Tweener Finds His Passion Nick Packard

Steve Doyle (: 00:00

Welcome back to the show, Brad Herda. How are you doing, my friend?

Brad Herda (: 00:04

I am fantastic, Mr. Stephen Doyle. How is that construction job site at your mom's house going today?

Steve Doyle (: 00:10

Well, it's the never ending job site, especially when it's family members. This thing has been under construction for 43 years now. Actually, wait, no, I am 46. So it's been under construction for 48 years. Why stop now? Let's just, let's just, you know, maybe we'll add a new addition on. Why not? Let's blow out some more walls. It's good.

Brad Herda (: 00:24

Perfect. Why start now? Why worry about finishing it now? I'm going to go ahead and close this one.

Steve Doyle (: 00:37

It's great, why not? And we just took delivery of a countertop today. So, you know, we'll see how it goes.

Brad Herda (: 00:43

I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures from one of our previous guests to see how that turned out. Hopefully everything arrived accordingly

Steve Doyle (: 00:47

Yes, yes, absolutely. Yep, absolutely. So Brad, who do we have on the show today?

Brad Herda (: 00:55

We have we have our first internet famous star with us today on the show. Yes, believe it or not, we have Mr. Nick Packard, according to his bio. Here's his bio. I've been called a lot of things in my life from the tall guy to the pass me a beer guy, the marketing dude, a business coach, a fractional CMO, a business architect. But most importantly, I'm a dad, a mission driven serial entrepreneur who believes in family first and at elevating.

Steve Doyle (: 01:00

What?

Nick Packard (: 01:06

What's up?

Steve Doyle (: 01:11

Yeah

Brad Herda (: 01:25

the people around him. When I'm not coaching kids sports and exploring the country, you'll always find me working with companies around the world to improve their profitability through coaching and marketing. Love what I do for a living and truly believe that I haven't worked a day in my life since starting his business 14 years ago. So I got to meet him through some networking events here locally. He is a Wisconsin guy and Mr. Packard, we welcome you to Blue Collar BS. Thank you for being here today.

Nick Packard (: 01:50

Thank you for having me, I appreciate you.

Brad Herda (: 01:52

It's all good.

Steve Doyle (: 01:53

So Nick, before I forget, and Brad reminds me, which generation do you best fit in with?

Nick Packard (: 02:01

We were just having this argument. I'm a border state, but I was born in 80s. So according to your rules, I'm a millennial. Ha ha ha.

Steve Doyle (: 02:04

I'm sorry.

Steve Doyle (: 02:11

That, you know, Brad sets these weird rules and starts chucking everybody into the millennial. Right? Absolutely. So.

Brad Herda (: 02:15

I don't, there's data, there's data out there. There's data.

Nick Packard (: 02:19

Who do I identify with? That's what I got to figure out.

Brad Herda (: 02:22

Right. It's 2024, so be careful.

Nick Packard (: 02:26

Right.

Brad Herda (: 02:30

But yes, it's a border state for sure. 1980s, that's that crossover. And we understand, we understand you don't like the one word that you belong to. Steve doesn't like his words either. So it's okay.

Steve Doyle (: 02:40

Oh, okay. Okay. So Nick, tell us a little bit about the journey that you've been on. It was quite the introduction. So tell us how did you get to where you are now?

Nick Packard (: 02:55

Just chasing my passion and being confronted with really bad leaders, to be honest with you. Because I took a career path, and everywhere I went, I kept saying, slow down. Or everyone kept telling me, slow down. Don't do this. You're meant for this. And they're telling me what I was meant to do. And that's kind of what pushed me to really chase what I was passionate about. And so that's the short version of it, I guess.

Steve Doyle (: 03:00

Ha ha

Brad Herda (: 03:22

So you're passionate about passing a beer. That's what your passion was.

Nick Packard (: 03:25

I love Pass Me a Beer. Yeah, so the Pass Me a Beer thing, it started as a joke. We wanted to be internet famous 20-some years ago before there was anything. And so we made these stupid videos. And they took off on us to a point of that's kind of how people know me 20 years later, which is awesome. I feel cool that I did that. But no, but honestly, that led to a video career for us where we started making videos. And videos were never enough because

Steve Doyle (: 03:28

Hahaha

Brad Herda (: 03:30

It's...

