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Ever Onward Podcast
The Ever Onward Podcast is your go-to business podcast, offering engaging discussions and diverse guests covering everything from business strategies to community issues. Join us at the executive table as we bring together industry leaders, experts, and visionaries for insightful conversations that go beyond the boardroom. Whether you're an entrepreneur or simply curious about business, our podcast provides a well-rounded experience, exploring a variety of topics that shape the business landscape and impact communities. Brought to you by Ahlquist.
Ever Onward Podcast
Idaho Entrepreneur Transforming Development - Matthew Byrd | Ever Onward - Ep. 91
Matthew Byrd never planned to become a tech entrepreneur. After a devastating car accident ended his football dreams at 16, he briefly toured with a rock band before reluctantly following his father's footsteps into land surveying. What could have been just another job transformed when Byrd discovered laser scanning technology – devices that create precise 3D digital replicas of physical spaces by capturing millions of measurements per second.
This technological awakening sparked a passion that propelled Byrd from a $13-per-hour technician to founding his own company, all without formal higher education. The journey wasn't without challenges – from learning business fundamentals on the fly to managing cash flow while clients took months to pay. Yet his persistence and vision led to building a successful service company that was eventually acquired, allowing him to focus on his true calling: connecting and educating others.
Today, as founder and CEO of Reality Capture Network, Byrd has built a global community advancing digital mapping technologies across industries. His annual conference in Boise now attracts attendees from 15 countries, while his podcast shares insights on everything from laser scanning to digital twins – comprehensive digital replicas linked to real-time data from physical assets. These technologies are revolutionizing how we design, build, and maintain our built environment, though adoption remains surprisingly limited due to awareness gaps that Byrd works tirelessly to address.
Beyond the technical innovations, Byrd's story illuminates timeless entrepreneurial wisdom: the importance of embracing risk despite fear, the reality that passion must sustain you through countless challenges, and how finding alignment between your skills and genuine interests creates the foundation for meaningful success. Discover how Reality Capture Network is building a community that shapes not just how technology develops, but how it serves humanity's best interests. Want to join this technological revolution? Visit realitycapturenetwork.com or attend the upcoming conference, September 30th - October 2nd.
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Today on the Ever Onward podcast we have Matthew Bird Boise's own Matt Bird Matt's an incredible story. He's the founder and CEO of Reality Capture Network In his 20s. We'll go through his story. He kind of accidentally became an entrepreneur after being a surveyor and then got into the technology 3D technology, laser technology, sold a company and now is the founder and CEO of Reality Capture Network. They do an annual conference right here in Boise, runs a podcast, has so much going on. It's going to be a really fun conversation. Matthew Bird Matt welcome man, it'll be great. Thank you, great having you. I mean it's always hard having these guys that are podcasters on.
Speaker 1:No, it is no it's easy, so it's going to be fun. I had the opportunity to meet you the other day and spent some time talking about you and your event and the story. It's a crazy story. Well, thank you so super fun and look forward to having you on.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. I'm glad to be here and love what you guys do.
Speaker 1:Well, we've been doing it a while. It was funny because I thought about changing the format and I'm like, no, I'm not doing that, I just want to talk to people. I want to talk to Yep. Yeah, it's fun. So thank you for coming on. So, matt Bird, you got your t-shirt on Reality Capture Network, yeah. So I've already asked you this recently, but I'm going to make you do it again because of our audience, to make sure they know who you are and what you do and how cool it is.
Speaker 1:So, tell us a little bit about where it started for you. Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 2:I grew up in Bakersfield, california, so one of the not beautiful areas. I would say I've been to Bakersfield. Well, that's usually the answer I've been through there, and everyone that says I've been through there I'm like, yes, and you kept your AC on and your windows were up, because it is a hot, oil and gas ag city. That is the majority of what's there. But I grew up there and my dad was a land surveyor really his whole career and short story for me, I didn't really have career aspirations. I was really into sports growing up and so my whole life was around football. I thought I would just keep going. I didn't even think about a job and I actually ended up in a really bad head-on car accident when I was 16. It was a head-on car accident, ended up having jaws of life, helicopter flight to hospital, 13 surgeries. That took away my football dream.
Speaker 2:What position did you play? I rotated a lot. I was a, I was quarterback, I was running back, I was a receiver through a couple different years and then on defense, defensive end and safety. I was small I still am a little bit but I was super fast, super passionate, so I was never afraid to hit, do you?
Speaker 1:still love sports and follow sports.
Speaker 2:I love it. I don't follow it closely. Part of my transition became after that car accident. Losing the ability to do what you're super passionate about and you love it kind of hit some depression as a kid. I was 16 years old when it happened, so I didn't get to college level and things like that and I ended up transitioning that passion into music for a short time and found out like creating a career and that is almost impossible. But I got to go on a 25 state tour in a rock band when I was 18.
Speaker 2:In that band I actually played bass and some backup vocals 18. In that band I actually played bass and some backup vocals. Mostly I play acoustic guitar and sing and I still love music to this day, but I was 18. And that was in 2008 that I went on that tour. And then economy issues we get back from this tour. I was 18. But the other guys were in their 30s and so we get like it was wild.
Speaker 2:It was a wild experience um playing festivals, playing shows. Uh, you know we're I'm. I know I'm going all over the place here.
Speaker 1:Last funny note that's what we do on this last. Okay, good, you're probably way more directed, I don't know I love stories.
Speaker 2:Um, one funny thing about that tour we had a tour bus that ran off of vegetable oil, what they had, a bus that they converted in Los Angeles to 25 years ago. It was a while ago, yeah. Um. So we were not a big, you know, band that was getting paid millions. Right, we were. We were on a big tour playing big festivals. What was the name of the band? It was called Procella Procella.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't really find anything about it anymore. And back then, you know, we didn't have iPhones. I don't have a bunch of content from it. I wish I did. But, um, it was a lot of fun. But we were, you know, we were a struggling band.
