July 1, 2025 • 47 mins
Radio personality Jon Williams opens up about the art of authentic endorsements and his journey from failed baseball aspirations to becoming one of Northwest Arkansas' most recognizable voices. Williams shares how he pioneered a unique business model where he receives no salary from his radio station, instead earning his living entirely through commissions from brand partnerships.
What sets Williams apart isn't just his entrepreneurial approach, but his unwavering commitment to exclusivity. While most radio personalities might promote competing businesses on the same day, Williams maintains strict brand category exclusivity. "I won't have competing brands on my show," he explains, creating tremendous value for his 26 partners ranging from local businesses to national giants like Nestlé and Coca-Cola. This exclusivity has fostered remarkable loyalty, with many partners renewing year after year.
The turning point in Williams' career came from advice given by the late Cameron Smith, a legendary figure in Northwest Arkansas' business community. "John, you're a brand," Smith told him. "Build your brand. Don't build anyone else's brands, but yours and people that pay you to build theirs." This perspective shift transformed Williams' approach, helping him understand that his greatest asset was authenticity - only endorsing products he actually uses and believes in.
Williams also shares his deep connection to Northwest Arkansas, from emceeing charity galas that have raised millions for causes like type 1 diabetes research to his role announcing University of Arkansas sports. Through it all, his philosophy remains steadfast: real value comes from genuine relationships, not just transactions. For anyone looking to build a personal brand or create lasting business partnerships, Williams' journey offers a masterclass in the power of authenticity and strategic exclusivity.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, CharlesGreathouse.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I am James Harris , and today we're talking to
John Williams.
John wears a lot of hats.
John Williams, john wears a lotof hats.
So, among other things, he'sthe CEO and partner of 94.9
Radio John Deak, on-field andon-court announcer for the
University of Arkansas footballand basketball and emcee
(00:37):
extraordinaire for fundraisinggals here in Northwest Arkansas.
Welcome to the Retail Journey,john.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I made him put extraordinaire in there.
I was part of my rider, whichis quite extensive.
Did we get it?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
right sir.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You're eating Skittles, not the white ones
that J-Lo likes.
No, thank you guys for havingme.
I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Awesome, yeah.
So I ran into you two or threeweekends ago at it's called
Breakthrough T1D Right Right, sotype 1 diabetes.
The money from it used to beJDRF Right Junior Diabetes.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Research
Foundation.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, so the money really goes to researching a
cure for type 1 diabetes.
And we're talking in the lobbyafterwards and my wonderful wife
, who I come home at nightlistening, I listen to you guys
in the morning, I listen to youguys on the ride home because
you got the two segments now onyour radio show and she came up
(01:43):
to you which is not her normalMO, like, grabbed you by the arm
, said do you need to meet myhusband Cause he's your biggest
fan girl.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And she had me at hello on that one, I go okay and
uh, that was really first ofall that that event was first
class and having an Osage housewith.
Uh, people haven't been toOsage house yet.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh, it was my first time.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
That was also my first time and I had no idea
what an incredible facility thatwas, and so that was a
first-class operation.
They raised almost half amillion dollars.
Yeah, and their goal was nowherenear it was nowhere near it,
(02:28):
and that is what, as somebodywho has been deeply involved in
charity events across NorthwestArkansas, all I care about is
what's your goal, what do we get?
And it's my job, along with,you know, the event planning
committee and everybody elsethat runs those events, to break
the goal and they shattered thegoal and it was a team event.
Shout out to Kim Daniels andher team.
They did a really good job,incredible auctioneer, really
good job Also Allison Wise of4029.
(02:49):
And really it was a great eventand really unique.
It was not long.
I know a lot of people,especially in the vendor
community, who have to go to alot of these charity galas are
constantly.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh, they're early night.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, yeah, a lot of these galas go long, like they a
few hours, like people have aset amount of time.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We're not 20 anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
No 20 is that's in pictures that aren't on social
media anymore is what that is.
But I thought that event reallyhit the sweet spot.
Great auction items Not toomany, just enough.
A lot of great personaltestimony from people who are
type 1 children, adults, andthings like that.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I just thought it was a first-class event Do you have
a connection to type 1 diabetes?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I do Because you were on the board of JDRF for a
while.
Right, Full disclosure I wasthe first president of the board
of JDRF when that branch wasfirst created in Northwest
Arkansas in the early 2000s.
Because my son's mom is and hasbeen a type 1 diabetic since
she was 11.
And so when we had Jack it isthe understatement of the year
(04:01):
to say that was a challengingbirth time for him, and they
told us that up front.
They said because you'redealing with a type 1 situation,
you're going to have all thesepossible problems.
They made us go down to LittleRock, they made us go to UAMS
before we had all the hospitalswe have up here, and they put us
in a room and said you're 40%more likely to have spina bifida
(04:23):
, You're 40% more likely to haveall this litany of things.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
When he was born.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Before he was born we were getting the gender reveal
down there and basically theywere like OK, by the way, it's a
boy, and here's all the thingsthat could go wrong, just FYI.
So we're blessed and fortunatethat 23 and a half years later.
No, he's fantastic.
We're very, very fortunate andvery lucky, but not everybody
(04:49):
who is type 1 diabetic that haskids are, and so that's really
what we're trying to do isimprove the lives and, as we
like to say, go from type 1 totype none, which I thought was
clever.
I'm like 25 years, I hadn'tthought of that, where have I
been?
But that's what they'rebasically trying to put
themselves out of business.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, yeah, and like we do a lot of the charity stuff
, the industry we're in,whatever, but I'm a type one
diabetic.
How long have you been type oneAdult onset?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Really.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So I had a traumatic event.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Were you like 600 or something or low?
Were you high or low?
Oh, I was very high, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Like 800 or low.
Were you high or low?
Oh, I was very high.
Oh yeah, like 800 or something.
When I finally so I'd lost aton of weight, right, and I'm
drinking apple juice out of thecarton it's like, oh, this isn't
right no, I gotta tell you Iwas about 500, oh goodness yeah,
that's danger zone five, six ohmy goodness.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I'm so sorry.
No, it's just you know.
And so now you've goteverything all the technology.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I've got the pod right here.
I've got the technology.
I'm probably getting insulin aswe speak.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
People who are type 1 diabetic, are you okay?
People who were type 1 before,I would say, the year 2000.
Oh yeah, Technology wasstraight out of Flintstones man.
It Technology was straight outof Flintstones man.
It's a lot of guesswork, a lotof math.
You're like I think this is thelong acting, here's the short
acting, let's inject them both,and I think I need a Coke.
And it was just really a toughway to navigate it.
(06:14):
Witch doctor kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Oh my gosh.
I know a couple of guys.
They're twins, they're adultmen, they're close to my age,
whatever, um, and they had thegene which I didn't have the
gene different thing, um, butthey each had the gene and one
of them had a car accident oh no, and that triggered his onset a
car accident, car accident.
(06:37):
So if you have the gene right,a traumatic event can spur it oh
wow, and the other a coupleyears later had um like uh
pneumonia and that triggered ityeah so both of them are active
type ones.
Oh gosh, but it's a.
It's a weird, weird disease.
(06:58):
It is and there's a weirddisease.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think there's a lot here in 2020.
You know five we're stillfinding out about it, and that's
what the research is going foris to help people manage it
better and live their lives withit better, and events like that
one where I was lucky enough tomeet you is one of those things
.
And it's really cool howNorthwest Arkansas, specifically
the vendor community, is soinvested in projects and in
(07:24):
nonprofits like that one.
There's so many.
If I started naming them,someone's going to get mad.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's a huge, huge event.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I've been fortunate enough to be part of
Kissapig for I mean almost 18years.
They came to me first as acontestant and if anybody knows
about Kissapig, it's basicallyit's not a gala, it's 10 mini
galas wrapped in a gala and theybasically make all these people
have their own contest.
It's a genius business model.
It's a very late night too.
(07:52):
Oh it's.
I have gotten to the John QHammond's RIP Rogers Convention
Center at like 5 o'clock and notleft there until almost
midnight.
Yeah, on many occasions, andthey've had incredible
wallflowers and Blues Travelerand just incredible.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I saw Blues.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Traveler.
Yeah, yeah, so these eventsthat happen in Northwest
Arkansas are oftentimes the mostprofitable events that some of
these galas are like.
For example, I know for a factADA their most profitable event
every year is in NorthwestArkansas, at Kissapig, by the
way they do it.
So it's really cool the way theWalmart community, the vendor
community in Northwest Arkansas,really get behind some of these
(08:28):
things.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
There's always a couple of vice presidents at
Walmart that are in the runningfor the 10 people that are
bringing things in, and it makesa huge difference.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It does.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's not even the personalities, it's the strength
that you know Walmart talksabout this a lot that we have
such scale.
We can change the world, andthis is just a microcosm of it.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, so you grew up in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, I was born in Silent Springs.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So you have to deal with a lot of people.
I say deal with a lot of people, that's such a negative
connotation.
You have to deal with thesepeople, but you have to.
You encounter people that cometo Northwest Arkansas who have
only been here like a year twoyears, three years and they walk
around with their mouth agapegoing.
I thought I was coming toArkansas what is this stuff?
(09:15):
And it's just really cool tosee where we are now as a
community in Northwest.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Arkansas.
About a third of our company'srevenue comes through about two
square blocks in MidtownManhattan.
Yeah, To talk to them aboutwhat you guys do this weekend
and they'll ask me what I didand they're like, well, that was
just on Broadway last week.
We're not limited.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Access.
We have to cool things.
You could have always said thatno, no, of course not Always
said that.
When I was in junior high andhigh school there wasn't a
reason to come to Rogers orBentonville unless you had a
game.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, we talk about football baseball.
All the time.
I mean, what was the draw toRogers?
What are we?
Dixieland Mall Nothing.
What is it If you were in theOlive Garden?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Club, then you could drink Honestly, do you?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
remember this?
Here's fun.
Are you guys old enough toremember that every time I had
to cut a commercial on the radioor anything, and it was for a
bar or like Cafe Santa Fe?
Shout out.
Rip where I'd have to, thecommercial would always start
out the same way Attentionmembers and guests.
You'd have to say attentionmembers and guests before
(10:24):
anything that had anestablishment with alcohol in it
.
Yeah, and I'm like where?
What are we?
What am?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I, you had to sign the thing yeah, five dollars,
and then they would reimburseyou the five dollars the abc
laws that have existed in thisarea they're like it's um it's
something you know.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
For those that are considering bentonville, uh, it
is no longer a dry county, it'sno longer that.
Yeah, this is no longer thecase.
Well, I mean it has changed alot.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
That has changed quite a bit and it's funny you
say that because it's only been.
How long has it been thatBenton County?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
has been not dry 10 years.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
maybe I was thinking 10-ish, and now it's a
completely different place.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Growing up in Siloam, which was like if this little
pocket is conservative likeSiloam is even more so.
