Transcription
How much money do you make?
Do $218,000 this month.
Okay. How old are you?
I'm 22.
And what do you do?
I own the largest street interview ad agency.
Street interview ad agency. So those videos of like people that go up random people and just be like, "What do you do for a living? Like is there a specific type that you do?"
Yeah. So I saw that format. Um actually one of my best friends, Oliver Piccado, who you probably know from Tabs, asked me when I was abroad. He's like, "Could you do some stream reviews for my SAS um for my SAS platform? Ask people, you know, what's the worst grade they got or something?" They post it on his, you know, on his SAS's Instagram account.
Gotcha.
Went out there. I was so bad. I was in London. And it was horrible. I was so awkward. I did not know what I was doing. But he was like, "I'll give you two grand a month. Make me I think it was like 40 of these a month." And I was like, $2,000 a month to go talk 40 street views. Like, sign me up. So did it in London. People in London were not at all receptive to street interviews and I was obviously terrible at it. He ended up firing me after about a month of doing it, month and a half. But then I came back to the US and I was about to start my corporate internship and he was like, "Bro, like there's probably a big like brands probably want you to go out and do this." Um, and I kind of saw it too. I was like, you know, every brand u because originally I helped was marketing for tabs and I was like his first employee and every brand was trying to copy that tabs playbook, right? Doing UGC content.
Uh and I was like this is going to be the next level of UGC. It's the ultimate level of authenticity. It does not look like an ad. And there's so much just, you know, every brand right now is trying to throw commercials in your face. People don't want to watch commercials. Um, so he and a couple my other friend Matt Epstein, they gave me like a they introed me a couple of their friends that had ecom brands and I started doing it for them and it did really well and I started walking around New York with a a broken road mic. Uh, I had a my videographer have a backpack of just like, you know, three or four brands you've never heard of and I was go, "Hey, have you heard of this seg have you tried this caffeine gum?" I didn't know what direct response marketing was. I didn't know what creative strategy was. I actually didn't even know what rorowass meant. Within the first two weeks, I had a sales call with a brand. They're like, "So, what kind of like typical rorowass do you see um from these ads?" I didn't even know these were being run as ads. I didn't know. I googled rorowass on the call. Like, return on ads, spend. I was like, "What does that mean?" Um cuz I would I would even I would ask the brand, "Where I would go on their page, I didn't see them posted." I didn't even know they were running these as like ad creatives
>> because no one was doing it. And within like one or two weeks, I had agencies ask me, "Hey, we'll give you eight or nine grand a month to do it solely for all of our clients." And eight or nine grand a month. I was 21. I'm 22 now. Um I was like, "What's the like why?" I still didn't really understand why. And then I realized like, oh, brands pay a lot of money for ads because brands spend millions of dollars a month on Facebook, on Tik Tok running ads. That's how consumer brands grow. Cuz at Tabs, there was no ad account, right? There was no media buying. It was all Tik Tok organics. I really was not aware of, you know, this whole media buying ad agency world at all. Uh, and then I thought to myself, like, these guys will trying to pay me nine grand a month right now. Could I build my own agency?
Um, went on Twitter, started DMing brand founders. Um, and every single day would walk 35, 40,000 steps all around New York City interviewing people about brands. Uh, have people try it, react to it. I had one editor in Croatia. I would go to the Apple Store every night. I would upload footage to the Apple Store computer. Uh I would download in 10 minutes because Apple stores are the fastest Wi-Fi. I'd make the link public. I'd email it to my editor. I'd wake up in the morning. Um and the videos, the 10 videos were ready to go and I'd send it to the brand. And it was that conveyor belt that I did every single day. And I would post them on Twitter. I'd post them on LinkedIn. I'd send it to brands all night long. I would just DM brand owners, DM brand, hey, how do you stream views to your project? Can you stream use your product? And it just spread like wildfire. I like brand owners started just putting me in group chats with other founders. Uh and before I knew it, I went from like two brands to 10 brands to 35 brands in a month and a half. Each brand paying me two to four grand a month for string reviews. And I was like, what the app? I thought I just like like discover. I was like, "What's going like nobody was like everyone was like what you do for a living or trying to build their own media channel, but no one was building and filming media and then selling it to brands."
Um, and I was like, "What the [ __ ] is going on?"
So, it's like a video ad creative agency basically.
Yeah.
Wow. Okay. So, did you say that you literally just had like a camera and a mic, you would record it and you didn't have a laptop and so then you would just go to an Apple store to download the footage instead of because you literally didn't have a laptop?
I had a really old laptop that barely worked. It was more so like I could have gotten a laptop like I could like at that time I was making a little bit of money but I had no Wi-Fi in the apartment.
So it was it was also like I had a really old laptop and no Wi-Fi. I was like hm instead of going buying a new laptop right now and trying to figure out why I can just go to an Apple store and upload the footage.
Oh my god.
So then every single night I became friends with the Apple Store employees. I would film all day long till like 7 or 8 p.m. at night. Uh I would go to the same Apple store in the West Village. I'd plug my SD card in. I'd upload the 80 stream views I shot that day, made the link public, and send it to my editor. Uh, and I did that for three and a half months.
Oh my god. If this 22-year-old can make $200,000 in a month on the internet, why can't you? This time last year, he was a broke college kid that literally had to go to the Apple store to upload his footage. And now his agency is making millions of dollars per year. And they're doing that on WAP. Agencies like Josh's use WAP to process payments, send invoices, manage retainers, and even sign contracts. WAP gives you the tools to run your entire business. Whether you're a coach, course creator, community owner, software founder, or an agency owner, whatever you sell, you can sell it on [ __ ] And the best part is WAP has no subscription fees. When Josh was getting started, he didn't have a lot of money, and paying a $100 per month subscription fee just wouldn't have been an option. That's why [ __ ] is 100% free to use. So whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or you're already making millions online, make the move to [ __ ] today. To launch your business on [ __ ] just go to wop.com/sell. That is whoop.com/sell. Back to the episode.
That's crazy. Okay, so I want to understand what these actual videos are.
Yeah.
So obviously street interviews like we see that like you were saying like there's guys who go out in front of nightclubs and ask girls questions about relationships or there's people that go ask rich people how do they make their money or whatever it is. But you found a specific niche in ecom products. Yes. So you would take like a physical product that a company sells and then you would get that in your hand and then you would go on the street and just ask random people and the demographic.
I'll I'll break it down for you. So like let's say you're Celsius. Okay. Celsius. So we I would make the I would make the script almost in a way. We want we want to make these as unscripted as possible, but obviously the hook needs to be kind of tailored to the brand and there needs to be some sort of a call to action. It's going to make people want to click on the ad. But so let's say you're uh a hydration drink, right? Like a liquid IV or one of those brands. I would go up and I'd ask people like, "What's your worst hangover story?"
