October 16, 2025 • 43 mins
Anthony Clarke’s journey started with $15 flyer gigs and a front-row seat to his parents’ work ethic. That foundation shaped how he thinks, works, and serves. And today, he leads an award-winning agency helping restaurants grow through smart, relentless marketing. In this episode, he shares how he found his calling, why "unlimited" value is non-negotiable, and the lessons he learned the hard way. If you're thinking about taking the leap from side hustle to full-time founder, this episode is for you. More: http://localitybank.com/resources/podcast-anthony-clarke-acc-unlimited/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Welcome to Localities Making Bank podcast, where we continue
our exploration of South Florida's entrepreneurial
landscape with host Keith Costello, Co founder and CEO of
Locality Bank. Sit back, relax, and let South
Florida visionaries guide you onan entrepreneurial journey from
tribulation to triumph, sharing the very stories that have
(00:22):
shaped them. Anthony Clark, welcome to
Locality Banks Making Bank podcast.
Wow. Thank you, Keith.
Appreciate that it's. Great to great to have you here.
And so Anthony and I go back a long time to the beginning of
Locality Bank. When we first got opened, we
(00:43):
were in, we opened up in generalprovision and we're which is a
shared workspace. And that was where, you know, we
started from and Anthony was there and talking to Anthony
there, got to know him and he's like, why don't you guys do a
podcast? And I'm like, oh gosh, you know,
(01:05):
that's an interesting idea. And so Anthony got us started
with our very first Making Bank series, right?
Well, yeah. Well, you know, you like to say
that, right? But listen, I think it speaks to
your level of innovation. First of all, you were starting
a bank in a Co working space, right?
Who does that? Only Keith #1 and #2 when we had
(01:26):
the conversation, you're like, look, I see the value in a
podcast and most people wouldn't, right?
Especially in the banking industry, right?
I'm starting this bank. Why would I want to do a
podcast? I need to grow this bank, right?
And you are so focused on, hey, we need media attached to this
and let's create our own narrative.
Let's get our stories out. Let's back it.
(01:47):
And I thought that was such a, abrilliant idea.
So it's not me, it's you. Well, I'll give you a lot of
credit you, you got us started on that and and you did a great
job with it. And we wouldn't have we wouldn't
have started without you. So, and, and it was well done,
well put together. I think you actually came up
with our theme song. You had a lot of very.
(02:09):
We created the name together. Yeah, we did.
Sure. A lot of cool innovations, you
know, getting that started, but so thank you for that.
I appreciate it. And we've been in touch through
the years and I'm really excitedto have you on today.
And you know, one, this is not about me and you know the
podcast, it's about you. And we want to talk about, you
(02:31):
know, your story and, you know, start back, tell us where, where
you're from, where you grew up and kind of what your childhood
was like. Yeah.
So I'm from Fort Lauderdale, born in Fort Lauderdale.
I grew up in Sunrise, so Sunrise, FL.
So you would, I guess typically E Sunrise, you would call that.
(02:51):
So grew up with a family, motherand father in the home had a
older brother and a twin sister growing up.
I have a younger brother who came much later but grew up
three of us in the House of fiveof us in total.
My My father is from Jamaica, came here in the late 80s mid
80s. My mom is from South Carolina.
(03:13):
She came to Florida around the same time They actually met here
while she was visiting looking for a job.
So anyway, grew up, we were kindof, I would call it middle class
adjac. It was like clinging to life for
middle class. My mother and father, they, they
worked really hard. My father was like the
(03:35):
stereotypical Jamaican, right? Two jobs, three jobs, whatever I
was. Going to say just two.
You're right. Exactly.
So he reminds me often. You know, he delivered
newspapers, he worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken, he moved
his way up. And when he got a computer
engineering degree, I started working for Allied Signal,
(03:57):
working on computer parts and playing parts for Boeing and all
the playing companies. And so all these things
constantly just working his way up on the ladder.
And then now he's a Lieutenant for for BSO.
So he's just always kept working.
My mother, we laugh about it allthe time.
She's worked 14 jobs, right? Call centers, all things.
(04:21):
And now she's an account managerfor a huge medical software
company. So that's how we grew up, just
always clinging from that middleclass.
We knew like, you know, poverty was like right down the street.
So but they always kept working,trying to provide.
And so always noticed that aboutthem.
We couldn't ask for much. We didn't have money for things
(04:44):
but we always had a roof over our head, lights were always on,
water running, food in the fridge.
So very thankful for that. Wow, that's a great comment
really about, you know, a lot ofpeople in this country grow up
like that, right? With hard working parents, you
know, working, working hard and,you know, clinging to that
(05:06):
middle class life. And I think for a lot of people
that's true too. You know, poverty is just around
the corner and it's like, you know, that that fear, that's
what drives people. And you know, it's good and bad,
right? It's it's, but I think I'm I'm
in not about me, but I'm a big believer in hard work.
(05:28):
And that's kind of how I grew uptoo.
It's like, you know, I learned that that work ethic lesson and
that's so important, Anthony, you know, and that's great that
your parents, you observe that they didn't have to teach you
that you saw that. My father had never sat down
with me and had a conversation about like hard work.
(05:48):
Most of his lessons I've learnedfrom him have been through just
pure watching him. Example, I remember when my
mother was diagnosed with breastcancer.
She's cancer free now and she was diagnosed with breast
cancer. She could not work and she
literally had no income coming in from her from her job.
I saw my father work his job. Lay tile.
(06:11):
Start laying tile. He's never laid tile in his
life. Learn how to lay tile.
Go lay tile with his friends andgo like people's cable up at
their houses with his friends who work for, like, Comcast and
things. And he would just ride along
with them and they would just pay him, you know, somebody on
the side. And I just saw him do all of
that at a drop of a dime. Nobody had to tell him to do
(06:33):
that, but he knew he had to secure his family.
And he would just work hard to do whatever he had to do.
And I saw that as a young man. And it's always just like been
burning me. I love that story.
That's beautiful. And so, so you grew up here in
Fort Lauderdale and then as you got older, where'd you go from
there? So OK man, so growing up, just
(06:55):
always been a super creative person, very driven.
My mother likes to call it very tunnel vision.
So school days, I didn't really know what I wanted to do or be
when I want when I got older. But I always had a knack for
business or just vision, if you will.
(07:15):
School, sorry. I owe a lot of people money
growing up because people would give me their lunch money for
different ideas that I had. So I would say, hey, listen, I
know the garbage truck comes around and they they pick up
bolt pickup, you know, maybe once every couple months,
whatever. And people will put out parts
and things like that on the corner.
(07:37):
And so my friends and I would goaround on our bikes and we'd
pick up engine parts, lawnmower engines, whatever.
And we would try to build go karts and things like that.
So I would go back to school andtell everybody, hey, I have a go
Kart company and we're going to build go karts.
And so literally they would everyday come in and give Me 2
bucks and things like that. But I just knew I had, I knew
(07:59):
that I could cast a vision and people would listen at a young
age. And so when I got older and I
graduated high school, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to
do. I had a knack for writing.
I was really good at English, took English honors and things
like that in high school. And so I went for Mass
Communications and I quickly discovered this is not for me.
(08:23):
And I was in I was in college atat Broward College, OK, because
I didn't want to go away to school and I just didn't know
what I wanted to do. And at the time I looked, I was
on the Internet and I saw this guy actually, you know him,
Gene. So I met I I messaged Gene
online because he was the first person I saw.
(08:44):
Gene, who does the videography? Yeah.
Exactly. First person I saw actually
being a real life entrepreneur. I didn't know any entrepreneurs.
I didn't grow up around entrepreneurship.
I didn't know much about actual business.
Like I said, I knew how to cast a vision.
I knew that people could own businesses.
(09:05):
I didn't know anything about it.So I saw Gene.
He was just always looked so cool.
He's just posting these photos and things like that and always
in like, nightlife in Miami. And so I shot him a message.
I said, hey, you know, could we talk?
I would love to learn about whatyou do.
And so he said, yeah. So drove up to Miami, met up
with him and I found out that hewas doing promotions for clubs
(09:29):
on South Beach and they would give him Flyers and then and
what? Year is this like?
2009 OK. 2009, yeah. They're partying in because the
economy is going in the tank. Exactly, right, exactly.
So 2009. So he tells me all about and I'm
like, oh really? So he's like, yeah, you want to
help? I'm like, sure.
(09:49):
So he's like meet me on South Beach.
So I go to South Beach and the first night he gives me out on
$15.00 an hour or something likethat and I'm passing out Flyers
on the corner, on a random corner to people passing by.
