880: Advertising as an INVESTMENT (and how to do it with a plan!) w/ Rob Thorbjornsen

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian Lofermento, and we have got an amazing entrepreneur on today's episode that's going to talk about something that impacts every single one of us, whether we want to face it or not.

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Marketing is so important when it comes to growing our business.

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You cannot operate a business without marketing, and today's guest not only has so much experience across really interesting and challenging sectors like the telecommunications industry, but he also is a full-service marketer, meaning that he can talk about everything from print and design to branding to website development.

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We're going to learn a lot from today's guest.

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Let me tell you all about him.

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His name is Rob Thorbjornsson.

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He's the founder and CEO of Forge Advertising, known for his creative approach and attention to detail for his clients.

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He's got a diverse background in marketing and over 20 years of experience.

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Rob and his advertising firm have worked on many projects, ranging from logo designs, website layouts, billboards, tv, digital, radio production to complex, multi-strategy, million-dollar marketing campaigns spread across multiple markets.

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So if you're ever sitting there and you're thinking to yourself gosh, there's so many options when it comes to marketing.

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How do I even begin to know where to market.

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Rob's going to shed some light on that for us today.

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Rob finds inspiration in music, movies, television, pop culture.

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His ability to understand and translate client needs into visually unique campaigns really is what sets him apart.

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I'm excited to learn from him today, so I'm not going to say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Rob Thorbjørnsson.

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All right, rob, I am very excited that you're here with us today.

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Welcome to the show, hey everyone Excited to be here as well, so I appreciate you giving me the invite.

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Heck.

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Yes, well, I will say we don't often find people with the depth and the breadth of the experience that you have across so many different industries, types of marketing projects.

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We're excited to learn from you.

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But first things first, take us beyond the bio.

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Who's Rob?

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How did you start amassing all these cool skills and talents and perspectives that you have?

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Wow, it was a long journey.

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I started back as a regional manager for an authorized retailer for AT&T, back when you know people had authorized retailers.

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Tnt, back when you know people had authorized retailers, and I was the guy that basically listened to all the marketing pitches.

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So I was the guy across the table making the marketing decisions for my boss.

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So I learned a lot from that.

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I mean, we had things from huge inflatables to yellow pages, yellow pages to TV, to radio, uh digital, when it was in the first stages of it.

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Um, so I've seen it all and done it all, basically, and what was cool, uh, for me anyway, was my uh boss allowed me to boss, allowed me to basically look at those opportunities and search them and try them out.

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And it wasn't my money, so that was a good thing too.

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I love that perspective, especially when we learn on our own dime.

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Yeah, it wasn't my dime, but you know I still it was his dime.

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So I did do my research before we did it.

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But we tried a lot of things and I realized what worked and what didn't work.

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And because of that, when I got into that, I built relationships with some of these media vendors and eventually one of these media vendors offered me a position and I started in the radio business, worked for a sports station locally in Knoxville, tennessee, got my chops there, we got into digital and we were one of the foreground people that basically focused on digital.

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And the digital has evolved throughout the years.

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So in the beginning it was just keywords and display and simple things like that and even some audio streaming to now where it's limitless of what digital capabilities there are out there in the marketing world.

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So I kind of did that, did it for 15 years working for major corporations, and I realized, you know, hey, I kind of want to do this myself because I wanted control, I wanted peace of mind and while corporations offer you facilities and tools and benefits and everything else, you're still a number.

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So at the end of the day, I always had aspirations of being my own owner.

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So I knew I wanted to be an advertising agency.

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I always had admirations for that ever since I was a little kid.

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I always thought advertising was cool because you get to create things I thought commercials were were the coolest things in the world.

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Um, and I realized that I wasn't ready to jump into that myself without learning advertising agency side of it that myself, without learning advertising agency side of it.

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So I hopped on to a smaller advertising agency, learn what to do and what not to do, and within two years said, okay, I'm ready to make that next step and start my own company.

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So I started for Javit.

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I sing forge.

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Just to give you a little background, is it's kind of a hump?

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Uh homage to my uh heritage, because I'm norwegian and actually a viking uh heritage.

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So forge means to create, so it's to create advertising.

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so, um, yeah, I love that.

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That.

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That's an epic homage to your background as well, rob.

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Personally, and that's something that means so much to me as someone who tries in everything I do to honor my family's lineage, of how we've come to the United States and I always think that one word that separates us as entrepreneurs which, rob, it seems like it's always been in your DNA is being a builder.

