Episode 1: Every Leader Has Unfinished Business — Here’s Mine

Welcome to the very first episode of Unfinished Business with Eric Mulvin, a podcast exploring how visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, and creative minds are reshaping their industries and making bold pivots in the age of AI.

In this launch episode, the mic flips as Eric is interviewed by Isaac Navias, co-owner of LocalFi and host of Full Time to Travel Time. Together, they dig into the why behind this podcast: What does “unfinished business” really mean for business owners, and why is now the time to talk about it?

Eric shares how his journey from a taxi company startup to building one of the fastest-growing BPOs in the Philippines, Pac Biz Outsourcing, has always been fueled by a desire to create impact through people and technology. They talk AI + HI (human intelligence), building people-first businesses in a tech-driven world, and how staying ahead requires constant reinvention.

If you're a business owner, team leader, or innovator navigating the rapid changes in your industry, this podcast is for you. You’ll hear real stories, real strategies, and the human side of growth from people still building, still dreaming, and still chasing what’s next.

Brought to you by Pac Biz Outsourcing: helping transportation, software, and eCommerce companies scale support and reduce costs with dedicated teams in the Philippines. Learn more at pac-biz.com.

Transcript

Eric Mulvin (00:01)

All right, welcome everybody to the very first episode of the unfinished business with Eric Mulvin podcast. I am Eric Mulvin I'm your host. And today I'm joined by my buddy, Isaac owner of LocalFi and he's also a host of his own podcast, which is called Full Time to Travel Time. And, ⁓ but today, why this podcast exists you're going to get to learn more about that. He's going to interview me and we're going to uncover together why this podcast exists. What's my inspiration behind it? What's it all about? And I'll tell you this, I really believe that doesn't matter who you are, whether you're Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, any of those people and many others, there's unfinished business that you have something that you want to go and accomplish in your business, in your life, in your career. And so that's what we explore here is where I talk to CEOs, visionaries, leaders, creative people on how they're changing the world in their own special way. And because we really believe, like I said, that everyone has some unfinished business out there. there's a short little intro video, and then we're going to end with that too. So you'll see the whole music video for our show. And then we'll start things off here. So check it out.

Before we begin I'd like to say that this episode is brought to you by Pac Biz Outsourcing

At Pac Biz, we help transportation companies, software companies, e-commerce businesses with their customer support and back office tasks with a really powerful team over in the Philippines. You get dedicated people who are remote employees and they're able to help your business grow. So you could improve support, scale faster and grow your business while keeping costs in check. For example, we even helped one client save over $600,000 a year in payroll costs just by using dispatchers from Pac Biz. So if you've ever thought about outsourcing or taking on a virtual assistant, go to pac-biz.com to learn more or email us your questions at info at pac-biz.com. All right. So like I said earlier, we're flipping a script. I'm normally the one doing the interviews and I'm bringing on a guy that also is normally the one doing interviews. so Isaac, who is a owner,

Isaac Navias (02:06)

You

Eric Mulvin (02:14)

co-owner with his wife, Kim of Local Fi. They're a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO and, working with service companies and companies of all kinds. And he's, like I said earlier, he's also the host of the full time to travel time podcast where they've taken their last six plus years. Maybe it's longer now of traveling and running a business and the crazy stories that come out of all of that.

So go make sure to check out their podcast as well, especially if you're into travel and they're on this journey of trying to go visit all what how many national parks are there like

Isaac Navias (02:53)

Yeah, all 63 national parks. We're at 40 right now. Oh yeah, they're getting harder and harder to get to.

Eric Mulvin (02:57)

my gosh, I didn't know you were that far on the list. That's crazy. So.

I bet the easy ones are all crossed off. ⁓ but yeah, so I'll turn things over to you, Isaac. And so thank you again for interviewing me today.

Isaac Navias (03:04)

Yeah.

How's it?

Yeah, yeah, it's exciting to be here. It's so funny with this flip the script because I rarely, on this side, as a guest on Riverside and I've never been a guest and running an interview. this is all new. So great. I'm excited to dive in. I know you've shared with me a little bit about the podcast and why you're doing it, but I'm excited to dive in deeper and really find the motivation who this podcast is for and, you know, uncovering some juicy details. So to get it started, know, Eric, I know you've

Eric Mulvin (03:20)

Cool.

