Erik Wolf discusses his journey of a creative individual who leveraged his artistic talents to forge a unique path in the marketing world. Wolf's story is a testament to the power of leadership that blends creativity with systematic strategies to drive transformation. Initially embarking on a career in graphic design, Erik encountered numerous challenges that tested his resilience and adaptability. Instead of succumbing to these hurdles, he used them as stepping stones, eventually creating a novel approach to marketing that emphasizes engagement and innovation.

This episode sheds light on how Erik's leadership qualities—his vision, creativity, and ability to think strategically—were instrumental in developing a marketing methodology that stands out for its effectiveness and originality. It's a compelling narrative that illustrates how unconventional backgrounds can contribute to groundbreaking successes in seemingly unrelated fields, offering valuable insights for leaders seeking to foster innovation and transformation within their organizations.

Want to learn more about Erik's work? Check out their website at https://estound.com.

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikwolf/ .

Key Points

• 00:02:11 - Erik shares his early career aspirations in TV production, leading to a pivotal moment when he became a producer for what turned out to be an imaginary TV show.
• 00:03:11 - Faced with financial instability, Erik turned to graphic design, a skill he had taught himself as a hobby, as a means to make money.
• 00:04:24 - Transition into marketing: Erik's curiosity about marketing conversations among colleagues spurred his career shift from graphic design to marketing.
• 00:17:42 - Development of the Unified Marketing System: Erik discusses how his journey and experiences led him to create a systematic approach to marketing that addresses common failures in the field.
• 00:19:32 - Erik's establishment of his own company and the application of his marketing system over the past 18 years.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:04
Craig Andrews
All right. Today I want to welcome Eric Wolfe. Eric is a professor, a scholar, and a marketer. Eric's goal is to change the conversation around marketing. he started that by coauthoring. the unified marketing system. I've had some insights to it. I'm telling you, this is well thought out. This is something you're going want to listen to.

00:00:25:06 - 00:00:52:07
Craig Andrews
He is the founder and CEO of the marketing agency astound. That's S2, UMD, and it was established in 2006. And, along with his team, Eric has helped executives plan and execute strategies to connect with their markets, grow revenue, create lasting and predictable ROI. I tell you what, that sounds seductive. Predictable and lasting ROI.

00:00:52:13 - 00:00:53:18
Erik Wolf
Wouldn't that be nice?

00:00:53:20 - 00:01:08:07
Craig Andrews
Yeah. It's a it's a dream come true. And he helps them facilitate lucrative exits. So I have really been looking. I've known Eric for a year or two now.

00:01:08:09 - 00:01:11:06
Erik Wolf
I want to say it's been a little bit more than a year.

00:01:11:08 - 00:01:28:19
Craig Andrews
Okay, well, and we've we've kind of known each other on LinkedIn and, you know, it's LinkedIn and such a neat platform. Relationships begin there. This is actually our first time talking semi in person. And I've been looking forward to it. Eric welcome.

00:01:28:21 - 00:01:33:13
Erik Wolf
Thank you. I'm super glad to be here. This is this is going to be fun.

00:01:33:15 - 00:02:02:14
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So, the we we were talking yeah. So first off, and we're going to get to that. So for those listening, we're going to get to the unified marketing system because I want to learn more about I think Eric's I appreciate systematic thinkers. And I can tell you Eric is a systematic thinker, but he's kind of an unlikely one because it also comes from a graphical design background.

00:02:02:15 - 00:02:11:15
Craig Andrews
You know, those folks are not always systematic. But Eric, rumor is you get hired to be on a TV show.

00:02:11:17 - 00:02:48:05
Erik Wolf
I got I got hired, I got hired as a as as a producer on a TV show. I was in Atlanta. I had been in my on my list as a college student. I was very involved in my, my campus video production club. I produced the first TV show at our campus. I was really into the idea of having a career in TV and video, and so I got hooked up with this guy who was looking for a producer starting a show super well funded.

