Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Catching up on e-commerce with Robbie

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

On this episode, Ryan and Robbie discuss the changing role of marketing during times of unrest and how companies can use empathy to better serve customer needs. From the changing e-commerce landscape to the big news involving Shopify and Walmart this episode is packed with both marketing news and actionable opportunities for brands of all sizes. Connect with Ryan and the Radcast on instagram. @RyanAlford | @Radical_Results | @GVLHustle | @the.rad.cast If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Radical Marketing Podcast. Here is your host, Ryan Alford. Hey, guys, it's Ryan Alford. Welcome to the newest edition of the Radcast. Robbie, we're calling it the Radcast now. The Radical Marketing Podcast is now the Radcast. I feel a little bit more rad right now. Hey, you are always radical.

I'm joined by my partner in crime, Robbie Fitzwater, my friend, associate, confidant, and all-around favorite person. And reason you have bad judgment and friends. Robbie, good to have you here. And as always, and as I mentioned, pre-show, today's episode of the Radcast is brought to you by Monster Energy Drinks. Unofficially, officially, it's keeping me afloat. I had a little bit of a later night than I planned last night doing a little work.

But excited to be here with you today. Excited to be here too. I didn't have as late of a night probably. You're a little bit cooler than I am sometimes. I'm a little bit old, getting in bed early now these days. You've got still got this quasi-newborn at home. Kind of balance the schedules. Lots of very rigid schedules when you're transitioned with a 13-month-old.

now. So he's third. Oh, you're over a year. You're, uh, toddlering, I guess, right? Toddling, he's walking now and it's good. Oh, boy. We're taking, we're taking our life into our own hands. Oh, yeah, you're in it. Well, cool, man. I know we wanted to talk today a little, you know, the state of business and marketing here in July of 2020, also known as the Twilight Zone. You know, we talked, you know, the impact of both empathy and what we're seeing. in e-commerce and just in business as a whole talking some of the insights and trends. But man, what a weird year it's been, haven't it? I mean, yeah, I think 2020 is just absolute, yeah, you punching the teeth, a little bit

of everything. I feel like everybody's just kind of on a roller coaster waiting for it to end and trying to figure out like maybe it's going to slow down in August. Maybe it's going to slow down in September. But right now everybody's kind of thrown for a loop. I think we throw like some of the. the biggest change in decades into a few months. And that's our lives.

Trying to adjust and accommodate for it. And yeah, over 100 days in, it's been a little bit interesting. I think, I feel like for everybody just kind of trying to find that, what that new normal looks like, kind of find like a cruising speed. And, yeah, finding a blend of where life ends and work begins, where where the weekend is. versus what's during the week and it's all kind of the same right now. And I think it's, you know, to that point, like we've transitioned to this. I think, you know, something like this happens and the market changes and all these snowballs start really advancing downhill.

You're still kind of like prepping for, but it's going to go back to normal, you know, like in another two weeks or like you tell yourself that, I think, for the first month, or in the second month, and now we're three and a half months in, and, you know, the new normal is certainly overplayed. It's now like this is somewhat of normal. You know, like this is the things that have happened and they're transpiring in commerce and in business and in marketing and customer service, a lot of things we'll dive into are here, and this is the reality of now.

I mean, it's similar to kind of the first time everybody used an Uber. I feel like you used an Uber the first time. And at first it was a little bit intimidating, like kind of embracing a new behavior and trying something different because you're getting into a new car, you're getting in with somebody you don't know. But a lot of people tried it. And after that first time, it's a lot easier to do those things. And you realize, hey, that saved me a lot of time.

