Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Radical Podcast - EP 11 - Marketing at the speed of now, Dr. Rich Constantine, and growing Radical

Episode Date: November 13, 2018

It's been a few months but we are back and excited to bring some of the latest and greatest insights from running Radical as an everyday digital agency. New teammates Alex Finley and Ashley Davis join me to discuss our latest work, working with Dr. Rich Constantine, and a lot of behind the scenes of running a modern agency, 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. 

Hey guys, this is Ryan Alford, the host of the Radical Podcast, coming back to you here four months later. It's now early November. November, what's today, guys? Is it the 12th? The 12th. The 12th. November 12th, to be exact.

And, you know, we started Radical in May, and, you know, we started the podcast right at the beginning. And luckily, we've gotten busy with some client business but wanted to get back started on the podcast i am joined by my lovely co-host today uh alex and ashley uh we've our team's growing and uh i've forced alex and ashley into the podcast they didn't want to they were forced in. But actually, we're really excited about where the business has gone. We thought we'd at least open up the podcast back. Just talking a little bit about where Radical has gone these last few months,

some of the clients that we have, some of the experiences that we're getting with new clients, with our capabilities and really what Radical has turned into you know you have a plan in mind and you know been in the business as I've talked about on previous podcasts for you know going on 18 years and it's amazing how the business has changed and I think that is coming to life through what we're doing for clients. And so we wanted to talk a little bit about that and kind of just get into it a little bit.

Alex, Ashley joined the team the last few months. Both have different backgrounds in different things. And I don't know, Alex, you want to tell a little bit about yourself first? Sure. I started out at the Fine Arts Center here in Greenville, and that's where I really decided that photography was interesting to me and more the fine arts side of things. So I did photography freelance all through like high school and college and found out that I really like to do styling for magazines when I worked at a magazine in Columbia, South Carolina and then recently graduated and knew I wanted to maybe go into marketing more so here I am. We forced you in. Yeah. Alex and I have a mutual friend and I was needing help and he goes,

I've got just the person and Alex has been great. So Ashley? I actually came from Georgia where I worked in plastic surgery for a couple of years doing marketing. I recently Googled small cities to start your life over in and I stumbled upon an agency here in Greenville called the Cargo Agency and I was with them for a couple of months before landing a marketing job back in plastic surgery. And then Ryan and I recently met through a mutual patient or we'll go about that long, Somebody that we knew along the lines and I reached out to him after a meeting that we had had just saying thank you for the opportunity

and meeting him and hoping that I could get you know us aligned with the client that I was with and lo and behold he said I'm actually hiring. Would you like to set up for a meeting and let's you know let's talk some more and I I'm always interested in where life takes you. So we went and had a meeting with Ryan, and it's been a pill ever since. Though not speaking on here, but filming some of this for our content, Juan is in the room. Say hello, Juan. Yo, what's up?

That might be the most we get from Juan he's our silent partner but I had to make him at least say something you know it's been really interesting with Radical you know I think our last podcast was

in June and you don't know where things are going to take you I knew I wanted to focus on content development, uh, and social media and kind of the, the pillars of marketing in 2018. Um, but it's been interesting that where the client has specifically taking, where the client has specifically taken us. Because not long, and part of the reason for the delay is actually just goes to show you never know what's going to happen. One of Radical's first clients just happens to be Dr. Rich Constantine.

And anyone listening, Google Dr. Rich Constantine. And, you know, anyone listening, you know, Google Dr. Rich Constantine and you'll quickly learn who that is 150 million views later. Some of the content we've developed for him in the social media field went viral, continues to go viral. And, you know, you can't plan for that, but it's amazing how not only as a company, it's changed the dynamics of what we do with the opportunities. It's open with new clients, but it's also guided a little bit of where we've gone with the services we provide for clients. And Rich and I have known each other for a few years we've

been friends I've helped him on a number of things and you know counseled him to you know use his image to get out there more but it's been just a complete whirlwind I think I feel like it's almost like the encapsulation of radical and my my life like a little bit, at least on the business side, everything that's happened with him. Because it became, no matter how big or small you are as an agency, when you have a client where that kind of thing happens, which is what's happened with Rich,

