The Bounce Rate Podcast

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Welcome to the Bounce Rate. We’re so glad you’re listening.

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We are in the beginning of the year, right? We just started 2026, which is wild.

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It happens every year. I graduated in 2005, which means this is one year after

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20 years. Did you go to your 20th reunion?

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I didn’t go to that. I did. Did you? I didn’t go to his 20th reunion.

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I didn’t go to his. I went to mine. I went to mine.

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It was awesome. It was good. I had my 30th a few years ago. Yeah.

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No, it was 35th? 30, I don’t know, 89?

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Somewhere, one of those bigger numbers. Anyway, it was, you know,

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like I saw some of the friends that were my best friends.

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And, you know, it’s like you remember how things were.

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And it’s like this whole span has gone by because we live in different states

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and so forth. And I was like, oh, it’s not the same anymore.

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I’m not as close to them as I used to be. Well, that is funny because someone

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who grew up with the social media hitting in the middle of high school,

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everyone that I needed to keep in touch with, I still do.

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Everyone else has just kind of unfriended me over the years.

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But, you know, it’s those people like you had a relationship in that one class.

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Like they sat behind you and you talked throughout that class.

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You weren’t really like, you know, best friends.

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You didn’t do a lot out of it, but like you created that connection.

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And those are the people it’s so cool to go see.

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And like, I don’t know. Those people are gone.

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COVID. They’re dead to him. Yeah.

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Well, I want to kick this off with, it’s 2026. I need to make a personal amends to you, the listener.

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Last episode, we did our movie comparison where we took a classic film and we

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compared it to some activity or some truth about local marketing.

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Well, the two films that I chose were The Green Knight and Batman Returns.

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As I was re-listening to the episode after I had uploaded it,

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I realized that I said that Batman Returns has…

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The stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, and I said Danny DeVito as Joker,

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which is patently false.

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Yeah, Jim Carrey. Oh, boy.

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He plays— Oh, he was Riddler. He plays the Penguin.

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Danny DeVito plays the Penguin. And I, in my flippant,

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erroneous mind, my brain that was so foolishly focused on getting ready to go

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on break, I made this mistake.

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So I want to issue, I know who played what, and I want to issue this formal

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apology as a Batman. To our one listener, Danny DeVito.

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Wouldn’t that be cool? I forgive you, Roger. Thank you.

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Yeah. Well, you weren’t even here. Wah, wah, wah.

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I can forgive you. I’m a listener. That’s nice. Am I the one?

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No. Do you listen? I do. Not to every episode, but I do listen to a lot of them.

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Well, now that that’s out of the way, today is all about resolutions.

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These are, you know, we all have regular resolutions about what we’re going

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to do in the upcoming year.

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But today we’re going to talk about some local marketing resolutions.

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What are some things that we’re going to do to make 2026 a banner year,

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so to speak? Bruce Banner played by Mark Ruffalo and Eric Banner.

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And who was he in the TV show? It was Lou Frigno. Lou Frigno. He was the Hulk, but not.

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Right. Oh, I can’t remember his name. Oh, well. Cut this out.

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Well, does anyone have some just regular resolutions?

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Well, here’s the beauty. Because I’m a marketer, as my day-to-day life,

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my marketing resolutions align 100% with my personal ones. Right.

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Yes. Share more. So losing weight. Share more. I want to lose weight. No, wait. No.

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So are you ready? Yeah. Because I gave these some thoughts.

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So I’m going to give you kind of the setup and then the resolution.

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So here’s the first setup. You know, over the course of 2025…

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I forgot that I’m actually in control of my destiny. Whoa.

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Yeah. Here’s the corollary. I need to take more risks.

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I think I really, 2025 was a year where I just kind of said,

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yeah, you know, the politics, the winds have changed.

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I’m just a leaf on the wind. I can’t. And you know what? It’s not true.

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It’s no less true for 2025 than it was for 2024, 2023.

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All those years, I have agency. I can make decisions.

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I can impact things. So here’s my resolution. I need to take bigger swings because nothing is impossible.

