- 1 year ago
Paul Ryu, founder of JPMforce and the mind behind hundreds of viral food videos, is the go-to content strategist for Las Vegas restaurants. From sushi burgers to steakhouse reels, his work has transformed how hospitality brands show up online.
Watch now to learn how one off-menu item sparked 50 million views, why he only hires active creators, and what it takes to scale influence without selling out.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn how one off-menu item sparked 50 million views, why he only hires active creators, and what it takes to scale influence without selling out.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00:00One of the thesis of this show is, you know, Kevin Costner's full of s**t in Field of Dreams.
00:00:05If you build it, they will come. No one's coming.
00:00:08People will come, Ray. Oh. People will come, Ray.
00:00:14A bulls**t. A bulls**t. A bulls**t. A bulls**t.
00:00:20Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Sean Walcheff.
00:00:31This is a Cali BBQ Media production. We are filming at the Hofbrauhaus in Las Vegas.
00:00:38We started this show with a deep thesis. We believe in storytelling. We believe in technology.
00:00:44We believe in hospitality. We believe in the creator economy. We built a media company on top of our barbecue restaurant.
00:00:51We are obsessed with the best storytellers in the hospitality space.
00:00:56Today, the reason why we're at the Hofbrauhaus is because of my new friend, Paul Ryu.
00:01:01Paul, welcome to the show. Thank you.
00:01:03So, first off, special shout out to Toast, our primary technology partner at our barbecue restaurants,
00:01:08for believing in this podcast, for giving us the opportunity to have these kinds of conversations.
00:01:12Paul, I'm going to ask you our favorite random question, which is where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
00:01:21Favorite stadium? Wow, I've never had that question before, but I'm going to stick with my territory here,
00:01:31and I'm going to say the Allegiant Stadium is one of my favorite stadiums.
00:01:35I have a lot of clients in there, so a little shout out, but that would be our best stadium venue.
00:01:40What was the other question? What are the other? Stage or venue.
00:01:43Stage or venue. For concerts?
00:01:47Anything. Speaking, performance, storytelling.
00:01:55Oh, I don't have to think about that. I went blank just now, but I feel like the big stage that I really like,
00:02:01and I like seeing, I mean, these stages that I'm talking about are more smaller, and a lot of them don't exist.
00:02:08I like smaller, intimate venues more than bigger.
00:02:12There used to be places called, like, The Joint at Hard Rock.
00:02:16Now, Virgin is probably going to go away, too.
00:02:18The venue there.
00:02:19There used to be a legendary spot, and I'm going old now.
00:02:22I'm sorry.
00:02:23No, please.
00:02:23There's this place called, no longer exists anymore, it's called Huntridge.
00:02:27I think their plan, the city's plan, is to bring it back, but Huntridge used to be the mecca of all local bands
00:02:34and bands that were crushing it in the back, so it's now closed.
00:02:39It's in the more, like, downtown art district area, but I think there's a reason to come back,
00:02:44and I'm a big advocate for that, to come back.
00:02:47I like those smaller...
00:02:48Huntridge.
00:02:49I'm very into music, I play music, I like smaller acoustic venues, you know, and, like,
00:02:56if you want to talk about shows, I like watching artists at concerts like that over a nightclub.
00:03:03You ever go to, like, a nightclub, and you see, like, a talent, and they play a different set
00:03:09in a nightclub for some reason versus, you know, I just realized that I'm really into EDM
00:03:13and stuff like that, so whenever I go here, listen to a DJ at a nightclub, way different than
00:03:18listening to them at a show, so I'm big on that, but, wow, what a question.
00:03:22So we're going to go to Huntridge, we're going to pretend like it exists, we're going to bring
00:03:25it back.
00:03:26Yeah, you've got to go see the sign and everything, it's so old school, Vegas, it's still up,
00:03:31the venue's still there, big sign, I hope it comes back, because the entire area is coming
00:03:36back to life.
00:03:37How many people fit in this venue?
00:03:39Estimate.
00:03:40Wrong person, yeah, thousands.
00:03:41Thousands?
00:03:42Only.
00:03:42Only, so less than a thousand.
00:03:43Less than 10,000.
00:03:45Perfect, less than 10,000, perfect.
00:03:46We're going to go to Huntridge, we're going to talk to Entrepreneur, we'll talk to Toast,
00:03:49we'll talk to some other brands, and what we're going to do is, we say the people that
00:03:52watch and listen to this show, they play the game within the game, so there's a game that's
00:03:57happening, but the people that listen, support this show, that are running their businesses,
00:04:01we're looking for insights for people that are playing the game inside, the game that other
00:04:06people aren't seeing.
00:04:07I'm going to put you with the mic on the Huntridge stand, and I'm going to say, I need to know
00:04:12the Ryu sauce.
00:04:14You have over 300,000 Instagram followers, you are in the creator economy, you work for
00:04:20the biggest brands in Las Vegas, you have an agency, what's your story, what's your TEDx
00:04:26talk?
00:04:26Mike, it's yours.
00:04:29I think my story starts with me, my coming to America, and my whole, you know, who I am
00:04:35story before all that.
00:04:36I came to America when I was 13 years old from Seoul, Korea, fresh up the boat, no English
00:04:41by myself.
00:04:43Yeah, a lot of people go, how is that possible?
00:04:45Back then, I'm going to be really, really short, I'm going to give you a two-minute version
00:04:48of this, it's like a long story.
00:04:49No, you go long.
00:04:50Well, you know, so back then, a lot of parents that had some, the trend was to send their
00:04:57kids to America to study, you know, and that was becoming a lot more popular than not.
00:05:02But in Korea, there's mandatory military for all males.
00:05:07So, and I think one of the generals sent their son, they never came back, you know.
00:05:11So, that kind of stuff started tightening down on 16, 17-year-olds to go overseas to
00:05:18study.
00:05:18So, my parents' genius idea was to send me when I was 13 years old.
00:05:23They didn't tell me this, I'll tell you a quick story.
00:05:24How they got me to be excited about this and got me to agree is that they told me that
00:05:29I'm going to go to, we're going to take you to Disneyland, I'm 13 years old in Korea.
00:05:33Like, there's only like two guys in our school that's been to Disneyland ever.
00:05:36So, I was like super excited, went to the embassy, went through the whole interview saying that
00:05:40I'm going to go to Disneyland.
00:05:41And the drive back from the embassy to the house, I remember my mom telling me, okay,
00:05:46this trip, you're going, we're not going, and you're not coming back.
00:05:49That's how it all started.
00:05:51Went to an aborting school, Ojai, California is where I landed.
00:05:54Had to live there, no Koreans in the school.
00:05:57So, at 13 years old, no English, and I dropped into a boarding school with zero Koreans.
00:06:01So, I had to like learn from body language.
00:06:03And I had like a strategy.
00:06:05I'm going to say, hi, my name is Paul.
00:06:07Hello, how do you do?
00:06:08You know, to anybody who says anything.
00:06:10So, people go, are you hungry?
00:06:12I'm like, hi, my name is Paul.
00:06:14That started with that.
00:06:15And then fast forward about a year into it just being an English second language there.
00:06:20My parents bought a house.
00:06:21So, their next genius move was to buy a house.
00:06:23And my 21-year-old sister was going to move in as my legal guardian.
00:06:26And I moved, but her visa got delayed.
00:06:30So, I'm in this house now.
00:06:31I have a dad who lives in Beverly Hills coming back and forth.
00:06:35But I'm kind of in this house, 14 years old, kind of by myself.
00:06:39But the coolest thing about that neighborhood is like it's a cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac.
00:06:43There's about 12 to 13 guys that are in my grade and my school.
00:06:47And they're the most popular kids in my school.
00:06:50So, I instantly became this like a kid with no parents.
00:06:54You know, I was very resourceful.
00:06:56I was able to get like alcohol when I was 15 years old because I spoke English.
00:07:00And then the dudes that were running the liquor store, Korean and stuff like that.
00:07:03So, I was always been that resourceful.
00:07:04Fast forward, moved out to Vegas about 1998.
00:07:10I'm 50 years old right now.
00:07:12So, I graduated.
00:07:12I can't believe you're 50.
00:07:13Still blows me away.
00:07:14Asian don't raisin.
00:07:15So, I graduated high school in 1995, moved out here.
00:07:19And then I have a whole like story when I just went into a lot of nightclub partying and drugs.
00:07:25I had a huge drug, you know, rehabilitation story for about two years.
00:07:30I got really bad into like I was 117 pounds, you know, lost all my friends.
00:07:36People will say that I hit the rock bottom then.
00:07:39Whole rehabilitation story.
00:07:41And then that rehabilitation, during the rehabilitation, I went, you know, I was arrested a couple times.
00:07:44And I remember signing off a felony charge.
00:07:48Didn't know that I wasn't supposed to get a felony when I was a green card holder.
00:07:51So, I have another story of a deportation.
00:07:5415 years later, I'm clean now.
00:07:56Wow.
00:07:5615 years of sobriety.
00:07:57No parking tickets.
00:07:59Now, I'm dating my wife now, Mindy.
00:08:01And the ice came to my door 7 a.m. saying you were getting deported now.
00:08:05Because, unfortunately, didn't, you know, this information didn't catch up to us until now.
00:08:10So, the reason, and the reason I'm telling you all this is because the agency that I have, I had an incident in my life where I had to call, like, press the red button.
00:08:19If you're my friend, like, my parents can't help me out.
00:08:22It's an immigration thing.
00:08:23If you're my friend, I need your help.
00:08:26Yes.
00:08:26And Vegas is a small, big town.
00:08:29If you know a lot of people in Vegas, like, you know a lot of people in Vegas.
00:08:33So, I have a story where the entire Vegas had to come.
00:08:36Like, my wife now, Mindy, had a GoFundMe that went crazy.
00:08:41I had guys with, like, free Ryu shirts all that much.
00:08:44I swear.
00:08:45I had 60-somewhat letters from my clients, like Boeing, Samsung, writing, writing, writing letters.
00:08:52I was the first immigrant to fill the entire courtroom with citizens when I went to court and saw the judge.
00:09:00And they let me out.
00:09:00So, the reason that I run this agency now the way that I do is because I have this deep gratitude about relationship community.
00:09:10So, I don't really take relationships really.
00:09:13How fast we communicate.
00:09:15We literally book this in less than 24 hours.
00:09:17I'm very serious about this.
00:09:19No joke.
