Bert Pope

Failure does not define you, it shows you there is a better way.

 

Chief Awesome Officer of Awesome Company Worldwide LLC d/b/a The Awesome Company. Creator of Give an Awesome app and Awesome -Kindness Challenger- Positive Social Networking App. Born Bert Smoyer Pope 1966 in Tallahassee Florida. Father Melvin and Mother Katherine, still live just minutes away. Brothers Melvin and Bruce. Bert earned Eagle Scout at the age of 14. Bert’s entrepreneurial career started at 11 with mowing lawns, painting and anything. Graduated High School with .98, was on the football team(3rd string)father played for both Florida and Florida State w/Burt Reynolds. Bert also was on track because of a girl that was taking Drivers Ed.next to where they practiced Track. Was elected Craziest Senior in High School in 1984. In College, Bert went to Tallahassee Community College, In 1988 designed artistic parchment maps of coastal regions, selling as limited edition prints. Bert also produced multiple drinking apparatuses one called the “Body Cooler” also nick named the Beer Vest. Holding like a hunting vest does bullets, Beers. Design patent application, sold over 7K with 5 sales reps covering 9 states. In 1989 Bert started a career in Real Estate and at the beginning of 2000 owned and operated 3 motels on the Gulf of Mexico, a restaurant and also a bar called Bert’s Bikini Bar. Married in 2006 to Kauai, Hawaii born and raised Jill Yadao born 1983. Bert and Jill have 4 children, 2007 Kent, 2008 Lilly, 2010 Raymond “Banks” and 2012 Blair. In December 2016 Jill Died in a texting while driving accident. Now Bert is focused on raising 4 Awesome children and helping to make Awesome tools for humanity to make the World more Awesome. “Helping to harness technology to advance humanity”.

Where did the idea for Awesome Company come from?

Bert Pope and Jimmy Fasig are the creators of Awesome.

While on a family trip to Hawaii together visiting relatives., both of us went on a morning coffee run before our group of 7 kids and wives woke up.This is what we do most every morning on our vacation trips together. Armed with the power of caffeine, the two of us brainstormed each morning for fun, about great ideas, inventions, goals, family, religion, relationships and everything.

This morning we were contemplating what would we say to a famous actor/actress if we came into contact. We then settled on, why not just say, “Thanks for being so Awesome?” That sounded good, but hey, then we got to thinking, why wouldn’t you say that to the person serving you coffee or why wouldn’t we say that to our wives for putting up with us? LOL. That’s when the idea was born. We were inspired to create a website for everyone to use to certify family, friends, or colleges as being Awesome to celebrate them, encourage them and show gratitude. Each Awesome can serve as a link, each person can share their Awesome on social media and be inspired. The very first generation gratitude platform was coming into fruition. That is Awesome!!!

Excited about the new idea, we rushed back to our wives, coffee in hand {.because we are Awesome Husbands, LOL.} We had them sit down and asked them to act like the show shark tank as we shared the Awesome idea. Below are photos of that faithful day.

Our goal is simple, with everyone sharing positive fun inspiration about each other, together we will ping Awesome positivity that will perpetuate all around the world. Wouldn’t that be Awesome?!

What we have found is that when you are feeling a little low, make an effort to make someone else’s day Awesome and in return, yours will become Awesome too 🙂

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

My father says that I am organized but I can assure you that is not true. I tell my father I am aggressively lazy. When you have 4 children under 12 and its just you and you are trying to make the World more Awesome LOL creating and spending time and money to focus on that Awesomeness with a team of amazing magical people….. plus needing to put food on the table keeping a Real Estate Brokerage selling to maintain a pipeline of closings to help clients sell or find the perfect property it may look daunting.
I keep everything in focus and do not absorb others anxiety.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I define first the solution….there is a situation that needs help or needing to be easier. My grandfather defined an inventor as a lazy man looking for an easy way to do something LOL.
Then the question becomes how? then testing your solution to see if others believe the newer way is better, faster, stronger.

