Change doesn’t fail because you’re too early. It almost always fails because you’re too late.
In this episode, we explain why chasing views, followers, and “fame” won’t pay the bills without a real business behind it, and how to flip the whole game by becoming genuinely useful to a specific group of people.
We break down usefulness as a chain (audience → business owners → advertisers/customers), why we evolve offerings instead of constantly restarting, and how patience beats high-risk hype.
We also share a real hyperlocal case study: two simple videos helped a brand-new coffee shop with no marketing open to a slammed weekend and why that only works when the product is actually good.
If you don’t feel useful, it’s time to change…before it’s too late.
Chapters
00:00 Change Too Late
00:05 Meet The Hosts
00:36 Useful Not Famous
01:22 Fame Vs Business
04:37 Define Being Useful
07:07 Change And Trends
08:41 Evolving Revenue Mix
11:47 Sunk Cost Trap
14:27 Low Risk Long Game
17:55 Patience And Passion
20:42 Make Them Feel Something
21:06 Every Post Is Marketing
21:30 Be Useful With Content
22:12 New Coffee Shop Pivot
23:09 The Bold DM Ask
23:55 Not An Imposition
25:38 Hyperlocal Reach Proof
27:11 Opening Day Chaos
30:34 Turning Crowds Into Regulars
33:20 Usefulness Connects Everyone
34:04 Passion And Sustainability
35:48 Final Call To Change
Transcript
Jeff Sarris: Change doesn’t fail because you’re too early. It almost always fails because you’re too late.
Amara Andrew: Hey, explorers, welcome back to Useful Not Famous. We’ve made careers being useful to other people and we wanna help you do the same. My name’s Amara,
Jeff Sarris: and my name is El Hefe. Why do you not have a last name?
Amara Andrew: Why do I need one?
Well,
Jeff Sarris: you’ll give
Amara Andrew: me one
Jeff Sarris: need. One
Amara Andrew: a popular
Jeff Sarris: Amara Andrew and Jeff Sarris.
Amara Andrew: No.
Jeff Sarris: No,
Amara Andrew: I am just Amara. I’m the only Amara. I’m the singular one. Amara Uhhuh. Follow me and join my cult. You’re Amara. Comment below. Amara. Amara. Amara.
Jeff Sarris: So yeah, so change, we just changed our intro to this because we’re trying to figure out what should it actually be.
Amara Andrew: Well, yeah, it’s helpful to take a beat and just sort of be like, okay, well what is our intro? Then why is it that, and then how do we actually make it reflect what the show is so much more?
Jeff Sarris: Well, yeah, and why do we call it useful, not famous and everything. And it’s because, yeah, we’ve been useful to other people.
We’ve made a career out of that and made money. But also the wider public, nobody knows who we are.
Amara Andrew: No, obviously,
Jeff Sarris: yeah. But that’s important to sort of reiterate, I think. ’cause most people are trying purely to go for fame. And so sort of from the quote, change never fails because it’s too early, almost always fails because it’s too late.
Um, it’s paraphrased from Seth Godin. But if you’ve been focused on getting views and building a platform and more followers and all of these things, what do you think someone should do?
Amara Andrew: If you’ve been focused on views and followers and things
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. And, but you still haven’t made anything out of it.
Amara Andrew: I think this is probably one of the most common things we hear is sort of people are like, oh, well, blah, blah, blah has, I don’t know, 40,000 followers or whatever.
So then they’re just like, well, I wanna get to that. And then it’s like, okay, but why? Or they do eventually get to that point, but then they’re like, oh, this actually didn’t bring me anything. Like it can bring certain. Deals with businesses or whatever, but you also have to be, uh, for lack of a better term, like brokering those deals and making sure that those happen and knowing actually the business of what you should be doing.
So that’s basically what. Fame without having the business like we, you always talk about there is no reason for it whatsoever. It’s just a pure vanity metric thing, which if you have your business or your way of making money or whatever, if you have all of your needs met, that’s fine, go for it. Like fame, you’re a little hard out whatever you want, but most people, the everyday person is equating fame with success and as a way to make money and Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: Fame with money.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. And that is. So completely false and wrong, unfortunately. And then people are misguided to that where you need to first figure out your business, like what is it in service of
Jeff Sarris: and how are you useful? That’s why we say useful. Yeah, because like even not figuring out the business, that feels big, but how am I useful to someone so they will hand me money?
