Shayne Spencer on the "dumb idea project" and how failing econ helped him start his firm

[01:45] Paul: welcome to the podcast today.

[01:47] Shayne Spencer: Thank you very much.

[01:48] Paul: So 3 things that stand out about your background and your story. One is you founded your own digital marketing strategy firm at a relatively young age. You are the co-founder of the Dumb Idea Project, which I am— I'm sure people are at the edge of their seat trying to understand what that's about. And you're also a longtime DJ. Yes. So I thought all three of these pieces probably have some relation to each other, and we'll dive into all three, but wanted to start with the music.

When did you— so when did you start DJing? How did you get started there?

[02:31] Shayne Spencer: Wow. I started DJing at barbecues at my aunt's house. My aunt would always have these barbecues on the weekends. During the summertime, and my father had some old DJ equipment that he let me play with, and so that's where I really got into it. And one day I was looking through a magazine, and I saw that for like, I think it was $500, you could get 2 turntables and a mixer. And I called my mom, and I was in high school at the time, and I was like, Mom, I know what I want for Christmas.

I want you to get me this set. It's $500, it's 2 turntables and a mixer. And that was back in 1990, I feel like it was 1998, 'cause I remember, 1999 actually, because I remember the whole big thing was Y2K, and I remember DJing and I'm like, okay, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, the lights didn't shut off. Okay, keep on partying. And that was when I started DJing back in like 1999 or so.

[03:33] Paul: So you were DJing during Y2K as it happened?

[03:36] Shayne Spencer: Yeah, yeah, of course I was DJing in my bedroom and no one else was around but some of the family members. However, it was a great experience and that's what started me, like, you know, family was who I was DJing for and then eventually house parties during high school and then in college I started DJing clubs and bars and it was lots of fun.

[04:00] Paul: Yeah, and did you set out in that direction saying, I want to DJ clubs, or did you just take it gig by gig and it kind of just led you that way?

[04:10] Shayne Spencer: It was definitely a gig by gig thing, and actually I prefer to DJ house parties and like more smaller intimate events because I get to really be closer to the people. You know, when you're DJing in a club or in like a big venue, there's so many people that you won't really get a chance to connect to each and every one, but at a smaller event, like, it's just, it's a great time. And one of my favorite, favorite movies of all time is House Party, and Martin Lawrence's character was Bilal, I believe, and he was the DJ, and I was like, one day, one day I want to be like that guy, minus the bad-smelling breath.

[04:50] Paul: Great movie. And Did you have entrepreneurial role models or people you saw doing things off the beaten path growing up?

[05:00] Shayne Spencer: At the time, I didn't, I didn't realize it, but I definitely did. So my grandmother used to— was an entrepreneur, actually. She— my grandfather was a construction, but my grandmother, she would make baked goods and she would make like treats to sell at the airport back in Trinidad and Tobago. And so she would also sell roti, which is like food, like it's a food. She'd sell roti as well, and she did that for a very, very long time. And for me, it was just like, okay, that's just what grandma does.

And it wasn't until, I would say, maybe 2 or 3 years after I started my own business And I was like, "Wait, Grandma, you were an entrepreneur." And of course, at that time, she didn't really know what that was. It was literally just making ends meet at that time because she said that's just what was needed. She said she had 11 kids and had a lot of mouths to feed.

[06:02] Paul: That raises the stakes.

[06:04] Shayne Spencer: Exactly.

[06:05] Paul: So I talk to a lot of people now who may define themselves as entrepreneurs, and they often have a similar reflection back that either their parents or grandparents were doing something off the beaten path, but a lot of times it was just, this is what you need to do. And it does seem like we've almost lost a little of that thread where much more of the mindset is you have to have a job now.

[06:30] Shayne Spencer: Yeah, it's a very interesting dynamic because even if you go back to the most successful entrepreneurs to date like Dale Carnegie, John F. Rockefeller, these guys all came from from not— they, they, they came— they stepped into entrepreneurship because they had to, because there was a way for them to provide for their family. Especially, um, John D. Rockefeller, like, he— his father had left him at a very early age. He had to drop out of school, and then from there he started— he went into working and eventually started his own business and took a lot of risk. But basically had to build himself up.

