May 23, 2025 • 24 mins
In a world where authenticity reigns supreme, Ryan House reveals the importance of the "Who Economy"—why consumers prioritize the character of businesses over their product offerings. Dive deep into changing consumer behavioral trends and learn how entrepreneurs and executives can connect more meaningfully with their target audience. This episode is packed with insights that can transform your approach to marketing and customer engagement.
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https://brainworkframework.podbean.com/
Connect with Ryan House:
Company Website: https://dataspeaks.ai/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zekecamusio/
Connect with Chris Troka:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-troka-3a093058/
Website: https://focused-biz.com/
Website: https://christroka.com/ #brainwork #framework #business #entrepreneurship #marketing #consumer #behavior
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
And I believe that more a companyshould do and stop worrying about
(00:02):
trying to create a Super Bowl ad becausethey're very costly and there's no
chance a guarantee that it could work.
And there's not enough time to.
Go through the adaptationprocess to say, did that work?
Once you put it together, the market'sgonna tell you if it's good or not.
Whereas when you're talking authentically,you can engage with people and they'll
tell you, that was a really boring video.
(00:23):
It's too long.
You rambled on, you get live marketfeedback that companies pay millions
for to get a, a public sentiment on.
They'll tell you rightthere instantaneously.
So I'm a hundred percent on that campof like the filming from a potato.
I think it works.
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
(00:46):
Welcome back to another episode withus today is the head of business
development for digital amplification,Ryan House their service digital
amplification is a full service marketingagency that has worked with clients
like M& Ms, Victoria's secret expressbed, bath and beyond and many others.
Ryan.
So excited to have you on.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
Thank you, Chris.
It's an honor to be on the podcast.
As I mentioned a little bit beforehand,I've listened to some episodes.
(01:09):
I'm kind of a newer listener, so Ireally appreciate being here today.
Welcome and we appreciate the support.
Ryan, tell us about yourentrepreneurial journey.
What were you kind of doing beforethat kind of led you into getting
into digital amplification here?
If I had to go back to a singlemoment, it would be my grandfather.
So he was in the business world, right?
It's not like professional sports orthere's a hall of fame for things.
(01:30):
I think you should be in it buthis name is Robert Zimmerman.
He was the president of a companycalled MCI back in the day.
They had a movie about it, funwith Dick and Jane worldcom.
So he was part of, hewas not on the worldcom.
He was the one of the good guys buthe was a DC cat and one of the cool
cats of the eighties and nineties.
And he started off as a BDR andworked his way out, way up and built
(01:51):
one of the most dominant businessdevelopment teams of the nineties.
And it was so dominant that Verizon andAT& T had to team up together illegally.
They lost the lawsuit.
My grandfather, he's still inthe lawsuit transcripts that
you can find online today.
But they basically did a monopolyto try to take them down but he just
developed this unstoppable force ofthese phone wolves, as I call them.
(02:12):
There was a whole floor of people thatwould just hit the dialers all day long.
Getting people signed up for phone plans.
So my point there is that Iwould visit him in the summers.
I was very close with him.
I didn't really have a father figure.
I called him Papa.
So I'd spend the summers with him.
He would bring me down to the office andI placed my first cold call when I was 15.
(02:32):
I can't remember which one it wasbut I was 14 or 15 when I placed my
first cold call and everybody wantsto make their father figure proud.
So I made it a point.
I was like, I'm not gonna leave herewithout getting one today and I got one.
And then he was just so proud.
He's beaming ear to ear.
And that feeling was justlike, man, I found my calling.
So I knew I had the semblancelike maybe I am cut out for this.
(02:55):
So that's how I got into likethe business and sales portion
of things but we're marketing.
Where I got into the marketingaspect of things is I wanted to be a
professional soccer player and I hadtwo knee surgeries by the time I was 18.
Now that's not the reason Ididn't make it professional.
I probably would not have made itanyways but it gave me a lot of time
to think what I'm sitting on the couchall day long, just recovering and my
(03:18):
aunt at the time had brought me a bookcalled paid AdWords for dummies and
it had like a little gift certificate.
So, I was reading that and I waslike, this is kind of interesting.
So I actually did it.
I started a website building flyers.
When I get up and get my knee work andagain, I can walk door to door and hang up
flyers and then clients started to ask me.
Do you make the flyers themselves?
And I was like, yes, sobuilt the plane while I flew.
(03:41):
And I ended up doing reallywell because I was super young.
I was still in high school and Ihad the ability to do something that
is terrible, which is undercuttingthe market significantly on prices.
Right?
But that obviously came at aprice as well but I was building
websites down doing paid search.
So I started developing theseskills naturally and I was getting
a lot of leads to the point whereI was able to get my friends jobs.
(04:03):
I was on vacation one time in Seattle,the Pacific Northwest and I would
get calls from my friends who wereworking and I just say, yeah, let's
take the whole a hundred percent,just collect the cash, but just make
sure that the clients are happy.
That kind of a deal and so I waslike, it was growing and I got this
one project that ended up drillingme was this concert that was going on.
I think it was like Jason Aldeanor something and they wanted like
(04:25):
120, 000 flyers delivered and itwas like a 30, 000 or 40, 000 deal.
And I could not fulfill it becauseI didn't have the enough people.
I did the math.
I needed like 30 or 40 peopleto realistically get it done.
So I had to unfortunately turn that down.
I went to ASU on a I got afull ride scholarship there.
So I had to make a choice, right?
(04:46):
I sold the business for a whoppinglike 7, 000 bucks which to me felt
like a million dollars at the time.
It sounds so much cooler than is Isold my business but I stayed with it.
So I had that experience and I would whileI was going to school, I would offer my
services like a freelancer to agenciesand I found one full time that was willing
to take a flyer on me after a while.
(05:06):
So I was working full time whilegoing to school and I went to the
end up switching to night classes.
So I know it's a kind of like a longskewed way but that's how everything came
together, how I got into marketing sales,business development wrapped into one.
