Trading Secrets - 20: The Biz and Brains behind the Billion+ viewed pop superstar, Doug The Pug

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

We all love our fur babies, but imagine having the skillset to brand your fur baby to become a pop culture superstar! Doug the Pug is a New York Times Best Seller, Actor, 2x People’s Choice Award Winner, Music Video Star, and so much more who has amassed a social media following of over 18 million breaking 1 billion views on social media! On this episode we crack into the vault with the brains behind Doug’s branding and business success, his beloved mom and dad, Rob Chianelli and Leslie Mosier!  For All Access Content - join our networking group for less than 30 cents a day! Host: Jason Tartick Voice of Viewer: David Arduin Executive Producer: Evan Sahr Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets, and today we're discussing all things, content creation, brand building, and yes, pet ownership. And ready for this? We're even talking about the business and the inside track to the pet celebrity world. with none other than Leslie and Rob, mom and dad to king of pop culture himself, Doug the Pug. Guys, thank you so much for being here. It's good to see you. Thank you for having us. Leslie, it's my understanding that your dream growing up was to

own a pug. And your dream was actually to own a pug named Doug. So I'm curious, first of all, was that the truth? And then prior to that, you know, did you ever expect that what would happen with the, just a pug you wanted to own would then be the king of pop culture. And before owning Doug, you know, what was life, before owning the king of pop culture, what was life like for you just like professionally, personally, and even financially? Yeah, so I definitely did always want a pug named Doug. And it's funny because I've had, you know, friends from college, like here past interviews where I've said that and they're like, I can confirm this.

You definitely had a crazy weird obsession with pugs. I mean, I would print out posters in my dorm room or like little pictures of pugs and I put them all over my wall and I'm like, I'm going to get a pug. Like as soon as I have enough money and, you know, can take care of a dog and I'm financially stable. I'm going to get one. And I brought Doug home and it was a dream. It was like an instant connection and instant bond. At the time, I had an internship at a record label slash management company called Aware Records. And I was going to Belmont University for music business.

So I moved to Nashville with the dream of working in the music business in some capacity, always really had a passion for marketing and branding. And when I was like 13, I would go to shows and like talk to the band after the show. I'd be like, let me design your MySpace layout. Like I just always love MySpace. I love social media. And it just became so clear, so quickly that Doug was very special. And after work, I would, you know, get off work and take Doug for a walk and I started bringing a camera around with me.

And, you know, based on the weather or like what was going on in pop culture, like, I would kind of dress him up and manipulate the photo to just like look really cute and unique. And very quickly, it started, you know, getting some attention and big pet Instagrams were picking up these photos. And I was like, maybe I'm onto something. But to answer your question, I still have to pinch myself most days when we realize just the scope of it all. And like everyone knows who Doug the Pug is. And it's like it's just an unbelievable thing that we've been able to reach so many people with his happy photos and videos. And I'm really glad that I worked as hard as I did back then to be able to get where we are now. Yeah.

It's crazy because, you know, when it all started, celebrity pets really wasn't a thing unless, you know, like, I think Grumpy Cat was, was one, or like, you know, Lasty or Wishbone or those kind of things. And it wasn't even a dream or something that could, like, really be thought about or a business. It wasn't like a, it didn't seem super attainable. Like, I'd have people commenting all the time, like, what are you doing? Yeah. And so you're, like you said, your background was kind of in the social media space,

graphic designing, and you're going to school. for music entertainment, marketing, things like that. When you started his Instagram, at that point, so I believe it was probably about a year after you got Doug, did you ever have like an expectation for that? And at that point, had you ever kind of built a big brand like that from scratch, that it just, you know, that you're like, oh, yeah, I foresee this building the same way.

Yes and no. I had never built anything. But at the time, working at the management company, I was running all of the social media pages for the artists. that I work for. So I kind of realized, all right, if I'm going to have an Instagram for Doug, like, he needs a Twitter, he needs a Facebook page, and I need to make them look really legit with graphic design.

A logo. Yeah, like, I mean, no, just like always kind of took it seriously to where, you know, anyone that saw the page, be like, oh, what's this? This looks like very established. Something I should be following already. Yeah, yeah. That is, I mean, and so, I mentioned it in the intro. but I can't tell you since I've been doing all the research on Doug since we scheduled this.

I've just blown away that he's got over 18 million followers and one billion views. I think I said to my buddy today he was like trying to like think of an idea of this project this thing. I go, man, I'm literally talking to the owners of Doug the pug. It's a dog that is badass that has X, Y, and Z, wrote New York Times bestsellers, has like private label stuff. You can do it, man. His name's Hawk. He's like, all right. That just fired me up. That's a really fascinating story. And so tell me a little bit about this process, though, leading up from Doug getting his Instagram, having fun with it and doing the videos, but you move pretty quickly from zero

followers to 100,000 followers. And that's pretty big. Now, he has the big, huge viral moment we'll get to. But in that time period, I guess I know I want to try, for a second, take the emotion out of the fact, it's your baby, it's your fur baby. But for anyone out there that's trying to build any type of brand or build something, from zero to 100,000. That's tough. It takes a lot of strategy and work. What are some things that you guys did? And during this time where you guys also, and so I don't know if Rob you're in

the equation yet. So Leslie, were you working full time while doing this too? I was working full time. Rob and I had just met. We just met. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out like, I can't even remember, but like he had a couple thousand. It was originally it was Leslie and Doug. That was the Instagram handle, Leslie. Oh, is that what it was at first? Yeah. Okay. And like, you know, when we started talking and dating, she would be showing me photos like,

hey, what's a funny capture for this? And we would like, you know, just like get creative and just have fun with it. And that's kind of where it all blossomed. And Rob is the one that told me, like, Doug needs to have his own account name. Like, this needs to be like Doug all the way. And I'm like, but I don't want to be one of those people like always posting their dog, like all the time. And as soon as I did and changed it, it started getting traction. So a few of the things that I really stayed, like, very vigilant on, I posted twice a day, every single day for what,

four years, did not miss a single day. So when you think about that, it's a lot of work. And I honestly look back and then like, how did I do that? How did we do that? And, you know, that means working on Christmas and, you know, New Year's Eve and just making sure that, that you're getting a lot of content. And the more that we put out, the more that people were kind of eating it up. And then I think, yeah,

this was before we hit 100,000. I started like really taking advantage of Twitter. And kind of emails in general, like I would at work when my boss wasn't in the office and he was at lunch and I had nothing to do, I would send out emails all day to like BuzzFeed, huff posts, mashable and just be like,

