Vision Pros, welcome in. I'm glad to have you
on here. Is this your first time interviewing
with us or have you interviewed before? With
you guys, yeah. First time. Perfect. Awesome.
Let me go ahead and pull something to help us
with that. I do run this show very different
than the podcast circuit. How did you come across
us? On Podmatch. Actually, you were one of the
first three people that came up and I was like,
oh, this is... I was looking for ones that actually
resonated, and you guys were the first one. I
was like, all right, this is pretty good. Let's
do it. Let's check it out. Cool, man. That's
awesome. I appreciate that. Alex Sanfilippo has
built an amazing program. It does seem very helpful.
I could see it being helpful on both ends for
sure, whether you host a podcast or if you're
trying to get on one. Yeah, it's top -notch.
I've paid for a lot of systems, and that is by
far my favorite software platform. Is that where
most of your leads are coming from? I don't know.
A lot of them do are qualified, but we have a
pretty big, we have a pretty good stack of depth
of opportunities. And most of them we do have.
So here's my truth, Ethan. Financially wise,
I think you're doing, you've scaled past me.
In terms of growing pains, though, and like depth
of infrastructure and what we're trying to pull
off, man, I'm out of my. I'm out of my comfort
zone. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I'm a nurturer
first. You know, like I'm a healer. That's not
like naturopath style. But I got into the business
world on accident. I really love helping people.
And so, you know, I was triple booked at 10 a
.m. today, double booked for this. And that's
a really hard thing for me. I want to be there
for everybody. What do I do? So there's my humble
brag for the day. But, you know, you're doing
well. You're doing very well in your own respects.
And so I share that as a mutual reality. We both
know what it's like to. Thank you. No, I appreciate
that very much. It's definitely had its challenges
for the past five years. But, you know, we do
what we can. We joined Podmatch almost two years
ago after I pestered Alex for a year through
audio clips. So I'm very slow to make decisions
typically. And so I finally literally just bought
Podmatch with one of my executive assistants.
And I was like, okay, we're going to buy this
because I bother him. I have no idea how it works,
but please set it up. She calls me and she's
like, hey, it's asking for all this info. I need
your help. And I was like. So I dove in, gave
her the info, did the thing, we got the setup,
and I let it go. And two days later, I sent Alex
a loom clip. And I said, hey, man, I just wanted
to find out, do you guys have any bot problems,
automation problems? Because we've had over 100
appointments book with us in the last 24 hours.
I don't know if these are going to be great appointments
or not. And so he responds to the Loom video.
He's like, Jackson, nobody's ever had 100 appointments
in that time. You really hit a vein with people.
And I'm like, okay, he's either a really good
salesman or we're doing something right. So here
we go on these appointments. And they were great,
man. Podmatch has the best leads for sure. Right.
We're looking for the best leaders. And so it's
a great place to find the great leaders. And
so we, you know, fast forward 30 days and my
PayPal check, you know, PayPal has like five
hundred and eighty something dollars in it. And
I'm like, huh? It's from podcasting. So I sent
him a loom again. I'm like, hey, I think you
got an accounting problem. You guys paid me,
but I was supposed to be paying y 'all. What's
going on? Yeah. I was legitimately confused for
this poor guy. That's how a pod match works.
I was like, well, you were cool without that.
That's so funny. I love that. Oh, my gosh. I
love that. Yeah. So please lean in, lean into
Podmatch and Alex Sanfilippo. They're great,
great people. He's a great leader. He was so
nice to me the whole time I badgered him before
I joined too. I love that. I'm the same way.
I love that. I'm not, I'm a little bit, I'm a
little bit harsher, but I try, you know, like
my inner Alex, I'm like channeling it at all
times. So you're in the elite and I know we're
supposed to be doing the podcast thing. Are you
okay with this? I love it. I love it. It's the
best part of my day. Good, man. That's awesome.
