[00:00:00] Speaker A: Brands. Don't miss forecast because you have stupid people at the top.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: After 16 years of working in telecom, that was a dead incoming.
[00:00:08] Speaker C: I've been in natural foods my whole adult life.
[00:00:11] Speaker D: I did the only thing I really know how to do, and I wrote a screenplay.
[00:00:15] Speaker E: I'm Richard Gerhardt.
[00:00:17] Speaker F: And I'm Elizabeth Gerhardt. You just heard some snippets from our show. It was a great one. Stay tuned to hear tips about how you can start your business.
[00:00:25] Speaker G: This ramping up your business. The time is near. You've given it heart, now get it in gear. It's passage to profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:38] Speaker E: I'm Richard Gerhardt, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
[00:00:45] Speaker F: And I'm Elizabeth Gerhardt. Not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart law. And I have my own startups and podcasts.
[00:00:51] Speaker E: Are you one of the two in five Americans wanting to start your own business or already a business owner? Stay tuned. This show is about starting and growing your business. Welcome to passage to profit, the road to entrepreneurship, where we learn why and how ordinary people, just like you, started and grew their businesses. And we also talk about the intellectual property that helps protect your innovations. We have an absolutely amazing guest, Doug Zarkin. He's an award winning marketing expert, author of the book moving your brand out of the Friend Zone, which is all about breaking free from the friend zone that hinders success.
[00:01:26] Speaker F: And then we have some surprise presenters Jason Anderson and Justin Crosby with thedreamcommission.org. Very interested to hear what they have to say. And then sadie Bones and sadie. What do I say about her? What were you doing when you were 19 years old? Were you a screenwriter, director and actor? Well, sadie is, and she's got a movie. I blown away by this young woman. So stay tuned.
[00:01:49] Speaker E: Absolutely. An amazing young woman.
[00:01:51] Speaker F: And then we have David Cantor with folk revival. And I got to ask you listeners again, have you ever eaten an acorn?
[00:01:58] Speaker E: My inner Squirrel wants to know.
[00:02:01] Speaker F: I am really anxious to try this product because it's a breakfast kind of cereal, kind of like oatmeal, only better. And it has different nutritional profile with acorns. Really innovative, creative food product.
[00:02:13] Speaker E: More to come. So stay tuned for sure. And don't forget, you can hear passage to profit now on 31 radio stations across the country. And we're also a top ranked podcast. So we have a new segment now on passage to profit. It's called your exciting new business journey. And before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time to talk about your exciting new business journey. Two in five Americans want to start a new business. So should you start a new business? Well, often our listeners ask, how do I know if my idea for a business is viable? Let's turn to our guests to find out how they decided that their business or project was viable. Doug, welcome to the show. So good to see and hear you. How did you decide whether your projects were know?
[00:02:56] Speaker A: For me, one of the things that I've enjoyed throughout my career, back in my first career in the agency days and then moving through various roles on the client side, is the opportunity to teach, train and mentor. I'm really involved in formal organizations like the advertising education Foundation. I do a lot of mentoring at high schools and colleges. And the opportunity to help unlock someone's potential for me is incredibly gratifying. And so when I thought about writing the book, I realized that I had an opportunity to hopefully make a difference to the lives of people at a broad level by putting thoughts and thinking down on paper. And it's terrifying and exciting because now everybody gets to judge you for your belief system, which is why I call it a guide, not a manual, because there's no right way or wrong way to build brands and build marketing platforms. It's really about you finding your way. And for me, the viability comes in the people that I've touched throughout my career and the responses that I've gotten since the book came out in October. So I'm excited about it.
[00:03:54] Speaker E: Great. Well, thank you very much for that. Sadie Bones, welcome to the show. What are your thoughts? How did you decide that your project, your most recent film, was viable?
[00:04:03] Speaker D: Honestly, I wasn't thinking about that at all. I needed to tell this story for myself, and I figured I would just take that chance.
[00:04:13] Speaker E: Right. So, I mean, you didn't really put yourself in the mindset, is this going to work? You just felt it was something that you had to do and wanted to do, and that was the catalyst for you moving forward with the film?
[00:04:25] Speaker D: I had to do it for myself, and I was lucky enough that other people resonated with it and wanted to be a part of it and now want to see it.
[00:04:33] Speaker F: Yeah. Some pretty good people, if I may say. Some of these actors are top notch.
[00:04:37] Speaker E: Absolutely. And we'll hear more about that later. So, David, very excited to have you here. How did you decide that your product was a viable product?
[00:04:45] Speaker A: I think it's all about identifying whether your idea sort of is meeting an unmet need in the marketplace. So in my case, I was looking for a breakfast that was high protein, low carb keto, but also had, like, a sustainability focus, which is something I care quite a bit about. And there really weren't a lot of things out there available. So I started making my own sort of oatmeal alternative, made with nuts and seeds, including acorns. And it was sort of part of my regimen that I began to eat. I started sharing it with family and friends, and people liked it. And I come from the food industry, so I come from this business. I'm used to running marketing, running innovation for natural and organic food companies. I saw that there was a white space in the market. No one was really doing this. No one was really focused on heirloom and heritage foods. And then you never really know whether your idea is viable until you put it out there. So when I put it out there and I started to see that consumers were coming to our website and they were ordering and they were reordering, it gave me confidence.
[00:05:49] Speaker E: Confidence based on not only your idea and your knowledge of the market, but also you tried it, and it turned out to be a success. Jason, Justin, how did you guys get your foundation started?
[00:06:02] Speaker H: We really started the foundation out of necessity. Right. When you talk about the need for something, we talk about supply and demand. We're both from Mississippi. Right? So one of the lowest median incomes in the country, but also one of the highest poverty rates for black Americans. Right. So one of the things that we recognized that people were starving for was financial literacy. And again, that's what drove us to provide that need. Right. Growing up from a family that pushed education, but not necessarily financial literacy.
[00:06:33] Speaker E: Kenya, when it comes to deciding whether your fitness business was a viable option for you, what were some of the things that you thought about?
[00:06:41] Speaker F: Well, I thought about myself in terms of that I needed to lose weight, and I saw the market. Right. We're always looking for solutions to lose weight in a healthy way, and there's no lack of market share when it comes to health and wellness and what that feels like and the value that gets put on it. So that's how I evaluated my decision to move into the wellness space.
