The Truth About Being A Young Founder | Ethan Lloyd | TDES - The Dillon England Show

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You have no idea who supports you. You also have
no idea who hates you.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Doesn't matter the people that hate you, especially when it
comes to making content welcome it. It helps so much
if you could just dream the ideal marketing agency that
you run, like, what would that look like?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
I want to be able to help everybody.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I want to help the library and I want to
help the library in I want to work with public and.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I want to work with private.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I want to work with big and I want to
work with what some people consider small.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Charge what it would cost for this.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
To go as good as possible, and have that as
your aim the best case scenario in charge.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
For that last case scenario, that's business charge.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
It a liar is the only non negotiable where you
cannot be around me. You can't work for me, You
can't be in my home, you can't ride in the
car with me.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
You don't live in reality. You bend reality.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I think there's a lot of pride and ego that
keep people in a spot way longer.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Than they should.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Absolutely, you have the weight of the world on your
shoulders and you shrug.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
After a while, you're used to the weight.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
As you go, You get so used to that weight
you can struggle a little bit and that's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
So you're in a marketing agency. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
So for those that don't know se Ethan Lloyd, you
want a killer marketing agency in Detroit? Yes, and we
can keep talking to pricing game, but I want people
to know at least who you are, and you do
a lot of work. The way we met was you
needed a voiceover for commercial your building. Yes, and one
of the commercials is out. I don't know, maybe we'll
play it on the podcast or whatever. Maybe by the

(01:28):
time this comes out, my one will be out.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Oh now, that'll be sweet and we can play.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
That right here. Anyway, we're back. Wasn't it awesome?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah? And that's Ethan Lloyd's work, everybody, boss, I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
We do have like fifteen podcasts already recorded that schedually
now oh yeah you're yeah yeah. But anyway, so doys
Ethan Wood's work is incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know, and we met just because of Robert Courtney,
and Robert Corny texted me He's like, hey, I need
your voice. Yeah, And at first I thought it was
like a big compliment.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Like, oh yeah, he's my voice.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
And then I realized you just picked a bunch of
random Michiganders that were like, just come do this, and
it wasn't special at all.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
No, that didn't want it to be special, and that
that was.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
It was so good until I got there and I realized, Oh,
that has nothing to do with my voice. I thought
it was like, you know, I'm like, someone loves my voice.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
But no, no, no, that wasn't it at all. No.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Literally, my objective for that shoot was I want regular
sounding people. And I told you, I was like, yo,
bring people who sound real like, they sound like somebody
I would just you know, talk to.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Robert told me that you were looking for an overweight
white male.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
He said that, yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
That is like that is not too far off from
how descriptive marketers get. It's true, yeah, because you can
when when somebody's overweight, they sound over like whatever somebody is,
they sound like.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
You can sound skinny, You can sound skinny, like you're
like a tiny like thin voice, you know.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
But if you're like overweight kind of you breathe a
little heavier.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
You can sound white, you can sound black like. All
of these things matter, even just down to the detail
of a voiceover, and so thank you for helping me
walk a video and being part of it. Right, I
think that was like, that was a campaign that was
going on with like fifteen other campaigns, and it came.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Out really, really beautiful.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
The thing that I really like is to pull in
people where I can, and like, if there's an opportunity
for me to not just be by myself in a
studio creating by myself, yeah, I want to include people.
Because essentially that was for a program to get people
to move to Michigan.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah it was a cool program. Yeah it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
And I could have just set up a tripod at
the beach, you know, and went to all the tourist
attraction spots and then just put cool music over it.
But I'm like, no, I want to hear somebody. I
want to be able to see people. I want to
you know. I just wanted to add more elements to it,
and so.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, it was cool. It was really fun experience. You know.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
I can now say that I've done voiceover work in
my resume, So I don't know, maybe I'll do some
like you just need. Disney might be calling me next
do some video voiceover. I feel like I could do
like real good animation so professional.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
You have a really good voice for like an adult cartoon.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I think you would be great at Oh, I think so.
I think if you should reach out to that you
have a nice, little sultry voice.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
I try.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, my biggest thing is I have such a passion
for writing, speaking and reading that I it's like it
was such a big part of my childhood. And then
I discovered, like, yo, your voice is like truly powerful.
You can use it. And so that's kind of where
I am. I've done a little bit of of a

(04:45):
like news kind of stuff, but if I had it
my way, I'd be like on broadcast radio just reading
from a book all.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Day, like classical music in the background or whatever.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, I think I just put people to sleep on
road though, but you know it'd be beautiful listen to. Yeah,
you know, no, I appreciate that, And like I'm just
trying to think of, like you have an NPR voice NPR.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
That is such a compliment. I appreciate that. And you know,
I just think that God has given us so many
like different talents. Like who says that you can't do
voiceovers while you're doing the podcast while you're doing your
media company while you're you know, doing all these great things.
And then the podcast training like that is huge, Like

(05:33):
we can wear so many different hats and be creative
in every thing and be successful at it. Right, we
don't just have to. It doesn't have to be like
a passion project.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Not always.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, And so my my buddy Mike Gruy always says
about like everyone has a special gifting, a special set.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
He calls it.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Unique ability is what he says. Everyone has a unique ability.
And if you can find your unique ability, then that
unique ability can set you up in so many different ways.
So he's like, he's like my when he tells me
all the times, like, dude, your unique ability is hosting
people on your podcast.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
You found it, Like you're really good at it.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
You make people feel comfortable, you make you break down
walls really fast, blah blah blah blah whatever.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
You know, That's not what I'm saying about myself. This
he says about me. Sure.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
And so when I was flying out to one of
my sponsors and I was like, hey, man, I made
a Dallas whatever, He's like, dude, you're in your unique ability.
And when you realize your unique ability is whatever it is.
So if mine is breaking down walls fast and making
people feel comfortable quickly around me, that unique ability can
transcend multiple different businesses, multiple different skill sets, multiple different things.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
And so like with consulting.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
If my unique ability is making people feel comfortable, that's
perfect for consulting. It's also perfect for sales. It's also
perfect for and so great everyone. If you can find
that thing that is natural to you, and if you
can build a business around that, you have a way
higher chance being successful versus forcing some sort of business
or idea that you aren't really naturally gifted exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Because you know what the differentiating factors is that everything
is play at that point.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
It's all fun.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
And that's the biggest thing that I love about what
I do is because I go around creating concept for
you know, education institutions, government agencies, businesses, tech companies, all
these different great things, financial institutions, it doesn't matter, you know,
we do it for a lot of different people. The

(07:24):
greatest thing is that I'm having It's it's all play
because it's this is what I do. This is what
connecting people, getting them on camera, trying to get people
to have fun, getting people out of their shell. When
people have that stage fright moment, giving them just a
ounce of encouragement, you know that they can take and
run with. That is so fun for me, Like I

(07:45):
have fun doing it. So we can put those hours
in and look back and be like, oh.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Was I even working for the past five hours?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
You know?

Speaker 1 (07:55):
And and I really love that unique ability. That's a
new word for me.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Unique ability.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Or charge people what you would do for free, like
if you would just do this for freaks, it's fun.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
That's a business charge. That's where I'm at, right, Yeah,
So where this call? Where did this start for you?
This marketing company? Where this thing start for you?

