Speaker 1: I'm off my game today. No, you're not. People are
Speaker 1: going to have to start making better content. I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about this for a long time.
Speaker 1: When you program for everyone, you program for no one.
Speaker 1: I think it's a word purpose driven platform. Like we're
Speaker 1: trying to get to substance. How was that? Are you
Speaker 1: happy with that? This is marketing therapy right now? And
Speaker 1: it really is? What's up on? Laura Currency and I'm
Speaker 1: Alexa Kristen, Welcome back to Atlantia. We don't know what
Speaker 1: episode we're on. I think it's three three three of
Speaker 1: yeh three into I'm so proud of Alexa for coming
Speaker 1: into the studio today. She's like from the star spangled
Speaker 1: banner the Super Bowl pink she had the flu. At
Speaker 1: least you're not spending lozenges out you know what during
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, guess what I was doing sleeping? I
Speaker 1: was asleep and he wants three for three. I'm sick
Speaker 1: three times already. Well, hopefully this is the end. I
Speaker 1: blame it on you. Many people say that I'm contagious,
Speaker 1: so take that as you will. Um, But that said,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, we are kicking it off. So much change
Speaker 1: is happening in the industry that we will be opening
Speaker 1: up the I a B Annual Leadership Meeting out in
Speaker 1: Palm Desert, California next week. If you have an already
Speaker 1: booked your ticket, book it, come join us. I think
Speaker 1: that it's going to be a lot of really good conversations,
Speaker 1: and I think the IB this year is doing something
Speaker 1: different than they've ever done. They're having a lot of
Speaker 1: kind of up and coming brands on stage talking about
Speaker 1: what it means to be a twenty one century brand,
Speaker 1: and they're going to be the ones talking. Well a
Speaker 1: lot of I think legacy brands are going to be
Speaker 1: also talking, but in the audience participating right, So we're
Speaker 1: excited to talk to brands like Glossier. We're going to
Speaker 1: see a way out, They're excited to see our girl
Speaker 1: Rachel typograph and action on the knowledge with T Mobile.
Speaker 1: So a lot of exciting conversations and mashups of different
Speaker 1: types of brands on stage, so it'll be definitely an
Speaker 1: interesting dialogue. And now have people like Jet dot Com there,
Speaker 1: you know, Leaver is going to be there, Lo is
Speaker 1: going to be there. So a lot of people representing
Speaker 1: the content space, the entertainment space, the software space, the
Speaker 1: text space. I think it's going to be a really
Speaker 1: interesting conversation and we will bring it all back here
Speaker 1: and talk to you guys about what we learned UM
Speaker 1: and what we think are kind of some of the
Speaker 1: most interesting trends. But one thing I'm really impressed with
Speaker 1: is that Randal Rothenberg and the team over at i
Speaker 1: B has done some killer research around not just what
Speaker 1: it takes to be a century brand and the brand
Speaker 1: side of it and the consumer side of it and
Speaker 1: the branding in the marketing side of it, but really
Speaker 1: like what's the infrastructure that's underpinning this growth in direct
Speaker 1: to consumer brands. And it's a really really interesting piece
Speaker 1: of research that they're going to be publishing at the
Speaker 1: i B Leadership Forum. So one of the big takeaways
Speaker 1: that we are learning is leadership, UM. What it takes
Speaker 1: to obviously not just create Century brand but certainly run one,
Speaker 1: but be a leader of the right, be a leader
Speaker 1: of the twenty yeah right, a visionary that I think
Speaker 1: brings people up. We there's some really awesome quotes from
Speaker 1: our next guest, Roth Martin, who's CEO and founder of Blackbird,
Speaker 1: really a new consultancy out on the field, who is
Speaker 1: combining UM kind of harvesting and maturing leadership like people right,
Speaker 1: and companies and thinking about new ways that established companies
Speaker 1: change the way they create and market and the way
Speaker 1: they show up in market, right, and how they create
Speaker 1: more meaningful ties to their consumers and maybe even open
Speaker 1: up new verticals that they can play in. So interesting conversation,
Speaker 1: and I think that leadership is really at the center
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, And I think in with the rise
Speaker 1: of so many DTC brands, like some of those we
Speaker 1: just rattled off, whether it's Glossier, Casper Away, all of
Speaker 1: your fan favorites in the podcasting space, so to speak,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting, um to see how those who have
Speaker 1: had a tremendous trajectory challenging some of the legacy bra
Speaker 1: ends in some of the biggest categories react and adapt
Speaker 1: to sort of what the new leadership and business plan
Speaker 1: or model looks like in and beyond. So with that,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk to CEO and founder of Blackbird,
Speaker 1: Ross Martin. We'll be right back and we're back in
Speaker 1: the studio with Ross Martin, CEO and founder of Blackbird.
