Thunder Nerds

285 – 🎯 Essential Marketing Strategies with David Portnowitz

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In this episode, we get to talk with David Portnowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Star2Star, a Sangoma company. We discuss Star2Star, their solutions, and how they’re providing services that address the challenges of our new normal. We also delve into Marketing in the 20s and leverage the lessons learned from 2020 to ready business for the future. Additionally, we evaluate the current marketing trends and hypothesize which opportunities hold the most value.

✨ Episode Sponsor
  • Auth0: https://auth0.com
  • Auth0 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/auth0
  • Auth0 on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/auth0
  • Auth0 Avocado Labs online meetup events: https://avocadolabs.dev/
🔗 Episode Links
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/dportno
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-portnowitz/
  • Star2Star: https://www.star2star.com
  • Sangoma: https://www.sangoma.com
  • Project Hail Mary: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-Mary-Andy-Weir/dp/0593135202
  • Desktop-as-a-Service: https://www.star2star.com/DaaS
  • Host: Frederick Weiss: https://twitter.com/FrederickWeiss
📜 Transcript

Frederick Weiss: welcome. I am Frederick Philip von Weiss,

and you are consuming the Thunder Nerds! a conversation with the people behind the technology that love what
they do, and do tech good!  Welcome to the show everybody. Go ahead and start live chatting with
us.

[00:01:38] We'll answer your questions in the order they are received. Additionally, make

sure you subscribe to the show at YouTube.com/ThunderNerds
and click on that notification bell to get alerts for new videos. And we also
have exclusive subscriber giveaways. Now with that being said, and without any ados being furthered,
let's go ahead and welcome our guests.

[00:02:03] We have: speaker, host, bourbon connoisseur, and chief marketing officer

at Star2Star, a Sangoma company. David Portnowitz! David, welcome to the show. Appreciate you coming.

[00:02:17] David Portnowitz: [00:02:17] Thanks

so much for having me, Frederick, it  is so good to be here with you. I know this has been something
we've been trying to schedule for a while.

[00:02:24] And I got to ask you about avocado labs. I'm getting hungry now.

[00:02:28] Frederick Weiss: [00:02:28] yeah, I

hear what you mean. I do enjoy the avocado  in the guacamole. It's one of my favorite treats, but
yeah, man, I really appreciate you being on the show. We've worked together in some capacity now for
 a pretty long time, and I'm very grateful to have you on the show my friend.

[00:02:44] And, just thank you so much for sharing your time with us!

[00:02:47] David Portnowitz: [00:02:47] Yeah. We

have a long history, right? I guess we could go back to just trying to think about 2007, 2008? I guess it
would have been 2008 maybe. Was that, does that sound about?

[00:02:59] Frederick Weiss: [00:02:59] That does

sound about right.  Which sounds like a lifetime ago, really.

[00:03:04] Especially the way the world is changing. Excuse me. Just quick,

disclaimer,  I've been very sick, so you might hear some coughing, sneezing and other mysterious
noises. So forgive me for that.  Just putting that out there.  But David let's  build up
a little bit of context about you for our audience first off.

[00:03:23] So you are the CMO at Star2Star communications, a Sangoma company. Maybe

you could tell us a little bit about that. And so we could get a more idea about what you do, who you are.

[00:03:33] David Portnowitz: [00:03:33]

Absolutely. So I have been at Star2Star now for going on, I guess this will be my eighth year there. I
started in 2013 as head of digital and have worked my way up to the CMO role.

[00:03:47] I've been in that role now for about three years.  And previous

to that, I worked at IMG Academy, which is, if you're familiar with the sports world, the largest youth
training facility in the world based here in Bradenton, Florida.  And I started there right out of
college and that was my first job.

[00:04:03] I, and I've spent seven or eight years there doing that. And

that's where I met Fredrick when he was working at an agency  nearby. And so  we actually were
using the agency and. I crossed paths first, and then I left IMG and I guess it would have been October of
2013 and started at Star2Star a month later about, I don't know, maybe a year later.

[00:04:24] When did you start there? I started to start,

[00:04:27] Frederick Weiss: [00:04:27] I think I

started there maybe  like nine months after you, because every time I see the career history on
LinkedIn, you're like just a few months ahead of me on the thing.   I think I'm set. I just got
my seven years, your eight

[00:04:41] David Portnowitz: [00:04:41] years.

Maybe I'll be eight in November, I think, because I think that makes sense, right?

[00:04:46] 20. Yeah, let me do it fast.  And Star2Star.  Just for all

intents and purposes is a UCaaS company around. For 15 or 16 years and was recently acquired by a company
called Sangoma that's based in Toronto, Canada.  And we are really excited about this merger and
coming together with the single-mode folks and joining forces.

[00:05:10] They've got an entire suite of communication as a service products.

 Obviously we are a full service UCaaS company and kind of put our products together. We think we have
the largest sort of  portfolio in the industry now. It was a very exciting time. We're going
through all those integration pains.

[00:05:27] If you've been on, I'm sure many of you have probably experienced

 merging with another company and integrating.  It's tough.  There's a lot to
 Wade through it's nerve wracking. It's exciting. It's all of those things put together.
 So you know, we're going through that right now and  yeah, that's kinda where we
are.

[00:05:45]  Frederick Weiss:  Let me

ask you a question. So as a CMO, what exactly do you do?  What is your day to day like for people that
might not understand that concept or are interested in maybe having aspirations to become a CMO?

[00:05:58] David Portnowitz: [00:05:58] Yeah, I

think it's a lot. I spent a lot of time talking to  the product side to the sales side, to
 customer service, trying to understand  where we want to position ourselves in the market, how we
want to talk to our customers and our partners  where we want to put the focus where sales is
 where, what kind of leads we want to drive  all of those things that.

[00:06:22] That we're focused on driving revenue essentially.  And then

executing from there, right?  Like I then go down to my team and say, look, where's your,
here's what we want to focus on. Here's the kind of campaign we want to run.  Here are the
priorities we have and I like to run my department in a couple of ways.

[00:06:42] One I'm not. I'm not a very, I'm not a micromanager. I think

 maybe Frederick will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't try to be a micromanager, not if I
know there are times when I don't have to be a little bit more hands-on and try to push things
through.

[00:07:00] I am impatient. I will tell you that. But I also like to run the group as

more of an agency that kind of approach.  And we help our partners out. We help our salespeople out. We
help the company out. Those are  our three main customers. If we were to look at the agency model
 and  we are a lean to yes organization.

[00:07:20] We want to do what we can do to help.  We will go out of our way to

be responsive.  I do think it's really important if someone sends us an email or someone sends us a
note. Let's respond to them, let's make sure we hear  they're, they feel like they're
heard.  And that goes a long way.

[00:07:35] And I think marketing for us, there has been a bit of a differentiator.

