Latest / EGGS! The Podcast / Eggs 445: The Key to Success: Spotting Market Gaps with Jay Sapovits

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Eggs 445: The Key to Success: Spotting Market Gaps with Jay Sapovits · EGGS! The Podcast

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Hey everybody. Welcome back to Exit Podcast.
1:24
Today's special guest is Jay Sapovitz.
1:26
He is the founder and CEO at Inked Stores.
1:29
Jay, welcome to the show. How are you, man?
1:30
Ryan, nice to chat. Good to see you.
1:33
Absolutely looking forward to it.
1:34
Well, let's start I guess kind of at the beginning.
1:36
Let's talk a little bit about your sort of entrepreneurial
1:39
journey. You have in particular a a
1:40
interesting tale or like a weaving tale that gets you to
1:44
where you are today. So it might be interesting to
1:46
kind of talk about your entrepreneurial journey.
1:48
Yeah, I'm in every, every, I think every entrepreneurial
1:52
journey is a little curvy, but mine seems like it was more of a
1:55
roller coaster than anything else.
1:58
Not only curvy, but topsy turvy and all of it.
2:01
Yeah, look, you could go back as far as standing in a dry
2:08
cleaners across the street from where I went to College in Las
2:11
Vegas, where I went to UNLV to, you know, where I'm sitting
2:17
today. I mean, I, I literally could
2:18
draw a straight line to it. So I've been in a little bit of
2:22
everything, started my career in the radio business, moved from
2:26
there into the golf world where I created a special event to the
2:29
PGA Tour with Jim Furyk and put my put my hat in the ring for
2:35
professional Professional Golf and events and PR and marketing.
2:39
And then was one of the originals of the group called
2:43
Marquee Jet. So private jets and left the
2:47
private jet world to go into the luxury villa world where I spent
2:50
two years building a business on Saint Barts and then left that
2:54
world to create a fitness company and eventually
2:59
transition into what I'm doing now, which is a a promotional
3:02
and merchandise and marketing company.
3:05
So yeah, definitely, definitely not a straight line.
3:10
I love that. I love to showcase these kind of
3:12
meandering roads because I think a lot of people are out there
3:15
looking for like some kind of path, you know, like a straight
3:18
line to, hey, you know, I see that guy on Instagram with a
3:20
cool car. Like, I want to be like that
3:22
guy. And so I think a lot of people
3:23
are looking for like an easy answer, a short answer.
3:26
But I think your experience, in the experience of a lot of
3:28
people who do this show is just that.
3:29
That's not the case. You know, for me, there was
3:33
always a, a question of where are there gaps in the
3:36
marketplace? And you know, what is that next?
3:40
What is that next opportunity? Really my first on my, you
3:46
listen, nothing's on your own, right?
3:48
You hear, on my own, I'm going to say on my own, but I didn't
3:51
do it on my own. But my first entrepreneurial
3:55
experience was creating Jim Ferrick's event, right, called
3:59
the Exelon Invitational. And you know, look, I'd never
4:03
get it done without a few people who believed in me and, and gave
4:06
me that opportunity. But what I saw there and ran
4:11
through was that in Philadelphia, PA, where I was a
4:15
radio talk show host for two years on WIP, which is the top
4:20
ranked sports talk radio station, Men talk guy talk
4:24
station. This is way, way back, right?
4:27
This is 25 years ago before the genre even exploded and
4:31
television and cable and all that was that Philly was a first
4:37
class, first rate sports town. They weren't going to support
4:41
minor league products and there was no PGA Tour event.
4:45
So I came up with the flock. I came up with the theory that
4:51
if you could put the best golfers in the world out on, you
4:54
know, in a event in Philadelphia, people would come
4:58
and pay to see it. And so we created a skins game
5:01
because I figured it's easier to get 4 players than it is to get
5:05
40. And you know, we were right.
5:09
Got very fortunate. The timing was just before the
5:12
Brookline Ryder Cup in 99. Davis Love, who was set to be in
5:16
the field, pulled out of the event three weeks before because
5:20
he was struggling with some back issues and wanted to make sure
5:23
that he was prepared for the Ryder Cup and not our event.
5:26
We replaced him with a 19 year old Sergio Garcia, who was
5:31
coming off of a PGA Championship where you remember the
5:35
championship in Medina where he leaped when he ran behind the
5:39
trip, the shot behind the tree. And you know, like just so we
5:42
had gotten some good fortune there.
5:44
But it's all from identifying an opportunity and believing that
5:49
you're right and then driving it forward.
5:52
And that's, that's what happened there.
5:54
And without that, I'm not sitting where I am today.
5:58
Yeah, I love that. And and I think it's interesting
6:00
too, or a cool thing to point out that that was like sort of a
6:04
pivotal moment in your career that helped you lead into other
6:06
things. You talked about identifying
6:09
gaps in different areas. And I wonder if you couldn't
6:11
talk a little bit about that or like training the eye to be
6:14
prepared for opportunities. Because I think there's a lot of
6:17
things that, you know, so much stuff just floating around in
6:21
the world that like even might smack some of us in the face as
6:23
entrepreneurs. And a lot of times we're just
6:26
not in the right spot to see it or we're, we're not tuned to, to
6:29
be aware of that thing when that shows up.
6:31
And so I wonder if you talk about just, I mean, since, you
6:33
know, obviously your career has been a, a long string of, of
6:37
spotting gaps here and there over and over.
6:40
Any insights that you can lend on, you know, being aware or
6:43
trying to pay attention to those kinds of things so that we we
6:46
can identify gaps in either our own business or in the
6:48
environment around us? I think it has to do with really
6:53
identifying gaps in your life first and foremost, right?
6:56
So I don't think that you can go out and look for things that
7:01
don't interest you or are, you know, in some sort of a sub
7:06
market to me. Fix a problem that you have look
7:11
for a problem or something going on in your world.
7:14
You know, for me, I, I was in talk radio, so I taught sports.
7:18
I was, I was in that professional sports environment,
7:22
right? I worked at the time at a golf
7:24
course. So I, I had tacit knowledge of
7:28
the things that I was identifying, right?
7:32
And I think that that's where it starts.
7:34
It's like, what's a problem that you have?
7:35
And do other people have that same problem?
7:38
And to me, that's how you identify the gaps in the
7:40
marketplace. I don't for, I don't, I don't
7:44
know if I could kind of sit back on the sidelines and look to
7:47
things that I didn't either have direct experience with or first
7:52
hand knowledge with or had a real problem to and solve that
7:56
problem for me. It's always been about very
8:01
personal and I, I think that I think that's the best way to go.
8:05
And we'll talk about looking for opportunities.
8:08
Yeah, no, I think that makes a lot of sense.
8:09
And I think one of the other kind of angles or bits of that
8:13
is I guess being open to these opportunities in the 1st place.
8:16
So, I mean, it's one thing. And I think that this is where
8:18
most people, you know, maybe people who aren't as
8:20
entrepreneurial kind of stop, which is they spot the problem,
8:23
they get annoyed by the thing every day.
