SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Curiosity, listening, communication, negotiation, podcasts, serendipity, deep questions, mirroring, labeling, Super Communicators, Charles Duhigg, Graph Pinkert, used machinery, business deals, AI.
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Noah Graff
Damon Pistulka 00:08
All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I am your host, Damon Pistulka, and I am so excited for our guest today, because I have none other, the man, the myth, the legend himself. Noah, graph from graph pinkert. Noah, welcome for for joining us today.
Noah Graff 00:31
Second time.
Damon Pistulka 00:33
Good, good, good. Well, today we’re going to be talking about unlocking better communication through curiosity and learning. And I forgot to get that out before I introduce you. Noah, I am sorry. How are things with you today? Damon,
Noah Graff 00:44
before we go any further, you are so smooth. I have, I have a podcast too. Shameless self promotion. Swerf cast, it’s about our industry, and I am not live and I we, I have an editor, and usually at the very beginning, like that, that’s when we edit. Because I’m just like, Hey, welcome to the show. And you were like, you, you are, like, old school radio DJ. I’m Yeah, so, because even even though you forgot to say your original title of it. I mean, it was, it was, it was super sweet. You asked me how I am today. Yes, first I’m I’m really excited about doing this interview and talking about this new subject that people who know me, they know I talk about it all the time, but it, it also makes me a little nervous, because I do go on podcasts, but I usually have, like, a different Spiel I talk about so this, this is good. It gets me a little out of my comfort zone, but it also, you know, just shakes it up a little. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 02:02
yeah. So why are you nervous about talking about communication, man, I think you, you’ve
Noah Graff 02:07
not nervous, not nervous. I just, I just, I don’t know. I’m not nervous. I think it’s just gonna be, it’s gonna be a lot of fun, because it’s always fun talking to you. We, we’ve I just interviewed Damon for my second time, and this is, this is my second time on his show, yeah, um, he’s just a he’s fun to talk to. He’s an amazing communicator, at least in my experience.
Damon Pistulka 02:36
Thank you, because that’s not always been the case, and I’m still working on it. So today we’re talking about unlocking better communication. Now, you sent me a video a while ago that I thought was awesome. I don’t know if you’ve published that yet. If that’s gone out to the world. I was looking at your your videos and other things, and I haven’t seen it.
Noah Graff 02:54
It has not, um, another, another, self promotion. So I am starting a new maybe it’ll be a podcast, but it’s, it’s a YouTube channel, and it’s I, I’m and people listening to this, watching this, they’ll, they’ll know I’m just a big podcast junkie. It’s not just making a podcast. But I listen to podcasts constantly, and I keep track of them. I often, you know, will even, like, write down notes later of what I learned. And I feel like it’s a lot of like books, where people just, they just speed through these audio books, and they don’t really remember that many things, right? You ask somebody, what did you learn from a book? And they they give you one concept, and that’s it, and, and that’s fine, but, um, you know, when I listen to books, I like to listen to them, like, find, you know, good ones, and then just listen to them over and over again and make markers and stuff. And I use this, this, this app to listen to podcasts, which I totally recommend. It’s called snippet. And when you listen to podcasts, you can make markers on them. And you know, like when you hear, Oh, like this amazing point that Damon said on on swerf cast about, you know how to, you know, up your business or whatever, and then later you can go back and look at it. So I’m into listening to a lot of podcasts and remembering, trying to remember what I learned on them. So I decided to come up with a new channel on YouTube about what I learned on a podcast. And believe it or not, like there’s nothing like this, like there’s nothing like this in podcast land, in in YouTube. YouTube channel land, I was going to call it. I couldn’t think of a good name for a while. I was going to call. Out the podcast show as it was just a placeholder, but there was nothing, and there was nothing even called the podcast show, but I figured out what I’m calling it. I love this. It’s called, I learned it on a podcast. There you go. So Damon saw the very first video I made for I learned it on a podcast, which is about something that I’m like, totally into about communicators. I talked about three different podcasts, and they were, you know, they were interviewing negotiators. And they were interviewing this amazing book that I’m going to talk about this, who wrote a book called Super communicators, and now it’s going away from my head. Who that was, but there’s a book called Super communicators. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 06:07