I drove through it last weekendwith my youngest son going to
Tulsa for a basketballtournament, and there's just
liquor stores and weeddispensaries everywhere.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
So I don't recognize this Asylum Springs and, by the
way, I apologize because I'msure people who live in West
Asylum Springs want me todifferentiate between the two?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
West Asylum, and Asylum has become a virtual den
of iniquity between all theliquor stores, all of the.
I mean you've got Cherokeethere now.
You've got weed billboardsevery 20 feet.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
It's Chick-fil-A also .
Well, don't forget Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Let's start with a number one.
But yeah, what?
Siloam Springs has become thewild west.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I expect you know.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Doc Holliday to come, let's go.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I never, never imagined it.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
No way you could have Like.
If you could have beenprojected into the future and
seen 2025 Siloam Springs, you'dbe like come on.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
No, no, no way no that's New York.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Is that a weed billboard behind the weed
billboard?
Yeah, that's what it is, Allright let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
What brought you to Northwest Arkansas?
Because you're not originallyfrom here, are you?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I'm not.
My mom is a native bread andbuttered Arkansan.
She is from El Dorado, which isLA.
Ed is lower Arkansas and sheand her whole family grew up in
Magnolia, el Dorado.
But we grew up.
I grew up in Colorado, in theshadow of the flat irons of
(12:43):
Boulder, in a town calledLongmont, right on I-25.
I came here to play baseball.
I came here originally to playfor Norm.
I was given an invited walk-onbecause clearly they did not
have a very good view of thevideo I sent them and they were
somehow mistaken into believingthat I could have pitched for
the University of Arkansas, aprogram that regularly puts
(13:04):
people in the major leagues.
I am 5'11" and at the time Iwas about 145, soaking wet, and
while I threw really hard for akid that looked like he was 11,
I did not throw nearly as hardas Scott Brokale or any of these
people that went on toincredible careers for the
Razorbacks.
So after about five minutes andrealizing what am I doing, I
(13:27):
stopped at the baseball, but Istayed at the U of A and I've
obviously not left Fayetteville,so you didn't play your full
four years.
Oh, play four years.
I stayed four years.
I did not play four minutes.
Norm bless his heart.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I tell this story all the time you were really good
in high school, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Editing videos Really good high school baseball
player and I probably shouldhave went the Juco route where
they could have put weight on meto where I looked like I wasn't
11 but 14 and would have hadmore success that way.
But I went straight.
I'm going right to the SEC totry and do this nonsense Clearly
had no male guidance in my lifetelling me that I was out of my
(14:04):
mind.
So I tried it anyway.
But I ended up going to the Uof A and journalism, getting
into the broadcast program,which back then wasn't much of a
broadcast program, until LarryFoley showed up a year after I
left, which I thought wasawfully convenient.
Now it's an incrediblebroadcast program.
It really is Kind of known forit.
Oh gosh, what they've built onthat campus for the U of A with
(14:27):
their broadcast, whether it'sKUAF and their new facilities
just off the square or that newTV studio they have in Kimple,
it's pretty impressive yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Excuse me, you met my daughter.
She has a twin brother.
Oh, and they're juniors thisyear.
Oh, and they're juniors thisyear, seniors in high school
next year.
So we've done a lot of campusvisits.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Are they Bentonville?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Rogers.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Rogers Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Mounties or Heritage.
She's a Mountie, okay.
Her brother is ProvidencePatriot, okay, yeah, nice.
So we're all split up all overSure Diversity.
That's right.
We've done a lot of campusvisits, but each one of them
independently did a U of Acampus tour and I'm not like a
(15:09):
big college guy.
I didn't quite finish, yeah,it's all right.
And most of my classes werelike after 7 pm.
There's nothing wrong with thateither.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Learning is not day specific, specific, but it is so
such a great campus.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh, it's so much fun to like all the history, all the
the stuff that just belongsthere, for I'm 150 years, isn't
it crazy, I'm biased.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I mean I'm again.
I'm from boulder and if you'venever seen the colorado campus
in boulder, it is breathtaking.
Uh, at the base of the flat.
It's just.
It's to me, I grew up with thatand that's just always like, oh
, such a beautiful campus, butthey didn't have a baseball team
, so I didn't go there.
I came to Arkansas where Iplayed baseball for four minutes
and my kid graduated highschool in 2020.
(15:53):
So we'll get into that later.
What a fiasco that situationdoing graduation ceremonies in
an empty auditorium via Zoom.
But he graduated in 2020.
And I'm like I'm trying to gethim to look at other schools and
I think that the reversepsychology of it actually drove
him to go to Arkansas.
Because we kept trying to go.
(16:14):
He's he wanted to be in, youknow, filmmaking, journalism,
things like that.
We're like, hey, mizzou's got agreat program and Kansas has a
really good and all this.
And he's like are and all this?
And he's like are you kiddingme?
No, I'm going to Arkansas.
And I finally was like let's goto Boulder, show you that campus
, walk around, it's justbeautiful.
And we walk around, take thetour, everything we get done.
We get in the car and he goes.
That's not Fayetteville.
(16:35):
He has this romantic ParisianEiffel Tower view of, like Old
Main and that campus.
He grew up on it, so it reallymeant a lot to him and he
graduated in December, so didsomething right, lucked into him
.
Did he have a moped on campus?
He didn't.
He lived in the Friscoapartments down on Dixon and
(16:58):
West, which is a whole otherpodcast entirely.
But he lived down there and,yeah, he got through covid, all
the zoom classes, not entering abuilding until like three
semesters into his career and,uh, challenging time for him to
graduate high school and go tocollege.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, yeah I help, uh , with the, the youth, that
fellowship, they call it fsm,and my guys are all seniors
graduating actually this weekendoh wow, from Bentonville.
I've known them since they werefreshmen, right yeah yeah, yeah
, so the way they do the cellgroup.
I've been discipling these guyssince they were freshmen.
It's just been a really, reallysweet time and they're awesome.
Shout out to the guys yeah, butI don't know.
(17:40):
It's an exciting time, maybe 15of them are all going to U of A
.
Oh yeah, I expect to be spendinga lot more time down on campus.
Well, and we?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
appreciate there being more Arkansas kids on that
campus and not having Texasplays.
I'm not judging or sayinganything bad.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
There's plenty of great Texans.
But, yeah, no, these guys a lotof them had options all around,
but at the end of the day it'slike no, this is a great school,
great environment.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
There's some great programs.
Obviously the business schoolshout out the Walton Business
School and there's someincredible engineering.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I'm the only supply chain in the country.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I mean, I wonder why?
Gee, definitely if you want togo into supply chain management
or anything.
As far as business Marketingprograms are good, Absolutely.
I have a couple of journalismguys too.
Absolutely right.
Yeah, and you know it's coolseeing a lot of the U of A alums
go on to like Good MorningAmerica, the Weather Channel,
(18:32):
you know stuff like that.
It's really awesome.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, yeah, I want to talk to you about like on field
, on court, all that stuff, butlet's do a little like meat and
potatoes here first, little likelike meat and potatoes here
first.
Um.
So it's the retail journey,right, and we, we generally we
don't always, but we generallytalk retail, um, and when we
were chatting earlier this week,you have a lot of brands, right
, like national brands, thatcome on your, your, your station
(18:57):
, hire you for kind of localmedia, similar to the billboards
you see on walton boulevard,right, absolutely right, talk a
little bit about that.
What, what that brings to themin terms of exposure.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Happy to.
So I've been in radio, asyou've both illustrated and as
we've talked a little bit about.
I mean, I began my career in 93.
And so this is my 32nd year onthe radio in Northwest Arkansas,
and so for the vast majority ofit is one of the situations
where you go find a big companythat has a radio station and
then, hopefully, if you do getenough show, they pay you and
(19:31):
yay, I get to be on the radio.
And then you get a salary andthen it basically your.
Your salary is derived from theratings that you get through
either Arbitron, nielsen or whathave you.
But then, as radio began tokind of get like, started to
shrink a little bit and bigradio conglomerates began to get
rid of big salary local talentAbout 2010, I kind of saw the
(19:52):
landscape and I began to realizethat if I was going to stay in
this medium, I needed to becomethe salesperson.
I needed to be the one to go outand get the clients, get the
brands local, national, whathave you and make money.
Uh to where the situation was,they saw more ROI by having me
endorse their brands on my showand not having the middleman of
(20:16):
the salespeople.
I'll be the salesperson, and soI began that in 2010.
And when you start somethinglike that, it is not easy.
Uh, no one's doing what I wasdoing, right, and and so you
kind of had to build it's thecoolest part of it it, yes, I
and I I am a rare personalitytype to where I don't really, uh
(20:37):
, feel fear.
Um, I really don't thinkthere's anything if I, if I just
I just feel like I can do it,yeah, and so I knew that I was
immediately foregoing, cause Imake no salary, I don't make a
dime from my company, doesn'tpay me any money in salary, and
so all of my compensation comesfrom a commission of these
(20:58):
partners, and so, therefore, Iam incentivized to just keep
going out there, finding thepeople that I think fit the
loyal and royal army the best,and fortunately, that is
everybody, from small businessesreally small businesses to
Nestle, um, and Coca-Cola and,uh, sonic and things like that.
(21:19):
Yeah, and so I've been doingthat for 14 years.
I actually love doing it.
I'm very competitive, and so Ilike to sell, because I like to
beat other people in sales, andI'm very, very, um, I guess you
would say protective of thebrands, of the of the people I
get on my show.
I care a lot about peopleknowing those brands, to the
(21:43):
point where if you were to go toanybody in my audience and ask
them I'm going to say a categoryyou tell me who John and Deke
have on there.
Like you go to them and gowho's their furniture store, get
it at Sam's, who's their liquorstore, mcadoodles, who's their
pharmacy, call your drug.
You can go right down the line,because I do only exclusivity.
I won't have competing brandson my show and I think that
(22:05):
those brands see the ROI fromthat when they can drive down 49
, look up at five billboards andsee four HVAC companies in a
row where I don't think peoplereally get much ROI out of that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Well, I don't know just as a listener for years,
like if there's four options forsomething but one is sponsoring
the loyal and royal right.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Thank you, and that's the goal.
And I'll tell you this and it'sone of those chicken or the egg
things Are they a huge brandBecause I gravitate towards, or
do I help make them biggerbrands?
I'd like to think it's a littleof both.
We try really hard to Deke andI really care about letting
everybody know that when we buya car, deke has and I'm not
(22:48):
exaggerating, deke has probablybought 11 cars from Rath
Mitsubishi.
They only trade out like everysix months or so it feels like
it's every much more than that,but we joke that we will pull up
into the same Collier Drugparking lot at the same time we
go to McAdoodles.
Everything in my home is Sam'sfurniture and Benjamin Franklin
(23:11):
does our plumbing.
