Radical Podcast - Ryan sits down with Tyler Harris

 Hey guys this is Ryan Alford really excited about another episode of the
 Radical Company podcast I'm joined today by a good friend and actually my
 first guest on the Radical Company podcast lots changed but the basement of your
 house I know right like a Saturday night a little nice you know we give
 you a call lighting it wasn't like this dark cave but Tyler Harris joins me
 today Tyler and I go back a number of years won't rehash everything but good
 friends doing a lot of things together in the community but just someone that
 I really look up to and follow all his content Tyler is in a lot of mediums
 these days we're gonna get to that but Tyler I'd love to you know just start
 with welcoming you back and you know no one can put it into your own words but
 you know kind of give everyone a little bit of that background and kind of you
 know a little bit about you and you know what's brought you here today cool
 man I appreciate it appreciate being on here and am I the first returning guest
 yes you are hey you're gonna be the first of be I'm Tyler Harris Greenville
 South Carolina actually live two doors down from Ryan's things extremely
 convenient I say that but I'm the worst neighbor of all time like I when I get
 home I just I'm home I don't really socialize at all I'm the same way so I really
 don't ever met the person that lives between us but anyways we mean the
 middle though sometimes like it's like we're playing with kids in the yard on
 the four wheeler yesterday you know you never know but yeah so my story really is
 pretty ordinary as far as my upbringing great family all that went to Clemson
 University which Ryan did as well so we had that in common came back to
 Greenville after school became a financial advisor and then you know life
 happened I had a lot of difficult painful things that that occurred over
 over a few years a business failure a marriage failure and just went through a
 period of time where I was pretty content with playing the victim you know this
 business failed because of this person in that situation my marriage failed
 because of what she did and this and that just was really using that as an
 excuse to be lazy I had a fear of of going all in again that it would be taken
 away from me because of those situations having having been taken away from me
 and in the way that they were and and just really a downward spiral until
 ultimately I was depressed broke I was in debt I had a shape I was you know pretty
 much winning at every area of life it was you know as as cliche is rock bottom is
 it was pretty much that for me had one of those moments you know taking
 ownership and understanding that everything was my fault and realizing that I
 was in that situation because of the decisions and the things that I had done
 and that if I had gotten myself in that situation I could get myself out of it
 and around that time some mentors came into my life and really just breathe
 confidence back into me confidence was at an all-time low and they happened to
 be in the insurance business and they gave me an opportunity there kind of
 jokingly say if they had been in the you know rubber band business that I'd be
 the greatest rubber band salesman right now but they were an
 insurance and they gave me an opportunity and it was the perfect opportunity for
 the situation that I was in to bring me out of that funk because it was very
 fast paced highly transactional I could put in effort and get a reward quickly
 which built my confidence back up and I just became obsessed with that process
 if I did this much work I got this much reward if I did 2x3 x4 x5 x it was
 you know exponentially greater rewards that was a perfect scenario for me to be
 in to build myself back up from the bottom those mentors became like brothers
 to me and now our business partners as well but over that period of time just
 to give people some context I mean I was broke I had to borrow the money to get
 involved in the business and from there 12 months later had made over 300
 grand in commissions 1099 commissions selling insurance the next 12 months
 over 450 the next 12 months over 650 the next 12 months became a partner in
 that company achieved that quote-unquote millionaire status on paper whenever
 it means and if you got a good life insurance policy we're all million
 yeah right if I did I dive in there yeah multi but you know things had had
 progressed rapidly and over those first two years I didn't even change you
 know my job status on my personal Facebook profile I said my head down and
 went to work I didn't tell anybody what I was doing I just went out there and
 executed and about two years in after I had had that first year of success second
 year of increased success I realized that I'd really made a huge mistake not
 documenting that process and I knew the biggest mistake I could make from
 there was not starting and so that's really when I started documenting my life on
 social media it was January of 2017 so you know just now two years and that has
 taken me to where we are today in the discussions that we'll probably have
 about social media but it's really just having gone all in on wanting to give
 people a truly authentic view of what it looks like to be successful that it's
 not easy that there isn't a course or mastermind you can join in and make
 six figures in six days or become a millionaire in six months that that all
 these things are ridiculous that it's that it's it's insane hard work over time
 and that's the winning recipe and wanted to show people the the good bad
 Andy ugly and so there's you know videos out there of me and my car after being
 on the road for 11 straight days working crazy hours like you know in tears
 because I'm about to walk into my hotel again and I wanted to be home with my at
 that time you know six and a little daughter and and that there's always a
 sacrifice when you're trying to do something great and so showing you know
 every side of it and and the response has been great as we built this the
 personal branding over the last two years and you know we've had a week in
 the last two years where the reach has been over 49 million while the
 different platforms that we have and and it's been it's been a humbling
 experience it's been a very interesting experience I'm sure we'll get into
 some of that but it's become a huge passion for me it's just a way to put out
 information to pay it forward because I realized that those mentors came into
 my life at such a fragile period of time and if not for them I don't know where
 I would be and so social media in the content that we put out is my way of
 hoping to be that for somebody else to some degree not you know I can't be
 a mentor to everybody but I can possibly provide a podcast episode like this
 where someone hears this and they're like man this guy was like rock bottom
 some people came into his life and things changed quickly like I wonder what
 if that could happen for me like I'm at rock bottom like to try to be that spark
 for somebody is really all I want to do and so we don't monetize any the stuff
 that I do on social media there's never been a button to click to buy or
 subscribe or you know people are getting on to me every day because I don't even
 ask for emails which apparently I'm supposed to do I don't even do that like I don't
 ask for anything because I don't want anything from anybody I truly believe
 that that we are blessed in order to be a blessing to others and that's become
 kind of my new obsession yes is how many more people can can we impact and so
 that kind of brings us to today we got GVL hustle going on with Ryan and I which
 has been a really fun and really challenging project that that we've had
 wanting to give back to the community that we live in and love so much here in
 Greenville but I think we've kind of hit our stride there as well and I think
 we figure some things out which has been another great learning experience but I
 can't say enough about Ryan and about this podcast and the team that you got
 now here it's awesome to watch oh I appreciate that man I mean it's been an
 evolution for sure you know I stepped out of you know the comfort zone of of a
