From College Football to Digital Marketing, with Chaz Cervino

Welcome to the Athletics of Business podcast. This is episode 37.

Welcome to the Athletics of Business, a podcast about how the traits and behaviors of elite athletes and remarkable business leaders frequently intersect. The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now, your host, Ed Molitor.

Welcome to another episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. I am your host and CEO of the Molitor Group, Ed Molitor. I'm going to tell you what you are going to. You're in for a treat. You are going to love today's guest. All right, we're talking high energy. We're talking unbelievable insight on leadership, on inspiration, on networking, on relationship building. Our special guest today is Chaz Servino. And not only is Chaz the president and cmo, he is also the co founder of Today's Business, the multifaceted digital marketing company.

Along.

How cool is this? With his college football teammate, Tom Attiano. As an athletically successful youth, Chaz developed many relationships and connections which he now successfully utilizes in the business development and operation of all clients for today's Business. Chaz's success as an all American athlete in high school set the stage for his college career. Chaz first attended Syracuse, where he was highly recruited for his football talent. Later he transferred to Hofstra University where he would graduate with a bachelor's in communication and rhetorical studies. Chaz has an unbelievable love and passion for networking and introducing individuals to one another to build relationships. And there is no irony in the fact that the way Chaz and I got connected with was through a great friend, Shawn Jacob. Chaz, thank you so much for joining us today. I am humble.

I am fired up and I'm excited and ready to get going. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. I'm doing great, Ed, you know, pleasure to be on the show. This is. This is awesome. And our relationship for the last couple years and talking on and off and the relationship on how we got a chance to know each other. I really appreciate you having me on. And it's a. It's an honor.

Well, absolutely. And you know, I want to jump right into. If there's ever been an episode where we are just bleeding and oozing the athletics of Business brand, this is going to be it. So let's start with your journey and lead up today's Business and where you're at today. But let's go way back to your days of how you grew up and being raised and how you came about the mindset you Have. I mean, you are incredibly successful and you and I have talked often about this is how much of a role the mindset plays in that. Can you take us through your journey?

Yeah, I think so. A little bit about me and my journey. I was a high school American out of New Jersey and graduated in 2007. Ended up taking a scholarship to Syracuse University, where I ended up playing wide receiver. Wasn't sure if I was going to play safety or corner or wide out. Ended up playing wide out there. Redshirted my first year under Greg Robinson. Then going into my reg your freshman year, got a chance to play in every game and recorded a few catches and made some big special teams plays. And then after that season, unfortunately, Greg Robinson had gotten fired and Doug Maroon had come in and you know how politics are and how, you know, coaching staff, when one comes in the other one or prior, how one gets fired and new coaching staff comes in.

They really want to have their own guys in there. They want their own recruits because they're being evaluated as quickly as possible on the wins and losses and how quickly they can turn a program around. So about 40 guys end up transferring. I was one of those 40 to end up transferring after spring ball because I really loved the school, love Syracuse, and it was a part of me and I really appreciated throughout the recruiting process on how they treated me and my family and made me feel at home in Syracuse and upstate New York. But, you know, things didn't end up working out. Ended up transferring to Hofstra University in Long island where I, you know, from one A to one double A, you don't have to sit out at all.

So I was able and able to play right away, which was really one of the reasons why I picked Hofstra. And never mind the lineage and the Wayne Crabette and the Marcus Gholston and everyone that's there. So those were huge role models for me. So it was a pretty easy fit. And also that I didn't have to sit out at all. And they were extremely interested in having me come on board and went there throughout the summer where that's where I met my business partner, Tom, where I was sleeping on his floor in the summer there. He loves telling those stories and those are great. Those are great times coming in, not knowing anybody. And he welcomed me with open arms and was like, I'm your guy. Anything you need, I'm here for you.

We had a few family, friends, and that's where our friendship and it became a business partnership. Later in Life, and. But that's where our friendship started. And then from. From that summer to the season, actually it was the third game of the year, I ended up catching a pass, running down the sidelines, actually got hit, broke my rib, punctured my lung. I was out the entire rest of the season. And after that season, they ended up canceling the entire football program at Hofstra University. And I really didn't. That was a time in my life where I was like, wow, what is going on? So we talk about some challenges and some things that you go through life as. As business. That was one that I was a little perplexed about and trying to figure out.

Me, because I would have, frankly, if I transferred again, I would have been in three schools in less than a year. And I lost a ton of credits from transferring from Syracuse to Hofstra, even though they had the same communications program. But. So that was another thing that. Another obstacle you have to get through. But I end up staying at Hofstra and graduating from there and not continuing my college football career, which.

