An Agency Story

When Playing Defense Wins the Game - Red Egg Marketing

• Russel Dubree / Ryan Ellis • Episode 151

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Company: Red Egg Marketing

Guests: Ryan Ellis

Year Started: 2011

Employees: 11-25

Growing an agency doesn’t always come from chasing the newest trends, it often comes from mastering the basics. In this episode, Ryan Ellis, Founder of Red Egg Marketing, shares how focusing on client relationships, intentional growth, and sticking to fundamentals helped him build a business that lasts. 

 Key Takeaways

  • How low expenses gave Ryan the freedom to experiment and gain experience
  • Why retention and consistency matter more than chasing quick wins
  • The overlooked value of knowing when to let go of the wrong client

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.

Russel:

When it comes to growing your agency, how focused are you on the fundamentals? Welcome to An Agency Story podcast. I'm your host Russel. In today's episode, I sit down with Ryan Ellis, founder of Red Egg Marketing, a full service agency for small and medium sized businesses based out of Denver, Colorado. Ryan's journey from scrappy side hustles and pro bono work to building his agency is a testament to a slow and steady attention to the fundamentals. We'll dive into how retention became the secret sauce for Red Egg, the power of slow and intentional scaling, and why sometimes the most important move you can make is firing the wrong client. You'll definitely wanna listen to the story at the end for an interesting take about giving a potential client, a ride. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today everyone. I have Ryan Ellis with Red Egg Marketing with us here today. Thank you so much for joining us today, Ryan.

Ryan:

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Russel:

My pleasure as well. Looking forward to a great conversation. But if you don't mind, start us off. What does Red Egg do and who do you do it for?

Ryan:

Red Egg is a full service marketing agency. We work primarily with small and medium sized businesses. We act as their partner and resource. We provide, uh, kind of everything that a small, medium size business would need, including, uh, web development, branding, marketing strategy, and also doing the implementation. Kind of a one stop shop.

Russel:

All right. We're gonna dig so much more into all of those aspects of your business, but, uh, as per usual, want to hear about what young Ryan was doing in his life and where he was headed. What did you want to be, and what were the early days of Ryan Ellis like?

Ryan:

I always wanted to own a small business, but I could never, uh, I could, I never really knew what it was going to be you know what I was gonna do, but I, I always had a, an interest in it. I remember as a as a kid working at a ice cream shop, there were all these broken waffle cones and I crushed'em all up and I tried to sell it as waffle topping. They let me sell it for one day and it was super fun and, creating this new thing and new topping. It went well, but they said, yeah, that was fun, but we're not gonna sell it anymore. I said, okay, well this is why I wanna work for myself someday.

Russel:

No one to deny your amazing and innovative product.

Ryan:

Yeah, waffle topping. And you know what, um, there's an ice cream shop up in Winter Park that we go to and they have waffle topping, you know, so.

Russel:

What could have been?

Ryan:

Get prepared America. It's coming.

Russel:

I used to not appreciate waffle, uh, you know, either just a cone or, or even as a topping in, in my ice cream journeys. But now I, I do appreciate a lot more. I think it adds a good little compliment to when you're having ice cream. I'm, I'm about this. It's never too late to rekindle those long lost entrepreneurial dreams. all right. Well, I assume, you know, obviously a young entrepreneur at heart. What path did you follow that's gonna lead us up at least close to when you decided to start the agency.

Ryan:

