Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Creative Design for Innovation - a Think Billions Experience Guest

Episode Date: November 22, 2022

In today’s episode, The Radcast is on the road at “The Castle” in Palm Desert California, the home of Billion Dollar Brand builder Howard Panes as part of the Think Billions Experience series.Ryan welcomes Mario Mirabella, the CEO and founder of MSM Digital and a Digital Marketing Expert. Ryan talks with Mario about how he started his agency as a side hustle and now turned it into an award-winning digital marketing company. Mario brings a wealth of experience to the table, having started his own company from scratch. He also talks about how one decision led him down an unexpected path in life but now he’s here and has made it big! http://www.msmdesignz.comKey notes from the episode:Mario talks about how he taught himself to be in the digital space and how he founded MSM in 1996, and was called MSM DesignZ at that time. (02:12)MSM DesignZ rebranded into MSM Digital - to do polishing of brands, build awareness, and traffic leads. (05:56)Mario talks about the evolution of his company and his team as it continues to innovate itself to cater different industries and how having talented and creative people around plays a big role to scaling. (06:46)Working in different industries and being outside the box has helped Mario and his team to be more effective in implementing their digital strategies. (12:18)They talk about how unstoppable Clemson Football was. (16:21)Mario talks about how he started building his personal brand after 23 years and how important it is to create authority in the industry. (17:22)The importance of believing in your vision and having the right skills and experience. (22:00)This episode is packed with great advice and we know you will get a ton of value from the Think Billions Experience Guest lineup. The Think Billions Experience was developed by Howard Panes who assembled a group of the most notable multi-million and billion-dollar brand builders in the business, making the Think Billions Experience one of the highest net worth events of 2022. Learn more about future events at https://events.thinkbillions.com/ or follow Howard on Instagram - https://instagram.com/howardpanesTo keep up with Mario, follow him on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariomirabella/ or Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mariosmirabella/If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, Like, Share, and leave us a review! Learn more by visiting our website at www.theradcast.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RadicalHomeofTheRadcast 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. 

The hardest part of ending is starting again. You're listening to The Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of The Radcast. We're still here rocking it, the Think Billions event. We got health, wealth, and mindset.

We got more great founders, including my good buddy here, Mario Mirabella. What's up, brother? What's going on? Nice to be here. Hey, man. I like having you, man. Thank you. It's nice having somebody else in the Understands Agency business. Oh, yeah. Founder of MSM Digital. We've both been in the business a while, and, you know,

it's been nice getting to know Mario and a lot of people. It's a really quality event. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, just all sorts of levels here. Yeah. Just amazing, the experience and knowledge that's in this room. If you want to say multiple rooms of this palace. This palace. That's going, right?

Palace, castle. I mean, God. But it's amazing, you know but it's it's it's amazing you know the experiences and and and just the the victories across the board of all these people in all different industries too yeah you know all that wealth of knowledge they're bringing to the table i mean you're just overloaded every day you know because you're picking out bits and pieces of everything that people are speaking about so you know you know, it's priceless. And every person, sometimes you do events, and it's not that you don't respect who's on stage,

but it's maybe something you've heard. And you're like, okay, I've heard that, or whatever. I mean, every single speaker, I've pulled two to three nuggets. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It's like, if not, ten. Yeah. Oh, for sure.

I know. You just constantly learn. I felt like just being a sponge, because you have to like, if not, 10. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I know. It's just you just constantly learn. I felt like just being a sponge because you have to be. You have to be. You have to be. Especially when you get the value out of these things. That's absolutely right. So it's been a star-studded lineup, you know.

I know. Speaking of stars, Mario, the stars have been aligning for, what, 22 years. Yeah, 23 this year. 23, man. 23. Dude, 2-3. That's my favorite year, man. 23, man. 23. Dude, 2-3. That's my favorite player. MJ.

Oh, yeah, yeah. 23. The GOAT. Oh, yeah, the GOAT. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Talk to me about, let's paint that founder story for me. We know it's ups, downs, rounds.