Speaker 2:So this bus, because it ran off of vegetable oil, every night after a show we would load up the bus, load up the trailer and we would go drive and find a restaurant at night. And we had a process to go to their gas, their, their, their tank full of used vegetable oil and siphon the oil out and filter it into the tank. So we, we drove the whole country on one tank of diesel and then when the engine heats you switch it to vegetable oil. So I've had some fun experiences. All of that, though, you know, from sports to music. After finding out I couldn't keep doing music because financially it just wasn't really an option, I fell into land surveying because that's what my dad did, and initially, you know, as an 18 year old who had, at the time, you know, black and purple hair and was in a rock band and I was not your surveyor it was like a culture clash.
Speaker 1:It was.
Speaker 2:It was. And you know I started out in a rough job. Right, You're out in the field, you're pounding nails in Bakersfield in the heat, and so I did not love the idea of like, this is my career. But I fell into it because I had the opportunity and after a couple years of just working and grinding and being the young employee who I didn't love the work, so I didn't want to show up early, I didn't want to work extra, it was like do the minimum. But then a career change for me happened when we got introduced to these new technologies, which is what I focus on now. We got introduced to a laser scanner.
Speaker 1:It's a super cool organic story, by the way, thank you. It was what you're going to tell today super cool organic story, by the way. Thank you was what you're going to tell today. Like my man, I'm like this is cool because this is like perfect like old old school science, cool, math, geometry stuff.
Speaker 2:Technology gets introduced and all of a sudden spark happens yeah, and it's very organic it's really cool story, thank you, yeah, and and I love sharing it because I think there's a lot of people out there that are stuck in jobs they don't like or they don't know about the tech, or we have companies that are kind of outdated, that aren't integrating new tech and I think the story that unfolded for me organically as a young person who didn't have a career aspiration, that was in this old trade of surveying. When technology got introduced, that lit the fire for me because we got these laser scanners and it became a gamification of surveying. So what a laser scanner is? It sits on a tripod, it has this laser, it has cameras in it, it basically lets you take it to any environment and completely digitize it and bring back a digital copy of whatever you scan. And back when I got started in that 15 years ago, nobody was doing it, it wasn't a thing, nobody knew you scan. And back when I got started in that 15 years ago, nobody was doing it, it wasn't a thing, nobody knew about it. So it was really difficult to get it going. But we built a whole practice around it in the survey team and because I was this young tech focused person, they just said we don't know anything about this, you figure it out, and so that became so exciting for me, like the freedom to trial things, to learn, to fail with a technology, to push it to its limits, to figure out why something didn't work.
Speaker 2:In a matter of a couple years, being passionate about that technology took me from a $13 an hour survey technician to a six figure salary job at a corporate company. I had no college experience, I had no degree, I don't know anything about business. I just fell into it because I got excited and started applying myself to the tech and that took me even further in that I only stayed at that dream job I landed for 10 months and then I quit and started my own business because I got so passionate about it. I didn't even want to stay in the limitations of what I was in at that point. I was like I want to try to work for anyone I want. I want to make the decisions of can I go, try this or not? And and a lot of corporate right there, there is red tape, there's policy, there's things, were you always entrepreneurial.
Speaker 1:Did you know you were?
Speaker 2:No, I didn't know at all. Um, again up to sports and music. Apart from that, I had no career thought at all. I, I didn't, I didn't have a job planned.
Speaker 1:It was you didn't have any little side business when you were in high school.
Speaker 2:You weren't like uh um, okay, the only thing that I had done apart from this, I did do some like buying and reselling stuff on Craigslist and things. I would do a little bit of that, um, but I was.
Speaker 1:I think I'm mad at ray because he did a little bit of that, yeah yeah, it's um.
Speaker 2:I just found out that I'm a passionate person. What? Whatever I did, I put 110 effort into. So when I played sports, I worked really hard. I was in not in a bragging way, but because I worked so hard I was the team captain. I was the fastest on the field. I was. And then when I got into music, like I studied really hard I became. When this band did auditions, I was some kid that never played bass guitar. They auditioned people from around the country and they selected me. Like whatever I worked at I worked really hard at.
Speaker 2:When I learned about this technology, it changed my mindset as an employee in this company from like show up, kind of do the minimum of something I'm not interested in, versus the technology driving that interest. I'm at home researching it, I'm on forums, I'm watching videos, I'm learning on my own, not worrying about am I getting paid for this anymore. It completely amplified the learning, which then amplified the work, which then amplified the whole journey for me, and so I started that company 10 years ago and the last 10 years I built a service business doing surveying and mapping and 3D modeling all around the country and ended up going through an acquisition and selling that business. But even during the process of building this company, the biggest challenge around these technologies was the lack of awareness of them. I always say at our conferences or on podcasts talking about these technologies, I say if I call an architect right now, or an engineer or a surveyor or a builder and I ask like do you know what laser scanning is?
Speaker 2:Surveyor or a builder, and I ask like, do you know what laser scanning is? Uh, half of them might say they're familiar and maybe one out of um, you know one out of five might use it or have used it before it is not fully adopted. Most people don't know why they would use it. What's the value in using it? What does it enhance? What does it replace?
Speaker 1:we're gonna go all yeah, yeah, let's. Let's talk about the technology a little bit, because I got to admit we're talking. I'm like I don't know, I don't have any idea.
Speaker 2:Sure, and I should.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but talk about the technology.
Speaker 2:So there are a lot of technologies in this ecosystem we touch on, from laser scanners to drones, to survey instruments, to XR headsets. But let's start. The one that really was a defining change for me was the introduction of the laser scanner. So, again, this device that has lasers in it, it has a mirror that rotates in it and it throws this mirror out at a million measurements per second and captures a 3D environment of everything that it can see. So I always say, like, as an example, if we're sitting in this building here and we set that right here and we run a scan, it's going to map every feature in this room, all of the steel, all of the placements of the lights, the tables, the chairs, the walls, the windows. So now, when you think about construction, renovations of buildings, operating buildings, they need accurate information, they need and they so does that data then go into?
Speaker 1:yes, I'm gonna butcher that what I'm gonna say here, but it's going into like some revit model. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:so when you get done doing a 3d mapping project, whether it's a building, a facility, a roadway, a bridge, you bring this 3d data back into your software and it natively drops into what designers, engineers, architects use. You can put that why does nobody use this? That's the question, and that is my whole goal is raising awareness to these things and helping people understand them, because once people start using it, they go. Why aren't we using it? Because it replaces going out with tape measures, going out and taking site photos, going out back, you know, in surveying.