 When space, the UCaaS space has been commoditized, prices have been driving down partners.  Their
choices have been dwindling as companies merge together.  Marketing is an area where we think we can
differentiate ourselves in this and the level of service we provide and the quality of things we do and the
content we create.

[00:07:56] All of those things  are things I focus  on a daily basis. And

you're also managing people. So   that's something you have to be comfortable with.  If
you want to get into the CMO role. I It is  you're dealing with people and you're dealing with
their issues and you're making sure that they're taken care of.

[00:08:11] And all of those things are a balancing act. And   that's

 what being a manager is in general. You've got people on top of you, you've got people below
you and you've got to  balance in between. It definitely makes for interesting days.

[00:08:25] Frederick Weiss: [00:08:25] Yes. And

also you're responsible for your customers as well. And for your partners,

[00:08:32] David Portnowitz: [00:08:32] Yeah.

   For us, we're a partner led business.  And  we don't sell anything directly.
We sell everything through a reseller or through an IT professional who is going to resell our product to an
end-user, to a customer.

[00:08:46] Think about it like  a car dealership, right? So when you go to buy a

Subaru  you don't go right to Subaru corporate to buy that car,  there are, there's a
Subaru dealer in your area. You go to them, they get, they buy the car from Subaru. They resell it to you at
a higher price. There's a markup in there and they're making that money probably upfront
 whatever that difference is.

[00:09:07] There's probably some money in there recurring too. And once

you're paying  on a car payment  so those are the kinds of   that's the model that we
 say, so we've got partners that are local, if you needed. Voice service. If you needed security,
if you needed a virtual desktop, if you needed  those kinds of things, you would go to your local IT
guy  and say, Hey, look, I don't have an IT department.

[00:09:28] Or maybe my IT department can't handle this kind of thing.  I

need help.    An MSP or which is a managed service provider will come in and say, okay, we
recommend star to star. They can help solve these problems for you and  et cetera, et cetera.

[00:09:41] Frederick Weiss: [00:09:41]

Excellent. Yeah. So go ahead. Yeah. I wouldn't be the person  or you wouldn't be the person I
would go to then to say, Hey, my tires are, or I'm low on my Subaru.

[00:09:51] I would be going to my a Subaru dealer.

[00:09:55] David Portnowitz: [00:09:55] Yeah.

And   then the Subaru dealer is going to go back to Subaru and say, Hey Subaru, can you help us market
these cars? Can you run ads? Can you give us money?  Do you have money so that we can run local
advertisements here? Do you have  collateral on these cars that we can put in our dealerships?

[00:10:11] Do you have a portal we can go to and download all the assets that we

need? That's the same kind of thing we do for our partners, right? Our partners are in the field
they're selling, but they need the support, right? They need financial support. They need collateral
support, they need content. They need to understand how the products work.

[00:10:28] They need to have, they need to be trained on what to say and how to sell

the products. Is very similar to that. You could think about it like the real estate model as well.  
 That  if you're a real estate agent for  Coldwell banker or something like that, or
Coldwell banker is this massive corporate company, but you're going to  you're a local
agent.

[00:10:47] They're going to provide you with tons of material, tons of content,

training, financial support, all of those things. So very similar to those kinds of models. And then. For us
from a marketing standpoint  we're charged with helping those partners sell. We're charged with
making sure that they have the right materials, that they have the right people to help them.

[00:11:06] So all of those things are part of what we do on a daily basis. Yes.

[00:11:10] Frederick Weiss: [00:11:10] And for

full transparency, this episode is sponsored by Subaru. They provide a little bit of cash for the analogies.
Thank you. Subaru. Just want to get that out there. It's just in case  all the cards are on the
table. So

[00:11:22] David Portnowitz: [00:11:22] did you

own a Subaru?

[00:11:24] I wish they were sponsoring. Cause then maybe my Subaru, but yeah.

[00:11:28] Frederick Weiss: [00:11:28] Do you

like

[00:11:28] David Portnowitz: [00:11:28] your

Subaru? I love my Subaru, so no, you're not

[00:11:32] Frederick Weiss: [00:11:32]

You're not going to go the Tesla route.

[00:11:33]   David Portnowitz: [00:11:35] I

think I need a few more dollars to get into the Tesla route. So what do you think?

[00:11:41] Frederick Weiss: [00:11:42] I saw

that  I don't know if the Musk is, and has put in some jokes out there talking about how a cyber
truck might cost a million dollars.

[00:11:50] Are there any, yeah. Is there any

[00:11:52]   David Portnowitz: [00:11:54] I

don't love the look of the cyber truck. I'm not going to be on it. I'm not going to lie to you.
I'm sure I can do my thing.  I do  listen, I do  the a, what is it? The why? I think, why
is it worn out?  I would definitely get a Y. My wife would love it if I got a Y she would love the idea
of getting an electric car.

[00:12:11] So they're safe, two very safe cars. Yeah. They're just  just

a little bit out of my price range and  just more money that I want to spend on a car. I should say
 I guess I'm not that kind of guy.  I, it's not that important to me, I guess I would say,

[00:12:26] Frederick Weiss: [00:12:26] I think

if you balance the  if you look at a few different factors, like how much it costs like gas per month,
and you factor that into your monthly payments, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:12:36] It had my balance out in some scenarios because of course your insurance

goes up a little bit, depending on who your agency is.  Yeah, but I

[00:12:44] David Portnowitz: [00:12:44] digress.

I would love to get it. I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm like, I would love to get my love. I love the
fact that it's just one big computer screen. It's very minimal.

[00:12:52] I love all that.

[00:12:52] Frederick Weiss: [00:12:52] So

I'm in, yeah. I'd love to get the cyber tracker. That's definitely my style.

[00:12:57] David Portnowitz: [00:12:57] I need a

cyber truck.

[00:12:59] Frederick Weiss: [00:12:59] I would

love the cyber truck. That is me all day meat all

[00:13:02] David Portnowitz: [00:13:02] day. It

looks like a, yeah. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Look, it looks so weird

[00:13:09] Frederick Weiss: [00:13:09] again.

Not you, I'm the target.

[00:13:13] David Portnowitz: [00:13:13] Okay. It

looks very long. I don't think it would fit in a garage.

[00:13:18] Frederick Weiss: [00:13:18] I would

make it fit. My garage is pretty long. I like it. I guess I would golf it all out. I totally would love
that.

[00:13:24] David Portnowitz: [00:13:24] All

right.  I hope you will one day. Get it.

[00:13:28] Frederick Weiss: [00:13:28] Me too.

That's my plan

[00:13:29] David Portnowitz: [00:13:29] right

now. There's one, I think right now there's one of them.

[00:13:31] So I don't know.

[00:13:33] Frederick Weiss: [00:13:33] Just that

one that Jalen was driving around. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure he has that in his thing.  Let's go
ahead and get to our main topic.