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So I need to go after it. So in marketing, the only risk you run is wasting money.

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And the corollary, the resolution, the action here is waste some marketing dollars.

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I feel like that’s indoor media in 2026.

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I mean, we’re leading up to this because we’re taking some swings.

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We’re taking some risk, you know?

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I think that’s a great point. And it also, it connects back to the situation

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where, so I don’t resent my guidance counselors.

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That’s for darn sure. They tried their best.

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But as someone in the millennial zone who my guidance counselors had no idea

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what was going to be the case in the future.

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You know, for them, it was like, well, you need to go to this school and you

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need to get this kind of degree and, you know, this should set you up.

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They were not prepared for the AI.

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They were not prepared for all the market crashes. You’re not prepared for this stuff.

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So it is really easy to kind of get into this mode where it’s like,

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darn it. I regret, you know.

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What did they recommend for you, Roger? Well, what they told everyone in my

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graduating class was they said, you need to get at least a four-year degree

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in anything because any four-year degree is better than anything else. Than nothing.

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Then they said that mathematically-

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Get as many loans as you need because you’ll get right out of college.

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Did they really tell you this or is this what you interpreted based on what

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they said? Did they literally say it doesn’t matter what you study in college?

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I know that’s a common trope is that a lot of people are saying that that’s

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what they’ve told your generation. Or did it sound like this? Roger?

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Anything. Just finish anything. For the love of all it’s holy,

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try getting something other than an I on your report card for incomplete. Did I?

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So I never got an eye. You didn’t even get that? No. Oh, okay.

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But the… Did they really say that?

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No, yeah. The sentiment was that get at least a bachelor’s degree.

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Right. But was the sentiment get a bachelor’s degree, it doesn’t really matter at all in any way,

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shape, or form, it’s just the piece of paper, or was the sentiment get a bachelor’s

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degree and anything that we normally consider standards like art,

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history, math, science, whatever.

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Not basket weaving, not, you know, Nintendo.

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The idea was that a four-year degree was ultimately going to make a better return than anything else.

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Like an associate’s degree to be an electrician,

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their assumption was that a four-year bachelor’s

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degree would still make more than that electrician that

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that was something that was repeated and it was not

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correct and it but the yeah well the the thing that i’m getting at is that there

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you know it’s easy to get into this thing where you look back and you’re like

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oh well i wish i had anticipated this this new thing i I wish I had known about this.

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And it’s easy to think so much, plan, try to plan so much that you rob yourself

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of the opportunities to actually make the future yourself and actually just

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say like, all right, I’m going to try this.

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And that can actually shape what the future looks like. Does that make sense? Yeah.

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No, absolutely. Absolutely. No. I mean, it goes back to fears and taking risks

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and trying things and so forth.

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And I think the thing about all of that is…

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We should take away from that is one, there isn’t a guaranteed path to success.

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There’s not just this single thing that I go do. If I do it right,

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I can manage all my money and, you know, all of life has risk.

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So there is no, I mean, putting your money in a CD has a guaranteed return,

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but it doesn’t mean you’re going to beat inflation, right? You have no idea.

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You don’t, It doesn’t mean, you

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know, so there’s a lot, even the most conservative thing has challenges.

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So the, and it’s not really about making sure that you never lose money.

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It’s that you never take a risk that you never lose.

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It’s really about, you need to hit a couple things that win and those winnings

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will offset anything that you lose. Yeah.

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I think on taking risks the more.

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You build or the more responsibility you have the harder the risk taken becomes

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so you start building a business right and you get to a certain point and you’re

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like you might feel like it’s a house of cards right and you’re just like you

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know what I mean so where a risk might be great for your business you might

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be kind of paralyzed a little bit you know,

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especially and that’s a good point especially if you own a pizza restaurant

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you have people that work for you and you go well do i take this big risk and

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possibly you know kind of shift the security of it but on that same note if you’re a true leader,

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And you’re doing something in the best interest of everyone on your team,

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then I’ve never been in the situation where someone who was a leader said,

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hey, we got to do something bold.