[00:07:01] Speaker E: Elizabeth?
[00:07:02] Speaker F: Well, I started a video directory of b to b businesses, and I did some focus studies. I had a friend that's a professor at a university, and we did a focus group with her students from the consumer end who said, yeah, I think that we would like these, but we'd like them shorter. So I made the videos much shorter. I did run into an unforeseen problem. Even business coaches and people who coach people to be on video hate to be on video.
So it's been kind of a challenge to get 30 seconds of people on video for this. I'm pivoting a little bit because I'm going into podcasting big time this year. And we have a podcast studio we used during COVID in New Jersey and we're redoing it so that other people can come and do their podcasts there. And I've realized that they need a lot of help, so we have that help to give. But I still want to do the directory. So I think taking the temperature of people and seeing if they'll do it, I had somebody tell me, oh, there aren't enough people that want a podcast. We went to a seminar, podfest. It was a big meeting and there were 2000 people there. So I think there are people that like to do podcasts.
[00:08:03] Speaker E: Absolutely. And for myself, as the owner of Gearhart Law, intellectual property firm that we started 18 years ago, I was in the corporate side and worked with a lot of large law firms and I really felt like the large law firms weren't interested in working with entrepreneurs. And entrepreneurship had always been a passion of mine and it turned out to be a great move. So focusing on unmet need I think is really important part of deciding whether or not your business is viable. So now it's time to talk with our very distinguished guest, Doug Zarkin, award winning marketing expert, and he's been named by brand week marketer of the next generation. And he's a consecutive honoree in Crane's New York notables in marketing. And Doug has catapulted iconic brands like Avon and Victoria's Secret to new heights. And he's also an author. Moving your brand out of the friend zone, which is about breaking free from the friend zone that hinders success. So welcome to the show. Doug, such a pleasure to have you here. What do you mean when you talk about moving your brand out of the friend zone for all of us, whether.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: You'Re single or married, I imagine at some point in your life you have had feelings for somebody that weren't necessarily matched with the degree of intensity. No matter how handsome you may or may not be or how beautiful you may or may not be, we all find ourselves at one point or another believing that perhaps somebody cares about us, likes us a little bit more than we like them. And the same thing is really true in business. Brands don't mis forecast because you have stupid people at the top. What you have is a misunderstanding as to the role and the relationship that you have with your consumer base. And the premise of moving your brand out of the friend zone is really about strengthening that brand value equation. How do you create passion and trust so that regardless of what's happening in the marketplace in your respective category, consumers are going to remain loyal to you. They're not only going to remain loyal, but they're going to advocate for you. Because no matter how smart or how technologically advanced you are, or your brand is today, tomorrow, and forever, the most powerful marketing tool in a marketer's toolbox is word of mouth. And that comes from building advocates. And so the book really gets into understanding the brand value equation, understanding how to look at your brand and figure out where within the different relationship areas you fall. And then most importantly, some things to think about. Because as I mentioned, there is no right way or wrong way to build a brand. There's just a way. And the goal of the book is really to provide a set of things to consider as you're building a brand and trying to figure out how to move your brand into that incredibly intense place of brand love?
[00:10:50] Speaker F: Well, Doug, I have a question for you. So I'm approaching this as a consumer. I loved Zappos shoes, which are bought by Amazon, because I would get the shoes the next day. I had a year to return them. It was really easy to do returns. But Amazon is changing all of that, not only for Zappos, but for Amazon itself. And I am falling out of love. So what do brands do to keep the love and still make money?
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Brand love is really tied to the brand value equation. And I would call it Doug Zarkin's version of Einstein's theory of relativity, or the pythagorean theorem. And it's a very simple formula value, which everybody wants, whether you're making 50,000, 50,0000 or $5 million a year is really driven by the experience as your numerator divided by the price, which is your denominator. And the greater the experience, the more you can charge a premium price and still have a positive value equation and the result of that very simple formula. And I say that tongue in cheek, because it's anything but simple, gives you an idea of what you need to do. Brands first have to understand where they fall in, in their brand value equation. A brand like Amazon, and I think Amazon is a brand, has done an amazing job in delivering an incredible experience. The price that you pay for Amazon is continuing to evolve. They made a recent change to Prime Video. You now have to pay extra to get prime videos without advertising your prime membership, which everybody thinks is free shipping. It's not free shipping, okay? They build the pricing into the model. Those all get into the denominator. But as long as your customer experience and your shopping experience is amazing, you don't really care that they're charging you an extra $5 for Prime Video.
[00:12:34] Speaker F: Kenya, so you mentioned word of mouth, which is a great point. But my only concern about word of mouth is it's not controllable. Right? So how do you advise the brands that you work with and what they can do tactically to make sure that their reputation stays in the right space with consumers?
[00:12:51] Speaker A: I like to say, and I talk about this in the book, perception may not be reality, but it's actuality. And brands have to take control of their brand narrative. And that's becoming increasingly hard in the feedback culture that we live in. Not all feedback is good, and that's okay, but brands have to insert themselves in the dialogue. The most powerful thing you can do with somebody who leaves a negative review is turn an adversary into an advocate. And the way you do that is not by admitting fault. Because, look, the consumer isn't always right, but they're always important. So if you show empathy, take the conversation offline to find a solution, if there is one. And then when that solution is found, challenge the consumer to share that experience. You can start to reshape the discourse. The challenge that I see, and it's such a great question, is when brands ignore the negative and focus only on the positive, and the opportunity lost there is to defend your reputation. Reputation management, social commerce is a real thing. And marketers and leaders, regardless of where you sit in the C suite, have to be paying attention to what your star score is on Google and what people are saying about you. In order to ensure that you can bust fake news and put the truth out there in whatever form you feel is the best form.
[00:14:12] Speaker F: That is 100% so true, because we really focused on getting more reviews for Gearhart law, and people reference those reviews when they call us up as leads. But one question I had for you, you're kind of going opposite the whole AI revolution because your book says, unlock the power of thinking human, authentic connections.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Thinking human really comes down to a very simple concept. If you treated every customer that walked into your store, that visited your website as if they were your only customer, how would you behave? Small businesses win. Big businesses lose because they stopped understanding that it was that single customer who helped to build their business thinking human is really about getting back to basics.
