Never Been Promoted

Can TV Exposure Be the Key to Your Business Growth? | Bob Cefail

September 08, 2024 Thomas Helfrich Season 1 Episode 104

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Never Been Promoted Podcast with Thomas Helfrich

Bob Cefail, president of American Stories, joins Thomas Helfrich to talk about how to leverage media and video in growing a business. Bob brings decades of experience in media, marketing, and business development, sharing insights on how to get your company featured on TV or video content and how to use celebrity endorsements to boost your brand.

About Bob Cefail:

Bob Cefail is the president of American Stories, a company that creates inspiring, informational, and entertaining content. With a deep background in the telephone industry, internet marketing, and celebrity endorsements, Bob has worked with over 1,000 celebrities and helped businesses utilize video content to grow their brands. American Stories is dedicated to showcasing everyday heroes and inspiring viewers with authentic, positive stories.

In this episode, Thomas and Bob discuss:

  • The Power of Media and Celebrity Endorsements: Bob explains how celebrities can enhance a company’s image and why having a media strategy can make all the difference. He shares how product and people placements in video content create powerful marketing opportunities for businesses of all sizes.
  • The Story Behind American Stories: Bob recounts the journey of creating American Stories and its mission to provide content that is inspiring and uplifting. 
  • Decentralized Media Distribution: Bob talks about how American Stories ensures its content reaches a broad audience through a decentralized distribution approach. He shares his experience working with networks like the Pursuit Channel, Anthem TV, and international distributors, emphasizing the demand for high-quality content across multiple platforms.
  • How to Approach Celebrity Endorsements: Bob provides practical advice on how small and medium-sized businesses can approach celebrities authentically, build relationships, and secure endorsements without breaking the bank. 


Key Takeaways:

  • Leverage Media for Marketing
    Bob emphasizes the importance of using video content and media to reach new audiences. Whether through product placement, celebrity endorsements, or producing engaging video content, businesses can significantly boost their visibility and credibility.
  • Celebrity Endorsements Without the Big Budget
    You don’t need to break the bank to work with celebrities. Bob shares insights on how businesses can start small, find relevant influencers, and offer value to build authentic relationships with celebrities.
  • Decentralized Distribution is Key
    Bob shares the advantages of using decentralized media distribution to ensure content reaches as many platforms and viewers as possible. By not relying solely on one network, businesses can avoid being canceled and keep their content visible.


"Leverage the power of media and celebrity endorsements to elevate your brand, but always approach it with authenticity and a plan." — Bob Cefail

CONNECT WITH BOB CEFAIL:


Website:
https://americanstories.tv/
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-cefail-557a8a53/
Email:
bob@americanstories.tv


CONNECT WITH THOMAS:

X (Twitter):

