This is the full transcript for Episode #301 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Ross Simmonds – Create Once, Distribute Forever, Foundation Founder. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Ross Simmonds 0:00
You just have to get over, in some ways, your own fear and say like this is the only path forward.
Max Branstetter 0:20
Hey, did you miss me? I don’t know whose voice that is. Welcome back to the Wild Business Growth podcast this is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning who’s turning wild ideas into wild growth. And I’m your host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer at MaxPodcasting, and you can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is episode 301 a whole new century. Ooh. And today’s guest who has to deal with this corny intro, sorry, Ross. Is Ross Simmonds, Founder and CEO of Foundation, an awesome, awesome marketing agency, and the author of Create Once, Distribute Forever, an awesome, awesome book. In this episode, we talk Ross’s journey from fantasy football blogging to Foundation to why he’s so big on creating once and distributing forever. A look at the top deathbed regrets and how they have shaped Ross’s life, and everything from Lupe Fiasco to whatever the opposite of a fiasco is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, it is Ross. Enjoyyyyyy the showwwwwww! Aaaaaalrightyyyyyyy we are here with Ross Simmonds, someone who I’ve been looking forward to speaking to for a very, very long time. Shout out, actually, ever since I looked it up episode 178, Amanda Natividad, mutual friend shouted you out on the podcast, and ever since then, I’ve been excited with your stuff. But anyway, I should probably say your name. Ross Simmonds, Founder and CEO of Foundation, just an awesome agency, author of The we’ll still we’ll call it hot off the press book, Create Once, Distribute Forever. But Ross, so excited to speak with you about all things business and probably mostly fantasy football. How you doing today?
Ross Simmonds 2:22
I’m doing well, Max, thanks so much for having me on. Super excited to chat today about business and, of course, a little bit of fantasy, if we can throw it in the mix.
Max Branstetter 2:29
Yeah, yeah, of course. So who are you drafting? No, I’m just kidding. That’s
Ross Simmonds 2:33
I would be down for that
Max Branstetter 2:36
the first mock draft. No, but really excited to get to your agency story and your book story especially. But instead of starting at the start, which is a tongue twister in itself, something I noticed that you did, I think it was earlier this year that I’ve been enjoying following year round on Instagram, was you did a vacation to Italy with your family, yeah. And I think you called it workcation. I did.
Ross Simmonds 3:01
I called it a workation, yeah, 100% so it was our second annual workation in Italy as well, which is a place near and dear to my heart now after two trips. So
Max Branstetter 3:13
first of all, where did you go in Italy, and why is it near and dear to your heart? Yeah. So
Ross Simmonds 3:19
it started last year. We wanted to just like, do a big family work occasion. And the hypothesis was, let’s just live somewhere else for a bit of a good chunk of time. So we took the first time, I think it was about a month and a half. The second time was a month in two weeks or so. And we wanted to go to Italy back to back, because we fell in love with it the first time, the first time, we were attracted to it because of the culture, because of the food and the pace of life, and we wanted to kind of just, it’s, in some ways, I say, the pace of life, but like I live in Nova Scotia, the pace of life here is pretty slow, too. It’s pretty chill, it’s pretty relaxed. But we wanted to also have a lot of heat and sun and good food and good drinks and cheap prices, and be able to experience that with the kids. So we went to Rome. We did a small place called Gaeta, which funny story was found by this gentleman. That name was John Cabot, who found Nova Scotia. So we didn’t know that until we got there, but Giovanni Caboto was his original Italian name. And then we get there these statues and pictures and stuff about this guy who was able to find found like Nova Scotia was just like mind blowing for us. So we experienced that. We went to Tuscany in the Florence region, and took in those sites. And it blew my mind just driving through the hills, and I seen, like this scene where it was like beautiful green and this blue sky with the cloud. And I stopped for a second. I was like, that looks super familiar. Like, what is that? And then I I looked at my wife, I was like, that looks like Windows XP. Like, if you remember Windows XP, they used to have that background, and it was that. So I go on Google and I look it up, and it was literally came from a street, or, like, an area within TAs. And I was like, wow, this is wild. So we did that. And then there was another place that we went. We did Rome, we did Tuscany, we did Gaeta, Naples, the birthplace of pizza. And I gained a lot of weight,
Max Branstetter 5:12
but I was gonna say, You look huge. No, no, you svelte as always. But that, that is an incredible trip, really, I guess, like your life is like blending the online and the offline space. You got the windows background there. So cool. My wife, Dana and I did our honeymoon in Italy. Nice, inspired by many of the same reasons you want to go there. And, of course, we did the, I guess it was different order, but we started in Florence. And then did you know, the Chianti region, a bit nice. Then we did Rome, and then we did Naples and Amalfi Coast, so we hit the same spot. So, yeah, kind of overlapped different time.
Ross Simmonds 5:49
Itching to do the Amalfi coast. But right now, I have to bring strollers with me, and I think Amalfi would be nice to strollers, so I’m avoiding that until the little legs are bigger legs and they can, they can chase us up the hill. Totally,
Max Branstetter 6:01
yeah. I we were one of the biggest, like, shocking things from there was, like, I mean, you see, you know, like, Positano especially, is, like, you see these beautiful hillside towns, and it’s just, it’s just gorgeous, and then you don’t realize, to you’re there that, like, wait a second, you have to go up these stairs, right? Yeah, the entire city is stairs. And so I don’t, I’m sure people try to bring strollers there, but it’s we were impressed by, we were impressed by the amount of like, like, senior citizens that live there, and just, that’s just all they know is that lifestyle. But no, it’s wild. So awesome trip. I do have to say that I there was some Instagram story you posted where you did, like, a 32nd just video walking around. I don’t know, maybe that was in Tuscany, or maybe that was the place by Rome, but I probably watched it three or four times because I like this is giving me peace. Just watching.