That is such a cool journey to hearhow that was first inspired from
your grandfather and in his business.
And unfortunately it's not surprisingand unshocking to hear that these big
(05:28):
corporations are doing illegal thingsto corner markets and put competitors
out of business unfortunately but I'mglad he was able to make it through
and that influenced you and then kindof dive more into just marketing and
sales and how can I solve problems?
How can I present solutions for people?
and very interesting tohear that you hit that snag.
When it came to fulfillment you had thisbig Jason Aldean project, the flyers,
(05:51):
the economies of scale were not lookingin your favor at that time and you're
like, it's just something that I can'tfeel comfortable saying yes to but those
are huge opportunities to have someoneof your age getting a proposal like that.
That feels pretty great.
And even to say I successfully exitedand sold a business for a profit,
what amount that was, doesn't matter.
7 K. That's still a lot.
(06:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
And the funny thing is likethe person I sold it to was
actually he's really hostile guy.
He poses a customer.
And called me and said like, howcan you ensure that my flyers are
going to be delivered door to door?
How can you assure me?
And like, I don't believe you.
So I traced the number back thenand I come to find out it was like
my biggest competitor in the area.
(06:33):
So I called him, Hey,you want my client lists?
Cause some of it was like his old one.
So I sold it for less, I didn't reallyknow business that much at the time.
I didn't know logisticsand all that stuff.
So he got a score of a deal andI'm glad it worked out for him.
He ended up being a really good guybut I thought that was funny that he
would do that kind of recon on me.
It's not uncommon, it's morecommon than you think to have
(06:54):
either secret shoppers or peoplepretending to sign up for services
even just reaching out for a quote.
They want to see what your processis like, what does that look like?
But that's just how business is,but these things we learn as we go.
But it's just a part of the evolution.
So now with working with thesebigger brands, you're taking
that past experience and kind oftaking it to this next level here.
So it's 2025 trends arealways changing in marketing.
(07:19):
What is your strategy forhelping a lot of your clients?
What do you focus on now todeliver the experience and
results that they're hoping for?
Yeah, so I would say that this pastyear, I'll make a bold proclamation.
I believe that this year and Ithink it's been trending from a
carryover from 2024 that this year inparticular, we have seen a supersonic
exponential growth in how things arechanging because I've heard for years.
(07:43):
Cold calling is dead.
I've heard that SEO isdead and it never died.
It just took on a different formbut I will say this is the first
time where we've seen really atransformative shift in so many ways
and that's not just AI and technology.
That's actually the consumer.
We're in the most skeptical.
We we're dealing with the mostskeptical buyers in history, which
is the millennials and then we'reeven seeing some younger Gen Z years.
(08:07):
They're starting to come upand make decisions on budget
and everything like that.
Millennials in particularare very skeptical buyers.
So the process and the salescycle has tremendously grown
compared to other generations.
And if you look at a chart, itgets more and more skeptical as
who do they trust and all that.
So really to answer the questionthere, I've been trying to be as
(08:30):
human as possible really is my keyand what I mean by that is kicking it
old school in the sense of like lastnight, for instance, I went to a meetup
off the app, like a social event.
I'm going in person last year,I did 12 speaking engagements,
public speaking engagements andwent to conferences in person.
Right.
Before that I was a cold email merchant,so I was selling out cold emails but I'm
(08:52):
not ready to say that it's dead but I willsay that it is severely underperforming.
And I have colleagues and associatesover the years that attest to it.
There's third party data to support it.
So what I've been really trying todo is in a really hyper fast world
like this with all the AI that'sgoing on, it's sped things up.
It's made things more efficient.
People can write the perfectemail, the perfect pitch can
(09:13):
they be perfect in person?
We're kind of lacking that face to face.
So that's really what I've been focusingon is what are the fundamentals?
I'm talking to you right now.
We're on a video call but I cansee your face and I'm talking
to you directly as Chris.
It's not a message Inan email inbox, right?
So if you look at this is audio.
We're on an audio platform withsome visual elements but there's two
(09:34):
humans speaking together right now.
So that's really whatI've been focusing on.
I'm trying to go back towhat worked 2000 years ago.
I know there's no podcastingbut there was conversation.
No, I think it's a great strategy andobviously you're in the trenches seeing
what's going on to see that data.
And I would concur with yourfindings as well in your analysis.
Just things are changing.
It's always changing every year.
(09:55):
It is this dead year, you canfill in the date sort of the thing.
But yeah, the change is nothing wrongwith going back to building relationships.
This is the foundation of how peopleconnect on that more human level and
yes, there's business but businessand personal always mixed together.
Especially with skeptical buyers.
Not only are they more informed andthey do more research but they're
(10:16):
really finding things to pick apartand find a reason not to work together
as opposed to working together.
But that just makes our job a littlemore interesting sure, more difficult
but I think that's just the evolutionof business and consumer insights.
Yeah, well said.
And I would say to add to thatas well, we're also in the
era we're demanded perfection.
So what I mean by that is like,especially in marketing, there was
(10:38):
a joke in the eighties that I'mprobably going to butcher right now
but it was something to the effectof, I'm spending my marketing 50%.
I don't know where it's going to.
So I don't know if it's working.
I did a terrible job at that
but the concept really is thatthere was no accountability on
marketing metrics back then, right?
It's either it worked and we don'tknow how but it just somehow did
to now where it's like every lastlittle data point is tracked.
(11:02):
So it's like you have to adapt to that.
Like the reporting is the number onemost requested thing from a client.
That's what they care about the most.
That's how they're making decisions onwhether they're going to do business
with you or resign your contract is howtransparent and how accurate is your
data because their idea is they need torun this up to a CEO they need to know
(11:23):
how every single dollar is performingand they don't have much leeway.
So a CEO will tell a client ortell their director, the VP, Hey.