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Welcome back to another episode of Never Been Promoted. We're here to unleash your entrepreneur trying to help a 1000000 entrepreneurs get better at entrepreneurship. Now we do this through a lot of storytelling and learning from other entrepreneurs. And so if you can pick up one thing from today's guest who is, Bob Cefail. He is the president of American Stories. That's americanstories.tv. So if you are ever interested in how to use video and actual be on a TV show, this is gonna be a great episode for you. But before we get started and get into meeting our guests, listen, if this is your first time here, I am so appreciative of you trying it out and I hope it's the first of many. And if you've been here before, really thank you so much. If you haven't already, please 5 star. These are important 5 star reviews of Apple, Amazon Music, Spotify, and get to youtube, dotcom at, never been promoted, subscribed because you have access to all kinds of fun stuff and content there. But let's get in. Let's go meet our guests. Let's bring them in here. Robert or Robert. I don't know why Robert became Bob. Should've been Bob. You know,
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actually, my mother hated the fact that all of a sudden, I was being referred to as Bob. I think it was the 4th grade, and she was like, she was she was not happy. So it's Bob, but, you know, bless her soul. She's, up in the the big sky now, and she's probably still not happy about me being called Bob.
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But Well, I'm gonna call you I'm gonna call you Robert because it's on your name tag. The, let's really get into kind of your your journey of American stories Sure. And everything else that goes with that. It I'm super excited for this episode because lots of people wanna be on TV or wanna be featured, and there's a big vanity play. But what we're gonna talk about today is kind of the business part of it. Why you do it, how to do it right, how it really works. So this is some insight into really kinda how media and television and specifically maybe more, nontraditional channels work. And so this can be this can be fun. Before, though, we get into that, your story, your backstory, I'm gonna ask you an icebreaker. Now given that you're in the movie industry, if you could be one character from a movie, who would you be?
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A porta gecko.
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The gecko from, like, the commercials? Or No.
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You ever watched it? You ever I think it's Gordon Gekko. Maybe I'm wrong. Wall Street. You ever watched Wall Street? Greed. That's good. It is good. Now listen. I'm a I'm a nice Gordon Gekko.
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You have got to explain that to me because his character was not what I would define as nice, and you are certainly a nicer person than us.
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Well, you know, in the eighties in that time in the eighties, in 86, 87, 88, it was a literally, business was transforming so rapidly. All of a sudden, investment banks were, able to be, public, and that changed everything. All of a sudden, these white shoe investment banks that were kind of sleepy little hovels, suddenly, suddenly were able to go public. And all of a sudden, the greed is good mantra started rolling. Now, Gordon I don't he was a very smart guy. He knew how to make things, work. He did disassemble companies, and he sold them off. But he was I I love this character. He's a very interesting character. And and literally, it did change it did change, business TV forever. So more admire the fact that, the actor did such a great job because he did. Unbelievable job. But, that that movie really changed things.
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Yeah. It I'll I have to go back and watch. I haven't seen it's probably been 30 years since I've seen that movie. I'd have to go Totally. So it's a timeless movie. You can watch it today,
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and and and, you know, Martin Sheen was unbelievable
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too. Yeah. Do you wanna get into your backstory a little bit how you got into this kind of business and American Stories, not TV and everything? Just give give us a few minutes on you. A 100%.
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I'm kind of an early adopter in multiple areas as the telephone industry, basically, broke apart in the late eighties. I was involved in that. I started at at a very unique telephone company. Pay phones were literally in correctional facilities. They're the most profitable pay phones in America. Yet the correctional facilities were paying for those semi private phones to be in those facilities. And I came in. And in 3 short years, we ended up dominating the space. We're in 43 states, 700 correctional facilities. We did 27,000,000 our 3rd year, and we sold it in our 5th year to a to a public company. Did well. And then we kind of started noticing that the telephone guys who are running telephone companies were not too smart, just didn't know finance, didn't know that kind of thing. So we really got involved in that. So I started doing, investment banking assistance, in that space, and then something happened that once again changed the world. And that's when voice over Internet protocol came in and the telephone companies and the Internet started merging. And that was a huge change. And so we became, big players, in another company I owned in the Internet, Internet space. Within 6 months, we my partner was on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, and and we're one of the first 100 companies that were certified by Google as AdWords professionals. So that rolled up. So we're doing great Internet marketing. But then by about 2,011, 2012, Internet marketing was commoditized. But there was one thing that I noticed really was a was a differentiator, and that's the use of celebrities in Internet marketing campaigns. So we formed a celebrity endorsement company. I'm proud to say we're 12 years old. We've done over 700 