Action - Distinction Agency

Company: Distinction Agency
Owners: Alex Onaindia
Year Started: 2018
Employees: 1-10 (Emerging)

On this episode, we have Alex Onaindia, CEO and Co-Founder of Distinction Agency – a full-service marketing agency that specializes in athlete and influencer marketing based out of Orlando, Florida.

Alex shares how their approach to storytelling and authenticity helps separate them from other traditional forms of advertisements and agencies. Including capturing a real-time viral moment during the game of one his NFL clients.

As a first-time founder, he shares his challenges in navigating aspects such as accounting and the other non-glamorous aspects of running a business . However, once he learned to balance creative fun and business mechanics, life got a whole lot easier. 

Enjoy the story.

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story. Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I'm your host Russel. On this episode, we have Alex Onaindia, CEO and co-founder of Distinction Agency. A full service marketing agency that specializes in athlete and influencer marketing based out of Orlando, Florida. Alex shares how their approach to storytelling and authenticity helps separate them from other traditional forms of advertisements and agencies. Including capturing a real-time viral moment during the game of one of his NFL clients. As a first time founder, he shares his challenges and navigating aspects such as accounting and the other non-glamorous parts of running a business. However, once he learned to balance creative fun and business mechanics, life got a whole lot easier. Enjoy the story.

Russel: 1:24

Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Alex Onaindia with Distinction Agency. Thank you so much for joining us today, Alex.

Alex: 1:30

Thanks for having me, Russel.

Russel: 1:31

Right off the gate, start us with a quick overview. What does Distinction Agency do and who do you do it for?

Alex: 1:35

Distinction Agency, we started five years ago, focused on athlete and influencer marketing. We work with a variety of professional and collegiate athletes across a variety of different sports. Football, basketball, soccer, Olympic sports like track and field, gymnastics, ice skating. We also work with collegiate athletes now in various sports too. We also work with content creators and influencers. These are individuals who are notable for their social media presence and following. Many of them are actors, models, reality TV stars. Others are content creators that started with a mic and a camera and have built a following on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram in all different categories, whether that's health and wellness, food and beverage, travel, technology. We've built out a diverse roster of creators we work with and that has allowed us to work with a lot of different brand partners too, across all different industries, fortune 500 companies and emerging startups.

Russel: 2:30

I'll definitely have to hear more about all that. Normally we'd go back in time, but I got to ask one controversial question right at the gate. NIL. Good or bad?

Alex: 2:38

Great. I think the NCAA has been making money off student athletes for a very long time, and it's a great opportunity for athletes to own their name and image and likeness and create opportunities. You're seeing student athletes do good with it too. It's not money in their pockets, but many times putting money in the community, teammates and everybody around them, their family as well.

Russel: 2:57

There we have it. Definitive answer from Alex. Go back in time. What were you doing long before you started Distinction? What did life look like back then?

