CEOs You Should Know - David Regn - Stream Companies

What does it take to build a business from a living room idea into a national marketing powerhouse?

In this episode of CEOs You Should Know Dallas, iHeartMedia Dallas Market President Chris Long sits down with David Regn, Co-Founder and CEO of Stream Companies and Co-Founder of FullThrottle.AI to share his journey from early entrepreneurship to leading a 500+ employee organization.

David reflects on launching Stream out of his mom’s house with his business partner, turning small client opportunities into long-term growth, and staying ahead of industry shifts from the early days of the internet to today’s AI-driven landscape. The conversation explores how a mindset of grit, adaptability, and continuous problem-solving helped the company navigate major moments like the dot-com crash, the financial crisis, and COVID-19.

He also shares insights on building strong client partnerships, developing a resilient team culture, and why embracing change is essential for long-term success.

From humble beginnings to industry leadership, this episode highlights the power of persistence, innovation, and never giving up.

Guest: David Regn, Co-Founder & CEO, Stream Companies

CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is CEOs you Should Know with the Dallas market
president of iHeartMedia, Chris Long.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good afternoon, everybody. I want to welcome you to another
episode of CEOs you Should Know Dallas and this is
Chris Long, market president for iHeartMedia Dallas. And we're here
with a new friend of mine what could end up
being a best friend of mine David Wren, co founder
and CEO of Stream Companies and Wait co founder of

(00:31):
Full Throttle. That's a long title, David, welcome.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Thanks for having me, Chris, I really appreciate it. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
We have to start off with something we call what
we change the name of it every time. We're going
to call this the stream. But because as you know,
iHeartMedia is America's number one audio platform with our eight
hundred and sixty radio stations, one hundred and sixty markets, podcasting, streaming,
anything and everything audio that you can think of, we

(01:00):
think that understanding your musical background and music taste will
help us deliver an even better episode than could ever
be imagined. So I'm gonna come at you rapid fire
with a few questions, and we will be judging you
harshly on your answers, so be prepared. So take a breath.

(01:21):
I got a couple of cash questions coming your way.
Band T shirt you owned or desperately wanted?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
You too? You too?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Okay? Teenage music crush who you were obsessed with in
high school?

Speaker 1 (01:35):
I don't know. I don't know if I had.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
One artist poster on your bedroom wall. Dead Kennedy's Dead
Kennedy's Okay, cool factor? All right, song that makes you
roll down the windows every single time?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Castle on the Hill.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Okay, good last concert or live show you went.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
To Somber with my daughter?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Wow, very wide array of musical tastes. I don't even know,
like we have a we have a ranking that we do.
Those were all really good, but like you know, we've
got Johnny Cash. We had Pink Floyd and Somedings. Not
for I don't think for crush. I don't know about that.
On the Pink Floyd may have been a first concert.
I don't know where I'm going with that anyway, Okay,

(02:21):
all good stuff. I didn't share any mind. I never
had a poster that I remember. Olivia Newton John was
my first musical crush.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Lay from Caddyshack for me.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, Spalding, you'll get nothing and like it. And then
first concert I ever went to was, as I've mentioned before,
minute work, very eighties of me, Steve Miller.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Band for me.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Okay, yeah, very good. That weren't the Man Music Center
in Philly.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
It was awesome.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Okay, Wait, so Philly grew up Philly still in vill I.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Know, born and raised Philly suburbs, Chester County.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Rough weekend with the fly Sixers swept.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, it was not falling. Ouch.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Were you wearing a what they call a Philly tuxedo
over the weekend?

Speaker 1 (03:11):
No, just just watching.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Jenny told me about the Philly tuxedo and I had
to throw that in there because I was looking at you,
thinking of you and the Sixers at and the Flyers Jersey. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
No, no Flyers. I love the Flyers, but no Flyers.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I'm very anti cross logo. You know, it's one logo,
make a choice, take a stand. But anyway, we have
some interesting stuff to talk about. I know that there's
a couple of ways we can go here. I always
find that speaking with founders, the aha moments are always

(03:45):
really interesting. You know, We've had a bunch of founders
on over the last couple of months, and I you know,
I did this little background on you before and you
started streaming legit like out of parents house, your friends,
your partners.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
My mom's living room.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah in college, did you ever during a meeting yell
ma the meat loaf?

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, but I yelled at her to be quiet. Yeah?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Really okay, but okay, so so let's talk about that.
I know you played lacrosse in college, so tell us
a little bit of that, and then into starting a
company in your mom's house.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, so I think if you go back, just highly
competitive in the team atmosphere.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
So grew up playing all kinds.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Of sports baseball, football, and then found lacrosse, which was
awesome and funny enough, you know, because I found lacrosse,
my business partner was my high school teammate, so that's
where we became friends and interesting.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
And if you really go back.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
We were in business before college because in high school
we were selling T shirts, you know, for for beer
money and be able to go out to dinner.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
So our business really started in high school.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
So like legit, like legit, like what was on your
T shirts?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
We had a speaking of we had a grateful dead
bear with a lacrosse stick, so.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
That was like our What did you infringe on? How
many trademarks?

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Did? Lots of trademarks?

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Great?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
And then we had a you know, we had a
really appropriate one that we got called to the Athletic
Department eighties office because we had you.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Know, there's a there's a box.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
In lacrosse and on offense you have to bring the
ball in it into the box within a certain amount
of time. So we had a T shirt that said
refas and champions ee box. So that was a really
good seller.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
All right, Yeah, as we go way far afield in
the first four minutes. Excellent. So did you ever see
I knew this was going to happen, But did you
ever see Catholics versus convicts on the e Absolutely the
same thing on the T shirt, right, like genius, So

(05:50):
obviously I will be the grown up and bring us
back into on on track. So you were an entrepreneur
from the beginning.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Like from the beginning, Yeah, it's all I ever knew.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Do you have a paper route?

Speaker 1 (06:02):
No, I didn't have.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
I didn't have a paper route just because I hate,
like everyone talks about, oh you got to get up early.
I hate getting up early. I'd rather stay up late.
So like paper routes were not not my future.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
If anyone under thirty five is listening to this, they
have no idea what I'm talking about with a paper route.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
So we'll keep When I did have a job early
for fourteen, I worched the supermarket called Acme.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Markets, nice stocking shells in the bakery. I was it
was a close shop union.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
So can you imagine understand what a union is at
fourteen years old?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Good lord, you had more of a career before you
were twenty one than a lot of people do in
their whole life. I mean, good for you. So, okay,
so you going to Kabrini.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yes, play lacrosse?

