Overcoming adversity to build a thriving business, with Oxford Pierpont founder, Bob Hunter (MDE526)

Minter Dialogue with Bob Hunter

Bob Hunter is the founder of Oxford Pierpont, based out of Atlanta GA, serving small businesses by providing the essential services required for any business to launch in a modern, interconnected world. In this discussion, we explore his entrepreneurial journey, how he overcame adversity, battling significant health challenges, and created a very successful consulting company. We look at his philosophy, how he’s accumulated such a long client list of recognisable brand names. Along the way, we can gain some great insights and perspective.

Please send me your questions — as an audio file if you’d like — to nminterdial@gmail.com. Otherwise, below, you’ll find the show notes and, of course, you are invited to comment. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to rate it here.

To connect with Bob Hunter:

• Find/follow Oxford Pierpont on Instagram and Twitter
• Find/follow Bob Hunter on LinkedIn

Further resources for the Minter Dialogue podcast:

Music credit: The jingle at the beginning of the show is courtesy of my friend, Pierre Journel, author of the Guitar Channel. And, the new sign-off music is “A Convinced Man,” a song I co-wrote and recorded with Stephanie Singer back in the late 1980s (please excuse the quality of the sound!).

adversity | atlanta | bob hunter | Consulting | entrepreneur | Minter Dialogue | mr bob hunter | oxford pierpont | perspective | philosophy | sickle cell | sickle cell disease

Transcription of the interview of Bob Hunter by Ottter.ai 

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, oxford, deal, bob, sickle cell, happened, talk, business, ai, podcast, clients, learning, accomplish, live, challenge, level, person, big, project, feel

SPEAKERS
Minter Dial, Bob Hunter

Minter Dial
Hello and welcome to Minter Dialogue, episode number 526. My name is Minter Dial and I’m your host for this podcast, proud member of the Evergreen Podcast Network. For more information check out other shows in this wonderful network, please visit evergreen podcasts.com. This week’s interview is with Bob Hunter. Bob is the founder of Oxford Pierpont, based out of Atlanta, Georgia serving small businesses by providing the essential services required for any business to launch in a modern, interconnected world. In this discussion with Bob weeks for his entrepreneurial journey, how he overcame adversity, battling significant health challenges, and created a very successful consulting company. We look at his philosophy, how’s accumulated such a long client list of a recognizable brand names along the way we gain some great insights and perspective. As always, you’ll find all the shownotes on Minter dial.com. And if you have a moment, go ahead, and drop in a rating and review. And don’t forget to subscribe, of course, to catch all the future episodes. Now for the show. Bob Hunter, great to have you on my show. I one of my other ways of meeting people is through matchmaker. So, it’s like, you know, dating game online. And I saw your profile. And it struck me, and I wanted to reach out and have you on my show to get you to talk us through what seems to be rather a really interesting, deep journey. And the founding of your company, Oxford Pierpoint. So, in your words, who is Bob Hunter?

Bob Hunter
You know, that is definitely a question that I’m still trying to figure out every day. And I think a big part of that is, I kind of feel like until the day that we die, we’re still writing each individual chapter of our stories. And so the character development can go right on through the end of the book. So, when people ask, who is Bob Hunter, I guess for context of who I am now, I’m just a business owner, a father, a photographer, traveler, and just a regular guy who’s just trying to accomplish a few things. And I’m sure in later chapters, that definition will get more excited.

Minter Dial
I love the way you describe that. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, I’m 58, so far along the path. And the idea of describing who we are, if at the age of 22, or whatever, you know, I’m not saying YOU at that age, but you know, the young age, you ask why is this who exactly I am? And then the funny thing is, even as you get older, I can say from my vantage point, that although I’ve wanted to craft and shape, and be more assured in who I am, it’s still a journey. So, welcome to that journey, Bob! So, the thing that attracted me to your story is this creation of Oxford Pierpont. Tell us about how why you decided to found Oxford Pierpont!

Bob Hunter
Yeah, I talk to a lot of business owners every day. And a lot of them have these amazing reasons for why they started their business, some passion or some wonderful idea or getting fed up with the way that their life was going. For me, it was more of a survival tactic. And I say that because prior to having the company, I had a regular job. And I was very much in that comfort zone in that space, until my sickle cell came along to disrupt that comfort. And I had to figure out from a survival perspective, the basics of hey, how are we going to get the bills paid. That’s where it stemmed from. In my previous life, as a regular employee. My job was the Director of Operations development. And that basically meant I would create departments, build things for the company, come up with new ideas, execute those ideas every day. That was my job. And it happened in 90-day cycles. So, the logical thing for me to do when I lost my job was to continue doing what I had spent the previous, you know, half decade working on, which is developing and creating. And that’s why we now work with business owners, we do business development, and I talk to business owners every day to create for them, but it wasn’t some passion that I just woke up with. It was more of a hey, I’ve got to make something happen. Here’s what I’ve got in my toolbox and let me make something with it. And that’s where we are now fast forward 2023 It’s been a quite long journey much longer than I thought it would be. And we’re doing better than ever at it. So, it was one of those blessings in disguise.

