Secrets to Influencer Marketing & Brand Engagement

Summary

Episode Summary: Secrets to Influencer Marketing & Brand Engagement

Podcast Information:

• Title: Right About Now with Ryan Alford
• Host: Ryan Alford (The Radcast Network)
• Episode: Secrets to Influencer Marketing & Brand Engagement
• Release Date: July 25, 2025

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In this engaging episode of Right About Now with Ryan Alford, host Ryan delves deep into the multifaceted world of influencer marketing and brand engagement. Featuring insights from industry experts Gary Vaynerchuk, Mike, Cas, Danny, and Sam, the discussion traverses topics from entrepreneurial fundraising and small business tax strategies to the intricacies of building effective influencer partnerships. This comprehensive summary captures the essence of their conversations, highlighting key points, notable quotes, and actionable insights.

1. Raising Capital as an Entrepreneur

The episode kicks off with Ryan discussing the challenges of fundraising with Gary Vaynerchuk, a renowned entrepreneur and marketing guru.

• Developing the Fundraising Muscle:

  • Gary Vaynerchuk [00:43]: "It's a muscle that you have to develop and you get better at it the more you do it. So there's a lot of fear that you build up..."
  • Gary emphasizes the importance of overcoming fear when approaching investors, underscoring that the worst outcome is a simple 'no.'

• Bootstrapping vs. Seeking Investors:

  • Mike [01:15]: "So I think that what you've done, Ryan, that's raising money, you don't go to investors, you go to customers. You win the business, you generate the revenue to then generate the profits, plow back in the business to grow."
  • Mike advocates for a customer-centric approach to funding, highlighting the resilience of entrepreneurs who rely on revenue rather than external investment.

• Challenges of Partnerships:

  • Gary Vaynerchuk [02:54]: "Investors are great, some of our best friends, but you're bringing a partner on board and so unless you're ready to communicate and report and listen, it's work."
  • The discussion underscores the complexities of investor relationships, stressing the necessity of clear communication and mutual understanding.

2. Tax Strategies for Small Businesses

Transitioning from fundraising, the conversation shifts to the critical topic of tax strategies for small business owners, led by guest Mark.

• Effective Tax Rates Explained:

  • Mark [12:52]: "So everybody, there's seven tax brackets out there and the highest being 37 and a half. Okay, cool. No one pays in total 37 and a half percent in federal taxes because it's graduated."
  • Mark breaks down the American tax system, clarifying misconceptions about tax brackets and explaining the concept of effective tax rates after deductions.

• Utilizing Depreciation and Investments:

  • Mark [14:49]: "Trump had so much in depreciation from his hotels and real estate investments, he was able to wipe out his income from the Apprentice and his retail."
  • He illustrates how strategic investments and depreciation can significantly reduce taxable income, using high-profile examples to demonstrate practical applications.

• Maximizing Deductions for Small Businesses:

  • Mark [11:03]: "I'm writing off home, office, auto dining, computers, electronics, your cell phone, family members."
  • Practical advice is provided on leveraging various deductions to minimize tax liabilities, emphasizing the importance of understanding and utilizing available tax breaks.

3. Influencer Marketing & Brand Engagement

A substantial portion of the episode focuses on influencer marketing, content creation, and building effective brand partnerships.

• The Importance of Genuine Content:

  • Sam [23:55]: "There’s no point doing these partnerships if you're not going to make it happen."
  • Sam highlights the necessity of authentic and high-quality content in successful influencer collaborations, stressing that superficial partnerships fail to deliver ROI.

• Challenges in Content Creation:

  • Sam [26:49]: "Creating the contents, like the hardest part, isn't it how many emails have been sent with, we gotta get content for this brand."
  • The discussion delves into the logistical hurdles of content creation, emphasizing the balance between meeting brand requirements and maintaining influencer authenticity.

• Aligning Goals and Deliverables:

  • Sam [28:16]: "If what you want is content creation and great UGC to put in ads, don't use that guy who never does reels."
  • The conversation underscores the importance of clearly defining campaign goals and selecting influencers whose content style aligns with brand objectives to ensure effective outcomes.

4. Building and Managing Teams

Danny shares his experiences and lessons learned in building effective teams, particularly in the context of real estate investing and business growth.