Speaker 1: Hi Ross, thanks for coming. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: I've wanted to come here since you started this podcast.
Speaker 1: I think we were talking about it at the beginning
Speaker 1: and I said, would you come when you come? When
Speaker 1: you I'm all about this, I'm like your biggest fan.
Speaker 1: So Ross, you have had kind of an amazing career
Speaker 1: and I want to talk about Blackbird, but first I
Speaker 1: want to talk about your background. Where did you start? Well,
Speaker 1: I just I have the strangest background for someone who's
Speaker 1: in media. I don't even know how I got here,
Speaker 1: you know, I I think we all feel that way, right, Yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: what did you want to be when you were growing up? Um?
Speaker 1: So I first wanted to be an elevator man in Manhattan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I never really knew what I wanted to
Speaker 1: be when I grew up, and I think that's why
Speaker 1: I've never in my life besides my first job, never
Speaker 1: in my life had a job that anybody had before me.
Speaker 1: Like I've never inherited a job description. Interesting. My first
Speaker 1: job was selling women's shoes, That's it. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know what the funk I was doing. God, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was Albundi, but I was sixteen years old and I sucked,
Speaker 1: Like I don't even think I sold more than five
Speaker 1: pairs in like an entire summer. But regardless, that was
Speaker 1: my first job, and every other job I had since
Speaker 1: then it was a made up job. And the thing
Speaker 1: is I went to school for poetry. So it's like
Speaker 1: that where blackbird came from? Well, it's interesting, you know,
Speaker 1: Alex talked about that, and now he's going to tell
Speaker 1: us the story because it's damn good. Look, there are
Speaker 1: like five origin stories for the name blackbird. So the
Speaker 1: obvious one that everyone who's you know, read any poetry
Speaker 1: before will always say is thirteen Ways of Looking at
Speaker 1: a Blackbird poem by Wallace Stevens. And there's an incredible
Speaker 1: first stanza for that poem, which just so I don't
Speaker 1: get it wrong, and are you going to free? I'm
Speaker 1: not going to free, no, not So the first stanza
Speaker 1: is three lines, rightam, drop a beat on this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: among twenty snowy mountains, the only moving thing was the
Speaker 1: eye of the blackbird. And so what I love about
Speaker 1: that stanza is in three lines, Stevens goes from this huge, wide,
Speaker 1: establishing shot of twenty snowy mountains where your camera, your
Speaker 1: eye is so far back to be able to take
Speaker 1: all of that in right, and then not even two
Speaker 1: lines later, he's all the way in on the single
Speaker 1: eye of a single blackbird on a single snowy mountain.
Speaker 1: And the idea that you could move from one perspective
Speaker 1: all the way down just that little I and be
Speaker 1: so specific or atomic is really a pretty big driving
Speaker 1: force behind Blackbird and what we're trying to do. Like,
Speaker 1: I got it immediately. I love it. You think a
Speaker 1: lot like artist or filmmaker, and you have a little
Speaker 1: bit of background in the entertainment world. I mean that's
Speaker 1: where you really started. After the shoes. I want to tell,
Speaker 1: how do I get from elevator? Man? I went to Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I went to poetry school and I went to
Speaker 1: wash you in St. Louis, and there were five Did
Speaker 1: anyone even know that you could go to graduate school
Speaker 1: for poetry? Yes, you can do that, you guys know.
Speaker 1: So I was the only one that wasn't on scholarship, right,
Speaker 1: and I just I had to work at a bar
Speaker 1: like and I was getting everybody else drunk while I
Speaker 1: was working behind the ball. But the idea of taking
Speaker 1: five poetry classes at the graduate level every semester for
Speaker 1: two years drove me nuts. So I was looking for
Speaker 1: an easy way out, and I took a screenwriting class
Speaker 1: and I wrote a screenplay that was really shitty, but
Speaker 1: it was like the best one that year. So I
Speaker 1: won like the hundred dollar prize from the school. And
Speaker 1: my professor, who is a producer, said, you should do
Speaker 1: this for a living, like you can be a screenwriter.
Speaker 1: I want to introduce you to Spike Lee. And so
Speaker 1: he did, and um, and I met Spike and he
Speaker 1: invited me to come work for the summer. I read
Speaker 1: about five hundred scripts and then after grad school, I
Speaker 1: returned and I was his story editor and my job
Speaker 1: was to find projects for Spike to produce or direct
Speaker 1: that the rest of the Hollywood system was not seeing,
Speaker 1: not betting on. This was like the Blacklist before the Blacklist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. And Spikes, you know, he's an amazing champion
Speaker 1: of talent and voices that just otherwise would never get hurt.