Speaker 1:We're doing a ginormous project in downtown right now we're taking the old Harrah's two city blocks Yep, it's, it's a crazy project and it's the largest kind of readaptive use in the United States right now. Wow, and we should be like we're right in the middle of like I like I'm just sitting here listening to you going why wouldn't we do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's why I shifted my focus from only being this company that does the service. You know, and I really believe in this idea of the rising tide lifts all boats. I took the initiative to say you know what? I don't want to be a boat anymore, I want to figure out how to just rise the tide. But I don't want to be a boat anymore, I want to figure out how to just rise the tide.
Speaker 2:That is true, because I started educating people on what I was doing, how I was doing it, how it was working. And all the competitors to me of doing scanning services are like why are you sharing your secrets? Why are you? And I'm like, because I believe that by helping people do better, it's going to help more people win the work, it's going to help clients understand the value, it's going to increase the whole industry. And I took that all the way to the point to say I don't even want to do the service myself anymore. I just want to help businesses understand how to do it, train them to do it, help end owners and clients and everybody. And over the last five years we have launched our local conference here in Boise. Yeah, so we're going fast. So over the last five years we have launched our local conference here in Boise.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're going fast. Yeah, sorry, I'll go back to the technology.
Speaker 1:No, it's really, really cool because I think it's going to be easy for people listening to, kind of like. First of all, you're super passionate and like where you're going, but now you go from hey, I'm not going to be the boat, yeah, I'm going to be the tide, yes, so now you start RealityCapture Network, you have your conference and now you've become the leading authority on this technology and how to use it across all industries. Yes, did I say that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was pretty accurate and that organically happened because it was a pain point I identified as someone using the technology was like I don't have anywhere online that I can go to learn about how to solve these problems, or what devices exist that I could buy, or how do I take the data from the scanner into a model. There's no education available and even when I started, no universities had it in their curriculum at all.
Speaker 1:And most still don't.
Speaker 1:And we're going to go fast here but stop a little bit. Why? Because I think for old, you know, I listen. Lately, I don't know I've been doing some deep dives on my own life through medicine and understanding how we're educated, who influences that education, why it is the way it is, and leading-edge technology, whether it be in medications or technology, medical technology. I've been exposed now to some stuff and I'm like why is medical education the way it is? And it's actually got me a little freaked out, meaning how much does the pharmaceutical industry control that? Control that how much? I mean because you think about the way healthcare is today. It's driven by forces that are not always benevolent right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's not. And now, on the back end of it, as this guy almost 60, I'm looking back going man, that's not right. And so I'm wondering because that's where my head's been in the last couple of weeks for you why wouldn't the leading universities and colleges and the people that are out there that are supposedly educating, why wouldn't they be the ones doing this? Why is it Matt Boise, idaho?
Speaker 2:It's cool that it happened, but I think there's a few different reasons, I think, for the lack of adoption and then even in the university. So, and it comes to awareness of one, how much of a need is there really for this technology and people understanding the market size or the adoption, or for them to then decide is it something we should be teaching, for them to then decide? Is it something we should be teaching? And universities, as much as they're ahead of the game on trying to do research and stuff, I think they're also very slow to realize what needs to be taught, figure out. Then this is the other challenge with new technologies. They are not the experts in the technology or the industry it needs to apply in.
Speaker 2:And it's probably hard to admit that yes, and so I've had conversations with professors and stuff and they want to integrate it. But they need help from industry. They need help from the technology creators. They need to understand how do we even develop curriculum around this to train people so that whoever we're training comes out with the knowledge they need. It's complex to understand. What can I?
Speaker 1:ask you one more question. When it seems like to me that the technology is, um, it's evolving quicker than ever. I mean the cycles of the next, the next version, the next thing, and you pick whatever. It is like we're starting a new medical business, and so I've been spending a lot of time with reps on the latest laser technology. For a few things I'm like, oh my gosh. And they are telling me, oh my word, just in the last two or three years, just oh yeah, some of that has to do with processing, yep, but if you think of everything, whether it's processors or battery life or whatever, it's all just evolving quickly. Is that part of the reason for the slow adoption? Because it's got to be very hard to just keep up with everything going on? I don't, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's the reason to hold back on the adoption, because most of the changes or iteration we see in the technology are certain changes. So I'll use an example. Back to laser scanners. Right, laser scanning is laser scanning, whether you're using the newest device or the medium device, or the old device or the cheap device, it's all laser scanning. So at this point, the education around laser scanning in whole and the use of it and the application and the value should be integrated. Now, when you start deciding which device should I use, that's where that challenge comes in and that's another piece we're trying to educate on. Because if a again, if an architect or a builder says I believe in that, I want to adopt laser scanning, where do I start? There's nobody to help you. The only thing you can do is start googling like laser scanner, and you're going to find all kinds of random stuff. You're going to find a ten thousand dollar device.
Speaker 1:You're going to find a hundred thousand dollar device so I can only imagine with your business model you've got the manufacturers of all these devices coming to you and saying pitching you, yes, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's good for you. So now, from this education standpoint, this is why we've created the conference and the podcast and having these conversations.
Speaker 1:So talk about those. Can you dig into those Cause? It's really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when.
Speaker 1:I started, I mean I started digging into this and I'm like this guy's office is like a nine iron away from here in Boise and you're doing that, so it's really cool that it's here, yeah, and I even asked you how you got here. But but talk about the conference and the podcast first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then I'm happy to reverse rewind. Um, so I started the podcast because when I was doing the service work, the only and as you go through, let's pull it up.
Speaker 1:Matty, can you pull up the podcast? So for people that want to follow along here, it's realitycapturenetworkcom is the URL.
Speaker 2:That's our main website, and I actually rebranded my personal podcast to the Matthew Bird podcast because and the reason for that is I wanted to be able to talk a little bit broader than just technology. I like talking about business and entrepreneurship and marketing and all kinds of stuff. So the Matthew Bird podcast.
