about making their life a reality TV show. As you do. And they turned them down, they said no. They said, "No, we got a business." They didn't really understand,
they didn't understand. And then Discovery came
back about four months later and said, "No, I don't
think you understand, like we want to make your TV show, it's gonna be big for your business." And they're like, "Okay." So they ran a pilot, pilot did well. Their first season they
were like the number one viewed TV show for a first
season on Discovery Channel ever. It's called Diesel Brothers,
is the name of the TV show. And then the rest is– like I say, after the TV show, they
like– they film 24/7.
So it's hard to run a business. So they had to put people in place to run the business as that's going on. They're still a part of
it, they still, you know, do everything that they can. But they needed somebody to run marketing. So that's where I came in. I started running marketing for 'em, running some super, super,
successful Facebook campaigns, Hello and welcome to The Robust Marketer. Today I am lucky to have
a good friend of mine, a new friend, Van Oaks, here. So, basically what's happening today, I'm just gonna level with ya, we had someone cancel at the last minute and I really wanted to get
a podcast out this week. So I wanted to start a
new series of interviews that I'm doing with people that
just have really cool jobs, really cool stories, and
are really cool people within the digital marketing industry. That's not to say he's not a heavy hitter, that's not to say (laughs) he's a bad– he's not a badass, 'cause he is.
But I just wanna– I wanted
to have a conversation here, we can get a new podcast out, tell a little story
maybe about how we met, leave out some of the details. And yeah, so welcome to the podcast, Van. How you doin'? Thank you so much for having me, I'm freakin' pumped to be here, man. (laughs) It's super cool. So why don't we– So first
of all, I met Van when we– I went to Tim Burd's Mastermind, so Tim and I were working
on a project together, and so he invited me down
to his Mastermind (yawning), I came to check it out, it was
just a really amazing event and the quality of people
there were so cool. And he was telling me, and
this is the same, I would say, about the Mastermind that we had, is you get people from
like all walks of life. You get– you get all, it's really amazing to see all the different sort of jobs that are like possible in the industry.
And Vegas was just an
unbelievably fun time. I broke Van's live hockey cherry. And so I– Yeah! Just talked his ear off, explaining all the rules that he thought he knew about hockey– It was fantastic, it was great! (chuckles) And I have to
say that the Vegas Knights put on a hell of a show,
so make sure you go see– They're still crushing it, man. They're like top– Still crush– Of the league now, it's unreal. So, when we do this podcast, we always start with
your marketer's journey.
So tell us a little bit about
how you started in marketing, and what– and how it brought
to what you're doing now, and what you're doin' now. You got it, man. So I don't– and I don't even know if we fully got into this in Vegas, but I started in do– I
was in door-to-door sales selling security systems for 12 years. I did that, I ran teams, I
had multiple teams out selling door-to-door home security systems. It was fantastic. Super successful, everything
about it was great. The money was unreal. It was amazing. The problem was, is that
it was door-to-door, and I would leave for like
six months out of the year and go move to a town, you
know, in the south or wherever, and sale there for six months
and then I would come home. Which is great when you're
single, you can totally do that. But then what happens is you get married. And I still did it when I was married.
I would bring my wife with me. It was the kids that broke me. As they do. When I finally had kids, and I would– and she didn't wanna bring two kids out for a summer and so forth. So I just told her I was
gonna try to do it on my own. She could stay home and
I'll leave for six months. And I missed my second daughter walk, and I was just like, "Dude, this is not– this is
not the life I wanna live. Though the money's fantastic, there's other ways to make money." So I jumped– I completely
got out of door-to-door sales. And I started doing affiliate
marketing from home, because– What got you into that? I could be home with my kids What were your first steps? My brother– my brother. So my brother-in-law had been doing affiliate marketing for awhile, and when I was selling
ABT, he ran offers for me, and we would get leads
from him, and so forth. So when I got out, when I told
him that I was kinda done, he was like, "Dude, you should
just do affiliate marketing.
Like you can work with me,
we'll just do it from home. Like you'll be home 24/7
with your kids, it's great." So that's kinda what got me in it and I did it with him for about a year. And I wasn't very successful (laughs). What kinda stuff did
you cut your teeth on? Like Mobile, Mobile
Pops, things like that? No, it was all trials, man. Everything was– like
initially it was muscle, and then it went to diet, and we were doing that stuff for awhile. And then I was seeing how much these advertisers were making. And I was just like, this is not cool, I would rather do what they're doing. So then I became an
advertiser and I owned– for two years, I owned
muscle, and skin, and diet. All three, I ran those, they were great.
