Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - RADICAL COMPANY PODCAST - EP 36 - " Passion, Drive & The in between " with Ben Harris founder and host of GOALINK

Episode Date: September 18, 2019

In this episode of the Radical company podcast... The roles are flipped! We actually had the great pleasure of hosting Ben Harris at our new co-working space COMRADERY and speaking a little about the nitty gritty in what it takes to grow and succeed in todays modern world. We go through Ryans Marketing ventures, past businesses, and future ventures and see a glimpse into what it takes to push through and create what you want for yourself; personally and externally. - If you enjoyed listening to Ben Harris interview Ryan be sure to check out Bens amazing podcast GOALINK, a supportive community of growth junkies and life learners embracing weekly challenges. Challenges inspire by mission - driven brands. We personally love having him here and his infectious drive, and established work ethic speak volumes! Make sure you check him out on instagram! @hurris or follow the podcast @goalinkgroup - If you enjoy this episode please check out the rest of our information and nugget filled episodes on our channel. Please share, review, and subscribe so we can continue to bring the radical ideas from our amazing guests for both your #business, #marketing and #lifestyle needs. . Have a great weekend Rad Fam! #NowThatsRadical🤙 #YeahThatGreenville 🌿 - Radical Podcast is always looking forward to meeting both aspiring, and grounded professionals across the country! Feel like you have something to say? Slide us a Dm and let's make it happen! @radical_results @ryanalford www.radical.company [phone] [e-mail] 25 Delano Drive, Greenville, SC 29601, USA Do you need an amazing co-working space, filled with like minded passion driven individual who value community and passion!? Then look no further. Radical has now created its very own HQ located right off the swamp rabbit trail and is inviting every scrappy, aspiring, and driven creative individual in the Greenville area to come be close, interact, and learn from the fastest growing marketing agency in the upstate. You can learn, schedule, and contact us all at Comraderycowork.com 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.

Hey guys, Ryan Offord here for the Radical Company podcast. A little interesting switch here. This is actually an episode that I recorded with Ben Harris from the GoLink podcast. This is, I was invited on his show. And we sat down and talked about a lot of things, both life, business, and perspective on being an entrepreneur. Really great, you know, being the host of the podcast, I'm usually on the other end interviewing people. but it kind of got to give a little bit more transparency around my core beliefs, how I do business, some of my background getting into starting radical and my early days in the ad agency business,

and just my early thoughts on entrepreneurship. Really excited for this episode. I hope you enjoy it. Definitely go check out GoLink and Ben Harris on Instagram, LinkedIn, as well as the normal podcast sessions. Here it is. Ryan Alford, what's up, my dude? What's happening? We are in the new space camaraderie, correct?

That's how I say it. Not camaraderie. Yeah, you can say it that way too. But yeah, camaraderie is the name. We're here. Yeah, I'm super stoked to be here. This is, it's definitely like a rad. I didn't even mean to say that, but it's a rad spot.

And I'm just happy you're letting me come in here, crash the party, interrupt the flow. So thanks for being here, my man. Well, I guess thank me for being here, but thanks for doing this. Yeah, absolutely. So before I just had an idea, usually you start off these things with, tell me about yourself. I'm going to actually say, what's something that people wouldn't expect to know about you?

Wouldn't expect, okay. Curve ball right off the bat. I told you, man, you better be ready. I have one kidney. I was born with a cystic kidney. and I was two days old that scared the crap out of my parents because they had me in the ICU unit because they didn't know what was wrong with me.

But I had one of my kidneys was just deformed and born unusable, but my body was trying to use it. So it threw off all my natural ways. So I've lived my entire life with one kidney. And so there's your unknown fact. I don't know if that was like, helped you anywhere in the personal development, the coaching aspect, but that's something very few people know.

It stunted my growth. I was going to say, that's the inside joke because growing up, and I don't know if you've ever heard this, they say kidney issues growing up, it does stunt their growth. And so it can have something to do with like your development. But luckily, I had no such issues. Yeah, how tall are you? I'm right at 6'5. With shoes on, I'm definitely 6'5.

I think I'm, you know, take the shoes off, I'm like six, four and a half, six, four and three quarters. So this is, yeah, we're not getting into the development world space yet. But have you, because I know, like, you're a fit dude. And have you had any trouble building muscle being a tall person? Yeah, I think in some ways, yes, I think, especially when I was younger. In the teens, I had a hard time. because I played basketball, and it was all cardio,

I mean, running laps and doing stuff. And I think it was more of that. Like, I didn't have the knowledge that I have now, and it was, we didn't have smartphones

and all this, you know, fitness of readily available. It's like, knowledge was just more available. You know, there was no internet, you know,

so, you know, my dad was a member of a gym and I would go to gym and work out while also playing basketball all the time. And I couldn't really put on that much muscle, especially in my upper body.

My legs have always been strong. That's more genetics, I think, but now that I know now, and once I got into my 20s, mid-20s, 30 and all that, learning more about fitness, having more access to knowledge and what to do, I actually can put on muscle. And I think if I had known some of those things, I probably could have done that earlier, but yeah. Yeah. Well, and for me, it's funny because I feel like the older I get, the easier it is to put on

muscle, or I just feel like you start to get like a man's body or like a dad body. Like, just like getting older, I feel like, yeah, like in my mid to late 20s, I'm still there. But, like, that's where, this with consistency in the gym, like, doing nothing crazy. Yeah. Because people ask me, like, how do I get in shape? It's like consistency, man. Yeah. It's definitely that.

