This is a powerful interview with a “Brilliance Miner” with a unique perspective on harnessing brilliance in Vision Masters to create trust with investors. This process simplifies daily operations and improves scalability… Watch, read, and act!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Hi there. This is Robert Steven Kramarz, founder of Intelliversity, the host of your Vision Master Podcast today. I usually interview investors who invest in technology-enabled companies. That’s what makes this podcast interesting. Sometimes I make fun of them. I’m not going to make fun of her but today I really want to take a break from that to an interview or actually re-interview Stephie Althouse whom you can see here. Hi, Stephie.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Hi.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
For several reasons but Stephie is the inventor of a system called Brilliance Mining which originally was known as Brilliance Extraction. I think you use the terms kind of they’re interchangeable but in any case you now call the business a Brilliance Mining. And the reason why I want to bring this to your attention vision masters is first of all, because it could be very useful to you. It would be very useful to almost all you as part of your vision mastery process. And secondly, because as you know you’re here because you want to capital and this kind of system I believe will be very helpful in the capital-raising process for at least two good reasons which we’re going to get into in a moment. So Stephie welcome back. It was about a year or so ago that I interviewed you for the first time and it’s really come a long way since then. What’s that journey been like for you?
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Well, thank you. Well, let me first maybe say what Brilliance Mining is actually. It’s pulling knowledge out of your brain but it’s not just textbook knowledge. It’s experience, it’s expertise, it’s wisdom, it even includes things that you don’t know that you know. We can get into that a little bit later. And so the concept of Brilliance Mining is so this whole mouthful that I just said, I call that brilliance for short. And it’s not necessarily Elon Musk’s brilliance alone. It’s all kinds of operational knowledge as well. It’s both.
Anyhow, the mining is done from your brain. We look at what’s going on in your brain and what needs to be pulled out so that it can be made tangible because in your brain it’s intangible. Make it intangible into tangible, make it transferable, make it even immortal. And with that, you’re able to leverage your knowledge in a whole different way, your brilliance. So that’s Brilliance Mining.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
So in theory, it sounds interesting. Now, in fact just so you vision masters know I have actually used her system for the last year in developing a course that’s going to be out very shortly called story pitching. So that personal experience with this while she developed and improved her system. And then, most recently I’m part of a cohort of like a mastermind group that’s utilizing her system to further systematize our knowledge. So it works. It really works, and I’m doing it myself. Now that said why should our vision master young growing technology-enabled leaders care about making their thoughts, their methods, their processes immortal? They’re young, they’re aggressive, they’re trying to make a business grow. That’s what they’re concerned with.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Right. Yeah. You’re not thinking so much about making things immortal because that you think is a long time off. But the reason is that if you’re looking for money, you want to make sure that the investors and you say this all the time Rob, that the investors trust you and also that you reduce the risk for the investors. And I can tell you that the risk for investors when your knowledge is only in your brain and other people just don’t have it is humongous.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
In fact, I know of an investor who invested in this very brilliant guy and had a fantastic idea, was a technology-related business and he went on an airplane with this 12-year-old son and tragically the plane actually crashed and they both unfortunately perished. But that’s the extreme case but nonetheless, those investors were in disarray for two reasons. One, they really like the guy, and secondly, how do you continue the business that they invested in.
But it’s not just that. Investors need to see that you can grow and scale this and you cannot grow and scale when it’s only in your head. You have to reliably pass on a lot of the things that are essentially the rocket fuel of your business. And when investors understand that you actually have a method for doing that and doing that reliably, then you really have a big advantage. Like right now I’m working on a business that when we started working with each other was valued at six and a half million and we are on the way to bringing to 50 million. That’s a factor of eight. And we’re doing that over the course of say three years.
