.

hunting except with people.

And yeah, I don't know if that maybe that opens doors for meetings or for partnerships, but yeah, I'm not sure it really helps grow the business.

Alicia Mckenzie (19:25.134)

I think what's really difficult is that all of this stems down to people, right? And it's like hiring A people versus hiring B people versus hiring C people. You can only manage effectively as your best person. Or your worst person.

Yeah, over complicate everything.

George Mckenzie (19:41.634)

or your worst... Yeah, so A players, you know, hire A players. And as soon as you get a B player in, a B player doesn't know what an A player looks like anymore because they think they're an A player. So B players only hire B and C players. So as soon as you start introducing B players, it all goes downhill. Yeah, it's a challenging world. I mean, that's the problem. Not the problem, but then the other challenge of the startup is every employee, you gotta be incredibly selective.

Very true.

Alicia Mckenzie (20:10.466)

it you telling me that Elon hired?

first three thousand or five thousand something on space like see interviewed everybody

interview for the first like 3,000 hires. That's wild, right? Like that level of...

Yeah, at DefensePoint, the first, I would say the first hundred people, one of the five of us were on every interview. Yeah. And it was just common. For me, was like when I was commuting then to DC every day, was a ride home. I had windshield time, I was doing interviews. Like, sit on the tech interview, ask a couple questions.

Absolutely.

Alicia Mckenzie (20:45.294)

You don't know how good you have it until it's gone. Yeah. Hindsight. And you're like, man, those were the best of times. Yeah.

Yeah, that's what we used to do.

George Mckenzie (20:54.668)

I think that, you know, don't know, distance, everything makes it better. Like every time, every year goes by, the six weeks we did in Europe seems more and more awesome. When we were there, I mean, it was great. It was great when we were there, but it was challenging. But every year that goes by past that, you're like, forget all the little things that go wrong. That's the thing that's, yeah, hard to stay present with is that all those little challenges that stress you out day in, day out.

It was challenging.

George Mckenzie (21:20.75)

You know, when you're doing something that all of those things get lost in the wash, right? And when you remember, you remember the highlights and even the struggles. don't remember the nitty gritty, like, you know, so-and-so didn't show up for work today. Right? You remember, man, you remember when we won that contract and all those are great times. And even though we lost that customer, we didn't know. We were so bummed out about it, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we pivoted to X, Y, Like it's so hard in the moment to know that.

Yeah, or it's just like walking around. had to go check the mail and I have a purse full of checks. And then you're like, can you swing by the bank? And I'm like, it's 100 grand in my bag right now. This is like 15 years ago. It's crazy. It's like wild to look back and think about.

Yeah. And then, you know, I think the challenges with when you buy in other companies, it could be beneficial too, because you don't start from zero.

Is there like a sweet spot in buying a company like you don't want to buy one that's been around for so long that it has so many issues, but you don't also want to buy a company that's like six months old. I feel like there's a sweet spot. It's maybe like.

I think it all depends on what you want to do.

George Mckenzie (22:27.214)

But some of the older ones, man, if you have a good book of business that you can rely on, like they're in cash cow phase where it's, hey, I have 10 clients that have been with me for 10 years. They're probably not going anywhere. So you can count on that revenue while you turn that company into what you want it to be. And that's, for me, that's the bigger value of buying something that already exists. It's not, hey, I want to take what you have and make it 10X better than it is today. It's more of, hey, can I take what you have and turn it into what I want?

Like I have a vision for the company I want to create. You could be the seedling for what I'm trying to grow. And I'll leverage what you have today to build or grow you into what I want you to be. Let's say you're just a services business that does network operations stuff. You're just monitoring or you're helping route switch access point circuits. And I could see that and say, that'd be a good entry level. Give me a good customer base that I can then sell my

cyber stuff to use that to grow. then, you know, over in three years, that network component will be a small, small fraction of the revenue we have. But it's great to start with something. You're collecting a paycheck day one, you have money to put into marketing, can hire a salesperson, like all those things you can't do in a startup. You're all three of those things.