Have them give me their hangover story. Not talk about the brand for that first 10 to 15 seconds. And well, what do you do when you're hung over?
I get a bacon egg and cheese or I do whatever. Well, no, you actually need instant hydration.
What's instant hydration?
I I educate them about instant hydration. This how many salts are in it. This is the premium electrolytes. These are all these different benefits. They're in real time reacting to the benefits of instant hydration the same time as the viewer is.
Then not only are you educating the person watching it, you now have them trying the product. Here, let's do a live review right now. They try it and now you have their customers live testimonial about why they love the product.
Uh, and then what's it called? Instant hydration. Where can I get it? Instyration.com. Boom. Done. So now it's like a VSSL almost about the brand education and an organic ad that doesn't seem like you're watching an ad. Reactions were the backbone of social media. So, it's reaction content everyone wants to watch, just branded.
But you're teeing up the story because you're like, "Tell me about your pain. Agitate the pain. Present the solution."
Yes. But you are walking them through this direct response formula for ad creatives.
Exactly. To educate people on why they should use a product
and it crushed. It became a top spending ad for, you know, multiple nine figure brands. And I was like, "Holy shit."
Mhm. Okay. Interesting. Are there any other formats that you've tried to do other than just man on the street interviews?
So, we do podcast ads similar to this, but instead of it being an actual show, like it's like a fake podcast and we talk about a product.
Um, but our whole like my whole thesis was was with the agency was every agency like creative agency is doing the same UGC cookie cutter slop. Like they're having a creator talk about a product in their back straight to the camera.
Yeah. They're like, I love Celsius. Like, yeah, that's boring. No one cares. No one trusts that. Um, and in this age with VO coming out, AI content, um, like authenticity is what sells. Authenticity is brand. And people buy from people they like and trust. And nobody trusts something more than an honest review on the street from their target demographic. When I see someone that looks like me or same age or the same demographic as I am raving about a product, trying it in real time, uh, I trust that way more than Cristiano Ronaldo talking about a brand. I think celebrities have lost all their influence and I think influencers are leaning closer to celebrities now.
Influencers are so uh one of my good friends Buster just wrote an article on this like how celebrities are losing followers like big I I can get the numbers but big celebrities they're losing followers every single month. U they've lost their authenticity because you don't know actually what the rock is like.
Mhm.
You don't know. You just before those were the only people that had eyeballs. Mhm. Now your grandma can get eyeballs and the people that are watching your grandma actually know your grandma and trust your grandma.
I think that's what the UGC revolution kind of showed. It's like people are now instead of like a person with a lot of followers, it's actually people trust an everyday person. Like they have their guard up. Someone has a lot of followers now. Celebrity or just like online creator influencer. Now it's like UGC creators, but even then UGC creators talking to camera is now losing its trust.
Yes.
I think this is really important for people to understand right now with like the way social media is working. We're running ads at WAP. are spending a lot of money. And the one rule that I've learned to distill this is that people want to feel like they discovered something, not like they're being told about something.
Yes. You don't want to tell them what this is. They want to feel like they found it and they can share it to their friends. Like it's a find.
And they want they don't also want to be forced to watch.
Exactly.
So like a big thing with these stream views is like they enjoyed watching that ad. Like they didn't even know it was an ad for like most of it. And like when it ended up becoming ad, they still watch because they're watching a reaction and reactions are the backbone of social media.
Um, so like that's why no one like that's why this you're still you're still going to share this ad. You're going to engage with this ad. And we're in interest media now. We're on social media.
Like you can post a video with zero followers and get more views than Kim Kardashian.
So a big thing with this ad format is you're going to naturally engage with it, watch it. Um, and that's just going to drive way more traffic. Then an ad like a brand will then have like their bottom of the funnel direct response ads. that's now going to be able to target way more people because those ads are just being fed to the same people over and over and over again. You need ads in your funnel that's now going to reach way more mass people that's going to give those bottom of the funnel ads more people to target.
Gotcha. So you're going to have retargeting bottom of funnel educational ads. So the static or UGC something that's more like pointed to like the core like features of the product where this is like storytelling and introduction and mass appeal and mass audience. Now, these targeting ads will now be able to reach way more people and they'll be like, "Oh, I saw this product on that stream review I watched. Let me learn more about it." And they'll and they get a static
That's a really important thing for people to understand is that most people are not going to convert on their first ad.
Yes. And so having like a multi-touch approach to even ads or I think a lot of people who do Facebook ads think that they're need to convert on every single ad like instantly direct response.
But it's really interesting. So if I were to run your type ads, I'd be more so looking for like average view duration. Are they actually sharing clickthrough rate? Are they actually sharing it? Are people sending it to a friend? That's a really good how long.
Yeah, ex like all those metrics.
So, it's not about add to cart. Sure, that'll happen, but it's more about like, okay, are people engaging showing this? And then you retarget them, which is where you should track way cheaper cost.
You're lower your whole ad account CPM.
Interesting. Bro. Okay. You're making $200,000 a month now.
Yes.
So, you started out just doing these street interviews yourself.
Yes.
For fun with a friend. Made a little bit of money. Mind-blowing. Then all of a sudden, you were grinding, DMing all these different brand owners. Can I do this for you? showing them what you did for Oliver. They started paying you like $200 to $4,000 a month for like what?
20 videos.
20 videos. At the time, I was like, I'm rich.
And to them, they're like, this kid's going to give me 20 ads for a few grand that they have to go give to a big corporate agency, 50 grand for.
And so I was like, who's the sucker?
And they were like, this kid's going to go walk outside and 105 degree heat around New York City holding my product for a couple grand, edit it for me, and give it to me just to throw into ads library. They're like, "It's a no-brainer."
That's so interesting. I mean, everyone needs more creatives. We're in the era of like, you need hundreds of creatives a week just to keep your ad account fresh. So, I could see why like these big companies probably have like five agencies they're working with and you're the street interview flavor. And so, it's a no-brainer. $5,000 $10,000 for them is nothing.
Nothing. It's like it's like 45 seconds of ad spend.
And if you use like straight profit like I can imagine your margin's really high.
It was like 98% margin. I literally paid an editor like dirt cheap in my guy helped me build this and we actually both dropped out of college together. So I can kind of get into the story but over so I started the company in June of last year. Um by August I'd worked with 85 brands and I saved my first $100,000 cash profit because there was no cost. It was me doing it all. I paid a camera guy $25 an hour and I paid my editor like two grand a month. That was it. That was the whole business. and PE brands pay me four grand, five grand, like to go and make these ads and I'd fill them all in three hours. I was out there. I was talking to hundreds of people every day. Uh, seven days a week, no no breaks. And I was like, this is the most insane business model of all time. Uh, I learned quickly that I'm not scalable, but we can get that there later. But then it was end of August. I was about to go back to my senior year of college and I I love my friends. I was in a frat Syracuse. Like I was not like your typical kid that was like I hate like I hate all my friends. I hate this world. Like I want to go start a business. I loved college. I loved my friends.
