March 3, 2026 • 25 mins
This Amateurs and Experts podcast episode features a lively reunion between the hosts and the founders of Apex Mountain, a creative marketing agency, at SHOT Show 2025.
The guests share their journey from owning a recording studio to launching a specialized agency focused on diversifying the outdoor industry. They discuss the professional dynamics of their partnership and their mission to increase minority representation.
A significant portion of the talk covers business strategy, including how the recent election impacted marketing budgets and the "Trump Slump" phenomenon.
They also dive into the mechanics of social media, the value of micro-influencers over massive "billboard" accounts, and the need for brand awareness.
The episode wraps up with a fun discussion about the "Golden Girls" archetypes within their teams and their plans for international expansion.
Link
Apex Mountain: www.apxmntn.com - Creative marketing agency specializing in the outdoor and firearm space. (24:30)
WOMA (Women's Outdoor Media Association): Mentioned in the intro regarding the hosts. (00:05)
SHOT Show: The venue for the interview; the industry's largest trade show. (01:09)
Mythbusters: Reference to the episode about polishing materials. (06:00)
Babes with Bullets: A firearms training camp for women mentioned by Erica. (10:19)
- Golden Girls: TV show referenced for team personality dynamics. (12:45)
Key Takeaways
Consistency is Key: Brand awareness requires constant presence; stopping marketing when times are "safe" allows competitors to steal market share.
Safety First: Regardless of marketing or fun, safety and education remain the most critical components of the firearm community.
Trust Over Reach: Micro-influencers (those under 500k followers) often provide higher conversion and trust than major celebrities.
Specialization Matters: In a world of "red tape," hiring agencies that understand specific legal and social platform restrictions is vital for survival.
Key Words
Marketing, Apex Mountain, SHOT Show, Representation, Minority, Influencers, Brand Awareness, Trump Slump, Market Share, Micro-influencers, Social Currency, Production, Safety, Education.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_04 (00:04):
Uh it's late night thunderstorm mix.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're heretoday.
Or I could go with Yakki.
Bob Brackley, Rackley, Shockley.
Gotta tell you, folks, live hereat SHAT Show 2025, got the
wonderful ladies from Woma.
We gotta use that as the intro.
SPEAKER_05 (00:21):
Can't we?
Can we just start the podcastthat way?
We're starting.
SPEAKER_02 (00:25):
Look at that.
Always recording.
That's the way to do it.
That's our number one move.
SPEAKER_06 (00:29):
Why don't you why don't you guys start the podcast
this time?
SPEAKER_03 (00:32):
All right.
Go ahead, Breeze.
Sure.
Am I doing the way do the yakie?
SPEAKER_04 (00:36):
Do the yaki pop broccoli shot.
Gotta tell you, folks, Las Vegasin the desert.
Shot show 2025.
Lights, camera, action podcast.
We got Christopher Kush Arub RobBreezy Henson with the ladies
from Woma on the podcast thismorning.
Gonna be a great show.
Need you to tune in, tap in,lock in, get the sights dialed
(00:57):
in.
SPEAKER_02 (00:58):
Subscribe.
SPEAKER_04 (00:59):
Subscribe.
Prescribe.
Perscribe.
Persperate.
And de-escalate.
SPEAKER_06 (01:08):
That's great.
Oh my gosh.
We are here uh SHOT Show 2025with uh Kush and Breezy.
SPEAKER_02 (01:19):
Thanks for having us on.
SPEAKER_06 (01:20):
Yes.
SPEAKER_05 (01:20):
This is like a year anniversary of our friendship.
It is.
SPEAKER_02 (01:24):
It is 100%, 100%.
SPEAKER_05 (01:26):
We met, we were in the press room, and we were
being ourselves.
SPEAKER_02 (01:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (01:31):
Sitting at the same table as you guys.
And I don't know what we hadsaid, probably something very
inappropriate and funny.
That's exactly what it was.
And you guys were like, hey, welike you.
Can we be friends?
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Yeah.
We quickly realized that youguys are exact replicas of us.
Or vice versa.
We're the replicas of you.
SPEAKER_04 (01:48):
Well, I think you know uh Cush well enough now to
know his personality.
Absolutely.
So when I saw him that excited,because remember, I wasn't there
at first.
He was like, Breeze, come here.
We gotta meet some like, whatjust happened when I was gone?
He's like, you gotta meet theseladies.
They're like us.
And I'm like, okay, I reallyhave to meet these ladies now.
SPEAKER_06 (02:08):
Like he kept on saying, you'll know which one
you are.
SPEAKER_04 (02:13):
No, you you ladies are awesome though.
SPEAKER_05 (02:15):
Where the hell did you guys come from?
And we're like, we've been hereevery year for a decade.
What?
SPEAKER_02 (02:23):
Jeez.
How's it been for you guys?
It's been great.
How about you guys?
Yeah, it's been good.
A lot of uh Hey, why don't youtalk about it?
SPEAKER_06 (02:31):
Tell everybody we we're acting like we're not
recording.
SPEAKER_05 (02:35):
All right, all right.
Who do you guys do?
Tell us.
SPEAKER_02 (02:37):
So we're uh uh yeah, creative marketing agency.
Um base basically our goal is tobridge the gap between the urban
and outdoor space throughminority representation.
And you know, I want to say thison record.
Everyone always thinks black,Latino, Asian stories, but we're
also put a massive emphasis onwomen in the space.
(02:59):
Because NSSF has the data toprove that women are the biggest
demo, minority demo in thespace.
Yeah, absolutely.
So yeah, so we're we're reallypassionate about telling stories
on the production side of ourbusiness, but on the on the you
know, professional corporate,hey guys, Rah Shackle.
SPEAKER_04 (03:16):
We're we're a marketing.
He goes to he puts his Chris,he's Chris, he goes to
Christopher.
SPEAKER_02 (03:21):
Christopher Christopher, oh Christopher.
I don't like Chris.
Christopher.
SPEAKER_05 (03:25):
It's like I don't like being called Jessica.
I feel like I'm getting introuble.
SPEAKER_02 (03:28):
Really?
SPEAKER_05 (03:29):
Or if you're over the age of like 87, you call me
Jesse.
SPEAKER_02 (03:32):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (03:36):
I like that you smiled and you frowned.
SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
Yeah, I'm like, hey Jesse.
How's it going?
SPEAKER_06 (03:42):
Yes, anyway, they are with Apexville.
SPEAKER_04 (03:45):
Apex Mountain.
Apex Mountain.
Yeah.
And it's been a beautiful uh, wewere actually talking out there.
I know you ladies know some ofour backstory.
How we met, uh, we ownedactually owned a recording
studio for seven years in WestPalm Beach, and really uh it
formed a brotherhood, arelationship, a mutual respect,
admiration.
(04:05):
Uh, where I'm sure like youladies can relate the very
perfect mesh of you know,dynamic of his personality, my
personality.
No, so we see it, it comesacross the same with us.
He's very analytical, numbersdriven, breeze, deadline, stuff.
And I'm very, I'm easy breezy.
You know, so like we'll figureit out.
(04:27):
And he's like, what the he wantsto strangle me sometimes, but
they're laughing.
