Latest / Story Scaling / Building Brands in the Attention Economy | With Jeremy Bobo

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Building Brands in the Attention Economy | With Jeremy Bobo · Story Scaling

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Storyscaling by Podcastvideos.com, where creators share the truth behind the content, the grind, and the growth.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and family, I am Jeremiah Pickett.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: You may know me as Bang of Podcastvideos.com.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: This is Story Scaling, and I have an excellent brother with me.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: But before we get into that, before we get into that, I want to thank you guys for watching these videos.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Please continue to like, subscribe.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: If there's anything impactful, share it with a friend.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: If there's someone that you would like to see on the pond, make sure to reach out and let me know.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And uh we appreciate you.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: But right now, we're about to get into it.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for this one.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: To my right, I have the one and only.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm Jeremy Bobo.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm pre-media manager at Walmart Corporate, uh, also uh founder and CEO of District 21, a micro uh mini-agency associated with content creation, uh, the advancement of AI generated generative AI creation.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and just happy to be here.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: I was on this show in 2021 when it was evolving.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Eric Howarton and I had the opportunity to get together, jam, laugh, talk about the advancement of retail.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it was about, I think it was called uh when you when you work with Walmart, Walmart will help you.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: And that's funny because it's that's a lot of what has developed me here in this area and this geological location is the the development of Walmart and what it's done to this community.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: So happy to be here.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: Thankful.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me, my man.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna get into the bio.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: I did a little research, a little digging, and uh and this this is what the streets are saying about Jeremy Bobo.
1:46
SPEAKER_02: Cool.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: All right, so you tell me either either we spot on, you rocking with it, tell me what we need to change, and we'll go from there.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Cool?
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me, brother.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: It says today's guest is Jeremy Bobo, a creative entrepreneur, brand strategist, and pillar of the Northwest Arkansas marketing community.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Originally from Little Rock, Jeremy's journey began at the intersection of tech, art, moving from studying computer science to becoming a nationally recognized figure in the music industry.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: In 2006, Jeremy secured an MCV royalty contract and later opened for Snoop Dogg in front of thousands of people.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Experiences that refined his ability to capture attention and tell high-stakes stories.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: He eventually pivoted that creative hustle into the corporate world, serving as a senior leader for one of the region's top marketing firms before co-founding District 21 Group.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: As co-owner of District 21 and founder of One Life Events, Jeremy blends high-level retail strategy with grassroots content creation.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Known for his corporate creative expertise, he helps brands navigate the digital landscape while remaining deeply committed to community service and mentorship in the Rogers area.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, Jeremy Bobo.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: Is that it?
2:57
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty good.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty good.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm uh a million years old.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of the things you talked about.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of different chapters.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: But you know, thankful.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, that's the journey.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: You know, I started as as a kid out of Little Rock.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, soccer, probably, and playing and being an athlete took me to an area where I could go to college.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: Because otherwise, in our family, we wouldn't you don't go to college unless you got enough scholarship, something that gets you there.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: And I'm thankful that I played a sport that got me to Lion College, Bakefield, Arkansas.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Lion College.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: My brother went there.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Lion.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: They built me up small uh college, but it you get that spell, that little more uh hands-on attention class.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: You can write a little more and do a little more.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: And so I was a computer science major and I was a uh scholarship uh at uh thankful that I got a scholarship to play.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: And that grew me up.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: That got me out of where I was born.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: So y'all didn't even know that.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know you played soccer.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: I played soccer for 16 years.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: I played soccer from five years old to 22.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: Are you so the majority of my life I played in London and Scotland when I was 17 for like a growth camps?
4:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh I think that was three months in London or two months in London, one month in Scotland.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: But to kind of skip through that was that was me getting out of the inner city life I was born in, had an opportunity to go study abroad a little bit, uh, travel, get out of the country, go to college.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: But to you know, to bounce between those two things was the the journey to travel abroad and play soccer got me the opportunity to get the scholarship to go to Wright College.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it got me out of Little Rock, Arkansas.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know about Little Rock, Arkansas.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: I love my city, I love where I'm from, but I had uh uh my eyes were open to other opportunities in that chapter.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: So man, when when you think about that bio that I just read, there are so many different things.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, I you got experience.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thanks uh across so many different sectors.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we talk about tech, we talk about music, we talk about marketing, and you've what I would consider, you know, from where I said, you've excelled in each of these individual realms, depending on how you define success.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: And so what stands out to you most when you hear about these things?
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm sure you don't think about the fact that, like, oh, I did this, I did that like every day, it might not be top of mind.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: So, what's one of those things that just jumps out at you when you hear some of those things that you've done?
5:40
SPEAKER_01: The pinnacle would be one on one 40 under 40.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: You think about the people like Camera Smith from our town, anybody that knows the peeler people in our community.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: Camera Smith, he passed away a few years ago.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: I was happening to be thankful to be on a uh not a podcast like this, but it was more of an interview.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of Northwest Arkansas Live.
6:05
SPEAKER_01: It was a TV section.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh it was a it was a collaborative of several people put together to talk about how the community is growing, what things need to happen, sure, how will we move forward?
6:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh Cameron Smith was big in that, and I got to meet him at that time.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: But 40 under I want 40 under 40 right after that.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: Thankful for that.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: Yay, but it's more about the the accumulation of impact that got me an opportunity to win 40 under 40, and I think it was 2021.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: And that's when I started District 21 as a micro content creator to start putting out content that would generate ye tons of views, but it wasn't about me, it was about the community.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was about what's changing in the creative industry.
6:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah um, so yeah, try to try to like sum it all up.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: You know, music was huge in my life in a chapter eight to ten years in the music industry, yeah.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh traveling and creating music specifically, but then during that time I had to create content to make the music popular.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we had to create my space, my space, my time.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: The real ones remember, the real ones remember.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: You have to have enough viewership and enough adoption and followers and fans.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: I can go into that.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Everything needs a fan.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about this.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Sure, right?
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's let's I don't want to interrupt, but I want to pause you because again, you have a unique experience to where nowadays you can get in front of a million people just by posting something online.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: When you were coming up in the music business, if you wanted to be in front of a million people, you probably had to talk to 500,000 of them in their face and learn how to navigate some of these newer spaces like the internet when it was just becoming and so I want you to talk a little bit about that, whether that's from the music specifically or whether that's from content creation, talk about how things have changed and how it used to go for you.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Like, what did you have to do to get popping back in 08 in 2010?
8:11
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, what did that talk about that?
8:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, you look at speakers and influencers, one specific that comes to mind to try to answer their question the best I can is Gary V.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: Gary Vanderchuk.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: He has always been looking at what's the next MySpace, what's the next platform that allows us to tell a story.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: And his content now is changed over the last decade, but his content now is you have an opportunity to put out one video that changes the world.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: Chili's was have a struggling.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: And a girl on her break put out a video about some cheese sticks, and 40% of their lift was cheese, was a uh a video about cheese sticks for the next video couple of years.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about a lady um from China that that put some bags and some handbags and different things like 200% lift.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't possible when we were when I was making music.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't possible when I was coming up.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: So constant creation of visuals and videos, static imagery and videos was all we could do and try to get it on whatever platform was available, SoundCloud, your MySpace.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: But if that wasn't it, it was Gorilla Marketing.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Talk about nobody even understands that term exists as much.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: Gorilla marketing is face-to-face interaction.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: It's going to Memphis in May, it's going to your local whatever, it's being competing in a talent event, talent show.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: It's going out and speaking with your local community.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: You talk about products.
9:56
SPEAKER_01: There's so much to think about.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: You go to your local farmers market.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: I just talked to somebody about their farmers market presence and their setup.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: What's your mark?
10:04
SPEAKER_01: What's your signage print media?
10:06
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was marketing.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: What's your experience?
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Like what's their interaction with you uh face-to-face?
10:13
SPEAKER_01: So that it was way more of that and a little bit of digital.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: So we just had to be present.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: So it was traveling, it was meetings, it was printing off fires.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: That's still a thing.
10:26
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: Print media is huge.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: Um, that's kind of what I'm doing now on the Walmart side.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: But in regards to answering your question, it was more about physical interaction, a sprinkle of what you can do on content creation and getting some followership.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
10:45
SPEAKER_01: And mixing the two.
10:47
SPEAKER_01: And then it's about the product.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily music, but any product, it's got to be making a difference.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be solving a problem.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be making someone's life, it's got to be entertaining.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: Whatever bucket you're trying to fulfill, the product, whatever that is, it's got to fulfill a bucket.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: And then that's how you grow uh from a marketing perspective.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: And then it's it's like a it's like music faders.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: Well about music.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: It's like the faders.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: You slide up the treble, you slide up the base, you slide down, whatever you to EQ it.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: It depends on what industry, what silo you're in, the that tells you what you need to focus on more, whether it be podcast, whether it be digital, whether it be audio only, whether it be ebook, whether it be physical presence speaking.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, I mean, it's faceless companies.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: It's companies that don't even need a vote face because what they're doing in a digital space is what the product is.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: That's a big open canopy until you narrow down what industry am I in?
11:53
SPEAKER_01: What am I after?
11:53
SPEAKER_01: What am I trying to sell?
11:55
SPEAKER_01: But just to ask your question, my experience was started with music and content creation.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: That bent into me loving creating content, whether it be a digital content or print content.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Then I landed at a marketing agency where I was able to work on properties like Paw Patrol.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: Hello Kitty, Nickelodeon products like uh SpongeBob, and it was Walmart Focused.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: What is that again?
12:21
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about some of the biggest brands in the world right now.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Bluey.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Bluey's resurfacing, that's funny, and Barney.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: But kids, kids' properties is what kind of opportunity, thankful to work on just the content for those brands.
12:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: And coming from making covers for music and hip hop culture to just know that whatever visuals you have is gonna help you sell.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: I was thankful to get into a marketing agency where I was challenged to use whatever Adobe creative skill sets I had is to go, Hello, here's some Hello Kitty assets.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: That's way a different perspective.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: Create something or help us create something that we put on shelf, that we put on digital, that we put on our website.
13:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: When you talk about, you said something and it made me think about something for the first time.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Maybe when you were doing music, it was probably 90% in person, face-to-face, hand-to-hand, and 10%, you know, internet, anything else.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: I feel like now that's inverted.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: It's probably 90% internet, digital, and 10% face-to-face in person.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't imagine, you know, I did a festival, I bang in the gang is my annual music festival, and I I went around and I passed out flyers and put them in people's hands.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, maybe we did 500 flyers.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: And it was great because it more than anything, it gave me that feeling of like, no, you gotta connect with the people.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of those people was like, I'm not interested, you know, and so you talk about I want you to talk about that.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: I want I want you to talk about how that guerrilla marketing builds something in you because they say people who were born with certain privileges, when things go bad, they can't adapt.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: But for somebody that's been on the street and had to see a person put their CD down after they gave it to them, like the one you worked on.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: You the one you worked hard on.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: Talk about that and and how that experience now will support you when things have changed.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Because you know, it's a different game now.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: But what did those skills build that you can carry over into today's, you know?
14:41
SPEAKER_01: So uh blanket statement of another influence that I follow.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: And this one I follow my influence is fall is following other influences.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: John Bryant goes nowadays, if you have a high school education and no hustle, you're gonna fail.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: That's that's blunt, but break that down.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it in years past, if you had a high school education, you were getting to be cream of the crop, and then you go to college.
15:09
SPEAKER_01: You're cream of the crop.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Now it is it is uh experiential uh experience.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you've been out and you've been rejected, you understand how to accept rejection.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, we press CDs all night till three in the morning, pass them out at Memphis and May 5,000 copies, and you see a few on the street on your walk back.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: And as you pick them back up and put them back in your backpack, but then you know that you got 1,000 to 2,000 out, and you get that email or your message on MySpace that we love your CD, and I live if somebody in Alaska said, I got your CD somehow, I'm in Alaska.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't even know.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: So even break that down.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: So Jeremy, when you say, because nowadays, like we think it's hard to create a caption on your phone that you so when you say you press CDs to three in the morning, what does that even mean?
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Like, talk about the process of printing a CD.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: And CDs, nobody even buys CDs anymore.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: Those Hastings is there any is there?
16:19
SPEAKER_01: Hastings done.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: I think the last one is down with Blockbuster, God bless them.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: But uh press CDs, we would just create tracks depending on whether it's 12 to 14, whatever it's an EP or if we'll LP, and we would burn it with a burning device, a computer, or a burning tower to one, and then you can create copies.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: So we had a tower that had you you enter, I don't know, I think it was like a deck of 10 CDs, and the top CD was the one that had the 14 tracks on it, and it would duplicate to the other nine, then you add 10.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: Then we would buy jewel cases, we would I would design the inserts, which were the faces, whatever that graphic would be, put the the uh the assortment of tracks and the names and the duration and the CD cover and the C back.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
17:13
SPEAKER_01: And we would sit there and insert those CD uh covers into the jewel cases, take the uh CDs out of the press machine, which is just a tower that pressed from the first one.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: The first one is the core content and it just duplicates buying to the other nine.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: You got 10.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: And you got 10, and you got 10, you're talking hours of hours for a couple of weeks until you get a big giant box full of your final products.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: That was CDs.
