Ryan [00:00:00] Well, what's the point of that? We have like three talented people

applying to work here. It's a recruiting tool. It's awareness for the agency

and our team. It gives them a creative outlet like this is why you do it.  

Josh [00:00:16] One of my favorites is like Pit Bull did a song a while ago, and

then he was like for everyone going through tough times, remember, I've been

there, done that. And everyone's like posting this most obscure, deep traumatic

events in their lifetime. And it's like pushing through this moment and just

remembering that pit bulls been there with me. Yeah, he's Mr. Worldwide. What

has he not experienced? Stop taking everything so damn serious. Like, let's

have fun people. That's why TikTok blowing up.  

Josh [00:00:46] I know we've had a couple of new people on the team. We're like,

let's make a TikTok and they are asking do we have a meeting, some kind of

formal discussion. And I am like, No, just calm down.  

It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better

place than here? What better time than now. Hey, guys, what's up? Welcome to

the latest edition of the Radcast. 

Ryan Alford Hey guys, what's up?

Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast news and advertising edition. I'm

Ryan Alford.

Josh Hill   I'm Josh Hill.

Ryan Alford Welcome to our show. It is

Friday, July 2nd, 2021. We are in the future folks it’s 2021 and it's almost July

4th. We're going out with a bang here this week. Oh yes, bad joke number one

right off the bat.

Josh Hill [00:01:43] Teen star mentality.

Ryan Alford [00:01:47] What's up, Josh? Are you having a good week? Any huge, exciting

special July 4th plans?

Josh Hill Big cookout with some

friends.

Ryan Alford OK yeah, I know what it is

like you throw some old meat on the Barbe. Oh, what was that? Dumb and Dumber?

Josh Hill [00:02:08] Yeah, I'll get Zukerberg on here smoking these meats.

Ryan Alford [00:02:15] We have the meat.

Josh Hill [00:02:16] We have smoked some meats out here. 

Ryan Alford [00:02:18] The July 4th fireworks. There are no fireworks in Greenville this

year. What the hell.

Josh Hill  Is that real?

Ryan Alford Yeah so much construction

going on there. They're afraid they may light something on fire. And then the

area that normally has so much happening. You can't have progress around here.

Josh Hill That makes sense.

Ryan Alford Babies crying and get kids

upset. Moms are going what are we going to do if there are no fireworks downtown?

Josh Hill [00:02:41] I've already seen some news about the Northwest with all that heat

and dryness going on out there.

Ryan Alford [00:02:46] Yeah they don't need fireworks.

Josh Hill [00:02:47] They're like this is great, a good thing there has been no

explosion since the holiday is coming up.

Ryan Alford [00:02:54] Yeah I think they need to stay away from the fireworks it's 117

degrees out there.

Josh Hill[00:02:59] Just bring up the YouTube video and watch that, it may be enough.

Ryan Alford [00:03:05] This has been a great week, so we're going to

start a new segment upfront as we take a look at some of the Google Trends from

yesterday. Something caught my

attention and I wanted to bring it to the forefront. If you're watching the

video, you're going to see the screen of what's trending. A certain gentleman

that used to play baseball for the New York Mets is Bobby Bonilla. Bobby

Bonilla's day was yesterday. And are you aware of the story? The cult nature of

it?

Josh Hill [00:03:40] Yeah recently, it's a name that's popped up here and there

throughout history for me.

Ryan Alford [00:03:43]  As for those who aren't aware of the story, and

yeah, it was yesterday, you probably already heard it and well, you'll hear it

again, so I'll quickly recap it.

Bobby Bonilla was a huge baseball player, made millions of dollars for a huge

contract. He declined one year and the owner didn't want to pay the remaining

like $6,000,000.00 bucks all at once so he told him; Bobby made the deal of a

lifetime that he'd pay him 1.2 million dollars for 25 years, starting 11 years

in 2011. It was 2000 when this happened and Bobby took that deal. It was only

six million that he was owed and he took that $25,000,000. The owner of the

Mets who was investing with Bernie Madoff made off with a lot of money in the

Ponzi scheme. If you don't know who that is, he stole everyone's money,

including the Mets owner who seems to have enough for it to go around.