Financing is easier. Yeah leverage

Mm-hmm. Having an asset, you can lever.

Alicia Mckenzie (23:52.138)

Mm-hmm. Well, food for thought for your next thing. I'll see. We'll see. All right, moving on. What's your new favorite app? I feel like it's an app. It is. What app? Yeah, application.

Yeah

George Mckenzie (23:59.79)

Is it an app, Sora? I guess that is an app. It is. think. is it for? Application. I guess it's an app. It's pretty cool though. Just an AI video generator.

What is it?

Alicia Mckenzie (24:13.454)

Okay, I've never I have not used Do I have to download anything?

I guess into them, but you're doing

Now you can use the SAS component if you want.

I don't have the chat GPT app.

Then yeah, whatever you use, chat.jpt, use it through your browser. You can use SOAR through your browser. Really?

Alicia Mckenzie (24:31.155)

Yeah. Okay, so what do do with it?

Well, you upload your avatar. So you basically give it access to your camera and you take a picture or like two second video of your face and it looks at you forward and you go right and left and then has you repeat three numbers like 4187, 6, and then from there on you can choose your avatar or you can choose other avatars that people that you're friends with that you allow. So you can allow your avatar to be used by other people.

and other use other people's avatars. Wow. So friends, can create little friend groups and then you can create. I have not because I don't do that. People that shared it with me, I'm sure they would use my avatar if I allowed them. But then you can tell it just like in a chat GPT prompt what you want the video to be and be like, okay, use George Mackenzie have been playing pickleball with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and it will generate an AI video of that.

Do you have any friends?

Hehehehe

George Mckenzie (25:29.176)

Just like I sent you the video, did a generate, I have George driving a black Lamborghini on A1A with a teacup pulled on his lap. And it created a 20 seconds short.

with a dog that looks just like Fitzgerald.

Yes, I'm driving the Lambo and talking about the waves and how amazing the day is and it's my voice. It's pretty cool.

It was very odd, very odd. Okay, you know what's really strange is that since you sent this to me, I have been seeing Sora videos pop up on TikTok and like Facebook.

Why would you not? Like I'm sure that's how everyone's gonna do Instagram now. That's Sora generated feeds.

Alicia Mckenzie (26:04.814)

Oh my gosh. don't like it. I like real life. Yeah. Okay. Last subject, which is kind of interesting because I have been doing a lot of sponsor pitching and cold calling and emailing and all. So the title of this sub stack was the only right way to ask for an intro. So let's say I'm going to go to so-and-so because I know he knows so-and-so and I'm going to ask for an intro. Networking, basically.

versus cold, cold emailing.

Always better with a warm intro. Someone did that to me this last week.

I was just going to ask how many people come to you for warm intros? Does it happen often and what do you do? Do you ignore them? you? Sometimes. You used to more often.

Not that often.

George Mckenzie (26:49.816)

Yeah, I mean it still happens sometimes. Yeah, when I

Okay, so I want the headline of this warm intro. Ask. Because I'm curious.

last week. Yeah. It was, it's interesting. So it started like one of my friends texted me and said, Hey, would you recommend so and so, you know, for a job? And I was like, yeah, he's a good dude. Right. And he knows the stuff in cyber. And he goes, Oh, okay. Because my wife was trying to get an intro to him. And then I then like 10 seconds later, I get a text from his wife along with the cyber lead for this gigantic company.

who said, Hey, can you give a warm intro to cyber lead for this gigantic company to, you know, the, this guy that, know, it was the same guy. I was like, sure. What do you want the intro to be about? Like, what do

Yeah. Okay. Right. And that was like this 101 mechanics of an introduction. Right. Number one is the ask. Right. So you email the connector requesting an intro. Number two is the forward. Right. Thought you two should connect because of X, Y and Z. Right. Number three is the target says sure. Number four you loop the connector in and then you swoop back in and book.

George Mckenzie (28:00.27)

So that's kind of what it is. once I got that intro, once I got the request, I texted him in a different thread and said, hey, would you mind me giving you an intro to this person who's the head of cyber for this company who may have a career opportunity for you? And he said, sure. So then I went back to that. And then I created a new thread with the two of them and said, hey, we'd like to do a warm introduction between so-and-so cyber guy and so-and-so other guy and say, hey.

