Quentin Gause:
Hi, my name is Quentin Gause, I attended Rutgers University and played for the Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots, and the Denver Broncos. Also, I’ve been in the AAF football league and also currently playing in the XFL while the LA Wildcats. So, you know, that’s kind of my quick bio of me growing up as a kid, you know, the Goss family, my grandpa owned a restaurant, and grandma and grandpa owned a restaurant for 20 years. So they’re entrepreneurial already like this already as a kid, seeing that, lets me know like, you know, I got to work hard. I have to grind. That’s kind of been the mindset since growing up, having my dad, my mom, my uncle Kayla, you know, they helped me get to where I am today with the, with the mental, with the, just the day-to-day grind.
Quentin’s Story
Quentin Gause:
And that’s the mindset like, that’s why I love my family because we are about that, where everybody is accountable to each other to be successful. And that’s what it’s all about. And that’s why, you know, I am the way I am and when I have kids one day, they’re going to be taught the same thing. So, just come from an accountable family, a family that’s grinders, , entrepreneurial base, and yeah, just, I love to help kids out. You have a nonprofit called next level beyond, uh, my family, you know, about iron visuals. You know, our visuals is a digital media company that I started in 2017. , my brother is a co-founder. He also created a company called tour skipper, which I’m the cook ponder of and we’re just continually building, innovating, trying to be different, help impact, uh, the market where we can within the tourism and travel tourism industry.
Quentin Gause:
And also, we’ve done a lot of diverse work with like sports and events spaces as well too. But yeah, that’s kind of a little bit about myself in a short kind of be short with it. I know we have a, I know we have a lot going on in society right now and to be honest, I’m, really hating digital marketers that are going out there and talking about it. So we won’t really dive into that, that much. Uh, you know, what kind of with that aside, what are you most excited about? Like in today’s society for athletes? , not even athletes, maybe just entrepreneurs and how they, what they can kind of do too, you know, career family wise, whatever you want to talk about, like that you feel excited about during this time of our lives.
Quentin Gause:
Yeah. I feel like right now, like is a great time to get as much out of yourself, of your movies yourself. Does your family like, to do what you enjoy and what you love is the best time right now, with the coronavirus and all this stuff going on like it’s the perfect time for you to think about what you actually love to do. Like what do you like to do in your life? Like it’s of just sitting home and doing nothing and wasting time. This is the time when you should be reading books. You should have some time you should be searching, for new industries. , and that time to do that little, uh, hobby or whatever you’ve always loved to do that possibly can make you some money down the road, but you just never had time. Cause he worked the same job for years and never had time to take a break. This is your time. This is your time athletes. , entrepreneurs, you go to work day to day, like this is everyone’s time to find out who they are and your life. What’s your purpose in your life? That’s a hard one to figure out, but what pray about it? Like what’s your purpose and to see. So I think it’s a perfect time for a lot of people to really like get themselves out there, who they are and really start to do what they love.
Zachary Colman:
Yeah. I feel like a lot of people get intimidated by that because they go out there and they go to get a degree and they’re afraid they’re not going to do what they want to do. Or, or as an athlete playing on the field. They just do not feel like they have time to focus on other things. But I think the thing would life is, is that you come to a point where everyone’s gonna make mistakes. It’s about learning from those mistakes and who cares like me? For instance, I dropped off for years. I dropped out, I actually got my bachelor’s when I write during the last recession. So when I came out, it was like, no, there was literally, there was literally like no jobs. It was very, very cheap. I literally had to do like a, uh, uh, it was horrible.
Zachary Colman:
It was like a sweatshop. I had to do like winter, winter graphic design job at like a, uh, a seasonal card company where we are, we’re working seven days a week for two months in a row, like bringing us food. I gained 20 pounds in a month because I was literally there feeding it food in free food so that we wouldn’t, you know, and that wasn’t like, I wasn’t stressed at that time. I was just stressed to get a job at that time. But as I grew and I then eventually worked for the Phoenix suns and ended all that stuff, I knew that that’s why I wanted to do when it was hard for me to leave that job because I loved sports so much, but working for a sports team in itself, there’s, they basically don’t pay you as much.
Zachary Colman:
Cause they pay to say, Hey, here’s free tickets. And it was hard to even watch the games, you know? So it’s hard when you go through that stress. And then eventually I just was like, you know, I’m gonna go out on my own. You know, I taught myself web development and stuff like that. So, uh, and I’ve been learning the last three, three to four years. I’ve been in business. It’s a learning experience. But what I love about it is that you’re always growing and changing. There’s change. I think I like change, you know? So I’m able to, I’m able to process this. If I don’t have a new client, I’m not stressing and worrying about fixing stuff or improving it. I’m learning that using my own businesses. My, Guinea pig in a way really helps with that. Uh, during rough times like this too, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s separated out the strong from the weak.
