IAM1298 – Founder Creates a Smart Business Card

Title: Transcript - Wed, 06 Mar 2024 02:05:02 GMT

Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2024 02:05:02 GMT, Duration: [00:17:50.75]

[00:00:00.60] - Speaker 1

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[00:00:28.19] - William Carroll

So using, you know, this card, fewer cards, it just allows for, people just to, like, either tap or scan, and then they got the information immediately. And then, you you know, you can just go on and do something else with your time rather than trying to ask how do you spell your name.

[00:00:44.70] - Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, start ups, 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.

[00:01:12.20] - 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 William Carroll of Fewer Cars. William, it's great to have you on the show.

[00:01:21.00] - William Carroll

Thank you for having me.

[00:01:22.20] - 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 William so you can hear about some of the awesome things that he's doing. And William is the founder of Fewer Cards, a smart business card company located within the Washington DC metropolitan area. The modern smart business card was invented, introduced to the world, and patented by mister Carroll. And with sustainability and technology at its core, Buick Cars' mission is in its moniker, to reduce their to reduce our carbon footprint with bamboo touchless smart business cards that allow people to to transfer contact information and other functions in a touchless way with QR codes and NFC technology. In a world still in the throes of the COVID pandemic and to slow down climate change, this card has all of the elements of a product that needs to be successful to make a cleaner environment and economically impactful change. It helps solve a problem in a new way. Together, we can reverse the effects of climate change and do more with fewer cars. William, great to have you on the show. I think we connected years and years ago at a networking group, so it's great to kinda see you in this new world that we have. Are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?

[00:02:29.09] - William Carroll

Yes. I am. Yeah. It's great, for you to have me, here. I am very excited to, you know, talk about, you know, fewer cards and, hopefully, engage with, you know, some of your members and see how they can use fewer cards to operate more streamline way and be more economic eco friendly.

[00:02:46.00] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think when we first connected, I love the the concept and the idea. But I guess before we jump more into, fewer cars and everything that you're doing there, what I wanted to do to kinda kick everything off is rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I like to call your CEO story.

[00:03:01.80] - William Carroll

Yeah. So the way I got started was I would go to a lot of events, and I would carry a ton of business cards in my front pocket. And I would hand it to people, and people would take my cards, but then, you know, sometimes people will leave it on the table or they'll just lose my business card. And I that really annoyed me. I was like, well, how can I actually get these people to have my information? And when I really did a deep dive and thought about it, it's like, it's not I wanted to give them my business card. I wanted to give them my information so they could follow-up with me. So that's when, you know, it dawned on me, like, well, where how can I get into the person's device? And, with, smartphones, today, we have, lots of ways to send data back and forth. You can send it through text. You can send it through email. So many different ways. You you can send it through, like, Facebook Messenger, Instagram. But one of the ways that, you know, would have been really beneficial if for if I didn't create it, would have been to actually, either tap it or or you can scan it. So, basically, operates in a peer to peer way. So what I have here is viewer cards, and if you tap it, you kinda just, see it goes to your profile. So the nice thing about that is that it allows for people to operate in a more streamlined way. So the idea behind fewer cards is that, you're basically transmitting your information to one from you to the actual device, and your information is on the phone. So instead of having to hand out business cards and somebody follow-up with you, you can actually be directly onto their phone again or a tap.

[00:04:37.69] - Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love it. And and and just especially, understanding like, I think so many times with things that we can kind of invent or create, we sometimes lose the purpose of what it is that we're trying to do. And I love, what you said in the very beginning. It's like, at the end of the day, what I want is for that person to have my contact information. So at the end of the day, we can hopefully build a relationship connection, might even get clients or customers, whatever, and however that manifests itself. It can be various ways, but at the end of the day, you want that person to have your information. I think when we create products and services, sometimes we lose sight of that. We fall in love with the the sexiness or the the the the bells and whistles, but at the end of the day, we wanna make sure that what we're doing is solving a problem.

[00:05:18.30] - William Carroll

Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So it's not so much you're handing a card to someone just so they have it. It's so you get an actual result when you're actually giving your information to them. So, like you just said, you know, you can actually follow-up with them. You can get more business. That's what we want at the end of the day, and that's what fewer cards allows you to do. It allows you to streamline that connection with the person that you're meeting.

[00:05:40.80] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And so, I I know you touched a little bit upon, you know, fuel cars and everything that it does. So is it as simple as, you know, I'm at a business I'm at a, you know, networking event. You're at a networking event, and we both have that opportunity to try to connect and send, I guess, the information to each other without having to transfer the business cards. Is that how it kinda works?

