IAM1270 – Founder Brings the Old Inventions and Antiques to life through his Lectures

Curator and founder of The Museum of Interesting Things Denny Daniel brings his traveling interactive demonstration/exhibition of antiques and inventions to schools, libraries & events, inspiring innovation and creativity for all. He has appeared on the History Channel, The Science Channel, NY1News, PBS, Ch11, and over 20 publications including The Smithsonian & The NY Times, Timeout, and presented and spoke at 4 TEDx talks. Daniel, an NYU Grad, often lectures there and Columbia University.

• CEO Story: Started at his apartment when friends got interested in his collections of antiques. He called the newspaper and  Denny showed them, and they published him on the front page. Denny turned his passion into a career. Everyone was fascinated, lectures and events just kept on coming.
• Business Service: Bring back the positivity and curiosity of the history using the actual items. Either in schools, libraries, or events.
• Secret Sauce: Wow Factor, Missing Factor, and Educational Factor.
• CEO Hack: Happy food, happy music to have a productive balance at work/grind.
• CEO Nugget: Don’t be limited by the rules set by other people, do whatever makes you happy. Have time to relax after every work/project.
• CEO Defined: Understanding being the CEO and the worker itself. Everyone should feel like part of a family.

Website: www.museumofinterestingthings.org

Instagram: @museumthings

Facebook: @museumthings

Youtube: @museumthings

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Transcription

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00:20 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:47 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Denny Daniel of the Museum of Interesting Things. Denny, great to have you on the show.

00:57 – Denny Daniel

Hey, great to be here.

00:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Denny so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And curator and founder of the Museum of Interesting Things, Denny brings his traveling interactive demonstrations slash exhibition of antiques and inventions to schools, libraries, and events, inspiring innovation and creativity for all.

He's appeared on the History Channel, the Science Channel, NY1 News, PBS, Channel 11, and other 20 publications, including the Smithsonian and the New York Times, Time Out, and presented and spoke at 4 TEDx talks. Daniel is an NYU grad and often lectures there and also at Columbia University. Danny, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:44 – Denny Daniel

Absolutely.

01:45 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. You're getting me all choked up with all the awesome and interesting things that you're doing. So what I wanted to do before we jumped into hearing about some of those interesting things is rewind the clock a little bit, a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:58 – Denny Daniel

So You know, when people always ask me, how do you become a CEO? How do you get into something? I always say to them, there are 2 impetus for every entrepreneur to start what they do. First of all, a passion for something. And second of all, bad bosses. I think every entrepreneur can relate to that just a little bit.

02:25 – Gresham Harkless

I definitely can.

02:27 – Denny Daniel

So with me, it was realizing at some point in my, I've done many things in my life, because to live in America and to live in New York, especially, you have to have at least 3 careers to survive these days. But I started realizing that, you know, I wasn't doing something that really left a mark on society, what I call a mitzvah job that, you know, changed people in any way, shape, or form. I was like, I need to do something that leaves a mark on the world that does something good. And people were throwing their parties in my apartment because I lived in the middle of the village in Manhattan, near Broadway.

So those parties, my friends had really interesting friends, writers for Mad Magazine, writers for The Onion, and DJs on WBAI. And they were my guinea pigs for the first 2 years because I had lots of interesting things and I would tell these interesting stories. And I noticed people would walk in the room and you know, nowadays, at any time, if You lectured people, they put up a wall, you know, and it takes till, you know, sometimes till 04:00 in the morning and lots of alcohol before anyone agrees with anything.

But I noticed with these items, as soon as they walked through the door, they immediately were like curious and positive and happy again and smiling and they became the people that we thought are lost, you know, that everyone, you know, the world is, you know, media that's trying to convince us are lost, but it's still there. It's just buried, nothing's bringing it out, but the items brought it out right away. And I thought, maybe this can be a thing.

And I went to my elementary school and said, I'm gonna teach the kids and the adults, the history using the actual items, and they're gonna actually get to touch the items and it's gonna be interactive and historic and all that. And I called newspapers and said, show up. And they said, Nah, who are you? And I said you should bring a photographer. And you said you're lucky if you get an article. And they ended up giving me front-page articles with color pictures and 2-page spreads. So I knew I touched a nerve. And that's why I decided, let me try to make this a career. Take my passion and turn it into something that can do stuff.