00:02:48:07 - 00:03:11:02
Erik Wolf
He he had sponsors, and we were going to make the show. He hired me. It was awesome. I signed the 12 month lease on an apartment and, and after a few weeks, I noticed that that my bank account was was going in the wrong direction. And I said, hey, how about a paycheck? And it turns out that the show was was completely imaginary.

00:03:11:02 - 00:03:36:23
Erik Wolf
And so I was, and so I was I was the producer of an imaginary television show, and I had no money. I had a degree in political science, which not, you know, turns out political scientist isn't really a job at. And so, so I had been I had been self-taught as a graphic designer. It was a hobby.

00:03:37:00 - 00:03:58:05
Erik Wolf
And I ended up, and I ended up doing that for, you know, just like I got to make some money. This is a thing I know how to do. I guess I'll try doing this. And. And I ended up, you know, after a number of months at a company where, where my cubicle, I wasn't, I wasn't working in marketing.

00:03:58:05 - 00:04:24:11
Erik Wolf
I was working in, it was basically like book production. We were making technical manuals and so and so I was on that side of the business. But my cubicle was was with the marketing people, and I started overhearing the things that they were talking about. And I got interested, started sneaking into meetings, you know, with, with flimsy excuses about things that, that I needed to talk about, about our technical manuals.

00:04:24:13 - 00:04:42:19
Erik Wolf
And, and I was like, okay, I can, I can this is interesting to me. I can do this. This is creative. This is, this is kind of lighting up all the good parts in my brain. And so I sort of used design as my wedge to, to get into marketing. And I haven't looked back.

00:04:42:21 - 00:04:53:00
Craig Andrews
So let's back up a little bit to the TV show. What? Imaginary. What do you mean when you say an imaginary TV show? What was going on?

00:04:53:02 - 00:05:18:16
Erik Wolf
It it's possible in retrospect that the gentleman was mentally ill. well, if I'm if I'm being completely straightforward and honest. there were, there were, there were signs that it wasn't a real opportunity. and, and I was too young and naive to to read them. but but yeah, he said that he had this this TV show.

00:05:18:16 - 00:05:48:12
Erik Wolf
He said he had all these sponsorships. None of it was true. None of it was real. You know, I was going around, I was I was calling, I was calling, production facilities. We were, you know, we were getting ready to, to get to get, the studio to, to to shoot in. I had recruited, I had introduced him to a friend of mine from from college who was an actress, and he was interested in hiring her as a host.

00:05:48:14 - 00:06:13:01
Erik Wolf
And we, you know, and I and I went for weeks down this, you know, down this rabbit hole with this guy, only to find out that that it was all the basically a figment of his imagination there there wasn't any money, there were no sponsors. There was there was nothing to suggest that he had any wherewithal to be doing this.

00:06:13:03 - 00:06:19:10
Erik Wolf
And, you know, it was it was it was fictitious.

00:06:19:12 - 00:06:25:15
Craig Andrews
My goodness, the now you move to Atlanta to be on that show. Where did you move from?

00:06:25:17 - 00:07:03:23
Erik Wolf
Well, I was in Atlanta, for college, and I ended up staying there as, as a result of I, I went to Emory, and so I was, and the way that I'd met this guy was, because I was in Atlanta, I was involved with, with this video production kind of thing. I had known a few people that worked at CNN and, you know, there and places like that and, and this friend, this friend had come to me and said, hey, I just heard this guy, is looking for for a person.

00:07:04:03 - 00:07:17:02
Erik Wolf
It came to me. But but I'm happy where I'm at. You should talk to him. And so that's and I. And so I ended up like, you know, with an apartment and everything in Atlanta after I graduated. And it was.

00:07:17:02 - 00:07:27:21
Craig Andrews
Yeah, you know, there are some that would say, well, jeez, you got your degree in political science and you're surprised that you got pulled into a false reality. oh.

00:07:27:23 - 00:07:31:21
Erik Wolf
Oh, that's a good joke.

00:07:31:23 - 00:07:40:22
Craig Andrews
Wow. That would be. I mean, I would be I would be furious. I'd be crushed. I, I think I'd be embarrassed if.