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When they genuinely were doing it for the sake of the team, I never doubted

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them. I was like, yep, let’s do it.

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You guys want to know what my wife’s guidance counselor gave her as a possible

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occupation? Yes, it’s up. Are you ready?

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I’m ready. beauty mortician oh i kid

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you not is she a cosmetics person no she is oh

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someone was just hang on to that as a chip on her shoulder like i don’t know

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i think she has to talk about it she had dreams you know to to make dead people

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look like famous celebrities and it just pulled out every once along be like

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i could have been a beauty mortician anyway now i’ve got a resolution Do you have one,

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James, or would you like me to give mine?

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Mine is to get my wife to start playing golf. Is that a count? Is that a weird one?

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I’m giving someone else a resolution. Give us some context there.

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Roger really opened up about his high school experience.

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There’s really not much to it. My boys, I got a 14 and 16-year-old boys.

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They’re both playing on the high school team, and she’s expressed interest in

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it, and she hasn’t taken action.

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And I think it’s a great way for the family to spend quality time together,

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just to be outdoors, walking around, hitting golf ball. I mean,

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who cares if you suck, right?

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Let’s do it. So let’s look at your family as though they were your marketing funnel.

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The conversion is…

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Them interested in golfing. Get my wife. Your wife.

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So it sounds like- Heather’s already interested. Sounds like the sons are,

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they’re already converted.

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Yes. Everyone’s converted, but your wife is still in the discovery phase.

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She’s totally in the awareness phase. In the awareness phase.

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Your sons are your regular customers. Yeah.

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And your wife is an unknown entity. They’ve moved on to like the loyalty where

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they’re like the Raven fans. You know what I’m saying?

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Yeah, yeah. And they’re trying word of mouth, I assume. Yes, yes.

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Yeah. So do you need, so did you for Christmas buy her a new golf bag that says,

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do new golf bags work? It just didn’t.

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No, maybe that was. You didn’t take the risk. You know what?

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I didn’t take the risk. I didn’t take any risk. So what’s your action,

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man? Other than just talking.

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I need to get her this set of clubs or something like that. So it’s like.

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Does she have clubs? No. Oh, well, that’s a problem. Yeah.

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I don’t know. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to buy golf clubs.

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So you could get her the bumper sticker that’s, you know, instead of I heart

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my wife, it could be I club my wife.

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No. I spayed my dog. No. Okay. Pass.

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Well, I think it’s also a good point about the importance of…

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Stay with me here as I go on this tangent, but this holiday season,

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I didn’t want, I did not want any physical gifts.

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And I told my parents like the, the, the thing really genuinely that I would

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like most is some experience with people in my family.

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And it was, it’s interesting because they don’t really see things like that.

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They’re like, well, it’s Christmas. you need to have something that you can unwrap.

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How do you open, how do you unwrap an escape room? Yeah.

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Like it doesn’t, doesn’t make sense. How do you unwrap us going to Marfa?

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Yeah. You know, a road trip, but. How does Santa give you paintball?

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It just, it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t work. But. Gift cards.

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You know, in terms of, yeah, you found that card. But that, that really truly

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is like the experience-based marketing And like having situations where like,

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especially after COVID,

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it was like, all right, all this stuff that I can just, that I can just order from the internet now.

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And if I get something for someone else and it’s not the kind that they like, this is dicey.

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I just want to spend time with the people that are in my hotel or resort booking

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in Martha packaged up. I mean, this is capitalistic, capitalism.

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We can wrap up and gift anything. I mean, the wrapping up aside,

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I just- I’m stuck on the physical- I just mean I don’t need- You don’t need

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things. I don’t need things anymore. Yeah.

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If it’s not cash that I can buy a Lexus- Dad, Mom, I’d like the gift of your presence and cash.

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And cash. It really, it’s just experiences. And so it sounds like that’s what

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you want. You want more experiences.

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On the golf course with your wife.

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Well, I’ll take off my, I’m not going to put my psychology hat on.

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I’ve, I tried my best to spin it into local marketing.

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Mine is my personal one and also local marketing. And that is learning,

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becoming fluent in Spanish.

