Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman's $1B box office secret, Do airport luxury stores profit?, and more

I'm gonna talk about how Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman hit $1 billion in box office using this maxim. Did you watch the new Deadpool and Wolverine?

No, but I heard there's a Honda Odyssey in that bad boy.

Do you have a Honda Odyssey?

Yeah, that's what I drive.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I don't know if that's true. Is that true?

Did you watch it? I didn't see it yet.

It's a legit car.

Okay, well, I'm gonna read you this quote. This is from our boy Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? So he says this, he says, whenever I finished filming a movie, I felt my job was only half done. Every film had to be nurtured in the marketplace. You can have the greatest movie in the world, but if you don't get it out there, if people don't know about it, you have nothing. It's the same with poetry, with painting, with writing, with inventions. It always blew my mind that some of the greatest artists, from Michelangelo to Van Gogh, never sold much because they didn't know how. They had to rely on some schmuck, some agent or manager or gallery owner to do it for them. Picasso would go into a restaurant and go do a drawing or paint a plate for a meal. Now, you go to these restaurants in Madrid and these Picassos are hanging on the walls worth millions of dollars. That wasn't going to happen to my movies. Same with bodybuilding, same with politics. No matter what I did in life, I was aware that you had to sell it. As Ted Turner said, early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise, right? And that's the maxim they took because they were out there advertising the hell out of Deadpool and Wolverine, and it's the highest-grossing R-rated film ever. Wow.

I saw that. And what's funny is on social media, like Instagram and TikTok, dude, there's a lot of funny clips of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds bantering with each other. 'Cause they both have great personalities too, right? And Ryan Reynolds is a comedian, but Hugh Jackman, he also is funny. Just people just take him in a more serious role, but he has a fun personality. Yeah, he's talented.

He's talented.

And when you see them two bicker, like it's just entertaining and you watch it and you like it and it just starts spreading virally.

And they already have a lot of followers. Just keep doing collaborations and it promotes the movie and it just gets you to want to watch it at the end of the day. So I think it's interesting. I mean, Arnold's been doing it. It's like, at the end of the day, who cares how good the product is? You still have to market it.

It was funny. I was on a podcast interview today and the Olympics are going on right now. And they said something like, the next Olympics is happening in Los Angeles, Summer Olympics. I was like, yep, I know that. In 2028. They're like, all right. If you, Neil, were tasked to getting 100 million extra viewers to the Olympics compared to what they have now, what would you do? And I was like, oh, this is really simple. You got all the major influencers from each country who love their country. I'm talking about people with like tens of millions of followers. You give them access to the game and interviews with people and tell them they need to livestream it. And I'm like, your view count would just blow up through the roof.

Do you know how much Snoop Dogg gets paid per day at the Olympics? No. $500 grand a day. And then he plus like a couple million bucks for some other promotions here and there, but $500 grand per day. And he's put up there in a really nice hotel, but that's the power of an influencer, I guess. I have no idea what he's doing. I just saw a picture with him with his eyes really wide open at the Olympics, so who knows?

I'm telling you, it would work if you just use influencer marketing at a mass scale like that. You would just have tons and tons of views and everyone would want to be part of it because all the cool people are quote unquote part of it.

Dude, so I just came back from Europe, but you know how when you go to the airports, you see Gucci, you see Chanel, you see all these high-end stores, right?

Yeah.

Do you think they make money?

I think it's for branding more than anything else.

Okay. So, do high-end luxury stores at airports such as Chanel and Gucci actually make money? So, this tweet over here is from Linus Eckenstam. And he says, the insane thing about these stores, it's the opposite. They make an absurd amount of money. Let's break it down. So, I'm looking at this other subtweet over here. The original tweet, I rarely see anyone in these high-end stores while at the airport. My guess is they don't make any money. They exist for advertising purposes. To your point, right? So, this guy Linus, Okay, let's break it down. Business travel is massive. 2, and this never occurred to me, like, have you gone to these stores and bought anything for your wife before on the way back?

