1123 Presents
1123 is an advertising agency based in Omaha, Nebraska. We are constantly learning and evolving, not just for ourselves, but for the brands we champion. Join us as we delve into a multitude of subjects related (or adjacent) to the world of advertising.
1123 Presents
0. Back to the Beginning - Building An Agency From The Ground Up with Shana Boyd and Dave Distefano
Stepping back to where it all began, Shana and I take you through the whirlwind adventure of launching our very own agency, 1123. With a mix of ambition, creativity, and a dash of naivety, we embarked on a journey that's been anything but dull. From the spark that ignited our partnership to the highs and lows that have bonded us as not just business partners, but comrades in the trenches of the advertising world, our kickoff episode is rich with stories that are equal parts instructive and entertaining.
Ever had a client play hide-and-seek with you, or found yourself teetering on the edge of a literal cliff during a site visit? Well, we have, and we're sharing all the belly-laugh-inducing details in one of our favorite segments. These aren't just funny office stories; they are the lived experiences that taught us the importance of aligning with clients who get our vibe and the art of turning constraints into creative gold. We're peeling back the curtain on the exhilarating, sometimes awkward, growth that happens when you're building something from the ground up.
There's nothing quite like the warm, fuzzy glow of nostalgia, and we're basking in it as we look back at the ads that shaped our youth. Remember those Saturday morning cartoon breaks, filled with toys and jingles that became the soundtrack to our childhoods? We do, and we're examining how these early brushes with branding genius continue to influence the work we do today. So, pull up a chair, grab a snack (we won't judge if it's Potato Olés), and join us as we embark on a journey through the past, present, and future of our agency life.
All right, everybody. Welcome to the inaugural, the first, the pilot episode of 1123's podcast. This is where agency people prove to everyone else who's not an agency person or who might be in marketing that we're completely insane. No, there's a lot of stories that we have and in this episode we're going to talk about the background of the agency how myself, creative officer Dave Destefano and CEO Shana Boyd started the agency. There is there's a lot of fun anecdotes. There's a lot of like. You know they're maybe laughing and crying in this episode. So get ready, get your clean X. Before we begin all the way, I will say that we would love it if you liked and subscribed, followed and, you know, gave us that attention will have lots more content in the future.
Dave Distefano:So, 10 years behind us and 10 titles and 10 titles yeah, so many business cards that I didn't hand out. So if, if we look back and let's say, like what?
Shana Boyd:is our? Why Like what was our?
Dave Distefano:why, when we started--like-- what's the ambition?
Dave Distefano:I can say for me, the beginning of the agency was kind of like a long time dream of like owning a business. I grew up that way and so I wanted that. I saw my dad do that and so I was creative, definitely, you know, drew, since I was in second grade and, like you know, fell in love with that stuff, I just wanted to do those really interested in the fast pace, the snappy thinking, the quick, you know, think on your feet, part of advertising and then also seeing something through and making it work, just the effectiveness of that campaign. So what about you?
Shana Boyd:Yeah, for me, kind of the opposite. Actually, I never thought I would be owning anything. I always was kind of fine behind the scenes or, you know, just being a media buyer, not just it's an important job, but like I always had kind of that. I don't know that I was ever going to be like even an account manager, like that just wasn't in my view. So I feel like I had different people that kind of saw stuff in me and kind of propelled me in this direction, you being one of them.
Shana Boyd:Of course you're like hey, we're going to start an agency. What do you think? Yeah, I'm like I don't know, let me think on that a little more. But no, it sounded amazing because the more and more we talked about it I mean, to have kind of that full service arm, media and creative under one roof, I mean it made sense and there weren't a lot of people that were doing that here. So even for me personally even though I feel like maybe I didn't have the automatic confidence personally when we started, you know, I would say I'd thank you for kind of bringing me forward and, I don't know, helping me grow, and now I couldn't imagine any other way.
Dave Distefano:This is where the Kleenex part happens.
Shana Boyd:Oh, we got there really quick.