[00:14:58] Speaker E: I love that because that's so true. Our clients are loyal because they have relationships with everybody in the firm. You learn about their family lives. You learn about all sorts of stuff. You learn about what's going on in the business, not just the intellectual property. I think that's a great insight. And even in today's world, where we are so digitized, I think that is the most important thing, because you really can't get that kind of connection from a text or from an email unless you already know the person, can you?
[00:15:27] Speaker F: Yeah. I'm just curious, because I'm reading through your bio. I see all these wonderful accolades. Like, how did you get into this marketing space initially?
[00:15:34] Speaker A: My dad still has no idea what I do for a living.
The celebration of your accomplishments come from recognizing that those accomplishments aren't possible without a superpower about how to build a high performing team. Most of those awards sit in a box in my basement, not because I'm not proud of them, but because I don't want to ever let it get to my head about how I got there. I've been very blessed to work for some terrible leaders because they have helped shape the kind of person that I'd like to be. And I'm not perfect. Far from it. I have good days. I have terrible days. But the one thing that I learned from working for some not great people in the course of my career is what a great leader could and should be. And for me, it kind of goes to the philosophy about how I build a high performing team. And it comes down to three very simple things. And I talk about this in the book. I hire for passion. I can teach you the skill. I can't give you the will. I require purpose, which is whether you're working virtually or in an office. I want you to go about your day with a sense of trying to get stuff done, how you conduct yourself, how you lead yourself, how you reflect yourself as a reflection of me. So I want somebody who has that intent in mind. And then, most critically, it's about celebrating progress. Perfection is unattainable. Anybody who tells you they have the perfect marketing plan, the perfect brand, the perfect advertising is full of it. If you set a sales goal of 5% and you achieve 2%, the inclination is to talk about the fact that you missed goal by three percentage points. Where I like to start is, let's celebrate the fact that we increased by 2%. All right, now let's figure out where the delta is. What could we have done better, and I think that philosophy is inspiring. It also allows me the permission to.
[00:17:22] Speaker E: Give real time feedback passage to profit. With Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt back with more discussion with Doug Zarkin, award winning marketing expert, right after this.
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[00:19:37] Speaker F: And our special guest, Doug Zarkin, who is a marketing expert we've been talking with. Doug, if you missed the first part of our conversation, you can catch it on our podcast tomorrow, wherever you get your podcast. But Doug, we were going to talk this time about where do brands go awry?
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Being a marketer, you instinctually have to have a degree of arrogance because marketing at its core, you strip out all the textbooks. Marketing at its core is about motivating the consumer to do what we want them to do when we want them to do it. You have to have a bravado about yourself to believe that you can do that. With that though, is where marketers go awry and brands go awry, which is understanding that there is a natural path to humility that comes with that objective. Brands go awry when they believe that they're untouchable. Brands go awry when they're focusing so much on not losing that they're not focusing on winning. One of the things I talk about in the book is this notion of the challenger brand mindset. Think about a race. If you're in first place and you're running a distance race, what are you doing? You're always looking over your shoulder to see where the person behind you is. If you're in second place, what are you doing? Looking at the person in front of you and trying to figure out how to close the gap. What is the person in third place doing? The person in third place is trying to figure out how to win. It's not about what's going on in first place and second place. It's about how am I going to win this race? And it's that challenger mindset that brands need to have in order to not go awry. The challenger mindset is about embracing the fact that there is an opportunity, a niche. A niche is not a bad thing. A niche is an opportunity to win. And so what happens to the runner in third place? They're thinking four steps ahead of the runner in first place. And that's why inevitably, challenger brands always win, because they're not afraid to lose. Brands that go awry are afraid to lose.
[00:21:36] Speaker F: Just quick question for you. So how do you help brands find their niche or develop their niche if they're not really sure how to position themselves in the marketplace?
[00:21:46] Speaker A: It starts from a human truth. If you look at marketing, marketing is really about positioning, which is about the art of sacrifice. That art of sacrifice is the mixture of what the human truth is. What's the void that you're trying? What's the need state? The intellectual need state that is missing, or the emotional need state? Most critically, because consumers make emotional decisions before they make rational choices. If you don't connect with somebody emotionally, unless you have a product that's going to cure cancer or solve the world's economic crisis, or transport you without having to take a red eye flight, you're focusing too much on the rational. You're not connecting with somebody on the emotion. And the emotion is the power. The emotion is the path. Where brands need to start is understanding what is the need state emotional. First that they're solving, then rationally, what's the solution? And then the fun part, which is to figuring out how to put your brand on the brain of that consumer.
[00:22:43] Speaker E: So what are some of the tools that an entrepreneur could use to kind of harness the philosophy that you just discussed?
[00:22:51] Speaker A: I would say be guided by the notion that the solution to complexity often is in the simplicity. You don't need to be building massive research studies. Okay, talk to people in your community. Talk to people in the target audience, friends and family. Invite them over to dinner. Show them your idea. Get feedback. It's important to think small in order to win big. You don't need to put yourself into a position of tremendous risk in order to identify great opportunity. Be humble enough to start small. Test kitchens if it's a food product, giving things out to friends and family and getting a reaction, then go a little bit larger, doing things like street fairs, community opportunities to see if you can get a better sample size. Always soliciting feedback along the way. Because when you decide to go for broke and you go big, the more money on the line, the greater the pressure, the greater the need to really win. Allow yourself the certainty to refine your model when your out of pocket cost is low so that you can exploit the opportunity when the opportunity is big.
[00:23:53] Speaker E: To win big, there's always going to be a certain amount of experimentation and a little bit of flexibility, too. And as you try to grow your business, it may be that you have to tweak your message a little bit to reach different consumers, although it's a perfectly viable strategy to simply try to reach more of the people that you've successfully reached. Right? So if you're an entrepreneur, you're trying to decide, should I try to expand my client base by focusing on different needs, or should I just try to attract more clients or customers who are satisfied with our service the way it is now? How do you make that kind of decision?