I went to, uh, college and thought, you know, that I, I'd be really interested in doing, uh, doing marketing. I, you know, enrolled as a marketing major. In my marketing 101 class, the professor said, you know, you could, uh, you could do anything you wanted to do in the textbook. Write a paper, your final paper on it. I wanted to do grassroots marketing. It was this little paragraph of kind of, you know, word of mouth, grassroots style marketing. He said that was a, not a great idea and I should do something else. It was more, commonplace. I wrote the paper on it. I interviewed a, a mentor of mine that, started a, a auto parts company from going to flea markets and selling them through, over the phone off of his kitchen table and turned it into a, multimillion dollar enterprise. And, I thought the paper turned out really well, but he gave me a real mediocre grade on it and I said, well, this isn't for me. I ended up abandoning that thought, so I went and became an econ, uh, major instead, still knowing that I wanted to start my own business someday, not necessarily go work for Proctor and Gamble or whatever. Graduated into the Great Recession. Decided to come out to Colorado and be a ski bum. Did the ski bum thing for a couple years. Met my now wife, moved down to Denver. Thought that I might wanna work in the ski industry. Couldn't really come up with anything. I guess if I could take a step back, um, while I was working up there, I worked at a, at a golf course with some, you know, real fancy people, um, that went there. I park cars that were worth more than, you know, houses. One of the members there invited all US guest service kids, uh, to her house. I was talking with her and I was like, you know, telling her my ideas and how I might wanna work in the ski industry and, you know, maybe start a ski brand or something cool like that, or a T-shirt company is what I was thinking about at the time. She looked at me and she said, no one comes to Vail to make it, they make it and come to Vail and then that's when I decided to move down to the city where there might be more opportunity and go after something here. Moved down to Denver. Worked in a bike shop thinking I would, uh, become a, you know, maybe run a bike shop someday or work in the bike industry. I kept trying to, you know, dabble in things I love doing, um, but realized that maybe I, maybe working in those industries wasn't for me. But while I was at the bike shop, I started, finding all the service repair tickets. People put their emails on it and I put'em all into a Word document and started sending out mass BCC emails, you know, through, to, to everyone who had been a customer over the last 10 years. I'd sell a bike. I'd post, uh, about a new bike that we had on Facebook and people would, drive, you know, miles, uh, to come pick up that specific bike.'Cause we were the only ones who had it. And I just realized that, this little stuff was making a huge difference for this small business. What if I could just find other small businesses that needed this kind of help? That's, what finally gave me the idea of if I can't figure out, you know, what business I wanted to start, I could start a business where I get to work in everyone else's business and, you know, help them.

Russel:

I mean, It really does just sound like an extenuation of what you were, what you were already doing, of just trying, getting some of this flexibility of other industries and, and business types and, so a lot more natural progression than you probably sounds like maybe you initially thought or felt.

Ryan:

It makes sense in hindsight. I can see how it all works together. But yeah, if you'd asked me what I'd be doing, you know, young Ryan, I'll say, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. I had no idea up until it, you know, finally clicked, I guess.

Russel:

There is no timetable for, for clicking or, or figuring ourselves out. To the point, I don't know if I've figured myself out. We'll, We'll see. I've been really intrigued on TikTok now by like, hotdog stand videos or these little burrito making stands. I mean, I, I could see myself doing that.

Ryan:

Totally. That would be great. I haven't given up my, uh, dream of doing ice cream either, you know.

Russel:

Yeah. I'm just really just curious is, you know, the story of, you said this woman told you, and you know, as the, as you share it, this had a profound impact. You said, well, get me outta here and I'm gonna go somewhere else and, and, you know, try to make it or whatever. Can you really point back to like that quote and that advice and, and, that propelled you down a completely different path?

Ryan:

I grew up in a small town in rural New Hampshire. I always knew that I kind of wanted to go to the city, you know, and, and see what that was all about. I stopped off in, in Vail for, for fun and it was a job, you know, there weren't a lot of jobs for people fresh outta college at the time, especially in like the financial sector, which is where most of the econ people went. so I was like, well, if I could go skiing and get paid for it, that sounds, that sounds pretty good. But I, I, I think I had bigger ambitions and it was, it was that moment when I, you know, I looked around our house and I was like, man, this is a nice house. You know, I wanted a little bit more than scraping by with, one, one paycheck went to rent, the other went to food and beer. It's just like, got old after a while.

Russel:

I mean, a little jealous. I only came to skiing a few years ago, but I absolutely loved it. I also feel like I want to go live some ski bum life, at some point too. I've got a lot of things I gotta do here, apparently is what I'm coming out from this episode. but. The power of, you know, what we can say to people, to, um, is always, that's always just a good reminder of how we can help them with our words and probably some cases someone has said something that, uh, did not help someone. But just remember that when we're talking with a young, inspiring folks out there. All these things lined up, started doing marketing for folks. Do you consider that the official start of your agency? Or just kind of talk us through some of those early progression of the early time period in years.

