From TV to Tech: Kevin Harrington's Journey in Entrepreneurship

[00:00:00] Winston Churchill, he had a great saying and I adopted this early on and that

[00:00:07] success is being able to go from failure to failure without the loss of

[00:00:12] enthusiasm. Yeah because you have to know that you're not always going to

[00:00:18] succeed. Learn from those failures and maybe try to I say try to fail fast and

[00:00:24] cheap so that you don't waste lots of time on something that's going to fail.

[00:00:37] Welcome to the En Factor conversations with entrepreneurs who have started

[00:00:43] stumbled and succeeded. I'm Rebecca White and today I'm really excited to

[00:00:48] welcome back Kevin Harrington. Kevin was one of the original sharks and also

[00:00:53] a founder of As Seen On TV and one of the things I love about Kevin is he grew up

[00:01:00] in a town I lived in many years since an addy and so we have that Midwestern

[00:01:05] roots and work ethic and you know we're just two entrepreneurs who just don't

[00:01:10] know when to stop. So love having you here with me thank you for joining me

[00:01:14] Kevin. Thank you Rebecca and you know what you said this is for entrepreneurs

[00:01:18] have started and stumbled and then turned it around hey I qualify for all of

[00:01:25] those. Yeah. It's something part of being an entrepreneur right? Yeah that's

[00:01:29] it. That's it Kevin and I think that's the point you know and I think it's so

[00:01:34] helpful to anybody who's just in those early phases to understand that when they

[00:01:39] do stumble there's still hope for them after that. Absolutely you know it's

[00:01:46] we I know we got a lot of good stuff to talk about but I learned early on because

[00:01:52] you know I was launching you mentioned you know products and selling you know

[00:01:56] as you know I was in the As Seen On TV business I own As Seen On TV Inc and

[00:02:01] As Seen On TV.com and and we would launch at one time we were launching 50 plus

[00:02:08] products every year that was one week so we had the we had the the we'd do the

[00:02:15] tooling the manufacturing the inventory the commercial we had to shoot the

[00:02:21] the infomercial then we had to buy the media so we had all of these activities

[00:02:27] happening for one project on the average every single week we had to launch but

[00:02:32] we failed more often than we succeeded and and people say but wait a minute how

[00:02:39] how does that work? Well when you think about it in the world of baseball if

[00:02:44] you get a hit one out of three times you're one of the best baseball players

[00:02:48] that ever played baseball okay? 333 percent average we were about a one out of

[00:02:54] three producer of winners and which meant we failed two out of three times but

[00:03:01] there Winston Churchill he had a great saying and I adopted this early on in

[00:03:06] that success is being able to go from failure to failure without the loss of

[00:03:12] the news he has yeah because you have to know that you're not always going

[00:03:17] to succeed learn from those failures and maybe try to I say try to fail fast

[00:03:23] and cheap so that you don't waste lots of time on something that's going to fail

[00:03:30] right? Yeah kind of get a minimal viable product that you can get so that you

[00:03:36] can test it early and then I say fast-failed cheap if it's not working then

[00:03:42] move on to the next one right? Yeah that's such great advice I think he also

[00:03:47] said failure isn't fatal and that's I think you're a perfect example of that

[00:03:52] and I think the other thing about that story that you just told which is so

[00:03:57] encouraging is that there is there is an underlying model that you can apply

[00:04:04] over and over again because obviously doing it so many times it's just like

[00:04:09] batting right? Right? There's practice involved and you can improve over time

[00:04:14] so I think that's one of the things that you and I have been around doing

[00:04:18] these things for a while can share with people who are starting some of the

[00:04:22] lessons we've learned along the way yeah we put a model together we would

[00:04:27] have like ten or fifteen stations that we would run each project through that

[00:04:31] we would read like a you know it's like science for us almost right? If if

[00:04:35] they did well on these certain stations we tested different day parts so we

[00:04:41] would have week a week day we would have weekend we would have late night we'd

[00:04:45] have during the day we'd have early morning so we had this test pattern of

[00:04:50] stations, time slots, day slots and then we would run you know 15 or 20 airings

[00:04:58] of a new product and then we would read it like a book and we'd read it

[00:05:02] scientifically and then we could go back and see okay this is what we need to do

[00:05:07] to improve to make this a better performer in terms of its its customer

[00:05:15] acquisition cost etc but anyway that's we had a lot of fun doing this for many

[00:05:20] years and you know I'm just wondering did you want me maybe to share how I got

[00:05:25] started in this? Yes let's do because I was just gonna go there actually yeah

[00:05:30] yeah because you did a lot of things with TV and now we're in the digital age

[00:05:34] so let's talk about how you got to where you are now and then we can dig into

[00:05:38] some of the digital marketing tools. You know I'm fortunate I'm one of six kids

[00:05:44] grew up in Cincinnati Ohio my father was an entrepreneur and he owned restaurants

[00:05:49] and bars and so one day you know my father you know I started working in his

[00:05:55] places when I was young and I was 11 years old and I was you know in bar backing

[00:06:01] and and clean and tables and washing dishes and then one day I said dead but when

[00:06:07] am I gonna make real money this is like I'm working hard and not not a lot to

[00:06:11] show for it and he said you need to start your own business so he mentored me

[00:06:16] and I believe everyone should have mentors in their life I've had awesome