We need to see a return on thismoney here and you're going to have
a quarterly report and tell me howmuch you made and how you got there
and I want to see every step of it.
So knowing that the complexity to beable to deliver on that, when there's
(11:44):
that creative aspect of marketing, wheresometimes there's just an intangible
factor of why something went viral.
You could probably name a million peoplethat you're like, why are you famous?
How did I hear about you?
But it just caught fire.
How do you measure that?
How do you plan for something like that?
You can't.
So you're really trying tomerge art and science together.
Whereas really it was more ofpsychological science but now we're
(12:06):
seeing a data science incorporated.
So that's really the evolution thatwe're seeing throughout decades.
Just kind of growing on top of each other.
So trying to deliver on that verydifficult task and there's 14, 000
marketing agencies in the U. S. alone.
So there's a chance.
Yeah, pretty much.
That's a hundred percent.
You're fishing in a big poolwith a lot of stiff competition.
(12:28):
So to any competitive edge youhave, it's a matter of weeks
now as opposed to years before.
Someone catches on or catches up.
So how do you get worried about that?
Do you stress about trying tobe a disruptive unit like Uber?
Or do you just do thingsfundamentally that have always worked?
You gotta go with kind of likewhat you know is gonna work right?
(12:49):
Absolutely.
And when you're trying to take thesefigures up to the board or the higher
ups trying to justify, okay, thisis the return on investment here.
It's tough because there's also customersentiment that goes behind that and how
do you put a price tag and value on that?
Cause you can't say, okay.
For the small price tag of a 100K wegot our customers to feel better and
this made them feel a certain wayand they're like, well, that doesn't
(13:11):
show up on the spreadsheet here.
So that's really difficult trying tomine customers perception, how they
feel the understanding of what madethem successful but also these brands,
these influencers, trying to mimiccopy and styles of certain things.
Why did they go viral?
Was it the person?
Was it the content?
Was it just the timing?
And I think there's also anevolution between production quality.
(13:32):
There used to be a big emphasis onHollywood and big productions and
now it's becoming more personal oneon one, anyone with a smartphone
can now become a content creator.
So there's just new opportunitiesnow but it's interesting to see the
evolution of production quality.
Do you think that is either goingto help or hurt marketing agencies
and clients like as their brand?
(13:53):
Should they really focus on beingmore of that professional polished
brand or should they be more casual,laid back, natural, do you kind of
see like a focus to be better off?
You hit the nail on the head there.
I know my CEO right now is probablylike screaming when he was going
to hear this but that's okay.
We have a great battle of ideologiesa lot of the times and that's part
(14:13):
of a healthy environment but I willsay this, that the Polish piece
is where most agencies areat because it's polish.
It's a final product that is welldesigned but look at it like this the
eighties, when you look at music,here's the best example is like, we saw
these big elaborate productions withthe hair metal and all of that but what
ended up displacing.
That was an authenticity and arawness of grunge, the Seattle
(14:37):
movement and everything like that.
They're wearing flannels.
They're wearing things that you could bepick up for 15 at the thrift shop because
there's everything cyclical and rightnow, like you said, we're in an era where
like someone could have the phone downwardangle, the chin shot which is, if you're
like that, you're a warrior by the way.
Shout out to everybody that does that butwhen you have that realness aspect to it,
(14:59):
like where you could hold it, I look atthe data doesn't lie and what we're seeing
is, those it's the who economy, right?
They're not really doingbusiness with a brand.
Like you build a brand by being who,you can take example of Richard
Branson, the Elon Musks of the world.
They said that they famously don't domarketing but they did a lot of it.
They put themselves out in the public.
(15:20):
They are the brand themselves and sowhen you think of the brands that they
own, you're thinking of the person firstas opposed to the logo, you're seeing
an image of a person and that's whatpeople want to connect with and so the
best way to do that is you're seeing thepeople that are winning and the brands
that are winning are the ones that
have a stick in their hand andthey're walking down the road.
(15:41):
They're taking you on a walk.
They're driving with you in the carand I feel like that is actually an
unserved part that more companiesit's very hard when you're corporate
and established like that but if thisis going out to startups you're a
midsize company, take that chance.
That is your opportunity to do thingsthat are low costs of production.
The speed that you can pump these thingsout is incredible and the authenticity
(16:04):
that you're able to develop and standout just by like putting your frickin
face into an iPhone is unbelievable.
I am 100 percent on that camp.
And I believe that more companies shoulddo and stop worrying about trying to
create a Super Bowl ad. Because they'revery costly and there's no chance to
guarantee that it could work and there'snot enough time to go through the
(16:25):
adaptation process to say, did that work?
Once you put it together, the market'sgoing to tell you if it's good or not.
Whereas when you're talkingauthentically, you can engage the
people and they'll tell you thatwas a really boring videos too long.
You rambled on.
You get live market feedbackthat companies pay millions for
to get a public sentiment on.
They'll tell you rightthere instantaneously.
(16:47):
So I'm a hundred percent on that campof like the filming from a potato.
I think it works.
Yes.
And isn't that crazy that if you simplyjust listen to your audience, they
will tell you whether you ask or not.
They are willing to share thatinformation, say, Hey, I really like this
or here's where I fell off.
Here's what you can do better next time.
Wow.
To get that sort of feedback, likeyou said, a lot of companies pay
millions of dollars to get thatsort of feedback and sentiment from
(17:08):
customers and so to have that as anopportunity is just incredible now.
So knowing that almost anyone withan idea and some ambition can kind
of get started with a business.
What do you think they should do toget started to kind of like first
kind of get lifted off the ground?
Because there was a great book.
I read a million dollar weekendfrom the guy who created app
sumo and he was talking about
that product validation, the market willtell you whether it's a good idea or not.
(17:32):
So he said, you don't even needa business card or a website.
Sometimes just go ask people, wouldyou pay me money to fix this sort of
problem or to do something like this?
Which you already kind of touchedbase on a little bit more.
