Tyler (03:16):

Zach, best intro ever, man.

Zach (03:20):

Yeah, man. I, so I'm excited to have you on we met years ago, uh, via, uh, some lame one, um, Eric Carlson, You're a legend, uh, with sweaty pants agency, which I think you've worked with before, um, Eric, uh,

Tyler (03:42):

Go to agency, man, anyone that needs help. I always send him his, his way. He's he's the man. There's no doubt.

Zach (03:48):

Oh yeah. He's, he's a legend. And he also runs the, uh, what the, the, uh, 10 X accelerator as well. So that's how, that's how we connected. And, um, it was back in my agency days. And, uh, you went down as a salty solely from the very first meeting that I had with you and my team where you had, you had churned through, this was our first meeting. You turn through, I think you said like 12 agencies in six months or something crazy. Like,

Tyler (04:20):

No, it, it, it was a struggle. I did, you know what this is? This is all Eric's fault because he did such a good job that I ended up firing him because of my own fault. I didn't know that this is a good learning lesson for guys out there. I didn't, I had never really opened up as manager and we had, it was off season and sales were not like insanely high. We were at a 6.8 X return on ad spend. And I thought things weren't going well, because I did as an owner, you didn't know enough about ads to hire or fire the right people. And I had let him go, which is the biggest mistake of my life. Honestly. And I had been burning through agencies trying to find someone with no knowledge of like how ads really work even to what I was looking for.

Tyler (05:06):

So that was, that was the big learning curve. And that year was like my learning year where I had to jump back in and learn Facebook ads myself. That's why I ended up doing that. Then fed someone who I could then hire, you know, so it was, that was, that was a tough year, but you know, that's really like my big takeaway is you got to know everything. I enough to at least hire or fire them. So that was huge. It was a rough one, but now life is good again. And it's been a couple years, two or three years and, you know, not working too hard,

Zach (05:38):

I think for entrepreneurs, you know, defining what operational excellence is and what is a player like, everybody loves to say, I only hire a players. Right. But I see this happen all the time when you start hiring these like director VP levels. Uh that's when it's like very obvious. Um, this was kind of my personal experience of seeing, you know, companies like churn through like three or four VPs. It's obvious. It's very obvious in the world of agency. Right. Um, where it just takes you a while to really figure out like, Oh, that's what a player looks like. That's that's know that took me like several years to figure that one out. And, uh, well, that's cool, man. So, uh, tell, uh, that, that, uh, this listing here, give everybody a little bit more detail on what you're up to these days and how you got here.

Tyler (06:33):

Yeah. So BombTech golf is my e-commerce brand. We sell we're crazy enough to try and compete with some of the biggest brands in the world, in the golf space. And I did that really out of passion back in like 2011, I started, I was trying to compete in home run Derby of golf, which is long drive. And it's kind of, I had no intentions of starting an e-commerce business zero. And, um, so I started like, I was just obsessed with hitting the golf ball as far as I could. I broke like 12 drivers and, and I started competing and my claim to fame is I want a local division, which means nothing. Um, I hit it, I hit it like rehab. Um, I I'm labeled the world's worst long driver. Um, I hit it like 360 yards and competition that was like my best. But in that process, I started assembling clubs with different proponents and really was kind of disappointed and just said, well, I want to make my own brand because I just wanted to.

Tyler (07:34):

And, uh, I had an unconventional journey. I contacted my local college where I barely graduated, uh, university of Vermont. I did the five-year plan, uh, which, which was fun. I lived in the frat house for the extra year and skate every day and golf, which was, which was cool. Um, and I worked with them and we engineered our first driver with a, a group of seniors back in 2012. And that became the dual County driver called the grenade and really had no idea what e-commerce is pre-Facebook ads pre the selfie. This is, this is like really dating myself. And I launched it on Facebook, on a pre-order and I ended up selling, like, I don't know, it was like, it wasn't a lot. I was like 10 grand of pre-orders and it was all from like Facebook organic. I had like 2000 followers and just kind of documented my story.

Tyler (08:28):

And then as things happen, I tried to jump on things early. I did everything wrong to start, but then when Facebook ads came out, I was, I was on the early Facebook groups, Facebook live. And now that business does between, you know, four to 7 million a year with two employees. And I get to spend time like with COBIT and everything this whole summer, you know, I was on the pontoon with the kids or golfing. Like I really didn't work much. And the business thrive has best months without me in front of my computer. My, my joke is I can't even find my computer most days.

