Automated Transcription
Richard Matthews 0:01
…3-2-1
Richard Matthews 0:56
Hello and welcome back to The HERO Show. My name is Richard Matthews. And I’m live on the line today with Paul Guarino. Paul, are you there?
Paul Guarino 1:03
Yeah. How’s it going? Appreciate you having me on.
Richard Matthews 1:06
Awesome. Glad to have you here, Paul. And just a quick introduction, for those of you who do not know who Paul is. Paul is a highly motivated business professional and the founder of pg-sports.com, a sports blog, and online sports clothing store has a proven record of strong marketing, communication, and branding skills to identify client and company needs and wants. And you’re also the creator and host of Average to Savage Podcast, you interview athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, artists, and more. So with that sort of brief introduction, Paul, why don’t you tell us what it is that you’re known for now. What’s your business like? Who do you serve and what do you do for them?
Paul Guarino 1:50
For sure. So I started PG Sports in 2011. Evolutionized over all these years now just started as a Twitter page then went to clothing, and then went into more media. And now I’m going into some more of the marketing side and helping athletes build their brands. Like you mentioned, I have my own podcast too, Average to Savage. So I started that two years ago. And it’s a little brief summary of it.
Richard Matthews 2:20
Awesome. So you said you started that – the store in 2011. Has that become your full-time gig now?
Paul Guarino 2:27
Yes, so right now, it’s pretty much my full-time gig. I have some freelance jobs also, and then just working with my clients that I work with.
Richard Matthews 2:38
That’s really awesome. So what I want to start with then is your origin story. We talked on the show all the time, every good comic book hero has an origin story, it’s the thing that made them into the hero they are today. We want to hear that story from you. Were you a born hero, were you bit by a radioactive spider that made you want to start business, did you start a job and eventually move to become an entrepreneur. We basically want to know where you came from. How did you get into this whole career as an entrepreneur?
Paul Guarino 3:07
Yeah, for sure. So I’m from West Haven, Connecticut, born and raised. I went to Sacred Heart University, got a degree in sports management, and then I got back – I went back for a master’s degree in communication media. So I think, I don’t want to say dream, but the standard is to go to college and all that. But I realized even early just going into freshman year just sitting in my dorm trying to think of ideas to drop out of college. Things like that. I just think – I never really was meant to be a person that works a nine to five job. So that’s probably how I became an entrepreneur. Just all that combined. Just thinking about that stuff. I don’t know. I think I was just pretty much I guess born to do that.
Richard Matthews 4:07
So what made you want to start the PG Sports?
Paul Guarino 4:10
Actually, I was just bored one summer. It was in between my freshman-sophomore year college. I just created a Twitter page just to tweet about sports and I named it PG Sports because those are my initials.
Richard Matthews 4:26
Awesome. And how long did it take to go for you to realize that that was a legitimate business and capable of driving revenue and all that stuff?
Paul Guarino 4:35
Yeah, that’s why it’s funny too. Originally, I didn’t think it would ever be like what it is now. I always wanted to be in – work in sports. So I want to be a sports agent. I’m pretty close to doing that stuff now. I work with athletes. So like I said, I feel like I always want to work for myself, even though I didn’t really know it.
Richard Matthews 4:58
That’s awesome. So was it a realization. You went from Twitter and then you realize you could add clothing and add other services to that? What was the evolution from Twitter into a full business?
Paul Guarino 5:12
Just like making clothes just to promote Twitter I remember just making t-shirts I literally made a font in – or I used a font in Paint Bucket. I didn’t have this logo yet. And so that was funny. And from there, people like this stuff. And then just learning pretty much my whole business is based on social media. So just learning and growing from social media. That’s how now I’m helping athletes build their pages and just get them out there and use all these platforms that just everybody’s using.
Richard Matthews 5:48
So you’re actually helping sports agents promote the athletes or helping athletes themselves?
Paul Guarino 5:55
Oh, well yeah. I’m working with athletes myself. I have been hired by sports agencies before to help them help their clients.
Richard Matthews 6:03
I’m not really familiar with the space. Why would an athlete need to have a good social media presence? What does that do for them?
Paul Guarino 6:13
That just brings more exposure. Everyone’s a brand. So just for exposure to them, it gets them marketing deals, it gets them sponsorships, it gets them on podcasts, it gets them on articles, it gets… So even now, so now it’s getting virtual interviews, basically virtual sponsorships because they can’t go there and film something so you can do a social post, take a picture at home, stuff like that.
