Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Insights amongst Uncertainty & GVL Hustle Gives Back w/ guest Tyler Harris

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

On this episode, Ryan sits down with GVL Hustle CO-Founder and all-around Entrepreneur Tyler Harris as they discuss how GVL Hustle has pivoted to give back to the local Greenville community through merchandise sales and rallying the community. Tyler and Ryan also discuss the opportunities for business, content, and personal branding throughout all the uncertainty. Tyler gives some really great tactical advice for anyone considering personal branding growth and better ways to look at goals and optimization. Links from this Episode: https://gvlhustle.com/ https://tylerjackharris.com/ Please share, review, and subscribe! Radical Podcast is always looking forward to meeting both aspiring, and grounded professionals across the country! Slide Ryan or Radical a DM on Instagram and let's make it happen! @radical_results on Instagram @ryanalford on Instagram www.radical.company Sponsorships: off for this episode 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. 

On this episode of the Radical Company Podcast, I sit down with Tyler Harris, a good friend and my co-founder of GVL Hustle. We talk about our latest pivot with GVL Hustle, rallying the community around COVID-19 impact and working with the United Way of Greenville with merchandise sales at gvlhustle.com. We talk about our meaning there, the impact we're having, and we talk about the impact overall for businesses. Tyler gives some really good perspective on personal branding and just how you should manage this from a business perspective and some really good insights here. Hope you enjoy today's episode. Hey guys, it's Ryan Alford. Welcome to, I think everything's a special edition now. I feel like I need to put that caveat. A special edition. Newsflash. Newsflash. A special edition of the Radical Marketing Podcast.

In all seriousness, we're moving along, you know, keeping things real. We've got our, almost, I think it's got to be, I'm going to call it six feet of social distance here. Yeah, it feels like six feet. It feels like six feet. I'm joined by a good friend and one of my co-founders with GBO Hustle, Tyler Harris. Yes, sir. Good to be here. You know, I'm running out of adjectives for you, man. Yeah. Influencer, entrepreneur, C-E-E-O-O-O-O, you know, whatever. No, I know. Yeah, I know. You've got your hands on a lot of things. Modern Man, Extraordinaire. Brent Winner. What are we calling you these days? Sales Wolf.

We're the agency, but you're the marketer extraordinaire. I'm trying to get out of the Jack of All Trades, Master of None. That's not the intent, but hey. Yeah, but thrilled to have you, man. We're going to talk, break down. It's not the intent, but hey. Yeah, but thrilled to have you, man. And we're going to talk, break down. It's been interesting. The last couple podcasts we've done have been about marketing amongst the COVID-19 situation, which is we're still in the middle of, hopefully on the back end soon.

No one knows. That's part of the uncertainty is what's kind of, I think, crushing everyone right now. It's like hour by hour. Hour by hour. But we've been talking about and telling brands that we work with to pivot and to think about other ways they can be out there, but to not be separating themselves from their customers or their people. And there's going to be reflection back on what action

or inaction you had in this period. But I think it teed up perfectly for us with what we established with GVL Hustle. You know, being a platform that we developed a couple years ago, and I know we're both proud of, you know, where it's gone. And we've been on a little bit of a hiatus with our events. We were looking forward to kicking that back up in April. But I think social distancing rules aside, we might have to put off the event. Yeah, for sure.

But I am excited about where we've kind of pivoted to. We've got the website up for those watching the video. But we've launched a bunch of new merchandise, and we wanted to find a way to give back to the community in a way. With everything going on, you know, you want to impact. You know that everyone out there is struggling, but, you know, I think local has been important to us. And how could we make an impact and do something?

You know, you can't get out there. We've both taken pride in getting to events and sharing knowledge and being a resource for people. But in absence of that, that personal connection, though, you can still do it with Zoom beforehand and other things. But in absence of that, what could we do? So been really proud of, you know, where we've taken GVL Hustle. And, you know, I know you're, you're proud of what we've done with it. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was really our goal from the very beginning was to make an impact in Greenville and really give back to the city that's given so much to us.

And as we were kind of going through that process of figuring out a way to do that, a way pretty much presented itself in this crisis that we're in. Um, so yeah, I mean, it's, it's something that, you know, it's, it's a great way for people to come together. It's a great way for people to support a great cause, but then also get some great stuff that they'd be proud to wear. Uh, it seems like there's more shirts coming out every day. There's new designs. Every time I look at the website, there's a new shirt on there. And so, uh, and the price point is great and it gives people the opportunity to, to feel like

they're a part of something bigger than themselves and i think ultimately that's what we wanted gvl hustle to turn into was something that people didn't just come to network and meet somebody new that they really wanted to become a part of something that was bigger agreed and this is a great way to do that yeah and you know tower and i have both taken maybe a little bit of heat that neither one of us really gave a shit about, to be honest, but about the word hustle. Yeah. Maybe it first started. Yeah. And I think, quite frankly, it's coming full circle because, you know, there was a little bit of the wear out of hustle just means you're overworking people and you're doing all this.

