Ever wondered how a serial entrepreneur navigates the waters of business creation and cultivates a thriving start-up community? Our latest guest, Patrick Bryant, joins Amanda Bunting Comen and me, Mike Compton, to unravel his entrepreneurial journey and share the wisdom harvested from founding ventures such as Assignment Desk and Code/+/Trust. This episode of the Building Business Podcast is brimming with tales from the trenches of entrepreneurship and the integral role that a supportive community plays in lifting startups from mere concepts to successful enterprises.
In our energizing discussion, Patrick shines a light on the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, Charleston's beacon for emerging businesses. We exchange stories of mentorship magic and the less intense 'Shark Tank' experiences that propel startups to greatness, all within the nurturing ecosystem of Charleston. As Patrick recounts his personal narrative, from leveraging bankruptcy assets to embracing innovation and intellectual property, you'll be inspired by the power of teamwork and community in transforming business landscapes.
Wrapping up, we reflect on the rich tapestry of advice and mentorship available to entrepreneurs, and the importance of networking to break down industry silos. Patrick's experiences emphasize the undeniable value of seeking guidance, making informed decisions, and the communal spirit that makes Charleston and Mount Pleasant entrepreneurial havens. Tune in to glean insights from Patrick's story, celebrate the allure of our community, and perhaps find that spark to ignite your own entrepreneurial spirit.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Tammy Becker | President Elect
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Ever wondered how a serial entrepreneur navigates the waters of business creation and cultivates a thriving start-up community? Our latest guest, Patrick Bryant, joins Amanda Bunting Comen and me, Mike Compton, to unravel his entrepreneurial journey and share the wisdom harvested from founding ventures such as Assignment Desk and Code/+/Trust. This episode of the Building Business Podcast is brimming with tales from the trenches of entrepreneurship and the integral role that a supportive community plays in lifting startups from mere concepts to successful enterprises.
In our energizing discussion, Patrick shines a light on the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, Charleston's beacon for emerging businesses. We exchange stories of mentorship magic and the less intense 'Shark Tank' experiences that propel startups to greatness, all within the nurturing ecosystem of Charleston. As Patrick recounts his personal narrative, from leveraging bankruptcy assets to embracing innovation and intellectual property, you'll be inspired by the power of teamwork and community in transforming business landscapes.
Wrapping up, we reflect on the rich tapestry of advice and mentorship available to entrepreneurs, and the importance of networking to break down industry silos. Patrick's experiences emphasize the undeniable value of seeking guidance, making informed decisions, and the communal spirit that makes Charleston and Mount Pleasant entrepreneurial havens. Tune in to glean insights from Patrick's story, celebrate the allure of our community, and perhaps find that spark to ignite your own entrepreneurial spirit.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Tammy Becker | President Elect
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Hello and welcome to the Building Business Podcast powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We're recording at the Charleston Radio Group Studios. Mike Compton here, your current Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce Marketing Chair, and the president of Roomba Advertising, goroombacom. Thanks for joining us. Listeners of Roomba Advertising GoRoombacom. Thanks for joining us. Listeners. I'm here with my fellow co-host, amanda Bunting-Komen, owner of Social ABCs. Amanda, tell them a little about yourself.
Speaker 2:Thanks, mike. I started my marketing company Social ABCs five years ago this month and I focus heavily on social media, email marketing and public relations.
Speaker 1:Five years Congrats. Thank you yes.
Speaker 2:I also presently serve on the marketing committee at the Chamber of Commerce and the expo committee.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. The expo committee Big deal.
Speaker 2:And I guess the mini podcast committee.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 2:That's the most important committee. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the one. Who are we here?
Speaker 2:with Amanda. I have the pleasure of introducing Patrick Bryant, my friend for many years now. How?
Speaker 3:many years oh gosh, just to ask Many, many, years Very old.
Speaker 2:Back from Metro.
Speaker 3:Chamber of Commerce days, I think we were on a leadership Charleston planning committee. Yeah, it's worth getting involved. Yes, it totally is.
Speaker 1:So you never told me a year, though you said you just gave me days chamber days 16-ish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, we'll go with that.
Speaker 3:That sounds right.
Speaker 2:I had hair. It's been a minute. I had hair when we met.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a mark. Listen, he's got a hat on right now.
Speaker 2:Back met. Oh, that's a mark. Listen, he's got a hat on right now. Back to introducing Patrick.
Speaker 3:Yes, please Sorry.