Do you kind of see that as a newopportunity for younger entrepreneurs
and, newer startups versus kind oflike the established brands already?
A hundred percent.
I think there's a massiveopportunity to not have a brand.
(17:54):
Yet.
And the reason for that is becausewhen you think of some of the most
popular brands in the world, youhave a perception of them already.
You kind of know whatyou think about them.
Like if you were to say, McDonald's,you're never going to associate them
with a premium burger company, right?
That's their niche is like they'refast, convenient and some people
say they love the taste, right?
They load it with sugar and everythinglike that but they've run a great
(18:16):
business because it's consistentbut when you're first starting
out, you have an opportunity thatcorporations don't, they're bigger.
They have a bigger budget.
They're very rigid though.
What they can do and what theycan test out and experiment
with, you have the opportunity.
Let's say that you're just starting abusiness and let's say it's something
like you sell widgets of some sortand it's really not all that crazy.
(18:39):
It's kind of company that we workedwith is called treasy rap where
it gives you perfect lightingon a tree that you wrap around.
It's one of those products thatreminds me of the blanket with
arms, it's not snuggie, right?
Like one of those.
It's a 500 million business but let'ssay you have one of those, well, you
have an opportunity at that pointwhere you can get creative with how
(19:02):
you're going to do your marketing.
So like for instance, Tik TOK and allthese other platforms, the YouTube,
the short form videos, there's lightingcompanies across like a lighting signage
company, I think in China that theyjust riff on other videos and then
he does brilliantly, it's genius.
And he'll riff on currentevents going on viral videos
and put his little input and go
(19:22):
and by the way, here's our sign company.
Brilliant.
He'll do a quick pivot and be like,you need the best signs possible.
You're going to come towhatever company it is.
That's brilliant.
How much money that costs them?
It costs him 60 seconds.
Whatever he did to splice it, addanother hour to get it kind of crisp,
maybe a couple of takes but thatcompany is they going viral nonstop,
(19:43):
they're getting covered by otherinfluencers because how funny it is,
it's a digital sign company and it'snot like some groundbreaking neural
link thing with chips in your brain.
It is a sign company and so itdoesn't really matter what you do.
You can make anything fun.
Even if it's not a fun product, you havethat ability to do that but the the other
side of that is got to get uncomfortable.
(20:05):
That's your trade off forthe low cost production.
You got to put yourself in a positionto be criticized and deal with the
growing pains that comes With the wildwild west of the internet and the trolls
that come along but if you can weatherthat storm you can grow like at a speed
that is corporations would die for.
Absolutely.
Very well said and really greatpoints just for those who might be
(20:28):
thinking about starting or who havemaybe been feeling like they're
spinning their wheels for a few years.
You're maybe just a few videos, a fewconnections away from really gaining
that momentum into new heights.
For those who are interested in workingwith with you, where can they find
you online and get connected with you?
So I'm on LinkedIn.
That's probably my primary channel.
I'm not really on Facebook or anythinglike that but if you type in Ryan
(20:49):
house, digital amplification, Ishould come up it'd be linkedin.
com slash I N slash house 2024.
I know we're in 2025, got to update thatbut 2024 or Ryan at digital amplification.
com is that you can findme as well to email me.
Nice.
I love that.
That's wonderful.
Rather than changing the hyperlink,maybe create a new profile.
You can see how many connectionsyou make each year and each profile
(21:10):
is associated with that year.
Probably need to do that anywaysbecause over the time I was
a consultant and everything.
You meet a lot of people andI'm not saying that they're
not useful connections.
I don't really like to thinkof people like that but there's
a targeted component to it.
There's some industries that don't reallyservice anymore that it'd be nice to
have a little bit more of a focus list,so maybe I'll do it for that reason.
Ryan, we just want to leave youwith the option to have the floor.
(21:32):
Is there anything we haven't discussedyet that you're passionate about or any
exciting projects you have coming up in2025 that you're excited to be launching?
Just your opportunityto have the floor here.
Yeah.
So I would say that one of the biggestthings that I'm working on and it's a
lifelong mission by the way is the firstperson owned a citizen owned smart city.
And that sounds crazy.
(21:53):
And like I know it sounds crazy butit almost happened before and it's
really more practical conversation foranother day but that's what my life
mission is and I have undoubt undyingbelief that I can make it happen.
The reason I would do something likethat is because I believe that humans
themselves, we work in packs very well.
We've kind of developed that andWe're in a world right now where
(22:16):
we're more connected than ever butthe most distant we have been and we
typically tend to flourish and builtcivilizations built on our community.
So right now there's Bezos and Bill Gatesthat want to build these smart cities and
P and it has a really bad reputation butI believe in something like a power outage
or access to water, which in Arizona,we dealt with during the pandemic.
(22:40):
I thought it was wild when I wentto the store and I was told one
case per person kind of scary.
Worms, birds, everybodyhas access to water.
Right.
And I think that's a fundamentalat the very least water and
air is a fundamental, right?
I think it's crazy that people cantell you how much you can drink so that
would be part of it is farming on thesmart city and also, sustainable sources
(23:03):
like a power grid and things like that.
So I'm working towards thatand I was very close to it.
We just had some governmentalissues in Georgia.
One governor liked it and then a coupleof senators kind of put the block
on it but I'm not going to give up.
So that's my lifelong mission here.
That is really cool and an interestingconcept that I've only heard about with
those smart cities specifically fromcorporation run private, cities or States
(23:27):
or sovereign nations was their concept andit's unfortunate because they're giving
it a bad rap right now, just that conceptand idea because we see what they've done
in their current position to take care of
people and that will be amplifiedunfortunately within once they own you and
the house and the water and the air thatyou breathe is that they're just going
(23:48):
to have to be some clever ways on how theidea is presented and kind of won over by
the general populace to take on that idea
to try to distance yourselffrom the bad concepts from it
but super fascinating, Ryan.