it's just, it becomes all engrossing. You know, everything has been about, I mean, I think the viral video went like July 24th, late July. And it's been just like getting your arms around every opportunity. You never feel like, and that's what's been so hard. Even now, I feel like we're just slowly like catching our breath a little bit but it's like you get this moment in time in marketing and in awareness and in pop culture where something like happens what would it happen yeah and you and like you don't feel like even though you're doing everything that you can and you know we're bringing in resources and hiring people we're

doing things you never feel like are we taking advantage of every opportunity? Like, are we really doing it? And I think you have to slow down. I've had to tell myself that we aren't missing out on what we could. I mean, we got him on Good Morning America, Inside Edition. You know, it became a PR machine of all of the things in the moment when the first viral video hit. And then it's like you know how do we double up on that how do we do more what's the next

thing and you know Alex I know you kind of came in right as that was all happening I mean what's been your kind of perspective on all that it's been exciting and honestly Rich has been so much fun to work with and stuff too he's a great person in general and and him and Trish. And just to see their viral video, like, he couldn't have deserved it more, first of all. And he doesn't, you wouldn't expect that it was him. You know, so working with him ever since, like, doing every dance video, he's like a total goofball. And, like, it's made it fun, for sure.

But it is, it's always what snacks for him you know you can't do dance videos forever but that's what we got the house type doctor see what's next and you know I do think it's it's been fun because you know when I was thinking of what to call the agency and came up with Radical. Has there ever been more of an embodiment of Radical than a dancing dentist that's doing viral content and breaking the internet? So it's been cool, but we'll have Rich on. We're going to do an episode with Dr dr c uh we're planning a lot of new

content for him but we'll we'll pull him into the radical podcast world but um what's actually i know you know coming in and you know seeing you know some of our connection was through dr c but like you know now that i'm now you're knee in it with us, but what's your thoughts on everything that's happened with it? I mean, it's exciting. I mean, there's nothing other that I can even think of as a word to describe it. As, you know, he progresses, we progress as a whole as radical as well. I mean, we've gotten so many great new contacts, friends, associates uh networking just through him alone um you know and the clients that you've handed over to me i mean it's it's been awesome to see

the different avenues that both of you guys have taken and then take it on from myself and do that same thing for my clients you know everybody's hoping for that success um differently because i've got the different clients i'm working with I don't necessarily know that we're going to go viral but at the same time you know take the same avenues that you all took with Dr. C to get them there and get them the PR that they needed. And there's no textbook that shows you what to do with a viral dancing dentist you know so you really get to like reach out to a ton of different sponsors possibly or different you know people that want to interview him and why and stuff like that. So it's cool.

Not one day is the same. Well, it's been like a true brand, I mean, exercise coming to life in the modern world because, you know, having worked on large brands before and the planning that's involved. And, you know, Rich had started the dentistry. that's involved and you know Rich had started the dentistry I did a really cool video for him last year beginning of my years running together I guess the beginning of this year planned it starting last year that started to come to life beginning this year but it's interesting because you've got Constantine dental and it's a practice, and they're serving patients. And then this happens, and Dr. C is just, it's an entity.

It's a brand. And it's, you know, it took every skill set that I've learned in 18 years to know even how. And I mean, you know, who knows if you did did everything right but it's like it became PR it became designing a logo it became uh press and media management it became like actually yeah social media you know website design and like and so that's what's been great it's like it was like the embodiment of what I wanted to do but but it was kind of spark, you know, you don't plan for viral. You can't plan for viral.

You can't, you know, there's not an agency that says we're the viral agency, you know, it's just like making hay when it happens. But that's been fun and, you know, quite the dynamic with guiding where we've gone. I do think it's also like this per, you know, if you go to our website, you see some of the ways we talk about what we do, like real-time content and, you know, marketing at the speed of now. It's whether it's, you know, that's been such a whirlwind and a vacuum. So, like, that's probably even like times a hundred but in general

there's just not only is our attention spans much you know everyone expects things now but i think there's just such an opportunity if you can capitalize on these social mediums to like bring to life ideas and things and not get too caught up in being too fancy or too overthought you know a lot of the people that i follow you know talk about speed and talk about like get it out there and then you can kind of learn and read and react but i think you know the social media aspect of the marketing that we're doing you know really demands that you know we turn things quickly while also you know having this eye on popular culture like I feel like there's this like melding of culture and marketing