Speaker 1: He doesn't get credit for that because he's so loud,
Speaker 1: but he does a lot of work behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: And I got to do a lot of that work
Speaker 1: at a really young age. And well I should tell you,
Speaker 1: um that, just so nobody thinks I have good taste
Speaker 1: at all. The first script I read for Spike completely rejected.
Speaker 1: In fact, I fell asleep in the middle. It was
Speaker 1: a boxing movie. I fell asleep in the middle of
Speaker 1: the fight scene as I was reading it, and I
Speaker 1: was like, this is horrible, and I told him, don't
Speaker 1: even read it. I'll pass. So I passed to the
Speaker 1: agent and then the movie got made with Russell Crowe
Speaker 1: Cinderella Man Academy Award, produced by my now friend Brian Grazer.
Speaker 1: But anyway, it was a great first real job in
Speaker 1: the industry and reading, you know, having the kind of
Speaker 1: access to Spike in his community was just outstanding. So
Speaker 1: how do you take that and start applying it to
Speaker 1: what you did Viacom and now starting your own thing
Speaker 1: at Blackbird. Right, So, look, I don't think you work
Speaker 1: for a company. I think you work for people. And
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to work for Spike because he's
Speaker 1: a visionary and he's so human. He makes gigantic successful
Speaker 1: films and also big mistakes and in every movie he
Speaker 1: has triumphs and he has you know, just big errors
Speaker 1: that just make part of the movie suck. And I
Speaker 1: loved that. Um, well, you talk a lot about leadership.
Speaker 1: You put a lot of color behind leadership, like what
Speaker 1: is a good leader? You've been doing that for a
Speaker 1: long time, you know. I just believe cultures everything you had.
Speaker 1: Linda Yakuarino recently on the podcast and UM, she talked
Speaker 1: about it. She talked about, like, over the last five years,
Speaker 1: what's made the difference for her organization, And she talks
Speaker 1: about leadership and culture and she's right. And you you
Speaker 1: walk into any company today, you know in thirty seconds
Speaker 1: if they've got it or if they don't. You can
Speaker 1: feel it, you can smell it, you can taste it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: So now you started Blackbird. Yeah, so when I left
Speaker 1: five Com last summer, I started two different things at
Speaker 1: the same time, probably out of fear of failure. But
Speaker 1: one of them is Blackbird, which is a brand strategy
Speaker 1: and business innovation firm, and the other is Lunch Partners,
Speaker 1: which is a venture capital fund. So two very different things. Um,
Speaker 1: And why anybody thinks that a poet should be running
Speaker 1: a venture capital fund, I have no idea why anyone
Speaker 1: agrees to that, but it has happened. We are underway,
Speaker 1: and that is the super exciting element of my daily
Speaker 1: life and it's connected to I mean, as it connected
Speaker 1: to Blackbird. Is that totally separate from Blackbird. They're not connected,
Speaker 1: but they end up being symbiotic. You know, I learned
Speaker 1: so much about early stage startup companies in all different
Speaker 1: industries from Launch Partners. I mean, in the first two
Speaker 1: months we looked at seventy five deals and the kind
Speaker 1: of people you meet are just sort of outside my
Speaker 1: everyday sphere and a lot of people I know, jack
Speaker 1: shit about that world. And the people we are meeting
Speaker 1: and learning from our extraordinary and they're the next generation
Speaker 1: of great business leaders. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. We've
Speaker 1: had Pierced Fox on here from PSFK was a writer.
Speaker 1: We've had you who's a poet. We talked with Sara Fisher.
Speaker 1: Last episode we took sales skills and translated to journalism.
Speaker 1: I think we're really starting to see this sort of
Speaker 1: tri anxient fluid thing happening in our industry where people
Speaker 1: are taking their skill sets and feeling them into passions.
Speaker 1: And it's it's really fascinating to see you take the
Speaker 1: commercial side, but then also what I assume the business
Speaker 1: of Blackbird being your passion. So that's exactly right, Laura.
Speaker 1: And I feel like, once you get what you're great
Speaker 1: at and you understand kind of what you suck at,
Speaker 1: you can do anything with that now, right, Look at Peers.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a massive success story. You know, Sarah
Speaker 1: at Axios is someone you would say, like, well, if
Speaker 1: you look at her career, her trajectory, you would never
Speaker 1: put her in the position she's in right now, right,
Speaker 1: And yet she's massively successful and influential. And when she
Speaker 1: was on your podcast, she did feel like a force
Speaker 1: in the industry totally. So I feel like once you
Speaker 1: know you're true north, once you understand your purpose and
Speaker 1: your identity and you get your values down, like, you
Speaker 1: can do whatever you want with that. And that is
Speaker 1: exactly what Blackbird's doing for big businesses and little business is.
