Episode 038 – Jeff Pulvino

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Richard Matthews
Hello, and welcome back to the HERO Show.

My name is Richard Matthews,

and I am here today with Jeff Pulvino.

Jeff, are you there?

Jeff Pulvino
Yes, I am. Thanks, Richard, for having me.

Richard Matthews
Awesome. Glad to have you here.

Let me do a quick introduction for you.

So everyone knows who you are.

And we’ll get and start talking about your story a little bit.

So, Jeff Pulvino is the Boost Media Group co-founder

And CEO who has built and managed and consulted

With numerous corporations and various fields of industry

For the last 20 years. Your experience of business ownership

And consulting ranges from startup ventures,

Software companies, healthcare, call centers,

Professional services, construction, mortgage, real estate,

Auto dealerships, and partner products

Which is an insane amount of experience.

Proficient in most aspects of business management operations,

Startup marketing sales motivation and training

Brings the vision to the business of visibility

To think outside of the box. You can innovate beyond

The paradigms of a company supplements belief systems,

Given his breath of diversity; you can quickly assess

If business is strong, and weak points.

Developing a strategic plan to reach their long term goals.

So, what I want to do real quick is talk about

What it is that you are known for today, Jeff.

What is it that people come to you for?

Why do they hire you? What kind of struggles do they have

When they reached out and say, “Jeff, I need you to help me.”

Jeff Pulvino
People have come to know us at Boost Media Group

For our digital marketing strategies,

And how we can produce a strategy that’s executable

That can drive bottomline results

To either increase their revenue, profits,

And leads, or all of the above.

Richard Matthews
Is there any specific type of company

That comes to you guy, or you guys work in specific industries?

Or is it across the board? What kind of companies you work with?

Jeff Pulvino
We don’t limit ourselves to any specific industry,

But we’ve done very well in the fitness industry.

Some of our best successes have been with major fitness influencers,

Some of the case studies we’ve released have been about

How we’ve grown a particular fitness influencer

From zero to a seven figure income online

Using marketing funnels and selling ebooks, online courses,

Doing online fitness coaching and personal training.

That’s kind of where our stardom is, if you will.

And so we have clout in that industry.

And we get a lot of people coming to us from the fitness industry.

Richard Matthews
That’s interesting, I do the same kind of work,

And most of my star cases have come out

Of the real estate investing space.

Jeff Pulvino
Right on.

Richard Matthews
Which is kind of fun. It’s interesting how that happens,

Is once you knock it out of the park for a climate space,

So the people in space sort of come to you.

Jeff Pulvino
Yes. And that’s what people are looking for.

Proof of results because there’s so much

You can do in this space. And there’s so many people

Out there that you can engage with, whether it’s

To get advice from or to hire. They’re just really hungry

To see something that they have some type of proof

That it’s going to work.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. Let’s talk a little bit your origin story.

Every hero has one. This is where you started to realize

That you were different. That maybe you had superpowers,

And maybe you could use them to help other people.

Where did you start to develop and discover

The value that you can bring this world?

How did you start on this entrepreneurial journey?

Jeff Pulvino
I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago

And moved to the Silicon Valley Bay Area.

And this was during a time when that dot com boomed

And IPOs and stock options were really first on the scene.

And as I was graduating high school and going into college,

It was right around that era, that people were really starting

To make money, insane money, and the first time

In this space of IPOs, and in the tech space,

And what Silicon Valley has become known for.

I literally quit going college and made it my mission in life

To get hired on at one of these startups.

I was going to get stock options. I was going to go

Do what all these other people were doing,

And some of my friends were doing. Over the course

Of several years of working in the Bay Area,

And Silicon Valley. I finally got hired on

At a venture capitalist funded startup, by the name of CVCA,

It wasn’t anything super sexy in the tech space.

It was applying tech to the healthcare model,

Which had not been done yet. And we were

A technology-based healthcare administrator.

And long story short, over the course of three years,

And $100 million in funding through various funding rounds.

I rode that wave from one of the first 10 employees to

One of over 2000 employees working directly for the CEO

On a team that was responsible for project management.

And we acquired most of that business

Through mergers and acquisitions. And in that journey,

Not graduating from college, I dropped out.

Once I was around 2000 other employees, I was always insecure

About the fact I didn’t have a college degree.

And what I learned was that I had this power and ability

To identify process flows. When somebody would discuss

How something worked. In my mind, I see a Vizio flow chart

With all the connecting pieces. And literally that visual for me,

And I’m asking, “Well, why doesn’t this process do this

And go over here and this go over here?” And I’m able

To identify weaknesses, efficiencies, and so on.

And I was able to do this surrounding people

That have been in that industry for 20 plus years that had MBAs.

It really shocked me

Because they were looking to me for the answer.

Like, “Hey, Jeff, I want to see how did you map out

The call center?” And I’m thinking,

“You’ve been doing this 20 years and have an MBA.”

So at that point, I was very aware of this was

A supernatural gift for me. And I’ve kind of been

Using it and grooming it ever since.

Richard Matthews
That’s awesome. How did you make the transition

From working in Silicon Valley as an employee

To running your own company?

Jeff Pulvino
The stem with that company lasted a little over three years.

And I traveled from San Jose to Minneapolis.

I lived in Bloomington, Minneapolis for a while,

Dallas Fort Worth area. And at the end of that

I ended up in Dallas Fort Worth, and I came back

To California not knowing what I was going to do.