Nick Packard (: 03:54

you know, oh, the videos were great, but we didn't see any sales boosts. We didn't see this. And so that was like, okay, there's more to marketing than just videos. And so that kind of jump started the understanding of like, there's a bigger picture involved than I want to be part of.

Brad Herda (: 04:08

cool. So as you've gone through your journey, as you have created that opportunity to learn because you're kind of in that sweet spot of that middle ground of both being able to understand old guys like myself and you understand younger people than you. Right. Sure. Whatever man. You can do whatever you want. It's okay. There's not one statistic that'll put 1967 into the

Steve Doyle (: 04:25

I hate those boomers.

Brad Herda (: 04:40

Not that I can find unless you make one up somewhere. But anyhow, as you've had to address those messages and learn those things, how can a organization, a blue collar business attract or target those particular buyers differently today? Because their buying habits have changed differently, for sure.

Steve Doyle (: 04:40

Hey

I mean, but anyhow.

Nick Packard (: 05:00

Yeah, you know, I think part of it's embracing technology. A lot of it's embracing just a different way of thinking, right, because I think the younger generations think so much differently than them and how they approach work and the balance of life, family life versus work life. I mean, there's so many things that you have to take account for, I think.

Brad Herda (: 05:24

Okay, you wanna elaborate on some of that differences that you've witnessed, differences you've experienced in order to get clients through their journey.

Nick Packard (: 05:26

Yeah. Yeah, you know, and again, so

Nick Packard (: 05:36

Yeah, so clients, it's really embracing technology. I think the older generations, to me, they're very stuck in their ways. They're very, you know, like, this is how we've done it for 50 years and we don't want to change, right? And I think there's some truth to that. And I think the principles in which they built their business on are absolutely, you know, they are important, but how to incorporate technology, how to incorporate new ideas, how to think outside the box, or, you know, just the realization of like,

The core of your business was built on this great premise, but 50 years later, it's changed, right? The world has changed and evolved, and younger generations are now your buyers, and so how are you gonna approach them differently? How are you gonna message them differently? And how are you gonna give them a platform to buy on that suits their needs versus your needs?

Steve Doyle (: 06:23

So can you give us a specific example? Don't name names though. Give us a specific example of somebody that has a very quote unquote experienced business that was resisting change. So can you kind of elaborate, yes, why were they resisting change and how did you help them overcome that change in the results they got?

Nick Packard (: 06:28

Okay.

Nick Packard (: 06:48

Yeah, so we'll just call it a manufacturing company. And I'll just say that we did it, right? So for them, it was really about their sales and marketing and developing and understanding of how to utilize different tools. The going door to door model versus the in-person stuff versus how to utilize LinkedIn. And I think they were very hesitant because they're like, I don't want to share.

Steve Doyle (: 06:52

Perfect.

Brad Herda (: 06:53

Great. That's what we're targeting. Awesome. Yay Nick!

Steve Doyle (: 06:57

Yep.

Nick Packard (: 07:18

my thoughts and feelings on LinkedIn. I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna position myself that way. I just wanna make phone calls and send emails and go to events, right? Because that's the old way of thinking of marketing that kind of business was like, hey, we just go to the trade shows, we go to these and that's how we do it. Well, nowadays it's all about thought leadership. It's about building an audience. It's about letting people know how you think and kind of where you stand and then do they align with you? And they can do all that now via social media. So we...

We had a big, I'll call it a project, where the goal was to build a system for them to post on LinkedIn, to be active on LinkedIn, still within their comfort zone, but understanding that like, they do this not only for themselves, but to help promote the companies they work for.

Steve Doyle (: 07:51

Mm-hmm. Perfect.

Steve Doyle (: 08:07

All right, cool. Now what were the results they achieved by making that shift?

Nick Packard (: 08:13

a lot more traffic, a lot more impression. So we tracked it based, our KPIs were engagements. So likes, comments, shares, we had impressions, we had website visits, time on the site, we had a lot of metrics we looked at. And I think the impressions on their ads were like 7,000% increases just by posting. So we did like a 30 day plan. So over 28 days, I mean, that's an insane number, right? I mean, just.

Steve Doyle (: 08:19

Yep.

Steve Doyle (: 08:37

Right.

Steve Doyle (: 08:41

That's huge. That is crazy. That's awesome.

Nick Packard (: 08:45

It's insane. But they never posted, right? They would never utilize their channel. So now all of a sudden, they're doing this. And of course, the numbers are going to be insane because they've never done it. But they're also seeing 78. Yeah, yeah. It's a lot. That's the marketing spin, right? Is that you just don't give all the facts, right?

