S2 E24 | Cynthia Plunkett's Inspiring Journey: From Solo Road Trip Adventures and Female Travel Safety to Mastering Digital Marketing, AI Innovations, and Entrepreneurial Success - Happy Hour Holidaze

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sean Febre & Manny Febr (00:00):
Welcome to Happy Hour Holidays, your
go-to podcast for business,entrepreneurship and life
stories.
We want you to go out there andmake your dreams come true.
I'm your host every single week.
Manny Fresh, we got the resume,Sean Fabre and then our special
guest today, we got CyndiaPlunkett.
Did I say it right, Plunkett?

Cynthia Plunkett (00:20):
Plunkett.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre (00:21):
Yes, and she specializes in digital
marketing and she is absolutelyphenomenal.
Thank you for coming in today,Cynthia.
Thank you guys and I want tomention that she is also a
fellow Sickles Grifner Class of07.
Shout out 07.
Let's go.
My brother was 06.
06.
You know, that seems like sofar, like so long ago.

Guys, when you start to say like it's been so
many years since I was in highschool, we're like, don't even
mention it anymore.

But it's so funny.
We talk to anybody else andthey're like guys.
You guys aren't even old,You're only in your mid thirties
.
You're still young, but somehowI feel old it does.
It's a reality of things.

Now, it's true .

So, cynthia, you did just to get on
the personal side of things andnot so much the marketing side
of things.
Just in the beginning you did across-country road trip through
what was it?
25 states for four months,that's right.
Bought a National Park Pass,that's right.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
What exactly did you do, oh man?

Guys.
And what was the reason forthat?
If anything, that's a great wasa reason for that.
If anything, I want to know howshe was able to walk away for
four months from civilization.
I could never do that.
That's wild, major balancingact.
Uh, the impetus was just thiscraving.

(01:39):
I never felt like I needed tosee the road before, just the
seeking independence andquietness.
I wanted it to be a solo tripexperience as much as solo.
Oh, you did it by yourself, yeahyeah, I did meet up with a lot
of friends across the entirecountry though Phenomenal, but
lots more hotels and Airbnbsthan anything and just seeking
that sense of just alone timeand really just a little bit of

(02:03):
growth and finding just more,just deeper conversations with
myself.
Lots of podcasts, lots oflistening, lots of learning.
That was 25 states I crossedand also a couple of Canadian
provinces, so I dipped intothere a couple of times too.

So what was like your favorite
state?

Oh, I got some favorites.

I got some favorites.
I get to ask that a lot.
I think it's Florida, though.

Florida's great, but leaving was even
better.

And you left from Tampa.
I'm assuming that's right,tampa, what kind of car, by the
way, Jeep Wrangler X.
Damn.
So 15 miles to the gallon.

It was rough.

For miles a gallon.

It was rough, but I I planned it.
You know, you gotta know yourgas prices ahead of time.
Um, jeep wrangler x was it iswhat it is that was part of the
cost, part of the cost.

Your budget was like what?

five g's for gas or something uh, it wasn't
that high, but it was.
Yeah, it was a couple thousanddollars for a few months.
Uh yeah, jeep wrangler X in 07in great condition.
I ended up putting the soft topthat was on it.
I put a hard top on it.
It's just not as loud, it justfeels a little safer even.
But I started from Florida andwent through the Fly River

(03:18):
states purposefully.
That's like avoiding Texas,like just going all the way
around Texas, all of the statesaround, like north of it.

Like Mississippi, Alabama.
Then you went up to like maybeTennessee.

Avoided Mississippi.
So it was like Georgia,tennessee, missouri, shit Like
Kansas, colorado, and thendipping back south to like Utah,
arizona, and then going westand then hitting, yeah,
california.

And then you probably went up the
coast.

That's right.
So my intention was I wasreally looking forward to the
west, so I didn't want to do theCalifornia coastline.
Instead I actually went intothe mountains of California.
That was my favorite state.
Oh my God, the Rocky Mountains.
Right, no the-.

Or the Rocky Mountains.

No, that's in Colorado.
Oh my gosh, now I'm blanking onthe mountains there, the
mountain range.
But California, these spoiledbrats, they have everything.

The ocean, the beaches, the ocean.

Cliffside views, incredible national parks
, even the desert.
Even further south, I got tosee Joshua Tree National Park,
got to see Sequoia National Park, yosemite National Park as many
as I could dip into.
There's so many more there, butI decided to stay on the

(04:50):
mountain range side and it wasjust phenomenal beautiful Around
May, june, perfect, crispweather, cool air, sun is on
your face and it is the mostenjoyable time of year to go out
west.

So it was beautiful I think that I
mean we've done some road tripsand I feel like you know, you,
you come up with ideas, you know, and it is a lot of growth
within yourself when you dotrips.
It's something about being in adifferent, different well
there's nothing else to fuckingdo but think man think about it.
I mean you're driving because Iremember, uh, you know this

(05:26):
wasn't on air, but me and mybrother went to arizona and, uh,
we left from tampa, we took hisbends and we drove.
It took two days.
So we stopped off in louisianaand slept there.
Uh, stopped off in san antonio,we were gonna stay there, but,
like you said, I wanted to justdrive through because I wanted
to get to Arizona.

Yeah.

And like 20 hours straight.
Oh my God.
Well, maybe not 12, maybe 12hours straight.
He was sleeping.
We were with a buddy of ours.

You're that guy in the road trip?
No, no, he was driving.
I drove a lot, okay, a lot.

So so I'm driving through literally
the prairies of Texas andthere's nothing to look at.
It is super fucking boring.

That's why I avoided it, and it was a lot of
monsters.

I can tell you that.

Monsters Do tell Like monsters, monster
energy drinks.
Oh, it was like scary monsters,like at night, not like that,
not like that.

But you know what you see is.
I mean, texas is the longestdrive we've ever done.
I can tell you that.

But we did make it.

We made it to New Mexico and at
that point I wasn't drivinganymore, because once we pass El
Paso, I pull over, I startswerving just from tiredness and
I'm like, bro, you got to drive.

And.

I go to sleep.
It's nighttime.
I've never seen the desert inmy life.
I wake up to the sunrise inthis what looks like Mars,
foreign land, and to me that wasthe coolest aspect of the road
trip was seeing something you'venever seen before Completely
open, desolate area.
Well, I mean it's desolate, butthere's, you know, the red
mountains out there.

(06:59):
Yes, it looks super cool andthey pop out of nowhere.

It's beautiful out West.
It really is.
I would try to move out west,but I have too much family here
that I would miss them, so it'sgreat to visit.

So then you have to drive all the
way to the West Coast, or nothave to.
You wanted to, which meansyou've got to drive home.

That's right and that was the halfway point.
By the time I was in NorthernCalifornia, basically getting
there.
Favorite part was in California, that in the California Nevada
border was Lake.
Tahoe, did you go to Alaska?
No, I didn't go to Alaska,that's too far.

I didn't want to do it.

Lake Tahoe the same feeling.
It was like Memorial Dayweekend last year.
Summer is erupting, everyone'sin a great mood Again, perfect
weather.
Taking a bike ride along LakeTahoe, took a little ferried
ride.
You're sipping perfectly crispwine, enjoying the views.
Tourists are just in greatmoods and it was a wonderful

(07:59):
feeling.

Were you high when you were doing
this stuff.

In the places you were allowed to buy, I
bought.
In Scottsdale.

