EP:51 Social Media SUCKS! (if you don't know what you're doing!) Sebastian Rusk - Book Signing 2014

SPEAKER_00 0:32

What's happening, party people? Sebastian Ruff here, your host, as always. Hey, welcome to the show. This episode we're digging into the archives a little bit, going back to 2014 when my first book, Social Media Sucks, if you don't know what you're doing, came out. I had the pleasure of being able to host my book signing event at Books and Books here in Coral Gables, Florida. They host an entirely cool list of authors that come through our lovely city with their first book. And for me to get this opportunity, I was extremely stoked to tell my story, tell my story of how I actually wrote the book, and of course, my perspective on why social media sucks if you don't know what you're doing. So let's get right down to it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed given it. Here we go.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

And please welcome Sebastian Rusk.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

The very fact that interruption was caused because of Facebook is completely okay. Wow. This is uh quite the humbling experience. I must say it's been quite the journey over the past five years. Um, when you refer to humble beginnings, I can attest to um showing up five years ago with this little girl in a duffel bag, wondering what was next. So um thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedule on a Monday night at 8 p.m. to come hang out with me and to hear my story uh to get the thanks and accolades out of the way. I've got my entire crew here in the front row. My mom decided to drive down from Delray tonight and surprise me. I wasn't shocked at all. Um, my daughter Kayla's 13, going on uh 18. Um, you're incredible. You keep me in line and check me daily. And uh tonight's about you and uh this whole row. Tama, this show doesn't go on without you. So the pastors in the house, longtime clients and friends. Um, I love you guys for being here. Lots of new faces as well. Uh big shout out and very big thanks to Books and Books. What an incredible venue. It's first time, anyone, first time been here at all? First time to Books and Books, welcome. And a huge, huge shout and thanks to my friends at Yelp Miami. Uh, Cassie, you're the entire team there for jumping on board, getting people here, believing in what I'm doing in the bow tie. So it all started five years ago when I showed up in Miami with a duffel bag and my daughter and I thought, well, this is where chapter two begins. Fast forward, but rewind a couple months prior to that. I came back um for my best friend's wedding, and uh it was March of 2008, and um I was doing marketing for realtors, and I think everybody's pretty familiar with what went down in 2008 in the real estate market. So to be doing anything within that space was incredibly um awkward. So I knew that wasn't the direction uh that I wanted to go. So I moved back um in in April of 2008. I came for the wedding, I woke up at my buddy's place on Miami Beach and I said, you know, it's it's time to come home. My California's expensive, very expensive. Um when the ship is sinking, it's really expensive. So I came back and told a friend um the ship is sinking, I need to come back home. And he said, uh, here's the keys to my rental place. It's fully furnished, just go back to California. And I'm like, why don't I just sell everything? He said, Great idea. I literally went back, was gonna spend three months selling everything. Um sometimes when you make your mind up, you're just emotionally checked out, and that's where I was at with California. So I went back, sold everything I owned on Craigslist, bought two one-way tickets, and said, uh, come on, honey, this is where chapter two begins. Our families in Florida, let's go back to Florida. So we found our way back here in 2008. Um, I had no idea what I was doing. Um, I spent two years feeling sorry for myself, wondering how it all went from here to here and self-pity, etc., etc. And in 2010, I just woke up and I reached that point. I think we've all been there once or twice where we just said, um, enough. I will no longer go on like this any longer. I'm broke, I'm frustrated, I've lost it all. You went from rags to riches back to rags. So what? Um cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it. Let's go, Nancy. So um, and if there's any Nancy's in the room, right? What up? Uh Carlos Miller's in the house, huh? Where is he at? Yeah, he's wondering. Hey, at the bar. Attaboy. At a boy. Thanks for being here, guys. So um, I decided I wanted to go see Anthony Robbins, been a fan of him all my life, and called a friend that was working for him and said, Hey, I want to go out to Long Beach. I want to walk on fire, I want to awaken the giant within. I want to just, I just need something to ruffle my feathers a little bit. And she said, Great, here are all the details. Um, let me know when you're ready to sign up. I'll get you all squared. And she called me back about an hour later and she said, Hey, you know, you should probably meet my best friend. She lives on Miami Beach and she travels with Tony as part of his core team. You guys have similar personalities, definitely a great contact. So we got introduced that week, and before we had actually met in person, I sent her a video that I had shot for a consulting business that I was attempting to do when I moved back here for direct response marketing, working uh twice as hard for half the money. I played the video I shot in my living room, and she absolutely just blew up and said, Oh my gosh, you need to start your own YouTube channel. You'd have like a million followers, and I'm like, excellent. What am I gonna talk about? And she said, Well, social media, like you've been, I'm like, I haven't been screwing around on MySpace since like 2004. That like makes me a pioneer. Wait a second. So social media, social buzz, a TV show, social buzz TV, that kind of jives. Sent those three words to my designer, and three days later, um, I have what is now the social buzz TV logo. So I said, great, now I've got a logo. I got a great idea to create Buzz. Now what am I gonna do? No car, no money, no, I had a bus pass. And I had a skateboard. We made it to school, didn't we, honey? We made it there. Couple more blocks, we're almost there, honey. Humble beginnings, hashtag humble beginnings. And um, I told myself, wait a second, we're on to something here. Now, where's the biggest need right now, Sebastian? In 2010, people can barely spell Twitter, they think it's a dance. And I said, there's an education curve here that I think I can really capitalize on. And that's just educating people, helping people know what they don't know that they don't know. I think there's a need for that. When you provide value, you provide you create a market, and we create a value in a market. What do you do? You make money somehow. So I started going around town to networking events and just selling the dream. I'd hop off the bus a couple blocks down, I'd drive the sweat off my brow, straighten my suit up, put my fake Rolex on, I'd walk in with a bunch of business cards, and I'd say, hey, I'm Sebastian Rusk with Social Buzz TV. We're launching in just a couple months. It's gonna be the best YouTube show you've ever seen. We're gonna educate people about social media, what you do, how you use it, that Facebook and Twitter thing, and people are just completely just because they don't understand, they don't know, but they they know that they kind of need to know. What's that Facebook thing? Everybody's curious. So this was like me selling cell phones in like 1999 and 2000 when beepers were hot, right? So I said, well, hold on a second. If the education is the biggest curve here, let me go on to networking events, let me let me let me meet a bunch of people, let me stay in contact with them, and then um let me start doing these myself. How hard is that? So I found the person that does these event type these are the people that work in each restaurant that do these events. So got introduced to somebody at Morton's right around the corner, and I said, hey, listen, you don't know me and I don't know you, but I'd like to bring 30 to 50 people here on a Monday or Tuesday night when the place isn't that busy. We want to do some networking. I'm gonna need one free cocktail for each guest. They'll spend money at the bar after that. No one drinks one drink in Miami, and pass some appetizers around, and we'll have them mingle, and you can give off a raffle, people can come back for lunch, and my people will meet your people, we can do this every weekend, you know, that that whole program. And they said, Great, sounds awesome, Mr. Bowtie. And I said, one more thing. I'm gonna need that room upstairs that you have where you do all those fancy networking events and lunches and whatnot, because I'd like to bring everybody back the day after the networking event, and I want to host a social media boot camp. Well, what's that? Well, it's just exactly what you thought, but I'm not wearing a military uniform. I'll have a bow tie on. It'll be a boot camp to help people really better understand exactly the who, what, why, and where of social media. How do I set this stuff up? What should I be doing with it? There's a huge need here. Well, the light went off with the restaurant venue going, hold on a second. People will show up at my restaurant and venue to learn about social media. You're in, kid. So I started doing these networking events, and then one restaurant event manager would talk to another one. So the next thing I know I was doing Flemings, and then they would call from another place, and then we'd call on Miami Beach, and they would call on Brickle, and they would call on Kendall, and they would call on South, I'm just kidding about Kendall, they would call about South Miami, and they'd say, Maybe you can host an event here. So I started doing all these networking events and perfecting the model. Come to my networking event, network with me, and then eventually people would say, Hey, listen, what's it look like for me to park a car to go in front of your networking event? I said, I think it looks like 500 bucks. That's what I think it looks like. And they're like, Great, because our budget was 600. I thought, hold on a second here. So people are coming to my networking events, I'm never charging for them because I believe people shouldn't have to pay to network. But if you want to be seen with my crowd, you want me to drive that little smart car up to my event, now that's gonna, there's gonna be a price attached to that. That continued to grow, that model continued to grow. Sponsors started to show up, I started to generate revenue, and I'm like, okay, cool, people are paying me to have their banner at my event. Wow. And then people are cornering me and