Catching Chickens With Bikini Joe - How Jeremy Slate Helps People Tell Their Story in the Right Place in the Podcast World

Jeremy is the owner of Command Your Brand and the Co-host of Create your own life podcast who has recently published his book “Unremarkable to Extraordinary: Ignite your Passion to go from Passive Observer to Creator of your own life” This episode was full of laughs and of course amazing information as we talk about Jeremy’s career from teacher to painter to Public relations and promotion of people and brands in the podcast world. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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Jeremy’s Links:

•  Website | https://commandyourbrand.com/ 

•  LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-ryan-slate-bb7b284a/

•  Twitter | https://twitter.com/JeremyRyanSlate 

•  Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/Jeremyryanslate/ 

•  Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/jeremyryanslate/

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(00:00) - Building a Business and Personal Brand

(03:05) - Farming and Chickens??

(13:29) - Career Transitions and Diverse Work Experiences

(23:09) - Building a Toolbox for Career Success

(30:57) - Podcast Vetting and Client Strategies

(39:25) - Unremarkable to Extraordinary

(46:15) - Home Features, Customer Service, & DIY Nightmares

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If you loved this episode try these!

• Striking the Right Chords in Business | Marcus Myers Explains How Helping People Helps You Get Ahead

• Mastering Small Business Marketing: Strategies, AI, and Insights with Sarah Block

• Scaling a Moving and Junk Removal Business: A Candid Conversation with Roger Panitch

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Transcript

Chris Lalomia: 0:00

this is not something we were taught at our age, which was try a bunch of stuff out and see what happens. Now, when you look back at my career, that's exactly what I tell people is that I had to go build my toolbox. I started my business at 37. So I was a late bloomer, as it were, but I was building, I was putting all those skills in. You know, I got my master's degree in mechanical engineering. I went to engineering, then I got into consulting and I started working with banks doing financial process improvement. Next thing, you know, I'm in commercial banking. Then I start running the loan operations and I was like you know, I'm building my toolbox and it's time to take those skills and see what you can do. And that's what when I go back because I do go back to the local Catholic school and I talk about career day I don't care when you start, you just better have a plan, you better understand what your skills are and you have a plan. But I like and that's one thing I'm going to change in my pitch I think Jeremy hit on something is that don't expect to start on top, because, yeah, literally yesterday I was taking the trash out in our office.

Chris Lalomia: 1:00

Welcome to the small business safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your assent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Oh, here we go again. Love that music. I got all fricking pumped up and I'm ready to go. And we were doing a little pre chat with Jeremy, who's going to come on the on the stage here in just a second with us. But he said he said, do you have a Chris filter? He goes yeah, I have a Chris dot AI filter. I'm like dude, I'd never heard of that. I'm like most of my friends, the Chris filter is the F Bob.

Alan Wyatt: 1:57

There is no filter for the Chris.

Chris Lalomia: 1:59

filter it just happened again. Right, I went on a boys trip out to Lake Tahoe, thank you. And my one of my buddies comes back and his wife says you know, every time you're with Chris for a couple days you swear a lot. And I was like, well, that's bullshit. Why is she always blaming me?

Alan Wyatt: 2:15

Oh, whoops, okay, hey, cheers Jeremy.

Chris Lalomia: 2:18

All right, we're cheers today with a little modello.

Alan Wyatt: 2:20

However.

Jeremy Slate: 2:21

Monday night brewing maybe in the works, we're working on it, kilt, I just got water, I'd nothing Exciting.

Alan Wyatt: 2:28

We call that straight.

Jeremy Slate: 2:29

We can give you a minute.

Chris Lalomia: 2:32

Yeah, yeah, we're always good because we're always drinking. But, jeremy slate, you're on and we're excited to have you on. You have a number of cool things happening. You got a book coming out, you got your command, your brand program that you do, but you've also done some other things, so we thought it'd be great for everybody to get a little taste of what it's like in your world and how you've helped other people build their own brands, and so I think this is going to be an awesome episode where we can kind of kick it around a little bit and figure out how to build a brand. I'm looking forward to it. All right, let's do this, jeremy, before we get going, though where the hell are you from?

Jeremy Slate: 3:05

I am from Northwest New Jersey. Nothing happens out here. There's lots of cows, I have two dozen chickens. It's nothing really happens out here, man.

Alan Wyatt: 3:14

When you think in New Jersey, you do not think of that. You think of big city cities in the Sopranos, but you know what's?

Jeremy Slate: 3:23

wild man, you know what's wild. So I'm in a county called Sussex County. It's on the border of a county called Morris County, so I'm Warren County, so we're on that part of the state and my reality. I hate going to New York because I'm like, oh my God, this is terrible. And the parts of the state people think of when they think of New Jersey are places I don't usually go. So for me it's like if you don't have a car you can't get anywhere, right, because everything's five miles away. I worked on a farm as a kid, so it's like what people think of New Jersey being either cities or that stupid Jersey Shore Show is not my reality at all.

Alan Wyatt: 3:57

I actually learned that New Jersey tomatoes are some of the best tomatoes in the country.

Chris Lalomia: 4:04

Oh man, you know what? I'm gonna try that. So I like John's Island tomatoes out of Charleston.

Alan Wyatt: 4:09

Yeah, I know.

Chris Lalomia: 4:10

I'm a tomato aficionado. I like our mountain tomatoes here in Georgia. But we're getting off on a tangent, but we're gonna keep going on the tangent.

Alan Wyatt: 4:16

Is that unusual? Is there a real?

Chris Lalomia: 4:18

Okay, we're gonna go back to him being a gentleman farmer or maybe a real farmer. But he said he has a dozen chickens. How many? Because I just did an estimate for a guy in town Atlanta, right in town Atlanta, right off of Druitt Hills. Yeah, I go in the back we're doing a bathroom model. But he wants to show me one other thing. He says a really neat home in the middle of the city in Atlanta. I go in the back and I hear like I'm like what the hell's going on? He goes oh, we built the chicken coop during COVID. I said how many you got? He was six. I said. And he goes we have more eggs and we know what to do with. We're actually giving eggs away on our street. So how many eggs do these things produce a day?

Jeremy Slate: 4:52

Well, so, first of all, I don't just have 12, I have three dozen, so I have a lot of chickens. We have four acres, so they just kind of free range around and do whatever the heck they want. We just got rid of one of our roosters because it was attacking the kids and we've replaced him with a new, more subservient rooster. And we get it depends on the day but I get like 12 to 18 eggs a day, dependent on the day. Right You're that 12 to 18 a?

Alan Wyatt: 5:15

day, yeah Well, and so I was. I was visiting my cousin and I was going to play a joke on him and buy him a rooster and just leave it in his backyard because he moved to the country. That's terrible. Well, and then I found out that that would have been illegal. I mean most municipalities. You cannot have a rooster. So are you, do you have illegal roosters, or are they?

Jeremy Slate: 5:33

they are 100% legal where I live. Surprisingly too, is my barn is kind of like near my neighbor's property, and they don't complain about the rooster crowing at all. They just love the free eggs they get. So I guess we're in good shape.

Chris Lalomia: 5:44

That. I think that's the way you buy him off, right? That's what I think I should have asked him that you know. What he told me, too, is that they were in the coop when I went back and he said you can see they're clucking, they're ready to go. He said they're literally like dogs, like when we let them out, they'll follow me around.

Chris Lalomia: 5:58

He said if they came out there, they'll be following you around. He said they're very domesticated. I was. I was fascinated with it and of course, we're talking about this on a podcast.

Alan Wyatt: 6:06

I was going to say I've got a lot of chicken questions, but we should probably get to.

Chris Lalomia: 6:10

we should probably get into it, all right. So, jeremy, you grew up on a farm, you're raising chickens.