And it struck me like lightning.I want to do this.
(10:12):
I the interactions between people and what's on the flyer
and what I say and how it affects the person if they take
the flyer or not, if they get upset, if they're happy.
That interaction felt so naturalto me.
And I said, this is what I want to do.
I want to learn all about this. And that's how I got into
(10:34):
marketing. So I started reading because of
course I love reading. I started reading books like The
Brand Within by by Daymond John.That was the first branding book
I read, started reading, you know, all the classics and it
just drove me off the deep end. And I was like, well I want to
do this full time. And so I started to learn how
(10:55):
Gene started to build a relationships with the clubs and
I started to build my own relationships with the clubs.
So instead of passing out the Flyers, they would give me the
box of Flyers and then I would pay other people to pass out the
Flyers. And then that's how we started.
That's how I started the marketing.
And then you started doing more and more promotions down on
South Beach. Yeah.
And so I was only 20. I wasn't even 21 yet, so I
(11:18):
couldn't even get into the clubs.
And I have a good friend named Andre, and he had this vision
that he wanted to start a media company and he was older than
me, so he had a credit card at the time.
He said, look, I have this credit card.
I'm going to go to Best Buy. I'm going to buy a camera.
And this camera is going to be our golden ticket into the
clubs. And he was right.
(11:39):
We would show up with the cameraand the bouncers would go,
you're going to take photos. We're like, yeah, he would just
let us in. We wouldn't even check the ID or
anything. So we would go in, take the
photos, take the videos, and then we would post them online
the same night. So we would go in, say 1:00 AM,
our photos would be online by 4:00 AM.
Edit it, logos, everything. People wake up in the morning
(12:01):
from the party and they see all their photos and they're like,
Oh my, this is incredible. And so that started to spread
like wildfire. And then we started to get
invited by celebrities and all kinds of things to do media.
And so that was my first company.
So that's how I got dumped into entrepreneurship.
Nice. OK.
So that was your first company and then where'd you go from
(12:23):
there? So.
Whatever happened to that company?
Did so we the guys were older soAndrew was older than me and
also our other partner David. So David, you know, got married,
started having children, things like that.
So he's like, let's. I can't hang out in South Beach.
You guys can't be at my apartment 4:00 in the morning
editing photos. Like it's just, we can't live
(12:44):
like this anymore. And so I was just young and
hungry and I had a friend named Steve, who he just graduated
from Nova, Brilliant, brilliant guy.
And he approached me about teaming up and opening an
agency, marketing agency. And we started to learn
(13:04):
together. We started to study marketing.
We started to go out there clients together.
We didn't really get far, but wesaid, hey, there was this new
thing called a podcast in 2014. We started a podcast and that
was. 2014 so you're early to thepodcast.
Yeah, for sure, for sure, very early, very early.
And we start to invite entrepreneurs onto our podcast
(13:28):
and we start to learn from them and that start to parlay into
business relationships. And we end up folding that
agency that we had. And I just took some time to
take a step back and figure out,OK, what do I exactly want to do
with this? I have this marketing knowledge
now from all this experience I've gained, right?
(13:49):
We're talking about, I've done everything, paid ads and
graphics and physical campaigns,the whole 9.
And I took some time and I said,all right, I want to start my
own agency, which birthed the original version of what we have
now, which is ACC Unlimited. ACC Unlimited.
It was called ACC Branding. OK.
First started. That was the first one, yeah.
(14:09):
And when did you start ACC branding?
So ACC branding was a birth about 20/17/17 to 18, Yeah.
And so I woke up and I said, allright, we're going to start ACC
branding. And we started there, yeah.
And then you morphed into ACC. What was the difference so?
(14:30):
The difference? ACC branding.
First of all, the name always bothered me because it felt like
we were those. Are your initials.
It is, it is, but branding bothered me because I felt like
we were so much more than branding and the name was
Pitching Holdings. I got you.
Most people didn't know that, hey, we're we provide so much
(14:51):
more services. And now you got the Infinity
logo. Right.
Exactly. Yeah.
So yeah. Exactly.
So in branding it's like people don't know that we provide
content production services and we can help you along so many
other lines outside of just designing a logo or brand kit.
That's the lease of our services, right.
So I will I say, you know what we have to, we have to revamp
(15:15):
what we're doing and not just the name, but who we are and how
we service our clients. And something that I've always
noticed is people will pay for the exchange of high value,
right? People's money is worth a lot.
And if they're going to give yousome of that, they need the
(15:37):
highest form of value in exchange for that.
And what people hate is giving the money and then they get
exactly what they paid for. Like, OK, great.
But know what's even better? When they walk away?
Feel like they got more for whatthey paid.
And I said that's when, when we service our clients, we want
everybody to feel like I can't go anywhere else because these
(16:00):
people provide unlimited services, right?
I, I tell my, and this means we care about our clients and
right, everybody's, oh, we want to be partners.
Let us be your value partner. No, we actually want to care.
We want to, we want you to like us so much that you will leave
your children around us. Like that's hard.
That's our goal. And so unlimited, Sir,
(16:21):
unlimited, right? So whatever you need, we can
help you do that. So when it comes to our
marketing, you're not pigeonholed because our bullet
points say that we can only do 10 posts for you per month.
No, no, because you might require 40, you know.
So if the strategy calls for that, then we need to do that.
I, I mean, I love that, that there's a lot of, of, there's a
(16:45):
lot in that statement, right? Providing more value like you
pay for something you just get what you expect that's not
really an exceptional customer experience you get more as AI
think there's a lot in that statement and and in the way you
build your company around that philosophy.
(17:08):
I I love that, Anthony. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, so how's it going?
Great. So ACC Unlimited.
So we actually we niched all theway down and so we work with
majority restaurants and hospitality brands.
OK. Those are the people that we
focus on because we know them intimately.
We know restaurant operators arenuts, right?
(17:31):
They're going crazy. You still do clubs or strictly?
No. Oh no.
No bars? No.
Well, yes, bars and restaurants.Right, we can help with bargains
like. That, but not the clubs.
Not so much. No.
Right. Those days are over.
Oh yeah. I'm OK and I.
Know your wife, she didn't want you.
Exactly. Those bars, she's like.
No, thank you. Yeah.
So no. So restaurants and hostilely
(17:54):
brands, so hotels also. And so we focus there because
like I said, we know them, we know their pain points.
And not only do we know the painpoints, but we service those
pain points at a really high level.
And so once we started doing that, it's like, hey, I think
we're actually a really good fitfor this industry.
Let's take the big leap and actually niche down.
(18:16):
It was a scary move that you feel like you're cutting out all
of your other possibilities, right?
But it's like, I think this is the best move and it's turned
out to be really good for us. That I, I, I love that because I
think it takes a lot of courage to niche down, but I, I think it
also can lead to a lot of success.
(18:36):
I mean, I think a lot of companies, more companies get in
trouble trying to do too much for too many different companies
or industries. Then people get in trouble by
focusing. And but it's, it's scary to
focus because you're like, oh, you know, what about Chase Bank?
I could do marketing for them. But what about this guy that is
(18:59):
my neighbor who's got a plumbingcompany And you know, but you
see, I'm focused on restaurants,I think, and and that's working
for you. Yeah, it's working, right.
I think there is the power in the niche when we're niching
that we consider three things are how many of these people
exist that are these companies that we exist.
(19:21):
We know there's no swords on restaurants.
Right, there's a lot of them andmore coming every day.
Right #2 What is the spending power, right, of these people or
these operators, right? Of course you're going to have
your, your, your, your new operators that don't have much
budget for marketing, but there's ways they can be
serviced also. But for the most part,
(19:41):
restaurant industry, if the value is there, then the budget
is there for marketing. That's two.
Number three, how easy it is it for us to find them, right?
As far as advertising go, can weadvertise them?
Can we find them easily? Yes.
So once we answer those three questions, we're like, OK, we
can do this. Good.
(20:03):
So in terms of, you know, your career, you've really never
worked for anybody, have you? So I have, so as a teenager, I
think I want to say in my early 20s too, my last, my last job
was in law. So I was actually a paralegal.
(20:23):
Oh, wow. Yes, yes, yes.
So I worked in foreclosure firmswhen those were really hot at
one point in time. And then it's probably around
the same time the clubs were. Exactly, exactly.
And then I went into the last firm was a collections firm and
I was doing garnishment. But yeah, I'm really good at
(20:46):
organization and structure. If you can show me a process, I
can make that process great and we will work through it and we
can find success. And that's why I was really good
at that firm. They were like, hey, can you
write all of our SO PS for the litigation department?