8:25
They, you know, encounter this problem at work or whatever it
8:28
is that that is their thing. But then they never act on it.
8:31
They complain about it, they tell their friends, they do
8:33
whatever, but they don't actually act on it.
8:35
So I mean, I think first of all, you know, being observant and
8:38
recognizing these issues in your own life, being open to the fact
8:41
that, you know, there's a problem here that I could fix.
8:44
And then I guess maybe third, taking action on that might be
8:47
sort of the way to go. And that might be where you can
8:49
talk a little bit about your expertise, which is, I mean, you
8:52
weren't a guy that did PGA events like for example, and yet
8:56
you were willing to just. I'd never been to a Professional
8:59
Golf tournament when I created one.
9:01
Yeah. But like the risk that it took
9:03
or the perceived risk, I think for your average person would be
9:07
that it's, you know, nuts. You're going to jump.
9:11
In and create an event and having never done this before.
9:13
What's the risk failing Well. And see, and what's funny is I
9:17
see it the way you do, right? Which is, which is, yeah, what
9:19
what really is the risk? Like let's try for it.
9:22
And and what I love is, I mean, it's kind of trial by fire in
9:25
the sense that like you didn't just go for like the regional
9:28
tournament. You didn't try and run something
9:29
at your neighborhood Country Club.
9:31
You know, instead you went for kind of a PGA level event.
9:34
And they and I'll have you extrapolate on this idea, but
9:36
yeah, I mean, in in your mind, and I agree with you.
9:39
What you know, how bad could it be?
9:40
I mean, failure is really all that's going to happen.
9:45
So I had a commitment from a sponsor, right?
9:49
I had run a golf tournament for Pico Energy and I had asked them
9:54
if I'm able to find a commitment from one of the top PGA Tour
9:59
players in the world, would you be interested in sponsoring this
10:03
event? And they gave me that commitment
10:06
and said, yeah, we'd be very interested in it.
10:08
So then my only job became getting the PGA Tour player to
10:11
say that they would be interested in hosting an event.
10:15
So then I went to all the logical choices.
10:17
Jim happened to be from Pennsylvania.
10:19
He was born 20 minutes from where the golf course was.
10:22
He was just starting his career. He was a top 1520 player at the
10:26
time and a young guy who didn't, who, who wanted to give back to
10:32
charity as well. And let's be, you know, let's
10:37
not revise history, took the call, you know, his agent took
10:41
the call and listened and I went and sold the story.
10:45
And so I, I don't know what I risked like I risked the bad
10:50
meeting. I've had plenty of bad meetings
10:52
in my career. So I look at entrepreneurship as
10:56
like again, it to me, I have always felt like doing nothing
11:01
is actually a bigger risk than taking action and failing
11:06
because I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't take
11:08
action. I, I think that it's comes down
11:12
to who you are as a, as a person and, and what you're talking
11:15
about, Ryan, is a different problem than identifying
11:19
opportunities. You're, you're talking about
11:22
walking through, walking through the door.
11:25
And I guess the only way you get comfortable with walking through
11:28
the door is to walk through a lot of them.
11:30
And I had done that in my, in my career and I'd been exposed very
11:35
early out in Las Vegas to super influential people.
11:42
And I, I was exposed to them by working at a dry cleaners that
11:46
happened to, to be the dry cleaners to the stars, Liberace
11:51
and JJ, you know, Dynamite Walker.
11:56
And these were people, you know, Robert Goulet.
11:58
I mean, these were people who came into the dry cleaners and I
12:02
realized, I mean, these are people who put their pants on
12:04
one leg at a time. I didn't grow up with celebrity,
12:07
but I did grow up with a pop that was able to talk to anybody
12:10
and everybody and, and did so definitely, you know, have that
12:15
characteristic like my like my dad.
12:19
And then just realize that celebrities and, and stars are
12:22
just like us and normal people mostly and had No Fear to to
12:27
speak with anyone about anything.
12:31
And to me that that's kind of how it all started.
12:35
So you can't fix inactivity and and you know the only way to fix
12:41
it is by taking action and you know nothing is going to happen
12:46
from your couch. Yeah, no, I love that.
12:49
And I, I think that's a really healthy perspective too, because
12:51
I mean, to your point, I mean, it's not failure if you didn't
12:55
move, like if you didn't do anything, I mean, you didn't
12:57
even give yourself an opportunity to fail.
12:59
And so I think it's really important that people get
13:01
moving. And one of the things that you
13:03
said in there that I really liked in terms of how you framed
13:06
the conversation around the the golf tournament was you said if
13:11
I dot, dot, dot, So if I land PGA player, will you dot, dot
13:17
dot? And what I think is really cool
13:19
about that framework in particular is that I think for a
13:22
lot of people, this might be a way to hedge doing something
13:24
maybe a little nervous about, you know, you were, I mean, I
13:27
guess and and I, I don't want to, you know, stay where you
13:30
were and sort of the realm of of your personal success at that
13:33
time. But it seems like you were kind
13:35
of punching up that this was something that was a little
13:37
above what you would be doing or it might be above your level.
13:40
And so, but you know, you weren't afraid to do it.
13:43
You weren't afraid to take the step, but you were able to hedge
13:46
with something like this, which is, hey, if I can actually pull
13:48
this off, will you back me? And I think that that might be a
13:51
really smart strategy for people.
13:53
Ryan, especially when you're punching up like that, you
13:59
really have nothing to lose. You know?
14:03
I mean, like, I got rejected by two dozen PGA Tour agents.
14:12
So what? Like you'd expect I would get
14:16
rejected by them. I only needed one to say yes to
14:19
me. So again, like I'm punching up,
14:23
but yeah, sure. So what I that's punching up,
14:27
it's or, you know, fighting above your weight class as I've
14:31
heard it, there's no, there's no downside.
14:34
There's zero downside. The downside is you have as much
14:38
as you had before, which is nothing.
14:41
And So what? So that to me was the easy.
14:45
That to me was very, was very easy.
14:47
I yeah, I don't, I guess I just don't even look at it as risk.
14:51
I mean, it's easy to look back now and see how it could be
14:55
perceived that way. But I just was when you're in
14:58
it, you're just in it. And I've always had this
15:01
penchant to just put myself in the middle of these environments
15:05
that allowed me to breed success.
15:08
I mean, my story is unique. I mean, I, I don't talk to a lot
15:13
of people who have it, you know, 19 years old.
15:16
I'm the radio producer engineer for the UNLV basketball team,
15:19
which was the 89909091 teams with Larry Johnson and Stacey
15:24
Augman. And I'm travelling with the team
15:26
and staying in the same hotel and working with Ross Porter,
15:30
who was the LA Dodgers announcer alongside of Vin Scully and at
15:36
practices with the UNLV basketball team.
15:38
And there's Nick Vitale and Sonny Vaccaro and all the Billy
15:43
Packer and all the big time announcers of the time and other
15:47
celebrities were coming in to see the team because they were
15:49
such celebrities. So I just got exposed to it very
15:52
early by going out to Las Vegas. And I kind of just never got
15:56
intimidated by it as I continued along my career.