engagements. We're connected to well over a 1000 celebrities, sports, music, TV, and film. Man, we figured out how to take the you think of most celebrities, whether they're sports, acting, music, they have decades of investment in their trade. And they've built up a massive amount of goodwill. So if you can somehow draft off of that like a car cars do in NASCAR, you can really change you know, you could change companies' images instantly. And from that company, from what I was hearing from celebrities who were really believe me, many were tired about the cancel culture in the 2018, 2019, and many of my clients were just tired of it. I formed American Stories with a simple mission. Provide content that inspired people, gave them great information, and made them happy. Very simple concept. And we focused on everyday people, and we used all the tools that I learned from celebrity endorsement, to produce TV shows and integrate companies, literally integrating companies just like I do with celebrity endorsement and integrating companies into our shows. The most powerful, powerful method of marketing and promotion today, there is nothing close.
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It's like, product placement. It's like the Coke can that was in the background, and now it's like the, you know, the technology company that helps you on camera. No. I wanna work with that company. I get it. That's correct. I mean, the the Coke can is a is is kind of that's the original OG
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of that space, you know, product placement. But what we do is people and company placement. And what we do is we we have our audience become fans of the company and the owner. If I can a couple more words on that. If anybody here has ever watched Undercover Boss, that is the home run of home run of home runs of integrations. That's an example of proper integration.
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It's funny though. I would tell you that for that show specifically, it's it can be a risk. Like, how you're doing is way less risky where you're having people and and you can explain the model, but you're having really known experts help another somebody in their business. And so everyone seemed you know, I have this problem with not over the top end, but the undercover boss potentially you know, it's great for TV, but potentially could have been really bad for a couple companies if they aired all the, content that was probably filmed.
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Yes. In in fact, it's my strong belief that originally, the producers, and that's a whole other wrinkle of the world, design Undercover Boss to be a dumpster fire show. I think they thought they were gonna send the the the CEO in, and he was gonna find, you know, malcontents and and controversy within the ranks. And I I I think the original guy, I forget the name of the company, I think he had decided and didn't say nothing to the producers that he was gonna flip the script. He was gonna find people who he really liked, who were really doing a good job, who had great stories. And, man, I think they by the end of that first episode, I think the producers are all looking at each other deciding, oh my god. What do we do?
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Do we stick with the old model or just go with it? And and they went with it. I think the executive producers go, if you want future guests just to go past season 1, you can't burn the people who paid to be here.
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You know? And, you know, some Thomas, you're so right because there's another show called the prophet.
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Can't remember the guy's name. He's every he, like, he's all over he's all over my feed for some reason. I don't even know why. But I need to You'll also notice that his show is no longer there,
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and and that's because it became Dumpster Fire TV. It was showing try I guess, they're the he he was sold on creating controversy, having the partners hate each other. And, you know, let me ask you this, Thomas. I mean, you you you you you work with a lot of companies. I mean, you're you're a star there. But, man, at the end of the day, after you've been tingling all day long, help a few of the problems, do you wanna go home and and watch something that's more problems, or do you wanna feel better?
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I mean, I definitely feel I by feeling better, that's why I don't watch TV anymore. Like like, I stopped watching locally because, I mean, honestly, it's so negative. It's like The right programs, though. What I mean, there's great TV there, man. You just have to find it. That's all. Well, well, listen. And and I'll I'll leave this out. I always like to find these reflective moments for people trying to run their business and get better. If you can cut out TV that adds no value to your world, and that includes Netflix, YouTube shorts, scrolling, even a podcast. If it doesn't really if it's just entertainment, you may need to go to something that's a little more positive, a little more helpful because you're wasting time on something that could have been brainpower towards something else. And and so if you need downtime, go for a walk, go meditate, go read. Don't don't consume. If you're gonna consume something, and this is why I love your show. That's why I wanted you to have on your too is because your show actually gives nuggets of wisdom in the context of solving a problem. So you're being entertained. It's like inner entertain Yeah. Enter I you know, I'm gonna go with your word, Thomas. So I stole it from somebody yesterday, and and he did it so well that I I'm butchering it right now. But the point is it's entertaining that you're learning something from it. And, Yeah. You know? Yeah. That that's a good that's I'm I'm okay with that. That's a that's, like, almost like reading a book. So almost.