Everything sideways, man. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's been a fun run. I mean, you know, starting in 99, technically, when launching the agency originally as MSM Designs, we were a creative agency and it was built straight out of my bedroom as a hobby. You know, so a fun fact, Ryan, back in 96, I sold my turnt and and i bought my first computer man so i was a little late in the game in the computer game but that's what i did my precious cherished technique 1200s man i used to cut up those and make mixtapes in high school man on it there there i missed them i missed them the mixes everything i used to have 218 subs in my room oh yeah knock the face but um you know uh discovered that computer discovered the internet for the very first time and was completely hooked um

and just took a a just a passion love for for the creatives i taught myself adobe taught myself how to code uh in notepad at the time know, before I kind of graduated a little bit the front page. And I said, oh, it's not for me. I went straight to Dreamweaver, which was like crazy hard at the time. Oh, God. And I lived in forums, man. I just just taught myself action scripting back in the day because I loved Flash and I loved everything animated transition effects music, loved it. And I got tremendous help with coders in the forums during those days but it was all a hobby you know i didn't think i was doing this i have actually a degree in criminology i i wasn't supposed to be here you know in this area it was just more of a

love and a passion and i said to myself um when i did start the company, well, maybe I could do this. You know, maybe I could do this. But I had no idea of how to do it and maybe to even obtain clients at the time. So I pretty much was just doing free work just to build a portfolio. So do you need a website? Or a friend of a friend starting his travel agency, you need a website? And that's how it started, man, local restaurants. And then all of a sudden, I was like, you know i gotta start making money here yeah and that's

what happened man and it just it started then to to take off i actually left my full-time job then in 03 i was working for a software company and and i never looked back you know at the time i never looked back and um i laughed though because I made the move and it wasn't real. I was one year into being married at the time and I made the move. And my wife was like, so you're not going to go look for another job? Like, what's going on here? You know, I says, I got to give this a try. And that and then it just propelled me into that life um and just pretty much just kept going and started to build the company uh with talent in areas that i knew i didn't have that skill set

i didn't have the training say maybe complex databases ecom brought in brought in the talent to really uh develop the company and to allow us to grow until I was able then to open up locations. And then of course we, we got more in-house staff and, you know, and then took on more. But it's been a great ride. I mean, I've seen it all, you know, the technologies come and go, the birth of social media, as you know, you know, cause you've been around, you know, similar years, right? So it's wild to see how it, you know, really transformed. And you have to stay ahead. If not, you're in this industry, you're just done. Yeah. So you got to keep reinventing.

And that's how we came to today with MSM Digital is that we're no longer, we haven't been probably in the past decade, we haven't been a creative agency. I mean, it's always the backbone to polish in brands, make them look good, their online presence. But we're doing much more now to get them on the map, build awareness, traffic, leads, all that type of stuff. And I figured, you know, if we're going to set the stage to do even more, put ourselves in front of a bigger audience, the name needs to really translate that so we're not maybe counted out as maybe, oh, they're just maybe a creative agency. So that was the reason for the move this year to MSM Digital.

And it's been a good run. Yeah. Yeah, man. Is, uh, how's I know you've had, and you're about to, I know we talked, you know, pre episode about scaling and things like that. We'll come back to that, but like, what's the biggest, maybe let's take it from two angles, as an entrepreneur and you know that journey and owning your own business and putting the skin in the game and the risk and all that what's like been the biggest surprise over the years or i don't know maybe just something you just didn't expect and then you know specific to the ad agency and there's a two-part question there um you know, specific to the ad agency, and there's a two-part question there, you know, like maybe industry-specific, you know,

like if there's one A or one B there as far as, you know, building a business in the advertising world. Yeah, well, you know, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be able to take the agency to where it is today. I just never had that, you know, I guess that foresight, I would be able to take the agency to where it is today. I just never had that, you know, I guess that foresight, um, you know, um, again, this was like a hobby, you know, but thinking I, Hey, I could do this, but in the first month I'm like, Oh, wait a minute. Hold on. I'm starting to make more money than in my full-time job. I said, so hold on a second.