[00:24:28] Speaker A: So, at the intersection of dumb and stupid are fast food chains that live in the world of, let's say, hamburgers that all of a sudden decide they want to sell pizza, or places that sell pizza that all of a sudden want to sell fried chicken?
[00:24:42] Speaker F: Or how ridiculous. How about this one, Doug? The ones that want to do peak period pricing.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: I think the folks at wendy's had the idea correct, but the way it was communicated was incorrect, which is peak period pricing could be about how to offer savings to consumers that want to buy breakfast at 11:00 at night or at 04:00 p.m. Getting rid of the fresh cookies and breads by reducing the discount. It's not about raising prices between, it's about dropping them.
[00:25:11] Speaker E: I couldn't dropping them.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: I think they didn't think that through. But kind of going back to the point of you have to resist the urge to try to be everything to everybody. Brand positioning is all about that sacrifice. I mean, think about this. We've all been to a buffet before. Have you guys all been to a Las Vegas buffet? Yeah, right. Nobody physically feels good after eating at a buffet. And the reason is because the human body is not designed to consume seafood, italian food, ice cream pie and a shakruderi board all at the same time. It's the same thing with brands. When you try to do everything, brands get indigestion and consumers get sick from it. So the idea of really focusing narrow and deep is a pathway to win. It's like when your favorite music group releases an album that doesn't have their sound. It's the same thing in brands. You got to be really careful. When you stray away from your comfort zone of what your consumers expect from.
[00:26:06] Speaker E: You, you're taking a big risk. Absolutely. Doug Zarkin, award winning marketing expert. Fantastic. I hope you'll stick around for the rest of the show.
[00:26:14] Speaker F: How do people find Doug?
[00:26:16] Speaker A: You can go to dougzarkin.com and go to my website. You can find me at Doug Zarkin on LinkedIn. Most importantly, you can find the book moving your brand out of the friend zone on Amazon and Kindle.
[00:26:26] Speaker E: Well, that sounds good. Now it's time for IP and the news. Today we're going to be talking about AI and copyright. And a court in California made a ruling recently.
[00:26:37] Speaker F: I don't like this ruling. We're going down the rabbit hole. What was that first music streaming source that never paid the artists and everybody got mad?
[00:26:44] Speaker E: Wasn't that Napster or something?
A court in California made a ruling recently on the side of artificial intelligence. Three creators sued the artificial intelligence company chat, GPT, OpenAI, and they had made the claim that AI had used their creations as a basis for making more creations. And the court didn't say that that was wrong. The court just said, well, you guys didn't prove your case. And these were relatively small creators that had filed this lawsuit. I look at this and I say, well, there wouldn't even be an AI if people hadn't been creating, if there weren't human creators in the first place. And so these companies are making huge profits by taking the creative work of other people and massaging it and coming out with something new and claiming it as their own.
[00:27:36] Speaker F: That was one judgment, one ruling.
[00:27:38] Speaker E: This whole area of the law right now is really jumbled and it's really a confusing spot for creators. Kenya, what do you think about all this?
[00:27:44] Speaker F: Hence why I'm not the biggest AI fan. I mean, I think I've spoken about that vocally on the show about just being concerned about things like this and the usage of creators and just their ideas. I mean, who's to say that we're not being listened to and our ideas aren't being stolen and put out in the marketplace? So again, one of my faux pas when it comes to the world of.
[00:28:06] Speaker E: AI, if they take the incentive away from creators to create, who's going to be creating?
[00:28:12] Speaker F: Exactly.
[00:28:12] Speaker E: Well, yeah, you're going to have robots that are just creating the same stuff over and over again.
[00:28:17] Speaker F: Creators will always create. Because I got to tell you, Richard and I were brainstorming and we have a new segment at the end of the show, and the name of the segment just popped into my brain from the universe. I'm like, oh, my gosh, that just came from the universe. I don't think the universe is going to grant AI those kind of thoughts. Well, creators, yes, there's lots of thoughts.
[00:28:37] Speaker E: That the universe may not grant AI. We don't know about that.
[00:28:41] Speaker F: Creators will always create, but are they going to get credit? Well, they have to support themselves. So how are you as a creator going to get paid for what you do? And that has to be legislated, I guess.
[00:28:51] Speaker E: And it's not that I don't like AI. I'm amazed by AI and all the amazing things that it can do. But the question is that the AI is drawing from something, right? And so if you kill the goose that lays the golden egg, then we're not going to have anything. And it's going to be so much harder for people who are creators to make a living, right? You create something and AI creates something that's 80% the same for practically no cost. That completely undermines the market for creator work.
[00:29:24] Speaker F: Yeah, but AI has to get a lot better because, for instance, I do these stories. And in this one story, I had these two men with dogs and I had AI create the image and they mixed up their faces.
[00:29:36] Speaker E: I remember seeing that my daughter had nightmares on that when you showed it to her, right. She couldn't.
[00:29:44] Speaker F: So a person isn't going to do that. But, I mean, it's only a matter of time before the AI does get better with that. But where did it get the picture of the dog in the first place? It was from a creator?
[00:29:54] Speaker E: Yeah, it was a painting or something. So anyway, obviously this is a sore point for me, and I really hope that this ruling gets challenged. I don't think we need to stop the development of AI, but we at least need to make sure that the people who are the creators are somehow getting compensated for this. And there was also a case where the new York Times sued OpenAI. OpenAI was like consuming all of the newspaper articles that the Times had written and they weren't paying for know, and New York Times was mad about that. So anyway, more to come. Stay tuned. So we have to jump off now. It's time for a commercial. We'll be right back after this. You're listening to passage to profit.
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[00:32:22] Speaker G: 808 244596. 808 244596. 808 244596. That's 808 244596. Passage to profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:32:40] Speaker F: I am Kenya Gibson. And we are joined in the studio with some very special guests today, Justin Crosby and Jason Anderson of the dream commission. Welcome to passage to profit.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: How are you doing?
[00:32:52] Speaker F: Good.
[00:32:52] Speaker H: Thank you for having us.
[00:32:53] Speaker C: Good.
[00:32:53] Speaker F: Very good today. So we kind of stole you out of the hallway because you were know, kind of visiting some of our other radio stations and talking to some other folks about what you're doing. So tell us about the dream commission and how you all are involved.