 job started radical you know in a lot of ways it was in my basement you know not
 just I mean it was I mean you know I had the experience which helped you know
 like I can walk into the room and have discussions with clients but you know
 it was me and a computer in a lot of ways starting but I guess that's a
 parallel a little bit is just that old start word you know getting going but
 really excited about all the growth that you've seen you know just to alter it
 a little bit you know here and you know I know your story and you know you're you
 know our audience kind of learning more about you a lot of them probably follow
 you or know certain things but it does bring me especially like tying it into
 like the marketing side of what we do here what do you think now you know two
 years into documenting your companies are that are successful your personal
 brand that's successful the brand word is what comes to me and where my question
 is is like even now okay two years in what is the Tyler Harris brand to you man
 that's that's frustrating and awesome that you asked that because because
 we're really defining that right now as we go into 2019 it's a it's a big
 focus and but I think to take a step back I think it's important that I look
 at what I do on social media as branding right not marketing right exactly not
 selling anything and that's that's exactly why I asked that question is because
 that's the very unique distinction you're probably in the 1% you know of doing
 that and so it's it brings me to this you know and I think I know but I think
 it'd be you know like what do you think and I think I know it's personal
 development and giving back and there's there's certain tenants that you
 talked about already but if you if you had to like right you sound like you're
 in the middle of it but like if you do you look back at your content and go is
 it reflective do you think of of your brand or do you feel like you're you're
 directing the future towards the brand that you want to be I think I'm extremely
 comfortable in seeing my brand as a constantly evolving malleable like moving
 target yeah because I am constantly evolving malleable moving target and and I
 want my brand to be a true reflection of me and the things that I'm going through
 you know it's it's silly to think that you know I've had four and a half years of
 incredible increasing success but there will be pain like there will be
 struggles that will happen like I'm not naive to think that I'm just going to
 continue to have success success success like there's gonna be a bad year you know
 and my brand in that bad year needs to reflect that I'm going through a bad
 year right if I'm doing if I'm truly being transparent and authentic with with
 the people that are following the content and that was my goal from day one I was
 to do that so what I saw was a gap on social media that if someone wants to go
 to Facebook to Instagram to YouTube podcasts whatever they want to learn
 something or they just want to get motivated they need that little inspiration in
 the morning to get you know to get after it there's really just two sets of
 individuals that they can go to the the first is the multi-multi-multi-multi
 millionaire that is awesome and in congratulations there's nothing wrong with
 that but the infrastructure that's built around them the lifestyle that they
 have is unrelatable to the average person in America like it's just completely
 unrelatable then you have the other person or set of people that are trying to
 fake that they're that and I just couldn't find anyone in the middle like it
 couldn't find anyone that had achieved some success but that was real and
 that was authentic and that was showing what it took and that was documenting the
 journey to get there and so that's what I wanted to do was just document I had
 had a certain amount of success over those two years enough to say that's
 interesting that's unique like that's pretty quick to go from that to that but
 I wasn't over here where I was non-relatable I didn't have this crazy lifestyle
 and I didn't have this huge infrastructure and so how how much could I
 possibly document during what I would hope to be a small period of time as I
 continue to level up like you only have so much time where you are right now
 that you can document as much as possible and as you level up and as you level
 up and as you level up to one day being where you shouldn't be relatable you
 remain relatable by hopefully bringing people along with you like hopefully as
 you level up they level up but at the very least they will have watched the whole
 thing play out or they can go back and watch the whole thing play out because
 it's all documented yeah so the brand I think year by year sometimes month by
 month will evolve as I evolve but I think it's based on those you know tenets of
 hard work of transparency of just being a real person like I want people so I
 love doing live content I did a an Instagram and Facebook live yesterday and
 it just kind of re-energized me to do to do more because it's really where I
 where I started all all of my social media presence was live when people get
 on there I asked a question yesterday because someone we were talking about
 sales and marketing and and it was talking about the fact that you have to earn
 the right to ask someone for something you have to earn the right to try to
 sell someone something and you earn that right by providing value and and by
 putting out all this all this content and in building relationships and and
 this woman asked she said so I have to build a personal relationship with
 every single person in order to earn the right to ask them to buy something I'm
 like no no no you don't have to build a personal relationship with every
 individual that's impossible but you have to put out so much content and in a
 transparent way that you may not know them but they know you and I said let's
 just let's just use this as an example I'm like comment below me if you feel like
 you know me if you feel like over the last year two years however long you've
 been following my content you feel like you have a pretty good understanding like
 you know me like pretty well you know me and people start saying me me me me
 and so I started you know listing them out I'm like all right Tiffany Strong she
 just said me I know Tiffany lives in Mississippi I know she loves the weather
 because every time there's some weather pattern headed towards us in Greenville
 she like sends me she sends me a link up about it which I appreciate I know that
 she was driving through Greenville a few months back and we were gonna meet up
 and we didn't I don't know Tiffany all right but Tiffany just said she knows me
 and I like I named off like four or five examples I'm like this guy I know John
 lives in Ohio never talked to him on the phone never met him in person but he just
 said he knows me so it's not about knowing every single person but it's about
 putting out content that's real and authentic so that they feel like they know
 you yeah and I think that's gonna be increasingly important especially as the
 market corrects which some would say that it already has started but as the
 market turns people are gonna do business with people that they feel like they
 know yeah and I think just the mass the vast majority of people underestimate how
 well you can get people to know you just by putting out a consistent message on
 line you know I think it's one of the biggest areas that a people are are
 missing and that luckily you and I and and and some of the others that we you
 are close with are taking advantage of but there's only you know two three four
 more years to where no one will ever be able to catch up and that's what
 excites me is that what we're doing building a personal brand and focusing on
 the branding side that's not all you know marketing and sales that it's it's
 really just capturing attention yeah but I love how Gary be talks about that
 attention like once you've captured it once you've gotten the attention you have
 to earn the right to then ask him for something yeah and to me I just want to
