Podcast Transcribe

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah yeah yeah yep down south Port Aransas on the Gulf of Texas I got to hold my phone here because I don't have my normal setup.

Nick Friend: Okay no problem.

Patrick Shanahan: Yep yes all right yeah exactly how you doing?

Nick Friend: Excellent, excellent doing my best to try you know I'm not very good at it as you probably know but but it's always good right? Like it's it's always good and kids are having a blast so that's what matters.

Patrick Shanahan: Well I was gonna...

Nick Friend: Yeah for sure for sure and that's totally happening so you know something that we didn't we didn't talk about, I mean we're talking about it overall you know but last week you know another...

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah.

Nick Friend: Last week, so so art is selling right? We've been having Black Friday levels of sales constantly from artist and photographer websites on our platform right? We've been talking about that we've been talking about that. So again last week a hundred and eighty-six percent sales growth year over year for the exact same dates you know period of time in 2020 compared to 2019 right? Who would have thunk it right? But again it just keeps continuing right? And as that keeps continuing you know I was reading it, I was reading an article actually this morning I sent it to you. I actually sent it to you I'm not sure you actually got to it yet but it was a phenomenal article but it was talking about how like what's really happened you know we've been talking about how the lockdowns have accelerated technology adoption by like 10 years and so this article was talking about like how and why that has happened right? And what's happened is people like why that's happened is because people have formed new habits right? Like during this time like there's new new habits have been formed in terms of the way people are shopping right? Where they're looking for products and services where they're going to be looking for those in the future how they're doing their meetings you know at big companies like how come a lot of the meetings are transitioning or 100 percent of them obviously transition to zoom meetings but how that's going to be in the future and you know how it's how it's going to change. So a lot of habits have changed and and that's what is so interesting I think about what it what it portends for the future of selling art which is just it's all good it's all amazing right? Because the more the more that like technology adoption happens you know the it means that individual creators individual photographers and artists have more power they can sell direct more which means they can build bigger businesses than they ever could have before and the gatekeepers and the third party is that that traditionally have controlled distribution have less power right? And so it's all good every photographer artist should be embracing it not sitting here going oh I hope that the old world comes back I hope that the old ways come back no you don't like honestly like if that was your world I get it I get it like you want that back you're like oh my goodness I can't I hope all the galleries open up and they're all just as healthy as they were before and if you're in that position then you know it does make sense that you would be thinking that way but overall like macro economically this is so good for the individual artist or photographer it's just not even funny like it's it's like that we call it we're calling it the biggest advancement you know that the art industry has seen in I don't even know how many years Pat this has got to be like hundreds of years if not thousands right?

Patrick Shanahan: Yes there's just serious disdain for it.

Nick Friend: Yeah why is that?

Patrick Shanahan: I'd hate it too.

Nick Friend: Yeah yeah no there's not and you know it yeah Jim Jim is saying your audio is off on Facebook is that possible? Despite that we still have 24 people on this Facebook are you hearing Pat now?

Patrick Shanahan: There we go no I've got it okay that should do it thank you.