And I jumped into real estate for a while. And I just had

This desire to not work for somebody. Even when I was

In the real estate side of things. Ever since

That kind of recognition of what my gift was,

I’m constantly looking at processes and how to improve it.

And I was just thinking, “I’ve got to find something

That I can use this gift for something on my own

That I can I can be the business owner in.” And I wasn’t sure

At that time what I was going to do. But I knew

I had the desire to do that at that time. So, I started looking

For different opportunities. And after working

For the investment fund. We were buying distressed pop properties

And flipping them. I decided to start dabbling

In investment real estate. So, that’s how

I got into real estate investment. That’s where I ventured out

On my own at first. And that was really,

I would say investing is definitely definitely entrepreneurial,

But it’s a lot different than running a business.

I was able to make some really good money,

And get good at real estate investing and flipping houses

But I wasn’t able quench my thirst to build a business.

I think that’s what led to me looking for businesses

To get involved with. And I started trying to start

Real estate service related companies, until the market crashed.

When the market crashed, we were doing all of our own marketing.

So we just pivoted, spun out, and started an agency

And that’s where I’ve been ever since. I own other ventures

That I’m involved with, but the agency is the heart of what I do.

Richard Matthews
That’s awesome. Speaking of, you mentioned Gilroy,

I was in Gilroy last week. We travel full time, and I was in Gilroy

And Morgan Hill in San Francisco with the family.

Jeff Pulvino
I just love the traveling full time. No, not in Gilroy.

I’m actually in Sacramento. But I go down to the Bay Area

Quite a bit. Some of the the best friends, lifelong friends,

That I have are from the Bay Area. And I love that whole area.

Richard Matthews
We are currently in a Russian River

Which is, I think, North Sacramento.

Jeff Pulvino
Right on. I love the fact you’re at a point where you’re traveling

Like you are. It’s my goal to get there in the next, let’s say,

Two to five years. I would love nothing more

Than to travel the majority of the year while doing this.

Richard Matthews
Speaking of that, specifically, you said your superpower

Which we can talk about a little bit more, was your ability

To see processes and document them and make them efficient.

That’s what unlocked it for me. The ability to travel

Was putting processes together and down so my team

Could take things over. And I could spend more of my time

Doing the things that only I could do. And then,

Having all that stuff documented so other people could do them

And make decisions, the way I would make decisions

Has allowed me to travel the way that I do which is fantastic.

I think you’re well on your way if that’s a goal you want to have.

I know traveling is not for everyone, but if it is for you, it’s super fun.

Jeff Pulvino
Yes, I it’s actually one of my life goals. That’s one of the things

That drives me with the most passion

Is looking forward to being able to do that.

Richard Matthews
Here you want to. We’ll break the fourth wall here, I guess.

We’re actually in an RV right now.

This is a fake backdrop and everything.

Jeff Pulvino
It’s funny you say that because,

If I go too off tangent, please let me know. My parents,

They work for a nonprofit that they travel around,

Retired in an RV. And they donate their time and money

To different missionary style projects. And that allows them

To stay for free at different campgrounds. And they usually feed them

And they’re traveling, literally all over the northern continent,

North America. They’ve been up to Canada and all through the US.

And seeing them do that. It’s the most exciting thing

They’ve ever done in their in their senior years.

But that’s what really expanded on my idea of wanting to travel

And doing the RV is exactly where my…If I were

To show you my goals, that is exactly what I want to do.

I had no idea that the backdrop was there.

That’s awesome. Congratulations.

Richard Matthews
Thank you. And it is a lot of fun to travel, when you get

To doing it we can certainly connect later

And talk a little bit more about if you want to. The travel lifestyle,

Especially with the technology we have access to today,

We still I work with all my clients, I run my podcast,

We got content creation, stuff that’s going on. We’re always

In new places. The way that the world has gone makes it

So that it it doesn’t really matter where you are,

Unless your work specifically requires you to be in a specific area.

But for a lot of the type of service work that we do;

Doesn’t matter where you are,

As long as you have an internet connection.

Jeff Pulvino
Exactly.I couldn’t agree more. That’s awesome.

Richard Matthews
Yeah. So I’m gonna talk a little bit about your superpowers.

And everyone here has their superpowers. That’s what you do

Or build or offer this world that helps solve problems

For people. The things that you use to, so to speak,

Slay this world. Slay your clients villains.

What would you say your superpower is? And then,

Specifically in your business? What is it

That your business really strives to do?

Jeff Pulvino
Well, like I mentioned, my superpower is the ability,

Whether we’re talking about an operational process,

Or the process of digital marketing and building

An integrated marketing funnel, or we’re talking

About the sales process, or the customer service process.

When we start to talk about with our clients,

How their process goes, they’re just verbally describing this

To me, I see this, like I said, Vizio flow chart in my head.

And it’s really that picturesque in my head,

And I start to identify the where we can intersect things

And obtain efficiencies, and so on. So we do that

With our clients on a day to day basis. And I think

That’s what our agency’s superpower is.

That’s how we take a very different approach.

When somebody comes to us, whether they come to us,

And they say, “Hey, we need help with social media advertising,”

Or, “We need help with marketing in general,”

Or “We need help with building a website or a funnel,”

We always take it back to let’s understand the business.