And at this point, we have pulled a lot of the brilliance out of this person who’s the founder and innovator of this, it’s in the space of software. We have pulled a lot of the brilliance out of his brain, which this guy is working almost round the clock. And that’s because there are a lot of things that only he knows. Frankly, there’s also the risk of burnout along with everything else that I’ve already talked about. But in his case we have to pass on this knowledge and we are to both an internal team and an external team because they’ve essentially taken the software from a custom solution to an off-the-shelf product. So they’ve productized their approach and now that means that all kinds of implementers around the world have to be able to customize and configure their product and that requires a lot of training.
But it doesn’t even end there because part of it, what we’re doing is to inform the customer or the potential customer why should you buy this product? That’s also very important especially if you’re dealing with something that’s complex. You have to express the product in a way that your target audience can understand it which often is amazingly difficult to do for the inventor himself or herself.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Yeah. Imagine if someone like Elon Musk had systematized all of the knowledge and operational ability that he has. That would increase the valuation of his companies even further because people would know that it’s not solely reliant on him; the success factor goes up, right?
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yes.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
It’s true. And even in that extreme case, it would work. Now, I think guys like Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs the second time around had learned these lessons and very carefully made conscious of their internal processes and made sure… Warren Buffet does this too and makes sure that the people coming next knew how to run the company their way and investors notice that kind of thing.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yes, they do.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
You got to use the system, and then tell the investors that you’ve used it and what it’s doing for you and then there might be… The right investors will be impressed and will not just impress but will see decreased risk. And if they see decreased risk they trust more. If they trust you more, they’re more likely to like you and want to work with you. And they’re also going to give you a better valuation.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Absolutely.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
You can really use this Brilliance Mining system to increase your valuation.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yeah. We had some-
Robert Steven Kramarz:
If you connect all your dots that way. What’s that?
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yeah. We had some interesting conversations about that because the less they trust you the less favorable your valuation is going to end up less likely.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
I had a long talk with an investment banker about that just yesterday or I think it was the day before and he said, “You know Rob, I’ll be honest with you,” this is the first time I’ve ever actually heard an investment professional consciously state what we all know unconsciously which is back to what you do that, “If we don’t trust the CEO of a company then the company is less predictable. If the company is less predictable its valuation goes down because the valuation is based upon how well we can predict future profits.” And this is reduced to mathematics.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Right.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
So mathematically, what you do works.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Absolutely. Yes. I have on my desk a piece of paper here that I produced from things that my client had in his head. And we figured that with this course and this tool which is basically one piece of paper printed on both sides, he can double the revenue of his company and that means he will bring it from 6 million to 12 million in just year one of doing this. So the return on investment of your time and your money is just insane.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
It’s insane. Let me just put a caveat on that, not all investors will appreciate this. Some just like a long shot. It’s a pretty face, whatever it is. But if you’re matching up with people that really do care about what you’re doing and the impact you’re making and the kind of business you’re trying to build and understand the value of systematizing leadership and systematizing your process, if they can understand this and they want to be in your business is going to work.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Here is the other thing. You mentioned impact. I want to comment on that. Impact is what probably caused you to start this. I’m assuming that-
Robert Steven Kramarz:
That’s true.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
… whoever is listening to this is not just in this business because it’s a way to get rich because entrepreneurship ain’t easy. We all know that. At least the people who have done it know that. And so therefore there’s something else that makes you jump out of bed. And my guess is probably it has something to do with impact. I only work with people who care about the impact of their work.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
And you know that’s true for me too. Is that-
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Right. And so that-
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Yeah, I don’t get involved. Go ahead.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yeah. Exactly. And so if you are not at some point and sooner rather than later really pulling that brilliance out of your brain and making it transferable then you really are hurting not only your chances to get funded but your chances to create impact.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Brilliant. Obviously, you enjoy this work, Stephie. What happened in your life that got you to this point I know you didn’t start out this way.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Absolutely not. Yeah. So I was born in Germany. My parents are both teachers and they taught me some valuable things like work hard, get good grades or great grades even and get your certifications, diplomas and all that good stuff and that means you’re successful woohoo. And so sure enough I studied chemistry and I got my PhD in chemistry. I started in Germany, finished it off in US, graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. And I thought I’m going to become a professor because I love research and development.