Nick Friend: Always tell me that they don't appreciate that.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah exactly it like I've thought about that a lot before I'm like I am such a serious disdain for gatekeepers and middlemen you know like a third party like I you know and and I've thought about like why do I like I'm almost like a crusader against it in a way right like and and I think back to why why I have that and why you have it as well you know and I think it really comes from you know early on you know being entrepreneurs like at 18 years old like we were right early on like just experiencing gatekeepers in every capacity right like distributors like you know it back in our old days it was clothing distributors right? And then you know like party planners like it's just every single bit like you're just watch the trade shows the trade shows the trade shows yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah so there it's like everywhere you run and you try to go you got a deal with a gatekeeper and then you're like I gotta go smooth this gatekeeper you know and hopefully get in and if you can't get in you can't get in and you're like this is just crazy I can't stand this there's just a wall everywhere you go and then you got to pay rent you got to pay rent right rent in the form of you know a distribution fee for artists and photographers that's 50% of your sale right but like these things are everywhere and the internet like you and I get giddy over the internet like you know 15 or 20 years ago cuz you saw like wait a minute I can have my own store I can I can disrupt you know the traditional gatekeepers and go direct and build a direct business and that's what it's all about you know that's what it's all about so it is just an it is really just an amazing time it's an amazing time and I think there were so many photographers and artists who built their business we what we're saying is you know you built your business on sand and if you did it you know it you know you did because you got really exposed during the lockdowns but what that what got exposed during the lockdowns was just a really bad business model like it's traditionally a bad business model it does it the lockdowns just exposed it but it's a bad business model and what that is is relying on third parties okay third parties in other words galleries whether they're offline or online remember online galleries are Saatchi art fine art America art calm any of those those are just online art galleries that's all they are RedBubble yeah all of those all of those doesn't matter right yeah Etsy right and so you're subject to the same algorithm changes that you get offline in offline algorithm change right is when the gallery owner says I'm not gonna carry your work anymore right or your stuff's not selling as well I'm gonna carry less of it or you know what I mean and so you're and there's nothing you can do you can't sit there and plead your case or do anything about it because they're just gonna move in whoever they think is gonna sell and they're gonna move out whoever they think it's not right and so you are look if you are reliant on that you have built your business on sand and the rug is eventually going to get pulled out from underneath you whether that was in the lockdowns or it's a year from now or two years from now everybody needs to learn you cannot do that right it is only a matter of time until the rug gets pulled out from underneath you when you are working only with third parties third parties includes these art shows now right you rely on the art show to actually exist and you're relying on people actually attending these art shows what how is that gonna happen now these days right like they're still gonna go on but the differences between what is going to sell at those and I think if the attendance is going to be a dramatic change Monty Python has this sketch right and I love Monty Python's you know my dad my dad got me into when I was like he just loved it so I I loved it and they've got this sketch of this bit where the guys like you know they're talking about building a castle in a swamp right and it's a it's exactly this concept it's a premise he's like my dad's dad started building the castle in the swamp what happened to it it sank into the swamp and so his son really you know my didn't then my dad rebuilt it and that once ain't good at this swamp and now we're really good the premise the premise is it everything that just happened is gonna happen again there's two there's probably gonna be another outbreak doctor foul he's gonna come on and say we're going back into Locke and we're going back into lockdown and it's gonna be a little bit harder to sell this time around but you know it the the Lord even though the game's changed yeah yeah even even though even if they don't lock it down you know that that information is gonna come out right and it's gonna create more social distancing the fear where it's like okay we just we don't need to go to a festival like we don't need to go and walk a festival today right and like yeah you know just be carrying around goods that we just bought there that are you know and then sanitized it's just a weird situation right but that is the biggest thing I think that that you know the greatest lesson ever for photographers and artists right it happened it just happened and it is don't build your business based on sand everyone's been doing it and they got killed right and so it was a it was only two months or three months right and it's starting to open back up a bit but learn the lesson don't let it go right over your head and go right back to building the same business by the way it's a business model that has never worked has never worked right like the starving artists problem is out there you know it always has been why because when you're working with third parties you're not making the most money from your work you're not building your own customer list you're not building your own direct business and you're getting a ten check you're an independent contractor they're building their business off your art they're building a real business you're not you know and so if you gotta figure that out you've got to learn that right you can't rely on the and furthermore you just