Sure, right. Things like that.
But just because I'm good at it doesn't mean I actually want to
(21:09):
do this. And you know of the time the
agency was starting to grow and literally I was in the bathroom
like every 30 minutes answering the phone and it started to get
really complicated. It's like at one point in time,
my supervisor, God bless her, she would just let me stay in
her office for hours. And she was just do what you
(21:30):
need to do. Wow, that's very cool.
Oh my God, God bless her, right.So that's her own point.
It's like, all right, I think I have to make a choice because
the business is calling me and I'm meeting, you know, meeting
more high-powered people. And these people are busy during
the time that I'm at work and I'm calling them back at their
(21:51):
five and they're like, hey, let's talk tomorrow.
I only got 30 minutes on my lunch break, so I had to make a
hard decision. And I figured, OK, I'm still
young. Were you married yet?
No, not married yet. Still young, no kids, not
married yet. My wife and I were dating and I
said all right, I think it's thetime.
Very scary and I made the made the leap.
(22:14):
Well, I mean, thank you for sharing that because that's
huge, you know, because you, youknow, you were working.
I'm sure your parents were happy.
You're working hard, you're making money.
You got you got that job. But then you decided to make
that leap. How did that go with your
parents? What did they think?
Excellent question. Excellent question.
(22:34):
So I was more scared than them. Yeah.
Because, you know, they've work.They're they're hard workers.
And, you know, I remember something that my mom told me
years years ago when I was young, young as a child.
So they actually went off and started a cleaning company
called a Clean Sweep. Now, I had no clue that they did
(22:57):
this because they never, they never told us that they actually
did this. But I remember it didn't last
long. And then my mother approached
me. We were having a conversation
and she was talking to me and she said, hey, let me tell you,
she said never give up easily. She said things because things
are hard doesn't mean that you give up.
(23:19):
She said we gave up way too early for that.
She's like, you don't do that. And I, I'll never forget her
telling me that now when I, I think the hardest part was me
telling them that I was quittingschool to, you know, to go and
build this company on South Beach.
That was hard. So when I made the call to them
(23:41):
and said, hey, guys, I think I'mgoing to make this jump and go
full time. Shockingly, they both had the
same response. Great.
Wow, great. And I was like, wait, what?
Who are you and what do you do with my parents?
But they believed in me so much and that was that was that was
reassuring. For me, wow, Well, that's a
(24:03):
great story. What other advice do you have
for Yeah, there's probably people out there right now who
are going into the bathroom, youknow, while they're at their
job. Might be somebody in our
bathroom. I better check.
I hope. Not, I hope not too, but you
know, yeah. So what advice do you have for
(24:23):
people who who might be in that same situation?
I was actually thinking about that.
Yeah, I this is my advice. Learn as much as possible from
your job. Your job hired you because
they're in a place to do so. That means there's been some
success somewhere, whether that's been in the processes,
(24:44):
the leadership. Notice what they do right and
learn from it. Write it down.
My law job, I learned, oh, this is all a big process.
They're really good at Sops. A case comes in the building, it
goes through the departments. People do what they have to do.
They pass it along. There's a, there's a case
management system, right? We're all, we're all required to
(25:08):
notify everybody. We're required to notate every,
every file, everything. I learned all of that and I took
it with me. That's number one.
Number two, work the job as longas possible.
If I could go back, I think I would work my job a little bit
longer. The job is your first investor,
(25:31):
right? It's it's your capital.
So work it, save the money as much as you can.
And then once you can no longer then jump.
But sometimes passion can cloud actual great decision making.
So go with great decision makingover your passion.
(25:52):
The passion, I know it's burningand I know you're like, I can't
stand this job and I want to do it today.
Make sure it makes sense before you do it.
I think that's some of the best advice we've had, you know,
because we've talked to, you know, we've talked to successful
entrepreneurs and we've talked to some that are having really
hard times, you know, and it's not always, you know, all smiles
(26:15):
and giggles, right? There's some really tough times.
And I think that device is really good to make sure not to
let the passion cloud your judgement.
That's really good advice, Anthony, and, and to think it
through. And also, you know,
entrepreneurship is not for everybody.
It's not. That steady paycheck?
(26:36):
There's something. Let me tell you, a huge, a huge,
a huge decision that I made was for when I quit the job was I
had this new client and he gave me what was I like a $3000
check. I was like, yes, so he signed on
for 90 days, so we get, you know, $3000 for the next two
(27:00):
months. So I was like, great, I never
got paid from that guy again. So I quit like, yes, OK, finally
making some moves. All right, I got some new
clientele, right? It's the biggest check that I
got and you know, that was it. He didn't care anything about
our agreement. Our agreement went out the
window. Welcome to the business world,
(27:22):
right? Exactly, exactly.
So things like that can happen and will happen, and those are
things you can't account for. Wow, well that's great.
What does the future look like for you?
Wow, the future for us. So what we want to do, and you
know we've won best ad agency inFort Lauderdale right in 2024
(27:44):
and 23 wow. And so we want to continue being
the best AD. Best ad agency.
Fort Lauderdale Magazine. Yeah.
Fort Lauderdale Magazine. Yes.
Wow. That's great.
Thank you. So we want to continue being the
best. Thank you.
We want to continue being the best.
And when I say being the best, it just doesn't mean like in
competition or competing with every other agency.
(28:05):
It just means being the best to our clients.
So we have a really low churn rate.
Thank God when our clients sign on with us, they don't go
anywhere for years. We have a client that we've been
working with for 70 years. We worked with him when he had.
Since the beginning, since you first.
Opened one restaurant, he had one restaurant, one food truck.
(28:28):
He has five food trucks, 4 locations.
Excuse me, 7 food trucks now, right?
And we went from spending, you know, a couple $100 on ads with
him to now we spend over, you know, $2,000,000 a year in ads
with him. And we've grown with them since
beginning. We need him as a as a locality.
Oh. Yeah, for sure.
I'll definitely make the connection.
(28:48):
Yeah, for sure. We have another young lady.
She's been with us for the last two years and you know, she's
like, I'm not going anywhere. She's like, you guys make me
feel so seen, make me feel like I'm not crazy.
When I made these phone calls, someone always has an answer for
me. And when you guys don't have an
(29:09):
answer, you find it. And so that's what we want to
continue doing, providing that high, that unlimited value, as
we say to our clients, that's the future for us.
It's great. Well, anything you would do
differently, I mean, one thing you said you would work at your
job a little bit longer, but anything else that you would do
differently as you look back? No, no, I wouldn't do anything
(29:31):
differently. I think every lesson I've
learned has been extremely valuable.
I believe there was a guest on your podcast, Early Days, his
name, so I won't butcher his name, but I remember he was
saying his first employee, if hecould go back, he would hire
ACFO. He said that would be his first
(29:51):
employee. And I said, you know what, I
think I would too. So maybe that would be my
answer. Also, I think my first employee
would be a finance guy. You know what's interesting as a
banker and we deal with a lot ofsmaller businesses and I think
that is something a lot of timesthat we tell people, you know,
they come into a bank for a loanand we're like, Oh my gosh, you
(30:13):
know what, You've got to have a good handle on your numbers.
And it might not be a technically ACFO, but a a good.
Controller. A bookkeeper, somebody who's
really got a handle on the finances, understands finances.
And one thing I'll say, you knowGamal Khatner, who was on the
pocket, so I talked with him. Thank you for that introduction
(30:35):
to him. You know, we talk a lot about
cash flow, right? Cash flow is really the most
important thing, right? You could have a business that's
growing in leaps and bounds and has negative cash flow and you
know, at the end of the day, there's no money in the bank and
you got bills to pay, you got employees to pay and you're
(30:55):
struggling because you don't understand the difference
between sales and, and your basic cash flow.
You know, before you put all your money back into the
business, which is not bad, but you just have to understand
that. So I think that financial,
having that good financial advisor and it, you know, a lot
of times it could be somebody even part time.
(31:17):
That's, that's good. So anyway, and, and we know some
great ones too. We know some great CPA, some
great bookkeepers that that we are happy to recommend to, you
know, to our clients and we do well.
Well, thank you, Anthony. You know, so I want to go now to
the lightning round. There we go.
(31:39):
Yeah, don't be nervous. You just, you know, you just say
whatever you want. There's no right or wrong
answers to this. This is just you.
So you mentioned a book earlier by Daymond John, you know, so
have you got, is that your favorite book or you have others
that you would say a real favorite book or just give us
one more? I will say, OK, there is, and I
know he's a really popular influencer right now.