Speaker 1 (08:11):
It started at Wayne State University in the city. I
was a finance major. I worked at a wealth management
firm and uh link in financial Advisors. I was a
social media intern. I like squeezed in there. I was
struggling so much to get an internship. And so the
way that I went about it was I approached a
financial advisor and I was like, yo, I will I

(08:33):
will run your social media, so I won't just be
an intern like organizing the file cabinets.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Like I'll do something for you, like I'll make some content.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
I didn't do anything other than my own personal social
media at that point, but I felt like I could
do it right, and I just felt like, let me
add some kind of value. Did that I think I
was like seventeen eighteen something like that. I did that
for a little bit, and I got to a point
where COVID hit, and I was like, Okay, everybody.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Needs this right now.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
And because I saw how when COVID hit, I saw
the shift and how important my role was within just
that little internship where they might have been paying me
like two hundred and fifty bucks a month, like nothing
like I was at Taco Bell, you know what I'm saying.
But I was happy, I was grateful I was working.

(09:29):
And I did that for a little while, and there
was just an epiphany that happened somewhere along the line
of COVID, and I said, everybody needs this right now,
and I'm right now it feels like I'm the only
one realizing it around me, like that everybody needs to
push digitally from now on, and that this will be

(09:50):
the forefront of any marketing, any good marketing strategy for
moving forward. And I saw TV become less important. I
saw print media become less important, and I'm just seeing
all this happen and I'm.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
In this space and I just say, you know what,
screw it, Wayne State will be here if this doesn't
work out.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
In my sophomore year at college, I say, let's launch
this thing. So I launched my agency from my apartment
in Corktown and I just started knocking on doors. I
was like, yo, I go to nonprofits. I targeted very
small businesses, not small businesses, very small businesses. I went

(10:32):
to friends and family who didn't even have businesses. They
just had ideas. I approached people with ideas and I said, yo, for.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Well.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
I feel like at that point I was charging, like
I still was charging like two fifty a month something
crazy like that, and I just approached them like yo.
It wasn't even the craziest pitch, like yeah, I'll run
your social media. I was just like a task manager,
like I'll just do it for you. Because somebody has
to do it, I'll just do it. That was my
value add at the time. Forward worked with a nonprofit

(11:02):
in Highland Park called Avalanche Village and Mama Hue is
her name.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
She is a.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Lady who owns forty five plus at the time, it's
more now, I'm sure forty five plus properties in her
neighborhood she owns, and she bought her block. The reason
why she bought it was because both of her sons
were killed on that block. So she one was killed
in a hit and run accident. I believe it was
like six years old. The other was shot to death

(11:33):
in front of her house. And it was horrible, right,
and I'm learning this like in real time. My friend
introduced me to her, and she's telling me her story.
She bought her entire block to make it a safe
eco village for the community, right, so the kids there
could be safe. She puts solar panels on top of everything.

(11:53):
She used shipping CRIDs to open up businesses. She put
a stem lab inside of there. She repurposed shipping container
is purchased all the lots in the area so that
it could be like this vibrant place. There's a homework
house there, it was, there was a marketplace there, it was,
it still is.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
It's beautiful. Told her story.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Because this is the first time I was like, yo,
I got a story to tell and as a real client,
and it's like real, like this is something real going on.
I didn't go the traditional media approach of.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
A SOB story.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
I leaned more into the fact that she was a
boss and that this horrible thing happened, but she was
triumphant over it and she overcame it. Long story short,
I posted about it. We did a couple of memes,
We did a couple fun trendy dances. We had fun, right,
we had fun. Yeah, telling you this, you know what
started out to be a sad story story right? Thirty

(12:44):
million views organically thirty million I think I'm nineteen years
old at the time. Thirty million views. That made the
City of Detroit government, the Mayor's office catch wind of me.
That made the news networks catch wind of me. That
made every other marketing beast at the time be like,
who is this guy?

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Right? Fast forward a little bit.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
I started working for the city to City of Detroit
as the citywide social media manager.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
I think I'm twenty or twenty one or something like that.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
So I am in charge of at City of Detroit
on all social media platforms. That's me. I'm in charge
of that I created. I had a team of thirty
Not only did I have a team of thirty creatives,
who were all.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Twice my age.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Honestly, I also had access to thirty different departments, Detroit
Police Department, Detroit fired You were charging all of that,
all of their messaging and visioning, and like the direction
that they're supposed to go twenty million views for the
city of Detroit.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
While I was there, I had too much fun over there.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I had so much access and I was so young
that I just went after everything. We covered every event,
We tried to make every connect. We had so much fun.
Of a post went viral and the City of Windsor
got in on the joke, and so from there I
felt like they were established and that they had everything

(14:12):
they needed. In I think ten months time, I got
them from fifty thousand to one hundred and fifty.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Thousand followers on Instagram.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
So I got them one hundred thousand followers, yea, and
I felt good about it.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
I worked with the Mayor's office.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
I worked a little bit with the mayor directly, a
lot with his like chief of staff and all of
the everybody on the cabinet. So all the directors of
all those departments worked a lot with them. Right twenty
years old, twenty one something like that, and then after
that it was just over with. It was just the
sky was the limit. I stepped back on my own

(14:48):
because I did that, like working for them, I stepped
back on my own. I just kind of was just like, okay,
agency was on pause, let's press play. And at the
same time, I was working on Hill Harper the Actors
Senate campaign for Michigan, ran his social media and I
ran a great event thrown almost weekly called black Tech Saturdays.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
They're kind of taking it over all over familiar.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, got in there when they only had like a
couple hundred people there and then helped scale it to
now they have thousands of people there. It was really beautiful,
just everything that they have going there. I just fell
in love immediately. But I did both of those at
the same time. Okay, I was just social media director
of both at the same time. I got both of
them five million apiece sick and after that, I mean,

(15:36):
you know, I just ever since that, I've been working
with what feels like everybody or trying to you know,
And so we do political work, we do creative work.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
I work with other creative agencies.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
I partner with marketing agencies all the time, and really
big on education right now, and so yeah, I'm having
a ball out here, but I'm really trying to help.
And my biggest thing is I want people to be
I can do it for a person, place or thing.
If it's a noun, I can market it. And my
biggest thing is I want to make this more relatable

(16:12):
and more reachable, and I want people to be more visible.
And so that's kind of like my what I think
God put me here to help with is to help
people be seen, even if they feel like that's scary.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yeah you know, so yeah that's me. Yeah that's great.
So do you feel like you have like where are
you going from here?

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Are you trying to build like a fifty employee marketing company?
Do you kind of enjoy being you know Ethan Lloyd
and then contract as you need it? Like what do
you what's like the hopes and dreams if you could
just dream the ideal marketing agency that you run, Like
what would that look like?

