David Castro is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of multiple technology companies; before IceBrekr, he co-founded a healthcare software company that was eventually acquired by Dr Oz’s ShareCare corporation.
Currently working on a first-in-kind app called IceBrekr. It is a networking app, a connection utility, that empowers people to meet key new connections on their own terms, and wherever their ideal kind of people gather.
In his off time, Dave is a golfer, decent social latin dancer, musician, athlete, and enjoys spending time with his daughters.
Connect with David on LinkedIn and follow IceBrekr on Facebook and Instagram.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.
Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity radio show where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with IceBrekr, Mr. David Castro. How are you, man?
David Castro: Fantastic and excited to be here with you.
Stone Payton: Well, we are delighted to have you on the show, man. I got a thousand questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think a great place to start would be if you could articulate for me and our listeners mission, purpose. What are what are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks, man?
David Castro: Absolutely. So we believe and this is strong for me, I’ve been in sales my whole life. Um, the life that you’re dreaming of is built through the connections that you make. And that’s true whether it’s personal or professional. And so what icebreakers mission is, is to help you to make the connections that matter. And that can be for extroverts. And that’s I’m more on the extroverted side. And that’s that’s kind of how I began the concept, but found that it’s fantastic for introverts as well. So we just everybody is going to achieve what they want in life through the people that they connect with, surround themselves with because you don’t do stuff alone.
Stone Payton: Well, you’re definitely singing our song here at Business RadioX. Amen to that. Love it. So I got to know, man, what’s the back story? How did you arrive at at this? It probably if you’re like most of our guests, it probably wasn’t a straight line. Tell us about your backstory.
David Castro: Yeah, so I was working like five different jobs and and that’s just to make a nice, you know, easy to say number, but working my way through school and somebody snagged me into their startup. It was like they offered me. They literally What are you making now with all this stuff? And they offered me like a dollar more an hour. I’m like sold. And so it was me and the owners. Um, one of the owners, the wife and her black lab retriever in the basement. And that, that, that paid the bills and got me cooking on on, on sales career. We got bought by a big company and that that was the next you know decade of my life being there and making good money good career but always in sales, always doing that stuff. Wanted to get into entrepreneurship. That didn’t come later until I moved to Nashville as a family decision. We moved down here and just didn’t feel like what I was doing was the thing that I wanted to be doing but couldn’t get back to federal government sales and stuff like that. Because there are so many people in the DC area that were right next door, right? So I think that’s changed a little bit with the remote work stuff. But I was this is the opportunity to get cooking in entrepreneurship and I don’t know how much I should go into detail there um, on the pre story to icebreaker but you know had a couple stints of of creating stuff usually in the tech world because that’s that’s where I nerd out and I found myself at one point always always a networking event.
David Castro: So I always found myself in networking events and networking situations. And just like most of us who do that, we’re aware of the fact that, hey, that guy over there is a competitor, right? And who is he talking to? He’s talking to the guy I need to be talking to, you know, or, you know, this room is big and like, I haven’t connected with somebody yet who would make this worth my while for being here. Like a lot of great conversations. And these are wonderful humans, but, you know, it’s 9 to 5 and I’m putting food on the table and, you know, how do I get my ROI? Um, so things like that, right? So I was driving down the highway down here 65, and I’m connecting my phone to my radio because I had an old car and, you know, whatever. That’s what you have to do back then. And there was, you know, meanwhile, you know, people are flying by me at 75 miles an hour or whatever, and I’m picking up their their phones and and then just like just started hitting me.
David Castro: I kind of like have a shelf in the back of my head of like, cool tech. And so think about ways to use it. But I just started pulling that string. I was like, okay, so I’m seeing their phone that is basically an appendage and it’s got its unique identifiers. Each phone in the radio signals have like a Social Security, a Social Security number, basically, right? Unique universal identifier. And it’s basically an appendage of that person because it doesn’t move more than six feet away their whole day. And. Yeah, they can, you know, approve being attached to this number and and saying what they want to say about themselves anyway. So that’s how the idea came about. And I just realized, hey, you know, now we have the opportunity to have an opt in utility network, so to speak. That’s only eyeball distance. It’s not, you know, it’s not GPS. So very organic. Uh, again, privacy. Turn off, turn off, turn on, turn off whatever components of your profile that you want. But then folks can know who’s in the room and you can filter for who’s who’s your ideal connection to help you to make the connections that matter most.