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We love building things, and so that's why, yeah, when we talk about marketing, what I really love is that you said it right there the fun part about marketing is creating campaigns, creating visuals, creating all of that.

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Which is why I really want to go back to the very fundamentals of what shaped your views of marketing, because when you talk about your days at AT&T, I can't help but think as a consumer.

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We've all walked through malls and we've seen you know the AT&T.

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I can't help but think as a consumer.

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We've all walked through malls and we've seen you know the AT&T stand, has you said, you know all the inflatables and they've got music bumping.

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And then you walk a little bit down the hall and Verizon's right there and what are they all selling?

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Well, they're all selling iPhones and the latest Android phones.

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They're all selling the same things, so it's not a product game.

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It becomes an eye-catching game.

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Can I get people's attention, rob?

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Talk to us about those building blocks, because a lot of people think I just need to have a great product and people will come.

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It's not necessarily true no, it's definitely not.

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Uh, you do have to have the eye-catching thing and I think in this generation, I think we've kind of got away with that, gotten away from that and got into the more of analytical.

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Analytical plays an important part.

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You have to have an analytical side to your marketing strategy, but there's definitely still has to be that eye catching.

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Grab your attention.

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And I think when we start getting to the AI, creatives and your generic imaging, I think people get away from that and they realize that, hey, you got to do a little bit more for the marketing to actually work.

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There's strategy behind it, but there's also creative behind it and I think when you put those hand in hand, they work very well.

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Yeah, I love that.

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You really showed that those are the two essential ingredients.

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We've got to have that strategy, but then we've got to have that creative to match it.

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Let's talk about that because the word creative, I feel like it stirs so much for business owners in inside personally, because I mean, you and I were joking before we even hit record today that, rob, you're not just a marketer anymore, you are also your legal team.

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You are also your legal team, you are also your accounting team.

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We as business owners are all of those things.

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And when it comes to creativity, a lot of people might have that limiting belief of I'm not creative.

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And obviously, when we talk about marketing creatives, we're not talking about being creative.

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We're talking about creating creatives that move people to action, that gain attention.

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Talk to us about that creative element and then guide us through that marriage between the creative and the strategies.

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So the creative side of it, the way we operate here as a company, is I collaborate a lot.

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I am not the sole person that comes up with the ideas.

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Honestly, anybody can come up with an idea.

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It's just how you utilize that idea.

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So when we get together with a prospective client, we sit down with them, we learn their brand because their brand is important.

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Some of them have an identity, some of them don't, and if they don't have identity, we help them find that identity.

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The ones that we do have the identity, we make sure that we enhance their identity, basically.

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So we then sit down with client, get their perspective of what they're looking for, what they're about, and then next step is to have a collaborative brainstorm.

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When I do brainstorming, it may be a little different than some people.

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I think it's a collaborative team.

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I will bring in marketing experts, but I will bring in non-marketing experts.

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I'll bring creative people, I'll bring non-creative people and we sit down and we let everybody have an opportunity to come up with an idea.

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So we start that process and then we move on to mind mapping, which basically takes those creative ideas and then expands on those ideas.

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No idea is stupid is what we say no idea is dumb, no idea is wrong.

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Every idea is just an idea, and I think that positive environment causes people to realize that they're a lot more creative than they think they are.

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Yeah, I love that, especially because it is encouraging for literally every business owner.

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Whether you're pushing a product to service anything, it starts with getting that out of us, because it lives inside all of us.

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We're all super passionate about all the things that we do, but brainstorming can either be the easiest thing that we do, because we're all idea factories, or it can be the hardest.

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And so, rob, I really want to tap into your mind, because the one thing I've learned over the years is that great marketers, great strategists, are really great at asking the right questions.

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Rob, take us to some of those brainstorming questions.

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What are some of the questions that you're asking to prompt people?

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Whether it's in, it sounds like your fair game for tangents that might happen during these.

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So what are some of those questions that really set the scene for those?

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So, first of all, it goes back to your brand.

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Who are you, what do you want people to know about you, what do you offer and why is it better than your competitor?

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And if you go through those simple questions, then okay.

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Now, how do you want to be portrayed?

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I have clients that go well, I want to be this big muscly guy and this big tough guy on TV and everything and this hard nose, and I'm like, yeah, but that's not you.

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So why would you try to be something that you're not genuinely are in real life?

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Because I think today's consumers are looking for genuine people.