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yep, you can throw in the national.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
No, No, that was after that was we built the program.
So I went to Kabrini. Wasn't planning on going to Cabrini.
Was actually planning on going to Drexel, which is in
the city, and last minute went on a visit to Kabrini,
and the coaches like, hey, if you come here, you
can you know, definitely play your freshman year.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
I was like, okay, mom, I'm gonna go to Cabrini.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
So it was just you know, about building something so
was able to build that program a little bit on
the entrepreneur side, Yeah, totally. So my best friend was
going to Merrymount to be their goalie. He ended up
going to Cabrini. So we went to Cabrini for four
years together. He went on to coach for almost thirty
years at Cabrini. I went on to sit at the board,

(07:25):
two tours of duty on the board and worked with
him and you know, our head coach that that was
there for thirty years before we sold to college to Villanova.
So built a program with Kevin Camp at Steve Colfer,
I mean, undefeated conference play, that record will never be
broken in college sports, and then lucky enough to win
the national championship in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
That's awesome. I mean, and again I think that you know,
common theme being you know, even though it's sport, you
can say, even though, but it's relevant, you know, building
a winning team and a winning culture that has you know,
probably a foundational ethos that everyone believed come in. This
is how we do things, This is how we approach
work and off season and all of that, which all
of that applies to starting and running a successful business.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
It absolutely does I always say, people are like, oh,
what's the best advice?

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Like the first thing is you got to get out
of bed in the morning.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Put that helped on the ground, and apparently you don't
like to do that or like I'm just not a
five a m kind of guy, more like a six
six thirty kind of guy. But I think it's just
about you know, you've got to have desire yep, and
can't coach that. You cannot you can't coach desire and passion.
And if you don't have that.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
You'll never be successful as an entrepreneur, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
So before we get into the start you I don't
want to forget this question. You know, when you're interviewing,
whether it's you know, entry level or executive level, you know,
what are the things you look for because like you said,
there's those non coachables that you have to figure out
do people have that, Do they you know, have the
heart or do they have the desire, the grit whatever
those things.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, No, I'm all about grit.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
I mean, if you in my office, I have this
you know sayings and grits one of them, and I think,
you know, really try to peel back the onion or
in an interview of like, you know what's please tell
me about a hard time you went through.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
How how did you respond to adversity.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
I think it's really good to understand how a person
thinks it and reacts when they're under pressure. Yep, and
they're dealing with conflict, right, because most of what we
do is, you know, dealing with problems, whether it's helping
a client solve a problem or it's dealing with a
team problem.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
So I think sometimes.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
It's like, I don't really care about your success. I
care about how did you handle the difficult times and
the failures and how did you come through that? So
that's more important to me, especially you know, at an
executive level.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, it's funny. I was I was having this conversation
with one of my children and they were asking me
about one of the biggest sales I've ever made, and
I was like, well, you know, it depends, you know,
different times in my career. But there was one time
I was young in radio. This is like in nineteen
ninety four and I was at two country stations. They
were both top five, and everybody went to lunch together

(10:06):
and I decided not to go and the buyer for
Ford called it goes I have to get I mean
basically said I have to spend money with you. And
it was a big deal and general managers making a
big deal about it, and I felt like such a dope.
I was like, he's like, what did you do to
land this deal? And I was like, not go to lunch?
But did I learn anything? No? But you learn more
from how do you solve in that moment of crisis

(10:30):
in need versus Okay, a huge deal, great to put
money on the books. Awesome, But like I didn't learn
anything out of it.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, but I think you did. I mean you kept
showing up. Yeah, and you made a decision to lunch,
no question. And I think it's like I think that's
a lesson too. It's like, you know, we all need
a little good timing, need a little law in our
in our careers, or we wouldn't be where we're at.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, what's the saying. You know, looks we're a hard
working opportunity meet for sure, you know, And that's the
showing up and just being right place, right time. Didn't
go to lunch, and you know there's a while, there's
a big order. So other than not telling your mom
to get the meat loaf. Talk about starting a company
in your mom's house. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
So again.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
My business partner, Jason Brennan and I played high school
lacrosse together, yep, and you know, started selling T shirts
and all those fun things. At the same time as
we were going to college. He had an internship, I
had an internship. I had a great internship at Team Winner,
which is now part.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Of Morgan Stanley. And just realizing, like I didn't.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Want to show up to an office every day and
not do my own thing.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
And I know that's very I think it's very naive,
you know, twenty.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
One years old, but I was I wanted to bet
on myself and Jay wanted to bet on him hisself.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
So I said, hey, we'll give this a shot.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
And at the same time as we were talking about,
you know, starting a business, one of a family friend
of Jay owned an orthopedic practic this and a physical
therapy It's like, hey, I know Dave and Jay love
business and marketing, you know, could they give me some ideas?
And that's really how the business started. We started giving
them ideas, made a local radio buy like at twenty

(12:14):
one years old with a local you know, affiliate radio
station that had a health and wellness show, did some
in content sponsorships, and yeah, so I think that's kind
of where it started. And then we had a couple
other you know, friends and family that you know, asked
for some kind of surface level help. And then you know,
we started no marketing and we started taking out advertising

(12:36):
in the Yellow Pages and those things, and you know.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Again everyone under thirty five just tuned down Yellow.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
This is nineteen ninety six, so it's like again, I
think it was about, hey, how do we build out
our network? How do we advertise the business. We had
a couple other ideas we had. We had a medical
guide we were out selling ads to and we were
mailing it out. So you know, we had moderate success then.
And I always like, I said, the Yellow Pages for

(13:02):
a reason, and that was kind of the game changer.
You said, we're you know, luck meets opportunity. Well, we
were sitting in the office one day and the phone
rang and a gentleman named Dale Petrovitch stole a friend
of mine to today, called and was like, hey, I
need help with a marketing plan. I sell Motorola products
and they're they're bringing in a new product, and I

(13:23):
don't have a marketing plan, and I have no idea
how to write a marketing plan, and we took that
opportunity and we got the business from Dale. He put
us on a retainer. I had no idea what the
heck of retainer was at that age. We wrote the
marketing plan. The marketing plan got it too in the
hands of a VP at Motorola, and the next thing
you know, we're an authorized advertising partner on the Motorola

(13:44):
co Op program for the communications of business to business.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
So I'm not sure if you're purposely trying to make
me feel bad, because while you were doing that, I
was not going to lunch and waiting for orders to
come in. So apparently we took really two different paths
to get where we are today. And I find that amazing.
So nineteen ninety six, it.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Was probably like a little later when we sure they
are like ninety eight probably, But I.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Know that what's interesting is when I look at the
timeline of your company, I mean, then you come to
you know, y twuk dot com crash that whole area
of time, like so you're not even five years old
at that time. Yeah, Like, so how did that go
like how did you manage it?