One of the great documentaries that I always look at is The Men Who Built America. It was a History Channel documentary and it talks about a lot of the great entrepreneurs that were— before they were even considered entrepreneurs, these were their story. And it was— it's always an inspiring documentary to watch. It's a 3-part series, I believe.

[07:34] Paul: Is that the one with J.P. Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller?

[07:39] Shayne Spencer: Yep.

[07:40] Paul: Yeah, that one's pretty fascinating. I've seen it. It also shows you the ruthless side of their, their nature as well.

[07:49] Shayne Spencer: Definitely, definitely, because for them it was a survival thing. It wasn't like, okay, I'll just, I'm bored, or I don't fit in anywhere else, so I'm gonna create my own thing. It was like, okay, I'm going to make my way. I'm gonna make it happen. How do I do it? I'm not going to let anything stop me.

[08:09] Paul: So growing up in New York, did you have a mindset of thinking about yourself as an adult or answering this question I think we ask too many kids these days of what do you want to do when you grow up?

[08:22] Shayne Spencer: That's a great question, actually. I'm laughing because I was literally in a Toastmaster meeting on Tuesday giving a speech about that entitled When I Grow Up. When I think back to it, around the second grade, I just for some reason was at a different length, wavelength than most other kids. Most other kids at that age wanted to be whatever their parents said they was. For me, I wanted to be an astronaut. For some reason, I just felt like doing what your parents was doing was just too easy of a task or just boring, especially since I didn't really understand what my mom and dad did.

At that time, Space was really cool, I was really big into sci-fi, and I was like, yeah, I'd like to be an astronaut. And I looked at going to aviation high school and all these other things, but I've had many different aspirations, but all of them were all around me wanting to do something different, me wanting to do something adventurous. And then I went to Lakewood Performing Arts, in Manhattan, which is where I really got a whole new appreciation for music. And then that's where I started to turn into more of the marketing and being entertainment world side of things.

[09:45] Paul: So that sounds like a big shift from performing arts to marketing. I'm guessing there's a little more there than a shift, but was there— what was kind of the evolution or where your mind was at that point?

[09:59] Shayne Spencer: Yeah, I was always a big music person, 'cause I was DJing in college, and I was failing my economics class, and my economics professor was also the advisor for the marketing club, and he said anyone who joined the marketing club, he would consider raising their grade one letter, like one notch. So if you had a C or a D, he'd raise it one level up. And I was like, okay, I'll join the marketing club. And so that's what really got me into the world of marketing. And it was really fascinating because even though I was a music person, it lends itself really well because at that time in college, I was DJing but I was also promoting. And so it was really cool because it kind of showed me how to not only, well, I was like, well, I used to promote my own parties, I can also promote things that are going on on campus.

And I joined all these other different organizations, and that's what kind of led me to be the go-to marketing person on campus, which allowed me to then get connected to my first job after college. Essentially what happened, a friend of a friend, Mo, My— the residential advisor, her sister-in-law worked for a marketing firm and they were looking for a marketing representative in the New York area and my name came up. I was offered to come down to New York and interview for this position and the position was a Coca-Cola campus representative. Awesome. Which means I would go to different campuses representing Coca-Cola and negotiate sponsorship deals on behalf of Coca-Cola, and I loved it. It was like going to college all over again, which is really, really fun and exciting, and I got a chance to see a lot of different campuses up along the Northeast Coast.

And then, like, okay, you're probably going to ask, well, how do I go from working at a marketing agency to owning my own business? Because that's That typically happens, but I don't want to jump too far ahead in the story if you have any other questions.

[12:18] Paul: Well, first I was going to just say, I think you have an article in there, "How Failing Economics Led Me to Starting My Own Firm." I think that's an article people are going to want to read.

[12:29] Shayne Spencer: Yeah. Yeah, and I really, really thank that professor because he— not only did I join the marketing club eventually, obviously, but I also became president of the marketing club for a year or two because no one else wanted to take the position on it, and I really learned a lot about it. And during that time was also around the recession that I graduated.