I it that's why it made the decision really difficult.
Um I ended up going back to my senior year and then I stacked my classes. So Monday and Tuesday I went to class. Tuesday night I'd fly and stay on Matt Epstein uh who also has an agency. I sleep on his uh couch. Tuesday to Sunday I'd interview every day in New York City. Sunday night, I flew back to Syracuse and I went to my classes Monday, Tuesday. Uh, I did that for a month and a half. And then after a month and a half, I realized and brands kept DMing me and DM me and reaching out to me like they want street interviews. I realized I was like, "Okay, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can't do both.
I either need to go burn the boats and go all in and try to make this a business and chase my dream um of being an entrepreneur um or I have to stay in college." And I literally like a month and a half in I'd been like six or seven classes. I was pretty much already failing all my classes and I was really only there because like my parents needed me to be in college and this whole stigma dropping out of college was super real especially like the world that I'm in. Like no one really dropped out of college.
Um and I ended up getting looped in with Rob Gronowski. Rob Gronowski has an ice shaker product and I was in marketing class and I was sitting there and I was like sweating and I was like what like what do I do? Robin Kowsky wants to speak to me uh to do marketing for his Ice Shaker. And I love Rob Baronowski. Yeah. I'm He's an idol man. Yeah.
So, and I knew I had like one credit like one absence left before basically like or like what the like I missed pretty much every class. It was like the first class I was sitting at and like Robowski wants to meet. So, I left the class and I opened my computer and I took it right next to the bathroom because there's like no seats. And I just like sat there. Uh Chris Gronkowski got on the phone and Rob was like in the background, but it was Chris's brother who actually owns Ice Shaker. Um and they were like, "Yeah, we want you to do some tree reviews for it. Uh, how much does it cost?" And I was just like starruck the whole time. Like what the hell is going on? And I was like, "Yeah, it's four grand, 30 videos." Right. Cool. That sounds good. Like send us over to Slack. Before I knew it, uh the Gronowski brothers in my Slack channel, they paid me four grand on that phone. closed my computer, went to my apartment, grabbed all of my pillows, my blankets, put in my car, and drove to Mad Fine's floor where I stayed for a month and a half, and I was like, I'm going to make this into the largest ad format in the world.
Wow.
And then you did all them yourself then?
Yeah, I I did every single So, now we're in uh beginning of September, dropped out of college, sleeping on Matt's couch. Um I had um one editor at the time and I would just go on Twitter, ask brand owners, go to ecom events and I just kind of branded myself as like the street guy but for brands. So the ecom niche, the agency world like it's super small. Um so I just be started to become known in that world and every day I would wake up. I would will go to Washington Square Park interview people till 6 or 7 p.m. send go to the Apple store, send it to my editor, talk to all the clients in the Slack. I'll take all my sales calls while I'm streaming. So, it was like the most automatic close. Like a brand booked a sales call for my website, but yeah, I'm out here right now filming it for dial gum. Do you do you also want this? It was most like most brands they hop on a a sales call with the agency, it's like some guy they're like, "Yeah, this is our PowerPoint. These are our case studies." Like
I still haven't shared a case study with a brand on a sales call to this day. Like I like we like it was the most like, "Hey, I'm out here streaming. Do you want this? Yes or no?" And it was almost 100% close rate. M
people are like this kid like I was probably
Are you sending them the videos?
They're they're seeing me on Twitter or Yeah. They're seeing me on my Twitter or brands are just looping me in like a brand found like my friend needs this and they just loop me in their friend.
So almost all of your clients were from either referrals or you're just posting on your social media of you out in the streets talking about the brand.
Yeah.
Were you pounding outreach like DMs at the start?
At the start I was doing a little bit of outreach. Uh but super like the first maybe like that summer I like if I had mutuals with a brand owner like hey do you want this as well? throw in a group chat.
But yeah, but then they throw me in a group chat, but I never did like email or anything like that.
So, okay, cool. So, let me understand this. You would DM people at the start once you got a few clients, you'd have referrals, but then you just also post on your social media of you like under Twitter.
Twitter has a really big eosystem.
Ecom system. Yeah. Ecom people is big on Twitter. Okay. So, you would post on Twitter of you just like iPhone like out there recording this, showing the brand you're working with. If you want this, DM me.
Yeah. And I'd be like, "Let's go. You want your interviews?" Then like I would be tweeting to like a really like niche ecom people and they were just like I had a calendar link in my bio where you could book a call.
Oh, was it a Calendarly? Yeah. So you just had a straight Calendarly link to book a demo call for your agency. And then you pitch them like hey here's what the videos look like. If you want 20 of these is $5,000.
It was $3,000.
$3,000. It's a no-brainer offer for the team. No brainer. They don't It's no risk at all.
Okay.
Zero and no retainer. No commitment. No. Nothing.
So just Okay. So 3K for 20
and I would just set him a stripe and that's one day of work for you basically.
It was like less. It was like two hours worth. I would do I would do like three or four packs a day.
Okay. So, you just have to be willing to you just have to be willing to do the uncomfortable part of going up to strangers and interviewing them.
And there was I was first to market. Now, there's other people doing it, but I very I built my like a name in the ecom world to doing it, but
I remember seeing like a tequila brand doing this way back in the day, like two or three years ago.
Yeah.
Interesting. Okay. So, then now you probably aren't doing all of the interviews. You mentioned that you weren't scalable. How did this turn into like you're making over $200,000 a month right now with a very high margin.
Yeah.
And so I'm imagining you I think you were here you said you had 34 people on your team.
32 right now.
Okay. So tell me how it evolved from you doing all these yourselves for $3,000 to now making hundreds of thousands a month.
Totally bigger headache.
Yeah.
Way bigger headache. So s like very uh so like it went from like rocket ship like college dropout. I'm gonna conquer the world, build the, you know, the most impactful ad agency um in the world. No, no agency was doing it. Um then November kind of rolled around. It got dark at 3:30 p.m. The park where I went was empty and no one wanted to be interviewed in the winter. Everyone's mad and everyone's like angry and cold and like and I remember like vividly like one day I went to the like Washington Square Park with my backpack like who's ready to get like who's interviewed and like no one was there and I was like [ __ ] and I had nowhere to live. I was still on a couch and I was like okay and I was like there's no business here like in my head you couldn't have convinced me that this wasn't a hundred million dollar a year business. In my head I thought I was like Mr. Be. I I I thought of myself as like I'm going to change advertising.
Yeah. I'm going to be the face of direct to consumer brands.
And all of a sudden I was like and I was living like this like delusional world. It just didn't exist.