[00:06:21] ones my dad was my first but I went out I got Zig Ziglar as a mentor who's a

[00:06:27] very famous motivational speaker and I also was able to connect with Richard

[00:06:33] Branson to get a mentor and and these folks helped me but the bottom line is I

[00:06:38] was as a young entrepreneur I was filling the downtime of these cable

[00:06:44] networks that were eight you know Discovery Channel was 18 hours a day I

[00:06:48] owned the other six hours and I was putting on products and again Billy

[00:06:54] Mays Jack Lane the juicer George Foreman fitness beauty golf you name it we

[00:07:00] were featuring all these different categories and so then as as the

[00:07:06] television business changed and you mentioned it Rebecca the what was

[00:07:12] happening people like kids would come home from school and they weren't

[00:07:17] turning the TV on they were going to their computer they were playing on

[00:07:21] TikTok and Facebook and Instagram this digital world changed everything and so

[00:07:27] 10 years ago I sold the handwriting on the wall because we used to have this

[00:07:34] huge success with products but all of a sudden they were going like this very

[00:07:40] quickly I say that they were a bell shaped curve instead of just continuing to

[00:07:46] be successful they would hit and then die and oh my goodness or you know we got

[00:07:52] to find the next one and the next one and the next one but what happened this

[00:07:57] is because television viewership was plummeting and people weren't coming home

[00:08:02] and turning their TV sets on and watching our shows and so bottom line is I

[00:08:08] saw that that TV was becoming typical and I own as seen in TV so I decided what

[00:08:16] do I do no one hold them no wind of hold them I sold it okay so 10 years ago

[00:08:21] I sold all of my as seen in TV assets as you to TV dot com as you to TV ink

[00:08:27] and and I started in the digital space and we started doing all of our

[00:08:32] product launches shorter form and using funnels click funnels and and using a

[00:08:40] whole different approach and this is something that you know that that we can

[00:08:45] share with the folks that are listening right now some of these learning

[00:08:48] curves that we went through because it you know Instagram TikTok Facebook

[00:08:54] they've got hundreds of millions billions of people following and now a new

[00:09:00] way to get to these consumers so this became our mission and we've had a

[00:09:06] tremendous transition over to a digital marketing company away from a as seen

[00:09:13] on TV company and I'm gonna give you one really good example of how well this

[00:09:17] worked so and I I love this product I drink one every day it's a product called

[00:09:24] Celsius and this is a company that it's an energy drink and so if you're

[00:09:30] gonna sell this product in the marketplace this it's heavy it's not easy to

[00:09:36] ship this is not an infomercial product okay what we created though was

[00:09:42] something unique in the market and it involved digital and it involved

[00:09:47] influencers and involved things that 10 years ago you didn't have and and so

[00:09:54] when when 10 years ago if we wanted to launch a product yes we were still just

[00:10:00] finishing the as seen on TV side of our business but now we were able to use

[00:10:07] influencers we were able to have influencers sending people to Amazon and now

[00:10:12] our Amazon sales just were taking off like crazy this company was number nine on

[00:10:19] Amazon in the energy category until we had thousands of influencers sending

[00:10:26] people to Amazon and what happened Celsius went from number nine to number five

[00:10:32] number three to number two head of Red Bull and so the company accordingly

[00:10:39] their stock started taking off also this company grew it's now what they

[00:10:45] they 10 years ago was a startup now an 11 billion dollar company because

[00:10:50] they've utilized the latest and greatest of digital marketing including

[00:10:55] influencer marketing so forget we never spent one dime on television it was

[00:11:02] not an as seen on TV company or an as seen on TV product it's a product that

[00:11:07] goes into the retail stores sits on the shelves but the influencers were

[00:11:12] helping move it off the shelf the influencer replaced the TV and and that is

[00:11:19] why there's a whole new way to market products and why we have found this you

[00:11:24] know as you mentioned digital marketing is one of the cool new things that people

[00:11:28] need to understand in a big way yeah yeah well so much in there that I'd love to

[00:11:34] dig out and talk about and and I'm not sure exactly where to start but I have to

[00:11:38] go back to your comments about finding mentors because you mentioned two big

[00:11:44] names Zigg Ziggler and some of the younger listeners may or may not know Ziggler

[00:11:48] but a really influential person who taught the world probably how to sell if

[00:11:54] you if you wanted to give somebody credit for it yeah and Richard Branson so

[00:11:58] Richard Branson which I'm sure most of our listeners have heard about how how did

[00:12:03] you go about getting mentors with names like that big names that were game

[00:12:08] changing names and what do you recommend to maybe the young student listening

[00:12:13] who'd like to find a mentor yeah so that's a good question because when

[00:12:18] when I first was trying to get to Richard Branson it you know it there's

[00:12:25] it's very difficult that you can't just like find it or who is his assistant

[00:12:30] and you know and oh I'm gonna get a hold of that person and they'll connect me

[00:12:34] right generally no okay that's not how because the the an assistant to Richard

[00:12:41] Branson their job is to keep you away from Richard Branson okay

[00:12:46] literally now what I found out though is that he's a very generous man he has

[00:12:53] lots of charities and and so I found out that he was hosting an event in his

[00:12:59] Addis Island in Necker Island down in the Caribbean and and if if I was

