Introduction:
In a recent enlightening episode of “Scroll Sessions,” hosts Dan Page and Shane Hickenlooper welcomed Bobby Macey of Macy Media, known for his dynamic approach in the media industry and his notable journey from being laid off to becoming a media mogul.
From Humble Beginnings:
Bobby’s journey in the media world began with a personal interest in PR and marketing, fostered during his time at BYU Idaho. Despite starting with a modest salary at Deseret Digital Media (DDM), Bobby quickly established himself as a proficient content marketer. His unique approach towards storytelling, coupled with an innate ability to adapt to different brand voices, soon made him a pivotal part of the organization.
The Turning Point:
Bobby’s career trajectory took a dramatic turn when he was unexpectedly laid off from a startup he joined after DDM. It was a challenging phase, with a pregnant wife and mounting responsibilities. However, Bobby saw this as an opportunity to rethink his career path. Harnessing the power of his personal brand and network, he announced the launch of Macy Media and ventured into entrepreneurship.
Building Macy Media:
Macy Media started as Bobby’s leap of faith into the uncertain world of business. With a focus on video production, content marketing, and storytelling, the company gradually carved a niche for itself. Bobby’s strategy was simple yet effective – using his personal network, social media presence, and genuine interactions to build clientele.
The Art of Networking:
A significant takeaway from Bobby’s story is the importance of networking. From attending events to creating personal connections, Bobby emphasizes the value of building relationships. He also highlights the power of personal branding, notably using platforms like LinkedIn to showcase his expertise and attract potential clients.
The Future Vision:
While Macy Media continues to thrive, Bobby’s entrepreneurial spirit doesn’t stop there. He’s involved in other ventures like SeeMyCampsite.com, further diversifying his business portfolio. His goal is clear – build a lifestyle business that allows financial freedom and the ability to invest in other passions.
Conclusion:
Bobby Macey’s story is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and the power of personal branding. His journey from a layoff to establishing a successful media company offers invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals in any field.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbymacey/
Podcast Transcript
0:00
[Music] there’s a fair
0:06
all right well welcome to scroll sessions happy to be back and we’re ha we have Bobby Macy of Macy media on the
0:14
podcast today with your crazy sunglasses crazy sunglasses baby wear them loud I
0:20
love it where are those from these this is actually a brand I’m an ambassador for these guys they’re called knock
0:25
around oh I’m familiar with knockaround.com yeah yeah I love them because most their glasses are like in
0:31
between 30 and 40 bucks yeah so like a week and a half ago I’m at Bear Lake I was wearing knock around in junior high
0:37
high school it was like right when they first started they’re great glasses yeah they’re cool they’re not like Ray-Ban
0:43
quality or Maui Jim but like and fun styles which is like that’s what
0:51
I want is something loud yeah so there I I think they’re the Vans of
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sunglasses oh yeah see that’s cool I lose sunglasses all the time and I always buy from like blenders I wear
1:04
because I literally I’ve lost three in the past a lot of mine all
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right I broke one pair and lost two others I don’t know where they went but I will say I had one really nice pair of
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sunglasses that were per Souls once they’re like 350 sunglasses but I got them on a deal and uh
1:23
I kept them for seven years dude for some reason when you spend some money you’re like I’m not losing them
1:31
seven years later I’ve just got out into the generic Amazon brand so now I’ll
1:36
probably never buy expenses dude I’ve done some Amazon recently Yeah Yeah I broke them yeah well I’ve got a nice
1:42
code for you gentlemen sweet okay nice I like it Ambassador everybody I love it
1:47
okay well we’ve talked on LinkedIn we’ve seen each other here and there
1:52
um but a lot of the same friends explain to us Bobby Macy do you go by Bob Macy or
1:58
Bobby dude I go buy both uh all my socials are Bob Macy because Bobby Macy
2:03
was somehow taken oh yeah and but yeah what’s your wife call you she calls
2:09
depends on the tone every now and then there’s a Robert that slips in there and I’m like
2:15
who’s Robert um no I’ve gone my parents named me Robert I’ve gone by Bobby my whole life
2:21
yeah and it’s my personality yeah and then in high school people just kind of
2:26
found this rhythm of like Bob Macy Bob Macy and so then my socials are Bob Macy
2:31
and it’s a little shorter it’s a little easier yeah and uh but if people call me Bob it’s great but uh 99 of people call
2:39
me Bobby cool or they call me some sort of like nickname like Bob man or or Macy yeah cool well what’s what’s your what’s
2:48
your background I know we were just talking before you had kind of like started at DDM but like yeah walk people
2:53
through your your background a little bit so your career so far this is me I am that dude who is like squirrel
3:01
squirrel squirrel when it comes to like career or Focus right and so I’m like I
3:07
gotta do something with people so I go to BYU Idaho my wife was already
3:12
up there when we got married and I’m like okay transfer up there and I’m thinking like I’m too irreverent for BYU
3:18
I don’t not from like uh like my lifestyle standpoint like from a personality stand yeah right you can’t wear shorts yeah and I like the long
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hair and I let you know some of these things and so I’m like am I even gonna fit in there yeah end up loving it made
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some great friends like got really involved in the communication department and I’m like I don’t know what I want to
3:37
do for a career yeah so I was like what can I do where I can be a people person
3:42
because that’s the only like that’s the common denominator here yeah and so I chose PR
3:48
and I’m like okay well PR help me with my writing skills yeah kind of telling a story and how do you manage kind of
3:54
crappy situations if that hits a business or a person whatever right yeah and so I I go through my degree and then
4:01
never work the pr job once marketing jobs because marketing jobs
4:08
are what presented themselves it’s true I didn’t want to go to New York City with a young family and like grind it
4:14
out and have some PR agency job there were a couple of PR agencies in Utah but
4:19
it just like it’s not as much of a thing here yeah and and like I have some good
4:24
copywriting chops but that’s not what I wanted to do um so it got to the point where I was
4:30
like look marketing is so similar these are the types of jobs that are being
4:35
offered to me like let’s go yeah and so I had interned at Deseret digital media DDM where Shane worked uh and I had
4:43
interned there in 2012 and then my internship ended and they’re like hey
4:48
you have one semester left will you just keep working remotely I’m like yeah sure dang they were Progressive enough to let
4:54
you work remote believe it or not yes please change by the time you got there
5:00
this dude his name was Rob Johnson he’s from England he now works at wise up in
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Seattle yeah but this dude was so far ahead of his time great manager and then
5:11
they offered me the job as soon as I graduate to come and work full time I’m like sweet but then I was at DDM for
5:18
four years and I’m I’m a Content marketer like I’m used to telling stories through copywriting through
5:24
video through photo whatever and anytime I get into a scenario where I have to tell a story I’m just buzzing with
5:30
questions like yeah how can this be less lame and so I get to DDM and I mean you’re
5:38
thinking ksl.com deseretnews.com a ton of these brands that are just writing long-form content and using stock
5:44
imagery yes so decently lame yeah and I’m like I’m like this has been done
5:51
before yeah and on the one hand it’s like if it ain’t broke don’t fix it but on the other hand I’m like I think we
5:58
can make this even better and they’re gonna die without Innovation right I think that’s the one thing KSL has
6:03
constantly not recognized is that slowly but surely competitors seep into the
6:10
market and although you have this massive market share right now here comes Facebook Marketplace Here Comes
6:15
other news media Tick Tock takes over people going into cases local reporters
6:21
all sorts of things that are not branded you’ve got to innovate and uh without
6:26
Innovation you’re gonna die yes they were missing a little bit because at the time I was there everything was about
6:32
like digital disruption you yeah I’m like hey let’s take the traditional news team and the digital team and let’s
6:38
merge them and let’s you know this is right at the height of it say 2012 to 2013. that was like the Heyday of social
6:44
when it was organic was like so easy it was so so easy to do where nowadays it
6:51
is but I would I would probably guess that
6:56
case I was doing even better back then than it is now it wouldn’t surprise me and and they had a dude named Clark
7:01
Gilbert at the helm and that dude was money when I worked there I love that man and he was just like he knew how to
7:08
rally the troops right and then he uh he left and went to BYU Idaho to be the
7:15
president of BYU Idaho and now he’s a general Authority for the LDS church and over education and things and so he’s
7:21
just had a wonderful career but I think um I I think maybe the focus on like
7:27
disruption has been lost a little bit yeah and he was pushing it and it was happening but now maybe it’s come back a
