Marketing Insights and Community Strength with Eric Elliott

Local entrepreneur and producer Eric Elliott takes us on a journey through Charleston's evolving marketing landscape, sharing his experiences from growing up in the downtown projects to becoming a key player in the city's creative scene. We explore the unique cultural dynamics between Charleston natives and new arrivals, encapsulated by the terms "binya" and "comeya," and discuss how Eric's businesses, VIP Marketing and Craft Creative, are making waves in preserving the city's heritage while embracing modern growth. Eric also reflects on the importance of maintaining Charleston's historic charm amid expansion, with a nod to the Historic Society’s ongoing efforts.

Throughout our conversation, we unravel valuable marketing lessons from Eric's 20-year career, beginning under the mentorship of industry giants like Paul O'Malley and George Sink. From setting clear client expectations to the art of balancing professionalism with personal boundaries, listeners will gain insights into the business strategies that have propelled Eric’s ventures forward. We delve into the creative processes that have made their advertising campaigns some of the most recognized in South Carolina, demonstrating the power of collaboration and creativity in building a successful 15-person team from humble beginnings.

Our discussion also touches on personal journeys of resilience and community support, with stories of giving back through involvement in organizations like MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital. Eric shares personal anecdotes of transforming life's challenges into motivational fuel, illustrating the importance of family, community, and a heart-centered approach to both business and personal growth. From the nuances of niche marketing to the essentials of understanding market trends, this episode offers a rich tapestry of stories and lessons aimed at inspiring continuous learning and relationship-building in the world of marketing.

Transcript

Charleston Marketing Podcast Introduction

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association and broadcasting from our home at Charleston Radio Group. Thanks to CRG, we're able to talk with the movers and shakers of Charleston, from economy to art, from hospitality to tech and everything in between. These leaders have made a home here in the Lowcountry. They live here, they work here, they make change here.

Speaker 2 0:38

Why let's talk about it. Hello and welcome to the charleston marketing podcast powered by charleston american marketing association. We are recording in the Charleston Radio Group Studios by our supporters of the Charleston American Marketing Association Got to give a big shout-out to Charleston's favorite DJ. Dj Jerry Feels Good with the beats at the beginning. Thanks to all of our sponsors. My name is Darius Kelly. I am your host today. I'm the founder of DK Design, a design-focused marketing agency here in Charleston, south Carolina, and I'm also the brand director at the.

Speaker 1 1:07

Charleston American.

Speaker 2 1:08

Marketing Association. Thank you for joining us and I'm going to introduce my co-host here.

Speaker 3 1:14

Hey, what's going on everybody? How's it going? Charleston Mike Compton here, president and co-founder of Roomba Branding GoRoombacom, and your incoming president for the Charleston American Marketing Association. Thanks for joining us listeners. I'm excited. Today I got a fellow producer, fellow entrepreneur, I don't know, we just seem to have a lot of things in common as we keep talking. But this is Eric Elliott. He's in the house today. Folks, everybody, applause, please, everybody. Oh crap, he brings an entourage with him.

Speaker 4 1:43

You know what you shout out Jerry Field. I'm going to shout out DJ Sparkbox. Oh man, they all roll, but he's pretty good too.

Speaker 2 1:50

Okay, Shout out to him as well. Who's DJ Sparkbox?

Speaker 4 1:53

DJ Sparkbox is Paul Schmidt. You got to learn that that's Paul Schmidt.

Speaker 3 1:57

Well, see you guys, you're from, let's just go right into this. Yeah, you're from here, you've lived up born, so it was darius, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I'm a little number here, I'm a little freaked out.

Speaker 4 2:08

Uh, I'm gonna come here.

Speaker 2 2:10

You know what I mean we've been.

Speaker 4 2:11

Yeah, that's what they call it right yeah, what does that mean?

Speaker 2 2:13

what?

Speaker 3 2:13

does that mean that means you've been here. I mean you've been here, okay, and what's the opposite of that?

Speaker 4 2:18

come. Yeah, that means you've come here, like kelly you know, she came from boston right same same.

Speaker 3 2:24

I'm from detroit as we have tampa. Well, dj jerry feels good um dollar menu. Uh, curry sauce, I think all those guys. They're big in the strawberry lane is what I heard. Squad is what, the strawberry squad. So you know about these guys.

Speaker 4 2:40

I know the ambassador of the strawberry. Oh, oh, who's this? That's d man.

Speaker 1 2:44

Oh, this is the Sparkbox guy you're talking about.

Speaker 3 2:47

He's right over there. Wait, he's in the room.

Speaker 1 2:49

Yeah, oh, what's up? Buddy, dj Sparkbox is in the room, all right, all right. He's also lighting and gripping and doing all this stuff for us.

Speaker 3 2:57

So what company is here right now?

Speaker 4 3:07

Who you got here. We got vip or vip is one. Uh, vip is one. Now, you know, when we first started, 14 years ago, we started out with just vip market, which focused on at the time, it was mostly traditional and then in 2015, we started a separate company which was craft, yeah, and then, you know, we blended. In 2022, we blended them both and made them one. So now craft creative is like our ultra ego, that's our alter ego, that's our video production creative side. Copy that.

Speaker 3 3:27

Okay, see, there it is. That's so interesting, um, and then, so so, going back to the charleston, uh, you've been here for a while and we just we talked about the comeas and the binyas. I'm a comea, you're a binyas, yeah, uh, and I'm not from ohio so you're welcome what's it like being uh from here, from charleston. How was it like growing up. What were your family like? Where'd you go to school?

Speaker 4 3:50

I I grew up, uh, in the projects of downtown charleston, so, um, you know a lot of you know. For me it's a lot of amazement whenever I drive through and I see you know everything here, you know we lived at 9h jackson street, right across the street from sanders clyde and 32 832 hba east bay street.

Speaker 4 4:08

You know I lived in those areas so for me, you know. You know, seeing charleston then and seeing it now, I like to see the growth but I hate to see the charm kind of being taken away is it? Though it's given um, you know, is it, though, give and take? You know I would in some senses. In some senses, I love the historic society, love them because they preserve, you know, charleston, you know, yeah, and I feel like they fight for it.

Speaker 4 4:36

Yes, the funny thing is, a lot of the people who are on the historic society they're not from here either.

Speaker 3 4:40

John Wright is on the historic society, right, isn't he? Yeah?

Speaker 4 4:45

We interviewed him on the Malt Chip. I love like the work that they're doing to kind of keep it. You know what it is. I love you know that I can still see some places that I was familiar, to feel familiar with as a kid, right, and you know I like seeing some hotels and I like seeing things like that. But you know, as long as you know people remember what made the city great and they not lose those things, I feel like Charleston can always live on. You know what I mean. I feel like that too. Yeah, so you know I love it. You know I went to school, like I said, right across there at Sanders Clyde Elementary. You know this is where I was born and raised. And then, you know I moved west to Ashley when I was like eight, nine years old.

Speaker 3 5:25

Okay, yeah, okay, darius, where were you born?

Speaker 2 5:28

I was born downtown, born downtown, moved to North Charleston, moved to Goose Creek, moved to some of them yeah, so we pretty much just kept migrating further away from the downtown area. But, similar to you, my dad was born downtown. Yeah man Moved to West. Ashley Went to Middleton High School.

Speaker 4 5:43

Yeah, we went to Middleton. Yeah, okay, hog, it was a hog.

Speaker 2 5:46

Yeah, yeah, so I don't think it's around anymore is it?

Speaker 4 5:49

No, it's West Ashley High School. I went to both high schools. Went to Middleton and St Andrews. I mean me it was me and Darius's brother, jamar Rucker. Oh, like we would all hang out together. Like you know these guys, they lived across the street from, like the Citadel Mall, orleans Woods, Orleans Gardens. Okay, so you know, like back then I mean you never would have known. You know, like that he's he is, but I mean, uh, you gotta love darius and what he's done and how he you know he's he's still here.

Speaker 3 6:26

He could be anywhere in the world but he's still here, you know well, that that speaks to charleston, doesn't it?

Speaker 4 6:30

yeah, it speaks to charleston. It does speak to charleston um a couple of thoughts.

Speaker 3 6:34

I had sorry on darius if I'm overstepping here, but uh did? Did darius rucker, not darius kelly? Did darius rucker uh have like school band Like was he always kind of singing back in the day?

Speaker 4 6:46

Man, I remember.