you can't build a real great business off of art shows like local art shows like you just can't you know like here's an upper limited on you could it's it's it's just not the highest ROI usage it's not like it's not at all you when you seen the matrix like we've seen the matrix right we've seen it we own it we see what it is now and driving here they're everywhere eight hours on your feet all day long then load in the car of the hotel fees the booth fees all the rest if you understand what's possible you can see the matrix what's possible to do that in a digital capacity without leaving your house and instead of the booth fees you put that into your ad budget and you're running ads and that's the way you keep a hundred percent of the profit and sell direct like it doesn't if if you understand that you can see the matrix if you understand what cable with digital marketing and how you could potentially sell your art and then you understand the perspective of the time horizon where it's gonna take you to be able to be successful it's like two horses running right like you know two are going and or it's a tortoise and the hare essentially right like you know the hair is just taken off down the road and that's the art show route and you're gonna make more money in the short term but the tortoise just keeps coming and come in and come in and then picking up speed and then it's like year two year three your buddy that decided to do the show circuit all year long you're selling more with none of the costs none of the costs it's so clear that takes time yeah it took yeah you know what else you know what else is like a total pattern that we've seen everyone who who really took the art show seriously um you know they they they completely they almost completely neglected the online because they're so busy they're so busy and so tired for hustling these art shows and preparing form and getting inventory and doing everything that's needed that you don't even do the digital piece which is the way you get the highest ROI right on on it there was a study that came out from I forget who it was it was Sotheby's or was somebody else right somebody in that did a study in the art industry and it was like you only are going to capture 64 percent of the total possible sales when you're at an Art Show you need to collect their emails and collect the leads and nurture those relationships because the the remaining 40% roughly is going to come in over the next year or two right and so every single show you need to be doing the digital anyway otherwise you're just you're getting only 60 to 64 percent of the ROI on your time out of every show so what are you doing right like you have to like it's just it's just incredible but if you if you come out of this and you haven't learned the lesson and you have to build a digital business like you have to learn the digital part and you're building direct business right direct with your customers not relying on third parties right so where you built a house on rock so that when the I don't know where your head is at if you haven't learned that owning your own distribution that no one can take away from you including a pandemic including a national lockdown right no one can take that away from you nobody no platform it doesn't matter if Facebook goes down or Instagram because you'll take your attention you'll take your following over to the next new platform right why because you own it you know and so you can easily start transitioning those people over to other platforms with omni-channel marketing like what we teach right you got to move your attention around and then you'll never be too dependent on anything and so you do that and you've built you built a business on rock right that's why that's why that type of a business can get you can retire on it and you can pass it even to your kids you'll have your personal brand that you've built and all that stuff and it lasts because there's actually something there there's a customer list that you own you know there's others like there's a whole there's a there's a machine that is producing more leads more eyeballs on your work in terms of marketing that somebody can follow and understand what it is that people love about you and how to get more of those P - following you and love you and to turn those into sales yeah it's clear as day by the way you missed you were driving you miss um did you see Tony's live from the drink I did it was awesome it was awesome yes now you'd now know nailed it more yeah now go do without yeah you net you totally nailed it I loved it I totally loved it that is exciting the type of romance content I am trying to get everybody doing is going live the new email I mean essentially just is right like it just is I mean like that's it it's just it's just a new email that's just a broad can yeah it's just an it's just another way to omni-channel market Eddie what is this Teddy question here answer that one we Betty he said who is the computer person I should talk to this to at ASF to discuss what specs I need for building an a SF business on an Apple ecosystem Eddie there's nothing complicated