Jeremy Slate: 6:15

So no, I didn't grow up on a farm. I have kind of my own like farm now, but growing up I grew up in like a small neighborhood, you know, and I worked on a farm. We this is kind of weird, but we my dad and I worked for this farmer that his nickname was Bikini Joe and he was he was? He was this very interesting guy with this giant beard that always did always did his farming in a bikini, so I don't know if it's that show necessarily.

Alan Wyatt: 6:42

It could be. It could be, I mean, I mean not against it especially if it raises in the rankings.

Jeremy Slate: 6:46

So top and bottom Bikini no no, no, no, just like you know, like the, the banana ham I got. Okay, no, the top part the top part would have been a little weird man. That would have been very weird there you go.

Chris Lalomia: 6:58

Not that the bottom part is any weirder, but like it would have been very weird to have the top on too. I mean seriously how many other podcasts you come on where you tell that story.

Jeremy Slate: 7:05

I mean I've actually never mentioned a podcast. There we go.

Chris Lalomia: 7:09

And so we've, if we've had an incredible job of doing that. We had one guy come on the podcast said my first job I worked at the. I worked at the foot of Ed's bed or it wasn't Ed, but it was a dude in bed oh my God, yeah. But he said my first job out of school was cold calling people to try to sell tickets to events and I had to work in this guy's apartment and it was a web end of an apartment. I had to work at the foot of his bed.

Jeremy Slate: 7:30

Oh my gosh.

Chris Lalomia: 7:31

So there you go. And now we know about Bikini Joe, so we bring those stories out, here we go, we get into it, all right. So you grew up in the suburbs. You, you go off. Did you go off to college? I mean, did you always want to be a gentleman farmer and then build your commander brand? What were you doing?

Jeremy Slate: 7:44

No, so I actually this is. This is kind of strange when my undergraduate degree is in Judaism and Catholic theology and then I have a master's degree in in ancient history. I didn't like go away to college. I commuted. I'm we're like an hour or so from Seton Hall University, so that's where I ended up going to school.

Chris Lalomia: 8:02

Alright, why Judaism and Roman Catholic?

Jeremy Slate: 8:05

So I went to Catholic school. So like kind of, you know, you get in the college, you don't quite know what you want to do and you're like, well, I know a lot about that stuff.

Jeremy Slate: 8:12

I don't really have to study in order to pass into it or to get an A there. And it was kind of like, and I hadn't really explored what I wanted to do with my life. And in grad school was where I actually looked at what I wanted to do. So, you know, I did the smart thing I had a master's degree in history. Because, let me tell you, people are lining up to get those jobs and you must have been the hottest commodity.

Chris Lalomia: 8:32

So how many churches or temples were calling you saying, hey, Jeremy, we got a great job for you. We're going to pay you at least 13,000 a year.

Jeremy Slate: 8:43

Well, no, so I ended up teaching at a Catholic school, actually, and I made a very slightly more than $13,000 a year.

Alan Wyatt: 8:49

Did you? You were tonning it.

Chris Lalomia: 8:50

Oh, well done, though you know again.

Jeremy Slate: 8:52

I wish working about 80 hours a week, though I'll add.

Chris Lalomia: 8:55

Yeah, All right. So you came out of school with a master's degree and went back and started teaching in a Catholic school.

Alan Wyatt: 9:00

So what we're learning about Jeremy is whatever he does, he's all in. I mean all in. He grew up in the suburbs and now he's got to ring chickens next every once in a while fight off the rules.

Jeremy Slate: 9:10

I don't ring any chickens next.

Alan Wyatt: 9:12

You don't. Oh, wow, you let your wife do that. I mean, come on, what do you do with the old chickens? Have you gotten there yet? We haven't gotten there.

Jeremy Slate: 9:18

yet I've only lived here for three years, so we haven't gotten there yet.

Alan Wyatt: 9:20

There's a recipe called coca-van.

Chris Lalomia: 9:22

Oh, no, oh, no, don't, yeah, yeah, I know, oh, I watch the old rooster and the lady.

Alan Wyatt: 9:28

Actually, I've got two bottles of wine.

Chris Lalomia: 9:29

I watched my buddy's grandmother go out there and he said, yeah, we're going to have dinner tonight. And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. And I lived out and I lived in the city and there was a farming community all around us. Right, we're out there. And I watched, grab a, go out the backyard, grab a chicken and just does that really quick snap. I'm like, oh my God, your grandmother is vicious bro.

Jeremy Slate: 9:50

I can see you. You should see my two-year-old grab a chicken, though, Like a lot of people are like shocked, Like how does she do that? I'm like because she's been doing this since she could walk, yeah right, she's walking next thing.

Chris Lalomia: 10:00

You know she's grabbing chickens, exactly Right. And so, in fact, that's like Rocky, right, rocky had to catch a chicken.

Jeremy Slate: 10:07

He got to chase the chicken rock.

Alan Wyatt: 10:10

See, he knows it, but Burgess, meredith. He got to chase the chicken rock. Oh, so they're ending His two years. That's great, it was a really good impression.

Chris Lalomia: 10:17

That is a great impression. Now Jeremy's two-year-old can go out there and chase the chicken. So don't mess with Jeremy, because his two-year-old might come out of the bushes. Just bring your neck. Oh hello, all right back to Jeremy. So you taught school. Is it high school grade school? Which one did you teach?

Jeremy Slate: 10:32

I taught sophomores, which will very quickly make you regret ever getting the job.

Alan Wyatt: 10:37

It was worth every penny all 30 years.

Jeremy Slate: 10:39

No, because they're not freshmen anymore, so they're not scared, and they're not juniors or seniors yet, so they don't have to worry about college yet. So it's oh man, it was rough. I'm 36 now, so you can imagine what I looked like at 22. I had my coworkers giving me detention, thinking I was a student, so you could imagine how students taught me, I treated me.

Chris Lalomia: 10:59

You know you're going to love that later in life, when you're Alan's age, because he's much more seasoned than me, not really.

Alan Wyatt: 11:07

You look pretty good for 62. We established that. Yeah, we established that.

Chris Lalomia: 11:11

I went and did an estimate for this guy and the guy's 80 years old. I'm like wow, you look really good for 80, and he goes. Well, how are you young man? I said I'm 53. He goes huh, Like what, what's a huh? So, as people have said, I look really good for 62.

Jeremy Slate: 11:26

Like you look at. You look at a guy. Like you look at a guy like George Brett and you're like why does George Brett always look like he was 50? Like he's always?

Chris Lalomia: 11:32

looked that way. Yeah, or Don Rickles, when he was 50, he always looked like he was 70. So all right, so you go to teach, you go to teach. What subject did you teach?

Jeremy Slate: 11:42

I taught sociology, criminology and US history. Oh boy, yeah, how about that?

Chris Lalomia: 11:49

All right. So how many years did you do that?

Jeremy Slate: 11:51

Just two I burned out very quickly.

Chris Lalomia: 11:53

Yeah, it's tough. That's a tough role man.

Jeremy Slate: 11:55

Well, and also like I had a lot of life changes at that point as well. I was still living at home at that point. I was engaged to my now wife, but my mom ended up having a really bad stroke and it made me look at a lot of different things I was doing in my life. I didn't really know what I was going to do, but I'm like this is terrible, I'm not going to do this. So I tried a whole bunch of things from that point. It took me about two years to kind of figure out podcasting and running this agency and everything like that, but to me I burned out really quickly. I had a really big life event happen and I'm like you can show me how to sell garbage on Etsy and I'm going to go do that, because this is terrible.