I have no– I made, obviously,
fantastic money doing it. The issue that I had with it is that I depended on
other people for traffic. So I wasn't running my
own traffic at the time and I was so– you're so– (chuckles) It's so volatile, like– Yeah. You can make money one
week, and then they're like, "Oh, we're not running traffic," or "Oh guess what, your
meds would be risked," or whatever, and it's just– so it's so up and down,
that I was just like, I gotta figure something, something out. And I got an offer to come up
and work for these Diesel guys running their marketing forum. So I'd known them for a long time, they became a little bit– they were a little bit successful.
But they weren't doing
any sort of marketing. No retargeting, no email,
(chuckles) like nothing. They were just a bunch of– So who are these Diesel guys? Tell our audience who
these Diesel guys are. 'Kay, so I actually grew up with the– (chuckles) it's not about what you know, it's kind of who you know. And I grew up with these guys. We grew up when we were,
like literally fourth grade, grew up with all these guys.
We all– they all actually sold alarms with me for a long time. So we all kinda worked together
and then they started– they had this idea to
build a diesel truck. Diesels are a pretty niche
audience, but they're– For any of you that don't
know what a diesel truck is, like the fans are diehard. Like you've never met
more diehard niche fans than diesel truck fans. So they built a truck and they decided, "Hey, let's build a truck up, and let's make some
Diesel Power wristbands, and anybody who buys a
wristband, the wristband's $5, anybody who buys one, we'll enter them in to win this truck." Truck cost them like 40 grand
to build, the first time.
They ended up profiting like,
I think it was 180 grand, off the first one. Wow. And then after– And that was through Facebook? Like how did you get– how
did you build that audience? Well it went– they went
about it through YouTube. So at the time it was YouTube. They had a couple viral
videos that went out with rolling coal with
diesel and all this stuff. And then they started it there.
And then after that year
they did another giveaway, they did another viral video
that got featured on Jay Leno. So they went on Jay Leno, and then after that is kinda
when they brought me on just to run some marketing, 'cause they were gettin' big real quick. They went from selling
wristbands to selling t-shirts, and hats, and stuff like that. And every $5 you spent got you entered into win one of these trucks. And they gave one away every two months. And it just got really big really fast, and they're like, "Hey,
we need some help." In this journey for them,
at some point in time, Discovery Channel kinda contacted them about making their life a reality TV show. As you do. And they turned them down, they said no. They said, "No, we got a business." They didn't really understand,
they didn't understand. And then Discovery came
back about four months later and said, "No, I don't
think you understand, like we want to make your TV show, it's gonna be big for your business." And they're like, "Okay." So they ran a pilot, pilot did well.
Their first season they
were like the number one viewed TV show for a first
season on Discovery Channel ever. It's called Diesel Brothers,
is the name of the TV show. And then the rest is– like I say, after the TV show, they
like– they film 24/7. So it's hard to run a business. So they had to put people in place to run the business as that's going on. They're still a part of
it, they still, you know, do everything that they can. But they needed somebody to run marketing. So that's where I came in. I started running marketing for 'em, running some super, super,
successful Facebook campaigns, retargeting, email, just basic
stuff that all of you guys, I know you already know (chuckles). But they just weren't doing
it and I just kinda stepped in the position where it was fantastic. That's super interesting, and to have– I gotta say, first off
all, I gotta clarify this, I know you don't love when,
when people talk about this, but you, you're on television
once every couple episodes.
(chuckles) So they get so–
my, here's my line Eric, and we talked about
this before (chuckles). When I start making six figures
like these guys are making, I'll say I'm on TV. Yeah. Until– right now it's
like a check here or there and lunches during the day. So, so– like the TV part is honestly– I'm honest when I say that,
it's so in the backside to me. Like I don't even focus on it whatsoever– Yeah. Because it's not me, like
I'm so pumped to work for this company and make it grow 'cause it's here and it's available.