04:48 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that. I appreciate you sharing it so much. What was coming to my mind was the word legacy, as you said, sometimes when we're passionate about things, it's so impactful to be able to leave a mark and leave a legacy. And as you said, I love the hell you said, a lot of times sometimes the essence of who we are, the things that kind of, I guess, inspire us, get us excited sometimes is buried within it. It doesn't mean that we don't have it. A lot of times it has to be unlocked. So I love how hearing the story and journey that those things that you had and the way that you, for lack of a better term, even communicate seems to bring that out of people and gets them excited and inquisitive a lot of times. They have maybe potentially been in a while.

05:32 – Denny Daniel

Yeah, exactly. I think people like you and me, and even if you run an ice cream shop, what you're doing is you're getting people to be happy. You're using your talent, your passion for something to give people something that will make them, you know, happy or better or whatever you want to call it.

05:52 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. When you get to use your gifts, your abilities, your skills, even to not just improve your life but improve the lives of others and get to showcase that as really a phenomenal place to be. So I know we touched on it a little bit and in the beginnings of the museum of interesting things, could you take us through a little bit more on what you're doing there and how you're serving the clients that you work with?

06:13 – Denny Daniel

So the purpose behind the museum or what I like to call the secret conspiracy, is to bring back that curiosity and that positivity and the way I do it is I'll go almost anywhere. But the main thing is going to schools and libraries and stuff like that and events because that's where the people can really interact with it, especially the next generation. So it's really important.

The thing that I love the most is when we go to a school or to a library and school could be anything from K, kindergarten, all the way up to a senior subject. But K through TILD is the one that you think of most. But also colleges, you mentioned that I lectured at NYU and all these other places, Columbia and all that. But yeah, almost every single grade just to get people to get to experience history from history.

07:05 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes sense. And, you know, some of the things that you bring, I guess they complement maybe conversations maybe they're having, you know, already and kind of bring it to light. Is that kind of like what you're doing?

07:16 – Denny Daniel

Yeah, I always try to get an idea of their curriculum. The teachers will also, we've got so many themes, especially since COVID, where I do a speakeasy once a week, which isn't technically a prohibition, speakeasy, I actually show 16-millimeter films there. But because we do it every, we used to do it every month, now we do it every week. And of course, being a New Yorker, I'd be boring if I did the same thing over and over. So we do a different theme. So since we're doing it every week, the math would mean that I have 52 themes now.

07:52 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, exactly.

07:54 – Denny Daniel

But the teachers will look at them and say what works with our curriculum, what works with our students. And the most popular one is the first one I ever did, ironically, Eureka! The History of Invention. That one tends to be the one everyone starts with first because it gives you kind of a smorgasbord of all the different genres from music to science to literature to math. But then they get more, you know, surgical and they find things that work a little better with this class or that class, then they'll do the math show or they'll do the science show. But one library really got creative for my speakeasy. I did a history I learned from Bugs Bunny.

08:34 – Gresham Harkless

Oh, nice.

08:35 – Denny Daniel

And I thought it would just be fun to do for our events, you know? But funny enough, a bunch of libraries found it, picked up on it, and said, you actually learn a lot of history from that stuff. They snuck in lots of interesting stuff like the war rations program, you know, and, you know, all sorts of other stuff, opera, you know, kill the rab and, you know.

08:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. You get to have those engagements and those opportunities to kind of showcase a lot of skills and abilities, thoughts, passions, and gifts in so many different ways. So I love that you've been able to kind of fully take advantage of that. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? And this could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

09:21 – Denny Daniel

Well, there are two secret sauces, one secret sauce for the items. People always ask, you know, what makes something interesting. And it's really anything. So it can be it's got to have some sort of wow factor. It's got to have what I call the missing link factor, all the links in the chain until your iPod, or iPhone. And then, of course, it's nice to have some sort of educational factor and all that. And if it has all 3, it's a home run. So that's for the antiques and for the items, people go, what do you pick? And I'm like, you can pick almost anything, almost anything could be interesting in life. Even a kitchen utensil you can find interesting and fascinating.

The old meat grinders look like medieval torture devices to kids. But as far as the museum, the secret behind that goes back to the first time I did a show for the New York City Small Business Association they wanted me to take the train uptown and I didn't want to bring the antiques at the time and the train, so I mined the show. So I had nothing with me. And I'm the Museum of Interesting Things. And there's nothing in the room. We were in a classroom. And I mined the whole show. And it's really not about, you know, ironically, a guy that runs a museum of interesting things. It's not about the things.

