← Follow The Yellow Brick Road
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- [00:03]
A
Welcome to another episode of Special Ops Podcast. Today we are at Driven Mastermind in Mexico. We have been filming a few episodes here calling them the Driven Diaries. And we are super excited to have Chris Encarnacion, a dear, sweet friend of ours, a Driven member and an agency owner. Chris, we've watched you over the past year go from having a pretty decent offer and business to an agency and a force to be reckoned with. And so I love that you're on and I'd love for you to talk to us about how you went from how do I buy this camera to I don't even know where you are all the time. Like, you're traveling, you're doing it. You're the big man on campus.
- [00:49]
B
Thank you.
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A
You're the guy. You became the guy in a year.
- [00:53]
B
Yeah.
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A
I want to know how you did that.
- [00:55]
B
Sickening, obsessive work ethic. You know, just grinding it out pretty much. I'll rest when I die. You know, kind of delivery and intentional focus, you know, having that meeting with the family. I've got to focus here. I need support. So, no, I won't be coming to bed at 10, 11, 12pm or a.m. whatever. I'm going to be working till 5, 6, 7 in the morning, putting in two three hour naps, another 12 straight hours. Two, three hour naps. I mean, it's not the healthiest way to do it. It really isn't. But I looked at it this way. I felt. I know, I know I'm really talented. I've been blessed with a lot of talent. But I also understand that if talent doesn't work hard, hard work's gonna kick my butt every time. Right? So I didn't want someone with hard work to even think they had a chance. So I knew if I just gave it my all and I have that talent, which is the sprinkle on top, I wouldn't be touched. And then everything else is just this lovely lady over here guiding me and, and whipping me into, into shape, you know, and just. And taking constructive criticism and just understanding that, you know, I can't be high on my own supply, you know, which I was a little bit in the beginning. I thought, like, I'm the best in the world at this. But, you know, there's other things of business that I had no idea about, like proper SOPs, proper systems, proper communication, proper training, billing people.
- [02:16]
A
You didn't know how to build people.
- [02:17]
B
Yeah, not properly. I know. I mean, you have to be OK with training and hiring your replacement. You know, I've Got a great team that I absolutely trust, that I'm proud of. When I was first starting, I was sell myself, and I had a small team helping me sell myself and helping me in the kitchen with the sausage that I was trying to. I felt good about it, but I knew I didn't have that just, like, ready for Coca Cola type of team.
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A
You know, because there it is. There it is. Because as you say, oh, hard work, hard work. That's kind of bullshit.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And I'll tell you, you will never do great things if you're relying on you doing all the things right. And the only way you're going to do great things is if you get great people.
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B
Right.
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A
To do decent things and then better and then better and then great.
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B
Right.
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A
And then more.
- [03:10]
B
Right. Yeah. And that's exactly it. I was just kind of stuck. And. And. But now I've got the team that I'm so proud of. Just to say, look at them. Here they are. You know, they're here.
- [03:21]
A
Talk to me. Talk to me about how you did that, because it's one thing to say, well, I have. I got a team.
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B
Right.
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A
Talk to me how you built that team trust.
- [03:28]
B
Being clear on what we're doing and the mission and the vision and being clear of what the plan is in place. And as soon as we hit those KPIs or we hit those mile markers, we're all going to enjoy and benefit and work together and grow together. So, you know, having conversations with leadership and asking them, you know, where do you want to be in five, six years? And actually. Actually drafting out exactly the plan to get them exactly what they want. And. And, you know, I realized once I get them exactly what they want, you know, you know, hopefully they're down for the ride all the way through, you know, to get to be able to build.
- [04:07]
A
I love that your team is actually filming.
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B
Yeah.
- [04:09]
A
They're, like, listening. Like, that's. That's my favorite part. Because as you're talking about the vision, one of your guys is sitting in the back and he had his head down and he looked up in the smile on his face. It meant one of two things. One, you've relayed the vision to him, or two, he's really bought in. And I'll bet the latter of the two.