• Understanding Team Dynamics:

  • Danny [17:08]: "People aren't like me and they really just want to follow directions. And you have to go find that elite, maybe top 3 to 1% to be able to lead the companies so that you're not stuck leading all of them with a bunch of followers."
  • Danny emphasizes the importance of assembling a team with diverse skill sets and high levels of competence to drive business success and avoid managerial bottlenecks.

• Transition from Active to Passive Investing:

  • Danny [18:56]: "Active investors get miserable, lose a lot of money, and ultimately turn into passive investors. And that's where they find joy because they get to pursue what they wanted to do anyway..."
  • He discusses the shift from active to passive investing as a pathway to sustainable wealth building, advocating for delegating specialized tasks to experts.

5. Navigating the Digital Landscape

The episode also touches on the evolving digital landscape, content consumption trends, and the importance of adapting to technological advancements.

• Adapting to Digital and Physical Synergy:

  • Steve [06:44]: "The world is physical, but the world is also digital. And the world continues to become more digital, not less digital."
  • Steve underscores the necessity of balancing digital initiatives with traditional physical products to cater to diverse consumer preferences.

• Content Consumption Shifts:

  • Cas [22:53]: "Podcasting is like the new television on YouTube where it's... people know exactly what shows they watch, what days they drop, what time they drop, all of it."
  • Cas explores how audience behaviors have shifted towards on-demand content consumption, likening modern podcasting to traditional television in terms of structure and audience expectations.

• Earning and Retaining Attention:

  • Ryan Alford [22:09]: "It's huge how much competition there is. There's just unlimited content and that's what I love about your book and the tenets of it. You got to earn it, baby."
  • The discussion highlights the intense competition for audience attention in the digital age, emphasizing the importance of creating valuable and engaging content to stand out.

6. Key Takeaways and Conclusions

• Consistency and Persistence:

  • Ryan Alford [15:12]: "It's amazing how few people are just willing to sort of put one foot in front of the other every single day."
  • The importance of consistent effort and daily action in achieving long-term success is a recurring theme throughout the episode.

• Tailoring Strategies to Goals:

  • Sam [26:24]: "It's really important... to keep saying reminder, this is the goal of this campaign. This is the goal of this partnership."
  • Aligning marketing strategies with specific business objectives ensures that all efforts contribute meaningfully to desired outcomes.

• Balancing Digital and Physical Efforts:

  • Steve [07:46]: "We are not in Ready Player One full time yet."
  • Maintaining a harmonious balance between digital initiatives and physical products or experiences remains crucial for comprehensive brand engagement.

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Conclusion: This episode of Right About Now with Ryan Alford offers a treasure trove of insights for entrepreneurs, marketers, and small business owners. From mastering the art of fundraising and optimizing tax strategies to navigating the complexities of influencer marketing and building effective teams, the discussions provide actionable advice grounded in real-world experiences. By emphasizing authenticity, strategic alignment, and consistent effort, the guests underscore the keys to successful brand engagement and sustained business growth.

Notable Quotes:

• "It's a muscle that you have to develop and you get better at it the more you do it." — Gary Vaynerchuk [00:43]

• "Everybody wants to talk about making money. Why don't we talk about saving money? It's easier to save money than make money." — Mark [11:56]

• "People aren't like me and they really just want to follow directions." — Danny [17:08]

• "Podcasting is like the new television on YouTube..." — Cas [22:53]

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For more insights and in-depth discussions, subscribe to Right About Now with Ryan Alford on Apple Podcasts and join a community of doers, builders, and dreamers eager to elevate their business acumen.

Transcript

[Ryan Alford]

What's up, guys? Welcome to right about now. We're always talking about how to make you get right and in the moment. We could talk about yesterday. We could talk about last week. We could talk about a month from now. We could talk about the future. But we're here to talk about now.

This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month, taking the BS out of business for over 6 years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.

Talk to me about the raising money thing you talk about in the book, by the way, the handbook for an entrepreneur.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's, you know, it's a muscle that you have to develop and you get better at it the more you do it. So there's a lot of fear that you build up, right? Like, oh, my God, I don't want to ask this person for money. Oh, my God. At the end of the day, you know, it really is about your own fear, because all they're going to say is yes or no, Right? It's like they say, no, just move on. And that's something, I think for me, Mike's much better at it than I am. But for me, I think I just realized, oh, like the worst thing could happen is they just say no. Right? That's it.