Nonetheless, he thought he could invest those 11 years and make more than the

contract was worth. Well, he was dead wrong, kind of like Bernie Madoff and

he's been paying 1.2 million for 25 years since 2011. We're in year 10 of this

so he's got 15 years more to go, but they've become a cult following. It's like

their father, Bernie Day at the ballpark. There have been bubbleheads and

everything else and Ryan Alford of course has struck a commercial with Mint. We

won't go there. That's not part of our news. Ryan, we've given you enough props

on this show. Come on the show. We're going to get you on as a guest, Ryan

Reynolds. But in all seriousness, Bobby Bonilla day was trending 

significantly in the top 10 yesterday 

Josh Hill [00:05:30] Yeah, It's just the things I would do for a contract like that.

Ryan Alford [00:05:35] 1.2 million… Rather than spending more than they should have,

even with Financial Advisors, these guys sign the deal of a lifetime and it

becomes like a savings account because he gets 1.2  million. Almost like living on the dividends of a much

larger contract. So that's for you, Bobby. It just makes me laugh that the

owner was arrogant enough to think that, that was a done deal.

Josh Hill [00:06:10] It’s a good life lesson. Don't count your chickens before the eggs

hatch.

Ryan Alford [00:06:15] Yes, that's exactly how you say it. I promised I was going to give

Josh lots of aahs today and no distractions.

Josh Hill [00:06:27] Yeah, that's your cue to make an aah at home or wherever you're

listening.

Ryan Alford [00:06:32]  A bit of news. Here we're radical and we're doing a little

partnership. We are partnering with Joe, Joe and Shaun- S-E-A-N, and you can go

look them up on Tik Tok and thank me later. Hilarious dudes. They're here at

Greenville Little Comedy Troupe. I know Joe from college and we are hiring

these guys at the agency, they're going to help with writing and doing some

skits to kind of take our content to the next level. So I'm excited about that.

They might even make some guest appearances here on the podcast. Funny

guys.  Josh is probably funnier than you even realize, so I can't wait for

how this all kind of comes together when we get lots of funny people

talking.  I’m trying to shake things up. What strikes me is, the people

that are making great content, that are talented in this day and age, how do we

partner and leverage that, especially when our fucking name is radical? 

It strikes me as radical, so let's be radical. So I'm excited about that. More

to come, more content. They're going to be coming on the Radcast. We'll be

doing a weekly segment and  I'm looking forward to that. Josh did their

humor strike you as funny?

Josh Hill [00:07:51] Oh, yeah.

Ryan Alford [00:07:52] That was kind of right down the path for you for sure.

Josh Hill  [00:07:55] There were a couple of moments even just meeting with them that I

was holding back the laughter.

Ryan Alford [00:07:59] Laughs Yeah, they're funny. Lots of parodies to look them up.

Joey, Joe and Shaun coming on the Rad cast team and the radical team any time

now. So speaking of Tik Tok, has anything hit your radar this week?

Josh Hill [00:08:16] A few things and I'm going to bring Ryan back in. Ryan Reynolds

got on and of course, his first fucking Tik Tok video gets four million likes,

not views, likes just huge. He's just hitting base hits at this point. But we

had our TikTok blowup. We had one featuring our wonderful graphic designer

Sawyer and one of the recent trends. So this is another trend and I don't even

know who does the song, but it's just like I'll be damned if I listen to the

opinion of a man with an unwashed rear end,  keeping it clean.

Ryan Alford [00:08:55] Keeping 

it clean evidently,

Josh Hill [00:08:58] He's got 125,000 views and a few hundred followers from that, it is

great.

Ryan Alford [00:09:04] It is a case study people, so I'm just going to say this, I give

our team latitude with time, to create Tik-Tok for the agency. Most agencies

suck at marketing themselves. We're marketers and we market ourselves. So I

tell the team hey, how about with Tik Tok, do all this stuff. We've got a lot

of creative people, a lot of talented people, and they come up with videos.

