TBC Member Spotlight: Kenny Massa

Ever wondered how to transform a modest startup into a flourishing 4,000 square foot enterprise? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Ken Massa, the visionary founder of Mass Inbound, as he recounts his fascinating entrepreneurial journey. From the early days of working alongside his wife and a colleague in a cramped office to leading a thriving, data-driven marketing agency, Ken's story is a masterclass in celebrating wins, learning from setbacks, and the relentless pursuit of growth. You'll gain invaluable insights into the ever-evolving nature of success and the importance of perpetual learning and adaptation in the world of business.

Risk-taking is an essential part of any business, but how do you balance it with fostering a high-performing team? Ken shares his philosophy on learning from mistakes, the significance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for risk mitigation, and the value of maintaining a directory of past events to prepare for the future. Through strategies like daily huddles and quarterly deep-dive discussions, Ken reveals how he keeps his team aligned and continuously improving. His approach underscores the critical role of reducing employee turnover and nurturing a dynamic team environment to drive sustained success.

Leadership isn't just about giving orders; it's about empowering your team to think and act independently. Ken explains his approach to leadership evolution, emphasizing the importance of speaking last in meetings to encourage team members to share their thoughts freely. This method not only prevents hierarchical pressure but also fosters critical thinking and self-sufficiency. Ken also challenges the industry belief in niche specialization, advocating for a diversified advertising strategy that spans multiple platforms. By viewing marketing as a strategic investment, Ken's insights offer a compelling roadmap for both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals looking to elevate their game.

Episode Transcript

James LaGamma (00:09):
Welcome to the Bender Continues podcast.
Today's episode is particularlyspecial as we are joined by
someone we deeply respect andadmire.
The following is a conversationnot only with a business owner
of a rapidly growing company,but he's also a beloved friend,

(00:31):
dedicated partner and soon-to-befather.
Join us as we explore hisunique journey throughout the
world of entrepreneurship,growth and the balancing act of
managing both business andpersonal life.
Today, you will hear a real,authentic and organic testimony

(00:51):
around challenges, failures andwins.

Jonny Strahl (00:56):
Hello, I'm Ken Massa, founder of Mass Inbound,
a dynamic, data-driven marketingagency with a singular focus.
Inbound, a dynamic, data-drivenmarketing agency with a
singular focus, empoweringbusinesses to amplify their
brands and expand their internetand online presence.
Kenny's journey truly embodiesthe entrepreneurial journey.
The end goal is always to helpbusinesses thrive.

(01:16):
How to help his customers seesuccess.
In our conversation today,we'll dive deep into the
challenges he's faced duringthis journey, the lessons
learned and the vulnerabilitiestackled along this journey.
This has not been always easy,but we really appreciate Kenny
being here, sitting down andbeing vulnerable with us today.

Ryan Selimos (01:38):
Mass Inbound's story is no ordinary success
tale.
Mass Inbound was born with aclear mission to revolutionize
the digital marketing strategiesfor businesses.
With technology and thebusiness ecosystem always
changing, it's a journey thattruly embodies the essence of

(01:59):
evolution and the spirit ofadaptation.

Jonny Strahl (02:02):
So, in today's episode, what you'll get if
you're an aspiring entrepreneurseeking inspiration or a
seasoned professional looking tobrush up or refine your
business acumen, join us as weunravel the insights and wisdom
and to better yourself in thebusiness world.
Kenny, thanks for taking thetime, man.

Kenny Massa (02:21):
Guys, thank you for having me and hosting a podcast
that's more cultivating aroundthe business world.
I mean, we've all hadindividual conversations about
the subject and I've hadconversations with many people
about the subject, so I'mexcited to and discuss more
about, you know, subtopicswithin that world and everything

(02:42):
that revolves around businessand entrepreneurship and really
what I do on a day-to-day.

Jonny Strahl (02:48):
Love it.
So I think it's simply putyou've got three champions who,
obviously everybody's mentioned,admire you and just the success
and the journey, and we'relooking forward to you sharing
that for others too here.
But I think the question or thething we really want to bring
up is one we're very proud ofyou, but to see you sitting in
your office in this studiothinking about where you were

(03:09):
five years ago to where you'reat now, it's got to be pretty
fulfilling and I know there's ahuge journey for you future
state.
But just walk us through howprideful you are right now and
what that means to you.

Kenny Massa (03:21):
Yeah, it's something that you don't really
um, I don't think you you reallythink about too much Um, and I
think that that's anyone with awith a large competitive spirit.
I think that, um, somethingthat I specifically have built
into the just the, my persona asbeing a competitor in many

(03:42):
faces is like it's like it'snever over, right, when you're
doing something in any capacityand you have a good win.
You'll learn that celebrating awin needs to be done in a very
strategic fashion and you canexperience those things as a
young athlete, which I think issuper important, which is

(04:02):
definitely a differentdiscussion.
But I think that in thebusiness world it encompasses
very much similar aspects ofcelebrating wins or shortcomings
that you have that you'veunderstood, because you can look
at it from either perspective,but not celebrating a
shortcoming, but understandingthat a shortcoming is something

(04:24):
that you learn from and youdon't dwell on because it can
keep you down.
But I think that you don'treally look at it from an aspect
of like, oh, I'm here, We'vearrived.
It's always a constantprogression, of moving towards
the next step, there's alwaysthat next thing and I don't
think that you do finish.

(04:45):
I think that it always is aconstant level of scaling and
growth and development.
And even when you do exit abusiness, or even when you do
have that point in time when itis time to kind of, let's say,
push forward in a differentfashion or change directions, I
still don't think the game isover.

(05:06):
I think you've just found adifferent direction or a
different position on the teamand you're moving forward with
something else.
But it's definitely interestingto see Three years ago I was
looking at pictures recentlybecause we just submitted some
documents for one of thedifferent types of awards that
you can win in our industry andthree years ago we were in a

(05:29):
room our whole facility was aroom probably smaller than the
podcast studio with one of ourteam members that's still with
us and myself and my wife andshe would come in part time but
Dylan and I would work from ouroffice, which we literally sat

(05:49):
like.
Our desks were like this farapart.
I'd be taking sales calls,dylan would be cranking out you
know website developmentprojects are doing things on the
back end and we sat literallythis close and our whole room
was probably 15 by 15.
So now in a, in a 4,000 squarefoot facility with a studio
that's the size of our entire uh, or that was the size of our
entire office at one point.

(06:10):
It's interesting to see theprogression of growth uh, in
business and in and of itself,and I still feel like I'm just
getting started, like you.
You there's so much to learnfrom different angles of
business, whether it's the legaland HR aspects, the accounting
and finance aspects, marketing,sales operations, just the

(06:34):
nature of dealing with people ina different perspective.
There's so much to learn thatit does take years for that and
there's fast tracks for thatprocess.
But yeah, I still feel like I'mjust getting started, quite
honestly.

Jonny Strahl (06:50):
Love it.
So you mentioned, obviously,industry, the technology,
marketing, data.
It's changing right.
Being a business owner, youneed to learn and understand
there's going to be pivots.
One quote that really resonatesto a follow-up question I'd
like to ask is your work isgoing to fill a large part of

(07:11):
your life and the only way totruly be satisfied is to do what
you believe is great work.
And the only way to do greatwork is to love what you do.
Steve Jobs, for you, what fuelsyou and keeps you going as a
business owner and you hinted atit's not always.
Maybe quote unquote about thecelebrations or the wins and

(07:33):
this and that.
So I'm curious if you couldjust walk us through, like what
keeps you going?