about it you just get a computer like whatever you want there's nothing complicated about what you have to do to buy I mean you know you can have a PC you can have a Mac you really you really only need a web browser that's all you need and the more you know the more advanced of a system you need is I mean Pat like the you know for maybe he's thinking about like video editing and things like that like but those are just web-based applications anyway right like for just don't overthink it at either just yeah just get a computer just get a computer that's good to go I think I remember ready yet he's been on a couple of the zoom sessions but that was that was the most interesting piece of feedback to in the zoom sessions you know Julianne's and and you know I titled I titled it the flavor look because the play looks at the top of my mind right now and I honestly believe that our playbook product is about to go about to go to an 11 right it's I do - it's gonna be one of the most important aspects of our business so I say play books there's a bunch of customers on here they know what they are but it's explain what they are explain what they are for everybody who's not a not a customer so you know when we talk about marketing at large there's a lot of individual individual apps features techniques tactics it's how to email how to discount how to run a show how to go live you know how to run Facebook Ads they're all of the various different functions of digital marketing and so you know we build we call them play books because it's essentially a step-by-step guide right like you know I use the example my my buddy's dad is um he's a pilot and he's not like a you know he flies for American Airlines but he's got his own plane and he likes flying it and that's his deal and every time when he goes you know flying or whatever he's got this like little like look and it's this weird book inside this like velcro apparatus and he fell crows it to his leg right and in the book is literally every single solitary thing step by step that he needs to operate the plane and he's literally got to take to his leg because it's so important he can't have it moving around when he's doing it right it's like okay you know test ailerons and he's like you know he's testing ailerons like that's the flash like you know it's testing the flaps or whatever it is I don't have a very good understanding of all the plane stuff but there's so many switches and things that he's slipping and checking this and checking that and that's that's what the Play Books are it's like you're gonna run this you're gonna run that it's step by step by step by step so we've had those and they've always been good but I realized that they can't just be you know the technical step-by-step documentation super important to have that and we have that which is great but now we're we're adding in the commentary right it's like right like like the entrepreneurial strategy like that like the commentary right like what you really it's not just a technical document it's what you really need to be thinking about an understanding when you're doing this thing yeah yeah a perfect example is like you know the how to go live play book and you know you could say here's what you do step by step by step that was play look number one play book v2 is now guess what you already have all the equipment you need don't go out and buy any other crap turn the thing on start talking and go you have a thousand of them to make right and so it's not just how to do this it's it's the perspective it's how many of these are gonna do it stop overthinking it you don't need any more crap or equipment just do it like right so you know that those those are what everybody gets hung up on and what prevents everybody's from shipping and you just don't realize the only thing that matters is shipping that's it that's it that's it right yeah a perfect example like we have a tactic that we're teaching we call it the number one tactic and what do we do all this we made we made a great playbook right made it one yeah work out of it it was amazing wasn't enough wasn't enough it wasn't enough and technically it was it was done yeah people technically was done people were getting hung up they were not taking the first step they were getting stuck in the weeds they were getting hung up on on the fear of rejection of it because there's a large a large amount of rejection in this particular thing and then what do we do you grabbed a customer we turned it turn-turn grabbed the customer put that put the document up on it on the screen put the phone up on the screen and executed it in real time 15 times in a row with everybody's seen it and it's like yeah just gives you it's almost like it gives you permission to not stress about it right to not get hung up on it it's like you now have the permission to go ahead and do this like you saw somebody do it it's like you know what it is it's like you're teaching karate on the whiteboard and then you go out and then you walk out into the dojo and you just start kicking right like boom boom boom boom see I showed you how to do it on the whiteboard