Speaker 3 6:48

He was a drummer at one point.

Speaker 4 6:49

No you know, honestly, like I remember us like making fun that he didn't listen to the kind of music that we listened to. Sure, you know what I mean. Because he's yeah right, yeah, that guy was ahead of his time, man. Yeah, he was ahead of his time, man. Yeah, he was ahead of his time.

Speaker 1 7:05

You know, he hootie for me.

Speaker 4 7:05

He had his sights, he had his sights set on big things, you know, yeah long before, yeah long before.

Speaker 3 7:12

Well, you've got some big things going too, friend, don't you man? Um, you're doing pretty well. So the production company kind of turned into an agency or what.

Speaker 4 7:22

What well, creative, or well, the, the video marketing. You know, like, the way, the way it all worked was we were all more traditional back then, you know, no one's focused on digital. So, before 2020 hit, we've focused on digital completely. Yeah, and so the marketing agency was always like the heart of our business, still is the core of our business, and but we, what we found out was, you know, we would always run up against marketing directors all the time. Sure, you know, inside the digital marketing agency side, but we were like, you know what, let's do a creative side, and I bought a camera from the home shopping network at the time yes, a canon 60d. I'll never forget it, made payments on an 800 camera and and and did that. And you know that's how our production company was born. Uh-huh, yeah, you know. Um, and we said, you know what, they may have a digital, they may have a marketing director inside, but the creative side, they don't have that, and that's where we focus.

Speaker 4 8:22

And so the reason why we were like craft creative think of like craft beer they wanted to be different from like budweiser. They they made it. You got a brewmaster, you know. And so when we talked about doing craft creative, we didn't want to make cookie cutter things, that you go from market to market. You know it's like, you know when we we talk to people, you know like, especially like if paul and I are sitting there talking to someone, we're listening to their story, yeah, and we're going to create something you know from them, you know something from them and for them. So we were like crafting, creative, and then we were like this is a different way to be able to position ourselves versus anyone with cameras, lights and a microphone.

Speaker 4 9:01

So, it's so different. It's different for us, you know.

Speaker 3 9:05

But before that, though, though you mentioned paul just now, did you say you worked for paul back in the day, like what brought you to your entrepreneur? Oh you, I was talking about paul schmidt? Yeah, I think, I think you were talking.

Lessons in Marketing and Business Success

Speaker 4 9:16

Paul schmidt is right there sorry, paul, so I think I think you were. You were probably talking about you know, paul o'malley, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, paul man he's. I learned a lot from Paul, a lot from Paul O'Malley. He started back in 2004. Okay With him. So I'm celebrating 20 years in media right now. Media and marketing.

Speaker 1 9:38

All right.

Speaker 4 9:39

So when I started with Paul O'Malley I was in radio at the time, I was a radio salesperson Okay, new. With paul o'malley I was in radio at the time, I was a radio salesperson okay, new business was like my strength busted some records in new business, did you now?

Speaker 3 9:49

oh gosh, are some records still there. Are you in the hall of fame?

Speaker 4 9:51

man um at channel five. I think I was still in the hall of fame.

Speaker 3 9:54

Yeah, yeah, um I can see you busting some records.

Speaker 4 9:56

Yeah, that's pretty personal dude but you know it was good, but I didn't do it to make the money. I think it was fun, it was fun.

Speaker 3 10:02

Yeah, it's fun. You're just having a good time with it. Yeah, still do new people and you know shaking hands and trying to make deals and make things work and it's some of those relationships that were made and built back then.

Speaker 4 10:14

They still last. I believe it still.

Speaker 3 10:16

Many of them, I believe, oh yeah, many, I believe, and that's another nod to charleston, isn't it the fact that you're still close with a lot of these folks still doing business, still friends yeah, and and it's it's.

Speaker 4 10:27

I guess the nod to charleston would be it's a small town. Don't burn the bridges, man. You might burn the bridges. You know, um, you know you, you think about. I did a video of this a long time ago. It's like anywhere you go in charleston there's a bridge. You burn it, you can't go back over and you can't come over.

Speaker 3 10:43

I know, it's so true.

Speaker 4 10:44

So be careful of the bridges that you cross over.

Speaker 3 10:46

That's great advice. Yeah, darius, what's up? What do you got over there? I want to know a little bit more about your T-shirt. Come on, man, I'm a marketer. Well, he's got a merch, he's got a merch brand.

Speaker 4 11:06

I want too. Look at that, yeah, and and what? What it is is like you got tired of really doing things for people. I can't love someone's business more than they love their business. So I would say, you know, hey, man, I'm just a marketer for you, I ain't a magician for you. I can't do it for you, right, okay, so I can't wave a. This ain't harry potter where I can wave a magic wand and say, okay, this is done for you. Now, like I'm a marketer, so I can give you the advice, I can lead you to the water, but I can't tell you to drink, you know.

Speaker 2 11:27

So that's where the whole phrase I'm a marketer, not a magician comes from okay, and how do you, how do you go about like communicating that to the client? That?

Speaker 4 11:37

you work with you, can I, can I. You gotta have courage, okay, courage, and really just you let people know in advance, and I think the problem with problem with marketers in general is they have this order-taker mindset. They have this order-taker mindset like I'm going to listen to what they tell me to do and before you know it, they're running over you. So we established that up front and we've fired people before Fired clients. You mean Absolutely, absolutely. We've fired clients before. What we had to develop was we developed a set of systems and processes for how we run our agency and if they can't fit in that, then we have to let them go. Then it won't work.

Speaker 3 12:20

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. That's great. That's great. More businesses of all sorts, especially small businesses, need to listen to that. I think, man it's.

Speaker 4 12:31

Don't say yes to everything no, if, if we've come to find out like it's, if people don't have processes together, I mean in the beginning we either can't work with them or we have to develop it for them. Because if you have this real intense or this great marketing plan and you guys ought to know this too it's like you come with all these great things and they don't have the processes inside fixed the right way. Everything you do will break whatever they don't have together.

Speaker 4 13:00

Yeah, you know so you almost have to like say, okay, great, everyone wants to grow, you guys want leads, you know. So you almost have to like say, OK, great, everyone wants to grow, you guys want leads, you want to gain new business. All this stuff is great. But then how can you handle what we're going to bring you? Do you have systems set up in place? Because if not, what they're going to do is they're going to say hey, darius, what you did for me just didn't work because they weren't prepared to take on what you were bringing them.

Speaker 2 13:21

Well, a lot of people, um, I'll say, if they're starting out, they don't have that knowledge to know how to put the systems in place. So they come to, let's say, me or somebody like you, even even mike, to help them get along that way. So what advice can you give to somebody that's listening right now, who is at that point where I'm trying to hire somebody, but I I don't want to be a bad client and just give barking orders so I can benefit from it.

Speaker 4 13:45

Take a back seat.

Speaker 2 13:46

Okay.

Speaker 4 13:46

Take a back seat. You hired a professional for a reason. Okay, you know we talked. You know, before the show we were talking about just medical things. In our families we don't walk in and tell that doctor all right, doc, when you do this surgery, you know, make sure you do it this way, Only give me eight stitches, not 13 stitches. You don't tell the doctor what to do.

Speaker 4 14:13

But I think the agency or the marketers have to have that confidence to say you know, not be bullish to the client, you know, but really like, educate them. That's your job, you know. And there's an old saying in the medical industry like a better educated patient will be a better patient for you. So you have to teach your, your clients. You have to teach them, help them understand what you're doing. Don't just do it and just say here you go, because then you'll, you'll develop like some distrust right, because they will develop the distrust because you're just bringing them things. You're not taking in account how they feel, how they think and to help them learn and understand. And you're not taking in account how they feel, how they think and to help them learn and understand, and you're not teaching them if you just shove things down their throat.

Speaker 2 14:49

So what like brought you to learn this lesson. Did you come? Did you come into the industry?

Speaker 3 14:55

there's many lessons there, man, I screwed up a lot.

Speaker 2 14:57

Yeah, I screwed up one of those stories that that, like, helped you realize this yeah, I.

Speaker 4 15:04

I think it all started with started with I used to think that I knew everything and I used to think that I was great at hiring people. That's where it really started for me. I thought I was great at hiring people and then I realized I sucked at hiring people and so what I had to do was I had to help find a system. Now, before we hire someone, we have a committee that would hire them. So it's not just me that's doing it, because I don't think it's right if I make the decision to bring on, I didn't vet someone properly or ask the right questions, or ask the questions that might be important to our team, right. So because they're going to be working alongside this person.