Speaker 3 (14:30):
I think it was really good because we were as
we were in college, like the Internet was just coming up,
Like we were just getting email addresses, we had dial up,
you know, using AOL and arrows and whatever. So we
were like coaching whatever clients we had at the times, like, hey.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
This Internet is going to be a thing. And you know,
through our client.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Relationships with some of the local media companies, you know,
we got introduced to you know, the automotive industry.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, and these guys were just not read at that time.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
In ninety eight for the Internet. So we were really
I think ahead of the curve to help this kind
of generation of dealers in retail multilocation retailers think about
the Internet and help guide them along the way.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
So I think that's one of the reasons, like.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
We were able to have long term success is because
we were able to help them transition from you know,
buy to local TV, local cable, local radio, newspaper, those
types of things, to say, Hey, the Internet's going to
change your business, and here's how it's going to change
your business.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Like what And I find this fascinating because and again
this goes back to that founder's mindset. You know, we've
had multiple founders on and they all had kind of
a moment where they're like, yeah, there was no fear.
It was just like, well, this is what I believe
and it will happen, and it kind of without not

(15:53):
the devil make care attitude, but like just a very
firm belief you just had. You developed a really firm belief.
Was there something that made you feel that way or no.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
I think just like this lifelong learner, this growth mindset
of always like what what do we need to be
aware of? What our clients need to be aware of?
How do we position our business to be successful as
as change comes? And I think it's as important today
with AI. It's like if you are not embracing that
growth mindset, you're going to get you're gonna get run over.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
That's both both on the client side and the business side.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Okay, so I'm giving you a little grief about the
in Mom's house, which is but it's a great story
in all seriousness, Like at what point were you like, Okay,
we're like a real thing now and we've got to
have an office with we're going to be hiring people.
Mom doesn't need six people coming over and hanging out
in the dining room.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah, I think the moment was like Jane and I
were working out of We moved from the like the
living room was kind of where the idea was born.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
We moved into the den, made that our office.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
But my mom, God rest her soul, awesome human being,
like biggest fan, like one of the reasons of successful,
because she.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Loved she did.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
But she was a pain in our ass. So we're like,
we got to get out of here. Like really, so.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
The de facto ceo telling you guys how to do a.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Pain in the and she was nosy, but so we
we are.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Our other buddy had, believe it or not, had a
landscaping business and he had an office building and he
had an open office.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
So we rented in the office.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
And that was kind of how many years in uh,
this was probably a we got the call from Dale
in the new office.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
So a year and a half, two years in the
year and a half.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Probably did your mom, I have to know, did your
mom ever cold just come and hang out at the office.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
It was too small, I mean literally and I were
back to back and probably I mean that office was
really small.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
So Okay, so you make the move first employee, what
was the decision.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
First employee? Was we just we needed some help, so
believe it or not. First kind of we had my
sister in law was an intern when she was in
high school, which really was just helping us with some
Motorola stuff back back in the day. And then we
went out and got a graphic designer.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Kate Heskett, who's still with us today. Oh wow, yeah,
pretty amazing.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
She's our chief administrative officer, been with a company like
twenty eight years or she knows everything. She knows everything
and again you know, she college athlete as well, played
played softball, growth mindset, so she's been able to evolve
with the company over over the years.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
So we've thrown a lot of stuff out. We've working
at moms, moving into a friend's place, Motorola, orthopedic surge,
a lot of stuff. So let's let's crystallize it. You know,
what exactly does Stream do?

Speaker 1 (18:50):
So you know, again, I think when you when you
look at the root of what we do.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Is we're an integrated advertising partner to our clients, which
really means we help our clients solve.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Their business problems to generate more business.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
It regardless of the channel, you know, we're channel agnostic.
It's really about how do we help our clients set
up a media plan and digital plan that's going to
help them drive opportunities to do business.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
So how did that transform into the full throttle business?

Speaker 1 (19:22):
So great question.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
So in twenty eighteen to head, Yeah, in twenty eighteen,
you know, we were trying to sell again.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
I think every comes if you look at where.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
We've had our biggest successes, like trying to solve a problem,
trying to solve a problem for our clients, trying to
solve a problem for ourselves. And in twenty eighteen, we
were trying to solve a problem for ourselves, which was
we drive all this website traffic to you know, our clients'
websites and a very small percentage of it converts to

(19:53):
a lead or an opportunity to do business. Whether it's
one percent, five percent, you name, the number doesn't really matter.
We said, hey, how do we help our clients identify
more of these opportunities and keep them in the marketing funnel,
the buyer funnel, whatever you want to call it. And
that's really what the idea of full Throttle was like, hey,
how do we identify more of of these users on

(20:14):
a website? How do we you know, do you know
at that point, we're just trying to do direct mail.
We're basically and I know I'm oversimplified, but basically we're
trying to do a direct mail we're targeting solution, you know,
which which we were able to figure out a way
in which other companies were doing it through IP address

(20:36):
and with very low mat rates and like not a
lot of accuracy.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
So them all are our our co.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Founder and now you know, running full throttle was able
to come up with our engineer on a better way
for us to identify and market to those households. And
that was kind of our minimal viable product and it
was quickly at streams out and started selling it to
all of our local clients pretty quickly. So the business

