The Entrepreneur DNA - From Navy Discipline to $18M Entrepreneur in 3 Years | Eric Winegard

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

What does it really take to walk away from a seventeen-year corporate career and build an $18 million marketing agency in just three years? In this episode, Eric Winegard shares the mindset, discipline, and relentless commitment that helped him go from a troubled childhood and military structure to becoming the CEO of Rare Blue Moon Marketing. We dive into the realities of entrepreneurship, the difference between paid ads and organic content, and why most businesses fail before marketing even begins. Eric breaks down the importance of networking without an agenda, building a real personal brand online, and why commitment is the trait that separates successful founders from everyone else. You’ll also learn how sales psychology, leadership, and self-belief became the foundation for scaling one of the fastest-growing agencies in the space. What You’ll Learn in This Episode How Eric went from a troubled childhood to military discipline Why sales became the skill that changed his life The difference between networking and selling Why most marketers don’t understand sales How Rare Blue Moon Marketing scaled so quickly Why organic content and paid ads need to work together What business owners get wrong when hiring agencies Why commitment matters more than talent About Justin:   Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The Science of Flipping podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience.   Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence.   Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof LinkedIn: Justin Colby About Eric Winegard Eric Winegard is the CEO and cofounder of Rare Blue Moon Marketing, a fast-growing digital marketing agency helping businesses scale through paid advertising, SEO, content strategy, and lead generation. After spending seventeen years in corporate sales leadership, Eric transitioned into entrepreneurship and rapidly built an $18 million agency by combining high-level sales psychology with modern marketing systems. His story spans a difficult upbringing, military discipline, and years of mastering sales, networking, and leadership before becoming a founder. Today, Eric works with businesses across multiple industries to help them grow through strategic marketing, brand positioning, and scalable customer acquisition. Connect with Eric Winegard: Instagram: @ericwinegardofficial YouTube: @ericwinegard8088 Facebook: winegard1 LinkedIn: Eric Winegard Website: rarebluemoon.io   Chapters 0:00 The road from W2 to eighteen million dollars 2:45 Is sales a born talent or a learned skill 5:30 Why high level masterminds are worth the investment 9:15 Overcoming a difficult childhood and foster care 13:40 How the military builds a wartime mentality 17:50 Why Eric left a safe CEO track to start over 22:10 The role of faith and grit in business growth 26:45 Burning the boats and making success a necessity 30:15 Paid ads vs organic content strategy 33:50 Humanizing your brand on social media 37:20 Geofencing and targeting for local businesses 41:05 Lessons from the Gold Coast Podcast and Brad Lea 44:30 Why marketing cannot fix a broken business model 46:46 Final advice for aspiring entrepreneurs   #entrepreneurship #digitalmarketing #salesstrategies #scalingbusiness #mindset   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I was probably experimenting with some new drug every other day of the week when I was 18 and 19. I realized I was going down the road of being a deadbeat. No one was going to come save me. How did you know, like, I have to change? Because at 18, that could be fun, drugs and girls, and you're an athlete and you're a quarterback and all these things, but you didn't. Through all the ups and downs of my childhood, in my core, I actually did have self-worth. I don't know where that came from, but I truly never had my self-belief broken. In the last three years, you went from the W2.

to for 17 straight years of the same company, sales job, to starting your own business and doing $18 million last year alone. And I said, if I become the CEO of this company, did I actually build something or did I ride somebody else's goateals? I don't want to be known for the guy that got a good job, worked his way up, and became the CEO. My wife is five months pregnant. I'm just looking at my future child so differently now,

looking back into my life and how can I help my daughter or my kids prevent these same mistakes? Eric Weingard. Eric is the CEO and co-founder of Rare Blue Moon Marketing, a digital marketing agency out of South Florida that is how thousands of businesses scale through SEO paid ads and content that actually converts. Eric Weingard's life is a testament to the raw power of reinvention, grit, and the unyielding belief that one's past does not have to define their future. Most marketers are not salespeople. They don't know what networking is. They don't know what cold outreach is. So you went from sales guy to entrepreneur. And in three, who's built an $18 million business. Can anyone do this? What is up the entrepreneur DNA family? This is always brought to you by the entrepreneur DNA community, the community where guests just like this will come in and advise on their expertise. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a starting fledgling

entrepreneur, or you're doing a couple million, get in the community. It is the entrepreneur at dna.com so you can get advice from the people really doing the business. And it's just the best. best community. So today we are going to be talking all things marketing with the Blue Moon Marketing founder Eric Weingard is in the house. What's up, dude? Thanks for having me, man. Love the energy. Yeah. Listen, everyone watching, we are going to have, we're going to have a fun announcement here coming up pretty soon. So get to know this guy, get to follow him right away on Instagram. There's some stuff that him and I are going to be doing. Stay tuned. We got some fire for you guys. So listen, your background is insane. But what I want everyone to know out of the gate,

in the last three years you went from the W-2 for 17 straight years of the same company sales job W-2 to starting your own business and doing 18 million last year alone. Yes, sir. So you went from sales guy to entrepreneur and in three years built an 18 million dollar business. Can anyone do this? I think so. I think, you know, I always get that question, you know, is a salesperson born or made? and I believe it's a decision.