 earn earn earn earn earn earn earn earn as long as possible like if you never have
 to ask for anything that means you're probably doing pretty well yeah with all
 the other things that you have going on because you didn't have to and I think
 that that's an important distinction as people start looking at building a
 personal brand you know most people look at it as okay I'm gonna devote an hour
 two hours three hours to this a day that's gonna take one two three hours away
 from this I would have earned this so I need to figure out a way to earn this here
 all right and so they have to charge and ask for stuff like immediately when
 if you just look at the long term ROI and and just completely punt the short
 term ROI just appearance then you understand that that the branding that you're
 doing which is just your reputation online and in this case social media that
 long term the ROI is invaluable like it's it's priceless and I'm just I'm I'm so
 grateful to have found the Gary V's of the world and the people that have
 follow that kind of you know beat that message into me over the course of
 those first two years while I was just out there just working my face off
 that now I understand that and I feel bad for those that don't like I
 generally because I just feel like they just haven't gotten that message and
 it hasn't sunk in yeah because they knew it they'd probably at least start and
 they'd try it's comfortable so they don't feel like they have to I think it's
 part of it and I think it's it's interesting for me since we bring up Gary
 having been in the addings that he business for 17 18 years and you following his
 content know and especially here here he can talk about he's in Madison he's on
 in New York running an ad agency and so it's been really fascinating to me
 because I lived in that Madison Avenue world of add agencies he was someone I
 followed I was buying his wine in 2006 you know and he's doing wine library
 and watching him suddenly become into my industry yeah and now preaching and
 talking about what he talks about and being now here in Greenville and running
 my own agency knowing that he is speaking the truth about what he says
 things about attention and where no one's watching television and people are
 on social media and you need to be building a personal brand and how my other
 peers I see them comment on Lincoln and other places and they want him to be
 wrong they really hope he's wrong oh yeah you know they want to be wrong because
 they're protecting that that coveted million dollar fee that they've been
 getting for so long or that three hundred fifty thousand dollar thirty second
 commercial they don't want to go away oh yeah and but he is speaking the debt
 I he's no one is a hundred percent right but he's right a lot more than he's
 wrong but it's been really interesting on the marketing and agency side to
 follow his content to having been in the industry that he's in for for longer
 than him quite frankly yeah but and to no deep down and in bringing in what I
 wanted to do with radical bringing some of those tenants to life because he's
 right and and everyone in my industry wants them to be wrong especially in New
 York yeah and I'm big on patterns and he's been historically right a lot yeah
 so if you're gonna follow someone's advice you look at you know their track
 record and he's been right a lot hasn't been wrong that many times in the
 wrongs the the rights have been so far outweighing but I love I love being in a
 in-environment where people still do think you're crazy for doing what you're
 doing because that makes me feel like I'm like I'm I am on the right track because
 people are still making fun of me and people are still like thinking this is
 crazy like why do you have a videographer phone you around and why are you doing
 this and why would you do that I'm like okay then I'm definitely on the right
 track yeah like I love being to say I don't know if it's if it's ahead of the
 curve but definitely forward thinking and what's going on but but also trying to
 figure out what the next big thing is gonna be trying to go where the
 attention is and be there first captures much of it as I possibly can and and
 trying to evolve the the quality and the distribution of the content to be able
 to reach more and more people in different ways and and to me that's that's
 fun it's become very fun and it's something that I've learned from Gary and
 and the whole like watch what I do not you know listen to essay I mean it's
 watch what he does like he's been talking my LinkedIn like crazy lately so I'm
 freaking back on LinkedIn for the first time ever I don't really get it yet but
 like I just been posting on it and I'm just basically just trusting in Gary
 said it's a good thing to do and it's got all this organic reach and you know
 capitalize on it while it's still there and so I'm gonna do it and just you know
 ask questions later so I think that's that's a that's a big part of it is I think
 there's so much research and let me figure all this stuff out let me put this
 big plan together like just do it yeah like like starting a podcast like I love
 that Philip Sessions that started this podcast I was like because when we had the
 last GVO hustle he's like I want to start I'm freaking start a podcast start it
 and he started it and he's doing it like like I love that I love people that
 that just have that initiative to just start and figure it out along the way
 yeah exactly that was that's probably we've had a lot of examples of what I
 think we wanted to get out of GVO hustle not to bounce around on topics but I
 think it's important you know when we started GVO hustle I think I think I
 don't want to put words here mouth but in my mind that was the exact type of
 yeah of manifestation of what I would hope would happen from those events would
 be outputs from people like feeling inspired and engaged and empowered to go
 do it was and that was that was like the first event because it was the fourth
 the fourth or fifth fifth fifth fifth fifth one and yeah it was the first one
 where I left and I was just like that's what we were supposed to do like this is
 what it was supposed to be like yeah man and it was enjoyable it wasn't like a
 wasn't work you know like it wasn't like have to be there it was get to be
 there and get to experience and and it was awesome and there was other things that
 came like with Ted doing the ass Ted like you know like there was a lot of take
 ways I'm huge on Q&A like I love Q&A and I love that we did Q&A at that
 event because you know you answer 10 questions and you get pretty much
 you're able to to provide value for pretty much everybody in the room yeah because
 from 10 questions you're pretty much gonna cover about a hundred people's what
 they really want to know and I love being able to get super tactical with
 people and and answer like what they really want to know like for me to stand
 up and and and again that's another Gary thing but you know for me to stand up
 and just talk most people use that as just their way of being 30 45 minute
 maybe 60 minute commercial for themselves it's very self-serving but to be
 able to provide you know a deep tactical Q&A to me is everything yeah because I
 want to make sure that you know if someone paid to come to an event that they
 got something out of it that they can actually see an ROI and other than just
 relationships yeah which are big but yeah that was that was awesome where do you
 see things going for you in 2019 that feels weird even saying that good grief
 like time is like I told someone the other day that the days are long but the
 years are short yeah you know like really fast like I guess you're getting
 old I'm just waiting for I really can't wait to build out all the content
 strategy for 2020 that way we can talk about vision yeah right seeing the
 future what are you doing tomorrow like being able to use that 2020 parallel yeah
 exactly helpful yeah but what is what's in store for 2019 and you know we
 can talk a little bit about trends and different things but what where do you
 you started living legacy how's that going you know what we we haven't even
 gone public with it yet that's part of the plan 2019 is rolling out this new
