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BigValueBigBusiness.com
Andrew Davis
AKADrewDavis.com

Author of the book:
BrandScaping
Transcript
James: All right. Welcome back my friends to yet another edition of the Big Value Big Business Podcast.
I am your James Lynch. I am really big, big, big time super excited about our very special guest today his
name is Mr. Andrew Davis. Andrew comes to us from akadrewdavis.com. Andrew is the author of the
Amazon bestselling marketing book Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships. Andrew is a
highly sought-after and respected content marketer and he is also very much in demand as a dynamic
keynote speaker, educating and entertaining on all things to do with marketing. So let’s say hello to
Andrew Davis today. Andrew, how are you today, sir?
Andrew: I’m good. Thanks James. Thanks for having me on. This is fun.
James: Absolutely man. I’m so excited. But you know I really want to thank you for coming on the
podcast for one and I’m really super excited to get your innovative perspective on how we as
entrepreneurs and business owners can successfully take our business and our brand to amazingly new
heights in this brand new year 2014. Sound like plan?
Andrew: Yes. Sounds like a plan. It’s the right time to do it.
James: Rock and roll. Cool man. So first can we just get a little bit of history about you. I like my audience
to learn a little bit about who Andrew Davis is, where you came from and a little bit about your journey
that brought you here to where you are today.
Andrew: Yeah sure. Well, I mean, I started my career in the television and film business. So I come at it
from it maybe a little bit of bizarre perspective but I started in the television business, working in local
television, and producing. I produced a local call and radio show or call it like – call and television show,
sorry. On Sunday mornings there was a medical calling show so there was a bunch of hypochondriacs
calling in, trying to talk to the doctor. It was called Doctors on Call and that was a fun show to do. Then I
also produced the nightly call and talk show with the rightwing Republican host who was firing up the
audience to call in and yell at him so that was really fun and then I moved on from there to basically
produce for a lot of the cable television news networks. So CNN and Fox News were just starting up. This
is in the ‘90s. MSNBC was just new on the scene, CNBC, CNN, Fox that was kind of my bread-and-butter
and produced for the Today Show. I wrote for Charles Kuralt.
James: Hmm?
Andrew: If anyone is anyone is old enough to remember Charles Kuralt.
James: My hand is up.
Andrew: Okay. Good. But I learned a lot about writing great television from him and then I got dream
job at the Jim Henson Company working with the Muppets. So I worked for the Muppets for two years.
Yes, and it was also a lot of fun and then it was the dotcom boom in the late 1990s and everybody was
making tons of money marketing …..dotcom startups and I decided I was making no money on television
and maybe I should take what I have learnt and tried to apply it in the marketing world so I started
working for bunch of startups. And then in 2001, I founded my own marketing agency with the guy
named Jim Cosco who is a journalist. So both of us had no agency or marketing experience really but we
decided that if we just told great stories you could inspire people to buy things they didn’t know they
needed.
And as a lesson I learned at the Jim Henson Company, I mean, you can go on Amazon right now and
search for Sesame Street brand and products and you’ll find 24,000 results that’s selling you plush dolls
and pillow cases and sleeping bags and party supplies and I realized that no one needed a Grover plush
doll before the Sesame Street came around and you didn’t need a Bear in the Big blue House plush doll
before bear in the big blue house. So can we use the same methodology just create great content in the
online world and inspire people to buy things and that’s how Tippingpoint Labs took off. So in the last 11
or 12 years I built and then sold Tippingpoint Labs and wrote Brandscaping which is kind of a
compilation of the 12 years of insight into marketing that I’ve compiled. And in the last year and a half
or so, I’ve just been traveling around the world speaking to people and trying to help everybody inspire
them to kind of reach out to a valuable audience and inspire them to buy whatever you’re selling. So it’s
been a lot of fun and a long journey. That seems long, James?
James: No, no. It’s fantastic. What a great story that you just followed your instincts and your dream.
And I usually ask, have you always been an entrepreneur and at what point was but I mean, you brought
that right in around 2001, you decided to go on your own.
Andrew: Yeah.
James: And start the Tippingpoint.
Andrew: Yup.
James: At that point in time, often time inspiring entrepreneurs, they don’t think that they really are
good enough to teach others or they don’t think that they really have anything to offer. Let alone, have
anything to offer people and to have them actually pay for it. Your early value propositions, what made
you think that you could tell these stories and actually make a living?
Andrew: Well, I think a big part of diving into the entrepreneurship world I guess is making sure that
you’re offering something that you can differentiate based on either your experience or your expertise
and I realized that there are lots of marketing companies and agencies out there selling very traditional
marketing services that claim to help you tell your story, but no one was focusing on telling the story the
audience wanted to hear and a story that would inspire people to buy things and I realized that as
journalists and television producers that’s what we’re really good at, telling great stories that the
audience would engage with and I felt that was pretty easy to convince potential brands that we could
do a better job telling stories given that we came from that world… both Jim and I we’re storytellers for
a living. We weren’t marketers. And I think that’s – I think most entrepreneurs need to ask the same
question: What makes your business different than everybody else’s and how can your experience and
expertise play into that? Instead of copying what everybody else is doing.
James: Yeah, yeah. And you brought up a really good point to about teaching businesses and brands to
look outwardly not telling their story but telling the story of the person that they’re trying to attract.
Andrew: Yeah, you – I mean, I think to be successful in today’s marketing landscape, you have to really
think about an audience first approach. Can you create content or inspire an audience who has never
thought of buying what you sell whether it’s a service or a product to buy it? And I think you can best do
that by understanding who you’re going after. You can’t be everything to everyone. You have to be
something to someone and when you’re something to someone, you’re able to actually sell to them
very efficiently and effectively.
James: Yeah, I love that. That’s fantastic. Let me ask you, I’m just going to go back in the span of 2001
that 12, 13, 14 years, give me one of your biggest challenges that maybe – I know this is – I’ll get too
personal but emotional or just something that – something you got stuck with that you finally were able
to break through. I’m looking for a really good phoenix rising. I don’t know. You’re pretty pumped out,
dude. I don’t think that you’ve stumbled at all on your career.
Andrew: Oh, that’s – I mean, look being an entrepreneur is about stumbling lot.
James: Absolutely.
Andrew: And figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I mean, the agency business is kind of a bizarre
world and I think we were constantly trying to reinvent ourselves and maybe that was – I mean, there
were good things that came of it but it causes lots of turmoil and I think we would have been better off
even over the course of the 11 or 12 years. We’re building the agency to just keep focus on very simple
things instead of over complicating the services we offered in the hopes of building a bigger and better
business and we did that too many times. I kind of said, “Hey, look we could – I see an opportunity let’s
not just be an agency that tells great stories, let’s do branding or let’s do print stuff or let’s do banner
ads or..” And I think there’s a tendency as entrepreneurs, you’ve also got another big idea and that’s Jim
Cosco who I founded Tippingpoint with was kind of my levelheaded business partner. He was always the
guy that challenged me to stay focused and keep building the business we’ve got instead of the business
I think we could build.