How hard was that for you? I mean, how. I want to back up just a second. How devastating. I remember my freshman year, Creighton, were putting on NCAA probation, and we didn't find out till about four days before the first practice. And it was because we didn't meet, as a school, as an athletic department, we didn't meet the minimum participant requirements. So a couple of sports, you know, we're one of those D1 schools at men's basketball, men's baseball, women's track, not so much. Right. So for me, that was devastating. For you, someone whose life was built around football, I mean, you had this incredible high school career, okay.

Both on the offensive side, the defensive side, you're an All American, you play in the east versus west game, and all of a sudden, you go to Syracuse, you have a change of coaches there, and you say, okay, I'm going to go to Hofstra, right? I'm going to. I'm not going to sit down to go there, and I'm going to play. You have a. I don't want to say a bizarre injury, but you have an awful injury that's sort of a freak of nature.

I mean, yeah, there's nothing you do. You just sit there. You can't even breathe. It's not like you can do this. You can do the physical therapy. You can't even move because you can't breathe. Yeah, it's.

Right. And now. And now they drop the football program. They didn't go Division 2 or Division 3. They dropped it, correct?

They suspend. Yeah, suspended.

The entire. Suspended. I should say suspended. So how. I mean, how is that to you at this point? What are you, 20?

20?

21, maybe?

Yeah, I'm 20.

I mean, you know, people. People always think, like, the correlation between athletics and business is about the work ethic and the enthusiasm and a passion. A lot of it has to do with the reality of life and the change and the things that you can't control in your ability. So take it from. I mean, so now you finish up at Hofstra, then what?

Finish up at Hofstra. And within. So then I still need to take credits at the end of. Afterwards. So that summer, I ended up staying on campus and finishing out my degree. So I walked at the end of the spring semester and then stayed for the summer semester. And during that summer semester and prior to that, I was thinking about, what am I going to do? All I really knew was sports. And I know sports has prepared me for a lot of things in life and starting the business, but if you don't know how to start a business or what's the first thing to do or formulate or what's the skill set that you have outside of sports, and how could that translate into the real world? I think a lot of college athletes, and athletes in general, they've.

You know, I'm really good at sports. That's something I really like. And what I like to do, I'm passionate about it as well as I'm good at it. So, you know, you see it from that perspective. And then I ended up, as soon as that. That summer semester had ended up talking tom Otieno, my business partner and my roommate at the time. He ended up transferring to Monmouth University, where he became a. An All American, and then had a stint in the NFL, which was great. And I called him because he recently got cut by the New York Jets. So I called him. I was like, dude, so hard, you know, Dude, I can imagine. Like, he's like, it's. It was. I did everything I possibly could to make that team, and it just. It wasn't good enough. But his head was held high.

I talked him through it, wanted him to continue to stay positive, that it was an accomplishment to get to the NFL, to walk on the same field as some of the greats. And. And I told him that because I think he needed to hear it at the time. But he also was like, hey, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, I'm Figuring that out. Just finished graduating, and we're talking. And I was talking about some ideas that I had for businesses, because back in our. When I first transferred there, when we played Bryant up in Rhode island, my dad went up to him after the game. This is during our season, his junior year. And then my red shirt sophomore year. And my dad was like, you guys are gonna start a business together.

Because he knew Tommy's family and the relationship and all the connections that my dad had, as well as his father and his family. And so Tommy goes, well, you dad always said, you know, we're gonna start a business together. And he didn't know if it was insurance or this type of business or that. And I was like, well, let's. Let's do a networking event. And Tom was all about it. He was like, let's do it. And right from his enthusiasm when I brought up the idea, to him being like, dude, we can crush this. And then to having our first event at Calabria, his family's restaurant in Livingston, and having over 150 people there, 150 bucks ahead.

And having an unbelievable turnout from our friends that were 22, 23 coming out of school, to our 40, 50 year olds that are doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and a great mix. I mean, we had. Seven of our friends were offered jobs that day. We actually had Chris Hogan there, one of our current clients. He was on the practice squad for The San Francisco 49ers at the time and just got cut. And he was in the midst of a transition, ended up getting a job and getting offered a job. And we all know how that turned out in terms of his playing career with three Super Bowls, two Super bowl wins.

Did turn out bad. Yeah, it wasn't.

No, no. So that worked out really well. But we had a great first event. And then after that first event was something that was unique. So we had. We had that first event where we had all these different business professionals come in. We were networking.

What year was that, Chaz? I'm sorry. I should ask you that. Sorry.

That was 2011.

Okay, 2011.