Speaker 1: But most of them have never been forced to ask
Speaker 1: those existential questions about themselves, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: because of the forces in every industry, they have no
Speaker 1: choice but to ask those questions, right, why does my
Speaker 1: brand even exist? And I mean, you guys are struggling
Speaker 1: with those questions every single episode, and you can really
Speaker 1: tell um who's thought about it and who has not.
Speaker 1: And I listened to some of your guests. Let's listen
Speaker 1: to every episode, and some have really thought about these issues,
Speaker 1: and others just seem to have avoided them. It's interesting.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's a sign of the times that
Speaker 1: people and brands and companies are starting to think like
Speaker 1: this or do you think there are other you know,
Speaker 1: kind of forcing functions that are happening that we don't see. Look,
Speaker 1: I think that um I make a distinction. Blackbird has
Speaker 1: been very successful in its first eight months, making the
Speaker 1: distinction between operating systems and belief systems, which do you
Speaker 1: gravitate towards. You cannot have one without the other. To
Speaker 1: run as successful business today, where you may have multiple
Speaker 1: operating systems, as most of my clients do, to do
Speaker 1: that effectively without a belief system is nearly impossible. And
Speaker 1: I learned that from Seth Farbman, who's the CMO of Spotify,
Speaker 1: and he was a gap and he didn't look, that's
Speaker 1: a brilliant, brilliant guy. And when I was at Viacom
Speaker 1: that we had three my last three years there were
Speaker 1: really chaotic and confusing, and what we needed was true
Speaker 1: north and an understanding of who we were as a company.
Speaker 1: Thousands and thousands of people who needed to understand, even
Speaker 1: if it wasn't communicated externally yet, what Viacom was about
Speaker 1: and what it stood for and what you were part
Speaker 1: of and why these brands are all in the same portfolio.
Speaker 1: And Seth really gave me the language to understand how
Speaker 1: to go about doing that. Um, what is the idea
Speaker 1: of a belief system, which you know, to some people
Speaker 1: just sounds fancy, like a fancy word for brand architecture. Well,
Speaker 1: we all do positioning, sure, um. But the more I
Speaker 1: thought about what Seth was challenging me to do at Viacom,
Speaker 1: the more we began the hard work of the methodology
Speaker 1: itself and trying to understand how do you surface the
Speaker 1: key insights and derive or distill from them the brand
Speaker 1: idea that is irrefutable, and that is four things, big, simple, useful,
Speaker 1: and true. If it's not all for, it won't be successful.
Speaker 1: And we've gone to work doing that. We've done ten
Speaker 1: belief systems in the last eight months at Blackbird, and
Speaker 1: they're accompanied by the question that comes right after, which is, well,
Speaker 1: now that we know who we are, what do we
Speaker 1: do with that? How do you land the plane? And
Speaker 1: that's all about execution and about living your brand and
Speaker 1: such an interesting skill set though, because it's most people
Speaker 1: have to one or the other. And I think what
Speaker 1: makes certain people special and Beth compact this law is
Speaker 1: like being able to see the you know, the whole field.
Speaker 1: And then very Blackbird pointed yeah, and that and Linda
Speaker 1: have been, you know, masterful at that and both have
Speaker 1: taught me quite a bit about this. You know. I
Speaker 1: think you asked about context, like why does this matter now? Um,
Speaker 1: I had a gut feeling that this would matter in
Speaker 1: the world, and I went on that and bet on
Speaker 1: myself and my team to launch Blackbird. Two of my
Speaker 1: favorite people sat down to collide worlds. Two of my
Speaker 1: favorite worlds, politics and hip hop. So Van Jones, Alex
Speaker 1: and I are obsessed with the episodes Fantastic She sat
Speaker 1: down with jay Z and one of the things that
Speaker 1: I pulled out of it that it gets the heart
Speaker 1: of what you're talking about is a difference between a
Speaker 1: job and purpose and they're not they're not mutually exclusive. Um,
Speaker 1: and I think what you're saying is what a lot
Speaker 1: of the entrepreneurs in our business are finding. You know,
Speaker 1: you talked about Sarah Fisher. It's like, what are you
Speaker 1: really good at? Go chase that down. And the problem
Speaker 1: is though that I think it gets really foofi really
Speaker 1: quickly and kind of ephemeral, and people are like purpose
Speaker 1: and values, like oh that sounds offt and often it
Speaker 1: sounds like an HR exercise and you're like okay, you know,
Speaker 1: and for some people that's all it will ever be,
Speaker 1: but not for Jay Z. And the thing about Jay
Speaker 1: is Jay is the prototypical business leader of today and tomorrow.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a job. He has a portfolio career.
