Brand and Talent Management with Shawn Anthony

george grombacher 0:01
Sean Sean Anthony is the founder of pod pro Max. They’re an organization using podcasts to grow brands. Get you into the places that you ought to be, but for some reason, can’t quite get into he is a podcaster as well. Welcome to the show, Sean man,

Shawn Anthony 0:17
listen. I’m excited to be here. I mean, with that type of intro, I just need to take you with me on every single booking opportunity I get.

george grombacher 0:26
I love it. We can. We can talk about that offline. Tell us about your personal lives, more about your work and why you do what you do.

Shawn Anthony 0:35
Yeah, I’m a kid from a small town, Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, who understood the power of connecting and marketing at a very young age. At 14, I became a nightlife party promoter after watching my brother become big in entertainment, so I threw a graduation party at 14 years old for 18 year olds, right high school, but I made $6,000 and it turned me into this huge promoter, and I went off to college, became a big nightlife, party promoter at an HBCU called Western Salem State University. Shout out to the Rams, if you’re listening. I did graduate, but then I realized everyone that I was going to class with was going to eventually move on with their life, and I had to take this skill set. I went corporate, and I became someone who was a brand manager for companies. My last job I ever had was a brand manager of a company we’ve all shopped at Target, and I learned a lot while doing that. But what the biggest gift was, is I got promoted so much, man, that I had to commute. I had a six hour commute where I discovered podcasting, and that led me to creating schools over now, what which led me to representing talent some amazing people. Probably the most notable is Beyonce dad, Matthew Knowles, and many, many more, and Pa pro Max and placing clients on podcasts and on tours. So it’s been exciting. It’s been an amazing journey, and definitely, definitely blessed to be here.

george grombacher 1:59
Yeah, yeah, six grand when you’re 14 years old. It’s like a million, probably ten million man, oh,

Shawn Anthony 2:06
man, you definitely will lose count,

george grombacher 2:10
yeah. Like, this is amazing. How do I do more of this and do it all the time? And plus, you get to hang out with 18 year olds when you’re only 14. So that’s a lot of wins. That’s

Shawn Anthony 2:19
a lot of ways. Man had ahead of the curve, ahead of the time. I joke all the time. I remember, you know how people go to college, right? And they go to college the night before college, they’re probably with their parents. They’re shopping at Target or WalMart, getting all like the little, little items. That wasn’t me the night before college, I was actually in an apartment where one of the biggest promoters in North Carolina was just telling me exactly how I was going to go off to college and recruit a small team have them promote for me. And I did. I had 30 freshmen going crazy. You know, we used to knock on doors. We used to hand out flyers. I mean, we did it all. And I think the uniqueness behind that is whatever you figure out what you’re going to do in life. I usually think around those teenage years is when you kind of understand what you’re capable of. And for me, that sweet spot was 14.

george grombacher 3:17
So you understand what you capable of, and you realize, Wow, I’m actually really good at this, and other people recognize that I’m really good at it. And so you start to apply that. How does that then translate? It strikes me that the skill set that it takes to to bring a ton of people to a party is, is really, really difficult. If you’ve ever thrown an event, you know how hard it is to get butts in the seats. But then how do you take that, make it a not physical thing?

Shawn Anthony 3:50
Yeah? Yeah. I mean, what? The way you do that is you have, well, it’s no different than selling a product, right? I would pretty much steam an event. I would utilize frats, sororities, I would utilize different events happening in the community. Maybe it might be Homecoming, maybe it might be back to school, maybe it might be spring break. Like there’s so many different things, you know, and it’s so crazy how it all translates to even the corporate world, right? I remember being a brand manager, helping and trying to come out with engagement like things to get stores more excited about servicing customers. It’s literally the exact same thing. It’s just translating what you’re doing into different fields as you grow as a person. That’s the key nice,

george grombacher 4:38
okay? And so you start consuming podcasts like crazy on this six hour commute. You’re like, these are great. I think that these are awesome. I’d like to get involved. Walk me through the creation of pod pro Max and where where we are today.