Zach (09:05):

Okay. So a tangent here for all you marketers, just go ahead and tune out here. Uh, dude, I just bought new golf clubs. Okay. I just got there. They're not bobs. Nope. I got the tailor-made M five and the Mizuno, uh, uh, M P H M B irons. And uh, and then I went to with, um, a fancy putter, but w like what, w talk to me about this dual cavity for a second. Like why, why did you end up there? Because, I mean, the TaylorMade guys got a new driver every single year, and they're just pitching like new tech and like, uh, I guess, like, you've got the elitist golfers that are always going to go for the most expensive equipment. Are you just targeting like the hobbyist golfer? That's that's like, I just want longer drives and

Tyler (10:00):

It's evolved and I can't speak to what the other guys are doing, but like, my philosophy is really simple. It's if we have a product that's better than previous we'll launch it, we don't have a traditional, like, launch calendar of like, Hey, let's launch a new driver every year, every six months, every three months. It's really, I always try to outperform because that's my whole thing is it was a passion play. I wanted the best clubs I could, I could make or, or get. And so when I come up with something new, that is actually better, we'll launch it. So with that said, we're on our version three of their dual cavity driver, 3.0, which now has three weights, um, you know, new chef, new head shape. So it's more of like a pretty cool, so we launched a product, then people love it. And there may be small tweaks that they they're like, Hey, you know, I wanted a little more clothes to be a little more draw bias or, Hey, the shaft is a little soft, you know, so I get all this feedback and then I make a new version based on actual, real customer feedback versus what I think the market wants.

Tyler (11:03):

That's really allowed me to launch new stuff and be really effective in doing that. And now it's fun because now we've got, you know, full sets. We've got wedges that absolutely crushed, but we make performance add value. Like, cause we don't have retail, we don't pay pros. So like for example, our wedge that I know this is a marketing, but is offer related. So it could be a worthy thing for people to know. It's like a normal wedge is one wedge for 150 bucks, right? Yep. Yup. Resell three wedges for one 67 and we do a deal for one 17. And you can imagine how fast those sell it. The only issue we have is our price point to almost a, I wouldn't say a fault, but some people think they're too cheap, so

Zach (11:54):

Cheap. I can. I, I like, uh, I, I just immediately get freaked out. I'm like,

Tyler (12:00):

Like the performance I know can go head to head with anything. So that's why we give you 60 days to try them like that good guarantee with anything e-comm related. Definitely helps for me. It was, I wanted guys and I felt so confident in the product. I said, yo, go for 60 days, go try it, go to your golf course, go to your simulator, go try it with your swing. You know, not, not my swing or some slang. And if you don't like it, send it back and bottle it just, and now with the internet being so prevalent with, with golf, because golf was heavy retail back in the day, you

Zach (12:35):

Exploded with COVID,

Tyler (12:37):

That's a different discussion. So golf has been trending down for 20 years, but now golf is trending up. So we've been sold out. Like, I mean this year is just not, I really could have done a lot more volume, but when COVID first hit, I wouldn't more conservative. I was like, I don't know what this means. And that big order I have every March I turned into, I chopped it in half, you know, shame on me for not predicting the future, but also in a good spot. Man. It's really exciting from that perspective, have new people that have never golfed before to get into the game, you know? And I, I'm lucky and fortunate to live a life I never could have dreamed of. And now I actually get to enjoy golf. So when I go now, my official title is product tester. So I go out, I try new sticks and uh, sometimes, you know, I, I get lucky and I make a par, um, and you know, life's good, you know?

Zach (13:33):

Oh my gosh. So how many times are you playing golf a week?

Tyler (13:36):

Yeah, I was up to like five, Whoa,

Zach (13:39):

This is like Michael Jordan status.

Tyler (13:41):

Now more like now I've been, actually the kids are back in like virtual school, so I'm kicked out of the house. So I I'm like playing like nine holes in the morning and then I'll like, I go, I did get an office just for myself. And I've been really focusing on just like making better systems and then focusing on the agency of how to grow that and scale that. Cause I feel like that's got so much, so much room on that side and just trying to do more work though. I enjoy, you know what I mean?

