– Hello everybody. We have today with us on Building My Legacy podcast. Andrea d’Agostini.

– Hi guys, nice to be here.

– And he is very interesting because he is a serial entrepreneur. He speaks French, Spanish, Italian, I’m guessing, because you’ve been on Italian television, and obviously English as well. He’s a creative person. He has hosted and managed a show in Italy, which is quite impressive. You’ve done a lot of work in digital marketing, marketing. And used that creative part of you to really help people build their businesses. So Andrea, tell us a little bit about your background, your history, and how you arrived at where you are today.

– Got it. Well, the reason why I became an artist was actually by exclusion, that I am Italian, first of all. And when I was in high school, I wasn’t coming from a rich family. So I wasn’t part of the rich people. I wasn’t very involved in the politics, so I wasn’t part of that group. I wasn’t partying much. So I wasn’t part of the people that were partying. And so basically I had a hard time to go out with girls. So by exclusion, I was like, well, then I’m an artist. Because I don’t belong to anything, so I must be an artist. And so I started acting and, and practicing this type of craft, which I found to be extremely, it’s amazing. Like the flow of communication you can create through art is quite amazing. And, I then soon I got scripted, I got hired for a TV series. Like a soap opera type of thing, a fiction. And I learned to act in that context, I did a few one after the other. And you know, when you act in soap opera’s, you don’t act normal. You don’t act like, hey, how are you doing? You don’t act like that. When you’re in soap opera’s, everything you say, you say like this, whatever it is, whatever, like, where are the keys? Can you tell me where the bathroom is? Like, it’s the same. You always speak with these like, flavor of sexiness and the voice, no matter what you say. So I did that for a little bit. And then they tried to hire me for an actual role, for like a major TV show, like a movie, for theater. But I still acted only like this. No matter the scene, no matter the context, that was the only way I know how to act. So I was like, I’m really upset. And that doesn’t go right with me. And the director was like, no, no, no, you need to be actually upset. I am really upset. He’s like, no, no, no, no. Like, you did the same thing that you did before. You need to be really upset. But I am really upset. So, it was the only way I could act. And so I didn’t go right. In that context that I got hired for, do some TV shows though. So sorry, to host some shows and, national television, I did over 300 of them. And I had like a great, great, great time. Towards the end of the TV show era, I found that out that it wasn’t, the quality of the communication, what I was instructed to say, and the context, was not really, what I wanted to say to people. And in that same time I did a lot of commercials. I was the actor. And in some cases I wrote a lot of commercials. And I found out that, in my personal opinion, businesses had no idea on how to actually communicate with people. So I thought, well, I think that’s more in being very obvious, which is most television to me. It’s very obvious, what you say as a host. It’s quite obvious. Unless you’re doing investigation things like that. So I went out, and I started to work in the marketing field. So I had, I was lucky enough to land some major contracts pretty quick. And that’s what started the whole, the whole activity. I started in music to be specific. To do the marketing for music, and the music industry. So in 2008 I produced the biggest independent tour in Europe, which was called Aqua Tour 2008. And, the year before I finished college and my essay, my thesis, that’s how it’s called in Italy, the thesis, was on marketing. And was on how to make money in the music business. And so I did it. And I thought I was the ultimate entrepreneur. I thought I was a genius. And shortly after producing this tour, I sold the idea. I sold the idea to a marketing company for a hundred thousand euros. And I thought I was the best. Like I really thought I know everything about everything and I’m just arrived. It just, I should just retire. And then as soon as I sold it to them, they turned around and they sold it for 1.2 million to somebody else. And I felt so stupid. It was so dumb. And that was a great lesson. And luckily I never stopped learning, ever from that point on. Through time, I did beautiful project with Sephora for three years, we did all their digital assets between 2011 and 2013. In that same period of time, we did Lacoste shoes, we did Pandora, the jewelry company, not the radio, in Italy. And in 2013, end of 2013, I decided that it was time to do something else. I was kind of like, okay, I understand this game, it’s interesting, so I sold my marketing agency. I kept a few contracts that were a recurring, and I moved to the United States. And in the United States, I took a year off, and it was in beautiful, beautiful in Tampa. That has one of the beautiful, most amazing beaches, that you can imagine. And I spent some time there. And then in 2014, a small energy company, which is called American Power and Gas, asked me if I wanted to become a vice president there, and take care of the parent marketing. And we did that. We worked very well. We went from be very, very tiny to one of the fastest growing company in the United States, for sure, energy company. And probably general, as a company. We won an award in 2016, from the Tampa Bay Business Journal. And we grew 466% in three years. So it was beautiful, year over year, obviously. And then in May of this year, 2021, I decided that I reached what I wanted to achieve with this particular business. So I had decided to continue in a different journey, teaching entrepreneurs and helping companies to scale. And I’m really enjoying what we were doing now. We launched basically my model, as far as marketing is concerned is not really marketing as a service, is marketing as a product. But I believe the marketing agency model is not as smart model, is not current, with the current times. So we evolve it into, into marketing as a product. So based on the tier that you’re in, how much money you can spend, where your company is, the stage of your company. We accelerate the companies in different ways. And normally we end up participating in the company. So starting in May, between May and now, we went from zero to 67 full-time staff members. We cracked seven figures after the second months. And we’re gonna be, we’re going to pass the eight figure by first quarter of 2022. And it is being really enjoyable.