 insurance agency that we have created and we've got over 75 agents already on
 board that's gonna be a huge focus of mine but with the with you know the all
 the stuff that we do on social media we've got a lot more strategy involved now
 especially with the podcast finalizing a lot of that actually today and kind of
 creating so I've got the sales rules podcast we just recorded earlier today
 episode 99 and then we've got a party for a hundred I don't know what we're
 thinking about just doing a compilation of just us howling for all 100
 episodes and they enter on the in on the clothes I don't know what I'll do but
 breadwinner podcast think of like 35 or so 36 of those maybe 40 and then I'm
 gonna start a just a solo podcast because breadwinner's more interview it's
 all interview either remote or or in person but starting a solo podcast and
 there's strategy behind this stuff that I you know before I created the
 podcast is because I wanted to have cool conversations with people that are
 doing interesting things and even excuse talk to them you hit somebody up in
 a DM on Instagram hey I want to talk to you for an hour on Thursday they're like
 who are you if you ask somebody ahead of you on my podcast on Thursday hey
 sure just excuse to meet great people that's the way I learn the most and
 and comprehend and retain the most information is by just being in a
 conversation and so never really messed with like the analytics and never
 really cared but now really digging into the strategy behind everything so
 kind of putting everything in the overarching Tyler rebranded with my
 middle name now instead of Tyler Harris page I had a guy the other day
 literally asked me if my last name was page really bother that was that was
 that what sparked it I was wondering I was seeing but and I don't you know see
 people like the real Tyler Harris or the official Tyler Harris Tyler Harris is
 taken I got on Ryan offered in 2008 yeah I was a pretty incredible basketball player
 that he was incredible in high school I think you finally chose Memphis have
 been following him and trying to find like a ton of harding possible scenario to
 take him out but Google's killing me on that so he's kind of got Tyler Harris
 on lock yeah but Tyler Jack Harris on my name is Jack kind of like looking at
 rebranding with Tyler Jack Harris and with the podcast in particular there's
 like this overarching Tyler Harris Tyler Jack Harris collection of things
 what we're gonna call it but underneath that is sales those podcasts which
 comes out on Wednesdays breadwinner podcasts with interviews that come on
 on Friday and then on Monday will be just a solo podcast a short you know
 seven to 15 minute but there's strategy behind this stuff like you have to
 talk in that episode in the beginning about the previous episode so the
 interview that was on last the past Friday given them a quick recap hey if you
 didn't check out the interview that we did on Friday with David Meltzer it was
 incredible he talked about this this and this definitely go check that out and
 hey guys coming up on Friday we're doing an interview with Ryan Allford it's
 gonna be awesome we talked about this this and this definitely make sure you
 subscribe yeah yeah yeah yeah on today's episode we're gonna talk about goal
 setting and then just doing like a literally seven to ten minutes on a topic
 done but the strategy is really using it as the hey did you see this one or did
 you hear this one okay you didn't great go go listen to it and here's what's
 coming on Friday so they can start anticipating it so they can subscribe so
 they can set up the notification so it's really a promotional podcast but also
 has some meat to it so people are getting you know some value out of it and so
 there's a lot of just strategy in the podcasting world on that that we're
 really starting to hone in on so driving the episodic nature of it like coming
 back just in having more of a flow where people know like Monday this is what
 comes out Wednesdays sales voles Fridays breadwinner Thursdays and my
 loving legacy vlog that they know and they can expect and they can know what
 they're gonna get from that from that but the umbrella is Tyler Jack Harris
 yep it'll be Tyler Jack Harris is like the overarching brand and you see this
 you know with with a number of different big podcasts that they have different
 smaller podcasts under the the major brand but yes that's a big thing you know
 moving forward with the vlog the weekly vlog I think we just did episode
 like 14 or 15 so moving forward with that and there's gonna be some transition
 with that and kind of the style of the content and it's really getting laser
 focus man I realized that the live content is just so so important and so trying
 to do a live some live content every single day I think is just paramount when
 I was doing it especially in the first year 2017 did over 400 Facebook
 lives that year and that's the reason I think it grew like it did and it's the
 reason why today people are looking at the it's the same people the people that
 engage the most of my content now are the ones that were engaging in the
 live content that a year and a half two years ago and the correlation is it's
 crazy so the live contents huge and for me that that keeps it transparent like
 you can only fake it so long on that live like yeah I'm really getting to see who
 you are so that's important you can do that on Facebook or Instagram or both
 both simultaneously I like doing that you know bringing back the live Q&A
 it was gonna be a big focus and a big push we did seven of these live Q&A
 shows were actually called in we would have people submit questions and then we
 get their phone number and we call them with a Google line and they'd be you
 know the live content they'd be able to hear the person on the phone so having
 that interaction and having that conversation but other people hear it was
 super we did seven of them they were called live rounds with no hook and we
 did seven of them and every single one of them I ended it by saying this is so
 freaking incredible we gotta start doing this more like I mean we had conversations
 with a dude from Lebanon a dude from Nigeria a lady from the UK someone up in
 Canada and then all over the US and in every single one that we did there was
 like at least one if not two three like crazy impactful conversations yeah like
 insanely impactful like people in tears and like super deep stuff and so that
 you know it's just trying to figure out ways that I can give more and serve more
 and provide more to the people that are following the content because I think
 so many that are building brands on social media take for granted the
 follower the person that's commenting the person that's sharing something and
 man like it means the world to me yeah like I want to do more and more and more
 like in the last three episodes of the vlog at the very end I've done shout outs to
 three people three different people each time that have been following the
 content for for a long time and that have engaged and I so you know this person
 this person this person man I appreciate you so like the messages that you
 sent me the conversations that we've had have met the world to me and and I
 just appreciate you three just to call you know three of them but doing more of
 that like I want to do more like we're looking at doing like a FaceTime Friday type
 deal where there's a specific way that you can you know win or earn somehow get an
 opportunity to do a FaceTime like a 10 15 minute FaceTime we may do a group
 deal like a group Zoom call with 10 15 people and make a little longer just do
 like Q&A with just but specific people that I can like really try to help on
 on a on a higher level and finding ways to like spotlight people like I don't
 sell anything but I don't mind somebody else promoting their business and so
 like giving people an opportunity to do that so where you know someone's
 watching a vlog episode and they see you know you come on and you're able to
 talk about you know you're you're marketing business and they're like crap
 man I'd love to be able to man wish one day I could get on yeah an episode of