Isaac Navias (03:39)

had the opportunity to meet so many amazing people doing truly amazing things yet networking meetings often feel like they end unfinished or with big opportunities left hanging. How has your experience in meeting so many amazing leaders and entrepreneurs led you into starting the Unfinished Business Podcast?

Eric Mulvin (03:57)

that's such a great question. really like how you transformed it too. yeah, you know, and Isaac, I know you're in the same boat. We meet amazing people every single day, not just through business, but through networking, through just our everyday interacting with people. And sometimes you get to really know some people and you sit down, have dinner, have coffee. In my case, maybe we catch a Suns game or do something fun and

You know, life happens and we get busy and maybe you're not even from here in Phoenix where we're at. Maybe you're from out of state and we don't get to connect again or we see each other at conferences and it's like, Hey, what's up? Good to see you again. But we know there's more that we could do. We're just also busy. so the podcast part of that is I want to reconnect with all these amazing people and, and let's sit down again. Let's see, what are you up to now? What are you up to in your business with AI?

⁓ If we've met anytime in the past 10, 15 years, not in the last year or two, but before that, things are changed in our business. So what are you doing in your business now that you weren't before? Normally we could sit down, get on a Zoom call, have coffee and do that. Why not hit the record button and share it with everybody too? Because these people have all accomplished a lot of really great things in their company. They're doing great things in the community or doing their part to change the world in some way. And so I think there's a story to be told. And so, yeah, let's catch back up, but let's share that story of what you're up to.

Isaac Navias (05:24)

Amazing and I think you know you really highlighted on something that people are working on amazing things and yet kind of in today's world with our new cycles a lot of what we're being fed is really kind of negative stories and yet there are amazing people doing amazing things so can you talk more about a little bit what the show is about and how you like to highlight those amazing things people are doing?

Eric Mulvin (05:45)

Yeah, that's a great question. Cause yeah, if you turn on the news, you don't have to turn on your news. Just open Facebook, open Instagram, your social media drug of choice, and you will be flooded with negative, negative things happening in the world. And if that's your view of everything, you'd think that the world is burning up and getting destroyed. And in some ways it is a little bit, but there's a lot of really great things happening. And

Isaac Navias (05:52)

Yep.

Eric Mulvin (06:10)

You know, the stuff we hear all the time, it hits the news, it hits the news feeds. It's all negative. That's what sells and, uh, not enough people are sharing the positive things that happen. So that's what I want to do here. People who are doing great things with their company, uh, with us, the philosophy that we've adopted at Pac Biz and what I want to be able to share here on the podcast is like, yes, AI is here to stay. It's not going away, but just taking over everything with AI isn't the solution either. And we're starting to hear more and more of that as I've been coming up with thinking about this podcast for so long. We're seeing the pushback on that. We're seeing the not getting the return on investment because it's not doing what it was promised to do. And so what we're uncovering is, all right, what are people doing that's working with AI that's successful? And most importantly, with people. For me, we have over 200 employees that I've been managing here at Pac Biz. That's a lot of people and we want to grow that. We want to have even more people. So yes, as we bring in technology, we want to use it and take advantage of it. But we, I feel like for me as a business leader, and I know Isaac has a team of people he works with as well, I feel like it's more important than ever to have great people. and so that's what we're exploring too is.

All right. Who are the ones that are investing back into their people, whether it's the community, their staff, their customers, uh, cause there's, could try to automate everything and let the bots take over. Um, in our case, in our company, and what we want to explore what other companies doing is how are you using the technology to spend more time with people, to spend less time behind the screens and more time coaching, interacting, and doing human tasks and not robot tasks.

Isaac Navias (07:50)

Hmm.

Yeah, I like that. And I like, you know, really talking about the integrative approach, how are we combining humans with AI, not replacing humans, but combining to make it just a better work environment, more efficient, and just all of overall just a more productive system. Very cool. So you talked a little bit about this, but like, can you really go into who is this show for? Like, who should be listening and is going to be like, I'm going to be learning some great golden nuggets if I listen to this show.

Eric Mulvin (08:15)

Yeah, thanks.