– So Andrea, would speak more about product, as, marketing as a product, versus as a agency concept.

– So if you think about it, when you have an agency, you have a certain number of services and you try to place the services. Whatever you’re strong in, this is where you’re going to try to place. So there are companies that are trying to say, you know, Facebook is the way. Companies are trying to say this other service is the way, and so on. So those are services. Marketing as a product, it is because, the new way to look at business, in my opinion, in the marketing field, is how can you create long-term assets in the business that you work with? And so participating in the businesses. This way, you’re really trying to do only what’s needed. Like your conversion is determined by what’s needed in that business. Now obviously, to be able to do that, you need a broad understanding of how to scale a business, how to accelerate a business. On average, we can add to a business, a million dollar in less than 12 months, to their bottom line. And this is because I’ve managed, 200 plus sales team, telemarketing team, door to door and high ticket consultants. I have done marketing for a beauty industry with over to 250 brands for fashion, for consulting firms and so on. So I understand supply chain, I understand pricing, I understand sales and scripting. How to delegate, how to build infrastructure. And so one needs to think about marketing as if you are plugging a product into a company. And as if you are trying to build an asset, for your business. In fact, I have a holding company. Like we start with, usually we call it acceleration program with a business. The business wants to work with me. They come in, we put them on a very straight acceleration diet, where they have to accomplish certain targets and certain points by a certain time. And after a little bit, usually we want to evolve the relationship, and we end up participating in the company, in different percentages. And my staff takes over most of the marketing functions, and we mentor the CEO on how to build the business, and scale it quickly. And that’s really fun, and it’s really beautiful, because you create, you create wealth, you create survival, you create people winning, and that’s beautiful. I think entrepreneurs are artists in their own way, because they are, they have to create their company every day. Every day you are creating it. So to me, that’s art. And I think that part of the job of the entrepreneur is to re-educate society. And I think that the renaissance that we are hoping for in the near future, is not going to be created by banks, or by politicians. It’s going to be created by entrepreneurs that really put innovation into motion. And when I say entrepreneurs, I would like to put one specific in that. In my definition of an entrepreneur is someone whose product actually does something for society. There are certain activities right now, like when let’s say, there are a lot of activities related to finance, like multiplying money by using a bot that makes exchanges in the crypto world. I own a company, I own 20% of a company that does exactly that. I don’t believe in that model. So for them to work with me, they had to evolve their model, in something that contributes to society. Just multiplying the money, is not a good thing. It seems good because it, you know, it appeals to the model that we have today, which is the Instagram model. Like life is what you show on Instagram. But actually, you’re not doing something that contributes to society. Just multiplying money, there is no exchange. There is nothing that you are giving to society. And unfortunately, it’s a perversion that right now, I see a lot in business. Just doing things for the sake of money, is actually an incredible enemy of excellence. Like if you want to be excellent, you’re not doing it for money, you’re doing it to be excellent. And to give an exchange to your customers, and then money comes in as a result. But for the sake of money, it’s enemy of excellence, you can do a horrible product and find a way to trick the customers into buying it and making money. But that’s not the game that I want to play.