Speaker 1:It's on all. It's on all the platforms. I've listened to a few of them. They're very, very good. So the Matthew Bird podcast recorded right here in Meridian Idaho, yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a studio just a block away.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's cool. So the reason I started the podcast originally while I had the service company was I kept finding myself having one-on-one conversations with an architect, with a surveyor, like having to re-explain what scanning is or wanting to talk to them about like how do you get the value? So the first idea for the podcast was let's record this conversation and share it with 500 more architects so it amplifies the education, it spreads the awareness faster. And that started working really well. And once we started the podcast, I also was a pretty big LinkedIn advocate for quite some time and so I took the podcast to LinkedIn, used it to build my community, build awareness, and then we had that idea of right after COVID, most events were shut down and nobody was putting on events yet.
Speaker 2:And yet I heard from all of our industry like man, we want to get back together, we're ready, it's time. And so here locally, we're like why don't we just host our own conference? I don't know if it's going to work, I don't know who's going to show up. I've never hosted an event, but we just took that. And you know, this goes back to the wild entrepreneur in me is like let's just do it. So we picked a date. We went downtown and started walking buildings. We're like where in the world could we do this? We landed in the knitting factory and so we rented it out. We sold out our vendor tables, we had 120 people show up and we had our stage there. We had speakers and we were like, wow, this went really cool.
Speaker 1:When was the first year?
Speaker 2:Uh, 2021. Wow, so it went really well. We enjoyed it. It was another way to not just educate or talk on a podcast, but actually help people, build relationships, build a community right so very quickly through through social media and through you build a community, yep, and that is, and that is what has become the core focus now is everything that we do.
Speaker 2:We actually picked these three words. We said that everything we do falls within inspire, inform or empower. We want to inspire people to think outside the box, to take risks, to try new technology, to, to trial new things, to embrace failure that whole inspiration piece. And then two we want to inform them on what is out there. How are people using these new technologies? Why does a surveyor need a drone? Why does a construction company need a digital twin?
Speaker 2:What you know and then empower is like actually help you build relationships with the people that can help you do it, or the technology providers that you can buy from and educate you along that whole route. And that is our whole community focus. So this year is our fifth year hosting the conference here, locally in Boise. It's at the Morrison Center at Boise State University and we have, you know, five to 700 people we expect for the conference. 90% of those are flying from around the world. That's incredible. So last year's metrics we had about 500 people that flew from 15 countries and 40 states in Du Bois for the event, but we only had about 20 people from Idaho at the conference, because most of our audience has been global, and so this year we said you know, what Do you ever think?
Speaker 2:how awesome that is it is I mean just, it blows my mind.
Speaker 1:Like you know, it's so fun to talk to people that that are passionate, one which, clearly, Matt, you're got that, got that going on Thank you, sorry. And then the second thing is that they see an opportunity right. Here's the pathway and opportunity. It's based in genuine, authentic energy. That's just good. I want to do something good for people, I want to do something good for an inner, and it's so, it's authentic. And then boom, you develop a community pretty quickly and you go from. I mean that's incredible story.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's awesome, it's it's really fun and it's um, it's an honor to be in the seat that I'm in, where and I, you know, I post nonstop on LinkedIn, so I always tell people I'm connected to. Sorry that I am always in your feed, but half of what I talk about is like the joy that I get in seeing people come to an event and leave with value. Right, they met a new client, they met a new relationship, they found the answer to the tech they were trying to solve. Like, building that community that truly creates value for people is the most fulfilling thing I've done in work. When's the event? Uh, the end of this month this month, september 30th.
Speaker 1:Is it too late for Idahoans that listen to be part of this? Not at all, I my we can. Uh, we can, we can crank this one out Monday.
Speaker 2:It is. It is really my goal to get Idaho.
Speaker 1:We have our own event here coming up and, uh, poor Maddie raves about sick of me today. You're good, you're good, yeah, we'll, we'll crank it out, money. So. So if anyone wants to come, yes, um, that, that. So talk about who, who, the, who, the people that should be interested in this are.
Speaker 2:So I believe that anyone in we mostly say we focus on the built environment, which is anybody involved in building, construction, engineering, architecture, surveying and then even asset owners. You know we have people coming to present on programs that they're doing with these technologies, from Dallas Fort Worth airport, from general motors we have um, blue origin we have. We have so many big names that are flying in for this event to talk about the needs that they have. How are they using XR or drones or scanners? What are the gaps in the industry? And so our whole focus with this conference. We tell everyone it's kind of like a TEDx event. It is not like a normal convention center where everyone's in different breakout rooms and we make everyone sit in that theater and we have a very diverse group of keynote speakers and panels on stage in an effort to also cross over industry knowledge. So if aerospace can hear how manufacturing Exxon Mobil is one of our other big presenters if they can hear how each other is using the technologies and the pain points, it may spark that inspiration or that idea for how they could innovate their process.
Speaker 2:So really, when I talk about audience, for who in Idaho should come one. It's local. You don't need to travel to Vegas or some other state to go to it. It's at the university and we provide a lot of networking opportunities as well. We do a lot of fun things actually. We rent out the whole football field and do a happy hour down on the field. We do the skybox and put on a big casino night, and the reason we purposefully design it that way is a lot of conferences. You're sitting in sessions all day and learning, and then you're done and you leave. Yeah, and so we? We take this approach of like jam a bunch of information into you from the stage, but then let you go have fun together and build relationships in the community that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Um is the registration on your website. I just want to make sure that we get this and capture it for people out there yeah, yeah, yeah, you can go to the events page.
Speaker 2:Um, and the URL is pretty easy too. It's our con Boisecom, okay, great.
Speaker 1:Our con Boisecom Fantastic, and get in there register. Um, we're going to try to send some of our guys. It's going to be great. Yeah, I mean it's really fun.