Kenny Massa (07:38):
Yeah, I think that milestones always change and,
like goals for someone'spersonal development perspective
, goals are really great to have, but they need to be
strategically placed in front ofyou so that they can be reached
after particular events add upand lead you to a quantifiable

(08:02):
goal right that you can analyzeWhether it's losing 10 pounds,
whether it's adding $10,000 ofrevenue to your monthly income.
Whatever it is, you have tohave these goals.
So there's I look at it in afew different perspectives.
I think that short-term, youhave to have goals, but
long-term, when you're buildinga business, I think that there
has to be a long-term goalthat's very large and almost

(08:24):
seems far out of reach andyou've heard this from other, I
would say, motivational speakersbut it has to be very, very
large, because now it's not justyour personal goal, it's a goal
for an organization with a teamthat's backing it, whether
that's 10, 20, 50, 100 people.
So this goal needs to be largeenough to impact the lives of

(08:47):
many, depending on the size ofthe team, because you're not
only affecting that team, you'reaffecting the families of that
team as well.
So by having a team of 10, andeach one of those people have
families, you're affectingdozens of people.
So the goal has to be large andI use that for a perspective,
from a large perspective,because businesses just

(09:09):
quantifiably generate morerevenue than an individual does.
In many cases that's drivenbeyond.

(09:29):
Just me is really what I lookat.
I've been involved with afamily business that was driven
to solely around one individualand I've unfortunately had to
see the outcome of that whenexiting a business that's driven
based off of solely oneperson's actions, or when the
owner is also, the operator isalso, the HR is also, the
attorney is also, the accountantis also.

(09:50):
You know all of these things.
I think there's a stage of thatbusiness.
But it's important to get outof that stage as quickly as
possible.
For many case scenarios thegoal originally should be, or in
the early stages should be, tocreate something that drives
further.
If I'm not here, that's stillable to operate if I'm not here,

(10:14):
and for every industry that canbe different, right, I mean, if
you have a company thatdelivers goods somewhere, all
you need is someone that can runoperations and run sales and
you have to have a definitely ateam behind that.
But it goes beyond just you inthat capacity.
So I, that was, that was myprobably early on cycle, but

(10:35):
that took me a long time just tolearn and to realize that, and
an unfortunate event to torealize that too, because I went
through, you know, the exitingof a family-owned business.
That was really difficultbecause it was too heavily
weighted on one person'spresence.
So you know, to answer yourquestion more directly, I think

(10:58):
what drives me is to createsomething that's beyond just
myself, for the betterment of myfamily and the people that I
continue to work with, because,you know, regardless of if I'm
here or not, the show goes onand it's, I think, that's an
important thing to create froman organizational perspective,

(11:19):
because there's too manybusinesses that fall short of
that many businesses that fallshort of that Interesting.

Jonny Strahl (11:29):
So you mentioned obviously some shortcomings,
obviously challenges and reallylearning moments.
I'd be curious if you couldshare with us, outside of,
obviously, the sole ownershipand maybe someone having their
hands in a little bit too muchwithin an organization,
especially as you're trying todrive right and build, how
challenging was it for you whileyou were learning in this

(11:52):
moment to be able to trust andhave faith that you can maybe
hand some priorities andresponsibilities to others and,
as a business owner, this isyour rock, your baby,
essentially something you builtthat again you want to further
when you're no longer here, soI'd be curious was that a
challenge, and what did youlearn from that during that?

Kenny Massa (12:12):
It's a really big challenge and it's something
that you're going to deal withfor many years.
You know there's definitely acase scenario still today that I
think that you know I face inthat regard too.
But it's a very difficult thingto deal with because, as you're
building a business, in manycases the person that is
building the business has theexperience and the know-how and

(12:35):
the the, the fortitude tocontinue to build all of those
relationships with the clientsbut also implement and perform
in the operations aspect.
So you're doing everything as abusiness owner, you're wearing
many hats and to hand over oneof these hats to a person is
difficult because I wouldn't sayit's inevitable that something

(12:59):
is going to happen.
That's not perfect.
But let's say you're operatingat 100% and someone comes on
your team.
They don't fully understand atthat point in time everything
that you do, even if they're anindustry expert.
Your systems and youroperations and your strategies
from within that industry orfrom within your business, is

(13:20):
unique and different, or itshould be, and that still is a
learning curve for an industryexpert.
So, because of these things,sometimes problems arise and
sometimes operations hinder orsomething lacks.
But I think and I heard thisone time I don't remember from

(13:42):
who, but it was from anentrepreneur or business owner
in some perspective.
They said that they had a teammember that slipped up and it
cost them tens of thousands ofdollars, I believe it was, and
at the time they could haveeasily said so-and-so, that's it

(14:02):
.
You costed the business, youknow, too much of a downside,
there's too much risk.
That slip up, you know, had alarger negative effect than
we're willing to deal with andthat's it Like we're done right
and they could have fired thatindividual or your other side.
Is it's likely that if theperson that did slip up or had

(14:24):
that fault, it's likely that ifthe person that did slip up or
had that fault, if theyunderstand the downside that
they brought or the risk theybrought to the company or the
negative effects that fell kindof down the pipeline from their
actions whether it's them doingsomething wrong or not doing
something that they weresupposed to do If they
understand the capacity of that,it's likely that they will not

(14:47):
do that again.
But if I fire that person and Ihire someone new, what's the
likelihood that they're going todo that again and I'm going to
deal with that case scenarioagain, just with a different
individual.
So how I look at it and I tookthat to heart because I think
that that's a really great wayof growing a business, because

(15:10):
you understand people, you worktogether and I think it's
important to to really know thatyour team is going to support
you and the whole saying, likeyou live and learn, or you know
just the, the way human, youknow psychology works is they're
probably not going to slip upin that capacity again.
So to hand over a hat, it'sdifficult, but you have to be

(15:33):
open-minded in understandingthat things are going to happen
and you have to use it in anaspect of a learning experience
as much as possible.
And if, as the business owner,you can be more understanding
and open-minded towards knowingthat things aren't going to go
100% perfect all the time andit's likely that that never
happens or it happens veryminimally but at least the

(15:55):
things that are causing thedownside are being learned from
your team and the experience iscausing more credibility, more
expertise and a higher level ofqualification, then in my
opinion, I think that's morevaluable, because every single
day we go up against businessesand I know that they didn't

(16:18):
experience some type of eventand I know that what's going to
happen internally is going tocause a fluster, but if my team
has already experienced that andI can bring up so many case
scenarios in life and inbusiness but if my team has
already experienced that we'regoing to look smooth On the top
of the water.
We're going to look like ducksfloating around real nice, but

(16:40):
on the bottom of water, flappingour little feet as fast as
possible, but everything's goingto look smooth and we're going
to be operating perfectly finebecause the experience that the
team has cumulatively is morepowerful.
So I think that you have tounderstand that.
Again, something I've seen manytimes is like the passing of
the hats or the understandingthat it's not possible to be

(17:05):
everywhere in every capacity.
If your business is scaling,it's important to understand
these type of aspects and tounderstand that there is a level
of experience, credibility,qualification, learning and
value that comes from the flipside of the case scenario on the

(17:27):
flip side of the case scenario.