Everything that we talk abouton the show is in a form of how
they have made our lives better,and so that's what we try to
impart to our audience.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I feel like it's easier to talk about the things
you authentically feel,especially in an environment
where just reading off of ascript is felt like nobody.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And you know what people aren't dumb, they people
have a bs meter and they theycan tell when you're like this
guy doesn't write, like you'llwatch a like I don't know.
I'm trying to think of a like anational, uh spokesperson.
Like when you see somebody likea kardashian and and they're
endorsing like hyundai, come on,what does it?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
mean, am I really gonna think that kim
kardashian's and they'reendorsing like hyundai?
Come on, what does it mean?
Am I really gonna think?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
that kim kardashian's rocking a santa fe.
I I have a hard time believingthat.
I of course I'm making both ofthose up and I'm probably gonna
hear from their attorneys, but Imean, it's things like that
when you're, when you, when youhear the like tiger woods does
not wear a tag hewer.
Uh, you know, let's be honest,although tag here is a great
brand, you know he's probablywearing a rolex or you know
(24:14):
something like that you can.
You can hear in a podcast whenthey go from sharing the thing
that they care about to readingthe scripts that they're getting
paid to say exactly, right,exactly hit, like and share and
you know, just they mail it in,and when we do endorsements on
our show, it's's I mean weliterally integrate their brand
with our brand into the story,where people don't know the
(24:34):
difference.
And so that is what we havetried to do and fortunately
we've got 26 partners on ourshow right now.
A lot of national brands, a fewvendors are on there, and it's
great.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
This is way off topic , but do you ever listen to?
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I'm a very big fan of Conan O'Brien's, but Deke is a
way bigger fan of ConanO'Brien's.
Letterman's my guy.
I grew up with Letterman andwhen I got to go up that's a
whole other thing.
I could do a show and thesecurity guard could see what a
complete nerd I was about it.
And after the show was over I'mstanding around just like am I
going to see anybody?
This would be cool.
And he goes you want to sit inthe chair?
I go what the chair?
(25:14):
And he goes you want to sit inDave's chair?
Get a picture.
Oh, wow so my wife and I werethere and everyone had started
filtering out and we just kindof crept up there.
I sat in Dave's chair, she satin the out a picture that will
(25:34):
probably be on an easel in myfuneral, that photo.
But to answer your question,yeah, conan o'brien, I think is
a masterful.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
And the reason I ask is because you know the podcast
venue if you're commercializingit is is pretty unique.
And yet there's the if youhaven't seen it, you should pull
it up on youtube where he doesan ad for a bidet oh, go on.
And he clearly hadn't read thescript until it was being
recorded and he just goes, hejust goes insane.
(25:59):
It's the funniest.
It's probably the funniestsegment that he's done on his
podcast.
That is genius.
But I'll tell you I'm not goingto go into it.
It's a little a little, alittle vulgar, but it is so
freaking funny and you know.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
what's funny is that initially I'm sure that the
marketing people were actuallythe higher People, higher than
the marketing people of thatbidet company probably lost
their minds when they firstheard about it.
They're like oh great, conanO'Brien's just dragging our
brand of a bidet.
But then the marketing peopleare like do you know how viral
this is?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Do you know how many clicks this is getting?
It's got 30 million views onYouTube or whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
We did a thing just this morning just this morning
on the show because we've gotOzarks Go on the show.
They're the official internetof the Loyal and Royal Army.
Thank you so much for allowingme to do this and they came up,
they go to us and they go.
Here's the promotion.
If you're a brand new Ozarks Gocustomer and you use the phrase
loyal and royal three, it'sthree free months.
Now we can say that incommercial form and endorsements
, all we want.
But Deke and I mostly Deke satdown and wrote an entire song
(27:02):
out about it on our show.
That sounds like Dio.
I don't know how many RonnieJames Dio fans we have.
I bet you could count them onone hand that are watching this,
or maybe they're bigger than Ithink.
But we did a whole song aboutOzarks Go and Loyal and Royal 3
and the whole thing and I meanit's a banger.
Love it.
It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Is it on YouTube or something we can look at?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
We'll probably put it at least on our social media
page, but we just did it thismorning and I mean we sent it to
Ozarks Go and they lost theirminds.
They loved it.
It's so great.
How many of these can you do?
So, yeah, finding new ways,like you were talking about with
Conan O'Brien, is really.
It's the key to get in, to findhow it sticks in people's minds
(27:44):
.
Yeah, I love that story aboutthe bidet, though You've got to
look at it.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That is classic.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So we talked a little bit about your kind of unique
model in terms of a radiostation.
When we chatted, uh, last weekor week for whatever, um, I said
I assume that there's other youknow markets that have a model
like this that you like learnfrom.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
You know there may be one, I'm pretty right, and
there may be one.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I'm pretty right.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
And there may be I.
I I'm not going to sit here andgo.
I'm the only one in America.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So so we use this thing in our, uh, in our company
, uh, called the five voices.
So, and the five voices?
There's a pioneer, a connector,um, a creative, a guardian and
a nurturer.
Wow Right, and that you've gotall five of those voices, but
they're in different rankings.
(28:33):
So like I'm the pioneer, Likethat's my primary voice in the
company, which necessitates thatyour last voice is nurturing,
correct?
Matt absolutely right, doesthat ring true?
Speaker 3 (28:49):
It does, and because of the fact that it's it's you
know, they named the stationafter us.
I mean, they, they, which Ithought was really great, and
that's what we wanted to do.
It was like, if we're going tocome over here, which was nine
years ago, next month um, we aregoing to be the brand, and so
at that point, it's the littlein royal army, it's radio John
(29:12):
Deak, and so there, now you'reprotecting not only the brands
of your you know, your partners.
You're now you're going toprotect your brand because now
you're worried about how you'remelding the two.
And that's what I'm mostgrateful for is the fact that
these brands have trusted us toelevate their brand awareness
and their brands within the callto action to people to actually
buy their products at points ofsale to our show, which I'm
(29:35):
incredibly grateful for.
Every day we get to do that,yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
That's really cool.
You shared something with methat I want to bring up.
This community knows CameronSmith well.
Rest in peace.
He's either gotten a person ajob or filled a person's open
role or donated a guitar at.
You know, kiss Pig.
What's your?
(30:01):
You have a connection toCameron.
What's your connection?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I do.
Cameron was a mentor to me buthe was a mentor to a lot of
people.
He's, I mean, I'm, you know, boMattingly and Aaron Peters and
a lot of guys kind of my age.
I'm a little older than both ofthose guys, but guys my age,
people my age, neely Jones, hementored quite a bit A lot of
people.
That would be he would meetpeople at galas and that's how
(30:26):
he would get with them and start, and I don't even know that he
did it intentionally, he justwas a helpful person.
And the story that I, how I metCameron, is crazy.
I was emceeing the Hope CancerResources Gentleman of
Distinction in honor of BillFlayman, who was an amazing
entrepreneur in NorthwestArkansas and he passed away
(30:47):
sadly of cancer.
And I was emceeing the gala andthey had the situation to where
I emceeded but at the end inNorthwest Arkansas and he passed
away sadly of cancer.
And I was emceeing the gala andthey had the situation to where
I am seated but at the end theywere supposed to have somebody
that was going to do.
I think it was John George thatwas going to do the ask and he
couldn't make it that day and soabout 20 minutes before the ask
.
I am not making this up.
They come to me and they go.
John, john, george cannot makethe ask, or could you do that?
(31:11):
And I'm like I've been askingthese people for money for an
hour and 45 minutes.
Now you want me to get up andgo?
Hey, everybody, I appreciateeverything.
I'm going to need.
More money is what we're goingto need, and so that's exactly
what had to happen.
But I had never done an askbefore, really, and so I just
like well, how can I bestconnect with these people to do
(31:31):
this?
And that's what I did.
I just tried to extrapolate itinto, you'd think, $50, but it
really it's a gas tank forpeople going to Nartai and
things like that, and I squeezedthat orange as best I could.
They got a stack of likeenvelopes like this, and they're
like that was crazy, mike, youjust shot us past our goal.
It was just great.
And so afterwards, this isgoing to be a reference
(31:53):
everyone's going to enjoy.
We all congregate at EddieHaskell's RIP, shout out and we
go there and we're all justhaving a great time, and a
gentleman walks up to me and hegoes.
John, I want you to know thatI've been in boardrooms from
Miami to LA and that pitch yougave at the end you could have
(32:13):
put in any boardroom and he justgoing on and on about it and I
go.
This guy is really nice, thankyou.
And I'm just talking to him forfive minutes, never got his
name, never got anything.
He's just very Natalie attired,gorgeous wife and I'm like, wow
, that was great.
So he walks off guy next to me,he goes.
You don't know who that is doyou I go, I don't.
(32:35):
And he goes.
That is Cameron Smith and I go.
Now I knew his name, obviouslyfrom CSA, but I had never met
him or seen him.
And they go, go get his card,get his number.
What is wrong with you?
Go talk to him and sure enough,I go over there, I go.
(32:56):
Mr Smith, I appreciate all thekind words and we became really
close from that point on and hechanged my life.
Yeah, he totally did.
I was there was one point in mycareer when I it was right
before I had gotten the businessmodel to own my show and do all
this and I was really unhappywhere I was and I could just see
the future of them getting ridof high talent, morning talent
and things like that.
And I go to Cameron, I go, youknow your people make X and
(33:16):
suppliers make Y and I just wantto do that.
And he goes what are you saying?
You want to be a vendor, youwant to work for one of these
companies?
I go.
I mean I know a lot of peoplethat do.
My son's mom has been in thevendor community for 20 years,
loves it, great at it.
And he goes you just want to goaround and knock on the door
and sell Welch's grape jelly orHeinz 57 or to some buyer that's
going to squeeze you formargins and that's what you,
(33:39):
that's what you want to do.
I go, I don't know.
He goes.
John, you're a brand, yeah, andit was like a light, oh, this
moment of illumination.
And he goes build your brand.
Don't build anyone else'sbrands, but yours and people
that pay you to build theirs.
And it changed my life.
(33:59):
And on top of that, he justbecame one of my best friends
and he and Monica were just thevery best.
They would have fireworks every4th of July at Shadow Valley.
And just he was.
He was an incredible person andjust grateful.
He was someone that tookinterest in me and took me under
his wing.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, yeah, and most people in the community have
some sort of a connection toCameron.
Mine was, uh, when I firststarted the business, um, I was
working with a former businesspartner of his and they were
still friendly.
And he goes hey, we come in,like we've only been hiring for,
like, salespeople andexecutives and we're going to
(34:39):
start hiring for analysts, likethe people that are getting
their hands dirty.
We come in and give myrecruiters uh kind of an
understanding of what the skillset is, right.
So I put together an hour,whatever 45 minutes worth of
content, came in and did it.
I was walking out and he shookmy hand.
(35:01):
He's like you have an iou withme, I'll give it whenever you
want to call it in oh wow, I'lldeliver that's a powerful.
Right, right, and I held it fora long time.