Ross Simmonds 6:44
I love it, yeah, it was a great vacation. We had an amazing time. And just like the energy was was unmatched. It was awesome.
Max Branstetter 6:53
How do you have a successful work? Cation,
Ross Simmonds 6:58
yeah, great question. So the beauty of going to Italy is like, you’re able to live the day before a lot of people wake up that you work with. So for us, we were able to kind of get up and go about our mornings and even a bit of our afternoon. And then my team, who’s primarily in North America, were just starting to wake up. So at that point, I could spend an hour checking in on emails, making sure that everybody had clarity on what they needed to do, their direction, all of those good things, and then come back after bedtime, and folks would be wrapping up their day and start to take a few calls, meet a few folks, talk to any prospects, any deals needed to be closed, et cetera. And that allowed for a successful workation. Now, in addition to that, the biggest thing that allows for a workation to happen for me is to have systems and people in place who you can trust, and that have been tried and tested. So at Foundation, we’re not just a rossimmons.com show anymore. Like back in the day, a workation would have felt a little bit different, because I was the start, the middle and the end of a project in the business at large. Now I have a bunch of great, brilliant minds at Foundation who understand things way better than even I do. So clients don’t want to talk to Ross when it comes to certain things, because they know that there’s other people on the ground who have way more deeper expertise in things like Reddit, in things like social media, in things like SEO and content, and they want to work directly with their strategists, with their account managers and those people, and they don’t want to talk to me unless it’s like me coming in to kind of do an educational session on something that I’ve been working on, a research project, that I’ve been trying, an experiment that I’ve been toying with, or a new hack that I have uncovered that might bring them some ROI to an opportunity. So the day to day is oftentimes not necessary for me to be involved in the mix. And the way that the workation is successful is on the back of the great people that we have at foundation. Yeah, that’s
Max Branstetter 8:52
that’s so nice to to have that feeling of like, you know, what I can like, you know, still check email or whatever, but like, I can take a step back and just let the team do what they’re great at,
Ross Simmonds 9:02
exactly, and I love the game, like I would never be able to say, Oh, I’m unplugging for like, I think a work of full vacation would actually give me anxiety and stress, not because I don’t think things would get done, just because I need, I physically feel like I need to have something that I’m pursuing, that I’m chasing, that is getting me excited. I’ve probably got, like, undiagnosed add or something, but I just love, I love the game, and love being wired into some type of business opportunity at all time. Yeah, it’s
Max Branstetter 9:32
interesting you say that, because this is, like, a case study, like I just did with my business, and, like, also did it for that said honeymoon, yeah, last year was that both I went the route both times, of being, like, completely unplugged from the business. And while you are over there, it’s awesome to be like, All right, I can relax. Like, I mean, I’m in the podcast production space. So, like, obviously, podcasts, you can schedule in advance. You can schedule blogs and things like that. So a lot you can do leading up. To it. But definitely there is, like, there’s always that underlying feeling of, like, all right, like, what, you know, what
if there’s a fire drill, or what if there’s something that needs to be tapped into, and also something I would do different, like, in the future is, like, the four to six weeks leading up to the trip, I’m really, like, working like crazy just to try ahead, right? And you can do that for maybe a week or two, but like, for a month or over that like, it is not sustainable. And now I’m, like, making sure I get full night’s sleep every night on the way back. Like I’m definitely changing how I’m approaching stuff. So
Ross Simmonds 10:30
that also comes with age. That also comes exactly, maybe back in the day I was that’s the underlying because the enemy is like the cousin of death. I would, I would be very proud of myself for working until 3am and waking up at six. Not happening now, it’s just not a, not a thing. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 10:45
that’s the the age monster, is what I’m subconsciously rearing its head. So
you talk about your team, let’s, let’s get to the team and the awesome agency that you’ve built and team have built, so foundation, I guess we’re going in reverse now, because we’re going work occasion to Foundation, which rhymes. But
I know that before you even started foundation, you kind of made Your name in the blogging space. And one of those areas that you developed some blogging expertise on was fantasy football, which I’m sure when everybody thinks of Halifax, Nova Scotia, they think fantasy football blog, right? Every time, every time, where did you fall in love with fantasy football, and how did you start to actually create content around
Ross Simmonds 11:31
it? Yeah, so I would have been in university when I fell in love with fantasy sports. I was one of those people who, if anyone asked me to join their fantasy league, I would say yes. And at one point, I think I had 12 leagues running in a in a single season, which was absolutely chaotic. That is stress. Yeah, it was stress, but it was fun. And when you don’t have many responsibilities outside of your marks and your tuition, and you’re kind of bored by Shakespeare, you kind of use that to kind of fill the gap. So I was spending a lot of time playing fantasy sports. And I was like, Okay, I’m spending a lot of time learning this. I need to monetize it and try to find a way to make some money on the back of it. So I decided that I was going to do two things. One, I was going to improve my writing skills, because I always had this idea that anything that is taking up my time, and again, this goes back to like, what I was saying around work. I love the game. I always wanted to be efficient and improving. And whatever I’m doing, I want to view it as a way to kind of get better. So I viewed fantasy sports as a way for me to get better at understanding how to use a spreadsheet. I viewed it as a way for me to get better at writing, and I went all in on it. So I started a blog writing about that for sites like sportingnews.com whereas creating tons and tons of pieces. I had three columns that I was creating every week. One was about essentially looking back at the week and saying, like, This is who you should be picking up on the wire. I would do, these are the people that you should be trading for, buy low, sell high, kind of thing. And then I had a starts of the week kind of column. And I would do these three things every single week, and it gave me a lot of the skills that I then translated