And I’m very curious. I love learning so eventually I abandoned my idea of becoming a professor in favor of joining a small research and development company in San Diego. And that was in part because I realized that I care about impact and I think that it’s both important to create new knowledge as well as use it in an applied manner. But I realized that for me, the second was more interesting, creating that impact sooner rather than later rather than dumping knowledge into a pool of knowledge.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Yes. Well, we’re similar in that way. Go ahead.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Right. However, then I found this formula wasn’t quite enough for me. Everyone has their own success formula, and it may take us a little while to get there but while I certainly enjoyed the work in the lab and doing experimentation and figuring out what it means and so forth, I felt still incomplete. It wasn’t enough. I realized there’s a chasm between innovation on one side and creation and vision and so forth and making it happen. And traditionally there is this chasm and there are even books about it crossing the chasm and so forth. I realized I can be that bridge.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
A Born to Star story – don’t forget my book.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yes. Born to Star. Right. And so long story short but I got into basically bridging tech development and business development. And then I accidentally slipped into my very first turnaround situation. And we did very well in a time where the economy really was awful and businesses went out of business left and right. We increased the business that I worked with which was a high tech business by 41% in that year. And that frankly was what it needed to even survive.
But then from there, I got trained as an executive coach, but I’m not the normal executive coach. I’m more like a thinking partner but one who’s got all this really crazy chameleon background from scientist to business and so forth. So eventually I invented the Brilliance Mine, M-I-N-E. And the system started off being called Brilliance Extraction as I said which is this process of pulling it out. But then my system’s mind went to work and I realized actually it’s three stages.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
That’s why you changed it because it’s not just the extraction.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
And then the extraction and then the replication. And why am I calling it mining? Well, imagine your brain to be a mine and there is diamonds in there. Okay. And so first we got in the mapping find out what diamonds do you have. Over here, the ones that are really clear, and over here, the ones that have a little pink diamonds. So which diamonds are we after? Why are they important and for whom? For what purpose? That’s mapping. Brilliance mapping.
Then the extraction is the process of pulling it out of your brain and documenting it. And then you have these diamonds in the rough and they need to be polished so that they’re really useful and that’s the replication. But we do it really fast and we do it faster and faster. We’re getting just incredible at it and we have as you mentioned before we got started with this interview, we’ve put some really amazing tools into the mix.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Yeah, you really have.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Just puts it on steroids.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
That made a lot of difference, and actually doing it again this year, the tools had matured, and I’m really having fun using the tools frankly.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yes. Well, what’s new to it-
Robert Steven Kramarz:
They’re simple and they’re not that high tech but they are technology and they work for this purpose.
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yes. All about leverage. None of us have extra time so the challenge is always how to get the most out of the time we’ve got and we’ve gotten really good at that. So when somebody invests an hour, I got to give them back many more hours than they invest. And it’s not just about money, but it is of course, but it’s also about time.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
So we are running out of time. So what I’m going to do is just ask… How’s that for a segue. So how would our vision masters reach you and get involved in Brilliance Mining, the Stephie-
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
Yes. So a great place to go is the website called the brilliancemine.com and you can even request a 15 minute free conversation with me on the contact button there or I can give you my phone number (760) 707-9977.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Wow.
Okay. How about an email address?
Dr. Stephie Althouse:
It’s Dr. D-R Stephie S-T-E-P-H-I-E not Stephanie. Stephie@thebrilliancemine.com.
Robert Steven Kramarz:
Okay. Got it. Well, in the interest of our audience’s time and mine I’m going to sign off here. This is Robert Steven Kramarz founder of Intelliversity. This is your Vision Master Podcast. I hope you enjoyed Dr. Stephie and you can reach me if you need anything on this subject of raising capital or managing your finances so you don’t run out of money, at the connect page at intelliversity.org/connect. Be happy to talk to you, see you next time because that’s the way it will be.