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Social Fabric Sessions: E12 Keith Pape · The Marketing Brief

• Brian: Hello and welcome back to the Marketing Brief podcast. I am your host, Brian Aquan, and this is the podcast where we talk about anything, maybe tangentially associated with marketing. We reach out pretty far and then we come back. this is also a special subset of our marketing brief podcast called the Social Fabric Sessions, in which we meet members of the Social Fabric. And today I'm very excited to be joined by Keith Pape. Keith, welcome into the po podcast. Keith/YPM: Hey sir, thanks so much for having me. I felt I feel like Brian: It's exciting. Keith/YPM: we did this just in in time. I I wasn't even thinking about when we booked it, but I got back Brian: Uh-huh. Keith/YPM: from Europe from a business trip just a couple days ago, and I swear I just started sleeping normally like yesterday or the day before. I think two days ago this podcast could have gone off the rails because I had no Brian: Yes. Keith/YPM: idea my brain was not sure what it was doing. Brian: All right. Well, we'll see how it goes, but now I might be wish wishing for that, Keith. Keith/YPM: There we go. Brian: Well, we've been having people introduce themselves without saying what they do for a living. Is that a good challenge for you? Is that something you think you can Keith/YPM: I I like it. Brian: do? Keith/YPM: Hold on. I'm in biz dev, so I can I know I know how to say a lot of words without actually saying anything useful. So that that should be an easy one for me. Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: so what what I do, what the company does, some combination of the both. What's what's the assignment here? Just me. who am I without Brian: No, just you as Keith. Who are you? Yeah. Yeah. Keith/YPM: saying what I do? You know, I've been compared to the rock as potentially his body double a few times. occasionally I've I've been mistaken for a very fast runner. you know, let's see what what what else can we say about me that that we've done? my grandchildren are confused, you know, who I am half the time. So, you know, along those lines of somewhere between you know, looking like Dwayne Johnson, getting out there and and getting a marathon done and trying to be present with with my ever growing family. I I you know somewhere in there is is who I am in that circle. Brian: How how big is the family now? Keith/YPM: I my middle son just had his first, which is means that's my that's my fourth grandchild. So I have three Brian: Wow. Keith/YPM: children and four grandchildren. Brian: Amazing. Congratulations on that. Keith/YPM: So we're so we're doing we're we're we're we're we're replicating the world, we're gonna try to make a basketball team here eventually. And Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: so and somehow none of my kids played the all my kids are athletes, but none of them played the same sport. And it wasn't out of spike. I always hear like, you know, this sibling didn't want to play this sport because their older brother didn't they wouldn't be compared to them. Nope. Mine all just had their their own separ separate ways, so the nice thing is I got to be a micro expert in three different youth sports. Brian: Yeah. And I'm sure you built communities around those sports and the people you met there. Is that something that kind of happened? Keith/YPM: Absolutely. I think I thought that was always the best part is that, you know, we all work, I think ri in marketing and advertising, we work a lot of hours. We try, you know, especially if we're on the account biz dev side, you spend all the time traveling. So having those, you know, basketball sports dads and baseball moms and all that gave me somebody else to talk to and another another subject to pretend like I knew something about. Brian: Yeah. And I'm sure those were those I I'm sure you can talk to them. Like I'm getting that sense. Keith/YPM: The I yeah, I'm I'm very shy. Well I'm really to amp it up for today. Brian: Well, we've been s exploring the idea that relationships shape opportunity. I know you're a multi entrepreneur, a multi opportunity. Keith/YPM: Sure, then we'll call that a a mo a a five time failure? No, no, you're entrepreneur, that's what we call it today. Yeah, absolutely. That that's what it is. It's g it's Brian: Yeah. Well you just keep going until it works, right? But this current iteration is working. Keith/YPM: just hard headedness. That that's what my wife says. She's just like, you just you're like a dog with a bone, just you won't give up. I'm like, I don't even remember what the purpose was. I'm just like, I'm I'm going now. We we got this thing. Brian: You're going, you're going. Do you have you found that through your career that you've made relationships or from relationships, you've found new opportunities to kind of go into the next thing? Keith/YPM: absolutely. Like, I'm a terrible salesperson. I