00:07:40:24 - 00:08:11:23
Erik Wolf
I was, I was I was terribly embarrassed. and so, emotionally, a couple of things happened to me that definitely colored the, the things that happened next for, for, for a while and, and actually still kind of color things a little bit, but, you know, but I was, I was sort of bitter about having to, you know, doing this, this low level graphic design work and this, this production work.

00:08:11:23 - 00:08:34:24
Erik Wolf
I'd gone to college, I'd gotten a degree, I'd gone to, I gone to a good college, and I ended up with with a job that I was legitimately just as qualified for before I attended a day of college. so, so there was, there was that and, and and the fact that that it now it ruined kind of a hobby that I liked.

00:08:35:01 - 00:08:54:14
Erik Wolf
and then I was really embarrassed about that whole episode to the point where it was like, okay, now I'm, you know, now I'm kind of paying some bills. I'm, you know, I'm back on my feet a little bit. Should I go and find find a job doing this thing that, that I, that I really wanted to do.

00:08:54:16 - 00:09:35:00
Erik Wolf
And I was just too embarrassed to I was I was too embarrassed to to even put myself in a situation where I would even have to tell the story and, and, and legitimately, I haven't I don't think that I've told this story in 20 years. this is this is something that like, that's still I, I don't talk about it's it's kind of like an interesting page in my, in my history and in a, in kind of a, you know, indirect way.

00:09:35:00 - 00:09:55:05
Erik Wolf
And it ended up putting me on the path that, that I was ultimately supposed to be on. But but yeah, very, very embarrassing, very like, you know, it, it, it hurt me in a very like, you know, profound sort of way. Well.

00:09:55:07 - 00:10:18:16
Craig Andrews
I'm sorry, that's, you know, it's it's sad when we see cruelty like that, that, that, that can leave such and such an incredible scar. but you, you started working your way out with, with something you, you did as a hobby.

00:10:18:18 - 00:10:49:23
Erik Wolf
Yes. And and it was and and I'm glad that I had that to fall back on. I'm glad that, I'm glad that it was there for me at that point, but but I, I legitimately came out of college with no direction, like, like you said, I was a political science major, and the only and the only thing that you, you know, materially that right out of school, I believe that you can do with the political science majors is going wrong in law school.

00:10:50:00 - 00:11:08:04
Erik Wolf
And I took the LSATs I didn't want to do and but I couldn't. I was sitting with with my law school applications and I legitimately could not fill them out. I was like, no, this isn't this is not going to happen. This is not where I'm going. I want to do, you know, I want to be in in production.

00:11:08:04 - 00:11:27:10
Erik Wolf
I want to be in television or video or something in that realm. it was it was a really, you know, digital, the whole digital revolution in that, and that medium had had, you know, just started a few years earlier. this was 1999. I was, you know, and I was like, this is this is exciting to me.

00:11:27:10 - 00:11:56:17
Erik Wolf
I want to do this. And, you know, and so I ended up literally back at square one with no concept of what I was going to do for a career, no concept of how I was going to make money. I worked at, my first, my first job out of college was, was doing newspaper layout at the Marietta Daily Journal, and I was making like $10 an hour, and I'm like, oh, this is this is what I do with my with my Emory degree.

00:11:56:20 - 00:12:13:24
Erik Wolf
And and it didn't. And, you know, it didn't it didn't feel good. And, you know, I, I knew that I was going to go somewhere, but but it was very scary at that moment in my life to have no idea of where that somewhere was going to be.

00:12:14:01 - 00:12:32:01
Craig Andrews
You know. But tell me a little bit about graphical design. So it became a hobby for you and and with what is it you like about graphical design? What what inspires you and what do you feel when you're when you're doing design? So my.

00:12:32:03 - 00:13:05:21
Erik Wolf
so my inspiration, way back in the day, so, so my father is, was a was still alive, but but he is no longer a newspaper publisher. but he was in the newspaper business and, and way back in the early 80s, my, my, my dad was, was already thinking about, you know, how how are computers going to change how we make things.