Shawn Anthony 4:54
Yeah. You know, even with podcasting, you know, I started listening to podcast and. The first guy I started listening to is a guy that I can text anytime. Now. That changed everything with my show, and that was Ed Marlette. You know, he pretty much changed my life. I’m not sure are you familiar with Ed? I am so. So Ed, obviously is a superstar. And I remember when I got to like episode 40 around a 40th she was episode 42 and people used to share like their most exciting favorite podcast, and they would tag Amy Porterfield, who’s been on my show, schools over now what, which is us and Ed always together. And Ed actually slid in my DM and he said, Let’s make something happen. And he gave me his guy, and I flew out to Laguna while I still was employed. I still was a brand manager. At that time, I still was a brand manager, but I did it, you know, I went out there, and it changed my life. I saw and I think what’s important is that you have to see what’s possible, so that you know you can go out and do something. And I saw things I never saw before, and it motivated me so much, and and my let interview led to me meeting Matthew Knowles. It led to me interviewing way, way, way more people that we probably are very familiar with, but it kind of fueled me. And all this led me to pop pro Max, because as I was doing this, everyone start asking me, how are you podcasting? How are you talking about this? What’s the equipment you’re using? How are you navigating? And I started to teach it. But the real strategy, the real excitement, came when I started to brand manage some of the talent that was on my show. I remember, I think one of the things that’s key here is that everything correlates. Life is just patterns. So the same way I was brand managing at companies like Target, Macy’s and Belk. It was no different than when I was branding brands. When it comes to branding people, you know, I started brand managing when I left my job 2021 not only was I teaching people podcasting, but the first person I brand managed was Terry’s young you know. And in the first year together, I mean, she made millions of dollars, you know, but I was strategically placing her on shows at that point. I didn’t necessarily knew exactly everything I was doing. I knew that whatever I was doing was having so much movement, it was leading to results. And through that time span of working with her, I then went into brand hammock, spiritual Rogers. I then realized what the sweet spot was, and the sweet spot was not necessarily them having their own shows. The sweet spot was placing them on shows. And so I launched pod pro Max. We’ve been in business now for over a year, where we do these podcast tours. We take a talent, we understand exactly what their strengths are, and now we go out and promote them, and when we do it in a way that’s so uniquely different than PR, right? PR, you know, they’ll put you on retainer and bring you nothing. You know, we’ll, we’ll put someone on this podcast tour, and they’re doing 30 shows, right? So I think you have to understand, as you grow in business, what are the patterns that you may need to go back and look at to become who you should be.

george grombacher 8:01
Well said. So what do you think that that obviously you’re good at identifying a talented person, but is it, then a function of, how do I help? I guess maybe what is brand management? Is it pulling stuff out of people that you can see in them that’s maybe not coming through quite as well as it ought to.

Shawn Anthony 8:26
Yeah, brand management, talent management, are two completely different things, right? So like brand management is looking at someone to your point, and looking at them and realizing what are the brands they should connect with, who are the people that they should work with? What are things that are missing in a business that, if they were strategically changed just a little bit, it might add a lot to the bottom dollar. Maybe they are putting out a message that isn’t hitting the right audience. Maybe they haven’t been in front of the right community. Maybe they need to know that something else exists so that they can talk about what the offer is. Brand management, is that in terms of like talent management, talent management is understanding a talent strengths and then realizing, okay, all right, now that we got this, let’s go get some deals. Let’s go see what speaking opportunities presents themselves. Personal appearances present themselves. Are you looking for brands that align with what that talent strengths are. So I think it’s important to kind of highlight both those differences, but also understand how both of them are very important to success.

george grombacher 9:28
Yeah, that certainly does make sense. I can see the differentiation between brand management, talent management and we live in a world today where through so many different mediums that we have access to. It’s possible to get a brand out a person out there, but there’s so many people that are doing it. So how do you how are you able to cut through the noise? For lack of a better term,

Shawn Anthony 9:53
yeah, I think it will just as much as it’s important for a person to be matched with the right person that’s helping. Their brand. It’s important for that person to be matched with the right talent themselves. You know, one of the main things I do is I gotta make sure I’m excited about who I’m working with, because at the end of the day, I have to walk into rooms that you may not be in and represent you, but then also I might be able to get through a certain door with a certain talent that I couldn’t get through, that will now create an opportunity for you, right? So I think, you know, it’s really important to kind of understand that, understanding the roles, and understanding that, hey, look, this isn’t a buffet. This isn’t like, hey every time I talk to you, Hey, I got this, this, this, no, we got to work together to make some of these things happen. And I think, you know, when you, if you’re somebody listening to this right now. You’re thinking about representation. Are you putting in work? And are you looking at, you know, a person that you would bring on as a savior or a partner? And I think the partner is the key.