All right. That was October 2011. And then from that first event, and a little bit, I go back, I regressed slightly because I want to bring in my other business partner, Billy Ash, who's our chief digital officer. He. After they cancel the football program at Hofstra, they end up writing an article about me in the. In the local newspaper at the Record. And then I was on SNY talking about the experience, how I transferred. And you know what? It.

What?

What? Losing the entire program and what it meant to me as a person as well as my teammates and families and friends and people, you know, alumni that went to Hofstra. So Billy was in Florida at the time at St Leo University. He had recently just graduated. And he read the article, he's like, hey, what's going on? And I saw that you recently just started today's business, explained that to me, you know, you guys are doing networking and setting up different networking events for business professionals. And I went in through everything. He's like, how are you getting people there?

I was like, well, I'm reaching out to a lot of friends and people that I've met throughout the years, whether it's through athletics, AU basketball, friends I played with in the east and East, West, All American game, all these different guys throughout the country. It's like, okay, well are you using email marketing? I was like, well, not yet. We're still calling people. He's like, all right, we got to start with the email marketing. Let's start there. And then he's like, you guys have a website? Do you guys do social media? How are you guys promoting this event? I was like, bill, truthfully I'm making up, I got a list of about 300 people, 250, 300 people. I'm physically calling them, telling them about the event, talking about what we're.

What I would, I think why, I think it's beneficial for them to come and participate and have a voice and be heard. And he's like, dude, you guys, we got to get some, we got to get this digital marketing squared away. So Bill came up on a one way flight from Florida and was like, hey, I'm going to handle the website, I'm going to handle the email marketing, I'm going to handle the social media and a bunch of other stuff and really put us in a position that at the event we then had people coming up to us and say, hey, how'd you get everyone at this event? And we started talking about the digital marketing efforts that we did, as well as, you know, me calling individuals and telling them about the event.

But they were like, wow, we really love what you guys did it for your wet on your website, how you did on social media with the messaging and everything that you put on your email marketing. We really liked everything you did. Are you guys doing that for other businesses? And at first were saying, no, you know what, we're really focused on setting up our second event and really focusing on that. And we got four people, five People, six people. My dad's like, you guys are in my basement. You guys gotta start making some money. And people are asking you to do this work. Why are you guys turning them down? And we're like, okay, you know what? So we pondered it a little bit more.

And then about two weeks later, Tom gets called by the Minnesota Vikings and is asked to come out to Minnesota for a tryout. And me and Billy are still in my parents basement. And my dad asked, he's like, hey, I got this because he had a small wine business at the time. And he's like, this company wants to just handle my social media for the wine business. So me and Billy go to the meeting and we walk in there and this, you know, older gentleman, he's saying, well, I got New York Times writers writing the tweets and positioning your company in the right light and how we could really generate and get sales for you and generate people to brick and mortar stores that your wines are located and so on and so forth.

And we're like, wait, New York Times writers, were you paying these people? Like, what's going on? Like, how is this really working? What's the fee structure? How is this. How are you really going to see results? How are, you know, how. What's. What's the, what's the quantifiable metric that you're actually going to. That my dad is going to pay you X dollars and then what is he going to see from this? So we asked a couple of those questions. They didn't have great answers back. Me and Bill walked out of the meeting. We're like, we got to do this for businesses. My dad's like, I've been telling you this. I've been told you have to do this for businesses. Like, what are you talking about?

So it was pretty funny, but it was real at the same time because we're like, wow, we could have a business, you know, working on digital marketing for small businesses. We called Tom and Tom was like, wait, what are you talking about? I just left. I'm in Minnesota. What do you want to change the whole business model we're planning for our second event? I just left two days ago. What do you guys. We're like, well, went on this meeting with my dad and saw that there's an opening in the industry. We saw that there's an opportunity for us to really reach out to small businesses and provide them with a great solution that we think could be cost effective. And he's like, wow, okay, let's talk about it.

And then once he came back from Minnesota, went through, changed the bit, you know, made some tweaks to our business plan which was on a whiteboard and changed the business model. So we started handling small businesses social media efforts.

So I mean that's unbelievable. And when did you finally move out of your parents basement?

In June 2012. So it was about, yes, October to June, about nine months that were in my parents basement. And then we're in a. From June 2012 to June 2013 were in, were above Calabria which is about 350, 400 square feet, maybe a little bit smaller.

Okay.

And it looked big. It was big for us at the time moving from my parents basement.

It was perfect.

It was perfect.

It was, it was perfect. So tell us now fast forward today and the unbelievable level of success you are having with today's business. And let's talk about today's athlete as well.