Considering I know you can access Dan in there,
I'll take that victory. So Elite, is that the
mastermind where they go snowboarding and they
jump out of the helicopters? Or is that his other
program? So he offers that to Elite. That's more
of his, what does he call that? It's the next
level. It's like the private sessions for the
day or whatever. I've never been to that yet.
I actually, the only time I met him in person
was the other day. um but all of those people
leave and they're it's like they met i mean a
superhero like it's wild but elite is more it's
just oh they're all serving every day their team
is incredible it's well even even his clients
at that level right like i mean that's a justice
league type experience well that's a crazy thing
because week after week you're meeting these
people and you're talking to them and like very
quickly you're like oh this person is levels
above me got it like understood yes in terms
of delivery yeah like in terms of what they've
done sure maybe maybe maybe but it's really cool
to be around that though like i love it's important
just being around those entrepreneurs and i'm
just like dang like we got some heavy hitters
in here it's a good feeling for sure and it's
that's the type of crowd that i i love being
a part of so it's just such it's very cool stuff
for sure Yeah, no, who doesn't? That's a big
one. And it's, you know, leaders lead and great
leaders are great followers too. 100%. That's
something I think people often overlook. But
you mind if I share a little background? Yeah,
please, go ahead. Okay. By the way, so with the
podcasting, I did reform here. We can record,
we can use all of this for an episode, by the
way. Oh, this is all good stuff. Mind the game,
right? LeBron James and JJ Reddick. They're always
behind the scenes talking and they film all that
stuff and they, they work it in. So we're big
on that. The, there are people who come onto
this show and I've got four hosts of our show.
I'm not the only one. And so with that, the,
the, but this is my, my, this is my baby. It's
not theirs. I'm just kidding. But yeah, anyway,
the. we get these people who come on here and
they'll be like, you know, Hey, we'll say, Hey,
how you doing? And I'd be like, I don't want
to pitch. I don't want to pre -show. I've been
on 300 of these. Um, you know, I'm ready to go.
Um, and we're like, all right, you got it. We'll
do it. And then we'll say, Hey, thank you. Let's,
let's, uh, get this out in three to six weeks.
This will be produced. You know, anything else
we can do for you? Um, no. Okay. Get out. Get
out. We don't want them. We don't need them here.
We love them from a distance. But I know they
can't afford their sunglasses. I know they drive
a car that they can't afford. I don't need that
crap. Not the crap. Just the love. So then there's
the other guests that come in. And the other
guests that come in. They're a little bit, you
know, and again, you get the benefit of the doubt
because Ryan was excited about you and I went
like, okay, you got Dan Martell and you got some
good stuff going on. Like Dan Martell doesn't
waste his time. I know that. So I was like, okay,
this is going to be good. And the great guests
come in and they've probably been on more than
a hot shot. Oh, right. But they never, they don't
ever need to say it. Right. Jackson. Or Sue or
Ryan, hey, what can I do best for your audience?
And how does distribution work for you guys?
Is there anything that we can do to help with
distribution? It's those leaders that are not
hard to spot when you know what to look for.
Isn't that funny that there's so much more? I
feel like every business has that. Like my top
clients, everything is like they're my friend
and everything's organized. But then people who
are a pain. it's like they're fighting, you know,
tooth and nail over a dime. And you're just,
it's so interesting though, that that's kind
of the, the levels to it. It's like the people
who are, you know, you're at the really pushing
revenue for you in my case, maybe are so easy
and so easy going and like so easy to talk to.
And I can just call them up and be like, Hey,
what's going on? But other people, everything
is a problem. I feel like every industry has
that for themselves in a different way. Oh, sure.
It's human nature. It's survival instincts. Most
of us on the earth are stuck in survival instincts.
