Ep. 22 | Passion into profit - Jorge Gonzales

Jorge Gonzales, owner of Topbin90 and cofounder of 7th Peak Marketing, discusses the art of building unshakable client trust. He emphasizes that clear communication and consistent delivery are the secret weapons in this endeavor, especially in the sports media world. Jorge also shares his strategies for managing high expectations and maintaining a balanced life in the fast-paced media industry. With a focus on nurturing genuine client relationships and crafting standout marketing strategies, he offers a fresh perspective for anyone aiming to thrive in business.

Jorge Gonzales 

Thanks for listening
Host: Jack Moran
Powered by: DreamSpear

Follow Shakin' Hands Podcast
Website
Instagram
YouTube

Dreamspear
Website
Instagram
Skool

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

Transcript

0:00

Hello everybody, and welcome to episode 22 of Shakin Hands. I'm your host, Jack Moran. Today on the podcast we have Jorge Gonzales, the founder of Topbin90. How are we doing? I'm doing great. Excited to be on, you know, number 22 on Taylor Swift. So, yeah, yeah. So tell us a little bit like, what is top 1090? I know you have, that's not your only venture, but kind of talk about what you got going on right now. Yeah. So top bid 90. I'm the founder and CEO of that company. It's a sports media company. Started out here in Charlotte. We're about five years now into it, which is crazy. Congratulations. You know, thanks. Like every good entrepreneur, I just started as an idea and it kind of grew, you know, so I honestly started as pretty much like a YouTube channel at that time. And Charlotte FC kind of came into the works here in Charlotte. And, you know, I wanted to use the podcasts or the channel to talk about soccer because I'm a nut about soccer, bro. I grew up watching soccer. That was like my outlet, you know? So I was a big Liverpool and Barcelona fan, grew up in the US. Logically, in my mind, since I was bilingual, I had to have a Spanish team and I had to have a English team. So Barcelona was my Spanish team and Liverpool was my English team, right? So I started the channel and I quickly began building relationships in the Charlotte area, specifically with Charlotte FC. And we started covering the team. We started getting news before other people did and we started putting it out. So we kind of became a name through that and I was like my entrepreneurial mind. I always thought, maybe I can turn this into something. And we did. And now we have articles. We cover the team game day, we do podcasts, we do one on one interviews with players, you know, and so we've expanded a little bit more too. So it's not just focused on the MLS team, Charlotte FC, but we do other content as well. So it's been a fun ride so far. Doing that company specifically. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people out there that have passions like you have for soccer, but don't know that they can turn it into or monetize it into something that turns into a career. How were you able to turn your passion into something that makes you money? I think from a couple of different standpoints. Right. One is like any entrepreneur knows, like when you start a business, when you start anything, it takes time to build, right? For the most part. Right. So I think my mindset it was that and more of like learning and trying to leverage the relationships I had. So anytime I look at like either bring in a sponsor or, you know, like getting paid content, we try to figure out what's the need of that company and how what we can do apply to them. And we've we've been able to do that. So you said the early company was just a YouTube channel. what did it look like on in the early days? It was just chaotic, random, you know? And so, the early days is more of not really being good at editing, not really being good on camera. Right. And so all of that, you start learning and then the stuff that I'm not good at, you pass it over to somebody else. Right. So we've got someone in our in our organization name now Francisco, who, you know, takes care of all of that. And he's great at editing. He's great at doing all these things. What was the first big moment that you had? That was kind of a game changer for you. journey and down this path, creating this business. So with this business particularly, I think it was the very first article that we put on our website. So at that time when we built our website, I was trying to figure out what we could do as like an article piece to kind of kick us off. And the coach got fired like a week before I was like, oh, this is perfect, right? And, I had build enough of a name in the Charlotte area where I had the relationship with Charlotte. And, you know, I ask questions and people people wanted to know what I was gonna say about what happened. Right. And we came out with an article. It went viral. We got credited by a major news outlets in Spain here in a lot of different areas. And, I think that was the big moment. I was like, man, we could really do something here. We could really turn it into something special. Yeah. And and kind of like, how is the business evolved from that point? Where are you guys out now? So what I would say is like, we're kind of on it's like a plane, right? Like a plane. It takes momentum to, to get off the ground right now. So I would say we're right there. We're ready to take off of the ground. Right. We've built the foundations. I've already made errors. I've made good progress. I've made bad progress. I've built relationships, I've seen people stab a knife behind my back to, in a sense. Right. And so I kind of have that understanding. And now it's like, okay, how do we take what we have here in Charlotte and create a bigger brand, you know, that can compete with larger brands? So you said you've had people stab you in the back. What what was, an experience like that? You don't have to give specifics. Yeah, I think it's more of like trusting people that I shouldn't have trust. And that was more on me. Right? So the first time. Okay, like I've learned the second time, it's on me really to I think it's more on that in the, in the journalism world, man. It's it's really sad sometimes that people will do anything to try to get ahead. Right. And I'm not like that. I'm more of like everybody can eat, bro. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's why I'm so big, you know? Right. I think it's more of that. Like, you know, like there's a lot there's a lot of news, there's a lot of different ways to cover things. And I think I always think the market dictates who they like, you know. Right. So it's more of that. What have you learned from those experiences where you've had adverse relationships with people? I think I've learned more about how important it is to make sure that my small circle has the same ethos, ideas, and is our go getters the way I am, right? So it's more of that to me. How have you filtered those kind of people and kept your circle tight and found the people that align with your values and your ethos? That's a great question. I think, honestly, you just kind of get to know people. You ask them questions. I put them in situations to write, to see how they react. Right. I think that's important. That lets me know more because your words, like I could tell you right now, like all of these great things, but the reality is like, okay, how are people in situations? And I think it's more of that. So where do you see the company going? Like what's the goal that you have for the company? The goal for this specific company is to create a news outlet that covers soccer, you know, first in the South, then in the US, then nationwide, then worldwide, right. And build a brand that's very recognizable. Our name is recognizable. And, you know, it's kind of, taking it to that next step. But it's it's it's built on foundations, like I study, I analyze, see what other creators are doing, see what other journalists are doing, where the puck is moving. And that's kind of how this started as well, because I would look around in the Charlotte area and there's nobody that's really covering that's going to cover soccer in a way that I think I can because I looked at the landscape. I'm like, half these people don't even know the sport. So I was like, I can position myself in a way where we can become the top source in Charlotte, and I feel like we've done that right. And it's the same thing as I'm moving forward and building the company is how can we leverage new age media with the old way of thinking with, you know, content? And how do we create a brand in a product that is enticing the other people that they want to follow us, and they want to see the content that we post? What's the difference between media yesterday and media today, or media and social media? Social media 100% social media, right? I mean, like the perfect example. Look at that. How to grow. She was irrelevant a month ago, right? And one post that she did change her whole life. And it's the same thing here. But the difference with what we do with new age media is like, you can't just go viral once. You have to have engaging content that consistently is pushed out. We live in a world now where people are always scrolling. They always want to see a ten, 15, 31 minute video, right? And so I think it's leveraging that. And, you know, you have the world at at your access now, not just your local area. So what is the key to or what is the formula to being intentional about getting. Because obviously talk to it was an accident for sure. How do you intentionally like achieve going viral or if you pay for our subscription of 1999? I'm just kidding. that's a great question. I think it depends on the market. The market that you're in is one and two would also be, the type of content that you're trying to deliver. I've always known from the beginning that my brand, I wanted it to be, you know, informative and fun because that's how I am. Like, I can't be serious all the time, but I also can just have fun all the time. But I like a good mix of both. And then when I try to build the company that's I've always known from the get go, this is what I want to do. This is how I want to do it, right? And now when I look at content right, it's like, how can I add this to how we do it? Or how can I change it up? Or what are some of the fresh ideas that I bring? Because the reality too is like thousands of people have podcasts now. Thousands of people want to be creators. But but the reality is like, how are you differentiating yourself? Is number one and two. What do you stand for that people would be attracted to listen to you or watch what you're doing. What do you think are the differentiators for yourself? For myself, I think I'm funny, handsome. Now this kid, I think it's that man. I think I'm very personable. I know how to relate to people and to. I think I have, like a background in marketing. Right? Like I have understood that. I can talk about that, too, with my other company that I own, because I feel like a lot of that, like, stems from there. Yeah. Let's talk about that. Yeah. So my other company that I own is called Seventh Peak Marketing that started two years ago last month. So one of my best friends that I've known for my whole life, I consider him a mentor in my life. There's very few people in this life that I would take a bullet for, and he's one of them. Just to give you the context of how much I appreciate this person. Right. And so about two and a half years ago, we were having dinner and he was seeing the growth of, top by 90 and seeing me