You know, that's something here. So that's a big surprise. Right. Um, right. But, yeah, I just think that, you know, being able to grow to those different heights and constantly, you know, reinventing yourself at the same time, you know, still kind of surprises me in how we are as a company, how my team continues to evolve. company, how my team continues to evolve. You know, from a client standpoint, it's just, I guess it comes down to, you know, the ability where we work with all industries. And I think that, and that's something I may ask you about, because I like the diversity. And a lot of times people ask me, do you focus on one niche, one industry? And I thought about that at times. You know, be the guy for X, Y, and Z.

But it's hard to turn down projects in different industries. It's hard to do that. And it also gives us, in my opinion, the ability to be more creative and to also continue to think outside the box with these other types of projects and industries. Maybe if you found something in one industry, you say, you know what, I could be creative here and try it over here, it allows us to do that.

We're not a one trick pony. Yep. So, and I don't know how you really feel about that, but that always remains, it surprises us to see how we adapt, not only in you working with the different industries, but also the team is constantly learning. They're constantly remaining sponges as to what's going on, you know, in the marketplace and new techniques with marketing. So we try to focus on that. And, you know, talent is the key continuing to surround

myself with with great talent my team is excellent I always tell them you know I'm as good as my team so yeah I could sell you on something but if it's not executed properly my saying is I write checks all the time that my team caches yeah there it is is. But I wouldn't write them if I didn't know they could. Right, right. They don't bounce, but it's because they're good. Right, right. That's the way it goes. You've got to have a team.

Yeah. And do you feel the same way when it comes to industries? Yeah, I was going to answer that. That's a very hot topic in general with agencies. And everybody says riches in the niches, right? And I think for some things it is and don't get me wrong i see why companies do that and if you want to scale if it's one industry and you become a specialist there's probably a faster track to growth there but i agree a hundred percent and i've fought that specialization with Radical

because I think it makes us more skilled dealing with different things. If you do something the same all the time, you have one trick. Right, exactly. And I think we're more creative and more, I think our ability to think and actually sometimes applying something that's worked for B2C to B2B makes us unique and revolutionary versus, or maybe something that I picked up in textiles that's, you know, moved the needle that could work in manufacturing or work in like

some other industry and i just we turn it a little bit and i think if if we were purely a b2b manufacturer agency we wouldn't have that foresight right we wouldn't be able to provide that pivot yeah you know a little bit or fresh thinking yeah so i agree and i fought it and i i think i probably could have grown radical faster quicker niche down yeah but i also enjoy the variety yeah yeah and so like i've done well enough and yeah have we have good clients and yeah i mean i could all y'all want to scale some more. But I enjoy the variety. Our team enjoys the variety. I think also it's hard to hold on team.

If you have really talented creative people and they get put in too small of a box all the time, you're not going to keep them on. You're not tapping in, right? You're not tapping into their talents. You know, when you just talked about utilizing something that worked maybe for B2B into B2C or vice versa or whatever, I have a good example of that and thinking really outside the box. Yeah.

So years ago, we had a client that specialized in men's formal wear, and they were a pretty big player with major brands that they carried and put out and they needed a new online presence. Anyway, long story short, we set up those site designs like you typically would for men's formal wear because they were selling. And it's that typical style kind of catalog type of look. You know, it was a nice layout, but the sons of the owner who was taking more of an interest in the company it was just striking out with them and I was like wow you know we we're not nailing this like we always do something's off something's off and I was relying on my designers and and I said you know what I have another meeting with them and I stayed up I don't know what time was it 2 a.m. or something 3 a.m. to get it done I did it myself and I said you know what i'm not gonna think um

as them as men's formal wear and design like that i'm gonna take the mentality that i would for a photographer videographer for that that shoots weddings the lifestyle images and this was like 10 years ago the lifestyle images that vibe of showing groomsmen in the settings, having fun out there, this and that, and brought that into the layout and home run at 3 a.m., you know? So sometimes you can't be that one track mind and just be creative and you're utilizing maybe your ideas from different industries that you worked in. That's right. And you tie it in. You're like, wow, you know, this is not really, we're not seeing this in our tuxedo type of industry.