Dave Distefano:So yeah, no, I feel like sometimes maybe I did do a little pushing, but I think we did that with each other and that's why the dynamic of the agency, like at the beginnings, was what it was. We'd sort of like counterbalanced each other in moments.
Shana Boyd:Oh yeah, we've always had that. If one of us is like I don't know, the other one's like we got this, like, then it's opposite. So I feel like it's actually good, we're good, balance, right.
Dave Distefano:I had worked at my second agency Before that. I had done God knows what. Everything in design, just kind of bouncing around, science, cars, the whole thing I know you had--y ou had two agencies prior, actually three agencies prior, before we launched off right.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, two of them. You and I worked that together. And then I was at a previous firm. You know, gosh, I was, that was soon out of college. So yeah, I started at World Herald actually first, and then I went to an agency and then from there it was like I think I really want to go down a path of media buying. So at the initial agency I was an account coordinator and then you and I met at another firm and kind of you know, went and started another firm together but weren't owners at the time. So yeah, then the agency's for a while.
Shana Boyd:But I think any, like you said too, just kind of going backwards a little. I think that's that's something that was important to note too is like not just agency owners but I feel like business professionals. Like, the more we got into owning an agency, we kind of learned like owners of other businesses. I feel like go through that same mental struggle as well. You're always kind of guessing, like, am I making the right decision? Am I doing the right thing for my business? So I think, the more we kind of owned our agency, I realized this was actually very normal and we kept, you know, finding ourselves in those situations where, even like the businesses we worked with, we were guiding each other forward. You know, the brands forward, us forward, the agency forward.
Dave Distefano:For business owners, like for somebody who's wanting to start something like what do you think the biggest, like the most important thing is? Is it drive? Is it? You know the dream? Well, what is it? What are the most important things when you're starting a business that you have to sort of like keep in your head or like persevere through?
Shana Boyd:I think that's a good question because I think it changed a few times for me. But I would say the two things like you have to have drive, like you have to, because I mean it's you know, long hours like your day just doesn't end. At first, I mean we it was just you and I, we didn't have a team at that point. So I think you have to have drive, you have to be really curious and want to be an expert and get your hands dirty and do the work. You know, I do believe the best dynamic of a business owner is when you've actually done a lot of the jobs that, even as you grow for a little while you're tasking other people to then do. You. You've done it. I would say there's things now that I did not know how to do and now we're hiring people that jump in and do those things, but initially, like man, we had to--had to dig in.
Dave Distefano:I think I'm trying to think what it would be another.
Shana Boyd:there was another like thought I had there, but no, I forgot, I don't know.
Dave Distefano:I think coffee, coffee is really important, which is what an amazing segue. One of our, one of our, one of the big things that we did, that we had to do because we were starting the company was to go out and you know prospect, go out and do you know meetings and try and chase things down. And it was a matter of like okay, let's make a list. What accounts would we love to have, what industries would we love to work in? And at the time we had just gotten started, we didn't have, I think, but one account, which was a big one, I mean, it was an athletic, it was a basketball team?
Shana Boyd:Yeah, it was.
Dave Distefano:I can say it was the Creighton basketball and Cunningham's was . Yeah, the grill and bar. So like that's where we started. We did want to get a coffee client because we drank so much of it to keep ourselves going, so that was. That was where we one of our prospecting kind of like boots on the ground things that we did was to go drive around and like drive through. This was your idea.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, I was like let's just go through every Scooter's and take pictures with the baristas that we now know by name at this point. And then we did like a little foam core board collage and we took all those photos and then we, what do we say on the bottom of it? Like this is how we scooters.
Dave Distefano:Um I know that was something like that, I said something like that, and you looked at me and you said no, that's you, dang that. That's another campaign slogan Is that the Sonic. It was. I think it was the Sonic. Yeah, it was the Sonic thing oh okay, Sorry sorry.
Shana Boyd:We landed, then we just dropped that off with a hope and a prayer, and then there were no prayers answered at that point. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Dave Distefano:Nothing.