I had written due Higg, Charles
Noah Graff 06:11
Duhigg, who also he’s written a lot of things like, yeah. So I listened to this guy on a podcast, and I was just blown away. And I heard him on a whole bunch of other things, and listened to his book, and so I’ll, I’ll get to that. But anyways, that’s, that’s kind of what, what Damon is is going to be referencing here, because I’m just, I’m, well, let’s
Damon Pistulka 06:37
tie this back to what you do. Because I think you’re, you’re in a constant state of negotiation in your business. Let’s talk a little bit about your your business. You’ve been in a long time business, I believe, started by your grandfather. Started
Noah Graff 06:49
by my grandfather. It’s called Graph pinkert. We are a used machinery dealer, um, started in, I believe, 1944 no 1940, no 1939, so we’re 80, yeah, we’re 85 years old and and so we buy and sell used machinery around the world, specifically a certain kind of machine called a multi spindle screw machine. These are really high volume machines for for turn parts. You know, they they often go into, like automotive or aerospace, medical, and they are, you know, often will buy these, these machines. They may be from 1960s and that, you know, and they may be grimy, and we buy them and wash them off and make them look shiny and new. And often the old, dirty machines you can actually make more money on than the shiny ones we I call them sexy, ugly. Sexy, ugly. There you go. And, um, you know, I, I was, I started about, I don’t know, 1617, years ago, doing this, and I was a little so so about going into the the this business. I was seeing an analyst, and I was telling him about what I did and and he knew also that I was a filmmaker, and I had told him about other things, and he goes, You’re a treasure hunter, you know, you scour the earth looking, you know, looking for, for gold, black gold, and rather than Just thinking of what you do as buying disgusting, gross screw machines and selling them for more money than you bought them for. You know, he reframed it. He helped me reframe it. And so, yeah, when people ask me, what I do, one of the things I often say is that I’m a treasure hunter. Yeah? When I talk to other dealers on the phone, they know me as you know I’ll always say, Hey, you got any treasure? What treasure do you have for me lately? Yeah? So as a machinery dealer, as somebody who’s buying and selling things, I get to talk to people around the world constantly, a lot of characters, different different cultures. From you know, I was talking to a guy from you. India last week, a guy from Switzerland last week, and, you know, a guy from Idaho last week. And it, it all makes it fun and interesting and and you you get, I, I’m, as I said, I’m a podcast junkie, and I like to listen to, like, personal development stuff and negotiation things, and you know how to talk to people’s stuff. And I feel like a lot of people are into that, but they aren’t blessed like me with a chance to let go and just practice it. Yes, I can. I can go and, like, hear something in the morning of, like, here’s something you could say to somebody, and then just go try it, or go try it in a podcast. And so, yeah, I’m able to, like, experiment and and really learn about it and be a practitioner of it, because otherwise it’s all really theoretical. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 11:07
and that’s why I think it’s, it’s cool having you talk about this, you know, you talk about the the new YouTube channel, and what you’re doing there, and I, you know, watching the video, that’s what I was thinking. And you’re constantly, as you say, searching for treasure, talking to people, talking to some characters, and on both sides, you’re trying to figure out, yeah, yeah. But you’re trying to figure out, though, in in conversation, really, what’s important to these people in negotiation, in making deals, in understanding what they’re really, really looking for both a buyer comes to you or somebody selling what’s what’s the most important to them when you’re doing that, but as you’re as you’re learning from the podcast about communication, what are some of the the things that you’ve been able to just little tidbits that you’ve been able to listen to and go, Wow, that makes a huge difference. Just a couple, yeah,
Noah Graff 12:06