Yeah. And so we worked. Yeah. You know, so that's just an example of kind of cross-pollinating, right? Yes. You know, so. I think it, you know, there's a lot of ways to skin the cat. Yeah.

And, I mean, but I've gone down a similar road, and I just think, I don't know. The one central point we kind of rally around is human to human. That's kind of our, like, whether we work with B2B or B2C, we promote ourselves as being a very human agency, and we always ground our clients back in a human voice and so that's kind of our i don't know lane yeah yeah well you were talking about that before yeah and it makes sense like what you were saying people don't want to be sold to no and that's that's you got to understand that there's an insight there yeah that's a's 1,000%. It's like, okay, yeah, of course, nobody wants to be sold. Right. But it means that you need to market accordingly.

Right. Yes, and that's the human side of it. And it's so key. If you think along those lines, you know, they'll pay attention more. You're hitting pain points. You're like, you know, you're putting yourself in their shoes and such. And they're going to relate to that. They're going to gravitate to that content.

And so that was key. You mentioned that. You mentioned something else, too, when it comes to, you know, the human voice and the element. But I think that should be the approach now. You know, what was that thing you were talking about, the friction? Yeah, you've got to remove friction. Right. Like, I mean, you know, amazon's changed the game for everything and so you've got to make the path to purchase super

narrow super folk super easy right and you know like the best creative you know execution gets in the way coinbase you know doing that thing and then their server crashed they weren't ready for it they were you know you got you got got half a billion people watching the Super Bowl. You needed to assume 25% were going to hit your website. Right, absolutely, yeah. All you do is create friction for them trying to come see who you are. That's right, yeah. Removing friction.

Those are the Alford playbook. That's great. Human and friction removal. That's awesome. Speaking about playbook, man, what happened with your team today? Oh, one. 27-21. Yes. Right. Okay, Clems That's awesome. Speaking about playbook, man, what happened with your team today? Oh, one. 27-21. Yes. Clemson's won.

They have the largest home winnings. 76 in a row at home. Are you kidding me? Clemson. Really? They're playing at home today. Syracuse is up 21-10 at half. Clemson scores 17 unanswered. 27-21. Defense shut them down to negative 10 yards in the second half.

Really? Oh, wow. Unstoppable. Like a brick wall, man. Yeah. Oh, that's good stuff. Big win. That's good.

And Syracuse is good. I mean, they're number 12. I mean, I know that historically. You're great every year, but Dino had them playing good. So, yeah. Oh, that's good stuff, man. Yes. So, sidebar for those of you out there yeah you know

they everybody everybody listens regularly knows i'm a clemson guy yeah we had to bring it up man yes yes mario so where's it all going we want to scale i mean side hustles i mean what else we got cooking? Yeah, I guess, you know, we want to scale, but I think, uh, for the first time, what I'm starting to do is separate myself a little bit to, to build my own personal brand. Yeah. I think that's important. I think it's been long overdue. Um, you know, the amount of experience, um, at the moment, you know, 23 years under my belt, the industries I've worked in. I mean, we had great recognition over the years as well. So it's been a really great ride for the company. But today it's all about that personal brand and how you're tying that back.