Let’s get to know you. Let’s understand the goals.

And before we go to work on anything,

We’re going to engage in a strategy session.

So, instead of engaging us on this big project

That you really need help with, why don’t you hire us

For this little piece, and let’s map out the strategy.

Because one, is, I want to know that when I go to work

On the big process, and the big project that I know

Exactly what you want. I want to know. I want

To have the entire thing mapped out. If we’re doing marketing,

We always look at all their competition We look for the outliers

In the industry that are performing well. We do a lot of audits

And market analysis. As well as understanding

How to lay out the strategy for the next 12 to 24 months to achieve,

Not their marketing goals, but their business goals. And it’s

A very different approach that I’ve yet to find anybody

Who does it quite the way we do at the level we do it. And I think

That’s one of the things that allows us

To really achieve success for our clients. It’s because

We have an understanding going into before we do one day

At work, what success looks like. So, we’re not waiting

For that not have acknowledgement and approval from the client,

Like we’re doing a good job. We’ve already defined

What success looks like from day one. More importantly,

We’re not spending the first three months of work,

Figuring things out, we know exactly what we’re going to do

Day one when we go to work, because we planned the next 12 months.

Richard Matthews
It’s a really interesting way to approach the business as well

Because one of the things we talked on the show frequently

Is understanding the monster you want to build. If you’re going

To get in, because we’re in the same space. Some of your clients

Want to become famous. They want to be well known in the space.

They want to be the number one person in their thing.

Whether or not that turns into revenue sometimes is irrelevant

Because they have a different goal. I think so many clients have,

“I don’t care if anyone knows my name, I just want sales

To come in on a consistent basis. So I can go do the thing I want to do.”

And knowing the actual end goal: what success looks like.

Changes the avenue that you take

And the work that you actually put in.

Jeff Pulvino
Absolutely, and you have to disarm the client,

And as well as the agency, ourselves,

Within the budget conversation. Because

The budget conversation becomes easy to have

When I understand how to manufacture increased profitability

For the company. In order for you

To manufacturer increased profitability and bottomline revenue

For the company, literally like a machine manufacturing that.

I’ve got to understand how the company operates operates

And in where their profit margins are with each product line.

Now, if I understand that I can understand how to deliver customers

That increase the margin which then increases the marketing budget.

So, for us to hit the goals of the company, we’ve got to disarm

That conversation. I find the only way to really do that

Is through an engagement where we can analyze that

And understand that because before, we always would try

To extract that information out of them and when it comes to budget

They just want to give you the lowest amount possible.

We want you to do the absolute most, for the least

And manufacture this huge success

Which just doesn’t usually work very well

Richard Matthews
When you understand what it is they want and how you can create

The business. You guys do any product development as well?

Like help them develop products to fill in holes

In their marketing space?

Jeff Pulvino
We do. We provide a lot of creative consultative information,

Especially with influencers that are selling digital products

And services such as fitness influencers

That are doing the online coaching like Jeremy Buendia.

Richard Matthews
That makes a lot of sense. So, the other side of your superpower

Is your fatal flaw. Superman has his kryptonite.

Batman is not actually a superhero. What is something

That you have struggled with in growing your own business,

That you’ve had to overcome, something that you’ve had

To sort of work on? And how have you overcome that

To grow your business now? So, if other people who struggle

With something similar might be able to learn from that?

Jeff Pulvino
It’s an interesting question. I love picturing Superman and kryptonite

Because what comes to mind is that kryptonite is only effective

When it’s near him and present. In other words, if it’s managed,

It doesn’t have much of an effect on him. What I’ve come to learn

Is that part of my superpower is to be able to see opportunity.

So, I see business opportunity everywhere. In my past,

I’ve often allowed myself to get very distracted, and focus

On other opportunities that weren’t in line with the core vision I have

With this media group, or other opportunities that may be,

One is well thought out and distracted me from being successful

In other areas. What I’ve had to learn to do is to embrace

My creative side and recognize those opportunities,

But I’ve got to file them somewhere, because if not, I just go crazy

Thinking about it. So, I write down all my ideas, and I file them

In a virtual notebook. And I only allow myself through self-discipline

To let that idea out kind of like storing the kryptonite away

To where it’s not going to bother me, and let only the good ideas out

That aren’t going to have a negative effect on me.

And that I bet it to be that I’ve got the band width to work on

Or that they’re in line with this vision of a suite of services

To help business owners and entrepreneurs.

Richard Matthews
It’s like you like have an idea notebook, I have the same kind

Of thing going. And one of the things I’ve noticed is, I don’t know

If you’ve ever had this experience where, you have a dream

At night, and you wake up and you’re thinking to yourself,

“This could be the greatest story that’s ever happened.

And it could be a blockbuster. It’s the greatest idea.”

And you wake up in the morning, you think about it a little bit more,

And you’re like, “Oh, I was just having a crazy mushroom-induced

Dream. Whatever is going on.” I feel like sometimes the ideas we have

Are like that, where you’re like, “I have an idea.

And it’s the greatest thing ever.” If you let yourself get distracted by it

Then you go down paths that don’t really help your business.

But if you file it away, and you let it simmer

And let your mind get out of the honeymoon phase with that idea.

You realize, “Oh, that doesn’t actually fit with my life.

