Tyler Kelley is the Co-founder and Chief Strategist of SLAM! Agency, a digital marketing firm dedicated to helping purpose-driven businesses create a lasting impact. He has led campaigns for national brands, spoken alongside industry leaders like Google and Facebook, and co-hosts Innovation City, a podcast recognized by Bloomberg for spotlighting urban innovators. An advocate for conscious business, Tyler actively mentors entrepreneurs, serves on local boards and contributes to the St. Louis business community through organizations like the Better Business Bureau and Entrepreneur’s Organization.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [4:03] Tyler Kelley reflects on the importance of giving away value for reciprocity
- [9:52] The impact of the 2008 financial crisis on Tyler’s business
- [14:18] Transitioning back to digital marketing and overcoming economic downturn challenges
- [16:54] The importance of having a partner with a different skill set
- [22:15] How has remote work improved productivity?
- [23:48] Tyler shares his experience of working with the Better Business Bureau
- [26:55] Challenges of stepping away from production while maintaining quality
In this episode…
Digital marketing is constantly shifting, making it challenging for businesses to make a meaningful impact. Economic downturns, shifting consumer behaviors, and the need to stand out in a crowded digital space create additional hurdles. How can businesses adapt and implement effective strategies that drive growth while staying true to their mission?
Tyler Kelley, a digital marketing strategist and entrepreneur, shares his insights on overcoming these challenges by focusing on strategic digital marketing approaches. Tyler emphasizes the importance of adaptability, leveraging data to make informed marketing decisions, and understanding the evolving needs of consumers. He also discusses the struggle of stepping away from hands-on production while maintaining high-quality work and explains how purpose-driven businesses can thrive by staying agile and prioritizing long-term growth strategies.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Tyler Kelley, Co-founder and Chief Strategist at SLAM! Agency, about leveraging digital marketing for purpose-driven brands. Tyler shares insights on overcoming economic downturns, ensuring quality while stepping back from production, and making data-driven marketing decisions. He also discusses the importance of mentorship, the future of digital marketing, and key mistakes businesses should avoid.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Tyler Kelley on LinkedIn
- SLAM! Agency
- Innovation City
- The Go-Giver, Expanded Edition: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg, John David Mann
- The Science of Getting Rich: How to make money and get the life you want by Wallace D Wattles
Related episode(s)
Quotable Moments:
- “I learned later on in life, it’s better to give things away. It only works if it’s reciprocity.”
- “Growing up, I was very selfish. I took the hard road in many aspects of my life.”
- “One of the first things in ‘The Science of Getting Rich‘ is giving away what you have.”
- “I jokingly say the only thing I would ever change is I’d stretch more as a 45-year-old man.”
- “The future of marketing is video; digital video is something that happens quickly.”
Action Steps:
- Adapt to changing market conditions: Businesses must stay flexible and responsive to shifts in consumer behavior and economic fluctuations. Adjusting marketing strategies based on real-time data ensures sustained growth and resilience.
- Leverage data-driven decision-making: Using analytics to track campaign performance and audience engagement helps optimize marketing efforts. Data-driven strategies lead to better resource allocation and higher return on investment.
- Develop systems to maintain quality while scaling: As businesses grow, leaders must implement processes that ensure consistent quality without their direct involvement. This allows for scalability while maintaining brand standards and customer trust.
- Invest in mentorship and entrepreneurial support: Learning from experienced mentors can provide valuable insights and prevent costly mistakes. Supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem fosters innovation and long-term business success.
- Prioritize purpose-driven marketing: Businesses that align their marketing with a clear mission create stronger connections with their audience. Purpose-driven brands build trust and loyalty, leading to sustainable growth and impact.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25 we help B2B businesses give to and connect to your ‘Dream 200’ relationships and partnerships.
We help you cultivate amazing relationships in 2 ways.
#1 Podcasting
#2 Strategic Gifting
#1 Our Predictable Podcast ROI Program
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 200 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.
What do you need to start a podcast?
When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.
The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.
We make distribution easy.
We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
#2 Our Comprehensive Corporate Gifting Program
Elevate business relationships with customers, partners, staff, and prospects through gifting.
At Rise25, thoughtful and consistent gifting is a key component of staying top of mind and helps build lasting business relationships. Our corporate gift program is designed to simplify your process by delivering a full-service corporate gifting program — from sourcing and hand selecting the best gifts to expert packaging, custom branding, reliable shipping, and personalized messaging on your branded stationary.
