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From Prison to Forbes in 5 Years with Louis Ziskin

Release Date: 07/02/2019

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More Episodes

We have a very unique and cool guest on the show today. Louis Ziskin started a business using crowdsourcing, smartphones, and drones that speeds up and simplifies insurance claims for the clients and the insurance companies. Prior to this, he was serving 12 years in prison for trafficking MDMA. While in prison, he spent time in the hole where he had time to reflect. During this time he had an epiphany that changed his attitude and his life.

Louis is the CEO of DropIn a platform that uses crowdsourcing and technology to get instant video for insurance claims. Today, Louis shares his amazing story and what he learned in prison. We get to learn about his epiphany and what he noticed after prison that gave him the idea for DropIn. Louis also shares the pivot that his company took to be financially successful, and he shares so much wit and wisdom that this is one of our favorite shows.

Show Notes

[03:47] Louis is joining us from Los Angeles.
[04:23] He spent 12 years in prison for trafficking MDMA.
[06:03] In 2012, he was in a halfway house and home confinement.
[06:10] He was released in 2013, and started DropIn in May of 2015. Louis was off of parole in July of 2016.
[06:35] When he got home he noticed that we are watching the news the same way in spite of technology.
[07:50] He realized that now there are people with smartphones everywhere. Why aren't we watching what happened 3 hours ago? Anyone could go live stream for a few dollars.
[09:25] He and his partner thought about creating some type of live news program through social platforms and Lyft, but then they pivoted into insurance.
[12:00] Louis is the CEO of DropIn, the company that he and his partner started. They are worldwide and also are an overflow contractor for ABC News.
[12:48] DropIn is a live video collaboration platform. It allows you to send a text to any smartphone and the recipient who clicks on it is live streaming with two-way VOIP, so they can be asked to get additional shots or angles. It allows remote video inspections.
[13:21] They also have a partnership with Lyft where the drivers live stream for insurance companies or banks.
[14:59] You can sign up to be a Droperator on the DropIt website. They also work with DJI drone pilots and collaborate.
[17:41] Louis went from prison to Forbes in 5 years by starting DropIn.
[18:35] In prison, Louis was in the hole where he had time to think. He was very angry about the informants in his case. He ended up having an epiphany.
[19:24] He realized that instead of blaming the informants that he should have seen it coming. It was a cascade of self-awareness where looking back he saw things completely differently.
[20:38] Once you realize your own depths of depravity, everything changes. Blaming other people is the beginning of being a victim.
[24:16] Taking responsibility gives you control and gives you power. Once Louis realized this, he spent his last year in prison working out and reading and giving himself the tools to be a good person.
[25:10] Once he had these tools, he was no longer stuck being a criminal. Life is so much easier as a law-abiding citizen than it is as a criminal.
[28:47] Louis reminds himself what it was like to be in prison, and then he doesn't mind being in traffic.
[30:07] Louis and his best friend built spec homes for his brother when they first got out of prison. Then Louis was looking into starting his own real estate investment firm when he started reading about drones.
[33:14] DJI live streams from drones. Then he called some app developers. Then he started DropIn. His friend is a co-founder and also still does real estate investing.
[36:30] The idea was first crowdsourcing drone pilots and smartphones. Then he pivoted into insurance.
[38:55] Customers who use DropIn get a high level of service very fast. Carriers also have less leakage if they take care of things on the first notice of claim or faster.
[42:41] Louis represented himself in court and found out when the stakes couldn't be higher, that he was always the man that he thought it would be.
[43:39] It's easier for intelligent people to delude themselves.
[46:10] Every morning Louis thinks about the five things that he doesn't want to do for the day. He then starts them before he leaves the house. The things that we don't want to do are actually life Improvement opportunities in disguise.
[48:46] Get the stuff you need to do done first thing in the morning and everything is better.

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