[00:13:45] So David, our main topic is marketing in the roaring twenties. Ooh.

What's some of the dances in the twenties, the chocolate

[00:13:54] David Portnowitz: [00:13:54]

Charleston

[00:13:55] Frederick Weiss: [00:13:55] has

[00:13:57] David Portnowitz: [00:13:57] the arms

in your legs  like together, like

[00:13:59] Frederick Weiss: [00:13:59] a cross.

I just see  Amy Poehler in somebody doing that  yeah.

[00:14:07] David Portnowitz: [00:14:07] I think

icebergs had a moment there.

[00:14:10] Icebergs

[00:14:10] Frederick Weiss: [00:14:10]

didn't have a moment. Maybe that was before then all that stuff could come back.  I do love the
cold.    One of the things that I go to in my head right away with the roaring twenties. It's
a product of the COVID is everything to do  with coffee and the industrial revolution, really.

[00:14:32] And I promise I'm going somewhere where people used to drink alcohol

all the time, because it was safer than water. And then people started drinking coffee because it was a
different kind of beverage that allowed us  to  not be governed by the sun and the moon.   We
could work linked to the day.

[00:14:49] We could be more productive and frankly, we weren't drunk as we were

trying to get things accomplished. And then  in the late 17 hundreds  coffee became very popular,
industrial revolution, et cetera, et cetera. Then we started having the coffee breaks and I think in
Wisconsin, in the late fifties, maybe early fifties, 51 ish  somewhere back to the future with Marnie,
the coffee break became law, right?

[00:15:16] What happened with the coffee break is people started to become more

productive. They had a coffee break in the morning and then the afternoon. And I think there's a lot of
 similarities here. Some parallels  if you think about it with remote work and flexible work, and
we're seeing that people  started    with remote work and flexible work or rather remote
work at the beginning of the pandemic, that people would work a lot more.

[00:15:42] They wouldn't take a lot of breaks, so they would work way into the

night.  I think a lot of people have done that.  I know I did that. I subscribed to that kind of
lifestyle, but they were also happier and more productive and got a lot more done.  Do you see any kind
of similarities to this?

[00:15:59] David Portnowitz: [00:16:00] Yeah,

first off, I don't know what you're talking about. So  excuse me.

[00:16:04] Frederick Weiss: [00:16:04] How did

you not catch

[00:16:05] David Portnowitz: [00:16:05] that?

No, I didn't know. I didn't know where you're going with the coffee thing, but now it makes
sense.  No, I think, look, when you, when we were home last year, there was less of a, there was
 you didn't have  that sort of difference between work    in your home,  you
were working from your house all the time. There was no break. When you left work, you could  stop
thinking about it or you could put it behind you and you could go home and you could be with your family.
 There was less of that and it spilled over into 1, 1, 1   big blob of  work and home and
kids  and your significant other was that   it was just, it was chaos.

[00:16:44]   And. As we are getting back into the office a little bit

 there's definitely going to be this idea of a hybrid environment  where  there is
 you're home for a little bit, you're at work for a little bit, you're in the office
 there, and I think we're all going to have to get used to that.

[00:17:02] What does that look like? For example, one of the things that I just was

like  I'm so tired of  carrying my monitor and my key  in my mouse and this back and
forth. So I was like, I'm just gonna order a second one for my home. And second, the idea of needing
this and then not having a setup every time you move back and forth  that wasn't something we had
to deal with  18 months ago.

[00:17:24]   I think there's going to be a. Yeah. A learning curve for a lot

of companies. So how to do this.    I think the technology side is going to be very interesting.
Cause I think  everyone was like, oh, we gotta get everyone set up to work from home. They did that
now, how do you deal with getting everyone working from home and also working from the office at the same
time and balancing that  and dealing with COVID and dealing with  someone in the office getting
sick and then  people going back home for all of this is going to happen.

[00:17:53]   We were fortunate enough in our. World where we didn't have to

go into the office last year  there  and there are a lot of people who, that, that wasn't the
case, the majority of people.      We're a little bit, but you and I are a little bit
behind that curve, so we're going to have to figure out what it's going to be, it's going to be
interesting to see what else.

[00:18:12] There's

[00:18:13] Frederick Weiss: [00:18:13] a thing I

want to read here from Apollo technical.com?  I'm going to read this quote, Upwork estimates that
one in four Americans and over 26% of the American workforce will be working remotely through 2021. And they
continue to say, they also estimate that 22% of the workforce, 36.2 million Americans will work remotely by
2025.

[00:18:45] So that being said, how do we take advantage of that from a marketing

perspective? What do we think?

[00:18:53] David Portnowitz: [00:18:53] I think

 I think it's probably pretty accurate. As we see  companies have plans to send people back to
the office just this month and had to push those back because of COVID.

[00:19:03]   I think  it's a rolling kind of calendar. No one knows

exactly when that's going to be. How do we take advantage of it as one  we have to be more
personal, right? We have to understand that people are at home.  We have to understand  how
they're spending their time.

[00:19:18] If you look at Gartner, they put out a digital distraction document that I

thought was fascinating.  That  the sort of the top distractions impacting employees, ability to
concentrate, and you had this sort of work distractions like emails, unscheduled work-related calls, and
some messaging mixed with digital distractions, like your personal emails, your text messages, your social
media alerts mixed with personal distractions, like housekeeping responsibilities, caretaking deliveries,
mail.

[00:19:44] Yeah. Picking up your kids, all those kinds of things. And there's

sort of a point where at least things overlap  we have to be cognizant of that.  You have to be
able to  if you're trying to get a customer that's working from home, you need to be able to
speak to them in their language.

[00:19:58] What are the things they're dealing with?  How do we help them

get through the Workday when their kids are at school and their significant other is here. And they've
got, they're dealing with  trying to do laundry and clean all of these things at the same time.
   I think it's important  that marketers understand  those kinds of things.

[00:20:18] And  if you're going to send something to them, if you're

going to send them a package, don't send it to their work address, find out their home address, little
things like that make a big difference. And    I've seen some companies do that well and some
companies still struggle with it.

[00:20:30]   Yeah. Yeah. I I think it's all about understanding  the

mindset or what the customer is dealing with  at the time.

[00:20:40] Frederick Weiss: [00:20:40] It's

interesting. You bring that up.  What is besides that? What are some other  lessons
 we've learned  from the lack of face to face    that we didn't have, this
deficiency  in business that we could  and empower ourselves to use  going into 2020.

[00:21:02] David Portnowitz: [00:21:02] Wow.

[00:21:02] Frederick Weiss: [00:21:04] Like some

best practices, the future. Yeah.

[00:21:05] David Portnowitz: [00:21:05]  I

think one, it is  if you're  if you're managing people, I think it's being flexible. I
think you have to be flexible.  I think you have to understand that people are going to work from home.
Sometimes they're going to come into the office.