James LaGamma (17:29):
Now we've kind of gravitated towards this
conversation of risk.
Now, obviously, sales is a hugepart of business, bringing in
revenue and flourishing andgrowing but the ability to
manage risk is also kind of itssister, its brother, if you will
right.
Also kind of its sister, itsbrother, if you will right.
I'm a firm believer thatmanaging risk and mitigating

(17:51):
risk is actually a competitiveadvantage.
You kind of talked aboutemployees' input into managing
risk, but what other aspects andsteps do you take in strategies
to mitigate potential risks?

Kenny Massa (18:07):
I think risks are necessary in business.
I think if you are not takingrisks, you are falling behind,
and there's literally some timeswhere I feel that we sit flat
for too long and I'm like weneed to take a risk, like we
need to shake shit up and weneed to do something.
And whether that's a financialinvestment that's going to lead

(18:28):
to something, that's a newavenue that we're going to
explore, a service that we'regoing to explore, or another
niche or vertical that we'regoing to enter, which poses a
risk of entering an industrythat we might not be as familiar
with, I think that we alwayshave to have a level of risk in
the business.

(18:48):
To mitigate that risk, I thinkoperating procedures standard
operating procedures, or SOPs iswhat many people would refer
them to are really important,and if you have SOPs put in
place, they're going to allowyou to manage risk a little bit
more appropriately, because youcan always fall back on this

(19:09):
structure that enticesfulfillment or performance in
some fashion.
And I think that's reallyimportant, because I've seen too
many times that SOPs aren't putin place and I would say that's
probably something that isneeded.
Use SOPs.
We document a lot of stuff aswell to help mitigate risk.

(19:36):
So documentation of processesor events.
Right, if something happens,document that so that the next
time that situation arises againyou know exactly what to
reflect on.
So although that's kind of likean SOP, it's almost like a, a
reflection document that it sayslike what should I do?
Like an FAQ it's like a debrief.
Exactly what should I do in thiscircumstance?
So these things like, and justby the sheer time commitment

(19:58):
that you're in business, just bybeing in business and being
there and showing up, you'regoing to experience things.
And there's things all the time, daily, that pop up where I'm
like, hmm, how should we look atthis?
Like shit, this popped up.
Let me think about how we couldgo about this.
There's alternative ways tocertain situations, there's very

(20:21):
direct ways to certainsituations.
But building that kind ofdirectory of experiences
increases the threshold of whatyour team could be, uh, could be
doing and what your team knows.
And I think what's reallyimportant about that is is
having team members longer.
So, um, by keeping team membersand reducing the attrition of

(20:44):
internal team members, it allowsfor your team to embody a
larger element of understandingin synergy, because there's a
lot of times where departmentsinteract with one another.
So I think, if I can say twothings that could help manage
risk or might agate risk in somefashion, it would be ensuring

(21:05):
that team members are happy,satisfied and stay longer and
reducing turnover.
And two, ensuring that eachdepartment has standard
operating procedures along witha directory of events that
happen, that may arise at anypoint in time.
And by doing that, I think youcan alleviate a decent amount of
risk at any point in time.
And by doing that, I think youcan alleviate a decent amount of

(21:26):
risk.

Ryan Selimos (21:29):
First start like just, I've been very quiet,
which is unusual.
It's just I love thisconversation.
Number one I want to go back tothat duck thing you talked
about with the legs flapping.
Yeah, I was in a leadershipcourse and they called it.
That was my biggest takeawayfrom the leadership course.
Takeaway from the leadershipcourse they called it being a
swan, because the swan is sograceful as they move across the

(21:49):
water.
But what you don't let otherpeople see is just how crazy it
can be underneath.
But it's all about kind of thatAurora, that presence that
you've got everything undercontrol, no matter what is going
on.
Yeah, um, so I just I love that.
Now you talked about withmitigating risk and you really
leaned into with your teammembers and having them long
term, because you've experiencedthose different things and your

(22:10):
team can be prepared for that.
My question for you is how areyou building, like, what's your
strategy to building a highperforming team?
You've had them there for sometime, but how are you ensuring
that their growth to you knowthey're able to take more things
off your plate and then they'reable to be that high performing
team that you're envisioned asthey stay with you with longer,

(22:31):
more tenure?

Kenny Massa (22:32):
Yeah, that's a good question and it's something
that's taken years for me to tokind of continue to evaluate.
I don't, I wouldn't say I'mlike the, the number one person
at this right there's.
I'm not any by nature.
I'm not an HR person Like um,I'm not an by nature.
I'm not an HR person like.
I'm a very much more figuredout type of person.
You know, I'd rather you cometo me, you know, and work, or
with a, with a solution ofsomething of some sort, and just

(22:56):
kind of get a nod of agreeancetowards that direction.
But there's a couple ofdifferent case scenarios and
I'll bring up something that Iheard recently that was
enlightening, that I did likethat I've been implementing as
well.
But we do a couple of things ona daily basis.
We don't have a super big team.
We don't have 100 people.
There's a team of 10.
So, or you know, between and itfloats depending on our, our

(23:21):
time and year and things likethat so anywhere from eight to
12 is where we sit in most, mostpart, um, but what I would say
is ensuring that the departmentsmeet together.
So we do morning huddles onMonday through Friday every
morning.
So there'll be and, dependingon your team.
It'll be with a different groupof individuals, um so morning

(23:41):
huddles.
That's an important thingbecause I think it allows people
to be aligned from the start oftheir day and in every
micro-oriented 24-hour period Inmany cases we do deeper team
meetings.
So a team meeting will happenwithin departments that allows
for us to sit together forlonger periods of time,

(24:03):
particularly 45 to 60 minutes.
And in those meetings again,they're not that large, they're
like you know, they're not withthe whole company, they're not
as large.
I would say kind of a more JeffBezos style method where it's
like everybody should be able toeat a pizza in that room
together and that's more deepdiving into more fulfillment and

(24:25):
operation side of things from aperspective of that individual
team.
I then also meet with themanagement side of that any
account managers or websiteoperations manager to understand
what's happening from a highlevel perspective of that
department per se.
So that's happening on a weeklybasis.

(24:46):
You have daily meetings, youhave weekly meetings.
We do a monthly deep dive aswell from a company-wide
perspective and then we'll do aquarterly company-wide meeting
with everybody and that's like.
That quarterly meeting is likebasically a half a day.
We get lunch like we do a wholeordeal and I really do ask, ask

(25:08):
, like every single person hastime to discuss like what are
they seeing in their department?
How are they evaluating theprocesses that they're
implementing into theirsituations?
Because every sop is unique inthat, in that department, and
there's unique case scenariosthat, for instance, the
production studio would dealwith, where the advertising side
or the website development sidemaybe wouldn't, because it just

(25:30):
doesn't relate to thatdepartment.
So that's a time for them tosit down and explain that.
The thing I like about thatsituation is it's very much more
like a who, where, when, why,how, who are you working with?
How are you dealing with thesesituations?
What are your top needs, orwhat are the things that we can
assist with, or what are thethings that we are assisting

(25:53):
with the most, or what are youseeing from a top level
perspective?
Where are you focusing yourattention the most?
Because each department haskind of like subcategories that
they may focus on, depending ondifferent types of projects.
And then the last one whereit's more for me than anybody
else, is like how can I help?
Do you feel like you have theresources that you need to be
able to perform, and do you feelthat?