Yeah, kind of people that'd be great to listen to if you run a business, if you lead organizations, if you're trying to make a difference somewhere, whether it's small or big, trying to do something creative even. There's some really cool creative people that have done a lot of big things as well that I hope to have on the show. But that's the kind of people like I hope that people can get inspiration from listening and hearing what are these people doing in their company? Because these are all things that you and I could do and do in our business. And I want to dive deep. That's now secrets to be had here. I want to figure out like, how are you doing that? And so other people can learn and see maybe either what to do, what not to do. I know I could tell you from my going on two plus years experience working with AI within Pac Biz and my company. I could tell you lesson after lesson, lesson, what not to do. And I'm meeting people every day where like they're using an AI transcriber on zoom for the first time. like, get ready for all of these things that are going to happen. ⁓ you know, I think we've been through that, but, what are those parts of all of our businesses that, you know, we're, people are saying use AI use AI. Well, I want to interview the people who are, who are using it and who are finding success. Like, Hey, use it for this, not that.

Isaac Navias (09:26)

You

Eric Mulvin (09:41)

And so I think that'll be something that'll be useful for anybody if they're running organizations and teams. And then also, again, inspiration of like what people have done with their business and in their community and like, hey, there's other people doing great things. Let's share those stories. And so hopefully you guys can go back to your community and start something yourself.

Isaac Navias (10:02)

Yeah, awesome. So yeah, I think that really is so important. I know every time that we talk Eric, like both of us kind of open our eyes to other ways to use AI. And it's just like you just learn so much about talking to other people because there's so many options. And yet, there's only so much one person can explore, right. So I think, you know, I know every time we have a conversation, it heightens my understanding of AI and, you know, just like opening up new doors. So I think that's going to be perfect for your your podcast and you know, who you're interviewing and what, what people are really gonna get.

Eric Mulvin (10:33)

Yeah, it's so true because like it's not like a it's so much bigger than like a new product or a new thing because there's so many different ways that everyone could use it. Just like the Internet, so many different ways that everyone could use the Internet, give the Internet to a thousand people and you'll find a thousand different ways that people can start businesses, people can start new things. And we're seeing the same with AI. That's the exciting part. Like I want to explore those stories on like

Isaac Navias (10:44)

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (11:00)

What are the possibilities we'd ever even thought were possible? Like, let's, let's forget it. Like, yeah, there's bad things that could happen, but what are the good things that could happen? Because those are going to happen too. And let's, let's, ⁓ you know, put our resources around those things.

Isaac Navias (11:02)

Hmm. Yeah, absolutely. So we're going to flip the script a little bit and talk about you for a second, Eric. So Eric, you've lived quite an interesting and exciting life along with your passion for space photography and Sun's basketball. You've also created one of the highest revenue business of any millennial I personally know. And I know a lot of people. So can you tell us a bit more about what you're most passionate about and what really drives you?

Eric Mulvin (11:36)

I love this line of questioning here. for me, well, he hit on a few things there. We got these core values at Pac Biz. Family is one of them. I've got two young daughters, an amazing wife. I have to give her a shout out. Abby, especially it's the first episode because it wasn't for her. I met her nine days after I started my first business. So there's definitely some connection there and she's an entrepreneur too.

Isaac Navias (11:57)

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (11:58)

So family is passion, but outside of that, I love creative stuff. I've been a filmmaker for over 25 years. I've got some short films I'm working on that I need to put out there already. I've been working on for years, some documentaries that I've been doing interviews for, and then photography. Just getting my art out there. I've been really focused on the business and I do all this crazy photography going out to the desert in the middle of the night to take pictures of the stars. And I hear a lot of comments and feedback about how that inspires people too. So I want to get those pictures out there and images and so making documentaries and movies one day, running great businesses. You we're great place to work certified in the Philippines. I'm super proud of that. And I just want to grow what we're doing out there and impact more lives. Have a bigger.

Isaac Navias (12:32)

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (12:46)

business that we could employ more people because people, they tend to stick around at working with us. And so it's, it's really cool. And then to be able to mix everything all together. Like when I just went there last October, I let a photo walk in downtown in the fish market. And we had like maybe 10 employees come out and now we got a photo contest to pick the winners. So how do you mix all those? Just cause you have a hobby. This is what I tell entrepreneurs all the time. Just cause you have a hobby doesn't mean that, that no one has to know about it. Tell everyone about it. That's who you are. That's part of your personality. And that's what makes us all unique. And that's what's going to set you apart too in your business is having that unique, you know, what we bring to the world in our business makes what our business is. And, know, you could have a hundred different marketing agencies is another good example. You could even focus on the same niche and they're all going to show up differently and do different aspects of the business. And so.

