Founder's Story - From Scratch to over $500 Million, A Founder's Story with Erik Huberman | S2: E10

Episode Date: January 13, 2024

Today’s episode of Founder’s Story with Daniel Robbins features Erik Huberman, a serial entrepreneur and highly sought-after digital marketing expert. Erik speaks extensively on his entrepreneurial journey and how he built the fastest-growing marketing agency in the US (for eight years consecutively) from scratch.  As the founder of Hawke Media, Erik understands a great deal about digital marketing and its impact on brands and startups. In this episode, Erik described Hawke Media as an agency providing performance-driven solutions around unique businesses, helping them launch, scale, and invigorate their brand.  Subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss out on exclusive interviews and special content: https://foundersstory.beehiiv.com/subscribe For more info on guests and future episodes visit pix11.com/impact and https://fox5sandiego.com/fox-5-partners/impactful/Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Founders Story, the podcast where trailblazing entrepreneurs share their extraordinary journeys. Uncover the passion, grit, and vision that drive the world of business and innovation. Welcome everyone back to another episode of Founders Story. If you are not doing marketing to grow your business, your business will not scale. It will not grow. It's one of the lifebloods. You have to be focusing on marketing. That's why today we have one of my favorite experts in this field, Eric Huberman, who is the CEO and founder of Hawk Media and the co-founder of Hawk Ventures. He's been growing his company to a value of over $150 million, and he's worked with over 3,000 brands worldwide. Eric, welcome to the show.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I was watching a video recently of when we did an interview back three years ago. It's incredible what's happened since then. But can you dive in? Because this show is Founders Story. What was that in your story? What was something that changed that sparked that you said, I want to be an entrepreneur? I mean, that started a long time ago. My grandfather was an entrepreneur. My dad was an entrepreneur. So like, I just assume that that's like a very clear pathway you go down. But I would say it really got going where I wanted, I thought I was going to be a musician, a guitarist when I grew up and I needed an electric guitar

to do so. So at eight, I asked my dad for a guitar and verbatim he said, good job. And I was like, oh, and as an eight year old to remember, like you don't take that as like harsh, you don't know any other context. So I just thought my dad was telling me to get a job. Okay. I'll go get a job. And so I tried a few things.

I tried selling lemonade that made me too little money. I tried flowers that suck. And then I started buying and selling beanie babies at this height and that at its peak. And that went really well. I made a few thousand dollars as an eight year old. I bought the guitar. I bought a BMX. I saved money for a car. And like that really, I already liked the idea of making money, but it was really for the outcome that started to give me more of that intrinsic, like, oh, this is kind of cool. Like I like business. And there are a lot of other things that played into that I could go through, but that was really the first entrepreneurial endeavor that I understood I was doing something kind of entrepreneurial and I was able to get a reward for it. And I enjoyed the process too. That's really what kicked it off. I love that, Eric.

I think we can all go back to that time of what was the first thing that I sold? So that's incredible. The first thing I sold was I took a bunch of my parents' stuff around the house when I was six, put it in a trash bag and walked door to door in our neighborhood selling my dad's old golf balls because I just decided they didn't need them anymore. I think I made like 70 cents that day, but it was like my first real gig was door to door salesman. Man, born an entrepreneur. Let's talk about Hawk Media. You've grown so much since I met you many years ago, and I know you're on an

incredible mission right now. Let's talk about that. What is the current mission of Hawk Media? Yeah, so we were the fastest growing marketing company for eight years in the United States, and I haven't really kept tabs on it the past two years because we've dealt with this weird economic time. The venture community got just decimated. You know, we had a lot of people scared of what was going to happen with interest rates rising. And 22 was, you know, hold off, let's pull stuff back, let's have layoffs in the tech community, all that. 23, my favorite line for it has been, it's the great maybe. No one can make a decision. No one can do anything. Everyone just like, maybe, I don't know. And now you've got the Fed announcing rate declines. You've got a presidential election which always boosts the economy.

And I'm really leaning into the idea of like, you know, New Year, New You, like refuse to lose. Let's go for it. So, you know, I really found a new sort of energy of let's make Q1 of 24 the most epic time ever in growth of business. And I think there's opportunity for that. It's one of those things like if you have 0% interest rates and they go to five, everyone feels broke. If you know that interest rates are going from five to four or three, now everyone feels rich. And so it's one of those things where it's like it's going to open up a lot of spending. It's going to open up a lot of spending on corporate behalf, as well as

on consumer side. And we have the best consumer holidays we've ever had in history even in this tightening it's it's i think that a lot is going to hit in a good way next year where i think the people that lean into it are going to win and so i'm getting our team ramped up i'm like let's commit to a three-month sprint where we're going to work our faces off so on our service side let's find every way we can grow our clients let's figure figure out every creative thing. Let's like really lean into performing on our sales side. Let's bring in new clients. Let's expand what we're doing with current clients on our partnership side. Let's really like lean into all our partnerships. Let's get them all invigorated. Let's get everything going, fire on all cylinders. Because I believe

that if you get through Q1 next year and lean into it, you're going to catch a wave. And so I really, really believe that. And so leaning into it heavy, I think we're going to be in a great year. And I think, and I also don't know what happens after next year. So I think if you, you know, you want to make hay while the sun shines. And I think the sun's coming out in the beginning of the year. Man, Eric, you got me fired up. Like I'm really excited. I'm thinking about next year. So thank you for that. So I'm sure people listening to this are also going to say, wow, I want to do something. I want to ramp up. I want to really make 2024 an incredible year. How do I get started?