I I tried it one time where I actually had a job where I actually had to like, you know, you physically you actually had a number of phone calls you had to make per day, the number of email contacts. Brian: Mm. Keith/YPM: I was terrible. You know, it's already at that point I'd I'd had a decent network. You know, some of our our friends, the you know, the the the AJs and Coreys and Danny's like you and I were talking about, I knew them already. I'm like, well, no, I just I I start working on my network and I I've met this person here and this guy works in this industry. And they were like, no, no, no, no. You have this list and you gotta make these phone calls, you gotta do this thing. it was a complete disaster. I I only operate by I know this guy. Let me ask him how how would I do that? How do I fix that? Or Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: how how do I find somebody? I only know how to do things through people I know, which always made me wonder, like in the early days of LinkedIn. People who just like accept everybody on LinkedIn. They just, you know, remember you used to everyone used to use the the lion thing at the end of their their name? And it basically meant they they were just trying to accumulate as many people on their it's like the people who used to go to events with us. And you could see they'd Brian: Mm-hmm. Keith/YPM: slide into the group, they'd collect everybody's card. Elton would be like, Where'd that where'd that guy go? You know, it's like, wow, he really took everybody's card and just absolutely left, you know, trying to trying to go. I can't do it. I've got to Like I know everyone on my LinkedIn. Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: I may I may have to like look at the I have to cheat, look at the contact date from when we connected. Because Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: you know some of them are, you know, some now are almost 20 years ago on LinkedIn. So I have to say, where was I and where were they? And then I'm like, I remember you you don't know, you don't keep up with everybody all the time. But I make sure that everyone I've added, I've had a I've had a one-on-one conversation with at least once. Brian: So this is ours. We've we're checking ours off right now. Keith/YPM: That's it, done. BFFs, you you're you're gonna get pictures of my kids that you don't want. It's it's you know, I'm gonna open up my my airdrop on my on my iPhone so that way you you just automatically get everything, every picture I take, you're gonna be like, fuck no, d deny. Brian: Yeah. Everyone's on the everyone's on the family group chat now. Keith/YPM: yeah, everybody. well, and I came from a tiny family, and my wife is one of ten brothers and sisters. Brian: Uh-huh. Keith/YPM: So I I think I I always leaned that way. We we say that my wife and I are real are you watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding. That's that's us exactly. You know, one's from this this really big loud family, and then there's just two people with two kids, one boy and one girl. And they're just sitting there overwhelmed. And that that was my family when we started. But I'll tell you, Brian: Wow. Keith/YPM: I had I have two boys from my first marriage. And about 30 seconds into my into my wife's family, they're like, Yep, this is where we belong. And they're like, We're having immediately my oldest son was like, I'm having like 10 kids when I grow up. This is great. Brian: my gosh, that's awesome. Keith/YPM: Thank goodness he stopped at three, but Brian: Yeah, he's stopped at three. That's good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I Keith/YPM: He said he got to three and said, Okay, this is a lot more work than I realized. Brian: bet. I know you went to school in California. Were you were you born in California? Keith/YPM: Yeah, I was born and raised out in Ventura County out in Simi Valley. You know, back in the Brian: Nice. awesome. Keith/YPM: Orange Grove days, you know, very quiet, very small. You know, we we moved there like literally I think we see I was born in sixty eight. And so I think in seventy is when we moved to Simi. For I l I lived in Simi from like seventy to to mostly until eighty six, although there's a little a couple of years gap in there where we're where we live somewhere else, but like I grew up in that Ventura County Orange Orchard, just super quiet, you know, kind of that that very traditional kind of 80s lifestyle, that quiet, suburban, just super silent, which is probably why I joined the army almost immediately and volunteered to go to another country. I'm like, get me out of here. I got I got shit to do. Brian: Just wanna get some chaos in your life. Keith/YPM: I'm so I watched Stripe, saw what was possible, wanted to get myself an urban assault vehicle and and and on off I off I was and wow. I I had I had some things to learn, but you know, it was it was a good start. Brian: Yeah. And that took you to a couple of