- CEO Hack: Writing a hit list
- CEO Nugget: Find a way to make it happen
- CEO Defined: The CEO works for the company, the company doesn't necessarily work for the CEO
Website: http://www.advertisemint.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmeert/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0999308424/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0
Full Interview:
https://youtu.be/uZ6kFcXIx80
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Transcription
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[00:00:09.80] – Intro
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
[00:00:37.39] – Gresham Harkless
Hello.Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Brian Mert of advertisement. Brian, it's awesome to have you on the show.
[00:00:45.00] – Brian Meert
Man, it's awesome to be here. Thanks so much.
[00:00:47.20] – Gresham Harkless
Definitely. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Brian so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Brian is the CEO of Advertizement, a Hollywood-based digital advertising agency that specializes in helping successful companies advertise on Facebook. Advertisement has managed millions of dollars in digital ad spending in the entertainment, fashion, finance, and software industries. Brian is also the author of the best-selling,
The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising and the Innovative and Innovative, The Complete Guide to Digital Advertising Policies infographic. He's a fifteen-year digital advertising executive and a member of the Forbes Agency Council. Before founding the advertisement, Brian built and sold Gofobo.com, an online ticket system that revolutionized the entertainment industry and is now utilized by Warner Brothers and Disney. Brian, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
[00:01:33.00] – Brian Meert
Oh, let's do it. I can't wait. I'm I'm excited.
[00:01:35.20] – Gresham Harkless
Yeah. I'm actually absolutely excited as well too. And before we jump in, I want to hear a little bit more on how you got started. Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you get started with all the awesome work you're doing.
[00:01:43.70] – Brian Meert
Man, you know what? I never really was big into business. You know, growing up I was super creative, always came up with good ideas, but I would say like in high school or college, you know, people kind of, would maybe write me off as more of a class clown type of person than necessarily a leader. Even though I think I had a lot of leadership qualities, I just, you know, growing up wasn't around many CEOs or business owners. You know, my family is, from the medical industry. So a lot of doctors, nurses, people that work in hospitals or medical-related stuff.
So it's generally you get a good job, you go to school, you get a good job, and you go from there. Not necessarily you go to the boss or be in charge. So, you know, I had a good friend, that I went to school to be a teacher, and I had a good friend that said I'm gonna go get my MBA because I think it could provide more opportunities if I ever wanted to expand beyond, you know, the teaching down the road. And I was like, man, I'd never thought of that. So I went to I had to do, you know, a lot more summer school and extra classes. But I went to MBA school and that's where I finally had someone that was, you know, that said, hey. You should try to start a business.
And it was crazy that of all MBA schools, the dean of business was the first person I liked who said, you know, go try. And this was before it was, you know, this is before YouTube and, you know, the Internet was out there with tons of people being like, you can start a business. A lot of the tools, they're available now, you know, Shopify wasn't around, YouTube wasn't around, Facebook, was nowhere near as big. There weren't Facebook ads. So it was just the first time someone had kinda permitted me to go, and he didn't say become a billionaire. He just said go try. And that's really where my journey began he was the first one who gave me the green light and said, go and come talk to me every week and tell me what you did.
And that's what got me started. And then once I feel like I had the permission to kinda go, like, I would always have thought that business people had like a special, you know, skill. Like, you know, me versus Michael Jordan, people would be like, there's something different. But if it was me versus, you know, Bill Gates or Walt Disney or Steve Jobs, I think I had a lot of the traits that were similar to him. I just never had anyone that pointed those out to be like, you know, you are like those guys. You want to be at the top. You wanna hustle. You wanna work hard. You're smart about where there are problems and how to solve them. So it was like the first time that I tried and, you know, I tried and failed and tried and failed, but my Dean of Business would be like, just keep going. What's next? What's your next plan? What's coming right after that?
And I think it got me through, I think the initial, you know, a lot of times the barrier of failure that a lot of times people think they did something wrong. And he was like, no. Just go try again. Or what's what happens next? You hit a wall. How do you get around it? If the front door is not open, where's the window? Where's the back door? Where's the basement? Go in the chimney. Like, there are twenty ways you can solve a problem, not just, you know, the one that you originally thought of. And I think, you know, once I kinda started, that that's really where I started to try to start different businesses and, you know, get my hands and stuff and go from there.
[00:04:38.69] – Gresham Harkless
Yeah. That that makes sense. And and and having that environment that that permission, as you said, to even just try something where a lot of really phenomenal things come from by just, you know, taking that step. And so many times, we don't realize that the people that become extremely successful are not the people that never, quote, unquote, fail. There's the ones that hit that wall and decide that, okay. Well, let me do it this way or let me do it that way, and that they have that persistence related to that that truly Yeah. Gets them to that success.
[00:04:59.89] – Brian Meert
One of the things I would say that always surprised me looking back is that I didn't have anyone in my life who saw the traits that I had and was like, you are an entrepreneur. Like, you are really good at marketing. You're really good at leadership. You know, like, you you get stuff done and you work hard. It was no one in my world was a CEO or was a business owner, and so I just never even thought that was an option for me.