Yeah, I mean, the first answer is go. Like I think you don't have analysis paralysis, make decisions. And a no is fine. But the great maybe that we're having right now is I think the issue where everyone's like, I don't know, let's see, like, use what you have, make a decision and move forward. Always be improving. Make sure your company is growing every day and every week and every month. You're adding things, you're doing things that could potentially unlock new revenue. You've got to be leaning into it. You've got to be finding new channels. You've got to be proactive. You've got to find that energy. Because what I know is once

you get that, you brute force it and you start to get that energy because what I know is once you get that, you brute force it and you start to get that momentum, then it starts to pick up steam and then it's easy to work because when you're winning energy comes, I just saw this, who said this? They got a ton of backlash for it. I thought it was so true. It might've been Hermosi, which sometimes he says great stuff. Sometimes he doesn't. But, um, there's something to be said about like people are like, how do these entrepreneurs find their energy? And I've, we were talking about this before. I've had good years, good, bad years.

I've had good days, bad days. When things are moving and you've got the momentum, it is easy to run through a wall. I don't think that there's anything exceptional about me and my energy. I think it's like when you're winning and you feel like you're winning, you sleep is, you know, time that you're not winning. You're just like, I just want to go. I want to work. I want to wake up.

I want to like, I'm not a morning person, but when I'm winning, I'm absolutely a morning person because I got to find more time in the day to do more of this because it's fun and I'm winning. And so if you can get over that hump and start to feel that momentum and get that win, then it becomes easy, which is what I think about next year in Q1.

Again, we're a week away. I usually don't like to talk about Q1. I used to make the joke of like in Q1, we're out of business. We're here in Q4, but we're a week away so we can talk about it. So in Q1, I think it's like if you can get, you know, take your Christmas break or do whatever you're doing the holidays, come back on January 1st or 2nd and just march, fill your calendar, do everything, fire on all cylinders, lean all the way into it.

By April, I am very confident you're going to start seeing success. Of course, there's exceptions to this. If you're a swimsuit company, Q1 is not exactly the best quarter. But in general, there's going to be a lot of opportunity. And I think ramping up and at least creating a lot of progress and creating momentum, start to get that wheel turning. That's what I want to create for myself, my employees, my clients, everything. That's what I want to create for myself, my employees, my clients, everything. I think like I've experienced that, we've had it many times.

And I think the past two years for most entrepreneurs that I know have been a little uneasy. And I think it's time to like create our own destiny here and just go. I love that, man. You know, action creates reaction. I think we're all gonna win.

According to Eric Huberman, I'm going to quote you. Do it. A kick butt Q1, which is going to lead to an incredible 2024 mindset, right? I mean, if you have that, if I'm positive about it, I'm sure I can create some action here. If I'm negative about it, I'm sure, like you said, entrepreneurship can create that. Sometimes you get negative and you get down and you get stuck in a rut. But this is going to be inspiring. What are some of the marketing trends that you are looking into and seeing for 2024?

Yeah, it's basically similar to what I've been saying. You have to fire on all cylinders. The days of I'm just going to run Facebook ads and my company is going to grow are done. You have to do everything. And that's our book, The Hawk Method. That's what it talks about. You have to do everything. And that's our book, The Hawk Method. That's what it talks about. You have to be building trust with customers. You have to be nurturing them.

You have to be doing email marketing, SMS. You have to have a good website. You have to do the Facebook side. You probably wanna leverage TikTok, Instagram. You wanna use Google. You wanna do honestly everything you possibly can to leverage, and that's all advertising side. There's also partnerships, building brand alignment,

like getting out and throwing events. Like there's so many different things you can do and you want to do it all. Like, honestly, like that's who wins. The people that are firing on all cylinders and making themselves aware in every place that can reach you. That's the people that are building brands right now. The people that are just like one channel or doing a couple of things like, yeah, there's, there's no dipping your toe halfway into this. So Eric, do you feel this is a lot of things that people need to do? And, and I, I can dipping your toe halfway into this. So Eric, do you feel this is a lot of things that people need to do? And I can totally see what you're saying.

The ones that are winning have brand recognition everywhere. I'm seeing them everywhere. I'm seeing doing these things that you are mentioning, but it's not everyone that's doing this. So do you feel that people need to get to a certain point before they start expanding out to all of these channels? Or can you start doing this early on in your business? Yeah, what I would say is until you can spend about $10,000 a month on marketing, don't hire anyone.