7:34
little bit or stalled uh I don’t know I mean I haven’t worked there for since 2016 yeah we’re only seeing it from the
7:39
end but if we get a chance to dog on them we’re gonna do it but I met some incredible people there great place and
7:46
when I was in that org they they pulled me from one job and they recognized I had these PR skills and they’re like
7:53
well we need you to manage a group of Freelancers um so there was a few freelance writers
7:59
but they’re like we need you to build this product that is specifically for mobile Revenue because banner ads was
8:06
their business and they were losing a lot of money with the shift to mobile and at that point I think it was
8:12
2014 when I moved into that role so I’d been there two years and I would say like I had made a lot of
8:20
friends in the org and and my department was in a really weird spot because we
8:25
were writing branded content what used to be called advertorials and now it was
8:31
being called native advertising yeah but it was it’s what BuzzFeed was doing yeah it was branded content that was written
8:36
for Brands and published in an editorial style so you had to balance this thing of like hey the editorial team kind of
8:44
hates you because yeah they think that you are just the bane of their existence working a brand you’re not a journalist
8:51
exactly but then the advertisers like hey I know what I want to say and you’re
8:58
like hold your horses I know my audience I’ll work you in but you gotta trust me
9:03
and so then you’re you’re fighting these uh these two different battles internally and externally
9:09
but then the money starts rolling in yeah within a year so I’ll be very transparent I’m
9:17
this dude like peel back the curtains at this point they hired me and my first year in that role I was making 47k a
9:24
year and within that first year I was managing a team of 50 Freelancers and we
9:32
were paying those 50 Freelancers 50 bucks in an article we were charging 2500 an article and my yearly salary is
9:39
forty seven thousand so pretty soon we get to the point where we are producing
9:45
80k a month in Revenue that’s a million a year yeah just on brand view just on
9:50
brand view yeah and I’m being paid 47 a month or 47 a year sorry I mean you
9:56
didn’t have to revenue a book one yeah that would be nice but one month and they are covering the costs of the
10:02
entire team for an entire year now yeah the part of that that is gets tricky is
10:07
sales guys have and then sales girls have to sell it right and they make a commission and they make a commission
10:13
and this and that so that’s where that’s where the revenue gets a little murky that now as a business owner I
10:19
understand that side but at the time I’m that young Scrappy guy that’s like what what are we doing what is going on here
10:25
yeah and then I hear the president and the company say he’s like I gotta be careful about how I say this
10:31
in front of Bobby because he could leave this job and go do this for anybody in the country and probably make a lot more
10:36
money and I took it as like a compliment because I didn’t want to go to New York I didn’t want to go to some of these
10:42
other places with a family but it was it was one of those things where it instilled in me some confidence of like
10:47
oh I’m actually valued here and so then it was like the value superseded the paycheck and I was
10:55
running trying to build this product for I guess internal Fame right and and to
11:01
have kind of that Spotlight I think I think most of us have this I don’t want to sound vain or like it’s very
11:07
intrapreneur of you yes it was but it was also a time where I was young
11:13
and I was even though I wasn’t being paid maybe to where I thought I should be I was getting a spotlight and some
11:18
attention from Harvard grads and these people were were feeding me things that fueled me yeah it was credential right a
11:26
hundred percent so then um they end up giving me you know a raise to like mid 50s by the time I left
11:32
but now you’re a big way you know you were a big wig when they started painting I’m like you can make that much
11:37
money in a month now what yeah it’s um it was one of those things though that
11:43
really opened my eyes to like okay you gotta look at a business and
11:48
you gotta look at a couple of things um one of those things is who’s who’s doing your work right and
11:55
like how do you like the president of the company he was talking about brand view he was selling brand view but he
12:01
was never doing the work of the brand view yeah right he was just happy that he had a profitable uh yeah product and
12:06
he had a lot of arms in the business that weren’t profitable so then my arm because it was so profitable was helping
12:13
to make up for parts that weren’t yeah right and I think every business is that way and so now I look at it from a
12:19
different light but that was like a pivotal moment in my career because that taught me how to tell stories for
12:26
different brands in in different ways oh yeah because in the same day it was like Zion’s Bank
12:33
then it was a Solar Company then it was like Harmons or or some food company and
12:38
it was like you have to flip your brain that fast yeah oh yeah and I was working
12:43
with almost every Ad Agency in the valley and several around the country to place these articles and to strategize
12:50
and it was just one of those things that was like pure adrenaline yeah right
12:55
that’s what’s fun about working at an agency I feel like especially one that’s a little more generalized and maybe not
13:01
so Niche specific yes yeah you’re thrown to the fire you know you’ve and you have
13:07
to adapt and understand and consume so much so quickly like way more than doing
13:14
anything in-house anywhere else but you’re also working with local agencies and although you’re not getting paid
13:20
extremely well at the time you’re working with every agency they know you’re behind this product and that sets
13:26
you up for massive opportunity when you do leave right 100 percent it’s kind of the way it went that’s the
13:32
whole net worth is your network thing right when I left DDM it got to the
13:37
point where I was like I capped out here like there’s nothing more for me to do here yeah and they weren’t and I’d had
13:43
some conversations and they weren’t going to pay me more and this and that and I was trying to get on a commission structure and it just wasn’t happening
13:48
and so I was like okay so I went to be an internal in-house marketer at Select
13:54
Health the health insurance company yeah that’s ours that’s our insurance for our employees that’s quite the transition
13:59
too it was a but I was comfortable working in the medical space because Intermountain Healthcare was one of my
14:04
brand new clients yeah you review Healthcare clients and I had worked as a call center employee at Select Health in
14:11
2009. okay and so I was like okay maybe we’ll do this I know the business now I’ll get a higher paying job in the
14:18
marketing department so how do you market for the most hated industry on the planet you know right so
14:24
they hire me to be their first ever like content marketer and to produce blogs
14:30
and to actually think about SEO and some of these things and so I go in there and it is like a pin drop
14:37
environment like you wear your slacks lots of people are wearing shirt and ties every day the executives are the
14:43
type of people at least when I was there that like if you’re a mid to lower level employee if you’re not making 100K a
14:50
year like you don’t really have the relationship with the executives where they even know you exist that’s how it
14:56
felt now I’m speaking one-sided on that right but I had this amazing boss named Jamie and
15:05
she was she she honestly I was there for nine months before another little startup came in and poached me and
15:12
I wouldn’t even lasted nine months if it wasn’t for her she was that boss that was like the embodiment of like female
15:20
leadership mixing motherhood with professionalism and just empowers you in
15:25
every way shape and form like that’s awesome if there was ever a boss that should be on a pedestal it was that
15:31
woman and so I learned a lot from her but like I got to the point where I was like guys I can produce enough content
15:39
like in one day that you guys are accustomed
15:44
to producing in like a month yeah like I’m coming from the agency type world where fast-paced multiple articles per
15:50
day and now I’m dealing with red tape Galore ton of red tape and I’m sitting there like I remember one time I went to
15:57
write an article that mentioned McDonald’s not even in a bad light but they were it was like it was about
16:03
like Foods at McDonald’s like what’s the healthiest option at all these restaurants and I went to name the
16:09
restaurants by name and they wouldn’t let me do it yeah and I’m like what am I supposed to say two parabolic yellow
16:14
arches and you go there for fast food like why wouldn’t they let you say the
16:19
name legally they were worried that McDonald’s was going to come after them in some way shape or form because we
16:25
mentioned them and I’m like they’re like McDonald’s is our biggest investor they’re what keeps health health insurance companies in business right no
16:32
kidding well it was interesting when we had a conversation with like John hunting house I don’t know if you know who that is yes I do I mean he works at
16:38
DDM as well there’s a ton of red tape in the banking industry too just the finance world and you have to be a lot
16:44
more creative like we we and I’m sure you you did too you had to get a lot more creative with what you were doing
16:51
and also good marketers have good products right like the people are like wow you’re such a good marketer you’re
16:56
like no I mean like I’m working with a product that’s amazing yeah and that’s why I look so good where like you could
17:03
be the best marketer in the world and go work for Select Health and never really get any success because you got red tape
17:10
