EP81: Goodbye

Speaker A: We have made the decision to say goodbye. Well dudes, it's exhausting and it's a lot of time effort when everything is

Speaker B: aligned and the stars are aligned, but when the universe looks a little bit against you, it's a little bit of a harder blow to recover from. Especially at the levels I think we were doing. We were recording what, four, five, six, seven episodes in a day.

Speaker C: We can't keep going on the path we're on. We need to either double down, scale down, change something.

Speaker D: I think it's a disservice not to the sponsors, not only to the sponsors, but it's a disservice to us personally and then it's a disservice to the business. Businesses that are like R1, I think our number ones different and require more time, effort and energy than they did two years ago.

Speaker A: So this isn't clickbait. If you're watching this pod and you decided to come click on us, we are saying goodbye here. And I promise this isn't a marketing stunt. We're not doing giveaway, we're not doing anything fun here, but that's what we're going to talk about. So you boys ready for the final pod?

Speaker D: Let's do it.

Speaker C: Let's do it.

Speaker B: We just lost everybody. First five minutes.

Speaker A: One.

Speaker E: Welcome to the awesome pod where we talk a lot. Ecom is the path that we walk a lot from four point of views when we're talking Shot Amir from the agency and Jimmy from Sass. John has an Android but give him a pass cuz he's an operator building brands like a carpenter. And that's Brian. He is the marketer. Like I said this the awesome pod where we talk a lot. Ecom is the path that we walk a lot from four point of views when we're talking.

Speaker A: What is up? Everyone? Welcome back to the final episode of the awesome Pod. Now, uh, I want to make sure I introduce everyone one final time. We'll give everyone the long, long introduction to the way that Amer likes to do since that's what we do here. So we've got John Roman. He's the Android loving survival king. He's the CEO and co founder of battlbox, the leading outdoor subscription brand. Yes, I finally feel like I got that down. Yeah, Good, good, good.

Speaker B: Why do you sound so melancholy?

Speaker A: Who me?

Speaker D: Yeah. What's melancholy mean? Sounds like a bad Smashing Pumpkin dish.

Speaker A: Smashing Pumpkin. That's the episode with the orange pumpkin on it. All right, and then we've got Mr. Amer Grusenich he's uh, the Prince of Bosnia, Prince of Chicago or the mayor of Chicago, the M Mayor of motivation. Uh, in his lifetime. He's the CEO and are either co founder or founder. You're co founder, right?

Speaker B: Co founder, yeah.

Speaker A: Of Perella, the number one platinum shopify agency.

Speaker B: The number one. But we have a good company.

Speaker D: If you say it like that too, it's even better.

Speaker A: Yeah, it is pretty good. And then last but not least, We've got Brian McDonald. He is the funniest man on LinkedIn. At least self proclaimed. He loves meat. So much meat that he has a meat channel. Uh, with that he does sell really, really nice dog food that's really good for old dog stomachs that might be a little bit expensive for most people but is great and uh, is very heavy and hurts when you get hit in the balls with it. Um, he's the director of E Commerce at Oma's Pride.

Speaker D: Yeah, Hell yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: I know myself. I'm gonna, I'm gonna.

Speaker C: Yeah, you played yourself this time.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: Well my final time I'm gonna actually include myself. My name is Jimmy Kim. Uh, I would just simply say I do things online, social media and I've run this thing called Commerce Roundtable and we run a great live event show. If you're watching this final one, shameless plug. April 20, April 21 we've got one in Austin. And in September 21, September 22 we've got one in San Diego. Go check it out. I'll put up a coupon. If you watch this final one called awesome off and it's like asom off, put the coupon code on the bottom and it will give you a big percentage off a ticket if you want to come to check us out.

Speaker C: Might be doing, might be doing some live shopping.