Amara Andrew: Exactly. So like it doesn’t necessarily have to be advertisers or anything like you definitely can. And that is. Sort of, uh, an easier way to go about it. But you can also have another business on the side where it’s like, so we do video marketing for Maven, which is our company. Um, and then you have Spire, your design agency.
But with Maven, like we. Have the business first and foremost, and then it’s like, oh, okay. Then you figure out your marketing or your advertising, which those are two very different things, but that’s a whole other episode we could talk about. Um, yeah. I’m just rambling at this
Jeff Sarris: point. No, that’s about being useful and we want to help reinforce that all the things that everyone is going for collectively are almost all wrong.
Yeah. If everyone is doing it first, that is very, very competitive. Second, more than likely it’s not the right path because as soon as you do like a 90 degree from it, it’s wide open pastures and you realize, oh, all I needed to do, we use the term useful, but I needed to be useful to someone. If I need to make a hundred thousand dollars, how many people can I be useful?
Two. So I get a hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, like if it’s just like a round number and it’s like, okay, well maybe I could have 20 people. Well, if I have 20 customers, then that’s $5,000 each. Okay. So I guess I could probably do that.
Amara Andrew: Yeah, we should even talk about what it means to be useful. So like, sorry, just using Maven as a peer example, like we film with a lot of realtors and do hyperlocal video marketing.
They’re useful to people in their area because we’re having them focus on like one or two cities.
Jeff Sarris: Well, why are we useful to them? So you’re saying that I’m purely talking
Amara Andrew: about them?
Jeff Sarris: No, I know. Um, like what are we helping?
Amara Andrew: Well, we’re helping them do video marketing, but the point that I’m getting to is we like minus us, what we do is we have them be the face of their city.
So they are extremely useful to people who would be their customers and their clients. What is wrong with my throat? So focusing on like, okay, well what do people need and what do people wanna know? Well, people. You live in an area, you wanna know sort of what’s going on and maybe what you, where you should go or all those different things.
So that’s like extremely, extremely useful to people. Um, and that’s just one way you can be useful to people is. I mean, obviously just very literally just one part.
Jeff Sarris: Well, yeah, and that’s where, so Maven is useful to those people because we make it easy for them to get in front of everyone. So then we plan everything.
We’re like, these are the ways that it’s worked, countless times all over to build this platform that will be useful to you because you’re useful to them. So we’re useful to you. So it costs you money. Like it’s, it’s a chain of usefulness. All the way down in every direction. Like if you go to a Kardashian and be like, well, they make a ton of money ’cause they’re famous.
It’s like, because they’re useful to advertisers. So it’s like I talk and think about clothing all the time. Well, I’m useful to a clothing advertiser because my entire audience is here to hear about clothing. So that’s a usefulness. Now if you talk about your town, like we have a hyperlocal platform of our own.
We only talk about that town. It’s the only thing a hundred percent of everyone there is there to hear about the town. And then that means we are useful to them ’cause they want to know that. But it’s also useful to a new business owner who’s trying to be like, Hey, I’m here. I think you guys would love this.
We’re useful to them. It’s up chain, down chain. And they’re useful to the residents. Like it’s just usefulness. No one cares if you’re famous. Like really? A lot of times we hate people because they’re famous.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. Which is also sort of a thing of people are talking about you, whether positive or negative, run with it, never shy away.
Um,
Jeff Sarris: but yeah. So to swing back to the change. The concept of change and not being stuck.
Amara Andrew: Oh yeah. What was that
Jeff Sarris: again? And you rarely fail because you changed too early. You almost always fail because you changed too late. So like, you can look at crypto and NFTs. If we were just like, you know, we should get into like, I wanted to make NFTs for so long.
We should, it’s 2026 right now. And if we were like, we should, we should try doing that now. I mean, that was six years ago.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris: Five, six years ago. It is so too late to do it. But. You look at AI and everyone pushing back on AI and like, oh, they’re just gonna steal all the jobs. And it’s like, we need to fight to keep humans doing this menial task for no good reason.
You’re too late. You like, it’s already here and it’s not leaving. So, okay, how do I change to adapt and grow?
Amara Andrew: Those are still like trendy things, which we try to shy away from. ’cause almost like fame would be in the same vein as trendy, where it’s just like kind of avoid both if possible. Not that you need to avoid.