(32:02):
I'm not just saying this becausehe's popular, but his book has
literally changed a lot for me, $100 million offers by Alex
Ramozi. And a lot of people listening to
his podcast will know who he is.But that book, I've I've studied
it like the Bible, I found that his strategies are really hard
(32:23):
hitting. A. $100 million offers.
Yes, office offers offers. Yeah, OK, Very good book on
marketing and how to develop a solid offer, how to find
people's pain points and answer those questions that they have
about your service before they even think of them.
(32:43):
Right. I think the subtitle of the book
is Offers So Irresistible that it feels stupid saying no.
Something like that. You're getting that book.
It's really good, Very good book.
That I wrote that one down. OK, you might want to pass on
this one because I know you havea lot of restaurant customers,
(33:03):
but what is your favorite restaurant?
So my favorite restaurant, man, this restaurant is actually not
a client of ours. It's actually my favorite
restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. It's Runway.
So runway 84, Anthony's Runway. Well, maybe we'll bring those.
Maybe they'll hear hear this. Yeah, Mark falsetto, if you're
listening, listen. There you go.
Anthony's available. Yeah, if you guys.
(33:24):
Want them? Have you ever been?
I love that. You're kidding me.
It's it's it's the best. We'll have to go there.
Please, my cousin's over entertainment there, so.
Oh really? Yeah, he handles that entire.
Band. Yeah.
Oh my God, those guys that makesthe place.
Really. At night.
Yeah, but I also go there for the Friday lunch sometimes.
The power lunch. It's just great, right?
(33:44):
OK, great. What is the best piece of advice
you've ever received? Wow, see now that one I'm not
prepared. Best piece of advice I will have
to take a page out of the Jamaican a proverb book.
(34:08):
OK, if you don't know, Jamaicansare full of proverbs.
OK, they speak in proverbs. I'll write this.
One and my, my father, yeah, he's always said my entire life,
the humblest calf gets the most milk.
Yeah, that's what he said to me.I'm writing that one down.
(34:29):
Good stuff out of you today. Yeah.
And I also your mom telling you,you can do, you know, never give
up. Yes.
Right, give up and. I have, you know, I have to
shout her out because she's alsotold me, you know, have faith
the size of the mustard of a mustard seed.
(34:49):
And that was a conversation thatwe had.
I've never forgotten that. Have faith the size of a mustard
seed. That's all you need.
A mustard seed's this big, and that's all the faith you need to
move mountains. That's another Those are great.
What's something you're gratefulfor today?
I am grateful for my family, my daughter, my wife and my team.
(35:13):
Right now we have an excellent team at agency and I mean, I'm
here doing this podcast because you know, they're great at their
jobs, right? Our clients feel taken care of
and you know, things are happening.
One of our team members are hereand I hear his keyboard clicking
away right now so. I love that, you know, I mean,
so I feel that way a lot too when I'm, I'm doing something
(35:35):
else. And I know, you know, there's
such a great team here at Locality Bank.
I, I can relate to that. What's a fear you've overcome?
A fear that I've overcome, man. Keith, you have some hard
hitting questions today. Ryan came up with all these.
Feared of overcome man, I had tothink about that feared of well,
(35:58):
I guess a fear that I've had wasbecoming a father.
It was it was an aspiration of mine.
I want to become a father, but it was very scary territory,
right? And fearful in a sense because
like, I don't, I don't know what's on the other side of
(36:18):
this. Never had a child before.
How do you how do you care for somebody from birth to insane
concept? And my daughter's 5 now.
And I don't know, I feel like I've been a great father.
So I've overcome, overcome that fear.
Wow, she's 5. That's great.
I remember her coming into GP asa little girl, you know, a
(36:40):
little baby. Right.
That's awesome. How's your wife doing?
Oh, she's doing phenomenal. She's still writing books.
Yes, so she's an author and thenshe's also now a teacher,
mentor, coach. So she goes into schools and she
leads these teachers and coachesthem in the right way and and
how to how to educate their students.
(37:00):
So yeah, she's doing really well.
Glad to hear that. What is a new skill you're
learning? A new skill that I'm learning
back to finance learning, learning speaking financial
language, you know, I know the basics.
(37:20):
I know how to, you know, do somemanaging, some bookkeeping,
things like that. But it's something that I want
to go deeper in. I don't want to become ACPA or
CFO, but I want to know financesintimately.
I want to know how these, how, how does this work, right?
Like how do, how do things work?And there's a, there's a
(37:40):
language spoken when it comes tofinance and you have to learn
how to speak those languages. So been reading a lot of
different books, speaking to a lot of different smart people
and just, you know, just learning.
That's that's where I am. Well, if we can help you with
that, this is the House of Finance right here.
So you let us know. We're happy to.
Do you have a favorite podcast? A favorite podcast?
(38:05):
I have a few. I have a few.
Other than making bank. Right.
Love this podcast, listen to it.Love this podcast and beside my
own. Right.
And yours? So I have leisure podcast and I
have productivity podcast. Yeah, so productivity, I would
have to say there's a podcast bythe name of Market Mondays that
(38:29):
I listen to, very good podcast on business stocks and bonds and
things, you know, latest financial news.
I love that pod. I listen to it every Monday.
And then a leisure pod, which I just kind of play in the
background and it's it can be literally talk about just
anything and just it's hilariousDaddy issues.
(38:50):
Daddy issues, yeah. I have no idea how I found it.
There's a bunch of comedians andthey just talk about the most
random topics and so sometimes Itune into them just when I need
to, like. Laugh.
Laugh and kind of just let something play because sometimes
you know, you're so in your in your, in your vision and you're
like, all right, I need to zoom out really quickly.
(39:11):
And so that's a good release forme.
So that's a good segue into the next question, like what do you
do to to release and what hobbies do you have or what do
you work out or what types of things?
OK. So working out is new for me.
OK, I've always worked out here and there, but for the last, I
would say here really been focused on my health in, in
(39:35):
fitness and you, you really a huge inspiration.
You don't know, but it's a huge Keith poster on my refrigerator
and I'm like, got to get the Keith, you know, but but now
it's, I lost 35 lbs over the last eight months or so.
So and thank you and I appreciate it.
And I've been really focused on that.
So that's new for me. It's helped me so much mentally.
(39:57):
I'm so much clearer. I feel better, feel great.
And I think, I think on a reallyhigher level in my opinion.
Also, yeah, that's been really good for me.
So fitness helps. And then playing T Rex with my
daughter. She calls me Daddy T Rex.
I have to go. So that's cool.
You know, it's interesting when you think about fitness and
(40:18):
health too. And I've got 4 kids.
I always thought like that's I want to be able to be there for
my kids. You know, it's inspiring when
you have children and you relatethat to because you know, you
can beat say, oh, it's self-centered to like work out
all this. But you know, you're doing that
really for your family, for yourchildren, for your
(40:40):
grandchildren, be there for them.
Indeed. Yes, indeed.
Right. That's excellent.
So how can people get in touch with you?
Wow, all those restaurants watching that need help.
Yeah, they all. Restaurants need more people in
their seats. They do, right?
You need foot traffic, You need online orders.
Come on, guys. Yeah, let's think about it.
But you can find me on our website for the agency Is ACC
(41:03):
you in ltd.com, our agencies ACCUnlimited.
So you can find all information on us there, our portfolio and
case studies and things like. That so the website is what
again? Accunltd.com so it's our agency
abbreviated. UN.
Ltd. Ltd.com Okay, I just want to
(41:25):
stress that because that's a tough I know that's a tough one.
I. Tried.
Someone owns accunlimited.com and they want a bazillion
dollars for it. They're not paying them for it.
So I said, you know what? A little abbreviate.
Yeah. But you can find me online also
on LinkedIn. I'm Anthony Clark.
You can find me there. You can find our agency on
Instagram at ACC Unlimited on this there.
(41:46):
So good. We're all around.
Well, great, you want to give your phone number at sure.
Yeah. So my cell, I give my cell 954,
673-0546 that's. So you all your restaurant tours
out there, if you need more people in your seats, give
Anthony a call. Please, no, please, we'd love
to. Help and and he'd love to hear
from Mark Falsetto. Yes, Mark, Mark Love.
(42:09):
With you, he needs any help withthe seats?
No, they're all. Fireman, they're all fire.
They got a caviar concept coming.
Yeah. Love Mark, man.
Yeah. Good.
Anthony, thanks so much. It's been a real pleasure.
You gave us a lot of good stuff today.
This is one of the best, I think, right?
I mean, this has been really a pleasure.
Thanks. And I'm so proud of what you've
accomplished. Thank you for the good work.