Speaker A: With that being said, might be doing some live shopping. Potential live shopping.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Well, let's put it in the air John. But guys like I like everyone's probably clicked on this to listen to this like the few people or the hundreds of people, whatever people listen to this thing. But the reality is is we've made the decision to say goodbye and sunset the pod. And I want to kind of preface this and I would love to hear some things from everybody here as we kind of sunset this thing. But you know, we started this thing uh, with kind of a vision, right? We started with this idea that we wanted a show about perspective, a unique one. We've got the A for agencies, S for SaaS, O for uh, operator, M for marketer. That's how we got to the word awesome. And we wanted to do this, like, live show element. We felt like talking heads on a zoom call. Like, everybody was doing it since COVID And the reality was it wasn't given the production value, the. The genuine, like, body language and different things. And as we look back over the episodes, and I was reflecting on this, we definitely had a lot of these fun moments that were happening, I think wouldn't have happened unless we were online in, together, in person. And since we've been doing that, we've done, what, a year and a half, Almost two years of it together. Well, dudes, it's exhausting, and it's a lot of time, effort. And not only that, but, you know, there's a business side to that of actually making money versus paying for the cost. Believe it or not, you. The things that we were doing, the videographers we're hiring, the locations we're scouting out, all of that cost a lot of money.

Speaker C: A lot of money.

Speaker A: That's the amount of time. Yeah, the last time. The amount of time that was kind of putting into everybody's kind of world here. Taking any of us off the field for at least one to two days. It costs money, right? Real impactful money that's coming out of our own businesses. And the reality is that we had to make the tough decision. And though we went onto this, like, zoom pod thing towards the end of last year, we wanted to make sure that, you know, we continued to deliver episodes. The reality was, even looking forward, we were gonna have so many scheduling conflicts this year, just because all of our businesses are all on the right trajectories, moving the right direction, things are happening for us. And, well, that came into a big thing. Like, hey, guys, like, is this really gonna be something we can continue doing? And look, I love the pod. I love talking about the things we do. But the reality is, you know, I have things I need to do that I, you know, are. I, uh, have things I need to do in my life and my businesses that I need to be working on and focused on more than just this. And being put in the dedication is not, uh, a priority for me just as much as all of us have kind of agreed to that. So I thought today on this final pod, we do, ah, a podcast about podcasts. Because it's cliche, but it's really about why podcasts are really hard and really why we're seeing and hearing about. Look, you know, there's, like, fun stats. Like, most podcasts don't make it 10 episodes, like, it's like 20 or only 20% or something. Make it after 10 and then it's like 10% or 5%. Make it to like 50 or something like that, or 3%, and it continues to diminish off really fast. And the reason for that, I think, is what we've learned here. There's just so much. And the number one thing, Amer, you pointed this out when we're having our call talking about this was time, right? The thing that's immeasurable in value per se, because we don't know what is doing it, but we do know that the input and energy that we have to put into this takes away from everything else. Right. I think that was your biggest learning about the pod, right? Um, yeah.

Speaker B: I mean, I think for me in the beginning, like, because you're starting something new, something exciting, you don't really feel it, and you can have kind of this like post recording, post flight adrenaline. You come home, you're with your significant other, um, you open up your laptop, look at your inbox, you get through

Speaker A: it because it's there.

Speaker B: But then it's like, um, when you maybe hit a challenge in your business, when you maybe hit a challenge in your personal life or something happens, you kind of have like, a different setback. I think it's wonderful, like when everything is aligned or the stars are aligned, but when the universe shifts a little bit against you, um,

Speaker A: it's a little

Speaker B: bit of a harder blow to recover from. Um, especially at the levels I think we were doing. I mean, we were recording what, four, five, six, seven episodes in a day, um, having late flights, um, long days, early flights, going back home so you can maximize your weekend. But, um, I, I don't think much changed, like, in my perception from, like, starting it. It was like, still exciting. Don't get me wrong. It was super, super exciting. It was just. It becomes hard. It becomes hard. And the thing is, like, what most people don't do, us four, we have a Slack channel. Um, you, Jimmy, were, for the most part, uh, with Caitlin, you know, messaging our editors, arranging people, uh, flights, looking, um, at, like, sponsorships. I mean, there's a lot that goes behind the not, like, shop for one day and record giving, uh, me book assignments and books to read. I, uh, mean, there's. It was a lot of stuff. But, um, I'll tell you this much. It was hard. It was exciting. I would do it all over again 100 times. Um, when we discussed it the first time, I was a little bit sad. You know, it kind of hits you. I, uh, had a few days to reflect, and, um, honestly, I'm as grateful as I can be. I would tell everyone to go for it. Uh, I don't consider this a failure. I've learned so much, and for me, the coolest part is I really didn't know Jimmy and Brian so much. Um, got two really good friends, business partners, and I got embedded with John even more and got to know him.

