← Beyond Blind Blaming
Beyond Blind Blaming
The Secret to Gen Z Marketing: Proven Strategies to Earn Attention and Build Loyalty | Jake Bjorseth
00:39:26
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- [00:01]
A
It's amazing that we have more data than we've ever had before, yet we still live in a world, especially in the marketing side, that we do things like Mad Men.
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B
Today I'm joined by Jake Bjorcet. Jake is a leading voice in Gen Z marketing and the founder and CEO of Trendsetters, a next generation marketing agency that helps brands connect authentically with younger audiences.
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A
We see a new brand that launches a new product or runs a new marketing campaign and and it's very much a hammer trying to find a nail than it is a reverse engineered solution, centric problem or service that they're introducing to the market. Whether on the employer side and certainly on the marketing side. What brands are really fighting for is attention and trying to be understood. Yet they're hyper fixating on what are the different ways we can make people understand us rather than getting hyper fixated on the understanding of others. And so when it comes to reaching Gen Z, the absolute first thing to do and the easiest thing to do is.
- [01:12]
B
Welcome to Beyond Blind Blaming. This is the place where we explore how easily hidden truths can hold us back, trapping us in cycles of frustration and blame, often without even realizing what's truly stopping us. Each week I'm joined by experts and professionals who share their journey of taking back control of their story, overcoming hidden challenges, and discover how to stop blind blaming from dictating their outcomes. The insights you're about to gain will help you see beyond your current limitations, find the courage to seek new perspectives and ultimately live a life that's both purposeful and powerful. So if you're ready to break free from blind blaming and discover what's possible, you'll definitely want to listen to my next guest. I'm your host Kevin St. Clergy and today I'm joined by Jake Bjorkseth. Jake is a leading voice in Gen Z marketing and the founder and CEO of Trendsetters, a next generation marketing agency that helps brands connect authentically with younger audiences. He's built a rapidly growing company that bridges the gap between brands and the next wave of consumers using cutting edge strategies in social media, influencer marketing and culture driven storytelling. His superpower is understanding what truly resonates with Gen Z and how they think, communicate and engage with brands in a world dominated by short form content and constant digital evolution. Through his work, Jake has helped some of the biggest companies rethink how they approach marketing, building trust and authentic connections instead of just pushing ads. Jake, welcome to the show.
- [02:41]
A
Kevin, thanks so much for having me. I would love an intro like that into any and all podcasts, media, everywhere I go. In fact, I got a dinner later. Could you come with me and when we walk in, introduce it because. No. That was a incredible intro and I certainly appreciate the context you've added there.
- [03:01]
B
Great. And I'll send it to you so you can have other podcasters read the same one. Welcome back. I call it instead of stealing, we call it ethically swipe and redeploy.
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A
Well, I'm in the marketing world, so.
- [03:10]
B
Okay, you know.
- [03:11]
A
Well, yeah, yeah.
- [03:13]
B
Well, let's start with your journey. What inspired you to build and did I say it correctly? Trendsetters. I love the spelling, by the way. What inspired you to build trendsetters? And how did you identify the gap in the market for Gen Z focused marketing?
- [03:25]
A
Yeah, as our name lacking vals implies, this was a domain I bought when I was in high school as a mentor of mine defines entrepreneurship for some folks can be very much a disease. It's just something you're born with and you either lean into it or it finds you in some way or another. And so whether it was a lemonade scan, a landscaping company, as soon as I learned you can make a buck shovel in a driveway, I was all about it. And just the leadership style of it was the main thing I was always after more than anything else. The origins of our company really started out of necessity. I had been having some successful ventures growing up and in high school even sold a software company to a nonprofit. Not for anything major, but some good wins, winning some awards, driving real revenue. And I wanted any excuse to not have to go to college. But as a kid growing up in the Midwest, that was certainly expectation. My parents and so actually trendsetter started my first week on campus and it was very much out of a need we saw in the market. We had been consulting and doing some things. I'll put consulting in quotes there. Cause I didn't know that was a thing at the time. I certainly didn't know you can make money doing it. I thought I was just. I had to give them this information for free. That's when we started to realize that this was a much bigger problem beyond platforms. We had been asked about Snapchat and Instagram and Facebook and how do I build a website and things you go to young people to ask about. And in conversations with a sizable organization, that's when I realized this is so much bigger than a platform. This is a generational issue. We can solve that problem. I shattered my jaw into nine different pieces a couple weeks later. That was great timing because I had a chance to get not one but three jaw surgeries because they messed up the first two. Great. I get more time to get away from school. So with my jaws wired shut, throwing the pain medication out and drinking coffee, I couldn't eat anything. We formed trendsetters and haven't looked back since. We've had a chance to work with some of the biggest organizations in the world. And it's always been our mission to help those organizations better understand and ultimately reach this generation that has grown up in very opportunistic times, but also very troubling ones. And I know that that's a large part of this discussion today.