(42:29):
Thank you, man. Listen, friends like you make it
easy, yeah? And you're a locality bank
customer and he talks so great about us.
We love that. Thank you, Keith.
Thanks for tuning in to Localities Making Bank Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to
catch the latest episodes. And visit localitybank.com today
to learn more about all the benefits of banking local.
Welcome to Localities Making Bank podcast, where we continue
our exploration of South Florida's entrepreneurial
landscape with host Keith Costello, Co founder and CEO of
Locality Bank. Sit back, relax, and let South
Florida visionaries guide you onan entrepreneurial journey from
tribulation to triumph, sharing the very stories that have
(00:22):
shaped them. Anthony Clark, welcome to
Locality Banks Making Bank podcast.
Wow. Thank you, Keith.
Appreciate that it's. Great to great to have you here.
And so Anthony and I go back a long time to the beginning of
Locality Bank. When we first got opened, we
(00:43):
were in, we opened up in generalprovision and we're which is a
shared workspace. And that was where, you know, we
started from and Anthony was there and talking to Anthony
there, got to know him and he's like, why don't you guys do a
podcast? And I'm like, oh gosh, you know,
(01:05):
that's an interesting idea. And so Anthony got us started
with our very first Making Bank series, right?
Well, yeah. Well, you know, you like to say
that, right? But listen, I think it speaks to
your level of innovation. First of all, you were starting
a bank in a Co working space, right?
Who does that? Only Keith #1 and #2 when we had
(01:26):
the conversation, you're like, look, I see the value in a
podcast and most people wouldn't, right?
Especially in the banking industry, right?
I'm starting this bank. Why would I want to do a
podcast? I need to grow this bank, right?
And you are so focused on, hey, we need media attached to this
and let's create our own narrative.
Let's get our stories out. Let's back it.
(01:47):
And I thought that was such a, abrilliant idea.
So it's not me, it's you. Well, I'll give you a lot of
credit you, you got us started on that and and you did a great
job with it. And we wouldn't have we wouldn't
have started without you. So, and, and it was well done,
well put together. I think you actually came up
with our theme song. You had a lot of very.
(02:09):
We created the name together. Yeah, we did.
Sure. A lot of cool innovations, you
know, getting that started, but so thank you for that.
I appreciate it. And we've been in touch through
the years and I'm really excitedto have you on today.
And you know, one, this is not about me and you know the
podcast, it's about you. And we want to talk about, you
(02:31):
know, your story and, you know, start back, tell us where, where
you're from, where you grew up and kind of what your childhood
was like. Yeah.
So I'm from Fort Lauderdale, born in Fort Lauderdale.
I grew up in Sunrise, so Sunrise, FL.
So you would, I guess typically E Sunrise, you would call that.
(02:51):
So grew up with a family, motherand father in the home had a
older brother and a twin sister growing up.
I have a younger brother who came much later but grew up
three of us in the House of fiveof us in total.
My My father is from Jamaica, came here in the late 80s mid
80s. My mom is from South Carolina.
(03:13):
She came to Florida around the same time They actually met here
while she was visiting looking for a job.
So anyway, grew up, we were kindof, I would call it middle class
adjac. It was like clinging to life for
middle class. My mother and father, they, they
worked really hard. My father was like the
(03:35):
stereotypical Jamaican, right? Two jobs, three jobs, whatever I
was. Going to say just two.
You're right. Exactly.
So he reminds me often. You know, he delivered
newspapers, he worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken, he moved
his way up. And when he got a computer
engineering degree, I started working for Allied Signal,
(03:57):
working on computer parts and playing parts for Boeing and all
the playing companies. And so all these things
constantly just working his way up on the ladder.
And then now he's a Lieutenant for for BSO.
So he's just always kept working.
My mother, we laugh about it allthe time.
She's worked 14 jobs, right? Call centers, all things.
(04:21):
And now she's an account managerfor a huge medical software
company. So that's how we grew up, just
always clinging from that middleclass.
We knew like, you know, poverty was like right down the street.
So but they always kept working,trying to provide.
And so always noticed that aboutthem.
We couldn't ask for much. We didn't have money for things
(04:44):
but we always had a roof over our head, lights were always on,
water running, food in the fridge.
So very thankful for that. Wow, that's a great comment
really about, you know, a lot ofpeople in this country grow up
like that, right? With hard working parents, you
know, working, working hard and,you know, clinging to that
(05:06):
middle class life. And I think for a lot of people
that's true too. You know, poverty is just around
the corner and it's like, you know, that that fear, that's
what drives people. And you know, it's good and bad,
right? It's it's, but I think I'm I'm
in not about me, but I'm a big believer in hard work.
(05:28):
And that's kind of how I grew uptoo.
It's like, you know, I learned that that work ethic lesson and
that's so important, Anthony, you know, and that's great that
your parents, you observe that they didn't have to teach you
that you saw that. My father had never sat down
with me and had a conversation about like hard work.
(05:48):
Most of his lessons I've learnedfrom him have been through just
pure watching him. Example, I remember when my
mother was diagnosed with breastcancer.
She's cancer free now and she was diagnosed with breast
cancer. She could not work and she
literally had no income coming in from her from her job.
I saw my father work his job. Lay tile.
(06:11):
Start laying tile. He's never laid tile in his
life. Learn how to lay tile.
Go lay tile with his friends andgo like people's cable up at
their houses with his friends who work for, like, Comcast and
things. And he would just ride along
with them and they would just pay him, you know, somebody on
the side. And I just saw him do all of
that at a drop of a dime. Nobody had to tell him to do
(06:33):
that, but he knew he had to secure his family.
And he would just work hard to do whatever he had to do.
And I saw that as a young man. And it's always just like been
burning me. I love that story.
That's beautiful. And so, so you grew up here in
Fort Lauderdale and then as you got older, where'd you go from
there? So OK man, so growing up, just
(06:55):
always been a super creative person, very driven.
My mother likes to call it very tunnel vision.
So school days, I didn't really know what I wanted to do or be
when I want when I got older. But I always had a knack for
business or just vision, if you will.
(07:15):
School, sorry. I owe a lot of people money
growing up because people would give me their lunch money for
different ideas that I had. So I would say, hey, listen, I
know the garbage truck comes around and they they pick up
bolt pickup, you know, maybe once every couple months,
whatever. And people will put out parts
and things like that on the corner.
(07:37):
And so my friends and I would goaround on our bikes and we'd
pick up engine parts, lawnmower engines, whatever.
And we would try to build go karts and things like that.
So I would go back to school andtell everybody, hey, I have a go
Kart company and we're going to build go karts.
And so literally they would everyday come in and give Me 2
bucks and things like that. But I just knew I had, I knew
(07:59):
that I could cast a vision and people would listen at a young
age. And so when I got older and I
graduated high school, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to
do. I had a knack for writing.
I was really good at English, took English honors and things
like that in high school. And so I went for Mass
Communications and I quickly discovered this is not for me.
(08:23):
And I was in I was in college atat Broward College, OK, because
I didn't want to go away to school and I just didn't know
what I wanted to do. And at the time I looked, I was
on the Internet and I saw this guy actually, you know him,
Gene. So I met I I messaged Gene
online because he was the first person I saw.
(08:44):
Gene, who does the videography? Yeah.
Exactly. First person I saw actually
being a real life entrepreneur. I didn't know any entrepreneurs.
I didn't grow up around entrepreneurship.
I didn't know much about actual business.
Like I said, I knew how to cast a vision.
I knew that people could own businesses.
(09:05):
I didn't know anything about it.So I saw Gene.
He was just always looked so cool.
He's just posting these photos and things like that and always
in like, nightlife in Miami. And so I shot him a message.
I said, hey, you know, could we talk?
I would love to learn about whatyou do.
And so he said, yeah. So drove up to Miami, met up
with him and I found out that hewas doing promotions for clubs
(09:29):
on South Beach and they would give him Flyers and then and
what? Year is this like?
2009 OK. 2009, yeah. They're partying in because the
economy is going in the tank. Exactly, right, exactly.
So 2009. So he tells me all about and I'm
like, oh really? So he's like, yeah, you want to
help? I'm like, sure.
(09:49):
So he's like meet me on South Beach.
So I go to South Beach and the first night he gives me out on
$15.00 an hour or something likethat and I'm passing out Flyers
on the corner, on a random corner to people passing by.
And it struck me like lightning.I want to do this.
(10:12):
I the interactions between people and what's on the flyer
and what I say and how it affects the person if they take
the flyer or not, if they get upset, if they're happy.
That interaction felt so naturalto me.
And I said, this is what I want to do.