into Foundation, and I was able to pay for a good chunk of my tuition on the back of this by setting up, like, affiliate deals and a whole bunch of other random things with eBay, etc, slinging jerseys and stuff like that. And I was able to, like, generate some income on the back of the internet. You fast forward though those those years of like creating content on fantasy sports gave me a deep understanding of how to manage communities. It gave me a deep understanding of the importance of like, managing your own calendar to create content. It gave me insight into what long form content was. But more than anything, it gave me the confidence that a small town boy in Nova Scotia could literally reach people all over the globe with content. And that was an unlock for me. It opened my eyes to the fact that if I press publish on something on this thing called the internet and it’s valuable to people, they’re going to share it, they’re going to read it, they’re going to use it, they’re going to even make decisions with their own money around like fantasy sports, based off of what I say. And that mental shift changed the entire trajectory of my life, where I started to realize that this internet thing isn’t going anywhere, and while I’m in school studying marketing, I should probably ignore all of the conversations we’re having about radio ads, print ads and billboards, and start to focus on this thing called social media and whether or not I can do advertising in that so I pivoted a lot of my side attention to learning that game. Applied it to my fantasy football blog. My Mark started to drop. My mom was like, hey, Ross, why don’t you just start writing about what you’re learning in school? I launched rossimmons.com started to write about marketing, started to write about business, things that I was learning, etc. Started to get inquiries from brands all over the globe. One brand in particular that reshow was Bacardi, and they wanted me to come down and talk to like their C suite about marketing. And it just blew my mind that that, again, could happen to a kid who’s living in his parents basement drinking instant coffee, probably like $200 in overdraft, like no money to my name. And they wanted to pay me to come down and speak. And again, a new light bulb came off, which is like, Oh, if I produce content in public, then people will give me money, and people will trust me and be willing to fly me out to Miami wild. So again, a huge pivotal moment in my mind, where I was like, now opened up to this B to B world, where I can sell to other businesses and then go down that path. So long story, a little bit longer. Started with a lot of blog got some traffic, and then from that traffic turned into Foundation, and we keep blogging, even till this day
Max Branstetter 15:34
we’ll have to thank I have to, I can’t even pronounce Thank you anymore. This is where we’ve gotten. I think it was all those hours leading up to the trip, but I have to thank you for using the word wild, because it’s a very special word on this podcast. But I love those that’s like a chain reaction of light bulb moments that you had, of like, what really kind of pointed the direction of your career, and like, the next stops that you would have once you got to the rossimmons.com like, what was the bridge from that to actually starting officially foundation and building that up? Yeah.
Ross Simmonds 16:07
So in the first year, I worked at an agency. I was working at another company, while doing some side projects. I ran an event company. I did a bunch of side things. As I mentioned, I love doing things, and then I put in my notice, and I quit, and I was doing my own thing again. So I was starting my own agency, and it was under the name of rossimmons.com and I was all in on it. I had two clients or three clients at the time, and it was worth probably about 30k I think I was 25 or 26 at the time, but when I hit 27 I did my first quarter million year, and when I did my first quarter mill, I was like, Okay, this thing has some legs. I was still just myself, no employees, just like, working with a few freelancers here and there to support on some projects. And then I was like, okay, if I’m at 275 like, what does it take to get to 500 and I quickly realized, like, looking at my bank account and looking at the money, I was like, Okay, I could probably bring in somebody for 40k in Canada, there’s a lot of grants to hire new grads. I was like, okay, and I could probably get a grant to cover 50% of that, but that’s like, 20 grand of cost. I’m already making 27, five, I’m still making 200k like, I was happy when I was making 30k I’m gonna be happy if I’m making 250 like, that’s not a problem. So at that point, I started to hire and I started to bring in people, and as I brought in people, I realized, like, my life was getting a lot more easier. And I was like, this is interesting. So I don’t have to work until 3am anymore if I bring on people, and I can focus on just sales and bringing in net new business. So I started to do that and shift my attention around that. So at that point, I was able to bring in two new hires. Both were fresh grads. They unlocked a new light bulb for me, which was that scale does come from additional people. And then I started to continue down that path. Eventually I got to a point where I think I had about four junior people working with me directly. And I was like, Okay, I do now need somebody to jump in to kind of be the glue between operations and myself, and then I brought in at the time, I think their role was a VP of strategy, or some variation of that, maybe Director of Strategy. And I had worked with this person for years at a prior company that I worked at, and I was like, hey, Mel, you should join me like this. Let’s make some magic. They joined, and they started to oversee the operations long term. And fast forward. We continue to hire. Continued to grow. We always were remote. So started off remote pre covid with intention around the idea that I wanted to be able to attract some of the best minds, like I had some folks that were in my first five hires. We had someone that was out of Australia. We had some folks that were on the West Coast, East Coast, all that stuff. So it was spread all out. And then today, again, we’re a global team with people all over the globe, uh, tapped in and wired in and doing work as foundation nights,
Max Branstetter 18:49
yet another light bulb. Uh, there’s so many lessons there. I think the the hiring part is something that, and this is something I personally struggle with, as well as like, like, when you’re not at the revenue yet to, like, give somebody full time salary like that. Like, when, how do you decide whether to, like, jump in and whether, and obviously, when there is grants or incentives like that, it’s, it’s, it’s a big help as well. But like, I think for you personally, like, how did, how did you get over the mental struggle of, like, you know, I built this myself. I can do everything myself. Like, I do this stuff really well. I know I, like, need some help to, you know, growing the team would be a big help here, but it’s like, a huge financial commitment. Like, how do you kind of get over that you