– So Andrea, how do you get, and how do you decide or know, when a company has a product that’s good for people, for the overall benefit of society.

– So first of all, you look at the product. You check the product, you see the product, you try the product. You know, and so you have a subjective experience on it. Then in the first parts of the process, when companies work with us, one of the stats in the execution, find out whether or not your product creates word of mouth. If the product creates word of mouth. So people, it exceeds the expectation of whoever is the target. And so it talks about it to others, and others buy it, and they talk about it, and so on. That’s a product that he’s exceeding the expectation of whoever is the person that you are targeting. And that’s a very good indicator. So there is a subjective aspect, that is looking at the entrepreneur, and understanding his intentions. There is looking at the results of what it’s getting done, getting created. And then there is the, what the customer says about it. So those are the three main factors that determines whether or not a product is right. Sometimes, sometimes I might fall in love with the entrepreneur himself. He might not have found yet, the right optimized product. But he has amazing intentions, and he really wants to create it. And he really wants to go through the process to make it incredible. That’s worth, that’s worth to me, you know, that’s, that’s worth to have one another and try to do better. So I like that too.

– So how do people, you have a, I want to go back just a moment. You have a very specific selection process that you, put people through. You have a tiered process in a sense. So people start at one level and then you move, you have a very specific process you take people through. You have an initial, almost testing process, a pre process, a pre-application, a pre getting to know you process, or a getting to know you. Then you accelerate people into, now that I know you, let’s start seeing what you will do, and can do, are willing to do I think. And then let’s get it done. It’s almost like a three step process that you have from what I’m hearing. Is that correct?

– It’s a five steps process, but yes, you are very, very, very correct. You’re very correct.

– So tell me, tell me your five step process.

– Okay, so beside that initial interview and understanding and liking the business. If we start, we go through a process that is called finding gaps. So usually a business that has already some sort process existing, some activities occurring, and our game is to check their process against a map that we have built, on what needs to be there for a business to accelerate. The area that normally businesses are more, have more problems with, they think they have a problem with sales and marketing. Usually it’s deemed incorrect. They don’t have a problem with that yet. They have a problem with something that happens before, which is the phase where you, we call it a market analysis to make it simple. But is the phase where you theorize what problem you’re solving with your product or service. You test how you are communicating it with the audience. You define how many audiences you have, and then you build a successful way of closing. So you’ll be able to basically, you create a feedback loop, for which you manually, or don’t use automation at that point, use very little automation. You test how you’re going to get to the close. And how, and if you’re going to get referrals or not, from what you have done. So that part is normally what people, or business are missing. They have usually the wrong premises on what will sell. And normally they have built the product before checking whether or not it’s solving a perceived problem. So they build the product, they invested a lot of money, and they’re like, and now I am, I don’t know how to sell it. And normally it’s not the product, so they have to modify it or fix it in various ways. And so that’s the first phase. That’s the first we do. Second phase is when we go into marketing. And so we, and we expand, the creation of demand. The third phase is, sales go through, the first phase of marketing is not paid advertising. It usually is building your mailing list, and testing that the initial communication that you know, is that you think you know, is going to work. It keeps working on broader numbers. Then you’re go into sales and you do the scripting. You define the exact sales process and conversion percentages. And then you go into paid advertising. So you’re going to start to increase the number of people dramatically. And at that point, you plug in external sales team. And it needs to keep certain percentages of conversion. And the final step is the actual scaling of operation. Because at this point you will have more sales, more demand, and you have to scale the company. Which means entering into the, how you hire, how you position, how you train your people. And so on, so those are the phases.