Minter Dial
Yeah, sounds like you had an alarm. All your alarms are blaring which meant, “oh fruits, I’ve got to figure this out!”

Bob Hunter
Yeah, I think sometimes we get very comfortable in the comfort zone. And there’s no ambition there in that zone. And I think sometimes things happen to us to push us out of that area to make us into better people, if you’re the type of person to survive a thing like that. So, I’m grateful in the end.

Minter Dial
The number of people have on my show who are doing interesting things. Important things, it feels like, so many of them have had some kind of wake-up call. Because until you’re doing that, although you have ambition, I mean, you just say you didn’t. But I think people do have the idea or think they have ambition, and think they’re onto doing something interesting. While they’re basically running on a treadmill, punching and punching out and getting big titles. But then they wonder what that’s all about. And then something happens to them, that says, Oh, wow, let me do something else. For you. Let’s talk us through sickle cell. Because I mean, I’m sure most people don’t really understand that I don’t, I’d love to know a little bit more about how it manifested itself is it sort of overnight, I got my own illness. And it basically came over a three-week period. And then at the end, it was very obvious, but it crept up on me sometimes it can be many months years, what was your experience.

Bob Hunter
So, sickle cell is a hereditary blood disorder that you’re born with. And it has varying degrees of severity. For me, I happen to have the worst one. And so, I suffer from chronic pain on a daily basis. And that pain can be anywhere in my body. There are definitely some areas that I would consider to be hotspots, but it’s a debilitating level of pain for most people. And so most people that end up having to fight sickle cell, throughout their lives, they end up coping with a lot of medication, a lot of opioids, a lot of just having a narcotics, a lot of just heavy medication that really does nullify your ability to be a very highly accomplished person, because anyone who’s had to be on pain meds, to that extent knows, many of them will just make you drowsy or just make you otherwise lethargic. So, the challenge for me was figuring out a good balance between managing my sickle cell but still managing my goals. And the only way to accomplish that was cutting all the payments, which was a challenge, but it’s one that was done. And now I’m grateful for it. So, that’s sickle cell in a nutshell.

Minter Dial
Wow, dealing with pain all day long. I mean, so now that you’ve cut the meds, are you still having to deal with pain? How do you manage that piece.

Bob Hunter
So, still definitely deal with it. Sometimes I’ll take like just short breaks to, to lay down rest, whatever the problem area is, for that day, trying to stay hydrated and just have healthy eating habits, just healthy lifestyle habits, drinking lots of water, you know, gallon of water a day, little things like that. So, that I’m basically getting ahead of the severity of whatever pain I would have. And then the biggest one I would say is keeping a positive attitude. Because I think a lot of people don’t realize just how, just how much of a role your mindset and attitude play in your overall well-being. Especially if you’re someone that’s dealing with a chronic illness, what you’ll find is that if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day, whatever your illness is that you’re dealing with, it’s definitely going to be worse that day. Whereas if you wake up, you acknowledge that, hey, this is what you’ve got to deal with. But you’ve got other things to do to, so you manage your pain, you move on, you barely even notice it, it’s more like a dull noise in the background, instead of like a blaring noise right in your face at all times.

Minter Dial
So, the pain moves around your body, which means you can’t anticipate where it is you try to drink a gallon of water as opposed to us, you know, quote unquote, normal people that just drink a liter or? Yeah, I try to do that a gallon. Seems like it’s a rigorous discipline. But in terms of your mindset, how do you deal with that? I mean, I know so many people who are dealing with pain, you know, I’m much older than you and it ends up being part of it. But you’ve had to deal with it so much earlier, how have you actually and what is the mindset, predisposition or, or discipline exercise that you undertake to deal with that pain?

Bob Hunter
I would say it’s a mindset like that of a poker player. And what I mean by that is a poker player does not gets asked the dealer for any particular hand, right? The dealer shuffles, the cards are evenly distributed, so you everyone at the table, and you have to play the hand that you’re dealt, and play your best hand with it. And you know, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And I just feel like in my case, sure, I’ve got a bad hand. But I’ve been able to find ways to win. But for example, let’s say that I am just really, really not feeling very, very good. That’s today, like I just I wake up, and it’s just horrible day. Bad hand, yes, you’re gonna lose some of them. But there are things that I can do to mitigate that, I might just have to go take a hot shower, or relax muscles a little bit, drinking extra water, drinking extra green tea, trying to meditate, that’s a big one, I’m trying to make sure that I am distracting myself so that instead of like this high volume, music that’s playing in my in my face is more like a gold background music like ambient noise, you can lower the level of pain that you’re dealing with just by simply ignoring it. And people also have to consider when they’re thinking about how to manage whatever their challenges are, we’re not even just talking about pain here. But any challenge that you have, that placebo effect matters. The reason that the placebo effect works is because your mind does have some say, and how, how aggressively, you’re going to interpret something to be. And if you believe that pay, this thing that you’re dealing with is not as big of a deal as you might otherwise make it out to be, you’ll find that you are able to ignore it effectively, and move on and accomplish the things that you’d have to accomplish. And I mean, at the end of the day, if you’re going to really go after something, you know, just go after it, despite whatever obstacles are in the way.

