IAM1289- CEO Creates a Brand Tech Platform for Amateur Sports Team

Title: Transcript - Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:46:15 GMT

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:46:15 GMT, Duration: [00:17:47.59]

[00:00:00.60] - Speaker 1

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[00:00:28.19] - Dom Einhorn

So Dennis Rodman clearly stood out. Everyone needs to develop a hook, whether it's a team or an individual. We all have something deeply meaningful inside of us that makes us unique and authentic. That's the voice that we need to express

[00:00:45.50] - Intro

express. Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, start ups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Marcus values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

[00:01:12.79] - Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dom Einhorn of CX Sports. Dom, it's great to have you on the show.

[00:01:21.70] - Dom Einhorn

Thanks for having me on the show. My pleasure.

[00:01:23.90] - Gresham Harkless

Yes. Definitely a pleasure, to say at the very least. And before we jumped in, I want to read a little bit more about all the awesome things that Dom is doing so you could hear about some of those awesome things. And Dom is the founder and CEO of CX Sports, a technology platform that helps amateur and semi pro professional sports teams develop and monetize their brand and media assets. CX Sports is wholly owned by Challenger X, a UK based company that is prepared preparing for public listening. A serial entrepreneur with multiple start up exits under his belt, Dom created the first online art auction back in March of nineteen ninety six, and and the platform was acquired by one of the largest auction sites in the world five months later. Dom then created PowerClick, a digital marketing agency with five hundred plus advertisers as clients. So, Dom, super excited to hear about all the awesome things that you're working on and you've been able to do. Are you ready to speak to the IMCL community?

[00:02:12.09] - Dom Einhorn

I was born ready. Let's go.

[00:02:13.59] - Gresham Harkless

Let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I like to call your CEO story.