yeah. Well, I was really, I was, I was, I was thinking about my, you know, my game plan before this interview, how, you know, I was, and I was thinking about, sort of the metamorphosis of of how I approach things, Mm, hmm. And so back in 2018 I always have to have some kind of project hanging over my head. And I decided I was going to for an exercise. I was going to meet at least one new person every day, and I was going to document that, that person. And sometimes I’d meet like one person, sometimes they’d meet 10 people. I’d document it, and then I’d try to take a selfie with them. And I started considering, like turning it into a book. Had say, chat GPT been around then maybe, maybe it would have become a book, but I got really good at talking to a lot of people and getting out of my comfort zone. And but then and learned about all these fascinating people. It was a great experience. However, people asked me, So are you you know? Do you talk to any of these people now? Did you keep in touch with any of them? Are you friends with any of them? Maybe one, maybe two. And I thought about that, and why is that right? And I think what it was was that, yeah, they were cool conversations, and they were good for the person talking, but it was kind of like a one sided conversation, like everybody wants to be heard. People like to be listened to. When people are listened to, they feel like they’re having a good conversation, and and so that was great, but it was like, I would learn later that it could be taken up to another level, like the power of these conversations. And then, you know, if other people, if people listen to me, interviewed on podcasts, and listened to my podcasts, one of the things I love to talk about, and I talk about serendipity. I interviewed a guy who was a serendipity expert on swfcast. I heard him first on a podcast, of course. Name is Christian bush, and he wrote. Wrote a book called the serendipity mindset, which is about all the things that people who seem to be in the right place at the right time, what they are doing in order to get lucky, right like, you know how there, there’s just certain people. Oh, well, yeah, I met, I met Damon, and then he gave me a job, and then after that, I, you know, learned about X, and then I made a zillion dollars, etc, but other people that just doesn’t happen to so one of the big things he talks about are the things you do in conversations, the things you say in conversations, something like called a serendipity hook, which is where you introduce information about yourself. So for instance, if Damon was to ask me, we were to meet, and he said, you know, what do you do? And I could say, Well, I’m a machinery dealer, and then maybe he’d find that interesting. Maybe he wouldn’t. But I could say, well, I’m, I’m, actually, I sell used machine tools. I like to call myself a treasure hunter, though, and, you know, but I, I’m also passionate about my podcast. And I, you know, I make movies, and I have a two year old child, so I can’t go and go salsa dancing anymore, and all of a sudden you have like, five things to talk about, Mm, hmm. And so I could go on and on and talk about serendipity. But the point is, I got to this point where I realized there are things you say in a conversation to bring it to another level. It’s not just about being a good listener. It’s not just about being passive and, you know, letting people like to talk, and people, if you’re making a documentary or something, it might be good to let them talk. However, also what I’ve realized if, if you’re doing an interview, and I’m sure you’ve realized this, there’s a time to interrupt, there’s a time to get said. What you want to be said in the conversation, as opposed to, I just, yeah, I’m just going to let them talk and and let them give their spiel, and because it could be so much more a conversation could be so much more than just, you know, I got their story, and you didn’t even necessarily get, like, the part of the story you wanted. Yes,
Damon Pistulka 17:38
that’s what I think. What you’re saying is so important, especially in the things like you’re talking about in and in a negotiation setting, or where you’re trying to do like you are searching for treasure and or or selling that treasure to somebody else. Those those conversations around business conversations are so important because the whole negotiation that the getting to know somebody ahead of it, understanding them is so key in the overall deal that you can’t just let one side or the other go all the way with the conversation without in injecting what you need and helping it To move so so the listener gets to learn what they need to learn. Can get something done exactly
Noah Graff 18:26
like, if I’m going off on the wrong path right now and you wanted to redirect it somewhere, like, yeah, you gotta, you you gotta, you know, be ready. Be ready to step in.
Damon Pistulka 18:40
Yeah. Yeah, and it’s ship. What’s that? Steer this ship? Right? Oh, yes, yes, exactly. That’s what you got to do. So you know that when we when we hear a lot about communication, and we hear about about listening, and that is a key part of of and not just nodding your head and listening, but listening to understand. You hear it a lot, but it’s but man. I mean, I don’t know about you, but as I get older, and you really understand, when you keep your mouth shut and when you ask another question and listen and another question and listen, another question and listen, you’ll uncover gold that you would have gone right past.