Absolutely. And so we're eight years in. We have approximately, almost 40 employees currently at today's business. We work in about 30 different industries all the way through, from e commerce businesses to hospital systems to supplement brands. So across the board we work with a plethora of different clients as well as different industries that we work with as well. And we have a full digital marketing service. So it's not just social media that we're doing it anymore. We're literally doing it from birth Tilgrave in terms of your logo, your design of your brand, through your hosting of your website, to updating your website to your SEO and how you're ranking on Google, to all of your paid advertisements via Google, via YouTube, via social media ads as well and through affiliate marketing as well as email marketing.

So we really full digital marketing agency that we can handle it. Just a 360 approach. And a lot of our business comes from the retainer business as well as that we've also moved into a position of power with the performance side. So we really control our own destiny and produce sales for clients. They come to us and say hey, I got an app and I need downloads, I have a product and I need to get sales. And we evaluate different situations based upon their brand awareness, based upon their profit margins and how we can work with them from a performance basis.

So that's really unique in how we've been able to transition from just retainer business over to performance and kind of cohesively do that because our slogan also changed from making business social to comprehensive performance marketing where we're really here to see results and make sure we're getting an ROI for our clients. A return on investment as also return on ad spend.

Yeah. And that's where you. That's not that. No, that's where you're seeing on the scale. Excuse me, where you're seeing the scaling in the business. And what I'm curious is what happens if you have someone, a potential client come to you and say, hey, listen, I've established my brand, or I'm working with these folks to establish my brand, and you look at and say, okay, we can do things with this, but if you would rebrand with us, we could do more. How do you handle that whole scenario, just out of curiosity?

Yeah, I think each. Each company is going to be different. Each situation is going to be different. So evaluating it and really going through a gap analysis, seeing where they are and where they want to be and the different obstacles and goals that we have to hit to get to their ultimate goal of whether it's getting more sales, getting more leads, cutting their cost per acquisition down. Hey, I'm paying. I'm paying $150 per acquisition. I want to low. If I could lower that to 100, that would be fantastic and a huge uplift to my business. So based upon their goals and what they're looking for, hey, you know what? I think we could stick with this particular, the brand that you've created, because I really like what you've done. And then there's also. You know what?

I think we really need to change the branding, the color scheme, the messaging, because it's not telling your audience really who you are and what you want to be and going through the mission, vision, values of the business and evaluating that, seeing if it's in alignment and providing and doing a gap analysis of where they are and where they want to be and really evaluating, seeing if it's worth it for them to rebrand or continue with the brand. And we tweak it slightly and position it and put it in a different position.

That is awesome because you just said about five things.

I know, I'm going a little quick. I got to slow down a little bit.

No, no, no. You're great.

You're great.

What I'm saying is you said about five things that I'm going to align with what you and I talk about with the athletics of business. You talked about creating a vision for your potential clients. Right. And you also talked about being able to not just communicate with them, why that vision would work. You talked about connecting with them. Okay. And about how that would work. And you talked about some of the things that may come up that may rear their ugly head. And here's how we're going to get through that, and here's how we're going to figure that out and grow through that. So this whole mindset, the way you think, the way you operate, the way you were able to, you know, all of a sudden listen to your dad's brilliant ideas. Okay.

Of doing that part of your business, how much did your experience, athletics, play into that? And what I mean by that. You know, where I'm going with this, but I want to explain it for the listener, is there's a certain set of traits and behaviors that make you successful in athletics. Okay. How is that. How has that played out into your business success?

I think it's played an enormous role. I mean, your mindset and how you look at things is everything what you think you become, what you feel you attract, and what you imagine you create. And I think the way I grew up, and I'm telling you, I was dribbling a basketball at the age of 2 years old, if you could believe it. I got videos of it, so you don't even need to visualize it. But, I mean, I've got, you know, dribbling two balls at 2 years old. And my mindset has always been that you are going to. You never thought about ever giving up or the challenges that may be. There was never an option that you weren't going to succeed or be successful. And that comes into fruition when you're actually.

You're in the fourth quarter of your football game, you're down 14, and with two minutes left yet, the mindset is, we are coming back. We are accomplishing this. We're coming back. We're scoring on this drive. We're stopping them. We're getting a turnover, and we're scoring again on the next drive. In the fourth quarter of a football game, that translates so well, because there's obstacles every single day that I wake up, that I come into the office that maybe, unfortunately, one of my employees is taking another job and moving on to another company.

Or you have a client that says, hey, we're not really satisfied with the service that you're providing, going to move on, and how you deal with those particular losses from a revenue standpoint, from the hours that you need to put in for a client, because if you lose an employee or they move on to another opportunity, those things happen every single day. And you have to be positive and have to have that outlook that no matter what, I will succeed. No matter what, I will land on my feet and be fine. Because things happen every single day.