If we don't know how to recognize that and coexist
with it, this world can be a very difficult journey
and place. I've learned quite a bit from Dan
Martell about that. We're not buddies, by the
way. We don't know each other that well. We would
be. My wife one day was watching me, my first
wife. I was watching a YouTube video of Dan in
the kitchen. This was in 2016 or so. I think
I was studying the video because we were running
these YouTube ad campaigns. She comes over and
she goes, is that you? I was like, I know, right?
I was like, this is so weird. It feels like I'm
watching myself die. And so I had this weird
little obsession with Dan after that point. But
yeah, he did a lot of great things for us. Rightfully
so, man. His content is crazy. I mean, did you
get into him by reading his book by any chance?
Or really? I'll tell you. That's how I got into
him. And ever since then, I've been like, I'm
watching this guy's content every day, same time,
figuring it out. Well, and I'm gonna be excited
to dive in we get that when I finally get to
ask, you know Tell me about your vision. Well,
we'll get there Oh, we'll get there and the the
merch and the influencer type opportunities and
what's going on there But before we do yes, so
I'll dive into that. So here I was I'll give
you the shortest version possible and the realest
version possible. I was in Uruguay. I got slapped
by an angel Sorry, before that, I went to school,
went to university, got a 0 .33 GPA. Rocking
it. That takes hard work to make that happen.
And dated a lot. No idea what I wanted to do.
And went to Uruguay, got slapped. Hear a voice
that says, Jackson, why don't you go home, take
advantage of your education for once in your
life, learn about business, and help as many
towns like this as you possibly can. and all
of a sudden my missionary moment and all that
stuff that I was doing church -wise, nothing
wrong with that, but I just knew, like, oh, okay.
All right, that's what I'll do. I didn't know
I needed to get into business. I didn't know
what it meant to go, like, take my education
seriously. I just knew that that's what I needed
to do. And so I came back, got told absolutely
not, ended up in an MLM company. I did super
well at that. Nine months later, I had a check
for $8 .66 to show for it and lots of credit
card debt. Then I ended up at Lifetime Fitness.
I was the first sales rep hired without a degree
because I was tenacious and just annoying and
got in. Then I went to work for a little startup
after I got married in Austin, Texas. Recently,
I read $100 million offer a couple years ago
and Alex Ramosi starts talking about Lloyd from
this newspaper industry company. I'm like, that's
my first startup. There it is. You got the models.
You're in the new program. There it is. So he
starts writing about my first startup. I was
the first hire at the startup that he was writing
about. You're kidding. No. If you can imagine,
I'm listening to the book and I'm like, what?
He's talking about Lloyd. And he gets the story
wrong. That's so funny. And so that's even weirder
because it's like, I got to talk to Alex about
this someday because he missed the mark. on using
the example of lloyd so him and i got to talk
about why he assessed lloyd the way he did and
whether lloyd changed or what happened because
it's not how the story went um but that's okay
um you know we're all learning and uh i love
alex by the way um so we i don't know him at
all i've never met him um i look forward to them
uh so here i was working for the startup and
turns out they're part of this incubator thing
called Y Combinator. I didn't know what that
was either. And, you know, Paul Buchheit invented
Gmail. And I was like, I know what that is. Matt
Cutts, search director of Google. I was like,
I know what Google is. That's cool. And so we
burned our cash. I got laid off with everybody
else six months later. And I came back to work
for free for a month. And I closed 21 newspapers
and they had had seven in seven years. And so
we ended up, it was about a $40 ,000, $35 ,000
cash transaction with a 70 -30 split on ongoing
revenues for what we did for them. But two weeks
later, Paul Bukai and Matt Cutt sent us $10 million
because they saw that we proved the concept.
And so it was a really, really weird, windy path.
um my i ended up leaving the company um because
i was a horrible leader and i wanted to be like
the king um and so i'm climbing ladders everywhere
i can go and my buddy jake larson calls me oh
i start restaurant connect with adam and so we
start this little bitty restaurant software taking
on open table and doing dining room and reservation
management and we had a far superior system to
them we just have 20 000 restaurants like they
did but how far after did you start uh that compared
to open table Adam probably started three or
four years after OpenTable. They had a big lead.