Stone Payton: So now that you’ve been at it a while, you’re out there. What are you finding the most rewarding about the work? What’s the most fun about it for you, man?
David Castro: Oh, man. Uh, you know, I am an artist. You know, on the side. Not professional, but decent. And the thing that you love most about creating stuff is when people react to it. Like you want to bless people. Right? And the coolest thing about what I’m doing right now is seeing people, like, just have the aha moments and the excitement. It’s a lot of fun when you tell somebody the story and they and they’re, Oh yeah, that’s super cool. But then when it actually happens in real life, man, that’s that’s beautiful. I had an event where someone came up to me and was asking me, Hey, you know, how do I, how do I do this? And she just wanted me to help her put her keyword in to her filter. And we did that. And then boom, like it was somebody showed up. That was her ideal person. She she’s like, I got to go. I got to go talk to this person and just. Awesome.
Stone Payton: Oh, it sounds like so much fun. So let me back up a minute. When you made that leap to true entrepreneurship, what I mean, that had to be a little bit scary. I’m trying to envision you coming home to your spouse or your significant other and, you know, Hey, I’m leaving this world that where I’m making a good living and I’ve kind of cracked the code here and I’m going to jump off this cliff. What was what was that like? Or was it all butterflies and unicorns?
David Castro: Man, I got to tell you, I was pretty lucky on my first rodeo, I guess, so to speak, in entrepreneurship, We it was a friend of mine who was also in sales who had the subject matter expertise in health care that that we utilized. And it was a basically a dashboard that helped doctors to understand what these patients need. That came in so they could check the boxes to make sure the patients were healthy and thus they’ll get a bonus from, you know, Medicare or whatever. Right? So anyway, but we had a partner that was helping us build it who, you know, these guys were data experts and they were they had some clientele as well. So I was like the sales guy selling our new software build and selling, you know, this other thing on the side. And we started off with, uh, we pitched the idea to a, a client and the, the client loved the idea and wanted to basically pay for it. So, uh, we had, we had it, we had it built by our first client. And then, you know, we just went to the other folks with, with credibility and a product. So it was, was pretty, uh, was, was, was pretty fortunate. Um.
Stone Payton: Yeah, I love the idea and I often will will counsel people who occasionally will ask me about some strategies for getting their thing off the ground. And I love the idea of a client funded startup that oh is amazing.
David Castro: That is, that is the ideal. And even if you can’t get it funded, obviously you’re you’re the first thing you’re doing is saying, hey, I know I can benefit from this. Right? I would buy it. But, you know, I need other people’s money to put food on my table. I need a lot of I need a lot of clients, not just myself as the client. So, yeah, that’s huge. And, uh, it’s actually very common. And if you’re in software or you’re familiar with the software development world, that’s what a lot of these folks do, is they’ll build something for someone and, you know, they’ll often say, Hey, you know, we’re building this for you and we’ll give you a discount if we can use it. But software development companies have a lot of stuff, you know, in the back, right on the right, mothballed that they can they can bring out after having um, you know somebody else pay for it basically. But but that’s you know depending on what your idea is that’s definitely viable. And it was for us, again, it was an industry as health care industry, very large. These guys are focused on providing health care. They’re not trying to, you know, um, you know, create an enterprise software product. And so ideas like that definitely lend itself to that.
Stone Payton: All right. So let’s dive into the work in the service around Icebreaker, including the what and the and the why. You know, what really compelled you to to marshal your forces and put this thing together?