I don't really have the desire, and I think I tried to tell you that I don't have a
huge desire to be on TV. I just wanna build a business, so. That's really cool. I just think you'd be so good on TV. I think it's only
(chuckles) a matter of time before you're discovered. I've seen– Right? I've seen your Insta,
I've seen your Mumble Rap, I've seen all this stuff,
like I think it's only a matter of time until you're discovered. So whether you like it or not, you might– and I think after this podcast
it just might just (claps) Right. Just launch ya. Take off and we'll use that suee- (laughs) Yes! Suee! Yeah, that can be your catchphrase. But anyway, the fact is you're building a really cool business here, you've got a really viable brand that people are super excited about. And so is that– that's what
your business is right now, is basically running merch for the diesel movement, essentially.
Yeah, well I actually do both. I run product development
so all the business in the product development area I oversee, and then I run the marketing. So as we progressed, to, you know, a $20 million store, we don't just sell t-shirts anymore. We used to just sell t-shirts and hats. So I'm in charge of business
development to where– and product development, to
where now we have our own line of pants, and we're makin' boots, and we make parts for your trucks, and we make survival
stuff, knives, whatever. You know, whatever these
people are gonna buy anyway (chuckles) is my biggest thing.
Like if you're gonna buy this stuff, I promise you I'm gonna
figure out a way to make it and you'll buy it from me
because if you buy it from me, you get a chance to win a truck. So– You can't beat that. Yeah, we do the product development and then I run the marketing, as far as the campaigns
and everything (sniffles). Do you have diesel baby onesies? Yes! Okay, good (laughs) I was gonna say, and why not, if you don't. Yes, no, we do. We actually have onesies
and then we have rompers, which are different, by the way. I got a romper from that Quinn dude, that Quinn Hobbs fellow. I tried it on and I was blown away by how by how both comfortable
and flattering it was. Yes, very nice. So we sell both of those, yeah. So there's really not a whole
lot, like that we don't sell on the site, as far as like apparel. And it's branded, like
we built a massive brand. From, like before the TV show
and then after the TV show, it blew up to where now we have– we have a tire line, we have– Wow.
You know, truck parts, we have everything. And we just kinda, you know, throw it into this machine
and it spits out money. That's amazing. And like how systemic– like how big is the operation
aside from the show, like how big is your team basically? So I run– so, there's two sides. We have the mechanic side that
actually builds these trucks and are filmed 24/7. And then you've got the
administrative side, which is me and the other owners, that, they're gone most of the time. So I run kind of it. And I've got probably a 15 man team. Doing different things, designers
and everything that way, guys runnin' social media. But when you include our
shipping department of sending– You know, 'cause we run
our own fulfillment.
We've probably got 50, 60 employees. Wow. Something like that. And then what– where are you– You're sourcing the
products from China, mostly? It depends. We make all the– So I make
my, I make t-shirts oversees and we order a massive amount, and then we have them shipped, and then we print on them here. But most of the stuff, we
try to– as weird as it is, we try to as Made in the USA as possible because of our demographic. Yeah, yeah. It's not– it's not very– it's not great for the end line. It's not great for revenue,
but at the end of the– 'Cause you can get stuff
made a lot cheaper overseas. But our demographic, we've
kind of really got narrowed in, and they want American made stuff. Yeah. Even all you Canadian dudes,
that we ship stuff to, they want American made stuff.
So we make a lot of our– Any– If it's possible to make it
in the USA, we make it here. If not, we ship it from overseas. And you can balance. Like you're in a really
interesting position where– And I've talked to a lot of
people about e-commerce now, where so many e-commerce businesses are 100% reliant on ads in order to drive. And if you stop ads,
that store will dry up. Yeah. And you're in a really neat position, where you can afford to take
some luxuries like the US– you know, sourcing from the
US only and stuff like that. Right, right. Because you've got this
incredible brand machine that just keeps rolling. Like if you did stop running ads, you'd still keep selling products.
Yeah, and what it comes down to is the influencer marketing. Because these guys,
because of the TV show, they've got millions of followers. So and even the guys
that aren't on TV show, just because they're diesel
fanatics and so forth, they've got 50,000 followers and so forth, so when the ads aren't running, and there are times that we
don't have a ton of ads running, it still goes because these
guys are still posting, they have equity in the company, and they're still posting about it, and the ROI on that's way
better than Facebook anyways. Yeah. Yeah, so it's like cheating. I have influencers here, that I can say, "Post something," and they'll post it. We have the Facebook, we have
everything going on there. We have a massive email list. It's almost cheating. (laughs) It's interesting. No but there's a lot of work in it, like aside from that, there is a lot of work that's
went into this giveaway model.