saying, hold on a second, maybe you can help me out with my social media. My local business needs a Facebook page. Will you take 300 bucks to set up a Facebook page? And I'm like, Well, I take it gladly. Um, so I had a business without knowing I had a business. I spent a year having no clue where I was going, taking why I knew I was going because I was on the bus. I'm like, I'm going to the gables that way. And I'd skateboard and get around, and we'd hustle our way, and then we got a scooter, and then we got a rust bucket that was 19 shades of rust, I mean a Toyota Corolla, and we started to get around town, and you know, you act as if somebody told me a long time ago, Sebastian, you play the part, you become the part. I'm here to tell you right now, that is the truth. And I also told myself when I launched this brand, if you make enough noise, someone will come knock on your door. I guarantee it. And the likes of Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Peri Ellis, um, this bow tie was crowdsourced online with a bunch of buddies of mine that started a conversation about bow ties on Twitter that ended up in the hands of a handmaking, uh handmade bow tie uh creator in San Diego, and she furnished the same bow tie for all six of us, and we started a campaign and all of us wear it, and we're speakers and influers, etc. It's just crazy how it's all started to culminate and come together. So I said, well, hold on a second, people are coming to my events or coming to my boot camps or paying me to set up Facebook pages, let's launch an agency. So we did that in November of 2011, and that allowed us to create a solution where you could come to my networking event, you can come to my boot camp, and then I can help you set up your social media. And then it kind of stopped right there because I was like, well, then what? Because if I'm sending stuff out on Facebook for you, what's happening? And businesses think in the mindset of if I'm gonna give you this, then I'm gonna get this. And social media doesn't do that. I stood here in 2011 and watched Gary Vaynerchuk, my my one of the biggest mentors of my life, say, I've got sprinters' clothes on, but I'm a marathon runner. And friends, social media is a marathon. It's not a sprint. You're not gonna post something on Facebook and break records and go public tomorrow. There is no Facebook millionaires. Well, there is, but they're called Instagram, they're called Snapchat, they're called larger names like that. So I wanted to continue to conceptualize, but it was important that you create a category of one, right? There's a lot of people doing social media these days. We're doing social media. What's that category of one? So I put a bow tie on one day and I said, you know what? I can go out in public like this. And people will take me seriously. I'm hosting networking events, I'm teaching you about social media, and I'm handling your social media. Well, let's add one more layer to that. What does that look like? Well, as I continue to build my own media empire, Hollywood, keep your networks and all your rules and your contracts and your bait and switch. I'm creating my own media outlet through my own YouTube channel, through every means of channel through Facebook, through Twitter, through YouTube, etc. I call the shots. If somebody Hollywood calls now and they want to give me a deal on my show, I'm gonna call the shots. Because the second you give them the opportunity to do that, they want to change everything. Now the rules have changed significantly. So I said, Well, what does it look like to identify clients? If I love books, wow, books and books, I'd be a good client. My goodness, I could go read books there, I could have lunch there, I could do a book signing there, I could send clients over there. So we're there they're sponsoring my events, they're coming to my events, I'm handling their social media, I'm using their product, talking about their product, endorsing their product, talking about their product on YouTube, sharing the idea, and people are saying, Hey, where was that book talk again? Where was that? Oh, books and books. I love that place. I've never been there. I live in Bell Harbor, I went to that location. Or they've been to the downtown one, never a bad time on Lincoln Road, right? That very organic storytelling approach started to take place. And I believe we are living in a world of disruption, an age of disruption. If you don't believe me, just ask Blockbuster. Netflix did a great job of coming in and putting those fools in the chokehold. That's just the reality. I wrote a book called Crush It from Gary Vanderchuk. You'll read a lot about Gary in the book. Somebody said, Sebastian, in the midst of all this, let's go walk on fire, and Tony Robbins go, you gotta meet this guy, Gary Vanderchuck. You read his book called Crush It. He's like identical to your personality. He's like, You gotta buy the audiobook because he reads it though. And I said, Cool, how much is the audiobook? It's like 15 bucks. I'm like, cool, that brings my net worth down to about 36 bucks. Awesome. He goes, No, don't worry about it. I'll give you my audible login. You can borrow it. I go, really? So I not a I'm not a reader. I'm a published author, but I'm not a reader. We'll we'll talk about that later. And I started listening to Gary read Crush It. And basically, the the name of the book is Crush It. Now is the time to cash in on your passion. I believe he wrote it in 2008. And he started to say, What are you passionate about? What do you like? What are you excited about? Start blogging and writing about it and talking about it. I guarantee you there's somebody out there that wants it. And the antennas just started to go up, and I thought, hold on a second. So I got a hold of Gary via email and on Twitter, and we started to be in touch, and I started to ask him questions, and he was just so readily available. Got his start in the wine business with his family, took wine online. When people said, you're not gonna sell wine online. Took the business from 3 million a year to over 80 million a year within eight years, tremendous amount of growth, and then parlayed that growth into becoming really a digital celebrity and launched his own digital agency and is doing some incredible, incredible things. Wrote a second book called The Thank You Economy a year later, and I got word that the book signing was happening in Miami and it was happening right here at Books and Books. So I reached out to him and his team and I said, Hey, I'd love to do a normal in-the-halway flip cam with my phone, whatever we gotta do, real quick interview. And they said they got back to me the day before. I thought, ah, it's not gonna happen. He's a busy guy. And they got back to me the day before and said, Gary's in, can you meet him there at 6 30? And I said, I certainly can. A few hours after that, my phone rang, and it was a film production company that said, Hey, we've been, we've been watching you, dude. You do some really cool stuff. We're local here in South Florida. We actually just did Russell Simmons book signing at Books and Books and Coral Gables. We'd love to work with you. When's the best time for us to try something out? I'm like, what are you doing Tuesday night? About 7 o'clock. They rolled in here, full camera crew, the whole nine. Gary showed up an hour early, went to the room directly across from the bar over here and sat down. And I got to interview Gary a year into this, right? No idea where I was going. I just read his book and made a connection with him and sat down and had one of my first interviews ever and came into this exact room at this exact podium and watched him tell the story of how he got to where he was. So when it comes full circle, I kind of went ADD for a moment on telling the story of where I'm at, but Gary's a very, very intrical part to that because I did not build this brand with money. Um, I built this brand with a tenacious, ridiculously ambitious, non-stop, you're not keeping a good man down desire uh to succeed. And through all this over the past five years, um gratitude is something that's continued to strike in my mind over and over again because um I think it was Tony Robbins that said the secret to life is is gratitude. And it's stop stopping when you're all jammed up and sideways, and what's next is sitting around and looking, I got a beautiful daughter that's healthy, that's way smarter than me. I got a mom and sister that got my back like a jacket. I'm healthy. I got a car now. I live in Little Havana and my neighbors like me. You know, I have a I have a lot, I have a lot to be thankful for. And um as time progressed over the past two years, really over the past 24 months, I've really started to discover what the mission of Social Buzz TV is. And I'm a devout Christian, my faith is incredibly important to me, and we're in the midst of a very modern movement of the church moving through um not only um South Florida but the world. And I'm part of an incredible church here called Calvary Kendall and Calvary Wynwood. One of my best friends is the head pastor there, um, Pedro Garcia, and we connected through Twitter. And I mean, I can't even tell you how the story unfolded, and uh, it all started with one of my other best friends, Pastor Sean Smith, here tonight, giving me a ride to every event that I needed. He wanted to go to these events and started to share this story and say, I want to start a church, which he's successfully done over the past few years and started to share all this stuff. And I'm like, wait a second, I go to church on Sundays, I'm good with that, but launching a brand, I don't, and it just all started to unfold and um some incredible things are starting to take place. And the the the the the mission of Social Buds TV and what I'm doing is to fund our efforts on what we're doing here in today's church in 2015, not only through South Florida, uh, but through the world, so that um when I'm long gone, 80 plus years from now, um my uh something stays um concrete there, and lives are continuing to be changed through all that. So I continue to be humbled by that process every day. I don't want to just be rich and famous to you know to drive Lamborghinis and have mansions and boats. I mean, that's kind of a given, isn't it? Duh. But it's also to be able to give back and contribute. Giving back feels good. I think it I think it takes growing up a little bit and getting in your 30s to go, you know what, I like giving back. Um, but uh the mission has been established for Social Buzz TV. The book came about about two years ago. I went to the National Speakers Association uh annual convention in Philadelphia, never been there before. And um I was there as media, and I'm just kind of running around with a bow tie interviewing people now. This is the National Speakers Association. This is a 40-year-old