nobody likes health insurance overpriced right so 100 a good marketer in a bad
17:16
environment is going to ruin opportunity so from Select Health where did you go who poached you so then I went to a
17:23
startup in Farmington called monumentric oh yeah yeah very familiar and that was
17:28
honestly like they they were working with so many bloggers and helping bloggers monetize through banner ads and
17:35
things they brought us in because they saw the money these bloggers were making they’re like we want some owned and
17:40
operated properties so they brought myself and a guy named Preston in and Preston worked at Deseret Book and they
17:46
brought us in as content directors just equal and both of us just were running
17:52
and then they lost a client we were about eight months in and then at nine
17:58
months in we got laid off there were I think 30 between 30 and 35 employees and
18:04
and I think I think half of us got laid off agency life yeah yeah and it was one of those
18:11
things they lost a client that was more than 100K a month yeah and so all of a sudden they’re bleeding and they’re like
18:16
wow and I mean at the time like they were paying me 80 and I don’t know what they were paying my buddy probably 80 or
18:23
90. he was honestly a better marketer than I am so he was probably making more money so probably 70. but
18:29
right but it was one of those things where um we get laid off and my wife is six
18:37
months pregnant with our third kid I have now purchased a home and I have a mortgage and I’m sitting there like what
18:43
am I gonna do holy boy and now I’ve got two things nine months yeah and I’m like how do I
18:48
tell this story and that was you’re a marketer you’ll figure it right yeah this was the best thing that ever
18:53
happened to me I drove this old beater Jeep Cherokee that had like it was white and it had some rust on the back and I
19:01
asked those dudes that day I was like hey do you have a cardboard box and they’re like we could probably find one this is
19:08
monumentric right and then I asked my boss who is the CMO at the time I was
19:13
like dude will you take a picture of me like I know this is probably like weird but like I just think it’s funny and this is the day that I get laid off and
19:20
I’m like walking out to my car so I’m next to my beater Jeep I’m I’m wearing
19:25
just you know Common clothes or whatever and I have the biggest smile on my face and I’m holding a cardboard box with all
19:31
my crap in it and then I put a caption on the photo that said help me find a new job and then I went and posted in
19:38
like that Facebook group that was PR Utah marketing jobs all that stuff um I hit LinkedIn and I hit him with the
19:45
same message and it was a message of positivity like hey this is my situation I got laid off uh so did many other
19:53
people and um I’ve been told this wasn’t a Performance Based thing it was a revenue
19:58
based thing and but then I talked about all the things I loved about that company did not mention one single thing
20:05
of distaste for them it went like semi-viral within my community and all of a sudden I had this
20:11
Army of people helping me to find a job and within two weeks I had four offers
20:16
and most of them were six figures so I was like you’re like man maybe these guys could
20:24
fire me in a year and I could get another from there I went to a company called
20:30
clearlink which you probably heard of of course had a stint there took me a minute to find myself because clearlink
20:36
is very like you stay in your lane you do this and I’m not that guy like I’m
20:42
the guy that’s like oh organic social okay we’ll do that oh you need an article okay we’ll do that oh hey why
20:48
aren’t our writers in WordPress uploading content like we’re doing them a disservice and I think that like I’m not the guy
20:55
who’s like pushy stomping on people’s toes um but I think it made them a little
21:01
uncomfortable because my boss told me a couple times he’s like we don’t know exactly where you fit
21:08
yeah but we like you and we know you do good work we just don’t know exactly where you fit
21:13
and I’ve talked to Nick staggy about this before it’s kind of that that entrepreneur within the org where you’re
21:19
like hey this sometimes it can be too disruptive yeah you’re like so funny we
21:26
have something in common same I don’t know where I fit either yeah so I get poached there by one of the job
21:33
offers that I one of those for yeah and this time they come back and they’re like hey we’ll pay you 130. and at
21:40
clearlink I think I accepted a job for just under six figures and one of the reasons I did it was because my best
21:46
friend worked there he’s a VP of digital marketing at Vivint and he’s like dude
21:52
come come work with me and so I’m like okay cool there it felt like it was a
21:57
little more secure right but like I live in Saratoga Springs I was driving out past the airport every day like it got
22:03
to the point where it was like oh man and then to not know where you fit a year and a half in you’re kind of like uh where do I go from here yeah so I get
22:11
I get offered this other job and this time the auntie’s bigger right it’s 1 30 it’s a better title you manage a team
22:18
and I’m like I can’t say no to this but it was in the fintech industry and I’m
22:23
sitting there and I’m like okay I guess I just put on my agency hat again and I flip the switch and now I gotta learn fintech right yeah so that lasts six
22:32
months and all of a sudden I get a Blindside layoff and now I have the salary that I’ve never had before
22:37
thankfully I didn’t just go on a spending spree and I had actually saved some money with my wife but six months
22:44
into this I get a Blindside layoff well this may or may not have had something to do with it this is right before covid
22:51
October 2019. uh they later in 2020 I think in covert
22:58
year they got acquired by Rent-A-Center for like 1.2 billion or something wow so I don’t know if they were Trim in fat I
23:04
don’t know if I just wasn’t providing the value that they thought like I literally asked him in my accident interview like hey
23:10
I’m not looking for my job back but like what uh I mean I’m a positive guy like what could I do better and and the HR
23:17
guy was like I don’t even know why I’m firing you I was just told to do it what a stupid
23:22
world corporate that’s exactly and that day I
23:28
remember I go home and granted I’d been through this before right and when I was
23:34
at monumentric I showed up at like 11 A.M at my house and my wife was like why are you here yeah what’s going on and
23:41
um this time I they did it at the end of the day I go home I’m a religious guy I
23:46
work with the youth group in my church I go to the youth activity that night and
23:52
my wife could like kind of tell something was wrong she could just tell that I wasn’t like quite as upbeat maybe something was off I’m like okay
24:00
I’ll talk to you later right and so I think in the back of her head she’s like is this another layoff like what what’s
24:05
going on and she also knew she had been hearing me talk for the better part of a
24:11
year about wanting to go out on my own and it was like that scene from Moana
24:16
where she’s just like it comes you know he didn’t know I was gonna sing guys
24:25
I’m sitting there and I’m like why do I have the best salary I’ve ever had I have benefits and I have this and that
24:31
and I’m feeling this way yeah and then all of a sudden that boot in the rear
24:37
end of a layoff and I’m like I’m not going to find another job and I already knew it now it was a matter of
24:44
convincing my wife that that was the case so we take a look at the finances we look at everything and after young
24:50
men’s that night she’s like I I believe like this is what you have to do
24:56
some of my family members and my best friends looked at me and they’re like are you freaking crazy like you have to
25:03
do it so I love family advice when you’re starting a business right family and
25:08
friends always something you should 100 give out don’t do it yes you know the statistics this is terrible idea and I’m
25:16
sitting there and I’m like guys calm down like I’m not mortgaging my house like yeah I’m a scrappy dude like I’ve
25:21
had side hustles for years like how do you think how do you think we have gotten to where we are it’s not because
25:27
I’ve always had a high salary for 47 000 a year but you know it was it was grit
25:33
and grind yeah and and I’m like working in that brand b-roll at KSL I was always
25:39
with the sales guys always and I’m like I can sell something if I believe in it so then I had one DSLR camera a Sony A7
25:48
III and I’m like okay I’m like a great camera right yeah and I’m like a hybrid
25:53
photo video guy so I’d been doing some freelance with it this that and I’m like let’s go so I told the world hey Macy
26:02
media is here I already own the domain name I made that that announcement and
26:07
that was almost four years ago and thankfully each year it’s just gotten a little bit better what what’s been your
26:13
like your your biggest takeaway from go being kind of a career marketer to and
26:19
more or less you know all your whole story is very entrepreneurial yeah everywhere you went it was coming up
26:27
with new ideas or innovating and maybe being too Innovative for some companies maybe not enough Innovation for others
26:34
but what what’s been your biggest learning going from entrepreneur to entrepreneur
26:39
for me it’s um when you’re an entrepreneur you still have a safety net right you’re still
26:44
getting paid every two weeks you uh and you have other stresses and your other
26:49
stresses are things like am I providing the value do I have long-term stability do I have am I going to be the first to
26:55
go if there’s a layoff in my case I’ve been laid off twice right by the time I started my company and so it was like
27:02
that creates some insecurities yeah for sure and and when you are a disrupter
27:07
that can heavily go in your favor or it can you could be the first to go so anytime there were threats of layoffs
