00:11:41 · Cletus McKeown, Andres Figuera
[00:11:41] S0: I gotta tell you, the stories are true. Yeah. Time of my life. I will say that. I was writing something... I was writing in just like an interstitial for Tosh for, like, whatever advertise we had. And I brought it back in one of his dressing rooms. I think he was up at Town Hall in New York City. Yeah. We were in Town Hall. I brought it backstage, like, hey. Just need your sign off on this. We'll, like, set a production. And he looked at me and he was just like, if no one's offended, what's the point? And I was like, you're right. What am I doing here? But it also was like, think about it in marketing too. Like, if you don't have a point of view, if you're not contrarian, if you don't, like, if you don't piss off someone, what the hell are you doing? I'm sorry. I don't know if I could say that. [00:12:18] S1: But No. No. For sure you can, man. And that's what I think is what's happening right now. Like, there's being this shift in how people speak because with AI, you always get a perfect article with all the facts, and everything is so nice that it's just like this utopic world that it's like, okay. But then thought leadership is coming up because people need to have opinions, and they need to speak about what they think and what makes it different or at least something a bit more... Well, contrarian. You mentioned the word contrarian like that one. And that at least it gives a a different perspective of thinking about things and that you at least have a voice. Because if not, it all gets lost in AI slop now.
00:12:18 · Andres Figuera, Cletus McKeown
[00:12:18] S1: But No. No. For sure you can, man. And that's what I think is what's happening right now. Like, there's being this shift in how people speak because with AI, you always get a perfect article with all the facts, and everything is so nice that it's just like this utopic world that it's like, okay. But then thought leadership is coming up because people need to have opinions, and they need to speak about what they think and what makes it different or at least something a bit more... Well, contrarian. You mentioned the word contrarian like that one. And that at least it gives a a different perspective of thinking about things and that you at least have a voice. Because if not, it all gets lost in AI slop now. [00:12:53] S0: A 100%. And even just, like, beyond, like, your, like, founder led content too, like, your brand needs to have an opinion. And to be everywhere is to be nowhere. Like, pick a lane. Say something. You're gonna make people happy, and that's enough. Like, microeconomies are more than enough to get you a billion dollar valuation, frankly.
00:12:53 · Cletus McKeown, Andres Figuera
[00:12:53] S0: A 100%. And even just, like, beyond, like, your, like, founder led content too, like, your brand needs to have an opinion. And to be everywhere is to be nowhere. Like, pick a lane. Say something. You're gonna make people happy, and that's enough. Like, microeconomies are more than enough to get you a billion dollar valuation, frankly. [00:13:12] S1: It is true, man. No. Nowadays, with so much people, like, with so much demand for everything, you just need to make sure you pick one thing and then just concentrate on that. Because if not, you'll be everywhere. And not in a good way because if it... You can't focus on on anything. But, Cletus, another question I do have for you, man, is in terms of what it has been for you working with AI, creating these websites, are you leveraging it in any other way that is kind of different or that you can tell us about?
00:13:38 · Cletus McKeown
[00:13:38] S0: Yeah. Probably a million different ways. Another cool one we're doing is like speed delete. Everyone like says that. I'm going a step beyond that and figuring out like external signals. Like, there's a lot of tools out there that say they have external signals. But anyone who has, like, a real niche of who their ICP is, like, knows exactly what is a real signal. And you might not be able to find that on Perplexity or in, like, Lemlist or whatever. So you... I've... We built our own. So I came up with a list of about, I wanna say, like, 75 signals that tells me something is a really good brand that will be a fit. Maybe not their button... Maybe not they're buying right now, but, like, whether it's, like, what they're advertising on Meta or things in the news or we see that they signed up with a new investor or that they're working with x, y, or z brand. It's not just like a hiring signal. Like, you need to be, like, actually detailed. So we scrape that across the Internet every day, and then the ones that fit the qualification, I put into, like, feeder signals. And now those are the intent signals. And every single morning, if one of those brands we've identified as, like, being a fit shows an intent signal, we get a Teams notification. Microsoft, unfortunately. Bankers. And Teams notification a couple times a day, every morning and afternoon. And then our sales team says, like, oh, we're in conversation with them. Or, like, no, we wanna hit them up. And if either of those buttons aren't hit, within twenty four hours, it goes into automated campaigns we have on Outreach Tools. So that, like, sets up meetings for us. So speed to lead is like not just like, oh, when someone calls or they book or they, like, submit a form, like, getting back to them. It can also be for outbound. It could be for taking advantage of when they tell you they might be in the market for what you sell.
00:15:22 · Andres Figuera, Cletus McKeown
[00:15:22] S1: That is so cool, man. Because, yeah, because I feel that with the ability with that AI AI has nowadays, it's like you can find a thousand leads, but are they really the specific ones that you need to be able to convert them into a sale or anything like that? So super cool that you've been able to, like, create that whole process and really just focus on the ones that might actually bite, and you'll be able to fish out of the pond in order to to get a sale. And when it comes to trying out new strategies, new campaigns, what are the metrics you pay attention to to know if you should reiterate and keep on doing it, or if you just should leave it at that and not pay attention to what you're trying to do anymore and just try something else? [00:15:59] S0: Yeah. It depends on every company. For us, it's pretty far down the funnel. If I'm seeing that people are, like, that these leads are getting further along, even though the volume might not be huge, I know it's a viable channel, and I tend to give myself, like, ninety days to, like, cut or keep. So for us, it's further down, like, in the, like, financing process that I could tell if someone's a tire kicker or if they're real. And then I and I and I, like, make sure that I'm tracking, like, you have to have your data right in order to be able to do real tests. [00:16:30] S1: For [00:16:30] S0: sure. But, like, know very quickly if something is a dud or dud or a stud, is it, Chae? [00:16:35] S1: Yeah. I think it is. I think it is.
00:16:35 · Andres Figuera, Cletus McKeown
[00:16:35] S1: Yeah. I think it is. I think it is. [00:16:38] S0: Yeah. That's basically how I just test. I give it ninety days, and then I'm seeing if we're actually getting people further down. Like, there's a lot of channels where you might get a ton of leads, but it's all junk. And then that... If you're a smaller team, like, only probably have there's only two full time people on my team, but we have we have an army of freelancers and we have a lot of we have a billion agents, but like you only have so many hours in a day. [00:16:57] S1: No, I get that. I get that. And given and it's given the strategy or the campaign you're running the proper time to if it works or not. So ninety days, think it's a very reasonable time to check out if it's actually working and if it's not, just go try something else. [00:17:09] S0: Or you might have to be honest with yourself, you don't have the time to be trying these new things. [00:17:13] S1: It's true. It's true. And Cletus, now shifting the perspective towards the future, man, what would you like to say that you were able to accomplish by the end of this year, which is, I don't know, two months away now? [00:17:24] S0: Two months away. [00:17:25] S1: Yeah. But, yeah, what would you like to have... What would you like to say you were able to accomplish as the SPP of Growth and Marketing?