It's kind of like, you know, is a bodybuilder born or made? Well, you're going to have to work out a little bit to get on stage, right? Not that I'm a bodybuilder, right? You look like one. You know, I call myself huskular. There you go. Huscular, right? I like that.

I like that. But I do believe they can. And, you know, I worked at this one company. This was not done by design. You know, I learned sales. I learned digital marketing. And because I was in charge of the sales, staff, my job was to grow the sales organization, to grow the revenue of the company.

And I really was, I don't want to say self-taught, but, you know, self-educated on digital marketing. And I just really learned it through trial and error, trial and error, trial and error. I didn't really read a book. Today, obviously, I consume all of Alexer-Mosey stuff, right? But I really just was self-taught, and I really learned digital marketing because I wanted more leads for my salespeople, me, and trying to grow this company. So I kind of have a unique blend where I feel most marketers are not salespeople. Right? Like they don't know what networking is. They don't know what cold outreach is. They think everything needs to be done by digital. And there's this whole other world, podcasting, networking, cold outreach, strategic partnerships,

strategic alliances that can help draw business to you. Hint, hint, hint. Yes. Yes, sir. And so, yeah, I do think anybody can do it. But the one advantage I had is I did work for somebody else for 17 years. That's almost like an apprenticeship for 17 years. So I saw this company make good decisions and I saw them make poor decisions. And today, I think the reason we've grown so fast is I'm able to not make some of those poor decisions. Yeah. You said a couple of things. That's a huge key that I want to hit on. You learn from someone else. mistakes and then you're able to, you know, rip out the good and remove the mistakes and let them stay. But you also talked about networking. You and I are a part of some pretty high level groups, right? How powerful has being a part of these masterminds communities been for your business building? Yeah. And this is like a free promo for the one I'm connected with, but I'm very well connected in the value attainment community. They have a whole other pillar of their business called

BDC Consulting, Bet David Consulting. And I've admired PBD from afar for a long time, for sure. Back when I was in upstate New York, I was watching his insurance salesman videos and how to run a sales organization. So I almost felt like I knew him before I knew him, right? And so I've been in that community, really, for the past three years now. And, you know, I'm well respected and well known in that community for sure. And, you know, it's been a blessing.

To be candid, it did probably about 20. It did about 20% of our business last year. Just that one networking group. Yeah. One network. And that's not a cheap group to me in, right? And I think a lot of people sit here and say, Eric, you know, you're special. You had 17 years at a W-2.

You were able to watch your mentor, make a mistake. You're different than me. I'm not like you. But the things that can be in common, well, not everyone has that resume, you made the investment in being a part of a network that you believed could actually help grow your business. And then you did something that most people don't do. you talk to people. Yes, sir, yeah.

Right? Yeah. I mean, what's your secret sauce when you're in these communities, in these masterminds? You're around these people. Do you do anything special? Yeah, I think, I don't know if this is special, but I'll give you my strategy. My strategy is never to make a sale. You know, so if I meet with somebody and obviously in these groups, there's different levels of groups.

There's the CEO group. There's the founder group. There's the executive group. And yes, different levels cost different amounts. of money, but I always pay for the highest one because I want to be in the highest rooms, right? The highest networking opportunities. And you get a lot of value.

Let me get that out of the way. You get a ton of business and corporate value in education and learning. But when I meet another CEO, I'm not just thinking, oh, how much money can I make off of this guy? I just think, huh, is this someone I can now pull into my network? And, you know, listen to him, him or her. What do they do? what are some of their needs.

And if I know somebody that I can plug them with, like, oh, my God, I have this contractor up in Orlando that does this, this and this. I could see you guys really partnering up on things. I try to provide value. I'll give you a story. I kept providing value for this one heavy hitting real estate guy. I did like two or three things for him. He literally called me up about a month ago. He goes, Eric, you got to stop.

And I go, stop with what? He goes, you've given me too much value. Like, I'm coming into your office. I'm sitting down with you. And you got to sell me something. and I'm buying something from you. So rather than trying to sell people, I really genuinely try to provide value,

and I find that the sales just get reciprocated that way. And it's as easy as just making introductions. That's what I think people don't understand. Like maybe I don't or you don't have the answer of value to an agent, but the agent might need X. And you're like, oh, I have a great person who does X. Let me just connect you. It's literally as simple as that.

And then when you're in these groups, your roll X gets bigger. People ask me all the time. I'm sure they're asking you. How are you able to get so-and-so on your podcast? How are you able to be connected with so-and-so? Why don't I always see you at so-and-so? It's because I've had 15 years of building a Rolodex.