And, you know, I think, quite frankly, we both always were just like, you are hustling, you are getting ahead. And now full circle, I think we can all agree it's going to take some rolling up the sleeves and some good old fashioned grit to get out of this mess. Yeah. And I think there's this connotation as though hustle only applies towards like your business or whatever that is that you're pursuing, um, in your business. But I mean, you can hustle with your family. You can hustle in getting in the best shape of your life. Like hustle is just an adjective, an extreme adjective, but just an adjective that go towards whatever in the world that you're doing. Um, but you're right. I mean, we are in a situation where people are going to have to step up their game to get back to where they were and to move forward. And I mean, I don't really know another word to use other than they're going to have to hustle. And, and we may get into

this in the podcast, but I mean, there's things that people can do to, to start that hustle now. But really for us as a group and as a community of people, we wanted to give people, you know, something that they could do tangibly to feel like they're contributing and helping. And, uh, that's was our heart from the very beginning. And, um, it just so happens that, uh, they can do it by hustling and a hustle to the website, gvlhustle.com. Exactly. If we, we wouldn't be good marketers if we didn't drop that, but it is GVL hustle.com. Lots of great new merchandise, uh, which Tyler mentioned, my team's had a lot of fun with it. You know, a new design a day. I think, uh, the, uh, stranger

things, eighties, uh, version came out yesterday. Uh, so, you know, hope everybody enjoys that, but you know, let's, you know, create a point of pride in Greenville, you know, showing a lot of things have some kind of, you know, I'm holding up a shirt here, you know, backdrop or something like that. But, you know, we're trying to keep that theme. But, you know, I do think it can be a rallying cry for the community a bit. You know, we did the radio station, 98.1. Appreciate Barbie and Rex, you know, having us on.

But, you know, talking about, you know, the community aspect and really just wanting to be able to contribute in some way. So I know we've got a couple. I think we're doing another TV show next week on it. We should probably talk about where the funds are going to i realized just realized we hadn't said that this sounds like we're just trying to sell a bunch of t-shirts i even think i mentioned price point but we haven't actually talked about where it's going yeah yeah exactly a hundred percent one hundred percent there's not a penny being made here it's

actually a contributing factor with all the resources we're putting towards it towards the united way of greenville they've set up a covet 19 fund specifically giving back to families heavily with like families that have been impacted in the community and so you know we're not a non-profit organization we didn't want to get into managing the funds or like trying to figure that out or anything but so we found and you know and partnered with them uh directly and uh excited so you can look that up directly and i think we actually can be filming writing the first check we're up to a thousand dollars that's awesome in three days that's awesome so uh yeah so united way of greenville and uh appreciate their partnership and everything

they're doing for the community we're just just happy to contribute back. And, you know, maybe before we pivot the conversation a bit, just maybe, and you started to tee this up, but I'd love to just give everyone a little perspective back to, you know, the point of why we started Greenville Hustle. Yeah. You know, it's, it's funny. There were conversations three years ago that Ryan and I would have, and it was based around this idea of where do we find other people like us? And we were both extremely busy, whether you want to call that hustling or not. We were extremely busy. I was traveling a whole lot. I didn't have a lot of time at home, but looking at, you know, how do I find other like-minded individuals, people that are

trying to become the best versions of themselves, whether that's entrepreneurs or whether that's just, you know, someone that's, you know, reading books and listening to podcasts and watching the same YouTube series and, you know, people that were doing the things that we're doing. And I kind of exhausted all of the possibilities of where I would find those people. And so it just became this organic thing of, well, I guess we could create it. And that's how most great things are, are put together. And so really it was just that it was a way to get like-minded people together, um, for me a little bit selfishly because I didn't know where to find them. So it's kind of like, if you build it, they will come. And, uh, and they did, and it's been just an incredible experience to bring people together. But I think for me, I despise traditional networking. Like for me to go to a traditional networking event where it's one of those, you get your two drink tickets, you hand out 30 business cards, check a box and go home.

I just, I despise that. And I despise the shallow, small talk conversations of, Hey, what's your name? What do you do? Great. What's your name? What do you do? And it's just, there's nothing that actually really comes from that. Right. And so what we want to GVO hustle to be is a place where you could have more real conversations that we could create a space for people to be comfortable having real conversations where, you know, it's okay not to be okay, where you can talk about, um, you know, Hey, I'm struggling in this area of my business. And chances are there's someone in here that's really good at that. And let me connect you with them. And, uh, you know, that authenticity and transparency, there's just a, not a, there's not a lot of places you can go and experience that at scale. And so that really, for me was what I was most excited about is having

a place where I could have real conversations with real people. And man, you know, three years later, so many of my relationships that I talked to on a daily and weekly basis now are people that I met at the events. And so I think seeing that come to fruition now and come in full circle has been super fulfilling for me. Whatever it turns into from here, it's kind of just icing on the cake. It's a lot of those relationships that have been built and built amongst other people within the group as well. I've seen it. I've seen so many people where they're doing podcasts together and they're filming content together, just hanging out that I'm like, Oh, I remember when those two met, you know, that one meeting. We may have single-handedly started 20 podcasts in Greenwood.