- [04:28]
B
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. My guys are awesome. Like, I'd take a bullet for them. They take a bullet for me kind of thing.
- [04:32]
A
That's kind of extreme.
- [04:33]
B
No, that's what. That's what I call it.
- [04:34]
A
Just in business. How about they just make money for us and we pay them all.
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B
There you go.
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A
That kind of exchange. You guys like that exchange better? Yeah, go ahead, please.
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C
I was just going to say, when you were talking about your vision, like, is that something that, that you had before you even started, like, like you just knew exactly where you're going and like, learning how to communicate that to the team, or is that something that was more organically developed with the people that you had as part of it? Getting clear on that?
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B
Honestly, I'll. I'll be completely honest. And this is just, you know, I could tell you that I could tell you the right. I could tell you the right political, you know, the media trained version of this. I knew the vision and I just had to know. The truth is.
- [05:08]
A
I know the truth.
- [05:09]
B
Yeah. The truth is I was just trying to keep the lights on. I mean, I was laid off from a job that was acquired, that got sold, and the new owners just didn't need our department anymore. So I was laid off and I did almost a decade. Everyone more or less knows my story, how I was the day one video producer over at Six Pack Shortcuts that got acquired. And then the new owners just, you know, they had another idea. And then I just felt like, wow, I gave all these all this time and years, and I mean, if you look at, I probably had close to two months of vacation time accumulated because I never took vacation. And when I did go, I was working. So they never count. They just said, dude, just roll it over. Because you worked through your vacation, then you're, you know, killing it with the VSLs, even when you're supposed to be on Christmas. You know, I just never stopped. You know, that's where I learned and sharpened my teeth on Hustle, Grind, doing whatever it takes. We have to convert that whole philosophy, that mentality. I learned it there. But once I was on the other side and had nothing, I just, you know, I had a conversation with my wife and she just told me the phone kept ringing. People just going, hey, what happened? Hey, what are you doing? Can you help us with this? I'm like, oh, yeah. Hey, can you help us with this? Yeah. And I honestly didn't even know how to build at the time. Didn't know what to do really. I was just thinking, okay, a six pack. I used to make this much, and if that's gonna take me two weeks, so if I could at least make this much, I cover my nut that I made a six pack. That was kind of it.
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C
Yeah.
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B
And then when I started Getting bombarded left to right. And I started saying yes. Now I found myself in a situation where I'm working on three projects, making 3x the amount, but, you know, eight hours a day times three is 24 hours. Yeah. So that. There you go. Hence me working 24 straight hours and sleeping for two, three hours and then going right back at it. And then I thought, okay, well, let me just hire some help. Reached out to some of the old employees at Six Pack. Some of them jumped on a few projects, helped me out, which was nice because it kept the. We already had a system in place, working together for almost a decade. Right, right. And then it was me now looking for help and just reaching out to people. And I didn't realize how hard that is. I didn't realize how much people tend to suck when they're the wrong ones. Just either they wanted to be in the position where they were me, or they just had another vision or they didn't give it their all, or they're trying to manage two, three clients, then I'm putting the back burner. So their delay made it seem like it was my delay. And then I realized, like, okay, wait a minute, I need to really focus on building a team. And I stopped looking for talent. I started looking for their fundamental values, you know, because I knew I could train talent. I'm amazing at what I do. But I needed that person that was down to get on his knees and hold the camera steady. That was down to get on his back under the car to get that shot. That was down to just put in the grinding hours and not complain and not, you know, just someone that's got a callous, tough, you know, because that's how I consider myself. And then once I started finding those people and we started essentially leaning on each other and working with each other, and that was the difference. It was really the people, I mean, I had. So they're working with the wrong people. I started getting the vision organically, like, okay. My vision is to become absolutely amazing at what we do with our quality, with how we deliver, and hopefully everything that we do. Converts, which, you know, that's not. We. You got to keep working. I think a good. A good VSL producer is what does he do when it doesn't convert? That's the question you have to ask because a lot of them tend to turn the cheek and just move on.
- [08:35]
C
Project.
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B
New project, new client.