David Castro: Yeah. So. You know, again, it was it was out of need and also out of out of like personal need, just awareness of like the the fact that this doesn’t exist yet, which is phenomenal. What you what we do have on the market are the platforms that folks are a part of in the virtual world. But getting from the virtual world to the present, right into the into the physical world, that’s a different ballgame. I can I can. And I have. And you have to probably met somebody on LinkedIn. Maybe it was an introduction or whatever. And then you go to the coffee shop and you can’t tell which person you’re about to meet with is in the room. It’s like they don’t look anything like their picture. So, I mean, even on the professional side, you got what they call catfishing, right? Like, right, right. Um, and then, you know, if you’re going to an event or a conference, you want to do your homework ahead of time and see who’s coming in, that type of thing. But great, they’re on the registration list now. What? And this is why a lot of events don’t use apps because they’re basically just a registration list. I mean, you see a lot of events going back to paper because there’s an agenda and there’s the the contact list or whatever. And but they could be not coming that day. They could be out of the room just because you know that they’re coming and you want to meet them doesn’t mean that that it’s going to be a thing. And so, you know, these are all the reasons why I thought and and validation from people that I interviewed that would be potential customers. They all concurred. So that’s that’s how we got started and how I got started, uh, funding wise, bootstrapping this through the, the sale of that health care startup. My first, my first, uh, first startup.
Stone Payton: All right. So use cases, some specific examples of where this tool is just, man, this is the right place for this tool. And this is this is how and why this is an event would want this and an individual would want access to the tool in that surrounding. Yeah.
David Castro: So it’s a tool that’s fantastic for folks who have somebody in mind that they’re looking for. And you know, if you put your keywords or the type of person you’re looking for when you walk into the event, it’ll notify you if that person is nearby. You can look at your discovery screen, see everybody who’s nearby, but it’ll highlight, you know, who that person is. And, you know, so and you can look at their profile and then you’ll say, validate why it says that this is your ideal person. And then walk up to them with a sense of like, you know, the icebreaker data that you’re looking for, um, or that that would help you have that initial conversation. Um, the, the other folks that helps is just introverts who feel overwhelmed with a bunch of people in the room and would love to know a little bit about some of the folks who are nearby. Right? Again, you can break the ice that way. You’re in a 20 person mixer and everybody here is somebody that you’d want to meet on your discovery screen. You can look at people’s profiles and in their their LinkedIn address or their socials or their, you know, whatever it might be and instantly connect with everybody. So if you’re on the small side, you know, understanding what people or remembering people’s names, understanding or remembering what their elevator pitch to make an introduction to somebody else who’s in the room, say, Hey, you need to go talk to this guy.
David Castro: He does what you’re saying. I think connecting with their socials, etcetera. Small side of the room, you know, small side event going upstream. If you don’t have an event app right now, Icebreaker makes a ton of sense because you can have your agenda, your itinerary, your speaker bios, sponsor ads, they’re all native. We could put those in there, plus all the features that that make icebreaker the powerful thing that it is. So but the bigger the event is, the more powerful it is because you’re more awash in a sea of humans. And which one of these people are my ideal connections, you know? And the more days it is, the more ROI you could have from it, and also probably the more money you’ve spent. So the more ROI you want. So as you’re walking through the venue, you know, you’re able to either look at the discovery screen and see your search or whatever it is, or just allow your keywords to notify you and then, you know, say, okay. Stone where is he? You know, there, that’s him. And I’ll walk up and say hi. All right.
Stone Payton: So is this something that the event organizer needs to underwrite for it to be available? For example, we do a lot of trade show and conference work. We didn’t there during Covid, but that business is. Back up against. So, for example, next month we’re going to be at a thing called FinTech South. We’ll be broadcasting live on behalf of that organization. We will probably have a third party sponsor, you know, sponsoring the interviews, the radio for that day. And there will be a lot of people there for. So would fintech South have invested in in this? And it’s makes it available to the participants or do the participants have it individually already or how does that piece work?