And I think there's a lot of people out there that are willing to take that leap. It's scary being an entrepreneur or trying to start your own business but there's rewards on the back end of it. And so if anyone's listening and you don't have family or someone that said that out to have Uncle Brian that says, hey. You know, give it a try. All you have to do is try. And you're probably gonna fail. It's okay. But just keep trying. Keep moving forward.
[00:05:47.00] – Gresham Harkless
Yeah. Absolutely. I appreciate you for that, uncle Brian, and adding on Grish as well too. I'm telling you to do it as well. Just trying phenomenal things sometimes happen from Deshrine and having that, persistence. So, I wanted to drill down a little bit more here, a little bit more about advertisement. Can you take us through exactly, like, how you work with your clients and tell us a little bit more about your book as well?
[00:06:03.39] – Brian Meert
Sure. Yeah. We're we're a digital agency. You know, on the Internet, a lot of people know us for, Facebook advertising. I've I've done a lot of digital advertising, managed hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in digital ad spend online for both myself and other companies. And when Facebook ads first launched, I was working at a financial company. We were spending millions of dollars every month and I was able to tinker a little bit with the Facebook ad platform when it first launched. And so I saw all the potential and I was like, this is incredible. And it was, it was super quiet. There weren't people talking about it. There weren't a lot of people that were out there saying we know how to work and do it. And so I realized, man, this is gonna be huge.
And so I quit my job and started an agency to help other companies grow. And, you know, over the past seven years, so much has changed in, you know, the landscape of how ads are managed and run and the new tools are available. And, you know, we've worked with, you know, people that'll call me the the night before their Kickstarter campaign is launching being like, we did everything except for get ads up. And then we've worked with, you know, companies all the way up as big as Coca-Cola, Viacom, Grant Cardone, you know, some of these big, big massive advertisers that people are like, oh, yeah. We see their stuff everywhere online. And so there's, you know, there's it's crazy.
There's strategies that work across the board. And that's what I love about digital is, you know, even the the little guy has the exact same tools that the the companies and brands running Super Bowl ads have when it comes to digital advertising. And it's just it's leveled the playing field, which is fantastic because if you're a a mom and pop pizza shop, you can still run highly effective digital ads that are within your budget that would be the exact same structure that, you know, a big major brand would be running and how they would be setting up their ads. So I just I It's incredibly fascinating to me.
We love working with new clients and if anyone needs help with their ads, we work with, you know, Facebook, Google, Amazon, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, a lot of these major platforms now have ad plat you know, ads that you can run targeted ads to specific audiences. And what we do is we work with each company to be like, what do you want? How do you be able to to make money? And and our our team is really focused on performance. We focus a lot on if you're gonna put a dollar up into ads, how do we make it get you as much money out as possible? Not just let's spend it and see what happens, but we wanna get money to where it's generating money for your business so you can grow.
[00:08:24.39] – Gresham Harkless
What would you consider to be what I call your secret sauce? And it could be for yourself individually or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?
[00:08:32.10] – Brian Meert
I mean, one of the things that I think we really focus on is I mentioned this before, but really performance. And I think, you you know, when it comes to people that are managing your ads, which is very much almost like a financial planner, you know, they have access to your credit card. They're spending your money for your business. And I just I take that really seriously, you know, and our team does as well. When I first started, you know, back in MBA school, I didn't have much money because I was in school, and I started a business, and I used my cafeteria money that the school would give me to go put into Google Ads.
So there were days I'd run ads and I'm like, boom. Hey, five times return. I'm the greatest. You know, all this amazing. And the next day, zero sales. And I'm like, oh, no. Like, I'm not gonna be eating for a week if I don't figure this out. So it became, you know, serious for me. It became critical that I've gotta figure out how to get these ads right. I can't just spend money. And so I've always taken that approach with me where, you know, I'm working now with clients being like every dollar counts and I think, you know, there can be some laziness sometimes, in digital advertising where, you know, maybe management just doesn't understand what goes in or they're like, I don't know. Is this good? Is this bad? I just numbers are going and that's it.
Our team is so focused on is every dollar being used in the right way and what's the strategy to be able to get more money first, and then expand from there. Because if revenue is coming in, you're gonna be able to do more and more and more advertising. But if you're just spending money and it's not working, usually what happens is the clients are like, well we need to trim stuff back. We need to slow it down. We're unhappy. And so we really wanna just put that kind of that level of performance into everything that we do, and and that's kind of how we measure ourselves.
[00:10:02.89] – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
[00:10:12.00] – Brian Meert
So, man, this is one that I've always done, and it's weird because I've never thought that this was necessarily anything special. And there was one time I was working in a WeWork in Santa Monica and another guy walked by and saw what I was doing and he was like, what is this? And so I used to every morning, I'd get a pad of paper and I would write out what I would call a hit list. Right? Like, these are things I put a little box next to each one. These are things I gotta get done today. Right?