organization of professional speakers. Okay, so you've got, I'm I'm I'm I'm already anticipating a tough crowd because it's everybody that does what I do. I mean, how much can you like, you want to talk about yourself? I talk about myself, etc., etc. So I had no idea what I was getting into, but I knew that as my speaking career continued to unfold, I wanted to surround myself with people that have been doing it since I've been knee high to a Girl Scout. And NSA was a great start for that. So I approached NSA, um, got there and just started networking with people, and someone said, You've got to meet one of our sponsors who's a publisher. Have you ever thought about writing a book? I said, sure, make the introduction. The guy literally stopped our conversation and interrupted the conversation of the individual that he was introducing me to. And um, that was the CEO of my publisher, um, Adam, Adam Whitty, uh with Advantage Media Group. And he's about I don't know what seven three is probably exaggerating, but this guy is tall. And um, they're based in Charleston, South Carolina, so you can imagine a southern gentleman that's like yay tall. And he said, You've got to meet him, and he said, Hey Sebastian, great to meet you. Have you ever thought about re writing a book? I said, Listen, I think about it every day. Should I smile? But have I done it? And uh what I did was I started taking Word documents out and I started writing chapters out and bullet points. I'm like, well, let's just establish the chapters first. So I wrote 10 chapters down, and then under each chapter, I started writing bullet points under each chapter. I was like, all right, cool, let's start writing paragraphs under this. So we've got chapters, we got bullet points, now we've got um some blurbs about each. So I did this for a straight six months, and um it was awful. I mean, it was painful. I mean, I'd rather punch myself in the face or wake up and eat my pillow than have to write another chapter in my book. So they said, well, listen, the good news about us is that we've got a program called Talk Your Book, and I'm like, oh, I can talk for like years. And we've got a program called Launch Your Book, and this gives you the opportunity for us to take whatever you have, a manuscript, which you're supposed to have, air quotes manuscript, and we'll dissect all that and we'll interview you for six to eight hours on that manuscript, and we'll extract 33,000 words out of that manuscript. And I'm like, You sure about that? And they go, absolutely. So I said, What are you guys doing with social media? And they said, Nothing. We really are not believers in it yet. And I go, Oh, you're one of those. So we sat down two weeks later when we got back home after the conference and uh put a deal together. I became a customer for them, uh, an author, and for them to publish my book, and they became an agency client. So we put together a deal that was just an absolute godsend that I was stoked about. So we took their brand social, and I thought it was a perfect fit because I believe you got to be a product of the product to sell the product, and what a better guy to be able to launch your social media strategy than the dude you're publishing. So we got done with that conversation in October. The recordings, the interview process of recording the book was throughout December, and the first shipment of book showed up in March. I mean, it was a quick turnaround. Scenario, and I thought, holy crap. When I opened the door and I had a box of books there, and I'm flipping through it, and I have pictures on the front. The titles I actually chose are there, and I'm like, holy, I guess I gotta read my own. Do you read your own book? Should I read my own book? I'm going through that whole process. But they also act as a speaking agent for me as well, too. So they do a lot of um sponsoring of events. So they came to the table with a pretty sizable um speaking engagement for June of last year with an organization called the EO Organization, the Entrepreneur Organization. It's a stellar group of individuals to be in touch with. And that was in Philadelphia. And who was the opening keynote? Not me. Gary Vanderchuck was the opening keynote to the tune of, you know, I don't know how much he commands for an hour talk, but well around 50 to 60,000 for an hour. And I was doing three concurrent sessions right after him. And I thought, wow, this is gonna be a tough act to follow. It's Gary. And uh it wasn't because everybody that showed up to my breakout session said, had Gary not opened up day one at 9 a.m. And you know that opening party before a conference starts is a brutal long night. Everyone was in their seats to hear Gary crank it up for an hour and uh help people better understand what's really going on in the digital space. So I had three concurrent sessions after that. It was just another great opportunity to run into Gary in Philadelphia. And of course, where was Gary headed right after his talk? Uh Miami, because he made good friends with Eric Spoolstra, and we happened to be winning uh at that time and be in the finals. So he was headed to Miami, I was in the Northeast, but it's just crazy how the journey continued to unfold. Why'd I write the book? I wrote the book because people continued to ask me what my opinion was. What do you think about all this? Where are we going with all this? I think one of the most brilliant quotes I've heard to date is from Gary, and that is social media is overthrowing governments in the Middle East. Do you really have the audacity to think it's not affecting your brand? I mean, really, for lack of a better phrase, it takes it takes some some real big guts to think that it's not going anywhere. If you're not on Facebook, you're shady. It's 2015. What are you hiding? There was a point in time we didn't need fax machines. There was a point in time we didn't need beepers. All of my parents have smartphones that are on Facebook right now. Do you know how freaking scary that is? It really, really is. But it's that it's it's that turn in the road that we all make with technology and where we're going, and it's just getting faster. And when I heard Gary Stan here in 2011 and say, you guys are gonna think I'm crazy with this scenario, but let me just break it down real quick. And this was 2011, and this is when I knew that integrating the bow tie into what I was doing with Buzz and social media strategy, et cetera, was the direction I wanted to go. So tomorrow morning you wake up and you go for a run. Most of us have tracking and how far we've ran and how many miles and we've run and how many calories we've burned, et cetera. And we can take a picture and we can post that to social, or maybe we just send out a post on Facebook that says, going for a run. We go for our run, we come back, we feel incredible, we get ready for a day, we come back, we have a protein shake, we move on with our day. We come home from work the next day, the doorbell rings, opens the door, it's the FedEx guy. He's got six brand new pairs of Nike running shoes at your doorstep. Free of charge, can you just sign here? And you're going, What? What's the next thing you're gonna do? Oh my gosh, I got six pairs of Nikes, and you're tagging Nike and hashtag Nike, and look at my shoes, and Nike, Nike, Nike, Nike, Nike. Wow, if we can magnify that towards how many people would potentially do that on a campaign they would run, that's what's happening right now. It is far more cost effective for Nike to assume you will wear their running shoes than to take out an ad in the New York Times and hope they're gonna get an ROI on a $35,000 ad in the center page. Just where it's at. I started to live that when I took an Instagram picture one morning on Miami Beach. I run a lot. Well, not a lot, but I I run up a bear is chasing me. Sometimes I'm down on the beach uh in the morning and I took a picture of that like entrance into the beach, and you can see a lifeguard tower, and it was just real beachy. And um my buddy James Brown's the head of marketing for Peri Ellis International, and he had said, uh, this kind of looks like a standard Peri Ellis ad picture, unfortunately. And I said, Um, sorry to hear that. And he said, Well, that's all changing. And I said, Well, I hope that there is bow ties involved. And he's like, How did you know that? I go, I don't, I just talk about bow ties all the time. Two weeks later, knock on my door, it was a FedEx guy with a package with five bow ties from Peri Ellis' brand new spring collection with a handwritten note and a keychain that said, Hey Sebastian, we hope you enjoy these bow ties as much as we enjoy our new spring collection. And I thought, hold on a second here, folks. We are really in the midst of an incredible, incredible shift in the way we communicate and brands effectively communicate. I was cast for a reality show two and a half years ago on Fox with George Lopez. It was me and 30 women, it was awful. Umbody got a rose. And um I got so I'm sitting at a chamber luncheon, and I happen to be at a meeting, and I happen to have a suit on and a bow tie, which was rare. I usually I'm suiting up with the bow tie, etc. If I've got a meeting or I've got to be somewhere, but I happen to have a chamber lunch in and my phone rang, and it was a friend of mine that said, Hey, we're doing a casting for a reality show on Fox on Miami Beach. Um, and the casting director really wants somebody with a bow tie. And I'm like, I got a bow tie. What kind of casting is they're like, it's a reality show. Uh we can't give you any details, but it's gonna be on Fox. Can you just be here? And I'm like, I don't know. Sebastian, you really should come try out. I'm like, all right, cool. I didn't do the whole casting thing. I'm like, I'm building my own empire. So um I showed up on Miami Beach to like some apartment across from Miami Beach high school. It was like in an apartment. I'm like, what kind of show is this, dude? Because I'm not into that. Like, this is not, I have a daughter, go to church. They're like, no, no, it's gonna be on Fox. So they interview me and they're asking me my ideal date, and then 500 questions. I'm doing like a screen test. And then they send me home with a packet of information like that big. And they said, fill it out, have it back here on Friday. So I'm like, okay. Went back, filled out this whole thing, which basically said, Fox now owns you, and you're not even on the show yet. But if you're on the show, you're they're gonna own you. And if you're not on the show, they might still own you for a little while, too. So just sign right here. So I did that, and um, they called back and said, Hey, listen, can you keep next weekend open between Thursday and Sunday? Because the producers want to meet you and we need to fly you to New York. And I said, Sure, I'll keep Thursday through Sunday open, no problem. So