Shana Boyd:No, no persistence. So, um, you know, I think I was emailing the marketing director calling Um, we even stopped in a couple more times, dropped stuff off, and then it was like once a week kind of thing, and then, um, I think I had sent her the creating video work once it was done. Yeah, and that's when she emailed and said can I come down and check out?
Dave Distefano:the studio. Yeah.
Shana Boyd:I'm like we're in, we're in Scooters is interested. This is awesome.
Dave Distefano:So we're excited about that and that blossomed into, I mean that one ended up being quite a few years working with them and branding campaigns, birthing, birthday stuff and franchise development help.
Shana Boyd:We took them from 80 stores to eight. Well, let's see 80 stores to 750.
Dave Distefano:that prospecting part of our agency life in the beginning was I mean, it was Wild West. We would come back and look around and be like, well, hope we get that one.
Shana Boyd:I know and we had to. I mean the market was so crowded here and there's some good firms here I mean we just knew if we were gonna stand out we needed to have some really big names. So that way, when we kept pitching, those were brands we could show on our pitch books and just like establish credibility. So I mean our strategy at that point was like let's go after the big stuff, like let's go after brands that people know here. So, yeah, that was definitely between Creighton and, I think, scooters. Those were kind of our launching point.
Dave Distefano:Yeah, yeah, there was that. And then I mean those paid off, we put in the work there and those paid off and that was exciting, those were anchors for us. So I guess to anybody listening it's like the perseverance there, I think, is the big character trait with both of us.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, yes, I think the other word I was thinking of was confidence too. Like there are. So many times, I think I personally was like questioning my own confidence and then it's like you have to keep being able to be like you got this. It's like a lot of self pep talks, I don't know. There is, I think that for me.
Dave Distefano:I think that happens with a lot of creative people. Sometimes, like being creative, like I see that people say that they run into those moments where, like they just don't know, like I've done this so much, I've made so many of these things.
Dave Distefano:I'm not even sure if this is good anymore, and so you have to have somebody like look at it and go like yeah, the team part of that is huge. And now that we've grown that on both sides like for accounts and media and for creative like we have a team that we bounce ideas off of. Ideas come from them. It's really collaborative and I love that. I always will, and that's where we can get a lot of that like oh okay, so this is cool and I'm not an idiot.
Dave Distefano:And this isn't like the 14th cup of coffee topic. Yeah, but yeah. So let's talk about one other thing, the. Let's talk about what's the? What is the strangest pitch that you think we had? Oh God, or the strangest like new biz thing that we had, what are you?
Shana Boyd:Yeah, the first person I think of. I will continue to use the fake name that we created for this person. So you know we're going to meet with Stitch and Stitch was in charge of quite a few locations regionally. We were so pumped we got this meeting set and you know we had a couple decent meetings but it did take some I don't know what. Do you want to call it Like nudging, because a couple of times we showed up and, like you, forgot we're going to meet or just life happens and we get it. I remember one time I think I was texting him just as a reminder that we were coming by and you and I showed up slightly early for the meeting and he was like coming out of the back alleyway, wandering up the stairs. I'm pretty sure he was trying to run away and not go to the meeting and we're like hey, are we still meeting the day?
Shana Boyd:And he kind of had that look like oh my gosh, dang it. They saw me, here we go, okay, yep, yeah, you're right, I was just going to. I was just coming out for fresh air, I don't know, I like that he literally came up.
Dave Distefano:This is exactly what I was thinking of. He literally came up the steps and was like three steps from hitting like the main, because their office was like a sub level underneath an office building, Like it's a lower level. So he came up out of like the dungeon. He was like three steps from the top and you saw his head. He looked at us and we were getting out of the car and we turned and looked at him and he looked at us and he turned around and went back down the steps and like and then he was gone, and then like we went to.
Dave Distefano:We went in and talked to the receptionist or secretary and, like she's looking at us, he was just here. And like well, we have a meeting with him at 10 and she's like, well, I, he was just I don't know. And then we had to just leave. So I think we went in the car and we saw, we did, we did our counseling with our barista friends again, and then we went back to the office and you know, yes, and we did.