Steve Doyle (: 08:51

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 08:55

Yep.

Brad Herda (: 08:56

7,000% above 2, right? To go from 2, 7,000% times 2 is, yeah, it's a huge percentage gain, but the numbers might not be massive.

Nick Packard (: 09:11

But no, and some people were doing a normal, you know, a thousand or so impressions, you know, but overall the growth was insane for them. And then they saw the value of how it translated into followers on their company on LinkedIn and then new website visitors, forms are filled out. So they saw the full scope. And the cool thing about it to me was, one of the people there was adamantly not gonna do this. They were just like, no way. Like, this is stupid, not doing it.

Steve Doyle (: 09:11

Mm-hmm.

Nick Packard (: 09:41

Well, they ended up giving in and doing like two posts a week whenever else was doing four or five, right? And by the end of it, he was the most impressive writer I've ever seen. And I was like, you were born to do this. Like, it was just, it was like, and he was like, I love it. And he was like, I write about what I want to write about. I'm like, that's the whole point, you know? Like we create a guide for you to like, you know, just get you started, get some ideas flowing, but you're going to find your own voice. And he did. And it's like, it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

Steve Doyle (: 09:46

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 09:53

Mm-hmm.

Steve Doyle (: 10:01

Right.

Steve Doyle (: 10:11

That's awesome. That's just...

Brad Herda (: 10:15

Is there an inverse of that?

Nick Packard (: 10:18

Yeah, there was the other ones.

Brad Herda (: 10:21

Is there an inverse of that same scenario where you've taken a company, a mature company, to get into a younger audience? Have you taken a young audience to go to a mature audience? And what's the difference that you've had to go there?

Nick Packard (: 10:37

Um, that is a great question. I'm trying to think of an example there.

Brad Herda (: 10:40

That's what we do here. Hard hitting blue collar BS. We are a...

Steve Doyle (: 10:42

That is what we do here.

Nick Packard (: 10:44

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 10:46

Hahaha

Nick Packard (: 10:48

So...

Brad Herda (: 10:51

a startup plumber, a startup, I mean, cause you like working with startup organizations and providing them opportunity to be successful. And some of those folks, I gotta imagine, have had targeted an older audience in some way, shape or form for some of them for disposable income and things like that. So how have you made that transition for them to reach old guys like myself?

Nick Packard (: 10:51

I've taken the old... Yeah.

Nick Packard (: 11:14

Yeah, so I think a great example is a company that we did events for. And how are they going to engage? Because a lot of their buyers are an older audience. Actually, it's a show every two years. It's a huge show. And how are we going to engage not only them, but just create a footprint in this place where we're one of 10,000. It's one of the largest trade shows in the whole world. And so also close to the manufacturing realm, of course.

got that one. But the idea behind it was like, how are we gonna engage with them and have something that's gonna be like, they're gonna wanna come to our booth, they're gonna wanna do some things, because it's all about collecting that data, meeting with them, talking with those buyers at a different generation. So what we actually did was we created a boxing game where the older guys and the younger guys were together, because that's how these mining companies worked. And so what we were able to do was...

Brad Herda (: 12:10

Really? Mining? Huh.

Nick Packard (: 12:10

invent this space where it was like a competition where we brought out again the blue collar of the old guy saying I'm still stronger than you versus the you know so it was just it's created this dynamic that was kind of cool that gathered crowds around us which allowed us then to engage the people as they were waiting in line to punch the boxing game.

Brad Herda (: 12:29

Cool. Very cool. Talk to me about this hat project you got going on.

Steve Doyle (: 12:31

That's awesome.

Nick Packard (: 12:37

Hats for the house. So.

Brad Herda (: 12:40

So explain to our audience and to Steve because it's a pretty cool thing that you're doing and I wish they weren't all flat-brimmed though, that's all.

Nick Packard (: 12:45

I think. They're not going to be. I actually changed it last minute for you and I. So I'll give you the.

Brad Herda (: 12:52

Yay!

Steve Doyle (: 12:52

Ooh! Alright!

