[laughs]

We, we have the ranking to be the top worst team in the league.

So, um, but yeah, thanks for having me.

Yeah, so, uh, my name's Joe Mindak.

I'm one of the co-founders of Noladex.

And, and Noladex, for people that don't know, uh, what that stands for, is your networking Rolodexes.

Some young, younger people out there that might not [laughs] never had a Rolodex.

And networking in general, people need to change their way of thinking and go, "Well, why don't I just be upfront about it?" Right? And be upfront, and then this way you don't have to have people sign up for a program on your website and all this, and you can just be doing it all within the community and develop a community and develop this new attitude of let's do business together and refer each other and everybody make money.

So, as you look back, what were the key experiences that led you to create the Connective and Nolodex?

Well, you know, every business, and I tell this, and I had a marketing agency for 20 years, but even my marketing clients, I would say, get into some sort of networking.

Like, I don't care, you know, you're going to spend money on marketing, we'll build a website for you, we'll do SEO, we'll do all the traditional marketing stuff that you need to market and brand your company, but... whoever's in charge of your sales, get them into a networking group.

It's going to be the best way to get business no matter what.

Referral marketing, having people introduce you to somebody they know, right? You introducing me to your guy that you played football with in college, right? That's much more powerful than some cold email or LinkedIn outreach or ad or whatever that somebody sees.

It's great.

You might do that.

What did you feel was missing that ultimately led to creation of the Nolodex?

So what shifts have you personally seen in our world of business when it comes to referrals that people need to start paying more attention to?

Well, for me, I think, you know, People are way too into AI and letting that do the work for them.

You still need to build relationships.

So I think people are starting to rely too much on that'll do the work for me.

I could just sit back and let it, I do it.

You still have to do those relationships, right? I have a deal that's closing, I think this month for $35 million, like the biggest deal I ever put together.

The guy I met in the sauna at the Y every morning, right? Like we met each other, we started talking, like you're saying build and just relay, let's get to know each other.

And who would you recommend the platform for from industry perspective, maybe profession perspective, and even monetary perspective of who would benefit most from being a part of it?