How to Navigate the Blurry Lines Between Advertising and Content with Ron Tite

My guest today is Ron Tite -  Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Church+State; an agency that unifies content and advertising. He’s also a best-selling author, speaker and entrepreneur who has created award-winning work for some of the world’s most iconic brands including Air France , evian , Fidelity Investments  Johnson & Johnson , Microsoft and Volvo  just to name a few.

I invited Ron to be a guest on my show to discuss how brands navigate the blurry lines between advertising and content. I wanted to learn what the integrity gap is all about. And I was curious to get his POV on why more brands are choosing purpose over product.

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star rating along with a brief review.

About Me
Hey there, I'm Joelly - the Branding Badass. My badass superpower is helping you build a brand that matters. From branded merch to brand consulting, when you work with me, you get results!

Need help creating brand awareness?
Learn more here BADASS MERCH

Let's stay connected!

instagram - @Branding_Badass
linkedIn - Joelly Goodson
website - BrandingMatters.ca
email - jgoodson@genumark.com

Transcript

Joelly Goodson : 0:10

Hi, I'm Joelly, your Branding Badass, and welcome to season two of Branding Matters. My guest today is Ron Tate, the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Church+ State, an agency that unifies content and advertising. He's also a best selling author, speaker and entrepreneur who's created award winning work for some of the world's most iconic brands, including Air France, Evian, fidelity Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft and Volvo, just to name a few. Ron is also an award winning publisher, TV writer, children's book, author, playwright, and stand up comedian. And last, but certainly not least, he is the host and executive producer of an award winning podcast called the coop, I invited Ron to be a guest on my show today to talk about how brands navigate the blurry lines between advertising and content. I wanted to know what he means by the integrity gap and what it's all about. And I was really curious to get his point of view on why more and more brands are choosing purpose over product. Ron, welcome to branding matters.

Ron Tite: 1:19

Thanks, Joey. It is so incredible to be here.

Joelly Goodson : 1:22

Oh, thank you so much. Saying that you have quite the career I did a little bit of research on you. You were that your best selling author, your speaker, your podcast host I want to hear about that advertising copywriter, crave director, entrepreneur and this is my favorite stand up comic. So before we get into all that, tell me a little bit about yourself. What did you study? Where'd you go to university? What did you study in university? And how did you know what you want to be when you grew up?

Ron Tite: 1:49

Like most advertising people who have done work in comedy I of course, did a phys ed degree at Queen's University love them. Yeah, I mean, I just really I you know, I was the first of my family to go to university. There was a whole world that existed outside of where I grew up and my kind of situation. I'm originally from Montreal, but grew up in the south end of Oshawa and the rough and tumble south end of the city.

Joelly Goodson : 2:13

Okay, I'm from Montreal to West Island Dorval.

Ron Tite: 2:17

Oh, nice. Okay, good. Well, I was a Verdun kid. Oh, so Oshawa is the Verdun of Ontario, I think. Yeah. Or Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I, you know, I just didn't really know what careers existed. And then like, what people hadn't, you know, had no idea. So I just saw, like, what kind of life but I want the only kind of people who had a different life than the one that I was growing up in. Were teachers. So I was like, I have been a gym teacher, because I wrestled and so I'll just do it. You know, my coach went to Queens, like, I'll just do it when he did. And then I got there. And this cool world opened up, like, What are you talking about? Dude, don't know what they're gonna do. You know, how are you here, and you don't know what you want to do. And so it's just over time, I just kind of ditch that idea and realize that you know, bait My First Boston, I'm like, only rocket science is rocket science. And you can do whatever you want. And then that was so freeing to be able to go, Oh, yeah, I can do anything like anything. And so I just started to pursue things that interested me and see if I could carve out something. So I started at the Queens Business School. And then I, this is 1993. I graduated in 83. I'm 51. So I was like, This is the beginning of the web, right? Like, this is like the internet was just being born at this point. And so I started working at a web shop. So I had this, like, I could do HTML, and like, I understood web creation. So I had that. And then I got a job at an agency. And then I really wanted to pursue stand up comedy. So I just, I just did that. And then all of those worlds, right? Just all came together. I was like, oh, like I can be a creative guy in advertising. And never, ever that up to that point. I never consider myself a quote unquote, creative person. Because I didn't know you could do that. I didn't know people wear that hat.

