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Brenda
Welcome to another episode of Little Talks, your weekly dose of marketing news and insights from Littlefield Agency.
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Sam
Guys, welcome back to another edition of Little Talks with Littlefield Agency. I'm Sam Littlefield. With me is. And with us is.
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Sean
I'm Shawn Hubbard.
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Sam
Sound. Harvard.
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Roop
Fanfare. Music. There.
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Sam
Fanfare. Two way. Claud. There we go. That's not music at all. But it's nice to smoke. Yeah. Awesome. Where's the smoke machine, guys? Take it from the data from the top. What's in that? Celsius. we're excited to have Shawn here today. He, He had his whole team. How many people were in that room today? They're a bunch.
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Sam
we had quarterly analytics. We had campaign concept presentations. And then about 24 hours ago, I gave Shawn a phone call, and I said, hey, you're gonna be in our office, and I would love it. So it's on the podcast. but it's great because he's a natural. And, we're going to announce some big news here in a little bit because he's going to be regular.
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Sam
before we get into that, we have a string of birthdays here, a little field agency. Reynolds Wallace is on Saturday. Chelsea Clement was on Monday. Kenny is today and Melissa is tomorrow. There we go. There's our music. Thank you, Claude Kelly. Hubble's fourth anniversary is today as well. So it's a big, big string of July is big.
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Sam
Yes. Oh my goodness. She's been. That's what I said. I said, Kelly, I don't know where that four years went. So, Anyway, but enough talk about us. We're here to talk about this guy, and, you just got back from a pretty cool little trip that we would love for you to tell our viewers some backstory on.
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Sean
Sure. Yeah. It's, a golf trip with the boys. We've been doing it. this is year 12. There's a seven of us and myself makes eight, and we just go on an annual boys trip and go play as much golf as we can.
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Sam
And how many rounds did you play?
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Sean
We play 36 holes on Monday, 36 holes on Tuesday and 18 on. You know, there's not a whole lot of gambling.
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Sam
That's what I. That's what I love about this.
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Sean
Yeah, it's it's a year's worth of, bragging rights.
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Sean
but deeper.
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Roop
Than cash. Oh. I'm saying.
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Sean
Yeah, you got to live with it.
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Sam
But this this way to talk about. So I'm all for a good guys golf trip. talk to us just about a the hyping up throughout the year and be, not only bragging rights, but you get some pretty cool, too. What's the name of your tournament?
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Sean
Yeah. So the tournament we call it, the JK Cup, which is a kind of a funny little backstory. I'll try to go through it.
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Sam
No, you got we got time.
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Sean
But yeah, JK is for Junction City, which is a city in Kansas that nobody's ever heard of. And this game. Apologies to. You love that.
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Roop
These opinions are not.
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Sean
That's right. So one of the guys on our our trip, his dad we refer to as the Godfather. amazing was at the game. You and the University of Kansas in case they football game in Manhattan. But there weren't any hotel rooms available in Manhattan, so he stayed in Junction City, and we ended up calling him that night.
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Sean
And he had had several, alcoholic beverages. And we were like, so how's Junction City? And he just looks at us or, you know, just pauses for a second. Does Junction City was.
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Sean
The joke for us, if anything was I mean, as though Junction City and then this idea for a golfer. And I was like, man, we got to call the Junction City Cop. It's the. Wow.
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Roop
Is there a trophy?
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Sean
we've had a couple traveling trophies, but, they never make it back. They just keep traveling. Yes. So somebody has got them in their attic or their basement or something like that. But it's a really fun trip, and we, it's like a Ryder Cup style tournament where we play different formats for match play. four guys on each team were all dressed the same with our golf costumes on is what we call a club.
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Sean
I say it's a beer drinking contest with some golf mixed in and really good get together.
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Sam
And. And you walked away as a.
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Sean
Dixie Cup.
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Sam
Champion. Champion, baby. That's right. That is pretty good.
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Sean
Is.