Ryan:

Well, I was fortunate. As I mentioned, when I was in, when I got that mediocre grade on the, the, the paper, that was the same year that Facebook came out, which was, you know, businesses were using that as word of mouth grassroots marketing, and it's turned into, you know, one of the top places to, to get noticed these days for businesses. So, By the time I, uh, when I was ready to start this marketing agency, nobody knew what they were doing, when it came to social media. I kinda just had to hone my skills into, you know, how I could leverage it, uh, to help, help clients. So, you know, It started with just a computer and, you know, I identified what I wanted to sell. Social media services, build websites, do some email marketing. So Then it was just about teaching myself how to do it, um, so I got a HTML CSS book For Dummies. Started, you know, learning how to do that. Writing posts for social media and, and, uh, I, I guess, if I go back, it was, I, I had to hustle. I had to find people who were willing to let me do this for them. And That meant I did it for free. I found, you know, the bike shop. I was kind enough to let me take over all their stuff. I didn't get paid for it, I guess, I guess you could say. I got whatever they were paying me, you know, hourly to be there at the bike shop. But, um, I started working. Submitted a contact form at the Denver Chamber of Commerce. They called me back right away. He invited me to a business after hours that was happening that night. I was like, ah, I dunno, that isn't, isn't for me. I just wanted to ask some questions about it and, and, uh, she convinced me to go. I went and, uh, just started talking to people. I met a guy who sold popsicles and he liked what I had to say, but he didn't have any money to pay for it. I didn't have any clients, so if he was gonna be a client, I'd just do it for free. Pay me whatever you thought I was worth. And so That's kind of where I got, where I got started. Did a lot of just pro bono stuff, make some money throws on my way. I even worked for an artist that I was connected with and uh, he paid me 15% of anything he sold on Facebook. He would sell stuff for 20 bucks and so I'd just get a, he'd throw me a few bucks here and there. but It gave me the practice and the practical experience in order to have the confidence for when somebody finally, you know, gave me the, the chance or, to work for them.

Russel:

Another theme kind of coming up in this conversation is hindsight. At the time when you're doing that, how do, how are you balancing that idea of like, hey, I'm doing this all for experience. I'm happy to do it at whatever I can get income wise, or was it, hey, I'll do whatever I need to do to get any income to, to scrape by? I guess if you think of that as a teeter-totter, how much of one was the real driving factor there?

Ryan:

I was working while starting the agency. I was working a few days at the bike shop. I had cheap rent. My car was paid for. I was pretty frugal. I didn't need a lot of money. I had maybe two grand in my checking account for rainy day, you know, to try to get by. so For me it was more about could I get some people on my client list so that when someone looked at my website, they'd see that, you know, they weren't the first. Even my, you know, the first website I built, I think I charged$500 for something like that. And it's still up. I still host it, um, for a wedding venue from my small town. But it was just that kind of stuff that, you gave me the experience so that when, you know, one of my first big clients finally, finally found me, you know, I was, I was ready.

Russel:

I love that. I mean, It just reinforces this idea of, I think for anyone starting a business is just how important experience is. We're just not, we, we know a trade and we know a thing or two. We don't know the 50 other things that we've gotta learn just about how to present ourselves, how to get people to understand the service we're doing. How to deliver that in a way that's healthy and effective and just all these millions of things that sounds like you had to go through. And then just runway, I mean, setting ourselves up for success. You sound like you did it from a place of lower, lower expenses and you know, some frugalness if you will. But we've gotta give ourselves some runway to figure that out. If we can do that in a slightly more meaningful way, then, uh, you know, starting out the gate and having bigger clients and just, and then say screw it up, per se, is, and I don't know if I like that word or not, but, um, you know, we might, it might lead us down some bad outcomes versus we can more gradually get there to, to a good product. may, Maybe it was early on, but when was the point when you're like, oh, I've got this now. I feel like I'm, I don't wanna say there, but, uh, this is a real thing. This is what I'm going to do for indefinite period of time.

Ryan:

I think I knew that this is what I was gonna do. I remember holding that first check in my hands being like, I created this. You know what I mean? Nobody just paid this to me, you know, because I showed up to work. I found this client. I sold them on the work. I did the work and I delivered the, the result and they were happy with it and, you know, paid me money. I was like, I like this feeling, I like that I created this. As far as your other parts of the question of when did I feel like I really get it, that was probably pretty recently. you know, It's like sometimes I'm still wondering do I know what I'm doing? One thing that's made a difference to me is I got a little feather in your cap, but, um, you know, working with a business coach, um, over the past year has been really valuable for me. Because, uh, it gave me some confidence of like, oh yeah, you know, I am performing up to the benchmarks. This is a real agency that, you know, we can compete with anyone out there. I'd say that moment was, you know, pretty recently, you know, that we, that I finally got the confidence to say, we can do anything.