That's what I love about all this.

Isaac Navias (13:42)

Awesome. Yeah, and I know Kim always comes to me. She's like, did you see Eric's new? Picture that he took about space, you know, it's like you have some of the most amazing pictures I've ever seen You know you go out into the the desert of Arizona and you're you're committed I mean you were out there for hours and hours just taking unbelievable photography So yeah, some of the best photography of space I've seen honestly comes from you. So just just letting you know that So

Eric Mulvin (14:08)

thanks, Isaac.

Isaac Navias (14:09)

I do want to talk about your entrepreneurial spirit. So I know you've had a strong entrepreneurial spirit since you were young, from even building a Lego city that you called the Kennedy Space Center and charging your parents not just to attend, but even dynamic prices so that they had to pay more on weekends, to now being a three times Sun Devil 100.

Eric Mulvin (14:25)

Ha

Isaac Navias (14:30)

from your alma mater, Arizona State University, can you share with us, like, from all those entrepreneurial spirits, how did you end up starting Pac Biz, and what were your first few clients like?

Eric Mulvin (14:40)

man, yeah, there's been a long history of starting and running businesses and I never really realized that. It's just who I was. My dad was a former tool and die maker. That's an industry that doesn't exist anymore. It was over even when I was in high school, my mom worked in a school cafeteria. So I don't know where the inspiration came from, honestly. There wasn't anyone I knew that ran businesses, but... For some reason I did it and I didn't even know what I was doing. It's like second nature to me. That's I think with those serial entrepreneurs where you just, you gotta keep starting more stuff. And so I ran, like I made CDs and sold those in high school. I made t-shirts and sold those. But it wasn't until I got to college and then I started looking around thinking, Hey, I'm going to, maybe I'll start a business. And then I thought, I want to get into an industry that I could disrupt.

Isaac Navias (15:06)

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (15:30)

And not just any business, but like what's the industry I could disrupt. So that's how I came upon the first company I started True Cab taxi cab company in downtown Scottsdale. We got it to about 10 taxis. They were fire engine red and we gave you free coffee and donuts. If you went to the airport before 9am and I didn't travel much back then, but I wish a company like that existed today. Cause I would use them to go to the airport all the time, but that's how the whole business thing started. And what part of my inspiration was, mean, I just knew I was really passionate about customer, like delighting the customer, creating great experiences. That's what we did with True Cab. free coffee and donuts before you go to the airport, you know, and when you make your reservation, how do you like your coffee? What kind of donut would you like? You know, and it's not going to cost you anything. Things like that, where you're delighting the customer we had, in

Isaac Navias (16:06)

Hmm.

Eric Mulvin (16:22)

picture this in 2012, we had Android tablets in the cab that you can control the sound system with. so you could, and we had data on them where we had Pandora. in 2012, stuff that years later, Uber and Lyft came out with, but we were able to, make crazy experiences for the customer. We're like going out to Friday, Saturday night out to the bars, we had a taxi, the entire trunk was subwoofers and that was like the party taxi. And so people would request that.

Isaac Navias (16:28)

Wow.

No.

Eric Mulvin (16:50)

You know, again, it was an experience and people had this would, this would always shock me. The loyalty that they had to our brand, they would fly into the airport and like, let's say they landed five in the morning and they wanted us to pick them up. They would adjust like they would wait for us to become available. If we weren't available, like, well, how soon can you get there? if I got to wait 30 minutes, I'll wait until you guys get there.

Isaac Navias (16:57)

Hmm.

Eric Mulvin (17:14)

And I'll only ride with you guys or same for picking up. I'll go to the airport early and ride with you than take anybody else. ⁓ so that showed me that, Hey, this actually works. Like you get rewarded with those, like creating a really great experience by having loyal customers and repeat business. just taxi industry is a tough one to do that in. And especially in Phoenix in the summer, everyone leaves town. So that's how we pivoted to the call center and, and started that.

Isaac Navias (17:21)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (17:40)

But that was some of my inspiration and ⁓ kind of, you know, it wasn't random that I started the call center or the taxi business. There was some kind of methodology behind it, but not a lot. It's still kind of random.

