How a $1M Beard Shaving Stunt Put His Razors on the Map

Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Now, if you're like me, you started a business or two without necessarily all the resources that you need to do all the marketing, get noticed for all the wonderful things that you can do. Well, my guest today is going to tell us a great story about a razor, a million dollars, and a famous baseball pitcher's beard. He's also going to tell us about how you can build a brand without a lot of money by being resourceful. and a few other bits and pieces. And he's also going to share with us about his favorite book, which comes from the Orient, from Asia in fact. Phil Masiello is joining us from Baltimore, and he's the founder and CEO of a company called Crunch Growth. Phil, welcome to the show.

Hi, Jim. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I enjoy it.

Me too, because, um, we've got a lot in common, including you shared that you spent time in China, which obviously close to my heart. We both have daughters, in fact, from China. But we're here today to talk about business and about marketing. And let's start first of all with who you are and where you're from. And then you must tell us all about the million-dollar offer for shaving off a beard. Phil, over to you.

My pleasure. So I'm originally a New Yorker, born and raised in the Bronx in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. So I grew up as a, as a, as a, you know, as a a sports enthusiast. But I founded my first business when I was 27 years old. It was a total disaster. We'll get— I'm sure we'll go back and forth on that at some other time. I went on after that business. I felt I needed more education, so I took the money when I sold it and I went to graduate school at the University of Maryland. And that's how I got down to Baltimore. And subsequent to that, I founded a couple of other businesses. One was a food retail stores which got purchased by a supermarket chain. And then I I founded a beauty brand with a supermodel, Raw Beauty with Carol Alt. And it was a shopping channel brand all around the world. We were in, and then we were in Ulta, Sephora, and all those big chains. But I had this idea and I built 800razors.com. And that was really a struggle because we were doing all the things we understood how to do from a marketing perspective. We were running ads, we were doing search engine optimization, We were doing content. We were doing all these things and it wasn't working. It wasn't— I mean, we were getting some orders, but— and we didn't have a huge budget. We didn't— we couldn't sit there. We were trying to think of all these things to do. We talked about getting an RV and going into downtown New York and shaving people on the street and just things to get noticed, because what you're trying to do is get noticed and break your brand out from the clutter. And I woke up one morning and And again, I'm a sports fan. I woke up one morning and Brian Wilson, who was a famous pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, had gotten traded a year before. He had Tommy John surgery and they traded him to the Dodgers. And this was the first time he was going to pitch in a year. And he was known— not only was he known for being a pitcher, but he was known for having this epic beard. I mean, it was a beautiful beard and it was about 8 inches, 10 inches long. So I woke up and Thought, hey, let's offer him a million dollars to shave that beard with our razor. And we sent a message to his people and said we'd like to offer Brian a million dollars to shave his beard. They said we'll discuss it with Brian, and that's all we needed. We just needed to be to have that email so we could say we are now in discussions with Brian Wilson to shave his beard with our razor. And what happened was. Fantastic because people were outraged at us. They were screaming at us on social media, on email, that, that we would, we would offer $1 million to an already millionaire to shave. The second part was people were sending us pictures on social media of all the body parts that they would shave with a price tag. I'll shave this for $10,000. I'll shave this for $5,000. And it just became this event and snowballed. And then the press got involved and we were getting interviewed. Why we would do this? What are we trying to do? You know, all around the world—France, Japan—and this went on for about a week, ten days. And TMZ caught Brian Wilson coming out of a gym in LA, and they asked him if he was going to shave his beard. And he said, "I'm not shaving my beard for anything, any amount of money." Well, it just started it all again. People were outraged that a that he would turn down the million dollars. And so, the long and short of it was. that all these things that we were doing, these traditional marketing techniques weren't working, but this sort of broke us through the clutter. This is what got us launched and got our foundation of orders, got customers, got us noticed, really did what we were trying to do. So.