Zach (14:09):

I think you're in two great verticals during COVID right. Helping e-commerce businesses grow because that's, you know, growing by 10 X in the last six months with COVID and golf, which has also exploded. So you're, you're set up, man. I, and, and, and you're golfing three to five times a week.

Tyler (14:27):

That's good, man. I have, I have no, uh, no complaints, even though the world is kind of insane and I wish it was more people I could give high fives to life is good on the business and family sides. You know,

Zach (14:39):

I love it. So, uh, Dylan, take us down, take us down this path. Alrighty. I'll buckle up. All right, Tyler. So, you know, we love to talk about what's working good for you. So when it comes, BombTech golf, what is something that's just killed it, maybe a new offer, a strategy, go ahead and release the beast and let the world know.

Tyler (15:02):

Yeah. So I, I'm more on like the high level strategy side of things at this point versus like getting too technical, but I'll, I'll give you my best effort here. And like, it's, it has been effective because it has the ball, right? Like we were talking previous to this about Facebook and I love Facebook. It's been so good to me. I, I can't, I can't throw any shade at it, but it has evolved. Right. So one thing we've shifted to, uh, from a strategy is to really use social media to engage, right? And the goal of engaging is number one, to get your customers and fans, to actually have real conversations with you on Facebook, Instagram, and email, and what that does. And I'll tell you how I do that. It allows our ads to be more effective. Um, and what I was trying to do, which were two years ago was I would, I would be selling like on Facebook live or in our Facebook owner's group and say, Hey guys, new product coming, new launch.

Tyler (15:59):

And it got to a point this last year and a half a term, exact inflection point where it just would get like one, like there'd be like 130,000 or 120,000 followers. And I was like, that's not very good. So I just started asking questions, people that golf would love to answer. So I went from like one, like no engagement to getting 2000 comments, 500 likes and just getting the engagement up or ads became more effective, higher return ad spend. And we took that overall, what I call it two-way conversation strategy into our email. So email for us drives 45% of our revenue on Klayvio. And that's because we treat our lists as, as an actual list of our fans and customers that want to talk to us. So I literally like our big strategy and emails. We take the same approach as social and we ask questions. Not only do we want to have people to answer, but stuff. I want to know, like if I've got a new wedge, like we've got a gunmetal blue and a what's the other one, um,

Zach (17:06):

Shopping right now. Um, so I'm just on your side. I think I'm looking at these 52 56 67 here.

Tyler (17:15):

Right? So we'll do just like an AB test. And like, for me, early days, I was like on the owner, I shouldn't direct the products, like what people want. And I realized my opinion doesn't matter at all. So like from an execution strategy, we'll ask like, Hey, we've got two wedges, one, like, let's say it's black and porch, like two different, uh, just looks right. I'll just throw it up there and say a versus beat. And I'm always shocked cause I'm always wrong. That's what I've learned. I've pretty much learned. Customers want the opposite where I think, and by, by like being vulnerable and just asking people like, Hey, which one do you like better in email? Now you're moving from the promotions tab to the inbox. And once you're in the inbox, magic happens because people, you know, they're opening their email, they're replying to your emails, Google and Gmail sees you as relevant.

Tyler (18:08):

And then when you have an offer, which we have many, it's getting to the inbox, it's getting clicked and that's why we're having revenues of 45%. And then the second fold is when you're engaging all these platforms and people are actually give a, is your return ad spend goes down. So we send an email and we do a big launch and do like 120 K in a day because of email and SMS. Guess what happens your return ad spend that day is like 90 X, right? So it's, we've been able to run a really high return on ad spend by just engaging. And we have to have good offers, but just having a two-way conversation on our biggest platforms, which is social and email.

Zach (18:47):

And that's super interesting. There are you still doing kind of lives these days for the groups?

Tyler (18:52):

You know, that the group that we have, and this is one of my secrets. Okay. I'll give it to you. So groups where you're in the inner circle. Okay. Um, groups are really big dude. Like when they first hit and we would absolutely just I'd put one post in a group and it would just be absolute fire and we'd sell like insane amount of product. Right. And then groups weren't cool anymore. Like they're, they're still a thing, but they're not effective in selling to that extent. So we made it an owners group, where at post-purchase you buy something from our site? I do all these little, little things that make your experience better, but one of them is we invite you to an owner's only group. And that group is just all about brand building and lifetime value. And just having guys tell their stories like, dude, I got a whole one sale.