We appreciate you coming on to shareyour wisdom tips and tricks with us.
We'll have you on for another episode.
Feel free to touch basewith us here and there.
Thanks for coming on andsharing your advice with us.
(24:09):
Likewise.
Thank you very much.
As mentioned, honor andI'll be happy to be back.
Thank you so much.
Ryan.
I appreciate it.
Thanks so much.
Thank you.
And I believe that more a companyshould do and stop worrying about
(00:02):
trying to create a Super Bowl ad becausethey're very costly and there's no
chance a guarantee that it could work.
And there's not enough time to.
Go through the adaptationprocess to say, did that work?
Once you put it together, the market'sgonna tell you if it's good or not.
Whereas when you're talking authentically,you can engage with people and they'll
tell you, that was a really boring video.
(00:23):
It's too long.
You rambled on, you get live marketfeedback that companies pay millions
for to get a, a public sentiment on.
They'll tell you rightthere instantaneously.
So I'm a hundred percent on that campof like the filming from a potato.
I think it works.
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
(00:46):
Welcome back to another episode withus today is the head of business
development for digital amplification,Ryan House their service digital
amplification is a full service marketingagency that has worked with clients
like M& Ms, Victoria's secret expressbed, bath and beyond and many others.
Ryan.
So excited to have you on.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
Thank you, Chris.
It's an honor to be on the podcast.
As I mentioned a little bit beforehand,I've listened to some episodes.
(01:09):
I'm kind of a newer listener, so Ireally appreciate being here today.
Welcome and we appreciate the support.
Ryan, tell us about yourentrepreneurial journey.
What were you kind of doing beforethat kind of led you into getting
into digital amplification here?
If I had to go back to a singlemoment, it would be my grandfather.
So he was in the business world, right?
It's not like professional sports orthere's a hall of fame for things.
(01:30):
I think you should be in it buthis name is Robert Zimmerman.
He was the president of a companycalled MCI back in the day.
They had a movie about it, funwith Dick and Jane worldcom.
So he was part of, hewas not on the worldcom.
He was the one of the good guys buthe was a DC cat and one of the cool
cats of the eighties and nineties.
And he started off as a BDR andworked his way out, way up and built
(01:51):
one of the most dominant businessdevelopment teams of the nineties.
And it was so dominant that Verizon andAT& T had to team up together illegally.
They lost the lawsuit.
My grandfather, he's still inthe lawsuit transcripts that
you can find online today.
But they basically did a monopolyto try to take them down but he just
developed this unstoppable force ofthese phone wolves, as I call them.
(02:12):
There was a whole floor of people thatwould just hit the dialers all day long.
Getting people signed up for phone plans.
So my point there is that Iwould visit him in the summers.
I was very close with him.
I didn't really have a father figure.
I called him Papa.
So I'd spend the summers with him.
He would bring me down to the office andI placed my first cold call when I was 15.
(02:32):
I can't remember which one it wasbut I was 14 or 15 when I placed my
first cold call and everybody wantsto make their father figure proud.
So I made it a point.
I was like, I'm not gonna leave herewithout getting one today and I got one.
And then he was just so proud.
He's beaming ear to ear.
And that feeling was justlike, man, I found my calling.
So I knew I had the semblancelike maybe I am cut out for this.
(02:55):
So that's how I got into likethe business and sales portion
of things but we're marketing.
Where I got into the marketingaspect of things is I wanted to be a
professional soccer player and I hadtwo knee surgeries by the time I was 18.
Now that's not the reason Ididn't make it professional.
I probably would not have made itanyways but it gave me a lot of time
to think what I'm sitting on the couchall day long, just recovering and my
(03:18):
aunt at the time had brought me a bookcalled paid AdWords for dummies and
it had like a little gift certificate.
So, I was reading that and I waslike, this is kind of interesting.
So I actually did it.
I started a website building flyers.
When I get up and get my knee work andagain, I can walk door to door and hang up
flyers and then clients started to ask me.
Do you make the flyers themselves?
And I was like, yes, sobuilt the plane while I flew.
(03:41):
And I ended up doing reallywell because I was super young.
I was still in high school and Ihad the ability to do something that
is terrible, which is undercuttingthe market significantly on prices.
Right?
But that obviously came at aprice as well but I was building
websites down doing paid search.
So I started developing theseskills naturally and I was getting
a lot of leads to the point whereI was able to get my friends jobs.
(04:03):
I was on vacation one time in Seattle,the Pacific Northwest and I would
get calls from my friends who wereworking and I just say, yeah, let's
take the whole a hundred percent,just collect the cash, but just make
sure that the clients are happy.
That kind of a deal and so I waslike, it was growing and I got this
one project that ended up drillingme was this concert that was going on.
I think it was like Jason Aldeanor something and they wanted like
(04:25):
120, 000 flyers delivered and itwas like a 30, 000 or 40, 000 deal.
And I could not fulfill it becauseI didn't have the enough people.
I did the math.
I needed like 30 or 40 peopleto realistically get it done.
So I had to unfortunately turn that down.
I went to ASU on a I got afull ride scholarship there.
So I had to make a choice, right?
(04:46):
I sold the business for a whoppinglike 7, 000 bucks which to me felt
like a million dollars at the time.
It sounds so much cooler than is Isold my business but I stayed with it.
So I had that experience and I would whileI was going to school, I would offer my
services like a freelancer to agenciesand I found one full time that was willing
to take a flyer on me after a while.
(05:06):
So I was working full time whilegoing to school and I went to the
end up switching to night classes.
So I know it's a kind of like a longskewed way but that's how everything came
together, how I got into marketing sales,business development wrapped into one.
That is such a cool journey to hearhow that was first inspired from
your grandfather and in his business.
And unfortunately it's not surprisingand unshocking to hear that these big
(05:28):
corporations are doing illegal thingsto corner markets and put competitors
out of business unfortunately but I'mglad he was able to make it through
and that influenced you and then kindof dive more into just marketing and
sales and how can I solve problems?