(21:06):
grew very fast, especially in the automotive uh home services business.
So we took off and you know, what was an
idea to solve an internal problem for our clients got
some steam and then we realized, you know, not only
were we getting you know.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Visitor visitor level data, we're getting what.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Pages they looked at, what products they looked at, and
so we started to ask ourselves more questions like how
can we omni channel market to them, you know, with
with digital as well as as direct mail. So that's
really where Full Throttle kind of got it got its
new beginnings.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
And then you know, fast.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Forward, the business became so successful that we we completely
spun it out correct of Stream and now you know,
we service I think close to sixty other agencies like
Stream on the Full Throttle platform.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Oh wow, that's amazing. So you know, I'm gonna go
back in time a little bit, but I want you
to take a step back and look at the full timeline,
you know, thinking about where you started with Stream in
the media business, and I, as you've been talking, I've
been thinking about, hey, where was I And not on
a poor Kristen, but but like okay, because I was

(22:19):
on radio business. And but recognizing there were those moments
in time and I brought up earlier. You know, there
was y two k, there was the dot com crash,
there was two thousand and eight. You know, there are
all these things and the COVID As a founder, you know,
how did you manage I mean, there's been what five
big events.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, I would say we were a Y two K.
We were so naive into the world.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
I mean it was just heads down and pushing forward.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
I would say, you know, the financial crisis was a
huge learning moment for us, A people off. No, we didn't,
you know, And I think we went on an amazing
run of you know, twenty eight years a year over
year consecutive growth, and we had really good partners during
the financial crisis.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
But I mean we were scared.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
I mean, I of course I was remembered, you know,
I was in my office at home taking a call
from a client who had a very significant business over
twenty five dealerships, and he was worried that like I
don't He's like, David, I don't know if we're gonna
go out of business or not. And this was before
the financial bailout of GM and Chrysler. So I can remember,

(23:30):
you know, having conversations with him.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
And I can remember, like.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Literally when I would get my own checks, I would
cash them and I had pilot cash in the drawer
because it was so uncertain, especially the automotive industry at
that time. So I think one is, you know, we
had two paths there. One is like hey, how do
we get through the now? And then the second was
how do we grow our business?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
How many ployees did you have at the time.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
You know, probably had like fifty issues.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
And there's a responsibility there. Yeah, so it was decent.
It might have been a little more than fifty, but
we said, our clients are going to need us, like
they're going to need to sell cars, They're going to
need to sell you know, gym memberships and all those things.
Of the kind of the verticals Motorole was. We were
still at a really good Motoroli business and that was
more business to business communication, so we weren't really worried

(24:20):
about that business.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
But I think what really led us.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
To is like, hey, how do we help our automotive
clients at that time navigate this business and navigate kind
of where the next iteration.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
And I would say that's.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Really where the true digital transformation of the automotive business
started to hatch. And you know when you say you
know right place, right time, I think it was you
know right place, right mindset. Yeah, So we started to
build out, you know, our business for the for the
next iteration of where we thought the automotive business was

(24:56):
going at the same time. I remember being at that
same client that I was worried about going out of business.
I remember being out as general managers meeting on a Friday,
and the day the news break that they were gonna
they were gonna bail out GM and Chryst. I can
remember all of us standing up and cheering at that moment.
Whether it was a writer or wrong decision, I think
it saved a lot of jobs, and not just not

(25:20):
just the dealership, but it saved a lot of the
adjacent industries, oh, including the media industry.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, the longtail part of that. People don't even think
about it. They just think about the immediate you know,
people affected. But there's the long long tail with automotive.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yeah, I mean, so automotive business you know, dropped at
the same time our automotive client's roster was growing because
we just were positioning the business and the and the
industry in a different way at that time, which was
you know, fully leaned into digital transformation and taking you know,

(25:55):
which was still a lot, believe it or not, a
lot of newsprint, direct mail, you know, radio, TV, and
say hey, you need to shift into you know, the
Internet at that time. So it was uh, it was
a really uh, you know, epic run for our business
from from oh wait, you know onward.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Well, it's it's interesting hearing you talk about it. You know,
the word, you know, partnership gets thrown gets thrown around
a lot, and I think, you know, eighty five percent
of time, it's kind of bogus because just because you
have lunch with someone twice a year does not make
me and your partners. You find out if you're a partner,
like in this case, you've got your company with fifty
some unemployees you're responsible for, and a big client of

(26:34):
years is on the verge of going out of business.
It would have been easy to go, hey, good luck,
I'll talk to you when this is over and kind
of just retrench yourself and just make it through, versus
saying hey, let's talk and figure out what this could
mean and how we can help each other.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Yeah, I think it was again you know that word
has used way too much, but but it was. You know,
it's it's in rooted, you know, in our DNA yea, and.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
What the way that we think of partners, Like when
you're going to call me for.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Something else outside of advertising, then I know your partner. Right,
if you're going to call me to ask about the
business or what you're seeing or how you're you're thinking
about it, then that's that's really the ultimate goal for.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Us, one hundred percent absolutely, Like you know, how are
you you know when it's the other stuff, you know,
how do you think about hiring? You know, like we
were talking about earlier, like what do you what do
you look for and all of that. It's that's when
you know there's a respect level and you know, a
willingness to do business in so many different ways and
you know, look, it's not always beneficial. I mean sometimes

(27:34):
the money's not there and you have to be patient
and you have to be able to provide some service
that you're like, am I going to get any return
on this? But you don't do it for that reason
you're building a foundation.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
No, totally.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
I think it's still to this day because I think
we deal with this every day. It's like, hey, we
when we have a really good idea or a thing
like that, we just want to push the clients to say, hey,
I don't care if we make any money off this,
like this is going to be good for your business,
you know, and we want your business to be successful.
I say it every time I address the company. It's like,

(28:06):
if our clients are successful, we're not going to be successful.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
How many people now?

Speaker 3 (28:11):
So Streams got over five hundred and full throttle I
think that was about one.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Hundred and ten.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Do you ever think it'd be that big?

Speaker 1 (28:17):
No, not at all.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
So if you were going to go back and talk
to the kid eating mom's meat loaf in the dining
room making calls trying to build a business, like, what
would you tell him? What's the one thing you'd say?
Just keep this in mind.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Never give up.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
That's it, I mean really, because it there will. I'll
share this story because it's great and it's just.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
My Both my parents were huge supporters, like.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Got I have that.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
My dad was a maleman, came to every little league game,
every college lacrosse game, and you know, both my parents
were big believers. But I remember my dad walked into
one of our offices when we were on King Street, Malvern,
and he just got to work and we weren't making
much money, and he leaned over my shoulder He's like,
do you ever think about getting a job?