But in the end, yeah, 100%.
It it works because I mean I'mwith this man more than anyone.
SPEAKER_02 (04:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (04:41):
Seriously, the last decade I've spent more time with
this man than anyone on anyoneon the planet.
So to have the foundation of ourbrotherhood first, which we
formed before the business, itonly makes things better as we
move along in the business.
SPEAKER_02 (04:55):
And we just closed out our first year as Apex
Mountain.
So going into the second year,we already have a lot of stuff
on our table that we'resegmenting down into uh who's
that?
SPEAKER_03 (05:05):
I don't know, I'm just waving.
SPEAKER_01 (05:06):
Oh, Charlie Cook.
We're fairly.
SPEAKER_02 (05:08):
So, yeah, we're excited about how our trajectory
looks for our three-year and ourfive-year playing.
Congrats.
SPEAKER_05 (05:14):
To get to get to that one year anniversary is
massive.
So big, big, big hugecongratulations.
SPEAKER_00 (05:20):
Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_06 (05:21):
So after we uh met you guys and we were just like,
oh my gosh, we went to the boardand said, I think these guys are
gonna be great for us and um ourpodcasts, and and uh you guys
just were you guys have beenover the last year doing our um
some of our media stuff and uhand uh making sure we sound
(05:43):
good.
SPEAKER_02 (05:44):
No, you got your girls already sound good.
Yeah, you do.
SPEAKER_06 (05:47):
Oh we just have it.
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
It's not like you guys are handing over a turd and
saying, here, polish this.
Well, sometimes the comic lastyear's show.
Here's a turd, guys.
SPEAKER_05 (05:58):
Yeah, oh look at that one.
Make it shine.
SPEAKER_02 (06:01):
Yeah.
Have you guys ever seen thatepisode of Mythbusters?
Can you actually polish a turd?
SPEAKER_03 (06:08):
Yeah, you can after a couple days, right?
Yeah, depending on what it'smade of.
Yeah, okay.
I have to look in the archivesto find them.
SPEAKER_05 (06:18):
I am loving today because our first interview of
the day started off like woo,and then we just dove into the
gutter.
SPEAKER_04 (06:26):
Like instantly off the rails.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (06:28):
Yes, and I think that's part of our charm.
Yeah.
So we will have to look that up.
SPEAKER_04 (06:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_05 (06:33):
We have a list of things that we need to look up
along with growing crystals.
SPEAKER_04 (06:36):
And I think we need a safety net here because if any
four people can go off the railsand enjoy it at the same time.
SPEAKER_00 (06:43):
So yeah, let's have a safety net.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:46):
We'll just look at each other like this because
it's all the cameras aren'tworking yet.
Guys, guys, do it.
So who have you guysinterviewed?
SPEAKER_05 (07:02):
For those of you that can't see, Erica just
looked at him with her mouthopen.
SPEAKER_06 (07:07):
And I was like, hey, we can interview people?
Wait, I'm the one asking thequestion.
Oh, yeah, sorry.
Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
unknown (07:12):
All right.
SPEAKER_06 (07:13):
No, we've had some really, I mean, yesterday was so
fabulous, and today has justkept on rolling.
Awesome.
We have um some gun companies.
We have some secret stuff that'sgonna be coming out um with uh
Arms Corps Rock Island.
SPEAKER_02 (07:28):
That's awesome, yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (07:29):
She actually saw the gun um right before she came
here, hadn't even been that.
Literally picked it up and letus video with that gun.
SPEAKER_01 (07:39):
Really?
SPEAKER_06 (07:40):
Yes.
SPEAKER_05 (07:40):
I love it this year because we had intended this
podcast, obviously, we named itamateurs and experts because
we're the amateurs, interviewingexperts, and it's really kind of
morphed into this interviewinganyone and everyone in this
industry.
I mean, like yourselves and youknow, Charlie Cook, who was just
on and he does riding withCharlie and it I I just because
(08:01):
I think we're just ourselves,and it's a much laid back, funny
type format where we can justreally uplift everybody in the
industry.
It doesn't have to be talkingabout calibers and powder and
all the metrics and numbers.
SPEAKER_02 (08:14):
That's been that's been kind of our mission too,
because we realize I realize soI've been in the space for three
years, and I realized quicklythat there is a lot of cookie
cutter types of people in thespace, right?
You either fall into, oh, I'mtactical, or I train every day,
or you know, like I can tell youwhy this boar is better than
(08:37):
that boar, and there's notreally room for just the average
I want to go get a gun and Iwant to go shoot.
Right?
And so that that's that's that'sawesome because the more of that
there is, and I encourage, andRob, I know Rob does too, but we
encourage training because youknow having a firearm requires a
(08:57):
lot of like discipline, safety,yeah, so education as much fun
as we have in the space, we arehuge advocates for safety, but
it's cool to see like the spacediversifying to include more of
just like your average shooter.
No, I'm I don't have to trainsix times a week, you know.
SPEAKER_05 (09:15):
Like yeah, we try to say a lot in our interviews too
with people that if you want toget into the industry or the
sport, it doesn't matter whatage you are.
Yeah, you know, because it canbe very intimidating, but no
matter what you want to getinto, if you want to do
competition, go to the range,you will show up and people will
help you.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04 (09:32):
Well, I was just gonna say the flip side of that
is a hundred percent.
If you tell someone I don't knowanything, 99% of the people that
we've uh interacted with arejust like they get excited.
They'll get a glimmer in theireye and they're gonna be able to
get it.
You don't know about the end,yeah, they just start running.
Let me tell you.
Uh 100%.
So I love that aspect of itbecause there is room.
(09:53):
Yeah, you know, we've seen itfirsthand.
SPEAKER_06 (09:55):
Or like in competition, um, a gun um one of
my guns went down and everybodywas like, here, you can borrow
mine.
unknown (10:03):
Like, really?
SPEAKER_06 (10:05):
You know, or a training.
You know, or yeah, or you know,like I've I've actually had
people say, Okay, well, justjust use mine, or you know, in
training and stuff like that.
Um, like with babes withbullets, I went to the babes
with bullets camp and I didn'thave a backup, you know, I just
had my my one gun and the firstday my sights fell off and it
(10:28):
needed it needed a special toolto put it back on.
Nobody had it.
And um, Lisa Munson, who is likea world shooter, right?
I mean, she's had I mean she shehas a ton of medals and she's
like, Oh, let me get mycompetition gun for you to
shoot.
And I'm like, Thank you, yes,please.
You're like, really?
I'll never go back.
SPEAKER_04 (10:50):
Every competition you're at with her, you're like,
my sights fell off again.
Do you have that gun?
SPEAKER_02 (10:59):
Do you have a dog?
No, no.
SPEAKER_06 (11:02):
Anyway, so this industry does really um and and
it's wide variety.
Like you said, there's sometactical people that are like,
you know, practicing six sixdays uh a month.
There's some that are out therewhen I first started.
I my husband would laugh at mebecause um I there was a group
of us, we would go out and hesaid, You spend more time
(11:22):
talking about the clothes you'regonna wear and what you're gonna
eat on the range than you dopracticing.
And I'm like, Yeah, that's whatit's for.