Um and I was like wait no one's going to be interviewed. I ended up getting really backlogged like couple weeks delayed. Brand started getting unhappy.
You like oversold yourself.
Oversold myself. And I was like and then I I got burnt out.
Mhm.
I got I was I mean I was averaging over 20 miles walked a day every day.
That's crazy.
Like what? Like like wow. Like
that's a lot.
Yeah. A lot.
20 miles.
Over 20. I was doing like 22 23 miles. I was doing You couldn't just sit in one spot?
No, I was walking all through Manhattan. I was walking all around Washington Square Park, downtown Manhattan, like and just because we need like certain demographics. So I have to go to a gym and I walk outside of the gym because you have to like stop people. No, no one wants to come to you.
Yeah. Yeah. So, you have to be aggressive. Um, and I would just I and my legs would just get so sore every night. I would like take like cold baths. My legs just get like they were just so sore from like walking and I have to do it again the next day and the next day.
Interesting.
Like in my head, like I remember like Jake and Logan Paul, right? Like they daily vlog for two years. In my head, I was like, if they can daily vlog for two years, I can street review day. Basically, I was daily vlogging but for brands. Like how I was doing in my head. Anyway, back to what you asked. Park got cold.
I was like, okay, other people need to be doing this. Uh, so I went on casting networks and started having like actors and comedians come and and I would use them to be a stranger in the video and I would train them to do straight interviews. They all sucked. Um, and I was like, is this something only I can do or can I like find other people to do this? Then it became like December and we moved into the subway station. So I would go into subway cars and then the turnover time for people that like the hit rate for people wanted to be in the videos like zero. No one wanted to be in the video in the subway. And I was like [ __ ] like what do I like I still so just me a videographer um and just carrying like a 40 lb backpack like all our different products just follow me around every day. Um I ended up finding one female host that was really good. Um and we went to Miami and she end like she has some friends she could stay with. I had a couple friends that I could stay with and I trained her in Miami to do street interviews. She had a couple other friends. I trained them as well and they were actors and comedians. So, this agency was about to go to zero if I stayed in New York. Brands didn't want me in a winter jacket. Um, it was no one wanted to be stream reviewed. It was freezing cold. They hated the subway. No one wanted to talk in the subway. It was loud. Like, we'd be mid interview and a subway car would come and we had to stop it. And I was I was just not a human being at that point. like I was just basically I just been going every day for like like for you know since May or June. Um so I ended up taking a couple people to Miami, trained them on Miami Beach. Um and then that Miami location attracted us more brands. We did that for like two months. Um July uh January and February um and then I went to Vegas and did it in Vegas and then I went to LA and I did the Santa Monica Pier. I start just traveling and doing it and I would ship put all the brands in a suitcase like a big checked bag and I would ship it to each location I was at. Um and I would stay in hotels and friend places and I did that. Soon as it became like March, April in New York um all came back to New York. The people I trained in Miami had friends in New York. Um brought in like an operator friend that I had. He started training these people and long story short um we got three people trained and then four people trained and then I ended up merging the company with my now my partner who had a media buying company.
Uh so he was just he was like running your ads on Meta and Tik Tok and he was at the time struggling to scale to like to selling creatives and I was like bro I have more demand than I could possibly handle selling creatives. Why don't you put your team in here? You guys will run all the ops. Uh, I'll do all the sales and lead genen and like be obsessed with the product to make sure the streams are good. Um, but we my I up until May of this year, it was just me and uh, sorry, it was just my one editor editing all the videos. So, he was editing like 25 ads a day and he was burnt out.
So, like I was burnt. Kamika, my editor was burnt. Um, and I had no idea I was doing with Ryan the business. So, he was doing like 70 grand a month, 80 grand a month from the media buying. was like, "Why don't we just merge them? You bring your team in, we go build a holding company um and go 50/50 and we'll plug your team in, your creative strats, e like eight or nine editors, plug them in, and that's what really like they allowed us to really scale."
Interesting. How so you who was your first person you hired because you really just need a talent and a camera person, right? You need two people for the for like to duplicate yourself.
Yeah.
Who was the first person? The first
I was a female host.
How did you meet her?
Through a cast. She showed up to casting a casting network. Yeah. So like actors actors and comedians.
Is it like a website?
Uh yeah, pretty much a website.
What's it called?
Uh it's like uh it was like casting network.com or something.
Casting network.com. It's just like a like how you cast.
There's like eight there's like eight or nine of them in New York. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
It was like one of those websites.
And so you just found you just like trained or like here's how you ask the questions.
We we tried to do like a movie set. So like I would have like 12 actors come to be interviewed and then whoever was good I would then be like you also want to be a host.
Ah, so you had them like be
Yeah.
people that you were interviewing. Yeah. But you're really trying to feel them out to see if they'd be good on camera to ask questions instead.
Exactly. So they gave a really good So then she gave a really good reaction. I was like, "Do you want to be a host?" And I was like, "I'll pay you five grand a month to be a host four days a week."
And she's like, "Yeah, let's do it." So then I trained her. Uh, now we've had seven people quit their hostess's job or their bartending jobs because New York's home to actors and comedians. We now had seven now quit their job to be full-time street interviewers for us.
And you're really focused on closing more clients. Basically,
my job now is doing business development right now for the second is quality control, making sure these ads are good as possible. Um do all of our lead genen, all of our sales calls. Um and I'm pushing like how like we're building this in Miami right now and LA. Um hopefully Austin, but for Miami and LA, but I'm leading that. And
why are you doing different cities? Like why is it important to have hubs?
Because brands after like getting like a 100 stream views in New York, I can then sell them on like kid, do you want to do this in Miami? Like if you could do this different demographics like they want 20-y old locations like in front of the Chicago Bean on South Beach, Miami, Santa Monica P like a local product. Yeah. Or if it's like a cowboy hat, you'd want to be in Texas or you put them on a 12-month retainer and be like every quarter it would give you a different city.
Then that way they hit all the bases. Yeah. So they get all the demographics.
Interesting.
So that's what I'm really leading now, leading charge on. And then Luke, my partner, are really focusing on like delivery and client fulfillment.
So did you you said they ran a media buying agency. Have you ever offered running ads on top of this for people?
Yeah, we we have like 12 13 people.
So you do run ads? So media buying is a service you sell?
Yes. Like an upsell basically.
Yes. Like you get in with the creative and if they want media buying.
Yes. But most like the clients for the media buying and the clients for the ad creative like like Dr. Squatch isn't your list run their ad account, right? they have the house.
So like it was hard to like like we're probably not going to get you know Ridge wallets like media buying.
So for all the big ones we just do their creative but it is a good funnel be like hey we also could can do your media buying.