Speaker 3 15:44

Exactly.

Speaker 4 15:44

You know, so, know. So. I mean if you say like you know, where did I learn it? Screwing up myself, you know, um, I think that's the, that's where I learned a lot of the lessons, or or really where I had to say you know what, I'm not good at this. Let me try and figure out how I can be better and develop a system to be able to do it, and that was through your v VIP marketing company.

Speaker 4 16:03

Yeah, Okay, it was through VIP. You know, when I was in media I had the privilege of watching a lot of people fail, okay, but when they fail, I learned, or watching them do a lot of things on what I felt wasn't good from a servant's heart standpoint. I'm going to quote Jim Doyle. You know we a good friend, mentor and has a book called the selling with a servant's heart and a lot of us, we, when we were in media I wasn't taught to sell with a servant's heart. I was taught to sell, make a quota, make the quota.

Speaker 4 16:39

And when people have quotas, what do they do? They find a way to make it. Yeah, right, and they'll rip and they'll run and they do what they got to do just to make sure they make the quota. If I know the number's 30, it's like I gotta pace to that number versus being able to guide me and and and having my mindset right to say you know what, I'll put the money in the back. And george sink told me he said you do the right thing, the money will come.

Speaker 2 17:01

Yes, and he was right. You know he was right. That's a lesson that I myself even had to learn starting out, because you know you, you love what you do, of course, but you have to eat at the end of the day yeah, so it's just trying to figure out that balance between, like you said, meeting that quota and striving to.

Speaker 4 17:18

You know do great work, yeah, but you know a lot of people they don't even charge enough to. So you got. You got to figure, like when you talk about meeting your quota and you have to eat, but you have to know your value, exactly Know your value. If you don't know your value, the world ain't going to raise your price. So just know your value.

Speaker 2 17:33

Okay. So with VIP marketing, you guys starting out, were you always focused on the law industry, or how?

Lessons From Working With George Sink

Speaker 4 17:40

did that pivot happen? We didn. How did that pivot happen? They, we didn't find them. They found us. Okay, they didn't found us.

Speaker 4 17:50

And it and it all started when I uh, I was on a chain of emails and it started with george sink. You know, it started with him and then we went in to meet with him. I'll never forget this and and this was like march 15th, march 15th, 2015 went in, met with him and and he man, he was tough. He was tough as nails. And how's this? What do you mean? Tough man? He, he was not. He didn't hold back.

Speaker 4 18:16

You know how you can meet with some clients and some people are some so reserved and you get an opportunity to think before you can answer. Not with him, it was like you have your stuff together. Um, he always taught me, prior planning prevents poor performance. You have your stuff together, and when he asked you a question, you better know the answer. So he would ask these questions and we started working with him and it started out. We were supposed to temporarily work with him for like six months or something. Okay, yeah, and then, you know, it turned into years and years and years and years. And you know, at one point. Besides the lottery, our ads are seen more than anyone across the state of.

Speaker 1 18:59

South Carolina.

Speaker 4 18:59

That's crazy, you know you never thought about that, did you, paul? But it's really like he taught me lessons and so law found us and, going back to that, like he would take me places, like he took me to like a law conference, and we went to Key West Florida and I really got an opportunity to be able to bond with him and learn from him and one of the things that you know, he told me some things down there and he said I'm going to introduce you to people and he had all these these numbers and different things, um, that a normal person wouldn't be privy to about a firm, you know, and and he asked me to present a lot of those things and I presented those things to a group of eight figure lawyers and that was it. Okay, that was it. Oh, I love that. Yeah, that was it.

Speaker 4 19:50

And before you know it, I mean, we were, we were flying everywhere to to go do creative for people, but you know, it was just, it was just a good opportunity. You know he introduced us to that. So law law found us. We didn't find it.

Speaker 2 20:04

What a great mentor, Mike. Before you go, I just have a quick question. Did you come up with the jingle?

Speaker 4 20:08

Which jingle we came up with. We didn't do the jingle. The jingle was there before we got there. Okay okay, but here's an interesting story. You had the market where people had purchased threes, sevens, eights, you know, and other numbers, and we had that number like six months after and he was like, well, what do we do with it? And we said, we're going to make the number more famous than you. And so we had the jingle, the jingle. And so we utilized that to kind of penetrate in the minds of people, you know.

Speaker 3 20:41

I think you did a good job.

Speaker 4 20:43

As a team we came up with all nines, and so now I mean, you have kids who know it. Paul's son milo knows it, all night sawyer knows it, you know. And what is the song again? Um, get your single off from online call 99999 you know.

Speaker 2 21:01

So all the you knew it, man you know, oh my gosh, you're dirty, so you know like.

Speaker 4 21:07

And then you had this one kid in the upstate. He wanted to do um a george sink birthday party. Oh my wow kid had a george sink birthday party. So at that point you know, like you know, what we did, our job yeah, you know, and I and I think it's, it's insane to think like you know, when you see like that on television or billboards or anywhere else, it's just like you, you gotta feel something you know, you gotta feel something oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 21:36

When I first moved here uh, coming from tampa 2019, I first moved here I'm like who is? Doing these commercials, yeah yeah, god, there's so many law commercials too. It's great for y'all. I appreciate it, I love it. No hatred whatsoever, but oh my god who's doing? This. I'm like I gotta meet the guy who's doing this. Yeah, and there he is.

Speaker 4 21:52

No I, I will tell you I'm one of those people like a celebrity of sorts we were on the phone today and we were coming up with things just together and people would say, like man, y'all have to run out of ideas. Yeah, you know, as many times as you guys know it's like, it's, it's not, we don't run out of them. And then like, like, sometimes it can be, paul come out with a crazy idea, uh-huh, you know. And then like and the the beauty of it is, you get to go film what you come up with. So, yeah, you know, I, I wish I could say, man, I did them all on my own, but I, I, I don't no, I wouldn't want to say that.

Speaker 3 22:26

Anyways, you got a team.

Speaker 4 22:27

Oh man, yeah oh yeah, but you know, we come up with some amazing things for them.

Speaker 3 22:32

What size is your team? Right now, we have 15, 15 15 yeah, 15.

Speaker 4 22:37

big job it's, you know, it's we got producers, editors. Yeah, you got you got post-production, you got production. You have marketing people, you have brain, a brain and design team. You know, um gosh, it's, it's amazing how it comes together, because when it first started, it was just me and my wife and your $800 camera, yeah, and that, yeah, and that you know that was right there with you I sold that that camera to Raphael James at Channel 5, man Wow.

Speaker 3 23:04

Raphael, I hope you know what you have.

Speaker 1 23:07

You have some gold and I want it back.

Speaker 4 23:09

man, I want that camera back.

Speaker 3 23:10

That's an artifact man. We'll have him on as a guest.

Speaker 2 23:13

That's an artifact man. Make sure he brings the camera to him when he comes out.

Speaker 3 23:16

Yeah, Raphael's a good friend man, did you say yeah, he's at Channel 5. All right, okay, we just talked to Carolyn Murray at Channel 2. Yeah, Carolyn's a good one now the building business. She's a queen man, she's great.

Speaker 4 23:29

She's an icon. She's so cool, though, too, she's an icon. Carolyn Murray is an icon, icon living man.

Speaker 3 23:35

Check that out on the Building Business Podcast for the.

Speaker 4 23:37

Mount.

Speaker 3 23:37

Pleasant Chamber. Just a little shout out there. Sorry, had to do it. You have a podcast too. Let's talk about it.

Speaker 4 23:43

Yeah, man, it's called Going Forward. Is the podcast when?

Speaker 4 23:45

are we going Forward? Oh Right, and it's a podcast. It's designed for us to be able to talk to entrepreneurs and leaders, have in-depth conversations with them. I like it Because everyone talks about where you are now, but they never knew where you were. Yeah, like where you were, yeah, so we talk about where they were, what brought them to where they are and we're going. That sounds familiar. Yeah, I like it. And and having those like we had one yesterday I had one with bill biggs. He's out of texas, um, he's big in the law community had, like, jim doyle, you know, um, and you know a lot of. We've had people all over the world. Right, pete, we've had people all over the world so you're patching them in.

