Becoming Bridge Builders

Rhythms of Resilience: Peter Schroeder's Tale of Music, Tech, and Turning Adversity into Opportunity

January 22, 2024 Keith Haney Season 5 Episode 248
Becoming Bridge Builders
Rhythms of Resilience: Peter Schroeder's Tale of Music, Tech, and Turning Adversity into Opportunity
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Imagine surviving a plane crash, fathering twins, and still having the drive to leap from spinning records to revolutionizing the tech industry. That's just a glimpse into the world of Peter Schroeder, the Danish DJ-turned-entrepreneur whose story is as compelling as his beats. Tune in to hear how Peter's early start in entertainment, harrowing personal challenges, and his steadfast mantra to 'be still' before reacting have shaped his extraordinary journey. With every anecdote and insight, Peter, alongside his mentor and booking agent Christina, reminds us of the profound impact of resilience and the wisdom of mentors as we navigate life's unpredictable rhythms.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to pivot from a successful music career to launching a tech startup with the savings from a 401k? Peter Schroeder did just that, founding Telzo with a modest $16,000 and a vision for steady, sustainable growth. In this heart-to-heart, we uncover the mindset needed to hurdle over self-doubt and fear of failure, and why a stubborn streak can be your best asset when the world tells you 'no.' From his Danish DJ Award nominations to the entrepreneurial leap, Peter's story is a masterclass in seizing opportunities and riding the waves of change, no matter how daunting they may appear.

Finally, we step into the mind of a self-proclaimed nerd whose early love for coding and electronic music created an unlikely roadmap to success. Peter Schroeder shares the inception of Telzo, where his passion for service shines through a unique billing model that's as fair to the little guy as it is to the big players. Plus, he offers nuggets of wisdom on leadership vs. management and how assembling the right team can turn a vision into reality. As we wrap up, we peek into the future as Peter ignites our curiosity with the potential of AI in his business, signaling a new era of innovation that's just on the horizon. Join us for a journey of transformation, tenacity, and the beats that connect them all.

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Speaker 1:

My guest today is Peter Schroeder. Peter is an accomplished DJ entrepreneur and technical pioneer With over 20 platinum records, 40 gold records and a triple nomination for the prestigious Danish DJ Award. Peter is one of Denmark's top DJs, entertaining audience 180,000. He was a feature radio host by age 12, and appeared on talk shows and TV shows across Denmark. In addition to his musical career, peter has over 20 years of experience creating cutting edge technologies for companies such as Facebook, samsung and Airbnb. He's a true innovator. He works closely with businesses to address mission critical telecommunications, enabling them to quickly implement, manage and expand for success. Peter's latest endeavor, telzil, is a pre-unicorn unified communications company he founded. He has developed game-changing technology and products that simplify and streamline repetitive tasks. Through his career, peter has survived a plane crash and the birth of twins. We welcome him to the podcast. Well, it's so good to have Peter on the show. How are you doing today, peter?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing great. A little stressed I know that's a technical issue in the beginning, but trying to calm down. Things are good. Things are good. How are you.

Speaker 1:

I'm good. I know that feeling when you're like you think you got everything set and then it just doesn't work out like you hoped Exactly.

Speaker 2:

And it's typical, because you should almost expect it not to work, right, you should. And I was thinking I was trying to go in early to make sure that things work, but then kids and all that stuff, right, but I'm here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm glad you're here. I love to ask my guests a question, kind of get a chance to know you better. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2:

Be still. Yeah, will Hinchel, a good friend of mine, always uses that and I really love it. It's like before you react, before you reply to an email, before you rage over something, just be still and take it in, and then it's such a good advice.

Speaker 1:

It would have saved me so much trouble on some emails that I sent out. I should have sat on that for a while, but when I said it it was to be fair. You could always unsend the email. I used to love that feature that you can't do anymore. If they hadn't read it, you could go back and delete it.

Speaker 2:

Well, so I think Microsoft just implemented it again in Outlook recently, but what they do is they just delay the actual send, which is kind of annoying, because if there's something you really need to reply to right now, right, right, but it's like, if it's angry, maybe they should tell me that don't send this to sit on.