I've always been. It's always, I think it's in the Alford blood. Because I remember growing up and my dad ran like five miles probably three or four times a week. And, you know, this was when, I don't get me wrong, I'm not saying, gyms and working out hasn't been popular for a long time and I'm not dating myself here but like late 80s early 90s you know there wasn't an anytime fitness on every quarter corner or you know like whatever there just wasn't that readily but my parents were always physically active my dad would you know I'd always thought he was crazy put on jogging and stuff and go off her run to be gone for 30 40

minutes or whatever run five miles and he did that three so always had that kind of kind of kind of in my life. And then my sister and I have always had the workout bug. Like we've definitely had fluctuations in our weight. I've definitely had the, you know, the freshman 15 where you're eating way more than no matter of what. But I've always been motivated to work out. I think it might just be a genetic thing in our blood because my dad was the same way.

My mom's kind of the same way. My sister's like, as anal as I am, she's 10 times more anal. I mean, that's good. You know, it's a good thing to be like having the blood. So tell me about marketing at the speed of now. What does that mean? You know, that's an interesting question. That's kind of the tagline for Radical, which is Radical, is your marketing company.

Yep. Which you own. Yep. And, you know, we're an 18-month-old company. I've been in the Ad Agency business my entire career almost 20 years. And so working for a lot of other people, working for big brands, started radical 18 months ago with the premise of marketing at the speed of now. and it's an interesting tagline because what it, I think,

and I haven't done any focus groups, you know, the beauty and the curse of myself, I kind of go on instinct a lot. You know, I wrote that down when I was thinking about what we wanted to be

as an agency and what I thought was relevant would resonate and differentiate us. And this notion of speed is important, but I think when you hear that, you immediately think,

I guess they do everything fast. Yep. Yes, we do. That is one of our pillars, actually one of our core values. And that is that we believe that success loves speed. And so we do things fast, but we do a lot of content development. And my thought process is now with smartphones, the ability and the number of platforms to message on, that you would be better to read.

be getting content that is really good out there quickly so you can read and react to consumer obviously you want it to be on brand and you don't want it to be I just I mean literally walking in this meeting I was like what it helped me maybe 15 minutes late to us you know started sending an email to a client that you know we sent her some content over and you know she's doing what she should do she's being she's evaluating that and she's like well we really like this one video and but these these these three or four. You know, they just, we just don't like them as much as you like the other.

They were on brand. They were animated. They were nice looking videos. They all were. And I think the client would say that too. But they just, but they had a subjectivity around one style. So there are four different styles.

Four different styles. And she liked one the best. And the other three were fine. They were not off brand. And my point back to her was, we need more volume of content out there more quickly so that we're touching more people. and we can let's let the market evaluate that and let's see if what you're saying is right or wrong again i'm

we're not promoting being fast to rush into doing off brand or stuff that we aren't comfortable with or that don't represent the company well but we do operate quickly and i think we produced honestly like knowing the industry being in it nationally for the size of of agency that we are for the number of people that we're working with in comparison to other regional agencies no one is developing the amount and the quality of content at the speed that we are so what are your thoughts on quality versus quantity I think it depends so I think based on our whole premise is built on more of the quantity side of it we probably produce 200 and 50 videos a month.

That's crazy, bro. And for how many clients? 10 to 15. Woo. And so these aren't, these aren't five second, like, ugly, smartphone. It's high quality, you know.

And so, but here's where I would stop and say this, because we had this conversation, my creative director, Mike. We worked together a long time, worked on a lot of big brands, and we had this discussion a lot, back to the speed thing, marketing speeder now.

We want to do a lot of content really well, really fast, so that we can get it out to the market to respond. Kind of like the Oreos moment in the Super Bowl. You know, like I believe in being able to respond quickly and respond quickly with video with high quality content and to let the market guide us versus our own subjectivity. However, when we're working on the brand anthem for a large to medium business, you know, that needs to tell an emotional story.

And we really need to make sure it is on brand, on strategy. We need to take our time with that in the right way. And brands need to. And we're not going to be rushed to, especially evergreen type things that are going to stick around for a long time. Like a centerpiece to their portfolio. Yeah. We're not going to rush that out. Now, will our process always be faster, great quality, even for those type pieces?

Yes. Instead of three months, like maybe at another agency or a big agency that's really trying to, you know, grind it out. And like, yeah, they're trying to do great content. It's going to be beautiful. You know, ours might be four or six weeks, you know, instead of three months. Yeah. Has it ever, has marketing at the speed of now ever not worked out for you? Like, have you gone too fast?

I think the answer would be yes. you know, we're 18 months old, and I've done this a long time, but it doesn't mean I know everything, most certainly. And there are moments where I look back on some things and go, that might not have been the best foot forward that I would have wanted in that moment. But you know what? At the same time that I say that and reflect on that, there would have been no foot forward if I had, or the client and I had to live. liberated on it forever because, you know, so was it, you get, you can get real self-critical moving quickly, you know, because you go, all right, why did we do that? What were you thinking?

You know, especially, you know, one of our most known clients, Dr. C, Rich Constantine, I won't call him that he is not the dancing dentist. He's like the furthest thing. He's a dentist that can dance. Honestly, and so I met him at Core 24 of the gym, as introduced myself. Yeah. And dude, that guy is just genuine. Holy cow, just like the nicest person. You ever met a nicer guy? No, I was like, whoa.

Nothing like you expect. Yeah. But there were some things with him because his stuff was moving so fast. We went viral with that first video. We really wanted to keep the audience. How many views did it get? That video has been seen worldwide over 500 million times. Jesus, dude.

500 million times. And zero paid. Zero. You didn't pay for any ads. That's what that is. No ads. Not a single ad. advertisement was run.

Zero. Okay. All organic, all driven by the original viral video on Facebook, and then with the gasoline that we poured on with PR, with getting news releases, getting the name out there, spreading it more, going on the largest TV station in the Middle East, their morning television show, all via Skype, going on Good Morning America, Googling Inside Edition. I reached out to context at ABC News. So we poured gas on an R80.

growing fire, but it became, you know, went from, you know, garage fire to a full on, like that. This might be too soon. Yeah. Four alarm. On the fire. I don't know. Yeah.