Doesn’t fit with my goals.” So, you have to sort of stick them

Over there and let them ruminate on their own for a little while

So you can actually see. The ones that are good will come back.

Jeff Pulvino
Absolutely. I chased a lot of dreams that I’ve failed on that way.

And it’s only through looking into the past and watching

Some of those failures and realizing like you said, I like that,

Once you let it go through that honeymoon phase,

You kind of look at it for what it is and you realize all that,

Maybe isn’t such a great idea. But if you let that derail you

In the honeymoon phase, it might take you a little while

To realize that you, maybe, made a big mistake. I learned that

The hard way. And I’ve learned through a lot of matured self-awareness

And discipline, how to how to deal with that.

Richard Matthews
That’s something I think a lot of entrepreneurs have to deal with,

Because we’re very visionary people and constantly having ideas;

And it’s learning which ones are actually worth their salt

And which ones aren’t; and which ones are going to drive

Towards your goals and which ones aren’t. It’s a good skill

To work on developing. We’re going to talk about next

Is your common enemy. And this one is, specifically think of this

In terms of your clients. When you bring on a new client,

If there is something that you wish, you could just remove

From their mindset removed from their thinking, or whatever

It is their business, that you know, is holding them back.

And if you could just wave your magic wand and make it go away,

You can get them results so much faster than normal.

Jeff Pulvino
Most businesses that we work with, whether they’re a startup

Or years established, have at some point, whether they’ve tried it

Themselves or they’ve hired an agency to do it, they have failed

At marketing. Something that didn’t go the way they thought it would.

They had something that didn’t go the way they wanted it to.

Whether it was budget money that was lost or time investment

That they personally invested into it. And probably because

I work so much in the fitness industry, I’ve really equated this analogy

To really help people understand it, when I’m dealing with the client

Is that they come to this relationship of engagement

With all this negative stigma about marketing and what’s worked

In the past and they’re very guarded, very similar as somebody

Who’s maybe tried for fad diets and joining the gym,

And hasn’t been successful in losing weight. iIt has very little to do

With how good or bad that diet was. And has very little to do

With whether that gym was a good gym or not, or whether

That personal trainer was the right personal trainer for them.

It has more to do with how much of a lifestyle change

They initiated to truly take fitness seriously.

I love the analogy: lifestyle change. Because what I find

Is most companies aren’t willing to implement a lifestyle change

Within the company in order to develop the right marketing success,

That they look at it very much like that fad diet like,

“Okay, let’s go try some social media ads.

And this is what everybody’s talking about. And we’re going

To go spend 90 days and drop five grand a month

On social media ads.” And then after 90 days,

They walk away from it. “Well, that doesn’t work.”

No, that’s not true. Social media ads work very well;

The way you did it doesn’t work. You didn’t adopt

A lifestyle change within your company. You jumped

Into the fad diet, and you’re gonna have terrible results

Every time doing that. I think that when you can paint the picture

Like that, I think everybody has tried a diet at one point in your life.

I think everybody can relate to that analogy. And I truly believe

That that is what is wrong with a lot of companies approaches

To marketing. They haven’t fully vested into a lifestyle change

For their organizations.

Richard Matthews
When I talk frequently with my clients about the idea that

The business that you’re in, as particularly with the digital publishers.

They have courses, and they have things. They were sold this dream

That I’m in a low margin business. What that means is like,

If I sell a course for 100 bucks, that I get to keep $100. And the reality

Is that most successful businesses operate on a 28 to 30% margin.

And when you’re in a digital publishing business,

You have to be thinking in that terms, because your cost

Of customer acquisition is going to be like 70%.

And if you’re not willing to look at the marketing, and actually

Take it for that. I’ve had clients that we spent $700

To make a $900 sale. Like it doesn’t work, and I’m like,

“But that’s profitable, it worked.” And it’s like a mindset shift

They have to make where it’s not. It seems like there’s a lot of people

That think that marketing should be easy, and business should be free.

Especially in this space, not without realizing how much

It actually costs and what it actually takes to run

A successful marketing campaign and actually get people to buy.

Jeff Pulvino
Absolutely, so much truth in that. And, more importantly,

What’s the lifetime value of that customer? Because even if you

Only need $100 in that first deal, you’ve got to have the strategy

To have the residual sales to now support your upfront costs.

It’s just the baggage that I think in misconceptions

That whether you’re a new company, or what I find is,

You’re a company that’s been in business for 20 years,

And you haven’t really embraced digital marketing, yet.

You’ve got a website and social media, you’ve done

The bare minimums. And you don’t really have

A digital marketing budget. And you’re wondering why

You’re losing customers, and your customer acquisition is going up,

And you’re looking for a patch to put on the dam

When you need to do a complete paradigm shift

And fully embrace it. And it’s so hard to get them to see,

Probably what you and I see, that a lot of times,

You’re just kind of shaking your head going,

“Man, I just hope you’re not out of business in five years.”

Richard Matthews
You have to really pivot to take advantage of what’s going on

Right now because building an audience has never been easier.

And getting in front of the people that you want to get in front of

Has never been easier. Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s cheap.

And doesn’t mean you can’t go like strategy lists. You have

To actually do it intelligently. And do it in a way that you can

Recoup your costs and know how to drive sales, like you said

Over and over again. And once you’ve created the customer

And created the relationship, you have to actually care

About the customers and whatnot. Because you’re a lot closer

To your customers today than you were 10 years ago.