And whether they happen on the football field or you're driving down the court and you know, somebody steals the ball from you, that's no different than coming in and, you know, potentially not producing an ROI for someone that's spending dollars with you and explaining to them, okay, well, you know what, we didn't set this thing up properly in terms of the questions that we asked prior or we didn't, you know, what, the goals weren't aligned properly or there's things that weren't done that could have been done. But at the end of the day, we will get better from this, we'll learn from this, and then we'll grow from this. So I think it really. And that goes into athletics so much.

And I really can't correlate enough of my success to athletics because it's really almost every, you know, that's really my upbringing, everything that I knew growing up was all about sports, right.

And what had been, what have been some of the one or two of the bigger struggles that you've had building the business?

I think there has been struggles, there has been challenges, but I've never, there's never like losing was never an option. So looking at those challenges and believe me, starting at a company with $0 or, sorry, $400 we're starting out with, which is, you know, don't sell yourself short, that was 400 big bucks. Because that paid for our first website with Billy Ash coming, flying in from Florida but not getting paid for six months. That was a struggle. That was something, that was a challenge.

Not getting paid for a year and saying, okay, well, we're investing into the business, we're investing into a dinner with a potential client or investing into, you know, because every dollar that came in via our bank account and then we invested into, you know, breaking bread with a client or taking them out for lunch or investing in a seminar or a conference that we'd go to that we could speak or meet potential customers. So think a big obstacle and challenge was not getting paid for almost two years. And then once we got that hundred dollar paycheck a week, were like, wow, this is pretty cool. And we're like, wow. To see that money and put in our bank account was awesome.

And it just reinforced the fact that like, no matter what obstacles that we're gonna face or clients that aren't gonna believe in us. Or, you know, because Edit was also funny because at the same time, were going through and seeing how that we could show that were experts. Prior to that, were experts. I had no agency experience, no marketing experience at other companies, and then going into businesses and saying, hey, I know this better than you and I could do this really well and produce a return on investment for you. And most of the time when were in my basement and were in that time, were trying to prove it to ourselves that we can do this for clients. And the funny part is that were going in there wearing suits.

Whether it was a bagel shop or edible Arrangements, were going in there with suits on because, oh, well, that's a sign of success. If you're coming in there wearing a suit now, it's a sign of success. And now I'm on this podcast, I'm walking into my office with a backwards hat and a T shirt, and it's just like, wow. Yep. It's been eight years since that time. I'm not sure if that. If I answered the question properly with some of the challenges you did.

And it's funny because you talk about going a year without a paycheck, going two years without a paycheck. Did you ever feel like. And I think any of us who build our own business or we build athletic programs or we take on a new job in a new industry, I mean, I can remember when we got fired at Texas A and M and I went back to Chicago, got in the mortgage industry. I mean, there are times when it feels like you go forever without a win. And you weren't used to that growing up. I wasn't used to that growing up. I mean, you know, success was just part of the whole formula. And all of a sudden. So what did you. During those times, what did you hang your hat on? What was it?

Was it the progress, the daily progress of what you're doing? You had more potential clients, you're building the database. I mean, what was it about you that you were able to just keep that whole vision in front of me that it's okay, you know, it's going to be fine, it's going to be good. And here's why. Here's what, here's what we can quant, that we are getting traction, we are doing things the right way?

I think that's a great question, because to have a positive mindset and to always have that faith and belief that things will turn around or you will succeed, was that Everywhere that we looked, we knew that where the industry was going. So we knew that we got into an industry at an early age, 2011. I mean, Facebook started in 2004. Twitter started in 2007, and were still on the cusp. We're really brand new. There were still some companies out there, but we knew that were on to something there. So that was one thing that we're like, oh, this isn't going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. We do have some time to figure it out, because social media and digital marketing, everyone's going to need this for the rest of their lives. So we knew that part of the industry.

So we kept the positive mindset in terms of where the industry was going. But every day we had new leads, and it was, you know, whether it's in my basement and my dad's calling me and saying, hey, you got to reach out to this individual. Reach out to this guy. And then once we moved into Calabria, it was another step. So even though were still weren't getting a paycheck, when we moved from my basement to above the restaurant, we realized, oh, wow, we're making progress. We moved out of a basement. Now we have a location. And even though weren't paying rent at that location, big ups to Sterling, the guys.

No one needs to know that part.