and all of these things that relate to the things that we're doing, whether that's the content we're developing or the memes that we're using. But I don't know. I mean, what are you guys' thoughts on, like, this melding of pop culture and marketing and video and, I don't know, just all the things we're working on? It's interesting to see what people are into. You know, you really don't notice maybe some of the smaller things until you look at the analytics of a video you post me like why did people go crazy over a selfie

video of this person saying this you know versus the stylized one that we worked like a week on you know might not have performed as well so it's interesting to know why people are into certain things. I don't know. Yeah. What do you think, Ashley? I think marketing as a whole has evolved. It's 2018, and what worked three years ago and what works now

are two totally different things. I mean, I would have just seen Instagram as a platform to post photos of my dog or like my piece of pizza that I had the night before and share a recipe and here it is making people insta famous but not even insta famous famous everywhere it's like a whole new way to advertise for individuals and it's nice because it's a free way to advertise for them and also get viewers out there as well you know just looking at more of their content on a daily basis and I mean you know I'm buying whatever Instagram is selling like it's it's I mean I've probably bought other than like standard Amazon purchases but

like one-off true not planned purchases the last three things I have personally bought have come from my Instagram feed and going oh that pair of shoes or that hat or that t-shirt or I think I bought like some camera accessory a few weeks ago and it's like straight instant gratification you have to have a now yeah linked up it takes no time yes i would like this oh great your card just happens to be here so yes i will add it to my card great and our clients i mean you know like indoor beauty the beauty brand that we're working with um doing a ton of content for her video development animations promos you know it's

it's really interesting because coming from this world where you know we used to spend six months doing a 30-second television spot you know we planned it we had the actors plan we have to scout the location we had hair and makeup you had craft services that had to get the lunch for the clients and all these things and now for endure beauty we'll have an idea we'll be talking and we'll go wouldn't that be cool we'll go to the studio we have in our office we'll shoot something we'll give it to one of our animators in the next day where we have it on instagram as a commercial and that next day

the website e-commerce site is dinging on our phones telling us products have sold. Yeah. And it's just all in like three days. And so that true direct-to-consumer slash direct-to-market, whatever you want to call it, the marketing term, is just really fascinating. it the marketing term is just really fascinating and it's both I don't know it's like it it racks my nerves a little bit because it's all because I've always it's always kind of like what I was saying with Dr. C you feel like oh we could do that or we could you know you feel like you're kind of always in this laboratory of things that you could do but just to see that come to life is it's fun you guys think no absolutely I mean the editing video that you sent me this morning for one of my

clients that I'm managing I sent the clip over to him and I said hey this is you know we're running hard hats only and it's a little you know clip of an introductory to to the videos that we're putting on and it's incredible it looks like something that would be on HDTV and it happened over you know of course of a few days we put it together and it goes live and now it's you know people are watching what we're doing around Greenville just in these small segments that we're doing but it just looks so now it doesn't look like a normal photo and it's going to get you know more audiences involved

and liking what they're seeing and wanting to see you know and watch the hard hat videos so they can see the progression of the different things going on around town right and i think you get more of the brand personality too when you're not so like cut and cut and dry you know we have one shot to do a 30 second commercial and that's all we're working on like we get new content every single day that looks popping in yeah like great brand like all the way across like it looks just like indoor beauty it looks just like dr c you know and everything fits but you get a little splice every day of you know different content so it's refreshing crushing i just talk to me is instagram replacing snapchat or is like yeah i i'll be the first to admit like i consider myself even at my age which we won't age myself here but like i'm on the forefront i feel like of technologies and different things but i never have been able to not because

i don't want it to because i thought oh I'm just too old or not interested in this I've never been able to grasp like snapchat and but now I feel like I don't feel like I'm missing out like I is before I mean what's happening with Instagram versus snapchat I think it's like a different app altogether like some people think it's like oh you can altogether. Like, some people think it's like, oh, you can post stories and stuff, and you kind of get the same thing. I think Instagram's more of a place for curated, like, pretty images, you know. And Snapchat's low-key kind of like you go there and you post, like, the funny behind-the-scenes videos that you don't really care about, you know. And you're kind of, like, all over the place there.