SPEAKER_02 (11:29):
Yeah, yeah.
I want to be comfortable, I wantto be fed.
SPEAKER_06 (11:32):
Yes, and we're just out there having fun.
SPEAKER_02 (11:34):
It's a very important part of the whole
experience.
Yeah, I think sometimes likepeople forget how long some of
these range days could be.
Like, even for yourself, likethe the outdoor range we like to
go to, it's an hour away from usback home.
So when we drive out, it's likeit's do we got do we got enough
drinks?
Do we need a cooler?
SPEAKER_05 (11:54):
Do we and then is there a bathroom there?
Do we need to stop at McDonald'sbefore we get there?
I mean, men don't have to worryabout that.
SPEAKER_04 (12:00):
I was just about to say, uh, you know, we have we
have pretty bonk out a dirtsnake right around the berm.
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Did I get the I looked up to seeif I got the look.
SPEAKER_02 (12:15):
Right around the berm.
SPEAKER_06 (12:18):
Hey, I just I just kind of walked in on that the
other day.
SPEAKER_02 (12:24):
We cannot tell that story.
Oh man.
Deb, we love you.
Deb is a badass.
Yeah, she is.
Yeah, she is.
I can listen to her stories forhours.
SPEAKER_04 (12:41):
She's got a story for everything and a picture,
and like a video, a picture toprove it.
SPEAKER_02 (12:45):
So, Jess, Erica and I talk like the golden girls.
I know.
SPEAKER_05 (12:50):
I'm a little jealous.
So am I.
I feel like we've been replaced,Rob.
Right?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (12:55):
I kind of felt like that.
We foster our relationship.
SPEAKER_04 (12:58):
I mean, we're kind of the golden girl.
We have our golden girl vibe.
We're trying to, who are we?
SPEAKER_02 (13:02):
Um, I'm definitely uh which one is the the fast
one?
Blanche?
No.
Isn't that Blanche?
SPEAKER_05 (13:08):
Blanche is the is the hussy.
Yeah, that's me.
SPEAKER_02 (13:11):
That's your Blanche.
Yeah.
Um Blanche I'm BlancheDevereaux.
Yeah, Blanche Deverot.
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
That's what I was gonna say for me.
SPEAKER_02 (13:20):
He's both kind of rose bodies, man.
Me and Eric.
unknown (13:25):
That's what you have to do.
SPEAKER_02 (13:26):
He he a hundred percent is my rose.
SPEAKER_00 (13:30):
You are too.
SPEAKER_02 (13:31):
You know, you know what?
Here's here's the funny thing isI forget which big trade show we
were at last year.
Oh, I knew this was.
I call him like my hard built-ingolden girl.
He can talk to everybody andanybody, and I'm usually like, I
don't want to talk to anybody.
Not because I'm a dick, I justdon't want to talk to people.
SPEAKER_06 (13:51):
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (13:51):
We sit down and there's these four old ladies
there, and hey, how's it going?
Oh, hi, young man.
Like, they're all start talkingto him, and I'm just looking at
him, eating my food.
He still hasn't taken a bite.
They're in full swingconversation.
We're done eating, and uh I havecreated a relationship with
these people.
(14:12):
By the time, by the time we weredone eating, I probably said
three, four words.
We walk on for like another anhour or so.
I was like, what are the chancesthat we ever see them ever
again?
And she walks by, she goes,There he is.
I was like, God, bro.
It was like I had four grandmasat the show.
SPEAKER_06 (14:31):
They took pictures together, and I was like, gee,
Jessica just pointed at me.
SPEAKER_05 (14:37):
That that happened this morning.
SPEAKER_02 (14:39):
Yeah.
Maybe that's why we get along sowell.
SPEAKER_06 (14:43):
You're I told, I told uh, no, I told Jessica, I'm
like, you just really just spedup that conversation and told
the person to get out withouttelling them to get out.
SPEAKER_05 (14:54):
No, I just she was talking very slow and explaining
things to her.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Oh, don't do that, Cadence.
SPEAKER_06 (15:03):
Oh, please I wasn't like that.
You're the one over heredrooling because you didn't have
coffee.
So I mean because you wereholding up your head on the back
of it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:13):
That's me.
Are you sure like, yeah, yeah,yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (15:17):
Yeah, she had this whole thing.
SPEAKER_04 (15:18):
Yeah, that's what is that, like a gallon?
SPEAKER_02 (15:22):
You need to measure that, my man.
SPEAKER_04 (15:24):
Oh this is my late night, but it's more on the
sorry.
No, we gotta focus.
SPEAKER_05 (15:29):
Yeah, yeah, so you guys are here the whole week.
Well, and while you're here as acreative marketing agency, what
do you guys focus on for theweek?
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
So that's great question.
SPEAKER_04 (15:40):
Yeah, it's no, it's dual purpose.
Yeah, we're both here and andwearing dip, well, you you
ladies know, because you ladiesdo the same thing.
We have like 20 hats that wewear.
Um, he's functioning more in auh marketing capacity, and I'm
trying to tell the story.
You know, I'm on the other sideof the camera, so to speak.
Yeah, the product, theproduction coordinator.
So I'm trying to make sure thatall the gear's right,
(16:03):
everything's ready to go.
Every day we have an agenda, wehave a start, we have a finish.
We're achieving everything weneed to do to meet with our
clients because we're doing someof that, cover the show for
ourselves, Apex Mountain to tellthat story, what Cush and I are
doing here.
Um, you know, it's social media,everything that goes with it.
So that's what I'm focusing onevery day.
(16:24):
And because I can sometimes, youknow, there's there's a lot of
moves and parts.
SPEAKER_02 (16:28):
Yeah, it's easy to get like last year it was three
of us.
This year it's six, four, five.
SPEAKER_04 (16:35):
Yes, five.
SPEAKER_02 (16:36):
Well, let's see.
Yeah, because our photographerhad to leave town last night
because he has a shoot Friday,Friday Friday.
And then as he was leaving, ourother videographer was flying
in.
So wow, yeah.
And he's they're well, him andmy twin brother, my twin brother
is a videographer, folks.
Um, they're they're walkingaround here right now just
capturing content.
(16:57):
So yeah, it's a lot of movingparts.
SPEAKER_05 (17:00):
Yeah, it's fantastic, and you guys also can
go across the entire country,right?
So for people that areinterested in possibly your
services or look up yourwebsite, yeah.
You guys do travel.
SPEAKER_02 (17:12):
Yeah, we're a traveling creative team.
And uh the cool thing about itis like we got passports too.
SPEAKER_04 (17:19):
So we drop that little thing.
Look at us.
SPEAKER_02 (17:28):
As long as it doesn't nosedive.
SPEAKER_04 (17:30):
Yeah, mid-air.
Well, I mean, that's an aspectof it.
We're just having a conversationout there.
It's uh we are the heads ofthis.
So there's it's not like we'rejust relying on someone to get a
paycheck every week.
Some weeks, some months, youknow, it's it's up and down,
it's a hustle.
So we have to grind.
And but it's it's also reallycool to see things happen in
(17:53):
real time.
I'm sure you ladies see that aswell, the growth.