 vlog and talk about my you know pest control business right Mississippi yeah
 that would be awesome and then just continuing to do that to where people stay
 super super super engaged that to me is is extremely important yeah I think
 it's it's one of the biggest metrics in social media evaluation is engagement
 but I do think it gets lost in the sauce sometimes of people get so I think
 especially when they get established to a certain degree in the content
 itself and like what they're doing that I think that that engagement you just
 can't forget that that's what the only reason that it matters what you're
 doing is because people are interested in watching and want to engage with
 you in some way yeah but it's interesting dynamic the two because you think
 about I don't engage with much content ever like I said I strategically now
 go into hashtags based around the things that I'm doing and I'll engage for
 like an hour and 90 minutes sometimes per day in like real conversations and
 the comments and stuff but that's like strategic like to me that's like business
 like right I don't ever just scroll through and I don't even like stuff like no
 less comment or share like I can't could not tell you the last time I share
 somebody's post so I'm sitting here like getting frustrated over like people
 not sharing or not commenting I'm like what's last time I share yeah never and
 so I think people take for granted like how how much of an ask it is for someone
 to do that like it's a big deal for someone to see your content read it watch it
 listen to it whatever and then like it and then now they're gonna take time to
 actually put a thought together and comment and now they're actually gonna go
 through the process and share it to all the people that they know like that's a
 big freaking deal yeah and people don't people that are creating the content
 don't don't remember how big of a deal it is yeah and it's super easy to get
 caught up and looking at all these metrics but not understanding what those
 metrics actually mean like that person scrolled through their freaking
 Facebook saw your stuff and spent legit time on it yeah like they like to watch
 a vlog episode that's half an hour I'm like a half hour like that's insane
 like that's a long time like I just appreciate them watching it no less if
 they were to like and comment but that's one thing big with our with our
 content lately is is the the calls to action like it has to be calls to action
 like if there's a post without a call to action it's it's worthless but then
 do you do it in every post and what are the calls to action because it can't be
 you know like if you agree share a few agree and like if you ever see people
 that I hate people like let's say you did a post today and you were like
 comment radical and spell it out and that's or A.D. I'm like kidding me like this
 like to people it's great like I get it like I get what they're trying to do
 and how they're trying to work the algorithm but it's absurd but like calls
 to action that are like thought thought out or thoughtful really is the
 better word they're like hey you know ask him a question like if it's
 something about you know going into the new year like hey what's what's your
 number one top priority biggest goal for next year and what can I do to help
 you you know achieve it yeah and then you have people that are engaging and
 it's real conversations it's not just like a pound emoji all right or like you
 know and I'm guilty of the pound of emoji so like sometimes when we're
 applying when someone replies to me like with a thumbs up I'm kind of like I give
 you a pound back yeah like I'm acknowledging it but I don't know you know
 what I say thank thank you for the thumb or like but down town you man like it's
 just been a week and this is something I learned from Andy the importance
 out and learned it but understood the importance of more talking to Andy is
 engaging in the hashtags like all the different like life insurance insurance
 based hashtags I've been going in and last night like I took probably 20
 screenshots but it happened probably 50 times last night where I went to a
 post I commented something thoughtful like like that's a great point that you
 made there this this and this is so critical people more people need to know
 this like thank you for putting this out there five minutes later they've
 liked the comment they responded to the comment I've liked their response and
 they followed like 50 60 times last night Lane embed for 90 minutes doing this
 yeah and I took tons of screenshots because it almost became comical because like
 I'm doing it strategically but I'm also doing it because like I care like
 you're interested in like I'm looking through these posts and like I'm giving
 real feedback like this one person was doing something I was like hey make
 sure you put that link in your bio because posting that link in your caption
 like can't click on it like you want to make sure that's kind of a complicated
 domain like you want to make sure that they actually get to this because this is
 important stuff that people need to hear yeah and the guy responded he's like
 man thank you so much like I didn't even think about that like I you know
 completely forgot I appreciate you giving me that feedback Andy follow me it's
 now that's somebody from Idaho that's gonna be following my content now only
 because I did that yeah especially I love finding the ones like I don't go
 when you look at a hashtag I don't go to the top I go to the recent because I like
 finding the ones that have eight likes and zero comments yeah 11 likes and one
 comment it's like their brother all right I want to comment on this like this one
 last night like it played out so perfectly I've literally got it in my phone
 this guy posted a video it was a terrible video didn't post it the right way
 so I could tell like he's just getting started but he you know posted a video
 talking about some element of life insurance and I commented and just I was
 encouraging I said you know great video keep pumping the content people need to
 hear this five minutes later he likes it 32 seconds later he follows me and
 that was the video right there and so like poor quality all that but like that
 dude is like has the audacity to put himself out there finally probably very
 vulnerable right now because he's like oh what do people think I could just
 know my brother Joe is gonna call me stupid yeah and just like to get that
 little bit of like affirmation like man this is great stuff like keep it going is
 huge like the people that did that for me when I first got started like that meant
 the world to me yep so I don't necessarily want to go to like the top post the ones
 that have 48 comments and 180 comments and just be one more in there like I
 want to I want to find the people that are you know just getting started yeah what
 um any you know winding down a little bit but is any prognostication on
 platforms at all like it's such a hard thing I mean I you know it has to take to
 even bring it up but it's because it's so hard to predict but you know Facebook's
 gone down but it hasn't I mean the reach still insane but you know Instagram's on the rise
 but organic's getting harder I mean is there any tips or you know for anyone listening that
 you know double down I know you know I I'm paying more attention to LinkedIn too I mean I used
 to be all over it I'm trying to get more on it um I'm definitely all in on Instagram but
 you know is there anything or platform or anything that's like sticking out like that oh I got
 to do more of this or less of that my favorite thing in the world right now is Instagram stories
 yeah and I think that's where all the attention is I don't think people are scrolling up and down
 I think they're scrolling you know right to left yeah on Instagram and I think if people that
 are serious about building a personal brand that aren't just you know playing with social media
 just for you know recreation um if you think of your Instagram stories as your vlog
 then it's a game changer because you can take people through your day and they can get a complete