27:13
and stuff the entrepreneur inside me was always worried about that because I wasn’t the guy who was staying in my
27:18
Lane yeah um but as an entrepreneur now I’m like man
27:25
one of the best things for me is the discomfort it’s you guys know this better than
27:30
anyone you have nights where you are so tired but you can’t sleep and your mind
27:36
is running and then you grab your phone you jot down notes and then you lay back down and then you grab your phone you
27:42
just painted a picture that I am yeah it’s totally experienced a hundred times yes 100 and then you worry about not
27:48
paying your own mortgage but the several other people who work for you in their
27:54
mortgages and then I’m taking this in a different direction as well I hope you don’t mind
27:59
no but one of the things that is that is so hard for me from being internal to now owning a company
28:06
is this recognition that not everybody is motivated like I am yeah so that’s huge that is it’s
28:13
enormous right yeah because I’m the guy that doesn’t want to be button to see at a desk for eight hours that drives me
28:20
nuts yeah but other people are fine with that and so and or even want it yes
28:26
that’s why the economy works yeah that is exactly why but in my mind it’s like hard because I’m like
28:32
I’ve lost so much money uh and I don’t regret this I’ve lost so much money on
28:38
paying people for jobs where they were being overpaid for what they were doing
28:43
because I had the mentality of like well I wouldn’t do that for that price yeah
28:49
but it’s like well they they would they don’t think like
28:54
you Bobby right and it’s not that one Superior and one’s inferior it’s that we’re all built differently that way for
29:00
sure right and so for me I’m like I have to put myself in check every day when it
29:06
comes to pricing and things because I’m like well what would I do it for and then what can I shell it out to one of
29:11
my employees for and how can I pay them a fey rate a fair rate that’s a little bit above Market average so they feel
29:17
valued but at the same time gives me my margins to run a business and and sometimes I find myself like over
29:23
explaining to my employees like oh well this and this and this and this and this the almost like justify myself of why
29:30
they’re only getting paid X when the project was billed at Y and I’m like wait a minute I don’t have to do this
29:38
like I’m the boss here I don’t have to justify this like this is how businesses
29:44
work it’s why I was being paid 47. when somebody else when the business was
29:50
making 80 a month yeah right you know what uh one thing that we’ve tried to do at scroll is be completely transparent
29:57
about how much our services costs how much people are managing a month and uh
30:02
what our monthly revenue is currently at so like our entire staff if they care enough knows where our
30:09
monthly revenue is at how much they’re managing and a lot of them will make a percentage off of the amount of Revenue
30:15
that they manage too but we did have an employee come to us once and say like hey I want 25 of what I manage because
30:23
we paid probably like a five percent yeah plus a base salary right and I’m
30:30
like okay great yeah well then let’s get rid of your base salary and if they cancel I take it away from you and stuff like that and he also didn’t understand
30:36
that there’s margins in other departments and what about that health insurance you have what about the desk
30:41
you sit at what about the computer you use what about you know lunch we buy what about you know there’s so many
30:47
things that uh go into running a business and I think you’re totally right that uh for me after running a
30:54
business for so long and now four years uh having to sit there and worry about if
31:02
people can pay their mortgage make sure they’re getting paid every two weeks make sure we have health care for them there’s a trade-off it’s like would I
31:10
want to make this x amount of margin at the end of every month on the end of our billing or would I rather just be the
31:16
employee not worry about anything and just take that paycheck sometimes that sounds way better you know it there is
31:23
that trade-off everyone’s different and I’ve always thought transparency is important because people need to know
31:28
our margins and why that’s such a big deal but you’re totally right like it’s a business it operates like a business
31:35
yeah and it and if you can as an entrepreneur as an employee like understand the business and understand
31:42
generally how that works it’ll put you so so like it’s a huge Advantage because
31:48
one you can also now speak to the people that sit at the head of the table so to
31:55
speak and speak their language yeah and also speak to how you know speak to their incentives and vice versa
32:02
um to your point Bobby not everyone cares about making a million dollars a year yep yep right like they just want
32:09
to make good content be paid fairly go home and provide for their family
32:14
so how many employees do you have and what does Macy media do in full like I
32:20
know you do video production I know you helped shift with their podcast and that is like such a cool podcast and you guys
32:27
do a great job with that but thank you what does Macy media do what how do you
32:32
employ people is it all freelance do you have W-2 employees like what how does that work yeah so great question so I
32:39
I’ve kept the business super simple my wife and I are the only W-2 employees
32:44
everyone else is a contractor I have one person who is absolutely phenomenal
32:51
that’s a full-time video editor I contracted them through a company called Kaji
32:56
k-a-j-a-e in Lehigh and they Source people from all around the world and
33:01
then they offer them benefits and a pretty fair wage so I’ve got one guy in the Philippines who speaks English
33:08
um love that dude like yeah absolutely we have a big Philippine team we’ve 17 full-time people and and so he produces
33:16
short form content that is just so good he’s the one he’s the main editor on all the shift podcasts wow and it’s amazing
33:23
so so good and so I have him on payroll for 40 hours a week then I’ve got a guy who’s a former he
33:31
used to film at BYU and do all like their hype reels for the football team and stuff an amazing editor but also
33:38
really talented behind the camera I feel like maybe you sent me his stuff before so someone said it’s not Jaden Sanders
33:45
is that no no this guy’s name Matthew calls and so I have him on a retainer and he works anywhere between 25 and 30
33:52
hours a week for me he’s my travel buddy like we go all around the country together as a two-man team filming stuff
33:58
and absolutely love that dude and then I’ve got two web dev guys and then I’ve
34:04
got a an SEO guy and then I’ve got a few other people that are not on all of
34:11
those people are on retainer so there’s seven people who are paid like either part-time or full-time hours
34:18
um just flat fee every single month and then I’ve got a few copywriters that are
34:23
you know yep that’s funny because Dan and I are the only people that aren’t on
34:29
W-2 at scratch yet yeah everyone else is it’s like the reverse but it’s just how we’ve structured that entity and
34:35
everything but utilizing contractors um I mean still to this day I look at
34:42
QuickBooks at the end of the month and see how much we spend on contractors and I’m like it’s like man we could employ two people for that but yep the value of
34:49
having people as contractors like why did you set your business up the way you did do you think it came from some of
34:55
the fear of having to let people go and if that’s 100 I am a people person through and through yeah I I’m not
35:01
afraid to have a hard conversation like I’ll have it um but if I can avoid certain things I
35:07
absolutely will right and so for me the first three years of Macy media it
35:14
was like that first year was all about replacing that salary yeah and then the second year was about growth and third
35:20
year was about growth and you get smarter as you go right but I’m not the dude who like you get like a Nick staggy
35:26
for example that dude is a wizard at like building teams and coming in and he
35:33
can be the sales guy and he can be the the CMO of his own company and he can he
35:38
can whip up revenue and he can do some projects for me I’m that guy who has to like dip my toe in the water and it’s
35:44
kind of like well can I do it and then how can I replace myself and remove
35:49
myself if that makes sense so that’s how I I structured and I built and then I
35:55
just found people who are better than me at certain things like Matt calls this dude was one of my first he was he was
36:01
the first guy that I ever put on like a permanent retainer and he’s been on retainer for several years now and I
36:06
keep upping his retainer because he just keeps doing better and better work and the more money I make the more money I
36:12
give him yeah and it’s one of those things where it’s like once I realized how much better he is at
36:18
certain things than I am I was like I can’t afford to not have him yeah there
36:24
was no obligation up front as a contractor right like you didn’t say I’m gonna pay you salary and benefits for
36:29
years and years uh instead it was like I’ll pay you he you almost gave him an entrepreneurial opportunity right yep a
36:36
hundred percent and he’s not the guy who wants to go sell and I’m the guy who’s gonna Network and I’m gonna sell and
36:42
this and that and then I can have a vision and I can give him very little in the scope and he will turn it into gold
36:48
yeah and I’m sitting there and I’m like those are incredible people to have yeah one of the reasons I keep him 1099 is
36:55
because I never had the cash flow to buy them the MacBooks that they need or this
37:01
that I needed all that out of the gear already yeah and so now like Slowly by slow like I bought two new cameras this
37:07
year and I think my bill was like 12 grand for these two new cameras right get a couple of lenses get some nice
