Building Awestruck: Friendship, Hospitality, and the Art of Co-Leadership

Speaker A: Hi, my name is Dave Resky, co author of the 100X Entrepreneur. And welcome to this edition of the 100X Entrepreneur podcast where we share stories of amazing entrepreneurs who have scaled their businesses and just built um, amazing uh, organizations. And my guests today are uh, Ryan Sprance and Dave Marcy, co founders and co CEOs of Austruck. Uh, Ryan and Dave, welcome to the show.

Speaker B: Thanks so much for having us.

Speaker C: Appreciate it. David. Thank you.

Speaker A: Yeah, and thank you so much for being uh, our guest on the uh, 100x entrepreneur podcast. Uh, today's conversation is really a continuation of the story that uh, you were featured in in the book. And I'm just uh, thrilled that the audience is going to have a chance to hear directly from you about your experiences and uh, you know, your insights and your continuing journey at Awestruck. So thanks again for taking the time, um, you know, to get started. Um, you know, can you just describe, you know, the essence of your founding story? You know, how did you get this company off the ground and some of the early growth and really, you know, what is Awestruck really all about?

Speaker C: Sure, I can definitely handle that. So um, Ryan and my story kind of uh, really starts with a friendship that was really earned very early in both of our careers. So um, we both worked when the World Wrestling Entertainment was still the World Wrestling Federation. We both worked for, for that organization in their entertainment uh, complex in Times Square. So I was a ah, ah, you know, this was my first job out of college. You know, Ryan had, ah, had been working for slightly longer out in the field, had a little bit more experience than, than I did. I came in in a marketing role. I um, actually came in as a waiter that ah, at the, at the restaurant and then worked my way up in a few months to the, to a marketing role. Ryan was running a retail store so they, it was a kind. They sat us right next to each other. He and I both discovered that we were major Howard Stern fans and we kind of shared that experience together and we became really fast friends. Um, Ryan was in a role where you know, I was still a junior executive kind of learning how to email, like how to you know, address people. And Ryan was always giving me advice and I really thought his advice was sound. He steered me in the right direction a few times. So it was a great trust that we had uh, earned with each other and we also did a few fun things together. We actually took that Howard Stern fanship and ended up calling into the show and we got them to do one of their Celebrity boxing matches at our facility. So we had a lot of kind of earned experience together and um, just uh, this kind of idea that we could, we could accomplish things together. And it was, it was a really cool foundation for a friendship. Um, we stayed in touch after that facility went away. Um, uh, Ryan and I stayed in touch over the next couple of decades off and on. Um, and uh, you know, you flash forward, I had a full career as a TV sales executive. Um, uh, Ryan had a career in various large scale companies in the retail space and Apple and all kinds of different experiences. You flash forward to kind of this point in time where I had just left TV and started a small agency with a partner and doing automotive dealership advertising. And Ryan was still working in the corporate world but he was advising businesses on how to build kind of social media presence and how to uh, execute on that. Because he had done that himself. He created his own lifestyle brand. Um, we, so basically you know, we had found our way, my agency found our way into a property called Camelback Resort, which is in Tannersville, Pennsylvania. It was outside of the scope of what we typically did as an agency, but we kind of cold called our way in there and started working with those guys and we were seeing some moderate digital success that was kind of growing, uh, in momentum. So at some point, and this is kind of the fortuitous uh, timing, uh, and that's just the way that life works. But they had asked us if we knew anybody that could help them with social media because that was not my area of expertise at all. We were doing digital advertising, traditional media, that kind of stuff. And uh, and I didn't except for the fact that I had just literally seen Ryan in a video, uh, scrolling through social media. I saw my old friend in a, in a video with Gary V. Gary Vaynerchuk. So he had uh, he had done it. I'll let him tell that story a little bit too. But he had done an interview with Gary Vee and uh, I, so I still had his cell phone number. I reached out to him and said hey buddy, is what am I seeing? What is this video? And um, we kind of reconnected and he told me about what he was working on and basically within a couple of weeks he was auditioning for this role with Campbellback. And he got that, he got the gig. So now we're working together, um, having a really, really great time and a lot of success working with Camelback. And then that just kind of spiraled so that the owners of that property launched another property. Up in the Catskills. Um, we got imported into that marketing team and all of a sudden we were working with a large scale management company that they had brought on, a management company that had about 150 properties across the country. And we successfully launched this new property. Um, and then we sat down at a lunch in Princeton, New Jersey and never forget it. We kind of sat down and said, all right, this is. We're at a potential really fortuitous crossroads right now. We have this kind of destination category that we are proving that we are good at and we work really well together. Um, we've got this relationship now with this large scale management company called Benchmark. They have properties across the country. We could potentially grow from this if we kind of steer in that direction. So we decided at that lunch to combine our two agencies and basically create awestruck. We planted our flag firmly in the destination sector and said, this is the specialty that we want to start working within. Still had some legacy accounts, still had some dealerships and a few other things that we were working with. But over time, um, that proved to be the right decision. We started steering harder and harder into that category and we've never looked back at this point. It's been, it's been a fun, fun ride.