How do you price now
for creatives we do 6,000 a month for 10 creatives 7500 for 15 creatives
retainers now
three month commitment. Um and yeah,
nice. Okay, that's still super good deal. Like that is like really good market value. Fantastic market value.
But you used to do it at scale and it's profitable.
Yeah. And then now you have a 34 person team basically and you just need to like to scale all you need is just more talent camera. Talent camera talent camera in every single city.
Yeah.
Yeah. And they can they don't you don't need an office or anything.
No.
Interesting. How do you train them? I'm curious. Like what is the training?
You need a trainer now, but I did it. You got a trainer.
Yeah.
Okay. What's the training process? Train me right now.
Um, so a big thing like you have to look for is like your like outgoingness.
Yes.
So like like how you like usually we'll start you by like react like doing a street review. You're the stranger, how well you can act, how well you can like think on your feed because like I don't tell you what to say about the brand.
Um, so that's usually how we can tell if like someone's going to be good or not. Um, then I give a product. We send them the brief the night before. So, how we have a creative director puts together about a four to five page brief for the brand about about a dozen different concepts for that brand to choose from. Um, so then that host will memorize it, you know, the night before they go out and shoot. So, we'll give them the brief for a product. We'll h have them memorize like the hook, the call to action, the value props to the product. Um, and then I'll follow them and like a c or a camera guy will follow them and I'll follow them with them and I'll watch them street interview and just give advice
and I was giving advice like keep your shoulders open more, right? Right.
My girlfriend tells me that all the time.
Like keep your shoulders open. Like um don't say like or um or like like cuz if you're like don't be stay because these are ads. Uh like you you talked too too broadly about the product. You need to be very specific when you're running ads. This is how many milligrams of salt. This is this is like cuz you're making a direct response ad.
People know the comparisons if they're interested.
Yeah.
Yeah. So like and then I coach them. We do that for about a day, two days. Uh after that we just kind of send them out. Mh.
Um it's about a 5day process from like could they be a host to like setting them out. Um and then we usually start with like one brand and just have them shoot the whole day cuz like usually it's not all going to be good. So we just give them one brand. We know at least we get like a few good videos from it and then as they get better and better they'll go out and shoot three or four brands a day, five brands a day. So
what So you mentioned that the brief has multiple concepts like what categorize some different concepts like what are the formats or like type of angles of going about the conversation?
Super like product dependent but like this versus that. like we'll have you like try David Protein bar and try another one. Or you know or what what like whatever the brands are really like targeting, right? So if you're a consumer brand, you're you have different like angles that you're hitting like you're talk you're hitting a mother that has kids that you know needs to go to sleep because like if you're like a magnesium sleep because you have kids. So you can do, you know, um, you know, an angle around like like what keeps you up at night. Oh, my kids or whatever and targeting them. Or if you're like a runner, like you need to sleep because you have to be up at 4 a.m. for your your workout and then it's like an an angle around running. But it's whatever like that brand like target demo is or or angle is that works best. That's what we do the street views around.
Yeah. So they perform.
So you're choosing the ICP in that demographic and then building the story line around that. So if it's magnesium to help people sleep, you're going to use the story that a mom has a kid that cries at night. So they lose sleep. If if like a 45year-old like mom is like their, you know, the demographic that buys the most, they don't make them around that otherwise not going to perform. Like for a long time it was like let's say you're obby, right? Like a woman's supplement. I'd go interview like some random guy about it. Like it's not going to perform.
No, you have to be realistic. People want the ad should reflect the person. And they should feel like they look like them basically.
Exactly. That's what builds real trust and resonate with the story.
Exactly. Or like create we do like create creatine gummies like we'll go to like you know outside of gym and workout gear and we make them very focused on like why you'd want to build muscle and why you would take creatine and that kind of stuff.
Interesting. I mean that's just good marketing.
Yeah. Yeah. At the end of the day. But it's just such a cool format because it's like you would never think it's not. Like that's just why it's so beautiful. And you're and you're not going to be annoyed watching an ad. Like that's the whole thing was like
people don't like ads, but like content is like everything's content. Like no one watches commercials.
So it's like how are we going to make an ad for that people want to watch?
It's like that's like the way algorithms work. It's all earned views now. Like you have to earn the view. There's no such thing as a subscriber base.
You have to earn the comment. You have to earn the engagement.
Yeah. It's so risky to pay an influencer to post these days cuz it's like if they make a bad video even for their channel, it just flops.
Yeah. And so
Well, that's why like whitelisting is pretty big now. Like White listing
whitelisting ads. So like the brand like will be run through the influencers.
Oh like a Tik Tok spark ad in a way like
like when you go on Meta and you're you're going through stories. You see like an Instagram uh like an ad of an influencer like holding a product like trying or doing UGC ad. It's going to be a link to the website not the influencers's account.
That's through F meta ads that you can do that.
Uh it's I think came out like
I don't know how many months ago, but yeah, whitelisting has been a pretty, it's like, now you're really big.
So you can basically run ads through the creator's account for your brand.
Yeah, and go to the, it go to the brand's account.
Interesting. So that's something else we're doing is like, all of our hosts are going to get their build their own like, the media channel, like, like Jake Street Talk or something like that, and then we can whitelist the ads through all of them as well.
What, what ads?
Like, that's what they do.
Okay. So then it's even more like hidden in a way, like it's like more disguised.
Yes. That's really smart. Okay. But it's still disclosed, like sponsored.
Yeah. Through Meta. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Interesting. We should definitely be doing that with all of our creators.
Yeah. We have so much opportunity there. Wow.
Yeah. And you, and you just pay a percent of spend, like 5% of the ad spend that goes behind it.
Oh. To the creator.
Yeah.
That is really smart.
Yeah. This is why I like this podcast. I just, I get to make content and learn at the same time.
Okay. Interesting, bro. So, now that you guys are at this point where you've scaled to 34 people, I understand your outreach message. I understand how you train people. Is, do you think that this is like, like you said, you have a lot of competitors now. Like, is it like, is it like, are you very specifically staying in e-commerce? Do you think that you could like branch out like you did SAS initially with all of your, like, is there a reason e-commerce is better?
CPG is the best because it gives, you know, you could react to a protein bar or whatever, a brownie or whatever, right?
Uh, how we do it with software and apps is you react to the problem the app is solving. So, settle, uh, you know, we took from like low 90s in the App Store to like number 12 in the App Store in our first batch of ads. Like, we really helped grow that app and we had people react to, you know, "Did you know like big companies probably owe you settlement, settlement money?" Like, what reacted to the problem that was doing?
Um, or like, "Icon admiring ad."
Yeah, we were in my stream view was one of their top ads. I would ask, like, "How much do you think this ad cost to make?" And how many people do you think worked on it? And like, "I don't know, crew of 50 people, $50,000." No, it was made for like, a hundred, like almost no money and nobody worked on it. It's AI. And you have people react like, "That's AI." And then brand owners would sign up.