 understanding of what you do you can provide insane value and you can almost do you can do
 you can do all of it from Instagram mm-hmm like if you use zero other cameras editing apps
 anything you can just with what Instagram gives you the ability to do with you know boomerangs
 and all the different filters and all the different super zooms and all the stuff you can make it
 interesting and in real and and people can follow you and I think that if you treat it that way
 where there where people look at your Instagram story and there's a beginning like a morning
 there's an afternoon and there's a night it's powerful um I call I I joked with someone I said
 they should have called it life yeah Instagram life mm-hmm because you know story kind of plays
 towards the whole uh it's not real yeah but stories to me are what life is yeah yeah
 there's been a couple months where my stories were more created content posted to stories
 and and I quickly realized that I've got to get them it's more just holding your phone up
 yeah organic same what you're doing like I just did before we started this podcast like it's more
 that and it's trying to figure out so Andy dank Carter we've talked about him a bunch he's
 he's just the king in this world and and uh doing so well um on all the different platforms but
 with his Instagram stories it's little it's little things like this that are seemingly so
 unimportant and you have no idea the impact that they make so every day he does an Instagram story
 or two or maybe even three of the freaking ducks that are outside of his office building
 and he calls them the office ducks and every day it's just like hey there's the office ducks it's
 this quick little video quick little picture quick little boomerang so he's in the process of um
 building out his new headquarters and he said in that talk to me yesterday he said to me that
 he has no less than 50 DMs right now and on Instagram about the ducks that are like people
 genuinely concerned like what's going to happen to be office ducks when you move and so he did
 another like Instagram story saying like hey you know heads up just so you know like my new office
 is only a hundred yards from here office ducks are still going to be there and then he does like
 this secret meetings thing like everywhere he goes like when he's going into meetings like
 she's like going into secret meetings and like when he was at JBL hustle when he came to Greenville
 he's like hey I'm doing a secret meeting you know with all these people in the background and
 everybody's like yeah but like this secret meetings like it's just become his thing so like
 literally I had a meeting this morning with my team on figuring out what our office ducks
 in secret meetings is right like what is it and we came up with some ideas but it's trying to
 find those things that that make your content you like when they go to your stuff like what
 what they remember and what they're like what they can become like what's your thing like what is
 your thing I've been I've been super impressed with our team and the way we've taken our content to
 where I feel like when people see one of my posts like they could you know you could have a 100
 post up on the wall and you can kind of pick mine out because they kind of have a certain style certain
 kind of theme to it and I got on I recorded I got on Nikki Saunders she does all the content creation
 for ET for Eric Thomas and I had spoken to her one time before about jumped on one of her
 Instagram lives the other night and she said my name and I was like oh crap I need to record this
 then I know what she was going to say but she mentioned that she was like Tyler was someone that
 had very basic content last year like just your normal stuff that people put out he said but this
 year he's really stepped up his game and when I see his stuff as I'm scrolling I know like oh that's
 Tyler like it's a Tyler Harris post like that's with his post and I think that's super important like
 that's branding yeah that's that's all it is but platform wise I mean Gary's been talking so much
 about how you know people are fleeing from Facebook so he's going back to it yeah interesting I've
 seen Facebook dramatically decrease for me but my my personal not attention but you know because I'm
 posting to both but I'm not personally liking Facebook is much anymore so that that's gonna affect
 it yeah I mean if my own usage was a barometer oh sure it's going definitely I'm on I don't even
 get on Facebook yeah I mean like I get in the app I have clients only reason I'm really in
 Facebook is because I have clients that are in it and that we're doing well for them because it's
 their niche you know but for me personally in usage it's just I'm in Instagram one thing that's
 been really interesting for me so I do I did I've done a lot of Facebook ads over the last two
 years especially this year done a lot of Facebook ads and then started doing it to where I would
 also make it an Instagram ad but about three months ago I stopped doing Facebook ads and
 just did Instagram ads and that has been a very fascinating process to watch play out because
 again I'm not selling anything right and I'm not really trying to point people to anything
 specifically I'm just trying to grow the reach and the attention and the following and just
 you know grow the amount of people that are looking at my content on a daily basis right now
 and that's so foreign to people and I was doing it on Facebook and I never got any like super
 like out of line like weird comments against me promoting post boosting posts right sponsored ads
 that are just a post and it's just good content not necessarily like a big call to action or
 anything as I switched over to Instagram the comments are like freaking savage like
 people are just ruthless in like thinking that it's ego that like this guy has the audacity
 to run a sponsored ad on his post what he just gets more likes and just gets more like
 what a tool like this guy is just the word like some of this stuff like it's the war like the worst
 things that have ever been said to me have been said over the last three months on Instagram ads
 and you know I don't pay much attention to it because I know the intent and you know I'll either
 delete it or I'll respond I'll be like all this tells me is that you haven't consumed any of my
 content because if you consumed any of my content for any period of time you would know my intent
 behind this and what I'm trying to do and you know I'll kind of respond then that way or I'll kind
 of go back and forth with people but it just seems to me on Instagram people it's so foreign to
 them that someone would spend money trying to boost the reach of their posts if they weren't trying
 to sell something like so many comments of like oh what's this guy trying to sell or oh what's you
 know can't wait to get an email from this dude on the mastermind that he wants me to join for a
 thousand bucks a month I'm like first off I don't have remakes in ask you for it and I also don't
 have a mastermind like it's just it's been very interesting on on Instagram and how that's played out
 so I think that's the balance is interesting you know we talk about trends of things
 there's this backlash I feel like swelling it's been there for digital marketing I think it
 plays into that a bit I think people are becoming way more aware of being marketed to yeah and
 then on these platforms that I don't know where they think that dollars come from to make them
 or like they think they should just be free and all this but I think it all plays into a little bit
 of this awareness level of marketing and I mean they're getting specific with trolling you in
 some way but I'm but I think in the macro sure of it is like this interesting balance of where we are
 with digital content and digital advertising and you know like when I talk to my clients I'm like
 we it's you can't hit them over the head you can't go it's not gonna work it you know it might
 you might sell two widgets but we'll sell we'll sell two widgets this week or you want to sell
 100 in three months yeah and so and it's back to some of the tenants you were saying earlier about