- [05:48]
B
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when launching your agency and how did you overcome them? Because I've seen a lot of companies, individuals, small and large, that we'll get into blind blaming in a minute, but they've kind of written that generation Z off. Some of them think that they're unreachable. I've heard everything from they don't want to work to there's no way to market to them. They have no brand loyalty. Talk to us about some of the challenges you had when you first started.
- [06:12]
A
Yeah, it was every challenge you can imagine under the sun. Because launching a company at 18, employing other 18 year olds with no startup capital experience, resume to fall back on, and trying to convince potential clients to give you budget for a thing they aren't sure they believe in, into your company that they definitely don't believe in is quite the challenge. So it was always scratching and clawing. And we knew from the outset we had a very strong belief that our work would be most advantageous at the biggest level with the biggest organization because it scales with the scale of a business. And so we set our sights day one on making McDonald's corporate clients. And how were we going to get there? Well, it certainly wasn't going straight to pitching them. It was working with this small business and then a little bit bigger business and then a little bit bigger and so on down the line and adding to the team. And you got three days left before paywall runs and you need to come up with seven grand. Let's take this graphic design project, let's go build this website for this person, whatever we got to do to stay alive and continue growing. And 18 months after the formation of our company, me going full time, dropping out, we had made McDonald's a client and the floodgates opened up from there. We grew from a team of five to 40 and so a very different set of challenges from the conceptual stage to proving it to then growing it. Certainly having employed hundreds of individuals, all in the Gen Z age range, that's been quite the challenge. The financials that come with it, proving it for clients, convincing people to back it with dollars even when it works, getting them to continue investing into it. So every challenge under the sun is something we've run into. And no doubt it's just been a consistent relentlessness. And I think throughout all those challenges, there isn't a particular solve that could blanket fix all of them. But it was almost our foolishness. Not knowing enough to be uncertain or to doubt ourselves was probably our biggest advantage and the only reason we survived.
- [08:29]
B
Well, how hard was it to get money? It's a very new concept.
- [08:33]
A
It was always a challenge. But sales is something that's very natural to me. It's not something I view as sales. It's just communication. So once we would prove it on a small contract for 500 bucks, then we get up to 1500 and then 5 grand and then 10 grand. And before you know it, you see a check for $50,000 and you think you're the richest guy in the world. Now, years later, you wouldn't do half of that work for that price anymore. So it is interesting how it scales, but I think in terms of convincing, it's just going out and proving it is so much easier than any unique sales tactic.
- [09:14]
B
Well, I'm glad you figured that out. We had a guest yesterday. Chris Doe is his name. Great guy to check out, by the way. He helps creative agencies be more successful.
- [09:23]
A
Yeah, I'm familiar with Chris.
- [09:25]
B
Yeah, great guy. I love how we had a great conversation. He talked about pricing and pricing yourself in the market. And he said, look, if you start getting more confident, then you can start paying attention to what the value that you bring your client. And it's okay to ask for a percentage of that value that you get for them so you can have a bigger return. And it's okay for you to make some money doing so when you're really good. It sounds like you guys figured out a way to get really good.
- [09:48]
A
Yeah, that's true.
- [09:50]
B
Well, you read the first couple of chapters of Beyond Blind Blaming and I'll get you a copy of the book if you like, or the audio version when you read it. When you're reading the story, which I know you liked, and thank you for that. What did it make you think of in regards to your work and Gen Z? What was some of the things that popped into your head, when does blind blaming happen with that generation on both sides, with both consumers, Gen Z themselves as well as employers?