[00:33:06] Speaker H: Yeah, sure. The Dream commission really got started again out of necessity, being from Mississippi, one of the most impoverished areas in the United States, and also doing a lot of work in Memphis, Tennessee. Again, we grew up probably second generation students that graduated from high school. And again, we had education but not financial literacy. Right. So again, even as we progressed in our careers, we were still struggling until, again, we learned about financial literacy. So one thing that we tell people is that we cure cancer, and people's like, oh, well, how do you do that? And it's really, again, systemic cancer. And again, I'll pitch that to Justin and you figure out the answer to hard questions.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: Sure. So when you talk about curing cancer, right. That can be kind of a catchphrase. But what we're really talking about is the systemic issues involving financial wealth and equity and making sure that everyone has that path. What I talk about a lot of times is that many of us were given an equation, but an incomplete equation. You were told to go to school, get a degree, get a job, then what? There was no more roadmap. Right. And many of us that went to college. Right. We were on the highway of success. And you get to graduation, and then that road goes to gravel and then it goes to mud, because no one has told you anything about how to actually exist in the world beyond that. So that's what we try to do, is whether, again, you make 20,000 or 20 million, what's the plan? What's the education? What's the vehicle by which you're going to have success?
[00:34:39] Speaker F: So what are some of the vehicles that you help people with? Are you guys financial advisors yourselves?
[00:34:44] Speaker H: No, absolutely not. Please do not hit up our.
[00:34:48] Speaker E: I was going to ask you for stock picks later in the show.
[00:34:52] Speaker H: So what we do is we do financial literacy programming, and we work with municipalities and institutions of higher learning. And again, we bring in resources. So we bring in banks. We work with the city of Memphis financial literacy coordinator. We bring in, again, people that are financial analysts. We do bring in attorneys. We do bring in small business owners, and we bring in celebrities and like Justin said, it's a systemic issue because again, when you talk about financial literacy, it's at the heart of everything that our country is dealing with specifically in a black community. For large black cities like Memphis, which is one of the top five cities, right? So, had over 390 murders last year, 397 murders. Those murders were directly tied to poverty, which has an over 30% poverty rate in the black community. So again, what we do is we say, hey, the only way to address this and health disparities in the community is to address the economy. So what we do is we bring in celebrities, we bring in financial analysts, we bring in free resources and get sponsors and provide free summits for the community and for students. So they have the vehicle to change that diaspora for their families and for the next generation. And so that's what we do that's a little bit different than others because how are you going to tell someone or charge someone 300 or $3,000 to come to a summit when they're living in poverty to change their lives, right? But banks understand that hey, if we donate to this cause and other organizations, that people are going to have more money to invest in their banks to help small businesses, and we know what banks do with that money. So again, they're happy to help change that dynamic because it's good for us as a country.
[00:36:30] Speaker E: So to what extent do you emphasize entrepreneurism as opposed to maybe more traditional corporate paths for earning a living or having a career?
[00:36:40] Speaker B: So that's a great, great point. That's actually something that we're working on more with this being our second year, I think we understand that we're better together. So one of the things we've been working on is trying to approach that goal up. Me, myself, I have an Amazon freight partnership based out of Atlanta. I do not have a background in logistics. I went to school for journalism and psychology. Odly enough, however, I realized that after 16 years of working in telecom there was a dead incoming. And so what we try to do is make sure everyone understands that education is important, going to school is important, every resource of the tree you can grab is important. But what about having your own? And what about taking your best friend or your sister or your brother or whoever and say, let's do this together. I think that's a part in wealth generation we're not considering and not taking to advance. So yes, that's a big part of our platform to let everyone know that yes, you can do it even if you have to do it by yourself.
[00:37:35] Speaker F: So I have a question for you. Thedreamcommission.org is your organization. How are you funding this? Are you getting sponsors? Because it's not cheap to put on events and bring all these people together.
[00:37:45] Speaker H: It's not. So you can say that as many times as you want.
So we were lucky. The city of Memphis worked with us last year, and they brought in resources such as venues. The National Civil Rights Museum, Tennessee Valley Authority was a great sponsor, autozone. So again, too many to name, but those play a huge benefit in what we're doing.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: I'll say this. So yes, we do all the fundraising ourselves. And last year was a bit of a learning curve for us because we were so happy to have all those groups come and we had individuals give us discounts to fly in and all of that. And Jason won't say it, but I'm a realist. We still lost money. Jason and myself actually wrote checks to make sure we cleared the balance because we believe in what we're doing, which is why we definitely hope people will come find us. On thedreamcommission.org. I'm always asked this question, what would have happened to me had someone given me this opportunity?
And I'm thankful for the life that I have. I'm thankful for where I am. But I have to ask myself, how much further would I be? How much further will the next child be? I have a three year old daughter. Do I have her further enough along? And so that's my goal, my aspiration and my drive for doing this.
[00:39:00] Speaker F: And what brain power are we leaving behind? Because there's some really smart kids that don't get opportunities.
[00:39:06] Speaker E: Do you have another event planned?
[00:39:08] Speaker H: Yeah, absolutely. So again, we're having a juneteen th dream summit this year, June 14 and June 15. Definitely go to our website, thedreamcommission.org, to find out more. But again, we're looking for partners. If you'd like to be a speaker, definitely submit an inquiry. But juneteen th dream Summit is definitely, again, the first thing on our list. Again, we're looking to partner with even more HBcus to have an HBcU dream summit. And we're working with a few more organizations, knobco and a few other organizations with their events this year. So just really excited about the year.
[00:39:40] Speaker F: Justin crosby and jason anderson of the Dream commission passage to profit the road to entrepreneurship with richard and elizabeth gearhart and our media maven, kenya gibson. Now we are so happy to have on the show sadie Bones. Her website is a sadiebonesfilm.com. What were you doing at 19? I know I wasn't doing what sadie's doing. She is a screenwriter, director and actor, and we're going to hear all about it. Welcome, sadie. Tell us about your movie.
[00:40:09] Speaker D: I wrote it when I was in my last semester at the Lee Strasburg Theater and Film Institute. I went to high school for film. I went to the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria. But I graduated early because I was like, I just want to do it. I just want to do it for real. And my parents were like, you're 16, so you have to go to school.