 brand and telling stories and being narratives and that's what I counsel my clients on all the
 time is we've got to tell a story we've got to be interesting we've got to be real we got to be
 authentic and that will lead to success over time and I think you know I think what you had
 working against you was like almost as complete you were like completely mind-screwing these people
 like with wait he's got to be marketing because they're so jaded with the insults that's almost
 in reverse I think maybe that there's just so much more of that on Instagram I guess maybe the
 only ads that you ever see on Instagram are the ones with their people are getting just bombarded
 with well it sticks out now when you go through your feed you know it's like three cool pictures
 and then you know like yesterday I saw like a tied pin or something you know it's like you know
 now watch an ed my let interview with Billie Jean is marketing and I didn't really know much
 about him I kind of like had the initial turn off of like why is this guy called himself Billie
 Jean is marketing right but the more I've gotten to learn about him he's freaking genius and this
 interview is incredible people to definitely check it out it's extremely tactical but with his
 content it talks about the fact that like they're just they're so creative and thoughtful in the
 content that they put out but they're very upfront and saying like this is an advertisement for
 X right like throughout the the ad they'll say like this is an advertisement like three or four
 times but the creative is so good the the story is so good the quality like everything is so good
 that you'll watch an ad into the very end whether or not you were interested in buying it or not
 like because you were entertained and and he's got an incredible knack for that but I think
 there's something that a lot of people can learn from that I love that quote that great stories
 happen to those who tell them and and to me that's what it's all about is it's all about
 you know telling stories and and really that's what branding is on social media it's what it
 should be yeah it shouldn't be just promoting you know discounts and promoting a website link and
 promoting a promo code and promoting this and that it's it's like telling the story behind your
 and around the people that work with you and and the things that you're doing and and again
 giving people the opportunity to know you yeah like getting people the opportunity to to know you
 and to like you like like whether they actually like like you as an individual because again with
 the market turns and someone's a little bit more thoughtful in where that hundred dollars or
 where that fifty dollars is going to go it's going to go to the people that they know and like
 and especially people that are in like financial services and anybody that's in sales
 when when things start getting a little tighter I think people forget you know people are so
 short-sighted in their memories of the cyclical side of the market like we've had ten years it's
 been the biggest the longest economic growth we've ever had that the market is going to
 freaking drop it's inevitable but when it does if you're in sales and you've been out there branding
 you've been out there putting out messages and building relationships and and getting to where
 people know and like you when it comes down to the decision for them to buy a new copier
 and money's tight of course they're going to go to the person that they feel like they know and like
 even if someone has something cheaper yeah they're going to go to the person that they feel like
 they know and like and so you know the no like and trust no like and trust and exactly and
 and I think the advantage to people like you and I and the unfortunate thing to those that
 that aren't like you and I is that it takes time and it takes a massive amount of work
 and that's the problem yeah it's the problem for most that's the opportunity for for people like
 us is that we're willing to do that and I think that that's you know the reason why the next
 couple of years it's going to be the biggest land grab ever for social media and that people
 will never be able to catch up because of the amount of awareness and attention that we'll be
 able to create it'll be impossible to start from zero and to catch up but I've gotten to a weird
 place lately where I get super deep with it like especially when I look at like people that I know
 like people here in Greenville that I know like when I start thinking about the the legacy side of
 things and just the documenting for the sake of this stuff being around forever and if you start
 thinking about like you know last night as I was laying in bed if I could have watched a vlog episode
 of my dad when my dad was 33 like that would have been the coolest thing ever or like my grandfather
 if I could have watched an Instagram live that you know my dad did 30 years ago like if I could
 watch that content I would watch it every day like it would be the it would be the only thing I watch
 yeah and I look at people that aren't documenting on social media and and aren't building a personal
 brand and I think man if you had the ability to meaning you have an iPhone basically you have a
 smartphone if you have the ability to do these things and you're choosing not to you're you're
 robbing future generations from being able to know you and from being able to know your intent and
 being able to know the type of person you are like like for my daughter for her to be able to
 have this content when she's 33 to be able to look at the stuff that I was doing and seeing her in
 these videos and seeing how I talked about her and how I talked about my relationship with her and
 and seeing her grow up like her ability to watch that you hear about these people dying and they
 find like a diary like I found my grandmother's diary in this old box and I've been reading through
 it it's been so powerful and I've learned so much and she talked about some weird kinky stuff that
 was weird for for a few pages and like like you read through this stuff and you're like like people
 cherish that stuff like yeah absolutely cherish it well imagine being able to have a thousand
 hours of content that showed your dad or your mom or you know whoever's like daily life so if people
 have the ability to go do that and quite frankly pretty easily go do that and they choose not to
 that's a pretty bold statement yeah like I know I can do this I see Tyler doing it I see Ryan
 do I see these other people doing it I'm just not gonna do yeah like I don't I don't think my kids
 deserve to have that I don't think my grandkids are my great grandkids I don't think they need to know
 about me like I don't think that like it's like it's pretty I look at it pretty black and white it's
 pretty cut and dry like if you had the ability but you chose not to it's like why to me like that's
 that's the way I look at all this stuff on social media like yeah it's gonna lead to incredible
 business success in the future and yeah it's gonna lead to being able to impact lives and do all
 this other stuff but at the end of the day like my great great great grandkids are gonna be able to
 listen to this interview that you and I are having and as I'm saying these words right now they're
 gonna be going like man great great grandad was right because I'm freaking listening to this right
 now yeah and I wouldn't have been able to unless you sat down on a Thursday and chose to spend
 an hour and a half of the time that way you know yeah like that's um if nothing else if if nothing
 else it's worth that oh yeah you know if if it's not about dollars and cents if it leads to no
 business if it does nothing you've created a record a journal of you know a moment in time that
 Jonathan Parker's his our dad's diary or my dad's diary or your dad's or whatever whatever's
 called like everywhere he goes he's flipping up his iPhone he's like hey what's up boys talking to
 his three sons yeah and he's like hey I'm about to do this interview with Ryan and Ryan's a great guy
 here in Greenville like he should definitely get to know I'm like in case like literally he
 would have died tomorrow yeah he's got like the last six months or however long he's been doing it