(26:16):
How do you feel about basicallythe situations that you're put
in?
And you know, for the most partit's just an open discussion
aspect.
We'll talk about company-widechanges, changing of software,
changing of processes thataffect more than one people.
But it's a great way to haveinter-department communication

(26:38):
where we are allowed to discusshow things flow from one
department to another and geteverybody in a room and I will
do that until it just is notfeasible and get everybody in a
room, and I will do that untilit just is not feasible, and
maybe we'll do it in clustersafter you know, just doing it
from a larger departmentperspective as we continue to
see growth.
But I think I really liked thatmeeting because I liked the how
.
For me it's important, but, butbut I there's just a couple of

(27:04):
different meetings that we havethere.
So to highlight daily meetings,weekly meetings, monthly
meetings, quarterly meetings, wedo all of them and that helps a
lot.
Continue to build just a morethorough understanding from that
perspective.

Ryan Selimos (27:20):
You mentioned Bezos kind of in that breakdown.
In that breakdown and I recallI think you changed your
approach to a scenario where youwanted to be instead of the
first person to kind of set thetone.
You kind of changed more tobeing the last person to speak
because you didn't want tochange your employees' opinions
right.
So you're allowing them, withthis additional tenure, with
this additional experience, toreally share their thoughts and

(27:42):
feelings on a matter before youjump in with yours and get the
that true feedback.
So I believe it was a recentchange in approach.
Just how has that been.

Kenny Massa (27:51):
I like it a lot because I think that it's a
transfer of of role, umhierarchy, right, like I don't
want to come off as the personthat tells you what to do every
day.
Like that's not fun in anycapacity, that's not a good work
environment If someone's justlike you have to do this, this,
this, this right.
But if, if I talk less andeverything is stated already and
everybody knows everything,then great, everyone's aware.

(28:15):
So I basically, by having metalk at the end, it does two
things One, that allows me tosee if I even need to bring up
the thing that I'm going tobring up, because it's likely
that someone else is going tobring it up because they're
aware.
If they're aware, I don't needto bring it up, they know.
And that helps alleviate theissue that I just talked about,
where I feel like I'm dictatingmore than asking or allowing for

(28:38):
someone to have a voice in thecompany.
So I like that.
And then two I think it doesn'tchange anybody's mind about
something and I think that I canthen provide my insight.
And I really like asking, and Itry to do this without sounding
mean, but it's also like, well,what would you do in this
circumstance, not like trying tothrow it at them, but like what

(29:01):
would you do?
Like that's the way that you'regoing to be able to learn more,
because there are casescenarios where I'm in a meeting
or I'm doing something and I'mnot around, or, you know, stuff
just pops up and arises.
So I want to know that you havethe ability to um, think through
these processes in your owncapacity.
And I don't, I don't want to beyour crutch.

(29:22):
I want you as an, as a teammember, I want you to be able to
do that yourself.
So I do like that.
I'm going to continue to dothat.
I liked it a lot, um, because Ithink it's a, it's a transfer
of the ownership of tasks andpriorities and, um, just
critical thinking.

Ryan Selimos (29:40):
What you just said right there about being
someone's crutch.
I had a moment like that in mycareer where, in the same sense
I was being I was an accident,accidental diminisher, because I
was spoon feeding the answersto I was this person was
struggling and you're trying tohelp them grow and you're trying
to get them on the right path,but you're handing them the
answers.
So, in reality, you're notallowing them to be

(30:02):
self-sufficient, for when you'renot available, you're, you're
being a crutch more thanallowing them to grow.
So a hundred percent, you know,like you said, you're not
trying to be the bad guy, butwhat would you do?
It's you want to understandtheir thought process so that
you can see how close or farthey are and then help them get
you know if they need to getcloser to the mark.
How do we get them on that path?

Kenny Massa (30:21):
So that's awesome Because there's a case scenario
that you're not going to bethere to help right or like,
maybe in your ascension path,you don't want to be in that
role forever and you're notgoing to be in that role forever
, but it's important that yourteam could continue to perform
without your presence on aminute-by-minute basis.
And then there's also casescenarios where, like, let's say

(30:42):
and it's different in everybusiness, but let's say, a
client reaches out to thatindividual directly.
I want that individual to beable to perform and understand
the circumstance, to be able toproblem solve in their own
capacity without needing to callanybody else.
And of course there's levels ofthis right, there's

(31:05):
circumstances that there's manydifferent angles and there's
circumstances that may arisethat create variations of this.
But if it's a simple problemthat in and of itself is an
important aspect where it's like, if you're that point of
contact and the client thinksthat you're the person to go to
for this, then and you reallyare the person to go to for this
, then you should be able tosolve that.

(31:25):
And I think that kind of doesthat it reduces the crutch
because, especially with sometasks, like some things are so
minimal or so easy to solve.
But you know, it takesexperience and a process to
learn it.

Ryan Selimos (31:38):
And that's also how you move away from that
owner-operator model.
Yeah, which is your end goal?

Kenny Massa (31:43):
Yeah, I'm there for those circumstances, like I've
I just again going back to, Ithink, james's question.
Before, as you show up and asyou arrive and you're here and
you're playing the game, you gothrough these processes and you
see things like I, you know, weband certain industries have, I
would say, what you wouldconsider a more straightforward

(32:07):
process.
Right, like, if you look atwebsite development, website
development is a very thoroughprocess that, if you can put
together a plan of action withstandard operating procedures
and a very fluid pipeline ofknowing what happens from the
point of sale to the end offulfillment, in many cases you
don't fall out of the directline of the process and there

(32:31):
are certain circumstances withvery large projects, but they're
the unique projects and that'sgoing to happen in any business.
But then you have certaincircumstances in advertising
where the direct line is easierto deviate than many others.

Jonny Strahl (32:45):
So, like, every department is different, every
business is different andprocesses and your flexibility
and driving back to yourordinary plan of action is going
to be easier or more difficultin certain circumstances you've

(33:13):
uh, you've referenced a lot ofpoints where you've given credit
to the people that you surroundyourself around, um, which I
think is awesome, and I thinkany business owner, any
entrepreneur, finds out veryquickly.
It's about the people around you.
Um, I know we all love our boy,gary vannachuk, but one thing
that he's always said andpreaches is like, hey, company
culture is the backbone aroundsuccess, right?
And if you have thathigh-performing team, great

(33:37):
things will happen.
To have others come in andalmost fail forward and learn
from it and then take ownershipand have the opportunity to
continue and figure it out andnot be that individual where you
are almost getting mad at themor calling them out or
threatening them, like you saidearlier, for your organization

(34:01):
and this fires me up becauseit's on the topic of the
question you asked earlieraround the culture and the
people Like, what is youremployee value proposition?
Like, why do individuals wantto come to work for a company
that's thriving, that is aheadand fostering within innovation?
What should people expect andwhat do they get out of it?

(34:23):
And you've mentioned a lot ofthings, but I'd be curious what
that is in this organization.

Kenny Massa (34:30):
In this organization.
It's going to be a little bitmore unique to the industry that
we're in, but every company isgoing to be different for their
value that's being added withintheir industry and at the level
that they serve For Mass Inboundspecifically, though, there's a
couple of things that I thinkabout.
One it's very common.

(34:50):
You have different.
Let's take a step back realquick.
You have different types ofagencies.
You have premier agencies,which you just mentioned, like
Gary Vaynerchuk, right?
Premier agency is going to belike Ogilvy or, you know, maybe
Vayner Media or any of the.
There's big, big agencies thatwork with Fortune 500 companies
or something of that sort.
Then you have a tier that'slower than that and it continues

(35:12):
to go down.
It can go all the way down tothe individual themselves.
That's literally like they'redoing search engine optimization
from their house and it's justthem.
They're a solopreneur andthat's okay.
In many cases they're veryexperienced and they're
knowledgeable about the, thesubject matter.
The one thing that I havenoticed in the advertising world

(35:33):
that I do not agree with inmany cases is that you have to
create an if you want to createan agency that is um achieving
success by by some standard,whoever's standards.
These were when this whole ideacame about, that you need to be
good at one thing and you needto work within one industry.