So I went to Lee Strasburg, and as I was wrapping up my time there, I was like, gosh, what's next?
I was just about to turn 18. I had a certificate in method acting and a high school degree. So I did the only thing I really know how to do. And I wrote a screenplay. And I was lucky. I have really good friends and teachers and family who supported me. And I guess they liked it because they pushed me to pursue it. And I just shot it and edited it over spring and summer.
[00:41:13] Speaker F: Well, you have a lot of people in that movie. I looked at your IMDb profile, and it's on there, and there's a lot of people. How did you manage a big group like that?
[00:41:21] Speaker D: Well, I went to method acting school. So a lot of people in the film are my friends. One of the associate producers, she's my roommate's older sister and an incredibly talented actress. And we really connected. And I wrote the part for her. So that's how I got most of the young cast. A lot of really, really talented actors from all over the world come through the Lee Strasburg Institute. So my lead actress, she is spanish and american, but she grew up in Germany. And we just happened to overlap for a semester. And this is her first film, too. She's incredibly talented. And then for the adult cast, I think like five or six of my teachers agreed to come play small parts. And then family, friends. I was really lucky. A lot of people really came through for me. But, yeah, no, it was like a community effort.
[00:42:16] Speaker F: What is method acting?
[00:42:18] Speaker D: What I was taught at Strasburg was it's acting using your own emotions and your own life experiences to inform you.
[00:42:29] Speaker F: I think I'd be good at that. I think you would, too.
[00:42:32] Speaker E: Kenya, I think you've been method acting on us and not telling us is what I think.
[00:42:37] Speaker F: That's very interesting. So it's called if that mockingbird don't sing. And a lot of people are really liking it. So what's it about? Can you tell us a little bit?
[00:42:46] Speaker D: It's about a girl who's just about to graduate high school, and she's planning on taking a gap year and traveling. And then she gets dumped, and that kind of derails her plans. But then she finds out she's pregnant, so she's like, okay, new plan. I'm going to keep the baby. I'm going to be a mom. I'm going to get my boyfriend back, and that's going to be my life.
[00:43:12] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:43:12] Speaker D: So she commits to that, and then she realizes it was maybe not such a good idea, and she ends up in a very complicated love triangle and more lost than she was before.
[00:43:25] Speaker E: Sadie, what is the creative process like for you? Did you do anything special?
[00:43:30] Speaker D: Well, being true to my method acting roots, I draw from my own life experiences and my own emotions. All my writing comes from something that I need to express, and I would need to express even if I wasn't going to make a film about it. I had the main idea for it maybe a year or so before I even put pen to paper. It just really spoke to me. It can go away until I just let it out eventually.
[00:43:59] Speaker F: This film is about a young girl, but I think it has repercussions for everybody, because our life choices do make a difference. And sometimes they send us in a direction we never knew we were going to go. And then maybe sometimes we have to fix that. A lot of people do it by getting divorced or whatever.
I think it can speak to everybody. So where is this showing currently?
[00:44:21] Speaker D: We are shopping at the film festivals around the country, so I don't know yet, but hopefully I will soon. But if you're interested in finding out, we are on social media, and we have a website where all the fun behind the scenes is going to be Sadie Bones.
[00:44:43] Speaker F: Her website is a sadiebonesfilm.com.
[00:44:47] Speaker E: You made your first film, ellipses, when you were what, when you were eight years old. What was that about?
[00:44:53] Speaker D: Well, I was a weird little kid. I'm an only child. Didn't have a lot of friends. I had put on a play for the rest of the students. They let me do that for some reason, and I was like, okay, how can I make this bigger and more permanent? So I would write the script and have my mom email it to the other kids in my class, their parents, each week, and they'd come over and we'd shoot it. And it was a fun thing we did after school. It was like 15 minutes long I worked with an editor to edit it because we just happened to know a great editor.
[00:45:30] Speaker F: So you were born into it. In other words, you were born to do this.
[00:45:34] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, my generation kind of grew up with iPhones immediately, which can do everything. So I think I was like, my cousin would be like, oh, yeah, this was imovie. And now I'm five years old and I know how to edit a movie. Like a very basic understanding.
[00:45:49] Speaker F: And you're kind of part of that TikTok generation, right, where I feel like there's a lot of vulnerability and people just overshare on social media, and it's kind of normal in this generation.
[00:45:58] Speaker D: Yeah, super normal. I've been on social media since I was in middle school.
[00:46:02] Speaker F: This is so much fun talking to you, but we're getting to the end of our time here. So how do people connect? Where do you want people to go to find out about you and connect?
[00:46:09] Speaker D: All of our social media handles are at if that Mockingbird film. And you can also look at our website, a sadiebonesfilm.com passage to profit the.
[00:46:20] Speaker F: Road to entrepreneurship with the Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Now we are on to the acorns. I'm telling you, this is, I really want to try this food because it's really an interesting breakfast cereal. So we have David Cantor with folk revival, and he actually has an IP story, too. So, David, welcome to the show. Tell us about your product.
[00:46:42] Speaker C: Folk revival is a high protein, low carb hot cereal that's made with acorns. It comes in four different flavors. You can find
[email protected] you could find it on Amazon. If you just do a search for folk revival hot cereal. You can find us an increasing number of stores, including whole foods, up and down the east coast and central market in Texas and a whole host of independent natural stores in the New York metro area and a handful of other accounts that we'll be announcing.
[00:47:16] Speaker F: Excellent.
[00:47:17] Speaker E: That's great. So how did you come up with the idea and how did you come up with the actual product?
[00:47:22] Speaker C: I've been in natural foods my whole adult life. I started very early after college.