It's about what you leave for people, what you inspire them, you know, how you inspire them. So I did the whole show And when I was done, the guy looked at me and he goes, are you prepared for what's going to happen to you? And I said, what, poverty? And he goes, no, what you're doing is so unique and you're so passionate for it that if people find out about it, it's gonna explode. And are you ready for that kind of growth? And I was like, oh yeah, sure. That was 12 years ago.

11:21 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So I love that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:35 – Denny Daniel

Besides chocolate chip cookies.

11:36 – Gresham Harkless

Hey, if that works for you, tell me more.

11:39 – Denny Daniel

All of that works. And music, you know, I always have to have music behind me. I was a DJ on 7 different radio stations. I've interviewed almost everybody, a lot of famous 80 stars and I just always have to have something, I call it like happy food, happy music. As an entrepreneur, you sit there and you just, you go into that grind and I'm like if you don't have something that balances you, then you're gonna get disillusioned or you're gonna get burnt out or something else. And those things kind of help in keeping you on track a little bit.

12:20 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely, especially in entrepreneurship, but it's sometimes in life in general, that you can become disheartened, disillusioned, frustrated, and stressed. But I love that, you know, the hack is because I think so many times we forget about the impact that music can have, like when you play a song and it literally can take you back to a point in your life.

12:38 – Denny Daniel

Everyone always tries to hammer you into some sort of, you know, box, in some sort of rule and say, Well, if you want to succeed, you need to make sure that you're up at 9 and dressed, and at 5 stop doing it, and then close the shop. And then it will work. Or you have to make sure that even though you're home, you're not in pajamas, you're in your suit and tie, and you behave as if you're in the arm. You know, everyone gives us all this crazy advice. First of all, do whatever makes you happy. I try never to tell people what to do.

But that said, a little bit of my experience to expound on people, when you're doing freelance, especially, I call it hills and troughs. So don't do it by the, you don't have to do it by the 9 to 5, you could do it by the project and say, okay, I've got something I've got to edit, a book I've got to edit, or I've got a website I've got to design, or I've got a cookie I've got to make, I've got a wedding I've got to prepare for. Then you do it by the project and that is your hill. And when you're done with that project, Now your day is done for a moment. Take a break.

13:50 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that. And I'm not sure if that might be, you know, I was going to ask you for a nugget, but it definitely sounds like one. So now I would ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Danny, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:06 – Denny Daniel

It's understanding being the CEO, the guy in charge, and understanding being the worker elf as well. It's understanding both sides of that equation and it's understanding the people that are coming in, everyone should feel as if they're part of the family. And I've been doing that since I was a kid because my family always had family businesses. And then as a kid, I ended up getting a paper route and then working in a Carvel, working in an ice cream shop. So I understood what it felt like to be the guy in charge and the one running the show and the guy having to take orders. And when you have an appreciation for both, then you can commiserate. You can empathize.

14:54 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely appreciate that perspective. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people could get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:08 – Denny Daniel

So there's almost nothing the museum can't do at this point. So I've had literally, you know, capital bank call up and say, can we do a little thing with you guys where the workers will, you know, experience something and we mixed my show about money and my show about computers and my show about math. And then I've had, you know, seniors call me up and say, can you do, I love that feeling of like sharing things with different things.

So contacting me is, of course, the Museum of Interesting Things. If you Google that supposedly it comes right up. It should at least. And I'm sure you have some sort of link thing somewhere in there. And emailing me or calling me is totally cool. People get a kick out of the fact that I actually pick up.

15:48 – Gresham Harkless

Well, Denny, truly appreciate you, you know, sharing and showing and all the awesome things that you're doing. As you promised, we will definitely have the links and information that show notes as well too, so that everybody can get a hold of you. But I love everything that you're doing. And even more as we kind of talked about, I love what it represents and what it means as well, too. I think that's one of those deeper legacy-building and impactful things, with everything that you've been able to do with the museum. So appreciate you, my friend. Definitely save some chocolate chip cookies for me. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:17 – Denny Daniel

Oh yeah, I'll save them when we go on our motivational tour.

16:20 – Gresham Harkless

There we go, absolutely.

16:22 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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