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They're doing their research and they're making decisions based on that, versus some crazy character that you're just not Now.

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If you are that crazy character, we'll own it, we'll go out there and we'll do the most creative off the wall commercials, advertising that you could possibly do.

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But I think you really have to delve into who that person is, who that company is.

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Yeah, I love the fact that you brought that up, because it's something that I've learned since my early 20s is that I am who I am, and it's really hard for me to be anything other than that, even if business school tried to coach it out of me.

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I'm obviously very easily excitable, I'm very passionate, I'm happy 99% of the time, and so I'll never forget.

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When I started this podcast, I got an email from a very serious executive who tuned in and he said to me don't say what is up at the beginning of your episodes.

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And so I tried not doing it.

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Rob, I can't be anything other than me.

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It's just the way that I'm wired, and so even those small things.

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And so when I think about personal brands, look at how much we all talk about Elon Musk, jeff Bezos we know who these people are because, even though these are some of the biggest brands in the world, we still know the people behind the brands, and I think that's so powerful.

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Rob, I want to get there because I want you to be the light for our listeners here who are saying well, I'm not a personal brand, I'm not the personality of an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos.

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What does that look like for us as business owners who say well, I want to be a web design agency, I want to be a social media agency.

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What's that have to do with me, rob?

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Shed some light onto that for us.

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So, like I said, I kind of become a business coach to a lot of my clients.

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I think you have to do a little bit of business coaching if you're going to be a good marketing company for your clientele, because they don't have those guidelines.

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They do their job very well and that's why they're their own business owners, but what they don't do is they don't do marketing very well.

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But what they don't do is they don't do marketing very well.

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Typically, some are educated, some are dangerously educated, where they know a little bit that they think they're experts, but they're not really experts, so they make some bad decisions.

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And then you have others that they do do good marketing because they do have a marketing agency, like myself, but they don't implement the backend stuff.

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So, for instance, a lot of people have their own website already when they come to us.

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So we'll put together a marketing plan.

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It'll be a targeted marketing plan.

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We'll make sure that we're hitting the right people.

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We're tracking that because that's important to to show that there's that you are getting results based on on the advertising plan that we put together.

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But then there is basically a hiccup or a disconnect, because once they get to their website, they're not converting.

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Well then we need to look at why they're not converting.

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Obviously, it's not the advertising, it's not the marketing plan, because we are bringing you people, and they're qualified people, targeted people that are looking for your specific products or services.

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So we may have to delve into those conversations about your website and it may be just giving them advice to change some things, or it may open up a conversation where, hey, we're redesigning a website for you yeah, rob, I'm glad that you brought up tracking, because I feel like that's probably the biggest mistake that newer entrepreneurs make is that there's no tracking.

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why?

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Because there's a million other things they they need to do.

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So we're definitely going to come back to tracking, but I also know that listeners are not going to be happy with me if I don't go into channels with you, because I tease that at the top of today's episodes about how you've got diverse experience across websites, across billboards, tv, digital You've talked about radio, for example.

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There are more channels than ever before that we could be marketing and advertising on.

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Rob, talk to us about how we even you said the word marketing strategy or marketing plan, which most people probably don't have.

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How do we even begin to do that plan and where do the channels fit into it?

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Well, the first thing you got to do is you got to know your audience or your customers.

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Once you know your audience and your customers, then you've got to have a budget and from that budget, you have to sit there and realize, okay, I can't go on every single platform, every advertising opportunity out there.

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I've got to do what's most effective and most efficient for my business.

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So what I tell everybody is this every advertising platform works 100% if you have the right budget.

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But we don't have unlimited budgets, so my job is to make sure that we put together effective, efficient marketing plans based on your budget.

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So, if you have a smaller budget, it may be a social media or digital campaign and some, maybe some, google AdWords.

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If it's a larger budget, well then we're looking at TV production, ctv production, we'll get into website design, anything else like that, but it's really going to be based around the customer, um, and also based around the business.

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So I have smaller clients, I have larger clients, so it there is no one catch.

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How are you going to do your marketing plan?

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Well, we did it for this client.

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It was successful, so we're going to do the same plan.

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Well, we did it for this client, it was successful, so we're going to do the same thing for that.

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It doesn't always work like that.

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Yes, gosh, that might be my favorite one liner in this show's history, because I think it's so important is that every single advertising platform works.