different places. You said you were in Germany for a little while, right? Keith/YPM: Yeah, that was actually I that was the guarantee I wanted. I'm like that they're like, you know, you could go to Kentucky or you can go to Georgia, you know, you can go to, you know, you know, Texas. And I'm like, no, no. I want to go like Japan or Europe or, you know, what I want a foreign country. They're like, you want to? Great. We can we can guarantee you that immediately. I'm like, Yes. Because in stripes, that's where they go. They go to Germany, you Brian: Nice. Sure. Keith/YPM: know. They they they they drive the R V and o off to the races they were and so I was sure that's what it was going to be like. It was not, but I had a good time. Yeah, right. Brian: Yeah, you were just following the screenplay. That's awesome. Well, you're part of the South Social Fabric. I'm part of the social fabric. We're Keith/YPM: Yep. Brian: excited to to be part of this community together. what is it either you bring to the social fabric or you get from the social fabric? Like kind of get to the reason of like, why would you join social fabric? Keith/YPM: I mean I think you know first thing was, you know, AJ and Corey are starting something, so it's like, yep, I'm you know Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: friends, history, background, I'm in, what can I do to help? What what what are we doing? Brian: Mm-hmm. Keith/YPM: You know, let's fuck some shit up, you know. And they're like, they're like, awesome, we knew we could count on you. And I'm and I was in. But but like I said, but my MO is I'm I'm a terrible, you know, my entire career, I'm I am a terrible dialing for dollars guy. I I I would have never made it if those guys, you know, hadn't taken me under their wing, you know, these those guys and Joey Dumont and you know, if they hadn't taken me under their wing at iMedia in like 2004, you know, because it was it was it was internet days but pre social media days. And and I've never had I've never fit into a traditional mold. You know, I'm not a you know. I try to be engineer. I was a terrible engineer. I was good at talking to the users and understanding what they wanted, but my engineering was sketchy at best, you know. And but because I started there, early digital agencies wanted nothing to do with me. They're like, well, you're not an account guy. You know, you you have this technology degree. You're, you know, I didn't fit anybody's mold. I I nothing, nothing fit right. And so if it wasn't for like iMedia and those kind of guys in the early days, where I'm like, I can meet these people. And you know, the the the John Durham's of the world were like, okay, let me take you under your wing, young man. Here, here's how Brian: Nice. Keith/YPM: it works. Here's, you know, one, don't don't step past midnight. It's a bad idea. Nothing productive happens. And then I met everybody else and that that went out the window. But, you know, Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: but you know, people like John brought me in the in said, okay, things are changing. I can see you're different. Don't try to sell these people. Don't try to get deals out of these people. Meet them, make friends with them, see how you can help. Just just participate and contribute, and all that other stuff will work out. And that was like, Brian: Mm-hmm. Keith/YPM: I swear, that was like day one or day two at my first iMedia with the the the John Durham and Joey and you know Danny Fishman and these guys. And it was Brian: Mm-hmm. Keith/YPM: like that whole group, everyone was like. Take a chill, it'll be okay, you know, get to meet everybody. And it's been true. And my I built my entire career, good, bad, and ugly, on just how how can I contribute? How can I be there? What can I do to help? And it's like the the money, the sales, the deals, the business ideas, all that stuff kind of worked out because I Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: just tried to be part of each group and couldn't, you know. give more than I was getting. And Brian: Hmm. Keith/YPM: you know, just kind of staying in staying in that world, it it just it always kind of worked. There was always there was always enough. Brian: Yeah. The the give more than give more than you're you're taking is always a great, Keith/YPM: Yeah. Brian: great mantra to go into. I remember those those iMedias were awesome. Keith/YPM: Yeah. Brian: I also remember that time in digital media where the sales side, the buy side, the research side, the leadership side, everyone was working together to build an industry that was kind of like Keith/YPM: Right. Brian: just trying to get a seat at the table, right? You know, like T Keith/YPM: Yeah, there were there were no rules that everybody was just trying to figure it out. So it's like we all better be in this together because we have no idea how this is going to work and traditional advertising wanted nothing to do with it. Brian: Nope. Yeah. We had no measurement. Yeah, we didn't we didn't have any any of the stuff that we have now. Keith/YPM: Yeah. I'm like, I'm like, these are my these are my people because the they they are all the what do they used to call it the old Christmas thing? The I island of thrown out toys of misfit toy. Brian: the misfit toys. Keith/YPM: Right? Yeah, yeah. That was us. That was all the digital media people. We're all like we don't know what we're we're doing, we just know we want to do something different. Brian: Yeah, that's true. I I have really fond memories of of those times in New York. That's awesome. Keith/YPM: Absolutely. Brian: Well, I've been asking people when's the last time they danced. Do you know when the last time you danced was, Keith? Keith/YPM: the la well the last time I danced was probably a day or two ago because I will Brian: Okay. Keith/YPM: absolutely just bust out in something horrible that embarrasses my daughter as much as you if you if we're watching some, you know, early 2000s, you know, Jim Carrey movie or you know, some something that something goofy or or a Ryan Reynolds movie. If he's dancing, I'm dancing. So I I will just bust out in the middle of the of the carpet because my daughter at who's who's nineteen, absolutely like, God, please. And I'll I'll do it in front of her friends. I I do not Brian: Ha ha. Keith/YPM: care who's there. You know, probably formally, I think the last wedding I went to was, you know, probably two or three years ago. But you can't stop this. I I think I've I'm Brian: Can't stop it. Keith/YPM: I'm the I'm the Kevin James of of advertising. I I will just bust a move wherever we're at, you know, no matter whether music's playing or not. Brian: Yeah. Kevin James of advertising might be the the title of this podcast. Keith/YPM: I'm totally okay with that. That that I think that's a win. Brian: Yeah, totally. Well, you've mentioned some of the people that have helped you along the way. I've been asking people who you would nominate to join the social fabric or to come on and and kind of have a conversation with us. Is there anyone that comes to the top of that list? Keith/YPM: So far, everyone that everyone that I've talked to the guys about, we've already brought in. And then a buddy of mine, I was just thinking about the other day, Jason Covey, got brought in by somebody else. I was like, damn it. Every Brian: There you go. Keith/YPM: I'm like, I I keep on thinking, like, this would be this be a really cool person. And they're like, welcome to. I'm like, man. So Brian: Mm-hmm. Keith/YPM: it's like I gotta, I gotta start thinking about the the that next level of person. They're they're all moving so quickly. And I think in the early days, I think I I was lucky along with you, like being in the in that very first group. So Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: immediately started pouring on, you know, everybody I could think of to to to AJ and Corey. And we were, you know, doing those invites early. Now Brian: Yeah. Keith/YPM: I got it's like I start thinking again, like, okay, who haven't I talked to for a little while, or who's in this other group that that I could pull in? Brian: Yeah. Well maybe we'll think of someone and we'll tag when Keith/YPM: Okay. Brian: when we put the episode up in a couple of weeks. But you know, we could call out Keith/YPM: Absolutely. Brian: Chris Cunningham. We can call out Danny Fishman for sure. Yeah. Keith/YPM: There you go. That that'll be our start. Like I said, if not, now that it's in my brain, I know in the next couple of days I'll I'll I'll have two or three that I send over to you. Brian: Nice. All right. We'll do that. Well, thank you so much for for having this brief conversation with me on the Marketing Brief podcast. Keith/YPM: Yeah, absolutely. nothing mom my mom says I enjoy more than the sound of my own voice. So, you know, and any time I she can get me to talk to somebody else instead of calling her, I think that's probably a win. Brian: And I look forward to meeting you on the twenty fifth. Will you be at the meetup? Awesome. Keith/YPM: Yeah, absolutely. you know, sta standard LA is that it's completely on the opposite side of the world where I live from. I'm like I'm like, nope, I don't care. It's eight forty five in the morning and I gotta cross, you know, West Hollywood. I I'm gonna get there. Brian: Well, that's a good time to try to cross West Hollywood, right? At least it's early in the morning. Keith/YPM: it probably probably is. Hopefully, you know, the there's some sanity going on that way. Brian: I love it. Well, you've been a very a very fun guest. It was great to get to know you on this podcast. I look forward to meeting you IRL in real life as we do Keith/YPM: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, exactly. Brian: in in in the social fabric. Keith/YPM: Thanks, Brian, I really appreciate it. Brian: Yeah. And to the listeners out there, stay curious. Find your community.