Richard Matthews 6:40
Awesome. So having a good social media presence as an athlete actually makes you a more valuable athlete, economically.
Paul Guarino 6:48
Yeah, for sure. Even if, say you’re not a starting player, you could be more popular than a starter if your social media is better than or you just keep up with it or you’re active and you have – you got to have personality too.
Richard Matthews 7:01
And that’s really interesting. I never knew that about the sports space I don’t follow sports. I’m one of those. One of those guys who’s like football and I’d bring a golf club to the place. But it’s fascinating to realize that there’s a business behind the sport. It’s not just being good at the sport.
Paul Guarino 7:23
Yeah, definitely. Just onfield stuff has gotten bigger and bigger over these past five years.
Richard Matthews 7:31
That’s really cool. So my next question for you then is about your personal superpowers. We say every iconic hero has a superpower. Whether it’s a fancy flying suit made by genius, intellect, or the ability to call down thunder from the sky, or super strength. In the real world, heroes have what I call a zone of genius or a set of skills that you were born with, or you’ve developed over time that energize all of your other skills. Superpowers what sets you apart. Allows you to help your people slay their villains and come out on top on their own journeys. You have a superpower in your business that really energizes everything else. What is that?
Paul Guarino 8:09
I would say consistency and fast learning. I pick up on stuff fast.
Richard Matthews 8:18
Awesome so the quick learning ability for moving your business, how does that apply when it comes into learning all these skills? When you first started, did you realize that you would be helping athletes and helping agencies build social media presences and that stuff?
Paul Guarino 8:38
No. I didn’t really know which route I was gonna go. But even podcasting is – I started that two years ago. And now after, after interviewing one person, I got hired to be the host in his podcast, so that’s pretty crazy to me. That’s only two years of doing it, and I learned it on the go pretty much.
Richard Matthews 9:00
Awesome. So when it comes to picking up those skills and learning them quickly, have you turned a lot of those skills into new services in your business?
Paul Guarino 9:09
Yeah, definitely. Pretty much everything is a service at this point. They’re really big – everybody needs that. Anything you can do, there’s a niche work.
Richard Matthews 9:21
That’s awesome. So the flip side then of superpower is your fatal flaw. Every Superman has his Kryptonite, or Wonder Woman can’t remove her bracelets without going mad, you probably have a flaw that’s held you back in your business, something that you struggled with. For me, it was perfectionism. It kept me from actually shipping products. And what – probably more important than what the flaw is, is how you have worked on it. So people who suffer from the same thing might learn from you that what is something has held you back over the course of the years building your business?
Paul Guarino 9:54
Yeah. Maybe overthinking stuff. Sometimes almost over planning. I don’t like planning a lot of things. Just put a guy – just putting stuff out there to see just you gotta put it, Okay, sometimes you might just wait on something. Say if you record this podcast today and then you’re just like, I want to put it for number, whatever, but you should have just released it because maybe it was a good timing then.
Richard Matthews 10:25
Awesome so as far as just getting stuff out, essentially is making sure that when you’re done with them, you get them out. So how have you overcome that and got to a point where you’re regularly just getting things out now instead of planning and getting stuck up in the details?
Paul Guarino 10:45
Yes, just put it out. You just gotta do it.
Richard Matthews 10:51
You gotta do it. Yeah, I know. I struggled with that same thing. Like I mentioned, I was – I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, so I like to make sure everything is exactly right. I ended up having to just take that off of my plate. And I hired other people that are like, Hey, I’ll get it to the point where I’m like, Okay, I need to have someone else take over on this. And they’ll ship it and actually move it to the market, which just helped me a lot. Next question then is your common enemy. And the common enemy is, it’s like the arch-nemesis, something you constantly have to fight against in your world. And in the world, this takes many forms. But generally speaking, we put it in the context of your clients. So it’s a mindset or a flaw that you’re constantly having to fight to overcome so that you can get your people better, cheaper, faster, and or a higher degree of results. So I guess probably in the context of the athletes or the agencies that you work with, what’s something you’re constantly having to re-educate them on or having to fight against that’s holding them back that you wish you could wave your magic wand and make it better?