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It just has to work for you, and it's not going to work if someone that's why, when people ask me hey, when you started your soccer blog, how did you grow that to six figures?

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And the truth is, I could tell you step by step and you could replicate every single one.

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It's not going to work for you the exact same way it worked for me, because times have changed, platforms have changed, traffic sources have changed.

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It's one moment in time that that worked.

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So I love that perspective.

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Rob, when it comes to that, obviously, a lot of people hear that B word of budget and they think, well, I want to spend as little as possible, and they don't necessarily view it as an investment.

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But you live inside of this world.

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You obviously face that objection on probably a daily basis.

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Rob, what's the way that you navigate, helping business owners view their budget exactly as that, as an investment of no, this is not an expenditure.

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This is meant to bring more customers in.

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How do you navigate them down that road, knowing that it's not going to work right out of the gates.

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I think a lot of people hope for that.

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How do you frame their mindset?

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I guess is the real underlying question there when it comes to investing in marketing and advertising.

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So the first thing I kind of tell them is hey, I'm in the same situation.

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I'm a small business owner and the reason I'm successful is because I've invested in my business and part of what I invest in is marketing.

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Even though I'm a marketing company and like, oh well, I could get all the shortcuts, no, there's no shortcuts.

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You still have to market out there to get your potential clients, whether that's lead generation through emails, through LinkedIn advertising, to even doing some community advertising is what I call it where you're doing a little bit of philanthropy, where you're getting behind a cause and you're becoming a sponsor for it.

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So that helps kind of take down the wall when you're talking to people about marketing, because you're talking to them as a perspective of a small business owner, so they understand that, hey, if you're doing it, then it's probably important.

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The second part of it is we talk about return on investment.

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So we have open, honest conversations how much profit do you make off each product or service that you have?

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Well, if I can generate, well, if I can generate this much more for you by spending this, and you're still making a lot more in your return investment, isn't it worth the initial investment?

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And everyone always answers yes, obviously, so then we start to have honest conversations.

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Okay, well then you need to, as a business owner, make sure that you budget a marketing budget each year.

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It's not something that's additional, like, oh well, we have some extra income, let's throw it to marketing.

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No, you need to plan it, just like you plan all your other overhead.

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Marketing is an overhead that it's required really to have a successful business.

00:21:12.493 --> 00:21:13.876
Yeah, really well said, rob.

00:21:13.876 --> 00:21:35.289
I think that there's so many important takeaways there, including the fact that I mean you said the word investment a few times there, and that really is what it comes down to is that if I can make $5,000, $10,000, depending on the service that I sell if I can make $5,000, $10,000, depending on the service that I sell if I can make that from one client that I get, why shouldn't I spend $2,000, $3,000 to acquire that customer?

00:21:35.289 --> 00:21:38.746
And I think that when we start to understand that, it really sets us down that road.

00:21:38.746 --> 00:21:42.451
And you alluded to the most important metric of all, of course, which is ROI.

00:21:42.592 --> 00:21:44.516
Obviously, we're all looking for a return on investment.

00:21:44.516 --> 00:21:47.164
If I can spend $10 and get 20 back, heck.

00:21:47.164 --> 00:21:49.872
If I could get 11 back, I'll do that all day long.

00:21:49.872 --> 00:21:51.957
That is literally the entire purpose of this.

00:21:51.957 --> 00:22:04.627
But walk us down that path of metrics because, knowing that the ultimate goal is ROI, what does your experienced mind and eyes look for when it comes to gauging the early success, since it's not going to be overnight?

00:22:04.627 --> 00:22:08.094
What are the early indicators and metrics that you pay attention to?

00:22:08.153 --> 00:22:23.256
from an advertising perspective, so the beautiful thing is, nowadays a lot of things are trackable, where traditional media back in the day TV, radio, print it's a lot of hey.

00:22:23.256 --> 00:22:31.435
People came in there and you looked at floor traffic, but did they come in from the TV website, from the TV ad, or did they come in from the radio ad?

00:22:31.435 --> 00:22:44.555
You really didn't know and you could ask those questions, but you honestly didn't get a 100% answer, because a lot of people say, oh yeah, I saw you on TV and then the funny thing is you weren't even on a TV ad.

00:22:44.555 --> 00:22:48.273
It's just what people remember.

00:22:48.545 --> 00:23:09.007
So nowadays we have the tools and capabilities to go okay, we're running a display campaign, we're running a social campaign, we're running Amazon ads, we're running LinkedIn ads, we're running TikTok ads.