I have this dog. He has these amazing photos. like, will you feature us on your account or write an article? And they did. And so that pushed that out to one whole audience. We have, you know, social media accounts that look good. There's a logo. I think I started selling like T-shirts on his store. And just like we started a baby brand. And then Rob and I had this party to celebrate 100,000. It was so much fun. We got a cake. We got pug balloons. And I was kind of like, if this is it, like, I'm super happy. This is so fun.

You know, I've had so many good times with Doug and Rob together. And it was after that party that I took one of the balloons. Rob was out of town recording for his band and took Doug to Dragon Park in Nashville, tied the balloon around Doug's waist, and just let him run around. And I filmed it. And that night, I sent it to you. Yeah, Leslie sent me all that footage. And, you know, I have, at this point, I had like a little bit of,

video editing just like from from college and just like high school and just like having fun with it so she's like hey can you edit this like with this song i'm like sure like and i just had fun with it and sent it back to her and she posted it that night and the next day i remember you like called me you're like i don't know what's happening but we had three and it was on facebook where we originally first posted it okay i don't know what's happening but we have 12 000 likes on Facebook. And we had 3,000 the day before. And then by the end of that week, we had a million. Oh my gosh. And, you know, when a video goes that viral, good morning America is hitting you up. We play this on the pop culture buzz of the day or like all those things. And the craziest part

about the timing. And I'm such a believer in timing and manifesting. The timing, I had just put in my notice to quit my job. And I... Was that before this video went viral? Right before the video went viral. And real quick, because I don't want to get too far from that, what was it that's, because a lot of people lost in their careers and trying to figure out what's next, what was it for you that drove you to put your two weeks in or quit your job at that point?

I just wanted creative control, kind of of my life in general. I had a bunch of freelance graphic design jobs at the time that I was like, I can just do graphic. I told people. I was like, I'm quitting to start my own graphic design company. But really, I was like, I think we could do something with Doug. We were like selling our shirts, doing stuff like that. And then the video went viral. And I think within a month, we had a book offer. Yeah. It is so cool. I think what resonates me with that story is what I had Barbara Corcoran on. She was telling about her story. And she talked about her issue with her former boyfriend who then went with the secretary and she had to figure it out. And I a very similar question. Her response was like, Jason, there wasn't anything like premeditated. I just had kind of like a vision of what I wanted to try and do, and I wanted to own it as opposed to let someone else own it. So I just did it. And I think for anyone listening out there, sometimes that's, you know, there's not the perfect plan or architecture or blueprint. You just got to, you just got to give it a shot. Now, leading up to before the video went viral, at this point, dollars and cents, so you talk about a lot of people will pay for PR and PR can be expensive. People, you know, it could be 5K, 3,000. K2K a month every month. And PR will do exactly what you were doing, Leslie. They'll reach out to the buzz feeds and they'll do the emails and the outreach and the business development. At that

point, had you had any out-of-pocket expenses like that, or was that all your strategy you just executed on your own? We were both so broke. Like, could barely afford Chipotle. Like, rent was hard to make, had to call my parents. I was doing like odd jobs. Like, because at this point, my band kind of just like we were on hiatus and I moved to Nashville to just live with Leslie and we moved in together and like I was like walking dogs for living I was like doing like just painting and like just like you know random jobs just to make some cash but yeah no it's just we had we did everything on our own up until that point and it wasn't until until I think May or June of the year that Doug's video went viral that we met our current agent who wasn't

even working at an agency at that point, but she had experience and she was like, I think we could do something together. We were like, okay, fine. We like signed a six-month contract and she's been with us ever since and we've just all kind of grown together. That is so cool. And one thing that is still resonating with me that you said probably like three minutes ago at this point was that you're posting two times a day every day for four years straight. I mean, that's over 2,500 posts, the creativity, the time, the energy that goes into that is just, it's just endless. So as you're doing those posts, were you also building, were you taking the same post and

same content and putting it on the other social media sites like Twitter and YouTube and things like that and growing at the same rate? Yeah, we were really trying to cross kind of pollinate everything, but also, you know, if something worked really well for Twitter specific, we would do it there. Around this time, too, is also, you know, Doug was really growing and that's when I kind of had the idea like, okay, he's becoming a celebrity online. That's crazy. Like align with other celebrities.

And so, you know, Rob had music industry experience. I had music industry experience. So we were like, let's hit up some of our friends that are tour managers. And then all of a sudden, Doug started getting photos with big artists. And big artists started reaching out once they saw that Doug was collaborating with other people. And then it started like in Nashville anytime like the Ryman or someone played like downtown We would just take Doug to their green room and just like bring Doug in and let them like have a playtime with Doug and we would just be there to just capture images and just have a good time.

So it's like we were getting photos and collabing with all these artists, but also like seeing them at their realist moment and with like the icebreaker of Doug, you know. Yeah. It's really cool to see people that we've looked up to. were fans of. Like, for example, Justin Bieber was probably our biggest collab. Yeah.

He was doing a promotion for what do you mean. And we had gotten connected with his management team. And they were like, okay, Doug can be one of the days where you promote the song and it says eight days or something. Okay. Rob and I was like, we were freaking out. I'm freaking out just hearing this.