Speaker 3 24:24

What are you doing, man? They?

Speaker 4 24:25

reach out to us. Zoom Like how are you?

Speaker 1 24:28

producing these.

Speaker 4 24:28

Yeah, we'll use like some software, like we'll use like StreamYard and we'll do those. But like I mean they'll, and Pete puts together the podcast and makes sure it's all perfect before it goes out, but they contact us, but they contact us, they contact us and we never tell them what we want to talk about ever.

Speaker 3 24:48

What do you mean? They never know. They never have a clue. They never have a clue. No predetermined script, none. And they're cool with that, cool with it. That's awesome, so cool with it and it's so.

Speaker 4 24:58

What we do is we'll, like, you'll have either Crystal or Pete will put together this amazing sheet and just a cheat sheet on them, and we dig in and we just ask them a bunch of questions and every single one of them are like I've never been asked that before. Oh, that's a good question, and you know we try and you know we bring it back to business. But we also want to know, like, what made the person you know, like, what kind of value can they bring to our listeners? Right, and so the person you know, like what kind of value can they bring to our listeners? You know, right. And so, and it's I love it, we're. We're on episode 98. You know, we used to put them out every week and then we just slowed down a lot. Yeah, we were putting them out every week and we slowed down. We just wanted to focus more on on quality than quantity of them.

Speaker 3 25:38

So yeah, we slow sanity about sanity too.

Speaker 4 25:41

Yeah, that too, and so we want to slow it down, but it's fun, man, it's fun.

Speaker 2 25:46

I really like it. I like podcasts. So two away from your 100th episode yeah, is that a big deal?

Speaker 1 25:51

Yeah.

Speaker 3 25:52

Any plans to we have episode 99 already planned.

Lessons in Leadership and Business Growth

Speaker 4 25:58

I don't know. I think episode 100, which is such a milestone. Yeah, I have this weird idea Either I do a solo cast or I just interview my aunt. That raised me up.

Speaker 2 26:12

There you go, you like that. Yeah, that sounds nice. That goes back to the whole premise of going forward, letting them know yeah, yeah, I like that.

Speaker 4 26:19

Yeah, I've thought about that and you know she'll be weird about all that stuff, you know, but I think it'll be like it'll really feel good if I did episode 100 with her and just ask her questions about what she saw in me.

Speaker 3 26:40

I was going to ask, you were close, obviously.

Speaker 4 26:42

Yeah, like what were you thinking when you brought me in?

Speaker 3 26:45

What were you?

Speaker 4 26:46

thinking she's my everything. She raised me when my parents died. I'm sorry, yeah, no, it's no worries, she raised me up, so she's my mother, she's all I have.

Speaker 3 27:00

That's it how old were you?

Speaker 4 27:03

I was six years old when my mother passed, and I was seven when my dad passed. That's tough.

Speaker 3 27:12

Yeah, so she stepped up big time. That's great. What's her?

Speaker 4 27:15

name again marlene. Her name is marlene marlene. Yeah, she, marlene, she stepped up big time.

Speaker 3 27:20

Oh I love that and then so um, I forgot I had a mic on me the entourage.

Speaker 1 27:25

Mic on me um. I thought it was a port.

Speaker 3 27:29

I'm like, oh, I'm feeling, my, that's weird, that's another story here, sorry, it's almost in the location. Yeah, right, yeah oh yeah, nobody wants to know about that story, um, not yet at least. So, darius, what else you got over there? I?

Speaker 2 27:43

mean you're making me pull up my laptop, um I. I just like to get into um there is.

Speaker 3 27:50

That's a tough question. I asked the question.

Speaker 2 27:54

So, right now, with your business, how hands on are you when it comes down to developing these marketing campaigns um with your clients Like where?

Speaker 4 28:03

where's your?

Speaker 2 28:04

where's your? What do you?

Speaker 4 28:05

very. I think, uh, when you are leading, you know people, people take that that CEO title. I hate it. I think, when you are leading, you know people take that CEO title. I hate it. I really hate it. I don't like it. I just I don't like it.

Speaker 4 28:17

It's an identifying piece, but I think when you're in that position or you're leading your team, you have to focus on vision and strategy Okay, when you are and where you're going. And so to kind of, you know, tell you, I'm very hands-on, I'm hands-on with creative, I'm hands-on with, uh, you know, marketing. But then you have to know, like you can be hands-on, but it doesn't mean you can control, right, you know what I mean. And I think you know smart people. You have to realize there are people that are better than you that can do this. You know, um, you know, I, I do that, like with paul, like a lot we'll talk about ideas or concepts, yeah, but then you have to know, all right, great, I can plant this, but I need to step back so that they can lead. Yep, you know, and that's and that's. You know a true leader. Sometimes you have to be led and you you have to learn it. So I am hands-on with it. I am hands-on, but not controlling. Well, that's a.

Speaker 2 29:16

It's a good balance to have yeah I I had to learn that though of course yeah, is that like one of those things like I even feel like, when it comes down to creating now, there is no end to that learning process of different ways to do it. So even when you're talking about that balance, is that something that you you feel like it's a constant, like learning process?

Speaker 4 29:36

yeah, I think every situation is going to teach you something. Every client that you work with is going to teach you something. I learned processes from the people that I thought were bad clients. It helped us to be able to say like you know what, like we had an automotive, you know client, because at one time we used to do a lot of automotive stuff, automotive meaning car dealers.

Speaker 4 29:57

Yeah, like car dealers and the automotive. They are almost identical to the lawyers in advertising. And so we had this one automotive dealer, this franchise dealer, and boy, they were a pain, but they were such a pain that they helped us to be able to develop processes. You know, and you know how I mentioned, you know, sync. Working with them in the beginning was it was we were learning and we had to develop processes. You know, so you get better and you learn like this is how I should do it or how I shouldn't do it. Right, you know. And then you just I want to be the master of our processes. You're never going to master like one client and you'll always learn in an industry. But you know, it's like you got to be like that salt and pepper shaker things can get in, but things can also get out. You close your mind up, nothing gets in. You don't learn anything, right? You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 30:50

Exactly, exactly Well. It takes a good leader to have an open mind. I wasn't always a good leader, I sucked.

Speaker 1 30:56

Well, I mean, yeah, it takes practice, just like everything else.

Speaker 3 30:59

Yeah, I sucked man it's learning from the things that don't work.

Speaker 1 31:02

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 31:16

But you got with uh, sync right as a mentor, like that's just. Yeah. I was on the phone with him today. I was on the phone with him today um?

Speaker 3 31:20

was that early on in?

Speaker 4 31:20

the vip days. Like, when did vip start? Uh, we started in september 21st 2010. Okay, yeah, um yeah, and we started working with him in 20 what nine years ago sure yeah, nine years ago. Yeah, 2015 started working with him not too far off. That's great, that's awesome, yeah it was.

Speaker 3 31:34

When I say luck, though, I mean it's hard work, you obviously put yourself in the right spot, and that's what I mean by luck. Like you have to put in the work, yeah, and put yourself in those positions to get the luck yeah, and it's, it's, it's before sync.

Speaker 4 31:46

It was like political things, sure, and it was like you know, like mayor summi's election, that we did that three times okay. So I mean, you think about it like we were. We helped elect, you know, north charles well, I mean two of north charleston's mayors right from doing mayor summi's election three times, three campaigns, that's 12 years. We were doing that, wow, and then doing Mayor Burgess' campaign. So that's a lot, man, that's a lot to help you that you've learned along the way.

Speaker 2 32:18

So you guys, there was a stage where you were predominantly automotive, predominantly political. It seems like right now you're predominantly in the law industry. Is there another pivot coming, man? No, no more pivots. Oh, I got a pivot for you. No, no more pivots.

The Power of Niche Marketing

Speaker 4 32:34

You know what we were was. We were trying to be all things to all people at one time and we wound up being nothing to no one. I know it, jim Doyle. I had to drop that for you, sir. So, like we were doing all these different clients, like if you had a business, we'll take you, we'll take you, we'll take you, and yeah, you know what it is. It's hard for you to develop a process for 50 different type of businesses. You know, and you know the. The way the political thing came about was I'm a political nut.

Speaker 3 33:01

I was going to ask you about that. I don't know why.

Speaker 4 33:05

I I don't know why I always promise our team this is the last one, guys, I'm not doing it again. But every time we do it they win Sure.

Speaker 1 33:13

Every single time.