[00:13:06] willing to make a small donation to his charity I could get an invite and so

[00:13:12] wow that was an awesome and and I'm not talking about tens of thousands of

[00:13:17] dollars I'm talking about less than 10,000 thousands a couple thousand

[00:13:22] dollars literally okay and so you know to do to have access to one of the

[00:13:27] smartest minds in the entrepreneurial world and let me tell you what Richard

[00:13:31] Branson said to me because he said Kevin I've been following you and watching

[00:13:37] you in this as seen in TV business and all the great things you've done

[00:13:41] there but he said you've really missed the boat and I'm like well tell me what

[00:13:48] you're talking about Richard I thought we did a good job of all these products

[00:13:52] and all these years he said no he said but those products have a bell-shaped

[00:13:56] curve right just like you saw TV television viewership is plummeted so your

[00:14:01] products are gonna die well but you've you never built your own brand to

[00:14:06] continue that yourself in the marketplace you built Tony Little's brand Jack

[00:14:11] Elaine's brand Billy May's brand all these other brands but you never built

[00:14:16] your own brand and so it hit me square in the in the eyes and I'm like wow

[00:14:21] I'm really getting my money's worth here because Richard Branson said go home

[00:14:25] write some books create some content and and that ultimately mean here's a one

[00:14:31] of my books and this this was a book that I wrote that I created podcasts I

[00:14:38] did 185 podcasts when this book first launched Rebecca to promote it to

[00:14:45] the marketplace and of course that gave me an opportunity to be on so many

[00:14:51] amazing podcasts Adam Corolla the love doctor was on his twice we went to

[00:14:57] number two on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list so what was I doing

[00:15:02] I was following mentors advice of creating branding for me raising my profile

[00:15:09] building my brand writing books speaking on stages and doing the things that

[00:15:14] entrepreneurs should be doing to get more clients so yes these these mentors

[00:15:20] helped me tremendously and because there were shifts in the marketplace and I

[00:15:27] didn't realize that hey the old ass scene in TV was gonna be gone and now

[00:15:32] something new that I got had to jump in and get involved in that digital side

[00:15:37] as you mentioned and I'm glad I did because I got in at the right time yeah

[00:15:41] yeah you know that's really insightful and I'd like to just kind of dig in on

[00:15:47] that a little bit because it's really interesting to me you have launched

[00:15:51] literally thousands of products and you've made money on these products but

[00:15:58] you were hearing from Sir Richard Branson that you needed to build your own brand

[00:16:04] and so would you recommend that any startup regardless of what you know any

[00:16:11] entrepreneur who's starting a business even if they're not building you know

[00:16:15] the typical business where you would think about building becoming a brand

[00:16:20] that an influence or like you know if you were obviously if you're doing training

[00:16:24] or if you're doing online courses or things like that you would need a brand

[00:16:30] but do you think building a personal brand's important regardless of what

[00:16:34] you're doing as a startup I do and let me tell you why because so let's say

[00:16:39] you're in I mean one of the advantages that I had as a marketer I was involved

[00:16:45] in pretty much every product category we were in housewares hardware fitness

[00:16:51] beauty golf toys etc so you know most people if they have a business they

[00:17:00] you know maybe you're in the houseware category okay but this this is the

[00:17:05] thing the houseware category they have trade shows and they have you know

[00:17:10] four five six eight ten of these a year maybe which oftentimes a big one

[00:17:16] somewhere but then they have regional ones and they always need speakers

[00:17:21] they need people that are in the industry to get up on stage and share their

[00:17:27] wisdom with the folks in their industry and so I used to go to 35 trade

[00:17:33] shows and Richard Branson said well that's great you'd go to the show so you

[00:17:38] pay your own airfare you pay your own hotel and you go to the show and you walk

[00:17:43] the show great let me give you a better way to do it Kevin he said you you tell

[00:17:48] the folks at the show that you're willing to share your wisdom on how you

[00:17:52] generated billions of dollars in sales of products and you're gonna be

[00:17:56] willing to speak to the folks there now when you're willing to speak things change

[00:18:01] number one you'll get a small fee number two they'll pay for your airfare and

[00:18:05] your hotel and now when you walk the show people are gonna say hey there's

[00:18:10] that guy did speaking and I want to listen to him and they're gonna be contacting

[00:18:14] you down the road so you know the other thing that I did when I started

[00:18:18] speaking as I said I will speak but I do want one thing I you're sending out

[00:18:25] emails everyone coming to the show I want you to include my name and my

[00:18:30] bio in those emails at least four times that go to all the people that are

[00:18:36] attending so what was what were they doing they were helping build my brand in

[00:18:41] that housework category when I first started doing this because Rebecca I

[00:18:47] used to go I went 35 out of 37 years to the housework show it was the last

[00:18:53] seven years that I spoke at all of the shows because they wanted me to be

[00:18:58] there and then the hardware show guys wanted me and then the golf show you

[00:19:04] know last two weeks ago in Orlando Florida at the PGA Golf Show I was center

[00:19:12] floor with with David led better he and I what were we doing taking pitches on

[00:19:20] the floor of the PGA Golf Show we called it the golf pitch challenge it was

[00:19:25] like a shark tank for golf products and we were investing in products and this