Leveraging Your Time
Quentin Gause:
That’s so true. That’s so true. And there’s a lot of people that are in this moment right now in our society that yeah. Yeah. Some people have lost their jobs. Some people don’t know what to do with their time right now because they just have so much free time and yeah, like, it’s so true. Like the strong, you said that’s a brief from a strong, a weak, like the survival of the fittest. Like at this point, like mentally, what are you going to do to like you sometimes you got like, sometimes I heard this from one of my mentors. It’s like, sometimes you gotta, yeah, you gotta be out there, like picking up the carbs, like, and it’ll get you to where you need to go. Like, you can’t just give up, you can’t give up. Like, as he said, constant change is happening. It’s happening right now in my business. Like constantly constant change. You know, what I’m going to be successful is going like the next, after this Corona things over, like I’m just coming out the gate, just coming out the gate strong.
Zachary Colman:
And that’s what I keep telling myself too. I’m one of those people, that’s an all-or-nothing guy. So of course at first I was depressed. I am kind of watching the news and, and I’m not really political. I, when people have their side, I’m not going to say good or bad about them because I feel like, you know, as a society, I, I look at it from a business perspective and I see certain things he’s doing well, but I understand at the same time, there is no real right and wrong right now. , but looking at it and trying to say, all right, I’m going to stay positive. You know, maybe, you know, at this point I’m like, Oh, I’m going to get myself. I was gonna, I was going hire two to size, full-time employees this year.
Zachary Colman:
And I was like, Oh, I’m, I’m ready. I’m at that point, took me three to four years before I got to that point. And I was like, well, I’m not going to get any more business this year. I’m pretty sure I look to clients or I was in Illinois and the other ones in New York, they were going to sign on with me and this month. And I’m like, well, that’s probably going to be held off if not completely. So that sucks. Cause you get your hopes up, you know, a lot in business and you happen. It’s like, Oh, well three or four years down the, you know, down and down the drain, but they’re really not because you have to look at your processes and how much you’ve grown and you know, damn, this is I’m not going to do was go out by Google.
Zachary Colman:
Of course, I learned in year one, you know, why would I have someone else teach me something when I could just hire someone? I learned it myself and pay that person to do it, you know? , instead of, so that’s a way to, that’s a way to, for people to learn, maybe you can do a course you’re in the very beginning, but uh, yeah, read, you know, I’m a multitasker. So I, you know, and I a nine-month-old, so I’m, I’m putting in the, I’m buying the book and I’m putting it on while I’m doing or while I’m mowing the grass or taking care of my kid, you know, cause you have to, at this point, you know, and I work from home most of the time. , so my, my business a lot, like what you said earlier, wasn’t really affected, you know, too much-having employees work from home and stuff.
Zachary Colman:
I was just the way I kind of run everything I do. And at least at this point in time. And so, but it does put a strain, you have so much stress and so many new things and what-ifs that, uh, it’s actually harder to work, you know? Cause you’re like, well, everything I want to stand. So it’s kinda like a rainy day in Seattle, you know, you’re kinda like, Oh, well, you know, and it sucks when you see everyone going crazy or upset or you can’t get rid of the news and you like me, we do social media and we’ll kind of get that into the next question a little bit. , I do social media a little bit. It’s not my name, uh, my main sale, my main sell. It’s really the last, last thing I go to, , when it comes to athletes because I think that athletes, I think that athletes need more.
Zachary Colman:
So the conversion kind of situation with other stuff, they don’t understand, like SEO, PBC and the web site and branding and stuff. But, uh, I, uh, I damned as if I, I can’t stand going on social media and seeing all this news and at the same time, like I’m not going to force anything about it, but, uh, it is it’s, it’s, it’s stressful. , so why don’t you tell people first off, what did you like better? Did you, when you were in the AFL, did you enjoy that better than how the XFL was? What was kind of the inner workings that you’re allowed to say, that you feel made a big difference between the two weeks?