[00:06:00.50] - William Carroll

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, essentially, if each party has a card like this, they could essentially tap it to each other's phones, and then they can have each other's information. I do have a card, that's actually in existence. It's called the SMS card. I like this card the most in that when you tap it, it goes directly to SMS SMS text messaging. So when the person sends you a text message, y'all both have each other's information because you will have their number, and they will have your number. So it's a two way, connection. So and it's also time stamped, so you can see, like, when that connection actually occurred. If you had to ever go back to it, it'd be like, we met at this in such a time. So so, yeah, it allows if you if you have the SMS card, both parties can have each other's information. The personal contact card, that allows for the person to save your information, onto the phone. So and and each card has a different functionality, to it. So I can go through all different functionalities, but it might, you know, be overwhelming to, a lot of people. So I just try to stay focused on this a couple at a time.

[00:07:08.19] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. No. I appreciate you, you know, touching on each and, you know, just, the the opportunities and functionalities for each because I think, it probably it it can't hurt to have both of the cars just because depending on, you know, what scenario you're in or if you want that person to have your information or you just wanna be able to share that, do you have that opportunity to kinda build that relationship? Do you find that people use it in you could use both in in either way?

[00:07:30.69] - William Carroll

Yeah. I think so. So I I feel like with some people, they want to be able to exchange their personal contact information, but they don't wanna actually engage in a text message, you know, maybe because they're too busy. So they want people to either follow-up, you know, with them through email. With, SMS, the way I like to operate is I want to follow-up with the person immediately, and I want to build that connection. So, you know and I don't have to have a I don't have to write a long email saying, like, it was nice meeting you at such and such a place. I can just say, hey. You wanna grab lunch? Because they already have the entire, you know, log of our messaging, that was built up before. So it it is more informal. There's there's also a card I have is, it's called the social media card that allows for people to connect over social media. So it depends on, like, what the person's strategy is and how they want to engage, you know, the audience that they're working with. Some people only want to deal with people on social media. Other people wanna have a more personal relationship, and that's me. I like this SMS card for that

[00:08:29.60] - Gresham Harkless

purpose. Yeah. That that makes so much sense, and I I appreciate you going down the line in each of those different scenarios because, like, if you're a quote, unquote influencer, you might want to use a social media card to draw people back to your social media versus, you know, okay. This is a person that I wanna, you know, grab coffee with, you know, grab lunch with. It's gonna be maybe a little bit more of a, you know, SMS type interaction or, you know, just anything in between. Between. If you just wanna give somebody your information, you have that option as well too. So I think it's so important, but I think the biggest thing and I don't I don't know if you would consider this to be, like, what I like to call your secret sauce, which is, like, for yourself personally or the business, what you feel in in essentially, a part of makes you unique. But it almost seems like a big part of it is it takes a lot it takes away a lot of the friction, the steps, the additional things that you have to do at the end of the day to just connect, it sounds like.

[00:09:17.10] - William Carroll

So I

[00:09:17.29] - Gresham Harkless

don't know if you consider that to be your secret sauce.

[00:09:19.89] - William Carroll

No. I definitely think it is. It definitely takes away a lot of the hurdles. I mean, for one, like, if you were to try to get somebody's number, that person would have to tell you their number. Then you have to ask, how do you spell your name? So and that takes, you know, if you think, like, to add go to the contacts, to add in, you know, the person's name, then add a number, that takes around, like, two minutes. So that's, like, two minutes of, you know, business time when you could actually be networking with another person or, you know, just going about your way. So using, you know, fewer cards, you know, this card, fewer cards, it just allows for, people just to, like, either tap or scan, and then they got the information immediately. And then, you you know, you can just go on and do something else with your time rather than trying to ask, how do you spell your name?

[00:10:08.70] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. It allows you to to do, you know, ultimately what you were hoping to do, spend more time connecting than, you know, less time figuring out if you have the person's, you know, name or information, you know, spelled correctly. And I thought you mentioned too that there's also, some type of way that you can know where you met them, like a time stamp or something that you mentioned as well too? Yeah.