Chris Lalomia: 12:31

All right. So how'd you figure out what you're going to do next? That, I mean, that's a pretty big leap. But before we do that, one thing I'm going to bring up. We've got two good friends that we know. Both of them taught in school but now have different careers. One of them is being Troy is a lawyer, and he said that those were formative for him because he had to learn how to relate to people who did not want to be related to, and, of course, he looked young as well, and so I think I think again, kudos to you for doing that. I think it's unfortunate that teachers aren't paid more to do what they do, and it's unfortunate that our school system allows people to kind of screw around. And then our other friend who came on the podcast created his own Academy here in Atlanta just to change the way people are trained, the way teaching happens the Walter Reed Academy and I think that's William and Reed.

Chris Lalomia: 13:16

Well, that's right, william and Reed. Yeah, what did I say? Walter Reed, the hospital, that's right, that's what they do.

Jeremy Slate: 13:22

Well, I'll say it's unfortunate. I wasn't a very good teacher. That's what I'll say.

Chris Lalomia: 13:27

Oh yeah, All right. All right. So you come out, you've had this really big thing. Now you've had I mean, you had a midlife crisis at the tender age of 27, probably.

Jeremy Slate: 13:36

Yeah, I was 24 at the time, yeah, so I wasn't very old.

Chris Lalomia: 13:38

Yeah, so all right. So how'd you figure out what to do next? Because that's again life is about transitions. We talked about this the last episode that we had our guests on. We talked about life is about a transition. And so now what?

Jeremy Slate: 13:52

Yeah Well, I'll tell you what I think. One thing that my generation sucks at is everybody wants to start on top. Nobody's willing to work and everybody's you know kind of. They want to get a career that they're going to be in and make a whole bunch of money. And I think, frankly, the way to actually like do something with your life is to try a whole bunch of different things, actually a lot of manual labor jobs and you're going to figure out what you like, find out what you don't like, you're going to learn some life skills and from there you're going to actually be able to do something. So for me, I actually worked for. After that, I worked for a house painter for like two years, nice, and I worked on 40 foot ladders 40 foot wooden ladders, by the way. Imagine carrying those things.

Chris Lalomia: 14:28

Those things are heavy, yeah, and again, you can't see them in the podcast. He's obviously a much better, much better shape.

Alan Wyatt: 14:35

Look at the guns. He's got the guns bro.

Chris Lalomia: 14:37

Wow, I tell you, farming is good for him.

Jeremy Slate: 14:40

I was a competitive power lifter in my 20s.

Chris Lalomia: 14:42

Okay, well, there you go, so you could lift the four. So everybody was like hey, jeremy, go grab that ladder with you, buddy, I mean the little limbo ones are heavy.

Jeremy Slate: 14:50

I pulled an army tank on the back of an 18-wheeler to raise money for the Wounded Warrior project.

Chris Lalomia: 14:55

Nice, that is so. Oh, come on, did you ever?

Jeremy Slate: 14:59

bring them, are you serious? Yeah, and I'm only five foot five man, so like you can imagine, like that Dude, what what.

Chris Lalomia: 15:04

All right, so we're sitting down. You know, Alan is what are you? Seven, five, Something like that?

Alan Wyatt: 15:09

Yeah, close, he's a really tall dude and I've always by short six. You pulled a tank on the back of a truck. Tank, yeah.

Jeremy Slate: 15:16

What they do is they put the truck in neutral right, because otherwise, if it wasn't geared, ain't nothing happening. And they take this, this M1 tank that's been decommissioned, they put it on the like the truck bed, they hook a chain to the truck bumper and you got to pull it. The secret to doing it is you got to get really low to the ground, because if you pull upwards right, it creates too much tension on it Right and you're creating too much resistance and it doesn't move. But pulling downward actually gets it to roll.

Chris Lalomia: 15:41

There you go. Tip for powerlifting. You know what Next time you go pull a tank, alan, I want you digging down low, big boy. No, I want all six, seven of your your ass. No Way down there.

Alan Wyatt: 15:52

I'm sitting in the turret with the 50 cal. Dug it, dug it, dug it. Yeah, just, I don't know.

Chris Lalomia: 15:57

Did you get to get in the tank and run around with it?

Jeremy Slate: 16:00

No, no, I. It was actually lowest body weight and I like 5556, I'm around there and when I was competing I was 190. And I lost to a five foot three 140 pounds. Stay at home, mom.

Chris Lalomia: 16:15

Oh my God, oh my God, she could pull it, it was awesome. That is a great story, is there? A video of that out there somewhere. Oh my gosh.

Jeremy Slate: 16:27

I think there is, but it's like crazy grainy because it's like you know, this is we're talking 2014. So, like video was not very good at that point in time on a cell phone.

Chris Lalomia: 17:50

Yeah, but still, yeah, it had to be mad props for that chick, though, right, I mean that lady, but stay at home, mom. But that's really why we need that Chris filter. Damn it. Yeah, chris, the AI filter. Is she hot? No, damn it, I'm all right, all right. So you're pulling tanks, you're powerlifting and you're going you know what people want to start on top, and here I am yanking tanks around. So what do you do next? I mean, what are you going to get in and start? I mean, how did you figure out that next thing?

Jeremy Slate: 18:22

Well, it's for me. I just kind of kept trying to figure out what it's going to do for work. Right, like I think a lot of times people like there's this this crazy thing about everybody like wanted to be passionate and like they're never going to feel like they're going to work with their life, and I just think that's bullshit. I think it's about, you know, building life skills is about building resilience, finding some things you're good at and then figuring out how you can actually monetize those things. And so for me, you know I painted houses for a bit. Why I was? I was doing network marketing. I was doing personal training, which I sold door to door.

Chris Lalomia: 18:49

I was sold life insurance for a bit. You sold personal training door to door. I did that for a minute. This is how you do it too.

Jeremy Slate: 18:56

So you make a survey and you knock on the door and you say so, I'm a local personal trainer in the area and I'm conducting a survey. You go through all the questions and then at the end you go are you looking for a trainer? And you would be surprised how many people I sold using that method.

Chris Lalomia: 19:09

And I got to believe they were all just fat to sell. And it, which reminds me of the, this new thing that's running around and says it's a meme. And it says I signed up for a for a health fitness membership and after four months I've seen no, no, and I've seen no improvements. So I decided to go in in person and find out what the hell's going on.

Jeremy Slate: 19:29

That's great. Well, I'll tell you the secret, too, is you want to go into condo communities, but like the ones that are like more, like higher income condo communities, because then you can hit more doors faster rather than having to, like, go up down the street to a bunch of houses. There's a gold nugget.

Alan Wyatt: 19:42

That is a good one.

Chris Lalomia: 19:44

Canvas something canvas, something where you don't have to run all over the place.

Jeremy Slate: 19:48

Or you look at zip codes that are high income, right, and those are the zip codes you go to because you don't want to waste your time. If you look at buy your stuff Otherwise, you're kind of like just wasting your time.

Chris Lalomia: 19:55

Did. You were a hustler, though.

Alan Wyatt: 19:57

So you show them a video of pulling a tank.

Chris Lalomia: 19:59

Well, you didn't have the video at the time. That's what you're saying, but I think I would show the video of the tank and then I would show the chick. Pull the video right after that and go look you can go with me or you can go with her, and I trained her exactly. That's exactly what I said. All right, so you're painting during the day, you're canvassing at night, where you're trying to do two jobs at once. Well, no.

Jeremy Slate: 20:19

So I was the painting was first, and at night I was actually the manager of a gym. So I would get up at like you know five and work painting from six until five. I eat something and then I'd work clothes in the gym until like six, until like 10 or 11. So I was like sleeping a few hours in between. That was kind of nice. And after it was, after that, I had started personal training and I had, at the same time as that, I was doing a supplement network marketing thing, which was kind of weird because it's like so you don't like your job, right, you want to buy my thing, and so that was kind of like my first introduction into, like you know, business.