kind of get an understanding of social media. He runs a paper supply company, 800 clients, very successful business owner. He's like, I've seen that a lot of these restaurants don't do a good job of, you know, creating a social presence. He's like, you've kind of done that. He's like, what? What if we started a company around that? And I was like, man, that's a great idea, you know? But we both know that, like, we're very high level creative. This is amazing, right? The details is where we struggle at. Like if you if we have like this amazing idea and someone asks a question and I don't really think about that, you know. And so we knew we needed a third partner. So we found it in, a girl that he knew that he used to run his social media for his paper supply company. Right. So we all met, kind of talked it out, and we started that company two years ago. And we're doing really, really well in that aspect. and so we've been profitable since I would say the second month. And we've, we're building something really amazing over there. So what's your goal for that company to grow it, to be considered one of like the best marketing companies in the Carolinas? I would say that would be the first step. What should the company do to kind of build their brand and get more brand recognition? What are you seeing? A lot of companies are missing right now personal content for themselves. You know, like one of the things that we do that we always did from the beginning, actually today we met with, with a, girl who's interested in us helping run a festival. And I was like, how did you even hear about us? Because she reached out to us. She's like, we started following your Your Seventh Peak page, which is our. And we see that you guys put out a lot of like, fun content. So we make fun content for ourselves just to showcase that, you know, like part of what we do is, you know, marketing. And if we're not marketing ourselves, then how can we market you, you know, and so stuff like that. I've seen a lot of companies, especially in our space, you know, not create not be intentional about their personal content and to doing stuff that like is above and beyond, like when we figure out what a client needs, right? We pitch them that. But we also I always try to leverage the relationships I have and other things that I do to bring them value. I think that's the number one people think more about, hey, what's in it for me? Versus how do I bring you value, right? Because when you've built, when you build value that reciprocates back, anything you do in life will always come back to you, whether positive or negative. Like I was having a conversation about with a couple people yesterday where, you know, we put out some, we created some content, right? And someone else was recording. They took our content and went and posted in there like, hey, we should do X, Y and Z. I'm like, don't worry about it. I was like, that negative karma that they put out will come back, right? The the way, the best way to take a look at things is like that for me. God will take care of it. You know, that's my mentality 100%. Yeah. And like, what would you say would be, well, I'll ask this question. If you could get $1 million of guilt free capital right now, what would you do with it within the company? It's a great question.$1 million of goodwill, no strings, no strings attached. Just gets dropped in by the stalking on your front porch. I'm going to go check when I get home to see if it doesn't happen. I'm going to call you. Me? Manifest. Manifested. Yeah. so I think right for on the top and side, I think I would, I would hire a couple of people that understand social media the way I do. Like, I have probably 20 questions I would ask them that I know whether they're the right person or not. What are the questions? One is their ability to find information, right? Like what is your process for that? Especially like understanding news because news is at any time 24 seven, right? Especially in soccer. Right. Like there could be something happening. We may be signing somebody in Europe. Right. And it may be for a in here. Right. And it may be at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. over there. So understanding that two is I would be asking questions along the lines of how this person thinks. Right. Like talk to me about how you would handle X, talk to me about how you would handle Y is where I would go, I need to I need to get a glimpse of how you think, not just what you're saying. And so for the marketing company, what would be the how would you deploy the capital? It's a great question. I think I would the beautiful thing about what we do there is that like that capital, I think it I would use it more. I don't even think I would use the million. I would just pocket it. Right. Yeah, I would use it more for, you know, pushing more towards paid advertisement for people to hire us. I think that would be it. You know, probably hired hire a couple more people to, to be under our brand. You know, I think it would be more of that. So this entrepreneurial journey that you've been down, has it been all smooth, smooth sailing? No. No, bro, if anyone if anyone comes on this podcast and tells you that being an entrepreneur is easy, kick them out. Don't. Yeah. Because it's not it's very difficult. It's time consuming. Sometimes you hate it, but you have to love the grind. You have to love the passion of what you do. If you don't love what you're doing, get out of it. Right? Especially if you're going to be an entrepreneur, because there's going to be easy days. There's going to be hard days, are going to be really effing hard days, and you just have to learn to get through it. Right. But because of what you love, I'll give you an example. Right. Seven years ago, I used to work in banking.