Speaker 4 33:15

And it's like we just got good at it. We got really good at it because it was the strategy part that I thought that we brought to the table. There's one campaign like we work on now, but we focus on law. But it doesn't mean that other people won't come to us. One of one of my favorite clients is a retail flooring company and they've been with us for 12 years and, like we know his business inside and out. But it doesn't mean that I want to go after all flooring companies. You know. I mean shout out to mike, but it doesn't mean that we want to go after all companies like that. It's like, hey, this is our niche, but you'll come to find that people will say I know you're good at that, but I still want to work with you. You know what I mean. Yes, and I think that is kind of the best testament or the best applause that you can give our team. It's like I know you focus on law, Even a construction company. We know you focus on law.

Speaker 2 34:09

Focus on law, even a construction company right, you know, we know you focus on law, but we want to work with you anyway. Yeah, it's a testament to how you know the work that you guys do the leadership man.

Speaker 4 34:15

I had to be impressive.

Speaker 3 34:16

I couldn't take credit, I could not well, speaking of that, I think you're next if I was to manifest or see what I see what I did. The research on you, uh, mr elliot, was that you're turning the. And then this also came up with aaron kenzel's interview yeah, you're turning the camera on yourself.

Speaker 3 34:33

Yeah, yeah, is that a newish thing? Um, what's going on there? I like it. I like it. I got merch, you got merch. You know you're already an entrepreneur, you know. I think now it's like your brand. You wouldn't call yourself an influencer, would you?

Speaker 4 34:49

No, oh, that's a dirty word. You don't want to be an influencer.

Speaker 2 34:52

Step one is a t-shirt.

Speaker 4 34:55

I just like putting ideas out in the world.

Speaker 2 34:57

Yeah t-shirts.

Speaker 1 34:58

Seeing how people react.

Speaker 4 34:59

You know with that. You know a good friend of mine. His name's Paul Potratz and Paul ran Potratz Advertising out of Schenectady, new York, and Paul used to do this thing called. I got all these Pauls in my life right.

Speaker 3 35:11

Yeah.

Speaker 4 35:11

Paul, peter got a bunch of apostles, yeah. So, like I had, you know, paul Potratz used to do this thing called Think Tank Tuesday and he would always get on camera. I mean he had this like 250,000 person email list and Paul became a good friend. I would ask him for advice on certain things and he never, ever once not answered the phone or responded to a message and he would just teach me things. And when I saw Paul doing it and I tried doing it, I was really nervous. Doing what exactly? Like getting on camera and just giving advice. I was like I got all these things in my head and I wanted to get out and started just know, just not doing it to to grow it, but just saying I gotta get this out my head. I like teaching people. I find out like you know, you find out what you know, you know how much you know. When you start teaching people and then, um, I was real nervous. I'm like man, I'm a brother in the south, man, nobody wants to go south on camera.

Speaker 4 36:05

And then jason swank said to me. He said, eric, if no one wants to do business with you, if they don't want to do it because of who you are, f them. And then when he said that, I was like go. And so like, now we started doing these videos called Marketing Minute. We've done hundreds of them and what I would do is I would go unscripted. And so, like, anytime I do anything, it's never scripted, okay, ever. I believe you. Yeah, um, I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 4 36:35

You tell me, paul you're smart, so we just, we just, we just don't script anything so we just do it, and and so turning the camera around on myself with a topic I'm sure you have a topic in mind.

Speaker 3 36:45

Yeah, yeah, we'll come up with topics, and sometimes yeah no bullet points oh, no bullet point, no bullet points, they just shoot topics.

Speaker 4 36:52

They'd be like, okay, how about this situation, like even when pete and I used to sit inside the studio and he would just bring up a topic and we would just go from there because it's like I feel, like I, I almost felt like it was the release I needed. Sure it's more therapeutic for you yeah, it's more therapy.

Speaker 4 37:05

Great way to put it it's more therapeutic Great way to put it. It's more therapeutic than just saying you know, I want to be an influencer. Let me turn the camera on me. I hate the camera, you know, but I'll talk to it.

Speaker 3 37:16

Yeah, Like we'll direct, I'll be behind the camera and. I'll say, hey, can you say this for me, or can?

Speaker 1 37:21

I get you to say that type of stuff.

Speaker 3 37:22

But for me to be, so did aaron's class what's her class called something? Um, uh, it was it's it's.

Speaker 4 37:31

Yeah, I did aaron's class. I did aaron's class and um man, I love aaron. Oh, coach, aaron, I love her. Um, you know, by the time I met aaron, I was already doing them and what and what aaron kind of told me was. You know, eric, you know, focus on who you're talking to.

Speaker 1 37:48

She's like you're talking, so general, you know to everyone and it's not made for everyone, okay, and I had to do it the same way.

Speaker 4 37:53

We're doing our business, kind of like, say, I want to talk to lawyers so I'll share parts of who I am on instagram. You might see me, you know, vacuuming my daughter's hair to put it in a proper ponytail.

Speaker 1 38:05

Okay or you don't know about that. Yeah, or doing or showing things.

Speaker 4 38:09

my wife would build what's your?

Speaker 3 38:11

wife build.

Speaker 4 38:12

She builds all kinds of things around the house, man.

Speaker 3 38:14

What do you mean? Like a wood carver? Like she's building stuff out of nothing? She's bad man. She's bad. What's your wife's?

Speaker 4 38:20

name Shaughnessy. Hi, shaughnessy. She built our dinner table. She built that. She built another dining room table. She just finished like a bench, you know, in our breakfast area. That's a good teammate. Yeah, oh yeah, I keep her around yeah, but um, and she did all these custom things around our house, so like that's, yeah, that's her thing, that's that's her release you know, yeah, yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 38:46

I love that um so like. So you know, turning the camera around right, I got to know what's up with this.

Speaker 2 38:52

Eric.

Speaker 4 38:53

Elliott day that I saw. It's a myth.

Speaker 3 38:56

Is that something? Because that's pretty impressive. Yeah, it's coming up soon, right yeah.

Speaker 2 38:59

October 14th.

Speaker 3 39:00

You have your own day. Come on, I know I'm selfish, right? I wasn't saying that. You said that I was going the other way.

Speaker 4 39:07

You know, eric Elliott Day, I have to think. You know North Charleston City Council. Okay, how long did you? Were you on the council for? I wasn't on the council. You know, mayor Keith Summey, north Charleston Council, because they all had to kind of vote it in. And you know what I did, or what we were doing, was always giving back to the community in some way, shape or form. You know, if it wasn't, you know a kid walking in our door that didn't have sneakers and giving them sneakers. We always tried to do something for the community. We bought vip.

Speaker 3 39:38

Yes, sir, yeah, our team, our entire team and you know buying.

Speaker 4 39:41

We bought commuter computers for I think it was like the east side. You know some area in the east that we bought computers for them, went to store, bought a bunch of computers, gave it to them, um, and and also you know you helped elect, you know one of north charleston's, you know one of the people who helped get the city to where it is um, and mayor key semi, who's an amazing mayor and an even amazing uh guy. You know like being able to do that. Those things are all part of the community and so being honored to be able to have like your own day, to say like you know what may, or some of you may, have built this like, but you helped.

Speaker 4 40:19

I saw him, I was coming, my family and I were coming out of a restaurant in Momos, I think, riverfront Park, and I just told him I was talking to him. He said he said you knew you helped with this and and I was like you got to be kidding me. I was like you know, I I really didn't. You know, take it. But you know when, when guy like that says something you better, you better take it, and so uh, he's, he's a great guy. I mean you know he, he raised some amazing kids and elliot and annie. You know, elliot runs, elliott runs the airport and Annie also still works in the city of North Charleston. So these people, they've devoted their entire lives and their families to public service and so when they recognize that in us and in some of the efforts that we've given, or I've given to the city to be able to have your own day, I don't think there's any better honor. But more than anything, I'm glad that my children get to have that and say you know what? That's my dad? Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 41:16

So that's what I want what perks like what comes with having your own I?

Speaker 4 41:20

want to know like what's the fun side, yeah, yeah, there's no money in it yeah, I believe that you get you get, uh, a really nice proclamation, um, and some really kind words from the city and the recognition you know. But I think in life, a lot of us you know what we want is that recognition, right? You know, when you are proud of something or you want someone to be proud of you, the recognition goes a long way. So to kind of ask, like you know what comes from it. Yeah, it's great to have that paper to refer to, but I think the best part is not, is it just elliot eric, elliot day? It goes in here, it won't leave you. It's just one of those things that was playing in his heart.