[00:21:18] You can't have this  Idea that everyone's just going to be

there every day.  I think you have to have that. I think you need to be  realistic with people.
 People have been working from home and  they like the idea  that they can do that. And I
think you need to be realistic  about what's going to happen sometimes.

[00:21:34] And   to me, those are the kinds of things I think about  from

 from the customer standpoint   w what's going to drive them is  they're going to be
looking for technology that makes it easier for them to go back and forth, to work from anywhere  to
have one seamless application that they can do all these things in  they don't want to have to drag
a big computer back and forth.

[00:21:55] They want to be able to boot up quickly. They want to be able to  get

their stuff right away.  You want to make their life as simple as possible. It's going to help
increase their productivity.  It's going to make them. No technology stack is easier.  These
are the things that we're hearing from our customers.

[00:22:11] They want one vendor for these things. They want to be able to go to one

place and get all this stuff. That's what's important to our customers.

[00:22:19] Frederick Weiss: [00:22:19] Yeah.

 I hear you  when you talk about that kind of stuff, that makes me think about  things like
desktop as a service to where people could utilize some kind of central source for their     for
that kind of  technology and then to distribute basically machines and all that stuff is going to cover
 you don't have to worry about the security of what happens if that laptop gets stolen or  
 you don't have to worry about    having somebody come to your location and loading a
bunch of things on their machine.

[00:22:52] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Do you mind just maybe  I know I just put out

 a statement like that. Do you mind  just briefly with some brevity's just going over, what
that  Daws solution might be.

[00:23:04] David Portnowitz: [00:23:04] Yeah.

  You think about it, you want to boot up your computer and you want to be able to have the
applications that you use every day.

[00:23:11] So  let's say you're in Salesforce every day.  You use

Adobe and you use your email. Those are really the only applications you use. So you have a virtual desktop,
so you boot booted up, it looks like a regular computer, but those applications are in the cloud. And
 you're not taking up your computer hard drive space.

[00:23:26] You could use a thin client.  If you could use a Chromebook or a

lightweight tablet or something like that. And the applications are in the cloud, they're secure.  
If you lose it, like you mentioned,  you can just erase it  from wherever you are and then
 get a new one.

[00:23:42] Inexpensive piece of hardware    and global applications. And

again, be  you left off in someplace, you were doing emails  you were using office 365 or whatever
the case is, and you want to pick right back up. You can do those things because it's all stored in the
cloud. Yeah. And  from a corporate standpoint, it's really nice because I can control what's on
the machine  they're on, they can't download their own personal email.

[00:24:05] They can't be checking Facebook.  You can  monitor those

things  and it reduces your costs, right? You don't have to buy everybody a $1,500 Macbook.
Although we like our nice Macbooks  or you can get a Chromebook. Yeah. But you can spend two or $300 on
a Chromebook  and you can get the same kind of functionality or  you can, a lot of times you can,
you might even just build this with  a raspberry PI  40, 50 bucks  monitor and be good to
go.

[00:24:29]   Those are the kinds of things you can do   in a virtual

desktop experience. And  we work closely with Citrix and they're the leader in this space on the
virtual desktop side. And  there are. Multi-billion dollar, large enterprises using virtual
desktops.

[00:24:46] It's a it's and it became more popular during the pandemic because

you had people working from home and you wanted companies to be able to control the applications  on
the computer. And they wanted to make sure it was secure and that  and they want to make it so that
 you don't have to VPN in, it slows you down.

[00:25:02] This takes all that away. So  it's just  it's a very

elegant solution for that problem.

[00:25:08] Frederick Weiss: [00:25:08] Yeah. I would say if

anybody wants to learn more about that, they could go to Star2Star.com/DaaS, and we'll put a link to
that, obviously in the show notes.

[00:25:24] Frederick Weiss: [00:25:24] Let's

go to our next kind of topic here.

[00:25:28] It is Virtual Event Marketing. One of the things that I know you very much

enjoy  for these virtual events without  these  events and  These kinds of things in
2020 it's what did businesses do? And more importantly what are the takeaways for empowering the
future?

[00:25:48]  We're gonna start to get back to the way things look a little

bit  we're going to have some of these events, but    w we've learned that a lot of
times these virtual events people are either  they're halfway there halfway, not they're either
eating Chinese food or yeah.

[00:26:07] Really not even that I'm being gracious.

[00:26:09] David Portnowitz: [00:26:09] Yeah. I

think you're being very gracious.

[00:26:10]   Frederick Weiss: [00:26:11]

Tell me about that.  What do you think the results were and what can we do better moving forward?
Obviously people are starting to get out a little bit. We don't know what the fursuit foreseeable future
holds, but we'll not jump into

[00:26:24] David Portnowitz: [00:26:24]

that.

[00:26:24] Yeah. So I think last year, the virtual events were really, really

difficult. I think people were overwhelmed with them.  It's very hard to do a virtual event while
also being. Checking your email and doing work.  I think when you're at an event, you can  be
there. You can  monitor your email on a phone.

[00:26:42] If you need to jump on a quick call, you can do that, but you're not

really in the office. Your staff  knows you're not there. There's not an expectation that
you're going to be able to return this email in two seconds or that you're going to be able to jump
on this project right away  but when you're at a virtual event, I think some of those barriers are
not as clear.

[00:27:03] There is  an expectation that you're doing the virtual event and

you're still  working at the same time.  And it's hard to schedule around. I You really
needed to pretend like you're at an event and then clear your calendar and then do that all day. And I
think that's hard.

[00:27:16] It was hard for me  because  some other people may have been

more successful with it. It was not  for me and for the events that we tried to do  and do
recruiting in and things like that, they were just not super successful. I am looking forward to getting
back to in-person events when it's safe.

[00:27:32] I'm hoping that we can do that  this year. And  I think that

they're not going to be as, as well attended as they have been in the past. I think that's going to
be  part of the new normal all over the next, I don't know, 12, 24 months.  But I think people
were also excited to get back out.

[00:27:50] You look at, I know you look at places like Las Vegas   and

 Florida, which we do a lot of.  There's a lot of people who come to Orlando for events
 big, and center.  Those places have been pretty crowded.  Yeah, no. So I think people, they
want to go, they want to be able to travel again.

[00:28:06] I know if you have,  if you have done any traveling and had in the

past six months, you know how hard it is. Flights are expensive. Rental cars are hard to get. Hotel rooms
are expensive. And again so people are, people want to get out of the house. Virtual goal of going back to
virtual events is to  not for me.

[00:28:26] I didn't find anything that really worked.

[00:28:29] Frederick Weiss: [00:28:29] Yeah. I

hear a lot of people talking about things like incentivizing  with games, contests, quizzes, but I, it
seems like everybody had that same kind of experience where  they tried so many different things, but
again  it's one of those video fatigues.