Speaker 1: I don't believe as I look at you two that
Speaker 1: in the next three years, three years from now, I
Speaker 1: don't think either one of you will have a job.
Speaker 1: I think you're five right. I think you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a portfolio career. And I think that portfolio career is
Speaker 1: going to express your purpose, your values, and your capability,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be how you, you know, live
Speaker 1: your brand in the world. Hello, this actually is exactly
Speaker 1: the architecture for brands as well. So click because that's
Speaker 1: the thing. And I want to ask before we go there,
Speaker 1: I want to ask one question. Everyone talks about brands
Speaker 1: finding their purpose now right. I actually am convinced that
Speaker 1: there are going to be brands that can't they can't
Speaker 1: find their purpose and then will effectively disappear. Well, if
Speaker 1: you don't find it, it's very obvious what happens is
Speaker 1: that top line growth doesn't happen. And you know, so
Speaker 1: you look at the financial engineering that's going on in
Speaker 1: the short termism that you guys talk about frequently on Atlantia,
Speaker 1: and you know that's what happens when you don't know
Speaker 1: who you are. Are you working with big public brands? Yes,
Speaker 1: and are there receiving this message from Blackbird and they're
Speaker 1: embracing it. We're not calling them, they're calling us. And
Speaker 1: I don't mean to say that in any kind of
Speaker 1: egotistical way. I mean that there is a sense of urgency.
Speaker 1: And we are called by boards, we are called by
Speaker 1: c e O s, and we're called by cmos and
Speaker 1: when that phone rings, it's you know, it may not
Speaker 1: start out um with a question about purpose and identity.
Speaker 1: It may not start out with the I heard you
Speaker 1: do belief systems and belief system playbooks that will transform
Speaker 1: my business. But doesn't happen like that. It usually starts
Speaker 1: with a like a problem with our product, there's something
Speaker 1: wrong with our marketing. We need to be direct to consumer, right,
Speaker 1: one of those kinds of things. Right, And you you
Speaker 1: get about seven minutes in and it's very clear what's
Speaker 1: going on. Are you working on executive kind of image
Speaker 1: stuff as well? I mean, does that become part of this.
Speaker 1: We just started what's called Blackbird Leaders and that's because, um,
Speaker 1: I just believe in betting on people like that's everything.
Speaker 1: And it became very clear to us that during the
Speaker 1: kind of work that we do with big companies and
Speaker 1: medium and small companies, but doing the work we do
Speaker 1: on brand strategy and belief systems, that's the same kind
Speaker 1: of work that tomorrow's leaders are beginning to do on
Speaker 1: themselves today. And that's a remarkable place to get invited into.
Speaker 1: When someone trusts you enough to say, hey, listen, I
Speaker 1: want to make a bet on myself and I think
Speaker 1: you can help me be better. I think you can
Speaker 1: help me realize what I'm meant to do. You brought
Speaker 1: up jay Z before. May I be so bold. I
Speaker 1: think we're kind of copying jay Z here, except as
Speaker 1: jay Z is signing athletes to Rock Nation, we are
Speaker 1: signing business athletes, superstars of tomorrow. We're signing them now.
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to be already gold in my next life,
Speaker 1: so we should talk about this. So we're developing. We've
Speaker 1: already signed our first two. We are developing their talent,
Speaker 1: we are supporting them, we are positioning them. Hello, that
Speaker 1: was an exclusive right, it was blackbird Leaders. I think
Speaker 1: it's interesting when you start talking about where people are
Speaker 1: betting on or recruiting from in the world of athletes
Speaker 1: in sport. Right, it's very easy to wrap your head
Speaker 1: around that in terms of placing bets to pull in
Speaker 1: your quarterback, Right, you know what you need? Why is
Speaker 1: business in the world we're playing in any different Just
Speaker 1: like you're talking about with brands, there are leaders and
Speaker 1: people who are out there in the sunshine, but aren't
Speaker 1: really doing those things, doing the work, doing the work. Yea.
Speaker 1: So those people have already approached us and we say no,
Speaker 1: And how so how do you vet do you know
Speaker 1: who they are? These are the people who are the
Speaker 1: CMO of themselves? How do you do blackbird leaders in
Speaker 1: a meaningful way so that you are truly making it
Speaker 1: about someone who has the talent right to get on
Speaker 1: the court and lead a freaking team and actually grow
Speaker 1: the next generation. Well it's interesting, alexas so as you
Speaker 1: As you were speaking and the audience can't see this,
Speaker 1: but I'll paint the picture. You were making a triangle
Speaker 1: with the tips of your fingers together. You were going
Speaker 1: like this with your hands, and um, that is what
Speaker 1: I would say. I used to be that. I used
Speaker 1: to be someone who felt that there's only room for
Speaker 1: one at the top and that I was gonna have
Speaker 1: to beat a lot of people to get to a
Speaker 1: position of authority and to feel like I've achieved anything.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I sort have learned to open
Speaker 1: it up the other way, right, to say like, actually,
Speaker 1: I'm more successful the more open I am. Actually, the
Speaker 1: more people I can support and empower, the more powerful
Speaker 1: I will feel and I will the more rewarded I
Speaker 1: will be. And I think that's what Blackbird Leaders is
Speaker 1: all about. It's about turning the triangle upside down or
Speaker 1: inverting it, opening up and understanding that your job, when
Speaker 1: you become successful is to create opportunities for other people
Speaker 1: to grow, not to try to beat anybody. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not compete. I'm competing with myself every day myself if
Speaker 1: I could give a sports analogy. Right, So it's interesting stuff.