Either, but for longevity’s sake. But like with being useful, it’s taking those things and like figuring out how you can weave it into your business to make it more evergreen and make it last longer and run way more efficiently.
Jeff Sarris: So, yeah, sorry, I’m, I see that as a tool. So the AI being the AI is just a tool to run a better business now.
Yeah. It’s not a, uh, it’s not a virtuous thing. Either,
Amara Andrew: so
Jeff Sarris: either virtuous or unvirtuous to use it or not. It’s purely a tool.
Amara Andrew: So then how do you interpret the quote, the change? Like what do you what? What does it make you think of?
Jeff Sarris: Well, we’re always adapting.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: So there was sort of the concept of if 75% of your revenue comes from things that didn’t exist three years ago, you’re always evolving.
Like you’re at a really good spot. It’s almost like a rolling three year window. So it’s 2026. So 2023 to now. If the bulk of our revenue comes from things that didn’t exist before 2023, we’re doing something right. If we’re stuck on this is how I make money and this is how I make money tomorrow, next year, 10 years from now, that’s a problem because everything changes and nothing stays the same ever.
Amara Andrew: But can you even operate within the same business and then just sort of. Change and shift what that means? Or is it purely like, okay, we had NFTs in 2022 and then like all in, and then it’s like, all right, get rid of that. Now we’re all in on Maven. Okay. Then like, do you know what I’m saying?
Jeff Sarris: I know what you’re saying, but there’s a different offerings in there.
Yeah, so we started doing Maven like locally. Then we realized, oh, this product is asked for, for us to travel all over. So we started traveling all over. Now we’re doing things locally for a hyper-local platform. The, the travel’s still there, the local clients are still there. Nothing leaves, but it all shifts in its ratio.
So bringing in new things within under the same umbrella is always important.
Amara Andrew: I’m just, I’m only asking because I know when we hear people who change every six seconds what they’re doing, and it’s like, I’m gonna be a firefighter. Well now I’m gonna be a puppy, now I’m gonna be a disco enthusiast, or whatever like that.
I don’t know. I’m just trying to make sure it’s not like, uh, well I’m changing all the time because like, that’s what. That’s where I wanna be very crystal clear. Yeah. Because like you do need to iterate and change because there is that three year window of like, uh, just with celebrities even bringing it back to fame, but like after three years, they need to reinvent themselves, or you’re just like, all right.
Like, bye, get outta here. And it’s
Jeff Sarris: called the Iron Law of stardom.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. I was like, what the fuck is it called? But just to make sure that, because if you’re constantly changing what you’re doing. You do seem unreliable and kind of Fran like, I know people like that where they’re just like, well, today I am making trees, and then tomorrow I’m capturing rainbows.
And then it’s like they’re always onto the next thing and it feels very like MLM sort of vibes.
Jeff Sarris: Well, yeah, it’s not start and over because that’s the thing is it’s fun to start, but it’s an evolution. Never resting on the thing that this is supposed to work. Like, I paid for a class, like a online course, and I learned this in 2021, so this is what I do to make money forever.
It’s like, no, like there was a window maybe that it worked, but now that had to evolve. Otherwise it’s already too late.
Amara Andrew: Well, yeah, that’s insane.
Jeff Sarris: And, but like we, we have this sunk cost fallacy. Like I spent all this time building this thing one specific way. So that means I need to force it to work, which isn’t accurate at all.
There’s different things, there’s different opportunities at different times. Like, um, there’s a cloud brokerage in real estate where there was a window of time if you join the brokerage and you recruited more people, you made a lot of money and you could still be making a lot of money. But now the promise to everyone today is join the brokerage under me.
I make money from you. You bring in a bunch of people, you make a bunch of money. Mm-hmm. It’s not happening anymore. Like it’s already hit its terminal velocity. So the people coming in now, it’s an empty promise because they’ll bring people in, but they’ll never, they’ll never have six figure monthly checks coming in as the person who started in 2020 with this brokerage.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: But it’ll still be promised because it’s like, well, no, this is what I did. You should do it too. Well, every path, once it’s tread, it’s already taken, it’s done.
Amara Andrew: So then that’s perfect for the quote, because it’s like you wanna be an early adopter. So like going back to NFTs. Uh, that, like if you bought a bored ape or a crypto punk or whatever, at the very, very beginning, like I remember we were so early, we saw a bored ape where it was like $3,000 or something.