Speaker 1 (29:10):
And can I curse?

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Please?

Speaker 3 (29:12):
I said, I said, Dad, and I still talked to
him like he's still alive. I said, get the fuck
out of.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Here, ladies and gentlemen, David has dropped the first F
bomb on the podcast.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
I tell that story all the time because he didn't comprehend,
like you know, he gets his pinched every every month
now for the thirty eight years he put in the
post office, and he just didn't understand that, like, we
were going to do this no matter what, and that
included listen, first couple of years we didn't make money.
We were plowing snow, we were cutting grass, like we

(29:46):
were doing everything to make the business successful. So when
I say never give up, it's really like, again, you
can't have a shitty idea, and you number two, you
got to be good at what you do.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
But you know, if you can't give up.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
And I think also was we were we were We
hadn't and this is an advantage.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
We didn't have much to lose, right, yeah we did.
We didn't have a house, you know, those those types
of things. So I mean, I think you're playing with
a different mindset, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
I mean I have to imagine at some point, like
do you remember the kind of the crossroads of I'm
going to give this one more day, one more week,
one more hour, or like I'm gonna go get it
something else.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Totally.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
I was engaged to my wife, that'll do it. Who
have been married now twenty five years, congratulations and that year,
and she just goes, I don't need you to make
a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
This makes just some with some money. And I was
and I was like, it's it's common, and it was.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
And but it was like I remember that because we had,
like I was making a little bit.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Of money and luckily she was an r end so
she was.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Making more money, and we had just bought a house.
So I do remember those It was like, it's just like,
are you gonna make.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Like a little bit more money?

Speaker 3 (31:04):
And those were I think the times where you question,
like should I just you know, go get a job?

Speaker 2 (31:09):
But I mean so, I mean, look, it sounds like
the trajectory of stream was always strong. Yeah, there was
a few erratic moments, I guess, as there always is.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Right, Well, it's never up into the right all the time,
even though for the most part, if you look at
our business it has been.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
But well, yeah, mister twenty eight straight years. Yeah, but
we just dropped that like it was no big deal.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
I mean we've like we've had, I mean really some
insane moments. You mentioned COVID, like that was that was
the most insane because the business was so much bigger.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
And but I will tell you, because we went through
the Great Financial Crisis, I think we navigated COVID in
a way that a lot of business didn't so and
I think first and foremost two things we I either
knew the world was just gonna not not exist in

(32:02):
the way that it did, but more importantly, this shall pass.
And we knew and we took that this shell pass mindset.
And instead of saying, hey we're gonna lay our people off,
we're gonna we went it actually went into pay bans.
And I think people don't really under I mean, our
revenue from March to April of twenty twenty drop seventy

(32:23):
percent overnight, and Jay and I said, hey, we're not
going to take any any compensation.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Our our executive team is going to go on pay bans.
Our executive team.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
To put it in perspective, we sat in a conference
room and said, hey, how much money do you guys
need to survive? And they came back with it like
we need like five grand a month bottom line to survive.
So they all they went on pay bans, led by
the executive team, and we said. I went to the
board because at this time we were partially owned by

(32:57):
private equity, and I went to the board and I said, hey, listen,
this is the playbook we're gonna run. And it's it's
the only playbook I know, and I know it's gonna work.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
We're going to pay everybody back, yep.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
And I said, our clients need us more than they
did yesterday. Yep. And our clients are going to start
spending money again. I don't know if it's next month
or the month after or the month after, but it's
going to happen yep.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
And you know, I.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Think slowly as states opened back up, it all played
into uh into our our favor, and by the end
of twenty twenty, we had paid back all all of
our employees. Oh wow, by the end of yeah, yes,
I mean so, I mean by July, I would say,
by July the business was was almost normalized.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Plus a lot of clients saw what we were doing.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
Yeah, we were Our new business was like robust as as well.
So everyone paid back by the end of twenty twenty.
And I think it just it goes back to the
culture of that we that we built since since the beginning,
and that's like we really, you know, take care of
each other. No streamer left behind mentality.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
I love that. I mean, well, but you know it
galvanizes your team.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Listen and it's like, what, okay, well, you know, we
could have said and we went on the pay bands
before they came out with the unemployment and all that stuff,
and we could.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Have played that game.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
I'm like like, no, Like, we need to run the business,
our clients need us, and you know, again, it worked
out for everyone. And if I hadn't gone through the
Great Financial Crisis, I don't know that I would have
ran that same playbook.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Well, but it's but it's interesting and I think it
goes back to really the origins of stream in terms
of you know, I try to talk to our teams
a lot about don't do anything out of fear. You
can't play out of fear, and you have to, you know,
while you're always going to be some at some level
in the short game, play the long game, which is
what you did. It's like now in fairness, you could

(34:56):
sit there and say, wow, you know what, it was
basically a quarter of struggle, but you didn't know that
at the time. It could have been three years for
all you knew. But the way you handled it, I
am sure it'd be interesting to know from if you
were able to ever able to quantify what that action
did in terms of return from those employees that and

(35:19):
how they feel about the company, how they've worked and
all of that. I don't know if you'll ever be
able to put a dollar figure on it, but I
guess the ongoing growth in the company speaks for itself
like that probably was a driver.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
Yeah, and again I think it's it's when people say,
do you really put your employees first? I think a
lot of times, you know, you know, they look at
it like, you know, do they really care about us?
So I would like to think most of our people
care about the company, and you know, when you look
at our you know, internal feedback in those things. I mean,

(35:52):
it certainly speaks to that, which which is amazing, and
we continue to.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Put our people first.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yeah, I mean, look, you're never going to be one
hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Now, You're always going to piss somebody off.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, but I mean you think about it, and it's
easy now to say, well, you know, it was only
a few months and all that, but you know, you
just could you know. And I'm sure that I don't
know specifics right now, but I'm sure there were companies
that close shop. The owners and the people at the
highest levels cash out. They're good And I'm gonna go
live in Florida until this is over.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah, I think I think so. And I you know,
I went into the office every day.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
I never worked. I never worked from home.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Interesting, yeah, and I first, like maybe two months was
I was by myself. But like I'm not a work
from home person. So it's like I needed to go
in there, have my space and be.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Able to make the make those decisions. So yeah, I
don't know the world.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
I mean, you were the original work from homework too, Yes,
exactly right.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
I couldn't get out fast, get out fast.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Same today, like I just I don't do well even
when I have to work from home, I don't do well.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
So okay, so let's talk about that. I mean, culture
has changed towards business and how that works. And you know,
I went through where I was, and you know, there's
generational differences, and you know, I do. I think there
may be some jobs you could probably do wherever. Yes,
but anything I think as it relates to sales, any