Our done-for-you corporate gifting service ensures that your referral partners, prospects, and clients receive personalized touchpoints that enhance your business gifting efforts and provide a refined executive gifting experience. Whether you’re looking to impress key stakeholders or boost client loyalty, our comprehensive approach makes it easy and affordable.
Discover how Rise25’s personalized corporate gifting program can help you create lasting impressions. Get started today and experience the difference a strategic gifting approach can make.
Email us through our contact form.
You can learn more and watch a video on how it works here: https://rise25.com/giftprogram/
Contact us now at [email protected] or message us here https://rise25.com/contact/
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
All right. Today we’re talking about leveraging digital marketing strategies to empower purpose driven businesses. My guest today is Tyler Kelly. I will tell you more about him in a second. So stay tuned.
Intro: 00:14
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:31
Alright. Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show and you know that every week we talk to interesting CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies. And if you check out the archives, we’ve got Netflix and Grubhub, Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, YPO, EO, Activision Blizzard, lots of great episodes.
So check those out. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25, our company where we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping companies to run their podcast and content marketing. We are the easy button for companies to launch and run their podcast, and we do three things: strategy, accountability and full execution.
And we also took our 15 years of IP and put it into a platform that some are calling the Wix of B2B podcasting. It’s called podcast Copilot. You can go learn about it on our website at Rise25.com. And Tyler, I know from looking at your background that you appreciate the value of relationships. You also have done a podcast for many years and for me, you know, being able to have someone like you who’s interesting, we haven’t connected before, so I don’t know that much about your background and being able to have you come and showcase some of the great work that you’re doing has been so fulfilling for me, both personally and professionally.
And so I’m excited here to have you here today. If anyone wants to learn more about what we do, go to Rise25.com. Or you can email us at [email protected]. All right. My guest is Tyler Kelly.
He’s the Co-founder and Chief strategist of SLAM!! Agency. It’s a digital marketing firm based in Saint Louis, Missouri, and he has an interesting entrepreneurial journey, starting as one does as a college DJ, which was his first real business, and then got from that into digital marketing by building websites to promote his services and then eventually started a marketing agency. And so we’re going to be talking about that. He’s also been the co-host of the Innovation City podcast. And Tyler, such a pleasure to have you here today.
And let’s start with you. Even before the mobile DJ business, you got into burning CDs, and we were talking beforehand about this because I’ve met so many people that start with giving away things for free, and then they have to learn this hard lesson of I can’t give it all away for free. I need to charge what I’m worth. And then there’s this whole thing around, like, what am I worth? And, you know, understanding the value that they provide in the world.
A lot of people struggle with that. But you were on the opposite end of the spectrum. You, from early on, you had to learn to give things away because you said you were very insistent about charging people. So talk to me a little bit about that, especially in the context of these burning CDs and selling CDs.
Tyler Kelley: 03:06
For sure. Yeah, I think at the time I was a freshman, it was freshman summer of college. Right. So finally go off to college where you have fast internet and you’re able to download all these mp3’s. So I get this, this massive catalog of songs that I can download and put on CDs.
And it was a lot of work. I mean, I put on a lot of all-nighters because it wasn’t very fast, even though it was fast at the time. Yeah, in collecting this music. And then I would, you know, take it home to, you know, my hometown and try to sell CDs. And I would even make my family and extended family pay full price. And I learned later on in life that copyright.
John Corcoran: 03:49
You learned.
Tyler Kelley: 03:50
Copyright.
John Corcoran: 03:51
You know, who cares?
Tyler Kelley: 03:52
But I learned later on in life, it’s better to give things away. There’s even a book now called the Go the Go Giver, I think, by Bob Berg.
John Corcoran: 04:00
I’ve had him on the podcast. Yeah, I’ve interviewed him.
Tyler Kelley: 04:03
I mean, it works it all, but in my experience, it only works if it’s reciprocity. That is when it’s indirect. If you expect it to be a 1 to 1 interaction, then you’re probably going to set yourself up for disappointment. So now I just, you know, I give away what I can, knowing that it might not come back to me directly, but it will in some way, shape, or fashion in the future.
John Corcoran: 04:25
Was there a particular interaction or something that inspired this understanding, like, you know, or do you just regret that you charge your family and your friends for these CDs that you burned? You know, it just seems what is driving that? Why, 20 years later, are you still feeling like this is an important lesson that you had to learn in your life?