Joelly Goodson : 3:55

So how do you go you talk about business school? And then but you also want to be comedian? I mean, they seem so they seem in one sense so far apart. Tell me a bit about that comedian side of things and where you went with that while simultaneously doing your career. Did you do it at the same time?

Ron Tite: 4:10

I did. Yeah. There was never any like, I want to be a stand up comedian, right? Because again, I always love the craft of stand up. And at one point, you know, started doing some stuff at Second City training center. And I was like, Okay, I want to do stand up. I just want to do it to do it. And I didn't think like, Oh, I'm gonna have a career and like, Nah, I just want you to I want him to explore it creatively. I wanted to figure out the method to the madness because I knew in my heart of hearts that the people who are funny at parties, those ones stand up comedians, that doesn't play on stage. I knew that the very first stand up show I ever did, I headlined my own show. This is like, this is where this entrepreneurial perspective comes in. Right? Because somebody said if you want to be a stand up comedian, you got to go and do open mic night so that Okay, so I went to check out and I'm like, no commitment. I'm just gonna go check it out. I went, I was like, this is a shit show. This is part of this. This is horrible. That guy left a bet that guy's drunk, like, I'm already better than everybody here. And I've never done it before. Like, I just, I was pretty cocky about it. And so I went back to my friend and said, What else can I do is i'm not doing that. And he's like, well, you can get to know a producer and see if they'll put you on their live show. But you've never done it before. So I don't know how they're gonna do you know? And then I just said, Well, why don't I just how tough is it to be a producer? Why don't I just produce my own show? So I did that. produce my own show made myself the headliner. So the very first time I ever did stand up comedy, I did a 45 minute headlining set.

Joelly Goodson : 5:34

That's amazing was that in Ottawa, or Montreal? Toronto?

Ron Tite: 5:38

I was in Toronto by that. Okay, okay. That's a man dumb. Yeah. So that's, it was such a great entrepreneurial approach to stand up, which is not just two ways to do this, you would again, you know, take on the role of driving your own agenda, to do it the way you want to do it and figure out well, how do you do that? I was like, Oh, that's become a producer. And so that same thinking went into when I used to be Executive Creative Director and her boss was like, I want to do my own thing. I don't want to own my own destiny. And how do you do that? Well, you produce your own show you open your own agency, and then decide where you go from there.

Joelly Goodson : 6:10

I love that. So that was sort of a precursor for what was going to come with your career down the line. So do you have any favorite comedians?

Ron Tite: 6:17

It changes every month, see new

Joelly Goodson : 6:19

I meant when you decided,

Ron Tite: 6:20

Oh, I can't really say because it was Bill Cosby. And I don't think he who can be named Oh, you know, when I saw Bill Cosby, this kind of mimics what launched Jerry Seinfeld, because Jerry Seinfeld at one point said, he used to watch Jonathan Winters and think I can't do that. Like, that's a whole other brilliant skill that I can't do that. But he saw Robert Klein, Robert Klein telling story, and he's like, Oh, I can I can do that. So for me, it was like, looking at Robin Williams was like, yeah, that's really great. But I can't that's not me. But when I started digging into Bill Cosby, like, this guy's just telling stories about his childhood. I think I can do that. And I was interested in pursuing that creatively. So that was the kind of like, Oh, yeah, I think I can Yeah, I didn't want to do Bill Cosby. Although in high school, the very first thing I ever performed for anybody was in grade 11, and I or grade 10. And I did Bill Cosby's, the dentist, it was a bit and Bill Cosby's bit like did the bit and it was that moment on stage in front of whatever, 500 people and having a crowd laugh at something you said for the first time and thinking how do I get more of that? Like, how do I duplicate that emotion? I think that's so important for people like it wasn't about how do i do the thing? Again, it was how do I duplicate the emotional reaction I got out of doing that, you know, and then fast forward all these years later, I was at performing at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. And I was performing a one man play and at one point said this line. And it's a very poignant moment in the play as a callback to something earlier, and I went so hey, and it was silent. And when I hit so hey, and this woman in the front row went. And she knew what the next line was going to be even before I said it. And that is the most powerful moment I've ever had on stage. And it was like, I've got you, I've got you where I want you. I can take you over here to ridiculously funny I can take over here to make you cry. I can take you over here to make you think but I've got you in the palm of my hand emotionally right now. And that was so powerful. And then it was like how do I duplicate that emotion because that's way more that silence. And that little intake of air was way more powerful than standing ovation filled with laughter. Way more powerful.