Minter Dial
So, it’s I’m just thinking about another friend (Ryan Shekell) I’ve had on the show who has cystic fibrosis. And he like you has a tremendous attitude. I mean, his lifespan is over-lived by several years now. And you, I’m always almost flattered to speak to somebody like that. And yet, I wonder how you deal with people who are complaining, “oh my god, you know, there’s a scratch on my car.” Or “Oh, I have a headache.” And “Oh, I’m the victim of the rain that came down on my head today.”

Bob Hunter
You know, I laugh a lot. That’s a good way of handling things. But I also just recognize that we all have different experiences. And I think half of the reason that some of us have really strong attitudes, is simply because we had to, there wasn’t really an option. And so I recognize that not everyone has had to go through the fire and be hardened in that way. And I can’t really, you know, judge them personally for that. Because it’s that’s their story. They’re on a different story than I’m on. And it’s something I have to deal with regularly, because I have so many employees across, let’s see 12346 countries. So, there’s always going to be someone who’s complaining about, oh, this happened to me, and it’s the the end of the world I’m thinking to myself, like, that’s, that’s nothing but hey, you know, I will just deal with it as it comes. Let everyone handle things as best they are currently equipped to do. So.

Minter Dial
That’s a very graceful approach.

Bob Hunter
It’s an effective approach, just because if I tried to stress myself out over what other people did, I would accomplish nothing and get nowhere. So, you got to just kind of again, take the hand that you’re dealt in every aspect of life and just do your best, even when dealing with people.

Minter Dial
Yeah. How many people do have at Oxford Pierpont?

Bob Hunter
153 ish, currently.

Minter Dial
Yes, I love that, you know, it’s like, HR would say, “Well, we have 220 and a half people on a full-time basis,” or whatever on an equivalent full time. In that the illness has presumably played a large part, I’m sure it feels like it’s not something you want to use that defines you. But to what extent has it helped you and shaped you into a better business leader?

Bob Hunter
I would say perseverance is the biggest benefit. Because it’s something that you were forced to learn. It’s really a very binary scenario. Either you are going to let your illness or your challenges whatever they are. Either you’re going to let those win or you’re going to win But someone’s going to win one or the other. And because I believe that I have important things to do, I put any challenges that I’m facing on the backburner, they are lower priority than the things that I feel I need to accomplish. And that mindset, I feel like only came from having to deal with sickle cell. And I’m 34. Now handling it all much better than I did when I was 24 or even 14. So, it’s something that you just get better with practice.

Minter Dial
I love it. I imagine it’s in the name. But tell us what you believe you are made for what is the bigger purpose that Bob Hunter is after

Bob Hunter
I’m going to build skyscraper farms. So, if you can imagine any skyscraper that you can picture and just imagine that the entire thing is farms top to bottom, that’s what I’m supposed to be doing. That’s the only thing that I need to accomplish. Everything else is just little road, road markers, mile markers on the journey. But that journey is specifically to those skyscrapers there is nothing else.

Minter Dial
It makes me think of Singapore where they know exactly. Oh, is that true?

Bob Hunter
Exactly. So, I mean, there’s plenty of people who have vertical farms. There’s nothing unique about that. But there are not enough people that have simply stacked it on a huge industrial level like that. And so for the amount of food that’s able to be generated in these spaces, you could help a lot of people, you could give a lot of food away to kids who need it, you could give a lot of food away to homeless people and still make a pretty significant profit. And I say that because, for example, in the United States, there’s this thing while you’re going to the grocery store, about the food looking perfect. And let’s say we’re talking about apples, and you’ve got a few apples that are lumpy. Well, if I’ve got to spend $6, on the bag of apples, I don’t I don’t want the Lumley apples, I just don’t well, that those apples end up getting trashed. And, you know, we end up with all this food waste, while there’s still people that are hungry. So, when you’re asking what my purpose is, it is to build those farms create massive amounts of food, we’ll still sell the perfect food to the parties that need it. And the things that are a little less perfect, we can give those away, we can still partition off a certain amount of the perfect food to give away as well. And be able to make a significant dent for the people that are suffering from hunger or living in food deserts where they don’t have access to food. So, that’s the whole purpose. That’s the whole reason.