Speaker D: John even more.

Speaker A: No, you guys got in bed together.

Speaker D: Oh, okay. I thought you said you got in bed with John even more. That's my fault.

Speaker A: No, I think you guys literally got in bed together.

Speaker B: I did because I ran away from Brian.

Speaker D: You sure did.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: I took my shirt off.

Speaker A: Shirt off.

Speaker C: And.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: First time we recorded, it happened. Yes.

Speaker A: All. All the weird things that occur. But, yeah, uh, yeah, that was a good reflection. I mean, look, I think that that's really, uh, right down one of the thought processes. John, what do you think about this, man? Like, as we reflect back, and I'm sure you've had time to think about things, what do you look back and say, man? Not saying that it wasn't a great experience and learning and all that stuff, but where did you feel the pain of everything that we worked on together? What was the hardest part to you?

Speaker C: Um, so to get to the hardest, I think let's go back to the beginning and the concept and the idea, and it's not what we're doing today. It was us in person. Right. Um, I still believe that the being able to execute that is miles ahead of every other podcast. That's what we're doing today. Right. So I think whether we executed it as well as we should have, obviously we could probably all agree we didn't. Maybe we executed well, but strategy needed to be a little bit different. I still find such. Such value in that. Um, honestly, for the friendships, too. But, like, you can. You can see those episodes, like, when we're getting into it, like, you can't beat in person. Um, so that. That's a huge. A huge positive, um, challenges. And the hard part is it's not inexpensive. We wanted to do. We wanted to do it right. We didn't want to cut corners. Um, none of us. None of us had the time to dedicate to some of the roles we hired for. Um, and because of that, we had to hire these roles, the video editing, the social media managing. So it was just very expensive. I mean, it was. You know, I think we can throw it out there. I think average, if you break it down. I think our, our, our monthly expenses view, if you take all the, you know, the, the seven in persons divided all equally, it's about 15, 16K a month. That's, uh, not inexpensive. And that's not to, that's to not make a single dollar. Yeah, yeah. We have 16k going out every month just to break even.

Speaker A: Yeah. Which is why, just to get the. It is wild. But if you. I think a lot of the things behind the scenes, if you want to do this properly, which we agreed on from the beginning that we would try to do and att. It's kind of what it took and it's why we had, you know, not that we had, uh, utmost success along the way, but I would say that we had some good successful moments throughout the shows. And a lot of that. Yeah. Came with a lot of cost. And again, going back to it, man, like, one thing I'm really proud of, just, I'll, uh, just kind of say is like, we were shooting five, six pods, and if you tell most people we're shooting five, six pods in one sitting, we, we heard it from every videographer that video. What are you guys doing? We're going to shoot five, six pods. In fact, this guy over here, John, was food sick one time in Chicago, I remember, and literally between shows was running downstairs to use the bathroom. Right. Like, that's how much, you know, not only dedication, but a show must go on mentality that we tried and we put our effort to and, and to your point, like, we all learned a lot. I think that there's definitely a lot there. I mean, Brian going to learning. I think that's something that I, you had mentioned before. You have felt and picked up a lot of stuff along the way. Just doing this and applying it to your business and seeing success. Tell me about that, man.

Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's, I think it's a, uh. Oh, man, it's like so different being a part of something than it is like outside, uh, looking in. Right. When you're, when, when you're on the inside of a, um, of some sort of podcast or group or community that

Speaker C: you are A gang or.