Yeah, I had a good time.
Did you go to Vegas?
No, no, didn't care for it.
No, but the Hoover Dam is rightthere.

Yeah, I mean there was.
Hey, this country has so manyincredible places, that's what I
realized.
You can't see it all.

Yeah.

You just can't see it all.
Yeah, you just can't and youhave to be okay with just saying
next time, next time, next time, next time you could be on the
road for months, if not years,to see this amazing country.
We have so much to offer and Iimplore anyone to consider a
road trip to just try it do it?

did you make friends when you were
at these places?
Because you were by yourself?
You didn't just spend all yourtime by yourself, right?

Right and I got to lay it out.
I was working full time duringit, which is probably the most
aggressive thing about this.
Working full time remotely wasdedicating nine to five sitting
down on the computer and thentiming things out when I could
drive and in what places Iwanted to stay.
Some states were like let mejust get out of here.

Kansas , let's just let me get out of
here.
I was like what's there to doin Kansas?
That's right.

That's right.
That's exactly why I didn'tstay, and so then the weekends
that I wanted to stay longer,there were times to meet people.
I was intentional in someplaces the right cities I felt
like were comfortable enough,inclusive of Lake Tahoe area
Like incredible people fromCalifornia all over there just
visiting, so friendly.

(09:33):
Yeah, I made some cool friendsLike not many many.
I think the adventure was moreof a solo place, but I also got
to meet up with friends who hadtheir friends in the area and I
got to meet more people that waytoo.

I wonder are you still in contact
with those people that you didmeet?

On social.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, just like any travel friends I make
abroad, it's usually throughsocial channels and, like you
know, just seeing them travel.
There's a reason to connect.
But, otherwise like that's ourconnection.

You seem like a very analytical
person.
Coming from your marketingbackground, I know that you
probably know the exact mileageyou drove.

It's funny you say that I actually have a
Google spreadsheet that I trackthis on.
So thanks for asking.
I hit approximately like 8,000miles.

Oh, that's not as bad as I thought
it would be.

Yeah, To go just to hit California.
It's about 2,000.
Yeah.
So then I went up throughCalifornia, made it all the way
to Vancouver, Canada, acrossover to Calgary, dipped back
into the northern states, madeit all the way to Maine and then
back down to Florida, Holy shit.
So it was a big like perimeterrun is what I was looking to do.

Yeah, big like perimeter run is what I
was looking to do.
Yeah, yeah, did you go toNiagara?

Falls.
Already been there, didn't go.
No, yep, yep, yep.
Probably the best drive.
Let me paint the picture.

You're good at painting the pictures.
Let's close.
Everyone close your eyes.

The Canadian Rockies.
You think, okay, the Rockies wehave in the States is just
killer.
Like Colorado views, it's juststunning.
The Canadian Rockies I swearthey're bigger and just driving
through again, you've got greatmusic, perfect blue skies.
The mountains are these dark,jagged, intense formations, with

(11:22):
this trickle of snow cap views.
It's perfect, and so it's thissense of solitude that you have
out there too, with like noreason to stop.
Um that, it's your completepeace, and so that was.
That was definitely one of thebetter drives too I had on the
trip part of the West coast.

I'm sure you must have gotten a flat
tire once.

No flat tire, thankfully 8,000 miles, not one.
I did have two car troubles.

What were those?

I was in Lake Tahoe, stayed there two weeks.
Oh, woe is me to stay in Tahoe.

Sounds like you want to move there.
It was nice.

I want to go back in the snow.
I'd love to ski out there.
There, that was nice.
I want to go back in the snow.
I'd love to ski out there.
Yeah, just for a week I wasstarting to hear when I would
make a right turn, even justlike off a ramp of a highway.
The right front end of the, theright end of the car was just
like this jarring, jagged,shaking.
I would have the little tracklight go off and then it would

(12:23):
correct itself until I was likeI should look into this, this
isn't right.
Went into the body shop or thecar shop and I learned what a
right hub assembly is, and sothat was replaced, plus the
sensor.
500 bucks later we're back onthe road.
Thankfully that's not so bad.
Great, quick fix.
Then I'm all the way on theEast Coast and I'm leaving New

(12:43):
York.

Hands down the worst roads in the.

U S really, oh , my God.

Sean Febre & Manny Feb (12:50):
Terrible .

Terrible.
I don't know where all their taxdollars go but, it is not the
roads, um, I think it was thosereally terrible potholes I was
just hitting trying to get outthrough Jersey that all of a
sudden apparently I was in arough area through Jersey, broad
daylight, 11 am All of a suddenI'm in a Jeep Wrangler and any
Jeep listeners might know thisbut this thing starts to shake

(13:15):
and I'm hitting 55 miles an hourand it is like trembling shake.
It's not just like I'm on a badroad, so I decrease miles per
hour, slow down again.
Okay, let's just inch back intothis.
And it happens again once I hit55.
Quickly on my phone, pull up onGoogle Maps a mechanic, pull

(13:36):
right off into this tiny littletown.
Thankfully, this guy was superavailable and he's like all
right, let's go for a drive,let's go test it out.
Okay, sure, let's go Get rightback up.
And he's like yep, you have theJeep, death wobble.
And I was like no, not the deathwobble.

It's going to cost you $10,000.

Oh no, Unfortunately it's a known thing
in the Jeep community for anyJeeps older than like an 08.
So mine's an 07.
And I'm like.
So it happened.
It's happening to me now in themiddle of the road trip, and I
had intended to getting toBaltimore, where my sister was.
So I was like I just got tomake it there.

(14:18):
Can I just make it there?
He's like you can, but maybe at45 miles an hour.
Fuck, all right, I'm goingBecause I'm not stopping.
So I was like I got to go.
I made it to Baltimore the nextday.
Thankfully it was another quickfix.
What was it?
Wheel alignment, oh, okay.
Oh, that was it.
That's the death wobble.
But the death wobble is usuallyyour transmission.

(14:43):
Oh, shoot, whatever bolt isloose and something.
The whole thing can rattle.
So someone has to go in andspend a lot of time and money,
disassemble this thing, findthat loose bolt and then
re-assign, I don't know.
So thankfully I avoided thatand 100 bucks later I was back
on the road.
Okay, that's a great fix.

I mean my truck.
I have a lifted truck and Icould tell you it shakes at 55
over like crazy.
It's not at the alignment, it'smy whole entire lift kit on the
right side has to bereassembled, or actually just
new parts.
And also the transmissionmounts have to be engine and

(15:21):
transmission mounts.
I got quoted $2,500.
Mounts have to be engine andtransmission mounts.
I got quoted twenty fivehundred dollars.

So yeah, having having a jeep, and having
a lifted truck fucking suck.
It's true.
I like I am working with justyour bare bones jeep, like
there's nothing lifted, or likeI think I like replaced the
lights myself once, so I waslike that's it how long ago ago
was this?
This was last year, in 2024.

This is when you did the whole road
trip.
Yeah, yeah, from like April to.

August.
Oh wow, yeah, it was awesome.
I highly recommend it.
I mean, these are the thingsthat I like to share to anyone
considering a road trip.

Travel tips.
Let's hear them.
Travel tips, travel tips, allright, all right.