Joelly Goodson : 8:31

How did she know what the next word or the next one was going to be? That you were gonna say? Because it was a call back to something earlier in the play. The line was so Hey, be careful. And it was I had made fun of my mom always say be careful, be careful, be careful, be careful, be careful. And the character makes this arc of like, he understands the value of what his mom brought. And it was so hey, and she knew it. And it was that I was like, I need to pursue that more screw comedy. I need to pursue that more. And that's what drove me into speaking knowing that the comedy can actually set up the more important point you need to make. Just quickly, you mentioned about mother so were your parents did you grew up in a family of like comedians, like wizard or laughter in your household?

Ron Tite: 9:11

Not officially.

Joelly Goodson : 9:13

But I don't mean official but I just met was there a lot was laughter a part of you know, your your surroundings?

Ron Tite: 9:19

It's a great question. And yeah, you know, it was it was in some ways it was in some ways it was completely absent. So my parents were divorced. So on my mom's side of the family was like really Italian. You know, my father, my grandfather came from Italy. So Italian cubic. Wha. So they were animated. They were amazing storytellers. They love to laugh like they understood the art of the bit right it's like if you've told this story before you tell it again in the exact same way you perfect the telling of the story. And if somebody is new to the table you go Jimmy tell that story, you know, but on the other hand, like my stepdad was an alcoholic, like it was a really not a fun home life. My mom was disabled like they were A lot of emotional kind of challenges there. And so I think when you combine those two worlds of like this really animated fun loving Italian Quebecois family with the reality of the more immediate family, it's no surprise that I went off and kind of like thought on my own, you know, it's that, like, I carved up that space to think in my own head of how can I survive this environment? And how can I bring laughter to that and humor to that environment so that I can survive it because my mom was an incredible person. But she survived, like, such a horrible life. And she survived through laughing at it. And so I think I duplicated that. So on one hand, I'm really introverted, because I can go and get into my own head and think about things. But then there's the like, okay, you flip on the Italian and you get the stage. Yeah, that's terms to to be animated.

Joelly Goodson : 10:50

I love that. I love that because I you know, I have this thing. It's all about the big F un in the sense that the world there's so much tragedy and things going on the world that I always try to find the humor and things and that sort of a way to not only uplift other people, but uplift yourself. Right? When Yeah, language thing. So I love that. Okay, so thank you for sharing that with us. I appreciate it. So let's talk about church and state. So you launched churches, say in 2012? So I'm really curious to know what inspired you to start and about the name More importantly,