george grombacher 10:55
Tell me more about that difference, yeah,

Shawn Anthony 10:56
man. I mean, well, one of the difference is this, right? Someone that you’re looking at too as a as a savior, is that you have a business, an idea, a brand. You’ve been around for a while, but you just literally are just waiting for opportunities to come to you. You are not proactively putting yourself out there. You’re not proactively going after certain things, you aren’t making any initiative. You it’s almost a person who thinks they achieved a status. I talked to so many people, and this is so so interesting. I think you got to have a lot of confidence in what you do. But I talked to a lot of people who think they’re probably hotter than what they are, and you have to have that naive you have to have a little bit of that, but at the same time, you have to have the work ethic to realize that you haven’t got on Mount Rushmore yet. And I think you have to be willing to put in the shot some of the most, most well known people that you know, I know of, are hard workers. You know, representing you know, Beyonce dad, Matthew Knowles, has taught me a lot. He’s a hard worker. I mean, he’s constantly thinking he’s someone that’s literally, you know, he might not physically be in the gym with you. He probably could, but, but he’s mentally every day with you, you know. And I think, you know, that’s the key, you know. Whereas working with someone who understands the partnership. You know, they’re bringing things to the table. They have ideas. They have, you know, an open book of contacts that they may not have. You know, the the idea to strategically have a conversation, but they are proactively moving forward. Yeah.

george grombacher 12:35
So you mentioned Ed mylett, and he’s very successful entrepreneur who’s turned into a self development icon and report a field is certainly a very famous Digital Marketer, for lack of a better term. And Terry, I believe she’s been on the podcast years and years ago, is, is, is trading. So it’s, it’s, it’s investment management. So it doesn’t necessarily matter what it is you’re doing.

Shawn Anthony 12:59
Yeah, it doesn’t matter. I think you know, what matters is that you’re doing something that you love, that you have figured out, a skill set that you have mastered and helped others with, that now can be packaged to make a broader impact. And if you have that, and if you lead with true, genuine curiosity and being authentic, you’re going to win. You’re going to win.

george grombacher 13:35
That’s not necessarily an innate thing. And maybe that’s, that’s, that’s where you come in to help bring that out of somebody who they’re sort of in the jar, or, yeah, they’re inside the jar, so they can’t see the label on on the outside of it, and they’re just doing so many different things. So how do you refine that and make it simple, simpler to understand?

Shawn Anthony 13:55
Yeah, I’m so glad you said that, because every everybody you just named, and with the statement you just made, need that, right? So, so they are when you’re operating, especially the level of names you just mentioned, right? Ed, Amy Terry, I know all of them can’t call all of them. When you’re operating at that level. You have to stay focused and operate in that level as the talent, because if you started to think even like the way I would think about how to navigate through a room, how to have conversations, understand what the follow up is needed, understand where you have to do something a little bit different, understand who your future affiliates or collaborative partners are, you are going to lose the talent of being the talent. Yeah, I think, I think a lot of people are right now losing that, you know, they’re, they’re trying to be their own booking agent and trying to be their own person who is moving in rooms. And they can’t be, man, you can’t do that. I think you, if you did that, somewhere on the line, something is going to drop right? Right? I think it’s very strategic if you partner with someone, if that’s their strengths, right? And I think that’s the way of identifying the best people to collaborate with and primarily make a partner.

george grombacher 15:13
So for those who are those who are listening, that are that are talented, that are talent, that want to amplify their message, what is, what is the process look like for for engaging with you and podprex, pod pro Max,