We've had some with tens, five thousand views here and then you think well,

what's the point of that? Well, we had like three talented people apply to work

here. It's a recruiting tool and it is awareness for the agency, it is

awareness for our team, it gives them a creative outlet and this is why you do

1. So if you're listening out there and you run a business, this is why you

give your team latitude to do these things and who knows what will come of it,

but it adds value. It's fun. We take everything seriously, let's firkin stop

taking everything so damn serious. Let's have fun people. That's why TikTok is

blowing up.

Josh Hill [00:10:09] We've had a couple of new people on the team. We're like, all

right, let's make a tech talk and they ask, shouldn’t you have a meeting, some

kind of formal discussion? Which we should.

Ryan Alford [00:10:19] Just calm down now this is not planned.

Josh Hill [00:10:23]  This is

not that kind of workspace.

Ryan Alford [00:10:25] This is the cool workspace. So check that out. Check out the Radical

company’s  Tik Tok page, for all of the greatest hits that are going on

and it's all yours. Mullet. I don’t think he had the Mullet yet in the videos,

did he? That ear(hair) is something else.

Josh Hill [00:10:42] We'll get it back in there.

Ryan Alford [00:10:44] Yes. He might play a character himself.  Is anything else

hitting your radar on Tik Tok?

Josh Hill [00:10:51]Yeah, a couple more great songs pay my bills by Destiny's Child and they

are killing it. I love those. Then one of my favorites is, Pit Bull did a song

a while ago and he was like; for everyone going through tough times, remember,

I've been there, done that and everyone's like posting the most obscure, really

deep traumatic events in their lifetime. And it's like just me pushing through

this moment and just remembering that Pit Bull has been there with me.

Ryan Alford [00:11:18] Yeah. Like the fact that maybe he had tough times at one time, but

he's not having tough times anymore.

Josh Hill [00:11:25] But he's Worldwide right,  what hasn't he experienced?

Ryan Alford [00:11:28] Is pit bull still popular or is he only popular in a parody

instance?

Josh Hill [00:11:35] I want to say he's popular in a parody-like way, but I also still

see him everywhere, so I  think there comes a point where, even if you are

a meme, it doesn’t matter. 

Ryan Alford [00:11:48] I  would love to become a meme, do you want to become a meme?

  That’s when you've made it, I think. Yeah. 

Josh Hill [00:11:54] That's when you're like a part of history forever.

Ryan Alford [00:11:59] Cool, there's your latest on Tik Tok and now we'll get started on

the news. First, number one, Audi is claiming a 70 percent conversion rate and

this is just coming from the adage, by the way, that’s on adage.com. I did see

it multiple places, but adage picked it up, so I want to give them props. Audi

claims a 70 percent conversion rate for cookie testing, leveraging its

exclusion list. So essentially here,  cookies are going away

eventually,  though Google just announced they're extending it to you. No

one's quite ready. It's like hey, can we extend them? You know the lobbyists in

Washington shoved a few more hundreds of millions, whichever it is, in pockets

to extend this because no one's quite ready for it. But it is interesting

because this goes in line, not born wanted. This kind of struck me because some

of the things that we're about to start testing or already are testing with

this notion of contextual, combined with first-party, combined with behavioral,

minus, which is where the exclusion list,  customers that are showing

behaviors that would show them not to be interested in whatever you're selling,

in this case, an Audi. But who's not interested in an Audi? But, it’s got to be

a small exclusion list,  just the ones that can't afford it. Right. But

that was the only thing they would have minored, affordability. That's the one

factor, you know, whatever the income level, the credit level, private credit

scores. But thoughts on this?

Josh Hill [00:13:38] Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense in going for contextual

stuff. This is something that we’ve been pushing for the last few months

especially and that's been successful in what I've seen in our results. It

makes a lot of sense, especially with the exclusion list.

Ryan Alford [00:13:58] Yeah, I think that might be the sauce here.

Josh Hill [00:13:59] Everyone talks about targeting the audience,  who you are

going after. I think a key thing is you have got to exclude the people you're

not going after.  One, it saves you some mad money because you keep them

out. But I think it says a lot. I mean, people are focusing on being all things

to all people. As I know you've got to cut out some people.