It's like the first and foremost, do it if
you're, if you're ready andyou're like mentally interested
or curious about it.
There's so many reasons toreasons to postpone it.
You're in a comfortable place,most likely, you have a place
that you're currently living inand you have a car so you could
go any time, but there's a lotof reasons not to do it.
As a planner and, yes, ananalytical person, like just

(16:32):
being, maybe even justover-prepared, for me it started
with a spreadsheet and it'slike I know.
My limitations in my case areworking full-time, so I have a
dedicated time, I need to besitting at the computer and I
have X amount of time I can beon the road, and my hard and
fast rule for the road trip wasno night driving Single female

(16:54):
on the road.
Guys, it was tough.
So, let's say, most of the EastCoast hours I could drive maybe
like two hours at a time afterwork.
Let's say you get off at fiveevery time, five o'clock Eastern
, so about two hours or so thesun is setting, it's summertime
hours, things are a little daysare a little longer, but as I

(17:17):
kept going West, I would get offwork earlier and then I would
have even more time before thesunset.
So I'm able to drive a littlefurther once I'm out West,
because I'm wrapping up work nowat 2 pm out in California, so
I've got more time to like,explore and maybe cover more
ground.
But my planning was in aspreadsheet is just what are
some cities I also want to see?
So, okay, from Tampa toGainesville, from Gainesville

(17:42):
all right, I'm going to use thisweekend to get to Atlanta.
So there's my five-hour driveand then bucket it that way.
So that was one aspect ofplanning a road trip that I
would say try to map some of itout With a big disclaimer don't
plan everything out.
Do not Leave room for error.
Leave room to just say you knowwhat I love it here, or I have

(18:03):
car troubles, I need to stay, or, and I want to stay.
You know things like that.
I would say that was on theroad too.
There's always a hotel.
There's always a hotel.
I booked a lot of places theday before.
It's like all right.
Ooh, do I have a story?
I forgot about this.
I thought I could brave a Motel6 in Kansas.

She hates this state.
She hates this state.
No, ma'am, no, ma'am no.

It was 50 bucks and I was like I'm going
to save so much money.
I'm so frugal.
Look at me and walked right in.
It reeks like cigarettes.
The guy at the counter sketch.
He takes me to my room.
I pass another room with a doorwide open.
It smells like food.
I get in and I'm like is thissurvivable?
Yes, you can live through this.

Was there cockroaches?

There were stains, there were things broken
, there was a bug like a deadbug in the bathroom and you
don't know exactly.
Definitely bed bugs.
I checked a lot every time Iwould go into hotels.
So I go down to the front deskguy and I'm like I'm sorry, I
can't stay here, I don't feelsafe, I don't feel comfortable.
I used all the trigger words.
I was like I got to go and Ispent $100 more to go to like

(19:21):
just like a kind of like your,your middle tier, not even a
high tier, whatever they had inkansas available did he give you
, did he give you your moneyback?

yeah, oh, he did.
Oh, he was nice, it was goodbecause he could have been like
nah, yeah, yeah and if he did it, 50 bucks for a lesson learned
I guess.
Uh, yeah, not many motels soI'm assuming there had to have
been just one night where youhad to sleep in your car.

No, sir Damn.

She planned it out.
Here's the difference.

Look at you guys.
Compared to me in size, y'allcan protect yourself on the road
at night.
You're fine Like.
The advice to any single femalelistening is you're still the
single female in the room.
Single female listening isyou're still the single female
in the room.
Um, there is still.
Just, you have a worse or worseoff chance of you know
something happening to you.
Um, in an unprotected space, sono car sleeping it was like you

(20:16):
have a gun or a knife oranything.
Great question did I carry?
Did I bring anything with me?
Highly tempted to bring aweapon with me.

Some states don't allow you to.

Exactly.

Not even pepper spray.
That is fine, pepper spray youcould, oh yeah.

But a gun Did quick searches, all kinds of
forums with gun owners and likekind of expressing you can go to
jail in some states just byhaving one in your car, because
there's no reciprocity in gunlaws between states.
That's right, there are somestates that have reciprocity,
but not a lot of them do andevery state is different on
their carry licenses and whereit can be in the vehicle.

(20:50):
So if I have to have itdisassembled, locked in a safe,
in the truck.

What is that doing for me, for
protection, anymore Fingerprints, Hold on, I'll be right back
back, sir, please don't mug meyet okay, you're gonna get this.

I want to ask one question, though, because I
know this one's gonna be acritical one oh god.

What did your spanish parents say?

oh, you're crazy by yourself you know what
could happen to you?
Keep going, keep going to you,keep going, keep going.

That's an end to you.
I was just thinking.

I was like oh my gosh, they must have been
like oh, did I look?
You're right, man, you're right, they're mortified.
They hated it, oh yeah.

Every time before you left, it was
probably same thing, are yousure?
Are you sure?
Why don't you just go toOrlando?
Why don't you just fly?

Are you sure?
Are you sure, do you need to?
But why, why so long?
Why are you sure?
But it's okay, you don't haveto, just know, you can always.
Just you can call me and I'llfly right and get you it's like
it was like that, like I'm gonnasave you.

It was my mom.
It was for sure.

My mom, your dad, was a little worried or
proud and excited but certainlyeveryone got a check in and in
fact I had my phone like find myphone on an iPhone.

Like so the family knew where I was.
That's good.

And in fact the stretch through uh, through
Colorado and I was dipping overto um, arizona.
Uh, lost service and it was.
It was a long day.
It was one of my favoritedrives actually, quiet and peace
, eight-hour drive that I did.
I lost service and so mytracker went offline for a bit.

(22:33):
I didn't make it to the hotelbefore sundown.
It was like right as the sunwas hitting or just passed, so
it was just getting dark.
Page Arizona is where I wasgetting.
I had in my spreadsheet thatwas shared with my family where
I was going in each city.
I even had the hotels andAirbnbs.
I had everything for a familymember not to be worried that

(22:54):
I'm going here, that because Iwas offline and it had been late
, my mom calls the hotel andhold that thought right there,
we will be right back with herstory.

We are all intrigued.
Thank you, like, comment andsubscribe.
And hold that thought rightthere, we will be right back
with her story.
We are all intrigued.
Thank you, like, comment andsubscribe, and thank you to all
the fans out there that listento us.
We'll be right back, all rightguys, and we're back with happy
hour, holidays.
And I know you were probably onthe edge of your chair to what
happens next, cynthia.

My mom called the hotel to see if I had made
it.
Oh my gosh, it's like 8 pm.
I still don't really have greatservice.
I have to connect to the hotelWi-Fi, so I'm still like 30
minutes into checking in withoutconnection.
I finally see the missedmessages, the missed voicemail,

(23:41):
and then I'm just yeah, guys, Imade it, I'm fine, and I had to
just dip back out and get somegroceries.
So I come back in.
I'm talking to front desk ladyand she's like a lady called for
you.
I was like, oh my God, that wasmy mom.
It wasn't more than beyond that.
And I was like mommy, don'tcall.
Like what are you doing?
So it was thoroughlyembarrassing being a 35-year-old

(24:05):
female.
And you're like thanks, mom, Ilove you.

I mean .
At the same time that's alsoreassuring that your parents do
actually care that hey did sheactually make it?

Because let's say you didn't make it Now.

Hey, now they got real questions to
answer, right.

Sean, are you a dad?
No, soon to be, maybe.

Oh, we're trying the answer right,
sean.
Are you a dad?
No, soon to be.
Maybe okay, because I thinkyou're getting, I think you got
it, I think you nailed it.
These are the worries of aparent I mean, uh, I could, I
could tell you this it I wouldnot want to be stuck somewhere
where I don't want to be.
Yeah, yeah, yeah because, if itwasn't for the honestly, your
whole excel, with all the hotels.
I mean they honestly, would havebeen panicking, probably 20

(24:44):
times worse.
Yeah, let's get back to thatExcel file.
Okay, what was the total?