Jeff Pulvino
It’s that long term ROI on brand by caring about with the customer,

That’s going to lower the cost and make it more viral.

That’s where the short term is, it’s okay, let’s focus

On the low hanging fruit generating sales. And let’s make sure

Those customers are happy. But in five years

When we’ve established brand, now, you’re going to be able

To spend less on the advertising

And lower your customer acquisition cost.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. Let’s talk about the other side of the common enemy

And talk about your driving force. Spider Man fights

To save New York. Batman fights to save Gotham.

Google fights to index all the world’s information. What is it

That you guys fight for in your business?

Jeff Pulvino
The thing that drives me the most, and I would hope

Is somewhat systemic in the culture is being successful,

And helping others be successful. I used to think that

Why I wanted to become an entrepreneur was money.

And then I used to think it was freedom, until you spend

This obsessive amount of time working on your goal.

And you realize, “Okay, well, it might be freedom,

But it’s definitely not to work less.” You’re trying to develop,

Why am I doing this, and I know, I feel passionate about it.

What I’ve learned over the years is, it doesn’t matter to me,

Assuming that I’m in the positive, and all my needs are met,

And I my goals are met. It doesn’t matter to me,

If I’m making 100,000 a month, or a million a month profit.

As much as it matters to me that I’m successful at helping people

And turning that into success for them. There’s this vision

Of what is success for me. And part of that is having

An amazing culture at Boost; having everybody love to work here

To actually provide value to the customers that we service.

Those are all kind of the definitions of success for me.

And that is what really drives me.

Richard Matthews
One of the things I really like about that is just the idea that

You figured out sort of what it is that really drives you.

And I know when I started my business 10 or 11 years ago now,

I remember thinking the reason I was in business, because

I wanted to hit a revenue goal. That was the thing I wanted.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs get into business that way.

I have a revenue goal I want to hit. And along the way,

I hit a revenue number, where I was, suddenly, I don’t know

What to do with any more money. And it wasn’t there yet.

I wasn’t at the goal I’d set out and you reevaluate. And you’re like,

“Oh, there’s actually other things I care more about,

Like having lunch with my kids, and traveling and other things.”

What’s interesting is once you sort of take, once I took the focus

Off the revenue goal and put it on the things that I really wanted

To drive my business forward do, which for me

Was time freedom, location, freedom, that kind of stuff.

I actually ended up hitting that other revenue goal.

It’s really understanding what success is.

Jeff Pulvino
Yes, absolutely.

Richard Matthews
So, talk a little bit about your heroes tool belt. So maybe

You have a big magical hammer, like Thor or bulletproof vest,

Like your neighborhood police officer, or maybe

You just really love how Evernote helps you organize your thoughts.

What are some of the tools that you use everyday in your business

To either drive sales or service clients or make your business go?

Jeff Pulvino
That’s interesting. We use all sorts of tools, I think it’s one

Of the things that we’re at about 50 plus people right now

And we’ve got some exciting news that we’ll be launching

In the next 30 days. And we’ll probably double the size

Of the company by the end of the year. And we’re all remote.

We use virtual offices like regious corporate suites

To meet with clients. So we meet in class-A environments;

Class-A office buildings. But all of our team, we’re 100%

Remote company working from home. And it’s the tools

That we use for the collaboration and the project management,

And the way we use them that I think allows us

To work more efficiently than most other agencies out there,

Regardless of their size. And I think that we’re far more advanced

Than agencies that might be 10 times our size, in the areas

Of project management, time tracking, and so on. We use

Zoho projects, along with Zoho click, which is very much a copy

Of slack. And we use AO analytics dashboard that overlays

All the other Zoho tools. And we pull a lot of data

In the customary dashboard. It’s kind of like Tableau,

If you’ve ever used that or heard of that. And we very much

Are into the business analytic data on our own business,

And how efficiently we’re running the projects and monitoring

The budgets and so on. With data management and analysis,

In addition to marketing data, there’s a lot of agencies

That are probably good at analyzing Google Analytics.

But when we overlay and start to build customized reports,

Analyzing the operational data, and how well we’re doing

In project management and so on. Those are just areas

Where we’re using technology tools. That I think where

We’ve been able to engineer internal processes,

Products and reporting that allow us to be far superior

Than any anyone else out there.

Richard Matthews
That’s really awesome. I have a curious question. You mentioned,

You’re at 50 employees and working on maybe doubling

The size of your business over the next year. How many

People do you have reporting directly

To you to manage a team that size?

Jeff Pulvino
Well, I have an operations manager that reports directly to me.

I have a creative director that reports directly to me.

And then I usually have a few executive administrative assistants.

So, right now I’ve got three executive VAs that report directly

To me just to handle all those special little projects

That I give them. And then when I take something

Very seriously, under my umbrella, I’ll take unique projects,

And have that project report directly to me, in order to get it started

Or to get a change initiated, and then

I’ll spin it back out under operations.

Richard Matthews
I was just thinking in my head because that’s something

I’m working on growing my agency that way. So I’m picking

Your brain a bit. Five people is how many you’re managing,

And then those people are managing the rest of your team.

You think that ratio works pretty well, where you’ve got four

Or five people that are reporting directly to you.

And they each probably have four to five to ten people reporting

To them, manage a team that size.