I've never bought anything from any of the stores. The only time I go into the store is if I need medicine or something, and that's not a Gucci store.

Dude, as a side note, I forgot to go to that outlet when I was in Florence. But anyway, so number 2, the amount of wealthy people traveling for business is extremely high, and them picking up a quote-unquote gift on their way home or simple splurging on themselves for a fraction of the cost of their flights is common. How common? DFS Group, so duty-free stores groups. And by the way, this is— there's a side story around that, which I might tell after this. DFS Group that operates most of the LVMH retail stores in airports achieved a 17% organic growth in revenue, reaching €15 billion. It looks like euros.

Wow.

In revenue last year. Total LVMH revenue was €80 billion. So number 4, the relative high foot traffic makes it extremely easy to get the customer numbers to the correct levels. Even with small amounts of success rate, loads of money will be made. Why? Because a handbag made by LVMH will cost $50 to $100 to produce and retail for anywhere $2,500 to $5,000 or more. If you look at the high street flagship stores, they can easily have daily sales numbers that reach close to $750K to $1 million in daily sales. These are common numbers in Europe. Last part, airports are great places to capture people with guilt that are in a rush and just want to splurge on themselves or someone else. So the psychological pressure and benefits of placing high street brands there makes a lot of sense. And this is interesting because when I was in the Rome airport, Oh my God, it's like Loro Piana was there, Bottega Veneta, right? Um, like Louis Vuitton, it was all there. And like, it didn't make any sense to me. Like, you and I have never shopped at the airport before. No, but I did see people in the stores, especially my people.

So you see a lot of Asians just shopping in the store?

It's, it's kind of hilarious to me because, um, in Italy, when I went to the high-end stores in, in Florence, I was just walking around checking them out and buy anything, right? But I always notice there is one of my people in there. I'll walk by and be like, "讲中文吗?" And they're like, "Yeah." So what does that mean? "讲中文" means speak Chinese. And they'll be like, "Yeah," right? So in Italy, in some cases where they can't speak English and I can't speak Italian, I just meet in the middle with Chinese. But they they have a Chinese person planted at every high-end store because there's a lot of Chinese tourists that come through.

Ah, you didn't know that? I didn't know that.

I did this in Japan too. Same thing. I was like, "讲中文吗?" And then the Japanese person switched to Chinese, and then. Yeah.

Ah, so for shits and giggles, I was walking down Rodeo the other day and—

What'd you buy?

Nothing. I saw— Liar. No, I really didn't buy anything. I picked up a suit. Oh, I bought it the previous week.

Oh, okay, okay, okay.

So, but I did a bit— I did technically buy it, it was just the previous week.

What brand?

Uh, Zegna.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like Zegna?

Zegna? I don't know how to pronounce it. Either way, it was The closest store I could find to my home that had my size. I was like, cool, just give me something.

Sure.

No, seriously. You'd be shocked on how many people don't have my size. Really?

Yeah.

Oh, anyway. I'm too skinny.

I got to take a minute to tell you about the Agency Owners Association. This is a peer group for agency owners. Think YPO or EO, but for agency owners. And I just wanted to read you a couple of testimonials. So this first one comes from Carrie, and we asked her, what do you like most about the group? She said, Having a group of people to discuss and bounce ideas. The leads are great too. Yes, we share leads in this group as well. This one from Aliyan, he says, the ability to really post whatever I want and need and the group responds. Great experienced members. Getting a lot of insights from conversations with other members. Getting a lot of value from sessions from Eric. Getting advice from others as well. And so if you want to grow your agency faster and you want a peer group to do so, just go to marketingschool.io/agency. This is a group that both Neil and I And our hope here is to create a vibrant community of agency owners and do a lot more with it in the future. So again, marketingschool.io/agency, and we'll see you inside.

So I'm going down there and as I'm walking, there's a few streets, Beverly, Cannon, they're all close. And you're seeing these signs for these places for lease. So for shits and giggles, I call one of the numbers. I'm just curious. I was like, how much does it cost for a rent? Right? And my buddy's like, why are you doing this? I'm like, I don't know. I just need to know. I can't not do it. So then I called 3 or 4 of the signs. One of the ladies is free to meet me up and she's like, on Cannon, $10, uh, uh, no, $7-ish to $10 a square foot, like $10 for retail. Beverly's a little bit more.