How are we going to do this? We sent them three photo options. We're like, We're going to send one. We're going to send three, see which one. They posted two. We gained 70,000 followers in one day on Instagram. I have so many questions. Okay. Question number one, Justin Bieber. Like Caitlin would die. She would melt if she got to meet Justin Bieber. And I think most people are like, how do you actually get in front of him? What was the process of like, you know, I'm big on networking and using your ecosystem and using referrals? But what's the

process of trying to actually get your dog, which is a business at this, point in front of Justin Bieber. How does that work? Man, so Beaver was kind of a different entity. He's like a whole, you know, oh, yeah, he's the kid. Untouchable. Yeah. We had gotten invited to, was it the Hot 100 Billboard Fest? Yep, New York. New York. Okay. And Justin was playing the chain smokers. I mean, it was like this big festival. Palsy. And we saw Scooter Braun and we were like, hey, I'm just like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go up to Scooter Braun. I'm like, hi, Presley.

This is Doug the Pug. I have an outfit that Doug wore in Justin's posts that he was just on Justin's page. Can we get a picture of Doug and Justin? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, go wait over there. I'll like make sure he comes and gets a photo with you guys. And then the mob of girls comes and like all this security. And Justin is there. And we're like, okay, this is like really intense.

I don't know if this is going to happen. And Rob was like, maybe we should just let it. I'm like, no, we are getting this photo of Doug and Justin. It's got to happen. And so I had to push through girls after like, after I'm waiting. And I'm like, I'm just, I'm tired. I'm going to go to the dog's like barking at. I'm like, it's my moment, bitch.

And I'm like, Scooter, can we please just take this photo? I promise it'll be like 20 seconds and we'll post it. We'll tag him. He's like, you go. And he only allowed me in. And I'm like, I'm like, take the camera. here's Doug, just like, go through it all.

And so I walk in there, I'm like, hi. And he, like, loved Doug. They were like, you know, petting him. And I got photos. And he's like, all right, scooter was like, you got to leave. And then, you know, I walk out and hold the camera up in the air. And Ross was like, yeah. They're like cheering, cheering.

I run back to the hotel, edit the photos. And then it's become like, yeah, next day I posted. And then it was just rip some champagne and have a good one. I think there are so many business takeaways there, though, because obviously you did your research right you know who scooter is you know who the person is the gatekeeper you were very comfortable with somewhat of an uncomfortable situation with most people aren't and then you're able to make the ask and then pitch your value but that's a question i got asked for you at that point you're trying to convince scooter brawn the whole world's trying to

convince scooter brown to get in front of justin obviously you have an awesome badass dog boat how many followers at that point did Doug have where the conversation probably in scooters head was like I see the business tie in here. I think it was around like 1.1 million, but what really pushed it, I believe, and I think I said something to Souter, is that the photos that Justin posted of Doug were like some of the best ones that he,

like the engagement was some of the best posted that week. And I think I said something like Doug's photo with Justin, like did incredibly well on Justin's account. Like there's something here. Yeah. And it was just in those moments, it's just, and I love seeing Leslie because she's like has no fear of going up to someone and asking. I have fear.

I just. Well, you just do it, though. From my perspective, I'm pretty introverted and like, I'm like, no way I'm not doing. You know, I can't just go up and just ask this. And you just go up and just like, just conquer your fear and do it. And look what happens. You know, it's like you can't be afraid to ask. You just have to ask.

Yeah, you have to ask. Because of things like that, you know, we've had it to where, like, Shakira's management personally reached out to us. We didn't have to be those people anymore. And then it just suddenly comes to us and we're the people, you know, they flew us to Barcelona to meet Shakira and promote her single. And it's all so insane. And we're very grateful because it's been such a crazy ride to like, like Rob said, meet these notable people and like have business relationships. with them and you know work together and collaborate but also it's like our dog it's our baby and to see like who connects with him is really cool and like who we connect with is really cool and

just watching it all unfold on social media is crazy i was going to ask about that i think so many people look up to whether it's it could be politicians it could be business leaders it could be celebrities we look up to them we see what they do and how they do it then you get to break that wall down and meet some of the coolest people you talked about shakir I know Katie Perry, right, Fallout Boys, Billy Elish, Justin Bieber, there's so many more. We would just spend the rest of the time talking about that. Is there anything good or bad that you've been surprised in seeing these people kind of in their natural element of comfort, whether it's backstage or with the people they trust or not on the spotlight that we always see?

For sure. I mean, I think the number one thing that it's made me realize is how good we have it that Doug, is the center of the brand because he is at a level with pet celebrity dumb that's like you know we've we've made it i'm very proud we've made it to like some of the top right but when you become a justin beaver beber of the world and you get all of your personal space and your personal freedoms like taken away from you like i couldn't deal with that very well mentally luckily dug he's a and he's so social and so friendly and like he loves the attention we've had meet and greets with hundreds of people and he loves it but I leave feeling incredibly drained as

as great as it is I'm always like I don't know how you know people do this every day for when you have to be on you know you have to be friendly to every single person and just like just engage with everybody it's it's very tiring and you're not getting sleep because you're traveling you got red-eyed flights you know it's like it is eye opening to see like what celebrities or or just famous people go through because it's it's so hard it's so taxing yeah people think it's all like glamour and you know easy and it's like no yeah yeah and you probably like when you're backstage or when you're meeting these people are having conversations you're probably like you're to your point seeing them in their purest form and i mean a lot of the stuff we know

some of these people have hit ultra celebrity status at an early stage just in Bieber being one of them. Brittany Spears, so many people go through so much mental anguish and work on themselves because it just beats him up at a young age. A couple of steps back, though. So Doug DePug, like, what was it like you guys talked a little bit about your careers and you let your career go and Rob, you're grinding, you're doing shows, you're walking dogs? What was it like when that like first business deal came to fruition for Doug?

And what was the deal? What did it look like? And I'm just curious of the specifics of where you're like, whoa, this is a lot different than, you know, walking the dogs on wag or whatever the app is. Yeah, it was wild because, you know, our agent, we just kind of started things, her. We had, like, really no expectations of what to happen. And I remember we got, like, a brand deal. I think it was with Flonase back of the time.