Speaker 2:Patrick is the co-founder of Assignment Desk within television broadcasting, with 16 offices around the US. He's the founder of Code Trust, a software development firm, eventgives, a nonprofit software company, and Shine Rolling Papers, among many other companies. He started eight companies, taking six of them past the million dollar mark. He feels strongly about making Charleston and South Carolina a better place to work as an entrepreneur. He founded the Harbor Entrepreneur Center 10 years ago and is now the past chairman. He also serves as a trustee of Trident Technical College and was previously chairman of Palmetto Goodwill and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. He's recognized as a Liberty Fellow, riley Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and Bryant resides in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, and has two grown sons, pate and Jack.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right. I'll only add that the BIOS is founded. A lot and a lot of the things I did were co-founded, because there's a lot of people that helped with a lot of those projects.
Speaker 1:It takes a team, doesn't it Patrick? Of course it does, Pate.
Speaker 3:My 22-year-old son.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Never heard of the name Pate before. I love it.
Speaker 3:It was a nickname. He's a junior, brendan Patrick Bryant Jr.
Speaker 1:Sure, I'm a junior as well.
Speaker 3:We didn't want little Pat, big Pat. I'm not a pat junior senior same yes, so, uh, so we, we came up with a I call it a code word because, uh, if you don't know pate, then you don't get to talk to pate, because if somebody calls him on the phone and says is this mr bryant, is this brendan, is this patrick, any of these things he's like, no, no, no, you clearly do not know who I am yep the only person that, uh, that knows me is someone that at least knows my, my name, pate I know that trick well
Speaker 1:yeah, my first name is steven so if anybody calls, asking for steven yeah I don't know who steven is sorry, password big time trouble right. So I get a pay shout out to pate and jack. What's up jack?
Speaker 1:my boys are henry and jackson so uh, yeah you have one kid right yep harrison harrison oh, that's a strong name too. Harrison's a great name. Anyways, back to patrick. Um, I, I can't even start to talk about all these accomplishments. You make me look like a schmuck right now patrick like I am involved with a lot. Okay, I, I'm not kidding, but you, my friend, are involved. First of all, what is a Liberty Fellow?
Speaker 3:A Liberty Fellow is a leader of the state of South Carolina that gets selected into a program to focus on how we make society a better place Okay, a better place. And there's a lot of dialogue in the course of the fellowship about every aspect of government and all roles in society in helping us get to a greater society. And so you're in there with a lot of other people that have a completely diverse opinion, love it. And it is, by design, a matrix of different, you know, nonprofit people versus. Versus is the wrong word.
Speaker 3:Nonprofit on one side you got profit, then you got, you know, different economic classes, all these different values from Democratic, republican thought processes. All of these things come together to create a dialogue that is shared and with trust to understand where they're coming from, why we disagree, what we do agree on and then the things that we do agree on we want to go act on together. So how can people that just generally don't necessarily connect always in a particular issue, what issues can they connect on, and then go make positive change on? Amazing, it's done a lot of really great things for the state.
Speaker 1:Where do you even?
Speaker 3:start to become a part of that. Well, Liberty Fellowship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go, bud. No, don't be. I'd rather have a live engineer than talk through a joke. I got you some water there, you go have mine yes please no not at all. That's okay, I heard you.
Speaker 3:That doesn't work. It's going to get worse. If you hold it back, it gets worse.
Speaker 1:All right, no problem, are you good? Okay, how do you get involved with Liberty Fellow?
Speaker 3:Well, liberty Fellowship is a statewide organization that you get nominated to participate in, and then, from there, you go through a series of interviews and ultimately they select a class.
Speaker 1:Not everybody can be a Liberty Fellow. What about a?
Speaker 3:Riley Fellow. Riley Fellows somewhat similar nominations and selections, but then also an entire dialogue and process more around diversity issues and understanding what makes a positive opportunity in supporting people that are diverse.
Speaker 1:Okay, you can go ahead and nominate me if you want. Patrick, we just met Can you nominate yourself?
Speaker 3:I think you probably can.
Speaker 1:I want to do that. That sounds amazing.
Speaker 3:No, they are both incredibly good programs that I couldn't recommend anymore. They are worth your time. They're worth your learning from the values and, moreover, the network of people that are out there trying to make the community a better place is a network of people I want to be in. I don't like it to be in the, the network of people that are complaining about everything I want to be in the network of people that are willing to listen and solve problems I love it.
Speaker 1:Um what? Uh, I thought harbor entrepreneur center.
Speaker 3:Um so, wow, you co-founded that right, correct, because we said founded and we said founded. I'm like no, there's no way. No, co-founded osborne and I co-founded that. Just the two of you, yeah, yeah amanda, do you?
Speaker 1:what do you think about? Did you belong to the?
Speaker 2:yes, I'm involved at the harbor. Entrepreneur what do you?
Speaker 1:how are you involved?
Speaker 2:um, I work with uh grady, who's the current director over there, and help him a little bit with his marketing. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I attend all the events and Grady's the marketing director there. Well, Grady is the executive director of the whole thing he runs the whole.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 3:Grady is a fantastic entrepreneur that we've put in a nonprofit hat at the moment.