Yeah.

It could be up to $20. Um, and this is retail ground level, not like higher up. So $10 on Cannon, roughly up to $20 on Beverly. And Rodeo, easily $125 a square foot, if not more. And I was like, what? They can make this profitable? And she's like, oh yeah. So then I know some of the people that work at Zegna, Loro Piana, some of the stores.

Did you see the new Loro that opened?

I was there on the first day.

Oh, you buy something for me?

No, I didn't buy anything. I just went there to see if I get free stuff. I did not get anything for free.

Continue.

Sorry. Okay, so I end up asking them on some of their numbers because I know some of the managers that run the stores. And when they were breaking down the sales volume, and I was like, oh my God, these stores don't just make a little bit of money, they're cash cows. Like, you would think, oh, does paying $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 to $400,000 a month in rent really make money? Some of these stores are doing $300,000, $400,000 a day in just revenue. You know Erewhon, that store? You know their rent is more than $100,000 a month. I think it's closer to $200,000.

Okay.

Erewhon doesn't make $100,000 a month in profit. They make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in profit based on the realtor I was talking to. And I was like, really? They're like, yep, did the deal. I'm like, I'm telling you. She's like, they're making minimum a few hundred thousand dollars a month in profit, if not more. Now food has low margins, so you're not going to make a killing compared to some of the other products.

I eat Erewhon like 3 times a week. So I don't know about you.

I eat it quite often and then we get it delivered, which adds up to the price.

Oh, the delivery crushes. Yeah. See, I, I, after these recordings, I go to Erewhon after. I usually, I never venture into a store because it's such a pain in the butt.

But even the checkout, there's a long line. I'm like, well, I'm not going to wait 10 minutes just to check out. It's easier to click the Uber Eats button. Yeah.

First world problems.

Not first world problems. I think a lot of entrepreneurs get this wrong. If you actually could be working during those times, you have a better ROI just clicking the delivery button.

That's true.

But people always say, oh, don't wash your dishes. Don't clean your homes because your time's more valuable. Well, if you're going to sit there and watch TV, go clean your dishes because it's cheaper to do that than it is to pay someone.

The number one challenge for businesses is hiring. And more specifically, the number one thing I get asked for all the time is, Eric, where can I go find an amazing marketer? And the reality is right now, when you think about the world, we have inflation. That also means wage inflation right now. And it means that when it comes to hiring talent, you can't spend as much as you would have in the last couple of years because it's just become too cost prohibitive. And so we've partnered with one of the best offshore recruiting firms when it comes to marketing. They've been a great asset for us and I believe that they will be a great asset for you. All you have to do is go to marketingschool.io/hire. Again, it's marketingschool.io/hire to learn more. You can fill out the form there and we're going to place you with the best marketing hires that we can help you find. I've been continuing to read that book from J. Paul Getty, the How to Be Rich book. So just context again, J. Paul Getty, billionaire. He was the richest guy in the world at the time. He did the Getty Museum.

I think he—

the Getty Images, that's all him at the end of today. There's a chapter where he talks about the businessman at bay. And I think it might be helpful if we share some stories with people as well. But Neil, how many times have you been close to losing it all with, with a company? There have been times where you have lost it, right?

Yeah, quite a few times. Too many to count, sadly, just being really honest. Like, so I made a lot of mistakes as an entrepreneur. I've had more of those mistakes earlier on than later on in life. But even later on in life, I've been aggressive, bet too much where I really feel the pinch.

So this chapter, The Businessman at Bay, means like when you're at bay, your back's against the wall. And there are— he spoke about his friend where his loan was going to come due. Um, his one business was tanking. And then he had like, let's say there's like people stealing from him, right? So he's basically saying like all entrepreneurs, like for example, Ford, he had Henry Ford when he came out with the Ford, the Model T, I think. Um, they had a huge head start for 20 years or so, 2 decades or so, maybe 27 years. And I don't know if you know this, but the Model T was always in black. There's no— and then there's like a, you know, crappy transmission and all that. It was a crappy car, right?