(35:56):
For instance, you need to bevery good at Facebook
advertising, which would also beInstagram advertising, facebook
and Instagram.
Facebook owns Instagram, butyou need to be very good at
Facebook advertising and youneed to serve one specific niche
.
Let's say that niche was.
It can be anything like, let'ssay, car dealerships.
So the model that they say isyou need to be very good at

(36:19):
Facebook advertising and youneed to be very good at Facebook
advertising specifically forcar dealerships.
And they say that with thatalignment that you'll have more
success.
I don't agree with that.
I don't agree with that in alot of capacities, but mostly
the reason why I don't thinkthat I agree with that is

(36:39):
because I do not think that youare providing the best service
that you can provide to theclient.
I don't think that you makequality recommendations as an
advertising professional to thebusiness that you're working
with, because I think you'relimited in your understanding
and your belief in the angle toserve them best.

(37:01):
For instance, there is a pointof diminishing return for
advertising with Facebookadvertising on Instagram and
Facebook.
What is that diminishing return?
It depends on every industry.
It could be a hundred thousanddollars a month, it could be
five million dollars a month,who knows?
But what do you do with youradvertising strategy?
When you hit the point whereyou think that you're hitting a

(37:23):
peak of performance on thatplatform, you diversify your
advertising strategy.
You go from Facebook to Google,to OTT, ctv streaming, to
podcast advertising, to YouTubeadvertising.
There's so many other ways thatyou can implement advertising
practices into the palm of theconsumer's hand these days.

(37:44):
But the is if all I do isFacebook and Instagram
advertising for car dealershipsand they come to me and they say
well, you know, I think we'redoing really good.
Our cost per accusation is XYZ.
We're bringing in, you know, areturn on investment of XYZ or,
if it's a company that'se-commerce based, it might be a
ROAS, which is return on adspend of XY Y Z and you don't

(38:06):
have the ability to diversify.
Do you think you're going tosay, well, I can't serve you at
the best of my capabilitybecause I don't know how to
serve you and to help youdiversify, but I think that you
should go to another agency thatdoes the most.
Genuine person will do that,but it's hard to find and my

(38:30):
problem with that is that Ithink that the person that is
good at Facebook advertising andnothing against this person or
these types of agencies, but Ijust hope that they make the
quality recommendation right tothe organization to say you
should bring in another subjectmatter expert that's very good
at something that I'm not, oryou should become very good as

(38:54):
an agency to understand thediversification of advertising
as a whole, because when youimplement these strategies, you
can adjust budget based off ofseasonality, trends, based off
of cyclical events, based off ofall of these different things
that happen in the world.
That's going to help thecompany best perform, because

(39:17):
there's certain times a yearthat social media might perform
better than search engines, thatmight perform better than
streaming platforms.
But if you can't provide thesediversified solutions, you're
not going to recommend thembecause you just don't know.
You don't know.
What you don't know is what I'mtrying to get at.
The value that we bring as MassInbound is that we incorporate

(39:40):
a program that involves socialmedia advertising, search engine
advertising, ott and basicallystreaming advertising, whether
it's audio-based or TV-based,basically, which you would see,
like Hulu and Peacock and allthese other streaming-based
platforms, and then also we havethe ability to tap into

(40:03):
broadcast, which is traditionalTV and radio as a whole too.
So we offer a diversified planthat allows us to make the best
recommendation to a companybased off of where their
consumers are at a particularpoint in time that's going to
best provide them with asolution.
To do that, today you have towork at a premier agency.

(40:26):
As we continue to scale, you'reable to enter a company that
has the knowledge and experienceto diversify the marketing plan
of the advertising structurefor a clientele, but you're able
to do it where there's a morethorough, I would say, process
to ascension in the company.

(40:46):
Right, you're entering theearly stages of an organization.
You're not working with apublicly traded advertising
agency that's owned by a largeconglomerate.
You're working with a smalleragency that's growing at a fast
rate and your point of growthcould be in there early, almost
like working with a startup insome capacity.

(41:07):
Right, for some of the largestcompanies that we've heard of
today, you can enter in anearlier fashion and your point
of growth is larger.
So I think that's reallyimportant for someone to
understand.
You're getting a large basis ofknowledge and experience and a
high value from team members.

(41:28):
Now, to point out, we haveexperts in every single one of
these fields.
That's how we're able to dothat.
We're able to bring in a personwho just focuses on production
and just focuses on creativedevelopment, and then we have a
completely different person whojust focuses on meta products
Facebook and Instagram, who's anexpert at launching, executing,
building, managing Facebook andInstagram ads.

(41:50):
A completely different personwho manages Google and YouTube
products.
So the subject matter expert ishere and we're working in
synergy to work together tobuild the best advertising
program for a company, no matterwhat industry you're in.
So now are we more heavilyweighted in other industries
than in some industries andothers?

(42:11):
Of course, that is going tohappen for a lot of agencies.
But yeah, I think that thevalue that we bring to the, to
anybody that's interested inentering the advertising world,
is very, very unique, and it's agreat point in time to become a
part of that process.
And it's a great point in timeto become a part of that process

(42:32):
.
And then, of course, on top ofthat, the company morale that we
have here is really important.
Russell Branson said something,I think a couple of years ago
or whatnot, that as an owner oras someone that's higher in the
C-level position, I think thatyou have two jobs that are

(42:55):
really important One, puttingthe right butts in the right
seats and two, providing thosepeople in those seats with the
most resources or the bestresources to be able to perform
is really important, so I focuson that.
Like, the resources and theaccess to things that you can
get here are more grand than youknow, let's say, doing it

(43:15):
yourself or working at manyother agencies.
So I'm very big in providing andmaximizing the amount of
resources that every departmenthas to be able to perform at a
high level.
So, yeah, um, yeah, I I reallylove building a team and I think
that we offer a really uniqueexperience in the advertising
world, uh, with the studio andwith everything else that we do.

(43:36):
So there's there's many thingsthat I think I can continue to
talk about.
I think I rambled on here for acouple of minutes, but I'm
passionate about the value webring to the world.

James LaGamma (43:46):
Funny enough.
I kind of want to dive a littlebit deeper into this I want to
give you a scenario though Idon't want to give you a direct
question where you can kind ofjust go ramble on.
I want to give you a scenariowhere, okay, you've got this new
client that's interested.
It's in an industry that youguys have not touched yet.
I don't know if you have one,maybe top of hand, that you can
think of that maybe you don'twork on or have, maybe it's a

(44:06):
luxury product, maybe it'shealthcare related, I don't know
.
But in this scenario, you'vegot this new, this new client.
What are the steps that youtake to understand their brand
and understand their targetaudience and then implement your
strategies to best suit them asa solution and help build their
company and grow?

Kenny Massa (44:24):
Yeah, Great question.
So, uh of, I have a standardoperating procedure for this.

Ryan Selimos (44:29):
Aha there you go see.

