Embark on an enlightening quest through the digital transformation of the low voltage industry with Anthony Romeo of Wise Components and the WiseUp Podcast, our illustrious guest, who brings a treasure trove of insights. Through his narrative, we uncover the evolution of a time-honored business model into a dynamic digital presence, educating on the essential truths of Layer 1 infrastructure. Our dialogue illuminates the unexpected yet lively response from the younger, tech-savvy demographic, showcasing the shifting tides of how the industry's budding minds seek wisdom and connection.
As we move through the chapters of our discussion, we spotlight the vital role of mentorship and the art of engaging the next wave of professionals. Hear firsthand stories about the magnetic pull of authentic content creation and the power of mentorship through programs like BICSI. We stress the importance of building careers that resonate beyond the paycheck, tapping into a sense of purpose and community. Join us in this heart-to-heart conversation that's less about broadcasting and more about building lasting bridges within our field.
Knowledge is power! Make sure to stop by the webpage to buy me a cup of coffee or support the show at https://linktr.ee/letstalkcabling . Also if you would like to be a guest on the show or have a topic for discussion send me an email at chuck@letstalkcabling.com
Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH
#CBRCDD #RCDD
Embark on an enlightening quest through the digital transformation of the low voltage industry with Anthony Romeo of Wise Components and the WiseUp Podcast, our illustrious guest, who brings a treasure trove of insights. Through his narrative, we uncover the evolution of a time-honored business model into a dynamic digital presence, educating on the essential truths of Layer 1 infrastructure. Our dialogue illuminates the unexpected yet lively response from the younger, tech-savvy demographic, showcasing the shifting tides of how the industry's budding minds seek wisdom and connection.
As we move through the chapters of our discussion, we spotlight the vital role of mentorship and the art of engaging the next wave of professionals. Hear firsthand stories about the magnetic pull of authentic content creation and the power of mentorship through programs like BICSI. We stress the importance of building careers that resonate beyond the paycheck, tapping into a sense of purpose and community. Join us in this heart-to-heart conversation that's less about broadcasting and more about building lasting bridges within our field.
Knowledge is power! Make sure to stop by the webpage to buy me a cup of coffee or support the show at https://linktr.ee/letstalkcabling . Also if you would like to be a guest on the show or have a topic for discussion send me an email at chuck@letstalkcabling.com
Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH
#CBRCDD #RCDD
Hey, why are monkeys welcome to another episode of let's start cabling? This is a special episode because we're recording live at big C and we got a special guest, anthony Romeo From wise components and the infamous wise podcast. No, why is up podcast? Yeah, and we've done each other for Two years and we finally just met. This big thing is great for me to meet with it. You talk to on the phone all the time and you don't necessarily see them all the time, right? So, anthony, thank you, welcome to the list. Okay, no, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:It's great to be here in person. You know, getting to a collaborate with you at big C. 2024 went to conference Uh, it's, it's so good to be here once again, you know. You know, 2019 reshaped the world right, I hate to say the new norm, because it's coming back as we see. Uh, there's people in this, in the crowd here, and I'm so thrilled to be here and a part of it, as We've been doing great things this past year. We went to big C fall conference in Vegas and it, it, it started, it ignited the fire under people's, you know what, and I'm really proud of what they're doing and only see great things in the near future. So I'm a man of my word.
Speaker 1:Well, no, technically I'm not, because I told you I'd give you your questions by sunday. Yeah, and here we are, on Tuesday and I will give you the questions right now, right off the top of my head, shooting from the hip. You ready? Here's the two subjects I want to cover. First, I want to cover the life of a content creator in the low voltage industry. Okay, you should be able to talk about that. I think I can, and also then talk about mentorship. I think I can do that as well. There we go, so let's, let's start off with life of a content creator. So tell us briefly about your podcast and why you got into doing your podcast. Oh Well, just a back paddle.
Speaker 1:Before the podcast came wise components. Um, many of the people here in this room today we work with. Wise components has been a stocking distributor of layer one infrastructure since 1975 and before that, mainly components, various components to help with, uh, primarily medical manufacturing facilities globally. Uh, since the 1930s. Um, I got involved with wise in 2007, 2017, and, uh, since then, I'm trying not to break anything, you know. So, uh, uh, the the company has been going strong for so many years without me screwing it up, um. So when I came on board the first year, I kind of just Sat back, fly on the wall, hoping that, uh, I got to meet so many wonderful people which I did and see what they did and why People kept coming back and back over here and you're out.