Phil, I love that story because it really is out of left field, if I can use that expression, you know, and really, as you say, a great example of being resourceful and having an idea rather than going through kind of a standard process. But, you know, you woke up one morning and you, you thought of this idea. Do you now at Crunch Growth help startups and entrepreneurs to, to kind of have those kind of ideas in a, in a more regular, uh, a regular fashion? Because If you're just waiting for inspiration, sometimes you can wait too long. So how are you helping at Crunch Growth with that?

Yeah, so at Crunch Growth, we're a full-service digital agency. We handle the entire e-commerce ecosystem. But what we're really good at and what we try and focus on, and it doesn't matter what size company you are, startup to half a billion or a billion dollars, we always run into the same problem, which is, do you really understand who your customer is, right? Who your target customer is? Do you really understand that persona? Because when you do, you can sit down and sort of think about where those people are, where that target customer is, and how I can get to them maybe in a unique way. So to answer your question, yes, we work with all kinds of brands and we try and get them to think outside that box and say, okay, you can run $1 million worth of ads, but what's it going to get you? It may get you a 1-to-1 return, but if you could figure out who your customer is, And I'll give you another example. We had a game company that worked with us for years, and it was a unique product. It was part digital, part physical, and it was really a neat game. And once people got it in their hands, once people started playing it, they really enjoyed it. And so, we talked about it a lot, and they were based in New York. So, they started going to places where they knew their customer was a Gen Z millennial. They knew who it— what type of person it was. So they started to go to these hangouts where those people were and playing the game, which evolved into turning it into events at these places and recording them. They would always have somebody there recording it with their iPhone. No big deal. Not a major production and putting it on social media. So now they know who their customer is. They're showing their customer, their target customer playing the game and enjoying it, and which got people interested. interested to go to the website and buy the product. And that was sort of how they launched because they had put all their money, and we see this all the time, they had taken, especially with startups, they had taken all their effort, all their money into building a great product and not thinking about the marketing of it and getting it out there into people's hands.

Phil, I think this idea of going out and being with the customer, I had the director of research at I come to Kutib Sosmori, and he talked about going out and actually watching what people do, because often that's different to what they say they do, and the importance of being there. But that is really based on knowing who that customer is, isn't it? Because otherwise you don't know where to go. Many, many people, myself included, struggle with who the customer is because It's the old story, isn't it? We think, well, if I'm selling to everybody, I'm going to have a bigger business. I'm likely to have more opportunity. Phil, why is it not the case? You know, why is it that if you're theoretically going after a bigger market, it actually becomes a smaller business?

Well, you can't please everyone and you can't speak to everyone, right? The way you speak to somebody who is, say, a 65-year-old retiree versus a 25-year-old are 2 different methods of talking. And speaking today is video, speaking is text, speaking is all these different mediums that we have. So, if you're trying to be very broad, and when we were in the razor business, people say, oh, everybody shaves, so you can be very broad. But that's not true. There's always a core customer. And yes, so let me use Cadillac as a good example. Cadillac is a car really for over 50 people, people over the age of 50, predominantly men. Okay. But when you see a Cadillac commercial, they will never show A 50-year-old man. They show beautiful young women. They show young guys in a nice suit, right? Because that becomes aspirational. The guy that's over 50 doesn't want to believe he's over 50. He wants to believe he's that 40-year-old guy who's got this beautiful woman. So what they're trying to do is talk to that group, that 40-year-old, to get the— to get them to buy the cars. Yes, over 50 is going to buy your car. Yes, over 60 is going to buy your car. Maybe even a 25-year-old will buy your car. But your core customer, the target that you're trying to get, is this one, this, this 35 to 45-year-old, let's say. Well, it's the same thing in any business. So if you know who your customer is, you know who your core customer is, the ones who are going to engage with you, you sort of build your persona around that. So now instead of just speaking language, you're speaking to a person. Right. We're big advocates of building customer personas to say, look, our customer is 35 years old. He's an engineer and he likes to do this. He eats this kind of food. Now I can build— now in the office we can talk about, we can give them a name and we can say that we're going to target to— we're marketing to Joe and this is how we're going to market. And so it becomes a different style of thinking and a more effective way.