Speaker 2:Love it. He's the best friend. He's slaying it. Oh, is he good? Yeah, they just opened up their brand new space in Mount Pleasant on E Wall Street. It's gorgeous. That is worth checking out, if there's one takeaway to do from someone listening to this podcast.
Speaker 3:They should find an event or a reason to go to 11E Wall Street and see this building. There are 62 companies operating every day out of this building, Not to mention at an event. You're going to meet all these other entrepreneurs and people that are doing work in the community, so it is a fantastic gift, and Town of Mount Pleasant, SCRA. Other community leaders have stepped up to help make that vision a reality, but Grady was the one who brought it all together and I couldn't be more ecstatic about that building.
Speaker 2:And not everyone knows it's there, it's off, yeah off, of colin it's new.
Speaker 3:You can't see it from the road once you walk up on it, it is like a and it's got its own.
Speaker 2:It's almost like a campus, yeah it's got a pond area. It's got like nature trails, yeah, yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 1:How do you even begin that, patrick, the Harbor Entrepreneur Center? How do you even get founding one of these?
Speaker 3:So, speaking of being involved in chambers, so the Metro Chamber took a trip to Nashville and on that trip I was with a bunch of other chamber leaders and we saw the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 3:And came home and said we need one of those in Charleston and beat our head for about six months trying to get other people to do it and then ultimately took a trip back to Nashville and toured it again and got a lot more data and walked away from that trip saying the only way this is going to happen is if we do it. Yeah, and so John Osborne and I committed. At that time I had just exited a company and I had a little free time. So I thought and I said all right, john, I'll work on this nonprofit startup for six months if you will be the executive director, because somebody's got to be the one that is, this is their thing and they're going to get paid to do it or it won't be successful. And, uh, and he agreed.
Speaker 3:So, um, I, I worked, john and I together, uh, worked hard to to lift that off the ground. But the the first thing we did was create the accelerator, which is an opportunity where businesses can apply and they get in the accelerator and then, once they get in the accelerator, they get all this mentorship and free space and access to investors and all these fantastic tools. And at that time, I just wanted the mentors in the community, the people that had started businesses. I wanted them to engage with these early stage startups, and so, when we created the Accelerator, I sent an email to 41 made entrepreneurs of Charleston, 41 people that had sold their companies and no longer needed to go to work.
Speaker 1:Where'd you find them?
Speaker 3:Just my own list over time of friends and, as you can tell, entrepreneurship's my favorite thing, and so I had sort of seeked out the entrepreneurs of town, asking for my own advice and creating relationships with them and enjoying that as a tribe, and so I sent this email to 41 um made entrepreneurs and I asked them all to give of their time for a 16-week once-a-week meeting with a startup that we were going to support, and in that email I got 18. We needed 24 mentors to start. We got 18 yeses off of that email and I said we have something here, because if the people that know how to do this are willing to give of their time and expertise to help the people that are starting, we will win, because they are going to help these people be successful. And out of that first class now it's had gosh, I think 20 classes, um, but out of that first class, you've got some huge winners. But if you look even across the course of the over 100 companies that have gone through the accelerator, uh, you've got. You got.
Speaker 3:Dynepic eventgives team, phoria uh, state case status secure um, I can keep going. Heron farms like they were really good companies have gone. Euphoria case status secure I can keep going.
Speaker 1:Heron.
Speaker 3:Farms. Really good companies have gone through this program and tore the cover off the ball, so it's been incredibly successful.
Speaker 2:Sorry, Mike, I was going to say one of the things that I've enjoyed with experiencing with the Accelerator program is anyone's invited to hear their pitches. They have a beginning pitch and then they go through the six, however long.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's like six months now, six months and then the final pitch.
Speaker 2:And so if you hear them from the first time into the final pitch, it's just, it's amazing to see the growth and just to see how far they've come in just those six months.
Speaker 1:I'm a huge Shark Tank fan. Yeah, it's what it reminds me of.
Speaker 3:It's a little Shark Tank, Less pressure less crazy, but very similar, but but very, very similar, and I think, though, that, at the end of the day, our entire goal was to create collision among the entrepreneurs of Charleston. We felt like if, if those 41 entrepreneurs and these startups just all knew each other, we would explode the economic opportunity of Charleston. We would explode the economic opportunity of Charleston. And, uh, um matter of fact, one of the mentors that that started, um, I had a phone conversation with him asking he was. We got we got 18 yeses and I need to recruit the last few, and I called one of them on the phone and I didn't know him. Someone has submitted to me hey, you should call this guy, he might help. And, uh, I called him and I just cold call.
Speaker 1:Hey, I hear you're awesome and I'd like you to help.