First tab has the cities and the hours per
city that I would take.

I just want to know the total cost.

Oh, I didn't do the total costs no.

I mean , I can guess.

All right, I know the total of every credit
card monthly statement.
So you could say the whole timeeverything was on the road
right.
So I would say it was about$20,000 in expenses.
That's not bad.

For four months.
I mean that's not bad.
For four months Did you own ahouse?

No.
No, mortgage no no-transcriptand that was budgeted.

(25:53):
And then gas.

That's my second highest why is it
that you stayed at airbnbsometimes and not hotels the
entire time?
Yeah, I mean for that, becausenow the airbnbs you kind of have
to research ahead of time, bookthem, the hotels.
I guess you had to do the samething there.

It was all at once, at the same time, mostly
based on my price point I wantedto spend, and then searching
across different sites.
Um, a friend of mine hooked meup with a Marriott discount so I
was able to book Marriott at adecent rate.
So I was checking Marriott, Iwas checking Hilton sites, and
then I would go to bookingcom,hotelscom and then Airbnb.

Did you get an Amex Platinum?

I have a Chase Sapphire.
Are we promoting cards?

No, we are not.
But what I'm saying is, likethe Amex Platinum is a travel
card, so you get like threetimes points on hotel stays and
things of that nature.
So I mean you could haveliterally gotten a lot of money
back based on.

Well, doesn't Chase Sapphire.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just don'tknow what it is.
Yeah, I would say there thereare other.
I forgot the other.
I have safe chest that ChaseSapphire preferred Chast Chase
Sapphire Preferred.
There's a Chase SapphireReserve that's the higher one.

That would be like the Amex Is it
made for traveling?

There are some , yeah, a higher points.
Yeah, like three times thepoints per travel.
I would say yes, I would.
I mean I got a lot of goodpoints back from dining out
expenses, so that was costly,but because I knew it was a long
time, I didn't want to spendthat much on food out like

(27:31):
restaurants.
I carried a Yeti cooler.
My Yeti cooler was sufficientfor like the five-hour road trip
or the time span so that itcould keep some of my a couple
meals cold, quickly realized.
By the way, let's talk aboutfood and being healthy on the
road.
It's difficult and you need toplan.

(27:52):
Not every hotel has a microwave, not every hotel has a
refrigerator.
Like, what are you doing to eat?
Like well, enough to survivethis?
It's so taxing on the bodybeing on the road for so long
and working, so what are youdoing to fuel yourself?
Quickly learned about halfwaythat ham and cheese sandwiches

(28:12):
for breakfast are just not goingto cut it.
You need the Cuban bread.
I need the Cuban bread and soit's like processed meats for
weeks and weeks.
Don't recommend it On a pinch.
Yes, do it.
There's those things.
You have to balance Fruit,maybe that's right.
Yes, sean, fruit is good foryou.

(28:32):
So I quickly, like I, bought acouple just like plastic little
Ziploc, like container, you know, like meal containers, and I
was prepping salads with highprotein, low carb.
So I was eating sardinesstraight out of the can right
into my sardines are great.

Yeah, I used to eat them all the time,
exactly with the bones in itand everything there's like
teeny tiny.

You could just like lemon for the dressing,
being like high protein, lowcarb, and that was really
sustainable for me, affordablegoing to grocery stores instead
of just going out.
I gained like five pounds onthe road trip, but it's all gone

(29:20):
now.
It was just sitting so much andjust eating this way, not going
to the gym very much.
A lot of sedentary time, that'snot bad Five pounds for a whole
road trip for four months.
That's right.

You're not really the heaviest person
in the world.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.
She's like I gained five wholepounds, but five is frustrating.
Five is frustrating.

I didn't even think about eating
it.
But one of the bigger ones iswater, because you have to.
You're driving for so long youconstantly have to have a supply
of water, stopping at gasstations all the time.
Are you getting like the bigone gallon, or are you getting?

like do you have a Yeti?
Something like this that justfits.
Space is important too.
You have a small space, so howmany gallons of jugs do I want?
And, frankly, with all of thestuff we hear on the news with
plastic?

it's like yeah, the microplastics.
If it gets hot in the car, it'sgoing to ruin all the water
that you just purchased.

Thank you, so what did I do?
It was as I go.
It was an as I go, as neededbasis, and I did have, naturally
, some kind of thermos that Iwas using for water, but not a
lot of space to carry a lot ofwater in jugs.
So as I went.

Was there ever a long stretch of
roadway where you're like, damn,I'm almost running out of gas
and I can't find a gas station?

100%, but it was only a few times because I'm
such a planner.

Is it on Route 66?
Actually on this one?

I know exactly how many miles my tank has.
You're doing this 100 times.
You know it's like 300 milesactually that's not bad at all.

No, I mean a lot of people fill up
their tanks.
I've got a 15 gallon tank.
Maybe some have 10, maybe somehave 20, so that varies.

I mean, a lot of people that fill up their
tanks is like 350 or whatever.
Well, I've got a 15-gallon tank, maybe some have 10.
Maybe some have 20.
Right, so that varies.
So you've got to know basicmath for distance for your road
trip, and so it's like, allright, should I fill up now or
fill up at the halfway, becausethere might not be anything in
between that, so good planning.

good foresight is crucial to not
being stranded, that's the partthat I was sketched out about.
We did the Nevada or the fromArizona.
It was just a desert.
We literally saw only one gasstation, and it was packed on
Phoenix.
Yeah, and I mean that's that'sdriving on that road bro, and
there's like nothing.

No, there wasn't anything.
There was only one gas station.
For that whole time it was likethe sketchiest fucking gas
station in the world.

Luckily we filled up before.
So I was like Well, it was likeyou said.
I mean, it was just thatthinking throughout that whole
thing was just awesome.
You know to plug to the femalesthat are considering this we
didn't even play that, that wasjust spur of the moment.

Like being prepared is also about being
conscious of your safety.
If you're going to do this onyour own, did you at least?

have a knife or something.

I had a couple of different cans of mace.

Did you get bear mace?

I actually had a dog mace that a girlfriend in
Vancouver just like pitched tome.
She's like I got an extra one.
You need it.
This would be great on humans.

Yes.

I'll take it and regret, regret, not buying
the bear mace when I was agirlfriend.

If you can stop a bear, you can stop
anything.

Ooh, yes a girlfriend in Wyoming offered it
and I should have taken her upon it.
But bear mace is huge.
It's like a huge.
It's the size of a water bottle.
So yes, I carried a few littlepieces that's true it'll go far,
but I would say personal safetyis something that what I've
learned is.
I've taken some self-defenseclasses even ahead of the road

(32:49):
trip.
Just self-defense classes forfemales is not about how hard
you could hit or where you canhit.
It's about the first step isall about awareness and knowing.
In a sketchy place orcircumstance, eyes up, hands
available like not on your phoneand distracted, so being

(33:09):
conscious of where are thesituations that I'm most
concerned about?
Being on my own and potentiallybeing attacked.
Mine was the gas station, sothat's my personal.
Just think it's sketchy,there's always all kinds of
characters, and so just beingavailable, being present, was
the first step.
Learning in my self-defenseclasses plug to Weapon Brand.