Maybe next time I've traveled in a city, I'm not going to get a rental car. I'm just going to take a few Uber. And a lot of the way that we've kind of changed our behavior kind of falls in that same category where we're trying something, we've tried new things. Some things we may use moving forward, but sometimes some of these things we're probably definitely going to use moving forward because it saves us time. It saves us frustration. And at the end of the day, it's another way for a business or an organization to connect

in a powerful way that adds value to the customer and kind of is a nice train. transaction for both parties. And you see like the, again, grocery store and online delivery right now. I don't know if my wife and I, we tried it here during, started during the pandemic. And it'll be hard to go back at this point just because we're used to purchasing from our phones. We have all of our orders ready to go. And I, we can have our delivery ready to go within the day. And it just makes it seamless and easy for us. Again, having a 13 month of a 13 month of the home, it also makes it nice not to have to navigate the kind of the treacherous place that is the grocery store. Again, it's kind of a death trap now. But for a 13 month old, again, it could be

dangerous for a little man trying to grab everything. But trying to navigate that same time and energy, it saves us a lot of time and a lot of effort. It's going to change the way we shop, though, because the switching cost is suddenly higher because if we haven't ordered it in the past, it's not on our previous orders. And from a brand perspective, that brand really matters and really is important because if you're picking it from, if you're picking an assortment of products just kind of from your screen like you would in an e-commerce business, that brand that's recognizable on a new environment, it's pretty important.

And once you purchase it once, you're going to probably purchase it again because it's easy and it's efficient for you. So I think there's some really super fascinating components just in that area alone that are going to be like just exciting to kind of see moving forward. And sorry, I jump into the weeds there, but no, it's good. It's funny when you think about it, going to the grocery store sucks. Like, I'm sorry. I know there's some men, some women out there that might enjoy that experience. But I think I can speak for the majority in saying you don't really enjoy going, spending an hour at the grocery store. If I could sit there and catch up on Game of Thrones or whatever I'm doing and click, click, click, how much better is that?

I mean, and, you know, like we talked about pre-episode, like these sacred cows, like, well, you're never going to go straight. You know, we started buying books online and we started buying other things. I'm never going to buy groceries because I got to see, I got to fill that bread. I got to know those grapes are ripe. And, you know, it's a sacred cow. We're never going to shop for groceries online. But good grief. It made sense 20 years ago.

It most certainly makes sense now. And it's like, these are the sacred cows that need to be just moved out of the way so that we can really start advancing the ball in a lot of businesses. And I think that's, if we have one thing to counsel businesses, is to be thinking, like, anything that's been sacred, based on in person or some unnecessary system of delivery should be rethought right now, right? And, and like we see this happening in a lot. I feel like that's happening in a lot of industries right now too,

because you see kind of some people that are taking this kind of opportunity and doing fascinating things with it. Like my wife was trying to purchase some face washer cosmetics. And as opposed to having a person kind of like, up a booth at a store and have like have them kind of give her a consultate a one-on-one consultation she could do it over to zoom and if you had a few people at scale you could do multiple of those every day and suddenly you're scaling a one-to-one interaction and that person can opt in as opposed to passively walking along and seeing it at a mall or at a department store so it kind of makes

this this one-to-one interaction or one-to-one engagement super, super, again, personal, really unique for that individual. And then it's just that human-to-human touch point that really maximizes that lifetime value because we're really kind of yearning for that interaction that we're kind of missing in some ways. But how do they bring that to a digital space? It's not going to be completely the same, but if you can kind of change the direction of your approach to kind of promotion and kind of consultation with an individual product, there's a lot of different things you can do to kind of maximize that lifetime value. And it's going to be really profitable in the long run because they're going to be a lot more of a passionate advocate for that brand because they know

this person who's an expert, help me with it and to help me solve my problem. And I feel like scaling that is really kind of cool. to see and where groups normally thought, hey, I need a sales team out in the field doing these things. Like they're suddenly saying, hey, why don't we put our sales team on Zoom? And hey, when this is all over, we may want to keep them doing this because this is a lot more effective for them. Like, they're going to sell more. So they look a lot better. And then it's a lot more efficient for customers because you don't have to go to the mall to suddenly get the insight you'd look for for specific products. So exactly. And talk about, you know, like the evolution of e-commerce.

like hearing you talk i mean i'm thinking of like ideas right now think about in amazon i make the most sense but think about any you know any considered purchase or any consultative purchase if the if on the e-commerce site you're you're browsing and right there i know there's chat and there's stuff like that but if someone can integrate the pop up like a live person like you and i are right now like pops up, constantly, like I'm looking, let's use the makeup example. I'm looking at blush and I'm wondering if it has this chemical that might be bad for my skin or whatever those. My blush days are past me.