15:59
And I've always like, I'll be even sitting with my kids now
16:02
and they're older, 2523 and 19. And like, I'll drop names to
16:07
them of people that I've had dinner with their clients, of
16:10
former clients of mine in the jet or villa rental world.
16:13
And yeah, I mean, just felt like normal life for me.
16:18
But I've always kind of been around the action.
16:21
Yeah. Well, and it's really
16:22
interesting. So in your case, I mean,
16:23
obviously you had exposure to celebrity and things like that
16:25
through Las Vegas. But if you're not in the realm
16:28
where celebrity is who you're targeting, you know, maybe
16:30
you're equally as as intimidated by, you know, high-powered CEO
16:33
or business leader or whoever it is that you're trying to reach.
16:36
So, but what I love is this story of sort of, I don't know,
16:41
like sharpening yourself over time, you know, this fail
16:43
forward fail often kind of approach that I think a lot of
16:46
people have read about, but maybe not acted on.
16:49
But I think the real key there is you can you could have done
16:53
like, you know, I was talking earlier, I mean, you could have
16:55
had a golf event at your local Country Club and raise some
16:58
money for charity. You could have just done
17:01
something with the local club pro or whatever.
17:02
Like it didn't have to be APGA thing.
17:05
And, you know, but, and, and I think for some people like that
17:08
version might be what they do, which is, you know, really the
17:11
upside's not that high. Like it's fine, you can do this
17:14
thing, but like you can punch higher and the risk is no
17:18
different. Like the amount of work you had
17:19
to put in or the amount of energy you had to do was the
17:22
same whether you had PGA guy or not, but you decided to go the
17:26
more professional or the more PGA route, you know, versus
17:29
doing something local. And I think if the, if we're
17:32
trying to find a moral or something actionable there, this
17:34
idea of making sure that the risks you take actually do allow
17:39
you to fail forward, you know, like you, you know, and, and I'm
17:43
glad you added a little bit of detail that, you know, this
17:45
wasn't your first phone call. You called a bunch of PGA guys
17:48
and there were several rejections prior to that.
17:50
And I think that, you know, for some people, you know, they,
17:53
they might have just heard that version of the story where it's,
17:55
Oh yeah, he just called this PGA pro.
17:57
And then there's a saying. And, and I think life doesn't
17:59
really work that way, you know, So I think it's good to point
18:01
out those little steps along the way where and because of
18:05
multiple failures, it ultimately ended up in a better event.
18:08
You got a guy who was actually interested, who really wanted to
18:11
participate. You were able to build something
18:13
on the back of that where you know, I don't know if you, if
18:15
your first guy had had picked up the phone, maybe it wouldn't
18:17
have gone so well. Ryan The meeting was the first
18:21
meeting I had with Furyk's representation was in the
18:25
Metromedia building, which was basically at the Meadowlands in
18:28
New York. And, you know, outside of New
18:30
York City, it's one of the office buildings right there.
18:35
And my wife is from, we lived in Philadelphia at the time.
18:38
My wife is from outside of Boston.
18:43
So we, I scheduled the meeting and she, she decided that we
18:48
were going to take a trip that weekend to the Cape to visit,
18:51
you know, spend time with her family.
18:53
And we loaded our, at the time, 2 cats.
18:58
Can I tell you, we loaded our two cats into a car and she sat,
19:06
and I mean, just mind you, this is 1998.
19:09
She sat in the car, no cell phones.
19:14
She sat in the car while I went up and took the meeting for two
19:20
hours and 20 minutes in person and came back down, got in the
19:27
car, drove up Cape Cod for the weekend.
19:32
And you know, I, I tell that story because it's crazy to
19:36
think that my wife at the time sat in the car while I had a 2
19:42
hour plus meeting. You know, I, I told her before I
19:44
went up, I said, hey, I said one of three things are either going
19:47
to happen. I'm either going to come down in
19:48
15 minutes, I'm going to come down in two hours, or I'm never
19:51
going to come down again. And he ended up coming down in
19:56
two plus hours. But that's all part of that.
19:59
That's all part of that story is like, we really hit it off.
20:03
We ideated on the spot. And those are people that are
20:06
still in my life today. Yeah.
20:08
Well, and I might characterize that just kind of tug on the
20:11
threat of of opportunity. You're spotting gaps again,
20:14
which is that, you know, I mean you called other agents, but the
20:17
agent who actually picked up the phone or the one that made for
20:19
the best meeting was the one that finally answered the phone,
20:22
right or finally did take the meeting.
20:24
And I think that if you had shut yourself off or said, well, I
20:28
called the PGA guy that didn't work out and walked away, you
20:31
might not have even found the opportunity, right?
20:33
But there was, you know, it finally revealed itself because
20:36
you were willing to keep trying. And I think that.
20:39
For a lot of people, that's a a good thing to keep in mind.
20:42
Yeah, but go one step further, Ryan.
20:43
Like I didn't let the fact that it was an inconvenient time or
20:49
inconvenient location for me or I was going to inconvenience my,
20:54
my, my wife dictate my circumstances of taking that
21:00
meeting either. I mean, think about it.
21:04
You tell your, you know, you make your significant other sit
21:08
in the car for two hours and you're not like you're in the
21:11
meeting. Like, Hey, I'll be down when I'm
21:13
down. Like that's the way it's going
21:14
to be. Like, you know, that's both the
21:16
support of that's both the support of spouse, but it's also
21:20
understanding like the opportunity may not be there on
21:23
Tuesday of next week. So if you have the opportunity
21:26
to take it on Friday of this week, you do it on Friday of
21:28
this week and not Tuesday of next week.
21:31
And you inconvenience the people who are OK to be inconvenienced
21:34
and not the ones that are giving you the opportunity.
21:36
So you have to, you have to show up full force when the
21:40
opportunity is given to you. And there's no guarantee that
21:45
it's not, you know, going to come around the corner just
21:47
because it's better for your schedule.
21:50
Yeah. No, I love that.
21:52
Well, because I think that is a big part of the other, the other
21:54
half of the identifying opportunities coin, which is
21:58
acting on it when it comes and, and being willing to take those
22:01
steps. Because like, you know, for a
22:03
lot of people, maybe they'd have got the phone calls or maybe
22:05
they wouldn't have even gotten to the third or fourth or fifth
22:07
call and and then just walked away from it and the opportunity
22:10
would have been missed. Yet it was just one folk call
22:12
away, like just one more call man and you'd have it, you know,
22:15
So I think it's really important to be willing to show up and be
22:18
willing to give up yourself. And I think that that notion of
22:21
sort of, you know, in, in this case, you know, giving of your
22:25
personal time, your recreational time, your family's time, you
22:28
know, all those things, you were willing to sacrifice those
22:30
things to make this meeting happen.
22:31
And I mean, I don't know if it's good vibes or positive energy or
22:36
what it was, but I mean, it has to contribute to the the
22:39
opportunity here. Yeah.