I was interested in food and sustainability. I went out west and learned about organic farming and eventually ran my own organic farm out there and then moved back east where I'm from and earned a master's degree in food and agriculture policy, which is know, it's sort of a weird, wonky degree, but I was very interested in food sustainability in our food systems. And then I landed an entry level marketing job at Eminem Mars in their skunk works division, helping them diversify their portfolio into better for you natural and organic snacks. And then essentially, I've spent the past two decades really sort of climbing up the marketing ladder within the natural and organic food industry. So I have this really deep background in food. And most recently I led marketing and innovation and R D for a company called Dr. Prager's, which is a pretty well known brand. They're best for veggie burgers, frozen veggie burgers, but they have a wonderful portfolio. I was with that company for eight years. We grew that company very successfully and eventually sold it. And then that sort of afforded me the opportunity to finally jump ship and build a brand of my own. And that's when folk revival was born. Like I said earlier, sort of in the intro, I was already eating this sort of high protein, low carb hot cereal that was made with acorns. And as I started building the architecture for the brand, the mission, the vision, the purpose, and who the consumer target was. And in a fairly methodical way, because I come from this background of CPG, consumer packaged good marketing, I started doing some innovation brainstorming. And as I did that, one of the ideas that was rising to the top was oatmeal. And I thought, well, I already eat this interesting oatmeal that people around me, friends, family, knew about and liked. I think we have our first idea to launch with so sort of eureka. Our initial products to launch was born and that's what we decided to pursue. We ended up finding a contract manufacturer to make it and developing the packaging and all of that stuff.
[00:49:40] Speaker E: So for our audience who have never tasted an acorn, what do they taste like? Do they taste like an ordinary nut?
[00:49:47] Speaker C: They do. But you can't pick an acorn off of the ground or off of a tree and eat it.
[00:49:54] Speaker E: While warning to our audience, don't try this at home. Make sure your acorns are prepared right.
[00:50:00] Speaker C: So you'd probably spit it out because you'd say, that's too bitter. It's actually very similar to olives. You can't pick an olive off of a tree and eat it either. You would probably spit it out. So the way you make it palatable is you just essentially rinse it. And it's a laborious process. You have to sort of rinse it and sort of wash away all of those bitter compounds. And when you do so, you're left with a really tasty tree nut that tastes pretty similar to other tree nuts. Like almonds, walnuts, pistachios. The nutritional profile is pretty similar to other tree nuts. But acorns are incredible because they're sort of like this untapped natural resource right under our feet.
[00:50:40] Speaker E: Do you think that there's, like, any possibility that acorns could be eventually eaten as cashews or peanuts, just as a snack in and of themselves?
[00:50:50] Speaker C: They can be. So acorns are consumed in some form or fashion in various pockets around the world today. They're consumed in parts of the Mediterranean, they're consumed in Korea. This is like part of this very important sort of traditional appetizer here and there in North America, in the US, they're largely consumed by various native american communities who sort of value acorns as an important heritage part of their cuisine. Like a rised heritage ingredient.
[00:51:19] Speaker F: That's what I wanted to ask you. Are there old recipes like heritage recipes that have these in them?
[00:51:24] Speaker C: There's a ton of recipes. If you were to search for acorn pancakes or acorn cookies, things like that, you can definitely find a bunch online. And also people who are interested in survivalism. Right? Like preppers and survivalists, being able to use ingredients around them. And they are big advocates of harvesting acorns, processing acorns, and then incorporating them into recipes. But we're really the first brand to bring acorns to market in a modern fashion. And there's lots of precedent for that. We can think back to the last decade or so and think back to, we weren't aware of pea protein or even quinoa or coconut water. All these things are new ingredients that are getting sort of now commonplace in our food system.
[00:52:07] Speaker E: So our co host, Kenya, is going nuts here. She wants to ask you a question.
[00:52:12] Speaker F: Well, as a marketer, I want to talk about the name.
[00:52:15] Speaker C: The name folk revival really harks back to the mission. The mission for the company is to deliver real functional nutrition by reviving heirloom and heritage foods. So it's long real functional nutrition by reviving heirloom and heritage foods. There's sort of two parts to that mission. There's the real functional nutrition part, which is sort of captured by the folk, right? The human part, the folk in folk revival. And then there's the revival part, which, of course, is all about the reviving heirloom heritage and often overlooked foods. That's how we came up with the name. I happen to be a music lover. I play guitar. It has this sort of musical double ententre which sort of spoke to me. And it also rolls off the tongue, it's actually that word combination. If you were to do a Google search for folk revival, you'll get a million hits. Because folk revival is a thing in musical history. So you can read all about what the folk revival movement is all about in terms of know. You need to make sure that the name you fall in love with, so to speak, is not taken by another brand. So I saw that it was taken, and this is where sort of the IP story that Richard alluded to comes in. I saw that it was owned by Cliff bar, protein bars and the know. And I also saw it was actually a product. They had a line of sort of musically themed products, and I saw that the line was discontinued. And I reached out to the CMO on LinkedIn. We were not connected. I think we have very few connections. But I just introduced myself as, hey, I'm a veteran of the natural products industry, and I see you guys not only have this trademark, but continue to extend the trademark. Right. They continue to sort of hold onto it even though it was not in active use. And I said, if you don't intend to relaunch those products, I would love it if you would let that trademark go and stop extending your ownership of it. And I didn't hear back for quite some time. I don't remember, eight weeks, twelve weeks. We actually moved on to plan b, secondary names. And then out of the blue, I received a LinkedIn message from that CMO saying, we have no intention of reviving that brand name. It's yours if you wanted. It's up for grabs, which was an amazing thing.
[00:54:26] Speaker E: Yeah, I think they were probably acting out of integrity there, and I think that that is a very cool thing. You'd be surprised how often these conflicts come up and how often the companies involved just say, don't worry about it. So it does happen. Lots of times they want money for it.
So it's kind of unusual that you were able to get it without funds. I think it's a great story about how you took initiative. So I think that's kind of part of being an entrepreneur. We were talking earlier about some of the entrepreneurial things you're doing to raise money. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
[00:55:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Like any new venture, it costs money to get these types of things started. And we have kicked off a crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder. So this has been terrific. We've raised over $100,000 on the campaign to date. The campaign ends at the end of April, and we have also raised some external funds, which is all visible, the whole brand story, a wonderful little video. It's all visible. The nice thing about this we funder campaign is you don't have to be rich to invest. There's a very low minimum. So anyone out there interested in the folk revival story or potentially owning a small piece of their own natural foods company? Once again, I invite you to visit wefunder.com folkrevival. Check out our campaign page and if you're so inclined, make an investment or feel free to reach out to me. I'll learn more.