James: And keep you away from the bright shiny object?
Andrew: Yeah. It was easy to chase the next thing you’ve got in your mind.
James: Sure.
Andrew: And I think that’s what makes a great entrepreneur, can you come up with a great idea and
stick with it. I’ve got ADD and so I’m on to the next thing 15 minutes after I came up with the last thing
and that’s detrimental. So I think I learned a lot about staying focused and enthusiastic about the things
I’m most passionate about instead of the thing I’m passionate about now. If that distinction is clear.
James: Absolutely. Absolutely and you’ve taken it – you’ve left the agency, Tippingpoint and now you’re
promoting Brandscaping and -- for safe to say you’re a consultant and a speaker.
Andrew: Yeah, sure. I don’t do much consulting.
James: Nice. Lucky you.
Andrew: But yeah, yeah I know what it’s like. I mean, it’s nice to be in the position of kind of taking only
the projects you want to take on. So I really can’t complain.
James: Yeah, that’s cool. So I want to get back into a little bit just overall Brandscaping. It’s about
alliances. Is it about partners and correct me if I’m wrong Andrew: No.
James: - but this is the interpretation. Some great stories and I love the Tony Bennett story because he’s
near and dear. But can you tell us the one about the Chicken Whisperer?
Andrew: Yeah, sure. Yeah. I think a big part of – like marketing of all, it’s all about kind of trying to tell
your message to as many people as possible, as often as you can and I think in the online world, you’ve
got this opportunity to dive really, really deep. And what’s interesting – I mean, the Chicken Whisperer
essentially is a guy named Andy Schneider who is really into backyard poultry, right? So he raises
chickens in his backyard and he started raising chickens in his backyard to teach his kids where eggs
came from. When his kids came from school one day and said, “Dad like where do we get eggs? Where
are they made?” And Andy was like, “Are you kidding me? I got to fix this problem.” So he bought some
chicks and started raising them and he wrote a book called the Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Backyard
Poultry which you can find on Amazon and then he started a two-hour long radio show online on Blog
Talk Radio every single day, so Monday thru Thursday actually so four days a week from I think noon
until two. He does a lot of radio show and it only attracts the highest value chicken backyard poultry
enthusiasts. So he has about 20,000 people every week who listen to this. Yes seriously. It’s two hours of
backyard poultry talk you can’t miss. He has guest on every day. He gives away some chicken coops. He’s
got real following.
James: They love this?
Andrew: Yeah, it’s really crazy. So essentially Tractor Supply is like the Wal-Mart of the agricultural
world, right? And Tractor Supply realized that he – that Andy Schneider and the Chicken Whisperer
brand was something that in the marketplace inspired a lot of people to try backyard poultry and get
into it and raise their own chickens. So what they did was they partnered with Andy Schneider and
invited him to visit their stores during April and May which they called Chick Days where they basically
have lots of baby chicks that you can then buy and raise on your own and he comes and does like a fourhour seminar on how to raise chickens and he signs books and he helps you get excited and start smart
with the Chicken Whisperer. And he gets about 150 to 300 people at every one of these events.
James: Wow.
Andrew: And all those people, they buy chicks about 100 chicks were sold in every one of these events
and then when you buy a chick, you don’t just buy the chick and go home. You have to buy lights to keep
them warm. You have to buy chicken feed. So essentially at every store, he drives about $21,000 in new
revenue every time he speaks and that kind of partnership is really unique. It’s just people interested in
chickens. It’s a really deep fractal node, I call it on this tree of people that are interested in something
agricultural or farming and he’s able to actually drive real revenue. So for everybody out there, every
entrepreneur, small business listening, it’s about really diving in and finding your own chicken
whisperer, asking yourself who was the audience that I can be very relevant to, that I can inspire their
passion and actually sell them whatever I sell.
James: Yeah, I like that term, that fractal node. I would ask you to expand on that just a little bit more
were – just it’s so important. You and I had an off line discussion about audiences in general and people
sell themselves shorter or even shoot themselves on the foot when they think maybe that they’re
starting too small. And can you expand on how that? Expand on that.
Andrew: Yeah.
James: Can you just explain how that starting small can grow into something big?
Andrew: I mean, I think – I mean, there’s this concept we called fractal marketing, right? So fractal is a
self-similar repeating pattern. If you just imagine for a second a picture of a tree you write. The trunk of
the tree is any online audience. Let’s say you’re trying to sell to people who travel, okay? So the trunk of
the tree might be travel but if you start splitting that tree up into the branches and you just crop and
rotate anyone branch, it then looks like the branch that you just cropped and rotated to make it look like
a trunk is now a new trunk to a valuable community, right?
So if you take business travel versus let’s say leisure travel. Those are two different branches and if you
want to be relevant to them, you have to talk about very different things, right? If I’m a business
traveler, I don’t care how much the ticket costs generally because they’re my company, right? I want to
stay at a nicer hotel. I don’t care about the amenities necessarily because I’m just going to my room, I’m
sleeping, I’m getting up and I’m leaving. I have a very different set of needs so versus leisure travel
where I’m traveling with kids. It’s a whole different way to talk to someone. So in the online world, if the
deeper you go, the more valuable your content can be and the more relevant you can be.
So if you’re a travel agent, who is trying to get businesses to sign up with you, you’re much better off
not talking about resort deals and exclusive or inclusive opportunities. You’re actually better off talking
about how you communicate with prospective business or how to get the best business deals for 10
people traveling to a conference or all of a sudden you’re speaking to me, the business traveler and I’m
more relevant. Your service is always more relevant to me. So the deeper you go, the more valuable you
can be and you can actually charge your premium for that service instead of just being a travel agent for
everyone. You can be a travel agent only for business travelers who travel 10 times a year or more then I
know it’s worth paying you. Does that make sense?
James: Absolutely. No, no. Because I’m going to tell you straight out, one I’m a consultant and I do some
paid advertising and I have in the travel industry just a student travel which is a whole other.
Andrew: There you go.
James: It’s so great that you use that as an example because I totally know the difference between a
leisure travel, a business travel and then a student travel.
Andrew: That’s right.
James: A student travel we’re speaking to Paris, we’re speaking at one level to the student, and another
level to the teachers. So it makes so much sense and that was a great example you give me. I appreciate
that.