Playing for the XFL
Quentin Gause:
Well, I feel like, well the exit polls are way better, I feel like XFL, well, first off, a lot more fans, business practices, a lot, way better, uh, uh, gender to just selling a product. And I found that out after the leak was done, that they wanted to kind of, so this, uh, the technology we’re bedding and stuff with Vegas, and then we were involved. So we were kind of like Guinea pigs basically. So, once I learned some of that from some of my friends who worked in head office and it’s like, man, like it’s not, it wasn’t as fun anymore, you know? Oh, well, okay. I’ll share one thing about the mixing or coach me. That was one, I think that was one of the best experiences. Like I got coached by one of my favorite football players of all time. And I learned so much from him. He taught me
Zachary Colman:
What was his name? Oh, Mike Singletary. Oh yeah. Yeah. Nice man. Nice. I tried to get, I tried to get into the, I tried to get into it, but I think that I, by the time I started getting into it is when he canceled, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to come back next year. I think Vince McMahon did a good thing. And that’s another thing for a lot of people to realize in marketing is that, is that, you know, usually the first thing comes out and it fails, you know, and then something else comes along and says, Hey, we’re just going to copy all the good from that. But then the clientele, the clientele look at it as, Oh, it’s not new anymore. We get it now. So usually works a lot better the second time around. So he learned from his mistakes. I feel, I mean the first time around he’s focused on a complete niche of wrestlers and football players, you know, people that like wrestling and people like, which was a strange small mix. There weren’t too many people that did that. So now that he kind of embraced the NFL and he kind of went in and did that, I think it’s going to be a lot more successful. I watched a few of your placements. You’re doing pretty good out there.
Quentin Gause:
Thanks. Appreciate it.
Zachary Colman:
So, one thing that I wanted to geek out a lot on this because you and I, you and I have kind of some pain points in common when we deal with a lot of these companies that a lot of the people out there yet either don’t know, or they just haven’t hit that point in their business or where they’re at, where they understand. So I thought that we could geek out a little bit here. , so when you, when you look at, uh, an athlete and that in itself, and you can use yourself as an example if you want, but what would you consider a really good athlete brand? , like, do you have anyone out there that you kind of look at or look up to when it comes to not just on the field, but what they’ve done off the field to kind of build themselves up to be, uh, to grow a successful athletic business outside of the game?
Quentin Gause:
Yes. I would say a mixture of a couple of guys. I say, Tom Brady, there’s another guy being Good. Whereas that was on Eagle’s booty. I forgot his first name. , the last thing was a goodie. Well, I’ll start off with Tom Brady, Tom Brady’s brand. I love like how he positioned himself correctly. Like at first, like you didn’t really see him much about Tom Brady, like in his personal life and stuff, like in the early two thousand, like he was, yeah, he’s winning super bowls, but he wasn’t, he didn’t really have like a brand and stuff like that. Let’s see, started putting together TB and came out with a couple of books and really started to push his brand out a little bit more. He really took his time to really start doing that. And I liked his method. And especially like this book he talks and talks about in his book.
Quentin Gause:
Like he gives tips about like, when you’re you lose in the playoffs, I keep training. Like you’re going to the championship. That’s what I keep my body ready for. I threw up throughout the whole year and stuff. Like, I don’t know, guys like that, are very, they take, they take their time putting stuff together with your team. I like how he comes to mind about his brand more than other guys is it’s not J good. That’s what it is not good goodies. He played with the new, with the Philadelphia Eagles when I was there and he invested so off the field, he invested in a lot of tech companies and stuff. And I think he partnered with one to create and I could be wrong sound when you go on Instagram and you see the little circle on, on a, , on an item you want to buy and then pops up, you can buy it right there. I think that was his technology. And he was talking about that back in 2016. So I could, it couldn’t be his company. I’m not sure.
Zachary Colman:
Are you talking about like Google? Are you talking about like Google shop or are you talking about a, I’m not quite sure exactly what you’re talking about. Are you talking about the Ajax feature where you can kind of just click a button and it automatically purchases the product? Or is it like the iWatch feature where it kind of, you can just kind of use your watch?
Quentin Gause:
It’s the feature on? Okay, so let’s just let, I think it may be Google, but I just remember he spoke about that. They had, they wanted to implement on social media at the time. They didn’t have it. Where when you scroll through Instagram and on, if you go to, you know, I’m trying to think adidas.com or virus.com, these clothing brands, and you want it, like, they want you to buy it right now that little, the little white circle and touch it. It pops up that item immediately and you’re able to purchase it right there. It takes you to another page.
Zachary Colman:
I’ll have to take a look at that. I don’t know if I’ve actually seen that yet. And, uh, that’s some good user experience right there. And that’s one thing that, that’s one thing that I is one of the things that a lot of people don’t think about, especially with the low end to your clientele is just do this, do that. They don’t get that. Those things take a lot of money and time, you know, but you know, how much money they spent on doing that, you know? So, Oh, that’s interesting. It’s funny that you brought up, uh, TB 12. I, uh, I actually did a, I’m starting to do, I’m going to be starting to do more of them, but I’m starting to do, uh, my first, uh, was about six months ago. So everyone who watches it, bear with me because it still needs a lot of work.
Zachary Colman:
But, uh, uh, I did, uh, I’m doing a brand analysis of, of players and where they’re at with their brand and how they got there and, and kind of go through their website and their, their online marketing and stuff, and kind of give a rating of the good and the bad. And I did TB 12 and one of the biggest, the most genius things that he did. And one thing that I try to tell players to kind of do, uh, is leverage. So a lot of, a lot of players don’t really know what to do with their followings. Like you probably know with working with some, uh, social media, uh, clients of yours, uh, not even just players, but people, in general, don’t know how to leverage that. And, uh, I kind of went through when it was genius because what he ended up doing is I always tell players, Hey, let’s get your personal account to a certain point.