You know, we're just talkingabout we met a year ago where we
were literally just creatingthis company, figuring out what
it's gonna look like, what we'regonna be doing, and then to be
back here this year with morerelationships and clients and
customers, you know, with adifferent feel to it.
SPEAKER_05 (18:12):
Yeah, and this is probably a deep question.
Now we're gonna get deep.
Because you're a creativeagency, you just had an
election.
SPEAKER_01 (18:20):
Sorry, sorry, folks.
SPEAKER_05 (18:22):
Uh insert the due to um we just had an election, so
with that outcome, have you guysseen any kind of different
response from people in possiblyhiring you for your services?
Because I know with my you knowdesign agency, uh marketing is
one of those things that it's aninvestment, but it's often a
(18:42):
luxury service that people don'tnecessarily put away a
percentage of their profit to doit.
And I think a lot of people wereholding off last year because
they weren't sure what was gonnahappen this year.
SPEAKER_02 (18:52):
Now well, that's a great question, and it's it's I
can give you a dense response,but I'm not, I'm just gonna say
yes.
Uh so leading up to the show, itwas all hands on deck to you
know sell some of our services.
We're offering booth coverageand our series called Run and
Gun.
And for the most part, everyonewas like, uh, you know, we're
we're anticipating Trump slump2.0 because I mean he's back in
(19:16):
office.
We know for the next four yearsno one's gonna come after us.
Uh yeah.
Our rights, right?
So there was that, and but I'm afirm believer and there's always
a deal to be made.
So, you know, it's barter cashplus product.
In some instances, it's allproduct.
But yeah, the short answer isyes, definitely there is a
little bit excuse me, of uhreservation because like you
(19:38):
said, mar marketing is a luxuryexpense, but it's a necessary
one.
SPEAKER_05 (19:43):
Yes, that's the key.
Companies that are successfulsee that the luxury expense, air
quotes, as a necessity.
Yeah, whereas I think lesssuccessful companies don't see
the value and understand thevalue of why they need to be
able to do that.
SPEAKER_02 (19:57):
Because smaller, smaller brands, I don't think
they realize like I've done somereally high-level marketing
work, and what's really big,like in in business, is yeah,
sure, let's say these next fouryears does get slow for our
space.
I, as a small business owner, ifI was selling product or firearm
manufacturer, I'm gonnapurposely dump more money into
(20:18):
marketing because it increasesmy market share.
Because you're gonna have somany big companies say, Well,
we're big enough, let's cut backsome of the marketing expense.
And then boom.
SPEAKER_05 (20:30):
And that was a massive thing that happened when
COVID hit was that people thatdidn't have that consistent
marketing spend and doing themarketing, they fell off, COVID
happened, and then they thought,oh shit, now I really need to
invest in marketing, and theyhad to do double triple that
because they hadn't been doingit consistently.
Um I had never thought ittotally blew out my brain.
SPEAKER_04 (20:51):
And well, here's the thing with marketing.
No, we talk about this a lotbecause he he I think he touched
on a point that was good.
You could get so big that youthink people know us.
You know, we can scale back alittle bit, and it's like you
see what McDonald's spends ayear on marketing and
advertising, Nike, stuff likethat.
Apple, Coca-Cola, it's unreal.
I mean, still, and it's like whodoesn't know McDonald's?
(21:13):
You know, what it's brandawareness keeping topic science
is it's it's in your face allthe time because there's so
many.
Think of how we consume content,even everything, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (21:23):
You just that's a great segue for I I've come the
last year, I've come really thelast three months into a lot of
resistance with influencersbecause we work with
influencers.
And so when I'm callingcompanies saying, hey, I can get
your product in front of adiverse audience, because we
mainly work with uh blackinfluencers and women
influencers.
And it's like you hear peopletrying to figure out how do we
(21:45):
harness the dollar of you know,of like influencers.
Like, yeah, well, you createpartnerships, don't go through
like a third party, it's aone-off, you don't establish a
relationship.
Call somebody, pick up the phoneand say, Hey, I like what this
person.
Doing for this community.
Let's figure out how to harnessthis community.
And then you turn that thatinfluencer into essentially a
(22:08):
brand uh ambassador.
Brand ambassador.
And then by doing so, you turnthe community into trusted
people that trust you and yourproduct.
SPEAKER_05 (22:17):
And that was the point that flew out my head, it
flew back in, was that in thisindustry You're welcome.
Thank you.
Uh in this industry, there's somany hoops that we have to jump
through.
It's not like we're sellingteddy bears.
Yeah.
Like there's a lot of red tape.
Red tape and walls that are up.
You know, we spoke to ASEERearlier today about social media
and that, you know, stuff justgets taken down.
(22:39):
So how do you market in anindustry where half the world
wants to shut you down?
You have to get super creative,and that's why there's an extra
added value of having a companythat is specializing in such a
niche to truly help you becauseyou understand those roadblocks,
which is hiring somebody that'slike, yeah, we we do tech and
medical, we we could probably dofirearms.
(22:59):
No, nay, nay, you need somebodywho specializes in that percent.
SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
Yep, absolutely.
And and the the well that youyou said on something that is uh
that that really stuck out isthe social median because social
influencers is a form of socialcurrency, right?
If your product is constantlypresent, I I I tell anybody I
speak to, think of like the bigbig influencers.
We're talking like maybeanything north of 500,000 a
(23:26):
million.
That's all like the billboardthat you see on the side of the
road.
It's very brand awareness.
Where you're really gonna gettraction is with like the micro
influencers.
And so, you know, like some ofthese smaller companies don't
know that, and they don't theydon't necessarily trust it
because they expect an immediatereturn and it's not always yeah,
it's a long play, it's a longplay.
SPEAKER_05 (23:48):
It's farming, not hunting.
SPEAKER_02 (23:49):
There it is.
SPEAKER_04 (23:50):
Yep, cultivate, cultivate, yes, get them seeds
out there.
SPEAKER_06 (23:55):
So if anybody uh if whoever wants to reach out to
you and then uh talk to you,become be not a golden girl.
SPEAKER_02 (24:03):
Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (24:04):
But they won't turn that down, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (24:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're always good down for agood conversation.
We are voiceover.
We're I mean, we do it all.
Audio, video, I keep gettingclose because video.
SPEAKER_02 (24:14):
I see we're the ones who are gonna have to clean this
up.
We are.
Why were you doing this?
What are you guys doing inthere?
SPEAKER_06 (24:26):
So it kind of hurt, huh?
Oh man.
So, how how did they get a holdof you?
SPEAKER_02 (24:31):
They could hit our website www.apxmntn.com or on
our social media, it'sapexmountainapxmntn.com.
That's really it.
Otherwise, if you know me, youknow me, send me a email if you
see me in the street.
So breezy.
Hey Snoop.
Hey Snoop.
SPEAKER_06 (24:50):
We love you guys.
Oh, we love you.
We love you guys.
It was so nice to have you onour podcast.
I'm I'm so happy that wecontinue to hang out.
Of course.
And um, and it's always great tosee you guys.
We're always rooting for y'all,seriously.
Thanks, Diddle.
SPEAKER_02 (25:04):
Yes, and I got some people for y'all as well, too.