17:42
SPEAKER_01: That was to create your own.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Now, in the bigger industry, you would send that content off and go to a manufacturer.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: But for us, we would just make two or three hundred at a time, pass them out, and it was a give and take.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: Either we would be focusing on a sales effort at an event, or be focusing on it's an opportunity to give one of these out to 500 people.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: We just go give them out and eat the cost.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that's old, it's old school to me now saying it out loud.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: But that was a time frame where you had to choose, and then then you can bring it to today where you either put out content that is someone's purchasing on a subscription, go to YouTube.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: People are crushing YouTube right now with DYI projects and rebuilding engines or many construction projects or creating cupcakes.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: Man, you can do anything on a digital platform now, and either you gotta choose, depending on how your following's growing, you gotta either do it in a way where you're making sure they subscribe because you need the$2.15 subscriptions, which think about Netflix, they're crashing it.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: It's a company called um oh, it's a company called Flex.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: Most people may or may not know about this.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: I've heard renting.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you're a renter, I hope everybody can buy a house in any point in their life, a million times over.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: But if you're a renter and you go to what's called Flex, you can split your rent in half.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: They're flexing half of your rent.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: You only pay a half, and then they pay the rest, and you pay them back later.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: So you can spread out your rent cost.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: Same thing as Netflix.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying the business model going back into what we're talking about.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: It's like$14 a month.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: And you get to pay half your rent up front the first of the month, and pay the rest later in the month.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: But their their module is around$14 a month.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: It's just like Netflix.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: Go look at their subscription quantity.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Or$20 plus$16.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, back to from from years past, you needed to focus on is it uh do I need to give a product for free to get a following and adoption, or do I need in a certain way and put a cap on that, or do I need to make sure it's all marginal and all sales?
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: In today's industry, it's when you talk about digital, it's if do you want to make it all subscription-based or do you want to give a ton of free content out?
20:13
SPEAKER_01: I got some people I watch on YouTube to study the model.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: Gary B.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: Lots of free.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: But then when it's time to purchase the subscriptions, the free following has gotten them to a place where it's very profitable.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: And then it even goes to the nonprofit.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: It's not always about, it's about impact.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: So you can go to nonprofits.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they need you to sign up for a dollar for the Jude, yeah, St.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: Jude at the register because the impact is crazy and they just need a dollar from you.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a commitment.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: But then they're doing a bunch of whatever else for free.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: They're donating, giving back, or they're doing these big, you know, get me on.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: It's a guy, it's a guy, John.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: I've been studying this John Bryant guy lately.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: It's just newer to me.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: Outside of, I've been stuck on Gary V for a decade.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: But John Bryant, you know, outside of traditional business development, he just gives gifts.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: And then, okay, it's kind of like a it's kind of like a uh what's the guy behind um, oh, I'm going blank for a second.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: That's the guy behind um oh man.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm going blank on the other influencer.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: It's influencers that do things to get publicity.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Then once they get that viewership, they turn it into giving back.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: You're not talking about Mr.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: Beast.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Beast, sorry, you ran my mind.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm tired.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: And Mr.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: Beast.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: No, Mr.
21:41
SPEAKER_01: Beast started with just content that was random.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Now he gave a whole community a neighbor, he built houses for a whole neighborhood and built a soccer field in the middle of it.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: And all that money that he used to do that was from subscriptions to his YouTube channel.
21:59
SPEAKER_01: So it's not.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily him losing any money, he's just channeling that money.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: But then the story of him building a community and putting a soccer field in the middle of it and giving free houses to a whole bunch of families.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's monetizing that.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: So it's like picking and choosing.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: It is a non-profit world that makes you successful.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: And there's a profit world, obviously, that makes you successful, but you have to kind of you really come on.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: This is opinion.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: We're asking for your opinion.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need on the show.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: None of this is facts.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, when you say, you know, you got to choose either this is marketing assets and you are building your community, or you got a bottom line and you need to monetize.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: How do you know which bucket you fall in in your experience?
22:47
SPEAKER_01: In my experience, again, I've been in just the creative and the marketing side of things, but you know, you know, it depend it.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: But you you gotta you sit at a unique intersection because you've worn both hats.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Like you've been the artist that needs to get the money to go to the show and get back home.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: And you've been the the the brand side of things that needs people to see this and it to appeal in order for them to make an investment with their dollar.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: And so you you you have a unique perspective because you've been both.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, what would you say to that person that's like, man, how do I decide if whether it's music, whether it's a product, whether it's YouTube videos, how do I decide to give this content for free and then try to monetize later or just come out the gate?
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, what would you say?
23:30
SPEAKER_00: It's your juncture in your journey.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: Where are you at and what intersection are you at?
23:36
SPEAKER_01: If you are in a, I don't like the word desperate, if you are in a startup, you're gonna need to monetize fairly quickly.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: So you need to drive uh uh a brand campaign that starts monetization, or you're not gonna have anything to stand on.
23:55
SPEAKER_01: But if you're in a juncture where you have monetized enough to get you to the next street, if you're talking about streets or intersects intersections, then you need, then you have the opportunity to go ahead and do some giveaways and some campaigns that are just for the community of give backs and some free content.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: But don't think, you know, I hope when you get to that juncture, you don't think of it as I'm losing money and wasting time.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: You're actually building your next chapter.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: That's investment in yourself.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: That's investment in yourself because you're getting adoption, visibility.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if people going, oh, I know, I remember this, or uh making a connection.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: Then when you drop your next project or release your next product or do your next thing, yeah, whatever business, call it Eric Harrington.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when you start your next business, you already have the platform of people that know what you do, yeah, generally.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: So it's really to answer the question is whatever juncture you're at.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: But I would say when you're a startup startup, yeah, and that's your first time to make an impact, you do need to try to think of monetization if you're a for-profit business.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, I got a I got a question that you made me think of before I get there.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: It's it's how do you make it today?
25:20
SPEAKER_00: But but before I get there, you said something that I think is important.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to skip over it.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Eric Howardton, the founder of podcastvideos.com, has a very unique perspective where there's no wasted interactions.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: If you can have a conversation with somebody, it don't matter if it that is CFO, it don't matter if they're sweeping the floor, it's not a wasted interaction.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: If you can go to an event, it don't matter if it's 10,000 people or 10, it is not a wasted interaction.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: He's like you, grassroots, old school, guerrilla marketing is his background, right?
25:48
SPEAKER_00: And so for people, I speak to business owners all the time, and they're like, man, is that is that a waste of money, me marketing myself?