Tyler (19:43):

Hey, I shot my best round at 83 and it's all about them. So I use that as a, you know, this is our best audience where customers let them live their golf life online and I don't use it for selling. So it's an engagement brand thing. Um, and that group is great for long lifetime value. And just making them feel part of something bigger than just buying something online that you know, never hearing from the company again. Oh yeah. What's your returning customer right out of curiosity. Well, you would think with a capital expense, like a golf driver, which you don't need every year, it would be pretty low, right? Because we don't have like a consumable product, but it's around 38%

Zach (20:23):

Fire. Holy I go for the driver first and then they're coming back for the winches.

Tyler (20:28):

Usually guys go iron set and then they finish herself and then they get multiple wedges. Oh, that's exactly what I did. Wedges are more volume, you know, cause they're lower price point, but the guys that go for the, like all of our clubs are really designed. Now we're getting off topic of marketing, but there's designed for guys that are regular dudes that want to have more fun. So they're really forgiving. They're long, but they're easy to hit. So you feel more like a hero, um, versus like making a performance blade for a scratch golfer. You know what I mean? It's just like the market. I don't even know if I had a in, in, in mind with like the market, I just did what I kind of wanted than what my audience told me through this two way conversation. You know,

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Tyler (22:20):

Checkout add card, we'll get back to the show. All right. I want to know you're not perfect. Dylan, keep this up. Yeah. So I mean, we love the show. We're all humans. Sometimes people take so much more out of the failures in life just because it opens up a new door there, but go ahead and kind of show everybody you're not perfect. And what's something that, you know, you thought would kill it kind of crashed and burned. So I've had a couple of good failures. Um, one in particular was an exact example of when I didn't listen to my audience, I launched a product called beer pie. I was the beer pong champion at, uh, university of Vermont, uh, fraternity 2003. I won like 21 games in a row, no big deal.

Tyler (23:04):

I did have a partner, uh, that we killed her anyways, because of that. And I'm younger, you know, uh, or was younger when I launched this product, I was like, we need to make beer pot, which is beer pong for golf and social media posts. It got a ton of engagement. Um, but I really didn't ask them like what they wanted in it. Would they buy it like in like the price point, usually that stuff we would just ask to gauge. And it absolutely flopped. I made 2000 units when we launched it, I was like, we're going to sell out in like a minute, like it's going to be sick. It took me two years to sell it worst product ever. And it was to two things. Number one is a product that my target demo didn't want. And number two, we're known for golf clothes.

Tyler (23:50):

I've learned that it's okay to be as a brand, to be known for one thing and do it well. So I tried to get out of her comfort zone. Didn't have the conversations with the audience and it was an Epic fail. So that was from the product side. One other quick thing is our old strategy. About three years ago, when we launched a product, we would just say, Hey, we launched a product. It's live. Here's an email. Now what we do and our launches are about 50 times as effective. And this really allows your ads and everything to work is we hiked it with email and SMS. And what we do is we use a two way conversation method where we say, Hey guys, we're thinking about launching a new driver for example, or whatever it is. Um, what, what color do you think it should be?

Tyler (24:40):

Right. So now they, as we're even tinkering with the idea of watching it, they're like, Oh, cool. Let's do a black crowd, great crowd, silver. So they're, they feel like they're building it right? Which they are second when we were about to launch, we ask you, Hey, reply back. Yes. If you want early access, then we get thousands of replies that are tagged. Um, now we're getting that engagement. Now they get early access. So they feel important, which they are, and we'll hype it with like five or six, sometimes 10 emails. So it's almost like those big movies and then movie trailers where, you know, it's all about the hype. So we really have fine tuned how to launch a product when, before we'd be like, Hey, brand new driver, one email. And we're like, Oh, that sucks. And then you have to use only ads. Um, so that was a big thing, was a pivot. And that was about two years ago, two or three years ago where we just Epic failure was not email enough and not get people excited for what's coming, you know?