Or you don't want other people to see them. I think the whole dynamic behind Snapchat is you're only sending this to that individual that you want to see, and then it goes away. So you know that your character's not judged by this, or if you're trying to send a funny joke or a car that was going by with a license plate. And Instagram has that feature set now, but are people still? It's just not. I don't think so.

It's not the place, but I don't think as much yeah but it is funny to see now you can watch the stories and stuff of like magazines you know we'll have their story on there and there is a place for advertising there now but I still don't think it's the place where it happens it's really Instagram because it's not really the feed for Instagram it's like it was on Facebook you know is what kind of drives it for me you know I'm going through the feed for Instagram is like it was on Facebook, you know, is what kind of drives it for me. You know, I'm going through the feed and I know that Snapchat, I guess you can kind of do that,

but it's not the same kind of digestion of content. And I think they've tried to do it by opening up like celebrity accounts and stuff on Snapchat more so you can follow like Kylie Jenner and like, what is she doing with her brand and stuff and it's cool to see that because it's different every day. Maybe you didn't think to follow Kylie Jenner on Instagram, you know, but you did. You just watched her story on Snapchat, which is cool. I mean, it's definitely a different look, I feel like, that they try to do with that

whole vibe of Instagram stories and Snapchat. I mean, there's a different look for the celebrities and what they're putting out there. But I think even when we go to post our stories, I'm aware if I'm on Snapchat and what I'm sending out and putting out to the world and on Instagram. It's a different mindset for each one. It seems like, you know, changing a little bit of the angle here, like social media as a marketing tool. I even remember saying this, and I know it wasn't true then,

but three, four years ago, I was doing a startup then, so I wasn't knee deep in the agency stuff as I was even seven or eight years ago, and even now most certainly being you know in the agency but I used to think it because I would dabble in it and then people that knew social media marketing doesn't work and like you know like people would say that like I've done some Facebook ad this is like three or

four years ago I've done some Facebook ads and didn't do anything and I used to think because at that time I wasn't like as knee-deep as we've been in it now with everything we're doing with Radical. But man, now, seeing literally, like I was just saying, we keep coming back to Dr. C, but I think for people listening, it's a good grounding point for something they've heard of. But we literally post a shot of him in a shirt, it's a good grounding point for something they've heard of but like we literally post a shot of him in a shirt and we're not we're not running

commercials or not even really we've got some stuff on YouTube there's nowhere else on the planet that they're seeing this content but social media on Facebook as a post and ding ding ding ding ding you know all his stuff's on we got it on a Shopify commerce site um and it's like immediate the orders just start rolling in I mean so I don't think most people listening I think I don't know that there has to be as much convincing maybe as there used to be but even I was a little bit of a doubter of the power of social to truly drive sales. You know, I used to think, oh, some branding. I knew people were watching it, but it didn't drive sales.

But like, it's huge. It is. I mean, it's crazy. You know, the impact that it has. I mean, you know, I don't know. I don't know if people do you think that that's a common thing? Like, did you hear that before? Have you heard that Facebook ads don't work?

You know, like, or Facebook posts? A little bit. Only because, you know, I feel like this generation and stuff is more on Instagram. So Facebook's kind of like fizzling out a little bit. But I feel like they still perform well for a select group of people too. Obviously we've seen with indoor beauty stuff, that's her main ad is on Facebook or Pinterest even. It's still really popular. But I think Instagram, the big thing is influencers.

And if you like somebody on Instagram, they're sharing a lot about themselves. They're very personable like if they're wearing a cool shirt I'd be like where'd you get it you know like I'll go look it up if I like you as a person you know so I think it has everything to do with who they are and what they're selling and why and if that's a story behind it or if you like the person and their feed looks good I don't know it all comes together into like a formula and you're like I want to buy it you know yeah yeah you're selling you or you're selling your product just you know the second that somebody gets on Instagram and

they're looking at your feed as a whole I would say it probably takes less than 10 seconds to say hey this is something I'm interested in or I'm not interested in and you can grasp it before you even pick on you know click on one of their photos and the links too you can just go straight to the product yeah you know you can shop on Instagram now which is a game changer yeah um what's the I'll put y'all on the spot again what's been your you know favorite part about working here at the agency or with the clients you know with me let's let's be like your favorite part and then what's surprised you the most if anything has all right actually we'll reverse order okay great great um uh gosh what surprised me the most i'm trying to think i guess just the different clients that we have deal with and the different