they called me back and we did all these phone interviews and et cetera, and the background checks and the yada yada yada, and finally they called and said, You're leaving at 5 a.m. on Sunday, you've got a meeting at 10:15 with the show producers. You're flying out at 5 a.m., your flight back is 6 p.m. It's a day trip to the city. I'm like, let's do this. So it's Sunday morning. I wake up at 4 a.m., get to the airport, we fly, I meet the guy, I connect with the guy, social media, connect with the guy I'm flying there with, it's gonna be on the show. We have no idea what's going on. So what's he's one of my best friends on the planet now. But we meet at the airport, and I like, do you know much about this? He's like, I have no idea. Do you think there's gonna be chicks there? I'm like, well, it is a dating show. Could be. So we get there, and uh the taxi takes us into the meeting, and the meeting's at 10:30. We get there about 10:15. We're the first ones in. I walk into this long conference room with white linen on there. There's four producers with a bunch of notebooks, etc., there, and we sit down, they're go, so why do you want to be on the show? And I'm like, Because you guys cast me. And they're like, Are you looking to get married? You're looking for a wife, and I'm like, time out. I had a girlfriend at the time, so I'm like, I don't know how this works, but I'm not bringing that up. So um, they tell me about the show, et cetera. It's gonna run six weeks. It's the pilots with George Lopez. There's there's 30 girls, um, they make a decision on whether or not they like you for each thing they find out about you. They hit a buzzer, the most lights that stay on, you get a date, all the buzzers go off, you don't get a date, you go home. How's that sound? Great. Look forward to having you on a show. The thing about reality television, well, number one, it's not reality, but number two, they never tell you what's really going on. They just don't. It was my understanding that the executive breachers want to talk to me, you know, look at you, you're good, you're cool, you're not cool, etc. I didn't know they were actually casting me for the show. Well, we get done with the meeting like 20 minutes later, so it's 10 45 in the morning. I have all day in the city. I was like, awesome. So, like any responsible tourist would do, I walked over to Times Square and I'm standing there in the advertising mecca of the world, and everyone's looking down at their phones. And I thought, hold on a second here. We're on to something here. And I'm on to something here. I'm getting caps for reality show, it has nothing to do with it. I did it for the experience. I did it for the what is it like to be on Fox at nine o'clock on Thursday evening? What's it like to be in the same sound studio as Ryan Seacrest where they shoot idol? What's that look like? I want to go. I mean, it was the hardest $250 that I've ever earned in my entire life. But they flew my daughter and I out to to shoot the whole, what's Sebastian doing when he's not trying to find a date on national television and that whole. So the whole experience started to happen, but it really started to unfold and become a reality for me where I thought, wait a second here, this is starting to get crazy. So, needless to say, I did not get a date. The show was called Take Me Out. I was on one episode. It was great to work with George Lopez and get a feel of what it's like to work in a sub-zero studio and uh sit in a dressing room all day. They brought us in at 9 a.m. and I shot at 11 p.m. So welcome to Hollywood. So um, but it was incredible to see how being in New York, people were in the advertising back where people were spending billions of dollars to be seen or be exposed, and they have for quite some time, and everyone's like looking down at their phone. I'm like, I'm definitely in the right place. But we fast forward five years and um it's become a multi-layered brand. The book came out in March of last year, and that's turned into a tremendous amount of speaking engagements. For some reason, when you write a book, people think you know what you're talking about and they believe you, and then they pay you ridiculous amounts of money to get up and talk for an hour. Blows my mind. I don't ask any questions, I just go. In fact, I tell everybody that I go wherever an airplane goes. So bless you. That it's created a tremendous amount of opportunity for speaking. Um, I've done a tremendous amount of um MC work too, and I found that to be a real niche for events that are happening because there is no MC. I go to these events, they've got great content, they're talking about great stuff, but by noon, I'm kicking myself with the level of energy. Beam me up, Scotty. Is there a wheel spin and I see a hamster in there? Um, it was really awful. And I said, Well, what'd it look like to allow me to put a bow tie on and get on stage and introduce people? And that became more than just introducing people, it became an act. And um, now I'm getting booked by large brands. I just got back from San Diego from the largest digital marketing conference on the planet for three days with digital marketer.com. And I found those guys on Twitter at two in the morning. And Twitter recommended that I follow the CEO, and I followed him and sent him a tweet and said, Hey, do you need a guy in a boat to how to rock your stage as the MC at your traffic and conversion summit? And he said, Hey, this sounds interesting. Our one mutual friend in Austin, Texas was the guy that's in my MC Reel that says, if you want your event to really kick ass, make sure Sebastian's on your stage next time. What? There was no questions, there was no anything at all. They booked me immediately for a three-day event. I'm on stage with 3,300 people. But you know what I learned? It's the same thing with 300 people as it is with 3,300. I thought I was gonna be a little bit more nervous or a little bit more, I don't know, but um opportunities have continued to arrive. But it's not just being an MC, it's showing up to the event and I'm tweeting and I'm posting when I'm not on stage and I'm posting videos and I'm doing selfies and I'm running around with a video camera that's provided by the event organizer, and I'm interviewing speakers, and I'm I'm doing uh dialogue, and I'm providing not just an MC component, but a live social buzz component. And I created a category of one there, once again, not only with the agency with happening, but people also say, hey, we need you at our next event, or hey, uh, I mean, the the phone has been ringing from so many diverse opportunities from from two weeks ago, um, whether it be an agency client or consulting clients, these are large, big, huge brands. Um, Infusion Soft, large, large brand in the space right now. Um, digital marketer in themselves are just absolute just just godfathers of the digital marketing space. And I was mind-blown and I was also uh humbled at the same time. It was my birthday on the last day of the conference, so I gave up my birthday because it was 36, isn't really that big of a year. And um they announced the charity water campaign that I did with charity water this year. So that was cool to have 3,300 people instead of seeing happy birthday, be able to uh contribute to uh my charity water campaign. We raised about $1,400 and got water to remote areas of the world where people don't even have clean drinking water, they walk for eight hours. So these are the type of things that I'm starting to leverage to the opportunities that I'm getting through all this. I wrote the book to tell people my story. I hope my story impacts you. I hope it creates a shift in your mind. This stuff isn't going anywhere. We are just in the beginning of this social media stuff. It's just getting started. It is an absolute sleeping giant. If you look at two years ago, big brands started to get on board, and then last year, little bands started to get on board, and then now everyone's kind of starting to get on board. We're doing that Facebook thingy. Um I was just out at Durral this past weekend for the for the WGC Cadillac Championship, and of course, Trump has done an incredible job out there um transforming uh Dural um and making um someplace in Durral enjoyable to go to, um, which I'll stop. Um but I had a unique opportunity covering that event for the past three years to connect with the the Trumps and uh his entire team. And uh Mr. Trump got a signed book and uh got a chance to connect with them over the weekend, and they said, Hey, we're on Instagram now. Make sure you follow us and share some information over the weekend with the golf tournament. We'll be sure to share it, and they sure did. Not only do they share it, but they thanked me socially and they also sent me an email. I got an email from Trump's right-hand girl, the vice president of marketing. If you guys ever watch The Apprentice, she plays the receptionist. Uh, Mr. Trump will let you go back in now. Um, is Amanda Miller. She's actually the vice president of the Trump organization, vice president of marketing for the Trump Organization, and just an absolutely um class act. And I had the privilege of connecting with them over the past few years and getting me a copy of my book, and they emailed me yesterday and said, thanks so much, and thanks so much for the social shoutouts. And I thought, hold on a second. Does the Trump organization really need someone to help them with social or where no, they don't need any of that. So the very fact that they stopped and recognized that social is happening and taking place. Trump's an old school organization. Trump's been around for a minute. Everyone knows that. I wanted to interview him and just ask him that one question, Gary Vee's number one quote, which was what do you think about the quote, authenticity, Trump's like ability? And I think that's so unique. But these opportunities have happened, showing up with a bow tie. Everybody lets a guy in a bow tie and a camera in, especially if you've got a book as well. Come on in, guys. You coming in? Come on in. Bring it in. Come on. You're good, you're not disrupting anything. Come on, we're all family here. Um so that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I really gave my opinion on how I also thought the brands are really doing it wrong. I mean, if you are any local businesses in here, does anybody use Dr. Ross in the house? My dentist in the house. Awesome. Keeps the cavities away. Um we got an awesome social media story. Another story for another day, Dr. Ross. Um, if you if if local if people are talking to your local business or you about your brand and you're not responding back to them with a simple thank you or a hello, you are being grossly negligent to people that are already talking about you. Well, I don't want to use social media because then people will talk about me.

