Mark J. Kohler
speaker
651 appearances
4 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2019
last heard 10 Jul
Mark J. Kohler’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
See, so many people that are sponsored by governments or big corporations and, you know, big NGOs like we're trying to deal with climate control and AI. I mean, if I hear the word sustainability and AI in the same sentence again, I'm going to like punch someone in the face. Yeah.
But anyway, it was a really unique opportunity because I got to speak on behalf of America's small business and really world's small business. So many other countries, you walk into a little pizza shop in Italy and it's a mom and dad trying to pass on a legacy to their kids. And It's everywhere. Every country is built on that small business mindset and they get forgotten.
So that was my opportunity. So I talked about having a family office, having your own family business, having your own board meeting with your little family offices, three doors down the hallway on the left with a couch in it. You don't need to be a billionaire and something I speak about all the time in love. And so I go over there and I expected, you know, to like have
be invited to crazy parties where they were planning black Swan events or, you know, sort of like what's going on. You know, am I going to get on a jet and head to some Island in the Caribbean?
It's like, here's your card. If you ever call a jet, we'll call and pick you up. So anyway, I, you know, you have all these conspiracy. And the biggest shocker was, um, And of course, I knew we were going to go to Switzerland in this beautiful little town with snow and all these little Swiss villages. It was just gorgeous.
But I got there and oh my gosh, everybody I met was just another business owner. Yeah, there was some corporate representatives and some diplomats and this and that. But everybody was like, hey, you got a card? What's going on? And the biggest takeaway, you'll love this. Americans don't think big enough.
I would be talking to a young couple that just invented a new gin or another couple that was selling some caviar or another food product of some sort, another couple that was doing some automotive parts or this or that, doing some music, doing any business I would bump into. They're like, yeah, I'm trying to scale this globally. I'm in five countries already. I'm like, what?
And I'm like, we just, as America, we just, we get in our bubble and don't realize there is a whole economy out there worldwide for us. And I was like, wow. And that was very empowering for me because I think there's so many people in the U.S. that do have products and services they could sell worldwide or expand a little bit for some of that.
And there may not be a tariff where you want to sell it.
I love it, and I want to circle back. I just had a thought, too, on AI you're going to love because it was a big theme. AI is a big issue or opportunity, but – Here's the thing. I tell businesses to first start with, how can you sell your product or services scale? I love to talk about scaling. And there's going to be breakpoints. How many employees do you need? How much infrastructure, software?
There's going to be breakpoints to get you to different levels. But the first thing is looking at your product mix and saying, how can I duplicate myself if it's service-driven? If it's product driven, what are the ancillary ways that I could make money doing this? Quick example. I have clients that are, let's go with music.
So I had a kid that was very talented and he was a drummer in a band and he was in this little town doing drum lessons for kids for 25 bucks an hour, you know, and, but he was on, he'd go on tour here and there and they were trying to make their break, but he being in a band and a drummer was his passion. All right, cool. So I'd be like, well, how are you making money?
Well, the band makes a little bit of money. I'm working down at a restaurant serving and I give some lessons. I go, that's it? He's like, well, yeah, what else can I do? I'm like, sit down, bud. Number one, we're going to start doing drumming lessons online.
You can do lessons online with live YouTube or live links and start selling, do some riffs on the YouTube, start building a channel and offer drum lessons for $50 an hour live around the world. People can book a lesson with you on how to do the riff you just did. Number two, we're going to start making videos of you teaching kids how to drum 10 lessons, 199 bucks.
And then we're going to create an ongoing membership to be a part of your drumming community where they can get together and practice and do online. I call a notes would hold their little drum sessions in the basement. And you're going to do that. Number four, you're going to get an Amazon link and start selling drum kits to your students worldwide and make three to 5% on every drum package sold.
You don't have to have a storefront. Next, you're going to start teaching classes on this online to groups. So not only are you going to have individual lessons, you're going to have group lessons. I don't want to just go on and on. And you can do that from your basement in Duluth, Minnesota. And he was like, Yeah, you can make millions. Become an online marketer for your passion.
And that could be a worldwide opportunity. Now, sometimes our business model doesn't allow for that. I get it. But sometimes we can think about what are we passionate about? What do we love? What are some options to sell my product or service that are outside of the box? The world is our oyster now.
No, I love it. And I, um, so I want to answer it this way because it was a unique, um, uh situation where it kind of went full circle so we get to davos and of course there's ai here there robots walking on the streets i mean it was pretty trippy yeah yeah um and uh my wife patty where i she's amazing we are freaking a power couple together she makes me such a better man she was uh
asked to speak on a panel with the ambassador to Switzerland and a real estate developer in Dubai about relationships and about emotion and connection. Because the one, and this was refreshing, is that even the people that were promoting AI said it can't replace the human spirit. And so when she was able to talk about emotion and relationships, people were like, bam.
We needed that on the stage because everybody was getting so down that rabbit hole, going so far down the rabbit hole of AI, they forgot, oh, we're humans.
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