David Castro: Great question. My vision is that at some point in the same way you have a phone that you’re using to dial somebody or email that you’re that you’re using to email that icebreaker is the solution. The utility that you use to connect with people who are around you, who want to connect, who want to network. So at some point in the future, I envision that you can go to a conference and other people are going to be having it. So you’re going to be benefiting, right? You don’t need a registration list. Icebreaker, you’re walking around, that type of thing. Um, but, and then event event host can dip into that stream, so to speak. Right. And, and, and what, what we monetize and what they would pay for is the agenda, the speaker bios, you know, the kind of the the sponsor ads in the app but to you know, ensure that everybody has the app and that they know that, hey, we’re all going to benefit if we all use the app. We do have an event package, right, where, you know, it’s, you know, we charge by attendee and then and then again, if they want the sponsor ads and that type of thing. And there so yeah, the event would reach out to, to me and I’d take care of him.
Stone Payton: Gotcha. And then all right, but let’s say let’s say this, let’s just play this out a little bit. We got fintech to do it or we got us to do it. And we and so and then we get everybody in that world, sort of in the icebreaker world. Now we all go about our business and we get all the benefits of having connected in that way right there. The next time we go to an event, to an event, we already have the the system and we’re in there. And so over time, this sort of sort of grows, right? So is there also a path for individuals to just join straight up or does it pretty much have to start through the through an event like that?
David Castro: Yeah, absolutely. I that’s part of the vision is that everybody has it already.
Speaker4: Okay.
David Castro: And the event host just basically like connect to that stream basically connect to that community right that that user community the I’m in Nashville. I envision that at some point in this region, in this area metro area, folks are going to go to one of these coffee houses that’s constantly being used as a networking location and they’re going to turn their app on because there’s other people in there that they want to meet. I go in there and I see somebody I know meeting with somebody that I don’t know, and I’m like, I probably should know them, right? Because they’re meeting them or I do know who that I do know who that person is, but we haven’t met yet. Um, Icebreaker would enable things like that that are both serendipitous, but also I can message them or connect with them without having their phone number or that type of thing. So if they’re open to it.
Stone Payton: Man, I love it. So how does and maybe, maybe more accurately, how is the whole sales and marketing thing working for you right now? Getting people out there to adopt this and use it or or do you have some sort of are you out there like, do you need to be shaking the trees or you’re out there just creating awareness? Like, how do you.
David Castro: It’s a combination. Yeah, it’s it’s a. It’s improving. You know, the the tuning of the stickiness of the app, meaning like, you know, we’re going through a UI refresh right now and it won’t be it won’t be the last. But. Sure. Um, so it’s, it’s, you know, feedback, it’s, it’s watching people and that’s what we did a lot last year. This year it’s heavily shaking the trees. It’s having more events that we’ve done with, you know, proof basically of the value of it and getting that word of mouth and those referrals and stuff to to other events. And then there’s the, the marketing of it, which now that we have the assets to, to prove that we that we have. Great. Uh, my cat. God bless him.
Stone Payton: Welcome.
David Castro: Um, so, you know, so we have a marketing campaign that we’re kicking off to, to really kind of ramp up because this thing needs to be used by everybody. It will be something that is a worldwide phenomenon and it might as well be icebreaker because, you know, we have the vision for it.
Stone Payton: Yeah. So you’re talking to event organizers, associations. You’re building those relationships, you’re connecting with them, and you’re building relationships with just relationship oriented organizations and people that really resonate with and truly understand and appreciate the value of connecting with people. And yes, taking full advantage of technology, but but squarely in putting the human component, you know, where it’s absolutely.
Speaker4: It’s.
David Castro: It’s our our our goal is to bring people together. People can look great on paper. And but when you get there in person, it’s like, you know, there’s a vibe there. Right? That’s why every hiring manager wants to meet the person in person. So there’s that that personal vibe thing that’s so important in the in-person side. Relationships are just so much stronger when you’re in person. And really what our goal is to connect people. Um, and, and then they’ll go and use, you know, other platforms or whatever it is to, to do whatever that they want to do. Like I mentioned, you know, we have the profile links for their socials or their, you know, LinkedIn and all that stuff. Our goal is to connect people that are in person to make that powerful in-person connection with the right people and then let the let them take it from there.
Speaker4: I bet.