00:09:19I put a post on Instagram asking, who is a restaurant influencer in Las Vegas that we need to interview?
00:09:26And shout out to Kevin, who's been on the show.
00:09:29My boy.
00:09:29Kevin, amazing.
00:09:31He's like, duh.
00:09:33You have to.
00:09:33It's Paul.
00:09:34It's 100% Paul.
00:09:35And I saw other people's name on that.
00:09:37Of course.
00:09:38Very deserving.
00:09:38A lot of people that were tagged in the post.
00:09:42That reminds me that I need to do that more because if I didn't do that, I believe deeply in community as well.
00:09:48You know, and I'm just going to jump right into it.
00:09:50A lot of people would be embarrassed to put that on there or, like, say, oh, should I, you know what I mean?
00:09:53Yeah, what's wrong with you?
00:09:53Like, oh, you've had Shaquille O'Neal on the show, Emeril Lagasse.
00:09:56You've had all these people.
00:09:57Ask your community.
00:09:58Ask.
00:09:59Ask for help.
00:10:00A lot of people don't do that.
00:10:01It's hard to do.
00:10:02I know.
00:10:03It takes humility.
00:10:04And we want to get in.
00:10:05But going back to it.
00:10:06So, you know, it's just for me, it's not even about what we do.
00:10:11It's more about me really caring about, like, who I'm connected to and just really, really building that.
00:10:18And I think this is why we have a lot of relationships with clients now.
00:10:23I mean, our agency is like seven years into it.
00:10:25I've been doing food content full time over 15, 16 years.
00:10:31When I was doing it, you know, we would get invited to these restaurants and I would only see like 10 guys maybe at the max doing it at the time.
00:10:37And they're all friends now.
00:10:39That's how I built my agency.
00:10:40And my big thing now is just making sure that everybody that we work with are well, you know, and our relationship is solid.
00:10:50But I've never had a contract with any of my clients, even our government clients.
00:10:54It's cancel any time.
00:10:56I'm just big into that, you know.
00:10:58Me too.
00:10:58So I don't ever take this type of stuff lightly ever, you know.
00:11:03Share with me the beginning of your storytelling journey.
00:11:06Well, in the beginning, I was in sales.
00:11:10Everyone's in sales.
00:11:11They just don't know.
00:11:12They don't know it yet.
00:11:13Everyone's in sales and marketing.
00:11:14I love that.
00:11:15And storytelling.
00:11:16I tell people the type of sales that I was in a long time ago was so crazy.
00:11:20Like I would make like 200 cold calls a day and stuff like that.
00:11:25Great practice.
00:11:25A lot of people don't go there anymore.
00:11:27A lot of rejection.
00:11:28They hate that, you know.
00:11:29But I come from that type of a world.
00:11:32Before, you know, when I first got a job, because I couldn't get it.
00:11:35I was an international student for a long time.
00:11:37First job I got was a fashion consultant at BCBG, which is all girls, like clothing retail stores.
00:11:43And then I got into BB, Bebe.
00:11:46Remember a long time ago?
00:11:47Bebe was huge.
00:11:48For sure, huge.
00:11:49I was a, I think, if I'm not mistaken, I might be the first straight salesperson that I've ever hired as a sales consultant in the front.
00:11:57Yeah.
00:11:57And it went really well for me.
00:11:59And then I kind of had the love for sales.
00:12:01And I really got into that.
00:12:03And while I was doing that, I was kind of going out and eating things.
00:12:09And I would just, you know, a long time ago, it was just Facebook.
00:12:11I would post my food on Facebook, and my friends would get really annoyed, like some blurry photo of my dish.
00:12:17So my wife found an app a long time ago.
00:12:20It was called Food Spotting.
00:12:21It was like Instagram for only food.
00:12:23And it was from San Francisco.
00:12:24They had about half a million users all across the globe.
00:12:27And I got into it, and I just went really crazy on it.
00:12:30Like I'm talking like within 3,000 posts into it, I was ranked.
00:12:35So the app is a gamifying.
00:12:37So they point to you for posting and likes and all this kind of stuff.
00:12:41You know, the number one food spotter in the world.
00:12:43It's like a ranking system.
00:12:44Oh, wow.
00:12:45So within like 3,000 posts, I got up to like number 50 in the world.
00:12:48And I did like a whole top 100 meetup, food meetup.
00:12:52Nobody else has done that from social media.
00:12:54Yep.
00:12:54These guys.
00:12:55And I recognize like top 100 on that app.
00:12:57They're pretty much, if you get up to that level, you're pretty much like a professional food photographer for some.
00:13:02You're traveling for food a lot.
00:13:04I realize if you're really into food, you like to travel.
00:13:08Yes.
00:13:09And you have some money.
00:13:10Like you got, you know what I mean?
00:13:12It's like a common denominator for top 100.
00:13:15And that app was basically there.
00:13:16These guys were literally traveling, taking photos and eating.
00:13:19So we did a meetup.
00:13:20And then that got bought out by OpenTable.
00:13:23It got disintegrated.
00:13:24Yeah.
00:13:24No more updates.
00:13:26We lost our home.
00:13:27And then that's when Instagram started taking off.
00:13:28And then I hopped over Instagram.
00:13:29I had 3,000 posts.
00:13:31I was already editing my photos the way that it was.
00:13:34So I just went ham on Instagram.
00:13:36And that's when I started gaining some momentum.
00:13:37And then I met up with some creators.
00:13:40There's a big creator in town.
00:13:42I always give him a shout out for this.
00:13:43His name is Drew.
00:13:44His account is unlocked.
00:13:45He now is one of those guys.
00:13:47By far, that one person in Las Vegas that I look up to, he's now leveraged his brand, social media brand, into real life ice cream shops and stuff like that.
00:13:57He's by far the number one ice cream shop in town called Sorry Not Sorry.
00:14:00Cool.
00:14:00And he owns With Love Always, a smash burger place.
00:14:02Crushing it.
00:14:03Anyway, he, in the beginning, was already doing a lot of this before.
00:14:07And he got us out to some of these restaurants.
00:14:10And I got to meet a lot of creators.
00:14:11But back then, there was only like maybe 10.
00:14:13So how I started the agency is that I kept getting invited to restaurants so much that I had to book two dinners a night.
00:14:21I would have a nine to five sales job.
00:14:23And I'll get so many invites that I would have to book one agreement for like 530 and another one 730.
00:14:30Is it paid or not paid?
00:14:31Not paid.
00:14:31Not paid in the beginning.
00:14:32Back then, I didn't even know if this is going to be paid or not.
00:14:34Got it.
00:14:35The reason I knew that it was going to get paid is because my schedule got so bogged down.
00:14:39I'm like, oh, they have to pay me now.
00:14:41Like, I can't go to these places.
00:14:43I just can't go.
00:14:43Yep.
00:14:44So then, but the thing is, every single time I went to those places, I would see the same guys on order again.
00:14:49Yep.
00:14:49So I'm like, hey, maybe the leverage is on us.
00:14:53Yep.
00:14:53We need to, what are we?
00:14:55Can we call ourselves something?
00:14:57Or should we group up?
00:14:58And a lot of people don't like that because, you know, an influencer, there's a lot of, there's ego and there's like, I want to do my own business thing involved.
00:15:05There's a scarcity mindset.
00:15:06There's like a lot of thing.
00:15:07Back then, teaming up wasn't really like a thing.
00:15:10Collaborations.
00:15:10So that idea went nowhere.
00:15:12It went.
00:15:13Now, people started getting paid for posts, right?
00:15:16And that started going.
00:15:17And me and like a few guys had instances where restaurant owners would come up and say, how do I, how can you make mine like yours?
00:15:26You know, can you work on my account?
00:15:27And that's when this whole social media agency thing started.
00:15:30And my big thing at the time that we recognize as creators is that it's not the celebrities that can, like, if this is very geo-targeted thing.
00:15:39So I realized that if you have like Vegas in your handle and you only do Vegas food on your feed, you naturally get a lot of Vegas followers.
00:15:46Yep.
00:15:46And my point till now, till this day, I would argue that if you're a local restaurant off the strip in Las Vegas, I care a lot more about those guys than celebrities of the world that's going to pose for you because they're very geo-targeted.
00:16:03So we started getting, you know, collecting all of those guys that only does food for that city only.
00:16:08And we created an agency and we started going after these food accounts and we started making massive results.
00:16:14Like the first account, the reason we even got it is because they were pondering if we should have this me manage their social or not.
00:16:22Back then, nobody knew anything.
00:16:24What year is this?
00:16:2717.
00:16:2817.
00:16:2917.
00:16:30Still have a sales job.
00:16:31Same have a sales job.
00:16:33I still have this client till now.
00:16:34This was this side hustle.
00:16:35Yeah.
00:16:35So, so now it's like you're putting in, so like, I don't even know how to charge.
00:16:39Like, I don't even know anything.
00:16:40This guy's like, I want you to do mine.
00:16:42I'll pay you monthly.
00:16:43And by mine, we're talking Instagram only or multiple platforms?
00:16:46Instagram only.
00:16:46There's no other platforms.
00:16:47You're not managing websites and emails.
00:16:48No, there's no TikTok at the end.
00:16:50There's nothing.
00:16:50Just Instagram, video, post.
00:16:52Okay.
00:16:52That was my, that's the only thing I know how to do.
00:16:54I'm not from marketing.
00:16:56I don't, I don't do anything else.
00:16:57You are.
00:16:58You got to give yourself a little bit of work.
00:16:59So, but, but, you know.
00:17:00We're talking about, I mean, the, the problem that I see, we'll get into that.
00:17:03You keep going because I have so much I want you to ask.
00:17:05Well, the question that guy had.
00:17:07Yes.
00:17:07Is, hey, my, my sushi restaurant is dying, but let's say the sales go up because of this.
00:17:14How do I know it's coming from you or, or, or, or, or me, or how do I know?
00:17:19So like our genius, I probably the bad idea now, but genius idea back then was, Hey, let's
00:17:24create a secret dish that nobody's ever seen.
00:17:27Don't put it on the menu.
00:17:27Yep.
00:17:28I'm the only one that knows it.
00:17:29Yep.
00:17:30If somebody comes and orders it, you know, it's coming from us.
00:17:32Obviously came from us.
00:17:33So it was like a sushi place and we created this, I saw a sushi burger happen in Japan.
00:17:37Like at the time, no sushi burgers were around.