Okay. That was that his first brand deal, Flonais? I think so. Wait, what was it? Because, like, they make the noise, like, pugs? Yeah, I still remember getting that and seeing how much they wanted to pay us and knowing how much I was making at my old job, Doug. He's like, I hear you, I hear you.

$10 an hour from $10 an hour and barely able to, like, afford our really gross apartment. Yeah, to get in like six months of that all at once. We're like, we're like, holy crap, what? we were instantly like let's like let's go like this can be a business yeah and it was like cool to like use our creativity in a way to like okay this brand wants this is their ask how can we make Doug fit into that and still have it be funny and cute and have people engage with it so yeah it gets tricky but like it's kind of like this puzzle piece that we like we like come up with like a cool Hold on, Dougie is.

I think it's only appropriate that he's barking in the backgrounds. You know who I didn't? Listen, I am the star here all through you. All the Doug's in the house. Actually, the other thing I think it's important for people to know is they might go look at, if you don't know, Doug the pug already because you're living in like a basement,

you go look at it right now. And you see everything, right? You might see Doug on a red carpet or Doug at Katie Perry's music video. You see all this cool line. light. However, what's interesting to your point, Leslie, is like at the root of the story, this was someone in 2015, 2016, when social media wasn't nearly as cool as it is now, like content creation was it what it wasn't today. And you're moving against the societal pressures of probably telling mom, dad, sister, cousin, friends of friends, going to gatherings. Yeah,

I'm working on a social media brand for my dog. And at the time, to your point, people were probably like, what the hell is wrong with you? But there's so many lessons to be learned from that as it relates to business because early adopters look where they are today when they take on things that people are telling them they shouldn't do. So continue to pursue what you're pursuing out there and make it work. I think it's a great lesson. And that lesson also correlates to a beautiful article I read, the Tennessean. It was October 2016. You guys moved from your apartment to your first home. And I saw the quote that said, the house that Doug built. And so I was reading this. I read this last night. I honestly got chills. I'm like, this is so badass. So

what I was going to say is if you had any comments on that article first and then my follow-up I'm going to already give it to you it is what would your tagline that was the April or that was October 2016 the house that Doug built the first one I'm curious what the April 2021 tagline would be but first if you have any comments on on that article or the story I remember going to like the gas station and picking up the newspaper and it'd be like whoa like we're in the newspaper this so cool. I also remember realizing that Doug bought his own backyard. Yeah. That is insane. Because my whole, his whole life, but thus far was like in these little apartments and like having to take him outside multiple times a day. And then just to realize

that like we all as a family unit were able to build something. And one thing that like I've been wanting to add in there to a piece of advice is like as soon as we saw the potential as soon as we got a first check whether it was for a thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars we brought on a business manager i never once wanted to deal with the money deal with the taxes i was like i need someone who knows what they're doing so i can focus on the creative rom can focus on the creative and we don't have to worry about financials and she has she's spend with us ever since and it has helped us so much the dog that built their own backyard that's a great one do you have any others for what april 2021 tagline would be for doug i mean truthfully i said it earlier

but like the light being the light in the dark internet in a dark world i think doug brings so much joy to people and that's why we're still doing it you know which is the internet has changed so much since we started this. I mean, Facebook, we used to get like 50 million views on videos and everything.

The algorithm on Instagram was like favoring you and everyone saw your posts. And it was just like this whole like social media utopia. And it's been hard to watch things change. I'm sure you've felt it. You've seen it.

You're constantly having to adapt. And now we're on TikTok and having to like reframe. But at the core of it all, no matter what network gets taken away or, you know, whatever happens, if we are doing it to make people, he's snoring. It's perfect. To make people happy, then we're doing our job. And so how early, because I saw your TikTok, all your TikToks are doing so incredible,

how early did you, uh, that Leslie, you almost have a million followers on TikTok, right? I need to be freaking awesome. How early? I, my biggest TikTok on my personal account is a story about my childhood. frog. So I don't know how I'm going to talk that. But yeah. That is so cool. And how early did you get on to TikTok? And then also a question about your content creation. All your stuff is just genius. Like I even saw how quickly you guys moved in the USA Today article, the one where the egg got the most likes ever on Instagram, how quickly you moved. You got that up with Doug.

I'm just curious how you actually can move with the speed of relevancy, also with the speed of planning and a tack two posts at a time. I guess at this point, we've had, we have so many props in our, like, Doug's basement is a huge closet. We have all the recording equipment, the music equipment to record, music if we need to, or video production stuff. So everything that we need is in our house. So we can, and it's just Leslie and I, right?

So anytime we're filming something, it's, it's this, you know, this trio. Is this the whole, like, so you have the business manager and obviously you three, Is there anyone else in the team that's moving this stuff on a daily basis? We have our agent, you know, our lawyer, our literary agent, people that are on the business side of things. But when it comes to creative, it is just Rob and I. So we are the new ones that touch a photo to edit a photo or a video to edit a video. And, you know, like we just get on it. You know, if something's happening, we're like, okay, that's a great idea.

We'll get Doug to do this. We'll go get the prop and we'll just film it, shoot it. and edit it and it'll be ready to go, like, real quick. Like Harry Styles on the Grammys, amazing. The iconic boa, I wake up the next day. I'm like, we got to find a feather boa. So we're like going around East Nashville, like going to different CVS and Walgreens. I'm like, do you have feather boas?

And they're like, no. And then we finally found it at Dollar Tree, got the post up and all the hairy stands. We're like all over it. It's incredible. The speed at which you guys move while putting out the most. just genius content is so so much fun to even be watch and be a part of. Talk a little bit about numbers in business here. Transitioning, because you already mentioned that Doug has done meet and greets. And for you, they're exhausting. And for Doug, he loves them. So how many, what is the

most amount of people you've ever seen come to a Doug the pug meet and greet? And I assume a Doug the pug meeting greet. Because obviously Doug can't talk. Do you get to say hi and take a picture? What's it like? I think our biggest one was the London one. Yeah. Or Chicago. It probably was Chicago. At this point it was Chicago at the Clares in the mall, the huge, huge mall in Chicago. I want to.