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Roop
Thank you. Jesus.
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Sam
Hey, we'll we'll take the cheers, I love it. I will, I will give, this guy and I have played a lot of golf over the years, and, it's such a legit tournament. He has a bag that says.
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Sean
Yeah, I had to retire that back because.
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Sam
It was like. But you kept. But you kept it. You kept it. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. And did you add years on of how many times you want, like what years you want it? Yeah.
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Sean
I had to retire that back a few years ago. So there's a couple.
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Sam
I'm pretty cool.
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Sean
On it, but yeah, it's got my name embroidered on it. And we have a logo. we have a JC up logo. And then the years that that I was the champion of it.
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Sam
So that was last week. He came back into the office on Monday and then he here we are on a Tuesday on the podcast. So we appreciate it. And your busy time. Very busy. So, Sean has been in Detroit for, six years before I, started running the agency. We got to work together for a couple of years, which was.
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Sam
Which was awesome. So we thought we'd take this time. Sean, just to give our, viewers and our listeners some inside scoop of what your job started out as six years ago. And talk to us about the evolution, over the last six years.
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Sean
Yeah, it's kind of a wild ride for me. I got the job somehow. I don't really know how I have it. I didn't know a whole lot of, if any media experience. so I got an actually saying we're going to teach me that side of the business, but, so I'm the marketing communications manager for Detroit, and that my career path up to that point was strictly on the PR side.
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Sean
I wrote press releases and feature articles for magazines and websites and stuff like that. I didn't know anything about advertising. marketing really a whole lot. so yeah, just that's kind of the background to me getting there. and now working with agencies, we're with you guys, another group out of Minnesota. but, yeah. So my day to day, what I handle is the PR side for the brand and also the advertising.
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Sean
so digital and print media is going away as we all kind of know that. And that's some of the evolution you're probably talking about that the. We're getting ready, I think, to announce some news.
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Sam
Yes. Big big, big news.
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Sean
We're going to go down. And that was not really on the radar six years ago. So yeah that's kind of my my day to day is, advertising PR and my team manages the websites and the social media, email marketing.
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Sam
And you got about there's six total on your team then four, five, six, maybe seven seven. Yeah. It's got seven. So you got a nice size in-house team. the cool thing is and you talk about this evolution, Sean, from just, you know, I think about how quickly six years has gone, right? Very, very, very fast. we've been working with, Sean for six years and with the switch team for 22 years, which is really, something where we take a lot of pride in, I think about all the different stuff.
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Sam
I'm looking out the window, the the evolution of the logo over the years. Right. And when you all hired us in 2002 as a very traditional branding agency that ran some print ads, you know, did some, very traditional media things into launching you all into social media in the early 20 tens. And then, and I think about especially the two of you and what you guys do every day, everything post-Covid in a sense of content.
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Sam
got some big plans for content strategy going forward. but just thinking about the the evolution of content, just in your daily role, how I would I would say when Sean started, you were a long form writer for public relations purposes. Now, look at people's attention spans and just, you know.
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Sean
Yeah.
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Sam
So we're very lucky because our team gets to work with Sean and Brad and the team on a basically daily basis, just thinking on how people are digesting media, how they're digesting content. And sure, there might be someone still willing to give us their email and download that nice white paper that Sean wrote. Yeah, absolutely.
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Sean
Creative and rich helped a lot with that, too. And it's not just nobody's gonna sit down and read a, you know, 1200 word article on something unless they are very interested in that something. So if they are interested, that's something that should be gated content, right?
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Sam
Totally.
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Sean
We didn't have any gated content when I started six years ago. So I mean, that's something else. And when you're talking about when I started and, you were on the media side and we were kind of. Yeah, I remember sitting in the conference room over there for hours just to.
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Sam
Map it out.
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Sean
Print media schedule, what was it going to be all year? And it was I mean, it was a lot of fun. It was a good time. But we don't do that.