[Mike]

So I think that what you've done, Ryan, what, like a friend who we're talking about, Gary Vee and others, that's raising money, Right. You don't go to investors, you go to customers. You win the business, you generate the revenue to then generate the profits, plow back in the business to grow. And so our heroes are the people not that have the safety of venture capital. Right. But it is those entrepreneurs, like a lot of your listeners, who don't have the safety net, who are running restaurants, who are running service companies, who are.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Running agencies, and they need the revenue to survive.

[Mike]

And that's how you fundraise. And if you do a good enough job on the customer side, then maybe you have the ability to, you know, raise money to do an acquisition or to take some money off the table or to do to make some moves, right?

[Ryan Alford]

Yep.

[Mike]

We've always been in businesses up until now, that requires building software and a lot of upfront costs. And frankly, it's just easier for us than, I think what you and a lot of others have done, which is hard.

[Ryan Alford]

I appreciate you saying that. It is hard, but at the same time though, there's brilliance in both sides, I think, you know, like depending on what works for you. Like, because I'm. I asked even for my own self, I mean, because I'm developing something now that's tech heavy and you know, it's like. And I've never had a partner and I'm like. Or I've never had a dollar from anyone. I have no debt in the bank, so protect that. Yeah. And it's, it's not easy and it's.

[Mike]

Not that like that's very rare and awesome. Investors are great, some of our best friends, but you're bringing a partner on board and so unless you're ready to communicate and report and listen, it's work, you know, it's work. It's a relationship.

[Ryan Alford]

I do think it's fascinating for you guys being a husband and wife, founders of companies and investors together. You talk about in the book, if you are going to have a partner and a founder, those skill sets that work like you fill a gap. Like I have a certain number of skills you need to work with another person or group that fills the holes you have.

[Cas]

That's right.

[Ryan Alford]

And it sounds like that work. Maybe that's why it has worked. I know it's been work, but for you too. Because like you said, Mike, you know, you've got the operator and then the sales and marketing and you know, maybe idea guide. I don't want to say you don't have ideas, Cas, but I'm just.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The split is totally there.

[Ryan Alford]

Your.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Your day.

[Mike]

Nailed it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, you nailed it. Because that's exactly what you need when you have co founders. You really do need to figure out like how to balance out the skills. And if you overlap, there's going to be just absolute micromanagement and like paralysis of decisions. So the best thing you can do is have a co founder or more than one co founder that had different skills. And that's when things really gel and you build this like implicit trust and you can move very fast.

[Ryan Alford]

I love how you've sort of embraced the, you know, part of me. I think some people might would ask, well, why Topps Chrome and why this and why the parallels and all that. Oh, I get it, man. You, you. I feel like you've created something uniquely original while tapping into sort of the hype and interest that already exists with some of of these products. Talk a little bit about that.

[Steve]

Yeah, I think to your point, obviously you're a little bit deeper and you're knowledgeable. Like there's A lot of inserts and structure to this checklist that honors the chrome model, the red refractors to 5 and 50 gold, and the super fractor one of one. And then there's uniquely new stuff. We did something really smart. Our main character, the very, very, very, very lucky black cat, has yellow eyes. But we didn't insert a variant where you could get them with green eyes or blue eyes or white eyes or red eyes. And that's a little head nod to Pokemon's original set with the Pikachu. And so there's a lot of really clever things. There's a one in every nine cases insert called Erupt that I'm very fond of. That is a hat tip to the Kaboom inspired by that great insert. And we found the original artist of that Kaboom set and he designed the characters. So it's, it's, you know, I think it's been fun because even people that, let's say, are cynical to this project, or even me in the hobby of trading cards because it's a very insular kind of protective community which I respect and love have been giving flowers to. How thoughtful the checklist is. And that has been rewarding.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, man. Smart is what I'd call it. Where does what gets me? You know, you brought up the NFT thing, but we live in a digital world. And you're an attention arbitrage guy.

[Steve]

Yep.

[Ryan Alford]

Where does veefriends fit? And you know, two parts for you in attention arbitrage and building your long term, you know, legacy.

[Steve]

Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

Where do you see V friends in that? And then part two of that, you've got to. We live in this digital world, but physical cards are still booming.