Jeff Pulvino
It takes a long time. I think you have to accept

The fact that you’ve got to build trust around the people

That you’ve selected to own certain processes

Within your company and allow them to handle it,

In order to grow and scale. And you’ve got to let go a little bit

About, if you’re anything like me your perfection is vision

Of how you want things done, and allow it to be headed

In the right direction, instead of knowing exactly

Where it’s going to end up. I often use the analogy,

Me being in California, in Sacramento, that I might desire

To go to the east coast, or I could say I’m going to Florida.

They’re all different variations of detail. Going to the east coast

Is very vague. Going to Florida is more specific. Going to Miami

Is very specific. A lot of times people that are highly analytical,

Maybe yourself and myself, we need to know

We’re going to Miami, but what I’ve realized

Over the years is today, if my first day of driving,

Or even my first three days of driving, I don’t need to know

I’m going to Miami. In fact, I’m going to be more productive

If I at least get the team headed the right direction,

So I can get everybody into Miami. Or maybe we choose

To not go to Miami. We choose to go somewhere else

Like Virginia. The first three days of travel, there’s no wasted time.

And by making a decision to head that direction,

And you don’t have it all figured out, you’re going

To make quicker progress. So, I’ve used that analogy

Quite a bit with my own internal team to help foster

A more agile, nimble management style. So, that we can

Make progress and grow as a company without having defined

Exactly what it needs to be today and allowing

The management team, as well as the departmental team

Of that response for that work product to guide

That process as well. And it’s allowed me to take

A little bit less control, and it allows me to maybe come in

And give little direction, corrections along the way.

So they kind of end up where they need to.

Richard Matthews
It makes the growth of your company more like a journey

And less like a like a destination.

Jeff Pulvino
Absolutely. And for some people it’s scary. I think for people

That are used to mapping things out, that becomes a little bit,

“What are we doing?” But I think once they get used

To seeing success in that kind of management style,

It becomes something that most people can embrace.

Richard Matthews
One of the things that’s interesting is there’s a fun parallel

To that with actual traveling. One of the things that we learned

Really quick, when we started traveling a couple of years ago,

Was we tried to like map out everything we were going to do

For the next six months. We’re going to be here on this date,

Here on this date, and here on this state, here on this date.

All the way through because me and my wife feel better

If we had reservations everywhere. And we learned

Really quick that’s really hard to do. Because things change

And you blow something up in an engine, or you find something

Really cool you want to go see, or something else happens

Or you’ve got a birthday, you want to go visit someone on.

When you have all these reservations, you have all

The destinations mapped out, it’s very difficult to change.

It’s very difficult to adapt and change to the environment

As it changes around you. And so, now, what we do

Is we have a place we want to go. We’re trying to make it

To Vancouver before winter. And that’s all we have,

I don’t even have reservations for Thursday. We don’t know,

We’re just going to go that direction and see what happens.

We’ve been doing that for a year and a half now. And it works out

Really, really well to sort of know the trajectory

Where you want to go and just let life happen. It’s a lot freer,

And it’s a lot more organic. And any ways, the travel works well.

And it sounds like that’s the way that you’re growing your business.

Jeff Pulvino
Exactly. You end up when you commit yourself that far

In advanced like your situation where you guys

Had planned out and made reservations, it becomes more difficult

To start unwinding some of those things that you committed to,

As you make plan changes, and you just realized

Through learning the hard way that like, “Hey, now I got

To unwind everything I committed to just to go

A slightly different direction.” We’ve just learned

As we’ve made changes over the years that just works for us.

And by the way, my wife would be the same way.

She would, we would have everything planned out.

Richard Matthews
I can tell you from experience, it doesn’t work

For the same reason. If you want to change one thing,

You’re like, “I’m going to change six months worth of stuff.

We can’t change anything. We’re stuck.” We got in this lifestyle

For freedom. And now we have no freedom.

Jeff Pulvino
When I start to travel, I’m going to be giving you

Some call for the expert tips, I promise.

Richard Matthews
Awesome.

Unknown Speaker
…I’ll send you all the details.

Richard Matthews
I’m going to talk a little bit about your own personal heroes.

Frodo had Gandalf. Luke had Obi Wan. Robert Kiyosaki

Had his rich dad. Who are some of your heroes?

Were they real life mentors? Were they speakers or authors?

Peers who were maybe a few years ahead of you?

And how important were they to what you’ve accomplished

So far in your life and in your business?

Jeff Pulvino
This is one that it’s pretty easy for me because

I think about it quite a bit. I’m very much

About having people that you look up to whether you call

A mentor or not, but people that you aspire to match

Certain qualities that they project. For me,

My first childhood hero was Michael Jordan. I grew up

In the south suburbs of Chicago, how can I not be a Jordan fan,

I mean, and as I became a young adult,

And I learned more about him, he became even more

Of a hero because when you read his biography,

And hear his story about how difficult it was for him

To play basketball in the beginning, it just was like,

“Oh my god, I would have never guessed

That as a kid seeing him perform on the basketball court.”

So, he was probably my first hero. And then,

As I became an entrepreneur, or wanted

To be an entrepreneur, my second hero was Walt Disney,

As I looked into his life and what he was able to achieve.

And more recently, I would say, Gaynor Vaynerchuk

Is somebody that I have a lot of respect for. Andy Stanley

Is another person that I have a lot of respect for.