Ryan Alford [00:14:20] Well it’s kind of like negative keywords on paperclip

campaigns.  People forget that we're going to go after these cute

little…No, you need to exclude some lists, some keywords, too, because that

will get the trash kind out of the opportunity.

Josh Hill [00:14:35] Right, it’s like finding a partner to date and you focus on all

the good things and you just ignore the red flags.

Ryan Alford [00:14:41] Yeah, she's cute, she's nice. she cleans, but she's also a

psychopath. Yeah.

Josh Hill [00:14:49] She stole my wallet.

Ryan Alford [00:14:50] Yeah. She's so nice. I'm like she's so good to me. She chipped in

my bank account that one time. But you know, it's OK. I didn't have seven

dollars in there so I was OK with it.

Josh Hill [00:15:02] Well it's a life lesson on adolescent exclusion.  Exclusion

list people. Exclude, get some deal breakers in there.

Ryan Alford [00:15:11] Number two: So not surprising here, Facebook's been under scrutiny

for the last few years and there's been a huge lawsuit, this big lawsuit just

to summarize because we could talk about this for an hour… They've been called

out for essentially being a monopoly and they've had antitrust laws and

everything's been trying to throw the book at him.  When the judge threw

it out, their stock price went through the roof when this happened, because I

think a lot of people weren't expecting it to get thrown out, but it did get

thrown out. And I believe in capitalism. I'm independent probably, as far as

voting goes. I voted on both sides in my 20 plus years of voting, so I wouldn't

call myself one party or another, as much as I just believe in capitalism. And

it's kind of the lifeblood of America of it. And so I don't have a problem with

Facebook growing, becoming what they are. Hey, you everyone's got the same opportunity

to make the most of it. However, at a certain point, like, I don't know when

it's something gets so ingrained in the society and everything else that it

might be too big. I don't have a firm absolute judgment on that other than just

my intuition goes, maybe getting a bit too big.

Josh Hill [00:16:36] We have a habit of letting entities like this become the, too big

to fail thing. And that's when you just completely remove competition and

everything is working to keep them in power. And it's just when it falls apart.

Ryan Alford [00:16:53] My problem with Facebook goes back to just personal freedoms and

stuff. They have so much size and scale, which they've done and they've built.

I admire them from a capitalist standpoint. But when they become the judge,

jury, and censorship of anything and I'm not being political here, I'm just

talking like anything. I get to have a little bit,  no, a lot of

heartburn, when they're censoring things when they're dictating what is real

news, what is fake news, what is the absolute gospel, and what is not. 

And look, I'm not saying you shouldn't have some censorship and your kids

seeing bad stuff and all in all criminality, of course. Shouldn't we need some

censoring? Right. But I think if you're paying attention, we're creeping into

lots of realms now where some of that's happening

Josh Hill [00:17:50] And even that is just like a more, I guess a different look. You

get your algorithm feeding you stuff that you either get mad about and react to

or just the stuff that you like. And so it's kind of only feeding you the

extremes. And so you get caught in this feedback loop of your perspective. So,

I mean, really the easiest key for getting rid of this monopoly is to stop

using it.  Hey, take a break, take a break here and there.

Ryan Alford [00:18:18] Don't take that too long, cause we do make money off 

Facebook.

Josh Hill [00:18:23] It has great stuff. It's great for discovery, great for

experiencing new things, finding new things. But hey, if it's becoming your reality,

then it's time to take a few minutes off.

Ryan Alford [00:18:34] That I agree with. And that is the problem, it's why you have screen

time and different things now so take a break, people. It could be a source,

but don't let it be the source of all things. Let it be a tool unless you're

just shopping for everything that I have for sale in the marketplace if don’t

use it as much as you want. Yeah.

Josh Hill [00:18:53] That is your life now. 

Ryan Alford  [00:18:57] Whenever I sell something on Marketplace, please use it as often

as possible. But if I don't have anything for sale then, don't worry about it. That

random lawnmower that I'm trying to get rid of is out of storage or whatever,

and I'm always having some random thing on Facebook marketplace I'm selling a

a few cars were there. Kind of nice. Oh yeah. 

Josh Hill [00:19:17] Help me get rid of some furniture. 