No, no, no, no. Do you remember the saying?

What?

You can get the Model T in any color you want as long as it's black. Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah. Okay. So Chevy comes along, you can do any color you want. It's a different— it's like a manual transmission, right? It's a new type of transition. So they start eating Ford's lunch. And his whole thing is like, he can like cry about it. Like he's— they're eating into his margins, his profits. Um, he shuts down the factory for a year. It comes back next year stronger than ever. Um, but it just goes like Steve Jobs, by the way, when he came back to Apple after getting fired from Apple, he had only 90 days to save that company, save that company.

Right.

And so the point of all this is that adversity really is— it's adversity shapes your character. And those that can't deal with adversity, they can't treat it like a gift. They crumble, they lose everything, right? But you've dealt with adversity. I've dealt with a lot of adversity as well. And I don't know about you, but when I feel adversity, I kind of get really pumped up. Um, it energizes me more actually during times than versus times of peace, right? It's just weird for me. Maybe I have that weird— are you like that at all?

It energizes me, but it's also more stressful at the same time.

I don't feel stressed from it.

It's weird.

Like, I feel more stressed when times are calm.

I feel more stressed when I'm in tough positions. Like, I have nothing, you know, similar to, uh, Henry Ford. I never built as big of a company or anywhere near.

Yeah.

Um, but when things go really bad and you're in a big financial pinch, that's when I— that's when I'll stress.

You don't like it when things are bad?

I don't like it when things are bad. I handle the pressure really well. Yeah, I don't show the stress, but it's more so I'll feel the pinch because as my company grows the pinches and the— becomes much larger, which the stress becomes larger because the shittiest part about a business is when you employ a lot of people, you don't want to let go a lot of people. It's just a crappy feeling.

Yeah, 'cause it's their livelihood.

Yeah.

I don't think enough people think about that. That's the side thing too. Like when you start a business, you're actually dealing with the livelihoods of people. Like you, if you don't take good care of them, like you're an asshole, right? Like—

Their mortgage.

Yeah.

They have tuition.

Their family. Yeah, everything.

Food. And it's just like, oh, you let them go. How are they going to pay their mortgage? Oh, you let a lot of people go. How are they all going to pay their mortgage? What are they going to do? What are they going to do for health insurance if some of them are sick?

Yep.

And these things come up. Oh, your kid has cancer and you just lost your job. What are you going to do to help them out? And like, these times just suck. And I've been in those situations and I've had to let go people because it wasn't working out. And then I had to do side deals with them just because I felt really bad. And I'm like, I know you need insurance. The company, at least when we were starting out, the company couldn't necessarily afford to pay for the insurance, but I personally just covered it so then that way they would Yeah.

So anyway, going back to the businessman at bay piece, and it's great that you did that. It's— that'll go a long way too. People remember that stuff and they'll come back to you in spades later. It's not like you're trying to get a favor back, but the more good things you do, the more it compounds for the long term. And it's just easier to be a kind person. We found this over the years. And anyway, that's the businessman at bay. So, if adversity comes your way, just know that it's an opportunity to learn and it might be stressful.

Yeah.

But it's going to shape you for years to come because without these experiences, we wouldn't have been able to get to, you know, wherever we, we are now. All right guys, so that's it for today's episode. Marketingschool.io/agency if you want to grow your agency faster. That's our little community. In fact, Neil, do you want to come to the next session next week? Are you in town next week?

Depending what time I'm driving home, but yeah.

All right, we'll figure it out. So this is when Neil and I will jump in every now and then. Every month or so, and we'll have guest speakers and all that. And you have an entire community of people all trying to grow. We're talking, we're talking 7, 8-figure agency owners, 6 figures as well. And yeah, that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, view, subscribe, and we will catch you tomorrow.