(37:16):
level of collaboration, any level of creativity, you need to
be an environment where you're around others of like mind
and like work.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
I just believe that.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah, I think, you know, just like everything we've we've adapted,
you know, so you know, we evolve. Yeah, and we're flexible.
We have flexible. You come to the office on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
There's a lot more people, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
But but again I think we've got a a pretty
tied in remote culture. But the executive team is in

(37:47):
you know, five days a week again because we're working together,
and I encourage you know, people to come in like
I think especially you know, if you look at how
to evan your career, how to learn We were just
talking about this before before the podcast started, about you know,
some of the best feedback I've gotten from people that

(38:07):
you know, were in the office that sat close to
me and said, hey, I learned so much about the business.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Paxton. If you're listening, we were talking about you.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Learned so much about the business.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
You know, how to talk to clients, you know, how
to deal with conflict, how to you know, fix things,
all those things, both with clients and employees. So I
do think that there's a you know, a generation and
people out there that don't truly understand all the other
benefits of going into the office. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I mean you think about what you just said about
how to handle a handle a situation, talk to a client,
you know a couple of other things you mentioned. I
was in my head going, Okay, that's six emails, you know,
four zooms or teams whatever, and you know it's going
to take you a week to get all that resolved,
which potentially can get resolved in ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Totally.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
Yeah, And I think it's like, you know, we've always
kind of had rules like, hey, if you email out
more than twice.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Pick up the phone, like those those types of things.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Yeah, come on, David, well listen, it can go wait.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Thank you notes, y send to thank you exactly. Hey,
our listeners, I'm making very facetious I am very pro
thank you note on everything.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
Yeah, Taste of Philly. We send out Taste to Philly
to all prospects and like Yeah, It's just it's the
little things that add up to the big things. And
I think that again, when you don't understand what working
with people is like, and not only you know you're
gonna bring up the next generation of beaters and can't

(39:38):
do that on.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Teams, you just can't.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
No, I mean, it was funny and very gratifying. At
different times, my kids have called me and go, wow,
I didn't realize what a big deal it was. I
was just told I was the only person that sent
a thank you email, you know, And I'm like, oh
my gosh, and that just seems like such an easy,
easy thing. But you know, these are the things, like

(40:01):
you said, that that create a foundation of business and
how you do things and all of that. And I
think that I think it's coming back around though. Again.
I think the generation coming out of school now recognizes
they want to be in an office environment.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
I think so.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
I mean, I just I've got, you know, a senior
in high school and like, funny enough about the email role,
Like when I text him a couple of times, he
picks up.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
The phone and calls me God love him.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah, And it's like like that I'm not doing this
on text I'm like, well, I'm in a meeting. He's like, well,
we'll talk about it. So I hope it's rubbing off
at home too, with those little things. So it's like
you said with a thank you to ites, it's like
those things matter, absolutely they do. I think if you
look at it, people are afraid to pick up the
phone and have a conversation.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Oh. Absolutely, We've made it too easy not to. And
I think I read something, you know, during COVID it
was interesting and I and I because we talk about
it here about in person, and I know it's become
very easy. Let's just jump on a zoom or teams,
whatever the case may be. But even reading people's body
cues that you're taught early on in life is so

(41:12):
much harder, you know, on a video call, and then
you get into the hole. I'm gonna turn it off
because I got to feed my dog during the meeting.
You're like, okay, great, this is really registering.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Yeah, And I think that's exactly why I hate to
I don't like to work at home, like there's a
lot of distractions.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
The dogs perfect.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
Yeah. So it's like, can I be yes?

Speaker 3 (41:33):
If I have to, yes, I will, but I think
it's like I want my work space to be separate
from my homes correct.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
And I think that again is it's it's healthy.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
And I think sometimes more than not, people at their
home space.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Become their worse Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
So okay, we've talked a lot about embracing the next
and looking into the future, and we're talking about five
days in the office and and interacting as human beings.
Talk to me about your thoughts on AI.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
I was on a on another board that I was
on a call for actually driving here from from from
college station, and the call started off with I guess
someone's uh AI note taker came in and and just
the board member was you know, just started saying, hey,

(42:30):
AI this and should we have the thing on? Should
we have the note taker on? And is that going
into other l m M s and or you know,
there's I said, I just and then the chair of
the board and the CEOs actually asked me, she, well, David,
what do you think I go? I just said, simparately,
like this ship is sailed, you're either on the AI

(42:52):
you know ship, or you're not. Like I think it's again,
it's another another pivotal moment and where you can and
try to fight it or you can like really lean
into it. And I think, you know, we made that
decision almost three years ago to lean into it both
both as how do we integrate it into the business suite,

(43:15):
especially you know on the full throttle side with the
AI media agent. You know, those are things we were
talking about, I think even before it became cool to
talk about.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
So I think we've set ourselves up on both sides to.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Really lean into AI and not just use AI to
you know, automate the business, but more about how do
we think about how it's going to change the future
and how we work. And the other thing is too
is I always say, you know, you go back and look,
the personal computer created a lot more jobs than it eliminated.