Speaker 2:It is, and you know, even this year. Another really cool development for us is in this effort of trying to build local and get people involved. Last year we had a professor from Boise State University attend. He was one of the only ones Following up. This year he came and said I cannot believe your conference. It was amazing, the content, the people but the one thing I couldn't believe is that no one else from Idaho was here, and so he actually took the initiative to start getting Boise State involved. We're going to have an entire panel of professors from Boise State University. There will be six of them talking about these technologies across their departments and the needs, and then we are opening it up to students to come in and sit in the sessions and learn, because as we grow education we see us as a path to help the industry understand, but then also work with the universities and end up being this merry maker right between students, internships, understanding of industry needs and where education can go.
Speaker 1:Line of sight, baby. Bring those together, yeah. And if we can help Idaho along the way, that's that's where my heart is, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And I'm excited. I'm excited for that aspect, that we're starting to see some buy-in local, because it's sad to me to host it here and not have people involved. So I'm pretty excited about that moving forward.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's really, really cool. Hey, um, I'm going to, I want to. There's some things I definitely want to ask you. Yes, ai, ai, tell us how it's affecting your specific world and kind of industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a big one and I will never claim to be an expert in AI, but I'll tell you at least what I think and what I see. There's a lot of opportunity for it and there's so many different things AI touches, right, the basics that most people know is like chat, gpt and language models. Right, there are processes people are taking even something as simple as that to integrate in, like proposal processes and knowledge gathering and deciphering information. But the biggest one that I see is taking AI into. How do people use the data from?
Speaker 1:the technology, it sounds like there would be that perfect interface. Yes, hey, we just gathered this mountain of data that you may not know how to use. Here's some options of how you might use it. And then you use the AI to produce or crank yes, what traditionally would have taken lots of people to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it creates things that were not possible for even people to do, because and this is where we start getting into this very controversial topic of digital twins and what that is and what they mean but it's this idea that you know the program like an airport would do. The reason airport would build an entire digital twin of the airport. They actually map the whole airport where physical assets are, they create a 3D model of it and then you bring that into software to link back to real data and sensors of your security cameras or your air pressure or your temperature gauges, and then you have this digital replica that is linked to live information of what's really in the field. So if a light bulb goes out, you get notified, you have maintenance.
Speaker 1:So is that the digital? Is that the definition of the digital?
Speaker 2:twin. It is close to that. Yes, it is. It is a physical, it is a digital replica of a physical object or environment linked with real time information. It's it's along those routes. It's complicated, I'm not. I can't completely define it myself either, Because the thing that's challenging about a definition of digital twin is it's different for an airport than it is for a university or than it is for an oil and gas facility. Different needs, different purposes.
Speaker 1:But the idea is the practical application of having a digital twin that is integrated into monitoring systems. I'm just thinking, I'm like, and this is way too simple, and I'm not the right guy to be talking about, but I think of all of our buildings and our maintenance guys.
Speaker 1:That you know that's what they do, Our engineering, building engineers and we have a whole team of them here. If they had a digital twin that was linked into the way that they monitor a building. It makes them more efficient, it makes it easier to respond it. Yes, so what? If I can only imagine like the HVAC stuff and then rain and yes, you imagine Temperature and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:You imagine them sitting in a room with screens all around in a, you know, iron man type environment where the system would tell them hey, for some reason, the energy bill on this building was more. And then it highlights and you're like why? And now it shows you, like well, and that's probably where you can plug in some ai. Yes, so that is where I think ai plays. The biggest role in this industry is taking data and different types of data together to bring about results that you couldn't.
Speaker 1:It's almost like the, the dashboard, yeah, of the future, with ai, with a digital twin of your assets. Yep could be powerful. Yes, it could also be powerful. I'm just thinking like cam budgets and cam reconciliation and looking for ways to refine those. And you think of the practical application, of how that it decreases costs for tenants?
Speaker 2:and energy efficiency. I mean, I'm just like. There's probably like, so that is. That is why we're starting to see right now in the industry there are initiatives for entire cities to want to go through this digital twin program and say, like, how do we apply this idea to the whole city, every building?
Speaker 1:You've got to get it. Let's decide today that we're going to call it something different, though Digital twin sounds like another. I am freaked out about AI. Did you hear Sam Altman on Tucker Carlson this last week? No, not yet. Oh, is he good? I wish I wouldn't have listened. I really wish I wouldn't have listened. So digital twin just sounds super threatening to me. Yeah, like, somehow, like we can make some new terms. I don't know. I think he asked some really good questions about, like just the ethical questions, who's behind chat, gpt and he answers the questions and where it's going, and those are all great questions systems and it was interesting yeah, it was very.
Speaker 1:You gotta listen to it. I bet I will. It's not that long, but it was uh. It was one of those ones where I'm like, oh man, what are we in for? What is this? What does this world look like seven to ten years from now? What do you think?
Speaker 2:the world, or this industry, the world, oh, the world smart guy? Uh, well, I I do think that technology becomes such a bigger part of it than it is today. It's continuing to ramp that way, right? Um, I think that and and part of part of my vision of the future is because of the industry and the tech that I'm in and around, where you envision smart cities, right, which is kind of a digital twin of the city, in a way that you know, everyone has an iPhone now, right, and often you pull that out and you're looking at information.
Speaker 2:I think that augmented reality becomes more integrated. You see people working on the AR glasses. I think that augmented reality becomes more integrated. You see people working on the AR glasses. I think in the future I don't think seven years, but in the future it will be that smart glasses are very accessible. You could be walking down a city and ask your glasses to show you where the nearest Starbucks is and it'll take you to directions, or there will be digital advertisement opportunity like very digital, very much technology, and then you even think about the autonomous driving, right.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of of community and society heads toward digital and AI being a part of that and I do think it's some of it's scary and I think that it's it's. There's a lot that needs to be thought through and developed, but what I what I always tell people that are scared about technology is we can't stop the technology from developing or the people developing the technology. So I would rather be more involved and help define how it's going to happen and be in the good of it. So that's the approach I take.
Speaker 1:He actually made that point? Um, because I think the fear is that the, the, the, the, these, the billionaires that control the technology, that are bigger than governments and bigger than anything, very few people control all of this data. Yep, and then the world goes based on the way those few people want to twist and turn it. And his point was he thinks that it's going to be much more democratic than that. There's going to be lots of different people that are all using, and so the more involved smaller companies or a variety of people are. That was his hope. Yeah, and when you listen to this, that was kind of what he said. Yeah, now, the hard part of that is just like, it's just so. It is like someone writes that code. Yeah, yeah, someone writes that algorithm.