Jeremy Slate: 20:54

Like I will say, like I learned a lot from that, but at the same time, I don't think it's a really sustainable business model. From there, I actually sold life insurance, which I was really, really good at. I just hated those uncomfortable settings I'm talking about. So, like you really love your family, right? Like I was, I feel like I was earning my stripes of being New Jersey. You love your family, right? You don't want anything to happen to your family, right? Yeah, you need to buy this.

Jeremy Slate: 21:16

So I did that for a good year. I made some solid money, but I just I couldn't do it long term, and what I actually ended up doing was working at a friend's marketing agency. I had taught myself how to build websites from watching YouTube videos and reading blog posts, and while doing that was actually when I started the podcast. We had 10,000 listeners in our first month and we started getting a lot of attention and people started asking for help, and that was actually where the current company came from back in 2016. And you know, since then, we're 12 employees and just trying to make a bigger impact out there in the world. Man.

Chris Lalomia: 21:48

Nice, let's talk about that podcast, because it's still going today, right, yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Slate: 21:53

We're 1100 plus episodes in at this point, right, wow, all right.

Chris Lalomia: 21:56

So let's talk about that one for me. Pitch it up, let's get everybody into it, we'll put in the show notes. So what's the name of it Called? Create your Own Life. See, create your Own Life. I did know that. I was just waiting for him to say it so I could say so he's created a chicken, life pulling tanks and so life insurance. Yeah, what have you done? I know, you know. Actually he says I'm selling life insurance. In my head I was still going back to he was painting, closing the gym and sleeping a couple hours. Oh, by the way, I was selling some life insurance.

Jeremy Slate: 22:25

Because here's the thing I'll say man, like I've done, like I've done a lot of different jobs, and I think that the thing is is like you work at things and you gain skills from each individual one. I think too many people are like all right, I got to find this career, I'm 18 years old and I'm going to commit to it until I'm 16. I'm going to hate it. You know what I mean. Like you got to. You got to. You got to. We're going to go with a chicken joke here. You got to crack some eggs to kind of figure out. You know what you're going to do with your life, man, and I think too many people want to.

Jeremy Slate: 22:50

Just they want to sit there, they want to sit there and think about it and whatever, and you got to work at things man, new career, you're coming.

Chris Lalomia: 22:56

You got kids, you got dad jokes coming.

Jeremy Slate: 22:58

My dad's dad jokes are the worst.

Chris Lalomia: 23:01

That means they're the best. That's right.

Jeremy Slate: 23:03

Dad jokes Like we golf, we golf. We'd be a guy in the team and it'd be like oh, hello man, there's your husband, play too.

Alan Wyatt: 23:09

Like you know, like yeah yeah, that's awesome. You know, when he was going through all of his stuff, I was thinking huh, he, he went to college and studied Judaism and Catholicism. What do they have in common, Guilt? And so then he went out and punished himself by some of the teachers.

Jeremy Slate: 23:23

I have a master's degree in early Roman Empire propaganda, so I studied Roman emperor worship cults, go figure.

Alan Wyatt: 23:29

Wow, I think that comes up often in business, right when you're closing Absolutely.

Chris Lalomia: 23:34

Augustine said I don't know if you've followed Jewish theology as of late and what's going on.

Chris Lalomia: 23:42

But let me tell you, do you love your family? Do you want to see them dead? I'm just asking. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I can't love that one, right? So I know, emperors, you could die. I don't know. I I I follow in the Jewish and I understand the Roman Catholic faith very well and you should feel guilty about that. And that's why I said to my Jewish buddies I would say you guys are the pros at guilt, so we're just the amateurs trying to get in the triple. We're in triple A, trying to get into the pros. As a Roman Catholic guy, you know what I? What I really like about what Jeremy said is that this is not something we were taught at our age, which was try a bunch of stuff out and see what happens.

Chris Lalomia: 24:25

Now, when you look back at my career, that's exactly what I tell people is that I had to go build my toolbox. I started, I started my business at 37. So I was a late bloomer, as it were, but I was building, I was putting all those skills in. You know, I I got my master's degree in mechanical engineering. I went to engineering, then I got into consulting and I started working with banks doing financial process improvement.

Chris Lalomia: 24:46

Next thing, you know, I'm in commercial banking. Then I start running the loan operations and I was like you know, I'm building my toolbox and it's time to take those skills and see what you can do. And that's what, when I go back cause I do go back to the local Catholic school and I talked about career day I don't care when you start, you just better have a plan, you better understand what your skills are and you have a plan. But I like and that's one thing I'm going to change in my pitch I think Jeremy had done something is that don't expect to start on top, because it literally yesterday I was taking the trash out in our office.

Jeremy Slate: 25:19

Well, cause I'll tell you that now, like, like we were just hiring again last week and it took me a lot of interviews and everything else to actually like hire somebody Cause dude, I don't know, but like people get out of school now they're like, so I have a degree in women, thinking about literature, and I would like to make $75 an hour.

Chris Lalomia: 25:40

You know what I mean.

Jeremy Slate: 25:40

Like like, like they have no qualifications to do anything and they want to make a rate that you're like. Nobody can be profitable at that. What are you thinking, dude?

Chris Lalomia: 25:48

Yeah, well, that is some. Yeah, I, I, I, I just love that uh arch of skill sets and what he's done. So you started to command your brand in 2016 and this came off the podcast. Was it somebody who came on to start to give the idea? Was it you guys starting to talk about it? Germinate it, I mean, talk a little bit about how you brought that up.

Jeremy Slate: 26:07

So originally, like what we did, it was called slate media productions and it was a done for you podcast uh model where we like edited your podcast, got your gas, got your book done shows, like we did this whole thing around a podcast and I knew nothing about running a business, so I knew nothing about running making a profit. So I kind of figured this whole thing out and I remember sitting down with the first perspective client, which was a, a family friend. I'm like so it's going to cost $20,000 a month and he's like I'll give you a 1500.

Jeremy Slate: 26:32

So I was, I was spending about $5,000 to make $1,500, and it was kind of how we got started and we found that the thing that clients actually ended up liking the most was actually just going on podcasts and running a PR campaign and actually my wife's degrees in PR. So we were able to really look at, like you know, how can we take this and make this something viable and make a bigger impact for people? Cause in my opinion, um, I think legacy media is absolutely dying. I think there's nothing left to it, and podcasts and new media is kind of the direction things are going. So we really wanted to help our clients be in the best places, make the biggest impact.

Jeremy Slate: 27:05

So from there, the first version of this company was called get featured media. We had another, we had another partner between, besides myself and uh and my wife and we in the first nine months we made multiple six figures. We had done a, you know, booked our clients on a lot of great shows, but then we had really weren't getting along and that was. We got in this weird kind of time period where I was paying all the employees but he wasn't doing anything and that was a problem.

Jeremy Slate: 27:33

Yeah, for three months we had to figure out, like, what we're going to do. So we didn't have any new income, so I was actually getting side work to pay the employees so we could keep them, and it took that much to kind of figure out how to like end the non-compete and end that business. So get, so get featured ended in mid of 2017 and it became command your brand from there. So we've essentially been running the same business where I kept all the employees, kept them on and, like I said, even got side work in the beginning to make sure that they were still getting paid. And you know, from there, that's really where things have gone.

Chris Lalomia: 28:02

So this is where I want to get into a little bit more. We'll talk about command your brand and then and then get just some flossing Cause. I think that's the part a lot of people are really interested in. I know I am so with command your brand, talk a little bit about what you do to help a client. Maybe pick, maybe pick your most successful or one client and just take them through how you got them from point A to point B.