But all the only of my blushing is when, you know, my two-year-old says something he shouldn't have at a store, you know, about his bowel movements. But in all seriousness, but that live, yeah, you've got pop-ups, but you're going to see the integration of like a live person pop up right there and there's going to be this demonstration. And there's just so much opportunity for, you know, they talk about e-commerce and the future and everything's moving online. But now it's just like turning these dials of how much further can the customer experience,

how much it can be improved when you kind of remove yourself from the notion that it has to be in person. Yeah. And so much like so much discovery for purchasing. used to happen in a store, in a location. Like you would find the things that you wanted, like you didn't know what you wanted, but you would go find it. You would find the ones that was kind of the perfect fit for you.

But now so much discovery can happen in the digital channel that how do you kind of take what was an in-store experience at one point and bring it to the digital space. And that's where it's really kind of lining up where that high level of empathy around what somebody's looking for, what they need, and how to serve them best, is really becoming a differentiator for brands that are doing it well and the ones that are kind of leading the pack in so many ways.

And like some of these groups are already doing it and they're just kind of expanding it now, but can learn a lot from some of the more innovative industries around. Like again, cosmetics is doing some really cool stuff and some really fascinating things are happening there. But how do you apply that to other fields and other spaces too? Because, I mean, I'm sure for clothing, that's the same thing exists.

Like you've had a salesperson, helping you with clothing, like helping with, like, what to look for, like, is this going to look or go with my skin tone? And suddenly you can do that on it over a Zoom call. And there's lots of different verticals that this fits into. So finding ways that you can do that. And even if you can't do it live, even positioning yourself like, hey, schedule a consultation with our expert, like our fitting expert,

we'll have time at this time of the day. And it's like a calendar way where they just jump into it. and kind of go into a conversation. It's super easy for everyone around, and it just gives you part of your life back. And it's probably something that people are going to be looking for on a longer term because they want more niche products. They want products that speak better to who they are as individuals

and who they are as buyers. So they're going to want something that's a little bit more human and a more human experience through a digital channel. So trying to find ways to do that at scale is going to be really kind of interesting to see different people giving me in a try. And I think that kind of leads us into that the whole notion of the the opportunity importance of customer service.

You know, everything we're kind of talking about. It's servicing. We're talking probably broadly about both new and existing customers, but the real, it's so funny. Like I worked working on large brands, you know, back in the day, even them. Acquisition was always the blindness. tunnel. Like it was always acquisition, acquisition, acquisition, acquisition. Like 80, 90% of the time thought process, you go to the C-suite meetings and it's, you know, you spend 90 minutes on acquisition

and 10% on CRM or or customer-based marketing or whatever. And now looking through the lens of the way with which you service your customers and the opportunity for increased LTV, increased upsells, you know, increased referrals. Like customer service is becoming as much or more important than any acquisition strategy. So again, it's knowing who your customer is and knowing what they need and kind of forecasting how to serve them best. Because probably the people that are coming back, like speaking to your point, like the cross-stop, help. Those customers are going to also be a, like, they're likely going to order more or they're likely going to purchase more because they've consistently purchased more and more of a basket from