He started in 2010. They were already a monopoly
in the market. They'd already cornered all the
restaurants. Anyway, that's a whole different
bag of tricks. Adam was an executive chef who
went to the library, literally started reading
how to code for dummies. And taught himself how
to build his own software. And so he built this
amazing system. It took us three years. And at
the three -year mark, we were finally at $36
,000 recurring monthly revenues. And we bled
out the entire way there. But then we were doing
great. Somewhere along that line, my buddy Jake
calls and says, Jackson, I'm about to launch
my own business. I need your advice. And I was
like, no way, dude. I was horrible to you. He
was one of my mission companions. Like I'm not
doing it. I treated you like crap. I mean, he's
like, that's why I need you. He's everybody's
telling me, Andy's just launched this business,
but you're the only one who's going to tell me
the truth. You're the most critical person I've
ever met. That's exactly why I don't want to
tell you. Yeah. Best compliment ever. And so
he, he says, no, like I need this. Like I'm like,
I'm going to lose my insurance if I do this.
And I'm like, okay, let me see it. So what's
going on? And Jake says, well, I was working
for Zag, building iPhone cases. They're doing
iPhone cases and was building a YouTube channel.
And we got to 23 million subscribers on YouTube.
And the founder of YouTube called me on the phone
and asked me to come represent YouTube ad, watching
the ad spot from him. I'm like, did you just
say the founder of YouTube called you on the
phone? And he's like, yeah. And they asked me
to come out the headroom. Like, no, like he called.
How do you get your number? You know, I'm like
going off on this thing. And he's like, I don't
know. But he called me out. So we go and Jake
Smith, you know, he's humble. He's charismatic.
He doesn't get caught up in things like that.
And so he goes out to headquarters and they decide
that as they launch this advertising platform,
this was also in 2011 ish, 2010, 2011. And they
decided that if the advertisement sucks, you
should have the right to skip it. Hence the ability
to skip after five seconds. So he was part of
this closed ambassador team of 10. Comes out
of that and he says, so Jackson, I created a
course, an online course called how to turn your
views into sales, how to drive conversions through
your YouTube ads. And I'm going to launch a business
around this. And, you know, should I do it? And
I told him, I was like, Jake, you want to know
what I told him? What did you tell him? I said,
six months ago, I would have said, go for it.
Crush it. run with this but entrepreneurship
is hard i was like so elon musk so before you
answer like i you know i need you to really think
about this are you crazy elon musk says it's
like eating glass it takes a crazy person to
do it reid hoffman of linkedin says it's like
pushing a plane off of a cliff and repairing
it while it's going down you have to be nuts
and he's like i'm i got that i can do that I
was like, okay, number two, you don't get it.
You have to be freaking nuts, dude. You have
to be crazy. You're going to think about this
for a day, and we'll talk about it tomorrow,
but dude, this is hard. So we got off the phone,
and we talked the next day. The next day, he's
like, ready? I was like, okay. I said, you know
I'm going to destroy your course, right? I'm
like, I've already seen it. It's awful. I was
like, yeah, I'm going to destroy it, right? He's
like, yep. So I did about 40 hours worth of work.
destroying his course gave it back to him and
i was like jake you have to run with this you
you're gonna crush this so you have you're crowned
by google as a youtube addicts for the world
pretty much you could be you know so you'd be
the hugest thing in youtube he didn't have that
yet um i was like and then i think in the course
like everybody needs this the whole world's moving
this direction i think you have everything that
you need to just crush it don't forget me though
i was like i've got my startup i was like i know
i'm supposed to be here but don't forget me man
and so fast forward uh six months later and uh
jake was put on stage of traffic and conversion
with ryan dice by digital marketer called the
youtube ad expert of the world next thing you
know he's got johnny dumas of entrepreneur on
fire as a client nordic track as a client yahoo
.com was a client my gosh that quickly dan martell
sas academy as a client um rei success fortune
builders right so he ends up yeah he ends up
crushing it on this process and I came to him,
I don't know, a year or so later, hat in hand
through LinkedIn. I was too scared to call him.