Like it was very attainable and it went up to six figures, like within a couple months, and it was like. Fuck. I guess we should have bought that.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah, for clarity, we didn’t buy, ’cause we don’t do speculative things like that.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. Because it is extreme. Because now the person, there will always be someone with these trendy things.
There will always be someone at the end left holding the bag. So that’s what we wanna to avoid because it’s like, well this bubble will pop at some point. Like specifically for that crazy wild west vibe that was going on. But that’s like with anything. So like now as you were just saying with the cloud brokerage.
People got in very early. Which, that’s the tricky part about like investing or even just being part of something very early that’s speculative, is it’s the high risk, high reward, which we both, uh, very much shy away from, which maybe we should just jump right the fuck in, but it’s, it is really scary to like jump in like that.
But those people got such high rewards and we know that they did. Do.
Jeff Sarris: And a few people though,
Amara Andrew: very few people, but they were in a, the perfect time, not only monetarily, but then they sort of became the poster children of these brokerages or this brokerage. So then, oh, what were you gonna say?
Jeff Sarris: I just wanted to go back to the high risk, high reward thing.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: So high risk, high reward. So that means high risk. There may be zero reward, which you’re putting a lot of chips in there
Amara Andrew: Exactly
Jeff Sarris: where we are. Low and slow.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: Low risk.
We’re
Amara Andrew: steady.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. Low risk, slow reward. We are long term because ev, and this is something that I don’t think we talk about enough.
Every single thing I’ve ever built as a business still runs to this day.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris: And it’s been 17 years and everything brings in monthly income.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris: There isn’t anything that brings in zero. It’s not all huge. Some things had a nice peak, but they all still do.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris: And that’s important to remember, like I’ve built a bunch of different platforms to be useful to different people in different ways.
Most of them overlap, so design and websites and web hosting and all the technicals of running your business. And then we have our marketing. Then we have a health platform with with a nurse. We have another platform with another partner. Like every single thing brings in monthly revenue and they’ve never stopped.
Nothing has drawn to zero because also we’ve never turned the switch off.
Amara Andrew: Exactly.
Jeff Sarris: So why you don’t throw away what you’ve done, you evolve and change.
Amara Andrew: And I think that’s what I was trying to communicate when I said like, I know people who are just jumping from thing to thing to thing to thing because they
Jeff Sarris: know patience.
Amara Andrew: Exactly. And like it is. It’s a long game. It’s frustrating yet it’s extremely rewarding. ’cause yeah, like you have things that you set up at the very beginning when you first started and they’re still running efficiently. They still are generating income, which is really cool and like you do have to tend to them, but it’s also not.
The longer you do it, the less,
Jeff Sarris: the less tending.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. Like I wanna be careful how I say it. ’cause it’s not that it doesn’t take time because we are always working on everything 24 7. But the beauty is, is we can start up these other things. So like starting up the hyperlocal platform that we have, we have the runway to be able to do that because you’ve spent 17 years, which I didn’t even fathom that it was that long, but like you.
You planted your seeds, you watered it every day. You were out there in the field tilling, weeding, plucking, pruning, whatever the hell else. I have a garden client, as you can tell, so I know some garden things. She, she’s taught me a lot. Uh, but you’re out there constantly for years doing all this stuff and it kind of sucks at the beginning.
Like, I know you’ve said that you were at your computer, 12 or 14 hour days, food set in front of you, still working, working, working. But
Jeff Sarris: it didn’t suck that actually, I just wanna clarify that. I know I liked that,
Amara Andrew: but most people would hear that and be like, what the hell? So, yeah, that is a good clarification.
Jeff Sarris: Well, you gotta be passionate if, if you’re doing that, you need to be like, oh no, I’m excited to make this happen. ’cause I just had a job before that.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. But it’s like, uh, when people say putting in like sweat equity, like that’s what you did. And that’s also what we’ve done with Maven too. Traveling all over the place.
Like people are like, I feel exhausted for you. And I’m like, yeah, you, me, both sister. But that’s like, that’s what you have to do it. Yeah. You have to have the passion for it first and foremost. That is a very, uh, very big precursor. But then literally just having the patience to build things and understand that there will be ebbs and flows in what it is and how it, uh.