Speaker 3 (16:50):
If we're dreaming a bit? Yeah, dreamless, dream a bit. Yeah,
we got some coffee, good, you know, feeling good? We
got some time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
I think that what I want is is I want
to be able to help everybody. I want to be
able to help that CEO with that you know, Fortune
five hundred company. And I want to be able to
help the florist in Highland Park who's just trying to
sell flowers to her community. I want to help the library,

(17:22):
and I want to help the library in right. So
I still want to work. I want to work with
public and I want to work with private. I want
to work with big, and I want to work with
what some people consider small, but I just think it
is not tapped into yet potential. I want to have
a service for everybody and everything.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
That's my goal.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
I want to be able to help people on a
smaller level with like classes and stuff like that to
help them with their stage fright.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
I've been really.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Into like different approaches to marketing. I really want to
do like a like an improv class kind of vibe
where just people just come out on like a Friday afternoon.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
Just that's like.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
That's like my hidden dream, like I've never told anybody,
but like I really want to do it, Like because
I see like improv classes and I'm like, yo, this
is like a workshop essentially, they're having fun doing it
and they're putting themselves out there I want to do
that for it, but help people channel it through like
their elevator pitch or through their their sales needs or

(18:23):
whatever their marketing needs are. But like getting comfortable with
putting themselves out there. So I want to help the
what some would call the small guy, and I want
to be able to help the the entities that are
available to them for the as an example, the library
and the library.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
In you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Outside of that, I don't just want to do marketing.
I don't just want to do marketing. I love film,
I love I love I love art. I love cartoons.
That's like something I've never done before that I want
to do. I want to do more animated creative work.
I really want to get into that. Like I love
I mentioned you for adult cartoons. Yeah, I'm gonna be

(19:03):
hitting you up, like I really want to make an
adult cartoon, but I also want to make a kid's cartoon,
like I you know, like these are the kind of
things I'm gonna do. I feel like I'm in a
space where I can dream, and so I try to
do that.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
But also.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
I don't know what's happening next week, So I'm just
trying to. I really just have a left foot, right foot,
left foot, right foot mindset where I literally only think
about my next step. I don't think about I don't
have a five year plan or a ten year plan.
And it's just so much weight with We're spread so

(19:39):
wide and we help so many right now that if
I try to think about what I have going on
next month, I might I might crash out, just because
like it's that, it's that.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, it's extremely and that's the fear of like your
dream of trying to help so many people. With that
comes the need to have so many services, to have
so many like skill sets and understanding of different industries,
and like that is overwhelming. Would you say you're more
of a creative brain like or more of like a
analytical like engineer brain.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Oh, I love that question. I think that I am.
I am. I'd hate to say both. This is what
I think.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
I think I am naturally creative, for sure, but I
feel like I have tried to train myself to be analytical,
like being in finance. That helps, right, I am not
naturally analytical and technical and just good with numbers.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
And all of that.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
That's really really bad with that kind of stuff that's
why I was charging two fifty a month.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Then you're both bro bro. Yeah, definitely don't charge that now.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
But I'm not that analytical, but I'm extremely Everything that
I do is really based off of like feelings because
I feel like we're creating, right, So I'm always chasing like.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
You're definitely creative. You're definitely creative.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yeah, Because when I say a creative, because you have
a creative you have integrators, you have visionaries, you have
engineers and or analytical brains, and there's skill sets for
all of them. A creative when it generally follows feeling,
emotion and passion, okay, and and you know, uses their
gut to be like no, this feels this feels like

(21:24):
these that a lot visionary, So I'd be more of
a visionary. Well, I actually like the five year plans.
I actually yeah, so I want the big picture. I
like planning the big picture. I like I like saying, okay,
we're one hundred thousand, how do I get to a
million in three years?

Speaker 3 (21:40):
This is?

Speaker 2 (21:40):
And then I'm like, if my goal is to be
a ten million dollar company, I need to work backwards
from five years to now and how we get there.
Every step, like, that's what I enjoy and I've learned
that about myself. And then you have integrators. So those
are people that actually do the work. So they don't
want to worry about the creative app They want to
show up and be told.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
They don't want to find clients. They don't.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
They just they're good at what they do and they
just want to do it right. And so as your integrator,
and then you have your more analytical They love the numbers,
they love crunching all that kind of stuff. And so
I've learned that I've been living in an integrator role
when it comes to insurance, Like I have to do
the sales, I have to be on the ground, I
have to do the enrolling.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
But I'm actually a visionary, naturally gifting.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
So if I actually have the ability to paint the
picture and think through trainings and think through consulting and
then like grow and then put people in place to
do that, that's actually where I'd be better off. But
the past eight years of my life I've been in
the wrong seat.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, and I'm learning that.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
And then for you, as a creative, you're definitely much
more like I want.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
To help everyone.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
I want to do it and that that is a
creative like utopian mindset and some confay, but it's a
good goal. But you still need to for sure, you
probably have niches because right now it's government agencies right
now schools like you do have your niches, but you
do want to help the more like tons of people way.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
More, you know, And there's because there's more than just
government agencies in schools, right And so here's my thing.
I am just such a daydreamer that throughout the day
I get like glimpses into what I want my future
to be. Like I'll be in a moment and I'll
just have this like overwhelming feeling of like ooh.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Like I would love it if my life was like this.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
And I just take note of it whenever I have
that feeling. And so it's not like I, you know,
I don't do a vision board or I don't have
like a I'm not the kind of guy that can
just write out a plan. I can write out a
feeling that I want, and I can list a bunch
of steps that I think can get me there, and

(23:44):
I just cross them off as I try them, and
then I keep going. And I will say that has
kept me extremely grounded in a.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Very difficult to navigate world.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
I worked in the House of Representatives for Michigan, and
so I'm on the house floor. I'm with people who
are dictating our daily lives. They are literally making laws
in front of me, and in that moment, I just
wanted to I don't know, like I was scared. I

(24:18):
was very, very scared in that moment, But there were
moments where I just had glimpses of ways that I
could help in my capacity, because I'm just a cameraman.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Off in the corner. Right. They're literally looking past, but
you're still thinking past that.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'm thinking past that because if I'm stuck in that moment,
if I'm more on the analytical side, I might be
thinking of just the task at hand, making sure my
ISO is good, my aperture exactly right. I wasn't really
thinking about that in that moment. I'm like, Okay, this
is the speaker of the House, Okay, this is the
majority floor leader, this is who influenced them they okay,

(24:53):
this person knows this person. Oh okay, interesting, all right.
That person just rolled their eyes at me.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
Interesting all right. And so like I'm just soaking it
all in and then I you know, I have.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
These moments where I'm like, Okay, I am in a
room right now where none of my loved ones will
probably ever be in their life for the most part, sure,
and there has to be a way that I can
influence and help in this room because they are making
decisions that influence.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
My loved ones. And so I just had that glimpse
moment for like it was there.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
For like five seconds, and they went away, and then
I was back to work and I was like, Okay,
let me write that feeling down. And so ever since then,
I've been helping the Michigan House right and in specific
capacities for specific legislators. But like that that I get
those moments right, and I just make sure that I
try to write it down and I try to hold
it right. I don't have the the coordinates to get

(25:51):
to the star I'm trying to get to, but I
just know which star I'm trying to get to, basically, right,
I don't know how to build that rocket.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
I don't know what to do when we're up there.
I just know this is the star.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
We're going to figure it out, and we're going to
figure it out. Do you and that's do you have
something that you've learned? How many years have you had
the agency at this point, we're.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
Probably like six or seven years, it's been a while.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Do you have a lesson you've learned over six or
seven years that you if you if you would have
known this when you started, you would be so much
farther ahead.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
I have a lot of things. So the first thing
is charge more, Like just charge more just if you
if you charge what it would cost for this to
go as good as possible, like aim like have that
as your aim, the best case scenario. In charge for
that best case scenario, because it will you will have
the resources to deliver it, right, You'll have the ability