Zachary Colman:
And then we’ll create your TB 12. For instance, as Tom did, I actually went through this in the analysis and he created his business later on, of course, but he built up his personal enough where he’s not really promoting the TB 12 too much on his personal, but he’s using his personal brand. And then he leveraged it to start kind of bringing people over into the business, on the TB 12 page. , and I thought that was genius, you know because he’s not kind of combining them both. He’s using both, but he’s leveraging one to kind of bring people into the other. It’s kind of a beginning self-selling process because if, if you’re a normal business out there, it is damned. It’s almost, I’m going to say it’s really hard to grow a following and you literally have to post, like Gary V would say, you have to post like every other day for five to 10 years, but like, they don’t get it unless you’re Bates unless you’re doing paid marketing, take advantage of that.
Zachary Colman:
Cause you’re getting a lot of fans on board. So let’s leverage that. But the funny thing about TV 12 is I actually got this aha moment the other day. Cause I was like, he’s, he’s going to be screwed because he’s going to go to another team. And he Reaper, he branded himself around the Patriot. So we use the TV for the Patriots and all that stuff on his brand. And then I realized just now I’m like the only reason he hit, he picked Tampa Bay is because it’s the initials or TV for my that’s the only reason I bet you, he picked that team because he already talked about wanting a team out in California. I mean a facility out in California in California. So now he’s just keeping it onto another, onto another coast instead. And, and I’m like, well, that’s kind of genius. I don’t know if maybe I’m making it up in my head, but I’m like, that’s just too much of a convenience that Tampa Bay is TV and he’s going to Tampa Bay. But, uh, but I mean, yeah, so he knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing. , I kinda answered my next question. Uh, you, when I was going to say, what is your favorite, your favorite athletes brand? You, you’d probably think of that as, uh, as Tom Brady at this moment,
Quentin Gause:
I would say, I mean, I favor his brand and I’m kind of biased for this reason because I went on a mission trip down to Haiti and a mission shirt down to Haiti. And when I went on that mission trip, there was this one organization. We went through to do it. When I went there, I found out something, some information that was like very pleasant. I was like, wait. So they had this facility that is building, right next to this organization. And I’m like, Oh, what’s that? Oh, that’s going to be a field. That’s pleasing kids to run around. And then they’re gonna have, uh, under armor facilities, for workers to build like, you know, create shoes and stuff for under armor and all these brands like really right here in Haiti. So who invested in that? Uh, Carson Wentz to Tom Brady, Tom Brady came down here with us before Carson Wentz.
Quentin Gause:
He actually, Carson actually married one of the people that work here understand I’m like, you know, so Carson was one of my teammates as well too, but Tom Brady like investing and I don’t know, I think what, the way he goes about everything is just, he takes his time. He, he told about it. He’s a good dude in person and being at home and playing on the same team as him. Like, I really respect him, I respect when he goes about it. He has no drama. Like he keeps everything lowkey. Like he, he doesn’t, yeah. He just tries to make them do the best race family and for his brand.
Zachary Colman:
And you know, and you know, that’s, those are the players I personally like to watch are the able players. And I’m a, I’m a huge Atlanta Falcons fan. So I have to have some sort of hatred towards him, hates a strong word, but because of what happened in that super bowl club a few years back, which I still try to forget about. , but I like him as a person. So I like him as a player. It’s always the players that I see that are out there trying to, you know, are trying, try bringing up negative emotions, you know, to tend to, they tend to bring out and hurt their brands when they do that stuff. But that’s genius what they did because they’re going out and they’re helping people in Haiti, but they’re also, they’re also finding a way to be smart in leverage, how are we going to create products and how are we going to create this?
Zachary Colman:
So they’re kind of killing two birds with one stone they’re helping in there and they’re helping grow their own business in the process. So that’s, that is very, that is very interesting. , so when you look across you being, you’re kind of in the same field as me in somewhat of a way, not, not exactly. I mean, your, your visual, your visual, uh, iron visual, correct. When your iron, uh, is a brand agency, but you guys focused on social media and video marketing, correct? Or there are your big focuses. So with that said, have you seen, what are the, what are the things that you’ve, you’ve seen, when it comes to the athlete branding landscape that you think athletes should be doing right now when it comes to, uh, growing themselves, the brand,
Telling Your Story
Quentin Gause:
I think people want to know your story. I think people want to know who you are. They want to get as close as they came to you and feel like they know you since day one. That’s what I think that’s what it should be doing is really telling their stories, do a blog, take time and answer those messages and your DMO take time and do it. Like I don’t care. What if you feel like you’re, I don’t care what you feel like, answer those questions from the people that, you know, the kids, the parents like the excellent, good questions. You know, I know you have the troll or people that troll you and your DM sometimes too, that you don’t want to answer, but try to be proactive and like where they feel like they can like that. You’re there. Like, you know, because think about it for social media users, watch T and watch celebrities and like, Oh, this lady did this movie or this, and now you have access. So utilize your platform and tell your story. I think that the biggest thing today that athletes should be doing is really expressing themselves and telling their story.