Noah Graff 19:31
Yeah, a lot of times, yeah, right. But otherwise, if you, if you don’t direct it, right, you may just be just, you got your shovel like in the total wrong place, and you and you want, you want to get, you want to direct the conversation somewhere else, etc, um, so, I guess, you know, I’ll talk about a few. Uh, like, things that I’ve been trying, yes, um, that would be experimenting with that are so cool. Um, so yeah. I mean, one of the main things that I’ve really been into recently is this stuff from the book called Super communicators. This guy, Charles Duhigg, he’s not like a social psychologist. He’s, he’s, he’s, he’s an author that writes cool ass books, like he wrote The Power of Habit. You know, he goes and he does research on these things, and so he researched for, must have been years of how certain people communicate. And he he brought up this, this story about how he had some issue and he wanted to tell he wanted i his wife to listen. He started telling his wife about some problem, and then she started giving advice. And he was just like, no, like, I this is not what I need right now. And this, this thing happened the other day for me too, I gave this LinkedIn live on stream yard, the thing we’re using, and it, it just went horrible, in my opinion. I didn’t know what the I didn’t I didn’t have a grasp of how to use the technology. And I was so angry. And I called my my parents. I talked to my mom, who was watching. And, you know, obviously your mom’s going to be really supportive, right? And, yeah, and my mom was very supportive. She was, she was really, you know, felt bad for me, and very encouraging of me, but she gives presentations online. She’s experienced at it. And, and I was like, Mom, how bad was it? You know, she’s like, I don’t know, maybe a c minus or something, or, or, and I was like, I mean, I was like, happy on the one hand, that she’s, you know, she was like, giving it to me straight, right? But then she started making suggestions. And I was like, No, I do not want suggestions right now. All I want is for you to hear me. And she was so great about it, because she’s a professional as she’s, she’s, uh, as she’s, she’s, she is an educational therapist for a living, and is an amazing, super communicator. So one of the things that he talks about in this book is, when you’re going into a conversation, you want to ask about it before it starts. Do you want somebody to listen to? Do you want somebody he’s got the three, something he calls the three H’s. Do you want to be helped? Do you want to be hugged? Or do you want to be heard? So if you’re having a conversation with a loved one, sometimes, like, it just really helps, like, if somebody’s going off, you just, you say that to them, and then you can go about the conversation in the right way. It’s, it’s, it’s just so, like, so many of these things, it’s so simple. And because nobody is a mind reader.
Damon Pistulka 23:44
And you think about it, it’s, it is a very simple question, and it is so effective to to understand, then, what is my role in this conversation? Yeah, because if you get it wrong, like with you and your your mother’s experience,
Noah Graff 24:03
and my mom and I, she may be watching this, and, I mean, she’s like, the greatest listener, oh yeah, yeah.
Damon Pistulka 24:12
But if you’re listening with the wrong intention, unknowingly, yeah, it doesn’t help the other person in the conversation as much. Yeah. And I think that’s the great thing about hearing, those three things, the help, the hugs or the hearing, if someone just want to be heard, it really can help you in a community. Can make the communicate the conversation much better, because we know what’s going on in this you want talks a
Noah Graff 24:37
lot about it with doctors. It made a big difference with doctors, because people, people come and sometimes they don’t, sometimes they just don’t want advice. You know, they’ve got their data. You’ve got your data. There’s no way you’re going to even convince them, and that’s. One of the things they talk about the in the book about how various care changed people. Once a doctor understood that they were able to actually get the patient to do what they really wanted to do, the patient had to feel like the doctor was hearing them, yes, because I
Damon Pistulka 25:26
think that’s, that’s, it’s so important. And it comes back again to, as, as we know from many books, you even talked about it in your video, that the you know, the main thing, the first thing that people really want to understand is you’re actually listening,
Noah Graff 25:41
yeah, yeah. And so that’s, that’s a big thing. You may be listening, but you but it doesn’t necessarily feel like you’re you’re listening so there’s a few things you can do to make somebody feel like you’re being listened to. You know? One is, there’s this guy, Chris Voss. He wrote an amazing negotiation book that I love. It’s called never split the difference. And one thing he talks about is mirroring and labeling. So mirroring you just you repeat the thing that the other person said. Right after they say it, you try to do it in a way that’s real subtle and they don’t realize it. And then you do labeling, which is where you go, Damon, it seems like you really are interested in what I have to say. It seems like you know how to do a good podcast interview. Or you can do what’s called false labeling, which you can use in negotiation too, which, I mean, I might use that with my son right now, who’s sick and doesn’t want to take his medicine. Oh, it seems like you want to go to the doctor. It’s, it seems like you don’t care about this reward we’re going to give you. It demonstrates that you are, that you’re listening to them when you when you say, it seems like it sounds like or you you mirror. And then another thing. You could take it further, so you can say, say you’re somebody is, I guess, say you’re negotiating over a machine, and you’re going back and forth. And you can tell that they don’t think things are fair. And fair is one of these words that I loathe. I hate the word fair. If anybody says it in the conversation, I just want to like say, hey, no, you can’t. This is bullshit. But anyways, you could say to somebody like you, don’t think this is fair, and all of a sudden, they didn’t even have to You didn’t have to demonstrate you were listening to them. You already even just you told them what they knew before they said it. And if, if they don’t think that it’s fair, it’s okay, you let them correct you, and if you let them correct you, then they really feel good, because they know that you’re paying attention to them and that you’re you’re caring what they say by you letting by, by you correcting them and this stuff. I mean, it’s hard. It’s not easy to do it, but it’s really, I get a charge out of the adventure of of trying it.