You know, and I have twobrothers and my oldest one he's
a pharmaceutical rep.
He was getting kind of wary ofthe industry Because he layoffs
(35:23):
every three years and you got tostart over, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
There's no loyalty in that business.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And he came to me and goes hey, I want to become a
salesperson for CPG.
How do I do that?
It's like well, you probablygot to become an analyst.
You kind of got to work yourway up.
You know, like I'm not surehere's the path.
I'm not sure your skillsnecessarily transfer Right.
He goes well, I mean I've gotthis advanced degree or whatever
.
He's like well, okay, if youreally want to push it like here
(35:52):
, call Cameron.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I sent him a note and I was like here's my IOU meet
with my brother.
Oh wow, you used your IOU onthis and they sit down.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Does this guy know?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
And they sit down and he lays out what he wants to do
and Cameron goes.
Why are you talking to me yourbrother's like retail link guru?
And Cameron goes.
Why are you talking to me, yourbrother's like?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
retail link guru.
He just saw things quicker andin ways you didn't see them.
It was such a talent, yeah,that he would have such
perspective.
He was also the first person totell me to do fewer events,
because the perception is thatyou've got to do more events.
That way it's exposure.
Exposure equals likefamiliarity.
Familiarity means that peopleare more comfortable and the
(36:33):
whole thing.
But he goes John, you areentering overexposure territory.
He goes I do a gala.
I see you, I open, celebrate orCityscapes magazine.
I see you, gala, icu.
I opened, celebrate orcityscapes magazine, icu.
And uh, you need to makeyourself more exclusive.
And and he, he was the one thatgave me that advice.
I, there was a point where Iwas doing a gala every four to
(36:53):
six weeks.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
it was maniacal if they're hard to do here.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Well, right, I mean you could do one every week,
honestly, and and I I took hisadvice and now I only do like
three a year, um, and it was oneof the smarter again, every
piece of advice he ever gave meturned out true and helped me.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
We see the full circle of like only working on
the things you're close topassionate about, so you can
speak authentically.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Right, and that's how I actually got into it was
through JDRF and things likethat.
But then you do those events.
You keep breaking goals andit's a good problem to have is
when they want to have you beinvolved with it and I'm
grateful too.
Like the Cancer Challenge isamazing.
The Gentleman of Distinction isfantastic.
I mean, just go right, there'sso many amazing events in
Northwest Arkansas but you can'tdo all of them.
(37:38):
And he was right.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I mean, I got to the point where I would open up.
Cityscapes and I'm there fourtimes.
I'm just like that's not maybetoo many.
Yeah, yeah, the it resonates alot in this space.
There's a lot of brands thatare at Walmart that want to, you
know, execute at a higher level.
There are, there are a wholelot of brands that are not at
Walmart that would like to be atWalmart executing at that high
level.
Um and so you know us here atHigh Impact, we, we.
I was told early on when I wasgetting here, like you know, the
most important thing is whoyou're saying no to, so that you
(38:11):
are, you know, tied to thosethat you really should be tied
to.
Yeah, and you know, early on Iwas kind of like you know, I'd
like to have a few yeses andthen we'll work on the no's, but
.
But now we're at this stagewhere it's becoming so evident
and we're having to say no.
And it's hard because you wantto be able to help, but I can't
(38:34):
operate at a high level if I'msaying yes to everything.
We need to be able to paceourselves so that we're able to
deliver.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
That was the difficult decision I made and I
have had people from thestations I'm on to everyone go.
Why the exclusivity?
You're cutting off such arevenue stream.
If you listen to most radiostations, they'll have three
different car remotes on aSaturday at three different
locations.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
You've bastardized your brand.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Oh my God, and you'll Lewis Ford won, and then you'll
be at the auto park, and thenyou'll be at McLarty.
And don't get me wrong, allincredible dealers, all
incredible things, but what areyou telling all of them?
When you're 10 to 1 at oneplace, I'm like, all right, man,
cool, thanks a lot.
And then an hour later you'reat a different place.
I think that when I doexclusivity and like you're
(39:34):
talking about saying no tocertain things and saying yes to
the ones that you want tonurture a relationship with, I
have just been fortunate thatfor the entirety I've had people
just renew every year, everyyear after one, after like Sam's
and Collier's and Macadoodle'sand on and on, because they
exhibit the loyalty that I tryto give them, and so it has paid
off in spades.
I'm sure I've cost myself moneywith that, but I would rather
have someone who knows that I'mloyal to their brand than
someone who's going to besitting there going I don't know
man.
Is he talking about mycompetitor now?
Speaker 1 (39:56):
And you create real value, right?
I've talked a lot lately.
As I'm talking to people, it'slike you know I don't actually
want to receive a resentfulcheck from a partner Because,
well one, no one's going towrite a whole lot of resentful
checks.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
They'll stop at some point.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
But, like no, I want to have deep relationship.
I want to be able toauthentically be grateful for
partnership and want them to begrateful, because that's the
kind of thing that has stuckaround at high impact for 14
years.
Is the folks that haveexperienced that?
I'm thinking of one.
I love that.
14?
That's about to bow up on you.
(40:32):
You'll get it buddy For a longtime 19 in July.
I think there's something therefor everybody that a spirit of
fear isn't actually helpful.
Useful that you have no fear,um yeah so that wasn't going to
be part of it.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
I'm a little too unflappable, which is is both
phenomenal and there's a side tothat there is, uh, like it's.
It's the reason I I startednoticing this.
I'd be at midfield.
There's 77 000 people inraiseback stadium and I'm just
like, all right, I guess I'mgonna do this thing here on the
field.
Just numb, it just doesn'taffect me.
(41:08):
It's weird, I don't know, it'salways been that way.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
You can see it when you're on the court or on the
field.
You can see it Like you'rethere, You're doing a job.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I am, you're not aware of the people around you?
Yes, correct, but the mass, no.
If I'm engaging with someone,pressure is not a felt pressure,
right?
If I'm like doing thewhataburger fry shuffle, which
razorback twitter loves so much,uh, or the tic-tac-toe, which
they love even more, uh, I, I,yeah, I'm interacting in that
fashion, but I, I really don't,I don't really think about the
(41:36):
other people, I'm just doing mybest job and super helpful well,
without having fear, maybeavoid mountain biking, uh uh,
yeah, so we live next to uh thetrail.
We live next to the the trailbecause it's so what a blessing
to have that north of arkansas.
It's because we live in johnsonand I mean we are 500 yards
from that trail and I we havestarted using the heck out of it
, and mountain biking doesterrify me even though I grew up
(42:00):
in colorado because everyone Iknow that mountain bikes it
takes about a year, year and ahalf.
Everyone wrecks, breaks acollarbone.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Yeah, bingo I got a new one collarbone got a new one
a couple years ago.
Yep, have you.
What's your worst accident?
I have a new collarbone.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Yeah, I got that you have a new collarbone.
You got one on each sidebrought to you by mercy.
What is this?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
almost skiing um no orthopedics yeah, I got to pay
full price.
There was no sponsorship and nodiscount for the second either.
Oh man Got the full.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
You can't buy them in a bundle.
Let me just say, your podcastfor the next year is brought to
you by Ozark Orthopedics onFutual Road in Fayetteville.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Dr Kaler.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Exactly.
This is awesome.
I'm afraid we've exhausted ourtime here.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
I do that every time.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
We normally do a lightning round.
We can be quick.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Biggest failure, biggest failure.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Maybe that you learned from Biggest failure
that I learned from.
That's a tough one, I would say.
I got syndicated early, early,early in my career, like in the
late 90s, and I did not handleit the way I would handle it now
and I would definitely go backand handle that differently Big
time.
Big time Impestuous, just yeah,that was my biggest, that comes
(43:20):
to mind.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
So, over the last year, year and a half, whatever,
things are changing at a crazypace, right.
What are you taking away?
What's your learnings from thelast year or so?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
In America or the world, or Particularly in
business.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
But if you want to get it into the personal, that's
fine.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
The one thing I think is, the bigger things and the
more complicated things, themore simple it is I love.
What we just talked about isthe.
It always comes down torelationships in business.
It always comes down tohandshakes, names, neighborhoods
, making people feel like theymatter.
Um, that I always tell mypartners uh, the more you give
(44:02):
me, the creatively, the betteroff our campaign is going to be,
things like that.
And so people start reallyworrying about you know, you
guys are doing a podcast.
Did you think five?
I mean you know in a long time.
But like, this thing is such agreat idea, it's so cool.
People need to be doing more ofthis and they are.
But you had.
(44:23):
Do you remember the inflectionpoint when you realized you had
to do a podcast?
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Oh, yeah, yeah, we wanted to, non-pretentiously,
actually help people.
Thank you.
And how can you give goodinformation without just feeling
?
Speaker 2 (44:36):
like you're bragging about your thing.
Also being known for that.
Also being known for that.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
And we're a consultancy at our core.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Have you had good response within the Walmart
community, vendor community,things like that.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Plenty of merchants that have shared different
podcasts as we talk throughlessons for new buyers or even
on the supplier side.
When you're navigatingomni-channel growth, what are
the things you need to payattention to?
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
That's a smart idea.
So, yeah, I think that peopleare realizing that there's new.
Like you see movies nowadays,you used to never see people sit
down for 30 seconds Like TomCruise with Mission Impossible.
He has done every kind of mediain the last two months Months,
I mean two years for this, Iread.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
he almost died in his last filming.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
I'm not shocked.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Doing one of his own stunts that that guy does all
his own.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
That's crazy, the stuff he does.
So, yeah, I think people havehad to kind of evolve their, the
way they perceive what theirjob is based on, how you get a
kind of connectivity andtraction, yeah, with these
brands yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
And then last one uh, what's the you know content
you're taking in?
What do you, what are youenjoying lately?
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Oh, a lot of streaming, a lot of Netflix, a
lot of Hulu, a lot of Handmaid'sTale, a lot of Severance, a lot
of oh, there's so many goodshows.
There's so many good showsright now.
I mean right.
To me, Severance is the bestthing that's happened this year
TV-wise.
It's such a mind bender man.
You know what it is?
It's Stanley Kubrick doing theOffice.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
So if the Office were done?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
If the Office were done in like 2001, A Space
Odyssey.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
That's what Severance is yes, oh my gosh, that's so
true, that's beautiful.
And then, if I see the Office.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I'll just stop and watch the next five episodes, as
long as it's not the lastseason or two, which are garbage
without Michael Scott.
I'm a big Nuggets fan.
I do like the Will Ferrellseason.
You know what I did like thatand James.
Spader's appearances wereamazing.
And then I'm a huge Razorbackobviously fan and Broncos
hopefully, you know, don'tembarrass me this year.
(46:40):
So yeah, stuff like that.
A lot of sports, a lot ofbaseball, royals fan.
I'm the weird Kansas CityRoyals, denver Broncos fan,
which is an odd hybrid.