[12:56] Paul: Right.

[12:56] Shayne Spencer: So there wasn't a lot of jobs available in the entertainment world, and so marketing just was like a perfect place for me to be. Inside of— I was really doing it a lot on campus, I enjoyed it, and even though I was not a marketing major in college, there was just a natural fit because a lot of the things that I had been creating and doing in my marketing club is what I brought to that interview. So I brought our marketing plan, our financial reports, all these different things that no one ever thinks will ever be worth anything after college, but trust me, they actually were helpful in me landing that first job because I had all these things in addition to my resume, and about 45 minutes after the interview, I was offered the position, and that was amazing to have basically gotten a job offer right before graduating college. So I graduated, and 2 weeks later, I was in the workforce.

[13:57] Paul: That's amazing. So it also sounds like you had something to apply the marketing to with your DJing. What were some of the first experiments you either tried with DJing and marketing or the first aha that was, that made you think, okay, I am having a different way of looking at things here and finally I'm figuring out why marketing's important?

[14:23] Shayne Spencer: Well, it was really, it was a couple of things. I realized that people wanted to have a good time, but they wanted something different. They wanted like a reason more, a bigger reason than, okay, we're gonna come out and get drunk. And so while I was on campus, I was also in a fraternity. My fraternity would have different themed parties. Like we'd have this night was this type of party and this night was this type of party.

And so when I started DJing in clubs and also DJing different parties, I was like, well, what would it look like if we had those themed type of parties outside, outside of the college setting and see what that looked like. And so that kind of got me into thinking, how do I create an experience for someone that they're looking forward to coming back to the next time and the next time, and who are my end users? So that was some of the things that I was kind of experimenting with in my early college days and my early promotion. Marketing days that definitely had laid the foundation to later on who my business now that I work with.

[15:32] Paul: Yeah, that's pretty, uh, thoughtful way of looking at it instead of, hey, let's just get as many people as possible at each event. You're thinking about— you're already thinking about that long-term customer value, uh, yeah, in college. So let's, uh, maybe move forward to the firm. So you're— you have a job, you're employed after the recession. Everyone's probably telling you, you should be grateful just to have a job. This might bring us to the dumb ideas, but how did you get started?

Like, why did you end up founding your own firm?

[16:09] Shayne Spencer: So, after working with Coca-Cola for about a year and a half, 2 years, it was great, but I just was burnt out because it was like you said during the recession and at that time, I learned the full meaning of fire drill. So a fire drill at a marketing firm is when there's some type of breakdown or some type of request or some type of alert from the client and it's literally like all hands on deck, we got to do this, we have to do this. And it was at a time when the client was threatening, wasn't necessarily threatening on closing the account, but they hadn't necessarily approved next year's account. So anything that our— that they wanted was basically in scope. So scope creep, which is what we typically say, is what happens when a client says they're paying for one. Yeah, exactly.

And so like there was a lot of scope creep all over and there was just all these different things and I was like, oh, like just at that day, it just was just so much going on. So I actually requested and managed to make it over to another team. Which was a lot more stable. It was working with American Express, and it was a traditional, typical marketing job, which I was definitely not cut out for because it required a lot. It was account management, and it was very meticulous, and it was not really client-facing because at that time, I didn't get much access to the client, which wasn't what I was used to when I was working with Coca-Cola. So naturally, I was bored.

And I tried to make a move to another agency and that didn't work out. And so I just decided that I just wasn't— it wasn't going to be worth it. I didn't want to— I didn't want to stay here because it just— I wasn't happy with it. And a really good friend of mine who was, who was working at the agency He had just recently gotten sick, and this story will always stick with me. He came to New York just like everyone else with big hopes and wanting to be in the entertainment industry. And somewhere along the line, he needed money, so he took this job at this firm, and almost 7 years later, he was still at the firm.