Damon Pistulka 29:13
Yes, and you know, the thing that happens is when you’re negotiating for things that I’ve found in buying and selling businesses. You know, it can be a pretty tense situation once in a while. Oh, I’m sure. And when you’re when you’re doing it, and you continue to listen. You continue to listen. And what you just said is so powerful when the the other person is not saying something, but you pick it up and you bring it out and you say, well, this, this doesn’t seem like something you want to do. And is it that blah, blah, blah, they realize that you’re actually listening beyond the conversation itself. And trying to get deeper into what are the base, the root, root, root, things that we really need to cover in this conversation. Yeah, and like you said, it brings it out in the open. And they’ll say, Well, I really don’t like x or this. I’m doesn’t matter to me. And you, you, that’s where you learn these golden nuggets and how you can go. There was no way to do this to getting things done. That’s what I love about the communication style that you’re talking about today, you’re talking about videos, is that understanding you know better communication through curiosity and learning, to me, is really understanding the fundamental pieces that people care about, you know, like you said in the conversation, what, what? What is the the purpose of our conversation? And what are we trying to what are we trying to achieve here, and what matters? Yeah, and I
Noah Graff 30:56
think if you and even just starting the conversation by asking that, then the person’s gonna come in and go, Okay, this guy, this this guy really does, does care. Another thing that I’ve used nice, I’ll tell you. You know, I sometimes I don’t know, I feel like I’m just regurgitating this stuff because I’ve read it and listened to a podcast or whatever. But I guess because I’m a practitioner, I’m allowed to do it, and because I have a show now called I learned that on a podcast. Anyways, derivative as it might be, there’s this thing that Charles Duhigg says in the book, which is called a deep question, and this is where you ask people how it feels. Doesn’t necessarily have to, have to be said exactly that way, but you know, you meet somebody and you start talking to them, and they tell you what they do, and I don’t, I’m not a fan of this whole what do you do? Shit it? I feel like it’s sort of, I don’t know it’s, it’s like, it’s, it’s like, you’re, you’re evaluating the person. But a lot of people just say it because it’s an icebreaker. So anyways, you’re talking about what somebody does, and then you say, Damon, so how does it feel to help people sell their businesses? How does it feel to be a mariner fan, to just, you know, have to put up with mediocrity. You had
Damon Pistulka 32:39
to hit the second
Noah Graff 32:42
one or, and then maybe stop the video, just, and then, you know, like, I’ll tell you, like, it’s, it’s incredible. You know, I was talking to a guy about some machines they wanted us to sell on consignment, or they were discussing maybe having a sell on consignment. And, you know, the whole thing was was done. We we asked how their deal was going. They were trying to buy a business, and if they were able to buy the business, they were wanting to, you know, blah, blah, blah, the whole transactional part was done. And I said, so, you know, you’re buying all these different businesses right now. How is that feeling? Like? Do you feel overwhelmed? Do you feel you know, and it was totally genuine, because I’m always wondering when I’m talking to people who are, yeah, I just bought my sixth business in the last year, and I’m like, shit. I’m just trying to get to my to do list, right? Like, yeah, and it was cool. It just, I don’t, you know, will it come? Will it make this conversation, with this conversation, cause anything extra to happen? I don’t know, but it continued, and he went in a different direction, where, again, he felt like I was listening and I was caring a bit. It wasn’t just about, are we going to do this deal or not? And and, yeah, maybe, maybe he doesn’t want to be my friend, but the idea of of asking, genuinely, asking somebody how they’re feeling with this thing that they’re doing. It’s it’s really interesting. It changes things. And I can say recently, a few podcasts and a few just other conversations I’ve I’ve had a few people afterward go, man, that’s one of the best conversations I’ve had in a long time. You brought things out of me. I hadn’t told anybody in forever. And I was like, You’re super communicators. Yeah. Yes, and it’s so cool, like it’s, it’s, I think, yeah, and I think it makes people people like you, if they feel like you genuinely care about them. And studies have shown that people trust those they like, and if they trust you, then hopefully they’ll want to make more deals with you well.