Yeah, that we had a location. We were moving forward. There were steps taken that we moved forward, and we had leads that were coming in. We're meeting with new perspective people. We were seeing revenue come into the business. We saw revenue coming in. Weren't seeing it in our pockets, but were seeing it in effect, that, oh, we need this program. You know what we need to invest in going to this conference. Well, okay, we have to go to this conference in Chicago or in this. In this state. So, okay, well, let's budget $2,000, whatever it may be. We'll take a bus. We'll get there. And so we've always seen progress throughout that time, even though were getting small wins. So they weren't like, okay, great, I'm gonna get a paycheck in the next. In the next six months.

But they were small wins that kept our mind and spirit alive, that were like, okay, we're building. We're getting somewhere.

So, you know, I sit here and I listen to you, and I think about how hard you guys have worked to build what you build. And. And coming from a sports background, we all. We always talk about, in athletics, you're not like a family. You are a Family, right? And your culture. So you guys have worked so hard to build today's business, and you have this culture. You are family. I mean, you go way back in. How. Tell me a little bit about the people that you attract to and that you let inside of your culture. In terms of the hiring process.

I think that is. That's a great question. And that's really the. That's the business. We are people, you know, it's so what. We're. What type of business and digital marketing that we do, it's very time intensive. And people is our number one capital and that's our number one asset. And I mean, I know from the payroll every two weeks and everything that we do is that's, that's our most expensive asset. But it's also what makes us so unique and so valuable to so many people is that now we have 37 individuals at today's business that are cohesively working together and growing and building together. And that culture is just so important because, yes, you wanted a competitive culture. You want a culture where you thrive off people's energy and enthusiasm.

And I think that's so important as when I walk into the office, I say hi to every single person. I want to make sure that they're looking me in the face, shake hands with everyone, ask everyone how they're doing, how's their day going, how was their weekend? Because the business will only go as far as the people that we have here in our team. That is as far as the business will go. And if we don't have everyone aligned and working cohesively, I've seen it throughout the years. I mean, we've been in business for eight years, so there's a lot of different things that have gone our way and haven't gone our way. And to see individuals grow and learn so much and having a culture that is about continuous education is so important.

And I think that's what we've instilled from the lunch and learns that we do to bring in motivational speakers, which I would love to have you come and talk to the team Ed, to going to these seminars, doing these general assemblies, going to the SMX conference, the affiliate conference, and seeing that all the different things that how much our people have learned over the years and now they're becoming experts. There's so much fulfillment in there from an ownership standpoint. But I look at it as an opportunity for everyone to grow and learn. And if I could, if today's business could be that platform for individuals, I'm Doing my job and granted. And I just feel super fulfilled and happy because what's better than having people grow and learn under.

Under your tutelage, under your wing, and then seeing them blossom on their own, whether it's part of today's business, they could still blossom on their own as part of today's business, or blossoming and growing in other fields, whether it's starting their own business or working at another company. And that's your network, is your net worth. So I really believe in that.

You and I talked about before we started the podcast, we talked about that very thing, investing in your people. Right. We talked about how important it is to realize, you know, one of the things, and I'm going to get off to the side here a little bit, but one of the things I talk to my executive coaching clients about is you have to have the ability to accept reality, not settle for it, but accept it. Right. And the reality is you can invest in these people and you can pour into their lives. They might leave you, and it might leave you for, like you said, very good reasons. They might double their salary, they might go one and a half times their salary, whatever it is.

But you, it was so refreshing to hear you talk about is you can't help but be happy and feel fulfilled that they do that because, you know, you contributed to that success. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah, it's a. And you go, you know, all businesses go through it. And I think ours as a company that was predicated from starting from the ground up and literally starting from my basement with 400 bucks, it will happen because it takes time to grow individuals as well as to see them be experts in an industry. We know the old adage, 10,000 hours, you got to put in, well, 10,000, you know, you're putting in that time, that effort. You will be. You will get there.

I think another point that I bring up is that how you tie in the networking ability, the mindset, and how you can instill a positive culture into those individuals and then take it is so important because a lot of people, and we talk about the athletics of business, a lot of the individuals that we have, we love to hire athletes, but a lot of people don't have that athletic background. So that's something that we try as the ownership in the company that we've all been athletes, we try to instill that into the individuals. Another point that I want to bring up, too, is that we also created an internship program when we first started. So we have. And that's when were above the restaurant, we had Seton Hall University and Rutgers.

They come to the restaurant and say they want to check out our facility and to see, to give us the approval that we can have interns, let's have dinner first.

Why don't we sit here and talk about it? Okay. No, have you tried a risotto here? It's awesome.