[00:28:45] Like you don't want to sit in front of the camera or the computer for

some kind of events such as this    or such as that rather for a five hour time period. It's
just, it's

[00:28:57] David Portnowitz: [00:28:57] too

much. It is absolutely too much. It's there, it's exhausting.  You just can't do it all
day.  The video fatigue was real, it was a real thing.

[00:29:05] People experienced it all across the world really.  And it's

just, it's a lot to sit there and  listen  just to listen to sessions and listen, and
that's hard to do and  it's hard to not get distracted and go back to that digital distraction
thing that I talked about  it's hard to not do laundry at the same time, or  you're
checking Twitter or you're texting with your friend, or you're also doing email  those things
all come up  when you're just  sitting there  you're like  I'm just sitting
here listening.

[00:29:34] I could do this at the same time. When you start doing those things,

you're not really listening anymore.  You're  like half listening, half doing this, a
third, doing that so    it's becomes  very difficult to  keep anybody's
attention for any period of time.

[00:29:47] Frederick Weiss: [00:29:47] Yeah. And

it makes a lot of sense speaking of that then  Jumping into my next question which blends into what we
were just talking about.

[00:29:55] I wanted to ask you about how you re-imagined marketing through all this.

And what did you find successful?  If we think about demand generation being  the top of the
funnel, the marketing qualified leads and the bottom of the funnel being sales, qualified leads, like how,
 w what exactly did you do in the response once?

[00:30:15] Once we got a little bit down the line of 20, 21, and    maybe

 w what kind of takeaways can we  apply  that's applicable to next year?

[00:30:27] David Portnowitz: [00:30:27] Yeah,

good question. So I think for us, it was important to double down on digital, wherever we could this was the
case for a lot of companies now, you were looking for ways to drive new leads. People were spending a lot of
time online.  How could you engage with them through SEM, through SEO? How could you engage with them
where they are, what the platforms they're using and how do you reach them at home?

[00:30:49] We did several things where we mailed something to someone's house.

That was not something we used to do.  We would send somebody to the office  courtesy of their
name. And those kinds of things were important to us and we all, so we were  cognizant that people
were.

[00:31:05]    They were, it was a time of  unease, right? So people

didn't know what to expect. They didn't know where we were, so we tried to be very comforting to
them. We tried to be there for them to support them  both financially. And when you did, we tried to
make sure that  their needs were taken care of  if they needed something  someone got sick
 God forbid we, you just tried to  be a good partner.

[00:31:26] And    from my  driving lead standpoint, I think you really

needed to focus on digital.  You need to be  socially  socially there, you need to have a
presence there. You need to be tapping into that.  You needed to be.  When people were looking for
you online  you needed to be there.

[00:31:41] You needed to look at  review sites  and be, have a presence

there you needed to do no marketing, which I think God got we've. We  certainly jumped the shark
there. If we hadn't already five years ago, we certainly did last year with the amount of emails that
we, you would get from companies trying to be a little bit pitchy about, oh yeah, you're at home  
  so look, everyone  we all have    we all dealt with that.

[00:32:10] Yeah.  But there are only so many levers you can pull  and you

just have to be, you have to pull the right one at the right time and that's  it's more
 sometimes a little bit marketing is a little bit more of an art. That's balancing that art with
that side.

[00:32:27] Frederick Weiss: [00:32:27] Yeah,

that's fair.  It's definitely numbers and numbers and all that.  Yeah so do, would you
then think that COVID has  has changed the practice of business as a whole forever?  Will
marketing ever be the same or are we just  full on focusing on these digital experiences?

[00:32:45] David Portnowitz: [00:32:45] No

 I think that there have been some areas where it's, we're, you're never going to go
back.

[00:32:50] It's never like we talked about events. They're never going to be

as big as they were before.  Just because people are  there, they don't have to travel. They
don't feel that need. I think, like I said, there may be, there's going to be a boom. People wanna
get out of the house.

[00:33:06] But then they'll probably slowly trend back down.  When people

get tired of traveling again  when they get in the airport and they're stuck there overnight and
they're flames, plane's been delayed for no reason  people are going to remember why they
didn't want to travel to begin with  quick, quickly get reminded when you go to an airport and
you're like, oh God.

[00:33:21] Now I know I didn't want to do it because I think there are some

things that will change. I think  digitally    the main thing that I think we're going to
see going forward is people want to be able to get access to the information as quickly. This is already the
case, but I think it was doubled down on because people don't want to spend a lot of time  on your
site looking for a million different things.

[00:33:45] They come there  for a specific reason. They've most likely

already done the research, as you'll hear  that they've already talked to somebody about your
company. They've already looked you up online. They've thought they've read a review, they come
to your site, they want to be able to buy or download or, and when they want to go  they don't want
to spend a lot of time.

[00:34:03] So I think you have to do a good job of trying to capture their attention

right away.  You want to provide the right content to them that they're happy and they don't
feel like you're attacking them, or they don't feel like  your  Dropping in on them
 and  pouncing on them.

[00:34:17] That was one thing that you saw a lot of, I, I didn't even bring this

up, but like this whole, like LinkedIn pouncing thing where you would, I don't know, I got so many
LinkedIn invites and you would get in time, you get an, all the time, you get an, a, you get an accept and
then three seconds later, they're pouncing on you with it, with a message.

[00:34:34] And you're like, dude, I don't even know who you are.

[00:34:36]   Frederick Weiss: [00:34:37] 10

paragraphs  Hey good buddy. And you instantly regret, like I, why did I?

[00:34:45] David Portnowitz: [00:34:45] Yeah, I

have been like, I have definitely found myself being way more discerning around    LinkedIn
invites. I'm like, if I don't know you, or if I don't have  a lot in common with you,
I'm definitely not accepting you.

[00:34:58] And    it is a cesspool right now to me and I have no offense to

LinkedIn, but it's hard to navigate. It's hard to know when things were posted, like the time
 it's really good for me to be in interacting, but  as a, as someone who just goes on there to
see what others are talking about, as someone who  you might be using it for job searching or things
like that, it's  it is overwhelming  the amount of pitches you get and yeah.

[00:35:26] People trying to sell you something.  It's just, it is tough.

It's tough to break through there. And  it's very hard. The pouncing is really annoying. Like
it's very annoying. I

[00:35:36] Frederick Weiss: [00:35:36] think it

goes back to the  the old 80 20 rule, which is  you want to make sure that your  take 80% of
your time       and use that to provide value, give things back  like podcasts or
 courses, live streams or special links that you find will be usable  for your audience.

[00:35:57] Things that they find value in, and then take that other 20% and then

actually promote your business and talk about the things  that you're doing. Otherwise, you just
become  like a small piece in the mosaic of a spam on the wall, and nobody hears you. It's there,
there is no value in it.

[00:36:18] David Portnowitz: [00:36:18]

Yeah.