(26:46):
even if you don't know how to do something. I
bet you you'll be able to hire somebody that can.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Right.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
And So that's the immediate thing that I think people
are scared of because they think, oh, I don't I
shouldn't charge based off of potential. But what is an
NBA d AFT? It's charging based off the texture? Right,
So I that's the immediate thing. You know, don't charge
based off you know what you have and what you
can offer, but the potential of what that could be right.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
In the best case scenario. First thing. The second thing
is as much as I said, helping everybody, and I
want to be.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
This you know, yeah we were dreaming, right yea, I'm
dreaming now that we're awake. Help yourself, do that, literally,
help yourself, try to like like, don't hurt yourself, like like,
don't don't you know, cut off your right arm and

(27:40):
help your left arm, like correct, don't do that. Like
That's something I did very very early on, where I
was helping people who didn't want to be helped. Right,
I was trying to squeeze my service in there. I
don't go into a puzzle piece unless I fit there, like,
and so there will be people along your journey who
want your services. They're not a good fit, and so

(28:02):
that doesn't mean that they always won't be, but right
now it doesn't make sense. And then just be honest.
The other thing is have the difficult conversation right then
and there. If something awkward happens, address it immediately, because
all it does is it accrues and it builds up
and it goes from being a termite to being this
big mons calling like a whole colony that will knock

(28:26):
your house down, Like just the tiny problems, any misunderstandings
within your team, if a client disrespects you, if it
doesn't matter what it is, if somebody if you feel disrespected,
or if you feel like there's there's some misalignment, or
you know, you said something and.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
But what do you mean by that? Like you know
that that stuck with me? What did you mean?

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Like, address things immediately or the problem will accrue and
it'll turn into a monster and that may cripple you.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
And I've seen that happen to me.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Several times, an issue that I saw and I.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Was just like, let's just see what happens. You know,
it plays out, It plays out with you being wallowed.
It does not play for very good.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, you will lose in those situations, right, And so
that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Just get those are good.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Just to address the uncomfort immediately, Like just get in
there and get it over with and just get out.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
One thing I'll add to that even deeper is set
expectations at the very beginning that that's how you act. Yes,
So like for consulting, it's, hey, are you okay with
me being open and honest with you?

Speaker 3 (29:35):
It might be painful.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
If you already have a podcast and you want me
to give my thoughts on it, are you ready for
me to pick this thing apart? Yeah, Like, we need
to set the expectation. So for my team, right when
I hired an employee. We just hired an employee on
Monday for the podcast management team.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
So he's at A Dallas. He's an integration.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
So he's the one that's like doing like he's gonna
make like and he came from a different podcast management company, right,
so he's gonna be eventually COO like he wants to
be the CEO. He wants to be chief operations. I'm
not an apper guy, Like, I'm not a processed guy,
because I'll.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Think of it. This is where we want to go.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
All right, let's get the actual like you need to
hire the vas you do this. So I just said, hey, man,
this this is how I work. I've learned this over
eight years and the same lesson you did. I'd have
clients that would bother me or they would and I
would just be like, oh it's okay.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
I would just like yeah, me.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Right, and I said, hey, I'm gonna be very honest
with you. I'm gonna be very loving, but I'm gonna
be very honest. You will always know what I think.
You're not gonna have to wonder is Dylan mad at me?
Or did I drop the ball? Like if I think
you dropped theall, I'm gonna let you know you dropped
the ball if you didn't. If you're doing well, I'm
gonna let you know you're doing well. You never have
to wonder that I'm going to give you a backhanded
compliment or I'm going to be passive aggressive, or I'm

(30:44):
going to lead in a way that makes you wonder
if you're doing.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
A good job.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Like if I say you're doing a good job, I
mean you're doing a really good job. If I say
that you drop the ball, you drop the ball. And
I'm not gonna lie because there are leaders that will
lead this passive aggressive like. It's the worst, and their
employees never know if they're satisfying their work, you know
what I mean, And so it's very ugly, it is,
and it's not fair to them.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
It's not fair.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
But sometimes I think the reason why leaders do that
is it's more comfortable than having that hard conversation.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
It is, but what that leader should know is that
once a relationship is offset like that, you can never
get that balance back again.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
It's like a it's really tough. It's very tough. It's
it's actually impossible. Once you allow somebody or allow something
to poke you so many times, the only thing that
will happen is in the future is that they poke
harder and when you finally address the issue. This isn't
just for work. This is relationship advice for any person, place,

(31:46):
or thing you're interacting with. The standard that you set
is what is expected on the next interaction.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
So what I have found is it is almost impossible.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
To backtrack and try to backdate your respect that you've
been deserving, that you've been deserving for super long.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
If I finally.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Check somebody for something that they've been doing for two
three months, they're not like, oh okay, yeah, I say, yeah,
good for you.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
No, that's not it. It's like, oh, look at you,
a big tough guy. You finally oh you think you
got something? Yeah yeah, and so all right, now we're
in competition.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Now it's like now we're in And some people like
that energy, some people like that hostility, Some people professionally
prefer it.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
I find it very invaluable. Let's set the standard immediately
so that we don't have to have this little toxic
game that we're playing where we're dancing around each other
passive aggressively.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
Yeah, no, not fun, it's not it's not healthy. Team Environs.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
My buddy can Bowguard wrote a book called No Honesty,
and it's spelled I have the copy of my book,
but it's k N O W, like, oh, I want
to know honesty. But also the N is highlighted like
there is no honesty. And so it teaches right and
he should be a rapper and uh, and he just
teaches teams the power of not doing what you're just

(33:10):
talking about and how actually by being honest and loving.
But like he what he does is he has like
a contract that he makes everyone sign. Yeah, it's like
it's an open and honesty contract. Well basically say like,
have you worked with me. I'm gonna be open and
I going to tell you how I think and feel
and you're gonna do the same. And if you're not
willing to do that, you're not gonna be honest with
me about my leadership style. You're not gonna be honest
with me what you like vice first time, We're gonna

(33:31):
do it a loving, respectful way.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
You can't work here. I'm stealing that. Yeah, but he
makes them side. It's like a real it's like a real,
actual like contract.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
I'm stealing that and so yeah, right and so and
so if and then if they break the contract, like
if they all of a sudden go behind his back,
that's a firebale offense because you actually, like you created
a contract that said this is how we act in
this company. Yeah, and if all of a sudden you're
not acting in a way that you said you would
act like, that's not how we do things here, versus

(34:01):
just saying this is our company culture. We have this culture.
But like, no, this is actually like we're both signed
the same We're going to act in this way. We're
going to do this, and all of a sudden, if
you have someone in your team that's just a nasty person,
they're not living up to what they said they would.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
For my life, a liar is the only non negotiable where,
no matter who you are or how important you are
to me, if you lie, if you are a liar,
I mean that's what you do. You cannot be around me.
You can't work for me, you can't be in my home,
you can't ride in the car with me. And the
reason is that you live you don't live in reality.