Speaker A: So awesome. So, uh, what a great story. And I love the way that your relationship and the trust that you've got with each other really kind of put you together in that and you kind of your expertise and you focus on that. I want to get more into the core services that distinguish, uh, um, awestruck and, you know, what you're really doing for clients. But Ryan, what do you remember about those early days and maybe how that, that, that partnership came together? Because, uh, that I want to spend some time on that because that's really unusual. I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs that don't do well in partnerships and don't have those kind of trust relationships that you do. So. Yeah. What do you remember about that, Ryan, and how did that come together for you?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, listen, I had gotten fired from, uh, my corporate job, um, May 1, 2018, and going to start my own business. I said, I really want to give this a shot and be sort of this person who builds something rather than works for someone else. And I think early on the thought of kind of merging with someone else was more of like, well, then I'll be back in a situation where I'm sort of negotiating ideas and things like that. Uh, so I don't know if it was Anyone else on the planet that I would have entered into, uh, a partnership with than Dave. And the unique thing about it is that we've got so many complementary skill sets, but we also have our own areas of expertise. I couldn't do what Dave does on a daily basis. I think if I was solely running the company from the very beginning, I don't believe it would have grown to the level, uh, it's grown today. So. One of the things I do remember distinctly about, uh, our, Our lunch where we sort of form this idea to, to merge together and create this company is that we wanted to build a company that had systems in place and great people, uh, and provided great results and did things slightly different from every other agency out there. And you know, we continue to strive to do. To do that on a daily basis. But I think that was really sort of the focus and the direction at the time.

Speaker A: That's awesome. Well, coming back to awestruck in those early days, what were some of those. The biggest challenges you had in kind of growing that up and, and getting it off the ground? And what were some of those early successes that, uh, that you kind of remember?

Speaker C: Yeah, well, those first couple successes that I, I talked about was, were great building blocks for us as we were starting to kind of forge into this territory. And you know, then, then our story becomes very similar to so many other businesses who kind of launched in the 20, 19, 20, uh, period of time. You know, Covid struck and obviously shut down the entire travel and tourism industry. So we, uh, you know, we had to get through that in, in kind of our. Our own way and, and figure out, um, you know, the, the best path forward. What was kind of cool is it presented an opportunity for us, and there were a lot of. A lot of properties that were kind of on our radar that we had access to that were making these kind of broad stroke decisions about their marketing. And they kind of took that time period to maybe end relationships that they have with agencies or with partners that they weren't happy with. And they were kind of taking auditions during that time for, for new partners. And we had just kind of. We were the new kid on the block, and we were the, uh, you know, I think the shiny object that a lot of these properties wanted to talk to. So we actually formed a lot of, uh, contractual obligations during that time period and kind of had our kind of next wave of business ready to go. And we just had to be patient enough to kind of get. Get through that. Uh, one story I'll tell, which was was significant for us is, um. And, you know, I think this is pro. This is probably something that a lot of entrepreneurs can, can understand. We got an inquiry from a property in Florida that was kind of an old, older, aging hotel that was trying to shed its, its old reputation and develop kind of a new client base. And they, they wanted to rebrand effectively. So we got a phone call saying, hey, do you guys, do you guys do branding work? And we said, absolutely. Did. Did we actually do branding work? No, we had never done that before in our lives. So we just said, yes, and we're going to figure this out. One of the requirements. And they said the reason there was another team that was supposed to be doing the branding and they would not fly during COVID They didn't want to go to the property. The owners adamantly, you know, insisted that the team that is branding us needs to be here. They need to feel it, they need to understand it, they need to see what we are. So we hopped on a plane, uh, right in the midst of COVID and said, we're just going to do this and take the risks that we went down. We got the gig. I, I asked a buddy of mine who is in branding. I said, can you just give me an idea of like, what your product is? But we figured it out and we had a great creative team that really kind of stepped up. And, um, so, uh, that was a big, uh, I think, you know, moment, um, for us that, uh, we're going to do this, we're going to forge forward. And then coming out of COVID we had a whole lot of stuff lined up.