(33:30):
They're a local company here.
What Weapon Brand?
That's what they're called.

That's what they're called Weapon
Brand.

Weaponbrandcom .

Check them out, guys.

Check them out .
Was like really critical tolearn about, sure, Some of the
physical stuff.
How are you going to do ifsomeone's got a knife, someone's
got a gun where you can pushthem back?
And essentially critical stepNumber one is to how are you
going to run away?

How are you getting out the throat?
Chop.

That's literally kicking the crotch
scratch Thank you.

It's true, actually, it's a lot of
tug, a lot of pull, it's a lotof yes, it's anything, kick
through.
That's literally what it isKick through.

It's anything to save your life.
Because this is someone who hasthe intention of hurting you
and harming you in some way.
Your number one priority is toget home, back to your family
and be safe.

Unless .
You had one of these Unless youhad one of those.

Excuse me, sir , one moment.

Can I All right, come at me what you
got.

That's, that's what I would add to just the
females.
Listening to our men too, Imean.
Y'all need to be aware youcan't be distracted on your
phone either.

So, yeah, I don't own a phone.
How, how, how are the differentcultures going through all the
different states?
Like you know, you're comingfrom florida and you're looking.

You know you're driving through culture
shock moment, where you're likeholy fuck I would say uh, man, I
think Kansas.

Probably Kansas.

No, I'd say around.

You know how much corn they have out
there.

They got a lot Through, like our northern, yes
, western, states.
You know, like your Montana,your Kansas, the Dakotas.
You went through the Dakotas,one of them, I heard there's
nothing in North and SouthDakota.
Not much.
Not much there's.

Theodore Roosevelt.

National Park.
Montana was beautiful, holy cow.
I dipped back into Montana andspecifically nailed it to make
it to Bozeman for 4th of July.
That was the first time Ireally had that like oh my God,
awkward, I'm alone momentbecause I went to a bar.
It's 4th of July, everyone'shaving a great time.

And I'm just on my phone like a
loser and I'm like who do I talkto?

I know nobody and I just got a strong whiskey
cocktail held on to that walkedup.
You know everyone's dancing andhanging out and I see a group
that are having a great time.
They're about my age.
Hi, how are you guys doing?
Awkwardly?
Approached them, they welcomedme in and it was so much fun.

(36:14):
But the culture of any ifanything.
I went to a rodeo there forfourth and that was awesome.

I snuck into it Sorry.

Montana Horses or bulls yeah, all all of that.
So the competition wherethey're riding bulls?
Um, there's a femalecompetition where they like race
the horse around the barrels.
Yeah, the barrel races um funand entertaining and what's nice
to be around that.
Let's call it the westernculture.
Uh gosh, they looked amazinglike these men and women dressed
to the nines for the rodeobutton ups the flares like

(36:47):
cowboy boots the best cowboy allthe hats, they look sharp, like
all guys and girls, likedressed to the nines and we're
on like this dirt floor like therodeo.
So I like seeing that a lot andit's nice, but not too many
variety of cultures across the U?
S.
I would just say you could justtell the differences and, uh,

(37:12):
really just the status of wealthin different communities.
Uh, in California, I have afamily in this, a city just like
Santa uh, santa Clarita, whichis like an hour North of LA city
, just like santa uh, santaclarita, just like an hour north
of la beautiful upscale area.
And then, sure enough, I and,uh, you know, recall my kansas
motel six moment and it's justlike, wow, what a difference.
So that was probably thebiggest.

Was there any area that you should
have never gone to?
Like the one your leastfavorite?
You're like damn, why the fuckdid I even show up to this place
?
There's got to be one.

I got lucky, I think.
When I pulled over for thewheel alignment issues, I didn't
realize I was in a bad area,jersey.
It was the mechanic who's likeyou got really lucky.
You just found us.
This is not a good area.

What was the city, though?

It's around Trenton.

Trenton .

Trenton, new Jersey, trenton, trenton, new
jersey.

I was around there.
Oh my god, he's like that'sliterally the ghetto and he's
like you're lucky there's.

There's a bunch of characters right here
standing in the corner and I waslike, oh my gosh, I'm, I'm glad
, but I, I was lucky throughoutthe whole trip.

I don't think I was in a not lucky
I think you were aware of yoursurrounding that's right right
situational awareness the entiretime, but I think planning it
also helped out a tremendousamount not veering off into bad
areas.
Because when you just do it offa whim, you're just like oh.
I'm just going to do this.

But having that whole planned trip as much
as I could.

Do you see any crashes when you are
driving?

I don't remember any, to be honest, that
are notable, that are notableuh, that are notable, notable.

So you did see crashes.

I feel like it happened in real time no, no,
no, no, oh gosh, no, no, no, no,no all right, so we talked
about your road trip.

Let's transition into a little bit of
a marketing discussion let's doit so you and your brother own a
marketing company no, no, no.

uh, my brother is older than me, actually same
year as manny and other sickles.
Yeah, I know, I know, dennis.

Yeah, yeah, Dennis, shout out.
Man Dennis Park is shout out.
Hope everything's doing good.

He owns a digital marketing agency.
He's actually based inGainesville Jumpum.
Plug to Jumpum.
They're a full-service digitalmarketing agency and I own my
own.
It's CP Marketing Co.
Based here in Tampa, offeringsimilar services.
I partner with him because hehas the full stack of resources,

(39:30):
with in-house employees fromweb development, design,
marketing et cetera, thatwhenever I have more enterprise
clients or opportunities come tome, I outsource and work with
them on some of these biggerprojects that me and my smaller
team can't do.
So my clients and who I servehave been B2C clients, more

(39:56):
small businesses from a localmed spa to restaurants in the
area and a lot in health caretoo.
I really like health caremarketing.
I've got Sorry, I've got atherapist, I've got mental

(40:16):
health practitioners, and theseare just small business owners
that serve on online too, too,and in person, so they're
looking for just that kind ofonline presence.

What kind of services do you provide
them?

Yeah, for the most part we focus on search
engine optimization.
That's SEO.
So with SEO, that's justfinding ways to improve your
website so that if someone issearching for a service, we want
your website to come up firstfor it, or at least the top page
.

And you're not keyword flooding, I'm
assuming.

That's right.
No, we got to be strategic, wegot to be mindful of what
Google's algorithm says, and wecan't just be what we call
keyword stuffing and just kindof placing it all over a page in
hopes that it ranks.
So what?

does help a website rank higher in
Google.

That is a question a lot of us digital
marketers aspire to hopefullyknow the true answer.
But Google has said there areover 200 different algorithmic
factors to why a website ranks.
So folks like me in the digitalmarketing space we all just
kind of speculate, we test, wethrow up a few things here and

(41:28):
there.
A lot of baseline stuff I cangive you is technical and then
on-page content-based.
The technical stuff is reallyyeah, yeah, that's ongoing, for
sure.
The marketing work, thetechnical side is I'm just going
to kind of glaze over it, butit's building a house correctly.
The infrastructure of thewebsite, how it's organized, the

(41:50):
site's architecture, h1, h2tags that's right, not overused
Things like that too.
That's technical aspects ofyour content.
And then the content on thepages which include that, plus
the keywords which pages saywhat?
Which ones are service pagesversus which ones are blogs and
articles?
That's a pretty keydistinguisher.

Every single image has all tags.

That's right.
Do you know marketing?
No, I don't.

Yes you do, but this is for the
audience.
Yeah, absolutely.