Jeremy Slate: 28:21

Well, what we really help people to do is not just tell a better story, but also to do it in the right places. Because when you look at it, I think when you look at podcasting, 80% of success is not on show selection. That's only like 20% of it. 80% is how somebody's actually going to show up on that show and the impact they're going to make. So we really try to work with our clients to, you know, tell a better story, to really out for value, to really be there and communicate, and then from there we're finding the right show. So I guess an example would be a client we'd worked with a number of years ago in the real estate space and he is an incredible human being, offers so much value. So we found, I think, like 17 of the right shows in the real estate space and then his message marked with those shows he brought in, he brought around around a half a million dollars or half a million dollars from those shows, around $500,000.

Jeremy Slate: 29:08

So that's really what we're helping people do is to tell a better story, to do it in the right places, to actually make an impact. And you know it's grown and changed over the years as we're really looking with growing, with people that have working, with people that have big visions, because I find that people that focus so much on the minutiae number one they're not fun for us and they're not as fun for, you know, the people out there in the podcast world. So we really want to work with visionaries that make a big impact and do it on the right podcast. That's what we do. That's awesome.

Alan Wyatt: 29:34

How do you vet the podcast? Because how many of them are out there? There's 3.5 million. Oh, I'm just going to round up to a million 3.5 million the top 95% have.

Jeremy Slate: 29:45

if you have 100 or more downloads in episode, you're in the top 5% of all podcasts.

Chris Lalomia: 29:50

We're close.

Alan Wyatt: 29:50

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia: 29:52

We're close. Yeah, we're right at it.

Jeremy Slate: 29:55

Top 5% yes, really yeah, and the top 1% is a thousand or more episode. Uh-oh, we're not there, and then the Joe Rogans and everybody else are, like the top one, half of 1% All right.

Chris Lalomia: 30:10

So you guys are up in that thing. So I'm actually putting you on my billboard now You're on that bulletin board with me, I'm coming after you and, smartless, I'm taking Bateman and our net down. Baby, wow, I mean I've got them. No, yeah, I didn't think so. No, we do this because, well, you know, we started this because I begged Alan to get into this and do this, and I think we got a story to tell and you know, I written a book about what I had done starting a business after leaving corporate America and having all the trappings of success that I had. And it's hard and it's really starting to resonate. People are starting to listen and get out there and we've enjoyed it and we've also, personally, we've learned a lot. I know that.

Alan Wyatt: 30:47

Oh yeah, and what's so interesting and I'd like to hear if you can validate this is how many people actually engage with Chris. I mean, when he's out at trade shows he gets emails, he gets phone calls. That seems like a really high percentage of listener engagement on a podcast. Is that normal?

Jeremy Slate: 31:07

No, that's 100% true, because, too and this stat is a couple of years old but Apple took a look at in their backend stats and they saw that listeners actually finished like 80% of an episode, which is incredible, right, Because I don't know what your average episode length is, but mine's, like you know, around an hour or more, so you're really getting a lot of people's time. We had a podiatrist we worked with and, like you know podiatrists I don't think it's that interesting to talk about feet, but whatever and what he actually did is help what you're talking?

Jeremy Slate: 31:34

about he helped other podiatrists.

Chris Lalomia: 31:37

Wow, he just took that to a dirty level so quickly. That's my job douche Back to your crystal.

Jeremy Slate: 31:41

I'm just making sure you're awake, chris, so he actually helped other podiatrists to take his system and put it into their business and make a lot more money because of that. So he was at a trade show. Somebody he'd never met walked up to an event and had him to check for 10 grand to join his program and I think that's what it went. When you, especially when you go niche I think when people go really broad there's not as much value. But when you go really niche, you're actually talking to the people you need to be speaking to and the people that can make a buying decision with you or that need to know who you are. To me, that's the bigger impact.

Chris Lalomia: 32:08

Yeah, that's awesome, I love that. All right, so you work with your clients.

Alan Wyatt: 32:12

Well, I want to get back to my original question. What was that? The vetting? You have three and a half million podcasts.

Chris Lalomia: 32:18

Do you know which podcasts are good?

Alan Wyatt: 32:20

Well for your particular client.

Jeremy Slate: 32:22

Right. So there's a couple of different things, like number one, like we found that kind of the charts and whatnot in Apple. Podcasts are kind of excuse my French bullshit, you know like they used to before 2017, they used to really be an active thing that I think you could gauge audience numbers off of, but now I think really it's been bought by corporate. So kind of what's there is what's there, and if it's usually the brands that you're going to have recognized right, like you know, your, your wonderies and those like that, so I think they've really like own the charts and what we've done is there's a couple of different tools that we use to take a look at podcast audiences on, one being chartablecom is really good, listen notes is a really really solid one, and our favorite tool is a software called Raphonic which can actually estimate podcast show reach. So we have a good idea of you know kind of what we're working with and it's pretty darn accurate for what we've seen.

Chris Lalomia: 33:14

Yeah, so how many clients are you working with right now? Ish?

Jeremy Slate: 33:18

It depends. We did, like last year we worked with 60 clients but we had kind of a rate change structure and everything we did have to cost of living and everything we did to a price raise and things like that. So we're actually working with right now, working with 40. So it is a kind of a lower but our cost per client is higher than it used to be.

Chris Lalomia: 33:35

Yeah, so, hey, it works. I mean honestly, you know, here I am talking with other remodellers. So, like Chris, I do 100 jobs a year and you're doing 20 hundred year. I'm like, yeah, I know it's a lot of brain damage, my friends, I get, it's a lot of therapy, it's just not good. So I would say bigger is not always better. You know, better is better. That's Warren Buffett.

Jeremy Slate: 33:55

What I found for us and I don't know if it's different for other people's businesses, but what I found for us is people that could, like barely afford to work with us we're going to. There's two things like number one, they weren't going to have the things in place to fully benefit from the program. And number two, they weren't going to be as committed as they should be. So you know, and you know, obviously you should also make money for what you do, like I think it's pretty important, I think that's a pretty important thing and that one I'm going to make sure everybody picks up on that one.

Chris Lalomia: 34:22

Sometimes when people ask you hey man, can you discount this? This might not be the best customer for you and when you're first starting you'll do it. You'll take a chance, absolutely. But you know what? And I would tell you, some of the worst customer experiences I've had have been nickel, thin razor margins and we gave a discount and they came out and we all felt bad about it. I felt bad because I didn't make any money. The customer felt bad because they felt like we didn't give them great service and some of the best customers ever had. I charged probably double, got my best margins on and they keep coming back.

Alan Wyatt: 34:53

You've told me I'm one of your best customers, so you're telling me you're doubling. Oh, chris, he charges you.

Jeremy Slate: 35:00

He charges you to hang out with him, man.

Alan Wyatt: 35:01

Well, I know. So yeah, I used to have to bring the beer.

Jeremy Slate: 35:04

He used to bring the beer, but no, actually we're sort of bringing Bud Lay, so they wouldn't let him come anymore. He's gone.

Chris Lalomia: 35:09

Yeah, but he should say that we're broadcasting alive from my basement where my son is going back to college. Had a little rager over the weekend and there's some Bud Light in my fridge and I opened the door and Alan goes I'm not drinking that. I'm like, oh, come on, I'm not, I'm somebody already paid for it. I guess it doesn't matter. I was pointing at the bedelow breaking down bro, Come on. But no, actually we're doing Alan's deck. And I told him I'm like look, dude, I'm doing this and I'm really thin margin. And we just had been saying, hey, Alan's a really good client. And my project manager, who's doing the job, is saying, oh, I really like working with Alan. I said that's good, because I just heard that he really likes working with you. So I just kept telling Alan I'm like hey, man, it sounds like we had a great relationship. So now Alan, the cat's out of the bag. Yes, I'm done with that. Two plus two equals four, that's right.