Ron Tite: 11:18

Yeah, I mean, you know, as I said, earlier, I wanted to control my own destiny, I also saw that there were two worlds being disrupted, there was like this traditional ad agency thing. And then there was also the traditional content, it was the newspapers and the TV networks. And you know, all those people were being disrupted. And those two worlds of marketing and advertising and content are completely dependent on one another. They're completely the like, literally, one pays for the other. And everybody was looking and blaming big agencies, and everybody was blaming Big Content companies, but no one was saying you're in this together, like you got to figure this out. And so I just thought that that's nobody was addressing that. And so I started as the tight group, because I didn't really know I just wanted to solve the problem. And I didn't know whether the best way to solve it was as a consulting company, or as a production company, or as an agency. Like what I wrote this line, the brands need to be media properties, and media properties need to be brands, like figure that out, whatever the hell that means. And so it was initially called a tight group, because I didn't really know what it was going to be and what the approach is going to be. And so for the first year, just worked on and worked on and worked on it. And then a good friend of mine got a brand warshafsky, who's a wonderful entrepreneur, I mentioned the idea of church and state, that the world used to be the separation of church and state that content and advertising did not cross over. And I just kept saying this idea of church and state and he said, that'd be a great agency name. I was like, Yeah, what a great agency name. And then I think it was like two or three years later, when we finally realize this is what we do really, really well. And I said, it's church and state, it's back to that conversation two years ago, brands, church and state. So that's where the name came from, your listeners can't see it. But you can see the logo on my screen that is a plus, it's not an end, it's a plus church plus state, that the world that used to be separate or now unify any ad can be a piece of content if it's good enough, and interesting enough and relevant enough. And of course, we share ads all the time. People tuned in the Superbowl to watch ads, their content at that point. And but also any piece of content can actually be an ad. And you see this within the big TV networks, where they're saying go to our website from where I'm from, that's an ad, they're driving you to their website, because as incremental revenue there, but again, we identified it, it's not an ad because we've placed it in the content box. I wrote this piece once about Michael Jackson's Thriller is one of the best ads of all time, and we put it in the content box because it was a great video. And we allowed videos to be content that we tuned in to watch. The only reason Michael Jackson made that video was because he had fallen out of the number one spot of the album charts thriller had fallen out of the spot. He had released all the Hot singles, and he had the victory tour with his brothers coming up in the summertime. And they need to ensure that the victory tour was going to be a huge success.

Joelly Goodson : 13:59

I saw that tour actually.

Ron Tite: 14:01

No way.

Joelly Goodson : 14:02

Yeah, did in Montreal. That's so funny. But anyway, go ahead.

Ron Tite: 14:05

Yeah,the forum, right.

Joelly Goodson : 14:05

Yeah. The old forum, the old forum, the old forum. Now my age is showing I'm older than you, by the way.

Unknown: 14:13

Well, you're a badass. But, you know, it was this idea that if we just make something interesting, it will drive the sales of the victory turn. That's why the thriller video was made was an ad. And I'm not saying that's bad. I'm saying that's good. People used to vote with their wallets. Now they vote with their time. And it doesn't matter what you call it. It doesn't matter what what box, we put it in the Globe and Mail is competing against BuzzFeed. It's competing against YouTube and Netflix. We only have so much time we're going to read this shit that interests us that's relevant enough. That's interesting enough, that's entertaining enough, and I don't really care who paid for it.

Joelly Goodson : 14:48

And you can transfer that to now social media fast forward because all the content that you see, I mean, realistically, it's all people trying to advertise their businesses on there, but they're doing it in a way That is not advertising traditionally, right? It's just content that we're seeing on all the different social platforms.

Ron Tite: 15:06

Yeah, exactly. And if it's interesting enough to us, we're like, yeah, I'm gonna consume that. Like the thing I hate people, like, people don't have an attention span anymore. Really. Because they'll binge Netflix shows they'll watch 20 minute TED Talks.

Joelly Goodson : 15:19

We're just pick here. 100% we mark? what we want.

Ron Tite: 15:23

Yeah, my good friend Mitch. Joel, you know, likes to say that. People don't hate advertising he should he ever done?