Speaker D: Gang. Yeah, gangs.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker D: As well, John. Yeah, I mean, listen, that's, that's part of life, you know. Um, no, I think I, I think it does make a big difference. And, and listen, I think I was always a podcast guy. I always listen to him. You always read, right. You're always on Engaged on X and LinkedIn, but unless you're like, really in the Weeds. And, and that's when you truly, um, digest things a lot more clear. Uh, it's when you're able to meet more people I think as well. Right. It's harder to meet people by being a, a, uh, gatherer. I think when you're a hunter, you meet a lot more people. Um, and I think that's what we were, we were hunters for, you know, a year and a half on the pod. Uh, granted, you know, um, it didn't work out the way we wanted it to, but I think we all took away our own learnings from it. I know I personally took away a lot from it. Right. I was in the industry, but I wasn't for a long time because I was in the 2A field. Uh, and uh, you know, there was a, that's a different, uh, whole different atmosphere. So, um, you know, I met three amazing new, you know, new really good friends that, that obviously were probably gonna go to each other's like funerals and wakes. Um, hopefully not for a while. Uh, right. Uh, hopefully we all make it for, for quite some time.

Speaker A: You know, four or five years. I'm at like the 60 life mark, I think. Um, but yeah, battery, the battery's draining over here.

Speaker D: I think it's, um, it's interesting and you learn, and you learn a lot with pods. And it's not like, listen, uh, I'm a big sports guy. Like, uh, you know, you guys know, people probably that probably listening, uh, are aware that I'm a big football guy. I played in college, I'm friends with a lot of guys in the NFL and it's easier to have a podcast talking about football than it is talking about, you know, uh, what you're going to do on email marketing for an E comm brand that's selling tumblers. Right. Or pet food. Um, so the TAM is super small and in the pod world that we live in, uh, we've talked about this before, um, in previous episodes and um, personally. But you know, you really, you know, for those folks that are listening, like, oh, I want to start a podcast. You really have two buckets, right? You have a, hey, let's go super niche and let's create this like agency specific pod on paid ads. Um, and then you can get like, you know, super niche on that, uh, and you know, hit that world at a small scale but a meaningful scale. Or you can go, you know, super wide open, um, and get politics involved or how to make your first million dollars in, you know, 90, uh, days. Right. Um, there's, there's not a lot of folks. And I think what I've learned too is Adam and I now that we're a part of cb, CBIA in Connecticut, um, which I didn't mention this last call but um, we just had a meeting yesterday and um, we were with like 300 business owners, all of them selling product online. So when I was like telling them uh, about the pod, they're like, dude, we have no time for a podcast. Like that's just a reality of the world today. I think we used to be in a very also like high um, digestible entertainment field in this industry. Business was easier to run I believe, uh, pre Covid. Um, and I think it was easier to run when money was free, um, because a lot of people were over hiring and they had people handle everything. And I think today, um, the true operators that are running successful businesses that aren't at a scale of a, you know, nine or ten figure, you know, business and they're grinding which is 99% of the market. A lot of them don't even have time for podcasts. And I think that they're the big drop off um, like Spotify saw a huge drop off the past two years. You're seeing like a huge consumer um, drop off in that just based on how hard life is getting. So it's, it's, it's cool to like see that, experience it, run it and then step back and be like, hey, we're also in a field where you either go small or you go super wide net. But then also understand that you know, the average US operator that would be listening to it unfortunately isn't. Isn't listening to podcasts as much anymore.

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Speaker A: So, uh, and I'll add, I'll add one last thing to that real quick. And you kind of made the point and I'll go to you, John, here. But you know, one thing that I've kind of thought about, and we talked about this too, is like, if we had something to sell you, right? Like we don't sell anybody anything except our sponsors. Big shout out to all our sponsors who support, supported us over the years, but we don't really have anything to sell you. So there isn't a funnel. If I'm an agency or I'm a, you know, whatever, and I want to sell you on my services by teaching you, educating and getting you embraced, thought leadership and being able to bring you down my funnel, I think that makes a lot more sense. But because we stayed so vague to ourselves, it's not like Amera, ah, we were talking about websites or Brian, we're talking about pet food or, or uh, John, we're talking about, you know, um,

Speaker C: survival gear.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, you don't, you don't like to be called survival. You're outdoor sports gear or something, right?