Isaac Navias (17:52)

Well, I mean in terms of that, you I had read that, you know, you were running the taxi company but you know, answering all the phones and all the dispatching was a big pain point for you. So you actually saw a big opportunity there of like, hey, this is actually a big opportunity where I could really fill a need. So you made a pretty significant pivot from running a taxi company to creating, you know, one of the top companies in the entire world for answering phones and dispatching and everything like that. So

How does making pivots like in business, in business life, how has that really changed your trajectory and your life?

Eric Mulvin (18:26)

my gosh. Well, I mean, if I were still running a taxi cab company today, it'd be a different kind of everything. I do love the work that we get to do now. Like our business is international. I've got clients all over the world, that, that we support them, but we've gotten to work with for years and years and years. And so, yeah, that, that, that's really incredible. Cause I knew that I I don't know. I wanted to make an impact out there and it's kind of difficult to do that with a taxi cab company. There's only so much you could do with that. And so I knew that this is a stepping stone. And even with the call center, uh, it is a stepping stone in a way, but then the call center, the business can evolve as you grow. This year we hit our 10 year anniversary with the call center. I was 30 years old when I started that company and now I'm like, didn't, you know, now it feels like a lot younger that at the time I'm like, I'm not that young.

Isaac Navias (18:53)

Hmm.

Eric Mulvin (19:16)

But, yeah, hit 40 and now we're in the middle of another pivot. We've been really focused on call centers. And I think like I, Isaac and, ⁓ in marketing, know, we're call centers and marketing. think are some of the, if you take, if you listed all the industries impacted by AI, I would think call centers, number one, and probably marketing is number two. And so we are seeing this day after day and we have to adapt and adjust. And so we're going through a pivot right now to really focus on technology. We started developing software. We saw after 10 years of doing this support for businesses, we see issues happening with our clients and no one's addressing them. No one's solving them. don't have, they're not the call center. It's not answering phones. So we developed some software to tackle that. And I have three full-time developers. So what that turns into, we'll see, but I'm telling all my team out there that, you know, we're taking steps to become a tech company now. And that's a big leap from being a call center where we're doing customer support.

Isaac Navias (20:16)

Yeah, so I mean, that's just so amazing. you know, we obviously both of us have seen, you know, the the owners and the businesses that get ahead are willing to and able to pivot, you know, because like, how much pivoting have we all had to do in the last five, six years? You know, it's like a it's like a yearly pivot that we've had to do with everything that's been happening. So, you know, really amazing. know, you know, I was talking to you a year ago when you were just kind of starting on this pivot. And really, you know, I've already I've seen the growth in and what you've been able to achieve and it's just been so fun to watch.

Eric Mulvin (20:48)

⁓ thanks, Isaac. Yeah. mean, both of us, you too, as well. You know, we do have to keep readapting and readjusting. And, you know, there was a, there's someone I know in the marketing space as well that has an agency and they were going through the whole ⁓ &A space and ⁓ testing out the waters there. And it's crazy to hear about how many agencies have put themselves up for sale because they don't want to do the pivot. They don't want to, they're like, I'm done. I don't want to do this. I've been in this space too long. I don't want to do this again. This is the third or fourth pivot I've had to do. So, it is that's to show you that's how tough this is and that being a business owner, it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of, you know, like you don't go into a pivot because your business has been so successful and that everything is amazing and as bright outlooks. It's like, Hey, if we continue down this path, you know, we're going to be the next blockbuster. We're going to be the next, you know, like no one's going to have a need for what we offer. So it's, you know, like the Simon Sinek, the infinite game. It, and that's why unfinished business is such a great topic. Cause even if you're on top of your business in the top of your industry, like who's to say that five to 10 years from now, Facebook, like look at Facebook is a perfect example.

Isaac Navias (21:41)

Right?

Eric Mulvin (22:02)

they're declining. You people always talk about Instagram and TikTok is the next thing. you know, what's the next thing after that? So it's, it's next to impossible to stay on top. And so what are you doing today? You know, and we could keep revisiting those same people and those same stories every couple of years. And they have a lot more stories to tell like, like you and I, every time we meet up.

Isaac Navias (22:22)

Yeah, absolutely. Just a random side note, because a lot of people don't know this, there is one blockbuster left in the world. It is in Bend, Oregon, and is ⁓ still up and running.