25:57
SPEAKER_00: And I know you can cringe when I say, like, just hearing that probably make your skin crawl, but it's but how do you reframe that perspective, whether you're a musician, whether you're a tech company and you're trying to get visibility, how can you change this concept in your mind that marketing yourself is a waste of money?
26:16
SPEAKER_00: What would you say to that person?
26:18
SPEAKER_01: That's tough.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm gonna try to frame it the best way I can and say that's an old school mentality to think that marketing yourself is a waste because a lot of times it was uh years and decades of marketing agencies trying to convince brands.
26:36
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about retail for a second.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, marketing agencies in years past had to convince, like shake, grab them by the ears and explain to brands andor emerging product group developers or whatever companies, whatever industry.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you need to market yourself.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: It was years and decades of explaining that.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: And then once they got on board, they would see that that was how they would get the visibility enough to get adoption of a very expensive process.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: It's your focus group.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: The world is your focus group.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: You have to bounce your idea off of the world, whether it be an AI product, I can go.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: You have to shut these cameras off.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: No, no, we roll it.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: We roll it on.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: We roll it.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: If we go into AI and go into digital development stuff, but the answer to your question is it used to be, it's old school in my head, the only term I could use to think that you're not supposed to market yourself every single day.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to be yourself.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: It's faceless, it's faceless brands, by the way.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: You don't need a person's face.
27:45
SPEAKER_01: There's brands that just speak for themselves, the product speaks for itself.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: So you can decide on that, right?
27:50
SPEAKER_01: But you have to be present.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: You're none is no one hears a tree fall in the woods.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: You don't know that the tree fell in the woods.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, somebody has to explain that the tree fell in the woods.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: So every single silo of every industry needs some version.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: And even I love nonprofits, like that's why I always get off a profit all the time and sometimes go to nonprofits.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: Some of the best children's miracle network, their marketing team is legit.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: They're marketing so that they can help give back.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: They're not just not just the many cards, like even people that have good positive initiatives, like they need good marketing.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: You have to put your churches, need good marketing.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: The church needs one of the best marketing strategies.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: Because they need the right demographic to come into their church and help them build the church, make them expand the church.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: And then get the kids in so the kids can learn earlier at church.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: That's a good one.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: So that's why I always get off.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, I like to talk about profitability and monetization and mark go to market strategy from a brand with me and you just made this new sneaker brand.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: What do we do on the first day?
29:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: I love talking about that.
29:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: But in the same breath, creating a marketing strategy is for every single thing.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: Even if all of us, most 90% of us give back.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: How are we going to get a help help with that plan if we don't put together a very strong market?
29:21
SPEAKER_01: It might even be you're investing mainly in marketing for the first five years.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: Just invest in marketing and be in the red.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Not at a bad red, or you're not going to survive, but you got to be in the red sometimes and put your content out, whether it be digital, physical, presence, speakers.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: I follow a lot of just speakers that go around to what's called trade shows and speaker seminars.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, some that I've watched a lot of years and then I've seen their content change.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: So I kind of get off and but I find another one.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: Like I've been on this John Bryant.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: I've been on Gary V.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: Gotta check out Gary V.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: You can discern from how he speaks.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Right.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: If you could get past that, he got the idea.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about, he's always seven to ten years ahead.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: And John Bryant said something the other day, and he said, um, if you don't mind me rambling, come on, you listen to the case.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: He said, um, he said it in a and I think the interview was in 2025.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: So he said, from 2025 to 2030, you you've seen companies on 50 years go a certain distance.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: He was like, in those five years, we're gonna see companies go triple the speed because of automation.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: He's like, you go in a CVS, you go on a Walgreens, it used to be eight people checking you out in one test model, uh, self-checkout.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: Now it's eight self-checkouts in one person.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes, stop fearing that AI and automation is taking your jobs.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: It's about whatever industry, if me and you was in the clothing industry, if me and you were in retail, we better quickly get on understanding the speed of automation, the speed of AI innovation, and there we'll be the subject matter experts, the sneeze.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: We gotta be on the cutting edge, or you're last, yeah, and you're behind and you're not ready.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: And it's not cutting out jobs, it's creating jobs.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: When the internet came out, people thought the world was gonna end.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Literally.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: And now we have computers in our pockets, and now we got thousand-dollar iPhones.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: I had a Nokia, man, for that about 88.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: I remember that.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: I remember that.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: My uncle had the sidekick, I had the red.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, and you can get the covers that match the colors, all of that.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: I remember all of that.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: We got the red cover and the green cover.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: I remember all of that.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: And now we in a whole lot of.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: But to be funny, John Brian brought that up.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: I I tried to watch a few things and get prepared for this, but it's like that's to throw that into the mix is what generation are you trying to appeal to from a marketing perspective?
32:01
SPEAKER_01: What platforms and what outlets do you need to be on?
32:04
SPEAKER_01: Or figure out if you don't know, you know, you don't know TikTok and you try to sell some blank, we better figure it out.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: Or hire someone that knows it or has already figured it out.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: That's the other fun part.
32:18
SPEAKER_01: People think they got to do it themselves.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: John Bryant talks about he hired a team.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: He's like, My team's smarter than me.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: But then when it was time for uh incentives, I asked them, snuck around and asked them all their favorite cars.
32:33
SPEAKER_01: He has a video where he brings them to his house for dinner and has some people secretly put their favorite cars.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: He invested a million, they don't have their nonprofit.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: So they don't have bonus structures or incentives or nothing.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: Are you serious?
32:47
SPEAKER_01: He brought his whole team in for dinner to his house, and while they was eating dinner, he had a secret team and over a month or two asked him, Hey man, what's your favorite car?
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: And he put their name on a plaque in front of their car outside when they said, Oh, yeah, we've done eating, come outside.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: And 10 cars are lined up for his staff.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and this is just fluff.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: But I'm saying he was incentivized, same thing Gary V does.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: He figures out, he figures out what his employee, and that's a deeper topic.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: If you figure out what the people who work for you love and really connect with them, not just treat them like regulars and you care for them and incentivize them, they'll work harder than they ever work and they'll help you and help the mission.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: But his company's a nonprofit.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: That's why I keep talking about nonprofits because sometimes people get deep into this, get it, get it, get it.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we're all trying to survive.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: But if you have the right approach, I mean, it's John Bryant's companies are going crazy.
33:47
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at his investments and this and that.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: And again, I we don't have to put all that on there, but the monster, the strategies, and he's giving them all their favorite 10 cars.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: Oh, everyone one car, but he then all of them are sliding up outside and they would just go, I'll work here forever.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's get into this, right?