It doesn't happen overnight. But you got to start somewhere. Let's talk about how you started. You don't have your everyday story of like, oh, yeah, I graduated college, and I just got this job and took me 17 years. You are not cookie cutter by any stretch. Talk about your background. Well, so I grew up with a single mother,

a single mother on welfare. And, you know, the idea of business was not something that was ever talked about in my household. You know, we wouldn't have food by Wednesday. You know, my mother would have to call the local church just to get some peanut butter and bananas. You know, we were in survival mode, right? I lived in a homeless shelter when I was seven years old.

And to be honest with you, when I was seven years old, I just thought it was a big sleepover. Everybody's sleeping on cots. That's probably what I thought, but looking back, how awful for my mom. She must have been in tears every night. You know, my mother couldn't afford babysitters once she got a job. And, you know, the child protective services kept finding out that I was being left home alone

all the time. So I ended up spending a lot of times in foster homes. I was an angry kid, didn't graduate high school. And then, you know, when you don't have a father and you don't have a whole lot of direction, the people that will welcome you in are people very similar to you. And unfortunately, a lot of those people end up going to the clubs, doing drugs, being promiscuous. And all of a sudden, that's like the world that I was in, right? Total knucklehead.

I was probably experimenting with some new drug every other day of the week when I was 18 and 19. I realized that I was going down the road of being a deadbeat. No one was going to come save me. So I literally just walked to the military one day or the, I forget what you call it, basically where you kind of signed up to be in the military. The recruitment office, the Navy and the Marines were right next to each other. And I was like, whoever wants to sign me up, I'm going in. The Marines were closed.

The Navy was open. I walked in, signed up, went into the Navy for four years. You must have had some level of enlightenment, right? Because 18, 19, you're still figuring out life. But you knew if I keep doing this, I'm going to be dead or in jail or something, you know, whatever. And you said, I got to change. now. Do you know where that came from? Was that your mom? Was that just your inner being? Like, how did you know? Like, I have to change. Because at 18, that could be fun, drugs and girls,

and you're an athlete and you're a quarterback and all these things. You could almost lean into that and be like, oh, it was fun life. But you didn't. You know, it's interesting. I go back and forth about this and I tend to get emotional about this now because normally I don't get emotional on a podcast and all of a sudden these past few weeks I've been getting emotional and it's because I've been reflecting on my childhood a lot now because my wife is five months pregnant and I'm just I'm just looking at my future child so differently now and I'm kind of looking back into my life and how can I help my my daughter or my kids prevent these same mistakes and you know I think a lot of it was I I really never broke my confidence I will

tell you that. So through all the, you know, ups and downs of my childhood, at my core, I actually did have self-worth. I don't know where that came from. I don't know if it was internal or external, but I truly never had my self-belief broken. And when there were times that it was challenged, I always somehow had, sure, I had doubts in my head, but I would always overcome those doubts. It's like, no, I am a winner. I can do this. I do deserve more. And I'm capable of more.

So I don't know where that came from. I've been trying to dissect that, but it might be intrinsic. It might be something external. But I never lost self-believe. And so you go to the military. You spend four years in military. What next? So I was a wild man in the military.

Let me get that out of the way. So I was still working, you know, you work hard during the week. But on the weekends, I was still being a little wild. It just wasn't as wild as, if you weren't in the military. If I wasn't in the military. But it definitely gave me that work ethic and structure. But I got out of the military and, you know, everybody says you got to go to college and get a degree. So now I'm like, crap.

I'm 23 years old. I got to go get a freaking degree to be anything in life. I got a four-year degree in two years. Wow. I was that much of a man on a mission. I got a psychology degree from a school in upstate New York. and once I got out, once I graduated at 25 years old, I was like, you know what? I was like, I need to make some money now.

And I remember this specifically. I was bartending. And all these guys kept coming in. They were wearing suits and they had nice watches and they had like BMWs and Mercedes. And I was like, man, those guys must be doctors. Those guys must be lawyers. Like, I don't know if I could do that. But they'd always come into my bar, always come into my bar.

And they were the coolest guys ever. And I just asked him one day. I was like, what is it that you guys do? They go, we're salesmen. Yeah. And that was like, ding, ding, ding, ding. Oh, I can go be a high earner and I don't necessarily have to be a doctor or lawyer. I just need to go what their route was.

They were all insurance salespeople. But that was the birth of my desire to become a strong salesperson. Almost straight out like Wolf of Wall Street. Yeah. That diner scene where he was like, show me a check right now and I'll quit my job and come follow you. Shows them whatever. It's an $80,000 check or something.

Yeah, yeah. Similar. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Yeah. So I actually think most men, maybe not an extreme story like yourself, but I think most men at 18 should go to the military.

I think like, you know, I have a friend he's Greek. That is what they do. When you graduate high school, you go to military first. I don't think any of us, I mean, very rarely is there a mature enough man at the age of 18 to like create a life.

that they understand they're creating. I think it is a, would you believe or say that the military really helped shape who you are today? No question. No question about it. The military, you know, I was mentorless growing up. And this is going to sound awkward, but I was a big, strong kid.