I want to learn all about this. And that's how I got into
(10:34):
marketing. So I started reading because of
course I love reading. I started reading books like The
Brand Within by by Daymond John.That was the first branding book
I read, started reading, you know, all the classics and it
just drove me off the deep end. And I was like, well I want to
do this full time. And so I started to learn how
(10:55):
Gene started to build a relationships with the clubs and
I started to build my own relationships with the clubs.
So instead of passing out the Flyers, they would give me the
box of Flyers and then I would pay other people to pass out the
Flyers. And then that's how we started.
That's how I started the marketing.
And then you started doing more and more promotions down on
South Beach. Yeah.
And so I was only 20. I wasn't even 21 yet, so I
(11:18):
couldn't even get into the clubs.
And I have a good friend named Andre, and he had this vision
that he wanted to start a media company and he was older than
me, so he had a credit card at the time.
He said, look, I have this credit card.
I'm going to go to Best Buy. I'm going to buy a camera.
And this camera is going to be our golden ticket into the
clubs. And he was right.
(11:39):
We would show up with the cameraand the bouncers would go,
you're going to take photos. We're like, yeah, he would just
let us in. We wouldn't even check the ID or
anything. So we would go in, take the
photos, take the videos, and then we would post them online
the same night. So we would go in, say 1:00 AM,
our photos would be online by 4:00 AM.
Edit it, logos, everything. People wake up in the morning
(12:01):
from the party and they see all their photos and they're like,
Oh my, this is incredible. And so that started to spread
like wildfire. And then we started to get
invited by celebrities and all kinds of things to do media.
And so that was my first company.
So that's how I got dumped into entrepreneurship.
Nice. OK.
So that was your first company and then where'd you go from
(12:23):
there? So.
Whatever happened to that company?
Did so we the guys were older soAndrew was older than me and
also our other partner David. So David, you know, got married,
started having children, things like that.
So he's like, let's. I can't hang out in South Beach.
You guys can't be at my apartment 4:00 in the morning
editing photos. Like it's just, we can't live
(12:44):
like this anymore. And so I was just young and
hungry and I had a friend named Steve, who he just graduated
from Nova, Brilliant, brilliant guy.
And he approached me about teaming up and opening an
agency, marketing agency. And we started to learn
(13:04):
together. We started to study marketing.
We started to go out there clients together.
We didn't really get far, but wesaid, hey, there was this new
thing called a podcast in 2014. We started a podcast and that
was. 2014 so you're early to thepodcast.
Yeah, for sure, for sure, very early, very early.
And we start to invite entrepreneurs onto our podcast
(13:28):
and we start to learn from them and that start to parlay into
business relationships. And we end up folding that
agency that we had. And I just took some time to
take a step back and figure out,OK, what do I exactly want to do
with this? I have this marketing knowledge
now from all this experience I've gained, right?
(13:49):
We're talking about, I've done everything, paid ads and
graphics and physical campaigns,the whole 9.
And I took some time and I said,all right, I want to start my
own agency, which birthed the original version of what we have
now, which is ACC Unlimited. ACC Unlimited.
It was called ACC Branding. OK.
First started. That was the first one, yeah.
(14:09):
And when did you start ACC branding?
So ACC branding was a birth about 20/17/17 to 18, Yeah.
And so I woke up and I said, allright, we're going to start ACC
branding. And we started there, yeah.
And then you morphed into ACC. What was the difference so?
(14:30):
The difference? ACC branding.
First of all, the name always bothered me because it felt like
we were those. Are your initials.
It is, it is, but branding bothered me because I felt like
we were so much more than branding and the name was
Pitching Holdings. I got you.
Most people didn't know that, hey, we're we provide so much
(14:51):
more services. And now you got the Infinity
logo. Right.
Exactly. Yeah.
So yeah. Exactly.
So in branding it's like people don't know that we provide
content production services and we can help you along so many
other lines outside of just designing a logo or brand kit.
That's the lease of our services, right.
So I will I say, you know what we have to, we have to revamp
(15:15):
what we're doing and not just the name, but who we are and how
we service our clients. And something that I've always
noticed is people will pay for the exchange of high value,
right? People's money is worth a lot.
And if they're going to give yousome of that, they need the
(15:37):
highest form of value in exchange for that.
And what people hate is giving the money and then they get
exactly what they paid for. Like, OK, great.
But know what's even better? When they walk away?
Feel like they got more for whatthey paid.
And I said that's when, when we service our clients, we want
everybody to feel like I can't go anywhere else because these
(16:00):
people provide unlimited services, right?
I, I tell my, and this means we care about our clients and
right, everybody's, oh, we want to be partners.
Let us be your value partner. No, we actually want to care.
We want to, we want you to like us so much that you will leave
your children around us. Like that's hard.
That's our goal. And so unlimited, Sir,
(16:21):
unlimited, right? So whatever you need, we can
help you do that. So when it comes to our
marketing, you're not pigeonholed because our bullet
points say that we can only do 10 posts for you per month.
No, no, because you might require 40, you know.
So if the strategy calls for that, then we need to do that.
I, I mean, I love that, that there's a lot of, of, there's a
(16:45):
lot in that statement, right? Providing more value like you
pay for something you just get what you expect that's not
really an exceptional customer experience you get more as AI
think there's a lot in that statement and and in the way you
build your company around that philosophy.
(17:08):
I I love that, Anthony. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, so how's it going?
Great. So ACC Unlimited.
So we actually we niched all theway down and so we work with
majority restaurants and hospitality brands.
OK. Those are the people that we
focus on because we know them intimately.
We know restaurant operators arenuts, right?
(17:31):
They're going crazy. You still do clubs or strictly?
No. Oh no.
No bars? No.
Well, yes, bars and restaurants.Right, we can help with bargains
like. That, but not the clubs.
Not so much. No.
Right. Those days are over.
Oh yeah. I'm OK and I.
Know your wife, she didn't want you.
Exactly. Those bars, she's like.
No, thank you. Yeah.
So no. So restaurants and hostilely
(17:54):
brands, so hotels also. And so we focus there because
like I said, we know them, we know their pain points.
And not only do we know the painpoints, but we service those
pain points at a really high level.
And so once we started doing that, it's like, hey, I think
we're actually a really good fitfor this industry.
Let's take the big leap and actually niche down.
(18:16):
It was a scary move that you feel like you're cutting out all
of your other possibilities, right?
But it's like, I think this is the best move and it's turned
out to be really good for us. That I, I, I love that because I
think it takes a lot of courage to niche down, but I, I think it
also can lead to a lot of success.
(18:36):
I mean, I think a lot of companies, more companies get in
trouble trying to do too much for too many different companies
or industries. Then people get in trouble by
focusing. And but it's, it's scary to
focus because you're like, oh, you know, what about Chase Bank?
I could do marketing for them. But what about this guy that is
(18:59):
my neighbor who's got a plumbingcompany And you know, but you
see, I'm focused on restaurants,I think, and and that's working
for you. Yeah, it's working, right.
I think there is the power in the niche when we're niching
that we consider three things are how many of these people
exist that are these companies that we exist.
(19:21):
We know there's no swords on restaurants.
Right, there's a lot of them andmore coming every day.
Right #2 What is the spending power, right, of these people or
these operators, right? Of course you're going to have
your, your, your, your new operators that don't have much
budget for marketing, but there's ways they can be
serviced also. But for the most part,
(19:41):
restaurant industry, if the value is there, then the budget
is there for marketing. That's two.
Number three, how easy it is it for us to find them, right?
As far as advertising go, can weadvertise them?
Can we find them easily? Yes.
So once we answer those three questions, we're like, OK, we
can do this. Good.
(20:03):
So in terms of, you know, your career, you've really never
worked for anybody, have you? So I have, so as a teenager, I
think I want to say in my early 20s too, my last, my last job
was in law. So I was actually a paralegal.
(20:23):
Oh, wow. Yes, yes, yes.
So I worked in foreclosure firmswhen those were really hot at
one point in time. And then it's probably around
the same time the clubs were. Exactly, exactly.
And then I went into the last firm was a collections firm and
I was doing garnishment. But yeah, I'm really good at
(20:46):
organization and structure. If you can show me a process, I
can make that process great and we will work through it and we
can find success. And that's why I was really good
at that firm. They were like, hey, can you
write all of our SO PS for the litigation department?
Sure, right. Things like that.
But just because I'm good at it doesn't mean I actually want to
(21:09):
do this. And you know of the time the
agency was starting to grow and literally I was in the bathroom
like every 30 minutes answering the phone and it started to get
really complicated. It's like at one point in time,
my supervisor, God bless her, she would just let me stay in
her office for hours. And she was just do what you
(21:30):
need to do. Wow, that's very cool.