your business. And if you serve them well, they're going to continue to do that. So once you, if you're a cosmetics business, like, I can't, sorry, keep using cosmetics. If you buy a mascara, suddenly you buy a lipstick, you're probably going to buy both of those for a consistent period of time too. So your average order value doubles and that lifetime value increases as time goes on. And in a lot of ways, it's almost looking at this as like, how do you, how do you position your business, almost like a subscription model? So, like, thinking about this from like, how do we just keep people coming back in regularly and keeping them and maintain that relationship over time? Because it's super important because, again, kind of to your point, that a customer acquisition

is one way to grow a business. And nobody, and every marketer spent so much time and attention on that, like new customers, new customers, new customers, new customers. But you're not paying an acquisition cost on a second-time purchaser. And you're also not like, you're not really being forced to do much of it. If you're adding valued in the relationship, you're probably going to be driving that lifetime about that average order value up too. So it just naturally makes sense. And that's kind of, you see a lot of businesses trying to pivot towards that model. Like, how do you get that that almost like, I think that the Scott Galloway, the rundle, like the recurring bundle that people are purchasing. And that's, I mean, such a positive thing to have for a business.

and again, it's focusing on different things, but lifetime value is probably going to be that metric that's going to be kind of that North Star for so many more businesses now because you can suddenly see it. It has a little bit more transparency, and it's a little bit better understood in the organization. But again, customer service, everybody knows about the bad customer service experiences that have had, but the remarkable ones, the ones that really stand out,

people almost tell other people about them because it's so rare that you have, like a remarkable customer service experience, that it's a, it's a different shader. In so many ways, like, that's the closest touch point to your business as a brand, that anybody's,

that most people are ever going to get. So making that experience great and seamless is really important. Yeah. What, um, I don't know that we know yet the true economic impact, you know,

that all this has. I mean, most certainly you've seen marketing budgets, I think, come down pretty universally. I think some stuff starting to pick back up. And, you know, we've been fortunate being on the digital marketing side that are in the e-commerce side, you know, which has been fortunate. But I'm still, you know, stopping short of many prognostications on exactly what the, what the true economic impact is eight, ten months from now.

I mean, what's your crystal ball showing on that? I mean, there's already been drastic, and all of those we can't keep printing money, but. Honestly, like, if, yeah, I mean, in normal times, I'd be like, I think, I think these are the reasons I think this is going to happen. I just, like, 2020 is just such a dumpster fire. Like, this is years to make a prediction. Like, this is absolutely going to be wrong.

I think a lot of those, again, kind of that share of wallet where those dollars are going are going to stay in a lot of those channels, I think, because it's gone over there. It takes between like 21 and 30 days for a new behavior to, for a new behavior to become a habit. And I think a lot of these cases where people are trying, like, again, grocery delivery or a lot of these things, I think they're going to continue on. I also think some of these businesses are going to see, hey, this is an effective channel for us to be using. and from a business perspective, so we need to continue this onward.

I think, like, I do see some drop from, like, where we're at now in e-commerce sales going down slightly, but it went from, like, 15% to around 30% really fast this year. And if it goes down to 28% or 25%, that's still a 10% jump in a year that, like, we weren't really expecting it. And it took 20 years for it to get to 15%. Yeah.

So, again, kind of people that have been, kind of the band-aids been ripped off for so many people, them trying these new behaviors, trying these new things, it gets easier and easier every time. So next time they order online, they're like, okay, this is a Shopify store. I know how to use, like, they're going to, they're going to send me a code to my iPhone for Shopify, and I'm going to use that, so I don't even have to worry about my credit card information. Like, lots of ways to make it seamless and easy for them, and they're going to have more confidence doing that. So it's just kind of, it'll be up in the air a little bit more, but I think the businesses that are really doubling down on how to make

sure that they create a good experience and a valuable experience are going to be the ones that come out of this, again, stronger and better because they've really kind of honed their craft and become better for the new world we're going to be living in, whatever it looks like. You know, just seems like as good a time as any, you know, like looking at the landscape of e-commerce and changes. And since you use the word Shopify and that last, I'll use it as a bridge. But the Walmart Shopify thing, you know, was just announced this week. And, you know, I think in any other moment in time, that would be like, you know, the cannonball into the water.