Nick Packard (: 12:55

So the idea started with like, I like to put my money where my mouth is. And I always tell clients, you got to find a way to, to marry your passions and then, you know, what you do that you've got success now. And then like, you know, your company and you marketing yourself. And so like, I kind of was like, okay, this year goal for me was like, I want to give away $50,000 to charities that I'm passionate about, and I'm also going to prove to my clients that radio can work that.

you know, doing all these different things can work. And so the idea is every month I'm going to design a hat, just a random hat. And because I'm a hat guy, I wear one every day. A guy at the radio station, a buddy of mine, Josh, he is also a hat guy. And I said, hey, let's design this and we're going to just do 30 of them every month and then we're going to sell them. And then proceeds are all going to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Wisconsin. And that way it allows me then to have a package when they buy their hat.

I'm going to send them a really nice package. I'll actually spill the beans on what it is, because it's really funny. So it's a plastic hand, and it's holding a card that says, need a hand with your marketing. And it's got just my information on what I do. And then also in the box is a thank you card from the Ronald McDonald House Charities. And then it's got, of course, then their hat in there. So it's a nice little care package that's very branded, so they understand, wow, this guy really understands how to tie marketing in with a cause.

and kind of like get his name out there without being like overly douchey, I guess.

Steve Doyle (: 14:25

Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 14:26

No, that's awesome. When I saw the first hat, I like different colors. I like bright things. And I saw the first, I'm like the pink hat. I'm like, oh, that's really cool. Oh, it's a flat brim. Dammit.

Steve Doyle (: 14:28

Right.

Nick Packard (: 14:35

Flat. I'm not a flat-brim guy myself. And so that's why, but this guy that I'm working with, Josh, he it's a very like, he taught me about how they're, you know, this, they match their shirts to these flat-brim hats. And again, so it's a younger generation than me. So I don't quite get it. Yeah, right. So after the first, yeah, I don't, yeah. So he basically, yeah.

Brad Herda (: 14:51

me too. Flatbreads on my... it just looks it just looks stupid on my head.

Steve Doyle (: 14:53

Hehe

Steve Doyle (: 14:59

I'm not a fan, but...

Brad Herda (: 15:01

You gotta have the right, you gotta have the right face for it. I don't have the right face for flat.

Nick Packard (: 15:05

I have a fat face, so it's not going to work for me either. But what I did was I actually flipped it up a little bit. So the hats, I'm still doing flat brims for all of them, but I'm also having a curved hat version for a couple of them. So I actually invested a little bit more money into the campaign so people have an opportunity to do that. And I'm also getting some shirts designed for a couple of the hats as a free add-on. Because again, my goal is just to create a really cool experience and have a way to give back to communities that mean a lot to me.

Brad Herda (: 15:37

very cool. I'm super excited for what you're doing with that. I'm very excited about that. I will probably acquire one or two of them if they're not... because I'm like, oh, this is really cool and it's different and it's unique and there's only 30 of them. So you go to an event and you go, where'd you get that? Well, here's what it is. And I supported this and it came from this guy and all the other things. It's a great story to be able to support...

Steve Doyle (: 15:38

That's awesome.

Nick Packard (: 15:40

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, yeah.

Nick Packard (: 15:58

Yeah.

Nick Packard (: 16:03

Awesome. Yeah, I've got a great, I've got a flag one coming. I won't tell you what it is, but it's a curved brim, a normal hat as I call them. You'll love the design. I've got two or three really cool ones that you're gonna love.

Steve Doyle (: 16:03

That's awesome.

Brad Herda (: 16:11

Can we, can we, can we presale that?

Nick Packard (: 16:15

Well, then don't be gone. I'll pre-s- maybe. We'll think about it. Depends when this gets released, I guess.

Steve Doyle (: 16:27

That's awesome. So what advice would you have for anybody that's kind of hesitant in doing anything different from the standard marketing techniques that they've always done? Specifically, let's talk specifics to the blue collar space.

Nick Packard (: 16:48

In general, it's just about you should know what's right. And everyone knows what's right, right? But they're always following the lead of the person in front of them, their boss or their manager, whoever that may be. And if you're in an environment where you can't be yourself, you're not going to grow. And so to me, it's all about the environment that you're in. If you're not able to learn, if you're not able to grow and do all those things, you're probably in a bad spot. And I know I was. And I just speak from experience on that.

But to me, that's what life's all about, just learning, right? Whether it's relationships or whether it's family, getting a dog, doing this, it's all about learning from the good and the bad and doing more of the things that you wanna do. And so, yeah, that's all I can say about, just get in the right spot.