It must have been over a thousand people. We would have a two-hour block, sometimes three with multiple breaks. Doug would have his little stand in a bed and he'd lay down. And the whole time his little tails wagging, people would come up, meet Doug for a second, get a selfie with him or we'd take a photo of them with Doug they meet us and then you know they would buy something of Doug the pubs from Claire's on the way out we've gotten to go to England and do meet and greets and Paris and it's like the coolest it's sad that's the one thing about COVID that's like very very like kind of rough to wrap my head around that we probably won't get to do

that again but you know we've we've had great experiences doing that so it is the coolest story it's it's honestly a dream come true. And of all the stuff Doug's done, whether it's the meet and greets in Paris, the New York Times bestseller, I saw on Amazon just his toys had reviews. So obviously it's not purchased. Some of the toys had over over 3,000 reviews. It's just, it's, and a sketch, oh my God, that's one thing. I was having so much fun doing this research. By the way, I'm researching this. I'm sending shit to my friends all damn. Like, you're not going to believe this. Doug's got his own sketcher line. They're like, no way. This is crazy. So Doug, you are motivating all my business friends to be better.

But of all those things, whether it's like the flownays and the commercial spots I saw, I saw Fabriz, Sabah, Home Goods, Truth, there were a couple others. But of all those, what has been, let's say that, let's do a two-part question. What has been the most lucrative from a dollar's perspective? And then what has been kind of like the most rewarding or the coolest part of it? So lucrative is interesting because on an immediate return, it's the brand deals. As I'm sure you guys know, you'd find. the contract, you put up the posts and you're paid and it's done. And hopefully they

your costs are low, right? You have a small team. You do it all yourself. So it's like 100% profit. Most of the time don't even have to travel. Sometimes it's an appearance, whatever. The licensing though is also interesting because it's a lot longer of a process. But you know, you get an advance and then you have a royalty for on how many products you sell. And, you know, if you're selling things throughout a year, two years, three years, you're not getting paid right away, but it's, you know, a good amount of money. So that's like for Doug stuffed animals or the calendars, for example, you know, that's a once a year type thing, but it's really good. And we had Kevin O'Leary on, Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank, and it aligns perfectly with what you just

said, because he said, I'm the king of royalties. And he said, all the sharks need to start paying me for the lessons I give them. They don't know how to structure a deal, structure with royalties. So you guys are doing deals just like must and Mr. Wonderful, which is pretty badass. And so one of the questions I had for you guys, you've created such an amazing brand. They're the masterminds behind all the work that we've talked about, two posts a day, all these social media forums, over billion views, eight million followers. For me, at least, the first thing I thought of was like, why don't these two do this for like everyone? This is amazing. Have you guys ever given thought to maybe creating

or opening a marketing agency to do work of this nature with, like, athletes and musicians and different actors, actresses fields you have an interest in? Doug is like, you better that. I'm your only client. I totally think that could be something in the future. I, you know, have found myself doing, like, consulting jobs here or there and just, like, even just with friends in general in the social media space, like connecting with them. and helping come up with ideas.

It's like it will always be a passion of mine. I'm sure at some point I'll take a leap. And I think Rob and I will always be a business together. And so, you know, he's a photographer and videographer and music producer. And I can do the marketing and the branding. And so together we can kind of have our own content creation studio. Yeah, we've, yeah, that's another thing. Along the way, we've picked up these different skills.

skills that can be applied in many different areas. So, you know, right now our focus is Doug for sure. But, you know, in the future, you know, back, we can take that in any direction we want. And with the income that we have for Doug, we've been saving and we're looking for good, good investments and, you know, looking to get like rental properties and that kind of stuff to like have, you know, the, again, like the income from different pots coming in and just trying to be smart in that. in that way, the longevity of it.

That's awesome. Well, when you guys do open that, if you do open that, and you're going to take clients, I would like to put my name on the list to hire you guys to take over all my social and I'll pay whatever it takes. When something really big is happening, like take a second,

sit down and be like, holy crap. Like, I am grateful for this. This is what we dreamed of. And, you know, it's just like we have a movie that we're a part of now, which is huge. Was that announced yesterday? Yeah. Yeah, tell us, tell us about that a little bit.

So the movie is called The Mitchells versus the machines. It's a Sony Pictures Animation movie that is now going to be on Netflix, which is insane. It comes out April 30th, and Doug is the first ever social media pet celebrity to voice act. So there's a pug in the movie named Monchi. Okay. And one of the main characters of the movie, and the director, Mike Reonda, called us one day. after like getting a random email from him and he's like I want you guys to have Doug's noises in this movie can you like record all of the noises you can possibly think of so Rob and I got a microphone and like literally set up a little vocal booth for Doug and would like we set up our laptop and Doug hates horses okay and barks at horse videos so we put a laptop made him watch horse videos to get barks like any kind of bark you love it and

And now his barks and snorts and licks and snores are in a major movie. And there's like other big celebrities in it and it's going to be insane. That is just another thing to add to Doug's resume. It is because I read about the post and I saw it and I was just trying to put the pieces together. Like how was he doing audio? It's a bark. It's actually funny and fascinating to hear the behind the scenes aspect of that. And then so congratulations on that.

But one thing I also don't want to overlook is a lot of the stuff both you guys said about mental health and being in the moment. I mean, the world is moving so fast. And so if you're always playing this game of, I need more, I need more, I need more, you start to lose focus of what's in front of you. Was that coupled with some of the impacts you've seen probably from fans of Doug, what sparked the idea for the Doug the Pug Foundation? Or how did that start? And tell me a little bit about it. Yeah. So very early on when we started, you know, having Doug meet people, it was like, clear that he could do a lot in like the children's hospital space

and we started bringing him to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to visit with kids and you know do all we could there and it was just like the most fulfilling thing that we had done yet you know we would leave the hospital being like oh my gosh trying and crying just the stories and giving the kids the plushies and it was like

okay this is this is what it's all about and I had always said, I want to start a foundation to help kids with cancer. And it finally happened this past year. And we just got our 501c3 about a month ago. Thank you. So now we have a lot of plans and just exciting things happening to really do as much as we can use Doug's platform for good. For anybody that hears about Doug the Puck Foundation, how can they get involved and or donate? Where can they find more about the 501c3 you guys have just set up? Doug the Pug Foundation.org will kind of have everything you need to know. You can donate through there.