I was. I was terrified. I sent him a message
on LinkedIn. I said, hey, I am super burnt out
on startups. And I'm jealous of the time that
you get to spend with your daughter. And I'd
really, really love to help you with growth if
you want help. But if you're not in a position
to where you need that, then Jake, just do me
a favor and send my info to somebody who's got
your balance. And I hit send and regretted it.
There was no undo back then. And 15 minutes later,
he sent me a message. Let's do it, homie. Right.
So he flew me out, flew me out to headquarters.
And that's where I started to, you know, he's
like, how do we do this? And I was like, I really
don't know. I said, I think here's what we'll
do, Jake. You got charisma and charm. You're
going to be mom of this company because everybody
needs to love you. And I'm going to be dad. And
I'm going to hold people accountable on stuff.
We got to get the two interns that he had working
with him trained up to be executives and to take
responsibility for what they do. And if we can
do that, then we can win well. But I'm going
to start putting together the traditional business
processes. But you guys have to teach me all
this viral stuff, because how the heck do you
have two interns and have 70 ,000 people come
on your website? Like, this is nuts. I've never
sold a business. And so I got to learn all this
cool stuff about virality. And one of the first
things he gave me was I went and talked to the
two interns. And I said, guys, Jake needs to
be doing three things. He needs to be golfing
as much as possible. When he's golfing with other
executives, he makes deals. The more he golfs,
the more freedom we have. Two, he needs to be
speaking on podcasts and at conferences. We need
to get him speaking in conferences and at podcasts.
Three, he needs to be playing the jazz piano
at those conferences. When Jake plays the jazz
piano, people fall in love with Jake. If we can
have him do those three things, We have to do
everything else to get him out. He can't be behind
systems. He can't be behind processes. He can't
be the one running campaigns, running strategy,
none of that. If we're doing all that and he's
doing that, we're going to win wildly. And so
they were like, oh, let's do that. So we did
that. It was a lot of fun. And then Jake says,
Jackson, to help you on this business stuff,
we got this guy named Dan Martell for SAS Academy.
He's got this playbook process. Maybe you could
watch that. learn from it he gave it to us for
free it's two thousand dollar course um you know
and we can we can see there and um i got to meet
jay i got to meet dan once during that time frame
it was a very short call that we were that him
and jake and i were on i don't even hardly remember
i just remember it happened um and then fast
forward years later and um we met through another
program that's another story for another day
but i did get to ask him um a good question about
um how do I know I'm ready as a leader to bring
on a sales team and how do I go about doing that?
And we had a pretty intense 10 minute coaching
session, um, and I'll with the group there, but,
um, it is, and Jake, Jake goes to the mastermind,
the, the helicopter drop, um, you know, so he
goes every year. They're, they're real good friends.
Um, so yeah, them, Pat, Pat Flynn and Jake worked
together as well. And, uh, Chad, Chandler Bolt.
Now he became a client right after I left. We
had we had those people. And then right after
I joined the company, Ryan Blair came on for
his book launch. And so I ran the strategy process
for his book launch. And he was the CEO by Salas
is a two point something billion dollar company.
And so he refers us to Lewis Howes. Louis House
came in as a client. So he almost botched his
webinar experience. I was the guy. I was like,
you cannot run this. And Brittany comes on. I
was like, he's sick. He can't record. And I'm
like, if he does this, this is going to destroy
his reputation. And here's why. And she's like,
you're right. Let's fix it. And I was like, wow,
awesome. And then Dr. Eric Berg came on. He had
160 ,000 subscribers on YouTube at the time and
a horrible website. I just told him flat out.