Right.

Because you're always going to get bleed. You're always going to get people younger and older that are going to buy your product. But if you can hone in on who your target is, you're more effective.

Yeah, I guess those are what we might call outliers, aren't they? Those people that maybe confuse you slightly because they buy something, but they're not part of the core demographic. But Phil, you yourself, and you and I have something else in common, is that we both have shows. You know, I have a radio show on the local radio station here, Radio Bath. But you have a TV show. So I'm full of admiration for that. I'd love to hear how you're doing that. And what's the impact and the strategy behind having your own TV program? Because that again is being resourceful, isn't it? Rather than having resources. So help us to understand the show and how that came about and what you do with that.

Yeah. So the show is, it airs on E360 TV, which also airs on Apple TV and Roku. And all these other places, Fire TV. But what I did was when I, when I built the show, it's really about, it's really about entrepreneurship and being resourceful, right? And, and I interview entrepreneurs who have started and founded their companies, their brands, large, small, um, you know, successful, maybe multiple entrepreneurs, people that have failed once. And what we're trying to do is The target audience is really aspiring entrepreneurs or business people, or maybe, maybe somebody who's already in it, who's got a business that's 3 or 4 years old that they just can't get over the hump. They're just stagnant, don't have a lot of resources, don't have a lot of money. And, and so they listen to me interview these other entrepreneurs and they hear how the struggles and what they've done and how they've overcome, because we all have overcome these humps. I don't care. The, the second reason I built the show is because I think aspiring entrepreneurs or people that are in it, you know, they listen to these high-powered entrepreneurs that, you know, own these huge businesses and they get a warped sense of reality. They think that, oh my God, I'm doing something wrong because I didn't go from $0 to $1 billion in 4 years and I wasn't able to raise $600 million. And so, we want to show them reality. People that have built businesses that have gone from maybe zero to $500 million, $200 million, $50 million, whatever it is. People that have built businesses for different options. Some people don't want to build a billion-dollar business. They just want a lifestyle business, something that gives them a good income. But what you see throughout, and we've probably done 50 shows already, You see throughout the same thing. An entrepreneur starts a business. His business plan is what he had envisioned, or he or her, what they had envisioned. And it's not working that way. So they have to pivot, right? They have to look at something differently, or they don't have the money to market themselves correctly. And so they have to think outside the box. So we give them all these anecdotes and all these these real-life businesses, real-life problems, real-life struggles. And I think that that helps people in a way. And so, it certainly helps us because I like listening to the stories.

Well, Phil, and that's why I have The Unnoticed Entrepreneur as a title as well because actually most of us are in effect sort of running in local marathons. We're not running in elite Olympics. Most of us are playing sport or achieving in a sort of a balanced way. We're not necessarily all just in that 1% of any pursuit. So that's exactly a similar sort of feeling to the one that I have about this show. But what is the impact on crunch growth of having a show? Because it takes your time, takes your energy. It could be a noble cause. But if someone, you know, if we're listening to this right now going, you know what, I could do a radio show or I could do a TV show. What's the ROI beyond satisfaction, Phil? What does it give you and Crunch Growth?

Yeah, that's an excellent question. So, what it does is, A, it exposes Crunch Growth to more people. And that target is really business people, right? We try and— we're here to help businesses grow. That's what we're called. It's Crunch Growth Revenue Acceleration Agency. So we're trying to figure out how to get you over that hump. So people hear us on the show, they hear the methods that, that we've employed, they hear us talking to these entrepreneurs, and then they get in touch with us because maybe they need help. And it's not just startups that have, that have contacted us. It's, it's businesses that have maybe been stuck between $50 and $60 million for 3 years and can't get over that hump. They've sort of stagnated. They need some fresh ideas. So it's— that really is part of our lead generation strategy, if, if, if, if you want to use that term.