And I was like, hey, so are you in marketing? He's like, nah, child, I'm just here 'cause I wanna make this money, and that's just it. This, that, and the other, and he was, as I was looking to exit, he was actually looking to go back to school because one of the things the firms are willing to do was pay for schooling. And he got sick and he was diagnosed with cancer and he never came back from the, never came back to the firm. He's, about a year or so later, he passed away, and I feel like if, even though he lived life to the fullest, this man was amazing. He was an amazing guy, lived life to the fullest.

If he had known, listen, you have maybe 3 years left on this earth.

[19:24] Paul: Right.

[19:24] Shayne Spencer: Right, if he had known that, I doubt he would have spent a minute of that in that position, that marketing position. And so I was like, okay, I'm not looking back. I'm going to make it work. And so while I was freelancing at the time, I was DJing. DJing helped supplement my income. As I was freelancing, I was really freelancing just to get the experience until I could get myself back into corporate.

I had no intentions whatsoever of starting my own company. However, one of my high school friends, he had started his own company, and he said, you know, Shane, you do really good work. Thank you so much for helping me with my business. I think you should start your own business as well. And I was like, well, I don't know, maybe one day. I'm not really, you know, I kind of like the corporate world.

It's familiar. And he's like, no, you should do it, if not for at least for taxes so you can write off some stuff. And so he actually gave me some of the seed money. Wow. To start my business. He was like, listen, I'll get you as far as getting your LLC set up.

So he went online, got me set up with this company online to basically handle all the documentation. Business was started in December 2010.

[20:44] Paul: Wow. And then once somebody puts money in your name, you have a hard time backing out at that point.

[20:51] Shayne Spencer: Yeah, yeah. He definitely saw something in me that I didn't see for myself. Like, I, I was barely managing myself and he just thought I could, you know, own my own company. And even when I started the company, it was just me. But I quickly saw that in order for me to grow and in order for me to really do everything, I can't I can't do everything by myself, so I started even in my first year to start work with others and collaborate with others. And I started hiring freelancers and working and teaming up with people, and that's kind of been my biggest success was networking and collaboration.

[21:30] Paul: Right.

[21:31] Shayne Spencer: Because that allowed me to take on bigger projects.

[21:33] Paul: So when did your mindset shift to, okay, I'm going to do this, make ends meet for a bit, to All right, this might be a path that makes sense for me, even though there is no clear path, but you're kind of committing to it. When did that mindset shift set in?

[21:51] Shayne Spencer: I think it was within the first year. So after December, the business was formed, I opened the bank account, and I started going to networking events because now that you have a business, you have to get clients. And so I was like, okay, well, where do you get clients? And I started going to networking events and meeting other people who were a little bit more seasoned in entrepreneurship, or they were just starting their business out as well, and it just kind of became a thing. And I was like, okay, I can do this. This is, this is like a real life-like thing.

And so my mind shift started, my mindset started to shift to, this is, this feels like it's going to be more than just a phase, like a 1 or 2 month thing. And so I started As soon as I could, I remember some guy, and this is really back early, back in 2011 at this point. He was like, listen, if you want your business to grow and you want to make money, you have to hurry up and come to Manhattan.

[22:51] Paul: And where were you at the time?

[22:53] Shayne Spencer: I was based in Brooklyn. I was based in Brooklyn. He was like, listen, if you want to make money, you got to come do whatever you got to do. Hurry up and get yourself to Manhattan. And I took his advice and and I, I started working at a coworking space. And back then, there weren't too many coworking spaces, right?

I was, I was privileged enough to work in a space called Sunshine Suites. It doesn't exist anymore, but Sunshine Suites was one of the original coworking spaces here in New York City. They, they predate WeWork, they predate GreenDesk, they predate a lot of these places because we Vegas was there, but Sunshine Suites was basically set up by these two guys and was really great because I got a chance to really start networking with other business owners, and these guys were my first set of referral partners. Then I started networking with BNI, Business Networking International, and my business started to really take off, and the next thing I knew, I found myself in— I would say this was 2016. I had employees. I had a whole office space, and it was just like, whoa, where did this come from?

You know, so that was just like— it was— and I know I just jumped ahead like a couple of years, but it was definitely all through the concept of, okay, I can't do this by myself, and networking is really going to help me do it, and collaborating with other people. And I've worked on so many different types of projects since then.