37:14
cameras expensive I mean I I it is it absolutely is but I’m like I’m like we
37:20
need that as a company and I can’t like I didn’t want to go out and finance and
37:25
take on a bunch of debt because I’m just bootstrapped right like this was my savings account that funded it and so
37:31
it’s one of those things where the 1099 relationship just works out the other
37:36
thing that I love about this that I think a lot of people don’t realize I’ve got two credit cards in my wallet
37:43
one’s a personal one’s a business and everything that I can I have it go through there for rewards right now this
37:50
can get you in trouble if you’re irresponsible financially thankfully I I’m not like the best financially but
37:56
I’m also not like a complete imbecile so I manage my money and I pay off my credit cards yeah now there have been
38:03
times where I’ve had to carry balances for cash flow purposes or whatever but in general I have a Delta Sky Miles Card
38:08
here for the business because I do a lot of travel for business and then I have like a Capital One Venture Card over
38:14
here and that’s for the personal use right so 1099 employees
38:19
I pay them on my credit card how and I oh yeah
38:26
we do the same thing average I’m spending
38:31
I’m glad you realized I’m like wait how and then I was like wait yeah Tyson
38:36
census yep but so many people don’t do that right that’s true and so you’re just doing Straight Cash yeah so you’re
38:43
talking about like yesterday I was looking at tickets to Switzerland and I have enough Sky miles to take my wife
38:50
and I to Switzerland for free yeah from a flight standpoint awesome we should go in September
38:56
because I think I’ll be there in September we gotta talk after this but I’m sitting there and I’m like that
39:02
doesn’t happen if I’m not putting 15 grand on my credit card every month
39:07
right just from you know business employee type costs and some people are putting way more than that but like for
39:13
me I can run my business for me to pay my employees not pay myself but pay my employees that are on retainer and then
39:20
pay the expense for my business you’re looking about 15K a month right to just keep the doors open and not accrue yeah
39:26
and so I’m like that’s great for my credit card great we do the same thing
39:32
yeah we use we use two Amex cards for our business depending on which one has
39:37
better points but I’ve always been a credit card travel points hacker yeah we share points every couple months
39:44
we’re transferring 100 000 points to each other you know and it’s like every year we get to go on trips with those
39:50
points so nice so yeah and it’s it’s nice because then it’s like okay well cool well
39:56
now I’m able to do some of these things that maybe I wouldn’t have done otherwise because it would have been irresponsible financially who would have
40:02
paid six grand out of the business to go to Switzerland yes you know or even personally it’s like why yeah or take
40:07
the company draw and potentially have taxes associated with that or whatever whatever it is right and so I just think
40:13
of it from that standpoint of like I keep my business simple at the end of
40:18
the year I send out 1099s they they pay their taxes it keeps me good from an equipment standpoint where I can invest
40:25
in certain equipment for Macy media but I’m not always having to buy other people their stuff now one thing I will
40:31
do is like I always provide my guys with really good hard drives things like that I’m like hey look and then I give them
40:38
access to all my subscriptions and I’m like look you want to go use this for another project go do it like yeah
40:43
that’s part of the perk of working here yeah right yeah but um and like Matt my
40:48
lead videographer he borrows the equipment all the time and I never he even told me once he’s like hey like do
40:54
you want like a commission on this like oh I’ll share the revenue with you and I’m like dude go bless your family man
40:59
if I’m not using the equipment or if we’re not using it like go do it and and
41:04
so there there are different ways that I try to bless them um but it’s like I just didn’t I didn’t
41:12
have the cash flow to go W2 I was afraid of having to lay people off bring them on lay them off bring them on lamb off
41:18
so I just set this expectation of retainers and hey and like one of my
41:23
best friends owns an agency in Davis County and he is so so good at social
41:28
media ads and I had him running content strategy on a retainer and the client
41:33
came to me and they’re like hey we’re reducing the budget by the exact amount that I paid him every month and it was
41:39
for what he was doing and so I had a hard conversation with him that was like it was hard but not hard because there’s
41:44
so much mutual respect there and I was like dude I’m sorry but like you know that I’ll
41:51
find another way to bring you in when I can but like as of right now it’s been a good eight months but they’re changing
41:58
the budget and nothing we can do about it it’s literally your section that’s being cut out yeah and I’m like so and
42:05
guess what we still talk almost every day yeah and like we’re still good friends yeah for sure it’s funny because
42:10
we’ve had to lay off one person ever and I still talk with him like all the time
42:15
we’re really good friends and it was the moment for him like it was for you that
42:21
made him realize the moment yeah and now him and his wife kill it they heard it
42:26
yeah in so many ways I’m like you guys are doing better than I am like they’re just doing so well financially through
42:33
entrepreneur Ventures so it’s funny how sometimes hard conversations and layoffs
42:38
lead to success but yeah so with Macy media then you grew you have contractors
42:44
you have employees um now you have this like actual business you’ve got a heartbeat you’ve
42:50
got expenses every month that you got to keep up on how how do you continue to find customers I think that’s everyone’s
42:56
question ever when you start a company you’re like wait a sec you make money every month how like where do you find
43:01
people to pay you money yeah so so how do you find customers what type of customers are they so
43:07
almost every one of my customers that has passed through has been
43:13
um a friend prior people say don’t do business with family and friends and I’m like
43:19
I got nothing to hide yeah like I’m gonna show up to the plate so as long as they do only one of us is going to get
43:25
screwed yeah if if something happens if somebody gets screwed it’s gonna be me because I’m not gonna drop the ball I
43:32
care too much about the reputation from that standpoint um so when I started out everything was
43:37
personal brand remember how I told you I had that Facebook post that was like help me find a new job propped up against my rusted Jeep
43:44
that taught me the power of personal branding for sure and I’m like when when when people like you and when they feel
43:51
that you actually care about them they’ll bend over backward for you and you never want to abuse that at least I
43:57
never do but there are times where you can ask people for help in appropriate ways right so
44:04
what I did is I knew I knew my formula and my formula was go to the socials right yeah and it was post on LinkedIn
44:13
because the last several jobs that I had had it was because I was posting content
44:18
that people found interesting on LinkedIn and then that led to interviews and then that led to my job right yeah
44:25
and so um ultimately I was like organic social is a way that I’m just gonna blast and
44:33
people are gonna self-select when they need me but if they like me then when they need video or when they
44:40
need content marketing or when they need XYZ service that I offer they’ll know to come to me it’s like how
44:47
many of us know real estate agents and it’s like at any given moment we could totally just be like oh yeah I got five
44:53
real estate agents that could sell me a house or it could help sell my home but it’s like who are you gonna go with
44:59
you’re gonna go to the one that you’ve established a relationship and trust with yeah and sometimes they’re going to
45:05
talk about real estate and sometimes they’re going to ask you about your families right and I’m the guy that’s
45:10
like look I’m going to be your friend first and I’m going to try and provide for that value on social media based on
45:16
like what I feel comfortable talking about and then when you need me you can self-select and if I’m not the
45:23
right guy I’ll tell you straight up that I’m not the right guy yeah like I got a neighbor right now who I’ve given a lot
45:29
of free marketing advice to and she wants to do some video stuff and I’m like look I’m not your guy like my price
45:34
points are up here and I’m working with businesses and you’re you’re launching
45:40
something Scrappy and I respect it but like I don’t have the time to do that here are a few other people that can
45:45
right right um so for me it’s really coming down this
45:50
this idea of well now I lost my train of thought um
45:56
what type of how do you find your customers I get my I get my leads through networking both in person and
46:03
social and then now it’s a referral based business so like it’s funny because I’m that hypocrite who like I
46:09
offer SEO and I do we do a really good job for a few clients on SEO and it’s
46:16
bringing us some good money but like I get emails all the time from people being like your listings on your own
46:22
website and I’m like oh I know but yeah but like I haven’t addressed it because
46:28
yeah SEO is not how I’m getting leads for my business right now how I’m getting leads for my business is by
46:34
being a human being am I making friends and then people are like oh you know what go to Bobby or let me tag Bobby or
46:41
this or that and so it’s been really rewarding that way because then I’m also more invested
46:47
um if I may I will dive into something that I think is valuable here though do it yeah being a people person you guys have for