[00:36:18] Or you just become a Nat,

[00:36:22] Frederick Weiss: [00:36:22] just go

[00:36:22] David Portnowitz: [00:36:23] Go away.

 I hope LinkedIn, I'm sure LinkedIn has obviously seen them, probably their open rates are very low
in those kinds of I'm sure that they're working on things to help improve that.  But they also
will probably like it,  people are on their site. More people are connecting more.  Those are all
things LinkedIn wants you to do. It does not make for a real grading experience  in my mind.   I
have a hard time with it.  Yeah, even if you're, even if you're getting, sorry to interject,
but even if you're getting  like those meet those quick span things like blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah.

[00:37:00] Frederick Weiss: [00:37:00] If you

read it for an extra 10 seconds, while you stayed on the site a little bit longer, he stayed there.

[00:37:07] David Portnowitz: [00:37:07] I think

LinkedIn has served its purpose  with job searching with some networking and people in your community
with being able to reach out to potential partners or customers.

[00:37:22]  But understanding  that it's just one medium for that, that

it's not going to be the be all end all like you can't just say, oh  we're just gonna do
all of our things here on LinkedIn, which I think a lot of companies do. They just rely on LinkedIn for
finding new customers all the time.

[00:37:36] And I think you have to just understand how it should be. And understand

that people do not want to spend hours reading your 10 paragraph LinkedIn mail  about your company.
It's  just pointless,  be quick, be direct, be connected with them on something.  
 Mention that you mentioned the university that you both went to, or  connect    try to
bring something to the conversation other than just being annoying.

[00:38:02] Frederick Weiss: [00:38:02] I love

that. Yeah.  Speaking of LinkedIn, what about some other platforms? There's a lot of buzz about
these audio  only platforms. There's things like clubhouse  Twitter spaces, discord, and now
 Spotify has Spotify greenroom, which I've downloaded about.

[00:38:21] I haven't had a chance to actually try it out yet.  What do you

think about these?  These are going to be the future.  They're definitely the answer to video
fatigue.  And there are certainly a great way for a lot of people to just open up without having to
quote unquote, to be on camera for people that don't care for that.

[00:38:39] David Portnowitz: [00:38:39] Yeah. I

was following the clubhouse pretty closely. And if you notice their trends last year, they added a ton of
users. They were  in beta.  For a long time. And then their numbers went  plateaued, right?
People were interested in it. They thought it was CMO. And then the numbers kind of plateaued.

[00:38:56] They just recently opened it up to  open up any, anybody, their

numbers went up again, I think last week, but they're not  they were not adding the same number of
users that they were back in the middle of the pandemic last year. So I think there's a little bit of
interest there.

[00:39:10] I am keen to see where it goes.  You obviously see companies like

Spotify and Twitter  putting money into this. So  there's something there for them.  I
saw Twitter spaces  are allowing  their content creators  to Mo  monetize those things.
So you could create a Twitter space  you can charge for that exclusive content, which is very
CMO.

[00:39:30] I think that's an awesome thing  for Twitter to do. I think

Apple's

[00:39:34] Frederick Weiss: [00:39:34] doing

that now, too. Apple. Yeah, they're going to start doing some  exclusive  paid podcasts. I
believe in podcasts.

[00:39:42] David Portnowitz: [00:39:42] Yeah, I did.

 I did see that too. I think. And Spotify does that as well.  So I think  any time these
companies are giving their creators opportunities to make  to monetize what they're doing.

[00:39:53] I think that's great. I'm all for that. The gig economy, I think,

is still roaring with people who may disagree with me there, but I think people are still doing a lot of
freelance work  and creating content on the side.  And if Apple and Twitter and Spotify or giving
are providing opportunities for them to monetize that in any way to do that and make that easier, I think
that's great.

[00:40:11]     I'm absolutely all for that now.  I think there

will come a time when those platforms are.  Maybe hit their limit. I don't know. We haven't
seen it yet. Obviously.   I don't know.  But  I am, I think there's a limit to the
sort of audio only spaces. I don't know. We'll see.  We're not there yet.

[00:40:33] But    I do think at some point there's going to be just too

many applications. Look at TikTok, there's a lot of people that are making money with TikTok. It's
really easy to do that.    You don't have to do overproduced content because   it's
more about  just being authentic, being yourself and getting things out there.

[00:41:01] Frederick Weiss: [00:41:01] Look at

the ocean spray guy, right? A guy riding the skateboard, ocean spray  C singing, Stevie Nicks or
something like that.  Look how much  interest that generated for the ocean.  And that, that
came out of nowhere and then ocean spray, like just banked on that. And that guy became  a pseudo
famous on his own.

[00:41:22]   In, in that 15 minutes, but  there's so many opportunities

and these  in these  emerging communities and platforms, that's  you'd be crazy not
to try to take advantage

[00:41:33] David Portnowitz: [00:41:33] oh yeah.

I agree.  I think right now you want to strike while the iron's hot.  So I think you want to
 be there.

[00:41:40] And      I'm getting some funny comments here.  I

think there's an opportunity  to try to monopolize, to  try to take advantage of those while
they're, while people are using them.  But again, now there's Twitter space and  there is
a Spotify green room and there is a clubhouse  where people actually  like it. It's hard
 you just, there's one after another, and you're trying to reach those people.

[00:42:06] Frederick Weiss: [00:42:06] Sorry to

chuckle. I'm just looking at Jeremy's comment here about how for the record, ocean spray is nasty.
Thank you  for your clever insight there. Jeremy much appreciated. I don't think

[00:42:17] David Portnowitz: [00:42:17] I've

ever had ocean spray, to be honest with you. I

[00:42:20] Frederick Weiss: [00:42:20] think I

had ocean spray quite a while ago, and yes  you might have to add some simple syrup to that.

[00:42:26] I'm not a fan of cranberry juice in general. So  

 that's not my thing  I

[00:42:31] David Portnowitz: [00:42:31] prefer

 two things in that, from that video, I prefer Fleetwood Mac over oceans.

[00:42:36] Frederick Weiss: [00:42:36] Yes, I

would. I would definitely lean into the Fleetwood Mac over the ocean spray. It's just  nasty. They
got a lot of hits.

[00:42:43] They did.   I'm sure people went out and tried their nasty drink

   and said, oh  it's good enough for that guy. I don't know how that worked out for
them, but apparently well,

[00:42:54] David Portnowitz: [00:42:54] Now that

you've ruined your opportunity to ever get ocean spray is fun. I,

[00:42:59] Frederick Weiss: [00:42:59] you know

what I think I'm okay with that.

[00:43:01] Sorry, but   speaking of those audio platforms    like we

were talking about discussing  clubhouse, et cetera, et cetera, audio  format and video content
are really becoming more of a big thing.  Because, and you see that trend a lot now because nobody
wants to Google things like how to tie a tie for example, and see  a 1500 word article on it and read
it and go, okay, CMO.