Speaker A: What a great story. So, you know, what was a disaster for many of your competitors in that period of time, really, all the, you know, a lot of business going away became a massive opportunity for you as you kind of forged confidently forward in a whole new way. Uh, any other big lessons learned in those early days as you were getting off the ground, you know, and I'm so impressed by the way with your extreme focus on hospitality, um, and the markets that you're focused on. Was that always your core focus? Was that one of your core lessons learned?

Speaker B: Um, well, from the very beginning, it had to be, right? So we, we each had, as Dave said, these separate, smaller agencies that somewhat specialized in different things. And I think Dave specialized more in auto than my agency did in anything. But, uh, that thought process of giving our clients or the prospects an opportunity to work with an agency that's hyper focused on their space, that was imperative. The other piece of that Is as we started to hire people, we wanted to make sure that we're hiring people directly from the industry. So, you know, most of our account directors today and senior account directors are people that have worked as, you know, director of sales and marketing inside of properties because they could, you know, speak the same language to the clients and understand the same challenges. If it's like, hey, you know, it's, we really struggle filling, you know, restaurant reservations midweek, uh, our people most likely have dealt with that in some kind of fashion. Rather than someone who's sort of a marketing expert and just kind of giving marketing advice. Our people are also, you know, hoteliers in that sense. And you know, in terms of like, when we look at, well, what if we go back and put the pieces together and say, well what. How did we sort of catch this like lightning in a bottle? I really do believe a lot of it starts with the people that we put in place and the executive team that we've got. You know, we've got a group of people, you know, across the company now we've got about 80 employees, but we've got a core group of people that have done such an exceptional job kind of learning and growing with us, uh, over the years, uh, and we absolutely could not have built a company to this level without them. I know a lot of people will say that, right? That's the right thing to say. But you know, our case, it's. It's 100% true.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I don't know if you know this, but the reason we connected with you was because obviously you're on the Inc. 5000 list. And we were doing research and we were looking for companies that had grown, you know, the name of the book, at least 100 times in a three year period. And the minimum cutoff was that was about 30 companies on the Inc. 5000 had reached that level of success. And you did that. So you were in that top 30 in the years that you qualified. And we, you know, we're so impressed and we had, you know, interview for the book and you guys stories out there. But what, what is it about the things that you talked about so far are amazing great strategies for any agency to do right, but you distinguish yourself in creating a growth engine that was able to accelerate beyond that. So are there any things that you can think of that kind of let you take that vision and the strategy, but really accelerate into a growth story like that? That's, that's very different than, uh, how other agencies might have approached it? Or any, any other business would have approached it.

Speaker B: I think for us it comes down to product. Um, you know, and Dave has been able to, to really harness the power of, you know, connected television advertising based on his, you know, experience, um, which, you know, he can speak to. But we were really the first ones to pioneer, you know, ott, connected television and streaming audio into the hospitality space. But Dave, you want to talk a little bit about that?

Speaker C: Yeah, sure. I mean that. So that was one, you know, there's, it's culmination of a lot of things, but that was one pretty significant, um, I think shortfall in the marketplace that we saw that we wanted to kind of fill that gap. Um, you know, come from, when you come from tv, you come from a very disciplined background of understanding branding and the effect that branding has on kind of all other marketing components. And what we were starting to recognize, not for every client, right, we deal with some large scale resorts with, you know, a thousand plus rooms, but there's a lot of hotels that we, that we handle with maybe 300, 300 keys, something like that. These guys have to operate on a, on a, you know, a budget that makes sense from a month to month basis. The most wasteful mediums are TV and radio. It's just the way that it is. You know, traditional media is wasteful, um, but it is, they're effective branding tools. So we were realizing that all of these, you know, hotels that we were dealing with had all of their digital advertising in place, but they weren't doing anything to establish who they were and what their brand identity was. Um, all of the digital components in an advertising campaign sing much louder, you know, when supported by a defined brand presence where people know who you are, especially in the hospitality sector, where it's a very visual medium. You, you kind of, it's, it's an emotion driven sort of decision to, to say, all right, I want to stay here with my family or whatever it might be. So we, in the earliest stages of ott, we started kind of tinkering around with various vendors and saying, you know, we need to understand this, this is the best, you know, this is the perfect crossroads between digital advertising and traditional media. Um, you know, if we're not going to understand and do it, then who is? You know, you got somebody coming from tv, you got a full scale digital team. We need to be the ones to, to pioneer this. We didn't have wonderful experiences with our initial vendors just because we felt like they were missing the mark for the most part. And we were recognizing Language in the way that we were kind of being sold and uh, uh, presented with the product where it was too much of a, just a. Ah, we're trying to alter what traditional media is and just put it into this format. We saw it as a very digital medium that needed to execute all of the high level targeting that digital executed. So after a little while we kind of met internally and said, how do we build, build our own campaign management system? I don't want to deal with vendors anymore like I want, I want to build this out. So we did that. We, we always take the tactic. We kind of start with the ideal. Right? And um, I'm saying that because it's actually ironically the initial name of our service was called Ideal, but um, it's now Awestruck Streaming. Uh, we, we start with where do we want to be? What, what do I want to be saying when I'm sitting in front of a client and telling them about our kids capabilities? What do I want to be saying and what do I want those effects to be? And then how do we build to that? So we did that over the course of a couple of years. Streaming to Ryan's point, took on this kind of life of its own where we, you know, we had to really beat the drum out there with our, our partners in the destination sector who weren't used to spending any money on media to say here is why this makes sense. You need a brand identity. It's going to help everything else. We did so with confidence and with knowledge that this was going to happen. Um, and we got those, a few of those early adapters. We saw tremendous early results with ott. So then you start telling that story to the ones that are kind of on the fence and then they come off of the fence and they do it. And we're at a point now where we're synonymous with OTT advertising in the destination sector. We get a lot of inquiries and a lot of people who are seeking out our services based on that alone. So it's been really gratifying to kind of watch that evolution of us pushing versus now. You know, the business is coming to us and we're good at it. It's a really effective medium. It's taken on um, big role with us as a company. It's not all we do, but it's a big piece of our, of our platform.