Zachary Colman:
I agree with you. I agree with you. A hundred percent of the story is a huge thing. And it’s funny you brought up the blog because one thing that I was really trying to push, uh, from an online search side is that as the blogging, I feel like if a player came out and had a website and I don’t see this too much yet is trying to focus on telling players, Hey, let’s create a blog for you. Let’s, you know, we’ll just, we’ll have you write them, but then we’ll prove freedom and we’ll do all that stuff necessary and post them for you. , but being able to talk to these people in different outlets. Cause I see so many athletes going on right now and going, Oh, I got an article on ESPN. I got an article on it on here. And I’m like, man, that’d be a great backlink for you.
Zachary Colman:
You know, like for your own website, that’d be at geek terms for helping your book site grow. But, uh, let’s create your own blog. You don’t need ESPN, you have your own, it’s a team, it’s a team effort. So build a team. We have a team here that can help do that for you. Do you know? And uh, I think logging is one of those things that are very underutilized right now for athletes. And I agree with you a hundred percent. I do wish that there was a way we could get athletes to, uh, most of what we’re trying to do right now, right? Them to get them to say, Hey, we good idea. You know, let’s go out there and let’s right, because how many bands would want to know about your day with your family and or a training tip that you might be doing or how you’re growing?
Zachary Colman:
I, our visuals, you know, they want to hear that stuff is you as a person. And it does get intimidating for an athlete to go through all their DMS. It does. And there’s a lot, there’s a lot. I have a play right now. I have him on his Instagram on my account because I, you know, we do a lot of their stuff. And so I ignore all those. Those are all his, his personal stuff, but I mean, damn, this is not like 80 of them coming in all the time. And half of them are just funny enough girls saying hi, but you know, but I agree with you. I agree with you on that one. So what’s your best advice for athletes out there who want to leverage, who kind of want to leverage their personal brand, , besides, you know, blogging and stuff like that? What would you say for right now? I know you brought up the beginning reading and doing books, not just for athletes, but for anyone right now, it’s a good idea, but what would you give them advice saying, Hey, how can I, what is the next steps that I started at eight to kind of push myself, push myself forward?
Quentin Gause:
It depends. So I’ll say one thing is like your interests. So what are you most interested in? And I think kind of mapping out your entire then where do you want your brand to go? Where do you want, and what do you see in the near future? Like what do you want to happen? I think if you can map out kind of the beginning to end goal, it obviously will develop later on as well too. But I think if you can map out the whole picture and then you take one step and keep moving forward from there, it kind of helps guide it a little bit better. So I think if the athlete loves to, I’m trying to think, okay. For example, Von Miller loves to give kids three glasses. , we offer to go, he called it a van vision or something. I think he calls it and he wants kids to be able to yeah, see.
Quentin Gause:
So like he pushed it. Yeah. He wants his brand to be around. He just actually had a blog. He started this year. I think we were last year. Yeah. He started that blog and he’s always talking about that. Constantly push that a lot. Especially when I was out there, he was like, Hey, I want to make sure kids are like, can be able to see, like I have problems with my eyes. , but I envision like, this is what it is about. Yeah. Whatever do you want to push, like what’s your cause? Or what do you want your personal brand to be? Do you like wearing chains? Do you like tattoos? Do you like whatever niche find, find your niche, finding your niche? If you find it going to help you a lot more, it’s hard and we’re all over the place. And I’ve learned really learned like niching down helps a lot. Cause you can focus on one crop and then, Hey, maybe that’s happened to another one later, but niche, niche find your niche and that can help you with your brand and find your audience. How did you end up? How did you end up choosing your audience?
Quentin Gause:
Perfect. So my audience obviously had the sports audience that just loves sports. I know when my account is constantly just, Hey, I love you on the Broncos pages. You, so I have that account. All right. My main account, Hey, I have to create another page for my iron visual stuff. It’s hard if I post something, I visuals normally on my bank account, it’s probably not going to get as many likes or follows cause you’re like, okay, what is this? Cool, cool. But I don’t know what the, you know, it’s not, it doesn’t relate to Quintin goddess. So I have to put it within my visuals account, which I created and we made that. So now I get, Oh, awesome video, great creative, you know, videos, hashtagging the right people or the right names, keywords in there to help show it on online. So like, I think with me it took just like we, my interests.