- [10:13]
A
Yeah, that's where my thoughts went immediately looking at this. To add for context, as much as I have to be the voice for this generation in many contexts, whether that's a speaking engagement or we consult quite a few politicians, political organizations, all of the content we promote is indirectly we feel a sense of need to represent the ideals of our generation beyond my personal beliefs. That said, as things have evolved, I consider myself very much an outsider to it. The people I speak with most are 60 years or older in terms of who I look to for wisdom. And then ironically on the opposite spectrum, my younger brothers, who I indirectly look for wisdom through because it's a lack of knowing that actually unlocks some interesting secrets. So all that to say this is a generation that, in terms of that word, blame. Things tend to be externalized when it comes to blame in a very unique way. And that is then, oddly enough, internalized, creating fear, which leads to overwhelm, stress, anxiety. And we see a generation that's plagued with mental health issues and somewhat overloaded with the amount of information and trying to adult, as some young folks would see. And the American dream that was written prior, get a corporate stable job, ride that out, buy a house that's either needing to be rewritten because that's not attainable for this generation looking strictly at the numbers and it's also not the dream that they have for themselves. So all of that to say my mind immediately went to so many young folks that are looking for the root of these problems. And it is really a critical thinking exercise. And I'm eager to actually read on, listen on, to better understand that, because it's a critical thinking exercise that often doesn't take place, particularly with younger folks, particularly with folks that are in such a fast paced environment that they don't have the time to truly meditate on these problems, to think about them deeply, to look at root issues and causality. And so you end up blaming yourself for things that are entirely out of your control and are things that you shouldn't be blaming yourself for. And then you blame the world for extrinsic things that you'll never have control over that are very fabricated, if you will, and are frankly things that you can control. And so I look at those buckets of the things you can control and what you can take action on, blaming the world for that, and then the inverse of that, the things you can't control that you then blame yourself for. And those things need to be flipped very much so.
- [13:12]
B
Great observation. I see it a lot because I work with a lot of larger organizations, a lot of people my age 52 and older. And how do you answer this question? Because I hear all the time, you know, the Gen Z people just don't want to work. And then I know you went into the chapter, it talks about confirmation bias where that particular generation gets on Facebook, they start whining and moaning and they get a flood of support when it's not that they don't want to work, they just don't want to work for you. And they're not looking at their hiring practices, their onboarding experiences, how they're training, if they're training at all, how they're doing a transfer of skill sets. Any comments along those lines?
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A
It all comes back to applying assumptions that simply don't exist anymore. It is assuming that this person needs this job, therefore we can treat them this way and we can have an organization that operates this way. And that's totally fine because that's acceptable when the parameters are they need this job. When the era of 1099s seems to appear to have more stability than that of W2, you know, this is also a generation that there's a lot of not just conscious information, but subconscious information that exists. And so consciously, you know, having going through Covid, you had a lot of students graduating. Their prom gets canceled or they're graduating college, they're supposed to be signed up on this internship program, this thing. What's the first thing those companies cancel? It's all those entry level jobs that they were promised when they were five years old, if they worked hard, went to school, got a degree that would be lined up for them. And it's not as if those jobs and opportunities came back in that same level. But also subconsciously, this is a generation that were in their elementary years, they didn't have the concept of a global economic or housing crisis. But in the era 2007, 2008, maybe not so many presents around the Christmas tree, maybe no spring break, maybe no going and playing sports that are a little bit more expensive. So it builds up that subconscious for their parents who are reliant on it. And so the issue that employers deal with today is you have a generation that has so many alternative opportunities of income and employment beyond your organization. So the assumptions that you hold that they have to stick with that are ones that aren't going to apply. And so this idea that they don't want to work hard. There are incredible young people who work their asses off and they don't have a mortgage, they don't have kids, they don't have these other things. They'll work 80 to 90 to 100 hours a week when they're really passionate about something. And so for those organizations, it's about how you capture that and make the most of that. Get them excited and enjoying their work, get them to lean into your organization. This is a bad analogy, but if your dog doesn't like going on walks, whose fault is that? It's not in the nature of the dog to not want to work. It's not in the nature of humans to not want to work. Humans want things to work on. We can't sit still. And so this is a generation that certainly that is not a problem for. It's something that organizations need to look in the mirror for. Not one to externalize.