00:17:39Yep.
00:17:39So we created a burger, like a sushi rice patty and they fried it.
00:17:43So it looks brown and spicy tuna.
00:17:44I'll, I'll show you a photo of it and made a sushi burger.
00:17:47And I had same 10 guys that were posting for all those restaurants come in and post
00:17:52all at the same time.
00:17:53And that caught through a list through a list came and that caught insider inside
00:17:57back then insider food came and then food network started coming by then.
00:18:01There's line out the door with people in luggages line out the door and they only
00:18:05order the sushi burger when it's an all you can eat sushi place.
00:18:09They're taking photos with the girl that was in the video and stuff like that.
00:18:12A girl drove out from San Diego just to get the sushi burgers and drove back.
00:18:18That was their, their like a winning story.
00:18:19So ever since then, this guy told every Korean restaurant owner, you, you got to use this
00:18:26guy.
00:18:27So Sean, this is like a big point though.
00:18:29I had literally guys coming to me in the beginning.
00:18:32Just here's the money.
00:18:34Yeah.
00:18:34I don't even know what you do.
00:18:35I don't even know if this is radio or whatever you did to this guy.
00:18:39Radio billboard.
00:18:39Yeah.
00:18:39I don't even know.
00:18:40I have no idea.
00:18:40I'll just give you the money.
00:18:41I just do this.
00:18:42Just do that.
00:18:43And then I realized you can't help everyone.
00:18:46No.
00:18:47So I took all the, all the deals.
00:18:50Of course.
00:18:50Didn't even go taste it.
00:18:51Of course.
00:18:52And then you get to realize, oh, there's a, there's, yeah, you, you actually have to
00:18:56vet the client.
00:18:56You have to be able to keep the clients and you have to have good product.
00:18:59You have to taste good and I have to believe in it.
00:19:01And I had a lot of like friends and family telling me what the hell is all about.
00:19:06Like, you know, like I had to go through all that to even know how to actually get your
00:19:10footing going and work with the right client.
00:19:12Seven years into it now, a hundred percent incoming still.
00:19:15We're the agency record right now for Tao Group, Station Casinos, Michael Mina Group.
00:19:20Now we're getting into the Michelin star chefs.
00:19:22Now we do have a government clients.
00:19:24We do other industries, weddings.
00:19:25So we, the marriage license bureau where you get your license is our client.
00:19:29A little white chapel responsible for maybe 15% of all weddings in Vegas, personal brands.
00:19:34And that's where we're going right now.
00:19:36So the, are you only still only Instagram?
00:19:39No, we're, we're everything now.
00:19:41We're on TikTok, you know, YouTube, every social media channel that now we just added on
00:19:46LinkedIn as a thing for clients.
00:19:48We used to do it for us.
00:19:49And now we do it for clients.
00:19:51We don't kind of go to market for clients and offer that menu item until we're, we're
00:19:56good with it.
00:19:57You know, so, and we only hire creators.
00:19:59Our, our competing edge is that if you want to work at our agency and you want to be a
00:20:03PA all the way up to the executive client services, you have to be somewhat of a highly
00:20:07active content creators.
00:20:09And that kind of messes with our scalability, but that's what we believe in.
00:20:13And we only, and that's why we were able to take, you know, we're eating some of these
00:20:18marketing companies, lunches right now, uh, because of results and PR firms.
00:20:23Yeah.
00:20:23A lot of people say that word.
00:20:25I don't like to say, cause I have so many PR friends that are referring me to deals now
00:20:28because they do PR and we do social.
00:20:30And a lot of people now are understanding that.
00:20:33So it's beneficial for them to have us in their back.
00:20:36Isn't PR social?
00:20:37I don't know.
00:20:38Well, in PR and other cases, I feel like it's more crisis management and a lot of that kind
00:20:43of stuff that that's why you need PR or the first launches and stuff.
00:20:46But I, you know, when people say PR is social, I'm just not in that space.
00:20:50I'm not like a PR expert to know what the guy and what the, what the, what the border
00:20:55is, but I know that a lot of guys that were in that space that our PR companies are now
00:21:02joining us and just offering us as a social for social solution that because it comes with
00:21:07results for sure.
00:21:08I'll tell you the curve that I'm on right now, more than anything right now, uh, seven
00:21:14years into the agency, a lot of these clients have used a lot of social media agencies before
00:21:19burned smoke and a lot of these, uh, and I think it usually comes from what the client
00:21:25actually thought that would be the best strategy in the beginning.
00:21:28Cause like if you're a Michelin star chef, your brand guideline and some of these brands,
00:21:32like we have IP clients, like one piece.
00:21:34Oh, well, because Andy Nguyen and all that, we have IP clients that all the videos have
00:21:39to be approved by Toyama or universal or like all these companies, legal teams.
00:21:44And, and I understand if that's the case, you only care about how the video looks and you
00:21:48really don't care about conversions.
00:21:50I understand, but a lot of these chefs that has these restaurants, let's just talk about
00:21:54food and beverage have used very highly food photographers for their social.
00:22:00So it looked pretty, but now many years into it, they're asking, okay, I need some results
00:22:09from this.
00:22:09I need this to actually move some needles.
00:22:11If when we do these activations and launches, I need people to come in from our social media
00:22:15to, to, to, to, to, to, and I need visible results.
00:22:18Yep.
00:22:19Well, that's, I think where, where we come in, you know, uh, we, my big thing is who cares
00:22:25if it's pretty, if nobody's looking at it.
00:22:26Correct.
00:22:27100%.
00:22:28Did you know that toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada
00:22:35and UK?
00:22:36It's an incredible company.
00:22:38I'm on the toast customer advisory board.
00:22:40They are proud sponsors of this show, restaurant influencers.
00:22:43We couldn't do it without their support.
00:22:45They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
00:22:48If you have questions about toast, if you're thinking about bringing toast on to be your
00:22:53primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
00:22:56I'm happy to get a local toast representative to take care of you.
00:23:00You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
00:23:04Once again, thank you to toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling,
00:23:09the power of hospitality.
00:23:11Back to the show.
00:23:11When did you understand that?
00:23:14Let's talk about the shift from photo to video.
00:23:18When did that shift happen?
00:23:19And are you going, are you seeing more, are you adding photos again?
00:23:24Are we going back to photos?
00:23:25No, we're 90% videos right now.
00:23:27We're in a video world.
00:23:27Still.
00:23:28I mean, I believe in photos.
00:23:29In short form.
00:23:30There's always this talks about like these Instagram collages, you know, carousels happening
00:23:34more now than ever.
00:23:36But our numbers show that video is the way to go.
00:23:39You know, I hit more home runs with videos than just like-
00:23:42And how long are we talking?
00:23:43Reels specific?
00:23:44Well, you know, now less than 90 seconds.
00:23:48What's too long for a short?
00:23:48Less than 90 seconds for real.
00:23:49So it shows up on a discovery feed.
00:23:51But what's too long for a short?
00:23:51Two minutes is too long, I feel like.
00:23:55Even under 90 seconds.
00:23:55Are you posting 90 second videos or are you down in the 17 seconds?
00:23:58No, I'm like one minute and five seconds for TikTok because I just need the creator fund
00:24:05to, you know, they pay one minute plus.
00:24:09I literally like slowed on my 9.56 second video just to meet that criteria.
00:24:13Just to meet the criteria.
00:24:14Ideally though, I think I'm going to go back to like less than 30 seconds.
00:24:19Less than 30 seconds.
00:24:19Yeah, because now all these long formats, very informative.
00:24:23And I think three things that work for us on social media.
00:24:26Entertainment, informational, and educational.
00:24:29So when you get into informational education, you can get long-winded.
00:24:32But you have to keep them very interested for that to actually work out for you.
00:24:37So I'm thinking going shorter, shorter, shorter.
00:24:39I'm more of a food porn action, like working with the chefs, you know, flames and stuff like that.
00:24:44So I'm going to go shorter now.
00:24:45And I think that's what's rewarding me.
00:24:46So this is why we do long formats on YouTube and just kind of like chop it down for all the other places.
00:24:51Let's talk about YouTube.
00:24:53What have you learned about YouTube?
00:24:54It's like the new thing right now.
00:24:56Isn't that amazing?
00:24:57It's great.
00:24:57It's the OG platform.
00:24:59By the way.
00:24:59I mean, because we've shared on this show, like I brought on two YouTube-specific producers onto my media team because I believe that it's just so undertapped.
00:25:07Well, guys like me, like I got to tell you, guys like me, we need to dig into more of that and dig into this long format pros.
00:25:15Because there's so many guys like me that jumped into YouTube because the shorts launched.
00:25:19Yep.
00:25:19And we gained all, literally 100% of our subscribers.
00:25:23Yep.
00:25:23From shorts.
00:25:24Yep.
00:25:25I think I have like three long format videos on my account and I have like 90 something thousand subs.
00:25:31Yeah, that's impressive.
00:25:31And I'm sitting there going, man, if I was a long format guy that's been grinding for years and I have about like 15k subs right now, I would hate me.
00:25:39Guys like me, like who are these YouTube shorts guys that are just like whizzing by.
00:25:44I'm working my ass off.
00:25:45Like I had a nine second like a beer video I didn't even edit.
00:25:48Like it was like a natural, no music and went like 50 something million views and that all along.
00:25:5350 million views?
00:25:53Oh, like it's wild.
00:25:55Come on.
00:25:55It's crazy.
00:25:55It's like a beer from Taco Bell Cantina.
00:25:58And you know those beer fountain that comes from the bottom?
00:26:00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:26:00That's it.
00:26:01Wow.
00:26:02So if I was a long format guy that was spending hours to edit this and posting it, I would hate me.
00:26:07Yeah.
00:26:08You know, but right now that's where the wave is and that's where we go.
00:26:12So we're offering all these YouTube short shout outs to clients and it's actually happening.
00:26:16I don't know how many people are actually going into a restaurant because they saw it on YouTube shorts versus TikTok.
00:26:22I would say TikTok is much higher for conversion.
00:26:25But soon it'll come.
00:26:26And I got to tell you, like 80,000 subs on YouTube is phenomenal.
00:26:32It's Google.
00:26:32You know, it's insane.
00:26:34Yeah.
00:26:34So I think that value is there.
00:26:35But if you're B2B, I think what's really licking my chops right now is LinkedIn.