Quentin Gause:
That’s what my interest was. So my all right, I want to create, I want to do all this, create a new page. , even with my pod, my podcast as well too. , I started that like two years ago and I have to be more consistent with it. But even when I get it out and I push content out, there’s a lot of people that, do podcasts that I get a lot of views on stuff or a lot of listeners. And I’m like, wow, like, you know, it’s just about the life journey about, you know, what you go through and everything. So I think, yeah, this year you’re like, you have to kind of separate days. I used to teach 12 to get separated from your personal, but you can kind of let it all loop together. It’s not good. It’s like a big circle. So
Zachary Colman:
Yeah, it is. And it’s yeah, exactly. He said with the TV 12, keep your personal and your business separate. I didn’t have that luxury with my Instagram. Cause I only had, like, I only had like 60 friends that I brought over from Facebook or on my Instagram when I started. And I’m like, I’m not making a new one. And all my friends were like, dude, what the hell? Did you change it to your business? And all you said is business stuff. Now I’m like, dude, I’m like, there’s only 60 of you. I needed to start selling. I’m like, I’m really not the hardest part with me with personally working. And I’m trying to get better at it. Myself is the, is doing the cameras and doing the YouTube stuff and in the podcast because I am a millennial, but I’m not really a millennial. I was born in 85.
Zachary Colman:
So I have a hard time, man. I’ve never gotten a selfie in my life. Uh, it does, it can get put a toll on you, but it’s the consistency it’s like you said, it’s consistency. So my plan of action now is to get a whole bunch recorded, get a whole bunch recorded there during this quarantine. I’m like, you know what, I’m going to get, you know, 10 to 15 videos recorded, not think about editing and stuff. And then to go on a run, you know, and then plan them out for the rest of the year. That’s kind of what you have to do, especially if you’re a one-man show to start. , I have a partner like yourself. That’s great. , you guys do video and uh, is one of the things that I don’t do. So as of right now, I just don’t have the manpower for it.
Zachary Colman:
And I’m one of those people that just said, you know, I’m going to give quality to my clients and I just don’t feel comfortable doing that and taking your money if I don’t feel like it’s quality. So I’d rather just not do it in general. , but I’m learning, you know, I’m doing the videos right now until I hire my full-time employee because we’re all stagnating right now. You know, it’s one of those situations, we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens, but, but that’s true. So, and I always go on a rant with that stuff.
Zachary Colman:
So yeah, leveraging, we were talking about the leveraging of the personal brand. So probably tell us, yeah, the niche, the passion, and you found your niche. I was kind of in the same boat. I actually got business developers all the time being like you’re working with elite athletes, like, like they’re like that market. You’re never going to reach that market. It’s hard. I’m like, I love working and I love working in athletics. Like I’m like, I, I’m not, I love to work out, but I do it for my anxiety. So it’s not like I’m going to go out there. I don’t want to go out there and, and uh, you know, become a trainer. I am already really good at graphic design and web development. So I’m like, you know, put both of my passions together. Let’s help elite athletes in that spot. I saw dad growing up, you know, he would always tell me about when he was a kicker.
Zachary Colman:
, he didn’t play too long, but so we always have that in our mindset and I was passionate about it. And I saw how athletes have that, had that everyone looks at him like, Oh, you make so much money and just looks at them as a fan. And I’m like, dude, it’s hard to be an athlete because it’s hard in different ways because you do have to focus on you don’t really make all that money. Half of it gets taken out in taxes and then you have, if you get injured, you get injured. So there’s a lot of, you know, try to get athletes to realize, look at it, your, your career as a business, more so than a career. Look at it as a business and then help leverage that kind of like TB 12 didn’t prom Brady did and leverage that to help grow the, you know, the other stuff.
Zachary Colman:
And if you’re passionate about, you know, becoming a trainer to a gym trainer, if you’re passionate about opening a gym, the Amis let’s open a gym, do you want to buy commercial real estate open, do commercial real estate, but find something you’re good at because you’re not going to learn and you’re not going to want to learn. If you’re saying, Hey, I’m going to become an insurance agent. You know, if you don’t like selling insurance and they’ll be coming in and syringe, I’d save it. I agree with you. And it really helps from the marketing perspective too, because you can hone in and focus on something. So were you probably similar to me, I will get referrals from friends who have done stuff for, or other people that have seen the previous work that is like, I love what you do need to work, but they don’t need to be in the sports niche.