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Well, I mean, as as you know, you know, it's a shameless plug for you. I mean, I saw what you were doing, and I knew you were perfect for Boom America with Kevin Harrington. I mean, you're you're you're entertaining. There's a lot of life coming out of you. You got charisma, and you're smart as hell. And, man, you gotta have that before people will take down their little sales resistance and listen to what you say. And you you check all the boxes. Now and and by the way, folks, you didn't ask me to say that. I'm he I'm he's probably going, Bob, come on, man. We're talking about you. But I'm just saying you have to have great characters and cast.
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A 100%. No. And so yeah. So anyone listening here, like, we Bob and I connected through LinkedIn, and, I had you know, he came to me for an idea, and I said, well, I have you an idea for you. And we both we both are working together, but understanding each other's business models of how it helps and and how we can promote. And I am for the show here, that doesn't you know, just because we work together doesn't guarantee someone comes on the promoted never been promoted. Oh, of course so. Of course. But what I found amazing is and and let's get into this, is the use of the model of how accessible it is to get on with a on a celebrity. Like, to get your model up, you need to be tied to someone who's already made it to some degree if if you're not on yourself. And there's ways to do that that aren't so sleazy or just total pay to play. Like, you always have to invest some capital into to to to get what you need, but it's marketing hard. So maybe talk about what your model is and and specifically the the small business owner or the entrepreneur that that would love to get more exposure but does not know anything about your space. Do you wanna take them down that that journey a little bit? Yeah. I mean,
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first of all, you really have to identify what type of celebrity would be the right people for you. I mean, you you know, just because you because you're like x y z person doesn't mean it's relevant at all. So you really have to identify. I mean, if you're a small business, you're involved in real estate. There's Joanna Grimes, I think her name is. That's an example. But here's here's the here's the interesting thing. A a lot of people come to us, my celebrity endorsement comes, say, hey. I wanna do a big brand ambassador deal. And I said, no. You don't wanna do that because you gotta date before you marry. And there are great ways to get celebrity endorsement that don't require you getting a second mortgage. There are more authentic ways to do it. So believe it or not, many celebrities are on Instagram and they're on x, and you can communicate to them, or on YouTube. In YouTube, just go to the back section and there's a contact section you can email them. And so you can, you know, one of the things that that's that's interesting thing for everybody to think about, if you wanna work with a celebrity, find out what they need. Communicate to them, hey, listen. I see what you're doing here. Is there any way I can assist you? Don't ask anything from them. Say, I'm gonna help you. And, man, it's such a reverse flow that you're gonna have a number of celebrities go, wow. And I'm telling you, you do this with no strings attached. You help them, and you will be absolutely surprised what happens. That's what I did with with Shark Tank star Kevin Harrington. I said, how can I help you?
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And he he said, since you're local, you can get me a coffee and we can talk about it.
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Well, you know, it's funny. I just I mean, literally, the president of As Seen on TV, which, you know, Harrington was the the, chairman of, asked me to come over because he wanted to have some celebrities, you know, push their products. So I did. I went over there. I knew, going there, I knew Harrington was involved. He's the chairman. And I also knew that, you know, there's not a lot of business celebrities out there. There really aren't. Nope.
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I'm hoping to be one, Bob. You're you're here to make me a butt business celebrity. That's our goal. You're already there. You're already there. So, any rate,
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at the end of the meeting, I just tell I I I I say it to Pruitt. I said, listen. Yeah. I'll just find out if I mean, Kevin's a big shot and everything. But he may he may wanna get some endorsements. I don't know. Just find out. And I'm telling you, I wasn't 30 minutes away from that meeting when my cell phone rang, unknown caller. It was Kevin. Hey. What's happening, Bob? Now did I ask him for a retainer? Did I ask him for not I didn't ask him for nothing. I said, Kevin, I'd love to, you know, bring you some deals. No strings attached. He goes, right. I had him a deal in 48 hours and the wire in the bank. Now that is how you get their attention. That's how you get a business friend quickly. Yeah. Yeah.
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Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna extend. I'm gonna do the improv yes and. Yes. Give them some some you know, how can I help you? Now people's guard goes up and they go, alright. What's going on? I'm getting ready to get pitch slap. If you be sincere with it and I will tell you, if you could even support that with authentic engagement into their videos, their content, Re shares, repurpose, and you reach out and say, I really like your content. I really love what you're doing. Is there something I could do to help you be even more successful than you are? That bridges over to a more trustworthy way to break in. So if and and if you have your own little brand yourself, this will help. You know, if you're like, hey. This guy may have, you know, this. But the truth is, if you actually give attention and actually are clearly a supporter of what they're doing, this will help that initial outreach. I think even though percent.
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Ma'am, that that's why I said, you pick your celebrities. List 8 or 9 or 10 of them and simply communicate and and find out what will help them.
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100%. And, and and and I think, let's say you're though you're a, you know, you're you're a entrepreneur, solopreneur, maybe you run a small business.