– So when a company decides to come and work with you, Andrea. They are, they’re past the startup stage. Generally, I’m guessing, because the biggest problem that entrepreneurs, startup entrepreneurs have, is they have a poorly conceived idea, yet it’s not tested sufficiently to really be able to accelerate it, right? So at what point do you really get engaged in businesses?

– I have a really a variety, we have over 400 companies that are in different stages of execution, within our ecosystem. Let me give you three different examples, just to make their examples. One company is definitely startup. He was, he started with us as a startup in 2019, end of 2019. It started with us. We scaled this company, this company was making $9,000 a week. And it was weight loss technology, they were making $9,000 a week. We scale it to $67,000 a week. And now we partner with them. Like now I bought 35% of the business. So that was, was a startup phase. And they had all sorts of things to fix, like a plethora of things to fix. Another company, and this one is called Body Contours. It’s in L.A., now it’s also in Tampa, because we started a franchising. It’s in Atlanta, Tampa, and in other locations. Another one is called the Viva Concepts. Viva Concept is a, roughly a $30 million company, in the marketing field. That aims to really accelerate the growth of dentists. They have a an incredible method by their geniuses. And we started with them, September, in the beginning of September. And we are solving a specific set of issues that they have because most of their system is pretty, pretty good. They have a couple of areas where we can optimize and make the difference, and like double the company or triple the company, for sure. So that’s another example. And then, we have a wine company, just to give you a very, like a broad spectrum of kind of businesses, which is called Tenute di Don, it’s an Italian company, an Italian winery. That, I don’t like wine, but I like that wine. Like I don’t drink at all, like nothing. But, so I am boring in this sense. But this particular wine is amazing. And, the owner of the company is like, is a man of honor, like is really an incredible, incredible guy. So I liked a lot the company. And he was like, after me, he tried to get me to pay attention to his thing. He bought every possible training that I have ever put out. Was there at every seminar that I’ve ever done. And he kept asking me, can you please work with me? Can you please work with me? So we ended up working with them. They are, they have a production company, that is at five million dollars, where they are servicing other brands. And then they have their own brand, which is just above the startup phase. Just like, we can say it’s a startup phase. So we started with them. I love the business. And now I took 50% of the brand, because I love it. So, the companies are really different one from the other, I know very well the food and beverage industry in the United States, as well as in Europe. So it’s something that I am, I know we could make, like a substantial difference in the business. But those are very different one from the other. And what I love about them is the quality of the entrepreneurs, for sure. The heart or the entrepreneurs, and their desire to do something that truly contributes to their customers. So I really like that. And this is just to give you some examples. So it really depends on what I found out is, if there is a common category amongst the people that wants to work with me is that they know they need to invest in themselves, and their understanding of the processes in order to scale their business. So it’s not about the size of the company, it’s about the understanding, that there is a need that they need to satisfy. And they have to find someone that had a broad experience to be able to satisfy all those areas. So that’s a common element. I found the people that wants to work with me. I consider them a renaissance men, renaissance people. They want something more, they don’t want to buy three Lamborghini or things like that. I, in fact, I have an Instagram account, because my team wants me to have one. If it was for me, I won’t have it, like, I don’t want to show anything. Like, there’s nothing that I want to show. But sometimes my guys want to post pictures of things, and I, sometimes I take them off because I’m like, that’s showing off, I don’t like this stuff. It just doesn’t belong to me, it’s not the direction that we are going for. It’s really not, also because you know, I know a lot of people, as do you, I know a lot of people. And some of the entrepreneurs that I know are very, very, very, very, very wealthy, in terms of like, I know even a couple of billionaires. And many, nine figures entrepreneurs, and so on. That doesn’t mean that they’re happy. Like most of them have a life that I’m like, yeah, I ain’t gonna, no, I’m going to keep mine. I don’t want to have that, as a life. So, you know, Instagram life, and then life are two very different things. So we should focus more. I’m writing an article for Forbes right now, which is Metrics of Success. Like Metrics of Success. We hear this word successful a lot. Oh so successful, successful, right? But what are we using to measure it? If it’s like that your bank account needs to look like a phone number. Okay, if that’s your stats, then that’s your stat, it’s not mine, because we should, what if, for once we try to find out a way to measure quality of life, kindness, how helpful you are, how trying to contribute to society. I don’t know something other than just the scoreboard, which is, money is the scoreboard. And it’s an interesting philosophical discussion. I am presenting some theories on how could you measure success? And I think is really worth it. And I think we need it. We have been educated to, to Instagram culture, where life is the life that portrayed. It’s not real. Like it’s not that.