Alex: 3:04

I went to Florida State University, I studied sports management there. I always knew I wanted to work in sports in some capacity. Before college, I thought it was going to be working for a team in the front office, a scout or general manager or whatever it might be. Identifying players and working with teams. My first real foray into marketing and public relations was with a boutique PR firm out of Tallahassee when I was in school. The owner was previously the managing editor of Sports Illustrated, knowledgeable guy, built a great small team that was focused on emerging trends with social media and the opportunities that brought athletes and brands. I loved it. I thought the storytelling aspect was cool. Timing was great for me, that internship was around 2012. Social media was very still new. A lot of senior executives didn't know it or didn't believe it would grow to what it is today. I think that the primary platforms at that time were Facebook and Twitter, we didn't have Instagram or TikTok then. I was fascinated by it. It was something I was intrigued by. I thought it was a great opportunity to dive deeper. After graduating, I had a corporate comm stint at Edelman, learned a lot about how big agencies work and everything that goes on there. I then moved to Miami, worked with an emerging agency that was working with a lot of innovative consumer brands, and I was able to do a lot of cool partnerships that involve talent, endorsing those brands, whether it was athletes or influencers, managing that brand strategy from content, public relations, opportunities, media events, and ultimately amplifying those partnerships. On the weekends, I was working part time with the Miami Dolphins and their communications department, meeting anybody I could networking, working literally not for the money, for the experience of saying, I know what it's like in a communications department in the NFL. That gave me a great opportunity to network with all different types of media, team executives, agents, all different people. Did that for three seasons while I was working at the agency too. Around 2017, 2018, started to get that entrepreneurial itch. I saw this creator economy building a lot of athletes. Every athlete has contract agents that handle their on the field, most of them are lawyers. They're legal minds who are great at negotiating team deals, but they're not as focused on marketing. Saw opportunity there and then saw a lot of opportunity with influencer marketing. That was still very new, wild west, like NIL is now. You'd have two YouTube creators and one would get paid 10,000 dollars for a video and the other would do it for free product. There was no kind of rhyme or reason to it. I was like, if we could blend athlete marketing, working with cool athletes, telling their stories, and also work with these creators and influencers, I think we'd have a unique offering and it would open doors for a lot of brands. It wouldn't limit us to a brand that only wants to work with football players or only this or only that. Building that diverse roster was the thesis and how we started and have gotten to where we are.

Russel: 5:51

What seems unique already about your case is a lot of people have this more happenstance, wayward path to what eventually leads to entrepreneurship. Sounds like everything you were doing was building towards, intentional or not, what you're doing today.

Alex: 6:02

At the time, I knew if I worked hard, good things would happen, right? If you put yourself in the room, you do good work, you build a reputation, things will happen. I didn't know it would be what it is today. I wanted to ultimately learn from as many people as possible. I was hungry. My father's a first generation immigrant. I saw his work ethic, everything that he put in to build our family and support us. Seeing that work ethic for me, I think, definitely helped as well.

Russel: 6:29

When you made the decision to start, was it more seeing the market opportunity emerge? Was it the notion of, hey, I'm working this hard. I might as well go do it for my own betterment, not the man, as they say? What was the primary motivation for you to make the jump?

Alex: 6:41

It definitely wasn't money. It was the freedom to build and offer these client services the way I thought they should be and do the things we wanted to do and not be stuck in a box where you're an account manager, you're going to manage these three or four accounts and go home. I wanted to be exposed to everything. I think what was interesting about entrepreneurship was the freedom it could bring. The opportunity that, I wanted to go to this conference so I could go to this conference. I didn't need a sign off from my boss or whatever that might be. To structure and build and pivot along the way. I think it has not been a linear path. There's certainly been some times where we've made adjustments, and that was always intriguing to me too. It was the freedom to build and adapt that pulled me in.

Russel: 7:25

Right out the gate, you were started in the same market industry you're in now? Or were you more diverse at the beginning?

Alex: 7:31

I would say in the beginning, we were pigeonholed a little bit by the talent we could sign, meaning it was tough to get the first athlete and the first influencer and then the second. Strengths ultimately led to our first branded content, brand partnership opportunities. We did a lot in health and wellness. Obviously that makes sense for athletes, also influencers. Before the pandemic, we were doing a lot in hospitality with different resorts and hotels. That's picked up again over the last six months or so. Definitely went on pause for a while. Over time we've been able to do so much more in different industries with businesses of all types because of the diversity of our roster. The talent and our team has opened those doors and it's given us the ability to work all different types of companies. Even recently we ran a campaign for a hearing aid company. You hear that and you're like, what's the influencer angle there? But their whole campaign was around that hearing loss can happen to young people from going to concerts or sporting events, it's not just senior citizens that are affected. Over time we've done a lot because our team's creativity as well.

Russel: 8:31

Working with a lot of athletes and influencers, what's the best part and the worst part about having that as your clientele?