Zach (25:40):

Thanks totally exploded. I love it. I love it. Well, Zach, you know what time doesn't mean? It's your favorite part of the whole segment? Yeah, man. So I want to talk about, uh, how you're pulling off BombTech with two employees and really how you think about investing into the business and managing the cash in the business. Uh, I mean, I don't know anybody that's doing your numbers, uh, solely and, and, uh, as running as, as lean as you are. And so I want to get inside of the mind of just how ruthless you are when it comes to making new investments into the business from a people standpoint. And just from like a, just across the board products, software, stuff like that.

Tyler (26:36):

Great. Yeah. So I've had a lot of like accidental things happen that were good, and this was not an accident, but having kids was on purpose, but what happened as a result was an accident and it was for leaning up. So give you some context. When I had my first son, six years ago, I was working 20 hours a day, seven days a week. And I did that until he was like almost two. And I was working on all the wrong stuff. I was assembling clubs by hand, which was completely unnecessary. I was shipping clubs, doing customer service, doing, I did everything. And it was, it took me to my second kid. Who's now three. And I said, when I'm, when I was having her, I said, you know what, I'm going to take six weeks off. And I just, I dunno, I just said, it's not fair to anyone for me to be working this much.

Tyler (27:27):

I need to figure out a way to do this. So what I did is I set up the business and became literally I took a, um, either automated it or either removed it, whatever the task was, removed, it, automated it or delegated it right to, to a point where I could take six weeks off. And what do you think happened with sales in those six weeks? Totally bombed. And he lost everything and BombTech no longer exists. Exactly. Right. So sales and I was like, so a lot of stuff I was doing early days, I'm getting to the financial side, but how I, how I got to a lean spot, I was just moving blood and colors, playing with stuff in front of my computer, really not having a real big impact. And that was a hard lesson for me to really understand, because it almost made me feel like I'm not that important anymore because I have really hired whether it's an agency or expert in the key areas of growth, which is, we've got an ad guy who's paid traffic expert, um, outsourced, there is not in house.

Tyler (28:27):

I've got my email agency, which I do own, but they manage it. So those are my two traffic and revenue drivers. Then I have my two in-house guys, which are customer service, which you could argue, you could outsource, but with a high price product, I like having the guys or golfers that actually care. So that's my only two guys in house have a three PL that does all the shipping. It's all barcoded. I don't even see the products anymore, which was, that was a big pivot for me going from like fully custom to making stuff more standardized. Um, and that really has allowed me, like my two children have allowed me to figure out I'm not that important in the business. And it's okay for me to go golfing or to work on the business. And all it means at the end of the day, like I had to have these life events to figure out, you know, what matters in the business and in life.

Tyler (29:20):

And really I, when I have a bad month, it's pretty frequent good. And when I have a good month, it's insane. And that's just allowed me from a cash standpoint to be so much more comfortable and okay, with going bigger on inventory or, you know, making decisions on a new product launch that may be a little bit risky or doing stuff because it's also been eight years of doing it. So we have, you know, I don't have the capital loans. We've got no debt at this point, um, which has been like three years like that. But it took me those life events to figure out like, okay, I don't need an office. I don't need 10 guys around me hanging out, which is sometimes fun, um, to move the needle. And that's always, my biggest complaint is like always looking. There's like big levers that I can pull to move the needle, but really the end of the day, it's like, you got traffic coming in that you can convert and you've got an email dial.

Tyler (30:13):

Then other than that, I just focus on product strategy, product ideas, overall strategy, and ma and managing those key people to make sure they're good. And I don't work a ton in the business. Like I was joking earlier about, I couldn't find my computer. So it was a hard pivot, you know? Um, and, but it's, it's really kind of crazy when you have your biggest day and you weren't, you didn't even look at sales until the next week or you didn't even know it, you know, which is, it's a total shift and a lot of people don't want to do that. And that's totally cool. But for me, it makes us more profitable, healthier from a business and life standpoint. And why not run lean, man, unless someone can come to me and drive me revenue. That's always my invite. Anyone that's like, Hey, I'll, I'll, you know, I'll crush it for you. I say, drive me, revenue. I'll pay you. That's it.

Tyler (31:03):

I love it. That's so good. And what do you think some of the big levers are? I think you just kind of said like one of them, which is product, right? You focus on product and you'll entertain conversations that are going to drive revenue. Is that pretty much your tool to rules there for what you want? My focus is really brand. So like a lot of post-purchase stuff that we do a handwritten thank you cards. Thank you, voicemails. Um, we do a lot of like, we'll send, you know, free gifts in every order we have the Facebook group. So it's really a, we've got an expert at driving traffic, right? So that's, that's your big lever. Can you find someone? And I used to go down the path of like, well, maybe there's someone better. Maybe there's someone better, maybe some better. And it's like, that's not the lever.