I always like to put like-minded people together and in this case, it's even better because you're both good people and putting good people together always works out. I'll let you guys take it from here. That's kind what I said.

Okay, so. And that was via text message. All via text. That is such a pain in the ass. And that's like one of the bad ass hall of shame. Like things you shouldn't do. Which is what? Don't ask via text. Don't ask via WhatsApp or X, right? These are un-forwardable and it's just inconvenient for the person who's trying to connect.

I know. Well.

George Mckenzie (28:54.357)

well that's how I go.

George Mckenzie (29:03.116)

Yeah. Yeah. I had three different text threads going. Make it easy.

See, if you want an intro, make it easy. Yeah.

or email below. Yeah, now that's much easier.

Right? Like I feel like that's warm intro 101. Like don't, and this just goes to boundaries, right? Like when I'm dealing with work stuff, I do not want it in my text messages. Period. Like there are other easier, more trackable ways. Black or email. Right? Like.

Nah, I don't like that either.

George Mckenzie (29:30.113)

Teams or

Yeah, I like email. Email is the, yeah, it's like the communication mechanism where you keep trying to kill, but it's still the most efficient.

the most efficient and what's insane is that your email box drives me crazy. Why? Because you have like 15,000 unread emails.

George Mckenzie (29:53.944)

deal with today. I'll go back if I can't get to it today I normally don't.

And the fact that you prefer email as your means of communication says a lot because your email box gives me like the hives. I look at it and I start to panic. I know, like just unsubscribe from all of it.

And there's a lot of junk in there.

George Mckenzie (30:14.924)

That sounds like work. That sounds like effort. So was there like a pointer for how best to ask? When is it faux pas to ask?

man.

Alicia Mckenzie (30:25.398)

I don't think there is any faux pas to ask, right? think it's there was no real never ask, but it's make sure that the person you want to be intro'd to would actually want to meet you, right? Like of value. You have to have like...

Yeah. So what's, what are you bringing to the table that would interest this person? Why would they want an introduction? Why do you want an introduction?

Exactly. Precisely. Can you do a warm intro to X? I have a product that would fit their company perfectly. Right? That is your, that's your ask. But it can't just be, I want to meet this. And let me see it. Let me find it because it was really

I want to meet CEO of XYZ.

Yeah, so asking for like Peter Thiel or Sam Altman without bringing anything to the table is like asking somebody to drive their Ferrari just because you feel like it. Yeah. Right. So it's the same thing. You have to have something of value for these people in order for the warm intro to even be considered. And then also asking like, don't ask via LinkedIn. Don't make it long. Like that's another thing. Sending a long like paragraph of why I need to be intro'd. No. Be short. Be to the point.

George Mckenzie (31:33.806)

So no write up of why your product fits, just that your product

Exactly. Exactly. Make it short. And if somebody doesn't respond, don't keep sending emails. Right? One follow-up. That's kind all you need.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of asking for intros. No, I don't. I'm not a big networking person. No, I'm not a big net, I don't network. Maybe I need.

No, I'm not either. You're not a big sales guy though. Maybe you should. Maybe I should. Maybe you should network more. Do you want me to create a company for you too so we can help men network? No. Through life's transitions?

Transition. Wow.

Alicia Mckenzie (32:08.44)

No. No? Right? Like entrepreneurship to unemployed? No. Unemployed to buying a company? Yes. Right? Life's transitions. There's a company for that. I have a solution. We host four quarterly lunches.

on board.

Alicia Mckenzie (32:27.072)

I do have a playbook. A lot of? Yeah, all of the above.

So we can go back to his story on her story.

Okay, bye bye then.

Alicia Mckenzie (32:41.41)

Thank you for tuning in to Mary to the Startup. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, please take a moment to like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast. Your support helps us reach more people and keeps the conversation going. If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover, drop me a message. I love hearing from you guys. Until next time. George out.