The perfect example of what you did with the chart there of, you know, between your podcast and the personal branding and it leads back to the company, you know, that's so important with building relationships now and it's key. And now that that's really been programmed in my mind this year, I'm speaking that way to clients when I see that there's opportunity for them now making you an authority in that industry, you know, and I'm making them realize, like, especially building up their social presence and their brand voice. At the end of the day, I need to make you an educator and an expert in your industry. That's my job. Right. So sometimes then now we're taking away that owner of the company and saying, we need to concentrate on your personal brand a little bit too,

because the more good stuff you're putting out there, people are going to pay attention. And like, they always preach, you know, the no like and trust. And, and I believe in that. And that's kind of been like really ingrained this year. And so of course I started to branch out from the company to put my own stuff out there just to build up my own credibility. Because other than that- But you've done it in the right order.

You know? And, you know, I did the same thing. Like, you've done it for 23 years. Yeah. It makes it a lot easier to get out there because you've got the credibility. Now you just need to amplify it, right? Right. Just to-

And you've got the personality for it. Right. Well, I thank you. No, you do. Totally do. You know, it's fun speaking. It's fun getting on these things. I would love to do more of these things like this and and get out there. You know, I started my Instagram channel and and just, you know, putting out good content value. Really, that's all it is, is value. And and just how can we start collaborating, you know, start collaborating with people? And that's like the name of the game. You know, I think you mentioned it before, if I'm not mistaken.

I know Josh mentioned it too. I always had this very, very competitive personality years back. Very competitive, right? There's plenty to go around. But that's it. And I stopped that mentality long ago. And I said, you know what? It's all about collaboration now. There's more than enough for everybody to work together.

There's money to be made. And I don't look at people as competitors anymore. Like, hey, how can we work together? Everybody's got a different skill set. You never know. There always could be a need. Or there could be somebody that says, you know what? This is not a fit for me. You want to talk to this client? Yeah. You know, and that's how things happen. there's always could be a need or, or there could be somebody that says, you know what? I don't,

this is not a fit for me. You want to talk to this client? Yeah. You know, and that's how things happen. So that's kind of been the change to, um, you know, just having that mentality, but the personal brand, um, uh, that that's kind of been my focus. I just got to get my ass doing more like reels and video and stuff. That's why I'm looking at all this equipment. I says, send me a list, man. Yeah, I'll get you a list. You know, but yeah, so that's kind of been our focus this year and what I would love to continue to do, you know. So, and I feel it all at the end, it ties back to the company. You know, I tell my staff all the time,

I say, I'm doing what I'm doing is because it's only going to make us stronger, you know. And they see that and they've been highly motivated now by the things that we've been doing this year that you know that we never did and i think it rejuvenates the staff especially people who've been with me for 10 years plus yeah you know which and it's great to see well you know and i'll use nick you know our producer as an example but Nick's been with me for the almost the long haul with radical yeah and you know I think he bought the vision in the beginning but you know like the the because at first you know your guests your your buddies and you're doing things with the podcast and like I'm like but Nick let me tell you where this is going and

uh yeah and then Nick we got here uh know, yesterday or the day before or whatever. And he goes, started from the bottom, now we're here. That's it. That's it. Perfect track, man. Perfect track. Yeah, like literally. But, you know, I told him this is what's coming.

Yeah. And it's here. That's it. Believe in the vision. Yeah. You know, it's important. You know, I almost, if I pull it up in my Slack channel to my staff, when something happened recently, we got recent recognition,

and I said that to them. I said, thank you for believing in my vision and, you know, and seeing, you know, what we're trying to do here. Yeah. You know, and just coming along for the ride, you know, because look at what's going on, you know, what we're trying to do here, you know, and just coming along for the ride, you know, because look at what's going on, you know. Yeah. So.

You got to celebrate the wins too. That's it. You know, we get enough hits, man. I know. You know, we get enough hits, man, over the years. Like no one gave me a playbook, man, you know. There isn't one, let me tell you. Yeah, right.

I watched for 17 years. Yeah. I watched, so I got to see it. And even they didn't have a playbook. And you were down in Madison, right? So you were in major agencies down there, right? And is that how all these big campaigns kicked off? Yeah.