Yeah, yeah, really. Or facilitated the ideas. And that actually brings up one of the greatest examples is we do a lot of Q&A at the events and people asking real questions. And I remember Phillip Sessions was asking a bunch of questions about how should I do this, how should I do that in regards to wanting to start a podcast? And I was like, dude, just freaking start it. None of that stuff really matters.

Just start it. We have our next GBO Hustle meetup. I think it was a month later. And he stands up and he had had like 11 episodes and the podcast was going great. And it was so amazing to see someone ask a question, get feedback and actually implement it. Like imagine that actually implemented it and he's still doing it. He's still doing podcasts every week. And so to see that is super, super fulfilling because that's ultimately what we wanted was for people to not only gain knowledge, but have application of the knowledge that they gained.

And that's just a, I mean, as far as our desire to give back and pay it forward to the community, it's really giving back and pay it forward to individual people in the community. And then just see what that does as that continues to grow. It'll only better the community. It'll only better Greenville because of a group of people that decided to have these real conversations and actually apply what they're learning. Yeah. And you know, just to tie a bow on that, you know, we've probably had 15, I want to say, total events over two years. We started aggressive monthly that turned into every couple months. And, you know, we facilitate the meetings. We'd have some of the best speakers that money could buy, but you didn't pay any money, you know, to attend, um, you know, Dan Walsh, uh, to name names,

Rebecca Heiss, I mean, you know, like some really big names in the speaker circuits out there. So we bring that value and then, you know, there's a ton of great conversation and, and good venues. And, you know, it was a lot of realness and I think, you know, there's a ton of great conversation and good venues. And, you know, it was a lot of realness. And I think, you know, it's become the most used business hashtag in the state, GVL Hustle, hashtag GVL Hustle on Instagram. And so, you know, we're looking forward to picking that back up. We had some plans for April's, but stay in tune for that. But, you know, really proud of what we had built. And then the natural, you know, call it short-term, maybe long-term.

I don't know. We, we make the rules up as we go, but, uh, uh, with what's going on now. So gblhustle.com, check it out. And, uh, you know, I do want to transition a bit here, Tyler, again, you know, I know you've got your hands in a lot of different things and I want people to kind of hear, you know, perspective like, you know, with COVID-19 going on. Yeah. And, you know, you post, I mean, you're probably the top 1% of content developers. And so you've got the personal content side, and I know it all overlaps a little bit with business.

And I know it all overlaps a little bit with business, but, you know, talk to a little bit about your perspective with both the personal and business side with kind of the environment we're in right now. Yeah, I'm glad you teed it up for those two things because there really is two. There's two different sides to it, but it's really the same premise. And that is just realizing the opportunity that we have in front of us. There's plenty of bad, there's plenty of negative to talk about and whine about and to feel. And it's very real. I don't downplay that in any way. I think there's people that are spending too much time on the negative. But with all the negative that there is, there's still positive out there and there's still massive opportunity out there. And the way I look at it is for the rest of your, my entire life, we may never have a period of time where the effort that we put in is so well

received and so appreciated. And just as a challenge to those of you that are leaders that are listening, your people are going to remember how you responded during this crisis. They're going to remember how you showed or didn't show that you care about their wellbeing as a person, their family, not just as a spoke in the wheel in a business sense. And so you have an opportunity now just to be talking and reaching out to people and just literally asking them, Hey man, how's it going in your world? You know, everybody's city to city, state to state. It's so drastically different, man. How are things going? What can I do to help? What can I do to support you during this time? And you know, a lot of times it's not going to be a clear cut

answer of, well, I'm glad you called because I actually need this, this, and this, but it's just the act of showing that you care, that you made that effort to reach out to them personally. That will bear fruit months and years down the road. And the loyalty that can be created during that time, whether it's loyalty to your company from reaching out to customers, clients, prospective clients, past clients, just to see how they're doing during this, or it's employees or it's family members and friends that you haven't reached out to in a while. And so that's a good pivot point to the other side, which is, you know, the reality for, for you and I, you know, we've both got. I've got one small child.