Would you show the ad at the end? Like, would you screen share the iPhone?
Or hold my phone, like show people. And then you have like, the camera would record it behind the shoulder.
We just put B-roll over it.
So then you'd show B-roll of like the phone popping up and showing the actual ad.
Yeah. And it's just like 20 seconds, 30 seconds, that reaction.
We just did Marpipe, like a lot of software companies now hanging out. Like, pretty much our ICP is anyone that runs an ad.
I mean, it's everybody in the world, basically. That's how everybody scales.
Fascinating. Okay. And how far do you think you can take this? Like?
We're up. We'll be a multi-hundred million dollar year media agency.
Hundred million dollar year.
Yeah. If not. Yeah. We will be. Like, I, I'm 22.
Mhm. I, I've been running this company for a year and like, four months or something like that. And I went from literally nothing. Like, no Twitter, didn't know what RORowas meant to, you know, working with the biggest brands on Earth, 34 team members, um, you know, couple six figures a month. And we're, we're growing really fast. And this ad format is just the beginning, especially as we move into VO, uh, and make AI ads. People are going to crave authenticity. People are going to crave realness, real trust, real people.
How will they know your content's real?
They're, It's a good question. Yeah. Uh, I think there's gonna have to be some sort of like disclaimer. "This is an AI ad."
"Human generated."
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, "Human generated versus not human generated." But you, you shoot on lower, like, we've even moved to shooting on iPhones instead of cameras, 'cause like the lower budget just kind of does more. It's more real.
Misspelling stuff on purpose is going to be a thing for sure.
For sure. Like stuff that, like believes that this was human. And that's our whole thesis with this agency is like, no one really is going to trust an AI AI ad. Like, we, our whole thing is raw human emotions about brands, and that's what people trust.
Have you done actors? Like, have you like had a friend that's just like the one you're interviewing and like staged it?
Yeah, we've done it before. Uh, it depends on your product. Like, sometimes you have to do it. Like Gary Brea's like NAD brand. Like, it was really hard.
Yeah. It's too advanced.
We staged it. You can usually tell.
You usually tell.
Same with the fake podcast. Do, do those feel real?
You, they, most people don't know they're on social media.
I could know.
Yeah. You could sense it for sure. For sure. If you watch social media. Like, do you know anybody? Have you, is there any other formats besides street interview or fake podcasts that we do?
I don't know. Those are the only two.
Those are the main two.
Yeah. And I'm sure the podcast is a much smaller percentage of people. Do you just have like a set like this?
We just take our street reviewers when they're done street reviewing. We have a podcast that we partner with. We just tell them to go to the studio.
A pocket studio.
A podcast studio.
Oh, okay. Okay. Like when they're done for the day.
Answer these questions.
Yeah. Like they'll, we have the briefs. Every super lean. Like, you don't, you don't have an office, probably. Like, maybe for you and the four people, but like, no office, no expenses, 'cause you're just paying people based off, I guess, the team.
Well, now there's expenses.
Yes. Yes.
Or paying you to pay for?
Just the talent, but yeah, pay for all the.
But instant margin because you have the client already before you use them.
It's good margin business. Yeah. Well, it's agency business, media.
Good cash flow.
Yeah. It's great cash flow.
Uhhuh. And you're about, you're, have you like removed yourself from it? Like how?
Here, right now on Slack.
Yeah. It was like two o'clock on a on a Wednesday, you know? So.
I got my, I mean, the whole thing was like working myself out of the work because it was just me. Uh, and I was like, "Okay, now I have to train people to make the creatives behind it." Like, how was I think because I would just do the creative on the fly. Like, I, I was marketing a dozen brands a day. And I was just like, I just had to get really creative. Uh, there was like, train people how to get creative about marketing. There was training people how to do the videos, how to film it, how to like, how to edit it. Like, my, my editor edited thousands of ads and he got really good at it. So he, other people.
What, what are the editing tips? Like, is it like, you have to put like a, do you want to put like a sentence on the screen at the start like, "You'll never believe what they just said?" Like, what is the method?
Start off with the reaction for sure. Feel like that's just going to stop people.
Okay. Um, and then the hook is designed to keep you like, it's like a hook. Does not, you're not going to think it's an ad.
Mhm. Um, and it's problem to solution. So, it's like, you're talking about a problem, they're talking about a problem they have, and then the solution to it is the brand you're holding or the company you're.
What about the retention editing specifically? So, I, so you're basically going to ask them like, you're going to take them through this direct response style conversation. They're going to be telling a story and they're about 70% through. You're going to show them the product and they're going to be like, "Wow." But, so you're going to take that "wow" and move that as the hook of the video, and then it's going to be that the reaction.
Like, that's really good.
Yeah. The reaction, and then it's jump cuts to you, the hook, which is the first question that you're asking them.
Yeah. So just how I started this podcast. "How much money do you make?" You have your version of that.
Okay. Exactly. And then it's like the storyline, what gets talked about, and then call to action, whatever sale they're running, website, anything.
Is it like a philosophy you have to cutting? Like, are they like really short usually, or do you want to like let the story?
You try to make it, I mean, I'm sure you've seen stream reviews, like, you try to make it as, you'd watch a normal stream video.
Okay. And then are you, but are you doing like any sort of like text? Like, are you, you're captioning, captioning?
Yeah. White.
But no like.
And and B-roll. And there, like when they go to like drink the product, there's like graphics of like.
Full screen B-roll.
No, just like.
There's like overlay graphic to enhance what they're saying.
Yeah. That, and like when they go to hold the product, like there will be like graphics of like what the product is.
Okay. So you're going to show the product through graphic. Okay. That might give it away. It's an ad, but it kind of.
Yeah. They're already hooked at that point. They're into the story.
Yeah. Interesting. Okay. And then.
Just pretty much call to action.
Is there like an end screen that says like, you show the website or?
Yeah. End screen that shows the website and like to go buy it.
At that point, you, you're watching an ad. And you're showing the price and everything.
Yeah. Okay. So he's kind of, you're just kind of like tricking them to engage and then five seconds in it becomes.
Direct, but they're like, they have the open loop.
Yeah. Interesting. That is really smart.
Yeah.
And are you, like, are you retaining clients? Like, are they coming back? Like?
Well, now people are on retainer. Uh, at first, I was giving them, so like, that was a big problem I had, honestly.
You gave them too much.
I gave them too much. Yeah. Like, after I give you 40 street reviews, like, most brands test 10 a week.
Yeah. Exactly.
I'd given them enough for months. So I was like, "Fuck, what do I do?" And I was like, "No one wants, unless you're like, you know, a massive brand, like you're not testing, you know, 40 new ads a month. You're just not, especially just that one niche."