22:41
What we're talking about is what, you know, at a micro
22:45
level, I understand at a macro level, it's really it, it, it,
22:50
it's, it's, it's really difficult to be an entrepreneur
22:53
these days in some sense that, you know, back when I was doing
22:57
there. So there's so much information
23:00
now that we didn't have back when I was just starting out in
23:04
my career, like in my career, like it was Dale Carnegie's book
23:08
was a thing. Now Dale Carnegie's book can be
23:10
summed up in AI. And you could essentially read
23:13
the Cliff's Notes to it in 15 minutes and know everything you
23:17
need to know about, you know, how to win friends and influence
23:20
people, right? So there's so much information
23:24
that's out there, Ryan. It's so hard to sift through.
23:28
And it can be so incredibly intimidating, right?
23:30
Because, you know, you go on X and this guy's doing $180,000
23:38
MRR at 19 years old and screw you, you're never going to be
23:43
him. And it's easier to fold than it
23:46
is to try to do your own thing because you might only do 1000.
23:49
Let me tell you something. If you're an entrepreneur and
23:52
you can get one person to pay you for something, chances are
23:55
you can get 2, you can get three, you can get four.
23:58
And sometimes it's not all about hard work.
24:00
Sometimes you don't have the right idea and you do need to
24:02
change and you do need to pivot. And you can be embarrassed if
24:05
you fail. And like all like the the social
24:09
media aspect of entrepreneurship, of dating, of.
24:20
Well, yeah, name your facet, Yeah.
24:23
Name. It has put so much in like,
24:26
pressure, right back when I was doing it.
24:30
I mean, yeah, I could have failed, but it like wasn't going
24:33
to be public. Now everything feels like it's
24:35
going to be public and you just got to not care.
24:40
You just have to be confident in yourself not to say that you run
24:44
with supreme confidence at all times.
24:47
Who does? No one does, right?
24:49
People doubt themselves. Imposter syndrome is real.
24:52
I have it to this day of multi $1,000,000 business.
24:54
Like you just have to know that you've given it your all and
24:59
you've given it an honest effort and damn, who cares what other
25:03
people, you know what other people say?
25:05
Be damn like it doesn't matter. Like what's out there in the
25:08
world about you is none of your business.
25:11
The only thing that is of your business is did I give my best
25:15
today or didn't I? And when I say did I give my
25:18
best today, it doesn't mean you were your best today.
25:20
It means you gave your best today.
25:22
And it's very, very clearly different.
25:26
So what I mean by it is simple is every day you show up is not
25:31
going to be the best day of your life.
25:33
You are going to feel different. You're, you're going to speak
25:36
differently. Things are going to come out of
25:38
your mouth one way one day and one way the other day just based
25:42
on either how you slept or circumstances of the day.
25:48
But did you try your hardest? Right.
25:50
We all know if we're giving maximum effort, not even maximum
25:54
effort, a lot of effort. You can't lie to yourself about
25:59
that. If you just stay true to
26:01
yourself and give the best effort that you have every day,
26:03
well then you'll know soon enough as to whether or not the
26:06
idea is the right idea and you are able to see it to fruition.
26:12
You can't get caught up in what other people do and comparison
26:16
and you know their life versus your life.
26:19
You just got to really like put the blinkers on.
26:22
And in 2025, putting the blinkers on, it's probably the
26:25
hardest thing that entrepreneurs have to do.
26:27
I never had to do that. I never.
26:30
No, I think it's a great point. And it it's something we've
26:32
talked about quite a bit on the show, which is, you know, the,
26:35
you know, the whole comparison being the thief of thief of joy
26:39
kind of deal, right where you're sitting and you're watching all
26:41
these people on social media and you know, yeah, you know, looks
26:44
like a 20 something standing in front of his yacht and his
26:47
Lamborghini that neither belonged to him.
26:48
And he's standing out front of the shopping center or whatever,
26:51
you know, And it's like the one thing that that we often caution
26:54
with with social media in particular, is that it sometimes
26:57
feels like, especially if you're just playing for social media,
27:00
like you're trying to put, you know, posture and look away or,
27:03
you know, try to, you know, create this image of yourself or
27:06
whatever that you're actually burning a lot of time.
27:08
And it feels like you're doing something, but you're actually
27:11
doing almost nothing. Like you may as well just stay
27:13
at home and watch TV because you're just posturing.
27:16
You're doing this stuff. You're, you know, but whatever
27:18
you're actually putting out there isn't moving the needle at
27:20
all. And so there's a lot of things
27:22
like this in life right now. I think just with technology and
27:26
you know, the, the different, you know, social media
27:29
platforms, AI tools, things like this where you could spend all
27:32
day doing something, but that's something actually doesn't
27:34
really amount to much. Yeah, I think that's a fair
27:38
assessment. And yes, as it relates back to
27:41
the, as it relates back to the standing in front of a yacht
27:45
that's not theirs, maybe it is. Who cares?
27:50
Again, it doesn't matter. Like you're here to change your
27:53
world and what they're doing doesn't matter.
27:58
The, the, the challenge is who do you follow and who don't you
28:03
follow? And I don't mean following the
28:06
sense of social media. I mean words, advice, input.
28:10
And again, we just didn't have that when I was younger.
28:15
And a lot, a lot of ways. Life was a lot more simple.
28:23
Yeah, no, I I totally agree. So.
28:27
Yeah, yeah. No, it's a, it's a weird time
28:29
for sure. So sort of the transition, let's
28:33
talk a little bit about sort of the pivot.
28:35
So as you mentioned, your path is very neandery and you kind of
28:40
jump from thing to thing, you know, you didn't go on after
28:43
doing this PGA event to make a long career as a PGA consultant
28:46
or or whatever and you decided to move on to other things.
28:50
So can you talk about that? I mean, obviously that lends
28:52
into the, you know, looking for gaps and identifying
28:55
opportunities kind of thread, but can we talk a little bit
28:58
about your transition from doing, I guess let's call it
29:00
live events into doing more like marketing type work?
29:06
Yeah. Well, I mean, I went from, I
29:08
went from the Exelon Invitational, right, to become
29:11
one of the originals at a company called Marquee Jet.
29:15
We were partners with Net Jets. We resold their and repurposed
29:18
their time in private jets in the $25 lease blocks, which was
29:24
the first ever of its type of business.
29:28
And I don't know if that was, look, I was hooked up there
29:33
with, you know, now my current partner, Ken Dichter.
29:38
And I was, I don't know if that was, I didn't, I didn't know
29:44
that that was the entrepreneurial opportunity when
29:46
I took it that it became, I mean, we went from a zero to a
29:52
billion dollars in 4 1/2 years. And I can't tell you that I
29:57
absolutely saw that coming. What I know is we were living in
30:01
Philadelphia at the time or outside of the city.
30:04
My wife was from New England. She wanted to get back up to New
30:07
England. I had just sold my interest in
30:10
the golf event and we were looking, I was looking for a new
30:15
opportunity. And this was a new opportunity
30:18
with an entrepreneurial group that had an idea that I thought
30:22
was really cool and they were willing to get me up to up to
30:27
live in New England. And that's how that started.
30:32
So it wasn't like, hey, Jay, you're on the founding team and
30:36
you know, we're going to do this great thing.
30:37
And here's what the business plan.