Speaker 3:Uh, and so I'm. I'm having this conversation with him. No shit, had there not been trees in the way, I could see his building. Come on, we didn't know each other.
Speaker 3:So, that's how Charleston was so siloed that these entrepreneurs were operating in their own space, their own industry, their own markets. You know, at that time I was running where I just left GoToTeam and what would become a Summit Desk, and as I did that, I was focused on LA and Atlanta. Charleston accounts for less than who knows less than 2% of our revenue, Right? So I wasn't focused on Charles. No disrespect to Charleston, Correct, I was just looking outside the market.
Speaker 1:My clients were outside the market. My vendors were outside the market, especially in your production field.
Speaker 3:Yeah Right, so you know, uh, I was, I was focused out there, and then this guy, noah, he was focused in DC and globally with this coding side. So we just weren't in a position that we would have known each other. And that, to me, is the beauty of the Harbor Entrepreneur Center. Get everybody that's playing that game together and say, hey, what do you know and how could I know that? And you know, today, when I have a struggle, I'm getting sued or I'm in a you know ox, in a ditch moment, I have those resources and friendships from the Harbor Entrepreneur Center that I can dial up five of the best entrepreneurs in Charleston and say, hey, what am I missing? What do I need to know? Who's the lawyer that knows about all this stuff? And that network is the key to the harbor.
Speaker 1:But the space 62 businesses banging around together, you're going to say 62, huh, that's a lot of collision. There's 62 in there right now. How many can it fill? 62 different companies.
Speaker 3:We're close to the max. I think Grady might have one or two offices open.
Speaker 1:You better to the max. Yeah, um I. I think grady might have one or two offices open.
Speaker 3:Oh um, I better get in there, you better get in there, listeners it's pretty.
Speaker 2:It's pretty filled up, but you can get on a wait list. Oh, is there a wait list? Yeah, it says the marketing person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's okay yeah, uh, because there, there uh is it's pretty, it's pretty tight and when does it start again? I'm sorry, well, the this building opened last year on the mount pleasant side too.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, on the mount, the mount pleasant building open last year. We On the Mount.
Speaker 3:Pleasant side too. Right yeah, on the Mount Pleasant building opened last year, we actually have another site in West Ashley, that's been open for a few years, but the harbor itself is right over 10 years old. I mean, I was the chair for the first 10 years and now, thank goodness, I'm the past chair, which, by the way, if anybody's looking to add to their resume by far past chairman is my favorite role.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 3:So if there's anybody out there looking for a past chairman?
Speaker 2:I'm interested in that role, heck yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, past chairman is much better and just a sick entrepreneur. Good Lord, you've gotten so many co-founding businesses and that type of thing. The entrepreneur list that you have is I'm not even going to get into it. Good lord, you've gotten so many co-founding businesses and that type of thing. The entrepreneur list that you have is I'm not even gonna get into it. You guys, like listener, can google patrick bryant and figure that out like it's crazy. I love it. Um, talk about, like tedx. I've always thought about tedx yeah, yeah, I did tedx last year it was a super blast.
Speaker 3:The team, the team in charleston, is phenomenal. What were about? Well, my particular topic was on getting and receiving advice, which I think your topic was a lot of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3:They just miss that. I think a lot of times, going back to the silos and doing your job, I think you you end up being in a place that you, you think you know the and you just sort of go with what you think and you don't stop to get advice from other people. And then in a lot of cases I'm not a fan of what I call non-consensual mentoring. That's a Melissa Britton phrase, but non-consensual mentoring being people will just look at what you're going through and tell you what they think. You know your mom, your sister, your you know other people in your life.
Speaker 3:That they're just telling you what they think, which is fine, but they have no expertise in what we're talking about, which is fine, but they have no expertise in what we're talking about. So you know, I think that the real focus of the TEDx 10 minutes was number one ask for advice from those that know it, the experts that understand it, and then, more importantly, ask advice from those that have been through it Right. Seek out the people that are experts in the problem and that have been through the problem, and then gather that information and, at the end of the day, realize that you're the one making the decision and neither of them have the exact, right answer for you, and they very well might misalign. A lawyer is going to tell you to handle it this way, and a guy who went through it is going to tell you to handle it this way, and a guy who went through it is going to tell you to handle it this way, and your job is to synthesize all that data.
Speaker 1:There it is.
Speaker 3:And come to a choice that is right for you Yep, because you're the one that's in the situation.
Speaker 1:You know nothing about data. What are you talking about? You know nothing about data.
Speaker 3:So gather good quality data and then use it to make your own decision, and so that was the point of TEDx.
Speaker 1:That's a cool talk. I would have guessed video. I would have guessed something entrepreneur I would have guessed coding.