Shana Boyd:I mean, we did meet with him a few times, that one just wasn't going to work out for whatever you know, and I do feel like over the years too, when those kinds of things happen, it's probably a good thing on both parties, cause, like I do really feel like the people we partner with, they fit our personality and vice versa and, if you like, try to push too hard, you know it just isn't going to be a good fit. But yeah, that one was funny. Um, what about the? We took the tour over at the granary before they've done like all the awesome new development, it was just a scary abandoned warehouse basically, or like barn.
Dave Distefano:So people listening? Shayna has this issue with steps Um, okay, and the and the fact that they all should be closed. They should never be open.
Shana Boyd:They freak me out. I think I have like a weird vertigo, also for people listening. It's like, do you? And I've always had this question at all. Maybe you can answer today, like I look at the stairs as I'm walking up, I don't look above them, so it freaks me out to see the whole.
Dave Distefano:I think, for me I'm I'm able to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Shana Boyd:So I don't.
Dave Distefano:I just look up to where I'm going. See, for me it's all about where I'm going and I'm like I'm not Make sure that stairs solid. You were, you were, you were really leery of it. And it's an old, like. This, is an old building they were turning it into, like this community space which is now. It's beautiful.
Shana Boyd:Oh, it's awesome, but like we wanted to get them as a client. Yeah.
Dave Distefano:There was a grain elevator from like the 1920s or 1910s, or the tens or tons or whatever they call that dots, I don't know it was built for somebody. It was built for one of Willy Wonka's oompa loompas. It was about that wide and the stairs were that wide and they were spiral like tight. So basically it was either we're going to go up and see an empty space or there's a serial killer living at the top of this thing and we're all going to die.
Shana Boyd:Oh.
Dave Distefano:God, the first level.
Shana Boyd:Dark Sketch, yeah, and the first level.
Dave Distefano:They had some folks that were staying there.
Shana Boyd:I think it might have been staying there. Yeah, there was skateboard ramps and sleeping, but that part.
Dave Distefano:I thought was weird.
Shana Boyd:Oh well.
Dave Distefano:OK, 80s kid. I was like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shana Boyd:And I was like we need to probably continue back down the stairs. Dave's like no, well, let's continue to go up, Right, Right.
Dave Distefano:So I think the yeah. So I think that that was, that was legit. I think your fear there was legit. My biggest fear was not so much the steps but the trap doors on the floor oh God, and the granary. There's like these big shoots that go from way way up to way way down and if you fall in one of those, you we're just going to pretend you didn't exist.
Dave Distefano:Yeah, you are gone there I mean they are like it's a big trap door opens big black hole. There's nothing there. So, but yeah, they I mean they refurbished this thing and it's it's.
Shana Boyd:Oh, it's amazing.
Dave Distefano:I had to do voices for things like when there was you know you get smaller clients. You're starting out.
Shana Boyd:It's well we were taking people that, like, maybe didn't even know their potential sometimes in growing their business expansionally. But we had to get very clever with how we're going to use the budgets the first time around. Right, and there's not.
Dave Distefano:And there's not like a I mean I'm not poo pooing this at all it was fun, like I have a fun with I have fun doing that. I love doing voiceover, doing character voices. I did all that stuff for, like you know, our very firm client. And then, like we had a costume shop, sort of holiday store, that did radio ads.
Shana Boyd:And.
Dave Distefano:I was in here at night because, honestly, I don't know, even know if you knew this I was sort of embarrassed to do those reads while everybody was in the office, because my office, even though, even though our partner built this said like, oh, the walls are soundproof. No, they're not. And I could yell out of them and people could hear them like two rooms over. You know, I'd do something and come out and somebody'd be laughing Like that was awesome. I could hear you doing that. I don't like this.
Dave Distefano:I don't like. I need Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Man, I need to hide in here.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, because you were like Dr Jekyll over the years.
Dave Distefano:I was Dr. I was tackling. I was the Frankenstein monster. I was also Dr Frankenstein, but we didn't name them. We just use them as characters. Yeah, I mean. I pitched, pitched up my voice to be a witch in the background of something Horror movie stuff, pirates. I was a surfer dude for quite a few years for our amusement park? Yeah, yeah, yeah it was. It was me just like pulling everything from every bit of pop culture. I had to. You know, dude, you know all that stuff.