You've got a handful. And for the rest of our entire life, like from now until the day we die, we may never and probably will never ever have this three, four, five, six-week period of time where we can really invest in our families, really invest in our kids. And if you think about it, if you've got young children and you're listening to this, like this is their 9-11,

like five, 10, 20 years from now, they'll talk about this. Like we talk about 9-11. Like I remember where I was. I remember what we did. I remember, you know, how my dad reacted to it. I remember my mom's, you know, state that she was in during that period of time. And so that is a huge, for me, a huge challenge to people to rise to the occasion because your kids are going to remember how you responded during this crisis. They're going to remember, you know, whether you were fully invested and present and available to them, or whether you were frustrated and temperamental and trying to get out of the house, like they're going to remember all that stuff. And so I think about my daughter, I think when she, you know, goes off to college,

when she gets married one day, like she'll remember these weeks that we had to spend this quality time and the conversations that we had and just the time that we spent together one way or the other, good or bad, they're going to remember. And so I think that's a really, really, really big challenge for people to not see this as a frustration of I'm trying to work from home. My kids like, you know, Maitland had a zoom call, um, the other day with a bunch of people on it and Arden just very, was very, very concerned with making sure everyone knew that her poop was green over and over and over. And it's easy. It's easy to get frustrated when you're trying to get stuff done and your kids are, you know, all over the place.

But really looking at the opportunity that you have to have some conversations with your kids that you may never have never have had before. I mean, what's the excuse that we all use for the things that we don't do that we don't have the time? Like, oh, I just ran out of time. Well, that excuse is completely off the table for the majority of people right now. You've got more time than you've ever had before. And so the question is, what are you doing with that time that you have and how are you investing that time? And I just truly believe that there's going to be a lot of people years from now that are going to regret the way they spent this time, regret the way they handled this period of time. And then there's

going to be a lot of people that are just absolutely full of gratitude that they had those, you know, hard conversations that they got to know what was going on with their kids that they never would have known had they not sit down and just talk to them. So I think that for me is, is both sides of the coin there. We can kind of go a little further into that, but but I'm really, really, really focused on the opportunity that we have. Yeah, and I think it's, you teed it up perfect. It's real easy to be negative right now.

Oh, yeah. And I have compassion for it. I have a lot of empathy for it. But at the same time, I do recognize that this too shall end. And, you know, really taking some moments to reflect some moments to reflect on what you should be thankful for, what our blessings are. And don't get me wrong, a lot of people are going to pass away from this.

So you don't want to diminish that in any way. But thinking about what you should be thankful for. But then, naturally, my brain and my wife, Nicole, would vouch for this, that in any way but thinking about you know what you should be thankful for but then naturally my brain and you know my wife Nicole would you know vouch for this is every dinner table at night now I'm going uh you know we could start this now you know you should start this now she's in the school you know she's the assistant principal in middle school so uh it's as wonderful as it sounds. Oh, yeah. It was challenging as it sounds. But I think about all the opportunities. And I know that's probably just the way my brain is wired. And that doesn't make that right for every for what's right for me is

not right for everyone. But I think if people would look through that lens of optimism, I think if you can surround yourself with those people, tune out either the news or your parents or your cousin, Eddie, or whoever that's feeding you, you know, the negative stuff, I think you can really turn a lot of this into opportunity, especially from a business standpoint, because if you can pivot from where you're at into something that that's going to take off, whether that's look, this social distancing thing is going to stick around. And I'm not saying like six feet and all that, but this notion of virtualness, this notion of on the go or –

I just think – I wonder if travel is going to ever be the same again. I don't know. And so the people that can look at it through the lens of optimism and opportunity are the ones that are going to win. It's probably no different than any other time in life, but I think that's, that's the key for people to be thinking about. Well, and that's, what's going to get us out of this as well. Um, I mean, as cliche as it is, but the, the fact that it's not what happens to you, it's how you respond or how you react to what happens to you. You know, there are going to be some parts of the country, parts of the world that it's going to take longer for them to get out of this because of the way that people are reacting

to what's happening, like period. And, you know, that presents to me a level of responsibility for people. Like you could look at opportunity and responsibility. You know, I presents to me a level of responsibility for people. Like you could look at opportunity and responsibility. You know, I kind of look at those as one in the same, but it's a responsibility like as, as an American and my responsibility is to make sure that I'm handling it the best that I can so that the people around me that see that can follow suit and the people around them. And it's just a trickle effect. And, you know, that's ultimately what is going to create the greatest opportunity moving forward, because I truly believe when this thing ends, whenever that is, I mean, you can get on the news and people will tell you it's going to be winter and people are telling you it's going to

be next week. Who knows? But whenever this ends, I truly believe that it is going to be a launching pad for the economy and for the businesses that are started and for all of the development that happens when people do get back to the workplace. So what can we do now to prepare for that? And what can we do now to be a part of that? That's what I'm focused on. How do you balance, Tyler? Maybe we'll get to some tactical advice here.