We, over Christmas, we're able to give $15,000 to a specific family with a young girl who's struggling with cancer and she has a little pug. And we have a lot of plans to, you know, we're about to partner with Make a Wish and then St. Jude. And it's a goal of ours to like have a therapy dog run at St. Jude. so that, you know, the dogs and the patients can enjoy it being outside together. So there's a lot coming. For putting smiles on people's faces undergoing cancer treatment to party with Justin Bieber.

I swear Doug DePug has done it all. Guys, this has been an awesome, awesome discussion. We're going to finalize with crack and open the vault. Just a few questions they could relate to you or Doug. You can answer them however you guys want. And then we'll end with a trading secret if we can. So if you guys are good to it, let's crack, open the vault with Rob Leslie and Doug the pug. You good with that?

Yeah, let's do it. All right, here we go. Curious about just your take on this. You don't even have to confirm or deny your overall take. We always joke around. Caitlin and I, you go on, you look up your site, what your net worth is, what you make. There is not one site that is accurate, not even one. I'm putting it out there. But Forbes says that Doug's making $500,000 a year.

Where do you think they even pull this shit from? What's your take on that? Okay. I think that there's all these branding social media companies now that claim they can tell how much you're worth based off of how your followers are and how much your engagement is. And so these places that have the net worth rely on those kinds of companies. And usually they're all wrong. Also Wikipedia. I've seen people get pulled things from Wikipedia that it's like someone edited our Wikipedia once and then it became like a fact on Google. That's not true and

no. Yeah. It's insane how they come up with it. And that's the crazy thing about all social media a game. It's a wild, Wild West. There is no formula. And anybody that says there isn't, we actually have an episode with two CEOs of big, big influencing companies, and they pretty much prove everything we are saying. So I would take the over on that, but we don't need to confirm or deny. Doug is a businessman I look up to that I want to be like, and I have a long way to go to catch up to Doug. All right. So what is the most expensive clothing or jewels that Doug owns? This question was sparked by the way I saw he was dressed at people's choice. Talk to me. Okay. He has harnesses that amazing woman in London makes harnesses for pugs

and they're handmade. And they go up to like 500 US dollars. And I would say that's the most we've paid for something. But he's been gifted things that are quite expensive. He has a, Doug has like a real gold chain. And I think it's more expensive than any jewelry I own. Like designer, Montclair is sending him a $500 raincoat. Oh my God. And I'm like,

oh my, where's my, I'm very used to not getting the fancy thing. Like, I'm happy for Doug, but like also can the owner have enough fun? Leather jacket for his custom leather jacket. So that's been a lot of time.

Yeah. I feel this pain to a certain extent. Caitlin and I obviously lived together in almost, I would say, 98% of every package she gets is addressed to her with like the most badass thing and then I'll get like two to five percent. I got to imagine most packages that come to your house are addressed to Doug. All Doug, yeah. All right. Let's keep it going. Just a couple more. Is there something that you spend too much money on yourself or for Doug that you know it's like expensive,

but you're not going to stop spending? Skin care. In supplements. Well, yeah. The supplements I can't But, yeah, you don't care. I'm always, like, swipe it. Me, probably, like, musical instruments. I can never have enough. And do you still play, Rob? Oh, yeah. I play.

I mostly just music production. Do you do the, because, Leslie, I saw that you do have music on Spotify. I was listening to it while doing this. Do you play the music behind it, Rob? I like the dog song. That was good. I was singing along. I think I produced most of the stuff.

Everything but one. Yeah, everything but one. What a freaking tag team. Power couple other years. the masterminds. All right. So two more. Is Doug the Pug actually trademarked?

And if so, for anyone that is like going through a trademark or copyright, how long did that process take? He is trademarked. I believe it took like three months or so, maybe longer. The long one was getting the 501c3. That was longer than the trademark. Oh, yeah. That was hard, stressful long.

Almost a year, right? Yeah, it took, I mean, COVID didn't help with the IRS. But the 501C3 extremely difficult. I don't think we had much trouble with the trademark. That's good. What is it, if you don't mind sharing, what is like a trademark cost, like the fees to get a trademark?

You remember? I know that each category has a cost. Yeah. Okay. So because we were trademarking Doug for like blankets and. Okay. Carol, it like it kind of added up that way. It's like a slow build.

Yeah. Okay. Not sure. That's something we'd have to look. Gotcha. So you trademark certain, we're going to get a trademark attorney on here and figure that one out. But that makes sense when you trademark certain areas that would increase. Okay. Last one, what is an amazing financial lesson you think you've learned in this process that may have stemmed from a financial struggle that you've had either in this life with Doug or growing up or anything like that? Just a financial lesson you've learned that may have stemmed from some type of financial struggle. investing in the future, right? So, you know, stock market, cryptocurrencies, having your own retirement fund for sure. It's like, you know, we're self-made and come from not so much money. So that has stemmed us to like, oh, be like hyper aware of like, okay, like we want to be safe

and secure for as long as possible. That's awesome. And I think you already said it, Rob, like your financial background isn't extravagant, right? So it's never too late to start and to learn these things and do this stuff, which is awesome. And also just channel your skill set because look what it could do. Okay, guys, this has been awesome. I've learned so much about you guys, and it's been fascinating to learn your whole story. But we end every podcast with the trading secret. It's a secret that maybe someone that's listening wouldn't be, wouldn't otherwise be able to Google or find on the internet that has to do with maybe your professional, personal, financial, inspiration, or something in your world or business that may be intriguing.

and we would love to hear it and wrap up with a trading secret. Okay. This is more like a little bit inspirational because I don't know. I don't give a secret. But I would always say to just, you know, do something that puts good into the world while also protecting your own mental health. So for me, I was talking to Rob the other day. I don't read DMs anymore unless it's like something that pop up.