46:55
all I know you’re already doing this but but I’ve won a lot of business this way
47:00
the moment I get introduced to somebody I hit him with a video and I use an app called
47:07
loom.com and I you can do it from your phone you can do it from your desktop whatever I hit him with a video
47:13
instantly to give you an idea I was Tuesday night last week
47:19
I’d been working like a madman about to go on the Mormon track right and and I
47:25
know I’m not going to have service because I’m gonna be in the middle of Wyoming and somebody a photographer that
47:30
I’ve worked with named Lara had introduced me or she said I’m going to introduce you to this person and I was
47:35
getting nervous because I’m like that email is going to come through when I don’t have service so I messaged her and
47:41
I was like hey just FYI I’m not gonna have service Wednesday through Saturday if you can make the intro before that’s
47:46
great if not will you just mention something like hey Bobby’s out of town and I have my vacation responder on or whatever but like you know how it is so
47:54
this person emails or she makes the intro like 11 45 at night I’m laying in
48:00
bed and I see my phone chime and I’m like oh crap do I look do I not look I looked
48:06
and I get up out of bed I go into my basement where I’ve built out a pretty
48:11
sweet Studio I flip on my studio lights I have a DSLR mounted up as my webcam so
48:16
there’s the depth of field and all that and I flip that on and I grab my mic just like this and I made her a one
48:23
minute video and wipe the kind of like sleepiness out of my eyes I make her a one minute video just
48:30
introducing myself it’s literally like hey Michelle I’m Bobby Macy Laura if you’re watching thank you for the
48:35
introduction just wanted to put a face with a name now you know who I am I would love to chat with you by the way
48:41
I’m going to be out of town for a couple days so if you don’t get a response from me that’s why here’s my calendly link
48:47
you can book a time so she books while I’m out and I come back to this and then
48:53
there was an email that’s like Bobby I have never received a personalized video like that in my life thank you
49:00
and I just had the call with her yesterday if I do not land that book of business I will be mind blown like it
49:08
will blow my mind don’t shall remember you yes so another story there’s another gal who builds websites her name’s Sarah
49:15
and she I met her through a common friend and right instead of doing the
49:22
nice to e Dash meet you emailed it’s so typical I hit her with a little video sorry I hit her with a loom video and we
49:30
then have a zoom call I said nice to meet you I remember now yes I was like I
49:35
did that just the other day nice to you meet you and I did it to Abby so well
49:40
now he owes you a loom video and so this gal
49:45
um six months down the road I get a random phone call from a client that’s an HVAC company and they ended up being
49:53
like I think it was like 30 to 40 Grand in business over the course of several months those guys are like hey Sarah
50:00
sent us your info she said you’re awesome at XYZ so I land the deal and
50:06
then I hit Sarah with another one and I was like dude I owe you big time like thank you for the referral she was
50:12
building the website for him I became the video partner and I I kid you not I can trace it back
50:19
to that loom video she told me she’s like Bobby I meet with hundreds of like high-level Executives every single year
50:26
and never once have I received a video like that and and I’m sitting there and I’m like guys this is so simple half the time
50:32
making the videos easier than sending the email yeah oh yeah right yeah just sitting recording just talking well
50:37
especially in your space where you’re selling them on video yes right yeah and all of a sudden they’re like
50:43
yeah this makes a lot of sense right like if you’re pitching someone on a website maybe you should bring them a
50:49
pitch deck that is a website totally right and they’re like here’s an example of what we can do this is your proposal
50:55
so especially when you’re going for higher retainer uh opportunities like that yeah so that’s really cool it’s
51:02
it’s the secret sauce that so many people just don’t take that extra step I could have laid in bed and I maybe would
51:09
have gotten still the phone call um earlier this week by sending the nice
51:14
to e Dash meet you yeah right but when I got on that call yesterday it was a zoom
51:19
call when I got on that call that woman she knew exactly how she could treat me because she knew that I
51:26
was high energy she knew that I was a smiley Feller and that it’s like and that it’s like okay cool like I’ve
51:32
already established that because I I took the initiative to send a video right yeah
51:37
um the relationships it it in my opinion it just helps go next level and it’s
51:45
like you don’t have to beat your competition out by a thousand percent right yeah I know that’s like a made-up
51:52
number right but a thousand ten percent You’re Gonna Take It To The Next Step you got to beat them out by one percent
51:58
yeah it’s like how many guys in a basketball game are fighting for a rebound and it tips tips and then all of
52:04
a sudden one of them secures it like they were both right there and then
52:09
one of them secured it and he got credit for that rebound right and in that case it’s our business like if they like me
52:16
this much more or if I have done something to make them feel that much more like a human being instead of just
52:23
a number in a machine I may win that business and over time that could equate to a lot of money yeah
52:31
oh yeah well and this is an awesome tip especially I mean for anyone in any industry to you know be a one a lot more
52:39
personable and approachable and then so and sending Loom videos is I think an
52:44
awesome actionable tip what are some other like ways that you know business owners agency owners can Network
52:52
um maybe that you’ve experienced or you’ve used yeah so great question I’ve tried a lot of things I’ve tried the BNI
52:59
I’ve tried uh I I technically didn’t sign up for connect share but I’ve been to a ton of those meetings
53:05
um I still go to a lot of like the tacos together events and I don’t go there with the mindset of like what am I going
53:11
to get out of this what’s the ROI like one time my wife actually questioned me on the ROI it was it was his tacos
53:17
together event where I was super busy and I was like I’m going to it it was at the University of Utah and it was a
53:22
water fight and she’s like really like that’s what you’re gonna spend your time on today when you’ve got X Y and Z built
53:28
up and I’m like hun this humanizes me yeah and I go there
53:34
and I was able to interact with a lot of people a lot of people that have relationships with on LinkedIn but
53:39
hadn’t met him in person yet and it’s like yo get over here give me a hug what the [ __ ] were you eating dude that looks
53:46
better than mine I’m going back right like yeah and then all of a sudden you have these human human interactions and
53:51
then a couple months later you get a referral from that person and you’re like we’ve never done work together I
53:57
don’t even know if they’ve been to my website to see the type of quality but we had some sort of interaction that was positive and and they remember that and
54:05
they send stuff my way right so I like to go to these events but I’m also an extrovert and I’m that dude who leaves
54:11
feeling empowered yeah another tacos together event I dressed up as a taco and I went there imagine that right so
54:19
you were a cannibal yes you were taco eating a taco it got a little weird
54:24
but it’s like Starsky and Hutch where he’s like this is gonna get weird
54:29
um but I just I don’t know sometimes I’ll go and I’ll Vlog these events and it’s like
54:35
do I really want to Vlog this event no but if I’m there and I separate myself
54:41
and they see me holding the ten thousand dollar rig they’re gonna look at me and it’s gonna it’s gonna I’m gonna be
54:46
perceived in their mind as a certain certain person right behind the equipment you’re holding gives uh gives
54:53
some confidence and maybe working with you yeah yeah if I go in there with my iPhone then it’s one thing and I could
54:58
produce potentially the same video but if I walk in there with a small rig and a camera and the road mic on top and
55:04
this and that and you know they’re looking at me different yeah and it’s like okay all right you know
55:11
um maybe Bobby knows what he’s saying maybe there is a chance
55:17
there’s a chance I’m like I just like to hear myself talk yeah that’s why it’s pointed out but um most of my stuff
55:24
comes from events yeah and and former friends like one of my clients is Stanford medicine
55:30
and it’s like what does Macy media have business doing Landing Stanford medicine as a client they’ve paid me a lot of
55:35
money over the past three years and it was a BYU Idaho friend yeah and I
55:41
lived by each other for 10 years we go on with our careers and we only talk to each other on social media and now I’ve
55:48
done website work for them I’ve done uh more than 20 long form videos for them
55:53
like heavy heavy Graphics a lot of stuff that it’s like we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars that they’ve paid
56:00
me um and it was because this dude he saw my stuff on social we initially had this
56:08
friendship and it wasn’t even like a super tight friendship it was we were in the same ward at BYU Idaho we lived in
56:14
the same apartment complexes we would chit chat this that we liked each other but we weren’t besties and then 10 years
56:20
goes by and he has a poor experience with a video team in Palo Alto and then
56:26
little old Bobby had popped up in his feed and he’s like hey and all of a sudden I’m like how much money oh okay
56:33
yeah you know like I think we can make that work I think we can yeah what’s the power that’s the power of networking and
56:39