Oh, awesome.
Because my goal is eventually tobecome Deb Ferns.
When you grow up, you want to beDeb Ferns.
I told my brother, I said, Whenyou meet this lady, she's gonna
remind you of our mom.
He goes, Nobody, nobody's gonnaremind me of our mom.
And then he looked at you andwas like, Oh, yeah, after
Monday, yeah, we got inSaturday.
(25:25):
Oh, I'm sorry, Saturday.
After Saturday, we got in thecar and he goes, Bruh, she's
exactly like mama.
I told you.
SPEAKER_05 (25:33):
I wasn't lying.
SPEAKER_02 (25:34):
He was like, I never thought I was like, oh yeah,
they exist.
Yeah, they're out there.
SPEAKER_05 (25:39):
There's more than water.
And there's more names.
Mobbies.
SPEAKER_00 (25:45):
All right, we're gonna wrap it up.
There it is.
That's it.
Uh it's late night thunderstorm mix.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're heretoday.
Or I could go with Yakki.
Bob Brackley, Rackley, Shockley.
Gotta tell you, folks, live hereat SHAT Show 2025, got the
wonderful ladies from Woma.
We gotta use that as the intro.
SPEAKER_05 (00:21):
Can't we?
Can we just start the podcastthat way?
We're starting.
SPEAKER_02 (00:25):
Look at that.
Always recording.
That's the way to do it.
That's our number one move.
SPEAKER_06 (00:29):
Why don't you why don't you guys start the podcast
this time?
SPEAKER_03 (00:32):
All right.
Go ahead, Breeze.
Sure.
Am I doing the way do the yakie?
SPEAKER_04 (00:36):
Do the yaki pop broccoli shot.
Gotta tell you, folks, Las Vegasin the desert.
Shot show 2025.
Lights, camera, action podcast.
We got Christopher Kush Arub RobBreezy Henson with the ladies
from Woma on the podcast thismorning.
Gonna be a great show.
Need you to tune in, tap in,lock in, get the sights dialed
(00:57):
in.
SPEAKER_02 (00:58):
Subscribe.
SPEAKER_04 (00:59):
Subscribe.
Prescribe.
Perscribe.
Persperate.
And de-escalate.
SPEAKER_06 (01:08):
That's great.
Oh my gosh.
We are here uh SHOT Show 2025with uh Kush and Breezy.
SPEAKER_02 (01:19):
Thanks for having us on.
SPEAKER_06 (01:20):
Yes.
SPEAKER_05 (01:20):
This is like a year anniversary of our friendship.
It is.
SPEAKER_02 (01:24):
It is 100%, 100%.
SPEAKER_05 (01:26):
We met, we were in the press room, and we were
being ourselves.
SPEAKER_02 (01:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (01:31):
Sitting at the same table as you guys.
And I don't know what we hadsaid, probably something very
inappropriate and funny.
That's exactly what it was.
And you guys were like, hey, welike you.
Can we be friends?
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Yeah.
We quickly realized that youguys are exact replicas of us.
Or vice versa.
We're the replicas of you.
SPEAKER_04 (01:48):
Well, I think you know uh Cush well enough now to
know his personality.
Absolutely.
So when I saw him that excited,because remember, I wasn't there
at first.
He was like, Breeze, come here.
We gotta meet some like, whatjust happened when I was gone?
He's like, you gotta meet theseladies.
They're like us.
And I'm like, okay, I reallyhave to meet these ladies now.
SPEAKER_06 (02:08):
Like he kept on saying, you'll know which one
you are.
SPEAKER_04 (02:13):
No, you you ladies are awesome though.
SPEAKER_05 (02:15):
Where the hell did you guys come from?
And we're like, we've been hereevery year for a decade.
What?
SPEAKER_02 (02:23):
Jeez.
How's it been for you guys?
It's been great.
How about you guys?
Yeah, it's been good.
A lot of uh Hey, why don't youtalk about it?
SPEAKER_06 (02:31):
Tell everybody we we're acting like we're not
recording.
SPEAKER_05 (02:35):
All right, all right.
Who do you guys do?
Tell us.
SPEAKER_02 (02:37):
So we're uh uh yeah, creative marketing agency.
Um base basically our goal is tobridge the gap between the urban
and outdoor space throughminority representation.
And you know, I want to say thison record.
Everyone always thinks black,Latino, Asian stories, but we're
also put a massive emphasis onwomen in the space.
(02:59):
Because NSSF has the data toprove that women are the biggest
demo, minority demo in thespace.
Yeah, absolutely.
So yeah, so we're we're reallypassionate about telling stories
on the production side of ourbusiness, but on the on the you
know, professional corporate,hey guys, Rah Shackle.
SPEAKER_04 (03:16):
We're we're a marketing.
He goes to he puts his Chris,he's Chris, he goes to
Christopher.
SPEAKER_02 (03:21):
Christopher Christopher, oh Christopher.
I don't like Chris.
Christopher.
SPEAKER_05 (03:25):
It's like I don't like being called Jessica.
I feel like I'm getting introuble.
SPEAKER_02 (03:28):
Really?
SPEAKER_05 (03:29):
Or if you're over the age of like 87, you call me
Jesse.
SPEAKER_02 (03:32):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (03:36):
I like that you smiled and you frowned.
SPEAKER_01 (03:38):
Yeah, I'm like, hey Jesse.
How's it going?
SPEAKER_06 (03:42):
Yes, anyway, they are with Apexville.
SPEAKER_04 (03:45):
Apex Mountain.
Apex Mountain.
Yeah.
And it's been a beautiful uh, wewere actually talking out there.
I know you ladies know some ofour backstory.
How we met, uh, we ownedactually owned a recording
studio for seven years in WestPalm Beach, and really uh it
formed a brotherhood, arelationship, a mutual respect,
admiration.
(04:05):
Uh, where I'm sure like youladies can relate the very
perfect mesh of you know,dynamic of his personality, my
personality.
No, so we see it, it comesacross the same with us.
He's very analytical, numbersdriven, breeze, deadline, stuff.
And I'm very, I'm easy breezy.
You know, so like we'll figureit out.
(04:27):
And he's like, what the he wantsto strangle me sometimes, but
they're laughing.
But in the end, yeah, 100%.
It it works because I mean I'mwith this man more than anyone.
SPEAKER_02 (04:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (04:41):
Seriously, the last decade I've spent more time with
this man than anyone on anyoneon the planet.
So to have the foundation of ourbrotherhood first, which we
formed before the business, itonly makes things better as we
move along in the business.
SPEAKER_02 (04:55):
And we just closed out our first year as Apex
Mountain.
So going into the second year,we already have a lot of stuff
on our table that we'resegmenting down into uh who's
that?
SPEAKER_03 (05:05):
I don't know, I'm just waving.
SPEAKER_01 (05:06):
Oh, Charlie Cook.
We're fairly.
SPEAKER_02 (05:08):
So, yeah, we're excited about how our trajectory
looks for our three-year and ourfive-year playing.
Congrats.
SPEAKER_05 (05:14):
To get to get to that one year anniversary is
massive.
So big, big, big hugecongratulations.