Brad Herda (: 17:36

Right. I was just, I was just on a podcast with a friend of mine. She does homeschools, her business called Skillabration. They do homeschooling and online language teaching. And she asked me the question of what, what kids can really focus on to be part of the trades and like, well, they need to focus on math and not so much the number crunching, but the spatial awareness. And I also told her that they need to also work on their auditory skills, just paying attention and listening to things.

because shit goes bad and it makes a noise. It's gonna make a noise before it goes bad and it can tell you and it can save you and it can keep you out of danger and out of harms away. And she looked at me like, really? I'm like, yeah, really? Cause everybody's heads are straight down and nobody's paying attention to anything around them. And it's like, okay. So yeah, just being.

Nick Packard (: 18:09

Yeah.

Nick Packard (: 18:20

I think that comes into like, oh, sorry. I think it comes into like the passion part. Like I do a lot of coaching for startups and small businesses. And it's just like, why are you doing this? Why are you taking on this company or this idea of like, you're owning your own business? And I'm like, if you're chasing money, you're doing it wrong. If you're chasing a passion, it's the right call 100% of the time. Because if you're passionate about it, you're going to listen.

You're gonna wanna grow, you're gonna wanna do this, and money comes then, right? I mean, that's the part, and same thing with a career. If you're passionate about making things and building things, like, chase that. Like, don't chase like, oh, I can make 80 bucks an hour doing this. It's like, that's not what it's about, and that's gonna make your life based on the wrong thing. And so that's, you know, I just, it's all about passion for me.

Brad Herda (: 19:08

Well, and that $80 an hour, if they're doing it for that reason, they're not going to last very long in that role because the, because the owner's got a different level of expectation of what that number should bring with quality, with performance, with skill, it's wisdom, et cetera. And if you're, if you're just punching in, punching out, it's not going to work out well for both sides.

Nick Packard (: 19:13

Right?

Nick Packard (: 19:25

Yeah, totally.

Nick Packard (: 19:31

Yeah, no, I totally agree. Totally agree. That's one thing I hope to teach my kids when they get old enough. I've got four girls that are between four and nine right now. And how I'm going to have those conversations are, yeah, I know. And you should see my wife. It's not going to end well for me when they're older.

Steve Doyle (: 19:41

Ho ho ho.

Steve Doyle (: 19:46

Hahaha!

Brad Herda (: 19:49

Please tell me the dog's a male dog. Is it a male dog? You have a male dog?

Nick Packard (: 19:54

We just got a puppy about a week ago and no of course the only one available was a female. So yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 20:02

Yeah.

Nick Packard (: 20:03

I wanted to be surrounded by beautiful women. That was my wish when I was younger, but they misinterpreted what I meant by that. So.

Brad Herda (: 20:04

Oh, awesome.

Steve Doyle (: 20:11

Ha ha

Nick Packard (: 20:13

So, you know, whatever. But no, my hope for my kids is that I can teach them and show them what it's like to follow their passion versus chasing a paycheck or chasing a job. And that's my hope as a dad. And my hope for the next generation is like, hey, be passionate. Chase that.

Steve Doyle (: 20:16

Uh-huh.

Brad Herda (: 20:37

So, interesting thought, right? Cause you got four girls all hit that gen alpha range of that beyond gen Z coming into the workforce at some point. How are you seeing education differ for their ability to go chase that passion to be structured or unstructured or wherever it might be? What are you seeing in the educational world that may be supporting a better outcome for the workforce going forward?

Nick Packard (: 21:07

Well, I'm fearful that they won't have the communication skills, the interpersonal communication skills that previous generations had. They're going to be relying heavily on technology, doing training online, doing things like that where there's no real person interaction. That's a gap that I'm worried about for the whole generation. So my hope is that they can figure out how to communicate, how to be good humans, how to understand.

different personality dynamics and how to work with people that think differently than them. I think that's the biggest opportunity that generation or challenge I guess that they're going to face.

Steve Doyle (: 21:46

Yeah, my daughters are a little older than yours. Not by much. So I have a 12 and a 15 year old. And technology, like as soon as they got cell phones and they didn't get cell phones until, heck, we just gave our 12 year old one. So the whole thing with the tech side and the communication side is huge because what would they rather do? They're not calling their friends. They're texting their friends.

And when their friends are sitting next to them, what are they doing? They're texting them. They're not putting the phones down and having a conversation. It's just drives me nuts. And it's like, what are you people doing? So communication? Yes. Totally.