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Sam
And I would say at that point we were about 60% print. Yeah, I think so. That was six years ago. Also, Sean and I would sit in a room cap calendar, basically like content strategy, media strategy for a year. And we like high five. Like, all right, man, I'll do it again next year. Of course we chatted between that.
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Sam
But I just the just the constant, the moving pieces, all of it. But, but again, it makes our job really fun. I mean, that's that's why we're here, and that's what we do with you guys. one thing that's really cool is. And just a group, don't say anything.
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Roop
Oh, no, I go.
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Sam
Ahead, make sure.
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Roop
I was going to comment how much better your voice has gotten.
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Sam
I know right?
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Roop
Getting worse.
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Sam
Oh, God. Yeah. By the way, I'm not sick. I just have a really raspy voice. Sounds like.
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Roop
Something.
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Sam
I must turn the lights on. Turn the lights on. It's game time, baby. Yeah. It's, I just reek of cigarets. I just so if I want to. Now, my voice is going to get raspy. I wanted to you up because, something that we're really, really excited for here in two months almost is coming up most of the day.
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Sam
Yeah, I have these friggin plane tickets. we're going to Boston for inbound with Sean correctly. Best and best and best and some Napster. we we we're going up to the northeast, for Hubspot's inbound conference. This will be your third year. This will be Sean and his first year. And, we couldn't be more excited to kind of give us.
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Sam
What are we expecting here? And, what are the actual takeaways? But we're going to walk away with a lot.
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Roop
Yeah. So we'll probably do a pre HubSpot inbound and post, inbound podcast as well. But definitely know that right now. Last year we kind of thought it would be a lot about AI. And it was this year a little bit more into AI. And I think that what I'm noticing, there's a lot more content related, topics.
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Roop
because they've rolled out a content hub and they're trying to help support that as well. So I know a little bit more of that. But, you know, every year they have a keynote that sometimes has something to do with marketing or advertising. And it really jobs and sometimes does and sometimes just inspirational speaker last year was Reese Witherspoon chocolate wine.
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Roop
And we're going to get out of this. She was interesting.
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Sam
She's built a hell of a brand for herself to.
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Roop
Learned a lot about her in the business side. And at the time they were in, the actors strike, I think you could talk about.
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Sean
She had some time.
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Roop
She didn't even talk about the film projects. They said that upfront. We can't ask to answer questions, but, this year, another actor, Ryan Reynolds, is the keynote. But unlike the others in the past, he actually is way into marketing and advertising.
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Sam
And he owns an agency, a big agency.
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Roop
yeah. So he I thought, yeah.
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Sam
He's like, yeah, it was exactly.
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Roop
So I don't what I'm kind of interested in seeing just because I think he, he's kind of smarter than I think a lot of people kind of give them credit for the service, but not.
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Sam
Super funny, too. He's a he's a funny dude.
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Roop
Yeah. The other main stage.
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Sam
You'll get to meet Jay. It's pretty cool.
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Sean
You know, he was on a podcast.
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Sam
Yes, sir. Yeah.
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Roop
You know, he's, you know, smart guy. So, like, there's a lot you can take out of it. Basically, it involved you pick your your your interest tracked and you follow it. So it can be marketing. It can be, technical. It can be, more CRM related if you're doing support or sales or things like that and just kind of follow these and you tend to get immersed.
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Sam
Well, that's what I like. What I get excited about is a Boston in the fall. We're talking about the following earlier. It's gonna be stunning. Yeah, guys, leaves are changing. It is Boston over here? Yep. That's where their headquarters are in the.
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Roop
90s last year.
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Sam
And I'm I'm going to vibe with great cool weather, nice cold beers. At the end of the day, it's I'm just I'm conjuring up this beautiful fall day. And then in the northeast, what I get excited about, though, is the opportunity for the three of us to divide and conquer, right? And to go to different sessions and to break bread and, have a drink and catch up over.
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Sam
There's so many different learnings. Yeah. I mean, that's that's what's going to be interesting.