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A
Sorry, responsibility.
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B
Yeah, no responsibility. And. And. And I'm willing to die on the sword for my clients. So if it doesn't Work. Let's keep grinding it out and figuring it out. And sometimes after three, four iterations of that now, I start questioning, like, well, what are you really doing with this video? Like, is there something else that's wrong? Because I don't think it's us. Like, that's where, like, you know, what kind of quality traffic are you getting? I had to learn the whole system. It worked. So I knew that the value that I brought to the table and how. Because there are people, how to guide.
- [09:05]
A
Them, how to make it work. Right.
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B
And there's people that drop the ball. Sometimes the copy's not great, you know, So I, I, I, I lean on amazing copywriters.
- [09:12]
A
I've stayed up with you overnight rewriting copy.
- [09:15]
B
Right.
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A
And you would think we've done that. Yes, we've done that.
- [09:18]
B
Yeah.
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A
While you were in the bathtub in the dark. Yeah, it's true. You were my, you were my. Perry Belcher is now the person who calls me from the bathtub. But you were my introduction to men who would call me from bath. Get help.
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B
Yeah, I think I was. Yeah. Because my body hurt from being in production all day, so I was soaking just to get enough strength for the next day. But essentially, I believe it happened. No, it's true. And just rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Because a lot of copywriters, they write what? And they. They're thinking what they're writing, but they don't speak it out loud. So when I go into production, people are going to triple over their words, stumble over certain sentences, and you're making.
- [09:56]
A
Them see what the copywriter saw without being the person who saw it when they wrote it, which is a phenomenal skill in itself. I want to go back for a second, because you were talking about how you identified who your avatar was, essentially what values they had by working with people who didn't work out. How did you ascend to that with your clientele? Did you do the same thing with your clientele? Did you find your avatar through who you didn't want to work with? How did you find. You have. You have an amazing book of clients now. You didn't before.
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B
Right.
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A
It was a tough time for you.
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B
Right.
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A
So I'd like to hear how you progressed from working with people that were difficult to work with, employing people that were difficult to work with, to where you got today, Where. I understand how you got to your employees, but how'd you get to the client side?
- [10:44]
B
So I first started internally, like, I knew I couldn't come to the table with the, the three legged dog that I had built. I was, we did do good stuff and we, I am proud of a lot of things that we did. But I do, I do, I did see a lot of now where I am now and I see how amazing we are now with our customer service. Our, our just our every Friday client update. We give an update with everything that we've done and our community. I mean we're just night and day of who we even were a year ago, but a year ago. And the sauce, the sausage tastes amazing. But, but, but, but just, you know.
- [11:18]
A
Kitchen was a mess.
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B
The kitchen was a mess.
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A
The kitchen was a mess.
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B
It was a mess. But the sausage tastes amazing. But the kitchen was a message.
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A
Did taste tastes great.
- [11:25]
B
Yeah. And, and, and it's sometimes, you know, I mean there's a lot of moving parts in vsl. I mean you're talking about copy, props, location, the crew, feeding everyone. The actor has to perform, sometimes the act. I mean a lot of times I get a lot.
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A
The room is too hot. If they didn't sleep well the night before.
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B
Yeah.
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A
If there's construction outside that you weren't anticipating.