Speaker 3:Well for me. They had asked me to be involved and look at TEDx, and when I started thinking about what I would want to talk about, I was trying to get to a place that I could say something to an audience of all types of people. That I truly think is the number one thing I wish I had known 25 years ago is how to get that advice and make the right decisions faster, and that's what the Harbor Entrepreneur Center Accelerator does right. It's like you're doing a startup. You think you know, but these people over here like Christine Osborne was one of our first mentors the founder of Wonderworks, the things that are inine's head will accelerate this business by fivefold just because she can say something in the toy space that they can't even remotely know yet yes, my kids love wonderworks, by the way, uh shout out to them.
Speaker 3:We're always looking for sponsors by the way she's exited that.
Speaker 1:I have a question for you in regards to getting and receiving advice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you started one of your first businesses when you were just 16 years old.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right so thinking about that.
Speaker 2:What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
Speaker 3:Oh, that my 16-year-old self knew absolutely nothing and he pretty convinced he knew everything. So so the first thing I would try to do is is get him to see that there is a lot of things he doesn't know, and then the second thing I would I would get him to focus on is I I started a business selling my time, and while that was really helpful to teach me entrepreneurship as a 16-year-old, I wish I had focused my entire career on businesses that were not my time, that were a product or a service that I was innovating that ultimately did not need me to be there in order to continue making profit.
Speaker 3:That to me you know. There's plenty of YouTube videos on it now and a lot of you know young people can go on and create a Shopify sales catalog today, drop shipping and all that type of thing, drop shipping and all these things, and so I think there's a little bit more opportunity and ethos for that to happen now. But I was starting a graphic design firm and I knew how to make logos and design things on a Mac, and so I was focused more on selling that time.
Speaker 1:What did your parents do?
Speaker 3:They were in a newspaper. Yeah, my dad was a newspaper salesman and then owned a newspaper. And that's actually how I started the business, is he?
Speaker 1:filed bankruptcy.
Speaker 3:And in that bankruptcy, the lowest moment of my life. I then got handed two computers from the bankruptcy Macintosh computers that would have cost 10 grand at the time. They're now sitting in front of me in my house and I knew how to use them, so I started a little business.
Speaker 1:What are we going to do with this Dad? All right, we're going to do it.
Speaker 3:Doing a little side hustle, of course, doing menus and logos and all kinds of stuff, and it was. It did teach me a lot of of understanding the way a lemonade stand would, uh, but what it didn't teach me, that took me almost 10 years later to learn, was how do I create a business that that is not selling my time and has innovation and scalability and things that can really grow, and that's what I focus on a lot now.
Speaker 1:Which company was your first breakout company? Was it GoTo or was it?
Speaker 3:GoTo Team? For sure I mean GoTo Team.
Speaker 1:And how long did it take you to get to GoTo Team?
Speaker 3:Well, I started GoTo Team in 97, so 20. Whatever that was, 26, 25. And when we started GoToTeam we were again selling time through a service of shooting video for the networks. But we were able to scale by having a lot of other people that were working for us, and so we kind of shifted from selling our time to selling other people's time and efforts, and energies and and creative skill sets, and the more we did that, the more we were able to to grow.
Speaker 3:Now, ultimately, the the final leg of the stool is we added innovation, which now we own. My entertainment, that does television production shows like Legacy List on PBS and Ghost Adventures, which is the number one streaming show on Max, and all these incredible broadcast shows. Well, they have intellectual property, ip, and we've innovated even in software for the production side of the house. And so now we own software and we own IP and television shows. That innovation allows us to scale in a much faster way. So there's just this. The learning for me has not remotely stopped, and I wished it, you know. Of course, as a 50-year-old, I'd love to impart all that on and start over at 60 good lord, you look good for 50, thank you so you said, your favorite title right now is past chairman oh right, but because you got all that knowledge?
Speaker 2:yeah, right, but what's next for patrick?
Speaker 3:I don't see you being a past chairman, yeah, for long well, I'll tell you right now I'm in a little bit of a break and I'm enjoying it. He's got availability folks, I have had a long two years and it was painful in spots and energizing in spots, but especially coming off the role of CEO of Code Trust, which I love. Code Trust, a phenomenal company. Andrew Strickland is now the.
Speaker 1:CEO. What do they do for Code Trust?
Speaker 3:Well, Code Trust is a firm. We started to create software for entrepreneurs, Sure, and it spun out of our own companies needing software developers, and so, as we created products for ourselves, and it spun out of our own companies needing software developers, and so, as we created products for ourselves, we were also hiring a team that other people could use as well. And so now Code Trust is doing a ton of client work where we've got entrepreneurs that have an idea all the way through existing revenue, and in both of those cases, they are focused on building really quality software. And so I led that team for five years, loved it, loved software production, loved the development process, loved working with that team, but then left Andrew Strickland's, now the CEO. They're doing fantastic. I'm really proud of that, that company and what they're doing.