Shawn Anthony 15:30
yeah. You know, I always tell people the first thing you want to do when it when it comes to like engaging, is that, all right, what have you created or done that the world needs to know about. You gotta have that thing, right? You gotta have something. You know, the very first podcast tour we ever did came from a person that I really respect, and she was on everything and so curious that she’s like, Sean, I need you. And it was all in Hamilton, you know, all in Hamilton, you know, came to us. You know, she had a team of all the type of managers you can imagine. So it’s no reason for me to be her brand manager, but the ability to outreach and place on a podcast tour was uniquely different. You know, she’s someone that is heavy in the VC world, very affiliated with Mark Cuban. You’re probably familiar with that name as well, you know, and being strategic and placing her on certain different things was what was important. But she also had a conference. So I think if you if you have, she had a conference that she was promoting with Gary Vee rich Paul, so it was important for her to be seen in all of the places to promote it. So like, if you have, you know, a conference, if you have an event, if you have a book, if you have a course, even if you had a lead magnet, you’re just trying to build a community. You know, pop pro Max, and engaging with us with a podcast tour should be your very first step. And if this sounds like you, something you want to do, we would love to kind of tell you more. You can visit us@podpromax.com and we’ll walk you through that process and help you understand the importance of getting yourself out there. Because when you’re a guest on shows, you’re already elevated as the expert. You’re already there, right? So I think a lot of people need that elevation to really start making some noise.

george grombacher 17:16
What do you say to people who are who are nervous about being a guest on a podcast?

Shawn Anthony 17:20
Yeah, I think if you’re if you’re nervous, I want you to think about, okay, if you were to be interviewed, what would you want someone to know about you? You know, I think about podcasts all the time. I started in 2018 when podcasting was corny. I mean, nobody knew how to click a button. They were like, Sean, what are you doing? What’s this purple app? Why am I clicking on it? I just want to listen to the radio. It was kind of foreign to them, right? And I think what got me through all of that was I thought about, Yo, listen. What if, like, 40 years from now, or 50 years from now, 100 years from now, my grandkids, my great grandkids could press a button and listen to my voice, and I realized that’s what podcasting is. You know how much money I would pay to hear my great grandfather’s voice on on audio I don’t even know his name. So, like is, I don’t even know his name, I don’t know my great grandmother’s name, I don’t even know their names. So like the ability to live beyond a generation. I mean, if you don’t want to podcast, do it for a younger version of you. Do it for somebody who needs to know that what you’ve done in life is something they can do. And I think it’s important to kind of put yourself out there, but leave your stamp on the world.

george grombacher 18:42
Amen. So safe to say that you’re super positive about about the medium that is podcasting going into the future. Oh,

Shawn Anthony 18:52
absolutely man. You know, it’s so funny just seeing so many people get into it. I’ll say this though, I think, and I haven’t said this before, any podcast, I I believe now that if you were to start a podcast and you really want to be successful at it, you can’t do what you could have done six years ago. You can’t do what, what could have got you passed, like what could have got you, what could what could have got you a community six years ago. You can’t do that now, but think about it. It’s not a too much of a bold statement. That’s pretty much not many things you can do six years ago that you will still do today. So I think you had to come up with new, creative, innovative ways to spark conversation, ask certain questions, create certain clips, you know, create this highlight where people are excited, and I think that’s the key, yeah,

george grombacher 19:43
I think that’s really well said. Well, Sean, thank you so much for coming on. I know you gave us the website again or once, but please give it to us again and how people can get in touch with you. Man,

Shawn Anthony 19:53
listen, man. I appreciate you and your time. And I like your cadence. I like the vibe. Um, if you guys are listening, you enjoy this. You understand. Power of utilizing your voice. You can follow me at Sean R Anthony underscore. On all platforms, you can listen to the podcast schools over now. What on all platforms? It completely changed my life. We only gave you some of the names of the people that were on the show, but you know, I’ve also had Seth golden, Ryan sernahan, Evan Carmichael, Trent shell and Jasmine star. The list is absolutely insane. And also, if you’re ready to be represented from town or perhaps go on a podcast tour, please visit us at popper max.com or popper Max com slash tour,

george grombacher 20:36
excellent. Well, if you enjoyed some cheese, I did show Sean your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend that also appreciates good ideas. You can follow Sean at Sean R Anthony underscore on social media. I’ll list all of those in the notes. Check out the schools over now. What podcast? Wherever you listen to your podcast, and finally, go to podpromax.com and reach out and find out if the time is right for you to start getting a little bit of talent and brand management and getting your work out into the world. Thanks again. Sean,

Shawn Anthony 21:10
appreciate you,

george grombacher 21:11
and till next time, remember do your part by doing your best. You.

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.