SPEAKER_00 (05:20):
Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_06 (05:21):
So after we uh met you guys and we were just like,
oh my gosh, we went to the boardand said, I think these guys are
gonna be great for us and um ourpodcasts, and and uh you guys
just were you guys have beenover the last year doing our um
some of our media stuff and uhand uh making sure we sound
(05:43):
good.
SPEAKER_02 (05:44):
No, you got your girls already sound good.
Yeah, you do.
SPEAKER_06 (05:47):
Oh we just have it.
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
It's not like you guys are handing over a turd and
saying, here, polish this.
Well, sometimes the comic lastyear's show.
Here's a turd, guys.
SPEAKER_05 (05:58):
Yeah, oh look at that one.
Make it shine.
SPEAKER_02 (06:01):
Yeah.
Have you guys ever seen thatepisode of Mythbusters?
Can you actually polish a turd?
SPEAKER_03 (06:08):
Yeah, you can after a couple days, right?
Yeah, depending on what it'smade of.
Yeah, okay.
I have to look in the archivesto find them.
SPEAKER_05 (06:18):
I am loving today because our first interview of
the day started off like woo,and then we just dove into the
gutter.
SPEAKER_04 (06:26):
Like instantly off the rails.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (06:28):
Yes, and I think that's part of our charm.
Yeah.
So we will have to look that up.
SPEAKER_04 (06:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_05 (06:33):
We have a list of things that we need to look up
along with growing crystals.
SPEAKER_04 (06:36):
And I think we need a safety net here because if any
four people can go off the railsand enjoy it at the same time.
SPEAKER_00 (06:43):
So yeah, let's have a safety net.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:46):
We'll just look at each other like this because
it's all the cameras aren'tworking yet.
Guys, guys, do it.
So who have you guysinterviewed?
SPEAKER_05 (07:02):
For those of you that can't see, Erica just
looked at him with her mouthopen.
SPEAKER_06 (07:07):
And I was like, hey, we can interview people?
Wait, I'm the one asking thequestion.
Oh, yeah, sorry.
Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
unknown (07:12):
All right.
SPEAKER_06 (07:13):
No, we've had some really, I mean, yesterday was so
fabulous, and today has justkept on rolling.
Awesome.
We have um some gun companies.
We have some secret stuff that'sgonna be coming out um with uh
Arms Corps Rock Island.
SPEAKER_02 (07:28):
That's awesome, yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (07:29):
She actually saw the gun um right before she came
here, hadn't even been that.
Literally picked it up and letus video with that gun.
SPEAKER_01 (07:39):
Really?
SPEAKER_06 (07:40):
Yes.
SPEAKER_05 (07:40):
I love it this year because we had intended this
podcast, obviously, we named itamateurs and experts because
we're the amateurs, interviewingexperts, and it's really kind of
morphed into this interviewinganyone and everyone in this
industry.
I mean, like yourselves and youknow, Charlie Cook, who was just
on and he does riding withCharlie and it I I just because
(08:01):
I think we're just ourselves,and it's a much laid back, funny
type format where we can justreally uplift everybody in the
industry.
It doesn't have to be talkingabout calibers and powder and
all the metrics and numbers.
SPEAKER_02 (08:14):
That's been that's been kind of our mission too,
because we realize I realize soI've been in the space for three
years, and I realized quicklythat there is a lot of cookie
cutter types of people in thespace, right?
You either fall into, oh, I'mtactical, or I train every day,
or you know, like I can tell youwhy this boar is better than
(08:37):
that boar, and there's notreally room for just the average
I want to go get a gun and Iwant to go shoot.
Right?
And so that that's that's that'sawesome because the more of that
there is, and I encourage, andRob, I know Rob does too, but we
encourage training because youknow having a firearm requires a
(08:57):
lot of like discipline, safety,yeah, so education as much fun
as we have in the space, we arehuge advocates for safety, but
it's cool to see like the spacediversifying to include more of
just like your average shooter.
No, I'm I don't have to trainsix times a week, you know.
SPEAKER_05 (09:15):
Like yeah, we try to say a lot in our interviews too
with people that if you want toget into the industry or the
sport, it doesn't matter whatage you are.
Yeah, you know, because it canbe very intimidating, but no
matter what you want to getinto, if you want to do
competition, go to the range,you will show up and people will
help you.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04 (09:32):
Well, I was just gonna say the flip side of that
is a hundred percent.
If you tell someone I don't knowanything, 99% of the people that
we've uh interacted with arejust like they get excited.
They'll get a glimmer in theireye and they're gonna be able to
get it.
You don't know about the end,yeah, they just start running.
Let me tell you.
Uh 100%.
So I love that aspect of itbecause there is room.
(09:53):
Yeah, you know, we've seen itfirsthand.
SPEAKER_06 (09:55):
Or like in competition, um, a gun um one of
my guns went down and everybodywas like, here, you can borrow
mine.
unknown (10:03):
Like, really?
SPEAKER_06 (10:05):
You know, or a training.
You know, or yeah, or you know,like I've I've actually had
people say, Okay, well, justjust use mine, or you know, in
training and stuff like that.
Um, like with babes withbullets, I went to the babes
with bullets camp and I didn'thave a backup, you know, I just
had my my one gun and the firstday my sights fell off and it
(10:28):
needed it needed a special toolto put it back on.
Nobody had it.
And um, Lisa Munson, who is likea world shooter, right?
I mean, she's had I mean she shehas a ton of medals and she's
like, Oh, let me get mycompetition gun for you to
shoot.
And I'm like, Thank you, yes,please.
You're like, really?
I'll never go back.
SPEAKER_04 (10:50):
Every competition you're at with her, you're like,
my sights fell off again.
Do you have that gun?
SPEAKER_02 (10:59):
Do you have a dog?
No, no.
SPEAKER_06 (11:02):
Anyway, so this industry does really um and and
it's wide variety.
Like you said, there's sometactical people that are like,
you know, practicing six sixdays uh a month.
There's some that are out therewhen I first started.
I my husband would laugh at mebecause um I there was a group
of us, we would go out and hesaid, You spend more time
(11:22):
talking about the clothes you'regonna wear and what you're gonna
eat on the range than you dopracticing.
And I'm like, Yeah, that's whatit's for.
SPEAKER_02 (11:29):
Yeah, yeah.
I want to be comfortable, I wantto be fed.
SPEAKER_06 (11:32):
Yes, and we're just out there having fun.
SPEAKER_02 (11:34):
It's a very important part of the whole
experience.
Yeah, I think sometimes likepeople forget how long some of
these range days could be.
Like, even for yourself, likethe the outdoor range we like to
go to, it's an hour away from usback home.
So when we drive out, it's likeit's do we got do we got enough
drinks?
Do we need a cooler?
SPEAKER_05 (11:54):
Do we and then is there a bathroom there?
Do we need to stop at McDonald'sbefore we get there?
I mean, men don't have to worryabout that.
SPEAKER_04 (12:00):
I was just about to say, uh, you know, we have we
have pretty bonk out a dirtsnake right around the berm.
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Did I get the I looked up to seeif I got the look.
SPEAKER_02 (12:15):
Right around the berm.