unknown 36:59

They already are.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

And if they're not, Carlos Miller is, okay? And you don't even know about it, all right? So photography is not a crime in the house. Um he was here three years ago or four years ago, too, when Gary was here. It's just crazy. A lot of familiar faces that were here when Gary was here. So uh there's a lot of uh special moments that have happened in this room, but um the book's been a tremendous blessing. I ran into uh my books and books friends um again uh about a month ago. Randy Zuckerberg, Mark's sister, was in town for her book signing. And uh I said, I'd love to do a book signing with you guys. And like, we'd love to have you, and uh, that's how it all transpired. And these guys are booked solid through the end of May. And uh Christina said, We have one Monday available in March. Do you want it? And I'm like, I'm in. Because I don't want to wait till summer here. It's a little hot on the patio. So uh I'm extremely blessed to be able to keep it in my backyard here. It feels so great to put on the old monkey suit. I mean, bow tie in a suit and go up the street, not have to chase airplanes or go across the country to talk about what I'm doing. It all started right here. Um, it's all gonna end right here in Miami's home. I travel the the I go anywhere an airplane goes and travel the world doing this and spreading my message. But if you asked me this five years ago, I would have told you you're completely out of your mind. Where is this all going? I have absolutely no idea, but I think I'm on to something. I made a goal when I was 18 years old to become a millionaire and I'm 36. I got four years to do it. I think I'm right on track. So uh I'm really stoked. But um, that's my story, I'm sticking to it. So I'd like to open it up right now. Thank you again, guys, for being here. You guys are freaking awesome. Thank you. I'd like to uh open up now for for some questions. Ask me anything, Carlos Miller, that excludes you.