You're right.
I mean there's a lot of factorsthat go to it and, like talking
to business owners who justwant a website and online
presence don't need to know allthis.
So any business ownerslistening it is your role to
understand the foundation of mywebsite should rank for these
terms that I want it to, but youshould trust your partners, who

(42:42):
are digital marketingenthusiasts and experts, to get
you there.
It's really not your role as anowner of a photography business
or a healthcare professional toknow what are the 200
algorithmic factors for Google.

Yeah, well, I mean, and that's why we
would want to rely on marketingexperts.
Now, as well as the technicalaspects, what are some of the
other ones that you mentionedagain?

Yeah, the, the content stuff that we were
talking about.
Yep, yep.

There was a third one, though.

Well, we can bucket it there for now, just
kind of the two aspects of likethe development of the site and
then the content you have on thesite.
There's external factors too,so things like, actually, where
I started in digital marketing,it's this really really niche
SEO like an optimizationstrategy?

Are you going to say backlinks, yes,
oh okay, there you go.

It's called link building.
I would work full time to reachout to other websites and ask
them for a link back to the site.
I was managing Like gettinglinks to your site is another
algorithmic factor.

We got like 3,600 or something like
that Good.
Because we put it into themetadata.
Yeah, we put it into themetadata of our photos and then,
when other websites publishthose, Then it's a link back to
your site.

Yeah, got it Okay.

A little hack there.

I do like that hack.
I've seen that with widgets too, so, if you like, have a cool
widget on your site that couldbe used on another site.
It includes a backlink to thisoriginal source.

Yeah, how did you get into digital
marketing?
Let's just start from there,from the backwards.
I'm like, I'm really fascinatedby how you got the interest to
pursue this and have a passionfor it and you're helping a lot
of businesses out there.
So, what, what, what caused youto go to school?
For it too, yeah.

Yeah, it started, I think, where I just
my personal exposure to socialmedia, it was when Facebook was
starting to offer company pages,when we were all just kind of
kicking off in college and itwas like a new and I loved it.
I wanted to help businessesgrow their presence on social,
but with the influence of mybrother too, he's like there's

(44:51):
more to helping a business thantheir social pages.
It's their websites.
So from there it grew into aninterest in SEO, an interest in
optimization, analytics, thebackside of things and why
things perform the way theyperform.
What are these algorithmicfactors?
And now my role is the broaderscope of digital.

(45:11):
So it's social web, email, linkbuilding.
You could add its own thingRetargeting and ads yes, so ads
on social ads from Google.

No, but retargeting.

Yeah, retargeting would be considered
in your ad support.

So ad roll.
Have you ever heard of ad roll?
Do you ever go actually?
Yeah, we get back guys.
We'll continue talking aboutdigital marketing.
I'm hoping, getting a lot ofinsight and getting educated.
Really appreciate you guyslistening.
We'll be right back.
All right, guys, and we're backto happy hour holidays.
And we were over here whereCynthia was trying to explain

(45:50):
herself.
And Sean thinks he knows better.
So you're kind of talking aboutad roll.
Well, yeah, we were talkingabout ad roll and they're
retargeting ads.
If you ever go on a website andyou click accept cookies and

(46:10):
then all of a sudden you go toyour Facebook or social medias
and you start seeing ads forthat website you just visit, it
is what retargeting ads do.
Google also does it, but theydo it at a less scale than these
, than these companies do, andit's much cheaper as well.

Yeah yeah.
There's tons of greatthird-party tools like that.
That is always even part of achallenge.
As a business owner or theperson who's in the agency to
recommend, you've got to testthese out.
You've got to do them yourself.
And for the business owners whohear new tools like this and
new products, I don't advisedoing it yourself first.

(46:42):
Talk to someone, maybe, who hasused it.
You know another business ownerlike you guys that have
invested in it and have seenresults.
Or bring it to the agencyyou're working with, Bring it to
the digital marketingconsultant you're working with
and ask them can you prove thatthis is valuable for my business
or not?
And you take on that risk as abusiness owner to try these new

(47:05):
kinds of tools because there areso many to choose from for all
kinds of marketing strategies.

So one thing that you can do in order
to gauge the success of saidtool is have conversion tracking
100%.
So if, first and foremost, if amarketing company does not
provide conversion tracking,then they're just taking your
money.
That's literally what it is.
Have you set up a lot of goalsfor conversion tracking and, if

(47:31):
so, do you ask them what youwant or what they want you to
track?
Because what I see as aconversion is a sale or as a
phone call.
Some might see it as justlanding on the page and adding
something to their cart.
So how do you conversion track?

Sean, I swear you could just do this for me.

You know these answers.
It's so amazing, but it's forthe audience.
I hear you.
Okay, I hear you.
I hear you.

It's amazing You're so knowledgeable, because
these are the questions that alot of businesses don't know,
because they don't know how thewebsites work, and so it's like
I got a form and I got an emailtoday.
That's a lead, but we can alsojustify a spectrum of
conversions.

You're talking like top of funnel,
right?
Well, how you would say yeah,if it's a landing?

page.
If it's a visit to a specificpage that has a lot of value and
it has done wonders to improveyour brand presence, that can be
considered a conversion.
It's how you, as a businessowner, find a visit to a contact
page or a visit to our aboutpage as valuable or not, and you
can tell the marketing agency.
I want to know how many timesfolks have landed on either of

(48:39):
these pages.
Let's call them this kind ofconversion.
This is like a softerconversion versus maybe a harder
conversion, which is a formfill, which is picking up the
phone and dialing the number, ora contact form.
You know, like those thosethere you start to you can
measure success of campaigns on.
I'm getting way too many of thesoft conversions and not enough

(49:00):
of these hard conversions,however you want to call them.
So you need to also plan outand discuss with your digital
marketing partner to ask I wantmore of these or less of these
too?
You have control when you aremanaging ads.
Ads are a exciting part ofwebsite optimization and

(49:21):
tracking.
There's so much data, it'simmediate.
It's, you know, really strongROI in most cases if it's built
right.

Do you see that a lot of AI has
influenced, say, graphicdesigners, to now being pushed
out of that space for creatingad creatives?

Great question .
I'm glad we're talking AI.

Because I love ChatGPT, I have the O 01
Pro mode.
Well, for designers-.
That's what it's called thechat.
Gbt 01 Pro mode.
I pay 200 bucks a month for it.
Oh dear, no, I'm not payingthat.
Yeah, oh, you should see whatit does, my designers can still
design.

I'm paying them just fine, and it's not
$200 a month.
So the design aspect of AI isstill growing.
Everything about AI is so new.
I think we all see that there'schallenges still that
everyone's facing, but whatdesigners should be doing if we
have any designers listening isjump into AI, start playing with
the tools to see how we canhelp you, because even if you're

(50:24):
going to apply for a role as adesigner in a company, you need
to speak eloquently about AI,even if it's I'm new, but I'm
trying and I'm learning and I'minvesting in the future of
design.
To say I've dabbled in this,I've tried that, I've created a
unique ad with this.
Designers should be investingin new tools like this, and the

(50:46):
same thing with AI and otheraspects of digital marketing.
So in SEO, there's a shakeupgoing on.
Gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, listening, there's a shakeup
in AI right now In the fact thatthere's a lot of people now
going to AI platforms foranswers and not going to Google.