Speaker 1:

It be still for a while, that's a good idea.

Speaker 2:

You're some AI for that.

Speaker 1:

Right. No one gets where they are without people in their life who've served to be an inspiration or a mentor. Who is some people in your life you want to say thank you to because they were so important to you in your journey.

Speaker 2:

I mean there's a lot Actually. Will that I just mentioned is really good, really just good at making you reflect over certain things. And then I would actually say my old booking agent, christina. She's saved my ass a couple of times, like really on different things, like on pivotal moments in my life where she's pulled me aside and say, hey, let's fix this. So I really really want to thank her.

Speaker 1:

That's great. I love that because we do need those people. Like the email thing, you say maybe not, don't do that.

Speaker 2:

The thing is, I've actually thought about this whole mentor thing a lot because I never had a real mentor, and I think it's something that's really important to people and you tend to underestimate how important it is. I wish I had someone in my corner that kind of gave me all the little insider tips, all the things people don't tell you, the things you don't learn in school, that you only learn by really listening to podcasts like this or having someone in your side that just wants to help you without necessarily getting a lot from it, and it's something that I really wish I had. I've seen some of my friends have it and how much it accelerates their progression in whatever they're working with. So I think it's underestimated how important having a mentor is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is true I had some really important people in my life who kind of come alongside and during those really rough times they've been there and I get a chance to be there for them in those bad times with them. So it's kind of a nice reciprocal relationship that we have. So those people are very special. Very important yeah, so I read your bio and it was a very impressive bio. So I'm curious to tell us your personal story, tell us about your journey.

Speaker 2:

Where do you want to start? Three years old, I started out early and I've always just done a lot of things. I always told that I've lived many lives and I feel like I have. I've just done so many different things, but at the same time it's always been one thing leading to the other and I'm just kind of going with it. Things just kind of happen and I'm just like, okay, let's do it.

Speaker 2:

And I started early by doing like radio reporting for National Radio in Denmark, where I grew up, and that led me to do the same thing on national TV and eventually I was on a talk show at 8 pm Saturday night on the main channel and that was just like getting started. Then I was 14. I started my first website, which then grew to be the biggest social media before there was social media for artists in Scandinavia, and I sold that when I was 18, when I wanted to DJ. Then I founded a band which had a great success in Germany and on tour and stuff and eventually I started the record label and then became a DJ and musician and started making stuff for other people and eventually burned out and started a phone company instead.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, so what was the name of your band? I'm curious.

Speaker 2:

I can Really. Yeah, comes from why not? We can, of course we can. I can A Y, c, a M. Yeah, I was back in 2004, or three or four years.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's so neat, and I saw you had over 20 platinum records and 40 gold records. That's an impressive resume.

Speaker 2:

It's been piling up over the years, I guess, yeah, so well, I had my band there and we eventually, because I saw what the record label was doing for us, I said, well, I can do that, so I, I finally the label and started signing, of course, our band, but also my friends and their other artists that I knew I could do the same thing for. And that's actually when I kind of ran into my first, I say, pivotal moments where Christina, my old agent, she pulled me aside because I basically said yes to way too much, I piled as much on my plate as I could and I started, you know, not following through and that's worse than saying no, to feel, and, you know, burnt bridges and stuff like that and eventually it was just way too much for me. And she saw that and pulled me aside and said, hey, let's, let's figure out what's going on. She helped me sell my label and and basically take a little break and reset.

Speaker 1:

That's great. You didn't mention the plane crashing your story.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, so. So the funny thing about that is is that came up doing a dinner conversation recently a couple of years ago maybe where I'm like I don't know how we got into that topic, but oh, yeah, I was. I was in that plane crash that just I had totally forgotten about it and and I should probably talk to some professional about that. But in in in 2010, I think yeah, 10, I was in a commuter turbo prop plane from Copenhagen to Alborg, going up to see my mom, and on the way there or about to to, to prepare for landing, they found out they couldn't land or lock the landing gear in place, and they at least they couldn't get the little lamp to light up that it was locked, so we ended circling around for a couple of hours to burn all the fuel it couldn't dump it because it's a plane, I guess was too small or something and prepare for for an emergency, eventually, perhaps an emergency.