Exactly. Well, the meatballs, I mean, everything is so good. So break bread a little bit. Before we sat down, they're like, wait, this is your office? Is it above the. Like, where is it exactly? And I was like, yep, this is our office. And so it really started with the internship program. And as you start the internship program, we've hired, at one point, 90% of our employees were from the internship program. Now it's about, roughly about 65 to 70%. It's still high percentage of our employees come from our internship program. But that also is. You also feel like you're with a company for so much longer. You take a six month internship and then you work at the company for a few years. Like, wow, I've been here for a while.

I paid my dues with these guys.

I paid my dues with these guys. And so I understand it from people exiting and taking on other opportunities from that perspective because they're like, well, I've been here for a few years. I really want to try something new. And this is really all I know because I've taken an internship here, I've worked here as entry level, I've grown here. You know what I'm ready to take on maybe a new endeavor or a new opportunity. So there's always, I think you always look at it from different, from a positive perspective. But I think that's also something that is unique, is that we have this internship program. So people are with the company for a long time and they also learn a lot from us individually. But I think at a certain point you're like, okay, how do I continue to grow at today's business?

Or how do I continue to grow what I'm doing, possibly at another company or start my own company or go to another agency or whatever it may be.

And so speaking of growing, and as you grow, the more success you have, the more opportunities there are for distractions, right? How do you do, how do you do this? Being, you know, being one of the founders, having your hands into everything and an emotional attachment to every single aspect of the business. How do you stay present and stay grounded and stay focused on what needs to be done right now. What are some of the ways you go about doing?

I think in terms of, really, in terms of that it's so. There's so many opportunities, so many people calling, emailing, LinkedIn, messaging, direct messaging via Instagram. There's so many ways to get in touch with individuals at this age. That's why I think sales and the new age of digital selling is so different than years ago. You used to call someone's phone and wait for them to return your message or whatever it may be. Now you could leave a voicemail, you could send a text message, a direct message on Instagram, so on and so forth. There's so many different ways. And how I stay focused is following my schedule. That's literally, if it's not in my schedule, then it's not. Then it's really not for me that particular day if something comes up and it's urgent within the office or somebody needs my attention.

Granted, you can move some things around, but I really stick to my schedule. Stick to my schedule and my task list as well. And that's. I really, and I really follow my schedule and write things down. That's how I stay focused on everything. And I'm a big proponent to actually physically writing things down. I have so many, I have so many notes and post it notes and loose leaves of paper.

Greatest thing ever invented right here. You can't see me, folks, but I'm holding up post it notes right here. Greatest thing ever invented. You know? You know, it's funny though, and this might be a poor analogy, but nevertheless it makes sense to me, which could make it trivial, but you think about it. If you're going into the weight room and you're going to do a chest and shoulders workout one day, you're not going to just start running wind sprints. I mean, that's not what you're there for, right? So if I sit down on my desk and I am sitting down on my desk with the purpose to do something, well, that's what I'm going to do. I mean, it's not rocket science. It doesn't mean I'm good at it all the time because of the distractions.

But I'm always curious, especially people at your level. And again, I'm going to play off the whole growth thing. What do you think is going to be more difficult or has been more difficult? Getting to where you are now or scaling to that next level? What's going to be a bigger challenge? Because you think about it again, to go back into athletics. You know, we build. You know, you take a look at that question. Yeah, you really. It's tough. You know, my buddy Porter, I mean, Loyola head coach, Loyola Chicago, we talk about this all the time. I mean, he spent seven years getting them to a tournament and then catches lightning in a bottle because they do things so well and makes this unbelievably magical run in the final four.

And then you wake up and it's like everyone in the world thinks you got to do it again, but there's still that whole thing of taking it to the next level. So what for you guys? What is it?

I would say, you know, it is a tough question, because going through the struggles and not taking a paycheck and growing a culture and a business and not having any prior work experience in a marketing field or at another agency to give myself some foundation to it, I think was tough. But I think I go to the latter. And I say to sustain success is a lot harder than getting there. Because I'm saying, like, granted, I could have gotten to. And be, you know, get to a million dollars in revenue for. For today's business, I think was hard, but I think it's harder to sustain the success and to continue to want to grow from that spot that you got to.

And I want to explain that a little bit further is say if you're in the NFL and you make it to one Pro bowl, okay, great, you had a great year. But how do you then. To go to 2, to 3, to 4 and. And know in the back of your mind what it takes to get there and then to do it over and over again? I believe that's harder. And I know that it's harder because I've. I've been there, I've done it. Like I was Ed, to be completely honest, I was super naive about business, super naive about marketing, super naive about how to create a company and how to create a successful culture and business. I didn't know any better. So you just did it and I got there.