[Steve]

Yeah. I mean it's, I'll do the second part because it's so easy. Six, seven years ago, eight years ago, people were like, gary, why do you still write books? You're so Mr. Digital. And my answer always was because people read them. Like, I don't know why the world is obsessed with. Or yeah, right. People love or people are like, even in politics, blue or red. Right. Like, you know, digital or physical. You know, like the life is gray. Everything is the middle. So I, I, of course, physical cards and comic books and, and I'll do toys, like, because the world is physical, but the world is also digital. And the world continues to become more digital, not less digital. Right. So, you know, all those hours today that are being played on Roblox 40 years ago were kids that were outside playing physically. So, you know, things are changing. But not to zero. We're not in Ready Player one full time yet.

[Ryan Alford]

So true.

[Steve]

Thankfully, that's why I keep doing those things. Where do I see Veefriends sitting really at the center? You know, I think Veefriends is probably gonna end up being the biggest business I ever built. You know, I feel like it's a very substantial intellectual property, collectible business. I think the characters represent the things I most care about in the world. So I think these 250 characters are going to allow me to extend all these things I want the world to know about. And so Patient Panda will take the baton in helping people learn that patience matters, not just Gary Vee's content, the one that you've been consuming for 20 years. I've done a lot as a human and put myself on the map, but I'm not going to reach all 8 billion people. Meanwhile, a Vee Friends cartoon that talks about tenacity and hustle and kindness can be dubbed in Italian and be running on Netflix Italy in five years. And I'll be accomplishing the same ambition, which is my whole life has been about really a framework of selfish and selfless behavior. Right. Selfishly, I'm an entrepreneur. I want to build things for me and my family. I think I'm allowed. I think you're allowed. I think everyone's allowed. However, I do like leaving a positive impact. I want other entrepreneurs. I get pumped when entrepreneurs come up to me that. That basically make more money than me taking my learnings and applying them. I'm like, good for you. That makes me happy. That doesn't make me unhappy. So I think that's kind of the goal with the framework here.

[Ryan Alford]

I always think there's knowledge in trends and numbers. And so when you get asked a lot of the same questions when you deal with a lot of the same challenges, I tend to think that brings knowledge to our listeners. What are some of those key things that you're always sort of tackling or working with clients on?

[Mark]

Great question. And what's interesting is, since COVID we've had the great formation. We now have almost. We're pushing up to almost 45% of working Americans have a side hustle and people. That's a. That's a small business. That's a gateway drug. It's not a burden we should look at as an opportunity to use that. Those funds to get out of debt, build wealth, create assets. And one in five Americans own a rental property in some form or fashion. So if I've got a rental property and A little small business. People, you're not quitting your day job. Let's just tap into that. And so a common, common theme and what we do every day is meet with that community, those people that are the backbone of this country that are starving for simple answers to get their kids on payroll, save some taxes, write off their auto, you know, whatever it is. And I love that bread and butter stuff. And so it's just. There's no mystery. It's not like there's this secret thing like, mark, how do I save tax? It's just. It's just doing the basics and knowing it, understanding it, owning it. And. And that's so there's no sexy secret there except that you. You really can build a wealth that you maybe, maybe never imagined with just those simple base hits. It's not about getting rich quick. It's not getting rich slow. I want to get rich slow.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah. Adding them on and saving the most with. With that extra time. Right. If you're going to moonlight over and above the day, the daytime job, it's keeping as much of that as possible, correct?

[Mark]

Oh, yeah. See you give me a day, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that W2 day job work. Corporate America. That's cool because. Great. Let's go do your taxes. Bend over. I can't do anything. I mean, you're screwed. But if you've got that small business now, that little 1099 some of you were getting, that's like, that's a golden ticket. Now I'm writing off home, office, auto dining, computers, electronics, your cell phone, family members. I'm funding a Roth IRA. You can set up your own damn 401k. Now we're going to take all that money and start deploying it. And we're going to be efficient. We're going to be lean and mean and that I can. You can pay 30% less in taxes on that money than your day job. Your day job. You're screwed. Let's go get this other money that's a lot cheaper to get. Everybody wants to talk about making money. Why don't we talk about saving money? It's easier to save money than make money.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, it is. That's true. It's a very simple statement, but it's very drums that you're. Yeah, it's true. It's because it's not always easy to make it. Let me talk to you about this, Mark. You know, they talk about tax brackets, right? I think some of this terminology, you know, W2s in X bracket if you're self employed and small business owner, like, what's the le? And there's always the talk, you know, like especially like three or four years ago about like Trump plays like an effective 8% tax rate, like, or whatever it was, you know. Yeah, but, but for the average small business guy and even the wtu, because we have people that are both, they're listening to our show that are small business owners and that maybe are W2 thinking going small business, what, what's the least you could truly get away with, like legally, you know, doing it the right way. But like what kind of tax brackets should the average small business guy be in?