And those are two examples of people that I listened

To their stuff as much as I can get my hands on.

Richard Matthews
Curious question. Have you ever seen the napkin

That Disney wrote out on how he was going to map

All their company stuff together? And how they all

Sort of fed each other?

Jeff Pulvino
Yes, yes.

Richard Matthews
Didn’t that blow your mind?

Jeff Pulvino
Insane.

Richard Matthews
For those of you who are listening, maybe we can get this

In the show notes. There is a Walt Disney wrote on a napkin,

He had his movies, and he had their parks,

And they had the radio and they had the television.

And he had a whole map drawn out of how each one

Fed the other one. And it was the sort of like this first idea

Of what we might look at now as a pretty standard

Social media strategy to make sure that you’re in

All the places and how everything sort of feeds itself.

He was doing that 40 years before anyone

Else was thinking. It’s surely fascinating.

Jeff Pulvino
And he was doing that before he even made his first movie.

I mean, he was just such a visionary. And he really didn’t get

To realize the massive benefit of what he had the foresight to do

Because it’s only really come to massive acceleration

In revenues and profits in our lives.

Richard Matthews
In the last 10 years or so.

Jeff Pulvino
And it’s just like this.

It’s insanely compound me all the time.

Richard Matthews
And I think one of the things that Disney nailed really early on,

Which is something that I think more and more people are starting

To realize in the marketing space, is how impressed characters are.

And how important the storytelling is. And they realized

Really early on, that the reason people were going to stick

With them and follow Disney and follow them was

Because they would build character assets. And they acquired

Things like Marvel and acquired things like Marvel,

I’m sorry, Star Wars and Marvel whatnot for character basis,

Character assets, and stories. And looking at them

As a model for how we build. You have to build your story

And build a character that people actually love, and see

The hero’s journey, that kind of stuff. And that’s actually,

It’s really good marketing.

Jeff Pulvino
I’ve never done the Disney social media analogy

But I’m running with it in my mind and I’m like, looking

At even the messaging that is designed to entertain the children.

And then there’s also other messaging for a different persona

For the adult audience that the children don’t even understand

Or keen on that makes it humorous for the adult. It’s kind of

Like how the messaging has to be segmented in social media

For different buyer personas.

I like where you’re going with that analogy.

Richard Matthews
I take a lot of inspiration from what Disney does, actually.

This show comes from, the outline for the show comes

From Marvel’s story arc for hero characters. So, they have their six

Points for Forever Hero that they put together, which is:

Their origin story, their superpower, fatal flaw, driving force,

Their tools, and their guiding principles. That’s what sets up

A hero and they go through and they do their origin story

Movies, and they hit all those pieces to build a character.

I modeled it after Disney Marvel’s story character arcs

Because I think it’s a really powerful thing

To understand how to, if you’re going to market yourself,

How to build yourself up or build a character story profile

Around who you are. Because that’s what’s going to get people

To buy into you, and buy into your products, buy into

Your services, because we’re designed to, as human beings,

Designed to connect with stories. We need to learn

How to tell our own story. And who better to model after

Than someone like Disney, who’s built a multi-billion dollar

Company mastering storytelling.

Jeff Pulvino
I like that.

Richard Matthews
It’s really fun. Let’s bring home for our listeners. Talk a little bit

About your guiding principles. What are the top one or two

Principles or actions that you use regularly on a daily basis

To contribute to the success and influence

Of your business and enjoys today, ones that maybe you wish

You knew when you started out building your company?

Jeff Pulvino
One of the principles, at least within our company,

And the culture that I instill from day one, is early on

In the interview process is I don’t like or want, yes people.

We’re not a company of agreeance, just to agree

That you’re hired to work here to be creative

And to give your opinion so don’t say yes, if you think

No’s the right answer. Don’t say yes and proceed down a path

If you have questions about if that’s the best way

To handle it, speak your mind and collaborate. And that goes

For me to as the boss. I’m oftentimes not the smartest person i

In the room. I was just in an accounting call the other day,

And we had a unique client situation, and they’re like,

“How do you think we should handle this?” And I’m like, “Well,

We could do this, this, and this,” and then the person in charge

Of accounting goes, “Or we could do this.” And I’m like,

“That’s way smarter than what I said, you definitely should

Do that, because you’re way smarter than me

When it comes to this accounting stuff.” And that’s a perfect example,

Where I think that as an owner, as a boss, as an entrepreneur,

You usually have a pretty good idea about what you want to do

And how you want to do it. But I think you’ve got to be open

To the people that are around you, because they’re seeing things

From different angles and point of view, and you’ve got to

Let them collaborate and chime in. And there’s got to be

A culture that fosters that, and allows us to discuss it,

But then agree on a direction. So, it doesn’t paralyze that.

So, that’s got to be one of them.

Richard Matthews
One of the things, my team is only like four people

Strong right now. And so not quite as fun as 50 people in there.

But one of the things I realized really quickly, was the moment

That you are surrounded with people who are, they all have

Their skill sets and things that they’re really good at.

And you realize that the stuff that I wanted to hold on to

And think that I was good at. I’ve realized that they might do it

Differently, but it’s going to get done better, going to get done

Faster, because you’ve used sort of let go of those things,

And I like the idea of getting to point your business

Where you’ve surrounded yourself with people

Who are smarter than you, reminds me of that story.