SPEAKER_06 (12:18):
Hey, I just I just kind of walked in on that the
other day.
SPEAKER_02 (12:24):
We cannot tell that story.
Oh man.
Deb, we love you.
Deb is a badass.
Yeah, she is.
Yeah, she is.
I can listen to her stories forhours.
SPEAKER_04 (12:41):
She's got a story for everything and a picture,
and like a video, a picture toprove it.
SPEAKER_02 (12:45):
So, Jess, Erica and I talk like the golden girls.
I know.
SPEAKER_05 (12:50):
I'm a little jealous.
So am I.
I feel like we've been replaced,Rob.
Right?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (12:55):
I kind of felt like that.
We foster our relationship.
SPEAKER_04 (12:58):
I mean, we're kind of the golden girl.
We have our golden girl vibe.
We're trying to, who are we?
SPEAKER_02 (13:02):
Um, I'm definitely uh which one is the the fast
one?
Blanche?
No.
Isn't that Blanche?
SPEAKER_05 (13:08):
Blanche is the is the hussy.
Yeah, that's me.
SPEAKER_02 (13:11):
That's your Blanche.
Yeah.
Um Blanche I'm BlancheDevereaux.
Yeah, Blanche Deverot.
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
That's what I was gonna say for me.
SPEAKER_02 (13:20):
He's both kind of rose bodies, man.
Me and Eric.
unknown (13:25):
That's what you have to do.
SPEAKER_02 (13:26):
He he a hundred percent is my rose.
SPEAKER_00 (13:30):
You are too.
SPEAKER_02 (13:31):
You know, you know what?
Here's here's the funny thing isI forget which big trade show we
were at last year.
Oh, I knew this was.
I call him like my hard built-ingolden girl.
He can talk to everybody andanybody, and I'm usually like, I
don't want to talk to anybody.
Not because I'm a dick, I justdon't want to talk to people.
SPEAKER_06 (13:51):
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (13:51):
We sit down and there's these four old ladies
there, and hey, how's it going?
Oh, hi, young man.
Like, they're all start talkingto him, and I'm just looking at
him, eating my food.
He still hasn't taken a bite.
They're in full swingconversation.
We're done eating, and uh I havecreated a relationship with
these people.
(14:12):
By the time, by the time we weredone eating, I probably said
three, four words.
We walk on for like another anhour or so.
I was like, what are the chancesthat we ever see them ever
again?
And she walks by, she goes,There he is.
I was like, God, bro.
It was like I had four grandmasat the show.
SPEAKER_06 (14:31):
They took pictures together, and I was like, gee,
Jessica just pointed at me.
SPEAKER_05 (14:37):
That that happened this morning.
SPEAKER_02 (14:39):
Yeah.
Maybe that's why we get along sowell.
SPEAKER_06 (14:43):
You're I told, I told uh, no, I told Jessica, I'm
like, you just really just spedup that conversation and told
the person to get out withouttelling them to get out.
SPEAKER_05 (14:54):
No, I just she was talking very slow and explaining
things to her.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Oh, don't do that, Cadence.
SPEAKER_06 (15:03):
Oh, please I wasn't like that.
You're the one over heredrooling because you didn't have
coffee.
So I mean because you wereholding up your head on the back
of it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:13):
That's me.
Are you sure like, yeah, yeah,yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (15:17):
Yeah, she had this whole thing.
SPEAKER_04 (15:18):
Yeah, that's what is that, like a gallon?
SPEAKER_02 (15:22):
You need to measure that, my man.
SPEAKER_04 (15:24):
Oh this is my late night, but it's more on the
sorry.
No, we gotta focus.
SPEAKER_05 (15:29):
Yeah, yeah, so you guys are here the whole week.
Well, and while you're here as acreative marketing agency, what
do you guys focus on for theweek?
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
So that's great question.
SPEAKER_04 (15:40):
Yeah, it's no, it's dual purpose.
Yeah, we're both here and andwearing dip, well, you you
ladies know, because you ladiesdo the same thing.
We have like 20 hats that wewear.
Um, he's functioning more in auh marketing capacity, and I'm
trying to tell the story.
You know, I'm on the other sideof the camera, so to speak.
Yeah, the product, theproduction coordinator.
So I'm trying to make sure thatall the gear's right,
(16:03):
everything's ready to go.
Every day we have an agenda, wehave a start, we have a finish.
We're achieving everything weneed to do to meet with our
clients because we're doing someof that, cover the show for
ourselves, Apex Mountain to tellthat story, what Cush and I are
doing here.
Um, you know, it's social media,everything that goes with it.
So that's what I'm focusing onevery day.
(16:24):
And because I can sometimes, youknow, there's there's a lot of
moves and parts.
SPEAKER_02 (16:28):
Yeah, it's easy to get like last year it was three
of us.
This year it's six, four, five.
SPEAKER_04 (16:35):
Yes, five.
SPEAKER_02 (16:36):
Well, let's see.
Yeah, because our photographerhad to leave town last night
because he has a shoot Friday,Friday Friday.
And then as he was leaving, ourother videographer was flying
in.
So wow, yeah.
And he's they're well, him andmy twin brother, my twin brother
is a videographer, folks.
Um, they're they're walkingaround here right now just
capturing content.
(16:57):
So yeah, it's a lot of movingparts.
SPEAKER_05 (17:00):
Yeah, it's fantastic, and you guys also can
go across the entire country,right?
So for people that areinterested in possibly your
services or look up yourwebsite, yeah.
You guys do travel.
SPEAKER_02 (17:12):
Yeah, we're a traveling creative team.
And uh the cool thing about itis like we got passports too.
SPEAKER_04 (17:19):
So we drop that little thing.
Look at us.
SPEAKER_02 (17:28):
As long as it doesn't nosedive.
SPEAKER_04 (17:30):
Yeah, mid-air.
Well, I mean, that's an aspectof it.
We're just having a conversationout there.
It's uh we are the heads ofthis.
So there's it's not like we'rejust relying on someone to get a
paycheck every week.
Some weeks, some months, youknow, it's it's up and down,
it's a hustle.
So we have to grind.
And but it's it's also reallycool to see things happen in
(17:53):
real time.
I'm sure you ladies see that aswell, the growth.
You know, we're just talkingabout we met a year ago where we
were literally just creatingthis company, figuring out what
it's gonna look like, what we'regonna be doing, and then to be
back here this year with morerelationships and clients and
customers, you know, with adifferent feel to it.
SPEAKER_05 (18:12):
Yeah, and this is probably a deep question.
Now we're gonna get deep.
Because you're a creativeagency, you just had an
election.
SPEAKER_01 (18:20):
Sorry, sorry, folks.
SPEAKER_05 (18:22):
Uh insert the due to um we just had an election, so
with that outcome, have you guysseen any kind of different
response from people in possiblyhiring you for your services?
Because I know with my you knowdesign agency, uh marketing is
one of those things that it's aninvestment, but it's often a
(18:42):
luxury service that people don'tnecessarily put away a
percentage of their profit to doit.
And I think a lot of people wereholding off last year because
they weren't sure what was gonnahappen this year.