Turning Tragedy Into Giving Back

Speaker 4 42:00

Yeah, it's it's going right into you, man, and so, uh, there's no money that comes with it, which it was right, but what it is is it's just um, it lets you know you did something good. Oh, it's badass, yeah, yeah, that's a big deal my content day is coming up yeah, all right, man, wait, I'm waiting on it, man, I'm waiting on it.

Speaker 3 42:17

I gotta start doing more.

Speaker 4 42:18

I mean, you do, you did and do a lot, that's right are you doing uh currently currently, um, I am, I'm just now starting to serve with MUSC Sean Jenkins Children's Hospital. So I'm on a PFAC board, parent Family Advisory Council there and you know me, you know I had a, you know, with my son looking at the hospital. You just think decisions are just made. So this PFAC council, they are, you know, parents, families, and they work with you know the clinicians there, they were the clinicians there. You know you help make decisions and that hospital looks the way it did because everyone had an input on it and you know, even from visitors I learned things about visiting hours and having visitors there. So all that. So that's one side of it on how I give my time.

Speaker 4 43:14

Also, I'm on a board for Reading Partners, south Carolina with Kenny Harrell from Joy Law Firm. He actually helped, you know, to bring me into that too. He serves on that board too. Amazing guy. And also another part of what I do at MUSC is I'm going in every Tuesday every week for two hours from 10 to noon At Sean Jenkins.

Speaker 4 43:34

Yep at Sean Jenkins to kind of go wherever they tell me to work at. It may be playing in a pavilion, it may be wheeling somebody into their car, so that's going to be like my ministry to myself.

Speaker 3 43:48

But why Can you share your story with your son?

Speaker 4 43:52

yeah, yeah, you know my son story. He's seven now, um and when he was 10 years old. I hope I say this right 10 months old yeah, 10 months old.

Speaker 4 44:00

Yeah, uh, when he was 10 months old he was diagnosed with embroiled rhabdomyosarcoma. Hopefully, I said that right, right. And he, when he was diagnosed, I mean it changed our entire family. It changed everything from them. You know, him getting surgeries and we talked about, you know, getting ports in and all that stuff and just the diagnosis, what it does for your family. And it was just we felt like we were on an island man. And you know, shout out to my wife, Like, at some point, my son and my wife had to go live in Jacksonville Florida, yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 44:35

So they had to go live in Jacksonville Florida where he could get proton radiation therapy. You know, for his cancer it was like near his prostate, Okay, and so we had to make that decision because you know how small he was, where it was, you had to be very precise. So, proton therapy there's not very many of these in the country. Honestly, never heard of it. Yeah, and I saw people from around the world, you know, come there and so while they lived there, I would, you know, stay home, work. You know, do our best to try and keep up with work, Right, Raise the kids, take the kids to school.

Speaker 3 45:09

Life still goes on.

Speaker 4 45:10

Yeah, it goes on and the world is unforgiving. The world is unforgiving and it doesn't stop. And so I felt like I wanted to be able to do something to give back or make a kid laugh, a family laugh, or just knowing what they're going through, to be able to be there, like it. Just I have to, I just have to do that. Yes, you know, because, like you know, there was a lot of people that were praying for my son. You know, team members included. I mean, I had team members. You know, come down, you see paul a lot.

Speaker 4 45:42

Even paul came down to jacksonville when he had to ring the bell you know, um, when you know they, we, our team, filmed that and all and and it's just, uh, it was, it was just, it was just time yeah you know, and you know, my wife, man, that's, that's a strong woman, man, yes, yes, that's a strong woman and so um, she's got my respect for life you know, um, just for how she handled the family, you know how she kept things together and you know I I see like I played a small part and so me being able to do this, like I said, it's my ministry to give, be able to give back and do that for others other kids, other families and keep them on our prayer list, follow them.

Speaker 3 46:23

You know we have people around the world praying for this kid, so isn't it wild how many people come out of the woodworks um strangers even just come out of the woodworks, yeah, something like that happens.

Speaker 4 46:34

You know, before it affected our lives I never paid attention to the word as much. And then when now I I hate it. You know I hate the word, but you know now you pay attention to all of these things, all these instances, different foods. You know that you want to stay away from all these things, so you become more educated on it. But you know it invited itself into our home and we just push it out. Good work, that's what we want to do Good work.

Speaker 3 47:06

Yeah, so my Jackson got diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago. He's going through it right now.

Speaker 3 47:12

It's amazing, and MUSC Sean Jenkins does an amazing job oh my gosh great people, so I gotta get out of that P-backed council somehow and definitely want to volunteer. I love the fact that you're volunteering there because there's so much you can do. I see him all the time. Yeah, I'll be there tomorrow. Um, they're the person that takes the coffee down, or the people with the dogs, or the snacks. And so many toys, so many toys every thursday. You don't understand how many stuffies this kid to have. Yeah, it's. He doesn't have room in his bed.

Speaker 3 47:42

He's got so many stuffies yeah but uh, his, his port comes out in november, so we got through it and then, so he's now, your son's now seven, he's seven years old, yeah so that's a huge um, that's a huge yeah, five years, six years now.

Speaker 4 47:56

Right, yeah, we, we go every six months.

Speaker 3 47:58

Oh so you do okay, because I don't even know what to do next. Like yeah, yeah every six months.

Speaker 4 48:02

You still go in. You get your scans every six months, make sure there's no activity. Right, and you know he's healthy, he's thriving, he's living a great life. Now, man, I'm thankful. And you know, the days that you don't want to do it, you just think about what those people are going through Exactly, and it's worth it. So I mean, that's where you'll find me for the rest of my life, for two hours a week oh sweet, yeah, I'll join you um.

Speaker 3 48:29

Charleston radio group does a telethon from there so yeah shout out for them. Yeah, our sponsors here, and they raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 4 48:36

Yeah, we donated there before.

Speaker 3 48:38

Yeah, nice, I want to um, I want to answer phones next year, that'll be good.

Speaker 4 48:42

Yeah, yeah, tanya always calls me up and she's like donate yeah. So like, yeah, we've donated before.

Speaker 3 48:49

Oh, it's amazing. It's just crazy how your perspective and everything shifts when something like that, unfortunately, happens to you but it happens for the good at the end of the day and it brings your family together and thanks for sharing your story eric, I'm trying not to cry. Darius, let's get back to business. Huh, oh wow, I mean, how do we get?

Speaker 2 49:07

back to business. How do we pull that together? I was just like letting you guys have that moment, oh man. Well, I do want to say congratulations for your son feeling better and bringing that bail man.

Speaker 1 49:16

Thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 3 49:20

And for you big deal man Right, happy for you guys. Thank you To get through those situations. It's a terrible club to be a part of. Yeah.

Speaker 2 49:27

But I mean, it sounds like you spun that around, even just like you know, you mentioned your parents dying at such a young age.

Speaker 1 49:34

You spun that around as well and used that to propel yourself as you mentioned, it forward.

Speaker 4 49:45

So, um, just again, man, that was good, that was good, I like that. I didn't know I was doing that?

Speaker 2 49:47

yeah, I had no idea, I was of course. Yeah, I mean, I was like I said, I just sent back a listening.

Speaker 3 49:49

I saw this and I was looking at you. Yeah, exactly, yeah, that was awesome to see oh man, how do we go from that? All right so we talked about you know you're from here and I'm a commie, so we talked about that um, and we talked about a lot of great things. You got a lot of great advice, so thank you for doing that. Keep doing those marketing minutes.

Speaker 4 50:09

Yeah, they've evolved. Now we don't even call them marketing minutes anymore. What?

Speaker 1 50:12

do you call them?

Speaker 4 50:12

now we call them nothing. What do you mean? We just do it, just put it out, throw it out there. Yeah just put it out you know, I guess it's my thing to give to the world. If I'm going to give it to the world, I don't want to be selfish with it and name it. It is what it is.

Speaker 3 50:30

I love it, you know Fine, and then so your own personal brand. You got the merchandise. I saw too on your website. What do you, man?

Speaker 4 50:48

What's going on with Um. You know, sometimes you got to capture a great idea.