Tyler (31:51):

Like if someone can run ads well, and you're getting a high return ad spend, consider that done. Right. So I focus close purchase. How can we wow. Customers? And like, that's why my in-house guys your customer service, although they're like, everyone's like customer service is not a, it's a cost center. They have the, um, what's the word, the autonomy and freedom to literally lose money on orders to wow. Someone. So like, we will go in any length to make a customer happy at any cost. And that really word of mouth people are just like, cause the expectation with customer service is so low that if those guys crush it, people are just so amped about it. So like for me, I just manage those guys and make sure they're happy. And I do the fun part like that. That was my other thing. It's like, what do I need to do? Or what do I want to do? And what I want to do is tinker around and make new clubs and go test them. So like, that's what I do. And then I just engage and ask the audience if they want it. It's like, it's not that

Zach (32:51):

Who manages the website and the funnel and the socials.

Tyler (32:55):

So I, I do post on social, which takes me about two minutes a day, a week. I post about once every two days. Um, and it's usually a pick I had from the course. And I asked you a question and it's, it's funny, you asked that because I went so hard. Uh, one of the years we had our worst sales years. I had churned out about a hundred videos. I had a video guy on staff and my whole, I did the Gary V thing. Dude. I was like, yo, I'm just going to hammer content. I'm going to be relentless. And just, and I realized like, okay, me just putting out content had no impact on the business. And it actually hurt us. And that was our worst year in sales because our ad guy wasn't dialed in or email wasn't dialed in again, the last part, which is the product, the offers, weren't that good.

Tyler (33:42):

So yeah, I made a bunch of YouTube videos of me on the course, but that, that didn't move the needle. So it's like, I've had all these little up Tiffany's where it's like, I've done the 20 hour work day, seven days a week. I did where the content train, where I just literally just had a video guys shooting everything. It did nothing. So now it's like eight years. I'm like, okay, you got your traffic, which is Facebook, Google. And we do some SEO. And then I've got email, which is our backend for launching. Um, the only, only big lever we can do. And this is a decision from a financial thing for me is like, how hard do I want to push a return? You know, like I've only, I only push it to a point where it's really profitable. I have been debating like, this is one of my things I'm thinking about. Should I push it harder just to get more new customers because our backend is so dialed in so that when we launch in your driver, we do have a lot of customer. I think it's like 70, 80,000 now. Um, but what if I have 200,000, you know what I mean? So it's, that's the one question I'm asking myself. I just, I don't know if I wanna get bigger, which is kind of crazy to think about.

Zach (34:50):

That was amazing, man. I love it. I, uh, you know, like if you were to ask me this three years ago, like, pre-kids, I'm like, Oh, I was just lazy. It's like, he's just not ambitious enough. He doesn't want to go, you know, get it. And uh, now I'm like, um, I'm in it. You know, max is going up on three November, Henry's going to be six months. He just, he just had his birthday a week ago. But, um, and uh, you know, I've had enough failures under my belt where like, Oh man, I spent XYZ dollars on this and this and this and this didn't go and this didn't go and this didn't go. And um, I love her just like, Oh yeah. So I tried a bunch of things that weren't growing business. There was a leverage. So maybe the answer is just to like, stop doing those things like altogether versus continue to try.

Tyler (35:45):

I think the problem is it's so it's so easy to get caught up as an entrepreneur or someone running an e-com brand to feel busy. Like I call it, well, I didn't make this up before our work week. Tim did w for w work for work sake. And it's one of those things where you just feel busy. Cause you're just doing stuff. Right. But it took me like, I was like, you know what, screw it. I'm going to scan like a ski, like 40, 50 days a year. And I'm like, I would just go skiing. And instead of doing a certain task and then I would look at sales and have no difference or I'd go golfing. And then it just kept on adding up. I'm like, all right, I got the right people. And that's the hardest part probably I would say. And that's why we started this off. You call me salty. Cause I had, I had burned through the agencies that could, that couldn't perform because number one, I didn't know how to hire them. Cause I didn't have enough knowledge and didn't know how to do it. And number two, I just, it took me a while to figure out. And actually this is a quick hack. I don't believe in hacks is a strategy. Right?