(34:35):
You bend reality so that it benefits you. And the
issue is that reality trust them.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
You can't trust them. But reality always snaps back. It always.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
It's like you're pulling a rubber band for your benefit
and then it snaps.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
And pops you.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
I don't want to be around when that rubber band
pops you. I don't want to be there when they.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Will come crashing down, and it will. Right.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
So if I am constantly, for example, if my gas
gauge is saying I got and I'm using this example
because I need to get gas after this, actually yeah, yeah,
my gas gauge if it says one hundred miles left,
and I say, I'm.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Not worried about that, it's really like three hundred and fifty.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
I got a full tank, and I keep driving, and
then it gets down to twenty five miles left. I say, okay,
we're at about one point fifty, and I keep driving.
That does not change the fact that reality is about
to snap back at me. Mindy, yourself does not change
reality exactly, and the car will be broken down on
the side of the road. I don't want to be
with you for that moment when you created this scenario
for yourself out of comfort. Your comfort drove you to

(35:37):
the worst case possible scenario. And that's why I can't.
It's just not beneficient. It's horrible for business. And I mean,
I know, I know people who lie to their clients,
So how do you how do you sustain that?

Speaker 3 (35:51):
How do you think this is going to end? Well? Yeah,
like liars.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
And then the other thing that I really struggle with
are the people that are always negative, always something wrong.
I've dealt with them on my team there it's always
someone else's fault like this, they're like, why aren't you successful? Oh,
it's because you aren't giving me leads, or you're not
doing that or this person and no responsibility for their actions,
Like it's just the victim mentality drives me up a wall,

(36:17):
Like like that is I think that's the most Like
I would almost rather deal with a liar than someone
that's gonna just come in with my team and just
be this dark cloud of energy that when they walk
in the room, they're blaming everybody. They're saying, oh my
dog died and this happened, and my life sucks and
nobody likes me. And like those type of people, just
the energy vampires, those just those are rough too.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Your experience and insurance probably amplify that because you're starting
every day fresh. After you, you know, sign somebody up
for a policy that that is it.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
We got all right. Now it's a new day. I
gotta get it else right, We're gonna do it again.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
And so I can create a million excuses for why
I didn't sign anybody or close any deals or whatever whatever.
There are a million reasons why.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, But that's an entrepreneurship though, And that's the thing,
Like you have to find clients. If you don't, as
an you're as a market like Ethan without clients, Ethan
doesn't get paid, No, I don't. And so like that's
when when we hire salespeople something, because we hire a
lot of people from a W two mindset where they're
used to chilling in the break room for forty five
minutes every hour and getting paid their salary regardless of

(37:29):
how they work, and then they come here and they're like, wait,
why didn't I get paid it's like, well, you didn't
sell it's one hundred pcent of mission. You didn't sell anything.
And it's like you're an entrepreneur, like you're you're a
small business owner. You want a small entrance, Like that's
how like if I'm a media company, if I'm not consulting,
I don't make money right, And it's it is a
shock for people.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
And then there's dues.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
They either like lean into it and love it and
they love the like, oh wait a second, Like I
can make as much as I want. I can help
as many people as I want to help, Like I'm
gonna be at network in events, I'm going to meet
as many people, and they thrive on it. And then
the people that just don't have that personality, like they're
not built to be an entrepreneur. They are built, which
is fine, and it's fine, but get in the right.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
But understand, Yeah, but don't stay here, don't. Yeah, don't.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
And that's probably the biggest lesson I've learned is I
would try to because I love people.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
And I feel deeply and I'm like, no, no, you
can make it work. We can make it work. We
can make it work.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
And I just hold them right and they would they
And it's just putting a you know, round pag in
a square hole. It wasn't ever meant to be. And
I should have fired them in two days for their benefit. Yeah,
and said, hey, like, you know, I asked you to
do these things, and you didn't do them because you
said they were hard and it's only going to get harder.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
But I'd keep them around for ninety.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Days just to see if they can make it through,
and they would just then I'd be discouraged and said
I wasted all this time.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
They left me, and and it's not.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Good for any I'm going to use Dylan. I'm going
to use a lot of like car references.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Okay, are you a car guys?

Speaker 1 (38:58):
No, No, that's what makes it the best.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Okay, following, that's great.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
You know the lodge right, it's like the most popular freeway. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Right.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
If you are not prepared to drive eighty five and
up in that leftmost lane, you are in the wrong
lane and somebody might hit you on your bumper. Yeah,
somebody will flicker their lights at you. People may honk
at you, or should.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
You the lodge, I feel like it's someone shot every
like two months. Oh, people get shot on the lodge
all the time.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
In south Field Freeway. Yes, Southfield's another one. Anyway, go ahead,
go ahead.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
Which is insane, like it's fifty five. Side note, I'm
sorry Southfield Freeway. Can we just talk about that for
a second. Yeah, if I'm going seventy five in a
fifty five, you should not.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Be tailing me.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Yeah, but if you're not going like ninety seven miles
an hour, you will die.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
On Southfield Freeway. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
I actually don't know what the play is on south
because an occasionly there's cops and it's like, what do
the cops be like on south Field? Because no one
goes fifty five? No, like like this, you know it's
fifty five. Everyone goes seventy minimum minimum. That's like middle lane.
So if I'm going fifteen over and I'm still kind
of slow, what's the police threshold to like pull me
over on south Field free or the lodge?

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Like, I don't even know what.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
I have no idea because it's actually unsafe to go
to speed limit.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yeah I wasna probably gonna fifty five will get you killed.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yes, if you go fifty five you will die on
the lodge or seth If I bring all this up
to Sorrus. No, that's good. This is all good context,
Like so leftmost lane eighty five and up right most
lane six sixty five. Right, but the signs say fifty five. Yeah,
that fifty five will get you killed. Sometimes you gotta

(40:40):
ignore those.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Signs, right. I bring all this stuff to say this.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Sometimes people need to get in the right lane for them.
Sometimes certain path life paths are too fast or too
slow for them. You need to get out of that
lane before you get killed.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Period, people get shot on the lodge. Yeah, you need
to get You need to get in your correct lane
or you may get hurt. And that's like the best message.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, Like my best shouldn't be an entrepreneur, Like you
may not need to be insane. You might not be
able to handle it, like nineteen antidepressants because your life
is so stressful with your business, maybe that's not the
career for you, like exactly, maybe maybe you weren't built
to handle that. And actually your life would be so
much better if you had a stable job with a

(41:28):
stable pay. You get to go home with your kids
every night, and that's actually what your life should look like.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
And on the flip side, maybe nine to five isn't
for me. Maybe if I need to take three adderalls
to get through my accounting word to balance my booksheet,
if I need that to do it, it may not
be for me.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Maybe I need something a little more fluid. Maybe I
need something a little more creative. Yes, And so people
are in the wrong life path on both sides.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
There's so much fear because it's fear of the unknown, because,
like you know, we're entrepreneurs. We've tasted the stress of
money not coming in, money coming in some good months,
some months I'm like, well, well that's weird, rude.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Yeah, yeah, And as.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
You get older, you can handle more stress and you
can do you know, and like for me, like now
I'm managing four companies, Yeah that's stressful. But like when
I started Aflac in twenty eighteen and Afflick was my
only thing, I was stressed with this little thing.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Now like now that was like that. I was stressed
over those things.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
But you learn and grow, whereas other people have started
companies and it's not a bad thing to say it's
not for me, Like it's not like you failed, Like
I tell my wife all the time, like if in
ten years. So I've given myself ten years to make
it successful AFFLAC ten years like every Like, if I'm
thirty five and all these business have crumbled, I'm not