Speaker 2:Right Yep, Until it starts writing itself Right.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's scary to know that who's. Who's the one behind the algorithm? Yeah, and it's even scarier to think until it starts writing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a very interesting time with tech. What?
Speaker 1:does it look like?
Speaker 2:20 years from now, then, oh, I think all of that has happened.
Speaker 2:I think that, um, you know, and, and then it starts getting into the question mark of will you know neural interfaces, and you know chips and people, and not even having to have computers.
Speaker 2:I, I, I. That is very scary and weird, but I do believe that there are going to be things like that that start to happen, where technology is actually getting integrated into people, and I'm not a huge fan of that, but it. But if you said 20 years from now, they've already been doing it, right, they're doing testing, they're seeing results there, and so when you think about the speed at which technology is changing and AI and XR, and did you know all this data, it 20 years is hard to even imagine what it's going to look like. I do think that we will also get to the point with transportation that the majority of vehicles on the road are autonomous and you don't drive anymore, yeah, and that the cars speak to each other, which also ends up reducing accidents and people falling asleep at wheel, but then it also brings back the negative side of like, um, accidents and people falling asleep at wheel, but then it also brings back the negative side of like well, if you can't control it, can they control it?
Speaker 1:And the other thing I had. I had I had someone I get exposed to some weird stuff. I am not. I am not like I'm not smart enough to even know what they're talking about half the time. But I had I had someone come in here starting a new company and they're raising money and their ex, their ex kind of scary behind the scenes guys and some cool stuff. But they showed just like what data is available on all of the world now, because if anyone has a phone and when you sign your, you know you sign up for the thing. Yeah, I agree, nobody reads. And and what they're tracking right now and the technology of where it tracks and how it tracks, and it's insane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet, and most people, a lot of people know that, but they just don't want to think about it and they don't read the terms.
Speaker 1:I don't want to think about it. I walked out of that room and I thought we're so, we're so far gone. Does it even matter because they know so much? But that's now, yeah, yeah, I can't even imagine, yeah, and yet I just ordered my. I just ordered my new iPhone at like five o'clock this morning.
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, it doesn't stop you, it doesn't stop me either and and I think you know what I what I think is a bigger concern about future in all these technologies is not I'm not afraid of will society become so technical or will autonomous driving happen? I think some of those are going to and there's no question about it. Oh, I'm not worried about that. What I'm worried about is bad people. Yes, what about the bad side using the tech or hacking the autonomous car, or you know Well? And the other thing is it's not you know, you think of.
Speaker 1:I mean, you go back in american history and think of every major technological revolution that happened refrigeration, right, you know, think of, you pick, pick the pick, the industry, um, whether it's health care or manufacturing or transportation or whatever. Those adoption, adoption periods were relatively slow and it was relatively contained into the society or community you're in. We are now in an international deal here where who knows where they are, what they're doing, what warehouse they're in and what country already yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1:You're supposed to comfort me here, man. I'm like you're the tech guy.
Speaker 2:Tell me it's going to be all right. Like I said, I think I take the approach of like. I believe that good people can help battle what bad could be, and that is why I'm also excited about our community, Because we literally are building a global community of technologists, of builders of all these companies, all of the innovation leaders within those companies, and I look at if I am getting the honor of falling into the seat of the leader of that community and I want to see good happen. Can I influence and inspire people to get involved in a good way? And then can we grow something big enough that it actually impacts government and laws and angles and countries. That's a beautiful thought.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right there, but that's really all you can do at this point. It is yeah.
Speaker 2:If not, I could say I don't want to be around it, and then I can step back and it's going to still continue. Do you worry that the shift?
Speaker 1:of dollars, because every time these disruptions happen it is a tremendous like. So think of the ones we just talked about. Steel, automobiles, yeah, industrial manufacturing, industrial revolution when it happens, the shift of dollars, really well. Computer, think of microsoft yeah, right, I mean nvidia's, I mean NVIDIA's, right. So do you worry that the dollars are so big that they control so much that they squash these good ideas, or people that are trying to say, hey, have you thought about this, the ethics and morals of what we're going into? I guess who's going to control those? My fundamental question is okay, as we go forward, who's making those rules?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is it governments? Is it tech lords?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is it international groups that I don't even know who they are, what they do and whose best interests are they looking out for? The perversion that happens with money and power? It's probably more important. I think there's a point in life for a lot of this that it's not even about money anymore. It's about power and control and how dangerous that gets when it's not. I mean capitalism in my mind is what made this country great? That's great. You say, oh, it's not. I mean capitalism in my mind is what made this country great? That's great. You say, oh, it's wonderful, it's wonderful. Then that goes. And then, when you've already got so much money that you can do whatever you want, that's power, yes. And then control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's a good question and I think that it's a big one around a lot of the big tech and the and the ai and the future and the. It's not something that I've super focused on right now, like the, the. The technologies and the impact we initially focus on with our community are really like improving construction and management of buildings and things like that.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're still in the phase but we're still in the phase where all these things are wonderful Cause they're going to. They're going to, they're like, just the things. I don't even know, because I'm not in the seat you're in, but the things that you're talking about are ongoing. It's going to be process improvement, improving the quality of people's life, including and let's go back now. Think about, like the youth of today that are looking for careers, the excitement. I mean what happened to you in your life. You go from inspiring athlete to inspiring musician, to surveyor, with with long hair, to where you are right now. Right, think of all the youth that are in Idaho, that you're going to have the opportunity to be part of this revolution. That's exciting, yes, so I don't want to distract from the really good thing that's coming out of it. I just think that at some point, we all had to, like, sit back and say, like, okay, yeah, well what should we?
Speaker 1:and I don't even know if it matters.
Speaker 2:That's the thing I talked to my wife about it sometimes she's like well, why are you freaking me out?
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't know. But yeah, yeah, maybe I worry about it too much.