Zachary Colman:
They come to me and are like, I don’t care that you work with sports players. I want you to help me with my stuff. So you can still get that referral without having to worry about ruining your niche. And he does. I will tell everyone out there that when you niche, it does take a little bit more time, at least for me, for instance, because I’m not an elite player in this industry. So it’s taken me a little bit more time to build relationships and to get the players to understand that I am there for them. And I’m trying to help them in a way that a normal sports marketing agency wouldn’t help them. But once it hits it, it’s going to hit, you know, because I’ll start in and I’ll start getting that. And it’s slowly happening right now. I mean, we’re having this conversation and I’ve had a few players that I’ve talked to already and it’s, it’s slowly growing.
Zachary Colman:
I just started a partnership with another, a retired athlete who all from the business development for athletes. So growing those relationships to try to help people, is key. And so when it comes to the partnership, the partnership talk, I’m going to move the role a little bit here and say, what is the number one tool? So not really a partnership, cause I guess this could be a tool for you, but what is your number one tool that you use, right? You personally use it right now, you can go Kiki on me if you want to. If, if there’s a tool that you’ve used more than, more than a social side.
Zachary Colman:
So, uh, what is a tool, uh, an online tool or a program that you use and it could be a social media platform? It could be, you know, a program that helps you grow your business, could be anything that you use right now to kind of help you feel like you’re getting the most ROI out of when it comes to building your brand and your business.
Quentin Gause:
Yeah. So tools that you utilize well, online-wise, I love utilizing monday.com.
Zachary Colman:
I have money. Yeah. My, my employees. Yeah.
Quentin Gause:
I love it. I love Monday. It’s so smooth. Simple. I could use an air table, but I don’t know. Monday’s just move there. It’s so much smoother. For some reason.
Zachary Colman:
I like the original man. I like it. I like it. It’s, it’s a, no, they are a bit pricey. I will say they’re, they’re a bit pricey. So sometimes I look at it and I’m like, well, maybe I should just move here. And then I’m like, but base camp, not the new things can, doesn’t really help with the flow. It’s nice to just attach something to somebody, give them all the information and then have a list every month. No, I agree with you. Uh, so w everyone that doesn’t know a monday.com is a, what would you call it? A task management system for voice.
Quentin Gause:
Yeah. It’s a task management system to help be able to, you know, make the workflow a lot easier between employees
Zachary Colman:
Or clients. Do you, uh, do you use Monday for anything besides your business? Like, do you use it in any way or possible, like out there when you’re, when you’re playing or to kind of keep yourself organized in different ways?
Quentin Gause:
Yeah. I may use it just for my personal, I put them on, I put up my entire schedule on there sometimes and just, Monday through Friday, my tasks I needed to get done personally, and then business-wise. , I also write it down too, but it’s just, I don’t know. I like having the virtual as well, like checked off, done time. I took to do it. Okay. It took me this long. It’s a little bit too long. I would make sure I trim it down for next time and keep going to the next step.
Zachary Colman:
No hardest point. The hardest part for me is, so everyone doesn’t know, it has kind of an Excel setup for their, their main setup where it’s kind of like a sheet of, like, you can see, you can create multiple tasks, but in those tasks, you can have checklist items. So my, my problem always has been, I’d make like five or six things to do, and then I look into it and I’d start it. And I’d be like, Oh, well, really this is going to be broken up into five, six different steps. And then I’ll like, get intimidated because I’m like, Oh, well, maybe this kind of now has broken up, and then, so I ended up just not doing it because I had submitted it.
Zachary Colman:
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, I think the hard part, so anyone out there right now, that’s, you know, trying to go through a spot where it’s, uh, you know, like you said, read a book or something, checklists do help, but don’t overwhelm yourself. Cause I think that’s the hardest part with making checklists is that you’ve put too large of goals on there. You know, when you say, Oh, I’m gonna learn, I’m gonna learn a different language. And it’s like, dude, like, you’re not going to do it. You know, you need to break that up. You need to say, Oh, I’m going to learn how to do five words in Chinese, or I’m going to watch five videos on this. So if you’re learning a new skill or you’re trying to even build a business, start at the very beginning, you know, maybe look for, look towards getting an LLC, adjust what you want to do, and focus on that first, talk to your accountant or someone about getting a, a business, uh, business account set up and what the best categorization would be for you and stuff like that. But, uh, so lastly, based on, uh, based on your knowledge and expertise, and I think this is going to be a really good one because of where you’re at, where you’re at with, uh, where you’re at, where you also kind of do the same thing I did. I think you’re going to have a little better feedback on this is what it would, because your expertise, what’s the future. What do you see the future of athletes, branding, and marketing look like?
Quentin Gause:
I like that. That’s a good question. You know what? I actually went back and, uh, you know, every year I like to look back and go back to my, my business plan, make some changes to it, especially in the market research area, within our industry, what we do. And one of the biggest things, and I, you know, it was more tailored, like you said, towards more athletes, but I’m kind of like mix it and mix it together. So I feel like the industry is going to be big on streaming and virtual reality is huge for the upcoming future. We need to all leverage that. I feel like some way, if it’s an athlete doing some type of virtual reality video or something, till you go implement it into a game or constantly creating your own show or something like that, you got to take advantage of that.