Speaker 3 50:50

Okay, yes, you know, and and I, you know, instead of wearing a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, I'd rather put on our own shirt with our own brand. Yes, on it, I got a hat on right now.

Speaker 4 50:53

Yeah, I see that you know, um, but you know it's I think I can't take credit for, like, the merch side, that's Maximilian, head of design. Okay, that's, that's all him. You know he leads the charge on that for making sure, you know, they give us better quality shirts. You know, like, we have a meeting today with them, those folks, later today, um, to make sure, like we can, you know, have the best merchandise, yes, that we can put out. I mean you can get phone cases, tote bags, all those things. So I mean, that's, that's all maximilian, that's his baby that's his baby, and so you know he comes up with a concept.

Speaker 4 51:28

You just all right, let's make a shirt. Yes, it's the best.

Speaker 3 51:32

I love it. So smart, um. There's what else you got all the questions here.

Speaker 2 51:38

I don't even want to talk about business anymore at that I know, bring it man. Okay, we can go back to business okay, um, so tell me about what you think. Uh, the mindset of a good marketer should be, see, that's a great question.

Speaker 3 51:51

This guy, that's a great question like a podcast host what should the mindset of a good marketer be?

Understanding Market Trends and Value

Speaker 4 51:57

you should be a learner yes, okay yeah, I think you should be a, and I think you need to know that you don't know everything, and I also think that a good marketer should continuously educate themselves. And I would tell every marketer entrepreneur find yourself a mentor, find a mentor immediately. There has to be someone in your life from either a creative standpoint if you're a marketer, um, or an entrepreneur, whoever they are, father and whatever and get guidance, get guidance and and I think that mindset you have to know like the best, the best creators and marketers are always hungry for more, okay, always hungry to learn something else, do something else, and always, sometimes, you're going to have to reinvent yourself, which is a constant. You're going to constantly do it. It's funny, man. Before coming here, I was at a funeral and inside the funeral, Today, early this morning, yeah, right before I got here.

Speaker 3 53:02

Yeah, one of my good friends' before I got here.

Speaker 4 53:04

Yeah, one of my good friends. His dad passed away, but one of the things that I was I've gotten to one of those things and we talked about being a good market. I'm I'm super observant. I go to the Waffle House a lot and I and I watch people and I go to.

Speaker 3 53:22

Waffle.

Speaker 4 53:23

House like. Even when I used to like open restaurants, I used to just always go to the waffle house and I still do it. I watch people and today, when I was in the funeral, I watched people and I was like you know what funerals have changed, in what way they've changed so much because people can bring their phones in funerals now. I saw people with their phones and, if you're, I heard a couple phones go off.

Speaker 4 53:45

I saw people taking, you know, opening it up, taking pictures, but then at the funeral, right at the funeral but it wasn't like they were doing it in a disgraceful way, but it was just like it's okay and it's the norm now for it to be okay. Then I watched the ushers at the funerals. I watch the ushers at the funeral and I watch everyone who is an usher over the age of 60. So I said, in 15 years, what are ushers going to be like? Because the young people don't want to be ushers inside of a church or at a funeral. What are funerals going to be like in 15 years? Because it's okay to bring your camera and your phone in there, right, you're not looked at the wrong way. What are the? What are the ushers gonna look like?

Speaker 4 54:25

because they're not gonna wear those, those dresses and uniforms anymore white gloves what is it gonna look like when our, when my kids yeah are going to funerals? What is it gonna be like? I mean, church has already changed. So it's like if you talk about like a marketer, you think about it, you have to change everything because the market's moving and if you swim against the tide, man, you will drown. I mean, you swim against the current, you'll drown.

Speaker 2 54:49

Well, okay, from a marketing standpoint, isn't it sometimes better to zig when others are zagging, like when the trends are so heavy in one way? Isn't it sometimes better to kind of go against that?

Speaker 4 55:03

I feel that way. Know, it sounds good, like you know, like you know it's when fish swim downstream they're dead. They're dead, not salmon. You want to go up. How did the bear get the salmon? When he jumps out of the water, he's going up. Okay, right, you got to be alive. Right, you got to be alive to be alive.

Speaker 3 55:23

I think we're assuming that. I think we're assuming we're alive right now.

Speaker 4 55:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got to really, but not just like heartbeat alive. I mean truthfully, you've got to really absorb things around you to become a good or better marketer.

Speaker 4 55:35

You have to see what is there, right? So, even if you're observing people, right, you you have to really watch that. You have to watch, like, how they're reacting to your product, to your design, because a lot of times, from a marketer or a designer standpoint, we think this is good, let me pass it over and you pass it over, but do you ever think, like, how is the world going to react to this thing that I made? Right, you know how are they going to respond to it? Will it get more clicks if you're making an online banner? Will it move someone to be able to do something or have an action? So you have to pay attention to people yeah, I, uh.

Speaker 2 56:12

I for myself. What I do to to get that feel is I always I try to crowdsource a lot, so I like to ask random people like I'll go to a coffee shop, I do that too and just show somebody something say tell me what you think of that totally really a random person, yeah, without best advice without giving them any information of what I'm doing I just show them a graphic and tell me what you think about that.

Speaker 2 56:32

Do you like that? Does this move you? Would this make you want to? If it's for an event, would you want to attend this and see exactly what?

Speaker 4 56:38

they say that's. That's usually the sign of someone who who really wants to better. We were inside of Columbia last week and we asked just random people these questions. We would just ask random people and every time we travel somewhere we're always asking If we're there for someone. We're going to ask them questions to see what the market says or thinks about those people that we work with. You know what I mean, and sometimes you have to get those unbiased reactions to the work that you create says or thinks about those people that we work with, right?

Speaker 4 57:03

you know what I mean yeah, and sometimes you have to get those unbiased reactions to the work that you create, so that you're not so you. You have to detach yourself from what you've made, which is hard, though but you have to because at some point you have to let it go. Yes, it's, it's like you're, it's like it's like your child. You raised it, I've taught you. Now you got to go.

Speaker 2 57:24

Yeah, I think that's something that in the last, say, year and a half, two years that's probably one of the biggest things I've learned Because I'm so passionate about creating and coming up with these things, Even working with a client is that when you put something out in the world and it doesn't go the way you expect, trying to detach from that and just move forward and say, okay, this is what it is and I have to figure out a better way to go about that.

Speaker 4 57:49

Well, let me ask you this Do you ask the people in advance, before you create it, what you want people to feel? Yes, when they do that. Yeah, because that's one question when we deliver creative, I'm not going to say, gonna say, hey, what do you think right, you think it's good? No, because you open the door for them to give opinions. Yeah, I want to ask you okay, did I miss the mark? Because in the beginning you said one, two and three were important. I did one, two and three. Okay, if I did not hit the miss the mark, how does this creative make you feel right? Then you make them think so.

Speaker 4 58:22

Sometimes the creative it's not just the design you've made, it's how you present your own design to the people that you're creating for. Okay, you have to ask them. You know you, you get better when you ask questions. Kids are smarter because they ask why. So what you have to do is you have to be able to ask them more questions. You know you should do that in advance. What do you want this creative to do? What do you see it like? How long do you see yourself running this? Okay, what do you think people feel about your company right now, while I'm making this design for you, you know yeah.

Speaker 4 58:56

So so you, you gotta you gotta, you gotta be able to ask questions. That's what's gonna make you, that's's what's going to make you go from good being a good designer right to a great designer, and that's what people are going to make. They're going to hire you based on gosh. They ask great questions, right? You know what I mean, because now they feel like you're engaged in their project versus the typical. What's your budget? Oh yeah, you know what I mean. What's your color? You should already know, by the time you call us, if you can afford us or not. True, and you have to make sure that people know and understand what you bring to the table. Like you, paul, put up a video, or a remake of a video we had called price and value. You know, are you selling the design based on price or the value that it brings?

Speaker 3 59:45

that's great. It's great advice. No, that's good.

Speaker 2 59:48

Write that down everybody yeah, um well, it's always value. I mean, I always, um, I try to position things as an investment where, in everything that I do, when I'm talking to the client, are you using the investment as a word?

Speaker 4 1:00:01

Are you teaching them value? Well, because if you're. If you, if this guy who's hiring you is driving a Bentley and you tell him I want $10,000 for that dot I'm about to make you. Right now he's a $10,000. Well, why didn't you buy a Camry instead of you driving that Bentley? So he understands value. So sometimes you have to teach them value.