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Sean
I mean, I think the three of us do are on different levels within HubSpot. consider root, way up here.
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Sam
Sam, way down here on right in the middle.
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Sean
Of the world. And I was talking about that this morning, before our meeting is I'm gonna have to find the HubSpot for dummies track as I try to learn.
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Sam
Oh, Sam, did where?
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Sean
It would probably be a ways to reach Todd, but he'll be a little bit more advanced, and you and I can sit in there.
00:13:02:16 - 00:13:06:13
Sam
And I was gonna say kindergarten class, and we get.
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Roop
I would say I found myself and stuff was over my head, in the past as well. But there's still stuff you take out of those sessions, even.
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Sam
When I just remember, like, the energy that Rupe brought back to the agency afterwards and then the learnings, they're like, okay, that's an interesting thing. And then we put it into practice and, and that, like, and we really started to see some, some momentum out of that. So I get really excited for that. That'll be here, guys.
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Sam
Really quick. Joy is going to go to our client from AG Williams is going to go with Joy. It's going to be a really, really nice time. What I think about too, is we think about HubSpot as you think about how Sean's role as, really evolved. I'd like for you to give the big news because his content continues to evolve, and we see it every day here.
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Sam
what are you bringing to your organization here in the next, 60 to 90 days?
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Sean
Yes. We're pretty excited by it's, something that that roof has been trying to talk me into. I think for a little while now. you know, we don't have enough to talk about. but after multiple, conversations and months of, tell me it's a good idea, I am definitely on board that it's. Which is, we're going to launch our own podcast, called Beyond the Moon to a podcast.
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Sean
So, yeah, I'm excited about it. Yeah, I'm excited about it. I was hesitant to do it for for a year, probably because I think you guys touched on this in one of your recent podcasts as well. My biggest hurdle to do this was I don't think we have enough to talk about. Yeah, you know, it's like, oh, this is how you do yours, right?
00:14:38:15 - 00:14:45:15
Sean
But I do think that this is a it's an opportunity for us to engage with our customers. And actually a lot of people that aren't even our customers.
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Sam
There you go.
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Sean
yeah. So yeah, yeah, I'm excited.
00:14:48:06 - 00:15:06:01
Roop
And I think the how to dig a trenches like episode five. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's not I, I just, I am super excited about it because you know like we've talked about a lot, it's another content piece that hits every checkpoint and puts you in front of audience that you otherwise can't be in front of it.
00:15:06:01 - 00:15:06:15
Sean
Right.
00:15:06:17 - 00:15:17:22
Roop
And, that we're super excited about. We've got some stuff this morning just to kind of prep for it to get to the set together. Yeah. Design. so yeah, we're, we're start recording here pretty soon. Should be up sometime by fall.
00:15:18:00 - 00:15:35:16
Sean
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited about we've struggled with, coming up with new and engaging content. for quite a while now with. But we can't rely on, customers to help tell our story. And they're busy people, and they're out working all the time. So while the idea is there, it's hard to kind of follow through with it sometimes.
00:15:35:16 - 00:15:47:22
Sean
So I think the podcast, looking at our blogs out of that and written pieces and their social content and there's just so much opportunity for us to get out there. And it's it's another touchpoint as well.
00:15:47:22 - 00:16:09:07
Sam
And, and I love the the educational opportunities are tremendous. Right. How to dig a trench I know you're being funny, but but there's there's an example. I think about the subject matter experts that you're going to have on. I think about some of the history in law that you're just going to I mean, I always the JC example, I didn't know JC Junction City, like I love people love stuff like that.
00:16:09:07 - 00:16:28:09
Sam
And what I'm excited for you to find out, Sean, is when we go super detailed into the weeds on some topic and we get a few listeners, but when we talk about something super entertaining and fun, it's like tenfold, right? Like you'll start to discover these patterns and these trends because guess what? At the end of the day, people and, customers want to be entertained.