Eric Mulvin (22:32)

Isn't there like a Netflix show about them too? Or didn't they try to make one?

Isaac Navias (22:35)

Yeah, I think I think they became a Netflix show because during ⁓ during COVID, they obviously had to shut down. So what they did is they actually started renting out the blockbuster as an Airbnb. So it was private parties. Right. So they were still isolating and everything, but they were still made able to maintain revenue through that by renting. And you could actually go and stay in the blockbuster overnight, which is kind of a crazy experience. So, yeah.

Eric Mulvin (22:58)

Experience marketing, you know, it's what I go back to over and over again and, ⁓ you know, it creating crazy experiences, which we, got about a half a million opportunities to do that on the phone, every month in our call center. And, you know, like businesses, you know, you have a choice of how that experience goes with the, with, your business. And so that's, there's a lot of fun stories there to, get into with, ⁓

Isaac Navias (23:02)

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (23:22)

some of the people that we're going to have on our show here on unfinished business, because that's just again, especially with AI and automation and robotics, there's so many different things that we're used to that you could rethink and recreate in whole new ways and change that experience. Things that may have been frustrating for you. Like, well, I mean, we're talking about call centers and customer service. I mean, there's so much things that used to happen before in only on the phones that now you could use your app. Like if I need a return on Amazon, chances are I'm not talking to a person. It's all done on my own. Or before you had to pick up the phone, talk to customer service, give them your account information. So in there are definitely ways where technology is making our lives better. There's ways where it's not taking it away. but yeah, there's getting to talk to those business leaders that

Isaac Navias (23:51)

Hmm.

Eric Mulvin (24:13)

are out there making a difference with their technology, making our lives better. I'm excited to be bringing those stories and introducing you guys to some of those people.

Isaac Navias (24:21)

Yeah, absolutely. So I've got to talk about your music video. So Kim and I got to watch it. And, you know, the theme song was so catchy that we just kept singing it afterwards as we were like, we were going out to run errands and we were singing it. And it honestly even inspired us to create a better song for our podcast, because we're like, wow, this was so catchy and so fun. can you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind it and how, again, you combine human creativity with AI to create?

this really fun music video.

Eric Mulvin (24:52)

Yeah. So music video, what I love about it is it's a perfect example of what I'm really trying to preach to my team and to the listeners here as well. AI plus HI, which means artificial intelligence and human intelligence. And I like to say to my staff all the time because we were pushing usage of Gemini, we're putting uses of chat GPT and creating custom GPTs and making notebooks and notebook LM. you know, especially in the early days, the amount of work that would get submitted, just like in a school of people that think that they could just copy and paste what's in chat GPT. And here's my report. Here's the SOP. Here's the documentation for this. And so I tell people all the time, if you can... just let chat GPT do your job, then I'm going to replace you with chat GPT. But we know that, no, we need a person in there. Like you can't just take what chat GPT gives you and then send that email or post that, that posts. you have to do it right. You need to go in and review it and you need to have some knowledge on what you're doing. If you don't know what you're doing, you don't know that that information that is giving you could be hallucination and completely wrong. Or that, you know, that it

Isaac Navias (26:03)

Mm-hmm.

Eric Mulvin (26:05)

You gave it all this information. You wanted to include this bit. I didn't do it. But if you just copy and paste it, you're not going to get the right. Output you're looking for. and so that human part is so important and not just any human, like do you got to know what you're dealing with and having that be an expert. so AI plus HI. And for me, this song, I started teaching people in my company how to make music with AI because I was trying to get them into AI and yeah.

Isaac Navias (26:30)

Hmm.

Eric Mulvin (26:31)

That's a big behavior shift that you're really trying to lead people through where hey that way you've been doing this thing all these years and and how you were taught in school and how you do this thing well, it's outdated and Not good anymore and you need to use this other tool or you're gonna be left behind and You know, that's a scary thing and people hesitate and they're thinking maybe it's gonna replace my job or me like what there's a lot of concerns and questions so people weren't just diving into the tool, even though we were giving them licenses. So this was how I got them into it was I taught everybody how to start making music with AI. And then in through that, they're like, well, if it could do this, what else can it do? It could make me recipes. It could, you know, and then it could do this for business too. So the video is my way of representing that because it's definitely human created, made the lyrics, but there's AI clips in there. Uh, we used AI to make the music AI. Uh, I'm, I'm not a very talented singer. I thought about recording it. I thought about recording it, getting back in the studio and I, cause like, like you guys, I've been driving around Phoenix playing my song and singing and blasting it. I recorded myself. I recorded myself playing it back. I'm like, doesn't sound as good.