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Because, like I said, you sit at such a unique intersection.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: You got, I mean, in the bio, I call you the corporate creative.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Because you uh, yeah, nah, thank you, man.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: And thanks for the wisdom.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: And if y'all ain't already subscribed, follow District 21, follow Jeremy Bob all the great work he's doing.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Like this, he's he's full of this.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you were to take an individual today, call him a creative, whether that is a musician, whether that is the next Mr.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Beast, whether that is a a person out there that's watching this from zero, they got an idea.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: They have, you know, we just saw a girl last week get a$2 million check from Dr.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Pepper from writing the jingle that she put on TikTok.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: Bling.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: Didn't think about it.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: Just something, you know what I mean?
34:55
SPEAKER_00: And now the brands are lining up, but she would have never done that.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: Never would have got that opportunity had she not put herself out there.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: So for the person that's watching this, that's maybe afraid to put themselves out there or doesn't know how to put themselves out there, what I want you to do is give your three-step strategy.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: Typically, this is a quick question, like something where I'm like, give me your big do and your big don't do.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: But for you, this is a unique conversation where I think you have a level of insight and intellect.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: And so what I'm asking you is your key to success, whatever that looks like for each person.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: You got to define it for yourself.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: But what would you say if you want to break through in 2026?
35:40
SPEAKER_00: If you want to build, you know, a brand, if you want to get notoriety, if you want to market yourself well, what would you say those three things are?
35:49
SPEAKER_01: That's a tough one.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: You're trying to throw the bull around.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: I I get you a big question, but but but you but you are the person that I can ask that.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: I like it.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: That's a startup.
36:01
SPEAKER_01: And then it's a go-to-market strategy.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: You look at things like what Walmart does.
36:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna skip over that button for a set half a second to try to answer it.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, is they have what's called open call.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: If me and you came out with a seasoning for some baby, for some ribs, yeah.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: We got a prototype.
36:22
SPEAKER_01: We've only invested in the one or two prototypes.
36:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we have an idea.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: The next bit, the other things of one is have the idea.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: You got the idea.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: If we're not sure how to go to market, that's okay.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get there.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: You either and hire people that can help you do that, or you start to think through the steps I'm gonna try to go through.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, have the idea.
36:48
SPEAKER_01: Then you need branding.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people try to skip over branding.
36:52
SPEAKER_01: What is branding?
36:53
SPEAKER_01: Branding is a visual representation of what you whatever the product is.
37:00
SPEAKER_01: If you're an AI company, you need some visual representation logo, visual representation, look and feel, inspiration board theme.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: You came out with some clothes today.
37:15
SPEAKER_01: I think we probably have some browsers and some earth tones because we both got the earth tones on, yeah, the look and feel, and a big coupe of representation, like a logo of whatever.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: So you need a brand image.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: The Nike check, the check, you need uh Mr.
37:33
SPEAKER_01: Beast, that little beast.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: You need a bluey representation, you need something that is the face.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's a face, it's a person.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the person is the brand image.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sometimes the imagery and the content is the image.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: So you need the idea, yeah, you need branding, and that's a whole like again to stop on branding.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: The number two out of your three, you gotta have visual podcast videos.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: Come on, man, look at the car out there, yeah, yeah, and the colors in it, yeah.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: The color theme and the look and the feel.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: So every time somebody opens their eyes and see that, they make a connection.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're selling.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: That's good, and that's what branding is for.
38:17
SPEAKER_01: People skip that, yeah, yeah, and then they're off path because somebody goes, I tasted that, but I don't remember the seasoning was good, but I don't remember what it was called.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's because you didn't have enough strong branding.
38:32
SPEAKER_01: People, I love again, that's another car out there.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
38:36
SPEAKER_01: I saw when it was first wrapped.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: And it's I was like, Yep, do that.
38:42
SPEAKER_01: We can put a hundred things on a whiteboard right now of people and companies or brands with very strong branding.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Children's Miracle Network is the little, the little limp.
38:54
SPEAKER_01: You can't miss it at the register to give the extra dollar or two.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so just to go global representation of big brands to small brands.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: So back to our one, two, three.
39:05
SPEAKER_01: One is the idea.
39:07
SPEAKER_01: Then we gotta get in the mindset of go to market.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: Our go-to-market has to have some visual representation.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: We need to map that out, never change it.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: That's where I have a struggle.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: I've created branding and logos for a lot of teams or a lot of groups uh in years past.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: Then they want to rebrand in a year, rebrand in a year and change it.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: It's muddy.
39:30
SPEAKER_01: People can't keep on remembering that.
39:32
SPEAKER_01: Once you make the M arches, you better have them arches, yeah, or we're gonna forget over time.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: So, off of that bucket.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: Idea, branding, which is a whole system of visuals, yeah.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: Whatever that looks like, whether it be colors and themes or exact logo, whatever.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: The third one would be based on the industry, because again, we're talking about a big open shoot.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:03
SPEAKER_01: If we're in construction, if we're in real estate, if we're in clothing and apparel, if me and you were in digital assets, if we were in, if we were in banking, yeah, yeah, we would choose where are our where our target demon is.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: So then the third bucket.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: I like this, man.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: This is not you.
40:24
SPEAKER_01: It helped me uh say it out loud.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: The third bucket would be to figure out what demographic you're after.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: So that's the thinking bucket first before you do anything.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
40:36
SPEAKER_01: We know what now we just got a whole creative agency or we did it ourselves.
40:39
SPEAKER_01: What's the visuals?
40:40
SPEAKER_01: We know what we look like.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: The third one is a thinking and a brainstorm conversation with the shareholders of the company or the person that's doing it on their own, making cupcakes.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can go as small as whatever you're doing.
40:53
SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: Who am I after?
40:57
SPEAKER_01: What demographic?
40:58
SPEAKER_01: What age group?
41:00
SPEAKER_01: So the word is demographic, but that breaks down into what age group?
41:05
SPEAKER_01: Where are they?
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you might need to do some research.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, are they at the farmers market or in my local area, or do I need to travel to New York?
41:15
SPEAKER_01: Do I need to go to California to these trade shows?
41:18
SPEAKER_01: Ooh, don't give me in the doubt, Bucket, because when I worked at the market agency, we went to CES, which is the biggest release of electronics in the world.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: We went to New York Toy Fair in New York every year.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: It's an annual event.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: It's 100,000 people.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know how many people, maybe not that many, but somewhere around 50,000 people go and every biggest brand, Mattel and Toys.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: Then you go look at Las Vegas' license, Las Vegas licensing show.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: We went every single year and we would meet some of the biggest licensing opportunities and sit with them and ask them for five minutes to chat.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: So then it's like, where do I need to be physically or digitally to re to connect with the people that's gonna make my business successful?
42:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was long-winded.
42:06
SPEAKER_01: No, that's it.
42:07
SPEAKER_01: That's that's one, two, three.
42:08
SPEAKER_01: The third one is what's the rollout strategy and who do I need to connect with?
42:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then if you can do it all on digital, yeah, and you can just put out content and put out a video.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: The girl who made the chili video, that's crazy.
42:21
SPEAKER_01: I saw that today.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, the lady in China that sold eight million dollars in five minutes because they did a handbag thing.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: The lady who did the like gummies, it was like some type of gummy bears or something, and blew that up.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
42:36
SPEAKER_01: That's that's one of those kind of one-hit wonders, but that's where in years past you didn't have the internet opportunity, right?
42:43
SPEAKER_01: So you needed to get in your car and get on a plane.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that third element is what demographic am I trying to reach?
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Whether what type of person, what age group, what executive.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, give me all going.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: You need to know physically where to be and what events to attend or what meeting to ask for.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: It can be the one-to-one.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: It don't have to be a trade show.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it can be reach out 10 times to talk to the CFO of this company so you can just ask them for five minutes about a question.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: The other one could be um your digital presence, LinkedIn.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: It's my favorite game now, but that's changed, bro, since my space and YouTube and LinkedIn and uh Instagram and Facebook.
43:34
SPEAKER_01: My favorite today, it's been all of those.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: My favorite Vine when it was a thing, X.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: I don't even remember.
43:42
SPEAKER_01: They don't even remember Vine.
43:43
SPEAKER_01: Vine, X, TikTok, otherwise, then you gotta be paying attention to what the new ones are coming.
43:48
SPEAKER_01: The new ones gonna come in in the next couple years.
43:50
SPEAKER_01: We better know what the new ones are and beyond it.
43:53
SPEAKER_01: Threads, yeah.
43:55
SPEAKER_01: Threads has been out three years, two, small.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: But it's building a bit to add some things to it.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: But then my favorite at the current day is LinkedIn because I can ask for a Zoom call tomorrow with somebody that I really want to talk to.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: So if you're talking about the music industry, you better be connecting on the music platforms to reach out to the people that you need to make a connection with.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: If you're talking about business and retail, you better be on a my revoke for now is LinkedIn.
44:28
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be something different.
44:29
SPEAKER_01: So that's the third component is connected to making sure you're going after the right, only so much time to release something and break a product or or do it over.
44:42
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's not fast.
44:43
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be super fast.
44:44
SPEAKER_01: It's just got to be impactful.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: For that, for that person that's man, I'm just starting.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who my target is, or or or for that person that's saying, Yeah, my target is everybody.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, me and you know if you speak to everybody, you speak to nobody.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: We get that, but but but what would you say?
45:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't how how do I even find out who I'm talking to?
45:05
SPEAKER_00: Who I don't know who my cupcakes are for.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what this music is for.
45:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who, you know.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: You you do enough research to and then honestly, hide your resources, look up your the most successful.
45:19
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what we're making or what product.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: That's why I like this broad conversation.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: If me and you were making electronics, we would me and you would be sitting in a room reaching out to every electronic buyer, GMM, or buyers, uh, merchants.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:38
SPEAKER_01: We would be looking up in all of I love whiteboard.
45:42
SPEAKER_01: If that sounds old school, but I don't care.
45:44
SPEAKER_01: iPad.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:46
SPEAKER_01: We would jot down the top 10 electronics brands at that time, DJI all the way down, to make sure we're aligned to the success opportunity.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: So you so back to your what do I do?
46:01
SPEAKER_01: Go look up the five successful brands within the top five successful brands within your genre and figure out what they're doing.
46:10
SPEAKER_01: Right.
46:11
SPEAKER_01: Do something similar.
46:12
SPEAKER_01: Hide your resources, not exact.
46:14
SPEAKER_01: Do it in your own way, but you better tap into what's popular.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: Um there's enough data.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: Something has to be enough that something has to be, you know what I mean?
46:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: If we was coming out with LED, if we was coming out with a new e-commerce site, Alibaba, uh a team move, if we was coming out with a new Shein, we better figure out real quick what is the coding associated with their e-commerce platform.
46:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
46:44
SPEAKER_01: What assortment of products are on their site, and what things are people, what's trending that people are buying the most of.
46:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: Then we all decide.
46:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's minimum.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: Like that, that's you need to go figure out what's already happening.
46:59
SPEAKER_01: That don't mean do it exactly the same because that's where you get on a train of being a mimic and not really making it in, and nobody cares, and then you're not gonna win in that share, right?
47:07
SPEAKER_01: It's market share.
47:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:08
SPEAKER_01: But if I go in and Walmart talk right now, Walmart just changed their stock positioning from the New York Stock Exchange to the NASDAQ.
47:19
SPEAKER_01: People don't even know what I'm talking about.
47:21
SPEAKER_01: Explain it to somebody the other day, and they're like, I don't know what you're saying.
47:23
SPEAKER_01: Wow, the stock just went from a$90 to$100,$124 buzzing around$124.
47:30
SPEAKER_01: In the last several years, it's never gone past$100.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: It's because they went to a different stock platform that is in a tech silo, AI automation, um, distribution centers going to automation.
47:48
SPEAKER_01: More funding is in the tech silos with your Teslas and your cars and your functionality and your coding and stuff like that.
47:57
SPEAKER_01: So saying that without going too deep on that, where do you need to position yourself?
48:03
SPEAKER_01: That was big talk, big retail to me.
48:06
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
48:08
SPEAKER_01: Stock just went, and people are like, it's never went there.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: It's because with the changeover of the CEO, the John Farrell, my guy, I did a lot of work with DJ for his personal offense and his family.
48:21
SPEAKER_01: They're good people, man.
48:23
SPEAKER_01: Beautiful opportunity he put a lot of time in, put 30 years in.
48:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
48:28
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna lead the charge for Walmart into a tech sector, a tech platform.
48:35
SPEAKER_01: So it's back to the third part of what I was saying.
48:37
SPEAKER_01: Who are you trying to reach?
48:39
SPEAKER_01: What are you who are you competing with?
48:43
SPEAKER_01: Amazon, Alibaba, I just make it up the next comments.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: Then you better position yourself in a space that makes you valuable to the consumer.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: So that's just a scenario and an example.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: But you need the idea, you need the branding.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: You better get to know who you're talking to.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: That's ridiculous.
49:06
SPEAKER_01: Talking to quickly.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: And focus on the lanes that get you in a position to talk to, you need to talk to.
49:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
49:14
SPEAKER_01: Jelly roll.