Alex: 8:37

I think the best part is every day is unique. There is no boring days working with that clientele. There's some amazing things that will come from it. An example I can give you is one of our influencers, I'll give him a shout out on here. His name's Blue L ace French. He's become a good friend of mine too. Over the years, we worked together for several years. He's built an incredible Instagram following, like 3.6 million followers. Uber kid knows everybody in every city we seem to go to, one of those guys who's done well for himself. We were at a photo shoot in Chicago for a brand we were working with in 2021. They're all day doing photo, video shoot. The NBA finals are simultaneously going on. We wrap up the shoot around 6p.m. We were supposed to go to dinner. He's like, got two tickets sent to me to the finals in Milwaukee, you want to go? I'm like, of course I want to go. Games in an hour. We're in Chicago. Games in Milwaukee. It was like almost a two hour drive. We got there the middle of the second quarter, we're walking down, we're in like the fifth row behind the basket. There's all these celebrities and we had finished up a shoot. The best part is things like that will happen where it's, how did that happen? Luckily it's a enjoyable part of the job. I would say the worst part, and this is not directed at anyone in particular, but the worst part is great at what they do. Let's use athletes for example, they are the best at the beats of very high expectations in everything in life. If you're the best at your craft, you're one of the most talented, top 500 football players in the world, right? You're used to everything being excellent. Sometimes with marketing deals, there can be ebbs and flows. There can be slow months and great months. There can be things that happen outside of our control, economic factors or things going wrong in a company's budget gets cut after we had already verbally agreed to the term. That can be the hard part, letting them down. They like everything going great and controlling what they can control. Sometimes with marketing and the nature of our business, you don't want to let anybody down and unfortunately that can happen, whether it's your fault or the brand you're working with, or external factors, even we had with the pandemic a couple of years ago, but overall, it's a pleasure to work with them. They make me better because, like I said, they're the best so it makes you want to be as good as you can possibly be.

Russel: 10:40

I can definitely say none of my clients ever in the agencies took me to a Milwaukee or NBA finals game in a different city on the fly. I can certainly appreciate the positive sides of that. The fickle nature of fame and playing at that level is a fascinating beast as well. What are you trying to accomplish long-term with the business? What do you think the future looks like for you?

Alex: 10:59

Yeah, I think it's two part. Number one, it's continuing to deliver great service while growing and scaling the business. That's something I'm very cognizant of is making sure we're still giving great service as we grow. It's a challenge for any agency. I think something you have to manage. The second piece of that is strategic growth. We want to take on the right clients, partners. In the beginning you say yes to almost anybody who will sign a contract, right? You're taking them on the ride and you want to grow, but now it's a lot more strategic. We want to work with the right people long term that are ultimately us to where we want to be. For me, everything's on the table, but the most important thing is we're working with the right people and growing ultimately I think from them decisions and opportunities available.

Russel: 11:37

You're saying you're not going to represent me in my rec softball career. Am I not an ideal client for Distinction Agency?

Alex: 11:43

I'll decide.

Russel: 11:46

All right, another time. If you could go back and share something with yourself in a previous version of your journey, what would that advice be?

Alex: 11:54

It would be to not neglect business owner aspects of the agency. You know, top of the numbers, your balance sheet, forecast ing, all of that lost in the fun of creating these campaigns, the content and going to these events and doing all you enjoy. Staying on top of the ins and outs of the business and over time, especially being a first time founder.

Russel: 12:11

Was there a turning point where you, I don't know if you got your lesson in the school of hard knocks about the need to focus on those things? What did that look like for you in figuring that out finally?