But I think just because of the news cycle and everything else, it's not been quiet, but it's probably quieter than it would have normally been. But that's quite the behemoth of the news and the opportunity for, you know, the million plus shopping. small business, small and medium businesses, to have yet another channel, direct channel with which to market and sell products is pretty big news. I mean, it's, again, I love that they did this. And I'm so glad they did it as a partnership as opposed to an acquisition. Yeah. I was convinced, like, truthfully, like Walmart, the natural next step made sense for Shopify.

Like, they've been trying to do this for years. Jet didn't work out the way they wanted it to. They've just never been able to really master the whole e-commerce thing. And even acquiring like smaller brands like the bonobos, those have never been as successful as they've wanted them to be once they've been acquired by Walmart. So this is kind of their opportunity to kind of like distribute those shots. But again, it's a platform that gives those smaller groups, those kind of the mom and pop stores, a lot of power and a lot of, again, opportunity

because they are never going to necessarily outscale Amazon. that they can serve their niche in their community better than Amazon ever could because that's the only thing they specialize and they care about it, they focus on it. And for them, it's this kind of like blank canvas that they can really create a business on that kind of makes the friction of all the things you have to do so much easier. Like again, you could probably speak to this. It's like, again, building a Shopify website, how hard is it versus building a website 10 years ago or 5 years?

Yeah. It's, you know, night and day. I mean, really, the, you know, the things you had to worry about, you know, 10 years ago, the cart experience, the product organization, the integrated. It's written as complicated as all that stuff was the integrations that are now just automatic through Shopify. The biggest opportunity with Shopify is really just the tech stack that you layer on top of it. And that's why you hire someone like an us or another firm or whatever, you know, is for the knowledge and understanding of those, the tech stack that you layer on and the

and the branding of it. But good grief. I mean, now I can't even in my right mind, nine out of ten businesses that would approach us, I would be putting on Shopify. I mean, you know, you and I, you know, you and I, you know, even when we first started working together, you know, like I had my inhibition. not because I love Shopify, but I was still of that mindset that it wasn't right for, you know, certain businesses. But as we're working with, you know, a fabric company that's got 20,000 skews, you know, and gladly putting them on Shopify, you know, my mindset has changed with just the power and the flexibility and the integrations that 10 years ago would have taken, you know, a dev team of 20 and about $200,000.

Yeah, a lot of... a lot of a lot of people in a room in a dark room coding for days at a time and then it's going to break and then you're going to have to fix it and and readjust and so much of that it's like creating a Shopify account like if you wanted to create a Shopify store it's like almost as easy as like making your own Facebook page like you have to put like a few things here and there it's like fill it in and make sure your payment gateway is okay but really it's super simple and you can have one up in like a few hours so it's it takes away all that friction that was there in the past and allows those merchants, those people that are really doing it well,

to focus on what they do well as opposed to worrying about all those like nuts and bolts of running a back end of a website. You just got to keep your business running and humming. And it's going to be an efficient, it's going to be an efficient business because they get to focus on either the marketing or the business as opposed to focusing on all the technical sides of the website. So it's a platform that kind of like in Amazon, it kind of a distribution, a lot of the power across the network. And as more and more people see how it's done and see how easy it is, we're going to see more and more groups jumping onto it.

I think Heinz Ketchup was made a Shopify account the other day. Like Heinz ketchup, you never would imagine a CPG business jumping on Shopify, but it's so easy. And suddenly they can sell direct to consumer. And guess what? When you sell someone on Amazon, that's customer. Suddenly when you sell on Shopify, it's your customer. And you can bring them back in.