unknown 38:43

I asked a hard question.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

This is true. He's a journalist, he's always just trying to extract the truth out of every story. Yeah, absolutely. I I didn't. I didn't. Uh there's a there's a story in there that will that will grab you and keep you uh engaged. It is. I I gave you a 30,000-foot perspective. Uh wet your palow a little bit to go, you know what, let's dig in and see what the whole story is really all about. I I hit the you know, the the bullet points, if you will, of the book, but there's a lot of of my opinion in the book of brands that are doing it wrong, my experiences of them doing it wrong, how you can leverage what you're doing with social media to impact it for good, uh, to really tap into that um uh generosity and gratitude element of having a brand, social good, if you will. So there's a lot of elements that I kind of move around, but it's not a how-to. It's not a there's plenty of those out there. I'm definitely not a how-to. I'm let me tell you my story, and I believe we're living in that age of disruption right now. I believe stories disrupt people's thought process, and when you disrupt disrupt people's thought process, you make an emotional connection with them. And when you make an emotional connection with them, by default they want to be in your ecosystem. And once they're in your ecosystem, you can sell them things. And not saying I want to sell you stuff, but it makes, I mean, think about the people in the brands you trust already. You're more inclined to go out there and buy something from somebody that said this is the meatball to eat at this Italian restaurant at this specific place, or you've gotta buy this book, it's awesome. Right. So I got a call from um a hydraulics company about a year a year and a half ago. And that was from a friend that I had met from an MC gig that goes to church with the guy that owns the hydraulic company that's been around for seven years. That's the type of opportunities that I get that have come from. Somebody sees me on stage, I exchange a tweet, next thing I know, my phone rings. Social media works, friends, I guarantee you. But we we we got into our first meeting and they said, hey, we want you to train our 20 sales reps. They've been selling hydraulics longer than you've been alive and our customer service department as well. And we also want to make hydraulics cool. So I'm literally out at their facility in sunrise with a hard hat on and goggles walking their facility going, can we just start with what a hydraulic is? Because when I think hydraulic, I think of um like patio screen doors, you know, kind of and then slams, like that's the or garbage trucks, like that's the extent of it. We had to figure out a way that we could effectively tell the story of a not so exciting brand. You know, my buddy Jay Bear, who wrote the foreword for the book, um, has a brilliant quote and said, The goal is not to be good at social media, the goal is to be good at business because of social media. So you've got to be, um you've got to somehow make it fun. And he wrote a book called Utility. And in that first book, he talks about being a utility for a brand. How do you talk about something that complements what you do? If I sell social media services, what else can I talk about that provides value? The brand Columbia, he uses this example, the brand Columbia that makes the outdoor gear for hiking and outdoor, etc., they created an app to teach people how to tie knots, and they don't even sell rope. Do you understand the comparison that comes along with being able to provide something that doesn't necessarily align with your brand? So if I'm an accountant, there may be an accountant in the house tonight, uh, if I'm an accountant, I'm providing information not just about new tax laws, not just about new information on how I can save money. I'm talking about other things that complement money. I'm talking about where my firm is at in Miami, how Miami's exploding, how it's on the map. I'm talking about every single angle into what my brand is all about without actually saying, I can do your taxes. Because if you're effectively communicating who you are as a brand, and I believe that you putting a face and being an individual behind your brand is extremely, extremely important. And a lot of individuals hide behind their brand. But you need to understand your social equity is far more valuable than your brand equity will ever be. Don't ever get it twisted. People buy from you. Your logo's cute, your products cute, they buy from you. Don't ever forget that. And I believe integrating yourself into your brand and making it fun. There's an element to accounting that can be added in there that can be fun. Look at Columbia. And Jay continued to expand on his book. He wrote an ebook for uh utility for accountants, utility for real estate agents. How do you take accounting and real estate? I mean, realtors this day and age. I mean, I know the market's coming back, and you know, all you have to do is answer your phone and you can close a deal, but there are so many things to do with being a realtor. I mean, there's this little website called YouTube that's the number two search engine on the planet. Pictures and videos and interacting and telling the story. I meet realtors all the time, and I say, listen, you need to understand that people are making the single biggest financial decision they'll ever make in their entire life with you. They think it's your Mercedes or your cute little firm or Cold War banker where you hang your license? No, brother, sister, it's you. Don't ever forget that. It's you. It's cute that you send them a bottle of Don Perrian once they've closed and they've done all that. What are you doing up until that? What are you doing after that? I bought a car from Brickle Motors about a month ago. These guys went above and beyond. I mean, they jumped through hoops. I met with them a couple years ago and we talked about a buzz deal. Maybe they'd recognize the bow tie. So I had a little bit of a special favor. But these guys went above and beyond. I mean, they really went beyond. The owner called me and said, hey, listen, we want to put a deal together with you. And I thought, wow, this isn't just a salesman harassing me. This is the owner of Brickle Honda calling me, saying, let's make a deal. Your business as a local business and an influencer in the area is important to us. That's what's starting to happen. So create something that complements your brand. What about accounting is sucks? Everything. So how do we take something and add it to it and make it fun? You'd be the face of the brand. You talk about the brand. You create something that draws people in to go, you know what, there's something different there. Everyone needs an accountant. I'm hunting for a new one right now. My sister just got done hunting for one as well. Couldn't find one locally. Went with one in uh in our hometown in Indiana. There's a need for accountants out there. I know, your eyes are about to pop out of your head. Yeah, absolutely. Charging twice what it would cost in Miami. Again, there's a need for what you're selling and what you're doing. How do you set yourself aside? Steve Martin has a great quote: Be so good, they can't forget you. I guarantee you, if I never see you ever again, you will never, ever forget about being here tonight. You'll never forget about meeting me. You'll never forget about getting my book. And I made it that way. I really did. Questions?

SPEAKER_03 45:23

You're basically a web designer?

SPEAKER_00 45:25

I am not a web designer. I am I am not a web designer. Um web designers are people that build websites.

unknown 45:39

What do we talk about?