It might be too soon. Yeah. Probably. Probably. Hopefully. I didn't say it for us. I was starting to go towards like a California wildfire. I'm like, geez, people.

That's all. Yeah. Not the right way to go. But I think you get the, the analogy. But yeah. And so over 500 million views. There was times in that when I look back at some of the things that we did for him. some follow-up content

because we were keeping the flame going. I mean, what people don't realize, they all remember that first video. We did like seven or eight dance videos after that. They all got over 20 million views. That's crazy, though. They even stand alone, like, what's funny is you get invited on Ellen if you get over a million views

on one video. He probably, we had seven videos with over 20 million views. That's crazy. So he posted one by himself that started to go viral. Is that what happened? and then it started going crazy so he contacted you. We were working together already.

Oh, from the beginning. I'd given him, like, his tripod and, like, we were talking about stuff. But his girls at work told him out the video about the dance challenge and knew he could dance and told him to do it. And I managed his Facebook page. And was this Drake's? Was that one? The Drake's in my feelings.

So I managed his page and have, you know, his admin on all his accounts and everything like that. So we were already working together. But I had been encouraging. I was like, dude, you're good-looking guy. You've got a great personality. You've got to be out in front of the camera more. But his girls found, you know, told him the video, he used, I think he used the tripod that I had given him. He set it up.

And then, you know, like, he sent me a message or, you know, my phone starts stinging anyway because of all the likes and stuff that started coming in. And he sent me a message. I think I want to say, and he was debating. even taking it down at one time because he's just like I think he was just he was embarrassed because you know he's just a shy guy it's genuine and I'm like dude you know what's happening I was like I'm coming to your office like I was like no you're coming get Trish you're coming to my house Trish and his wife and him wherever at my house like that night till late and I was just like dude we're game planning

like so we were game planning from there you know how to like really I mean it was it was going viral on its own but really that's when I started calling media contacts for my days in New York and the weed's poured gas on it. I'm sure the plan for him was not to have it seen millions of times, but maybe like thousands of times in his market. Is that what his expectation was? It was totally like, hey, it's a dance challenge. I'm trying to open up.

Ryan's encouraging me to be on camera more. My people had already been challenging telling me I needed to do more. And it was a random thing. And he's a good dancer. And so it's just like the meeting of all of those things. And then, you know, you can't plan for that. Like, you can't. Now, oh, he want to go viral.

I'm like, I've never marketed that. We are not the viral agency. Yeah. But you know what? It's back to if we swing enough times at bat, more content, more volume. The chances of that happening, maybe not 500 million views, but are more likely. Yeah. That's been my experience with more content and letting just the audience decide.

of on my platform just releasing like of course I always think it's good but then they don't always think it's good or maybe not the best or better you know and so it's cool just to kind of go through that process and learn just like I'm not putting stuff to like what they like necessarily but what do they find useful or beneficial like what do they want to help them yeah in my arena not just like, hey, let me just make everything you want. It's, okay, how can it resonate with you? And then how can I make it in a way that hits you? That's right.

And it's been cool. Like, definitely producing more content has got me in a practice that also produces quality. So doing more quantity has helped me get more quality content. And, you know, somewhat related. If anything, and, you know, we meet as a team, at least, every other week. I mean, we're together all the time.

We're in a very collaborative workspace. We use the benefits of our co-workspace as our team here collaboratively. So I feel like we're always together, but we get at least in the meeting room once or a couple weeks. And I just have been hammering this is we've gone the other direction. We've slowed down because we've let the, I'm so proud of my content bug catch us. What do I mean by that? Well, when Radical first started, there's a time and a place for the perfect DSLR slow motion shot.

Yeah. That's beautiful. And there's a time in a place where, you know, for our video people holding up my smartphone, I shot when it was me and a couple other people when Radical first started with a few clients. We did a lot of smartphone stuff, you know, and it worked just as well. For the right types of things, again, not the brand. some videos, but for the fast, quick content, micro content type things. And we've slipped a little bit in our, because I look at our volumes and everything

like that. We're still killing a lot of other agencies and a lot of other brand. The brands that are working with us are doing a lot more video content than others. But we've gotten a little bit to, and look, I want to have, I'm very proud of our work. I'm very proud of our quality. I think if you go look at our pages, you produce really nice stuff. but we've let ego and a taste for quality in our own minds for slip into everything and not just those pieces like I discussed that need to be that way. And so I've challenged my team.

We're actually going and getting a little more nimbler and doing a little bit more, you know, run and shoot type things like we were doing in the beginning and then finding those moments. So you can kind of, and that's all back to, and I struggle with this because I used to do more videos of myself, like stories and I, you know, I'll blame getting busy. I'll also blame my own. It's not. Like, I'm, I can turn it on, but I'm probably, I'm actually more of an introvert data nerd. Like, you know, I sit with my digital media team the most because I can, like, I love the data and, like, dig into that stuff. And I can sit at my desk all day, kind of running reports, testing some ad combos and do things. Like, I nerd out on that stuff.

I can flip the on-camera guy switch. I do have that ability, but it's not my natural thing either. I just don't naturally get in front of my story camera all day. And even though I know that I should, and I tell my clients that they need to be doing it. But it's funny how we can kind of get in our own. It's not even I get in my own head.