So the first eight months was a lot of churn. I had a lot of clients coming in, a lot of clients be like, "Thank you." They, if they had a new skew, they would hit me up for a new skew. Now we sell less. We do 10 or 15. Uh, we do multiple concepts with multiple hosts. We could break it down like three for each skew you have or something like that. Uh, and it's a three-month commitment retainer.
Yeah. Gotcha. And then it just kind of keeps going till you kind of get.
It's interesting how you learned these specifics, how you could do less videos but charge me.
The whole thing was volume, right? So it was like everyone was like, "You need only retainer, only retainers." Like, well, then no one's going to sign up. I just wanted to get known as the streamy guy. I wanted like a little bit of money. I'll do all the delivery. I don't care. I'll hunt for clients. It wasn't easy to get. It wasn't that hard to get clients, but then I became known for doing it. And now I have the leverage to do a retainer in a business.
So, it was like speed and execution all day long.
It's interesting to me, dude. I think I was a videographer in college. Like, I shot music videos, or shot videos for like clubs, and they ended up using those as ads. Like, that's kind of how I got into marketing as well. But like, that's just ballsy to like go interview people on the street. Like, I would be like, too, like, it would be like, I'd be like scared to do it, basically.
Yeah. So I can see why that's like such an open market because no one wants to do that. I remember vividly, uh, when I dropped out of college, everyone was telling, like, everyone thought, like, there's, I get from their perspective, like looking out, like they're like, "What's going on? He has no following." People are like, "You don't have a following. How are you going to be an influencer?" I'm like, "I'm going to be an influencer building an ad agency, like idiot." Like, they don't even know. They're like, "You're doing like, they only think like street interviews, like, 'Oh, I'm going to be an influencer.'" Like, they didn't understand that I could build a media agency behind it.
Um, so I was wearing a corn co, I was filing for Love Corn. I had this big corn hat on and I was wearing a Love Corn t-shirt and I was basically like, like a mascot, like running up and down New York. And I saw like family friends and we made eye contact and they were like, they were like, "What's going on?"
He's like, "Addicted to crack." He's at rock.
Yeah. They were like, "What's going on?" And like, Love Corn paid me like a few grand for a bunch of videos and I was like, in my head, I was like, "I just, I knew like this would be the biggest like ad format ever and that I could build a real company out of it." But to them, they, I remember them seeing me. I was, I was like literally like a mascot for a brand. I was like one of those people in Times Square you stop, take a photo with.
Yeah. Just no shame, bro.
Yeah. And I just like, I, I, I remember like then later that day, I was filming for a vibrator brand and I like, ask women about like masturbating, but like, they wanted to pay me like six grand and I was like, "Fuck." Like, I had just no shame. Like.
The fact that you are willing to do that is so impressive. Like, I, that might be one of the most, like, that might be the most respectable trait I could think of. Like, I respect the fuck out of you for doing that.
Thank you. That is so, like, that is the biggest blocker for so many wannabe entrepreneurs.
I don't care what people think.
And you are like the epitome of like, just no shame. I'm going to grind. This is good for the world, and I'm going to be the best at this thing.
Yeah. So impressive, bro.
Thank you. And I remember people, like, I remember like, I, I was doing a woman's bra company and I was like, walking around with like, with a bra and I was like, I, but like, the thing was like, in my head, it sounds crazy now, but like, I just, I just believed so much that like, I could win and I could see it. And, you know, to get, you know, to get motivational, like, I was in special ed. I was in algebra 1B. I was in the lowest math class at my high school.
What do you mean you were in special ed?
Special ed. Like I was in special ed. Like, you know, the kid with like the room with my, I was in that through my senior year of high school, starting when I was like, eight in elementary school. I was in special ed. I wasn't even allowed to take a free period because I needed so much special ed like help. Like, I had a lot of learning disabilities.
Really?
Yeah. And and I like, like barely made it to college. Like, like I.
Syracuse is a good college.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, ed there, got in, but like, I, I was full of special ed. Um, you know, took me the lowest math classes. Um, and, you know, really kind of like counted out in a lot of ways. I'm a twin and my twin sister, uh, is brilliant, perfect SAT score, got a full ride to University of Chicago. Uh, finished all of the AP classes her high school by like, her sophomore year, graduated the triple major, Chicago, back to different class, like, literally like on paper. And like, I'm a college dropout street reviewer. Like, literally like opposites.
And I just remember like, I knew like, I, I'm like, I want to be a content creator entrepreneur and be successful since I knew what being successful was. I was like, I want to be successful. And I just didn't know what that meant, how to do it, where to go. I was failing out of school pretty, like, basically failing out of school. And I just thought it was all a scam. I was like, "There's just no way. Like, this makes any sense. I was like, 'Why does it matter?'" Like.
And and yeah, I, but I, I could always talk to people. Like, I could always like, I was always really good at building relationships. And I was always really good at making friends. And I was always really likable.
And like, like, not to be cocky, but like, I just was.
And this business was the, the perfect storm for me because it required no computer work. I didn't have to use a computer. It required nothing. All I had to do is go talk to people all day long, make videos, and then befriend my clients to give me more clients. That was it.
And it was like, perfect.
It was a pretty good gig.
And like, I, I hate this. This is the longest I've sat down for in weeks. I don't sit down. Like, I just, I, I'm on the move. I'm on calls. I'm talking to people. But it was like, if there's one thing that like, is like, this is like meant for me, it, it was this business. And I just knew I was like, I had to give it everything I had. Did I like, and it's now, it's been kind of a perfect form, like, it's now like a leading ad format for brands. And we're able to build a company out of it. But I remember in the very beginning, I was like, "This has my name written all over it."
Mhm. That is crazy. How's your sister doing now?
She's good.
Is she comparing herself to you now?
Yeah, a little bit. Uh.
You have a direct like comparison like that's got to be brutal growing up.
She, she's good. I mean, we're just like the exact opposite.
Yeah. Like, good, both, I'm sure good in your own.
That's so fascinating though. That one, like you have a, you're like literally twins, but complete opposite.
Complete opposite skill set.
She's introverted, like super introverted. And like, I'm like, what, like literally the opposite of introverted, like more than extroverted.
What are other crazy stories that have happened? Like?
Oh, dude, so much.
Give me, give me like three. So interesting.
Think about, I talked to hundreds of people every day around New York City.
You like 6,000 of these.
Yeah. Um, craziest stories. Uh, I mean, week two of doing this, I went up to go interview someone. Punched right in the face. Bang. Right here. I went down. I went down to the count. Week two.
Did you deserve it?
I, I was like, barely, I was about to ask him a question. Like, I was like, walking up and he, he wasn't on the phone. He was like, he was kind of just like standing there like, "Hey, do you think I can ask you?" Turns, bang, just knocks me here. Like, it wasn't like I was like, like badgering him. Like, I didn't even touched him.