SPEAKER_02 (18:52):
Now well, that's a great question, and it's it's I
can give you a dense response,but I'm not, I'm just gonna say
yes.
Uh so leading up to the show, itwas all hands on deck to you
know sell some of our services.
We're offering booth coverageand our series called Run and
Gun.
And for the most part, everyonewas like, uh, you know, we're
we're anticipating Trump slump2.0 because I mean he's back in
(19:16):
office.
We know for the next four yearsno one's gonna come after us.
Uh yeah.
Our rights, right?
So there was that, and but I'm afirm believer and there's always
a deal to be made.
So, you know, it's barter cashplus product.
In some instances, it's allproduct.
But yeah, the short answer isyes, definitely there is a
little bit excuse me, of uhreservation because like you
(19:38):
said, mar marketing is a luxuryexpense, but it's a necessary
one.
SPEAKER_05 (19:43):
Yes, that's the key.
Companies that are successfulsee that the luxury expense, air
quotes, as a necessity.
Yeah, whereas I think lesssuccessful companies don't see
the value and understand thevalue of why they need to be
able to do that.
SPEAKER_02 (19:57):
Because smaller, smaller brands, I don't think
they realize like I've done somereally high-level marketing
work, and what's really big,like in in business, is yeah,
sure, let's say these next fouryears does get slow for our
space.
I, as a small business owner, ifI was selling product or firearm
manufacturer, I'm gonnapurposely dump more money into
(20:18):
marketing because it increasesmy market share.
Because you're gonna have somany big companies say, Well,
we're big enough, let's cut backsome of the marketing expense.
And then boom.
SPEAKER_05 (20:30):
And that was a massive thing that happened when
COVID hit was that people thatdidn't have that consistent
marketing spend and doing themarketing, they fell off, COVID
happened, and then they thought,oh shit, now I really need to
invest in marketing, and theyhad to do double triple that
because they hadn't been doingit consistently.
Um I had never thought ittotally blew out my brain.
SPEAKER_04 (20:51):
And well, here's the thing with marketing.
No, we talk about this a lotbecause he he I think he touched
on a point that was good.
You could get so big that youthink people know us.
You know, we can scale back alittle bit, and it's like you
see what McDonald's spends ayear on marketing and
advertising, Nike, stuff likethat.
Apple, Coca-Cola, it's unreal.
I mean, still, and it's like whodoesn't know McDonald's?
(21:13):
You know, what it's brandawareness keeping topic science
is it's it's in your face allthe time because there's so
many.
Think of how we consume content,even everything, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (21:23):
You just that's a great segue for I I've come the
last year, I've come really thelast three months into a lot of
resistance with influencersbecause we work with
influencers.
And so when I'm callingcompanies saying, hey, I can get
your product in front of adiverse audience, because we
mainly work with uh blackinfluencers and women
influencers.
And it's like you hear peopletrying to figure out how do we
(21:45):
harness the dollar of you know,of like influencers.
Like, yeah, well, you createpartnerships, don't go through
like a third party, it's aone-off, you don't establish a
relationship.
Call somebody, pick up the phoneand say, Hey, I like what this
person.
Doing for this community.
Let's figure out how to harnessthis community.
And then you turn that thatinfluencer into essentially a
(22:08):
brand uh ambassador.
Brand ambassador.
And then by doing so, you turnthe community into trusted
people that trust you and yourproduct.
SPEAKER_05 (22:17):
And that was the point that flew out my head, it
flew back in, was that in thisindustry You're welcome.
Thank you.
Uh in this industry, there's somany hoops that we have to jump
through.
It's not like we're sellingteddy bears.
Yeah.
Like there's a lot of red tape.
Red tape and walls that are up.
You know, we spoke to ASEERearlier today about social media
and that, you know, stuff justgets taken down.
(22:39):
So how do you market in anindustry where half the world
wants to shut you down?
You have to get super creative,and that's why there's an extra
added value of having a companythat is specializing in such a
niche to truly help you becauseyou understand those roadblocks,
which is hiring somebody that'slike, yeah, we we do tech and
medical, we we could probably dofirearms.
(22:59):
No, nay, nay, you need somebodywho specializes in that percent.
SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
Yep, absolutely.
And and the the well that youyou said on something that is uh
that that really stuck out isthe social median because social
influencers is a form of socialcurrency, right?
If your product is constantlypresent, I I I tell anybody I
speak to, think of like the bigbig influencers.
We're talking like maybeanything north of 500,000 a
(23:26):
million.
That's all like the billboardthat you see on the side of the
road.
It's very brand awareness.
Where you're really gonna gettraction is with like the micro
influencers.
And so, you know, like some ofthese smaller companies don't
know that, and they don't theydon't necessarily trust it
because they expect an immediatereturn and it's not always yeah,
it's a long play, it's a longplay.
SPEAKER_05 (23:48):
It's farming, not hunting.
SPEAKER_02 (23:49):
There it is.
SPEAKER_04 (23:50):
Yep, cultivate, cultivate, yes, get them seeds
out there.
SPEAKER_06 (23:55):
So if anybody uh if whoever wants to reach out to
you and then uh talk to you,become be not a golden girl.
SPEAKER_02 (24:03):
Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (24:04):
But they won't turn that down, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (24:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're always good down for agood conversation.
We are voiceover.
We're I mean, we do it all.
Audio, video, I keep gettingclose because video.
SPEAKER_02 (24:14):
I see we're the ones who are gonna have to clean this
up.
We are.
Why were you doing this?
What are you guys doing inthere?
SPEAKER_06 (24:26):
So it kind of hurt, huh?
Oh man.
So, how how did they get a holdof you?
SPEAKER_02 (24:31):
They could hit our website www.apxmntn.com or on
our social media, it'sapexmountainapxmntn.com.
That's really it.
Otherwise, if you know me, youknow me, send me a email if you
see me in the street.
So breezy.
Hey Snoop.
Hey Snoop.
SPEAKER_06 (24:50):
We love you guys.
Oh, we love you.
We love you guys.
It was so nice to have you onour podcast.
I'm I'm so happy that wecontinue to hang out.
Of course.
And um, and it's always great tosee you guys.
We're always rooting for y'all,seriously.
Thanks, Diddle.
SPEAKER_02 (25:04):
Yes, and I got some people for y'all as well, too.
Oh, awesome.
Because my goal is eventually tobecome Deb Ferns.
When you grow up, you want to beDeb Ferns.
I told my brother, I said, Whenyou meet this lady, she's gonna
remind you of our mom.
He goes, Nobody, nobody's gonnaremind me of our mom.
And then he looked at you andwas like, Oh, yeah, after
Monday, yeah, we got inSaturday.
(25:25):
Oh, I'm sorry, Saturday.
After Saturday, we got in thecar and he goes, Bruh, she's
exactly like mama.
I told you.
SPEAKER_05 (25:33):
I wasn't lying.
SPEAKER_02 (25:34):
He was like, I never thought I was like, oh yeah,
they exist.
Yeah, they're out there.
SPEAKER_05 (25:39):
There's more than water.
And there's more names.
Mobbies.
SPEAKER_00 (25:45):
All right, we're gonna wrap it up.
There it is.
That's it.
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