Kenny Massa (44:31):
So this would fall into the advertising department.
First thing.
First we need to understandlike what is the company that
we're working with based ontheir budget?
What avenue of marketing are weexecuting?
Right, if they have a smallbudget or a smaller budget and
it's on a smaller scale, maybewe're only implementing Facebook

(44:53):
advertising or Instagramadvertising, but we're not able
to diversify quite yet.
We'll get there, but not quiteyet.
So it'll depend on what teammembers and what departments are
involved.
But nonetheless, the first thingthat we do is we bring in that
company and they go through anonboarding phase internally.
Well, we send them anonboarding form.
That onboarding form asks themany questions that are based off

(45:15):
of their brand and theirbusiness.
What is their unique valueproposition?
How do we understand theirbusiness?
As much as they know theirbusiness?
And it's like at that point intime, they know their business
more than anybody.
It's their business, and thatmight come from a marketing
manager, that might come from aCEO, a CMO.
We've had many circumstances.
There's a handful of differentpeople who could fulfill that

(45:39):
onboarding document for us, andthere's 20, 30, 40 questions in
there, depending on theindustries.
Some industries are longer thanothers.
Some industries are longer thanothers, but it helps us
understand their brand, theirvalues, their mission statement,
their team structure.
It helps us understand theirbranding, what they've done in
the past, where they've been,where they're looking to go,

(46:00):
where they are looking at directcompetitors.
So it focuses on their business, getting the picture, getting
the picture exactly and asthey're doing that, what we're
doing is we're doing basically amarket analysis and in that
market analysis, we look attheir business and we use a
variety of tools that allow usto see this from different
angles.
First, we'll look at theirbusiness, specifically their

(46:23):
assets.
So we'll look at their website.
We'll look at their to analyzethe performance of their site.
We'll look at their website.
We'll look at their to analyzethe performance of their site.
We'll look at their socialmedia assets, their search
engine assets, anything that wecan analyze and dive deeper in.
Of course, the more historythey have and the more
experience that they have from,let's say, working with in the
advertising world a little bitmore tedious of a process

(46:43):
because we have to dive deeperinto platforms, depending on if
they've had experience.
If they're just starting off,they don't have certain assets,
so we obviously can't divedeeper into that and analyze.
So we'll do an analysis on thecompany from a more in-depth
perspective of advertising, andthen what we'll do is we'll look
at it from an angle of marketshare and an aspect of

(47:05):
competitors.
Are they dealing with a localcompetitor base or a national
competition base?
And we'll analyze the leadingcompetitors for those spaces.
So when we do that, we can seeif they have been advertising,
what type of market share arethey dealing with, based off of
their advertising spend?
On their strategy, are theyreaching or are they maximizing

(47:26):
the potential reach of puttingtheir products or services in
front of the market?
That's, seeking that as a whole, and is it a highly competitive
environment or is it a lightcompetitive environment?
And in that, are they alignedwith the competitors?
Are they creating marketingpractices that are more enticing
to the population?

(47:46):
Every industry is different andevery business within an
industry has their unique valueproposition for that.
So there's so many differentthings that happen, but by doing
these two processes in synergy,we then come back, usually
anywhere around a week later.
We'll come back to the tableand internally we'll sit
together.
Okay, here's what the businesssaid about themselves, here's

(48:08):
what we saw in the marketresearch, and this is basically
what we've, what we put togetherand sit down in a room with
everybody that's going to beinvolved in that circumstance.
So our, our structure is alittle bit different.
Some agencies you'll have anaccount manager and that account
manager does basicallyeverything Google advertising,
landing page development, crmpractices basically everything.

(48:29):
Google advertising, landing pagedevelopment, crm practices,
execution and management of ads,creative development we bring
in a professional that's or anexpert, a team expert that's
basically a performer withineach of those fields.
So if we had a client that wasrunning a more diversified plan
of marketing, we'd bring in acreative person who's the person

(48:51):
that's going to be in charge ofcreative development.
We would bring in an accountmanager who's a liaison between
our client's business and ourbusiness.
So when they have something inneed, we have someone that goes
right to the team and ensuresthat all the pieces of the
puzzle are aligning and beingput together in a timely fashion
, with proper execution and inalignment with the expectations
of the client that we're workingwith.

(49:11):
We'll have a meta productspecialist that focuses on the
management, build out andexecution of the Facebook and
Instagram ads.
A Google product specialistthat will do the same in the
Google and YouTube world,potentially a streaming
professional that is looking atthings on the streaming sense,
whether it's audio or video.
And then we'll bring in a webdeveloper as well that ensures

(49:34):
that the practices for thelanding page development or a
website functionality, dependingon the industry and the
circumstance is to par right.
The big picture is to ensuresynergy between all of these
things.
Right, if something that you'readvertising on Facebook is not
correctly illustrated on yourwebsite, it's going to cause I

(49:55):
would say it doesn't causefrustration for the consumer,
but it does cause a lack ofsynergy and basically, a lack in
performance.
You will ensure higherperformance with more synergy
within the program.
So we're really crossing ourT's and dotting all of our I's.
This here this practice as awhole is unique and very missed

(50:17):
by a lot of agencies as you gothrough that tiered system from
premier agency to smallerstructures, because it's a lot
going on, there's so much stuffthat is involved with it.
So that's what we would do tounderstand the business itself,
the market that we're dealingwith, to understand where we are
, and then in the middle is howis the business that we're

(50:37):
working with performing withinthat market that we just
analyzed and then we puttogether a campaign.
We basically providerecommendations.
We have another call tofinalize that process.
We'll have a discovery callwith the client say hey, this is
our findings, this is whatwe've looked at, and we
cultivate a plan to move forwardto beat that and to basically

(51:00):
create new standards and breakthrough new heights for that
client by executing themarketing practices that we feel
is necessary.
So it's a tedious process inthe beginning to really execute
this strategy and it takesanywhere from seven to 14 days
to do all that.
It's pretty heavy in thebeginning but moving forward our
team is more aligned, theclient is more aligned, we're

(51:21):
all in synergy with the businessitself and then also the market
, and it just allows for betterperformance altogether.

James LaGamma (51:29):
That makes a lot of sense.
Makes a lot of sense.

Kenny Massa (51:33):
Yeah, so it's a lot goes into it, right, right.

James LaGamma (51:39):
So it doesn't seem like a simple SOP it's not
but it's years of cultivatingthat, that trial and error,
what's worked, what hasn'tworked, and your team keeps
getting into these otherindustries.
It now helps them grow, thinkof different angles, of
attacking them right, and it'slike you said earlier, with your
employees like it.
Just it makes a strongercompany.

Kenny Massa (51:59):
Exactly, and you have to also think that this is
a team of potentially five, sixpeople that are working on the
account when you hire, like ohyeah, you're bringing a whole
force.

James LaGamma (52:06):
Yeah, we're bringing a whole team, the
company gets to see what they'regetting.
Yeah, I mean, it's a lot ofvalue.

Kenny Massa (52:16):
Just in team member overhead as a whole, it's a lot
of money, right, but not evenbringing in the experience, the
credibility, the tools, theresources that we have.
It's a completely differentlevel than many cases.
So, yeah, it's unique, but it'sa really great way to ensure
performance and to ensure thatthe marketing program that's
being put in place is effective,is measured right, because what
you do not measure, you cannotgrow and is powerful, and it's

(52:41):
going to beat the marketingstandards that they've had in
the past and it's going to beatthe marketing practices that are
being implemented by theircompetitors to ensure that you
win.
And that's really we're inalignment with all of our
clients, like we want to win.
And that's our goal, our goalfor you is the same goal for
them, which is we want to win,we want to basically drive

(53:01):
revenue further and we want toensure that everything that
we're doing is being analyzed ina strategic manner, measured in
a strategic format, and I meanthe documents that I have have
endless documents that can allowus to analyze this.
We have marketing logisticsdashboards that we roll out that
analyze from a month to monthor week by week performance to

(53:22):
see where revenues are, analyzecyclical trends.
So the next year, when you workwith us, we know everything
that's going to happen in themost case, right Like you can
have an event like COVID orsomething that throws a turn in
things, but for many businesses,but all things remain the same
we can ensure cyclical trends.
Events that are happening inthe world that may pertain to

(53:43):
your industry are all beingtaken advantage of holidays,
sales events, black friday,different things like that,
right, all of these things arebeing taken advantage of to
maximize the potential revenuethat you can make and to ensure
that your company is scalingfrom year to year which ends up
keeping you with some higherclient retention we've had
clients for five, six yearssince we've been since they're

(54:04):
not having to bounce around andtrying to change to different
agencies and stuff.