Russel:

I think slow and intentional is clearly how you've gone about your path. You of described there as getting a business coach and, and kinda what that was valid for you. And By the way, I'm, I'm all about team business coach and what I think the value of that is in my own personal experience and, and why a big part of what I do. What in that time period between your first employee and making that decision where you needed just some more validation What was going on that made you maybe feel like you weren't up to par or weren't up to snuff?

Ryan:

That's a good question. When you run a business, there's a lot of ups and downs as far as you know, what your take home pay is ultimately, right? There's a lot of second guessing decisions on should I hire another person or should I, you know, how do I fix this problem? It was just getting to the point where I was like, man, I'd really like to just know, you know, how this agency is performing compared to others? I'd like to know, you know, is there a better way than we're busy? I feel like I need to hire somebody. Is there a better way to look at, what, how the business is doing? Should we be hiring another person or, based on financials, you know, things like that, that just, just someone who has some experience in that, was really helpful.

Russel:

Ultimately as you're kind of making that decision, and I assume there was a process leading up to that. Was that a tough decision to make or were you at such a point where you're just so uncertain, unsure, or felt like you needed it? Kind of just tell us how you've been arrived at this is, this is how I'm going to make this investment in improving the business.

Ryan:

As far as scaling, so previously, like you said, it's been slow growing over the years and you know, it's partially by design. I don't work 80 hours a week. I think I have a good family work life balance, but I did want to grow when I felt like we finally got in a position where we could, you know, take on some bigger clients and, and, and grow in that way. And I just wanted to make sure that I had all my processes in place and that it, that everything was prepared for that because the last thing I wanted to do was, you know, implode because we took on too much work, too fast and, um, weren't prepared. you know, Looking at the organizational structure and looking at, the team and, and where, where I needed to, to fill in. That was kind of the impetus for, for reaching out to someone to have that kind of second set of eyes on things. Someone who scaled something before or grown something before.

Russel:

I'm gonna kind of summarize what I'm, what I'm taking to hear there is it wasn't necessarily from a place of, oh, frustration. I don't have this figured out or, or were the business even a bad place? It was, no, I, I know I want to grow and I want to move it, you know, beyond where it's at today. I'd like some assurance and in maybe some ways insurance that, that I'm gonna do that in a healthy, meaningful way so they don't actually end up in a bad spot. Is that a, a fair summary?

Ryan:

Yeah. Red Egg has been, you know, profitable since year one and, continues to, to grow. It really was, you know, I, I hired one person each year essentially since I hired my first person, and this year we hired three people. It's been a busy, busy year.

Russel:

Obviously clearly some things had to be working because I, if I, if I read my, my notes correctly, that 2023 was an exceptional growth year for you and the business, which honestly is not really the case and even coming into 2024, it sounds like as well, has not been the case for a lot of agencies out there. That has actually been a really tough time period, especially if you take into account the last decade or so. I know the folks at home, we gotta be like, all right. Gimme a little bit of secret sauce, Ryan. Why do you think you've, you've been effective in what has otherwise been a down period?

Ryan:

We have a good balance of recurring revenue and project work. Client retention is huge. I think last time I calculated it, we were at, you know, five, six years. Clients have been with us on average, and that number continues to grow, we've got multiple clients that have been with, with us for, over a decade. I think that's a testament to the, uh, the team. The team works really hard. They care, which is important. We genuinely want to do a good job. Clients look at us as a extension of their team. Those are a, a few things. we, we have, We're flexible, and that we, uh, you know, we work on a month to month arrangement, so if we don't earn, our key people are free to leave, but as long as we do a good job, uh, they stick around.

Russel:

One could say, if I, you know, if I'm being crass, one could say, you know, there's nothing profound per se in what you shared, but honestly say, if you listen to enough of these episodes, that you'll find that if we really do just focus on what are fundamentals, and not to say there's not a lot of work in things that need to go into those fundamentals, but if we don't get, complicate ourselves and fool ourselves into thinking there's big, magical other things we need to do, that it is really these fundamentals that matter most in, in good times or bad for that matter. But you know that how important, really what I even took away there is retention is by gosh, if we're already in lean times, um, as across the board, we've got a fight so hard to make sure we don't lose anyone that's currently, and you do that through quality and, and building relationship and, and many of the things you shared.