Speaker 1: Curry and the Warriors, right, And nobody thought, or at
Speaker 1: least I didn't, that Kevin Durant would go to play
Speaker 1: with the Warriors, right, because he's an appointed leader. He's
Speaker 1: kind of the tip of the spear. But when you
Speaker 1: to your point, you start stop thinking about yourself and
Speaker 1: you start thinking about the purpose. And the vision is
Speaker 1: to win an NBA championship. Now you're comfortable playing number
Speaker 1: two or side by side? You know, given the choice,
Speaker 1: do you want to do you want to win the
Speaker 1: m v P or do you want to win the championship? Right,
Speaker 1: it's like that's right. Blackbird Leaders bets on people who
Speaker 1: are going to win champions that's the name of the show.
Speaker 1: What type of the clients are you working with? So
Speaker 1: it began with media, like the first month, phone calls
Speaker 1: from media companies going like we really could publishers, no,
Speaker 1: most networks, UM and social media companies as well. But thankfully,
Speaker 1: because I've spent a really long time and that part
Speaker 1: of business, we've diversified quite a bit. So we're working
Speaker 1: with a huge PR firm, We're working with an architecture firm,
Speaker 1: we're working in higher education, and we're working with an
Speaker 1: energy company, and those are all, you know, so different
Speaker 1: from one another that, as we were talking about earlier today,
Speaker 1: after I leave here, I'm work with five different clients
Speaker 1: the rest of today. And if that doesn't keep you
Speaker 1: fresh on your toes and excited, I don't know what does.
Speaker 1: Every half hour is going to be different for the
Speaker 1: rest of the day. So people they're calling you because
Speaker 1: it's it's a different, differentiated offering in the market. Right.
Speaker 1: You're talking about brand strategy, which is something that has
Speaker 1: traditionally sat within creative agencies. I think if Boston Consulting
Speaker 1: Group and IDEO had a baby, they would look a
Speaker 1: little bit like Blackbird. Interesting. There's nobody really doing it
Speaker 1: the way we do it. What I would say is
Speaker 1: most of our clients need support finding the best way
Speaker 1: to express their power and their potential internally and externally.
Speaker 1: They're having some things in the way um and they
Speaker 1: need to clear it out, or they've reached an inflection
Speaker 1: point and step change is right there. They see it.
Speaker 1: They need help getting there. But this is really about
Speaker 1: business impact, and what we do is not foofy. It's
Speaker 1: like real change, and we're putting real points on the board.
Speaker 1: We're also allowing brands to go back to the way
Speaker 1: earlier point. Right, You're letting brands completely diversify what they
Speaker 1: do and probably how they do it. That's right. I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of been my career, especially at Viacom.
Speaker 1: So this is new products. This is thinking about i
Speaker 1: P in a different way. This is thinking about right
Speaker 1: all of those things. If you know who you are,
Speaker 1: you know very quickly what you could become. So do
Speaker 1: you see yourself getting into the execution game or just
Speaker 1: super high level right now kind of building out operational.
Speaker 1: We're in the execution game a little bit. I did
Speaker 1: make a pledge to myself when we launched Blackbird to
Speaker 1: not make anything. I've already broken that a couple of times.
Speaker 1: We've made some stuff for people. But um one of
Speaker 1: our investors is an awesome production company in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: one of the best creative shops I've ever worked with
Speaker 1: there called Stunt Creative, and Stunt makes a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff for our clients, So it's great to have access
Speaker 1: to them. UM, And when we decided to take on investment.