Speaker 2:You know, I my general take on things like this is I try to keep an eye on it. I like listening to other leaders out there and what they're doing. I like listening to other interviews, right, but what I put most of my attention to is what I can actually impact or control, which is probably the way we all, and my hope, honestly, though, is that can I grow what I'm doing big enough that now what I actually can impact is one of those things.
Speaker 1:What's the goal? I mean, you look at your first one four years ago, yep. What does the next five to 10 years look like for RCN?
Speaker 2:Oh, um for Matt.
Speaker 1:Well, I do dream big Um we'll listen to this in five years and go man. Yeah, That'd be fun.
Speaker 2:Cause I haven't really, you know, gone deep with people about all the plans or vision with it. But, um, you know, what we've done the last five years is really testing the idea of the need for what we're building the community, the education, the universities, the government where are these technologies impacting? And we're really there's nobody else doing what we're doing. And so what? Going back to, I'm surprised people from 15 countries flew to Boise, idaho, for our event. That is more confirmation of, like, everybody everywhere needs what we're doing. No one else is fulfilling it for them there, so they're coming here.
Speaker 2:So we have a plan to build out what we're doing now and continue to build our team to be able to handle it and then scale that to have a conference, have a podcast, have a localized community in other countries, and we already have people asking us to do it. We just don't have the manpower, the resources, the time to go replicate ourselves everywhere. So turning it into a process that we create this community of technology focus of education around the world is is really the long-term and there's a lot of details within that. But we want to just scale what we're doing because we see it impacting people around the world already and we actually did a little test this year.
Speaker 2:We did a conference in Prague in Europe, and we did one conference in Orlando, florida, and that was a lot of work for us to pull off, but they weren't. They went really well in Europe. All the attendees were from Europe countries and so it's like, okay, it it shows that if we launch an event somewhere, it's going to draw more local, regionalized people. But they're all interested and they all are following us globally. So if we launch one anywhere, people will show up because they need the same thing. So that's some of our future vision and again, there's a lot with that. We do plan to start working with government on legal like what is required when you're done building. Do you submit old CAD drawings anymore or is the technology coming into play that you're doing 3D models? We also plan to work with universities to help build curriculum and education and and try to, you know, crossover industry with education. Um, so there's a lot of like side initiatives within that.
Speaker 1:How big is your staff and team?
Speaker 2:10 people Wow.
Speaker 1:So and uh, I think, they're as passionate as you, or are they like? This is like the super team here.
Speaker 2:We're getting there. Yeah, we really. I really care about having the right people on the team. I, you know, I've had a lot of lessons learned hiring and firing over the last 10 years, but I've grown to the point. You know, I used to hire based on resume. Now I hire based on the person. Isn't that true?
Speaker 1:It is like one of the early lessons. It is.
Speaker 2:It is, and it took me a while to really get there. And it's hard because sometimes you want the resume, you want the right technical what's the famous line with hiring?
Speaker 1:It's like you're going to be right 50% of the time. You just don't know which 50% yeah.
Speaker 2:You just don't know. No, and you also never know until they actually work for you for a while. Yeah, because I've gone through the process even recently. You know I'll never name names, but I hired somebody. After three rounds of interviews, group interview, resume, everything. After a week they weren't with us anymore. You can't see the motor.
Speaker 1:Not until it's the motor is under the hood and, unlike cars and people, you just have to wait and see right, yep.
Speaker 2:So you know I really care about having the right people and having a good company culture, um, and getting everybody aligned with the vision and the passion.
Speaker 1:Hey, your branding is like awesome and the name's awesome. How did the name's great? I just can kind of see this thing growing. I'm like, hey, someone was thinking, someone had some vision here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, part of this was in the original vision of like not just a podcast, but also this community was in the original vision of like. Not just a podcast, but also this community, also this network. So the name kind of fits it all. I actually, you know, I love it, but I also regret it a little bit For one reason.
Speaker 2:The term reality capture is the encompassing of the capture technologies and I want to also start to incorporate other emerging technologies, which we already do. It steps outside our name a little. So I'm kind of like I feel like our name's a little too narrow and, of course, our URL is way too long, so I need to find a way to buy a shorter one, but I wish it was a little broader because I don't want to be stuck to one technology. Right, Our goal as a community we want to stay up on what is everything that's going on, what is new? How are robotics? So we touch on robotics, XR, AI, how do all of those come into play with the building, the operation, the maintenance, the? You know?
Speaker 1:all of those aspects, yeah, but pretty intriguing words, because for someone who's just kind of familiarizing myself with your entire world, that you're in your whole universe, reality is intriguing. It's futuristic capture is like oh, that's cool. I don't know what that means yeah, cool and so I mean as an outsider, if I was critiquing I'd say, man, that sounds. It sounds like someone's really on.
Speaker 2:So well, I appreciate it. Um, yeah, I, I do. I found early on in building the first company that, um, you know, uh, branding, marketing, marketing, network building, relationship building was my skill set, and the reason that we do what we do now is that whole idea of like, how can I do more with this skill set? That I think is one of my best, apart from me just going out and doing capture work, and so it's all kind of, you know, I think that goes back to this idea of for entrepreneurs, right Is, if you can find something that you love doing that aligns with what you're good at, that you can be passionate about.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to say I mean, this is going by really fast. But if you, you know, this has been incredible and every time I'm with you I'm like man, this is cool. I you know, and I can't wait to hopefully attend the event and be part of what you do here locally. But if you were to give advice I mean you think of relatively young guy what you've accomplished in a relatively short period of time where you're headed, what are some of the key elements of, of, of, of what, what, what advice you would give some young, young guy right here in front of you today saying, hey, what does it take to do what you've?
Speaker 2:done young guy right here in front of you today saying, hey, what does it take to do what you've done? I appreciate the question and, uh, it is a it is a honor to be in a seat that I can try to do that and I I again, I don't look at myself as an expert I fell into what I'm doing. So I always tell people like, hey, any advice you ever get from anyone, take it with a grain of salt, right and see how it applies to you. But I love talking to young people because I was in that scenario that I had no plan or anything and I fell into this. So now I go backwards and I go.