30:39
I mean, I came after the business plan and it was really
30:41
like, hey, we need sales killers out there to go out there and
30:44
chase this big opportunity. And that's that's where I
30:48
slotted in was I ended up working out of the Boston office
30:52
with the chairman of the company.
30:54
It was just he and I to start. And yeah, I mean, I was in, I
31:00
was direct sales that that's what it was.
31:02
And there's no better spot to be in as an entrepreneur than in a
31:10
sales role for an entrepreneurial high growth
31:15
startup. And that's what that became.
31:19
Yeah, no, I love it too. And it's interesting, you know,
31:21
just like looking at the arc of your story, it's like early
31:26
exposure to celebrity and fast-paced, you know, movement
31:30
action, radio, moving around the country, traveling, you know,
31:34
broadcast all these things, the high energy things that came out
31:36
of Vegas, you know, moving into these golf tournaments and
31:39
promotion of those kinds of activities where you're working
31:41
with PGA talent and things like that.
31:43
Then you move into the airline business here where you're
31:47
you're selling basically private jets to, I guess high net worth
31:50
individuals and people like that, celebrities, those kinds
31:52
of people and then into, you know, later villas and things
31:55
like that for sort of that same audience.
31:57
It's interesting that your career you've almost been sort
32:00
of tailored or sort of hammered out to, to work with those kinds
32:03
of people, because I think that there is like a, a class of
32:06
folks that whether it's true or not, I mean, obviously they do
32:09
put on their pants the same way as everybody else.
32:11
But I think there's this error about those kinds of people
32:14
that, you know, some people might not thrive in that sales
32:16
environment the same way you had by the time you got to, you
32:20
know, jet sales and villa sales, like you already knew how to
32:22
talk to those people. You'd already spoken to agents.
32:24
You've already, you know, you understood the, the game a
32:26
little bit. And so I think that, you know,
32:29
back to our earlier conversation about, you know, trying to, I
32:33
guess be willing to fail and be willing to do that stuff.
32:35
I mean, maybe you got kind of exposed quickly by virtue of
32:38
Vegas and everything else. But it seems that you've, you've
32:42
obviously honed this over time. I mean, if you're able to help,
32:45
you know, participate in growing a company to a billion dollars
32:47
in four years, that's, that's pretty serious growth.
32:52
So early in my life, I, I grew up outside of Philadelphia.
32:59
Bill Bergie, I went to school with his, He was a, a very
33:03
famous Eagles player. I went to school with his son
33:06
Jason. So we were friendly and I was
33:10
always over the Bergie's house and Bill was a celebrity and a
33:13
star and I just saw him as Mr. Bergie.
33:18
So I think that definitely was ingrained in me that I, you
33:22
know, a lot of people don't know a professional athlete.
33:25
I I knew one at the level of like, do you want a sandwich,
33:31
Jay? You know, like, so I think that
33:34
probably subconsciously helped me.
33:36
I also had a father. My dad, Mike was a likable,
33:42
affable guy who I went everywhere with and who talked
33:48
to everybody. I mean, it was nothing for my
33:50
dad to stand around and talk to. You know, he would talk to the
33:55
guy empty in the trash. He would talk to the guy in the,
33:58
in the, in the suit, the executive in the suit.
34:01
So, you know, I just, I've always had that ability to kind
34:06
of not judge people and talk to everybody and be friends with
34:11
everyone. And yeah, I mean, I got that
34:16
from, I got that from my pop. And it's served me well in my
34:20
it's served me well in my career because it as it turns out, a
34:24
lot of decision makers are watching when you don't think
34:27
they're watching. And, you know, when you treat
34:29
people with dignity and class and respect, no matter where you
34:33
think they are on this on the the class spectrum, you know,
34:39
it's just a I'm very fortunate to have my been in, you know,
34:44
that character has been instilled in me through my
34:47
upbringing. And you know, I saw it live.
34:51
Well, it's such a, an important characteristic and I think it's,
34:55
you know, I think there's a couple like little morals we can
34:56
lean on here, which is 1, you know, the, the notion of giving
35:00
more than you receive or the notion, you know, and, and we're
35:02
taping this, you know, a couple weeks before Christmas.
35:04
So maybe that's a good theme. But this notion of, you know,
35:06
giving more than you receive. Or we had recently on the
35:09
podcast, this guy, Bob Berg, that's known for the go giver
35:12
movement and, and the go giver movement is kind of that idea,
35:15
right? You know you'll you give of
35:16
yourself and then you'll receive, you know.
35:18
Something back. And I think one of the things
35:21
that you do or that has become apparent just in this
35:25
conversation so far is that you're really great at
35:27
connecting people. And whether that's in a sales
35:30
environment or that's in, you know, an entrepreneurial sense
35:34
or when it's you're making the phone call to the golf pro and
35:36
trying to put an event like this together, you're connecting with
35:40
people. But I think what is showing
35:41
through, or at least what I'm seeing in the theme of this
35:43
conversation is that there's a selflessness in what you're
35:46
doing. A lot of times people will sort
35:50
of corner a salesperson as being, you know, driven by a
35:53
financial incentive or whatever. But just in hearing you speak
35:56
and the types of things that you're doing, it sounds more to
35:59
me like you're connecting for connecting sake.
36:02
And then it happens to work out that, you know, that there's a
36:05
business objective or something underlying.
36:06
Now, that doesn't mean that you didn't reach out to golf pros
36:09
with the objective of trying to start an event, but, you know,
36:12
but at the same time, you were putting these different pieces
36:14
and parts together, you know, for a good cause.
36:17
And you know, and then even as you move into jet sales or
36:20
whatever, I mean, ultimately you're trying to solve a problem
36:22
for somebody. And, and by virtue of being a
36:24
good connector and a good communicator, you were able to
36:26
bridge the gap between your prospective customers and, and
36:30
the airline company or the villa company or, or whomever or all
36:33
the way now and to what you're doing today.
36:35
I think that as I've gotten older, that's definitely become
36:39
more true than when I was younger.
36:40
I think when I was younger, I was a little more transactional
36:44
minded and one of the regrets I do have in my career is that I
36:48
wish I could go back and be less transactional relative to the
36:52
relationships that I had with people because I would have held
36:55
on to those relationships a lot longer than I, I ended up
36:58
holding on to them. Live and learn as I've gotten
37:02
older and you real, you know, I, I lived a fast lifestyle.
37:06
So I always thought, well, I'm not going to be, I'm not here
37:10
for a long time. I'm here for a good time and,
37:13
you know, it definitely catches up to you.
37:14
And now at my age, which sounds crazy to, to, to say, but you
37:18
know, I'm 54, it's not young, right?
37:21
I'm definitely on the, I'm, you know, definitely on the, the
37:24
second second-half of my career. I look back and I realize life
37:30
is long and you don't have to squeeze every ounce of value out
37:36
of every transaction. It's great to be able to leave
37:39
stuff on the table for other people, and it's great to be
37:43
involved in transactions where you're not involved.