Stone Payton: You’re learning. I bet you and your team are learning a ton about networking in general, too. I mean, you could probably, if you chose to capture, generate a lot of thought leadership about how to fully leverage the fact that now we’ve got this great tool. You know, here’s some great strategies and tips on on networking virtually online. Here’s some things you ought to keep in mind to to make the transition and network and truly get benefit from the in-person connection. I can see you and your organization and maybe you’re already doing this really being an almost an education hub to to help, you know, business people just like, you know, just like me and my team get out there and really forge those relationships. And man, I’m really enamored with this idea.
David Castro: Yeah, it’s spot on. It’s really cool because I see a Venn diagram of folks who are doing personal development and they’re talking about, you know, growth of the soul, basically growth of the of the person, right? And then that overlaps with the person who’s all about the strategy and the and the sales and what what to do and how to how to do it. And then another Venn overlap of the the tech, the the format, the platform, the venue, right? So yeah I’ve got a keynote cooking on on this topic.
Stone Payton: So yeah. Well what you have here is a movement for lack of a better term. To me this feels like a movement and, and because it does, I genuinely want to know what we at Business RadioX but like minded people, listeners who hear this really resonate with the idea What can we be doing to help? Like what? What would help you the most from our listener base to kind of really get this puppy off the ground?
David Castro: It’s phenomenal. Thanks so much. Um, one thing we have a our probably most used social right now, which is icebreaker on Instagram and on on LinkedIn actually. So if you want to connect with me on. Uh, linkedin.com slash, you know, icebreaker icebreaker spelled, uh, it’s linkedin.com/company/icebreaker LinkedIn, you know, but if you search for Icebreaker on LinkedIn, it’s spelled I-c-e B, r e CR, so it’s spelled differently. I always say first two E’s no A-hole, i c e b r e cr.
Stone Payton: Fantastic. And we’ll make sure when we publish this on the Business RadioX network site and get it out on all the podcasting platforms. We’ll make sure that in the transcript and the publishing and all that we have that so that it’s easy for folks to link to. So for people to go on these platforms, support it, engage, interact with you and those of us who know people who are organizing events, those of us who know people that take full advantage of participating in events, we just we need to just get the word out and let people know about it, right?
Speaker4: Absolutely.
David Castro: Lutely Yeah, That’s awesome. Stone Yeah, that’s it. And then download it and give me some stars. There’s a digital business card on it that anybody can use, even if you’re not at an event, right? With other people using the the app. And that’s going through a, you know, that’ll be upgraded too. But right now it works phenomenally for being a digital business card. So that’s a, you know, a great way to to to be using it and and, you know, give us give us some stars that’ll give us some SEO on the app stores.
Stone Payton: So my vision and desire for you is like a Carfax, you know, like they’ve kind of trained people when they’re buying a used car. I want to see the Carfax. So now if I’m going to go to an event, where’s your icebreaker? You’ve got Icebreaker, right?
Speaker4: They want me to.
Stone Payton: Sponsor an event.
David Castro: I love that vision. Yeah, that’s great. I’m adopting that.
Speaker4: That’s cool.
Stone Payton: I’m going to switch gears on you here for a minute. Before before we wrap, I’m interested. And I don’t know where you would find the time, but if you have any outside passions, passions outside the scope of your work, most of my listeners know I like to hunt, fish and travel. Right? Just something I can nerd out about that gives me a little white space between my work and the stuff we do at the at the network. But yeah, anything else you dive into? You mentioned briefly the art, so maybe that’s it. But yeah, say more about that.
Speaker4: Yeah.
David Castro: So I, I really should kind of get back. Well, actually I have a, I’ve illustrated for a couple book authors. Oh wow. So that, that, that is, that is something. But man, I’ve been, I’ve been on this Latin dance kick salsa. Oh my my, my my dad was born in Puerto Rico, so I’ve got that background and it’s a lot of fun. There’s the athleticism and and, you know, kind of the art of of physical. It’s like physical art, right to the music. And it’s it’s a lot of fun. Um, I, I like riding motorcycle. Um, yeah, Um, but the icebreaker’s taken up a lot of time. But when I, when I, when I’m not doing that, I’m hanging out with my kids, probably hiking, you know, chasing waterfalls. We have a lot of fun together and yeah, outdoor stuff and salsa dance and.