Ross Simmonds 19:31
just have to, like, for me, I think you just have to get to a point where you realize, like, every problem that you can go through in life has already gone through by somebody else. And, like, just stop talking to yourself and talking yourself out of things, and just look at the blueprints that other people have laid and instead of trying to think you’re special, just recognize this is how it’s been done. So let’s do it again. All right, let’s let’s rinse and repeat what other people have done that has been successful. Instead of getting precious about this idea that you’re like a unicorn and you’re like this unique thing, there’s bill. Millions of people out there. And like, there’s not billions of entrepreneurs, but there’s millions of them, and there’s hundreds of 1000s of them that have created things online that you can read, if you go to a library, you can read the books of some iconic founders. And for the vast majority of them, they have people support them. So like, for me, it comes down to that’s the way that it’s done. Like, you just have to get over, in some ways, your own fear and say, like, this is the only path forward. Like, if I want to go down the path where I’m a solopreneur and I’m the only person doing it, cool, do your thing, but you have to think about what you actually are trying to build. If you’re trying to build a company with people, then there’s not really any other options, right? Like, it’s called building a company with people. So you gotta do it like there’s only one next step for you. It’s to figure out how much it’s gonna cost, do the math on the monthly burn of that and then find a way to figure out how you can cover that cost every single month and pay yourself so you can still live the life that you want. And it’s like, once you have that number, do it, and if you can’t do that number, then ask yourself, Do I need to get a loan to cover that cost? And if you get that loan to cover that cost, can that unlock for you the ability to spend more time doing high value tasks that are going to lead you to the ability to make a 10x or 2x increase on top of that person’s salary? If so, it’s, again, a no brainer. So it just becomes a bit of a math game on what you think the opportunity looks like for you, and then you have to be intentional with it. And a lot of founders that I talk to who make that leap, the pressure that comes from having a teammate is actually something that pushes them to do things that they never thought they could. And oftentimes, as a solopreneur, you kind of sit back and you’re like, cool, I’m going on these vacations, I’m doing all these things, and life is good, blah, blah, life is good, and it can be 100% like, I’m not. I have no hate against that, but when you start to bring in other people, maybe your expectations of revenue go up, maybe what you need goes up, and your growth opportunities go up, and then you start to do things that are bigger than you even originally thought, but it’s exactly what you wanted that would kind of be my hypothesis. Again, a long answer to a short question, but the first one would be like, get out of your own way to find a way to make it happen, if that’s what you want to do, and then just go do it and build the plane while you’re flying it.
Max Branstetter 22:09
Short question, long answer, that’s the way it should be. If it was the other way around. I yeah, this podcast would be in serious trouble. But I sometimes you just need to hear somebody say something to like, feel like you get hit with the stupid stick of like, Duh, like you’re you’re lying about, if you’re trying to build a company with people, you need more people like that, right? That’s awesome. But speaking of your your agency, and this actually overlaps with with your new book as well. But how did you start to carve out the niche with your agency as well as your personal brand of like specializing on the distribution side of content?
Ross Simmonds 22:49
So with that fantasy football blog, it wasn’t just like an immediate success, and the lessons that led to the distribution obsession started back then. It started when I was creating content about fantasy sports, but I was doing it on my own Facebook page, and I had probably about 10 people, everyone who was in my fantasy league, who actually cared about what I was talking about, and they would like it, they would share it, and some of them would use it against me to make sure that they wouldn’t do trades with me because they knew who I liked. But then, as I fast forwarded, I realized the moment that I took that same content, I distributed it into a community where there was a bunch of raving fantasy football fans. I had hundreds of people reaching out, commenting, liking, sharing, and that’s when the light bulbs went off, right for us, it makes sense, if you’re sharing this with a bunch of people who don’t care, you’re going to get no traction, but if you share it with people who already care, you’re going to get more traction. So the opportunity isn’t in the fact that I just created good content. It’s in ensuring that that good content reaches the right people light bulbs went off. So I became obsessed with the idea of distribution, because I believe, truly at the bottom of my heart, that some people listening to this right now have created some amazing pieces of content. They’ve told amazing stories. They might have created amazing YouTube videos. They probably had some amazing podcast episodes where they dropped knowledge bombs on people that were ridiculously valuable, but they only got two listens. They got two likes. I’ve been there, like back in the day, I’d get likes from my mom and my buddy Matt all the time, and that was all I would get. But when you actually take that content that was valuable and you start to distribute it, where your people are spending time the audience that you care about, and you add value to them. That’s when that content actually starts to work for you. But most people get caught up in this idea that, Oh, I shared this on social so everybody’s gonna see it. Nobody’s seen it like literally nobody’s seen it. Nobody cares. They might have scrolled right past it. They might have had a crime baby in the next door room so that you might get an impression, but they didn’t actually read it. And what I encourage people to do is realize that people are so busy today. There is so much noise today, there’s so much content being produced today that you need to distribute the content that you’ve produced, the product that you just launched. Not enough people know about the podcast that you were just on. Nobody has heard yet, like you have to recognize that it is a listener impression and attention game, and we all need to be intentional with distributing our stories, instead of assuming that because we press publish, people will come. You can create great content, but if nobody sees it, it’s for nothing. So if you have great content, recognize that that great content could probably help people, and you not promoting it is actually leaving the world worst off because those people aren’t being helped.