37:46
So to your point, right, Connecting people for the sake
37:48
of connecting. Like I want to see the people
37:50
who are around me do well and I don't need to touch every piece
37:56
of it. So yeah, I think that's a lesson
37:59
learned in time. It's harder when you look when
38:02
you're younger, you have a lot of lot more pressure.
38:04
I mean, you have a family, kids, house, houses, car payments,
38:09
you've got future big payments for college ahead of you.
38:14
It's hard to duck out of it, not be involved in every way and not
38:18
think of me, me, me, me, me. But when you get older and
38:22
realize you've accumulated some and you don't have to, you don't
38:26
have to have those same concerns.
38:28
I mean, so time has alleviated some of the pressures that you
38:33
have when when you're younger. I have those conversations now
38:37
with my own kids and I tell them, like, if you're going to
38:41
do something, you'll never have less bills than you have now.
38:44
And it might seem like you have a lot of expenses now, but you
38:48
know what, five, $6000 a month, Like, Oh my gosh, you know, when
38:52
I was in my heyday, like what I would have given to only have 5
38:54
or $6000 expenses. So I'm not, you know, and, and
38:58
depending on where you live, those numbers could be cut in
39:00
half. So I'm all for like, try to get
39:04
that perspective in your career, like where am I at in my career?
39:07
And how much does taking action cost me today?
39:11
Because it might cost you 234X in the future and you might be
39:17
landlocked, you know, married kids not able to, to take those
39:21
same risks. I took the biggest risk of my
39:23
life when I had three kids and just I made a six month old and
39:27
I look back at it with regret. Like I, I wish that I hadn't
39:31
made that jump when I made it, it it cost me.
39:34
It cost me years out of my out of my life because it was my
39:38
only loss. And you know, I had a career
39:40
that went up like this, down like that.
39:42
And then it's doing a steady, steady build up right.
39:45
And that like that right in the middle point was was super
39:49
painful and I'll timed and probably avoidable.
39:54
Yeah, no, it's funny because the perspective that you just shared
39:56
this idea, you know, when you were younger, you were much more
39:59
transactional and then growing out of that a little bit.
40:02
It's one of the things that we've really encountered on this
40:04
podcast. I mean, you know, in 450 plus
40:06
ish interviews with CE OS and startup founders, you know,
40:10
everybody comes to the table as sort of this overnight success,
40:13
right? They've all arrived at where
40:14
they've arrived at and everybody's like, oh, look at
40:16
all, you know, look at what they've got and all the money
40:17
they've made and all these things, you know, back to our
40:19
social media conversation. And then, but the reality is
40:22
that there's like this 10 or, or, you know, in some cases, 20
40:25
year overnight success in reality, which is everybody has
40:29
these stories with wins and losses and good choices and bad
40:32
choices. And it does seem to me that, you
40:35
know, us old folks are pitching the, you know, you, you can be
40:42
more friendly. You could be more, you know,
40:44
connecting for the sake of connecting and stuff like that.
40:46
So we tell the the younger people, I, I know I do the same
40:49
with my kids. And but I know that when I was
40:52
younger, I wasn't in a position to do those things.
40:54
And I think that that might just be kind of nature.
40:56
That's just kind of part of the deal.
40:57
And, you know, but I think if you can arrive at it, you know,
41:01
even if it does come later in life, I think that it's still
41:04
sort of something in your nature that was there all along
41:07
probably. And the relationships that do
41:09
survive it are indicators that that was the case.
41:12
So I wondered if. I have a lot of relationships
41:15
that don't listen, Ryan. I mean, the other thing I'd like
41:18
to share, how many Lebrons are there?
41:23
Yeah, not a lot. People get stuck comparing
41:27
themselves all the time. And I, I know you know, the the
41:30
expression you share, which is comparison is the thief a joint?
41:33
Like there's just not that many Lebrons.
41:35
Like there's not like Steve Jobs like I used to.
41:38
Like, we'll look at Jeff Bezos. Well, yeah.
41:40
OK, stop. You're not Steve Jobs.
41:43
I'm not Jeff Bezos. Like those guys are, are freaks,
41:47
right? LeBron is a freak.
41:50
Bezos is a freak. Cuban, same thing, right?
41:55
You could argue got lucky, but So what?
41:58
Good timing. Great.
41:59
Good for him. So you're not that guy, and I
42:03
don't mean that in a pejorative way.
42:04
I'm not that guy, right? I'm just a guy who grinds every
42:08
day and has amassed a good business because of it.
42:13
And that's 1%. All businesses that are launched
42:17
in the United States will ever reach 7 figures, 1%.
42:21
I mean, drive down Main Street and, and you know, if you're
42:24
like me, which I'm guessing you are, you do the math on
42:27
businesses that you see open up on in your town, right?
42:30
I mean, I went shopping last weekend and I was talking to the
42:36
the shop owner and you know, she shared with me that she's had
42:40
days where there's zero sales And I to like in my head, I'm
42:45
like all of a sudden now, OK, she's open 240 days out of the
42:48
year. And I'm like doing the math like
42:51
here are average sales and thinking about what her top line
42:53
is. And I don't mean I don't know
42:55
how she gets to $1,000,000. And that's not to say that it's
42:58
not a good business. It's just to say that like we
43:02
are. So we so fantasize about the
43:05
billions and billions and billions that we fail to realize
43:08
that like if you built $1,1,000,000 one billion dollar
43:12
business, right? If you're able to get $70,000, I
43:18
think so it was a 70 eighty $80,000.
43:22
I should know that if you're able to get 82 five a month in
43:26
revenue, $82,500 a month in revenue, right?
43:30
Couple 1000 bucks a day, 2020620750 a day in revenue.
43:35
OK, you've built a 1% business. Yeah, no, that's it's such an
43:42
interesting thing. I mean, because I don't think a
43:44
lot of people think of it that way.
43:45
And to your point, or like sort of, I guess on the other side of
43:48
that point, so much about success is viewed through the
43:52
eyes of other people, right? We're busy looking at LeBron,
43:54
we're looking at the movie stars.
43:55
We're going whatever. So our bar of success is like,
43:57
OK, well, I want to be Brad Pitt.
43:59
Well, I'm not going to be Brad Pitt.
44:00
It's not going to work out for me.
44:01
Unfortunately, it's too late. I think no skin care plan is
44:05
going to turn me around and make me into Brad Pitt.
44:07
But, but I think if we stop and we and we look at things and,
44:12
and you might be a good example to speak to this just because of
44:14
the, the type of work that you've done over the course of
44:17
your career, your ability to pivot, your ability to find
44:20
these opportunities. Lifestyle is such a big thing.
