Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Bob talks about how a visit to Facebook / Instagram headquarters led to an instant business idea that helped to launching Feedstories.

Transcription

Brian: You touched briefly on Feedstories.

Why don’t you tell us a little more about what that is how it came about?

Bob: So that’s interesting, that period between like 2010 and 2013, I was doing a lot of things to kind of find my way again, after you kind of lose an agency, you know, I was just kind of freelancing.

I hosted a radio show for a number of years doing kind of what you and I are doing right now, which is great, got to meet a lot of new people help other people, write books.

But 2013, I got heavily involved in Facebook.

Facebook started to become a media that advertisers could take seriously. I got my first five clients, and one of them just went into the stratosphere.

It was a clothing brand. In fact, it was a headband company, and it just took off.

One of the best things I did with that client early on was I said, got a headband. It’s, you know, it’s a $15 headband, I said, anyone can knock this off.

I said, but they can’t knock off your story.

I said, we’re going to build your whole advertising and your whole kind of foundation based on your story. And your story is what’s going to sell headbands, and I was right.

I was really glad was right, but I knew kind of internally that would be that way. This business called Bolder Brand Headband, they won Shopify retailer of the Year in 2014, driven by Facebook sales, like 99% of their sales came from Facebook.

Facebook recognized that and said, Hey, Bob, we’re having this meeting with some other big brands want you to come in, we’re going to kind of brainstorm I had a chance over a number of years to meet with Facebook.

But in 2016, in particular, I went to this meeting and all they talked about was video, Facebook said we’re a video company now Instagram, which’s is owned by Facebook says we’re a video company now.

And I’m like, Okay, this is my like, I’m looking ahead toward the future. And I went outside of the meeting was in the sidewalk outside of Facebook headquarters in Austin, Texas.

I called Brandon, who’s my business partner for Feedstores. Brian is a creative guy, he’s a copywriter, he’s a video graphic guy.

I said, we really need to be prepared for this because Facebook and Instagram are changing who they are, and video is going to be like the thing that they are emphasizing the most.

And so we started that company, literally a conversation over the phone, came into the same city kind of put this thing together and started feed stories in late 2016.

That’s how Feedstories was formed.

It was literally what I heard Facebook and Instagram telling me that they were going to prioritize. And so if I’m going to continue to be a really good Facebook advertiser, I need to have really good video creative.

And why not create a company that produces the creative that I know is going to work in the Facebook ad. That’s how that company was born and we’re going strong here in 2021, so far.