But then to get there and then to be great at it and to have everyone, you know, oh, these guys are the best at what they do. And to have a. And to have that level of pressure makes diamonds. And you're there, and you got to keep producing, keep producing. You don't produce for one day. You're actually, you know, you're degressing and not staying at that same level. So I do believe that sustaining the success is a lot harder than getting there. And even when you're pitching smaller clients, when I didn't know much about it, I could pitch smaller clients because they don't know much about it either.

When you get to a higher level of success, a higher level of clientele and who you're looking at, man, the questions, the things that you need to know to be at that expert level are a lot harder than getting there and working towards that, if that makes sense.

Well, no, it makes total sense. And because what happens is, I think you start managing a different set of expectations from people and you start managing a different level of expectations that you have on yourself. And you think about it's the whole getting there to start with. There's a little bit of an innocence to it. There's a little bit of.

Absolutely.

You know, but once you're there, once you've got it's like you're supposed to just wake up every day and have it right. Yeah. So I agree with you. I think that whole sustaining success is more difficult. It's definitely a different challenge. I mean, it's definitely different.

Yeah. I'm not saying one. You know, I think it's a little bit harder, and I do believe it's harder. But not saying that, you know, creating a business from scratch or starting in a coaching career from scratch and working your way up is not hard because it is very difficult.

There's all sorts of things. So before we wrap up, though, I want to ask you. I want to ask you one more question.

Yeah.

And that is if you are sitting in front of a room full of young entrepreneurs, business owners, folks that are in the shoes that you used to be in. Okay. What would you say to them? What would be a piece of advice that you would give to those folks?

What I would say, what I would really say to them is that you're going to go through tough times, and there is going to be tough times there, but tough times don't last. Tough people do. And you hear that cliche all the time, but it's. It's the truth. Nothing. You will not grow and succeed without. Without adversity. And I think what I could tell everybody that, you know, people that I can. That people that I talk to, people that I communicate, if you're. If you're not going through struggles or adversity or then you're not challenging yourself hard enough, you're not. You're not putting yourself in a position to be vulnerable, then you're like, oh, shit, I'm uncomfortable.

I need to make sure that I get to A point where, like, okay, I'm comfortable getting on a podcast or speaking to this group of people or performing a marketing strategy for some of the big, you know, Fortune 500, Fortune 100 companies, and I'm gonna go in there and crush it no matter what. No. Why? Because I'm prepared. I understand the industry. I've done my homework, and I know what I'm. I know what I need to do to put this company in a position to succeed. So that would be one thing I would really. One thing I would. I would say to individuals. And I don't know if it's too cliche, but I do. I do understand that it's a. It's not easy to go through some of the struggles, but it's necessary. And I think that's something that's.

That's powerful and not to focus on the problems, like even what Tony Robbins said, identify your problems, but give your power and energy to your solutions. And I think that's so powerful and so true, is that there's going to be so many. There's going to be issues every single day. There's going to be problems every single day. Nothing's ever going to go as planned. Even the schedule I try to follow on a daily basis doesn't always go to his. Doesn't always go to his plans. But understanding that and knowing that everything will be okay because you're focusing on the solutions and having a positive outlook and an optimistic outlook on things is just ultimately what's most important.

Chaz, I love everything that you said today. And, you know, you talk about the struggles, you talk about making yourself vulnerable, right? Figure out that gap where you're going to need some help and ask questions, go through the tough times, be prepared and figure out what it is you need to do. Just do it. And what I really love is, okay, understand the problem, right? Understand the reality of the situation, but give your power and your energy to the solutions. And when you do that, the only way to do that is just trust the process. And obviously, you've done a pretty damn good job of trusting the process. So, hey, I appreciate you. I appreciate all your time. Where can folks find out more about today's business? Where can they find you on social media? Give us everything.

All right, Perfect. You can find my company, Today's Business, on Instagram @todaysbusiness. You can find us on LinkedIn at Today's Business and our website@tbsmo.com and you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. Aservino. LinkedIn as well as on Instagram. It's just Chazervino.

Awesome, awesome. And another great podcast episode, Chaz. I appreciate it. And to hear more episodes like this one, you can go to itunes and get the Athletics of Business podcast. You can go to Stitcher, Google Play, or you can go to the website the athletics of business.com and to learn more about what we do at the Molitor Group, go to the Molitor Group. And again, appreciate you and appreciate you being here. Chaz. Thanks a lot.

Thank you so much, Ed. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me on. Thank you for listening to the Athletics of Business. Be sure to give us a rating and review so we know how we're doing. For more information about the show, Visit TheAthletics of Business.com now get out there. Think, act and execute at the highest level to unleash your greatness.