Ryan:

I think you're exactly right. mean, it's, I mean, What we do is special in the sense that it's, you know, the Red Egg team doing it. But, you know, you can go online and research SEO strategy and do all the same things that we're doing. We just make sure it gets done, you know, and we look at it, strategically and, we make sure that we do what we say we're gonna do. Why would you fire somebody who is making you more money? That's why they hire marketing agencies. It's not just a, have a marketing agency. No one likes just paying someone to do nothing. So, We also have a good mix of, you know, we, we build websites, we manage, manage, maintain those websites. There's a bit of, hey, you, you kind of need us. You need a website, you need that website to stay up and you need it to work and function correctly. Some clients require our services and then there's other stuff that we, that we do that maybe you don't need as much like, you know, fancy type project work. And then we also do a lot of recurring stuff that, like, you also need. You need someone running an ad strategy that gets results. You need to continually invest in your SEO. You need to send out periodic email newsletters to your contacts. By putting that all together and having one point of contact for that whole, you know, process, one team that knows your brand, knows your, your business, knows your goals, you know, that's why they keep Red Egg around.

Russel:

To even piggyback off that is right, there, there's all kinds of things that, you know, our clients need or their business needs in the world. It's a whole nother ball game into one, making sure they recognize that need, and it being a need, recognize that the work that they're doing to produce that is actually working and producing that. So, Maybe perhaps another takeaway there is just in, in tough times as well, just fight really hard to make sure that you a, are being valuable, but that your clients don't just value or create your value through activity but through actually that you're providing results and moving the needle and, and essentially getting them more income, revenue, or whatever it is that you're supplying to their business.

Ryan:

You have to. And you have to be able to adapt. Sometimes things work better than others. Sometimes you have to change the strategy. I think a lot of times, um, these clients we get that are frustrated from whatever company they were working with before, like, well, they stopped listening to us or they stopped, you know, they didn't change what they were doing when I told'em that things weren't working out. Make sure what you're doing is in the best interest of your client, not yourself. Because if you're doing what's in the best interest of your client, it'll ultimately come back to you. If I could turn$1 into$5, they're gonna keep paying me money until infinitely, right? As long as they can scale. And that's the kind of approach that we take.

Russel:

I love the, I, I actually use that at, at, I call it the ATM analogy all the time of if, if we knew there was a machine out there that every dollar we put in got five bucks, 10 bucks back, et cetera, we would have no problem putting every dollar we possibly could in that machine. The work needs to become is one, how do we make sure we create the machine that does that, uh, and then, you know, essentially make sure our clients know it. But it's only a matter of time until people start beating down your door. If they know that machine exists and to the point, you'll never stop, um, feeding that machine. If you're smart, I guess, maybe somebody would, but.

Ryan:

Life's about expectations too, right? Setting the correct expectations I think are important. Trying to promise specific metrics. I've never, never done that because, you know, I don't know what your sales process is or you know, how great your product or service is. When we're working with a client, we, um, you know, we take their, their budget and provide'em with the, you know, best strategy we can to get them the leads that they need to help grow their business.

Russel:

And sometimes too, it's, about expectations, it's setting up that, that takes time. That this doesn't go on a, a 30 day cycle based upon your payment structure or something like that. But that, that, you know, and probably in 2024 takes more time than it did in 2015 even, because there's, there's more people in the world, more marketing, more, uh, and digital's only gotten 10 times crazier and, and introduce AI and all that. yeah. I love that thought process there. Wonderful nuggets so far. I'm curious, just as you're looking at the future of this business, what's the big goal? What are you trying to achieve?

Ryan:

That's a great question. Another reason to having a, a coach can be helpful, figuring out that goal and how you're gonna attain it, right? If you don't know where you're going, how you're gonna get there. Ultimately, I've thought about this a lot. I'm not looking to grow this huge agency. I think being more boutique, working with clients that we like to work with, having a team that likes to work together and, uh, you know, making an impact. Those things are really important to me. As I said, being able to, uh, have some flexibility is important too. Meaning, uh, you know, I want to coach my kids' teams, so, you know, there's, um, I'm not sure I want to, you know, scale this infinitely. we, We work on a, a different structure too. We mostly work on time and materials. For us it's, it's gonna be about raising that to the point where, you know, we get the, the right clients that are willing to pay for our time versus the ones that suck up our time and, you know, constantly. I guess I don't know a nice way to say that, but you know what I mean. They use up your time. They still might be nice clients, but you know, it's just like.