Speaker 1:Then, in 2018, we contracted um seo content creator and writer, and he exposed us to all these wonderful things and aspects search engine optimization, newsletters, podcast, blog and I and we were totally oblivious to that side of the business, right, we didn't know what that means to educating the masses, right? So the initial reason to starting the podcast stem from creating um the newsletter, the newsletter and when we were getting newsletter I think when we first started it went up to about 16,000 subscribers I said, wow, I didn't think we had that many things to write about, but Apparently we did, mom. So I said we might have some things to talk about. So we created the wiza podcast where we're interviewing manufacturers, owners, reps, contractors, design, engineering's, talking about standards, codes, uh, different product sets that are coming out, things that they believe are benefits to you know what, what it is and, uh, the other thing. I was laughing to myself because when I talk to people at parties, like many of us, cable monkeys in the industry, wire monkeys, wire monkeys we have a lot of monkeys. So when we talk to people at dinner parties, they say we're in cable and they go oh, so you work for cable vision and it's like there's so many wonderful facets from design, implementation and you know the vendor manner, the logistics aspects of it.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, I had this platform that we helped create and WiseUp was able to say hey, if you're in the healthcare space, education space, financial space, it doesn't matter, because Layer 1 infrastructure is so vital. It's the fifth utility and people have to see what it's worth and and that's what we're trying to do. So it's not like, because we're a stock industry, we don't ever talk about wise components in that way. We're always saying it's about educating the masses. We're not talking about you know, act now, buy now. That's not what it's about. It's about basically talking about the features, functions and benefits, how to make it a little simpler. Why not use this product versus that product or give it a shot and brand recognition to help people understand. So that's why we created the in our pocket.
Speaker 1:Who is your target audience? So right now it's varying. We do have statistics. So I will say who's listening to us first is probably 18 to 35 years of age. Right, and as I look in this room, I don't see a lot of 18 to 35 years of age our target audience. It varies as we're projecting our message to the masses. So it's not just 18 to 35, but that's who's listening to us, because that's who has the Spotify, that's who's listening to, that's who's listening to all the different media streams that we're on, whether it be Apple or Google or, however, how you get your podcast right. So you say, you say that that was that your current audience. Was that who you were trying to reach when you started it? No, who are you trying to reach when you started? So, if I look around the room that we're in sitting today, I just wanted to reach out to the masses and hit the masses, but it opened my eyes to understand that the masses are aging.
Speaker 1:You know, myself included, been doing this a long time. I started as a contractor, work my way through the manufacturer chain and now, you know, proud owner of a distribution company. So as I look around again the room. There's a lot of bull guys and there's a lot of gray hairs around this room. We're not too many youth in here. So it's really my goal is to help not only educate the people that are in the industry, but also educate the people that are not yet in the industry and understand that there's hey, listen, money to be made and you give it a chance. So I, you know I found the same thing with my podcast. Well, although my podcast, I initially targeted that audience, but I was. So I was in the the standards work group this week at Bigsy and Bob Harding the guy runs at. I was talking about how the industry is aging out and how do we attract younger people, and this is one of those ways to do that right. So so you had you probably had visions of glory, of getting in. I'm gonna be a content creator. I'm gonna be famous, infamous.
Speaker 1:What is one thing that you that you didn't expect to be or have as a podcast or a content creator? You weren't expecting. Well, what I wasn't expecting, how hard it was gonna be, I would say, because we constantly are not only identifying guests to come on the show, but topics of discussion like what do we talk about that's, you know, interesting to so many people. You know, right now everybody has a computer on at their hand, so I could google just about anything that I need to. So why am I gonna listen to something that you're putting out or I'm putting out, right? So you have to make it appealing to the messes messes, right. So that's the the biggest thing that I find it's it's very difficult to keep content creation part, and we do a lot of due diligence.
Speaker 1:My team and I, we think about what's to come up with and what's hot topics like if I'm talking to a consultant, it's not just about the design aspects, it's not maybe laws that are coming into effect that could help our conversation? That's being, you know, noteworthy. So that actually brings up a good point, right? So people always ask me how do I come up with content? I'll talk about that when you switch seats, right. But I think if you just have, if you just listen and watch, the content comes to you. Yeah, it comes to you. Now see, you got a team. You got a team, so you have a little bit easier than most people. I don't have a team. I'm spoiled. You are spoiled, right?