The revenue is on you. You got to go open doors. You got to find partnerships. You got to do things organically. You got to show that you can get some word of mouth going and you can get your product out there. Do not hire anyone. Don't hire an intern. Don't hire anyone to do your marketing until you're there. Once you're there, you can hire an agent, a decent agency, frankly. And I'm not saying pay us $10,000 a month. I mean, all in your budget. That's where we kind of start. And we start there for that reason,

that anything less than that, we don't have enough leverage to be able to actually perform. And anyone else that says they do, don't. So you're not going to end up really getting anything out of it. And so before you're at that point, again, it's really about finding other ways to drive revenue that isn't that or raise money. There's two ways to do it. We're bootstrapped. I prefer to bootstrap if you can.

But either way, that's before that. After that, I would say work with an agency. And now there's companies that say, oh, we're taking everything in-house. 99% of the time, they completely screw up their own marketing. So I believe in a balance. You absolutely want an in-house team at some point. You absolutely want your own internal marketing. You want it to be strategized internally, but not having the outside perspective of an agency and the chops of an agency. Like almost no brand can compete with my marketing company. I have 200 full-time people here. We've built our own AI software. We're owners in almost every major martech company, Klaviyo, Postscript, Tapcart, the entire Shopify stack. You're going to build that

yourself? No. So then you're competing with me. And if you want to compete with me, we're going to win. We're going to outperform you. And every once in a rare while, someone finds a unicorn and does really well. But that's like, let's buy a lottery ticket to be successful. Good luck. So I usually believe in the balance of that over time. I love that, Eric. I love your confidence. I always have fun talking to you and I always learn as well. Something I saw recently, which really blew my mind was social selling like TikTok shop. I know other platforms are getting into this. Are you looking at this or are you already seeing this as something that's really going to take on in the future? So we have we're a big TikTok partner. What I try to do is not have a crystal ball because nobody does. And so what I've seen so far is it is huge in Asia and most Americans

don't get. So I'm watching it because it is huge in Asia. And now it's almost being shoved down people's throats at this point that maybe the brute force of it will end up getting people to adopt it in this meaningful way. But so far, the performance hasn't been crazy. We haven't seen it be that meaningful. But we have a huge partnership with TikTok. We have a partnership with TikTok Shop. We're using it in some cases, and it's working in a small way. But it's not like, it's not

TikTok in the sense of like TikTok advertising is working really well. TikTok shop is not like some new found channel that's just changing the lives of our clients yet. So we're watching it, but we, we found in marketing, you don't need to be the first mover. Like you don't need to chase this shiny object. Wait till you see it working, wait till there's traction, let other people break it and break their own company on it.

And once you start seeing progress, then you jump into it. It's very common to get shiny object syndrome as an entrepreneur and you're chasing everything and you're seeing things on social media, like, oh, it's working for this person, but we also don't really know the truth behind it. People, almost anyone saying it's working for them on social media is selling you something.

Ah, I gotta stop buying their courses. But no, here, I used your agency many years ago and we had a great experience for a company that we had back then. So I know tons of people that have also worked with you. Before we go and understand how they can get in touch with you, before we do all that, there is something I want to know. In about 30 seconds or less, what is a lesson or something that you wish you knew, or just something that you like to tell people about entrepreneurship in general? Yeah. I mean, my dad used to say it to me all the time and swing the bat, just go like everyone overthinks everybody. And you know, this you've been successful in this way of like, just going

and doing like you have a resort, you have a media outlet, you have all these things. Why? Because you did it. And so like, not going to say everything's going to be successful, but like the key that would separate success from failure in a lot of ways, like you got to be smart enough. You got to be hardworking enough. Timing has to be on your side. Luck has to be exist to how successful you are, but you got to do it. I've interviewed on my podcast, Hawk Talk,

like 140 different very successful people, multi-billionaires all over it. What separates them? They just did it. They're not that smart. They're not that hard work. Like there's only 24 hours in a day. And I'm sorry, a certain level of intelligence actually puts you on the spectrum. And those people, Elon Musk, I guess is, but there's a lot of those people have hard time with doing business because the social aspects of it, like it's not about being, you know, high on the IQ level. You just have to be smart enough, hardworking enough. And then frankly, you just do it.

And so like, that's the really big lesson is swing the bat, go for it, something's gonna hit some point. Well, the new motto of entrepreneurship is just do it. Yeah, exactly. Never heard that. Never heard that either. So Eric, if people wanna get in touch with you, they wanna learn more, they wanna have a kick butt 2024

and they wanna go out the gates running, how can they do so? Yeah, so I'm Eric Kuberman, at or slash on any social channels, that's easy to find. And then Hawk Media, if you wanna like get kicked off, we're gonna be putting this all out there and doing a whole bunch of promotion. You can just go to hawkmedia.com and sign up.

We'll do a free marketing audit for anyone and tell them like, here's the things you can do and the benchmarks if you achieve these these are the kind of growth you can get so we run it all through our whole ai system we took nine years to build and can give a bunch of feedback and see where we can help incredible thank you eric for being here on founder story and we super appreciate all you're doing to be helping so many brands in 2024 and beyond thank you for having me Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.