Joelly Goodson : 15:28

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. So I want to talk about your approach, because you say you're a different agency, which you clearly are, and your approaches think do sing. Can you elaborate on that? What does that mean, The role that agencies used to play the role of marketers used to pay in a large degree marketing, people who were advertising focus was that let's just get the message out, right, you get the messaging, right. And then we all saw this huge shift, where advertising started to decrease in its performance, the a lot of the disruptive products were products that they didn't disrupt, because of their advertising, they disrupted because of what the products did. They completely came in and solve problems that the the establishment didn't solve, or we start to look at customer experience as being the new marketing, you know, like, Oh, I want just, it's all about the experience, whether that's in retail, or whether that's through e commerce, whatever it is. So as all this focus was shifting away from advertising, and you know, we realized, like, look that the brands that do really, really well align three things, they align what they think what they do, and what they say. And I know it sounds ridiculously simple. And the book and the speech is kind of the corporate theater version, but we get into a really granular level when we do a strategy for a client. And that's what we do. So the thing is around, okay, fundamentally, brands need to stand for something more, consumers are exhausted from being pitch slapped, they're just getting it from all angles, the metaphor we use is they're standing in the middle of Times Square, and up top, it's coming from all sides, big, beautiful billboards really expensive, but they have no idea where to look. So we need to elevate that conversation to something that people actually care about that goes beyond the product. Because we've seen this, the democratization of content creation, has moved into this democratization of credibility, that anybody can say I'm the best because of thing. Any product can say that you can use data to illuminate your strengths. So you need to go beyond that. Because people just don't believe it anymore. They just don't believe it. So what do you believe in? That's the think part. Secondly, if customer experience and products are the thing that actually drive brand conviction is not advertising. It is what the product does for you. It's the old Procter and Gamble's second moment of truth, when I get at home, does this shit work? No, like, does it clean my dishes? Because if it doesn't, there will be zero brand conviction, brand loyalty. So what do you do that reinforces that belief. And it's really important that you take actions that reinforce what you fundamentally believe in. Otherwise, you're just going madly off in all directions, which a lot of marketers do, like now we're doing a tank top thing where I got went to a conference, and this great speaker had six things, we're going to implement them all right, it's ridiculous effort. And Warren Tomlin calls it random acts of digital, right like that. So you need something to focus those actions, you need something to focus your products, you need something to focus on expanding your portfolio of products and services. And that is your belief. You know, a great example here is Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga believes in something that goes beyond what she sells. She believes that people should be free to express themselves. Got it? Okay. That's what she fundamentally believes. What does she do to reinforce that belief? Well, what she does is she forces herself to express herself in a wide variety of different ways. She champion self expression, she promotes self expression. And she does it through music. And she does it through acting, and she does it through a makeup line. And she does it through fashion, and choreography, all that stuff. So she has diversified her revenue stream, but every single product under her portfolio, all ties back to that same belief, people should be free to express themselves. So when she launched her makeup line, that lead headline was our house, your rules, that's just another way to say people should be free to express themselves. So she's diversifying the portfolio, but I'm really focused way. So that's the do. And then the say, is look like if you believe in something more important, and you behave in a way and create products that reinforce that that is worth talking about. So if it's worth talking about, then you should talk about it in a way that's consistent with what you believe you should talk about it in a way that's memorable, that cuts through that speaks to directly to what you believe in what you do to reinforce it. So that's the thing to do, say, and when you align all three, that creates brand conviction and just cranking up the say, Nope, not gonna do it. So it's sort of like not just talking to talk but walking the walk.

Ron Tite: 19:56

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Joelly Goodson : 19:57

I love that. So I've heard you talk about the integrity gap, what's the integrity gap, If we are believe and do and say things that are very similar, so everybody within an organization goes, this is what we believe in. This is my personal role to bring it to life. And this is how I talked about the organization and we're all aligned on that. Great. Everybody's aligned. And integrity gap is when the actions of a person or a group of people contradict what the organization supposedly stands for. So if we go, you know what, we're Robin Hood, we believe in bringing investment to the masses, but then when the GameStop thing happened, and they're like, Oh, no, no, no, we're gonna protect the hedge fund guys. You're like, Ah, this is an integrity gap. Now, sometimes an integrity gap is a massive big ordeal where 60 minutes is on the phone, because someone's committed a crime. You don't I mean, other times, it's a little paper cut. It's like, you know, a great example. This is Tim Hortons. You know, Tim Hortons went from being number one on the trust index, to not being on the list at all, to not being on the list at all. In Canada. What happened was a series of paper cuts. It's not like Tim Hortons came in and said, we're radically changing our business. We're radically changing the coffee. No, just slowly over time. Can you Canadians were like, this just doesn't feel very Canadian anymore. They will just serve with the one story after one little bad experience in the Tim Hortons here, they're hearing that there was a fight between the franchisees and 3g hearing that the two children of the founders who were franchisees undergoing Coburg or something, you know, like, decided not to pay their staff for overtime, or it wasn't that but it was something like that. We'll just slowly but surely each one on its own, not a huge massive thing. But paper cut paper, cut paper got paper got paper cut and over time thing. Doesn't feel very Canadian anymore. So what they were saying all those communications, they didn't align with what was actually happening in the brand. Now, do I believe in Tim Hortons? Yes. I think it's a great brand. I think they're gonna bring it back. I think they got some very smart people there who doing the right things. But there was a point in time when Tim Hortons failed and they failed because of a series of integrity gaps at 3g at the holdco level at restaurant brands International, the organizing company to brand advertising level at the franchisee level, and at the front line staff level papercutz. Without four, that's never a good thing. Can you give an example of a brand that does a good job of closing that integrity gap?