Isaac Navias (27:28)

You're not the one singing, Eric? ⁓

Yeah, it's catchy man.

Eric Mulvin (27:47)

with me singing as it does with the AI. So I'm gonna leave the AI in place and then lip sync. But yeah, that's the whole thing is like, the whole idea is like, okay, what you can create, what you can do, you can go further with AI and people. You can go only so far with AI and you can only go so far with people, but you combine the two together and how far can that go? And that's kind of what this song is about. And I think it goes well with...

Isaac Navias (27:52)

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (28:11)

That's the theme we're really exploring here on the show.

Isaac Navias (28:14)

Awesome. Yeah. And I love what you're talking about with combining human intelligence and AI intelligence. You know, I just had a prospect meeting where the guy was like, I paid this guy all this money. He said he's going to do all this stuff with his AI, but I'm getting no result. And I look at his website and it is the most basic AI prompts. I could clearly tell it was like, write me SEO about a plumbing company. And it was just like, well, the reason you're not ranking is because a thousand other companies have the exact same content because everyone used the exact same prompt to put out all the exact same stuff.

Eric Mulvin (28:31)

Yeah.

Isaac Navias (28:44)

You're not gonna rank like that. So, you know people think that just because they put in a prompt AI it's perfect It's not like you need to know what you're doing and you need to create the human element of it and you need to create the uniqueness of it So, you know combining all of those things, you know our human creativity I think really, you know enhances what we can do with AI and create the uniqueness of AI because nobody we're already getting tired of the the same AI content coming out over and over

You know, it's not even been out that long and we're getting exhausted from it.

Eric Mulvin (29:12)

Yeah, you could see it. Yeah, you could recognize the patterns and speeches in posts on social media I obviously there's there's some graphics and videos, you know people are making where they're trying to make it look real and it It's a little harder to tell but if you're just trying to whip out some content really quick Man, it's it's becoming more more obvious that that's what you're doing. And ⁓ I don't think the The audience isn't reacting well. So you can keep making all your pieces of content, but enjoy your one like from your grandma that is liking all your posts.

Isaac Navias (29:46)

And yet we're using AI regularly in creating content, but we have a huge human component about it. I'm like interviewing my clients and getting their expertise before we feed all of that to our AI and then we humanize it afterwards. So it's like, you know, again, it's that combination. We can speed things up and use processes within AI, but if we're just relying on AI, it's not great results.

Eric Mulvin (30:07)

Yeah. And don't worry guys, we're going to get Isaac on the show here so he could be telling some of his story to our audience as well. Cause I definitely want to dive into that. You know, like again, this is exactly what we are talking about on the show. What can you do with people with AI and how can you create new business models and new businesses? I, I'm, I feel really grateful that, and I don't know how you feel about this, Isaac, you know, that we're able to be business owners in this.

Isaac Navias (30:14)

You

Eric Mulvin (30:34)

day and age and although it is scary and things are changing rapidly, know, I, at least our business has already started. Like we got a whole bunch of clients and a whole bunch of people that we could, we could help out and work with. If you're just starting out and you had this tool, cause I don't know, I, we all started from somewhere and I, started building web pages for people and doing marketing for people as well. And just those early days are so tough grinding out and trying to, you know, show people that the work that you're doing is actually, you know, meaningful and saving the money and all that. those early days are so tough. And so people that are starting out now, I don't know, like everyone's going to chat, GPT, make me a presentation for this sales pitch and stuff. And everyone's stuff is going to sound the same. So how do you set yourself out? You need these experiences. You need to go through some stuff. You need to go through some hard points in your business and learn how to overcome that. And then also realize how important the team is to do that. And I know there's a lot of hype around there about like, we're going to see these companies, giant companies publicly traded with one employee or, know, with like five people doing all this work, like maybe, but I don't think that's going to be the norm. And, you, the team is so important and so critical to what you're building. And because it can't be just the one person in the front and it's all the people behind it. And I know Isaac, you got to feel the same way because you got a team behind you guys too.