Yeah, no, I think, I think that's wonderful. A really great example of how you're leveraging a platform, um, because you're getting both from a technological point of view, you're getting a, a platform, aren't you? And then also you're getting audiences that are already on those platforms being introduced to you. It was a very cost-effective way of doing it. Phil Masiello, you've, you know, you and I actually, we both started our first companies at the age of 27. You mentioned I started mine by moving to Singapore to start my first company at 27. And, you know, also had my fair litany of failures there. But this is about you and not me. But if there's a mistake that you might have made, if I could be so bold, that you'd suggest that I don't make from a marketing point of view, What would that be, do you think?

I've made many, many mistakes, but I'll give you one example. When I started, and I actually made this mistake twice, both times in the same sort of industry. I started my first business when I was 27 years old, and it was retail store, food, specialty food, and catering. And I, I made the mistake of getting talked into doing a direct mail campaign and producing this beautiful, beautiful flyer and putting it in mailboxes. And at the time, it was really the dawn of the internet, and I allowed this to happen. And it It was, it was just a total flop. I spent a tremendous amount of money that I didn't have on this to get— I think it was half of a percentage return and really did nothing. It did nothing to expand the brand. It did nothing to get sales. It did nothing. And I actually made the mistake again when I built the Daily Markets in Washington, D.C. And everybody said, oh, you know, you're in a city and you've got all these apartment buildings. We should do a direct mail. We'll hit the apartment buildings. And I did it again and it got, it did absolutely nothing for us. And twice I made that same mistake.

But Phil, I have to ask, what's your analysis? Why did direct mail to the general, into the local area for the store, why did it fail? What was the learning?

People— we'll be back after a quick break.

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People don't pay attention to what's in their mailbox anymore. They haven't since, I think, the '70s or '80s. When you see— when you watch the behavior of people, and I'm guilty of it, we get the mail, we get the important We sort through, get the important stuff, and then we put the rest in the recycling bin. And that's exactly the behavior that people do today. It's not— when you think about the age group of people, and again, I broke my own rule from not paying attention to who my target is. You look at the age group of people that are raising families today, most of their bills are coming electronically. And this has been going on for the past 20 years. Most of their bills are coming electronically. And if they are getting paper bills, they They look at their mail, they find the ones that are important, they throw everything else in the garbage. So it's totally ineffective.

Very, very interesting. Kind of almost the medium has expired in that sense, hasn't it? Not the medium is the message, but in this case, the medium just has expired and without message.

Yeah.

But Phil, you've gone on to build other successful businesses like 800razors.com. And Crunch Growth revenue generation acceleration agency. Can I ask you to give us, you know, your wisdom, your sage wisdom of, you know, what's the one thing that you maybe recommend to all of your clients that they do that's kind of a cornerstone of every successful resourceful strategy?

Yeah. I'll tell you something that comes up an awful lot. And what we preach is you've got a product and find the people who are going to buy your product and understand who they are. We hear it all the time. And I know people are going to say, oh, he's going to say, you know, focus on the customer. And it's true. I find I don't care how big of a company it is. You have to understand your customer and you have to understand their behavior in order to figure out how to market effectively to them. And again, you could be a billion-dollar company. I'll tell you the same thing because I guarantee you that if I sat in a room with somebody from, you know, a billion-dollar company, they would come up with all these different pieces of who their customer is, but they wouldn't be able to put it all together and say, this is our customer. They— because everybody thinks Well, you know, I mean, I'm a supermarket, so I sell to everybody. Well, maybe, maybe not.

Well, interesting. So really, for all of that, it comes back to who you serve.

Yeah.

Right. And that's the basis. I mean, there's a lot of talk about start with why. Just tell me, Phil, there's all this talk about, you know, start with why. And it goes back before Simon Sinek, of course. You know, earlier marketeers were talking about the need to decide who you're going to sell to and why. Do you tell people to start with why or with who?