Speaker A: That's awesome. So you know, you talked about hyperfocus on your market. You talked about great people, that execution. You talked about uh, the unique service offering in the OTT what, uh, it's like really become a winning formula. What's, what's next? How are you thinking about the year ahead? Like what's, what's 2026 hold for you? Is it kind of, are you at a point now that you've grown so rapidly and you got a good infrastructure that this is a, you know, 10 growth year? Are you still, you know, shooting for, ah, you know, very rapid growth, or is, is this a product expansion year? How do you think about the strategies, you know, in the new year?

Speaker B: Well, it's a, it's, it's a little bit of both. Right. You know, it's, there's always ebbs and flows of you know, new properties coming in and, and properties leaving. Uh, and of course we, we try to limit the properties leaving to, to build out on the new clients that are coming in. So I think in every area of the business, based on the rate of growth that we've had, there's always sort of uh, a, uh, reimagining. If you look at our operations team, it's expanded into different departments and different groups and different positions to fulfill the need of the business as the business has come and to give you sort of context. And our first year of 2019, we did 106,000 in sales. Uh, this year we'll do over 31 million. So going into next year there's a couple of focuses. It's, yeah, we want to continue to grow the business. We want to grow the business in a way that's sustainable, uh, and mature. We want to be able to take in clients and be able to deliver uh, the same level and quality of work that we've always been able to do, which is a challenge to be honest, in any business. How do you continue to keep that product, product, uh, as strong as can be. And then we've spent the better part of a year building out a SaaS product. Uh, actually two different SaaS products, but one that we are going to market with is called Sugarcane. Uh, Sugarcane is a platform that connects creators, uh, UGC content creators with uh, businesses in the hospitality space. So think of it this way. There are probably 50 or so platforms out there today that will connect creators, uh, uh, with consumer product companies. You know, I've got an iPhone case, I've got a tote bag, leather jacket, whatever it is, those are a lot easier to find. But there are no products out there. So we are, you know, the, the world's first, you know, hospitality creator platform to connect, uh, these businesses with the creators out there. And to be honest, they're the ones that need the majority of the content. Because if you think of the hospitality space, it's very hard to continue to keep your social media presence and your digital ad presence strong if you don't have up to date creative. So that's a product that we've been working on behind the scenes. We're currently in the process of, you know, strategically adding creators, you know, hand selecting people, walking them through the process, kind of understanding the tech stack ourselves, since it's something we've never done before, and then going in strong into 2026, trying to, you know, launch those businesses and see how the two pieces of that product connect. Um, but that we, we think that's a really strong place, uh, you know, for us to grow, uh, in addition to the, you know, managed services portion of the business.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. Wow, that's, that's powerful, but also very challenging. You've built, uh, an amazing services business with great people and obviously operations and sales and, and client services and all of that. You, you've pioneered in technology, right, like, you know, tt and now you're building your own platform that further differentiates you and um, and gives you added capability, differential capability to drive more value for your clients. That's uh, that's just a powerful strategy. So. Yeah, I, I just want to say that, that, that's uh, that's. You've done a great job with all of that. You had to, you know, we just have a few minutes left here. If you had to give some advice to other entrepreneurs on their strategy, the other entrepreneurs who want to grow rapidly, um, and kind of take their business to the next level. Uh, you know, what's, what's two or three things that you would. Maybe each. Or maybe one thing. What, however, however many you think, what's, what's advice that you would give to other entrepreneurs that would help them think about, uh, you know, scaling rapidly and, and accelerating their growth.