personalities you know that we i guess all i mean I guess being in any agency you realize what makes a team work is everybody having different personalities but it's great to see all of our personalities and the way that each of us are wired come together and make this happen for all of our clients yeah um I guess it's not surprising but it's just it's nice to come into a team every single day that we all get along so well and you know behind behind the scenes, we're laughing and getting feedback from one another and helping each other out throughout the day. And it's really nice to come into an office

and truly enjoy and love what you do every day. Yeah, I agree. I think the most exciting part is just having something different to do every day. It's not cookie cutter, you walk in the door and you're not gonna be like in the screen every single day you know just typing away you know one day you might be out doing a photo shoot and one day you might be you know helping with graphics or you know sometimes you're just scheduling posts that day you know it varies and it's

it keeps it interesting you know so you're not just in a rut for sure yeah every day is different you never I mean you know what to expect but it keeps things interesting I mean the weather will sway a photo shoot or you know something changes just you know on the regular yeah yeah yeah I like it the you know it's when you most agencies and this is the beauty of being small and one day we might not be small but you know we're always going to be smallish but you know most agencies i've worked at like you wear one specific hat and so and i've purposefully kind of hired a diverse team that have multiple skill sets we're kind of all wearing a different hat and I think it's also back to you know that marketing is speaking now like you got to be able to do

multiple things you got to be able to feel comfortable with a smartphone in your hand and shooting content you've got to feel comfortable getting in some of these programs and throwing a social media post together you know it used to be these are the designers over here here's your copywriter and here's your account person and you know it you know there's there might come a world where we do have that kind of specification or specialization I should say but I think what's making us nimble for our clients is the ability to wear multiple hats.

I think we're organically pulling the best out of each other. It's happening organically. And maybe at times there's madness. madness but at the same time I feel like there's a method to it in that I think we're empowering each other to do different things while also leveraging you know different skill sets you know I feel like we're getting more and get our clients are getting more by not kind of putting ourselves in boxes and I think that's you know for anyone listening to the podcast or anyone's working agencies I know that that world has changed a little bit but I still think predominantly it's very these are the idea people and these are the strategy people

and you know there's um i think you lose some of the opportunity to group think and collaborate and kind of get the best out of everyone i mean i, we most certainly have people that do animation and do things that are website code. I think that sort of skill set is still very specialized, but I still think that good ideas come from everyone. But any thoughts on that? Yeah. I feel like since we get to be like me deep in each of the aspects of handling our clients and stuff it gets you're able to get to know them personally too like I know a lot about endure I know a lot

about doctors you know like it goes on and on and like we each know a lot about our own clients and stuff and that helps to make sure that we really do want every opportunity for them, you know, too. Yeah. Because knowing Nikki personally now, too, like, you know, it's nice to be able to say, hey, you're in a magazine, or like, hey, this is happening for you, you know, stuff like that, and it's fun because you actually get to see her, like, genuinely happy with what we're doing, so. Yeah.

Which, I mean, that's essentially radical. When I started, it's telling everybody's story. So the closer that I know you, Alex, the more I would be able to tell your story. So it's kind of like in the marketing of now, the closer that I work with my clients, the more that I can do better for them. And being able to have the opportunity where we have the meetings like we did this past week or going to meet them out for happy hour and get to know them and their personality and what they're looking for. It really helps engage it.

Yeah. It's the good part about being a little smaller. Yeah, totally. It's nice. Refreshing. Yeah. Well, I think that's going to wrap up the podcast. It's been a few months.

We're going to start back at least on a weekly basis. We're going to get some of our clients in, do some interviews. We talked about a handful of them and we'll get others on the podcast. We're going to talk about some of the other things that we're working on.

Bring in maybe some local guests. We didn't even get into a lot of the other areas we're in with Green Bull Hustle and just some of the subsidiary things that Radical's involved in. But really excited about this team and really appreciative of everything they do. And we'll be... To be continued.

Back next week. Yes. All right, guys. This is Ryan Offord for the Radical Podcast. Talk soon. Bye. Bye.