00:23:09.007 --> 00:23:10.269
We're running all this stuff.

00:23:10.269 --> 00:23:11.733
Where is this coming from?

00:23:11.733 --> 00:23:26.895
And because we have trackable URLs and data, reports and software, we can literally say, okay, based on this marketing plan that we put together, here's your results, here's exactly where you're getting your best return on investment.

00:23:26.895 --> 00:23:50.568
What I recommend is that we change that plan based on the results and we're getting more from X than we are getting from Facebook, so then we should probably shift some of those marketing dollars towards X, not go away completely away from Facebook, because Facebook and Meta, that's a great place to market.

00:23:50.568 --> 00:23:58.869
But you're getting a lot from X right now, so why not put more money into X and get a better return on investment?

00:23:59.692 --> 00:24:10.175
Yeah, rob, I feel like we can't have this conversation without talking about something really important, regardless of platform that the more I looked into your work, the more I saw words like CRM and follow-ups.

00:24:10.175 --> 00:24:33.465
I saw all of these in your marketing tool bag, because the giant disclaimer, listeners, I want to give every single one of you is that when Rob talks about any marketing channel, if someone finds your ad on Facebook, for example, and they click it, it's not that they click it, they exit without buying and then that's it.

00:24:33.465 --> 00:24:34.288
You failed at that potential conversion.

00:24:34.288 --> 00:24:34.851
There's more to the process.

00:24:34.851 --> 00:24:36.596
It is extraordinarily rare for a one person to click, one person to buy right away.

00:24:36.596 --> 00:24:43.897
So, rob, talk to us about that importance of having a real strategic backend to support all of these efforts and initiatives.

00:24:44.900 --> 00:24:48.772
Yeah, you have to have a strategic backend because there's a lot, like you said.

00:24:48.772 --> 00:25:02.333
A lot of consumers are not going to click on your ad unless there's a major call of action that says buy now and you get 35% off of our product and it's a limited time offer.

00:25:02.333 --> 00:25:09.348
Most people nowadays are more educated on their buying, whether that be service or product.

00:25:09.348 --> 00:25:11.234
They're doing their research.

00:25:11.234 --> 00:25:13.000
I mean, think about it when you go buy a.

00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:16.613
You don't just go walk into a lot and buy a car.

00:25:16.613 --> 00:25:36.025
Nowadays, you're doing a lot of research online because you have those resources to figure out who's the best manufacturer, who's got the best safety features, who has the best amenities that I want in a vehicle, what coloring, anything like that.

00:25:36.025 --> 00:25:41.155
So by the time you get to the car dealer, it's just more of a negotiation of price.

00:25:41.155 --> 00:25:43.589
You already know what product you want.

00:25:43.589 --> 00:25:46.713
So it's the same thing with my clients.

00:25:46.713 --> 00:25:47.648
I tell them the same thing.

00:25:47.648 --> 00:25:53.715
Your customer, or potential customer, is very educated.

00:25:54.704 --> 00:25:59.673
So we have to do a lot of backend stuff and they're also not gonna to make that decision right away.

00:25:59.673 --> 00:26:09.013
So even if we run an ad Great, that gets them to your website Perfect they're not going to convert right away.

00:26:09.013 --> 00:26:27.352
So what we do is we retarget those ads and by retargeting we can retarget them up to 30 days, obviously, in different Menus they can be look at a CTV ad and then we can retarget them with a display ad later on and find it to a different platform.

00:26:27.352 --> 00:26:36.810
But it's that frequency that we build up that eventually, when the consumer needs your product or service, they know who to go to.

00:26:36.810 --> 00:26:38.896
Yeah, really.

00:26:42.345 --> 00:26:58.432
I love it, rob, because these are real life tools in your marketing tool bag and, listeners, if you're not familiar with retargeting, the truth is you already are, because if you look at a pair of shoes on Amazon and then all of a sudden you see that shoes on the same pair of shoes on Facebook and then it follows you to some other website that you're reading a news article on, that is retargeting in action.

00:26:58.432 --> 00:27:10.253
And, rob, I think most small business owners especially I'm gonna call all of us small business owners out right now they probably have seen it from the big box retailers, the Targets, the Best Buys, the Amazons of the world.

00:27:10.253 --> 00:27:18.251
They don't realize that those tools are accessible to you and I, and so I love the fact that that's part of the marketing mix that you bring to your clients.