Speaker C: I, I know, I can say from my perspective, one of the things that I talk about a lot is I know that, you know, not everybody is the same. Right? And there's, there's some people that prefer to just run their own business and be kind of the sole person in charge and make all the decisions and not have any other influence. Um, I am very much a collaborator. That's the, the way that my personality is. I'm a huge proponent of running a business with a partner that you trust. Um, you know, it's, and listen, there's.

Speaker A: There.

Speaker C: Everybody has had Kind of bad experiences with maybe choosing the wrong person to kind of go to the dance with. Ryan and I are very lucky that we, we trust. Um, you know, we're, it's built off of a solid friendship and, you know, we long time ago committed to each other that, hey, this, we're wearing this together. We're both taking care of families, we're both going to help each other. If anybody has a problem, then we, we will, we'll rise to the occasion. And we've had a lot of opportunities over the last few years to kind of prove that to each other. Um, you know, and it's, it also is intermixed with the advice of surrounding yourself with people who have the skill sets that you don't have. So Ryan and I are a great match. And he mentioned, you know, from an operational and a financial standpoint. Ryan'. Ryan's got that skill set. I'm terrible with finances, or at least from a business perspective. I just don't have that background. And he's got a lot of that operational managerial experience. I've got more of the sales background, kind of operating environments, like knowing that, you know, commission is how you make your money and bringing in revenue and that kind of stuff. So we've brought those skill sets together and made it really work for us. So I'm a huge proponent of business partnerships.

Speaker A: So people m. Trust.

Speaker B: So yeah, I would add to that too is, uh, m, make your first and second hires before you think you're ready to. Because by the time an entrepreneur admits that they are sort of overwhelmed and they need help, usually it's a little too late. Especially it's someone who's starting a business, has never done it before. Uh, so, you know, kind of bet on yourself a little bit. You know, look down the road, understand what your goals are. But if you're like, hey, when I get to X number of dollars in revenue, I'm going to finally hire that person so I can take some of the tasks off my list. Start to take those tasks off your list sooner than, than later because the, the quicker you can get out of that, the more you can focus on the business strategy and the growth of the business. Um, the other piece, it sounds very simple. It's just don't run out of cash. I mean, I think that's, that's the biggest thing is like you've, you know, if you're starting a business small, you know, the way we did, which was, you know, I don't know, a couple of thousand dollars combined together and Some credit cards, uh, and then, you know, kind of build from there. Uh, but be strategic and intelligent about how you spend your money because, uh, once you run out of cash, the music stops. So you've got to be able to stretch that as long as possible. Stay on your receivables. Um, uh, you know, don't have too many deals that are going to extend client payments into the future because things happen that are, you know, not foreseeable to you or to them in a lot of cases. So. So, uh, I think, I think it's an incredibly important piece of growing a business and staying alive.

Speaker A: Yeah, staying alive is certainly important. Um, yeah, I really appreciate, uh, that advice and uh, that's so important. Um, as a business owner myself, running in a small agency, I totally understand that and ah, that's a great advice. Well, you two have both built an amazing business, uh, with not only great core fundamentals as I see them, like within people and trust as your partnership and with uh, you know, with your focus, but also great strategy. And uh, I'm, I'm impressed with the strategy and the things that you've gone out. The strategy that delivers really strong value to your, uh, to your clients and it's very powerful. So thanks so much for taking the time to share some of those experiences directly. Obviously your story is in much more detail in the book. So if any of our listeners want to learn more, they can obviously buy the book and kind of learn more about that. But if they want to connect with you, you and learn more about your services, your agency, or maybe some of the, some of the entrepreneurial experiences that you've had, what's the best way for them to connect with you?

Speaker B: I think email, honestly.

Speaker C: Yeah, you can go right onto our website. There's a contact form on there. Those, those emails come straight to Ryan and I and a couple other people on the team so you can get in direct contact with us. Um, awestruck agency.

Speaker A: Awesome. And we'll put those links, uh, in the show notes here. So. Hey gentlemen, thanks again for taking the time. I really appreciate the conversation.

Speaker B: Thanks. Have a great day.

Speaker C: Very much.