(42:53):
a failure.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
No, I'm like, I gave it my best shot.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
I put my best foot forward, and you know what,
the skill sets that I've learned throughout all these things
are going to transfer me to my next job. Yeah,
it's going to be able to like. And so that's
how I view it. And so if you are someone
in nine to five and you're struggling and you try
entrepreneurship and then you fail.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
It's okay, go more than fine.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, I think there's a lot of pride and ego
that keep people in a spot way longer than they should.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Absolutely, what she said reminds me of something, and it
may take me a second to fully explain the thought.
But I remember I used to be a really big reader.
I don't read as much now, just with like my time.
I need to set time aside to do it again.
But there was a book that I read by a
philosopher called ein Rand, who's not really a super popular philosopher.

(43:43):
She's kind of like, she's a little dark I think
she's from like the sixties or like fifties, if I'm
not mistaken.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
She had a book called Atlas Shrugged.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
And to your point, at Liss in mythology is the
is the entity, the deity that has the world on
his shoulders.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
To say, I.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
Don't even remember what the book was about. It was
about like a businessman or something. That is the most
like profound title I've ever heard.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
At List Shrugged. You have the weight of the world
on your shoulders and you shrug.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
So that is what I think. After a while, you're
used to the weight and you can shrug while you're
bearing that heavy load, right, And so I just think
about that every now and then when I feel overwhelmed
as you as you go, you get so used to
that weight that you can shrug a little bit, right.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
You can do a couple of.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Shoulder presses with the world on your shoulders, you know,
And that's beautiful. I think that's beautiful. And I think
that's that's like that ties into what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
It's with boxing too, Like you' say, hey, the first
time you ever went boxing, do you threw three punches?

Speaker 3 (44:44):
You're out of breath? Oh yeah? And now all of
a sudden, now I can throw six punches exactly. That's
one hundred percent increase. Brother, you're killing it, you know.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
But that's the point, like you're you went through adversity,
you were sore whatever, and you got and then you
got better. But eventually, like if you were a boxer
and you did ten different fights and you got knocked
out in the first round every fight and trying to
have brain damage, maybe boxing is not the career path.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Maybe not.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
And so you know, I think we all, I think
we all kind of if you need to take that,
we can always pause.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
No, I need to turn my phone off.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I'm sorry, Yankee's but yeah, no mind, hey phone break.
Mine's buzzing too. I always put on silent and the
whole time has been uh.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
That's my apologies. They're good.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
See they're got my phone. And then all of a sudden, okay, cool.
So yeah, I think.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
I don't know what I'm saying. I just think it's good.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
I think it's good advice for people that are either
really struggling. And one thing I'll say, entrepreneurship is a struggle.
So just because you are struggling doesn't mean you should
just jump shit, that's not what that's not what we're saying.
Or if you're nine to five you have a hard season,
we're not saying quit and be an entrepreneur, like because
there's a million other things. But I do think that

(46:00):
if the coaching you're getting people in your life that
is supporting you or maybe saying, hey, this might not
be for you, and you've given it a fair shot,
then it's okay to try something different.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
You feel it in your gut, you know it, you
know it.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
You just need the right amount of motivation to make
that jump, that leap.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
It is like a trust fall with no parachute.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
And you know what I'm saying, it's like you know it,
you feel it, like it's in your gut. If I
know something, I feel it in the pit of my stomach,
like this is wrong, this is not in alignment. I
transparently I had to.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
End a business.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Relationship for a very very very big company, very very
very big, the kind of company that people would be like,
are you an idiot?

Speaker 3 (46:47):
You stop working with who?

Speaker 1 (46:49):
And I had to do it because in my core
I felt, I'm like, this is not in alignment. We're
not helping each other I'm not adding value here, we're
not doing This doesn't mean in the future we won't
work to get but this is not right. And so
I shared why I felt that way, and they respected
it and they agreed, but nobody was saying it. And

(47:13):
when people nobody knows this. But if people knew the
company that I stopped working with, they would not only
would they flock to try to get my old business
because they do this, of course, but they would be like,
you are an idiot, you have no wisdom, you are
a fool.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Sometimes I jump into the unknown and I do things
that may seem foolish right now, but it is just
at my core I need to be I need to
realign myself. I need to free myself up. And most importantly,
I know this isn't my lane. It's either too fast
or too slow, or it's just not right. And so
I might need to get in that right most lane

(47:51):
or that leftmost lane, whatever it is for me, right,
you know.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Yeah, And if you're not in another like so many people,
we say, oh, like the grass isn't always greener, And
it's true, like if you found your lane, that you're
succeeding in stay there and then and then be the
best in that lane you could possibly be. But sometimes,
you know, because I think about myself right now right
I'm stressed.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Like my wife is like, you have problems and please
stop starting companies? Okay, please can we stop at four?
Please for the next year, just do these? You know,
it's like for real, dude, She's like like, hey, I
start another one. She's like you're dumb, ud like please stop.
You're gonna kill yourself. And you know, so I have

(48:33):
to be reminded, like, you know, do I want to
do this?

Speaker 3 (48:36):
Is this my path? Like you know this is stressful,
Like you.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Know, watching bank accounts go from twenty grand to one
dollar every time we process payroll is not.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Fun, Like it's not great. So like just that is stressful. Yeah,
And so.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Trying to dictate, all right, is this good? Is this
care building stress? Is this what's gonna make me better
a better entrepreneur? Or is there a point that says,
you know what, maybe I shouldn't own a business, And
so that like I think I was there, like four
years ago I was or three years ago, I was
on this like pressipicuff, like do I want to keep
doing a hundred psient comission.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Man, like that salary kind of sounds nice.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
But something in my and then like because COVID killed
us and my wife would be like, are you sure
you don't want to get a stable job, and just
something in my gut just like I'm like no, like
I need to see this through. I need to see
this through, and like it doesn't sit right. And so
for like the best uh so about before June, uh

(49:36):
when I like launched the podcast consulting company, I was like,
do I quit AFLAC?

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Do I get a stable job? Do I do this?

Speaker 2 (49:44):
And like this year and everything we talked about like no, nope, nope,
don't like it. Don't like this job. Like she's like,
what about this? Would you enjoy this? I was like no,
would you enjoy this?

Speaker 3 (49:53):
I was like no. And then all of a sudden,
through my.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Entrance career, I just a half million dollar team beautiful
doubled income just like that, we're doing over a million
dollars in sales and so like this like starting September fourth,
so by the time this podcast, and that's the first
time in seven and a half years in this company
that I was able to like grow like that and
get agents on my team just like that. And if
I wouldn't, if I wouldn't quit in June and I

(50:20):
told my wife, I'm like, I'm telling you there's something
around the corner. I'm telling you there's something around the corner.
I feel like I'm like you felt it. And I've
done it too long to quit. I've done this for
seven years. Like I know, I know I can make
this work. I know it can give us the cash
flow we need for me to pursue the other businesses.
And then like yesterday, this is how crazy this is.