00:13:05:23 - 00:13:31:16
Erik Wolf
And so in, in 1984, and this is really one of my most kind of formative early memories. he and I went to a computer store. I lived in New York City. We went to a computer store in Manhattan. And, and we were looking at this, this Macintosh, this little beige box, and, and you had Nick paint, and he was like, hey, Adley, you can draw with this.

00:13:31:18 - 00:13:56:15
Erik Wolf
And and we sit down in front of the computer, he hands me the mouse, and we're, we're we're drawing and and it took me you know, probably five minutes to figure out that you could use the paint can tool and fill the space with, like, a brick wall and they a spray can tool. And so I could actually tag the computer, which was a big thing for a kid in, you know, New York City to be doing when he was, you know, 7 or 8 years old.

00:13:56:17 - 00:14:22:00
Erik Wolf
so from 90 and my dad ended up getting one of those, one of those Macs. And so it's like I had this thing in my house. I was always using it to make things. The idea that that I could make things with this was really one of my, Kind of biggest things. I, I, my, my parents, my parents were very sheltering.

00:14:22:02 - 00:14:39:17
Erik Wolf
I didn't have a lot of friends, but I had the computer, in third grade, I. I want a writing contest for for a comic strip that I for a comic book that I drew on Mac paint. that once I was, I was that kid. It wasn't drawing very well, and there wasn't much of a story, but.

00:14:39:19 - 00:15:21:12
Erik Wolf
But I was the only one who had to had thought to do that. And so, and so, you know, there I go. I, you know, I, I want to, I want a contest with something printed on my, you know, dot matrix printer and, so, so that was that was cool. there was at a, very few people seem to remember HyperCard, but HyperCard was a, probably, I mean, really kind of the grandfather of current websites, but it was this it was this incredible creative platform where you could make all this, this, these different kinds of things with, you know, it could be a database, it could be it could

00:15:21:12 - 00:15:48:18
Erik Wolf
be a, it could be a story, it could be basically anything. And I made it to I drew like little choose your own adventure games. and I built a mountain HyperCard and like that. Those were things that I did in my spare time. I was that kid. So. So that led me to, ultimately to things like Illustrator and Photoshop and, you know, and I was and I was, you know, making logos for things.

00:15:48:18 - 00:16:08:22
Erik Wolf
I, you know, I started a, I started, a newspaper in my high school, and I did all the layout, and I did the logo and I and, and this was something that, that I genuinely enjoyed at the time. And, you know, in college, I would make logos for things somebody club needed a logo. Here you go.

00:16:08:24 - 00:16:14:09
Erik Wolf
And so that was. That's a weird kid. I'm not going to lie to you.

00:16:14:11 - 00:16:30:05
Craig Andrews
Well, when you were doing that, I was printing out nude photos made out of Ascii characters on dot matrix printers. So, I think probably you were making the better choice than me.

00:16:30:07 - 00:16:53:22
Erik Wolf
although I, I think that that we could probably agree that that your hobby led to a more lucrative industry than than mine. I think, that's that's, you know, the, the the pictures now they've gone beyond the, the dot matrix, the little Ascii characters. But, but big business now. Congratulations. Yeah. You've done well.

00:16:53:24 - 00:17:27:13
Craig Andrews
So anyway, so obviously at some point. So let's jump ahead to you were, you know, say you're in this sham of a TV show and then you, you know, you start piece and things back together to, using, you know, doing graphical design to pay off debt and kind of get yourself back on your feet. How did you get so now you, you have astound your your agent and you have your unified marketing system.

00:17:27:13 - 00:17:42:00
Craig Andrews
I mean, everything I've seen of that, it's extremely well thought out. It's very methodical. It doesn't look like the product of your average graphic designer. and, how did you get there?

00:17:42:02 - 00:18:12:10
Erik Wolf
I got there. the short version is, is that is that I ended up, I ended up at a company. They did. It was an early cybersecurity company. I was doing design on a series of technical manuals and production on those things. but I was in a block of cubicles with the marketing people, and I kind of decided that I liked what they were doing better, and I was kind of fascinated with the idea of marketing.