[00:02:21.09] - Dom Einhorn

Yeah. Well, I go way back then to the very early innings of, the digital space and the Internet. I was born and raised in France, half French, half German. Moved to the US at the tender age of, twenty three in nineteen ninety three. Back then, the Internet was called the information superhighway, for those of you who are old enough to remember those terms. And that's when I got started in the digital marketing space, initially, building websites and selling them to a b to b client base. Again, at a time when, people didn't know what a website was. So in the sense, it was like selling ice to Eskimos. But we realized very early on that, we came up with a rule, the rule of one out of thirty seven, because it took us thirty seven calls and real pitches to actually sell a website at that point in time. The idea was to get to the thirty seven, number thirty seven, as quickly as painlessly as possible because that would mean another sale. Fast forward twenty eight years later, obviously, the world has changed quite a bit, and we've gone through a lot of different reinventions of who we are and what we do along the way. But one mainstay has always been impact and, building impactful campaigns and having common denominator, that common denominator probably being investor acquisition along the way, client acquisition on behalf of our clients. And, in more recent years, obviously, we've kinda regeared our toolbox to the benefit of the sports industry as a whole, and more specifically, as you mentioned early on in the call, towards the benefit of amateur teams, sports teams, as well as amateur athletes with a hard focus on monetization. In other words, what we do, unlike a lot of other companies because in in the sports tech field, obviously, there are a lot of operators, thousands of operators. We have developed a value proposition that is one hundred percent based upon driving incremental revenue to teams and to athletes via the CX Sports platform. You had mentioned, that it is wholly owned by Challenger X, which is true, and that we intended to publicly list that has actually happened the day before Christmas. Nice. We're now we're now officially a public company in the UK, soon to be dual listed in Germany as well as in the US. We're working on the process as well, but we are, as of December twenty third, a public entity listed in London on the Aquis Exchange, probably in Frankfurt within the next two weeks sometime, and then in the US within the next eight to nine weeks. But, you know, what's been interesting in the journey, what I call the twenty eight year journey now between nineteen ninety three and, twenty twenty one, now twenty twenty two, has been, to see that a lot of things obviously have changed, and it's very difficult to be a trend chaser because none of us have a crystal ball that allows us to predict the future. So, what we tend to do is focus on what does not change. That's a lot more predictable, than what does change. It's surprising to me that most, companies and individuals always, try to change chase a trend. They they don't know where which direction the wind is blowing, when in fact, it's a lot easier to just figure out at what hasn't changed. So let's take an example. Let's take Amazon. Yes. Obviously, they've changed quite a bit since nineteen ninety five when they first launched. They're no longer selling, books and only books. They're selling everything known to mankind, but they're still selling, and they're still selling to a relatively predictable customer who is expecting a certain level of service that's been improving along the way, is expecting a wide range of options and selections when they actually go shop. Obviously, he's expecting quality, ratings when they go to, when they use, for example, Prime Video today. You know, you see IMDB ratings, for example. Like, me personally, if a movie is slower than six point five out of ten, I won't even touch it because my peers have told me that they didn't really appreciate that movie, and I don't like wasting my time. So I'm not gonna sit down and initiate a a stream that, will be disappointing to me. Not that it's foolproof, but it gives me a good indication. So I think those are some of the things that, will never change. People have expectations that need to be met. A customer, a client has a certain level of expectations that need to be met or exceeded. In our scenario, in our business, we've realized, very, very quickly that, in the sports business, you have on one side professional teams that are usually professionally managed. And then on the other side, you have a gap between them and the semi professional and the amateur teams where you and I could sit down right now and look at a hundred logos of a hundred amateur teams, and we would instantly know that our amateur just by looking at the logo. That is a major, major problem. If we could only solve that problem with CX Sports, it's a multi billion dollar problem. In other words, if you run a small baseball team, basketball team, hockey team, whatever it is, you need means to survive and means to develop your little brand. Ideally, get better equipment, get better staff, better players, and all that costs money. But if you're starting with a ten yard, twenty yard penalty, a bad logo, and you're approaching a decent sized sponsor in the hopes that they will actually financially support your team, very often for them, it's not about the money. Right? It may be if the sum that you're asking from them is extravagant. But if it's a reasonable sum, the first thing they will look is to see if the relationship makes sense. But if your logo, if your image, if your brand is pulling them down, they will not take that risk for branding reasons, not for monetary reasons. So, usually, the first thing we advise to, teams again, we took over our local rugby team little less than two years ago here in Sala Sala rugby, which was founded in nineteen o three. So it's a hundred and eighteen year old team, and the logo had been revisited, I believe, in the late fifties, early sixties. The local team emblem is a salamander. And when I looked at the logo, I couldn't tell whether it was a freshwater eel or a grass snake. Right? So, clearly, there was a disconnect there, for people and for sponsors when you explain to them, well, our emblem is a is a salamander. Why is it really salamander? It looks more like a snake. Right? Well, it's not a snake, and then you're wasting your time. And, in fact, it becomes a major obstacle in getting to where you need to be. So everything starts in in most things. Right? And no no matter what it is that you're selling, even if you're a solo practitioner, if you're a person, an an athlete, a singer, a performer, you're a brand at the end of the day. Right? And that brand either has a positive or a negative connotation, or it's just plain vanilla. Okay? But in order to break through, you need to be different. That's the key term. If you're not different, you're not standing out from the crowd. I take a perfect example, Dennis Rodman, who, by the way, used to be one of my clients. So Dennis Rodman clearly stood out. Right? Mhmm. When everybody was bald or had black hair, he had blue, pink, white, yellow, any any hair you could clearly, people watch the game. Like, oh, this is Dennis Rodman. Right? Everyone needs to develop a hook, whether it's a team or an individual. We all have something deeply meaningful inside of us that makes us unique and authentic. That's the voice that we need to express as marketers. And that's something that is a mainstay going back to the original discussion we had, but it hasn't changed. None of that has changed. People still react to storytelling. That's the difference between a great movie, an average movie, and a bad movie. Right.

[00:10:22.29] - Gresham Harkless

That that makes that makes a lot of sense. And do do you feel like, because I was gonna ask you for your secret sauce, and it might be actually that, which it could be for yourself, the organization, or a combination of both.

[00:10:31.50] - Dom Einhorn

The first thing you need to do is you write your own storyline and really craft what makes you different, knowing that if you're staying within the mold of everybody else, you're dead. Nobody is interested in something average or below average. So you have to first and foremost, before you go out and make a splash, before you go out and secure a million followers on social media, you have to know what your message is. What is deeply meaningful to you, to your brand? What makes you stand out from everybody else? What makes you unique? And once you really, really feel that and you feel it in your gut, and it's a very emotional thing, this is me. Clearly, I can I can live with that? I don't have to play an act. I don't have to be an actor. It has to be truly representative of who you are and what you stand for. Only at that point can you really go out and start communicating. So someone from the outside with a fresh perspective needs to come in and say, oh, I get it. Right? Let me is this who you really want to be? Is this is how you're currently positioning yourself? And then by way of coffee discussion, you find out what that unique value proposition is, and you get an moment. When you have the moment, you realize right away because the team manager, the president on the other side, or the athlete is gonna say, oh my god. Never looked at it myself this way. I get it now. This is truly me. I can I can run with that message, but you first have to get to that gut instinct? Okay. It's an emotional decision. It's not an intellectual decision. You feel it once you actually put it in the right words, and that's part of the process. Only at that time does it make sense to then reverberate that message and get it out to the masses because you really feel good. It's hitting the right court.