[00:19:30] was the talk of the PGA Golf Show everywhere we went people like hey there's

[00:19:36] those guys that are taking all these new products and making it happen so we

[00:19:41] utilized lots of a bit brand building at that show for sure so any industry

[00:19:48] you're in yes get out there build your brand get on stages right books do

[00:19:54] podcast all the things we're talking about right here right now today yeah

[00:19:58] yeah you know it's it's you can't pay for advertising that good right no you

[00:20:03] can't buy it you can't I mean get it a one-hour presentation and nowadays

[00:20:09] there they may have a couple thousand people at the event listening but then

[00:20:14] they might have 10,000 people that didn't come that are still you know

[00:20:18] listening to the speakers from their computers at home because a lot of

[00:20:23] people today trade shows are different you got you know about half of the

[00:20:27] people that don't even come to the shows anymore yeah yeah it's it's really

[00:20:31] interesting you know I think and it works regardless of the the field you

[00:20:36] and I think you might remember that that I started a technology company with

[00:20:41] a formerly and Cincinnati with the partner there and we became the experts in

[00:20:47] campus safety and we would speak at campus safety events because that's that

[00:20:53] was our focus risk mitigation on in higher edge higher education and I remember

[00:20:58] talking with a guy that built a very successful pharmaceutical company and he

[00:21:04] said their strategy was to become the experts the trusted experts in their

[00:21:09] space which was attention deficit disorder and they were launching a little

[00:21:14] known product called Adderall which I'm sure you've heard of and yes that was

[00:21:19] their whole strategy so I think it works everywhere and you've given a

[00:21:24] perfect example of that so and it's something that I think a lot of entrepreneurs

[00:21:28] don't think about when they're launching their business to become an expert in

[00:21:32] that space so yeah so let's dig in a little bit more to this whole digital

[00:21:38] marketing thing I know a few weeks ago I reached out to you about crowdfunding

[00:21:43] and crowdfunding is a way not just to raise money but as a way to launch products

[00:21:48] and you referred me to a very bright young man Brandon Adams and he came

[00:21:54] and spoke to my students but I'm curious you know for our listeners have you

[00:22:01] seen crowdfunding as a useful technique for launching new products and and if so

[00:22:07] do you have any thoughts on that that you'd like to share?

[00:22:10] You know the first thing I want to say regarding crowdfunding is when I first

[00:22:15] heard about crowdfunding I said this is an awesome opportunity for entrepreneurs

[00:22:23] to raise money I mean when I was a young entrepreneur Rebecca I'll never

[00:22:29] forget I went into the bank and I'd asked my father-in-law who was successful

[00:22:35] and I needed some help I said look I need I need some capital to grow my

[00:22:40] business and he said oh yeah just here's the name of the bank I deal with

[00:22:44] going in and talk to this guy and he'll do whatever he can for you because I've

[00:22:49] been a great customer there so I so I go in and I said I need I need a line of

[00:22:54] credit you know I need like a million dollars to help expand my business and

[00:22:58] he said okay see it gives me paperwork and stuff and you know so I'm I'm

[00:23:03] listening to him and and I'm like well this is going pretty good I say he must

[00:23:07] my father-in-law must be really connected here because you know they they haven't

[00:23:11] asked me that question I'm waiting for is like do I have any collateral or

[00:23:15] whatever right so make a long story short I'm assuming that they're going

[00:23:19] forward and and he's like look you said so fill out all this paperwork and

[00:23:23] and and as I'm walking out the door he's kind of you know we'll get you know

[00:23:28] we'll get this million dollar line wrapped up he said just one question that I

[00:23:32] have you know what vehicle will you be using to secure that loan and I said

[00:23:38] what do you mean he said well we you know we got to have either cash or equity in

[00:23:43] in in the bank here against that loan because we can't loan in an

[00:23:48] unsecured fashion and and he said but there's one other issue because you guys

[00:23:53] deal all over the world you know you're dealing in Europe and eight that these

[00:23:57] different currencies we actually if we're gonna loan you a million we need 1.2

[00:24:05] million in cash in the bank the loan against it because that because of the

[00:24:10] chances that these currencies might change and go negative in the wrong way so

[00:24:15] we need an extra 20% to cover your your loan so I'm like oh thank you thank you

[00:24:21] I don't think we'll be executing the paperwork because I don't have a million

[00:24:25] two in cash to give you so that you can give me a million back that was it

[00:24:30] that was a time when the only time you could get money was when you didn't

[00:24:33] need it right exactly so now at days you know with crowdfunding wow what an

[00:24:39] opportunity so one of the key things with crowdfunding though is people don't

[00:24:45] understand that you know they think oh I'm gonna go on Kickstarter or one of

[00:24:50] these crowdfunding sites and I'm just gonna put it up and everyone's gonna find

[00:24:54] it and before you know it I'm gonna have tens of thousands then hundreds of

[00:24:58] thousands maybe millions there right well no you need to market that crowdfunding

[00:25:05] opportunity and and so you almost need a many infomercial because you need

[00:25:12] to shoot videos you need to solve a problem you need to if your business solves

[00:25:18] a problem then I want to hear about the problem you're solving I want to hear

[00:25:22] how you're solving it uniquely and I want to see a video on this on your

[00:25:28] crowdfunding site so that I can understand what the opportunity is all about