Andrew: I mean, you can even go on deeper, right? Like my wife was one of those – I know there are lot
of these people that like right after they graduate they take a three-month like tour of Europe and they
do it on their own.
James: To find myself.
Andrew: Yes, to find myself journey. My wife did that.
James: The purge.
Andrew: That’s right the purge. So like that if you just went after that audience alone, that’s an
opportunity. The hey the graduation gift traveler.
James: Oh, my goodness. That’s fantastic. I’m writing that one down.
Andrew: There you go. We just made it up. But if you can build an entire entrepreneurial business just
around those people, in fact, there’s probably a business in there for just people who have extended
layovers. That’s how deep you’ve got to think.
James: Okay. So this is the point in time where I usually ask…..give us an example but you brought me to
a real good places we’ve identified but we’ve niched it down to the smallest fingerprint.
Andrew: Yeah.
James: Where do we find them?
Andrew: Sure. Well, they’re actually a lot easier to find than you think. Like if you go down deep enough
in that travel tree, you’ll end up on a node that’s people who like to travel for leisure reasons and sit on
the beach but always travel with their dog. And if you start looking for destinations online where those
people are having those conversations and always travel with their dog, you’ll end up at a place like Fido
Friendly, okay? So if you go to FidoFriendly.com right now, you’ll see that Fido Friendly is a magazine, an
online community and even a Sirius Satellite radio show that is just for people who travel with their
dogs. It’s not even for people who travel with their cats or their parakeets, it’s just for people who travel
with their dogs.
James: Wow.
Andrew: And there are 500,000 every week, who listen to the serious satellite radio show on fighter
friendly. And if you’re a hotel chain or a travel agent, you’re just targeting that specific market and
understanding their needs and what they’re looking for in a resort. They want a place that has doggie
bags for their dogs or even dog walkers on call like all of a sudden you’ve got yourself a really smart
node that you can market towards. And it’s easy to find these people if you’re looking for something
specific. It’s very hard if you’re just looking for anyone who travels because that’s everyone, right?
So searching for them online, looking for magazines that might target them, looking for LinkedIn groups
or Facebook groups. There’s a Facebook Group for meatloaf sucks, it’s got 300,000 members. If you’re
trying to sell to people who hate meatloaf, there’s no better place to go than Facebook sucks. I mean,
meatloaf sucks on Facebook.
James: I love it. I love it. That’s great. So the more special the group, I mean, often times the old niche
research kind of internet marketing niche research go to a magazine rack and look that., Andrew: Yeah.
James: What types of specialty magazine that would have or you can go online to a magazine seller,
reseller and look, but that’s great…that’s fantastic in looking for these and then just Googling your
fingers off that’s...
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
James: It’s great. It’s great.
James: That is – well, that’s some good stuff. Let’s talk about Andrew you’re self-proported high energy.
You’re a high energy guy. How does – how do you stay motivated? What’s – any rituals for productivity,
accountability, how do you set your goals and how do you struck for them each and every day?
Andrew: Well, that’s a great question. I mean, I guess – I mean, primarily I think I’m motivated on the
revenue front. You know what I mean?
James: Sure.
Andrew: As a marketer, it’s pretty easy to get sidetracked with all sorts of other wonderful metrics,
right? Like you live in this data over-load where I could look to my Google Analytics and say 10,000
people read my webpage yesterday versus the day before. This is great. I’m doing well. But I think at the
end of the day, I’m really motivated by either seeing my revenue rise or my businesses revenue rise in a
concerted and focused way and I think that’s when it’s the most exciting. From a productivity
standpoint, I’m a writer so I write every morning. I try to write from seven to 11 a.m. although, I don’t
always. I think like this morning for example James, I got completely sidetracked. So it’s harder for me I
think to stay focused. I think one of the best ways to stay focused and accountable… I probably learn
running a business, having other people reporting to you or being part of your organization. There’s no
better way to make sure you’re staying focused.
Now that I’m kind of own my own and just speaking and writing, it’s really easy for me to get
sidetracked like I do this morning. And it’s so great to have other people working with you on things.
And if there’s one thing I miss about running an agency, it’s having people to work with, bounce ideas
off of because it keeps motivated and it keeps me productive and honest. You can say if you’re working
alone as an entrepreneur, I think one of the best things to do can be to find someone you can work with
even if they’re not working on the same project but similar categories or similar audience or similar
market or similar product even and spend time concerted effort time working together to make both of
your products better.
James: Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to ask you in… This is a resounding topic that I hear over and over
again with entrepreneurs like yourself, get in a mastermind or get a group of small – a small group of
individuals where you can bounce ideas off. It doesn’t have to be in the same niche, the same market
but just there’s accountability, there are these ideas. I mean, I’ve heard some guys have poured their
hearts out. I mean, hearts out in saying I’ve had – I was a mastermind. These guys talked me off the
ledge, you know what I mean?
Andrew: Yeah.
James: They talked me off the ledge so. Have you experience that or (crosstalks)
Andrew: Yeah. Well, you know what is I’ve probably seen more out I’ve been on my own. It’s not
something I took advantage off when I was running Tippingpoint or maybe it was because we’re growing
and I always had people at the organization I could bounce ideas off of. But I met a woman named
Stephanie who runs a company called Coastal Windows. I mean, she sells windows and sliding and she’s
a contractor. She’s a female contractor in a world…. sea full of male dominated business and she
actually created a business book club and the only reason I found her was they chose my book to read
and she reached out in us if I would be willing to Skype with her book club.
James: Oh, wow.
Andrew: But what’s really interesting about her book club is it has become a group of like-minded
women who are all entrepreneurs even in her category, there are all home improvement people.
Someone is a designer, someone is an architect and they all get together once a month to talk about
something that they’ve read together and they’d also talked about the business issues they’re facing
and I think she finds it inspiring reinforcement through a group of peers who are all looking for new
business ideas and even a book club, let alone a mastermind group can be a productive way to keep
inspired and bounce your ideas off of other like-minded individuals. So it’s a really interesting way to
stay connected, I would say.
James: That’s great. I mean, I may have to get in touch with Stephanie.
Andrew: Yeah, you should
James: Coastal Windows.
Andrew: Yeah, Coastal Windows. I’ll put you in touch. She has done a great job of finding great ways to
partner with other people and build her business and it’s pretty neat to see her grow.
James: Partnering ala Brandscaping.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. She’s like a master brandscaper. She’s started a whole group of female owned
contracting businesses that all refer each other. It’s pretty amazing.
James: Partnering and niching?
Andrew: Yes.
James: On her own.
Andrew: That’s right. You got it.
James: Wow. See how this is, this has all comes full circle.
Andrew: It comes – you know what? I have trouble thinking any other way. It’s like ingrained in me.