[24:23] Paul: Yeah, so I, I think a lot of people look at that and say, okay, that, that makes sense. And what they don't see is the vulnerability you have at all of those steps, which basically force you to figure things out as you go. Does that resonate with, uh, your steps along the journey?

[24:43] Shayne Spencer: Oh, for sure. For sure. There were so many times, especially, so 2016 was a high point. And then 2017, everything, well, 2015, sorry, was the high point. I said 2016, but 2015 is when I think I had the employees, but then 2016, everything came to like a screeching halt. I wasn't managing my cash flow, and there were several different times where there were like iterations where deals would not come, well, deals that we thought for sure would close didn't close, or we just weren't able to pay the office space rent or we were behind on paying our vendors, we had to start letting people go.

There were so many emotional things and the entrepreneurship journey has been one of the most humbling things I've ever done in my life because I tell people all the time, I never used to pray as much until I started my own business because I was like listen, I've tried everything. I've tried everything and the whole— inside of the shifting is that the thirst for knowledge Yeah, no, I, I, it went from— I would— I was reading and I was going to these like classes, so to say, back when I was in college just because I had to for a credit. And after that, when I started my business, I was absorbing all this information on business, on how to work with people, on how to deal with people, just because it was a way for me to really improve where I was or kind of level up.

[26:14] Paul: And yeah, that's amazing. So I'd love to shift here to talking about dumb ideas.

[26:22] Shayne Spencer: Mm-hmm.

[26:23] Paul: And I think this will build on what you were just talking about in terms of, uh, getting feedback. And, uh, you, you have a process for turning dumb ideas into something, but I, I'd love to just hear first if you could tell us about Pet Rocks and dumb ideas.

[26:39] Shayne Spencer: Yeah, so about a year ago, I was looking to do a keynote speech and I wanted to really inspire the audience because I was going to basically be like an entrepreneur workshop day camp and I knew they were going to go into iteration of their business ideas and I wanted to really have them be open to any idea and every idea. I was like, well, how do you get, where do good ideas come from? I kind of started with that question. Then I was like, I feel like good ideas actually come from bad ideas. I was like, you know what, dumb ideas. Then I started going back in history and there were so many stories of the airplane, the automobile.

Pet Rock was even one of them. These are ideas that people thought were the dumbest ideas, they would never work, and they actually worked. And it wasn't necessarily that the ideas in itself initially was the best idea in the world and no one believed in it. It was that the idea was like a weak idea.

[27:56] Paul: Right.

[27:56] Shayne Spencer: And so it was using the iteration process that you're actually able to take any idea, any idea, especially the dumbest idea, the dumb ones and turn them into a great impactful idea. And I, as I look around today, I feel like we've lost that encouragement around dumb ideas. Like there's a lot of money and a lot of investors that are putting into things that they think are going to be the next big thing, that are like those ideas that get automatic funding and They're great. However, I'm very much interested in those people that have ideas that don't sound like really good ideas. Like, there isn't a lot of support. There's a lot of things, reasons why it can't work, and I feel like if they can address those issues through an iteration process, it could really be impactful and really cause change.

So I started this thing with a group of friends, colleagues, called the Dumb Idea Project. And what it is is a workshop around for entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs who have an idea, but they don't necessarily know exactly what to do with their idea. So this workshop is really like a precursor to going to like an ideation, like, or some kind of startup incubator. And so this allows people to kind of nurture those ideas, have some faith in those ideas, get them to bounce their dumb idea off of other people and then have those ideas kind of then take the next step, which is getting them into an incubator or getting them into some other space where they can start to implement the first version of that idea.

[29:46] Paul: So when you reflect back on your own journey, were there points when people called you out and said, "That's a dumb idea, Shane"?

[29:54] Shayne Spencer: Of course, of course. I mean, like, if I look back at my— what I did, I quit my job, my full-time job, basically on the— during the middle of the recession. I wasn't living at home. I had no savings, really. I had a little bit of savings, which I spent within the first— within the first 2 months. I liquidated my 401k to put into my business.