now you got to just start kicking and then you just sit there and you're like right start kicking start kicking you know starts kicking yeah it's amazing is it it represents such a profound change in our product and and what we're gonna do and what it's going to evolve to be over you know the coming months and weeks and years so I'm what we're articulate I am too because what I'm what I am you know what what we're doing with these playbooks guys is like I hate to even call them play books cuz yes they are a playbook but like they are literally what you and I would do and exactly what we're thinking and how we would approach a specific thing specific tactic right if we were running your business okay we are very experienced entrepreneurs and building companies and we working with 3500 plus members now at art storefronts right and so it's it's not even what we would do Pat its we are doing it already this is exactly what we have done with one of our members right we did it and here's the results that happened and so forth right and so it's like it's a playbook but it's like how do you even put how do you wrap a bow on that it's a playbook for what I've spent my entire career learning and you and we're writing the work we're writing the words because we found that yeah like some of the technical step-by-step some of our team members can help with but the thinking of how to approach it right the strategic you know thinking and on each of the steps and and all of that turns out to be probably like more important than just the technical steps to follow because that's where everybody's getting hung up you know and to have the high level thinking to have the high level thinking of what needs to happen right when you're approaching a specific tactic it is extremely valuable so these things are like playbook on steroids or I don't know what you want to call it right like like they're like they're literally like a it like a SF leadership strategy in these play books we'll have to figure out what that is but that is the most amazing part about it you know and why and why I believe it completely turns on its head like as we continue to grow the marketing team like who who our employees are at what they do right and literally day one you come in you learn that you learn the thing yourself find a customer partner and go put the thing in the water because if you don't learn how to run our customers business and make them successful you're incapable of teaching and whatever you're working on it's the wrong thing it's almost like that's simple like the abstraction of that is it that simple right like that's it that's it that's it and in a job it just solves every problem that we have yeah there there was a guy there was a guy the other day there was a there was a there was a non-member and you know and I was thinking about he was asking like you know obviously had not looked like had not just learned about art storefronts didn't really know everything about what we did right so we were going through like a process of kind of talking about that and and and I was asked like you know what did what he said was like okay like you know how do you how do I justify the cost of the membership for you right you know and we were kind of going through that and I said I said look right like you know if like if if I go through my bio right I don't want to go through my bio right but like and your bio together right like our combined experience in entrepreneurship building companies and all of that right very very high you can't just hire you can't hire people like us you can't no we're not available as consultants right like it's just it's there's not even a price on it but so what I said is I said okay given that you know what we have done both of us combined right yeah how much would you pay how much would you pay for a a live art show play book how would you pick how much would you pay individually to have me give you to write you the number one marketing tactic to grow your leads and your sales right to acquire customers how much would you pay me to do that $5,000 $10,000 to do that for you right yeah like individually how much would you pay me to create you a strategy that you could follow every week for the entire year right how much is that worth right and at 4:00 yet sorry I don't mean me I mean you and me like how much would you pay for Patrick Shanahan and I to actually do that for you right leg up and you think about that and you go okay so I just want you to realize that we have actually done that and you can join our storefronts for a one-time membership fee of $1,000 yep put that in perspective the learning never stops yeah put that in perspective the learning never stops who says that so anyway so so so we might as well we should mention that we are running a we're in the middle of this summer special guys our storefronts if you want to join we're running a summer special for June get your demo request in to get in at a discounted rate and do not wait until the last week of the month right so next week is like you know the third week or like the second last week I believe right will be and after that it just is mayhem of people trying to get you know in line before the deal ends so get it in request a demo as soon as you can it's always on our website big button in the upper right hand corner of our website to request a demo if you're on Instagram it's in the bio link in the bio and then Facebook it's usually in this PO is it in the post oh we've got it in the ticker it's right down there Borana right we have it we have it every words and the descriptions do yeah case in point so Jim I made thirteen hundred dollars for your PlayBook over Father's Day right like okay that's Father's Day that's one sale event that's one marketing event of what 30 30 a year 40 a year 58 years it's like yeah he was working the plan his business is gonna go it's gonna double and it's gonna double it you absolutely harder to double it but they didn't he'll be well into the six figures and he's not driving across the world although that dudes are driving across the world you're driving all over the place the reason more you do the more youth the more you to of the marketing that we're teaching the more you follow the more you're building your house on rock that's just the truth right the more that I could say that I can say to any of you guys right Jim you included like the more that you do that the more I know you are going to be well taken care of in the future it's like you know we're a family art storefronts family right like I know and you know Pat that if they just follow what we're talking about you and I can rest assured in three to five years like we know with like that they are building something that they that will last and that they can depend on the less that they do that the more risk and the more exposed they are truth yep truth okay hey my computer is running out of battery so I think we got a little bit there I'm gonna get back to my vacation by the way a new process do we want Jada to export anything from this one?

Nick Friend: Yeah yeah go for it ship it ship it you know what that you know you know what to do ship it let's get back to the pool right.

Patrick Shanahan: Alright guys see ya.