Minter Dial
Well, before we get into a little bit more that I mean, my wife’s French and and when I go shopping for groceries, there are a number of countries I’m not allowed to buy certain things from certain places, because they do too much industrialization. They render the tomatoes perfectly red but completely tasteless. And, and the idea of a perfectly rounded Apple, it feels you know, the basic premises you have to wash it, strip it of the of the of the skin, because that’s all layered with all sorts of fertilizers and uninteresting things for the body. And they’re no worms, and God knows just looks like it’s not actually created in earth, much less on Earth. And that, that sense of aesthetic of food? Well, I it’s sort of, you know, for me, who who lives in Europe, although I have a US passport, I’ve always been a little bit shocked at at that sort of that idea of perfection in the shopping. Whereas the What about the perfection of the cooking and the eating and the health, the actual health of people, right?

Bob Hunter
And a lot of people don’t get that. And I wish that people did because it would lead to a lot less waste, especially here in the United States. But if that was already solved, and I guess they would need me now what they had.

Minter Dial
So, Bob, how did you get into this? I mean, what was your journey into this idea of the vertical fall?

Bob Hunter
I feel like it’s just my calling. And it’s something that is completely random. And it’s gonna sound absurd when I say it, but I literally was minding my own business in the shower. And I was meditating and wondering what I should be doing with my life. And that’s what came to me. I know nothing about farming. I am not necessarily a kids kind of person. Not that I dislike kids. It’s just not something that I had ever particularly thought about. And of all the things to come to me as far as like, Hey, what should you be doing with your life? It was this. It seemed like the most random thing ever. But when it happened, it kind of all it was like a kind of put it. It was like someone dumped a whole bunch of data into my head all at once, where I can see everything I can see the farms I can see or rather the buildings, I can see the people who need the help, I can see whatever that looks like. It’s like I’d be able to paint a full picture of something that I had never thought about prior. And it still baffles me how that whole thing happened, because it does sound absurd, but that’s what happened.

Minter Dial
So, it’s my distinct impression. There is a thing to discover within that. Yeah, Oxford Pierpont. I mean, just the name I need you to explain to us how you came up with that. I mean, my son once I applied my children applied to a school called Pierpont down in the south of England. Oxford is in England, the the name what I mean it for as a French person, Pierre Paul, that it speaks to me but I’m sure there’s a more interesting understanding.

Bob Hunter
Yeah, so um, I was trying to figure out it’s hilarious. But I was trying Oh, hilarious to me. I was trying to figure out what’s the name of the company at the time I was watching this movie The Wolf of Wall Street and their company that the name in the movie was Stratton Oakmont surreal company. And I love that name so much and just loved everything about it and how the presentation was done. And so I came up with my own name. The Oxford is actually a little nod to my very first client after I lost my job. And that was the Oxford Highland group. They are a mergers and acquisitions for a minute Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Where your babies they were the first Yep, so my first time making a website for clients and just other stuff was a lot of firsts so Stratton Oakmont already shot and Pierpont five, excuse me. The Oxford Highland group they were first, the Pierpont is actually a nod to John Pierpont Morgan, better known to most As JP Morgan, The Wizard of Wall Street all those years ago, and I’ve always thought JP Morgan was a pretty interesting fellow. I like the history of that time period where you’ve got Dale Carnegie Rockefeller, JP Morgan, all these titans of industry. And so it was a little nod to him in particular. So, that is where the name Oxford Pierpont comes from those two things. Not entirely random, but a little. Well, certainly surprising. Yeah, definitely. Also, I had a certain brand that I wanted to build. And so I had enough experience to know that people aren’t judging your brand, before you’ve even done any business with them. So, I wanted something that was very highbrow from the start. I have other brands that are way less intimidating, from the branding the way that the colors are chosen. But for Oxford, it did exactly what it needed to do, because it’s how I got relationships with like companies like Wells Fargo, United Healthcare, Starbucks, Arizona, big names in a short amount of time, just because I took the time to really plan out brand, I was going to speak to my target audience.

Minter Dial
Well, obviously with the little research I did about you obviously have an enormously, very recognizable and long list of good clients. Are there clients you refuse?

Bob Hunter
So, we’ve raised our prices several times deliberately for the purpose of refusing people. That sounds terrible, I’m sure. But it’s…

Minter Dial
…very exclusionary of you, Bob! Oh, my God!

Bob Hunter
It’s for a good reason. So, if you’re starting a business, one of the main things that you’re trying to accomplish is figuring out who your target audience really is, in a way that’s allowing you to be profitable, and able to mitigate the overhead? Well, let’s say that I’m going to work with someone and we’re going to do a marketing campaign or website or we’re going to do some funding. A person who is we’ll say, starting out, and they don’t have access to resources, I’m still gonna have to do the exact same amount of work for that person as I would for someone who maybe sold a higher package to it’s almost the identical level of work. And then in fact, dealing with people that don’t have the resources actually ends up being more of a headache long term and requires more of my time and resources than if I just raised my prices. So, what I ended up doing is I have brands where I definitely target small business owners and in just people who are starting But that is not Oxford for us. Usually, if we’re not talking about a project that starts at $5,000, we won’t even take the project. And ideally, we’re looking at things that are a minimum of $10,000. Just because it allows us to pay our people better. It allows us to provide a better service to our clients. And of course, it’s in line with what our brand is anyway. So, that’s really how that whole thing, how that whole thing happened there and why it’s presented the way that it is in a very stiff corporate fashion.