(50:41):
Last two weeks ago, I get a call, all right
from this guy named Bob Schenn Phil Coach Bob, shout
out coach Bob. She owns he owns a company called
the Visionary Forum, where basically it's like a alcohol alcoholics
anonymous for visionaries, right, a bunch of people that like
have a bunch of ideas and whatever, they don't know
how to actually get tracks. And it's a group that
meets once a month on Zoom and like has speakers.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
It's awesome.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
So he's far, yeah, I'll get coach popsic. Yeah, no,
he does a really good job. He calls me and
he's like, so this this whole interurant stuff's happening, so
like we're acquiring the team, like this kind of spacific.
It's not happening September fourth, right, so it still hasn't
even happened yet. I haven't guess seen an income boost
or anything.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Right.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Meanwhile, I'm trying to build this podcasting thing out and
we already have the video editing company, so we're managing clients,
managing services, but like I'm not taking income from that
because I have equity. So that's just we're just building
cash flow and through that business. But England family doesn't
see that. And then I'm getting less in a flac
because I'm not spending as much time in a flack
as I have the business.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
You know, it's gonna have the podcast, right, So he
calls me.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
He's like, hey, man, there's this kid. He's an older guy,
so he calls everyone a kid, right, Right, He's like,
there's this kid in Texas and I was just on
his podcast and he's looking for a job in podcasting,
like a like a podcast management company, and he just
was working for a podcast management company and his internship

(52:05):
ended and that company didn't have enough funds to bring
him on full time, but they want like they wanted to.
He passed the internship, but they didn't have enough funds
to take him from intern to like a full time salary.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
Are like, are you hired?

Speaker 2 (52:18):
And like in hired like an integrator or someone that like,
I'm like, well, this is baby company. We do have revenue,
notw times of revenue, but we do have clients, like
I do have clients.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
I could maybe make some work, we could figure something out.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Let me talk with the kid, hear them out. Yeah,
and we have on a zoom call. And four days
later I hired him. Wow, and I called through all
his references. One of his references happened they live in
Michigan that I dis golfed with yesterday, and that reference
is going to be a massive because this this reference

(52:52):
has a podcast, he owns a construction company. He's doing
what I'm preaching on using podcasts for lead generation. And
he's the perfect client. And I was able to yesterday
break down my whole business model for this guy and
he gave me tons of advice. But I shouldn't even
know this guy existed and it was through this other
guy that I just hired through this relate and like
that's how sometimes persistency works. Like sometimes it just takes

(53:15):
you to get through this schlog and it will work out.
And so now just like that, like you know, we're
growing have you know Canon is his name. He's killing
it in Texas building out a lot of systems for us.
And then but if I would have quit in June,
I just keep on thinking if I would have just
like quit all of this in June because it was
like too much, right, and we had a kid born
in May, so that was kind of also the like

(53:37):
second kid business for businesses.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
Building all of them at the same time, is this
wise right? Health issues do whatever?

Speaker 2 (53:48):
And if I would have quit in June, like I
just think of like what would am I? Yeah, cool,
I'll go make one hundred and twenty k as some
insurance whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
You know what I think?

Speaker 1 (53:59):
I think you would have did that ship for like
two weeks tops, and then you would have got all
your businesses back. Because think about it like this, and
this is what I think about it, because I have
moments where I want to quit too, and I think
if I take this away, how would I feel like, like,
just think about that, like just like you know, like

(54:21):
I would like close my eyes and just picture, because
I'm a daydreamer. I would picture my life without this,
this goal, this mission, this impossible task that just driving
forces me up that night and makes it hard to sleep. Right,
this this impossible desire to help everyone. Let's say I

(54:42):
remove that and I just get a job as a
I don't know, a marketing director for.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
Like some corp whatever, right, some corporate whatever. How would
I feel?

Speaker 1 (54:57):
I would feel so naked, I would feel so not unaccomplished,
but I would feel like I'm not.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Doing what I was put here to do. And I
feel like, man, but I almost had it, Like we
were like right there.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
I got so close, and I always feel like I'm
really close to that moment and then there are just signs, right,
there are signs you see it, right, and it's just
like a pot of coffee that's just brewing and brewing.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
You see it getting ready, and you're like, you know,
and so that's where I'm at.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
I think that's the entrepreneur that that's not everyone has that,
I don't think, because I think other people have other
things that will fulfilled like there are there are people
and there's nothing wrong with this, and I think it's
like I enfeed them. I wish my brain was wired
this way that I could go to work, do my job,
and come home and they just get to spend time

(55:52):
with their kids with no stress and that like they
just want a job, to pay bills and enjoy their life.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
That's all they want.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Yeah, And I'm like, I my brain isn't wired that way.
Like I'd go crazy if I didn't have a challenge.
I was trying to like push through and especially with
the career paths that are available to me, Like I
don't think any of them would like I just like
I want to build something, you know, and so like
that is for me?

Speaker 3 (56:15):
What is like keeping me on the hunt?

Speaker 2 (56:19):
And then you said there are signs like I so
like the other weird thing is like, so I'm a Christian,
canon's a Christian in Texas. I go to Dallas because
of Parlor He's moving to Dallas. And then like he
was in like I shouldn't even know this kid, and
then John who's here in Michigan. I shouldn't even know
any of these people exist. And one like one phone
call from Bob all of a sudden, I'm like New

(56:41):
World's open exactly, and then says, all right, okay, lord,
all right, let's go all right.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
You know, let me tell you.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I I remember sitting in my bed and just like
I think, I was like scrolling on TikTok or something,
and a random number calls me and it's somebody that
was running for like and I didn't have work at
the time, a campaign just ended, so I'm just kind

(57:09):
of in this like waiting energy, right, yeah, and you know,
I did my work for the day and I'm just
scrolling on TikTok and I'm just saying, like, oh, my goodness,
is this gonna work?

Speaker 3 (57:18):
What's going on? Da da d D?