49:16
SPEAKER_01: We talked about this.
49:19
SPEAKER_01: I just saw the other week he lost a hundred or something pounds.
49:22
SPEAKER_01: He's changed his personality, dude.
49:25
SPEAKER_01: You know, we can go in there for like two seconds.
49:27
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to break break the conversation, but evolve too.
49:33
SPEAKER_01: Number four is be evolving.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: We opened, actually, we didn't open for jelly roll.
49:38
SPEAKER_01: We performed after Jelly Roll.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: Like some closing.
49:43
SPEAKER_01: And he was 350 pounds.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: He was talking, Memphis talk.
49:51
SPEAKER_01: He was a rapper.
49:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: A good one at that.
49:55
SPEAKER_01: Great.
49:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
49:57
SPEAKER_01: A really great rapper.
49:58
SPEAKER_01: He was great.
49:59
SPEAKER_01: He was amazing.
50:00
SPEAKER_01: He was outstanding.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
50:02
SPEAKER_01: In that time frame in 2009.
50:06
SPEAKER_01: Then he morphed himself into a country music superstar winning Grammys a week ago.
50:15
SPEAKER_01: And now he's changed his content to be about self-reflection, changing your life, staying out of trouble, helping the community of complete what 80 gave back.
50:30
SPEAKER_01: He did some big give back.
50:32
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember exactly.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: But like life is a long race, man.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: It's not even a race, it's a race with yourself.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
50:42
SPEAKER_01: It's a long evolution process, but business, that's still business.
50:46
SPEAKER_01: That's his business.
50:47
SPEAKER_01: His business started in the streets of Memphis as a rapper of 400 pounds.
50:53
SPEAKER_01: Now he's 200 pounds, changing his mentality, impacting more people, spreading a greater mission, greater statement.
51:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
51:04
SPEAKER_01: Talking positive and winning big and giving back.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
51:10
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that funny?
51:11
SPEAKER_01: And I have I'm thankful to cross paths with him just to remember a story and look back.
51:16
SPEAKER_01: And some people that's just now seen him winning Grammys and all that.
51:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know where he came from.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: That dude put a lot of work in and changed his life.
51:26
SPEAKER_01: So that and be going back to business talk, it's the Eric Harton.
51:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna say that because I like that.
51:34
SPEAKER_01: That's my guy, man.
51:35
SPEAKER_01: That's a good guy.
51:35
SPEAKER_01: You gotta change yourself 10 times.
51:37
SPEAKER_01: You gotta think of where to head.
51:40
SPEAKER_01: You gotta build up, you gotta hire talent.
51:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
51:44
SPEAKER_01: Or you gotta see talent when you see it, know it.
51:48
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta define the plan every time.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: Or pivot, take these shoes off and put some different shoes on and go in a different direction.
51:58
SPEAKER_01: That's business.
52:00
SPEAKER_00: Man, listen, this has been one of the most insightful conversations, both on the show and off that I've had in quite some time.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so.
52:09
SPEAKER_00: And I knew it was gonna be that.
52:10
SPEAKER_00: I knew this, I'm telling you now, we need a part two.
52:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm just having fun.
52:13
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you now.
52:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you now, you didn't have to let me.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: Man, we need a part two.
52:19
SPEAKER_00: Where where can can we keep up with you?
52:22
SPEAKER_00: What what's coming for you?
52:23
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: Can we follow you?
52:24
SPEAKER_01: Plug everything.
52:25
SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure, sure, man.
52:27
SPEAKER_01: The biggest thing I've taken a pivot in the last one year.
52:29
SPEAKER_01: I've been at Walmart.
52:30
SPEAKER_01: One year, two weeks ago.
52:32
SPEAKER_01: I hit my one year at Walmart.
52:33
SPEAKER_01: Congrats.
52:34
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
52:35
SPEAKER_01: Really?
52:36
SPEAKER_01: I have hit a different lane for a while, and I'm gonna focus on it because I want to, I want, let me be straight up.
52:43
SPEAKER_01: I want to climb the Walmart ladder.
52:46
SPEAKER_01: I aspire to be a part of Walmart Marketing at some point.
52:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the design and creative space of Walmart, of a small sector that we put out signage for every Walmart store and Sam's Club in the United States.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: Really?
53:01
SPEAKER_01: In the whole country.
53:03
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
53:04
SPEAKER_01: And it's systematic signage, lawn and garden, seasonal messaging, Mother's Day.
53:09
SPEAKER_01: We're doing systematic stuff.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: So it's not the creative stuff.
53:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm you you in years past in market in marketing agencies where we did something for NHL and Rebart Partnership and Snickers and you know, Kellogg's and that.
53:23
SPEAKER_01: We did that.
53:24
SPEAKER_01: That was just brands.
53:25
SPEAKER_01: It was working on the brand and the vendor side.
53:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
53:27
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm on the Walmart side, but my aspirations, I'm trying to get to your answer.
53:33
SPEAKER_01: My aspirations is to grow into Walmart.
53:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we did my my history of the last decade or 15 years was creating content tied to Walmart, Sam's Club, Costco, H E B, retail stores and fixtures and signage and packaging, brand packaging, what does this need to say?
53:55
SPEAKER_01: Where does it need to align?
53:57
SPEAKER_01: How does it need to wrap around a can?
53:59
SPEAKER_01: All that those things.
54:01
SPEAKER_01: Now it's boiled down to working on the I'm on the other side of the fence and in the retail space of working at Walmart versus working with Walmart.
54:09
SPEAKER_01: So I'm really trying to focus on that.
54:12
SPEAKER_01: If you look at Latrice Watkins, she just became the she jumped from Walmart Santa under visual merchandising to be the CEO of Sam's Club.
54:21
SPEAKER_01: Shout out Latrice.
54:22
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Latrice.
54:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
54:24
SPEAKER_01: And that's a big, that's a big deal.
54:28
SPEAKER_01: You look at John Tharner taking Doug McMillan's.
54:33
SPEAKER_01: That's a tough position to take.
54:35
SPEAKER_01: He's done it for years.
54:37
SPEAKER_01: He's hit in 35 years of service.
54:40
SPEAKER_01: I aspire to help in the spaces that I've been working in outside of Walmart under visual merchandising, marketing, or get on the Walmart creative.
54:50
SPEAKER_01: Or even my favorite thing is social media content creation and captioning and uh corporate communications.
54:58
SPEAKER_01: So if I can get on that side, that'd be awesome.
55:01
SPEAKER_01: So what am I doing today?
55:04
SPEAKER_01: Focusing on what I'm doing in my role and focusing on those opportunities and the ability to grow into those spaces.