Men were scared of me, like grown men. You know, I was 225 pounds, my senior year in high school. grown men were couldn't um couldn't corral me yeah you know and i didn't have a father i could see the intimidation in grown men when i was younger yeah you go into the military you get around those kind of guys yeah they're not scared they're not scared yeah right and in fact they know how to instill a fear in you a proper fear right and i think you know not having a father growing up nobody ever kind of put me in my place and the military as a whole as a unit really humbled me and puts you in your place gets you in line not saying you can't have you know growth in individuality but definitely

you know how to march to the same beat you know how to be part of a team yeah and not necessarily a lone wolf or not necessarily the captain of the team but being a player on the team i believe you have to know how to follow before you can leave i in knowing you is as it's a new friendship knowing what you've built in the entrepreneur space. And I know where a lot of, because I've been in the space now 23 years, I know where a lot of people fall and fail in its leadership. People think you have to manage or be a boss. And there's very rarely people that understand how to be a team

and to lead versus manage. And I would argue, not even knowing the internal side of your business, that is why you're seeing a lot of success that you're seeing, is you take the framework the military would give you and you're leaning into it in that you were seeing in blue moon marketing, in the way you are. I mean, to be able to start a business three years, four years ago, and get $18 million in revenue on your third year, fourth year,

like that is not, like literally the antithesis of common. Like I don't even know the percentage, 0.001% of people do that. And I think that leans into the upbringing. Now, conversely, how do you feel about college? How do I feel about college? Did it? Did college give you that same level of, you know, it helped shape me, or was it just like a task that you had to get over and finish the

task and move on? Let me go back to the military for a second. I'll answer that question. So my first two years in the military was prior September 11th, 2001. And I was in the Navy. It was a party. Yeah. For two years, it was a party.

You know, I was took a, I was on a ship called the USS Saipan, big huge ship. You know, we have this huge fleet. And, you know, we're going. going to Rota, Spain, Barcelona, Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece. Like, we're going to all these cities, and we're just basically partying. Yeah. And September 11th, 2001 hits, the entire military change. Yeah.

It went into war mode. And my new work schedule, I worked nine straight months, 16 hours a day. Nine straight months, 16 hours a day. No girls, no fun, no, you know, there's a young man that's all you want and you desire. In your 20s, the last thing you want, 100%. Yeah, but I was forced to go into this as priority mode, right? Not fun mode. And what that did to me, that period of my life, that wartime mentality, was it truly made me ready for the war of life.

because now when I went into college, you know, even though I don't think the stuff that I learned in college really have I applied it today to be successful, but I had that wartime mentality. And rather than spending 15 credit hours a week and kind of live this, you know, the expectation of college of 15 hours a week is so pathetically absurd. I mean, most of these kids, you know,

they're going, what are you doing the other 50 hours a week? weed. Right. Smoking weed. Yeah. Going out to the bar. Like, what are you doing? But what it did for me is I had that wartime mentality.

I was like, no, I'm going to take 24 credit hours. I'm going to take 12 in the summer. I'm going to take six in the winter. Like, there's no time off. And so college was just an extension of wartime for me. So by the time I got to the workplace, I'm still a soldier. Yeah. And these guys are 15 credit hour type people.

So I don't know, man. I go back and forth with this, but God, would I take military over college any day of the week? And I'm not military. I didn't go to military. I just know enough of people that I go that is not a college taught skill set, right? And then leaning into what did you do after college? You went into sales. And you became a number one salesperson for 17 years.

And I'll let you tell you the story. But you were so good at this, you ended up getting offered. a CEO position. Yeah. What skill set did you drive that 17 years? Would you, you know, where you're at today as an entrepreneur, would you say a lot of that ability came from the skill set? Yeah, no doubt.

I remember vividly, I wasn't good at sales day one. Let me get that out of the way. Okay. So was I determined to become a good salesperson? Was I willing to put the work in necessary? You know, your confidence gets challenged. You know, when you're taking rejection after rejection after, no after, no after maybe, and you get excited, you know, being told no so often and having to put the hours in necessary is tough. No one in their right mind would do sales for $40,000 a year. Correct. It's not worth it. Right. But the upside is what makes it worth it. So if you do have mental toughness and, you know, you do have, can kind of put your ego at the door a little bit, you do have a strong work ethic and you turn off Netflix. and you work on self-development and work on your actual skill

versus just party time during the weekdays or the weekends and you really develop yourself, it can become worth it because you can make six figures plus. But I do remember, and I hadn't thought about this in 20 years, I remember the CEO of that company said to me early on, probably six months in, he said, stay a leader, Eric, stay a leader. And he must have seen it.

six months into the company because I think four or five years into the company, the average VP would get promoted maybe 10, 12 years in. And I got promoted, you know, year four or five. Wow. So there must have been the, maybe I had leadership potential and the military must have, um, you know, tightened up the, the rough edges a little bit. Yeah, for sure. And, and I think by the time I was 25 going into the workforce now versus 22 and, you know, just done for, you know, just done from smoking weed and 15 credit hours. I was a hardened core professional, ready to make a move.