00:27:18.251 --> 00:27:33.107
The other thing that I really want to go a little bit deeper here and if you want to say more about retargeting, I'd love for you to do that but the one thing I do want to go deeper here is you talked about the example of a car dealership, and obviously price is a consideration for all of us when we're buying anything.

00:27:33.709 --> 00:27:43.759
I feel like too many beginner entrepreneurs and newer business owners think that price is always the determining factor, and then they get themselves into a race to the bottom.

00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:44.603
I'm guilty of it.

00:27:44.603 --> 00:27:50.637
The first ever WordPress website that I sold was for a thousand dollars and I had like no profit margin on that.

00:27:50.637 --> 00:27:56.430
It was so embarrassing in hindsight, but then I realized people are paying 18 grand for these WordPress websites.

00:27:56.430 --> 00:28:11.294
So let's talk about price price and I'd love to hear your strategic hat on as as to what are the other ingredients that can help shape a compelling offer that we compete not just on price quality customer service.

00:28:11.815 --> 00:28:13.719
Those are probably the two key things.

00:28:13.719 --> 00:28:19.088
Price should be the last factor that people make a decision on.

00:28:19.088 --> 00:28:35.381
You should make your business model that your product or service is so much better that I'm willing to spend a little bit more because I know I can't get that anywhere else.

00:28:35.381 --> 00:28:42.230
You have to be invaluable, and I think that's what I do with my company as well, is we try to be invaluable.

00:28:42.230 --> 00:28:48.686
If we sit there and try to compete price versus a lot of agencies, you'd lose a lot.

00:28:48.686 --> 00:29:00.654
But what my clients realize is that the service that I provide them is invaluable Because, like I said, I go above and beyond when it comes to giving them business coaching advice.

00:29:01.896 --> 00:29:05.750
We are not afraid to evolve as well.

00:29:05.750 --> 00:29:19.769
So I had, for example, I have a client who's a lawyer and he came to me and he was like hey, we really want to do carvertising, which is a new product completely.

00:29:19.769 --> 00:29:21.474
That's out there.

00:29:21.474 --> 00:29:26.416
It's kind of a mobile billboard, is what people do nowadays.

00:29:26.416 --> 00:29:37.237
It's becoming very effective and people are making that transition from your typical traditional billboards to this platform.

00:29:37.237 --> 00:29:52.884
Well, I'll be honest, I didn't know much about carvertising my company, but I wasn't afraid to evolve and learn how I could monetize it and help my client in the same route.

00:29:52.884 --> 00:29:58.113
So I did a lot of research.

00:29:58.113 --> 00:30:07.153
The great thing about us nowadays is we have unlimited resources online that you can basically do your research.

00:30:07.153 --> 00:30:11.326
That you just didn't typically have 20 years ago as a small business owner.

00:30:11.326 --> 00:30:22.901
So I utilize that and learn how I can monetize it, put together a business plan and now we're doing car wraps as well.

00:30:28.944 --> 00:30:31.188
So you know the biggest thing is you need to be able to evolve your business.

00:30:31.188 --> 00:30:35.273
Yeah, rob, I'm glad you said that exact word, because where my head was going is I was like it's evolution.

00:30:35.273 --> 00:30:43.595
We are always in the evolution process and you led us right there, which I think is one of the entrepreneurial mindsets that we all need to adopt.

00:30:43.595 --> 00:30:47.849
I think that so much of when you and I talk about marketing, what we're really talking about.

00:30:47.849 --> 00:30:50.473
I always argue so much of this is mindset.

00:30:50.545 --> 00:30:52.231
None of this stuff is rocket science, rob.

00:30:52.231 --> 00:31:03.933
You have so much experience in boiling it down to a place that is simple and digestible, and I think the most important thing is strategic, so that it actually works, so it's not just ready fire aim.

00:31:03.933 --> 00:31:11.704
We obviously want to ready, aim fire, and I think that's such an important thing that you bring, and listeners know I always love transitioning towards the end of these sessions.

00:31:11.704 --> 00:31:23.505
I knew we'd be short on time because you and I could talk about marketing literally for days, rob, but I love talking to you as one of us, because you are not just a brilliant marketer and strategist, but you are a fellow entrepreneur.

00:31:23.505 --> 00:31:28.635
What's something that's been surprising for you in growing Forge Advertising?

00:31:28.635 --> 00:31:30.528
Because you already have the marketing know-how.