Minter Dial
Well, let me be provocative Bob. So, here I am a potential customer. Hey, Mr. Hunter, Oxford Pierpont sounds just up our avenue, I’m prepared to pay $50,000 for this project, and we do things which are a little unethical. which inevitably means a sort of, say, a battle with or confrontation of values. I mean, in the end of the day, many consultancies agencies with whom I’ve dealt with or interviewed, they have a tendency to say, Yes, I can do it. The idea of throwing away $50,000, or whatever the exciting amount might be, is hard to say no to. And when you say no to that one, as opposed to the one that comes and says, Well, I’ve only got a one and a half $1,000. Underneath your, your threshold? What are the criteria you use to say no?

Bob Hunter
If it’s a project that I simply don’t want to just say “no,” that’s half the fun of being the person who makes up all the rules, right? I get to choose what projects we work on. And I get to refuse anything that I just feel like is not aligned with our goals. And that’s really important, because, as I mentioned earlier, my end goal is to have those skyscrapers. So, if the project that I’m working on is going to significantly distract from that, or, or compromise our values, or reputation or anything, then just simply say, No, it’s the one big benefit that you have over being an employee of some some, you know, some company, I get to say no, so, and I’d say no to both of those cases, if that’s what it was, if I was talking to the underfunded person, who it was going to be a struggle to do their project, or you know, they weren’t really going to be able to pay what’s required for us to do a good job, or the person who has 50,000, and they can pay for everything. But now we have to deal with a lot of unintended moral consequences. I will just simply say no to both.

Minter Dial
Right? So, let me be let me dig in. So, let’s say I’m ConAgra, or some other large agricultural food company, or even a tobacco company says, I really dig your idea of a skyscraper farm. I really want that I think it’s the future. Here’s a, here’s a check for $5 million. How do you decipher and in this idea of ciphering the balance of the relationship between your values and their values? I’d love for you to dig in on that sort of cross section. Is it just a gut reaction? Is it a personality story? How much do you need the company’s values to be lived and felt and understood? Or is it may be a marketing story? How do you judge

Bob Hunter
I think we only have one life to live in. And, in particular, I think mine is going to be a little bit shorter. And so I have no intention of just wasting it. Doing things that I think are counterproductive to my goal of helping people overall. Also, I think that, especially here in the United States, there’s too much emphasis on money. So, you mentioned $5 million, there are plenty of ways to go get $5 million, relatively speaking, it’s not even that hard to go get $5 million. Because there’s way more than that just floating around. So, if you have to tell one person No, because you’re seeking out someone that’s going to be a better long-term partner for you, then, you know, it’s not that big of a deal. Now, I don’t know if it’s the same for other countries, but at least here in the US. There are a lot of incentives for investments. And there are a lot of people who are willing to make investments. If only you can give them a good reason, you know, to work with you, and if you can show that there’s a good reason for them to trust you with their money. So, it doesn’t have to be any one particular party. If you want to say no, you just simply say no You have to be confident enough to say that of course.

Minter Dial
Yeah. Because there are plenty of temptations of say, Oh, $5 million. That sounds interesting. And we get quickly swayed by money at some level. Maybe it makes, it’s sort of what people who don’t realize that life is short, I think.

Bob Hunter
I think also, my perspective might be a bit biased. Because part of what we do in our day to day business is funding. And so I’ve had to get familiar with the other options out there are for raising capital. So, that could also be what’s influenced my ability to say, Oh, $5 million, relatively speaking, it’s not that much money. Well, it’s just because I know where to go get more than that. I can see how it would be more of a challenge if the most you’ve ever gotten from someone is $50,000. And now someone says, Hey, here’s $5 million, are you going to take it? Maybe they’d have a harder time making that decision, just because they don’t know what other options are available to them. But for me personally, it would be easy NO!

Minter Dial
Are you referring to my business credit?

Bob Hunter
My Business Credit and Oxford Pierpont Capital. So, mybusinesscredit.com is the brand that we have for small business owners. Going back to that statement I made earlier when I said you build your brand for your target audience, my business credit and Oxford Pierpont capital do the exact same thing. But one is targeted for small business owners, the other is targeted for big corporations or larger, more established businesses. So, yeah, both of those are, where we are, how we operate and getting funding for people.

Minter Dial
So, I mean, at some level, you’ve grown your business, 150 employees, you’re 34 years old, which is amazing, too, what do you ascribe your success?