Paul Guarino 11:53
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think sometimes I don’t even realize how much stuff I know and I just say it, but I’m not explaining it fully. So let’s say that I was just explaining it more. Even social media stuff, just dimensions would post and sometimes people put to take a screenshot and they don’t edit the picture. So there’s black on the top and the bottom.
Richard Matthews 12:15
So you mean things – so your clients are not really well versed in social media and online stuff. So when you ask them for something, they give you something back, that doesn’t make any sense.
Paul Guarino 12:27
Sometimes it depends on what. I’m saying – I’m talking more like when I’m explaining it to people.
Richard Matthews 12:35
Okay, yeah, that makes sense. And so, I guess the next question then on that would be when you’re actually working with your clients and trying to make their process better for their social media stuff. Do you have a process you work through with them that you take all of your clients through?
Paul Guarino 13:02
Yeah, so first I’d run an audit myself, check out all their stuff, look at it and improve on it. Make a media kit. Having all their profiles, their bios, what they done in the past, their achievements, stuff like that to pitch it to brands. So yeah, there’s definitely a process like that. And then from there just executing on all that stuff after updating everything.
Richard Matthews 13:36
Awesome and when it comes to actually building all this stuff out for athletes, do you actually – have you seen a major increase or in followership or in the ability to close deals, would you call them the sponsorship deals, from the work that you do?
Paul Guarino 13:54
Yeah, for sure. Their social media growth is definitely hard, just numbers-wise. Like getting your followers up, but I think it’s just more about just posting in organically grown now. Just because people – a lot of people are watching even if they’re not liking it or commenting on it.
Richard Matthews 14:12
So just because I’m curious about this, when it comes to an actual – a sport, someone who may or may not already be a star and you’re helping them grow their social media presence what content do athletes post? Is it videos of them performing or is it where they’re eating at lunch? What content actually helps grow an audience for an athlete?
Paul Guarino 14:36
It could be anything. Obviously, if they’re in season then highlights little clips of their games, are always good. But in the offseason, obviously, you got to get creative. Just like right now. You got to get creative during quarantine. Like TikTok, TikTok’s huge. Just doing little dances and random stuff that catches on that’s viral. Again any new things I see, I tell them to try out.
Richard Matthews 15:06
Awesome. So then the flipside of the common enemy, of course, is the driving force. And just like Spider-Man fights to save New York or Batman fights save Gotham or Google fights to index and categorize all the world’s information. We want – you have a mission, something that you fight for, and we want to know what that is. What is it that you’re working to build with your business?
Paul Guarino 15:30
Just to show that there’s a lot of sketchy people in the industry or a lot of people that stab you in the back. I want to show them the good guy or the superhero as you’re all this stuff you’re saying.
Richard Matthews 15:48
Awesome. Basically showing your agencies and your athletes that you can actually help them grow and actually do something with their social presence.
Paul Guarino 15:59
Yeah. A lot of people, a lot of people talk but don’t they don’t back it up. A lot of people are good at showing. I’m good at the opposite, I’m good at doing.
Richard Matthews 16:09
Good at actually getting someone results. I always like to – one of my favorite things from all of my marketing training is to prove to people that you can help them by actually helping them.
Paul Guarino 16:23
Yeah.
Richard Matthews 16:25
Awesome. So I wanna talk a little bit about practical stuff. This is called – we call this your Hero’s Toolbelt. And like every superhero has a tool belt with awesome gadgets, like batarangs or web slingers. I want to know one or two tools that you use in your business every day. It could be anything from your notepad to your calendar, to your marketing tools, to your product delivery. Anything you think is essential to getting your job done on a daily basis. Top one or two things that you use all the time.
Paul Guarino 16:51
Laptop and phone.
Richard Matthews 16:55
A laptop and a phone. It’s pretty basic for getting the job. Done. Do you find yourself – just something that I’ve noticed is I’ve started moving a lot more of my work on to my phone and my tablet recently instead of my computer. Are you finding more of that stuff now?
Paul Guarino 17:14
I think it’s a mix of both. I like to do a lot of stuff on the computer because even opening up documents and stuff like that is harder on the phone and – or at least saving it, not opening it. I should say, saving stuff on the phone. But yeah, for … stuff. I put more stuff on my phone.
Richard Matthews 17:31
That’s interesting. Just over the last couple of years, it’s gotten to a point where I probably run 70% of my work from my phone now. It’s helped a little bit because I’ve got staff now and I’m doing more management than actual hands-on work myself. But it’s really interesting to see how things changed that way.