Shana Boyd:To this day too, we can still hear them and, like I can, still, I can, I can hear Dave.
Dave Distefano:Yeah, Dave's underneath. Hey, dude, why don't you?
Shana Boyd:come down to the park, yeah.
Dave Distefano:Okay. So like that stuff was kind of us just getting it done. How are we had to get it done? That helped us, that actually helps us. And like for you, your experience too is you came up through like print and placement and stuff like that and you can learn from a lot of folks at agencies prior. But I think that's what, like we both sort of just showed up at the right time and had the skillset to be like, well, if, if we have to do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, I think my my biggest stretch, where I was kind of like learning as we went when we first started, was account managing. Yeah, you know, because, again, I was like media buyer. I was account managing at the previous agency, but I just didn't see that in myself necessarily. So, yeah, learning how to like manage an account, pitch an account, what's it take to maintain an account, and then, yeah, on the buying side, it's like then doing all the buys by yourself. Gosh, even you and I were building out our own website at first by ourselves. There was just a lot you just had to do.
Dave Distefano:You had to. I had to add to all the developers out there that do UX and everything, because I still don't like. That is like calculus homework to me.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, yeah Well same with even our team that does our digital buying in-house.
Shana Boyd:Oh yeah, when I was doing media buying, I was doing a lot of it myself, so I'd say in-house still structuring buys together and all that good stuff. But I was never on the back end of meta having to figure out the dashboards Same thing with a lot of our partners now and you have to be I mean, now you have to. So it's like I could kind of figure it out. But, like you said, with the UX stuff, it's like that was not my specialty. Yeah, but then at the time it was.
Dave Distefano:we were both kind of like well, it's got to get done, it's got to get done. I think that's a strength now because with staff under us now they know or at least I hope they know, that two of them are in the room right now that we came from doing all the stuff that they touch now for the most part, like we got in all that stuff and we were so, I think, being for me, I think being a good leader in a creative situation or business sales, whatever is like. Have you been there?
Shana Boyd:Right, you know like you don't.
Dave Distefano:nobody's born into being a manager or born into being a boss. That's not what I'm saying, but I'm saying like I think there's. Everybody has a different path and that path helps when you have people work for you because they know like okay, they get it.
Shana Boyd:Well, yeah, and they can actually come to you and have a really good conversation around their day to day and like, if they need I don't know if you need to have their back in a conversation with, let's say, a client and kind of like maybe they're not in the meetings but you are like, okay, download all this information to me. I respect what you do day to day. I love media buying, you know, and that's not always the case.
Shana Boyd:So, no, I was going to say, and even at, like some agencies where I was out, like that wasn't even always the case.
Shana Boyd:So then there's a little bit of a gap sometimes in conversations, and so I feel like when you kind of do the work or appreciate this, I'm going to call it like art or craft then, you are going to sit down and really listen to that team and you're going to help support their category and the business that we represent to like we're going to be the first to like build up their team further. You know where some people might look at just the numbers and go you know what. No, we don't want to add extra people here to help or support this department. It's like no, I mean, you know, if you appreciate what they're doing and you can have a good conversation around it, like we we've been really good about like understanding that and like building the teams, getting software to help what they do day to day. You know even art, like our team when they originally wanted to take digital in house. That was something I was a little nervous about.
Shana Boyd:I'm like we've always used partners, but I mean they did a really good job like stating their case and you know, having data to support and back up that information and then in return it helps our clients immensely because we approve and listen and, you know, activate and it cuts their costs per thousands down in half. So I think having those conversations, like you said, like listening to your team, has helped us.
Dave Distefano:Yeah, it's been great I just yeah that whole, that whole thing, that that's a. I think that was an important part of our sort of agency. Dna, I guess, or you know, you and I started up, yeah everybody's got to see you at the table, you know. Yeah, definitely, let's switch gears for a second. Think way back. Right, you're young, you're watching TV on Saturday.