I was like, I wouldn't touch your website with
a 10 foot pole. No chance. um you know and he
took some notes said can you guys fix this and
now we just do video um and i was like we can't
and uh he said give me three days he came back
with everything overhauled i have no idea how
he did it's 2015. the guy's got 13 million subscribers
now um and he's just absolutely crushed it so
then michael hyatt came on t harv ecker came
on even pagan came on billy g marketing came
on oh gosh so i got to be behind the scenes on
all these and see oh who's actually crushing
it and who's getting crushed um and how is this
process happening and my job was to make sure
that every single one of campaign the campaigns
for jake was one that we could hit a 7x or beyond
return because nobody wanted to hear about it
if it was less than that so i love and revere
jake larson he is my favorite mentor um by far
and dan is very cool and i keep this book on
my desk in his honor because this is his bible
of hiring Did what Dan Martell told me, at least.
Put that one in my notes real quick. Well, I
will tell you, the first 25 pages are amazing.
The rest is garbage. 25 pages? All right. Yeah,
so save you some time. Dan has a lot of great,
great, great, great, great, great things, and
he is way better than me in the business category
so far. But the hiring on purpose aspect, there
are some fatal flaws shared in that book that
I do not recommend. buying into but the 25 pages
gold gold yeah man amazing would you oh i think
i froze can you can you hear me you did freeze
are you there let me see if i can you still hear
me yeah give me one second though let me pull
you off play on see if that helps oh it didn't
now we're black screen hold on one second let's
see what's happening here Let me see if I can
turn my webcam on. I totally ran through our
entire time. Are you good on time or do you need
to run? Oh, I'm dead. Man, after a stressful
day, a podcast just puts it all away. I love
it. I can fix my camera. There we go. There we
are. Hey! Made it. Would you say, Jackson, that
was the most fun time of your career? Or was
it one of the most fun times, just being there
and learning all that and connecting with all
these humongous personalities and brands? Dude,
I... I love that it taught me. The most fun times
now, by far. I don't just say that. There's challenges
now, too. There's growth challenges. This would
not be possible without that. Even just think
through basic imposter syndrome. I was a 0 .33
GPA kid. I got the shit beat out of me by business
owners over and over. It wasn't just the business.
The business owner would bring me in. But their
marketing guru and their operations guru and
whoever else, their executive assistant, what
kind of degree does he have? Why are we following
his advice? He's only 22 years old. I get that
he's nice and he has these theories, but where
has he really proven that? How do we know it's
going to work for us? It works for NordicTrack,
but we're not NordicTrack. You know the drill.
Everybody's going to find a way to feel uncomfortable
with the unknown, especially when I was gunning
for the top. I was much more like Grant Cardone
back then. I used to tell people what they should
do, tell people what they needed. I acted like
God. I created a whole list of sheep holes following
me. I was coercing, manipulating, and taking
control of people's visions. I had to learn the
hard way by losing my relationship. I lost my
position with Jake because of that. He didn't
say it that way. He didn't treat it that way.
Again, the off -boarding experience was amazing.
He was so good to me. He checked on me every
single week. He is seriously one of my best friends
in life because of how... he has loved me and
um i had to go through a painful divorce as well
and through those experiences it got me thinking
like wait a second am i the wrong am i am i is
this my fault is there something wrong with my
leadership and like how i'm doing i'm like blowing
this um and so those those shifts they all helped
but to your point um if i hadn't gotten to see
what my knowledge did for lewis house And if
I hadn't gotten to see how I affected the truth
about cancer campaign and I hadn't gotten to
see how, you know, the Dr. Berg's brand came
to fruition. Like I got to play with theories
and put things into place that were speculation.