- [16:27]
B
I wrote down assumptions because I think you're right. I think we all, I mean, at least my generation has a bunch of assumptions because that's the way we weren't raised. But we never went through a lot of the things you just described. We were adults dealing with the housing crisis. We weren't kids missing out on some of the things that made us who we are. Well, let me switch to a little bit from the marketing side because that's my background. I owned a marketing agency for 20 years that we sold a couple of years ago. But in your experience, what are some of the hidden obstacles that prevent brands from successfully engaging with younger audiences?
- [16:58]
A
Yeah, no doubt the biggest obstacle is the lack of understanding. There's a quote of mine that's an absolute favorite from Carl Jung and he says in a very philosopher way. So it's way more complicated than it needs to be. But to be understood is impossible without a far reaching comprehension of one other's perspective, which is a philosopher way of what we all know to be true, which is in order to be understood, you need to understand first you need to understand others. And so whether on the employer side and certainly on the marketing side, what brands are really fighting for is attention and trying to be understood understood. The value of our product, the value of our service, why we matter, why we're different, yet they go about it in a way that is all centered around hyper fixating on what are the different ways we can make people understand us rather than getting hyper fixated on the understanding of others. And so when it comes to reaching Gen Z platforms aside and all the specific tactics that I could tell you now they're going to change in 90 days and they'll change again probably in 60 days because it'll continue to accelerate. The biggest thing is really taking the time to understand both broadly where this generation sits, also the specific cohort of this generation that you're attempting to reach, going about the understanding of what does their day to day actually look like, what is their lifestyle, what is their decision making protocol look like with the hurdles of their financial life and social life and all these other dynamics that they're thinking about. If you can really drill down to an understanding of who you're trying to reach, then it's just a matter of reverse engineering it and finding the best ways to reach them. And while I know we have all these different social media platforms and marketing avenues, there's really only 12 to 18 to 24 different things. Really. And so those are the things that are easy to figure out. And you certainly don't need an expert to tell you to post on TikTok, post on Instagram. Probably a good idea. Right. And all those things become very intuitive when you take the time to understand.
- [19:05]
B
Can you share a time when a brand came to you thinking they had one problem, but it turned out they were completely misdiagnosing the issue? Because one of the things I said, it's in the book. I don't know if you got to it, but I like to say that people aren't failing at solving their problems. They're succeeding at solving the wrong problems perfectly.
- [19:24]
A
Yeah. I'll tell you one that actually has a failure associated with it more than a success story. And one that didn't necessarily end well for us or our partner here. But I think those can be far more insightful than the success stories.
- [19:38]
B
No, I love it. It's up to you whether you want to mention the name. Of course you want to keep them. Neal. But I. Was it because they didn't follow your advice? That's what I'm guessing. Yeah.
- [19:47]
A
Less so even than our advice. But Insights. So it's one of the two largest beverage brands in the world and it's more red than it's blue. There we go. So you can figure that out. We did a lot of Insights work together and one of our insights was for a product that was a blend of their bestselling product and coffee. And this ended up going out to retail stores and Walmart and all these other things. Huge distribution channel, probably the biggest in the world. And immediately being pulled off the shelves like horrible. The launch went horrible. Did not work. I'm sure they lost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars on their product development. All of our insights that we did prior to the launch of that product said exactly that. It was a triangulation of we see a trend here in more caffeine consumption and more young people spending 7, 8, 9, 10 bucks inside of coffee shops. And we have our bestselling product over here. And if we can put that in a can form. Awesome. Very theoretical. When we actually took the time to do the research through focus groups, surveys, we also do a lot of research on social. What we realized was those macro trends were true, but how that was gonna be captured was not as linear. The reason for the increased caffeine consumption had a lot less to do with caffeine and a lot more to do with the need to go work in a different environment because they were working online or to go somewhere else or to meet the barista, the cute barista making the latte and talk some shop and talk some game or to go on a date. And so it was external factors driving that that we were able to clearly see. And so as we go through this research report, publish our findings. Great. One thing leads to another, but ultimately we learned the secret of the game, which is it's not really your role as an insights partner to tell us what products to develop, it's to validate our existing ideas. And after getting our teeth kicked in and some other things through that process, we learned that they weren't seeking a new answer, they were seeking validation for an existing idea. And so that's one of the things far too common that's at a very big level and a very costly one. But this is what happens every single day in our world. We see a new brand that launches a sub brand or launches a new service, or launches a new product or runs a new marketing campaign. And it's very much a hammer trying to find a nail than it is a reverse engineered actually solution centric problem or service that they're introducing to the market.