I just have gotten to like, we're busy, we're doing other things and I selfishly am not doing it as much as I want to be doing it. Okay, well, I'll ask in a couple weeks, how are the stories? We can start with a story today. Perfect. So what's something, if someone is saying, hey, I don't want video content or I don't care about social media, what marketing tip could you give that person? let's just say

well I have some ideas like what are your tips for someone who's just like I don't care about videos I don't care about social media why does marketing matter to me here's why okay you went you started down a path and I had a good answer okay no start a little bit

start with the first answer like first tip own your customer what do I mean by that so in this day and age you need to own the relationship with your customers, your clients, whether that's big or small. What do I mean by that? Emails, phone numbers, first and last names. There's a lot of companies that we start working with, and I'm not talking about so you can data breach them.

I'm just saying so that you can communicate with them. They're your customer, whether that's email, whether that's calling them. But if you're a small business where you only have, you only have. seven clients. You know, it's about having their phone number and their email to directly one-to-one communicate with them, not talking about spam. But there's a lot of companies that we work with that don't really own their customer data and they don't take advantage of that relationship and nurturing it and nurturing it in contextual

ways. Like, okay, I work with you with this service. You would naturally be interested in that service. And I would be. So I'm an accountant. it, but I'll also do X and Y that relate to that. Are you having that communication with them? And, you know, I'll use the word upsell, cross-sell, you know, but in a contextual way,

not a spammy way. Yeah. And so if you don't want to do social media and you don't want to do videos, then do email marketing or one-to-one text marketing or, but again, own your customer data, nurture them, take care of them. through communication. And that is marketing at its core in a lot of ways,

especially with customer-based marketing. And I think that's one avenue. Everyone in business thinks about prospecting. How do I get more customers? How do I get more? How do I get more? But if you will nurture your existing customers, number one, they'll stay with you.

Number two, they'll refer you. And number three, they'll help grow you. And so that is like tip uno numero uno. And it has nothing to do with content. just really treating, like you said, own your customer, but like really, like building that relationship with your current customer. I like that. So you mentioned an accountant.

So they're probably not going to be running, you know, social media ads. But how can their career, why does marketing matter to their career of just day-to-day or trying to get a promotion or do better at their job? I will say this, whether it's a lawyer, whether it's a doctor, whether it's accountant, some of those tried and true services, and everyone kind of thinks that same thing. And I even thought it at one point,

but now, and it took maybe running my own agency and doing what I've done the last 18 months, think about this, if an accountant, even if he's a numbers guy, but would do stories and would do content on social media, educating, and making it interesting, and if he can't be that, then hire an agency, you know, and you don't have to pay them tens of thousand dollars.

They're small business agencies, radical, you know, that we'll do this affordably and do interesting content as an accountant. Hello, who wouldn't want to be doing business with that accountant? They could break down the walls of what the heck is going on in this balance sheet. And it's boring. And it's boring and like, yeah, the numbers aren't that interesting. And it would take some strategies and some work out. that is but that code can be cracked for anyone and I'd be running Facebook ads and doing that if an accountant came to me and said look I see what you're doing we want to be radical like

an accountant could be radical you know a lawyer could be radical we've tried to work with a couple of them and they couldn't get out of their own way you know but in there are legal challenges in finance and in law but being a human and showing humanity and not being looked at as a commodity or in a lawyer sense some negative connotations. There's ways to do social with that as well. So you mentioned like someone getting in their way. With your clients, if you can say, what's one pet peeve that's like, oh man, like if you would just do this, you would see like exponential engagement or business or whatever?

You know, we don't, you know, that's kind of like sometimes the assumption, like, that agencies have working with clients. If they just do everything, we know everything, and they know nothing about marketing or whatever. I never enter into a relationship with a client or a business and pretend that I know everything. Because there's nuances to business. Even if it's e-commerce, there's nuances to sports supplements versus beauty and, healthcare and you know those kind of things there's nuances and so I don't step into it pretending to have all the answers and like well if you just listen to everything that we said but I do find that the general pitfalls are around ego of how we've always done things

and an inability to try and test something for long enough to truly know if it could work And, you know, kind of that example I gave before, you know, we like this one and, you know, these three are look okay, but they're not as cool as that one, you know, like, that is not a scientific way with which to, you know, expand and grow your business. And so it's hard to get solopreneurs, like individual entrepreneurs that are real set in their ways.

I had a meeting with one a couple weeks ago, super badass guy, like just super knowledgeable and knows his stuff, but he's kind of been sitting at this one point. Makes a pretty good living, but he's never cracked the code. For the next level.

For the next level. He's never scaled. And, you know, we sat in the room and gave him two hours worth of graded advice, and he won't do any of it. And it's not because he took it to heart. He knew everything that we were saying was right or good tips or good thoughts or good things that he should try

um but then it came back to yeah but i just did this on the website and i really like it focus group of one the worst way uh to to judge anything and that just means you don't go on your gut like we're all like i do a lot on my gut i said this at the beginning and like yeah got it by your gut but like if you really want to grow and you really want to scale you've got to push past the solopreneur or the focus group of one mentality. And that's harder than people. It's not easy. But you got to.

Well, because we always think we're right. We do. It's funny. Like, I always think I'm right. And then luckily, I think I'm pretty open-minded that sometimes I'm like, oh, okay. Like, I try something. and it's like, oh, it's working, you know. So how did you, like, did you stumble into marketing or how did you first come upon it?

I was a marketing major at Clemson. Okay, so how did you know that you wanted to do it? You know, the honest truth is, I think, like, I grew, like, my family, I grew up with a lot of, my parents were entrepreneurs growing up. My grandfather was an entrepreneur. I definitely felt like I had, like, that business slant. and I always felt like I had that creative side to me I wasn't like an artist growing up

I didn't draw or anything like that but I think I kind of had that a creative brain and so I think those things combined and I think my girlfriend at the time was going into marketing and so it all came together

but there was some there was both art and science in that decision the science of of the former of what I said and the art of the latter. That's funny. You know, so full transparency there. The full transparency.