Max Branstetter 25:27
How do you get over the I guess again, like, the mental struggle of like, it takes so much effort to actually, like, create a really good piece, or at least it can, if it’s something like long form, like a podcast or video or something like that, or a long blog like that, it takes a lot of time to create it. It’s different. If it’s like a two second story that you’re not touching up or anything, but how do you get over the fact that, like, so much effort goes into just the creation of it? Like, how do I have the energy after it’s out there to then do all right? Well, here’s where the real magic happens, the actual distribution. Like, how do you keep that intensity?
Ross Simmonds 26:04
It’s a mental shift. You have to realize that, like, the actual creation of the asset is not the most important part of the process. The Act that happens after is when the job actually begins. The job begins when you press Publish. The job doesn’t begin when you open up a blank sheet, like the job starts after you press publish, because it’s at that moment where you have the actual ability to impact people. The only person that’s being impacted in the creation process is yourself and any designers, writer, editors, people in the production process. But the real people, the people that you’re trying to influence, get impacted after you press Publish. So that’s when it matters the most, and if you don’t have energy at that point, then you probably should have reduced the amount of energy that you put into creating it, and allocated some of that extra energy to promoting it. Because if you can put 50% of that energy into creating something and it’s good and it reaches people, then that’s better than putting 100% energy into something and reaching no one. So you need to have energy to promote your work. Otherwise, what did you create it for? Right? Like, if you are trying to be the next Picasso and you are trying to see your your works live after you die, and that’s when you want to see the benefits, then, by all means, continue to do it. Don’t promote your work. Just make sure that you have a hosting fee set up that’s going to constantly hit your credit card or your trust account for like, decades after you’re gone, so it can serve the masses. But otherwise, while you’re here, you should be promoting your work, because that’s when you are going to have the biggest impact. So I think it’s a mental shift that people need to get over and recognize that it’s literally the most important piece. You need to distribute and promote your work.
Max Branstetter 27:40
Yeah, you need to, in an area I often talk about with new podcasters, about is, like, is I have this as well. It’s like, I think when you’re when you’re naturally, just like, a, I guess, a nice person, right, right? Like you start to feel guilty about like, oversharing, like you don’t want to be too self promotional. You don’t want to feel like you’re like, spamming everybody’s feeds, or all the you know, stories, or tick tock whatever, with, like, all the content about your podcast, for example. And I always talk about, like, what you said before, about, like, Yeah, well, only, like, a small percentage of people that even follow you or are even gonna see that. So like, first of all, like, but, and even if they do see that, they might be scrolling through it so quick that it does it might not even count as, like, an impression technically, like,
Ross Simmonds 28:24
you’re kind of not nice if you don’t do it to me. Like, that’s, again, a mental shift. It’s like, do you think the podcast that you’re creating is valuable to the world? If the answer to that is yes, then you’re not being nice by not promoting it. Because there’s probably somebody who’s going through something that one of the people that you’ve interviewed have talked about and provided an insight on that could help them unblock something that could literally change the trajectory of their life. And by you being so selfish and saying, Oh, I don’t want to be too promotional, and getting in your feelings a bit about it, they’re struggling like there’s probably somebody who would have loved and heard something from the interview between yourself and Amanda that could change their life. But if that post and that podcast hasn’t been shared in the last two months, then that person has spent two months struggling. They’ve spent two months following you, hoping for that day that you are going to reshare that episode that they don’t know exists, but it could fundamentally change the trajectory of their life. And if you can get deep enough to think about there’s probably some content that you’ve created and stories that you’ve told that could literally have generational impacts, where somebody who comes across it, who follows you, might be going through the struggle they might be like, deep into it, thick into it. Burden with debt, burden with depression, burden with anxiety and like, struggling to get through all of it. But there’s one episode, one piece of content that was created that, if they heard it, could get them out of that and help them unlock something that then led them down a path that ultimately set them and their kids up for success. Come on like folks do not get into this game of, I don’t want to sound too promotional, like you’re not some holier than thou. Of experience, like promote your stuff, if it’s valuable, if it’s not valuable, stop creating it. If it’s not worth promoting, stop creating it. You shouldn’t be creating it in the first place. So to me, I hear exactly what you’re saying so many times from people, but at the end of the day, if they truly believe that it is valuable content and that the content and materials can help people. They should have 000, issues promoting it and amplifying it. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 30:25
that’s a great distinction, too. It’s like, you know, I could just tell it like, from my own podcast interviews, and this will be one. Thank you very much. The ones that I’m like, extra excited about, like, I don’t even think about the marketing of it as effort. I’m like, I can’t wait to share this with the
Ross Simmonds 30:40
right, right? And that’s how everyone should feel, but the things they create Right? Like you should feel that way. And don’t get me wrong, like I’ve been publishing stuff for a long time. I’m not saying at 4pm and 430 you promote the same link every single second. I’m not saying that folks don’t get it twisted. What I’m saying is, if you promote something one week, two weeks later, you can promote it again. You can write a few different like angles. If you have one episode and there’s like 20 moments where somebody like dropped the mic, then chop all 20 of those moments and distribute that over 20 weeks. That’s all new content, right? Like you do not need to be, I will say, like people will unfollow you if you tweet the same thing every single day, no question. That is not what I’m recommending. I’m recommending that you take valuable content, you spread it out, but you share it often. The piece of content that you created back in 2023 that was ridiculously valuable and could help people should probably still be shared in 2025 should probably still be shared in 2026 because people are still people. We’re still just a ball of chemicals floating around in these meat suits and like, Come on, let’s give people the value that they want. It will help them so. So just keep doing it.