Bob Hunter
Simply not giving up when you’re learning what not to do? Is quote that’s always floating around about mean, you’ve screwed up a few times. Oh, yeah, I do every week, sometimes on purpose, you know, break things and figure out what not to do. It’s all science. And, and it’s fun. And here’s this quote about Thomas Edison. And I still don’t know if it’s true or not. But basically, he’s saying something along the lines of, you know, he required 10,000 tries to make the light bulb before he got the one that works, right. So, you learn 10,000 ways not to do it. And I always love that quote, because it kind of is what I do. I make a lot of mistakes. And so then when talking to someone, years later, they’re like, oh, wow, you have so much knowledge and experience. And it’s like, well, you know, I should after having, you know, burned the house down a couple of times. It’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s an accumulation of experience. And I love that.

Minter Dial
So, little connecting of dots in my mind is going on. And one of the things I like to talk about is the acceptance of imperfection. And within that the idea of testing and failing and suffering through challenge. And I’m wondering if there’s a connection between your health and your ability to accept failure.

Bob Hunter
I feel like I don’t have a whole lot of time to be wasting. I think that’s where the biggest motivation comes from. So, I am just more motivated to accomplish my goals, because I just don’t think I have time to, to, I guess to to mess around and, you know, do nothing.

Minter Dial
Well, some might say, screwing up is messing around.

Bob Hunter
No, no, that’s learning big difference. It’s good if you are making mistakes and learning because you’re constantly learning better ways to do things. And you’re constantly getting better. Doing nothing is when you’ve got the biggest problem. So, people who will often criticize what you’re doing or complain, mean, often they’re not really doing anything themselves. Because if you were at some point, you would mess things up. It’s just part of the process. It’s part of the science and it’s the fun part. Honestly, if you can survive it.

Minter Dial
Yeah, if you can survive it. I was I was telling you before we started recording about how the interesting interview on my French podcast with a person who talks about sales and for having been a salesman manage large sales teams, and most recently observed how it’s one of the occupations where you see the highest level of depression, anxiety, mental health issues. Sales is a role where you have to learn how to deal with no. And I as in rejection. And at the same level, I’m sort of making a parallel between doing and failing, you know, saying, Hey, would you buy my thing? And no. And so the issue of mental health feels like today is more relevant with the nose, the rejection, the failure than it was before. And yet, as you’re saying, it’s all about learning. Can you give ideas that might lean into this idea of how people who are suffering? who are who are less capable or maybe don’t have an illness like you have? How can they dig into your idea, your mindset?

Bob Hunter
I think a lot of it has to do with perspective. And so if, if we’re looking at the concept of failing, our earliest introduction to that, for many people, at least in the United States, is the school system. So, in the school system, it’s very binary pass fail, right? You have your ABCDE F system, and you’re given some kind of test, and then either you passed it or you failed it. And often, the case is that if you failed it, there are not any second opportunities for you to go in and take the test again, right? You’re, you’re interpreted as having insufficient knowledge on the subject. And that’s the end of it. In real life, it doesn’t work that way. In real life, there’s no teacher that’s giving you all these lessons and then giving you the test in real life, it is you getting the test. And then you get the answer as still, you know whether or not you are going to pass or fail. And so failure at that stage becomes more of a concept of giving up than anything else, because you don’t really have anyone telling you, Hey, you can’t try again, to do this business or to do this thing or, or to do that thing. It’s not really a failure until you yourself chose to, hey, I’m going to stop trying. It’s not like a sport, there’s not some team that you’re fighting against is constantly against yourself, really. So, if we’re talking about what mindset you really need to adopt, it’s really just a mindset that says, hey, I’m going to have a different perspective on how failure works or how life works in general. And I’m going to simply approach things as hey, I know that I don’t know how to do this thing, or I don’t know what to expect. Or, you know, I don’t fully have all the answers right now I’m operating in ignorance. But I’m going to learn along the way. And I’m going to make micro adjustments until I’ve reached whatever my predefined level of success actually is. That’s the easiest way to adjust the attitude. So, that you can be a successful person, just simply changing your perspective.

Minter Dial
Alright, so push back time, Bob, you suffer the consequences of having a 99% satisfaction rating with your clients see basically never fail. Not true.

Bob Hunter
No, definitely not true. So, if we end up getting, you know, just great feedback and comments, and everyone’s happy, that’s only because all the little times that we might have made them unhappy along the way we were quick about changing it and adjusting and pivoting. Again, there’s that concept of failure, did we fail? No, we haven’t really failed with anyone. That’s only because any mistakes we’ve made along the way, we’ve quickly corrected them, until we’ve reached a level of success with each individual person. So, it’s still exactly the same. But on the surface, of course, and this is often the case with many business owners, people only ever see the success, they never see the struggle that happened behind closed doors or behind the scenes. So, you’ve got to keep that in mind, too. People are a lot less successful in real life than they might appear to be when you’re just looking from the outside in. And it’s not until you talk to that person that you hear the stories of hey, well, actually, this is everything I had to go through to get to this point.