(43:51):
So did the internet. So I think we're at this
stage where we really don't know what's going to happen,
and I think ultimately things will come out of AI
and different types of jobs or different skill sets are needed.
So my advice to kind of the younger generation is
learn how to critically think, learn how to have adult conversations, yeah,

(44:16):
and really how to problem solve, and then you can
lean into AI with helping you, not not fighting it.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Well, that's when it becomes a powerful tool. Yes, to
your point about understanding human dynamics and how to how
to how to express a salient thought and and all
of that, which you know. I think that the easy route,
obviously is to hide behind all of it. Yeah, the
the route of the futures. How do you harness it

(44:46):
and make it a part of every day and how
you do business and what you're going to do. And
I think that it's funny as you were saying that,
I was thinking back to you know, I remember, you know,
I wish I could remember his name. But I was
a young GSM and as a city and kid on
my staff. I mean I was a kid, but he
was even younger. And I was like, yeah, I think
station websites are going to be a big thing. Do

(45:06):
you mind if I go sell it? I'm like, I've
got fifty other things I'm worrying about to say, Yes,
you can go sell the website. What do you want
me to charge for it? Don't care, Just whatever you
want to do, it's your deal. I often wonder where
he is. I'm thinking he's probably retired somewhere on a beach.
That's cool, yeah, or I'm working for you.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Maybe No, I mean again, I think there's a drive, right, Yes,
you see an opportunity and you go with it.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
I think we're seeing it now.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
AI is going to create a lot of opportunities if
you embrace it, if you fight it. You know.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
I think goes back to you know, where we started part.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Of the conversation with helping clients guide them through the internet.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
It's the same thing here, right, And I think with
AI there's.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
A lot more noise, Yeah, a lot more noise, a
lot more hype.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
So I think there's gonna be a lot more critical
thinking needed.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
And you know, as these you know, versions evolve, you know,
whether it's you know, chatchpt or Claude, Like, just because
you build something out doesn't mean that like it will
continue with.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Their product iteration too. So yeah, I think it's going
to create a.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
Whole whole nother ecosystem of jobs and opportunities as well.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Oh absolutely. And it's funny, I hadn't really thought about
it the boy you laid it out. I mean over
the timeline of stream alone of like you said, you know,
personal computer and all of that. I mean, I still
am of a generation I think I'm a little bit older.
I remember taking typing class.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yeah me too.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, Like you're in seventh eighth grade learning
how to type.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Oh yeah, I like telling your kids about that. And
I look at you, like, what are you even talking about?
But you know, what, what are you gonna do? So
what's next for stream and full throttle? You know, we've
talked about AI, but like what else is out there?

Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah, I think you know the way that we're looking
at you know, stream again, given you know, we're really
heavy in retail, especially the automotive industry, so I'm there's
still a lot of problems to be solved, and especially
at automotive industry, from you know, tier one at the

(47:03):
OEM levels to tier two to tier three.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
You know, we're really helping a lot of our.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Clients connect that ecosystem and how to bring a really
you know, a shopper and buyer journey together, which is
I mean, that's such a big opportunity in the industry,
and you know, I think we're just starting to solve that.
And I think again a lot of the industry is
just starting to think about how to solve that. So
I think a lot of our product roadmap and offerings.

(47:30):
Extreme are hopefully a little head of the curve so
we're able to meet the market where where there's needs.
So we're really excited about are we've got it's called
r OS operating system at stream, So we're excited about
how we're you know, really helping our clients utilize their
data to drive advertising decisions, both for for automotive and

(47:55):
the retail industry.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
So that's you know what we're focused on it as.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Well as you know, again, at the end of the day,
we have to help them, you know, drive more leads,
drive more opportunities to do business. Uh, And I think
you know, that's only going to become a bigger problem
to solve.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
I think it's we know there's more and more choices
and there's more moid noise. So how do you reach
the generation of buyers that have have the money to spend.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Well, what's interesting, you know, whether you realize it or not.
I wish I had a clicker on the number of
times you said problem solved, yeah, which I think is
a great thing. You haven't said, sell them what we have, No,
but that happens.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
No, Yeah, you have to solve the problem first.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
And I think you know, you on the on the
full throttle side, and you know I'm less involved like
on the day to day there, but I mean they're
solving a number of problems for for other advertising agencies
that companies like Stream are having as well as you know,
how we're.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Leaning into the media company.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
And I think as the legacy media companies adapt more
to where the industry isn't going with programmatic and those
types of things, their biggest asset is their sales staff.
So how do they lean more into that sales stap
sales staff to.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
You know, sell their own and operated media.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
And I think you know, how we've partnered with our
media clients at full throttle is really to really think
about their owned and operated in a waterfall and connecting
you know, the first party data that we're generating for
our clients and their agencies, how to activate that with
direct with the with the publishers and the media companies,

(49:40):
and really thinking about how they eliminate the middleman, if
you will, and become more efficient with premium audiences.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
And I think that is there's so much.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
Noise out there in the programmatic about a quality of inventory,
and you know, everyone puts up these logos that says
they can get you know, paramount plus, you know, eighteen
eighty three, and it's like, no, you're not getting that
at the local level.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
Like you think. So I think there's a lot of education.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
So there's that that the team there has to do
with with our media partners.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
So we think that there's there's a.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Huge, huge opportunity for the uniqueness of the full throttle
solution for you know, other media companies and other agencies
where it gives the power back to them. And I
think that's really where I think I'm passionate about. From
a product standpoint. It's like, hey, let's lean into how
we better support our media partners in agencies, but while

(50:41):
we're driving the business outcomes for for the end client,
and when those two things happen, we know that's that's magic.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, I mean it's so hard right now. I mean
you think about, you know, how how we're touched by
media in so many different ways, and you know, down
to getting an audio ad while you're playing candy Crush
or whatever, and you're like, Okay, how much value is
in that versus in you know, a top podcast or

(51:08):
like for me, I'm a Chiefs fan listening to a
Chiefs podcast way more engaged than when it pops up
on Widoku or some game I might be playing on
my phone late at night, but they all counted as audio,
and you're like, okay, two different things totally. How do
we reach them efficiently and in the right way. It's
not just about cost. I think that's where sometimes on
the media side of things it becomes frustrating, because it's
not always about cost.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
No, it's and I think when you look at it,
like when I look at our own budget, which is
pretty substantial, and you look at where we're doing, it's like, guys,
if I get that granulear with a team, like, I'm
losing the pic like the big picture. And you know,
I was looking at a Pulse report from our VP
of marketing today and it was like when you look
at people engaging with our own CTV ads and like, hey,

(51:53):
this leads you know, watch this ad like on CTV
or they typed in this for Roku. That became a
conversion for us. It's it's really about the bigger picture.
It's not just you know, if you're just trying to
buy the cheapest media and you're not getting the business outcome,
then I think you're losing You're losing the real.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
About the value.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
I always say, like, let's start with what we want
to drive from a business outcome, and how do we
optimize our spend to drive drive more business outcomes?