[00:25:33] and and now I can listen to the video maybe see some testimonials some

[00:25:39] magical transformations but the bottom line is is that I get a chance to see

[00:25:44] exactly what the opportunity is with this crowdfunding site because it's a

[00:25:50] website it's videos it's user testimonials etc and if you do it right and now

[00:25:56] you have to there are when you're doing crowdfunding you need to spend a

[00:26:02] little bit of money on ads to get to some potential investors and so so

[00:26:07] so think about it this way Rebecca let's say you spent a thousand dollars on

[00:26:12] ads for your crowdfunding site and then ten thousand dollars came in in

[00:26:19] crowdfunding so now you've got a net of nine thousand plus well go spend another

[00:26:25] thousand and bring in another ten and see if you can keep making that work and

[00:26:30] that's you know you might be spending two thousand to bring in ten but the

[00:26:34] bottom line is is that there should be a formula of money spent for investors

[00:26:42] on it for the ads and then money raised on on a direct return it's sort of

[00:26:48] like what's the customer acquisition cost right so what is the acquisition cost

[00:26:55] to get somebody to write a check for ten thousand dollars in crowdfunding it

[00:27:01] might cost you a thousand and might cost you two thousand but you don't want to

[00:27:05] spend too much money because you got to have a net of fact of a net amount of

[00:27:09] money left so you can capitalize on the money and go spend it to build your

[00:27:15] business right but be careful because you don't want to get a situation where

[00:27:19] you're spending you know if you're spending eight thousand dollars to get ten

[00:27:24] thousand that those numbers aren't gonna work because you're spending way too

[00:27:28] much to get very little left so you know you need to make that formula work but

[00:27:33] crowdfunding is awesome if you tell a good story you have a unique product

[00:27:39] you position it the right way there's one other thing that I add and you've

[00:27:44] we talked about it here you mentioned the word mentor and and that Kevin

[00:27:49] that I had some great mentors in my life I like to see a good advisory board on

[00:27:56] on crowdfunding sites in other words yes you know think about this Rebecca if

[00:28:04] if you see a site that you a product the business that you're thinking it

[00:28:09] makes sense to maybe throw a thousand bucks or ten thousand or or five hundred

[00:28:14] or whatever the number is you want to invest in that crowdfunding site but you

[00:28:19] want to see wait a minute who's behind this who are the people behind it and

[00:28:23] because I mean I will tell you that there are some people doing crowdfunding that

[00:28:29] don't know what they're doing they're gonna they're those numbers that I just

[00:28:33] mentioned that don't bring in enough money well they have to they've got to do

[00:28:38] tooling and manufacturing and they've got to get enough money net out of the

[00:28:43] crowdfunding that they can spend money on their business and if they're not

[00:28:46] they're gonna do stupid things not raise enough money and then I've seen some

[00:28:52] of these crowdfunding guys closed down in the middle of their crowdfunding because

[00:28:56] they didn't raise enough money to pay for the things they needed to do so that's

[00:29:00] important that you don't let that happen also yeah and so an advisory board not

[00:29:05] just with crowdfunding but with any startup right can be helpful I guess to help

[00:29:10] yes help you build credibility and legitimate it helps you build credibility

[00:29:14] and also some of the sometimes the people that join your advisory board they may

[00:29:21] have an influence with other people so that oh they join the board and now

[00:29:26] their people are coming to the site but the other thing I've seen some very

[00:29:33] powerful like for example Bo Jackson is one of the greatest athletes for those

[00:29:41] that follow Bo Jackson he was he was on he played football for the Raiders he

[00:29:47] played baseball he's one of the few players I think he's the only player that

[00:29:51] made the pro bowl you build baseball and football but do you know who's on his

[00:29:56] board the owner of the Oakland Raiders and now it's the lost it's the Las Vegas

[00:30:02] Raiders but that's Mark Davis okay so our Davis was his father how was the

[00:30:10] original owner of the Raiders now Mark the son is the owner of the Raiders and

[00:30:15] Mark is on Bo Jackson's board I'm on Bo Jackson's board so I'm hanging out

[00:30:21] with the owner of the Raiders on board calls now and also getting you know not

[00:30:27] only is he validating Bo but there's other relationships that get validated

[00:30:32] across the board they're also right think about that if you as an entrepreneur

[00:30:38] have a unique skill you can be an advisor sit on boards but also makes a really

[00:30:44] good connections on those boards at the same time yeah yeah boards are a great

[00:30:49] way to meet people I've been encouraged my students to do volunteer boards you

[00:30:54] know because those can be really allowed them to meet people they never could

[00:30:59] otherwise just by doing some community work and and I say trade your brand for

[00:31:05] equity trade your skill set for equity because when you sit on a board you

[00:31:11] if it's public you should get a couple shares of stock or some options right

[00:31:16] and you know those can end up being very lucrative if if the company is

[00:31:21] successful so if you're part of helping make the company successful and the

[00:31:25] stock rises and you get a chance to sell some stock then you know that's where

[00:31:30] it all makes sense financially to be a board member yeah yeah absolutely so

[00:31:34] let's talk let's get back to the we talked about digital marketing a little bit

[00:31:39] well we have a lot but let's get back to a little bit of the basics of

[00:31:44] understanding where to where to start for the for the startup you know I know