Shana Boyd:I do have a three year old, so my, my capacity, my brain capacity is limited.
Dave Distefano:Right, no, I know, I've been, I've been today Okay. Well I've. I'm actually now full circle to where I have the brain capacity after having kids that are older and none you know. But the the very first ad that you can remember ever seeing, what is the very first ad that you think you ever her eyes got really.
Shana Boyd:I know I'm like whoa first ad I've ever seen.
Dave Distefano:Geez Like you're a little kid in the first thing, like a jingle.
Shana Boyd:What was the first?
Dave Distefano:brand that like stuck in your head. You're like, I remember this.
Shana Boyd:I actually don't know. I feel like I don't remember the brand, but here's the thing that I do remember Saturday morning cartoons.
Dave Distefano:Yeah.
Shana Boyd:And being just like in awe of every new toy that would be on in those morning commercials, like so that. And then Friday, tgif, yep, as you got a little older, like all the shows. Do you remember all the shows? Oh my gosh.
Dave Distefano:Do you remember that I had to be home for?
Shana Boyd:TGIF, so like whatever.
Dave Distefano:Perfect strangers.
Shana Boyd:Whatever ads like would be, or full house.
Dave Distefano:Right.
Shana Boyd:Oh gosh. But, yeah, saturday morning cartoons, I just remember. Always on my Christmas list I had every toy. My mom would be like, oh God, can you just like not watch Saturday morning, because that ends up on your Christmas list every year, every year. So I don't know.
Dave Distefano:So see, that's interesting. That's what that was for Mm, hmm.
Shana Boyd:That, those ads. Oh yeah, they did a good job.
Dave Distefano:And same. I remember those things. That's probably for me too. I'd say. For me it was either. I mean, that's a part of, I think, my whole childhood because I grew up. I'm five years younger than you, are older than you, so I have like a little bit of more of the like the 80s retro cartoon in my brain and and all those ads and kids playing with GI Joe's.
Shana Boyd:E-Man and she right.
Dave Distefano:Oh my God, and the stuff was always, never, like you, never could recreate what somebody on a commercial set would do with the GI Joe yeah.
Dave Distefano:They had, like they had their little customized little lakes and a thing there was always all this stuff in an ad, all that work that they did to make those sets, and it created a problem for my parents too. Because then I was like there was one point where we're getting off on a little tangent here, but like Well, I feel like people could appreciate this, because we all grew up with brands that we love.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, oh yeah, you know, and we have that nostalgia still today.
Dave Distefano:But you're, I mean, you remember the He-Man and She-Ra stuff?
Shana Boyd:Oh, yes, I do, and I remember my mom taking me to see them at Gordmans and then, right when we got up for me to be a next in line, screamed and cried and she had to walk out and I was like I'm sorry she goes. You do that all the time. You were just, you know, dead set to meet this person and then, anywhere we would go, I'd be like are you sure you're going to do this this time? Yep, yep, yep, balling.
Dave Distefano:Yeah, exactly.
Shana Boyd:WWE wrestlers. I don't know if that's what they were then, but like the Hitman heart, you know, like those guys, yeah, but the characters.
Dave Distefano:It's part of the reason why I think I'm the style of creative director I am is because when I was young I got influenced by a lot of that stuff yeah. Yes, but no the GI Joe. When they did the re-release of the little tiny, the smaller GI Joe figures in the 80s, that was a force. Yeah, and like I'd say it was a tie for me between, like, the GI Joe toy commercials and then they're, you know, folgers, for some reason.
Dave Distefano:Oh yeah, okay that stupid jingle stuck in my head when I was a kid. Yeah, I was picking up his folders in your cup. That sticks in my head. That's catchy. That one still don't they still kind of bring it back every once in a while, I think?
Shana Boyd:they might have brought it back. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think I've heard that that's what. I think that's kind of fun when brands do that bringing stuff back around after a while.
Dave Distefano:I like the retro move. I and you know this I hate jingles anymore. Like I feel like jingles got played out so much, but it might be just the age I am Like. I just got tired of people trying to sing sentences to me about their products.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, I started to do it kind of a little more hokey though as years went on. So it's like, you know, like the good ones were really good.