How can I present solutions for people?
and very interesting tohear that you hit that snag.
When it came to fulfillment you had thisbig Jason Aldean project, the flyers,
(05:51):
the economies of scale were not lookingin your favor at that time and you're
like, it's just something that I can'tfeel comfortable saying yes to but those
are huge opportunities to have someoneof your age getting a proposal like that.
That feels pretty great.
And even to say I successfully exitedand sold a business for a profit,
what amount that was, doesn't matter.
7 K. That's still a lot.
(06:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
And the funny thing is likethe person I sold it to was
actually he's really hostile guy.
He poses a customer.
And called me and said like, howcan you ensure that my flyers are
going to be delivered door to door?
How can you assure me?
And like, I don't believe you.
So I traced the number back thenand I come to find out it was like
my biggest competitor in the area.
(06:33):
So I called him, Hey,you want my client lists?
Cause some of it was like his old one.
So I sold it for less, I didn't reallyknow business that much at the time.
I didn't know logisticsand all that stuff.
So he got a score of a deal andI'm glad it worked out for him.
He ended up being a really good guybut I thought that was funny that he
would do that kind of recon on me.
It's not uncommon, it's morecommon than you think to have
(06:54):
either secret shoppers or peoplepretending to sign up for services
even just reaching out for a quote.
They want to see what your processis like, what does that look like?
But that's just how business is,but these things we learn as we go.
But it's just a part of the evolution.
So now with working with thesebigger brands, you're taking
that past experience and kind oftaking it to this next level here.
So it's 2025 trends arealways changing in marketing.
(07:19):
What is your strategy forhelping a lot of your clients?
What do you focus on now todeliver the experience and
results that they're hoping for?
Yeah, so I would say that this pastyear, I'll make a bold proclamation.
I believe that this year and Ithink it's been trending from a
carryover from 2024 that this year inparticular, we have seen a supersonic
exponential growth in how things arechanging because I've heard for years.
(07:43):
Cold calling is dead.
I've heard that SEO isdead and it never died.
It just took on a different formbut I will say this is the first
time where we've seen really atransformative shift in so many ways
and that's not just AI and technology.
That's actually the consumer.
We're in the most skeptical.
We we're dealing with the mostskeptical buyers in history, which
is the millennials and then we'reeven seeing some younger Gen Z years.
(08:07):
They're starting to come upand make decisions on budget
and everything like that.
Millennials in particularare very skeptical buyers.
So the process and the salescycle has tremendously grown
compared to other generations.
And if you look at a chart, itgets more and more skeptical as
who do they trust and all that.
So really to answer the questionthere, I've been trying to be as
(08:30):
human as possible really is my keyand what I mean by that is kicking it
old school in the sense of like lastnight, for instance, I went to a meetup
off the app, like a social event.
I'm going in person last year,I did 12 speaking engagements,
public speaking engagements andwent to conferences in person.
Right.
Before that I was a cold email merchant,so I was selling out cold emails but I'm
(08:52):
not ready to say that it's dead but I willsay that it is severely underperforming.
And I have colleagues and associatesover the years that attest to it.
There's third party data to support it.
So what I've been really trying todo is in a really hyper fast world
like this with all the AI that'sgoing on, it's sped things up.
It's made things more efficient.
People can write the perfectemail, the perfect pitch can
(09:13):
they be perfect in person?
We're kind of lacking that face to face.
So that's really what I've been focusingon is what are the fundamentals?
I'm talking to you right now.
We're on a video call but I cansee your face and I'm talking
to you directly as Chris.
It's not a message Inan email inbox, right?
So if you look at this is audio.
We're on an audio platform withsome visual elements but there's two
(09:34):
humans speaking together right now.
So that's really whatI've been focusing on.
I'm trying to go back towhat worked 2000 years ago.
I know there's no podcastingbut there was conversation.
No, I think it's a great strategy andobviously you're in the trenches seeing
what's going on to see that data.
And I would concur with yourfindings as well in your analysis.
Just things are changing.
It's always changing every year.
(09:55):
It is this dead year, you canfill in the date sort of the thing.
But yeah, the change is nothing wrongwith going back to building relationships.
This is the foundation of how peopleconnect on that more human level and
yes, there's business but businessand personal always mixed together.
Especially with skeptical buyers.
Not only are they more informed andthey do more research but they're
(10:16):
really finding things to pick apartand find a reason not to work together
as opposed to working together.
But that just makes our job a littlemore interesting sure, more difficult
but I think that's just the evolutionof business and consumer insights.
Yeah, well said.
And I would say to add to thatas well, we're also in the
era we're demanded perfection.
So what I mean by that is like,especially in marketing, there was
(10:38):
a joke in the eighties that I'mprobably going to butcher right now
but it was something to the effectof, I'm spending my marketing 50%.
I don't know where it's going to.
So I don't know if it's working.
I did a terrible job at that
but the concept really is thatthere was no accountability on
marketing metrics back then, right?
It's either it worked and we don'tknow how but it just somehow did
to now where it's like every lastlittle data point is tracked.
(11:02):
So it's like you have to adapt to that.
Like the reporting is the number onemost requested thing from a client.
That's what they care about the most.
That's how they're making decisions onwhether they're going to do business
with you or resign your contract is howtransparent and how accurate is your
data because their idea is they need torun this up to a CEO they need to know
(11:23):
how every single dollar is performingand they don't have much leeway.
So a CEO will tell a client ortell their director, the VP, Hey.
We need to see a return on thismoney here and you're going to have
a quarterly report and tell me howmuch you made and how you got there
and I want to see every step of it.
So knowing that the complexity to beable to deliver on that, when there's
(11:44):
that creative aspect of marketing, wheresometimes there's just an intangible
factor of why something went viral.
You could probably name a million peoplethat you're like, why are you famous?
How did I hear about you?
But it just caught fire.