They were just me. Like I've got some type of
weird gift type thing. And because of how much
I study, but I didn't have a piece of paper validating
me. Yeah. The whole world wanted to see. And
so, yes, those experiences. molded and shaped
tremendous realities. And the time with Jake,
seeing him, how he leads, it's not about the
people. It's about the way he leads. It's about
the way that he shows up for people. It's about
the authenticity, the becoming a powerful leader
just by being, not by trying to do something
like art, like do some tactic or follow some
process. He just is. And he lives so closely
to that authenticity that it gave me permission
to start looking at it. And then JP Sears comes
along and does his TED Talk as well. And his
TED Talk, same thing. It's like, dang, Jackson,
what about just stepping into your real self
fully and owning that, not apologetically being
you? And so, yes, those were huge, monumental
opportunities. And they're connections that whenever
we want to tap back into them. We can. We can
reach out. But we're building something that
is not quite at the stage that I want it to be
to where I go tap those doors. Gary Vaynerchuk's
jab, jab, jab, right hook. I'm not making my
right hook. I'm just giving, giving, giving,
giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving
right now. It's all about that process. And the
ones who happen to see what's going on when they
come, we'll honor them. And I'll reach out to
Jake soon. But the process of knowing how to
honor – I went and met John Lee Dumas in person
at Puerto Rico just a few months ago. Do you
know him? I don't. Johnny Dumas? John Lee Dumas.
So John and Dan, I believe, are pretty good friends
too. Entrepreneur on Fire was the number one
podcast on iTunes in 2013. Oh, yeah. And he's
still huge. He used to post his income reports
every month and his expenses and how he was doing
it. Super transparent on that until about five
months ago. I met him at Podfest and got to tell
him I was working on his campaigns and was part
of that. We hit it off for a while, so I went
down there. Before I went, we had a call. He
charges $3 ,000 for his calls. He wanted to meet
with me, though. We met. He's like, you know,
I don't do this for people. I was like, I know,
John. I was like, I know full well. He's like,
Jackson, what's the smallest thing we can do
together? And what's the biggest thing? Send
me a video. Send me a video. Love that question.
Yeah. And so then I said, I'm going to do one
better. I said, John, I believe in this thing
called the golden window of opportunity. You
and I, and Ethan, this applies to you too, we
could move to... who knows i don't want to so
let's use that albuquerque new mexico that would
be awful we can move there um and we could open
a plumbing business and i think that you and
i would make it to seven figures within two years
because we're brilliant because we have skill
sets we have gifts that we can use we have the
discipline the tenacity the persistency we could
do that but ideas are a dime a dozen and so i'd
rather wait for in the case of john what's that
golden window of opportunity that we can hit?
And so then I went to Puerto Rico on part of
my humanitarian trips. We did our thing. I went
and visited him. And we had a great, great time.
Hung a swing for his baby, for his baby boy.
And then afterwards, he's like, so what is it,
Jackson? I said, I said, John, I need to keep
meditating on this. I'm like, what do you offer
the man who has so much? And he's like, okay.
I get that. They gave me a hug, took a selfie,
and did their thing. But we had such a great
conversation about life and family and where
we're at, what we've been through and all that.
There will come an opportunity to pull these
relationships full circle. But I'm in the habit
of giving my best to those that I serve. And
I hope this series of stories empowers you, too,
with the best. We got to run campaigns for SpyTech
Inc., for RealTruck. What was the other big one?
There was another big e -commerce store that
we ran some stuff for, but those are the two
that taught me the most when I was at Video Power
from a product standpoint and how to really scale
product companies. I don't know quite what it
is. I don't know what our golden windows look
like, but the podcast episode is going to be
fun. The episode opportunities, I'd love to bring
you back. We want our guests and our audience
to follow that process of know, like, and trust.
And that means the wham, bam, thank you, ma 'am
model that so many podcasts follow. What authenticity
is there? And that, if it's kind of just forced,
it's okay. It happens, and it's not meant to
be a relationship, but your vision. And my humble
opinion is a gift to the world. It's something
that you're striving to help people achieve something
that's super meaningful. And that means that,
you know, given that you're authentic, right?