SPEAKER_00 45:40

Well, there's a lot of out there. We got outer space, we've got Kendall, we've got Coral Springs, we've got a lot of out there. Social media is an effective medium for you to tell the story of your brand. I am a storyteller, and I take what you've always done to effectively communicate the story of your brand and take that digital and take that social. I've done signs and yards as a realtor, I've done direct mail, we did telemarketing, we sent flyers out, we've done all great. How do we take that same message that we know has worked over the past 20 years or umpteen years that you've been in business and start to communicate that on Facebook and on Twitter and through video? Correct. Well, I give you an idea of what you need to do. Well, it's exactly well, you you need a website. You most definitely need a website, and if you don't have a website, um you need a website. And uh you know, Bill Gates said 1999, if you don't have a website, you're not in business in the year 2000. Okay? It's 2015. If your brand's not social, you're just not in business. What's the ROI of social media? That you'll be in business in the next 36 months. Oh, I've been in business 30 years. You're not that little that that young buck with the bow tie is not gonna come tell me anything. I'm digging my heels in here. Listen, no problem, no problem, old man withers. I'll just catch you on the flip side in about 36 months with a big fat cup of I told you so, because this stuff is just moving too quick. I get brought in all the time because I'm I have to somehow, and I I decline the offer. Can you can you convince our C level executives that social is here to stay? I say, can you call me once they're convinced? If they haven't turned on CNN lately, or they're not on Facebook, or they haven't heard of that little Instagram thingy, um, you might want to clue them in and then call me. Because once they go, you know what, it's not going anywhere, they start to see a little action with it, then they know I am not a web designer. Web designers build websites. Uh, we have a social media agency that sets up Facebook and Twitter for your brand. Think about it as a billboard online through several different mediums, and we create content, articles, posts, videos, we tell the story of your brand. So people go, that's unique. I really like that widget because they talk about not their widgets, but stuff that kind of pertains to it, but it's really funny, it's really entertaining. I look forward to receiving their content. If you think about the magazine subscriptions you've always subscribed to, my mom subscribed to People Magazine for 30 years. She reads it religiously, cover to cover. Why? Because people and People Magazine makes an emotional connection with her. It's just something that goes with People Magazine, White Zen Vanilla, and cheese and crackers after work. It's just something that she's always done. It makes an emotional connection with her. That she is that not on it? Am I not on it with that? It's the emotional connection people are making based on what you're doing here. But yes, getting out there, social media is not marketing necessarily. It can be, but it's not just marketing. Again, another story for another day. I'd love to have coffee with you and talk more. Questions? Our agency has several different options on a monthly basis. What I'll do is I'll give you my card and I'll get you in touch with somebody from my team and we can figure out what best suits you. We have programs that range in several hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars contingent upon the level of work that we're doing. So I hate to bounce around there, but I don't I I honestly don't know what our current price range is right now because my team does that initial process, and then I'm brought in with the bow tie. Make sense? Chaney? Chaney coffee. I love you with all my heart. Since day one, right here. Day one. You talk about a badass realtor right here. Awesome. She totally gets it. Well, Sotheby's provides iPads way early on, so they totally get it. What's up as coffee? This has become a multi-layered brand where I wrote a book about social media. I've been in the space since 2004, which essentially makes me a pioneer. We have clients um that have been on board since since day one, like Maggie with Southland Mall that believed in me way back when when I didn't, I barely saw it. Hey, yeah. High five from Maggie. Um, clients that have been around forever that can say, hey, when you're thinking about launching a social media strategy for your brand, Sebastian and SocialBuzz TV are an absolute no-brainer because of this, this, this, and this. And you see our involvement in the community. You read the book, you come to one of my events, uh, you come to a networking event, or somebody is, I don't do any marketing for new business at all. My phone just rings. Thank God, my phone just rings, and people say, Hey, we saw you on stage here. Somebody referred me from here. I go to church with this individual, your mom gave me your card and Dunkin' Donuts the other day. I mean, this stuff starts to happen. But when making a conscious decision, don't go for the the there's no quick bang. There's no, there's no, I got this. There's no, you know, it is it is a crawl walk one process of understanding who can effectively tell the story of your brand. Do you want somebody who does social media that's behind the scenes that posts updates? I mean, Kayla can run circles around them, and she's 13 posting updates. Anybody, any, any, any idiot can post updates all the time. Who can effectively tell the story of your brand? And who do you have as a spokesperson to really resonate with that brand and effectively tell the story? Because telling the story on Facebook and having somebody with a bow tie on telling the story is far more effective of that. So make sure you know who you're working with and realize there's no, well, we're gonna do this and you'll have X amount of followers and you'll get X amount of sales. If there's any guarantees, I learned a long time ago the only guarantee is that there are no guarantees. And that is the honest truth. It really, really is. So I would look at the brand on what they're doing. If there's too many promises, if it if it seems too good to be true, probably is. So I would I would screen people out and better understand. My reputation, thankfully, now speaks for itself and continues to grow. So when I sit down with someone, I very rarely get asked for references. And if I do, it it kind of bothers me a little bit. And I don't want to do business with those people because obviously they haven't done their due diligence. And if somebody's asking me for references, there's clearly a trust issue on our very first meeting, and what's it gonna look like months from now? Thanks, Janie. Great question. Any more questions? You're gonna see some interaction with your brand. Not all of us have the unique opportunity to be able to do that. Uh all kidding aside with that. Um kidding, not kidding. Uh there is a lot of noise. So uh I get a lot, I get asked a lot, how do you create a video that's gonna go viral? I'm like, how do you win the lottery? I mean, I don't, I, I don't, I, I really don't know. Cutting through the clutter is again, the goal is not to be good at social media, the goal is to be good at business because of social media. So, how good is your business? How effective is your marketing, and how are you effectively tying social into your existing marketing efforts so it complements it? If we look at the Super Bowl two years ago, Oreo knocked it out of the park. The lights went out during the Super Bowl. They had a team on hands. I don't care what people say, they had an executive team, they had people on, they had people there ready for what we now call a real-time marketing opportunity. The lights went out, they put together a meme and pushed an ad out socially that says it's okay to dunk in the dark. What? They killed it. They absolutely killed it. The Grammys last year. Pharrell shows up with that ridiculous hat. Arvey tweets out, hey, can we get our hat back, Pharrell? Four o'clock in the morning at an after party, Pharrell responds back to Arby's and says, Why do you want to start some beef? The hat was then auctioned off for $44,000. Arby's bought it, and that money was donated to Pharrell's foundation. That's real-time marketing, friends. Does that mean get in a large award show and start talking about your widget that you sell? No, but get in the conversation. Those are some of the most incredible opportunities to get in a conversation because you never know what's going to happen or when your brand is going to be relevant. You just don't know. You have no idea. Century 21 could be the title sponsor, call whipping the title sponsor of a large award show or huge event, and you as a realtor just chiming in or saying something ridiculous or funny or posting a meme could lead to someone following you in another conversation. And next thing you know, you've got a prospective buyer in your hands because you took the time to join the conversation. And that's Twitter's tagline, join the conversation. But how do you cut through the clutter? Find an effective way to communicate your brand. You gotta be a little edgy, you gotta ruffle feathers a little bit, you gotta piss a couple people off, but you gotta be cool about it, you know? Does that make sense? Okay, you dig. Awesome, I dig. I dig. It was an excellent question. It really, really was. What other questions do we have? How are we doing on time? One more question. Awesome. Brenda, so good to see you. Another day one here back in the day. Leg was almost in the house. They used to be about here, but they're up here. They're reading right through that. And why even gamble a potential customer opportunity business op by trying to put up a front of where you who you think you are? I mean, I run into people that show up at networking events with no business cards. I'm like, is this real life? What are you doing here? Well, there's free drinks and appetizers, you know. Welcome to Miami, and I love Miami. But you know, it it happens. Um authenticity trumps like ability. That's it. If you see who I really am, but you don't like me, we're not doing business. We're just not. But when you see people say, you're you're at you, you know, you're you're out and about, you pulled an all-nighter at that event you had on the beach with Fashion Week, and then you were at church on Sunday, and I'm like, so people that do all-nighters can't go to church? Like, well, I mean, you talk about church a lot, and you talk about business a lot, and you know, I didn't know that my response is I didn't know Christians. I'm like, listen, Christians don't tell Christians that other Christians don't do that. How about that? I hate going to church. I don't like it. I used to go there, it was guilt and shame and the whole program. I thought the walls are gonna fall down. I'm like, me too! I grew up Southern Baptist, that's like one step away from prison or Catholicism, one or the other. You know, it's again, it's it's a whole different element. Just come with me one time. And I want to create a platform. I believe when you're famous and you have a platform and you have influence, people do whatever you want them to do. And I just want to tell people to go check out the church over in Wynwood with the spray-painted walls of the theater and just go check it out. I guarantee you you're gonna think it's an incubus concert. And if you hate it, you never have to go back again. But if you do like it, there's a chance that your life could potentially change because what you've shared with me thus far, you're you're you're your the the path that you're on may need a little altercation, but I'm not here to tell you that. Just meet me over there on Sunday and then we'll go over to Wood Tavern and grab a beer after church. And they're like, wait a second, wait a second. So we're going to church and then after that, a bar. Yes, it is. Who you are in here is who you are out there. Who you are at home is who you are at work. And if that's not there, it will be found out. You will be found out. And that's people's biggest, biggest fear is being found out. And social media is here, and that's what people hide. And you can hide all you want, but I guarantee here's where people's thought process is right now. I Google you, I get to your crappy website, I can't connect with you socially, but I can go back to the original page and I go to your competitor's site, and they've got a pop-up window. I can chat with somebody, I can tweet and post and Instagram and like and here and there, and I'm back, and I'm like, I've already forgotten about you because I'm lost in their social sphere already. I'm already lost in that. Why? Because they understood the value of grabbing people immediately. People are now judging you as a brand if you're not social. They're judging you. First of all, every single one of us in this room judge. It doesn't, we're human nature. It's just it. We walk up somewhere like, look at that. Look at that. Oh, wow, look at that. Did you see that? I didn't. This guy's got a bone time. He wrote a book. I can do that, you know. People judge. And people judge, especially when you're a brand. So you've got to keep it real. You've definitely got to keep it real. People are gonna find out anyway. Would you much rather find your true colors right now in this day and age? And I love how it just extracts the authenticity of where it is. Because some people are like, you're kind of look forward, you know, you're a little forward. Did you want me to bullshit you for a couple weeks and then kind of tell you who I really am? I mean, because that's the reality that you've got to be able to set in with people. And that, to be honest, I I grew up going to church and I hated it. When I was 18, I'm like, you'll never make me go back there. Just bad suit and dimples and those hymns and those, I'm just not doing it. And then the modern movement of church came around with, you know, you're like, is this a rock concert? What's going on here? Like everybody hangs out, everybody's cool, you can just be you, and it's not about all these uh failed attempts at behavior modification. Like, that's what drew me in is the authenticity of all that and the ability to go, you know what, this is what it's all about. I just want to share that message. And I believe I'm being blessed with a platform to be able to continue to grow that and be even more real. And you're you you got it right. That's right. You saw me at Art Walk at the private party that Gray Goose had, you saw me at church down the street the very next morning. Absolutely. So, I mean, I that's just, and I'm not saying go run amok, go to church. That's what Miami does, and that's what we love, and you do what you do. I'm not here to judge, nobody's here to judge anybody. Um, but I believe being real lets it breaks down barriers for people. It really does. People have called me and said, I want to check out that church because they've realized that I'm real, not because I invited them to church. And I use that example because it's church, it's a personal decision, it's like food. You know, religion, it's a tough, it's a tough sell. Thank God I'm not selling it. I'm just selling, I'm not selling anything. I'm I'm telling my story. And I think my story jives with enough people to go, you know what? This dude's cool with the bow tie. Let's let's go check it out. One more call, schooler. No, we're not. No, that's it. No. No. No. We use grape juice. We try to keep it real. Any more?