Oh my God, God bless her, right.So that's her own point.
It's like, all right, I think I have to make a choice because
the business is calling me and I'm meeting, you know, meeting
more high-powered people. And these people are busy during
the time that I'm at work and I'm calling them back at their
(21:51):
five and they're like, hey, let's talk tomorrow.
I only got 30 minutes on my lunch break, so I had to make a
hard decision. And I figured, OK, I'm still
young. Were you married yet?
No, not married yet. Still young, no kids, not
married yet. My wife and I were dating and I
said all right, I think it's thetime.
Very scary and I made the made the leap.
(22:14):
Well, I mean, thank you for sharing that because that's
huge, you know, because you, youknow, you were working.
I'm sure your parents were happy.
You're working hard, you're making money.
You got you got that job. But then you decided to make
that leap. How did that go with your
parents? What did they think?
Excellent question. Excellent question.
(22:34):
So I was more scared than them. Yeah.
Because, you know, they've work.They're they're hard workers.
And, you know, I remember something that my mom told me
years years ago when I was young, young as a child.
So they actually went off and started a cleaning company
called a Clean Sweep. Now, I had no clue that they did
(22:57):
this because they never, they never told us that they actually
did this. But I remember it didn't last
long. And then my mother approached
me. We were having a conversation
and she was talking to me and she said, hey, let me tell you,
she said never give up easily. She said things because things
are hard doesn't mean that you give up.
(23:19):
She said we gave up way too early for that.
She's like, you don't do that. And I, I'll never forget her
telling me that now when I, I think the hardest part was me
telling them that I was quittingschool to, you know, to go and
build this company on South Beach.
That was hard. So when I made the call to them
(23:41):
and said, hey, guys, I think I'mgoing to make this jump and go
full time. Shockingly, they both had the
same response. Great.
Wow, great. And I was like, wait, what?
Who are you and what do you do with my parents?
But they believed in me so much and that was that was that was
reassuring. For me, wow, Well, that's a
(24:03):
great story. What other advice do you have
for Yeah, there's probably people out there right now who
are going into the bathroom, youknow, while they're at their
job. Might be somebody in our
bathroom. I better check.
I hope. Not, I hope not too, but you
know, yeah. So what advice do you have for
(24:23):
people who who might be in that same situation?
I was actually thinking about that.
Yeah, I this is my advice. Learn as much as possible from
your job. Your job hired you because
they're in a place to do so. That means there's been some
success somewhere, whether that's been in the processes,
(24:44):
the leadership. Notice what they do right and
learn from it. Write it down.
My law job, I learned, oh, this is all a big process.
They're really good at Sops. A case comes in the building, it
goes through the departments. People do what they have to do.
They pass it along. There's a, there's a case
management system, right? We're all, we're all required to
(25:08):
notify everybody. We're required to notate every,
every file, everything. I learned all of that and I took
it with me. That's number one.
Number two, work the job as longas possible.
If I could go back, I think I would work my job a little bit
longer. The job is your first investor,
(25:31):
right? It's it's your capital.
So work it, save the money as much as you can.
And then once you can no longer then jump.
But sometimes passion can cloud actual great decision making.
So go with great decision makingover your passion.
(25:52):
The passion, I know it's burningand I know you're like, I can't
stand this job and I want to do it today.
Make sure it makes sense before you do it.
I think that's some of the best advice we've had, you know,
because we've talked to, you know, we've talked to successful
entrepreneurs and we've talked to some that are having really
hard times, you know, and it's not always, you know, all smiles
(26:15):
and giggles, right? There's some really tough times.
And I think that device is really good to make sure not to
let the passion cloud your judgement.
That's really good advice, Anthony, and, and to think it
through. And also, you know,
entrepreneurship is not for everybody.
It's not. That steady paycheck?
(26:36):
There's something. Let me tell you, a huge, a huge,
a huge decision that I made was for when I quit the job was I
had this new client and he gave me what was I like a $3000
check. I was like, yes, so he signed on
for 90 days, so we get, you know, $3000 for the next two
(27:00):
months. So I was like, great, I never
got paid from that guy again. So I quit like, yes, OK, finally
making some moves. All right, I got some new
clientele, right? It's the biggest check that I
got and you know, that was it. He didn't care anything about
our agreement. Our agreement went out the
window. Welcome to the business world,
(27:22):
right? Exactly, exactly.
So things like that can happen and will happen, and those are
things you can't account for. Wow, well that's great.
What does the future look like for you?
Wow, the future for us. So what we want to do, and you
know we've won best ad agency inFort Lauderdale right in 2024
(27:44):
and 23 wow. And so we want to continue being
the best AD. Best ad agency.
Fort Lauderdale Magazine. Yeah.
Fort Lauderdale Magazine. Yes.
Wow. That's great.
Thank you. So we want to continue being the
best. Thank you.
We want to continue being the best.
And when I say being the best, it just doesn't mean like in
competition or competing with every other agency.
(28:05):
It just means being the best to our clients.
So we have a really low churn rate.
Thank God when our clients sign on with us, they don't go
anywhere for years. We have a client that we've been
working with for 70 years. We worked with him when he had.
Since the beginning, since you first.
Opened one restaurant, he had one restaurant, one food truck.
(28:28):
He has five food trucks, 4 locations.
Excuse me, 7 food trucks now, right?
And we went from spending, you know, a couple $100 on ads with
him to now we spend over, you know, $2,000,000 a year in ads
with him. And we've grown with them since
beginning. We need him as a as a locality.
Oh. Yeah, for sure.
I'll definitely make the connection.
(28:48):
Yeah, for sure. We have another young lady.
She's been with us for the last two years and you know, she's
like, I'm not going anywhere. She's like, you guys make me
feel so seen, make me feel like I'm not crazy.
When I made these phone calls, someone always has an answer for
me. And when you guys don't have an
(29:09):
answer, you find it. And so that's what we want to
continue doing, providing that high, that unlimited value, as
we say to our clients, that's the future for us.
It's great. Well, anything you would do
differently, I mean, one thing you said you would work at your
job a little bit longer, but anything else that you would do
differently as you look back? No, no, I wouldn't do anything
(29:31):
differently. I think every lesson I've
learned has been extremely valuable.
I believe there was a guest on your podcast, Early Days, his
name, so I won't butcher his name, but I remember he was
saying his first employee, if hecould go back, he would hire
ACFO. He said that would be his first
(29:51):
employee. And I said, you know what, I
think I would too. So maybe that would be my
answer. Also, I think my first employee
would be a finance guy. You know what's interesting as a
banker and we deal with a lot ofsmaller businesses and I think
that is something a lot of timesthat we tell people, you know,
they come into a bank for a loanand we're like, Oh my gosh, you
(30:13):
know what, You've got to have a good handle on your numbers.
And it might not be a technically ACFO, but a a good.
Controller. A bookkeeper, somebody who's
really got a handle on the finances, understands finances.
And one thing I'll say, you knowGamal Khatner, who was on the
pocket, so I talked with him. Thank you for that introduction
(30:35):
to him. You know, we talk a lot about
cash flow, right? Cash flow is really the most
important thing, right? You could have a business that's
growing in leaps and bounds and has negative cash flow and you
know, at the end of the day, there's no money in the bank and
you got bills to pay, you got employees to pay and you're
(30:55):
struggling because you don't understand the difference
between sales and, and your basic cash flow.
You know, before you put all your money back into the
business, which is not bad, but you just have to understand
that. So I think that financial,
having that good financial advisor and it, you know, a lot
of times it could be somebody even part time.
(31:17):
That's, that's good. So anyway, and, and we know some
great ones too. We know some great CPA, some
great bookkeepers that that we are happy to recommend to, you
know, to our clients and we do well.
Well, thank you, Anthony. You know, so I want to go now to
the lightning round. There we go.
(31:39):
Yeah, don't be nervous. You just, you know, you just say
whatever you want. There's no right or wrong
answers to this. This is just you.
So you mentioned a book earlier by Daymond John, you know, so
have you got, is that your favorite book or you have others
that you would say a real favorite book or just give us
one more? I will say, OK, there is, and I
know he's a really popular influencer right now.
(32:02):
I'm not just saying this becausehe's popular, but his book has
literally changed a lot for me, $100 million offers by Alex
Ramozi. And a lot of people listening to
his podcast will know who he is.But that book, I've I've studied
it like the Bible, I found that his strategies are really hard
(32:23):
hitting. A. $100 million offers.