- [22:27]
B
Well, it sounds like you're pushing some traditional marketing mindsets to a more authentic, community driven approach that resonates with Gen Z. Am I misunderstanding? That's what I hear you saying, Is that right?
- [22:37]
A
Yeah. It's amazing that we have more data than we've ever had before, yet we still live in a world, especially in the marketing side, that we do things like Mad Men. We are a bunch of guys in boardrooms. We're not smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey at 2pm in the afternoon. Probably Would even be better if we did get back to that a little bit. If that's how we're going to make decisions, let's introduce some interesting things at least we're in a boardroom whiteboarding some stuff, coming up with ideas, and we are taking data that is on the paper in the digital infrastructure and using our brain to interpret it and then make decisions off of that rather than utilizing the data for what it is, which is the number one engine for insights. And what's going to happen next? The answer is already out there for what's going to happen next. It exists, it's in the comment section across all these social platforms and you can run insane linguistics through LLMs to find exactly what that is and words and phrases and messaging and new products and new services and what's about to pop. Yet all of it gets boiled down to in some sort of deck that gets hardly paid attention to that we then take one sliver of and make our own decision that we probably had that idea months or years ago and just haven't brought it to the table yet. And so that is unfortunately how most of these decisions get made, which is just a huge mistake that exists in our world.
- [24:09]
B
Are you tired of feeling stuck in your business, career, relationships or your health? Are you frustrated by problems that just won't go away no matter what you try? After coaching and teaching thousands of people for over 25 years, I've discovered something powerful. Every unresolved problem has a hidden solution you just can't see yet. That's why I created the From Stuck to Breakthrough challenge. A free 5 day live experience where I'll show you exactly how to uncover what's really holding you back and finally break free to the results that you want. Whether it's in your business, your health, your wealth, your relationships. I'll help you discover the real root cause of your challenges and give you the blueprint for permanent change. Join me and a community of like minded people ready to break through. Go to blindblaming.com again, that's blindblaming.com to sign up and we'll see you soon. So for the business owners or marketing teams that are listening to the show, what do you think is one immediate step that they can take today to start reaching younger consumers more effectively?
- [25:08]
A
Yeah, the absolute first thing to do and the easiest thing to do is go find 10, 50 or 100 creators that are creating content around your space or even if not connected. Their audience is the exact audience you want to reach. If you are whatever brand and we're trying to reach people that are into health products. Great. Go find a hundred creators that fit that vibe. Go to those creators and don't immediately push them into an influencer campaign or find a way to contract or partner with them. This is the most amazing thing ever. Influencers that will charge $25,000 for a post or a ton of money for an engagement or require you to sign a big royalty and a license. If you ask those same influencers to jump on a call with you so you can get their ideas and their perspective, they will do it. And they will do it for free because no one asks them for it. They have millions of followers and everyone only cares about their reach. Hey, they have millions of followers. Let's work with them. We're going to reach so many people. Far more valuable is gathering the insights for someone whose full time job is has been building, cultivating and managing a community of hundreds of thousands or millions of people. And so the absolute easiest thing to do that's 100% free is go talk to the biggest creators in your category and ask them three to five questions. What should our brand be posting on social media? What does this audience really engage and enjoy? What would you do if you were in our shoes? And they will give you the answers that are better than any answers you could come up with from any marketing agency like us. Any insights group, I don't care what it is, those are the best marketers in the world. It's creators. So look to them for the answers.
- [26:59]
B
That's great advice. I love it. You got me thinking for the book because I want to get the book out of more Gen Z's hands. But I've struggled with that a little bit because I was a little shocked when I went into one group that's fairly young in the medical field actually. And I was a little surprised at how many people said they don't read anymore. Did I have the audio version out or is it going to be on video? So we're actually creating a video version of the book to try to reach that younger audience. Any other advice for me on that?