Speaker C: Survival gear is fine.

Speaker A: We don't like. Yeah, prep maybe.

Speaker E: That's.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. But you see, what I'm saying is like, if you have something to sell and you've got a small audience and you're able to talk to them, I think it is great to be able to get people in. But we didn't have that. So that was another part of that learning is if you're going to do it, don't. Doing it as a media company versus doing it as a funnel to attract prospects and buyers to your business. Very total different kind of thought process in the way that you might want to approach this too, because then it becomes a marketing investment versus a marketing output.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker A: And John, what were you going to say?

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think, I think you nailed it. You both did. I think everybody has. You know, I do want to clarify for, for the, uh, the people that are listening. Um, you know, we were at a crossroads right there. There a path forward was continuing what we were doing. That was, that was a path forward too. There was the path of, um, you know, cutting it and cutting costs, which, which you know, was honestly the one that I was leading towards and suggesting. And that was taking our cost down, our monthly cost down to, you know, next to nothing. Call it, call it a thousand dollars a month and continuing on the journey. But it would have been this, right? It would have been not in person. Um, you know, just like every other podcast. Um, and, you know, rightfully so that's not that attractive. The other option, one of the suggestions Jimmy made was, um, let's just double down. Right? Let's. Okay, if we needed to this, let's go twice as hard. Um, which I think was an option too. Uh, so we had. It's not like we're. Like there is a path, multiple paths, where we could have kept this going. I think just us having a discussion of we can't keep going on the path we're on. We need to either double down, scale down, change something. I think that discussion that we all had a couple weeks ago that just kind of led to the aha moment of, uh, you know, awesome is awesome, but sometimes you gotta take awesome out back and, you know,

Speaker B: yeah, let.

Speaker A: Let it go. I think that's also there. And just to be clear, I think it's also important we had the money. We're actually returning sponsor money back and canceling out since we're returning six figures. It's. It's not just because we're returning six figures out, because we both. We all believe that we would be not doing a service to our sponsors if we took the show into a total different direction without talking to them. And right now, we have no idea if it would work or not if we continued on as talking heads ultimately in this, like, 2D kind of aspect. And so there is a lot of that. But, yeah, to your point, John, I mean, we did have good discussions around it, and, you know, I thought a lot about it. And big shout out to Curtis, who was on one of our episodes. That kind of challenged that thinking too. I mean, not saying I was dumping 90% of the stuff, but a lot of this stemmed from even myself reflecting at Geez, like, last year was a whirlwind for me. I did a lot of great stuff, but, man, like, I don't have the time to put into it what's the best use of my personal time next year to have a better output and be able to double down on the things that I want to work on. And Austin was on the table. I don't think it was off the table. It was just purely. If I can't get everyone else to line on the double down situation, then it makes no sense because we're all here because we're entrepreneurs and we want to move forward. And if you can't move straight down the arrow, we don't want to do the same thing we did last year. That would be insanity, in my opinion. I want to do better and bigger and greater.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: And that's always my mantra. I mean you'll see that with Commerce Roundtable as well. And that will not. That uh, will continue on of course this year and continue growing and that has a very, uh, smooth trajectory to the growth that we need to have.