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B
Yeah. And there's been a huge crescendo of these doctors on camera where. Hello, doctors aren't actors. You know, they sometimes some of them have never done anything like this. So you get them and they're just, just cold and hi, I'm Dr. So and so. And in this video we will talk. So how intimidating if you've never been on camera before. Yeah. So it me as a director, I have to just teach them the crescendos of, of the, the timing and the emotions in the Hills and Valleys to deliver a great performance where you captivate the audience, where you connect with the avatar. So directing them to do that, making sure that they're happy, they're good. They have coffee, they have water, they have makeup, they have hair that they're. You feel good nice and pressed. Right. It's a lot of juggling. So I knew, I knew when it came to, when it came to capturing those moments and going into the editing room, that's easy. The hard part was that capturing the magic to then going into the editing room. So once I actually focused and really broke it down. I mean, Emma's amazing at guiding me. I hired a business coach as well that's been guiding me and we really structured it. Okay. This is my fulfillment team. This is my sales and marketing team. This is my client account member, you know, account management. Yeah, account management. This is my so once we structured all the pieces and actually my leadership and everything, and we actually started doing daily huddles every day, and we. I got organized on that. Everyday. Daily huddles. What are you doing? What are you not. What are you doing? Let's work on this. Let's work on that. I have company meetings once a month just to see where are we, Are we hitting our KPIs? And once I felt like, okay, every. The sops are there. Everyone's on board. Everyone's crushing it, man. Now my guys are cutting stuff that inspire me. You know, I look at some of the stuff that they do and I go, bro, that's amazing. Like, my hands are. Wow. You know, they're getting creative. They're getting inspired. So now that I have the product and the team, and I know for a shadow of a doubt they're just, the system's there, everything's good. Now finding the clients is. We're ready.
- [13:44]
A
The right clients.
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B
Yeah, the right clients.
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A
Because you always had clients.
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B
Yeah, I've always had clients.
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A
That was never a problem.
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B
Yeah. No.
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A
And honestly, getting people to pay you isn't a problem.
- [13:50]
B
No.
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A
Getting the right people to pay you.
- [13:52]
B
Right. Yeah. And that's the thing. It's. It's just always had clients, never had a problem, always made a good amount of money, and I was able to reinvest it and get it, get the team going. But, you know, there I wasn't getting the client, my dream clients. Right now I'm getting my dream clients. And, and it's just after four months of working with them, it just becomes easy. We're calibrated. We feel like one unit. We feel like one team. I feel like they kind of. We work for them in a way, and they just love us. You know, they. They tell us, dude, you guys are killing it. We're so happy with the communication. I mean, they're saying, my account manager, they're sending him direct messages saying, I just want to tell you we appreciate your professionalism and you're on top of it. Chris is lucky to have you. Like, I'm getting people screenshotting my team screen and shouting messages of my clients, messaging them, saying, thanks so much. Yeah, you know, I, I now, now we're doing productions in multiple cities at the same time, so we can have a production happening in Austin while having one happening in Detroit, while having another one happening in la, while having one happening in Atlanta, while having one happen in Miami. So, I mean, we've juggled up to four different production at the Exact same time, actually, we're here, and there's something happening in Austin, Texas, right now.
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A
Someone's shooting a vso, and that's where it's at. Right. And so it's not about to grind.
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B
No.
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A
You have to have the work hard in order to get somewhere so you can actually afford to pay people. But, like, I'm so proud of you.
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B
Thank you.
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A
Like, no, I'm so. I'm so proud of you. And I'm just. I've loved to see you grow. In all honesty, had no idea that you would be able to grow this thing as fast as you did. And it was funny because I'd be like, chris, you need a bookkeeper. And then a week later, I'd be like, do you have a bookkeeper? Just because I was being a bitch and I. Yeah, I hired one the day you told me to.
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C
Oh, okay.
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A
Okay. Chris, you need an SOP for this. Oh, no, no, I got one. No, you don't. Here it is. I got one. You told me to write it, I wrote it. Your speed of implementation is why. Is why you were able to build such a phenomenal big thing. That's a machine, and it's a machine now.
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B
Oh, for sure.
- [16:00]
A
I. I know. I see it, and I'm just so proud of you. Like, again, your speed of implementation.
- [16:07]
B
I learned that at six pack, too. Like, I did, because I remembered when we were in situations where I got to give a little credit there, because we were in situations where, let's say, you know, Mike Chang said, hey, I'm no longer want to be in front of the camera. Sorry, I'm out. And it just didn't work out. We were like, how do we keep selling this? We don't have the Nike. I mean, Johnson Lee says this all the time. Here's the sneaker. It had Nike on it. We rip off the Nike sign, and.
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A
You still got to sell it for the same price.