Alex: 12:20

I think it was around the time of the pandemic. The reason I say that is we were in'19 and into'20 and I think that was a wake up call for the world stopped for us, the athletes, sports stopped, everything slowed down and was paused or canceled altogether. It made me reflect and be like, okay, what now? What does that look like? My business partner and I, we've been more intentional in making sure we do more frequently to go over everything internally as owners. That was the wake up call. It's like, when you're moving fast, cool things are happening. You think it's always going to keep going up. Fumbles back. Okay. What opportunities are there? Fortunately we were able to rebound quickly. Social media, it's all still growing tremendously. It was a short term setback, but I think of the experienced to say, okay, this thing that's out of our control is happening, but it has this ripple effect and we have these five, six brands that this month have put in a pause or a cancel for various reasons and these athletes are no longer playing their sports and can't go to the Olympics or can't do this. That changes everything. The Olympics is a great example. We were gearing up for the 2020 summer games. We had three clients participate. We're selling all these cool sponsorships and actions around Tokyo. Tokyo is done. That's gone. Fortunately that came back a year and a half later or whatever it was, but it was challenging.

Russel: 13:29

I can't even imagine in a world where pretty much that shut down. More so probably than any other aspect of the economy was with sports and events like that. You mentioned you have a business partner. Obviously that sounds like that partnership's going well. What's been the key to your success? Are you guys the yin and yang or like minds?

Alex: 13:47

We had worked together previously at another agency and I think that helps to know somebody's strengths and weaknesses. We play off one another and assist and can play that good cop, bad cop sometimes we need if we do it and vice versa. Sometimes you need that, whether it's with brands or talent, whatever the case might be, to support you through the good and the bad. We're friends too. Can imagine, and I haven't been in that situation, but being a soloist gets lonely sometimes, and you're worrying about all this and internalizing.

Russel: 14:10

Last big question for you, Alex, are entrepreneurs born or are they made?

Alex: 14:13

It's a good question. I think they're made, I think some of the natural traits you can be born with, but I think it's made over time. It's something that it's not taught, but you take a little of this, a little of that, get that itch. Ultimately I think you're made.

Russel: 14:27

I love a good made answer. that's probably very close to where I net out on the question, but I always hear something new and fascinating thought behind it. Thank you for sharing that. If people want to know more about Distinction Agency, where can they go?

Alex: 14:37

They can visit our website, Distinction Agency.

Russel: 14:39

What a fascinating industry and approach you've taken to your business and your entire career. I appreciate you taking the time to share all that. Thank you again so much for being on the show today, Alex.

Alex: 14:48

Thanks for having me, Russel.

14:52

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.

Alex: 15:27

We had a viral moment to happen with one of our NFL clients this past season. He was playing in London against the Packers, he plays for the New York Giants. They were playing in a stadium that's not usually available, where typically a player would go in and get treatment from the trainer. The trainer did it his own hands. His rear end was exposed within an hour or two on Twitter and social millions of views. His name's Darnay Holmes. If you Google it, you will certainly find it. We think around 20 million views at one point where we're like, all right, start texting my partner, Jonathan. What do we do with this? We three way texted Darnay after the game, hey, have you seen the video? He's over in London. They're about to fly back to New York a little while later. He's on the team plane. He's, yeah, everyone's making fun of me. They've all seen it. It's all over so I think we could monetize this. We could either lean into this with a brand partner or we could hide from it, but we suggest leaning in. He's like, all right, let's do it. We knew it wasn't like a cold pitch where we could google cold call everybody. We got a couple different offers from different brands and vetted it out within about 12 hours to deal with an NFT company and he tweeted his reaction to the video, not what it seems. I'm gonna make an NFT of this moment with Memento, NFT. That response then was in Fox, CBS, New York Post, ESPN. There was a three minute segment on the Pat McAfee show, it went completely viral that he was going to NFT that moment. It was one of those, lightning struck at the right time. We had no control over it. It was silly. It was goofy, but leaning into it he got a nice check out of it. It was a good partnership for the brand too. They got a ton of exposure. It was a fun moment that happened this football season.

Russel: 16:48

One testament to the power of leaning in. As they say, no publicity is bad publicity, especially if you make the best of it.