The way they run things by giving away. We give away a $100,000 truck every month. Yeah. You know, there's a
lot of legal behind it, there's a lot of– and now, there is a lot of Facebook going on. There is a lot of stuff that we've changed within the last year that's, you know, 300 times our business. Do you feel– is the
Facebook– are your efforts feeding into the show as
well in any measurable way? Yeah, so– They have to. I actually– I actually
started– so, it does help. But I even tested ads for
viewership of the TV show, to increase ratings. I did it for the guys because
they had like an episode that was mediocre one
time, and they're like, "What do we do?" And I said, "Dude, I
guarantee you, I can run ads, and I can target specific people, and I can make them watch
your show on a specific day." And they said, "Try it," you
know, "Here's your budget." And I went at it pretty hard, and it did.
It impacted big time. So we ran Facebook ads for
commercials and for the TV show, and that episode crushed it. So it does impact, the Facebook, everything does impact that. Now that was an ad that literally had a trailer for the show or something? You targeted your core demographic and then said, "Tune in on
this channel, at this time," Yeah. It wasn't like a video ad
where the content was there? Yeah, it was tune in at this time, and it was just a little
trailer that I did. It was a video ad.
It wasn't canvas, it
wasn't anything special, it was a video ad. I targeted heavily (laughs) a lot of Texas. (laughs) a lot of Texas, okay. There's a lot of fans in Texas. So just did some detailed targeting, and found the right type of
people, and it crushed, yeah. The viewership was through
the roof, it went really well. What's the weirdest product
that you've tried that worked? What's– (laughs) Do you have any ones that are really surprising
that you pulled off that you're like, "Holy
****, like toilet paper?" Like anything like that? Yeah, like how– It would be weird to you, but it's not weird to us, and when you look at me in
the face it's not weird. But our beard care. Ah, okay. So we sell an outrageous
amount of beard balm, and mustache wax, and beard oil. That was the one that kind
of surprised me the most. I knew flashlights, and
knives, and tactical type stuff would do well, but the– I didn't realize the demand of
bros that are rocking beards. Yeah, or awesome mustaches. Or mustaches, 'cause
they can't grow a beard.
(laughter) Not mentioning any names. I've never really oiled my beard, but I think I might start getting into– Your wife will love it if you do. Okay. It will make it teddy bear soft. Oh lovely, well that's
my– that's (laughs), that's my name on Tinder, so. Perfect. That sounds (laughs) excellent. Very cool, so beard products work. Having a badass ever-growing
brand also works. One thing that was interesting, like this show really took off. It sort of fills that Duck
Dynasty niche a little bit. Like when those guys left, a little bit, like there's a lot–
That's a strong niche. Exactly. What's that? Yeah, it's the same demographic. And I think people, and
I speak to all marketers when I say this, like don't write-off hillbilly white, you know, they are diehard fans. If they become loyal to you, they will be loyal to you forever. They're a different type
of people to market to. So if you cater to them
and if you show them love, they're diehard, they'll
spend every dime they have because they support your brand.
So we've really kind of, you know, dialed that in and we've
really kind of catered to them. And they love the guys. They love the whole social media thing, they love following it,
seeing all the trucks, seeing everything that way. But I see so many marketers
like excluding people who are low-income for whatever reason. But these guys will spend every last dime they have on a t-shirt for it, so. And this, it makes since. Like building the brand with the giveaways I think seems like such
a core part of it– Yeah. In terms of like attracting that audience and like offering them value,
like that's a significant– that's a significant value,
that's something that they're invested in, that they can then win. And I'm sure you make a
ton of videos about people receiving these trucks, that
sort of like amazing moment when that happens. So the testimonials crush it.