How do you measure that?
How do you plan for something like that?
You can't.
So you're really trying tomerge art and science together.
Whereas really it was more ofpsychological science but now we're
(12:06):
seeing a data science incorporated.
So that's really the evolution thatwe're seeing throughout decades.
Just kind of growing on top of each other.
So trying to deliver on that verydifficult task and there's 14, 000
marketing agencies in the U. S. alone.
So there's a chance.
Yeah, pretty much.
That's a hundred percent.
You're fishing in a big poolwith a lot of stiff competition.
(12:28):
So to any competitive edge youhave, it's a matter of weeks
now as opposed to years before.
Someone catches on or catches up.
So how do you get worried about that?
Do you stress about trying tobe a disruptive unit like Uber?
Or do you just do thingsfundamentally that have always worked?
You gotta go with kind of likewhat you know is gonna work right?
(12:49):
Absolutely.
And when you're trying to take thesefigures up to the board or the higher
ups trying to justify, okay, thisis the return on investment here.
It's tough because there's also customersentiment that goes behind that and how
do you put a price tag and value on that?
Cause you can't say, okay.
For the small price tag of a 100K wegot our customers to feel better and
this made them feel a certain wayand they're like, well, that doesn't
(13:11):
show up on the spreadsheet here.
So that's really difficult trying tomine customers perception, how they
feel the understanding of what madethem successful but also these brands,
these influencers, trying to mimiccopy and styles of certain things.
Why did they go viral?
Was it the person?
Was it the content?
Was it just the timing?
And I think there's also anevolution between production quality.
(13:32):
There used to be a big emphasis onHollywood and big productions and
now it's becoming more personal oneon one, anyone with a smartphone
can now become a content creator.
So there's just new opportunitiesnow but it's interesting to see the
evolution of production quality.
Do you think that is either goingto help or hurt marketing agencies
and clients like as their brand?
(13:53):
Should they really focus on beingmore of that professional polished
brand or should they be more casual,laid back, natural, do you kind of
see like a focus to be better off?
You hit the nail on the head there.
I know my CEO right now is probablylike screaming when he was going
to hear this but that's okay.
We have a great battle of ideologiesa lot of the times and that's part
(14:13):
of a healthy environment but I willsay this, that the Polish piece
is where most agencies areat because it's polish.
It's a final product that is welldesigned but look at it like this the
eighties, when you look at music,here's the best example is like, we saw
these big elaborate productions withthe hair metal and all of that but what
ended up displacing.
That was an authenticity and arawness of grunge, the Seattle
(14:37):
movement and everything like that.
They're wearing flannels.
They're wearing things that you could bepick up for 15 at the thrift shop because
there's everything cyclical and rightnow, like you said, we're in an era where
like someone could have the phone downwardangle, the chin shot which is, if you're
like that, you're a warrior by the way.
Shout out to everybody that does that butwhen you have that realness aspect to it,
(14:59):
like where you could hold it, I look atthe data doesn't lie and what we're seeing
is, those it's the who economy, right?
They're not really doingbusiness with a brand.
Like you build a brand by being who,you can take example of Richard
Branson, the Elon Musks of the world.
They said that they famously don't domarketing but they did a lot of it.
They put themselves out in the public.
(15:20):
They are the brand themselves and sowhen you think of the brands that they
own, you're thinking of the person firstas opposed to the logo, you're seeing
an image of a person and that's whatpeople want to connect with and so the
best way to do that is you're seeing thepeople that are winning and the brands
that are winning are the ones that
have a stick in their hand andthey're walking down the road.
(15:41):
They're taking you on a walk.
They're driving with you in the carand I feel like that is actually an
unserved part that more companiesit's very hard when you're corporate
and established like that but if thisis going out to startups you're a
midsize company, take that chance.
That is your opportunity to do thingsthat are low costs of production.
The speed that you can pump these thingsout is incredible and the authenticity
(16:04):
that you're able to develop and standout just by like putting your frickin
face into an iPhone is unbelievable.
I am 100 percent on that camp.
And I believe that more companies shoulddo and stop worrying about trying to
create a Super Bowl ad. Because they'revery costly and there's no chance to
guarantee that it could work and there'snot enough time to go through the
(16:25):
adaptation process to say, did that work?
Once you put it together, the market'sgoing to tell you if it's good or not.
Whereas when you're talkingauthentically, you can engage the
people and they'll tell you thatwas a really boring videos too long.
You rambled on.
You get live market feedbackthat companies pay millions for
to get a public sentiment on.
They'll tell you rightthere instantaneously.
(16:47):
So I'm a hundred percent on that campof like the filming from a potato.
I think it works.
Yes.
And isn't that crazy that if you simplyjust listen to your audience, they
will tell you whether you ask or not.
They are willing to share thatinformation, say, Hey, I really like this
or here's where I fell off.
Here's what you can do better next time.
Wow.
To get that sort of feedback, likeyou said, a lot of companies pay
millions of dollars to get thatsort of feedback and sentiment from
(17:08):
customers and so to have that as anopportunity is just incredible now.
So knowing that almost anyone withan idea and some ambition can kind
of get started with a business.
What do you think they should do toget started to kind of like first
kind of get lifted off the ground?
Because there was a great book.
I read a million dollar weekendfrom the guy who created app
sumo and he was talking about
that product validation, the market willtell you whether it's a good idea or not.
(17:32):
So he said, you don't even needa business card or a website.
Sometimes just go ask people, wouldyou pay me money to fix this sort of
problem or to do something like this?
Which you already kind of touchedbase on a little bit more.
Do you kind of see that as a newopportunity for younger entrepreneurs
and, newer startups versus kind oflike the established brands already?
A hundred percent.
I think there's a massiveopportunity to not have a brand.
(17:54):
Yet.
And the reason for that is becausewhen you think of some of the most
popular brands in the world, youhave a perception of them already.
You kind of know whatyou think about them.