 like documented with all these lessons he wants to teach his kids and like he ends it with this
 like mantra of like like how to treat your mother and like be a good person I can't remember what
 the exact words are but it's awesome and like literally it's I don't even know if like the
 intent from the beginning was to put it out there publicly but it's just him literally flipping up
 his camera talking into it for two minutes I've talked into it before you probably have like
 Andy Dink Carter when he came and spoke he had Andy talking to it and it was so cool for me to be
 able to jump on there and be like man like your guy like you guys have to know like your dad's
 freaking incredible and the fact that he's even doing this shows how much he loves you and like it's
 so awesome like think about if he were to die tomorrow and they have the funeral and the kids who are
 young like as they get old and they start to understand for them to be able to look back and be like
 that was the day before my dad died and he was making this video for me because he wanted me to have it
 like I can get super deep on that because it's I mean it's it's it's almost like a responsibility
 to me if you have the ability to like why wouldn't you I think and unfortunately it's one of two
 things one just the aloofness maybe of people but I think it's more that they're because this
 I deal with clients every day because I tell them they should be doing this and usually it's worried
 about what other people think oh yeah they're they're just worried of being judged they're worried
 about their buddy Bob on the golf course going oh Tim I see you now posting stuff on yourself
 oh yeah you know I saw you your Tony Robbins post the other day it was really great
 exactly and then that person is so insecure that saying that comment and so once you recognize
 that once one you for yourself of not caring which is hard to do but one and we never 100%
 get there but when you get 90% there you've cured most of it and then the other two realizing the
 problem is really with the person that's throwing the lad out there they're the ones that are rooted
 in it but not to get in the whole personality you'll never you'll never not care the focus is not
 letting other people's opinions affect what you do exactly like I care when someone like makes
 fun of me yeah but I don't let it stop me from doing what I'm doing yeah like I still post five
 seconds later I'm like dang that's kind of hurtful what they just said yeah you've seen and we've
 both experienced this because my business at radical is 99% due to my social media presence yeah
 I mean now I'm doing social media marketing so yes related and it's you know and I had agency and
 all that but it wouldn't matter if I was doing insurance or doing a lawyer if I was a lawyer
 all I mean I would say 80% of radical businesses from DMs on Instagram yeah like from either a
 client reaching out to me or me DMs you know a prospect and I think that's that's awesome but I think
 that's that really goes and kudos to you for still spending time energy resources on focusing
 on your personal brand exactly because I went through a period of time last year where I was trying
 to find a social media agency or someone that you know worked in the social media world in in
 Greenville or Atlanta or Charlotte or Nashville or somewhere in the southeast right and the first
 thing I would do at Google and find these agencies and the first thing I do is I'd look them up on
 Instagram and I've got a website that I'm sitting here looking at and it says you know Atlanta's
 number one social media yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah then I go to their Instagram page and they've
 got 900 followers and you know 147 posts and I'm like how is this possible like like how is it
 possible and they'll I'll tell you the same thing well we're too busy working and I've said this
 to people and then I'm gonna grab I was talking about them which I'm glad I'm
 you because like you're the example of the opposite like they'll say like yeah well we focus on
 our clients brands and you know we you know we would rather the success of our clients speak volumes
 than having our personal I'm like yeah because you're lazy like you know you're lazy right yeah it's
 because you don't just because you didn't didn't do it like you know what to do and you know how to
 do it so like why that's even worse what would you do right I'm like we are talking about the fat
 personal trainer right now right like I'm not going to you for personal training if you're fat
 like I'm just not gonna do it but it was frustrating because I couldn't find anyone like it was
 little like no and like I get it like you're busy with all the clients and stuff like that but
 but those that are still doing what they I don't ever want to tell somebody else to do what I'm not
 doing like ever that's leading by example and and all that good stuff but that's why I love about
 what you're doing and that's why you're seeing so much of that and and I'm not all my personal
 and not so I'll come through my personal I mean some's come through radical now that we're
 you know an entity and we're doing a lot of social but it's come through my personal channel where
 I may be one out of 30 post even talk about you know a capability of the agency it's more just
 my personal brand and my personal beliefs and all that I mean which is more back to what you're
 saying like I'm not asking I'm never posted on my personal page hey will you do business with
 my ad agency no I just tell my truth you know of who I am and yeah I'll show a video of like some
 a cool video we did with the you know promotion or something like because it's just a cool video
 but that's just back to like building the brand and being transparent and authentic and you
 it will lead to success and like if anyone's listening and I think you've heard this from Tyler but
 you know I think it's kind of like the overarching theme of this is like the importance of personal
 branding and it will lead to what you want it to but you don't have to force it and you don't have
 to sell to make it happen yeah I agree 100 percent I mean anytime anyone asked me like hey man how
 you know how can I build my personal brand or the orders and tricks and tips and this and that and I'm
 like hey just post three times a day for a week and then DM me like they never do it ever I'm like
 three times a day like three times a day and I'm like yeah yes three times a day and then and then
 you know talk about some other strategies moving forward but it's just those basics it's just
 sticking to the basics and just being consistent like if you just put out a message consistently over
 a period of time you cannot succeed like you can't not succeed it's just it's just it's just
 how it works and I love it man but I love that you're that you're living it by example that's yeah
 well man I'm so proud of everything you've accomplished and coming on for a second time and
 we'll be soon to be third you know I know I know a lot of people listening follow your content but
 as we wrap up here tell everybody where they can find you and you know just some of your handles
 and things like that yeah so it's at Tyler Jack Harris on Instagram and Facebook we're gonna be
 redoing the site I just got Tyler Jack Harris dot com last night look that down but right now
 it's Tyler Harris page dot com but basically if you just go to Instagram you're gonna find everything
 everything that you need all the podcast stuff and and check out the stories because the stories
 all have swap ups to all the different all the different things that we have going on sweet well
 really proud of everything you're doing and we'll continue to follow and really excited where we're
 headed with Greenville Hustle and just other collaborations we may get into but uh that's all for
 today on the radical podcast really appreciate everyone listening follow along to everything at
 radical.com that's the website and then we're on all the channels so radical results on Instagram
 and really appreciate everyone listening hope everyone has a great rest of the day see you