00:26:39I really want to crush that right now and get in now because it kind of reminds me of like TikTok when I first started right now.
00:26:471% of active, there's a billion users on LinkedIn, 1% post once per week.
00:26:54That's like, I'm licking my chops.
00:26:55Once per week.
00:26:56That's it.
00:26:57You can be in the top 1%.
00:26:58If you're listening to this, you obviously play the game within the game.
00:27:01Post twice a week and then you're already in the 1%.
00:27:03It's like the same thing with meta ads.
00:27:05Meta ads, like, you know how many people are doing meta ads with a flyer and a static images?
00:27:10I know it.
00:27:10Yeah, I do.
00:27:11My thing, I think the reason that we're actually, we literally have a number like 10x or 20x results because we test the videos on organic.
00:27:18Yep.
00:27:18And we only use the high-performing videos.
00:27:21Correct.
00:27:22And we just call them the bad-attested videos and we siphon that for clients.
00:27:25100%.
00:27:25And when they go to ads, I don't care if your promotion is french fries and the video is steak.
00:27:30Put the steak video up there and make it a french fry promotion video.
00:27:33It's just going to catch more eyeballs.
00:27:35So we've been doing a lot of things.
00:27:37I feel like, you know, seven years into it, we're still kind of like letting people know things that are like nuances.
00:27:43Oh, you know, they've been doing the same thing for the last five years.
00:27:47This is what I'm telling you.
00:27:48So now I'm, you know, we come from french fries, boba, pizza world.
00:27:52Now we're in the kitchen with Miss Newland star chefs and these guys have been doing the pretty for a long time.
00:27:59And they're now kind of recognizing, oh, the whole theory is giving the audience more value than what you're asking from them.
00:28:07These flyers and like 50% off and come buy this or that kind of stuff is more like asking from the, I say, build your community something with, with, with something fresh.
00:28:18And then ask for business, you know, is, is, is, is, is the big thing.
00:28:23I have so many clients that have like 2000 followers that are talking about conversions.
00:28:27Like how can we, I'm like, let's let's build something, you know, first.
00:28:31So you have this leverage because otherwise what are we doing?
00:28:34And, and, and, and no, you can't just go, I feel like they think it's like a bulletin board, right?
00:28:39If I post this is available, they're going to come and buy it.
00:28:43It's just the same as like, if my food tastes good, they will come.
00:28:47It's just not true anymore.
00:28:49Yeah.
00:28:50I mean, not one of the thesis of this show is, you know, Kevin Costner is full of shit in field of dreams.
00:28:56If you build it, they will come.
00:28:58No one's coming.
00:28:59Like no one's fucking coming.
00:29:01True.
00:29:01100%.
00:29:02And like, I know that because we opened in a difficult location.
00:29:05And the only way that people came was because we started using the internet to get our story out there.
00:29:09We started using Yelp.
00:29:11We started using Google.
00:29:12We started taking ownership of our website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, podcasting, all the things.
00:29:17And like, now we have a brand, a brand that's big enough for companies like universities, like San Diego State, who's building a new stadium to say, Cali Barbecue, would you like to come into our stadium?
00:29:27You know, one of the other things we say is be the show, not the commercial.
00:29:31It's on my hat.
00:29:33Be the show.
00:29:33That's, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
00:29:35It's exactly the words.
00:29:37That's why you're a thesis guest.
00:29:38Yeah.
00:29:39It's because we believe the same.
00:29:40I'm going to steal that.
00:29:41You steal it.
00:29:42It's right on the top.
00:29:42That's exactly what I'm trying to say in all those sentences.
00:29:46Be the show, not the commercial.
00:29:47That's great.
00:29:48Because the problem, and this is a story that I've shared many times on stage and on the podcast, but I'll share it with you.
00:29:54It's my son, who he's seven.
00:29:57He's here with my wife and my daughter, and they're enjoying, you know, the Las Vegas.
00:30:01But I remember when he was a little boy watching him interact with an iPad, and he was watching YouTube kids.
00:30:08And what do you think is the first digital button that he learned how to touch?
00:30:15The play button?
00:30:16Nope.
00:30:18How to play first button that you know how to touch?
00:30:20Digital button.
00:30:21An app button, like YouTube?
00:30:23Like while he was watching YouTube kids.
00:30:26The skip.
00:30:27Yes.
00:30:29Why?
00:30:30Because no commercials are interesting to them.
00:30:32He doesn't want his stories interrupted.
00:30:33Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:30:34No one goes to social media to be advertised to.
00:30:36And you know what's so funny about that, too?
00:30:38Continue, because like, you know, the YouTube stats that we're pulling now, there's so many people that have YouTube on their TV.
00:30:46So, like, Gary Vee has a good story about that, right?
00:30:49He was doing a keynote, and his dad was in the audience.
00:30:51His dad answered, he's like, oh, you know, whenever I watch TV, I can't wait to press the skip button.
00:30:57And he doesn't even recognize that what he's watching is not TV.
00:31:00He's watching YouTube on his TV, because there's no TV you can skip on.
00:31:04You know what I mean?
00:31:04He's talking about you.
00:31:05So, when we pulled analytics for YouTube ads and YouTube traffic, there's surprisingly 65-plus bar that is growing literally daily.
00:31:14Do you know that?
00:31:15It's crazy amounts of 65-plus demographics that are on these reports.
00:31:19And I've never seen a big bar on a 65-plus on a social media before, ever.
00:31:24So, if that's your demographic, YouTube ads is, like, where I would go first.
00:31:30100%.
00:31:30Yeah, and it's insane.
00:31:32And going back to the whole this, I think now, after all of these restauranteurs and all these brand owners or marketing team have consumed all this information about what to do,
00:31:45but it's hard to execute it because, and I want to talk about agency, what you do.
00:31:50Yep.
00:31:50The reason that we exist and we're able to kind of, like, bring this into reality a lot better than, let's just say, a person in that brand.
00:32:00Yep.
00:32:01It's because I have, I find out there's a lot of talented people that have a hard time flexing their own thing.
00:32:08Correct.
00:32:08Also, a lot of those good, I call them good people.
00:32:11Like, they're good, so they care about what their colleagues, they're in their own head, so they can't post anything.
00:32:17Because whenever they create a video themselves, I don't look good in this.
00:32:21Oh, what is this neighbor going to talk about me when I do this?
00:32:25Oh, I might not be able to say I'm the best at this or anything like that.
00:32:28It's just hard for you to come out of the gate because you have too many things in your head that is blocking you from doing it.
00:32:35So having a creative agency like us come out and tell your story and, like, let us listen to it like we're three-year-olds and get excited about your start,
00:32:44that's another thing that we bring to the table when they hire an agency.
00:32:47When you do it yourself, you're so used to doing everything.
00:32:50You're so used to your brand.
00:32:51You don't know what this little nuance is, if you're a first person, you've never been there before, what they would actually get excited about.
00:32:58Well, we bring to the table because we literally come in and we see your Cali barbecue and go, oh, my God, you, you know, like, we're very excited.
00:33:05So it drives them and motivates them to do more.
00:33:08And when you post, when you hire us for posting, we care a lot about, there's this ownership, you know, you post your own thing, right?
00:33:17So when you post, there's this kind of like an ownership and motivation for you to want this one post to do well for a social media agency to be effective.
00:33:27Because otherwise, we call them, they're fucking button pressers.
00:33:30Yep.
00:33:31They just can't and they want to execute their post and they're gone.
00:33:34That's it.
00:33:34In and out.
00:33:35If you have, so I tell my clients, first of all, you need to get over this thing.
00:33:39You need to either hire another person that shoot you because you're going to have a tough time shooting yourself and getting it out there.
00:33:46And like, although, you know, everything, you've gone to these social media classes and you've known everything for you to be able to execute that hard.
00:33:54But number two is how, you know, how can we get this agency to get it?
00:33:59It's there's so many of these nuances I'm finding out now why it's beneficial for these restaurants.
00:34:05And although they're very personal and they're very talented, they might even be a big, like a content, like they might love making content, but they're in their head too much.
00:34:14You know, so I was going to say, I advise my clients to hire your number one fan.
00:34:20Yes.
00:34:20Not the number one videographer or the most expensive marketing company.
00:34:25That's not your answer.
00:34:26Your answer is a person that really loves Cali BBQ to come in here with a little bit of video skills and a little bit of motivation to do this.
00:34:35I think that's probably the best person because usually when you, you know, the opportunity that we saw in this whole industry, I have partners too.
00:34:43By the way, Jump Force, our agency now, we have a partner named Jeremy, who is an investment banker.
00:34:50And in the last seven years, we've acquired maybe like two AR companies and they've both turned into an AI company.
00:34:56Okay.
00:34:56So we have this whole tech thing that a lot of our guys and our clients don't even know about that we're working on.
00:35:03There's Fortune 1000 clients there already.
00:35:06We're going to move that in those products into some of our clients soon.
00:35:10But, you know, like hiring the number one fan theory is like our best thing because, you know, the opportunity that we saw is a lot of these social media guys are mercenaries.
00:35:22You know, that's what we saw a long time ago when we first started this.
00:35:25Like, you know, there's a lot of influencers and there are a lot of creators that does management, but they're all one man bands.
00:35:30Yep.
00:35:31So like if even if you're talented, you get like, I've done this myself before I got my partner.
00:35:37What is the, how many?
00:35:38Twelve.
00:35:38That's what it is?
00:35:39Dude.
00:35:40Because before it was at like five, right?
00:35:41Whenever I'm down, I'm like in a sales pitch, I ask the client, oh, you're looking at this guy?
00:35:47Are you their client number two or client number 12?
00:35:50Because if you're client number 15, you know what I mean?
00:35:53Yes, they have another phone.
00:35:53It's kind of running thin.
00:35:55The guy's running kind of thin.
00:35:56Yes.
00:35:56You know?
00:35:57So that was the whole, like I started doing this myself and I saw the max.
00:36:01I'm like, oh, there's a max to this.
00:36:04It's hard to scale.
00:36:05Very hard to scale.
00:36:05So we have this.
00:36:07I can go into it.
00:36:08It's like a long talk.
00:36:09But we have this.
00:36:10I believe that we've built a semi-scalable model.
00:36:14This is why we're in LA now.
00:36:15What do you call it?
00:36:15We're in Dallas.
00:36:16Production manager.
00:36:17So the client services, we separated the production from client services.
00:36:21Yep.
00:36:21I see a lot of talented social media managers that are by themselves.