If that's the case, then no, you're not going
to be a wham, bam, thank you, ma 'am person.
That means that my entrepreneurs are going to
lean into that and be like, okay, who is this
Ethan guy? You know, what is Indigo Promotions?
How is that supposed to help me? And so as we...
As we look at that, is this a community that
makes sense? Are we building something that long
-term is going to make a massive difference for
people? That's what Vision Pros is really based
on. It's a doorway so people can see our stage,
see our audience, and then decide, do we want
to do bigger things? Very cool. No, it's very
cool. I love that vision as well. I don't think
a lot of people have that. I think most people
are very transactual. You know, it's very like,
hey, this is what I offer. What do you got for
me? That's it. Yep. Been there, man. And it's
a huge mistake, too. I think it makes everything
more challenging. You are a phenomenal podcast
host. I appreciate you. You've done such a good
job of interviewing me today, Ethan. You've got
massive hosting skills. So, I don't know. I guess
I'll ask. Do you want this to be released? As
a full episode. Totally. We could, Hey, you guys,
I think you guys are the experts, whatever you
think will, will help the community and, and
land totally fine with me. I'm an open book.
And you know, if, if anything would help that
I said, or you said, I think that'd be a cool
thing to release for sure. Sure. I'll, I'll take
the expert title 10 years from now. Maybe I'll
divert back to what Matt cuts taught us about
that. And he said, the real sign of an expert
is not somebody who knows it all. it's somebody
who's willing to go get the answer yeah all right
so that's a great quote right there that is a
great that made my career that's the one that
made my career because i was the kid that didn't
have the degree and i was like oh cool I don't
have to have it. I just need to be willing to
go get the answer and not act like I know it
all. It's also entrepreneurship right there.
That is being a business owner. From day one
of this company, I've been problem solving nearly
every hour of every day. Something keeps coming
up. No matter how much I time block or no matter
how much I can plan ahead, stuff keeps coming
up. Then all of a sudden after the first month,
you're like, am I just problem solving all day
long? I really, I don't know if anyone's experience
has been different, but that's been mine of just
problem solving, problem solving, problem solving.
Okay, now I can actually do what I plan for.
And then it goes back to problem solving. And
it's interesting because on our projects, you're
basically just problem solving the entire way.
And you don't, each time you don't know what's
going to pop up. And that's what makes, I don't
know, my role so fun because the problems get
more exciting to solve and they become more.
beneficial to solve for both us and our clients
too. But I, I love that quote. Huge man. And
then you've got the secret superpower of Dan
Martell's one, three, one in the mix. So you
have it, man. That's awesome. I'm excited. I
want to, so I want to bring you back soon and
later. Um, you know, let's definitely make that
happen. Um, and so we, um, we'll get scheduled
after the show. I'll get, I'll go ahead and give
you my, my cell phone too. That way you've got
it. Um, But Vision Pros, those of you listening
in, whether you see the chopped up version of
this or the full version of this, this is the
essence of the conversations at the top. When
I talked to John Lee Dumas, this was the environment.
When I would meet with Jake Larson, this was
the environment. When Irrational Marketing, Thomas
and McGare and I were building that out with
our team and we became a top. 50 fastest growing
startup in 2017 for the country of Canada. It
was because of these types of conversations.
So if anybody's ever harping on you as a visionary
and I was like, why are you wasting time in meetings?
One, don't waste time in meetings, but to value
the meetings that you have that are world -class
like this. And if you'd like to join us in the
show top right corner, you'll see the button
that says, be our guest. Come share your vision
with us. You do not have to have a seven figure
custom. promotional marketing company like Ethan
does here with Indigo Promotions, you could be
in the very beginning of your vision. And we
want to honor that and see that. And Ethan, man,
we'll see you in the next episode. This is going
to be awesome. Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision
Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your
reactions as these episodes continue to move
forward. This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.