And then it worked out, you know. And then that same girlfriend who I was actually no longer with, there's some irony in this. Yeah. She was working at an ad agency. We were still friends, and she gave me a really good referral, you know, so don't ever burn your bridges. And so two months out of Clemson went to work for Irwin Penlin, EP and Connell here in Greenville, their largest agency in the state.

And so started there in 2001. Look, don't burn your bridges. That's smart. So let's, I like to say, let's pimp yourself out a little bit. Can you name like the campaigns and the companies you've worked with? Yeah. We won't be humble. Let's go.

Let's go. We, a little backstory that gets you there, Irwin Penland's largest clients, and the one I was hired to work on was Verizon. It was a small, southeast, not small. I mean, it was a $3 million piece of business, you know, annual retainer, which is for an agency, EP side,

that's a large piece of business. When I started there, they had it, it was Southeast. We managed retail advertising for all their stores in the Southeast. they have a ton of communication stores. It had a lot more than it. A lot of us gone to e-commerce, but back then there was, you know, Verizon stores on every corner and agent stores and all that.

And we did all of the marketing, one was store support for the southeast stores. And so there's a lot of stores. And so we had that piece of business. We also did kind of managed everything for those stores, customer-based communication. So any customers that went to those stores specifically, Verizon thinks about their customers more nationally now.

but regional communication if you walk into the store of the graphics you see the ads you see in the newspaper ran a ton of newspaper ads and radio that was my first job was like trafficking 100 like when newspapers was like everything like we'd have to in every ad people don't know this but every newspaper

had a different size and different ad sizes so you'd have this eight by five ad that you'd create and get the client to approve but then you'd have 300 in one market newspapers you'd have to shrink it a little bit make it a little bit and the variables within that ad you don't have some of the softwares that you have now that

automates some of these things it was just very graphic design driven you'd have to shrink it down sometimes you might have to remove an element if it's a big busy ad you might fix something out and you got to get that approved you got to proof the legal oh this is a glamorous job let me just tell you when I first got it proofing all those ads getting them out. Same thing with radio. We'd have different radio reads, different disclaimers. Depending on the state and the city, they have different disclaimers that you need, like, legal. So I did that starting out. And not so glamorous first year, but I made a lot of relationships with Verizon, made a lot of good contacts.

I was promoted five times in like four years. There you go. And so I came really, I was a good relationship. I was a good relationship. I was a I was also really aggressive internally at EP with like, give me more, give me more, give me more. Like if someone would leave that was above me, even if I had had the job for a month, I want their job. I will do their job. And my boss at the time, Alan Bosworth, he always gave me an opportunity. He said, until you fail. And I don't think I ever let him down.

I wasn't perfect, and I didn't get everything right, but I knew how to step into a role, take on direct reports. but I had relationships with Verizon. And so that led to national opportunities building those relationships with me and other people on my team. It certainly was not a me show. It was, we had a great team. Guys that are still even over there, Chief Growth Officer Jeff Hoffman and I, Alan, my boss,

he played air cover. I think we just, Curtis Rose, Catherine Sloan, who's now Catherine Schaefer, but we had a really great core team that really grew and grew our relationships. And we kind of did the same thing. They started doing the same thing as me stepping into roles we didn't even belong in. We were in meetings at Verizon that this little little old agency in South Carolina probably didn't we belong in.

But we go, we can do that. You know, they talk about something they need to get done. We can do that. Could we do it? Had we ever done it? No. Could we figure out how to do it? Yes.

And so we became that scrappy agency. And we took a $3 million to $45 million over 12 years. We worked on everything from Can You Hear Me Now to the Apple iPhone launch, which came on to Verizon. We would shepherd them in. All the stuff with the NFL, all the original content with Drew Breeze, the training ground, which was a big traveling tour, going to all the NFL cities when Verizon and NFL mobile first got their deal. The droid, which was, you know, when the iPhone first came out, you know, you had the droid that came in, the Android first Android, first Android. Android phone. We were involved in all of those campaign developments with the, you know, we had the campaign, I can't do this, I can't do that. You know, that was droid's first kind of first four-A playing against the iPhone. So we worked on all of those things.

And so Verizon was kind of the bread and butter. But then while that was going on, got involved with, I opened or helped open the New York office for EP. So they weren't there before? They weren't in New York. So we opened the New York office. I lived in New York for four years. Kept a place here. It was kind of back and forth, but lived in New York. And worked on, you know, got pulled into other meetings.

Some Budweiser stuff for Hill Holiday. He's actually a large agency in Boston that owns E.P. Okay, okay. And so it's actually part of a big IPG conglomerate. I won't get into all of the, I guess I did a little bit there. but the ad world and how it revolves. It's all very incestuous, but nonetheless, worked on a number of campaigns for them,

Firehouse Subs, all of their original marketing and campaigns, Denny's, everything with Denny's. Dude, this is crazy, man. I'm sure, is there anything that sticks out in your head of what you've learned from all of those big campaigns? campaigns. You know, yes, there is. There's like a serious side and there's a like not so serious.

Let's hear both. I love it. I'll start non-serious. The not serious was kind of back to the premise of like radical now, which is like, you know, technology and the ability, like video was always put on this pedestal. You know, it costs like even five or seven years ago to get a really nice, even at the lowest level, nice 60 second, two-minute brand video. you're going to spend 10 grand.

You know, like five, seven years ago. Like at the low level, in a big agency, you're going to spend $150,000 to $500,000 for that same type of content. And 10 years, 15 years ago, it was unheard of. I sat on a million-dollar budget, 30-second commercial spots. That was all it was. Can you hear me now spots with, you know, not every one of them because we started to templify some of that,

but some of the NFL stuff and other, we're just getting a 30-second commercial that's going to go on all these people. a million to produce. You charge them a million bucks. Yes. And now it was a call with all of the resources that were there. It wasn't like the agency was making 40% margin on that.