00:36:25Yep.
00:36:25They start with great momentum.
00:36:26Yep.
00:36:27And they plateau out.
00:36:28And I see that a lot of these guys are artists.
00:36:31Yes.
00:36:31And they get into these corporate meetings.
00:36:33Then all of a sudden you're...
00:36:35They get feedback from guys that are not in social media.
00:36:38Yeah.
00:36:38So they listen to it.
00:36:39And next time they go post, they doubt themselves.
00:36:42Yes.
00:36:43So I see a little and more feedback, the less motivation.
00:36:47Yep.
00:36:48So what we've done is we created a client services team that handles the clients.
00:36:52Yep.
00:36:52And we tell these creators...
00:36:54By the way, we only hire content creators that are getting paid $1,000, $2,000, $10,000, $15,000 a post.
00:37:00Yep.
00:37:00You know, these clients don't pay that much.
00:37:03So we have a way to tell these creators the way that they need to hear to either pivot or we have more than 100 creators to dip into.
00:37:14So client can be a rest assured that we're going to get the right person if this does not work out.
00:37:19But they don't have to actually fire this.
00:37:21We make that adjustment.
00:37:23So separating the production from clients, that was number one.
00:37:26There's so many things.
00:37:27A team thing.
00:37:28So everybody does a little piece of things that they're good at, but rather than one person taking care of a whole client.
00:37:34Even if there's a team of five social media agency, what usually happens is if you get a client, one person handles bulk of everything.
00:37:41And that's what it comes down to.
00:37:43And I, you know, whenever I sit down with a client, I always go, hey, you know, you're a big company.
00:37:47You're using a big, you know, agency for social media.
00:37:49Do you know the name of the person who's actually posting for you?
00:37:52Yeah.
00:37:53Do you know how many followers that person has on their personal account?
00:37:56Good question.
00:37:56Let me guess.
00:37:57500.
00:37:57You know, like I'll promise you, if you have 200,000 followers on your account already, handling a 200,000 follower account is much different than handling a 500 follower account.
00:38:08It's crazy that they let a person handle, let's just say, a Tao Groups account to a person that has 250 followers on their, you know what I mean?
00:38:20100%.
00:38:20Also, and I shouldn't even say this.
00:38:24Say it.
00:38:24But one of the things that we do as an agency that's probably like considered almost like idiotic now, but we completely believe in it.
00:38:31Yeah.
00:38:31Is that we're still 100% live posts for all of our clients' accounts posts.
00:38:35I love it.
00:38:36Never a Hootsuite.
00:38:37You're in the weeds.
00:38:37Never scheduling a post.
00:38:40Every content creator that I know that does food posts live.
00:38:44Yes.
00:38:45Rarely do they schedule posts unless they have a huge structure that they're needing to do.
00:38:51No one has ever really been able to prove to me that a Hootsuite engagement number is better than live post engagement number.
00:38:59Sure.
00:39:00It's the hardest thing to do.
00:39:01Yes.
00:39:02Because if you're a restaurant owner, I always tell you, do you have the grit to do it every day?
00:39:08Consistently every post?
00:39:10You do.
00:39:10I would say less than 5% of the restaurant tours.
00:39:13But I also built a media company on top of our restaurant.
00:39:15Like, can you actually do this?
00:39:17Because this, I can't, I would hate to tell you how many posts are on my account for last month.
00:39:21I'm not even doing that myself nowadays because I'm so busy.
00:39:25So for you to be able to do that, you need help, you know, but for us, we offer 100% of our clients, 100% live posts at the time that it's going out.
00:39:36So let's talk.
00:39:36Am I talking your language right now?
00:39:37You're talking exactly.
00:39:38This is why we created the show.
00:39:40I'm sorry.
00:39:41I'm going off.
00:39:41This is the game within the game.
00:39:43And what we believe deeply in is that as business owners, we've never had the tools and the technology at our fingertips to be able to reach people all over the world.
00:39:52I mean, the fact that Toast sponsors this show, the fact that we've had Shaquille O'Neal on this show, we're going to go to Big Chicken right after this, to his chicken brand.
00:40:00We're going to film content with other technology partners.
00:40:02Shout out to Ovation and Zach.
00:40:03But like, we believe deeply that if you have the courage to start, to look stupid, sound, like the craziest thing for me is the restaurant business is the hardest business in the world.
00:40:12But people pour their life savings into these businesses.
00:40:18They share their story with a significant other, with investors, with landlords, with people.
00:40:23They go, I want to open this restaurant.
00:40:26But then once it's open, they stop sharing the story.
00:40:30You don't need to make LinkedIn.
00:40:32Or they don't know how to tell the story the right way, right?
00:40:34They don't know the tools that are in our pockets to be able to do that.
00:40:38And that's why I love talking to storytellers and more importantly, storytellers that are helping others to tell their story.
00:40:45Literally, the first thing I tell the restaurant owners, like, hey, if we were to start this, we're not going to come here and like, I'm not going to be salesy.
00:40:52If you tell me to create a video that this is, buy one, get one, like, I'm not doing that.
00:40:56It's not happening.
00:40:57I'm just going to kind of try to dig into your story, more your, like, a thing that people will kind of want to know.
00:41:03Like, that one ingredient that you're proud about that you no longer care because you've been working out here every single day for the last 10 years.
00:41:09But I'm really curious about, like, those are the little nuances.
00:41:13Or if you are in a service industry, I would like to kind of come out and tell the people what they have to do to not use you.
00:41:19Like, if you're a mechanic, I would like to create content where other mechanics are going to go.
00:41:27Don't tell them that.
00:41:28Yeah, don't tell them that.
00:41:29Yeah, 100%.
00:41:30Because that's going to stop the scroll.
00:41:31That's the arbitrage that I'm looking for.
00:41:32That's the truth.
00:41:33When you hit the truth, the truth vibrates the fastest.
00:41:36Absolutely.
00:41:36That's why people share content.
00:41:38That's why people bookmark content.
00:41:40Because we are so immune.
00:41:41Back to my son watching the videos.
00:41:43We're so immune to being sold.
00:41:45Exactly.
00:41:46He was two years old.
00:41:48And now my daughter.
00:41:49And he's just like, nope.
00:41:50Nope.
00:41:51This is a commercial.
00:41:52This is a commercial.
00:41:53I want to watch my show.
00:41:55I want to watch my story.
00:41:55I think that's like the base of like a lot of what we do.
00:41:59You know what I mean?
00:42:00100%.
00:42:00So let's talk about this story.
00:42:02Hofbrauhaus.
00:42:03How did they become a client?
00:42:06What is their story?
00:42:07What are you highlighting for them on their Instagram account?
00:42:11Our agency, seven years into it, 100% incoming.
00:42:13So that has to be a relationship where this person or this brand has seen some of our work somewhere.
00:42:20Yep.
00:42:20I don't really forget exactly.
00:42:22I think this might be a PR plus some referral from other people.
00:42:27There's a PR person that loves working with us in touch to this.
00:42:32And they're a big, big advocate of doing something social.
00:42:34By the way, this was one of those accounts that are sitting on goldmine of content.
00:42:39Do you know what I'm talking about here?
00:42:40I know what you're...
00:42:41Do you know what's going on?
00:42:42It's like Oktoberfest every day.
00:42:44All the time.
00:42:44And you've been to the Munich one.
00:42:45I've been to the one in Munich with my grandfather.
00:42:47So for me, for this to happen here today, this is your account.
00:42:51Like, I mean, this is amazing.
00:42:53Think about the history and the story that we can tell.
00:42:56You know the spanking?
00:42:57Yes.
00:42:57That's only for Vegas.
00:42:58You know that spanking is not a traditional thing for anywhere.
00:43:00It's just Vegas.
00:43:02It makes sense.
00:43:02And in the beginning, they're like, yeah, for TikTok, I bet you the spanking is going
00:43:05to be the one that's the most viral.
00:43:07But can you please kind of like pump the brakes on the spanking?
00:43:10We don't want to be known as the...
00:43:11But you know what?
00:43:12It wasn't that.
00:43:13It was more of the chef.
00:43:14You saw the kitchen, right?
00:43:15Oh, my gosh.
00:43:15The kitchen is phenomenal.
00:43:16We're going to show some behind-the-scenes footage.
00:43:18Dude, I saw your face in the kitchen.
00:43:20It is amazing.
00:43:21This kitchen is a 20-year-old kitchen.
00:43:22It looks like it's brand new.
00:43:24The chef takes so much pride.
00:43:25The conveyor belt.
00:43:26The equipment, it is phenomenal.
00:43:27I can't wait to insert B-roll right here so you guys can see.
00:43:31I've never seen a kitchen like that before.
00:43:33It's phenomenal.
00:43:33So me, I'm in the kitchen all the time.
00:43:35I saw that.
00:43:36I saw what's going on out there.
00:43:37I'm like, guys, if you just let my foot in the door with this.
00:43:42And sure enough, I don't even know what the growth was.
00:43:45But I'm pretty sure we've gained like 50K in a very short period of time.
00:43:49Blew up.
00:43:50Everybody's happy.
00:43:51They kind of want to do this across the board.
00:43:54But we're just not in Germany yet.
00:43:56But we get that a lot.
00:43:57We get our foot.
00:43:59Okay.
00:44:00I'll tell you, there's a casino chain out here that's for local.
00:44:04There are station casinos owned by the Fertittas.
00:44:06And in the beginning, they didn't have this huge, like a social media TikTok.
00:44:10This is TikTok when the first TikTok came out.
00:44:12They've been a client of ours for a long time.
00:44:14We're the agency of record.
00:44:14So now we are the agency of record for a lot of these guys already have social media team in-house.
00:44:19Yep.
00:44:19PR team in-house.
00:44:20We're the agency that comes in on the side, that's on the record, that does all the,
00:44:24oh, we have everything, but we are missing 20 TikTok reels.
00:44:27You know, that's us.
00:44:29But that little thing has gotten us to probably leading the social media meetings.
00:44:35You know, so in the beginning, I really, literally called us the fly on the wall.
00:44:40We're like, we'll just be fly on the wall.
00:44:42There's going to be a main photographer that's shooting the menu shoot.
00:44:45We'll just be fly on the wall and get some content.
00:44:47But one video at a steakhouse lobster went crazy.
00:44:52And they had to buy three times a lobster for like many months after that.
00:44:55And that's when.