Ron Tite: 22:27

Yeah, you know, the example I talked about in the book and I hate when interviews got to do with what I said in chapter one.

Joelly Goodson : 22:33

Which is your different voices like your different characters.

Ron Tite: 22:37

It's a pitch slappers people they buy my book, buy my book, but you know, I wasn't really impressed with Rei, which is kind of the mountain Equipment Co Op of the US and is a co op. And they fundamentally changed like a purpose. They didn't create a campaign was a fundamental purpose of the organization that in their words, you know, we believe a life lived outside is a life well lived as they fundamentally believe. Okay, so what did they do to reinforce that belief? Well, one is strategically aligned to the thing they sell. They and outdoor equipment retailer, of course, they believe that they don't go we believe a life lived outside is a life well lived. So we sell Tupperware. Yeah. So it strategically connects. Secondly, their lead initiative was when they close the store on Black Friday, because they just said we'd rather be in the mountains than in the aisles on that particular day. And by the way, you can't buy anything on their ecommerce channels, either.

Joelly Goodson : 23:28

I remember when that happened, actually, yeah, that was a big thing. But that was a big thing.

Ron Tite: 23:33

But it still happens, right? That it wasn't just a campaign was a fundamental belief. So if you believe a life outside of the life will live, and you say, we're going to close e commerce channels and all of a retailer, so our staff don't have to put up with the shedule. That is Black Friday, man, that communications really easy. I mean, and I'm not trying to take away from the agency who did the work. But that is a fundamentally easier thing to communicate, then. I don't know what if we take 10% off a pair of hiking boots to watch everybody does on Black Friday? right? Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Joelly Goodson : 24:05

So their communications cut through and to the doubters, in that first year, you know, revenue grew 9%, nine points year over a year. So they thought they did it. And they said it. I remember when that all went down, there was a lot of publicity about it. And I thought it was very cool. And then I read afterwards that they actually made money because of that, you know, that whole thing about their purpose. Which brings me to my next question. I've heard you say, when you choose purpose over product, that's when profit flows. Is that what you're referring to when you talk about this example?

Ron Tite: 24:36

Yeah, 100% because most people in that case would have said over don't don't believe in that on Black Friday, because you're giving up your revenue for Black Friday and nobody gives up revenue for the year. Yeah, another great example of that was jon stewart when Jon Stewart appeared on a show called Crossfire, which was the original Tucker Carlson show on CNN and it was 2004 and you're for an hour like 2004, well, this guy's coming at us with the most contemporary up to date information because I think this is when the world changed in 2004, Jon Stewart, a top rated Show, The Daily Show, he had a book that had been out. But he was on a guest on CNN, which was a larger audience he would he would have ever had on the Comedy Central and Tucker Carlson and Paul bogale had him on. And we usually know how comedians do interviews, they manipulate the conversation. So they can come up with their best material, right? They didn't see them do this. Every night. They do this. And it's because they want to sell, they want to give you a taste of their best material so that you'll watch their Netflix special or go see them live, whatever. And on this night, Don Stewart said to Tucker Carlson public alley like you're harming America, and Tucker Carlson said, geez, john, you're not being very funny. And then jon stewart said the nine words I think that fundamentally changed comedy, and changed branding, because he said, No, no, I'm not going to be your monkey. So in that moment, john Stuart had the biggest audience you've ever had, he had a book and a show to sell, among other things. And most people would have just gone down the road and done their material. Jon Stewart said there is a purpose to my material, there's something that inspires me to be funny. And that thing, it's way more important than the jokes way more important. And so here on this show, I'm not going to be your monkey. And so he chose purpose over profit. He chose purpose over product, he chose purpose over punch line. And if you look back, that's when the profit flowed. That's when the entire genre of news parody blew up. And then we got Trevor Noah, we got Samantha beat, we got john oliver we have Hassan Minh has, like it's the whole category blew up because people understood that comedians who are driven by a sense of purpose, who didn't need to get laughs at every beat, but who actually back to that original Fringe Festival, Edmonton that moment I had on stage, right. But it's actually way more powerful. The moments of silence that follow the comedy are way more powerful than the lines of comedy ever will be.