Nick Packard (: 22:19

Yes.

Nick Packard (: 22:25

What?

Nick Packard (: 22:28

And how they think they make money, right? Because the generation now they're like, oh, these TikTokers are making money just talking on their phones, right? Versus using their hands and creating stuff. And it's just like, they're not developing the skills in any way, shape or form. And oh, I'll just be an idiot and film myself.

Steve Doyle (: 22:33

Ugh. Yes.

Steve Doyle (: 22:44

Right.

Brad Herda (: 22:45

As the pass me a beer guy.

Nick Packard (: 22:48

Damn it! That was 20 years ago. Ha ha ha.

Nick Packard (: 22:55

But it was a stepping stone. That's the important part. It was a stepping stone. Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 22:58

You are trendsetter.

Nick Packard (: 23:04

Touche, sir, touche.

Brad Herda (: 23:05

Yeah.

Steve Doyle (: 23:06

Wow, that was good right there. He's that teed him up. He was just waiting He was watching the softball come flying and just watching it spin and rotate. Oh, yeah

Nick Packard (: 23:10

Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 23:14

oh where's this gonna go? Oh yeah.

Nick Packard (: 23:17

Oh yeah, got his ass.

Brad Herda (: 23:21

So, so Nick, talk a little bit more about that startup world. Cause we, our audience, uh, tends to be the younger side and some folks that might be drawing a startup, their own entity, own things, talk about maybe what, uh, what hurdles and one or two things that anybody that's looking to start their own business that they should or must do to, um, lay some foundation. What are the two things you'd tell them to do?

Nick Packard (: 23:44

Yeah, so the first main thing is, why are you doing this? Like, again, that's a passion question, right? It's like, what made you want to do this? Was it a struggle early on, or was it just a thing that motivated you? What was that? And then the other thing is, how are you going to be unique? Most companies can't answer that question. They'll be like, oh, we have transparent communication. We do this really well. It's like, that doesn't make you unique. That makes you like everybody else. And so you know,

every company, whether they're big or small, needs to say, here are three to four reasons why I'm completely different and why I address a challenge that you have in your life. And so that's one of the first things I work with, whether I'm coaching or whether I'm doing marketing consulting is like, let's talk about your USP, unique selling proposition. And if you don't have one, let's build one, right? And building one's kind of fun because all you're basically doing is looking at your audience and saying, okay, what...

What motivates them to want to buy a product or a service like yours? What challenges do they have in their life or at their job? And then what things do they all have in common with each other? And then you can build something, right? Like build a new thing of technology. Build a new thing. Like the easiest example I can give everyone, and both of you should know this, if I said the word Midwest Express, what's the first word that pops into your mind?

Brad Herda (: 25:01

Lux, well, out of business and chocolate chip cookies would be the second thing.

Steve Doyle (: 25:05

Yeah, Midwest Express.

Nick Packard (: 25:07

Chocolate chip cookies, right? The stupidest thing in the world sets them apart from other airlines and the fact they gave a stupid warm chocolate chip cookie at the end of a flight. And that is a unique selling proposition in sorts because some people were like, I just love going there because I get a cookie. They could buy one cheaper, do a lot of things, but like it's as simple as that, but it has to relate and resonate with your ideal perfect customer. And so...

Those are like some of the building blocks of any successful business are just, you know, the passion part of it and then the ability to define yourself and how you're different.

Brad Herda (: 25:41

cool. And when people want to get your energy and your passion, part of that, how do people find you? Where do they get you? Where do they, how do they connect with you?

Nick Packard (: 25:51

You got a Google search, pass me a beer guy. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, my website's just my name, nickpacker.com. I also have a site that I actually give away a lot of my free tools. It's nickisatool.com. That actually takes you to a site where I literally share everything that I make for clients as far as templates, where you can go in and download it for free. Because again, I'm all about building up the community around me. And if I can inspire someone to build something better than me, we all get raised by it. And so, um.

Steve Doyle (: 25:55

Hahaha

Steve Doyle (: 26:06

I'm sorry.

Steve Doyle (: 26:20

Mm-hmm.

Nick Packard (: 26:21

Yeah, so either nickpackard.com or nickisatool.com. Those are great ways to get old.

Brad Herda (: 26:27

Wow, okay.

Steve Doyle (: 26:32

That's awesome.

Brad Herda (: 26:33

Thank you so much for sharing that. Nick is a tool.com. Perfect.