[00:31:50] having a strong will you have to first understand who your customer is right so

[00:31:55] you can figure out how to find them but just going out and finding a few

[00:31:59] influencers doesn't really get it there's a strategy I'm sure involved and

[00:32:04] and and today there are so many different places you know you can have your

[00:32:09] email list you can have Instagram you mentioned TikTok LinkedIn you know

[00:32:16] there's all kinds of ways YouTube having your podcast so how do you

[00:32:23] recommend somebody who's sitting there you know with a brand new business they

[00:32:28] got a lot to do they're they're trying to decide you know where to put their

[00:32:34] money and their time their resource their limited resource how do you get

[00:32:38] started I'm gonna give you an example of some folks that we worked with this

[00:32:42] husband and wife team they were both lawyers and they worked for the

[00:32:46] insurance company side of the transaction so so you see the people would get

[00:32:51] in an accident and they have a lawyer that says let me help you get some money

[00:32:57] that's the personal injury side on the insurance side the lawyers have to

[00:33:02] write the checks to the people that got injured so they were writing a

[00:33:07] proving check after check hundreds of millions of dollars and they're seeing

[00:33:12] these other lawyers getting a percentage of all that making huge money so

[00:33:16] they said we want to be on that side get away from the insurance side right so

[00:33:22] they started their own law firm and they thought oh we've got all this

[00:33:26] experience as insurance people and we know how this goes we're gonna crush it

[00:33:31] and so they started running some ads and guess what they got no response it

[00:33:37] was like nothing because this is the problem in the world of digital it's all

[00:33:45] about how much have you populated out there in the marketplace so because

[00:33:51] they there's like why are we getting no response because people would go

[00:33:56] online because they don't people don't just call a phone number anymore today

[00:34:01] typically they want to review who it is they want to see what do these people

[00:34:06] have to say do they let's go to their website oh there's no videos we shot a

[00:34:12] hundred videos for these folks over the course of 60 days and it was all about

[00:34:18] why they are better than the average lawyer because they got that experience

[00:34:23] and they we shot testimonials people that they've helped et cetera et cetera but

[00:34:28] once all of this was out there we started populating them on TikTok and

[00:34:33] Facebook and Instagram also LinkedIn big-time success on LinkedIn and so in the

[00:34:40] beginning they were spending they spend 10,000 on ads and they would get one or

[00:34:46] two calls now on 10,000 and ads they would get enough calls to generate

[00:34:51] immediately 50,000 in revenue five times the money they spent and then

[00:34:58] they had all the leads and and these folks have virtually crushed it since

[00:35:04] they launched this business now by creating the content creating the branding

[00:35:10] and the things that we've been talking about here Rebecca that you know digital

[00:35:15] funnels okay it's you know a digital funnel is different than just telling

[00:35:22] someone call this number because if you give someone a phone number to call

[00:35:27] if they leave their information you get it if they don't they hang up you're

[00:35:33] done in a digital funnel when they hit that funnel you're actually you can

[00:35:38] capture it the IP address of the people coming in and now instead of if you

[00:35:46] if you only had the phone calls and you got maybe 10 phone numbers from people

[00:35:51] you might have a thousand digital IP addresses because of all the people that

[00:35:57] came to the website so now you're building on that and and this is called

[00:36:03] click funnels it's a whole it's kind of hard to describe it here over a

[00:36:08] podcast but all I can tell you is it's powerful it works and and it involves

[00:36:15] having to create content before you start driving people into the funnel because

[00:36:21] the digital funnel starts at the top and it has people doing things through

[00:36:26] the process showing that they're interested until at the very bottom then it

[00:36:32] spits out a good lead and somebody that's waiting to hear back from somebody

[00:36:37] at the company so yeah digital works and click funnels is one of the systems

[00:36:41] that we use that's an off the shelf kind of thing you can actually utilize

[00:36:45] and there's a book called click funnels that the guy that started it all

[00:36:51] created very powerful program yeah yeah so if I'm understanding you correctly

[00:36:56] you know just to get started I it kind of goes back to what we started talking

[00:37:00] about you have to get out there and build your brand don't you you have to

[00:37:05] get out there and get on on on to YouTube and you mentioned videos specifically

[00:37:12] but that you know podcasts or videos or audio but video seems to have a special

[00:37:18] power I think do you can you talk about that a little bit video I mean think

[00:37:24] about let's think about it this way if you were going to go on to VC or HSN

[00:37:29] you couldn't do it with just audio I mean it's be pretty tough to sell

[00:37:34] products you know a juicer which act will lean without video right but you

[00:37:40] know the point is is that that video allows for magical transformation which

[00:37:49] is one of the things that I look for it it also allows for you to build

[00:37:54] the credibility of of the people that are involved by showing them you know

[00:37:59] here's the person they've written books and they've been on podcasts and

[00:38:05] they're an expert in certain areas and here they are speaking on stage right

[00:38:11] and so I believe video is the most powerful form of helping build the brand

[00:38:19] and and at the same time I would say this the you know when when somebody can

[00:38:28] show a before and after in what I call a magical transformation this is I mean

[00:38:36] this is what Tony Little did this is what Suzanne Summers did with I massed

[00:38:42] you name the product proactive skin care it was a lot of acne and then clear