It wasn't, you know. But so what have I learned? Like that has been really interesting. And that's not even driven by the campaigns, but just by the budgets. Just the money spent, even on marketing then and now is so ridiculous at the large brand level.

And some people, I think, especially younger people, and even myself, I'm naive to how lucky, who we are. Yeah. Like social media is free. Yeah, exactly. You know,

it is, I don't care if you get 10 likes. It's free. Yeah. You know, like you can make a viral video for free. Like, we take it for granted.

And because we don't remember those days of, man, you had to pay like 10 grand for what you can make in your home with your phone in a few hours. Yeah. That's super cool. It is cool.

So that is such a shift, you know, you know, and that is related to not necessarily the campaigns themselves, but just the size of the client, the changing of the technology and stuff like that. On the more serious note,

what hasn't changed, and Mike and I talk about this a lot, and you know, it matters for smaller business too, but it definitely matters for medium to larger brands that have to really live their brand, you know, at a bigger scale. The big idea, and creativity

is the ultimate differentiator. And so what do I mean by that? Really great strategy built on insight into a consumer mindset fuels great creativity and ideas. For example, can you hear me now? That came out of a really great insight,

which is, at the time, in 2000, it was we never stopped working for you for a while that was Verizon's tagline. Then it changed to, can you hear me now? Which was never really a tagline, it was just more of the statement. We never start working for you. It was really more the tagline,

more empowering. But can you hear me now? It's so simple, but it came out of this premise at the time. Verizon has the best network. People hated drop calls. All the other networks, they all had drop calls, but Verizon was the best. And it came out of just that simple insight of consumers don't want to deal with drop calls

and what could make them relate to that in a way that brings that emotion and that thought back up to them. And everybody knows when you say, even you, I can't stop saying it now. Even to this day, it's less of a challenge because luckily we don't have as many drop calls. And we text and do a lot of things that's talking this other day. I mean, I can't suppose I'll say. I'll say, I'm like, still in the vernacular. You'll say when someone you can't get through, can you hear you now? But that was really based on that insight of, you know, and it's so simple.

And even to this day now and just do it, just other things, you know, that was an empowering statement, but it was built on a consumer insight at the time. That has not changed. And the great differentiator from one brand to the other is still creativity backed by sound strategy. that's cool um and because i know before radical before he started radical and what was the other business that you were that you're i owned a dealership i drive on demand customer cars you know carvana what carvana's doing now yeah we were doing it in 2012 that's crazy so like so you're definitely like the entrepreneur and you moved up in companies what made you decide that okay i'm

going to start doing stuff on my own now you know i i get asked that a lot i either on podcast just in part and i i think i am definitely there's the entrepreneurship in my blood i think i i'm reasonably good at it um i don't have it all figured out but i could totally work for someone else again i am not a lot of people assume like hosurer you just don't you can't work for anyone you're so like no i haven't i have i don't i don't i don't i don't have I have no problem working for anyone else. Both of my situations have been more, you know, leaving EP, you know, not really having a job there if I wanted to come back here and like needing to get back to Greenville with, you know, went through divorce and, you know, my kids were here. I wasn't going to stay in New York.

I wanted to be with them. And I wanted to be back here anyway. I'd had my fill in New York. I love New York, but it's a tough place to live, especially if you have kids and family and all that. It was more out of just necessity. Like I had the idea with the car thing, with a partner that was already doing it, you know, so I kind of like franchised his idea a little bit. And it was just like, I'm going to try this.

And it was a good time of my life in a transition period. It wasn't, I'm quitting and I'm going to go do it for myself. I'm going to, you know, fist to the man. You know, it's never been that for me. Like it was just more the opportunity at the time. It was like, okay, I want to do this. I guess I got to start it myself, you know, had the funding to do it and did it. It didn't pan out.

I just more, it didn't do wonderfully combined with I didn't want to be a car dealer or salesperson. I'm dealing with. There was just stuff that came with it that I just didn't think I was going to have to deal with it. I didn't have to deal with. They didn't want to do that rest of my life. I was a better marketer than a car operator. Yeah. And went to work for someone else in between as the chief marketing officer and other agency.

And, you know, the vibe and the culture didn't line up for what I wanted to do and be more than, oh, I can't wait to get my own business started again necessarily. I always had a thought in my process if I stayed in an agency business that I might start my own agency. But like if for some reason there had been another EP-sized agency in Greenville that needed someone at my senior level, I might would have just gone over there for a few more years. I might have eventually started radical, but it might not have been. There's not like this, and I, you know, I think it's going to work out. It's been so good so far, but things didn't work out again. I have no, I really don't mind working for someone else. But I enjoy it.

And now that I've had a taste of it, it's a little bit hard to go back because you kind of do set your own schedule, you know, and it's not because I get to play golf every day. It's not. I'm not there yet. I don't know if I'll ever want to be there, but, but, but, you know, I don't know. ever want to be there but um but it's i think it's definitely in the offered blood i think i i'm not scared of it you know a lot of people don't become entrepreneurs just because they're scared of it you know like i've got a i'm responsible for my own check i'm like really responsible like not just

clock it in you know like that that doesn't scare me like i'm not intimidated by that um doesn't mean i don't worry about it or think about it or you know have all over our moments of doubt and all that. No, of course I do, but I've never, it doesn't, it's never been a paralyzing. And like, that's probably more the inside of me than anything is for good, bad or indifferent. And I was not a wild child or like some crazy person that's always, you know, I just, I'm not that person. But I've just never been paralyzed by decision in anything in life. I'm not, like, I just, I don't live my life that way. And that is, I don't think that is, you can train that.