Tyler (36:47):

So what I did to find my last ad guy. So first off I recommend Eric Carlson for anyone out there. He's the number one guy. Uh, but to find someone, I literally invite people. I said, listen, you think you're good at ads? Do a one hour screen share with me, build an ad with me. If your ad beats, my ad you're hiring. And so it was two parts. Number one I would learn if they had something valuable to show me. Um, and number two, if they beat me, they're hired, it took me 12 guys to actually have a strategy method and make an ad. That'd be my ads. And he was hired.

Zach (37:22):

That's so good, man. I love it. You know, that was a big emphasis of why, you know, with ed card, just a, a live native, uh, self blatant promotion here for, for ad card. Like one of the reasons we wanted to add this media buyer matching and recruiting concierge instead of like a concierge that you called, the book of flight is because like there's so much leverage in like getting the right media buyer, the right partner, uh, on board, uh, can unlock massive levels of, of scale for, for that advertiser. Same on the same on the creative front. Right? Like you guys, I'm sure you guys took a while to kind of figure out like what creative, uh, really works in terms of how you're able to engage those two-way conversations, you know, on the ads and, and whatnot. But I love that approach right. Of, yeah. You know, you, you pretty much like don't care about the audit. You don't care what the strategy, you don't care what the case studies just build an ad with me for an hour

Tyler (38:24):

Would learn. You know, that was the thing. And a lot of these guys, when they would go in front of me on like this screenshare, they would fumble and they were like, ah, you know, the strategy crushes. And I was like, let's just do it. And I would actually do all the clicking, which is the crazy part, but like tell me what the click and they were so annoyed, but then I was learning and then a lot of guys, I was like, Whoa, you know, nothing. And their ads are like 0.2 X. And I was drawing them at like at 3.9. So I wasn't like, I'm no slouch, but I was now I'm no expert either, but enough to be like, all right, you guys know what's up. And it just, that was my only way, you know? So it's like, this is back in the day when I was working all those hours, I was betting agencies all day.

Tyler (39:03):

So like the VAD card can, can, uh, make a straighter path to finding a partner. Like, that's really, that's the value man. You know, like for, for me, it's like, if you can find people that have done it and that can do it for you and you worry about the brand, the product and the experience. And like for us on the email side, same thing, it's like, man, you know, email's one of those things that's so misunderstood. So like when we are bringing on a new client and we do a video on it, or we go into your account and just show you and you can just take it if you want and try it or we can do it for you. So it's just like, my whole thesis is like, keep things simple and just do it instead of talking about it. You know what I mean? It's I don't know. I just think my approach to life and business is just simple. Cause I that's kinda how I am.

Speaker 5 (39:51):

I love it. I love it. Well, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for just opening up the kimono on how you rock. BombTech tell everybody a little bit about what you're up to now, how we can support you and how folks can get in touch. Yeah, totally.

Tyler (40:05):

So if you're an e-com brand, uh, looking to drive more revenue with email or SMS, we have a it's pretty cool. We just hit platinum about two months ago with Klaviyo. So we were a top 25, uh, quite a few agency. And I think the only agency that runs me comp brand too. And that was my whole thing. I was like, agencies have had so many bad experiences. I don't want to be an agency. Um, but it's pretty cool. My first employee runs that. So my employee from Bob tech is now my co-founder check us out at e-com growers.com. We'll do a free video audit of your Klayvio or MailChimp or whatever you're on for an ESP. And if you guys like to golf, golf.com or you guys can hit me up on LinkedIn under Tyler solely Sullivan, I've been pretty active and enjoying having conversations on LinkedIn.

Speaker 5 (40:53):

I love it. There you have it. Thank you so much that you guys really appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening to another episode of the rich, add more at podcasts. If you're like me and listen to podcasts on the go, go ahead and subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and rich dad, poor dad.com/podcast. And if you absolutely love the show, go ahead and leave a review and a comment share with a friend. If you do take a copy screenshot of it, email me zach@funneldash.com. Show me you left a review. I'll give you a free copy of the rich add for ed book to learn more about the book. Go to rich ed for a.com to leave a review that a rich ed or at.com/review. Thanks again.