Speaker 1: When you're a s this is business like Blackbird. You
Speaker 1: don't normally take on any kind of investment you don't
Speaker 1: really need to. We wanted to because the two strategic
Speaker 1: investors in our company offer us a way to sort
Speaker 1: of differentiate our offering and just really make us unique,
Speaker 1: right the other So can you talk about that because
Speaker 1: it's something that people have asked us about on the show,
Speaker 1: but our listeners have asked us about the VC world
Speaker 1: in particular and as a services business. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about how did you pitch yourself in that regard? And
Speaker 1: then some people that we've met talk about the advisors
Speaker 1: you bring on should not just be um people that
Speaker 1: didn't give your money and go away. They should have
Speaker 1: pictually be help you grow and build your your business. Right,
Speaker 1: So I can answer it personally, I'm not a good
Speaker 1: example because, to be honest, we didn't go out and
Speaker 1: pitch Blackbird UM. Two companies came to us and said,
Speaker 1: you're a fucking moron for not starting this. What are
Speaker 1: you waiting for? And sometimes I think it takes that
Speaker 1: kind of pressure from people who know what you can do,
Speaker 1: because something inside me was just not starting and you know, uh,
Speaker 1: they de risked the launch of Blackbird for me. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to investing, you know, I'm astounded by
Speaker 1: the variety in the quality of pitches that we get
Speaker 1: for the VC fund for Launch Partners. I mean, we
Speaker 1: have seen the most complex, compelling UM presentations that you know,
Speaker 1: I just don't have any heart. Yeah on paper, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the bankers would go, fuck yeah, let's put
Speaker 1: our money on that. UM, my group of LPs would not.
Speaker 1: And yet the opposite is also true, right, So we
Speaker 1: see we see some entrepreneurs that have come at us
Speaker 1: that are all hard right and UM, they clearly don't
Speaker 1: have the operational chops to grow the business the way
Speaker 1: it really deserves. So, you know, and r LP group
Speaker 1: is very u nique. It's UM. Everyone who's in this
Speaker 1: group with me is a CMO or a CEO, So
Speaker 1: they are all leaders, most of them big name people
Speaker 1: who are killing it in their companies UM, and are
Speaker 1: investing as a group with Lunch Partners so that they
Speaker 1: can take advantage of pattern recognition through deal flow, that
Speaker 1: they can have a mechanism for doing diligence in the
Speaker 1: companies that they're going to invest in, and that they
Speaker 1: can activate both their network and their skill sets as
Speaker 1: you're sort of alluding to Laura to put what they're
Speaker 1: great at to work for the companies that we invest in. Right.
Speaker 1: That's the thing about venture investing. If it's just your money,
Speaker 1: dumb money you can find anywhere, dumb moneys everywhere, but
Speaker 1: smart money that wants to work hard behind the cash,
Speaker 1: behind the capital to make your brand and business successful.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of investor that the entrepreneurs who seek
Speaker 1: us out want. So when entrepreneurs and other vcs come
Speaker 1: to us and invite us into a round, usually it's
Speaker 1: seed or early A. The hope is that we will
Speaker 1: not just feel that through diligence, this is a smart bet,
Speaker 1: but that it's a heart bet. To write that your
Speaker 1: heart is in it, and that the LPs in our
Speaker 1: group believe in this entrepreneur and his or her team,
Speaker 1: believe in the brand and the vision and the business
Speaker 1: and want to go do things to make it successful.
Speaker 1: That's why our fund exists. And I think also one
Speaker 1: thing I'm really proud of about the Fund and Blackbird
Speaker 1: is that these are the two of the most diverse
Speaker 1: groups you will ever see. I mean, it is a
Speaker 1: group of that was the most important thing about really
Speaker 1: reaching out to a group of limited partners for lunch
Speaker 1: partners was to say, like, we want a diversity of thought,
Speaker 1: we want a diversity of gender, race, ethnicity, background, age,
Speaker 1: and we got it. And that's the most exciting thing.
Speaker 1: So when a pitch comes to us, we can channel
Speaker 1: check across us five six different dimensions within twenty four
Speaker 1: hours and make a decision. Yeah, okay, what would you kill,
Speaker 1: rath Martin, What would you kill? What would you buy?
Speaker 1: What would you do yourself? Right now? I would totally
Speaker 1: kill a cheeseburger. What's your favorite cheeseburger? And where's it from?
Speaker 1: This is gonna some weird It's in l A. Why
Speaker 1: is that weird? No, it's a place called Father's Office.
Speaker 1: You've been there. We've been there a million times. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The great thing about is you can't alter it, like
Speaker 1: it's just you can't be like, no, I don't want
Speaker 1: any pickles, Monica. Yeah, so it is what it is,
Speaker 1: and that you don't get a choice. Thing about that
Speaker 1: I really like. We've packed in there. Man's really hard
Speaker 1: to I know, you gotta go at the off hour. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I love it. What would you buy? Not a burger?