Speaker 3:But leaving that role uh, and and and other relationships has freed me up where right now I am. I am happy to be in Charleston and and and taking a break and and understanding what might. What might be next and understanding what might be next. I've got my eyes set on several things in AI meets hardware. That's where my head is at the moment, but I haven't pulled the trigger on anything specific.
Speaker 2:There you go. And side note, code Trust is in a really cool building off of Coleman. I know you've seen it, mike. It's got an awesome. Oh, what's the word?
Speaker 3:Oh, you're taking 665.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 665. Yeah, we just FYI Code.
Speaker 3:Trust moved to the Harbor Entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Center. Oh, that's right, so Code.
Speaker 3:Trust is actually in the Harbor Entrepreneur Center building. We were talking about 665, johnny Dodds. Now the entire floor is assignment desk and shine papers and team for you.
Speaker 2:So we, just we just you still got to go there, though you still got too many people.
Speaker 3:I mean we had in a space that has I don't know 30 parks. We had like 52 people reporting to work there every day. So it was a tough moment of growth in Code and Trust. We moved over to 665 to solve that problem. Just because of headcount, I mean I'd love to still have us all be together, but we were just exploding at the scene.
Speaker 2:So what is it about Charleston and Mount Pleasant?
Speaker 1:Mount Pleasant specifically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, makes you want to stay and make it a great place for entrepreneurs to work.
Speaker 3:Well, mount Pleasant is unbelievably, I mean, top 10 in my mind in all of America on quality of life and and I've done a lot of work with the, the chambers and the CRDA and and going to these other communities and looking what they have and and then they do the, you know, strategic plan and the consulting for the region and all these things. And when you interview comp, um, uh, people, just citizens in a particular town, and you say what do you love about this town? Always in the top three. I don't care where they live and I'm not trying to speak negatively of any city, but you could be talking about Farmville, north Carolina, with a population of 50,000, or you could be talking about Manhattan, chinatown, and you ask them top three things, what do you love about this city? And they'll tell you quality of life.
Speaker 3:Well, that's because America has a pretty great quality of life. Across all of America there's a great quality of life. Now I'm not saying we don't have problems, we can solve homelessness and all these other things, but the reality is we have a pretty great quality of life, all these other things, but the reality is we have a pretty great quality of life. On the other hand, there are certain communities that have a relatively low amount of traffic, a relatively low amount of crime and an ability to have all these services like recreation and great schools and parks and all these things that that mount pleasant has just absolutely found, all of those in in spades and and mount pleasant. It is so conveniently located to the entire metro but also is its own little bridged bubble uh of a perfect place beaches to raise kids and get to the beach.
Speaker 1:The beaches, the cul-de-sacs, the golf carts. I'm at the grocery store every other day in my golf cart. It's beautiful, it's amazing, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's a great place to live, work and play. Well, right, oh, there you go.
Speaker 3:Not to do the whole job. But yes, you're totally correct, and I think that that's the beauty of Mount Pleasant, is that it is that. Now I will go from there to say that I am incredibly concerned that Mount Pleasant needs to cater more to business. I believe that their investment in the Harbor Entrepreneur Center is the type of actions they should be taking. So they are taking good actions, but I would also say there are nine other good actions I'd like to see them take in order to ensure that businesses are thriving and able to grow quickly and get permits when they need them and have the right number of restaurants and hospitals and development. We can't just say no to every single economic project.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And expect to continue to have the amazing town that we have.
Speaker 1:Right. So she asked you what's coming up. But is there any kind of like? You sound very like you want to build community, totally yeah, collaboration, build community, build business, build economy. Yeah, it almost sounds like you kind of want to like go into politics. I'd hate to bring that word into your ecosystem here, but it sounds like you're gonna be the next president, patrick I mean crystal clear that the furthest thing from my mind I think, that is is politics and the desire to be in it, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:I've served my time.
Speaker 1:Being adjacent to it.
Speaker 3:Being adjacent, I can believe that Having been adjacent to it, I can say with great fervor I am happy to not be in it.
Speaker 1:So what is it then? So you can be on my committee then.
Speaker 3:When I'm the mayor, you can be my first chief. I would love to help make the town.
Speaker 1:You never want to be the guy, though You're going to be the guy behind the guy.
Speaker 3:I don't want to be the guy. Yeah, all right, you know what it is For me. I've joked for many years that I have a big ego. I'll admit that openly after months of counseling. I have a big ego. I'll admit that openly after months of counseling.