Speaker 2:What were those steps that actually let this happen? And I think the very first one was not being afraid of failure and being willing to take risk, because so many people, I think, could do something amazing or have a great idea, but so many people won't take the first step because they're afraid that it's not going to go right, and so they shelve it and they go back to what they do on the, on the normal basis. So I think that that was step one, because even when I look back at how I started, I'd say I was stupid and I took a huge risk. I was working, you know, I was working paycheck to paycheck. I had a third kid on the way, I had no big savings, I had no investor and I, I was just way too driven and I was like I have to quit my job. Isn't that beautiful? And you?
Speaker 1:know when you like take that step and you're like here it goes, isn't that beautiful?
Speaker 2:And you know when you like take that step and you're like here it goes. Yeah, and and you know you hear a lot of of business owners later on reflect back and say, like that's what drove you to succeed. You there, you didn't have, you didn't give yourself another option. When you step off and you step into this, you're so driven that, like I have to make this work. This is my thing. Now the bridge is gone. Now the one thing I would tell people is, when you don't know anything about business ownership or entrepreneurship, most people think right, you're going to work less, you're going to make more, you're going to be at the beach on the weekend. That's not 99% of of startups or entrepreneurship. It is way more hours, way less work, but you're doing it for yourself. And that is why so many people say do not start if you're not passionate about what you're about to do, or you will give up. Yeah, you know you have to be doing something that you truly believe in and you're willing to go through those late nights, those hard days.
Speaker 1:I think the other thing I would add to that is you're not going to predict what the challenges are going to be. No, it's good. I mean, you lay in bed at night and you say hey, here's the next five challenges that I'm going to face, and then you kind of sit okay, when that happens, this is what I'm going to do to get around it. And then you realize as you go through entrepreneurship that well, it wasn't those five things at all. Yeah, oh yeah, those things were actually the easy things. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. One of those I would throw out that I experienced is um, a lot of people I, I think they they struggle with like how am I going to get business? How am I going to land clients? That wasn't my problem, so I thought we're golden. But then I figured out this thing called cashflow and it was like we're landing so much work but they don't pay us for three, four or five months and I have my first employee who wants a paycheck every two weeks. Like there's so many aspects of business that if you don't, if you're not prepared for I again I didn't take a class, I didn't go to school.
Speaker 1:To me it was it was failing something every day, learning from it. I got, I got super lucky. Well, I, I always, I always. When I was in high school, I had my own like lawn care business. I had my own commercial janitorial business and I I had a trophy business where I was like, so I was always so, I kind of, but those were all dependent on me, right, yeah, um, and then when I and then I started a tech company in 2001 called StatPads, which was when public access defibrillation with AEDs became a thing and we created a company to help facilitate that across the country, oh, wow, that was the first time I had employees. But luckily I had this sage guy. He was one of my business partners. I went to him because I knew I would learn a lot. His name was Craig Rasmussen. He had done it before. He was, you know, 15 years older than me and man, I think, of my life and the education I got from Craig Rasmussen on pro formas and SWAT analysis and he was he's.
Speaker 1:He's exactly what I'm not measured, calculated you know, so every time I was like, go, go, go, go, here's what we're going to do, he was like, uh, that's not what you're going to do. I think of my life and how grateful I am for him and kind of haphazardly falling into him as my partner and building this business together, and then what that taught me for other businesses I've done. You learn a lot. I think wisdom comes from bad experiences. Bad experiences come because of lack of wisdom.
Speaker 1:I mean, those two things go together and you either learn it through experience or you have a few mentors that go hey, here's what I would probably do to get through cash flow, to get through profitability, to get through investment. How do you grow? How do you scale? The next thing you're going to face is it's what we all I'm facing right now is okay, we've got all this stuff and now we've got to scale, and that's not easy, yes, and then you start you know you talk about employees and culture and trying to maintain culture, and you go from five people that you trust, that you're like a little team, and then you go to like and you'll have locations around the country and it's like how do we? How do we do this? It's so fun though.
Speaker 2:It is, isn't it just like Again, you?
Speaker 1:The fact that we live in a freaking country yes. That you can grow up in Bakersfield, yeah.
Speaker 2:Out of all places.
Speaker 1:Getting a damn car accident. And now you're not man. I shouldn't use Johnny Manziel, I'm thinking of like some quarterback that was like smaller and could do it, but uh, but, but you become. You become what you are, Isn't it amazing?
Speaker 2:It is, it is, and, um, america's great. It really is, it really is, and I and I I attribute a lot of my um business growth to, to just where we are in the digital age, right, um, linkedin and using social media was actually a huge part of me being able to build a company, and maybe I could have done it without. But, um, anybody could start something today, you know, and it could be something that is a localized business that serves people around you, or it could be online to people all over the world. There's so much opportunity, but it's passion, it does, it needs to be.
Speaker 1:It's working a hundred times harder than you think you're going to work. It's late nights, sleepless nights, it's more money than you think it's going to take and it's a pain it is it is, but when you love it and when you care about it.
Speaker 2:no and and in. For the last 10 years I've never dreaded going to work. Really I love that. I wake up and I'm at my office right here across the street at 4.30 am in the morning and I stay till 4 pm. I go home. That is my every day.
Speaker 1:Hey, we got to wrap this up. Let's go back to go through your socials, go through your URL We've said a few times for people who want to follow you.
Speaker 2:What your URL? We've said a few times for people who want to follow you. What are your Appreciate it. So you can just look me up, matthew Bird, on LinkedIn. That's really where I live B-Y-R-D, b-y-r-d.
Speaker 1:Matthew Bird on LinkedIn. That's where your thing is, I live there every day, all day.
Speaker 2:Otherwise our website is realitycapturenetworkcom and everything else spars out from there.
Speaker 1:The event um, the local event archonboisecom well, most of our listeners are here in idaho. Yeah, just so dang proud that this is another great thing happening here. Uh, matt, it's been great getting to know you. I can't. I hope this is a long-term relationship same. And uh, uh, thanks for what you're doing, man. It's inspiring as heck thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate you having me and I look forward to uh continuing the conversation and relationship as well. That's great. Thanks everybody, thank you.