So, yeah, hopefully the Royalsdoing great Bobby Witt we know
we got the Walmart connectionwith that, so excited and thank
you so much for spending timewith us today.
My honor man, super gracious todo it, would do it.
(47:05):
Would you have me back?
I would definitely have youback, okay, all right, I'm
honored.
It's a great job, man, and Iwant you guys to know they have
an entire sheet of notes.
These guys are prepared.
They ain't just like winging it, this is a real operation, so I
dig it.
Good job guys.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I appreciate it, man, absolutely.
I really appreciate you comingon.
It's a treat to me personally.
Well, I loved it.
I'll come back, all right, andthank you all for joining in.
Um, you can, as always, you canfind all of our podcasts audio
video on highimpactanalyticscomor wherever you get your
podcasts, and I appreciate youbeing with us today.
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, CharlesGreathouse.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I am James Harris , and today we're talking to
John Williams.
John wears a lot of hats.
John Williams, john wears a lotof hats.
So, among other things, he'sthe CEO and partner of 94.9
Radio John Deak, on-field andon-court announcer for the
University of Arkansas footballand basketball and emcee
(00:37):
extraordinaire for fundraisinggals here in Northwest Arkansas.
Welcome to the Retail Journey,john.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I made him put extraordinaire in there.
I was part of my rider, whichis quite extensive.
Did we get it?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
right sir.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You're eating Skittles, not the white ones
that J-Lo likes.
No, thank you guys for havingme.
I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Awesome, yeah.
So I ran into you two or threeweekends ago at it's called
Breakthrough T1D Right Right, sotype 1 diabetes.
The money from it used to beJDRF Right Junior Diabetes.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Research
Foundation.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, so the money really goes to researching a
cure for type 1 diabetes.
And we're talking in the lobbyafterwards and my wonderful wife
, who I come home at nightlistening, I listen to you guys
in the morning, I listen to youguys on the ride home because
you got the two segments now onyour radio show and she came up
(01:43):
to you which is not her normalMO, like, grabbed you by the arm
, said do you need to meet myhusband Cause he's your biggest
fan girl.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And she had me at hello on that one, I go okay and
uh, that was really first ofall that that event was first
class and having an Osage housewith.
Uh, people haven't been toOsage house yet.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh, it was my first time.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
That was also my first time and I had no idea
what an incredible facility thatwas, and so that was a
first-class operation.
They raised almost half amillion dollars.
Yeah, and their goal was nowherenear it was nowhere near it,
(02:28):
and that is what, as somebodywho has been deeply involved in
charity events across NorthwestArkansas, all I care about is
what's your goal, what do we get?
And it's my job, along with,you know, the event planning
committee and everybody elsethat runs those events, to break
the goal and they shattered thegoal and it was a team event.
Shout out to Kim Daniels andher team.
They did a really good job,incredible auctioneer, really
good job Also Allison Wise of4029.
(02:49):
And really it was a great eventand really unique.
It was not long.
I know a lot of people,especially in the vendor
community, who have to go to alot of these charity galas are
constantly.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh, they're early night.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, yeah, a lot of these galas go long, like they a
few hours, like people have aset amount of time.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We're not 20 anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
No 20 is that's in pictures that aren't on social
media anymore is what that is.
But I thought that event reallyhit the sweet spot.
Great auction items Not toomany, just enough.
A lot of great personaltestimony from people who are
type 1 children, adults, andthings like that.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I just thought it was a first-class event Do you have
a connection to type 1 diabetes?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I do Because you were on the board of JDRF for a
while.
Right, Full disclosure I wasthe first president of the board
of JDRF when that branch wasfirst created in Northwest
Arkansas in the early 2000s.
Because my son's mom is and hasbeen a type 1 diabetic since
she was 11.
And so when we had Jack it isthe understatement of the year
(04:01):
to say that was a challengingbirth time for him, and they
told us that up front.
They said because you'redealing with a type 1 situation,
you're going to have all thesepossible problems.
They made us go down to LittleRock, they made us go to UAMS
before we had all the hospitalswe have up here, and they put us
in a room and said you're 40%more likely to have spina bifida
(04:23):
, You're 40% more likely to haveall this litany of things.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
When he was born.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Before he was born we were getting the gender reveal
down there and basically theywere like OK, by the way, it's a
boy, and here's all the thingsthat could go wrong, just FYI.
So we're blessed and fortunatethat 23 and a half years later.
No, he's fantastic.
We're very, very fortunate andvery lucky, but not everybody
(04:49):
who is type 1 diabetic that haskids are, and so that's really
what we're trying to do isimprove the lives and, as we
like to say, go from type 1 totype none, which I thought was
clever.
I'm like 25 years, I hadn'tthought of that, where have I
been?
But that's what they'rebasically trying to put
themselves out of business.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, yeah, and like we do a lot of the charity stuff
, the industry we're in,whatever, but I'm a type one
diabetic.
How long have you been type oneAdult onset?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Really.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So I had a traumatic event.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Were you like 600 or something or low?
Were you high or low?
Oh, I was very high, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Like 800 or low.
Were you high or low?
Oh, I was very high.
Oh yeah, like 800 or something.
When I finally so I'd lost aton of weight, right, and I'm
drinking apple juice out of thecarton it's like, oh, this isn't
right no, I gotta tell you Iwas about 500, oh goodness yeah,
that's danger zone five, six ohmy goodness.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I'm so sorry.
No, it's just you know.
And so now you've goteverything all the technology.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I've got the pod right here.
I've got the technology.
I'm probably getting insulin aswe speak.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
People who are type 1 diabetic, are you okay?
People who were type 1 before,I would say, the year 2000.
Oh yeah, Technology wasstraight out of Flintstones man.
It Technology was straight outof Flintstones man.
It's a lot of guesswork, a lotof math.
You're like I think this is thelong acting, here's the short
acting, let's inject them both,and I think I need a Coke.
And it was just really a toughway to navigate it.
(06:14):
Witch doctor kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Oh my gosh.
I know a couple of guys.
They're twins, they're adultmen, they're close to my age,
whatever, um, and they had thegene which I didn't have the
gene different thing, um, butthey each had the gene and one
of them had a car accident oh no, and that triggered his onset a
car accident, car accident.
(06:37):
So if you have the gene right,a traumatic event can spur it oh
wow, and the other a coupleyears later had um like uh
pneumonia and that triggered ityeah so both of them are active
type ones.
Oh gosh, but it's a.
It's a weird, weird disease.
(06:58):
It is and there's a weirddisease.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think there's a lot here in 2020.
You know five we're stillfinding out about it, and that's
what the research is going foris to help people manage it
better and live their lives withit better, and events like that
one where I was lucky enough tomeet you is one of those things
.
And it's really cool howNorthwest Arkansas, specifically
the vendor community, is soinvested in projects and in
(07:24):
nonprofits like that one.
There's so many.
If I started naming them,someone's going to get mad.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's a huge, huge event.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I've been fortunate enough to be part of
Kissapig for I mean almost 18years.
They came to me first as acontestant and if anybody knows
about Kissapig, it's basicallyit's not a gala, it's 10 mini
galas wrapped in a gala and theybasically make all these people
have their own contest.
It's a genius business model.
It's a very late night too.
(07:52):
Oh it's.
I have gotten to the John QHammond's RIP Rogers Convention
Center at like 5 o'clock and notleft there until almost
midnight.
Yeah, on many occasions, andthey've had incredible
wallflowers and Blues Travelerand just incredible.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I saw Blues.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Traveler.
Yeah, yeah, so these eventsthat happen in Northwest
Arkansas are oftentimes the mostprofitable events that some of
these galas are like.
For example, I know for a factADA their most profitable event
every year is in NorthwestArkansas, at Kissapig, by the
way they do it.
So it's really cool the way theWalmart community, the vendor
community in Northwest Arkansas,really get behind some of these
(08:28):
things.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
There's always a couple of vice presidents at
Walmart that are in the runningfor the 10 people that are
bringing things in, and it makesa huge difference.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It does.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's not even the personalities, it's the strength
that you know Walmart talksabout this a lot that we have
such scale.
We can change the world, andthis is just a microcosm of it.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, so you grew up in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, I was born in Silent Springs.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So you have to deal with a lot of people.
I say deal with a lot of people, that's such a negative
connotation.
You have to deal with thesepeople, but you have to.
You encounter people that cometo Northwest Arkansas who have
only been here like a year twoyears, three years and they walk
around with their mouth agapegoing.
I thought I was coming toArkansas what is this stuff?
(09:15):
And it's just really cool tosee where we are now as a
community in Northwest.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Arkansas.
About a third of our company'srevenue comes through about two
square blocks in MidtownManhattan.
Yeah, To talk to them aboutwhat you guys do this weekend
and they'll ask me what I didand they're like, well, that was
just on Broadway last week.
We're not limited.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Access.
We have to cool things.
You could have always said thatno, no, of course not Always
said that.
When I was in junior high andhigh school there wasn't a
reason to come to Rogers orBentonville unless you had a
game.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, we talk about football baseball.
All the time.
I mean, what was the draw toRogers?
What are we?
Dixieland Mall Nothing.
What is it If you were in theOlive Garden?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Club, then you could drink Honestly, do you?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
remember this?
Here's fun.
Are you guys old enough toremember that every time I had
to cut a commercial on the radioor anything, and it was for a
bar or like Cafe Santa Fe?
Shout out.
Rip where I'd have to, thecommercial would always start
out the same way Attentionmembers and guests.
You'd have to say attentionmembers and guests before
(10:24):
anything that had anestablishment with alcohol in it
.
Yeah, and I'm like where?
What are we?
What am?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I, you had to sign the thing yeah, five dollars,
and then they would reimburseyou the five dollars the abc
laws that have existed in thisarea they're like it's um it's
something you know.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
For those that are considering bentonville, uh, it
is no longer a dry county, it'sno longer that.
Yeah, this is no longer thecase.
Well, I mean it has changed alot.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
That has changed quite a bit and it's funny you
say that because it's only been.
How long has it been thatBenton County?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
has been not dry 10 years.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
maybe I was thinking 10-ish, and now it's a
completely different place.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Growing up in Siloam, which was like if this little
pocket is conservative likeSiloam is even more so.
I drove through it last weekendwith my youngest son going to
Tulsa for a basketballtournament, and there's just
liquor stores and weeddispensaries everywhere.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
So I don't recognize this Asylum Springs and, by the
way, I apologize because I'msure people who live in West
Asylum Springs want me todifferentiate between the two?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
West Asylum, and Asylum has become a virtual den
of iniquity between all theliquor stores, all of the.
I mean you've got Cherokeethere now.
You've got weed billboardsevery 20 feet.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
It's Chick-fil-A also .
Well, don't forget Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Let's start with a number one.
But yeah, what?
Siloam Springs has become thewild west.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I expect you know.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Doc Holliday to come, let's go.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I never, never imagined it.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
No way you could have Like.