Speaker 1 (57:20):
You know, the doubt creeps in. I'm scrolling on TikTok
and I see a random number call me. I won't
say what the area code is, but this person was
running for mayor of the of their city and they
were like, yo, we need you, I need your help.
And we had a beautiful conversation. They said, I've been
watching you. Your work is phenomenal, and you don't know

(57:42):
who is supporting you. You don't know how, you don't
know with this digital age we live in.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
You have no idea.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Who your supporters are, or how well connected they are,
how powerful they are, how many funds.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
They have, or who they know. You have no idea
who supports you.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
And that's why you got to keep going because in
that moment, I said, this person is going to be
the next mayor of blank.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
And I had no idea that they've been watching me.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Right, because they weren't like in your content, they weren't
comedy on your stuff. Like a lot of the people
that are actually supporting you aren't even the one like
you have no clue, Like there's no indicators that they are.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Just asking about you. Yeah, they'll ask somebody who follows you, yeah,
or somebody that follows you will go back and report
it to them.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
You know. I think that this is my thought process.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
I think that we need to take the model of
television and apply it to social media.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
So I think that your story your story. Those are
your daily viewers.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
That's your daily program viewers. And then the content that
you you know, your reels or your long format, your podcast.
That is a movie where people go out and go
out of their way and make it special to come
out and see it, and it's a moment in society
and within the community.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
They just saw this.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Thing that happened, right, but your story. I paid more
attention to my story than I do my reels. And
this is coming from hundreds of millions of views. In
real content, the story matters more because I can see
and I can see who my daily viewers are. You
will see the same names, the same faces, and they
won't necessarily be in your likes, they won't necessarily be

(59:24):
in your bookmarks, they won't necessarily be in your comment section.
But they're in your story and they're watching you. That
doesn't mean that they don't support you. Just because somebody
doesn't press like doesn't mean.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
That they don't like you.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
People see so much, we consume so much that sometimes
I might be like, oh, here's Dylan, I love that
guy so handsome. Next, and that does it so like
it's not always negative. Sometimes people are watching you and

(59:57):
they're supporting you, and they do nothing about it until
two years later or whatever, and so everything is connected.
You have no idea for you know, for anybody. You
have no idea who supports you. You also have no
idea who hates you. Doesn't matter the inverse is true.
So focus on the focus on what you ought to
focus on, which is the fact that whoever's out there

(01:00:20):
they may support you. You don't know who they are.
Your next opportunity might be a phone call away.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
You never know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Yeah, man, what a what a good way start wrapping
this up. And you're right, man, And you what I
will say, The people that hate you, especially when it
comes to making content, welcome it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Oh, welcome it. It helps so much.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
It helps the algorithm, it helps everything. And especially when
it comes to content. Your people are out there. Keep
posting until your people find you, because they will. And also,
I will say a lot of times, the people that
like your content are going to do nothing for you
in real life. So don't bank your success or who's

(01:01:02):
supporting you based on how they're acting with your social profiles.
I can't tell you how many times I walk into
networking meetings or whatever and people are like, dude, you
I've been loving your LinkedIn posts and your updates in
your life, And I'm like, bro, you haven't liked one
of them, but they know and they're watching.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
And you're right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
I think sometimes your story can change with one phone call.
So you never know who you're going to impact. You
never know, like first impressions matter, Be kind to everyone,
cause you just never know exactly what that's gonna matter.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
That's why it's left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.
I'm worried about next week. I'm just gonna get this
post out. I'm just going to communicate what I feel
and whatever comes from it comes from it. And you know,
I hate comment is nothing but market research, consumer data.
You just found out what your market thinks about you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Use it, all right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Or you just found that loser in his mom's basement,
you know, and that's fine too.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
You know, you're like, I.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Don't think I want you in my target market. Actually,
all right, you can order that pizza pizza pockets if
you want.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Yeah. I've had some wild comments. Oh yeah, oh.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
When I was at the City of Detroit every day,
I'd get like ten comments like yo.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Whoever' running this page needs to be fired?

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
And then the post would be like Top ten songs
from Detroit artists like yo, whoever runs this page needs
to die? Top ten movies filmed in Detroit eight mile
eight mile wasn't filmed on eight miles.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Kill this guy? Detroit Detroit.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
They would get yeah, dude, yeah, people would feel get
mad about everything and in the future and the quicker
you realize that you almost find joy in it. You
almost are like, dude, like at one time, I think
the best one of the best hay comments I had.
I've had some visceral comments. But one of the funniest
ones when I was talking about views with YouTube consultant

(01:02:53):
I had in the podcast and we're talking about growing
a channel.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
We were talking about how do you grow podcasts whatever, and.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
I was saying like, yeah, like, you know, I've been
grateful had you know, good amount of views, but it's
a couple of videos go viral blah blah blah. You know,
you might have one podcast that gets thirty views, in
the next podcast is gonna get three thousand, like that's
the point of consistency.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
And then somebody just comments, you look like you eat
your views m And I would like, that's the funniest
thing I've ever seen. That funny because he's like calling
me fat but also giving me a compliment because I
got a lot of views. Oh yeah, so I'm it's
like a double entendre, like he admitted that I got

(01:03:29):
tons of views, but he wanted to also call me obese.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
It's all play, so I just started dying laughing. I
was like, this is the best comments. Show my wife.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
She's like, oh, that's so mean because she hates she
hates the hate comments that I get.

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
Oh and when you've just done your level, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
Because that's like something like my bro would say at
the lunch table, Oh you got to you got a
bunch of views, like you eat your.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Views, like, don't get emotional, don't respond with it, because
then you're just gonna encourage him do more. A lot
of times I'll be like, thanks for your feedback. You
seem like an awesome dude like that, and just like
throw them off and I love it. And anyway, post
I know marketing got a post. I always give this
opportunity to guests as we wrap up. So anything that
you'd like to promote, anything that people working people find you,

(01:04:14):
this is your opportunity to let my listeners know where
to find you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
And I'll make sure all the links are the description.
So absolutely at Ethan E.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
T H A N dot L l O on Instagram,
everything else, it's just my name, Ethan Lloyd. If you
want to see my portfolio of my work Ethan Lloyd
dot com l l O I D. My company name
is Lloyd. It's my last name, so you know it's
it's very important.

Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
It's special to me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
I want to close out with something because you mentioned
something that I It just connects to something that happened
to me. Do you remember I was on Telegraph, which
is one of the most busy, most dangerous roads in Michigan.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
There's a moment, there are moments.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
Where it crosses and it's it's nasty, dude, It's a nasty,
nasty road.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
There was where were to designed that should die. Now,
why would you cross? It makes no sense at all?
It and it serves no purpose because it could just
keep going straight. It doesn't make any sense. Government.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
I I there's like the U the U turn lane,
and I just remember at some point somebody honked at
me for taking too long to do the U turn
or something like that, and she, I see, it's a
young lady. She pulls up right next to me. You

(01:05:28):
know that awkward moment when you honk out somebody and
then you meet them at the stuff right at the
red light. And we meet at the red light, and
she honked at me if you middle fingers, because and
all I did was I looked at her. I smiled,
and I formed a heart and I said I love you.
And it was her and her it was a car.

(01:05:49):
It was like a Toyota camery, just full of people
cussing me out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
And all of them were like, oh, I.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
Love you too, and started laughing like I was, like,
you were about to kill.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
And then all I said was I love you. And
then it switched up every exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
And so when you when you see that hate, you
see those comments, sometimes all people need.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
To hear is that you love them. Yeah, and they'll
be fine. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Man, what a good way to end, Ethan Lloyd. Everybody
appreciate you, bro, Thank you so much. And uh, if
you are in Detroit and your business looking for marketing,
call Ethan.

Speaker 3 (01:06:25):
Uh those commercials hopefully by time this is out.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
You guys got a taste of one of them, and
I don't know if I'm allowed to clip one and
put it in here.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
You are okay, all right, then we'll do that. And uh,
but for real, Ethan's been great. Thank you man, Thank
you for coming to the podcast. Were you had fun
we did. Thank you for having me here. Welcome in
all right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
We see guys in the next episode of The Dillings Show.
Please like com and subscribe.

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
Tore with a friend as always, and we'll see you
guys in the next one. Peace, See dude, cool sweet

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