Yes, office offers offers. Yeah, OK, Very good book on
marketing and how to develop a solid offer, how to find
people's pain points and answer those questions that they have
about your service before they even think of them.
(32:43):
Right. I think the subtitle of the book
is Offers So Irresistible that it feels stupid saying no.
Something like that. You're getting that book.
It's really good, Very good book.
That I wrote that one down. OK, you might want to pass on
this one because I know you havea lot of restaurant customers,
(33:03):
but what is your favorite restaurant?
So my favorite restaurant, man, this restaurant is actually not
a client of ours. It's actually my favorite
restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. It's Runway.
So runway 84, Anthony's Runway. Well, maybe we'll bring those.
Maybe they'll hear hear this. Yeah, Mark falsetto, if you're
listening, listen. There you go.
Anthony's available. Yeah, if you guys.
(33:24):
Want them? Have you ever been?
I love that. You're kidding me.
It's it's it's the best. We'll have to go there.
Please, my cousin's over entertainment there, so.
Oh really? Yeah, he handles that entire.
Band. Yeah.
Oh my God, those guys that makesthe place.
Really. At night.
Yeah, but I also go there for the Friday lunch sometimes.
The power lunch. It's just great, right?
(33:44):
OK, great. What is the best piece of advice
you've ever received? Wow, see now that one I'm not
prepared. Best piece of advice I will have
to take a page out of the Jamaican a proverb book.
(34:08):
OK, if you don't know, Jamaicansare full of proverbs.
OK, they speak in proverbs. I'll write this.
One and my, my father, yeah, he's always said my entire life,
the humblest calf gets the most milk.
Yeah, that's what he said to me.I'm writing that one down.
(34:29):
Good stuff out of you today. Yeah.
And I also your mom telling you,you can do, you know, never give
up. Yes.
Right, give up and. I have, you know, I have to
shout her out because she's alsotold me, you know, have faith
the size of the mustard of a mustard seed.
(34:49):
And that was a conversation thatwe had.
I've never forgotten that. Have faith the size of a mustard
seed. That's all you need.
A mustard seed's this big, and that's all the faith you need to
move mountains. That's another Those are great.
What's something you're gratefulfor today?
I am grateful for my family, my daughter, my wife and my team.
(35:13):
Right now we have an excellent team at agency and I mean, I'm
here doing this podcast because you know, they're great at their
jobs, right? Our clients feel taken care of
and you know, things are happening.
One of our team members are hereand I hear his keyboard clicking
away right now so. I love that, you know, I mean,
so I feel that way a lot too when I'm, I'm doing something
(35:35):
else. And I know, you know, there's
such a great team here at Locality Bank.
I, I can relate to that. What's a fear you've overcome?
A fear that I've overcome, man. Keith, you have some hard
hitting questions today. Ryan came up with all these.
Feared of overcome man, I had tothink about that feared of well,
(35:58):
I guess a fear that I've had wasbecoming a father.
It was it was an aspiration of mine.
I want to become a father, but it was very scary territory,
right? And fearful in a sense because
like, I don't, I don't know what's on the other side of
(36:18):
this. Never had a child before.
How do you how do you care for somebody from birth to insane
concept? And my daughter's 5 now.
And I don't know, I feel like I've been a great father.
So I've overcome, overcome that fear.
Wow, she's 5. That's great.
I remember her coming into GP asa little girl, you know, a
(36:40):
little baby. Right.
That's awesome. How's your wife doing?
Oh, she's doing phenomenal. She's still writing books.
Yes, so she's an author and thenshe's also now a teacher,
mentor, coach. So she goes into schools and she
leads these teachers and coachesthem in the right way and and
how to how to educate their students.
(37:00):
So yeah, she's doing really well.
Glad to hear that. What is a new skill you're
learning? A new skill that I'm learning
back to finance learning, learning speaking financial
language, you know, I know the basics.
(37:20):
I know how to, you know, do somemanaging, some bookkeeping,
things like that. But it's something that I want
to go deeper in. I don't want to become ACPA or
CFO, but I want to know financesintimately.
I want to know how these, how, how does this work, right?
Like how do, how do things work?And there's a, there's a
(37:40):
language spoken when it comes tofinance and you have to learn
how to speak those languages. So been reading a lot of
different books, speaking to a lot of different smart people
and just, you know, just learning.
That's that's where I am. Well, if we can help you with
that, this is the House of Finance right here.
So you let us know. We're happy to.
Do you have a favorite podcast? A favorite podcast?
(38:05):
I have a few. I have a few.
Other than making bank. Right.
Love this podcast, listen to it.Love this podcast and beside my
own. Right.
And yours? So I have leisure podcast and I
have productivity podcast. Yeah, so productivity, I would
have to say there's a podcast bythe name of Market Mondays that
(38:29):
I listen to, very good podcast on business stocks and bonds and
things, you know, latest financial news.
I love that pod. I listen to it every Monday.
And then a leisure pod, which I just kind of play in the
background and it's it can be literally talk about just
anything and just it's hilariousDaddy issues.
(38:50):
Daddy issues, yeah. I have no idea how I found it.
There's a bunch of comedians andthey just talk about the most
random topics and so sometimes Itune into them just when I need
to, like. Laugh.
Laugh and kind of just let something play because sometimes
you know, you're so in your in your, in your vision and you're
like, all right, I need to zoom out really quickly.
(39:11):
And so that's a good release forme.
So that's a good segue into the next question, like what do you
do to to release and what hobbies do you have or what do
you work out or what types of things?
OK. So working out is new for me.
OK, I've always worked out here and there, but for the last, I
would say here really been focused on my health in, in
(39:35):
fitness and you, you really a huge inspiration.
You don't know, but it's a huge Keith poster on my refrigerator
and I'm like, got to get the Keith, you know, but but now
it's, I lost 35 lbs over the last eight months or so.
So and thank you and I appreciate it.
And I've been really focused on that.
So that's new for me. It's helped me so much mentally.
(39:57):
I'm so much clearer. I feel better, feel great.
And I think, I think on a reallyhigher level in my opinion.
Also, yeah, that's been really good for me.
So fitness helps. And then playing T Rex with my
daughter. She calls me Daddy T Rex.
I have to go. So that's cool.
You know, it's interesting when you think about fitness and
(40:18):
health too. And I've got 4 kids.
I always thought like that's I want to be able to be there for
my kids. You know, it's inspiring when
you have children and you relatethat to because you know, you
can beat say, oh, it's self-centered to like work out
all this. But you know, you're doing that
really for your family, for yourchildren, for your
(40:40):
grandchildren, be there for them.
Indeed. Yes, indeed.
Right. That's excellent.
So how can people get in touch with you?
Wow, all those restaurants watching that need help.
Yeah, they all. Restaurants need more people in
their seats. They do, right?
You need foot traffic, You need online orders.
Come on, guys. Yeah, let's think about it.
But you can find me on our website for the agency Is ACC
(41:03):
you in ltd.com, our agencies ACCUnlimited.
So you can find all information on us there, our portfolio and
case studies and things like. That so the website is what
again? Accunltd.com so it's our agency
abbreviated. UN.
Ltd. Ltd.com Okay, I just want to
(41:25):
stress that because that's a tough I know that's a tough one.
I. Tried.
Someone owns accunlimited.com and they want a bazillion
dollars for it. They're not paying them for it.
So I said, you know what? A little abbreviate.
Yeah. But you can find me online also
on LinkedIn. I'm Anthony Clark.
You can find me there. You can find our agency on
Instagram at ACC Unlimited on this there.
(41:46):
So good. We're all around.
Well, great, you want to give your phone number at sure.
Yeah. So my cell, I give my cell 954,
673-0546 that's. So you all your restaurant tours
out there, if you need more people in your seats, give
Anthony a call. Please, no, please, we'd love
to. Help and and he'd love to hear
from Mark Falsetto. Yes, Mark, Mark Love.
(42:09):
With you, he needs any help withthe seats?
No, they're all. Fireman, they're all fire.
They got a caviar concept coming.
Yeah. Love Mark, man.
Yeah. Good.
Anthony, thanks so much. It's been a real pleasure.
You gave us a lot of good stuff today.
This is one of the best, I think, right?
I mean, this has been really a pleasure.
Thanks. And I'm so proud of what you've
accomplished. Thank you for the good work.
(42:29):
Thank you, man. Listen, friends like you make it
easy, yeah? And you're a locality bank
customer and he talks so great about us.
We love that. Thank you, Keith.
Thanks for tuning in to Localities Making Bank Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to
catch the latest episodes. And visit localitybank.com today
to learn more about all the benefits of banking local.
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