00:31:30.528 --> 00:31:34.157
But now you're also not just a practitioner, you're a business owner.

00:31:34.157 --> 00:31:36.309
So talk to us about your perspective on that.

00:31:37.313 --> 00:31:41.973
Yeah, it's a big undertaking and some people get a little intimidated.

00:31:41.973 --> 00:31:45.634
I would advise you not to Take your time.

00:31:45.634 --> 00:31:59.491
Scale what you need to scale in the beginning, but focus on the things you can do, not the things that you cannot do at this time, and provide the best you can do.

00:31:59.491 --> 00:32:02.586
You know, the thing I did was and I'll tell you.

00:32:02.586 --> 00:32:05.616
I mean, obviously, the first thing is, what are you passionate about?

00:32:05.616 --> 00:32:07.808
That would be your first question, okay.

00:32:07.808 --> 00:32:10.354
Second question can you monetize it?

00:32:10.354 --> 00:32:21.231
Well, okay, if you can, then you need to put together a business plan, and I think every business, small business owner, needs to do that and not just a business plan, but a growth plan as well.

00:32:22.758 --> 00:32:32.326
From there, don't be afraid to evolve, because I thought I knew a lot before I ventured into becoming a business owner.

00:32:32.326 --> 00:32:34.695
Learn, there's a lot to learn.

00:32:34.695 --> 00:33:07.141
Like I was telling you earlier, brian, like I just hired two new employees and first thing I did when I did that, as I grew, was like, okay, well, I have to put together an employee handbook and I need to get a CRM system so I can give them tracking tools, so they have customer management tools, and hey, let's invest in an LMS system so I can give them online training and ongoing training in this company to make them successful.

00:33:07.141 --> 00:33:16.779
So, and then there's all the liability legal forms that you need, like the outwill form and equipment liability form.

00:33:16.779 --> 00:33:19.932
It's just ongoing as a business owner.

00:33:19.932 --> 00:33:26.614
So I would just say that be ready to adopt and evolve as you go through this.

00:33:28.056 --> 00:33:39.759
Don't be afraid to take chances, but make sure they're calculated chances, because no business has ever grown by not taking risks.

00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:52.291
You look at the best businesses in the world and I take this Steve Jobs thing too is you don't have to recreate the wheel, you just have to create the wheel better.

00:33:52.291 --> 00:33:58.450
He was not the guy that came up with a lot of those ideas, he just made the ideas better.

00:33:58.450 --> 00:34:01.169
And then you look at Elon Musk.

00:34:01.169 --> 00:34:03.910
He just evolves, he continues to evolve.

00:34:03.910 --> 00:34:07.391
So I think if you have that mentality, you're going to be successful.

00:34:07.391 --> 00:34:22.639
The other thing is, as a small business owner, just know that you're gonna have to invest in your company that's your time, your effort and your money in order to grow.

00:34:24.525 --> 00:34:30.246
Yeah, rob, that's really powerful entrepreneurial advice, in addition to all the marketing stuff that we talked about.

00:34:30.246 --> 00:34:39.429
I mean, this is the real wisdom and I want to share this with listeners is that I know how easy it is when you tune into a podcast episode and you're listening to someone like Rob who has not.

00:34:39.429 --> 00:34:48.485
He's not thinking about starting his business, he's starting it, he's running it, he's hiring employees Like he's obviously in a huge growth point of his business journey.

00:34:48.485 --> 00:34:53.967
And so if you're listening to podcast guests like Rob and you're thinking, well, why does he know all of this stuff?

00:34:53.967 --> 00:34:56.273
But I don't, like I'm never going to reach that level.

00:34:56.273 --> 00:34:57.876
Rob reaches this level.

00:34:57.876 --> 00:35:06.190
All of our incredible guests reach this level through doing this stuff doesn't come because Rob wasn't born this way of knowing these things.

00:35:06.190 --> 00:35:06.847
It is.

00:35:06.987 --> 00:35:08.653
I'm gonna give you more kudos for this, rob.

00:35:08.653 --> 00:35:17.012
It's that evolutionary process and I think that what we've seen here today in this session is that your entire mindset is really all about that evolution.

00:35:17.012 --> 00:35:28.396
When you talk about whether it's car wraps or hiring new employees, you know that you may not know all the things just yet, but, gosh, are you willing to figure it out, and I love that you've brought that attitude towards today's session.