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Well, and I think you know that's where you know,
we talk a lot with with our teams. You know,
as a as a salesperson, you have to bring value.
It's not just about what you want them to buy
or where you may get a higher commission rate. You
know that's never happened before, but like it's it's like here,
here's what's going on in the space. Here are things
to think about. And I think you know that's that's

(52:47):
where the great sellers stand apart. And you know, maybe
in the short game it's just an education piece. The
long game, it's like, oh, I trust this person because
they're trying to drive me to the outcomes totally.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
And I think you think about audio. Use audio as
an example.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
I mean, so many of us are consuming content, you know,
whether it's in the car or or at the while.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
We're doing work.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
You know, we're listening to a podcast and absolutely, so
I think from that perspective. It's like you want to
be engaged with the right right audience, listening to the
right content or watching the right content.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
So I think there's so much more value in.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
The quality of the inventory with the engagement of the
listener or the watcher.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Yeah, and and understanding where are they when they're engaging exactly,
you know, And you know, these are conversations. We could
sit and make this a five hour podcast talking about it,
but I want to talk to you as we as
we kind of get to the finish here.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
You know, I.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
Talk a lot about, you know, whether it's hitting an
annual budget or or hitting a quarterly budget or whatever,
it is, hitting some goal. Every so often there is
the big seismic moment, you know. And you know in sales,
there's a lot of times you're like, Okay, there's no
such thing as a six run homer. You got to
keep doing go through the steps. And so when you
don't have those moments, which they do happen from time

(54:12):
to time, it's the cracks and gray spaces is where
you win. And this question for you, I'm really curious
because of the survival and growth you maintained of our
twenty eight year period, what are the what do you
look at and think about, Okay, we've won on the
cracks and gray spaces by doing what like what do

(54:32):
you think from stream companies perspective, as you as a
co founder, how do you see that as a where
do you win?

Speaker 1 (54:39):
No, it's it's an excellent question.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
And I funny enough, on Friday was talking with the
chairman of our board and he made a comment that said, like,
no matter what, you guys are always pushing and always
pushing forward and evolving and thinking about what's what's next
and what could come behind you know, behind the corner

(55:05):
that you don't don't see. So I think that success
really it's a mindset. It is a mindset because you're
gonna have bad days. You're gonna have days where you
lose and have days where things don't go your way,
or a new CMO gets put in a role or
a CEO that you had a multi year relationship with leaves,

(55:28):
and I think the advertising business is so political with relationships.
So you need to have that grit and that growth
mindset because things.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Are going to happen that are not with your control
and it's.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Never gonna be on your timeline, never on your.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
Time and you listen, you we missed one of you
know last year that the whole tariffs was.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
You know, we had an amazing queue one.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
I mean like we're high five and we're feeling great
and then you know, liberation Day comes and next thing,
you know, our clients are like, hey, I got twenty
five percent more cost in uh in my car? Like, hey,
you know that budget I gave you, Like I gotta
I gotta pair of that back. Like those types of things.
I think that we just you know, can take a

(56:14):
punch and get up and keep keep moving. At the
same time, you need to have really good people. Yeah,
and I think we've built an amazing team that can
work with our clients, that can help our clients navigate
those those things and problem solve as well as you know,
be there to provide business insights, you know, things they
might not be thinking about. And I think really comes

(56:35):
back to that partnership mentality is you know, we're not
just doing your creative and executing on your advertising plan.
We're trying to help you navigate how how to you know,
sell more windows, sell more cars, you know, sell more
you know, flooring, whatever it may be so I think
that that has always really put us in a position

(56:57):
to win. I also think that people like to partner
with people that like to win. And I think that
that's a cultural thing.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
And you know, you can't just wake up and say that.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
You got to live that, yeah, every every day. And
I think that passion you got it. If you don't
have passion for what we do and what our clients do,
I don't think you can be successful, especially not long term.
You might have might have some short term success, but
you want to have long term.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
If you don't, certainly, if you don't have stamina, you're
not going to last. And you said, I don't even
know if you realize you said it. You said show them,
show them versus sell them. And there's a difference.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
There's a big difference. We always we say this too
about being in the office. You need to show people
what good work looks like. Yeah, you know, we're all
going to make I always say, like it was just
meet meeting with some new new clients on Friday.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
I said, we're going to screw up.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
Everyone's gonna screw up, like it, but knowing that when
you screw up, you're going to course correct quickly and
you're not gonna blame someone else. Like I think that's again,
these are the like the little things that add up
to the to the big things.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
They really do. I mean that's you know, that's that's
how you've had the success and the and the staying
power and the growing the ability to grow over a
twenty eight year lifespan. Because if you really go back,
I mean and take a step back, I mean, what
were the odds?

Speaker 1 (58:25):
They were terrible?

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Yeah, I mean, like, let's let's be read terrible. And
that's what's so awesome about the story, right, Yeah, I
mean it. You know, you can we can sit and haha,
get mom, where's the meat loaf? And living in the
working out of the dining room. But like those stories,
there's for every one of you, there's a thousand that
lasted nine months and then they ended up getting other
jobs and going about their their lives. But you turned

(58:49):
it into something that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Yeah, I know, we're we're grateful my business partner and
you know other people that may partner over the years.
I think that's one of the things too, is you know,
great for the success and you know it's it's really
not taken lately, and again I think partners appreciate that
as well.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Well, yeah, I mean, and we'll wrap up. I mean, like,
I know that especially in sales, it's an individual game.
You have a quota and all that. But but I
really believe it is an individual sport. But it takes
a team to win total. You need those people at
the different levels, the different knowledge bases, to pull all
of it together so that you know, David can win,
Chris can win, and then ultimately the whole team wins. David,

(59:32):
this is great. I appreciate it. I do have to
say one other thing. I know that when we set
this up Jenny and Rachel on your team, we're concerned
about getting you and I together, and I think other
than you know, a few profanity laced comments and an
overabundance reference to wedding crashers, I think we got a
pretty good episode here and I had a lot of fun.

(59:52):
And I'm glad that your your daughter down at looking
at Texas A and m yep, exciting, very exciting. Maybe
bringing a Philly kid to Texas that could be amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Yeah, we'll see. Okay, it was awesome, Chris, Thank you
so much for having me. It was it was a joy, awesome,