Speaker D: Yeah. And, and, and, and I think piggybacking off of that, I think Jimmy took a lot of the load. Right. So like we're also. All four of us, right. Not just Jimmy. I think all four of us are in a different spot than we were a year and a half or two years ago. Right. Jimmy was sort of like exiting send lane at the time. Um, he was like building businesses that he currently is running now at a higher level and operating speed. Commerce, um, Roundtable is now officially like in control of Commerce Roundtable and not this weird handoff which is when the pod started. Right. So, you know, Jimmy took a lot, uh, a lot on too at the time when we first started. Awesome. Where you know, Jimmy was the one developing the show notes and you know, finding the talent to, you know, produce the quality of video and edits that we needed. Right. Whether it's, you know, outsourcing or finding, you know, folks in cities. Um, and then, you know, now you look at like Battlbox Pro and Omas, you know, the businesses are, are moving forward. Like almost from when we first started. We're almost like double the business. So now it's like, you know, there's a lot. I'm traveling a lot more for the business than I was two years ago. Um, you know, Amir has stuff going on with Perella. Um, John and Battlbox are doing definitely a lot more, um, I would say volume. I know the business is doing better, John, but I think the volume of Battle Box that's being put out, um, different channel diversification. You're doing live shopping now. There's a lot going on. Like you and I have. I got three kids. You know, they're about to be upstairs going nuts from 5:00pm Eastern until 8:00 clock. And then I'm dealing with them from 6:00am till 8:30 when they go to school. I'm working. There's just. There's a plethora of things going on and then Jimmy's businesses that are taking off in different directions. But I think it's really just like Jimmy did, uh, a good job pointing out. I think it's a disservice not to the sponsors, um, not only to the sponsors, but it's a disservice to us personally. And then it's A disservice to the businesses that are like our one. Right. Like, hey, Michael Jordan plays basketball. The Bulls came before golf. Right. Even though he was really good at golf, he couldn't keep going forward with golf. Even though he did, he was a nut job. But the point I'm trying to make is, um, I think our number ones, um, are a lot different, uh, and require more time, effort and energy, um, than they did two years ago.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Well, boys, I don't want to drag this out forever. Uh, I don't think that we need to have a huge pot around us, but it really is goodbye. And I wanted to make sure that the listeners that do listen to this final pod, we thank you for listening, enjoying, laughing, crying, being angry, whatever it might have been that we invoked, hopefully invoke some emotion out of you. Hopefully we taught you guys something and hopefully you found some type of value and, uh, in the things that we did together. And, you know, we're all going to be still out there. It's not like we're going to be off media. Obviously I have, and this is my shameless plug. I have a retention focused podcast that will be continuing on. So there is something called send it, uh, with an exclamation point. You can find us on YouTube. So there's that. And then I know that, you know, obviously there might be other pods that's been up in different things, but for the Austin pod here today, this is our final episode. Final words. Amer, your last time on air. By the way, Amir, I want to give you one final compliment on air because I know this means a lot.

Speaker C: Oh, Jesus.

Speaker A: Amer, from the day you started to the day you are today, your speaking and ability to speak through a microphone has increased so much. And it's very obvious because I went back to episode one and I was like, man, if back in episode one, I should have cut Amer, but we didn't. Amer stayed on and he's improved so

Speaker D: much, I forgot it was on the canonical.

Speaker A: Have Ian Obama. Remember when he used to sound like Bosnian Obama? And he talked really weird and slangy and now he talks fast.

Speaker D: And I don't think it was weird. I think it was just because he was Bosnian, you know what I mean?

Speaker A: Yeah, maybe it might have been.

Speaker C: But, um, was. Have I. Is my microphone. Have I improved?

Speaker D: No, you haven't improved at all. I'm gonna be honest with you. Yeah, you're still the same.

Speaker A: Day one, from day one, John. We've had microphone issues with John. From day one.

Speaker C: We haven't had microphone issues.

Speaker A: We always have an audio issue with John, and it's okay. You know what I mean?

Speaker B: It's.

Speaker A: It's. It's the one thing we learned that we just will never fix about John is audio will never be his forte.

Speaker D: No, no. You know, I mean, for sure is.

Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, yeah, no, it for sure isn't. Like, my mic's working right now, so

Speaker A: it's bringing closer to your.

Speaker C: Why do you want it so you don't need it this close.

Speaker D: I mean, that sounds better.

Speaker C: That sounded better.

Speaker E: Yes.

Speaker A: It sounds deeper. It sounds more rich. It sounds more from the chest in the heart. We'll keep it like this.

Speaker B: Maybe.

Speaker D: Maybe we could have kept this freaking thing. If you put your mic closer your mouth.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker B: I had no idea you had a radio face.

Speaker D: Yeah, he does. John does.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: 93 hot. 93. 7 with John Roman.

Speaker A: Uh, somebody.

Speaker B: All right.

Speaker D: Somebody coming back to you.

Speaker B: All right.

Speaker A: No, anyways, but. But final thoughts.