And some people'll be like, you need to put them in order of most important for I would just write everything out and I'd be like, here we go. And I would sit down and my whole goal is like, how do I knock out as many of these as I can? Sometimes I would do the easy ones first. Sometimes I would do the hard ones first. Sometimes I would just go top to bottom and see how far I could get in a day. And so this guy came and he was like, hey. What are you doing? I was like, it's my hit list. He was like, hit list. Like, what? I was like, yeah. I'm a task assassin. Like, I just go and I knock these guys out one by one by one. And he loved that.
And for the rest now every time I talk to him or we're on Facebook, he's like, what's up task assassin? And and I think it's something that really in my world has helped me in the in the world of, you know, moving forward. You know, there's a lot of things that need to get done And I don't necessarily realize it because I'm like that on all the day, but my thing is how quickly can I get something done and off my plate?
[00:11:25.50] – Gresham Harkless
Definitely appreciate that, uncle Brian. And and so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be around advertising or if you have to do a time machine, it might be something would tell your younger business self.
[00:11:37.70] – Brian Meert
Man, but one thing, it's weird how this kinda is there, but what I would say is my my little quote or my mantra that I live for is boom, make it happen. And so, I think the boom is I'm always a big fan of fireworks. Right? Anytime I get my hands on some, we get to light them off. I love it because, you know, they're loud, there's lots of lights. It's always just a good time with fireworks.
[00:11:57.20] – Gresham Harkless
Yeah.
[00:11:57.50] – Brian Meert
A little dangerous, you know, your mom was always like, hey, don't play with those. Be like, I know what I'm doing. So, I love the fact that when the fire goes off, there's a moment in time like a snap, a sound. And so the boom is the reaction, the the starting gun of the race. And then to make it happen is just it's it's make it happen. It's not win first place. It's not beat everyone else. It's not take over and be better than Elon Musk. It's just make it happen. Find a way to in your own world, in your own journey, in your own battles to get to that next point.
[00:12:30.39] – Gresham Harkless
I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Brian, what does being a CEO mean to you?
[00:12:38.70] – Brian Meert
I think there's an element of being a leader, of being someone that, you know, is the visionary that's looking at, hey, guys. We're heading in this direction. You know, it's it's taking ownership. If things work well, it's great. You know, if if things aren't working well, it starts with you. And, you know, it's something that I I see a lot of. I mean, a lot of people are quick to blame someone underneath them. You know, on my end, I'm always like, hey, it stops with me. If there's a problem, I'm a part of it because it got through the cracks or it was allowed to exist and we need to figure out how to solve that that will help our team move more efficiently and move better. I I I kinda come from the approach that the CEO works for the company.
The company doesn't necessarily work for the CEO. That's always been my approach and I'm very much a person who rolls up his sleeves and says, hey, let's get in there. If there's a problem, let's get in. Let's fix it. What do we need to do? At the same time, you know, leading and being like, okay, now that we know what we're doing, you know, I've gotta get up, make sure's steering the ship in the in the right direction. But, I I think it really is. It's it's a combination of leadership. It's a combination of wisdom and having that vision of where you're going.
And then there's an element of being smart and being wise and being open to listening to other people who may have options or suggestions. You know, the first business I ever built and sold, I was an intern at a company and I saw where there was an opportunity. I went to the president and said, hey. We can we can build this for you. Like, I was an intro. I wasn't getting paid anything. And I was like, I'm pretty sure we could figure this out and it would help the company. And he was like, it's a dumb idea. It's always been it's our it's always been done this way. We don't need that. Go back to your room and and just, you know, get back to work. Like, who are you talking to me anyway?
And I eventually went and found a friend from college and we built it. And two years later, their company came back and said, we wanna buy it from you. We we sold it to their competitors and they ended up buying the competitor. And, eventually, we were back all in one meeting and this guy was like, I remember when you came and talked to me, all I had to do was listen to you and here we are two and a half, three years later where you're with all the presidents of the company and we're in the process of acquiring this again. He's like, I'll never forget this lesson at all. So I think, you know, a lot of times the best ideas can come from your team.
[00:14:57.79] – Gresham Harkless
Brian, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how how best they could get a hold of you, get a copy of the book, and find about all the awesome things you're working on.
[00:15:10.39] – Brian Meert
Nice. Well, what I wanna thank you so much for having me here, and I know you you've got tons and tons of listeners. So for anyone that made it to the end of this, I have this is the book, The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising. I write this every year. It's a best seller on Amazon, but I have a free copy that I wanna give away only to someone that's listening to this right now. So what I want you to do is you've gotta find I am CEO on social anywhere they're at. Like them, leave them a comment, or comment on this one, like the the podcast, give it a five star review, whatever you can do.
And we're gonna be picking a winner out of that, contacting them saying, hey. We've got a book that we wanna send over to you. So, you know, beyond that, if you need any help with with any of your advertisings or just wanna be able to talk about maybe some of the options that might be there for your company, feel free to reach out to to myself or anyone on our team at advertisement dot com, and we're always, you know, willing to to have those conversations and help you understand what options you have.
[00:16:08.70] – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Brian. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well as far as a way for you to take advantage of this, giveaway that you're you're, you made available to us. So I truly appreciate you again, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
[00:16:21.39] – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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