[00:55:53] Speaker F: How do people find your cereal again?
[00:55:55] Speaker C: They can go to folkrevival.com and learn more about the company and order there. You can order directly from Amazon and a few other e tailors. There's one called Bubblegoods, which is amazing, incredible, and offers a lot of sort of indie brands if you want to check bubble goods out. And then, of course, if you're in the east coast and know driving distance to a whole foods, we're in Whole Foods, in virtually all Whole foods, up and down the east and central market in Texas. With more retailers to come, passage to.
[00:56:24] Speaker F: Profit the road to entrepreneurship with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our media maven, Kenya Gibson. And our special guest today was Doug Zarkin. And we will be right back.
[00:56:34] Speaker G: Have you ever met a single person in your life that enjoys paying taxes? No. No one does. If you can't sleep at night because you have a huge problem with the IRS, I've got some free advice for you. This service is strictly limited to individuals that owe the IRS $10,000 or more in back taxes. And if you qualify, we can guarantee that you won't be writing a big fat check to the IRS or our services cost you nothing. The first 100 people that call today will get a free tax consultation worth $500. Stop worrying about your IRS problem. We can help you. We promise. Call the tax doctor right now. I mean right now, to learn more. 809 178546. 809 178546, 809 178546. That's 809. One seven Eightyah's retrospective.
[00:57:39] Speaker F: Noah Fleischmann is our producer here at passage to profit, and he just has a way of putting his best memories in perspective.
[00:57:46] Speaker C: When I was a kid, I used to love the holidays, but my favorite times of the year were actually two nights. Twice a year was that night we would take the clock off the wall and readjust it by hand. Daylight savings time and back. Wow. I thought that was fascinating. It was like being at the hall of science. My first question was, we all have to do this. What if somebody forgets? Next question. How's it working out for you? I don't think daylight savings time is a bad thing, really. We just need more options. Let's say I want to take 15 minutes, hold onto it this year, and then save the other 45 and accrue it into the next year. If I do that the following year and the year after that, and maybe even add some time onto that, well, by six, seven years later, I've added practically a year onto my life. Think of what that'll do for healthcare premiums. Unbelievable. When technology, science and all the other advancements come together to make this thing happen properly, we're going to have a world that is absolutely just like this one, only more aggravating and complicated.
[00:58:46] Speaker G: Now more with Richard and Elizabeth. Passage to profit.
[00:58:50] Speaker E: Now it's time for secrets of the entrepreneurial mind. Elizabeth, can you tee this up for us?
[00:58:57] Speaker F: Yes. This is secrets of the entrepreneurial mind, and we are going to ask each person here for a secret that has helped them in their entrepreneurial journey. We will start with David. David, what is a secret you have used that you can share?
[00:59:12] Speaker E: Well, we're especially interested in the ones you can't share.
[00:59:16] Speaker C: I don't know if it's a secret, but I think I can attribute the success we've had launching folk revival over the past year to a large extent to the team that surrounds me and the brand. I'm the founder, I'm the CEO, and I launched the brand. But I certainly couldn't have done it without our various partners. There's five other partners on the brand. These are people who I know from my time in the natural foods industry. Their skill sets and expertise complements mine.
I have a CFO, I have a social media maven. I have a direct to consumer guru, an operations person, et cetera. I don't have all of this expertise. So to bring people into the brand who sort of share your vision and your values, whose work you respect, who work with Integrity, people you trust. Right? Because it's all very fragile when you're creating something new like this and bring them on board and all of us sort of together, moving the ball down the field a little bit at a time. It's been instrumental. My number one secret.
[01:00:15] Speaker F: So, Sadie Bones, what is the secret of your entrepreneurial know?
[01:00:19] Speaker D: As an entrepreneur, but also as an artist, I spent a lot of time thinking about what sets me apart, what makes me unique, how can I be different? And something that has made this project so special is figuring out how do I relate to everyone else? How am I just like everyone else and really tapping into that?
[01:00:37] Speaker F: That's a great secret. Kenya Gibson, what is the secret of your entrepreneurial mind? I think discipline. I'm big on consistency and just trying to make sure that if I have success with one thing, I try to do it over and over and over again as many times as possible. So just being disciplined with my ideas and anything I'm passionate about.
[01:00:58] Speaker E: So are you naturally disciplined? No. What did you do to become disciplined?
[01:01:03] Speaker F: I think running taught me discipline, especially marathon training. Running helped me definitely implement discipline into certain areas of my life. You certainly disciplined us with this show because every week you're here, we're like, what if we can't make it one week? You're like, you're going to make it that week.
[01:01:22] Speaker E: But I mean, the whole point with discipline, though, is really just taking baby steps at first, right. And so if you can do something small, take a first step, then that opens the door to taking bigger steps. Right.
[01:01:35] Speaker F: Richard Gearhart, what is your secret of entrepreneurial success?
[01:01:39] Speaker E: Well, I have so many, but just one. Just one. Okay. We're running low on time here, I guess, probably understanding the value of what we're offering. So when we started Gearhart law, I had been fortunate to have a lot of really good training from a lot of good sources, and I was able to offer that experience to entrepreneurs at really reasonable prices. And so because I was adding a lot of value for not a lot of money, I think that was the beginning of the law firm, and that ultimately is what made us successful. So it's sort of like understanding your leverage. What is it that you've got and how are you going to get it to the people that need it and then helping them succeed? So I would say that that would be my secret sauce, is understanding value of what you're offering.
[01:02:31] Speaker F: I think mine is an insatiable curiosity because I always want to know what's going on that's new. And I love the show because of that, because we always get to hear what's new going on in this show. I always want to try new things. And entrepreneurs do sometimes jump from thing to thing to thing. If something doesn't work, you go on to the next one. And I've had to pivot with this business. I started with Blue Streak, but I really feel like my curiosity has really been my superpower for being an entrepreneur.
[01:02:59] Speaker E: You are very curious, and you have cats, too.
Cats are curious as well. That's it for this week. Passage to profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 31 markets across the United States. Thank you to the P to P team, our producer, Noah Fleischman and our program director, Alicia Morrissey. Look for our podcast tomorrow, anywhere you get your podcast. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram x, and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first, Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week.