Minter Dial
I have talked to many companies, I’ve even worked with companies that have as and they’re proud to brandish their claim or logo, we strive for perfection. What does that instill in you?

Bob Hunter
So, at large, when we are learning our catechisms?

Minter Dial
What do you what do you mean by the lodge?

Bob Hunter
Sorry, I go to a Masonic Lodge. And so part of the learning process is catechisms. You have to memorize all this stuff. And one thing that our mentor or my mentor would always say is we strive for perfection and we’ll settle for excellence. That’s what we tell everyone. And I think it’s a very good way of looking at things because perfection cannot often be a bit, a bit of a unicorn, it may happen, it may not. But you can always at least just settle for excellence and definition of excellence will always change as you acquire more and more experience. So, if you’re genuinely doing your best, and you’re stacking on that on those little successes where you’ve done your best this time, you’ve done your best again, and you’ve gotten even better than you were before. And you’re constantly getting better and being a better person than you were yesterday. Over time, you end up reaching this level, that’s not quite perfect, but you are way more excellent than he was when he started.

Minter Dial
Probably without meaning to kind of triggered me, Bob, because I was that your watch this because unicorns don’t exist. And we’ve kind of vandalized the term as if they exist. So, and I’m thinking, Oh, perfection does exist. And, and I really, I’m, I am listening to you, I’m far more intrigued and interested in the dealing with the shit, illness, dealing with the failures, the belief that the screw ups and how you dealt with that. And I feel that is far more your success than the striving for perfection.

Bob Hunter
I think it is, in that case, just because it had to be because the alternative was me really doing nothing and being like the others who have to live their lives. Just from medication.

Minter Dial
So, we know what the others are living, you know, with easiness. And, writing about idealism and thinking life is perfect, and I’m gonna live forever. Yeah.

Bob Hunter
It’s it’s definitely not what I mean, I’ve decided that, hey, this is how I need to spend my time. And I’m just in pursuit of that. And anything else is a distraction. And I don’t think that I’ll never be perfect. I think only stupid people know everything. But I can at least say that I’m actively assessing who I am on a day-to-day basis, and what I’m doing on a day to day basis, looking for ways to improve, and then making those adjustments. And that process continues on until, until it doesn’t until I’m done. So, that’s the only way that I can approach it sickle cell or not. And that’s for anyone, even if you’re not dealing with any medical issue, you might be dealing with mental health issues, you might be dealing with financial issues, it could be a number of things, the mindset doesn’t have to change. If you’re at least getting 1% better. Well, 100 days later, you’re 100% Better than you were when he started. It’s just constantly adjusting over and over and over again until you find that level of success that you yourself chose.

Minter Dial
Nice. couple of last questions we’re going to explore. One of them is social media. And I was wondering, what does a Bob Hunter think and deal? How does he deal with social media?

Bob Hunter
And what context so personally, or?

Minter Dial
Well, start with personally, because I think that’s the most important interesting piece.

Bob Hunter
Personally, I see it as a huge distraction. So, I avoid it. Definitely. And then within business, then and business, it’s a huge asset, because other people allow themselves to be distracted.

Minter Dial
Well, is that is that the right thing? Is that you, something you approve of?

Bob Hunter
It’s about getting in front of your audience for whatever you were, for whatever it is that you’re doing. This podcast is a prime example. Let’s say that. I mean, this isn’t this is a good and informative podcast, but there are people who might listen to nonsense all day. If the audience is here, then it’s a good idea for me to be here. Even with this whole thing that I’m doing now. I basically asked my system I said, Hey, we need to, we need to start getting the word out and getting me in front of people and I want you to book me 400 podcasts, that was the goal. And now I’m at about 36 or 37, somewhere around there. For this podcast. It’s me adjusting to where my audiences, if someone is selling something and their audiences on Facebook or Instagram or other social media platforms, then that’s where you go and I wouldn’t necessarily call it good or bad. It’s just a matter of being wherever your audience already is.

Minter Dial
Of course, you have a couple of different audiences. I mean, you have your s and B’s you have your where you have My Business Credit or the work you do and then you have your Oxford Pierpont works with larger organizations and you have the people who are interested in a skyscraper form, right?

Bob Hunter
And there’s a there’s work being done in the background to approach all of those in the most appropriate way. Great example would be how Oxford capital and my business credit, both do the same thing. But I would never advertise for my business credit in the way that I would for Oxford capital, because you’re talking to two completely different people. So, just know your audience and know where they are, and develop your buyer persona, so that you can be most effective and efficient in your business plans and your marketing efforts. Even if they include social media.

Minter Dial
Really, they do. There’s another thing alongside social media that people are talking about. And I wonder to what extent it’s relevant in your industry. What do you think I’m going to ask you? Do you have any idea?

Bob Hunter
It might be about the amazing AI boom, but I’m not sure.