Speaker 2 1:00:23

So to to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to make this connection. So, um, you mentioned like the presentation, right, so are you doing that in that presentation? Are you talking about just in the consultation, like that beforehand part?

Speaker 4 1:00:38

Well, when you have that original conversation, that conversation should be able to help you understand them. You ask those questions so you know exactly what your task is before you start doing it. Now let me ask you this when you are done with that design, what do you do? You email it to them and say tell me what you think.

Speaker 2 1:00:52

No, so what I do, that's what I used to do. What I do now is I always meet in person and I try to. I start out by kind of going back in history and telling them hey, this is these, this is what led up to us meeting here today. Story right um, and then I present now what I don't think I do really well is like I kind of just like turn the laptop and I don't. I don't think that that's well. Like after I kind of like save my spirit.

Speaker 4 1:01:18

I don't think that works well, I think you know people hate a pitch, but they love a story. Right, tell them a story, not just of the logo, but tell them a story. You know what you can say. Hey, mr Jones, this bank was created in 1958. In 1958, you guys transformed banking in Charleston, south Carolina. You did these things and I'm proud to be able to help capture this story. But in 1965, you had this turn and this is where you were. This is where you were, and these things led me to 2024 and how I'm presenting this logo to you today. Now, what I'm going to show you should capture that feeling and that emotion of everything that we discussed. In the beginning, you said you wanted one, two and three, three, and we did all three of those. So I'm going to turn this laptop around and I'm going to present to you your logo for the future and I want you to tell me exactly when you see it, how you feel, mr jones and you do that.

Speaker 4 1:02:25

So your design, you're birthing something into the world. You present it to them. Right, you know? And in your world, or even anyone's world, it didn't matter if it's video, creative or whatever we don't just send videos to people. We do not do that. Yes, good. Don't just send videos to people. We do not do that. Yes, good, we have, we have a watch party.

Speaker 3 1:02:44

Let's watch it together right, let's have an experience together. Yeah, you think about it's a movie, it's a movie premiere.

Speaker 4 1:02:49

We're gonna watch this together, so awesome.

Speaker 3 1:02:52

This is the best podcast, I think, so far that was. I mean there's a lot of tidbits going on down here, you know I I'm I'm having a good time, so oh man um, darius, is there any kind of last? I mean, you sometimes ask too good of questions.

Speaker 2 1:03:06

They last for like 20 minutes. I would say because I think, we spoke a lot about, from the marketer, designer position. But for a client, somebody that has their business, what kind of tips and advice can you give them for going out and actually hiring? What should they be looking for in conversation when they're trying to hire somebody to help them out?

Speaker 4 1:03:32

That's a fantastic question, and whenever we are conversing with someone, we always ask them. We always know that we're one of three or one of two. We ask them how are you going to make the decision on who you hire for this project? Okay, oh, that's good, and we ask them if you're making this decision and they always say I just want the best one with the best offer.

Building Relationships Through Giving Back

Speaker 4 1:03:58

So are you hiring someone based on the price that they give you or the value that I can bring in. So I would say that's asking the questions and preparing their mindset and helping to differentiate yourself, because they're going to call two of you, three of you, yeah, you know. So there's nothing that you can say that's going to change his mind, except teaching him, because he's going to develop his or her own advice from colleagues or conferences and they're going to take all these things and they're going to approach you in the manner that they approach you in, or read a book about it Exactly, and then know enough to be dangerous, right, right. The first thing you have to do is let them know enough to be dangerous, right, right. The first thing you have to do is let them know that you're the expert in the field that you're in. If he was a great designer, he wouldn't call you. He's a great lawyer yeah you see what I mean.

Speaker 4 1:04:53

He's a great lawyer. Be a lawyer. You go over there and you do lawyer things right, you know. But you teach them on what you bring to the table. But I think also you can disarm them by asking them the right questions, because you're never going to change him. If he likes steak when he meets you, he's going to like steak when he's done with you. So just ask him those questions to make them understand the decision that they are about to make. Okay.

Speaker 3 1:05:21

That's good, fair.

Speaker 2 1:05:21

Yeah, totally fair All right, mike, you can take us home seriously, great questions though, darius.

Speaker 3 1:05:29

Um, no, really, just, is there any kind of thing that you have on your heart or mind or any kind of what's, what's? Is there an event um coming up, or is there a non-profit?

Speaker 4 1:05:42

man, two things. I love Children's Cancer Partners, so donate to them if you can.

Speaker 3 1:05:48

Children's Cancer Partners. Children's Cancer Partners Okay.

Speaker 4 1:05:52

I always love MUSC, you know that.

Speaker 3 1:05:54

I like your idea and you told us this in the green room is sometimes you make deals with clients but then you have them donate to the cause. Yeah, so maybe you take a like how do you, how does that work for you? How do you do that?

Speaker 4 1:06:09

well, it's goodwill, it's. It's like, for example, if let's just say if I have a patio set, okay right, if I have a patio set and I could sell it for value, sure right, I could sell it and I don't want it, I don't want the money or need the money, and I can just say you know what, you can have it. Whatever you feel in your heart, you donate, yeah yeah, you're doing.

Speaker 4 1:06:35

So let's say it's not a patio set, let's say it's marketing and I and I use that for example like we had we had a, a partner of ours, current partner of ours that asked us to do something additional when we were actually on set.

Speaker 4 1:06:47

Oh okay and he said he said just, he said just go ahead and can you do this and just bill us for it. And we just said, no, we'll do it, but whatever you want to give us, just give to them. You know, just give to them, give to that cause. And so the guy said to us, he said, he said that was a piece of man. That was the best check I ever wrote. Yeah, because it's. You know, people don't want to work with people who are money hungry. Right, they don't want that. You know, they want to feel good about who they work with. Like I said to you, like they want to know they made a good decision who they work with. And so if you can show the people you work with, your clients, that you have a heart, they'll give you theirs and I think that creates long lasting relationships. 100 it does. That's really of that patio so you know outside of a patio set.

Speaker 3 1:07:31

Maybe you were shooting a patio set. Um, it's just amazing that. So client came to you and says, hey, I'm gonna have an upcharge, this is what I want you to do.

Speaker 4 1:07:39

You're like no, don't worry about the upcharge, yeah, donate to what you get, cause sometimes you get donate to children's cancer partners or MUSC children's hospital. I love, I love those two. I love those two. Um, and just do some good, man. Just do some good. You know I, we got a 1% rule. You know it's not a monetary thing. Just do 1% better than you were yesterday.

Speaker 4 1:08:13

And the last thing I would say, if I had any parting words, is be good to your people, be very good to your people, because they can work anywhere and they choose to spend a portion of their life with you. Don't make it miserable. So take care of your people. Love your people. Bill Biggs says you know love and accountability. There's nothing wrong with loving them hard. I think they love that and they respect that and they'll have accountability. But love your people, take care of your people and try and have. Your goal should be to make the best place to work possible for you and them. That's what the goal should be. And do those things, you'll have a successful company Not even successful Significant.

Speaker 3 1:08:56

Oh, okay.

Speaker 4 1:08:56

There we go.

Speaker 3 1:08:57

Yeah, love it. One percent, one percent. Okay, fine, then You're inspiring us, bud, that's what it is. Thanks for your time. Glad we made time. Yeah, yeah, darius, yeah, good job, it's all him.

Speaker 1 1:09:13

It's all him man. He gave us all those great words of advice and wisdom Really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 1:09:19

Man Darius is going to be killing it Well, I know.

Speaker 4 1:09:21

I see something in this guy. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 1:09:26

They're just gonna be killing it, all right. Well, I know, I see something, this guy, I don't know. I think I found two friends. Now I think you guys are gonna be, uh, lifelong friends, oh, appreciate it.

Speaker 3 1:09:30

Oh, change exchange numbers and all that. Um, thanks again, eric, really appreciate your time. Appreciate you, man. Before we leave, we'd like to thank our sponsors. Uh, charleston radio group jerry feels good for the beats and, of course, the american marketing association. If you want to sponsor or be a guest on our show, reach out to podcast at charlestonamaorg and we'll get right back to you. Thanks, guys, appreciate it. Thank you, charleston, until next time. Yeah, shout out to DJ Sparkbox.

Speaker 4 1:09:56

That's right All right y'all.

Speaker 3 1:09:58

Thanks much Cool.