00:44:58Are you saying there's an ROI to social media?
00:45:00That's when they started really.
00:45:02What's the ROI of social media?
00:45:03Like, I think that's the only ROI that you can kind of measure.
00:45:11I'll take the Pepsi challenge any day with other activations that the clients got going.
00:45:17Social media is so black and white.
00:45:19And in a restaurant in this scale or even smaller, it's visibly different.
00:45:23Visibly.
00:45:24And that's why I like that.
00:45:25You know, I've been talking to you about like the small clients.
00:45:27The joy out of that is if you hit it.
00:45:29Yep.
00:45:30It's life-changing numbers for a client.
00:45:33I have a claw machine place that was like averaging.
00:45:37I think she was like on the downturn.
00:45:39Sometimes someday she would have less than a thousand dollars in sale.
00:45:42Right now with the social media and the new strategy that I think they're averaging like 13 to $20,000 a day.
00:45:48That's amazing.
00:45:49So that's how much, what's that ROI, you know?
00:45:51That's significant.
00:45:52It's crazy.
00:45:52And that's not even food.
00:45:55What do you, what gets you excited in 2025 and beyond?
00:45:59We're going to look back.
00:46:00I mean, the coolest thing for me is evergreen content.
00:46:02This is going to be on Entrepreneur.
00:46:03We're going to look back on this when I have you on the show again into the future.
00:46:08What's Dreaming Big?
00:46:09What does it look like for you guys?
00:46:10This whole AI thing is interesting.
00:46:14So I'm trying to learn as much as possible to even know what to talk about there.
00:46:18But, you know, my big interest right now is the conversation we had literally like 15 minutes ago.
00:46:25Because you blew my mind.
00:46:27Now I'm like, wow.
00:46:29Because, okay, so, you know, we're seven years into the business.
00:46:33I'm still kind of like having this imposter syndrome in a lot of cases where we're getting into these brands.
00:46:37Like we're, you know, an official approved vendor for MGM.
00:46:41You know, we're with Tao.
00:46:43And we're, you know, we're on the record and on a retainer basis with a lot of big clients now.
00:46:47Like we're getting into the Michelin stars.
00:46:49We're multi-state.
00:46:50And I thought that was the right direction to go because the bigger the client, the better.
00:46:55And then we just started doing other industries, right?
00:46:58Which is different budgets, which we love.
00:47:00Real estate, retail, CPG.
00:47:02We've done that.
00:47:04But what you just said about the restaurant supply.
00:47:08Everything.
00:47:09Everything that is around us.
00:47:10The bigger the company.
00:47:11I don't know if it's bigger, but it's like the company.
00:47:14It's the companies that have budgets.
00:47:16And they don't have social media presence at all in that entire industry.
00:47:20The entire industry.
00:47:20We could probably suck up the entire industry very fast.
00:47:24Because I already shoot with the chefs in the kitchen.
00:47:27I see those.
00:47:28The logos.
00:47:29Yes.
00:47:31I'm very excited about that.
00:47:32I'm very excited.
00:47:33But I am very excited about other.
00:47:34Like I think I'm really excited about live streaming too.
00:47:37Me too.
00:47:38God, that is insane.
00:47:39Me too.
00:47:40I'm a huge fan.
00:47:40But, you know, I want to kind of mention this.
00:47:42And I want to give you a little flower here.
00:47:45We produce podcasts, right?
00:47:47We now, okay.
00:47:49A big case study for us.
00:47:50We took over a steakhouse in downtown inside of Plaza Hotel.
00:47:53It's called Oscar Steakhouse.
00:47:54Oscar Goodman's steakhouse.
00:47:56You know, Goodman used to be our mayor.
00:47:57For many years, they had social media, stagnant growth.
00:48:02We took over the steakhouse.
00:48:04And I think we came from, let's say, 5,000 to, we're about to hit 100K.
00:48:09Wow.
00:48:10Within eight months.
00:48:11I want to say less than a year for sure.
00:48:12Wow.
00:48:13It just blew up.
00:48:14Amazing.
00:48:15Lobster, crabs, steak, butter dipped.
00:48:17It's just going.
00:48:18So we took over the plaza.
00:48:19And then we took over his podcast.
00:48:21It's been running for five years.
00:48:23Audio only.
00:48:24Never been on YouTube.
00:48:25And we're going on.
00:48:26We just put them on YouTube.
00:48:28Amazing.
00:48:29And the production looks really great.
00:48:30But here's the flower.
00:48:32Sean, a lot of these podcasts are freaking passion projects.
00:48:37Yes.
00:48:38They go nowhere.
00:48:39No.
00:48:40How many years were you doing it before?
00:48:43Five years.
00:48:43That's what I'm...
00:48:44Do you know...
00:48:45Does people know how much effort and production and the money and the time that you've actually
00:48:51put into that until that point?
00:48:54Yes.
00:48:54That is insane.
00:48:55Just like me going back to my Instagram days, how long it took me to hit 10K.
00:48:59It took me every ounce of my energy every day to put into it to get 10K.
00:49:06Yeah.
00:49:06I just wanted people to realize what...
00:49:09I just want to show them this.
00:49:12You know what I mean?
00:49:13What actually goes in to produce this shot, this episode that might not even have all the
00:49:19results that we're actually looking for.
00:49:20It's not going to go to like craziness of virality.
00:49:23Maybe not.
00:49:24But we do this every day.
00:49:25Every day.
00:49:26No matter what.
00:49:26And putting that one cent into a slot machine every day, no matter what.
00:49:29And I think that grit, that consistency is what people just don't understand.
00:49:35You know, that's the barrier to entry.
00:49:36It is.
00:49:37It is.
00:49:38But it's...
00:49:39For me, we have a formula that we talk about when I go and I speak to restaurant owners,
00:49:43business owners about social media.
00:49:46And it's quantity plus speed plus consistency will eventually equal quality.
00:49:53That's so good.
00:49:54So I...
00:49:55Because we always want quality first.
00:49:57Like, I want this first.
00:49:58Like, no, you got to make a lot of shitty stuff.
00:50:00Oh my God.
00:50:01This is so good.
00:50:01Like, for us as a barbecue brand, do you know how much hate we get as a Cali barbecue?
00:50:05Oh, I bet.
00:50:06Against the heavyweights in barbecue.
00:50:07I already know.
00:50:08In Texas, in St. Louis.
00:50:09We've had barbecue crunts in Vegas.
00:50:10Memphis.
00:50:11You name it.
00:50:11Oh, the hate.
00:50:12The hate.
00:50:13But it actually helps our videos, which is great.
00:50:15I know.
00:50:15It's great.
00:50:16Keep hating them.
00:50:16We post those comments.
00:50:17We post the comments.
00:50:18It helps our TikTok videos.
00:50:19It helps our YouTube videos.
00:50:20But nonetheless, we are in a place where we don't care.
00:50:26We had to make a lot of shitty brisket before we made good brisket.
00:50:29And what we do now as a restaurant, 17 years later, is way better than what we did five years ago.
00:50:34It's even more better than we did 10 years ago.
00:50:36And it's the same for podcasts.
00:50:38Oh.
00:50:39It's the same for podcasts.
00:50:40It's the same for video.
00:50:41It's the same for speeches.
00:50:42It's the same for all of them.
00:50:44It's a huge building process that clients, you know.
00:50:49And I want to go back to the consistency thing because I have, like, whenever I do a keynote, I do two, like, three things that I always say in every keynote.
00:50:56One is when I first get up there, I tell them, you know, the problem with everything.
00:50:59The whole, the problem.
00:51:00The problem.
00:51:01Not that I know.
00:51:02Like, the problem.
00:51:03My problem.
00:51:04I'll go, everybody thinks social media is easy.
00:51:06Yes.
00:51:07And that's the problem.
00:51:08That is, you know, a lot of people doesn't see, you know how many times I get, oh, these freaking foodie guys.
00:51:14They just have to go to a restaurant and just shoot some videos.
00:51:16What a life.
00:51:17And just post.
00:51:18Oh, it's so easy.
00:51:18And that's all they do.
00:51:19It's so easy.
00:51:20And the amounts of dedication and study that goes into just creating a 15-second video in food for you to even get recognized and what you think about the first three seconds.
00:51:29And they don't even think about that.
00:51:31So, and that's one thing I say.
00:51:32The second thing I say is CQQ.
00:51:34The same thing.
00:51:34What we care about the most in hierarchy.
00:51:38Number one, consistency.
00:51:40Number one.
00:51:40Number two, quantity.
00:51:42There you go.
00:51:43Number three, quality.
00:51:44You know what I mean?
00:51:45There it is.
00:51:46That's like how I say it.
00:51:47It's exactly the same thing that you're talking about.
00:51:49It's like, yo, I know that you can dream up.
00:51:52And I always go, do you want like, do you want like a production company that creates whatever you're dreaming of?
00:51:57We're not them.
00:51:58We're not the commercial guy that's going to do like 10 rounds of re-edits.
00:52:02You know, my proposal literally says no re-edits.
00:52:05No re-edits.
00:52:06Like if we create, if we get into a creative meeting and we go into somewhere and we get, because we're bringing the, we believe that we're bringing the only higher content creators.
00:52:15These guys do this every day.
00:52:16So if we go into a creative meeting and we get to the same level and we create a video for you, if you have a feedback, I would like to implement that feedback on the next round because of speed.
00:52:27I want to, you know, I want to post this.
00:52:29How do you know it's bad?
00:52:30How do you know?
00:52:31Let's post it and I'll show you, you know, that's the whole.
00:52:34I absolutely love it.
00:52:36What, let's talk failures before we move on.
00:52:40What have you learned?
00:52:41What was the biggest mistake building an agency?
00:52:43Right before our agency and me grabbing hands with this new partner, I got burned out of a partnership really bad.
00:52:5315 years dedicated to sales and with a travel concept.
00:52:57It was really good.
00:52:58I was called an owner.
00:53:00Yeah.
00:53:0025%.
00:53:01He would say the numbers, 25% owner.
00:53:03You're, you know, this guy's, you know, one too many bad mistakes.
00:53:08Never seen one dividend in my life.
00:53:11Uh, you know, uh, all invested back into the company and it got, it got, it went belly up with the, some of the differences that I didn't.
00:53:23Anyway, bad experience.
00:53:24Yep.
00:53:24Uh, so I'm big on partnership and what the value is for each partner of, of, of, of, of, of, of a project.