I'm not saying you can't get there. I'm not saying you can't be coached and mentored and all that. You can improve. But that's just been a gene inside. But you just weren't, so you're saying you're not afraid just to pull the trigger to see what's going to happen? Yeah. Because you're not afraid of if it works out, awesome. If it doesn't, I can just do something else.

Yes. There's something in my head that's probably both crazy and. wonderful at the same time terrible wonderful and crazy at the same time that like I've just never been paralyzed by indecision yeah do I think about things sometimes do I rattle around like anyone of course like it's not because oh oh well I'm just go jump off this bridge you know or like no it's not like that's what I'm saying it wasn't like I was some crazy wild child that was you know um but I've just never been paralyzed in making those no I think that I mean that's a huge strength let's slightly almost 180 um what is the role that self-development well first let me preface this

so i first met you i moved to greenville about seven months ago and my fourth day here i went to gviel hustle which is a networking event that you put on and i remember meeting you there um and so you are definitely it it is business but there's a lot of like motivation and self-development there so what role does self-development play in your life? I think that, you know, we all can have continual growth and, you know, you're never done. It's kind of back to that, you know, there's certain premises and certain things about myself, you know, they're not paralyzed by growth or whatever, but I believe in you're never, like, stuck in a certain mindset or certain thing.

and I had been getting to a place the last, you know, four to five years where reading books and doing podcasts and like, you know, learning about those things where I felt like I wanted to be a part of sharing that same mentality. While also that disconnect, and I think we've talked about this to some of the GVil Hustles like Tyler and I both being in Greenville, but I was in New York for a while. while I have family and kids, I'm not, I didn't feel like connected to the community, even though I'm from Greenville, born and raised, and been successful and done things, but I didn't feel connected. So I think it was the path of those two things.

One, wanting to help Greenville and wanting to share, and at least not just because I knew it all, but at least provide a place where those things, that growth can happen, combined with wanting to be more connected to the community. And so it was like the intersection of those. two things. And that's where, you know, I've just, I've taken more to heart, you know, the personal

growth side. You know, like we all go through challenges and changes. You know, I've been through divorce. I've seen the worst of myself. I've seen the best myself. But I think I've always known there's a delta of opportunity to grow at all times. And, you know, how do I manifest that? Yeah. What's your advice to someone who is in the worst, like they're seeing the worst side of themselves right now, and they're just stuck there.

Like, they're just lost in this place of, I don't like who I am. What do they do to get out? You know, there's two sides to that. You know, there's one part that I get uncomfortable talking about, like the mental health side. there's like this fine line there like there and that's even doing what we do like that was always like in the back of my head like this fine line of being a mental health professional and being personal growth like you know it's a fine line sometimes it is and so I get I try to leave the mental health side to the professionals yeah that's good but on the personal side you know it's so interesting like thinking about like some of my like worst moments personally or professionally you know there's like a certain time where you just have to look in the mirror and say it

this two will pass but you have to just make a plan and go do it there has to be action like the pity party has everyone i've had him we can i've had we can i've I've thrown, I've had banners, I've had streamers, I've had airplanes flying by at my pity parties. Like literally, you know, hot air balloons. Awesome. Like, I invited clowns over for my pity parties. Like, you know, we can all have them. And so it's not about, get off your tail and go make it happen.

You know, that's not what I'm saying. But at a certain point, you have to decide. Mm-hmm. A to B to C, and I'm at A. and here's these are where out decide where you want to get to like don't even worry about the map yet

let's just decide we're going to Idaho you know like but you got to decide you're going to Idaho like decide that I'm going to be okay I failed as a lawyer but I'm going to be a financial advisor

and get there and start taking steps to Do it. You know, like map out the plan, write it down, create a journal, write down your goals, and go do it. And like action, like all that assumes that you've got the mental health side taking care of. Because that's where I don't pretend to give advice or know if there's something chemically or like something. That's just such a hard space. Like sometimes sometimes that can be the problem.

Yeah, there's been challenges and pitfalls things that happen. like if there's a mental help challenge there, that needs to get figured out before you'll ever get to where you're going. You know, so it's a delicate balance there. But assuming that part's worked out and this is just the pity party, you know, banner streamers, clowns. Yeah, dude, that's,

I think that's really good advice because I feel like the pity party, we just get stuck there. Yeah. And you don't, you can't see a direction, you don't know where to go. You can't even see, you know,

I heard one quote when this, cheesy quote but I still like it about a GPS doesn't give you five steps ahead it just tells you the next turn yeah you know like just what's that next turn what's point A just go to A yeah go to Idaho yeah and then from there you can decide where to go I'll give you a quick story yeah let's do it so first year at Clemson um I think the first semester I had a 0.9 GPA no way first semester I mean it was like, or 1.9. It was a point nine. It was a point. Yeah, no, 1.9.

Okay. 1.9 GPA. Second semester, I think it was like 1.98. Like, it was just no better. The parents ripped me out of school. And so I took a year off. And I knew I needed it too.

Like I had no direction. Like I was just partying, having a good time, like some, what, going class. But I had no idea what I was trying to get done. You know, I was just dead. school. I was a marketing major, but like, and so I went and worked at a place called Steakout. Yeah. Steak delivery.

And I, you know, went and delivered steaks. And I, you know, made good money, you know, considering I was like a 19 year old, you know, driving my Honda around driving steaks. The tips were pretty good. And, you know, went and did that. I was like, like, you know, get a job.

I'm like, all right, drive around my car and makes some pretty good tips. You know, like, okay, I'll do that. Went and worked there for like three months or a couple months. And they pulled me into the store. They're like, this guy's not the average, maybe stakeout employee. I don't know, whatever. Yeah. Came the manager of the stakeout, like, within like five months.

Wow. It's like a 19-year-old. This, you know, a pride and joy here. And was, but was making like $40,000 a year. What? I'm like, that's not bad. Bad as a 19. I think I might have turned 20 in the middle of that.