How do you balance the taking the time, like you said, the family time, taking advantage of those moments with also the work side of it? Business needs to go on. You know there's opportunities. You're thinking about opportunities as someone that's in that mind space. You know, how do you balance those two things right now? So the biggest thing that I'm, so we've got insurance agents all over the country. And so these are the conversations that I'm having every day. Cause we're like, we're, we're contacting them daily just to see how they're doing and seeing how we can help.

The biggest thing for me is just time blocking because there's no rules right now. Like there's no rules, there's no business hours. And so who's to say that you can't play with your kids and hang out with your family all day, but what are you doing from 7 PM to midnight? And with us in the, in the calls that we're making and the contacts that we're making to our existing and potential customers, they're happening from 7 to 9 p.m. You know, we don't know what they're doing during that time. But what we do know is that they're even going to be more appreciative because we're going above and beyond reaching out to them at that hour. You know, they know that our competitors are certainly not doing that. And so we're reaching out and we're not even necessarily trying to sell something.

If they buy, that's great. But even if they don't, they're so appreciative of us personally reaching out to them. And so I think it's just literally looking at establishing a routine in a time where routine seems like it's impossible. But there are certain elements of time blocking that you can put in place based around like bedtimes and nap times and things like that. Um, and it's, it's all boils down to communication. Like if you are sitting your family down and saying, Hey, from this time to this time, I have to get this done, but Hey, when I get done, we're going to go do this. So now they're looking forward to, Hey, at four o'clock, we're going to go to the park or we're going to go ride bikes or we're going to go, you know,

play in the backyard, whatever that is so that they know that during that time, like dad's got to work, but when he's done, we're going to go do this. And I think it's just a lot of being open with that communication and establishing those boundaries, but being creative in the hours and being creative with the ways that you can do things that may be different times than you normally would do them. Um, especially if it's a lot of just work on the computer and answering emails and following up things like that. Like, there's nothing to say you can't do that laying in bed at 10 o'clock. Um, there's plenty of time through your, throughout your day, uh, even though it's now a little bit more chaotic.

So I think it boils down to communication. What do you think, you know, being someone that posts as much content as you do, that develops as much content as you do, both business and personal, you know, personal. I guess it's personal. I mean, it's all personal. You know, it is all personal. So side note on that. I mean, it's all personal, you know, it is all personal. So side note on that, if anyone, this is just a tip for everybody.

What is the only time someone tells you, hey, man, this is just business. It's not personal when they're about to screw you. Yeah. So the reality is it's all personal. It's all personal. But I know what you mean. Yeah. So how are you balancing? I know the content doesn't stop, but maybe the lens of the message, you know, are you thinking differently about your content right now?

Yeah, very differently and just very more intentional with it. level of intention that there's this fine line of being perceived as taking advantage of the opportunity of the crisis. Like I've been doing some live streams, but at the same time, I'm also a little frustrated with how everybody is live. Like every hour of the day and my phone is lit up. Yeah. It's like, you know, so-and-so just went live with so-and-so it's like, my gosh. And so I think people, the reality is people know that people are on line and on social media more than ever right now because, you know, they're at home and they can't go anywhere and do anything else. know, in kind of struggling, there's some friction with, within me about that is, you know, do I take advantage of that? Where is the line that you can cross with being over the top with it, but also understanding like for me, the responsibility of, you know, the people that follow me do look to me for wisdom or for, you know, inspiration or motivation or for technical knowledge.

And they need it now more than ever. And so it's, it's not wanting to overload them, but it's also not wanting to neglect them during this time. So I think there's a fine line there. And for me, it's looking at a lot of the messaging, like if it's just a graphic post with some copy, making sure that it's extremely empathetic to those that are in a dire situation. Because you put something out there, there's a million different people with a million different situations right now. And so for me to put something out there right now that says like, screw excuses, do the work. That's going to offend somebody that right now, you know, their, their grandfather just died and someone got laid off in there. Yeah. They just got laid off and someone at their wife's work just got diagnosed and she's being

quarantined. It's like, what do you mean? Screw excuses. Like these are real. And I think that's a big thing is for people to understand that. Like, yes, there's a lot of fear. That's not, that's, that is over the top, but fear is a very real thing. And it's a good thing. Like if you get back to our, you know, caveman days, like fear and stress, like that's how

you didn't get eaten by the lion or get eaten by the bear. And we've been through a long period of time where a lot of the fear was self-inflicted and not valid. But now there is, I mean, there's a real fear out there. And so it's just being more cognizant of the fact that every person's story is different. And when you're broadcasting these messages out there, understanding how everyone is going to receive that. And so it's toning a little bit of the aggression down, but still, you know, being challenging in that, Hey,