[00:43:31] They want things that are easily digestible    and they could

consume it, get it like that and get on with their day.  So things like short form videos and audio
 it's so powerful.  If you create like a little three minute video, and again  
 talking about that ocean spray guy, that was a three minute video and look at the power that, that
 Yeah.

[00:43:54] Yeah. I know people getting more into that.

[00:43:57] David Portnowitz: [00:43:57] Yeah, I

think  I think that's right.  I think that's only going to continue. I'll give you a
good example.    I had, I bought during the pandemic, I got a Peloton bike and I started in the
first day I get it. I get it.    I clip in with my shoes and on, and then  the clique, I
didn't have it screwed in all the way.

[00:44:14] And it got stuck in the thing.  So I'm like, gosh, Nike's

first day I have this thing and I've already broken it, but  I go, I Google it.  I search for
what would happen and then boom, Peloton. Literally a one minute video on if this happened to you,
here's how you, here's, how you get to clean out.

[00:44:30] Th did. It was like that, so I didn't have to read anything. I watched

the video. It was very, it was quick, it was informative. It showed me exactly what to do and how to get the
cleat out. And boom, I was back, I was riding like, so it was really nice to have them answer my question
right away.

[00:44:45] And  that kind of thing I think is going to become it. Isn't

 it already more, it's already pervasive  to be able to  serve up that kind of content
 for your customers is super helpful. I think that right there  a customer has a problem.
Doesn't need contact support.

[00:45:03] Isn't tying up your people  isn't driving up  

 your wait times on your support line. You created this video, which probably took you  about
 20 minutes to create an edit and boom, you fixed it,  so like it's super, super common as
only going to become more.

[00:45:19] Frederick Weiss: [00:45:19] It's

interesting here.

[00:45:20] Here's an interesting comment from Jeremy again. Thank you so much,

Jeremy talking about going back to the ocean spray just a little bit and how this affects Spotify.
That's very interesting. Do you have any response to this?

[00:45:32] David Portnowitz: [00:45:33] Yeah.

 The  tick tock has a huge draw  on what songs are popular.

[00:45:37]   I am not the guy you want to talk to about what's popular on

TikTok. That is not an app I have on my phone. I've only recently discovered Instagram stories,
Instagram reels and  oh  yeah, that was fascinating to me. That was like a bad rabbit hole
 for  two weeks.

[00:45:55] But    I have not delved into the Tik talk. I feel like I need

to spend less time on my phone. Not more so  I don't think, I don't think that would be healthy
for me. I think my dog has started watching TikTok videos nonstop. Am I already spending too much time on
Twitter as well? But

[00:46:11] Frederick Weiss: [00:46:11] maybe you

could be more of a content creator mindset, maybe  it could be a thing where   we may need to
start looking at TikTok and more of a serious kind of fun way to help  get things out.

[00:46:24]  It's definitely about putting out things like marketing tips or

sales tips. They're there, there's an endless amount of different things you could do depending on
who your audience is. That would  very much enjoy a little things like that, that you put out  
 one of the things that I do want to  hold on, hold

[00:46:42] David Portnowitz: [00:46:42] on. Do I

have to dance? Do I have to like, do a little dance while I'm like, where you like point to something
and then like pops up and then like you point to over here. And then it pops, like if I have to do like one
of

[00:46:51] Frederick Weiss: [00:46:51] They do

recommend using a song,, a very popular song and the filters to get your views up.

[00:46:57] So yeah, I'm going to say that's mandatory.

[00:47:00] David Portnowitz: [00:47:00] All

right.  I  I can dance.

[00:47:02] Frederick Weiss: [00:47:02] I

recommend the Macarena.

[00:47:03] David Portnowitz: [00:47:03] Oh

 okay. We'll see what we can.

[00:47:07] Frederick Weiss: [00:47:07] I know

why, but I do, you know what, one of the things that I wanted to get to quickly  we don't have to
touch on the too fast, but Google localization  I think a lot of people don't understand the
 the power here  of having things like a local phone number or a local website  and showing
up in the SERPs  for things  that are very local.

[00:47:28] For example  if you are in Washington, DC  and you're in

Atlanta, Georgia, and you search for a lawn company, you're going to get very different results.
Obviously, but do you mind  touching on that  and   just with some brevity about the power of
that and exactly how people could take advantage of Google.

[00:47:48] Okay.

[00:47:49] David Portnowitz: [00:47:49] You have

to think of Google maps as a social network. That's the way I would say it is Google maps. And Google
maps and Google localization  tie right there.  They're there, they're basically two sides
of a coin, right? So you're gonna, you're going to   if you're a co a company that is
promoting some kind of product in your area and you want people to find you, you've got to be localized
to that area and you've got to be on Google maps.

[00:48:16] If you're, if you've got a retail  if you've got a retail

side of your business,  you know why there are more people spending time on Google maps and they're
probably spending time on anything else.    And Google maps makes it super easy to localize your
business  to add in descriptors, to add keywords, to add in videos, to answer reviews, to post
pictures.

[00:48:35] It has all the things that you would think about  in a social

network, but you just don't think about it like that. To me  it's as crucial as anything else,
especially if you've got a retail side of your business. If you're not on Google maps and you
don't show up there, you don't exist.

[00:48:51]     And  from a local SEM standpoint  you need to. Be

optimized for the area you're in.  You've got to have keywords that are local to your area
 that you use. If you're in Atlanta, like Jeremy is, you've got to be able to say  if
 Atlanta something or other Atlanta, this  this, isn't it like, you have to put that in on
your website.

[00:49:12] You've got to put videos out, that talk about that. You've got to

have  customer testimonials that Google wants to see all of these things. You can't just stuff your
page with the word. You have to have other stuff up there. You've got to have video. You have to have
social skills. All of those things   are super, super important.

[00:49:27]  To me, if you're a small business, that's local  there

is nothing more important than being optimized on Google.  It is if you're not you're dead.

[00:49:41] Frederick Weiss: [00:49:41] Well said

if you're not, but yeah I totally get your point in that.  It's super valuable and definitely
worth investing.

[00:49:49] We're getting  really short on time here. So I want to get to the

two last segments. The first one being

[00:50:01] David Portnowitz: [00:50:01] while I

was dancing,

[00:50:02] Frederick Weiss: [00:50:02] I was a

good dancer. I think we got that on camera. So  I'm  really happy about that. Yeah. So the
lightning round, just that it's exactly how it sounds. I'm going to ask you some questions.
We'll do some quick Q and a here.  David, what is your favorite thing about yourself?

[00:50:19] David Portnowitz: [00:50:19] My

favorite thing about myself. Gosh, just about yourself is a lightning round question.