Damon Pistulka 35:30
And I also think too, that,
Noah Graff 35:33
as you This is such a good conversation, by the way, such a good idea.
Damon Pistulka 35:38
I’m glad we’re doing it. I’m glad we’re doing it, and I’m gonna I’ve got a question for you now, because it tell me this is for me personally, it’s almost like the more I learn about people, and the more I learn about people, the more I want to learn about people. And you want to ask these questions, and ask more of these questions, because at the end of the day, for me, the perspectives that you see and understand from this is wicked cool when you start to think about, you know, professional life, the whole nine yards, Because the the deep conversations and really understanding what you know, the people, what’s going on their head. I don’t, I don’t care if it’s business, life, conversation, whatever. It’s just so much fun to learn, and it’s almost, and I don’t even know if this is the right way to say it, but it’s almost like intoxicating, because you want to learn more about somebody else or or the person, and just continue understanding that, because it helps them and you in the end,
Noah Graff 36:45
yeah, no, it’s, it’s, as you said, it’s, it’s, it’s fantastic. It’s just an amazing feeling.
Damon Pistulka 36:55
So looking back on your communication, just go back a decade. Go what? What are? What is a different way you approach conversation that’s helped you, that really makes a difference in your daily life now, of looking at your conversations and the way you communicate differently today,
Noah Graff 37:17
well, I mean, okay, I think people have always have told me before. I’ve always naturally been a curious person. I’ve been a good question asker. I don’t know, maybe it’s genetic, or my son is an amazing question. Asker and my wife, she, I mean, it’s not genetic, fortunately with her, but I mean she, the only person I know is a better question asker than me, is her I’ve always, I always come home from work with all these great stories, and then she’s like, Yeah, and what do they have any kids? And what, what? What did they say next? And what are they and I was like, I don’t know. I don’t remember that part of the you know. But, like, I think it’s part of what I was saying before about being being passive versus being more active. I mean, when I was doing the meeting people project, that’s, that was where I where I went a whole year meeting somebody new, I would literally be, I’d talk to people on the phone, and I would just, like, be taking notes and like, get their life story. And it was great, and that was great practice. But, yeah, just having intention in the conversation. And I think last 10 years, a lot of things, just mindfulness, as far as you know, approaching conversations to get the serendipity, or approaching things like this. These are things that we we often know. We know to ask questions, but, you know, telling yourself, I you know, I have a long bedtime ritual and a very tolerant wife. Oh, my God. So I have these, you know, for I have a diary that I keep, like my wins from the day, and I just talk about what happened that day after the meeting. People project like I had realized how cool it was to document all these things that happened to me. And I was like, All right, I’m gonna end this, which was really weird. It’s was weird to not have to meet a new person every day, but I ended it, and I was like, All right, well, I want to still feel like the day meant something. And at that point, I felt like it was important to do that. So I started writing a diary, and then now I have, like, lists. So I have a list of something I learned, a list of something serendipitous that happened that day, nice and so by writing these lists, if I’m writing something serendipitous that happened that day, then I’m always constantly thinking about it, I think I was going to start a super communicator, super communication list, and didn’t, didn’t want to add another list or something. So your question was, last 10 years, how I feel like I’ve approached conversation, how you approach
Damon Pistulka 40:39
your communication differently? Yeah,
Noah Graff 40:45
I’d say, I’d say that’s the case. I think I went through a period where, where I maybe I didn’t feel good about talking about myself about what I was doing, maybe felt self conscious about it, and that also added the passivity I just I became, I was a really good question asker, because that would take the even though, as you can see, I do like talking, and I I’m sort of into myself. I I do feel like it was kind of my way of coping, which was, let’s get their story. Yeah, you don’t have to worry as much about talking about you. But I’ve never really been I wouldn’t come I would nobody would say that I’m like a shy or a person or an introverted person at all, but I at the same time, still have times where it’s hard to, like, jump into the pool and like, yeah, even, even, no matter how long I do it, I think I don’t know, I maybe I didn’t. I think some of these, like, like people who work in sales who have to pay their dues by, like, making 100 phone calls a day or something like, maybe I didn’t quite have to have it that bad. I make more warm calls than cold calls. Yeah, I think that probably, like, really does, like, harden you, but maybe it, maybe it hardens you, but maybe it’s still, like, makes you a little nervous. I don’t know. Yeah, I met a lot of new strangers, and I still get, I like, the next video for the show, the second one that’s going to come out at the same time as the new one, when it, when it one day, it comes out next month. I was, I was outside this week. This the next video. It’s about dogs and about, yes, yeah, you’re a dog person, aren’t you? Oh, yeah, 100%
Damon Pistulka 43:22
every day. Yeah.