And so like, but I had to make a constitution. I got to go back. I'm not going to work. But I had to give up 40,000. Like, it was a 1920 year old, never had really any money. You know, I was like, I don't know how I just keep doing it. But I knew and gave that up. But the point was I was in a real pity party before deciding, okay, I don't have it figured out yet.

But step one might be going and being a barista at the cost. coffee house while you figure out what you want to do with your life. You know, like or whatever, because if you don't want to be here, you're having a pity partner because something didn't work out, go work at stakeout for a little while and get your shit together. It doesn't mean it's permanent. Doesn't mean it's

permanent. And figure out what you want to do with your life, but then map out the steps to get there, you know? And maybe you'll figure out, hey, I want to be a barista and an artist, and that's going to make you happy. You decide what's going to make you happy. And then map it out to get there. Yeah, I like, What are your thoughts on, I'm curious, like, I'm really curious on your thoughts with this.

The balance of, like, kind of trusting what will work out, I'm not sure if that you can call it fate or just trusting the universe versus creating and working for it. Like, what is your thesis on that? Take the question more than I'm sure I'm getting it. You're good. So, like, what is your belief around? how much do you have to work for something to make it happen versus hey that's just not meant to be or that is meant to be or trusting that everything is going to work out

I am very I have very like on the scale of fate versus making it happen here there we go I think I might rephrase that question so like you know like the balance of the scale me personally I'm 90% the make it happen guy and 10% fate.

Back to that analogy, like promotions at EP, asking, taking action towards things that I had no business, like, even asking for, I'm just, like, go do it. Like, I'll go figure it out. And sometimes, sometimes it's kind of like back to the marketing of speed now. Like, my whole life was like marketing and speaking out. It's like sometimes a wait and see approach might have been better. but more times than not the go make it happen has served me well and I I do believe in higher powers

and like I believe in things are meant to be I totally do believe that but I believe that those things can be influenced by going and make it happen too yeah that's kind of like where I am I'm like like give it your all go make it happen if it doesn't happen try try again and if it doesn't happen, try something else. Yeah. You know, it's like, just keep trying. You're going to have to try. But yeah, why ask that?

Just because I've been toying with this idea of like effort and then effortless. It's like sometimes when it's easy is when it really kind of clicks, like a really good idea. You know, instead of like trying to force this, man, like Verizon, how can we think of something to like make this? up but someone just can you hear me now yeah that's like easy it is what's funny like I had that conversation with the client too the other day like you know we're coming up with like a tagline or a headline for something it seems like sometimes the first the first one the one that you write on the board is it's like it comes quick and it's like you come back to that one I don't know what it is well and it's funny because I feel like you still need to go through the other options

so you appreciate that first one. Yeah. Right? It's like you can't, it's like, let's have a good idea. And this happens with me all the time that the gut is usually the right answer.

But I have to go in a cycle of seeing other possibilities. And I'm like, yep, my gut was the right choice. But with the speed of now, you trust your gut, baby, and then you're going. That's right. All right, dude, as we wind down,

I have a segment that's called scroll, my soul. All right. So what that means is I keep a funny list of inspirational notes from conversations, podcast, books, what have you. And I randomly scroll through. And so I picked one. I stopped. And I just ask for your thoughts. What does it remind you of? How does it resonate with you? Cool. Got it. So what I have is when you can't win by being better, win by being different. So what does when you can't win by being better, win by being different? to you. Interesting.

That's cool. No, I like the, I like the segment. You know, I'm trying to like think of like, we're having a similar discussion with like a client that's trying to like break into a field.

And they don't have the dollars to be, to play in the same sandbox, so to speak. As the other competitors. And so in theory, you know, better can be, seem better when, you know, you have more dollars to talk more,

get your message out more, reaching frequency to give a media analogy, you know, reach more people, more times. So if you see the ad over and over and over again, you know, there's a reason like certain things, like, you know, advertising actually works, you know. Well, even, it's just a bliminal messaging, dude.

don't even realize that if you just see it over and over there's this psychology man exactly um but sometimes you have to work harder and be scrappier you know and i will actually say and i'll use radical as analogy you know good endpoint right um radical is built on the premise of being different and not better it's back to the speed of now which is is we are swinging well above our belt line compared to agencies four, five, ten times bigger than us that have better, better bank accounts or better resources, perceived better talent.

But we find differentiation in speed, scrappiness, efficiency. and I think you have to work smarter, not necessarily harder, and it is harder because being different is hard. It's really hard. Because it's easiest to fall into. Like if I had $1 billion, probably take more than that. If I was just going to create an absolute duplicate of Amazon, you know, absolute duke and I had the money to do it, it's just money.

I mean, I'm not saying money's easy, but like you just create it. I feel you. But to create something different than Amazon, but equally as effective is harder, smarter, you know, just takes more thinking. You just, it does lead me to the premise of more time sometimes. I hate to say that, but to be different, you have to be brave. I like that, man. To be different, you have to be brave.

Yeah. It's more fun, though. It is. Well, awesome, dude. Well, Ryan, thank you. If you're in Greenville, of course, come check out your co-working space. Comraterycowork.com. Check it out online, and then we're right here on the Small Private Trail, 25 Delano.

Boom. I love it. And it really is like an awesome trail. This is an awesome spot to be at. Do you have anything else on your heart or mind that you want to say? Marketing. No, I mean, no. Follow me at at Ryan Alford on Instagram.

You can find, keep up with anything that I'm doing or the agency's doing or camaraderie or GVL hustle. And, you know, I'm very accessible. I mean, I think you've seen that, you know, like. Yeah, I can attest. Yeah, so if I can help anyway, I'm here. Yeah, well, thank you, sir. For real, I appreciate you taking an hour out of your day. My pleasure, brother.

Adios. See you.