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Okay.
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Where do they start with you? Do they do they just give you a like like, maybe they give you a call and you go through it. But well, I mean, I guess, I don't know. Who should call you and what? I mean, like, it's a shameless plug, but, like, I I would be like if I'm an owner, I'd be like, am I even the right pick to do this? Like, so how do Well, you know, let let let's let's give people a little channel here. So or, you know, route or direction.
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You know, a lot of people ask me yeah. Because we have a lot of sponsors. We have a lot of partners in our shows, and we we we produce and distribute 15 different TV shows. And we distribute worldwide, and we're just distributing United States. But we focus, I'm not gonna say almost exclusively, but I would say 90% of my focus is on small businesses. That's what I like. It's certainly what Kevin likes, that's for sure, with Boom America. But, I I want anybody to communicate to me at bob at America storage dot tv. Just say, hey. What do you think about this? And listen. If I don't have a direct way to assist, I mean, we I frankly, we know a lot of people, and it it it takes all of, you know, it take first of all, you have to excuse this expression. You don't have to give a shit. K? You gotta you gotta
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actually care about someone. That used to be our tagline for my company, by the way. We actually give a shit. Oh, that's be my tagline. That's that's a smart tagline.
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I think they'd beep it out these days at YouTube who They would. It's I could never advertise with it because it could be a flex. We got rid of that. Do that. But, you know, how how listen. I just did this a few minutes ago. 1 of our, sponsors, asked me, could I get one of my celebrities to be on his podcast? I said sure. And I just connected them together. The email took me, what, 3 minutes? I can't take 3 minutes to connect 2 people up. So just email me, and you you never know. You know? At a minimum, I probably can throw it to the right people. But that's that's what I would do because we have shows that are devoted for small business. We have a show that just went premiered. Actually, it's premiering in a couple weeks. It's called it's called the big reveal, and we're looking for cool, unique people, companies, or ideas from small town America. And, man, you should see some of these folks that we're gonna have on the show. Wow. Really cool stuff. But that's big reveal. That's for small businesses. We have another show called The Real Real Man TV. It's a hoot, but it's it's not necessarily what you think. And, and it's very engaging, very funny, but you meet cool people again. So certainly boom America. I mean, here's Kevin Harrington with an with a with a seal team 6 unit of experts, one of which you're gonna be on in a couple weeks here. And just saying yeah. So and and what are we doing? We're helping these companies over a year's time with consultation and maybe a a little thing here, a little thing there to boost them up, and we document it. So I what I would say to answer well, that's a long answer to your question, Thomas. Here's my key Well, we got all the time on the podcast, so however we do it, you know, is it There you go. Here's my key key takeaway. Key communication. Communicate. Communicate. Don't negotiate against yourself. Don't have an idea. I I wanna talk to this person and immediately negotiate against yourself and say, well, no, they wouldn't like me. Uh-uh. Just communicate. What do they say? I hate you? Alright. Sticks and stones.
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It's interesting on that. Don't be afraid because the worst if you do it in an authentic way, the worst you're gonna do is probably get ignored, unlike you're gonna be told. You might be told, hey. We're just not partnering at this time, and that's just a no. Nos can turn into yeses given the right situation. So for the scenario you decide is, you know, you get an opportunity to do business or send somebody their way. They're gonna probably give you attention if you put money in someone's pocket. And so this like, my point is there's a no that becomes yes quickly when there's value.
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That's right. That's right. Boy, that's true. For sure. I mean no no's are not no's. No's means don't understand value, don't have value right now. And value is not always as everybody who's listening now knows, it's not necessarily a piece, you know, hunk of change. It could be, you know, something far similar. I mean, they may, you know, I I have a there's a the company I know that, they provide they they provide assistance to this group that, teaches, archery, NASP. They got 1,100,000 people involved with MASP. And this guy decides to help them. Now because he helped them, he's connected to 1,100,000 people. So it's very simple. And they did he didn't help with cash.
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It's funny because as we've you know, as as I started Never Been Promoted, we we don't have a specific monetization path for it. It was we have a book, but I don't I mean, if I break even on what it cost to do a book, I'd be thrilled. If if we if we, you know, make any money from a YouTube channel, awesome. That's great. But I'm just gonna invest all back in it because I look at what I'm trying to do with this and then the Cut the Tide community is I really do wanna help of making a whole 1000000 new entrepreneurs that have never been there. They didn't even consider it potentially, but they have it in them. And if I can do that, I don't I'm not worried about monetizing. That will take care of itself. Oh, yeah. It was Because it's it's such to me. It's like a core important thing for especially for the US, I think, is just because it's in our kind of culture now is that you can do that here. Yeah. And I think if people have that mentality of how can I help a 1000000 people, there there's I was at