How it produces. Like you can’t just do it for the money, which I know that sounds absolutely insane. ’cause I think that sounds insane. Where I’m like, then what’s the point of starting a business? But there are, there is more out there for the people that are like me, where it’s like, uh, no, you wanna have the money.
But having like the passion and the want for it and then also just identifying. When things should be changing and what you can do that’s like the next stepping stone. We talk about stepping stones a lot. So what’s that one tiny step that’s right in front of you that you can see is the next way that you should be going?
Always forward movement and everything is forward movement if you believe it is, but. Just taking that, that next little bit.
Jeff Sarris: Well, yeah, and the patience is so big because if you’re only focused on, and
it’s
Amara Andrew: not easy.
Jeff Sarris: No. Well, to I think it depends. It’s
Amara Andrew: simple, but it’s not easy.
Jeff Sarris: To me, patience, just, it’s like, of course, patience.
But I know, and like TikTok, I know most people are not patient and that’s fine. It’s just different. But if you’re, if your entire anchor of why you do anything is money. You need to sort of pull back and be like, okay, this, you’ll run into a wall and keep running into the same wall because you know money’s on the other side of the wall and you’re ignoring every other turn down the hallway.
’cause you know the money is right there when you might just need to take to mix metaphors, like a stepping stone, like turn left down the hallway and go away from the money because, oh wait, this door at the end of that hallway actually is what? The door to that room. You had to make a left turn, walk 20 feet, then go in the door and now you’re there.
Instead, someone is on the other side of that wall banging away on it for days and months and years and decades, and you were like, the door is right there. You just never looked.
Amara Andrew: And that’s how you get so burnt out on what it is you’re doing and yeah, like even if there’s, uh, I think in content all the time.
So like I know, uh, some people we’ve worked with, they’re like, well, no, I’m supposed to just only talk about what it is that I do. And it’s like, yeah, you absolutely can if you’re passionate about it. But most people have this other secret little passion that they don’t tell anybody about. They don’t post about it, or they rarely do, but that’s where you see them come alive.
And then it’s like, no, you should absolutely be talking about this like little secret passion that you have, because that’s like. It’s so fun to watch people be obsessed and passionate about something. Like we can all relate to that, where when I see someone, even if I have no idea what the hell they’re even talking about.
If they love what it is that they’re talking about that is like so fun where it’s like, I don’t know what you just said, but I can, I can feel it like it’s infectious. It’s how you make people feel that they remember that. Um,
Jeff Sarris: and we need to make people feel something. That’s the whole point of any sort of marketing advertising is make them feel something.
And marketing is everything you post on social media. So like marketing isn’t some fancy term that that only happens when. It’s like, no, if you’re posting and you’re posting a photo of your coffee, that’s marketing. What is it? Marketing nothing. But that is marketing. It’s marketing you. You show someone your coffee, show someone your dog, you, whatever it is.
But then if you want it to be in service of something, you’re like, okay, how can I actually make this useful to someone? And then it’s just like, oh, hey, I am at this new coffee shop. I’ve never tried a Banana Cloud latte before, and this thing right here is kind of amazing. Like, if you have one by you, you should try it or you should come to this shop and like it’s useful.
Someone’s like, Ooh, that’s fun. Let me send this to someone else.
Amara Andrew: Shout out la la land.
Jeff Sarris: Um, but that’s being useful. Now, is it in service of something? Maybe not yet, but maybe you’re trying to be the useful person in your town with hyperlocal content to make change. Mm-hmm. Like to positively impact others.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: Which I wanna sort of pivot right to coffee. Oh.
Amara Andrew: Like, it’s funny that you said coffee shop
Jeff Sarris: because this week we have a brand new coffee shop in town. It opened Friday, so. You listen to this on Monday. It comes out on Monday whenever you’re listening. But the Friday, three days ago, this coffee shop opened seven days before that.
We walked over there and saw the paper on the windows and the inside was almost done. So Amara reached out
Amara Andrew: and mind you, this place is supposed to have been open for like. Since last year, basically?
Jeff Sarris: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so this has been months I’ve been waiting. It’s been six, seven months since it was supposed to initially open.
Five or six months since it was supposed to open. I did
Amara Andrew: the six, seven thing.
Jeff Sarris: You dunno what it is, grandma. That’s, that’s like two years ago. Please stop.