Richard Matthews 17:52
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Richard Matthews 19:26
Next question for you then is your own personal heroes. Everyone, every hero has their mentors. Frodo had Gandalf, Luke, and Obi-Wan, Robert Kiyosaki had his Rich Dad, who were some of your heroes? Where are they? Real Life mentors, speakers or authors, peers who are a couple of years ahead of you, and how important were they to what you’ve accomplished so far with PG Sports?
Paul Guarino 19:46
Yeah, so it’s funny you say that because I was asking people a lot because somebody mentioned having mentors. And I was questioning them. How do you get a mentor because I don’t think I ever really had one. Maybe a famous person or an entrepreneur, or a person I watch, sure. But I don’t think I ever had an actual – a personal mentor if that makes sense. But yeah, people that watch Gary Vee, Daymond John, shark-like anything Shark Tank. I always watch that since the first season.
Richard Matthews 20:22
Yeah, that’s good stuff.
Paul Guarino 20:23
Yeah,I just love to listen to podcasts about other people’s come up … So that’s probably one of them as a podcaster.
Richard Matthews 20:32
So so off the top of your head. Do you have a favorite podcast you listen to all the time?
Paul Guarino 20:38
I have a few. I’ve been listening to Josh Hart’s podcast. He’s a basketball player. They interview people in his friend, business partner, and then I’ve been listening to a Ben Baller one. He just goes on and on about random stuff in the world. And then one of my friends has a local one, Famously Average, I listen to weekly.
Richard Matthews 20:59
That’s cool. I like that, Famously Average. So my next question for you is your guiding principles. And this is one of the things that makes heroes heroic is that they live by a code. For instance, Batman never kills his enemy, he always brings him to Arkham Asylum. So as we wrap up the interview, I want to talk about the top one or two principles that you use regularly in your life, maybe a principle you wish you knew when you first started out on your hero’s journey.
Paul Guarino 21:27
One of my things is just always being open and honest with people because I don’t like when people –
Richard Matthews 21:35
Integrity.
Paul Guarino 21:36
Yes, definitely integrity is that. That’s my –
Richard Matthews 21:41
Awesome. My favorite definition for integrity. I can’t remember who said this to me, but it was: Integrity is something that we use to describe buildings. Buildings have integrity, we can lean on them. And it’s, you want someone to be able to trust that they can lean on or stand on or basically have, you have the integrity that other people can trust that whatever you say is true. So, anyways, I’ve always liked that definition of integrity. And it’s a very powerful portion. So that basically wraps up our interview, I do have one last little thing we do at the end of our interviews, it’s called the Hero’s Challenge. And it’s pretty simple. And it’s just it’s basically this. Do you know if someone in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they, first names are fine, and why do you think they should come share their story on the show?
Paul Guarino 22:38
Yeah, for sure. I would say my friend Rob Dim, he has his own brand suits called Darty Co. He started it after college. He’s a former D1 football player. So pretty interesting for him going from football player to entrepreneur.
Richard Matthews 22:54
Yeah. That’s cool, football player to entrepreneur. Awesome. One of the things that I just want to hear at the end, thank you so much for coming on the show. Where can people find you if they want to pick up some of your sports gear that you have? If they’re an athlete looking to get their own work, where can they find you? And then, more importantly, who are the right types of people to reach out and say, Hey, I would like to get some of your help.
Paul Guarino 23:20
Sure, appreciate you having me on. It was great. So my @ name is just @PGSports on Twitter and Instagram. And my website is actually https://pg-sports.com/ I don’t have PGSports.com, they’re trying to sell it for $5,000 but you could just reach out there. Pretty accessible. I pretty much answer everybody. So yeah, you could hit me up on any social media.
Richard Matthews 23:47
Awesome. So if you’re listening to this, and you’re an athlete, or you’re interested in someone following some sports stuff. Definitely check out https://pg-sports.com/ And again, Paul, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story with our audience before we hit the little stop record button, do you have any final words of wisdom for anyone who might be listening?
Paul Guarino 24:06
Yeah, I would say if you really want to start a business, I’d say just start it, stop overthinking. It just started and then you have to be consistent for it to actually work.
Richard Matthews 24:18
Absolutely. Consistency has been huge. Thank you so much for coming on today, Paul. Appreciate it.
Paul Guarino 24:23
Thanks for having me.