Noah Graff 43:25
See, I’m not, I’m not not a dog person. I’m not a dog, I’m not an animal person, but I’m not, like, anti animal Yeah, yeah. I think if somebody foisted a dog upon me and said you’re gonna adopt this dog, I’d probably love it and learn to be a dog person, but I’m not. But anyways, it’s, it’s based the show is, this episode is about an awesome podcast where this guy in New York is wondering if his, if his dog that lived with him in Manhattan would have been happier if it was in the suburbs, you know, with more room and backyard and and so they, they interview this woman who’s who’s an expert. And so I was going going around, and I wanted to get B roll for for the video of just dogs around my area. And I still felt like i i for. I was thinking, all right, I’ll just get some distant shots of people’s dogs without asking them and and I still might do that. But I was just like, all right, I’m, I’m gonna just be do the right thing and say, Hey, I’m making this documentary. Can I just shoot a little bit of your dog in there? And I was surprised. I got sort of rejected by by two people.
Damon Pistulka 44:56
They don’t need to be in it. That’s the thing. There’s.
Noah Graff 44:59
There’s too many dogs, right? I mean, one was just like, hey, I’m in a hurry and he’s gonna bark. That was definitely an excuse. And then the other guy was like, he’s pooping, you can come back. And I was like, but the whole thing was awkward. But I guess where this is going is that I still felt very nervous about, like, going and asking these people if I could get B roll of their dog. I wasn’t even going to get B roll of them, just their dog. Like, but I guess my point is, no matter how many people I talk to, no matter how many books or podcasts I listen to, like, it’s still, like, I still get uncomfortable.
Damon Pistulka 45:48
And I think that, you know, communication, that’s about you, Oh yes, oh yes, I’m, I’m a, I’m a total introvert most of the time, right? I
Noah Graff 45:57
mean, I always go on my morning walk. I’m always saying good morning to as many people as possible. Oh, 100%
Damon Pistulka 46:04
I do that. When I walk I smile like crazy. I say hello to everybody. It freaks people out. I mean that to me, is easy, but there’s a lot of times, I mean, when I say introvert, there’s a lot of times that I like to be, be by myself, even when I’m around people. You put me in a baseball game. I want, I want to be there. I’m going to watch baseball. I You don’t
Noah Graff 46:25
want to talk to the person next to you about the game,
Damon Pistulka 46:30
maybe if they know what they’re talking about, but if it’s somebody that’s just like, you know, doesn’t know the game, and they’re just spouting off whatever, it’s like annoying to me, but I’m just saying that’s just me personally.
Noah Graff 46:40
No, no, I know, but I love it when I can actually, particularly if maybe the person next to me may know more than yes, the people that I came there with too. And don’t get me wrong, like I don’t know, maybe I just love meeting people. I think that people usually I go to a baseball game with are good to talk to about the game, yeah, but it’s kind of nice when I see, like, a die hard Cub fan next to me, and we can talk about, you know, like you think they’re going to bring this guy up, you know, what do you think of this picture? Do you think they should have taken them out? You think
Damon Pistulka 47:14
leave them in? You know, it’s all good, then it’s all good.