When we do retargeting with
testimonials they really crush. But that's the biggest
part of the giveaway stuff is it's always fun to giveaway, and it's always super
fun to see these people win these trucks, but you need to– yeah, you have to document all that stuff and you gotta get it out there. Because there are a lot of people that are doing giveaways
that don't give stuff away. People need to see those
people winning constantly. Yeah, it's the same for courses. You gotta build in those
success stories of like, "Hey, I took this course
and I crush native." Or "I did this Facebook
thing and I crushed it." You need to have that
feedback loop for sure. I remember very early on in my career when we were running
these vote for prizes ads, like way, way back in the day, this is like 2007 or 2008,
and we eventually called one of these people
who entered a lead form to tell them that they had
won $1,000 or something, and they hung up on us.
We couldn't get them to answer the phone– (chuckles) No. And tell them, "We're
trying to send you $1,000! They just like– I promise this isn't a telemarketer. Yeah, it was a weird– that
was a weird experience. You wanna know what's weird though, like from– So we met at the Mastermind, and I'm gonna speak a little
bit towards the Mastermind. Yeah, people will love that. Was fantastic. You guys were all fantastic. But, and Tim might not
love this, or might not, but his stuff that he
taught, I knew some of it, some of it I kind of remembered,
some of it I wrote down, some of it I implemented
immediately, some of it I didn't.
But hands down, the most valuable
part of that whole thing, and it's not cheap to
go, is the networking. Yeah. Like, dude, some of the
people that I met from there that I talk to on a daily
basis, you included. I talk to you on a daily basis now. But will hit me up in the morning and say, "Hey bro, have you tried
to canvas out the day?" No, you should. And I'll try to move this crush
(alarm ringing), you know? So I think that's what
kind of blew me away the most about it all, was
the contacts that I made.
Yeah. It's been more valuable than anything. Like since I've been back,
since we got back from there, I think we went from roughly a 6 ROA– yeah, right around 6 return on assets and now we're close to like 12. Wow. So there was a lot of
things that were implemented and a lot of things that I learned after because of the contacts that I met there. So I'll be the biggest
preacher of that Mastermind, and not just for the actual
teachings and the training, but for the networking advance, and for the people that
you get in contact with. It kind of makes them no-brainers, and that's the thing I
realized going to Tim's. Is that people are gonna get so much value just from being put together in a room with all those other people.
Like there was that one
Belgian dude (laughs) that had like 16 companies
and he was like 100 mil– And he had just come to check it out– And then, you know, you got you, who's got this really interesting angle, you got the Sangara brothers, who I wanna do a podcast with– Yep. The New York dudes, and everyone. Like it seriously, for
me, it's like same thing, I'm hitting up these people,
I talk to these people, but they're part of my
network now on a daily basis. Not to mention with Tim
and what we're building. And that's crazy. I think every person I've talked to who's ever attended one of these things, sort of is able to take away from it something that can double their business. And even if it wasn't from the teachings, they still associate it to that group. That's what I'm saying, it's the contacts that you maintain. 'Cause a lot of his
stuff worked immediately and then a lot of the stuff
came from these people that I met that are like, "Hey, dude, what are you doing today, you should try this out.
Did you shotgun today?" "Yeah, I did." "Did you do this?" And it's been fantastic. It's been, hands down, the most valuable thing that I've done. And I think, I talk about
this a lot in the podcast too, but it's like this is
the other massive benefit of being in this industry, are the people. You just, you're building
these lifelong friends. Now almost any city
you go to in the world, you're gon– A, you'll be there
with a bunch of other people who've traveled there, maybe, but you also just get friends globally and people globally that like,
that you wanna hang out with. That not only you wanna hang out with, but can also impact your
business dramatically. It's just– Right. A huge, huge opportunity. Right, hands down. So cool. I'm so excited that I went to it, for one, and then for the people that I met. Like I'll preach it to anybody to go do a training, do an
eyesight, do a Mastermind, do whatever you need to do to
get in those networking events because they're more
valuable than anything else.
Especially if you're already banking. Like it makes the big
diff– if you're a newbie, there's other ways to
learn and get into it, Yeah. But if you have a business that's killin', or doing well, you will take
something away from that that will accelerate it
greatly from the teacher, or from the other people, or whatever. Like it's just bound to happen. Yep, yeah I had one of
the dudes from California that runs a clothing line. He's just setting up his car giveaway. He's gonna do a car giveaway,
he's gonna try it out. Our whole model. I kinda explained how it went, I got him in touch with out law firm. I'm legitimately– He's got
a completely demographic, so I don't like– It doesn't detract from you at all. Yeah, at all. So I've been helping
him through the steps, crash at the bat, and I just
can't wait to see his numbers.