James: My friend, you have a gift. You absolutely have a gift.
Hey one more personal thing, talk to me about who did you read coming up or through during your
career at Tippingpoint and any book – I mean, I bet you’ve read the Napoleon Hills and the selfimprovements, self motivating all the best businesses (crosstalks).
Andrew: Yes sure.
James: What really stood out in your mind to being a writer yourself, really inspired you?
Andrew: Oh, man. Well the book, the Tippingpoint by Malcolm Gladwell James: Right.
Andrew: - is a must-read marketing book. I mean, if you haven’t read – the Tippingpoint I think is still on
the New York Times bestseller. It was 15 years after it was first published and it is a phenomenally
wonderful read. It’s – I think it’s well written and no offense to Malcolm Gladwell but I don’t love his
other books. So that book alone I think is a great book. On the very practical front, Getting Things Done,
I think was a mind-altering book for me, help me organize on my big ideas and not forget them. I don’t if
you’ve read GTD.
James: No, no. Who is the author?
Andrew: Oh, my Lord. I don’t remember.
James: That’s okay.
Andrew: I’ll have to look it up and I’ll shoot you an email.
James: I’ll look up it.
Andrew: Thanks.
James: I want to say it’s like Do the Work and I’m a Pressfield fan.
Andrew: Well, that’s a good read, too.
James: Yeah. Do the Work, he did War of Art.
Andrew: Yeah.
James: War of Art, Out of War, War of Art and he did Turning Pro. But Get Things Done...
Andrew: Oh, it’s David Allen, David Allen.
James: Got it- Beautiful.
Andrew: Yes. So Getting Things Done is a great book and it’s very practical. It’s like hey, start it right now
by cleaning off your desk and organizing your ideas and I found that really helpful. And then I think
somewhere in the middle is a book called the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I don’t know if you’ve
read that one.
James: I have not.
Andrew: But that’s definitely. It first of all is a masterfully written book and it kind of puts these
beautiful and really inspiring stories about how people have changed their habits for the better,
interwoven with kind of the science behind how habits work. And then some at the very end, a very
short chapter on how to kind of practically understand and influence your habits so that you’re making a
bigger impact every day and that book has stuck with me. And funnily enough, it’s stuck with me even
outside of just the habits but finding ways to leverage that insight and understand how habits are form
to then change the way I market as a result. So it’s pretty powerful book. So those are three books I
think all varying degrees of complexity and inspiration that have stuck with me over the years.
James: That’s great news the last one how you’re able to apply that to yourself as well as to your craft.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s a pretty pheno – I mean, the Power of Habit is really – it’s like a – it’s very big set of
lessons, you know, what triggers people to do things and how does the mind work and there are lessons
in there that’s – was just – they kind of stick with you. It’s the kind of thing when you’re in the shower
and you’re thinking wow, I shower the same way every day, what triggers me to do this and if I was
selling soap how would I change someone’s habit to pick up, I don’t know gel, shower gel instead of a
soap bar. It’s pretty amazing. So it’s worth the read if you’re like that kind of thing.
James: Oh, yeah. You’re always flipping things over. What – and I know you and I read this Always Asked
What If.
Andrew: Yes.
James: That’s a quoteof yours.
Andrew: That’s – yeah. I’m a big fan of what if. I think most marketers and most entrepreneurs stop
short of the big idea because they don’t ask what if and just simply challenging yourself. What if we did
something different or the world worked a different way? And I think most of the great inventions and
changes in our world have come out of just asking what if enough. So that you really come up with
something new and inspiring instead of just a simple and small twist on what everybody else is doing. I
think those are necessarily earth shattering or groundbreaking or the kinds of things that drive the
biggest revenue. So don’t be afraid to ask what if.
James: What if equals innovation.
Andrew: Yeah. I think so and inspiration for me.
James: Absolutely, absolutely.
Andrew: I think those are the big ideas and the fun.
James: Oh, good stuff man. Good stuff.
Andrew: Yeah.
James: Wow. This is a – this 30 minutes went away too fast.
Andrew: That was 30 minutes? Oh, my gosh.
James: Yeah. Listen, I’m respectful of your time. I just wanted to kind of round out. Tell us all about what
you’re going, where you’re speaking, if you’re working on any new projects and lastly how we can
contact you.
Andrew: Sure.
James: So tell us what’s going on.
Andrew: Sure. Well, let’s see. What I’m doing? So I’m speaking, I speak about 50 days a year all around
the world, I have some fun ones. I’m going to Helsinki and Europe this spring. I’m speaking at Content
Marketing World with Kevin Spacey in September which is a huge event. So anyone in the Cleveland
area or interested in content marketing should look up Content Marketing World, it’s going to be a
phenomenal conference. And then on the writing front, I’m working on a book right now called “Stake
Your Claim” which is actually all about how small towns and cities are rebuilding themselves by focusing
on the very niche things that make them successful. So that’s an interesting piece of research I’m doing
with all these travel. So that would be fun and if you’re looking to get in touch with me, you can always
find me on Twitter I’m at TPLDrew and you can find me at akaDrewDavis.com which you already said
online or if you really got excited and inspired by our chat today and you really want to talk with me, you
even can call me. I’m happy to take your call. To anyone listening to the podcast so my phone numbers
(617) 286-4409 I woild be happy to chat with you about anything you’ve heard today or tell you the
behind the scenes scoop on how great James is.
James: Wow. And what an accessible guy, you’re giving a phone number out. That’s unbelievable.
Andrew: Well, people still use the phone, you know.
James: I have, they do. They do and actually when we first talk prior to this podcast, we talked on the
phone.
Andrew: On the telephone it was great. It was amazing. It still works.
James: I didn’t know how to use it. You’ve been so generous with your time Andrew Davis. Thank you so
much for being on the podcast.
Andrew: Thank you for having me, anytime.
James: You’re very welcome, sir and you have yourself a wonderful day and enjoy all that traveling.
We’ll look forward to hearing how everything works out.
Andrew: Yeah.
James: And we look forward to the new book as well.
Andrew: Oh, thank you so much. I’ll let you know when it’s out.
James: Sounds good. Thank you, sir. Take care.
Andrew: Bye.
James: All right, I hope you enjoy our chat today with Mr. Andrew Davis. Please visit Andrew at
akadrewdavis.com or on Twitter at TPLDrew that’s T-P-L-D-R-E-W on Twitter. You can find the show
notes and the highlights of this interview at bigvaluebigbusiness.com/episode11 that’s episode 11 or
just go to bigvaluebigbusiness.com and type Andrew into the search box for easy access. Hey and while
you’re on the site, take a second to leave a comment for us either about this interview or about the
podcast overall or tell me what you would like to hear us talk about, any questions or challenges you
have with your business, I would love to be able to find the expert that would have the answers you
need and have them on the podcast. So talk to me at bigvaluebigbusiness.com and lastly, I really hope
we brought some big value into your day today, you take care and I’ll be talking to you real soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Big Value Big Business Podcast at www.bigvaluebigbusiness.com.