And that LTV can increase and increase. So for so many of those businesses, it makes so much logical sense. And it's getting easier and easier as the barriers go down. And then we're not reinventing the wheel every time either. Because like you said like the tech stack. Like somebody's figured out shipping with Shopify. So again, add an app. Like somebody's figured out email with Shopify.

Add an app. Like it's just simple, easy things you can do to make your process seamless. And hopefully, again, automate as much of that as much of the work you're not going to be a skilled at. and really do good work. Yeah. And now you hit three buttons and suddenly your, you know, 10 to 2,000, how many other products do you have can go straight to Amazon and straight to Walmart. And all of it go there sinking automatically at two of the largest marketplaces in the world.

And, you know, it's two button clicks away. And so it's just unbelievable. It makes it really easy, and that's, that's a game changer that it is kind of, that it represents in so many ways. And then I know like Shopify fulfillment is trying to come online soon. So like they want to have like, hey, if you can't warehouse it, you can't fulfill it. Like that's a big, that's a big problem for a lot of groups. Like warehousing and fulfillment, like it's more of a headache than a lot of people expect it to be. But if Shopify is doing that for you, again, at a percentage, naturally.

But if they're able to do that for you, that's another piece you don't have to worry about. So again, you can almost be product-focused and product-and-customer-focused, and you don't have to worry about the warehousing. You don't have to worry about the fulfillment because they can handle it for you. And it's just opportunities that they're opening up for those smaller retailers and smaller shops that are really exciting to see kind of moving forward because that's where the real magic in our economy is going to happen is because Amazon's going to grow. Amazon's going to continue to grow, but people are going to want more and more niche, products because they really want to jump on board the story of the business that makes it.

You care passionately about a few things. Like the commodity is people who can buy on Amazon, the small, again, really thoughtful niche products can be bought on Shopify. Exactly. What else are you seeing out there that, you know, feels news and noteworthy? I think we talked a little bit pre-episode. that I thought was pretty interesting, the whole how connected to marketing is now to the entire, you know, you know, business.

You know, there was this, you know, you've got sales and marketing and customer service and operations and all this. And now it just feels like marketing has not saying necessarily their hands, but definitely like just feels at the table on all of those. it's it's a reality kind of right now and I think like I think I mentioned it too like I think the CMO is a more likely role as a CEO next step as a next step than there ever was in the past because you have so many hands and so many cookie jars across the organization like if you blend together marketing with PR and then IT and then PR IT and then PR IT and then customer service

that's basically what marketing entails right now it's like every different customer touch point in so many cases because you have to understand what the customer needs, what the customer wants, and how they think, act, and feel. And when finding a way to kind of tie all those together in a really seamless package is going to be kind of like a differentiator for so many businesses. So the marketer has to kind of wear so many different hats, but they have to be kind of customer obsessed in so many ways because they're touching that customer in so many different places and finding ways to position the company. Like, you hear a few. feedback from customers who haven't been happy with something or whatever, that's an opportunity

for them to grow and change. And it's kind of more magnified in this space because if you're in a digital, if you're in a digital space, the operations completely change. And that storefront is suddenly your website or your app. And that's where so much of this interaction is happening. And if the, again, lining those things up really smoothly and seamlessly, it's going to be a differentiator moving forward. So it's interesting how, you know, in a certain time in place, you had a product or service and you had packaging and you had marketing and I, you know, having worked on Verizon for a number of years, we had different cell phones coming out and it was droid and this and that. And there's like, you know, the catchy campaign that was about that.