So I don't know if I'm answering your question now, but I think the military, yeah, it teaches you leadership and I think I was able to ascend in that company faster than anybody because of that background. Why did you stay there for 17 years? I was very successful. You know, this is a great question. When you go from making 100 to 200,

to 200 to 300 to 400 to 500. You're always getting promoted. Everybody's calling you the guy. The guy. You're the golden child. I was, right? It was like everybody else would hear the CEO's negative talk, but not to me. I was the guy.

Yeah. Right? And I was obviously the ultimate successor. I was the game plan, right? That's not, I don't know. Why would you leave that? Yeah, why would you leave it? Why would you leave it?

Now, don't get me wrong, it was not. a perfect organization. Are you able to say who you worked for? Yeah, yes. A CGI Digital in Rochester, New York. Yeah, okay. Like any other company has its strengths, has its weaknesses, right? And the weaknesses just got to a point to where I wanted something more and bigger for

myself. And to be candid with you, when they wanted me to really kind of take the bull by the horn and be that guy, that's where my... had a moment at 39 years old because I'm about to hit the age of 40 then, right? And I said, if I become the CEO of this company, I go, did I actually build something or did I ride somebody else's goattails? And this is just the competitor in me. I was like, I don't want to be known for the guy that got a good job, worked his way up, and became the CEO. My competitor in me said, I want to go build the, you know what, I'm going to be the founder. I want to be the founder.

Yeah. Right. And, and that competitive spirit, COVID also kicked in right then too. It was like, this is a sign from you know who. Just go do it, Eric. And I put all the chips on black. And I'm black, right? I'm the black, right? Not literally, figuratively, right? And, and, yeah, we built something pretty damn good. You have built something so impressive, dude. So let's talk about Blue Moon marketing. Yep. you have clientele in all verticals you just gave me a huge announcement which we won't name the name but you just signed a fortune 100 company 500 company uh i probably i'll just leave it at 500 it's in the middleish somewhere yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean that's massive brother again three years four years

in this business like no one's doing these things something you're doing something different to build the business the way you're building it you know this this This is everything you're saying right now. A few years ago, I would have said, you're right. I would have said, yeah, I'm different. Today I know it's the hands of God. There you go. I do.

I do. And, you know, my wife and I have been on this spiritual journey for a while. Like, what do you think about this? Like, is there something to this? You know, and, you know, last year, I believe last July, we officially said, you know what? We're proud Christians today, right? we made the announcement to our family, right? And because of what you just said, I kind of thought, I was like, yeah, I'm the man. I'm doing all these cool things. And I'm on a first name basis

with Patrick Med David. And all these companies are coming to me. And I'm signing up Fortune 500 companies and my business is blowing up. I'm the man. And it dawned on me that there has been somebody with their hand on my heart for my entire life. And their hand guiding me my entire life because there were so many times as a young man, I should have been dead. I should have had a drug overdose. I should have had an STD.

I should have had four or five kids at the age of 18. I should have been a bad dad at age 20. But it dawned on me that God has had his hand in my life ever since. And I have to give the glory to God. and today I'm very proud to say that. Love that about that. Love that for you, dude. But it doesn't take away your work ethic.

I think as much as I also am believer in God and realize I also have a similar story that there's so many times I should be in jail and driving drunk in college and crashing into a car or crashing into a house, I drove through a house, all these things. It doesn't take away the fact that, you are still the one putting in the work.

And that leadership and that ability to build Blue Moon and the way you're building it, there's got to be takeaways that you can point to to say, hey, I built it using this type of model. I built it with this in mind. I built it, and I'm building, by the way, because you're not done. What are some things that you focus on

while building a business in this fledgling? You are still fledgling. Three years is a fledgling. Most people go out of business in three years, right? Yeah. You're now 18 million plus. plus plus, plus, what are you building on? What foundational benchmarks are you building this on?

Well, you know, this is, I think it all starts with commitment. And, you know, the definition of commitment is, you know, burning the boats. It's being all in. It's not giving yourself another option. So the last year I was at that company, CGI, I actually had a discussion with the CEO and I said, hey, you know, I don't really want to be in management anymore. I think it's obvious. I said, I'm looking at other things.

I said, I'd be happy to be a 1099 salesperson for until whatever. And, you know, obviously he was a little disappointed, but said, no worries. Eric, whatever you want, you've been here forever, like, whatever you want in your life. That was the first, I did that on purpose because the first time in my life, I didn't have a big salary. My salary was about $300,000, and I would make bonuses on top of that, et cetera. But I always had that guaranteed money, no matter what I did. And the reason I went 1099, Justin, is I knew I needed to find that next level of myself. I needed to find the best version of myself.