Speaker 2:

The thing was we we saw on the news a week before that the exact same model had the same issue. Oh no, they did an emergency landing, but nothing happened. So we were we were not, you know, scared or anything because we were like, well, that's just a technical issue with this model, so nothing's going to happen. So it was actually not. There was no panic or anything like that. The, the, the crew was really nice and and really professional about it, but what did happen was that the landing gear didn't lock and it actually failed and it crested on the side and the propeller went through the fuselage and it was a big mess, but but no one really got hurt. I think one lady broke her arm and that was it. So luckily, everyone got out with their lives.

Speaker 1:

So you don't still fly those same, that same brand plane. I take it.

Speaker 2:

I haven't flown the dash eight since then and I'm not going to fly that one again. Right, but I'm not afraid of flying besides that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, great lesson. We learned about things that the past. So on your journey, I'm always curious too. You know we we learned a lot of lessons. So in all your different careers, what were some of the lessons that you learned that have stuck with you and all the things you've done since then?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I feel like I'm learning lessons every day. There's just, there's just so, so many things happening all the time. I think one of the main ones is really about how to handle things I'm not good at, because I found out, also a couple of years ago, that I have ADD, and that wasn't a thing when I was a kid. That was, you know, adhd, that's the kids that run backwards up the wall and kids is still. I'm not like that, I'm calm and so on, but but I have a hard time focusing on things I'm not interested in. And over the years I've, you know, learned how to tackle that myself and, and you know, kind of figure out how to deal with it.

Speaker 2:

But, of course, having that diagnosis and having a word on it and figure, you know, actually knowing that it's not just me being lazy or whatever someone called it when I was a kid, that's really important, because then I can start hiring people to do the things that I'm not interested in and not good at, and then I can focus my energy on the things I'm really good at. And, you know, the thing is with ad is you get hyper focused on certain things, so you can get really, really good. You go to the end of the rabbit hole and then you start digging to go further, right. So that is a power in itself that I can do that. But I can only do that if I have people around me that can do the other things.

Speaker 1:

That's good. I love that Knowing, knowing what our limitations are, what our strengths are, and then, like you do, surround yourself with people who can do the things that you don't do, is really a lesson we could all learn. There's just things we just don't like to do and unfortunately, sometimes those things just don't get done. And if it's a company we're part of, that's where the company falls apart, relaxes in those areas that really to be there.

Speaker 2:

Exactly exactly, and super, super important that you have that self-awareness. I would almost call it, because obviously not everyone have a diagnosis for it, but everyone has certain things that they're good and not good at and everyone should, you know, have the self-awareness To understand what those things are. That's really when you can start Accelerating your growth as a person and also as a company right Because I love.

Speaker 1:

I love thinking big visions, but I hate the details to get to the vision.

Speaker 2:

Yeah right.

Speaker 1:

I make sure I have people around me who are detail oriented people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's it's so important, because then they, those people, are not division Fingers you know they're not the ones that are that are good at those things, and but but they have you right. So everything accompanies, yeah, it's important.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm always curious for people like yourself who have been successful. What drives you every day? What's your why?

Speaker 2:

The why is really that I'm able to go to work and do things I'm I'm interested in and I have fun with doing. That is the main thing. It's not it's not Making a billion-dollar business, it's not that that is fun and that's great and and it's part of what I'm doing and I have to do it as well for, you know, our employees and and everyone who believes in us, and so on. But but for me personally, it's really just to be able to, to play around with things like, for example, this studio that that I built here for, for creating content that's fun to me to do, and I love that. I'm able to do that and, and I can, I can go play with it.

Speaker 1:

That's great. I love your studio, by the way, those who watch the video. You got tuned into the video to see the cool studio he's got there. Yeah, a lot of people, a lot of my listeners, are Either entrepreneurs or they're thinking about that. If you're speaking to young entrepreneurs, what are the biggest challenges you think they have to overcome or should be aware of as they become on the road to success?