Max Branstetter 31:54
Meat suits is a hell of a visual. I took that very literally.
Ross Simmonds 31:59
I know right?
Max Branstetter 32:02
Before I forget. You know, you you used my interview with Amanda Natividad just as an example in that because we were talking about the start, right? But if there is something that you want to take away from that interview, this isn’t the main takeaway, but there’s, I always get a kick up. She does A mean impression of, like a 1920s paper boy, like, Oh, come on, man, that’s,
Ross Simmonds 32:26
I can’t do it justice,
Max Branstetter 32:27
but if you just need a little laugh, in addition to all the insights she has, that’s a great one episode, 178 that’s cool, but real quick, I
mean, just to kind of put a bow on everything with this mantra of Create Once, Distribute Forever, which, yeah, as it turns out, is the name of your book for sure. Which, by the way, fantastic title. I
think so many books it’s like, you you see the title and you’re like, what’s this about? Like, right, right? What? Uh, what’s like? The main message that you want people to take away, yeah, from create ones, distribute forever.
Ross Simmonds 32:57
The idea is pretty straightforward, no matter if you’re creating a product, a business, a blog post, an eBook, a guide, a podcast, a YouTube video, whatever it is, if it’s something that is of value, you should be willing to distribute it forever. And in the book, I wanted to do two things. One, unblock all the people who have the mental barriers and roadblocks that exist around why they don’t want to be too promotional, the fear of being unfollowed, the fear of being judged, the fear of finding out that, yes, in fact, the content that they’re promoting isn’t that good, and the fear of being critiqued, and the fear of being seen as that guy. So I start by helping people shake those fears and understand why distribution is a ridiculous opportunity. I talk about why it’s more important than ever amidst an age where people are no longer just connected exclusively to one channel, but they’re spread out across TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, Quora, LinkedIn, all of these different channels. And why, because of that disbursement of attention, you as a brand and as a marketer, as a creator, as a storyteller, should be thinking about how you tell your stories in multi channels. Then I get very, very tactical. I hate reading books and getting like this whole philosophy idea in my head, and then hoping that I can do it, but not really having the playbook. So in the book, we have an entire section that’s very tactical, where we break down exactly how to use email for distribution, how to use X, how to use LinkedIn, how to use Instagram, how to use Tiktok, how to use Facebook, how to use groups, how to use Pages, how to use profiles. We break down tactically how to leverage all of the different growth channels to distribute your stories after pressing Publish. And the reason was simple. I want people to put this book on their desk and to be able to say, I’m going to go back to each of these different sections and focus on running experiments within Reddit. And I’m going to go into this Reddit section, and I’m going to crush it. I’m going to try and try and try again. I’m going to check off what I’ve done. I’m going to use this as a distribution checklist for every piece that I press publish on, and let’s see how it impacts my impressions and my views. And over the last few months, I’ve been. DMS, emails and messages every single day from people all over the globe who have started to embrace the fundamentals and the ideas in this book and apply them to their life. And from that, they’re seeing an increase in their followers, they’re seeing an increase in their sales, in their amount of traction on things like Kickstarter, seeing a ton a ton of better results. And that was the goal of the book, to help people who have created great things get the word out about those great things a little bit more efficiently and effectively.