Quentin Gause:
I think that’s, that is where the future is going. , the market shows it’s in the funny thing is in 2017, when I created my business plan, and put that within the, you know, market research area, it said the same thing. That’s the fun. It said the same thing, but it was like, Oh, it’s up and coming things streaming may be important at some point, uh, virtual reality, uh, is going to be interested within the industry. But not right now. It’s not a big thing. Now it’s 2020 and everybody’s into it. So just imagine where, you know, we’re going to go from, you know, it turns it and crazy. Like it was a movie that came out with virtual reality. It was like, they’re playing video games, but like, they actually had like, they were in it. Like you can actually, yeah, I forgot the name of that movie, but you never know where it’s going to go. So I think being creative and leveraging that, you know, that space, those two spaces, how can you get your brain
Zachary Colman:
I’m for augmented reality. I think that’s gonna push a little more, than virtual reality. , yeah, it’s just so cool. That’s a hard one. Cause how do we, how do you will see that working? Like, like I think it’s just hard because it’s so new, it’s hard to really comprehend. All right. How would I get this? How would I make money off of this? And even me, myself being in digital marketing, yourself, being digital marketing, or you looked at it, like you said, two years later. And you’re like, ah, I still don’t know how to really profit off of it. But you know, it’s, it’s one of those situations where maybe it’s just investing in a, in a different company or, or you start small man. It’s it’s I think the one thing athletes should realize, and I don’t think a lot of them do.
Zachary Colman:
And it kind of goes back to what you said earlier when you said niche is a lot of the athlete websites that I see right now. And the one critique that I say, especially even when I see sports marketing companies create these sites because the problem with sports marketing companies is that they’re not digital marketing companies. They’re, they’re not, they’re not tech, they’re more for helping get sponsorships and to help the athlete grow with PR. And that’s kind of what they really do. So when I see these athlete websites, I’m like, why are you letting your, you know, why are you letting your sports barking? And I get it. I mean, you trust them. But at the same time, I look at them and most of them are all over the place. You know, it’s, it’s like you, did, you separate your brand from your business and you did that.
Zachary Colman:
Most of them, I see is our homepage gallery page. They’re trying to sell merch of some sort or another. And then they’re trying to do like music videos and then supplements. And I’m like, dude, you have like 80 things going on this website. And then you only have like two products. I’m like, if you really want to be any commerce store, you really need, you really need to push the eCommerce site and have that be your hitch. Or if you really want to do a video, you need to do that. And I think that’s one thing I’m really trying to push out there until athletes like, Hey, you work with, and really build a team. If they knew how to, when you were like, when you’re in the game, it doesn’t just take yourself to win the game everyone’s in there. You guys are working as a team.
Zachary Colman:
You do practice every day to try to see as a team. And so you need other players to help you. And if you don’t want to hire a full, uh, you know, a host full staff, you know, hire someone who has a full staff, like someone like you, who has video and social media, or like myself, because web development, SEO, and brand identity, and kind of use that to your advantage, and getting started. So just take steps, you know, and, and kind of look through that as a possibility. , but again, I want to thank you for the call. Uh, I’m, I’m really, I’m not going to say prayers. I’m really hoping, you know, everything’s gonna kind of turn out here pretty well in the next couple of next few weeks with everything going on in society. And I’m, I wish you,
Interview Outro
Quentin Gause:
I wish you the best with everything going on. And well, of course, we’ll of course be talking again in the near future, probably once everything settles down a little bit. , but for, for all the fans out there and all the people watching, why don’t you again, kind of tell them a little bit about what you’re doing right now and, and where they can find you and all that nifty stuff. Fantastic. Yeah. So right now, uh, so I own a company called iron visuals, a branding agency. You can go to iron visuals.com, WW dot iron visuals.com. Also, get us on social media at iron underscore visuals. And then, Facebook, Facebook is, uh, iron visuals, New York, but yeah, check us out. , my personal brand is Q gloss. So if you wanna check me out, I’m always posting some cool videos up there.
Quentin Gause:
, and look for the near future. We’re going to be, you know, what’s, this Corona comes down. , we’re looking to go out to South Africa to go film out there then also, , Colbia and Panama. So we have a couple of things planned. Hopefully this doesn’t ruin the, you know, what we got going on for may, but, uh, now we’re just looking forward to the near future and we hope that, uh, you know, everybody’s able to check us out and, uh, yeah. Thank you for having me on the show. Like I’m excited. Uh, I was blessed to be here. Thank you.