If you could have beenprojected into the future and
seen 2025 Siloam Springs, you'dbe like come on.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
No, no, no way no that's New York.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Is that a weed billboard behind the weed
billboard?
Yeah, that's what it is, Allright let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
What brought you to Northwest Arkansas?
Because you're not originallyfrom here, are you?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I'm not.
My mom is a native bread andbuttered Arkansan.
She is from El Dorado, which isLA.
Ed is lower Arkansas and sheand her whole family grew up in
Magnolia, el Dorado.
But we grew up.
I grew up in Colorado, in theshadow of the flat irons of
(12:43):
Boulder, in a town calledLongmont, right on I-25.
I came here to play baseball.
I came here originally to playfor Norm.
I was given an invited walk-onbecause clearly they did not
have a very good view of thevideo I sent them and they were
somehow mistaken into believingthat I could have pitched for
the University of Arkansas, aprogram that regularly puts
(13:04):
people in the major leagues.
I am 5'11" and at the time Iwas about 145, soaking wet, and
while I threw really hard for akid that looked like he was 11,
I did not throw nearly as hardas Scott Brokale or any of these
people that went on toincredible careers for the
Razorbacks.
So after about five minutes andrealizing what am I doing, I
(13:27):
stopped at the baseball, but Istayed at the U of A and I've
obviously not left Fayetteville,so you didn't play your full
four years.
Oh, play four years.
I stayed four years.
I did not play four minutes.
Norm bless his heart.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I tell this story all the time you were really good
in high school, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Editing videos Really good high school baseball
player and I probably shouldhave went the Juco route where
they could have put weight on meto where I looked like I wasn't
11 but 14 and would have hadmore success that way.
But I went straight.
I'm going right to the SEC totry and do this nonsense Clearly
had no male guidance in my lifetelling me that I was out of my
(14:04):
mind.
So I tried it anyway.
But I ended up going to the Uof A and journalism, getting
into the broadcast program,which back then wasn't much of a
broadcast program, until LarryFoley showed up a year after I
left, which I thought wasawfully convenient.
Now it's an incrediblebroadcast program.
It really is Kind of known forit.
Oh gosh, what they've built onthat campus for the U of A with
(14:27):
their broadcast, whether it'sKUAF and their new facilities
just off the square or that newTV studio they have in Kimple,
it's pretty impressive yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Excuse me, you met my daughter.
She has a twin brother.
Oh, and they're juniors thisyear.
Oh, and they're juniors thisyear, seniors in high school
next year.
So we've done a lot of campusvisits.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Are they Bentonville?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Rogers.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Rogers Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Mounties or Heritage.
She's a Mountie, okay.
Her brother is ProvidencePatriot, okay, yeah, nice.
So we're all split up all overSure Diversity.
That's right.
We've done a lot of campusvisits, but each one of them
independently did a U of Acampus tour and I'm not like a
(15:09):
big college guy.
I didn't quite finish, yeah,it's all right.
And most of my classes werelike after 7 pm.
There's nothing wrong with thateither.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Learning is not day specific, specific, but it is so
such a great campus.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh, it's so much fun to like all the history, all the
the stuff that just belongsthere, for I'm 150 years, isn't
it crazy, I'm biased.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I mean I'm again.
I'm from boulder and if you'venever seen the colorado campus
in boulder, it is breathtaking.
Uh, at the base of the flat.
It's just.
It's to me, I grew up with thatand that's just always like, oh
, such a beautiful campus, butthey didn't have a baseball team
, so I didn't go there.
I came to Arkansas where Iplayed baseball for four minutes
and my kid graduated highschool in 2020.
(15:53):
So we'll get into that later.
What a fiasco that situationdoing graduation ceremonies in
an empty auditorium via Zoom.
But he graduated in 2020.
And I'm like I'm trying to gethim to look at other schools and
I think that the reversepsychology of it actually drove
him to go to Arkansas.
Because we kept trying to go.
(16:14):
He's he wanted to be in, youknow, filmmaking, journalism,
things like that.
We're like, hey, mizzou's got agreat program and Kansas has a
really good and all this.
And he's like are and all this?
And he's like are you kiddingme?
No, I'm going to Arkansas.
And I finally was like let's goto Boulder, show you that campus
, walk around, it's justbeautiful.
And we walk around, take thetour, everything we get done.
We get in the car and he goes.
That's not Fayetteville.
(16:35):
He has this romantic ParisianEiffel Tower view of, like Old
Main and that campus.
He grew up on it, so it reallymeant a lot to him and he
graduated in December, so didsomething right, lucked into him
.
Did he have a moped on campus?
He didn't.
He lived in the Friscoapartments down on Dixon and
(16:58):
West, which is a whole otherpodcast entirely.
But he lived down there and,yeah, he got through covid, all
the zoom classes, not entering abuilding until like three
semesters into his career and,uh, challenging time for him to
graduate high school and go tocollege.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, yeah I help, uh , with the, the youth, that
fellowship, they call it fsm,and my guys are all seniors
graduating actually this weekendoh wow, from Bentonville.
I've known them since they werefreshmen, right yeah yeah, yeah
, so the way they do the cellgroup.
I've been discipling these guyssince they were freshmen.
It's just been a really, reallysweet time and they're awesome.
Shout out to the guys yeah, butI don't know.
(17:40):
It's an exciting time, maybe 15of them are all going to U of A
.
Oh yeah, I expect to be spendinga lot more time down on campus.
Well, and we?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
appreciate there being more Arkansas kids on that
campus and not having Texasplays.
I'm not judging or sayinganything bad.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
There's plenty of great Texans.
But, yeah, no, these guys a lotof them had options all around,
but at the end of the day it'slike no, this is a great school,
great environment.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
There's some great programs.
Obviously the business schoolshout out the Walton Business
School and there's someincredible engineering.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I'm the only supply chain in the country.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I mean, I wonder why?
Gee, definitely if you want togo into supply chain management
or anything.
As far as business Marketingprograms are good, Absolutely.
I have a couple of journalismguys too.
Absolutely right.
Yeah, and you know it's coolseeing a lot of the U of A alums
go on to like Good MorningAmerica, the Weather Channel,
(18:32):
you know stuff like that.
It's really awesome.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, yeah, I want to talk to you about like on field
, on court, all that stuff, butlet's do a little like meat and
potatoes here first, little likelike meat and potatoes here
first.
Um.
So it's the retail journey,right, and we, we generally we
don't always, but we generallytalk retail, um, and when we
were chatting earlier this week,you have a lot of brands, right
, like national brands, thatcome on your, your, your station
(18:57):
, hire you for kind of localmedia, similar to the billboards
you see on walton boulevard,right, absolutely right, talk a
little bit about that.
What, what that brings to themin terms of exposure.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Happy to.
So I've been in radio, asyou've both illustrated and as
we've talked a little bit about.
I mean, I began my career in 93.
And so this is my 32nd year onthe radio in Northwest Arkansas,
and so for the vast majority ofit is one of the situations
where you go find a big companythat has a radio station and
then, hopefully, if you do getenough show, they pay you and
(19:31):
yay, I get to be on the radio.
And then you get a salary andthen it basically your.
Your salary is derived from theratings that you get through
either Arbitron, nielsen or whathave you.
But then, as radio began tokind of get like, started to
shrink a little bit and bigradio conglomerates began to get
rid of big salary local talentAbout 2010, I kind of saw the
(19:52):
landscape and I began to realizethat if I was going to stay in
this medium, I needed to becomethe salesperson.
I needed to be the one to go outand get the clients, get the
brands local, national, whathave you and make money.
Uh to where the situation was,they saw more ROI by having me
endorse their brands on my showand not having the middleman of
(20:16):
the salespeople.
I'll be the salesperson, and soI began that in 2010.
And when you start somethinglike that, it is not easy.
Uh, no one's doing what I wasdoing, right, and and so you
kind of had to build it's thecoolest part of it it, yes, I
and I I am a rare personalitytype to where I don't really, uh
(20:37):
, feel fear.
Um, I really don't thinkthere's anything if I, if I just
I just feel like I can do it,yeah, and so I knew that I was
immediately foregoing, cause Imake no salary, I don't make a
dime from my company, doesn'tpay me any money in salary, and
so all of my compensation comesfrom a commission of these
(20:58):
partners, and so, therefore, Iam incentivized to just keep
going out there, finding thepeople that I think fit the
loyal and royal army the best,and fortunately, that is
everybody, from small businessesreally small businesses to
Nestle, um, and Coca-Cola and,uh, sonic and things like that.
(21:19):
Yeah, and so I've been doingthat for 14 years.
I actually love doing it.
I'm very competitive, and so Ilike to sell, because I like to
beat other people in sales, andI'm very, very, um, I guess you
would say protective of thebrands, of the of the people I
get on my show.
I care a lot about peopleknowing those brands, to the
(21:43):
point where if you were to go toanybody in my audience and ask
them I'm going to say a categoryyou tell me who John and Deke
have on there.
Like you go to them and gowho's their furniture store, get
it at Sam's, who's their liquorstore, mcadoodles, who's their
pharmacy, call your drug.
You can go right down the line,because I do only exclusivity.
I won't have competing brandson my show and I think that
(22:05):
those brands see the ROI fromthat when they can drive down 49
, look up at five billboards andsee four HVAC companies in a
row where I don't think peoplereally get much ROI out of that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Well, I don't know just as a listener for years,
like if there's four options forsomething but one is sponsoring
the loyal and royal right.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Thank you, and that's the goal.
And I'll tell you this and it'sone of those chicken or the egg
things Are they a huge brandBecause I gravitate towards, or
do I help make them biggerbrands?
I'd like to think it's a littleof both.
We try really hard to Deke andI really care about letting
everybody know that when we buya car, deke has and I'm not
(22:48):
exaggerating, deke has probablybought 11 cars from Rath
Mitsubishi.
They only trade out like everysix months or so it feels like
it's every much more than that,but we joke that we will pull up
into the same Collier Drugparking lot at the same time we
go to McAdoodles.
Everything in my home is Sam'sfurniture and Benjamin Franklin
(23:11):
does our plumbing.
Everything that we talk abouton the show is in a form of how
they have made our lives better,and so that's what we try to
impart to our audience.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I feel like it's easier to talk about the things
you authentically feel,especially in an environment
where just reading off of ascript is felt like nobody.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And you know what people aren't dumb, they people
have a bs meter and they theycan tell when you're like this
guy doesn't write, like you'llwatch a like I don't know.
I'm trying to think of a like anational, uh spokesperson.
Like when you see somebody likea kardashian and and they're
endorsing like hyundai, come on,what does it?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
mean, am I really gonna think that kim
kardashian's and they'reendorsing like hyundai?
Come on, what does it mean?
Am I really gonna think?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
that kim kardashian's rocking a santa fe.
I I have a hard time believingthat.
I of course I'm making both ofthose up and I'm probably gonna
hear from their attorneys, but Imean, it's things like that
when you're, when you, when youhear the like tiger woods does
not wear a tag hewer.