It was 2: 16:06

00 in the afternoon. I'm sitting in my office and I said, this sucks. I have nothing to do. I don't feel motivated. Right. And I was thinking about this two weeks ago when I just had a chaotic day, you know, new clients that we're bringing on. We're just hiring a new person, right? This person wants X, Y, and Z. A customer throws at us something last minute. When we had a conversation with them two months ago about giving us enough time to get things done, even through all that chaos, I said I prefer a day like today than being in that office feeling like, you know, I've plateaued. And that's what I love about the grind, about entrepreneurship. Mic drop. What's the biggest error that you've made along the way? Oh, it's a good one. I think I've made a lot of videos like, oh fuck. Oh well, I think it's I think it's more about trusting people that shouldn't trust. I think it's more like that. And seeing like it didn't it didn't lead to anything like big happening. But I could see it and I cut it off. So I think it's more of that. And I learn because in business it's okay to make mistakes. It's just not okay to make the fatal mistakes. Yeah. If you make the fatal mistakes, it all goes to hell, right? Yeah. Making mistakes is part of the process, is part of the journey. And I tell friends of mine and people that I know also all the time when they want to start a business or when they just fucking take action or excuse my language. Right. Just take action, right? Everything else will just for themselves. The reality is that there's somebody that could probably do a better job than I do at our marketing company. There's somebody that could probably do a better job than I do at a sports media company, but they're not going to put the work ethic, or they're going to think about 500 problems instead of trying to figure out the solutions. And that's that's what I'm about. That's what I want to be. I'm like, okay, what is it? Let's figure it out. Yeah. And I think there's like even the fatal mistakes, there's really not even a true thing is like, maybe it's fatal for the business that you're in currently, but if it all falls apart, you really can just go back. Yeah, yeah you can. And I think I always like I'll share kind of a deep story with you here. You know, like I lost my father when I was 11 years old. It was the hardest thing I will ever experience in my life. Right? So take away my companies. Take whatever you want to do. If I compared it to that, it means nothing, bro. So whatever bad day you have, whatever it is, I understand that that moment and not growing up without a father was the hardest thing I've ever experienced. So if you complain about me or if you hate me or whatever, right? It doesn't matter because it doesn't compare to that pain, you know? So yeah, and I think everything's perspective. Like I always try to look at things like that. Like my worst day, there's always someone who's got it worse than a 100%, bro. I'm from Honduras. Milk people would give their left arm to be here right now. Yeah. Like that. Like, think about that. Think about not having an arm right now. Yeah. Right. And people would do it to get the opportunities that we get here. Yeah. There's a lot of complacency and entitlement 100% bro. Yeah. But it's like I think the needle shifting and that accountability is going to start coming. Not maybe not karma, but it's that yeah, the needle is shifting like that. Complacency is going to lower the consequences. I mean, like, you know, like was a really quote, great quote that says, like, you know, work in silence and let success make all the noise. That's how it is, bro. Yeah. How do you define success? Well, I think, the number one thing is the relationships I have and the people around my life. Right. I think that is the number one key thing. I think a lot of people do a bad job of trying to figure that out, right? I'm like, okay, what do I stand for? And what are the other people that I want in my life? Who are they? What can they add? What? What can I add to their life? And vice versa? Because at the end of the day, like if I go to the top right and I just, you know, weaseled myself up there right when I get up there, it's just going to be me, right? But if I have the ethos and the understanding of what I want right when I get up there, right, there's going to be other people like that with me, you know? So I think it's more of that because, like, I think relationships drive everything. Right. And also you have to understand the types of relationships that you want. I read a great book once called the Ten Critical Laws of Relationships, and it talked about like some of the friends that you should have should have empires in their mind. I'm like, that's exactly right, because I have empires in my mind. Right? And some of the things I want to accomplish, right. That I don't even know how or when I'll get there, but I know I'm going to get there. Yeah. And what do you think is the key to a good relationship? How do you build good relationships? I think the number one thing is understanding what you want out of a relationship, right? Like that. That goes in everything in business, in a, you know, romantic relationship. Like what do you want and what type of person would that person want to be with right then? Isn't clear expectation 100%, bro. Right. Like if you're going to talk the big game and you want to work with somebody successful, you have to understand the habits of that successful person. And are you willing to match that right? And are you willing to match the personality right? Are they very type A? Are they more passive like like all of this stuff matters. That's why I like self-development. Is is so important. Yeah. What do you think is the key to a self-development. Like how do how does someone start kind of down the journey of well you spent six hours scrolling on the internet. Now once you create a different account, follow 15 mindset accounts or whatever, and then your feed will start throwing you that. That's the easiest way to start. Second is find other people in life where you want to be. People say this all the time and nobody. Most people won't take action on these things, right? I would, I do it all the time if there's somebody that knows or understands more than I do, I want to sit down with them. I want to pick their brain for two hours and say, how did you get here? Like, obviously