Speaker4: Well, it.
Stone Payton: Sounds like you find this to be true as well. And I know I do. And a lot of entrepreneurs and founders that I speak with as as as focused as we can get. And given the level of energy that we pour into our work, I find that it is important to create that. I call it white space to create a little distance. It allows me, like for me sitting in a tree stand, even if it’s not hunting season, just sitting in a tree stand with a camera is it gives me a chance to to recharge, right? And sometimes I come up with some of our best ideas. I come up with some squirrely ideas that we don’t implement too, But I come up with with some of my best ideas for me, you know, with a with a with a line in the water or sitting in a tree. Same for you.
Speaker4: Yes.
David Castro: Yeah. It’s so critical to have that. And it’s one of those things where the not urgent, important, but not urgent sometimes can get overlooked by the things that seem to be, you know, pressing for your attention. But those other things are are the mundane bricks. Right. That hold everything up. Right. And so, so important. Yeah, that’s a great reminder. I love it.
Stone Payton: Speaking of ideas, I knew I wanted to ask you about this and I asked other founders about this, too. Do you have, like a methodology, a structure, a rigor, a discipline around your ideation process, or does it just kind of come to you in the shower or at the. Waterfall or what comments, if any, do you have around this whole idea of of not only generating ideas but what you do after you’ve got the nucleus of an idea, what you do to move it forward?
Speaker4: Yeah.
David Castro: Great question. Um, I as far as thinking about an idea and, and then kind of noodling on it and pressing it forward, um. I. You know, one of the first things I do is if it’s not like a. You know, multi-million-dollar, in my estimation, potential opportunity. You know, that’s the first thing is like, you know, what’s the how big picture is it like and this is just me. There’s some riches in the niches. I totally get that that that idea, you know, but but for for for me being a tech guy and being on that side, it’s always kind of a tech related idea. In that case, you know, I’m looking for, you know, a really big story, like a really big idea because if I can get just a part of that, then that’ll be lucrative. And at some point, you know, you have other players and competitors and stuff. So it helps you to have something that’s a really big story that everybody can can use an analogy of. Like, you know, you’re down and you know, a somebody on the safari, some animal on the safari downs, a big animal, He’s going to get some right. Other animals are going to come in and jump in. But he’s going to get. So so that’s one. And then and then from there, it’s like, you know, all the problem solving. And I don’t know if I do it the same way other people do, but, you know, it’s really punch as much holes in as possible. And then at some point after you’ve feel like you’ve exhausted that, then a trusted person to punch holes in it too. But the punch holes part is the most, you know, ego taxing, but so critical.
Stone Payton: Now, that’s an interesting observation because once you start to get emotionally invested in an idea or I’ll speak for myself, I intellectually understand I need to let people smarter than me poke poke at it a little bit. But it’s it’s it’s like my little baby, right? I’m a little reserved and I don’t it’s it’s I don’t want them to punch it too hard.
Speaker4: Yeah.
David Castro: So that is rural. So you got to be a problem solver. I think an entrepreneur and it’s in their core. They are problem solvers. All they’re doing is they’re monetizing a solution to problems that they’ve seen. So that’s part of the process, is letting somebody punch holes and then practicing problem solving. And at some point, if you can’t solve that problem, then you should probably let it go. But another cool thing is if somebody Pooh poohs it, but you’re really confident and you have done the work. You know, to problem solve that and then you’re just like, okay, that’s fine. I don’t need everybody to be like on board. That just means there’s less people that are going to try to like, jump in on the same idea, right? So, um, but yeah, problem solving is, is the, is the key. So when people punch holes, you know, that’s just your, uh, you know, invitation to practice.
Speaker4: Well, and.