Jeremy Slate: 35:54

And don't forget. So I will say I will say for us we do have a no, like a no discounts policy, because there's a couple of things like we're always going to do more to add more value to the client. So maybe that's meaning, you know, adding an additional resource or adding something else that can help them. But we don't do discounts for a couple of reasons. Number one like I can't do discounts on paying employees right, like it just doesn't work. You know you can kind of get in trouble legally for you that. So that's number one. But number two discount clients don't get the work as much. I'm just going to be honest, you know it's just how it works.

Chris Lalomia: 36:23

It's a hard lesson to learn. You learn it in the, you know. But of course, you started yours back in 16. So you got the benefit of a couple of years under your belt. Well, that's, command your brand, but you've been doing it. See, in the beginning we do it. We did it because that's the only way we could grow. You said right, I spent five grand to make 1500. Now I'm out there cranking out and I can do what I need to do, but I'm actually doing better and the customers and the clients like me better. That's a. That's a great model because it goes back to the Ritz Carlton which I use in my training. Is that? I just was just out in the?

Chris Lalomia: 36:53

I actually toured the Ritz Carlton in Lake Tahoe. To be mentioned there, yeah, was it a official tour or no? They left the door open and I went to the pool and hung out there for the night, so, but their room rate that night was 1200 bucks and I was like, all right, I was staying at my buddy's place down the down the hill, but when you look at that, they were almost full occupancy $1,200 a night and that sounds crazy to a lot of people. But no one of the things. I found an article, I gotta go find it again. One of the fastest brands to come back out of COVID in terms of occupancy rates was the Ritz-Kirlton.

Alan Wyatt: 37:30

Probably because you assume that they actually have cleaners.

Chris Lalomia: 37:34

I think that's what you knew Super clean. You know they were gonna be good. They did the whole distancing thing but people would run back to that and why do they go back there for it? And I do this in training all the time Experience the experience, and the experience is one part of it.

Jeremy Slate: 37:47

But also, like a certain class of person also expects to pay a certain rate, right, and I guess below that, in their opinion it does not have to value. I've seen it, man Right.

Chris Lalomia: 37:58

So the one I use in training is I show off a property that's on an island or it's a little tributary. Ritz-kirlton is two grand a night and I said you know what you get.

Jeremy Slate: 38:07

You show on properties on island. Was that that one? That guy, jeffrey, owned that guy, not that island. Hey nice, oh good poll, baby Wrong island.

Alan Wyatt: 38:15

I wasn't on that island.

Chris Lalomia: 38:16

I wasn't invited, but I'm going to once I get to my new net jet property that I'm thinking about doing Anyway. So what do you get when you go to a Ritz-Kirlton? You get a private room, a bed, a pillow and a private bathroom. You go to a Red Roof Inn pay $200 a night. You know what you get? Same thing you get a private room, a bed, a pillow and a private bathroom.

Alan Wyatt: 38:36

Yeah, but your feet stick to the floor.

Chris Lalomia: 38:37

Well, and don't worry about those bed bugs, they're not a big deal, and I didn't say that.

Jeremy Slate: 38:41

I said in a Howard Johnson in Ohio. Man, I was on a road trip one time because I was like this was in Cincinnati, ohio. I stayed in a Howard Johnson and we were on a road trip. It was late at night. It was the only place we could stay. I kid you not, there was blood on the wall. This was terrifying.

Chris Lalomia: 38:55

Ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha ha, oh my god, I'm thinking chickens, I don't know, maybe not, maybe people, I don't know. Well, anyway, let's go back the last bad hotel I stayed in.

Alan Wyatt: 39:05

I actually got so nervous I jammed a chair into the doorknob, Did you really? Yeah, it was really bad. All right, gosh.

Chris Lalomia: 39:12

So Ryan's a lot younger than us, so here's a quiz for everybody When's the last time you stayed in a motel? Which the difference between a motel and a hotel is that you can go to a motel. Your door is open to the outside. When's the last time you stayed in a motel? The time I put the chair.

Alan Wyatt: 39:26

Exactly right.

Chris Lalomia: 39:27

Yeah, jeremy, have you ever stayed in a motel?

Jeremy Slate: 39:31

Yes, usually like driving down to Florida, because that's pretty much what you have down in 1995.

Chris Lalomia: 39:35

That's right.

Jeremy Slate: 39:36

We stayed in this one time and it was in gosh, lambertville, south Carolina. I will never forget the name of the town and it was called Nights In. And we go in and the lady's like yeah, we got a room. She's like, have you ever stayed in 208 before? I'm like what do you mean? I've ever stayed in 208 before. Should I know something about it? So I'm like we're not going to stay in that room. We actually stayed at the motel down the street. But motels are super shady man.

Chris Lalomia: 40:02

There you go. Motels, shady. See, they're getting a bad rap. I think they need Commander Brand to bring them back.

Jeremy Slate: 40:07

man, no, I don't want them associated with my brand, man. Come on now, yeah.

Alan Wyatt: 40:14

We have this one.

Jeremy Slate: 40:14

We have this one motel out here because like in the middle of nowhere about where I live, and I always say to my wife I'm like why would somebody come stay out here? Number one, number two, like who the heck is staying at a motel in the middle of nowhere? Like what do you do out here Like deal drugs?

Chris Lalomia: 40:29

Right or stock chickens.

Jeremy Slate: 40:32

The guys want to go yeah.

Chris Lalomia: 40:33

You have to pick off chickens. I keep going back to chickens. I can't help myself. I know, Because I'm jealous. I'm actually thinking about being a gentleman farmer. Don't get cocky man, oh nice, there's a dad joke.

Alan Wyatt: 40:44

Oh, that's a joke, dad pull.

Chris Lalomia: 40:47

Your dad is proud when he listens to this podcast, right? No, never. Just because, like, I think, my dad's listened to one episode, even though he dragged him on for one episode years ago. Yeah, so that's great. All right, man. So I know we're coming close to our end of the time. I want to get too far ahead of myself. You got a book coming out, so let's talk about this book.

Jeremy Slate: 41:08

Yeah, it's called Unremarkable to Extraordinary and, like I said, I've had thousands of incredible conversations. And I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely hate personal development books. I think they're terrible. They tell you to go stare at a mirror for an hour and tell yourself you're successful and I'll tell you what it's not going to happen. What you do in life is actually about the things you do. So what I did is I interviewed thousands of people that have actually achieved things by doing them A four-time 8,500 champion, the former CA director, major League Baseball Hall of Famer and I've tried to learn from these people what makes them who they are and what are these things that other people can apply. So that's really what Unremarkable to Extraordinary is, because I think we all start unremarkable, but it's the things we do and the experiences we have that make us extraordinary. So I wanted to give people life experiences they can have that can also help them do something incredible with their lives.

Alan Wyatt: 41:57

That's a great book, so the book revolves around stories around these people.

Jeremy Slate: 42:00

Yeah, it's stories around people's lives. Like I mentioned, Elio Castroneves that won the 8,500 four times. We talk all about his life. We had the my Pillow Guy on Mike Lindell. And we learned all about his life as well.

Chris Lalomia: 42:12

Really.

Jeremy Slate: 42:13

I've had a lot of incredible conversations Like he gets into some strange stuff that he found in the carpets of those rooms when he was a crack addict. But I will tell you, man, it is incredible what people can do by hard work, and that's what I really want to teach to others.

Alan Wyatt: 42:27

That's outstanding. When is it coming out?

Jeremy Slate: 42:31

It actually came out in.

Alan Wyatt: 42:32

June.

Jeremy Slate: 42:33

So people can go to getextraordinarybookcom and it's out there for purchase right now.