Uh, you know, let's be honest,although tag here is a great
brand, you know he's probablywearing a rolex or you know
(24:14):
something like that you can.
You can hear in a podcast whenthey go from sharing the thing
that they care about to readingthe scripts that they're getting
paid to say exactly, right,exactly hit, like and share and
you know, just they mail it in,and when we do endorsements on
our show, it's's I mean weliterally integrate their brand
with our brand into the story,where people don't know the
(24:34):
difference.
And so that is what we havetried to do and fortunately
we've got 26 partners on ourshow right now.
A lot of national brands, a fewvendors are on there, and it's
great.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
This is way off topic , but do you ever listen to?
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I'm a very big fan of Conan O'Brien's, but Deke is a
way bigger fan of ConanO'Brien's.
Letterman's my guy.
I grew up with Letterman andwhen I got to go up that's a
whole other thing.
I could do a show and thesecurity guard could see what a
complete nerd I was about it.
And after the show was over I'mstanding around just like am I
going to see anybody?
This would be cool.
And he goes you want to sit inthe chair?
I go what the chair?
(25:14):
And he goes you want to sit inDave's chair?
Get a picture.
Oh, wow so my wife and I werethere and everyone had started
filtering out and we just kindof crept up there.
I sat in Dave's chair, she satin the out a picture that will
(25:34):
probably be on an easel in myfuneral, that photo.
But to answer your question,yeah, conan o'brien, I think is
a masterful.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
And the reason I ask is because you know the podcast
venue if you're commercializingit is is pretty unique.
And yet there's the if youhaven't seen it, you should pull
it up on youtube where he doesan ad for a bidet oh, go on.
And he clearly hadn't read thescript until it was being
recorded and he just goes, hejust goes insane.
(25:59):
It's the funniest.
It's probably the funniestsegment that he's done on his
podcast.
That is genius.
But I'll tell you I'm not goingto go into it.
It's a little a little, alittle vulgar, but it is so
freaking funny and you know.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
what's funny is that initially I'm sure that the
marketing people were actuallythe higher People, higher than
the marketing people of thatbidet company probably lost
their minds when they firstheard about it.
They're like oh great, conanO'Brien's just dragging our
brand of a bidet.
But then the marketing peopleare like do you know how viral
this is?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Do you know how many clicks this is getting?
It's got 30 million views onYouTube or whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
We did a thing just this morning just this morning
on the show because we've gotOzarks Go on the show.
They're the official internetof the Loyal and Royal Army.
Thank you so much for allowingme to do this and they came up,
they go to us and they go.
Here's the promotion.
If you're a brand new Ozarks Gocustomer and you use the phrase
loyal and royal three, it'sthree free months.
Now we can say that incommercial form and endorsements
, all we want.
But Deke and I mostly Deke satdown and wrote an entire song
(27:02):
out about it on our show.
That sounds like Dio.
I don't know how many RonnieJames Dio fans we have.
I bet you could count them onone hand that are watching this,
or maybe they're bigger than Ithink.
But we did a whole song aboutOzarks Go and Loyal and Royal 3
and the whole thing and I meanit's a banger.
Love it.
It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Is it on YouTube or something we can look at?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
We'll probably put it at least on our social media
page, but we just did it thismorning and I mean we sent it to
Ozarks Go and they lost theirminds.
They loved it.
It's so great.
How many of these can you do?
So, yeah, finding new ways,like you were talking about with
Conan O'Brien, is really.
It's the key to get in, to findhow it sticks in people's minds
(27:44):
.
Yeah, I love that story aboutthe bidet, though You've got to
look at it.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That is classic.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So we talked a little bit about your kind of unique
model in terms of a radiostation.
When we chatted, uh, last weekor week for whatever, um, I said
I assume that there's other youknow markets that have a model
like this that you like learnfrom.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
You know there may be one, I'm pretty right, and
there may be one.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I'm pretty right.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
And there may be I.
I I'm not going to sit here andgo.
I'm the only one in America.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So so we use this thing in our, uh, in our company
, uh, called the five voices.
So, and the five voices?
There's a pioneer, a connector,um, a creative, a guardian and
a nurturer.
Wow Right, and that you've gotall five of those voices, but
they're in different rankings.
(28:33):
So like I'm the pioneer, Likethat's my primary voice in the
company, which necessitates thatyour last voice is nurturing,
correct?
Matt absolutely right, doesthat ring true?
Speaker 3 (28:49):
It does, and because of the fact that it's it's you
know, they named the stationafter us.
I mean, they, they, which Ithought was really great, and
that's what we wanted to do.
It was like, if we're going tocome over here, which was nine
years ago, next month um, we aregoing to be the brand, and so
at that point, it's the littlein royal army, it's radio John
(29:12):
Deak, and so there, now you'reprotecting not only the brands
of your you know, your partners.
You're now you're going toprotect your brand because now
you're worried about how you'remelding the two.
And that's what I'm mostgrateful for is the fact that
these brands have trusted us toelevate their brand awareness
and their brands within the callto action to people to actually
buy their products at points ofsale to our show, which I'm
(29:35):
incredibly grateful for.
Every day we get to do that,yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
That's really cool.
You shared something with methat I want to bring up.
This community knows CameronSmith well.
Rest in peace.
He's either gotten a person ajob or filled a person's open
role or donated a guitar at.
You know, kiss Pig.
What's your?
(30:01):
You have a connection toCameron.
What's your connection?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I do.
Cameron was a mentor to me buthe was a mentor to a lot of
people.
He's, I mean, I'm, you know, boMattingly and Aaron Peters and
a lot of guys kind of my age.
I'm a little older than both ofthose guys, but guys my age,
people my age, neely Jones, hementored quite a bit A lot of
people.
That would be he would meetpeople at galas and that's how
(30:26):
he would get with them and start, and I don't even know that he
did it intentionally, he justwas a helpful person.
And the story that I, how I metCameron, is crazy.
I was emceeing the Hope CancerResources Gentleman of
Distinction in honor of BillFlayman, who was an amazing
entrepreneur in NorthwestArkansas and he passed away
(30:47):
sadly of cancer.
And I was emceeing the gala andthey had the situation to where
I emceeded but at the end inNorthwest Arkansas and he passed
away sadly of cancer.
And I was emceeing the gala andthey had the situation to where
I am seated but at the end theywere supposed to have somebody
that was going to do.
I think it was John George thatwas going to do the ask and he
couldn't make it that day and soabout 20 minutes before the ask
.
I am not making this up.
They come to me and they go.
John, john, george cannot makethe ask, or could you do that?
(31:11):
And I'm like I've been askingthese people for money for an
hour and 45 minutes.
Now you want me to get up andgo?
Hey, everybody, I appreciateeverything.
I'm going to need.
More money is what we're goingto need, and so that's exactly
what had to happen.
But I had never done an askbefore, really, and so I just
like well, how can I bestconnect with these people to do
(31:31):
this?
And that's what I did.
I just tried to extrapolate itinto, you'd think, $50, but it
really it's a gas tank forpeople going to Nartai and
things like that, and I squeezedthat orange as best I could.
They got a stack of likeenvelopes like this, and they're
like that was crazy, mike, youjust shot us past our goal.
It was just great.
And so afterwards, this isgoing to be a reference
(31:53):
everyone's going to enjoy.
We all congregate at EddieHaskell's RIP, shout out and we
go there and we're all justhaving a great time, and a
gentleman walks up to me and hegoes.
John, I want you to know thatI've been in boardrooms from
Miami to LA and that pitch yougave at the end you could have
(32:13):
put in any boardroom and he justgoing on and on about it and I
go.
This guy is really nice, thankyou.
And I'm just talking to him forfive minutes, never got his
name, never got anything.
He's just very Natalie attired,gorgeous wife and I'm like, wow
, that was great.
So he walks off guy next to me,he goes.
You don't know who that is doyou I go, I don't.
(32:35):
And he goes.
That is Cameron Smith and I go.
Now I knew his name, obviouslyfrom CSA, but I had never met
him or seen him.
And they go, go get his card,get his number.
What is wrong with you?
Go talk to him and sure enough,I go over there, I go.
(32:56):
Mr Smith, I appreciate all thekind words and we became really
close from that point on and hechanged my life.
Yeah, he totally did.
I was there was one point in mycareer when I it was right
before I had gotten the businessmodel to own my show and do all
this and I was really unhappywhere I was and I could just see
the future of them getting ridof high talent, morning talent
and things like that.
And I go to Cameron, I go, youknow your people make X and
(33:16):
suppliers make Y and I just wantto do that.
And he goes what are you saying?
You want to be a vendor, youwant to work for one of these
companies?
I go.
I mean I know a lot of peoplethat do.
My son's mom has been in thevendor community for 20 years,
loves it, great at it.
And he goes you just want to goaround and knock on the door
and sell Welch's grape jelly orHeinz 57 or to some buyer that's
going to squeeze you formargins and that's what you,
(33:39):
that's what you want to do.
I go, I don't know.
He goes.
John, you're a brand, yeah, andit was like a light, oh, this
moment of illumination.
And he goes build your brand.
Don't build anyone else'sbrands, but yours and people
that pay you to build theirs.
And it changed my life.
(33:59):
And on top of that, he justbecame one of my best friends
and he and Monica were just thevery best.
They would have fireworks every4th of July at Shadow Valley.
And just he was.
He was an incredible person andjust grateful.
He was someone that tookinterest in me and took me under
his wing.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, yeah, and most people in the community have
some sort of a connection toCameron.
Mine was, uh, when I firststarted the business, um, I was
working with a former businesspartner of his and they were
still friendly.
And he goes hey, we come in,like we've only been hiring for,
like, salespeople andexecutives and we're going to
(34:39):
start hiring for analysts, likethe people that are getting
their hands dirty.
We come in and give myrecruiters uh kind of an
understanding of what the skillset is, right.
So I put together an hour,whatever 45 minutes worth of
content, came in and did it.
I was walking out and he shookmy hand.
(35:01):
He's like you have an iou withme, I'll give it whenever you
want to call it in oh wow, I'lldeliver that's a powerful.
Right, right, and I held it fora long time.
You know, and I have twobrothers and my oldest one he's
a pharmaceutical rep.
He was getting kind of wary ofthe industry Because he layoffs
(35:23):
every three years and you got tostart over, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
There's no loyalty in that business.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And he came to me and goes hey, I want to become a
salesperson for CPG.
How do I do that?
It's like well, you probablygot to become an analyst.
You kind of got to work yourway up.
You know, like I'm not surehere's the path.
I'm not sure your skillsnecessarily transfer Right.
He goes well, I mean I've gotthis advanced degree or whatever
.
He's like well, okay, if youreally want to push it like here
(35:52):
, call Cameron.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I sent him a note and I was like here's my IOU meet
with my brother.
Oh wow, you used your IOU onthis and they sit down.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Does this guy know?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
And they sit down and he lays out what he wants to do
and Cameron goes.