[00:38:48] skin so video is powerful and and I think as as a branding piece for experts it

[00:38:58] also shows credibility and and by the way when you write a book for example

[00:39:06] think of it creates an authority position for you and and let me let me let

[00:39:14] you understand the word authority do you know what word exists in the word

[00:39:20] authority author yeah when you are an author you become an authority and

[00:39:28] that's how it works and so it is it for many people out there like I said

[00:39:35] these these two lawyers husband and wife they had great credibility working for

[00:39:40] the insurance company but they had no credibility working for the personal

[00:39:44] injury side until they were able to get those videos out there and produce them

[00:39:50] so that people could see who they were what their message was and also it gives

[00:39:55] people a chance to say you know what I like the way they talk I want to work with

[00:40:00] that person or that you know that that husband and wife team they're good people

[00:40:04] yeah you brought up the word magical transformation I was going to ask you

[00:40:08] to define it which you did already so you know what I'm hearing too is storytelling

[00:40:14] because you know that and and you have to understand who your audience is right

[00:40:20] because the insurance there was a different story that they told to the

[00:40:24] insurance companies then to the to the clients on the other side so yes again

[00:40:31] I think it goes you've got to figure out who that audience is that that customer

[00:40:36] then you've got to create a story and then you've got to build your brand

[00:40:40] then get that story out there to them and I'm you're positioning yourself uniquely

[00:40:46] in the marketplace right that you know I say uniquely and this is the way to

[00:40:51] analyze unique positioning does does your product or service that it is does

[00:40:58] your product or service have a benefit and or a solution to a problem that

[00:41:05] there is already there is no solution to the problem in a similar fashion right

[00:41:10] so does your product or service solve a problem in a fashion such that there's

[00:41:16] no other product or service already solving that problem in a similar fashion

[00:41:21] right and if you can do that with you as a as what you provide as a service

[00:41:27] that's even more powerful if that is that unique that nobody else is already

[00:41:32] able to provide it in a similar fashion yeah yeah I think that's really powerful stuff

[00:41:37] and I think it's hard sometimes for a new business founder to sort of recognize this so

[00:41:44] I'm so glad we're talking about it you know because when you're trying to launch a company

[00:41:49] the last thing on your mind sometimes is I've got to go out and create a bunch of YouTube videos

[00:41:54] and start a podcast and you know but that's so critical and so important I mean I gotta tell you

[00:42:02] I was on the Adam Corolla the love doctor he he had me on to do a podcast for this book

[00:42:13] and he said Kevin he says I have tens of millions of downloads and he said and I said well look

[00:42:19] I asked one thing can we launch this book this podcast the week that the book launches and he

[00:42:25] said Kevin I need this content that we're shooting right now for next week this this week next week

[00:42:32] but I'll do one better the week that your pot the week that your book launches will do another

[00:42:38] podcast and we'll launch that simultaneous to your book launch to tens of millions of people

[00:42:45] and that is going to be powerful why it over I had over 150 podcasts that aired all in a seven

[00:42:53] day window of when this book was launching because we'd shot some three months before two months

[00:42:59] before one month before and the week up and it just was we were selling tens of thousands of

[00:43:06] books a day in the beginning and that's what ratchet it up to number two best seller on the Wall Street

[00:43:12] Journal list yeah yeah yeah and they had just so much fun doing that but podcasts are powerful

[00:43:18] yeah and that's one last thing I want to go ahead on that note um you know we live in Tampa

[00:43:25] and last week I got a phone call from Galgoyardo she's on bloom on the NBC station here in town

[00:43:33] and she said Kevin I'd love to interview you we're talking about entrepreneurship and I normally

[00:43:39] charge people because they pay to get on because they pay to build their brand but I'd love to have

[00:43:45] you on free of charge if you want to do it so I did a 20-minute segment with Galgoyardo last week

[00:43:52] on NBC and my phones have been blowing up ever since and so these kinds of opportunities are available

[00:44:00] to the entrepreneurs that are listening to us right now certainly in Tampa there's many there's

[00:44:06] three shows that do what Gail does on the bloom network where you can kind of buy your way on the show

[00:44:12] for cheap like for pennies and so um and you might have enough credibility to be on there without

[00:44:18] paying a dime also that's something I can help people navigate also yeah yeah mentor to millions

[00:44:24] that's the book so everybody needs to get that book and and uh and give it a try I love I love the

[00:44:30] title too it's that thank you you've mentored millions of people and you helped many many many of

[00:44:36] those people reach millions so so you're great you're a great role model so I just have I know

[00:44:44] I know we're getting short on time but I just have to ask you about about how uh you know how

[00:44:50] how should somebody go about evaluating where they're investing their time in these digital tools

[00:44:58] and techniques how I mean obviously one way as are you selling the product right why but but

[00:45:05] I'm assuming that you've got you've got methods and maybe a metrics board and key performance indicators

[00:45:11] I'm gonna walk you through a quick exercise here here's a little product that we did this gentleman

[00:45:16] came to us he had built a built it sales did about a million dollars and then it was on a back side

[00:45:24] bell shaped curve because this product is an eyeglass cleaning product and it gets rid of all the

[00:45:30] the dust and then that goes in and then it opens up and it's a double sided carbon cleaning system