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Andrew Davis – Great Partnerships, Great Stories & Highly Targeted Audiences

  • 1. BigValueBigBusiness.com Andrew Davis AKADrewDavis.com Author of the book: BrandScaping Transcript James: All right. Welcome back my friends to yet another edition of the Big Value Big Business Podcast. I am your James Lynch. I am really big, big, big time super excited about our very special guest today his name is Mr. Andrew Davis. Andrew comes to us from akadrewdavis.com. Andrew is the author of the Amazon bestselling marketing book Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships. Andrew is a highly sought-after and respected content marketer and he is also very much in demand as a dynamic keynote speaker, educating and entertaining on all things to do with marketing. So let’s say hello to Andrew Davis today. Andrew, how are you today, sir? Andrew: I’m good. Thanks James. Thanks for having me on. This is fun. James: Absolutely man. I’m so excited. But you know I really want to thank you for coming on the podcast for one and I’m really super excited to get your innovative perspective on how we as entrepreneurs and business owners can successfully take our business and our brand to amazingly new heights in this brand new year 2014. Sound like plan? Andrew: Yes. Sounds like a plan. It’s the right time to do it. James: Rock and roll. Cool man. So first can we just get a little bit of history about you. I like my audience to learn a little bit about who Andrew Davis is, where you came from and a little bit about your journey that brought you here to where you are today. Andrew: Yeah sure. Well, I mean, I started my career in the television and film business. So I come at it from it maybe a little bit of bizarre perspective but I started in the television business, working in local television, and producing. I produced a local call and radio show or call it like – call and television show, sorry. On Sunday mornings there was a medical calling show so there was a bunch of hypochondriacs calling in, trying to talk to the doctor. It was called Doctors on Call and that was a fun show to do. Then I also produced the nightly call and talk show with the rightwing Republican host who was firing up the audience to call in and yell at him so that was really fun and then I moved on from there to basically produce for a lot of the cable television news networks. So CNN and Fox News were just starting up. This is in the ‘90s. MSNBC was just new on the scene, CNBC, CNN, Fox that was kind of my bread-and-butter and produced for the Today Show. I wrote for Charles Kuralt.
  • 2. James: Hmm? Andrew: If anyone is anyone is old enough to remember Charles Kuralt. James: My hand is up. Andrew: Okay. Good. But I learned a lot about writing great television from him and then I got dream job at the Jim Henson Company working with the Muppets. So I worked for the Muppets for two years. Yes, and it was also a lot of fun and then it was the dotcom boom in the late 1990s and everybody was making tons of money marketing …..dotcom startups and I decided I was making no money on television and maybe I should take what I have learnt and tried to apply it in the marketing world so I started working for bunch of startups. And then in 2001, I founded my own marketing agency with the guy named Jim Cosco who is a journalist. So both of us had no agency or marketing experience really but we decided that if we just told great stories you could inspire people to buy things they didn’t know they needed. And as a lesson I learned at the Jim Henson Company, I mean, you can go on Amazon right now and search for Sesame Street brand and products and you’ll find 24,000 results that’s selling you plush dolls and pillow cases and sleeping bags and party supplies and I realized that no one needed a Grover plush doll before the Sesame Street came around and you didn’t need a Bear in the Big blue House plush doll before bear in the big blue house. So can we use the same methodology just create great content in the online world and inspire people to buy things and that’s how Tippingpoint Labs took off. So in the last 11 or 12 years I built and then sold Tippingpoint Labs and wrote Brandscaping which is kind of a compilation of the 12 years of insight into marketing that I’ve compiled. And in the last year and a half or so, I’ve just been traveling around the world speaking to people and trying to help everybody inspire them to kind of reach out to a valuable audience and inspire them to buy whatever you’re selling. So it’s been a lot of fun and a long journey. That seems long, James? James: No, no. It’s fantastic. What a great story that you just followed your instincts and your dream. And I usually ask, have you always been an entrepreneur and at what point was but I mean, you brought that right in around 2001, you decided to go on your own. Andrew: Yeah. James: And start the Tippingpoint. Andrew: Yup. James: At that point in time, often time inspiring entrepreneurs, they don’t think that they really are good enough to teach others or they don’t think that they really have anything to offer. Let alone, have anything to offer people and to have them actually pay for it. Your early value propositions, what made you think that you could tell these stories and actually make a living? Andrew: Well, I think a big part of diving into the entrepreneurship world I guess is making sure that you’re offering something that you can differentiate based on either your experience or your expertise and I realized that there are lots of marketing companies and agencies out there selling very traditional marketing services that claim to help you tell your story, but no one was focusing on telling the story the audience wanted to hear and a story that would inspire people to buy things and I realized that as
  • 3. journalists and television producers that’s what we’re really good at, telling great stories that the audience would engage with and I felt that was pretty easy to convince potential brands that we could do a better job telling stories given that we came from that world… both Jim and I we’re storytellers for a living. We weren’t marketers. And I think that’s – I think most entrepreneurs need to ask the same question: What makes your business different than everybody else’s and how can your experience and expertise play into that? Instead of copying what everybody else is doing. James: Yeah, yeah. And you brought up a really good point to about teaching businesses and brands to look outwardly not telling their story but telling the story of the person that they’re trying to attract. Andrew: Yeah, you – I mean, I think to be successful in today’s marketing landscape, you have to really think about an audience first approach. Can you create content or inspire an audience who has never thought of buying what you sell whether it’s a service or a product to buy it? And I think you can best do that by understanding who you’re going after. You can’t be everything to everyone. You have to be something to someone and when you’re something to someone, you’re able to actually sell to them very efficiently and effectively. James: Yeah, I love that. That’s fantastic. Let me ask you, I’m just going to go back in the span of 2001 that 12, 13, 14 years, give me one of your biggest challenges that maybe – I know this is – I’ll get too personal but emotional or just something that – something you got stuck with that you finally were able to break through. I’m looking for a really good phoenix rising. I don’t know. You’re pretty pumped out, dude. I don’t think that you’ve stumbled at all on your career. Andrew: Oh, that’s – I mean, look being an entrepreneur is about stumbling lot. James: Absolutely. Andrew: And figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I mean, the agency business is kind of a bizarre world and I think we were constantly trying to reinvent ourselves and maybe that was – I mean, there were good things that came of it but it causes lots of turmoil and I think we would have been better off even over the course of the 11 or 12 years. We’re building the agency to just keep focus on very simple things instead of over complicating the services we offered in the hopes of building a bigger and better business and we did that too many times. I kind of said, “Hey, look we could – I see an opportunity let’s not just be an agency that tells great stories, let’s do branding or let’s do print stuff or let’s do banner ads or..” And I think there’s a tendency as entrepreneurs, you’ve also got another big idea and that’s Jim Cosco who I founded Tippingpoint with was kind of my levelheaded business partner. He was always the guy that challenged me to stay focused and keep building the business we’ve got instead of the business I think we could build. James: And keep you away from the bright shiny object? Andrew: Yeah. It was easy to chase the next thing you’ve got in your mind. James: Sure. Andrew: And I think that’s what makes a great entrepreneur, can you come up with a great idea and stick with it. I’ve got ADD and so I’m on to the next thing 15 minutes after I came up with the last thing