Max Branstetter 35:30
All right, real quick, two great things that I am super passionate about, that I’ve created, in addition to the podcast, and I want to keep sharing forever and ever and ever shout out sandlot number one, podcasting to the max newsletter. You can sign up at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter it is short and sweet every Thursday, and it is where podcasting meets entrepreneurship meets straight up terrible puns. You can sign up at MaxPpodcasting.com/Newsletter number two, the YouTube, YouTube @MaxBranstetter, that is where you’ll find actual video versions of these interviews. I know, I know. I finally, finally released them, and you can subscribe @MaxBranstetter on YouTube. So pick your poison, choose your own adventure, whatever other idiom you want to insert there, I gotta stop, but thank you. We’ll see you there. If not, you might regret it. And speaking of regrets, let’s dive into that a bit more
well. Speaking of things that people take away and apply to impact their life, I want to switch it up a bit and dive into actually something around fear, which you mentioned a lot as it ties to the book, but I, in prep for this interview, went back listen some of your podcast episodes and cool. The one episode that was like, really early on, I’ll
call it a Ross Simmonds deep cut was a solo like journal episode you did on deathbed regrets, yeah? And you know, like studies of from, I’m gonna mess up the pronunciation this. But palliative care, palliative care, palliative care, that’s right. And nurses and those who work with people at the tail end of their life, it is so interesting and so inspiring hearing like the actual regrets that people have when they’re about to pass on. And I think what I love so much about that episode is you talked about like these, you know, five things that are the most common regrets, but you also talk about how those insights are literally shaping how you approach your life and how you how you decide things in your career and personal life as well. I’m not going to make you run through like, all five of these and all them in detail, like, there’s that podcast episode for that, but, yeah, just to give like, a little taste of it, is there what is one of those regrets that still to this day, is, like, really impactful for you as you think about things? Yeah,
Ross Simmonds 37:55
I’d say the biggest one is still the courage to live a life true to myself and not the expectations of others. That, to me, stands out still as something that I try to instill in myself every day. Because when you go on social media, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to project an image and a style and a perspective that you think people will like and you want to be liked. You. We all have that innate idea of we want to be liked, and sometimes we will change ourselves to be more likable, and we will adjust our style to be more likable, instead of just staying true to ourselves and doing what we want to do and showing up the way we want to show up. So for me, it’s being conscious every single time I log into social to be like, All right, I’m going to show up as me. When I go on a podcast, I’m going to show up as me. I’m going to talk about fantasy. I’m going to talk about football. I’m going to talk about things I care about. I’ll talk about my kids and the life of being a dad, like, all those things I’ll talk about. And that’s just like a personal commitment for myself to say, like, that’s how I’m going to be. I’m going to I’m going to show up truly as I am, and I believe these things. This is how I think the world is. Like, when you ask me about how what I think of people not making the leap into hiring, I’m gonna tell you exactly what I think, and I don’t care if some people get offended by it. It’s just like, that’s my perspective. I think people should just figure it out that’s an intentional effort that is difficult, but I think important. And then the last one that I do have to say is, like, very important to me, is not losing touch with friends as you continue to get older. And especially, I think, I think this is more important. I don’t want to say it’s more important, but the data is showing me that amongst guys, this is something that is ridiculously important, and not talked about a lot. Loneliness amongst men is at a ridiculous high. Suicide rates in Canada across men are at an all time high. So for me, it’s becoming very important and intentional regularly to check in with my guys, like checking in see how they’re doing. Have the tough combos, how’s life. I know this is tough. Like, share the story. Is, of like, the struggle of a 4am wake up all that stuff, right? Like, have those combos, and I think it’s important. So being intentional with that for me is important, and something that I continue to work on. And it’s tough because I love the game, like we talked about earlier, and I can just do my thing for like, months on months on months, and not check in with anybody and be good, but I want to be there and be present for my friends, my boys, my guys as well. So I try to show up for friends just as much.
Max Branstetter 40:28
Yeah, those, those, those are all so impactful. Like, I think there’s so much we can learn from literally people on their death that it sounds funny to talk about. But like, it really is so special. And there, I mean, yeah, like, I mean, I guess we’re both kind of at that phase of life where it’s like, as you get, you know, as more and more people you and your friends, like, start to get married, start to have kids, start to move to different cities, like, it is that much more difficult to stay in touch. And it’s one of the things that we, I always say this wrong. Take for granted. Don’t take for granted. Whichever one it is. You know, your own adventure. It’s so easy to reach out to some like, logistically, it is so easy to reach out, way
Ross Simmonds 41:09
easier than back in the day, right? Like back in the day, you needed pen and paper, and like you became pen pals carrier
Max Branstetter 41:14
pigeon, you need to walk. You need to walk across the country to hand it to him.
Ross Simmonds 41:19
When you said bye to a friend’s It was literally goodbye, like you weren’t meeting up ever again kind of thing. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 41:25
yeah, exactly. But also thinking about, like, regrets and stuff like, I think that’s a just an awesome way to frame your life. And I think about that, like with my business and entrepreneurship journey, it was like in the early days when, like, starting my podcast production business and, like, you know, like, a bit more volatile from like, the income revenue standpoint. It’s like, when you have tough months like that, it’s like, yeah, you could always, you could always take another job somewhere and go back to the corporate world. But like, when I have those moments, especially like on vacation, or just when I’m like, Can’t sleep in the middle of night thinking about all sorts of things, when I’m thinking, like, what, you know, like, when I’m older, I want to look back on like, what I did professionally. I’m like, what, like, what I want to work for somebody else, or what do I want to do, like, my own thing and, like, build something and help other entrepreneurs. Like, like, fuck it. Like, like, I’m so, like, at peace with what I’m doing and so excited about it. So love to hear it’s let’s hand on a lighter note. Sorry, yeah, exactly so. So you had a story from people two months from their death, but no, I’m just going so that’s it. Was very morbid. Let’s wrap up with some rapid fire. Q, A, you ready
Ross Simmonds 42:36
for it? Ready for it? I’m gonna keep it short and sweet. All right, all right.
Max Branstetter 42:40
Let’s get wild. No promises. On my end, I tend to ramble. All right, I know you are a fellow Lupe fan. Lupe Fiasco, yes, loved his stuff back in the day, and I know he’s still creating stuff too. But what’s your favorite Lupe Fiasco album of all time?