we I mean we we built our business very similar yeah we we’ve networked pretty hard in different ways not as much
56:45
locally but you know nationally we have most of our clients are not here in Utah yeah but our first few years it was all
56:54
family and friends referrals everything we could do just let everyone know what
56:59
we did post about it on our socials reach out to friends that own businesses yeah people from college or even high
57:06
school that we knew and that worked at certain places so totally that is like I
57:13
I would say if you want to build a really good Lifestyle brand or a
57:18
lifestyle company or a solopreneur company or something that gets you to be uh like safely wealthy and comfortable
57:27
like that is a great business to build if you want to go for the Empire and you want to go for like gold that’s where
57:33
you Branch out into like building this massive team and trying to run on paid ads and generate yeah 300 leads a month
57:40
and there’s different business models but it sounds like the the route you
57:46
want to take is that you want to be able to be involved do you want them to feel
57:51
the Macy and Macy media when they work with you so it said that so beautifully
57:57
what kind of business is it that you’re trying to build on the long term is this
58:02
something that you want to go full Empire and build to the Mega Millions or
58:07
is it something that you want to be a part of like your family and your close
58:13
friends and you work with these customers one-on-one yeah great so the Empire is going to come through other
58:19
streams of Revenue in my mind cool and Macy media is going to be a in the next
58:24
five years one to ten million in revenue and we’re gonna have a freaking awesome lifestyle and I’m gonna find play places
58:33
to be smarter and remove myself and a lot of people are still gonna feel the main AC in Macy media
58:40
so that’s that’s what I want and then I always tell myself I’m like look with
58:46
how I think about the margins and where I can get things is if I get to a
58:51
million then I should be able to have 250k a year to play with and what I mean
58:56
by play with is I love the Empire yes that’s real estate that’s this that
59:02
that’s you know maybe some Angel Investments things like that and if I have 250k a year to play with all of a
59:09
sudden in several years you’ve got quite a bit of stuff that’s bringing you in
59:15
some money on the side and right now I’m 35 so I’m like Hey look
59:20
if I get to the point by age 40 where it’s multi-millions and I’ve got
59:27
500k or or a million to play with every year then all of a sudden I’m doing what
59:32
I want and and if Macy media is not what I want to be doing then
59:37
I’m not gonna be doing it I was gonna say I have a hard time believing that you wouldn’t want to do it because you
59:43
are so passionate about it it just seems like this is one of the loves of your life you know it it is it’s my fourth
59:50
child and um it’s one of those things where I like it
59:55
because I feel like for the first time in my career it’s Bobby Unleashed nobody’s telling me
1:00:02
it’s so cool nobody yes nobody’s telling me that I’m away that’s his new podcast yeah Bobby Unleashed in that movie voice
1:00:11
um but that’s exactly what it is because it’s it’s like nobody’s telling me that
1:00:17
I’m paid too much nobody’s telling me I don’t know exactly where you fit and
1:00:23
it’s like it’s a hunt and kill mentality like what’s stopping me from hitting a
1:00:28
million this year myself it really is it’s that I’m really enjoying I took half the month of July
1:00:36
off yeah like people used to ask questions when I did that and well I
1:00:41
didn’t used to do it actually right people would have asked questions yes where’s Bobby he’s not in the office
1:00:47
yeah we spent a week in Bear Lake and then I did track and then my wife went to Oregon for three days and I was on
1:00:53
Dad Duty and like there was just a lot of stuff that was amazing in July and
1:00:58
because of a good team and a good infrastructure I was able to to manage right but um
1:01:05
it does come down to that chain it comes down to this idea of I’m trying to build a lifestyle business and then I will
1:01:12
figure out other ways to bring in revenue and uh one of those is a side business that I have which I won’t get
1:01:19
too deep into that because I don’t want you guys to you know fall asleep but it’s called see mycampsite.com and for
1:01:26
the last two and a half years we have been building this and we have been doing video tours of campgrounds and
1:01:32
it’s me and two other partners and it is everything that you think it is it’s this concept of like you pull in with an
1:01:38
RV and you’re like wow I should have gotten site 12 instead of site 5. wish I would have known that before and you and
1:01:45
lots of these maps are like hand-drawn maps on the government websites and stuff they’re not really showing what’s
1:01:51
actually it’s like the concept of Stadium View when you go to buy a ticket you click on it and you can see right
1:01:57
where you’re sitting it’s exactly what we’re doing with campsites that’s cool yeah so we have
1:02:02
um we’ve made a lot of videos yeah campsites and it’s just been just in Utah or
1:02:08
everywhere just in Utah right now and then the goal I honestly think this is my sellable business I don’t think Macy
1:02:15
media is a type of business that like maybe I would have a client that is like hey we’ll just buy you out and come be
1:02:21
our in-house team right like maybe I would consider that we’re squirrels like we want to do content yeah so and boom
1:02:29
right yeah but this see my campsite is like REI buys us for Millions one day that’s
1:02:37
that’s the vision there but it’s a content-based business so it takes you know how it is we’re on YouTube and we
1:02:44
are grinding right now everything’s organic um the only it’s all been Sweat Equity right I have two partners amazing
1:02:52
dudes and like we’re this close to revenue right now
1:02:58
yeah we have a few pitches out but like I had the cojones to go into Maverick I got a meeting through a friend who works
1:03:05
there and last year when we had this big of an audience I went into Maverick and asked them for 100 grand
1:03:11
and and that sounds kind of douchey no it doesn’t I don’t know but I went in
1:03:17
there and I asked them for 100 grand I said hey this is what we’re building 100 Grands cheap right now because two years
1:03:22
from now this is not going to be 100 Grand and ultimately they didn’t go for it but it was one of those things where
1:03:28
it was like I have I I don’t know if I’m just like overconfident but I’m like I think it’s
1:03:35
okay this is my celebration regret it sorry Maverick yeah and and one day they
1:03:41
may come back because we do really align and it was an awesome meeting but it just wasn’t the right time for them to
1:03:46
put that investment into something that wasn’t I don’t want to purchase sorry Maverick timing is everything they were
1:03:51
they were purchasing they were thinking about come and go at the time yeah they were but
1:03:56
um so I’m thinking about things in like uh hey look Macy media is basically
1:04:01
funding a large portion of see my campsite right now because I was brought in as the production arm the other guys
1:04:08
they’ve since learned the craft of production but that wasn’t their initial skill set right yeah so that’s the only
1:04:15
business that I have Partners in which is I have a question for you guys after this but um
1:04:21
but I’m learning a lot there and I’m learning that you don’t have to do it on your own and that’s real nice especially
1:04:26
if you find the right people yeah the right people are absolutely key yeah so people don’t know me as they see my
1:04:32
campsite guy right now unless they subscribe right but um because I do go on camera and this and that but it’s one
1:04:38
of those things that right now I’m like I think in the next couple years that
1:04:43
will overtake Macy media as my highest uh highest revenue um I think you’re
1:04:50
saying something that a lot of uh agency owners and people we’ve had on this podcast have said which is that they
1:04:57
build an agency to help fund other things and grow other things yeah because once you have an agency that is
1:05:04
profitable and doing well for customers you start to realize that you can build
1:05:09
your own product or service based machine yeah we have a big customer that
1:05:15
uh they work with hundreds of service-based businesses HVAC plumber home remodel stuff like that and he’s
1:05:21
not a general contractor or anything but he knows the ins and outs of how to grow one of those businesses so just
1:05:27
partnered with the GC and started a Zone Home Remodeling Company right like I’m
1:05:32
working on a product company right now because I know now after looking through all the product companies we’ve worked
1:05:37
with on how to grow a actual product brand yeah so same thing when you’re
1:05:43
into content you are seeing that there’s this opportunity when you’re using all this content for other companies where
1:05:49
you could go and create maybe something that doesn’t have the Macy name attached to it that could be sellable in the
1:05:55
future same with like Jay Davis and pillowcubus yeah I was literally gonna bring him out yeah he brought it up on
1:06:01
our podcast yeah and he was like you know like why we’re doing all this good work why can’t we just do it for
1:06:06
ourselves and I think at some point every agency owner eventually has that little like Tiffany that Epiphany a
1:06:13
little flip with a switch and decide to say hey we’ve built this machine let’s
1:06:18
let’s put our own ideas through the machine now yep I love that you brought up Jay Davis because that guy is
1:06:25
phenomenal yeah talk about a cool personality I’m in Disneyland a couple months ago with the only Brands team uh
1:06:32
share house and shift and this and that and that was the first time that I had met Jay Davis and his partner will and
1:06:38