  • 4. and that’s detrimental. So I think I learned a lot about staying focused and enthusiastic about the things I’m most passionate about instead of the thing I’m passionate about now. If that distinction is clear. James: Absolutely. Absolutely and you’ve taken it – you’ve left the agency, Tippingpoint and now you’re promoting Brandscaping and -- for safe to say you’re a consultant and a speaker. Andrew: Yeah, sure. I don’t do much consulting. James: Nice. Lucky you. Andrew: But yeah, yeah I know what it’s like. I mean, it’s nice to be in the position of kind of taking only the projects you want to take on. So I really can’t complain. James: Yeah, that’s cool. So I want to get back into a little bit just overall Brandscaping. It’s about alliances. Is it about partners and correct me if I’m wrong Andrew: No. James: - but this is the interpretation. Some great stories and I love the Tony Bennett story because he’s near and dear. But can you tell us the one about the Chicken Whisperer? Andrew: Yeah, sure. Yeah. I think a big part of – like marketing of all, it’s all about kind of trying to tell your message to as many people as possible, as often as you can and I think in the online world, you’ve got this opportunity to dive really, really deep. And what’s interesting – I mean, the Chicken Whisperer essentially is a guy named Andy Schneider who is really into backyard poultry, right? So he raises chickens in his backyard and he started raising chickens in his backyard to teach his kids where eggs came from. When his kids came from school one day and said, “Dad like where do we get eggs? Where are they made?” And Andy was like, “Are you kidding me? I got to fix this problem.” So he bought some chicks and started raising them and he wrote a book called the Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Backyard Poultry which you can find on Amazon and then he started a two-hour long radio show online on Blog Talk Radio every single day, so Monday thru Thursday actually so four days a week from I think noon until two. He does a lot of radio show and it only attracts the highest value chicken backyard poultry enthusiasts. So he has about 20,000 people every week who listen to this. Yes seriously. It’s two hours of backyard poultry talk you can’t miss. He has guest on every day. He gives away some chicken coops. He’s got real following. James: They love this? Andrew: Yeah, it’s really crazy. So essentially Tractor Supply is like the Wal-Mart of the agricultural world, right? And Tractor Supply realized that he – that Andy Schneider and the Chicken Whisperer brand was something that in the marketplace inspired a lot of people to try backyard poultry and get into it and raise their own chickens. So what they did was they partnered with Andy Schneider and invited him to visit their stores during April and May which they called Chick Days where they basically have lots of baby chicks that you can then buy and raise on your own and he comes and does like a fourhour seminar on how to raise chickens and he signs books and he helps you get excited and start smart with the Chicken Whisperer. And he gets about 150 to 300 people at every one of these events. James: Wow.
  • 5. Andrew: And all those people, they buy chicks about 100 chicks were sold in every one of these events and then when you buy a chick, you don’t just buy the chick and go home. You have to buy lights to keep them warm. You have to buy chicken feed. So essentially at every store, he drives about $21,000 in new revenue every time he speaks and that kind of partnership is really unique. It’s just people interested in chickens. It’s a really deep fractal node, I call it on this tree of people that are interested in something agricultural or farming and he’s able to actually drive real revenue. So for everybody out there, every entrepreneur, small business listening, it’s about really diving in and finding your own chicken whisperer, asking yourself who was the audience that I can be very relevant to, that I can inspire their passion and actually sell them whatever I sell. James: Yeah, I like that term, that fractal node. I would ask you to expand on that just a little bit more were – just it’s so important. You and I had an off line discussion about audiences in general and people sell themselves shorter or even shoot themselves on the foot when they think maybe that they’re starting too small. And can you expand on how that? Expand on that. Andrew: Yeah. James: Can you just explain how that starting small can grow into something big? Andrew: I mean, I think – I mean, there’s this concept we called fractal marketing, right? So fractal is a self-similar repeating pattern. If you just imagine for a second a picture of a tree you write. The trunk of the tree is any online audience. Let’s say you’re trying to sell to people who travel, okay? So the trunk of the tree might be travel but if you start splitting that tree up into the branches and you just crop and rotate anyone branch, it then looks like the branch that you just cropped and rotated to make it look like a trunk is now a new trunk to a valuable community, right? So if you take business travel versus let’s say leisure travel. Those are two different branches and if you want to be relevant to them, you have to talk about very different things, right? If I’m a business traveler, I don’t care how much the ticket costs generally because they’re my company, right? I want to stay at a nicer hotel. I don’t care about the amenities necessarily because I’m just going to my room, I’m sleeping, I’m getting up and I’m leaving. I have a very different set of needs so versus leisure travel where I’m traveling with kids. It’s a whole different way to talk to someone. So in the online world, if the deeper you go, the more valuable your content can be and the more relevant you can be. So if you’re a travel agent, who is trying to get businesses to sign up with you, you’re much better off not talking about resort deals and exclusive or inclusive opportunities. You’re actually better off talking about how you communicate with prospective business or how to get the best business deals for 10 people traveling to a conference or all of a sudden you’re speaking to me, the business traveler and I’m more relevant. Your service is always more relevant to me. So the deeper you go, the more valuable you can be and you can actually charge your premium for that service instead of just being a travel agent for everyone. You can be a travel agent only for business travelers who travel 10 times a year or more then I know it’s worth paying you. Does that make sense? James: Absolutely. No, no. Because I’m going to tell you straight out, one I’m a consultant and I do some paid advertising and I have in the travel industry just a student travel which is a whole other. Andrew: There you go.