And the only way you can actually be committed to something is almost like when you make something a necessity. And to me, being an entrepreneur and being a founder was a necessity. I didn't want to go into foundership, cold turkey. I felt going 1099 was going cold turkey. After about six months of not having a salary and going through the anxieties and the ups and the downs, all of the sudden, brother, this new human arrived. Yeah.

This new human. This put it all together version of Eric. And I put it all together. I set every single sales record you could possibly imagine, had my biggest financial year ever working for somebody. and then I said, oh, I'm ready to be a founder. And started the company and today I've never looked back. So how have I done, how am I doing this?

I'm committed. I am committed. I am 100% committed. It is the set to me, I've interviewed so many successful business people in these seats. I've created my own five laws of success within business. First is you decide what you want and who you need to be. number two is you commit it's as simple as that

because even though you may not have done it right as you start like literally start you iterate and you iterate but you never give up because you committed and now where you are and what you're doing you're going to look back and say 18 million nothing 18 million a month right but it's because you committed

and you're going to make mistakes just like you and I both there's going to be tons of shitty mistakes that get made and you're not going to do it perfect but you're committed to be better every day and committed to try these different things. Now, I want to talk to about the agency. So many people run agencies and there's a lot of people like myself that run ads. And then there's this other part of organic. Paid ads versus organic. You're an agency. I think I know what side you sit on. But talk to us about what a lot of people are like missing about the combination of both, paid ads

versus organic. Well, I think this is a long conversation. But, But to simplify this to somebody, to any business person out there listening, how important is paid versus organic, they're both extremely important. My humble opinion, don't hire me to do your organic. It's going to be very expensive. I'm going to have to charge you an exorbitant amount of money to send my crew out there, send my equipment out there, do all of your editing, do all of your posting. it's going to get unreasonably expensive.

Yeah. And to all of you out there, thinking about hiring an agency to do your content, depends on what position you're in. But if you're, you know, Joe contractor in Port St. Lucy, Illinois, doing $3 million a year, it's not going to make sense spending $25,000 a month on your organic content. Correct. Because you're going to get 18 months into it and think, oh, I've wasted all this money. Right.

Now, depending upon, you know, do I think Andy Elliott, should be spending a ton of money on organic content. Duh, of course. Of course. Right? So, but I would learn it and be proficient yourself, invest in the necessary equipment, and go down the journey that I went down and learn how to do it yourself, relatively decent. No, don't pay your niece $60,000 a year to do it because she actually doesn't even know how to do it either. doesn't know how to do it either.

She doesn't know how to drive revenue for your business. So I look at organic content, whether or not you're able to monetize it or not, depending upon whatever stage you're at, it is social proof, right? It's your resume now. I look at social media as your resume. Yes, sir. They want to know who you're around, what you're doing, what you're talking about, what you're thinking, right?

like I will hire someone watching the social media versus seeing that they went to so-and-so university and had this job. Who are they? Who are they? Exactly. What do they do? Who do they follow? You know, I've had this discussion. Who are they, who are people following? Yeah. Right? Yeah. Because it's an indicator of what they're interested in, what they're doing. And all this is, is open to the public. What are most business owners slash founders? What are the biggest mistakes that you see them making when it comes to content. So I think sometimes they think content is a highlight reel. You know, it's like they want to almost show off a little bit like, oh, you know, nothing

I hate more. Yeah, I have a nice watch. Yeah, I have like nice vehicles. Me personally, dude, this is just a me thing. I don't do the watch with my nice car. I just don't because I don't. Now, if you're a influencer, like if you're a coach, maybe. but I think what people want to know is about the person, right, the authenticity.

So I think content should be really focused on what value can you provide the audience, your target demographic or your audience, your ICP, as they would say, right, ideal customer profile. But then also humanize it a little bit. No, you don't have to do a stupid TikTok dance, but if you have a daughter and you're a proud, you know, daughter, dad, girl dad. Girl dad? Yeah, maybe a clip of you going to her softball game and cheering. Because that personalizes you.

But I think providing a little bit of personality and a little bit of expertise, I don't think you're going to go wrong. Well, I think if you lean into ads and organic, this is the end, right? Because let's say I hire you to do ads and then people see a video ad or a static ad regarding X, the entrepreneur and A, they might, who's this ball? like what is he, and then they go see me. Exactly. And then they get to make a decision, do I want to be in this guy's ecosystem or not?

Mm-hmm. But I believe if you don't do both to some extent, I don't know if all businesses need a marketing agency. What, what, name some of the businesses that you are. Who are some of your clients? Like what verticals, what industry is size. Yeah, it's interesting. So, well, let me answer that question too. So organic, I think it makes sense.

if you're a local service-based business, I think it makes sense to try to learn it in-house. But I would disagree with you. I don't think you should try to learn Google ads or meta-ads on your own because you're just going to think they don't work. I agree, because you're going to, there's people like you that literally do this all day long.