Chris Lalomia: 42:37

I want to know if the lady who pulled the tank that beat you is in there or not.

Jeremy Slate: 42:42

She is not I still hold a grudge against her man.

Chris Lalomia: 42:46

Right, you kept her out of the book. Oh gosh, he called her out of the book.

Jeremy Slate: 42:50

She should have written the four words Hold shoulder man.

Chris Lalomia: 42:53

Dang it. She should have made the four. Who needs Helio Castroneves and who's the MLB Hall of Famer? Who's in there?

Jeremy Slate: 42:59

Mariano Rivera.

Alan Wyatt: 43:01

Oh, are you kidding me?

Jeremy Slate: 43:02

I've interviewed him, johnny Damon, nick Swisher. I'm trying to think of who else I've got to know you guys may have heard of. He's such a name-dropper. There's a middle linebacker.

Chris Lalomia: 43:14

Sean Merriman.

Jeremy Slate: 43:15

Yeah, pretty incredible. I've had some incredible conversation, man, I've been very lucky.

Chris Lalomia: 43:19

That is but so one of the common threads. What's one of the common threads? You thought that you learned from these guys.

Jeremy Slate: 43:25

Well, there's a couple of different tenants I looked at Like. Number one is adversity and how adversity really drives a person. So some of the stories are in the book are just from people I admired that I haven't had a chance to talk to. So I have a whole chapter on Tom Brady and I think that he is one of the best examples of adversity, though I'm a Green Bay Packers fan, so I do look at life a little bit differently, but I think if you look at it.

Chris Lalomia: 43:44

But do you like the fifth Jersey guy? I know who's a Green Bay Packers fan. What the hell do they have in there? By the way, I'm from Detroit, Long-suffering Lions fan and currently a long-suffering Falcons fan. Definitely smart from the whole thing. But guess what big boys Guess who's going to Lambo this year. That's right.

Alan Wyatt: 44:01

Big daddy's going to Lambo.

Chris Lalomia: 44:02

I am. I'm going to Lambo later this year. That's a bucket list place for me.

Jeremy Slate: 44:05

Have you been to Lambo? So I'm a shareholder, but I have not been to Lambo. Ok, oh, you're a shareholder. I'm a shareholder baby. I got a stock certificate.

Chris Lalomia: 44:13

Oh, look at you. All right, so I should say that I should like that team the most. Unfortunately, I grew up in Detroit and I went up in the UP and played football and all my buddies we were either Packers fans or Lions fans, and so I can't, I just can't, I just cannot cheer for them. So I'm going up for the Lions Packers game. It's a Thursday night game the end of September. Just freaking pumped, going to catch up with some of the guys. I went to school with A lot of fun, so all right. So adversity. That was one, tom Brady. What was the second one?

Jeremy Slate: 44:44

Another big one is like leadership and how people lead. I think a lot of times people want to lead from the front, when a lot of times you're leading by right alongside people and being willing to do just as much, if not more, than them. So that's another really big concept. Another one I would say as well is I don't think there's as much value in education as people want to think there is. I think there's a lot of value in what you're actually going to do in your life and learn by experience. I'm a big learner from experience, rather than, as I mentioned, I have a lot of book knowledge, but I don't think it's very applicable in life To me. I think experience is your greatest teacher. Another thing I would say is that done is better than perfect. So many times people will spend years building something that's never going to get out there.

Alan Wyatt: 45:19

That is such a good line Done is better than perfect, right? Because?

Jeremy Slate: 45:21

it's like, they're like oh it's. That's the title of this podcast, the apostrophe has got to be in the perfect spot or I cannot release this thing.

Chris Lalomia: 45:28

Are you sure You're sure it's not killing chickens with Bikini? Joe, you know what you make a good point, I think everybody would listen to it with that title, man. I know.

Jeremy Slate: 45:39

Killing chickens with Bikini Joe, while putting your head into my pillow.

Alan Wyatt: 45:45

There's a mic drop.

Chris Lalomia: 45:46

Oh my god.

Alan Wyatt: 45:47

There you go.

Chris Lalomia: 45:50

That is classic bro. Oh my god, that's so funny. All right, I'm trying to think of a title. I got way too many titles in my head now.

Alan Wyatt: 45:58

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia: 45:59

We got to get back on track.

Alan Wyatt: 46:00

We're almost done. We are almost done. We got to get into the questions here.

Chris Lalomia: 46:03

All right, let's do this. Well, obviously you can't promote your own book, but what is a favorite book that you would refer to everybody right now to take a look at? Because I'm with you, I don't think the self-help books get you there. I love biographies. I love, you know, listen to people's stories much better. But what's a book that you would Don't steer his ass? I'm sorry.

Jeremy Slate: 46:21

You know it's coaching. It's rough man, because I read a lot of biographies. I read a lot of autobiographies. I also like I don't know. I read a lot of like like literature as well. So like like crime and punishment by Dostoevsky was an incredible book because you just learned a lot about kind of human beings and how they think.

Alan Wyatt: 46:36

But if somebody came to you and said I'm thinking about starting a business, give him a book.

Jeremy Slate: 46:43

So I don't remember the author, but I just finished a really great biography of Sam Walton. And I find that to be a pretty incredible story because, like you know, the family since they're not really doing so hot, but Sam Walton, like he did a lot and put a lot on the line, actually make that business go.

Alan Wyatt: 46:59

I love reading those same things and I'm with you, I can't stand all most business books, but I like reading about the guy who founded Starbucks, you know, and how Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus did Home Depot. I mean, you know, and most people just look at them and go, oh, look at how rich they are and you know how can I get some of their money. And then you find out that they put everything on the line to make it happen.

Chris Lalomia: 47:21

Yeah, I think it goes along with from the Zoo to the Wild book that August told me you know you haven't mentioned your book in a while. I had to All right, yeah, all right, let's get into this. What's the favorite feature of your current home? You know we've been talking a lot about the chicken, the chicken. You have to be something other than the chicken.

Jeremy Slate: 47:38

So I have a river that goes through my backyard so it's where I typically like we use our kayaks and stuff like that.

Chris Lalomia: 47:43

OK, love that river runs through it. Yeah, I watched that movie.

Alan Wyatt: 47:47

In New Jersey.

Chris Lalomia: 47:48

I know. Right Again, as I said, it's people see where I live.

Jeremy Slate: 47:51

And they're like this is New Jersey what.

Chris Lalomia: 47:55

That's beautiful, all right. Second thing so customer service. When you're out there getting service, you're out there. We are customer service. Riks go. What is a customer service? Pet peeve of yours, fill something in there too, calling Verizon wireless.

Jeremy Slate: 48:12

I don't know, man Dude.

Chris Lalomia: 48:15

Oh yeah, try T-Mobile.

Jeremy Slate: 48:16

Well, no like his phone customer service. Right, like. I think that a lot of companies have tried to make it cheaper and do whatever. Like our cable provider, our cable internet provider, used to be optimum. It's not anymore, and when their hold times are long, it just hangs up on you and says thank you and goodbye and you're like but I've been waiting for 40 minutes, what do I do now? Right, I think companies really need to start, especially with phone service, like valuing their customers more, because I think, at the same time, like they've outsourced to other countries where you know, like, I don't see a problem with that, I've outsourced other countries as well, but I think for phone support, that can be very hard because those people don't have exact documentation and access to different things. And you're a human being, you're not a process, and I think to me, companies suck at phone customer service.

Chris Lalomia: 48:58

I agree that's a good one.

Alan Wyatt: 49:00

Oh, and to pile onto that, when you're actually finally get to somebody and it sounds like they're taking care of you, and then you're like, okay, if I need to call you back, how do I get a hold of you? And they can't give you their name and you can't reach them again. There's no number Right. Drives me nuts.