Dave Distefano:Like real men of genius was awesome, yeah, oh that was a good one.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, that's a good one. But when you try to, like I don't know, put a call to action in your jingle or like I don't know, like stuff like that over the years.
Dave Distefano:Cars for kids.
Shana Boyd:Yeah, what is that?
Dave Distefano:one oh 877 cars for kids, Really.
Shana Boyd:Oh, no, is that new? No, no, no, that's probably an.
Dave Distefano:East Coast thing, I think a little bit more. Oh, okay, yeah, brutal Earworm. Yeah, just sticks with you. What?
Shana Boyd:about the Micro Machine guy.
Dave Distefano:Yes, he was freaking awesome. That was. I was going to go further in, but I remember giving those to him.
Shana Boyd:I feel like that's the influencers back in the day. You know and like your favorite hero would be or athlete. A lot of times those athletes would be on the covers of like cereal boxes and Still are. Yeah, yes.
Dave Distefano:Okay, here's a quiz. What was his? What was the first ad he was in? What before he did Micro Machines for Galoo? What was his? What company was he a spokesperson for, or a? What's our character for?
Shana Boyd:Was he? He was, I see, I don't know that. I know he was an auctioneer at one point, right, and that's why he got the job, but I don't. I actually have no idea where he was at FedEx.
Dave Distefano:No, yeah, yeah, really, he was in FedEx commercials.
Shana Boyd:Oh man, is that crazy.
Dave Distefano:Yeah, no, I don't. I don't even know how old he is.
Shana Boyd:Yeah. So, but anyway so anyway, that was a fun. He's dead, he's not maybe even dead, and I'm like oh, that's a fun little trip. Somebody look it up.
Dave Distefano:Nostalgia. Am I right?
Shana Boyd:Yeah.
Dave Distefano:But yeah, well, I mean, that's this thing about, like all of these ads is is something memorable, and I think that's what thinking back about you and I talking about what influences, or what our, what our, why was, what our goal is like. I wanted to make something memorable. I I got influenced by pop culture early big, like I said, and that was a big thing to me is like, how do I get into creating the cool shit that I see?
Shana Boyd:You know my side of it. It's like I wanted to help people grow their business, no matter what it was. Well, that's advertising does that for you. You know, I mean, you get people to move.
Dave Distefano:Right, right. So I mean that's that's where I was kind of like, you know, I love that. I wanted to get involved with you know production. Somehow I was a kid, I don't know how to do this, but like I watch back to the future and, oh my God, you know, people made that. That looks really fun, so, but you remember all those ads and they stick with you and I think that's I wanted to make good work like that, even when I was younger. Like I want to create something that people will remember. That would be really cool. Yeah, yeah, no, but I think this, honestly, was a really good convo for a pilot. I hope this sounds good, because we don't even know yet when the file comes off the card. We're not even sure I know we had to just stop recording a while ago. We have no idea.
Shana Boyd:No, that's true, and we didn't even get into like how much we love astrology or like Taco John's.
Dave Distefano:Like we just had no idea where this was going to go. So yeah, well, that's one of us.
Shana Boyd:At least it was interesting.
Dave Distefano:Astrology is one of us, not both of us.
Shana Boyd:I tolerate. Come on board.
Dave Distefano:I tolerate those things, yeah, but yeah, taco John's got us through a lot, of, a lot of work days actually.
Shana Boyd:There was a lot of Taco John's, If they're listening. We would love you as an account too. If we could get paid in Potato Ole's, so it'd be okay.
Dave Distefano:I'm super interested in getting John Cena to sponsor you guys.
Shana Boyd:Oh my gosh.
Dave Distefano:Taco John Cena? Please? Yes, we'll make it work. He's Expensive.
Shana Boyd:We'll figure it out. We got it. We got you.
Dave Distefano:All right. Well, thanks everybody for tolerating us for whatever time length this was. We really appreciate it, and future podcast episodes are coming soon, so keep your eyes open.