00:35:28.396 --> 00:35:36.557
I don't know how you're going to answer this last question now, because you've dropped so much wisdom on us already, but I always love asking at the end of these sessions of what's that one takeaway?

00:35:36.557 --> 00:35:45.146
We talked about so much marketing and advertising, knowledge and wisdom, but you also got into a lot of the entrepreneurial and business owner stuff with us here today.

00:35:45.146 --> 00:35:51.730
So, with all that good stuff in mind, what's that one takeaway that you hope every listener walks away from today's session with?

00:35:53.193 --> 00:35:59.289
I guess the one takeaway is you can be your own small business owner.

00:35:59.289 --> 00:36:05.068
You just got to put the time, effort and, like I said, money into it.

00:36:05.068 --> 00:36:14.251
But if you want that peace of mind and you want more control of your life, then the opportunity is out there.

00:36:14.251 --> 00:36:16.134
It's out there for everybody.

00:36:16.134 --> 00:36:19.820
It's just the more you put in, the more you'll get out.

00:36:21.204 --> 00:36:23.112
Yes, very powerful advice.

00:36:23.112 --> 00:36:28.846
It's so in line with three words that have guided me through my entire life Anything is possible, rob.

00:36:28.846 --> 00:36:29.811
You said it right there.

00:36:29.811 --> 00:36:32.333
If you want it, you can go get it.

00:36:32.333 --> 00:36:34.934
So I love those encouraging words of wisdom here at the end.

00:36:34.934 --> 00:36:41.034
Rob, I also know that we only touched the tip of the iceberg into all the great things that you get into with Forge Advertising.

00:36:41.034 --> 00:36:42.315
I love your website.

00:36:42.315 --> 00:37:00.297
I'm so excited for you to drop that link for listeners Listeners you already know where that link's going to be, but I'm excited for it because when people go to your website, they're going to see a long list of all the things that your agency provides from advertising planning placements, print and promotion, branding, video production, graphic design, search engine marketing, ads.

00:37:00.297 --> 00:37:02.259
I love all the things that you guys offer.

00:37:02.259 --> 00:37:05.510
So, with that teaser in mind, rob, you drop the links for us.

00:37:05.510 --> 00:37:06.974
Where should listeners go from here?

00:37:07.864 --> 00:37:09.210
Yeah, you can go to our website.

00:37:09.210 --> 00:37:11.722
Our website is forge, that's F-O-R-G-E.

00:37:11.722 --> 00:37:15.168
Uh, hyphen advertisingcom.

00:37:15.168 --> 00:37:28.496
Uh, you can also follow us on Instagram, facebook X and LinkedIn, and I drop a lot of free advertising tips on there as well.

00:37:29.284 --> 00:37:31.110
Yes, listeners, you already know the drill.

00:37:31.110 --> 00:37:36.532
We are making it as easy as possible for you to go into all the incredible things that Rob is up to with Forge Advertising.

00:37:36.532 --> 00:37:38.527
Check the show notes down below.

00:37:38.527 --> 00:37:44.036
Wherever it is that you're tuning into today's episode, you'll find a link to forge-advertisingcom.

00:37:44.036 --> 00:37:46.931
That's forge-advertisingcom.

00:37:46.931 --> 00:37:56.909
You'll find that link down below, as well as the other links that Rob mentioned there to his social media accounts, and also we're linking to Rob's personal LinkedIn because, like he said, he is someone that gives a lot of value out there.

00:37:56.909 --> 00:37:59.813
So definitely go deeper into all the great work that Rob is up to.

00:37:59.813 --> 00:38:05.208
Rob, on behalf of myself and all the listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:38:06.251 --> 00:38:07.815
Thanks, brian, it's been an absolute pleasure.

00:38:09.146 --> 00:38:14.708
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:38:14.708 --> 00:38:18.677
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:38:18.677 --> 00:38:27.920
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at the wantrepreneurshowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:36.710
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:38:36.769 --> 00:38:38.755
These are not sponsored episodes.

00:38:38.755 --> 00:38:40.338
These are not infomercials.

00:38:40.338 --> 00:38:43.835
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

00:38:43.835 --> 00:38:54.791
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

00:38:54.791 --> 00:39:03.295
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

00:39:03.295 --> 00:39:04.626
We also have live chat.

00:39:04.626 --> 00:39:09.255
If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewantrepreneurshowcom.

00:39:09.255 --> 00:39:10.686
Initiate a live chat.

00:39:10.686 --> 00:39:20.079
It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.