Amara Andrew: Hey, when it happened in the corn maze, that was like peak
Jeff Sarris: six seven. Anyway, um, so, so one week before they opened, Amara reached out and DMed and said, oh, could you tell me a little bit about when you’re opening and could I get a sneak peek?
And at first it was because I have this platform, this is what we do and we help. Place is open. We wanna get people in your doors. And at first it was like, well, we might be opening like next week-ish maybe. And then it was, we’re opening Friday. Do you wanna come in Wednesday?
Amara Andrew: Which also, I need to say, I stepped way outta my comfort zone sending that DM because it was extremely direct and.
We don’t like asking people for anything. And I was asking this business owner, can I come in and do a sneak peek, which I need to remember. This is promotion for their business.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah, it’s for them not, it’s not asking for anything.
Amara Andrew: But this is something that I know people we work with and have worked with have had this same exact thought process where, or like if anybody listening is wanting to get into hyper-local content.
It’s not an imposition to ask them to promote their business. ’cause so many people feel like, oh, well I need to buy something, or I need to do this because they let me come into their shop. You can and should buy something, but not for that purpose. Because I’ve heard that from so many people who are like, oh, well I’m imposing on them by coming in and filming.
And it’s like, no, no, no, no, no.
Jeff Sarris: If that’s what you believe you’re doing, then maybe you are.
Amara Andrew: And people have literally said that verbatim. And I’m like, no, no, this is. You are highlighting that their business exists on your platform. They should be happy with that. So don’t feel like when, if they don’t, that’s fine.
But I just mean don’t feel like you’re imposing because you want to have, uh, want to film there.
Jeff Sarris: When I just wanna say, know that you’re being useful. If you think it’s an imposition, you might present it as an imposition.
Amara Andrew: Exactly.
Jeff Sarris: When you know it’s, I am, I wanna get more eyeballs here because I love this thing that you do.
Mm-hmm. It’s instantly different. It’s a different way you even present it is. I love your banana cloud latte LA
Amara Andrew: land.
Jeff Sarris: I would love to showcase this. Should I just pop in? If you’re asking even. Yeah. So this was seven days before they opened. It sounded like maybe they weren’t even going to open this week.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. Now that we’ve talked in person. Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: I
was
Amara Andrew: like, oh.
Jeff Sarris: I think the ask of when are you opening? I want to feature it ba b com, combined with the little sneak peek when we just did an outside the place, we’re like, it looks like it’s almost open. That video alone. Again, we don’t care about fame. However, this platform is hyper, hyper targeted.
A hundred percent of everyone lives within driving distance or walking distance of this coffee shop. Mm-hmm. Everyone. In the first video without even seen inside was seen by 30,000 people. It was shared hundreds of times. It was, it reached so many people that that impacted, it seems the opening of the rest of the trophy shop.
So then it was like, oh, actually we’re gonna open Friday. You can come in Wednesday. I’ll give you, I’ll give you a whole tour. Explain how it works. That video goes out the Thursday, the night before it opened, did another 30,000 views. Then what happened on Friday when they opened, when there’s no fanfare, no one knows that they were even coming at all.
Amara Andrew: Well, yeah. So for a little bit more context, their profile, they didn’t have any marketing anything set up. So, um,
Jeff Sarris: no address, no Google business, no website.
Amara Andrew: Like literally, literally nothing. If you google this coffee shop, I am the only thing that pops up. That’s fine. So that is what, uh, that’s what allows us to draw these conclusions is basically these videos that we posted.
’cause also, I would not have known if we hadn’t walked by that they were gonna be opening. And then if I hadn’t sent them a dm, I would’ve had no idea. So, uh, never, never doubt marketing. Marketing can can definitely help.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. It’s everything.
Amara Andrew: Everything. So, yeah. We went to the coffee shop when they opened, because also I wanna support them on their first day.
I don’t know what the hell I expected, but it wasn’t what we saw. It was jam packed. We showed up at like noon or one. ’cause I was like, oh, okay. The morning rush will be over. ’cause we’re in like, we’re, uh, just outside Chicago. So like we have like pretty busy train station, which it’s right by that. Um, and anyway, so like I was just like, oh, okay.
It’ll just be like chill. Jam packed, slammed all the baristas, bless them. They were like very happy. But also like I could tell it had been a lot that day. There were like drinks lined up on the counter to be made like so much business, and I can 100% say I doubt it would’ve been like that on opening day because.