James LaGamma (54:08):
They build that trust.
Yeah, and the more we learntogether, the since we're not
having to bounce around andtrying to change to different
agencies and stuff that they,they, they build that trust.

Kenny Massa (54:10):
Yeah, and the more we learn together, the more we
have that history and that data.
Right, data is really important.
The more we have that data,it's going to benefit the both
of us.

James LaGamma (54:18):
Yeah, exactly.

Kenny Massa (54:19):
Yeah.

Jonny Strahl (54:21):
So wealth of knowledge right Over the years.

James LaGamma (54:25):
So wealth and knowledge.
So, wealth and knowledge.

Ryan Selimos (54:30):
It to wealth and knowledge, to wealth and
knowledge.

Jonny Strahl (54:31):
It's a lot of coffee.

Ryan Selimos (54:32):
Knowledge isn't the coffee.

Jonny Strahl (54:35):
So you mentioned lots of coffee.
Obviously, you've been doingthis for quite some time.
The knowledge that you'vegained has been trials and
tribulations.
Yeah, walk us through just thejourney of sacrifice and the
journey of loneliness, and then,on the flip side, the power of

(55:00):
mentorship and how that's helpedyou within this journey.

Kenny Massa (55:05):
I won't dwell too long on the sacrifice, and it's
no difficult task to findendless content about the
difficulties thatentrepreneurship brings to
someone's life Like you can goon YouTube and find seven
billion videos on that.
And the one thing that I willpoint out is ensure and manage

(55:30):
and be aware of what isself-inflicted and what is not
self-inflicted, and what I meanby that is, if you have any
ability to change that, do it.
Like, don't sit there and thinkthat entrepreneurship is this
hard thing because everybodysays it's hard, it's fucking

(55:53):
hard.
It's hard because you're notfollowing a plan of directions
that someone else is giving you.
It's hard because theunexpected events is like a
punch in the face.
Like a punch in the face.
It's hard because there's apsychological and a mental and

(56:13):
physical element to buildingsomething that's bigger than you
.
We know it's hard, but dosomething about it and don't
dwell in that and allow theself-inflicted aspect of living
that day to day hinder your,your performance and hinder your
life.
So that's what I focus on and I, I, I just say that, like

(56:36):
everything I just said is what Isay to myself, like basically,
like hey, don't be a bitch, thisis hard.
You know it's hard, dosomething about it and then if
you feel like, oh, this isreally hard, go ahead and work
out like go run for three miles.
You know and we've.
We have endless episodes wherewe've talked about those things

(56:56):
that you do in hard times.
Like I'm just saying what Ifeel and why, what I think about
.

James LaGamma (57:01):
So the mirror is losing.
You look in that mirror andyou're telling that mirror
what's up.

Kenny Massa (57:07):
And don's up.
There's definitely times whereI'm like, fuck, of course it
happens and it's going to happen, but you can't let it dwell on
you.
And then, as you build a biggerprogram and I mean again, I
haven't built the biggest teamor the biggest company, there's
companies that are a lot biggerand it happens in stages, but if

(57:28):
I let something affect me, it'sgoing to affect my whole team
and I cannot allow that tohappen.
So there's definitelycircumstances where I'm like you
know, this is this is adifficult one to think about,
but I've realized, like you haveto, you know, just find your
space, um, and again, don'tallow it to be self-inflicted

(57:49):
Like you have to manage youremotions and your level of
awareness to a different levelthan you ever have.
And more experience, morethings that you do, builds more
scars, builds more awareness,builds more experience,
experience.

(58:10):
And you just take itdifferently and differently,
like something that I would havefreaked out about, like three
years ago.
Today I'm like all right, likewhatever it's normal day on the
job yeah, like okay.
And it's funny because I seesometimes like the team members
like they'll, they'll get likeall bent out of shape and I'm
like just do this, like you'regood like oh okay, but, like you

(58:33):
know, just don't, don't thinkabout it like, don't allow it to
be self-inflicted, so, um, theloneliness is gonna happen, and
I think that loneliness onlyhappens because you're not able
to work with someone thatunderstands you.
You're doing something.
In most cases that someone youjust can't go to, someone you

(58:58):
don't have a boss Like you arethe boss and you can't go to a
client, right, because it's like, well, fuck, the client's
paying you to do something andthen you can't, you know, and
they don't even know how to doit.
So, like that's not a thing.
But as you grow, that's whymentorship comes in, because in
many cases it's likely thatyou're you're not in a business

(59:18):
that no one else has ever beenin, right, there's other
agencies.
There's other agencies that arelarger.
There's other car dealerships,there's other car dealerships
that are larger.
There's other car dealerships,there's other car dealerships
that are larger.
So the case scenario withmentorship is just finding
someone who has synergy andunderstanding your industry or
the practices that you'reimplementing let's say,

(59:39):
advertising and is experiencedat that particular industry or
has been in the business, hasexited a similar business.
And that's what mentorship isjust finding someone that, or a
group of people that are likelyto understand your pathway,
whether that just be as broad asentrepreneurship, which I am

(01:00:01):
definitely involved in, thosetypes of groups and those
masterminds they're more generaland then you have your kind of
like deeper layer of that whichis now advertising professionals
and having your more selectgroup of people which might be a
mentor.
The mentor might be morealigned with your lifestyle,

(01:00:22):
entrepreneurship, and then yourindustry advertising.
So I think there's levels thatand and you can categorize that
as a whole, at first, for me,when I didn't, when I didn't
have a lot of money to spend oncommunity support or like
masterminds or events or summitsor members or mentorships or

(01:00:42):
communities, I would just go tolike panera on like a thursday
at like 7 a talk to people.
Um, like I did that for a longtime.
Um, and you can find me, go onmeetup and you can find that
shit all day.
Um, and I did that for a longtime until I outgrew it, and
then that's your goal is, like,I am in this group today.
How do I grow beyond this group?

(01:01:03):
And I think that's where peoplestay too long.
They get comfortable in thatgroup and I watch this so
carefully.
I will go into groups.
I'll be there until I feel thatI need a different level of
experience, a different level ofqualification, a different
level of you know, not be.