Russel:

Well that's just a reminder right now to everyone listening. There are clients that you should not have in your business and, and while I understand there's different pain levels of getting rid of that, there's never been a person that I met on the other side of that had regret on getting rid of the, the time suckers, as you've said them, uh, hands down.

Ryan:

Man, I've only had to fire a few clients. And, um, it was, you know, some of the more difficult decisions, right? I mean, you, You're leaving money on the table essentially. One of'em was particularly gonna be a great client, but oh, it was just tearing the team apart. It was, I was losing sleep at night and, you know, it just came down to it, this was not worth it. Freeing up the time that we were spending on that was infinitely better. We could do better at the, for the clients that did appreciate us, I had that capacity to do more business development, to get more of the clients that appreciate us. so yeah, Don't be afraid to fire someone who's, who's not, you know, not helping your, your agency.

Russel:

If you can't fire him today, and I get that, and it's always a pain point per se, make a plan to fire him because it, it, it, it costs two or three more times than whatever that revenue, uh, actually is bringing in. and All the things you shared in time and time suck and your team suck and yeah, energy and that, I've come to appreciate that, but now more than others, that energy component and how important that is that, uh, we're, we're doing a hard thing here. We've gotta bring energy in, particularly positive energy to it. That was a great reminder to that end. Alright, well, last big question for you, Ryan. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?

Ryan:

I'd like to say that, both. I hope that's not a cop out or anything, but it's, uh, you know, I think anyone who really wants to be, uh, could be an entrepreneur. There are some people who just know right from the beginning, and, you know, fall into it. It just depends on, you know, what you wanna do, whether you wanna, you know, create this, this big business or if you want to, you know, just work for yourself. I think as long as you work hard at it, you're passionate about what you do, you care. Those are the qualities that make a successful entrepreneur more than necessarily having the biggest and brightest idea. If you're doing it for the wrong reasons, you're probably gonna fail.

Russel:

Wonderful answer. And no cop out whatsoever by saying it's a little bit of both. In fact, most people share a similar sentiment. If people wanna know more about Red Egg Marketing, where can they go?

Ryan:

They can go to redeggmarketing.com. Check us out, join our newsletter, shoot me a message. Happy to talk. You can also check us out on social media as well, the standard places where you would expect a marketing agency to be.

Russel:

Fair enough. Well, good to know you're in all those places. Wonderful conversation, Ryan. Another highlight to the fundamentals and doing good work and, and all the things that we discussed. I really appreciate you taking the time outta your scheduled day to share that with us and, and, uh, a lot of great takeaways for sure.

Ryan:

Absolutely. Thanks for the opportunity.

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.

Ryan:

When I was first starting out and, uh, you know, I didn't have an office, I worked out of the house and uh, uh, I meet people at coffee shops and I met this lady who was starting a cookie company. We met at a coffee shop and, um, after the meeting, which I thought went really well and I was excited about, she asked for a ride. I had this old car that I had through high school and I was trying to start a business, so, you know, getting a new car wasn't in the cards at that point. It had been stolen pretty recently, and some guy popped the ignition right out of it and stole my stereo, and I hadn't replaced the windshield in years, so it had like a full horizontal crack, a full vertical crack. I never replaced the ignition. The guy left his screwdriver in the car when I went to pick it up at the impound lot so I just kind of had this screwdriver that sat in the seat and I'd unsheathed it like a sword'cause it was ridiculously big too. It was like, I don't know, you can't, probably can't see this, but it must've been about foot long. And so yeah, I hesitantly said, oh sure, I'll give you a ride. And so She came to my car and hops in and I take the club off'cause that was my new ignition,'cause otherwise anyone could steal my car. So I took the club, put the club down, unsheathed my giant screwdriver, started up the car and looked over at her and I said, I swear I didn't steal this car. Someone stole it from me and I still just, you know, haven't gotten around to fixing the ignition yet. Like It had been a year. Anyway, so I dropped her off and she never called back. That's when I realized maybe, maybe it was time to take on a car payment.

Russel:

That is a fascinating story. I mean, one, I wasn't ever entirely sure that was a thing that could be done. I've seen the movies or something like, you know, what, is this really a thing? Clearly this is proof that that does happen. I think you netted that out, right? It's probably time for a car payment.