[00:12:09.89] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense and that's so powerful. What would you consider to be what I like to call a a CEO nugget? So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something that you kinda, you know, mentioned to us that you would tell your your favorite client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self?

[00:12:25.60] - Dom Einhorn

The biggest nugget probably is just from my personal experience. The ability to say no is one is one thing. And closely related to that is how you rate people, projects, and ideas. When I was my younger self, when I was half my age, when I was twenty five, I was rating it. I had a discussion with my dad who is a very wise old man today. He's eighty two years old. And he told me one day and sat me down. He said, you're doing the right thing and wrong thing at the same time. And I'm rolling my eyes. Okay. What what is it, dad? He said, well, we we're both rating people on a scale of zero to ten. However, you're starting everybody off at ten. I start everybody off at zero. You're setting yourself up for disappointment. I will I am never disappointed. I only have good news because I'm not expecting anything from anyone, and they're just slowly climbing up the ladder ladder if they're actually doing the right thing. I was like, okay. I can I can take that? That's a nugget that as I grew older year year after year, zero to ten, just start off at zero and you cannot be disappointed.

[00:13:26.70] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. No, I appreciate you so much in sharing that. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote, unquote CEOs on the show. So, Dom, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:38.50] - Dom Einhorn

We might sign like a platitude. The definition of a CEO is someone who never gives up, who persists all the way through to success no matter how many failures he comes across. And in whatever he does, he always keeps his eye on the prize. And when I say the prize doesn't necessarily mean a monetary prize, it's the overall objective. I think money comes by way of fulfilling an obligation to the people who are buying from you. A CEO is the ultimate problem solver. Again, if I compare how easy it is and how cheap it is today in twenty twenty two to start a business versus nineteen ninety three, let alone before, Come on. You have no excuse not to focus on something that's really important for you. Figure out the first question you should ask yourself is, again, going back to authenticity and writing your own storyline, how do you wanna be remembered by? So, if you wanna be remembered as someone who invented the, solution to cancer, any type of cancer, okay, focus on that. If you want to be remembered as someone who brought enjoyment to kids for via music or arts, focus on that. That's a huge problem as well. Right? Don't event problems. We have plenty.

[00:14:51.00] - Gresham Harkless

Dom, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, appreciate all the insight and knowledge and and and, you know, impact that you're having as well too. What I want us to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional. I just wanted to let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best people can get ahold of you and find about all the awesome things you and your team are working Well, Well,

[00:15:08.29] - Dom Einhorn

Well, Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on the show. I I I think the I love the title, by the way, of the show, I am CEO, because we are all CEO, even if it's only of our own lives. Right? And it takes the same approach to managing our own lives, our own families, than it takes to actually run a business. Be that be that father, be that mother figure, be that uncle, be that be that aunt, the big brother, big sister, etcetera, etcetera. It is super important, not only for them, but for yourself. So I think those are some very, very important lessons that we that we can take away. And that is why great fathers, great mothers, great uncles, etcetera, etcetera, usually make great CEOs. As far as I'm concerned, you can find me on, on LinkedIn, Dom Einhorn, d o m. My last name Einhorn, e I n h o r n. It means unicorn in German, hence the Unicorn Incubator, which I'm running here in southwest of France. LinkedIn is the best way to get a hold of me. CXsports. Io. If you have a team or if you're an athlete, you're looking for incremental ways to monetize the team, or you're influenced as an athlete, feel free to reach out. We've developed a number of very simple modules that are free, so we're not charging you anything to get started with us. We're gonna help we're here to help you make you succeed. Awesome. Awesome.

[00:16:24.60] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Dom, for, you know, all the awesome things that you're doing. We're definitely gonna have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow-up with you and connect with you. Thank you so much for reminding us of that, for of course, doing that in your life as well too, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:39.10] - Dom Einhorn

Thank you so much for having me. My pleasure.

[00:16:41.10] - Intro

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue sixteen Media. Tune in next time and visit us at I m c e o dot c o. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at cbnation dot co. Also, check out our I am CEO Facebook group. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless junior. Thank you for listening.

[00:17:17.59] - Speaker 5

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