But still, you know, being challenging in that, hey, OK, your grandfather did die. OK, you did lose your job. I promise you sitting there doing nothing isn't going to help. And so it's like you want to nudge those people along, but you don't want to do it in a way that's put them on a defensive because that's not going to help anything. And so it's it's a lot of that. that's not going to help anything. And so it's, it's a lot of that. Um, it's taking these core, you know, pillars that we always talk about, but in a little bit of a different light. And, um, you know, for me, it's, it's a lot of answering private messages, DMs, Facebook messages, uh, and being a lot more thoughtful based on not knowing where their situation is and asking, um, you know, it's, it's become kind of this just routine thing at the end of a live stream or at the end of a video

to say, Hey, if you need anything as always reach out to me. But now it's like when they're reaching out at Syria, like serious stuff. Right. And, and I don't take that lightly at all. And so that, that takes a lot of time, you know, to, to do that. But I think it all boils down to, to having the right intent. Yeah. You know, there's this fascinating push and pull going on right now for in general, to me,

you've got the government that is trying to do right. Cause they don't want a million people to die. Neither do I, by the way. Yeah. So they want everyone to stop. They want you to stay home do nothing it shuts down the economy as natural americans and the american spirit we're doers yeah we have more

time in a way more of our own time that isn't controlled by maybe work or schedules all that and so you've got more time but the government and science and nature tells you hey we got to stop we got social doesn't can't do anything yeah and the american way is to move and to develop and to do these things and then you got to keep food on the table so there's all this interplay of oh i can go go go nope stop don't do anything because if you go and do you create demand if you create demand you create activity government saying no activity no activity don't do anything it's a weird intersection right now for me of where and and i think it's just it demands creativity i mean it demands thinking outside the box. Um, there's a lot of virtual

things happening that, you know, quite frankly, they aren't as effective, but they're what we have. And so a lot of the stuff that we're doing is, is, is a lot of it's virtual and you miss that personal touch of being in front of somebody, but it's the best you can do with the situation that we have in front of us. And, uh, but you're right. I mean, there's uncertainty is paralyzing to most. Yes. And I think that's the problem is when you don't know what to do, you do nothing instead of looking at what's the one thing that I can do today to move the ball forward. And just, I mean, it's, it's a simple process, but most things that are simple, it's easier not to do than it is to do it. And so from analysis, I mean, like I talked to an agent and they're like, man, I'm so glad you called. Cause I'm sitting here and I'm just,

I don't, I don't know where to start. I'm like, okay, well, what are your options? Well, I could do this. I could do that. I could do that. Okay. What, what feels like the most important right now? Well, probably this, that sounds like a great place to start, but it's like, it takes someone walking you through that process because the majority of people, they, they, they can't, when there's so much fear, when there's so much uncertainty, your brain becomes illogical and that's the reality. And so for people that are out there right now that are listening to this and they're like, man, he's talking to me. Like I've, I have allowed myself to become paralyzed. Like I've got so many things I can do that I'm not doing anything that it's literally just taking one little step at a time. Like tomorrow, what's

one important thing I can do offensively? What's one important thing I can do offensively? What's one important thing I can do defensively? And what's one important strategic move that I can make? And I completely stole that from Tom Shea's new book that's coming out in April. It's called Three Simple Things. And that's what it all boils down to. But it's literally just anything is better than nothing. And any progress, even slow progress is still progress.

And for me, like I'm, I'm addicted to progress. I think progress is what ultimately creates happiness and fulfillment. And in a time like now where you can feel like, well, I'm only able to do this when I usually would do that. Still that progress is still progress. Like when you lay down to go to bed that night, you will still feel like you did something. And so that's the big thing is, is do something that actually teased me up perfectly. Cause there's this quote that I've been saying and reading and sending to people that I think has never been more true. It's an old quote by Edward Everett Hale. And he said, I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do

the something I can do. So I'll read that again real quick. I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do. And so there's so many people that are sitting there and they're like, man, like I, you know, there's so much that I need to do. Just do something like do something today, something productive. Um, and for a lot of people that's that's going to be difficult yeah but most things that are important are anything you know how are you feeling you know i know a lot of people if they haven't followed you will go following that all right wow they'll see the volume of content that you're doing you know maybe you know just to as we start to close out a bit here, you know, talk

about maybe some tactical value of personal branding, anything in that realm. You know, we've, I've had you on before and talked, you know, down that alley and basement episode. I think it was, it was, that was radical was born like that, that week. And here we are, you know, all growns up in our podcast studio. Fastest growing agency in South Carolina. Shameless plug. But I don't know how fast anybody's growing in South Carolina anymore.

So that tagline might have to be... I made a phone call today. I'm the fastest moving entrepreneur in Greenville. Exactly. I made a phone call today. I'm the fastest moving entrepreneur in Greenville. Exactly. But any tactical personal branding advice, you know, both COVID-19 related and maybe just in general that now that you're, I mean, you're, I don't know, five plus years.