Noah Graff 47:18
Tell you, man, let’s totally deviate. You’re totally into AI, right? Yes. And then the next video is going to be about about this podcast listen to about AI. Um, yes. So
Damon Pistulka 47:30
we ought to do it, because that would be fun. I listen. You know, Have
Noah Graff 47:34
you ever talked baseball to chat? GPT,
Damon Pistulka 47:40
no, but I need to think about that. It’s so
Noah Graff 47:41
cool. I did it last week, like I wanted to know who like, because the Cubs best pitcher steal. He just got hurt and has to get Tommy John surgery. But I’m like, excited about the people in the minors. They all, you know, all the the people want the cubs to trade the mariners for their ace. What’s his name? Castillo. Oh, Castillo, yeah. Why would they trade him? I don’t know. But anyways, yeah, I’m all like, hey, chat. Like, you know, do you think that they’re going to make a trade? Who do they have coming up, like, is Kate Horton ready to come up? Oh, well, actually, they have this guy and this guy and this guy, oh my goodness. And you’re like, really, like, what’s their record? What you know? And then they give you, like, all their stats. And they’re like, you know? And so people are saying, well, maybe, you know, maybe this guy’s actually closer. And even though you haven’t heard, heard of him, he’s a sleeper. Highly recommend it. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 48:43
yeah. And I that is, that is awesome, because I’m going to tell you that the other thing, and back to communication, just quickly before we before we wrap up, I’ll tell you that when you talk about AI, we go, okay, all these, all these things it can do. One of the things that it really helps with is, you know, you can research the topics. You can research the people. You can research other things when you’re going into a conversation, if you really need to, to help you gain some perspective, gain some other things to talk about that’s that’s very useful with it. And yes, the next one we used to do is about AI, because it there is, I mean, I’m, I could go off, we go for another hour on this, and then go for another hour after that, another hour. Oh,
Noah Graff 49:28
I’m just, I’m totally, I’m, I’m just losing my virginity with, with, Oh, my last three weeks.
Damon Pistulka 49:35
My goodness, my goodness. Well, we’ll talk a little offline. Well, Noah, thank you so much for being here today. I love talking to you about topics, especially about communication, because people don’t realize I I’ve in the buying and selling of equipment like you’re doing. You are communicating with people all day long, every day and and you’re. Skills and your attention to detail and intentional work on improving communication. I know it has to be helping.
Noah Graff 50:08
I think so, yeah, and it’s, it’s really satisfying when you, when you go, damn, look what I just did. I tried it, you know, and that’s what I recommend to people. Try it. Try it at home, you know, like, get out of your comfort zone. Just do it for the hell of it. Like, because, because, why not? It’s, it’s really like, I when you, when you all of a sudden, you go, so how does that feel, whatever. And then just observe it. And you go, Whoa. This is interesting. This is like a whole new thing in my arsenal.
Damon Pistulka 50:49
Yes, yes, yes. Well, Noah, thanks for being here. Also, under real quick, we had some people that commented, Prince, thanks for being here today. He said, Good day, guys. Just joined Rosie stopped by, good morning. Everyone interesting topic. And then we had someone that we can’t see who it is, but they said good morning as well. So thanks for listening around the world.
Noah Graff 51:11
And yeah. So if people are interested in in graph Pinkard for machines, graph pinkert.com or if they want to check out our podcast. We talk about, yeah, swerf cast. We talk about people in machinery, communication, serendipity. We interview cool people like Damon. So it’s
Damon Pistulka 51:35
awesome, awesome. Yeah. So you want to get on graph pinker.com you want to get on the swarf cast, s, W, A, R, F, C, A, S, T, thank you. Get on that. Well, I was just on it today, dude, looking at the different things, you guys have been around a long time. I mean, I won’t get into it, but you guys have been to blogging longer than many companies times two. That’s
Noah Graff 51:57
true. Why aren’t we getting as good of results is there? Bob, no. I mean,
Damon Pistulka 52:01
we do that. That’s awesome. Thank you for being here today. Noah, appreciate it always. I want to thank everybody that was listening as well, for for for spending your time with us. Appreciate you, even if you didn’t drop the comments. I can see you’re there on next I can see you’re there on the other platforms. Thanks for joining us today. If you got in late, go back to the beginning. Noah and I talked about some incredible points on helping to improve your communication. Some of the books that he’s been the podcast he’s been listening to books that have been helping him with some different ideas. Get back to that. We’ll be back again later. Thanks everyone, Noah, hang out. We’ll finish up offline.
52:40
Thanks. You.