00:18:12:10 - 00:18:34:16
Erik Wolf
I really didn't know that it was a thing, that was done, like intentionally. I thought that that marketers just did fun stuff. you know, it's like, oh, yeah, we're gonna we're going to make tchotchkes and put your logo on it and, you know, and we're going to make TV commercials. It's it's it's all fun. But but I realized in listening to these folks that that there's a strategy behind it.

00:18:34:18 - 00:19:05:13
Erik Wolf
There's, there's this thing called branding. There's there's this whole strategic interconnectivity of all of these things that are happening in the company, between sales and operations and marketing and, and, and I really wanted to learn that. And I, and I discovered that graphic design could give me actually a seat at that table. And, I kind of parlayed that into a job, and then I and then I parlayed that into another job.

00:19:05:15 - 00:19:32:03
Erik Wolf
I went to school, got my MBA, at night, in marketing. And while I was working, I ended up being the head of a marketing communications department at, at a manufacturing company. And, and then ultimately when I left that job, I said, we're we're going to do this, you know, go, go out, strike out on my own.

00:19:32:09 - 00:19:39:15
Erik Wolf
And that's where the company came from. I've been doing that ever since. Now 18 years.

00:19:39:17 - 00:19:49:20
Craig Andrews
Very cool. Now, if you were to describe the, what unified marketing system is, if you were to describe that in like 2 or 3 sentences, what would you say?

00:19:49:22 - 00:20:11:22
Erik Wolf
So what I would say is that, is that the reason that people fail at marketing? The reason the companies fail at marketing is because they are, they're unprepared. They skip directly to the solution. We're going to get SEO, we're going to get a website, we're going to do direct mail. We're going to do billboards, whatever it is.

00:20:11:22 - 00:20:33:24
Erik Wolf
We've we've already decided that solution, but we haven't done any of the work to figure out what that solution should have been. And so with the unified marketing system is, it's the gap between understanding that you need to do marketing and making sure that you're actually prepared when the time comes for the rubber to hit the road.

00:20:34:01 - 00:20:55:02
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. And I think, I think one of the problems, you know, as a marketer, I certainly run into this, you know, you walk into a meeting, meeting with a client, and you discover half the company believes they're expert marketers because they look at what you do and they think, oh, this is simple. I can do this.

00:20:55:02 - 00:21:17:24
Craig Andrews
You know, this is, you know, my my dog likes, you know, fuzzy toys. So I think everybody, you know, should get fuzzy toys for their dog. That's my marketing it, you know, and so a lot of people look at marketing and see it as sort of, you know, the same idea that comes in their head and it will just naturally be successful.

00:21:18:01 - 00:21:55:06
Erik Wolf
That there are two things that I've learned, and both of these are things that that honestly, I wish that, that folks would let go of. But but number one, the idea that and and these are things that I had where we work with slightly bigger companies now, we really are like a mid-size, marketing specialty firm, but but especially when, when we were working with early on, you know, like 1 to 3 person kinds of companies, there were two things that that we saw and, and actually the thread carries through to the bigger companies.

00:21:55:10 - 00:22:16:06
Erik Wolf
The number one starting the company sort of made you a marketer. and, and everybody would look at people like, you know, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, all of these people who, you know, it's like, no, they just had an idea and they did it and they, you know, and they decided, you know, Steve Jobs said, said that we're going to do it this way.

00:22:16:06 - 00:22:38:16
Erik Wolf
We're going to do it this way. And he was right. It's like, what you don't understand, of course, is that you're you're comparing yourself to people who have this innate ability. You know, they they they came with an understanding. Steve Jobs came with an understanding of how to do this that is not bestowed on very many people. Right.

00:22:38:18 - 00:23:12:14
Erik Wolf
You know, just, just just like if you if you had like a, friend in high school or something that that could play any instrument or, or or who could pick up any sport and be the best player on the field on day one, like that natural athlete. You know, people like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson, they do these things naturally, and we have to do a lot of work in order to to get ourselves to a level where we're we're at a fraction of what they are.