00:16:28:11 - 00:16:33:13
Sam
And that's and that's what you're doing, your education, you are absolutely educating them. But, there's, there's a really cool opportunity.
00:16:33:13 - 00:16:47:20
Sean
Like the name I think is perfect and it's beyond the moon. Right? Because it's not just about our equipment. Right? It's not just about how to use it. It's the people behind it. You know, they're they're making they're they're making decisions to bring it to the market and who they are as people, actually the real people to.
00:16:47:22 - 00:16:49:10
Roop
the, the culture.
00:16:49:12 - 00:16:54:01
Sam
Now. So true, which is a great call in their name. Very, very nice.
00:16:54:03 - 00:17:02:20
Roop
We have where we putting the scripts kind of outlines together. Yeah. The first like nine episodes I think we have right now. I talked about some of the culture stuff, you know, that can go on.
00:17:02:22 - 00:17:04:08
Sean
Yeah, we can do that. That's.
00:17:04:10 - 00:17:06:06
Roop
So you had something to talk about?
00:17:06:08 - 00:17:08:05
Sean
That's right.
00:17:08:07 - 00:17:28:07
Sam
So the cool thing, Sean, is going to be our very first client, to launch a podcast, and that's huge, man. Like, you're bringing a new form of communication, a medium, to a very, very legit brand. Right. And, so we you all, our listeners and our viewers will be the first to hear about it, because we will be singing From the mountaintop.
00:17:28:09 - 00:17:37:14
Sam
but that will be, I would imagine, right after, right around inbound. here in a couple of months. so, so stay tuned. But, buddy, we're really excited for you. It's a leap of faith. You're taken, but it's a good one.
00:17:37:14 - 00:17:40:11
Sean
Yeah. really? I can't mess it up that bad.
00:17:40:13 - 00:17:48:08
Sam
And that's, It's why we got this guy.
00:17:48:10 - 00:17:53:13
Sam
To listen to now we're pumped. Closing thoughts, guys, anything?
00:17:53:13 - 00:18:00:05
Sean
I really appreciate you guys asking me to hop on today. I'm glad we're not talking about Vanderpump Market.
00:18:00:07 - 00:18:21:08
Sean
I will say those, that we, My wife and I were coming to Tulsa early in the morning, six weeks ago. And for, a kind of a stressful day. And I was like, you know what? Let's just I'm going to listen to this podcast and put her to sleep in whatever she was. And she was so engaged with the stress of what we're about to do.
00:18:21:10 - 00:18:28:01
Sean
So that was awesome. Except for the, air horn thing that you changed. I think it was. It used to be a topic thing, and then I was like, remove.
00:18:28:03 - 00:18:31:09
Roop
Yeah.
00:18:31:11 - 00:18:36:03
Sam
Right. Like, Holy cow, that is your. There's your booster coffee.
00:18:36:07 - 00:18:38:16
Sean
That's right. The point being, I appreciate you guys.
00:18:38:18 - 00:18:39:07
Sam
Oh, dude.
00:18:39:13 - 00:18:40:14
Roop
Thanks for coming.
00:18:40:16 - 00:18:53:11
Sam
We are so happy to have you on. Excited for your podcast. And, to agree to hang out in Boston and the fact that you agreed to do this, 24 hours ago with really no heads up, right. You're a trooper, gentleman and a scholar.
00:18:53:13 - 00:18:56:13
Roop
This is how you this is how it's going to be when you're doing it. Yeah.
00:18:56:15 - 00:19:03:06
Sam
Boom boom boom boom. But you are a natural. So. Okay, guys, we'll catch you next week. Thank you so much. And we will see you then.
00:19:03:08 - 00:19:03:23
Roop
Adios.
00:19:03:23 - 00:19:16:06
Brenda
And that's a wrap. We hope you've enjoyed our little chat and found ways to grow your own marketing strategies. Remember to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on social media at Littlefield Agency.