Like why, why like get into that headspace? and I don't, I haven't been looking at the count of likes on Instagram, just not getting wrapped up in the bubble of, you know, what people tell you is important and what isn't important and just focusing on like the main goal that you're trying to do. And if that's being a good human and doing, whether it's, you know, making an app that's helping someone. Like, you're already on a freaking great trajectory because you're trying to help someone. And so any business can have that sort of aspect in it, whether it's a little bit of philanthropy sprinkled in there. It's like, it just makes it so much more impactful. And then manifesting is

real. Me taping those pictures of a pug. And, you know, I still remember sitting one of my friends down and being like, I think Doug is going to be famous one day. And it happened. So, just don't stop writing in your little journal. Right? Whatever you think could happen. And invariable could. Don't hope for something and wish for something. Act like you already have it and it'll find its way to you. Those are incredible trading secrets. And the thing is that they also tie into stuff that not only you're doing in 2021 when success is behind your backs, but something you said you were doing back in 2015 when people told you're crazy for trying to pursue this. So the story is incredible. It is so fascinating to follow the journey. And then doing the research

coming into this was just amazing and inspirational, right? I mean, if you guys can do this and Doug can do this, you know, everyone should dream big and go for it because not only are you, you're making great money doing it, you're creating a wealth for yourself. You guys are also making such an impact on the fans and the people and even children that are fighting cancer. So I really appreciate you guys spending the time and open it up a little bit about the business endeavors and journey. This has been awesome. Where can people find you guys and all the stuff that Doug has going on? well before I say that I also just want to like brag on you guys a little bit you and Caitlin and just say like you guys are also both doing amazing things and empowering people

and just like this podcast in general I think is such an incredible thing to be putting out there and as people who have like met you personally and like hung out with you guys you're both so humble and just like kind and that matters more than any you know amount of money we could all ever make it's just um so Thank you for having us on. Yeah, thank you so much for that. And I know I'll pass that message to Caitlin. She'd love to hear that.

And thank you for that. It's Doug the Pug on Instagram. You can type and Doug the Pug on Google and Doug the Pug Foundation.org. And April 30th, the movie comes out on Netflix, Mitchell's versus Machines. Check it out. That is awesome. We'll be checking it out and celebrating Doug's birthday all through May, too. Keep us stay tuned in how we can also.

We'd love to anything that we can do to be part, especially of the Doug DePont Foundation, Caitlin and if you're doing events or something in Nashville, keep us posted. We'd love to be a part of that. Thank you for this. Thank you guys. So much appreciate your time.

And we will be in touch soon. Sounds good. Ding, ding. All right, we are back. We are ringing in the closing bell with the one and only, the curious Canadian, the voice of a viewer. I could tell you, I could just sense it. I can feel it in his energy.

his tone, as I'm looking at him at Zoom right now, he's got a lot to say, a lot to unpack about this episode. So, David, I'm going to kick it to you, Doug, the pug, and his beautiful owners just gave us all the insights to that monstrous business. What are we thinking? You know, I come on all these podcasts, genuinely, like, hyped up from the energy and the tones and the insights and the numbers and the facts. I was so excited to have Doug the pug's owners representing Doug the pug as 4 million followers to find about the ins and outs and the financials of that industry because at the end of they are making your living off your off an animal how many million did you say four million plus that's it's on instagram's like

three nine you look at everything you're talking 10 million plus i wanted numbers i didn't get numbers i will if dug if dug the pug was on this i feel like he would have barked me some numbers i just didn't get the numbers well let me ask you then what numbers did you want that you didn't get? I wanted to know, I just wanted to know numbers. Hey, off Doug the Pug annually, we make X amount. We've made X amount in the lifetime of Doug the Pug. He gets paid this much from his Skechers deal. He made, you know, all this kind of stuff. Like, I was just hoping that they would pull back the curtain. So, you know, they didn't give us a number. So what do you think? Like, can you ballpark annually what you think they're pulling in?

I honestly, I can't begin to ballpark because the only, benchmark, I probably have the dogs, which is like, is Robin and Pino. And Robin and Pino are like someone coming off the Bachelor that came in like 15th place, Home Night 1. And Doug the pug is like Jennifer Aniston. So I have no comparison. Well, it's all funny you say that because it's like 4 million follow Instagram followers, 12 million followers plus on all platforms. And a human would be able to rake off that. I almost think a dog has such control over the market that they're probably making tenfold because the supply and demand is so much greater.

It probably makes sense because there's, I mean, he's, he's, he's rolling, this talk's done more shit than we'll ever do in 15 years. But he's written New York Times bestsellers, right? He's won people's choice awards. And I think the thing is, it's like his engagement is so high that I bet you the conversion on the stuff like his toys and the sketcher deal is actually insane. So to me, the conversation for sure starts in the seven figures. And where does it go up to? I have no... Now, if this was a person, I could tell you.

But it's not. It's a dog. I can tell you, we've done stuff on ramen and Pino's stuff. And, you know, I think it's like somewhere in the rounds of like six to eight grand, probably for a post. And you're from like two to five grand for a story. But like that, we don't... We're not very active on it. You know, Caitlin did the duetit bandanas for dogs.

So obviously that's a business. But I know they are donating a portion of that to Bunny's buddies. And I think that, you know, it's funny because that... I'm telling you this, I'm going to put myself in their shoes, it is a little kind of weird and almost uncomfortable. For me, I'm comfortable talking about money. It's kind of uncomfortable talking about making money off your pet's brand. So I get like kind of why they did struggle with that if you think they did. I have in my notes here saying like a question, do you think that they ever feel guilty that they're making their incomes off of their dog? Now, I don't think so

because obviously one thing about their story was so organic and it was so pure and like it's they did they started you know from the bottom now they're here shout out Drake

and so it is a feel good story but I just wonder if there's everything in the back of their head where they're you know you're like I mean I think I think it would be I think it's standard to think that

however these two and no one needs to look past this are creative geniuses. And Doug was just the mechanism of branding. I agree with that. You give these to anything with time and effort, and they can do the same thing.