(51:07):
Yes, omg.
What does that mean?
What does that mean for all ofus that have been working so
hard for our websites to rankfor those top 10 results?
Now, ai overview is currentlypresent in Google.
You know, like that's just youranswer.
You leave, you're done.
You're not clicking ontowebsites anymore.
Are we going to see a dip inpage views?
Are we going to see a dip inconversions because of this?

That's 100%.
You ask a question and the AIpops up right there and gives
you the answer.

Why are you going to the websites anymore?

Which means you don't go to the
website.

Yes, unless you're looking to buy something.
That's right.

I think what you're talking about
is less transactional.

Potentially, yes, potentially.

That's what's the concerning.

Yep, the top of funnel in your marketing
funnel.
If y'all have ever taken amarketing class.

Because if I want to buy something, I'm
going to the website and thenbuying it.

That's true.
Product sales, e-com sales.
You're ready to buy Same withservice providers.

The AI overview does provide a link
for you to get redirected tothat website to still purchase.

It could, and that's what we're seeing in chat
GPT results, in Google's AIoverview, in Microsoft's
co-pilot results.
There are links because theywant to say this is the resource
or the source I am providingthis to you for, so go here if
you want more.
But ultimately, I think we'reall seeing the results and then
just closing out the tab andwe're done.

We don't need to, only when we're
looking for information.

Sure Good qualifier, yes, but it's a
shakeup for us in the industryto think about.
How do we help prioritize ourmarketing dollars, the marketing
time we spend and what we sellto our clients who are asking I
want to be first in everything.
I want to be the top result inChatGPT.
I want to be the top result inGoogle, in Bing, and so we are

(52:56):
taken.
We also have to come back tothem.
Okay, who has the largest shareof voice?
It's still Google.
It still is.
It's predominant, but what?
But?
What is chat, what is or what isai doing right now that we need
to be mindful of and preparefor um?
The first thing I would say tobusiness owners right now do
those service-based searches, uh, on chat, gpt, in copilot,

(53:20):
whatever other meta thing youwant to do ai, result, um
platform and just see what'scoming up Just right now, very
early on, start your searches,see what's coming up for those
AI platforms and those results.
Is there a place to compete?
What does ChatGPT say?
What does Copilot say?
They may be completelydifferent results.

(53:41):
The challenging part for an SEOexpert is how do I understand
that algorithm?
How do I understand their rulesfor ranking?
That's going to be what we'reall looking into in 2025.

Yeah, but even when you were talking
about the designers, I mean,chatgbt has given them a
baseline instead of wasting somuch time.
Well, not wasting, but beingcreative, but also having
something where, hey, now I gota baseline right off the bat and
I can work with this, insteadof having to create this
straight Not to say they don'tenjoy doing it, because I'm sure
they enjoy creating thatbaseline and then asking the

(54:17):
customer hey, how do you wantthis modified?

It's just like with writers you can start.
It's like idea generation, Likewhat are some headlines I could
do for this?
What are some key interestingfacts that?

are important, damn, we all show up.

Sean's like searching on the side here.

Well, I did exactly what you just said
.

What did you search?

What are the top real estate
photography companies in Tampa?

Oh, it's interesting.
You chose to do a top search,so top best.
There's so much to that, justlike we would do in Google, that
you're curious to see.
Am I ranking?

for that.
Do you rank for that?
Search in Google.

Okay, good good, good good.
But what's right?

I never I never thought, uh, well,
it's uh, our, our homepage,your website, okay, our homepage
, yeah, uh, but I never thoughtI mean that was a fucking
brilliant question about do itfor chat gbt, because a lot of
people are getting informationfrom that, so now we have to
figure out how to fucking rankon chat gbt jesus, hire me now.

Cp, marketing and co close the book too easy.
That was just like led me rightinto that one.

Yeah, that's a question I've never
heard posed before.

Yeah, you got to challenge these AI tools,
just like you challenge yourmarketing agencies to say what
am I doing, how, why don't I seemyself on Google?
That is what most clients say Ido I'm searching, why don't I
see myself?
We have many reasons to answerways to answer this, but that's
usually what someone's lookingfor is my presence.

(55:51):
Is it there?

Are you not upset every time one of
these clients say hey, man, it'sbeen five months, why am I not
off first on the page?
It's like yo.
Your website at least needs tobe around like five years old
for you to get on that firstpage.

So you're absolutely right.
It's a challenge when you're aconsultant or you're working in
a space where you have a lot ofeyeballs asking, you know,
reviewing and asking thesequestions.
There's a challenge is that theweb is dynamic.
The answers are dynamic.
The reasons one website ranksover another.
It keeps changing every month.
In fact, if you're lucky enoughto stick at the top, then it

(56:30):
might mean you have a lesscompetitive market.
It might mean you know youdon't have other ads that are
competing against your site.
So so many factors, inclusiveof time, like you mentioned the
time a website has been live orthe time a certain page has been
live.

It wants history and it wants
updates.
That's right.
That's what it wants.
Yeah, that's why blogs are huge.
Blogs are huge, right Blogshelp.

Blogs help, Yep.
That's what a strong agencyowner, digital marketing leader,
digital marketing expert shouldbe able to understand why, the
why, so that you don't have toas a business owner.
You can ask me what the heck isgoing on, but I should be able
to hey, it's okay, let's allstay calm.

(57:13):
We don't have the Google likemachine to just change an
algorithm.
Let me walk you through thisand explain what's going on so
you feel more equipped andconfident in our services too.

What do you think as far as questions
to a digital marketing company,should a business owner ask
straight off the back?
Let's just say three of them.

Great Wow.
I wasn't prepared for this,manny.
Thank you, first one that comesto mind.

That wasn't John GBT, by the way,
that was me, yeah.

First really solid question is hi agency.
Have you worked in my helpingclients like me in my industry?
So photography do you guys haveany experience helping rank
other photography businesses?
Show me examples.
Same with web development.
The different websites lookdifferent for different

(58:03):
industries and I need to knowwhat a beauty med spa website
should look like versus arestaurant or a therapist's
website.
So design and development too Iwant to see that you have that
portfolio.
I'm sorry, the client's goingto want to see that you have
that portfolio experience.
So that would be one One Iwould say is kind of similar to

(58:25):
the conversions questions Likego for the jugular, just be like
how do you track conversions?

And just stop them yeah.

Stop them in the track so that someone in the
agency should be like greatquestion, or I don't know.
They need to be able to expresswe track conversions this way
on your website.
So they need to be able toexpress we track conversions
this way on your website.
As an e-com site, this isexactly how we're going to do it
as a service-based website.
This is how we would do it, andso there should be solid
answers for that.
There should be no ifs, andsand ums.

Because , through Google Analytics, you
literally can track the entireprogression of a customer.

That's right, that's right.

Sean Febre & Manny Fe (59:02):
Potential customer.

Yeah, yeah, a lot of.
That's why the website is sopowerful to track so much and
report so much, and there's alot of insights there.

Even Facebook pixel does it.
Yeah, all the fucking socialmedia.

All the social pixels as long as it's set up
correctly.
You got conversions, so whatwas?

the third question that a business
owner should ask them.

Another one to just I don't know, yeah, yeah,
yeah, she went straight.

After that, if they can't answer that
question.

You don't hire them, cut them.
This would be a preference forjust relationships.
What is your communicationstyle and how can I get a hold

(59:50):
of my gosh?
Oh shit, my website's down andI need to reach you moment to.
Hey, I want to update a pieceof content on my site.
How do I get ahold of you?
So your agency owner, aprospective agency, should be
able to answer.
You have either my cell phonenumber to call me after hours,
or I have a helpline after hours, or, hey, here is my email that
reaches your direct accountmanager.