(01:01:26):
You can't be the smartestperson in that room, right?
So if you ever feel like youget to that you got to not be,
you can't be the smartest personin that room, right?
So if you ever feel like youget to that you got to go to a
new room, or whether you'relooking and evaluating that
qualifier as finances, if you'rethe, if you're looking at, okay
, I'm in this community becausepeople are more wealthy than me,
and then you're, you get tothat level of wealth, well, you
need to then go to a new room,like it.
Just you need to continue toescalate, that People stay in

(01:01:47):
that room too long, and that'sreally important.
Again, just a little differentof a level of self-infliction,
but being self-inflicted in thestate of your level of
performance meets your mentalcapacity towards understanding
where that performance lies andyou need to continue to scale
that in parallel with each other.
And we've all heard, the fivepeople you spend your time with

(01:02:08):
is most likely what youcultivate in your life and in
your environment, and I thinkthat there's truth to that in
some capacity.
But you know there's also nottruths in that as well.
I think it just depends on whatyou're getting out of that
community of five people andwhat you're seeking at that
point in time, because if you'reseeking relationships and
you're seeking wealth, thosegroups might be totally

(01:02:30):
different.
Or you're seeking relationshipsand you're seeking wealth,
those groups might be totallydifferent.
Or you're seeking, let's say,sobriety, and in that capacity
the group that you're with isgoing to be different than the
group that you're spending timewith, for who knows wealth or
business or entrepreneurship.
So it's just what you'reseeking in your personal life in
that current state, in thatphase that you're in.
Um, yeah, I can, I can go onabout that all day.

(01:02:50):
But basically you know, stay ontop of your stuff.
Don't let self-inflictedthoughts or processes keep you
in a place.
Everybody has dealt with itlike entrepreneurship is hard,
that's it.
If you don't want it to be hard, go get a job somewhere and do
something else like and that'scompletely fine but yeah, I
don't ever think about that everappreciate you sharing that and

(01:03:15):
I could see that and obviously,just as your, your friend here,
us three, like we've seen thatjourney, um.

Jonny Strahl (01:03:23):
So, in closing, um , obviously you've mentioned
investing in your people,investing in've mentioned
investing in your people,investing in your culture,
investing in your organization,mitigating risk, making money,
saving money.
What could you share with usand the viewers out there Just
looking ahead, what are yourbiggest aspirations?
Future state for Mass Inbound,tying it into.

(01:03:45):
If a viewer's out therewatching like, what can you be
doing as a better businessperson, entrepreneur, somebody's
trying to get better businessacumen, just trying to grow, you
just tie that all in um, so asfrom a business perspective, uh,
I think people are afraid oftaking risk in some sense, and

(01:04:08):
and there's a lot of risk inmarketing.

Kenny Massa (01:04:10):
Marketing could be similar to like investing right.
When you invest your money,let's say, in any type of
equities stocks, for example.
Let's say you have a portfoliothat you're investing into,
whether it's managed or not.
The example would be thatyou're investing into something
right and no one whether it's amanaged portfolio or it's you

(01:04:32):
managing it yourself.
Theoretically, no one withoutinsider trading would know where
that's going to go right, likeno one knows.
If I invest into Apple today,that stock is going to be at X
point in 30 days.
There's just no way for you toknow that.
Right?
That's the theory of investing.
It's similar in marketing right, you can align strategies and

(01:04:53):
practices with the bestprofessionals in the world to
ensure that you're going to havethe most likelihood of
performance, which is basicallywhat you're doing when you're
investing your money with anytype of big broker, big investor
, any type of big bank, anythingof that sense.
What you're doing is you'resaying that their experience, or
credibility, their knowledge,your experience is so good that

(01:05:15):
at least my chances are better,and that's what you're doing in
marketing as a business owner.
Don't let that investmenthinder your ability to invest
into marketing.
Marketing is a really greatpractice to scale your business.
It's the best practice you haveto, even if it's a hundred
dollars a day, even if it's $20a day $20 a day although it's

(01:05:39):
not going to massively changeyour business forever, it's
going to impact your businesswith more data, more
understanding and at one pointyou'll get a client that you get
from investing into marketingand it's going to be your oh
shit moment where you're like,oh shit, this works.
And then you're going to do itmore and more and more and in a
period of time, your business isgoing to be different.

(01:06:01):
So start investing intomarketing.
The biggest businesses advertiseand they advertise for a reason
they hit people in largequantities with a direct
initiative of understanding thattheir product and service is
best fit for that audience.
So start investing intoadvertising because it's really
important and I think that's whyyou know we continue to scale

(01:06:22):
our strategies and understandingand we bring in professionals
to cultivate a more thoroughmarketing program, because the
more we know, the more we canassist with businesses to scale
them and to affect peopledirectly.
So I think I answered one partof your question, which was what
would I say to business ownersInvest into advertising?

(01:06:43):
That's important.
The other part of your question.
Can you go back to the part two?

Jonny Strahl (01:06:51):
What are you most excited for?
Future state for Mass Inbound.

Kenny Massa (01:06:55):
Yeah, I think that the advertising industry changes
all the time.
There's no doubt about that.
It changes in great capacities.
But we have a four-step processthat we've built and it's taken
years to build, which is youhave to cultivate a game plan
that's going to align strategy,infrastructure, creative and

(01:07:17):
media buying.
And if you have these fourpractices in line with a
professional, whether it's ouragency or someone else then
you're going to ensure thatyou're basically putting
yourself in the best positionpossible.
So strategy is understandingyour business in more capacity,
your market in more of acapacity.

(01:07:37):
Infrastructure is where youdrive traffic your website, your
landing pages.
If you have a poor foundationof a house, your house isn't
going to be stable.
You need to have a stronginfrastructure.
Your infrastructure is yourdigital assets.
So, ensuring that the brandingis in synergy, ensuring that the
performance is in line to beable to bring in leads or sales

(01:07:58):
as highly as possible.
And then creative is reallyimportant.
Studios and having a creativeteam is really important, and
I've really invested more intounderstanding the creative
process.
The quality of the commercial,the types of people that you
bring into these commercials,the content that you're creating
, is really important.
So, creative, whether that bein a studio or on site at

(01:08:21):
anywhere a golf course or at astadium, a car dealership,
whatever serves your communityis important.
Invest into creative andunderstand that.
And then media buying taking allof these previous three stages
and implementing that into thebest position to be where your
customers are in the bestcapacity right.

(01:08:44):
So, if your customers are onsocial media, take that creative
and drive those people, withthat creative and with the media
buying, to the infrastructurethat you had, which all
encompassing is a strategy.
So I'm really excited aboutthat and continuing to implement
that into businesses.
Again, this takes a bigger teamto do, so we're always adding

(01:09:06):
more subject matter experts tothe team to develop more, more
of a diversified plan ofmarketing but more of a thorough
practice for creating the bestprogram for businesses.
And that's something that I'mreally excited about, which
means that, as a whole, studiostuff and different levels of

(01:09:27):
our business are to come as well, because we get more ingrained
with different studios and greenscreens and bringing products
in and going to places that wewould have never been, because
we're creating more content,we're creating more creatives
and diving deeper into theprocess.
So, as a whole, I think thatit's a really amazing thing that

(01:09:47):
we've built over the lastcouple of years, and we're only
getting started.

Ryan Selimos (01:09:54):
Well, for starters , man, just thank you.
Like Johnny said, we've been onthis ride as friends a long
time 10-plus years but wecontinue to learn more and more
about each other, and today wegot to learn a lot about you and
just your business and yourjourney.
So, for starters, thank you forsharing it with our uh
listeners and our subscribers,but thank you for sharing that

(01:10:14):
with us.
Um, and just we're, we're soproud of you, we're so happy to
be a part of this journey andwe're going to continue to be
right behind you, supporting it.
As you, like you said, you'rejust getting started.
We're just getting started.
So it's awesome, Um, and thiswas different for us as well
Just this style, this format, um, just a real good conversation.

(01:10:34):
So we might be looking at someof that in the future as well,
Um, but until next time thebender continues hey.