  • 6. James: It’s so great that you use that as an example because I totally know the difference between a leisure travel, a business travel and then a student travel. Andrew: That’s right. James: A student travel we’re speaking to Paris, we’re speaking at one level to the student, and another level to the teachers. So it makes so much sense and that was a great example you give me. I appreciate that. Andrew: I mean, you can even go on deeper, right? Like my wife was one of those – I know there are lot of these people that like right after they graduate they take a three-month like tour of Europe and they do it on their own. James: To find myself. Andrew: Yes, to find myself journey. My wife did that. James: The purge. Andrew: That’s right the purge. So like that if you just went after that audience alone, that’s an opportunity. The hey the graduation gift traveler. James: Oh, my goodness. That’s fantastic. I’m writing that one down. Andrew: There you go. We just made it up. But if you can build an entire entrepreneurial business just around those people, in fact, there’s probably a business in there for just people who have extended layovers. That’s how deep you’ve got to think. James: Okay. So this is the point in time where I usually ask…..give us an example but you brought me to a real good places we’ve identified but we’ve niched it down to the smallest fingerprint. Andrew: Yeah. James: Where do we find them? Andrew: Sure. Well, they’re actually a lot easier to find than you think. Like if you go down deep enough in that travel tree, you’ll end up on a node that’s people who like to travel for leisure reasons and sit on the beach but always travel with their dog. And if you start looking for destinations online where those people are having those conversations and always travel with their dog, you’ll end up at a place like Fido Friendly, okay? So if you go to FidoFriendly.com right now, you’ll see that Fido Friendly is a magazine, an online community and even a Sirius Satellite radio show that is just for people who travel with their dogs. It’s not even for people who travel with their cats or their parakeets, it’s just for people who travel with their dogs. James: Wow.
  • 7. Andrew: And there are 500,000 every week, who listen to the serious satellite radio show on fighter friendly. And if you’re a hotel chain or a travel agent, you’re just targeting that specific market and understanding their needs and what they’re looking for in a resort. They want a place that has doggie bags for their dogs or even dog walkers on call like all of a sudden you’ve got yourself a really smart node that you can market towards. And it’s easy to find these people if you’re looking for something specific. It’s very hard if you’re just looking for anyone who travels because that’s everyone, right? So searching for them online, looking for magazines that might target them, looking for LinkedIn groups or Facebook groups. There’s a Facebook Group for meatloaf sucks, it’s got 300,000 members. If you’re trying to sell to people who hate meatloaf, there’s no better place to go than Facebook sucks. I mean, meatloaf sucks on Facebook. James: I love it. I love it. That’s great. So the more special the group, I mean, often times the old niche research kind of internet marketing niche research go to a magazine rack and look that., Andrew: Yeah. James: What types of specialty magazine that would have or you can go online to a magazine seller, reseller and look, but that’s great…that’s fantastic in looking for these and then just Googling your fingers off that’s... Andrew: Yeah, yeah. James: It’s great. It’s great. James: That is – well, that’s some good stuff. Let’s talk about Andrew you’re self-proported high energy. You’re a high energy guy. How does – how do you stay motivated? What’s – any rituals for productivity, accountability, how do you set your goals and how do you struck for them each and every day? Andrew: Well, that’s a great question. I mean, I guess – I mean, primarily I think I’m motivated on the revenue front. You know what I mean? James: Sure. Andrew: As a marketer, it’s pretty easy to get sidetracked with all sorts of other wonderful metrics, right? Like you live in this data over-load where I could look to my Google Analytics and say 10,000 people read my webpage yesterday versus the day before. This is great. I’m doing well. But I think at the end of the day, I’m really motivated by either seeing my revenue rise or my businesses revenue rise in a concerted and focused way and I think that’s when it’s the most exciting. From a productivity standpoint, I’m a writer so I write every morning. I try to write from seven to 11 a.m. although, I don’t always. I think like this morning for example James, I got completely sidetracked. So it’s harder for me I think to stay focused. I think one of the best ways to stay focused and accountable… I probably learn running a business, having other people reporting to you or being part of your organization. There’s no better way to make sure you’re staying focused. Now that I’m kind of own my own and just speaking and writing, it’s really easy for me to get sidetracked like I do this morning. And it’s so great to have other people working with you on things. And if there’s one thing I miss about running an agency, it’s having people to work with, bounce ideas off of because it keeps motivated and it keeps me productive and honest. You can say if you’re working alone as an entrepreneur, I think one of the best things to do can be to find someone you can work with even if they’re not working on the same project but similar categories or similar audience or similar
  • 8. market or similar product even and spend time concerted effort time working together to make both of your products better. James: Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to ask you in… This is a resounding topic that I hear over and over again with entrepreneurs like yourself, get in a mastermind or get a group of small – a small group of individuals where you can bounce ideas off. It doesn’t have to be in the same niche, the same market but just there’s accountability, there are these ideas. I mean, I’ve heard some guys have poured their hearts out. I mean, hearts out in saying I’ve had – I was a mastermind. These guys talked me off the ledge, you know what I mean? Andrew: Yeah. James: They talked me off the ledge so. Have you experience that or (crosstalks) Andrew: Yeah. Well, you know what is I’ve probably seen more out I’ve been on my own. It’s not something I took advantage off when I was running Tippingpoint or maybe it was because we’re growing and I always had people at the organization I could bounce ideas off of. But I met a woman named Stephanie who runs a company called Coastal Windows. I mean, she sells windows and sliding and she’s a contractor. She’s a female contractor in a world…. sea full of male dominated business and she actually created a business book club and the only reason I found her was they chose my book to read and she reached out in us if I would be willing to Skype with her book club. James: Oh, wow. Andrew: But what’s really interesting about her book club is it has become a group of like-minded women who are all entrepreneurs even in her category, there are all home improvement people. Someone is a designer, someone is an architect and they all get together once a month to talk about something that they’ve read together and they’d also talked about the business issues they’re facing and I think she finds it inspiring reinforcement through a group of peers who are all looking for new business ideas and even a book club, let alone a mastermind group can be a productive way to keep inspired and bounce your ideas off of other like-minded individuals. So it’s a really interesting way to stay connected, I would say. James: That’s great. I mean, I may have to get in touch with Stephanie. Andrew: Yeah, you should James: Coastal Windows. Andrew: Yeah, Coastal Windows. I’ll put you in touch. She has done a great job of finding great ways to partner with other people and build her business and it’s pretty neat to see her grow. James: Partnering ala Brandscaping. Andrew: Yeah, yeah. She’s like a master brandscaper. She’s started a whole group of female owned contracting businesses that all refer each other. It’s pretty amazing. James: Partnering and niching?
