StreetTalk

We're investing $500k/yr in our own organic social presence, and we're only a 7-figure agency. 9-figure agencies wouldn't approve half that budget. Quick breakdown of what we're spending and why it's only going to INCREASE. -Producers: $100k+ -Two Editors: $35k+ each -Videographer: $40k+ -Clipping agency: $60k -Dedicated time from our Head of Brand & PR -Dedicated time from Josh, Co-founder (exec salary) as host Many agencies don't invest 5% of revenue into sales & marketing overall. We're investing more than 5% of revenue into ONE play. Why? Because we know with conviction attention is the new currency, and we're not risk-averse. We also understand some of the most effective marketing is hard to measure, so we're comfortable with the uncomfortable. We're extremely confident in our strategy: 1. Give founders a platform to build trust with their audiences that feels more raw and authentic than a podcast or a scripted founder spot. 2. Show the vulnerability and humility of the person behind the world's most famous brands by getting them to street interview real people about their products. 3. Cross-post / cross-promote to attract other founders. 4. Grow top of funnel awareness for StreetTalk. In only 2 months since launching StreetTalk The Founder Series, we've had a lineup of guests that most B2B podcasts would drool over and DMs from founders of $1B+ brands who want to come on the show. We're already averaging one inbound sales call booked per day from brands interested in working with us that discovered us through this organic series. The math is actually simple. With a conservative 10% Win Rate on those 30 booked calls per month, we'll average 3 new clients/month. $100k LTV per client x 3 clients / $40k investment per month = 7.5 LTV:CAC ratio With that ratio, most subscription/retainer-based businesses would spend to the moon, which is why we're more likely to invest further vs. pull back. All we need to do is close a couple of clients per month, and just like that, we're marketing geniuses.

I’ve noticed the people who get ahead aren’t smarter. They’re just willing to look stupid for 6 months. When I was 23, I shuttered my business and six-figure income to accept a $36,000 entry-level salary and equity to work at Tinuiti (fka Elite SEM). 17 years later, I was still there and that $1M company grew over 200x. When ChatGPT launched, I pushed our Head of Innovation to launch a GEO/AEO offering before any other agency. Agencies were staying away because the impact of efforts was not yet easily measurable. I knew the best marketing is often not easily measured. We launched and capitalized on the first mover advantage. Roughly a year later, every agency offers this service. Less than a year ago, I left my role as Chief Commercial Officer at Tinuiti to partner with two entrepreneurs in their 20s creating street interview ads in the park. Many trusted advisors of mine couldn't grasp the value I saw. We've since grown 7x. Recently, a friend of mine left his corporate finance job and launched a viral content business doing sorority and fraternity activations. His family and friends didn’t understand the move. A few months later, he’s getting national news coverage for a viral sorority rush tour he led for Nike. If everyone else sees it too, you’re already late. The uncomfortable part isn’t choosing, it’s moving when the evidence is still thin.

People asked how StreetTalk, which launched 8 months ago, secured a 5-minute segment on The TODAY Show last week. The story of how it went down is not what you’d expect: 1: I began to mentor a new colleague at a former company 10 years ago. 2: He opened his own agency 3 years later. We remained in touch. Always took his calls, with pleasure. 3: In November 2025, I joined Josh Suggs ( Street interview Ads ) and Luke Thorburg, MBA's 203 Media as CEO, immediately led a rebrand to StreetTalk and changed our model with a vision of leading the Authenticity Age of Advertising. I shared the update with my network. 4: Mentee of the past, now accomplished agency owner begins firing off referrals to me from his client base, without being asked or incentivized. 5: One introduction was to Jill Martin's team. They were interested in leveraging StreetTalk to promote their licensed New York sports team apparel. We were starting to build The StreetTalk Show and wanted to have Jill as a guest. We invited her on the show, and offered a complimentary package of Street Interview ads. 6: Turns out, Jill is a guest correspondent on The TODAY Show. She went back to the studio, and encouraged her colleagues to check us out. 7: We received an inbound inquiry from a Producer, scheduled a call, and answered her questions. A few weeks later, we were shooting The TODAY Show. There was no PR involved. No Claude Skill. No shortcuts. Some may refer to my approach as “the long game”, but that insinuates I was angling for a winning outcome. The reality is I was simply being considerate, and happened to benefit from the laws outlined in the book The Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. Give without the expectation of reciprocity. Patience is a competitive advantage most people can’t tolerate.

A card showed up at our office last week. Nothing we've done this quarter matters more. Six months ago, our COO, Steven Marder, joined the team. It was his first full-time role since losing his 12-year-old son, Brandon, to brain cancer. We knew as a team that we wanted a lasting way to honor Brandon. Not a one-time donation, but something woven into the everyday work. The answer came during our sales conversations. Clients kept asking how we handle our street interview waivers and whether we pay people to sign them. The standard playbook says to hand out a $5 Starbucks or Amex gift card. But we looked at each other and thought why feed another massive corporation? Why not take those exact same funds and put a real purpose behind them? That’s how The BranD Initiative was born, named for Brandon, and at the same time created a simple, replicable formula for doing and being good in the world that we could later bring to our brand clients. Now for every media waiver signed on the street, StreetTalk automatically donates $2 to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. Last week we got a note from the Foundation thanking us for our first 2 months of contributions. $2,000 in month one. We're just getting started. As we grow, we want to give the brands we work with the option to leverage our giving “Y for every X” formula, and help scale the impact and permanence. If we'd waited until we were "big enough" to think about giving back, this never would have happened. You don't need to be big to do your part. Thank you, Brandon. If you would like to directly donate, please use the link below. and if you would like to participate in magnifying this incredible initiative, please reach out here: [email protected] https://lnkd.in/gb653-fz

Something I hear often from consumer brands: We tried doing ‘man on the street’ interviews ourselves and that’s why we wanted to speak with you. With over 30,000 videos produced and delivered: We have a knowledge base of 1,000s of customized creative briefs for our creative strategists to draw inspiration from. Our top 10 hosts have shot over 2,000 videos each. Our top 10 editors have edited 2,000+. Reps are everything in anything you do. That’s why it’s not a street interview unless it’s a StreetTalk interview. IYKYK.

Warning: working with StreetTalk may lead to tears.