unknown 1:00:58

Pressing questions? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:06

That's called reputation management. I got a guy for that. Um, yeah, it's called reputation management. That's you've your past is a little eh, and they Google you, and it's a little eh, then the only way to be able to do that, the only way to push old old content away is to get new positive content there. That's the only way it works. There's no magic eraser, there's no pretend it goes away. It's to create more new content to push that content away. And you know, make sure you got your right. You've got to be you know you've got to be able to, and that happens a lot of get calls all the time. Like, dude, I had a rough path, Mark 2008. It was kind of Olivia Pope. Right. Exactly, a little Olivia Pope action. Exactly. So some stuff Olivia Pope can't solve, neither can social media, but again, there's it's it's it's time. It's it's it's a time process. If you Google my name, Sebastian Rusk, it's probably gonna take six or seven pages up on Google of content, of stuff that I've had, of stuff that I've created over the past five years of just content. My point is that the more content you're creating, Google is indexing. Every tweet you send, every post you send out on Facebook, every post you send out, every blog post you do, every video you do, Google grabs that and puts it in your bucket, in your search bucket. And when people are looking for a house in Miami and they see your little guided tour with a video or a blog post with your contact information, because of a YouTube video, they pick up the phone and they buy a house from you because of your YouTube video, then it'll start to register and it'll start to click. Make sense? You guys are freaking awesome. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:33

We can get a better round of applause for that, can't we? Folks, for those of you that are still watching online, uh don't forget to give us a call here at the store. We'll get a book signed for you, we'll ship it to you. Uh, also don't forget that all of our books and books events that are live streamed are also archived, so you can check out this event tomorrow if you want to watch it again. If you didn't get all of it here, I know sometimes it's difficult when you're here watching to really absorb everything. You can watch it again. And for those of you here, the books are for sale behind the counter. Don't forget to follow Books and Books as well. Books and Books is on Twitter or on Facebook or on Instagram. We're branded very well. Thanks to Sebastian as well for being here. He'll be signing the books over here, they're for sale behind the counter. Thank you all so much for being here this evening.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

Hey friend, Sebastian here. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. I sure do appreciate it. Hey, if you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. Um, if you feel so inclined, please do reveal leave us a review. Five stars is obviously preferred. Say something nice about us if you don't mind. And also make sure you're subscribed to this way, you're getting future updates of episodes as they become available. I'm signing off from our studio here in beautiful Coral Gables, Florida. Talk to you next time.