44:23
And so, you know, just using the shopkeep that you were just
44:26
talking about, you know, the store that that you're looking
44:28
at and going, man, how did they ever make this $1,000,000
44:30
business? Well, maybe they don't need to,
44:32
right? Maybe it builds the lifestyle
44:34
they want, whether that's the, you know, the house they want,
44:37
the ability to travel when they want the, you know, maybe it's
44:39
somebody who wants to work remote so they can travel around
44:41
the world and, you know, live on hardly anything, but they get to
44:45
live that life because they're in business, even if business is
44:48
$5000 a month, you know, And so it's like, I think that we get
44:52
caught up in these kind of these metrics around, you know, what
44:54
should success look like? Oh, well, you need millions of
44:57
dollars. You got to have a big house, you
44:58
got to do all these things. And I think if we understand or
45:01
if we can kind of back off that pressure on ourselves and on
45:04
others, you know, I don't know, do you need $1,000,000 to live
45:06
the life that you want? Like, you know, could you live
45:09
on less and see your family and travel and see the things that
45:12
are important to you or make them, you know, cook in your
45:15
kitchen that you has all the cool stuff that you have because
45:17
you love to cook. Or, you know, like, can you
45:19
build the life you want even without a business that's
45:22
enormous and still call yourself successful?
45:25
You know, I think there's, I think there's a lot of room and,
45:27
and it seems like maybe in your life too, and you can talk to
45:29
this. I don't want to put on too much
45:31
projection here, but it seems like you may be kind of crafting
45:34
your own lifestyle a little bit here.
45:35
You know, you were really interested in sports and you
45:38
were chasing things out in Vegas and you're, you know, running
45:40
this fast lifestyle, like you were saying.
45:42
And you know, you're, you're traveling with the teams and
45:45
then you're interacting with sports and you're building PGA
45:47
events. You're just doing all these
45:48
things that are like, it's not the obvious path of what you're
45:52
looking for is like a safe job or you make money, you know, you
45:55
go work at the factory, the dad work dad or whatever.
45:57
Like, I mean, there's a, a safer way to make a living than to
46:00
jump around all these seemingly disparate things in your life.
46:03
Although I think we've kind of tapped into the through line
46:05
there. But but I think that, you know,
46:08
life or, or everybody's entrepreneurial journey, I guess
46:12
to sum up, can be whatever you want it to be as long as it
46:16
satisfies you personally, whatever it is.
46:18
And I think we need to try and lay off one another in terms of
46:20
this whole, you know, everybody has to make so much money or has
46:23
to have so many things or whatever to sort of qualify as
46:26
being successful. Yeah.
46:27
I mean, I did things that were fun and interesting to me.
46:30
That's that's what my career has been characterized by.
46:33
I mean, you know, radio, Professional Golf, private jets,
46:39
luxury villas, fitness, and now merch.
46:44
I mean, what's not the love? I, I love merch.
46:47
I love swag and gifts and apparel and decoration and cool
46:53
stuff to wear and being able to put anything I want on anything
46:57
I choose. I mean, it's, yeah.
47:01
I mean, I've had a, I've had a, I've had a great career relative
47:05
to being in really fun industries and businesses.
47:09
I mean, somebody else might have the same level of excitement
47:13
around a SAS product. I don't So bad news if I'm
47:19
trying to get into a SAS product because I, it's just not going
47:23
to have the same level of appeal to me, right.
47:25
So you have to do something that you find interesting or solves a
47:30
problem that you had or appeals to you in a way that keeps you
47:36
motivated to, to continue to do it.
47:38
And yeah, I'm very fortunate that I have.
47:42
Well, maybe that's a good opportunity for us to sort of
47:44
pivot into ink stores. And what, what caused you to
47:47
make that pivot, you know, in the 1st place, move out of your
47:50
last line of work and into this line?
47:52
And you know, what role did it fill, I guess, in your life in
47:55
terms of, you know, again, this being one of those industries
47:57
that you're excited about And you know, what's, you know, what
48:01
was that I guess shift from one thing to another like?
48:07
Yeah. I mean, the shift really for me
48:08
was about not having enough sales in the, in the previous
48:14
iteration of Inked, which was in the fitness space and not having
48:19
the sales velocity that would allow us to scale and grow the
48:23
way we want it to grow. So really Inked was almost a
48:30
necessity to go from selling products that don't get bought
48:34
in volume to products that do get bought in volume, like
48:38
T-shirts and hats and sweatshirts and other wearable
48:44
type goods. So, yeah, I mean, sometimes you
48:50
sometimes you act out of yeah, I mean, not sometimes.
48:53
Most of the time you're acting out of self preservation to
48:57
start and then opportunity to, to, to, to, to, to, to end.
49:02
And Ink was a pivot from a fitness company to survive.
49:09
And you know, it was a lesson learned from a previous
49:11
business, right, which was the only thing you can't do in a
49:14
business is run out of money. And that's that's where you have
49:18
no that you know, that's the game over the end.
49:23
And we were able to create revenues before that was that
49:28
was that that happened. It's such an interesting
49:31
transition from, you know, sort of fitness industry into branded
49:36
products. And like, you know, I mean,
49:38
we've met with other companies that have done similar things or
49:40
even just over the course of my career, you know, I've, I've
49:42
talked to different vendors. But one of the things I like
49:44
about your, your approach in particular, and, and you can
49:47
talk about a little bit is I think that it's kind of elevated
49:51
branded products or these sort of things that you think of in
49:53
terms of like slapping logo on something to a different level.
49:57
Like you're working with big brands, you're working with
49:59
technologies that are cool, you're using all these kinds of
50:01
different things and it's really elevating.
50:04
You know, there's a long time, I mean, like I remember a few
50:07
years ago trying to buy some like trade show merchandise and
50:09
stuff like that for a client. And, you know, the stuff that we
50:12
can find are kind of the usual, you know, it's like a silly pen
50:15
or it's like kind of a, you know, I, I don't know, a pad of
50:18
paper or something. That's kind of cool, I guess.
50:20
And it's like, it's not very exciting stuff.
50:23
And I think, especially during COVID, I think we started to see
50:27
this. But you were having all these
50:28
companies doing these like kind of virtual welcome kits or these
50:31
swag bags or, you know, even, I guess now, you know, new hire
50:34
kits are coming with laptops and, and iPads and, you know,
50:38
all kinds of cool stuff. And, but it seems like there's
50:41
been a real shift in type in the type of material or the types of
50:45
things that can be created as promotional good.
50:47
And, and you know, I don't know if that's something that you're
50:50
seeing in the industry too, but it just as an outsider, it seems
50:53
like things have really shifted to where those, the, the
50:56
products you're creating are much more competitive with
50:58
something you'd grab off a retail shelf these days.
51:01
Yeah. And I think that that's probably
51:04
a function of the way that items can be decorated now because of
51:09
the technological advancements have, you know, been have, have
51:14
advanced significantly. I mean, with digital and direct
51:17
and laser and all forms of all, all forms of technology that
51:24
have allowed us to be able to get a logo on so many different
51:27
things in so many different ways.
51:31
Look, I love the business because it allows me creativity.
51:35
Our best clients are the ones that want ideation and not just
51:40
to buy the normal, you know, trinkets and trash as people
51:45
like to refer to trade show materials as that's not our
51:49
world. Our world is folks that believe
51:53
their their giveaways or things with their logo on it can be
51:57
impactful and create the outcome that they're looking to try to
52:04
create. Ryan.
52:06
So yeah, it appeals to me on a personal level because that I've
52:12
always been super creative and enjoy problem solving.
52:17
And we try to do that on behalf of on behalf of our clients.