I don’t know how true it is. Henry Ford, someone asked him,

How can you be this smart kind of thing?

And they asked him some math question.

And he just called up one of his engineers, and

Gets the question answered. Because the the power

Of running a business is that you can surround yourself

With people who are smarter than you

To accomplish bigger roles than you could accomplish yourself.

Jeff Pulvino
Right. Absolutely. And that you’ve said it very well

As if they’re gonna do it different.

They’re there. If you give people the latitude to engineer

The outcome, success, the work, product on their own,

They may go through a very different path to get there.

And that path may be less efficient, maybe it’s more efficient,

Maybe the work, products a little less standard

Than you would have developed on your own,

Maybe it’s better, you can make those corrections

Along the way. But you’ve got to give them the confidence, I think,

Which is the most important to be able to problem solve

And adjust on their own.

Otherwise, you’re creating a culture and organization

That’s completely dependent upon you.

And even if you get work.

They’re not going to be able to do the work without your input,

Which you’ve only solved half the problem then.

So it takes a little bit of, at least for me,

Because I’m very much a perfectionist,

And sometimes been accused of being a control freak.

So you know, it took a little bit of building that skill set

Within in myself to take the hands off a

And let them kind of proceed on their own.

Richard Matthews
So I’m curious if this is something that

You’ve integrated into your process?

One of the things that I’ve been doing to deal

With that exact issue is when I assign work or build processes.

One of the things that I start with, when I’m showing my staff

How to do something, or how I would do something

Is I start with my thinking, here’s why I’m thinking this way.

And then as a result of that thinking, here’s the process I’ve come up with.

And so if you’re doing this, as long as you have the thinking,

You can do whatever process you want.

This is the one I’ve come up with, if you have ways to improve it,

Or make it better, feel free.

Right now, that’s sort of how I’ve been trying

To foster that kind of thinking in my business.

Jeff Pulvino
I do exactly the same thing.

In fact, the more you’re dealing with people

That you’re giving leadership authority,

If you want them to make decisions and run the company

Like you would, you’ve got to do that.

You’ve got to teach them how you think.

And so you know, and they’ll tell me

Why they’re thinking the opposite.

So it’s something that it also fosters

Within the environment of the culture.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. Cool.

Well, that pretty much brings us to the end of the interview,

But I do a couple more things.

One of them is the Hero Challenge.

We do the Hero challenge. And every show is pretty simple.

And it’s just this.

Do you have someone in your network that you think

Has a really cool entrepreneurial journey?

Who are they? First names are fine.

And why do you think they should come on

And share their story on the show?

Jeff Pulvino
That’s easy. I didn’t realize those me one of the questions,

But I’m super excited you asking me.

So John Piran is my business coach and consultant.

Long story short.

I’ve been blessed with some amazing business partners

In my previous entrepreneurial ventures.

And I’ve had business partners on the marketing side, as well.

But I never found the right partner on the marketing side.

And I always felt like,

“Man, I’m missing this partnership because I’ve had it before.”

And so I was looking for this right partnership.

And I met John Piran who’s my business coach.

And I would have never, for whatever reason,

Thought of hiring a mentor or a coach.

And I met him.

And within the first few meetings, he was able to

Put me in the right direction on a few things

That really had me stuck for a long time.

And it changed or I shouldn’t change, it opened up my mind.

And I’m like, “Why would I have not have entertained this before?”

And I can only imagine where I’d be

If I would have implemented this,

Because we’ll be in business 10 years next year,

If I wish I would have implemented this year to, I mean,

I think I’d be like so much further down the path

Of trying to hit my goals. And so he’s just an amazing business coach,

And entrepreneur, and just a great all around guy.

They call him the Business Doctor.

And I would highly recommend considering having him on your show.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. So we’ll reach out afterwards in and

Get connected for details on that.

Love to have cool guests on the show and get their story.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Last thing, where can people find you

If they want to hire Boost Media?

Or if they want to talk to you,

If they want to get their business going?

Where can they reach out and find you?

And more importantly, who are the ideal type of clients to reach out?

Jeff Pulvino
So our ideal client is anyone from a small to medium business

Who wants to grow their online marketing

To generate more leads and revenue.

They’re ready to make a commitment to embracing that

And they want to work with somebody that’s detail-oriented,

Detail-oriented enough to map out long term strategy

That will be successful. As far as where to find me,

If you go to http://jeff.marketing/

That’s a website that I have.

A landing page that has all my information,

Always allow anybody to schedule

A free 30-minute call with me

Where we can go over high level strategy

And talk about if it would be a good fit for us to work together.

My agency is https://boostmediagroup.com/

And you can go to that website

And check out all of our agency information

As well as connect with us via social media there too.

Richard Matthews
Awesome. Thank you so much for giving out.

So it’s http://jeff.marketing/

If they want to speak with you and Boost Media, t’was Boost Media …

Jeff Pulvino
Boost Media Group

Home

Richard Matthews
So they can reach out to you there.

Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Jeff.

I really appreciate it, I think was a fantastic conversation.

Look forward to seeing you on the road here

In the next couple of years when you hit those business goals.

Jeff Pulvino
I look forward to that as well.

It’s been a pleasure meeting you.

I look forward to carrying on the conversation.

Richard Matthews
Absolutely. Have a good day.

Jeff Pulvino
All right. Take care.