– I would agree with you there. And what I like about your philosophy is, and about your posting, is that we have so much hype right now. Nothing is believable. So, you know, I see things on internet. People say, I do this, I do that for you. And you go, okay. But so do I thousand other people and none of it’s true.

– Yeah, yeah. You’re so right Lois. It’s so true. Yeah, I totally agree. There are many gurus that, you know, that like, here’s how I made $50 million in 20 minutes without working, I’m like, who does want to do that? Like if the purpose of working and finding a job is to make money so you can stop working. If the contribution, what you’re adding to society, is grab some money so you can go on a beach with a drink. If that’s your contribution to society, there is something fundamentally wrong in how we are thinking society is. Like it just cannot work. If everybody would do that, we won’t have anything, like zero, it will collapse. So they can’t be the right way. It just cannot. So, I think we are on the verge of some sort of evolution, and I’m not talking about like a spiritual evolution or anything of that sort. I think that people will look around and like, this thing probably won’t work. And so, they will probably start to think, well, probably I need, probably need to contribute to society. Let me think about it for a moment. Maybe, maybe I should do something more than find a way, there was a lot, there are a lot of like tricks right now, right, tricks. Because we are in a society of templates, right, so we were trying to trick the guy into buy the product. So we can get enough money and then stop working. And to me this is insane, if you, if you’re doing something that you’re passionate about, why would you want to stop? Like why then, it’s false. And that’s why I think we have a lot of these type of posting, and this type of content. Then I think it’s amazing, like what you have experienced in your life. I read a little bit on LinkedIn, is amazing. So if I can ask for something, I would love a few minutes that we have available now. And then maybe a whole episode in the future. I would love to know your story, because you said mine is interesting. Yours is way more interesting than mine. I would love to know your adventures. I think you had a life full of it.

– Well, thank you for that. And I would love to have another episode, and to share some of those stories. And you know what I think Andrea, here is I think where the power lies, and we talk about leadership loosely. We have books on leadership and I interviewed Pasquale, a fabulous guy in leadership. And he asked the question to begin with, when we have all the research on leadership we have, and we have all the problems we have, leadership is doing something wrong, because we haven’t solved the problems, right? And so you look at that and you go, okay. And part of, I think what comes is, people who have experiences, you, me, a lot of people coming and looking at how do we do this differently? Very differently. So I would love to continue that conversation.

– Well, thank you very much. I would love to continue it as well. And it was a pleasure to share a little bit of it with you.

– Thank you so much. And for those of you who are listening to Building my Legacy podcast today, thank you so much for being with us and remember to visit our website at www.build2morrow.com. And Andrea, you have been just wonderful. I appreciate your perspective in this world of hype. Your pragmatism, but your sensibility that you, you bring to it. So thank you.

– Thank you so much for your words. It was a pleasure being with you. Thank you very much.

– You’re welcome.