Yeah. Hey, um, let's see what else. It was just not I didn't have a business plan. I didn't really have much of a strategy. Honestly, at that point, Thinkwork Media was just a PowerPoint. And it was just a simple PowerPoint on what we did on a methodology that I had developed, which was strategy first.

That's why the name of the company is Think, then the work, then the media, because I believe it's that type of process that you should really look at when putting, creating any type of marketing material. But it was definitely, definitely a dumb idea. I mean, and there's been times where we had no money and I've had ex-girlfriends that would attest to, they were like, Shayne, just close the business. Just wrap it up. You can do so many other things.

[31:13] Paul: I want to go out for a nice dinner.

[31:15] Shayne Spencer: Exactly. Like, come on, forget about it. It's not that big of a deal. You're going to be okay. You know, if you can—

[31:23] Paul: What kept you going in those moments?

[31:26] Shayne Spencer: What kept me going in those moments was a belief that I was close. A belief that I was close enough that I can feel it. In high school, someone created this for me. They said, you know, talent or your goals are like drinking a big glass of Guinness. And it's like when you pour a nice cup of Guinness, there's a lot of foam that you have to get to before you can get to the good part, you know, the beer. And that's just basically what entrepreneurship was for me at the first time.

It was just kind of getting through all that foaminess to get to the good stuff. And as I look back on it, you know, I felt like honestly didn't have to wait years for that that foamingness to clear up, I really had to start to really take in where I was at and really get present to the type of impact I was having. So in my business, I've had the privilege of working with several, several other businesses to help them grow their business and I've had the privilege of working with amazing freelancers and contractors and helping them provide for themselves and their family. And yes, it's been one hell of a journey but at the end of the day when I just kind of I had to stop and think for a second. I was like, I was helping people make a difference for themselves and in their lives. So I was just like, okay, which kind of later helped me develop my own mission in life.

So whether I'm doing the Dumb Idea Project, whether I'm DJing, no matter what I'm doing, my mission is to dream big and encourage myself and others to build mountains out of ideas.

[33:16] Paul: I love it. So this might be a good point if you could share with us. I think you presented in this talk, and I'll link up to it in the show notes. I think everyone should watch this. Uh, what are the 4 steps from getting our dumb ideas to something that's useful?

[33:33] Shayne Spencer: Okay, okay, 4 steps for getting your dumb ideas and make sense. Thank you for bringing me back to that. First, you need to get it out of your head. Write it down, get— make it— put it on something tangible. It doesn't have to be pretty. It's not— I'm not trying to have you write your dissertation or business report.

Just write it down, get it out into the physical world. The next step after that is to start sharing your idea. Sharing your idea with anyone and everyone that will listen because the sharing allows you to get feedback and that allows you to then start to iterate on your idea. So once you've shared your idea with many people, and most people think, "Oh no, I can't share my idea because people are going to steal my idea," and you actually want them to steal your idea. You know, just because you're the first to do something doesn't necessarily mean you get to keep all the money. Tom from MySpace will tell you, being first doesn't necessarily mean you get to be the richest.

You know, so share your idea and if other people see value in it and they want to take it on, let them do it and then you can learn from their mistakes. Those are your guinea pigs. Then when you share your idea, get all the feedback. You know, there is no such thing as bad feedback. Negative feedback, good feedback, it's all good. Feedback is a gift and that feedback is okay, This is what this particular person thinks about my product or my service.

How can I work this? How can I— is this in line with what we're committed to doing or is there somewhere we can tweak this or how we can improve upon it? Get all the feedback because most of the times we're like, oh, well, it's an early starter. We're so protective of ideas that we don't want to take any negative feedback, but it's the negative feedback, believe it or not, that's actually going to help us make the biggest leaps forward with our businesses and our ideas.

[35:31] Paul: Right.