52:22
Yeah, I like that. Well, and I think that that's AI
52:24
mean for me anyway, that's a nice stance to take on these
52:26
kinds of products because I think, you know, and you've
52:28
probably encountered these guys even in your own career, you
52:31
know, going to these companies and they've got kind of a slate
52:34
of things that this is what they do.
52:35
And they just kind of, you know, they can embroidery a logo on a
52:37
shirt or they can, you know, screen print something.
52:40
But there's not a big, you know, push for ideation or a big push
52:44
to do something creative. It's really just kind of well,
52:46
and here's, you know, a few things that we do.
52:48
And I found at least in the past in interacting with these types
52:51
of companies that they've, it's been a little bit low energy
52:53
that way, just in that they're not excited about my brand.
52:57
They're not, you know, they don't care about any of that
52:58
stuff. It's just, hey, we're just
52:59
producing stuff with your logo on it.
53:01
Like it's kind of, I guess to use an earlier term that we've
53:04
been talking about, just be is more transactional.
53:06
Yeah. Like I just want to make this
53:07
thing. I'm not actually invested in
53:09
your brand. Yeah.
53:10
Well, and look, in fairness, I mean, and I don't know the order
53:13
sizes that you've had relative to these companies, but I mean,
53:18
you do need to have some level of scale to get the company's
53:22
creative services versus not, right?
53:27
You can't, can't order $300 worth.
53:29
I'm not saying that's you. I'm saying you can't expect a
53:33
very small company to get a high.
53:36
So this this industry is pretty wired, right?
53:39
We, if you have a, if you have a budget, you, you have a lot more
53:45
options than if you don't have budget, right?
53:48
So I think we're sometimes, but there, you know, having said
53:53
that, there's, there's always ways to do things creatively.
53:59
But you know, a lot of times it does come down though you do
54:01
have to have some, you do have to have some scale and have some
54:04
budget behind you in order to be able to do things that are a
54:07
little more special or unique than other companies.
54:13
Yeah. No, I think that makes sense and
54:14
I think most people listening would understand that.
54:16
You know, obviously you can't go in with a, you know, $100 order
54:18
and expect that, you know, the Rolls Royce treatment.
54:21
But, but at the same time, you know, even with some of the
54:23
bigger orders and things that we've looked at over the years,
54:26
I found that even a lot of times like the quality that we would
54:30
get back isn't good. Now, I will say, admittedly, you
54:32
know, technology has moved quite a bit.
54:34
I haven't yet used a company like this personally for a
54:36
client, maybe four or five years.
54:38
So certainly technology has moved to your point, printing
54:41
techniques have evolved, you know, the the technologies
54:44
around these different things really.
54:46
And, and I have some experience with like on demand printing
54:49
and, and things like that for, you know, personal brands and
54:52
things like that, that are, I guess kind of akin to this
54:54
stuff. And, and the level which you can
54:58
do things today is just like mind blowing.
55:00
You know, I, I ran a clothing company was that when I was
55:02
pretty young and we had to do everything the old fashioned way
55:05
where you bought screens and you had to, you know, keep your own
55:08
inventory and all this stuff. And now we can basically run the
55:11
same business on demand, get the same kind of output and, you
55:14
know, and it's every bit as good.
55:15
So I mean, technology has moved in in some pretty exciting ways.
55:20
Hey, we're getting kind of to the end of the hour here.
55:22
I wonder if you just wanted to take a quick minute and maybe
55:25
let people know where they can interact with you personally, if
55:28
they'd like to talk to you or learn more from you or learn
55:30
more about your journey. Also where they can get involved
55:33
with INK and learn more about the work you guys do over there.
55:36
Yeah, sure. I mean Ink stores.com, INKDSTORE
55:39
s.com Noe is where, you know, my company resides.
55:44
And then as far as I'm concerned, it's JAYJ at
55:47
inkstores.com and I post everyday on LinkedIn.
55:50
My own thoughts have since the beginning of the year, don't use
55:57
AI and anything that's written on on LinkedIn has come directly
56:02
from my mind to my fingertips to the keyboards to LinkedIn.
56:07
And that's seven days, seven days a week, Ryan all year and
56:11
having that's pretty impressive. And having.
56:14
All year. That's crazy.
56:16
Yeah. I started a a newsletter at the
56:18
first of the year and I do one a week and even that thing is like
56:21
a struggle to try and get done. I can't imagine being so active
56:23
on LinkedIn. That's awesome.
56:25
I also, I don't know if it's a good commentary or bad
56:27
commentary on our society that it's actually an upsell to tell
56:30
people that you made the content yourself.
56:32
So. So I love that you did that
56:34
because I just, and man, there's so much noise out there and I
56:37
think it's only going to get worse and and so.
56:40
That's why I do it. But that's why I do it.
56:42
I mean, like I just, I've, yeah, look, I've used AII mean it's
56:46
not like I'm not in touch with AI.
56:48
But you know, I think that the way that I write, I have a
56:53
unique perspective on the world, or at least I think I do.
56:57
And I I have a presence on LinkedIn because I want people
57:01
to be and I do these podcasts because I want people to be able
57:04
to get to know me. And I think that it's a
57:06
differentiator between myself and other companies out there is
57:12
me and how much I care and and believe in what we do and try,
57:18
which isn't to say we're perfect, but it's to say we care
57:21
and try. And so I don't think you can say
57:24
you care and try and lead with authenticity and then not be.
57:29
Yeah, No, I think that's right. And it's funny because one of
57:32
the things that we've talked about and we don't have to go
57:33
into it now, but one of the things we've talked about with
57:35
regularity is that those who will survive sort of the AI
57:38
revolution, at least as it happens in business and and I
57:41
work in marketing design and stuff for for people like us is
57:46
the people with perspective, I think will be the people who end
57:50
up coming out on top. And that'll be, you know, like
57:53
even today, I mean, you know, you might be able to get AI to
57:55
generate a Picasso, but if you if you're somebody who actually
57:58
cares about Picasso, you want a Picasso, you don't want the fake
58:01
Picasso that AI makes. And I think that pertains to
58:04
humans too. I think, you know, if you're a
58:06
human being and you have a unique perspective, I mean, AI
58:09
might be able to take your perspective and layer that on
58:11
top of something else. But but it's not going to derive
58:15
what's coming right out of your head.
58:16
And, and so I think it's really important that we keep sharing
58:19
that those things and those perspectives, because I think
58:21
that the human part of what makes us human will be the thing
58:23
that outlives the. AI, being a genuine human being,
58:29
is undefeated in the history of time.
58:32
I love that. That's a great way of saying
58:34
it's undefeated. I love that.
58:35
Well, cool. Well, thanks so much, Jay.
58:37
I really appreciate you taking the time to visit with me this
58:39
afternoon. I learned a lot about you.
58:40
I mean, what an exciting career. So thanks so much for taking the
58:43
time. I appreciate you man.
58:44
Right. Thank you.
58:46
Absolutely. And thanks so much to everybody
58:47
who tunes in the podcast this week and every week.
58:50
And we'll see you guys.