Stone Payton: People like you, you have your antenna up for problems in the marketplace. And when you hear them, you kind of run it. You run it through your little, your, your system and say, I wonder if we could create a solution for that problem. And yeah, yeah, that’s a fun part of the, the entrepreneurial lifestyle and ethos, I think. Okay, let’s leave our listeners, if we could, with a couple of I call them pro tips, but because you’re so immersed in this world, maybe a couple of pro tips on and certainly entrepreneurship in general is fine if you have something to say about that. But maybe we stay in your specific domain around around this networking, I guess, on maybe networking online or making sure that you you combine the two and don’t just leave it there. Let’s leave them with a couple of pro tips. And look, gang number one pro tip is reach out and have a conversation with David or somebody on his on his team that’s that’s your best pro tip. But short of that, you know, maybe something we could be reading, maybe something, you know, whatever you do, do this. Whatever you do, don’t do this. Something like that.
David Castro: Well, I’d love to give a shout out to a friend of mine who wrote a book that has just been great. And the title, you know, is fantastic. The depth of the book goes a lot broader than than just what the title the title is Unstoppable Self-confidence. Um, and, but it touches every area of your life. Um, and when I was talking about the Venn diagram earlier around networking, one of those is the personal growth, right? Um, and the, the level that you’re, you’re seeking to get to is Donald Miller, I think talks about this. It talks about the hero’s two journeys. Like you have a, you have a goal and it’s this hero’s two journeys is in every movie the person has a goal that’s monetary or achievement oriented or whatever it is. And so that’s one journey. And the other journey is they have to become better, You know, internally, they have to overcome internal challenges or whatever. Personally, they have to become the person, right? That’s their second journey. So that’s the hero’s two journeys. So, um. Anyway. So as far as a book goes, I think that’s a fantastic book, Unstoppable Self-confidence by Andrew Letham, and it will definitely affect your success positively. Let’s see, as far as you know, the other thing I would say is in networking, we can be impatient.
David Castro: And I think when you’re impatient or you’re too eager, then that’s a lot about me and what I want or what I need. And what you really want to do is just connect with the the human in front of you or on the other side of the the Internet, right on the if it’s virtual networking and be there to to be of service. If you’re talking with someone about something you’re trying to sell, then you should be in the mindset of I’m selling this to be of service like that, that you got to get that right first. But once you get that right, then the next thing is I don’t need to close them in the next conversations, you know, or in the next. If I am being of service to them and my product is going to serve them, you know, having that kind of atmosphere and approach, um, you’re, you’re not only will your success rate go up, your network will grow and therefore your volume of opportunities will grow and people will be bringing you in to to more opportunities and referring you and so forth. But that mindset part is, is an important part of, of networking and, and. Yeah, I think that’s that’s probably the, the most important, important part of networking is the human connection aspect, not your elevator pitch.
Stone Payton: I am so glad that I asked. Well said. Marvelous counsel. All right, let’s, uh. Let’s make sure that we leave our listeners with a way to tap into your work. Maybe reach out to you and have a more substantive, more substantive conversation with you so whatever you feel like is appropriate. But let’s give them some coordinates and let’s make sure that they have those social handles again. And then any other thing that you think is appropriate to share? I just I want people to be able to tap into your work and create a relationship with you and your team.
Speaker4: Man Thanks so much.
David Castro: Linkedin. I’m like the most active on LinkedIn, to be honest with you. David Castro you again look for Icebreaker. Icebreaker spelled Ike e b r e r. I always get a chuckle if I say that first two E’s no A-hole. So you.
Speaker4: I like it.
David Castro: And so. So you can find me at CEO, founder of Icebreaker on LinkedIn. And and then Instagram was the other one that I’m most active on and will be more active here on Instagram soon. But we’d love it if you reach out to us and follow us there. And that is again at Icebreaker Ice b e R, and there’s a bunch of icebreaker, you know, spilled all kinds of different ways in the app stores. But there’s except no substitutes.
Stone Payton: Well, David, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show, man. Thanks for sharing your insight and your perspective. Keep up the good work, man. What you’re doing here is so important. I don’t think I’m overstating it to characterize it as a movement. And we want to support your your efforts in any way we can. Man, It’s been a real pleasure.
David Castro: Oh, man. Same stone. Great to meet you. And thanks so much for this conversation. Really enjoyed.
Speaker4: It.
Stone Payton: You got it, man. This is Stone Payton for our guest today with Icebreaker, Mr. David Castro and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.