Speaker 2:

I think something that to be aware of is you don't have to go raise two hundred million dollars and you don't have to have a hundred person company to build that thing. That is something we all hear over and over. You only hear about these Stories about people who start a tech company and then they go raise two hundred million dollars and hire five hundred people and then they made three billion billion dollars. And that's a success, right, that's not necessarily a success, not only own, that's not the only success. Let me say like that, it's really rare that you, for the first, do that like the people that are able to to do those things are so few. But that's also not the only way to build a company.

Speaker 2:

When we started out with ours, we didn't have any money. So, you know, we, we we've. We cashed in my wife's 401k. That was, I think, sixteen thousand dollars. That was all we had to start, and we tried to raise some money and back then we weren't married. So, yeah, who's gonna go invest in a couple who's just been dating for a year or so, and so that's not gonna happen. So so the only way we could really do it and and and well, another thing was that it was a phone company we're building. We're gonna go up against AT&T and T-Mobile, those kind of companies right, that's that's just crazy in itself. And do it with sixteen thousand dollars. No, but we had to kind of figure out what to do To make this work, because we knew that the idea was good and we could do the math and we could make some money.

Speaker 2:

The thing is, you don't have to necessarily become the world leader from day one. You don't have to to set the goal that you have to beat AT&T. If you do that, then you're probably not gonna do it. That's that's. That's, that's directly recipe for failure. But if you say, well, I can build a product that can get some customers, that's a good start, because if you can get some customers, then you can pay for another employee and then eventually another one and you can start growing. And it's like a train, you know, slowly getting up to speed. It's taken us ten years to where we are today. So, yes, not the overnight one, but we are having success. We have, we have a solid business, we own a hundred percent of it, so we can do whatever we want. There's no VC breathing down our necks and telling us what to do. So to me, that's success, and that's something you don't hear about. You only hear about those. You know Silicon Valley. Back the ones.

Speaker 1:

I love that. The thing I kind of wonder, too, for people who are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs or have that entrepreneurial spirit what do you think is the major thing that holds people back from taking the leap and doing it? Is it that they're not sure their idea is good, their product is good, or they lack the confidence to do it?

Speaker 2:

I think it's all of it. I think I'm often asked this question what are the top three things you would tell someone? I think one of the ones I usually always mention is negativity and stubbornness. Those are the two main traits I have myself.

Speaker 2:

You got to be a little naive. You got to believe that your idea is good. You got to believe that you can have success with it. You got to really don't care about all the what-ifs. It's like if you go into a car dealership and you want to buy a car they're not going to tell you about. You can get in a crash or you could run out of gas or the wheel could fall off. No, they're going to tell you about all the good things. Do the same thing to yourself when you start a business Tell you all the good things and then all the what-ifs. Put them aside a little bit. You got to be realistic, obviously, but put them to the side and let the other ones take over. Be a little naive. That's when you get that motivation to get going. What if I could do this? What if we had success with that? Then, oh, that could be great. Then keep that in your mind and use that as the little carrot in front of you, then, sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 1:

No, I like that. I was going to ask you. That's really helpful because if you get beyond just getting an established and you start thinking too far down the road, you will scare yourself. It's like you're in a plane. If you start thinking about all the things that could go wrong when you get on a plane, you're never going to get on a plane.

Speaker 2:

Right, exactly, exactly, you know what. Just think about what is the success next month? What are we trying to do right now? What if we can accomplish this by July? That would be great. Let's try and do that Instead of what if we can get a billion dollars by two years from now? Don't think about that. That's not realistic. Well, maybe it is and that would be great, but don't set that as your goal. Set the little, little, small stepping stones. Then be stubborn If someone tells you no, like all the VCs did to us. Just be stubborn, just like well, I'm going to show you that I can do this. Just make that your fuel. I'll show you. I think that's important.

Speaker 1:

I'm curious how you went from the music industry to the tech industry. What in your mind said this is a great next step, because those two don't seem to really kind of fit together. So kind of walk me through. What you're thinking was did you see an opportunity? With said, okay, I see an opening in this industry, or was it just something? Just walk me through how you got to that point.