[Mark]

Well, very, a very perceptive question and I'm going to try to answer this simply. So everybody, there's seven tax brackets out there and the highest being 37 and a half. Okay, cool. No one pays in total 37 and a half percent in federal taxes because it's graduated. So when we have brackets, that's our bracket on the next dollar after a certain limit. So once everybody kind of gets that, that this is a graduated bracket, that's point number one. So then what we want to look at is what is your effective tax rate? So like after we take all the killer write offs, we can think of lots, lots of options. What's that effective rate? And for some people it could be zero. For others it could be 35%. Now it is generally true, the more money you make, the more tax rate you're going to pay more per larger percentage of your income in taxes. But then we've got strategies and tools. For example, why Trump was such an anomaly and he really wasn't, it's just the Wall Street Journal wanted to point this out, is that he is a real estate professional. I've got his tax return here on my laptop. I got Joe Biden's and his from 2016. He was a real estate professional. Now you've talked about here on your show all the time if you want to invest in short term rentals, long term rentals, do real estate and deploy money in real estate. It's not for everybody, but we have depreciation strategies and investment strategies that can offset my income over here. Trump had so much in depreciation from his hotels and real estate investments, he was able to wipe out his income from the Apprentice and his retail. So his effective rate at the end of the day was very low. Now someone else who just works a day job has no write offs, makes 500 grand a year at Verizon as a VP. Okay, you're going to be paying 30% or more in effective rate because you're not using the strategies in the best way.

[Ryan Alford]

I do hear people all the time because I'll tell people because they'll ask, okay, well, how'd you, you know, grow your podcast or how you know something that, you know, we all have our strengths. And so people will ask you, like, how did you do that? Or. And it's like, I just followed the formula and consistency and showing up and doing it. It's like, yeah, you got to get. You learn and you get wisdom to make things better. But it's amazing how few people are just willing to sort of put one foot in front of the other every single day.

[Danny]

Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

[Mark]

Right.

[Danny]

We actually tested out being coaches with that same mentor because he was like, I want to take you and travel with you, and you just tell them you did exactly what I told you to do and you were successful.

[Ryan Alford]

So.

[Danny]

So we did and we started a coaching program. And that's where I found lack of fulfillment. Because truly, people are handing over 10, 20, $30,000 and then not doing what you tell them to do to be successful. And I thought, huh, well, that's interesting.

[Ryan Alford]

Why is that, like, what, what is that? Roadblock? Is it self sabotage? Is it. I mean, I'm gonna call Spade. Spade. I'm. You'll learn that, Dan. That's me. I mean, is it laziness? Is it self sabotage? Is it. What is it?

[Danny]

Yeah, that's a great question. I really think it's probably different for every single person. We all have our limiting beliefs. We all have our traumas, we all have our blockers. And I think every person is probably a little bit different. But I think, and you can tell me if you agree or not, I'd be interested in your opinion. I think more than anything, it's lack of belief in their ability to succeed and. Or their fear of actually succeeding.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, it's an interesting thing. Like, I always thought it was fear of failure, but fear of actually succeeding, that one always gets me. I hear people say that. I'm like, why would you be scared to make the damn thing happen? Why is that? Is that what we want?

[Cas]

Yes, Yes.

[Danny]

I think it turns into the. What happens now. Right.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah. Like duplicating it, repeating it, or. Or is it the responsibility that comes with it sometimes? I'm not trying to lad. Yeah. All roads back to. I don't know. It took me a long time. And I don't know about you, Danny, like, in your journey, like, it's not that I thought people were the same. Like, we all have our differences, clearly.

[Danny]

Sure.

[Ryan Alford]

And there's definitely different attributes, but there is a level of drive and initiative and want that I just always assumed everyone else had. Like, I, I think in my, Even though I was almost 30 years old, I'm well past that now, but I thought that that was sort of universal. We all had different traits. Okay. You know, different looks, different things. Like, but I've learned that's not always the case or there's just different motivations, you know, like, and I don't know, especially as you've learned. And he had to hire people and do different things. Talk to me about how you've seen that.