None of the marketing, none of the anything was in place. And that’s not a, that’s not to, yeah, it’s not. It’s
Jeff Sarris: them.
Amara Andrew: It’s hard. No, exactly. Because then it’s one more thing you need to think of as a business owner,
Jeff Sarris: but also just one more thing. We also know, because for the 30 minutes we were sitting there, four different people who came in spotted you and said, I’m here because I saw your video this morning or last night.
And then it’s like, oh. This is only in this tiny window and everyone coming in is like, oh, hey, I just watched your video. That’s why I knew they were open.
Amara Andrew: Exactly. Which that is pure magic. Like I don’t care what you say, what you think. And I was literally the funniest part. I was in my pajamas for the first video because it was like,
Jeff Sarris: because we just walked past, we
Amara Andrew: didn’t
Jeff Sarris: plan on making a video.
Amara Andrew: No. But it was like, oh, well we should record this. Like this would be perfect. Yeah. I literally had no intention. I didn’t have any makeup on. My hair was. Greasy and weird and I was just like, oh, we should totally just do it. ’cause also vanity, who cares what you look like? Just the video has to exist. But then obviously we were recorded the sneak peek a couple days later and uh, yeah, we went back this morning.
They said that they were slammed yesterday.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. So before, so that was Friday. And while we’re sitting there, a guy keeps coming in and out with. Bags of bread, milk, all these things. So much stuff. And then, then he looks and he’s like, oh, I’m the owner’s partner.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris: And. Like, thank you for the video.
I’ve had to make four runs today. Yes. Or six runs today to restock because we had no idea this would happen Uhhuh. So now we went in today’s Sunday when we’re recording this. Yes. So we went in Friday. We didn’t go in Saturday. We went in Sunday. Again around noon-ish.
Amara Andrew: Yeah,
Jeff Sarris: it was jam packed. Every seat was full and people were standing everywhere.
Amara Andrew: It
Jeff Sarris: was a lot. And we saw the same. Guy, the partner, the owner who’s helping out for the weekend, because of course his opening weekend. Yeah. And he’s like, Friday was busy. Saturday was busier, busier, busier than Friday. And now, today when we’re in there on today being Sunday seen at jam packed at 1225 in the afternoon.
And he’s like, thankfully, today’s a little slower. But you look around and you’re like, how could it be more busy than this?
Amara Andrew: He was like, I’m really excited to go to work tomorrow. And we’re like, ha, ha ha. And he’s like. No, because it’s actually gonna be way calmer than this. And I was like, oh my God.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah, because he has a job, like he’s, he’s her partner, but she started the coffee shop as her thing.
Yeah. Which, so he’s working his day job. So
Amara Andrew: funny.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. He’s like, it’s actually gonna be a vacation, going to work on Monday. I know, but like, so you also feel a little bad. It’s like, oh, you don’t want anyone to feel stressed. But at the same time, could you imagine the stress of. Three customers this weekend,
Amara Andrew: but also knowing how a coffee shop functions, you’re, it’s trendy right now.
You’re gonna get everybody in, like this is just being super real with any business. You start, you open, you have your marketing, you get everything in place, blah, blah, blah. You have 7,000 people show up, let’s just say, well, a very good percentage of those people may not return. So you wanna capture the people that you can while they come through your door.
And you can have higher odds of having more people. Like I know people from all across the suburbs came to this coffee shop specifically like,
Jeff Sarris: well, you wanna
Amara Andrew: win down offer, see an idea? See it in the comments. Exactly. Yeah. So you wanna start with a larger pool. It’s like top down selling. You wanna start with the most expensive, difficult, biggest, whatever, and then you can work your way down to smaller.
It depends on what the customer’s looking for at the end of the day, blah, blah, blah. But. All that to say it’s so great that they have this huge pool of people. It’s been slammed. Like literally when we were in there, there were people coming in and out. Like so much like I saw, at least I kid you not like 20 to 25 drinks on the counter with more coming in.
I can’t even imagine if they have online ordering in the future. Like I know it’s a lot. And the owner was in the back like making all the food and she’s just like, hi. Ah,
Jeff Sarris: well, yeah,
Amara Andrew: but like all good
Jeff Sarris: uhhuh it
Amara Andrew: just like,
Jeff Sarris: I dunno. Yeah, it’s exciting. And
Amara Andrew: then again, that makes me so happy to see and like from two little videos, Uhhuh, isn’t that amazing?