[00:45:37] cleans both sides of your glasses simultaneously and then and so you you you you get you brush them

[00:45:44] clean first then pull that back then clean them both sides and then this goes in and gets cleaned

[00:45:52] itself now this product sells for $15 but in the world of digital it was costing us about

[00:46:00] $18 to get a customer so we were we weren't you know he wasn't making any money

[00:46:05] he did a million dollars in sales because it's he's selling something for 15 it's costing the

[00:46:10] 18 is like I can't do this forever I said okay but this is the focus now the focus is is to increase

[00:46:19] the average order value of the product meaning okay so people that wear glasses they need one by

[00:46:26] their nightstand by their bed one by the TV stand in the living room one in their car one in the

[00:46:34] kitchen if you buy two of these we're gonna give you two absolutely free but now now you see how

[00:46:41] we're upping the average order value so we ended up getting this to where okay if you buy three of

[00:46:47] these we're gonna give you two for free you get five for the price of three the average order value

[00:46:53] was now 50 some dollars and we were spending 18 dollars to get the customer and now we were able

[00:46:59] to sell 10,000 of these a day we took this company from a million dollars to 150 million dollars

[00:47:06] because we focused on the average order value and this is the this is the concept in digital marketing

[00:47:13] you've got your acquisition cost to the customer and then you got the average order value

[00:47:19] that you're bringing in in the lifetime of that customer so focus on reducing the acquisition cost

[00:47:26] as a percentage of the total sale because when you were spending 18 dollars to get 15 dollars it was

[00:47:35] 100 percent or more when we're spending 18 dollars to get 55 dollars now we were making money

[00:47:42] and we generated 150 million in sales and by the way we were using affiliates to do this

[00:47:47] et cetera so the world and we tried this on TV as seen on TV it was costing us 50 dollars

[00:47:55] to get a customer so digital was much cheaper and then we were increasing the average order value so

[00:48:02] we created a very successful project by focusing on those two costs yeah you know that there's

[00:48:08] a great lesson in there sometimes we always go automatically to how we're going to reduce cost

[00:48:13] and and the other we forget to look at the flip side of it and so that's brilliant brilliant I love

[00:48:20] it I love it so Kevin this has been amazing I'd love to talk more I know we could but I also know

[00:48:26] you've got a lot to do I just have to ask you what's what's what's exciting you most right now like

[00:48:33] it doesn't have to be a product yeah what are you working on that's exciting you the most we're

[00:48:38] working on you know we're doing some AI stuff right now we also there's a TV show called Wicked

[00:48:45] Tuna that is on the national geographic and we're involved with that brand and launching some products

[00:48:52] under the Wicked Tuna umbrella so that you know that's you know that there's food and that we're

[00:48:58] we're in 200 military bases right now selling Wicked Tuna tuna to the military folks and

[00:49:05] and so you know we I love products and I love marketing and I love customer acquisition

[00:49:13] we're doing all of that in many different areas but this this taking a TV show that's branded

[00:49:22] that in Walt Disney owns the Wicked Tuna TV show it's the number one show on national geographic

[00:49:28] but they haven't utilized the brand of Wicked Tuna and so this is sort of a theme I think

[00:49:35] in the early days of you know I saw all this airtime that wasn't being utilized under utilized

[00:49:42] airtime we filled it now Wicked Tuna under utilized branding we're filling it and so this is kind

[00:49:49] of one of my themes that I've utilized and Wicked Tuna you're going to see it we launch in Walmart

[00:49:55] the end of February and we're already in the military bases so lots of good stuff going on there

[00:50:02] never a dull moment in my world because we we see new things every day and we invest in some of these

[00:50:09] across the board so Rebecca thank you for having me it's a pleasure and I know you you see a lot

[00:50:15] of entrepreneurs there at the University of Tampa and the CEO group that you've got and just want

[00:50:21] to thank you for being there for so many entrepreneurs out there in the marketplace and in doing what

[00:50:27] you do it's awesome it's wonderful to have you Kevin if I could ask you what would be your one

[00:50:32] piece of advice right now today yes if you're an entrepreneur do not be afraid to go get

[00:50:42] somebody that you can be an advisor to you don't be afraid to give them a little piece of equity

[00:50:48] if you need to because if you're doing something 100% all on your own all by yourself and you've

[00:50:56] never done it before you might make a lot of mistakes so don't do that get a get a mentor get

[00:51:02] an advisor or small partner that's been there and done it and and if you got to give them 1% of the

[00:51:09] company and you still have 99% hey go build a hundred million dollar business that puts a lot of

[00:51:15] money in your pocket so don't be afraid to get great advisors and by the way people approach me

[00:51:20] they think can I get the shark to be part of my group well sometimes I do so don't be afraid

[00:51:26] yeah I love it I love it we got to take risks right what I always love about you Kevin you're

[00:51:32] always learning always doing something new we're going to have you back on the show we've got a lot

[00:51:36] more to talk about next time AI and all that fun stuff but thank you we're going everybody find

[00:51:42] out more about you and your books and anything else they might very simple just go to kevin herrington.tv

[00:51:49] t isntom v is Invictor like television kevin herrington.tv that's my website there's some free

[00:51:56] downloads and you get all kinds of great stuff there too so great being with you and I'll see you soon

[00:52:03] thank you kevin okay bye bye bye

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