Minter Dial
You’re good, man. Perfect. Exactly. And anyways, listening, I did not prompt or give any indices. So, Bob, that’s on you. Well done. So, what role does aI have new business? How do you deal with that? What’s your viewpoint? What’s your recommendation for people in your you know, your clients? With regard to dealing with AI, I’d love to hear your opinion on that.

Bob Hunter
It is the most exciting thing ever. It is. I mean, I’m smiling ear to ear right now, because I like him here, this entire situation so much. And it’s a fun fact, yesterday, May 30, marked the six month mark of chat GPT. So, this all has happened in just a six-month window. And my businesses have changed so dramatically, just because of AI, I’m able to create and deliver things in a matter of days, that normally would have taken months, I’m able to adjust my staff in a way that is more meaningful. Let’s say for example, that we’re going to, let’s see, what’s an easy one that people understand, okay, let’s say that our job is to create authority, a knowledge base for our client, whoever they are. And we’re supposed to produce all of this content. So, we’re supposed to produce videos, written content, we’re supposed to produce social media content, all of that would have taken me easily, you know, a good month and a half to make that many different types of content that are actually useful for a client. Well, that kind of stuff can now be done in a couple of days. That’s the dramatic shift that AI is bringing. And I don’t think people fully understand that we’re only at the tip of the iceberg. Here, your skills so much more under the surface that’s just still waiting to be discovered. For example, Elon Musk at Tesla has the Optimus robot. And if anyone is paying attention, it’s a humanoid robot, it’s about five feet eight, eight inches tall. It looks like a normal human body kind of person. Well, what if you now took something like the the large language models like Chachi T, and put them into a physical bot, imagine how you could accomplish or how much you could change the job space, just from having something like that. I mean, I could go on and on. But my point is, AI is this big tool that we now all have access to. Some people will use the tool effectively and change their lives. Other people will fear the tool ended up doing nothing and get left behind. So, it’s just an amazing time for anyone who’s really paying attention to what’s going on. It’s like the Internet has happened all over again.

Minter Dial
I personally couldn’t agree with you more. And one of the things I say in some of my speeches is So, are you excited or fearful of AI? And it really is something that will inform the way you deal with it. And what so just maybe the last question before we close off is to what extent will AI participate in your passion project the thing you made for?

Bob Hunter
It speeds everything up? It’s almost like a I have this person that knows almost everything that there is to know remember earlier I said only stupid people know everything. I take that back AI knows everything and it’s definitely not stupid. It’s an amazing opportunity for me to develop at speeds that were unimaginable before and seeing how, how far it’s come just in these last six months. I can only imagine what things will be like two years from now as all of these things mature. I’m sure that some areas of it will be restricted because there is a little bit of a danger to it. But it’s just an amazing time to be alive. I feel like I’m George Jetson living in In the future right now, it’s, it’s amazing.

Minter Dial
Well, it’s very reassuring or maybe inspiring to hear somebody with your situation, how you’re dealing with that, and how you’re viewing it. I see so much fear. And, and, and also, this also has mental health issues with people who have littlest problems. And I compliment you on your, on the way you approach things. It’s I mean, not No, no, not everything’s great. Of course, I’m sure you have many other issues, you know. So, it’s not about sounding perfect or, or trying to create this narrative, but you obviously have a wonderful Outlook. So, Bob, how can people I know you’re not into social media, but how can people follow you find out more about you get a grip on the business you’re doing, maybe even contact you? And specifically think about if I’m a big company or small company, what are the appropriate links?

Bob Hunter
Yeah, so if anyone wants to talk to me, they can go to OxfordPierpont.com/bob. That’ll get you to my personal calendar. And we can talk about a lot of things. And as far as funding goes, if you’re someone who’s looking for under a million dollars, you can go to my business credit.com You can apply for or prequalify for funding. If you don’t prequalify, we’ll train you on how to build up your business finances in a way that makes you more attractive to banks. And for everything else. Yeah, just go to Oxford Pierpont. If you Google it, if you don’t know how to spell the name. Google knows who we are. So, it’ll finish out the word before you even finish typing. So, yeah, that’s, that’s us in a nutshell. Yeah.

Minter Dial
And to be to be sure the word, Bob Hunter, is not something that Google knows easily. But Oxford Pierpont surely is a lot easier. Well done. Bob, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your time with us. I loved hearing your energy. I am distinctly intrigued by your passion project of the vertical or the skyscraper farm. And it was lovely to have you on.

Bob Hunter
Thank you so much. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

Minter Dial
Thanks for having listened to this episode of The Minter dialogue podcast. If you’d like to show we’d like to support me, please consider a donation on patreon.com forward slash Minter dial. You can also subscribe on your favorite podcast service. And as ever, rating reviews are the real currency podcasts. You’ll find the show notes with over 2000 or more blog posts on mint.com Check out my documentary film and four books, including my last one you leave or being yourself makes you a better leader. And to finish here’s a song I wrote Stephanie singer, A Convinced Man.