Chris Lalomia: 49:15

Yeah, you know. Speaking of that, the corporate card I've used for years is American Express and they have been extremely helpful on the phones. I've found them to be really good. I'm going to plug that one for a minute, that's cool, not American Express, bons or the trusted toolbox. They should be Well, trust me, I put plenty of money through their organization.

Alan Wyatt: 49:33

I can promise you that one, all right.

Chris Lalomia: 49:36

Last thing what is a DIY nightmare story? And we love fire dismemberment.

Jeremy Slate: 49:42

DIY night. I don't know that I have any man Like. We took our attic and we refinished and turned it into an office. That was a lot of fun, but it wasn't really a nightmare. I don't really have a DIY nightmare for you, man.

Jeremy Slate: 49:56

All right, that's all right, okay, no, no, I got one I got one, I got one, okay, I got one, okay. So I was, um, I was putting, uh, lifting springs on my Jeep and, um, we didn't get, when you get to the top of the, uh, the top of the shock, we didn't get the shock mount incorrectly and we had the, the actual, uh shock mount drop and we had the, um, the, the, the rotor actually go into the road and then it was stuck there for like two days. So the cops came to the house because this is like we didn't have a driveway, so it's like in front of the house we were doing this and I got in a lot of trouble for that. So there, there you go.

Chris Lalomia: 50:32

That's a good one, I mean you know, like that cops got called. That's the other thing we should say. I want to hear cops call, that's right Ambulance.

Alan Wyatt: 50:38

Yeah, ambulance, some kind of first responder.

Jeremy Slate: 50:43

I got pulled over once cause I used to like soup up my cars way too much when I was a teenager. And, um, I got pulled over in my like uh, tiny ass Volkswagen that used to be able to go way too fast. Cop pulls me over for tinted windows. He's walking around the car, he goes. Got anything else in this piece of shit I can give you a ticket for? I'm like oh hello officer.

Chris Lalomia: 50:59

How are you? Oh, so I guess we're not getting out of this one. Am I going to get a warning?

Jeremy Slate: 51:04

I did not get a warning, I got a two point ticket.

Chris Lalomia: 51:08

Back to responses that don't get you a warning, Let me give you one Um license registration, sir. Uh, yes, Um, would you like to know why I pulled you over? I'm like, no, could you please enlighten me? Bingo got the ticket. Wow, yeah, that would be cool. I try.

Jeremy Slate: 51:26

Actually I had six shots at it and I had a friend that every time he every time he got pulled over for speeding he used to tell the cop he had to poop and you. You would be shocked how many times he got out of a ticket because the officer would be like oh. Oh, I get it, man Go.

Alan Wyatt: 51:40

Hang on one minute.

Jeremy Slate: 51:41

Take that note I have a friend that he's gotten out of three speeding tickets for telling the officer he had to poop. And the officer was like, oh, you just go handle that man. I don't want to make that, I don't want to have that in my conscience.

Chris Lalomia: 51:52

Yeah, I did get. I got pulled over for the two heavy tinted windows here in Atlanta as well. And cop comes up and says Do you know why I pulled you over? I'm like no, I'm sure you're going to tell me and I'm thinking I still got a shot right. And he says your windows are too tinted. I said so it's been a slow day. Boom, got another one.

Alan Wyatt: 52:14

So, I actually so the time I know I'm shaking my head.

Jeremy Slate: 52:18

I'm sorry, the time he's walking around the car and asking me if he's got anything else he can give me a ticket for. That was failure to stop at a stop sign, but the tents were what got him really upset. I had another time I got pulled over for my tents and I was like, all right, you got a razor blade. I'm like we could pull them off together and actually got out of the ticket doing that. Oh, nice call.

Alan Wyatt: 52:35

See, he's much more helpful when the cop pulls them over. You're just a smart ass, I am.

Chris Lalomia: 52:41

Yeah, oh yeah, I've got. I got plenty of tickets to show for that. Actually, I'm coming off of, though I'm actually I'm not our. He's reformed Well.

Jeremy Slate: 52:49

I was not reformed at all.

Chris Lalomia: 52:51

Of my 17 drivers.

Jeremy Slate: 52:52

He's better. He's better at hiding it. Yeah, there you go.

Chris Lalomia: 52:55

Of our 17 drivers. I was just about to say I was not last, but I can't say that yet. Okay, so anyway, I have the worst driver in your company. Those shit, yeah, anyway, all right, jeremy, this has been a blast, I've had fun. We are going to come up with a creative title, because you know how this stuff works. People like catchy titles, ish, yeah, I don't know, man, is it yanking tanks, is it? That's? That's the one.

Chris Lalomia: 53:21

Tell the cops you had to poop. Tell the cops you had to poop. I'm still think it's. I think it's Raisin Chickens with Bikini. Joe, jeremy and how to how to how to put yourself out there as a brand.

Jeremy Slate: 53:34

Oh man.

Chris Lalomia: 53:35

All right. Well, I would tell you I am. I said that I've watched what you guys have done with Commander Brand. I really applaud you and what you're doing. I do know some of the clients you guys work with stellar work. They are getting out there. I've seen the name, so I was glad to get you on and get a chance to kick it around with you a little bit. But keep it up, keep making that shit happen, making it all happen. How else can they find you besides Commander Brand and your great book about unremarkable to extraordinary?

Jeremy Slate: 54:03

Well, if they want to find out how they can really you know command their presence on podcasts to make a bigger impact, I put together an awesome resource for them and it's really a list of the basic PR things that every business should know and be putting into implementation in their business to get attention right now, and they can get that over at CrushItOnPodcastcom.

Chris Lalomia: 54:20

CrushItOnPodcastcom. Oh yeah, just like an announcer. Hello, all right, I can't do it.

Jeremy Slate: 54:27

In a world where other podcasts are late.

Chris Lalomia: 54:30

Now he's talking. I was waiting. I wanted another impression. Come on, we can't do it.

Jeremy Slate: 54:34

Oh, you want another impression. I got some good ones, man.

Chris Lalomia: 54:36

All right, I got.

Jeremy Slate: 54:37

Yoda and I got Scooby-Doo. You tell me what you want, man Both.

Chris Lalomia: 54:40

You know what I want? Yoda first, because there is no trike, only two. Two or do not. Thank you All right. All right, give us our best. Scooby Rinky's ready Ruby do, be do. Come on.

Jeremy Slate: 54:56

Your kids love that.

Chris Lalomia: 54:57

My wife is going to hate me for that she listened to this episode because even she's going to learn a little bit more about Bikini Joe and Raisin Chickens. Absolutely, if you want to learn more about Raisin Chickens with Bikini Joe, keep dialing in, get in here, let's check it out. The small business party. And, by the way, if you're still listening, man, do me a favor. I can't even get my best friends to give me a rating and a review. I begged them this morning and Mia says I just did it and I'm looking and it's not there. So I don't know if Apple's suppressing all these reviews or not, but they probably know that the reviews are written under duress.

Jeremy Slate: 55:30

Ratings and reviews don't help you, so what I would tell your listeners to that's actually going to help you. They need to subscribe, man. That's what actually helps you, oh my.

Chris Lalomia: 55:37

God Subscribe. Hurry, please Subscribe baby Do it 125 episodes.

Alan Wyatt: 55:41

How am I?

Chris Lalomia: 55:41

doing yeah, and this will be on YouTube too, which is one of the ones that just blew up with. Paul was pretty good, but anyway, let's get everybody out of here. Keep going up that mountaintop success. It's not always easy. You can't start on top. You got to get to the top. You got to do it by grinding and getting up there. Get it out there. Get it done. Go make something happen. We're out of here. Cheers.