I’m talking to them and he’s telling me all these different things that he’s involved with and I’m like
1:06:44
you have so many streams of Revenue yeah oh yeah like I saw him change from one
1:06:50
pair of Jordans to the other pair of Jordans mid Disneyland and I’m like you actually took the effort to bring two
1:06:56
pairs of Jordans to Disneyland I didn’t and I wish I did because my feet hurt right now right and and I’m sitting here
1:07:05
no I absolutely I have a pair and I was not wearing them oh that’s funny but it’s one of those things where I’m like
1:07:11
this dude he’s living a life that seemingly is really good from a
1:07:18
relationship standpoint he seems to be good with God and his relationship there
1:07:24
and he seems to have several businesses that are profitable and I’m like
1:07:31
I like that there’s a lot that I can learn from you yeah Jay is no Jay was a
1:07:37
great conversation yeah one of the best to sit down with and just understand like how how do you build
1:07:44
profitable company after profitable company one of my things that I want to get into as I launch my product brand is
1:07:50
am I a one hit wonder right like I want to know am I a one-hit wonder that created one successful business and
1:07:57
can’t do it again yeah and that’s the whole reason why I want to start another one is because I want to prove to myself that like you can do it I can do it Time
1:08:04
After Time After Time but um so I guess to kind of wrap things up advice that
1:08:10
you would have for someone who is in a similar situation that you’ve been in right like they want to leave their job
1:08:16
and maybe start their own thing or they’ve been laid off or they’re creative running freelance and wanting
1:08:22
to grow it like what advice do you have for those people wonderful question a few things I would
1:08:29
say to address that is one you do need some level of financial reserve like you
1:08:35
need a Runway and my Runway was only fifteen thousand dollars and my expenses
1:08:40
at the time were about 5k a month and so three months so I had three months until
1:08:45
I was empty you probably you really probably had one month if you’re being honest yeah yeah it was one of those
1:08:52
where my wife was like I’ll give you three months and I don’t expect you to to replace your 130k salary or whatever
1:08:58
but it was it was one of those things where like it was we got laid off before I was planning on starting Macy media
1:09:05
right um and so the financial reserve is a wonderful thing to have because
1:09:13
it gives you time to figure things out freedom and flexibility yes and you have to spend money to make money sometimes
1:09:19
and even simple things like putting up a website even if you do it on Squarespace you’re still going to be paying 200 a
1:09:25
year type thing right so you have these expenses that you’re like oh man so the financial reserve is one of them the
1:09:31
other thing is I’m a big believer that your personal brand can be a lot of things and you you
1:09:38
gotta tell people what you’re doing like if people don’t know like I have a
1:09:45
friend who does my health insurance now through a BNI group whereas I have a better friend who lives a few doors down
1:09:52
from me I didn’t know he offered health insurance I would have walked down the street and
1:09:58
said dude sign me up and I would have been his easiest acquisition but I didn’t know what he did because he never
1:10:04
talked about it yeah and I’m like talk about what you’re doing you walk into a dinner party and one of the first
1:10:10
questions that’s going to come up is hey what do you do for work guys yeah and are you gonna be like oh actually like there’s a dinner party
1:10:16
sorry I’m not going to tell you because uh I’m here to play games yeah I will whoop you in Settlers of Catan but I will not tell you what I do for work
1:10:22
until they start really winning two weeks for one or and all of a sudden they’re Wheeling deal and you’re like I
1:10:28
know you’re inside yeah when they’re slinging their ports then all of a sudden conversation changes but I’m like it’s not awkward to tell people what you
1:10:35
do no and I think a lot of people you just need a mindset shift you just really do you just need to get over one
1:10:42
get over yourself because people everybody’s interesting you know that’s actually I feel personally attacked
1:10:48
because sometimes people are like what do you do and I just say oh I work in marketing yeah and they’re like where I’m like oh for a company in Caseville I
1:10:55
just it’s also situational right like if you know the conversation is going to be 15
1:11:01
seconds and you’re moving on that’s you need that version of it yeah but if
1:11:06
you’re a dinner party that’s different right or like we’re all on LinkedIn because each of us is can consuming
1:11:14
content from not only each other but other people that we respect and we get ideas and and we like that and it feeds
1:11:21
our souls and our minds but we’re also publishing content because we’re trying to have the most humble version of
1:11:28
saying look at me without saying look at me we want LinkedIn and and our personal
1:11:34
Brands to be a lead gen tool for us you absolutely should want that whether
1:11:39
you’re a religious person you want to bring people to Jesus or whether you’re running a business or whether it’s both or whatever it is right yeah I think the
1:11:46
personal brand is so underrated um and I think that that’s massive so
1:11:52
that’s huge no I think that’s a great point and I think a lot of people think I have to have a hundred thousand followers on Instagram or yeah don’t you
1:11:59
know you really don’t you just have to you have to know your audience you have to know who you’re talking to and yeah
1:12:04
like it’s much more valuable to have a smaller audience and make a lot of money
1:12:10
off that audience than have a million followers that you can’t convert at all hundred percent it’s like a concert like
1:12:16
you know would you rather play for 300 people that know every word to every one of your songs or ten thousand people but
1:12:22
you’re the first out of seven openers yeah and that buoy office yeah it’s like that episode that you guys did with John where he was talking about Vasa and
1:12:29
Phoenix yeah and he’s like no we took the influencers and then we you know ultimately geo-targeted and Those ads
1:12:36
outperformed the other ads right and it was like the influencers alone weren’t enough their million followers weren’t
1:12:42
enough because his restriction was within five miles yeah right and so and
1:12:47
you know I actually did my research
1:12:52
I love it but um case in point I think that those are
1:12:58
some of the keys have your Runway invest in your personal brand uh there was another that I threw in there but
1:13:05
um it’s surround yourself with the people that are actually doing things that you want
1:13:11
to do that was one of my biggest things is I’m like there’s that little like almost taboo phrase it’s like
1:13:18
surround yourself with five Millionaires and you’ll be the sixth surround yourself with five homeless people and you’ll be the sixth right your net worth
1:13:25
is your network yeah yeah and we said that earlier but it’s this that’s so true like the people that I associate
1:13:31
with now and that I’m really hanging out with are people that are thinking
1:13:36
differently than my parents thought or I’m the only entrepreneur in my family right now among my siblings and like I
1:13:44
think some of my siblings look at me and they know that I’m at least making money and so it’s no longer like a dude what
1:13:51
are you doing but it’s like uh sometimes they look at me and they’re like you did
1:13:57
what and you can thank them for all the advice they gave you about not wanting
1:14:02
to do it yes and but it’s one of those things where it’s like for me I’m like I
1:14:07
I’m I’m surrounding myself with people by Design very intentionally
1:14:14
trying to spend my time with people who I’m Gonna Leave feeling inspired and
1:14:19
uplifted yeah like I don’t know which one of you was managing every the whole
1:14:24
podcast like I think it was our conversation with you Dan where you’re like hey you can book here you could I booked immediately and the reason I did
1:14:31
is because I was like why am I gonna push off a good thing yeah I’m available on Wednesday I’ll make myself available
1:14:37
these are good dudes who have built a respectable business and we have a lot of mutual friends so do I want to be
1:14:43
interviewing with them absolutely and next time I like it next time I’m gonna send a loom next time hey we really want
1:14:50
you on the podcast see the good news about you dudes is you have faces for TV
1:14:56
but voices for radio wow you’ve got this combination where you’re like hey we can go on video but
1:15:02
we can also sound really oh I wish it was it was super fun to talk to you today Bobby and appreciate your
1:15:09
perspective you bringing kind of like this entrepreneur to entrepreneur you you know Journey that you’ve been on and
1:15:16
your advice today so I’m excited uh to for everybody to listen yeah I think it’s been so helpful and the thing that
1:15:24
really excites me is just being in a room with you gives me energy to be more excited about my personal brand and yeah
1:15:31
my business and my life so I think that it’s pretty evident why those one minute
1:15:37
videos work because your energy provides a lot of energy for other people so it’s been well thank you awesome to have you
1:15:43
on and it I think if anything people can take from this that like you are your
1:15:48
best salesperson and you do such a good job of that just being yourself so it’s
1:15:54
been great to have you this has been great Bobby where can people find you
1:16:00
I’m on Instagram um macymedia.com
1:16:06
you’ll find alliteration yes Macy media Macy media baby
1:16:11
thanks again Bobby appreciate it you can find me on the new Moana soundtrack or the coolest Bronco in town yes
1:16:20
thank you thank you Jens appreciate it thanks Bobby yeah okay
1:16:25
[Music]