Speaker 1:So how many episodes do you put out? You do? Was it a weekly? A monthly? Yeah, so we do like we're not as active as let's talk cable and, I'll be quite honest, we do a season episode. So we re-syndicate our podcast, so we do probably anywhere between 12 to 14 a season and then we take snippets of each one of those episodes and we re-syndicate it through various channels because, again, as I look through the room today, a lot of these people are probably on LinkedIn, but not a lot of them are on TikTok and a lot of the people that are 18 to 30 years of age they're not on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:And to get youth into our industry and preserve the things that we have already done and achieved, we need to be on those other streaming platforms and put aside any differences that we might have from a you know others news feed. Yeah, that's exactly what I told Bob and the group you gotta go where they are and they're not on LinkedIn. They're not on LinkedIn. They're not on LinkedIn. I could tell you from hiring people that are young, 25 years of age when they came on board they're not LinkedIn subscribers and I see from them even when I'm in the office and we have a pickup counter. So a lot of times when we're doing promotional videos, you know, giveaways, like you know, we have a giveaway today. We're doing these giveaways. The guys that are in the field, they have no clue about that it exists. So what I started to do is, in the pickup windows, I've been printing out the QR codes and saying, hey, register here, so that the guys that are in the field matter too. You know, it's not just the CEO sitting at the desk paying the checks, it's the guys that are in the field. You know, terminating the connectors. So we feel that it's important to, you know, generate attention through various media streams.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's shift our conversation to mentoring. Right, one of the reasons the industry is aging out is because people like you and me haven't been so great Well, not necessarily you and me specifically, but our age group hasn't been good at passing along information to bring other people up to the ranks. Right, yeah, little guarded, that's a great word. I like that word. I like that word. Keeping it close to the desk, right, exactly right, right, so we know that Bixie has a mentoring program. You and I are both on that committee.
Speaker 1:Do you think the industry is doing enough mentoring. I don't think the industry is doing a good enough job about it, because many people are just doing their job and going home and, you know, punching that clock to some degree and they feel like it's not my job and they're not looking, you know, forward, thinking they're just saying, whereas the way I look at it is like I have so much to be thankful and grateful for all that I have, you know, achieved in this industry, and it comes from people that looked out for me Up the ranks, you know, from my father-in-law, who was with AT&T for 30 plus years and I had great managers, contractors that I worked for, manufacturers that I worked for. I was very fortunate, I had good leadership in my roles that I held over the years. So let me ask you this what can we do to help educate or open the eyes of the people who are just treating it as a job and realize look, if you wanna, because everybody wants to make more money, everybody wants to have the nice car, the nice house or whatever. What can we do to open the eyes of people like that, to make them realize you can't treat it as a job. You got to treat it as a career. Well, and that's the biggest thing, right, if you explain to the individual it's not a job, it is a career and that the fact is. It's so important that you preserve what you have achieved over the years. Like I could think back to in my short career how many companies I impacted, where financial institutions and data centers around the world, and I could say, oh, I proudly had something to do with the success of that implementation and I want that preserved. I don't want that to be poo-pooed on right. So the way I look at it is twofold. One, I wanna pay it forward because along the way I wasn't self-made. Somebody helped me along the way at every step of the way, so I was very fortunate. So I wanna pay it forward. And two, for the things that I did work on and I did achieve. Well, I want that stuff to be preserved. I want the next generation to understand that they too could have what I have and it will be so good if they just open their eyes and understand.
Speaker 1:It's not just about content creation, right? It's not everybody's gotta be an influencer and we do a crazy silly dance, right? Oh, so I gotta cancel my dance now. I had a dance step all set up for the bar guys, yeah, yeah, no, it's so much more than that, as you know, and you've been doing an amazing job, but it's these collaborations that we need to continue. There's so many people out there that do content creation and then there's people that do it for, I think, the wrong reason, right, and so I think people like us we're doing it for the right reason. If you're doing it to be famous, if you're doing it to make money, it will burn out and you will not last long. So when we first started five years ago is when we started and I generated some attention, some attraction, where advertisement companies were coming to us and saying, hey, you wanna promote Brand X product, and I'm like, no, it has nothing to do with the IT community. So why am I gonna talk about a little blue pill, right, and I'm talking about cable, so it doesn't make any sense. So that's why I probably could sell out and make some good money doing it, but I already have a thriving business that helps that aspect of it and, as in, my reasons for doing this is like most of my reasons are to pay it forward.
Speaker 1:Nice Pleasure having you on your show and you need to come up with a good restaurant that we can go eat next time I come to your area. Yeah, no, food is very important to me, so if anybody's in the Northeast, let me know and I'll help you out. He's proof, proof to the food, yes, yes. So that concludes this episode and I hope you have fun If you're here at Bigsy. If not, look at the Bigsy Mentoring Program. We have more mentors and mentees, so look them up and join. Till next time. Knowledge is power. That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time.