Joelly Goodson : 27:02

That's amazing. And probably because the audience could really connect with him then, right? Like, he's not just this persona, you know, doing a stick, but he's actually a real person who actually really cares about things that I care about. And then they make that connection. And maybe that he opened himself up, he made himself vulnerable.

Ron Tite: 27:18

You know, when you look back at some of the, you know, when you look back at David Letterman's career, you look at what are the top five moments in David Letterman's thing, right? There's a couple that are stuff where he's really funny. But you really look at the top moments when he really galvanized his place in the hearts and minds of people returning from 911. David Letterman is the first guy to go on air, no jokes, returning from his heart attack his heart surgery, bringing on the doctors to thank them, not funny him a really kind of taking guests to task for being idiots. Not funny. It's those moments where you're like, this is when this guy really solidified his place. And he's a comedian, I think that's a huge message for brands, that you really need to be vulnerable. You need to be driven by something that goes beyond the thing you sell. Because really, like who really gives a shit about the thing you sell? Like really, very few people, most products or commodities, we can get another places and other forms.

Joelly Goodson : 28:13

That's very true. I love that. Okay, so I want to talk about one more thing before you go your podcast. It's called The Coup.

Ron Tite: 28:21

That's right. So from one podcaster, to another, what inspired you to start your podcast? And what's that about? So whenever I give a speech, I do something called the new two. And it's always two new minutes. I'm always exploring stuff in the moment on stage or virtually like this. I always need to be testing myself with new stuff and exploring, there's always new two minutes, I was giving a speech once and I just said on stage, Netflix disrupting blockbuster. It wasn't disruption, it was a coup of the entertainment space where the establishment was taken out by an insurgent force. And I just said that, and then I went back. Let's introduce the next speech. I started looking at rebellious anti establishment songs, and like, what are some anti establishment songs, and I had that be the new two. And as I was delivering that one of the songs was the revolution will not be televised. And I thought that's such a great if there was a theme song we're going to that's it. The revolution will not be televised. And then out of that it became like, maybe we can actually look at what goes into a successful coup d'etat, a political coup d'etat. What happens? The establishment gets out of touch with the reality of the masses. insurgent forces start to like their torches, they start to gather momentum, they start to get people on their side. It's very grassroots. And then at one point, they go we're storming the castle at midnight, we're beheading the establishment, and we're going and we're gonna take them out. There's a series of chaos and anarchy that ensues. There's a power vacuum, and then there's some sort of return to stability. That's exactly what happens in business. Exactly what happens in business dilaton shift get a little bit out of touch right razor blades go through the roof. They're 40 bucks, you're behind lock and key. No He says a thing, because they're just their heads in the sand. They don't get it and surgeon forces go, this is bullshit. We're paying 40 bucks for blades. There's no way I get these things once a month, I don't need to go in Dollar Shave Club starts to go and entrepreneur goes, I'm going to solve that problem gonna make a break, and I make a blade for a buck. Yeah, I can do it build steam over time that go, alright, we're going live, we're going to take you out and then eventually, right? They just become new members, the establishment. So I looked at that and said that the idea of the coup is either a book, it's a speech, it's a it's a thing. And so I started writing it as a book. And I thought, I want to do this as a podcast, but not a podcast like this. I wanted to do 10 episodes. That's it not having guests on. Not that there's anything wrong with with having guests on? No, no, no, no, you know what, to be honest, I didn't think that I could do it. I didn't think that I could do it in a way that was good enough. I thought man that requires like, you're committed to this, like every week, you're launching, and I thought I don't have that level of commitment. I want to do 10 episodes. I want to hire people to come in. So I hired a team of people. And so we and we did the 10 episodes, we won best business podcast and Canada. We beat the global beat the post, and then I was like, Okay, I don't need to do it again. I want that. And so that's so it exists with Rogers frequency as 10 episodes, highly produced great production value. And that's it.