[00:10:26.79] - William Carroll

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, for instance, like, so every single, SMS message that you send on your, like, mobile device is actually time stamped. The message has to occur at a certain point. So what you can do is if I'm attending event, I can actually write a prewritten text message that the person can send to me. It gets sent, like, all they have to do is click the send button. And in that message, I can say, it's great meeting you at this conference. And then that's, you know, idea of, like, where the location is, and you can write your name in there as well. And you can add any links that you would like inside the message so they can, you know, have access to your LinkedIn or your Instagram or or your email or any other type of, pertinent information that might be, you know, you know, you know, associated with you. So then, yeah, so you can add all that information. And then it's also time stamp because when they send that message, that will be the point of when that meeting or that interaction have first occurred.

[00:11:21.50] - Gresham Harkless

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

[00:11:33.70] - William Carroll

Something that makes me more effective more efficient. I I would say, I I have to be honest. I have to go with my cards. I really do. I I I don't I mean, I I I use these cards literally all the time. Like, I I would go to a coffee shop, you You know, sometimes I'll just, they come with a free card stand too, by the way. But I go to a coffee shop and sometimes I'll just have the the the card just sitting there because, you know, like, somebody might come by that recognizes something or, you know, they they don't have my information, and then I just tell them just tap my card. You know, they can, you know, just follow-up with me. So I I have to be honest. This is, like, the hack that I use. And I don't know if that's the answer that you are looking for, but it's literally my product. I I it's it's really it's really useful. It's very useful. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

[00:12:22.79] - Gresham Harkless

So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO of Nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, what might you tell your younger business self?

[00:12:36.20] - William Carroll

Yeah. I would definitely if, you know, someone that's starting out a new business, definitely have I'm gonna call it a business plan, but a strategy. Just kinda have a idea of, like, where you want to go. I've tried to do so many business plans in the past. Like, I started my first business in two thousand three. So that's many, many, many years ago. And I tried to write a plan, and I realized every time I tried to write a plan, it just didn't ever go the direction that I thought would. I had to change it. So rather than having a, you know, business plan, I had a business strategy. I had the idea of, like, this is where I want to be and I'm on and just try to figure out day to day because things change all the time. It's like, what things I wanna try to do just to try to get to that destination. Yeah. So that's that's one of the things that I think is really important. Just, just have a idea of, like, where you want to go and then try to work towards it. There's no actual playbook that I think, you know, is is gonna work. And maybe everybody's different. But for me, I found just, like, trying to have a strategy is is better than having a, a business plan.

[00:13:41.79] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that. And so I wanted to ask you now 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 this show. So, William, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:53.29] - William Carroll

As a CEO, I literally do everything. So that that is my definition of a CEO. I'm sure there's a more, I guess, like, formal definition of CEO, but for me, it's literally I'm doing everything. I yeah. But I'm running everything. So so, yeah, I think it's being responsible and and being able to stay focused, in times of, you know, high pressure and and not, you know, allowing those pressures to, you know, get you to to basically, you know, become a distraction. So so it's being able to stay focused. And and I think that's, you know, just just being a CEO or just a leader in general, Right? It's like you have to stay calm and and deal with, you know, situations because there's always gonna be a time something's always gonna catch on fire or something's gonna happen. If it hasn't happened, yeah, it's going to happen. And so when you go through those those moments of, you know, of really, hard times, and and challenges. It's like, are you gonna be able to take those moments and and get through it, or are you gonna give up? And I think being a CEO is someone that is willing or that is going to go through those challenging times, and they're gonna take it, and they're gonna, you know, they're gonna power through. They're gonna stay focused. So I think that's what, the definition of a CEO is.

[00:15:19.20] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, William, truly appreciate that definition. I, of course, I appreciate your time even more. What I want 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 can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on, and, of course, get a copy of all the cards that you have.

[00:15:39.00] - William Carroll

Yeah. So I guess, do you wanna learn more about fewer cards? That's what the product is called. It's called fewer cards. Just go to fewer dot cards. It's online. It's very easy to set up a order. If you want, you can also call our one eight hundred number, which is on located on the website as well. If you wanna get a hold of me, I could get ahold of by going to, my webs my website, or you can go to, my email, which is hello, h e l l o, at feuer dot cars. That's h e l l o at f e w e r dot c a r d s. So we can be a more sustainable society. We can reverse the effects of climate change and, use, fewer cards.

[00:16:30.89] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, William. We'll definitely have the links and information as well in the show notes so that everybody can follow-up with you, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of day.

[00:16:39.50] - William Carroll

Thank you.

[00:16:40.29] - Intro

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue sixteen Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo dot co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Get your driven CEO gear at CEO gear dot c o. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at blue sixteen sixteen media dot com. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless junior. Thank you for listening.

[00:17:20.70] - Speaker 5

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