[Danny]

Yeah. So I'm going to relate it to actually building the companies. And one of my probably epic failures was thinking that everybody was like me. Like, they all have this drive. They're always going to do exactly what they say they're going to do. They're going to never give up. They're going to push, push, push, because they want to win and they refuse to lose. And I didn't care about hiring the Ferrari who had proven success because I thought, I can meet anybody and just say, hey, I'm going to take you with me. Let's go. And we're going to drive together. And ultimately, I learned really fast and I learned this lesson over and over and over again that people aren't like me and they really just want to follow directions. And you have to go find that elite, maybe top 3 to 1% to be able to lead the companies so that you're not stuck leading all of them with a bunch of followers.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, that's true. Well spoken and well learned. And you and I, maybe you and I would have worked well together back in the day. We both have that gene. Obviously you followed the steps and the 12 things, but now that you've done it it long enough, what is it that it takes other than, you know, following the steps? Is there intuition? Wisdom? Beyond that?

[Danny]

Here's what I've learned. A lot of people understand that there's power and wealth behind real estate investing, but it's not what they're passionate about and it's not what they're going to do full time. So they think they can become an active investor because that's the door that most people enter in. I want to be a landlord. I'm in. Buy and hold. Or I'm going to fix and flip this property and make $40,000 and they lose a lot of Money, they lose a lot of time and they're not doing what they love. And so ultimately what I've learned is active investors get miserable, lose a lot of money, and ultimately turn into passive investors. And that's where they find joy because they get to pursue what they wanted to do anyway, and then they get to invest their money with other people who love doing the active side of real estate, are really good at it, and they just get a passive income and they get to build their wealth.

[Cas]

If you want to be one of the few things that people actually pay attention to, no matter what platform you choose, no matter what kind of content you make, it's hard. Like, it's a really hard deal. But it's also, that's also kind of the fun of it, and it's figuring how to make things that are actually valuable for people that they want to spend their time with. Because, I don't know, I feel like people don't suffer through mediocrity anymore. They don't have to, which is nice.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, I mean, choice is amazing. And back 15, 20 years ago, maybe even 25 years. I'm starting to age, Steve. I don't know about you, but my years are still ticking. I can't seem to keep it in pause. But, you know, you had so many channels to watch on tv, you know, being a guy at sports for me, for the most part. But then you have your other cable channels and smartphones barely existed and definitely didn't have the video and data bandwidth that we have now that enables all of these things. I tell people all the time I was a pioneer of enablement, you know, working on smartphones in 2007 and 8. Uh, but in the, but the throughput. And now like you said, you got so many choices. You can, you either you. I, I've been playing with this notion, Steve, and I think you'll get it. It's, it's similar to yours. It's kind of like either you're getting turned on or you're turned off as a brand and as content, because people get to choose. And that, that's really what you're talking about, isn't it?

[Cas]

I, I think it's a great way of phrasing it. I, I may have to borrow that. I, I, Mine is, is usually something like you're either earning attention ignored.

[Ryan Alford]

I have literally, I, I'm a creative guy. I mean, I haven't sketched the on button for our like, re. Relaunch of our company. Radical. Like on the brand with an on play button and you either get choose, you know, like it's that simple, right?

[Cas]

Well, we were talking earlier about this idea of sampling, right? Like, I think you brought up, you know, like the, the goal of everybody is to get sampled and then it's the job of the show to keep people listening afterwards or, you know, or the video or the newsletter or whatever it is. Just getting sampled is the on button, right? Like, it has to be so interesting that out of all the different options, all the Netflix tiles, all the Spotify podcasts, all the TikTok creators, that they're even willing to give you a shot to give you a second or two to get in there. That's a hard on button to get into, right?

[Ryan Alford]

Yes. Oh, God, it's so hard. It's crazy how much competition there is. There's just unlimited content and that's what I love about your book and the tenets of it. You got to earn it, baby. I mean, we all. It was, hey, back in the day, TV commercials, there's nothing else to watch. There's no phone distracting. Because now I make the joke. The TV, if you have one, 18 to 34 year olds may not even fall in this. We might be talking 35 to 55 or 35 up. The TVs the radio and the smartphone's the television. Like, that's where I think audio is actually more important in TV now. Like, because your head's down.