Ryan Alford  [00:19:19] I have to be careful what I ask for. I'm not saying let's get rid

of Facebook. I'm just saying,  let's just make sure we get … We all know

who's driving the bus here.  So third on our list: The dating app Bumble

is officially opening its first café,( this has been talked about for two

years); in New York City. Bumble, the dating app opens a cafe. I like where they

were going to go first, so I read the article. The first plan was no soups or

spaghetti because you're going to be going on dates and you do not want to get

embarrassed. It was kind of funny to me, at least I could control that a little

bit more. Now it's like, we're going to be all things for all people. Come on!. 

Josh Hill [00:20:07] Yeah, it's just obviously a PR move, but it's so funny to me

because it's going to be such a turn-off when someone says;  we've been

talking for a little bit on this app. And the other person says; let's finally

go out. And then you ask;  where should I go? How about the Bumble? 

Ryan Alford  [00:20:27] Well, that's what I'm saying, I remember when I lived in New York.

I had gotten divorced and was only there for a few months before I moved back

to South Carolina. And I used the app there and went on a few dates and it

always felt like,  you walk into a bar, there's are eight persons there

that you know are on Match.com dates. And so it's a little bit of the walk of

shame. This was 19 years ago everyone uses the app then in New York well before

anyone else. Everything in New York is mainstreamed before anywhere else. And

so everybody was doing it, so it was fine. But it was more like you knew

everybody was on it and that's how people met. But walking in and knowing there

were five other match.com dates and people like the bartender was snickering

….So if you're on a Bumble date, or whatever you do with Bumble, Do you want to

go the fucking Bumble café? 

Josh Hill [00:21:32] Are you going to wear a bubble T-shirt? 

Ryan Alford  [00:21:34]I would be as

far away as possible from that, I don't want to go

to the fucking Bumble café. I guess this says, hey let me have a T-shirt that

says we're on a Bumble date. 

Josh Hill[00:21:42] It just feels uncomfortable. Yeah, you can always tell.  I've

been on a few Bumble dates myself and I've seen other people. But you can

always like see someone at the bar and be like; they're waiting on a Bumble

date. 

Ryan Alford  [00:21:54] There's going to be all these 40, 50-year-old men and women that

are, married, that are trying to escape or something hanging out the Bumble

Cafe. These are just the shadiest people in New York. 

Josh Hill [00:22:05] People, can you go there without … 

Ryan Alford  [00:22:08] Can you make a Bumble date while you're at the Bumble Cafe? Can you meet

people there? Can you just have a GPS locked in? Hey, I'm hanging out at the

Bumble Café! 

Josh Hill [00:22:18] Are they checking your matches to make sure it’s you? 

Ryan Alford 1 [00:22:20] Exactly. 

Josh Hill [00:22:22]  I have any more questions. 

Ryan Alford  [00:22:24] I don't like this. I just think it's like contrary and  this

is what I think about. (flushes toilet) 

Josh Hill [00:22:34] To not choose the Bumble café. 

Ryan Alford  [00:22:37] I am going to

let that one go all the way down. No Bumble cafe for me and I

don't get it from a business perspective other than branding. OK, I get it. We

talked about New York, how many fucking restaurants do they have? It's like a

million restaurants. They have every concept ever. Well, if this doesn't flame

out in two years or less, call me shocked, called the demise of the clubhouse

for the fucking record and it's already demising. And which may or may not be a

word, but its demise is imminent. And call this what you want ( sound of toilet

flushing) I'm going to think about that, I'm getting on a soapbox on this

one.  This could have been in our bad idea episode. 

Josh HILL [00:23:25] Just being in New York City, compared to a lot of other countries,

New York City is our only actual city in America. And you have all of those

places, places that have been there for over one hundred years and you go; I don't want to go to any of those spots or Bumble café. 

Ryan Alford  [00:23:49] Yes, yes, thank you for that Josh, you're so right, and we'll see

what happens. And last, on our list, this is not a news article. A little bit

of, hey, we're on soapbox Friday here. I'm going to get on my soapbox a bit,

not even the soapbox. But now I want to get your perspective on this Josh. So

we're at the start of a boom, with the economy, with people getting back out.