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B
Sneaker. Yeah. So that we. We had to move 7 10x as fast because we were absolutely bleeding. And that grind went. You know, I learned it there. So now on this side, like, I knew it's. You feel it in the pit of your stomach, like, the certain gear that you have to be at to push things through, break certain barriers. And I knew, okay, I am going to go full throttle. And me feeling that. Okay, there it is. There's. There's that nerve in my gut. I know I'm there. I'm going full, you know, and so me understanding what that gear that was and just, you know communicating to them and teaching them what gear that is. We don't turn it on all the time now because now systems and processes and learning from her made, made it so much easier now and then just also 3xing. My team too made a huge difference. If you think you can knock something out and the time you think you can knock it out with the team that you think you have, you're probably either two things are going to happen. It's going to be super easy because the task was super small or it's going to be super hard because the task is super big. So the only way to guarantee that you could absolutely make it and make it easier for yourself is really tripling down on quality people and just understanding that, you know, if like right now, I'll give you an example, like we're here and we ended up knocking out, I mean if you don't mind me kind of speaking to them a little bit. But, but like how many VSLs and ads you think we've knocked out in the last month?
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A
Eight VSLs in one month. You know it used to take him like two months to do one. So that's, yeah, it's incredible.
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B
But when it comes to AI voice generated stuff. Oh dude, we could do like. Yeah, we're in the hundreds for sure. Yeah, that's, that's not, that's not hard at all.
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C
But being able to film and get all that.
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B
Yeah, being able to film, coordinate actual production. Because the thing about a vsl when you're with a doctor or anyone, a VSL that hasn't been in front of the camera, you're at least a average of four days. I've worked with some people that can knock out a VSL in, in one and a half hours which is, that's, that's, that's doesn't, it's not the norm.
- [18:24]
A
That's insane.
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B
Yeah, that's insane.
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A
That's this side of the world. Right. And that's not, it's not reality for most people.
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B
I, I honestly have only worked with three people in my whole career that have been able to do that. Everyone else is an average about three to four days. Wow. Just because they're not used to being in front of the camera. They're not. So when you, you know, eight VSLs, eight different productions.
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A
But that, that level of human.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Creates a whole separate level of crazy.
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B
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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A
Oh yeah, right.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And this is. Let's get the right clients that take three days.
- [18:52]
B
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, it's really amazing how now we essentially get to pick our own clients and we've. I've said no to so many people. I really have. Like, when they call me up and they have an amazing budget and I go, wow, yeah, you're kind of right up there. And then when I start seeing exactly everything that they have in place, I just tell them, sometimes you're not ready for a vsl, and they. And they think that they are, and I have to be smart enough to tell them you're not. And then the ones that are ready and we align. It's absolute magic.
- [19:24]
A
Yeah, that's great. It's awesome. It's nice when you have enough business that you can work with who you want to work with, when you want to work with. We were just talking to Kasum Islam and he was just saying. I didn't remember how we got there, but he was saying, it's really great when you have enough money, you can just fire clients because their voice pisses you off. Right.
- [19:44]
C
Here's a stack of cash.
- [19:46]
A
Right? Chris, it's been freaking awesome having you on. I've loved our friendship and our. We're vendors foreign to each other. I've watched you grow, you've watched me grow. We've had just a great journey, and I can't wait to see what the next year brings. Thanks for coming on Special Ops, awesome Podcast and God, can I offer something?
- [20:08]
B
Sure.
- [20:09]
A
Can I?
- [20:09]
B
Sure.
- [20:10]
A
You ready? I'm you up real quick.
- [20:12]
B
I know.
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A
Okay, so for our listeners, if you're interested in Chris or VSL ads and you would like to hear how working with him could change your business, he'll do a free audit.
- [20:24]
B
Yes, absolutely.
- [20:25]
A
And so you can check out his information@special podcast.com. all of the information will be there that you can get to get your free audit to uplevel your VSLs, your ads, and your overall video content. So thank you, Chris, for popping over and, dude, I just love you.
- [20:46]
B
Thank you. Love you guys so much. Yeah, for real. I've learned so much from you guys, honestly, so I appreciate it. Yeah.