Nick Packard (: 26:37

You're lucky I didn't share the pickle farts story with you because that's a whole nother one.

Brad Herda (: 26:40

Oh, I, you know what? I'm actually, I actually want to hear, I saw that post. And so yeah, we've got a few minutes left. What is the pickle? Go with the pickle part.

Nick Packard (: 26:49

Oh, OK. All right, so when COVID hit, March 2020, all my clients called me within two days and said, Nick, we got to hit the pause button. So I, as a solopreneur, I lost all my clients in one day, had no income, had kids, had craziness, and I didn't know what to do. So I said, hey, I'm going to just figure it out. So I bought domains like twerkingduck.com, picklefarts.com, unicornburps, just randomly weird domains. And I put them on very large.

Steve Doyle (: 26:50

Go for it. Go for it.

Nick Packard (: 27:18

large yard signs. And I bought like 50 yard signs and I had friends and family put them up in their yards and then the website domains led to my website to say, Hey, I got you know, I intrigued you. Now you're at my site. This is what I do. I'm a crazy marketing guy. And so that led to getting new clients like almost immediately because they're like, Hey, you know, like, we need a guy like you to think outside the box. So

Then the next year I said, okay, how am I going to one up this? Because it was kind of a cool thing. So the most popular one of the signs was picklefarts.com. So I had a designed cartoon pickle farting and I put it on these golf balls. I bought hundreds of them and I'd go to golf outings with business owners, decision makers, and I would drop them throughout the whole course in the cup, on the tee box, whatever else with just the, the picklefarts.com guy.

And then I would film them picking up the brand new ball and then going to their cart and looking up what the hell PickleFarts.com was. And here it was me with all these crazy golf puns of like, you know, you want to take a mulligan on your marketing and blah, blah. And that led to afterwards in the clubhouse, you know, in the dinner portion of the events being like, hey, did you guys get one of those golf balls? And they're like, yeah, like that was kind of clever. And I was like, that was me. And they were like, oh my God. So that led to more work.

And then the third year I did this, I did radio ads where I only made jingles that just used the words picklefarts.com only. And I bought a bunch of radio time. And just to prove a point of, first of all, radio works. And second of all, you got to think outside the box. So literally, I had pickle fart jingles. And people would message me. And they'd be like, I knew what this was, but I still had to know. And.

Steve Doyle (: 28:48

Yeah

Steve Doyle (: 28:54

No!

Nick Packard (: 29:06

Screw you for making me come to your website.

Steve Doyle (: 29:08

I'm gonna go to bed.

This is awesome.

Brad Herda (: 29:12

So can we get a couple of those jingles so we can throw them in the link in the show notes just for fun, just so people can listen to this?

Nick Packard (: 29:17

Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. They're absolutely ridiculous. I paid $15 on Fiverr to get these done. And they are so funny. You're going to die. They're great.

Steve Doyle (: 29:18

Yeah.

Brad Herda (: 29:29

Yeah, I'd love to be able to put one of those, put a couple of those links into the show notes so we can have people laugh hysterically about what's going on here. That's hilarious. Nope, nope.

Steve Doyle (: 29:29

I'm in. I'm in. I wanna know. I wanna know.

Nick Packard (: 29:36

Deal.

And what an idiot I am, I know.

Steve Doyle (: 29:41

No, but it's awesome because it's so different. It's so catchy. But it's thinking outside the box of how we can do things that are not traditional, but yet drive traffic to the things that matter most. And it's awesome.

Nick Packard (: 29:55

Yeah, and the fun thing is with the generational differences is that the young people are like, that's really funny and cool. And the older generations are like, well, this is just stupid, but like, I gotta see what this idiot is doing. So either way you're capturing multiple people. It doesn't matter.

Steve Doyle (: 30:10

Right.

Brad Herda (: 30:11

So based on this conversation, there's no doubt in my mind you're a millennial, but that's a whole different... There's no doubt in my mind about that. I don't think you're crossing over into that. You can think you can, but that's okay. I'm going to say definitely over on the younger side of that side. Nick, thank you so much for being here today, sharing your stories, your wisdom, your passion, your energy, and your humor. I can't thank you enough for being here.

Steve Doyle (: 30:16

Yeah.

Nick Packard (: 30:24

That's fair.

Nick Packard (: 30:38

Thank you guys both, I really appreciate it.

Steve Doyle (: 30:40

Yes, thanks, Nick.