I'm here 10 plus years. I don't know, you know, like who can keep up. But like now, like versus then, you know, in 2020. keep up, but like now, like versus then, you know, in 2020, I think the biggest shift that I've gone through mentally in regards to the personal branding and just branding in general is I am far less concerned with growing the number of followers. And I'm far more concerned with going deeper with the followers that I have. I hate that I just ruined that because that was a great quote. deeper with the followers that I have. I hate that I just ruined that because that was a great quote. You had me.

I was hanging on it. So it's not looking to go wide. It's looking to go deeper. And I think so many people that are out there, especially in those beginning stages of building a brand, but even years into it, you get so focused on all these analytics and all the data. And, okay, we put this out at this time and it got this reach and this engagement, we put this out and they're comparing and contrasting and you can

drive yourself absolutely crazy. I just don't look at any of it anymore. I really don't look at any of it anymore. We, in my media team meetings, we don't talk about growth anymore. We talk about the impact that the content that we're putting out is making, you know, when we meet every Friday morning at seven, you know, when we look at the ROI, I'm, I'm reading messages that I got from people and talking about that interaction and how powerful it was and life-changing it was. And I talk about, we did that, like, like you that created that graphic, you that, you know, created that copy, you know, you that did this, you that did that, like we as a team created that environment for that conversation to happen. That

was very impactful for that person. And so that's what I look at as far as the ROI. So I think for the person out there, that's got a hundred followers that wants to have a hundred thousand, well, what are you doing for the hundred? And in doing that and in going deeper with the hundred like that's the way it'll grow and more importantly that's the way it'll grow the right way right and so i think for me hopefully this will be a shift uh across the across the board but i am far less concerned i think there's a shift from wanting to be an influencer to wanting to be influential. And it is a radical shift, not to plug you there, but it is a radical shift because there's a lot of people out there that want to be an influencer, but aren't influential.

And I can name a ton and we all know them when we see them. It's like they're putting out a lot of stuff and they're showing a lot of cool things, but you know, what's the intent behind it are they really making an impact and one thing that you know not to drop tom shay's name again but i was having i had an amazing conversation with him yesterday and he really has this kind of like five point plan in the very last part which would be you know the least important is the why you're doing it. And it starts with B, which is who am I? So it goes from who am I to what do I need to the team, which is who do I associate with? Then the action plan, then the why.

It's my belief that the vast majority of influencers live in the action plan and why action plan and why, you know, whether it's Simon Sinek that started this or not, everyone felt follow suit. And it's all about, well, why are you doing the things that you're doing? Start with your why you got to know why you're doing it. And then let's put an action plan for the why, but if you don't know who you are, there's nothing else. So as a challenge to the people that are listening to this, you know, that, that phrase, I am blank and there's multiple is the most important thing that you can really get a grasp of and everything else will follow after that. So once you've realized like, I am a creator, I am unbreakable, I am a leader. I, whatever that is for that person. Then let's

take a basic example. I'm a runner. Well, then on the do I run, I train and for it to be so dialed in and it's easy for athletes and for artists, like if I'm a painter, of course I paint. If I'm a runner, I run. But to create that similar dynamic when you ask a runner, like, you know, why are you, why are you doing all these crazy miles every week? Like, why do you do that? It's like, cause I'm a runner. Well, what does that mean? If your, I am is I'm a leader, right?

What are those things that you do that if someone asks you, well, man, why did you spend six and a half hours till 9 45 PM last night at your office calling all of your agents? Cause I'm a leader. That's what leaders do. And then from there on to the people that you associate with, then your action plan and then the why, but the why ties back to where it all starts with who you are. And so I think that's a big shift because the influential people live in the B and the do. Influencers live in the action plan and the why. And it is a drastic difference in the impact that's made when you unpack those things. And so to me, that's where a lot of my mindset is shifting. So as my mindset shifts, the content shifts and the messaging shifts and it's ultimately boils down to

trying to be more influential than be an influencer. I don't really even know what being an influencer means anymore because, well, it's all, I think it started out as my analogy would be being the super bowl or being the cooking channel. Yeah. You know,

the cooking channel, the ratings for the cooking channel yeah you know the cooking channel the ratings for the cooking channel are extremely low but the 20 000 people that that are watching it every night and i don't know these numbers i'm making them up yeah but they buy a lot of shit yeah and they are true loyal and that channel is very influential on them the superl gets 300 billion people watching it worldwide. If there's even that many people in the world, the, uh, and it's very wide, but not deep, you know, it's just a, an event. And so I think that's boiling it down a little bit. Yeah. And to take it a step further, you know, when you really, when you come to that realization