[Cas]

Yeah, it's funny. Even in podcasting now, the video stuff is fascinating. Like, I have a. I have a 22 year old who loves podcasting, never listens, it's always on YouTube and she knows it's like, it is like podcasting is like the new television on YouTube where it's. She knows exactly what shows she watches, what days they drop, what time they drop, all of it. It's amazing. And to be able to get to that point where people know that about you and look forward to you, like appointment viewing or listening, that's really hard. Also, like, you have to be pretty awesome or pretty valuable to a very specific group of people to get in there. I'm fascinated by all of it.

[Ryan Alford]

We gave you gold and you treated it like silver. Like, it's like, why, why didn't you use it all over the place? It's like it doesn't need to just live within the influencer's channel. You got to amplify it. That's such a miss, isn't it sometimes 100%.

[Sam]

And this is why, you know, we talked about it slightly when we Were kind of chatting before that. We started off, you know, I created open sponsorship with my co founder as the LinkedIn, the Airbnb, the match.com of the industry. You know, we were like, right, we're going to help you find the person connect. Boom, done. And then we realized in the journey that if you're on like a dating site or like a job recruitment site or something, if you get the match, that success. But we were. People were coming to us and they're like, great, you, you're great. But what the outcome wasn't, the ROI wasn't there. And I was like, I need to start thinking about the ROI on these deals because otherwise we're just going to see all of these guys like trying it once and leaving. And then we did what you did. We started trying to build into the. What you were saying. We tried to build into the platform. Have you thought about doing this? Have you thought about doing this and share this? And then we realized people just either don't have the time, the knowledge or that whatever else. And so that's kind of why about three years ago we were like, you know what, we're going to get rid of the self service. We're going to be completely full service. We're going to be like an extension of your team and we're going to like make you. We're going to, we're going to do it for you. Great examples. Like, a few months ago, I was speaking to my team and I didn't even know that they did this, but like, they'll go to like a tool like Capcut and they'll put music overlay and the text overlay onto a video. And I was like, you do that for our clients. And they're like, yeah, but it's just like, it's harder to get them to do it and teach them and say, oh, this video would be so much more effective. They're like, we'll just do it for them and it'll take a few seconds. And so I think, like, what I realized is it's whatever the brand's reason is to not do, it's. It's ultimately our problem. And so there's no point doing these partnerships if you're not going to make it happen.

[Ryan Alford]

Yes. And what you realize is the total. I don't know, the total. Filling the entire circle in. Okay. Is not just connecting brand to. To influencer, it's all the magic. Magic in between making sure the content gets done. Making sure the content gets used. Make it, you know, all of you got to lead them to the water and make them drink it.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah. Honestly.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, it's true. And because ultimately it's what makes it work. And the only way for it to keep happening and to have success is if it works. Right?

[Sam]

100%.

[Ryan Alford]

100%, yeah. I love that. And it's an interesting pivot. I mean, I've definitely seen with like the athletes especially, you know, they can get all these deals. They want the deals, but, you know, creating the contents, like the hardest part, isn't it how many emails have been sent with, we gotta get content for this brand.

[Sam]

Yeah. I'm making it not look like it was like read off a script or that they.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, exactly.

[Sam]

Do it. Definitely a challenge that still exists. I think, again, going back to the point, like, what. Who. What are you using them for? So if what you want is content creation and great UGC to put in ads, don't use that guy who never does reels, unlike is a little bit stiff. But if what you want is to be able to say that you sponsor the quarterback of Clemson, then great, then, you know, or whatever else then. And I think that's the other thing is I realize that a lot of times when you and I do this as a CEO with a marketing budget, you conflate everything. You're like, you start off going, I want. I want a testimonial. And then five weeks later you're like, oh, but they didn't produce sales. And you're like, well, that was never the goal. And so I think it's really important. Again, the benefit of being hand in hand is like, you can keep saying reminder, this is the goal of this campaign. This is the goal of this partnership. If you want to change the goal, we got to change the creative. We might need to change the person. We've got to change the deliverables. So it's like, if you. Like a great example is if you want sales reels doesn't allow you to have a link. Yeah, it's not going to produce sales. But if you want a brand awareness piece, stories disappear after 24 hours. Very, very different. Which one do you want?

[Ryan Alford]

This has been Right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.

[Steve]

Sam.