Speaker 3:And I'll say that running a campaign sounds like a blast, because you and I, we think the same way With video production and media and the ability to communicate a message. I love all those things. Doing the job oh, that sounds awful. Doing the job, yeah, oh, that sounds awful. Right, Like if you told me even tomorrow you were like hey, I got this unbelievable job for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But you got to be there at 8 am every morning and you can't leave until 7. I would be like and no, thank you, I'm good. And you'd be like but wait, you haven't even figured out what we're going to pay you yet. You can write whatever check you want. And I would be like and I'm still not interested. I really I want to move the community forward. I'm passionate about the issues that I care about. I don't want to go to committee meetings. I don't want to help write strategic plans that don't get implemented.
Speaker 3:Right uh, putting things on the shelf but, having dialogues about things that we're not gonna ever build that bridge, but we're gonna talk about it for the next three weeks. Um, these are not things that it. They get me incredibly upset, um, and and I feel like I'm wasting my time and I can't I can't move forward with the dialogue.
Speaker 1:So stick to the non-private sector. Yeah Well, private sector, I like the best. Perfect when you've got control.
Speaker 3:You can decide what you want to do?
Speaker 2:You have your own pace.
Speaker 3:Exactly. If you want to move fast, you move fast. You want to take off a week. You take off a week. That's how I thrive. That's how I thrive. I tend to say that if you let me rest, I will amaze you with what I can accomplish, but if you force me to work, I will make everyone here not happy.
Speaker 1:I mean that's typical, though, right now too, and the way that our culture is across America is kind of similar. Right, we want to kind of do what we want to do. We're going to do it really well, if you just be cool, that's right.
Speaker 3:Just just give me some space there's a lot of people that that I feel, like you know, and again, not again, the people need it, but some people are taking advantage of that opportunity.
Speaker 3:We don't want to go there, yeah but, but I think that of of those that show up, and that's how I feel about, like, even my leadership style in business is very laissez-faire. Yes, I, these are, these are the goals of where we want to accomplish what we want to accomplish, where we want to go, and I want you to use your own mindset of how to get there. And as long as you're showing the milestones to get there, I don't care what you do, don't you know? I don't care, don't come in, don't talk to me, don't do anything. I don't, it wouldn't matter to me as long as you're hitting the milestones of what you're doing. And then, but if you're not hitting those milestones, then I want to see you every day because we need to know what's going on and how we're going to get.
Speaker 3:So Patrick is not a micromanager. No, no, you know, I, I, I, a lot of times, when I start working with a new assistant, I, or a an employee in general, I, I will say this is going to feel like micromanaging for the first couple of weeks, because every day, I want to know what you're working on and make sure you're on your right track and that we're aligned. And then, once I get that comfortableness. You're never going to hear from me again because I'm just going to assume that I'm throwing balls out and you're picking them up and that's fine with me. So until balls start getting dropped, I'm thrilled to not be having a daily dialogue with anyone about it.
Speaker 1:So that kind of Amanda. Did you want to ask this last question here about the lessons?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what kind of lessons can you impart to our members and our listeners? You know of all your startups, all your investments. What are some overriding like top three maybe?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I'll joke and and say go back to 2017 and buy tesla. Um, that, that was, that's a winner. Um, you know, follow, follow, motley fool and uh, and buy some good stuff we don't have a time machine here, patrick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not yet, but molly fool's still coming out with issues and um, you know so I I I'm teasing I though that the number one thing that I would tell anyone that wanted to move forward their economic status is start a business, whatever it is that you know how to do, then start a business doing that and then from there you'll learn all kinds of things that you can't know yet. You know, even, as I said about my teaching myself, you know, would I go start a business that was selling my time again, no, but I'm not the person with the balance sheet that I had at 16, right, and and starting a business at 16, selling my time, was the exact right thing for me at that moment, right.
Speaker 2:What may not work for you might work for somebody else Totally.
Speaker 3:So I'm not even saying, take that advice that I would have given my 16-year-old self. I'm saying entrepreneurship is the number one change agent in the world. It will make the difference in communities as they grow economically. It will make the difference in the lives of the employees that it helps move forward and it will develop products and services that we don't have yet. And that is what we need to do as a society, and that is what we need to do as a society.
Speaker 3:And so, joking about politics, political leaders are important, but I passionately believe my best use in society is being a good entrepreneur that can grow companies and grow ideas and, in doing so, move the society forward through business and economic growth, and that, to me, is what gets me excited. It's what I'm thrilled about, and so my advice to anyone listening would be start a business and, in that process, learn everything you can about how to service your customer, keep them happy, take care of your employees, stay out of lawsuits. We were joking about lawsuits and my disdain for lawyers earlier. Chris Stobbs is on the board, so I shouldn't say I have disdain.