Speaker 1: You know? I would I would buy more Amazon stuck? Well,
Speaker 1: is that such a bummer to say? No? I mean
Speaker 1: everyone's saying, Okay, I'm gonna change it up. I would
Speaker 1: buy Atlantia. I would buy Atlantia so fine. I would
Speaker 1: buy more real estate in Maine, because have real estate Maine,
Speaker 1: I do. I bought a house there last year, and um,
Speaker 1: I'm fixing it up. My wife is fixing it up.
Speaker 1: And uh. But I think, like with global warming, like
Speaker 1: that's going to be Miami. So I'm banking on Maine.
Speaker 1: Is like the new Miami? Are you building bunkers? I
Speaker 1: feel like yeah, I feel we're getting like we're getting
Speaker 1: ready for that, stashing it with the world's greatest collection
Speaker 1: of poetry and chburgers and leaders. Um, all right, So
Speaker 1: what would you do yourself that you're not already doing?
Speaker 1: I mean I really would d I y the next
Speaker 1: generation of great business leaders. That's what I want to build.
Speaker 1: That's what you're doing, and that's what that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna put Forbes out of business under thirty. Like, is
Speaker 1: there going to be like a Blackbird ten? It's a
Speaker 1: good question. No. I think I'll let them keep giving
Speaker 1: out the awards and the recognition, but I'll get people,
Speaker 1: you know, to the place where they're recognized for their
Speaker 1: eavements on their potential and where Forbes is calling them.
Speaker 1: Imagine if you did an episode like at the end
Speaker 1: of the year and it's like the ten people you
Speaker 1: don't know you've never heard of? Yeah, well that was
Speaker 1: actually what I mean. The Atlanta has people that are notable, yes,
Speaker 1: but then you have people who maybe you haven't heard of,
Speaker 1: and most likely you haven't heard of before you go.
Speaker 1: What would be your advice to the next gen of
Speaker 1: who you hope to become blackbird leaders who are out
Speaker 1: there today? I'll give you my um, mom's and my dad's. Okay,
Speaker 1: So my mom woke me up every morning and said
Speaker 1: the same three words, today's the day every morning. Now
Speaker 1: to some people that might seem annoying, annoying or burdensome.
Speaker 1: To me, it just sort of got me out of
Speaker 1: bed and I felt like I could do anything. And
Speaker 1: when your mom gives you that, you know you can.
Speaker 1: So I want to give that to other people. And
Speaker 1: the other is the last two words that my dad
Speaker 1: said to me before he died. Be there m hm.
Speaker 1: And he meant it in every way possible, be there
Speaker 1: for other people, um be there for opportunities, and have
Speaker 1: the confidence to bet on yourself when it matters. And
Speaker 1: so those are my two things, and those two are
Speaker 1: the most important in informing my own system of belief,
Speaker 1: the idea that today's the day and you have to
Speaker 1: be there. Knowing you for the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: I would say that those things are very true. You
Speaker 1: you live that out. Thank you live that out, Ross Martin.
Speaker 1: Where can people find you at Ross Martin one or
Speaker 1: why do you just email me Ross dot Martin at
Speaker 1: blackbird Global dot com, Ross Martin. We will be hearing
Speaker 1: a lot more from you. Thank you so much, Thank you,
Speaker 1: rus Thank you guys. You know I love about rath Martin. You.
Speaker 1: I love that he said he basically was a shoe salesman,
Speaker 1: name is sixteen years old and then never ever had
Speaker 1: a job that anyone else ever had after that. And
Speaker 1: I love that. I think I'm an aspire to do
Speaker 1: that salesman. No, alright, no, I think I've passed more
Speaker 1: on the consumer side. I do love the idea that
Speaker 1: he talked about future leaders being overseers of portfolios. I
Speaker 1: think that's interesting and I think it's something that you know,
Speaker 1: so many people come up through UM high school and
Speaker 1: college and they go on to post collegiate you know,
Speaker 1: degrees and think about these linear trap paths that that
Speaker 1: that they need to go down and just start broadening
Speaker 1: and thinking through the vein of being an entrepreneur and
Speaker 1: ownership of your own portfolio is very interesting. That means
Speaker 1: my board of directors is only going to get bigger.
Speaker 1: That's right. I agree, And I also think that at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, he said, you don't go,
Speaker 1: you know, basically work for a job to go work
Speaker 1: for a leader like you follow the leader, and I
Speaker 1: think that's right. So with that, big thanks to Ross Martin,
Speaker 1: Cameron Drew's our producer. Thank you for getting me my
Speaker 1: tea this week and telling me I don't found an
Speaker 1: easily love you camp, our friends and family appanaply thank
Speaker 1: you to any Bowers and Matt Turk. If we don't
Speaker 1: see you in Palm Desert, we will be back in
Speaker 1: two weeks. Also, stay tuned because at Landy events are
Speaker 1: coming your way. Full disclosure, our opinions are our own.