00:23:12:16 - 00:23:53:17
Erik Wolf
And then the second thing that that and you alluded to it, but it pissed me off so much when people would say, well, you know, I could do this. I just don't have time. So I'd rather just hire you. And it's like, no, you can't do this. You don't know what you're doing. And while and while with website builder tools and, and and the fact that anybody can learn how to to read Google Analytics and how anybody now you know now for you know used to be that if you wanted Adobe Creative Suite you were paying about two grand for it.

00:23:53:19 - 00:24:24:13
Erik Wolf
you know, now it's like 50 bucks a month. Now, anybody can have with with a minimal investment, the same tools that that, that professionals use, they can have, you know, we've got I you know, people can create content anytime they want. But the thing that they're missing is, is the part where, where you've got the experience of somebody that actually knows what they're doing driving the car, being a good driver and knowing how to drive or two different things.

00:24:24:15 - 00:24:46:00
Erik Wolf
And that's and, and, and that's the thing that a lot of people tend to miss. And so and so from that seat, we, we make a lot of mistakes and we jump ahead to and we pre decide what it is that we think that we need. And we opt for solutions before we even think about well what does that mean.

00:24:46:02 - 00:24:58:01
Erik Wolf
You know if I'm, if I'm going to if I think I need a new website, what does that mean? And how am I going to get from here to there? And how am I going to make sure that it works for my business and yeah. Go ahead.

00:24:58:03 - 00:25:14:19
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And you said something really key there. You know, in your driving analogy, I would guess I'll definitely speak for myself. I would guess the same is true for you. You could put me in the best car in NASCAR. Yes. Me out on the track. I'm going to lose.

00:25:14:21 - 00:25:20:11
Erik Wolf
Oh yeah. Yeah. You're you're not only are you going to lose, but hopefully you walk out of the car.

00:25:20:13 - 00:25:29:00
Craig Andrews
Right. So the the barrier between me winning a NASCAR race is not the car. The barrier is the lack of skill.

00:25:29:02 - 00:25:29:19
Erik Wolf
Right.

00:25:29:21 - 00:25:38:16
Craig Andrews
And you're saying with marketing it's not having a license to Adobe Creative Suite, it's knowing how to drive it.

00:25:38:18 - 00:26:05:23
Erik Wolf
It's knowing how to drive it. It's knowing. It's knowing how to make a a connection with your audience more than anything else. I mean, it's it's not it's not the, the, the things that that we, we like to think that it's us, that we're the ones that are, that are creating this, this revenue. We're creating the success. It's our customers that are putting the water in that pool.

00:26:06:00 - 00:26:37:13
Erik Wolf
and, and our success is governed by our ability to, to form a real connection with those folks. And so for, for, for business owners. And here's the the contrast to that is that I know from being a business owner and from working with business owners, I'm sure that, you know, the same thing there is there are very few people with less objectivity.

00:26:37:15 - 00:26:49:00
Erik Wolf
Than people who run their own businesses. We are we are very, very opinionated about about what our stuff does and what it's good for.

00:26:49:02 - 00:27:01:19
Craig Andrews
Well, I tell my clients straight up, please don't copy my marketing. It's horrible. I'm the worst marketer of myself because I lack that objectivity that you're talking about.

00:27:01:21 - 00:27:26:22
Erik Wolf
And and that's a problem that that we have to acknowledge that we have to solve. when, when I go to an I use this all the time, but when I go to Home Depot and I'm buying a hammer, I'm not buying a hammer, I'm buying, I'm buying the, the the the wall of family pictures. That's that's outside of of my kitchen.