Ross Simmonds 42:55
The cool so, like, that’s literally why my Twitter handle is @TheCoolestCool. It’s based off of that entire album, like the second album, the cool was the inspiration behind my Twitter handle, @TheCoolestCool
Max Branstetter 43:11
That’s so cool. Oh, that’s a great that song too is, is awesome. But, yeah, he’s got, he’s got so many, so many great ones. And then the one like this was after I graduated college, but the Tetsuo and youth is that the name of that one was, like, I thought was pretty underrated. He like, structured it in seasons. His first song is, like, 10 minutes. It’s just awesome. Anyway, yeah, so shout out, shout out, Lupe. We’ll Kick, Push to the next question. So there’s a restaurant here in Hoboken, called Halifax, really nice restaurant. They’re known for brunch, they’re right on the water, but they also are known for, like, seafood, and they even open a spin off bar that’s kind of seafood and cool oysters and mussels and tins focus like that. You being a Halifax boy, as you said, like,
does it have a real like a seafood reputation, as much as it’s made out to be, or is that glamorized a little bit? Oh,
Ross Simmonds 44:05
it is. It’s not glamorized. It is all day. Every day you’re on the water. You can smell the water. You go downtown, it’s the water like it’s a very coastal water vibe, and fish is a staple on a regular, basis.
Max Branstetter 44:22
That’s awesome. Sounds like a wonderful place. All right, what is a I call them weird talents, but some people call them party tricks. What’s something that like has no impact on your business at all, but you’re just really good at Yeah,
Ross Simmonds 44:33
I would say I’m really good at two things. One, dodgeball. I can play dodgeball anytime and crush it has no impact on my business, but I’m really good at that. You
Max Branstetter 44:44
never know that can be a great way to be competitors.
Ross Simmonds 44:49
That is true, that is true. And as a youngin, I was a camp counselor, and I’ve continued to hold on to a lot of my camp counselor vibe and energy, and I remember all of the songs that we used to sing. In the games we used to play. So whenever I’m out with a bunch of friends, if they, like, need a break from the kids, I’m like, the pied piper. I can bring everybody together and, like, just run a bunch of wild, crazy games with the kids. And Capture the Flag is my go to but always a fun time. Always a fun time
Max Branstetter 45:16
that is, that’s a great one that maybe the most exciting game of all time, capture the flag.
Ross Simmonds 45:21
It’s just that’s pretty good taste in Olympic sport. It
Max Branstetter 45:26
might be. They have a wide range. It’s true, who’s who’s the most impressive fantasy, I guess, the most impressive year for a fan, for an NFL player ever, in terms of fantasy, at least in your home, was
Ross Simmonds 45:41
Mike Vick. It was Mike Vick. Mike Vick, but the year he crushed, and was, like, the next year, everybody said to take him as your number one pick, and he flopped. But like, the year before, he was breaking all the records he was on the Eagles, I’m pretty sure, like he was an eagle at the time. It was his comeback year after the time, yeah, the pen. But back him was, it was the second year after a time in the pen. I think somebody got hurt, maybe that he replaced. But he was a goat. What a year. That was unreal. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 46:10
his stats were amazing, all right? And then last one, what is the single best dish you had during your Italy trip,
Ross Simmonds 46:18
the pizza every single shot, like I’m a big sucker for a margarita pizza. Give me a margarita, throw in the mix and Aperol Spritz, and I’m in my happy place like that would be my go to well,
Max Branstetter 46:32
I’m in my happy place now, just hearing that and visualizing it. Ross, thank you so much. This has been awesome. I’m so glad we could connect and just really appreciate all you do and you met. I mean, I should have paid you like a lot for this was like a coaching session as well. So thank thank you for this. That’s awesome. Yeah, of course. So where’s the best place for people to one, connect with you. Two, get your book, and three, check out your podcast.
Ross Simmonds 46:58
Yeah, go to rossimmons.com you can find everything that you need there. It’s got links to the podcast. It’s got links to the book. And I hope that through the content that I publish, you can sign up to the newsletter and I can support them in driving some wild business growth. So I hope folks check it out and enjoy and Max, thank you for giving me the chance to share. I hope your listeners get a lot of value out of this. And folks, if you did give a lot of value of this, be sure to leave Max five star rating review and share it wherever you get your podcasts.
Max Branstetter 47:24
Wow. Thank you so much. Now I should be paying you extra, so thank you for that, but I really appreciate that. And last thing stages, you’ve had plenty of gems already, but final thoughts, it could just be a quote, Words To Live By. Another regret, whatever you want. Send us home here. Send
Ross Simmonds 47:42
you home with a simple piece of advice that comes from a great book called The courage to be disliked. I encourage all of you to have that courage to be disliked. Do the things that get you excited and be committed to your vision, your dream, what you’re chasing, and if a few people follow you along the way, it’s a part of the journey. Keep going.
Max Branstetter 48:01
Just unfollowed you, Ross, just kidding. Can you imagine? Thank you so much, Ross, for coming on the Wild Business Growth podcast, sharing your Wild story, and thank you Wild listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Wild Business Growth podcast on your favorite podcast platform and Subscribe on YouTube @MaxBranstetter that is where the video versions are, shoutout alliteration. You can also find us on Goodpods, and for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter that is every Thursday, short & sweet. And you can sign up at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter Until next time, let your business Ross Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!