Joelly Goodson : 31:23

Amazing. I love your story. I feel like I could sit and talk to you forever. So blasting. I lied. I do have one more. I have one more question. You've have two kids. You had your second son, I think what was it a couple months before you turn 50 you've done your research. So you are like that you are like the George Clooney of the ad. Is that right? Am I right?

Ron Tite: 31:42

And that is our second child was born two days into the pandemic in 2020 when I was turning 50 Sohow's it going? How's fatherhood, when What's your favorite thing about becoming a dad? I absolutely love it. I I didn't get married till I was 43. And I just you know, I didn't think I was gonna get married. I was 43 I was single. I had never married like I this isn't happening, which is totally fine. I loved being single I was a great life.

Joelly Goodson : 32:05

You kinda look like George Clooney to you got like the salt.

Ron Tite: 32:10

I think is this is this, this must be low Wi Fi or something. Cuz you're like, Who's George Clooney, his ugly cousin. That's me. That's right. You know, I didn't have the greatest role models is, you know, I actually wrote a piece on this that, you know, my dad and my stepdad were given the titles of father. And they're both really shitty at it. But the people who weren't given the title of fathers like my brothers and sister and my uncles and aunts and friends and teachers and stuff, they were amazing, amazing role models. And so it fills me with joy that I get to hang out with these two kids and be somewhat of a role model in their lives. And yeah, I didn't expect it to happen. So every smile every laugh, every screams cherished, like you wouldn't believe.

Joelly Goodson : 32:51

That's amazing. Well, congratulations. So if people want to learn more about Ron Tay and about church and stay Are you on social media? What's the best way to connect with you?

Ron Tite: 33:00

The best part of having a name that's only seven letters first and last name is just it's just run tight everywhere. So Facebook, Ron tight Instagram Ron tight. Yeah, LinkedIn. Ron is all there. Okay.

Joelly Goodson : 33:13

And you're an amazing speaker. By the way, I've seen some of your videos and I love thanks, Julie. Use comedy to I think, you know, people learn, I think you can learn through entertainment versus, you know, educational through entertainment, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And I think you do your speeches and your presentations. They're funny, and I think it sinks in a lot more. And they're really enjoyable. So yeah, thank you. That's so if you're listening out there, check out his videos, because they're awesome. Well, thank you again, I really appreciate you being on here. Like I said, I can't believe the time is up already. But I know you have to go. So hopefully we'll chat again soon.

Unknown: 33:45

That'd be awesome. When I'm in Calgary. I'll give you a dingle.

Joelly Goodson : 33:51

Great to meet you, have a wonderful rest o your day. And we will talk soon

Ron Tite: 33:54

Thanks, Joey. Thanks for everybody for listening.

Joelly Goodson : 34:07

And there you have it. I hope you enjoyed the conversation and maybe learned a few things to help you with your branding. And most of all, I hope you had some fun. This show is a work in progress. So please make sure to rate and review on whatever platform you listen to podcast. And if you want to learn more about me and what I do to help my clients with their branding, feel free to reach out to me on any of the social channels under you guessed it, branding badness. This podcast was produced, edited and hosted by Joelly. Goodson also me. So thanks again. And until next time, here's to all you badasses out there.