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I put, I put it off.

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I start trying to speak in Spanish with people and I bite off more than I can

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chew and I go, un poquito, I don’t know that much.

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There is no excuse not to speak more in Spanish.

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And that also applies to marketing in that more and more we’re seeing populations

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that don’t necessarily speak English becoming large.

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Six, seven, man. six, seven, in fact, becoming larger in the economy.

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And so whether it’s an actual language or just speaking the language of a segment,

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understanding how that segment wants to talk, where you can have a business

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and say, well, what we sell are widgets.

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Well, do they know what the thing you call widget is a widget,

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they may have a different frame of reference.

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So I think absorbing more, listening more to audiences and trying to speak in

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a way that they can connect with, that’s going to be my resolution.

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I like that. I mean, especially, I mean, it’s really relevant here in Houston,

00:17:15.417 –> 00:17:21.137
Texas, where a lot of Hispanic-speaking population, a large Hispanic-speaking population lives.

00:17:21.297 –> 00:17:25.317
And when I had the agency, And I think a lot of people left money on the table

00:17:25.317 –> 00:17:30.477
by not catering to that audience, right? Because, you know, letting…

00:17:31.458 –> 00:17:34.178
Put a version of your website in Spanish. Simple things, right?

00:17:34.278 –> 00:17:36.538
Like can really have a big impact.

00:17:36.918 –> 00:17:41.678
We see it. Yeah, we see it as well with Vietnamese communities because a lot

00:17:41.678 –> 00:17:46.798
of them are owners of salons, nail salons, and so on and so forth.

00:17:46.918 –> 00:17:51.858
So you’ll see that a lot in the online reviews where someone will say,

00:17:51.998 –> 00:17:58.698
I really appreciate that my rep was able to communicate the value of this in Vietnamese.

00:17:58.778 –> 00:18:05.658
No one had ever done that before. So that, you know, extra Duolingo lesson might

00:18:05.658 –> 00:18:11.238
actually be the difference between someone, you know, trusting you and moving

00:18:11.238 –> 00:18:13.738
forward and someone just saying goodbye.

00:18:14.098 –> 00:18:19.058
Well, I have one of my other resolutions is a perfect dovetail to that,

00:18:19.218 –> 00:18:23.938
which is I don’t think in 2025 I spent enough time listening to customers.

00:18:24.815 –> 00:18:29.975
And I think that act of listening is a direct, I mean, because the idea is that

00:18:29.975 –> 00:18:34.615
you listen, absorb what they’re talking about, and then actually respond back to it, right?

00:18:34.795 –> 00:18:38.195
Exactly what you’re talking about. And I think listening to customers is the

00:18:38.195 –> 00:18:40.435
first step you can actually take in that journey.

00:18:40.795 –> 00:18:44.935
Listening to Spanish, obviously, but just hearing what your customers are saying,

00:18:45.155 –> 00:18:47.535
getting their feedback, making sure that you solicit it.

00:18:47.895 –> 00:18:52.375
And Roger, this is, Roger taught me this. It’s the IAAA approach,

00:18:52.595 –> 00:18:57.235
which is initiate, absorb, accept, and add.

00:18:57.735 –> 00:19:01.315
And it’s a really good model. You have some sort of interaction,

00:19:01.455 –> 00:19:04.395
the initiation. You have to absorb what they’re saying.

00:19:06.335 –> 00:19:10.435
Don’t be sitting there waiting until they’re done so that you can say what you want to say.

00:19:11.335 –> 00:19:15.375
Don’t assume things. Listen and absorb it really in.

00:19:15.455 –> 00:19:18.435
And then you have to accept it at face value. you. You have to just sit there

00:19:18.435 –> 00:19:21.355
and say, this is what this customer wants. This is what they’re talking about.

00:19:21.575 –> 00:19:24.875
Let me try to understand their perspective. And then finally,

00:19:25.095 –> 00:19:29.795
only after that process, do you go add something to it and respond and do something with it.

00:19:30.315 –> 00:19:33.995
I like that. Works for marketing and improv. Well, what I heard you say,

00:19:34.235 –> 00:19:36.635
what I heard you say is, right?