Why would I try to do it myself, not knowing how to do it? You're just going to think it doesn't work. You're going to spend $500 a month on Google ads. You're going to set up a crappy campaign. You're going to run a meta-ad. You don't even know the difference between the types of campaigns. You're going to set it up

and you're going to think it doesn't work. So I would try to, if you want to save the money, try to do it by learning organic content on your own, but invest in a professional to actually run the ads. That was my suggestion. Okay. Now, here's the cool thing about ads. You know, content is the ultimate equalizer because likes, follows, shares, saves. Like I have a video, the one that you watch, the military one, that average watch time is 52 seconds.

It's a long time. Very long time. Yeah. I did it unintentionally. but I told a good story. So 52 seconds is absurdly long compared to seven seconds. So it's the ultimate litmus test of quality. So I think if you're running paid ads,

the cool part is, is you can just test and you don't need an ego. So you test different creatives, you test different landing pages, and you have no ego about it, just be patient, and let the data do all of the talk. Who should be running ads? What businesses should be using companies like yourself? By the way, blue moon marketing.

So if you want to reach out to Eric, where should they find you? Should it go to Instagram? Should they go to your website? Where do you want to do? Yeah, I think they can go to my personal page. Eric Weingard, official, and they'll be able to find everything from there, my company website and everything. Who should run paid ads?

The only business that I can think of that shouldn't run paid ads are people that want to remain hidden. So if you're the type of business that needs to remain hidden, don't do any of this stuff. Which I couldn't think of one. Well, maybe like a military contractor. Okay. Like a defense, like, or maybe there's people that do discreet things. Yeah, yeah. I just don't know them, so.

No, okay. You know what I mean? I'm of the belief. Everyone should have an Eric in their life. Yep. And or be incredibly good at organic content, one of the both, right? be one of either. And the reason being is because it's all about awareness and attention now. And people are craving for it. You and I are putting together something really important in person,

more in person, more awareness, more attention, because people crave this right now. And if you don't, someone else will. Right. And AI is taking over. I mean, I don't, I will literally almost not follow anyone anymore unless I know they're a verifiable person because I don't know if these people are real. Like, I literally don't know if it's a bot or not. I know. That's how good this AI is getting right now on social medias is this is a fake person it's not even a real person I'm like unless I know it's Eric I'm not following this person no doubt but I think everyone needs an Eric any business for growth reasons should have some level like what it what would you say is the minimum like there's people that could spend

a hundred grand a day what do you think a minimum threshold of advertising your business depending upon what you're trying to do but even for just attention and awareness on YouTube on Facebook on meta like There's obviously a lot of caveats. Of course. So I work to a $26 billion company, right? But that's not the norm. Their budget with me is vastly different.

Yeah. You know, they're spending a couple hundred grand a day just to test. Yeah. But then there's, you know, a business that's doing $750 grand that getting to $1.25 would be in life changing. Yeah. Right. You know, it might be an extra, you know, their margins actually might go like this.

So it might be an extra $300 grand of their bottom line, depending upon the business. So I would say if I'm a tree contractor and I, what do they call them? People that cut trees, do the stump grinding? A tree contract. Yeah, tree cutter. Arbolist, arbolist, I don't know. It's so funny because HVAC and roofer and plumber come naturally, but I was just thinking

the tree. Like, couldn't you name something we both would have, no? But I'm just thinking of a regular Joe business, you know, that does 500 grand a year. I would say if you're bringing in 40 grand a month, dude, if you want to take this to the next level, do throw three grand a month at it. Yeah, because you can, what most people don't know, you guys, as the agency,

you can go put a circle around the fence where you're targeting these ads. Like, there's so much crazy, awesome stuff for entrepreneurs that a blue moon marketing could literally fence. Like if, let's just say you don't want to drive two hours for a client, okay, they can fence where you want to go. And the ads will only be seen by people within your fence. Yeah.

And that's the craziest, why wouldn't someone spend two grand a month and go try to drive in a couple extra? Because every year they're going to come back to you to cut their trees and trim their trees and mow their lawn and all these different things, right? I'll tell you something kind of cool too. So I'm always, you like basketball, right? So you'll always hear these basketball players talk about, oh, I took something from LeBron. I took something from Kobe. I took something from Michael and they kind of make it their own. I'm always taking ideas for people. So I work with Bradley. I don't think he would care if I mentioned that.

You know. Brad, great dude. Great podcast. Another great podcast. And his following is powerful. Powerful. Anybody thinking about getting on a podcast? Get on Justin's.

Get on Brad's. They got incredible entrepreneurial followings. Get on mine too. Yeah. Get on those too. Your podcast is starting to gain some big traction. It is. Yeah.

I'm excited about that. That is really cool. Yeah, I'm excited about that. So to finish up with a Brad thing, Brad just runs awareness ads too, which is smart. just brand building. He's not actually looking for directly a conversion. Very smart.