they have to give me the time of day, right? But I'm not afraid of not of getting a no. Yeah, yeah. I think it's there's like a lot of ego in this world and like, people don't want to learn because it is like a shot to their fragile. Yeah. Their egos. Yeah. 100%. Right. They want to be in the center and the limelight, but they don't realize that it's counterproductive. Like it's really when you open your ears up. We're given two years in one mouth for a reason. When you open your ears open. Listen, there's a lot of, everyone has something to contribute for sure. For sure, I love it. What would be kind of like before we wrap up, what would be like some final advice that you would give to entrepreneurs or early entrepreneurs? Maybe someone who hasn't jumped into entrepreneurship yet, but is like contemplating if they should. The number one thing. And I'll say it again and I'll always say it is just take action. If you're not willing to take action, that doesn't even matter. You know, like Pete, like I said, people think about 500 reasons why things won't work. I think about why it will work. And when we get there, or as we're going into that path. Right. Well, problems will come up. And it's like your ability to figure out those problems. Right? It's some things we don't even know. Right. Like some of the stuff that we've had to face on the marketing, something I've never experienced this, but let's figure it out. You know, it's not like, okay, like let's just shut down, you know? So I think it's more of that. Well, I love your positivity and your energy. It's definitely contagious. well, you said you were falling asleep, so I had to make sure I brought. I brought it to the audience. Doesn't matter. They're done. Five other episodes of the we're still. And it was like, I'm joking, I'm joking. where can people find you if they want to reach out, ask any questions, or are interested in your services? My Bumble account is Purple Dinosaur seven. I'm just kidding. Now they can find us at, Top Bid 90. That's the sports media on all platforms. And then seventh peak marketing is the, social media company. Well, you heard it here first, ladies. You know where to find it. I've had will officiate. You coming up? Awesome, man. Yeah. Thanks so much for having having me on, man. I love getting around people that understand entrepreneurship or are kind of in that mindset because, like, you know, like the energy you feed off of it, you understand what people are going through and is the same thing. Men Association is so key in everything that you do. Before starting this podcast, like it was at times lonely as an entrepreneur, I didn't have a lot of people around me that were experiencing the same journey and doing this podcast. I've started to meet people in the like, synchronicities and the overlap in the language that they have and the values that they have and the, experience that they've had in this journey are so similar. and it's very inspiring and reassuring. Yeah. It's been a pleasure to do those. Awesome. Yeah. And I think also that like credit social media too. Right. That like that like I think that helps bridge, you know, people like whatever your interest is, somebody is out there doing it right. Like I don't know if like you like talking about rocks and different rocks. I'm sure there's a group out there that does the same thing. Right? So yeah, that's like all the more reason, like genuinely like chase your passion. I always ask people, you know, this is a line from one of my mentors. He will ask people like, you walk into Barnes and Noble and you go into the magazine section like, what two magazines would you pick out? And then you get an idea of like what their interests are, their genuine interests. You know, they might say interior design or they might say cooking. And you look at like those interest based on what their career is. And a lot of times there's incongruence. But if they just kind of chase those passions that they have, they're going to have much more success and I think make a bigger and more productive contribution. to this world. You know, I love that from 22 episodes, just like the number one thing that you've gotten out so far. That's a really switching it up on you, bro. That's a really good question. Number one thing that I've gotten, I mean, I think that the power of positivity and mindset and it's like, not it's it's not like it was a new thing to me, but it just has like really reaffirmed it to me. Like when everyone that comes on this that is successful says the exact same thing about how your internal mindset drives your external reality. I think that is like pretty powerful to me and like keeps me going. so this is like, you know, like I would say it's not really a moneymaker. The, you know, the podcast, but it's easy to keep coming out and doing it because it inspires me and it like, makes me want to go. Yeah. And you know what? You never know where that where one of these relationships will take you. You know, you may have somebody like, we did a we took an influencer out for dinner like three months ago. Right. we wanted her to work with one of our brands. She ended up working with one of them. She posted a story. We were at an event and somebody was like, hey, did you do a collaboration with them? And we're like, yeah. And then we just had a conversation with them. I met up with that guy probably like three weeks ago, and he gave me some mindset that helped us change a couple things in our company that I think would help us long term that like is is that bro the relationship? You never know where things will take you, you know. So and it's like I think it's interesting, like when you I call it congruence. When you are like your daily inputs and actions are reflecting your goals. It's crazy how you kind of pull in like exactly what it is that you need for that next year. You know? Listen, at the end of the day, the world moves for people that know what they want. 100% in reality is ever evolving. Yup. And you have full control. Yup. You got it. Well, I appreciate you coming out. Yeah. Thanks for having me. All right, guys, well, that concludes this episode of Shaken Hands. I'm your host, Jack Moran. Do you have any suggestions for guests or questions that you want to ask? Feel free to reach out, but other than that, keep tuning in for some more interesting conversations and guests and see you later.