Speaker B: Uh, first of all, honestly, thank you three. Um, I think for me, actually, I was going to say thank you guys for allowing me to grow, to gain confidence in being more open and comfortable and not necessarily boxing conversations in and, uh, expressing myself. Thank you for knighting me as a prince of Bosnia and for electing me as mayor of Chicago. Hopefully, one of those will come true in the future. Um, uh, also, I think it's really humbling for me, too, to have all the sponsors that we've had and what they believed in us into this project. Um, um, it was really cool, uh, to have companies of all sizes, um, uh, believe in us and help, uh, us do this thing. Um, one thing that was, like, really cool, uh, for me, two kind of big moments. Um, the first time I went to Send Lane after we. I missed Lane. Send Lane, uh, had come roundtable. And the first time it was there, we just started a pod. And I was overwhelmed when I went there by recognition, by conversations, people coming up to me. I literally had people text me saying, like, hey, can you find me when you free up? And it was like. It was really, really humbling. Um, but the coolest part is, and a m. Lot of us shared these moments together is when we had merchants call us. Hey, I'm struggling with my business. I heard you guys talking about this. What do you think I should do? I had my merchants that we work with listen to podcasts. I really like this. Can you get into it more with me? Uh, so my thing when I started, I was afraid of misguiding people. Uh, of saying something wrong and I hope I didn't. It was unintentional, but my goal was to help somebody and to know that I at least help one person, uh, maybe move a business forward, make a decision. Um, whether it's one or ten people, um, it feels equally great. So that's kind of my two bits. And yeah, it was enjoyable.

Speaker C: Cool.

Speaker A: Jonathan, is that, is John. Are you actually Jonathan or we. Are you just John?

Speaker C: I think I'm just John.

Speaker A: That's right. You're, you don't, you don't have a formal name.

Speaker D: Lazy ass parents.

Speaker C: John is my formal name.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's not formal. Jonathan from Jonathan Williams or, or not.

Speaker C: Call me my name. John.

Speaker A: Um, how do you think I see with a mirror?

Speaker C: Oh, I, how do you think I feel? Listen, here is Sunny.

Speaker A: Sunny.

Speaker B: Okay. Okay.

Speaker C: Okay. So, yeah, this was fun. This was real. This was fun. It was real fun. It was a good run, almost two years. Um, I enjoyed it. You know, one thing we really didn't touch on, but I would argue that all four of us feel this way is forcing ourselves to talk about the topics we talked about week after week. It's that, it's the uh, iron sharpens iron. Steel sharpens steel mentality. Right. Like it forced us to keep, um, abreast on, on, on important topics. And, and it, I think it made us stronger and better as operators, marketers, et cetera, um, by having to always have a pulse on everything. And I think so many times, at least I know personally, so many times we'd be talking about a topic and that would create an aha moment to myself of oh, what about this, what about that? And then I'd go back to the team afterwards. You know, on the days when we ripped six episodes, I'd have a list of 10 things of initiatives we were going to do when I got back. That all stemmed from the show. So it was, it was really beneficial from that side. Yeah, well, this isn't, this is, uh, says goodbye, but it's not goodbye forever.

Speaker A: Yeah, that was cute. And Mr. Brian, any final thoughts? I know you've been on this ranting diet tribe, so for the first time ever, Brian, I'm giving you two minutes because I used to have to do that to mayor, but you're, you're getting the rest of two minutes.