- [27:25]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think you're going about it the right way. The more channels of consumption I think the better if it's written. I'm still very much a book guy, but I also like audiobooks. I sometimes like pairing written with an audiobook where I'll read it and then I'll listen to the audiobook so I get two additional lanes or I have a tendency to speed read. So I feel like I'm not capturing everything. Video is of course another amazing, engaging way, something really unique, Ray Dalio's book. I'm sure you guys have looked at this, the Changing World Order. Him and his team designed it in a way where there's three versions to actually read it. So they have the bolded version, the italic version and then the full version. And they'll tell you in the beginning, hey, if you just want the skim, the spark notes, just read the bold version, all these other forms and all of that becomes okay, this one bold section is a 30 second video we can put out to social platforms to hook people in and is a great way to promote things.
- [28:28]
B
I liked his book Principles.
- [28:29]
A
Oh yeah, that's a great one.
- [28:31]
B
Well, now let's switch gears to employers. So for employers that are looking to hire Gen Z or that do hire Gen Z, what is the best thing? What's one thing they can start doing today to get them to be engaged, have fulfillment and stay around?
- [28:46]
A
Yeah. So something that has been tremendous for us and some of the work we've done with big time employers is looking to rethink the title and the roles and responsibilities associated with an individual in their role. So for example, say you need to hire 10 account managers for some company and say you're in B2B software, right? Well, the traditional way to go about that is list 10 different account manager roles and go through the hiring process and whatever you're not in doing so leading into anyone's passions or interests outside of work. What would be a really simple thing to do is say, hey, let's take these 10 account management roles, but let's break them out a bit. Let's make one specific to the beauty space. Let's make one specific to this category. This category. Let's have one that's with enterprise accounts, but let's not put enterprise account manager, let's put VIP account manager. So thinking about unique ways of titling and then building your R and R customized to the ideal person you want in that. So they have then from recruiting to actually sign on, there's a level of interest and passion and we go as far to the point where we will list very blanket role descriptions. But then when we go through the interview process with people, we will end up cultivating and creating a specific role for them that plays to their strengths as well as their interest and even connect it to where they want to go from a career perspective. So we might be hiring an account manager to look over our agency clients, but they might have A passion for. You know, we had a girl who really wanted to get more and more into modeling at a personal level. Right. So what'd we do? We made them our fashion centric account manager overseeing our fashion, our beauty and our cosmetic clients. And she got to lean into that more and more, setting her up for her future career in modeling or whatever she wants to do in that. And while we're giving them now a horizon to an extra thing, the level of effort and intensity and energy they're going to bring to the job is so much more when they're actually bought into the passion and the interest side. So those are some unique things I would look at as just an immediate thing you can do right away is go through your job listings, come up with more creative ways to position the same jobs, and there's a lot more you can do there. The final thing I'd add is ditch any and all requirements around degree education. Definitely experience is a big one. Just because someone doesn't have experience in your category, I would argue that is more often than not potentially a good thing. You don't want to become monolith that. Hey, we're a B2B SaaS company. We only hire people with experience at B2B SaaS. Great. But you're not going to unlock Alpha from a category that maybe does things differently that hasn't been done before. That could actually be a great unlock for your organization.
- [31:46]
B
Awesome advice. So what's next for trendsetters? What trends or shifts in marketing and Gen Z culture are you most excited about?
- [31:53]
A
The biggest one, no doubt has been social commerce. It's the introduction of TikTok shop. The ability to transact actual dollars without leaving the platform has been a game changer for our clients. It's been a game changer for us even at a business model perspective where we find ourselves operating with more clients on totally commission basis than this retainer model that even if it's not on an hourly basis at the end of the day, this all connects back to hours and services and nonsensical things that don't scale. Just the physics of that don't scale really well. So creating more win to win relationships for our client partners has been intriguing. But the social commerce trend has been a game changer. The number one career for young people aspirationally for the past decade and a half has been being a creator or influencer. And so this is an interesting pathway. There's 2 million creators signed up for TikTok Shop's affiliate program that are posting content, promoting Brands trying to make it into a full time career. And so something that's been gated by subjectivity, which is how good looking are you, how polished are you? How good is your content quality from a subjective perspective? Those are the only people that get brand deals. That's changing now. And it's totally about performance. Doesn't matter how many followers you have, doesn't matter how good your lighting is or how good looking you are, can you move product? And if the answer is yes, you're going to get a ton of opportunities. So it's a equalizer. It's making the creator space a lot more equitable. And I'm excited for everything we're building in that category.