Isaac Navias (31:53)

Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, I think there's a shortcut to really understanding how to utilizing AI to start a business. And that would be to listen to the unfinished business podcast, because Eric's going to be discovering and talking to all these different people who using it creatively. And I know that's just going to open up, you know, again, that human creativity for so many people to be like, I never thought about using AI that way. So I know on this show at the end of every episode you're going to ask a guest about their unfinished business and some of the big goals that they're working to achieve. So it's only fitting that I ask you today, what is some of your unfinished business?

Eric Mulvin (32:34)

All right. Thanks again, Isaac. And I appreciate you also being here and doing the interview with me. So for me, and I touched it on a little bit, the unfinished business for me is, it's been my dream to make a documentary and to get it. Originally the dream was to get a documentary on Netflix. And before it was just Netflix and now there's so many platforms. So I've opened it up. I'm not restricting myself too much. It could be on a different streaming platform. But I think that's, That's the one of the, for me, the big unfinished business that and man, I've been writing it. I have a goal book I write every year at my desk. So it's, right here. And, there's like 20 or 30 goals that I write. It's really ambitious and probably scary for people who don't do that kind of stuff. But I typically hit all these goals and there's like one goal that keeps recurring. never get to you because business is taking importance. It's selling my artwork. And selling those those pictures that you know, Isaac is talking about. I spend so much time going out to the desert, taking pictures, take people out to join me. Because I mean, it's if you haven't had a chance to go to a dark sky location where there isn't much city light and you could see the stars, it's ⁓ I don't know. Some people can say it's life changing. And I love going back and taking other people to experience that. So those images I take.

Isaac Navias (33:52)

Hey, you gotta take me there,

Eric. You haven't taken me back there yet.

Eric Mulvin (33:55)

Yes, let's do that one day. We'll plan a date. But yeah, it's that. I want to spend more time doing creative stuff. And that's some of my motivation for the business is through this business, we could help other people achieve their dreams too and ⁓ their hobbies. But yeah, that's my unfinished business.

Isaac Navias (34:14)

Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing. think that's amazing point. It's one thing that AI can really open up for us is allowing us that time freedom to work on our creativity. And I know that's something that Kim and I are leaning into as well. And she even started drawing and painting an entire mural on our bathroom wall. You know, so excited to show you that when it's finished. But yeah, I just think that's such a huge part of how we can actually utilize AI as a positive is opening up that space for because every single human has some form of creativity and some form of artistic pathway that they're excellent at, you know, and it's different for every human, which is so phenomenal. So awesome. Well.

Eric Mulvin (34:53)

Yeah. And it's not limited to just art, know, like creativity. It could be cooking. You know, that's a good example. And so helping you like, Hey, chat GPT here's what's in my pantry. What are some recipes I could make? You know, what's some stuff I could buy in the store to make something else that opens up the door and maybe gives you the confidence to try new things. And that's a, that's another phrase I like to always talk about in business. ⁓ we'll end with this cause I need to wrap it out here is, ⁓ you know, with AI,

Isaac Navias (34:59)

Yeah.

Eric Mulvin (35:20)

You need to push yourself to be doing things you've never done before or using AI and that could be as simple as trying a new program out on the computer and you know, using some prompts to help you Put out make a video edit a video That's a good example all the way up to cooking Starting, know some initiatives in your business. There's so many things so that's what I'm always challenging my team and I guess if there's something that could leave you guys with here because Maybe you're listening to this episode because you came across a podcast. You're like, what's this all about? Let me listen to the first episode. but go out and do something new with AI, push yourself and do something you've never done before. And, and I think that's the, the AI plus H I thing and the beauty and where, if we had that mentality in the world, where can we take things in the, in the future?

Isaac Navias (36:07)

Very cool.

Eric Mulvin (36:08)

So thank you guys all for listening. And I hope that gives you guys a picture on the stories we're trying to tell here, the kind of guests we're trying to bring on who should listen. So if you're listening, you got this far, definitely you should listen and you should definitely go hit the subscribe button on YouTube or Spotify or wherever you're listening to us. And and we'll end it here with the theme song for the show, Unfinished Business with Eric Mulvin. So thanks again for listening and for being part of our first episode here and this journey. And I'm excited to see where this goes. We'll see where we're at here in a couple of years with Unfinished Business.