And it's not that there's not room for that anymore. There's still room for that. But now as a marketer, consumers want so much and deserve so much transparency in every single asset of where did you get the components of that thing? How is it made? Who was working on it? What's the makeup of your company? It's not just catch me with a gimmicky product and win me in my heart, mind, and soul. Now there's just like this.

and I don't know if it's self-brought on or if it's reality, if consumers really want to know, but you have to like, the luggage of the marketer, you went from, I just had this carry-on bag. And man, now I got the carry-on bag,

the two-week luggage and everything else that kind of go with me and how I tell those messages, you know? Yeah, I have to understand how to message around supply chain transparency and like not having messaging that's not going to resonate. And I have to understand how a tech stack works too. and just all of these finite things,

it becomes really daunting, really fast. And, like, again, there's opportunity for burnout there, but it's kind of becoming that, again, a more, more important role. And in a lot of organizations, it's hard because it doesn't have the way it deserves in so many cases. Like, again, as a marketer, I feel passionately and strongly about this,

but it's really hard to do all of those things at the same time. And in some many cases, like, you need to, a lot of people need to either delegate and get those off their plate or need more resources for the marketing, for the marketing organization or giving more power to the marketing piece of the organization to, to make those decisions and have, like, again, you're going to hear it before the, before the product to shift after it's shift, what their experience is like. And again, a lot more transparency because nobody buys anything without reviews anymore. Like you go, you use reviews at the grocery store anymore. So like, I'm going to creep on

Amazon when I'm at the grocery store like again back in the old days like 100 days ago but you need that like that's a kind of table stakes that people use now like you don't make decisions without a review so you need that social proof and you again that whole experience ties back into how do you make how do you make a seamless journey for everyone and and give them what they need along the along that path yeah these are interesting times my friend um but always good you catch up. And, you know, I think it's the case studies that are going to come out of like this year will be fascinating.

It's going to be, yeah, I definitely think so. I think this will be one of the times that we just like look back and like, wow, that all happened. Like that was all 2020 and just like 2019 was crazy enough. Like 2020. Yeah. Everybody's just hoping for a very nice slowdown right now, like moving down. I'm just trying to figure out a way to make it a little bit slower and make a little more calm.

But yeah, exciting things going on. What's the coolest project you have on the hopper right now? You know, we, I mentioned the fabric company. You know, there's a company that we're working with that's, you know, been in business for 30 or 40 years, if not longer. I think it's three generations. I'm probably shortchanging them 10 or 20 years. but a long time. And they're moving to e-commerce.

They just have price and selection that will really immediately put them in the national leadership position with their e-commerce presence. And it's fascinating taking something that's just been offline 100%. A lot of times companies come to us and it's like improving a digital experience

or improving e-commerce, but taking a historically always offline business that has the volume of opportunity that they have is fascinating and interesting, scary and great at the same time. So, you know, they're leaning on us heavy and we're there to kind of, and that's both a responsibility, but also exciting because when you know you can help someone, and it doesn't mean we get everything right or anything like that, but generally speaking, we know what we're doing. And so it's fun watching that all come together and building that kind of from the ground up.

I mean, that is a taller order, especially a large organization, no digital presence and suddenly becoming an online brand. Yeah. So it would be fun. No pressure all there. Yeah, no pressure. No pressure. We accept it gladly. Well, cool, man. It's been good. I love catching up with you. Look forward to the next one. And I hope everyone has a great fourth, including yourself.

And you've been trying to that closet now. Or bedroom. Yeah, this is, yeah, I guess better in this kind of studio now, kind of. Yeah, the studio. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. whatever our house is like. Everybody's like on a spaceship right now. Everybody's like spending your whole life in one space. Yeah. Have a good fourth.

Have some good time with the fam. Maybe you'll probably get out in a lake, I'm guessing. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We'll be on the boat. But cool, man. Well, that's all for today's episode of the radical marketing podcast. Now known as Radcast.

My producer will be very upset if I don't start naming that more. Radcast. Radcast. And I appreciate Robbie. Fitzwater coming on. Go follow Robbie on LinkedIn. Great insight. Great takes. And we'll look forward to having him on soon. And we'll see you next time. You guys have a good one. To learn more about radical, visit radical.company on the web or follow Ryan on Instagram at Ryan Alford. Thanks for listening to the Radical Marketing Podcast.