00:27:26:24 - 00:28:10:15
Erik Wolf
I'm buying a result. And there's. And every buying decision is an emotional decision. And if you spend all your time doing doing the same thing that that nine out of ten business owners do, which is trying to convince me that you've built a better mousetrap, well, that's not solving my problem. That's not giving me, you know, a level of comfort in that my job is going to be secure if I if I buy from your company or that my or that my problem with my finances is going to be solved or my, my, you know, or that my rice is going to be cooked in, in, in 20 minutes and dinner is

00:28:10:15 - 00:28:25:16
Erik Wolf
really going to be on the table on time because those are the things that I'm buying. I'm not really buying the device. I don't usually want a device because it's a device. I want a device because of or a service because of what it's going to do. For me.

00:28:25:18 - 00:28:52:00
Craig Andrews
You know, and, and, one of the things, one of the examples I love to draw to that, you mentioned Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs had an amazing natural talent. but he also did meticulous research. You know, most people. Yes, miss, that he, he did meticulous research. But when they brought Steve Jobs back to Apple in 1997, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy.

00:28:52:00 - 00:29:24:20
Craig Andrews
Yes, they were broke. And Steve Jobs spent millions of dollars running a 62nd TV ad that said absolutely nothing about computers. It was the Think Different ad. Here's to the crazy ones. And that's timing. I bring that because, you know, what you're saying is people want the transformation. Quit selling your product or service. Sell the transformation that that delivers.

00:29:24:22 - 00:29:51:10
Craig Andrews
And Steve Jobs realized if he was going to save Apple from the brink, he needed to inspire a narrow group of people. He'd done his research to find out that the most enthusiastic buyers of Apple computers were creative types. And he said, and it was a real simple question. He's like, how can I sell the most computers the quickest to the people that have the strongest affinity?

00:29:51:10 - 00:29:55:04
Craig Andrews
For what? For what we do. And it was great.

00:29:55:06 - 00:30:25:19
Erik Wolf
And he, he he simplified the message. He well, he he created a message where there was none. He simplified the product line. He created a, he created an ecosystem where everything that they did fit together in a very clean way for the types of people that needed Apple products, that wanted Apple products. And at the end of the day, were we all run our businesses to serve our customers.

00:30:25:21 - 00:30:51:14
Erik Wolf
We run our businesses to to make them happy, to make them feel that that they they're they're they're better. They're better people because we're in their lives in some way. Their career is better. Their, their life is better. They're happier, they're more well-adjusted. Whatever, whatever, whatever it is, we're we're selling people their own time. We're selling people their mental health.

00:30:51:14 - 00:31:16:06
Erik Wolf
We're selling people that that next step in, you know, the next promotion, at work. And, and we have to understand that if we're going to actually make a, you know, make a difference and, and we try to tackle those things in our process so that the most common thing doesn't happen, which is the customer being overlooked by the marketing.

00:31:16:08 - 00:31:17:24
Erik Wolf
Yeah.

00:31:18:01 - 00:31:47:11
Craig Andrews
Eric, I wish we could go on and talk for another hour. I just I love hearing how you think I love a love your story of resilience. I think it's amazing that you. I think your story all together is amazing how you fell into this, you know, kind, this tragedy of events. But you you looked and shaped who you became, the path that put you on.

00:31:47:13 - 00:32:08:21
Craig Andrews
And you have a rare combination of the creative part. You know, the graphical designer who has a deep appreciation for a systematic approach. The unified marketing system. And I think that's an amazing combo. I think you have an amazing story, and I really hope people will reach out to you. How did people reach you?

00:32:08:23 - 00:32:40:01
Erik Wolf
I'll tell you, the easiest way is is on LinkedIn. connect with me. Say hi. it's just, you know, LinkedIn slash whatever it is in slash Eric Wolf prequel, if you should be able to find me. Their website is astound.com. Yesterday Wendy I honestly, I really just love connecting with people. I really want to and I hope I can change people's mind about about marketing.

00:32:40:03 - 00:32:51:14
Erik Wolf
I am I am fully committed to to improving attitudes around this, this part of the business that a lot of folks fail at and don't really enjoy working in.

00:32:51:16 - 00:32:59:04
Craig Andrews
Yeah, no, that's a great mission. And, I think it needs to happen. Thank you for sharing that today.

00:32:59:06 - 00:33:03:23
Erik Wolf
Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed this.