00:19:36.975 –> 00:19:40.535
I have a whole story about that. That’s for another time. Okay.

00:19:40.655 –> 00:19:45.995
But let me just say that I did that exact technique of let me rephrase what

00:19:45.995 –> 00:19:51.355
you were saying to me and it backfired in the worst possible way.

00:19:51.715 –> 00:19:54.615
You must have misunderstood what they said. Well, no, no, no.

00:19:54.735 –> 00:19:58.055
I was saying, but it was complex. I always use it. I feel like it’s a good thing.

00:19:58.055 –> 00:19:59.635
It actually, I think it’s.

00:20:00.554 –> 00:20:04.394
I think you have to be careful with it, honestly. Well, I’ll save it for another

00:20:04.394 –> 00:20:07.974
time. Yeah. Another episode. Well, I’m looking forward to 2026.

00:20:08.514 –> 00:20:12.534
I think there’s a lot of fun stuff in store. There’s going to be changes in

00:20:12.534 –> 00:20:16.714
the market, in leadership at various countries.

00:20:17.234 –> 00:20:21.314
Well, and I didn’t give you all my other resolution. Oh, yeah.

00:20:21.314 –> 00:20:23.174
Because I gave you, that was my personal resolution. Oh, I see, I see.

00:20:23.254 –> 00:20:29.994
All right, all right. But in 2026, I’m going to be, and I am obsessed with our

00:20:29.994 –> 00:20:31.854
marketing metrics, right?

00:20:32.014 –> 00:20:34.354
Number of leads, really the whole sales funnel.

00:20:34.714 –> 00:20:43.734
So I have the luxury of being able to do that and just want to every day dig

00:20:43.734 –> 00:20:48.894
in and just blow things up, take some risk, really move the needle.

00:20:49.054 –> 00:20:51.194
So very excited for that.

00:20:51.374 –> 00:20:53.634
And are you wasting some advertising dollars?

00:20:54.854 –> 00:20:57.554
I mean, I want to say unfortunately, but yes, I am. No, absolutely.

00:20:57.854 –> 00:21:01.394
No, they’re like, there’s no way to succeed if you’re not. Cause if you’re not,

00:21:01.554 –> 00:21:04.354
you’re not taking enough risk on it. Definitely. I mean, I’m not.

00:21:04.834 –> 00:21:09.134
It’s not wasting ultimately because you have to, but are you having some dollars

00:21:09.134 –> 00:21:10.414
that aren’t performing? For sure.

00:21:10.794 –> 00:21:12.594
Absolutely. Right. You’re going to make some bets that lose,

00:21:12.734 –> 00:21:18.294
but how, how close are we to doubling our number of leads coming in?

00:21:18.474 –> 00:21:21.654
Oh, we’ve already doubled. We’ve already doubled leads. I mean,

00:21:21.694 –> 00:21:26.474
that’s unbelievable, right? And then we start looking at incremental growth

00:21:26.474 –> 00:21:29.734
now that we’ve made that big swing, started spending a lot more.

00:21:29.834 –> 00:21:33.394
Now we start doing the incremental part of making sure that they’re closing,

00:21:33.534 –> 00:21:36.534
that they’re the right kind of leads. And that’s the only way to take a major step.

00:21:36.934 –> 00:21:41.674
That’s awesome. Well put. Well, like we said, get obsessed.

00:21:43.674 –> 00:21:50.634
Start listening. Start communicating. And Eric, what was the only thing you started with?

00:21:51.705 –> 00:21:55.465
I’m trying to remember what years that you started with was. A risk. It’s late now.

00:21:55.725 –> 00:22:01.605
The resolution’s gone. I already gave up. My 90-day total body transformation, it’s over.

00:22:02.025 –> 00:22:06.505
That’s true. No, it was take more risk. Take risks. Get obsessed.

00:22:06.945 –> 00:22:11.825
And believe that you have agency and control in your life. We got this.

00:22:12.365 –> 00:22:14.825
Happy New Year. Woo!