I think he'll crush it. Very cool. So what have– Do you guys
have a Facebook group as well? So we didn't have a Facebook group. We had Facebook pages,
and we had tons of pages. But we didn't have a group until (laughs) Kim's like, "You need to setup a group." The problem with that is that
in order to run that group, you need to have somebody
24/7 that can respond.
They're not available, I'm not
that available with my time. So we're looking to
hire somebody right now specifically with a massive
amount of diesel knowledge. And we got the Facebook group setup, we just haven't really started it yet because we need to hire
the right person for that. 'Cause that's gonna 10X everything too. Yeah. Like that right there, you
get the right person in there who can manage a community,
you can get your guys to chip in occasionally
and make guest spots– Oh yeah. Do something like– Oh yeah. It just gives you so much
more access to people's feeds when you come through groups. That's one thing that
I'm really realizing. We're obviously gonna be building
a group this year as well. Yeah. And especially with these
news feed changes looming or whatever, just having
that extra touch point, where people who are super
engaged with your topic can jump in– Right. It's kind of a no-brainer.
And we actually possibly discussed that this morning with the owners. They were just like, "Okay." And then the next obvious step
is just get somebody in here. We've interviewed twice,
we'll hire somebody quick. But yeah, that's like goal number one, is to get that group up and
running since I came back. Very cool, so that's
something big on the agenda. You're gonna be kind of
consistently testing new products, evolving your skills. Do you guys do anything with Messenger or with like, yeah, Facebook Messenger? So we don't. I haven't ever touched
into that a whole lot. I know last year it was
pitched really, really hard. And we never got into it then. We really haven't, a whole lot, yet. But that's not to say that we won't. It's just right now the
majority of our efforts are going towards the
Facebook, and the email, and the social media marketing. 'Cause we do a lot of Instagram. Yeah. That's where the majority– These guys' followers
migrated from YouTube, over to Facebook, over to Instagram. So we do a lot of marketing
through Instagram too, so that's– Very cool.
We'll tool up, we just
started another giveaway, and like our numbers are kind of crazy. If you're gonna do this business model, when you're not running the giveaway, your demographic's so–
they're so diehard, they know everything that you do and they know that if
you're not running giveaway, they're gonna wait until
you do to buy your product. So in those two weeks that
we're not running a giveaway, stuff kinda dies. So January was hurtful. But the beginning of this
month is crushing it. Very cool. So you're in Utah, right? Yeah. Awesome, I gotta come
for a visit, that's– It's a lot cooler than people think, bro. Yeah. Like it's way cooler– like
people don't understand, Utah is an extremely
beautiful outdoorsy place. You can get desert, you can get mountains, you can get whatever you want. Utah's way underrated. Okay, you heard it here first. Now I also wanted to get on camera, we're almost done here, we'll wrap it up. I know you gotta go, and I do as well. But I wanna get on camera your mustache.
I wanna talk about your amazing mustache (surprised chuckle) that everyone loves, and I asked you, yeah– (laughs) Get up right up there and personal. (muffled microphone) Tell us, why the mustache? So like– And I think I told you this– You did. At some point in Las Vegas. I don't remember a lot about
the Vegas (laughs) trip, but I think I told ya at some point, 'cause a lot of people asked me. You asked me, "Dude, why
don't you shave that thing?" And I said, "Dude, just
spend the day with me." Spend the day, and we did, we
went out to the hockey game, we went out at night, we did everything. And I said, "I can
never shave this thing," and you witnessed it firsthand, just for the positive vibes.
Like I can't go anywhere
without somebody stopping me, like random people, like
I've never met them before, and saying, "Hey, that's
a fantastic mustache." Like there's never– I don't know if you– Nobody will ever come
up to you and tell you, "That's an awful mustache." (laughs) That's true, they won't. They're like just not gonna tell you that they think it's creepy. But everybody else is
gonna come up and tell you, "That's a fantastic mustache." So everywhere I go, you witnessed it, everybody wants a party. Dozens. Everybody wants to have a good time with a guy with a mustache. 'Cause they know he's a good time. So I did shave it for almost a year. I had it for a year, I
shaved it for a year, and the amount of disappointment
that I got from people, and the no love. Like if you're out–
when I'm out in public, nobody recognizes me. Nobody cares, I'm another guy.