Speaker 2:

Well, so I've always been a nerd and I got my first computer when I was six. I started coding when I was six. I was not interested in video games. I was interested in finding out how the video games were made and those kind of things. I started my first website when I was 14, so I'm very nerdy. Also, the music industry making electronic music, which is all about sitting in front of a computer. I was writing my own plugins and these kind of things. When I had my label, I wrote my own software to manage the releases and those kind of things. I've always been very nerdy in that sense.

Speaker 2:

The reason why I really started this phone company was because I was working on another project. I had a little break from playing DJ gigs. I burned out. I played 380 gigs in one year and I said okay, I actually told Christina again I need a break, I need to get new ideas for new music. I need to just chill for a minute.

Speaker 2:

While I was doing that, I was kind of just tinkering with a platform for promoting music online and that needed a phone hotline kind of thing. You know, call in and get support. I couldn't find anything I could afford. I couldn't find any out of the box solution that was easy to manage. So I just okay, I'm coded myself. I got hooked All of a sudden. I had worked on that for three months and I was like totally forgot about music. I totally forgot everything else. I was just this is so much fun to work with. I figured, well then maybe this is what I should be working with if it's taking up all my time. I talked to my back then girlfriend, now wife Dan, and she's like, yeah, let's try and put it out. She had some business experience and she lived in America. I was in Denmark, so I was, okay, I'll move over and we've been launched here. And all of a sudden we've been working on it for 10 years.

Speaker 1:

Wow. So what makes your company unique?

Speaker 2:

Well. So I think really it's about us seeing it more as a opportunity to make a cool product rather than another opportunity to make a lot of money. The money is secondary for us. See, we want to do well and we want to pay our employees well and all that stuff. But for us, for us, it's really we want to make something that really works for people and that helps people in their daily lives. So we are really focused on having something that's just out of the box, works and easy to work.

Speaker 2:

And then on the payment side, we have a completely different billing model. We don't charge a fee per user like all our competitors. We just charge for the minutes you call, and that means that it scales really well. Business with two employees can pay because they will call less than in business with 5,000 employees. So everyone gets the same features. It's that solidarity thing Everyone gets the same features, everyone has the same playing ground from day one. So even if you're a startup, you will have the same opportunity to make it as an enterprise. You don't have to pay enterprise plan that you can't afford to get those benefits. Why should they have all the good things? It should be the other way around right. This should be equal.

Speaker 1:

I love that, so tell us a name of your company for those who are interested, because it sounds interesting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, tel-geo T-E-L-Z-S-N-C-BRA I-O. Tel-geo.

Speaker 1:

That's great. So to be an entrepreneur, there are some leadership skills needed. If you think advice for entrepreneurs, what do you say is important? Leadership wise to lead a company and lead an organization.

Speaker 2:

So I think an important thing is to understand that leadership and management is not the same. I'm a terrible manager. I know I'm not good at following up with people to make sure that they do their job. I'm not good at telling people what to do. I really hate doing that. So having that understanding that you don't necessarily have to be a good manager to be a good leader I have now people around me that are good managers, that can do all those things, so I don't have to. But being a good leader is really about having a vision for something and then getting your team excited about that vision and be in on it together and make sure that we kind of all are excited to go to work every day and accomplish that thing. That's a good leader to me.

Speaker 1:

So if you had one message to give to young budding business people today, what would that be?

Speaker 2:

Well, I would actually say try and make sure that you and it kind of goes back to the same as we were talking about before but try and make sure that you have both things. Have that leader personally in your team, on your team, and if you're not a good manager, have someone who's good at making sure people do their job and then find the right people. You know, because I'm not a good manager, what I've done is I've hired people that don't need a manager, so at least all the first maybe 10 employees are just really, really smart people that I pay way over average on the job market so that they, for one, don't leave, don't get poked by on competitors, but also that are really smart people that can just go do things and that they basically pull it out on my brain without saying it. They have some kind of skill to understand what it is that I mean when I'm saying something completely weird that no one else would understand.

Speaker 1:

I love that. So what are you excited about in this season of your life or your business, what's sorry. What are you most excited about in this season?