Why are you talking to me yourbrother's like retail link guru?
And Cameron goes.
Why are you talking to me, yourbrother's like?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
retail link guru.
He just saw things quicker andin ways you didn't see them.
It was such a talent, yeah,that he would have such
perspective.
He was also the first person totell me to do fewer events,
because the perception is thatyou've got to do more events.
That way it's exposure.
Exposure equals likefamiliarity.
Familiarity means that peopleare more comfortable and the
(36:33):
whole thing.
But he goes John, you areentering overexposure territory.
He goes I do a gala.
I see you, I open, celebrate orCityscapes magazine.
I see you, gala, icu.
I opened, celebrate orcityscapes magazine, icu.
And uh, you need to makeyourself more exclusive.
And and he, he was the one thatgave me that advice.
I, there was a point where Iwas doing a gala every four to
(36:53):
six weeks.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
it was maniacal if they're hard to do here.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Well, right, I mean you could do one every week,
honestly, and and I I took hisadvice and now I only do like
three a year, um, and it was oneof the smarter again, every
piece of advice he ever gave meturned out true and helped me.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
We see the full circle of like only working on
the things you're close topassionate about, so you can
speak authentically.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Right, and that's how I actually got into it was
through JDRF and things likethat.
But then you do those events.
You keep breaking goals andit's a good problem to have is
when they want to have you beinvolved with it and I'm
grateful too.
Like the Cancer Challenge isamazing.
The Gentleman of Distinction isfantastic.
I mean, just go right, there'sso many amazing events in
Northwest Arkansas but you can'tdo all of them.
(37:38):
And he was right.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I mean, I got to the point where I would open up.
Cityscapes and I'm there fourtimes.
I'm just like that's not maybetoo many.
Yeah, yeah, the it resonates alot in this space.
There's a lot of brands thatare at Walmart that want to, you
know, execute at a higher level.
There are, there are a wholelot of brands that are not at
Walmart that would like to be atWalmart executing at that high
level.
Um and so you know us here atHigh Impact, we, we.
I was told early on when I wasgetting here, like you know, the
most important thing is whoyou're saying no to, so that you
(38:11):
are, you know, tied to thosethat you really should be tied
to.
Yeah, and you know, early on Iwas kind of like you know, I'd
like to have a few yeses andthen we'll work on the no's, but
.
But now we're at this stagewhere it's becoming so evident
and we're having to say no.
And it's hard because you wantto be able to help, but I can't
(38:34):
operate at a high level if I'msaying yes to everything.
We need to be able to paceourselves so that we're able to
deliver.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
That was the difficult decision I made and I
have had people from thestations I'm on to everyone go.
Why the exclusivity?
You're cutting off such arevenue stream.
If you listen to most radiostations, they'll have three
different car remotes on aSaturday at three different
locations.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
You've bastardized your brand.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Oh my God, and you'll Lewis Ford won, and then you'll
be at the auto park, and thenyou'll be at McLarty.
And don't get me wrong, allincredible dealers, all
incredible things, but what areyou telling all of them?
When you're 10 to 1 at oneplace, I'm like, all right, man,
cool, thanks a lot.
And then an hour later you'reat a different place.
I think that when I doexclusivity and like you're
(39:34):
talking about saying no tocertain things and saying yes to
the ones that you want tonurture a relationship with, I
have just been fortunate thatfor the entirety I've had people
just renew every year, everyyear after one, after like Sam's
and Collier's and Macadoodle'sand on and on, because they
exhibit the loyalty that I tryto give them, and so it has paid
off in spades.
I'm sure I've cost myself moneywith that, but I would rather
have someone who knows that I'mloyal to their brand than
someone who's going to besitting there going I don't know
man.
Is he talking about mycompetitor now?
Speaker 1 (39:56):
And you create real value, right?
I've talked a lot lately.
As I'm talking to people, it'slike you know I don't actually
want to receive a resentfulcheck from a partner Because,
well one, no one's going towrite a whole lot of resentful
checks.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
They'll stop at some point.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
But, like no, I want to have deep relationship.
I want to be able toauthentically be grateful for
partnership and want them to begrateful, because that's the
kind of thing that has stuckaround at high impact for 14
years.
Is the folks that haveexperienced that?
I'm thinking of one.
I love that.
14?
That's about to bow up on you.
(40:32):
You'll get it buddy For a longtime 19 in July.
I think there's something therefor everybody that a spirit of
fear isn't actually helpful.
Useful that you have no fear,um yeah so that wasn't going to
be part of it.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
I'm a little too unflappable, which is is both
phenomenal and there's a side tothat there is, uh, like it's.
It's the reason I I startednoticing this.
I'd be at midfield.
There's 77 000 people inraiseback stadium and I'm just
like, all right, I guess I'mgonna do this thing here on the
field.
Just numb, it just doesn'taffect me.
(41:08):
It's weird, I don't know, it'salways been that way.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
You can see it when you're on the court or on the
field.
You can see it Like you'rethere, You're doing a job.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I am, you're not aware of the people around you?
Yes, correct, but the mass, no.
If I'm engaging with someone,pressure is not a felt pressure,
right?
If I'm like doing thewhataburger fry shuffle, which
razorback twitter loves so much,uh, or the tic-tac-toe, which
they love even more, uh, I, I,yeah, I'm interacting in that
fashion, but I, I really don't,I don't really think about the
(41:36):
other people, I'm just doing mybest job and super helpful well,
without having fear, maybeavoid mountain biking, uh uh,
yeah, so we live next to uh thetrail.
We live next to the the trailbecause it's so what a blessing
to have that north of arkansas.
It's because we live in johnsonand I mean we are 500 yards
from that trail and I we havestarted using the heck out of it
, and mountain biking doesterrify me even though I grew up
(42:00):
in colorado because everyone Iknow that mountain bikes it
takes about a year, year and ahalf.
Everyone wrecks, breaks acollarbone.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Yeah, bingo I got a new one collarbone got a new one
a couple years ago.
Yep, have you.
What's your worst accident?
I have a new collarbone.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Yeah, I got that you have a new collarbone.
You got one on each sidebrought to you by mercy.
What is this?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
almost skiing um no orthopedics yeah, I got to pay
full price.
There was no sponsorship and nodiscount for the second either.
Oh man Got the full.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
You can't buy them in a bundle.
Let me just say, your podcastfor the next year is brought to
you by Ozark Orthopedics onFutual Road in Fayetteville.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Dr Kaler.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Exactly.
This is awesome.
I'm afraid we've exhausted ourtime here.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
I do that every time.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
We normally do a lightning round.
We can be quick.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Biggest failure, biggest failure.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Maybe that you learned from Biggest failure
that I learned from.
That's a tough one, I would say.
I got syndicated early, early,early in my career, like in the
late 90s, and I did not handleit the way I would handle it now
and I would definitely go backand handle that differently Big
time.
Big time Impestuous, just yeah,that was my biggest, that comes
(43:20):
to mind.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
So, over the last year, year and a half, whatever,
things are changing at a crazypace, right.
What are you taking away?
What's your learnings from thelast year or so?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
In America or the world, or Particularly in
business.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
But if you want to get it into the personal, that's
fine.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
The one thing I think is, the bigger things and the
more complicated things, themore simple it is I love.
What we just talked about isthe.
It always comes down torelationships in business.
It always comes down tohandshakes, names, neighborhoods
, making people feel like theymatter.
Um, that I always tell mypartners uh, the more you give
(44:02):
me, the creatively, the betteroff our campaign is going to be,
things like that.
And so people start reallyworrying about you know, you
guys are doing a podcast.
Did you think five?
I mean you know in a long time.
But like, this thing is such agreat idea, it's so cool.
People need to be doing more ofthis and they are.
But you had.
(44:23):
Do you remember the inflectionpoint when you realized you had
to do a podcast?
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Oh, yeah, yeah, we wanted to, non-pretentiously,
actually help people.
Thank you.
And how can you give goodinformation without just feeling
?
Speaker 2 (44:36):
like you're bragging about your thing.
Also being known for that.
Also being known for that.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
And we're a consultancy at our core.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Have you had good response within the Walmart
community, vendor community,things like that.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Plenty of merchants that have shared different
podcasts as we talk throughlessons for new buyers or even
on the supplier side.
When you're navigatingomni-channel growth, what are
the things you need to payattention to?
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
That's a smart idea.
So, yeah, I think that peopleare realizing that there's new.
Like you see movies nowadays,you used to never see people sit
down for 30 seconds Like TomCruise with Mission Impossible.
He has done every kind of mediain the last two months Months,
I mean two years for this, Iread.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
he almost died in his last filming.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
I'm not shocked.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Doing one of his own stunts that that guy does all
his own.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
That's crazy, the stuff he does.
So, yeah, I think people havehad to kind of evolve their, the
way they perceive what theirjob is based on, how you get a
kind of connectivity andtraction, yeah, with these
brands yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
And then last one uh, what's the you know content
you're taking in?
What do you, what are youenjoying lately?
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Oh, a lot of streaming, a lot of Netflix, a
lot of Hulu, a lot of Handmaid'sTale, a lot of Severance, a lot
of oh, there's so many goodshows.
There's so many good showsright now.
I mean right.
To me, Severance is the bestthing that's happened this year
TV-wise.
It's such a mind bender man.
You know what it is?
It's Stanley Kubrick doing theOffice.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
So if the Office were done?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
If the Office were done in like 2001, A Space
Odyssey.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
That's what Severance is yes, oh my gosh, that's so
true, that's beautiful.
And then, if I see the Office.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I'll just stop and watch the next five episodes, as
long as it's not the lastseason or two, which are garbage
without Michael Scott.
I'm a big Nuggets fan.
I do like the Will Ferrellseason.
You know what I did like thatand James.
Spader's appearances wereamazing.
And then I'm a huge Razorbackobviously fan and Broncos
hopefully, you know, don'tembarrass me this year.
(46:40):
So yeah, stuff like that.
A lot of sports, a lot ofbaseball, royals fan.
I'm the weird Kansas CityRoyals, denver Broncos fan,
which is an odd hybrid.
So, yeah, hopefully the Royalsdoing great Bobby Witt we know
we got the Walmart connectionwith that, so excited and thank
you so much for spending timewith us today.
My honor man, super gracious todo it, would do it.
(47:05):
Would you have me back?
I would definitely have youback, okay, all right, I'm
honored.
It's a great job, man, and Iwant you guys to know they have
an entire sheet of notes.
These guys are prepared.
They ain't just like winging it, this is a real operation, so I
dig it.
Good job guys.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I appreciate it, man, absolutely.
I really appreciate you comingon.
It's a treat to me personally.
Well, I loved it.
I'll come back, all right, andthank you all for joining in.
Um, you can, as always, you canfind all of our podcasts audio
video on highimpactanalyticscomor wherever you get your
podcasts, and I appreciate youbeing with us today.
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