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. And again, today someone said like, oh, I love your videos. Like, I saw that you posted da, like
Amara Andrew: Oh yeah, she was,
Jeff Sarris: and it, we were just there for a pickup order. We weren’t sitting or anything. And it’s just, and that’s not to like pat us on the back or anything. It’s merely to say the marketing is so vitally important.
Your product needs to be great. But if your product’s great and no one knows that you’re there. Exactly. It doesn’t matter.
Amara Andrew: Yes. That that is the, yeah. This isn’t supposed to be a self-aggrandizing, whatever. No. Like it’s literally what the platform is for. But it’s amazing and very fun to see it working in real time because, uh, or even the candy shop that just opened in town, we went in there and, uh, the woman said that the sales opening weekend at this new shop.
Uh, was 35% higher than the other location that they already had.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah,
Amara Andrew: same opening weekend, which I was like, that’s amazing because we also did a feature of it as well. She invited us in for a sneak peek, which was really cool. So, I don’t know, there is just like so much magic to it and it just like, I don’t know, it makes my heart proud.
Like everyone in town is like, we gotta go and that like people, I don’t know. People trust your opinions and also you wanna make sure you like live up to that.
Jeff Sarris: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So we’re useful to the town, useful to the business owners.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. We connect.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. And then they’re useful to the town. Like everyone is useful.
It’s a whole chain of events.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris: If anyone isn’t useful, if, if the coffee shop didn’t have phenomenal coffee, it does have phenomenal coffee.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: If it didn’t have, I’m really
Amara Andrew: glad they do.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. If it didn’t have good food or friendlys or if it didn’t have the things that are. Fundamental for success, it would not be useful to residents.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: But it is.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris: So then we’re useful to them. Useful to them. And connect in the middle. And that’s all you wanna do. Exactly. That’s, that’s what business is, is just connecting through usefulness.
Amara Andrew: Yeah.
Jeff Sarris: And that’s why people, that’s why money changes hands.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm. Exactly. But yeah, just being useful, being passionate about it.
’cause you also have to care if you don’t care. And that’s fine. People. Don’t wanna do certain types of content, and that’s completely fine, but you have to have that passion for it. Otherwise you can tell when it’s like, oh, they’re just doing it for X, or it helps soften the blow. And people are like, oh, they just did it for the money.
And it’s like, no, I just, I wanted to do this for fun.
Jeff Sarris: Mm-hmm.
Amara Andrew: So,
Jeff Sarris: yeah. And there’s money will change hands sometimes and money will not change hands other times. ‘
Amara Andrew: cause also, we’re not gonna pretend that this is like a charity or anything. Like there is a business behind it, but. Also being able to just be very real with people and be very honest with yourself.
Jeff Sarris: Well, yeah. ’cause you’re building something for a reason. Mm-hmm. And if you’re gonna pour your heart into it, you need to actually be able to sustain it.
Amara Andrew: Yeah. Like I have to eat too.
Jeff Sarris: So we fi you figure out what makes sense for everyone. Like how much is, how much is a slam, slam packed, slam jammed? Like how much is a jam packed opening weekend valued at.
Because that’s something worth considering. Like everything that you do, whatever it is that you’re able to provide, and again, it’s not, I can make content marketing, but this is what we do and what we talk about. But it can be absolutely anything if you’re buying or selling real estate, it could be, oh no, I can actually get you in this door that no one else can get you in.
Like I will make it happen. Like maybe it’s not, maybe it’s a home that’s not even for sale and someone’s like, I. If you ever see that go up for sale, I want it and I will pay you immediately. And then you’re like, I’ll get you in there. You don’t even know the person, but you’re going to make it happen because you’re useful.
Exactly. Like that’s all it comes down to is how can you be useful in the way that you are providing something.
Amara Andrew: Mm-hmm. 100%.
Jeff Sarris: So if you don’t feel useful, it’s time to change.
Amara Andrew: Damn. Right.
Jeff Sarris: Because you don’t wanna be too late.
Amara Andrew: Yes. Change. Change your little heart out.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah. Okay. See you next week.
Amara Andrew: Okay. Bye.