Because that was one of my questions is, you know, you worked on this massive droid campaign, phenomenal success. And, you know, I was like, how does an agency obtain something at that level? Yeah, I mean, we pitch the business. Is that what it's so there's people actively? I pitched Verizon Business in 2001 with an agency that was my first job. We got the business, and our agency got bought by one of the holding companies

that put two lines of Verizon Business together. And so that was my largest account for 10 years. But under Verizon, I worked on Droid, the Apple iPhone launch, the Razr. Oh, wow. Every major named. You can think of it. You remember the campaigns. I worked on every single major smartphone release.

That's unbelievable. But were you, I mean, obviously aggressive with the pitch, but were you more proactive or there was something out there with an RFP? We had RFP'd the original piece of business, and then once we got in the door, it was more just campaigns. We kept it for 13 years. So, yeah, so you kept talking with them. But most of that

stuff is rfp pitched at that level and i so like i worked on budweiser and worked on and that was a pitch and then worked on bojangles and worked on uh samsung and worked on i mean that's excellent yeah was involved in pitch and i i was a hybrid i was creative strategy account guy yeah yeah yeah and a rare breed yeah and especially in a new york agency and they but my the owner of our agency got out of my way the clients loved me and i had big ideas oh it was a magical combination yeah right sometimes you get the idea guys are lukewarm with the client yeah you know like they got good ideas and so they're that's why they have a job yeah yeah they yeah, yeah. But they're not great with the client. Right, right. Well, I was both. Oh, wow.

And so, you know, I made them a lot of money. Oh, I can imagine, man. You know. That's great. But I learned a lot. I'm not like, you know, I learned for 17 years, and then I applied it. That's it. But I also got to work on things.

Like if I had done, if I had started, no matter how smart I was, if I had started my agency, I wouldn't have gotten the experiences that I got. Because I've been, as you know, and now owning my own agency, it matters what I've done, but they want to see Radical's book of business. Right, exactly. And so my legacy helps us, certainly. Yeah. But I'm not Pepsi's leading agency. Right, right.

You know what I mean? And we could be. We should be. I mean, Pepsi's leading agency. Right. You know what I mean? And we could be. We should be. I mean, I can walk it. I was 27, and the CMO of Verizon, when I was asking me what I thought they should do. Wow. I mean, you know, I mean, that's, I was an early riser.

But, so I can walk on any floor with credibility, but, you know, still, what have you done lately? Right, right, sure. But that's interesting. That's more offline stuff we'll talk about, man. I'm very interested in that stuff and what you've done with that process. But it's true, man. It sets the stage, man, and it gets you to where now, hey, I got my own gig, highly successful, and taking all of that experience, all of that type of ups and downs and client campaigns now, you know, ideas and adapt, you know. That's what you got to do. So it's, yeah. It's a crazy business.

That's it. Mario, man, it's been great having you on. Where can I keep up with you and your agency? So you can follow me on Instagram at Mario S. Mirabella. That's my Instagram handle or even on LinkedIn. My website is still MSMdesigns with a Z dot com before we transition to MSM Digital. But you can check me out.

Even my company, everything's at MSMdesigns with a Z with all the social handles. And yeah, it'll be great, you know? Yeah. And definitely follow up with you and see what's going on. It's been great. Yeah, man. I appreciate it.

Really enjoyed this. So, hey, guys, give Mario a follow. Go give him some love on social media and keep up. I'm sure he's going to be starting podcasts and everything else. I'm going to come on your show. Oh, hell, yeah. I would love to have you, man. Definitely.

And, yeah, so follow along. And, hey, go to theradcast.com. Search for Mario. You'll find all the content from today. You know where I'm at. And, hey, go to theradcast.com. Search for Mario. You'll find all the content from today. You know where I'm at. I'm at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. Ryan.Alford on TikTok. I'm verified everywhere.

I'm blowing up on TikTok, so go hit me up over there. See you next time on the Radcast.