Speaker 2:

Oh, this season. Well, right now there's just so many things going on with, obviously, with AI, we are really launching a bunch of products that we've been working on since 2017. We registered AIattentantcom back then, so it's no surprise to us what's happening at the moment. We've been preparing for it, so that's exciting. And then there's just a lot of things going on with other channels than just phone service. I don't think phone service is going to be that significant in five years from now. We are kind of branching out and making sure that we kind of support all kinds of platforms and communications platforms so that our customers don't necessarily have to worry so much about what their customers are contacting them. Everyone has their preferred way of communicating and you as a business need to make sure that you kind of are available in those channels, whether that being a tweet or it's a phone call or an email or a letter or something else. It could be anything. You just have to be there when your customers are wanting to get in touch with you.

Speaker 1:

I hear a lot of people who are excited about AI, a lot of people who are really nervous about it. So, somebody who's working in that sphere, what do you have in terms of advice for those who are kind of going a little nervous about this AI thing?

Speaker 2:

I understand why they're nervous. I have little kids and I cannot predict how the world is going to be when they grow up. But it's not going to be what it is today, that's for sure. That's the only thing I can say. But you can't change it. You can't un-invent it. So that's important to understand. No matter what you try and do, you can be stubborn, you can sit down and say no, I don't want to. But that doesn't change the world. The world is not going to un-invent AI. It's just going to be more and more for now on.

Speaker 2:

So you get past that thinking and just start understanding what it is and how you can use it in your business. It's not like the what do you call them? Settle makers back in the days, in the 1900s right, that made saddles and that's a solid job, because there's always going to be a need for saddles. People need to transport things and that's by horse. But someone invented the car and all of a sudden they didn't have a job, unless they started rebranding into making up haulstery, and they did really well the ones that did that. But the ones that kept making saddles, they didn't have anything. So get past that thinking of it's unfair that AI is taking my job. Ai is probably not going to take your job. It's just going to be a different job you're going to have and you need to understand that. You need to get that in your head and just go with it, because you're not going to be able to change it.

Speaker 1:

Interesting. I love to ask my guest this question what do you want your legacy to be?

Speaker 2:

I'm just happy if someone thinks that me and thinks I'm happy that I met that person. That's all I can ask for If someone who met me and I'm happy that I met that guy. That's all I can ask for.

Speaker 1:

I like that. Is there anything I haven't asked you that I should have asked you?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's a good question. I don't know, I don't know. I'm usually not that good at promoting myself. I'm terrible at that.

Speaker 1:

Well, in that regards, where can people find you and connect with you on social media?

Speaker 2:

So I do have a website now. I actually just lost it yesterday. So finally, petersrotacom you can go get in touch with me. There's all my social media links in there and I'm available pretty much on all platforms and I love when people reach out and ask me anything. So please do, yeah, petersrotacom. And then, of course, telso, if you want to try out a business phone service, for you know there's a free trial and we have amazing conversions from people, so I love for that free trial. So please go and do that, I'm sure you'll like it.

Speaker 1:

Where can they find your music? Because you know, if you've got as many Grammy awards and things as you have, we would want to hear that. I love techno music, so where can we find your music?

Speaker 2:

Okay, Well, it's full Well. So there's some on Spotify and YouTube, obviously, if you go search for Pete Fox, that was my last DJ alias. I've had a through time and that's some of the most recent stuff, even though it's not that new anymore. But I also produced for so many other artists through time, so I think this cox is probably a good way to go look me up and see what I've done. There's links to all of the different projects I've been involved in.

Speaker 1:

Look well, peter was so good to have you on and you're such an interesting person and I love what you're doing and the space that you're in right now and the fact that you have poured into my listeners and given them some good, practical advice about being an entrepreneur, being a leader, taking chances, being smart about it. But I just love your spirit, that you are willing to put yourself out there and see where it goes, but you're not afraid to try.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you just got to go with it. That's really it. Don't hold back.

Speaker 1:

Don't hold back. Well, thank you so much, Peter, for being on.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

Peter Schroeder
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