And that's where the conversation comes in of like, what would be next for them? Like, is that something you ever thought about? Yes. So I don't want to be the morbid guy here. You're the perfect guy to be the morbid guy. I'm also the regular guy. You're that guy that would ask this question.

I'm also the reality. I think you know where I'm going with this. Don't say it. The lifespan of God is not as long as, trust me, I got a little Bentley sitting at my feet right now. Like I'm bringing on a podcast. It's just reality. Yeah. I think what you're saying is, you know, normally, if I heard a situation like this, I'd be really worried about what happens next in terms of just their revenue streams or income. I think that they, like you said, I think they are such creative geniuses and marketing geniuses that after the morning process, which will be long and great and dear for everybody,

not just them for all Doug's fans, I think that they'll be in good shape with just their spectacular business people. I mean, first of all, I think they're doing so well off, Doug. They'll be good no matter what. But I do think that their branding capability is so next level that it is so important to recognize that they can open up their own marketing agency. they can represent anybody with the portfolio of work they have and the things they have done with Doug the Pug

is fucking incredible. And I can't even like downplay it other than saying that. And anybody who is trying to do anything on social media, which obviously big brands are and animals are and people are, and actors and actresses and politicians and CEOs, everyone is, they're endless. Their opportunity is absolutely endless. I do.

I really think that their skills are so transferable. But Doug's going to live forever, so it doesn't really matter. There you go. I like that. What else you got for me? I got two other things. One is a question for you. You know, Doug talk, they talked about Doug's big viral moments, you know,

picture with Justin Bieber, shout out Justin Bieber. If you want to take a picture of the treating secrets crew one day. We're here for it. We'll be into that. Hey, we saw him at, by the way, we saw him at U.S. Open. He was at one of the restaurant. We went to catch steak and he was there. Wild.

wild to see him in person. And then the funny part about that after, dude, is that, like, he came in. He had, like, a fucking, dude, you would have thought the president walked in. Like, six security guards with their little earpieces, like, guys that you know could, like, take with the two moves and then to their hand, like, snap me in half.

And he had this huge entourage. And so we were just, like, blown away. And then we get up from the table. And as we're walking out, guy comes in solo with the same outfit he was wearing at the VMA's jaw rule. And he was all pissed off. He was like, yo, yo, yo. And he was like, oh my, he was like,

He was, like, screaming it outside by himself. Big Beaver podcast, Canadians are going to have to be. But what's your biggest viral moment? So the biggest, I mean, I think when Caitlin and I got engaged, that was big. I think that when I got dumped on Bachelor, I remember, like, one of the producers texting me, like, this is trending at a level we haven't seen trended in a while on Twitter or something. But I think the video that probably I've ever put out anywhere that's gotten the most views

was actually when I was at the Super Bowl. You know, it's one of the most watched events in the world, and I was very good seats, and a streaker came out, and the streaker was hilarious, and of course the camera's cut. I had my phone in my hand, starred recording, recorded away. Instantly, I'm like, I've got to put this out there. Put it on TikTok. There was like over 6 million views on that.

Like, for me, that's insane. Your most viral moment didn't even involve you. No, of course. Of course not. It either involved the Bachelorette dumping me. It either involved Caitlin or involved the streaker. So none of them involved me. That's hilarious.

Well, I could go on and on about Doug the Pug and his great, great owners about their business skills, one to, you know, hardest working people that are really in this industry, posting twice a day for four years before anything really popped off, doing what it takes, hiring their manager, knowing to put it with all their chips and research. into the middle. But, you know, I couldn't be me and the voice of the viewer in a recap and ask another dumb down business question because I see it on, baby. I see, you know, all the things that I don't know what they actually mean or what they are when they get said. So they talked about the foundation and a 501c3. What is a 501c3 if you know what that is? Yeah, for sure. So the thing

is, like, those numbers, those are codes for the IRS as to like how the company is actually classified. And anyone that's out there will hear the words 501C3 and instantly you're going to think charitable organization. Why does the government IRS do that? Because there's huge tax exemptions. Charitable organizations are not taxed at all and or aren't taxed similarly, right? Because there's definitely minute changes between different charitable organizations and where the money came from and what is ready enough. There's a whole Bible for that. But they are not tax the same as a corporation. So they have to have this different identity, which re-requires a whole different laundry list of like filing requirements and things that have to be

proven, et cetera, because they are exempt from tax. They're exempt from sales tax, like even when they buy something and income tax. So it's just a different filing for a business code that says charitable organization, non-for-profit. Now I know. There's your answer. Beautiful. Well, that was a great recap. That was a great episode. Doug the puck, I'll tell you what, if you're feeling good about yourself today, I think we can all fucking agree that we need to step our game up because our dog that is a pug that has, I hate to say this, dogs have life expectancy of what, like one eighth of humans has done more than I will ever do in 15 lives over. So congratulations, Doug, you are a hero and an inspiration to all of us. If you guys enjoyed this episode, please make sure to give us

five stars. Put in your Instagram handle. We were doing shoutouts. We're doing giveaways. We're listening to your feedback. We have so many exciting guests to come. The home of Trading Secrets is on Instagram, restart underscore reset. And we also have the business networking group. Over 1,000 people have joined at this point. You could be live on these podcasts. You can ask the owners, Doug, of Doug the pug questions when they're here. Just shoot us an email. Restart at jasontartic.com. David, thank you so much for being here for the recap. We have a ton of killer guests coming up. Hopefully you, like us, thought this was another episode of Trading Secrets

that you couldn't afford to miss. Thank you.