  • 9. Andrew: Yes. James: On her own. Andrew: That’s right. You got it. James: Wow. See how this is, this has all comes full circle. Andrew: It comes – you know what? I have trouble thinking any other way. It’s like ingrained in me. James: My friend, you have a gift. You absolutely have a gift. Hey one more personal thing, talk to me about who did you read coming up or through during your career at Tippingpoint and any book – I mean, I bet you’ve read the Napoleon Hills and the selfimprovements, self motivating all the best businesses (crosstalks). Andrew: Yes sure. James: What really stood out in your mind to being a writer yourself, really inspired you? Andrew: Oh, man. Well the book, the Tippingpoint by Malcolm Gladwell James: Right. Andrew: - is a must-read marketing book. I mean, if you haven’t read – the Tippingpoint I think is still on the New York Times bestseller. It was 15 years after it was first published and it is a phenomenally wonderful read. It’s – I think it’s well written and no offense to Malcolm Gladwell but I don’t love his other books. So that book alone I think is a great book. On the very practical front, Getting Things Done, I think was a mind-altering book for me, help me organize on my big ideas and not forget them. I don’t if you’ve read GTD. James: No, no. Who is the author? Andrew: Oh, my Lord. I don’t remember. James: That’s okay. Andrew: I’ll have to look it up and I’ll shoot you an email. James: I’ll look up it. Andrew: Thanks. James: I want to say it’s like Do the Work and I’m a Pressfield fan. Andrew: Well, that’s a good read, too. James: Yeah. Do the Work, he did War of Art.
  • 10. Andrew: Yeah. James: War of Art, Out of War, War of Art and he did Turning Pro. But Get Things Done... Andrew: Oh, it’s David Allen, David Allen. James: Got it- Beautiful. Andrew: Yes. So Getting Things Done is a great book and it’s very practical. It’s like hey, start it right now by cleaning off your desk and organizing your ideas and I found that really helpful. And then I think somewhere in the middle is a book called the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I don’t know if you’ve read that one. James: I have not. Andrew: But that’s definitely. It first of all is a masterfully written book and it kind of puts these beautiful and really inspiring stories about how people have changed their habits for the better, interwoven with kind of the science behind how habits work. And then some at the very end, a very short chapter on how to kind of practically understand and influence your habits so that you’re making a bigger impact every day and that book has stuck with me. And funnily enough, it’s stuck with me even outside of just the habits but finding ways to leverage that insight and understand how habits are form to then change the way I market as a result. So it’s pretty powerful book. So those are three books I think all varying degrees of complexity and inspiration that have stuck with me over the years. James: That’s great news the last one how you’re able to apply that to yourself as well as to your craft. Andrew: Yeah. It’s a pretty pheno – I mean, the Power of Habit is really – it’s like a – it’s very big set of lessons, you know, what triggers people to do things and how does the mind work and there are lessons in there that’s – was just – they kind of stick with you. It’s the kind of thing when you’re in the shower and you’re thinking wow, I shower the same way every day, what triggers me to do this and if I was selling soap how would I change someone’s habit to pick up, I don’t know gel, shower gel instead of a soap bar. It’s pretty amazing. So it’s worth the read if you’re like that kind of thing. James: Oh, yeah. You’re always flipping things over. What – and I know you and I read this Always Asked What If. Andrew: Yes. James: That’s a quoteof yours. Andrew: That’s – yeah. I’m a big fan of what if. I think most marketers and most entrepreneurs stop short of the big idea because they don’t ask what if and just simply challenging yourself. What if we did something different or the world worked a different way? And I think most of the great inventions and changes in our world have come out of just asking what if enough. So that you really come up with something new and inspiring instead of just a simple and small twist on what everybody else is doing. I think those are necessarily earth shattering or groundbreaking or the kinds of things that drive the biggest revenue. So don’t be afraid to ask what if.
  • 11. James: What if equals innovation. Andrew: Yeah. I think so and inspiration for me. James: Absolutely, absolutely. Andrew: I think those are the big ideas and the fun. James: Oh, good stuff man. Good stuff. Andrew: Yeah. James: Wow. This is a – this 30 minutes went away too fast. Andrew: That was 30 minutes? Oh, my gosh. James: Yeah. Listen, I’m respectful of your time. I just wanted to kind of round out. Tell us all about what you’re going, where you’re speaking, if you’re working on any new projects and lastly how we can contact you. Andrew: Sure. James: So tell us what’s going on. Andrew: Sure. Well, let’s see. What I’m doing? So I’m speaking, I speak about 50 days a year all around the world, I have some fun ones. I’m going to Helsinki and Europe this spring. I’m speaking at Content Marketing World with Kevin Spacey in September which is a huge event. So anyone in the Cleveland area or interested in content marketing should look up Content Marketing World, it’s going to be a phenomenal conference. And then on the writing front, I’m working on a book right now called “Stake Your Claim” which is actually all about how small towns and cities are rebuilding themselves by focusing on the very niche things that make them successful. So that’s an interesting piece of research I’m doing with all these travel. So that would be fun and if you’re looking to get in touch with me, you can always find me on Twitter I’m at TPLDrew and you can find me at akaDrewDavis.com which you already said online or if you really got excited and inspired by our chat today and you really want to talk with me, you even can call me. I’m happy to take your call. To anyone listening to the podcast so my phone numbers (617) 286-4409 I woild be happy to chat with you about anything you’ve heard today or tell you the behind the scenes scoop on how great James is. James: Wow. And what an accessible guy, you’re giving a phone number out. That’s unbelievable. Andrew: Well, people still use the phone, you know. James: I have, they do. They do and actually when we first talk prior to this podcast, we talked on the phone. Andrew: On the telephone it was great. It was amazing. It still works.
  • 12. James: I didn’t know how to use it. You’ve been so generous with your time Andrew Davis. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Andrew: Thank you for having me, anytime. James: You’re very welcome, sir and you have yourself a wonderful day and enjoy all that traveling. We’ll look forward to hearing how everything works out. Andrew: Yeah. James: And we look forward to the new book as well. Andrew: Oh, thank you so much. I’ll let you know when it’s out. James: Sounds good. Thank you, sir. Take care. Andrew: Bye. James: All right, I hope you enjoy our chat today with Mr. Andrew Davis. Please visit Andrew at akadrewdavis.com or on Twitter at TPLDrew that’s T-P-L-D-R-E-W on Twitter. You can find the show notes and the highlights of this interview at bigvaluebigbusiness.com/episode11 that’s episode 11 or just go to bigvaluebigbusiness.com and type Andrew into the search box for easy access. Hey and while you’re on the site, take a second to leave a comment for us either about this interview or about the podcast overall or tell me what you would like to hear us talk about, any questions or challenges you have with your business, I would love to be able to find the expert that would have the answers you need and have them on the podcast. So talk to me at bigvaluebigbusiness.com and lastly, I really hope we brought some big value into your day today, you take care and I’ll be talking to you real soon. Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Big Value Big Business Podcast at www.bigvaluebigbusiness.com.