this, this thing called a 360? It was by Peter Diamandis, and he's you know, he did, like, SpaceX, and he's kind of he has this group of kind of innovative group. And I and I got invited into it. And by far, I don't know how I got invited in because I was by far the least wealthy person in the room by a factor of a1000. Hands down. Like, there's no question about it. So I don't know why I was in there, but I was in the room. And and he and he and one of the things that this, you know, they had was, you know, the the big audacious Harry goal and whatever else. But their idea was if you could help a 1,000,000,000 people, you'll make $1,000,000,000. So go figure out how to help a 1,000,000,000 people first and go do that, and the money will follow was the whole idea. And I that kind of stuck with me. I was like, well, if I can help a few 1,000,000 people, maybe a, you know, a few $100 of but but but but the idea is to truly try to help somebody. And if you could do that through distribution channels like yours,
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now you're onto something. So so let let me get into that and and where I was looking at. Can I can I can I just follow-up on that little piece because that's really key? One of the reasons that I'm in the entertainment business is because I was helped. Man, I've seen programs that were inspirational. You know? And and, folks, I've hit a lot of rocks, folks. This has not been some rosy ass ride. I've been up. I've been down. I've been up. I've been down. And I can tell you there were some times when I remember listening to a radio show with Larry King. It's about 1 in the morning. And he talked he he talked about this thing that was so inspiring. That, you know, my little eyes are welling up, and I'm like and that gave me energy and juice for 2 or 3 years. One comment on one radio show. So I know the power of media done right. You you can inspire. You just give people a little flicker of hope. And most people are powerhouses. In fact, all people are powerhouses. You just gotta just gotta, you know, get you gotta give yourself a acknowledgment sometimes. Right? You gotta say, you know what? I'm still here. I'm still rolling. And just that little flicker of inspiration, unbelievable.
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You you you're, I'll take that a little bit further. And I I am this is a yes and moment for sure. When I'll read a book, whatever it is, traction, science, and mindfulness, whatever whatever I'm reading. Right? There's usually one line in it that I'm like, that that kinda completes a neuron, like, a gap that wasn't firing right. And I'm like, I got I got what they mean. I think I understand what they mean. So it's contextual. So the more you kinda educate and read with good content and other things in life, the more those kind of bridges, if you allow it to happen, happens. This could be extended even further. So, I stopped drinking in August of 2023. Alright? And and it wasn't because of health. It wasn't because I went to an AA program. I just decided that I think my last 10 years of my life will be better if I just stop drinking now. I think I'll be healthier. I'll be happier. I will everything will be better. Like and it wasn't I had a problem. It it wasn't like it was just like it was a typical social but I just just like one day was like, I I was I'm bored. I don't I don't wanna do this anymore. And I I listened to a book, and and the the line of the book, it was Alan Carr's book on how to make it easy, is if you just don't have the first one, you can never, you'll never get drunk. You'll never and so I was like, well, that's gonna be so fun.
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Yep.
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There you go. It's not like these people are like, oh, moderation. You can't just have I'm like, well, I don't believe moderation is actually exist. That word doesn't exist in my world. And so I was kind of like, alright. I just don't have the first one ever. And I gotta tell you that principle can be applied to anything. Oh, are you trying to lose weight? Well, don't eat the piece don't eat the first chicken that you made to kids. Like, you know what I'm gonna say? That's really true. That's really good point. Limit 5 miles past where you know you'll get a ticket. Like, it's it like, the simple concept of just don't do it or or get up and go do it. Like, go work out. So, anyway, it Yeah. Something that first step, you know, because you know most people, they know. You know what I know? They know, yeah, if I do this,
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it's definitely that right way, wrong way, time and what. You know?
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Or. Right way, don't care doing it anyway. Yeah. And I don't know why. You know, I should do this. It's like so, anyway, I think there's a lot to be said. If you're looking for inspiration, then you'll find it. If you can put yourself around with enough things that so, like, I guess my point of that whole thing was if you feel like you're down or you feel like things are going great, but you just don't know if I should surround yourself with ideas and look for those little bridge gaps because sometimes it's as simple for just one line.
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100%.
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Alright. So tell tell me about so so everyone claims to have all these things. Talk about your distribution. And I think, you know, not to make this so, shameless plug, but when you're starting as an entrepreneur and you're looking at there's a lot of noise. And so I want you to kinda address 2 things. 1, there's a lot of scammers kind of things out there that are reselling things they don't really have a right to resell or should, or you don't need to go through certain channels. And 2, talk about your actual specific distribution because yours is a legit kind of size things to do here. So can you talk about that kind of buyer beware and what they really look for?