[35:32] Shayne Spencer: So get the feedback. And the last thing is, is just be— don't be too attached to your idea. You know, be willing to be committed more to the outcome your idea is going to have rather than the way it looks right now. Because the way your idea looks right now, it's great and there's nothing wrong with it, but Imagine if you were to share it, get the feedback, iterate on it, what it could look like 10 years from now. If you look at iPhones, look at cars, name any great invention, the way they are today is very different from the way they originally were designed and that's because of the iteration process and because of sharing.

[36:17] Paul: Yeah.

[36:18] Shayne Spencer: So those are the 4 steps there.

[36:19] Paul: I think you brought up Uber in your talk, which I think is an amazing example. Somebody was— somebody— I was listening to somebody talk about Uber and they were saying if you just describe Uber what it does now, people would— like 10 years ago, they'd think it is insane, right? The whole idea is, oh, we're gonna have random strangers come to your house and bring you to another location, right? That sounds insane.

[36:45] Shayne Spencer: Oh yeah.

[36:45] Paul: And And then the second thing is like it originally started as just limos and black cars and then completely pivoted to individuals. Like, so they definitely went through this process as well. And now everyone just accepts it as a solid idea.

[37:02] Shayne Spencer: Exactly. And, and that's why I'm like, I'm on the hunt for the next big dumb idea because they're out there. They're out there. And I believe that they just don't have platform right now to actually be able to share and ideate and ideate, because the minute you post something online that isn't necessarily part of the status quo, right, it gets some harsh criticism, you know, that has people not want to share.

[37:29] Paul: Yeah, for sure. And I've definitely experienced that myself. Where can people find out more about the Dumb Idea Project?

[37:38] Shayne Spencer: They can go to thedumbideaproject.com, that's the dumb ideaproject.com. Yeah, we don't have any events coming up just yet, but I'm sure, but I definitely believe we should be having some stuff roll out. And yeah, there's so much more to come with The Dumb Idea Project because what we're looking to do is not only have these workshops, but have a platform so after the workshops, have like a Facebook group or something where we can actually still have people share what the progress is of their ideas after the Dumb Idea Project and just have people start collaborating and just encouraging one another.

[38:19] Paul: That's great. And what, what is energizing you most right now?

[38:27] Shayne Spencer: What is energizing me most right now is just the progress. Yeah, because as long as things are moving, then there's still hope. You know, up, down, it's moving, right? So there's definitely hope. There's definitely an opportunity. There's definitely some, something, somewhere where things can be built, where there's still opportunity.

So as long as there's motion, as long as I can move, as long as things are willing to move, that gives me hope and that energizes me because this too shall pass. Is what I used to say when I was really down and like really like, uh, what are we gonna do? This too shall pass. Right.

[39:10] Paul: That's great. So a new question I am using with people as I pivot the podcast a little is, what does the human side of the future of work mean to you?

[39:22] Shayne Spencer: I believe that we'll become more effective at building things. So we are, like I'm a big fan of automation, and so I think we'll start to develop more and more tools to get things done more effectively, and we'll be able to collaborate on a much bigger scale. And so when I look at the future and what that could possibly entail, I'm really like, like really pumped because I feel like that human side is always going to be there, like, Yes, we'll have automation and we'll have all these different things, but that's going to be designed and created by a human in the service of humans. And my wish is that this allows us to take less time to do more things, which gives us a chance to really be present with one another.

Right now, we're not there yet, many of us, but I would hope that as we As we start to really become more efficient with communication, with production, that then we start to give ourselves more time to kind of take a break and just be with whatever there is for us to be with.

[40:37] Paul: That's amazing. So where can people connect with you or learn more about what you're doing?

[40:42] Shayne Spencer: You can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. Let's see. I also had created a link to get to me really quickly. I think it's— let me see if it's still up. You can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. That's the quickest way.

You could also just go to Shayne Spencer, that's S-H-A-Y-N-E Spencer, S-P-E-N-C-E-R, dot com, which will automatically forward you to my LinkedIn page. That was a quick tip there. So just buy your domain name and forward it to your name. So ShayneSpencer.com will forward you to my LinkedIn page. And yeah, I'm also available to speak at anything. So if any of the listeners would like to have me come speak, I love speaking with Toastmasters or whatever way, and I can really make a difference for people.