00:53:33So I'll give you this example now, because the results that we're creating, I get a lot of partnership opportunities.
00:53:40Sure.
00:53:41But a lot of them are clients that can't afford us that just wants to give you a couple of points.
00:53:46So, so they don't have to pay you that.
00:53:47So I say no to every single one of those, but now Sean, it's, I don't have to tell you about this.
00:53:52It's like now it's getting to a pretty sweet deal.
00:53:53So I actually got people, can I just say it like, you know, anywhere from 500 to a million dollar credit line, you know, line.
00:54:01Um, I only asked for like nine to 10% equity, but 3% off the top, sweet off the top of the gross and a full marketing retainer on top of that.
00:54:14And all I got to do is zero investment and so the traffic, I get these deals, multiple of them.
00:54:20It's amazing.
00:54:21I've said no to every single one of them.
00:54:22Yep.
00:54:23Cause I just don't know the, I like being the tool of the industry.
00:54:27I hear horror stories in, in, in operations.
00:54:30And I, and I never want to get into, like, I have to make you honest kind of deal.
00:54:35So like, you know, profit share, that's great.
00:54:38But now I have to look at your numbers.
00:54:39Now I have to like, how much did you pay this guy?
00:54:42Like, I don't, I don't like that relationship.
00:54:44I don't either.
00:54:44This is why I went for the top line.
00:54:45Yep.
00:54:46And it's this clean cut, you know, I don't have to worry about like keeping you honest kind of thing, but I don't know, you know, I've never really put our name down on a, on a restaurant brand before, or like a product before.
00:54:57And I wonder, I've always wondered like what that power would be like.
00:55:00Cause I see other guys like Drew, who's created an ice, ice cream shop, crushing it.
00:55:05Yep.
00:55:05I see it.
00:55:07So maybe that's something that I'm talking about, but it all comes from our failure partnership.
00:55:12I'm scared of partnerships.
00:55:15Yeah.
00:55:15You know, there are good partnerships out there, obviously, but how the deal is structured, knowing what's happening.
00:55:22Like, what are the expectations on both sides?
00:55:24What's the transparency and what's the intent?
00:55:26I think it's always the hardest part.
00:55:28The clear cut lines are.
00:55:29In the beginning, understanding like, well, what is the deal?
00:55:32And then a month later, what's the actual deal?
00:55:35Well, so many things, you know, start with just like a little verbal thing.
00:55:40You know, social media guys like us, we can blow up a place within months and, and the story might change after it blows up.
00:55:47You know, so anyway, you know, that's, that's some of the hardships that I've been through.
00:55:51I've been through crazy partnerships to kind of learn.
00:55:53I'm 50, you know, I've been through some stuff, but I feel like with all the drugs and all that and the rehab, and I feel like I'm a late starter.
00:56:02Yep.
00:56:03So I feel like I just started, like, how old are you?
00:56:06I'm 43.
00:56:07You feel 43?
00:56:08I don't.
00:56:09I just don't.
00:56:10I don't.
00:56:11I feel like I just started.
00:56:12I feel like we just started.
00:56:13Like, seriously.
00:56:14I'm like happy about my 50s.
00:56:15Literally just started.
00:56:16The trailblazing of the 50s.
00:56:18Oh, 100%.
00:56:19Oh, man.
00:56:20Because look at what's at our fingertips.
00:56:21Like, look at, look at the opportunity that we have.
00:56:24And we have no idea who's going to listen to this.
00:56:26There could be somebody in Dubai.
00:56:28There could be somebody in London.
00:56:29There could be someone in Miami.
00:56:30And there are people there that do listen.
00:56:33And we are grateful that you listen.
00:56:34We hope you reach out.
00:56:35Please reach out.
00:56:36Send me a DM.
00:56:37Let me know you heard the show.
00:56:38And all the restaurant equipment companies that are listening to you right now.
00:56:42100%.
00:56:42I'm going to see all of them at the National Restaurant Show.
00:56:45That's right.
00:56:45100%.
00:56:45That's where we go.
00:56:48I think I could talk to you probably all day, but I know that the Hofbrauhaus is probably going.
00:56:53I mean, shout out to the Hofbrauhaus.
00:56:55Seriously, this is unbelievable space.
00:56:57I wish you guys can get into the kitchen and see the whole operation.
00:57:00That conveyor belt.
00:57:01We're bringing the cameras in there.
00:57:03How long is that conveyor belt?
00:57:04I would say it's like 10 feet.
00:57:05It's legitimately longer than 10 feet.
00:57:06Longer.
00:57:07Oh, yeah.
00:57:07It's probably 30 feet.
00:57:08Oh, my God.
00:57:09It's crazy.
00:57:09I've never seen anything like it before.
00:57:11Yeah, it's three rooms.
00:57:11I'm always in the kitchen shooting.
00:57:12If you ever see my content, I get the process of how the food is being made.
00:57:16And I always look at kitchens.
00:57:18I've been in the tiniest kitchen in Chinatown all the way up to the Michelin Star kitchens.
00:57:22And it's just kind of like eye-opening.
00:57:24And I said this on a post the other day.
00:57:27The benefit of being in the kitchen with the chef is being able to connect their stories and their inspiration into the dish that you see out front that usually a guest might not be able to put together.
00:57:42You hear the story as he's talking, and then you kind of put that into the end product.
00:57:48So people like me, I get more offended when people send things back.
00:57:53I'm like, do you know what this person had to do to create that dish?
00:57:59And the fire that you have to stay in front of, like the grills, bro.
00:58:04The fire, waking up everything single day.
00:58:06And I, like the amounts of sweat that I have just shooting one 20-second video, like you have to give these chefs some respect that they're in front of that 16 hours in front of that fire, bro.
00:58:18And the grill, the fire's facing them.
00:58:21And somebody sends their steak back or something like that.
00:58:25I would just, you know.
00:58:27It's a labor of love, 100%.
00:58:29I love it.
00:58:30Anyway, yeah, I can go on all day long.
00:58:32You know that.
00:58:33If you guys are watching this, we do a live show.
00:58:36It's called Rising Tides Live.
00:58:37You can go to betheshow.media slash risingtides.
00:58:40We do that every Wednesday, every Friday.
00:58:42It's a chance for you to be on the podcast.
00:58:44Tell us about what you're building.
00:58:45If you're a storyteller, if you're in sales, marketing, hospitality, we have a community of digital hospitality leaders from all over the globe.
00:58:52We've been doing that show for four years.
00:58:54So please join us on that platform.
00:58:55If you want to reach out to me, it's at Sean P. Walchef, S-H-A-W-N, P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F, Instagram, LinkedIn, all the platforms.
00:59:04I'm weirdly available.
00:59:05Before I let you go, Paul, I need to know about your personal tech stack.
00:59:09Personal what?
00:59:10Tech stack.
00:59:12Text?
00:59:12Tech stack.
00:59:13Tech stack.
00:59:14Okay, go ahead.
00:59:15Are you an iPhone or Android user?
00:59:17iPhone.
00:59:17Why?
00:59:18I actually only hire iPhone creators.
00:59:22You only hire...
00:59:23Why?
00:59:23I don't like the green bubbles.
00:59:24Can you say it a little bit louder for Aaron, my producer?
00:59:26I only hire iPhone creators.
00:59:28Like I literally went...
00:59:29When somebody actually gets hired and they have an Android, we kind of look at that and go...
00:59:33We look down.
00:59:34No, I don't...
00:59:35I just...
00:59:36The green bubble is killing us.
00:59:38The green bubble is killing the industry.
00:59:40It's killing me.
00:59:40I just let it let you know.
00:59:41You know what I mean?
00:59:43Which iPhone do you have?
00:59:45So funny.
00:59:46That's a great question.
00:59:48I have the 14 still, the one terabyte.
00:59:50It's been out of memory for a long time.
00:59:52Out of memory?
00:59:53Yeah.
00:59:53Like I have storage.
00:59:54I keep deleting it.
00:59:54How many pieces of content do you have on your phone?
00:59:56You bought the extra storage.
00:59:58Well, I bought 16 Pro Max already.
01:00:00It's sitting there.
01:00:01There's no way that I have more pieces of content on my phone than you.
01:00:04No way.
01:00:04There's no way.
01:00:05I have 100,000.
01:00:06I have way more.
01:00:07How many?
01:00:08And here's the thing.
01:00:09150, 200?
01:00:09I don't sync it.
01:00:11There's another thing.
01:00:11I've passed the syncing iCloud two terabytes phase.
01:00:15So now I don't back up anything.
01:00:17I shoot my phone and my phone becomes my hard drive and I get a new phone.
01:00:21That's how I do it now.
01:00:22And a new phone.
01:00:23Yeah.
01:00:23So my new phone right now, I just have to airdrop the last maybe like two months of content into there.
01:00:28It's for me to continue work.
01:00:30And this old phone now becomes my hard drive.
01:00:32There's no cloud.
01:00:33When did you learn how to do that?
01:00:35Well, I didn't learn.
01:00:36It's only it teaches you because you run out of storage.
01:00:38You have so much content and you run out of iCloud storage.
01:00:41What do you do after the two terabytes?
01:00:43Do you know what I mean?
01:00:43So either you have to buy extra storage that you can download, but I don't have time to do that.
01:00:48So my phone becomes my hard drive and I just go to the new phone.
01:00:52That's amazing.
01:00:53Probably the worst strategy, media management strategy.
01:00:56I mean, I guess if there's Google Photos that backs up your photos every day, but I didn't have a good experience with that.
01:01:01I didn't have a good experience with that either.
01:01:02The majority of my content, whenever I shoot content, there's a production coordinator that I have to airdrop to and she Dropboxes or he or she Dropboxes everything.
01:01:10So my raw content does exist somewhere in the company.
01:01:14You use Dropbox?
01:01:15Yeah.
01:01:16Not Drive?
01:01:16Not Google Drive?
01:01:18No, we got old school stuck in there and now we're like, we have unlimited.
01:01:22Unlimited too?
01:01:22Yeah, we are.
01:01:23No, you're not.
01:01:24Zoom, Teams, we're on both.
01:01:25Teams.
01:01:26Teams, Zoom is what we use the most.
01:01:29Teams only because of clients.
01:01:31We use Zoom.
01:01:31Okay.
01:01:32Fair.
01:01:33But a lot of clients have Teams, so I have to have that.