What’s one trend that excites you?

As the digital platforms engage our lives I see people asking for the need for positivity which is why I created Awesome as a social network focusing on spreading positivity and kindness. The future focusing of the platform gives users the power to do many amazing things, harnessing technology to advance humanity. Jumping even further in the future I see where we can use digital to focus back to the physical world….imagine a suggestion based on your interests that share a group gathering with similar interests just a few miles away from your location. It could be a restaurant, bar, church or someones home.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Patience, time is relative

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Failure does not define you it shows you there is a better way. Many people wish to wallow in defeat based on a focused path they believed to be exactly the way it should be and learn the hard way it is not. I actually celebrate failure, not that it is what I want but when it happens I know I am closer to finding the right way.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Meditate, give your mind a rest. the amazing clarity comes from just chilling out.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Each person that asks or needs for your help do so in the best possible way possible and every thing else will take care of itself. Its hard to share so let me tell you a story of something that happened yesterday.
My brake light was out in my yukonXL just 16 months old. They shared that it would cost 800 dollars and I was a few thousand miles out of warranty @#$@#@@#@ I shared that that made me angry, but would being angry help? would the dealership cower at the fear from me being a jerk and do it for free, NO. I changed my attitude because the only person I was hurting was me. So as I chilled out in the corner there was a nice older lady that came in to get help and the person taking folks around after they dropped off their car was gone for a while dropping people off. She needed to be somewhere for an appointment. I asked if I could be of assistance and the lady perked up and the dealership helper said that would be great…I popped my car out of line and she didnt have to go far, she was very thankful, we had a nice chat, once back at the dealership the fellow said thank you for the help and he had spoken with the parts department and was able to get the cost down to 600 on my break light and should be ready in 30 minutes. Everyone is AWESOME if we just let them be AWESOME.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

As I said before I love failure. There was a time during creating AWESOME that we tested the platform and we were proud it was a hybrid twitter/facebook type content creation tool. As we tested it in different age groups each group was …so its another social media, we already have twitter, facebook whats so awesome about that. UGH
They wanted to see and track their positivity, be engaged by the platform to do kindness that when you gulp and pivot to make it exactly what the people want only more magical than they asked for.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Let’s re-examine the doctors examining room. When you don’t feel good, the last thing you want to do is get out of bed and go to the doctors office, wait in the waiting room enjoying whatever leftover germs are there, then wait in a examining room enjoying those germs of the previous sick patients. With the evolution of self driving cars people are not yet ready to trust the driving experience. But what if you can call up a self driving car to come to your home or office as a healthcare pod. Enter the pod’s code texted to you.

Once in the seat the screen in front will prompt for users information, insurance and verification. An operator comes on the screen with questions regarding needs. The seat weighs you, determines your height. Disposable pads to check your temperature. Possibly check your blood pressure.The pod is equipped with a camera that can look focusing in your throat or in your ear collecting those images for future reference for your file and sharing with specialists or your general practitioner.

Then the doctor comes on the screen to ask the relevant questions due to your aches and pains. If the doctor deems it necessary for further diagnostics they can transfer you to a specialist to have them view you in real time or share the findings for assessment and call back.
If a cardiac event starts, the pod can take to the hospital. Once a user has left the pod the pod self fumigates the interior of all germs giving confidence to the next user that all contaminants have been eliminated.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I purchased some AWESOME buttons and give them away to waiters, fast food servers, at the bank tellers and anyone of service they all enjoy being acknowledged and given a gift. Every time you make one person fel awesome the World is a better place.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Slack is a great help but also bite squad saves time, instacart, and amazon.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Think and Grow Rich. helps define goals and get focused in consolidated view.

What is your favorite quote?

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal

Key Learnings:

• Patience
• Don’t fear failure, fear not trying
• Stay focused
• Chill out, its not a race.

Connect:

www.awesomecompany.com
www.awesome.one