Speaker 3:It's just when you're working on lawsuits. I don't want people to say negative things about me and I don't want to have to sue them. Exactly I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't want any part of any of it, uh, but I do think that you learn by doing the thing and and you gotta just start and fail you just gotta, gotta, get going start and fail, and start and fail and do it again and grow the business and different ways and pivot a lot too right not to use the whole other p word pivot. Yeah, this is the, in my opinion, why we started this podcast. Amanda is interviewing patrick because we're trying to build business east of the cooper, as as we say, and so all of our members you know, whether they know you or not are going to know you now and hear that you what you have to say about growing the economy, about starting a business, and that's what we need here. We need more patrick bryants here in mount pleasant, and we have a lot actually. No, I mean, I agree there's a lot of successful people that you don't know are your neighbor totally agree uh, debbie antonelli met her a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of successful people that you don't know are your neighbor. Totally agree.
Speaker 2:Debbie.
Speaker 1:Antonelli. Met her a couple of years ago. She's a sports broadcaster.
Speaker 3:She's a badass she is amazing. She lives in.
Speaker 1:Mount Pleasant. You know, like so many of these, really sneaky, cool, very, you know, successful but very hardworking. You know, down to earth people find themselves here in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3:Totally agree, 100%. Mount Pleasant tends to be a community of exceptional people that are focused outside of their community, and I think that that is the the problem that we have to work together, uh to to um solve, to solve and make sure that the incredible people that have those skills get connected with the other people, and as we do that, there's just no doubt our community is going to continue to grow and thrive and do amazing things. So I'm really appreciative to be on. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 2:Amanda, do you have anything else?
Speaker 1:nope I'm good, give us real quick, give us a podcast that you like. Uh, do you listen to all that I'm listening to? Are you a podcast?
Speaker 3:I'm a big youtube, yeah guy I mean I spend most of my time on on youtube, not not that, um, I mean I let's, let's be clear. I own a television production company. I watch a fair amount of max and disney plus, um, uh, but uh, I I love to to get my podcast, uh data from youtube. And right now, um, I just had a a super blast watching theovan and oh and Tony Robbins, um, that that new uh podcast is great.
Speaker 3:Um, if you haven't seen the sharp and cat Williams uh podcast, uh, we've. We've had the pleasure of shooting all of the the sharp podcasts and um, at, uh, our company assignment desk, we we did the production for the cat Williamsiams sharp podcast and and that is just hilarious oh my gosh, so, uh, so watching, watching.
Speaker 1:That was a lot of fun this week as far as like an entrepreneur type learning podcast, youtube, like um well, I've got.
Speaker 3:I've got a lot of friends actually that are from my time public speaking as a as a uh entrepreneurial, uh podcast guy, um, but but there's, so I mean gosh you can.
Speaker 1:It's unbelievable how many good ones there are in the world.
Speaker 3:I think it's more angled toward what exactly are you looking? Right for right um, and in that that moment, uh. But from a motivation standpoint I mean, there's there's nothing better than uh, than um, tony Robbins, um, um, wayne Dwyer, um, I, uh.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 3:I watch um Seacoast actually every.
Speaker 1:Sunday morning.
Speaker 3:And so I'm. So I'm definitely a faith-based guy.
Speaker 1:I do Elevation, Elevation Church. Oh yeah, yeah, Elevation is cool too.
Speaker 3:So I watch a good bit of their content. Their pastor, adam Martin, is an old friend of mine and Adam will say things on a Sunday morning that resonate basically perfect to to business problems that I might be having, uh. So I think there's there's plenty of times when I'm I'm watching, uh, something on on Seacoast. Greg Surratt, who founded Seacoast, is also um we gotta get him on.
Speaker 3:Please get him on. Uh, I, I did a a podcast for the Business Journal a few years ago and Greg was by far one of my favorite interviews, and so he can say things on a Sunday morning. That just change me on a dime for what I'm thinking about a particular issue.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 3:And how to handle it correctly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we're looking to motivate our members. We want to keep them here, keep them happy and keep them them happy and keep them successful so I think that this conversation helped with that thank you, amanda. Building a better east cooper building a better building business east of the cooper. I'm still working on that helping people grow their business um amanda, do you have any closing comments you want to talk about?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just happy to have my friend Patrick on here. I think I learned a little bit, and I think our listeners will learn a lot too.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and before we leave, we'd like to thank our sponsors, the Charleston Radio Group Studios and the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, and we are looking for sponsors or guests to be on our show. Don't forget to like and subscribe and make a comment if you want on our media channels. We'll be on Spotify, itunes, youtube, insta, facebook, linkedin, you name it. We're there. Thank you, amanda, for co-hosting with me today.
Speaker 2:Thanks, for having me we're co-hosts.
Speaker 1:Our presidents weren't able to make it today, so the marketing team filling up, totally happy about that. Patrick, really appreciate you, thank you. Definitely. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3:This was awesome.
Speaker 2:Thanks, yeah, send us off Amanda Until next time, mount Pleasant.