I understand start with why. I understand why I exist. Okay. And I'll tell you everything. I'll tell you something I tell every single startup. I don't care about go out with your minimum viable product and find a customer who wants to buy your product. Find that customer. Because if you can't find a customer to buy your product, Then you're dead in the water. I don't care why you exist at that point because nobody's going to buy it. There's actually a skincare brand, a men's skincare brand that just filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. I can't, off the top of my head, I can't remember what it was, but they had a beautiful why. Men want to look younger, eye cream, effective skincare, all those whys. But At the end of the day, they just filed Chapter 7, and the CEO even admitted there's just not a big enough market for people who want our product. Well, had you done that in the beginning, had you gone out to find who's going to buy your product, you you would have figured that out early on and not wasted your investor dollars, your dollars, etc. So again, I'm not discounting why I like why, but first you have to figure out who's going to buy your product so that you can figure out the market.

Yeah, and I, I'm glad you said that because for all of the, uh, sort of esoteric interest in Start With Why, which is a very appealing message, um, it's not a very functional one because you can end up serving what you want, not necessarily what the customer wants to give you money for, right? And then although, you know, with the men's, uh, cosmetics and so on, if they're looking for liquidation, I could have some of that over here because I'm definitely in the market for ingredients to make me look younger, Phil. If I, if I can find them, ship them to me. Phil Masiello, though, um, chapter 11, there's someone's opportunity there. Um, yeah, Phil, with all of your expertise, I know you've, you've actually written a number of books yourself. Um, but what would be your book or podcast recommendation, do you think, to me and my fellow unnoticed?

I go back to ever— this was something I learned in graduate school, and I— one of my marketing professors turned me on to this book, The Art of War, and I continue to go back to it. And it's not about, uh, you know, I know people say, well, you know, there's all different reasons to, to read that book, but I think about it in terms of strategy. It helps me think about strategy because everything we do whether it's marketing or whether it's advertising or whether it's business development or whatever, you have to have a strategy. And this, that book, it's easy to listen to, easy to read. I have it on 4 different formats. And I just, to me, it's something I keep in my back pocket to continue to go to and get my strategy brain refreshed.

Yeah, this is Sun Tzu's Art of War, right? Which is fantastic. And also probably ties back into You know, you having a daughter from China as well, right? And there's a nice symmetry there. But if anyone hasn't read it, it's a brilliant, brilliant treatise really. And he addresses a number of issues, including not taking on your competition head on, for example, very interesting strategy about not actually going to battle, but winning the war. Phil, you've taken on many battles and plainly winning many wars too. If you want to find out more about you, where can they do that?

Well, you can go to crunchgrowth.com. I also have philmassiello.com, both of them. And you can always contact me at phil@philmassiello.com. I have the TV show Think Engage Thrive, which is on E360 TV. So I'm easy to find. You can— and I believe me, I'm pretty responsive.

You're easy to find and easy to chat to. Phil, thank you for joining me so much.

Thank you, Jim. It was great. I enjoyed it.

Me too. And just, just for the record, if you've got a million and you want me to shave my goatee, I am open. I'm open to offers. It doesn't even have to be, uh, a million. I would take a lot less, or even maybe just a year's supply of free razors. I think I'm, I'm easy to please. If you can send those, uh, lotions my way. Phil, thank you for joining me from Baltimore today.

It's my pleasure. My pleasure. It was fun.

Well, it's been great fun. And, you know, we don't always manage to find guests that have got the kind of the depth of experience. And Phil and I, you know, both started our first businesses when we were 27, which is quite a few years ago. So it's wonderful to have the depth of his experience on the show. So many, many takeaways, but probably the real key one is to start with who. You know, it's not a business until someone's willing to pay you for what you do. Um, so I'm sure you're bearing that in mind, but if you haven't thought of that today, then just remind yourself who you're selling to. And you've been listening to me, Jim James, over here in Wiltshire today. Phil Masiello in Baltimore has been joining me as my guest. If you've enjoyed this, do please rate the show on your player. It really, really helps. And follow the show because we also love to know that you are getting this and every episode every Tuesday and Thursday of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Thank you for listening to this episode with me, Jim James. And until we meet again, encourage you to just keep on communicating.