01:01:35But Dropbox, old school, but we have unlimited, so we're able to do it and we have that system going.
01:01:41A lot of our clients' light boxes that we custom make for them is on our Dropbox system, so we kind of like coherently use that.
01:01:47Internal comms, what do you guys use?
01:01:49Slack?
01:01:50What's that?
01:01:51Slack and God.
01:01:58Ask the tough questions here.
01:01:59Asana.
01:02:00Asana.
01:02:01Sorry.
01:02:02You can tell that I'm not into this.
01:02:03You can tell that.
01:02:05This is why.
01:02:05Oh, by the way, I really wanted to say this and every single talk that I've met, the reason that the agency is doing what we're doing now is because every single person that is involved in our agency, starting from like Julie Kim, all the way down to everybody that's in production.
01:02:21Allows me to focus on sales and biz dev and I'm able to kind of like let go of a lot of production.
01:02:28And I used to be very hands-on on everything.
01:02:30I used to go to every shoot and stuff like that, but it's just not scalable that way.
01:02:32Now, I'm very like super thankful that I can do stuff like this while everything is running.
01:02:38We have an insane amount of clients.
01:02:40It's over 100?
01:02:41Yes.
01:02:42Wow.
01:02:43Yeah.
01:02:43It's a lot.
01:02:45And people be...
01:02:47How many employees?
01:02:49Well, we call them perma-freelancers, right?
01:02:51So now we are...
01:02:53We used to only hire...
01:02:54That's the official term?
01:02:54Yeah.
01:02:54Listen to this.
01:02:55We used to only hire salary.
01:02:56Okay.
01:02:58And one of the things that I was able to do and earn the street cred that we have now is we had a lot of salaries, purely salaries in the beginning.
01:03:06We hit pandemic.
01:03:08We hit COVID.
01:03:10And the first thing that me and my partners did is call everybody who has salary and told them, we're going to pay your salary, even if we do zero work, for the duration of this entire COVID without even knowing.
01:03:22So we were willing to invest.
01:03:24Yeah.
01:03:25And that made a lot of people stick around and give us the love.
01:03:29Yeah.
01:03:29And we're very big.
01:03:30You know, I was running on less than 15% profit margin for the longest time.
01:03:34Really?
01:03:34And we were making stupid profit margin if we were to keep the profit.
01:03:39But we paid out because they're content creators.
01:03:42Yep.
01:03:42Some of these guys have a split road.
01:03:45Hey, now I'm making $2,000 a post.
01:03:47Yep.
01:03:47Why would I make $2,000 posting 15 times a month?
01:03:50Yep.
01:03:50You know what I mean?
01:03:51That kind of stuff is happening for us.
01:03:52So the prices are going up and we are, you know, we're able to keep that, you know, very good, healthy because of the things that we did like this.
01:03:59Yep.
01:04:00So after the pandemic, what we've done is that we went to productized model.
01:04:03This is like the one of the things that we're able to scale is because now for them giving up their salary, they no longer have a cap.
01:04:14And we have a lot of sales coming in.
01:04:16Oh, sweet.
01:04:16So if we were low on sales, we wouldn't be able to do this.
01:04:20But as soon as they went, we call it productized.
01:04:22So now you get a piece of the retainer.
01:04:25So when a retainer comes in, one deal comes in, we break it down into little tiny pieces and we go to a guy that has 300,000 followers.
01:04:32Hey, you never have to talk to a client.
01:04:34That's the number one thing about us.
01:04:35We go to creators and go, hey, you know how you do this?
01:04:38You never have to talk.
01:04:40There's no 2 a.m. phone calls from clients.
01:04:42There's nobody's going to tell you.
01:04:43You just do you on these eight videos for this much money, yes or no?
01:04:47And we do that to eight guys.
01:04:50So now if I lose the client, if I lose all my clients, everybody loses their money.
01:04:54But they're willing to ride because so far, all of the salary guys are making double now because they're able to execute a lot more jobs.
01:05:02They only take on what they can.
01:05:04They're able to go as high as anyone on their income.
01:05:08So there's a lot of guys making, I shouldn't say that.
01:05:11What?
01:05:11How much?
01:05:13How much?
01:05:14Over $120, $150.
01:05:15That's phenomenal.
01:05:16Very fast.
01:05:17On the lowest level.
01:05:18On a lower low level.
01:05:19Yeah, in a creator economy, back to the consistency.
01:05:22As a new creator coming in when you have 30,000, 40,000 followers on your account and we go to them early.
01:05:28My big thing is going to these creators.
01:05:31Early.
01:05:31Yeah.
01:05:32Recognizing the talent and approaching them before they blow up because you don't want to deal with them.
01:05:36It's like an NIL deal.
01:05:39But I don't know when they'll ever see 150 or 200 or let's say on the low end, like 120 just trying to hustle.
01:05:47Oh, it's so hard.
01:05:48A lot of people think that influencers make a lot of money.
01:05:51No.
01:05:51But dude, if you're a 40,000 follower guy that's doing food and you want to make 150,000, good luck.
01:05:57Do you know how many sponsorships that is?
01:05:59Well, it's not only that, but the way that it's set up is everything's a short-term deal.
01:06:04Right.
01:06:04So it's a one-time, it's not a retainer deal.
01:06:06Yeah, it's not a retainer deal.
01:06:08Amen.
01:06:09Consistency and income, it's a legitimate thing.
01:06:12Also, out of 10 creators that are artists, how many of them are business-savvy and sales-savvy?
01:06:17That kills you.
01:06:18Maybe 10%.
01:06:19So they love, these artists love agencies like us because they don't have to worry about any clients or sales.
01:06:26They don't have to worry about sales.
01:06:27They just go, hey.
01:06:28Or marketing.
01:06:29Yeah.
01:06:29You do this type of content on your feed.
01:06:32We have a content that kind of like you would love.
01:06:34Yep.
01:06:34So I always go to the fans.
01:06:36So I come to the 100 creators and go, hey, I have this deal.
01:06:39Who's the number one fan?
01:06:40And they just.
01:06:41It's phenomenal.
01:06:42Yeah.
01:06:44Final question on your tech stack.
01:06:47What's your favorite social platform outside of Instagram?
01:06:50Instagram.
01:06:50Oh.
01:06:53What's your guilty pleasure?
01:06:55Like you wouldn't want other people to know that like you spend time on that app.
01:07:04Not much.
01:07:05Not much at all.
01:07:06I wish I could have some time to dip my toes into other platforms right now because I do.
01:07:11I am interested in that.
01:07:12But I think maybe YouTube is where my guilty pleasure is.
01:07:18I don't think anybody of my friends ever comments on my YouTube thing.
01:07:21A lot of people are on TikTok.
01:07:22They see that.
01:07:23But YouTube, I feel like it's like a whole separate thing I'm building over here.
01:07:26I'm all about it.
01:07:27By the way, I just invested in a person or other people to create my content long format.
01:07:33And a lot of people don't know, but I'm investing money into it.
01:07:36So I don't post my long format.
01:07:38But, you know, they do the whole thumbnails and the long format and it looks really good.
01:07:42It's all, you know, it's all, you know, the camera shot.
01:07:44It's not a phone footage.
01:07:46So I did start that on YouTube that people don't even know.
01:07:48I get low views, but it looks really good.
01:07:52And I'm just trying to build it.
01:07:53What do you think should happen over the next 10 years?
01:07:53Oh, yeah.
01:07:54Like I'm just, I'm putting my panties into that time, you know?
01:07:57So YouTube would be a thing.
01:07:58I wish I can go into a little bit more, but I got to tell you, I think my interest is going to LinkedIn.
01:08:03It just hasn't happened yet.
01:08:05LinkedIn.
01:08:05LinkedIn is where I want to go.
01:08:06Get after it.
01:08:06Yep.
01:08:07Just think about the things that we talked about.
01:08:09I would have zero brand deals.
01:08:10How would I get in front of those brands?
01:08:12If it wasn't for LinkedIn, we'd have zero brand deals.
01:08:15Now we've opened up all the other platforms, but we started on LinkedIn.
01:08:18God, I need to be there.
01:08:19That's where I'm going.
01:08:20That's where you're going.
01:08:20You heard it here first.
01:08:22We appreciate you guys.
01:08:23Where's the best place to people connect with you?
01:08:25On LinkedIn.
01:08:26Send a connection request.
01:08:27I love it.
01:08:29Instagram and TikTok and YouTube.
01:08:30Same thing.
01:08:31And LinkedIn.
01:08:31RYU Sauce, RYU, like the Street Fighter guy, Sauce.
01:08:36And LinkedIn.
01:08:36And LinkedIn.
01:08:37Done.
01:08:38And your agency?
01:08:40Jump Force, JMP Force.
01:08:42Do you have a waiting list?
01:08:44No, but we're very selective.
01:08:46Yes.
01:08:46It's got to be a right fit.
01:08:47Yeah, it's all incoming.
01:08:48Hit us up.
01:08:49We won't come to you.
01:08:51There it is.
01:08:51We appreciate you guys.
01:08:53Please subscribe to the show.
01:08:54Please share it with somebody that would appreciate this content.
01:08:56If you've made it this far, you're part of our people.
01:08:58You're part of our tribe.
01:08:59We hope to see you wherever we show up.
01:09:01National Restaurant Show, wherever we are.
01:09:04If you're in Vegas, you've got to be following RYU's account.
01:09:07He knows where all the hot spots are.
01:09:09So check him out.
01:09:10We appreciate it.
01:09:10And Hofbrauhaus, thank you for your hospitality.
01:09:13We appreciate it.
01:09:13My grandfather is looking down at us right now.
01:09:16And I got goosebumps because I'm just grateful to be here.
01:09:19Grateful for Toast for sponsoring this show.
01:09:21Stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help.
01:09:24We'll catch you guys next episode.
01:09:29Thank you for listening.
01:09:30If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
01:09:33You're part of the tribe.
01:09:34We can't do this alone.
01:09:36We started.
01:09:36No one was listening.
01:09:37Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
01:09:41Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
01:09:46It's a Substack newsletter.
01:09:47It's free.
01:09:48It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
01:09:51Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
01:09:55Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
01:09:57We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
01:09:59Hopefully, you guys like that content.
01:10:01If you want to work with us, go to betheshow.media.
01:10:04We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
01:10:08We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
01:10:12You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
01:10:15I'm weirdly available.
01:10:17Stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help.
01:10:20We'll catch you next episode.
Comments