Like you didn't sneak, like it's like you snuck up on him.
He was like, a homeless guy. I didn't really realize like he was on drugs. And I should have started that. And then he like mumbles and then kind of kept going. But I didn't know he was a homeless guy.
Gotcha. I didn't know. I didn't know he was on drugs.
Yeah. Okay. That makes more sense.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I punched the wrong guy. But like, yeah, for sure. But I went down for the count and I, I had like this big like bruise here.
I still delivered all the videos that day.
Wow.
I, I still went down there and hit it.
Punch in the face when it stopped.
I went down, I was down for a couple minutes. Videographer didn't even get it on footage, unfortunately. I was pretty pissed about that. And I just kept it rolling.
I, I mean, homeless guys like pissed on me in the subway when I was in the subway all winter. I mean, literally like I would just wake up and run around New York until the sun came down every day trying to get the best reactions possible for my clients.
Interesting. So the lowest point of this was that the season changed and you had to go.
Subway changed. 100% churn in the business.
Yes.
Um, no reoccurring revenues. I had to keep, I only made a dollar. I found a new client. Horrible business.
Yeah.
Um,
Were you saving the money? Like, 'cause if you were cash flowing so much and you're sleeping on Matt's couch.
I was saving money, but then.
I, I started paying like, I, for like, there was, there was expenses like I had to pay like, yeah, like I, I had to pay my editor five grand a month. Then I was paying my camera guy four grand a month.
It got expensive with the volume.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, yeah, it was, it became expensive. Um, and then it was like hard to build. I couldn't build payroll. I didn't know how much money I was going to do each month.
Um, because it was 100% churn. Um, and yeah.
As most service businesses tend to be.
Yeah. It's like one-off things.
Yeah. Um, so yeah, it wasn't high quality revenue. Um, and then and then yeah, it was just like, I didn't know what to know. Like, I was 21. I was like, alone in New York. I had to like, never run a business. It was like winter in New York. All my friends are partying in college, having the time of their life at the frat. Um, and I was just like running around New York every day trying to make a business at doing street interviews.
Like, I never hired anyone. I had never fired anyone. I had never done anything before.
And I was getting so upset. I was like, "This is the biggest opportunity in the world." I was like, "I'm not even marketing myself." And brands are hitting me up. I was like, I was just getting so frustrated. I was like, "I don't want to lose the opportunity by lack of experience."
Mhm. Um, yeah.
Cool. I mean, that's so, this is like one of the most, like, this is like just makes me really excited because I feel like anyone could do this. The only thing stopping them is are they willing.
Not sad.
Literally. Yeah.
Are they willing to do it? Have you seen competitors pop up? Like, has it affected you?
Yeah. It's just so hard to, to, to productize the service like this. You can go and you know, go on Fiverr or whatever and find a guy to do streamies for you. M but we're, I mean, we're making, we're making, you know, probably like 300 ads a week right now, maybe more, 350 ads a week, for the agency. Like, good luck getting to that scale. Like, it is difficult.
And when you hire someone, they have to work four, four days a week.
It depends on how many, like, how free they are, stuff like that. But you said you, what, what's your margin now? Uh, for this one, I'm just trying to think if I want to be public with it.
Um.
If you don't want, it's fine.
It's good.
Over 50%.
Yes. Over 50%.
Yeah. Amazing.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's over 50%.
And so you, but you basically, how many clients can one person handle, I guess, is my question.
Well, if you wanted to just go do this right now, you could probably, I mean, how much of a dog are you? Like, I guess, kind of.
Well, one of your, like, if someone, let's say someone on your team, how many, like, how many, if you sign X many clients, you need to hire X one new camp?
Uh, I mean, our average person does like two to three brands a day.
A day.
Yeah. But, but that's like five or six videos a brand.
Wow. So it's.
That's not that much.
Well, two to three brands a day.
Not packages, like, like each, each, each package is three different shoots.
Okay. Okay. So one, so three brands a week. We could say like that, in a way, or five brands a week.
It also just depends on like, how. So there's a lot of variables. So it's like, just because you do an interview doesn't mean it's going to count, right?
If it's, yeah. It's not.
So it has to be flat. If it's flat, or whatever, it's not the demographics. Like, there's so many variables that go into like, I wish it was that systematized, but it's not. Like, sometimes, like, you have to go reshoot. There's like, the weather's a massive issue.
Yeah. Like, you'll go out, okay, I got to do more with this brand, right? I got to do all of them.
You have to upload it all, send it to our client success manager, who has to review all the footage and let them know if they have to go do it again, they have enough, all that stuff.
So, it's a, it's a really headache.
Tedious. Yeah.
Yeah. It's super annoying to do this.
Transferring footage. People, I don't think people understand how time.
I go to Apple stores.
Yeah. Yeah. Or you lose an SD card, you file, like, there's all these random.
We have people go out and shoot, you know, for a massive client and they forgot to turn on the mic. And like, you just kind of want to.
I have been there.
Yeah. It's like, [ __ ].
Yes. And like, at least for this, you can go do it again where you're not like, I lost a person's wedding footage one time as a videographer.
Wedding footage.
Yeah. Like, the, the SD card is corrupted and it just like, don't say.
I told them the SD card corrupted.
What did they say?
We had multiple cameras, but like, there's one of the main cameras.
I would cry.
They were really nice about it.
Were they?
Yeah. But like, it's just brutal.
Yeah.
It's out of your control. So.
Yeah. That's, yeah.
Just a videography game. I will say that's the one thing I people who learn video is a skill really young. It's probably like the best skill because you can just make so much and it takes such a low barrier to entry. But they tend to be really smart. But in all of video, commercials or ads is where the money's at. Like, I was trying to shoot music videos. No money. Music videos. TV's basically movies are basically impossible to get the contract. And it's all in commercials. TV commercials have like half a million dollar budgets.
Brands have all the money.
And they.
They spend our marketing.
And it's so easy, not easy, but now it's in to have iPhone shot ads. Like, it's actually the best advantage in the world right now.
We, we are, we are the forefront of this, of this revolution of ads and and and yeah, of of ads, if you will. Um, and we'll be in every major city. We'll have hundreds of street reviewers, and we'll be, you know, one of the fastest growing media in the world.
I believe it, bro. High production is like a counter signal at this point.
No one trusts it. No, no, don't. If it's like super high production, like no one wants to watch it.
100%. Well, bro, thank you for coming and sharing all this. This is like one of the most inspiring stories.
Thank you so much for having me, bro. I hope you had fun.
Fire convo. Tell everybody your name and your website if they want. I have a lot of software people, so give the shout out.
Hell yeah. I'm Josh Suggs, the founder of the 203 media.com. Book a call with me. Let's chat. Hopefully, it'll be in Washington Square Park when you call.