I learned to do that. Never even honestly thought about that. So I've been doing that for myself and it's been helping. With my podcast, kind of knowing what I know about podcasting and marketing, I think we're up to 9,000 subscribers on YouTube. To me, that's a huge feat. Huge feat. And I'm looking to grow my own, basically I want to be my own media company.

So yeah, I'm excited about it. Yeah. This is going to be a fun journey that you're going to be going on right now. I appreciate it. Yeah. And I mean, dude, I can't even fathom what you just, the contract that you just signed in the company and name, well, remain nameless. But, I mean, now how many clients as a whole do you guys currently have?

Well, people that are paying us every single month, it always ranges between 250 and 300, I say. So do you work with the smaller size businesses or do you typically try to work with medium to large-sized businesses? Can anyone reach out to you say, hey, they can. Yeah, they can. They definitely can. And one caveat, one caveat, I don't care what your vertical is. I don't care what, where you're based of. I don't care how much money you have or you don't have. If you're committed to growth, I want to work with you. Let's go. That's the, that's it. Yeah. Number two law. Commit. I love it. It really is. I mean, I know it's basic. The other one, the next one, to take massive action. Commit and then go. Call Eric. Commit, go. Call Eric.

okay how much money do I really need is that going to make any sense do I just do awareness ads all those type of things and then it's going to get really weird and awkward because you're going to see yourself on Facebook you'll see yourself on YouTube like oh this is awkward I'm not used to that but that's okay because that's the journey of this right and then you know the last one is just remove your time expectation on the result if you hire Eric don't hire Eric for 30 days 40 or 60 days 90 days like go for it go for it let him show you the result that can happen through ads yeah yeah if you bought a if you bought a um And listen, somebody wants to hammer me for a month-to-month agreement.

Okay. But I know you're not committed, dude. Right. So, yeah, I kind of want you to at least sign with me for six months. Yeah. Not so I'm locking you into money, but so that you're committed. And you can show the value. Yeah, exactly.

It's very hard. Listen, I've worked with so many agencies over the last 15 years. Like, I couldn't. 20 agencies. It's almost impossible for an agency to show any real value, real, under 90 days. Now, can they do something? Can you get a client in 30 days? Sure.

But I'm talking about, like, longevity of like, this is what we can project. This is what the hockey stick is going to look like. That happens in like a 90-day run. So coming to Eric or any agency and thinking 30 days, they're going to do something spectacular, it's just improper expectations on the result. That's the fifth law. Don't do that to yourself. Don't do it to you.

No. Right? Especially if they've never, if it's a new account. It just has to go through a learning phase. It's not us. It's the account. It's the algorithm. It's the whole thing.

It's learning for you. Now it's a different story. If somebody's been running, you know, I started working with this company. They've been running Google Ads since the inception of Google Ads. They had an abundant amount of data for us. Yeah, it kind of was a plug in play. Yeah. That's a little different.

But if you've never done it or, you know, it does take time. And that's not just me BSing you saying, oh, just keep paying, keep blowing money. No, that's not what it is. It has to go through a learning base. What's the name of your podcast? Gold Coast Podcast. Everyone, right now you heard it first. Get over to Gold Coast podcast.

Start listening to that. Start following Eric. And to get in your world, Blue Moon Marketing. Eric Weingard on social. Eric Weingard official. It's like the real Eric Weingard. What else? What else have we missed here when talking about marketing, advertising?

And we're going to come back to this. This is probably part one. of 200 of these things that we could do. I agree. What are things? I think that here's what I want to say to any business that's doing marketing. Our salespeople, our initial consultation with you, the first part is we call discovery because we want to learn the ins and outs of your business and how it's operating.

Because I don't care how good my company is at marketing for you. if your business is wildly inefficient and you have a crappy business, I can't heal it, right? I can't grow it. If you don't have a CRM, if you don't have a system, if you don't have decent salespeople, if you don't know follow-up, if you don't have any email nurturing, sure, I can do it for you. But you can't just buy Google ads, turn on the ads and think that every single lead is going to call you and buy from you. It's a bigger commitment. And it's really a decision, a commitment decision in your business.

business but if but if you're running a crappy organization me turning on the marketing isn't going to make it any less crappier and in fact it's going to expose it really bad i was just going and you're going to think we're really bad because you're like where all the leads going it's like what's your you have cracks all over the place they're all dropping through the cracks dude exactly well said i think that is a great place that people need to think through marketing and understanding that right yeah and listen i would assume you're all for consultations and understanding where they're at and you'll be honest with them so again reach out to eric reach out to blue moon marketing um dude this is great yeah we're gonna go to this again if you're not a part of

community join it now you're gonna see this guy in there a lot wink wink d'a.com eric one guard i appreciate you being on i'm jess and colby this has been the entrepreneur dna we'll see you guys on the next episode