Like if you were to say, McDonald's,you're never going to associate them
with a premium burger company, right?
That's their niche is like they'refast, convenient and some people
say they love the taste, right?
They load it with sugar and everythinglike that but they've run a great
(18:16):
business because it's consistentbut when you're first starting
out, you have an opportunity thatcorporations don't, they're bigger.
They have a bigger budget.
They're very rigid though.
What they can do and what theycan test out and experiment
with, you have the opportunity.
Let's say that you're just starting abusiness and let's say it's something
like you sell widgets of some sortand it's really not all that crazy.
(18:39):
It's kind of company that we workedwith is called treasy rap where
it gives you perfect lightingon a tree that you wrap around.
It's one of those products thatreminds me of the blanket with
arms, it's not snuggie, right?
Like one of those.
It's a 500 million business but let'ssay you have one of those, well, you
have an opportunity at that pointwhere you can get creative with how
(19:02):
you're going to do your marketing.
So like for instance, Tik TOK and allthese other platforms, the YouTube,
the short form videos, there's lightingcompanies across like a lighting signage
company, I think in China that theyjust riff on other videos and then
he does brilliantly, it's genius.
And he'll riff on currentevents going on viral videos
and put his little input and go
(19:22):
and by the way, here's our sign company.
Brilliant.
He'll do a quick pivot and be like,you need the best signs possible.
You're going to come towhatever company it is.
That's brilliant.
How much money that costs them?
It costs him 60 seconds.
Whatever he did to splice it, addanother hour to get it kind of crisp,
maybe a couple of takes but thatcompany is they going viral nonstop,
(19:43):
they're getting covered by otherinfluencers because how funny it is,
it's a digital sign company and it'snot like some groundbreaking neural
link thing with chips in your brain.
It is a sign company and so itdoesn't really matter what you do.
You can make anything fun.
Even if it's not a fun product, you havethat ability to do that but the the other
side of that is got to get uncomfortable.
(20:05):
That's your trade off forthe low cost production.
You got to put yourself in a positionto be criticized and deal with the
growing pains that comes With the wildwild west of the internet and the trolls
that come along but if you can weatherthat storm you can grow like at a speed
that is corporations would die for.
Absolutely.
Very well said and really greatpoints just for those who might be
(20:28):
thinking about starting or who havemaybe been feeling like they're
spinning their wheels for a few years.
You're maybe just a few videos, a fewconnections away from really gaining
that momentum into new heights.
For those who are interested in workingwith with you, where can they find
you online and get connected with you?
So I'm on LinkedIn.
That's probably my primary channel.
I'm not really on Facebook or anythinglike that but if you type in Ryan
(20:49):
house, digital amplification, Ishould come up it'd be linkedin.
com slash I N slash house 2024.
I know we're in 2025, got to update thatbut 2024 or Ryan at digital amplification.
com is that you can findme as well to email me.
Nice.
I love that.
That's wonderful.
Rather than changing the hyperlink,maybe create a new profile.
You can see how many connectionsyou make each year and each profile
(21:10):
is associated with that year.
Probably need to do that anywaysbecause over the time I was
a consultant and everything.
You meet a lot of people andI'm not saying that they're
not useful connections.
I don't really like to thinkof people like that but there's
a targeted component to it.
There's some industries that don't reallyservice anymore that it'd be nice to
have a little bit more of a focus list,so maybe I'll do it for that reason.
Ryan, we just want to leave youwith the option to have the floor.
(21:32):
Is there anything we haven't discussedyet that you're passionate about or any
exciting projects you have coming up in2025 that you're excited to be launching?
Just your opportunityto have the floor here.
Yeah.
So I would say that one of the biggestthings that I'm working on and it's a
lifelong mission by the way is the firstperson owned a citizen owned smart city.
And that sounds crazy.
(21:53):
And like I know it sounds crazy butit almost happened before and it's
really more practical conversation foranother day but that's what my life
mission is and I have undoubt undyingbelief that I can make it happen.
The reason I would do something likethat is because I believe that humans
themselves, we work in packs very well.
We've kind of developed that andWe're in a world right now where
(22:16):
we're more connected than ever butthe most distant we have been and we
typically tend to flourish and builtcivilizations built on our community.
So right now there's Bezos and Bill Gatesthat want to build these smart cities and
P and it has a really bad reputation butI believe in something like a power outage
or access to water, which in Arizona,we dealt with during the pandemic.
(22:40):
I thought it was wild when I wentto the store and I was told one
case per person kind of scary.
Worms, birds, everybodyhas access to water.
Right.
And I think that's a fundamentalat the very least water and
air is a fundamental, right?
I think it's crazy that people cantell you how much you can drink so that
would be part of it is farming on thesmart city and also, sustainable sources
(23:03):
like a power grid and things like that.
So I'm working towards thatand I was very close to it.
We just had some governmentalissues in Georgia.
One governor liked it and then a coupleof senators kind of put the block
on it but I'm not going to give up.
So that's my lifelong mission here.
That is really cool and an interestingconcept that I've only heard about with
those smart cities specifically fromcorporation run private, cities or States
(23:27):
or sovereign nations was their concept andit's unfortunate because they're giving
it a bad rap right now, just that conceptand idea because we see what they've done
in their current position to take care of
people and that will be amplifiedunfortunately within once they own you and
the house and the water and the air thatyou breathe is that they're just going
(23:48):
to have to be some clever ways on how theidea is presented and kind of won over by
the general populace to take on that idea
to try to distance yourselffrom the bad concepts from it
but super fascinating, Ryan.
We appreciate you coming on to shareyour wisdom tips and tricks with us.
We'll have you on for another episode.
Feel free to touch basewith us here and there.
Thanks for coming on andsharing your advice with us.
(24:09):
Likewise.
Thank you very much.
As mentioned, honor andI'll be happy to be back.
Thank you so much.
Ryan.
I appreciate it.
Thanks so much.
Thank you.
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