[00:50:26] Frederick Weiss: [00:50:26] You

should have answered already. It's a

[00:50:28] David Portnowitz: [00:50:28]

lightning round.  My favorite thing about myself  honestly, I guess it would be my, my sense of
humor.

[00:50:37] Frederick Weiss: [00:50:37] I

wouldn't go with that, but, okay. That's good. I'm just joking.

[00:50:42] That is my humor. Just being funny. What book are you reading right now

for enjoyment?

[00:50:49] David Portnowitz: [00:50:49] I just

picked up the new Andy Weir book. The guy who wrote the mat was that Matt Damon movie. That was about Mars.
 I'm talking about the Marshall, the Martian Marshall. Yeah. I read that book, Martian, and he just
wrote a new book.

[00:51:03] And I just got that and I, I got that  two days ago, so I'm

really excited to, to break that open and start reading that,

[00:51:10] Frederick Weiss: [00:51:10] that

sounds great. You'll have to send me a link so I can put that in the show notes.

[00:51:13] David Portnowitz: [00:51:13] Hold on.

I'm going to tell you the name of it. I'm going to Google it cause I'm on  cause you can do
those kinds of things.

[00:51:18] It's called a project.

[00:51:22] Frederick Weiss: [00:51:22] Ooh.

Okay, CMO. Yeah. Yeah. Shoot me a link if you can please. So I have it in the show notes.  David, if
you can not be around computers for the rest of your life, what would you play? Golf and golf. Oh, are

[00:51:34] David Portnowitz: [00:51:34] Are you

good at golf?  I did too, I define your definition of good.

[00:51:36] I can, I

[00:51:39] Frederick Weiss: [00:51:39] I'll

take that as a note. Next question, David, just get

[00:51:43] David Portnowitz: [00:51:43] it. I

enjoy playing golf. I, it's my favorite thing to do outside of work  and that, and collect bourbon.
I need a computer for that project.  But the golf thing I can do with that,

[00:51:57] Frederick Weiss: [00:51:57] I think

my last lightning question here is tell me about being a bourbon kind of store.

[00:52:03] Tell me a little bit about your bourbon collector.

[00:52:05] David Portnowitz: [00:52:05] What do

you want to know?  I've got an, I know I have a spreadsheet. I spent one Saturday morning, about
two weeks ago, creating a spreadsheet where I categorized all my bourbons that I have.  I've got
about another 105 bottles or so and it makes a good bourbon.

[00:52:19] Frederick Weiss: [00:52:19] Then

 tell me that

[00:52:21] David Portnowitz: [00:52:21] I like a

weeded bourbon  that's something that's been aged probably at least four to six years.
Something that's got a little wheat flavor to it, maybe a little bit of spice. I like something that you
can sip  very easily, a little bit.

[00:52:36] Maybe it has a little bit of that vanilla or nutmeg and/or cherry flavor.

  They're just, it's just a nice way to end the evening, I would say. So  I gotta tell you
the best, the most fun thing about the whole bourbon thing is collecting. It's just finding the CMO,
finding different bottles that you would, you could  it, it is  that to me is the most fun part,
right?

[00:53:00] You're trying to find new bottles that are not  you can't buy

in every store that  maybe you're behind the counter or you have to build a relationship with
someone to  get it.  There is, there's just  there's a whole it's basically
 it's the same if you're collecting baseball cards   it's the same kind of concept.
 I'll tell you a quick, funny story. So please, my son is super into Pokemon and has this big
Pokemon card collection. And one day he got, we picked, I picked him up from school and I was with  my
daughter in the car and she had a couple of his Pokemon cards in her hand and she was playing with them and
she, and he was like, give him back to me and give them back to me.

[00:53:39] And I was like, are you, it's fine. Just let her hold him. And he was

like, what would you say if I was taking your bourbon bottles, you feel

[00:53:48] Frederick Weiss: [00:53:48] got you.

That's awesome.

[00:53:50] David Portnowitz: [00:53:50] So I was

kinda like, oh, I guess you're right. So I was like, all right, so I'll give them back.

[00:53:57] Frederick Weiss: [00:53:57] I love

that. That's so CMO.  Could you mix bourbon with ocean spray? You think that would

[00:54:02] David Portnowitz: [00:54:02]

improved.  Like cranberry juice and bourbon.  I'm sure you could come up with
something.

[00:54:07] I see there's a tic-tac right there. Yeah. I guess ocean spray. If

they want to sponsor my tick talk, if I could, you know what I'm like  I don't care about the
ocean spray sponsorship, but if Buffalo trace wants to come in and send me free bourbon to try  and
then I make I'm in for that.

[00:54:23] Frederick Weiss: [00:54:23] I love

it.

[00:54:24] All right, David, let's get to our very last segment here

[00:54:31] again. Excellent dancing applause. By the way, you look very dapper today

looking good. I like your outfit as always a very dapper man, David.  This is our part where we like to
provide an opportunity for a parting words of wisdom for our audience. All you, my friend

[00:54:47] David Portnowitz: [00:54:47] Parting

words of wisdom. Get vaccinated and wear a

[00:54:52] Frederick Weiss: [00:54:52]

mask.

[00:54:53] Excellent. Any kind of marketing stuff.

[00:54:56] David Portnowitz: [00:54:56]

That's not what you expected me to say, right?

[00:54:59] Frederick Weiss: [00:54:59] Maybe

not.

[00:55:00] David Portnowitz: [00:55:00] No, I

think from a marketing standpoint be agile, be flexible, be authentic. Don't be too pushy. Customers
will find you if you have the right content in place.  And  it's, it is a matter of.

[00:55:19] Making sure you're ready for them to come to you  and making sure

that you have the right process in place to take advantage when they do come. Be prepared, all of those
things are going to happen. And lastly, the last thing I'll say is  if you're running an
organization or if you have people take care of your people too.

[00:55:38] They're the lifeblood of what you're doing and  make sure

that they're happy and they're healthy.  Those are my, I guess my parting thoughts.

[00:55:47] Frederick Weiss: [00:55:47] Those are

great. No, that's excellent. Thank you so much, David. And for people that want to find out more about
David Portman, which you can find them at Twitter, De port no.

[00:55:56] And  the website for Star2Star.com. You can find him on LinkedIn and

saying goma.com.  We'll have all those links in the show notes, David Portnowitz. Thank you so much
for being on the show. Super appreciate it. And you are sharing your time with us. And  again, my
friend, I'm very grateful and honored for you  to come on the show.

[00:56:17] Thank you

[00:56:17] David Portnowitz: [00:56:17] so much.

It was great being here. I just wish that we could have had Brian on too, but it was great talking to your
friends.

[00:56:23] Frederick Weiss: [00:56:23] Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you so much. And thanks everybody for watching. We'll catch you next time. Take care!

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Thunder NerdsBy Frederick Philip Von Weiss, and Brian Hinton
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