(01:00:11):
Should there be content editsso good spectrum of tier one to
tier three like critical massmoments that you want to get
ahold of your agency whenpotentially one of your most
valuable digital assets has aproblem.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre (01:00:27):
That's absolutely right.
What about at like 3 am in themorning you give?

Cynthia Plunkett (01:00:33):
them the reality check.
You give them the reality checkthat I'm sorry that your
website is going to be down atthese hours, but who's actually?

going on the website at 3 am but
there's two options you could.

That's one part of it is the reality check
of there's nobody on yourwebsite, thankfully, and we've
seen in your data that nobody isonline, so we're confident that
we can come back to this at 8am or, if you'd like a little
bit off hours, we're talking 6am.
It's going to cost you thismuch for my team to be available
at these hours.

Or hire a VA right.

If you have the infrastructure built to the
VA to support that, that couldfix a website that's down, which
I don't know.
If you have that, maybe not,probably not yeah.
Yeah, so giving them thereality check of your resources,
like, hey, I'm a small team offive, we can't offer that
service.
I'm sorry if that's what you'relooking for, but we may not be
the right partner for you.

(01:01:24):
Or you're an enterprise globalagency and it's like no problem.
Call us anytime.

What do you find to be like the
biggest pain point for yourclients when they first approach
you prior to hiring a firm,their biggest pain point, like
in their business.

Like they have gone through something that
apparently they have to hire amarketing firm usually they're
coming to us after alreadyworking with other marketing
experts god I can tell you, andthey're burned out a few and
we're like burned out all,they're all how should let you
know?

it's usually like a monthly fee,
right.
And then how often would youthink that they should be
working on your business?
Maybe hours per week?
I mean, how do you usuallyjudge that?

Yeah, I mean, every business offers services
at different rates, so you knowwhether it's a retainer or an
hourly and anything in themiddle.

Sean Febre & Manny Febr (01:02:21):
Whether it's a package.
It was monthly, but it was likethey say, hey, we're going to
work 30 hours a week on yourpage.
Yeah, which they didn't.
I'm not going to throw themunder the bus.
No, no, no, no.

But as a you know working.

You know who you are.
Fuck you.
We went to their office inOrlando.
I'll drop that hit.

And I can tell you they were a waste of
fucking money.
But the agency or any marketingpartner should be like you know
, offering either they're goingto customize the relationship
for you and say look, you'reextremely established business,
we'd like to work with you, I'llgive you this kind of hourly
bank, or I'm going to cut you adeal on this package we sold you
.
So this is, this is theexpectation.
Because because we want to workwith you, so as an owner, you
should know the expectation ofthe output of any marketer who's

(01:03:13):
going to work with you to say,hey, I expect to hear from you
within 30 minutes or within 24hours when I submit a request.
Why?
Because you set the expectationat the onset.

Ours was a little bit different.
It wasn't so much hearing fromthem in the communication,
because they communicated awhole fucking a lot, way too
much, in my opinion.
Um, it's just the action.
The execution of their proposalwasn't too standard.

Yep, there you go.

So not meeting the proposal
expectations we signed acontract for six months, so we
were locked in and it was like,oh god, I can't wait for this
six months to be over maybethat's something that's a really
good point.

But because again, here you are, burned out
from a terrible experience, thatyou need to revise contracts at
those terms and conditions.
Protect you to a legal contract.

I mean it's fucking to get an addendum
for that contract would havejust been a pain in the ass.
Just have a corporate attorney.

If you can.

even if you can work with somebody
and have them hourly, or if youhave enough money to do a
retainer, keep one on staff andwe have one, it saves you so
many times you want to shoutthem out.
Fantetti legal baby.
I love you baby.
So, cynthia, we reallyappreciate you coming on to
Happy Hour Holidays.
You've been nothing butknowledgeable and also your
story for the cross country wasawesome, that was cool, it was

(01:04:29):
fantastic, I mean, it wasdefinitely an adventure.
The way you pretty much say howeverything is you should be like
describing I don't know what itis you should have a travel
book?
Yeah, a travel book, oh man.
So what do you have to tell ouraudience as far as either
motivation, you know, being awoman to be able to, you know,
create this, this business, and,you know, keep a full-time job?
I mean, you're just doing somuch thank you and um, so we

(01:04:52):
have time.
So it's not like it's threeminutes.
Three minutes, okay, cool, um,so don't feel like you have to
rush, oh gosh, yeah no, there'sa lot to say hurry up a lot to
unpack uh um, no, I appreciateguys.

Thanks for the k, thanks for the time.
I think a lot I would just liketo bring here to share with
anybody listening is for just tobe an advocate for the females
who are interested in startingtheir own business and juggling
a full-time job.
I am in a corporate space, I amin digital marketing, but I
found that I was able to put myagency as more of a side

(01:05:28):
business, let's call it, becauseof the amount of hours in the
day I have and because I've beenable to run it so that I have a
team in place and it'sautonomous in itself.
I don't need to spend too manyhours anymore on it, thankfully.
So I've got the full-time 40hours, but then I'm probably
putting 10, 15 hours a monthinto the business and the money

(01:05:53):
goes to the team that I havebuilt and set it up.
And that was what I can advise.
For anyone looking into this iswhat are some processes and some
foundational things that youcan set up so that you can build
a bit of an infrastructure onyour own while you are working
full-time or while you'rejuggling or debating this

(01:06:13):
decision.
So start with the basics.
In fact, interview yourself asif you were your own business
consultant and I did that formyself too.
It's who are the clients youwant to serve.
What are the businesses you'reinterested in?
Who is your target persona?
Who is that perfect client thatyou'd love to work with?

(01:06:35):
Write it down.
That's the hard work, thehomework that you should do for
yourself, and that is somethingyou can definitely do after
hours, after you log off of jobnumber one and open up the
laptop for job number two.
Second would be there are many,many resources out there that
there are many women who are inyour position too.

(01:06:57):
Local plugs to some Facebookgroups that have helped me are
St Pete Girlbosses.
These gals have exploded onFacebook groups.
I was there on the early yearswhen they got started in like
2018, 2019, and now it'sskyrocketed to women across the

(01:07:17):
Tampa Bay area who areentrepreneurs, same with women
in tech and entrepreneurship.
This team of women who are justexploding across Florida also
just resources.
So meet others who are justtrying to connect with you too
and are trying to grow theirbusiness too and connect with

(01:07:39):
them.
So those would be some optionsto start off the bat, spending
some time on your own to balancethings first, and then outreach
, finding others who inspire youtoo.

That's as well said as you can say,
Cynthia.
Thank you again so much forbeing on our podcast.
We enjoyed the whole journey ofeverything.
You've been a plum pleasingpleasure.
Oh dear, To quote Les Brown soappreciate everybody listening
to Happy Hour Holidays.
Keep tuning in.
We're trying to educate you,motivate you to go out there and

(01:08:11):
make your dreams come true.
Like, comment and subscribe,and we'll see you later.
Peace out, peace.

All Episodes

S2 E24 | Cynthia Plunkett's Inspiring Journey: From Solo Road Trip Adventures and Female Travel Safety to Mastering Digital Marketing, AI Innovations, and Entrepreneurial Success

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

All Episodes

Stuff You Should Know