and I feel like if people will like literally pray, meditate, like spend some time like whiteboarding this out, just journaling it out of who am I and they really get a hold of it. Like when you figure it out, you'll know. One thing that I've always struggled with with my personal brand is when people come to your Instagram page, they should know what they're coming there for and what they're going to get. And I think a lot of my friction that I had with that, because I was putting out so many different things, all these different podcasts, different messages, different, you know, vlogs and all this stuff was like, I wanted you to get whatever you needed, like whatever you need today. Like there's something, there's something that'll hopefully get that dash of this. But when you, but when you really come to that realization

of who you are, it helps you curate that content to where people know who you are. And again, back to these example of a runner, like if you go to a runner's Instagram page, you know, like, I'm going to go there to get motivated or to learn something about running or to get a new type of training that I can try. Like they know. And that's where that stickiness I think is created. And that's where ultimately all the engagement is created because people know that when they see you pop up in the feed, Oh, it's probably going to be about this. I love that. Let me go engage with that. And when it's just random stuff that's coming out and random quotes that are just, you know, produced just for content sake, uh, you lose that. And so

I think that's a good tactical piece of advice for people just to look at their own, you know, social media presence and say like, what do I get when I come here? You know, what am I looking for when I come here and put themselves in the shoes of the person that's following them or potentially might follow them and see how clear it is. And if it's not clear, then that probably is an indication of you don't really know exactly who you are and what you're trying to do. Bingo. And, you know, I think, uh, from there we'll close it out.

Yeah, man. And, you know, I really appreciate you coming on and your partnership with GVL hustle and, you know, your friendship and, you know, just keeping it real and being kind of a beacon of positivity out there for everyone. And where can everybody that's listening keep up with you these days? Yes, everything's at TylerJackHarris. You can go to TylerJackHarris.com, but it's easier. I'm most engaged on Instagram. Still bigger on Facebook Facebook but Instagram stories

is my favorite thing in the world you're definitely the king of the stories I've come around but man I see your line of dashes and I'm like I think I have four today I mean I try to treat my Instagram stories like a vlog like I want people to get like the daily

life of kind of what we're it, what we're doing and what we're up to. And to me, it's kind of like a little bit of a peek behind the curtain because you got the highly produced content, but people really want to see the raw, you know, behind the scenes type stuff to where they can really get to know you as a person. And so that for me is super important. So definitely engage with me there. And like I said, you know, when I say reach out to me, if you need something like I really mean that. Um, and I'm always going to respond. I won't, I won't open it until I have time to think and thoughtfully respond. That's a big pet peeve of

mine. I hate for people to see the scene and then wait three days. I have people call me out on that too. Cause I'll see it and I'll be like, Oh, I know. They know I saw it. I will not click it until I know, because I know, cause I, I, I know what could be on the other side of that first little line that you see that there could be a lot more depth. There could be seven paragraphs underneath that. And I do not want to get caught in a situation because the way I look at it is there are a lot of people out there that need help and maybe I've reached out to people before, or it may be the first and maybe I've reached out to people before, or it may be the first time they've ever reached out to someone and actually asked them like a real question based on something they're really going through. And if I chose to, in that delicate

moment to not respond, that could literally be the nail in the coffin for them. Literally at times it's been that way when I've responded and it's been a positive thing. Hopefully that's never happened negatively, but it could also be the nail in the coffin for them to reaching out to anybody else. Like, well, I reached out to Tyler.

He didn't even, he didn't look at it. And so I'm not gonna reach out to anybody else. And so I just, I take that really, really seriously. Well, cool. I really appreciate you coming on and, um, Hey, and kudos to you. I definitely want to acknowledge you as well,

because all of this GVL hustle and the merchandise, I mean, this is, I've, I have had no part of it other than applauding it from behind the scenes. Uh, but it's really incredible. Um, you know, there was a period of time where, I mean, I was just stretched so thin and I told Ryan, I was like, look, I'll be at the events, but I, I mean, I just, I'm at capacity. And so Ryan and his team have really, I mean, they're the machine and the engine behind JBL hustle. I feel extremely honored just to be still a part of it because it is something that I feel is super important and super needed. Um, and definitely want people to go to the website and buy some merchandise cause it is going to a good, a good cause and it's cool stuff. Like I'd, I'd wear it every day.

Yeah. So yeah. And shout out to my team. They've been great. And it's been, it's, I think it's been a healthy distraction for us a little bit. I mean, our, our clients come first obviously, but you know, some of our clients have, quite frankly, gone away, at least figuratively speaking. And so it's been a good distraction for them, and they're behind it. But I appreciate you saying that, and I appreciate my team when they hear this, knowing everything they've put into it.

And we hope to write big checks every couple weeks to the United Way of Greenville. But that'll do it for today's episode of the Radical Marketing Podcast. I want to thank Tyler Harris for coming on and we'll see you next time.