55:12
SPEAKER_01: Outside of Walmart Walls, District 21 has taken a little bit of a change.
55:20
SPEAKER_01: Because it was eight, it was every day.
55:22
SPEAKER_01: I worked for District 21 for a year and a half to two years straight.
55:27
SPEAKER_01: Every day, only that.
55:29
SPEAKER_01: So I needed to put out content that helped real estate uh establishments get some public publication.
55:36
SPEAKER_01: This one.
55:37
SPEAKER_01: This is this entire video.
55:40
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember an AI video.
55:42
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember.
55:43
SPEAKER_01: For uh, yeah, yeah.
55:44
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, and then uh, and or I did content for just small businesses.
55:50
SPEAKER_01: I did content for another little uh marketing agency, I did content for a company that writes code for uh retail and that sort of thing.
55:59
SPEAKER_01: So they can have uh visuals on their Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, creating that visuals and handing it to them as packages.
56:07
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
56:08
SPEAKER_01: I did I did retainer packages.
56:10
SPEAKER_01: So they would say, I need this, this, this, and this, and I'm pitching this next week.
56:14
SPEAKER_01: Give me all the visuals and all the video and or static imagery to explain and put the QR code on it, and I could create QR codes.
56:22
SPEAKER_01: Blah blah blah blah.
56:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing that as much.
56:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing it nearly as much because I gotta focus on what I'm doing on my wrong.
56:30
SPEAKER_01: But still have the ability.
56:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh District 21 is on Instagram, District 21 is on LinkedIn, District 21 is on Facebook.
56:40
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
56:40
SPEAKER_01: Jeremy Bobo, kind of as a microagency.
56:44
SPEAKER_01: And what that means, I like talking about that.
56:45
SPEAKER_01: I took that from a guy in Dallas that term.
56:49
SPEAKER_01: Microagency means you have the ability to get what approach needed, whether you create it or you're a sourcing partner.
56:58
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
56:58
SPEAKER_01: So if you said, Man, I need um I need some vinyl wraps for all the chairs that says podcast all over it.
57:07
SPEAKER_01: I need a vinyl wrap for the vehicle, I need a design for my website.
57:11
SPEAKER_01: If I can't do it myself, I know who cares.
57:13
SPEAKER_01: So I'll just I'll I'll break out what I'm gonna do and I'll break out and I'll know my sourcing partners, and I need 16 retractable banners for the event next month.
57:24
SPEAKER_01: I need some eight-foot back walls so we can do photo ops, and I need a photo booth.
57:30
SPEAKER_01: Or I need whatever, it don't matter.
57:33
SPEAKER_01: I have several tentacles because I've been in the industry so long that I know where I can get a source for a good quality, quality and cost.
57:41
SPEAKER_01: And so I build that into the district 20, that's the district 21 package, so you don't have to think about it.
57:47
SPEAKER_01: You just sell me what you need, and I'll call you and how it's gonna get there.
57:52
SPEAKER_01: Recently, a Catholic church, just examples real quick.
57:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
57:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying too much of the time.
57:56
SPEAKER_01: On the District 21 side, a Catholic church I'm working with out of Springdale needed some digital sign boards, some digital boards.
58:04
SPEAKER_01: They needed a design for their backlist signage on the campus.
58:08
SPEAKER_01: They needed approval from the city of Springdale.
58:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
58:11
SPEAKER_01: I can go on with either do it or know who can do it.
58:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I worked in the sign industry for building signs, Sandy Sioux Bakery and Sandy, Blue Zoo Aquarium.
58:23
SPEAKER_01: I helped with the signage on the building.
58:25
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
58:26
SPEAKER_01: Because I worked with it in tandem with another company.
58:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
58:28
SPEAKER_01: Coming off of that, I'm not a sound guy, but I am a sourcing support in regards to District 21.
58:36
SPEAKER_01: Just from a, I know I know what Bang does, I know what this person does.
58:43
SPEAKER_01: You would be my sourcing partner for whatever your expertise is.
58:47
SPEAKER_01: So District 21 is a microagency.
58:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
58:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh it was inspired by a company out of Dallas where he's a 3D artist and a designer, but he also has been in so many different sourcing industries that he can kind of get you whatever you need or get you in touch.
59:03
SPEAKER_01: Or Wizard of Oz, my favorite, hitting the drum, and then we all behind the cloak.
59:11
SPEAKER_01: But you're gonna get what you need.
59:13
SPEAKER_01: I'll figure out what getting you what you need.
59:16
SPEAKER_01: So that's what District 21 Steel is.
59:18
SPEAKER_01: The biggest company that the main company that I work with uh every month pretty much throughout the year is called Champions for Kids.
59:26
SPEAKER_01: They give back to 21 local K through eight elementary schools and junior high schools.
59:31
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
59:32
SPEAKER_01: Um they accumulate over$1.5 million in giveaways and donations to these schools, faculty.
59:40
SPEAKER_01: Um at the end of the year, John Tyson himself funds the dinner.
59:44
SPEAKER_01: It's 2,000 people, 2,000 dinners at Embassy Suites.
59:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh I help with all the back walls and backdrops and visuals for that, collateral, digital content, a little bit of help with social media.
59:58
SPEAKER_01: They handle that themselves.
59:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to take any credit or anything like that.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying District 21, that's my biggest one I'm working with every single year.
1:00:07
SPEAKER_01: Champions for Kids.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_01: And it gives back to kids a literacy uh organization.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_01: It's about kids reading and they win it as they win a skeeter or a razor bike or they went some, they get some Christmas gifts because they weren't gonna have a good Christmas anyway.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_01: They spend down.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:00:23
SPEAKER_01: That's what Champions for Kids is, literacy and giving them back to this area.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_01: So District 21's main thing is that, but I still got an itch of everything else I was doing daily in the past outside of my walnut row.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_00: So it's like when somebody said, What do you do?
1:00:40
SPEAKER_00: You said, What do you need?
1:00:41
SPEAKER_00: What do you need?
1:00:43
SPEAKER_01: And what is create, what create what do you need creative, or what do you need sourced, or what do you need from a consulting or a and then and I don't even like using the word consultant because that always sounds like your answers are a consultant's answers are the best.
1:00:56
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:00:56
SPEAKER_01: A consultant is somebody to brainstorm with, yeah, to me.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people think consultants are the ones with the answers, not necessarily.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_01: That's the person you brainstorm it with, and you can decide if those are the answers.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_01: So District 21 is is is alive in regards to creative sourcing or consulting, which is brainstorming.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining me, my brother.
1:01:19
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, man.
1:01:20
SPEAKER_00: We'll do this again.