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So our whole model for American Stories is it's fair fairly simple. We have a core belief. Our belief is every show I do is going to inspire, people are gonna learn things, and they're gonna feel better. Now in order to make that happen, I have found that you have to produce the show and have it completed in the can before you then go out on the distribution play. Because if you were trying to walk into History Channel or American, you know, AHC or whatever with an idea of a show and a little pilot, man, get ready because this is gonna be changed and bastardized more than you could possibly think. But what that does give you if you're if you already produced the show, then you are the one with a lotto ticket. So we decided we would never be in a position to be canceled. I mean, you had the the the you had a reality show called cops. It was like the most profitable reality show in the history of TV. It was on for 29 years. Hell, I met the first guy up in Oregon, and, Jon Bonnell. And all of a sudden, it's the summer of, you know, whatever in 2020, and because of certain circumstances, I'm not gonna get political here, all of a sudden, cops is off the air. Holy crap. So we decided that we would do decentralized distribution. We were gonna have so many tentacles out. If some channel said, oh, we don't like what you're doing. I'd go, well, there you go. So when you have a produced show, believe you me, you have all the cards. So we distribute, in in the US give you an example. One of our shows called Surviving Man. That's 2 n's, Surviving Man. Look them up. We're everywhere. So we're on Pursuit Channel, and they're in 35% of all US households, a 100,000,000 people. Well, they saw our show. They saw our show 45 seconds of our show at the big, huge shot show in in Las Vegas, and they said, we're in. Boom. So now I'm in, Pursuit Channel. Then American, Anthem, Anthem, Anthem Television, they saw what we're doing, and and they saw our show. In. I'm in. Then outdoor action TV. Saw what we're doing. In. Then Filmhub, which distributes and sells rights to TV worldwide. They saw our programs while we were in Cannes, France. In. In. In. So I have no problem getting distribution because I already have, I already have a pot of gold, and I just show people, here it is. Boom. I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. Because let me tell you, in the distribution world, in the TV world, the network world, man, do they need content. It's voracious, and that's principally because of this. So when I say watching TV He's holding up a phone for those listening. Oh, there there you go. It's a phone, and that's where 60, 70% of all TVs watch now. That's that's the TV. There's some smart TVs out there. But you now have, over 4 a half 1000000000 users of these little smartphones watching content. And by 2029, it's supposed to hit 6 a half 1000000000. There is such a demand for content. You wouldn't believe it. So it's really easy for us to get distribution. Anthem Entertainment, by the way. Like I said, I think before we started, I need coffee. But anyway, you get the idea. So that's all. It's it's when you have a great show, away you go.
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Yeah. That's the one. When you have a great show show that's highly produced, ours will go out just like he said it. Just alright. I have a really serious question.
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No. What? How
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does someone approve Steven Seagal in a cops like version of a show? Let's just start with that. Who gives that guy a badge, and how does he end up on show? I mean, you Wow. That movie. And first of all, did he eat the entire show of cops to get that big?
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He's a big boy. Oh, man. According to his Aikido, he looks like he just looks at somebody to do a flip. So I'm pretty sure that might be acting on the other side. You know, he had a he had a he had a wife who used to look just freaking gorgeous too. And she just she she she was ridden hard and put away wet, man. I'll tell you that. Not good.
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So I used to love his movies, but then, like I know. I know why I'm on that tangent. By the way, my number one's that is wrecking any meeting with a tangent. It's a great corporate skill set to have when you are not prepared.
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So There you go. Still good at it.
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Woah. Hey. Listen. It is it is shameless plug time. This is that bit of that show where you're not supposed to hang up. You're actually supposed to listen. So if you don't care, you can hang up, but it's good. I hope you come back. Maybe you didn't like this one, but I'm gonna say it's your fault, not mine. Not yours, Bob, the listeners. Sure. I like to blame the audience. It's more fun. It causes more diversive polarizing content. In this case, though, I'd like you just to give the shameless plug. Who do you wanna get a hold of you, and how do they best do that?
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I I want small businesses and medium sized business that want to get massive exposure and do it a way that that will shock you in a good way. So just email me at bob@americanstories.tv. bob@americanstories.tv. Now I do have 4 different producers, and maybe I'm not gonna be the one that calls, but one of us will. And and just just tell me, you know, tell me who you are. Give us your website link. Because you gotta have a website. Can't do much if you don't have a website and contact information. But there you go. Yep. That's it.
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Maybe a small story of why you maybe from the lesson today of, hey. How can you help Bob? That would get your I've met your producer, at least one of them, and they are I will tell you anyway. If you're giving it's based on an extension of Bob. So you're talking to Bob via it's it's the shares are saying you're not you're not at a gate that you can't get by. Like, if you can't get by Bob, you're not gonna get by Bob anyway. So I would tell you maybe a story on how that helps Bob, maybe a way that separates and differentiates yourself from the others that are just reaching out blatantly and and say, hey. Check it out for yourself. I actually made you this video. Like, little things like that might might get your attention.