Everyone's excited. There's money in the market, money being spent, a lot of

our clients, a lot of potential clients, a lot of just brands in general.

Life's good right now. Sales are going up, money is in the market, things are

happening. I do want to get your point of view on this. I think we could pull

back on marketing and maybe spend a little less on marketing when sales are

great. And this is not being self-serving, it may come across that way because

We do our Ad agency, but I want to go a different angle. Don’t pull back

On marketing we need your marketing. No, it's more the opportunity to start

building a brand when sales are great because pull back on your performance

campaigns because maybe this performance is happening as they are. But those

equity-building brand opportunities, you've been thinking about starting a

podcast as a business. You've been thinking about ways to maybe sponsor a local

sports team. You've been thinking about some outdoor board campaign to cover

the game here. This is the time to build the brand because it's not always

going to be great, you know, and the more equity you can build and put in your

brand new while you've got a little extra cash or the sales are good, you can

win the long game. 

Josh Hill  [00:25:38]. This is another thing to

keep in mind, a lot of people get caught in the ruts of thinking of marketing as a fix, like things are going bad, better start doing some marketing. That will fix it. Not a Band-Aid. It can help, but it's like taking medicine, when you should just be better, you know, working out when things are good, this is your preventative maintenance when things are good. This is also going to be way easier. Yes, it's going to be way harder when sales are bad. 

Ryan Alford  [00:26:16] And it's going to take time to get in the tank and people don't have as much money. 

Josh Hill [00:26:20] It's going to take way more money to invest in marketing to get

the results that you could have gotten when things are great like you're going

to get more for your money and more response. When things are good, that's when

you already have attention. That's your time to say something. 

Ryan Alford [00:26:38] That is right. So if you've been thinking about a rebrand, you've

been thinking about ways with which to kind of grow your overall awareness, now's the time the fish are biting. So don't stop throwing your line out there and don't start creating a halo around that pond. This is the time to start doubling down because not only can you afford it because sales are good, but you want to play the long game with your business. If you're selling your business next year, sure. Pull some money out and save some money. Make the books look a little better. Yeah, but most 99 percent of companies are in it for the long haul. And so now is when you have, just like Josh said, attention is there. You have money in the market. You have the opportunity. Because another way to look at it is people are buying to get more of your competition share because they might be being more conservative because that's the natural play here. You're going out of the norm. You're being radical by thinking about how I double down when things are good instead of squirreling back? Well, I'm

going to save for that rainy day. Instead, why don't you make this hay day even bigger so that when times slow, when people know your name, when they have your stuff in their head, then you don't have to play the growth game of getting name recognition, getting your stuff out there when it's slower. Now's the time.

Josh Hill [00:28:20] Yeah, branding, and awareness can always be built. You're not going to max that out.

Ryan Alford   [00:28:24] No, absolutely not. Until I mean, even Apple and Nike, the biggest

brands in the world spend millions and millions of dollars. That's within their budgets on these awareness drivers. They're doing it because they want to be top of mind. And top of mind is a leading position. It's a fight every day against the competition. No matter what you do, you're a chiropractor, you're a bank, you're a lawyer,  you’re a fabric company. Whatever you are, awareness and top of mind are leading. So, yeah. So now's the time to stake a position.

Josh Hill[00:28:59] Coca-Cola hasn't slowed down. You shouldn't either.

Ryan Alford   [00:29:03] Exactly. That's it for this week. I hope everyone has a great July 4th, and has some hot dogs. I am not in the hot dog eating contest this year. Maybe next year I can eat three I think. Yeah. How many hot dogs could you eat Josh?

Josh Hill [00:29:22] Five, that’s a safe number in there.

Ryan Alford  [00:29:23] I can name that tune at five. Well, have a great holiday, Josh and everyone out there, you know where to find us; theradcast.com, I’m Ryan Alford on all the channels. Josh Hill on Instagram. Go look him up and follow him. Go follow us. Follow our YouTube channel, The radical company, all our content is there, all the video highlights everything. We'll see you next time. Happy 4th of July on the Radcast.