Speaker D: Uh, number, number one, uh, I'm down some weight. I don't know if you guys can tell that's number one. I want to point that out there. Um, and uh, as, as we move on now, I, I Can't even really think about how many times that um, I've run into situations where, oh, um, we need to do this at omas. Uh, I don't even know who to go to. Uh, let me give Jimmy a call. Jimmy picks up. Jimmy's a big second ring, third ring pickup guy. If you get Jimmy past two or three rings, Jimmy is, is in a fire. Uh, so like that, uh, that I appreciated like more than I think you, that you know Jimmy. I think that was huge. I think just like the, the Perella and Almost relationship. Uh, and I remember episode one, right Amir Episode two. We like jokingly were like, oh, you'll have to do the Almost website, right? Like it was a joke on one of the first two episodes we did in Atlanta. Um, and then look at the relationship that's, you know, come from that and things that probably will be a part of, you know, with OMAS in the future. So, um, and then you look at John where uh, you know him and I sort of, uh, John's definitely a lot smarter than me from an autistic standpoint. Um, and uh, a lot of the, A lot of the nerdy stuff, uh, you know, I'll text or call John. Even if he's on a call, he'll be like on a call. Call back in 15 and in 14 minutes John calls back. I um, think there's a lot that John and I have shared with each other and talked through with each other, um, that's invaluable. Um, and like I said, I think they're. It's worth starting a podcast just if you, if you find the right people to start it with, it's worth it just for that aspect of it. And then everything else sort of is, is gravy. And um, we had a lot of folks like you know, Kintsugi and Omnisend and recharge in the beginning and Gorgeous in the beginning to give us the opportunity to get the plane off the ground. Um, but the plane getting off the ground for me, um, was more about uh, you know, like contin continuing my plan to, to keep going forward and helping everyone's plan to keep going forward, you know, versus it. Like reaching some sort of destination that um, I think a lot of podcasts are, are looking for. Right? Whether it's an exit or you know, uh, you know, nine figure, you know, whatever the, whatever that final destination is. That really wasn't um, important to me. So I think that was the biggest piece of it. And that's what I recommend to folks is finding the right people and good people. Because just starting it for those benefits, um, and the friendships and relationships are worth it.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And we'll continue our private Slack channel, which is probably our source of communication most times. And we're 24 hours a day mocking each other, making statements, making jokes, showing sharing memes. Things. That was yesterday.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Things has canceled.

Speaker D: I mean.

Speaker A: I mean, we'll say anything behind those doors, and I think that that's probably how we'll continue our relationship. Plus, we'll see each other events and Stu.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: Congress Roundtable. Austin. We're gonna be there. I'm gonna be at Kill Tony. We're gonna. Jimmy, you gotta get me on Kill Tony.

Speaker A: Yeah, Austin. And then San Diego. So we'll put those final notes below. But hell yeah, with that, boys, it's a wrap. This is our final time. We'll say goodbye and, uh, it's the end of a show. It's a wrap, guys. It was a, uh, good run and I would say that we learned a lot. And we'll look back at this. The cool thing about the Internet is everything lives forever. So I can't wait to show this to my kids, like 20 years from now. And they're going to be like, ha, uh, that was terrible. Right? It's cool though, because they're going to. They're not going to be. I. There's no chance they're getting to email marketing, so I have no desire for them to get into that. So for that reason, I hope that they just think that it was very boring or whatever, but it would be cool to go back and look at this.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker A: And not only that, the growth and the different things is. You know, a lot of this podcast was stem from a lot of my personal change of things happening in my life that I would say that I carried through into what Brian said. Like, I was going through a lot of things at that point and it was my, like, sanity point, my creative outlet. And I got to talk about a lot of cool things that I have and kind of share the knowledge that I have outside of email marketing. I know that I'm the email guy, but I really do know a lot more things outside email market. I promise. And, uh, I think that people got to hear some of those. But with that being said, guys, that's a wrap, dudes. Adios. Last time with the things. Thank you guys all. Thank you to all the listeners that are getting to this last part of this thing. Thank you for listening, leaving us, putting us on stage, sponsors, uh, people who've came up to us. All the things that Brian's doing over here with his hands because he thinks he's a millennial, but you're. Or not. What is it? What is it? Wait, no, you're doing it the wrong way. The. The. The way they do it now. The.

Speaker B: The. Is it that way?

Speaker A: That's blood, right? That's blood.

Speaker D: That's a gang thing.

Speaker A: How. Wait, yeah, I don't. It's like. It's like this is how the youngins do it, and we're too old for that. Our fingers don't move that way. So with that, it's a wrap, dude. See you guys later. Adios.

Speaker E: Welcome to the awesome pod where we talk a lot. Ecom, um, is the path that we walk a lot from four point of views when we're talking shop.