Tyler Kelley: 04:44
Well, growing up I was very selfish, right? I was a very selfish person, thinking only about myself, Never thinking about, you know, how my actions impacted others. And as a result of that, you know, I took the hard road in, in many aspects of my life. And then one day I discovered this book called The Science of Getting Rich, written by Wallace Wattles. And if you’re familiar with it, it was written in the early 1900s, and it just blew my mind.
He basically says, forget about philosophy. If you just do these things, you will get rich. One of the first things in there is giving away what you have.
John Corcoran: 05:24
So yeah. So that’s kind of the era of how to win friends and influence people and think and grow rich. Those types of books were in the early 1900s. I haven’t heard of it before, so I’ll have to check that out. You end up starting a mobile DJ business. Tell me a little bit about that.
Tyler Kelley: 05:42
Yeah. So obviously I have an endless supply of music. So the only thing I didn’t have was A website. A phone book ad, you know, and equipment. So, as a junior in college, I started collecting equipment. And at the time, unlike today, it was all like hundreds of pounds. Yeah.
John Corcoran: 06:03
Heavy stuff.
Tyler Kelley: 06:04
Yeah, very heavy stuff. Yeah. You know, all the CDs that had to go along with it. The burnt CDs.
John Corcoran: 06:09
Oh, because this is pre digital. So you weren’t you.
Tyler Kelley: 06:11
Weren’t all pre.
John Corcoran: 06:12
Digital. Yeah okay. Although you know in the Napster days, in the Napster days you could download these files. Couldn’t you just play it from a laptop or was it too early there.
Tyler Kelley: 06:20
Yeah too early. Laptops didn’t have the software or really the memory capacity, the Ram, to be able to do that. But that business really took me you know, it. Here’s the thing I wouldn’t: I’ve had some pretty bad experiences, but when I look back, it’s like everything happens for a reason, right? And so I wouldn’t change anything. I jokingly say the only thing I would ever change if I had to do it all over is I’d stretch more. As a 45 year old man. It’s like I should have stretched all my life, which I did.
John Corcoran: 06:51
But
Tyler Kelley: 06:55
98 is when I started working on the DJ business, and it launched fully in 99. I had spent all my money on equipment and I didn’t leave anything for advertising. And so when I called the Yellow Pages to get an ad in the phone book, it was too much. I couldn’t afford it. My credit card was maxed.
And so I was like, well, I’ve heard about this thing called the internet. Websites were still relatively new. Google had come out the year before. It was a hot thing, so I figured out how to build a website on Microsoft ‘s front page. And then I started learning about SEO, and that really was, for me, perfect timing in the industry. And it also kind of propelled me into my choice, my career choices after college.
John Corcoran: 07:40
Yeah. So natural trajectory for an English major, which guy was as well go straight into being a mobile DJ. And what were the early years like? Did it take off once you figured out SEO or did you get clients for it? Did you hire up, you know, hire other DJs when you got busy?
Tyler Kelley: 07:58
No. So at the time it was like, yes, the phone was ringing off the hook. We were the only ones in SEO, we wrote. My wife and I got married shortly thereafter. And then in this was pre the not pre wedding wire.
And so there was a real need as we were planning our wedding to just locate wedding vendors. And so I spent my first year out of college deejaying on the weekends and building a couple websites which were really just wedding directories for a couple cities, Saint Louis and Kansas City, and those websites with the advertising that they provided as well as search, it really just made our business grow. Those websites grew. They never grew enough that I could do it full time. Because when The Knot and WeddingWire came along, competition, you know, really increased. Yeah. But yeah, long story short, at the time I was too young and not very knowledgeable to be able to hire somebody to do it. I was working in the business all the time. Never on.
John Corcoran: 09:05
It.
Tyler Kelley: 09:06
Yeah. So it was a good lesson though, right?
John Corcoran: 09:10
So naturally, from English major to mobile DJ business to 2007. And of course real estate is taking off. And so you naturally think I’m going to start a mortgage broker with some partners. Now, was it so late in the game? Because we all know what happened after 2007, 2008, everything crashed.
I’ve interviewed people that started mortgage brokerage like in 2004 or so. In some ways, those are the worst of some really bad situations because then they like being locked in long term leases. Hired up 100 people, right? Was it so late in the game that the pain wasn’t as bad as it could have been, or was it still pretty painful? What was that experience like?