- [33:31]
B
I love that. Well, you've clearly invested in yourself and your agency's growth. I love hearing that you love to read because it's one of my favorite ways to invest in myself. But what do you feel has been the most valuable investments you've made along the way? Is it coaches, masterminds, reading programs, partnerships? How do you invest in yourself? It's one of my favorite questions to ask on the podcast.
- [33:50]
A
So I think two lanes to this. The historically number one thing that's been the best investment for me throughout the years is taking on additional financial burden as a means of forcing action. I'm certainly not suggesting go out get an expensive car lease, but we've never, despite insane circumstances, we've never missed a payroll window. We've never not hit our profit numbers, not hit our revenue numbers. And a lot of what drives that, while it could be the business model itself, at the end of the day, for any small business or entrepreneur out there, your own happiness is a bigger KPI to the organization than you likely realize. And so the more that you're flourishing, the better your organization is. And so putting yourself in the best situation for that. And so we moved out to Venice beach in 2021 and rented a house, two houses off the beach. We're paying $17,000 a month in rent. If you saw our books, you would have been like, this is a horrible decision. But what happened? Naturally, our revenue increased, our team grew, our clients grew, we did great work. We did what we needed to do. There is more risk in the known than the unknown is something that I like to live by. And so taking risk, I think has been very advantageous. But the more financially stable answer, and one I live by more and more as I'm getting older now and a little bit less flexible, if you will, is just investments into my own personal health and happiness, whether it's hiring people to free up more of my time so I can go work out, go on my runs, spend time at the beach, go and do those things, spend more time with family. Those are the things that you definitely overlook in your first few years of commitment to the hustle and the grind. But those are the things that then unlock such better work and strategic thinking from yourself and from leadership that otherwise just wouldn't be there. And so that's something I overlooked for far too long is am I actually happy and enjoying my work? Because if the answer is no, even though I'm still going to get it done, it's not going to be as good as it could be.
- [36:03]
B
What you're describing is what Stephen Covey used to call sharpening the saw, taking care of yourself first. I learned that lesson the hard way too. I was a little older than you when I figured it out, but I just recently figured out that my happiness and doing some things that I'm very passionate about, like this podcast, like the book that I've been wanting to write for many years that helps everyone, not just people in my niche that we had our agency. And that's when I noticed that I was happier. People around me are happier. People are noticing how much happier I am. So I'm glad to hear you say that you figured it out pretty early, which I'm glad you did because it took me a while.
- [36:36]
A
Yeah. And for all the potential young entrepreneur bros out there would definitely recommend finding the right life partner along the way as well, which they will make themselves known. And especially for the younger guys, just you can get to a level of income and wealth that, well, when you're 24, 25, 26 years old, the bar is pretty low. So you walk into someplace and you're, you're in the top 1% or whatever and you can talk to great girls and just chasing that in any capacity is an absolute nutter waste. And you just got to ask yourself, where does this lead? So not saying you need to settle down, start having kids right away, but the sooner you can find the right one that accelerates your life journey and helps stabilize everything else in your life, the better.
- [37:22]
B
And what I've learned along the way is if you keep doing the things you did in the beginning, there will never be an end and you won't get sucked into that blame loop that we talk about in the book. Well, finally, where can people follow your work and learn more about you or get in touch?
- [37:35]
A
Best place to follow me if you're interested in. Anything I've been saying is on LinkedIn. Just my name. There's not a whole lot of other beor out there. We have our website, trendsetters.com trendsetters without vowels. If you just search that up, you'll find it. And we even have a software we're launching soon called Sugar Sugar AI that will go. It's in beta testing right now. It'll go live over the summer, and it is the number one creator marketing platform that has ever been contrived. So we're excited to bring that to life.
- [38:05]
B
That's awesome. I can't wait to see it. Well, this is awesome. What a great time. Jake, thank you for being here.
- [38:11]
A
Thank you. I appreciate everyone for tuning in and hope you have an amazing rest of your day.
- [38:16]
B
Me, too.
- [38:23]
A
Sa.