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That'd be awesome. That'd be great. Yeah. And and one of my producers, Carla, told me about her initial she found you, Thomas, and she said, this guy is fantastic.
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And Do you know how to smell yet? I smell great. Well, now you you you look like you're in really good shape now. You are No. No. No. I have this thing coming up June 10th with this guy named Bob Sofil, and he and he and I I have I have I've been hitting the gym,
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twice a day, and I've been dieting because I'm like, I'm sure as hell not going on camera with as big a love handles as I had. Now I'll still have some minor love handles, but we're gonna get the angles. This has got like Minnesota Fats. You know, he's always on the you know, he's a good looking guy. He's he's good on the ice. Anyway, I can't wait to see you, but, there you go.
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I I, you know, I I really did. I last I've been doing the hard 75 with the fact that I have a building coming up. I'm just trusting you're gonna get the camera angles right to kinda cut out any of the midsection that doesn't look quite right because because Kevin is pretty damn skinny. And I'm 2:30 at 6:1 and a half and not that fat, but I will tell you I'm gonna look chunky compared to that guy. I don't know what he does. But He's he's he's unbelievable.
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I mean, this guy is unbelievable. You know, I gotta tell you. Hey. He is so smart. I mean, he could talk to a person about their business 2, 3 minutes. And his his head is like this Rolodex of tens of thousands of people. And he goes, okay. Let's get you connected with this person and this person and this person. Done. And but with that said, nicest guy in the world, great looking guy. I mean, everything else, he doesn't big time anybody. He never makes anybody think anything other than every both people in that conversation
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are special. It's a really this is special, dude. That's a talent. That for sure. And and there's a, that that's a real talent. And and usually, it's a sincere talent. Like, they're actually Oh, no doubt. Successful is to be actually interested in the other person. It's it's, it's funny when I give some coaching advice of people who are kind of like, well, how do I work the sales meeting? I'm like, stop talking and ask a question and just listen and then ask. Is that right?
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I mean, is that right?
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It's, it's funny. Introverts make the best salespeople. I probably should make a post about that because they don't want to talk, so they want you to. So they think about what you said and go, here's a question. And if they have a good been coached of how to write ask the right questions to move towards interest of buying, they make excellent salespeople.
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Sure. That's amazing. Hey. Let me ask you a question. Or I'll I'll just make a statement. I tell people all the time. I say, listen. You're gonna learn a hell of a lot more listening than talking.
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Yeah. That's right. 2 ears, 2 mouths. Wait. Wait. No. It's not right. 2 ears, 2 nostrils. I you're supposed to breathe and listen. Bob, thanks so much for coming on. I I mean, listen. I I I wish our show was longer. It isn't. I'm trying to keep it reasonably length so someone's lunch period can listen to it. But there's so much for today. Once again, American here, I'll put them up on the screen here. American Stories.TV, and get Bob at American stories dot TV. And if you do reach out, listen, be creative. Write a story about how it benefits Bob and his company. Maybe, like, you know, it'll I think this would be great because it does x, y, and z. And here's my problem. I think you could help solve whatever it is like or whatever, like, whatever the problem that would help your company, you know, your TV show would be solvable and why it's entertaining, come up with a story. Make a video. Like, put some time and thought when you reach out to people. And if it's in, just Bob. When you reach out to anyone that has more celebrity than you, has more influence, and you're trying to get something from them, Start by giving a whole hell of a lot more. And very few of those people are so selfish, they don't understand that because that's how they got there as well. Yeah. Very few. Very few. They're just complete narcissists who wouldn't do it. Very few. And but the key thing. Right? Ready for this?
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Don't not do it. If you're listening right now and you're going, man, I'd like in the minute if you go, man, I would like to follow it up with action.
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Yep. Would it be great if? So Yeah. Thank you, by the way, so much. I appreciate it.
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Great. Big guy.
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And if anybody made it to this point in the podcast and and and the YouTube show, like, thank you. If this was your first time, once again, thank you so much for getting to here, and I hope you come back. And if you've been here before, I I really do appreciate, you for the support. You know, the only call to actions you ever do is is the 5 star for Apple, Spotify or, you know, follow the YouTube at never been promoted. It really helps the community, the entrepreneurs and the people that come on the show to get their word, their message, and help us drive our mission to help a 1000000 entrepreneurs get better at entrepreneurship, help them unleash it, help them and cut that tide, all the stuff they hold them back, all the excuses you make and all the kind of the fears you hold on to for some reason. That's what we wanna kinda break through. Until we meet again, get out there and go unleash your entrepreneur. Thanks for listening.




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