But now when I'm out in public I'm just another guy that
has a dope ass mustache. And they're gonna let you know, so. It's just Branding 101. Yeah, these guys all
rock beards and stuff. If I could grow a massive
beard, maybe I'd get into that. But I think at this point I'm
a converted mustache grower. And I'll just stick with
my strength, ya know? I like it. And the wife's okay with it at this point, she's full accepted–? You gotta practice like
a solid year of celibacy (laughs) but after that– Well you've got three kids
I'm sure you've had some– Yeah. So there's been some– Yeah, once you're cool with about a year of her hating your guts (sighs), after– now she's used to it. Now, she'll tell me now,
"It's just kinda you. Like I'm used to it now." So no, initially no,
she absolutely hated it.
But now it's kind of just me. I love it. And the other cool– the other fact– And I don't got chicks hittin' on me. When I go out no chicks
are gonna hit on a dude with a mustache, so she feels secure. Yeah that would never happen. So, my other favorite fact about you is that you work with the Diesel brothers, but you drive a Tesla (groans). And I don't know if you want
that going out on the podcast, we might have to edit that out. But it's like, you have to park
around back at work I hear.
Yeah, so let me explain though. There's a little bit behind that. I had a diesel truck. I had a lot of fast cars in my day. Like but what happened
is when they asked me to come work up here, I had built my home and I had made my family
like an hour away from here. So when they're like, "Come work up here," driving my diesel truck up
there with twin turbos on it, like I was getting maybe
five miles to the gallon.
Like spending $800-900
in gas each, you know– Yeah. Each freakin' month. So that's not doable, so I got a car, and I was still spending
$600 in gas a month. And I just decided, you know what, I'm gonna bite the bullet,
'cause they're fun anyways, and get one of the new Teslas. They're one of the performance
models 'cause they're fast and I don't gotta pay for gas. So that was the purpose of it. I didn't realize how much I'd
fall in love with the car. And like the autopilot
and everything that way. And the fact that it's
the fastest car out there. But yeah I work at a diesel shop. The front of my shop,
where my parking spot says, "Diesel Power," (chuckles)
so for a little while I'd park around back so that
all these diehard diesel fans will, when they show up, I got– literally two weeks ago, I got
heckled as I left the office (laughs) I had these–
these dudes were out front. Just your typical wranglers
dippin' their mouth, drivin' their diesel
truck, and I pulled out, and they're like– the
dude's literally like, "What in the hell is that?" And I was like, I didn't say anything.
He's like, "Diesel power!" (laughs) Like are you saying, "White power?" Yes! (laughs) Yeah, exactly. It was "diesel power," and
I was like, oh I gotcha, 'cause you got the– Oh. I got it, I got it. So I just got in my car and left. Amazing. (coughing) Van, I wanna thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. If people wanna find you,
'cause you should just follow– Van's Instagram is just a laugh riot. Really enjoy it. You wanna go to @itsyourboyvan. It's your boy Van, yeah. It's your boy Van. Don't ask where that came
from, don't ask how that– It's good vibes. It ended up being "it's your boy Van." Check it out, I got some
sweet mommy blogger posts.
I got modeling pics– You got your own app. Basically everything that you hate, everything that you hate
to see on Instagram, I recreate it, I promise. I love it. (chuckles) And
you were modeling yesterday, I saw you doing some modeling yesterday– Yeah. Talking about how hard
it was to do modeling. People don't understand, like model life, everybody thinks it's like glamorous. It's not glamorous, there's nothing glamorous
about model life. Like it's cold outside
and you're standing there trying to take– it's
not glamorous (laughs). So like everybody that says
model life's easy, like maybe try it. Yeah. And then tell me it's easy. But until you try it, like, whatever. Well you've got it all down. I think that's a really good
note to end the podcast on. Thanks again, Van. I'm gonna see you in San Diego.
You're coming to Traffic & Conversion? Yeah! Yes, I'm gonna go to Traffic & Conversion and then I'm actually gonna stay for Social Media Marketing World. Because we have such a heavy
social media following. I'll be there a full week just about. All right, well we'll connect then. I look forward to it. Thank you so much, it
was good to see you, Bud. You too, brother. Buh bye. All right, later..
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